Tag: WoW

Auremai – Introduction

Most folks don’t expect much when they first meet me. I suppose I’m easy to overlook – just a gnome with a satchel too big for her shoulders, boots too dusty for a lady, and a cart full of trinkets I swear have stories of their own.

My name’s Auremai. Merchant by trade, monk by discipline, and – though I’m a little bashful about it – an avid writer of romantic tales with happy endings and at least two comedic misunderstandings per chapter. There’s just something about a good love story that warms the heart, don’t you think?

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade trundling my way across Azeroth—from the rolling green hills of Elwynn to the misty coasts of Zandalar—with a cart full of curious wares and a heart full of stories. If you’ve ever bought a self-heating teapot in Stormwind or a ring that hums when you’re near your soulmate (questionable results), there’s a good chance it came from me.

Though I could settle down—I’ve the gold for it, Light knows—I’d rather use my coin to help those who need it. A warm meal in Westfall, bandages in Redridge, a school roof in Dun Morogh. I don’t make a show of it. Just a little envelope left behind, or a coin purse slipped into a pocket. Gold’s only as good as the good it can do.

When the world settles down and the campfire crackles low, I like to write. Rom-coms, mostly—set in places like Dalaran or Booty Bay, full of flustered apprentices, mysterious rogues, and misunderstandings that always resolve with a kiss and a laugh. I write under a pen name, of course. Can’t have heroes recognizing me from Love in the Shadow of the Spire while I’m bartering silk in Boralus.

Truth be told, I’m still looking for my own story. Maybe it’s waiting down the next road, over the next hill. Or maybe it’s already started, and I just haven’t reached the twist yet.

Either way, I’ll get there. One step, one sale, one story at a time.

Let’s Talk about the Single Button Assistant (spoiler alert, I LOVE it)

Blizzard recently implemented a controversial mechanic to World of Warcraft, where you can attack & cast abilities with a rotation by pressing only one button – but your global cooldown of abilities will be 25% slower thus you’re going to lose some DPS. For example, after looking at some parses, it was a 7% loss in dps on my hunter who uses GSE, an addon that does almost exactly this but also requires a lot of maintenance.

I LOVE this feature. I absolutely love it. This allows people who have disabilities to play. This allows people who are reluctant to try new classes because they don’t know how to play them, a chance to jump right in. Are people going to be rushing M+ with these? Probably, but since they do less dps, it’s going to be painful. Those who are interested in the min/max side of the game won’t use this feature, because it will be a downgrade.

More people in the game is a good thing. More accessibility, also good. Less barriers to playing new classes, amazing.

Don’t like it? DON’T USE IT. No one has to, it’s completely optional. Whether or not someone else is using it has absolutely zero impact on my gameplay – unless I’m doing a high level M+ and in that case I would expect them to be able to keep up with the group no matter what system they’re using, and if they CAN’T keep up in competitive gameplay then I might have an issue.

World questing? Looking for raid? Timewalking? Fantastic.

Does this mean I’ve wiggled my way back into Warcraft?

Well, yes and no. I’ve recently started playing on my EU account – the account that does NOT have all the mounts, pets, or other fun things that my main account has. Why? It has been something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. The time zones are more to my play style, and I have a lot of EU friends. I also gifted the account some game time and the shop sold auction house mount some time ago. While I can’t share bnet balance or gold between EU/NA, I can gift items to the account (has to be a completely separate bnet account). Of course it does make me miss everything I have on my main account so there’s no telling if I’ll actually stick with it (spoiler alert, I won’t) but it has been a lot of fun returning and it feels like a comfortable time to be back. I’m also excited about the future with player housing and all of that good stuff. I’ll just have to take it day by day, and see how things go.

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

EVE, Wurm, Warcraft – and an Update

I haven’t been very good about blogging regularly for a while now, there has just been too much going on in my day to day to set aside the time for it, so I won’t promise that I’ll be any better about that, but I do still hope to do some semi-regular updates about my gaming adventures. After all, the blog will be 19 years old in June, and that’s something to celebrate. So. What’s up with me?

First of all. I was having a LOT of issues with my web host, and I’ve decided to just migrate back to good ‘ol wordpress. I know they’re the evil corporation of blogs, but they’re also one of the easier ones for me to shuffle off to, so that’s where I’m at. My previous host kept shutting my blog down as AI bots were crawling it constantly creating a bunch of inflated traffic. Then they removed my ability to post pictures (unless hosted at a place like imgur) and still the problems were not solved. I’m paid up until November, so the old version will remain, but all the updates will be here going forward.

EVE – I started playing EVE again. No surprise there. Due to my inactivity I was removed from Signal Cartel (no malice there) and I cannot rejoin until 60 days has passed since I was removed. So far it has only been 32 days. I’m undecided as to whether or not I will re-join. While I do enjoy the corporation, I cannot guarantee my activity levels, and that’s not fair to the corp, really. For now I’m in an NPC corporation and still living in the Wormlife Freeport. I’ve been testing out the ‘new’ feature of PI templates, which is pretty cool (it only took 15 years) but it will also take me some time to create / save templates. Still, I’m thankful that PI got any sort of attention at all.

Wurm Online – Still working on my deed, Quail Landing. This is a castle deed attached to the mainland of Independence. I also created my 3rd deed, over on the Exodus server. This is just a retreat type of deed for when I need a change of pace, or am looking for something ‘new’ to do for a while. Upkeep is set for the next year, so even if I don’t use the deed I can just keep it there and forget about it until I’m feeling that itch again. Yesterday there was a green dragon slaying over on Release that was quite fun to attend, and I also participated in my first rift (well, sort of) this week. I couldn’t attend the actual combat portion, but I did help complete two of the colossus which are part of the pre-event. I earned a lot of rift points, and some rift materials (used for runes). It was fun!

Warcraft – Sadly Warcraft has been my neglected MMO at this point. I keep waiting to hear more news about things like player housing but I feel so out of the loop and I just haven’t had much motivation to log in. When I do log in, it’s for some simple collecting, or just updating a few things. I haven’t done anything re: making gold, or the economy. I think a large portion of this is due to still not finding my ‘people’ in game. I do not have a community I belong to, where as in both Wurm and EVE, I have a somewhat large community of people I can talk with and interact with at any one given time. Still, I’m not ready to cut ties completely. Especially with housing just on the horizon.

Playing anything fun? Avowed? Palworld? Waiting for the latest expansion to your favourite game? Let me know in comments – or as always you can find me these days over on Mastodon and Bluesky.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

WoW Economy Wrap Up – December

I had taken a break for most of 2024, leaving Warcraft back in April and while I did return sporadically throughout the rest of the year, it wasn’t until December that I finally fell back into my familiar patterns when it came to gold making. I knew there was a few reasons for this, most noticeably a lack of community and sense of belonging that I just haven’t been able to find in the game. I stumbled off to EVE Online, where I worked on ISK making and because I had quite a large community there, I found it easier to stick with it. That being said, Warcraft is a game I enjoy a great deal, I just need to take some time to find my people.

Back to the sales! I’m currently spread across 28 NA realms, though I do have an active EU account as well (I haven’t been playing it frequently, and I have no plans on doing any gold making there). My best realm for the month of December was Mal’Ganis (2.3 million earned), followed by Thrall (1 million earned). My least profitable realm was Agamaggan, where I only made 31k for the month. I was not particularly consistent with my gold making habits this month, sometimes I didn’t feel like reposting my items so I would just wait until the next day, and I’m still spending a lot of gold playing catch up when it comes to professions.

I deal in a lot of high end materials, mostly transmog. Even though Mal’Ganis was my top selling server as far as amount of gold goes, I still only sold 7 items there. One of those items was 1.7m gold.

As long as I make a sale here and there, it seems to balance out. I spend approximately 1h each day on dedicated gold making, which is mostly just putting items back up for sale, or stock management. I do currently have 5 active accounts, and I’ve been using a level 11 character to power level characters from my 3 main accounts. Once the 20th anniversary (and timewalking) ends, I’ll drop back down to 3 accounts instead of 5. My two ‘extra’ accounts have level 11 characters that I can use without a subscription, so it all seems to work out in the end.

I hope everyone has had a great 2024, and here’s hoping 2025 brings lots of sales and some exciting times to Warcraft. Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Doing All of the Things

I’ve been playing Warcraft again, and I have to say it feels really nice, familiar. One of the first things I did was level up a handful of characters via timewalking (I currently have 5 accounts active, with a few level 11 characters hauling around the other accounts for some easy leveling) and then once I got my top 4 characters to 80 it was time to work on their crafting.

4 ‘main’ characters lets me cover all 8 professions (minus gathering) and focus on collecting recipes. Of course I’m pretty behind in The War Within, but I know I’ll get there. I used the addon posted above to help me keep track of things, and while my engineering is quite far behind, I know it won’t take long to level it up, and it’s more important to have knowledge points than it is to beeline to 100.

I haven’t started the tailor / enchanter yet, that’s the goal over the weekend. I do also have some gathering characters, I just don’t tend to USE them because I’m not a fan of gathering. It’s usually easier (and cheaper) for me to just buy what I need, and then with the free time I have from NOT gathering, I can do something else.

What else? Well, I’ve been working on my ATT collection, pets, mounts, transmog, and of course there’s a LOT to do in TWW. I haven’t completed each of the delves yet, I think I’ve only got two of them done. I’ve been doing the anniversary events, but I wanted to take a look at the achievements to see if there was anything I could complete before it leaves us. I like how comfortable Warcraft is, and while I may not have a static guild or group of people to play with, I’m having fun finding my way again.

As always, happy gaming – no matter where you find yourself.