Unusual Tactics

I've been meaning to write something about this for a while, but I was just too busy focusing on leveling a few alts. At some point I really did want to write about it because I was dealing with this set of unusual tactics daily. At some point in a wired way it became a competitive game of a sort when dealing with the Auction House.

Of what sort of game I cant say, but when you hate to loose you try to win at all cost or find ways you never though of. In the end I came to the conclusion that my personal time was much better spent doing other things I had as a goal to get done vs battling with Unusual Tactics on my server with a seller.

Everyone makes a huge deal over and about the Glyph Industry and the selling of them on which ever server your on. Each server has its own economy and they are all different. The power sellers that tend to control or manipulate whichever words you like, they tend to find innovative ways to dominate their own server AH in various ways. So you can make a bit of money selling glyphs. It can take a bit of investment as well. As well you can go broke big in that market too depending on your server economy and a few good goblins there as well to break you.

If you want advice of the sort to selling glyphs or other AH tactics you can go read Greedy Goblins blog whether you like him or not as a goblin. I've read his stuff too like allot of other stuff i read.

I've been a AH seller for as long as I've played WoW. I've always made plenty of money on AH but i don't need to gobs of it either. I learned that way back leveling up my Paladin back in tBC doing Alchemy when I would park myself at AH in Undercity and makes potions and elixirs for hours vs leveling. I figured out how to make money at my own bootstraps in WoW and with my own professions. So in WoW I've never been broke for money. But i'm not much of a spender either or for fluff stuff.

Even though I make a bit of money through various things I never have much use for making tons of it either. Simply in WoW I'm not a big spender nor am i as a player a huge consumer either. There really isn't anything in game I really spend money on or choose to. So even if I made lots of money and I do it becomes moot after a while since you never spend much of it on anything or anything I care for. So when it comes to making money on AH I just do it for profession activities and just fun.

Which leads to the tale of my DK selling Glyphs on my server. Back in March/April or so after returning to WoW and playing again I rolled a DK since I hadn't before for WoLK. So I leveled one up eventually to lvl 65 and made him skilled in Inscription. Parked him in Org, leveled him up in inscription to 450 milling/selling glyphs. I have a few toons skilled in Herbalism so it wasn't too difficult to do. Nothing to that.

I mentioned several times here on the blog before that I was doing that as well and that I did rather well at it. I did it just as a daily hobby especially since I wasn't playing my Paladin much or doing dailies on him. So it was my way of just one of several ways of making daily side income in the AH economy by using my DK. So he sold glyphs in peaceful existence with a few other regular sellers on our server AH. So in the months I was selling glyphs you recognize the major server power players who do it daily. There was less that 5 major ones and many many minor floaters by. I would say I was a player just by sheer activity on AH.

Did well and made money. AH for me is just playing around making money as a mini-game. At some point literally over night I noticed the glyph market changed on my server. It was due to one particular seller/player that started selling glyphs and changed the balance of things. And of all the names in the world his name was the exact name of the enemy to the Horde. Cant imagine what that name was do you? Yeah that one.

Couldn't care less if the seller name was Mightymouse. But he named him self after the enemy and started doing over time what i noticed was unusual tactics in a huge way. If i ever hated a damn player this one shot straight to the top of every list i had in mind in game.

This one player on my server became in my opinion thorn in the ass that sold glyphs. I cant say i had a problem with any the sellers before. I didn't with the guy that would put up what seem like almost 2000 glyphs on AH daily. Na didn't have a problem with him. We both sold stuff and he even stopped selling a while with the new seller on the block that was upsetting the balance. But the new seller had ruthlessness that was goblinistic if you ask me.

For a while it depressed the market in price as well as affected how many items I sold daily with lots of returned unsold glyphs. It became apparent when I started noticing lots of stuff expired returning to mail unsold. That became suspicious as it didn't happen before. I still sold stuff and was still doing glyph research on my DK as well learning new glyphs at the time as well.

This one new player on the server was trying to corner the AH glyph market. He just about sold ever glyphs under the sun. So literally he obviously sold more glyphs than I could since some I hadn't learned as yet. As well he was competing with the other sellers. I started paying attention to the sellers daily and to the tactics this seller was using. Slowly a few of the regulars on the server over weeks seem to stop selling. Even the guy that was listing 2000 glyphs a day on AH for mass listing. A few kept at it. A few sellers I had heard was bought out by the new seller. Some the sellers I could see around Orgrimmar so i knew in some way who they were by name from AH.

The Tactics.

What i started noticing about this one seller/player was initially he started selling on his main which was obvious by name to his entry on the market. He was a lvl 80 Druid. He was never there before, so i suspect a person who server transferred. Then he started selling on his alt which had the name of the enemy and the one that was obvious. How I was able to tell that both was that they used the same pricing always on everything as well underbid the same with the same price underbid priicing. Always by 1c on everything bid and buyout.

Next a few other glyph sellers seemed to enter the market as well which seemed like there was allot of competition as well. What became obvious from how the pricing was listed on items and underbid was that they were like 5-6 new sellers but really it was the same person/account but selling on 5-6 different lvl 1-10 toons. Each toon was selling glyphs and seem to be competing with each other. I'm sure they weren't. Few of his alts was even listed in the same guild. The others was in a tiny one person banking guild.

But whenever this one guy was underbid whichever of his low lvl 1-10 toon he as on he would underbid right back by 1c. Over time it seems like their was 5-6 different sellers, when actually it was just one player. That all caught my attention since when I was at AH i would look at the seller names and the price, bid, buyout price and by how much. In time you figure its the same person generating competition on various random glyphs or underbidding as it happen.

When my DK was selling before he entered the market he sold glyphs since all he was using was inscription bags to hold allot of glyphs. But some time back I had started leveling my DK as more focus and made a new Alt to handle all that storage and selling of glyphs while leveling up my DK.

So on my new lvl 1 glyph seller I started tracking this one seller that was a AH thorn. On the glyphs sellers that sold glyphs I suspected that was him I added to my lvl 1 seller friends list. Based on the log in and out it turned out that this one seller had 2 mains that sold glyphs. A 80 Druid and a 80 DK and about 6-7 different alts that all sold glyphs under various names on AH underbidding everyone else around the clock based on login and logouts. His alts did nothing else but stay at AH as they never ever changed levels.

What also became obvious was that he would log in on his prime glyph seller screen name and relist his his glyphs up to 3-4 times a hour. That's about every 15 min's he would relog to check prices and if he was underbid he would mass delist and relist again underbidding everyone else by 1c-5c. I used to wonder how I was being underbid so fast and getting so many things back unsold. This particular guy did it all day long. Literally all day long.

In my job I work odd hours sometime at days and sometimes at nights on shift. So at times I can be logged on on WoW real late at night or real early in the morning based on work schedule that week. It wasn't unusual at various times when i logged on to check stuff i had on AH that this one guy was also logged on at AH or at the Mail box in Org or in Undercity depending on which of his low lvl alts he was on.

His alts were all at AH or at the mailbox. It wasn't unusual when I logged on to my Paladin in Dalaran to transmute the new epic gems that his main was sitting at a mail box making glyphs or something else as well looking at my combat log to see who's crafting what around me. I have no idea what this guy did other than WoW. But he had the AH literally cornered what seemed 24hrs a day just about almost every day with this presence selling glyphs and not for cheap baring no competition.

I used to think, hey this guy cant be awake at real early in he morning like at 0330 and times like that. So I relisted stuff on AH sometimes during that time of slow server activity. Before I was logged out he was logged on and changing his prices. At 10AM same thing. At mid afternoon, early evening, later at night. He was logged in and out at AH doing the same thing at different times listing glyphs, delisting glyphs and changing prices. This guy never sleeps it seems. And anyone that has that much time to be at AH around the clock 24 hours a day it seems aren't doing anything else in life i suppose.

One weekends at times he would depress the entire market which can mean dropping all glyphs to around 4-5g each flat. But on the times he did that I often noticed that he wasn't around for several hours either whenever he did. So he would depress the market so no one else can really underbid or underbid at really low profit while he was away from the game. When he was back later the redid all his prices.

When this guy had no competition on AH he would jack the price of glyphs and everything he sold up to around 60-65 per glyphs and every glyphs across the board. You notice this stuff over time. If you underbid him at say 50% price. Whenever he logs on he underbid you back by 1c-5c. And he would do that all day long no matter how low you tried to underbid. Whenever a particular glyphs was not being sold he would then jack the price back up to 60-65g per glyphs. That seemed to be his default high limit price. The average price I sold my Glyphs was much lower than his was for my own conscience. I don't need to make a a ton of profit, its just a hobby for fun. This one seller had other motivations. Each seller and why they sell are motivated by different things and probably not all the same reason.

Whats unusual about all this is this one glyph seller on AH would do this on 6-7 different lvl 1-10 alts all would do this all day long. And if he needed to keep underbidding someone to kick them out the market or bankrupting them by constant underbidding no matter how low the underbid price was he was doing it all daily.

Over time I noticed some the regular sellers that used to sell no longer sold. Some was leveling up their characters, some quit selling. Some sold on and off. This one guy kept at it. I did as well as was making a game at trying to compete with him for a while. And it became that. I just hated the thought of being beaten out on the AH or being pushed out by this one seller tactics.

I was starting to level up my DK around the same time. I eventually got him to 80 and was running Heroics a bit. But leveling up my DK i realize I didn't have the time to keep playing that game at AH with this one seller. It was literally wasting allot of my time. He watches the AH like a damn paranoid hawk and as much as he logs in and logs out on his characters to watch the AH their aren't much ways I choose to want to waste my time competing just to sell something that i just did for fun. It wasn't fun anymore at the price of time to relist stuff on AH. It was more a headache. It became a damn time waster dealing with this one guy and his unusual tactics. In that time I leveled up my Shaman and DK to lvl 80 and geared him up a bit.

I still make and sell glyphs and I do sell a few for just side income with this one seller competitor around. I could really care less in some ways. I'm just as much a annoyance to him as he is to my low lvl seller as well. But the thing is I sell for fun, the money don't mean all that much to me since I really don't buy anything much and not a big spender. This other AH seller seems to have some form of goal maybe. As what drives a person daily to spend literally so much time manipulating AH item prices just to sell some glyphs and act that paranoid to log in literally all day long to list, delist and change prices.

Since then of recent this one seller has switched to using new lvl 1 alts to try and hide on AH with different new names. But its the same person using the same tactics. And based on log in log out tracking Ive found its the same account/seller as well. He would list and log, i would come behind him and delist and relist. That was a mini-game as well. And he did it right back to me and much more often. I just aren't got that much time to waste doing that. Neither would anyone else.

I just found one or two ways to deal with this one seller guy around, though not always as successful since as well their is a flood of glyphs sellers on the market all trying to use goblin tactics on each other. I put up several glyphs on AH whenever I feel like login on my alt to list them up. Because I just do it for fun and not a focus. Working on my character goals is my focus, wasting that much time battling with that AH seller aren't in my book of good use of time while playing the game.

I don't keep as much tabs on this seller daily anymore, not sure how much he is around daily. But when I list a few things on AH I know he is still around. I check the competition names so see who's there. He may not be as often as he used to weeks back for whatever reasons but he still logs and use all the tricks of the trade with his unusual tactics.

When everyone knows the various secrets to making money in a certain market its no longer as good as a market potential as it used to be. Still good, but its no longer a secret as the word is out and not as good as it used to be. Before long that market itself is just flooded by new players.

I Got It....Both!

Best way to ensure you get the drop you want is to do it with your guild if you can, at least your helping your own guildies out vs another. So three of us in our guild a Death Knight, Paladin and myself as the Shaman went and smack down the Brewfest Boss a while ago for todays run. Our young tank Paladin got himself the Stamina Trinket on the first go that he needed. On the second go the other AP Trinket dropped and our DK didn't need it though I had already passed on it. He didn't need it, so I ended picking it up on my Shaman. Great!

On the third go he dropped the new Mace Tankard. I got the Mace! It replaced my lvl 78 OH the Unholy Persuader on my Shaman which really needed replacing. I've been running H ToC almost daily and for the life of things i've never seen Aledar's Battlestar drop ever. If it ever did drop i'm sure I be unlucky enough to have a Rogue or a Druid in the group and loose the roll as well probably. But sweet I was able to get the Brewfest Mace and upgrade my Shaman OH which was much needed! I don't really care it looks like a Stein, as long as it can kick out dps. But it look even more humorous to be beating down a boss with a Stein or double Steins.

I relogged on my Paladin and did another go and our Death Knight got the Dodge Trinket that he needed.

Everyone was happy on our little guild run and a good day it was. Much better than doing it in a server PuG and at least the drops benefit someone in our little guild at least.

I be even happier if before Brewfest is over doing it with the guild daily I can get the other Mace for my Shaman.

Did you need it and did you get it? Probably some PuG horror stories out there already for someone that needed it and lost it i'm sure.

Updated 09/29/09: On the other daily runs of Brewfest Boss Coren so far with the guild smacking the boss daily the other Tankard mace I needed just wouldn't drop. Was getting worried and started to think I would have to pony up on AH and buy one listed at anywhere from 1k-2.5k on AH as insurance policy for one on my Shaman. Uhh. Prices on my server for Tankard maces float anywhere from 1000k bit to 1500 buyout and up to 3k so far. I just didn't feel like dropping the money unless I really had to though I kept a eye on the daily AH prices.

Voodoo curse be to Coren and so fortunately he has finally dropped the Tankard mace again on another guild run and I was able to pick it up. So I now dual wield double Tankard O' Terror maces on my Enhancement Shaman. My dps rocks dual wielding and slapping around a mob with those things! Woot!

Daily runs of Coren for Brewfest we have done with a few of out young 80's and almost everyone so far has got something they needed or all of the trinkets themselves. So great for guild runs to Coren daily. As well I picked up the Swift Brewfest Ram too from Coren on my Enhance Shaman. A Kodo Mount would have been better. But I'll take any mount as its better than no mount at all as well. only one other guildie was lucky enough so far to have seem or gotten the Kodo Mount so far for Brewfest. Like wise the Swift Ram as well, so far.

Raid Progression?

Honor's Code on his blog some time ago asked where are you at in WotLK Progression as a poll. I remember looking at that some time ago when he posted the poll. But I've thought about that the whole time since as well.

Every time I log in to play WoW I've thought about it. Its not that I don't know the answer, Its that the answer has been rather clear to me some time ago and at the moment I remember seeing the poll asking the question as well. We all play this game in our own way. I'm a very caparable and good raider.

Currently........ I'm not on ANY current Raid Progression Path! After completing Naxx 25 my Raid progression last ended at Ulduar 10 at Freya Boss.

As well that's the last time I really played my Paladin as well in a real tanking fashion.

That is at my own choosing and as a choice. I've written my thoughts at various times as it relates to raiding. At times I like to do my own thing and whatever that thing is.

I do enjoy raiding and have. When i'm raiding I'm core! I'm dedicated to it. I show up early, i show up repaired, I stay late. I show up fully stocked with my consumables. I read strats and do my own research. I come prepared. I've always done that. When it comes to regularly raiding in WoW, TIME is my enemy for a weekly regular schedule!

I never enjoy raiding for the Epics! I just enjoy it for the fun, seeing the content and being able to beat it with a group of good friends. I do have a love hate relationship with raiding as it relates to time. My work schedule is not raiding friendly since i work shifts both days and nights. So that's not friendly to a regular raiding schedule weekly.

As well when my old guild on Zangarmarsh server died it was was my guild of a long time. It was the friends as a guild I raided with much. Sometime I pugged it and often but it felt hollow raiding in pugs with people you don't really know or will ever see again pugging things. But when my last guild died I decided to move on to a new server, so i did. I started over on a new server. I didn't care to go about looking for a new raiding guild, i just hate the process! As much as it is I've always hate joining guilds as well. I didn't feel like getting all that much back into raiding at that time. So i didn't. I wasn't driven all that much by shiny purples all the time. Though they are nice as a reward. If I raided it was for fun and being able to get through the content.

So I simply started over on my server a few months back and decided to do something different for a change to avoid my burnout again. I started to level up a Shaman to lvl 80 and I did. My Shaman started his own little guild as well when he was leveling up which became somewhat his preoccupation as well. I spent time deciding to level up my DK which was at lvl 65 for what seemed forever. So I got him to lvl 80 as well just like my Shaman and geared them up both in decent gear running Heroics and H ToC for lots of Emblems. They are both in somewhat decent gear along side with my Paladin.

Those things were goals for me which i wrote about before to tie up loose ends and get done before the next expansion. I decided to level up my lvl 70 Hunter who's been at lvl 70 for over a year. So after getting my lvl 80 Shaman and Death Knight in both I decided to lvl up my 70 Hunter who is now at 72.

So the answer is I'm not on any current raid progression path. That is purely my choice. I'm spending time doing what I want and choose to do. Don't mean I don't like to raid or given up raiding. I enjoy raiding for the fun aspect of it and to see the content.

Raiding just haven't been my Focus! And that too is by choice at the moment.

In short Burnout is a bitch! So its good to focus doing other things at time. I guess I've been doing that. So right now I'm busy leveling my Hunter at 72.

Brewfest 2009

So Brewfest been going strong a few days now and so far its one the event that I more enjoy in WoW. Allot more fun than the last holiday event because I can't even remember what that was either.

Most fun so far with Brewfest is just going to kill the daily lvl 80 Elite Boss. So far I have killed the boss on my Paladin, Shaman and my Death Knight. My Paladin got the Bitter Balebrew Charm on the first day and ended up just running a few people that needed a tank for the event. He already has the Mirror or Truth for Retribution spec so didn't need the Chronium Coaster Trinket.

I ran my Enhancement Shaman through and only ended up with the Mithril Pocketwatch which I can use in my Elemental Spec since I already have a fairly decent set of gear for that as well for Elemental. However didn't get the Chronium Coaster trinket on my Shaman eventually I'm sure but he does already have the Mirror of Truth trinket though.

On my Death Knight I got the Coren's Chronium Coaster trinket. He already as well like my Shaman did have the Mirrow of Truth also. So now my DK has both trinkets which is cool unfortunately they don't stack though for effect though.

I just heard that Blizzard added this in just late last night as a drop on the Brewfest Boss Tankard O' Terror. Ya Mon! I'm really going to have to try and get that on my Shaman. Its much better than what I'm still using in my OH and it rocks for dps.

Did some other Brewfest events on my 3 lvl 80's and only thing I really cared to buy with the Tokens was to get the Brewfest Pony Keg since its always usable and just something fun to have in Heroics and Raids. So I got that on all 3 characters the Pony Keg. Have yet to get the Pint Sized Pink Elekk for the pet, but at just 100 Tokens won't be that long. Rest of the Brewfest stuff I can't say I really care all that much about to spend more time to do or get or for the Achievements also. I just don't care that much about it to want to spend any more time at it.

Still one the funnest of Blizzard WoW Events though. Hopefully you been enjoying Brewfest as well so far.

Screenshots: Shaman Weapon Skilling

I really enjoy playing my Enhancement Shaman. Its also amazing how fast a Shaman can level up weapon skills on not frequently used weapons. Windfury Totems down and Windfury on all weapons rock to speed up the rate of every attempt at hitting something. Nice to have a self healing tree druid in the Crystal Forest around to practice on. In no time at all your low level weapon skills are up there. So I got the Achievement for 4 Weapons at max skilled.

Nerf Hammer Strikes

I haven't been playing my Paladin much or have barely played him at all. I haven't really tanked anything significant since before patch 3.2. So all those nice changes we got back then some time ago. I've barely had time to try things out myself since all the changes came due. Now I hear the pendulum has swung to its limits and swinging back with a Nerf.

What? I'm getting nerfed! I haven't even used that shinny ability yet and I'm getting nerfed. Yeah since I haven't been keeping up much on things I was reading up over at pal Honorscode to see whats been up on things and I read for Protect Paladins aka Tankadins Ardent Defender talent is now getting nerfed. So tried to hop over to the Maintankadin Forum to see what was up as well and the site was down, I wonder why.

But really nerfed! I haven't even used it yet since patch 3.2. I haven't even really played my Paladin since before then. I have no idea what people been doing to make AD seem like its OP in some way. Damn Nerf Bat swung back for a nerf and I haven't even used my own ability yet.

Bummer.

I guess I can maybe stick to playing my Shaman and my DK a bit longer so I don't have to worry about this. Not like I been playing my Paladin much anyway. Only thing really done on my Paladin lately was solo Onyxia for the Achievement before patch 3.2.2 comes which was really easy and just doing some World Exploring for all the Achievements on my To Do List.

Back to playing my Shaman and my DK..... I guess its what I been distracted recently playing anyway for a change.

Finally lvl 80 on my Death Knight

Well its taken some time since I first created him but Alithas my Death Knight (DK) finally made it to lvl 80 last night in Icecrown. To some degree I enjoyed leveling up my Unholy Death Knight more from the point of learning and skilling in playing my DK and the class. As well I was really quite happy to be finally done with the leveling process of leveling him up to say the least though. So another one of my goals is complete for now and that makes my 3rd lvl 80.

Repetition in leveling gets really old fast going through much the same content. But I just tried to find other ways to enjoy the leveling aspect while doing so to make it fun. I made my DK somewhere back in early April 09 after I came back from my long hiatus from WoW just to get the experience and feel since during the time I was actually in WotLK Beta I never spent any time playing one since I was just focused on Paladin stuff back then in beta.

It was fun to get the feel of the class playing a DK but I was never fanboy as WoW goes about playing one. Looking cool is one thing, but play mechanic is still something you have to actually enjoy after you get beyond the look of a class. What did appeal to me was that DK were a melee class which I liked and more easily understood to various degree. As well they were just anti-paladin and since I played a Paladin for what seem forever it was just good to play something opposite or anti class wise how I always played as my Paladin.

So started my DK Alithas and just leveled him up slightly to lvl 65 just to play around with Inscription at the time mostly. So for months he quietly made errands in Ogrimmar just milling/inking and selling Glyphs as side income. He did well in peaceful coexistence with the market at the time. Market has since changed a bit.

So since one my goals preparing for WoW Cataclysm was to get my current Alts leveled up so in action I had to level up my DK. A old friend rolled a DK and was now playing on my server so that played a bit into that since we both was playing one. So I spec'd and level my DK as Unholy because I found it appealing and just to be anti-paladin and anti what I've always played. Spread disease and pestilence vs curing it. Sometimes I really just swimming against the tide of things.

Leveling my DK I actually had to relearn how to play one since my DK sat for months not played. Was fun to level but more so learning and skilling part and going through the paces vs just going through the content. So the learning and skilling part was fun. Leveling is still and was much a pain. Nothing new leveling but it seemed easier to level. Dealing with casters leveling was a way to get revenge as a DK vs back when leveling my Paladin when casters were always a pain. I still found leveling my Shaman more fun overall vs a DK. But that's just my playstyle.

The last level was a pain just because it was one level more to go and just wanted to get it over with. Leveling without rest bonus sucks as well especially when you been through the content before also. But I'm finally glad to be done with leveling up my DK for now and maybe can do more fun stuff with him when I have the time. Only profession he's skilled in is Master in Inscription and First Aid, everything else is at lvl 1 so that's allot of work to skill him up.

Have yet to decide on another profession for him. More less can't decide really. I'm not one to like heavy crafting professions, I tend to prefer gathering overall vs heavy crafting professions. But Jewelcrafting have some appeal and I don't have a alt that does that. So that have some appeal. Overall lots of loose end stuff to do on him let alone put him in some semi decent gear when have time.

Only real thing I found slightly interesting leveling my DK is their self healing ability. Funny almost all the classes I play have some form of healing yet I don't practice the art of being a healer in any real fashion. But leveling up my DK I barely used Bandages or had to eat all that often to regain health unless soloing something difficult. I just ran off found a mob and Death Strike it back to full health often vs Bandaging or eating. When I leveled my Paladin way back then, eating and drinking for mana was all too common as well as using a ton of Bandages leveling up. Much different leveling a DK mechanic wise.

After learning and skilling and learning DK mechanics to some degree leveling up I think I can enjoy playing a DK to some degree vs letting him sit in a corner gathering corpse dust..... again. DK's are a very easy class to play right out the box, but can seem a more challenging time to master play properly mechanic wise. I still prefer playing my Paladin vs a DK. But Shamans are fun and enjoy playing a Shaman more than I enjoy playing a DK. All different play styles. One of those is going to win out eventually.

Blog Fix

Seems some visitors to the site been experiencing a login popup with the tag Claymorehill.com for the login box that came up. Appears that blog which was in my "Blogs I Read" section was causing a site login box to pop up as the RSS Feed tried to update from all the blogs in that section for some wired reason.

Also appears that blog above is now limited access or authorization required as well just checking. Anyway I removed the blog from my "Blogs I Read" section and that seems to have fixed the problem since the RSS don't have to try to pull updated info from there.

Thanks for the feedback letting me know about the login popup related to that.

Faction Change?

The recent announced new Faction Change service is amusing with the amount of Faction swapping going on. Blizzard sure will reap some huge profit from this new added service as well. What a way to reap some huge profit.

What does Faction Change service mean to me?

It don't mean a Damn Thing to Ardent Defender!

All my characters are born and raised in the Horde. I love the Horde. You couldn't get me to switch sides to join the Alliance. No Way! Absolutely Not!

For the Horde! May all the Alliance commit grant treachery to their faction and come join the growing Horde!

I know the Horde got many of you for sure.

Working on my Goals

Right now just working on some my "Immediate" goals and leveling up my Unholy Death Knight Alithas. I've got my Goals in order and I'm kicking them in gear to get them done........... before the next expansion of Cataclysm. So my current project is getting my Death Knight leveled up at the moment. So he's at 76 and moving on. Stopped to have a chat with the man Arthas. Don't our names seem so similar?

It really took me a while to get a hang of playing a Death Knight again after months. He was at 65 for quite a while just doing AH business in Orgrimmar. After that much time I had completely forgotten how to play a Death Knight. So it took me a while and with some EJ Forum research reading over some time. But I got the swing of things going after a while. I still prefer playing my Shaman for fun vs my Death Knight that's my personal flavor. But the DK is still fun and just a different play style. Getting the rotations down took some practicing but I got it down as well pretty much. As well as relearning how to properly use some abilities though still working on most.

Ran a few instances when I had some time so done several. Did a DTK run last night with a few 75-77 as a lvl 75 DK last night. I was most leet on the DPS meter. Duh I'm not even a real DPSer from a experience point of things. But I did make my best effort to just do DPS and give my best effort like I always do. I remember being in some Heroics on my Paladin where dps didn't even break 1K DPS or barely. My gear is just regular gear and nothing impressive. I couldn't believe I topped the DPS meter the entire run and usually on my previous Instance run usually #1 or 2. No loot, but it was just fun to know where I score among other people that DPS as well.

Did a regular Hall of Stone run didn't pick up any loot either nor did i have any the quests for it since I was lvl 75 as well when I did. I beat the lvl 78 Hunter for DPS by a few points. I think I can DPS i guess then seeing my numbers are up there.

We had a Paladin tank the run which seem like a new Paladin or a inexperienced one. I haven't played my Paladin for a while but still keep up with stuff. The young healing Priest healed the run fine. The Tank used Seal of Light to tank the almost entire run and drank for mana often. Never once did he ever use Seal of Corruption or did I even see him use Divine Plea or kept it up. He always pulled with throwing Avengers Shield and then stood right there as the mobs came to him and then right there and when mobs was on him dropped a Consecration then attacked. Was just funny to notice these things. Never say a Judgement drop on the pull either. But he was always out of mana it seems. Anyway we finished the run ok. A view from the other side looking at the mirror.

For now working on getting my Unholy Death Knight to 80 as one my immediate goals that needs focus in getting it done before the road to the next expansion in Cataclysm gets shorter and shorter. Just one of many things working on to get done before the next expansion. If you have stuff you need to do before the next expansion start working on it now if you haven't completed it yet.

Maintenance Day Post 09/01/09

Reason I haven't been posting as much is I'm just more focus at the moment with playing the game and trying to get a few goals done. Thus I've been a bit focused on doing that and a few other things that have me a bit tied up time wise.

For the most part I'm kinda working on some more immediate goals while planning for the future in WoW and instead of doing certain things later given all the news of recent BlizzCon in relation to the next expansion I'm doing them now and get them out the way of things first. So after leveling up my Shammy to 80 which I quite enjoyed allot I put him in some decent blues and one or two pieces of Epic. Overall his gear is ok for now.

I did pick up Dual spec on my Shammy so he's now Enhancement/Elemental so in my off time I can practice being a range caster in mail when I may not feel like doing melee. My Shaman stands a good chance of being my #2 behind my Paladin. For all that's uncertain I like playing him enough that he can be #1 some day possibly. Why don't more people play Shamans? Playing a Shaman and Dropping Totems is Fun!

In the past 3+ years I've never been much to devote allot of time to playing alts. But at the moment it will occupy some degree of my time considering the next expansion as well and how I will choose to continue to play the game if I do. One of my focus at the moment is getting all my alts that I plan to play ducks in a row and getting it all straighten out now vs later before the new expansion gets here for Beta and more. I should have to worry less about getting a alt leveled up later in prep for the new expansion and be able to focus doing other things. So i have chosen to do things now!

Dusting off the Death Knight

So I finally decided to blow the corpse dust off my 65 DK who been brewing up business for some months with Master Inscriptions selling Glyphs in Orgrimmar since early April. It was a hard choice considering other battles he's been fighting at the AH which in itself is another story I have to ink here. I'd forgotten how to play a DK as well. So did some research reading over several threads at the EJ forum to catch up with things and theory. But for other reasons also I started leveling up my DK which is spec'd Unholy. How opposite can you go from playing a Paladin. Holy to most Unholy!

So far I really an undecided as what to choose for my DK profession along side Inscription. So much undecided.

An Old Dear Friend

One the games I used to play before playing WoW was that I used to play SecondLife. I still do, but mostly just to log in and check up on friends that still play there and see what's happening. I probably started playing that around the exact time WoW started. But I had never heard of WoW back then. Back then SecondLife was interesting to me, more so for just being able to create your own stuff, model stuff, designing stuff and just creating whatever you wanted on a blank canvas. I enjoy being able to create stuff and actually enjoy rendering models as well as enjoying texturing and texturing model creation. So I played that for a while. During that time I remember meeting several friends some of whom also happen to also play WoW as well today.

One of my Secondlife friend Val who helped me learn that game and someone I used to build stuff with in Secondlife when I did plays WoW as well. On another server she played as a Alliance raid healing Priest. She asked me to join her on her server as .... Allaince. But I couldn't agree to play Alliance as a die hard Horde. So she eventually decided to roll Horde on my server as a DK and level up on my server but be fun as well leveling up with her. So one the reason I reluctantly dusted off my DK and started leveling him up for more the social game of things. Its been a bit fun leveling with someone else for a change vs my usual solo leveling atmosphere which I usual enjoy.

So its been able to run a few Northrend dungeons with Val for fun as well a few guildies leveling up as well in the same level range which was rather fun. So last night we had all guildie run doing UK, Nexus and AN. Was all fun as a young small guild group leveling up. Somewhat more important since its my Shaman's guild as well which he started somewhere around lvl 5 or so with all low lvl players mostly. My Shaman mostly out leveled everyone else. So coming of age playing my DK a few of us ran some new Northrend dungeons last night, so was fun.

Other Stuff to Do

I'll probably go ahead and level up my 70 Hunter when I get my DK to 80 since he has 2 pieces of Heirlooms the shoulder and the chest piece of mail to use left over from leveling my Shaman to put to good use. Hunters level pretty fast so it should also be another minor detour on my off time. I'll probably get my 22 Druid out of Tarren Mills and attempt to level him up to 60+ as the last character I'll ever level in the World of Azeroth as it is today before the next expansion changes things. That will be my collection of playing characters, none of whom wear cloth. As well all the minor alt distractions will be out of the way ahead of time for the next expansion so can just focus on things at lvl 80 with whichever character in the game at hand.

Preparing for Cataclysm

I've been thinking about the next expansion much and what I'll probably roll as a character to level in the new experience of Azeroth transformed anew. Horde will get the new Goblin race. I Worgen just looks more roguish and evil fun to play. But I'm for the Horde! And Goblins do look roguish as well. Sticking will all things melee I'll probably end up rolling a Rogue. I did level a BE Rogue once to 20 so I somewhat played the class before. So what that means I'll have to prepare and get me a set of lvl 1-80 Heirlooms in preparation for the new journey from 0-80 in Cataclysm.

My 22 Druid already have 1 piece of Leather Heirloom Shoulders which I can eventually use for my future Goblin Rogue. Will just need to collect the rest gaining lots of new Champion Seals. Then preparing for Cataclysm will be complete and out of the way as well as worrying about leveling any other alts based on current proposed classes.

If your going to be playing the new expansion, it really will be a damn smart idea if your already lvl 80 to start collecting a full set of Heirloom for your future character. I guess it helps as well knowing just what your going to play so you know what to get or how much Seals you will need to complete a set whichever you decide if you cant already decide.

I can tell you for sure 10% XP rate with one Heirloom Shoulder piece is nice. 20% XP rate with Heirloom Chest is awesome. If Blizz adds a 3rd piece for 30% XP rate leveling a Alt it will be Damn sure Awesome leveling from 0-80. Go get you some if you aren't already got some.