I finally made it to 85!
After I posted last, I was in bed and asleep within 20 minutes. I woke up 12 hours later, when my wonderful girlfriend (she reads this blog) left for work. After getting caught up on my internet, I logged in and got back to it. 4 1/2 hours later I hit 85. I must say Twilight highlands has much better xp gains from quests than any other level. Thats a good thing too because you have so much more xp to get.
All in all it took me 18ish hours to get to 85, our guild fastest was Xzlrate at 13 hours and the first person on the server to get it was about 11 hours.
I spent the next few hours running an instance to get my gear ilvl up high enough for the game to let me do heroics, buying and enchanting/gemming/reforging gear, doing a few dailies, and finally getting tabbards for rep.
My guild wants to run our first raid on Sunday so I still have work ahead of me in terms of getting rep up and getting gear to be ready. I also want to do a bunch of archeology cause there are some great things from there. I am seriously thinking of changing professions on my main, but I need to figure out what professions I want on which toon first.
My usual Wednesday night post is supposed to be about making gold, but right now the markets are so in flux, its hard to say what will make you a profit. I do know that if you have the gold, its more than likely you will rake in the profit by power-leveling your profession and selling the items. Gathering professions are gouging incredibly right now with the cheapest Obsidium bars going for over 100g each. Herbs are cheaper, but still selling each at the price of what I expect a stack to be.
My best advice for making gold right now is to sell everything you can now and in a week or two when prices even out, restock.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Cata goes LIVE!
It is 11 minutes to 12 (pacific time) and I have gotten and installed my collectors edition of Cataclysm!
I am now logged in at the flight trainer and the whole server is here. Here is a little tip if you are there and horde.
/tar maztha and bind a key to your "interact with target" button in key bindings. Use this to be able to buy your flight training when there are a million people standing on the npc.
Update: 12:11 and I'm still trying to log in. blarg.
Update: 12:12 just restarted the client and got in. OMW to hyjal.
Update: 12:18 Amazing cutscene from the flight to hyjal
Update: 12:50 and the lag in hyjal is incredible. also pvp but I'm getting stuff done. I hear vashj'ir is just as bad
Update: 2:42 did 2 runs of Black Rock Caverns. got a few boe and shards and got to lvl 81. back to hyjal to quest
Update: 5:10 Ding 82 in 2 hours 28 minutes. off to deepholm. There are 8 level 83s already on the horde side and about 100 82s
Update: 9:00 level 83 in 3 hours and 50 mins. Running through deepholme and the instance there, stonecore. All the gathering professions have had their server first and so has cooking, fishing, enchanting, and alchemy that I have seen. No server first 85s yet but people are very close. 84 1/2 ish for about 6 peopole. time to go to ulduam.
Update: 2:00 and I finally ding 84. It took 4 hours and 54 minutes with a lunch break in there somewhere for about half an hour. The xp needed from 83 to 84 is 5.2 million xp. the xp from 84 to 85 is 9.1 million. OMG at this rate I need to spend another 8 hours questing for that last level. Most of this last level was questing in uldum. Its a great zone very ancient egypt-y. I did one instance of the vortex pinacle to do the quests and get xp. Now I am off to Twilight highlands.
Update: 2:55 after hearthing to org, setting up my breadcrumb quests for twilight highlands, and training skills I decided to take a small break to recharge. Starting fresh at barely 84 an hour later I'm ready to go.
Also of note, Xzlrate our premier dps shaman just got server first shaman at just about 13 hours in. Grats to him :)
And while we are at it I want to shout out to all the hard core of our guild who are still up and running trying to level. Keep in mind that its now like 10 am their time (austrailia) and they started at 7 pm last night.
the hard core players are:
Verity
Flyingmoo
Mikasu (My fellow American)
Zarco
Brynflux
Kaoshin
Percadu
Freeforme
Hustar
Shadowaves
Krellhim
Bawarr
Drmorton, and
Runbeck
Update: 4:20 I have hit the wall. for the last hour and a bit I have been trying to focus and keep going, but my lack of sleep has gotten to me. I have now been up for 35 hours with only about 3 hours of nap in there somewhere.
I only made it 16% past 84, but I will be logging on when I get up and finishing off that last 84% of level 84.
I hope this expansion has started out as good for you as it has for me.
I am now logged in at the flight trainer and the whole server is here. Here is a little tip if you are there and horde.
/tar maztha and bind a key to your "interact with target" button in key bindings. Use this to be able to buy your flight training when there are a million people standing on the npc.
Update: 12:11 and I'm still trying to log in. blarg.
Update: 12:12 just restarted the client and got in. OMW to hyjal.
Update: 12:18 Amazing cutscene from the flight to hyjal
Update: 12:50 and the lag in hyjal is incredible. also pvp but I'm getting stuff done. I hear vashj'ir is just as bad
Update: 2:42 did 2 runs of Black Rock Caverns. got a few boe and shards and got to lvl 81. back to hyjal to quest
Update: 5:10 Ding 82 in 2 hours 28 minutes. off to deepholm. There are 8 level 83s already on the horde side and about 100 82s
Update: 9:00 level 83 in 3 hours and 50 mins. Running through deepholme and the instance there, stonecore. All the gathering professions have had their server first and so has cooking, fishing, enchanting, and alchemy that I have seen. No server first 85s yet but people are very close. 84 1/2 ish for about 6 peopole. time to go to ulduam.
Update: 2:00 and I finally ding 84. It took 4 hours and 54 minutes with a lunch break in there somewhere for about half an hour. The xp needed from 83 to 84 is 5.2 million xp. the xp from 84 to 85 is 9.1 million. OMG at this rate I need to spend another 8 hours questing for that last level. Most of this last level was questing in uldum. Its a great zone very ancient egypt-y. I did one instance of the vortex pinacle to do the quests and get xp. Now I am off to Twilight highlands.
Update: 2:55 after hearthing to org, setting up my breadcrumb quests for twilight highlands, and training skills I decided to take a small break to recharge. Starting fresh at barely 84 an hour later I'm ready to go.
Also of note, Xzlrate our premier dps shaman just got server first shaman at just about 13 hours in. Grats to him :)
And while we are at it I want to shout out to all the hard core of our guild who are still up and running trying to level. Keep in mind that its now like 10 am their time (austrailia) and they started at 7 pm last night.
the hard core players are:
Verity
Flyingmoo
Mikasu (My fellow American)
Zarco
Brynflux
Kaoshin
Percadu
Freeforme
Hustar
Shadowaves
Krellhim
Bawarr
Drmorton, and
Runbeck
Update: 4:20 I have hit the wall. for the last hour and a bit I have been trying to focus and keep going, but my lack of sleep has gotten to me. I have now been up for 35 hours with only about 3 hours of nap in there somewhere.
I only made it 16% past 84, but I will be logging on when I get up and finishing off that last 84% of level 84.
I hope this expansion has started out as good for you as it has for me.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
To goblin or to level up, that is the question
EDIT: Welcome to all the people coming from JMTC. The post you are looking for is the next one down. Enjoy the rest of the blog. :)
With less than 2 days left, most people's plan for the first day of Cata is set. Many people will be trying for server first 85s. Some will be camping the AH taking advantage of those early mistakes by the leveling crew. Most WoW'ers will be sleeping, but those people don't know what they are missing.
I have seen some great tips on the gold making blogs on how to take advantage of the early days of the expansion.
These include:
Forgoing leveling and camping the AH
Hitting the Dark Moon Fair and getting low level greens and blues for new goblins and worgen
Gathering herbs, ore and skins for those on the hunt for server first professions
Leveling quickly to get those recipes that will make gear for server first raiders
and selling daily quest materials and rewards
I for one plan on leveling to 85 quickly and then maxing out my blacksmithing and engineering for my own raiding gear and for sales. Even with the outrageous prices on ores and crafting materials I see profits coming for those of us who can get in the market early.
WowInsider.com has a great write up on whats new with professions.
A few notable things I see to keep an eye out for:
There is a lot of recipes only found on a vendor in twilight highlands that is locked behind phased content that you have to be 84 to access.
Inscription and JC not only have their glyphs and gems, but they have blue crafted gear added in the forms of rings and relics. Also, Cut green gems vendor for 9g. Prospecting and vendoring alone will set a minimum vendor value on a stack of ore, depending on the prospecting average yield. For example: If a stack of ore on average gives us six green gems, these gems can be cut and vendored for 9g each, which means you will only ever find ore for less than 54g if a jewelcrafter hasn't logged in since it was posted.
With chaos orbs being bop, the sheer mountain of ore needed for BS, Engineering, and JC, expect prices on crafted goods to be higher than in wrath.
Leatherworking and Tailoring will be cheaper to craft so it they will be better for feeding enchanting for materials.
Alchemy has all their old items like flasks, potions, and transmutes updated and integrated more into the other professions. New things like potion of treasure finding and transmute: truegold will give this profession a little boost.
The way I see it there is 2 strategies to using your crafting professions for making gold: High volume of sales with a low profit margin, or low volume of sales with high profit margin. The way blizzard has set up base crafting materials this expansion really exaggerates this.
High volume/low margin: Inscription, JC, Alchemy, Enchanting, Tailoring*, Cooking, Fishing, and any Gathering profession.
Low volume/High margin: Blacksmithing, Engineering, Leatherworking*
*Tailoring and Leatherworking could be put in either category because they each are about a 60/40 split. I just put each one in their respective 60% category.
Hope this helps, and check back on the 7th for my live update post of my experiences of leveling on live.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Build your snatch list now
In patch 4.0.3a most of the files for cata was patched into the live game. Due to this fact you can use links to items that are not available yet. In most cases having those links are pointless, but as I found out earlier today, you can populate your snatch list to be ready for Cata on minute one of the expansion.
Here's how you do it. First log on and go to the auction house. Go to the search tab and click on the snatch heading.
Next go to wowhead or the mmo-champion item database.
Search for your item and when you find it click on the "link ingame" button. Copy that link (right click/copy or press ctrl C on the keyboard). Next go back ingame and open the text pane like you are going to talk to someone and paste (right click paste or crtl V) in the chat window.
Hit enter and you should now see the item linked in your chat pane.
Finally you click on that link and it will bring a popup on your screen and it will populate the snatch window with the item. Put in the max price that you are willing to pay for the item and hit the "add item" button.
You will have to manually go through and add every item you want to keep an eye on for snatching, but a little work now keeps you from missing out on deals in the first few days of Cata.
Here's how you do it. First log on and go to the auction house. Go to the search tab and click on the snatch heading.
Next go to wowhead or the mmo-champion item database.
Search for your item and when you find it click on the "link ingame" button. Copy that link (right click/copy or press ctrl C on the keyboard). Next go back ingame and open the text pane like you are going to talk to someone and paste (right click paste or crtl V) in the chat window.
Hit enter and you should now see the item linked in your chat pane.
Finally you click on that link and it will bring a popup on your screen and it will populate the snatch window with the item. Put in the max price that you are willing to pay for the item and hit the "add item" button.
You will have to manually go through and add every item you want to keep an eye on for snatching, but a little work now keeps you from missing out on deals in the first few days of Cata.
Monday, November 29, 2010
One more week
Exactly one week from this moment I will be standing in line outside a game stop waiting to pick up my collectors edition of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
I have been on a big break from the game for a few weeks now. My guild stopped raiding and lately the wi-fi from work has been utter crap. I just logged on for the first time since 4.0.3a hit and emptied the mail on all my toons, deleted and sold most of the stuff in my bank and bags that I wont need, and set up all my toons with new hearths and AH access.
I will be logging on at least once next week on all my toons because tomorrow marks the 6 year anniversary of wow and when you log on during this time you get a feat of strength.
The other big thing I did tonight with WoW was to try out a new AH addon that is in its alpha stages right now. Trade Skill Master is the collaboration of a few addon makers who got sick of having to use bits and pieces of 6 different addons to do all their crafting and AH needs. They took bits and pieces from all the big ones: Auctioneer, QA3, etc, and pulled them into one addon that covers crafting, AH and collaboration between different alts. I didn't get super deep into it tonight, however I can see that for any serious crafter for profit this will be the main addon we use. The interface is smooth, very customizable, and once you get it set up it will be pretty easy to use.
Trade Skill Master will scan the AH, check for items that are above an approved profit margin that you can craft, then populate a queue for you to make them. It will also tell you if you have mats on an alt or in the bank, and if you want, it will only populate the queue from those mats.
It also has a nice posting interface with the back end configuration just like you get in QA3 or Zeroauctions.
It has a few clunky things that make it not super easy to navigate, but it is in alpha and clearly its aimed at high end crafting professionals. If you consider yourself a goblin this will be your go to addon in cata.
Since it is in closed alpha the authors don't have it open to the public. To get access to it you have to email a request to brendon.does.music@gmail.com and request an invite. He is looking for testers who will help get it tweaked for release.
Once I have gone more in depth with the addon and set it up fully I will write up a solid review and a how to on the usage of this great tool.
That's it for the update. This next week should be just that last bit of housekeeping before the expansion.
I have been on a big break from the game for a few weeks now. My guild stopped raiding and lately the wi-fi from work has been utter crap. I just logged on for the first time since 4.0.3a hit and emptied the mail on all my toons, deleted and sold most of the stuff in my bank and bags that I wont need, and set up all my toons with new hearths and AH access.
I will be logging on at least once next week on all my toons because tomorrow marks the 6 year anniversary of wow and when you log on during this time you get a feat of strength.
The other big thing I did tonight with WoW was to try out a new AH addon that is in its alpha stages right now. Trade Skill Master is the collaboration of a few addon makers who got sick of having to use bits and pieces of 6 different addons to do all their crafting and AH needs. They took bits and pieces from all the big ones: Auctioneer, QA3, etc, and pulled them into one addon that covers crafting, AH and collaboration between different alts. I didn't get super deep into it tonight, however I can see that for any serious crafter for profit this will be the main addon we use. The interface is smooth, very customizable, and once you get it set up it will be pretty easy to use.
Trade Skill Master will scan the AH, check for items that are above an approved profit margin that you can craft, then populate a queue for you to make them. It will also tell you if you have mats on an alt or in the bank, and if you want, it will only populate the queue from those mats.
It also has a nice posting interface with the back end configuration just like you get in QA3 or Zeroauctions.
It has a few clunky things that make it not super easy to navigate, but it is in alpha and clearly its aimed at high end crafting professionals. If you consider yourself a goblin this will be your go to addon in cata.
Since it is in closed alpha the authors don't have it open to the public. To get access to it you have to email a request to brendon.does.music@gmail.com and request an invite. He is looking for testers who will help get it tweaked for release.
Once I have gone more in depth with the addon and set it up fully I will write up a solid review and a how to on the usage of this great tool.
That's it for the update. This next week should be just that last bit of housekeeping before the expansion.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Direction of the blog in Cata
With less than 2 weeks until Cata is released I thought I would put down my game plan for posting on this blog.
When I started this blog I thought it would be more of a gold making blog with posts about my experiences in a top end raiding guild sprinkled in. I have found that I enjoy posting about my experiences much more than just giving out tips and tricks that can make you gold. I still very much enjoy the gold making side of the game and plan on sharing with you things I find that will help you compete. However, I feel that posts on how to increase your gold are pretty dry and, while they can be great reference posts, they can be pretty boring to read.
Going forward I think I will be posting mostly about my thoughts on the gameplay that come from leveling and raiding, maybe even pvp now that they have rated battlegrounds. I will also sprinkle in post of gold tips as I think of them, or see them on other sites. I noticed that I tend to look at the WoW economy in terms of trends that I can take advantage of. Things like glyphmass and taking advantage of the holiday events. I plan to post on those that I see and think will influence the general populace to spend (or hoard) their gold. Finally I want to still post at least every Monday, but with better content than just an update post. I feel those are more filler and just a reason to post instead of giving you actual quality content. With the end of the expansion I just felt that I could take a break from blogging and the game or keep these weekly posts and just take a break from the game.
In the first week of cata I have a full week and a half off from work and the plan is to level to 85 in the first 15-25 hours then get some sleep then spend the week running instances, leveling professions and taking advantage of everything I can while the masses are running around crazy. I would like to do a twitter like update series on my leveling experience that first day if my sanity can take it.
It should be fun, hope to see ya here, and put in a comment if there is anything you would like to see me post about.
When I started this blog I thought it would be more of a gold making blog with posts about my experiences in a top end raiding guild sprinkled in. I have found that I enjoy posting about my experiences much more than just giving out tips and tricks that can make you gold. I still very much enjoy the gold making side of the game and plan on sharing with you things I find that will help you compete. However, I feel that posts on how to increase your gold are pretty dry and, while they can be great reference posts, they can be pretty boring to read.
Going forward I think I will be posting mostly about my thoughts on the gameplay that come from leveling and raiding, maybe even pvp now that they have rated battlegrounds. I will also sprinkle in post of gold tips as I think of them, or see them on other sites. I noticed that I tend to look at the WoW economy in terms of trends that I can take advantage of. Things like glyphmass and taking advantage of the holiday events. I plan to post on those that I see and think will influence the general populace to spend (or hoard) their gold. Finally I want to still post at least every Monday, but with better content than just an update post. I feel those are more filler and just a reason to post instead of giving you actual quality content. With the end of the expansion I just felt that I could take a break from blogging and the game or keep these weekly posts and just take a break from the game.
In the first week of cata I have a full week and a half off from work and the plan is to level to 85 in the first 15-25 hours then get some sleep then spend the week running instances, leveling professions and taking advantage of everything I can while the masses are running around crazy. I would like to do a twitter like update series on my leveling experience that first day if my sanity can take it.
It should be fun, hope to see ya here, and put in a comment if there is anything you would like to see me post about.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Last prep before Cata.
4.0.3a is dropping this maintenance and with it comes the shattering. Zones change, new quests, Dala and Shatt will be ghost towns, new race/class combos, and more. The majority of what was promised in Cata is added except for some major items like new classes, new zones, and higher level professions.
One of the things I am saddest about is not getting my tiger mount from ZG. I have always loved the tiger mounts the best. I still have my blizzcon 08 bear that is my favorite land mount and I have my headless horseman's mount that I think looks the best under my DK.
As for looking forward, I think it would be a very smart idea to stockpile the high end herbs/ore/skins that professions use in the 425 to 450 range. Get them now while people are still in the areas farming and dump them a week into Cata when people aren't there. At about a week in most people who want to power through the leveling process will then look to powering up their professions. They will be able to jump through about 20 points from northrend items. I give it about 2 weeks of good sales before the prices drop then after about 2 months of everyone dumping their stock the scarcity will drive those prices up again.
If you don't want to stockpile, another good money maker in early Cata will be to have some type of gatherer. Ore/herbs/skins will be at a premium for the first few months until there are the majority of people at max level.
My personal plan is not to gather, but to purchase those mats at an inflated price so that I can make the best learned gear from my professions and sell them to the people, like myself who will be looking to push server firsts (or 5ths he he).
Since I had been moving I didn't get a chance to get to Org and set my hearth. Kinda sucks, but I got more important things going on at the moment.
Its been nice having a break these last couple of months and I will enjoy my next two weeks away from the game. With this I will be ready to go on the 7th when I get my collectors edition of the game at midnight. Luckily for me my time zone is one hour ahead of California so I have time to stand in line, get my game, and get home to change over to the official release by 1 am when it goes live for me.
One of the things I am saddest about is not getting my tiger mount from ZG. I have always loved the tiger mounts the best. I still have my blizzcon 08 bear that is my favorite land mount and I have my headless horseman's mount that I think looks the best under my DK.
As for looking forward, I think it would be a very smart idea to stockpile the high end herbs/ore/skins that professions use in the 425 to 450 range. Get them now while people are still in the areas farming and dump them a week into Cata when people aren't there. At about a week in most people who want to power through the leveling process will then look to powering up their professions. They will be able to jump through about 20 points from northrend items. I give it about 2 weeks of good sales before the prices drop then after about 2 months of everyone dumping their stock the scarcity will drive those prices up again.
If you don't want to stockpile, another good money maker in early Cata will be to have some type of gatherer. Ore/herbs/skins will be at a premium for the first few months until there are the majority of people at max level.
My personal plan is not to gather, but to purchase those mats at an inflated price so that I can make the best learned gear from my professions and sell them to the people, like myself who will be looking to push server firsts (or 5ths he he).
Since I had been moving I didn't get a chance to get to Org and set my hearth. Kinda sucks, but I got more important things going on at the moment.
Its been nice having a break these last couple of months and I will enjoy my next two weeks away from the game. With this I will be ready to go on the 7th when I get my collectors edition of the game at midnight. Luckily for me my time zone is one hour ahead of California so I have time to stand in line, get my game, and get home to change over to the official release by 1 am when it goes live for me.
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