Helping Out Others

When someone in your guild asks for help with something do you help them?

That is really a loaded question that has no definitive answer.  At least not if you are going to ask me the question.  The reason I call it a loaded question is because there are way to many variables involved.  It can not simply be answered "yes I do" or "no I don't".  Not to mention, unless you are a world class jerk or the people in your guild are world class jerks who would ever answer "no I don't".

I believe that everyone would say "yes I do" and just leave it at that.  If you have ever read my blog you would know there is no such thing as a simple answer to a question like that if you ask me.  I'd have to think about it and ask you if you wanted the long answer or the short answer.

Short answer:  "Yes I try to help out people when I can."

Long answer:  That is where I explain in detail what "when I can" means.

Someone in the guild started a little firestorm the other day when the patch came out because "no one helps anyone here".  Meaning he believed the guild was unfriendly and that no one would help with the celestial bosses.

I said, when I came on most of the people that needed all four already got it done, so I started to do my stuff around the island and whenever I saw one of the 4 bosses I needed I just ran in and got in my hits and I got my 4 kills in no problem.

I explained it was just released content and everyone wanted to do it as soon as they came on.  Also, the bosses would be being pulled every few minutes anyway even on a small server like ours so I did not put up a group kill for release day.  Just get your shots in when you see a group, just like I did.

But while I believe what I said to be reasonable he decided that it just meant I did not want to help and no one else in the guild wanted to help because "they did it already so they do not care about anyone else".

I am not kidding, this is an actual situation that happened.  As ridiculous as it sounds someone wanted the entire guild to drop what they were doing to help on the day of new content when the boss is a shared tag boss that was being pulled every 10 minutes anyway.

He then gave an ultimatum that him and his friends where going to all leave the guild and take many people with them unless we changed our guild rules to require people to help others when they ask.

Again, I am not kidding, this was a real complaint and a real demand.

Do you know what my reply was, but I did not say it because I have experience in managing people I knew it would not be best to say it that way.  I what I wanted to say was good riddance, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

This is where I wonder what the line is for helping out others.  Was he reasonable to be upset no one would help him with the celestial kills?  I personally don't think so because it was patch day and everyone wanted to check things out, they were all busy with their own things and like I said, the bosses were basically being chain pulled to begin with.  But that is just my opinion, and others might disagree.  Apparently he did.  He believed that everyone should drop what they were doing to help him and if they didn't it was reason enough to try and start some guild drama.

See, that is why I could never answer "yes I do" to if I help people because the answer is not always that clear cut.  If I am in the middle of something else I won't.  If I am in the LFR or something like that I am not going to drop it to help.  If I did it already I might help, but when I switch to another character.  So while I might be willing to help, it isn't always a fact I will.  I might be doing something else and I think it is wrong to expect everyone to drop everything they are doing to help you.

The same goes for when people ask for gems or enchants or a belt buckle or shoulder or leg enchants.  I will be glad to help you, when I switch to that character.  But unless I am doing nothing at the particular moment you ask you have to wait until I switch.  I will never charge you or even ask for the mats, I will just give it to you, so the least you can do is not demand I switch right now to help you.

Honestly I did not even think for a second before I made my decision on his ultimatum.  I will not now or ever make a rule that requires other people to stop what they are doing to help everyone that asks.  Helping has to be because the person has the time, and willingness, to do so.  Once you force people to help they are no longer helping, they are doing a job, they are following rules.  That is not what the game is about. 

Sure, we need some rules, but that would not be one of them. 

If someone asks you for help with anything you have to drop what you are doing and help them or you will be kicked from the guild, screw having fun and enjoying yourself, everyone else is more important than you having fun.

Basically that is the rule he is asking us to add.  Not gonna happen.

The reason our guild works is because people help because they want to.  It is not only me that will make anything you need for your character, there are dozens of players in the guild that will make anything you need for free and all you need to do is ask.  There are many others that might not have the resources, but do have the skills, and will make it for you if you have the materials.  They all do it because they want to do it and that is what being a guild is all about.  But to demand they do it is out of line in my opinion.

He was told he would be given an answer to his demands this week, and it will be exactly what I said it would be, good riddance, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

On the average day I would have gladly sat around and helped people assemble a group for the 4 celestial bosses if they needed it.  I would have switched so I could loot on four different characters of course, but on day one of release, there is so much that everyone wanted to see and do that I felt it was incredibly selfish to ask everyone to drop what they are doing because you do not want to just get a hit in like me and many others that day have already done.

So in that case, it was a "no" to helping out.  And sometimes it has to be a no.

Let me give an example of an actual question I've been asked more than a few times this expansion and some of the actual replies that I have said.  Even if I would normally answer the help out question as "yes I do" you will see that more often than not I end up saying no.  But it is not because I do not want to help but sometimes it is just not practical to do so.

Can someone with a two seater mount fly me to dread wastes so I can start the quests there?

1) Sure, I'll send an invite.
2) You are in townlong, just talk to one of the shado pan with a quest marker, they will give you a quest to go to the serpent spire and open up the fight path, that will take you to where the klaxxi quests start in the dread wastes.
3) I am in queue for the LFR now, sorry.
4) I am on another server at the moment, if you still have not gotten there later I can take you.
5) I am waiting on this world boss group to start, I can help when we are done.

So 4 out of 5 times my answer was actually no but I still would give "yes" as my answer if asked straight out.  The reason being, is as I said, there is always a conditional and no matter what the conditions where, even if I said no, I was willing the help with all 5, just  of them were not possible to help with at the moment.

In case one I am currently not doing anything of consequence and am willing to head there.  In case two I use the teach a man to fish approach where I teach them how to get there so they do not need to depend on others to do so.  It is how most of us got there after all, unless you are like me and just jumped over the wall on the day of release and almost died.  In case three I would have been willing to help but I can not help because that would mean losing my place in queue, so effectively I am busy at the moment.  In case four I am not even on the server, as you can guess this means they asked in voice chat, so I can not help. And last but not least in case five we have the half and half.  Yes, I will help you in the immediate future, but I have to finish something first.  But from an instant assistance standpoint only one of my answers was yes.

Same goes for many other things.  I've given out hundreds of gems and enchants this expansion alone already but there are some people I just won't give them too.  I might suggest they buy the cheap versions, I might even offer to make them the cheap versions, but some people are honestly just not worth the effort.  You know the type I am talking about.  They are rarely on, they never help anyone but they always expect everyone to give them everything.  So being they are part time players they do not need top end things because they are not doing anything that might require it.  So I will help, but only in a limited way.  I will not use top end materials on someone that logs in once or twice a month.

While I will help everyone I do hold that motto to only help those that help themselves.  The huge difference there is when someone asks, can anyone help me with some gems, and I say, sure what do you need.  If they say, I need the agility & crit cut, 2 of them, I have no issue helping them.  If they say I don't know but I have 2 yellow slots I won't.  I will direct them to noxxic.com and tell them get back to me when they know what gems they need.  Once they help themselves by learning what they need, I will help them with what they need.  Call me an asshole if you want, but I think that is a fair line in the sand to draw.  If you ask me for help and say, do you think crit or haste is better for yellow, I will give my opinion but don't say, I don't know and expect me to do all the research for you. (even if I would know it to begin with anyway)

So as you see, there is no "yes I do" or "no I don't" even for people that like to help or refuse to help.  There is always some middle ground and in the case that made me think of this post, that middle ground was, it is patch day and there is a ton of new content.  No, people are not going to drop everything just to help you.  Get your tags in the same way the rest of us did.

For the record, week 2, we did the guild celestial thing.  You know why?  Because now it is not a new patch with everyone wanting to see all the new stuff on their own schedule based on when they logged on.  I guess the difference is, I understand that it is selfish to ask everyone to drop what they are doing for you and some others don't understand that.  I take all the help I can when I can get it, but I would never demand it.

I don't think I could ever make a guild rule that people have to help others.  Who would make a rule like that?  Good people will help, if they have the time to do so, but do not demand it from them, it is wrong, and selfish.

What is Your Biggest Pet Peeve?

I was writing a post about something else when it occurred to me that sometimes something might bother me in game that is not really a bad thing over all.  It is just a personal pet peeve.  Something that bothers me only.

So that post went to draft stage where it will sit with 100s of other posts that were finished but never made it to the published phase because this seems more interesting to me at the moment.  Pet peeves in game.  Things that bug you but might not bug others.

A pet peeve could be something that either rationally or irrationally bothers you.  There does not even need to be a reason behind it.  Just something that gets on your nerves.

What are your biggest pet peeves in game?  Maybe we share some or maybe our pet peeves are just personal things that annoy us only.

Pet Peeve # 1 - Long winded announcements

We have this shaman in guild that loves to go into long details every time they drop mana tide even if I have told them multiple times to just say "mana tide down".

Example:  "I dropped mana tide in the left back of the room as if you were facing the bosses.  It is kind of close to that one purple tile that is darker than the others.  It will give the healers mana if they stand close to it at a rate of blah blah blah".

Seriously?  Is all that needed?  It bugs the crap out of me.  Not sure why, just one of my pet peeves.

Pet Peeve # 2 - Interrupting my pattern

When I am farming something, mobs, rep, whatever, I have a pattern to it.  Usually if no one else is in the area it works perfectly.  I will make a path and have it work perfectly that when I reach the end the start has began to respawn.  Whatever I do I make paths for, a pattern if you will, and it annoys the hell out of me when someone comes along and messes with my pattern.

I know it is no big deal but I see someone fighting a mob in front of me that I was going to get to in a minute means that I will now not have that to kill and when I reach the end the new ones will not have popped up yet so I have to wait for them.  It screwed up all my timing.  And that mobs will now respawn differently and might mess up the next pass also.

It is a selfish pet peeve because I wanted the entire route I made all for myself, but it is a pet peeve of mine none the less.

Pet Peeve # 3 - Making me wait

Many times I will offer to have someone tag along with me when I do something like kara so if the mount drops they can have it.  I already have it and I figure if I am going to do it anyway might as well have someone that needs the mount get a chance at having it.

So I will announce in guild that I am going into kara in 5, if anyone wants to come for the mount, meet me there.  I figure I announce when I am on my way there so they have time to get there as well.  There is always someone that says, sure I will tag along and then keeps asking me to wait.  Let me do this daily first, finish this pet battle first, get over there being my hearth is on cooldown and it will take a while.

If you are not capable of being there in 5, why did you say you wanted to come with me when I was starting it in 5?

I would never expect someone to wait for me and I would surely not ask them too.  If someone is doing something and I know it will take me a while to get there I will say, I will be capable of going in 15 minutes but if you want to go before than it is okay.  But I would never expect them to wait 15 minutes for me.  It is a big pet peeve of mine when people just expect you to wait.

Pet Peeve # 4 - Auction house jerks

Maybe it is just me but you know what my biggest pet peeve about the auction house is?  When you get that one jerk that lists 2000 of an item 1 at a time.  Like frostweave cloth.  He will list 2000 single cloth for 3 gold each.  So if I want to sell, I am now forced to sell one each to have it show first, or hope that someone is willing to page thought 50 pages before they get to my listing.

Why is this even necessary?  I know there has to be some reason that these people do that but I just do not get it.  It is nothing but annoying.  It makes me which I could run up to them in game and punt them, even if they are not a gnome.  It is a huge pet peeve of mine.

Pet Peeve # 5 - Undercutters

Another auction house pet peeve.  I do not mind under cutters, that is how we all play.  But the super cutters are the ones that are my pet peeve.  You know the type I am talking about.  There is a stack of jade lungfish going for 600, a few going for 599 and a couple more going at 595 and then dimwit jerkwad comes and lists them for 200 a stack and then wacko mcbraindead comes and lists stacks for 50. Suddenly you have a vibrant market where you were selling stacks for 600 gold by the fist full to 100s of listings sitting there between 50-200 each.

Why?  No really, why?   If I could sell 4-5 stacks at day at 600 even with someone occasionally uncutting me at 599 or 595, why would you drop the price to 200, and then to 50?  Do you want to lose money?

If someone is willing to pay you 600 why only sell it for 200?  Perhaps that is why this is a huge pet peeve of mine, because I just do not understand it.  Undercutting does not bother me at all but undercutting from 600 all the way to 50 makes absolutely no sense.  Even more so when it is not just one person looking to get rid of a stack they had sitting around fast, which I would understand, it was someone that listed 20 or 30 stacks at that price.  A huge pet peeve of mine.

Pet Peeve # 6 - Flight Paths

There have been great advancements in "Air Azeroth" but they still have never gotten over their obsession with sending you on a world tour each time you take a flight path.  Nothing bothers me more within the small game mechanics department than the paths that flight paths take us on.

Even going to the new island the other day I went to the closest flight point which in was in the jinyu village for allaince.  Effectively it is directly across from the island.  I could hop on and fly right across right? Nope, apparently "Air Azeroth" wanted to take me on a view of the jade forest all the way up to dawns blossom instead of just going directly from the village over.

As pet peeves go for the minor things in game, this is my biggest pet peeve.  Direct flights from point a to point b would be really nice blizzard.  No need for the scenic view.  I guess that is why I always fly everywhere manually unless I know I am getting up from the keyboard for an extended time.

Pet Peeve # 7 - Emote macro people

We all have some fun marcos.  I've seen DKs with their mortal combat "get over here" death grips and of course I had my "its just a jump to the left" time warp macro since mages first got it.  Those things are fine.  But one of my pet peeves are people that have emote macros on all their abilities.

I was once in a battle ground where this one guy had /spit macroed on every ability he had.  Come on, is that really necessary.  Sure jerks do seem to gravitate to PvP because it actively reenforces bad behavior but putting spit on every ability is just going to far and move someone from the jerk category to full on asshole category.

I had a warrior tank that had a different emote on all his abilities and when tanking the dungeon it was like he was yapping all the time when he was just yelling out with every ability he had.  Had a tank on horde side that had "for the horde" macored into everything.

Maybe it is just me, but I find that annoying and that is why it makes my pet peeve list.

So what are some of the things that bother you?  Rational or irrational.  Vent about it.  Share your biggest pet peeves.

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.

Timeless Island Achievements

I am currently working on getting all the timeless island achievements and figured I would make a list to help myself, and others.  While I am still missing a few these achievements all seem easy enough to attain.  Some with luck, some without even trying, and some with a little time investment, but nothing here should be challenging.

[X] Extreme Treasure Hunter

- Visit the link to see where the treasure chests are.  As I am sure we are all doing, we loot all treasure chests we are able to.  So this achievement will not ask us to do anything we wouldn't do anyway. 

- The gleaming treasure chest is on the top of a pillar.  You will have to go around to the high point and jump to the first pillar and then across the four of them.  The first jump is not as long as it seems.  So do not jump full force.  The rest, just jump like normal to go from one to the next.

- The rope-bound treasure chest can be a little tricky.  Even more so if there are a lot of those elite mobs where you start your journey of tight rope walking.  It is just before the double bridges on the way to ordos.  There is a small pillar, jump on it and start walking the ropes.  Using a over head camera angle works best because you need to jump from one rope to the next and then that on to one more after that.  Jump right on the first rope down to the second and left on the second rope down to the third(if I remember correctly). When you do finally find your way to the end hit jump and tap forward.  Do not just jump down from the rope or you will miss your landing.  You want to land just a step forward.  So jump then tap forward, and it will keep you from jumping to far.

- The mist covered chest can not be found until you have found the other two.  Back to those double bridges on the way to ordos.  Between the two where you make the right to get from one to the next an event can appear if you found the other two chests.  Beware as some elite mobs that spawn there can really put a beating on you. A couple of rares appear right there as well.  When the event appears there will be a tiny pillar looking thing that appears, click on it and get wings, then fly around and try to land on one of the floating discs that appear.  Once you land and grab the chest this achievement will pop up.   You have some time, so if you can get more chests, go for it.  This achievement will be a little tricky for some but fun none the less.

[X] Eyes on the Ground

-  I would hope you are looting everything that can be looted on the island because if you are not you are doing it wrong.  All over the island there are things, clams, dirt piles, supply crates, you name it, that can be looted and they can give you timeless coins and possibly items.  If you loot all 7 types of these items you get the above mentioned achievement.  Most you will just run around getting without even noticing you are doing it but one, at least for me, I actually needed to seek out.  The firestorm egg tends to be in higher places.  The best way I have found to get to these is to go up to the bridge and find a place where one is and fall down to it.  Or you could always get an albatross to give you a hand getting to them.

[ ] Going to Need a Bigger Bag

- I do not think there has ever been a better named achievement in the game.  You will need to collect 57 items.  I don't have that much space, but the good thing is once you get them you can throw them away or use them, for the one use items that is, and it still counts.  There are some ones that are older ones from the main land rares, you can go get them from those which might be a little easier.  Most however you need to get from the timeless island and it is going to take a lot of killing, looting, picking, and opening to do so.  You will get some from normal mobs, rare mobs, elite mobs, picking up things on the ground, opening chests, you name it.  There is a lot of collecting to be done and you might find there are a lot of toys you are going to decide to keep.  I like being a hozen that swims fast and a ghost pirate and making it rain and having a little brewmaster, windwalker or mistweaver helper, you might too.  So even if not going after the achievement you might still want to find some of the goodies in it for fun sake.

[ ] Legend of the Past

- This is one of the ones I have not completed yet, but if you click the link you can see where they all spawn.  Just a matter of looking for them and hoping to be lucky enough to be there when they spawn, which seems to be rare based on some comments.  Perhaps as the island dies down some they will be easier to find.  Not so much a hard achievement as a lucky one here.  Hope you are lucky enough to find one when you begin looking, I might take a peak for one tonight.  I have not even looked yet.  See timeless legends for part 2 of this achievement.

[X] Killing Time

- For this achievement you will need to kill 32 different creatures around the island.  Some are elite but there are none that should cause a problem for anyone currently geared.  If you are not up to date with gear, as in at least ToT normal as of release, some of the elites could tend to be a problem.  If you do have decent gear click the link of the achievement and check out each mobs link to see where they spawn.  This should be an easy one for anyone.

[X] Pilgrimage

- This is an easy enough achievement to get.  Oddly, I still need it.  You will get a quest to get the blessing of a celestial.  These stone pillars are all over the place, if one is glowing, click it.  We do a lot of clicking stuff on this island don't we?  The only reason I do not have this achievement yet is that the island is packed.  I've only seen three of them glowing, and it seems all three were the same celestial.  Just keep clicking when you see them, sooner or later you will get all four.

[X] Rolo's Riddle

- This is an achievement I will never get done on my main at the rate I am going because you need to get a quest item drop to start the quest.  You get the quest item from picking up glinting sand.  I've had no luck, perhaps you will have better.  As I have not done it because I can get get the item I defer to the link to give you the information you might need.  Edit: Got it done.

[ ] Timeless Champion

- As of this writing I am still working on this.  You need to kill 31 rare mobs to get this achievement.  Some have conditionals that are needed for them, like the pirate ship that needs to be summoned, but it can only be summoned when the alter is there and the alter is not always there.  Oh, and you need an item to summon it and that item drops off a fast moving whale that is also one of the rares you need to kill.  But you can not keep up with this whale.  It will outpace you making it really hard to kill unless there are enough people to keep hitting him so he stays tapped.   Over all, not many of the rares are that complicated however and lots of them are so easy to kill that it might become insanely hard to catch them while the island is still popular.  I can kill most of the low land rares in less than 15 seconds.  Just to show you how fast they die.  This will take you a while depending on luck, when you get close, I suggest you start camping them because as I said, they go down so fast you will never make it to it if someone calls it is up.  They do not have enough life.

[ ] Timeless Legends

- This is part two of the legends of the past achievement which you find all four of the lost treasures.  Being finding one of the rare spawns is going to take some luck you can imagine finding all four while the island is still popular might take a while.

[X] Timeless Nutriment

- You will get a bit of a head start on this one because of a quest of the same name telling you to pick up some food.  Well, the achievement is for picking up all the types of food.  If you are grabbing everything that you can click on you will most likely have this in no time at all.  The only one I noticed might trick some people is the huge yak roast.  You need to jump and click it for most characters it seems.  Not hard, but easily over looked as it is up a little and not on the ground like everything else.

[X] Treasure, Treasure Everywhere

- For this achievement you will need to open1 blazing chest, 1 skull covered chest, 2 smoldering chests, 4 sturdy chests and 17 moss covered chests.  You can view the achievement linked for the map.  I just noticed I only need one sturdy chest to finish off mine so I will use that map and grab the last one when I am next on.  Just following it will make this achievement easy.  And you might not even need to do that because we will be clicking on and opening everything we can, you might get this one without even trying.  Heck, I got within one without even trying yet.  Note, the blazing chest is a once a week thing and will give you the piece to upgrade an item to 535, so you might want to open this one on a character that can use 535 gear every week.

[X] Where There's Pirates, There's Booty

- And who doesn't like booty? The sunken treasure is where you might expect it to be, in a sunken pirate ship. See the map in the link for where you can find it.  It will be surrounded by elite hozen.  Kill the pirate hozen until one of them drops a key, loot the chest.  When you kill a hozen there will be a helm you can click on that will give you underwater breathing for a minute, so no need to worry about breath.

- Blackguards jetsam is in an underwater cave.  If you look at the west side map you will see a little indent where the water goes inward a little.  Swim out as if that inlet was not there, swim straight down and into the cave, get your pirate booty after killing a bunch of spirit pirates.

- The Gleaming treasure satchel is one of a few rope climbing adventures you will have.  In the southeast of the map, by where the frogs are, there is a ship at sea.  Go to the back of the ship, climb along the ropes, jump to the mast and walk across to the dangling loot.  Congrats on your booty filled achievement.

[X] Zarhym Altogether

- You need to find Zarhym's floating skull near the start of the cave of lost spirits.  It might be busy now but it will be slowing down soon, don't worry.  The little event marker will appear when he is there so just talk to him and enter the spirit world.  Your journey will lead you to the back of the cave in a spirit walk,  There are spirits with circles around them.  Avoid them.  If you fight them you get thrown from the spirit world and have to wait for Zarhym to spawn again to start it over.  There are many spirit chests you can loot, feel free to get the easy ones, but do not waste too much time because you only have 5 minutes to complete this.  Sometimes you will need to wait a long time for the spirit to pass to get to it and it is just not worth it for a few coins.  Pet classes fear not. Your pets do not seem to draw aggro when entering a beam, just make sure you do not.  Use some creative movement and some jumping on angles, and you can get from skull to body in less than 1 minute.

There are also added achievements for PvP and PvE that can be attained on the island.  They are as follows.

PvP

[ ] Emissary of Ordos

- You only need to buy the Censer of Eternal Agony from Speaker Gulan for 2500 timeless coins and use it to get this achievement.  Using it will make you sacrifice 90% of your health and make you hostile to all other players, horde and alliance alike.  Each time you kill someone in this state you will be granted 1 bloody coin, which leads to the follow up achievements titled [ ] Candlekeepr for collecting 10 bloody coins, [ ] Oathguard for collecting 100 bloody coins, [ ] Kilnmaster for collecting 1000 bloody coins and Fire-Watcher when you collect 10000 coins along with the title of Fire-Watcher.

Additional PvE achievements

[X] Celestial Challenge

-  This achievement is part of the legendary quest line that requires you to beat all of the four celestial world bosses.  It is reported that you can get this achievement even if you are not currently on the quest line for the black price.  I can neither confirm nor deny that but I can tell you that you can get the achievement if you are on the quest because I did.

[ ] Emperor Shaohao

- You will need to earn exalted status with Emperor Shaohao.  This will be a long drawn out task but not something that should be unattainable or require an old school grind.  The yaungol mobs on the island all offer reputation, the stronger the yaungol the more the reputation you get.  There is also one daily quest from Shaohao that gives you 250 (275 with guild or human and 300 with guild and human) reputation as well.  Expect to spend a fair bit of time at it but nothing vanilla type of grind time.  One good thing is that the mount you can get at exalted with 100,000 coins should not be a problem once you are there.  I am barely friendly and well over 30K coins already.  So at least you will not have to grind for rep and coins.  Just grind the rep and the coins will come.  Not to mention, those elite yaungol love to drop fun goodies you will need for the other achievements.

[X] Ordos

- Defeat Ordos, the legendary only world boss on the timeless island.  It is not a very difficult fight for a geared group, when I did it we only had 24 people and we had no problem.  Not really all that hard for a "legendary" boss but I can see why it was not open to the world.  If you had a group of 40 all doing less than 100K you would probably wipe due to running out of space or the enrage timer.

Happy achievement hunting everyone.

Decisions Decisions

With a new patch there are always decisions that pop up immediately.  This patch however is leaving me with more of them than ever before.  First off, and maybe one of the biggest with full guild implications is what to do with flex raiding.  Another is what to do with those burdens of eternity. Then there is my compulsion to want to complete everything that leaves me with another one.

Flex raiding, and where does it fit?

As I mentioned here before the 25 man raid team is not quite normal ready.  It only managed to get 5 down in ToT, which was not bad considering the late start it had, but it is not all that solid and a decision will need to be made on when to move from flex to normal.

There are added implications as well.  When we started to get the early bosses down, as in the first three, the main 10 team started to bring their mains to help the 25 man because there was no way they would have made it past the 4th and 5th without them.  Too many under geared or under performing players so having the extra punch of geared mains helped even things out some.

If the patch lasted longer those mains could have even powered the 25 further, but I still do not think the 25 was strong enough as was to get past 8 or 9 max maybe.  What the main 10 did those last couple of weeks was we would just continue the 10 man from where we left off with on the 25.  Now with flex, and the 25s starting in flex, we do not have that option to bring our mains and continue as our mains will be doing normals.  That means basically running the same raid on the same character twice a week.

Because of that, many of the people do not want to bring their mains on the flex run.  I can surely understand that.  They do not want to suffer the burn out of running the same thing over and over because we all know at the absolute best case we will be raiding SoO for 6 months and more likely a year, unless blizzard can really step up the next expansion.  If the next expansion was going to be in 6 months we would already know what it was and it would already be in beta.  But being neither of those are true, we have to believe that we will be raiding SoO like every other last of the expansion raid, 10 months or more.

Doing the flex with the raid mains made for some really easy kills but last night on alts with just 3 mains there doing another flex, we just did not have the DPS to put down the third boss.  If we even had 2 more of the mains in there for DPS we would have had it, but we didn't.  This makes me adjust my theory on flex a bit. 

It is not the beer league that it was intended to be.  The people that were there mostly, ones trying out for the 25, where not exactly bad players but they were not exactly good players either.  Those are the people that should be doing flex and they couldn't.  Even completely ignoring tanks and healers and just letting all the damage dealers purify themselves, we hit the enrage timer every attempt.  Usually sub 10%.  Oh well, they will get better, I hope.

But looking at the two nights we ran and who we have there to run it with we most definitely do not have enough decent players to move to 25 man normal any time soon, unless they really get better in a week.  That means the mains will not be running with flex, so they do not burn out, and we will not be able to kill a couple in 25 and continue with 10s later on, which actually had become a decent way to get the 25s some gear and experience and to get the 10 actually running another night so we made more progress. 

It worked for both the 10 and the 25 as a whole but it only works if they are both running normals.  If the mains are in normal and the 25 is in flex the 25 will get no where.  Just like when the mains started heroics and were no longer helping the 25s, the 25s stopped doing 5 a night and were back to 3 a night.

As I have seen already, without the mains, the actual raiders, that group might not even be capable of downing flex.  So not beer league at all.  But I might be able to train them.

Training them does add another level of problems.  I do not want to have to micromange everyone.  I do not mind helping people here and there but I should not need to have to take nearly an entire raid full of people one at a time aside and train them how to do things that they should have watched a video of ahead of time and already known how to do. I lay out plans, I organize groups, assignments, make rez decisions, call for cooldowns, the least even the most casual of casual of raiders should do is watch a video so they have some clue what I am talking about.

I think I've been spoiled by not really having to explain much to the 10 man because they all look things up on their own, they are all learning on their own, they all come ready to raid.  They are all, what we call, raid ready.  Should the beer league flex really require that too?  Seems so.

So where does flex fit in?  Do I keep everyone there until they can learn?  Do I just say screw flex and do it as a weekend thing or a one day a week thing for the alts of the mains?  Do I just move to 25s and try banging our heads against the wall there until they learn?  Do I recruit like a mad man and try to get better people for the 25 man instead of trying to recruit from within by teaching?  Do I try to beg the mains that do not want to run the same thing multiple times a week to come help even if it might cause burnout?

Flex is an awesome addition, but I already feel a great deal of problems with it.  At least for me, I have not found a place where it actually fits.  After just two days and two flex runs, I am already looking for ways to drop it from our raiding schedule completely.  Decisions decisions.

What should I upgrade, if anything?

I've got two burden of eternity items already.  One from a random mob drop and one from a chest.  I can make those 496 things that drop like candy into 535s.  But which ones should I do?  It would be a minor upgrade for anything I make and I would then need to waste 500 valor to upgrade them.  With us doing normals soon, I could end up replacing anything I made.  Do I really want to make the chest piece for example and waste 500 valor upgrading it and then go into the raid tonight and win the tier chest piece?  It would really be a complete waste of valor.

But then there is looking at it the other way, maybe if I used both and upgraded two items and then used my valor to upgrade those items, it would make me better which would make it easier to get to the boss that would drop the thing that would replace it.

But do I really need them and will they give that much of a boost?  Me and a guild mate joined in on an ordos kill where the top 2 guilds on the server joined together to do it.  Needless to say, myself and my guild mate destroyed every one there damage dealt wise.  There was only one person even close to us and every piece he had on was ToT heroic.  So all five of our damage dealers are usually fighting for top, as we are all pretty close to each other, and we could beat the best of the best on our server, I don't really think I am in a desperate need to upgrade that 522 (530) to a 535 (543).

Now if you read here you know me, I take every chance I can get to get better gear, but this time it seems different.  Not sure why it does, but it does.  I guess it feels different because I look at it as "wasting" valor by upgrading it whereas I never considered it "wasting" valor to buy a piece.  I look at a 535 piece as less than flex and less than normal.  It will be replaced, hopefully, soon.  Spending valor on something you are soon to replace is a waste of valor.  Plain and simple.

I think I am going to try to upgrade and see what happens, the question at hand might very well end up being harder to answer when I do.  What if I get a piece with only one secondary stat, or none?  It happens, most people I spoke to ended up with stuff with one secondary stat.  One ended up with something with none, and another ended up with something with two.  So I guess I just need to pick a piece and use it and then decide.

Then it becomes the debate of which is better, a 522 with 2 stats or a 535 with 1?  While I might be wrong, I would take the 522s with 2 stats over the 535s with 1 stat any day.  Unless of course the 522 had hit and my worst secondary stat and I am over on hit already, and the 535 had my best secondary stat.  Then it might be worth it.

See what I mean about decisions?  I also need to look at which ones I can upgrade, which bosses drop what, what bosses I think we are going to get down and I might get a 553 from.  There is a lot to consider.  It is not a case of "woohoo I got a 535".  Nothing is ever that simple for me.  There is a lot of thought and decision making needed to be done before I go woohoo about anything.  Decisions, decisions.

When do I bring the alts in?

I am most likely going to push it until the weekend before I do the alts on the island.  Most really don't need 496 gear, but 535 gear would be nice on any of them.  So if I go there it would be with one intention in mind, get to that chest to get the 535 and be done with it.

None of my alts are even close to getting the legendary so I do not need to do all the world bosses.  I will for the weekly chance at a drop, but do not need to hang around for all 4.  I worry about if and when the time comes if I will ever be able to get a group for all 4.  As of yesterday no one was killing them already as is.  Imagine how hard it is going to be to get all 4 in a month or two or three if on day 2 you can not get anyone to kill them.

So all the island has to offer for my alts is the one 535 piece a week.  If you know where the chests are you can just head to it and loot it.  The other items are all BoA so I can grab it on my hunter and send it over.  Really no need for alts to be farting around the island at all otherwise.  It has nothing to offer past that 535 items and world bosses.

The rares should drop valor, absolutely.  It would give me a lot more reason to pop around the island on alts.  I will still head my alts to the isle of thunder to do my rare killing rounds.  The key you can get each week gets you a nice bit of gold, the stones that drop sell well, the rares drop valor.  Just so much more reason to wonder around killing rares on the isle of thunder than there is on the timeless island.

But I have to consider my main, and the achievements there.  As long as there are achievements to get on the island I won't feel comfortable wasting time on alts there.  Even if it was just to get the 535 piece.  There is something I want to do on my main, and as such I want to get that done first.

Maybe if they made achievements fully account bound I would feel free to explore on other characters.  But as it is, say for the rare kill one, if I kill something on my hunter it does not count for my druid.  So while the achievement is shared, progress toward the achievement is not.  As such, my main is still my main and will remain on the island until all achievements are done, even if I end up missing a week of getting a 535 for an alt.

With as much reputation as I need to grind on my main I doubt my alts will ever see time there any time soon.  But I guess that is a good thing really because like I said, with the exception of picking up that one 535 piece each week, there really isn't anything on the island worth doing for alts.

I might have to kick myself in the ass and remind myself to at least get all my alts there once a week to grab a chest.  It would be a shame to waste a week not getting a 535 when it would be an extremely solid upgrade for my alts.  But I guess it all depends on how important said alt is.

Now to research on which chest is the easiest to get so that way I can do the march of the alts to the island, grab their chest, and get back to my main and his achievement hunting.  At least that is how I might do it.  Decisions decisions.

My First Impression From Timeless and Flex

As was my plan I headed straight to timeless island like perhaps hundreds of thousands of others did.  From the feel of it I would have guess all those hundreds of thousands where on my server.  It is one of the things I do like about being on a smaller server.  New hubs are a lot more manageable.  But that does not mean they are not frustrating at all.

The island was very frustrating.  Some of us deal with it, like I did, and others just give up.  Had a few guild mates just say "fuck it" and quit.  Not the game, but running the island for now.  They just logged off.  Rares would pop up and someone would be just a few yards away and it was dead before they could get there.  A chest would be seen and before you could make two steps toward it, it was gone.  I deal with it, but some people it just frustrated beyond belief.

I guess when connected realms come it will be even worse.  I wonder if blizzard will ever use their technology to balance things out so instead of having 500+ people all reaching for one treasure chest they limit the people in a zone.  I am sure they could do it.  It will be a lot worse once connected realms come.  Heck, I would have never guessed we had as many 90s on my server as I saw there.

Coins and gear tokens drop like candy.  I sent a bunch to my least geared character and got them from 470 to 484 already and there are still pieces I can get from there.  I've vendored off at least 40 of them already, as most all my characters have everything 496 or better to begin with.   When you go there, have a lot of bag space, they will be filled faster than you can imagine.

I don't think I have seen the whole place yet but I did spend about two hours there and was able to get some shots in on a few rares.  I do see one HUGE problem with rares however.  Once I died and when I got back to the rare I was not able to loot it.  I had hit it.  I was hitting it from 100% to 20% when I died.  So I should have been eligible for loot but apparently I wasn't.

I died on a second one but the graveyard was what seemed like a million miles away.  By the time I made it back, and I did not dilly dally, I went straight there, the mob was gone.  Again, I should have gotten loot from that one.

So the mobs are not giving credit where they should if you die, and if you die in some spots you will not get loot because the bodies despawn way too quickly.  They need a lot more graveyards there.  Most of the graveyards are miles away from where you are most likely to die.  Those were the only two times I died to mobs on the island and both times I can say I experienced that insane run back first hand.  I was put about as far from where I needed to be as possible.

So they need to add some graveyard, they need to fix the loot problem, and they need to keep the bodies from despawning that quickly.  Those would be my gripes for the rares.

Most of the island rares I was able to handle solo.  As a matter of fact I killed three of them and did not even notice they were rares, I thought they were just elites.  So they were pretty simple for a hunter in decent but not awesome gear.  536 for reference.

Just like any other fresh quest hub there will always be griefers.  There were many people standing on quest givers with mammoths.  Standing on vendors you needed to buy things from with their mammoths.  You know the type.  For those that have that happen I will let you in on a little trick.  Bring your camera in, first person type of in, as in all the way.  Stand as close as you can to where you know you need to click and then change the camera angle to looking up from the ground.  You will be able to click the feet of the mob you need to talk to no matter what is covering it.  Works 100% of the time, at least from all the times I have been forced to do that.

Another bug I would really like to see fixed is the AoE bug when it comes to PvP.  Back in BC they changed it so AoE will not accidentally PvP flag you but when they added the thrall cloak quest line in cataclysm they broke it and AoE will now hit flagged targets and flag you.  I am surprised that they have not fixed it yet.

Either way, it was damn fun doing some world PvP on the island even if I did not exactly intend to do so.  My first accidental flagging was when I opened a treasure chest and got attacked by a bunch of mobs.  I got my 535 upgrade piece, not sure what I will use it on, and I killed all the mobs, but I ended up flagged in the process because there was a horde rogue there that was flagged.  He owned me, that is the only way to explain it.  I was not exactly at low health but I was hurting and started to revive my dead pet from fending off all those mobs to begin with, but him getting a jump on me before I even noticed I was flagged sealed my fate.

The next time I accidentally flagged myself while trying to click on the ladder to get on a boat, I clicked on a horde shaman instead.  It did not fire or flag me at that moment, I grabbed the ladder and started to climb, but being I was still targeted on the shaman it shot them as soon as I got to the top.  Just my bad luck that he had 2 buddies with him.  I pulled out all stops.  Killed the shaman and then died shortly after.  Opps, was not intended but at least I killed him.

We were both put at the same graveyard.  Oh my god, the hell that is going to be on a PvP server where everyone is spawning in the same graveyard.  I can see it already.  Awesome. 

I started to mount up, was not going to kill the shaman again.  First off it was accidental, second, he did not have his friends here this time and if I was able to kill him with 2 other people he had no chance against me 1 on 1.  I am not that type of player were I am going to kill him just because he is an easy kill.

Just as I was about to mount he hits me with a flame shock.  You have got to be shitting me, is exactly what passed through my mind.  Okay, I'll fight.  I spun around, called stampede, blew everything, and he was dead within seconds.  Dude, I was leaving you alone, what did you attack?

I then saw a rare while running around still flagged and a DK thought it would be funny to kill me while I was killing the rare.  Sadly it did not work out that way for him.  I kited him and the rare and killed them both and collected my loot.  I hope when he got back to his body there was no loot on the rare for him as there was no loot on that one for me earlier.  Would be poetic justice.  No kill on me and no loot on rare.  If only he helped kill the rare and then tried for me, he might of at least got some loot out of the deal.

Got flagged again while fighting another rare and it looked like everyone in the area did.  We started this long and drawn out but extremely exciting war up there on the bridge.  I would guess there were about 15 or so alliance and 20 or so horde.  We pretty much went back and forth killing here and there.  Was a great deal of fun.  It ended up with just three of us alive.  Oddly enough, the three that were alive was me and the two people I was in group with.  Woohoo, go team.  Put a hunter that knows how to kite in a group with two healers and unless you are a PvPer, you are dead.  Simple as that.  I am guessing the people there were not PvPers.

We were still flagged when we ended up at an event.  No fighting went on during the event, but as soon as it ended a hordie attacked.  They did not last long because I had picked up two more people on our way there and five on one meant me had no prayer.  When we mounted up to leave one of the healers slacked off behind a little and he came after her.  She called out in vent that he was back and after her, we turned around and went back and stomped him once more, just for good measure.  It is a small island, if you are going to pick on someone in a group, make sure the rest of the group is far enough away that you can kill the person before they get back.  Word to the wise there.

I think I got more honor kills, world wise that is, on the island in one day than I had the entire expansion so far.  It was kind of fun.  I always liked world PvP.  Not killing for an objective, just killing for the sake of killing.  Sadly I am sure this will not continue too long.  Even if the wilds was meant for PvP there never was any on my server, neither was there any on the island of thunder.  But this there was.  I liked it, but I still think blizzard needs to fix that bug where AoE flags you.  It is just wrong.

I joined a few groups for the celestial kills.  The cat seems easiest.  All of them were not much of a problem however once you saw the mechanics.  The huge fighting area however did tend to be an issue.  It was like I was out of range more than I was in it.

I made my 5K coins without even thinking about it.  They really are everywhere.  Little boxes all over the place.  Mounds of crystal, mounds of dirt, all things you can pick up.  Gathering gets you coins, killing regular mobs gives you coins, killing elite mobs gives you coins, killing rare mobs gives you coins.  I don't see how the 5K coins will be a problem for anyone.

I like my new cloak, even if I do not show my cloak because it would mess with my mog.  But it does look like I have wings.  If you are a hunter and want to force proc the wings casting mend pet seems to do it.  They look kind of cool and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt it procs all the time.  And that is not just exaggeration, it really does seem to proc all the time.  The visual is unmistakable.

I got my first chance to test hunter DPS when we got together to do a flex run.  Bursting nicely still and even with the cloak I do not see a huge boost to my numbers but more importantly, I do not see huge drop in my numbers either.  I would say I feel roughly in the same place I left off last patch.

If that is what is intended then they did well.  I did have some issues here and there but I quickly adjusted.  I hit my bind for readiness at least three times even if it is not there.  I needed to change my stop casting silencing shot macro to a stop casting counter shot macro.  The biggest adjustment was the arcane shot.  I often fired one and then did not have enough focus for my signature ability.  Oops, that is going to take some getting used to.  Just a matter of practice I guess.  I found myself focus capping again even with the increased cost because I was becoming overly cautious about not having focus for the bigger abilities.  I'll smooth it out.

My burst as survival seemed to actually go up in 5.4.  I was easily pulling 350K even messing up a bit which I think is nice being I only recall bursting between 270-310 usually.  Once I smooth it out it might actually be better than it was.  I believe that thrill of the hunt feels almost mandatory as survival now but I have to look up some numbers to make sure.

It was procing so often during AoE that between that and the cloak it was almost a constant flow of lines flowing out from me either by the cloak or my multi shot.  If I had to take a wild guess I would say I think that the cloak attacks are procing it.  Which of course would be a bug that is going to be fixed, but on AoE packs my thrill of the hunt was lit up for the entire fight.  Yes, the entire fight.  I am sure that is not intended but I must say it was awesome fun.

As for the flex raid we went with a full 25 people and it was not until the 3rd boss that we had any problems.  With a mix of players from 480 item level up to 540 item level and only 7 of the main 10 that had full ToT and some heroic experience, we were able to pass through the first two bosses with ease.

If I had to guess I would say for most people the first boss will be harder than the second.  We lost nearly all the raid at the end of the first boss and were still able to pull it out with just one tank, one healer and 5 damage dealers.  The second fight.  No one died.

It helped that the tanks knew what they were doing and were both geared and experienced.  But I would say that difficulty wise the fights did not seem that bad for a 25 man.  I can see some progression being needed on the later bosses and surely the third boss will need some testing to get people in and out, as we did wipe a few times on that one, but everything seemed doable, even that one which we wiped on seemed doable.

Admittedly we had a few really well geared characters there so the ease of flex might be a bit over stated from what I am saying.  It probably is not that easy, but I can tell you that it would be doable with a group of people that can follow mechanics even if they are not pulling 200K or better.

So maybe flex is exactly what it is intended to be.  I'll let you know how it turns out when we all bring in our alts that we are not so great at and then make a decision how easy it is.  But for people that where doing normal ToT it surely seemed easy.  Not LFR easy when you can do it with half a raid of horrible players, but Jin' Rokh easy where once everyone can see the mechanics and follow it, it should not be a problem.

I do like the little proving grounds thing on the third boss and was surprised to see how many people failed it.  It seemed healers were failing it left and right.  That might be the biggest test when pugging flex becomes in vogue, which you know it will once people know the fights.

To anyone that is planning on raiding, I suggest at least taking a peak the the proving grounds, because you are sure has hell going to stand out like a sore thumb if you die every time you go into it during that fight.  I already have a short list of people that were on our 25 that lost their spot until they can figure that out.

On the world boss I ended with the standard gold and gold.  Could not get the cloak boss because, as I suggested might happen, there were not enough people on my server to make a group.  Lots of people that wanted to join but could not get there.  There were just not enough cloak people on my server that were on at the time.

Speaking of not having a cloak.  We did manage to find a way to get people there without the cloak.  No, I am sorry, I am not going to tell.  Still not sure if I will use this information to try and gear up some people that are behind, or just leave it as is and do nothing.  I'll ask the readers here.  If someone does not have the cloak do you think it is wrong to have them in on a kill?  I know it is not intended for them to be able to, but they can get there, so should they get a kill?

I did not share it with the people because I did not want to abuse a bug, or let people even know it was there.  Even if it would have benefited me to be able to do that boss yesterday.  Trust me, I was tempted to just get everyone I could up there just so we could do that boss.

I did not get any of the island achievements, but then again I was having so much fun PvPing and just killing random things, that I don't really mind.  So far the island seems like it could be fun, for a while, but I wish the rares dropped valor like the rares on the the other island did.  Otherwise, I see this place being a ghost town sooner than later.  I'll be around to get all the achievements and enough coins for everything, mount included, but I do not see there really being any people that would be there outside of toy collecting, achievement collecting or rare bosses very soon.

Flex seems to have potential, I am not ready to pass judgement on it right now after just one run through it.  Lets see how it does in smaller groups or in groups with people that were not geared from ToT normal in there.  Then and only then will I really make a decision on it.  Lets see if it can be the beer league it was intended for.  The first and second boss, sure, beer league.  Not sure after that.  At least not yet.

Well, being I got the cloak out of the way, it is time to do some research on achievements because tonight I go achievement hunting. 

Have fun all, timeless might not be really timeless and only have a limited window of use, but it is fun right now, so enjoy.

5.4 Plan of Attack

Today I'll be logging in when I get home from work, if there are no major errors that delay things, and as always I have a plan of attack.  Everything I do in game I always try to think out ahead of time.  I'm one of those people that always love to have a plan and a backup plan in case the plan goes off task.

While your plan of attack for the new patch might be different I thought I would share mine.  It is what I believe will benefit me most and maybe it might point out something you forgot and help you streamline your plan of attack.  Or maybe you can point something out to me that I am missing so I can make my quest to make the move into 5.4 nice and smooth.

First off, things I will NOT be doing on day one.

Pet Tournament:

Going to leave this one for now.  I imagine it will take a little bit of time to find the right teams to best handle the matches I will have to win and while I have read a few good guides on the battles it can wait.  It is something I do want to do however as there are four celestial pets to be had and of course I must have them.   On the grand scale of things we are going to be raiding this tier for 6 months at the shortest and 12 months at the longest so I will have more than ample free time later to get this done.  No rush.  It is a weekly anyway, by the time the weekend comes I should have the time to play around with it and even if I don't it would not be a huge loss to push this one off for a tiny bit.  There are only 4 pets anyway so I only need to do it for 4 weeks to get them all which means I will have more than enough time to get them later.

Proving Grounds:

This is another thing I am going to be waiting on until later.  It is filler content for something to do when you are bored or when you are trying out new specs or talents maybe.  With all that needs to be done on day one this is about as far from mind as possible.  I said this in another post and I believe it needs repeating.  The proving grounds is better suited for a middle of the raid patch.  Not even sure why it is here and not in 5.5 where it would fit better.  It just makes people try to squeeze it in now, when it could be welcome content later as a change of pace.  I think it is a misjudgement to release it at the same time as a raid patch.

Valor Capping:

Being there is no valor gear this was moved down the list.  Most of my characters are over 2,000 valor points anyway which means I can not cap them even if I wanted to.  I need to win some gear to make some room by spending valor on upgrades.  Even if valor has fewer uses I am still tied by the obsession to make the most of my time playing that I would need to cap valor on one character before I start trying to get any on another.  It is all about effectiveness for me, always.  So my main will pass on valor for now and one of my alts will go and spend a tiny bit later in the week so they can cap and give the bonus to the others.  Or, if I get lucky in the raid tonight and win two pieces I can upgrade them both and have room to cap on my hunter.  I think I would like that idea best.  Gear on your main is always a good thing, but valor capping is far from my mind on day one.

Crafting Patterns:

I will need to get my leather worker, tailors, blacksmith and engineer out to the island so they can get their drop to start making the new special crafting material for the new stuff.  I have enough cloth, ore, leather, to last a while but as my main is non of these professions I will not be getting drops on day one.  Unless I get the other stuff done quick then they might make an island appearance. Will it set me behind some?  Maybe as I do not know when I will get these characters in there searching for the drops but I am not stressing it.  By day two they should all find their way there.  As anyone will tell you, mains come first.  "If" I have time I might drag my leather worker there as that is the one I would get the most use out of if anything as my most used characters lately are my hunter, my druid and my monk.

Noodle Cart:

How much more fitting they put a noodle cart into the game people call like kung fu panda?  Have a goose pushing it maybe.  Either way this will be a quest line that requires a little work like doing the jade serpent dungeon.  So while I want to get the recipe and do it, I do not think I will have the time on day one to get it done.  I will however make sure to pick up the starting quest on the island.

What I will be doing:

0) Update addons.

Who reading this has ever logged in on patch day without updating addons and having so much stuff broken?  Oh, all of us I am guessing.  I always say I have to do this first and oft times forget even when thinking about it.  This is step 0.  Do it before logging in.  Broken addons slow you down and grumpy does not like being slow and inefficient.

1) Get 3 warforged seals.

I am parked right in front of the NPC to trade this in when I logged out.  It is in the same place we got the elder charms and then the mogu runes, we can now get the warforged seals from the same person.  It is important to get them before going to the island.  I'll be killing the celestial world bosses so might as well get a coin to use on them and the legendary only boss right?

2) Make sure I pick up the cloak quest.

I want to be on the legendary quest when I head to the island, so make sure I have it before going there of course.

3) Head to the island and start killing.

From all I read it should not be much of a problem to gather up 5,000 timeless coins and day one is really the best time to get a jump on easy coins as everyone will be killing everything and you can share on kills.  If you are like me and want the mount you will need 100,000 coins for that, so might as well take advantage of the filled area with lots of stuff dying real fast to get as many as you can now when it is easier.  The 5,000 for the quest and more for later.

4) Kill the world bosses.

Groups for the celestial world bosses should not be a problem even on my smaller sized server but I do have worries that the legendary only one might not see a group happening for a while.  If I had to guess I would not be surprised if less than 200 people on my server are even up to date on the cloak quest.  And that might be over estimating.  Off to open raid for that.

Remember those coins I got before coming to the island?  Well, this is the time to use them.  You can use one on any celestial boss.  They all share the same exact loot table and all count as one boss, in terms of loot anyway.  This means while you can kill all four in one week, and you will need to for the legendary quest line, you can only loot them once a week.  Not once each, once from the loot table.  Being they share a loot table that means you only need to kill one celestial a week.  They drop 553 loot and the legendary only boss drops 559 loot.  One coin for the celestial boss an one for the legendary boss.  Last coin is being saved for the real raid, not flex, weapon boss hopefully.   Getting the coins before I came here saved me time from having to run back to get them.

5) Get my legendary cloak.

I am so glad to see a legendary that we get before we raid and not after we have already finished the raid.  It makes more sense to have the legendary item help you down the raid than as a reward for downing it.  Well, that is one way to look at it at least, I am sure many would disagree.  With the four celestial world bosses down and 5,000 timeless coins collected it is time to finish off the quest line.  If all goes well based on what I have read I should be able to do this all within an hour to an hour and a half at most after logging on.

6) Do some exploring.

If my handy notes are updated I should be able to find all the goodies nice and easy.  So whatever I did not get to during collecting my 5,000 coins I will get to now.  Open all chests, exploring all areas.

7) Collect loot.

While the 496 pieces will be all but useless for most of my characters the 535 upgrade pieces will be great for all of them.  With the exception of my hunter I do not have any 535 level items on any characters as my hunter is the only one to down anything on heroic.  So I will collect as many of the 496 pieces as I can but I will not use them until I upgrade pieces to make them 535.  My plate wearers are the ones in most need of gear.  But I might prioritize my druid or monk first if they do not get lucky with flex.  Then my plate tanks get all the first 535 upgrades as they need to catch up most.  The 535 upgrade piece is BoP but the 496 is not.  So I can farm the 496 pieces on my main, which will make it easier, and then just go get the 535 piece on the character that needs it to upgrade it.  Really wish the 535 piece was not BoP but in a way I can understand why it is not.  A person like me with as many alts as I have on one server could effectively deck out one character in all 535 pieces on day one a lot easier if I were willing to put in the effort being all characters can get one 535 loot upgrade per week, at least that is how I read it.

8) If there is time bring in the alts.

Being it is day one I can be pretty sure the celestial bosses will be going down left and right.  If there is time I am going to drag as many alts over just to get a kill in and a chance at 553 gear of course.  In a perfect world I should be able to get them all there to get a kill in before raid time.

9) Raid baby raid.

Last but not least it should be time for raiding.  Today will be flex day and we will try to bring as many people in as possible.  I am guessing at least two 20 man teams, maybe even more, will be heading into flex on day one.  I am expecting that my hunter will not be in either of them however.  Being we are still at a shortage of tanks I might be called on to tank.  Normally we do not run two teams at the same time and our main tanks all have multiple tanks so they tank for multiple teams but that won't work now as they can not run two at the same time.  Either way, it will be fun to get a start on the new content and flex makes for the ultimate testing platform.

10)  Start the evaluations.

The 25 man team and additional 10 mans will now be different thanks to flex raiding.  We will keep detailed reports and evaluate everyone in the flex raids to see who deserves to be on those teams.  Is that too much for a take it easy casual guild?  I think not.  It just means we can do flex if people are not ready.  I am sure this will help the 25 man more than anything else.  I am really looking forward to that.  Maybe we can get better as a 25 man this time around with the help of flex as a learning tool.  I am really looking forward to that.

I plan to spend a good 6 hours on tonight.  Might seem like a lot, but it really isn't for a patch day.  I am sure there will be many that spend a great deal more than that, but if all goes well when day one ends I will have the legendary on my main, a few bosses down in flex, and every one of the crafters the patterns (if I had time) or at least a celestial kill on a few.  Maybe if I get lucky I might even have a few new pieces for some alts.

Advanced look at day 2:

1) Get those near capped players over to the shado-pan assault vendors.

I have more than a few players that can use some 522 gear.  So it is time to buy a few pieces, at least enough to get them under 2K so they can cap.  There are a couple, namely my plate wearers, that can even use some of the 489 trinkets and they all have enough valor set up ahead of time to get them.  So day two is spend that valor and justice to get some pieces for the characters that need them.

2) World boss kills.

I expect that on day two the world bosses will still be going down at a reasonable pace.  By day three on my server it should calm down, usually does, can never find a group for anything by day three.  So getting all my remaining 90s there today will be very important.

3) Get those crafting recipes.

Now is the time I will make the extra effort to get those patterns for my leather worker, black smith and tailors.  That is if they did not get super lucky when (and if) I ran them over to the island on day one.

4) Pick a character and valor cap it.

At this point I should have at least one character under 2K valor which means I can cap someone to make the rest of the week better in terms of valor rewards for my other characters.

5) Raiding again.

Depending on what tuesday looks like, wedensday might be the real raid for 25 man.  If not we could always run another 25 flex with the people that need it, continue if we did not down the 4, or start normal mode 10s.  So much to choose from raiding and I still have no clue what we are going to do.  Flex has opened a whole new door and it remains to be seen what that will lead to.  It is all up in the air and for the first time ever I do not have a set plan in mind because I don't know what to expect from flex difficulty.

For at least the next few days things should be busy and interesting.  Long term goals of course are all the island achievements, the 100,000 coins for the mount and the bloody coin collecting for that mount.  As a non-PvPer that should prove extra interesting. I would not be surprised if there were some win trading events that pop up for that one.  I'll have to join in on that those.  Might be the only way to get it for me.  I'm looking forward to a busy night and a lot of stuff to do for the near future at least.  New patches always seem like so much to do.  This is what we call a good problem.

Happy 5.4 day everyone.