Monday, July 25, 2016

Disconnections abound!

Hi,

One constant theme for this week, since the pre-patch has been the constant dis-connections. I get DCed when logging in to a character, when I heath on a character, and sometimes after playing a character for 10 minutes or so. I can usually get in after logging into WoW again by supplying my email and password, but it's pretty frustrating. It happens mostly with characters in Stormwind City, I'm absolutely convinced it's all to do with the new CRZ of main cities. I've posted on the Tech Support forums about it and that's all I'll say about it for now. I hope it's fixed soon.

When I do get in, I've been leveling in the morning, and playing my 100s in the evening. Ohh, I started a Gnome Hunter, she's finished with the starting zone and Elwyn Forest and is ready to hit Loch Modan. I also leveled my Shaman a bit, and my Warlock, and got my Rogue and Panda Hunter higher and both of them into Cata. I actually did a little leveling in Cata one evening too. CRZ wasn't too bad. They are now 83, and 82, and will soon be both ready to hit Uldum. I can't wait to get them to Pandaria and then into Draenor.

Now to the 100s. I've stopped doing Garrison missions, even on my Tailors. I can start the Tailors again once the prices for Hexweave Bags start to rise. I'm not seeing that yet. So, I've been getting gold in other ways. On my Ghostlands characters, I've been going through and finishing up Draenor quests. There are usually a couple of quests in Gorgrond and Talador that aren't done yet, and a few in Nagrand too. Also, on a couple of them, I went back and start finishing off MoP quests too. Flying from the shrine, they did Inkgel Mere in Kun-Lai, and then finished off the quests in Jade Forest. Gives a nice bit of gold. This is the way I'll make lots of gold before Legion.

In addition to that, I'll also run Cata Raids, but I'm concentrating on getting all the Draenor quests done first.

That's about it. Here's how the characters on Garrosh look:

Priestybrit (100) - Human/Priest (Herbalism 700/Tailoring 700) - iLvl 702
Draenybrit (100) - Draenei/Hunter (Mining 700/Jewelcrafting 700) - iLvl 675

Stabbybrit (83) - Gnome/Rogue (Skinning 507/leatherworking 95) 
Pallybrit (60) - Draenei/Paladin (Mining 237/Blacksmithing 105) 
Panadabrit (82) - Pandaren/Hunter (Mining 465/Engineering 92) 
Shammybrit (32) - Draenei/Shaman (Herbalim 143/Inscription 91) 
Blondybrit (29) - Human/Warlock (Herbalism 109/Inscription 90)
Nightybrit (24) - Night Elf/Priest (Herbalim 96/Enchanting 90) 

Frostybrit (60) - Draenei/Death Knight (Mining 275/Jewlcrafting 78) 
Smashbrit (14) - Draenei/Warrior (Mining 31/Blacksmithing 45)
Huntingbrit (12) - Gnome/Hunter (Skinning 29/Leatherworking 1) 

The plan for next week is to continue leveling across the board, and making gold on my 100s. I'll also hopefully get back to posting a pic or two to brighten up my blog.

Cheers.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

The Pre-Patch is here!

Hi,

I just thought I'd make a special mid-week post to give you my thoughts on the pre-patch.

If you don't know, 7.0.3 was released yesterday, that included all the stuff from Legions, except for Demon Hunters, the Broken Shores continent, Artifact Weapons, and leveling past 100.

So, we got all the class changes, the wardrobe, all the UI improvements etc.

So, I logged in when I got home, and after it loaded the patch, it played a cinematic for Legion. This was extremely well done, and a very good cinematic indeed. Varian and Sylvannas against the Legion. Awesome stuff.

The first thing was to check all the Garrison missions, to confirm fears that gold missions in progress would change (even though they completed before the patch), to give GRs instead. It was pretty difficult and time consuming doing all the garrison missions and shipyards, because Masterplan hadn't been updated. It's the only addon I use. Anyway, it was right, all the gold missions gave GRs instead, and no more gold missions. Crates of salvage just give GRs too. Follower items got nerfed to vendor for 5c too. There are really no gold making opportunities for Garrison any more.

Except for - Hexweave Bags, and Savage Blood. I firmly believe that Hexweave Bags will go up in price as there is no bigger bag in Legion. Also, Savage Blood can still be used to buy the Bloody Gold Purse (giving about 50g each). To this end, I decided to keep doing Garrison and Shipyard mission on my 2 Tailors on Draenor, my 2 Tailors on Ghostlands, and my Tailor on Garrosh. The missions will give GRs (to buy Sumptuous Fur with), Primal Spirits, Sorcerous stuff (either Earth, or xmute to Earth). We'll see if this is all a good investment or not.

Other than that, I'm still doing Imperial Silk for Royal Satchels on my Priest on Ghostlands, so I got her talents sorted out (mostly passive ones) and headed for Timeless Isle. There were so many people there. She did manage to get quite a bit of Windwool Cloth though.

I then did Kazzak on my Priest on Garrosh. It went fairly well, but seemed to take longer than previously, but she got a 725 cloak drop (shame I already had a 721 2/2 one :)). but, an upgrade is an upgrade.

I don't mind the changes to Shadow Priest at all. The rotation is mostly the same, and it still feels fairly intuitive.

This morning, I sent my Garrosh Hunter to Nagrand to trap elite Riverbeasts. It was a bit of a shock. I was getting the down to half health fairly quickly, but my poor wolf was taking lots of damage. I had to use Mend Pet a lot! Not so keen on the BM Hunter changes, but I can live with them.

Other than that, I've done a bit of Thorium mining on my level 60 Pally. She's up around 265 now, and just needs to get to 275 before she's ready to hit Outland.

The new professions panel is great. The nameplates take getting used to. Haven't looked at the wardrobe at all. Sparkles on items, and glows on the ground of mobs for quests look really good.

It's a big patch and will take a lot of getting used to. I'll have to figure out other ways to make gold (I'll let you know about those on Monday), but will have more time for leveling and playing my 100s, now that garrison stuff won't take as long.

Cheers.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Back with a vengeance!

Hi,

So, I was indeed bored and frustrated and quit the game for quite a while. But then I figured out what was getting in the way of me enjoying the game. It was the garrison chores. So, after a while, I decided to play free form, starting up on another realm, and starting from scratch.

The realm I chose was Garrosh. It's a fairly low populated realm with Alliance bias. I started playing on Alliance.

I started with the idea of only play one character, and seeing what it was like only playing one character at max level. I leveled a Priest (Tailoring/Herbing). Because of my dislike for CRZ, I only leveled in the morning before work pretty much, but did do some dungeons in the evening. For the first character, it was - Get to 100 as quickly as possible! I got her to 100, but then realized that I needed to buy Sorcerous Earth and Savage Blood to upgrade crafted gear. Yuck. So I decided to start another character. I started a Hunter (Mining/JC). Meanwhile, I was getting the Garrison in full gold mode, and getting the shipyard fully set up on my Priest, so lots of Baleful gear was coming in.

When I took a look at all the slots Baleful gear took up from shipyards, I settled on a crafting set of Chest, Ring, and Weapon. So, to craft these for my Hunter, I'd need an Engineer for the Gun, and a Leatherworker for Chest. So, that's two more characters. Aww, what the heck, let's get all the professions. So, 4 more after that, and that got it up to 8 characters. I only have 2 to 100 now, the Priest and Hunter. All the others are on their way. I'm now only leveling by questing, and only leveling in the morning. That's why it's been rather slow.

Then, I realized that on all my realms, I still don't have a max level DK or Warrior. So I started those two up and now have 10 characters. I've been leveling mining on the DK and she's almost ready to hit Outland.

Here they are:

Priestybrit (100) - Human/Priest (Herbalism 700/Tailoring 700) - iLvl 701
Draenybrit (100) - Draenei/Hunter (Mining 700/Jewelcrafting 650) - iLvl 673 

Stabbybrit (78) - Gnome/Rogue (Skinning 453/leatherworking 95) 
Pallybrit (60) - Draenei/Paladin (Mining 237/Blacksmithing 105) 
Panadabrit (76) - Pandaren/Hunter (Mining 432/Engineering 92) 
Shammybrit (28) - Draenei/Shaman (Herbalim 117/Inscription 91) 
Blondybrit (24) - Human/Warlock (Herbalism 98/Inscription 90)
Nightybrit (24) - Night Elf/Priest (Herbalim 96/Enchanting 90) 

Frostybrit (60) - Draenei/Death Knight (Mining 275/Jewlcrafting 78) 
Smashbrit (14) - Draenei/Warrior (Mining 31/Blacksmithing 45)

I'm still doing Garrison missions on all other 22 leveled level 100s I have to keep the gold flowing in., and open salvage crates from all of them on the weekends and vendor the results. I make about 100K per week. About 70K from the missions and vendoring, and about 30K from the AH for things like Huge Ogre Cache, Medallion of the Legion etc. All this obviously changes tomorrow, when I'll cut back to only doing garrison stuff on my tailors, and not making gold from it.

I recently just bought 2 more tokens for my main account, and two more for my secondary account. Didn't really put much of a dent in my 6 Million gold :)

Other stuff I'm doing is gearing up my characters on the other Alliance realm. I really stopped playing them before Tanaan Jungle patch, so I've now taken them all into Tanaan and am getting them some good baleful gear.

The plan for next week is to switch from Garrison for gold, to finishing up questing and doning bonus objectives for gold (on Draenor realm). I'll be leveling on Garrosh, and hope to get both Stabbybrit and Pandabrit to level 80.

Cheers.