The Daily Grind: Rep Priorities

Dailies - love them or hate them, they're an integral part of the Wow end-game these days. What I'm finding in Pandaria as opposed to previous expansions and content patches is that the sheer number of daily quests available is really quite overwhelming, especially for a casual player.

**Updated for patch 5.2, March 5**

I dinged 90 on Aoifen the other night, so it was time to ask the rather bewildering question - what next?

Goal setting

My goal is to heal heroics and eventually LFR raids on Aoifen. To do that I need a plan to upgrade my gear a little.

The first thing I did after dinging 90 was go to the AH and drop some gold on a set of Contender's Wyrmhide PvP gear to (hopefully) make me slightly less squishy while being ganked doing dailies. The joys of PvP realms, eh?

I'd like a few more pieces of healing kit before I go into heroics - the PvP gear is better than my quest greens but it has no spirit or haste and isn't really meant for PvE healing.

On average, I'm getting roughly 8 hours play time a week. Last night it took me two hours to complete my farming (on all toons), Tillers dailies and Golden Lotus dailies, and I only did the ones at the Golden Gate. So, what to do? The only thing I can do, as always for those with limited playtime, is to prioritise.

Let's take a look at the Pandarian factions to evaluate their reputation-based gear and other rewards.

If you'd like to know more about Resto gear or Balance gear, my full lists may help.

Justice Point Gear

Justice point gear no longer requires an honored reputation. Almost everything except the new Operation: Shieldwall and Dominance Offensive trinkets can be purchased from Quartermasters in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and from Commander Lo Ping at Niuzao Temple:

• Pendant of Endless Inquisition - 1250 - Jaluu outside the front of Mogu'shan Palace
• Pressed Flower Cloak - 1250 - August Celestials Quartermasters in Shrine of Two Moons or Shrine of Seven Stars
• Vestment of the Ascendant Tribe - 2250 - August Celestials Quartermasters in Shrine of Two Moons or Shrine of Seven Stars
• Sudden Insight Bracers - 1250 - Klaxxi Quartermaster Ambersmith Zikk, Dread Wastes
• Wandering Friar's Gloves - 1750 - Jaluu outside the front of Mogu'shan Palace
• Brambleguard Leggings - 2250 - Rushi the Fox at Shado-Pan Garrison, Townlong Steppes
• Sorceror-King's Seal - 1250 - Rushi the Fox at Shado-Pan Garrison, Townlong Steppes
• Arcane Badge of the Shieldwall (A)/Dominator's Arcane Badge (H) - 1750 - from Operation: Shieldwall (Alliance) / Dominance Offensive (Horde)

Faction gear and other rewards

Golden Lotus
Need to get to Revered to unlock August Celestials and Shado-Pan dailies.
Honored: Leven's Circle of Hope
Revered: Whitepetal Shouldergarb, Mistfall Robes
Exalted: Riding Crane mounts

Klaxxi
Honored: Links of the Lucid
Revered: Klaxxi Lash of the Harbinger, Wind-Reaver Greaves
Exalted: Amber Spine of Klaxxi'vess, Reins of the Amber Scorpion (mount)

Shado-Pan
Honored: Sagewhisper's Wrap
Revered: Snowdrift Helm, Scroll of Revered Ancestors
Exalted: Shado-pan Riding Tiger mounts

August Celestials
Honored: Clever Ashyo's Wristbands
Revered: Boots of the High Adept, Ogo's Elder Gloves
Exalted: Reins of the Thundering August Cloud Serpent (mount)

Operation: Shieldwall (Alliance) / Dominance Offensive (Horde)
(new factions added in patch 5.1)
Honored: Band of the Shieldwall (Alliance)/Dominator's Band (Horde) or
Loop of the Shieldwall (Alliance)/Dominator's Loop (Horde)
Revered: Statue Summoner's Treads (Alliance)/Treads of Rejuvenating Mists (Horde)
Soothing Straps (Alliance)/Bambrick's Striking Strap (Horde)
Shock-Charger Medallion (Alliance)/Static-Caster's Medallion (Horde)
Heartwarmer Medallion (Alliance)/Cutstitcher Medallion (Horde)
Exalted: Grand Armored Gryphon/Grand Armored Wyvern mounts

Shado-Pan Assault **New in 5.2**
Neutral: Mender's Battletags
Friendly: Hearthfire Armwraps, Soothing Talisman of the Shado-Pan Assault, Ring of the Shado-Pan Assault  or Signet of the Shado-Pan Assault
Honored: Dreamweaver Drape, Gloves of Enduring Renewal, Trousers of Waning Shadow
Revered: Raiment of Silent Stars , Martiean's Splitleaf Girdle
Exalted: Heartroot Shoulderguards

Tillers
Revered: The ability to grow consumables of all sorts on the farm, eg. Motes of Harmony, herbs, ore etc.
Exalted: Black Riding Goat mounts

Order of the Cloud Serpent
Exalted: Cloud Serpent mounts

Lorewalkers
Exalted: Flying Cloud mount

 

Priorities

So, what to work on first? Aoifen is already Honored with the Klaxxi and almost Honored with the Shado Pan through quest lines in Townlong and Dread Wastes. I don't think it's worth finishing the quest lines just for the rep, since I wouldn't be getting Valor Points at the same time. I may finish them for story purposes in any case!

I think it will be important to get Golden Lotus to Revered first, then see what needs upgrading from that point on. I'll probably only work on one set of dailies a session to keep my sanity a little. It's going to take me a while, but I'll get there.

Did you have a plan in mind for attacking dailies? Do you have any advice for a new 90?

IntPiPoMo: Theramore

This post is part of IntPiPoMo: posting 50 screenshots in 30 days.

The Theramore scenario was available just before the release of Mists of Pandaria, and can still be repeated now at levels 85 or 90.

Not having read the Tides of War book, I was pretty hazy on what was actually happening during the scenario. Basically, the Horde drops a mana bomb on Theramore, destroying most of the city. Jaina does some heroic stuff (at least in the Alliance version, she does), and fights off the Horde invaders. The Horde storyline is even more vague, with your character helping with the invasion, but then once you get into the keep you just free some Blood Elf in the dungeon and that's the end (I apologise for missing an important story here, somewhere).

I did the Alliance side first, which was all rather exciting even if I wasn't sure what was going on most of the time, but then was a little disappointed by the Horde version. Compared to the other pre-expansion events that have happened within capital cities, I felt it was a shame that Blizzard didn't use the event to lead us further into whatever conflicts were happening between the factions as they start to set sail for Pandaria.

Storytelling problems aside, it was rather heart-wrenching to see the wrecked city of Theramore afterwards!

What did you think of the introduction to scenarios?

Theramore, before.

Geotag from WyriMaps

Theramore, after.


Geotag from WyriMaps

Why I stopped playing SWTOR

I apologise for the somewhat personal and non-WoW nature of this post. Just this once, honest.

Angelya the Sith Sorcerer

Last night I reached the end of my free month of Star Wars: The Old Republic and cancelled my account.

It's not that I didn't enjoy playing it - in fact I was having a great time cackling as I force-lightening'd everything in sight. I had just got to level 16 and my ship and headed off for my first taste of space combat. I had a few tiny alts that I mucked around on as well.

The Problem
Starting over from scratch in a brand new game requires a certain level of commitment and determination. The levelling process, especially in SWTOR where each quest giver speaks the quest text to you in glorious detail, requires concentration and attention.

At the end of a long day, when I'm back working in a job I'm not particularly enjoying where I'm away from my Sproutling for five days of the week and I've finally got him to go to sleep, I must admit that the last thing I feel like doing is sitting down to learn to play a new character and concentrate for a few more hours. A few times in the last couple of weeks I've sat down at the computer and thought about playing, but then fired up Skyrim and pootled around looking at the mountains instead.

That my main character only made it to level 16 in one month should tell you how long I've been able to actually spend playing the game (that is, very little), but from what I saw, it looks like a very detailed Galaxy and the Sorcerer gameplay and starting quests were very enjoyable (if you're into the dark side stuff, of course). I hope to go back to it at some stage once I can devote some more time to it, but at the moment, I'm just not playing it enough to justify staying subscribed.

But Skyrim is so pretty...

The Alternatives
So what to do instead?  Skyrim is still holding my attention, but I may well resub to Wow sooner rather than later. The Wow-withdrawal didn't hit me hard this time at first, probably because I had other toys to play with. Now I find I'm really missing the small goal driven super-casual play I had been enjoying around Christmas time. Perhaps that's all I need at the moment - my attention span has shrunk and I need the small-project approach with a toon I already know how to play. I'll also admit that the prospect of running an old-school raid with a bunch of Twitter-folk sounds like a right knees-up. I'll keep you posted on that, internets.

A Small Yet Shameless Plug
The other diversion I've been working on gradually is a product of my new-found commute reading time - I've started another blog for Fantasy and Sci-fi book reviews at oakenbookcase.wordpress.com. Stop by and say hi if you're interested in that sort of thing!

So, what will I decide to do? I suppose I'll give myself a week or two of MMO-free spare time before I decide. Unless anyone wants to help Aoifen become a Kingslayer, that is. Aaaanyone?

Res Plz

Just a quick one tonight... all will become clear soon as to why I've been so busy lately!

I just wanted to put out a quick public service message to everyone out there, especially those in pug raids.

If you die, please do not immediately say "res pls".

As a healer, I am well aware that you are dead.  In fact, I am probably in the process of getting within range of your body so I can, in fact, res you.

Asking for a res puts you on the bottom of my to-res list.

Special mention goes to those who ask for a battle res during the fight. I'm sorry, asking for battle res is the sole prerogative of the Raid Leader, and you, my friend, may get stuffed.

Thank you, that is all.

Random, Schmandom

I hate Halls of Stone.

I wrote a guestie for Tarinae a little while ago looking at her Heroic Dungeon stats, to see how random the random dungeon finder really is. After getting Halls of Stone as my random AGAIN today, I decided to take a look at my own stats.

We found out after that guest post that apparently there was a bug a while ago where Prophet Tharon'ja kills were recorded  as three kills instead of one, so for argument's sake I've divided my DTK count by three.

For Leesah:

Twenty-seven times.  Not all bosses were killed every time. Some of them were quick, others were painfully slow. Some quiet groups, some bitching children (take today's for example, grrr). Some decent tanks, some decent dps, one starting out terrible but gradually improving healer.

Leesah dinged 80 on Valentine's Day. That was, in fact, almost exactly 27 weeks ago. I've completed Halls of Stone once a week of every week that Leesah has been level 80. For some of those weeks I was away on holidays, or didn't have time to do many dungeons. Not to mention the 7 times I have done it on Aefa, or the times I did it on my EU characters!

Now I understand why I scream every time I see that loading screen.

Do your stats stack up to randomness?  Is there one dungeon that you hate hate hate?

What Pushes Your Buttons?

I recently increased my ignore list by one.

The Scene:  Zone into a random on my Mage - it's Old Kingdom. Okay fine, not my favourite place but usually doesn't take long. The group is all well-geared so things should be smooth.

The bear tank takes off and carries the first mobs right up the stairs to the next group without saying a word. The rest of us dash after, barely done with buffing. I manage to accidentally pick up a group of spiders on the way up the stairs. I kite them up to where the tank is so that he can grab them with a swipe.  I die.

The priest resses me and apologises. I say, "No, my fault, picked up a couple of extras off to the side there."

The bear says, "Yeah I saw. Didn't bother taunting".

I am a little speechless at this, so I don't say anything and we continue on. Sparkle Prince goes down and then one of the other dps manages to pull an extra pack at the bottom of the tunnel thing. Bear says after two dps are dead and I'm nearly so, "Who pulled that time?" After saying something about how it was most likely the dead people, he says something to the effect of, "I just love watching nubs die, lol".

Now, call me touchy but at what point does becoming a tank license you to also become a knob? By deciding to teach "nubs" a lesson by letting them die, you are in fact putting the pressure on the healer, not the dps. I wouldn't really care less if I died after accidentally pulling, since I probably deserved it, but when the healer apologises to me for letting me die, when it was actually the tank's choice that caused it, that's just asshattery at work.

Is there a line that people cross that makes you ignore them? I know I'm picking on a tank here, but there are plenty of dps who do it for me as well.  Healers... not so many. But perhaps that's because I am doing the healing some of the time.

Sorry for the ranty post today, I don't normally do these, but this guy pushed my ignore buttons :)

Image at the top is from http://media.photobucket.com/image/asshat/rkzombie/asshat.jpg

How to Tell If You're an Asshat

A "community" is a group of beings that share the same living space. As part of the community of Azeroth, we share our world with others. The community is further segmented into guilds and friendship groups, but we all have to interact with them at some point.

You know who I'm talking about, right?  They come in all shapes and sizes, races and classes - the Asshats of Azeroth.

A few bloggers have already commented in response to Wolfshead's article that slams Blizzard for creating a soulless world focused on soloing, that has led to the demise of community in WoW.  I have to say I agree with some of the points he makes. Blizzard has, accidentally or otherwise, removed a lot of the things that forced us to be social while playing WoW.

Gordon of We Fly Spitfires also wrote an article about this topic, and he says that it is not totally Blizzard's fault. From the article:

... at the end of the day though I believe that we, the players, are ultimately at fault for this lack of community spirit and not Blizzard. Their the gods who have provided us with an amazing virtual world to inhabit and we’re the spoilt children who have tarnished it with anarchy. We’re lost our senses of camaraderie and community and instead reserve our good behavior for our cliques, our guilds, and chosen to completely ignore our social responsibilities outside them.

It's true that the players make the community, and some of those players choose to behave in a way that makes interacting with the general community unattractive.

I like to think that the Asshats are the vocal minority.  But the numbers of them are growing every day.

Here are a few tips to help you recognise if you're becoming an Asshat:

• You become a known name on /2. People say hello to you when you make your first /2 chat of the day.


• Upon zoning into an instance, you don't say hello but instead ask immediately for kings. You open a trade window with the mage and stand there until they give you strudel (mmm, strudel).


• If you're not buffed right away, you add "ffs" to your demands.


• If you're the tank, you aim to finish the run as quickly as possible. The healer doesn't need mana!  She's a tree, ffs.


• In random pugs, you complain about the fail <class> (especially if they've just dinged and are in greens/blues). 


• You whine long and hard about the other <class> getting the loot, either in party/raid chat, or in whispers to your mate who's an officer.


• You organise a run of the raid weekly, [Noth the Plaguebringer must die], asking for 5k GS and the [Fall of Naxxramas] ach, pst.


• At the end of the run you drop group immediately.  Why bother saying thanks, you're never going to see those noobs again anyway.

and lastly,

• while questing, if you see some sucker clearing mobs up to a named mob, you rush in to tag it first, ignoring any group invitations from the noob. Bonus points if you laugh as you ride away.

If you've noticed any of these traits in your guildies or worse, in yourself, make sure to get help right away!  Only together can we stamp out the plague of Asshattery sweeping across Azeroth!

Please comment and add any traits you've noticed...

* Image at the top is from http://www.40kradio.com/archives/594