My progress has slowed the last few days. I hit level 98 on Wednesday night and until this morning before work hadn’t been on again. The good news is that I subsequently had enough Garrison Resources to upgrade my inn to level 2. If you’re unfamiliar, once you do so you are able to recruit a new follower every day. I had to test this out. I sought out an Herbalist, since the only one I had I wanted to keep in the field. I was getting a level 90 follower and didn’t feel like going through the leveling process for now. So let’s see what the RNG offered up:
The rare caught my attention immediately. Tauren Druid leads to some bias for certain. Particularly over a Panda and a Goblin. Wait a second.
Really?
“FO SHO KNUCKLEBUMP!?!
And it’s a Pandaren?
I cackled with laughter as I chose my new follower and assigned him to the herb garden. Though, as Mrs. Amateur pointed out, this move could result in a completely different kind of profitable “herb.”
Hard to believe it’s already the end of March. It really flew by. At the start, of course, I put together a small list of things I wanted to try to accomplish. For what it’s worth, after two weeks I looked like I was going to blow through things with the greatest of ease. I had no problem getting Paramita to 45, or a Pandarian level for Liouxpold (he’s now 86). Even Semblance. I wanted to get her to 35 and ended up with a level 40 Warrior. My successful attempt at cleaning up the Claws of Nature Guild Bank is also well documented. Unfortunately, that’s where my accomplishments end. Sure, I did get other things done unexpectedly, but not the other items on the list.
Junkshot only made it to level 15
Elcombe barely completed 1-2 Fishing Dailies, nevermind getting two levels.
Saintvache made it to 451 Herbalism. Wow, I never realized how tedious that can be. Never touched his Enchanting either.
I also didn’t make it to 2,500 daily quests. I know I’m less than 100 quests from that goal though, so that one will come in April.
A couple of those I might’ve come closer to completing if not for coming down with something this past weekend. All three of us in the Amateur household are suffering from it, though I think Mrs. Amateur has it the worst. But the key is focusing on the things that did get done and moving forward and building upon. So a quick to do list for April and then a little blogging exercise.
Junkshot (15) to 20
Liouxpold (86) to 87
Semblance (40) to 50
Boost my Engineers: Carrera (392), Semblance (185), Oddfodder (116), Vortmar (112)
Still get a friggin’ Alchemist started somewhere…
2,500 daily quests should be easy to obtain at this point.
Saintvache to 600 Herbalism (again)
Maybe get my Albino Drake.
Get to level 20 in Hearthstone in April for the sexy Pandaren card backs.
We’ll see how things go this time around. I already know a good chunk of the coming weekend is a write off, so I expect to be a touch behind the 8-ball. Either way the important thing will be to once again focus on what I do manage to accomplish.
So now the blogging exercise. I really don’t know where Mrs. Amateur found this, but it’s one I can definitely handle doing. It’s another 30 days type of exercise, but the questions (to me) are pretty straight forward with good odds of being easy to answer. How much elaboration comes with the answer is entirely up to the writer. I know AmerPriest plans on doing it as well, and I would love to know if anyone else decides they’re up for it.
My efforts thus far to get where I want to be for Warlords has been met with limited results. It’s entirely my own fault as I’ve been spending my time Hearthstoning when free, usually in an effort to complete a daily each day. Yes, reader, that one has its teeth sunk in but good. Fortunately with some free time last night I finally got in some actually WoW time and took to my Gnome Warrior. The Mrs. and I did some puttering around but actually got into a dungeon pretty quickly(!) and I picked up a couple of levels in Blackfathom Deeps. After that she was kind enough to run me through Stocks before calling it a night. Another Gnomeregan run this morning and she’s now 27, on her way to 28. Go figure, as soon as I lament queue times, I have two occasions where it was less than 20 minutes. But, now that I’ve actually been productive to some degree, I figure I can increase said productivity and give myself a proverbial kick in the rear to do so…by jotting down some goals for the month.
Get Semblance the Warrior (27) to 35. My original plan was 25, but I accomplished that quite easily yesterday.
Get Paramita the Priest (41) to 45.
Get Elcombe the Mage (68) to 70.
Finally have Elcombe learn Alchemy, and then actually power level it to some degree.
Max out Saintvache’s Herbalism, currently 310.
Get his Enchanting (487) up over 500 as well. Who knows, might even Max it as well.
Get Junkshot the Monk (7) to 20.
Clean up Claws of Nature Guild Bank.
Get Liouxpold (85) at least one level in Pandaria.
Reach 2,500 Daily Quests
Not a vast list by any stretch, and many of the goals are pretty simple to obtain. I average about an hour and a half of free time a day, so I can’t be shooting for the moon. If I get all of these accomplished then it will feel like I’ve done something and will push me on towards the next ones in April. Let’s face it, many little things can add up to one big thing and in this case that one thing can be momentum. It wouldn’t hurt for me to have some of that the closer we get to Draenor.
It was a long weekend here, and I was enjoying the weather and the family yesterday and even some WoW. So things here were quiet, though I did stay on top of the Transmogolympics. The contest was only announced a couple days ago and we’re already up to twenty participants. In case you missed it, there is no limit on how many people take part. However, if we manage to have more participants than factions, then some factions will merely have more than one representative; much like the real Olympic Games. Also, I wanted to take a moment to once again thank Tome of the Ancient for the logo. I told her what I wanted and she delivered beautifully. I’m also happy to have her, Matty, and Khizzara as fellow judges for the event.
We had another successful Laid Back Raids on Saturday night. The only place scheduled this week was Trial of the Crusader, but that didn’t stop us from also kicking down the doors to Ruby Sanctum and Obsidian Sanctum. We had a solid turnout including, for the first time, both Repgrind and Ratters (and his daughter as well)! It was great timing as Rep knew TotC and was able to provide some guidance, though we did zerg the sucker down pretty fast. For the Sanctums, I filled out the group with my friend Valanyr and a couple of his buds. Oh, and Tum even got himself a new set of wings.
In Azeroth over the weekend, there was a great deal of puttering about, or “faffing” as Godmother and Kamalia have come to tell me. Fireflint is finally 75, and that means time to boost his Blacksmithing. I’ll obviously have to gain a few levels before I can max him out on it, fortunately I’ll be able to hit the Darkmoon Faire before the week is out. I also snagged a few levels for Carrera and Estheriot. Plus, three new faces are showing up around here now.
I have no clue as to why internet demons have taken the Gnome’s face. Fortunately she sent me a postcard of her hanging with faction leader of epic epicness,
Zero Zero One One One Zero One Zero!
She joined the ranks for a few reasons. The first, is admittedly, I had a sudden fetish to have a character with the Very Light Sabre. As I pointed out to Mrs. Amateur, it’s a coincidence I gave her the Leia hair buns. Also, I rolled her on Fenris (US). I’ve heard horror stories about the economy and thought I would check it out for myself. I farmed up some quick Peacebloom and Silverleaf, and threw that on the Auction House. Neither was a full stack and it resulted in about 10 gold in her pocket. That allowed me to grab a couple of items off the Auction House to sell, as well as purchase some of the rabbits from Amberstill Ranch and see if I can get a few coin for those as well. So, so far things don’t seem too strange. Hopefully the Schematic: Mechanical Mithril Dragonling sold at the behest of my advice. I managed to sell one with Tumunzahar yesterday on Runetotem for 85g. I still think that’s absurd, but if folks aren’t going to go get it out in the Hinterlands I may as well. It didn’t hurt I was getting a couple points in Archaeology at the time either.
In closing, let me just tell you how strange it is to see “Semblance” in Trade chat. Even merely as a name, it seems to look out of place. Funny that.
Recently over at WoW Ladies, someone asked what professions their bank alt should have. Amidst gold making efforts and several bank toons I can honestly say it never occurred to me until that moment. Continue reading →
There are a number of folk who can’t stand leveling characters. I’m sure even with all the new content, there are many out there who would love nothing more than to be sitting at 80 with a new toon, and then reach 85 for the end game content. I’m not one of them, but for those who want to basically get leveling “out of the way” it has never been easier.
There’s the obvious reduction in XP needed to get through Northrend (20%), and that happens to the previous leveling bracket every time a new one arrives. More importantly than that, though, is a simple combination: heirloom items and gathering professions.
People have always said to take two of the three gathering professions on a new character because they will generate money for you. This is true, but I argue you can make money faster by not gathering. However, this column isn’t about that. Instead, I’m urging any of you “burn through leveling” folks to take gathering professions -specifically mining and herbalism. Earlier this year Blizzard changed things a bit by offering experience for picking flowers or mining nodes (sorry skinners, Blizzard figures you got the XP in what you killed in the first place). So, while booting around you get extra experience just for grabbing what’s in front of you. The problem people had with the combo I’m suggesting was that you only ever had the ability to track one or the other on your minimap. Queue another recent change by Blizz that allows you to mark several things on your map. That includes both Ore and Herbs. Hello! Again, you’re only grabbing what’s already in your path.
The other part of the formula is heirlooms, which should be a no-brainer. Currently you can obtain XP granting gear for shoulders and chests. There’s more to come in Cataclysm, but let’s focus just on what we have now. As it stands, two items will grant you 10% each. That’s 20%, or needing a fifth less time to level. That’s on quests, kills, exploration, and…you guessed it, gathering.
To make it even easier for you, Blizzard has now placed questgivers in the instance they need you to go, either at the start or during. So the first time you hit a new dungeon using the Looking For Dungeon finder, you’ll be able to knock off some quests as well.
Whether you hate level grinding or just have that one toon you want endgame and raiding, Blizzard has made it incredibly fast and easy to do so. Start now and you’ll be at 85 before you know it and ready for the good stuff.
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