Off The Cuff - Surprise Moneymaker

Since I've got so few readers, I figured I'd be safe in this "big reveal".  Out of everything I've got, the one item pulling in the biggest profit for me is Tinker's Gears.  At the low mat cost of two Ghost Iron Bars, which average about 24g total on my server, I can sell these little beauties for 200g-300g a piece.

I'm imagining it's because of the Ghost Iron Dragonling, an also-easy-to-make 450 iLevel trinket which sells for a song and is popular among fresh 90s looking to bump up their iLevel to get into Heroic dungeons.  It comes with three Gear slots, allowing the wearer to customize it with +600 in three different stats.  Since the Gears are also unique-equipped, anyone using the trinket is forced to buy three different gears to put into it, which makes for a viable market for all of the gears, and not just two or three that carry the most popular stats.

I'm still seeing how much the market can bear in these things, but I can easily say that I'm selling 10-20 of them a day, even without constantly camping for undercutters.

Off the Cuff - Websites I Can't Live Without

Every so often, if I'm working on a rather lengthy post but don't want to leave you guys without something to read, I'll dash something off that I think might be helpful.  Today, it's the top three websites that I always have open.

• Battle.net - Now that the Remote AH is free, there's next to no reason not to visit this site frequently.  Sometimes I use it extensively for setting up transmog and rare recipe sales, sometimes for using the Neutral AH for swapping things from Alliance to Horde and vice versa, and sometimes just to grab something really quick that I've gotten an alert for.
• The Undermine Journal - If you've never been here before, you're really missing out.  TUJ keeps track of auction sales both current and past, and can be used to help you decide if buying something is a good investment, should your addon be indicating it might be.  For a small fee, you can even get it to keep track of specific items and e-mail you the results; I use this for a lot of rare recipes, and whenever I get an alert, I hop over to the Remote AH and snatch it up.  Can we say 50g for an item I later sold for 9000g?  Yes we can!  TUJ even comes with a handy round-up of recent gold blog posts on its front page.
• WoWuction - A new site to my arsenal, but already one I can't live without.  Similar to TUJ in that it keeps track of current and past sales, the feature I use the most is their Bargain Hunter, which can be found under the Reports tab.  Set it to your realm, and you're ready to see a list of items that could potentially be flipped for a goodly amount of gold; this is extremely helpful to catch something you may not have considered for one of TUJ's alerts.

There you go.  You're welcome.

Radio Silence

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been over a week without a post; this is what happens when I spend time away from a computer that doesn't have WoW installed on it.  I know I promised a detailed description of my big leveling push, but since most of it is old news by now, I'm going to have to renege on that.  Hopefully you can find it in your hearts to forgive me!

That said, let's get an update on what I've been up to.  Along with leveling Knand to 90 and working on various other characters' professions, I went out of town to a Japanese animation convention, which ate up a lot of my free time.  Despite this, not only did I get Knand to 90 first in my guild, but I've also maxed both his Jewelcrafting and Enchanting, and have earned him a respectable iLevel of 461; Looking For Raid level needs to be 463, which I'm confident I can get before that kicks in next Tuesday.  I've also managed to max Mining on the Death Knight and Alchemy on the Priest, and have almost maxed Herbalism and Leatherworking.  The DK has a second round of JC, which has enabled me to double up on my researches, resulting in me having twice as many cuts as I should have, which would be even more impressive had I been able to actually research every day since launch.  As it is, I've gotten two very important things for gold-making: The cut for Brilliant Primordial Ruby, and the Transmute: Primordial Ruby alchemy recipe.

Since I'm no longer needing to pump all my gold into Ghost Iron Ore for prospecting into red rares, I've started focusing on picking up Golden Lotus (for transmutes) and offloading some of the stock I picked up prior to the launch.  I've also (finally) gotten my gathering druid and one of my bank guilds transferred to the new server.  The druid is almost maxed on Herbalism and Mining, and once she is, I can get started on Alchemy: Flask Mastery for the DK, and Inscription for the Priest, instead of their current gathering professions.  Soon I'll transfer over the Tailor, and start maxing that, Blacksmithing and Engineering.

In the next few days, I'll post detailed descriptions on what I'm up to for each profession, as well as how I'm using them to further my secondary goal of hitting the gold cap on my main server.

Blink & You'll Miss It

First, let me apologize for this being a day late; I underestimated just how much my push to 90 would suck out of me.  More on that in a moment!  Now for what you guys really want to hear about: The winners of the MoP giveaway!

The winners are... RandomHero and Jocelyn Brown!  I'll be establishing contact soon to make sure I've got the best way to reach you.  Congratulations to you both!

A disclaimer: Blizzard still hasn't posted the digital key version, so you who won will have to wait a bit before I can get your prize to you.  If they haven't done it by the end of the week, I'll get with you guys and see if something else can be arranged.

Now, for the realm first push: Long story short, I didn't make it.  By several hours.  Most of the server firsts on my realm were won by folks in one of the top raiding guilds on our realm, so I imagine that not only did they have a lot in the way of assistance and materials at their disposal, but they also have a much more refined playing skillset than I have.  Dying multiple times is probably not the most efficient use of my time.  However!  I did make it to first in my guild to 90, and had a brain-blurring blast doing so.

I'll post a more detailed description of how things went when I've gotten some sleep; I only hit 90 about four hours ago, and I've been leveling my professions and enjoying flight in Panderia since then.

Almost Time!

So, guys, here we are.  Just over 6 hours to the launch of Mists of Pandaria.  I hope you're ready!

I feel like I am, but I'm also afraid that there's something I'm missing.  My PC is wired and ready to go, save for a few file transfers to make room for my Fraps recordings.  I've got both Fraps and TwitchTV set up, ready to start recording, and my laptop next to my PC so that I can check if anyone's trying to chat on the Twitch page.  Refreshments are set up in order of how I'm expecting to consume them: Water, canned breakfast shakes, diet Code Red, NoS on the beverages side; squeezable apple sauce, liquid whey protein, and various protein bars on the food side.  Keyboard's new, mouse is new, mousepad is new-ish.  Even dusted the desk to give myself a nice, fresh work area.  Vent has a special channel, just for me, that warns folks that they're going to be livestreamed if they enter.

Game-wise, Knand is parked in Molten Front, as has been the plan.  While he has a stack each of raid food and flasks, it's been pointed out to me that the first innkeeper he runs into will have better stat food, so I'll definitely grab a stack of that when I hit him, probably vendoring whatever food he's got left.  Zygor's new MoP guide has been loaded, and I'll make sure to double-check for any updates before I log in at 2AM; there's already been one, so I'm not taking any chances.  My five other addons are up-to-date as well: Postal (for quick and easy mailing), Bagnon (to keep my bags tidy), Lootfilter (instant vendoring of greys!), TradeForwarder (because I don't want to miss what wacky hijinks will be occurring in /2) and Addon Control Panel (turn addons on and off without having to log out).  I have a guildmate who wants to party quest through MoP, which I may do a bit of.  However, since I've got the dailies and Zygor's guide, if he starts to lag behind, I will probably have to continue without him.  Don't mean to sound cold, but I've got a goal to hit!

I'm going to try to get a bit of sleep between now and 2AM.  Feel free to visit the feed at http://www.twitch.tv/shewhogames, or to post encouragement here, on the Facebook page, or in-game.  Good luck to us all, and I'll see you guys on the other side of 90!

Ups & Downs

Real life intruded yesterday, keeping me from posting an update (or another installment of Free Fridays, but more on that later).  That aside, I have some actual developments to talk about.

First, the PC is up and running!  The new power supply was installed with minimal difficulty; as I suspected, the toughest part was wrestling it onto a work surface, and than back into its cubby.  I'm in the process of updating WoW, installing Zygor, and making sure all updates and patches for the computer itself are in place.  I've also acquired a 100' Ethernet cord from work to use, as I don't want to trust the PC's wireless card to the beating I'll be inflicting shortly.

As I'd promised myself, once I had the PC running, I began the final steps to transfer the bank guilds, starting with appointing my dual-gathering 84 druid Guild Master of the first.  Imagine my surprise when I went to Battle.net to do the transfer, and was informed that the GM had to have held that position for at least 7 days before they'd be eligible!  I had transferred a guild back in June without receiving a similar notice, despite having done the same GM swap, so to say that this completely blindsided me is an understatement.  Of course, had I prepared the PC when I meant to, two weeks ago, this would have been a non-issue, but thus is life.

This changes things a bit, since I won't bring over the gatherer or the tailor without the guilds; I'm not spending $50 for character transfers and another $70 for guild transfers later, when I can get it all done for the $70.  Due to this, my JC/Miner and my Alch/Herbalist will be remaining as they are, and I'll just have to wait until after MoP to have all 10 professions on one server.  Of course, this also means that I can spend a bit more time on the old server, selling off some things that tend to catch a higher price than my new place does.

So here's where I stand: Knand is out on the Molten Front, bags empty of everything except his quest items, a stack each of raid food and flasks, and his Hearthstone, set to the Valley of Honor where all the dailies are located.  All of his addons have been disabled except for Bagnon, Lootfilter, and Zygor.  Once 3AM EDT swings around and that magic quest pops into his log, Knand will turn in all the MF quests, hearth to Org where he'll turn in the dailies, hop to TB really quick to turn in those dailies, then hop back through the portal to start the MoP questline.  Estimates are that 24 dailies will produce 10-13% of the XP needed for 86, which will put me that much further ahead for only a few minutes worth of work; I'll probably do a dry-run tonight, just to get a general sense of how many minutes it might take.  I wish I didn't have to deal with loading screens (three by my count), as many a greater player than I have experienced problems with those.

Other than Knand's prep, I'm pretty much going to take it easy between now and then.  Maybe finish with my leatherworking rogue, maybe play a few rounds of TF2.  We'll have to see.

Am I Screwed?

It's a case of best-laid-plans here: The PC still stands, nonfunctional, and my sleep deficit is no where near paid up.  The only upside to last night was that I went through all of my characters on my old server and transferred any usable goods to the two bank guilds I'll be bringing to the new server, so that's one less thing for me to worry about.

I ran into another bit of a snafu yesterday, when I noticed that Blizzard's release time on my account had changed.  Originally it had stated that I'd be able to access MoP at 12AM EDT; while I thought this odd, I didn't question it.  While in my account settings yesterday, however, I saw that it had changed to now read 12AM PDT, which will be 3AM my time.  Not a deal-breaker by any means, but it definitely causes me to have to re-evaluate a few points, such as whether or not I'll try to get some sleep in the few hours before launch.  Original plan was to spend most of Monday sleeping, have some dinner, take another nap, then get up around 10 to get full awake, chill a bit, and finish setting everything up.  There's a part of me afraid that if I try to sleep past midnight, I won't wake up for the launch.

Goals for tonight: Get the power supply in the PC, and the PC running, if not raiding on it.  Transfer both guilds with the tailor and the dual-gatherer.  Finish leveling the rogue's Leatherworking and Skinning.

Tanking Like A Boss

Anyone who knows me knows I've bounced back and forth between two "mains": A Demonology Warlock for DPS, and a Blood Death Knight for tanking.  Which I play more has largely been dependent on what my guild has needed; I've almost never main-tanked on the DK, but there's been several instances where an off-tank was needed, and that's where she would shine.

Enter MoP, and the release of the infamous "lock-tank" glyph, Glyph of Demon Hunting.  Great rejoicing could be heard throughout the lock player base, though many were skeptical.  Could a single glyph really provide us with what we've all wanted for so long, namely a way to be able to fill both roles, and still get all the lovely lock loving we've become accustomed to?

In a word, no.  As the link shows, Glyph of Demon Hunting does a few things: Provides a new stance that gives you several damage mitigation buffs; changes your Soulshatter into a taunt; and changes your Shadow Bolt into an instant-cast Demonic Slash.  My experimenting with it during the new Theramore scenario showed that, while I certainly held threat over my fellow DPS, I was next to useless without a healer backing me up.  I suppose I just hadn't discovered the proper rotation for "lock-tanking", as I know there's a couple of spells to leech HP off a target, but I just don't see myself holding my own in a 5-man or raid like my DK does.  I'd say the other downside to this glyph is that it only works for Demonology specs, but since I play that almost exclusively anyway, it doesn't really affect me.

All that aside, I'm definitely going to play the crap out of this.  My favorite thing to do on my DK is fill in as "emergency tank".  Since I absolutely hate tanking PUGs, I usually queue as DPS when I'm running randoms on her, ready to swap over to Blood spec if I see the tank go down, in order to attempt to avoid a wipe; a good 95% of the near-wipe scenarios I've been part of were saved by this, with the other 5% being saved by Raise Ally instead.  Now that I've got a similar ability on my lock, I see the save-style being used a lot as well, especially since I'm already a master at the Soulstone Save.

And The Countdown Begins...

Seven days from now, if all goes as planned, I should have a brand-spankin' new level 90 and a few max-leveled professions under my belt; of course, there's been some rumors that leveling will take a full day of game-play, so this might not be the case.  Chances are good that I might not even be awake at this point, having leveled through the day and night, then promptly passed out.  Only time will tell.

Each day now I'll update you on whatever progress I made the evening before.  Alas, today there's not much to tell.  I finally picked up the protein bars I've been planning on getting for the last couple of weeks, and added a box of breakfast drinks and a bottle of whey protein for good measure.  Don't worry, I fully expect my gopher to bring me real food on occasion, but I want to make sure I have everything I could need, without a lot of excess fat and sugar.

I actually didn't play much last night, as I chose to start catching up on some sleep instead.  The rogue Leatherworker is level 83, nearly 84, and is still sitting at 10-15 skill points for Leatherworking and Skinning before they're maxed.  Knand's bags have been mostly cleared, save all the quest turn-in items, and a few odd gems.  I'll have to remember to add a stack of raid food and flasks, as any edge he can get while leveling will be needed.  I've also gone ahead and done the JC daily, so that brings his quest count up to 24/25.  This morning saw me spending a bit of time to clear out mailboxes of almost-expired mail, as well as throwing a couple of items up on the AH.

The huge to-do item that I still have pending is repairing the PC; I've been procrastinating on this like crazy, due to the fact that it's such a PITA to get it out of its cubby and onto a clear work surface.  Add in the fact that the old power supply is a spaghetti-monster of mammoth proportions, and I'm already gritting my teeth at the idea of extracting it for replacement, even if the replacement is much easier to use.  This is something I have to get done, as the laptop can't handle running WoW, FRAPs, and a livestreaming program at the same time, at least not with decent graphics, acceptable ping, and zero overheating issues.  I'm going to do everything I can to have it done tonight, or at the latest, tomorrow afternoon, so that I can test it out during the final guild raid.  I can't risk waiting until the last minute (Monday) and discovering there's something else wrong when it's too late to do anything about it.

Whenever I get that done, I'll spend a good deal of time on my old realm, cleaning out character bags and loading them into the guild banks, that way I can get everything transferred.  Everything meaning the tailor and the dual-gatherer, plus all the mats I've gathered in the past for leveling Inscription.  Since I'm done with everything here at work, I'm going to go ahead and compile the list of things I'll need for those two professions, since I plan on training them as soon as the transfers go through; I'd have done it earlier, but I'm paranoid about dropping Mining & Herbalism before I actually have the dual gatherer on the server, and being stuck without a way to gather things once MoP hits.

At the time I'm hitting "Publish" on this, there are officially 5 days, 16 hours, 30+ minutes until launch.  Are you ready?

Only A Week??

I'm excited, you guys.  Are you excited?  I've got less than a week of prep-time ahead of me, since I want to make sure I can spend Monday relaxing and making minor last-minute checks rather than rushing around.  Time for an update on where I stand with my goals!

• Specific Goal - Still hitting 90.  Knand's got his 23/25 quests still, and while I've been running him around doing random things, after Thursday's raid, I'll take him to his bank and mailbox to empty his bags and pick up the JC daily, and I managed to pick up a second JC quest-starting item during the Theramore scenario.  I've also got to pass my guild leader enough gold to cover another bank tab, so that I'll have access to it through Mobile Banking in order to dump excess goodies, should Knand's bags get overfull before I can get him to a mailbox whilst leveling.  I'll disable all of his addons at this time.
• Get Rest - One of the few things I'm slacking on, mostly because I've been so wrapped up in prepping in WoW.  Bad She!  Saturday & Sunday should see me getting a bit more rest, or at least slowing down the prep.
• Responsibilities Handled - Taking my car in for an oil change on Tuesday, and then I should be good to go.
• Friends & Family Aware - Pretty sure everyone's been informed at this point.
• Equipment Ready - Still slack.  I've made a promise to myself that I can't transfer my guild banks from my old server until I've put the new power supply in Big Green, so that should be done  after I get done with the car.
• Food & Water - I remembered I have a stash of water already, so I'll just bring those up when I bring in the Code Read & NoS.  Still need to pick up some protein bars; I'll do that while I'm out of the house Monday or Tuesday.
• Gaming Area - Getting somewhere with this, though it's looking like I probably won't have the microwave & fridge moved.
• Gopher - Haven't found one to fill in for my sister before she gets home from school, though I'm sure my niece would be happy to.  Unfortunately, she's under 3 and would probably spend most of her time trying to get me to let her play WoW, just like I used to.

Game-wise, I've got both bank guilds up to 2, the rogue above 80 with almost maxed Skinning and Leatherworking, and am gathering the mats to train Inscription and a second Alchemy for when I get my guilds transferred.  Plans for the Realm 1st group fell through when I found out my mage-buddy was going to be going overseas for a few weeks, and her Internet access would be wonky; probably for the best, because I can be really bad about getting ticky if people aren't moving chop-chop-toot-sweet.  I'd rather just scratch the idea than spend time coordinating a new group, especially since I never got a definitive answer from the third member.

On a side note, to add to the insanity, I've decided I'm still going to attempt to get out to the convention that was the original reason I took the week off, so once I've gotten Knand to 90 and spent some time recovering, I'll be driving out to Atlanta in order to attend Anime Weekend Atlanta.  My laptop will be with me, so I may or may not be able to either update you guys on the going-ons there, post some video to SheWhoGamesTV about the con, or just poke my head in to say "Hey, I live!"

Pinging The Radar

It was bound to happen, I suppose.  I've registered with several gold-making sites and blogs in the last few weeks, and have even started to post a few things here and there.  I shouldn't have been surprised when I actually received a message from one of the bigger AH players on my PvE server, saying they'll be rooting me on come Sept. 25th, and that they'll see me in the AH.

How does one respond to something like that?  It's high school all over again, when the star quarterback and his head cheerleader girlfriend compliment you, the quiet bookish one in the corner, on your presentation in class.  Do they mean it?  Did they really like what you did, or are they secretly mocking you and laughing about you when you're not looking?  What do you say?

After the initial shock had passed, I did a little investigating, checking the other member's profile and seeing that they did, in fact, claim my PvE server as their home.  On top of this, they had recently posted that they'd reached the 1 million mark in January.  1 million!  Definitely not a dabbler, unlike myself and the couple of others in my guild that I trade AH conversations with.  If I were a nail-biter, this would probably be the moment I'd start nibbling.  A brief search for their name on The Undermine Journal shows that they have over 3000 auctions listed, all glyphs; my nervousness abates a bit, because while this may just be the end-of-expansion listings for this particular seller, or even just the ones on this toon, it still makes me feel better, as I really hadn't planned on playing that heavily in the glyph market.

Besides all that, from what I've seen in my research, most sellers (or goblins, as we're commonly referred to) are good-natured, and even enjoy the occasional bit of "AH PvP", duking it out for control of a market with other up-and-coming goblins.  With that in mind, I responded pleasantly, congratulating them on 1 million and metioning that I'd keep my eyes peeled.  I fully intend on adding them to my Friend's List, if only so I can wave to them on occassion as we pass in the night.

Random Late Night Adventures

Thanks to my work schedule, I play at some odd hours, sometimes never seeing a single person in my otherwise active guild for days on end.  This week I had a couple of extra night shifts, which threw things off even more, including making me unable to join in my weekly raid.  As a result, I've spent a lot of time this week leveling my alts and bank guilds; all my Horde-side Hyjal-destined characters are now above 80, and the guilds are ready to be transferred.

Last night our resident Aussie logged in when I was into my third hour of attempting to level Leatherworking; have to hate it when not only are the mats you need on the AH obnoxiously priced, but even if you bought them all, it still wouldn't be enough, which results in the need to farm.  We chatted a bit in Vent about various patch changes and potential AH opportunities coming up, as he's also a AH dabbler, then took turns logging into and out of alts in order to pass LW materials back and forth.  I was about to pull my hair out farming yetis in Feralas (Note to self: Go finish that Mechanical Chicken quest!) when the conversation turned to mount drops and better locations to farm Heavy Leather.  Somehow I wound up in Dustwallow Marsh, taking out dragonkin and enjoying his story about the time he'd tried to solo Onyxia on his mage, with disastrous results.

I'm sure I don't have to spell out where it went from here.  Though I was farming on my rogue, it was a simple enough matter to jump onto my Death Knight, Queen of the Overpowered Solo-Farming, and head inside Onyxia's Lair.  We were both bored, so we made a pact to take her out as a team, and if the mount actually dropped, we'd do it again next week in order to get it for the other person.  I had completely forgotten that the Lair had been upgraded from 60 to 80, so I ran inside first and pulled all the trash, before seeing those happy little green-leveled nasties grouping up on me.  I hadn't really had a chance to work with my DK since 5.0.4 hit, so my taskbar was in complete disarray, and I'm a little embarrassed to say that I wound up floor-tanking that pack.

Take two, and I'm joined by my mage buddy; between the two of us we knock out the trash with ease, then move on to Ony herself.  Phase 1 was cake, with me tanking and the mage burning her quickly.  Phase 2 went on for too long, as we did our best to remember what it was, exactly, we were supposed to be doing; by the time we'd figured it out, far too many whelps had spawned for me to be able to control them properly.  Another round of floor-tanking for me, after they'd eaten the face of my poor mage.

Third time's the charm, I'm telling myself after my second corpse-run back.  I've picked up a rhythm now, and have mostly remembered what I'm doing; while we wait for our respective cool-downs to clear (Time Warp for him, Raise Ally for me), I search for every single damage-mitigation spell I have in my spellbook.  Everything, and I do mean everything, is added to my toolbar, and as soon as the CD's are clear, I run in and start the fight.

Almost immediately it seemed like it was going to be another fail, with the mage getting tail-whipped into the hatchery while I'm turning Ony, sending a wave of whelps out before we'd even gotten her off the ground.  I'm popping everything I've got, good-naturedly cursing him as I do so, trying to run around and keep the whelps from melting him.  She gets down to Phase 2, heads into the air, and now I'm trying to pick up all the fresh adds, re-popping and prepared to Raise him again if needed.  Somehow, miraculously, we make it through Phase 2, and Phase 3 passes quickly.  My only regret is that I didn't have my little skinner there, in order to take advantage of the mountain of dragonflesh left behind.

Unfortunately, the mount didn't drop, but now that we've gotten a feel for what we're doing, we've decided to knock her down on a weekly basis until we both get the mount.  I can add this to my weekly multiple Karazhan runs, and should probably start up with the Stratholme runs again after my big push when MoP hits.

Free Fridays - TriadCity

Free Fridays is a feature where She Who Games reviews an online game that happens to be free to play.  While some of these games may have pay-for features, all games reviewed will in no way be hampered by someone choosing to play without paying at any point.

While it may seem that I'm all about WoW, there have been and still are other games I play.  One that comes to mind is TriadCity, a very unique browser MUD that stretches the limits of one's imagination, and then some.  It may seem strange to those who know me that I'd play a game like this, since it's almost completely text-based, but I've long been fond of the literary arts.

Not every MUD out there revels in its text-based nature quite the way TriadCity does.  Its creators go out of their way to include many literary references, and anyone with a love for the classics will be able to spot their influence stamped on almost every nook and cranny encountered.  Even I find myself constantly running off to look up some obscure reference, and I like to think I'm rather well-versed.  You'll find that no genre is left untouched, as you can easily encounter robots, cowboys, and Greek heroes in the same session of play.

Another of the things that gives TriadCity its unique feel is the fact that violence, while not impossible to commit, isn't the only way to gain experience and levels in this game; in most cases, it's not even the best way to do so.  Half the fun is in exploring and examining everything you come across, and the game rewards you for this.  Though there are times that I suffer from a strong need to BCU (Blow Crap Up), my main reason for playing games is the intellectual stimulation they provide, and TriadCity has this by the score.

It's probably for the best that violence gets a lesser reward than safer past-times, as death is permanent in TriadCity.  That's right, once your character has died, that's the end for them, a fact that I've learned, much to my chagrin.  (Rumor has that there may be an afterlife experience in the works, so it's a good idea to hang onto said character, but you didn't hear that from me.)

TriadCity is also one of those few games out there that doesn't have a drastic gender bias towards males.  In actuality, females tend to outnumber the males.  And while it's not unheard of for younger people to join the game, for the most part it's mature adults that play, lending to the air of like-minded peers I get whenever I log in.  As in any text-based game, one's ability to express oneself in words is definitely a bonus, and those who aren't as adept at it as others are encouraged to learn and better themselves.

Probably one of the few downsides to TriadCity, provided you're not anti-reading, is the size of the project.  Where the world itself is huge, with many things to keep you occupied and constantly learning, the player-base is incredibly small, most likely due to the fact that most gamers are attracted to bright, shiny graphics and BCU-rewarding questlines.  While I've been a member of the community since 2005, I have to be fair and admit that it really hasn't grown much since then, relying on word-of-mouth to bring in fresh faces.  That it's survived this long is really a testament to its makers and their core of loyal players.

You could almost see this as a bonus, since you're almost assuredly going to be able to talk one-on-one with the people behind the scenes, and even be able to lend a hand to the addition of new and exciting branches to the game.  I'm known for my fly-by-night nature when it comes to games, playing one heavily and exclusively for months on end, before becoming distracted by a new one and moving on; it's been a while since I last logged into TriadCity.  When I did recently, I discovered that my concept of a vineyard had been expanded and brought to life, and that many of the faces I had grown to know and love in my time there remained, happy to welcome me back with open arms.

I heartily recommend TriadCity to anyone looking for a game unlike any other they've played before, where they'll become a valued member of a community built on the shoulders of other such members, continually challenged intellectually and rewarded for using their brain, and encouraged to help play a part in developing the game world as a whole.  And if you do decide to try it, be sure to tell them that Teralinth sent you.

MoP Giveaway!

So, this started out on my Facebook page, but since Timeline is wonky, and I'm not able to edit old posts, I'm going to move it to here, too.


Want a free copy of Mists of Pandaria, the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion? You do? Great! Here's what you do: "Like" this post for an entry, then "Share" it for another! On September 25th, I'll draw two names at random, one from all of the "Likes"/comments, and one from all of the "Shares"! Those names will then receive a license for a digital copy, once they become available for gifting.

Easy-peasy, right? Right! So get to it!  "Like" this post, share it on your own wall, and comment here!  Three ways to enter, two chances to win!

Edit: Now Blizzard's selling their Pandaren Monk at half price!  In honor of this, I'll give away a free Pandaren Monk to one of the fans of my page.  Simply "Like" my page between now and Sept. 17th, and you'll be entered into the drawing!

Two Weeks...

Just to reiterate, here's my goals in the next expansion:

Short Term

1. Realm First Warlock
2. Be geared in time for the release of the first raid; start leveling all professions to max.
3. Raid; level all other 85 characters to 90.

Long Term

1. Progression raid on warlock, put guild on top of the charts.
2. Hit gold cap on PvE server.
3. Hit 500k on RP-PvP server.

Now, for what I've been doing that actually moves me in these directions.  Knand, my warlock, is running around with 23/25 quests completed, ready for turn-in as soon as the expansion hits and he starts earning XP again; among these quests are the Cooking & Fishing dailies from Orgrimmar, all the Tol Barad quests, and as many Molten Front quests as I could hold for turn-ins.  I've dropped his unfinished Tailoring in favor of picking up Jewelcrafting, both for the extra daily and in order to be able to get as many cuts as quickly as possible once raiding starts.  The day before I'll empty his bags, pick up and hold his completed JC daily, and park him out on the Molten Front, that way as soon as I log in, he'll be able to turn all those quests in and then hearth back to Org to turn in the rest.  I'll also deactive and/or uninstall all my addons, except for Lootfilter (to sell items quickly to vendors) and Zygor Quest Guides, so that I won't have to worry about anything causing WoW to crash or hang.  Hopefully.

On the leveling front, my two 80s are now 82, with me leveling them back on my old server.  Thanks to the increase in guild XP rewards, they've nearly leveled one of my bank guilds to 2, which will enable me to transfer a guild with a character for only $10 more than just a character transfer.  Once the guild hits 2, I'll move them to my second guild and finish leveling them to 85.  First one to 85 (aiming for the druid) travels with the guild to the new server.  Anything they obtain while leveling gets sold on the old server's AH, since most of the time things sell for more there.  I should be done with this by the end of my "weekend".

By all professions, by the way, I mean all of the ones available in game; currently the only ones I don't have maxed are Inscription, Leatherworking, and Skinning.  Not counting the secondary ones, of course, though if I find myself with some free time before MoP, I'll start getting Archaeology up on my alchemist, because I'd really love to be able to make some Vial of the Sands.  LW & Skinning are on the 73, which will be getting leveled once the bank guilds are done, and after I transfer over the druid, my priest will be dropping Herbalism and becoming a Scribe.  I should be able to get all that done in two weeks, provided I can stay focused.  The Tailor-lock will come over with the second guild bank, leaving behind my mage for the time being, and having all major professions on one server.

But what's this about gold caps?  I did mention that I play the AH, right?  Well, I've decided I'm going to do it "fr realz naow", which is part of the reason why I'm so intent on getting all of the professions together.  While it's entirely possible to hit cap just by buying low and selling high, it's unquestionably faster to do it with professions, and the more you have at your fingertips, the faster it is.  The other part of my prep is stockpiling Cata mats that I'm hoping will become more valuable in the future, as well as non-vendor/non-crafted companion pets, with the thought that once Battlepets launches, these will be very valuable.  Once MoP is launched, and Knand is on his way to raiding greatness, I'll start crafting my little heart out, using the Remote AH from work to monitor and pick up great deals, as well as research the various markets.

I've Got Your Back!

As an update to yesterday's post, here's what I found out in my experiments with the cross-realm function, and a couple of ideas I'm going to try.  I used a character on a PvE server and another on an RP-PvP server for these tests.

• RaF XP still counts, even if the two characters are on different realms.
• Whoever is party lead dictates what realm you're in, even if they've logged off.
• If your party lead is on a PvP realm and you're in a contested/enemy zone, you become flagged. Switching to a lead in a PvE zone unflags you (though you still have the 5min debuff).
• Quest items appear to be able to be picked up by all members of a party; I didn't do a lot of quests, so I'm not certain if the quests I did always had that feature or not.
• You can add people not on your RealID list; simply use /invite player-realm to do so.

As you can see, this leaves a lot of possibilities.  I'm planning on running through some old content raids using toons on different servers, to see if BoP/BoE gear can be swapped between them once the roll is over, since I already know that cross-realm trading isn't active. If it isn't too much of a headache to do, I might start checking their TUJ pages to see what server the items sell better on before giving it to respective toons. Or figuring out what realm my tooltip info chooses from when giving me a heads-up as to how much things are worth, if that's even an issue.

I've already heard from one person mention that they were able to take part in multiple Kaluak fishing derbies, thanks to cross-realming, so I'm wondering if farming in multiple realms would work as well.  Start up a raid with multiple level-1s in different realms, then see which one doesn't have anyone else farming that zone.  Or camp a rare spawn point with the same raid.

Who's Watching Your Back?

I've seen several varying conversations recently about WoW's new cross-realm feature, so I figured I'd do a write-up of my experiences so far with it.  I'll only be discussing what I personally have observed, so if you're looking for Blizzard's final word on the matter, you'll need to go elsewhere.

I started noticing people from different servers when I was visiting the auction house in Silvermoon City on my RP-PvP realm.  Normally it's pretty dead at the time of night that I was there, but I saw no fewer than four other low-leveled characters running back and forth between the mailbox and the auctioneers.  Closer inspection revealed that they were, in fact, from other realms.

In the time since, I've teamed up for various things with other-realmers, as I like to call them.  While mining for Adamantite in Shadowmoon Valley, the General chat went off with someone needing help with an elite for a quest.  As I was max level, and a little bored of just circling around looking for blinking dots, I partied up and was surprised to find that the requester was an other-realmer.  He tagged the elite, I polished it off, and we talked about the cross-realm feature some in General for the zone, which got the attention of a few others.  Sure enough, several different realms were represented.

Later, a friend on my new PvE realm was trying to find someone willing to run Hyjal quests with his almost-maxed character.  I was on my old server, attempting to level a guild to 2 so that I could transfer it, when I thought it would be interesting to test the cross-realm feature.  We got a third person involved, all partied up, and proceeded to quest with little to no difficulty.  It was around this point that I started noticing strange lag spikes when zoning into areas, or sometimes just crossing from one zone to another, or from one quest area to another.

Most recently, we ran our first Heroic Dragon Soul with an other-realmer in the group, and other than the usual amount of lag, we ran into no difficulty.  I can't help but wonder if this will effect future progression, or if we'll find that content in MoP will be limited to same-realmers at first, and eventually opened up to cross-realm capability.

There's a few things I'll be testing out later, like if you can cross-realm quest with Refer-A-Friend bonuses; this would make those tricky situations easier, like the ones where you don't have any open slots on your current server, but still want to level with your buddy.  Or if you're two established players taking advantage of the RaF mount, and just happen to normally play on different servers; who gets stuck with a character that's not on their realm?  It'll also be interesting to know what would happen if, say, you're pulling a raid for the Darkmoon Rabbit, and you add a cross-realmer to your team.  Do they see the rabbit?  Will you see theirs, if there is one?  Can you wind up with two at once?  Now there's a scary thought.

I'll keep you guys informed of my discoveries, and if you have anything you'd like me to check out, feel free to drop a comment!

Starting Out With Baby Steps

Felt a little bad leaving you guys hanging with that last post, especially if you were looking for actual gold-making tips you could use.  So, without further ado, here's what I do when I want to get started on a new server!  I'm going to presume that you have only one account, and that you have no characters on other servers yet.  I'll throw a few tips in for the other two scenarios after my basic info.

Fair warning!  This may take you a little while to get decent gold with, as I'm by no means an expert AH player.  Basically it'll get you your first couple thousand; I've done this before, just this, and made almost 3k in a week.  And before you go any further, download the addons Auctioneer and Auctionator.

First, start a human, with whatever class you'd like.  When you do your first couple of quests, run to the entrance of the closed mine just beyond your first few mobs; there's a rare there that drops a bag, which is very important at this point. Level them out of the starting zone; this is very important, as you're going to need a bit of starting coin.  If you can stand it, go ahead and level them to 20, so that you'll be able to pick up a mount once you have the extra coin.  Save everything you get, whether it's grey, white, or green; you may need to vendor the grey and white items if you start running out of bag space, which is fine.  Just don't leave anything on your mobs!

Once you get to Goldshire, you'll be given a quest to fly to Stormwind.  Once you get there, complete whatever quests you have, but don't fly back yet!  Find a vendor and sell off any greys, whites, and soulbound greens you might have, then run your happy little human to the nearest Auction House.

Here's where it gets really boring fun.  Talk to an auctioneer to open your interface; along the bottom you'll notice a bunch of tabs.  We're starting with the first one, labeled "Browse".  Here you will find a nifty little maroon button towards the button that says "Scan".  Push it.  Now go get something to drink, because depending on the amount of stuff on your server's AH, this can take anywhere from 10-50 minutes.

While enjoying your drink, check back on your scan.  Done?  Good!  On to the next tab: Search.  Don't let all the options here confuse you, because the only one we're using just now is "Vendor".  This handy little function will scan the AH for anything that's currently up for auction at a price that's lower than what it would vendor for.  Don't laugh, apparently a lot of people don't pay attention to this when they sell things off.  Make sure the checkbox for "Bid" is empty, as we're going for quick bucks right now.  Now, hit "Search", sort by "Buyout" to make sure you're seeing the lowest, and purchase whatever you can afford.  Once you're out of money, run out to the mailbox, collect your items, then go to the nearest vendor and sell them.  You might be tempted to try to auction these items; trust me, you'd rather have the vendor money for what we have planned next.  Repeat this until you've bought all the items you possibly can, whether it's because you bought them all, or because the remaining items cost more than you have, even after vendoring your recent purchases.

Now that you've gotten that out of the way, start heading over to Old Town.  In Old Town you'll find an inn that houses several NPCs, the most important of which you'll find on the second floor: Kendor Kabonka.  Mr. Kabonka here has the dubious pleasure of being the man who sells a dozen recipes, several of which he is the only vendor of, both Alliance and Horde sides.  Purchase one of each that you can afford, starting with the cheapest, making sure to keep about 5-10s on you; keep away from Westfall Stew and Cooked Crab Claw, though, as they're Bind on Pickup.

Once you've bought what you can, run back over to the AH, and open up your AH interface again.  I prefer to use the "Sell" tab for this, so go ahead and choose that one.  One by one, drag a recipe from your bags and put it in the little window; Auctionator will automatically check the AH for any listings.  If any exist, simply hit "Create Auction", as the addon will do all the work for you, including undercutting anything that's already on the AH.  If the recipe isn't there, I usually start out listing them for 40g.  Continue for every recipe you picked up.

Now it's just a matter of waiting.  Even if you miraculously get one sold before you finish posting, you still have to wait an hour for the gold to reach you.  So log out, get some fresh air, start another toon you actually want to level, what have you.  By the time you come back tomorrow, you should have a fair bit of gold waiting for you in the mail!

Additional Steps

If you have two accounts, make a character on each side, one human and one orc.  Follow the aforementioned path-to-main-city portion, as well as the Vendor portion, for each.  Once you get to Stormwind and Orgrimmar, respectively, go get some recipes from the Alliance vendor, and run your orc around Valley of Spirits until you run into the troll walking about with a few snakes at his feet; he sells three snakes that are Horde-only companion pets.  You can swap them between the two accounts using the Neutral AH, and then sell them for twice as much on their opposite factions.

If you already have a character that's 55 or higher on another realm, you can make a death knight for your chosen class.  This time when you level out of your starting area and get to your main city, you'll have a nice sum of gold to your name.

She Who... Makes Gold?

I've stated before that I play the Auction House, so I figured I'd go ahead and give a little post going into more detail.  For those of you who have been keeping track, I've switched servers a few times.  Before I landed on my current realm, I played on the Horde side of an Alliance heavy medium pop server.  While I was there, I decided to make a run for the "Over 9000!" Feat of Strength, which required me to have a fair bit of gold to spend.  At that time, I began my foray into the AH.

By the time I went on hiatus, I had made over 200k with four 85s and the Enchanting, Tailoring, Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing, Engineering, and Alchemy crafting professions, plus the Herbalism and Mining gathering professions.  Most of this went to purchasing mounts and gear for my achievement character, but a fair bit of liquid remained, as well as three guild banks filled with the materials for Jewelcrafting, Tailoring, and Enchanting.

Fast-forward to almost a year later, when a random forum thread brought me back to WoW, this time on a new server, in the form of a re-roll guild.  New friendships were forged, and my interest in raiding, something that had been in hiding since the end days of Wrath, flared back to existence.  With Mists of Pandaria still in beta, no release date yet announced, I was looking at a healthy raid life for my newly minted warlock.  What wasn't looking so healthy was his money bag, and as a result, his gear.  My mind instantly turned to that Jewelcrafter languishing away on my old server, with her months of cuts already learned, and I decided to start transferring my old characters, and their respective guild banks, over.

The transfers have been gradual, about one a month since I made the decision to do it, and when the release date for MoP was announced, I still had one, the Enchanter/Tailor, remaining.  I had already trained up Enchanting on the new warlock, and while I had started with Tailoring on him as well, the idea of continuing it to max when I had that perfectly capable other one just waiting to be transferred made my teeth ache.  So I dropped Tailoring and took up a second round of Jewelcrafting, mostly to ensure that I could learn as many cuts as quickly as possible in the next expansion.

What does all of this have to do with making gold?  Everything and nothing, really.  Right now I'm mostly in a holding pattern, using my JC and Enchanting to do the ore shuffle often enough to make the gold needed to stockpile some farmable pets for when we finally get the Battlepets system.  Back on my original server are still my original Enchanter/Tailor, as well as two 80s that I'm using to level my two remaining bank guilds to 2 for transferring.  One of the two will have Mining/Herbalism, so that I can drop those on the two on my new realm who currently have them, replacing with another Alchemy and Inscription.  The debate right now is whether to go ahead and drop Enchanting on the older character and pick up a third Alchemy while she's still on the old server, where prices are higher, or wait until I transfer her.  Decisions, decisions, and time grows short between now and MoP.

In short, the majority of my gold-making is in a holding pattern until MoP hits; before that, I'm getting all of my ducks in a row (and on the same server).

MoP Checklist - Gold Making Version:

1. Level both bank guilds to 2.
2. While doing that, max Herbalism & Mining on level 80 druid.
3. Either before or after transferring, drop Enchanting on female warlock and pick up Alchemy.
4. Transfer druid & warlock with the two bank guilds to current server.
5. Drop Mining & Herbalism on death knight & priest, respectively.  Train Alchemy & Inscription.
6. Level Skinning & Leatherworking on remaining mage.  Transfer to current server.  Possibly reverse.
7. Profit!

Personal Prep Status: GO!

So the other day I posted a list of points to hit in real life while prepping for the big game session on September 25th.  Now, I'll go down said list and share what I've been doing to get ready so far.

• Specific Goal - Hit 90.  While I'd love to be Realm First 90 Warlock, I won't stop even if someone beats me to it.  90 or bust, baby!
• Get Rest - Well...  I still have three weeks.  I'll probably spend most of the Monday before sleeping, provided I don't still have other last-minute things to take care of.
• Responsibilities Handled - I've set up all my bills for autopay, have taken the week of the 25th off work, and am making sure someone feeds my cat.  If something else pops up, I'll take care of it, but for now, that looks like it's all done.
• Friends & Family Aware - Yep.  Some think I'm crazy, but hey, it's not like I'm planning on going on an all-night club binge or something.
• Equipment Ready - This one I'm being a little slack on.  Right now I'm doing all my gaming on my laptop, as my PC's power supply died several months ago.  While I've got a new power supply to put in, I've been procrastinating about actually doing it, because the PC itself is a big green monstrosity, and is a pain to move around and get into.  Other than that, I also have a second monitor to add to my system, in order to be able to play and access other programs at the same time.
• Food & Water - We've got a water filter here, so I'll be filling a couple of bottles the night before and putting them in my mini-fridge.  What's that?  Yeah, I've got a mini-fridge.  Microwave, too, for that matter.  And a personal coffee pot.  Today I picked up a case of Diet Code Red for drinking when I'm tired of water, and an emergency case of NoS, which will only be used if I start to nod off towards the end of the session; not only is too much caffeine dangerous, but it's also a diuretic, which means it makes you have to pee a lot.  I haven't gotten any food yet, but I plan on picking up a box of Cliff bars or something similar.
• Gaming Area - Again, being a little slack here, because of the aforementioned case issue.  I'm debating on moving the fridge-and-micro closer to the desk, so that I can access them easily.  Sometime this week I'll be clearing out the area and fixing the PC.  Really.
• Gopher - My youngest sister will be filling in this role; unfortunately, she has class that Tuesday, so she won't be available to me until around 4:30PM, or almost 17 hours after the session starts.  This means I'll be on my own for the majority of it, which makes it even more important to have my play area set up for optimal use.

A point I hadn't mentioned in the previous post was bathroom breaks.  Not to be gross, but optimally, I'll go right before the expansion is released, and limit my liquid and solid intake so as to avoid having to go again for a while.  Worse comes to worse, I'll take advantage of some of WoW's flightpaths, making a quick run down the hall if necessary when I get on one.  Being female, I don't have that "lovely" ability to use at my desk, yanno?

Bad Rap

A funny thing happens when you confide in folks that you play the Auction House: Their perception of you changes, and a lot of times, they start treating you differently.  Most of the time these differences aren't exactly what you'd want, and I probably spend as much of my time shooting down misconceptions as I do actually dabbling in the AH.  One solution is just to not tell anyone what I do in my spare time, why I hang out in the AH for 30 minutes at a stretch, refusing to budge in order to make sure my scan gets done before I move on to my dailies.

Or I could educate the masses.  Guess what I'm doing?

• Myth: AH Players are rolling in gold - Depends on your definition of "rolling".  I've never broken 100k in total gold, even when I made it a point to buckle down and focus.  Right now I'm lucky to have 10-20k fluid.  Sure, this sounds like a lot to someone who lives raid-to-raid, buying their enchants and making repairs with whatever they brought in, but it's easy to blow through that much before you realize you've done it.  A handful of epic gems here, a stack of enchanting mats there, the occasional moment where you give in and "loan" some gold to a guildie, and you're suddenly broke again.  Unfortunately, this myth leads most folks to the next one.
• Myth: AH Players are greedy bastards who care about nobody but themselves, and gold - I get this one a lot from people who think that because I've got several thousand gold worth of epic gems on the AH, I could easily give them one for free.  Or the ones who've heard from a friend of a friend that I've got "tons" of gold, and think that me bankrolling their legendary weapon quest is the only logical thing for me to do with it.  Oh, the whining and complaining, the accusations that fly, when I tell them no.  Think of it this way: If I gave a free whatever to everyone who asked for it, I'd quickly wind up with nothing to give.  And truth is, I do give out a lot, I'm just selective about it; all of my guildies know that they can get a free rare gem, cut, from me in a heartbeat, to fill that piece of gear they just picked up in the raid, and I never, ever charge for my services when it comes to guildmates or friends thereof.
• Myth: In order to play the AH, you have to spend all your time in the AH - Only if they really want to.  Most of us have found ways to automate most of our AH activities in order to complete them in about 20-30 minutes a day.  I probably spend about that much time there, and spend the rest of my time leveling alts, completing dailies, and raiding.  Some people would point at this and say it's why I haven't "reached cap" or some other arbitrary gold-making goal, but I know for a fact that many of the folks out there who've hit that same cap have done so without making their entire life about the AH.
• Myth: If you don't hit gold cap, you're doing it wrong - Says who?  My goal in playing the AH is to be comfortable, to have everything I want, and to be able to provide little perks to my guildies, like the free rare gems bit.  A lot of people have different goals when it comes to the AH, and not all of them involve WoW's gold cap.  Some have a one-time goal, like getting enough to buy a high-end mount.  Others, like me, just want to not have to worry about every little thing.  Sure, there's nothing wrong with aiming for the cap, it's just not the end-all-be-all of gold making.
• Myth: People who play the AH are ruining the economy - This one is probably the hardest to educate people about, because you sort of have to understand how economics work in order to see why this is wrong.  What it really boils down to is that the market will bear what it can afford; if there are people out there who can afford to and are willing to spend 700g on a gem, that's what they'll sell for.  Trust me, if the market was set by the sellers, you wouldn't see one cut of Queen's Garnet selling for 800g and another for 200g, when the uncut gem sells for 650g.  If I buy out all the Thorium on the AH and relist it for 10x what it was going for originally, people will either buy it or find a way to go get it cheaper; if it doesn't sell for 10x, I'll try 8x, then 6x, and so on until it finally sells.

I'm sure there's a few points I'm missing somewhere, but these are the ones I run into the most.  I'll be happy to add to them if anyone's got some they'd like to get addressed.  Until then, you guys enjoy WoW the way you want to enjoy it, and I'll do the same.

How Not To Die While Gaming

Before I get started, I just want to make sure that everyone's aware that this, while being a guide of sorts, is not to be taken as permission to go out and spend days on end gaming. There have been numerous cases around the world of people gaming to the point of exhaustion, and ultimately, death. This post is my way of sharing my plan for an extended gaming session that ensures I do so in a safe manner. Just like a running marathon, a gaming marathon is all about proper preparation and execution; do either wrong, and you can wind up seriously hurt.  If you plan on following any of my suggestions, you do so at your own risk.  Please use common sense.

On September 25th, I plan on making at attempt at obtaining "Realm First 90 - Warlock" on my server in World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria. While I'm forming my game-plan for the in-game portion, I know I also have to keep in mind my real life, as it will likely take several hours of non-stop gaming to pull this off. These are the points I'll be hitting.

Pre-Session

• Have a specific goal in mind.  Marathon gaming for the sake of marathon gaming is dangerous, namely because you have no real point at which to stop.  Form a goal, and stick to it.
• In the days/weeks leading up to the session, get plenty of rest.  You'll not be taking a break to nap, so rather than entering the session already operating on a deficit, it's better to get caught up and be well-rested before hand.
• Make sure all of your responsibilities are handled.  If you're in school, make sure all of your assignments are done.  Pets?  Make sure they're fed, or make sure someone will be able to feed them.  If you're a bill-payer, make sure those are done as well.  Nothing ruins a long gaming session like the sudden remembering that you have something that needs to be done right now.
• Make sure your friends and family know what you're up to.  This ties in to the previous one, especially since you don't want any sudden surprise visits, or the announcement that you were supposed to be attending "that thing" with your significant other.  When you're telling them about it, though, make sure you don't get defensive when they start to call you crazy, because that will just reinforce their idea.
• Ensure your gaming equipment is up-to-snuff.  Try some shorter sessions of whatever game it is before your big day, to make sure your computer or console can handle it.  You really don't want to find out that your video card is prone to overheating after three hours of play, when your goal is on the line.
• Stock up on food and water.  Water gets a bad rap for being boring, but it's the most efficient way of hydrating yourself, and trust me, you'll want to stay hydrated.  If you prefer something other than water, try to steer clear of anything highly sugared, as it will most likely result in a sugar-crash later.  Food will help as well, especially more nutritious items, such as cereal bars or trail mix.  Stay away from anything you're not used to eating, as you don't want to find out something gives you stomach problems in Hour Three of your session.  And for cripe's sake, if you know something does give you problems, don't eat it while you're in session.
• Set up your gaming area.  If you game at a desk, make sure everything's clear, the keyboard is at an ergonomically appropriate level, and your chair is comfortable.  If it's a console, set up a comfortable chair at a reasonable distance from the television.  Make sure everything that needs batteries has fresh batteries or a new charge, and keep spares on-hand.  Doing this a few hours, or even days, ahead of time will save you a lot of headache in the long run.
• Arrange for a gopher.  Got a younger sibling or roommate who isn't totally opposed to your plan?  Who might even think it's kinda neat?  See if they'd be willing to make runs for additional food and water, give you back-rubs, etc. while you're in progress.  Keep them informed of your plans.  Best of all, if something should go wrong, it helps to have another set of eyes and hands there.

Before you scoff at this, insisting that it's way too much work for something as simple as gaming, keep in mind that I'm not talking about prepping for your regular gaming routine here, though a few of the points are probably good to keep in mind then, too.  This is meant for a serious gaming endeavour, and I like to think that all those professional gamers out there follow a similar set of guidelines.

There may be a couple of things I've missed, but that's why I'm starting to plan everything now.  If you're doing the same, I wish you the best of luck!

Game Plan: Short Term

Third post on the first day!  Don't get used to it, folks.  I just wanted to take a moment in this extended format to really get down to the nitty-gritty as to my intentions for the start of the next World of Warcraft expansion, and the weeks leading up to it.  Keep in mind that I subscribe to the "Best laid plans" theory, where though I may have everything down and ship-shape ahead of time, it's not unknown for me to completely go off the rails at some point.

Main goal at start of Mists of Pandaria - Earn "Realm First Warlock - 90" with my orc warlock, Knand.

Secondary goal - Gear Knand for raiding and leveling his professions to max; when not gearing Knand, level professions for all PvE realm characters to max.

Tertiary goal - Begin raiding on Knand; level other PvE realm characters to 90; begin leveling RP-PvP characters to 90.

As you can see, I've got quite a plateful there.  Luckily I had already requested the week that Mists of Pandaria happens to be launching off for vacation, so I'll have seven days in which to get as much of these goals done as possible; I'd love to say I'll get them all, but as you'll see shortly, there's a *lot* more to it than these goals makes it seem.

To start with, it'll only be my initial push for "Realm First" (R1) that will have me grinding 24/7, so to speak.  Once Knand hits 90, I'll be taking a well-deserved nap.  After that, I have no fewer than three 85s to get to 90, plus a currently 73, as well as a fourth 85 I plan on transferring over sometime between now and then.  If I decide I want to buckle down and get my stray Alliance hunter in on the game, that'll make six total characters to get to max level, while simultaneously getting Knand geared and professions.  Quite a feat to try to pull off in seven days.

I'm currently in the process of pulling together an R1 team for the push; if I get the players I'm thinking of, it'll be Knand, a mage, and a third to-be-determined character working together, with the assistance of Zygor's Quest Guides.  I've found that three party members is the perfect number, more or less, when leveling by questing: Enough to make short work of any mobs you come across, not so much that you both cripple your mob experience and make gathering quests a nightmare.  Ironically, thanks to Blizzard's new scenarios, we'll have the perfect amount of players for those, as well as a fair hunk for dungeons; would be nice if the third player could be a tank and/or healer.  Not to be cold-hearted, but whoever groups of me will be doing so with the understanding that anyone who falls behind gets left behind, myself included.  And that the whole thing's going to be Livestreamed and recorded for entertainment purposes.  Whether I actually get R1 is irrelevant: I will not stop until Knand hits 90.

After that... well, most bets are off.  I'll need to get Knand geared, and while I'm sure it'll be a time-consuming project, if Cataclysm was any indicator, I'll have some down-time when there's nothing I can do.  At that point, I'll get my death knight and priest in gear, as they have Mining and Herbalism, respectively.  Might even level them by leveling their professions, as I'll be needing plenty of ore to level Knand's Jewelcrafting, and by proxy, his Enchanting.  That'll just leave my warrior, who has Blacksmithing and Engineering, and my possible other warlock, who currently has Enchanting and Tailoring (though Enchanting might be dropped for Inscription).  The currently-73 rogue is a Skinner/Leatherworker, and will most likely be fighting to be last on my list with my warrior, as I haven't had a huge need for either one of their professions.  Throughout all of this, I'll be carefully using my pre-expansion stockpile to raise funds and buy the necessary goods I'll be needing, so getting my professions up will be an excellent way to help it along.

It's feasible.  As I get a couple of max'd characters under my belt, the remainder will become easier, as I'll be more familiar with the content.  And hopefully by the time I've gotten most of the PvE characters up, the starting areas for 85-90 on my RP-PvP realm should be less crowded; not really looking forward to huge mobs of Alliance attempting to pick off my poor little Horde characters.

Next Post: Preparing For The Grind: Real Life Edition

or Game Plan: Long Term

Highlights

So that they don't get lost, I'm transferring two recent Facebook posts here:

WoW Activities Part 1 - She's an Altoholic.

That's right, She can't help herself when it comes to trying out every race, class and profession out there. There have been several times where She's had to delete old alts on other realms in order to make way for new ones (as you only get 50 per WoW account), and She's overjoyed at the announcement that everyone gets an 11th slot on each server. Just to give you an idea, She has four 85s, a 72 and a 50 on her main server, an 85 and two 80s on her old server, and is currently leveling 3 characters to 85 on her newest RP-PvP server. She's also getting ready to RAF-level on the new server. The only classes She doesn't have are Paladin and Shaman, and the only professions are Leatherworking and Inscription; this is mostly because of her addiction to Locks and the Enchanting/Tailoring combo (so far each server has one of these).

Wow Activities Part 2 - She plays the Auction House

Now, before you start begging for gold, keep in mind the fact that She's been raiding a lot lately, which tends to eat up both time and gold. On top of that, She's been stockpiling things for the next expansion, so again, any gold that might be had is being turned around into items. Long story short, She likes to be comfortable. Who wouldn't be happy with the ability to have anything you want, whenever you want it? Or to be able to help your friends and guild mates do the same? That's pretty much the level that She plays the AH at; enough to make sure She's and her mates are never wanting for anything necessary, and a few things that are just plain fun. She's not out to hit the gold cap, at least not as long as She's still entertained by raiding and alts!

She Who... Blogs?

That didn't take long, now did it?  Apparently I already had this set up, complete with an old intro post (which I've since hidden), and had completely forgotten I'd done so.  Bad She!  I'll strive to post here at least once a week, most likely on Wednesdays.

Don't worry, though.  I'll still use Facebook to keep you guys informed as far as spur-of-the-moment things go, or for linking you to interesting stories and pages.  You'll also probably get a faster response through there, if it's a fast response to something that you need.  Can't think of anything you'd need to ask that would require quick replies, but if there is, there you go.