Wednesday, October 30, 2013

More Alts, More Professions, More Connection.

When I first heard about connected realms something immediately occurred to me.  I can have more characters on my server.  Now that connected realms are underway that passing thought becomes a reality.  With each new realm that merges with mine that means there are 11 more character slots I can make effectively on my main server, even if they are on one of the other servers.

This means my heirlooms can be sent to them and I can level even more characters faster.  If five realms were connected together I could effectively have 50 characters on the same server.  It can't happen because I already have a lot of characters on many different servers, some of which will not be connected because they are on full servers, sometimes with a queue to log in.  Dare I say blizzard would not be stupid enough to connect a realm to one that already had occasional queue times to enter even when there is no new content, like now?  Well, don't put it past blizzard, they have been known to make their fair share of bone headed moves before.

Either way, I do have a few character slots open being I am not at my 50 max and that means I can make more characters on my main server thanks to merging.  The thing is, what characters do you make on a server that already have one of each class?

Well, when I had my second account active, which has been inactive for an extremely long time and I intend to leave it that way until they offer another scroll of resurrection mount, I had a couple more hunters, a druid and a DK on the main server where I do most of my game play.  They sit quietly on an inactive account at 85 now, but if anything that gives an idea which characters I would level as duplicates giving the ability to do so now.

Leveling more hunters really seems like a no brainer if you ask me.  It is my favorite class.  It is the best class in the game to level with.  It is one of the best classes in the game to gather with.  And it is my favorite class and by far what I am best at.

Past that, you need to look at will I play them.  If anything a hunter would be what I would most likely be willing to play.  It is also why, when looking at my past history, the only 4 classes I tend to have duplicates of at max level early on are the ones I play the most.  Hunter, druid, priest and death knight.  Without a doubt, in my opinion, the 4 easiest classes to level and play.  But that probably has more to do with my experience in them.  I am sure other classes are easier for other people.

But with more characters comes more opportunity to expand on my professions.  Of course, like any good commander of an army of alts, I have every profession already including having one of each alchemy specialization.

So what professions might be best to have duplicates of, and that is what I am thinking about now.  With the connected realms leveling a new character does not seem like an issue.  Be it a hunter or some other class it won't take more than 2 days played even if I take my sweet ass time to level from 1 to 90.  I've said it so many times before, leveling is just too darn fast.  However, in this case, where I would just be leveling for extra professions, that works out to be a good thing.  But don't let me taking advantage of that lead you to believe that I changed my mind.  I still believe, very strongly in fact, that it should take even a fast leveler like myself 20 days played to get to max level, not 2. 

The reason we have so many bad max level players is we give them a free pass to become max level players.  I say let them take 40 days played to get to max level, if they can manage that, they will more than likely not be a bad player when they get there.  But that is a post for another day.

Back to topic.  What professions should I start stockpiling on?

First things first.  With the barrens quest hub and now the timeless island hub, we are seeing what the future might hold for us and that is a lot of BoA catch up gear.  What does that mean to the profession minded person?  I'll tell you exactly what that means.  You need an enchanter of every armor class.

Look at the timeless island BoA stuff.  Timeless plate, timeless mail, timeless leather and timeless cloth.  All of which can only be converted by the person that can wear it and as soon as it is converted you can not trade it.  So you would want to convert it on a character that can disenchant it wouldn't you, to get the most out of it.

This weekend I converted and disenchanted over 400 timesless BoA pieces for a total of 453 sha crystals and I still have roughly 100 pieces floating around because I do not have an enchanter that can disenchant mail.

It only makes sense to have one enchanter of each armor class now.  Not only does it make sense, but you would be playing at a disadvantage if you did not have one of each class.  A disadvantage in making gold, a disadvantage of not having all those normally expensive weapon enchants for free, a disadvantage of wasting materials they are handing out for free.  The only thing worse than not playing well is not playing smart.  Having a profession alt that can disenchant all classes of armor is playing smart.

With connected realms and the ability to have more characters on your server, why not have an enchanter for all types so if they ever do this again you can take advantage of it.  Being I need a mail enchanter, I love playing hunters, and hunters are easy to level.  Can you guess my first connected realm move in concern to what class I will roll and at least what one profession it will have?  Yeap, a hunter with enchanting is on its way.

Outside of that obvious addition, what professions should I make the others I will add to my army of alts when the time comes?

Things like tailors will always be good if they do something like they did with bags this time around.  Instead of making one bag every 12 days you could make 2 or 3 or 4.  I am sure you can make a lot more money having a lock on the bag market from the get go like that.  Or even if you are just making them for yourself, at least you will have all the best bags sooner than later.

But if they do it with reputation to get the pattern like this time, which I hated, who has the time to grind reputation on multiple profession alts?  Surely not me, and I play a lot.  So not sure who would unless they are unemployed.  So maybe that is not a good option because getting ready for it might effectively make more work for myself and the last thing I want is to back myself into a corner where I feel I "have to" do something again.

More transmutation alchemists makes sense.  Only need one for flask and one for potions.  There is no limit on how many of those you can make but when it comes to transmutes there is always something with a limit and when an expansion starts those things always sell like wildfire. They even still have a fair deal of life throughout the expansion.  Something you can't say about some other things.  So surely adding a few of those would be good.

How about adding another double gatherer to the mix for those days when I just feel like doing some farming?  A worgen druid makes for an excellent herbalist and skinner thanks to instant flight form and the ability to pick herbs in the air plus faster skinning.  A hunter makes for the absolute best node gatherer meaning mining and herbalism is great for them too, let the pet fight while you gather.  No losing a node to getting attacked and someone else taking it while you are fighting.  We all hate that don't we?  Well, I do.

There are so many great things (and bad things) that can come with connected realms but all I can think about is my army of alts and what professions they will be.  More alts, more professions thanks to more connection.  I can dig it.

Are you character capped?  If so, what are you planning to do with your new found ability to make more characters effectively on your main server?

12 comments:

  1. Another good use would be professions where you have to learn your recipes on a daily cooldown like JC and inscription. Early in the expansion you'll be more likely to double the amount of recipes you know potentially allowing you to take advantage of the market, or just more likely to get the recipes you actually need for yourself faster. Unfortunately it loses its advantage after some amount of days into an expansion. You could make the case for multiple LWs if they continue with the need to learn 80 something recipes every patch trend to increase your chances of learning the one you want. Engineering there are two specializations you could have one of each, although it's not really known as a big profit profession. I don't think I'd worry as much about the multiple of one gathering profession as if you feel like gathering, why not just play the one that already has that gathering skill. I think you hit the top two with enchanting and transmute alchemy.

    Personally I like enchanting and engineering on multiple toons. The engineering is more for the tinkers though than profit.

    You should consider leveling one of every class but the opposite faction using your connected realms still. I'm hoping they will connect the realm where most of my alliance are and the one where my horde is. Either that or I hope they connect the realm I first played on with the current one so that I can reconnect with some old friends.

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    1. Nice point, that is why I made a second JC a while back, totally forgot about that one. Could use a third I guess being I will have the extra space.

      Extra gatherers work because most of the characters I play with have 1 at most. I think having someone with 2 would be worth it if I am in gathering mood so I can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

      I am wondering where this will all end up myself. So far none of the realms I have characters on have been connected to each other. Would be a nice way to assist each other, if on the same faction that is.

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  2. Anon, Grumpy's former GL:

    Mostly I am waiting on finding out some PvE and RP connections. I have hopes that some of my multiple servers wind up being paired. I fear that it will wind up not occurring or not enough so that I will be able to use all my characters effectively. So I suspect when the dust is all cleared and the server connections are set, I will be going thru my list of toons and deleting a number of them to be recreated or replaced on a server connected to my main servers.

    With the more limited number of RP servers, I actually have a hope of seeing some of my characters coming together. More so than I do for the PvE servers. The sheer number of PvE listed as medium makes it seem unlikely to me to get the few I play on connected, other than by chance. I can't say I think that will be likely. So as much as I regret the thought, finally getting the connected realms going will likely mean a complete reassessment of my characters.

    Why do such? Well of course it is because it is more effective to have multiple toons on the same server. All the professions covered, all the sub-specialties and multiple gatherers. Why wouldn't I like such...

    Well to be honest, there is one reason, my mage on one of the RP servers is a solo character, recently hitting level 81 and still climbing; all alone and prospering. It is fun to do everything the harder way with no other support, no heirlooms, no guild backing. But that is the exception to prove the rule of preferring multiple toons supporting each other.

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    1. I too have multiple 90s on servers where they are solo players. I do find it fun to work my way through the ranks again. I believe it also helps keep me grounded. I often hear people with that "elitist" attitude and I just have to remind them, not everyone is you. Growing solo has taught me a lot about how the average player plays.

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  3. My main is on a Locked server so no more chars for me :/

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    1. You never know with blizzard, as I mentioned. I have a few characters on locked servers with the occasional queue to get on and it would not surprise me one bit if they merged some tiny servers with almost no population with them.

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  4. For professions, the ones I'm most likely to double- (or more) up on are:

    Alchemy - All xmute, can't have too many, definitely on raiding toons for the 2x flask duration. If I'm making a ton of flasks or potions I'll just stockpile mats and change spec for the day, otherwise I stay as xmute and do some sort of daily xmute.

    Enchanting - Priority for raiding toons, not much use otherwise, I'm considering putting it on the most likely raiding toon for each armour type, as you mentioned, not necessarily for tokens (I'm not sure that system will continue) but just in general.

    Inscription - For the first 6 months of an expansion at least for DMF cards. Less useful as a multiple later on.

    Tailoring - Bags.

    LW - They always seem to get screwed for the daily cooldowns (2 hides is worth a TON more than the daily mat requirements for the other professions) so may as well get better access to cheaper hides.

    Blacksmithing - As long as it has a daily cooldown it'll stay on this list although I don't have more than one per server.

    Any toons that will never do any competitive content are eligible for dual-gathering, not much reason not to. I'd have a couple of these at least, druid and one other class as long as they aren't raiding.

    Engineering and Jewelcrafting got significantly less benefit from multiples this expansion, Engineering is getting a bit of a late kick from the daily cooldown mount/pet consumable but that may or may not continue. JC is the only profession that I see absolutely no benefit to having multiple of, which is new, I had two in the previous two expansions and I actually switched a toon out of JC to mining early in MoP. That hurt a bit. To counter Cain's argument above a bit, having recipes split between multiple JCs is more annoying than helpful, IMO. Trying to remember which one has Delicate and which has Deft is beyond my memory skill. I'd rather it just takes twice the time on one to get them since once you know them, they're done. That's different from daily crafting where you're still getting benefit after 50, 100, 200, etc.

    As for realm combinations, I don't think locked/queued realms will merge with anyone, I don't see the upside... they don't need more people and the tiny servers that would be merged with them will be completely blown away. Imagine going from an empty server to Stormrage. Hell, I can't imagine it for a player who didn't do it voluntarily. That'd be far too much of a shift. My servers have almost no chance of being merged... one is PvE-RP, one is PvE, one is queued. I hope that whatever tech they've been rolling out allows for cross-server heirlooms in the next expansion, though. They HAVE to have been working on that, no?

    @Anon - that's an interesting comment, my "main" raiding toon at the moment is a solo 90 on a server and can't do ANYTHING for itself (dual gathering... couldn't afford to level a crafting profession at the time). While it's definitely an interesting experience to have to use the AH for EVERYTHING, especially since I'm about 99% independent on my two other server, it's not something I particularly enjoy. It was nice for a bit but after a few months of that I wish I could fold it into the rest of my toons and kit it out myself. It's a different scenario for casual toons, of course, it didn't really bug me until I started replacing multiple pieces of gear a week and performance measurements actually started mattering a bit, even if just to me.

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    1. I am on those mentioned empty server and on stormrage. So no imagine for me. lol

      I agree, can never have too many xmute masters, it is just a winner all around. That and the one of each enchanter are the only things I consider required. I can just fill out everything otherwise I guess.

      One of my solo guys is a double gatherer as well. Ouch now that I am trying to gear. Making 5K to get gems and enchants is a lot of herbs and leather, that is for sure.

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  5. I'm not planning to make more toons... I still need to level the ones I have... I only have 2 90s (and 1 more coming soon).

    I hope they remove the 2 professions per toon limit in the next expansion. I want my hunter to have engineering, enchanting, alchemy, leatherworking... heck, all of them...

    I'd really like them to get rid of the crafting daily CDs as well, but I doubt they'll do that...

    They did say that they were working on having heirlooms work like pets/mounts when they were answering questions about bag space. So that may come with the next expansion or possibly sooner.

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    1. Well they are adding a way for you to get some other profession in the next expansion it seems, just to see how useful it is now, but looks like we are tied to 2 professions.

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  6. how do we get jack of all trades do we keep the 700 skill level when we switch is that dual talent or something (not dual spec)

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    1. It is meant to be something you do over many caterers. Not just one.

      I am not sure if you drop a profession and pick up another one if it would count. I am guessing it would after it was noted, but I would not want to be the one that tests it.

      I got the achievement from multiple characters, each with their own professions.

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