Thursday, August 27, 2009

Operation Re-Roll: All That Glitters is Gold

If there's one thing that WoW has taught us, it's time is money. Thankfully, unlike real life, WoW tosses gold at you out of every orifice. Dailies, Professions, Quests, even vendoring greys at level 80 are almost an assured 1-3 gold profit. However, if you're like me, then you make gold just about as fast as you spend it. Despite all the dailies I've done and all those quests for achievements, I am usually in the 2k range of gold. 2k doesn't buy you too much in Wrath and it's safe to assume that in Cataclysm prices will be drastically more. So what's a re-roller to do?

Save your money from you.

So here's a tip from the first hint of re-rolling for your future cataclysm Hunter (or other classes, but I'm just gonna cover Hunter). Everyday you can generally make money without trying. 400g a day isn't that hard to accomplish given just the bare minimum of dailies (and that's not counting what you vendor!) and let me share a little math with you.

Hey don't worry! I suck at math too, so I promise it's easy! ;)

Let's say that MMO-champion and other sites are right and Cataclysm releases in the Spring. Let's say March. That's 7 months from now. Now, since I never did memorize which month has 30 days and which has 31 days in the year, lets go with the 28 day (4 week) minimum. That's 196 days of saving up you can do! Now let's say you only want to save up 250g a day til Cataclysm comes out just for your re-rolled Hunter.

That's 49,000 gold you will have just for that re-rolled Hunter.

250g a day for 49k g?! That's insane, but it's also genius. Keep in mind when you re-roll, you'll need to pay for mount training all over again. Just training to epic flying alone costs a total of 5,844g (not counting the Cold Weather flying!). So by saving up now, you will have over 43k gold you can spend on your fresh new re-roll! Who doesn't like to roll around in style, right?

So start saving now! Even if you save 100g a day, that's 19k you'll have by that same date. Still a nice chunk of change to set to the side.

Quick List:
Total Mount Training Fee*: 6,844g
Total Mount Costs: 161g

Again, these are just rough numbers to show how much gold adds up if you set aside even a small amount everyday.

*Counting Cold Weather Flying at 1000g

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Operation: Re-Roll Hunter

Wow...what an eventful 48 hours. It was so much stuff in that first day alone, I was almost too exhausted to even blog. Luckily for another browsers, there are many sites that did a great job blogging about Blizzcon and the announcement (of the year) Cataclysm. So what am I going to do? The same thing I always do, plot my next insane "Operation" as I call them.

If you're like me, coming Cataclysm, you're re-rolling a new race. Maybe you're like me and are switching from your Orc or Night Elf Hunter and trying out a Goblin, Worgen, Human, or Undead Hunter. Now, while we do have some time before the expansion even comes, there's lots you can do now to prepare for a smoother leveling experience in Cataclysm to get your new Hunter caught up and into those new Heroics to prepare you for the showdown with Deathwing.

So, I'm going to share my insane plan over the next few days with you guys so that way, perhaps you'll get some new ideas too or even decide to share your new ideas on it.

Now, I'm not doing this so I can get some Feat of Strength or something. Not at all. In fact, I like taking my time leveling. This is mainly to ensure a smooth leveling experience regardless of your actual "speed of leveling".

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Preparing for Blizzcon and Ozzie

So today is the big "sendoff" day. Honestly, after that opening ceremony and preview panel, I don't know how Ozzie will close. Cataclysm is definitely the hot topic, and unlike what we've seen with other Blizzcon "trailers" of the past, there is alot of the game already done it seems. There was already a playable demo at Blizzcon!

Beta by winter? I wouldn't doubt it.

Well, at least we'll find out a bit more today about some changes incoming. I still got to find some sleep, but how can I re-watching that trailer of Cataclysm?

Friday, August 21, 2009

Cataclysm!: No Attack Power OR Mana?? Say Wha-!

In the most recent Q & A, it was announced the major changes to Warlocks & Hunters. I have a 42 lock, but she'll be becoming my new Worgen Hunter in the expansion; so here's what I am interested in: changes to Hunter. Most notably, no more Attack Power and no more Mana.

That's right, no more mana.

So that's a weird thought right? I don't know about you, but Mana has never been a real issue for me. Sure, I run out, but with Aspect of the Viper, it's just a few short shots before I'm back up. All in all, it's a refillable resource system that doesn't seem too broken. Yet it seems like we're losing mana and AotV in favor of a Focus system (ala Rogue and Kitty Druid). I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. Having played a feral druid, I know that focus can be a very fast paced and sometimes clunky (then again, I'm not pro-druid.). I'm not sure if I want that on my Hunter...

The other exciting change (as viewed from the pic above) is the no more Attack Power change. Now, to all my fellow BM's, this is a very interesting change. We've heard for awhile now that the pets are going to be scaling better with Hunter's, and this could be a sign of it to come. On the plus side, finally! No longer will BM have to be the outcast of the Hunter specs and have to have a seperate gear plan. 2 AP for 1 AGI seems to bring all the specs under the Agility Umbrella. This is of course, assuming that our pets will follow our Agility better otherwise it's sort of a moot point.

Ok, with that part of the panel over, I'm gonna rest. It's been one squeal-filled day of Blizzcon.

WoW: Cataclysm! New Mounts

So I just got done with the opening ceremony, and finally managed to stop squealing "WORGEN!" enough to actually breathe and write. Now, I am still squealing, and still watching, so I will make this post short. However, during the panel I noticed some screenshots that caught my eye.

Now if you look at the small pic I posted, you'll see that there is definitely a Worgen on top of what is most likely the first sketch of the Worgen mount. Now, the face and body of this mount definitely looks canine and wolf-like at that; the build and ears especially. Now some of the paws though look somewhat lizard or boar like to me. Now I don't know why either boar or lizard would be part of the mount for Worgen, but this mounts "stance" definitely follows a boar-like stance. That tail is very lizardish. So just what are these things??? Well, guess the people of Gilneas aren't the only cursed/mutated creatures we're seeing.

Now Worgen aren't the only new mount. As I typed this, the Goblin mount was showcased. In true Goblin fashion, it is a go-kart-like vehicle. Now I just wonder, will they be crashin' and thrashin' into the walls just like they did in Thousand Needles? I sure hope not....I really don't want to be roadkill....

Edit: Yes, that picture is small. However, MMO-champion updated their site with almost all the same screenshots I took but much larger and better looking. So stop by there and take a gander. Here's their version of the same screenshot I have above, but again, it's theirs. Now we definitely can see, it's boarish.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Blizzcon 2: Return to Blizzcon

This year, I found myself ticketless once again for Blizzcon. Though, I had made it for Blizzcon 08, I was hoping to do it again long before the entire "Cataclysm" hype. But that doesn't mean I am completely out of the loop of Blizzcon this year. While sites like MMO-Champion will undoubtedly keep a great eye on Blizzcon, Mrgl (my talking murloc plush) and I will be watching from the live stream. So I will at least be able to see Ozzie! Which is odd cause admittedly I'm not a huge Ozzie fan (other than the whole Osbourne show a few years back), but I have to admit, you can't help but watch him right?

So what's my biggest excitement or expectation? Well, like most people, I'm hoping for an expansion announcement. I want Worgen like you wouldn't believe! But other than that, the machinima and costume contests will always be a delight. Last year I got to talk with the winner of the costume contest and that was awesome by itself (yes I'm that much of a Warcraft fangirl). Anyways, what're you excited for?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Best. Weeks. Ever.

Warning: The screenshots may contain some language. If you are easily offended, don't view. I'm not responsible for you learning a new word. Thank you.

The past few weeks have been the best ever. Being a casual player, my goals are quite varied from the norm of “OMG epics!” Ok so I still like the purples, but I love other “epic” things: Like taming pets, finding mounts, getting past 300 fishing, etc. etc. Well in the 2 weeks since 3.2 launch (I know, I’m late), I have had a wonderful time.


First of all, I found Skoll! Woohoo! I didn’t even have to end up hating Storm Peaks either. This time around, I told myself I wouldn’t get addicted to camping (like I did with Loque’nahak). I gave myself 2 hour limit and then said I’d play Druid or something. (Un)fortunately, I never listen to myself. I found myself camping like crazy on my home-realm looking for this electric wolf of awesome-ness.

32 hours in (no not straight, I did get out!), I decided to go see if I could find one of those adorable little raptor pets. I switched to Druid, flew to Barrens and went over to where Takk the Leaper spawns. Wow, I hadn’t seen a gathering like that in a long time. It was like Cher or Brad Pitt was going to walk out from underneath that tree. I decided to not bother camping Takk and switched back over to my Hunter. I flew back to Dalaran: while doing so, I hit my target macro.

“YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!”

“OMG ITS SKOLL!” There beneath me, just sitting in the snow was Skoll! I dropped off my drake (literally dropped, for some reason I can never land right….) and dropped trap and tamed. I was surprised but had no problem showing off my new pet to friends, telling them to turn up their sound to hear the lightning effects. I’m sure Heero (Loque’nahak) is pissed about being stabled for 2 weeks, but he’ll manage. As for Skoll, well, he was renamed Raiju. So what’s better than a new pet?

I FINALLY GOT MY RIVENDARE’S DEATHCHARGER!!!!

Auuuugh!!!

So happy. I’ve only done about 53 runs post patch 3.0, but did hundreds of runs (I’ve lost count) since I started farming it last June. I had decided to take Raiju with me and see how a run went that night. As I made it to the Baron’s room, I sat in front of Baron doing my verbal mantra of “Drop my mount asshat!”

And he did.

Upon looting I noticed a strange skeletal horse head in the loot table. I looted so fast and spazzed, I didn’t even get a screenshot of the achievement. I just screamed and spazzed, yelled “OMG!” to my guildies and “FU” to Baron. I swore to never return to Strat, but I think I’m still missing the live strat achievement (nooooo!)…
Hmm I know, sort of a pointless post right? Ah well. I enjoyed squealing the entire time I wrote this, and I’m sure there’s other players out there who have feats that are squeal-worthy too.

So, what’re your “epics”? ;)