On a Roll

From www.downtownnb.org

Hmm would it be Parma Ham and Artichoke on Granary or possibly Pastrama on Rye? Who am I kidding, it's 7am on a Saturday and I'm up with the kids, so it's Honey Nut Shredded Wheat and the largest bucket of Tea I can produce. The fact remains however, I'm on a roll. The alt family's been well taken care of the last few weeks, and even if I've not been able to post as reguarly as I'd like there's been a fair amount of top-quality progression. Even the Alt in Progress, my Secret Rogue, finally dinged 70 last week. It's all good here.

The plan for hereon in is fairly simple: I'm going to pick an alt away from the Main and focus on them for a week of play at a time. P is still managing her two trips a week into ICC (Blood Princes tomorrow, I am reasonably excited at the prospect at wiping at a new boss) and I think it's time (even after the 25 Man from Hell) to give the Lock some love. Looking at my gear and the other Locks I've been playing with my dps is lower than it could be, so I feel the need to go off and do a bit of research. Perhaps a respec is in order...

After that, it's going to be the same process repeated for all the rest of the 80's. The Secondary Hunter needs the most love (and if I'm honest, Dual Specs so I can give him Marks as a fallback and some much needed DPS boostage as well) followed by the Mage (who is doing far better with her Arcane secondary spec in Five mans than she ever did with Frost) The Druid still benefits from having been my main through Ulduar (and the fact that she can do a lot of dps)... after that there's the Priest at 73 and the Rogue Project if I feel the need to kick back and quest...

If truth be told of course, everyone except P has a boatload of quests still to complete. The benefits of doing this across the family is not lost on me either. It's decent gold, for the disenchanters it's also a nice stream of mats for conversion to enchants on scrolls (and therefore extra cash) I feel I should have a blitz on the Alt of the Week and clear some of those Northrend zones which, if I'm honest, I am unlikely ever to visit again come Cataclysm. There's achievement points, the completism angle, and the fact that money talks far more than any amount of gear once we hit the new expansion...

Let's be honest, I'm flooded with possibilities. I'm on the Mother of All Rolls. What I could really do with is the focus to actually get down to some serious plannage... but not before breakfast.

Where did I put that bucket?

Faffing Time

Firstly, let Wikipedia enlighten you :D

Faff:

Etymology
Dialect, 'blow in gusts'.


To waste time on an unproductive activity.

Yesterday, when I wasn't winning iLevel 245 PvP belts in the new VoA 10 man or completing the Weekly Raid Quest, was spent faffing. It wasn't true faffing per se, because ultimately it was useful. I've been meaning to sort out my vanity guild bank for some time, mindful as I am of there being a new expansion this year and as a result the need to store a load of new crafting mats. I like to do things well ahead of time, especially with materials for current items being pretty easy to come by and selling well. This meant the following:

• Purchasing a new tab on the Vanity Guild Bank, allowing far easier sorting and room for expansion.
• Upgrading all my alts bags to 20 slots using the vast amount of enchanting dust I seem to have accumulated with the equally huge amounts of Frostweave spread over the Alt Family. 
• Selling a shedload of items that frankly shouldn't be in my bags in the first place (I mean how much Preserved Holly do I really need?)
• Consolidating all that kind of stuff in one place. The VGB now has a Seasonal section :D
• Spending an hour last night looking at the AH and working out what is a decent seller at the moment. Ironically all green items in the 10-55 range are going for ridiculous sums right now, including crafting mats. Living Essence never sold for 40g back in the day, that was the cheapest price I could find last night. Funny old world, Azeroth.

As I am having a weekend away from the game I decided I'd stick a bunch of items up for auction today and see how they fare, considering how many Vanilla mats I have stored away. We'll have to see if this burst of faffing is profitable come Sunday evening...

EDIT: I read that Saurfang is fixed. Hurrah!

Your Turn Now.

Form an orderly queue please...

I have often discussed with those who play the game simply with one Level 80, the merits and pitfalls of running multiple maxxed characters simultaneously. There is a fairly compelling argument in my mind that you should only have one 80, if you want to play them properly and learn all that you can about their abilities and pitfalls. Spreading yourself thin simply means you're never really any good at anything. There are days when I think this is true, and then there are days when I don't fancy being a hunter and want to be a mage, or a warlock, or I want to heal instead of dps, and I decide that I've made the right choice in what I've done because it affords me a measure of flexibility ingame that one character would never give. With six L80's now in the stable, the problem then becomes how you keep everyone at a level of relevance.

I have two 80's (Mage, Beast Mastery Hunter) who have never stepped foot inside a 10 or 25 man. With the options for gearing in five man and via emblems, this isn't nearly as big a problem as it might have been back in the day, when if you wanted to gear you needed a Raid. These two guys rank very much as my Casual Team yet I probably spend more time playing them than I do any other toons apart from P. I use G the Hunter as my primary ore gatherer and eternal collector, and K with her Tailoring (and therefore cloth cooldown) spends a fair bit of time in the LFG queue. She was the first of my posse to grab a Perky Pug. I just like playing a mage, and while the rest of my brethren all seem to be chucking Arcane Bolts around she remains steadfastly Deep Frost. I suspect it's the anti-establishment in me, but I love Freezy Spec even if the damage sucks right now. I just play her as relaxation. She grabbed her 4 set L232 bonus as a result yesterday and despite the fact the rest of her gear's full of holes, I think I'll be using her to potter for some time to come.

M the Shammy and M the ex-Main Boonkin are the middle ground team. Their gear's pretty solid, they have run a variety of 10 man content, but they don't get as much airtime as perhaps they might have done six months ago. These are the two who tend to get overlooked for the current normal run of things: I'll only get the Boomy out if I want some herbs, the Shaman if we're short a healer for an instance. These two are holding the specs I need to learn more about and the Druid especially has some real issues with gear. Writing this now is making me want to go away and do some reading on Boomkins, so that can't be a bad thing. I suspect it's also due to the fact that these guys take the most concentration to play well that they are curently in the Inn sharing a flagon of something low-calorie yet very alcoholic and comparing notes. To make multiple alts work, you need to know your limits, and these guys are taking a break because I know mine. They will no doubt be back, when I'm in a better position to do them justice.

That leaves P and W as the A Team. W did her first Trial of the Crusader over Christmas in a PuG and walked away with three upgrades, and despite some disappointing dps numbers (which Mr G.Crawler of Califonia has said he'll look at \o/) is seeing a great deal of random action. She's two Frost Emblems away from a cloak upgrade, but is more likely twelve emblems away from a belt swap which should sort her hit cap issues out for some time and allow a nice gear reorganisation to boot. Locks are in pretty short supply on the Server and in Guild for some reason (I suspect it's that DPS thing that's making people go play their other alts) which does mean I'm getting random whispers for both 10 and 25 man action. It's a good time to be Demonic! P of course is blazing a trail through ICC (Server 27th!!!!!) and as a result is being exposed already to the lure of T10 set bonuses... mmmmmmmm bonuses. However she STILL hasn't done the Halls of Reflection on Heroic... must remember to sort that out. These are the guys who get the evening play, the ones with the most focus on and as a result the ones I think I'm playing the best at present. I think the fact they're both dps-ing big numbers has also got something to do with my interest.

The trick therefore, if you want to play multiple alts to a decent standard, is to know your limits. It's to not overstretch, it's to plan well and ultimately to listen to yourself. There is never really a plan, there's just you deciding what you want to do to enjoy yourself, and it's then about being able to pick the right characters to help you do that. Right now I think I'm doing a pretty good job at keeping both myself and the Giant Family 'o' Alts happy. Here's to many more months of balance and enjoyment as a result.

Oh, and if you could remind me that six 80's is more than enough when I next get the urge to level my Priest, I'd be very grateful...

200 Posts!

The first Xmas card arrives in the mail. The kids have to be beaten off with a stick, and told they get their Advent calenders when they get home from school. Yes, the Festive Season has properly arrived, and with it I will be attempting to do a post a day, on anything and everything Warcraft-related, in an attempt to see if I can't get my brain to work better than it has over the last few Christmasses. Consider it an exercise in stimulation.

There's a stupid amount of Alt Levelling going on at present, not simply in out Guild but all over my Server. Starting area mats are selling like Mince Pies or Brussels Sprouts at the moment. Now is the time to be making cash. I've taken my Rogue, dropped Leatherworking and converted her to Gathering Spec (mining[*]/skinning) for the not insignificant Sta/Crit buff combo she'll get when she finally hits 80, which she will, but not before my recently-humanified Mage does first. She's halfway through 76 right now, and the normal rules will apply once we turn 77: go start the Tournament Dailies, do WG as often as possible, start the Blue Laydees questline (even though when 3.3 hits it's largely irrelevant) and wait for the package in the mail from Rhonin...

After the Rogue it's my Pally. After that... gonna be a LONG wait for Cataclysm.

I see rumours circulating that 3.3 is gonna drop next week. I don't reckon it'll even be then, I'm still holding out on the 16th, which will mean, if I'm cute, I can have a Rogue close to the 50/60's and be happily strip mining Burning Steppes and Hellfire while everyone else goes mental over the Icecrown stuffs. Because of the deliberate gating Blizzard will be implimenting there's going to be a HUGE amount of lead time between wings, so the focus will inevitably shift to the new 5 mans. I can see me doing a lot of work towards getting a Perky Pug. After all, for everyone except my Main, that gear and the Triumph/Frost gear the Elbows provide will be the items I'm wearing once I move into the Expansion. I have probably 10-11 months to gear everybody, so it's not like it all has to be done tomorrow. I am speculating with nominating an alt a month, and focussing simply on getting that alt geared, sorting them with achievements and the like, and then moving on. We will see how things work, but I know for a fact cash won't be a problem with the amount of things I can now do to obtain it.

I doubt it's going to be anything but a Fun (but cold) Winter :D


[*] 30g from levelling Mining from 1-75, selling the ore and stone on the AH. Proof if needed that selling the right things makes money \o/

We are Family!

Yes, I'm standing on a box... so what if I'm short!

You know I think it's high time I properly introduced the Family 'o' Alts to you good people. After all, as we have established, it's going to take a LOOOONG time to work our way through Icecrown to Cataclysm, so I think we'd better work out summat to do in the meantime. So, rather than start with the main, let's begin with the first character on my account list when I log...

Name: W

Class and Spec:
Destro Lock. If I'm honest I don't know how to play anything else, she's been flinging fire since the Dawn of Time. I am perhaps not the most imaginative of players in this respect: when I find a spec I like I tend to stick with it, and I'm not one to change because another way of playing is proven to be more damage-effective. I play the way I enjoy.

Professions:
Alchemy/Jewelcrafting. Yes, this is not perhaps the most effective of combinations but it was borne from neccesity when TBC hit. W was originally Alchemy/Herbalism but I needed someone to level JC when it appeared and she was the most logical choice. I then created M as a gatherer to compensate. She's hopelessly behind on her Epic Pattern gathering, which I suspect will be a project as we wait for Cataclysm, but her Alchemy is pretty comprehensive. As established yesterday she's Transmutation specced, which as has also been proven can be very helpful as a way to make money.

Achievement Points:
3230. My last Achievement? Tastes Like Chicken \o/

Reputations:
W is my most advanced alt in this regard, with 20 Exalted reps thus far. She's very close to her next five as well, so I suspect as part of Operation 'Is Cataclysm Here Yet?' we'll knock those off. She was my secondary character through most of TBC (spending a lot of time in Karazhan.... ah, memories...) and as a result is considerable more rounded and far less shallow than her other siblings.

Projects:
First on the list is to obtain W a new flying mount. It's going to be a Aether Ray (or possibly several) because there's not enough of them around in Northrend and it helps knock off the last 5k of Skyguard Rep I need for Exalted. After that we have a bunch of reps that need 8k or less to finish off, and as an exercise in going back and having some different content from Northrend to indulge in, this sems like a decent idea. I was never a huge fan of Outland I will admit but going back to it now is actually not as galling as it was when it was the only alternative to Azeroth. I'll take the time to check what recipes I'm missing in the process and see if I can't try a bit of farming on the way.

After that I really need to take the time to do the Daily JC Quest, to occasionally prospect a stack of Titanium (for the powders to get the JC Tokens) and to keep an eye out for the odd Damaged Necklace on the AH. I'm so many patterns missing it's really rather depressing how many tokens I'll need to catch up. I really hope they do something with this system come the Expansion.

Le Grande Plan

Contemplating another hard day Shamaning...

Yesterday was, all told, a Good Day. Five gear upgrades from the Shaman came from the Trial of the Crusader dungeon (4 from normal, the rather awesome Mariel's Sorrow from Heroic) and I decided I needed a Plan. With four L80's now in the Family (and at least two more alts at 70+ who could be levelled) it occurs to me I need some kind of scheme to maximise the amount of money each one can contribute, plus get them ready for the Expansion and the professions gains they can make. Even if I only level one to start with come Cataclysm, having all my crafters at 80 will allow me to do the Professions levelling even if I don't have a chance to do the exploration.

So, the Plan is as follows:

1. Complete all the Northrend Quest Content on those alts who have not done so. The Shammy's only seen the Fjord, the Warlock's almost done in Dragonblight but has gone no further, and the Druid has about 30 quests short in Northrend for the Achievement. It will be her I take out to do Loremaster in Azeroth for my picture project, I think as a result.
   
   
2. Pick the next Alt for Levelling. After careful consideration it's the Mage who gets the nod, who has Tailoring maxxed (and who is my secondary Enchanter, with most of my Old School Chants) I've already grabbed Cold Weather Flying for her and she's done a couple of AV's already. Next step is to see if I can grab her some heirlooms, though the badge situation's a bit sparse. Maybe I can scrape together enough WG marks for summat... After her, I have potentially another Hunter (with maxxed Engineering) and the Priest (maxxed Enchanting and Inscription, likely to go Shadow) and that's the lot. For now, at least... ^^
   
   
3. Sort out a routine for Daily Questing. I have the JC one to do every day, I am going to try and make sure I do the Daily Fishing and Cookery on everybody, and rotate the Tournament Dailies amongst those who need. I also want to do the Holdir Dailies on the Shaman.
   
   
4. Invent a device that inserts 4 extra hours into every day but does not destroy the delicate harmonic balance of the Universe.

At least three of those should be easily doable...

Compare and Contrast

Draenai on Stormpike Battle Charger = Cool

Big Blue Laydee on Stormpike Battle Charger = Stupid.

I've officially entered the home stretch. My Shammy's run the last few levels to 79 thanks to the wonders of AV (PLEASE stop whining Alliance 80's, if you really don't want L71's in BG's go turn your XP gain off, otherwise just let them enjoy the brief moment of glory when they win) and is not capped at 75,000 Honor in anticipation of hitting the big Eight-oh. As you can see I'm already well into the Holdir questline, and as the nice letter in my Inbox informed me 77 is time to start work at the Tournament. I have a TON of stuff to do, and 80 may only be a day away.

It's not just simply fun times in levelling land either, oh no:

So, the Big Giant Head is no more :D It's only one more boss and Yoggy is there, ready for us to bitchslap him into the next patch. Soon I will be able to say I've seen most, if not all of the available game content. In over four years I've never been this current. It's scary.

Hang on, if I'm writing this I've stopped levelling!!! NOOOO!!! Back to the Grind!

It Runs in the Family

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a player in possession of a good hunter must be in want of many more.

B was, as is happens, my first ever hunter. Back in the day he was then a she, and started their life on a PvP Server (which gave them the Private title) Once paid server transfers appeared she was called over and made over and now he's been called into service as a way of collecting more Northern Spices, of having a 450 engineer for bullet making and as part of my Hunter Bankalt Team. I run three bankalts: a L27 Hunter Banking Supremo out of Exodar (who is the dump for all my current mats and who serves as my main Auctioneer), a L51 Hunter Banking Assistant in Booty Bay (who is liason for my Son's small army of L1-10 Horde alts and who keeps an eye out on the Neutral AH for pet bargains) and now B. Yes, this means I have FOUR hunters.

Why are you all running away...???

A great deal of my non-raiding enjoyment comes from the AH and from crafting. I enjoy playing with hunters at various stages of development. I find myself wondering how many people do this the same way.