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World of motecrafting post 2.1
A couple of interesting Mote related changes have popped up in the patch. I was well aware of the Mote of Shadow change-- those babies are now dropping not off of demons, but only off of void creatures (you can find tons of them in the southern part of Hellfire Peninsula, and in small pockets in many instances). Which makes sense, but makes you wonder why they dropped off of demons in the first place-- or why it matters which one they drop off of at all.The other change was a little more hidden in the patch notes, and most players didn't realize it would be happening until they saw the drops: Essences are now dropping in Outland in the same place that Motes are dropping. You remember Essences-- they're the elemental components of many recipes found on the Azeroth side of the Dark Portal. A few players were unhappy that Essences were dropping instead of Motes, until Drysc confirmed that Essences are actually dropping in addition to Motes-- it's not a matter of either/or at all. Essences are completely extra.And of course that'll have an effect on the economy. Right now, Essences are selling for up to 1g a pop on most AHs (Update: and even higher on other servers, sometimes up to 15g apiece), but they still only vendor for 4s, which is pennies compared to even most gray drops in Outland. And that price will probably drop anyway, considering the market is about to be flooded with them. One solution is to raise the vendor price. And another solution, say a few enterprising players, would be to give Alchemists a Transmute Essence to Mote spell, either at a 2-to-1 exchange rate, or a long-ish cooldown, that would set the economy on these little things right. Clearly there's a need for having Essences around (how else could you enchant firey weapon, right?), but it looks like Blizzard could have put a little more thought into their effect on the economy.
Breakfast Topic: Meanwhile, back at the farm...
Whenever I hear the phrase in that title, I think of one of my very favorite children's books.ANYWAY, this Breakfast Topic is entirely selfish. Lately, I've continued to try and build up enough gold to get my epic mount, as well as bring my alchemy skill up, so I've been doing lots and lots of farming lately.And I've come up with a few tips for doing it-- watch a movie while I'm at it, make circles around zones that have exactly what I want (Felwood, Un'goro, and Hellfire Peninsula have been great for Herbalism, but I've never done Mining or farmed for Tailoring items or Motes), and make sure to pick up bags meant for crafting items, so I have enough room to haul what I need.So what tips have you picked up for farming? Some people are crazy about it-- I know my guildleader has done it for hours, getting both mining mats and herbs for our guild-- and surely they know lots of inside stuff that us casual players take a long time to pick up. What would you recommend to someone who heads out into Azeroth and Outland looking for nature's gifts?
Wii Warm Up: Raw Material
These chairs are made out of recycled Playstation 2 plastic. If it were any other console, we could make jokes about the Wii creating an instant surplus. Unfortunately for our ROFLs, the PS2 is still doing great, especially for a seven-year-old console! So we'll joke about the PS2's reliability instead-- these chairs were probably made from defective PS2's, which are one of the most abundant resources available. Ha!Our question is for the Bob Wii-las out there: what could you make out of Wiis? Hopefully something to punish us for making a Wii pun just now.[Via Wonderland]
PTR notes: get your epic BoEs crafted now
Wow, I sure am glad I came across this in my internet travels yesterday, since I seem to have missed it in the patch notes. But there it is: when 2.1 goes live, "The Epic bind on equip Blacksmith weapon recipes now require more materials to make." How much more, you ask? The image above (via World of Raids) shows the new recipes. Here's how they compare to the old: Khorium Champion: Four more Primal Nethers Felsteel Reaper: Ten Khorium bars (no Khorium required previously), four more PNs Hand of Eternity: Ten Khorium bars, two more PNs Felsteel Longblade: Ten Khorium bars, four more PNs Eternium Runed Blade: Four Felsteel changed to ten Khorium and four Hardened Adamantite; two more PNs Dirge: Ten Khorium bars, two more PNs Fel Edged Battleaxe: Ten Khorium bars, two more PNs Fel Hardened Maul: Ten Khorium bars, four more PNs Runic Hammer: Ten Khorium bars, two more PNs Guess I better get a move on farming the mights for my Hand of Eternity. The price impact of this change will vary depending on the crafters you know, but based on the rates I've seen should be a few hundred gold. Fortunately, it doesn't look like the patch is going up today, so we have at least a week to get our mats together.
The goggles do nothing!
A much-vaunted part of 2.1's Engineering "review" has been the 11 new epic goggles. Blizzard haven't exactly been forthcoming about their stats, and Thottbot's test database doesn't have most of them yet, but with a little scouting around I've managed to collect the stats on 10 out of the 11 goggles (I couldn't find anything on the cloth healing ones). Part of the reason this information is a little hard to find is that even if you're an Engineer of appropriate skill level, you only see the goggles corresponding to your armor type on the trainer, so no swapping down to leather goggles for Hunters if you like the stats better.Anyway, for the most parts, the stats look like they only slightly beat out most easily available stuff, which is honestly a little disappointing, when compared to professions like Tailoring or Blacksmithing that let you craft some pretty awesome items. On the other hand, the material requirements aren't that extreme. The reason behind these pieces' sub-incredible stats, I've heard, is that they only require 350 skill to create, and therefore have a lower item level than pieces that require 375 skill, resulting in a lower itemization budget. It'd be nice if they were upgradeable, like some of Blacksmithing's stuff, so you could start out with a small investment and build on that over time to something truly extraordinary.Well, see for yourself; the stats are after the cut. DPS Warriors, don't worry; unlike G'eras's stuff, there's one here for you, as pictured above. And if anyone finds the info on the cloth healing goggles, please drop it in the comments and I'll edit it in.
Profession revamp preview
Professions have been on the drawing board for changes for a good while, but until now Blizz have been very tight-lipped about what specific modifications they might be making. No more! Nethaera has posted a nice preview of changes that are being made to many professions for "the next content patch," i.e. 2.1 (The Black Temple). Before I go into detail, note that Neth said her post "does not contain all of the upcoming changes, but instead gives a brief look at what is to come," so bank on more surprises to come. Anyway, this round is mostly buffs and new recipes, with a major nerf to alchemy.Full post copied after the jump as usual, but here's the changes I found more interesting: Alchemy: Elixirs now stack in two categories, Battle (Offensive) and Guardian (Defensive) Elixirs. You can only have one of each type of Elixir up at a time. As a result Elixirs now stack with class abilities such as "Arcane Intellect." I totally called this (as did many others, I'm sure). The intended effect is obviously to reduce the maximum possible effect of consumables in raids and other such situations, and this will go a long way towards producing that effect, without hurting alchemists too much (in my opinion). Engineering: "Seaforium" now opens locked chests as well as locked doors. About time; having to skip locked chests if I didn't have a rogue in the party has been annoying. But will Powerful Seaforium Charges open the top-level locked chests, or are we going to see new seaforium? Engineering: 11 new epic goggles have been introduced at 350 engineering skill and are available from the trainer. They range from cloth to plate, and have a variety of stats to appeal to most talent specs. This is probably the biggest change to any profession. I've always loved the goggles Engineering had to offer, and now engineers have something epic to work towards. Exciting! Fishing: The fishing timer has been reduced from 30 to 20 seconds and it now takes less time to fish. Sweet! I always though 30 seconds was a bit too long. But on the down side, Fishing has been removed from Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley -- what, you mean I have to actually fight now?! Jewelcrafting: The jewelcrafting UI now has gems split up by color so it is easier to find gems of a specific color to create. This is long-overdue; Blizz's profession UIs are so primitive it's not even funny. I would recommend ATSW as a replacement, but it tends to crash my client sometimes. Now where's my gem category in the AH? Jewelcrafting: Jewelcrafters can make two new melee oriented meta gems. One is found randomly as a world drop and the other sold by the <Faction> reputation vendor. Definitely needed -- but what do they mean by <Faction>? Scryer or Aldor? HH or Thrallmar? Any faction? Jewelcrafting: New recipes have been added that use the Jaggal and Shadow Pearls. Time to stop vendoring those, I guess. Skinning: Skinning higher level creatures will give more leather; you will no longer get a single leather scrap. Good, it was getting silly. Read on for the full blue post.
The sad state of engineering
While many trade skills aren't living up to our expectations, engineering is the saddest panda. While the gathering professions get to gather new materials (although maybe not in the quantities they'd like) and nifty epic patterns and weapons, engineers have gotten a variety of new flares and items they can't even make. Yes, flares. And items that can't be made because of bugs that will go "in to a future patch."There were many engineering recipes dropped between beta and retail release of the expansion, as a result there aren't many recipes available to progress from about 355 to 370, and the recipes that are in game require very expensive materials. Also, most engineering trinkets cease to function against creatures or other players over level 60, so as an engineer levels the stuff they've been using becomes less and less useful with no replacement in sight. To compound matters, none of the trinkets or bombs can be used in arena combat, including even marginally useful trinket pets. As compared with jewelcrafters, who can use all their pets in arenas. The only positive preview we've gotten for things coming for engineering is this post, in which Drysc hints at a frost grenade. Since it's a grenade, and probably a consumable, it's also a non-player in arenas, and since many engineers took the profession for it's PvP utility this is not a very promising development.I've dropped engineering after being an engineer for over a year. How many engineers are left out there? Why are you still an engineer? Are you finding it has enough utility to justify keeping it, or are you hopeful that there are enough new things coming that it will be once again worthwhile?
Swaddle your DS in a homemade pouch
We love it when people make artifacts to celebrate their love of games. We're fanboys (it's right there in the name!) so we totally understand DS fetishism. We're guilty of it ourselves! One of the most practical ways to combine craft and gaming is the homemade DS case. Craftster member MariskaLovesCrafts designed this striking DS Lite pouch with a nice little pocket for games, and we love it. We love the pocket, we (unapologetically) love the floral design, and we love the colors. Mariska went on to write up a tutorial for the pouch, which she then posted to her blog. Why not give it a try, if you're looking for a DS Lite case? We'll remind you that you aren't forced to use the color scheme and floral motif here, so feel free to make something more macho to keep your DS scratch-free. Perhaps an Elite Beat Agents theme? [Via Craftster]
Breakfast Topic: Is crafting useless?
In my experience, crafted items have usually been items you use while waiting to get a better item to drop. With a few exceptions, of course -- crafted resistance gear tends to be some of the best you'll find and there are occasional gems (the priest in me is still giddy with the memory of getting a Hide of the Wild crafted). But the majority of crafted gear seems to be inferior to what you'll find even in the 5-man dungeons, and the disparity only gets worse as you participate in higher-end content. And in the Burning Crusade, where green quest rewards will immediately begin replacing any blues you might still be lugging around, will the outlook for crafting improve? In short, is crafting worthless?
New Professions Guides
The official WoW site recently featured a fairly comprehensive list of profession guides culled from the US and EU forums as well as external websites. After looking through them, I have to say these are excellent references for any profession. Still looking for more info on your profession of choice? We posted a brief guide to power-leveling certain professions a while back as well as a guide to the game's craftable epic items. (Expect the latter to be updated some time today with a few new recipes!)
Epic Crafting
While everyone's interested in collecting powerful epic items, not everyone has the money to buy them from the auction house or the opportunity to raid Molten Core. For these players, there is always the opportunity of crafted epics - epic items created by trade skills. But just because they're crafted, don't assume they're easy to obtain. Besides the fact that the recipes themselves are difficult to acquire, they have long lists of rare materials. Read on if you're interested, but these items aren't for the faint-hearted!
Do characters do too much?
My WoW characters are amazingly skilled; without any training, they can instantly kill enemies, cast spells they've never seen before, learn how to make complicated devices, potions, poisons and bandages... and I only need to press a few buttons to make this happen. In different games, I have to do a lot of this myself; in FPS games, for example, I have to choose my weapon, aim, shoot, jump and run -- all as part of normal combat. In MUDs, learning a spell takes time and effort, and I get it wrong a few times before I correctly cast it the first time.This article on GamerGod points out that our avatars in MMOs are increasingly handling more of the "tedious" side of gameplay, as decided by developers, leaving the more interesting parts for players. However, it's not all perfect, and there are some parts of gameplay that become tedious simply because they are abstracted into "click this button, go AFK". One of my favourite tradeskill quests in WoW is the Artisan First Aid quest, which requires a modicum of skill and is a lot of fun--when you receive Artisan level First Aid you really feel you deserve it. The gathering professions do take the hands-on approach, as you have to scout out the materials yourself, but the other professions are based more on button-clicking. It's hard to please everyone, though; mini-games or mini-quests to learn new skills may work well (imagine taking WoW with you as a mobile game so you could train up your Engineering by playing a Tetris clone on the bus) but add another time-sink into the game which would put many players off.Do you like the way the tradeskill system is handled in WoW, or would you prefer a more involved approach?
