Tradeskills

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It’s a Rental

The big news this week is that I managed to qualify for and run all of heart of Fear and Terrace LFR on Monday, before the reset, thereby getting a bonus chance.

How that happened? Ah, therein lies a tale.

When my Warlock reached level 90, it didn’t take long to get iLevel 460, which grants access to the first range of LFR; Mogushan Vaults.

That was great, and I even got a belt upgrade on my first full run, but it’s a long road from there to 470, the threshold for Heart of Fear and Terrace of the Endless Spring… you know, where the GOOD shit is.

I spent much of my play time for the week running heroics and doing Operation: Shieldwall dailies, but when Monday night rolled around I was still a few iLevels shy of that blessed 470.

A bunch of great guildies were willing to do some Heart of Fear LFR with me that night, if I could just get over the hump… so I pulled the trigger and bought an iLevel 489 Valor Point cloak.

That did the trick, and off we went.

So, what do you think dropped during the run through Heart of Fear?

That’s right, of course… a cloak. An iLevel 483 cloak, and good lord, what are the odds. Right? Well, there went some good Valor Points, used at full face value instead of after the half-priced sale, pissed right down the drain. Should have bought a ring instead. Oh damn, I could have bought an Operation: Shieldwall 496 ring, the Shieldwall stuff didn’t show up on the universal Valor point vendor list at the Ox Temple so it didn’t even occur to me. Ugh, what a dumbass!

But wait… is it possible?

Maybe, just maybe, I has me an idea.

When you buy items from the Valor Point vendors, the items come with a built in timer, telling you that if you were to sell back the item to a vendor within 2 hours of the time of purchase, you’ll get yourself a full refund.

That run was about an hour long… but I used it hard in that raid. You don’t think…

I approached the vendor, and I imagine the conversation went something like this.

“Hey, how’s it going? Remember me?”

“Yes, I do. You were the one with the large purple horns and glowing circle under your feet reminiscent of the most foul of sha energies. How could I possibly forget.”

“Um, yeah, right… right. Hey, you remember that cloak you sold me? The one you said I could return within two hours if I wasn’t completely satisfied? Yeah, I’d like to return that.”

“I see. Do you mind if I ask what was wrong with the cloak? Was the fit a tad off? Were the spells not up to snuff?”

“Oh, no… no. Nothing like that. Perfectly fine cloak, nice thread count, good stuff. I just found something I liked a little better, that’s all, more in line with, um. You know, my budget sort of thing.”

“Ah. Of course, I understand. Looking at your current attire, I should have known. Let me just take that off your… wait. What is that? Is that a stain?”

“What?!? Oh no, it couldn’t be…”

“It is, isn’t it! And that’s blood! And those are black sha energies dripping from the fabric, do you have any idea how hard those are to get out? You have to Martinize. You fought Empress Shek’zeer wearing this cloak, didn’t you?”

“No, of course not. I’d never wear something once and then return it, not me!”

“Uf course, of course. And what do you call this, then?” [holds up a corner of the cloak, from which dangles a broken off mandible, piercing the hem and dripping green gore].

“Accessories. Haven’t you heard of swatches? It’s foreign. Ups the value, very trendy. Straight edge all the way.”

“Sigh. Very well. Take your Valor Points and go, and don’t let your shade darken my door anytime soon.”

“Hey, thanks, you’re swell!”

“See you next patch!”

[shudders]

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The Fine Art of Bandaging

In my opinion, one of the most enjoyable parts of WoW is not just playing with close friends, but leveling with close friends.

The standard, of course, has been for folks to solo while leveling, and then look for friends to group with to do instances. Or, acknowledging the reality, look for friends with high level characters to run them through quickly to knock off some high-XP quests and get an item upgrade or two. The new low level LFD tool has made it even easier to solo the whole way through, either by ignoring questing and just staying in LFD or by mixing them up, and never even involve your friends at all.

Talking briefly with my buddy Melpo last night, about his level 51 Paladin, and he shared that in the last two weeks he’s used LFD to run as a tank in instances, and he complained that he never gets a chance to train skills or do quests, because there is no queue wait for him. He’s gone from the 30’s to 51 in those two weeks, in LFD groups.

I have to imagine he isn’t alone. I’m pretty sure Elystia is doing much the same thing, at least with her Horde side Mage. 🙂

The interesting thing is, playing with your close friend or significant other is awesome while leveling, especially if you both choose classes that complement each other.

The most traditional style groupings are those that include a tank and a DPS that can cast heals, you know, your Druids, Paladins, Shamans, Priests.

Having one person tanking and locking up a group of mobs, and the other person doing DPS, but able to cast a heal or two in a jiffy is ideal, right? Unending beatdown, no downtime.

The problem with that can be that maybe the other person doesn’t want to play a Druid, Paladin, Shaman or Priest. Classes that have healing spells are also classes that people love soloing with in the first place.

That’s where the magic of Bandaging comes into play.

It’s long been a joke, one person asks for a healer to join their group;

  • “Pit of Saron LFM, have tank, need healer and good to go.”
  • “I have bandages, I’ll go.”

In a two person leveling group, that actually can be true.

Take, for example, the Tank and Frost Mage combo. As this is my blog, we’ll of course make the Tank a Bear.

The Bear runs or charges forward, gathers up the mobs and Swipes them up. A Maul gets thrown.

Then the Frost Mage runs forward, Frost nova pins them all in place, and Blizzard begins raining down chilly destruction on the whole group.

Bigger the group of mobs, the better. Except… the Bear is taking a multiple beating.

Bear tanks, of course, can pop Rejuvenation and Regrowth on themselves just before charging in, but if you’re chain pulling groups, it can be annoying to build up Rage only to drop it again by popping out of forms to heal all the time.

And if the Bear’s health is dropping like a stone a little too fast, what is the Mage supposed to do?

One potential answer is Bandages. No, really.

Once you reach level 35, you can learn max First Aid skill to 300 right from the Azerothian trainer. You can learn how to make, and use, Bandages up to Heavy Runecloth.

But that’s not all. The only requirement for using Bandages is that you have the applicable First Aid skill level.

And on top of that, you can train your level 35+ character past 300, to a max of 375, by visiting Olissara the Kind, the First Aid trainer in Dalaran.

That’s right, you can learn how to make, and use, Bandages up to Frostweave directly from the trainer in Dalaran, even at level 35.

By way of comparison,

Why use Runecloth when Netherweave is so easy to come by, and let’s hold off on talking about Frostweave, since it’s potentially useful in crafting Cloth gear so it’s more valuable in general than Netherweave. Heck, if only for making 20 slot Frostweave Bags, Frostweave is too tasty to blow on Bandages all the time.

And that’s what we’re talking about. Using Bandages ALL the time.

The Heavy Netherweave Bandage clocks in at healing 3400 damage over 8 seconds.

As you well know, that ain’t “wait 8 seconds and get one big heal”, instead that’s 3400 healing spread out over time, and the more powerful the Bandage you use, the bigger the healing in a short time.

At level 35 to 40, the tank portion of your group will likely have, even with optimized tanking gear, less than 3400 total health.

If the tank has aggro on the groups, then you can run forward and Bandage the tank. Damage taken interrupts healing, on the person doing the healing, not the person getting the heals.

Your tank can be getting pounded on, and as long as they have aggro, you can channel the entire 8 seconds and heal them to full.

Even if you’ve got mobs in the group that pull off the tank and go after you, or who do AoE damage that will break you out of your Bandage channeling… if you just get a couple ticks of healing off on the tank, that’s one hell of a boost.

Using a Silk Bandage? Useful, but no big deal.

Using a Heavy Netherweave Bandage? Suddenly, you ARE a DPS/healer, at least for the sake of your two person group.

I wanted to bring this up, because I really do love the idea of having folks playing classes they might not solo themselves, from squishiness or from boredom. If I can help encourage just one couple to think, “Hey, why not try tank and Mage, or tank and Warlock” when they might not have given a squiddly a try, then my work here is done. 🙂

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Lusting over Engineering in Wrath

People keep asking me if it’s going to be worth being an Engineer in Wrath.

I keep wondering why they’re asking me, but that’s okay.

I guess the answer to that is, “What class are you, and why are you an Engineer now?”

I have always felt that Engineering was mostly a Hunter profession. You get to make ammo and bang-bangs. Kind of self-explanatory, ain’t it?

But there are plenty of folks that love the explosives and neat gadgets, myself among them.

And I have to admit that I leveled it on my Feral Druid for one primary reason; Epic Goggles. (The Mote Extractor was a super lucky bonus).

So I guess the question could be, is it any good for Hunters, and will it be worth having for non-Hunters too?

I’m gonna leave the whole question of whether you like guns or not as a Hunter out of the equation. I love the guns the most, and if you don’t, I can’t really quantify the experience for ya.

So, Non-Hunters… I bet you’re wondering, will there be new Epics you can use?

Yes, yes there are. There are new Epic Goggles for the expansion, for each class.

An example? Okay.

For Rogues and Feral Druids, let’s take a look at the Weakness Spectralyzers.

weakness-spectralyzers.jpg

Equips at 72, and requires Engineering of 400 to use.

It takes a Frozen Orb to craft, which seem to be the Wrath version of a Primal Nether. As of now, they drop in Heroics, or can be purchased for 10 Emblems (which are  the first level of Badge lookalikes… You get the idea.)

Right now a TON of stuff is BoE. Remember, Blizzard wants stuff accessible for testing. Expect a lot of this to be BoP in live. PLEASE keep that in mind.

But you get the idea. An Expansion version of the Epic Goggles for each class, along the same concept as we are already used to.

So, what else?

Well, I’d like to point out to my Hunter friends one of our very first recipes… the Mark “S” Boomstick.

marksboomstick.jpg

Let’s compare that to the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes, which can be bought for 150 Badges.

crossbow.jpg

Think about that. In Wrath, an Engineer will be able to equip, at level 73 I’ll grant you, a weapon nearly identical to one that costs 150 Badges now. Pretty nifty.

Okay, you want more non-Hunter specific stuffs?

How about the Sonic Booster?

sonicbooster.jpg

Oh what the heck, let’s kick it up a notch with the Hyperspeed Accelerators.

hyperspeed.jpg

Ahhh, but are we going to have another freaking tanking gun at 80?

Well…. yes.

But we ALSO get one of these!

The Long Range Cranium Drill!

craniumdrill.jpg

Okay, can I cry with happiness? I may not be raiding past Naxx, but I’ll get to have an Epic Bang-Bang!

Yes, there are new ammo machines, and new repair bots. There is even a new Teleporter called a Wormhole generator that take you and your whole party to Gadgetzan, much like the current Direbrew Remote we are seeing drop from Coren Direbrew.

There are new Mana and Healing Injectors, there are Scopes, and of course there is the new Motorcycles.

But there is just one item I think caps the whole dang thing.

Engineers, I present to you…

The Gnomish Army Knife.

armyknife.jpg 

That sucker alone is going to replace 5 items I always carry in my bags right now.

Is it going to be worth being an Engineer in Wrath?

Oh, HELLS YES!

(I can’t believe I said that.)

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I want my Hunter to be a biker chick

I’ve mentioned my plans to mess around with Professions before WotLK comes out.

One thing that makes it easier for me to think about dropping Engineering on my Druid and taking it on my Hunter, is that there are only a handful of recipes that are drops to worry about. I don’t have that many to try and replace.

Plus, the things that Engineering gives a Druid? Not so useful.

But for a Hunter? Pretty awesome.

Engineering gives you the ability to make Jumper Cables that can rez others. With Feign Death, a Hunter can realistically have a chance to drop a Freezing Trap, run like heck, then Feign Death and survive a wipe. With Jumper Cables, the Hunter might be able to then rez a Healer that can bring the rest of the group back up.

I’ve seen it work. Really! Sometimes, anyway.

Hey, even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while. Jumper cables work… sometimes. I think.

With a Druid, if he survives, he can rez anyway. In WotLK, there will be unlimited non-combat ressurection, so even less need for a Druid with Jumper Cables.

There are the teleports. I love having the teleport to Gadgetzan, but realistically, Druids can Teleport directly to Moonglade whenever they like. It’s a long flight to Gadgetzan from Moonglade, sure, but hey. It’s cool.

Having a Teleport to Gadgetzan for my Hunter would be pure fun. 

An Engineer can make a very cool mechanized Gyrocopter.

On my Druid, I use Swift Flight Form ONLY. So, I made my Gyrocopter, but it’s in the bank. Kind of sad. And for a land mount, I have my awesome Birdie from Sethekk Halls.

But in WotLK, not only will my Hunter be able to make the Gyrocopter, but it has been confirmed that there is a new Engineering spell called ‘The Hog’, where you will be able to craft and have a motorcycle with passenger-carrying sidecar.

Okay, are you serious? Really?

C’mon… a motorcycle?

I have a vision, my friends. I have a vision of a group of bad ass biker chicks, wearing cool outfits, roaring across the land.

My hunter has the eyepatch already, and I NEED, not want but need a leather jacket craftable by Leatherworkers that displays your Tabard insignia on the back.

Black. With silver chains and spikes.

I’d make sure our guild logo was a bunny faster than you could imagine.

Sigh.

I know that Warhammer 40k, the tabletop miniature version anyway, had the Orc race have those options, because I had biker Orcs with the full leather jacket/spiky helmet. So I doubt WoW will go that direction, and we probably won’t get Leatherworker leather jackets, biker boots, or any of the other fun stuff.

And it wouldn’t really fit with the WoW theme anyway, no matter how much I’d like it.

But I can haz motorcycles… and big guns.. and teleports, and scopes and jumper cables and the chicken gun. And repair bots. And ammo.

Yep, my only thought now is, I need to switch to Engineering fast so I can level it up and get into Karazhan so I can get that Scope recipe off Attumen before I drop it from Windshadow.

How do you folks feel about the motorcycle?

Do you feel like I do, and want to make a biker gang, or do you think that this is just another thing you wish they didn’t do to ruin the fantasy feel of the game?

I have to admit, I have seen folks say they hope to see Northrend bring a return to the fantasy roots of Warcraft, because the Outlands to some extent brought us too much sci-fi.

I can appreciate that point of view. I just want my biker gang!

I just wonder, where in Azeroth will I decide to place the setting for the first Sturgis Biker Rally.

My first thought would be to hold the First Annual Sturgis Bike Rally at Gadgetzan. It’s good for both factions, you can get drunk on Nogginfogger and brawl in the PvP arena no matter what your faction, and then head north across the hills (the Black Hills?) to race at the gnome’s speedway.

Oh, I am so there.

Melpo, it may not go live, but for now it is posted in the Wotlkwiki.info site and on Wowheads’ WotLK info database… so I’m going to accept it as real. For now. Subject to revisionistic meanies.

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Stealth topic… shh! Don’t tell anyone!

You guys know me by now.

You know that, idiot that I am, when I’ve got a good way of making in game gold, I run right out and blab it to the world. At least, that part of the world that comes and reads da blog.

The last time I did this, it was to share my excitement and enthusiasm for killing trees in Skettis to farm herbs.

Well, we all know how THAT turned out.

I still remember Cassie, reading my blog that day, asking me what I thought was gonna happen if I tell everyone about my favorite way of making money in the game. “But dear”, I replied, “I hardly think telling the 30 people who read my blog about the trees is gonna bring the economy of the game crashing down.”

Well, this one might just hurt, because it is a direct competition. But damn, it is so sweet.

Now, for this next trick, you need Engineering skill high enough (305) to have Zapthrottles’ Mote Extractor, the Epic crafted Engineering goggles that allow you to see mote clouds on your mini-map, Epic Flying Skill and an Epic Flying Mount, Cartographer, the Cartographer Routes plugin and the Cartographer ExtractGas plugin.

As you fly around in Nagrand, you will see Windy Clouds pop up on your mini-map. You get there, use your mote extractor to pluck precious Motes of Air from them. You get between 3 and 5 Motes of Air from 1 Windy Cloud.

When you nail a Windy Cloud with your Mote Extractor, the Cartographer ExtractGas plugin records that on your mini-map and big map.

As you learn the spawn locations for Windy Clouds, you use Cartographer Routes plugin to create the optimized route to fly to hit all of those clouds as fast as possible.

Then do laps. The respawn rate on the clouds is amazing.

How amazing?

I ran the circuit in Nagrand for exactly 1 hour yesterday.

At the end of that hour, I had 14 Primal Air.

You do the math.

And since this also works with Motes of Water in Zangarmarsh, Motes of Mana in Netherstorm, and Motes of Shadow in Shadowmoon Valley, if one area is already being farmed, don’t compete… just move on.

After all, with rates like that, who needs to farm all day? Get in, get yours, and get gone.