Made it to Draenor!

Hi,

Yay, I made it to Draenor this morning. A lot of leveling over the week to get me to this point. Let's go through it. But before I start:

At my Garrison

Here's me at my new Garrison in Draenor.

So, we started off at 60 and went to Outland. What was absolutely amazing is that there is no CRZ in Outland at all. It was truly a great experience doing the quests on my own, with hardly seeing anyone else around. This is what RP is all about :). Heading into Northrend at 68, I didn't know what to expect, but soon saw Moonguard and Wymrest Accord people and then knew that Northrend did indeed have CRZ. It wasn't too bad though. At least it's only 8 or 9 realms thrown together, not 30 or so.

I did lots more Borean Tundra than normal, getting to 72 there, before heading to Dragonblight and then Grizzly Hills until 76. Then it was a quick Shloz Basin and Icecrown to finish off. Cata fairly whizzed by, Just doing Hyjal and then Uldum. MoP was similar, getting to 88 in Jade Forest, and finishing off with a tiny bit of Valley of Four Winds and then Kun-Lai (making sure to get the Grummlepack).

So, I played through the Draenor opening this morning, and made it to my Garrison. I've started doing quests in Shadowmoon Valley and have got the Tailoring shack now. Level 91.

I also leveled Lavabrit a bit, to get her profs to 75 for the Darkmoon Fair. There's a problem now with DMF fishing though. You catch a lot of junk and I only got 2 Herring on her after about 30 casts and gave up. Insanebrit had the same problem, but she did it earlier in the week and I persevered on her. Funny thing was, leveling Lavabrit in Westfall, it didn't have CRZ the day before Invasions, but now does. What a shame :)

Insanebrit (91) - Human/Priest (Herbalism 569/Tailoring 81) 
Lavabrit (28) - Draenei/Shaman (Mining 83/Jewlcrafting 83) 
Crazybrit (3) - Gnome/Hunter (NA 0/NA 0)

The whole plan is to get Insanebrit's Tailoring high enough to start crafting bags for others. Of course,  she should get to 100 soon, and then I'll start leveling others too, and probably start more characters as well. Things are going really well in this new restart.

Cheers.

Starting Over - Again!

Hi,

So, here's what happened. I was doing Tanaan dailies on my Hunter, and got the quest to kill 20 Demons. Now, you can kill those packs of 3 little sprites, or kill the wolves near the Horde base on Tanaan. So, I spend my time flying to both those places, seeing if any mobs were up, and killing any I could. It took absolutely ages. There were so many people around, and it was really hard to find any mobs alive. Another frustration. I got the cooking daily for 4 cookies. It was on a lower level character with no flying. and it took ages to get done, because there were no cookie anywhere, and I had to go place to place, and back again to get it done.

So I researched what was going on with things being so crowded. It seems that they've CRZed about 30 realms together for regular PVE realms. It's just horrible. I decided I needed a change. I'd read that they had done away with CRZ in certain places in RP realms, so I decided I had to go to check it out.

I have a good friend (Eccentrica) on Silver Hand, so I asked her what it was like, and she assured me that even where there's CRZ, it's only with about 7 or 8 other realms. So, I decided to take the plunge, and restart over there.

I'm absolutely loving it. Not only is CRZ gone in Stormwind City, but it's no present in tons of zones too. The realm is absolutely awesome. I leveled from 1-60 on my Priest, and started another couple of characters there.

My restart

So, there we have it. Insanebrit (named for Priest insanity, but also because I'm insane to start over again).

I joined my friend's guild, and have a bank guild too. We're having a blast now being together in the same guild and seeing achievements pop and stuff. It's the first time for a long time I've not been in a personal guild, but I'm really enjoying this new start.

I stopped playing my other characters all together. I won't be deleting them or anything, they have over 6 million gold, so will buy up tokens for the next few years.

These are my characters for now, but more are on the way.

Insanebrit (60) - Human/Priest (Herbalism 336/Tailoring 80) 
Lavabrit (13) - Draenei/Shaman (Mining 20/Jewlcrafting 16) 
Crazybrit (3) - Gnome/Hunter (NA 0/NA 0)

The plan for next week is to get my Priest to 100. I hope I can make it. Also, to start more characters, and have tons of fun leveling in my new home.

Cheers.

New Goldmaking Opportunity!

Hi,

As with the title of the blog, I'm going to tell you how I've made a lot of gold this week. It was a rumor I've heard, so I thought it was worth checking it out.

Ice Crown Citadel Raid in Northrend.

Someone mentioned that the rewards had been buffed. So, I took a couple of my Priests there. I set it to 25N, because that's about my limit (especially on the Ship Battle). So, a full clear got me 946g on my first run after vendoring everything. Other runs got me 952 and 964 gold. I then ran it on my Hunter, and only got about 800g, because she had to skip Dreamweaver. I was interested to see what I could get from Trial of the Crusader too. A full quick run through there gave about 540g. I also did Firelands on a few characters to keep the gold flowing in.

Other than that, both my Rogue and Hunter both got to 85 in Uldum. Then then both headed to Pandaria and have both been questing in Jade Forest. This is Stabbybrit having just finished the Jade Temple quests:

Just leaving the Jade Temple

She completed the jade quests in Jade Forest and got into Valley of the Four Winds. After just doing the first few Suncsong Ranch quests, she's now 88 and about 50%, and ready to head to Kun-Lai.

My Hunter only just did the Jade Forest quests up to Dawn's Blossom. She's at 87and about 50%.

The other leveling I did was to take my Paladin into Outland. She did quite a few Zangamarsh quests and got to 63. She's having a bit of a hard time leveling mining, but she's up to 304 now.

I also leveled my Warrior a couple of levels.

Other than this, I continued to do Garrison missions across all my 25 100s, but just once a day now. I'm doing the Shipyard on my two Garrosh characters too. I'm also still taking my latest 100 Hunter into Tanaan for dailies and to get geared up. The other thing I'm doing is going through my Ghostland Horde characters one by one, making sure they've finished all their Draenor quests, and bonus objectives.

One last thing. On Saturday, I made sure I tool every single one of my characters to a Tmog NPC so they could all get Hidden Helm :)

Priestybrit (100) - Human/Priest (Herbalism 700/Tailoring 700) - iLvl 702
Draenybrit (100) - Draenei/Hunter (Mining 700/Jewelcrafting 700) - iLvl 679
Stabbybrit (88) - Gnome/Rogue (Skinning 530/leatherworking 95) 
Pallybrit (60) - Draenei/Paladin (Mining 237/Blacksmithing 105) 
Panadabrit (87) - Pandaren/Hunter (Mining 515/Engineering 92) 
Shammybrit (32) - Draenei/Shaman (Herbalim 143/Inscription 91) 
Blondybrit (29) - Human/Warlock (Herbalism 109/Inscription 90)
Nightybrit (23) - Night Elf/Priest (Herbalim 96/Enchanting 90) 
Frostybrit (60) - Draenei/Death Knight (Mining 275/Jewlcrafting 78) 
Smashbrit (16) - Draenei/Warrior (Mining 39/Blacksmithing 45)
Huntingbrit (12) - Gnome/Hunter (Skinning 29/Leatherworking 1)


The plan for next week is to keep the gold rolling in, and level my Rogue and Hunter to at least 90, and continue to level others, and clean up other 100s, getting them ready for Legion.

Cheers.

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.

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.

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.

Sooo Bored and Frustrated, and thus....

Hi,

Yep, not enjoying myself in WoW any more. I'm getting increasingly bored and frustrated with it. I find myself messaging my friend so many more 'Yuck', 'Yikes', 'Dammit' messages than 'Yay', 'Sweet', etc. ones.

I'm bored with doing Garrison chores.
I'm bored with running Follower missions.
I'm bored with the Shipyard.
I'm bored with doing Tanaan Dailies.
I'm bored with killing Kazzak.
I'm bored with LFR.
I'm bored with grinding rep.
I'm bored with running old Raids.

I'm frustrated with the amount of Preserved Mining Picks I'm getting.
I'm frustrated with the amount of Felblight I get from Kazzak.
I'm frustrated with the crew I get on new ships at the Shipyard.
I'm frustrated with the queue times for LFR.
I'm frustrated that I need Proving Grounds to queue for Heriocs.

In other words, everything is just now boring or frustrating. I think I'm burnt out, and I think WoW is a game that has moved away from something that I can have fun with.

I used to have fun leveling tons of characters. But with CRZ that is horrible, and not something I want to contemplate. I used to have fun doing tons of dailies in MoP, and running Heroics. But now we have the bonus objective type dailies, and stupid Proving Grounds for Heroics.

I don't have guild mates or friends in the game (except for one Bnet friend). So, I've been treating the game as sort of a solo RPG mostly, with group content only occasionally. It seems that Blizzard doesn't really want you doing that in the game, and they've gradually pushed people like me into a corner, and are squeezing them out of the game.

Thus, I have decided that I'm going to stop playing WoW. In fact, I stopped yesterday. I really doubt if I'll be back for Legion either. More Bonus Objective stuff at end-game, not looking to get rid of CRZ any time soon, and more frustrating RNG on top of frustrating RNG.

Sorry folks, but that's the end of the blog. Maybe I should start up a new 'Phil's Gaming' blog or something, with the games I will be playing. Currently, that will be Civ BE Rising Tide. I also dabbled in Torchlight II for 10 minutes last night. I'll probably look for other single player Steam games, rather than look at MMOs any-more.

In fact, here's the new blog: http://philgamingmusic.blogspot.com/

So, in closing.  I just want to thank you all for viewing my blog and for making me feel good about the viewing numbers. I hope I've interested you, and kept you a bit entertained while doing this.

Cheers.