A pathetic attempt at making a joke: cf. Waiting for Godot; I’m currenlty waiting for the WoW 1.11 update to finish downloading. I thought I had grabbed all the files in advance, but apparently there was another 20Mb or so that hadn’t been distributed yet. So, I wait again. 92%, and counting.
Finally, the 1.11 World of Warcraft update is being applied. Which means all of those things I mentioned a fortnight ago are finally happening.
It’s currently WoW downtime, hence the reason I’m blogging instead of playing, and I’m wondering if the 1.11 update will be required when the servers come back up. The patch has been downloading (or at least trying to download) for about a week now. If they are distributing it, it seems to make sense that it is ready to use. However, being a somewhat newbie to WoW, I don’t know whether they work this way, or give a couple of weeks for it to download. The things that make me think it’s not going to be installed: firstly, there is no mention of it being implemented this week on the website, or in the forums, or the message that comes up regarding downtime. Secondly, there is a mention of hardware upgrades, for several realms at least (including Hyjal, thank god) so it would make sense that they would mention an upgrade of software if it was happening. Finally, not having the hardware and software upgrades at the same time should mean any issues will be easier to track down should they raise their ugly heads in the next few days. There are a couple of reasons I’m really looking forward to the upgrade. The main is that the bug that prevents reconnecting with the same character after a system or application crash, or a modem disconnect will be fixed. The nasty “A character with that name already exists on the server” message should be a thing of the past. Especially important for my monster 15 hour weekend sessions, when my ISP limits my dialup account to 5 hour blocks. Secondly, Druids are getting Innervate as a spell, rather than a talent. Which should be a very good thing. The only reason I don’t want the upgrade yet is that I’m only at 21% downloaded, since I can’t use the Background Downloader and play at the same time. And when I’m home, I play.
Within the multiverse that is WoW (there are different servers, called realms, which are totally isolated from one another) when a character reaches level 40 they are eligible for a mount. This is an expensive exercise, at around 90 gold for training and purchase, but is well worth it, as is allows for a faster ground speed. Since Ibukan is a Night Elf, she only has access (at least at this stage) to one type of mount, a Nightsaber. I chose for her the striped, rather than the spotted version. I will post a screenshot, just so everyone can see how cool she looks on it…
Well, it’s been a bit over a month since I first got World of Warcraft, but almost exactly a month since I first finished downloading the updates and started playing. So, what’s to know? In one month, I clocked up around 7 days of play time. That is, over 170 hours. In a month that only had 30 days, that’s almost 25% of the past month I have spent in WoW. My main character, the Night Elf Druid, is now up to Level 39. I haven’t decided which specialty I will move towards: Feral looks the most fun, but Moonkin (Nature spec) form looks kinda nice too. The next big thing is the mount I can purchase at Level 40. I think the 150-odd gold I have saved up should cover it. Although upgrading spells is starting to become rather expensive too, at around 8 gold for the last batch. My big tip to new players is to have an Auction House character, living in one of the big cities, that just picks up stuff from the mail, and sells it straight on the AH. Mine is in Ironforge, but I think Darnassus would be even better - the mailbox there is just steps away from the auctioneers. Basically, everything that is surplus to requirements gets sent to this character, and sold for whatever I can sell it for. Because some deposits are quite large (>50s for some items), you’ll want to pick your prices carefully. You don’t want to sell for too little, but by the same token, you’ll lose money if you pay a large deposit three times, and don’t end up making this much on the final sale. The other trick is to get a couple of items you can manufacture that are reasonable earners. There is at least one item that is required for a quest that various trades can manufacture, and watching the AH means you can ensure that when that item isn’t available, you can charge a hell of a lot more than it’s worth. I’ve sold an item that costs me about 30s to make for upwards of 1g 50s. I also have another character that just stores my surplus items. For instance, learning First Aid is important, but you don’t want to have to waste all of that Silk Cloth until you are ready to use it, but neither do you want it taking up space in your pack. So send it to your Müle (as mine is called), and when you need it, send it back. If you Return an item, it appears immediately, but if you collect and re-send an item it takes about an hour.
Scheduled downtime tonight on my WoW server - so rather than do anything else, I created a spreadsheet showing costs and potential profits for various items my characters can make. So now, I know the lowest price I can sell stuff for, and what items are the most profitable. And, it’s not always the more expensive items that are, percentage-wise, the most profitable. But, you do need to make and sell less of them. Which means you aren’t relying on 100 people to all be wanting a particular item, just maybe one or two. However, it has given me a lot of ideas about where to spend time in terms of manufacturing ocer the next little while. And, I’m not making this data available, for a couple of very good reasons. I worked very hard to input the data, and I don’t want anyone knowing what my profit margins are like, and undercutting me, or anything like that…
Well, my character in World of Warcraft has made it to Level 30. Last night, after a massive 9 hour session, I finally got there. It’s funny, but I think I’m spending more time in Azeroth than at my job…
Well, I’ve pretty much spent every spare minute I’ve had in the past week or so playing WoW. It’s a kind of addictive game, to say the least. I’ve managed to get my main character up to Level 25, with a bit of help from Blasta. For those of you who don’t know what World of Warcraft is, it’s a Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Game (or MMORPG), where basically you run around killing monsters, collecting loot and trading with other players. The thing that sets it apart from other video games is that you play with (and against) real people in real time. For instance, I have a group of friends who live in Melbourne, and they have started a Guild, of which I am a member. They often adventure together, and at times I join in. I have also teamed up with people from around the world, most notably a couple of Canadians. There are a variety of races and classes that one can play as in the world of Azeroth, which anyone who has played any of the Warcraft series may remember. They are largely very similar to the classes and races one might see in Dungeons & Dragons, or many other fantasy settings: Elves, Dwarves Gnomes and Humans; versus Orcs, Trolls, Tauren (Minotaurs) and Undead. Players can be Warriors, Mages, Paladins, Priests, Shamen, Hunters, Warlocks, Rogues and Druids. The game is more than just hack-n-slash, as there is a robust economy, where people can trade found items, but also develop skills in manufacture, and create their own products. For instance, my character has Leatherworking skills, and can create various types of leather armour, and I can sell these to other players through a server-wide auction house. Other people have specialised in manufacture of metal armour, weapons or magical items. If you happen to be on the _Hyjal _server, then give _Ibukan _a hello, and we can hook up and kill some baddies together.
If anyone in Adelaide has downloaded the Macintosh version of the WoW 1.10 patch, and would be kind enough to pop it onto a CD for me (WoW-1.10.0-enUS-patch.app), I will gladly collect it from you, and pay you in beer, wine or your chosen liquor. I’m stuck behind a 56k modem, and the wait is killing me. 360Mb before I can even think about playing WoW, and I’m only at 7.13Mb. According to the Blizzard Downloader: About 38 hours remaining.