Sylvanas Windrunner -- one of my favorite characters in this story of stories known as the Warcraft universe, has a little story found here. This is a story depicting Sylvanas' visit to the Frozen Throne shortly after the death of Arthas. Here you will find her reactions to discovering Arthas' death and also finding out there is a new Lich King. but it also takes you on a little ride as you see a transformation of the leader from a leader bent on revenge and anger, to one finding value in those loyal serveants that surround her.
I see it as a transformation, of sorts. Not counting the three or so times she has died already. But a transformation in character.
I first met Sylvanas long ago, when she was still in elven form--a hunter, defending her beloved land from the march of Arthas and his undead minions. Arthas had to traverse all of QuelThalas, leaving the dead scar in his wake, in order to reach the sunwell at the isle of QuelDanas. That is where he resurrected KT, in which we fight in Naxx. Now along the way, Artas met with resistance from the Elven rangers, and one ranger annoyed him more than the rest, which was Sylvanas. Here it was that i met her and saw the transformation when Arthas finally killed her. He brought her back to live to serve him, much to her own disliking. Then we saw the entire story of how she became the leader of this clan of forsaken, how she made allies of Banshees, and how she made Verimathras "kill" his own two brother demons to show his loyalty.
Here's a leader who showed weakness once, by jeopardizing her own capital city to rid herslef of two unwanted leaders, again, Verimathras and an apothicary. Now, i do believe Sylvanas knew of Verimathras' deceit way before it happened but allowed it to happen anyway, for two reasons. one, she wanted to show to the horde that she was not as powerful as people may have her believe, as to show to the world that she is not such a threat. Second, she wanted to use others' forces to solve her own problems. Why not? It's free help from the Horde.
Now she has returned, even more powerful than ever, but bound by a different agenda. It is no longer anger and revenge that hold her. Perhaps, it will be redemption that causes her to continue. Perhaps, prologing her life would only delay the inevitable. Thus, she intends to live for as long as possible, creating for herself what she tried to stop in Arthas.
Overall, read the story. It's surprisingly good writing.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Update (end of August edition)
After two months of leveling on alliance side, i have to say that people from both factions of the game are completely alike. There are smart ones and dumb ones, casuals, hardcores, etc. What i find more of is that the people on a smaller faction will know each other better. There are a lot less anonymity on the smaller faction, which works out in favor of those who are "good" or deemed good by other players.
What i also find is that there is a greater need for healers and tanks, but mostly healers in our realm and faction. Any alts willing to join and be my "pocket" healer is always welcome. Healbot not required. but a good sense of awareness is. and that's basically the key factor when raiding, dungeoning, and pvp. we have to be aware of our surroundings at all time, while naturally doing tip top dps. these two things arent mutually exclusive, but they are very difficult to master together.
So to my friends who read my blog and ever had this little inkling of healing, i'll coach you! i will make you master healer in no time! jk. i wont make you master healer. but i will give you as much support as you will need. but what i ask is that you empty your minds of the things you're used to. a full cup cannot be filled. that's what my teachers said when i was a kid. that is what Mo'at, the Tsahek said to Jake Sully. and i find it difficult in real life as well. and i have come to the point where i will not teach anyone who is not willing to learn. sometimes we just need to put aside our old habits (you know, the things we learn first and continue doing even though it's not efficient, effective or popular, it's brought us this far, so why not?) and learn to heal, or in fact, play the game in a different light. sometimes it's as easy as zooming out, or switching addons, or removing recount. recount is a good tool to use after a fight to analyze how well or badly someone did. but it isnt tip top priority in a fight. staying out of bad, interrupting, slowing, dispelling, countering specific mechanics, staying out of bad, etc. all of these things are way more important than dps. or hps. hps shouldnt even matter.
anyway. just my little philosophy this friday. sometimes we all have to relearn how to play. i had to when learning to play my hunter efficiently. i am still annoyed at my dps. i dont watch it during the fight since there's so many things to watch than recount, but i do look at it after a fight. i also have skada installed and they both tell me different stories. finally, i've set up a world of logs account just to upload and see how well or badly i do personally, and eventually be able to perfect my own shots and rotation.
In the near future, i am planning on posting several things. one, i will be showing my UI, or user interface. i will go down the list of the addons and tools i use in order to help me stay aware of my fights. most of these things are completely customizable and can fit into anyone else's character and playing style. Some things are strictly redundant but i need those redundancies to help me monitor how the party or raid is doing. second, i will be going down the list of some of my power auras for certain events. i am sure weak auras can do the same things. either way, i dont really want to show you an how-to, but more of a why-to, so that you can make something similar which will help you monitor your own buffs, debuffs, abilities and cooldowns. Third, i do want to show my combat logs, fights, etc. i know many fights involve a lot of movement, and a lot of timing where i cannot get the best "rotation" available. but i do want to show my own progression as a hunter. i dont think i have grasped the whole of being a hunter. as someone on the internet has said before, playing a hunter is one of the easiest things to do in wow. playing a hunter well is one of the most difficult. in all actuality, i find it very difficult to play a hunter well, especially when limitations are in place, like focus cost to set traps? or even use the trap launcher? really? that costs focus? wtf? and the whole trap launcher mechanic is super clunky at best. i wish they just made it automatic. i can launch a trap at my feet if i wanted to. seriously.
in any case, look for more hunter-related posts here! my days of playing a druid are not over, however. i've been logging on to my druids daily to make gems and transmute for gold. it's quite a feat now that their duties does not involve fighting the fight and taking it to deathwing, his kids, or ragnaros. but instead, to supply the fighters with mats so that they can eventually beat down and destroy the evil that threatens azeroth. haha. whatever. i just want more gold. anyway. see you all next time!
What i also find is that there is a greater need for healers and tanks, but mostly healers in our realm and faction. Any alts willing to join and be my "pocket" healer is always welcome. Healbot not required. but a good sense of awareness is. and that's basically the key factor when raiding, dungeoning, and pvp. we have to be aware of our surroundings at all time, while naturally doing tip top dps. these two things arent mutually exclusive, but they are very difficult to master together.
So to my friends who read my blog and ever had this little inkling of healing, i'll coach you! i will make you master healer in no time! jk. i wont make you master healer. but i will give you as much support as you will need. but what i ask is that you empty your minds of the things you're used to. a full cup cannot be filled. that's what my teachers said when i was a kid. that is what Mo'at, the Tsahek said to Jake Sully. and i find it difficult in real life as well. and i have come to the point where i will not teach anyone who is not willing to learn. sometimes we just need to put aside our old habits (you know, the things we learn first and continue doing even though it's not efficient, effective or popular, it's brought us this far, so why not?) and learn to heal, or in fact, play the game in a different light. sometimes it's as easy as zooming out, or switching addons, or removing recount. recount is a good tool to use after a fight to analyze how well or badly someone did. but it isnt tip top priority in a fight. staying out of bad, interrupting, slowing, dispelling, countering specific mechanics, staying out of bad, etc. all of these things are way more important than dps. or hps. hps shouldnt even matter.
anyway. just my little philosophy this friday. sometimes we all have to relearn how to play. i had to when learning to play my hunter efficiently. i am still annoyed at my dps. i dont watch it during the fight since there's so many things to watch than recount, but i do look at it after a fight. i also have skada installed and they both tell me different stories. finally, i've set up a world of logs account just to upload and see how well or badly i do personally, and eventually be able to perfect my own shots and rotation.
In the near future, i am planning on posting several things. one, i will be showing my UI, or user interface. i will go down the list of the addons and tools i use in order to help me stay aware of my fights. most of these things are completely customizable and can fit into anyone else's character and playing style. Some things are strictly redundant but i need those redundancies to help me monitor how the party or raid is doing. second, i will be going down the list of some of my power auras for certain events. i am sure weak auras can do the same things. either way, i dont really want to show you an how-to, but more of a why-to, so that you can make something similar which will help you monitor your own buffs, debuffs, abilities and cooldowns. Third, i do want to show my combat logs, fights, etc. i know many fights involve a lot of movement, and a lot of timing where i cannot get the best "rotation" available. but i do want to show my own progression as a hunter. i dont think i have grasped the whole of being a hunter. as someone on the internet has said before, playing a hunter is one of the easiest things to do in wow. playing a hunter well is one of the most difficult. in all actuality, i find it very difficult to play a hunter well, especially when limitations are in place, like focus cost to set traps? or even use the trap launcher? really? that costs focus? wtf? and the whole trap launcher mechanic is super clunky at best. i wish they just made it automatic. i can launch a trap at my feet if i wanted to. seriously.
in any case, look for more hunter-related posts here! my days of playing a druid are not over, however. i've been logging on to my druids daily to make gems and transmute for gold. it's quite a feat now that their duties does not involve fighting the fight and taking it to deathwing, his kids, or ragnaros. but instead, to supply the fighters with mats so that they can eventually beat down and destroy the evil that threatens azeroth. haha. whatever. i just want more gold. anyway. see you all next time!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Random Update (Mid-August)
Hi guys,
Sorry my last post has been so long. Many things have been going on and there's just so much to write about. Although at times, i dont feel like writing, i do want to keep my readers up to date about my wow-playing. I also want to thank those who do read this and hope that they take something away from my posts, no matter how silly some of them are.
Today i just wanted to update you about what's going on in wow for me. I started an alliance hunter a little over a month ago to level with my girlfriend. it seemed pretty boring then, as i was leveling as marksman spec (MM), and all i was doing was multi-shot and steady shot pairs. sometimes i'd actually use serpent sting and follow with a Chimera shot and Master marksman aimed shot (MMM-AI). These are the basics of my "rotation" which is not a rotation at all. Since reaching 80, i've discovered huntering to be a little more complicated, as i actually need to CC (and my Traplauncher+trap combo is almost second nature now, i can do this while running, but i can never do this while in the middle of a rotation) and control my pet more.
And lately i've figured out what i like in this game. A little bit of raiding (about two-three nights a week is perfect) with random leveling and character progression thrown in the remaining times. Oh, and also selling in the AH. if i cant sell in the AH and make some gold, half of the game is gone for me.
In any case, playing my hunter presents some challenges at 85 which i have never dealt with before. first, i have to deal with a pet. sure, they are usually able to take care of themselves, but i find that sometimes they'd die whirlwinds, fire and the like. Although they may have some survivability (less aoe damage) they still get damaged and i still have to keep an eye on them. second, they sometimes run off to attack mobs which i did not attack. this happens only after we kill one mob or a group of mobs and the pet somehow has another, unengaged mob on queue. this usually happens when i tab target and cycle through my targets. even though i did not attack the mob halfway across the map, i did cycle through him to get to my actual target, and this is what gets me labeled noob sometimes. oh well. Third, the shot rotations are different from MM to BM. as i can imagine, every hunter has a BM spec. not because they like it, but because it allows them to tame certain exotic pets. although BM may not fare as well as the other specs, and rely heavily on their pet (say, 40% of the dps comes from their pets), they still can hold their own in raids and such. but the problem for me is getting these two specs to meld together when i play. So far, only two abilities are interchangeable. one is the long CD nuke, and second, is the proc. oh and the source of focus regen is different.
Here's what i mean.
For MM's, the focus regen ability comes from Steady Shots. for BMs, it is using Cobra Shots. So that's a no-brainer replacement (/cast [spec:1] Steady Shot; Cobra Shot).
For MMs, their main nuke on cooldown is Chimera Shot. for BMs, it's Kill Command. However, the issue is this. Chimera Shot has a 10 second cooldown, 9 seconds glyphed. For Kill Command, it is 6 seconds. This often throws my rotation off as i would be spamming Chimera shot but not seeing it available for 3 extra seconds, 3 seconds in which i could have added other shots.
The last difference is the proc-based ability. kind of. Kind of because it's not really a proc. it's more of a wait for your buff to reach 5 stacks, then unload. for MM, this is MMM-AI. and for BM, this is a proc that will increase your ranged attack haste by 15%. One is a hard-hitting nuke while the other is a buff to your casting speed and global cooldown.
Whatever the case, the thing that throws me off is usally the Chimera Shot/Kill Command switch, which has different cooldowns and causes the "rhythm" of my shots to go helter-skelter.
I hit 85 on my hunter about three weeks ago and decided to join an actual raiding guild. My current guild belonged to a friend of my gf who i've met on hordeside and wanted to level on alliance side. this is great and all, and i hope my quests and leveling and stuff helped her level his guild just a little. in any case, being that there is no active recruitment and that there's really only 4 active people in the guild, one being my gf, i decided that joining an actual raiding guild would make a lot of difference in my game. And join one i did! the guild raids later at night, which is perfect for me since i get home around 7ish. they play roughly around 8pm and end around 11pm my time. perfect. and i am very glad i did find a group of raiders willing to play at that time. and i am very glad it's a very casual raiding requirement. raid attendance is required two days a week, where we raid Firelands on tuesday and wednesday, or wednesday and thursday. it varies. but all the other raids are optional, including BH, BoT, BWD and Tot4W. All of those do not have a mandatory requirement for my team at least. Also, i will be uploading parses to World of logs eventually. so watch out for that! i really dont care to share the info with others, but it is really for my own research, as somehow, i am an info junkie. I love graphs and interpreting real life events from what graphs and charts say. =D
So what i can never find in horde-side, i have found here on the alliance. Here are my guesses as to why that is the case. for one, there are a lot fewer people on the alliance side, therefore, if there are bad players, there isnt that large of a playerbase where their lack of talents can be hidden. they just stand out more and often are forced to either play well or do something else. this something else can include leveling alts, remain in 5man heroics, or just switch to another faction/server. The second point is bascially a converse of the first: with so few people there is a better chance that you will be remembered for the good that you do. people play together more. this can also be because the realm is a pvp realm, and partying together keeps the would-be gankers away. But overall, people will know each other better and know the quality of play each person can do. Now finally, i do know that there are quality players over on the horde side as well, but there is so much garbage players to sift through that it makes it really difficult to find actual good players. i am not saying everyone is bad and there's a distinct minority of players who are good, there's just a higher chance of meeting a retarded or bad player on a higher population realm/faction. this all goes along with my theory as to why medium pop servers are better than high pop servers. but that's another post altogether.
Although it does seem like i am comparing apples to oranges, i do find it particularly intriguing that i can easily find an organized raiding guild on the alliance side easily. I am also not saying that the talent hordeside is lacking, they are not. actually many of their guilds are leading the progression in our realm. but the problem still remains, with the added number of people on hordeside, there's a higher chance of finding subpar players to "fill in the ranks" of a guild. Oddly, it seems that on the alliance, most people know what they're doing. maybe it is because they are forced into it due to... nevermind. this is not a philosophical post. =P
Finally, i'd like to note that i did attain the reins of the ravenlord. My hunter's armory is at this link here.
Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. life has been rather busy and i havent found a real reason to post lately. Maybe a brainstorm session for topics would help.
Sorry my last post has been so long. Many things have been going on and there's just so much to write about. Although at times, i dont feel like writing, i do want to keep my readers up to date about my wow-playing. I also want to thank those who do read this and hope that they take something away from my posts, no matter how silly some of them are.
Today i just wanted to update you about what's going on in wow for me. I started an alliance hunter a little over a month ago to level with my girlfriend. it seemed pretty boring then, as i was leveling as marksman spec (MM), and all i was doing was multi-shot and steady shot pairs. sometimes i'd actually use serpent sting and follow with a Chimera shot and Master marksman aimed shot (MMM-AI). These are the basics of my "rotation" which is not a rotation at all. Since reaching 80, i've discovered huntering to be a little more complicated, as i actually need to CC (and my Traplauncher+trap combo is almost second nature now, i can do this while running, but i can never do this while in the middle of a rotation) and control my pet more.
And lately i've figured out what i like in this game. A little bit of raiding (about two-three nights a week is perfect) with random leveling and character progression thrown in the remaining times. Oh, and also selling in the AH. if i cant sell in the AH and make some gold, half of the game is gone for me.
In any case, playing my hunter presents some challenges at 85 which i have never dealt with before. first, i have to deal with a pet. sure, they are usually able to take care of themselves, but i find that sometimes they'd die whirlwinds, fire and the like. Although they may have some survivability (less aoe damage) they still get damaged and i still have to keep an eye on them. second, they sometimes run off to attack mobs which i did not attack. this happens only after we kill one mob or a group of mobs and the pet somehow has another, unengaged mob on queue. this usually happens when i tab target and cycle through my targets. even though i did not attack the mob halfway across the map, i did cycle through him to get to my actual target, and this is what gets me labeled noob sometimes. oh well. Third, the shot rotations are different from MM to BM. as i can imagine, every hunter has a BM spec. not because they like it, but because it allows them to tame certain exotic pets. although BM may not fare as well as the other specs, and rely heavily on their pet (say, 40% of the dps comes from their pets), they still can hold their own in raids and such. but the problem for me is getting these two specs to meld together when i play. So far, only two abilities are interchangeable. one is the long CD nuke, and second, is the proc. oh and the source of focus regen is different.
Here's what i mean.
For MM's, the focus regen ability comes from Steady Shots. for BMs, it is using Cobra Shots. So that's a no-brainer replacement (/cast [spec:1] Steady Shot; Cobra Shot).
For MMs, their main nuke on cooldown is Chimera Shot. for BMs, it's Kill Command. However, the issue is this. Chimera Shot has a 10 second cooldown, 9 seconds glyphed. For Kill Command, it is 6 seconds. This often throws my rotation off as i would be spamming Chimera shot but not seeing it available for 3 extra seconds, 3 seconds in which i could have added other shots.
The last difference is the proc-based ability. kind of. Kind of because it's not really a proc. it's more of a wait for your buff to reach 5 stacks, then unload. for MM, this is MMM-AI. and for BM, this is a proc that will increase your ranged attack haste by 15%. One is a hard-hitting nuke while the other is a buff to your casting speed and global cooldown.
Whatever the case, the thing that throws me off is usally the Chimera Shot/Kill Command switch, which has different cooldowns and causes the "rhythm" of my shots to go helter-skelter.
I hit 85 on my hunter about three weeks ago and decided to join an actual raiding guild. My current guild belonged to a friend of my gf who i've met on hordeside and wanted to level on alliance side. this is great and all, and i hope my quests and leveling and stuff helped her level his guild just a little. in any case, being that there is no active recruitment and that there's really only 4 active people in the guild, one being my gf, i decided that joining an actual raiding guild would make a lot of difference in my game. And join one i did! the guild raids later at night, which is perfect for me since i get home around 7ish. they play roughly around 8pm and end around 11pm my time. perfect. and i am very glad i did find a group of raiders willing to play at that time. and i am very glad it's a very casual raiding requirement. raid attendance is required two days a week, where we raid Firelands on tuesday and wednesday, or wednesday and thursday. it varies. but all the other raids are optional, including BH, BoT, BWD and Tot4W. All of those do not have a mandatory requirement for my team at least. Also, i will be uploading parses to World of logs eventually. so watch out for that! i really dont care to share the info with others, but it is really for my own research, as somehow, i am an info junkie. I love graphs and interpreting real life events from what graphs and charts say. =D
So what i can never find in horde-side, i have found here on the alliance. Here are my guesses as to why that is the case. for one, there are a lot fewer people on the alliance side, therefore, if there are bad players, there isnt that large of a playerbase where their lack of talents can be hidden. they just stand out more and often are forced to either play well or do something else. this something else can include leveling alts, remain in 5man heroics, or just switch to another faction/server. The second point is bascially a converse of the first: with so few people there is a better chance that you will be remembered for the good that you do. people play together more. this can also be because the realm is a pvp realm, and partying together keeps the would-be gankers away. But overall, people will know each other better and know the quality of play each person can do. Now finally, i do know that there are quality players over on the horde side as well, but there is so much garbage players to sift through that it makes it really difficult to find actual good players. i am not saying everyone is bad and there's a distinct minority of players who are good, there's just a higher chance of meeting a retarded or bad player on a higher population realm/faction. this all goes along with my theory as to why medium pop servers are better than high pop servers. but that's another post altogether.
Although it does seem like i am comparing apples to oranges, i do find it particularly intriguing that i can easily find an organized raiding guild on the alliance side easily. I am also not saying that the talent hordeside is lacking, they are not. actually many of their guilds are leading the progression in our realm. but the problem still remains, with the added number of people on hordeside, there's a higher chance of finding subpar players to "fill in the ranks" of a guild. Oddly, it seems that on the alliance, most people know what they're doing. maybe it is because they are forced into it due to... nevermind. this is not a philosophical post. =P
Finally, i'd like to note that i did attain the reins of the ravenlord. My hunter's armory is at this link here.
Anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. life has been rather busy and i havent found a real reason to post lately. Maybe a brainstorm session for topics would help.
Monday, July 11, 2011
For Fun
Zelmaru, at Murloc Parliament, is having more fun than me. And she's right. She is.
I usually dont tell people who i follow. It's one of those things i try to do... keep it low key here. But well, sometimes people write things that are really great. and this is one of them. it's not a guide, or some awesome insight, or even a story of someone's path to greatness (ie. gold milestones, etc), but its just a reminder as to why i should be playing this game. to have fun. and that's really all that matters in this game.
But fun for me is different from fun for others. Although, hopefully, we'd all be able to find a like-minded group of people in an MMO and have fun together. With the addition of cross-realm LFD, having fun turns into little more than mindless dps. maybe a cc here or there. but that's about it. for the pvp'er who are forced now to do some rBG's instead of being forced to form "2's for points" fun may be less rewarding now. Actually, some folks would prefer, if its going to be a grind, to just grind 2's for points instead of rBG's. But Bliz thinks we'll have more fun in rBGs instead. who am i to differ? i dont pvp often and i'm certainly not paid to make these decisions. Others find fun in leveling alts. running through LFD all the way to 85 with a few token quests here and there (except throne of the tides, bc who in their right mind would go through the entire zone of just questing just to open up the dungeon quest for this dungeon??? srsly blizz. you ^#$(@ing suck for this one.)
But ultimately, what im trying to get at is that there's always different types of fun for different types of people. there are those Halo/Gears/CoD4 type folks who really enjoy the style of skirmishes and matches these games have to offer. and then there are those who play RTS like warcraft3 and starcraft. then there's the folks in WoW who like a variety of things completely non-RTS or non-FPS shooting. thats me on most days. So what's my point? im saying play what you want? sure. that's great. but also... be good at what you play. yes. im preaching. but it makes my gaming experience soooooo much better when i am in a dungeon with people who actually knows how to play. same with a BG. when two teams of equal strength and skill are matched up, the BG is awesome. i actually have to work for my win. it feels great!
Really. that's the only point i have. i was going to give a back story about when i used to play starcraft, the original awesomesauce RTS and how i had to learn blah blah blah blah blah... and it was fun! but no. time is pressing and i have a billion other things to do at work right now. in any case, being conpetent makes fun more fun for other people around you. im serious. i hate to be top dps. i mean i like it, but the feeling is diminished when im doing the most dps by miles. it's like playing with monkeys. there is no sense of accomplishment there. but when i play with actual people who are also trying to top dps, and we're all in it trying to top each other, then being on top is a great feelilng. that's fun. no not being on top, but actually trying to be on top--throughout the whole instace. now that's fun. it's a little different in pvp, but the idea remains the same. getting matched up with equally skilled people and fighting to attain a goal. i dont mind if i lose there. i really do not. dying is just part of pvp, and so, may the better team win the base, or whatevers. seriously. running around chasing seiges in TB is plain dumb. but fighting at the flag is great fun.
so folks, really. play for fun. the whole progressing thing (ie. leveling an alt to 85 or farming Honor) might be drudgingly horribad, but being the best you can be at every level, and then having some really good competition is great fun. there's those who only enjoy a dungeon if they're top dps. i just want to open your eyes to another part of fun. there's those who enjoy TB by chasing the seige tanks. i'd like to open your eyes to the stupidity and un-fun of it. or the guy standing in bad and wondering why heals wont heal him... i'd like to open his eyes to the enjoyment of competent play. or the dude who is on his 15th alt, and barely understanding how to play it, does 5k dps in heroics. there's a way to double that. trust me. and it will probably make their game a lot more fun.
peace.
I usually dont tell people who i follow. It's one of those things i try to do... keep it low key here. But well, sometimes people write things that are really great. and this is one of them. it's not a guide, or some awesome insight, or even a story of someone's path to greatness (ie. gold milestones, etc), but its just a reminder as to why i should be playing this game. to have fun. and that's really all that matters in this game.
But fun for me is different from fun for others. Although, hopefully, we'd all be able to find a like-minded group of people in an MMO and have fun together. With the addition of cross-realm LFD, having fun turns into little more than mindless dps. maybe a cc here or there. but that's about it. for the pvp'er who are forced now to do some rBG's instead of being forced to form "2's for points" fun may be less rewarding now. Actually, some folks would prefer, if its going to be a grind, to just grind 2's for points instead of rBG's. But Bliz thinks we'll have more fun in rBGs instead. who am i to differ? i dont pvp often and i'm certainly not paid to make these decisions. Others find fun in leveling alts. running through LFD all the way to 85 with a few token quests here and there (except throne of the tides, bc who in their right mind would go through the entire zone of just questing just to open up the dungeon quest for this dungeon??? srsly blizz. you ^#$(@ing suck for this one.)
But ultimately, what im trying to get at is that there's always different types of fun for different types of people. there are those Halo/Gears/CoD4 type folks who really enjoy the style of skirmishes and matches these games have to offer. and then there are those who play RTS like warcraft3 and starcraft. then there's the folks in WoW who like a variety of things completely non-RTS or non-FPS shooting. thats me on most days. So what's my point? im saying play what you want? sure. that's great. but also... be good at what you play. yes. im preaching. but it makes my gaming experience soooooo much better when i am in a dungeon with people who actually knows how to play. same with a BG. when two teams of equal strength and skill are matched up, the BG is awesome. i actually have to work for my win. it feels great!
Really. that's the only point i have. i was going to give a back story about when i used to play starcraft, the original awesomesauce RTS and how i had to learn blah blah blah blah blah... and it was fun! but no. time is pressing and i have a billion other things to do at work right now. in any case, being conpetent makes fun more fun for other people around you. im serious. i hate to be top dps. i mean i like it, but the feeling is diminished when im doing the most dps by miles. it's like playing with monkeys. there is no sense of accomplishment there. but when i play with actual people who are also trying to top dps, and we're all in it trying to top each other, then being on top is a great feelilng. that's fun. no not being on top, but actually trying to be on top--throughout the whole instace. now that's fun. it's a little different in pvp, but the idea remains the same. getting matched up with equally skilled people and fighting to attain a goal. i dont mind if i lose there. i really do not. dying is just part of pvp, and so, may the better team win the base, or whatevers. seriously. running around chasing seiges in TB is plain dumb. but fighting at the flag is great fun.
so folks, really. play for fun. the whole progressing thing (ie. leveling an alt to 85 or farming Honor) might be drudgingly horribad, but being the best you can be at every level, and then having some really good competition is great fun. there's those who only enjoy a dungeon if they're top dps. i just want to open your eyes to another part of fun. there's those who enjoy TB by chasing the seige tanks. i'd like to open your eyes to the stupidity and un-fun of it. or the guy standing in bad and wondering why heals wont heal him... i'd like to open his eyes to the enjoyment of competent play. or the dude who is on his 15th alt, and barely understanding how to play it, does 5k dps in heroics. there's a way to double that. trust me. and it will probably make their game a lot more fun.
peace.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Holidays
I know we have a major patch coming in a day or two. It's expected 6/28 and i am hoping it's such due to the US holiday on 7/4. This holiday usually allows the weekend warriors to play on monday and increases playtime for everyone. i know many will be out and playing sports, enjoying the weather, perfecting their bar-be-cues, etc. but for me, i'll be posting auctions in the AH. it's the mini-game that i enjoy in the game. kind of.
With the patch hitting us soon and the holiday following a week later, im sure there's going to be lots of traffic in the AH and all over the place. people will be running raid groups and getting new gear. all the JP capped casuals who dont usually raid will have a new reason to do heroics again (to further their own illusion of progression. gearwise, its true, but encounterwise, its the same dumb thing. same idea goes for leveling. its an illusion. i'll explain this more at a later date). in any case, since everyone (casuals, hardcore, raiders, etc) will be getting new items, new gear, new toys, etc, they'll need new enchants and new gems.
yay for economy revival.
at least for a little while, there will be more activity online. this patch is somewhat similar to the Sunwell Plateau patch of Burning Crusade, or the Crusader's Colesium patch of Wrath. its more content with story progression and a restart of the gear race (all over again, i know) for every level 85. but eventually, once we're all exalted or have completed all the quests necessary to finish our acheivements, most of us will still be seeing the same dull gameplay that has pervaded the wow scene ever since Rift dropped. sadly, it's all bliz can really do to keep the attention of the players now. but i'll enjoy it while i can by going through the story, getting new shineys and a title, all while selling everything i have in the AH. yes, everything.
This is what i've been doing for the past couple of years in wow. I've been selling things in the AH but i've always kept some of the items for me, just in case i may need it in the future. more often than not, i wont need it. and with the offchance that i do need something, i can easily buy raw mats from the AH, then prospect/mill/sew/cure what i need and i am done. with this patch, i will attempt to sell all my leftover items, including spellthreads, bolts of whatevers, all my volatiles, all my leathers, all my gems. there is really no reason for me to hold on to any of these things since they're usually taking up bankspace. time to go all-out and doing this after a content patch and during a holiday weekend may be the best time. besides, i am still about 5k gold away from breaking 200k. it's been a long trip, but it will be worth the experience.
With the patch hitting us soon and the holiday following a week later, im sure there's going to be lots of traffic in the AH and all over the place. people will be running raid groups and getting new gear. all the JP capped casuals who dont usually raid will have a new reason to do heroics again (to further their own illusion of progression. gearwise, its true, but encounterwise, its the same dumb thing. same idea goes for leveling. its an illusion. i'll explain this more at a later date). in any case, since everyone (casuals, hardcore, raiders, etc) will be getting new items, new gear, new toys, etc, they'll need new enchants and new gems.
yay for economy revival.
at least for a little while, there will be more activity online. this patch is somewhat similar to the Sunwell Plateau patch of Burning Crusade, or the Crusader's Colesium patch of Wrath. its more content with story progression and a restart of the gear race (all over again, i know) for every level 85. but eventually, once we're all exalted or have completed all the quests necessary to finish our acheivements, most of us will still be seeing the same dull gameplay that has pervaded the wow scene ever since Rift dropped. sadly, it's all bliz can really do to keep the attention of the players now. but i'll enjoy it while i can by going through the story, getting new shineys and a title, all while selling everything i have in the AH. yes, everything.
This is what i've been doing for the past couple of years in wow. I've been selling things in the AH but i've always kept some of the items for me, just in case i may need it in the future. more often than not, i wont need it. and with the offchance that i do need something, i can easily buy raw mats from the AH, then prospect/mill/sew/cure what i need and i am done. with this patch, i will attempt to sell all my leftover items, including spellthreads, bolts of whatevers, all my volatiles, all my leathers, all my gems. there is really no reason for me to hold on to any of these things since they're usually taking up bankspace. time to go all-out and doing this after a content patch and during a holiday weekend may be the best time. besides, i am still about 5k gold away from breaking 200k. it's been a long trip, but it will be worth the experience.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Oh the Monotony!!!
These past two weeks have been a little boring for me.
I get home from work around 7pm pacific and log on to my JC'ers. yes, it's plural. grab the successful sales and relist the gems i didnt sell. i sell four gems at a time, but since i have most of the cuts, my acutions usually end up being about 100 total. (i get annoyed when a new seller decides to put 50 fractured amberjewels up, only to be undercut in 3 minutes by someone else. its annoying yet funny. they dont add anything to the market besides dropping prices. people are so impatient these days.) anyway, back to my topic. i then will not log on to any of my 85s to see if anyone will do the harder dungeons with me. instead, i log on to my worgen hunter alt (created two weeks ago) or my goblin shaman alt (created a month ago) to level up. and i have to tell you, its pretty boring. its soooo boring i dont know what to tell you. actually i do. here.
low level grinding goes like this: getting a level appropriate quest, which leads me to level appropriate mobs and quest objectives, which leads to boredom. it was this way before but it seems really bad now. on my hunter, i've only died once. the battle starts off with a steady shot, followed by a concussive shot and then some arcane shots. serpent sting doesnt even last that long so i skip it. then, by the time i am halfway done with a zone, my five levels higher, ready for another zone or two. its pretty bad. its pretty dull. there's no challege. the only challege i have is to figure out where my new spells will go on my action bar. seriously. that's it.
I also queue for dungeons hoping that it will give me some challenge. However, it only exacerbates the problem by giving me a whole experience bar's worth of experience in ONE dungeon. but even then, its a little more difficult. for one, there's random people of random experience trying to work together. sometimes it gels well. sometimes its a total disaster. most of the time we work through it. i'd say 25% disaster, 25% awesome groups and 50% not optimal. the not optimal groups will have a combination of undergeared tank, healer with no water, mage that does half the usual damage/dps, afk'ers, people getting lost, at least a couple of wipes, etc. you get the picture. there's room for improvement, it its not a total disaster. so 75% of the time i'm having a decent time. but it's still boring.
after getting my rotations together (yes, hunters still use a rotation even though we have "priorities".) rotations only comes out a certain way because i am trying to do two things. 1) regen focus. 2) maintain haste buff. the remainder just comes in between. its easy. its pretty boring. its still somewhat fun to learn, and fun to adapt to the situation. but honestly, the challenge isnt really the dungeon or the bosskill. the challenge is really dealing with the various groups i've been in.
that's the real challege. it tests my patience and challenges me to use my defensive cooldowns. that's the only fun times i get. so far, i have disengage and fiegndeath with wingclip and concussive shot to keep the guys away. i'll get a few more abilities soon. i need to start using my traps more. but yes, rotation is boring. maybe that's the way it was designed. by now i have my rotations down and i dont really need to think about it. i still need to keep my focus and buffs up. but that isnt hard to do at all.
I was talking to a guildie yesterday who told me that hunter dps was boring to him. he has one at high levels but it's still very boring. maybe i was just "new" to this hunter thing and it kept me going for a while. i still think its fun to be a hunter but totally boring to go through content, again and again with zero challenge. maybe that's the issue. we're bored. we go through too much easy content. i went through scholomance yesterday with my girlfriend. we were both dps. we had a decent tank and healer combo and we carried the last dps. it was new to go through the whole experience with a tank that actually line-of-sights mobs to avoid grabbing the whole room. it's very refreshing to see the tank talk in chat that certaim mobs are immune to this or that. wow. challenge! sort of. we still facerolled everything. boring.
My guildie also said something that i thought should never be the case. he auto-shoots most of the fights and still wins. i was not going to try that in the groups i was in, mainly because i figured trying to be as good as my gf in dps requires more than auto-shots. but overall, the feel is the same. i can go through the entire dungeon doing auto-shots and still come out OK. i mean the mage we carried through the dungeon with 1/2 the dps me and my gf were doing was doing OK. i mean i could have just dropped my dps to almost nothing too and still benefit the same. but then, i'll be even more bored.
and i am trying. i really am. i am trying to keep sane but i have no desire to go through another night of mindless dps. i have no desire to sit there for four hours thinking how maybe i should add a new shot into my boring rotation. heck, i might as well level using the target dummies. because that's how it feels right now.
So here's the story. i made a new shaman to learn to dps as enhancement. im learning the spells and stuff and its going well. i am just dreading the next 60 levels because it will simply be the same thing over and over again. the only challege will be trying to work with bad groups. the shaman is also a guild leader in a guild that i was hoping to form and make better. but my girlfriend had different plans. that's OK i guess. but she went ahead and made some alliance characters. now there's a problem. we cant play together if that's the case. and to top that, its on a different realm. so what's the point of playing an MMO of we cant play together? right. so i just put the guild project on hold so she can level her toons. i guess. i dont know why i am even playing alliance. so i picked the best looking alliance character (they're all dumb looking, really they are.) and ended up rolling a worgen. female. the males are dumb looking. as an afterthought, i guess i could have rolled a dwarf, but i figured that's too close to the true american human form it makes playing a dwarf a little creepy.
so i made a worgen hunter to play with my gf over on Ravenholdt US. i figured why the hell not. it's new. its not as dumb looking (excluding the casting animation), and its got that "horde" feel. you know that feeling where you're the underdog, the outcast, the refugees? well that's basically the horde. the more refined, civilized and cultured peoples with broomsticks in their asses? that's the alliance. so with that reasoning, i picked a worgen. they're outcasts, misunderstood and fighting for survival as a people and as a species, i guess. they're made refugees after the whole ordeal with the forsaken, and that's when it began to become boring... because somehow we become night elves and played along helping them in darkshore, ashenvale and stonetalon. yea. pretty epic. /sarcasm.
So back to the grind i go. uninteresting lore. uninteresting quests. uninteresting everything. doing the worgen starting quests was great. levels 1-14 done. it was fun. now i have to go through a new world of dullness because someone put the difficulty on too low. honestly, i enjoy a good challenge. i really like working hard to figure out a dungeon or a boss. i get way more satisfaction from spending time learning to beat a boss with a group i am given than dinging four times in one night. dinging four times might be great, but i did almost nothing to get it (in all honesty, leveling in and of itself is an illusion of progressing, almost to the point of delusion in WoW). killing a boss that wiped the group five times? that feels like an accomplishment. maybe i need a break from leveling. it's just THAT dull. or maybe i need to find a new game.
I get home from work around 7pm pacific and log on to my JC'ers. yes, it's plural. grab the successful sales and relist the gems i didnt sell. i sell four gems at a time, but since i have most of the cuts, my acutions usually end up being about 100 total. (i get annoyed when a new seller decides to put 50 fractured amberjewels up, only to be undercut in 3 minutes by someone else. its annoying yet funny. they dont add anything to the market besides dropping prices. people are so impatient these days.) anyway, back to my topic. i then will not log on to any of my 85s to see if anyone will do the harder dungeons with me. instead, i log on to my worgen hunter alt (created two weeks ago) or my goblin shaman alt (created a month ago) to level up. and i have to tell you, its pretty boring. its soooo boring i dont know what to tell you. actually i do. here.
low level grinding goes like this: getting a level appropriate quest, which leads me to level appropriate mobs and quest objectives, which leads to boredom. it was this way before but it seems really bad now. on my hunter, i've only died once. the battle starts off with a steady shot, followed by a concussive shot and then some arcane shots. serpent sting doesnt even last that long so i skip it. then, by the time i am halfway done with a zone, my five levels higher, ready for another zone or two. its pretty bad. its pretty dull. there's no challege. the only challege i have is to figure out where my new spells will go on my action bar. seriously. that's it.
I also queue for dungeons hoping that it will give me some challenge. However, it only exacerbates the problem by giving me a whole experience bar's worth of experience in ONE dungeon. but even then, its a little more difficult. for one, there's random people of random experience trying to work together. sometimes it gels well. sometimes its a total disaster. most of the time we work through it. i'd say 25% disaster, 25% awesome groups and 50% not optimal. the not optimal groups will have a combination of undergeared tank, healer with no water, mage that does half the usual damage/dps, afk'ers, people getting lost, at least a couple of wipes, etc. you get the picture. there's room for improvement, it its not a total disaster. so 75% of the time i'm having a decent time. but it's still boring.
after getting my rotations together (yes, hunters still use a rotation even though we have "priorities".) rotations only comes out a certain way because i am trying to do two things. 1) regen focus. 2) maintain haste buff. the remainder just comes in between. its easy. its pretty boring. its still somewhat fun to learn, and fun to adapt to the situation. but honestly, the challenge isnt really the dungeon or the bosskill. the challenge is really dealing with the various groups i've been in.
that's the real challege. it tests my patience and challenges me to use my defensive cooldowns. that's the only fun times i get. so far, i have disengage and fiegndeath with wingclip and concussive shot to keep the guys away. i'll get a few more abilities soon. i need to start using my traps more. but yes, rotation is boring. maybe that's the way it was designed. by now i have my rotations down and i dont really need to think about it. i still need to keep my focus and buffs up. but that isnt hard to do at all.
I was talking to a guildie yesterday who told me that hunter dps was boring to him. he has one at high levels but it's still very boring. maybe i was just "new" to this hunter thing and it kept me going for a while. i still think its fun to be a hunter but totally boring to go through content, again and again with zero challenge. maybe that's the issue. we're bored. we go through too much easy content. i went through scholomance yesterday with my girlfriend. we were both dps. we had a decent tank and healer combo and we carried the last dps. it was new to go through the whole experience with a tank that actually line-of-sights mobs to avoid grabbing the whole room. it's very refreshing to see the tank talk in chat that certaim mobs are immune to this or that. wow. challenge! sort of. we still facerolled everything. boring.
My guildie also said something that i thought should never be the case. he auto-shoots most of the fights and still wins. i was not going to try that in the groups i was in, mainly because i figured trying to be as good as my gf in dps requires more than auto-shots. but overall, the feel is the same. i can go through the entire dungeon doing auto-shots and still come out OK. i mean the mage we carried through the dungeon with 1/2 the dps me and my gf were doing was doing OK. i mean i could have just dropped my dps to almost nothing too and still benefit the same. but then, i'll be even more bored.
and i am trying. i really am. i am trying to keep sane but i have no desire to go through another night of mindless dps. i have no desire to sit there for four hours thinking how maybe i should add a new shot into my boring rotation. heck, i might as well level using the target dummies. because that's how it feels right now.
So here's the story. i made a new shaman to learn to dps as enhancement. im learning the spells and stuff and its going well. i am just dreading the next 60 levels because it will simply be the same thing over and over again. the only challege will be trying to work with bad groups. the shaman is also a guild leader in a guild that i was hoping to form and make better. but my girlfriend had different plans. that's OK i guess. but she went ahead and made some alliance characters. now there's a problem. we cant play together if that's the case. and to top that, its on a different realm. so what's the point of playing an MMO of we cant play together? right. so i just put the guild project on hold so she can level her toons. i guess. i dont know why i am even playing alliance. so i picked the best looking alliance character (they're all dumb looking, really they are.) and ended up rolling a worgen. female. the males are dumb looking. as an afterthought, i guess i could have rolled a dwarf, but i figured that's too close to the true american human form it makes playing a dwarf a little creepy.
so i made a worgen hunter to play with my gf over on Ravenholdt US. i figured why the hell not. it's new. its not as dumb looking (excluding the casting animation), and its got that "horde" feel. you know that feeling where you're the underdog, the outcast, the refugees? well that's basically the horde. the more refined, civilized and cultured peoples with broomsticks in their asses? that's the alliance. so with that reasoning, i picked a worgen. they're outcasts, misunderstood and fighting for survival as a people and as a species, i guess. they're made refugees after the whole ordeal with the forsaken, and that's when it began to become boring... because somehow we become night elves and played along helping them in darkshore, ashenvale and stonetalon. yea. pretty epic. /sarcasm.
So back to the grind i go. uninteresting lore. uninteresting quests. uninteresting everything. doing the worgen starting quests was great. levels 1-14 done. it was fun. now i have to go through a new world of dullness because someone put the difficulty on too low. honestly, i enjoy a good challenge. i really like working hard to figure out a dungeon or a boss. i get way more satisfaction from spending time learning to beat a boss with a group i am given than dinging four times in one night. dinging four times might be great, but i did almost nothing to get it (in all honesty, leveling in and of itself is an illusion of progressing, almost to the point of delusion in WoW). killing a boss that wiped the group five times? that feels like an accomplishment. maybe i need a break from leveling. it's just THAT dull. or maybe i need to find a new game.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Gems and Inscription come 4.2
hey guys, just wanted to put in my two cents about gems in 4.2. it's not going to be a long post but will just summarize my thoughts on what people have been calling the end of some shuffle or other.
Uncommon, uncut gems will no longer have the vendor price of 5g. What does that mean? almost nothing.
Well, for the lazy, it means that they cannot vendor their stacks of Alicites or Nightstones anymore.
And what about the not-so-lazy people? they're still going to craft pendants, rings and spikes just like before for their Enchanter to DE. and for those who have X-mute Master Alchemists? I still see these items transformed into Shadowspirit diamonds.
This patch wont break anything for the shuffle, or whatever you want to call it. it will basically get those lazy bastids off their lazy ass and actually do some more work if they want to make near the profit margin they had before.
Predictions:
- Uncommon gems (alicites, nightstones, etc) will drop in price since the lazy people who used to vendor them will now sell them on the AH, flooding supplies.
- Uncommon gems used for daily quests will retain its value, or drop slightly.
- Enchanting mats prices will decrease slightly due to some folks actually making pendants, rings and spikes to DE instead of vendoring them. They may even level up their own enchanter to do this or sell the items in the AH.
- Shadowspirit diamonds will decrease in value slightly. Due to the same reason above with alchemists instead of enchanters.
- Obsidium and Elementium ores will decrease in price due to the oversupply of enchanting mats and shadowspirit diamonds. However, Obsidium and Elementium will have a floor (although we'll probably never get there-4.5gold/stack elementium). As JC'ers find their secondary market (dusts, essences and shadowspirit diamonds) overflowing, thus dropping prices, their margins will decrease. therefore, they will continue to look for cheaper and cheaper ores. i do not know what the max would be for a stack of elementium ore yet, as prices for that is dictated by prices for gems, dusts, etc. but overall, a decrease will result.
Deductions:
The changes to vendored prices ultimately brings prices down on various goods used to buff up players' stats. This is a good change as it will make enchating scrolls and shadowspirit diamonds a little more available to the more frugal (i say frugal because you really can be rich in wow. its easy. some people just dont like spending). This change will help support the boom that will occur during 4.2 when everyone gets new gear from firelands (raids or dungeons or rep). not only that, those who were stuck on the first boss of ZG will finally be able to down him and attain more gear. the casuals and baddies will also be able to upgrade their gear as well (normal raids nerfed combined with many class buffs). overall, the turnover in gear will be great, and this change to the vendor price of uncommon gems will help meet the demand.
Also, as prices drop. JCers will find it difficult to justify paying 40-50g per stack of elementium ore. eventually the prices will drop, decreasing the daily profits from the farmers. when this profit decreases, they'll have to find ways to circumvent this. either avoid the AH to recover on fees, or farm more ore. farming more ore will increase supply, thus decreasing the prices even more. maybe they'll focus more on herbalism or skinning instead.
The farmers are ultimately the ones to lose here. they'll be the ones with 5000 stacks of ore to sell at a lower price. imagine if elementium dropped by 10g a stack, that's 10g x 5000 stacks someone is about to lose potential profit on. in this way, it appears that bliz is tackling the problem (although they wont solve it, it does cause a slight dent to it) of gold farmers and gold sellers. they are the ones that are up day and night farming ore. it's no secret to the rest of the world how they fund their gold selling business. especially when the dollar appreciates so much when it goes into the right country. Blizz will just make it a little harder for these guys to make a dollar.
In any case, there you have it. my deductions as to why these changes occur in the first place. Bliz already set it up nicely the past six months, giving an imaginary bottom to ore prices (through vendor price for uncommon uncut gems), then removing it when they need to increase supply from the obsidium/elementium shuffle.
Final Note: please note that we do get dusts and essences through other means. however, because this process is so widely used, a large chunk of the enchanting market is fueled by the gemming industry. therefore, a significant change in the JC industry will cause serious changes in the enchanting industry as well. as for shadowspirits, this portion of the market is entirely dependant on JC'ers. there's no other way to get shadowspirit diamonds except to xmute it from uncommon gems.
Final Final Note: Since patch 4.2 will add significant amounts of new content (as opposed to 4.1 which only saw two 5-man dungeons) and more accessible current content, we will see a large increase for enchants and augmentations to upgrades attained. and since bliz is going to counter that spike in demand with higher supply, this will mean one thing: JC'ers will not see anything like Glyphmas.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Uncommon, uncut gems will no longer have the vendor price of 5g. What does that mean? almost nothing.
Well, for the lazy, it means that they cannot vendor their stacks of Alicites or Nightstones anymore.
And what about the not-so-lazy people? they're still going to craft pendants, rings and spikes just like before for their Enchanter to DE. and for those who have X-mute Master Alchemists? I still see these items transformed into Shadowspirit diamonds.
This patch wont break anything for the shuffle, or whatever you want to call it. it will basically get those lazy bastids off their lazy ass and actually do some more work if they want to make near the profit margin they had before.
Predictions:
- Uncommon gems (alicites, nightstones, etc) will drop in price since the lazy people who used to vendor them will now sell them on the AH, flooding supplies.
- Uncommon gems used for daily quests will retain its value, or drop slightly.
- Enchanting mats prices will decrease slightly due to some folks actually making pendants, rings and spikes to DE instead of vendoring them. They may even level up their own enchanter to do this or sell the items in the AH.
- Shadowspirit diamonds will decrease in value slightly. Due to the same reason above with alchemists instead of enchanters.
- Obsidium and Elementium ores will decrease in price due to the oversupply of enchanting mats and shadowspirit diamonds. However, Obsidium and Elementium will have a floor (although we'll probably never get there-4.5gold/stack elementium). As JC'ers find their secondary market (dusts, essences and shadowspirit diamonds) overflowing, thus dropping prices, their margins will decrease. therefore, they will continue to look for cheaper and cheaper ores. i do not know what the max would be for a stack of elementium ore yet, as prices for that is dictated by prices for gems, dusts, etc. but overall, a decrease will result.
Deductions:
The changes to vendored prices ultimately brings prices down on various goods used to buff up players' stats. This is a good change as it will make enchating scrolls and shadowspirit diamonds a little more available to the more frugal (i say frugal because you really can be rich in wow. its easy. some people just dont like spending). This change will help support the boom that will occur during 4.2 when everyone gets new gear from firelands (raids or dungeons or rep). not only that, those who were stuck on the first boss of ZG will finally be able to down him and attain more gear. the casuals and baddies will also be able to upgrade their gear as well (normal raids nerfed combined with many class buffs). overall, the turnover in gear will be great, and this change to the vendor price of uncommon gems will help meet the demand.
Also, as prices drop. JCers will find it difficult to justify paying 40-50g per stack of elementium ore. eventually the prices will drop, decreasing the daily profits from the farmers. when this profit decreases, they'll have to find ways to circumvent this. either avoid the AH to recover on fees, or farm more ore. farming more ore will increase supply, thus decreasing the prices even more. maybe they'll focus more on herbalism or skinning instead.
The farmers are ultimately the ones to lose here. they'll be the ones with 5000 stacks of ore to sell at a lower price. imagine if elementium dropped by 10g a stack, that's 10g x 5000 stacks someone is about to lose potential profit on. in this way, it appears that bliz is tackling the problem (although they wont solve it, it does cause a slight dent to it) of gold farmers and gold sellers. they are the ones that are up day and night farming ore. it's no secret to the rest of the world how they fund their gold selling business. especially when the dollar appreciates so much when it goes into the right country. Blizz will just make it a little harder for these guys to make a dollar.
In any case, there you have it. my deductions as to why these changes occur in the first place. Bliz already set it up nicely the past six months, giving an imaginary bottom to ore prices (through vendor price for uncommon uncut gems), then removing it when they need to increase supply from the obsidium/elementium shuffle.
Final Note: please note that we do get dusts and essences through other means. however, because this process is so widely used, a large chunk of the enchanting market is fueled by the gemming industry. therefore, a significant change in the JC industry will cause serious changes in the enchanting industry as well. as for shadowspirits, this portion of the market is entirely dependant on JC'ers. there's no other way to get shadowspirit diamonds except to xmute it from uncommon gems.
Final Final Note: Since patch 4.2 will add significant amounts of new content (as opposed to 4.1 which only saw two 5-man dungeons) and more accessible current content, we will see a large increase for enchants and augmentations to upgrades attained. and since bliz is going to counter that spike in demand with higher supply, this will mean one thing: JC'ers will not see anything like Glyphmas.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
One of the blogs that i follow is a general gold making blog called Caffeine, Smokes and Auction House Fees, who has just announced his plans for what he will be doing after he hits his single character gold cap of 999,999, has got me thinking as to what i would do if i were to hit my milestone of a lowly 200,000.
Now i dont have big dreams in wow like getting vial of the sands on all my toons. heck, only one toon has super fast 310% flying, and thats my miner (with crusader aura!). and most of them do not have big fancy items. only one toon has a mechano-hog. i am somewhat of a very frugal person in this game. i dont spend too much gold and what i do have, i save up. the only times i actually spend a lot of gold is when i am buying ore to prospect, or herbs to mill, or frozen orbs to make who knows what. ;)
But i do find myself getting closer to my goals. if i keep up what im currently doing, i will have 200k gold by the end of the month. now i do only play the AH when nothing else interest me. lately, heroics are a blah, raiding is nil, farming is even blah-er. i barely want to log on and when i do, its really just to play with my girlfriend and play the AH. i dont even do professions anymore. I still have to level up my leatherworking, my enchanting and my tailoring. I have alchemy maxed, inscription almost maxed, bs maxed and jc maxed. i really do not need to try to make gold from LW/Tailoring enchants or from enchanting itself (the dust/essences sell well already). getting closer to my goals will mean one of two things: i will do something else or i will continue to make gold on the AH.
now there are more paths to take when i do move on, like how many "something else" can i list and do? or if i continue making gold, will it still be as a JC? or will i try to dive into other markets? if i dont care too much about returns, should i even bother with going into a "lucrative" market?
If i were to move on to other markets but still play within the AH, i would have to be OK with collecting less gold each day. this is fine with me, so long as i make sales. i think the only thing that bothers me more than not finding crafting mats in the AH when i need it, is to find expired auctions in my mailbox. i love the feeling of having a sale, whether it be for 5g or 50g. now 50g is better, but 5g isnt too bad at all. at least i removed a useless item from my inventory... that's my thinking anyway. I can go into enchanting, but i'll still have to rely on my jewelcrafter to supply a lot of my mats. My leatherworker can make leg enchants but it does look like the mats cost just as much as the final product. there's a lot of competition out there and perhaps finding the right market to list items in can be a game in and of itself. currently, my tailor is making bags because spellthread doesnt make positive gold. my leatherworker is on hold because there's no positive gold potential there either. my scribe is pulling in about 200g a day on glyphs (yes, sadly) but does slowly sell infernal inks.
Update: I wrote this post several weeks ago and thought that i published it. however, it looks like its been missing and i never realized. =D
I jsut wanted to say that i am at about $170,000 gold and ready for that final stretch. the last couple of weeks have seen quite a slow down in the gem market. everyone seems to be done farming the troll dungeons and sales have dropped quite significantly. This isnt to say that i havent been selling. Gems arent selling so well (although i still make about 2k a day, down from 3-5k a day). but i've been selling bags, enchants and various pvp items. these net me about 2-5k for the whole week. I've also been on my second server working on some things so that's been taking up a lot of time too.
For bags. i see netherweaves, frostweaves and otherworldly bags. the otherworldly bags sell slowly so i sometimes have to bark it in trade, for significantly lower than the AH (about 50g). but that's still a hefty profit per bag.
In terms of enchants, i've made some leg enchants (both from LW and tailoring) and post those 5 at a time on the AH. they sell slowly as well. i often have to repost these things several times to sell them all.
Overall, things have slowed and it seems people are busy rifting or leveling alts. now i have to figure out how to profit from all the alts!
But i think after my push to $200K is over, i will simply make gold just to cover costs. oh and maybe spend it on a mount, or two. =D
Now i dont have big dreams in wow like getting vial of the sands on all my toons. heck, only one toon has super fast 310% flying, and thats my miner (with crusader aura!). and most of them do not have big fancy items. only one toon has a mechano-hog. i am somewhat of a very frugal person in this game. i dont spend too much gold and what i do have, i save up. the only times i actually spend a lot of gold is when i am buying ore to prospect, or herbs to mill, or frozen orbs to make who knows what. ;)
But i do find myself getting closer to my goals. if i keep up what im currently doing, i will have 200k gold by the end of the month. now i do only play the AH when nothing else interest me. lately, heroics are a blah, raiding is nil, farming is even blah-er. i barely want to log on and when i do, its really just to play with my girlfriend and play the AH. i dont even do professions anymore. I still have to level up my leatherworking, my enchanting and my tailoring. I have alchemy maxed, inscription almost maxed, bs maxed and jc maxed. i really do not need to try to make gold from LW/Tailoring enchants or from enchanting itself (the dust/essences sell well already). getting closer to my goals will mean one of two things: i will do something else or i will continue to make gold on the AH.
now there are more paths to take when i do move on, like how many "something else" can i list and do? or if i continue making gold, will it still be as a JC? or will i try to dive into other markets? if i dont care too much about returns, should i even bother with going into a "lucrative" market?
If i were to move on to other markets but still play within the AH, i would have to be OK with collecting less gold each day. this is fine with me, so long as i make sales. i think the only thing that bothers me more than not finding crafting mats in the AH when i need it, is to find expired auctions in my mailbox. i love the feeling of having a sale, whether it be for 5g or 50g. now 50g is better, but 5g isnt too bad at all. at least i removed a useless item from my inventory... that's my thinking anyway. I can go into enchanting, but i'll still have to rely on my jewelcrafter to supply a lot of my mats. My leatherworker can make leg enchants but it does look like the mats cost just as much as the final product. there's a lot of competition out there and perhaps finding the right market to list items in can be a game in and of itself. currently, my tailor is making bags because spellthread doesnt make positive gold. my leatherworker is on hold because there's no positive gold potential there either. my scribe is pulling in about 200g a day on glyphs (yes, sadly) but does slowly sell infernal inks.
Update: I wrote this post several weeks ago and thought that i published it. however, it looks like its been missing and i never realized. =D
I jsut wanted to say that i am at about $170,000 gold and ready for that final stretch. the last couple of weeks have seen quite a slow down in the gem market. everyone seems to be done farming the troll dungeons and sales have dropped quite significantly. This isnt to say that i havent been selling. Gems arent selling so well (although i still make about 2k a day, down from 3-5k a day). but i've been selling bags, enchants and various pvp items. these net me about 2-5k for the whole week. I've also been on my second server working on some things so that's been taking up a lot of time too.
For bags. i see netherweaves, frostweaves and otherworldly bags. the otherworldly bags sell slowly so i sometimes have to bark it in trade, for significantly lower than the AH (about 50g). but that's still a hefty profit per bag.
In terms of enchants, i've made some leg enchants (both from LW and tailoring) and post those 5 at a time on the AH. they sell slowly as well. i often have to repost these things several times to sell them all.
Overall, things have slowed and it seems people are busy rifting or leveling alts. now i have to figure out how to profit from all the alts!
But i think after my push to $200K is over, i will simply make gold just to cover costs. oh and maybe spend it on a mount, or two. =D
Friday, June 3, 2011
I can be an ass too
So here's what happened last night. I zone into a random instance with my girlfriend (stonecore, of all places) and met up with three other random puggers. I was tanking with my bf healing. There was a rogue and paladin in the group. the thrid dps was forgotten due to what happened after we zoned in. The first pull was always kill millhouse, CC the stoneshapers earth summoning dude that causes a lot of aoe madness and confusion. anyway.
i marked the guy with a star and asked the rogue to sap him. he didnt. then i asked again and he replied with "dont tell me what to do". and then followed by, "im just here for the jp".
well being here for the jp, he should be able to understand that CC makes being "here for the jp" a lot easier. but instead, i took his lead and left the dungeon. no one was gonna tell me what to do either (namely, forcing me to play without cc). The rogue said he could cast repentance on the mob if i wanted to. but i said i'd rather it be sapped (because it would be that i initiate combat, and not the paladin). overall, it would be an easier pull if i had all the initial aggro anyway.
So the third, forgotten dps left. then i walked over to the couch where my toddler daughter was and sat there for about 15 minutes. i came back to see that all the dps left. my gf told me that the paladin repented the mob i wanted sapped but then got chased out of the dungeon. she ran out with him. once i got back, we requeued and got infinitely better dps.
lesson: if the tank wants you to CC something. CC it. you're not the tank-- you dont dictate play. true story.
earlier in the week i had a warlock who couldnt be assed to fear anything. and when he did it was the wrong mob. after a while, i kicked him. there really is no reason to be bad at cc. what part of CC the diamond did he not understand?
in any case, being an ass is propbably the best way to retain order in this game. it's what happens when you play with 16 year old kids. or 46 year olds acting like 12 year olds. same difference. overall the idea is the same. sometimes you need to put your foot down to get your point across because half of these guys need to be punched in real life.
i marked the guy with a star and asked the rogue to sap him. he didnt. then i asked again and he replied with "dont tell me what to do". and then followed by, "im just here for the jp".
well being here for the jp, he should be able to understand that CC makes being "here for the jp" a lot easier. but instead, i took his lead and left the dungeon. no one was gonna tell me what to do either (namely, forcing me to play without cc). The rogue said he could cast repentance on the mob if i wanted to. but i said i'd rather it be sapped (because it would be that i initiate combat, and not the paladin). overall, it would be an easier pull if i had all the initial aggro anyway.
So the third, forgotten dps left. then i walked over to the couch where my toddler daughter was and sat there for about 15 minutes. i came back to see that all the dps left. my gf told me that the paladin repented the mob i wanted sapped but then got chased out of the dungeon. she ran out with him. once i got back, we requeued and got infinitely better dps.
lesson: if the tank wants you to CC something. CC it. you're not the tank-- you dont dictate play. true story.
earlier in the week i had a warlock who couldnt be assed to fear anything. and when he did it was the wrong mob. after a while, i kicked him. there really is no reason to be bad at cc. what part of CC the diamond did he not understand?
in any case, being an ass is propbably the best way to retain order in this game. it's what happens when you play with 16 year old kids. or 46 year olds acting like 12 year olds. same difference. overall the idea is the same. sometimes you need to put your foot down to get your point across because half of these guys need to be punched in real life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)