Should LFR Drop Better Loot or None At All?

I was reading a post on the forums where someone was complaining about LFR, as if it were some sort of new thing that they just noticed, and saying that LFR creates the feeling of entitlement.  At least that is what I believe he was trying to convey as his central message.

The reasoning for this post is that I am not sure if I agree with him.  I am either part of the people that feel entitled to more from LFR, because I do actually feel that way, or I am the type of person that believes LFR is fine for what it does, because I feel that way too.

I guess I feel both ways depending on who's perspective I am looking at it from.  On the grand scale of things looking at the game as a whole I think the LFR is absolutely fine.  I also do not see it being what he sees it being, a place where people go to demand more. 

His argument is that the LFR only crowd wants the "ahead of the curve" achievement, they want the real tier sets, they want mounts, they want to do achievements, they feel entitled to it all.

I don't see it that way.  I see it as the people who actually want these things use the LFR as the tool it was intended to be and springboard to a higher level once they are able using the new group finder system or finding a guild on their server that is just starting progression on normal modes or is not very far in.

Thanks to the change of flexible if they actually "try" to do well they can make the adjustment from LFR to really raiding easily enough.  Carrying a noob, for lack of a better word, that can follow instructions and does a fair job is not a problem at all and they are no longer locked out because the group already has their 10 people or 25 people.  They can join and contribute and learn to get better.

See, what I am getting at is that the people who actually do want those achievements, those titles, those mounts, they can use the LFR as a springboard to work their way toward it.  I personally can not say I have seen people asking for any of the things he has suggested in LFR.  Not even once.

However on the flip side, I do believe there is a feeling of entitlement.  At least from my perspective because I can say I feel it.  Yes, I feel entitled to more from LFR.  Then again, I am not the one that the LFR was created for, so that could be the reason for that.

I am not doing the LFR on alts this expansion.  I would like to get a dozen rings just like I did a dozen cloaks last expansion, but without valor which was a huge motivator to get me to do it, because even if I did not get the drops I wanted I still gained some currency that could get me some decent gear otherwise, I have no desire to step foot into LFR without valor and valor gear, simple as that.  Not even a legendary ring is enough bait for me.

Why is that?  Because the gear sucks balls, if you will excuse me being extremely rude about it.  640 gear and 655 gear?  No thank you.  I need to do it each week every week on alts not geared enough to pug, or because I would rather just not pug because their gear sucks or I suck at them (like on my rogue).

Without valor there as the consolation prize that I can use to gear up my alts to be closer to raid ready where my main is currently raiding LFR has lost all of its draw for me.  I believe this is working as intended.  Not a shot at blizzard either saying that.  They said they wanted to make actual raiders feel as if there were no reason to run LFR and, for me at least, they have done exactly that.  Kudos to blizzard on a job well done.

But that is why I say I feel entitled.  If I am going to run LFR I want to get gear that is raid ready.  I do not want garbage 640 and 655 gear.  It should at least drop valor which in turn I could use to buy 685 gear so my alts can keep up with my main, just like they always have since I started playing.

So this guys entire argument is wrong, at least as I see it.  He was stressing that the LFR only players were feeling entitled to these things.  I just do not see it.  Never have.  I can not recall one time ever seeing an LFR only player saying they should get more from LFR.  The only people, or person in the case of me, that feels any entitlement to better things from LFR are the people that have already passed it.  The ones that raid at a higher level.

So in effect, he made a post complaining about entitlement in the LFR when in fact the entitlement was coming from people already doing normals or more so heroic and especially mythic.  We people, the ones that play well past the LFR level with organized groups, we are the ones that would like to see more come from the LFR.  The LFR only people are happy with it because that is all they do so they do not want, or need, more.  This is how I believe it to be based on my own feelings and that of which I read around other place, or maybe it is just me?

Either way, I do not agree with him.  LFR is not creating entitlement.  Not even in the slightest.  It is making the people that want things move up from there and it is making the people like me not do it because it does not offer gear on the scale I am used to receiving.  Neither of us are really feeling a sense of entitlement.  We are both just seeing LFR for what it is.  Them, a starting point, me, something that is a waste of time.

Do you think LFR is creating a generation of warcraft players that think everything should be handed to them like this guy suggests?  I don't think so.

As a matter of fact, I think the LFR is in the best place it has ever been since it was introduced.  Sure the toxic players still make it hell sometimes and extremely bad groups can still make it a very unfun experience, but the LFR is in the best place it has ever been as I see it.

He wants the LFR to drop no loot at all, I would love to see it drop better loot for my alts, we are both wrong.  It is just fine.  Doesn't mean we have to like it... it wasn't made for us.  How can some people still not see that?

Monday Random Thoughts

- Watcher posted an explanation addressing player concerns about the legendary ring.

- About time they said something about.

- You can find it here.

- I like watcher because he is direct and to the point.

- He doesn't seem to suffer (often) from the snide remark syndrome that most of the other blue posters do.

- Even with his well presented explanation of why the legendary will be as it is I still do not like it.

- Basically what he said was simple, let me sum up his long post for you in a TL;DR paraphrasing sort of way.

- "Your opinion does not matter, we know what is best for the game."

- Basically that is what his post all comes out to mean.

- Sadly even if I like watcher I do not trust that assessment.

- No flying will bring world PvP back.

- That didn't work did it?

- So do you really know what is best for the game?

- Making rare mobs one kill and done with no repeatability is good.

- Bored the hell out of people that had fun hunting them.

- That really worked to better the game didn't it?

- Devaluing leveling professions.

- I bet you can see how so many people have been hating what you did with professions this expansion.

- I am sure that was good for the game.

- Having no dailies and no repeatable out of your garrison content was a good idea.

- Not.

- A bone headed move if I ever saw one.

- Removing valor gear.

- Now bad luck streaks have no consolation prize and alts have to raid like mains to keep geared up.

- Really killed a lot of players desire to play and it is a large part of why I rarely even log in any more.

- Working as intended?

- If pushing people that love the game away and making them not want to log in is doing what is best for the game blizzard is doing a bang up job.

- Sorry watcher, your post was great and very well said, but it is also wrong.

- Just because you (you the company not your the person) think it is a good idea does not make it a good idea.

- Just the same as me thinking it is a bad idea does not make it a bad idea.

- I do understand that.

- The difference is this...

- I pay you, you do not pay me.

- So my opinion matters more than you thinking this might be cool.

- How come blizzard responds to something stupid like that "player spotlight" on the launcher near instantly and addresses the players problems with it.

- Who cares, leave it be.

- But when it is something important that involves actual game play they ignore people?

- They change a ships name, which has absolutely no impact on game play, because of whiners acting like big babies throwing a temper tantrum.

- But people presenting honest concerns about something that actually impacts game play blizzard tells us to go screw ourselves?

- Let me explain something to you blizzard.

- You should have told the people complaining about the ships name "suck it up buttercup."

- You should have reconsidered the legendary ring.

- You did both wrong, you caved to something that had no reason to cave for and you stand tall against something people have legitimate concerns about game play with.

- WTF is wrong with you blizzard.

- I love the game, but I hate the people running it.

- When you look up clueless in the dictionary there is a staff picture of the blizzard staff.

- They should leave the on use on the legendary ring as it, but let everyone have their own control over it.

- Shouldn't every damage dealer that worked for the ring benefit from it and have an on use?

- Shouldn't every healer that worked for the ring benefit from it and have an on use?

- Shouldn't every tank that worked for the ring benefit from it and have an on use?

- Yes, yes and yes, if you ask me.

- No, no and no, if you ask blizzard.

- Sad face.

- I was hoping that they would open their eyes and I was once again let down.

- Playing this game is sometimes like dating someone that is bad for you.

- You keep hoping they will change but they never do, they keep letting you down.

- Funny part is, every time I have ever considered quitting it almost felt like a relationship.

- Like if I quit it would be breaking up with someone I still care about but just couldn't be with.

- I think that is the best way I can describe it.

- Now on to happier things and leaving the fact that blizzard let me down once again behind us.

- I finally got my horde hunter into WoD content.

- Opened up the garrison at least.

- I am going to try and level it on weekends.

- Should only take 2 saturdays I am guessing, if I actually play it.

- Leveling this expansion is the best thing to come out of it.

- In my opinion at least.

- The story is good, the flow is nice, and being able to find things out in the world kind of breaks up the kill 10 rats mentality.

- I avoid the pop up quests usually.

- Does anyone else do that?

- I did them on my main, but that is about it.

- Of my 9 100s I did one or two here and there but mostly I do not bother with them.

- Might go back and do them at some point just to get them off the map.

- I don't think the reward is worth the effort.

- When leveling it gives nice experience, but if you are leveling an alt and have rested you will be 100 way before even hitting nagrand, so they are not needed.

- I would like to see them offer something more to make them worth doing.

- More how?

- More gold, maybe some more reputation.

- Add in garrison resources and apexis crystals, and then maybe, just maybe, they might be worth doing.

- If they were a weekly repeatable thing, so you could get reputation each week with them, that would be a cool way to get reputation up on alts.

- As they are implemented in the game they are useless as I see it.

- Outside of them, the entire leveling experience is something I really like this expansion.

- Sadly there is nothing worth doing at 100 with alts to inspire me to level more alts.

- So what I am doing now on alts, as there is no reasonable way to get them raid ready without spending a boatload of gold thanks to the absence of valor gear, is turn them into gold making machines.

- They will never leave the garrison.

- Just as blizzard wanted it, it seems.

- I'll just log on every so often and send out on missions and make whatever I can.

- My standard game play for the rest of this expansion is now hit 100, make gold, and hope and pray that the next expansion comes out really freaking soon.

- I always liked the gearing of alts process, just not digging it this expansion, so I am not going to bother like I had in the past.

- My alts are just going to get to 100 so they do not have to do it later.

- And I will try my damn hardest not to get garrison burn out for the third time this expansion.

- Or forth if you count beta garrison burnout, which I reported saying this would happen, and blizzard ignored me and everyone else that said it on the beta, as usual.

- But hey, what can an elf do, garrisons are all this expansion has to offer.

- So it is either do it and deal with it or quit.

- And I am not ready to give up on this relationship yet.

- I still like the game.

- It just hurts that it keeps letting me down.

- Have a great day.

2.9 Million Subscription Loss, What is Missing?

I am no big fan of this expansion thus far.  I've even taken multiple breaks thus far even if I left my subscription keep rolling but even I would have never thought they would lose so many subscribers so quickly.  Maybe a 2M loss, which is what I can say I was honestly hoping for as it might give them a wake up call, but a near 3 million loss is insane.

From a blizzard standpoint there is no reason to worry about the game.  They are still making as much money with 7.1 million subscriptions as they were with 10 million, or so they said, which I believe to be true.  So the game is in absolutely no danger of dying.  Sorry to spoil the fun for the doom sayers.  But that does not mean that they can not use this outrageously clear sign that they are doing something wrong, horribly wrong, with this expansion.

We all have our own opinions on what is missing.  Some might say that it is balance in PvP that is missing.  Some might say it is 10 man mythic raiding that is missing.  Some might say that professions not being what they used to is missing.  Some might say that it is the lack of dailies that are missing.  It could be a myriad of different things and that all depends on what we, as individuals, feel we would like to see in the game.

So I am going to say what I feel is missing, my own personal opinions on what could help the game get a boost and get moving in the right direction again.  If it is true, and like I said I believe it is, that the game is making as much money with 7.1 million subscribers as is was with 10 million wouldn't it make sense that if they could increase that number of subscribers they would increase their profits?  Being it is a business after all and profit is why they are in business seeing an increase in subscribers is good for them, and for us as players because that means we have more people to play with.  So here are my opinions of what I personally believe is missing.

1) Flying:

As I said originally there was absolutely no reason to remove this feature of the game and I still believe it is a reason why some people quit.  Looking at the posts on MMO-C there are a few people there that commented they quit because of no flying.  While I honestly do not believe that is the "only" reason they quit, I am sure it was a major contributing factor for them to mention it there as their reason on a forum where people usually get flamed for having opinions as such.  So yes, flying needs to be added back into the game.  There is no reason not to except for blizzard being stubborn for the stake of stubbornness and not wanting to admit they were wrong.

2) Dailies:

Love them or hate them, they are content.  I can not believe that blizzard couldn't add any daily hubs what so ever.  Was it really that hard to code in three of four quest givers with repeatable daily quests for each faction?  People could choose to get their reputation that way, use it as a way to make gold, or have it just for something to do, something to give them direction.

They could have even added a baggie at the end of each daily quest hub that could have given people assorted things as a motivator.  Some of your profession materials, maybe a pet or two rarely, some sorcerous elements, maybe even a savage blood. 

It would make the dailies worth doing if someone wanted to and had the time and it would give a direction for those people that are lost in their garrisons with nothing to do except for the grind fest apexis daily that most people really do not enjoy, because lets face it, most people are not insane like I am and they do not like grinds as I do.

3) Scenarios:

These were added last expansion and some people hated them but some people loved them.  Choice is a word we hear a lot and this became a choice.  Some people like myself used these to valor cap nice and quick near the end but some people genuinely liked doing them.  Either way, me doing it because I felt it was the most efficiency way to do what I wanted to do or them because they enjoyed doing them we were both left with the choice to do them, a choice that is lacking on many levels this expansion.  Just the same as the people that did not like them had the choice not to do them as there were more than enough other ways to get valor should that be what they seek if they did not like this format of game play.

Lets not even mention they were a very good way to tell the story in game instead of having to send us out to books, comics, or posts on the forums just to figure out what was going on in game.  And lets not mention the fact that in a world where damage dealers sometimes see 45 minute to and hour queue times it was a really nice way to have some fun quick small group content with no wait what so ever and this is something sorely missing this expansion.  No wait entertainment.  Between waiting in queue, waiting for raid, waiting to fill out a random raid, waiting for missions to finish, waiting and waiting and waiting the game could use a little jump right in and kill entertainment.

4) Reforging:

There is nothing less exciting than having a piece from mythic that is not an upgrade because you have a heroic warforged piece with a gem slot and two perfect stats on it and the mythic piece has your two worst stats on it.

They might have removed the "math" stats that people say they hated with reforging when they removed hit and expertise and made haste break points no longer a thing but that did not mean we did not need reforging any longer.  Blizzard made a mistake removing it.

Lets say that mythic piece is better than my heroic warforged one with a gem slot, it really doesn't seem so when the 691 has perfect stats and the 700 doesn't.  If anything it requires more "math" now than it had before.  I never recall looking to see if something was an upgrade as often as I do now because of situations like this.  Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.  It is a lot of math working and I thought they say they removed reforging to remove the need for math.

Having the ability to customize your stats was not a "bad" thing.  It was a good thing and it is a missed thing, at least for me.  Even more so now that the "math" has been removed from it.  Just make your worst stat into your best stat.  Easy peasy.  Really, who would not like that?

5) Valor / Justice:

This is the biggest, single most missed thing in the game right now.  So much is connected to it that I imagine that you do not even realize it.  Valor was a carrot, one we kept chasing each and every week.  It was a motivator, something this game is lacking at the moment.

For any game of this type the key to success is to keep up running the wheel and points did that.  Be it valor to get the weekly cap or justice when you wanted to convert it to honor or buy heirlooms.  Collecting points was a good motivator.  It gave content repeatability.  At the moment you can hit 100 and really have absolutely no reason to do dungeons except to start the ring quest line but with valor, and associated valor gear, for a fresh dinged character it would once again be worth doing them, ring or not.

A side effect of no valor is the queue time, do not tell me you have not noticed that everything seems to take longer to get into, at least for a damage dealer.  Heck, even on my healer yesterday it took me 15 minutes to get into a dungeon.  I do not think I have ever seen queue times this long save for maybe the tank queue the first few weeks the DS LFR came out.  Otherwise I am usually waiting forever, so long that I drop queue because I got bored and wanted to move over to another character.

This is a factor many people never noticed when they mentioned they were removing valor.  One I said would become a factor.  Not having valor and its associated gear invalidates content near instantly.  Even doing highmaul LFR on an alt feels like a waste when I have to go back there to collect stones.  I hate doing it.  Doesn't matter if it is easy, I still hate it with a passion.  This is why I am not doing it on alts.  It is a waste of my time.  Whereas with valor, at least if I was doing old and dated content that drops subpar gear based on current content I would have valor accumulate which in turn could be used, every 2 or 3 weeks, to buy myself a piece of current and relevant gear.

That consolation prize of valor and its ability to buy gear with it, current useful gear, meant that doing dungeons was worth it.  Doing old raids was worth it.  Doing content that you might otherwise just pass by was worth it.  It was a perfect carrot, it made the content repeatable.  Because even if you did not need anything from said content it was giving you some sort of currency that was useful, extremely useful depending on the level of raiding you do, and that made the content was repeatable.

If valor and justice were reintroduced to the game you would see queue times drop, substantially.  People like me would start playing alts again.  People that do not like to raid but do like to do dungeons from time to time would have more fun with faster queues and probably better groups.  Doing old raids just to cap would become a thing again.  Doing anything would become a thing again.  Valor creates replay value.  Something WoD doesn't have at all in its group content.

6) World Content:

Lets start with world bosses, you know those huge things that if you are questing there will scare the ever living crap out of you when you see them because they will squash you like a bug.  There was a time when they were a major event.  They dropped relevant gear.  They dropped PvP gear.  There were groups going for them all the time.  Now, not so much.  With crap gear drops and no PvP drops what so ever they are usually a barren wasteland.  About the only people you see doing them now are either 1) bored, 2) trying for the mount, 3) getting the pepe achievement, or 4) need the gear in that small window when people might actually need it.

World bosses are not enjoyable content any longer because they lost their carrot.  Gear was their carrot.  Their gear is completely irrelevant as soon as you can do the LFR for the most part which means they are irrelevant.  Increase the item level of the gear they drop to make it worth it for even heroic raiders to do them and have PvP conquest gear drop as well to entice others or work as a decent fall back for a gearing alt or a fresh 100 and you can turn these moldy dusty unused things into content again.

But world boss spawn points are not the only place the world is lacking in content.  Dailies could fit part of this but that was already mentioned, what else could?  Perhaps rares?  I know of many people who in mists had a lot of fun hunting rares.  The rares could drop pets, toys, gear (even if useless by that point) and a chance at a baggie.  I know people who hunted rares all night long, every single night.  Even if they only got one bag per 20 kills, they had fun doing it.

One of the biggest mistakes blizzard made this expansion is making all the rares a one time thing.  Once you kill them you are guaranteed to get whatever they drop.  Really?  This goes back to the replay value I mentioned earlier.  Did blizzard forget the bread and butter of these types of games is getting people to want to do the same thing over and over again?  Instead they changed it to once you did it, it is done forever and you can never do it again because there is absolutely no reason to.

They need to change back to the mists rare mob design.  One with 40 minute to and hour respawns, one that could drop goodie bags, one that could have a chance to drop other goodies, one that made you want to be out in the world killing them.  One with some replay value.

The same goes for the "pop up quests".  Why are they not weeklys?  It would have been a decent way for people to work their reputation doing them in each zone once a week.  Why is there no replay value with them, why are they one and done?  Same with events.  They could be weekly, like looting some treasure chests on the timeless island was a weekly, but no, that would make people want to do them each week, why would an MMO want people on doing stuff each week when they can have nearly 30% of them unsubscribe in one quarter instead?

So many things that could get people out in the world, so much world content out there to be done, and they added absolutely none of it.  Why is all of it missing?

End note:

I could go on with some more, but I have to leave something for everyone else to say and I've been long winded enough already.  Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those 2.9 million.  I might have taken breaks and I might be upset with the direction the game is going, but I still enjoy it from time to time when I do play.  There were some things about WoD that were done well and some ideas that could be done better in the future but have a lot of potential.  I'll write about those another day however.  Today we are here to talk about what is missing from WoD and I can sum that up with two things.

Choice and Replay Value.

That, in my opinion, is what WoD is missing, what is yours?

Tin Foil Hat: What if Those Aren't Duped, They Are Blizzard.

Keeping with the topic from yesterday about the recent flood of duped items appearing for sale around the game instead of just the few we usually see here and there I want to delve into the tin foil hat zone.

Please keep in mind there is absolutely no proof of anything blizzard may or may not be doing, it is pure speculation.  It is made up from the minds of people that make things up just to talk about.  I was first approached by this tin foil hat idea in the days before the wow tokens was released and then received follow up messages from said person, while also looking on my server for comparisons to what he was speaking of, and it made me think, what if it he is right.

What if all these items we are seeing for sale lately are not the product of dupers, or not completely, and instead they are items that blizzard themselves are selling in game in an effort to get people to buy gold in the form of the wow token?

Strap on your tin foil hat as I bring you down the road I was recently taken down and maybe when all is said and done you too, like me, might think, even for a moment, maybe this guy is on to something.

Lets call my informant Bob, just because I like to use Bob as my name of choice for any and all topics.  Bob told me a few days before the wow tokens were to be released that I should look for some good deals on the auction house.  I asked him why and he said that people will be selling like crazy to take advantage of the buyers who never had gold that will now have it at hand.

This actually made perfect sense.  Say you had a high priced item that was not selling.  Now many people who might have wanted to buy it will have the capability of getting the cash to buy it.  As long as it was in the 20K range, as that is what the US token was expected to get and it seems to be the round about number it has stayed at, slightly higher actually.

I said to him that was a good pick up, to notice something like that.  Good gold makers pick up on future trends like that before they happen.  That is how they get ahead of the pack and make lots of money.  He said, it was not just a good pick up, he knows it for a fact, that I should take a close look at the market in the weeks after the token is released and be prepared for things I never expected to see being there.

Now is when we enter the tin foil hat zone.

He said to look for mythic BoE items that sell for exactly what the wow token sells for.  Knowing my server I knew the chances of that were slim to none.  Mythic BoEs were selling for 80K minimum before the wow token came out.  But over the years he never lead me wrong and this time was no different.

By the Saturday after the wow tokens were released mythic BoEs were all over my server, dozens, maybe even more, all warforged, every last one of them, on the auction house for 20-25K each.

I am not shitting here.  He nailed in on the head.  Not only were mythic BoEs selling on the auction house for the price of a wow token, but they were all better than the average BoE.  Every last one of them was warforged.

I asked him about it and he said that is blizzard releasing them on the servers and selling them themselves.  They are trying to entice people to buy more tokens so they listed items that they knew people would want at a price that made buying a wow token to get it seem worth while.

Could he be on to something here?

Like I said, on my server mythic BoEs were always 80K minimum.  Warforged or with a gem slot, depending on the piece you could be looking at upwards of 150K for it on the AH and here we were not just days after the token was released with massive amounts of BoEs, all warforged, for 20K.

One might think that someone was just selling their "stash" now.  But there are a few reasons I have to believe that is not true.  One being the fact they were all warforged.  What are the odds that there are 18 sets of mail boots on the auction house and every last one of them is 706? 

I farmed mythic trash, friends have farmed mythic trash, none of us has ever seen a warforged drop from trash.  Sure it is one small sampling, but where are all the normal versions?  Even if some people got really luck with some warforged drops, where are all the listing for the normal version?  For that many warforged ones to drop there has to be 10 times as many normal ones, wouldn't you think?

The second reason I disbelieve this is that one of the pieces I look for, the agility neck piece as it is BiS for me suddenly appeared, as in 22 of them suddenly appeared, all 706 on the auction house and all for 25K.

That BoE does not drop from trash, it drops from a boss kill.  And there was, at the time, only one guild on my server that had killed a few bosses on mythic and only 2 others that might be capable of it.  Yes, bad server, lets move along. 

So I ask you this, what is more likely, this one guild had been lucky enough that every single person in the raid was setting their specialization to get agility loot and had been winning them each week, every one was warforged, and then after the token was released they all decided to sell them on the auction house for 125K less than they could reasonably get for them or blizzard released the items themselves to try and spur people to buy wow tokens?

Lets not forget that there were also over 20 intellect necks, 20 spirit necks, 20 strength necks and 20 bonus armor necks also on the AH.  All were warforged too.  That one guild that had been downing the bosses must have been really lucky.

So the tin foil hat seems to lean really far to the side that blizzard released them.  I duper would not have undercut them from 150K to 20K.  At least I don't think they would, but how would I know.  I don't do that stuff.  But what I do know is that my friend called it.  The same one that has in the past told me some other interesting information that came to be true.

Was he really that good at guessing what would happen or did he have some inside information that blizzard would be releasing items to spur sales of the wow token?

Put on your tin foil hat and you decide.  There might be absolutely zero proof of it, but looking at my server alone there seems to be some reasonable thought that it "could" be true.  Or maybe the only reason I am starting to believe it is because my hat is on too tight.  What do you think?

Would You Buy Something You Know is a Dupe?

With the recent release of a video showing many different methods to duping (no I will not give any clues how to find it because I do not support duping and I do not want to see anyone lose their account) and reading some responses on some boards across the net it made me wonder what is the feeling of the general community.

While you can get a basic feel on the forum posts about it those are usually not the best place to gauge the pulse of the community.  Mostly because many people on the forums put on a persona and pretend to be that person, the elitists, the trolls, etc.  It is not really a great place to get honesty, but it sure is interesting to read sometimes.  I am looking for more open and honest answers and hopefully I can get them.

So the question at hand is this, Would you buy an item that you know is duped?

Say one of the panthers are on the auction house, you know the ones that cost over 80K just in materials to make, but it is sitting there for 20K buy out, would you buy it knowing that is it probably a dupe?

Lets say you are in need of savage bloods and they are currently 400 gold each on the auction house but there is some guy spamming trade selling them in stacks of 50 at a time for 200 per, would you buy it from him and save half?

These are two difference cases, one is over the auction house, the other is done exchanging things in a trade window.  Would your answer be the same for both?

Now I will give my answer which I would buy the panther off the auction house but I would not buy the bloods from the guy in trade.  Even if I knew both items were duped.  The reasoning I would don one and not the other is rather simple, I would be looking out for number 1, which is myself of course.  I will explain.

Why would I buy a duped item when I have already stated I do not support duping in game?  The answer is simple.  I would save gold on the item I wanted and it is not my fault that blizzard does not fix these open bugs in their game. 

Some duping methods have been there for years and it is not like duping is something new, it has been going on for years and everyone know it, blizzard just does nothing (openly) about it.  So why exactly should I feel bad about buying said stuff when blizzard appears to not care either?  If they fixed the bugs that allowed people to dupe then guess what, I would not buy duped items as there would be none for sale.

But why would I buy one and not the other you might ask, and you would be right to do so.  That is because an item purchased on the auction house is clean while an item that exchanges hands is not.  With the auction house there is plausible deniability, when exchanging hands there is none.

I might "think" an item on the auction house is a dupe but that doesn't mean it is.  Don't tell me you never caught a steal off the auction house.  I can not tell you the number of BC epic gems I purchased off the AH in wrath and cataclysm that were listed for less than they vendored for.  People make mistakes, I capitalized on it by purchasing them and selling them to a vendor for profit.  I've done that with ore, herbs, gems, etc, over the course of the years.  If you list something for less than I can vendor it for, I am going to buy it and vendor it.  I have no aversion to free gold thank you very much.

But there is not just that case, there are dozens of others.  I've purchased a stack of ore for 40 gold when the guy clearly meant to list it at 40 gold per item, not per stack.  I have purchased a pair for BoE bracers (I think) in cataclysm for 2K when all others listed up there were 20K because the guy forgot a 0.

Bottom line is, people make mistakes, we all do.  So while I might "think" the panther on the auction house is a dupe maybe it is just someone that made a mistake.  This is also why blizzard routinely does not take away anything you buy on the auction house even when they go hard after the people doing the duping.  Because you can not say, for sure, that the person that bought it knew it was a dupe.  The person might just think they got a lucky deal because someone made a mistake, like I did with my bracers.

However, when you exchange something hand to hand you have to think back to that old saying, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is."  If bloods are selling for 400 gold each and someone is willing to sell you massive amounts, insanely massive amounts, for less than half of the current fair market value, it surely sounds too good to be true right?  Well, that is because it usually is. 

Those items blizzard will take away from you.  Just the way it took away the queens garnets from people in cataclysm.  When they were selling for 5K each on the auction house and you bought a stack of 20 for 20K you should have known better.  Those are the exact words a GM told my friend that bought them and had them removed, you should have known better. He lost his gems and his gold.

When exchanging things hand to hand there is no mistake like a listing mistake in the auction house.  That means there is no plausible deniability.  You can beg and plead all you want with a GM that removes the items and does not refund the gold, but as they say, you should have known better because "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is."

So now we are seeing magic rooster eggs and spectral tigers being duped in huge quantities and their prices are plummeting, so will you be buying one of them?  Maybe picking up a tiny the hatespark or some other out of print pet that is tradable and currently being duped?

I do not support duping and no one should do it, sooner or later you will get banned and your account will be permanently disabled, as it rightfully should be because you broke the rules of the game, but I would gladly take advantage of someone else doing it, as long as I can keep # 1 protected, #1 being me of course.

So would you buy something you know is a dupe?

Monday Random Thoughts

- I read something I thought was funny so I will share.

- Based on the size of all humanoids native to Draenor it seems Orcs are the Gnomes of Draenor.

- Everything makes so much more sense now.

- Look at the size of everything else, orges, gron, what have you, compared to all of them, Orc are made for punting.

- That really makes sense and that really explains a lot.

- No wonder they are so angry all the time and when they finally come to a place where they are not tiny compared to everyone else the feel the need to overcompensate by being aggressive.

- So what can this mean for the Gnomes?

- Do you think there is a future expansion where they get so angry and fed up of being punted around like the Orcs that they become violent like the Orcs?

- Food for thought my friend.

- Fear the mini horde, the mecha horde, come on there has to be some awesome name for a gnome horde out there.

- I played again this weekend and did some soloing and leveling.

- Nothing to report from soloing, but I did manage to get another character to 100.

- Getting a character to max level used to be an exciting thing.

- Not so much any more.

- At least not for me.

- It means another character I will never get a chance to gear up.

- It means another character I will feel I have to do the garrison on, at least some.

- It means another character I feel I have to pay attention to instead of just playing it sometimes when I felt like it and slowly building it up.

- To gear your followers efficiently, you need to be on it often.

- Profession cooldowns are no longer just for special stuff, it is for everything, so I need to do them daily.

- A new 100 just feels like work.

- But I am working it a different way.

- I am working on trying not to care about doing everything on it.

- That is harder work than anything else.

- Each new 100 reminds me how much I really miss valor.

- I loved being able to pop on an alt, do a few dungeons, maybe an LFR or two, a few quests here and there, and earn some valor.

- Then slowly gear them up.

- Now, I can not even get into a dungeon because the wait times are too long as there is no incentive for people to actually do them.

- Justice and valor were great motivators for people to do repeated content that was "dated".

- Not to mention, with no incentive, as in no valor, there is little reason I would want to do them anyway.

- But I need to do them to start the legendary line.

- Queued up for skyreach when I hit 100, figured I would start the process.

- Saw a 1 hour 15 minute time and said screw it.

- You have got to be kidding me.

- I pay 15 a month to "play" the game, not to "wait" to play the game.

- I understand some wait time, but that is just out of line.

- Every time you queue up for a dungeon and the wait time is over an hour blizzard should refund you your subscription for the month.

- If they had to do that, I am SURE they would find a way to fix it.

- Now they just do not care.

- BTW, the character that hit 100 was a DK, blood of course, is there any other type?

- I was a 584 item level, which is pretty high actually when you consider I hit 100 in spires and had yet to step into nagrand.

- Heck, I had yet to even finish spires when I hit 100.

- Went into the tank challenge and one shot it.

- I had never one shot it on any of my tanks I don't think.

- Always one shot DPS, but tank? This was different for me.

- My druid, warrior and paladin all had interesting challenges with theirs, they all wiped at least once while noticing what was different.

- Yes, all the tank challenges were different.

- Or so it seemed to me.

- Thanks to that I actually enjoyed the tank challenges.

- But even if I was well under the minimum it scales down to for the proving ground I had no problem with it on my DK unlike with the other tanks.

- Which was surprising, I was expecting at least one fail.

- I chalk that up to DKs having insane healing.

- I would not be surprised if I out healed that horrible panda monk healer.

- She is dreadful I tell you.

- I did have some moments I thought I was done for, as in low health was flashing in red on my screen.

- But with a soul reaper death strike combo I went from low health to full health with a shield instantly.

- Can someone say OP?

- Hey, I do not mind, glad I got it done so easy.

- For shits and giggles I decided to try the DPS one in my tank spec and 584 gear.

- Needless to say it was a breeze.

- One thing I did learn is during the DPS trail you can not deathgrip mobs.

- How unfair is that?

- I went to grip the healer to I could both interrupt him and kill him with some other stuff, and he would not budge.

- Never knew that you could not move the mobs in the DPS challenge.

- You learn something new every day.

- Either way the DPS challenge, even well under geared and in the wrong spec for it, was a push over.

- As I said, it is more about handling the mechanics and less about doing DPS.

- And being this is my 9th (I think) 100 that is doing it, I have the pattern down pat.

- So there is no learning curve for the DPS one any longer.

- Once you learn the pattern, the mechanics if you will, they are always the same.

- At least the tank challenge was fun and exciting on all my tanks.

- From the healer refusing the heal my druid, to the healer standing in fire refusing to heal herself on my warrior, it was different for each and that made it fun.

- But I guess same old same old is not a bad thing.

- Even more so when it is something boring and repetitive like the proving grounds.

- Remind me again, why do we need proving grounds to queue for dungeons?

- Under geared, wrong spec, and I could not play a DPS DK even in my dreams because I have never really tried to, and I managed to do it.

- It doesn't actually "prove" anything other than "woohoo I can recognize a pattern I've already done 8 times before".

- Never liked the idea of needing the proving grounds to queue for dungeons.

- Made no sense when they mentioned it and I did not like it then, and it still makes no sense now and I still do not like it.

- I am sure there is some jerk in the blizzard head office still breaking his arm from patting himself on the back for this "awesome" idea.

- I wonder if anyone there had the guts to tell him it was a stupid idea and it did nothing to help dungeons in any way, shape or form.

- Can someone please explain how the hell to AoE as marksman?

- I know marksman's AoE is poor but there is a difference between poor and what I do, dreadful.

- Decided to give marksman a try for fun on heroic kormog being it is mostly a single target fight and we have a lot of decent AoE in my group for hands as is.

- I was rocking the boss at 79K when the first hands phase came, when the first hands phase was over I was a 33K.

- Back on boss I managed to get back to 50K, second hands came I was down to 29K after it.

- Got back up to 44K before the third hands, was 27K after it was done and ended the fight at 34K.

- See what I mean?

- I just suck at AoE, not normal poor marksman AoE but dreadful.

- The only thing I have going for me is kill shot sniping on hands, otherwise I feel useless.

- I know I am doing something wrong.

- I mean we got it down so it was "enough" but I am still not happy with my performance.

- I really believe if I could actually figure out a better way to do hands as marksman 50K should be what I do, not 34K.

- I just feel like a noob that just purchased the game when it comes to AoEing as MM.

- Guess I need some practice because I have to do being something dreadful wrong.

- Speaking of doing something wrong there was a funny comment in trade the other day.

- People were talking about gold making this expansion and some guy said, "I have 4 100s, I must be doing something wrong because combined I have never seen 10K".

- I had to laugh because I do not even think that is possible this expansion, even more so with alts.

- If you have a lot of alts as long as you are doing garrison missions there is no way you can't make gold.

- Last sunday when I logged on I looked to see what my server total was and this sunday I did the same.

- I made 29K in a week, a week I have not really been playing much.

- I logged on a total of 5 of the 7 days, 2 of those 5 days I was on for less than 30 minutes, only went through my characters to do missions on all of them twice, did not sell anything on the AH, nor buy anything, and soloed ICC, DS, TotFW, and Ulduar that week for mounts as well and did not go out of my way to kill everything, just what I had to.

- Missed firelands.  Oops, knew I forgot something.

- So yes, if he has four characters, even if he is not all that active, even if he is not soloing, even if he does not cycle through them all every single day but only some, he should be making 10K a week, or damn near close to it.

- Someone said what I would have said.

- If you have four alts with fully functional garrisons and can not make gold this expansion you most definitely are doing something wrong, such as spending too much gold.

- I think that might be the key.

- If he is buying all his gems, enchants, potions, flasks, food, and maybe BoEs to gear those 4 characters then yes, he will be broke all the time.

- Even making gold hand over fist this expansion if you go and buy everything instead of being self sufficient you will always be broke.

- Not sure about your server but gems are usually 3-5K per on my server.

- So of course you will not see your gold going up if you are forever spending it.

- And that would be my guess, because there is no way someone with 4 level 100s can not be making 10K a week.

- You would have to actively try not to make gold to not make 10K a week with 4 alts.

- Or you really built your garrison ineffectively.

- Level 3 Inn for gold missions and recruiting treasure hunters.

- Level 3 barracks to have 25 active followers.

- Level 3 salvage yard for boxes filled with gold.

- Level 3 bunker / mill until you can easily get every character to 675 and have a nice stash built up for the treasure hunters you recruit later on.

- And then pound out that gold baby.

- One of my characters on saturday, one of the two days I cycled through all of them, sent away for over 3800 in gold missions.

- I have not been on it to collect yet as I did not log on that character sunday, but that is a nice head start for next week with one character sitting on 3800 gold the next time I log into it.

- In... one... day.

- One character, one day, 3800 gold, and that character only has 4 treasure hunters.

- Can you imagine what you can do with more treasure hunters and more alts.

- So not having 10K combined on 4 100s at this point in the expansion is kind of funny, at least the way he said it.

- "I must be doing something wrong" comes off as no shit Sherlock.

- I found it funny.

- But knowing you are doing something wrong is the first step to fixing it.

- It is the person that does not know they are doing something wrong that will never get better.

- I whispered him some tips.

- Now lets see if he follows them.

- The alt I hit 100 with was at 118K when it hit 100, after I bought some blue prints and started building some buildings it is down to 101K already and I still do not have everything to level 3.

- When you first hit 100 that seems like a huge chuck of gold to spend, over all it will be a lot more and already was more because I had already spent gold on it.

- But knowing the gold making tool it turns into it is well worth the investment.

- It might cost me 30K to build it fully, but it will return 10 fold on its investment even if I only log into it once or twice a week for the rest of the expansion.

- I am starting to think "garrisons" are the wrong name for these forts we have.

- They should be called ATMs.

- Or cash machines for those that do not know what an ATM is.

- Because that is what they are.

- Have a great day.

Garrisons: It is Time to Ditch the Bunker / Mill

Remember the caveat emptor that the PTR is the PTR and things are subject to change but we always look to the PTR for early indications of what we might want to get ready for with the next patch.  Best case scenario the next patch is still a few months away so you have time to work on things.  But that also leaves the door open for change on the PTR.  With that said, lets move to the topic at hand.

Note:  If they change it that the dwarven bunker /war mill can give you ship fleet upgrades than please disregard this post, forget you were ever here.  This post is written with the idea that the bunker / mill will continue to only give follower upgrades.

We have been told that the maximum follower item level will remain at 675 in 6.2 from this twitter post.

With that said it is time I change my suggestion that people have the dwarven bunker / war mill in their garrison.  This was one of the two main buildings for getting follower upgrades.  Between this and the salvage yard giving follower upgrades I would hazard a guess that most people are somewhere in a position like I am at the moment with multiple stacks of follower upgrades and 40 followers or more sitting at 675 item level.

If we are not going to be getting any new followers and the follower item level is not going to be increased, the value of the dwarven bunker / war mill has greatly decreased.  Unless you are still collecting the pieces to buy for transmog or really really like getting a free coin to roll with, and we do not know yet if it will give the new coin so beware, there really is no reason to have the dwarven bunker any longer.  If, and only if, the dwarven bunker / war mill does not give the new coin than its value is basically nil.

So I suggest it is time to ditch the dwarven bunker / war mill.  The only reasons I can currently see to keep it is if you are still trying to collect the transmog gear or if you are a new, or newish, 100 and still want to gear up your followers.

Remember, the old follower missions will remain which means there will still be highmaul missions and blackrock foundry missions which could serve as a nice way to gear up an alt, albeit slowly and requiring luck, but a solid way none the less.  Not to mention doing missions for gold will always be nice and higher geared followers means better missions and more success at them.

Outside of those reasons it is now time to take a look at what other level three buildings there are out there that could be an option.

If everyone read my guides here from the beta and took my suggestions I am going to guess you all have the barracks.  If you do not then that is worth considering.  The barracks allows you to have 25 active followers which means you can send more out on missions.  This means more treasure hunters to make you gold, more scavengers to make gather you resources, more people to get you salvage boxes or other goodies that you can sell.  So the barracks is the best option to replace your dwarven bunker / wall mill if you did not already have one.

The stables would be my choice for the small increased mount speed, the protection from being stunned or dismount while riding and the bonus that you can interact with items while remaining mounted.

If you happen to be a gather this ability is priceless in my opinion.  For the time I had the stables while I was collecting the 8 free mounts, 6 from quests and 2 from achievements, this was my favorite feature as an herbalist.  I always stopped to gather every time being I did not get dismounted but since I replaced the stables with the bunker I have not stopped to gather a single herb in the world, not worth stopping if I am going to get dismounted.  So this is the leading candidate to be my second large building.  I like being able to interact with items while mounted.

But do not discount the mage tower / spirit lodge.  It sure has its uses.  In the past patch they added work orders to the tower / lodge so that you can get mission rush orders from it.  This is great for completing missions faster.  Getting the gear missions done instantly, getting that gold faster, getting your treasure hunters on one missions, finishing it, putting them on another, finishing it, etc over and over.  That way you can end up getting the maximum effect from your followers.

Add that nice little bonus recently added to the tower / lodge that was not a part of its original release and the portals you can have all over draenor and you might just have a winner of a choice here.  I have the tower on my tank and I have ports to nargand which was right near the highmual raid and to gorgrond which was right near the blackrock foundry raid so hoping that they keep up with what seems to be the idea we might see them adding a port to tanaan that is right near the new raid.

There is also another beautiful thing with those portals if you happen to be the raid leader.  If you have a portal to the area right near the raid, people can visit your garrison and use your portal to get to the raid faster.  A great little bonus for groups without a lock or even for groups with them, so the lock can get there faster.  So the mage tower / spirit lodge is not only a very viable replacement for the bunker / mill but it might be the best one for you.

The last large building that remains is exactly as it was when I first described it, a complete waste of time.  You can build the gearworks if you wish, it will give you many fun toys that you can use out and about in the world and who does not love having a robot chicken fight with you or a rocket pack so you can "sort of" fly around draenor some.  But outside of the "fun" factor the gearworks holds absolutely no practical purpose like the stables or the tower / lodge do as a replacement for the bunker.

Do you think it is time to ditch the bunker / mill?  I sure do and it is my suggestion that people do so.

I will most likely be going with the stables on gathering characters and the tower / lodge with non gathering characters.  A simple either or decision for me as those are the only two options I see now for a second large building, of course with the barracks staying our first.