Busy catching up on WoW and Cataclysm

Playing catchup is allot of what I seem to be doing, so really not allot of time to dedicate to writing anything much or anything long. Plus being a bit busy re-learning how to play and leveling up 3 of my lvl 80 characters to 85, so not much time to stop and talk about it either. Quite understandable that is. As well been reading some other blogs and forums trying to understand some the changes and mechanics of some the classes I play.

So not really busy trying to blog about much.

Did transfer my Paladin, Shadow Priest, Shaman back to the old server of my Paladin back to Zangarmarsh. At least to play with some old WoW friends in my old former guild. So was able to do that vs spending time building back up guild on the server where I was which i really don't have time for anymore.

Since leveling my Paladin to lvl 85 and with fairly ok mostly ilvl 333 tank/dps gear from leveling up for both specs, haven't done much or played since. Mostly been working on leveling up some profession when i can. Still have alchemy to level up a bit though leveled it up enough to craft the epic trinket that i cant remember the name of.

Started to work at leveling up my lvl 80 Shadow Priest, but first had to figure out a spec as well as relearn allot of how to even play one as well as learn the changes to the class vs before. So spend some time reading other blogs as well over at EJ to figure things out a bit. However was able to get my Shadow Priest to 85. I still find the class fun and not to difficult to relearn though it took a while after months of haven't played one.

So now just left with leveling up my Enhancement Shaman with a Elemental off spec who is currently at lvl 84. So had to look around for a few blogs to read that i read before that already had some good info as well as visit EJ forum to read their class compodium to understand class changes. So had to do the same as well as did with my Shadow Priest had to figure out spec and re-learn skills, talents and spells and dropping totems. Re-learn how to play the Shaman was to me harder than figuring out how to play the Shadow Priest. Took awhile. But so far been doing ok and almost there leveling up my Shaman.

Have found the new instances fun and challenging though been there just as dps really. Overall just busy playing, observing and catching up really in allot of ways so just not allot of time to blog right now. If anything i'm spending time reading other people's blog as well as forums just taking in and understanding stuff and class mechanics.

Most Crazy Fun Quest in Cataclysm

I think its called Gnomebliteration a quest a few deep into a chain quest you find from a item that drops off a Crazed Gnome Surveyor or something like that in the South Eastern Dessert of Uldum zone a bit south of where Halls of Origination dungeon is but where you also find a whole lot of gnomes.

You get to flame roll hundreds of gnomes which is a whole lot of fun. Too bad its not a daily quest, it would be so much fun to flame roll gnomes. Must be tough to be a gnome, they get picked on allot. You get a nice blue item piece for the trouble of flame rolling gnomes.

Shunning the Rat Race, lvl 85 gone Fishing

The constant burnout factor and been away from the game as long as I have as well as playing other MMO games have given me a different perspective of personal game enjoyment and how I choose to spend my time. No longer I feel the need to quickly burn myself and game enjoyment out of existence in a hurry for nothing, or join the Rat Race at lvl 85 for endgame efforts. After about 11 months away from WoW by choice and back playing the game for who knows how long, here I am having just started the new Cataclysm expansion and already facing the end of it at lvl 85 and the Rat Race beyond.

So after briefly exploring some of the Twilight Highlands I decided to do something I've always had a great love for, to do and always enjoyed the quiet times away from the rigors of combat to go Fishing. While many and most after hitting lvl 85 for their own reasons and have started their Race Race to gear up for Heroic and Raiding I've decided to go kick back at the riverside with a camp fire and go Fishing. I just choose to go do something different vs exerting my hardcore tendencies. Its a different time for me these days in WoW.

I guess I will level up a bit from 450 Fishing while I'm here kicking back enjoying the quite sounds of nature at the river relaxing and contemplating my thoughts and existence in this realm and the universe at large.


And so several hours past while enjoying one of my truly favorite past time activities in WoW as a real WoW Fisherman. I may swing elaborate shields and awesome weapons in combat to break the knees of hostile foes yet I can enjoy angling a fishing rod as well for awesome catches.

I guess I contemplate If my Paladin ever became a really old man and remembering the days of heroes, and wars of past he be hanging out with his buddy the famous fisherman Nat Pagle. Somewhere maybe crafting the latest new fishing rod and fishing away while swapping stories of past days of glory while angling awesome fish catches of the day.

Few the moments it were watching a half a dozen heroes drop by the river banks and gaze in wonder the man sitting across the river pond sitting with camp fire and fishing in the river. And then they themselves too join in interrupting the silence and fishing as well for several minutes and then probably easily grew bored and left to do other things.

Several hours after sitting by the riverside with my fishing rod, warm camp fire, enjoying the quiet sounds of nature and contemplating my existence and those of fish's here in the river or not I'm now a Illustrious Grand Master Fisherman. Having gone from from 450 Fishing to 525 Fishing all in one sitting at the river side. Yeah I caught ALLOT of fish.

No doubt I'm a real WoW Fisherman. Elsewhere in Azeroth the Rat Race goes on at full speed, I guess that's my perspective. Wherever you are in WoW, don't forget to enjoy the game, however you choose to play it for your own reasons.

So lvl 85 Finally.

So hit lvl 85 on Saturday sometime, can't remember when, but it was a very long day session playing WoW. Had just started the initial quest chain from Orgrimmar to get to the Twilight Highlands. And had just completed a few of the quests in Dragonmaw Port the horde foothold in the Twilight Highlands before hitting lvl 85.

Somewhere mid lvl 84's while doing the quests in Uldum with Harrison Jones and Bronzebeard completed almost every quests in the zone I could find and searched around to find but was out of quests. Somewhere I was missing a quest or completing it. The way quests are linear each unlocking others that can easily happen. Only had two dungeon quests left for the zone that had picked up so figured it was on of them yet to be complete preventing access to more quests probably. Couldn't figure out how to get to Twilight Highlands at the time and had not picked up the quest in Ogrimmar as yet to start the chain to get to the zone either.

Only Cataclysm dungeon hadn't yet found and unlocked was Grim Bitol in Twilight Highlands. And had two dungeon quests for two different dungeons in Uldum zone. Mid way to lvl 84 and out of quests decided to finally queue up from running quests to run my first set of Cataclysm dungeons just doing randoms. Didn't feel much like tanking for my first step back into dungeons so queued up as dps and ran several dungeons as dps till close to lvl 85 and by that time was just too tired. Seeing the new dungeons for the first time was all interesting. Had completed Halls of Origination quest for Bronzebeard in Uldum and still couldn't find any more zone quests unlocked anywhere in zone. Called it a night there.

Back in game again later after a marathon sleep found the starter quest which starts the chain which gets you to Twilight Highlands right there in Orgrimmar in front of the Warchief's building. So eventually completed the initial chain quests which got me to the Twilight Highlands and much different zone to being in the desert zone of Uldum. Wasn't but a few quests after being there at the port that hit lvl 85. Hard to believe the leveling experience is now over after it just started.

After which just went exploring the zone a bit to see what was there in the Twilight Highlands.

lvl 84 and onto Uldum

Completed all the quests in Deepholm yesterday hitting lvl 84 at the very end. That also including finishing all the daily quests at the end for the Therazune daily quests. I think I hit Honored with the Therazune. Not sure where their quatermaster is at, must recheck to see what they have. They weren't much else left to do but a dungeon quest in zone. Had allot of fun in zone but it was fun to be going someplace else to maybe see some sunlight or change of scenery. So doubled back to finish a few quests I believed I still had to do in Vashj'ir.

Turned out had only the last quest in Vashj'ir to do which involved the Naga's and Tidehunter with all the cutscenes. That was quite allot of fun to see and be involved in. I could only imagine somewhere down the line this Naga story will become a endgame raid of some sort for Cataclysm. Completed it and got the achievement for 20,ooo leagues below the sea or something like that. Jumped through the rift at the end following behind the NPC that got abducted and ended up finding and unlocking the Throne of Tides dungeon. Wasn't quite sure where to go so jumped into the dungeon and guess picked up a few quests for the dungeon.

As much as would of liked to see the new dungeon, didn't feel much like dungeoning and didn't feel like jumping in to tank my first return to WoW dungeon as yet. I think I must be still getting over some syndrome of getting used to playing my character confidently enough to tank again and tank in PuGs which I used to be famous for running in groups with.

I'm excited to hear CC is back again in Cataclysm. It was one the things that I totally hated about WotLK and mentioned my feelings here on the blog how everything was just a AoE fest and often no real group thinking and sad state of instance Pugs as well classes that knew how to use they own abilities in a jam if they had to. That in the end was one the reason I started hating Puging group dynamics in the end and the sad state of Instance Pugs/Raids. I love to AoE like anyone else, but I also or used to enjoy the art of executing a surgical pull with group dynamics to execute fun tactical play while tanking. And though I can barely remember at this point the exact details of every class CC abilities for tanking for obvious reasons at this point, I'm glad its back to the Dungeon/Raid game. Anyway for now I'm having fun with quests, leveling and shaking some rusts off using skills.

Already had picked up a quest in Deepholm towards completing most the zone that ended up sending me to Uldum by way of Orgrimmar and already completing several quests already. So decided after finishing things mostly in Vashj'ir to head off to the sunny dessert once again to Uldum.

Things learned in Deepholm

Zone is full of node spawn for the valuable Eternium and the other Obsidion Ore but lots of Eternium. Most the mining I did was just mining heading while heading to a quest spot to kill something or complete a quest. Beating other players to nodes can sometime be a fun little mini game. Pays well on AH as well.

If you explore the underground caves in the Crumbling Depths they spawn lots of nodes inside it seems, at least while I kept going through there they did. Just got to fight the worms to get to some of them or get around them.

Most Dissapointing Thing So Far in Cataclysm

Well to me at least. No solution to storing a bank full of Tabards, Faction Tabards and unique Tabards earned that fills up everyone banks that been playing the game for years. Would of hoped Blizzard would of come up with a solution for that.

Screenshots

In five years of playing WoW i've taken literally hundreds and hundreds of screenshots and for the blog to pic and use. Eleven months away from WoW and i've almost completely forgotten how to take screenshots. Too good a hiatus I guess. Anyway I now play on a Mac Pro Laptop so taking screenshots is a bit different than using a Windows PC. Its probably different to when i played on my Mac G5 desktop before which no longer works for Cataclysm.

Though I do remember how to take a screenshot thanks much to it being the same way to hit the same keys as in playing EVE Online I can't remember in WoW how to clear the screen UI interface so as to take a clean screenshot. Which is a bit different keys to hit on a Mac Pro as compared to doing the same thing in EVE Online. If anyone knows how to clear actually the UI to take a screenshot in WoW on a Mac Pro laptop please let me know.

Too long a hiatus from any MMO and you can forget how to do allot of things sometime and get quite rusty at even basic stuff you once did without even having to think about it.

End of first Week of Cataclysm

After a long delayed start to Cataclysm spending a untold amount of time after having logged in months was finally able to get things moving a bit. That was after doing character administration cleaning up filled up banks and more banks of used to be valuables, then trying to figure out a spec and learning how some new redesigned class spell works.

Since Vashj'ir was my starting zone at lvl 80 since it was the first quest zone to either of the starting zones so I just went along with things. The zone is very pretty zone and quite aquarium like and full of Naga's and see life. I have to say the story line I enjoyed the most really has to be the Battlemaiden quest line story. Really had allot of fun that story line was. Overall was able to complete over 150 quests to get the first zone achievement for quests completed. Though I did quite a bit more quests after that still seems there are a bit of quests left there to do.

At some point picked up a quest that sent me back to Orgrimmar which diverted me from other quests in Vashj'ir but that eventually sent me to Thrall at the Maelstrom and into Deepholm athalf way to lvl 82. Finding the zone a refreshing change of scenery from being underwater at Vashj'ir stayed and did some zone quests there. Lots of very interesting scenery the zones are.

While questing in Deepholm kept finding mining nodes for other mining ore can't remember the name but the WotLK equivalent of Saronite to Cataclysm. Since was still leveling mining mined enough to hit 525 in not too long a time. At some point in the process it became a race to find mining nodes and seen other players swoop down out of nowhere grab them. So before long it became a race finding the nodes around the zone before the other players did. In the end left the zone with 9 stacks of the new ore to sell on AH. I guess had a great time mining.

At the end of the night which was quite late finally hit lvl 83 and just turned in remaining completed quests. One of the last quests turned in was for a quest to turn in at someone inside Stonecore. Though at the time had no idea it was for a dungeon related quest to turn in inside the dungeon. Took a while to figure out how to get to where the entrance to Stonecore was and eventually popped inside the dungeon and turn in the quest. Was surprised after looking for a while where the entrance was. So far that's the first and only dungeon entrance have been able to find so far.

So far for Catclysm the zones seem to be quite enjoyable especially being away from the game for a while. New zone quests really does seem quite linear especially having done most of the overall questing so far in Vashj'ir which does send you from one direct location to another. Everything so far seem so new it takes some degree of effort to remember where things are, used to be as well even how to properly play character. Its as enjoyable and new as I probably would have imagined after being on a very long hiatus from the game.

First Death In Cataclysm - Pawned!

Sitting in the Inn in Orgrimmar working on figuring out the new talents and spec. Shift to secondary spec fix new talents points. Shift back to protect spec. Cast Arcane Torrent for some quick mana. Bamm dead! Duhh! Pawned immediately by Gamon the Elite sitting right behind me in the Inn. That was too funny, i guess that was considered a hostile act since he was in range or Arcane Torrent.

Progressing onward at lvl 82

So far have made it to lvl 82 questing and maybe 1/8 of the way to lvl 83 questing in Vashj'ir zone. Getting used to using my paladin abilities/skills again though keep getting better don't feel all that normal as yet though it keeps getting better the more I work at it and reawaken old skill tactics.

For Cataclysm I'm playing on a fairly new Mac Pro Laptop and have elected to just use the default UI. I have no pleasure of having again to deal with using the world of addons and more addons installed for WoW and more especially to download them to my new PC for all the trouble they can be. So its also a bit just getting used to using the default UI playing as well.

I'm just barely at around 58K HP so far and slowly have replaced about 4 or 5 pieces of gear. Its quite shocking to see other players in zone with over 100K HP and having seem others with over 150K HP already in city. With my old WotLK epic progression gear it don't seem to last all that long into the next expansion. Makes me wonder somewhere deep down in my mind about the rat race at the level cap for gear progression and the effort and headache that can be. However I'm also glad as well to get rid of the gear as I pick up better Cataclysm pieces leveling up to 85. At least the answer that I was looking for to clean out my personal bank of the old epic gear and gears is clear that I can junk vendor it all.

Since I was questing in Vashj'ir I had flew to Undercity to bank/AH some stuff and out of curiosity I picked up a quest that ask me to head to Mount Hyjal by way of Orgrimmar to Moonglade. Just did the initial quests to get to the zone, picked up the new Flight Path's and complete the first real quest. Zoning into Mount Hyjal for the first time was very cool seeing Deathwing which was cool. Place looks really pretty, reminds me a bit of Night Elfs land so far.

Thought about questing there a bit in Mount Hyjal. However already had more time already invested and having done most of all the initial zone quests and didn't feel like starting over. So headed back to Vashj'ir zone to progress on questing there. I get the feel that Mount Hyjal may be more about Elementals invasion and Vashj'ir about the Nagas.

One the more difficult thing so far is figuring out a combat rotation on spells once combat starts that seem to work smoothly without clashing global cooldowns compared to how i remembered It used to be in WotLK with a smooth rotation. And so far I haven't figured out one as yet that works well. Often seem more like just button mashing most the time when cooldowns are up for the spells I primarily want to hit. At most I can figure having maximizing having more Holy Power charges seems good to be able to slam big with Shield of the Righteous, hitting harder with Inquisition with more charges or a good self heal with Word of Glory. Still getting used to using that too.

I guess it could be easier to get the answer with more knowledgeable understanding behind actual mechanic of talents and skills if I dropped by the Maintankadin forums and read through the a Cataclysm tankadin threads and figure things out.

Getting out the Cataclysm starting block

Wasn't quite that easy trying to clean up all my character bags and bank before the starting bell to at least start doing some things in Cataclysm. It took quite many hours to clean things up a bit on all 5 of my lvl 80 characters. And as well having to clean up and clean out the guild bank for my guild which as a job as well. It was like cleaning out a garage on and then trying to liquidate things by selling them all on the auction fairly cheap. Took quite a very long time where dumping it all to a vendor could of being easier, less time and less gold as well.

Most of the stuff I wanted sold got sold in 24hrs. Some I had to put back up on the AH to resell in 24hrs again and got sold. Wasn't much that didn't get sold, but some didn't and i just vendor the rest of everything that didn't. The hardest thing was trying to figure out what to do with a bag full of epic gear and gear sets for Galo. In the end after cleaning out personal bank I couldn't figure what to do with all my lvl 8o epic gear so I threw it all back into the bank till I could decide sometime later.

Made a few thousands selling all the stuff on each character on the AH where everything suddenly seem so expensive. Was happy at least got something vs straight junking everything to a vendor.

Next thing had to do as figure out how to spec my characters since everyone of then has no spec and all untalented points. That was too hard a task to do for each character since barely have any idea of class changes with everything being so new. I hadn't really decided which character I was going to play. However which character to play was a easy choice of which character I can remember how to play the easiest at lvl 80 first straight off the top of my mind. That was my paladin! It was easier to at least try to spec my paladin. So sat in the Inn in Org for a few hours trying to figure out a spec as well as trying to work at configuring the default UI.

Took a while and finally realize how much my paladin had changed as well as spells and skills. Didn't realize how much less points as well now have to talent a lvl 80 character. All this stuff was now new to me remembering how things used to be. I was amazed at how much talents had been moved around and shifted trees. As well as gone was the bloated talents. I was surprised only had 36 points, I was wondering where the rest of the points went.

Anyway was at least not so hard to figure out a Protect Spec for Galo. Figuring out where to put talent points in protection didn't seem that hard after doing a dry run of talents the first time. Seems like almost everything but a few places. Hardest part of making a decision talent points wise having no clue of how things had changed and not having no clue how new spells work with each other came down to deciding where to spend 3 extra points. After really reading the talents and again looking over the spec it was easy to put 3/3 in Crusade in the retribution tree. Was easy as well considering had Crusade in the old spec and re-reading the new talent description. So went ended up 0/33/3 at lvl 80.

What I couldn't figure out reading the Crusade spell was why it said Crusader Strike and had no idea what Templer's Verdict was. I had no idea that Crusader Strike was now a skill usable in the protection tree even though I clearly saw it in the spell book. I had just overlooked it since I knew it was always a retribution talent. So much so I leveled to lvl 81 without it. It wasn't till hit lvl 81 that went back to trainer and picked up the new Inquisition spell that looked again back through spell book and kept looking at the Crusader Strike skill. Moved it to see if it went on UI bar. And it did, I was surprised at that point.

Then had to spend a little bit of time trying to configure using the default WoW UI as well as look for them old macro's I had and minor update a few.

It was interesting seeing the new Glyph tree and the changes to how many and the types of glyph category. Had some empty slots to fill in for glyphs so after deciding a bit had my DK Alithas make me a few extra glyphs and was at least now set to go see the world.

At least best I can figure that's what I went with so far. In the end worked out a protection paladin spec and also spec my secondary retribution spec as well for 3/2/31 best I could figure things out.

Hearted to Dalaran since that's where my heartstone was set at and met a ghost city. Funny the place was packed the last time I was there, but that was months ago at last log in. There was no one to be found in Dalaran but maybe one or two players but a ghost city to say the least. Dropped by the trainers and updated training for all of Galo's professions to be able to train for the new skills. Stopped by the flight master and picked up the new flight training for Azeroth whatever it called can't remember.

Then was heading back to Orgrimmar. Umm where did all the portals go? Didn't realize all the portals in Dalaran are now gone. So took the flight master and flew to Borean Tundra and took the boat back to Orgrimmar.

Decided to do the first quest I had picked earlier up and actually did the first quest for "The Eye of the Storm" which i didn't realize is right there at the quest giver. Which eventually sent me off to Vashj'ir though at the time I had no idea that's where I was going. Being away from the game for so long everything was just so new that had no idea that's where I was going. I did know the other new lvl 80 starter zone was to Mount Hyjal but I had no clue where to find that so Vashj'ir at the time was just fine.

By the time did the first quest in Vashj'ir zone was about 0150 am. The zones looked quite impressive and had fun doing the new quests. Loosing track of time I played several hours and eventually hit lvl 81 that was now about 0800 or so. was too sleepy at that point to stay awake.

First Day of Cataclysm

Finally got the installation done of Cataclysm and logged into few my character accounts. I could barely recognize the world. I'm playing with plain default UI.

Since the last time I logged into WoW was quite a while ago for the most part when I logged in I was actually outside or Orgrimmar and had to hop on into the city. Hell I could barely recognize the place and had no idea where anything was. Could barely find the Auction House and the Inn of all places. Everything just seem so new, and could easily get lost just running around Orgrimmar at this point.

First order of things. Look into my characters bags at all that gear and junk and try to make sense of it all and getting rid of most of it. Tough task that seem and all my character bags was just full of stuff I barely remember what they do. Stuff that used to be worth quite a bit of money now almost seem to be close to junk.

Anyway tried to sell most of it on the AH to see what I could get for most of it. Basically spend several on various characters trying to clean out their bags which all seem to be full for why I can't remember and try to clean out their banks a bit of all the crap that was there. Seem like a tough job when haven't played in months to decide what to get rid of.

Would almost be easier to just sell every single thing in bag and bank to the vendor including all the epic gear sitting in bag and bank to get rid of it all and no longer have to fuss with it anymore.

Installing WoW & Cataclysm..

Just finally decided to go ahead and buy Cataclysm and log into my Blizzard Battle.net account that took quite many attempts to remember the password.

Bought the digital download version as well as went ahead and reactivated my subscription account.

So now have a new and full clean installation to do of WoW to do on my fairly new Mac Pro Laptop. That will be a whole lot of gigabyte's to install for a complete installation of WoW all the way up to the very latest patch of Cataclysm.

Now sure how long this will take. But will see.

12/08/10 - 0630 Started a full and complete Installation of WoW.

12/08/10 - Log into server and still downloading patches.

Wish you all a fun time leveling with Cataclysm

I guess its now D-Day in Cataclysm. And you all have hit the ground running mad leveling in Cataclysm. Some starting with new characters and some moving on from being at lvl 80 for what seem like been there forever. Somewhere deep down I wish I was out there with you all hitting the ground like times past.

However I can at least stop by and wish you all well and allot of fun times on the new journey in Cataclysm. And I know some of you stuck at work and can't play and some of you probably called in sick just so you can stay at home and play. I probably should be playing Cataclysm myself since well i got so much free time right now being recently unemployed.

However I still haven't quite decided to install WoW on my newer Mac Laptop and re-sub as yet. Maybe later today i'll make a decision. I'm probably leaning towards one :)

I'm sure the servers are and have been crazy for the new launch. Wish you all a damn good time on the journey and at least don't forget to smell the roses in the new world and have fun.

World of Warcraft TV Commercials

Been seeing "allot" of World of Warcraft Cataclysm TV commercial lately. If I hadn't been playing WoW say in years, it would be hard to probably not notice watching the TV commercials that Cataclysm launches on Dec 7th.

Blizzard must be spending allot on TV spots for WoW Cataclysm launch. Almost daily last few days when I was watching the tube I saw no less then than 1 Cataclysm TV trailer every hour. And probably at least up to at least 3-4 TV trailers a hour. That's allot of TV advertisement for Cataclysm launch and thats just watching my usual channels like History, Discovery, Science and Sci-fi channels.

I haven't kept up with reading anything about Cataclysm in any way. Though I know about the expansion, i know next to zip about the classes. But with so much WoW Cataclysm TV trailer commercials I've seen especially over the last few days as well allot of ex-wow players its probably not hard to tell that WoW has a new expansion that launches on Dec 7th.

Blizzard has surely got the TV airwaves saturated with Cataclysm!

My G5 PowerPC Mac & WoW May Just Officially End with Cataclysm

Well..... for the most part been on somewhat a long break from WoW. Though I did re-activate my account about a month ago. I've only logged in once for maybe 5 minutes in all that month of time. Though quite aware of Cataclysm, I have refrained from reading almost anything about classes, changes or anything much about the new expansion. However while surfing on my IPhone last night at work I happen to surf over to Massively to catch up on some MMO news and read the new PC requirements for Cataclysm.

Hmm, that caught my attention and curiosity. So hopped over to WoWInsider who I haven't visited or read anything there in months. And reading through I noticed the requirements for Cataclysm and Mac PC's. Quite Cataclysmic to my G5 PowerPC Mac.

Seems will only be able to load and play WoW Cataclysm on a Intel based Mac PC. Blizzard won't any longer be supporting players that play on Mac PowerPC's. Which mean my very good running G5 PowerPC Mac Desktop wont be able to play Cataclysm. Allot of people like to say that very few people play WoW on Mac's. I'm betting its allot more people than most people think as well as play other games on Mac's though no where as much as the amount of Windows based PC out there.

I'm well aware the love and hate between Mac PC users and Microsoft based Windows PC users its as bad as the love and hate between Republican and Democrats. Me I'm independent thinker so I can't say I like either. Think different I guess, probably too why I use a Mac.

I've had my G5 PowerPC Mac so long I can almost barely remember the year I bought It. But I do remember I bought it way back in 2003 I think it was around the time I started playing Secondlife I bought my G5 Mac and junked my Windows desktop PC. That was before I had heard of and started playing WoW. All these years later the damn thing still runs like a champ even though Apple stopped making PowerPC based Mac PC's a few years ago switching to Intel based Mac PC's.

My G5 still runs just fine running Mac OS X version 10.5.8 and for 5 years I played WoW its run WoW just fine, some lag here and there when server was loaded but pretty much smoothly for a 7 year PC. And I still use my G5 desktop for almost everything else I do the majority of the time.

So was quite disappointed having read that won't be able to play WoW Cataclysm on my G5 Mac desktop like I have for the entire last 2 WoW expansions. Bummer, yeah bummer that is!

I'm not planning to upgrade it to play WoW Cataclysm or buy another PC. I don't plan to ever buy another Windows based PC's either! Now several months ago earlier this year I did buy another PC a MacBook Pro. I do use it for other things and play just a few other games on it including EVE Online.

But playing WoW is another matter with all the damn addons and all the problems you also get with downloading so much damn addons to play WoW with. And I don't really want all that on my fairly clean hard drive on my MacBook Pro. If I was to decide to install WoW on my MacBook Pro, it would be straight up Vanilla WoW with no addons. Ahh that sucks too!

I'm not mad I won't be able to load up WoW latest expansion on my G5 PowerPC who still runs fine, I'm just more disappointed. The feeling would of being worse if I had been playing WoW fully all year long and all jacked up about Cataclysm. So not really the case there.

Who knows, Cataclysm will wreck Azeroth and it just maybe might have killed my hopes of playing WoW into the next expansion.

Nothing ever last forever, not including playing WoW. Or maybe might just have to install WoW on my MacBook Pro laptop and go vanilla.

Resurrection: I'm Very Much Alive...

Yet I was always here as I weren't that far away. Actually according to the last post this blog was moved to wordpress according to the last blog post as well. Anyway I've been on a long break from WoW for over 6 months, and really I have really been enjoying the break. So haven't written much about wow either in that time. Have slept well in the last 6 months and no dreaming of playing WoW in my sleep as well.

Thus other than what I knew about the coming expansion of Cataclysm 6 months ago I've stayed completely clear of reading anything about the expansion. Nor have I checked to see if there really is a beta invite in my wow mail account. I've read just about zero and know about next to nothing about the expansion. Thus my perspective is completely fresh without all the overload, obsession and frustration you all been reading and writing about the next expansion. Its good to take a long break sometimes to recharge one capacitor.

So I'm very much alive and really I've only been playing EVE as a good distraction and enjoying it. Other games to play and enjoy besides completely locked into the universe of just playing WoW. Its really good to try other things.

I'm still amazed that I still have over 500 subscribers here though I haven't posted here in months and though my official blog has moved to wordpress. As well I get more daily/monthly hits on this blog than on my same blog at wordpress. Yeah its probably due to all the wow links here probably. Anyway the wordpress blog here is my official mmo blog.

Though I have read a few wow blogs here and there haven't kept up all that much in months reading just enjoying the wow break vs the constant overload of WoW and expansion information everyone else is reading. Thus I have no idea what classes will be like in the new expansion or Paladins as well. I'm Completely clueless. What would you expect from someone being on a complete WoW hiatus.

I guess if you've been missing from WoW for a while your somewhat dead or some form of it. Yet one is truly never dead playing WoW, just somewhat missing. However I'm slowly just starting to read again and be reawakened in Azeroth. Its been a while, and the break has been very good.

Checked the WoW Armory to see if I was still there as well, I guess I am. With as many millions of players that play WoW and amount of names in use, good names may be in short supply according to Rohan in a recent post over at Blessing of Kings for the next expansion. So I was still amazed checking the armory realizing that my actual name is unique in the WoW Armory. That's for almost 5 years now which is quite a long time. And since I checked the Armory today today, I'll know anyone else in the future is a bonafide imposter :)

I'll probably be back to some low casual WoW soon. If I can only remember what my Blizzard battlenet user account information actually is.

Thanks for still stopping by!

Officially Moved Blog to WordPress: Ardent Defender

Moved the blog to WordPress platform with a new blog for Ardent Defender and will no longer be updating the blog here on Blogger platform. Though I will have the blog account here will consider this blog here pretty much Retired! The new blog url is linked below.

So if you had me linked in your RSS Feed or Blog Link then you probably need to update the link to the new url for the new blog. So please update your links.

Blog moved to new url here on WordPress: Ardent Defender.

Blog: A Few Changes...

Around here on the blog, not really all that much drastic changes. But moving on to playing other MMO's and I'm keeping my blog and its name, the adventures just will change a bit from one MMO to the next. Over the course of 4 years I've grown to like my blog. Its been a bit my companion while I played mostly WoW as well the feedback from readers which I have enjoyed.

These days while I have taken a very long break from WoW I've decided and have moved on to play or try other games. One MMO just don't do it for me anymore to keep game play interesting and fresh as I have interest in playing other games for my own fun and enjoyment as well need for more interesting game play.

WoW will always be there and the great community of bloggers and readers that have supported this blog and many others whenever I decide to return to WoW from time to time whenever that may be. The focus will never be quite the same when I do in play style for many reasons. Its hard to keep up when your not all that focus on a specific game all the time.

Its also too difficult and just not that fun to maintain more than one blogs about MMO games just because the games are different and cater to different readers playing different games as to not offend the readers. So I've decided to just maintain one blog if possible and just make it a general blog on the MMO's I play. If that offend some long time readers, oh well. Much better than having a abandoned blog for all the effort it took to grow over the years and maintain. Plus I like my blog name!!!

I don't really like a flashy blog with too much content thrown at a reader to find anything. I like simplicity in finding things so I'm keeping my blog simple as its always been. Plus I don't want to spend that much time playing around with making changes to a blog either. I rather spend it doing other things or playing games.

Didn't realize how many dead WoW blogs there were until I had to purge quite a few of the dead ones out of my WoW blog list that wasn't updated in the last 4+ months. Was allot! For the most part just changed my blog title, removed quite a bit of links, added some new blogs I been reading for some time on other games I play. I read quite a bit of blogs and most just reflect all the various blogs I actively read in some way.

But not really all that many changes. I kinda like using Wordpress as well but too bad I don't own the name there for AD. But still Ardent Defender, just defending Time, Space, Universe and Mystical Realms in other MMO's other than just WoW. The journey and adventures continues in different and diverse adventures.

Anyway more changes are possible as well as I play around with things.

Blog Note

Change is coming. Many changes are coming to this entire blog.

In Life things eventually change for better or to worse. Azeroth is undergoing change. All thing eventually does. Even our interest in things change. Blogs sometimes eventually do as well.

Story Saga Of a EVE Salvage Job In Screenshots.

Sometimes its more fun just actually playing a game than actually spending time writing about your time actually playing it, which actually takes you away from the time you could actually be spending playing the game. By A MMO Blogger.

Originally Posted on my Other Blog.
The day or game session had started in EVE Online with me just being in the high secure starter area playing around just doing some practice at working on Scanning and Probing space for hidden Spacial Signatures. Was just fun to see what I could find or discover being new to the game on my own and just maybe I could find some Pirate (Rats) hideout and go on some solo mission killing Rats in their hideout in Deadspace. And I actually did find such a hideout spot for Signature as well an Unstable Wormhole leading to another high sec area of space about 11 jumps away in The Forge region.


So just being curious I went investigating the Wormhole first. Info on the Wormhole said it was unstable and lead to a high sec system. So I poked my head into the Wormhole and found a new area with nothing much of interest in the new 0.7 sec system but some Space Stations. So I picked up a bookmark to one of them. Flew back to the Wormhole and went back through to where I had originally encountered it. Decided to go followup on that Pirate location Signature I had found and had bookmarked In discovering things to do that seemed interesting in EVE among lots of other things.


Along the way I got a call from my Corp a member (Josh) that was about to do some lvl 4 missions not too far away in another system asking if I can or know how to Salvage and if I'd like to tag along and do Salvage Ops job with him doing the mission. Sure sounds fun! Let me get my little Destroyer Salvage Ship I name "The Cleaner". I am on my way there as soon as I can.

A few days ago I had decided it was time to leave my NPC Corp as a new EVE Rookie and search a bit to find a new Corp that was a bit ideal fit for me to join with and further grow a bit in learning and understanding EVE more as well as Corporation life and interaction. I didn't do it with haste. I looked in the Corps section on the UI and found some Corps that was recruiting and went over their Bio and such. Some Alliance Corps, some big Corps and some smaller Non Alliance Corp. I had spent some time in review of Corps narrowed the list a bit to just 2 Corps. One Corp was a small relatively new high sec Corp of 8 members (Mostly PvE Missions/Exploration and some minor PvE) and the other was a more established larger Corp existing for a few years that was in an Alliance that operated in both high, low and null sec space (PvE Missions/Mining Industrial Complex stuff and some PvP). Smaller Corp had a lower tax rate as well to consider.

I'm a business man at the core as well in considering all things also. Eventually a few hrs later got an interview with the CEO of the smaller new Corp I had applied to. Lots of questions asked and liked the sound of this new Corp as well having things I had similar interest in. I eventually got accepted and got an invite to my new Corp and moved on just a bit further into the ever more complex universe of EVE Online. So is the start of real Corporate life in EVE. It's a very good thing to get into a good Corp eventually on the road further getting deeper into EVE. So it wasn't hard to make friends a bit. They know I was new, it's not hard to tell of anyone new to EVE.

So later on when Josh asked me if I wanted to come Salvage a mission I was all go on all engines. Up on till that point I was just running some small time Agent starter missions and some Pirates I found around some asteroid somewhere on some mission. Bookmarked the location and went back to salvage the area in my little Amarr Coercer Destroyer fitted Salvage Ship. Mostly I was just picking up a few stuff and some circuits from salvaging and making a few thousand dollars selling them at my the NPC Corp Station I started my life with in EVE. And actually I was really proud of the little money I was being savvy enough to make on my own without having to go Mine Ore in an Asteroid Belt which a lot of new players seem to do. Though you can as well doing that.

I made a few Stargate jumps from where I was and picked up my Amarr Salvage Ship. Fitted with the only thing it had that I really could reasonably afford and invested in at the time was just 2 Salvage I item equipment in slot to do Salvage Ops. Rest of my money I was saving up to possibly get me a Mining Ship a Retriever (About 4 million ISK) to maybe do some mining to earn me some more ISK at a faster rate. With a bigger ship its faster mining capability possibly after I would be finish learning the Skills to do so which would possibly be a few days training time. At the time I was sitting on about 3.6 million ISK. That was my goal and I was working towards it.


So off Salvaging I went with Josh almost done with the mission and all I had to do was clean up the wreckage from his lvl 4 Agent Mission. He eventually left after I got there once I was though the Accelerator gate site. So I was left to eventually just clean things up all alone. This was something new and fun so was high degree and enjoyment just going from ship wreckage retrieving and salvaging ships for item loot. And there was ALLOT of it. It took me a while! I was relatively new at doing Salvaging Ops so there was ALLOT of things I was learning in the process. There are some people who play MMO games that don't enjoy learning things that makes them better games or in the game they play. They want the answers to everything with actually learning it themselves or why X is or could be better than Y for a specific reason or logic.

I actually enjoy learning something on my self to be self reliable yet also learning something or finding things to make me better at doing something. So while actually doing the Salvage Operation from Josh's mission site I was actually learning how to be better at Salvaging and what would be better to even do it faster and with more efficiency.

Lesson Learning: 4 Salvage I equipment on my Salvage Ship would be much better and faster than just having 2 of them equipped currently in my high power slots. Having Tractor Beams would be helpful. I had none. They were too expensive an investment anyway at almost 1 million ISK a piece. Having an Afterburner as well would be extremely helpful to speed up going from wreck to wreck since Salvage Ships move not so fast. I was thinking all this in my mind and kept notes.

Eventually I got the wreck site cleaned up, canned some the loot and eventually make two trips to a local station hauling all the loot since all of it couldn't fit into my Salvage ship. This was a lot of fun the whole process, plus I had more loot than I ever seen as well with tons of recovered Circuits, Drones, Weapons Components and all kind of stuff I never seen. I just dropped all the loot at a system Space Station since didn't know if Josh wanted it. He didn't say. So I just left it all there till later.

Later on Josh logged on and told him I recovered all the wreckage and if he wanted me to send it too him. He laughed! He said It was mine to take and make me some money with it. Ohh! OK! Didn't know man! Cool I was happy about that. Maybe can sell all this stuff and be savvy and make me some more money to up my ISK balance. I was sitting at about 3.6 million what i had managed to make so far but I can use the money from this salvage sale as well.


At that same time a few other Corps members was on and they were about to do some more missions and another member asked if I needed money to make. I said sure. I'm not much for getting a handout in any game but I can go do something to make money if the opportunity is there with effort. So I got invited to a Corp Fleet mission ops with 2 members doing again lvl 4 missions in a 16 jump away star system. Again I was go on all engines. I was happy to tag along and clean up whatever. It was all new to me so it was all interesting anyway and see what a lvl 4 mission actually was. On these Agent Missions it was them infiltrating bunkers killing battle ships, various kinds of ships, lots of drones and such. Basically lots a and lots of red dots to me. All cool!

Most the time I waited outside the Accelerator Gate or jump area into the location (Room) till it was a bit less of a HOT ZONE to avoid any aggro from anything in my Salvage Ship before starting cleaning up. Usually after the entire room was on aggo control and spawn control it was fine to jump in and get to work.

On Room jump in it was a ton of wreckage to get to and clean stuff up. I could say at this point there really is an art to doing Salvaging Ops on a large wreckage field of ships which makes it fast and efficient. I was learning how to do it with some limitations of 1. Lack of Knowledge, which I was learning on the job and 2. With not having the right and correct fitting of equipment on my ship. Learning as I go and getting better at it every stop of the way. At the start of the day I had no idea I'd be in the Salvaging business and would be enjoying it. Who Knew! It was just fun to do and interesting to see.


At times my Corp members was killing stuff and finishing the mission zones faster than I could possibly Salvage the areas. So I was actually slowing them down a bit. They wanted me to go faster if possibly. But I was going as fast as I could possibly go with limitations of knowledge which I was learning as I go and improvising and lack of proper fitted ship Salvage equipment.

I was really moving as fast as I could go, tracking every piece of wreckage and trying to find efficient route from one wreck to another. It eventually helped that later I went and picked up the skill to learn Targeting which improved tracking skills. There are some things you actually have to learn your self doing something which makes you get it that makes you better doing it. And because you actually Get It what ever that "It" is it makes you much better at doing it. I WAS GETTING THIS!


I was learning to be a Salvager doing Salvage Ops! EVE Salvaging 101 was in effect and I was learning it on my own. I was also getting a few valuable pointers from my Corp members as well in how to be more efficient and do things faster. Invaluable Information as well it all was. I find Corp members to be extremely helpful in volunteering information to help you out. Much more so than in any game I've ever played as well.


All in all I was having a lot of fun and really picking up a fortune worth of stuff to me at least. Often it was anywhere from 1-3 Room deeper into the mission site I had to clean up. Meaning after I was finishing cleaning up one Room in the mission I had to can everything in a can since I can't hold it all in my Salvage Ship. I then bookmarked the location of the can for later retrieval when the mission was all over since if you don't do that you wont be able to find the location of the can you left with all the stuff.

After had to use the Accelerator Gate and jump into the next Room and do clean up there. Repeat that if there is a 3rd Room as well in the mission site. So in each Room package a can, bookmark the exact location again for later retrieval. Rinse and repeat that in the next and each Room. In a way as well you have to manage all your bookmark locations for each cans.

Salvaging Operation Logistics & Investment.


When the day had begun I only had 2 Transport Ships those being 2 Sigil both of which I had gotten doing the new player tutorial and career missions. The estimated cost of those two ships which was essentially free on the market was about 1.2-1.4 million both combined. Both of those Industrial Transport Ships was some 19 Stargate jumps away. That can take a while to get to in EVE and a bit slower as well to travel in a transport ship to move one some 19 Stargate jump. As well to try to do so in a roundtrip if I had to actually go and pick it up. Thats a long haul!

So I had to make a choice and an Investment choice as well-being forward thinking. This salvaging loot is valuable! It's NOT worth my time to make a 19 Stargate jump just to pickup one of two Industrial Transport Ships I had. So I made a investment choice to check the local system market I was in and immediately get me a NEW Industrial Transport Ship that was either in the same system or at least 1 system jump away to immediately purchase and pickup. Fortunately I was able to do that in a heavily manufacturing star system looking at the market with the various Space Stations. I purchased a new Industrial Transport Ship and hauler the Bestower for about 660,000 ISK of what I had of savings which was 3.6 million balance. This was an investment in what I called Transport Logistics for my budding business at the moment in Salvaging and Recovery Operations and future operations in any close by systems. What made it nice as well was that the Bestower had much more hauling capacity than my other transport ship the Sigil.

So off I was back to my bookmark locations for can recovery operation to pick them all up and drop all the stuff off to a local Space Station in the current system.


As I did Transport Logistics moving recovery material hauling stuff my Corp members had moved on to doing another lvl 4 missions and had gotten more missions. Some missions was in another system like 1-2 jumps away in local region. So as they went on doing more Agent Missions I was not too far behind when it was safe to enter a mission area room. Many the missions was like to knock out a heavy bunker full with ships. Some was heavy with drones each giving a different type of salvage recovered loot. Drones seem to drop precious compound metal alloys. Those alloys refined through Industrial processing seem to be worth a Fortune!


As I kept salvaging wreck recovered loot and canning them for later pickup eventually over time you begin to notice the difference in the loot and wreckage you were picking up from each wreck. You would see lots of ammo, missiles, rail guns, drones, pirate tags, various components you can fit a ship with, circuit components of various sorts, compound metals and various precious looking compound metals that at the look of them tell you they were very valuable. As well all kind of other stuff. I had no universal idea how valuable or invaluable a lot of the stuff was I retrieved Salvaging. But just glancing at some the stuff I had an idea of sort that much of it was valuable.


After each site cleanup and canning it was more rounds going back to the station where my transport hauler was. Then switching ships to the hauler to go pick up the cans for recovery and transport. Transport Logistics!


My Corp members told me that everything I recovered was all mine and I should haul it all over to Jita and sell it all. Jita wasn't too far away and I could sell it on the market there. I had never been to Jita or even really know what the place was. Jita is a high sec system and seems to be a huge market hub that borders Empire regions. As well seem to be a huge selling hub to unload ALLOT of stuff. So I made my way to one the factory Space Stations there unloaded the Bestower ship into my station container.

Selling Stuff In "Jita"


I ended up hauling 2 full loads on the Bestower over to Jita from all the Salvaging wreckage. This was just one of them. And until I really got to Jita and unloaded all the stuff here into my station item bin I really had not looked over the Salvaged goods entirely to see what I had comprehensively all together. This was ALLOT of stuff to SELL!!!

My character is a Trader by trade. With my current level of skill training I'm only able to sell at most 41 items at a time on the entire market all together. Back in the newbie zone I already had some stuff selling there for trade on the local market in Conaban my home system.

Understanding & Learning the Market System by Observance
So I really couldn't sell all the stuff I had if I had to let it sit on the market in Jita due to selling limitations. So I started to try to figure out the market while at the time putting up a few items for sale. I had not hit my limitation sale orders yet. So I kept putting stuff up for sale. Was no way I can put this much stuff to sell and sell it all.

EVE really had a VERY STEEP learning curve in all aspects of things in all the various things you can do in every region of the game with all the various things you can do. This is much steeper than in any MMO game I have ever played up to this point. So this is just an observance as well.

While playing around in Jita selling stuff at first I couldn't figure out what the green lines meant when I was looking at the market orders for open buy orders already on the market. Through different items I would see a different amount of green lines, different amount of item by orders on different items but had no idea what they all meant and why some items had different amount of them either. I was curious seeing this. At first I ignored it, though curious. But I just kept putting stuff up for sale individually and in stacks of item for sale since I had many stacks of some items for sale as well as looking at item historical sale price. This was just fun to do but I was spending a lot of time doing it as well.

At times I would notice the price the game was given me for the market price of an item seemed to have different setting, one being advance view of an item. I started paying attention to this eventually. Various items I would click on and see what value it gave me often at some regional price and you could see how much below or above regional price it was and you could also change the price which was obvious from before. I started to notice how some the price I was getting was connected in some way to the green highlighted buy orders on the market and this started to make a lot of sense to me and I started figuring things out even more which even made more sense to me as well.

Market Fetch Orders
I'm always quite happy to figure things out on my own. There is some fun to me in doing that or researching things on my own. Just the way I always play each game. But I started connecting the dots on the green highlighted buy orders selling stuff on the market in Jita. But these are the same highlighted text I would see on any system market as well.

Eventually I started selling the items at the price that matched the current buy orders that was in what I termed was a reasonable price range compared to the regional price that wasn't too low. I started noticing all these items I was selling would go the way of "Fetch Orders". Immediate sale matching to a current market system buy order that was in for that station or region. This made me even pay more attention to what I was doing and so I started even paying even more attention to all the buy orders entirely and seeing if the item I was selling to fetch the orders was reasonable and not some low ball figure.

I sold at a reasonable price the salvaged goods. Some the items I had literally sold of millions of ISK. Some others I held the item when I saw the overall value compared to buy order price which was discounted. Others when the overall value of the item was just too low say below estimated maybe 20k or so ISK in value to not make that much a difference that I cared about. I just all out dumped stuff all to just get rid of it entirely and not waste any more time with it. Allot of that stuff was usually ammo and missiles, stuff like that. Time is money too.

To be honest this really took some degree of time as well to do and mostly sell all the stuff. What was left I hauled it down to a regional system to sell in the local market for an upside on the profit margin vs what I could get in Jita.

At the end of it all I looked at that market dumped fire sale and what I made on the Corps Salvaging Operation sale entirely all together.

A whopping 79 million ISK! Thats quite a bit of money and profit for me as a relatively newbie to EVE when my day started with only a balance of 3.6 million ISK which I earned doing starter lvl 1 Agent Missions. Initially selling some items from missions and working to save my ISK balance vs blowing it and spending it all like a lot of new EVE Online noobs looking at the Rookie Chat.

My Corp members wanted to know the next day how the salvaging operation items went for me and if I was able to sell all the stuff and if it was profitable for me to earn some good money. Hell Yeah it was. Though they weren't entirely all that amazed they was still quite impressed that I was able to secure that much profit from salvaging all those missions entirely. Much thanks to my Corp members as well for the whole process.

Looking at it all a thought came to me looking at the overall process entirely. Before I was just a small time part-time newbie learning and salvaging just learning things and doing my lvl 1 Agent Missions on my own. Compare that to being able to do much bigger jobs for fun or with my new Corp is an entirely different league of doing Salvaging Ops playing EVE Online or just generally playing as well.

EVE Online is not the kind of game you can really, overall or entirely play Solo! I like to Solo play just as much as the next person who enjoy Solo play on their own and learn to play by their own wits. EVE may be some fun to play Solo, but overall you're doing it alone and with a lot of limitations of all sorts in the EVE Universe and it's not the kind of place you want to be doing stuff all alone all the time. Your missing out on allot without a good Corp. You want to eventually find a damn good Corp to be useful to and one that can help you along as well furthering your learning in EVE in a good way and not being a leach like some people like to be in various MMO's to their Guilds, Corps, Fleet in other games.

Re-Investment of Salvaging Profit and Capital
I like to thing ahead doing things when possible. So with me new found cash balance I made some Investments and some were for Logistic reasons as well.

Investment was made from all the mental notes I made doing Salvaging Ops in all the things I though would help me do a much better job next time Such things as:

1. Bought 2 new Salvage I item equipment at about 25,000 ISK each for my Salvage Ship which brings me to 4 Salvage I item equipment for high power equipment slots. My Ship has 8 high power equip slots.


2. Bought 4 New Tractor Beam I equipment for about roughly 900,000 ISK each item. To fill the other 4 high power slots.


3. Equipped a new Afterburner I item I had sitting around in a station bin and sump the Booster Shield I item I had equipped for my 1 medium ship power slot.


4. Bought some more 4 pieces of low power slot item equipment I didn't have before to manage my Salvage ship Capacitor Capacity which was over capacity with all the equipment load. As well some new CPU to increase capacity performance and a new power reactor to increase output and boost Capacitor/Power/Shield performance to my ships grid. About 1 million ISK in all for those.

Other major investment. As it related to Transport Logistics I see this as a problem having to go 10+ gate jumps from some far away region with a transport hauler or making a roundtrip of 20+ jumps depending on which system I may have logged into or out of the game in to get to another system which can be anywhere to do logistics moving stuff. With that I put a market buy order for 4 new Amarr Bestower transport haulers that I can eventually stash in a logistically placed route system at a Space Station hub. That would make it easer to get to a close by system to pick up a transport hauler in maybe 5 jumps and not like having to go 20 jumps to pick one up let alone a roundtrip.

As well put in an order for a dozen Amarr Shuttles. Shuttles are FAST and Cheap! Cant carry much except small stuff like Blueprints and Skill Books, little stuff. But very FAST to get to places or logistic places on a route or System Trade hub or a Space Station I may need to get to jump into a Salvage Ship/Transport/Military Ship to get to a system within say 5 jumps or less. Thinking logistically this is a good investment to me to have quite a bit of a small Shuttle fleet of ships. So I placed a buy order for a dozen Amarr Shuttles at 7395 ISK a piece for a block buy order on the market in Amarr System which in at heart of Empire space and likely to get filled soon on oder. That not too far away since my new home system with my Corp is only 3 jumps away if I have to do a transport pickup.

Another Investment was made in a buy order for 3 new Destroyers to make into Salvage Operation Ships. I would need to get orders for equipment fitting on all those new ships as well and later move them to different locations just like my Transport Haulers. Never know when you will lose a Salvage Ship or any other as well for some unknown reason and need to get into another you have available and get back to business. Cost estimated at 1.6 million ISK just for the new ship orders. Fitted equipment cost separate which has been allocated to above in cost.

I'm not yet trained to be able to pilot a Cruiser Ship as yet. The current military ship I've been trained to use are a Frigate of which I use a Predator and a Amarr Coercer Destroyer which I mostly fit to do Salvage mission running. Still have to finish learning Frigate IV which is required to learn Cruiser ship command skill training. Should be finished in like a day since the last few days been learning Learning Skills 5 to accelerate my Skill Training rate which they help to do. So even at a few days of training to go to pilot a Cruiser class ship I went and put in 2 buy orders for 2 new different Cruiser ships. An Omen class Amarr Cruiser at about 3 million and a Amarr class Cruiser a Maller at around 3.3-3.8 million ISK each. Hopefully they get market order filled in a day or two.

In a another followup Salvage mission most recently I lost 2 Salvage Ships fully fitted all in a 12 hrs period of time doing cleaning up lvl 4 & 5 Missions with my Corp. lvl 5 missions are quite hard but wreck quite valuable. In one lvl 5 mission I was asked to clean up with a profit split agreement from the Corp members I was with. The mission area was a bit of a Hot Zone with deadly drones. I zone in and one my Corp member was a bit of range away and I got targeted by a stray drone. Before I could zone out of room to a station or any celestial area or marked spot my ship was blown up and I got podded. No biggie let me go get my other Salvage Ship. I checked my Assets listing. Uhh, its 19 jumps away to get to. I had a Amarr Shuttle in a nearby system 2 jumps away. Got to the Shuttle and made a 19 jump dash to retrieve a Salvage Ship and make the roundtrip. For this very reason of logistics is why I need several Salvage Ships in various route locations so I don't have to make a 38 gate jump in total to get back to mission area. And I don't autopilot in EVE. I manually Stargate jump the entire way!

When my ship had gotten blown up I had forgotten to bookmark the exact area so I could later get back to it and Salvage all the equipment on it which is worth several millions in fitted equipment. That would save me from having to buy several new Salvage equipment, Tractor Beam equipment and a few other items. It wasn't till later I really realize the error of not having a location bookmark to my blown up ship location that I realized how much an error it is not having it. Especially since the Corp members had already completed the mission in the time it took to do 38 Stargate jumps. The mission area was now inaccessible or no longer there after I made 38 jumps roundtrip to get back there. Uhh. Lost ship equipment unrecoverable in cost.

In another mission the next day in a lvl 4 mission again doing Salvage Ops I got aggro from a few drones doing Salvage Ops again and tried to zone out the area quickly to the bookmark location I had which was on the Acceletator Gate I had jumped into the room on. Saves me to having to fly all the way to a space station. But when I tried to zone out of the area when I got aggro from a drone I kept getting cannot zone to area due to celestial phenomenon. Could't figure it out why. Got blown up again lol. Appears thats something you cant do in a mission as well. Hmm good to know that for newt time. Good thing this ship was Insured this time. So I got an insurance payout on this fairly new ship at the Platinum lvl which covered the cost of the ship. But the fitted equipment was more valuable than the ship itself which is uninsurable. Again forgot to bookmark the location again of the blown up ship. And 2 times in a row I couldn't recover blown up ship equipment meaning I had to go to the market to buy new equipment again. Do you realize this is what causes the robust market in EVE to keep moving which people replacing lost ships and equipment all the time and ever constantly.


Who say Salvaging wreck wasn't or could be dangerous business. But it sure is fun. EVE is what you make of it with your own goals to persue to whatever your interest or nature of fun to be. No where in this article piece did I mention I went or was trying to mine an asteroid for Ore to make ISK like a lot of people usually seem to complain about in EVE or got blow up by a Pirate. Don't mean Mining aren't profitable either, it is. And can be in the right ship, places and mining the right Ore. I can enjoy mining, but i'm gonna get me a good damn size ship to do it soon. As well the Corp is looking to do some big mining Ops sometime soon. I may not want to miss that as well. Profit might just be too good to miss. But Salvaging can sure be fun work as well, all depends on what you like and enjoy.

Now in the time it took me to write this piece, several hours. By my estimate knowing how many missions some people run in my Corp I probably lost out on making 20+ million or more ISK. Ouch!

So much for being a newbie in EVE with all its learning and stuff new people complain about. No complaints from me!

I'm probably no longer just a player that blogged about playing WoW. I guess these days i'm just a player that blogs about the various MMO I'm playing and EVE Online happen to be one of them.