Friday, October 28, 2011

Closing in on Outland

My little instance group got together last night to play out relative lowbies for the first time in about a month.

The roster includes a prot warrior, two hunters (one is my wife), mage, and my Discipline Priest.

I was incredibly fun. The stuff that went on would be horrible if it were in a pug, but in a group of friends, it was hilarious. We had zero wipes during the three instances we ran (Dire Maul, Zul-Farak, and Strat Dead side).

It was mostly uneventful until Stratholme. Then we had all kinds of shenanigans going on. On the first set of pulls after opening the gate into Stratholme proper, we must have ended up with 15 mobs. It was a chain of crap getting pulled. All thanks to those damn gargoyles. We survived, which really goes to show you the difficulty of the instance (not very). It does help that I have full heirlooms.

The shenanigans continued on the spider boss. We got the boss and pretty much the rest of the immediate area of mobs on one pull. Hunter auto shot was an accidental pulling machine. On the next boss, my wife was killed by out group when she got mind controlled.

The rest of the instance included other Hunter induced shenanigans. The best part is that it was very enjoyable. If it was a pug, people would have been kicked. Friends can tolerate other friends quirks and mistakes a lot more than random people.

Anyways, we are all in the high 40s or low 50s now, so Outland is just around the corner. We have been leveling almost completely through instances.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Pandaria, Random Kindness, and Many Other Things

So, we have a lot more information on Pandaria. There is much QQing going on currently. All I have to say about it is.....I like it!

There are a lot of things that I think will be really good about this expansion. I am however, the eternal optimist.

1) Panaren race and Monk: Both are wins in my book. I think the Pandaren look fun and I really like the idea of a martial arts class that heals by busting people in the face. I also like all of the fun names you can come up with for a Panda.

2) Pokemon: I have a lot of pets. They are mostly just sitting there. If you dont feel like raiding/pvping/instancing on a given day, this could be a nice little distraction.

3) Back to Wrath: The regular Heroics are going to be more like the Wrath Heroics. Short and easy. Just the way I like it. People don't like to be stressed out when playing a game. There were times in Cata where the level of IQ in Heroics was below retarded and caused me to drift away from instancing. If we can carry the retards, things will be much easier.

4) Challenge Modes: This is for the non retards. I think that this is something fun to do with your guild to gain some additional prestige via titles and cosmetic armor.

5) Scenarios: If I read this correctly, this will be like the Skirmishes in LoTRO. That is good. It would basically be a random generated instance with certain objectives you must meet. This is a great idea, especially if it will be tuned for the number of people who do the scenario.

To me, all of this looks like fun. I am excited about the next expansion. I will be playing Star Wars, but probably won't be cancelling WoW (thanks in part to the Year Pass thing they came out with).

On a personal note, there have been a few significant things that went on this week. We got our regular instance group together for the first time in a month. It was a lot of fun. We only ran regulars as everyone but me had somewhat lesser geared characters. They went by with no problems, and I think that a few of us got new pieces of gear.

I still do really enjoy mucking around in instances....as long as it is not in a pug. I actually ended up doing Heroic ZG for the first time this weekend on my warrior. It really didn't seem all that bad, but then again, we had a super geared tank from my guild. I can see where many of the fights would cause great frustration if people did not know what they are doing.

On a side note, I have a bit of a story. One of my old gem competitors is an older guy who plays WoW for fun (apparently retired). We got to chatting about the gem market a while back and still chat from time to time these days. He is in a guild that consists of he and his brother.

Well, I was chatting with him yesterday and he asked my if I wanted a Celestial Steed....for free. He already had one and got this one when the WoW magazine was cancelled. HECK YEAH I WANT IT! He did not want anything in return, but I ended up sending him a Vial of the Sands since I noticed he did not have one yet.

My wife is now the proud owner of a Sparkle Pony! Being nice can pay off, even if it is someone that you compete with in an Auction House market.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Mists of Pandaria

New expansion as expected. Pandaren race and Monk class getting added. Both sides will get Pandaren. You will do a quest line and pick one or the other at the end. There had been speculation of that.

One thing I really want to know.....are you going to give me another damn character slot? I have one of every class as it is. Do I have to erase one? Which one do I erase?

They need to give at least one more character slot.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

If you can't beat them.....

Join them. I struck up a deal last night with my main gem market competitor to white list each other. White list is a function where you don't undercut a certain person when you autopost. It will automatically post at the exact same price as them.

This is a viable option in a market dominated by just a couple of people. It ensures that you both get your sales and allows you to actually play the game instead of camping the AH.

It is also an advantage for when you just do not have the time to constantly repost (have a job, life outside of WoW etc.).

I am pretty happy with the deal. I can focus on other WoW related things now and still make my gold.

Win-Win for me (and seemingly everyone involved as the competitor was on his main running heroics instead of camping the AH).

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Hallowed End is Here

All I have to say is.....

TRICK TREATS...WHY YOU NO TAKE LESS TIME TO GET.

Uggghh. Going to running all over the damn world...AGAIN. Just for a pet.

Does anyone know if the little Wicker man is a pet or an item?

I have the Horseman mount on my main as well as most everything else. I guess that I will be running it....for tricky treat..../facepalm.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Auction House: Stalking Your Prey

Those assholes just won't stop undercutting you! You don't know what to do! Well I do. Become a detective and figure out their toons, that is what.

The first thing you should do (as most experience AH players will tell you) is to put your competitor on your friends list.

Check out this character's guild. Are there several other characters? Sweet. Do a /who and see who is on in the guild besides your competitor. Refresh it right when your competitor logs off. Then refresh it again for a minute or so. Is there a new character in the search? That is probably your competitor! Put his ass on your friend list too. As a side note, there is an addon that makes your friend list universal across your characters. This is very much needed for spying on the competiton.

You competitor is a bank toon in a guild that has no other members? No problem.

When your competitor logs off, look for characters logging on around mail boxes and possibly using the profession that you are competing for. Character logs on and starts making gems when your competitor logs off? Sweet. That may be your competitor. Put them on your friend's list and monitor them. If you notice the competitor logging off and the other one logging on right afterwards, you have found your person. On the friends list they go. Now that you have an "alt" (more than likely a main) on your friends list, use the /who trick on the guild they are in when your competitor logs off. Any new names pop up? BAM, caught that mofo again.

With a little bit of research, you can be one step ahead of your competition. They will be monitoring your posting character from another of their characters, however you will be monitoring all of theirs. Repost your auctions when they go offline. Or just repost anyways and make them work harder for every gold they make.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Weekend Update and 2 Million Gold Milestone

This weekend in WoW was spent mostly in two ways.

1) Making gold.

2) Leveling my Shaman.

On the gold making front, I pretty much bitch slapped my main gem competitor all weekend. I made 30k for saturday and 25k for Sunday. I can barely keep gems in stock. This is the competitor that would hang out online and undercut constantly. Through a bit of detective work, I found out who his main is. I was online on an alt not in my main guild. I was sitting in the trade district monitoring his activities. He logs off. I am standing by the mail box and hear the sound of gems being crafted. Hmmmm. It is like one in the morning. This has got to be him. I put him on my friends list. Lo and Behold, it is. Fucking owned. Now I know your main guild BEATCH!!!!!

Oh, and I hit 2 million gold this weekend. It felt pretty meh. I will keep assaulting gold milestones at least until SW:TOR comes out. Then we shall see.

As a side effect of all of this, I have about 160 different mails to disenchant now.....or aproximately 1900 items. Yeesh. I am not looking forward to that considering that I also have about 150 stacks of ore to prospect still and about 45-50 mails of uncommon gems that I have not yet turned into Jewelry.

I leveled my Shaman from 83 to 85. This was in direct competition with one of my friends, who has basically leveled a Druid from around 10 to 85 in the course of 1.5 weeks. I don't know why, but we always seem to be competing when it comes to leveling toons. Not always, but it happens.

I hit 85 in Twilight Highlands after completely skipping Uldum. I am currently Elemental and Resto though I plan to do Dungeons as only Resto.

I did my first 85 dungeon on him and had no issues for the most part. We had one wipe when we got a bunch of adds that were hitting everyone but the tank.

For tommorow's post, I will have a new "Fail Pug" of the week. This guy was the ultimate in Douchetastic glory. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Future

As in the future of this blog. I am definately going to be play SW:TOR. I have pre ordered it. A couple of my friends have played the Beta and say it is awesome.

Depending on how much I enjoy SW, that could potentially be the end for WoW.

Potentially because I have tried other MMOs in the past and always come back to WoW.

Regardless of what happens, I will probably be starting a SW related blog.

Then again, I may keep both and play both. I just wish that WoW had the lifetime subscription option.

That is all. Carry on.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Dealing with a Camper

Sometimes you are dealing with a camper of epic proportions. One of my gem competitors was on last night for 4 hours straight immediately undercutting any competition. It was quite annoying to say the least.

What do you do in these situations.

Here are a few of my suggestions. These are mostly just to fuck withe camping asshole. They may not cause you to gain any more sales.

1) Deep Undercut: This is something I usually don't do, but I strongly considered it last night. If you arent going to make any gold, you undercut down to material cost and basically just post at that price.

2) Jack up their posting fees. This is what I do. I have at least 5 of each gem in my bags. I set my quick auctions to post 1 at a time for 12 hours. I post. I wait for the undercut and immediately post again. If they are posting 3-5 of each gem, they will be paying quite a lot of gold in posting fees. Rinse and repeat as often as possible.

3) Logging on and off. Sometimes, campers will still log off to play other characters. Don't let them. Log onto another character when you are undercut. Once they log off, log back onto your posting toon. When they log back on, log back off. This is only for the purpose of annoying them. They may get tired of logging on and off. They will either stay on their camper or they will say forget about it.

Fight fire with fire. Bitch slap those campers out of your market.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Real Azeroth Heroes

Real Azeroth Heroes

Darraxus presents: Real Azeroth Heroes

(Real Azeroth Heroes)

Today we salute you Mr. Level 70 who wants to go on my Black Temple Run Guy
(But Im the appropriate level!)

You can't skip any mobs without pulling aggro(How the hell did you get that whole room?!)

Just like you, I enjoy running things for Mogging.....

(But I actually bring my 85!)

You don't mind adding an hour onto my run.
(And you keep on dying!)

So Mr.Level 70 who wants to go to Black Temple Guy, have a bud on me. You will roll on the Warglaives and win. Doing nothing has never been more rewarded.(Mr. LEVEL 70 WHO WANTS TO GO TO BLACK TEMPLE GUY!).

(Yes, I get that level 70 is the "correct" level for the intance, but I don't feel like carrying someone's alt/twink through an instance where they are not going to carry their weight).

Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Battle Rages On.

As I said, you have to fight for your markets. There is one douche on my server (who is also a millionaire I believe), who seems to like driving down gem prices. However, he makes it all to easy to buy out and reset.

He doesnt camp the market. He just posts a bunch of 20 gold gems and fucks off.

This makes my job easier....I get free stock for patch 4.3 and all that new gear. It makes me wonder if he thinks that he should get rid of his gems since epic gems are on the way. He has actually done this before and I drove him out last time.

Ore prices have gone back up, so it isnt all that profitable to sell at some of the prices he is selling at.

The best part is that one of my other competitors has started buying out some of his auctions as well. It is good when people are on the same page.

Unfortunately, my other competitor seems to be on constantly. On their undermine journal heat map, they seem to have around 4 white blocks per day. You have to sleep sometime don't you?

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Round 1: FIGHT!

Both my gem and glyph markets have gone down significantly in the last week or two. This is mainly due to competition that thinks they can get rid of anyone by lowering prices. I have previously already driven out one of my gem competitors. The other guy is the reason I decided that glyphs were not longer profitable in the first place.

I am going to pull no punches. Vicious undercutting will ensue. Operation: Get the Fuck Out of my market commencing.

In the glyph market, glyphs were going for 150 each a week ago. Now they have gone down to 25 each. I can still make plenty of profit at this price.

When people try to push you around, throw your virtual muscle into it.

On another note, one of my gem competitors has been one of my best customers! He has bought out more than 10k worth of my gems in the last month or so. This is the same guy that was instant undercutting me from the mobile auctionhouse. I just put one of every gem up, forced him to cancel repost all of his gems, then did it over and over until I made him run out of mobile transaction.

The auction house can be the most brutal form of PvP in WoW without a doubt.