500k gold

  I just passed 500k gold the other day. I attribute my success so far to doing several things:

Inscription Updates: Research Done, Mists Speculation, More Whiptail

  I've finally finished Northrend Inscription Research on my Horde Inscriber. This, of course, allows me to start using Books of Glyph Mastery, which I am greatly annoyed are still necessary. There was supposed to be a fix so that all glyphs could be researched, but that never happened. I still need 32 books, so I'll have to step up buying efforts on both factions if I want to finish before Mists.

Warcraft Wealth, "Interview" 4

  I had no luck tracking down anyone in the 300k-700k gold range, so I'll just muse a bit on what it's like to play with 450k gold.

  Nothing on the AH is out of my price range. Reins of Poseidus has been on the AH for a bit, at 75k. If I wanted it, it's mine. I could buy 5. If I spent like that, though, I'd run out.

  I buy or craft BoE gear for my new 85's (I look for a deal though), fast flying for all, Stonedrake for my Priest (She earned it most) but not anymore than one, since it will be account wide, a Chopper for my Hunter Engineer, self-made, of course. I bought a few guild banks for good prices, maxed out the tabs, and started stashing for Mists. I always buy frugally, and I think that's part of how I got this far, but for a while I was feeling the expense of having 5 85's to fund.

  The only dailies I do are Cooking and Fishing dailies on a few alts for points and TB dailies on my Pally for the trinket. Dailies are just not good gold per hour. I also don't do dungeons after the VP cap, since I see that as a waste of time.

  I level professions for new 85's from scratch, usually costing me no more that 6k-8k gold. I see dropping a maxed profession as inconvenient, but sometimes worth the loss.  Since I have one of every crafting profession, the only things I buy from other people are potions and flasks, since I am not specialized in those, and they sell below cost-of-mats for non-specced Alchemists. I also buy VP BoE's since I prefer to trade my excess Valor for Conquest, for whenever the PvP bug bites.

  I'm at the point where making gold has become it's own game, so driving up the number is a source of inner satisfaction. I have long term plans for the Mists mounts, of course, but that's a ways away. I'll also be taking full advantage of Glyphmas to come, along with the new DMC trinkets. Honestly, I think I might double cap a few months into Mists.

  I think the minimum I could play comfortably at would be about 2k per max character per week after an initial large amount of spending when hitting cap (maybe 10k?). So I think, and this is just conjecture, that I'd want about 20k on hand and about 10k a week income, if I played without gold making as a priority.

  I think there's no real upper limit to how much I'd be ok with having, since anything after 100k is just a number to me. My first 100k was the moment where I first really felt I could hit cap, since going from 10k to 100k was a short, steady grind, and I believe going from 100k to cap will be a long, steady grind, but not 10 times as long since I perceive an exponential aspect to gold making.

Warcraft Wealth, Interview 3

  My third interview I took off-realm, as I'm now getting into the amounts where I might come across serious competitors. Surprisingly, my interviewee would not be an AH competitor at all. Karjash from Forge Camp Sunshine in the Alliance side of Scarlet Crusade replied:

Warcraft Wealth, Interview 2

  For my second interview, I asked for someone who has had more than 10k gold, but not more than 40k. Shockabrah from Knights of the Shadows answered:

Warcraft Wealth, Interview 1

  My reply to the reply to my last post inspired me to interview some players about how much gold they have and what their gameplay is like. I posted in Alliance trade chat looking for some one who has not had 4k gold, and Viirus from Avenging Pandas was my first response.

Random Ramblings: CTC and Trinkets, Pally vs DK Tanking, DS10 pugs, 450k gold

  I've been running LFR weekly on my Pally tank, and now I'm fully kited out. I've got 4 piece T13, the off-set shoulders (Finally), Souldrinker and Blackhorn's Mighty Bulwark. I also have Indomitable Pride and Soulshifter Vortex, though the proc on that second one is mostly wasted. If Resolve of the Undying drops, it would bring me close to full cap, but I wonder if 609 Stamina would quickly be a greater boost than 780 Dodge after reaching CTC. If I bought Fire of the Deep, I'd be capped already, even without the on-use, but I think that would be wasted VP.

  I'm only 4.45% under block cap when buffed, so I need to make some gearing decisions (i.e. hope for drops) based on that. For now I'll continue stacking Mastery, and using Elixir of the Master and Fortune Cookie (No Lavascale on the AH and my fishing isn't up yet). I know I'll have to start trading out for stamina soon, but I'm not quite there yet. As for trinkets, I'll stick with the one's I have, ignoring the Mastery proc for the most part. I'm sure a few DS regular drops will bring me to cap soon enough.

Role Call: July 2012

  I changed my alt line up a bit, after realizing that my setup was not ideal for various reasons, chief of which was that I realized I did not have a Dwarf shield tank. This would not do. Sometimes a particular race/class/spec combination just clicks. Dwarf Enhance Shaman was like that for me, as was Tauren Prot Pally. Dwarf Prot Warrior is my newest click, and I'm looking forward to pushing the class further than before (mid-40s). I suspect Dwarf Monk will click in such a way, but I'm open to having a Tauren Monk. I guess I should just try one out on the beta. I'm not sure what can make the Mage or Warlock classes click. One will likely be Dwarf, but which one, I don't know. I guess I should figure out what non-Tauren Horde race I'm ok with playing (likely Troll) and figure which class fits it better.

  I've also been neglecting my older 85's horribly, but I guess that's natural in this part of the expansion cycle. I don't want to be that guy who just endlessly levels alts, but never plays endgame (LFR doesn't count). My favorite specs so far for each class are Survival, Disc, Blood, Enhance, and Prot. Typically, I prefer to tank if I can, if not, then heal, if not, then DPS. How I decide between specs typically is a matter of which one performs best in a given situation. For example, I stick with Marksman in PvP, and before 4.3, played Marksman in PvE as well. It's not my favorite Hunter spec by any means, but when it's the best choice, I take it. Between Disc and Holy healing, I keep both specs on hand, but usually stick with Disc. The matter of choosing between Enhance and Elemental, however, comes down to a matter of gearing (can't switch between them easily) and that I leveled a Dwarf Shaman for the expressed purpose hitting things.

PSA: Don't Trash the Flag

  I'll cut to the chase. Independence Day brings around my biggest pet peeve: Mistreatment of the American Flag.

  My friends know me as the kind of guy who will walk into a business for the express purpose of informing them that the flag they are displaying needs replaced, as it's torn or faded. I work in lawn care right now, and whenever we mow a cemetery, I collect a pocketful of torn or faded mini flags. It's these mini flags that, for some reason, people think it's ok to leave laying on the ground during this holiday.

  Please, do not turn the American Flag into litter.

  If you drop one, pick it up. When you're done with it, dispose of it.

  How to dispose of American Flags seems to be a source of anxiety for many people, as they have the vague sense that throwing it in the trash is wrong, but burning it also seems wrong. Well, burning the flag in a respectful manner is precisely the preferred manner of retiring unserviceable flags. It's quite simple, and only takes a few minutes. If you really don't feel comfortable retiring a flag this way yourself, any VFW post, Boy Scout troop or similar organization should be happy to take it off your hands.

  Drive safe, be careful with fireworks, and enjoy your holiday.

Random Ramblings: Ding #5, Glyphs,

   Bleh, a second week without posting gone by.

  So my Pally is at 85 now, and at the super awkward ilevel of 351, so I'm still running old Cata heroics for 346 gear that I won't even bother gem/enchanting. It's difficult enough to be a tank, but for some reason, players in these dungeons think their gear makes them a better tank than me, just because they have more health. What ends up happening is some DK (usually a DK) pulls the next group while some undergeared/crafted pvp geared healer is at 10% mana and I'm at 10% health and unloads on only one mob, resulting in a scattered group all casters on the healer (OOM), and the other DPS scrambling around like squirrels loaded up with caffeine, trying to avoid getting hit. And it's all my fault.

  The glyph market has remained steady, and I actually had a few 5k days. Usually I pull in between 3-4k a day in sales, so about 3k profit. Some chatter in trade Alliance side clued me in that Horde still expect high glyph prices. I'm still in the Northrend Research grind, but I think I have enough recipes to chip away at this perception by barking a bit in trade while waiting for a chicken debuff to wear off. Seriously, gearing up from scratch on the less populated side sucks. I had to send a Twilight Amulet and an Elementium Earthguard over from the Ally side.

  The neutral AH is a really attractive concept to me, even with the 15% cut, since there are some markets that have large enough profit margins to handle the extra 10%. I'm thinking crafted gear of any kind, especially 397, glyphs, BoE's, hell, I even flipped a few hundred Whiptail for about 5-10g profit a stack.

  Anyway, back to glyphs. I've been buying glyphs less than 10g to keep prices up, and there's been a few glyph levelers lately, so I have a couple Inscription bags of backstock full again. For a while there, I had 4 bags full of glyphs I bought from someone for 10g each, sort of like an estate sale. I think I was being generous, since it was a guildie.

  Speaking of guildies, I sometimes switch between free-for-guildies and cost-of-mats as a policy, and I think I should stick with the second, so that I'm not taken advantage of. I made an exception for a particularly fast leveling Priest alt of an active guildie, but that's the last time. No more freebies.

  I'm not as swamped by work as I have been, so I just might have more to post within the week. I'm still needing to get Delegation done on my Priest, I have just a little bit of a Conquest grind left on my Hunter, and my newest 85 needs gear. Also, I'm almost to 300k gold.

Through a Glass, Darkly

  I finally collected enough Eternal Embers (life of a pugger) to finish off All-Seeing Eye. I've avoided learning to much about the quest chain, as I've always intended to complete it myself. I respecced to Shadow, though I considered speccing offensive Disc. That would have been too crazy, and I'm sure someone, somewhere has done it already. Anyway, I report to old dude in the Caverns of Time, something about a blind spot in time, and no port to Northrend? Come on! The place is full of Mages!

Random Ramblings: A Ton of Whiptail, "Polite Notes",

  That's 35,020 Whiptail. All mine, for less than 1g each. That's 1,751 stacks, or 7,004 mills worth. At 2 seconds per mill, that's about 3.5 hours of milling and 5.5 hours of crafting for an expected yield of 10,506 Blackfallow Ink. I already have 4,035 Blackfallow, and 3,646 lower level inks (not counting Shimmering), for a grand total of 18,187 ink, or 6,062 glyph's worth.

  That, ladies and gentlemen, is my nest egg.

Preparing Professions for Mists: Fact 3.5

Facts 1-3

  To continue just a bit on that last point I made, I want to speculate just a bit on the future of Blackfallow Ink. Right now it is typically the cheapest method of making any glyph other than those using Shimmering Ink (which I continue to be stumped over). In Mists, however, it is expected that the new ink will be the one to trade in for lower level inks, leaving very few outlets for an entire expansion of herbs. Herbalists will still be leveling, so a large supply will be there, with a greatly reduced outlet.

BM vs MM Hunter PVP: CC Options, Buff/Debuffs, and Pets

   Pet selection as a Hunter can be game changing, especially where it comes to PvP. Since Cata came out, I've maintained that a Hunter should be familiar enough with the buff/debuff system to know which pet will benefit a group best in any given situation. This is just as applicable to CC options as well.

BM vs MM Hunter PVP: Ability Comparisons

  I've been running a bit of Arena and trying to run as many Rated Battlegrounds as I can on my Hunter. Usually it's my Priest that gets in the group, so she's actually geared better and has higher rating. I want to break 1800 on my Hunter, though, so I'm going to focus on that character over the weekend.

  Part of that will be relearning MM PvP. There are a lot of fundamentals that are the same between all specs, like scatter-trapping, disengaging, ect. These are all Hunter basics, so I want to focus on spec specific differences.

Offtopic: Gripes About Shooters

  I'm no stranger to shooters, but my experience is mostly limited to Halo, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Ghost Recon, and Rainbow 6. Aside from Halo, these are all what you would call "Military Shooters", i.e. "Realistic." I'm here to tell you, there's hardly anything realistic about them.

  Never mind the health packs, regeneration, shields, whatever allows a player to take hits and keep on trucking. That's just an outright suspension of disbelief. The disbelief I personally find difficult to suspend is the way ammo is treated.

  First off, reloading in most of these games before running out only brings you up to magazine capacity, not capacity+1. Also, when a partial magazine is taken out, I kind of expect to run across it again in series, after all full magazines are used. The Clancy games do this, and I like that. It's a small touch, but having some real-world experience with firearms makes me appreciate these kinds of things.

  Second, reloading is way too fast. New recruits often come into the military with the "I'm gonna be Rambo" idea, and this kinda feeds that. They think they can get their reload time down to 3 seconds. Reloading properly takes about 10 seconds with an M16. Remove the magazine, place empty magazine in your LBV, oriented upward to show as empty, pull a full magazine out, place the magazine in the well, drive the bolt home, tap the forward assist, resume firing. Ever play America's Army? Yeah, kinda like that, but hurried up with a harder tap on the forward assist. This kind of lag would be completely unacceptable in the fast paced gameplay we've become accustomed to, so we just speed it up.

  Side-note, one of the reasons we carry pistols is because switching to a sidearm is faster than reloading. This is actually something shooters do right, even if it's still a bit too fast.

  Finally, in the already ridiculous situation where one is carrying weapons in both hands, what's going on just below the viewpane? Are all these shooters secretly Goro clones? Do they instead all come with the getup Lara Croft has in the movies? What gives?

  My biggest complaint by far, however, is the underwhelming effect of explosives. A real Claymore's blast zone is the size of a football field, and a real A-C130 would obliterate any one of these maps in moments.

My Pets

 
  A Hunter should like his pets enough to name them, at the very least. Some diehard MM Hunters can hardly be bothered to "Name their dots", but if you want any heals on your pet, it'd better have a name at the very least.

  Some Hunters go a step further and start to hold an emotional attachment to certain pets, and might even imbue them with personality. I'm not a roleplayer or anything, but I do think of my pets as friends.

Preparing Professions for Mists: Facts 1-3

  I've been stockpiling here and there, and doing a lot of forum searching for what other people are stockpiling, and I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people are crackpot crazy. Some raise valid points, but then veer off into some serious speculation. I prefer to base predictions off of a few, simple facts.

PvP Progress: Ironman

  I just did a random battleground as a warm up to this evening's Rateds, and landed in yet another group where everyone decided to fight in the middle instead of running the flag. Fortunately, the opposing team was doing the same thing, so I ran the flag unopposed, with no EFC up. I capped as soon as I got there.

  The second run I had a Priest buddy with me, and one of the Horde Hunter's slowed me with Concussive, but I Scatter-Trapped him and Jump-Disengaged out of range quickly. I was a little nervous when I got to cap, since there was an EFC out there, but he died quickly. I'm glad he did, since I don't think I'm a very good defensive player, even with Spirit Mend.

  My third run a different Hunter tried to Scatter-Trap me, but I trinketed it and returned in kind. I ran unopposed again, and capped.

  It seemed so easy, like taking candy from a baby.

Screenshots: LFR Fails, Skoll and Death, Stonedrake, Ghostwolf, Clownsuit, Nice Transmog

  I snapped this while in a rough start to LFR. It bugged somehow on the umpteenth wipe, and he/she(?) was just floating there waiting on the fresh influx of suckers.