Warcraft Casuals

Popping My ICC Cherry

2010-08-11T13:48:00.000+01:00

So that now I have attained the long awaited Gold Cap, (I just love saying that :) ), I was shuffling around Dalaran the other night wondering what to do with myself. I was skimming through the usually banal offering of Trade Chat when I came across a ‘LF DPS for ICC10 – Last Spot’, no mention of gearscore or achievements. So I was upfront in my /W and said that I have never actually been to ICC but have read up on the fights and could put out decent(ish) DPS. The guy comes back and says that’s no problem but they were starting at Festergut and was that an issue for me. Well beggars can’t be choosers so I said no worries and got the invite and headed on over to ICC. When I get in the first thing I notice is that the other nine are all in the same guild, nearly always a good sign in my experience. We exchange pleasantries and quickly get down to clearing the trash up to the stinky one without any problems.

The raid leader then asks if everyone is happy with the fight, I check that I am just to stand behind him and all out DPS (like I have read) and he confirms that is pretty much my role as a Rogue in this fight. So off we go, I drop a TotT on the MT and start DPSing for all I’m worth but with only about 30% down we wipe. Ah well, release, head back and try again. This time we get him down to about 40% and another wipe. As I’m flying back I get a whisper from one of the raid, he apologies for the wipes and explains that the tanks are just learning the fight. I tell him that it is fine and that as I’ve never even been here before I was enjoying myself even though we were wiping. He also mentioned that Raid Chat was very quiet because they were on Vent, he invited me to join but as they were all speaking Dutch I thanked him but told him that as I was Scottish and didn’t speak Dutch that it would be better to decline.

We wiped again on the next run but this time we got him down to 80%. So one more try and it’s 20:53, and I was due to log off at 21:00. This time however, it all came together and Festergut became my first boss downed in ICC. (Hopefully not my last). He dropped a bit of plate and a tanking cloak but that didn’t bother me at all, I was just a little disappointed that I couldn’t join them on their attempt at Rotface too. Though I’m not a slave to the meters I was pleased to see that even though I have never been to ICC or RS before and never got any loot drops from VoA 10 or 25, that I could still put out some respectable numbers. Thanks guys and if you ever need someone to make up the numbers again, please don’t hesitate to give me a shout.

~McRaffles

Gold Capped

2010-08-05T08:32:00.000+01:00

At last! I have finally managed to get to the Gold Cap on McRaffles. It was a long hard slog but I got there in the end . I will probably go back to PvP now and forget about the Auction House for a while. I think the cash will be used to get some of the nice shiny new gold-sinks in Cataclysm and maybe help level my crafting professions.

It was not actually difficult, it just took patience. During the times when it was getting to be a bit of a grind, I took breaks, levelling my Pally from 70 to 80 and spending about 40k kitting out my Rogue. Though I have no intention to try and hit anymore gold milestones, now I’m there I never intend to be broke again. I’ll always keep my stash above 100k and with the skills that I have learnt along the way, I know that I can always make some extra gold without too much effort. So I’m hanging up my Auction House cap, for now.

~McRaffles

One Hundred and Eighty!

2010-07-09T13:01:00.001+01:00

No, I have not decided to stop playing Warcraft due to the RealID debacle, for the noble ‘sport’ of darts. I have just reached the dizzy heights of 180,000 gold. Only 34,000 and some change to go before I hit the cap.

I thought I’d go back and reattempt my long shelved ambition to get the Loremaster, or at the very least the Seeker achievements, but after trailing around Duskwood for what seemed like hours I decided to give up those particular goals, life’s too short.

Oh and apologies to those who were waiting for further updates to ‘Rogue Reports’, but I have removed it from the blog as I’ve decided to polish it up, finish it off and submit it to the Blizzard 2010 Creative Writing Contest and see if I could win a trip to California to meet, greet and eat with the Blizzard writing staff and a replica Frostmourne.

Wish me luck please.

~McRaffles

Totally Enchanting

2010-06-21T09:42:00.003+01:00

I finally managed to get my enchanting up to level 450; how much of a nightmare must it have been pre armour vellums? I thought that as I had quite a descent stock of mats that it would be no problem; wrong again, I had no idea that from 375 to 450 was so mats intensive. To be fair, it probably wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if I’d just stuck to the enchants recommended by the guide. However, being the gold grabbing little miser that I I’ve become (in game) I decided to level using the most AH friendly enchants and turning them into scrolls and doing so actually made a profit in the process. So that’s me with three level 80’s with Blacksmithing, Mining, Herbalism, Alchemy (transmute), Jewelcrafting and Enchanting all at 450. Now I understand that this is not going to instil fear into the hearts of the multi-nationals but, for me, this is a manageable little enterprise which has recently got me to another milestone and the all-time-high of 150,000 gold.

~McRaffles

Podcasts and Gold

2010-06-17T14:53:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, a mix of being crazy - busy at work and the World Cup has seriously curtailed my time to blog. So, what’s been happening? First of all, I would like to thank everyone who contributed kind comments and constructive points about my little story ‘Rogue Reports’; especially Adam at ‘The Noisy Rogue’, Rilandune at ‘Heroically Random’ (formally ‘A Rogue’s Tale’), Daraia at ‘Daughter of Ravenholdt Manor’, Amelia at ‘In Shadows of Dawn’ and of course all my fantastic guildies over at ‘Knights of Columbus’. I probably won’t be posting any more parts of the story for a while as I am going to see if I can find the time to write a few more chapters offline to maintain continuity, and get ahead of the game a little, then start publishing them again.

Whilst at work I have recently discovered the joys of listening to Warcraft gold making Podcasts. As far as I know (I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong) there are only two, the more established (currently 10 episodes) ‘Call to Auction’ and the relative newcomer with only two episodes so far (not including the test one), ‘One Copper Podcast’.

The ‘Call to Auction’ podcast is hosted by Markco, Euripides, and sometimes Faeghleis. Most people who are in anyway interested in making gold in Warcraft know Markco from the ubiquitous ‘Just My Two Copper’ blog. Euripides is from ‘outdps.com’ and writes an article called ‘Gold Capped’ for ‘wow.com’ and Faeghleis pops in now and then to do the sound, explain add-ons and basically keep the guys on track. This is an excellent, funny, well put together podcast which over the course of the episodes goes a long way to explaining the basics of gold making, more advanced strategies and looks at the gold making aspects of professions and the value of different add-ons.

The ‘One Copper’ podcast is hosted by Seth from 'One Copper' (one of my favourite gold blogs) and Coffelord (I’m afraid I don’t know a lot about him, apart from him being the leader of a large guild on the US server Mal’ganis and he writes a blog called ‘hilariouslyrandom’. This podcast is really growing on me. The first episode was a little rough around the edges with some dead-air moments and miscommunications, however the content is great and, in my opinion, that’s what’s important. The second episode came on leaps and bounds, much smoother and more professional. I am sure that as soon as Seth gets a new microphone this will greatly enhance the listening experience and make this a ‘must not miss’ podcast.

One of the questions that Coffelord posed on the last podcast was ‘Why do you make gold?’ This has been picked up by a couple of bloggers and I just thought that I’d put in my two coppers. I started my gold grind just before Christmas ’09 with about 3.5k in the bank, by the beginning of February ’10 I had raised that to 50k and at the start of March I had doubled this to 100,000 gold. I then went on a bit of a spending spree and geared my rogue up to a decent ICC raiding level (even though I have still not seen the inside of it) This cost me in the region of 40k. This, as well as shelling out for epic and cold weather flying for my alts, made a serious dent in my fortune. So I started again, albeit a little slower this time, as I was levelling my pally to 80 at the same time. I currently have around 143,000 gold and would probably be close to gold cap if I hadn’t splashed out so much, but hey, what’s the point in having it if you’re not going to spend it.

I don’t really have any plans to spend much more pre-Cataclysm, so I think I’ll use whatever I happen to have when I get there, to take full advantage of some of the lovely gold-sinks that Blizzard will no doubt tempt us with. I will probably also use a fair bit to level my crafting professions, though hopefully my gathering professions will go a long way to offset this. At the end of the day, as long as I’m still having fun, then I won’t worry about it, though I still hope to hit gold-cap eventually, just to know that I did!

~McRaffles

Another Milestone

2010-06-04T11:03:00.003+01:00

I finally got MacNeilly to level 80 last night, woohoo!! That means that not only will I be taking 3 level 80’s into Cataclysm, I will also now be able to mine anywhere with relative impunity. My aggro range is greatly reduced and if I am jumped by a non-elite mob, I can quickly dispatch the offending interloper.

So what are my priorities now? Well I am still compiling cash slowly but surely. My goldmaking endeavours have been just ticking over recently, whilst levelling, and I am sitting on a liquid pile of a little over 130,000 gold. I think that the gold cap is attainable, but I am not intending to risk suffering from AH burnout to achieve it. So I’ll keep plugging at it and see how I get on.

I remembered that I still haven’t completed the Loremaster and Seeker achievements on McRaffles. I have got the Northrend, Outland and Eastern Kingdom titles but I still need to do Kalimdor. So I suppose I’d better get cracking before Cataclysm floods, burns or rips the place apart.

Last and most probably least, I am looking to max out enchanting on StoneKold. I only ever intended to level up to 375, just to disenchant all items. I am now thinking that it’s about time I got it to 450 and it shouldn’t be too difficult as I’ve amassed hundreds of dusts, scores of essences and dozens of shards. I may even venture into the enchanting scroll market.

~McRaffles

Just Another Update

2010-05-12T11:12:00.000+01:00

MacNeilly, my Paladin is just a couple of bars short of level 77 now and I have finally moved him away from the oppressive squalor of Zul’Drak over to the beautiful greenery and wide open spaces of Sholazar Basin. This also gives him the added bonus of mining Saronite and Titanium when he comes across them in the course of regular questing.

On the gold front, I’m continuing to buy up cheap Saronite and eternals when I can get them. I am also crafting the usual belt buckles, gems of the rare, epic, prismatic and meta varieties, and even the odd enchanting rod. I am now sitting at a smidgen over 115,000 gold in liquid assets, with a decent amount of banked stock to fall back on.

I have even gotten around to purchasing a guild and a couple of bank tabs for my banker (at a very reasonable price). I am making a conscientious effort to keep these tabs rubbish free and only to be used to keep excess stock for selling and pre-patch/expansion stockpiling.

~McRaffles

Proto-Drakes Are Like Buses…

2010-05-05T13:14:00.000+01:00

You wait a whole year for one and two come along on the same day!

I logged on on Sunday with the sole intention of finishing the last of the Children’s Week achievements that I didn’t get around to last year when I notice that my Mysterious Egg has hatched again, I open it expecting the usual Tickbird Hatchling or Adder pet thing and lo and behold, the ‘Reins of the Green Proto-Drake’ drops. Nice.

I then crack on with the remaining Children’s Week quests, on my new Green Proto-Drake; I firstly complete five daily quests with my orphan out (yeah yeah, I know). I then get a group together and clear Utgarde Pinnacle, about three-quarters the way through the King Ymiron fight, I thankfully remember to whistle for my orphan and he witnesses the demise of the King.

So on to the dreaded battlefields for ‘School of Hard Knocks’. Now I’m not a big fan of PvP, I have no resilience gear and I’m not really that fond of battlefields, so this was the one achievement that I was not looking forward to. Contrary to my worst fears however, it wasn’t all that bad; Warsong Gulch and Alterac Valley were surprisingly civilised with the Alliance and Horde trading goes at returning flags and capping towers. Eye of the Storm and Arathi Basin on the other hand were the usual free-for-all mash-ups that they always are on my server, but I was lucky enough to grab a flag and attack a banner in the normal course of the games. So that was it, done and dusted, ‘What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been’ complete. I made my way back to Dalaran, opened my mail and pick up the long anticipated ‘Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake’ – WOOT!

~McRaffles

Thanks!

2010-04-29T15:23:00.001+01:00

I would just like to take a second to thank everyone for their kind comments on ‘Rogue Reports’. If you have any comments or criticisms, I would be more than happy to hear them. I’m very busy at the moment, however I hope to get Part Four written and uploaded as soon as possible.

In other news, I am very happy to report that I have now managed to get my finances back in order; I am now sitting at a couple of grand over the 100,000 gold mark and very happy about it too. I have shelved my plans to accrue more Frost Emblems on McRaffles as I can only take so much of pugging the daily random heroic.

For now, I am happy to continue dabbling with the AH and maybe even have a crack at reaching the gold-cap. I have also commenced a concerted effort in levelling MacNeilly. I have been threatening to do this for quite some time now but now that I’m back over 100k gold I have decided to go for it. He was sitting at 71 for quite some time and after a couple of days questing, he just dinged Level 73 as I logged off last night. I am quite enjoying levelling a Retribution Paladin, very little downtime and nice quick kills. It would be good to take three level 80’s into Cataclysm; much easier for levelling professions too.

~McRaffles

Just a Quick Update

2010-04-16T13:12:00.000+01:00

I picked up a bargain Mechano-hog in trade chat for 12,500g and sold it within an hour for 14,800g. I consider 2,300g clear profit for an hour’s ‘work’ is not a bad use of my time. I have found that after the last patch buffing honour and enabling BG Mark turn-ins for even more, the epic gem market has take quite a hit, this notwithstanding these, along with my regular rare, prismatic and meta gem cuts have been selling well. I’m also still dabbling in the Eternal Belt Buckle market and flipping the odd Primordial Saronite. All in all I’ve had a good couple of days at the Auction House and am now up to just over 84,000g.

~McRaffles

Decision Made

2010-04-14T11:27:00.000+01:00

Many thanks for the comments/suggestions on my last post, I have decided that I am going to carry on doing the Random Dungeon for the Emblems of Frost, this also means that I can do the fishing and cooking dailies while in LFD. I will also carry on with my JC daily and my daily epic gem transmute. The rest of the time I will allocate to playing the AH, levelling my Pally to 80 and hanging out on my Tauren Druid (moo) and the great guys over at .

In the interim, I understand that my guild is going on the recruiting offensive, so I may be able to get some raiding in after all. If that doesn’t work out, I’m afraid that I am going to have to be on the look-out for a new guild,which has a raid-schedule moderately compatible with my limited play-time.

Through all of this I am still going to try and make as much hard cash as I can; and on that note I am pleased to be able to inform you that my gold reserves have recently recovered somewhat and I now have a little over 76,000 to play with. That’s a rise of 14k in two weeks, not a record by anyone’s reckoning but definitely heading in the right direction. I don’t have any imminent plans for anymore gold-sink investments so I hope to be back up to and hopefully surpassing the 100k mark in the near future.

~McRaffles

I Haven’t Got a Clue

2010-04-08T13:04:00.002+01:00

I’m not sure which way to go now. I’ve geared my rogue up quite a bit recently and apart from a couple of Frost Badge upgrades, the only way to gear him further is by raiding. The problem is, I haven’t raided for a very long time. Apart from clearing Naxx and the first couple of bosses in Ulduar I have no experience of raiding in Wrath, never even been to ToC 10 and obviously ICC was way outta my league.

My guild no longer raids very much, most of the raiders have moved to progression guilds and just left their alts. I’m not sure if I even have the time to commit to raiding, so my dilemma is what do I do? Should I just get the last couple of Frost Badge gear from doing the Daily Random (that will take a while) and continue with my gold making endeavours, should I bite the bullet, move to a raiding guild and give it a go or alternatively should I level my paladin to 80 (currently 71) and spend more time with MaxHorn and Single Abstract Noun.

I don’t have the time to do all of the above and to tell the truth, I haven’t got a clue which one to pick. (Scratches Head) Please help!

~McRaffles

Gold Update

2010-03-31T11:23:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the lack of recent posts on my efforts in gold accumulation, as I may have previously mentioned, I have been pretty much caught up in gearing up McRaffles and enjoying the company and guild-chat with ‘Single Abstract Noun’. So apart from the odd Eternal Belt Buckle and Chaotic Skyflare Diamond sales, making gold has been put on the back-burner.

Spending gold, on the other hand, has been pretty constant; I recently shelled out about 13,000 gold on the materials, crafting, enchanting and gemming of a pair of ‘Bladeborn Leggings’ which greatly increased my DPS but left me with about 62,000 gold left in the coffers. Considering I started the month with over 100,000 gold in the bank, ending it with almost 40% less is a bit of a bummer. Though when I look at the difference in McRaffles’ gear between then and now, I consider it to be a solid investment.

It’s not all that bad though, I still have quite a few ‘Frozen Orbs’ that I picked up for a song pre-patch. I have also been religiously carrying out my daily epic gem transmute, and even after cutting a lot of them for my own gear, I still have a good amount stashed away for a rainy day. I’m sure that I’ll get back over the 100k in double quick time, but for now I still have a few badge upgrades to pick up, so I’ll carry on with the Daily Randoms for now and try to get back into the AH in the near future.

~McRaffles

I Need to Score Some Gear!

2010-03-30T13:56:00.000+01:00

I had never really cared about Gear Score in the past, and had always religiously ignored the ‘Must have 5k+ GS and Achiev’ trawls in /Trade. I believe, as do most right minded people, that Gear Score does not really count for much in Warcraft. It doesn’t account for player skill (or lack thereof) and it doesn’t account for spec either, so you could be a Combat spec’d Rogue, gemmed and geared for spirit and spellpower and still have a massive Gear Score - that just can't be right.

I have recently been running a lot of daily heroics and spending a shit-load of gold trying to gear up McRaffles as best I can. I make sure that I am properly gemmed, glyphed and enchanted and I keep up with the best rotations using resources such as RogueSpot, Elitist Jerks and rogue spreadsheets. I am certainly not claiming to be best, but I do put some effort into learning fights and pride myself in being able to (mostly) keep out of the fire.

So more interested in how well my gear was coming on than stroking my epeen, I decided to install the Gear Score addon and see how I measured up. Well I wasn’t disappointed; it seems my recent efforts have not all been in vain. Though I already knew this through the spreadsheets, it was nice to get a little extra validation. So happy with my lot, I queue up for and start Forge of Souls as the daily Random Heroic and I see that I can mouse over the other guys in the party and see their Gear Score at a glance, no problems there, we head of and clear our way through the dungeon. After downing Bronjahm, he drops the axe ‘Nighttime‘. As I am currently sporting ‘Quel’Delar, Cunning of the Shadows’ (I still love that name) in my mainhand and ‘Liar’s Tongue’ in my offhand, it wasn’t an upgrade for me so with no enchanter in the party, I just rolled greed. The hunter, for whom it was an upgrade rolled need and won it. It didn’t put me up nor down, however the tank quizzed me as to why I didn’t need it too. I let him know that it wasn’t an upgrade so I just rolled greed. He then told me that according to Gear Score it was an upgrade to my ‘Liar’s Tongue’ and I should have needed it. I told him that Gear Score was wrong and my slow mainhand/fast offhand combination was optimal for me, He still didn’t seem convinced and I felt sorry for the poor hunter who was trying to defend his proper need call.

Anyway, we went on to easily clear the rest of the dungeon and once it was over I promptly uninstalled Gear Score. The addon itself is not the problem; it just grades the items and adds up the score, it’s how people interpret and use the numbers, that’s when the problems start.

~McRaffles

Single Abstract Noun

2010-03-26T09:44:00.001Z

Well I took the plunge the other week, it was a day of many firsts; my first RP Server (actually my first server that was not Lightbringer), my first Horde character and my first Druid. To join Single Abstract Noun, the blogging community guild, I rolled a Tauren Druid on Argent Dawn-EU and raised him to the dizzying heights of level 10. It took longer than I thought, mostly because I was constantly getting caught up in guild-chat discussions.

His name is Maxhorn, I’m not sure what the RP’ers will think of that name but it seemed apt to me. I think I will initially try and level him as DPS but I would ultimately like to end up as a dedicated healer with maybe a tank offspec (another 2 firsts as I have always rolled DPS in the past).

I don’t get a lot of time on Max, though the time I do spend on him is a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting experience, due in part to the relative newness of everything and to a greater extent the constant banter and varied discussions going on in the guild-chat.

~McRaffles

How EPIC Am I?

2010-03-25T15:11:00.001Z

Well I am now officially ‘Epic’; I mean I now have the achievement for having ilevel 213 or above items in all slots. I only got it after playing about with Aldriana’s Combat Rogue Spreadsheet to see what would be my next best upgrades for spending frost badges. I noticed that I still had the Ice Striker’s Cloak equipped and found that upgrading it to the Recovered Scarlet Onslaught Cape would up my DPS by about 500 made the exchange a no brainer. So off I go and part with 50 of my hard won frosties and ping up comes the achievement.

~McRaffles

Quel'delar - Cunning of the Shadows

2010-03-19T14:40:00.000Z

I finally got it - Quel'delar - Cunning of the Shadows (I love that name) is mine, all mine. I hit a couple of stumbling blocks on the way, all my own fault obviously. First off, after all the initial running about, including my first foray into the Horde area of Dalaran, disguised of course. I found myself directed to the Pit of Saron to reforge the sword; I got the 5 bars of infused Saronite required and the hammer from the first boss and cleared the rest of the instance. It wasn’t until I was back in Dalaran that I realised that I hadn’t actually ‘Forged the Sword’. Damn, another 20 minute wait for another party – hold on a second, I thought, I’m a Rogue, and what do Rogue’s do best? Stealth of course. I wasn’t sure if it was possible but I thought I might as well give it a try – 5 minutes later – sword forged – woot!

The next part of the quest, to Temper the Blade in the Forge of Souls went without a hitch. Not so the following bit, in the Halls of Reflection, for one, I couldn’t get in – then I realised that I hadn’t finished and turned in the freeing the slaves quest in the Pit of Saron. After running it again to free the remaining couple of slaves and turning it in, I finally get access to the Halls of Reflection. I promptly enter, activated the sword to fight it and even after blowing all of my cool-downs, I die a horrible death at its ~~hands~~ blade. So I have to get another group together and we easily take it down (and clear HoR into the bargain).

The last couple of quests were easily soloable but still fun after a quick trip to Quel'danas Isle, a jaunt into the Sunwell I finally returned to Dalaran and picked up my new shiny sword. The quest-line was not actually as epic as I thought it would be but I don’t really mind – I’ve got the sword.

~McRaffles

Rats!

2010-03-11T09:44:00.000Z

I was doing Jewel of the Sewers, as my Fishing Daily last night, and the Giant Sewer Rat finally dropped for me. I had never actually fished solely for him and had actually resigned myself that the RNG gods would probably keep him from my side.

I also got two achievements for the price of one, I Smell a Giant Rat and Plethora of Pets. Even better, when I turned in my daily, I got the Bone Fishing Pole as well (So much cooler than my Jeweled one).

Not a bad haul from a 5 minute daily, I’m sure you’ll agree.

~McRaffles

The Battered Hilt

2010-03-09T11:58:00.000Z

As you probably already know, as part of my rogue gear-improvement regime I was on the look out for a reasonably priced ‘Battered Hilt’. I only recently (last weekend) raised my gear-score high enough to be able to participate in the Icecrown 5-man heroics (a requirement for the Battered Hilt quest chain).

So there I was sauntering through Dalaran on a lovely spring evening, feeling not a care in the realm. I had recently successfully ran both The Violet Hold as the Daily Random Heroic and The Oculus as another random Heroic just because I had the time.

So happy with my lot I was scanning the normally banal script that is known as Trade Chat and up pops a line that sparks a little interest – “WTS [Battered Hilt] /w me an offer”. Now The Battered Hilt usually retails on my servers AH at anything between 15 – 18k. I have seen them being offered in Trade for 12 -14k. Now I don’t consider myself a complete tight-wad, but those prices seemed a little high for my tastes and being a canny Scot I am always on the look out for a bargain, so I whisper back “I’d like to offer 9k”. Now obviously I expect this to be turned down flat, but you’ve got to kick off the negotiations somewhere. So I wasn’t surprised when, after a long pause he came back with “Could you go a bit higher?” Just to show I wasn’t a pushover I said, “No sorry, that was my offer”. You could have knocked me down with a feather when he replied “Ok, go on then”. I was stunned, could this be happening?, was it a joke? Well I wasn’t hanging around to let him change his mind; I quickly ported to Stormwind to meet him and the exchange went without a hitch. I am now the proud owner of a shiny new old and rusty Battered Hilt.

I must admit that for a second or two I actually thought about flipping it for a profit, but as I really need a better main-hand sword, I decided to go for it – I’ll let you know how the quest goes.

~McRaffles

Rogue Gear Upgrades – Part II

2010-03-08T14:04:00.000Z

As intended, I spent a fair bit of cash this weekend. I bought the materials for both the Knightbane Carapace and the Bracers of Swift Death and got them crafted. I picked up a pair of Footpads of Impending Death for 11k. I shelled out about the same again on The Runed Band of the Kirin Tor. I then dropped 50 Emblems of Triumph on the Mark of Supremacy. I also crafted and socketed about 7 Bright Cardinal Rubies (the last of my stock). Including enchantments the whole lot set me back around 25k. All in all, I thought it was quite a decent upgrade for a fair price in my opinion.

I then decided to baptise the new gear in blood, so I queued up for the daily random and lo and behold I was dropped into The Forge of Souls for the first time ever. I don’t think that my gear-score allowed be to be considered prior to my upgrades. Well we nailed it, I wasn’t even sure of the boss strategies, but I certainly know enough not to stand in the fire and that seemed to be enough as we cleared it in no time at all.

I need to do a bit more research before deciding on what to go for next; however I am looking at the Bladeborn Leggings from crafting; Duskstalker Shoulderpads, Dexterous Brightstone Ring and the Crimson Star from Emblems of Triumph; Herkuml War Token, Cat Burglar’s Grips and Vengeful Noose from Emblems of Frost (If I can ever get that many) and the BoE’s; Wodin’s Lucky Necklace and the Drape of the Untamed Predator. After some, most or all of that, I will then go for the Battered Hilt and start that particular quest chain for my new sword.

I am down to about 75k now, but I’ll hopefully start building it back up soon.

~McRaffles

Rogue Gear Upgrades

2010-03-05T11:36:00.000Z

This week I have mainly been running random dungeons! I decided that as my gear is still lacking on McRaffles, and as I don’t have the time to raid anymore, I am going to try and acquire as many upgrades from badges; BoE’s or crafted epics as possible. This is probably going to put a major dent in my funds, but what’s the use in having it if you’re not going to use it? I did some research and decided that my first priority would be to upgrade my head and chest, as they were only ilevel 200 (Helm of Vast Legions and Heroes' Bonescythe Breastplate). So I have been running the daily random for over a week now and will keep doing so until I get enough badges for the upgrades. I have only had a couple of bad pug runs (mainly childishness and inexperienced tanks pulling way too much) but for the most part it has been a very positive experience.

Last night I landed in Heroic Trial of the Champion after the Champions and before Paletress. It was a quick run with no real problems and after downing the Black Knight I was very happy to see Mask of Distant Memory drop, with no other leather wearers in the party and it being an upgrade for me, my need call was uncontested and I was the proud owner of a shiny new helm. The fact that it makes me look like Hannibal Lecter is by the by. I jumped over to StoneKold and created a Relentless Earthseige Diamond and a Bright Cardinal Ruby and posted them to McRaffles. After socketing I headed up to the Ebon Hold to shell out 120g on the Arcanum of Torment enchant.

I have decided to just buy the materials and get someone to craft me the Knightbane Carapace as my new chest piece, so that will mean that I can spend 50 of my 65 accumulated Emblems of Triumph on a Mark of Supremacy to replace my old Mirror of Truth.

I’m also seriously thinking of blowing an almighty stack of cash on both the Runed Band of the Kirin Tor and a Battered Hilt (if I can pick one up for a reasonable price) , that should keep me going for a bit.

As I have not really been playing the auction house my 100k has not really moved that much, expect a big chunk to be taken out of that by my next update.

~McRaffles

100,000 Gold!

2010-03-01T15:18:00.001Z

Another major gold making milestone achieved yesterday, 100k gold; I am so happy! I must admit that when I started to seriously try to accumulate cash in late December, I didn’t think that a little over two months later I would be sitting on all this gold. It has been a lot of fun but very time intensive for a ‘Casual’ player and I was beginning to miss the challenge of upgrading my characters.

I am no means going to stop with the gold getting, but I may slow it down a little as I run more heroics to gain more emblems. On that subject, I was running ‘The Old Kingdom’ last night as the daily random and we decided to do all the bosses – I didn’t know that I hadn’t done them all before but after we took out the boss down by the mushrooms – up pops a couple of achievements – I must admit, I didn’t actually see what they were, but after I get a bunch of guild gratz I check my achievement summary and see ‘Champion of the Frozen Wastes’. I honestly didn’t even know I was close to it – bonus!

~McRaffles

Getting There!

2010-02-23T13:14:00.000Z

I finally attained the ‘Lunar Festival’ achievement on Friday night, pugging Azjol-Nerub and 3/2 guild run/pug on Utgarde Pinnacle (Thanks guys, especially Fli). Thank goodness, no more visiting Elders [I love this]. So just ‘Children’s Week’ to go for the Violet Proto-Drake. To tell the truth, I’m not looking forward to most of the battleground achievements, but we’ll see how it goes.

I’ve decided that, not before time, I will have to bite the bullet and gear up McRaffles a bit, prior to the release of Cataclysm. So as I don’t really have time for raiding, I’m just going to have to do Heroics for Emblems of Triumph and the odd Emblem of Frost. Then I can make up the difference by blowing a chunk of my hard earned cash on some BoE epic upgrades.

After reading the latest patch-notes, I have sold all of my Titansteel Bars as they will probably plummet in price once the cool-down is removed. I have also tried to buy Frozen Orbs but I was too late to cash in on last weeks price of 7g each and had to be happy with picking up the few that were still going sub 15g. It looks like the price is still rising, so I may just see where it stops and relist them for a profit.

I was asked by a RL friend who also has a Jewelcrafter and an Alchemist about which epic gem cuts I usually go for, so I decided to pass on the main cuts I use, this is by no means a definitive list, and by all means I would welcome any comments as to what you think may be better, it is just what I’ve found to be the best seller (not just quickest) for each epic gem type on my server:

Red      – Cardinal Ruby     – Bold      –      +20 Strength

Yellow – King’s Amber      – Rigid       –     +20 Hit Rating

Blue      – Majestic Zircon    – Solid        –     +30 Stamina

Purpl e – Dreadstone          – Purified     –    +12 SP +10 Spirit

Orange – Ametrine             – Luminous –    +12 SP +10 intellect

Green   – Eye of Zul             –   I don’t bother cutting, I just try and sell raw.

Meta    – Skyflare Diamond – Chaotic    –    +21 Critical Strike Rating and 3% Increased Critical Damage

After making a few investments (fingers crossed), I currently have a little over 92,000 gold.

~McRaffles

Onwards and Upwards

2010-02-19T14:09:00.000Z

Apologies for the lack of recent updates, a mix of RL mishaps and being real busy at work has seriously impeded my ability to blog. So, what’s been happening in-game? Well let’s start with McRaffles achieving ‘Love Fool’ last weekend. After making a concerted effort this week, I only require two Dungeon Elders for the ‘Lunar Festival’ achievement. Being a rogue I managed to solo all the others (mainly thanks to WoWHead). The two left however, (Azjol-Nerub an Utgarde Pinnacle) are not possible to solo, so I should hopefully manage to pick up a group for them either tonight or over the weekend then it’s only ‘Children’s Week’ to go (sigh).

On the gold making front, as I am still plodding away at the holiday achievements, I have not really been concentrating too much on accumulating wealth. Still, even with minimal effort I have raised my working capital to just over 83,000 gold. I now have an extremely kind gentleman who will supply me with Eternal Airs, Waters and raw Chalcedony at a very reasonable price. This will go a long way to supporting the seemingly insatiable demand for Eternal Belt Buckles and Chaotic Skyflare Diamonds.

I had one of those rare occurrences happen to me last night whilst carrying out my daily epic gem transmute, for the first time ever I saw the amazing sight of ‘X5 Cardinal Ruby’ pop up. That made me very happy, I had experienced X2 a few times and even X3 once or twice, but that was a first for my daily transmute, not wanting to sound greedy or anything, but I hope it isn’t the last.

~McRaffles

Nearly a Love Fool

2010-02-11T09:58:00.000Z

I cracked on a fair bit with my ‘Love is in the Air’ achievement last night; I finished the ‘Lonely?’ and ‘Sweet Tooth’ together then ‘Nation of Adoration’ (I still have a problem finding my way around The Exodar). I then completed the Goblin Quest-line ‘Dangerous Love’ I think it's called. I was a bit gutted that I wasted a ‘Love Fool’ outside Naxx by the Summoning Stone, but it turned out okay as I was invited to join a group by a guy who saw my failed attempt (I guess he Pitied the Fool twice that day :P ). I then hoofed it down to the Battle Ring of Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn Vale and crossed that one off too. That means that I only have Wintergrasp, CoS and Arathi Basin left for that achievement, no worries.

Apart from finishing of the last three ‘Pitied the Fool’ locations, I only had ‘My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose’ to go, so I decided to try and get a group together for Utgarde Keep – normal, the easiest of the three dungeons that have bosses that drop the Roses. I thought that 4 or 5 level 80’s would breeze through to the first boss in no time at all – the problem was that I couldn’t get anyone interested. All my guildies were otherwise engaged, so I decided to hit up Dungeon Finder to join a group; between 20–25 minutes later I eventually get into a group of a couple of 71’s a 72 and a 76. I let them know that I was not interested in rolling on anything other than the Roses from the first boss and we buffed up and headed out. Out druid tank was fine, though a little rusty as he confessed he hadn’t bear-tanked for quite a while and everyone seemed to be pulling their weight fine. I had a few aggro stealing problems (obviously) however with judicious use of ‘Tricks of the Trade’ on the tank, all seemed to be going well (if a little slowly).

We cleared the trash and got to Prince Keleseth – I TotT the tank and open up with everything – the Prince is no more. I pass on the blue whatever he drops and need on the Roses – nice, wait up – someone else needed too – WHAT? I wait with baited breath and of course the gods of RNG shit on me – I roll a 16 and he gets an 84, I can’t believe it. He comes out with some rubbish about needing by accident – yeah right!! Then he offers to sell me the Roses – ah, so that’s your game eh!! Okay, how much? 20g, he says. No worries, I would have paid at least 100g; so the trade screen opens, and I even put in 50g, and guess what – No Roses – And the ‘This Item can’t be traded across realms’ bullshit flashes across the screen – Bollocks!

I must admit I was fully intending to stay with the party through the whole dungeon, but after that, my heart wasn’t in it – I apologised and quit. I don’t normally act like a petulant child; however I was so annoyed that it would have ended in tears if I’d stayed – Sorry guys.

Ah well, still a couple of days left, I’ll hopefully pick them up tonight. I’ve got a couple of days off now (Friday & Monday) so I’ll see you on Tuesday with my ‘Love Fool’ achievement (fingers crossed). Have a great weekend.

~McRaffles