Monday Random Thoughts

- I got Nat Pagle as my follower on beta.

- Yes, I even grind things on beta that I am only going to need to grind again.

- But I wanted to see what was involved.

- And of course plan out my attack for when live comes.

- First thing I needed was getting a level 3 fishing shack on your garrison.

- To do so you needed to get a fishing achievement.

- The achievement required you to catch 100 of each of the type of fish in their enormous size.

- I did mention there are many different sizes of fish this expansion right?

- The higher your fishing level the better ones you catch.

- I have my fishing pole from wrath still, the one that has underwater breathing.

- That gives me +30.

- I have a +3 line on it.

- I have a stack of glow worms with +100 that I got from the dalaran fishing daily.

- Worth having them to start people, really worth it.

- So at 700, with all that, I was at 833.

- So I found nice places to fish every fish where I do not get bothered by mobs.

- Sucks as a hunter because without a weapon on I can not do anything except glaive toss.

- And it is annoying have to switch back to my weapon all the time.

- So finding safe places was big thing for me, figuring that out so I do not need to figure it out later.

- At some point I fished up a fishing pole that was a limited time pole.

- It was +100 fishing and only lasts one day.

- And I fished up worm supreme, which gives +200.

- With that pole and the worm supreme I was at 1000 fishing and things took off.

- I was catching the fish I needed around 90% of the time, if not more.

- A few hours later the achievement popped, I went and got my level 3 shack, and went about getting nat to join me.

- Now, why all that trouble for a fisherman one might ask?

- After finishing his quest and assigning him to your fishing shack you can now catch lunkers.

- You can then turn lunkers in to nat for a coin.

- You can then turn the coins in for a mount and pet.

- A land shark pet.

- So I did this all for a land shark.

- And you will too, I know you will, who would not want a land shark.

- And if you happen to want a crimson water strider he sells one of those too.

- But, and I will need to test, if the land shark can be sold, it will sell for a hell of a lot.

- I mean who wants to go through all that fishing if they were not a freak like me?

- So the pet battlers will surely want the land shark and they will pay through the nose to get it as early as possible.

- And now that I know all the safe places to fish, and how to make sure I always get the right catch, I should have the shack and the ability to catch lunkers in the first week.

- So what do you think a fish like that will sell for on week one?

- I am betting a lot.

- And for an expansion where profession materials might not be worth much, having a winner like that early will be nice.

- Oh, and what am I going to do with all those fish.

- Glad you asked.

- I have two options for all those fish.

- One is hold on to them for fishing dailies.

- I'll have all the fish already so it would just be a matter of pick up the quest, click some fish, finish quest.

- Or I could sell them.

- And with professions materials over load and not many people actually the type that like to fish I can see them selling like wild fire at the start.

- You can level first aid all the way to max with sea scorpion.

- Yes, first aid needs fish.

- You will need lots and lots of crescent saberfish for alchemy. 

- That is because every potion needs crescent oil which is made with crescent saberfish.

- And many potions need other fish.

- Yes, alchemy needs fish.

- And of course cooking needs fish.

- Oddly enough they did not change that.

- Would have figured you would need leather and ore for cooking the way they are mixing things up for no real rhyme or reason.

- Either way, with people not liking to fish and fish being needed for so much, all those fish I went out of my way to catch to get nat will easily sell for huge amounts I am sure.

- For herbs and ore I expect to see a lot of people vendoring them.

- Why is that?

- I have been on the beta about 2 months I think and I am long past the point where I do not even bother mining or picking herbs in my garrison any longer.

- I have my entire 98 slot profession bag filled with materials.

- I have my bags filled with materials.

- I have most of my bank filled with materials.

- I have more herbs and ore than I know what to do with.

- So when I have 5 or 10 or 15 100s with garrisons all picking herbs and mining, what do you think ore and herbs will be worth?

- They will be worthless.

- At least a stack of herbs vendors for 50 gold and a stack of ore vendors for 30.

- So worst case would be you can make a few hundred gold a day picking them and vendoring them.

- I wonder if they are going to lower what you collect.

- Not saying I want stuff to be harder to get, but I would like it not to feel worthless to get it.

- Leather and cloth will still be worth a lot.

- Why is that?

- Because herbs and ore might be coming like wildfire but leather and cloth do not.

- Herbs and ore you get 10-20 per pick, leather you maybe get 1-3 per skin and cloth you maybe get 1-3 per kill, if you get any at all.

- And you need a lot of leather for things, like in the 100s to craft one piece of 630 gear.

- Then you need 100s to make the upgrade piece to make the 630 a 645.

- Then you need 100s to make the upgrade piece to make the 645 a 655.

- Sure, 655 gear will be for alts only, but it is still good for alts.

- And you will need a ton of leather to make that.

- And getting 1-3 per skin means it will be a lot of work to get enough to get there.

- Seems they increased what is needed just like they increased what is need for stuff you make with herbs and ore but they increased what you get in terms of herbs and ore but not with leather and cloth.

- But there is one good part about this.

- Cloth now drops from the things you can skin.

- So if you are a skinner you can collect leather and cloth at the same time.

- And I can still see them selling.

- Can you tell I am now getting into the planning more on beta and not so much the testing mode any longer.

- I've reported everything I could, I've done every quest, event, rare, you name it, in the game that is not bugged.

- And I have played on different characters with different professions.

- So now it is the time on the beta for me to play for my own selfish reasons, like planning things out.

- And you can be sure I will share my insight, for better or worse.

- Insight like having a skinner with fishing will be the best way to make money at the start, at least as it stands now.

- Fish, skins and cloth seem to be the early leaders on "what people will pay an arm and leg for that first month".

- If you have a profession that will require you to need cloth or leather I suggest having a trading post.

- At least you will be able to trade garrison resources in for cloth and leather there.

- Okay, now to the live game and boredom basically in full force.

- Actually got to kill a couple of heroic bosses on my hunter this week because I was not needed to heal or tank.

- It was a nice change of pace.

- Won the tier chest and a ring.

- So even if I seem to rarely be getting into heroics on my hunter I have 5 pieces in the last 3 weeks.

- Even if 1 was a duplicate, that is pretty nice.

- I ended up tanking for the first three bosses however because a tank was late.

- So I have my tank and my healer that are seeing more action.

- So maybe I should get them gear right?

- Nope, tank and healer can not win for the life of me, but my hunter, that I rarely get in with lately seems to be winning

- So I am in one of those weird places where should I be happy or upset?

- Should I be happy with my main winning a lot of gear lately even if I do not get to play him?

- Or would I rather be playing him more often and doing my normal thing which is win nothing?

- So happy I am winning or upset I rarely get to play him.

- It is really a hard choice here.

- Hey, I guess I will just be happy I am still raiding.

- It is really hard to get a team going lately.

- Hence the reason I am tanking and healing a lot.

- We are not getting deep into in on our two hour runs, usually only 6 bosses at most, but a lot of people are getting their first kills so it is still fun.

- I think I have said it before but I think it is worth saying again.

- I enjoy when someone else gets their first kill.

- Even if I have done it a dozen times already being there when someone gets their first kill does make it more enjoyable.

- Also getting my first kill on my healer or first kill on my tank are exciting again.

- Some of the pressure is removed because I know the fights of course, but a first kill is still a first kill.

- This week was my first time tanking.

- Only tanked the first three, with another tank that never tanked them, so two rookie tanks.

- It was nice that we were able to do any of them to tell you the truth. lol

- But that is what it is like trying to assemble a run lately.

- And I am not talking just for heroics, normals are just as hard to assemble lately.

- The only people we get that want to join our run are 560 people that could not fight their way out of a paper bag.

- Had this new paladin healer join us a short while back, really sweet gear for someone that had not raided and only pugged.

- Figured it would be cool to have a paladin in the mix being we have not had a main paladin healer in a while.

- Until my hunter out healed her on one fight.

- I know we were three healing normal, which I usually do when bringing a test healer in, and I instruct the other healers to leave people injured some, but that was a little out of line.

- If a hunters spirit bond can out heal a full fledged healer in 570 gear, that healer has no business being there.

- Sorry if that sounds elitist, but I really think there is a problem there.

- Needless to say she has not joined us for normal since.

- She can come on a flex, and even at that I really don't think she belongs there.

- Sorry if some of the ladies might find this to be a rude comment but I think the only reason she had that gear is because she is a female and she probably giggled a little on voice chat and got some guys to carry her in pugs.

- Homey don't play that.

- I do not care if someone is a female, a male, a dog, it makes no difference.

- Just play and try your best, and I will invite you.

- You do not even need to be great, just actually try your best and show me you are trying and you will get an invite.

- We are a casual guild, we do not need elite players, but we need competent ones.

- Get out healed by a hunter and you won't get an invite back.

- But healers do not seem to be our major issue.

- Guess what role I am having the hardest time filling for heroics and normals?

- Damage dealers.

- Sure they are a dime a dozen but finding any decent ones is like pulling teeth.

- The number of people with an item level over 560 that can not pull 100K is beyond frighting.

- I ask for a minimum of 150K for normal and 250 for heroic.

- Sure we can get by with less and sure I would like more to make it easier, but with those numbers it is easily doable and at current item levels that really should be the absolute minimum anyone should be for either, and that is still pretty damn low for some fights.

- And I can't find anyone.

- Those are not exactly elite numbers, those are casual but competent numbers.

- Had a 572 lock pulling 80K one day.

- I really have to wonder, how do you get gear like that and still not know how to play the class even slightly.

- I saw this one shadow priest in an ordos group that had me scratching my head.

- Would love to gear him up and see what he could do.

- Did 400K on ordos is mostly instant boosted 483 gear with a mix of timeless 496 and one 535 piece.

- Even with all the island buffs, for anyone to pull 400K in that item level I would love to see what he could do in real gear.

- Did a flex 4 this week on my horde hunter (still trying for any trinkets, basically full heroic gear and LFR trinkets, can you believe that) and I was floored by this sub rogue.

- Each fight he was nipping at my heels on DPS.

- When we got to garrosh I took a look at his gear figuring he had to be in mostly heroic gear, or at least some of it.

- He had 2 flex weapons, one flex trinket, and the rest was all LFR gear.

- Gems, enchanted and reforged of course.

- How the hell was he pushing almost 400K in that gear?

- That guy had some skills.

- Why can't I find anyone like this on my server.

- /cry

- So with my boredom I did my mount runs.

- VoA, Maly, Onyxia, you know the drill.

- Did them on one character, then the next, then the next, nothing, nothing and nothing.

- One day I will get those mounts.

- And you know how it will happen, I will get them all on one day.

- Always feast or famine.

- I decided to start playing around with transmog.

- My priest was in desperate need for better looking gear.

- She looks horrible in current tier.

- Hell, current gear in general looks horrible.

- Too big and bulky for my liking.

- At least as a cloth wearer it was easy to get her the minimalistic look I like.

- No, I did not go the black mageweave hooker look.

- My priest is a lady, not a hooker.

- And she looks pretty now, just need to get her a weapon now.

- Want the staff off the last boss in hyjal, no luck with the drop this week, maybe next.

- It is a little big for the mog I got her, but I think it will match.

- No really good weapons that I like.

- Saw one I would love but it was a quest reward from something I apparently had done before.

- They need to add a way to get back old quest rewards.

- Even if they charged 50 gold to have it replaced it would be nice.

- Heck, add a system that allows me to do the quest again for 50 gold.

- So I can go back and get it.

- I am sure many mog maniacs would love that.

- After I was done with her I started farming for gear for my paladins set.

- Paladins have some really freaking awesome sets.

- I would say over all if I had to judge one class based on their sets that the paladin sets are the best in the game.

- I normally tend to really like the low level green sets.

- So I am collecting them and have a nice set up for it now.

- It is the overlord set with some off pieces I mixed and matched to give it a better look.

- In my opinion at least.

- And I got this one green shield drop that looks freaking awesome with it.

- Have to love shield drops.

- I can't believe I have gotten to the point I am mogging alts like my paladin that I do not even play.

- Well, this is what happens at the end of an expansion.

- Sometimes having a little free time at the end of a raid tier when you are done with the raid and can start doing things like this, just for the hell of it, is a good thing.

- One of the players that quit last year after we downed garrosh came back for the first time to see what things were like.

- After checking up on things, and not missing a thing in over 9 months away, he said he will not be coming back.

- If a game, even with an expansion on the horizon, can not release anything new in over a year it is not worth a $60 box price AND a monthly fee.

- You know, he is 100% right.

- Blizzard does not deserve a box price and a monthly fee.

- Not when they release so little content.

- They need to pick one, monthly fee and give us expansions for free, or box fee.

- Not both.

- I say give us the monthly fee route and just give us expansions for free when it comes out.

- Basically, 14 months of SoO, lets say 9 was worth it for a last tier of an expansion, means 5 months at 15 per month for nothing.

- That is $75 bucks, so we already paid for the next expansion.

- He said it, and I agree, blizzard has huge f'n balls to ask us to pay for something we have already paid for.

- He has a solid point.

- He said he is playing eve now and they have at least minor patches every 6 weeks.

- They do not wait for new expansion to balance things like wow does either.

- If there is a problem they fix it right away at the next patch.

- I know a few people that play that, but it is not the type of game for me.

- It is purely PvP based and I am not a PvPer.

- Speaking of PvPing, I actually did some this weekend.

- Worst part of doing it is bunches like I do when I play for a bit then stop then play again is that I always need to remember all my binds.

- It takes me a good 4 or 5 arenas to get back into the swing of things.

- Talk about tanking rating, with me needing some practice time and a brand new fresh 90 in threes, we got our butts handed to us.

- So I have a whooping 1500 rating now.

- Fear me and my awesomeness.

- Hey, I never said I was good at it.

- I do believe if I ever got into it I could be okay, but I have no desire to.

- I did manage to get 2 more pieces of 550 gear with the few wins we had managed.

- But we lost a lot.

- My threes record is now close to 500 thanks to some really dreadful streaks of losses.

- But each win is awesome.

- I guess as long as I can remain over .500 I am happy.

- I miss world PvP.

- It was always rare and rarely fair but when it was it was great.

- Usually it ended up being 5 against 1.

- I do not call that fair, I call that a slaughter.

- I only had a few really great world PvP experiences but I can tell you from them if PvP was always like that I would be into it a lot more.

- They are some of my most enjoyable moments in the game when looking back at them.

- Even dying a lot, or the sheer about of pandemonium that it was, it was always fun.

- Well I guess that is all for today.

- Have a great day.