Monday Random Thoughts

- I should call this weeks version mondays random timeless thoughts because that is what it is all about.

- I had a bang up week playing this week, the best fun I've had in ages.

- I think, in part, the reason for having such a great time was that I did no random content.

- No LFR, no LFD, no scenarios, no battlegroungs, nothing.

- I played with my guild, did a few pugs on the island for celestial and ordos kills, but no random content at all.

- It made for a very enjoyable week of just experiencing the island and nothing else, except the raid of course.

- I made the run to get my burden of eternity on every single character I have.

- For some it was a suicide run, but it was worth it.

- I've done at least one celestial world boss on all my characters, except one, which I hope to squeeze in today.

- I won gold and gold on nearly all of them.

- Two characters won 553 pants, but as luck would have it they are the only 2 characters I do not even have one raid boss kill under their belt this expansion.

- So my least used characters get the gear my most used characters would have needed.

- Sounds about right.

- So 10 world boss kills on my main server saw 1 drop and 1 coined item.

- 10% drops rate and 10% coin win rate seems to be what I am experiencing with my limited results

- Seems a lot more reasonable than normal for me.

- Should I get my hopes up that this tier will be my lucky tier?

- And by lucky I mean not unlucky.

- Not like I am going to get everything always.

- Just something once in a while.

- I already won a weapon for my bear.

- Was just a flex one but it replaces the 489 one from the spirit kings I have been sporting for quite some time.

- Funny how every staff or pole arm boss in ToT never dropped the staff or pole arm when I was on my bear but always dropped it when I wasn't.

- That is the kind of bad luck I am talking about, seems I am shaking it a little bit.

- Won a war forged piece on my monk.

- Oh yes, I started this tier the same way I have started every single tier since tier 10.

- Tanking.

- When will I ever get into stuff on my hunter from the get go?

- I did manage to tank the first two bosses but we could not get the third down and I think it was all my fault.

- First off I am not quite as good at calling out things when tanking, so I had to pass on the inside order call out duty to someone else.

- Then I could not survive the test realm on my monk wasting our one revive for normal 10 and not being able to soak because I died.

- It is mostly a skill issue on my part because I am still learning on my monk but it is partly a gear issue.

- Sitting at 515 I was able to tank all of ToT just fine.

- The only boss there my monk seemed squishy on was when I would bat tank on tortos, otherwise it was fine.

- But in SoO I was taking a ton of damage.

- Even the trash would destroy me.

- I have to be doing something wrong because SoO normal is balanced around 515-520 isn't it?

- Which means I should be able to do it.

- So that means I need to get better.

- Or perhaps have a real tank there and get to go on my hunter who can do the test no problem.

- I did get up to a 520 item level at least.

- Won a war forged piece and used a burden to make a 535 one.

- But my life total of 650K buffed when that one ability hits me for 600K in the test realm is still iffy.

- I heard they hot fixed it so that absorbs now work, maybe I will have better luck next time.

- Even trying my cooldowns it did not seem to save me.

- Zen med seemed to be the only thing that worked, and I would get 2 of those hits on my each time.

- The second one would kill me about 10-15 seconds before I was done.

- Every freaking time.

- I got some learning to do lucy.

- Guess what dropped off the second boss while I was tanking SoO?

- You got it, the hunter weapon.

- You are aware I will probably never see it drop again right?

- So maybe a touch of my old luck is still there.

- So I got the burden on all my characters and started looking at what piece I should upgrade.

- Most it was obvious for, some I still have not used it because I am still deciding.

- I used it on bracers for my paladin.

- Replaced 437s with 535s, do you know how much of a difference stat wise that is?

- Insane numbers, as in over 1000 more stamina alone.

- Have to love upgrades like that.

- Upgraded a 450 trinket on my DK and warrior but only to 496 of course, but that was still a sweet upgrade.

- I decided to get one of my plate tanks geared up so I spent a lot of time there on it.

- Which one do you think I decided on?

- Wrong.

- I went warrior.

- Sure, I know DKs and paladins are over powered when compared to warriors right now but I have the most experience on my warrior so if I were to gear up one of them it should be the one I am best at right?

- I ended up with three burdens so far on it which means 3 535 pieces, plus finally one trinket over 450.

- I went all the way from a 482 item level to a 501 item level.

- Still not exactly what I would call raid ready, but it is in a hell of a better place than it was last week for sure.

- Bought one of the raid healers with me while I was running around and pulling yungols, because they have the best burden drop rate of junk there.

- I figured reputation, coins and chance at the drop seemed like the best place to be.

- They said my ungemmed, unenchanted 482 warrior was easier to heal than my 515 monk.

- I said, it is just because I am better at it, it has nothing to do with the survival of the class.

- Later, unintentionally, I actually proved that point.

- I went with my monk for some grinding and died 3 times on one mob by reacting too slow.

- I was able to avoid all the ground effects on my warrior, but died over and over on my monk.

- So what is the difference?

- No seriously, what is the difference.

- Does being comfortable with a class really make that much of a difference, I think so.

- No matter what class mechanics are, why am I just so much better at avoiding the avoidable on my warrior than I am on my monk?

- I think that is an interesting question.

- I am going to chalk it up to comfort with binds.

- And being comfortable with the class.

- I do not even think to interrupt when on my warrior, it is just going through the motions but I think about it on my monk.

- That split second is the difference between life and death when it comes to one shot mechanics.

- Also, when I did get hit on my warrior, which has MUCH less life, it did not kill him.

- So even passive mitigation was better on my warrior.

- Now to get it from 501 to raid ready.

- The island is awesome.

- I plan to slowly gear up alts so that way I can get them a 535 in all slots.

- It is a lot more attractive of an option than doing the LFR would be.

- Do need the LFR if I want to get the cape quest done on another character however.

- Just who should it be?

- My rogue is furthest along, followed by monk then priest.

- I am getting real used to the lay out of the island.

- Whenever someone would call a rare I was asking, where, where, now I know most of them.

- Makes heading to them a lot faster for sure.

- I am torn on whether I like people calling out rares.

- I guess I like it but I prefer to call it out to guild first if I find it, and then open general if it is pulled.

- Just to let all my guild mates have a chance to get to it first.

- Guild comes before everyone else in my opinion.

- I only hate when people call it out when they do not call out when it is dead.

- If you are going to call "ship up" at least have the common courtesy to say "ship down" when it dies.

- If you have no intention of making the death call, do not call out the life call.

- That is how I see it at least.

- Nothing sucks more than stopping what you are doing just to show up to a dead body.

- If they called out a death notice when something is dead as least I can turn back around and go back to what I am doing.

- I've been making it a priority to go for all the pet rares and the mount rare.

- Sadly I have seen none drop.  I even killed the one in the lake 28 times so far.

- Yes, my addon counts.

- One of my guild mates came there and got it first kill.

- Another of my guild mates has all the pet drops on the island already.

- Three and four of some of them.

- And he has the mount drop too.

- Like the crane chick from looting the nests, I have looted 100s and got none, he has gotten 6 so far.

- The alementals in the cave, I killed dozens and got none, he killed 5 and got 3.

- In a way I am happy for him, and happy for me.

- Why?  Because it is giving the island more life.

- If I got everything day one it would get boring fast.

- But I would like to get the one in the lake because getting up there is a bitch.

- Taking the albatross takes a year and a day, and I am not kidding.

- I've adopted a new strategy to getting up there.

- I go to the kid that sells hand made kites.

- You can buy a stack of 5 for 1000 coins and keep up to 20 on you.

- I have over 140K coins so it is no problems buying them.

- I go out to where you are in fatigue waters, mount on a flying mount and go high up, start heading in, hit my kite as soon as I am dismounted, and float to the lake.

- Just circle around until you land or cancel the aura when over the water and you are there.

- Better than a 15 minute albatross flight.

- And really fun to boot.

- I've actually gotten into the habit of using the kites all over the space.

- The mount rare is up at the bottom of the hill when I am at the top?

- Jump off, pop a kite, land and kill.

- It is great fun.

- I am now thinking of making my hunter an engineer just to have that all the time it is so fun.

- I doubt I will however, not many places it can be used like it can on the island.

- I've looted so many things, mobs, chests, fruit, you name it, I think I broke the left click button on my mouse this weekend.

- Having all my alts go though and get the good chests at least and tons of other goodies makes for a lot of clicking.

- Once all my plate wearers are done with any upgrades they can get they will be keeping one extra of gear, for 535 making purposes.

- Then it will all go to my plate wearing enchanter.

- I have a cloth enchanter too and none of my clothies need anything 496 already, so after saving some extra for upgrade purposes that stuff is getting disenchanted too.

- Makes me wish I had a mail enchanter and a leather enchanter too.

- So many free sha crystals, it is awesome.

- The island is a great way to gear up alts, but I still think it really lacks anything for mains.

- Could use a few world 553 drops to spice things up a bit I think.

- If it were not for the fact that my hunter is an achievement hunter there really would not be much of a reason for him to be there.

- I've been using my burdens to see if I can get a pair of bracers or a ring with 2 stats.

- Critical and haste actually, but only have seen one stat ones so far.

- My hunter has gotten 4 burdens so far.

- One person in my guild has gotten 14 of them so far, you believe that luck?

- Funny part is, he is probably the best geared person in the guild and did not need them.

- Wish my warrior had that luck.

- If it did I would be tanking SoO next week with him instead of my monk.

- If I am needed to tank again that is.

- Do you have an old school dwarf?

- Has it been to the island.

- Oh my f'n god.

- If you have one you know what I am talking about.

- Treasure tracking goes insane.

- Go to the bottom of the cave being no one is ever down there and watch your entire screen light up.

- For those that do not know, old school dwarves used to have an ability that showed them anything they could pick up on their mini map and it would shine extra bright on screen.

- I think they removed the ability late wrath but if you had it turned on it never went away, you still have it.

- And it is insane on the island.

- Did flex with a few characters this weekend.

- Love that I can be hanging out on the island, join and just go there and then when it is over I am back on the island.

- Hate that I can not get coins or reputation while in a raid however.

- What is up with that crap.

- Maybe I can understand the no coins thing but the no reputation thing is plain stupid in my opinion.

- Was killing youngols up to ordos and not getting reputation for any of them.

- Either a bug or stupid design.

- I am hoping for the former but thinking this is blizzard so it is probably the latter.

- My three plate characters, which were my only three under 500 on patch day are moving along nicely and that was my main endeavor this weekend.

- The warrior, as I mentioned, went from 482 to 501.

- My paladin went from 471 to 494.

- My death knight went from 484 to 497.

- Can I get the other two over 500 before patch day?

- Doubt it as I don't think I will play them tonight, but by next weekend I will for sure.

- That 535 gear might actually be awesome for getting offsets too.

- My priest has no shadow set, I DPS in disc gear.

- My shaman had no elemental set, I DPS in resto gear.

- Maybe I can go back to my preferred enhancement spec being I can easily get some catch up gear for it.

- All my tanks have tank gear and nothing else.

- Just wish the island had some weapon options.

- 476 weapons are really not an option for melee as the weapon is so hugely important to their numbers.

- Why can't we have 496 non-upgradable weapons?

- Or even a 496 weapon for 50K in coins, I could dig that.

- I guess they had to leave some reason to still do LFR because otherwise there would be no reason.

- Unless for the legendary quest.

- But like I mentioned, I don't think I will be doing the legendary quest on any other characters because I do not like random content.

- I really enjoyed a weekend full of having fun and not using the LFR system.

- It was amazing and I forgot what it was like to just have fun and not need to do that stuff.

- The feel that I can get better gear from playing the game the way I want to play, it is such a better option than feeling forced to group for random content.

- Keep that design up blizzard, options for nearly every slots that do not require LFR and I think you might have found yourself a winner.

- The option to do LFR for gear feels better than having to do it.

- Of course you still have to do it on alts if you want the tier stuff and real weapons, but now it feels a lot more like a choice than it did before.

- I did not think the 535 gear would be that great, until I saw my warrior going up.

- I could feel it getting stronger while I was playing.

- I could feel it surviving better as I was playing.

- I still only do 25K DPS while in tank spec, but I can survive a lot easier now.

- I just need to figure out how to get his DPS numbers up.

- I think that is why I like my bear, monk and DK better.

- They just do better DPS so they seem more player friendly.

- You could have all the survivability in the world, but when you are alone taking 5 minutes to kill a mob you kill in 20 seconds on any other class, it is not fun no matter how you slice it.

- I guess the island is so fun because I am using it most on the characters that need it most.

- I have done very little there on my main, my mage, my druid, my monk, or any of my better geared characters but I spent a ton of time there with my plate wearers and my baby hunter and that is why I like it.

- If I only had my main I don't think I would really like it much.

- All that would be there for me would be grinding reputation for the mount.

- I am not even honored and already have over the 100K I need, so coins are no longer even a motivating factor.

- But for alts the timeless island is like heaven and I am been loving it so far.

- My luck, as it is, sees all my alts getting rare kills my main needs.

- They also seem to be having the luck with drops that my main needs.

- Will this enjoyment last for very long?

- I would be daft to believe it would but at least the island has something awesome to offer, as in a new 535 each week for my characters and the chance to get BoAs that I can turn into sha crystals.

- So there will be at least one thing to do.

- On some of my characters I am torn on upgrades and need to math out some stuff.

- Like are thunder forged 528 pieces better than 535 ones?

- I think if they have a gem slot the answer would be yes without even checking.

- I was pleasantly surprised to see the heads have gem slots, but do not recall seeing any others converted to have gem slots.

- Last time they added catch up helms they did not have gem slots at first.

- Maybe my new 535 legs for my warrior did have a gem slot but I am not 100% sure.

- My warrior is almost to the point where I might actually start to gem and enchant him and I am actually excited about that prospect.

- The smallest things make me happy sometimes.

- Speaking of happy, I got little bling the first time I used blingtron after the patch came out.

- How awesome is that?

- So I had no pet love from any of the rares but blingtron love me.

- I'm going to have to put him on my holiday card list, he deserves it.

- I will never complain that he has not coughed up a mount for me yet now.

- Started to use some of that stacked up valor on the alts to upgrade stuff.

- At least two of them had nice new 553 tier pieces to upgrade.

- And my monk got to upgrade a war forged piece.

- Still a few characters sitting close to capping that I need to decide what to do with that.

- I had thought that I would be using my justice to buy some items but as soon as I noticed the 496 BoA pieces drop like candy I threw that idea out of the window.

- Why waste the justice on what is basically junk now with that free 496 gear.

- Maybe you can buy a second ring or a second trinket with it.

- Someone in my guild told me you can equip two of the 496 rings, they did.

- I do not think you can do that with the trinkets however.

- So I guess my plate wearers still can use a second trinket.

- But given the option of a 489 or 496 trinket and a 522 trinket, I think the 522 one wins.

- So many choices, so many ways to gear up that alt army I have.

- For the time being at least, the timeless island rules.

- People calling out rares are great but I can tell you one rare no one likes.

- Evermaw was designed horrible.

- He moves too fast, unless you use one of the many options in game to keep up with him.

- Worse than that however is the fact he runs through far waters that cause fatigue.

- I run in and out but I have seen people kneel over and die.

- I had to laugh.

- Speaking of funny deaths did you know someone can die in your bike side car?

- I had that happen.

- Was bringing someone over the bridge to ordos so he could loot the chest on the side and on the run up he died in the sidecar not once but twice.

- I laughed so hard because he makes the death sound and then he spins up in the air then lands face first on the ground.

- It was awesome.

- We made a chest chain were we cleared to the chest with a lock and summoned everyone in the guild that wanted to go loot it there.

- Free 535s for everyone.

- Even the most casual of casual players like one lady we have in guild that just loves to level and pet battle but never does any group content, even when we offered to have her tag along for fun to raids so she could get some gear.

- She came with her slew of level 90s and got the 535 piece.

- People on alts they never use at all came to get their 535 piece.

- Maybe blizzard needs to understand that sometimes people like the easy route.

- 535 gear is not great, not even in the slightest, it is below even flex raids, but for alts and for people that do not play all that often or like the LFR it is just want the doctor ordered.

- They should really take a note from this little endeavor and realize that having gear at least (or a little more in this case) LFR level that you do not need to do the LFR to get is an awesome idea.

- I really love the idea that I can completely skip the LFR with the 535 gear and I like that it is not as hard to get it for alts as I thought it was going to be.

- If you indeed can get one a week from that one chest in the back then I can gear alts up nice and slowly.

- If that is a one time chest, it might suck a little as I would need to depend on luck to get that upgrade piece.

- But at least they have a "no luck" option that allows you buy a burden for 50K coins.

- That is another thing that blizzard needs to realize, there should always be a "no luck" option in game.

- So while we lost valor gear, which I still hate, we gained a very quick way to gear up alts with a built in no luck option.

- Now if only they added a no luck option for raid gear.

- How about having a valor vendor pop up, for 5 minutes only, after you finish a wing (being that is how they are designed now) on normal or harder modes?

- That would make it at least what I always viewed valor gear for first and foremost, a back up for bad luck.

- Being it would spawn only after defeating a few bosses it would mean you have to be in a raid capable of downing a few bosses to get the benefit of it.

- Being it only lasts for 5 minutes you could not just "save" a lock out to keep going in and buy valor gear.

- They could even make it spawn tagged so only people that were in the group when it was downed could talk to it.

- Just like loot it tagged that is can only be traded to people that were in the group when it dropped.

- I just want my "no luck" protection on raid level because I usually have bad luck.

- But at least I got the flex bow on my first try even if seeing the normal bow drop when I was tanking sucked.

- You take the good with the bad I guess.

- For an expansion that started so alt unfriendly it has become overly alt friendly.

- You can really gear your alts to raid ready level now, even if you only do it one piece a week.

- Or you can hit 90 and grind your ass off and be raid ready in one day.

- Now that is design I can get behind.

- Lets hope blizzard sees it the same way so they continue that design.

- Now with all these great BoA items I am thinking about them actually being BoA again.

- With a few more alts being close to that new level 90 phase I would love to be able to send them over a full set of 496 gear to start fresh with but they are on a different server.

- I still think they should be called BoS, bind on server, because they are not, nor have they ever been, BoA, bind on account.

- Just a disagreement of the wording I am sure, but when I read bind on account it makes me think that I have it on my account which in turn means I have it on all my characters and that is just not the case.

- I wonder if these connected realms would be considered to be on the same server?

- If they are then it would be possible I could have more level 90s to send stuff too.

- More to add to my fleet of alts.

- Next stop, all characters over 530 thanks to the island.

- And at 530 normals should be just fine.

- So you can make everything raid ready with the exception of weapons, and I really like that.

- Thank you timeless island, I was worried about being stuck in the LFR as it being my only way to get gear.

- I was wrong and I have never been happier to be wrong.

- First up is my monk, while I really think it was a skill issue on my part not knowing all my binds like the back of my hand and being a little slow hitting them, but surviving a 600K hit that can not be absorbed will be a lot easier with more than 650K life.

- Heck, my co tank for the night has over 900K.

- Made me feel like I just hit 90.

- There is a huge difference between a 540 item level and a 515 item level, that is for sure.

- And he won three pieces that night and a piece off ordos and off the celestial world boss so I expect him to be pushing ever closer to 1M this week.

- And my monk is up to 520. :(

- I feel so behind.

- I am going to hit the proving grounds with my monk so I can get some practice.

- I may not like how I preformed the other night but I know what I did wrong and as I believe a good player should do whatever is in their power to get better I will attempt to do just that.

- And maybe adding a few 535 pieces as a buffer to my health can not hurt.

- I even put in a stamina trinket I got off lei shen that gives me 2201 stamina and an absorb.

- Hey, some practice can't hurt anyway.  Need to get faster in my response time to those cooldowns.

- I really think that was my issue.  Just flat out slow response time.

- I was able to tank the flex version and do it just fine, which means it is part gear and part skill.

- I can fix the skill issue with the proving grounds and I can fix the gear issue with the island.

- That is why I have to love say I love the island.

- Any monks out there that could help me with surviving the test with such a low life?

- I know it is just me missing a cooldown I can use, or something like that.

- Because if I can not get it I might just have to work my ass off to get my warrior up.

- Heck, I am going to do that anyway, love the island for that.

- I am going to be there long after the gearing process is over.

- Lots of rare drops I need to get for the achievement that sums it up saying we need a bigger bag.

- And with what seems like dreadfully low drop rates, for me at least, I think I will be busy for quite some time.

- How are you enjoying the island?

- I know I am.

- Have a great day, now go kill some rares.