It's not really that hard

Personal Gold Challenge: 3 weeks left

I've got about 3 weeks left to finish my gold challenge.  How am I doing?

Well, let's consider that question in two different ways:

How am I progressing towards my goal?

vs.

 Am I enjoying progressing towards my goal?

   

A few quick notes for reference:

My goal is to reach 40,000 gold on one character before my time card ends on February 25th.

I am focusing on three characters on this secondary account: a warlock and a shaman that had reached 90 before the original trial account time ended and a warrior that was boosted to 90 when I got WoD.  All three are on different servers so I can't pool their gold.  The warlock and the warrior are DPS and the Shaman is healing but I was planning to pick up the DPS off-spec.

How am I progressing towards my goal?

 

Tackling the success angle first, allow me to present you with this high-quality, totally worthwhile graph.

Half-assed Nerdery

The sudden drops in gold are when I hit 100 and had to pay for the level 3 garrison.

Okay, so when I play for more than a few minutes at a time I can make a fair amount of money.  Despite the advice people gave, I haven't been consistent in gold generation from my garrison.  The suggestions were good, I just haven't taken the time (or really had the time) to set everything up and get it rolling.  The large gain for the gnome had been a day when I had been able to run something like 8-10 LFRs with DPS goodie bags, plus some old raids and other such.  That was a good day.

Real life has intruded some, so I haven't been able to get on every night to play.  Sometimes I can get on and do garrison chores, but sometimes I can't even do that.  That's to say nothing of the 12 or so other garrisons I have on my main account, so that if I do get time to get on, managing the other garrisons and these can take up a lot of my time.

But what I have gained out of this experiment so far is that IF I focused on one character and IF I could put in some consistent, reasonable amount of time to playing, I could almost certainly make gold each month.  I'm not declaring my challenge over but I think I can rule definitively that I could make the gold necessary to purchase WoW tokens.

Yes, I would still need to make double what I do now, since this challenge is over 60 days and not 30, but looking at how things are going, when I do play for sustained amounts of time, I could probably do it.

With that in mind, I'm continuing the challenge for my own satisfaction and because there is another part of it.  Not just the generation of gold, but how I have to change my playstyle to do it.

Which brings me to the second question

Am I enjoying progressing towards my goal?

 

As you can likely surmise, not so much.

The biggest issue is that I feel compelled to play each day and to focus on activities that generate gold.  And not just play each day, but restrict myself to characters that can make the most gold.  So if a character is better at soloing old raids or knocking out dailies or whatever, they get to take priority over the sub-30 alt I've been itching to play or the slow characters that I just like to do whatever on.

 

Another issue is that LFR goodie bags referenced above are probably my best daily source of gold.  I can run old raids once a week for gold and do the weekly LFR 150whatever gold reward, but that's once per week.  The 500+ gold that comes from the LFR baggies alone is a nice bump.  The catch is, that the DPS goodie bag is not reliable.  It's happening a LOT now but still not every time.  It is one of the reasons why I'm thinking of switching to my shaman for the remainder of the challenge.  I do see the baggie come up a lot more often on the healer role.  But, I'm not sure I'm good enough to be someone the raid needs to depend upon so much. Yes, there will be other healers and the raid likely won't fail, but I already dislike how much I get carried as a DPS, I'd prefer not to be carried as a healer too.

 

Even if I was top of the charts with healing or DPS, it still means I have to do LFR, which means grinding the same fights over and over and over again, in that unpredictable atmosphere that is LFR.  Where you can have good raiders in for their weekly valor or just fun or you can have the people who seem to be playing World of Abusecraft and I am their content.

What's next?

I had been reading Fussypants' post about healing and it made me remember how much I can enjoy playing a good support character. The Shaman is sitting at 92 with a level 2 garrison, so it'd be a bit of work to get her to 100, with as little of time as I've had to play lately.  But I think it might be fun and perhaps worthwhile.  If nothing else, if I get her to 100 I get a level 25 pet stone and can get some more heirloom upgrades pretty easily.


I do still like my gnome warrior although I feel pretty clumsy with her.  She's fun and I love her attitude, but I haven't gotten a hang of the warrior mechanics yet, so I'm pretty weak there.


I'll also need to figure out what to do with the gold when this challenge is over, since I'm pretty sure I won't be using it for a WoW token.  The guild the shaman is in could use any and all gold it can get.  The other two, well, it's not like those guilds couldn't use the influx but it might be an opportunity to get the garrison mounts and pets I haven't bought yet.  We'll see.

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!

Did you know: Night Elf FANGS?!?!

So to the quick - did you know Night Elves have Fangs?

Delicate Lady-like fangs (tee-hee)

I had no idea.  I was playing with Spouse one day and while fiddling with the (sigh) S.E.L.F.I.E camera, I noticed a terrifying sight.  My Night Elves were vicious man-eating beasts!  Or something.

Manly Man Fangs (grr)

Have these always been there?  Were they added with the character revamp? Did others already do extensive dental and evolutionary examination on how this came to be?  Will I look into this any further than my own post?  (The only answer I'll give is to that last one and right now, that would be "no".)

I'm sure there will be other things that I will find that will shock me (to my core!) but are probably relatively well known to most others.  Oh well.  Stay tuned to watch me be amazed at other basic information!

P.S. - I need to get some transmog going...I was just running with equipped gear as I was expecting to upgrade it soon, but now these two are stuck in perpetuity with that gear.  Boo.

Witty Post Title About Flying!

Yeah I got nothing for this one.  I'm just happy to be flying again.

The sparkle pony rises

These are the only screenshots I got because I really just wanted to get out and do stuff.  I couldn't decide which mount to use, what background, or how to get a better shot.  Just let me fly!

For the first few minutes I actually forgot I could fly a few times. Riding around on the ground, like a scrub?  This will not stand!  (Note for readers: I actually like ground riding and choose to do it fairly often - this is just a semi-venting for me about having the CHOICE to do that.)

In addition to FREEDOM, there were a few other changes that were unexpected.  I love that the Safari Hat is finally a toy.  I've kvetched before about toys versus non-toys-that-should-probably-be-toys so I'm happy at least one got added.

Flying kitty returns!

There was also the new account wide Battle Pet Tamers: Warlords quest that was making an ugly yellow exclamation point in my garrison.  The spouse and I decided to head out and take care of that nonsense post haste.

And with flying, we could.

We FLEW around to the various pet masters in Draenor and did their battles and finished the quest in a reasonable amount of time.

We also both grabbed the occasional treasure with the proper expletives towards jumping puzzles shouted.

The Garrison, from above

It wasn't the most fun I've ever had on WoW, but it was probably one of the better experiences I've had on Draenor.  And it was all because I had the choice to fly.

Pathfinder Achieved

I'm done.

The weight is lifted.

I completed it Sunday night but didn't get around to updating this right away.

Whatever the case, when flying drops, I will rise.

I'm just...

relieved.

That's the best word for this.

To remove that cloud over my head.

To get that bad taste out of my mouth.

I feel free to try to enjoy the game again on my terms.

To play the characters I want

at the pace I want

in the way I want.

It wasn't fun for me.

The questing was fine. I had basically completed it anyways.

The reps felt pointless.

What do they have to do with flying?

I had explored everywhere, just not on any one character enough to get the achievement.

So I had to run around to tick off the box.

Immersive.

Treasures also became a number to fill.

Not a reason to explore.

Not a fun thing to find.

Not something that added to the world.

They could have been those things, but it didn't feel that way to me.


Check box 1 of 8

75/100

76/100

Immersion.

Is that something I inflicted on myself?

Did I exacerbate something that Blizzard had done?

Possibly

Whatever the case, I don't ever have to do it again.

And that my friends, is a sign of good game play.

When a player says: "I'm so happy that is over and I never have to see it again"

Call it a success Blizzard, well done.

Immersed.

I've been reading too much Grumpy Elf Monday Random Thoughts.

Where does the journey end?

In order to get one of the mounts and use the triple xp bonus to level up some characters [SPOUSE] and I have recently been playing with a recruit-a-friend account. (For a quick bit of background see here)

It was a lot of fun and well worth it for us. It just recently ended, so as my time was winding down I was assigning levels, selling gear, giving gold to the bank, sending off materials collected, and the like. But a recent post from someone (and I WISH I could remember who) got me to thinking about where these characters should log off for the last time.

While I don’t really RP in game, in my head the vast majority of my characters have backgrounds, personalities, history. Some have deep and meaningful ideas behind them while others are just themes or concepts. This is the case even with my temporary recruit-a-friend characters.

For me, the RPG part of these games is much more important than the MMO, even if I don’t actively RP much in game. I imbue these characters with a little bit of a story I make up so that they are more real and enjoyable to me. I can experience the developers’ world more if I have a little bit of my own mixed in.

A great example is City of Heroes. I loved City of Heroes. Any altoholics out there will know well the wonder that was the character creator in that game. And that you could actually type up little stories to have visible in game too. Loved it.

I was on-line, playing with the various other die-hards, when the game ended. My main character was in the middle of fighting off the Rikti invasion when the disconnect message came down. It was sad to have that game end overall, and I’ll get into that another time. But whatever the case, he ended his time fighting as a superhero. Which I think I didn't appreciate the symbolism at the time as I do now.

So for this recruit-a-friend account, I tried to find the place for the character that felt like the best fit to their “life”. And now I’m thinking about my mains (yes, more than one, they are all equal although some are more equal than others). To be fair, I was thinking about it when whoever it was proposed this idea, but just having gone through it I’m thinking about it more.

I know my one mage will end his time in Dalaran. It’s just the perfect magical city.

Even Moonglade is too removed from the wild for most of my druids. They may need to be scattered about in the wild places of the world.

I’m unsure if the pandarans will return to Pandaria, or if they will embrace the wandering that took them away from there in the first place.

Most of my dwarves want to be close to kith and kin, to tell stories and share an ale around the fires of home, so Ironforge will probably be their destination.

I’ve got a human rogue who will be a great pirate. I’m not sure if she should join a particular crew or just plan to commandeer her own ship and start one.

My gnomes want to retake Gnomeregan.

The death knights are a mixed bag. The ones more filled with battle lust will likely return to Acherus and look for more campaigns. At least two will outright reject the Ebon Hold to find a quiet, lonely place to mourn the life that was taken from them and contemplate the path they were forced down.

I think my one blood elf paladin is going to find the largest mirror he can find and put Narcissus to shame.

Most of my other blood elves will likely return to the chaos and warm rays of Silvermoon City.

No hunter, except for the goblin (see below), will end their days in a city. The harder part for the hunters is not going to be which location, but which companion. Some it will be easy, but for at least one, that’s going to be tough.

The Draenei are unclear at this point. The Exodar has always felt kind of sad. Some will follow where the light leads, but the shaman needs to follow the elementals. But where?

A few of my goblins will take over the Trade Prince’s palace.

Neither of my trolls has a clear answer right now. Battle most likely for the one. Taverns looking for contracts and easy targets for the other. Dirty deeds done…well, prices are negotiable.

Most Tauren will go to Thunder Bluff or some vast plains away from war. Although I have a feeling that one will enjoy the brawler’s guild quite a bit. At least one of us will.

My snarky rogue will never keep herself out of trouble. The warlock that has questionable loyalties might need to be watched.

One night elf rogue is going to terrorize the Horde in Ashenvale until she retakes it single-handedly.

The human priestess will take comfort in the Cathedral of Light. She might retire from adventure and minister from there. She never shied from her duty and charge, even though she was five-times a grandmother when she first went to Northshire Valley. But truth be told, glory and battle were never for her and quiet, slow days were all she wanted for her twilight years.

A few others will likely follow where my spouse’s character might go, if they are interested in choosing a place. If not, I’ll figure that out as it comes.

And what of you? Have you thought where your character might start new travels without you?

Recruit-a-friend for mounts and levels

If you are someone that plays primarily with another person, the recruit-a-friend program is a pretty decent deal I think.

For $20 you can get a mount, several low-level characters to 90, and a couple thousand gold if you have the time and dedication.

I really enjoy doing this for a number of reasons. One, I love making characters. I’ve long identified as an altoholic. If I can make multiple characters in a game, I’m likely to make the maximum allowed if your game pulls in me. I love trying out various combinations of skills, roles, and races/backgrounds.

Two, my spouse is a pretty big altoholic as well, although slightly less of one than me. That being the case, we usually make characters that go together; but they obviously need to move at the pace of the one the plays less. That doesn’t bother me, but when we do this recruit-a-friend xp level boost, we can move [GENDER PRONOUN] characters up a bit and then I can play my corresponding character solo.

Three, you might try class/gender/race/spec combinations more freely on your temporary recruit-a-friend account than you would on your “main” one. For most people, this isn’t a big plus because they’ve got plenty of spots left on their account or they aren’t hesitant to delete characters. For others…of whom I make no claims for or against…this is a nice benefit.

If you want to do this without adding another credit card into the mix, the process for us has generally been –

1. Wait until Blizzard is having their 50% off sale for the “old content” WoW (currently up through Pandaria as of this writing).
2. Purchase a $15 3-month time card
3. Person 1 will send a recruit-a-friend invite to the e-mail of Person 2’s battle.net I.D.’s account.
4. Then Person 2 will create the recruit-a-friend account under that battle.net I.D.’s. You may have up to 3 WoW accounts under 1 battle.net I.D., I believe.
5. Purchase the $5 WoW
6. Add the 3 month time card
7. Start leveling up together, grant the extra levels gained to a different character (same server, same side only.)
8. Let the recruit-a-friend account expire

By having it linked with your main battle.net I.D. (as opposed to making a new one) you get access to any mounts, heirlooms, pets, or other account wide stuff that you’ve already unlocked. Plus if you get something new, the main account will get it.

This past year happened to line-up with the Midsummer Festival, so we were able to run around honoring/desecrating fires, getting lots of XP, a fair amount of gold, and enough flowers to get the new toys and pets. It did get a bit grindy at times, so we broke it up with some dungeons and quests.

We got 4 total characters to 90 (2 of mine, 2 of theirs), plus by granted levels others to reach 80, 78, and assorted other lower levels. I’m guessing their account added 130 levels across 6 characters in that time. This might not seem like a lot for the 3-4 months of play that we had, but when you don’t have a lot of hours in a week (or a night), it works out pretty well.

There was not a lot of gold generated this time, but I was a bit busy and didn’t really focus on generating gold. It won’t make much but it was still a few thousand that was added to the various coffers.

There are a few drawbacks to note.

Financial Cost – obviously, you are paying for a new game and at least 3 months of time. You get a new mount and some leveling but there is still a fee that must be paid.

Time Cost – if you want to get the most of out of it, you won’t be spending a lot of time on your main account, so they won’t be getting MacGuffin stones or other things you have been working on grinding out.

Grinding – If you want to maximize the benefit of this, you’ll want to power level through as much content as you can. Not really reading quests, not really enjoying content, just doing it. That’s not too bad if you’ve done the same quest a million times and were hoping to skip some boring areas anyway but it can weigh some people down. It can also burn you out a bit if you aren’t careful when you are done. Like any grinding can of course, but still it is not much use in getting a lot of levels and a new mount if you end up needing to take a break from WoW.

Reputation and professions – Your gear says level 90, but your herbalism says level 6. Since you are mainly doing quests and dungeons as quickly as possible, you aren’t typically doing much in the ways of skills. Now, that’s not as huge problem anymore since Blizzard has made it possible to pick high level stuff with low-level skills. But it still means you’ll have to grind up your professions at some point. Same with reputations.

Saying goodbye – if you are a person that gets somewhat attached to your characters and you are the person making the temporary recruit-a-friend account, you might love the new characters you created and try to “rationalize” keeping the second account. And now you are suddenly paying for 2 accounts. To be honest, I think about 3 of my favorite characters I’ve made (by spec or just general design/theme) have been on a recruit-a-friend account. If I could switch them out with some of my characters on my main account…well, I’d have trouble picking who would go to the backbench, but I’d definitely be thinking about it.

There are likely some other drawbacks but those are the main ones that come to mind.

Generally, this works well when you feel like you’ve pretty much done everything in an expansion and are just kind of coasting. It still is doing the same content of course, but with a new drive and a new goal, it can make it palatable.

Plus – flying kitty mount!