Resetting My Fury Warrior.

I spoke with a guildie yesterday about how to improve my Warrior's DPS so I don't get laughed at quite so much, and maybe not get kicked from so many groups.

I used to pay attention to stats, but with the frequency that Blizzard changes them I gave up.

But I guess I'm ready to start taking the numbers more seriously. It doesn't hurt to improve a character and mine could stand to see lots of improvement.

Of course, the numbers are changing again with the Firelands Patch, but I could get a start on some things this weekend before it releases on Tuesday. I might have some more downtime from work after this coming week so I'll have time to work on the stats some more then.

Hit and Expertise seem pretty important. I don't understand the new stats yet, Expertise, Haste, Mastery...but I guess it's just time to crunch some numbers again. Then at least maybe my group pugs won't be so awful.

Soloing Old Instances in Cataclysm.

This is actually a fun venture. I wish the payoff was a little better, but I'm sure the developers would argue that they actually want you to work for your rewards, thus they nerfed the Magtheridon rewards when people found out that he was a great way to make oodles of gold.

Anyway, I have a gripe. Yes, I do.

I shouldn't have to be in a raid to solo an old raid instance.

I don't care about what the intent is, or anything that raiders or fanbois think is logical. If I'm the only one on in my guild at 3am and I want to solo an old, obsolete raid instance, I shouldn't have to wait until 6-8am for more guildies to come online just so I can ask them to make a raid with me just long enough for me to enter the instance.

THAT is what doesn't make sense.

The alternative, of course, is to either make sure no one solos old raids altogether, or to unlock them from solo play.

If the problem is that crafty players might find a way to take advantage of a current level dungeon and profit from it, then fix THAT. If all they have to do is get someone to make a fake raid with them, then why have the lock in place at all?

And I'm going to be honest. Sure I would like to finally experience some of those old stories, but I also want to farm some of these places as an alternative to grinding elementals or playing the auction house.

But I had fun doing the ones that I did. Found out I'm not ready for level 80 dungeons yet, but I can wait.

Still Griping About Crafting in Cataclysm.

When I began playing World of Warcraft, one of the draws for me was the concept of crafting weapons and armor. What I didn't understand for a long time though, was that in World of Warcraft, crafting gear is sort of awful. But I didn't know that for a long time. While leveling in Vanilla WoW I realized that there was just no way to keep up mining and blacksmithing at the same time. So I stopped gathering ore, which meant that I couldn't craft.

The Burning Crusade expansion was released while I was still leveling so I had an unbroken chain of quests from 1-70. Then I had to get keyed for Karazhan. Then, finally, I had to think about crafting and mining again.

Welcome to End Game!

I was kind of shocked, to say the least, when I realized how long it was going to take me to farm all those Primals. I could buy them, but then I needed to farm the gold somehow. At end game the only thing really worth money is raid buffs and crafting materials. So I needed to farm Primals so I could sell them and make gold for...Primals. Anyway, I also needed Nethers, and some enchanted item that cost a fortune.

I did not like this at all. But I did it because I wanted swords for raiding. The crafted swords were the best items you could get until you finished 10-man raids and went on to 25-man raids. It forever and I was mostly geared in Karazhan gear when I finally got my crafted tanking sword. I loved it.

Then my guild fell apart. And so did the next one. And the next.

What was the point? I had spent so much time to get these items only to find myself locked out of raiding. Guilds that had progressed further than mine didn't need another tank.

I didn't craft in Lich King.

Well, I maxed my Blacksmithing, but not for anything useful. I sold all my ore after that and made some nice gold...sort of.

But here I am in Cataclysm, actually trying to do some crafting and I'm just getting frustrated. I made a shield but I'm not using it. I made a set of bloodied gear, but it's designed for PvP and so I'm getting laughed at for wearing it in dungeons. I would like to make some Deathplate, but I need Chaos Orbs...which I have to suffer through groups for. Belt Buckle buffs are nice thought, but most raiding guilds have guildies making them for the guild already and don't need to buy them off the auction house.

I could buy the Deathplate form the auction house myself...but then why do I bother holding on to Blacksmithing if I'm just going to buy the gear?

Sometimes, it's just hard to like the game.

A Cataclysmic Update.

Had some time off from work and started playing pretty hardcore this past week. Soaked up my guild rep within 3 1/2 days. Cleared the Mt. Hyjal quests in preparation for the Firelands daily stuff. Started doing some more tournament dailies to see if I can still get that Argent gryphon mount...or maybe get the alliance pets. I want the upcoming Celestial Dragon achievement reward, so i've got a ways to go to get 150 pets...at 78 so far. Been knocking out some old dungeons for achievements. Even did a few Cataclysm heroics; got booted from three runs but one run was finished and I got two new pcs of heroic gear and a Chaos Orb.

Going back to work in a couple of days though so my game time will disappear again. Gonna make a couple more posts on my thoughts while playing this past week.