This post is brought to you by the Letter S. I am and have been sick. Sorry.
This post is also brought to you by patch 4.1
Normally I would at least draft out a post in advance, but with patch 4.1 I really wasn't sure what to talk about next. I'm surely going to check out ZA and ZG with my rogue, but after that I don't know. I may go right back to my little (currently level 71) death knight or I might not.
Anyway, back to my tea. Hopefully I'll feel better and have more to say soon.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Noblegarden 2011
I just can't get into this holiday. Actually I never really get into any of the holidays. I'm too lazy to try for the achievements, so once I do a little bit of stuff I run out of steam. Since Noblegarden is going on right now that's the one on my mind.
I started off with my rogue, cause I didn't really know what to expect with the whole egg thing. Despite playing WoW for years, I've never done this holiday before. I think I tend to have a lull in playing around this time every year, so I've always managed to miss it.
I ran around grabbing eggs and cracking them open. I got a bunch of flower dresses, twigs, flowers, and the bunny pet. A couple of eggs later I realized I didn't know why I was still looking for eggs, so I stopped. Today I hopped on with my mage because at least she needed polymorph bunny.
Well now that she learned the spell, and found the pet in an egg... I'm at a loss. I don't know if I should crack eggs to get all my characters the pet or not. I mean I love the little vanity pets, but I never remember to summon them, so does it really matter that I have them? I know I can get an extra pet for having a lot of pets, but the same question applies in which if I never summon them does it matter whether I have them or not?
I think maybe I'm done with this holiday, at least for now. I'd rather spend time trying to level my death knight. The real life holiday that caused my in-laws to descend upon my home has cut into my already limited play time. I reserve the right to change my mind, but I doubt I will. I have entirely too many characters to worry about holiday achievements.
What about you? Do you try and complete each holiday as it comes around? Are there quests involved that you do even though you no longer need to, just because you like them? If you have more than one character that you regularly play, do you try to get them all through the holiday or is that reserved for your main?
I started off with my rogue, cause I didn't really know what to expect with the whole egg thing. Despite playing WoW for years, I've never done this holiday before. I think I tend to have a lull in playing around this time every year, so I've always managed to miss it.
I ran around grabbing eggs and cracking them open. I got a bunch of flower dresses, twigs, flowers, and the bunny pet. A couple of eggs later I realized I didn't know why I was still looking for eggs, so I stopped. Today I hopped on with my mage because at least she needed polymorph bunny.
Well now that she learned the spell, and found the pet in an egg... I'm at a loss. I don't know if I should crack eggs to get all my characters the pet or not. I mean I love the little vanity pets, but I never remember to summon them, so does it really matter that I have them? I know I can get an extra pet for having a lot of pets, but the same question applies in which if I never summon them does it matter whether I have them or not?
I think maybe I'm done with this holiday, at least for now. I'd rather spend time trying to level my death knight. The real life holiday that caused my in-laws to descend upon my home has cut into my already limited play time. I reserve the right to change my mind, but I doubt I will. I have entirely too many characters to worry about holiday achievements.
What about you? Do you try and complete each holiday as it comes around? Are there quests involved that you do even though you no longer need to, just because you like them? If you have more than one character that you regularly play, do you try to get them all through the holiday or is that reserved for your main?
Shamelessly Stolen
Sometimes you see a topic being discussed and just want to piggy back onto it and in this case the Gold Capped article on Thursday goes nicely with my auction house post from Friday. Whether you are a new player, new to a faction, or just not well off there are tips there that you can make use of. While reading comments can be a scary proposition I suggest perusing the comments on this one, because you will find additional tips.
The main take away from the article is that if you aren't starting with a good amount of gold then you should probably start off picking up a gathering profession. I'm going to make my own recommendations based on my recent experience leveling new characters up on the horde side.
I was able to support leveling my own profession, buying my spells and glyphs as I leveled without any money other than what I looted from mobs, and gleaned from the auction house. My first professions were tailoring and enchanting. As I leveled my warlock I would disenchant greens I picked up if they weren't upgrades, and disenchanted my gear as I outgrew it. For the most part I didn't try to sell any early enchants because I couldn't afford the investment into parchments for something that might not sell. If I no longer needed a level of enchanting mat (or cloth) I would sell those on the auction house. I refused to return to my pack rat ways of stashing them in my bank for a just in case that never comes.
You will have to check the prices on your realm, but a good way to pick up a few extra silver might be to deal in strange dust. Especially when your disenchants are still netting you strange dust and you are regularly visiting your enchanting trainer you might find that you can turn a tidy profit by buying strange dust off the supply vendor and reselling it on the AH. My goblin was able to buy them for 6s each (usually 4 at a time) and they would sell for 90s on the AH. While that isn't mega gold, it is a handy amount of money at lower levels, and pretty much risk free. I don't find it to be worth my while any longer, but I did do it for a long time.
Once your character is approaching level 85 you shouldn't have a hard time getting money. Quests offer good money and any gear you vendor is added cash icing on that cake. But for really good profit margins I'd have to agree with Gold Capped that gathering and selling the materials people need for skilling up their own skills is a good way to go. Some of these older materials sell for as much or more than Cataclysm level mats, and there can be less competition for them.
As I level my death knight I've been mining and leveling jewelcrafting. I intend to make her an engineer too, so I've been saving materials to level that, which means I've had less leftovers than if I were going to continue being a miner into the forever. Once my jewelcrafting is up to 525 and I have the materials saved to get engineering to 525 I will make the switch. If I made a planning mistake, or things go poorly I may end up having to buy some materials, but between the money I've already made and the flow of money by level 85 I'm not concerned. I certainly won't go into debt trying to level it up the way I might if I didn't have these piles of bars and rocks filling up my bank.
Mining was extremely profitable in that it took hardly any time to gather piles and piles of ore, and they sold well on the auction house (except for iron) until I went to Outlands. I have seen a lot fewer nodes, I think just because the zones are so large, and I've seen more people in the zone with me. I'll let you know if anything changes once I make it to Northrend.
The main take away from the article is that if you aren't starting with a good amount of gold then you should probably start off picking up a gathering profession. I'm going to make my own recommendations based on my recent experience leveling new characters up on the horde side.
I was able to support leveling my own profession, buying my spells and glyphs as I leveled without any money other than what I looted from mobs, and gleaned from the auction house. My first professions were tailoring and enchanting. As I leveled my warlock I would disenchant greens I picked up if they weren't upgrades, and disenchanted my gear as I outgrew it. For the most part I didn't try to sell any early enchants because I couldn't afford the investment into parchments for something that might not sell. If I no longer needed a level of enchanting mat (or cloth) I would sell those on the auction house. I refused to return to my pack rat ways of stashing them in my bank for a just in case that never comes.
You will have to check the prices on your realm, but a good way to pick up a few extra silver might be to deal in strange dust. Especially when your disenchants are still netting you strange dust and you are regularly visiting your enchanting trainer you might find that you can turn a tidy profit by buying strange dust off the supply vendor and reselling it on the AH. My goblin was able to buy them for 6s each (usually 4 at a time) and they would sell for 90s on the AH. While that isn't mega gold, it is a handy amount of money at lower levels, and pretty much risk free. I don't find it to be worth my while any longer, but I did do it for a long time.
Once your character is approaching level 85 you shouldn't have a hard time getting money. Quests offer good money and any gear you vendor is added cash icing on that cake. But for really good profit margins I'd have to agree with Gold Capped that gathering and selling the materials people need for skilling up their own skills is a good way to go. Some of these older materials sell for as much or more than Cataclysm level mats, and there can be less competition for them.
As I level my death knight I've been mining and leveling jewelcrafting. I intend to make her an engineer too, so I've been saving materials to level that, which means I've had less leftovers than if I were going to continue being a miner into the forever. Once my jewelcrafting is up to 525 and I have the materials saved to get engineering to 525 I will make the switch. If I made a planning mistake, or things go poorly I may end up having to buy some materials, but between the money I've already made and the flow of money by level 85 I'm not concerned. I certainly won't go into debt trying to level it up the way I might if I didn't have these piles of bars and rocks filling up my bank.
Mining was extremely profitable in that it took hardly any time to gather piles and piles of ore, and they sold well on the auction house (except for iron) until I went to Outlands. I have seen a lot fewer nodes, I think just because the zones are so large, and I've seen more people in the zone with me. I'll let you know if anything changes once I make it to Northrend.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Auction House Rules
I've got to be honest with you. I played WoW for many years without really ever using the auction house. I of course had to occasionally purchase materials there that I was incapable or unwilling to farm, but I rarely sold anything. It seemed like every time I tried nothing would move. I felt like I was just wasting my time trying to price my materials and loading each auction only to have all the stuff come right back at me in the mail. I'd frequently just vendor perfectly sellable items because I just didn't want to deal with the hassle.
I am a convert now. I've even given my husband free license to mail my banker toon anything that is not complete grey vendor trash and I will auction it for him rather than see potential profits disappear into a vendor's pocket. Yes I even auction common items, those pieces you collect that have white text for their name. There's some real money to be had at times when someone out there really wants those eggs you found while leveling. I've even managed to sell some common items that don't know they are vendor trash.
I'm not hardcore though. I will only list something if I'm going to get more for it (after the AH's 5% cut) than I would have if I vendored it. I also only list certain things once or twice before giving up and collecting vendor money. If it's a mat for a tradeskill I'll hang onto it for a week or two and then start trying again more times than not, because there's always someone new out there leveling their skill that wants those goods.
The turning point was when I was reading WoW Insider and I kept reading about different auction mods. There was a Gold Capped article about Auctionator that caught my eye. Initially what caught my eye was the way that it handles browsing other peoples auctions when there is something you need to buy. If you haven't read that article I linked you should, you will see what I mean. Then one day I decided to try the sell tab. I didn't change any of the default settings; I just through my item in the sell window, changed the auction length and posted it. Within a day I decided to liquidate all the various junk I'd been sitting on "in case I needed it". I made thousands of gold. I was amazed. My husband was amazed.
I didn't do anything special though. All I did was decide to stop being a pack rat and sell my stuff. The built in auction house has gotten better over the years, but Auctionator really makes life easy for the casual auction house player. I'll tell you about my experiences with Tradeskill Master some other time, but for now I'll say if you just want to dump some things on the AH quick, and you aren't going to do any real volume, you should stick with Auctioneer.
These days I've got it set up to a default auction length, and my bank alt opens directly to the sell tab. I make sure that I run a full scan at least every day or two (if I can log in) so that I can watch trends on certain items. To make this browsing easier I've set Shopping Lists. Some lists are for the current crafting materials that I need, while others are for older materials or even gear upgrades. This addon can really do a lot for you, but it is so unobtrusive that if you just want to buy and sell items you can just do that, and do it easier.
I will concede that I am a bit of an addon junky. I like sparkly new doodads, but I also don't like clutter and I don't like to bog down my system so I tend to install them for a bit then delete them when the shine has worn off. I have a feeling that like Deadly Boss Mods, Auctionator might be here to stay.
Despite the fact that I used the word rules in the title of this post, I actually don't have any rules for using the auction house. Sometimes I undercut by a tiny bit, other times I'll undercut a lot because I'm still making plenty of proft and I'd rather see my auctions get bought in 5 seconds. You can get all fancy and try to figure out what time of day might leave you with as little time to be undercut as possible, but I just list everything when I'm ready to log off for the night so I can wake up to a mailbox full of gold to spend. The only AH practice I have that might even approach being a rule is that I try not to list auctions on Monday night, because I hate losing multiple hours to server maintenance. I sometimes forget, but since most of my auctions are only 24 hours it really chaps my britches if I get up in the morning and realize that time in ticking away on auctions that no one can browse.
What auction tips or tricks are you willing to share? Is there an addon that you love to use in conjunction with your auction house dealings?
I am a convert now. I've even given my husband free license to mail my banker toon anything that is not complete grey vendor trash and I will auction it for him rather than see potential profits disappear into a vendor's pocket. Yes I even auction common items, those pieces you collect that have white text for their name. There's some real money to be had at times when someone out there really wants those eggs you found while leveling. I've even managed to sell some common items that don't know they are vendor trash.
I'm not hardcore though. I will only list something if I'm going to get more for it (after the AH's 5% cut) than I would have if I vendored it. I also only list certain things once or twice before giving up and collecting vendor money. If it's a mat for a tradeskill I'll hang onto it for a week or two and then start trying again more times than not, because there's always someone new out there leveling their skill that wants those goods.
The turning point was when I was reading WoW Insider and I kept reading about different auction mods. There was a Gold Capped article about Auctionator that caught my eye. Initially what caught my eye was the way that it handles browsing other peoples auctions when there is something you need to buy. If you haven't read that article I linked you should, you will see what I mean. Then one day I decided to try the sell tab. I didn't change any of the default settings; I just through my item in the sell window, changed the auction length and posted it. Within a day I decided to liquidate all the various junk I'd been sitting on "in case I needed it". I made thousands of gold. I was amazed. My husband was amazed.
I didn't do anything special though. All I did was decide to stop being a pack rat and sell my stuff. The built in auction house has gotten better over the years, but Auctionator really makes life easy for the casual auction house player. I'll tell you about my experiences with Tradeskill Master some other time, but for now I'll say if you just want to dump some things on the AH quick, and you aren't going to do any real volume, you should stick with Auctioneer.
These days I've got it set up to a default auction length, and my bank alt opens directly to the sell tab. I make sure that I run a full scan at least every day or two (if I can log in) so that I can watch trends on certain items. To make this browsing easier I've set Shopping Lists. Some lists are for the current crafting materials that I need, while others are for older materials or even gear upgrades. This addon can really do a lot for you, but it is so unobtrusive that if you just want to buy and sell items you can just do that, and do it easier.
I will concede that I am a bit of an addon junky. I like sparkly new doodads, but I also don't like clutter and I don't like to bog down my system so I tend to install them for a bit then delete them when the shine has worn off. I have a feeling that like Deadly Boss Mods, Auctionator might be here to stay.
Despite the fact that I used the word rules in the title of this post, I actually don't have any rules for using the auction house. Sometimes I undercut by a tiny bit, other times I'll undercut a lot because I'm still making plenty of proft and I'd rather see my auctions get bought in 5 seconds. You can get all fancy and try to figure out what time of day might leave you with as little time to be undercut as possible, but I just list everything when I'm ready to log off for the night so I can wake up to a mailbox full of gold to spend. The only AH practice I have that might even approach being a rule is that I try not to list auctions on Monday night, because I hate losing multiple hours to server maintenance. I sometimes forget, but since most of my auctions are only 24 hours it really chaps my britches if I get up in the morning and realize that time in ticking away on auctions that no one can browse.
What auction tips or tricks are you willing to share? Is there an addon that you love to use in conjunction with your auction house dealings?
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Temptation
There has been a lot of discussion about the changes to the LFD tool coming with patch 4.1, but one has been a bit more controversial than any others. That's right, I'm going to talk about Call to Arms today.
First, what is Call to Arms?
My initial reaction was negative. I couldn't put my finger on what bothered me about this change to the dungeon queue. I mean, I normally play DPS so I wouldn't be getting any sort of goody bag, but on the other hand I would possibly be able to get a LFD group together in under 45 minutes. If I want to play DPS and not just fly around picking flowers and digging in the dirt for fragments of some long lost treasure then I should be happy right?
I've read some great posts on the topic recently, and most of them seemed to have the same bad vibe I got from Call to Arms, they were just more eloquent. I'd link them, but I forgot to bookmark them and I'm having a bugger of a time trying to locate them now.
I know one of my concerns is that I'll end up with more half-wit jerks that are only queuing as tank because they get a goody bag. These will be people that don't even have a proper tank spec that are wearing DPS gear and expecting the rest of the group to "make it work". I've seen plenty of people doing this just to get into an insta-queue much less an insta-queue with perks. Worse yet they might queue as a tank and then try to make someone else do it for them.
Then there's Blizzard offering to pay you in ponies for tanking for a group of strangers. That part kind of sucks since it means you can't play with your friends and still take advantage. I mean, we can get a guild credit with only 3 people in the group being from the same guild, why can't we get tank credit if only 3 people in the group are strangers? I also don't like the fact that I have to choose between guild xp/rep and pretty ponies, but I suppose you can't have your pony and eat it too.
Which leads me to my whole reason for blogging on this topic. I've been bought. Yes, the Call to Arms is a large part of why I am currently leveling a Death Knight, and tanking with her. I was interested in trying out tanking again, but I was feeling gun shy with my warrior. I hadn't warrior tanked since Naxx, and was afraid of all the jerk pugs I've seen tearing me apart if tried to learn the job at 85. I'd toyed with the idea of leveling another warrior a little bit and tanking along the way, but then along comes Call to Arms. I believe we'll see patch 4.1 drop pretty soon, and if I'm going to take advantage of it I'll need to be level 85 and geared up for heroics. By the time the siren's call got to me I didn't have the time to level from 1 to 85, but I'm still a chicken on my warrior. (I usually luck into having the most wonderful sort of people in my pick up groups, but when they have been bad they have really been a kick in the balls kind of bad.)
Death Knights start off at level 55, that means I'm over half way to 85. It's also a class that I've never played before, so it feels a bit new. I think tanking with the Death Knight could give me the confidence to tank with my warrior. I would still need to learn my tanking abilities on her, but I'd have pulls and CC strategies down with my DK first. Also, I've always been a little jealous of my husband's death knight, it always seemed like a cool class to play.
So here I am, maybe 6 days before the patch, at a lowly level of 65. I've tanked a little bit and it's gone well. I'm trying to tank every few days so I don't start losing my nerve, but for the most part I'll be spending my time outside leveling. As a side note I'd like to mention Hellfire Ramparts. This is possibly the best training dungeon ever. If you want to try tanking, and haven't yet just go for it. This dungeon is incredibly short, there aren't too many patrols and packs aren't so big as to be scary for a newbie tank.
Have you thought about leveling a tanking class to see what's in this goody bag? Or do you have a tank you might dust off and put through it's paces again?
First, what is Call to Arms?
In patch 4.1 we'll be introducing Dungeon Finder: Call to Arms, a new system intended to lower queue times. Call to Arms will automatically detect which class role is currently the least represented in the queue, and offer them additional rewards for entering the Dungeon Finder queue and completing a random level-85 Heroic dungeon.Unless something changes a lot, then more times than not the Call to Arms is going to detect that the queue is short on tanks and possibly healers. Since Cata's launch I've always been standing around waiting on a tank though.
My initial reaction was negative. I couldn't put my finger on what bothered me about this change to the dungeon queue. I mean, I normally play DPS so I wouldn't be getting any sort of goody bag, but on the other hand I would possibly be able to get a LFD group together in under 45 minutes. If I want to play DPS and not just fly around picking flowers and digging in the dirt for fragments of some long lost treasure then I should be happy right?
I've read some great posts on the topic recently, and most of them seemed to have the same bad vibe I got from Call to Arms, they were just more eloquent. I'd link them, but I forgot to bookmark them and I'm having a bugger of a time trying to locate them now.
I know one of my concerns is that I'll end up with more half-wit jerks that are only queuing as tank because they get a goody bag. These will be people that don't even have a proper tank spec that are wearing DPS gear and expecting the rest of the group to "make it work". I've seen plenty of people doing this just to get into an insta-queue much less an insta-queue with perks. Worse yet they might queue as a tank and then try to make someone else do it for them.
Then there's Blizzard offering to pay you in ponies for tanking for a group of strangers. That part kind of sucks since it means you can't play with your friends and still take advantage. I mean, we can get a guild credit with only 3 people in the group being from the same guild, why can't we get tank credit if only 3 people in the group are strangers? I also don't like the fact that I have to choose between guild xp/rep and pretty ponies, but I suppose you can't have your pony and eat it too.
Which leads me to my whole reason for blogging on this topic. I've been bought. Yes, the Call to Arms is a large part of why I am currently leveling a Death Knight, and tanking with her. I was interested in trying out tanking again, but I was feeling gun shy with my warrior. I hadn't warrior tanked since Naxx, and was afraid of all the jerk pugs I've seen tearing me apart if tried to learn the job at 85. I'd toyed with the idea of leveling another warrior a little bit and tanking along the way, but then along comes Call to Arms. I believe we'll see patch 4.1 drop pretty soon, and if I'm going to take advantage of it I'll need to be level 85 and geared up for heroics. By the time the siren's call got to me I didn't have the time to level from 1 to 85, but I'm still a chicken on my warrior. (I usually luck into having the most wonderful sort of people in my pick up groups, but when they have been bad they have really been a kick in the balls kind of bad.)
Death Knights start off at level 55, that means I'm over half way to 85. It's also a class that I've never played before, so it feels a bit new. I think tanking with the Death Knight could give me the confidence to tank with my warrior. I would still need to learn my tanking abilities on her, but I'd have pulls and CC strategies down with my DK first. Also, I've always been a little jealous of my husband's death knight, it always seemed like a cool class to play.
So here I am, maybe 6 days before the patch, at a lowly level of 65. I've tanked a little bit and it's gone well. I'm trying to tank every few days so I don't start losing my nerve, but for the most part I'll be spending my time outside leveling. As a side note I'd like to mention Hellfire Ramparts. This is possibly the best training dungeon ever. If you want to try tanking, and haven't yet just go for it. This dungeon is incredibly short, there aren't too many patrols and packs aren't so big as to be scary for a newbie tank.
Have you thought about leveling a tanking class to see what's in this goody bag? Or do you have a tank you might dust off and put through it's paces again?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Altoholics Anonymous
It's not very anonymous to announce it here on a public blog is it? But I like the turn of phrase so I'm going to let it stand. I'm also too busy enjoying the nice weather and sunshine today to be overly concerned about it. Not to mention I just caught my son trying to drink the bubble solution so my attention is a little divided at the moment.
There are almost as many ways to play World of Warcraft as the number of players. How's that for an exaggeration? Sheer number wise I think it's inaccurate, but there are very many different styles of play. For instance my husband has leveled a few alts, though only has 2 characters that are level 85. He primarily plays one single character. It was the first character he ever made, and I guess he picked well because he has been faithful. I on the other hand have always tried to level multiple alts, even if there is one that is my focus in the end game I have several others at various levels.
Isuppose we should briefly discuss the definition of Alt. In World of Warcraft you can currently create 10 characters on a single server. Most people have one of those slots filled by a character that they play more than the others. Whether this is your favorite or your highest level, this character is usually referred to as being a Main; It being the character that you mainly play. All other characters, by this definition are alternatives to the main, and are commonly referred to as Alts.
I love reading about the different classes and trying to learn how to play most of them. There are a couple that I haven't managed to fall in love with, but leveling is so easy now that it's almost hard for me not to keep leveling new alts. Anyone who played back in Vanilla (before any of the expansions had been released) knows that leveling has never been faster, or less painless.
I have no idea at the moment which character should be considered my main. All 10 character slots are filled. One is a character that I created with my nephew that I only play with him. One is a sad little character who's only lot in life is to be a bank alt until the day she is deleted. There are a few that have leveled a bit and then stalled months ago. Then there are my 3 level 85 characters (alliance), one of which is geared up to enter raid content, and a level 84 (horde) that could be level 85 in one night if I tried. Meanwhile I've been playing a death knight any time that I have a little time to log on that has only made it to level 62 (also horde).
Part of my problem is that the guild I was in alliance side kind of died towards the end of the Wrath cycle, and although there was a brief rally with the onset of Cataclysm the core of the guild seems to have burnt themselves out and left a ragtag group of casual players without much of a guild logging on. Since I wasn't willing to raid 4 nights a week I never got to go much, and while the raiders were off raiding the guild was so quiet and lonely I made a little goblin warlock just to goof around and enjoy some new-old content. I managed to find a really friendly guild that let me join and now I find myself playing my horde characters more than my alliance ones.
My alliance rogue was my first character. My alliance warrior was my first character to make it to the end game in Vanilla, and I mostly played that character in BC. In Wrath I decided to level my mage, and that was my main. I loved burning it up with fire, but never played consistently enough to get to raid level. As I read about Cataclysm content I became intrigued with the changes that had already been made to rogues, as well as what was to come. I leveled my rogue up quickly from 50 to 80 and got into some Wrath heroics before Cata was released.
Up until my alliance guild faded I would have considered the rogue my main. I feel a bit rudderless at the moment. I suppose if it were free I would probably move my rogue to horde side and try to raid with it as my main. I do like my rogue a lot, but I find it depressing to log on and be the only one in the guild online. One of the first questions I get when talking to other WoW players is, "What's your main?" What do you say if you don't have one?
There are almost as many ways to play World of Warcraft as the number of players. How's that for an exaggeration? Sheer number wise I think it's inaccurate, but there are very many different styles of play. For instance my husband has leveled a few alts, though only has 2 characters that are level 85. He primarily plays one single character. It was the first character he ever made, and I guess he picked well because he has been faithful. I on the other hand have always tried to level multiple alts, even if there is one that is my focus in the end game I have several others at various levels.
Isuppose we should briefly discuss the definition of Alt. In World of Warcraft you can currently create 10 characters on a single server. Most people have one of those slots filled by a character that they play more than the others. Whether this is your favorite or your highest level, this character is usually referred to as being a Main; It being the character that you mainly play. All other characters, by this definition are alternatives to the main, and are commonly referred to as Alts.
I love reading about the different classes and trying to learn how to play most of them. There are a couple that I haven't managed to fall in love with, but leveling is so easy now that it's almost hard for me not to keep leveling new alts. Anyone who played back in Vanilla (before any of the expansions had been released) knows that leveling has never been faster, or less painless.
I have no idea at the moment which character should be considered my main. All 10 character slots are filled. One is a character that I created with my nephew that I only play with him. One is a sad little character who's only lot in life is to be a bank alt until the day she is deleted. There are a few that have leveled a bit and then stalled months ago. Then there are my 3 level 85 characters (alliance), one of which is geared up to enter raid content, and a level 84 (horde) that could be level 85 in one night if I tried. Meanwhile I've been playing a death knight any time that I have a little time to log on that has only made it to level 62 (also horde).
Part of my problem is that the guild I was in alliance side kind of died towards the end of the Wrath cycle, and although there was a brief rally with the onset of Cataclysm the core of the guild seems to have burnt themselves out and left a ragtag group of casual players without much of a guild logging on. Since I wasn't willing to raid 4 nights a week I never got to go much, and while the raiders were off raiding the guild was so quiet and lonely I made a little goblin warlock just to goof around and enjoy some new-old content. I managed to find a really friendly guild that let me join and now I find myself playing my horde characters more than my alliance ones.
My alliance rogue was my first character. My alliance warrior was my first character to make it to the end game in Vanilla, and I mostly played that character in BC. In Wrath I decided to level my mage, and that was my main. I loved burning it up with fire, but never played consistently enough to get to raid level. As I read about Cataclysm content I became intrigued with the changes that had already been made to rogues, as well as what was to come. I leveled my rogue up quickly from 50 to 80 and got into some Wrath heroics before Cata was released.
Up until my alliance guild faded I would have considered the rogue my main. I feel a bit rudderless at the moment. I suppose if it were free I would probably move my rogue to horde side and try to raid with it as my main. I do like my rogue a lot, but I find it depressing to log on and be the only one in the guild online. One of the first questions I get when talking to other WoW players is, "What's your main?" What do you say if you don't have one?
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Hello
Recently there have been times when I've been tempted to blog something about my World of Warcraft experiences, but I didn't really have any place to do so. Twitter has been a good stop gap but doesn't lend itself to longer thoughts, so here we are.
I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of expertise to lend to you. I suppose I will create a blog roll sometime to collect my sources for you. However, since I tend to flit from class to class I don't have many that I read regularly. I do think it's important if you are going to change classes back and forth in the end game that you do keep up to date with changes to the classes by reading from a couple of sources at least. Unless you are some sort of virtuoso you could probably use a little refresher if you haven't picked up a character in a while. When in doubt go kill a couple of mobs before jumping into a dungeon group, just to remind yourself where your keybindings are before subjecting anyone else to your possibly rusty play.
If you have any WoW related questions you can send them to thingwhatwows at gmail dot com.
Meanwhile, it's the weekend so I've got errands to run and of course I need to log in to WoW. See you later.
I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of expertise to lend to you. I suppose I will create a blog roll sometime to collect my sources for you. However, since I tend to flit from class to class I don't have many that I read regularly. I do think it's important if you are going to change classes back and forth in the end game that you do keep up to date with changes to the classes by reading from a couple of sources at least. Unless you are some sort of virtuoso you could probably use a little refresher if you haven't picked up a character in a while. When in doubt go kill a couple of mobs before jumping into a dungeon group, just to remind yourself where your keybindings are before subjecting anyone else to your possibly rusty play.
If you have any WoW related questions you can send them to thingwhatwows at gmail dot com.
Meanwhile, it's the weekend so I've got errands to run and of course I need to log in to WoW. See you later.
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