Category: Gaming

Slow Sales, and an Increase in Spending

Sales have been slowing down as we approach the release of BfA, and I have been struggling to manage even 6k a day in order to continue my subscription using only blizzard balance. Of course it’s not a huge deal since my account is paid in advance for a few months now, and I already pre-ordered BfA, but still, I was really enjoying those 50-100k days. It doesn’t help that I’ve been taking a more laid back approach to my gold earning, and I’ve been spending a LOT of gold myself on trying to raise my professions to 800.

I found out that you’ll still be able to get to max level in crafting using just BfA – but if you want the recipes for the previous tiers (and lets face it, completionist in me does) you’ll need to level up through those tiers. I’m pretty sure this is for the vendor recipes only and not the dropped ones, but you’ll still want to have a good collection of recipes either way. That’s why I’m expecting an influx of more expensive crafting materials.

I’ve also heard rumors of Ashran being changed / removed so that the only way to raise faction will be through the medallion of the Legion item that allows you to raise Draenor factions. I’ve purchased a few and I’m hanging onto them in case these rumors prove true (I believe there’s a guide about this on YouTube as well). Along with the Ashran rumors is the fact that no one is really sure what will happen to the auction house components you need from Ashran, so people are stock piling those items, too. Just in case. Having an auction house in your garrison is really nice, chances are if you’re sniping you don’t have to worry about being phased, especially on a busy server where that happens quite frequently.

I’ve got so much Clefthoof meat that all of my characters are now at 700 cooking, which is nice. It takes less than 1k meat to raise the skill, and I end up with all sorts of discovered Draenor recipes. I did raise cooking to 800 on my main character (old main? Not sure who I’m going with for BfA) and fishing is on my to-do list as well.

I’ve been making various bags to sell along with living steel combines, but money is still only trickling in. I know it’s partially because I play on a low population server, but I hope to see it pick up eventually. I snagged some semi-cheap 880+ ilevel gear and have been attempting to flip it, but there just hasn’t been a market. From what other goblins are saying they’re also experiencing a bit of a dry spell, but there are always some sure wins. I have a very difficult time trying to sell pets at all on my home server, and I wish this were different.

I’m over 100k liquid gold at the moment, but I really had my eyes set on breaking 1 million, and it feels like I’m starting over from scratch. Not a big deal, I’m certainly not hurting, but if I want to ever reach that 1 million I’m going to have to cut back on my own spending and find out what is currently selling, even if it is just a few gold here and there. I’m also still doing garrison missions, but with only 1 character having max level followers, coin there is only a few thousand a day, too.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. I know money making will return as soon as BfA hits, and maybe even as the pre-patch stuff goes live, so I’ll just have to keep an open mind and prepare myself for the expansion.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

BfA – Professions to 800 First

There’s a profession change coming in Battle for Azeroth that I am not a fan of – but it makes perfect sense and one of the reasons I’m not fond of it is simply because it’s not how things have been going for the past two expansions. For the past two expansions you could level a profession from 1 to the cap of that tier using materials ONLY from that expansion. Just picking up crafting for the first time in Legion? No longer do you need to go into the vanilla world any more, you can do it all in Legion zones.

In the next expansion this (from what I’ve seen / heard) changes, and instead you will be required to level up through that tier using materials from that expansion. This is how (IMO) it should have worked the entire time. It keeps old content relevant and people who are leveling up actually have a market for their older goods instead of just the top tier being the only viable tier. Still, change is change, and I tend to be leary of it until I see it in action.

That’s why one of my main goals is to get all of my characters as close to 800 in their professions as possible, before BfA comes out. So far I’m at a grand total of ZERO characters being at 800. Not a one. While I have always been able to blow through most leveling adventures, the fact that Legion requires you to quest and do dungeons to unlock recipes has been a huge deterring factor in leveling. I also find skill points rare and far between, relying instead on Darkmoon Faire for easy skill ups (5 a month.. woo). I have 11 characters, and with none of them even close to reaching 800 in their professions this is going to mean a lot of time and work in order to get them up to snuff for BfA. I love crafting in WoW, I just haven’t had any enthusiasm at all with the latest systems. I’m hoping this changes.

We’ll just have to see.

Getting my RTS on

Progressing through my pregnancy has left me just as I remember from the last one – little desire to actually sit at my computer chair, and fingers too swollen and sore to do much elaborate movements. Still, I love to game, so I’ve found other ways to combat these issues. This week, I dove into some RTS games (real time strategy) and got my gaming fix that way.

I started off playing a game of Civilization, as Brazil. I lost, horribly. I started out strong and was taking over the cities of my closest neighbours but then had a change of heart and wanted to play nice, except everyone already hated me and I lost due to some diplomatic something or other (I also had the game set to 500 turns which ran out, so maybe technically I didn’t lose so much as I wasn’t the winner). It was still a lot of fun, I love Civilization (I’m playing 6, the latest version, with Aztec DLC and none of the others because I don’t own them).

Next I downloaded and loaded up Age of Empires II, a game I’ve owned for a while but had not played in a very long time. Of course I had completely forgotten what the goal was and what I was supposed to be doing, so my farmers, lumberjacks, and builders were no match for the mounted cavalry that came charging in to wipe us out. Hey just because I like playing RTS games doesn’t mean I’m any GOOD at them.

Third up – Warcraft III. I’ve actually NEVER played Warcraft III before. Ever. Thanks to having a bunch of bnet balance I picked up the game for $12 (CAD) and jumped right in. Having been an avid player of WoW, it’s neat to see the story lines presented from the Warcraft III perspective (which came first, after all) and thrall and his grunts are happily smushing things. Unfortunately I forgot to run the game in comparability mode  so I missed out on all of the opening cutscenes, but it should be fixed for future campaigns.

Finding games that I can still play with my particular issues of late has been fantastic. It’s nice not to have to give absolutely everything up, and RTS games allow me to quickly step away and tend to life.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

A weekend in ESO

I’m not really sure how it started. A few members of combat wombat were talking about Teso (or ESO as I prefer to call it) and then the next thing I knew there were about 10 of us all playing, including myself. I’ve had my account since the game released, having done some freelance work for MetaVerse back in the day, but I had never played beyond the tutorial and my character was only level 3. I can’t even say WHY that was the case. I was probably distracted by some other shiny.

I have been having a lot of fun in World of Warcraft, but I’ve also been playing it steadily as my main game of choice for almost a year and I wanted a little break before BfA releases, and now seems like a good time. My account is still active since I’ve paid for it using gold (how I wish more games would go the rout of FFXIV where you can PAUSE your subscription and pick it up again not wasting any game time) but I’m going to enjoy a bit of a break and go back refreshed.

In ESO my character is level 11 and wandering around Stonefalls. I picked up all the crafting certification quests and now I have dailies for those, and I also started some research which is apparently very time consuming and involved. I participated in my first public quest, also called anchor quest, also called dolmen, and it was a lot of fun! Got a good chunk of xp and a nice chest of goods at the end. It’s nice and just a bit odd to be playing a game that a good chunk of my friends are actually playing, too. We haven’t done anything together (yet) but it’s nice to have the opportunity if it arose.

The game is absolutely beautiful. I went through and snagged some QoL addons yesterday and they have already made a HUGE difference in my game play. Especially the crafting / harvesting addons. I play in 10-15 minute chunks (minus when kiddo goes down for a nap or is asleep for the evening) so being able to focus is something I really need help with, especially in a game like ESO where wandering is heavily encouraged. If I have time to wander I love it, but I would never get anything done if I couldn’t also focus a bit.

I’ve pre-ordered Summerset which gave me Morrowind, and I decided to go ahead and pay for ESO Plus for the crafting space along with the other perks (crowns, so I can buy a fancy house, xp bonus, and other goodies like that) plus the ESO celebration week starts today which will grant me even more goodies while I have ESO Plus and log in daily.

It’s exciting to play a “new to me” MMO that I haven’t really delved into before. The quests and stories are interesting, the landscape new, and I’m discovering points of interest that are both disturbing and fascinating. I may only be level 11, but I’m eager to see how this goes.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! You can find me in ESO as @stargrace if you want to add me to your friends list.

Events as I recall them

I’ve started playing a little ESO, having never gotten beyond level 3 before, and having neglected my account for the better part of.. well, all the years the game has been active. Below is my Nord Dragonknight’s tale of a latest adventure.. 

“Quickly!” the apothecary screamed at me. “Use the salve you just collected for me, and apply it to the injured. We need them cured.”

I admit, I panicked. I looked at the men in the burnt down house, ran up to the closest one, and .. well. Decapitated him in one swoop of my 2 handed axe. It was like swinging through butter.

The apothecary just stared at me, mouth wide.

“What… Why.. wh… You know the guards will be after you for this now!” He screeched at me, pointing to the fellows head that was still in my hands. “You’ll have a bounty on you, and you won’t be able to enter the cities without recognition.”

I stood there not quite comprehending how things went down.

“I wanted you to heal the men OUTSIDE. OUTSIDE!” The apothecary continued to yell at me and point, obviously we were both having a bad day, but I couldn’t tell at this point which was worse. Probably the guy whose head I had in my hands. I dropped the head on the floor, kicked the body over to the side so no one would trip on it, and ran out the door with my bundle of salves, looking frantically for whoever the apothecary meant for me to heal. It didn’t take long for my eyes to adjust to the ash covered scenery and spot prone bodies laying all over the place. Realization dawned on me.

THESE were the guys I was meant to heal, not the ones inside the burned down house that were probably perfectly healthy before I .. well. Solved that.

I sighed. It was going to be a long day.