World of Warcraft - MOAR Gold

So GOLD, never quite seem to have enough of it and this is more than apt for saving up gold in World of Warcraft. I have recently come to the conclusion that I do not have enough gold saved up for the launch of Cataclysm and unfortunately it seems I do not have enough time to really do much about it. I am not just giving up though in fact I have jumped on my DK equipped with Mining and headed off to Northrend to just clear quests and sell the gear I got out of it.

I foolishly tend to compare myself with more established raider friends of mine and I am shocked by how much gold they have managed to stockpile especially as they do not tend to play the AH and have 4 guild banks to their name.

I am still clinging to the occasional bag sales now that the glyph market has totally dried up on my server I really hope Cataclysm revitalises the economy otherwise I do not know what I will do. I am nervous I guess at the moment with Cataclysm upcoming it doesn't help that it is also the same time as I have just ordered my new phoneline which I need to take the broadband step. Hopefully everything will work out though.

Still not ordered Cataclysm yet still having a close look at the old finances will update you guys soon. If you want to know anything else or see what I get up to on a more regular schedule follow @Shaftsword on Twitter. I'm out for now the temperature is dropping and I need to go wrap up warm in my bed.

A Mixed Bag

World of Warcraft

So the Shattering has finally come to World of Warcraft and I finally managed to log in late this afternoon after dealing with some I had to do outside of Azeroth. First impressions there is so much to take in all the changes to Orgrimmar for instance. Plus as personal anecdote the fun of getting your freshly level 68 Hunter from Nagrand back to a City. Hmm no portals in Shattrath what fun, eventually flew all the way to The Dark Portal and discovered the portals there that they use for reinforcements now work (did they before?). I didn't have any time to prepare some bags for my two new alts on my main realm.

Got some new ideas on things to be getting on with, now for instance it is much easier for my Paladin to finish out her Crusader grind with the new Tabard system and somehow I expect especially given the number of Trikes I have seen around today I guess you can go to lower level dungeons and still get rep. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the chance to try out at least one of my alts might go with the BE Warrior first as I know what I am doing.

Anyway also I recently had a second post of mine appearing on the newly revamped Just Another Goblin Community Blog which was a proud moment for me I hope that you the readers found it at least somewhat useful.

Books

At the moment I have two books on the go. At night to calm myself down (issues with ongoing pain and insomnia) I am working my way through Night Star by Alyson Noel the latest installment of The Immortals. I love the series but Ever annoys me like I am finding a lot of the female leads of the YA stuff I read don't even get me started on one Rose Hathaway. Anyway I digress the other book I am reading is Violets are Blue by James Patterson. I'm a huge fan I started with Double Cross so I have been picking up earlier editions as there is a deal at the local covered market where you can pick up 3 for £5 which is pretty sweet. The books just seem to get better and better really immersing you in the world of Washington showing all those places they don't mention in the tourism brochures.

Just in case you were interested books I have recently read include The Lost Hero, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Keep your eye on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory I have written a review of The Lost Hero which will appear in 3 weeks time, I like the blog and they have reviewed books from some of my favourite series namely Morganville Vampires, House of Night and The Immortals.

LIFE

I recently took the plunge to ensure my continued Internet connection, yes I am getting a fixed landline a pricey option you may point out which is very true but recently I found out that BT dropped their installation cost from £128 to £30 which I think you will agree is some decent savings right? I will not be signing up for Broadband with them though and I would point others away from their rip off deal. A 10GB limit which may sound like a lot but really isn't you'd be surprised how much crap Windows downloads in the background while you aren't paying attention. Add that to an online game like World of Warcraft (which I play if you hadn't noticed =)  ) and you'll soon be way over your limit and getting fined. I am going for Sky Broadband though I am not recommending it yet till I have actually experienced it.

So that is all from me for now as I sit here watching the latest UK episode of The Event, entertaining enough not sure how it has not been cancelled already though.

GENERAL POST - The End of an Era???

Well it seems so people. After three days I believe that for whatever reason the lovely and mostly reliable public wifi I use for the majority of my Internet connections has gone forever. How will this affect (YES AFFECT grammar is IMPORTANT) your humble blogger, well for one my World of Warcraft exploits are screwed until at least Monday when I might be able to go and purchase some Mobile Broadband time. At the moment I am pretty up to date on my other Internet projects so they can be left to their own devices for now still it is almost a shock to see how I took my Internet connection for granted it is a HUGE component of how I communicate with the outside world. For instance I pay two thirds of my bills online as well as manage my bank account and credit card statements add to this applying for the majority of jobs via e-mail and this is more than a minor setback for me. This is leaving out the fun downloads and reading of online comics and forums that I spend my free time considering. Whatever shall I do? Truthfully no idea but for now I have been regretfully watching some day time television ( has it started to suck even more since last time I had to watch it) and do a lot more reading at home whereas usually I tuck into a good book while freezing my ass off in the laundromat on chore day.

Wow this post has started a little negatively but let us move onto happier places, at the moment I am pretty healthy and pain free which is always a big plus and a rare occurrence also I have written a review for a YA book review blog, not sure if it will be published I will just have to see but I was happy to just be asked. I am also working on a novel for Nanowrimo though there is no way in hell I am going to manage even half of the 50k word count needed thanks to all the fun and frolics with my New Deal stuff. The idea though of Nanowrimo is a sound one and this time I have decided to go for a very different sort of book, which is a story about your average joe who goes on a quest to meet his celebrity. I was partly inspired by this weird sort of comedy documentary about this dude who wants to go out on a date with Drew Barrymore (at least he has taste) and also by Scott Pilgrim, the film adaption of which I was very impressed by different to the comic but still excellent on its own merits.

I have only just started cranking it out and I promise to share an excerpt or two provided I get to at least five thousand words anything less and I don’t think that I have done enough work on it. Moving onto published books by people you might have heard of there are a lot of books I want coming out in the next 3 months with releases by Alyson Noel, Richelle Mead and  PC & Kristen Cast. Night Star which is the next in the Immortals series is one I am eagerly looking forward to and The Fledgling Handbook a companion piece to the House of Night series is already out in stores in the UK as I type this I have high hopes for this as I want to soak up the background and lore of the world that PC & Kristen Cast have created including the religious aspects of the Vampyre world. Then there is the end of the Vampire Academy Series which is going to be huge, while I myself do not care for Rose Hathaway the series itself is captivating and I can’t wait to see how it ends though I tend to think that perhaps this won’t be the last time we see this universe but who knows.

Well enough talk from me I have to figure out a long term solution to my Internet woes that WON’T cost me like £175 initially and god knows how much a month in a direct debit.

PS. Using software to make this post whereas usually I use the Blogger editor I am interested to see how things turn out. Also this post was delivered through an incredible 10k net connection oh the speeds.

Lost Girl

Is anyone else giving this show from the white North the props it deserves? The show is awesome if Canada is creating shows like this why have we not seen them before. I think shows like Heroes and The Vampire Diaries have finally opened up the schedules to the fantasy genre and Lost Girl shows that the execution can be tight and the show entertaining.

Ksenia Solo is a revelation, gorgeous and incredibly funny see really helps carry the show in my opinion. I hope the show hangs around for a few seasons it is definitely worth taking the time to at least check out the first say three episodes before rendering a judgement.

[should have been an image here but my internet is being silly]

I can only hope the mostly evil and foolish network people will not kill this little gem of a show but hey maybe Canadian networks are different to American ones.

World of Warcraft - Tales from the AH

I did it!!!

What did I do you ask well I finally sold my first 400g Glyph. Even though I spend too much time reading gold blogs I only recently noticed that I have 5 glyphs of mage armor hidden in my glyph stockpile. Clearly though it is not a main earner for me so I thought I would tell you a little of what invested in and put up for sale.

·         Glacial bags – Expensive to craft but usually sells within a week of posting. I farm my frostweave on my tailor when she does dailies and the infinite dust comes from the saronite shuffle which is thankfully cheap on my realm about 15g a stack.

·         Abyssal Bags – Thanks to Miss Mediocre for this. Cheaper than a glacial bag with no cooldown I craft two a week and list them one at a time with a little spamming of trade because people still don’t understand it is a 22 slot bag.

·         Meta gems – Yeah more saronite shuffle shenanigans the prices here vary dramatically so i do not invest to much into this there are better ways to invest eternals at least on my server

·         Frostweave bags – On a good week these can be selling for 65-75g gold a piece and unlike glacial and abyssals tend not to take 5 days with a couple of relistings to shift. Once again my main which I used to use to do 10 dailies a day probably 5 days a week is a tailor and so generated a fair amount of excess frostweave for free and I disenchanted cheap jewelry crafts into the infinite dust. A slow and steady earner this one.

 

I am also sharing what I am stockpiling for patch 4.0.3 when the new race/class combinations come out and we will get a flood of new alts.

·         Runecloth –gathered from running Scholomance to get rep for my 3^rd Crusader

·         Netherweave cloth – all the blogs say bags sell well so I figure it is worth a shot

·         Saronite ore – I pick it up whenever I can prices are already started to spike

·         Eternals – Fire, Life, Shadow and Earth mainly

·         Fish – on my way to fishing to 450 so I stockpile the fish to sell later

So that is my take on World of Warcraft gold generation. However if my word is not good enough why not check out these blogs to get some tips.

Miss Mediocre

Capped By Cata

Anaalius's hunt for gold

Shaft's Words - Going from Strength to Strength

So I have noticed almost by accident that I have got a lot more serious about blogging recently with the number of posts really starting to pick up. I’m hardly going daily but I am getting close to two posts a week which I think is probably near the ideal for me. I have decided to diversify my blog posting as before but at least now I try to identify the subject of a post in advanced so if you wanted to you can skip ones if you are say only wanting to hear about World of Warcraft stuff and are totally not interested in Anime or US TV.

So I feel I owe to myself and you the readers (as seemingly invisible as you are) to take steps to improve things on this blog and to seek new audience in order to enrich the blogging experience all around. The blog will be looking inward over the next few days using some tips found from other established blogs who know what they are doing while also trying to establish some links with other websites that are relevant.

It is all mostly in the planning stages now but hopefully we will be moving forward soon but don’t worry the posts will still be coming as thick and as fast as possible.

World of Warcraft – Retribution Paladin 4.0.1 CHANGES

So I have been busy in my Warcraft stuff trying to make a little gold here and there slowly relearning my classes and sorting them out in terms of gems, glyphs or reforging as necessary. I certainly don’t have the nightmare as some of my friends I only have three level 80s, the first a Priest, the next a Death Knight and finally a Paladin. Guess what this post is about.

Paladins are one of the most popular classes in World of Warcraft heck on my realm I checked the populations once by class and paladins made up something like 20% of the level 80s here. Paladins have a reputation as the faceroll class of WoW and get a lot of stick because of the interesting changes that they have been through since BC.

If you visit MMO Champion or stake out the official WoW forums then you will know time and again Blizzard often in the form of Ghostcrawler will say that paladins need a revamp blah, blah, blah. It seems now that this revamp, reimagining or whatever you wish to call it has come to pass. BEHOLD the Holy Power system – cue dry ice, mood lighting and some faux angry rock song. Hmm even with the bells and whistles it seems to lack something.

The main problem with the 4.0.1 changes is the shock to the system, the other two classes i play are pretty much the same as they always were yeah they were alterations to spells that might affect rotations at 85 but for now I can contribute well to a group with only a little research and messing about (minus the fun of reglyphing and reforging which takes time), with a paladin it is like a whole new class that just stole the paladin’s skills.

I felt so lost standing at the training dummies in Silvermoon vainly trying to build up Holy Power charges to use Templar’s Verdict and just trying to get a hang of this new system. I have been reading some blogs on the Paladin changes like THIS ONE and I tend to agree in that now ret feels like a cheap rogue knockoff direct from Hong Kong. Reading into things it seems that things don’t get started until we hit level 81 and get a new spell that should help in adopting a rotation but of course that is not a lot of help at the moment.

This is a weird time for learning how to DPS as to be honest I don’t have the time or inclination to try and get into the often fail PUGs that go to ICC 10 or 25. I suppose I should but alts don’t level themselves.
So at the moment I am incredibly unimpressed by the ret changes but I am not quite ready to give up yet queue ANOTHER reading of the ret paladin thread at Elitist Jerks and tomorrow I will try to get into some sort of raid to test my dps after going back to the training dummies.

After that fun, I get to go try and relearn how to heal badly.