Hell Hath Frozen Over...Again

Back in August over on Hunters Rhok, Phyllixia had a post about a bizarre and unexpected thing.  A wait for DPS in the Looking For Dungeon tool.  Not just a wait, but the bonus satchel for those that joined.

As I said at the time, I was astounded.  I didn't even know that they had code for that.

Well, last night I was bopping about on a hunter and thought I would do a dungeon and perhaps a short raid while I wrapped up some quests.  I open on the LFG tool and...

LFR for the Walled City with the Savage Satchel of Cooperation for the DPS roll.

What?!?  That can't be right.  Well, I sign up and as I'm happily flying around Draenor (just driving that point home) I keep that window open, to see if the bonus drops.  I've signed up as a healer before with the satchel there and by the time the queue actually popped, the bag is gone.  So I was sure it was going to happen on a DPS one.

It took a while, but finally I get in.  My DPS is comparatively low, even for me, so and I'm terrified I'm going to be booted and miss out on the satchel.  But, I think it was just that I was in a group that was beyond over-geared for this raid and I was just getting back into the rhythm of that character.  I never did great, but I improved throughout the raid as I got her playstyle back.

Whatever the case, we finished the run and I got my bag for being DPS.  500 some gold and 3 BoA Savage plate whatevers.  I'm just happy and astounded it happened.

Apologies to those that commented on my last post, I just responded and apologies I haven't written much.  I'll be back here and there.  In the meantime, keep an eye out for the impossible!

Alternative leveling - part the third of 3

Part 1 covered pet battles, archeology, and PvP while part 2 covered dungeons, material collection, and profession quests.  So far, I'd say dungeons seem the most feasible with mat grinding second.

Perhaps the final day can bring more?

Holiday Events Only

I would probably include the Darkmoon Faire.

Good - Some holiday events can really give a lot of XP so some would have a lot of leveling.

Bad - While some holidays give lots of XP, others give nothing or almost nothing, so there could be long droughts between leveling. When holidays with lots of XP are up, I'd have to truly dedicate time and energy to playing this character - which real life often limits anyways.

Grinding Only
Just killing mobs.  The very essence of grinding.  Obviously I 'd have to do some quests to open some areas, but beyond that, just mobs.

Good - Getting into a good grind groove can be fun and go quickly if you have a good area or good character for it. Good grief, could I have put "good" into that sentence more? Might get some of those rare world drops if I'm grinding out 99 levels of just fighting.

Bad - Grind. GRIIINNNDDD. No real reputation accomplished. I already have to grind out for collection quests or kill count quests so it's not like this would be new ground to cover.

Combination

Rather than just doing only one thing, perhaps limit it to some small number of the above.  For example, Pet Battles, Archeology, and Mat collection only.  So I'm out in the world but not there fighting mobs, but experiencing all of the rest of it.

Good - More sane leveling. Less grinding. More options.

Bad - Seems to steer away from the challenge aspect of things a little bit.

Quests Only

I can only do quests to level.  I included this one just to counter the grinding only - just looking to the other extreme. But, to some extent, isn't that just playing the game?  What would be excluded?  If allowed at all, no dungeon more than once.  Do the quests for that dungeon and then no more.  No grinding for mats or rep or tokens or whatever.  This one feels out of place, so I think I'll skip the good and bad.  I won't cut it out entirely, since I mentioned it before, but I don't quite see what it would be to do quests only.

___


So what was the point of all of this?  What do I get out of this?  Well, for me, I think this misses what Kamalia did with the Underpowered Death Knight.  It was interesting for me to think about but I don't think it provided me with spirit of the challenge I was looking for.

In re-reading the limitations that the Underpowered Death Knight was based on, I think I'm going to craft something more like that.  It keeps more in the spirit of what I enjoy about these games, which is coming up with characters and their stories.  Even if only in my head.

I think I'll take a few days or a weeks and ruminate some more.  Here are my seed ideas that I might combine or refine as I think about this.  I'm not sure if I like all of these but they are a starting place:

The survivalist - avoids cities (and even towns) at all costs

Racial purity - only take quests/interact with characters of the same race (that just screams elf or blood elf)

Vow of poverty - character will keep some minimal amount of coin.  Any thing else will be "donated".  Options to donate - Just giving to random characters; buying stuff off auction house, reposting for very low;  Give to guild. This might be good fit for a priest or a monk.

Backpack only - no additional bags or perhaps allow one 1-slot penny pouch and one of the 6-slot pouches.  Basically, something that a person could logically carry, as opposed to the 1 backpack and multiple giant bags we have now.

Greedy - The character will be given a gold goal for each level and they cannot level up until that gold goal is reached.  XP will be locked until then.  The money to lock XP would be given for the first level but then it would need to come from the character directly.  Given how long it takes me to make money, this would be a long challenge.  They've upped quest rewards so I'd have to look, but I'd say, you have to earn your current level x 100 gold to level.  So to get past level 1, 100 gold.  To get to level 2 you'd have to earn an additional 200 gold.  To get to level 3 it would be an additional 300 gold.  VERY slow start and not easy in the vanilla range, but it would get considerably easier as time went on.  And if successful, over a half million gold upon 100.

No repairs

Only crafted items - the challenge here would be that by the time you collect enough mats for some gear, it wouldn't have much, if any, use.

Snob - Epic items only.  If there isn't an epic item that fits that slot, it is empty or you wear the old stuff until you get one for that.  Given my bad drop rates, I'd be in empty slots or 20 level old purples.  Could consider lowering it to Rare if impractical.  At times would be very easy (cruising on purple) but challenging between drops.  No heirlooms allowed.

Only common or poor quality items.

The cloth tank - protection warrior or paladin or a blood death knight that can only wear cloth gear

The thinking warrior - warrior that can only equip weapons and armor with intellect or spirit.  Would need to decide if agility and stamina can be overlooked a high levels since I'm not sure pure single stat gear exists anymore

Shipyard Changes

So, did you read this blue comment about Shipyard changes?:

General
• Rare Naval Missions have an increased chance to appear.
• The bonuses provided by assist equipment, such as Ammo Reserves or Automated Sky Scanner, have been increased by 100%.
• Increasing the chance of success on a naval mission will now also decrease the chance a ship will be destroyed on failure. If the mission success chance is increased to 90% or greater, no ships will be lost on the mission.

Blockade Missions
• Blockade Mission duration is now 30 minutes (was 4 hours).
• Blockade Missions will respawn after 7 days (was 5 days).
• The Oil cost for Blockade Missions is now 50 (was 100).

Crews
• The bonus chance to Mission success provided by Human or Undead crews will be 50% higher.
• The bonus chance to Missions success provided by a Pandaren crew will be 33% higher
• The Pandaren Crew bonus will apply to Missions that are 12 hours or longer (was 18 hours).

The changes above are all live now. Here are a couple of notes to keep in mind:

• If you try to use a scroll that instantly completes a Blockade mission that was already in progress when we made this hotfix, it will reset the time on the mission.
• Blockade Missions that were already in progress will still need 4 hours to complete.

While I'm still not a fan of this shipyard, this will make it SO much less terrible.  I never lost at 100% but I lost in the high 90s and it was infuriating.  Such a simple thing that never should have been.

Alternative leveling - part 2 of 3

So last time I covered three leveling options - Pet battles, archeology, and PvP.

This time I want to think about using the group finder for dungeons, getting experience from collecting herbs and mining, and doing the daily cooking and fishing quests.  Hold on to your hats, here we go!

Dungeons

I would make my restriction be that I could only use the group finder, be it random or custom. I’m not in a guild that I could just hop in with other guildies when I wanted to run some, so that option is out for me. I’d, of course, have to be whatever the minimum dungeon level is, but I’m above that on enough characters. I’m not sure if dungeon quests would count as part of the dungeon or not. An argument could be made either way.

Good – Generally quick. I would get gear and money. I could use heirlooms to make it easy or only rely on dungeon gear drops. I think I’d generally lean towards gear drops only, unless I’d be letting down the group too much. I might keep heirloom gear on hand, in case I wasn’t pulling my weight. But with dungeon bags and drops, it probably wouldn’t be too bad. Reputation gains would move along for the core factions and perhaps a few others. One of the quicker options, I'd think.

Bad – Silent runs would be the norm. As it is now, I say “hello” at the start of almost every dungeon and typically get one or two responses and then nothing. It'd be soloing together, which can be okay but I'm not sure for 99 levels. I’d also be subjecting myself to a higher-than-normal incidence of the "gogogo" crowd. I can’t say why, but this feels even more repetitive than the other options. There are more dungeons than battlegrounds, I think, but it just feels more restrictive. Maybe because I’ve spent more time in the PvE world, I know many dungeons by heart.

Material collection only

Farming mats as the kids say. Mining and herbalism would be my focus.

Good – I can start at level one and collecting skill can be somewhat connected to character level. There would be a tons of mats for sale or use as I leveled. After a slow start, they would likely be self-supporting. It would be a big help to guild achievements.

Bad – I think the picking/mining skill can get out of whack with character level at times, if I remember correctly. I’d need to collect lots of mats in an area that are grey to my collection skill for the XP to level my character. They would initially need support for gear (unless wearing heirlooms) and bags. If not doing well on the auction house, I might have to play space management games. This would be a grind on a level that would be unprecedented for me.

Profession quests only

While a few professions can have dailies or side quests, I’m mainly thinking of the cooking and fishing dailies in the racial capitals. I would need to get to whatever skill level is necessary to unlock those quests. And perhaps character level? I’m not sure.

Good -They give a fair amount of experience for the investment.  It wouldn't take me long each day to do them, so the character would level slowly but I could move on to other characters quickly.  I'd be able to spend all of the tokens I'd accumulate on a lot of mats.  Money and reputation wouldn't be much of a problem.  Well, reputation of the core factions anyways.

Bad - Excessively repetitive game play.  Two quests a day.  If I included the Darkmoon Faire profession quests I'd get two extra that week.  Whee.

Dungeons seems like the most feasible one so far and I'm pretty sure that is how some people actually level.  I'm still not that enamored of it.  The mat collection path seems like it might be a nice way to make money and collect mats.  Let's see if Friday produces better leveling ideas.

Alternative leveling - part one of 3(ish)

Kaumaleia, the Underpowered Death Knight that Kamalia had been working on since 2011, has reached 100! And not just that, she got the Voidtalon of the Dark Star mount along the way. Congratulations all around on that!

While I haven’t read the entire journey yet, I’ve very much enjoyed what I have read and it really seems like a fun idea. Well, as Kamalia points out, not a lot of fun in execution but fun as an idea. I like the self-imposed limits and the spirit of the challenge.

And though I do dislike being too derivative, it has got me thinking about trying alternative ways of leveling. In principle, it would be interesting to pick one (or more) of these and try leveling some characters in this way and then writing about it for the blog. I’m not yet a committed enough blogger to do that…although perhaps this is the way I become that committed?

Whatever the case, here are a few ways I can think of getting XP and what I like about each and my concerns. I'm only covering the first 3 today, but I've got the others written for later.  Aren't you lucky?

Anything I’ve overlooked or other experiences or ideas are more than welcome.

Pet Battles
Archeology
PvP - Random battle ground finder only
Dungeons - Group finder for random or custom.
Material Collection Only - Primarily thinking herbalism and mining only
Profession Quest Only - Just cooking and fishing in my mind
Holiday Events Only - Darkmoon Faire probably included
Grinding Only - Just killing mobs
Combination of limited number of the above - Pet Battles, Archeology, and Mat collection only - the "out in the world" variant
Quests Only - None of the above. Just the lore.
 

Pet Battles

I’ve heard of people trying to level doing only pet battles. I’m not sure if I would include the daily pet battle quests. I’m thinking I would for practical porpoises*.

Good – I generally like pet battles and I can beat the computer so it wouldn’t be a total slog. Well, it would in the sense that it would take a long time but I, probably, wouldn’t hate it for quite a while. I have a large stable of pets that I could level to 25 while I level myself. While battleing, I’m sure I’d find time to collect those last few pets on each area that I seem to be missing.

Bad – With the dailies it would be a long way to 100. Without…wow, even longer. Money generation would be very low, so the character would need to be supported by other characters and pay full price for flying or riding. Unless I use heirlooms or just expect to die once in a while, gear could be an issue.

Archeology

Now, I’d need to do something to get up to 20, so that I can get Archeology, however I already have a few characters hovering in that area that I could re-purpose.

Good – Similar to pet battles, I like archeology enough to do it for a while before it would become a chore. I have never finished getting all of the various items from it. I still want that dragon mount, although that would mean I’d need to take alchemy and eventually level that too.

Bad – Travel time. To and fro. Fro and to. Again, they would need to be financially supported by other characters to make it passable in both money and gear. It’d also take a really long time on its own.

PvP

Here again, I think I need to be 15 or so to start? Not an issue on this end, but just a note.

Good – Pretty constant uptime to my memory. When I was doing Random Battle Grounds more frequently, the queue didn’t take too long to my memory. Although I haven’t done it in forever so perhaps I’m wrong? I have heirlooms for gearing already, and perhaps some other BoE gear I could use up. I have enjoyed some PvP from time to time. I might get some of those achievements, mounts, titles, and such by the time I’m done.

Bad – I don’t always like PvP. Not as a matter of skill (although more on that in a sec), but because of the toxicity and attitude that is often part of battlegrounds. Often, but not always. But when it is there, it’s just unenjoyable. As to my skill, well, I’m pretty low. Historically, I have improved as I’ve played more games. Enough to generally account for myself and not be a total carry, but still not great. 99 levels of that doesn’t sound very appealing.

That's pretty much all for today. As I said, I'll cover the others in another post.  Not only to pad my post count of course, but since this Comment-Inspired Quick Post is far from quick.

*dolphins are notorious for their whimsy and flights of fancy.