Friday, July 23, 2010

Maxed 2 More Professions, New 80 ding, Other Updates

It's been a couple weeks since I wrote and for that I apologize. With that out of the way, time for some updates on my progress to get every profession maxed out and get gold capped!

When I last wrote I mentioned that I was slowing down on WoW for a couple weeks to catch up on some other gaming. While that happened, I did sneak in enough World of Warcraft time to finally cap enchanting on my 80 hunter, alchemy on my priest (for those counting, that leaves only tailoring and leatherworking) and level said priest to 80, making him my fifth level 80 toon! And since epics are easy I did a few dungeon runs and got some loots and a couple pieces of tier 9.



I broke 40,000 gold as well. I know for some hardcore gold makers in WoW this number represents a week's worth of buying out mats in the Auction House, but I'm not officially gaming the AH just yet. This is just selling stuff I craft leveling up my various professions and gold earned while leveling up toons, etc. Also, four of my five level 80 toons have epic flying so that's a huge chunk of money invested right there. To be honest I don't see myself really gaming the economy until after Cataclysm arrives. Until then....preparation. Oh, and my bank toon's guild bank is filling up quite nicely with a surplus of stuff to sell when the time is right.

Concerning Project Tauren Shaman, which I know I haven't updated in way too long, I transferred my Orc Hunter Wyrmfoe to the Doomhammer realm so he could lend his heirlooms to my Shaman. Coincidentally both Spirithorn (my shaman) and Wyrmfoe are level 20. Don't worry, Wyrmfoe is ONLY providing heirlooms. The goal of Project Tauren Shaman is still to level without any gold or other assistance from other toons. By the way, Wyrmfoe's pet raptor is named AndyBotwin. Points to you if you get the reference to one of the best shows in television currently.



I've been thinking about the Refer-a-Friend feature lately and I might give it a try before too long. Of course the friend I'll be referring is myself, in the interest of power leveling a couple toons just for shits and giggles and of course for the awesome two-seater mount. I setup one of my older gaming PC's along side my current rig, setup a second account and downloaded the trial version of the game, patching it up to date and everything. Stupid old me figured that once you own WoW and all of its expansions you could install it on multiple accounts, only having to pay for two accounts. Nope. Each account requires its own copy of the game and all of its expansions. I'll have to pick up the WoW Battle Chest and pay for a second account long enough to get the mount on my main account. Below is a shot of my second account getting patched up to date. And might I add that running two PC's side by side really satisfies the inner geek in me, especially when said PC's were built by yours truly.



Buying second copies of WoW and paying for a second account for a few months seems like a huge waste of money, and it is, but I've always wanted to give dualboxing a shot. We'll see if it happens. I'll keep you updated.

Okay time to wrap this post up. Just a couple things before I leave. I have my two character slots for my Worgen and Goblin toons (Male Druid and Female Rogue respectively) named and reserved. I can't wait! Which brings me to a question for my readers. What are you going to do first once Cataclysm is out: Level your current toons to 85 or focus on leveling a Worgen/Goblin?



See you next time! :)

Monday, July 12, 2010

Some WoW Downtime + Updates

Just a quick update. I haven't been playing much WoW in the last week. I blame BioWare for this. I started playing Mass Effect 2 and put over 20 hours in last week. I played the game and put about 10-12 hours in when it first came out last year but stopped playing. When I tried to resume that game I didn't remember the story so I started over. Man that game is good. BioWare + SciFi is a damn good match. If you played the first Mass Effect but got frustrated by the constant inventory management and the Mako driving sequences, give ME2 a try. They streamlined the hell out of the game and got rid of all the annoying things from the first one. It also runs smooth and is stable on PC, unlike the first one in which I experienced a lot of audio glitches and crashing. I also started playing Dragon Age: Origins over the weekend. I still need to finish Red Dead Redemption as well. Too many great games, not enough time!

So yeah...catching up on other games requires WoW downtime. I did play a little bit but really have nothing major to report other than I have nearly capped Alchemy and Enchanting on my priest and hunter respectively (both professions at 440 currently). Played a little bit yesterday and dinged 76 on my priest. This is my fifth grind from 70-80 and each time if feels like it gets slower and slower. Even with the 20% bonus experience granted by my heirloom gear it's still a pain in the ass.

Which got me thinking.

For Project Tauren Shaman I'm thinking about transferring my orc hunter from his current realm to Doomhammer, where my shaman resides. The reason is because my horde has an heirloom set and the thought of leveling that shaman without the experience bonus makes me shudder. The hunter heirlooms aren't perfectly itemized for a shaman but they will work out okay I think. It's about the experience bonus anyway. Yes, I'm spoiled by those damn heirlooms! If I end up doing this I'll be sure to include the details the next time I updated Project Tauren Shaman.

Back to alchemy and enchanting briefly. Been making some decent gold selling flasks and meta gems during raid nights. The flasks are profitable only because I had some herbs stockpiled so I didn't have to purchase any up front. I don't think I'll be selling flasks regularly as it's a pretty competitve market with lots of reposting and undercutting. That and I'm transmute mastery. The mats to make meta gems are cheap and when the transmute mastery procs and I get a two for one, that's just extra free gold in my pocket. I post my gems at really odd times, like super late at night or first thing in the morning when I wake up. Seems to work. Having success selling mostly Austere Earthsiege Diamonds, Chaotic Skyflare Diamonds, Relentless Earthsiege Diamonds and Ember Skyflare Diamonds. I sell gems at 12 hours to keep posting fees minimal in case I need to cancel and repost.

Enchanting wise, I sold a few scrolls of Enchant Cloak - Titanweave and made a few hundred gold and have been spending dream shards trying to pick up profitable enchanting recipes, such as Enchant 2H Weapon - Massacre. I haven't looked into buying up mats and selling them on the market just yet, but will do so soon and see how profitable and competitive it is.

Okay so that wasn't a "quick" update after all.