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Eight Things To Do Before 7.3
So Patch 7.3 is dropping this Tuesday (August 29th), and it’s going to take all day to do it. Good day to be working, or doing anything rather than waiting for servers to go live.
For folks like me who might not be in the loop, this patch will be changing a few things as far as classes and gear goes. Oh yeah, and we’re also going to Argus. Yep, a whole new planet. Which also means you’re going to be back to ground mounts only. Good times.
Now there’s not much to do as far as prepping for the patch. But Belle from the guild Method (and I’m sure most people have heard of Method) released a video that offers up eight tips to prepare yourself for patch 7.3
Method’s Tips for Patch 7.3 –
- Unload defiled runes.
- Bank Order Hall resources.
- Work on your Champion’s item level.
- Bank your Blood of Sargeras.
- Save your Obliterum.
- Stock up on Goblin Gliders.
- Save your higher item level relics.
- Level alts.
For an explanation of those eight tips, check out the video below.
Tips for Newbie Tanks
I’ll get to the subject in a second, but first I’d like to play a little catch-up as far as what I’ve been up to in the past… well… ever.
- Work. Yeah, blah blah RL sucks. Pros and cons of course. I work twelve-hour shifts, so when I’m done I’m pretty much ready to either sleep or go to the gym/go for a walk. Active, get the blood moving.
- However, I’ve also been making gold. I’m not online often, so I’m using the tips from my last post and slowly but surely get another WoW token. Or two.
- I’ve also been leveling my Horde Warrior alt. I spent the gold to upgrade the plate heirloom gear, but I’ve only been using him when Invasions have been active.
Which brings me to Ding 110!
I did all my leveling as a Prot Warrior. After reaching 110, I wanted to complete his Warrior Campaign. Part of my OCD when it comes to leveling alts, I suppose. So when I had to run Maw of Souls, I did what I usually did. I queued up as DPS.
“What? Why?” you might ask. Why queue up as damage when I’ve leveled to cap as a tank? Actually, most of you might not ask that. I did it for the same reason most people don’t, despite leveling as a tank themselves.
Criticism.
When you’re tanking in a pug, you’re arguably the second-most important role behind the healer. It’s your job to pull, keep the mobs from attacking the squishy other characters, and keep the group progressing at a rate that’s fast enough for the DPS, slow enough for the healer to keep up, and just the right pace to be able to handle the adds. If you fail at any of those duties, in the eyes of others in the group, you’ll hear about it (and it won’t be in a format that most would consider “constructive”). Or you won’t hear about it at all and just find yourself kicked from the group.
So I took the easy way out. Wait time, 35 minutes.
“Screw it,” I sighed. I swallowed my fear/pride, braced myself for insults, and queued as Tank.
Boom. Right in the group.
Anyone who’s pugged knows that it’s usually very quiet. People just want to get through it. It’s not social. It’s a necessary evil that must be tolerated. So I looked for any kind of chat that popped up while I tanked. We went from start to finish without a single character death. We went at a decent pace. I finished the dungeon, got my drop for the Campaign, and didn’t get kicked.
It also gave me a bit of confidence. I didn’t need a pat on the head. I just didn’t want a kick in the ass. All in all, it was a successful experience. More importantly, I learned a few things that helped the experience. Maybe they can help you too, should you want to take the plunge yourself as a newbie tank.
- Know the dungeon. I had run the dungeon, most of them actually, as DPS. So I knew where to go, and what was coming. When I went through as a tank, I didn’t need someone to show me. I used past experience, as well as the map, to get through without a bunch of waiting around and trying the patience of the rest of the group.
- Know your limits. Maybe you’re twinked out a bit. Perhaps you have some crafted gear waiting for you at level cap. Even if you can jack up your iLevel to the point where you qualify for Heroics, stay in the shallow end of the pool. Run Normals. You’ll find them more forgiving for your first or second time as a tank. Even if you out gear the dungeon, you can still run it for the experience and confidence-building exercise of it.
- Know your add-ons. Deadly Boss Mods are great when you’re tanking because when the boss is about to do something, it’ll let you know so you can react to it. If adds spawn, it’ll tell you so you can deal with them. GTFO is good for letting you know that the crap you’re standing it is killing you, and you should GTFO of it before the healer smacks you.
- Be Honest. First, I’ll be honest. When I tanked, I didn’t tell the group it was my first time. I’d run the dungeon enough times that I made a judgment call. If I could navigate it, I didn’t feel the need to let others know it was my first time tanking in a group. However, if you aren’t overly familiar with a dungeon, be upfront about it with the group. They might be understanding. Or they might kick you. In either case, at least you’ll keep the criticism to a minimum.
I’ve got another DK that I’m considering taking some time to level. He’s only 60 or so, but I may strictly tank with him to get him leveled a bit quicker. Have you had any luck as a new tank? Let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions for someone who is taking the tanking plunge.
Speed Leveling Your Garrison
As of this post, I have thirteen characters at level 100. While this makes me question things about my life, and perhaps my sanity, I can freely admit that getting a character from 90 to 100 is the easiest part of the whole proceedings. The part that has always been, and continues to be, the biggest point of headache and frustration is getting the character’s garrison up to Level 3.
Despite Blizzard’s claim to the contrary, it actually is important to have a Level 3 garrison. It unlocks more plots to build garrison buildings, gives you access to the Harrison Jones quests which can buff your followers, lets you get into Heroic dungeons by passing the Proving Grounds, Tanaan Jungle Shipyards blah blah blah you get the idea.
Bottom line, you need that garrison pimped out to the max. It’s easy enough to get your garrison to Level 2; it’s just that last step to Level 3 that’s the biggest cramp in the buttocks. To get access to all the content that gives a level 100 toon something to do (via L3G), you’re going to need two things. First, you’re going to need two thousand garrison resources. Now depending on how you leveled your character, you might be close to having that already. You might even be at two thousand resources. But if you find yourself a little short, or a lot of short, here’s three ways to get your hands on the resources you’ll need.
- Gathering Treasures and Rare Mobs – With the Handynotes addon, you can see where all the treasures and resources are hiding. That’s good for a couple hundred resources per zone. Plus, you are rewarded with garrison resources the first time you kill a rare mob. So chances are, if you’re one of those folks who power leveled your character to 100 through treasure gathering, you’re probably pretty close to 2000 resources. Lucky bastardo.
- Garrison Buildings: Lumber Mill or Trading Post – With a Level 2 Garrison, you only have room for one medium sized building so you can only get one of these. Neither cost resources to buy, just gold. If you’ve got flight, the Lumber Mill might be better for you. If you don’t want to leave your garrison, then Trading Post might be more your speed.
- Huge Ogre Cache – Usually on sale on the AH, the Huge Ogre Cache rewards 1000 GR. So if you’ve got the gold, this is obviously the fastest way to get your resources.
Oh and by the way, since we’re talking about gold, you’re going to need five thousand gold to level the garrison from Level 2 to Level 3. Again, depending on how you leveled you may already have the cash. But if you don’t, here’s three ways to pick up the necessary coin.
- Gathering: Selling Treasures and Loot – Treasures, green and better, can be vendored for 10-30 gold each. That adds up, and adds up quickly. Every zone has goodies to pick up, and most of it you probably can’t use. Sell sell sell!
- Running Quests – Okay, if you hit 100 in less than two hours, you probably didn’t do much questing. The nice thing about revisiting these quests once you’re at max level is that you can get 15-20 gold per quest reward. Plus, outleveling the quest means you’ll run through them with little effort.
- Farming Old Content – Whenever people ask about making gold, this is one of the main responses they get: power through old content raids for loot (transmog or otherwise). Video goodness provided below.
And there you have it. It’ll probably take longer to get the resources and gold than it would to level a character from 90 to 100. But once you have what you need, the World (of Warcraft) is your oyster!
Weekly Update – Back to Questing
The blog may be undergoing changes in the next few weeks. Don’t worry Herc, you’ll always have a job ’round these parts.
Counting Coins
The money train seemed to pick up steam this week. I’d like to tell you that it was all due to some smart investments or profitable real estate. But it actually had more to do with leaving the profitable real estate (ie The Garrison). Rokk was nominated to be the team flight monkey, so it was up to him to fill the necessary prerequisites needed for the meta. That meant he would be heading back through most of the Draenor zones (except Frostfire Ridge) to finish off quest lines (and unlocking the applicable Loremaster achievements). He’d also explore what needed exploring for the Exploration achievement. Between cash quest rewards, gear drops, and treasures that he stumbled across (thanks to Handynotes), Rokk brought an extra couple thousand gold to the table all by himself. He still has more quests to do (Spires of Arak and only 12% into the quests of Nagrand), but between what he made this week and what the gold factories churned out, this week’s grand total was 38,344g. That’s potentially two months of free game time in two weeks.
I love garrisons, almost as much I love watching gold pour into the bank. I don’t know what Blizzard plans on nerfing in Patch 6.2, but I hope they don’t touch garrisons very much. Leave my gold garrisons alone!
Objectives
Like I said, Rokk was tapped this week and started the flight grind. He upgraded the Trading Post to Level Three for the 20% rep bonus. A couple other characters upgraded their Barracks to Level Three for the follower cap increase to 25. Spend money to make money.
Let’s see how I did with last week’s list:
- Continue working on Harrison Jones missions. (Only need 2-3 more per character.)
Decide on a character who will work on getting the meta achievement for flight and start questing and exploring and so on.(Rokk got the nod.)- Run more Heroics and get close to LFR raiding.
- Playing on the Isle of Giants for the mount or pet. (No time for even these shenanigans.)
- Work on Transmogs. (See above.)
- Kill elites for gear upgrades. (Nope.)
My focus on the upcoming week:
- Finish up some quests and exploration, start on Apexis mission.
- Start the Tanaan Jungle reps.
- Harrison Jones missions.
- Ride out the Patch 6.2 gong show, let the bugs fall where they may.
- Set the Hearthstone for a couple of characters, putting them in the Laughing Skull village in north Gorgrond (excellent for Lumber Mill).
Nothing overly ambitious going on due to my work schedule. Also, the new patch on Tuesday will probably raise a whole host of issues. There are rumors regarding the patch what may or may not be buffed/nerfed. So it might be a good week to take a “wait and see” approach. Besides, Harrison Jones missions will need to get hit and hit hard (assuming the right ones pop up). This guy has followers to level!
Lessons Learned
What did I learn this week?
- Going back to finish old quests can be a pretty good way to make gold.
- Harrison Jones is elusive, but he can’t run forever.
- Locking flight away behind a meta achievement is a great way to do it, and I hope they use this model for flight in future expansions.
Patch 6.2 will make next week very interesting. I have a feeling there may be some new objectives on my list around this time next week.
Garrison Follower Guide
Some of you may have noticed a bit of a lapse in my blogging lately. No health tips, gaming videos, or rants about the latest World of Warcraft catastrophes (RIP WoW Insider).
I’ve got a limited play schedule, so it’s not like I’ve got more than a few hours a day to get my WoW on and then write about it. Not with World of Garrisoncraft and the various checkboxes I need to tick for every character, every day, before I get to anything not involved with the garrison. That takes time, and time comes in a finite quantity in my house.
Over the past few days, my game time had solely been devoted to Her – my Blood Elf Hunter.
I posted about Her a few days ago. She was just an alt that I wanted to level up to get some use out of her professions. I wasn’t looking for anything serious. She was just a fling, someone to kill time with and have a little fun.
Who knew She would become so high maintenance? Blood Elf stereotypes exist for a reason.
I was really having fun with Her. About halfway to 100 I decided that She was going to be my main bank alt. Her job would be threefold:
1) Earn gold daily by sending Her followers on Treasure Hunter missions.
2) Create enchants, glyphs, and Darkmoon Faire cards to generate income for the remainder of the expansion.
3) Hearth to Ashran for AH duties once per day.
This led to a few issues.
Treasure Hunter missions were unlocked after obtaining a Level 3 Inn/Tavern. To get the Level 3 blueprint, the achievement “Stay Awhile and Listen” has to be completed. This involves completing a number of dungeon quests. Some of the quests can be done on Normal, some on Heroic. I wasn’t looking forward to living through dungeon queues so I went to Wowhead to see if there was a less painful way to get this done.
My research showed that only half of the quests needed to be completed. It also showed that the missions rewarded between 50-100 gold. Was that worth the effort of spending 30-45 minutes in a queue? I could sell the green drops from the War Mill and make coin quicker. Therefore, Treasure Missions (and the Level 3 Inn) were taken off the books.
Another alternative for making gold “in-house” would be by using the Pet Menagerie, as I discussed in a previous post. If my Belf was going to be a shut-in, She was damn well going to be a profitable one.
This left the matter of garrison followers. She really didn’t have many. The curse of leveling up so damn fast. Not only did She need a full roster of twenty (or twenty-five with an upgraded bunker), but She would also need some to work the Mine, Herb Garden, and Inscription hut to improve production.
It was time to head back out into Draenor to find more followers. Luckily, Bellular would have plenty of Follower advice to give.
Looks like my Lady and I will be out killing and maiming for a little while longer.
I just can’t quit Her.
Rokk Talk 