Rather Funny

I've been playing WoW on and off for about 10 years.  My youngest child can't remember a time when I didn't play WoW.  Over this time there have been expansions I was rather Meh about and expansions I was literally on the edge of my seat waiting for.  Battle for Azeroth definitely falls into the first category.  I know only the vaguest details about it.  I am much more interested in playing Classic when it is finally released.

I'm on a break from the game right now.  There is simply too much to do and I find it overwhelming, so frankly I'd just rather not play.  Even the thought of playing invokes feelings of dread, not unlike looking at the 5 years worth of domestic paperwork that I really do need to sort and file.

And so. of course, guess who gets a first wave Beta invite for the first time ever?  That's right, this girl.  Is it enough of a carrot to lure me back?  Maybe.  Possibly.  We'll see.

OH! MY! GOD!

This!  One Million Times This!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZyiYOzsSw

Begin the Beguine

As a test of my desire to write again, I'm going to attempt to post the progress of a new Every-Quester.

My goal for Every-Questing is simply to complete every quest in game in zone order.  I do not count daily quests, dungeon quests, or professional quests.  Once a character has completed all regular quests I entertain the possibility of completing all dungeons (normal and heroic mode) and raids (all formats).  I either solo or duo myself (running two BNet accounts at the same time).

There is a difference in the total number of quests available depending on your choice of Faction/Race/Class.  Worgen, Goblins, Pandaren and DeathKnights all have their own unique starting areas, and only Gnomes are offered quests in Tinkertown.

For the purposes of this reboot, I have elected to play a female Dwarf Paladin.  I present you Brunhildah.

Upon creation, I guilded her into Inveniam, made her an officer, mailed her 4 Hexweave Bags and equipped full heirloom gear including a ship mission ring.  A few UI tweaks later and we were off.

I completed the Dwarven starting area, and ran the gryphon master intro quest line in Kharanos.  I also got her a port to the Shrine to set her hearth there.  I realized after the fact that I'll have to do it again because when you accept the first quest in the Draenai starting area, it resets your hearth to that location.  Ah well.

I'm going to work more on her today, and report when I've completed all the starter zones.  Once the starters are completed, I  move back to Kharanos and complete Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil and Azuremyst Island.  The next set comprises Bloodmyst Island, Darkshore, Westfall, Redridge Mountains and Loch Modan.  In this way I move back and forth from one continent to the other, completing all zones in a level range, then I move up a level range and work my way across to the other side.

I generally only quest while rested.  I don't implement this until level 10 though, as levels are simply earned too fast prior to level 10.  In this way, I expect to be level 63 or 64 (possibly higher) before I turn to Outland, level 74 or 75 when I go to Northrend, 83 or 84 for Cataclysm content.  92 for Pandaria, and likely 95 for Draenor.

From past experience I anticipate that it will take 2-3 months realtime before I have completed the level 1 - 60 content.  It may take longer since I have not previously held to requiring rested xp for play, and we are now so close to Legion and my main characters and alts will take precedence on Legion release.  It may well be this time next year before I am done questing on Brunhildah.

Anyways, here is her progress to date:

Level: 7

Zones Completed: .5 (Dwarven Starter)

Quests Completed:  35

Gold:  17s40c

Gold Looted:  1s1c

Gold From Quest Rewards: 9s98c

Gold From Vendors:  6s41c

Gold Spent: 0

Played:  35 min, 50 sec

A few notes on gold:

Gold expenditure should be limited to flightpaths, mail, initial profession training, and any items I am required to purchase for questing.  Because of the unique mechanism of learning professions in Draenor, I am going to learn professions just prior to that content so that I can take advantage of that mechanism to skip having to pay for the training along the way.

I will do no gathering or crafting as I level.  All professional mats that I loot along the way will be mailed to a banker who will auction them on my behalf.  All recipes will be sent to the Inveniam banker who will see if any of my main characters need them for their collections.  If not, they will be auctioned or vendored by Brunhildah's banker.  All common or better BoEs that I loot will be checked for current value.  Anything with a value of 1k or higher will be auctioned, otherwise it will be vendored.  Any pets I loot will be kept if I do not already have 3 of them, and the extras will be deleted.  I have found that trying to sell pets is too much of a pain to be bothered with it anymore.  Non-bindable bags will be sent to the banker for banker's use, all others will be vendored.

When selecting quest rewards, I will always choose items that are upgrades to equipped non-heirlooms, otherwise I will choose the item with the highest vendor value.

I do not plan to gem or enchant any gear, and I won't glyph until I see how the new system works.  If I do require any enhancements, I'll get them from my alts, so there will be no expenditure there.

And finally, riding.  In this regard Brunhildah will have to be self-sufficient.  I don't anticipate not being able to afford training.  I will train as the skills become available to her, and as finances allow.  I may decide to run her old-school insofar as I may choose not to purchase flying until level 70 and cold-weather flying until 77, but we'll see. 

"Doing it All" - The Old World

In moving all of my characters back to Azeroth proper and deciding to 'finish' each expansion with the entire group before moving on, I've created a rather large project for myself.

Some may wonder what I mean by finishing, and how precise I am going to be.  I've decided on quest completion, dungeon and raid completion, reputation capping and complete recipe collection.  They all feed into one another since there are quests in instances, rep gains in instances, and recipes are everywhere. 

To assist others who may wish to follow this path, I've set down some information to help you get started and see where your road is going to take you.  For now, since this represents the next month or two of playing, we'll just look at the Old World.

Micro-Post: The Glyph Industry

I just read this reply to a thread on a forum I belong to.  I nearly spat out my tea when I read it.  Thanks for the laugh, Z-Man.

Enjoy :)

"The glyph industry truly brings out the martyrs. They're like monks copying manuscripts by candlelight, their work the only thing standing between civilization and the darkness of the Apocalypse. If prices are allowed to rise, then demons will sweep from the sky and eat all the innocents. If you undercut one of their auctions, then demons will sweep from the sky and eat all the innocents because the monk can't afford to buy candles (made from orphans...excuse me, made by orphans).

They can't be reasoned with - they're righteous and you're evil. The only option is to brimstone the entire server - orphans and all - to convince them that maybe civilization saving would be more successful somewhere else."

Through the Darkness: A Theory

It's been my experience in life that there is a reason for virtually everything.  Sometimes the reason is obvious and sometimes it's buried deep and you have to play detective to find the answer to the question "why".  The harder reasons to find are the most interesting to me because they present an intellectual challenge.  You have to find the points on the line in the darkness and without knowledge of which tangents they might lie.

So let's muck our way through the darkness...

Planning My Life Behind the Curve

I've begun my new life as a has-been in earnest and turned my back on the dung-hill that is Draenor.  The first act was to move everyone back to Stormwind and delete their Garrison Hearthstones.  Then I hit the bank and socked away everything Warlords related - all the follower upgrade tokens, the crafting mats etc - and wham, instant bag space.  Then I hotkeyed a flying mount back into it's accustomed slot and whoo hoo, to the skies baby!

It ... felt ... wonderful.

New Game Same As The Old Game

Well, I am officially bored to tears with current 'content'.  I cannot bring myself to do one more round of Garrison chores.  Individually they take little time, but multiple that by 9 and it eats up most of a session and all of my enthusiasm.  So I'm done.  Combine that with the arrogance that is Blizzard, the lack of story progression, the machete job that was done to professions, the glacial pace of development, and it makes things rather grim.

There is the allure of Tanaan Jungle of course, but then there is also Timewalker Dungeons and Mythic Dungeons.  So, we have a little bit of new and a whole lot of old.  Since the entire theme of this expansion seems to have shifted to "either sit in this Skinner Box for 2 years or go do old content which we will wrap in a red ribbon so you idiots think it's new", I'm going one better and I'm going to sit in old content.

Bonus Post: Garrison Buildings - An Analysis

Since I am tired of replacing buildings willy nilly and pissing through gold and resources, I thought it high time to have another look at the buildings, the benefits proferrerd, and to decide how to allocate them properly so I can be finished and done with the business.  I want my garrisons complete and streamlined with a solid plan so I can get on with it and spend my time doing other things.

Each level 3 Garrison can sport 2 Large, 2 Medium and 3 Small Buildings.  I don't plan on examining the Herb Garden, the Mine, the Menagerie or the Fishing Shack since everyone gets them.

Week 20/12

This has been sort of a strange week, sort of a two steps forward, two steps back sort of deal.  As I've been gaining traction with the garrison, I've also been yearning to do something other than chores, chores and more chores.  Really though, I suppose I ought to be generally pleased as I really only  have 12 weeks in Draenor seeing as how I buggered off for 8 weeks from the end of December through to the end of February.  Post titles will reflect that from now on.

Week 19

This past week went by at a good tick, with progress in all areas.  I am finding that journaling this on a weekly basis is helping immensely with motivation.  I can see the improvement week by week and it really is helping me focus my efforts for greater gain.  Sometimes it feels slow and pokey, but I have to remind myself that Garrison chores, while time consuming are integral to the whole.

One thing that really does alleviate the stress of the Garrison is having a Storehouse.  A lot of people dismiss this building out of hand.  On the face of it, it presents mere convenience, sporting your personal banker at level 1 and adding a guild banker at level 2 and a transmog NPC at level 3.  The real beauty of this building lies in the benefits to all your buildings.

Weeks 17 and 18

Last week's update didn't happen because of only having a one day weekend and being ill.  So this week is a 2-fer, and it was a productive 2 weeks.

Week 16

Well, rather a lot got accomplished this week.  I've made advancements in all areas.  I want to discuss Garrison buildings but I spent time this week tracking and analyzing work orders and daily cooldowns to determine it's true cost and therefore profitability, so my time today is running short so that post will have to wait for another time.

Instead I present my standing at the end of the my first week of tracking progress.

Inventory Time

If I am going to monitor progress and keep an even hand on the wheel, I need to ascertain where things stand today.  Then progress, no matter how minute, can truly be determined, and the knowledge of progress will help bolster my efforts.

To be honest, I find the prospect rather daunting, but sooner started, sooner finished.

Taking Stock

So, here we are, 15 and a half weeks since Warlords of Draenor launched.

I played feverishly for 6 weeks and made decent progress, then Christmas and all of its inherent busyness and visitors threw me of kilter.  After things settled down again, I got back into playing poker and that absorbed all my attention for a while.  I ended up being away from WoW for 8 weeks. Needless to say, I am behind the curve.  I have some catching up to do, and I'm a little hazy on which character was doing what and why.  This seems as good a time as any to do a stock taking of the situation and lay out my plans and set some sort of a routine for myself.

Because I Want Desperately to Be Wrong

I've been inspired to write another post, and to give WoW another go.  There is still so much about the game that I love, and so much that I miss that is irrevocably gone.  I feel another bout of it is necessary because I think it's in the process of suicide and I want more of it before it's gone.

Last night I was reading the comments of an article on WoW Insider, namely that the commenter wanted his bike and had to make sure he logged into the game before September 30th.  This piqued my curiousity and sent me to Google.  Now, I preface the rest by stating that no, I have not in fact been living under a rock for the past several months.

Leaving for Vacation to Middle Earth

Having completed Eternally in the Vale and the Barrens stuff just in time, I am feeling much less pressure to play WoW.  With about 2 weeks of solid effort I was able to hit exalted with Nat Pagle, the Anglers, the Tiller and the Golden Lotus.

It felt good to get them all done, it presents me with more options.  Initially my thoughts turned to gearing and having finally clawed my way up to the required ilevel despite having not done any dungeons and only the scenarios required to open up the 5.1 content, I plunged into an LFR.  I had grand and sweeping plans for the gear grind, and mapped out how to spend my Valor before 5.4 hits. Then, as I considered my gemming and enchanting plans I rather fell out of love with the idea. 

That's the part that really sucks, the thousand upon thousands of gold you need to spend, repeatedly, only to have all your hard won, lovingly coddled and pampered gear rendered utterly irrelevant once you earn your first quest reward in the next expansion.  So, I'm not doing it.  I utterly refuse to spend the next 12 months on the gold grind and gear grind, I have better things to do with my time Blizzard, thank you very much.

To really make sure that this mindset sticks, and because I am rather bored with dailies and Pandaria as a whole, I am taking a WoW-cation.  I am going back to play Lord of the Rings.

To me it's novel and fresh.  The graphics are different.  The music is different, with nary a Kazoo to be found.  It presents new challenges and unlike WoW I don't know every single corner and facet like the back of my hand.  There also lacks the dearth of information that is available for WoW.  WoW has been dissected, examined, played and written about by so many people that there is simply very little to write about it, bar op ed pieces.  Even new encounters and things that come with patches are stale as everyone and their dog plays the PTR and writes about it.  Hell, even the speculation is stale.  Truly my only remaining interest in the game is seeing where the story goes.

LotRO on the other hand is new (for me).  Not the main story, of course.  I've read the novels 3 times a year, every year for the past 20+ years.  I could almost quote it verbatim.  What is new is the game world and quests and characters that populate it.  Adding to the novelty is the fact that there is no 'Lotro-head' or 'Lotro-Insider'.  There aren't 1,000 bloggers writing about it every day.  There is information to be found, but you really have to hunt and search for it, and it's not always complete.  The game therefore presents the opportunity for learning and experimentation.  You cannot simply spend a few hours reading and preparing and then barrel to level cap within a week.

If and when I do return to WoW, anything WoW related will be posted to the Inveniam Blog.  In the meantime I have resurrected a once started, then abandoned site, Tales From the Green Dragon which is expressly for LotRO.  This site will be, going forward, a general site, tied to no game in particular.

So, if you're a LotRO player or are interested in getting to know something about the game, visit me at Tales From the Green Dragon.

Cheers,
E

Inveniam

Thank you all for your patience.  Page and article migration is complete.  Inveniam is shaping up quite nicely and I've made introductions there today.

Cheers,
E

Strange But True

For those of us no longer in our honeymoon period with WoW, the game can feel a bit stale at times.  You've seen it all, done it all, and now you're doing it on your nth alt.  You know every corner of the game world, every snippet of lore, every chord of every sub-zone soundtrack.  Or at least you think you do.  Occasionally on our travels through Azeroth something  catches the corner of our eye.  You can be traveling through a well known area and for some reason, something just seems ... different.  You can't quite put your finger on it, but it you pause for a moment and just wait, you'll see it properly.

I had just such a moment yesterday while questing in Feralas.  I was out zapping giants for Zorbin on the Forgotten Coast when I could have sworn I saw a giant farting.  "Nah", I said to myself, and carried on with the zapping. "Couldn't be.  I must just be tired tonight".  Then I saw it again. 

I stopped the zapping and sat and watched the giants, and this is what I saw.

Fart Bubbles

The giants crouch down and fart out a great dirty bubble.  The fun's not over there, though.  Then they do this:

Pop!

They turn round and pop the bubble with their finger.  Farting has consequences, though.  One more thing to be done.

P-hew!

They wave their maces back and forth behind themselves, as if to waft away the stink.

So there you have it folks.  Just when you think you've seen it all, you'll find something you haven't seen (and sometimes wish you hadn't).

Happy Sunday.  Cheers,

E

A Bit of Housekeeping

Today marks the launch of a separate blog for my current pet project, Inveniam.  While drafting a new post and creating some pages, I quickly came to realize that I have so much information I want to share, not only updates on the project but also information I have gathered and insights I have, that this place was going to get very untidy very quickly.

Henceforth general topics will be addressed here and anything specifically related to my big fat meta-goal will be covered over at Inveniam.  I've put a link on the sidebar of each blog for easy navigation.

I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce a new blogger, Lankybrit.  Lanky is well known on the Wowhead Forums as a fellow inveterate altoholic and I am very glad he has finally dipped his toe into the blogosphere.  Lanky has probably rolled and deleted more alts that most of us have ever started, and his skill in the arena of leveling is legendary. 

He has recently decided to start completely fresh and deleted (gasp!  I know!) all of his old toons (to completely remove temptation) and bought a shiny new account.  I look forward to watching his progress in his new venture.

I am in the process of sorting out tables and whatnot to post on Inveniam, so I beg your patience in the interim.

Cheers,
E