The Leveling Game and What it Costs

Larisa is asking how much gold she should have to be raid ready in Cataclysm after she tops off her levels.

I asked her what she thought she was going to need that would require more than the gold she might get from leveling. I pointed out that in Lich King, "raid ready" means having a mix of 5-man blues and some leveling greens. By the time you cap out at level 70 you should have plenty of gold for gemming your first epics, even after dropping 1k on cold weather flying and another 1k for duel speccing.

My own experiences are proof of the matter. I entered Northrend with a little over 1k and spent it on dps gear (I only had Karazhan tanking epics and I wanted to kill stuff faster while leveling) and my toon is currently at level 79 with over 1k even after buying cold weather flying on schedule. I have not sold anything on the auction house and have not run any 5-mans. I am currently gathering champion seals to get an epic two-hander or two. I might go duel spec, but I might not. I get to make that decision any time I want though just because of the quest gold I've made (and selling stuff to vendors). I have a bank full of northrend ore and frostweave and I should be able to make a small fortune off of those even if I wait until the prices bottom out after the expansion drops. I have not touched my blacksmithing since I capped it in Burning Crusade, not sure what to do with it, so I'm holding the ore for now.

Point is, I've done nothing to get gold, but have made over 2k. I have plenty of gold to make if I sell some of the northrend items I've gathered just from killing and mining. I have epic weapons waiting for me at the argent tournament that only require time played, and no gold at all.

So, again, what do we need the gold for if we only want to be raid ready?

If Blizzard makes the first Cataclysm raid casual friendly again, our 5-man blues and leveling greens will be enough to get in. Gems are nice to have but are mostly wasted on anything that is not epic, unless you are like me and intend to wear some of your gear forever. For instance, the dps gems that I bought at level 71 are still giving me love because I have not changed any of my gemmed gear yet. I have had some greens that would have been nice upgrades to my epics and blues, but the gems made the difference.

The only thing to worry about at this point is what Blizzard intends to do about travel. If we have to pay for travel in Azeroth (rather than just exotic fluff mounts) then we may have to mind our coins. Otherwise, there is nothing to stress over.

Frankly, unless you are collecting in-game vanity items or absolutely must have best-in-slot items (even though they are only somewhat better than the standard fare), then more than 5k gold is more than one player can reasonably spend.

Not so Fast!

Cataclysm is in Alpha mode! Must be coming out soooooon!!!

No, not really.

Well, soon for me, but not so much for others. I'll be very fortunate to be at level 80 and have decent gear by the time the expansion drops, but other players have been at level 80 for well over a year. The upcoming Ruby Sanctum raid will be of little use to them, just more gear and maybe some fluff toys.

I would love to get my Blacksmithing up to the level 70 cap, but I think I still need several hundred ore to do so, plus whatever "extras" I would have to buy from the AH. Thousands of gold worth, I'm sure. And I will be in need of new weapons. For me, that means weeks of Battle Grounds...maybe, I'm a little fuzzy on how to get nice weapons outside of raiding and arenas. In Burning Crusade I did Battle Grounds for cheap/outdated arena weapons that had been tossed into the honor point pool. It was good stuff for farming.

I like to kill mobs, I can do it for hours on end, and the more I can kill the happier I am. So, epic dps weapons are awesome, no matter what the bonus stats are, if they let me kill mobs faster. I wish there were achievements for killing random stuff, thousands of mobs of any kind.

Too bad Blizzard precisely does not want to put that in the game, "because if we add an achievement to kill 10,000 murlocs, someone will do it." Well duh! What are achievements for if not to achieve them?

Anyway, I have a lot to do if I'm going to get my character ready for the Cataclysm level grind. And the way I've been playing these past eighteen months, I may not make it in time.

Yeah, the expansion may not be released until November or later, and I may not be ready by then...whew!

Small Distractions

So, for about a week I was really into my character again, but then I got distracted outside the game. Not a big deal. I've definitely got my mind on my toon and can hardly wait to get back in and hit 80. So close.

I think I will try to get some decent gear after I hit 80. Maybe try to rack up some loot currency from 5-mans or something. Maybe do some battle grounds and get some dps gear. Gonna need something better than I have if I want a half-way decent time of leveling after Cataclysm drops, and that will not be far off. Beta is just around the corner. Dataminers have found beta promotional images in the Battlenet coding. I really do not have much time left.

Anyhow, first of May and feeling good.

Hero Quests

Players have been asking for class quests to be put back into the game. Vanilla WoW had one for most classes: Paladins and Warlocks had to go on a lengthy quest for their mounts, Priests had one for a staff that allowed them to switch classes without having to redo their stats, warriors had one for special weapons...and so on.

There also used to be more quest interaction with professions. Blacksmiths, for instance, had to complete a series of quests to unlock a choice of specific blacksmith branches.

Blizzard's response has been less than promising. They believe that they can only design a certain number of quests per expansion and that by implementing hero quests that there would then be fewer quests for everyone else to enjoy. It is a good point, to be honest. Let's that for Cataclysm Blizzard can design 3000 quests. The implementation of epic hero quests might require 700 quests for all of the classes total. Now, the general player base only has 2300 quests that they can level up with, unless they choose to do their one line of hero quests for their class. But the other class quests are locked to them.

Blizzard's current stance that everyone should have access to everything (all quests, all gear, all dungeons/instances) is actually limiting the playability of the game. If I run my warrior through all of the content, then switch to my horde warlock, there are very few things that will be unique in my second run-through.

They tried to do something about this issue with the Northrend map by making to landing points and allowing the players to choose one side of the continent or the other to begin their leveling process. Of course, by the time either side reaches a certain level, they are all playing in the same zones. But still, it was a nice throw-back to vanilla WoW where you could start leveling from one of several locations and then choose another one later with a different character.

We need more of that. And we need the hero quests put back in for each expansion but they need to be for solo play. Maybe the very last quest ends in an group encounter, that might be ok. The problem is that once the majority has gone through these group encounters several times, they do not want to do it anymore. Calls for help in chat go unanswered for a long time. The poor player might get one or two answers, but they will be from the wrong class or the group will simply fill out beyond them.

Solo content is important to late-comers and players who have "finished" the game and would like more to do.

Key Quests

Vanilla WoW and early Burning Crusade, players had to complete very lengthy quest chains to unlock raid content. Every raid had a key chain. For instance, in BC, you had to do several solo quests and then partially run some 5-mans that you had probably already run before. All to get into the first raid instance. The next instance required completion of the first raid instance and possibly the construction of an item that might require some farming of an outdoor raid boss or another handful of 5-mans. By the time you reached the second or third major raid you might have to run previous content over again for weeks while also completing a large string of difficult solo quests. For some these were good times, for others...not so much.

For the first people in a guild to complete each key chain, times were good...for a while. But after having to help the 30th replacement complete their group/raid key chains, it was more a job than fun. Suddenly top guilds might only be accepting players who had already completed the chains...somehow.

Coming late to the game was show-stopper. Any guild that was willing to take on a new player by then was not getting far. They were lucky if they could even get together enough people for dedicated 5-man runs.

Thus, by the "end" of the game, only small percentages of guilds were seeing end-game content, let alone completing it.

Thankfully Blizzard fixed that. However, as they are so often apt to do, they over-killed it. By removing key quests altogether, they took out an "epic" part of the game. What they could have done is place key quest chains onto solo content. Place a few solo dungeons into the game world and allow players to follow extremely lengthy chain quests to unlock those dungeons. I don't really care what kind of gear would be there, maybe just fluff items (mounts, pets, gear with fun uses...etc).

Why solo content? Why not? So what if the game is multiplayer, no one is stopping anyone from grouping with their friends. But many players just like being in a game world where they can be among other gamers and have to put up with them. For instance, I have a choice to hang out at a noisy club or the bookstore. In one place there is lots of interaction, while the other place is very little.

Anyway, key quests do not have to be out of the game permanently. They could be fantastic tools to occupy solo players. Even hardcore raiders might want to tramp around by themselves once in a while.

A New Level of Loot Acquisition

According to World of Raids (my preferred World of Warcraft news source for no particular reason) raiders who manage to create the Legendary Shadowmourne will unlock a series of rewards that only they can loot. The list includes a teleportation ring and a mount among other things.

Wow.

To add a twist to these new loot items, the bearer of Shadowmourne can pass on the items if they are unwanted. So a raid leader (I assume) could then decide what to do with them.

Prepare for D R A M A.

Seriously.

Getting Shadowmourne is no small feat and requires the help of 24 other raiders. At the very least you need them to clear the raid instance, even if you are able to legitimately acquire all of the quest items yourself (my knowledge of the Frostmourne quest items is limited since I'll never have the option). There has already been plenty of drama over legendary items in the past, from raid leaders taking them for themselves and then quitting the guild to the "wrong class" somehow getting the items because they are "in good" with the guild leaders. So now, not only do a very limited group of people get the legendary, but the people who helped get it have to hope that the player has some sort of charitable morals and shares the wealth.

But is that fair?

Why shouldn't the bearer of Frostmourne be allowed to have the additional items or at least get first pick?

There are a few details I am not clear on. For instance, how many loot boxes will drop in a raid? One for each bearer of Frostmourne or only once per raid? Obviously the more people who can open the boxes, the better it is for the raid members.

Regardless of the drama to come, is this new level of loot really a good idea at all? Why bother implementing it? Since the looter is able to share the items with the guild, does that mean the items will be able to be auctioned off or is this a kind of test to see if some of the upcoming guild perks will work? Is this a way of pushing people to the Blizzard Store for future products?

Imagine the store offering teleportaion items, tabards, more mounts, other items with special use features (such as the Headless Horseman's Helm or the Summer Festival items) "designer" clothing and stylized armor and weapons (the armor and weapons would actually just be skins, perhaps, that change the look of gear you already wear). The in-game "toys" or fluff add a lot of character to the play experience though they do not actually change the way the game is played.

I can do without any of the items myself, but where is the line going to be drawn? Are we about to divide the player base once again? This time it will be serious players vs. "fun" players. We divide ourselves well enough on our own (Gearscore) and really do not need Blizzard's help.

Star-Spangled Ponies

Well, the Blizzard Store is doing great. The first two pets were a hit, the plushy/pet combos seem to be a hit, and now we have another new pet and also the store's first mount. And what a day it is for Blizzard's shareholders.

At $25, you would think people would be a little slow on the purchase of this one. I mean, really, $25? For something that is guaranteed to bring in a profit? But then when you look more closely, you realize that Blizzard is still feeling their way with the store. They want to see just how far they can go with it and still maximize profit.

First, pets.

Then, pets with toys.

Now, mounts.

Now, we all know that in-game pets are not really free. There is some cost to their development. Also, the more animations, emotes, actions, and other "tricks" that they do, the more time is invested, and time is money. And also testing. Testing is a big deal because it is time spent not actually producing anything.

So, new models with awesome art and features is going to cost more to produce and Blizzard decided that handing them out for "free" was not suitable for this level of quality. It sort of makes sense. After all, World of Warcraft had a specific amount of quality when it was released for the $15 a month price model. Over the years, the quality has increased and feature after feature has been coded into the game and the price has not changed. Technically, we are still paying for the World of Warcraft from five years ago.

The simple fact is that if we are going to continue increasing quality of the game and get some of those high-quality toys back into the game and out of the shop, we are going to have to pay a high monthly fee.

You should expect the fee increase to happen. It could happen with the launch of Cataclysm.

Anyway, upon a still closer look at this new mount, it turns out that it is just a new skin of an already existing in-game mount that drops off of Alganon in hard mode.

So no real effort was put into this store mount. Maybe some testing and fiddling with colors.

Enjoy your $25 re-skinned mount folks, it will be the first of many.