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Top Three Essentials in WoD
I’m gonna need all you people to take a breath and for sure relax a little. Okay, we all know that Legion will have plenty of cool stuff (except Demon Hunters – let’s not forget who the original Hero class is, bubba). But before everyone starts planning their moves for the next expansion, let’s make sure we have all that we need from the current steaming wad of WoD.
Looking back at Mists of Pandaria, I have zero regrets when it comes to grinding the rep dailies for The Anglers. Sure it was a pain at the time, but the reward was ultimately quite worth it – the Azure Water Strider. That mount was on the toolbar of every character that I leveled through Draenor. We may not have flight (Yet? Ever? Come on WTF Blizz!) but the Water Strider helped get me through zones quicker by tearing over the water, rather than forcing me to go around it.
Does WoD have its own Azure Water Strider? Are there “quality of life” items in this expansion that would be worth having in the next?
You daaaamn right there are.
- Garrison – You had to know I was going to get this in the list somewhere. Normally I sing the praises of garrisons because they’re stupid easy to use to make gold. But that’s not why I included it in my list. Blizzard has said that we will be keeping our garrisons going forward. In fact, they want us to be able to go back to visit them. Now, everyone has a garrison hearthstone. So why not make it worth using? Get your bank, transmog, supplies, whatever. Make your garrison your one-stop shop. You have a hearthstone for the place, so you might as well make sure you have reasons to go back there. Make it worth keeping the hearthstone.
- Professions – For the most part, professions in WoD have been somewhat lackluster. No love there, that’s for sure. But from all the talk around the water cooler, Blizzard is planning on giving them value again in Legion. Don’t wait until then and end up playing catch-up. It’s never been easier to level professions, so get everything capped at 700. Except Archaeology, because screw that noise.
- Aviana’s Feather – As we patiently(?) wait for Draenor flying, Blizzard hinted that there would be similar hoops to jump through in Legion when it comes to flying in that content. Aviana’s Feather already works in Azeroth, so there’s no reason to suspect it won’t work in Legion. It might not be flight, but it’ll speed things along until flying goes live in Legion.
Are there any more items to snag before Legion? Tell me about it in the comments below.
Golden Wings and Golden Pockets
This has been one of the most productive weeks in WoW that I’ve had in months.
Sexy too, nah mean?
I had a real coming to Jeebus kind of moment last weekend. I decided that it was time to focus and actively do something with these characters that I had spent time leveling up. My attention turned to gold, as it so often did. I felt I could make the most of these characters that I was barely using… well, passively useful if nothing else.
The plan was this: I took my five Lv 100 Hordies and made sure that each of them had a Level Three Salvage Yard (for the green items) and a Level Two Inn (for the Treasure Hunter followers). I would log in on each character, gather any gold rewards from follower missions, send it to my AH alt (to track progress) and log off. Salvage items would be cashed in on the weekend. No profession daily cooldowns, no mining or herbs. This was all about making gold.
Then Deathrokk went and changed the game.
Pictured here – game changer.
Deathrokk was the first character I was able to get to qualify for Heroics by completing Proving Grounds (Silver). He began running the Tavern quests, unlocking the achievement “Stay Awhile and Listen” which also unlocked the Level Three Tavern plans. Behind those doors lay the Treasure missions for the garrison followers.
Cha-Ching.
Soon every character was sitting with a Level Three tavern. Did it matter all that much?
From Monday to Friday, checking each character maybe 2-3 times a day to refresh follower missions, I made 7457gp. That’s five days, with 4-5 characters, spending maybe two minutes per character. Deathrokk wasn’t sending gold for a couple of days because he was trying to save enough gold to get a Level Three Lumber Mill. Gotta get those resources up to send the followers out, and when you’re focused on Treasure Hunter traits rather than Scavenger traits, it’s easy to start falling behind in resources. That gold number also doesn’t include Salvage crates, which I will unpack on the weekend. Everything in those crates will be vendored, regardless of iLevel. I know some people prefer to DE the higher level gear, but I’m looking for immediate gold.
Nice chunk of change.
Speaking of Deathrokk, since I was doing the Tavern quests I eventually got the quest “Aviana’s Request“. The reward for that was Aviana’s Feather, which is probably as close to flying as one will get in Warlords of Draenor. And I must admit, it’s a good look on him.
If the Angel of Death is considered a good look.
So for those who are looking to make easy gold while garrisons are around, get yourself a Level Three Tavern/Inn, a Level Three Salvage Yard, and make bank. Those are the best buildings for making gold in WoD.
You Can’t Take The Sky From Me
If you play World of Warcraft, have access to social media in some form, and have a pulse, you’re probably aware that Blizzard has now officially stated that flying will not be happening in Draenor, or any expansion in the future. Being the rational, level-headed group that it is, the WoW playerbase started burning everything down, from 500+ page forum posts, to heated exchanges on Twitter, to folks just outright unsubbing.
Some of us decided that screw this, we were going to fly one way or the other. The “other” way was by using Aviana’s Feather.
Getting Aviana’s Feather is simple enough. It’s a quest reward from a random quest picked up in your local garrison’s Inn/Tavern. Get the quest, complete a Heroic Dungeon, and hand it in. As simple as it sounds in theory, putting it into practice can be a little more difficult.
Many people tend to get a bit tight in the collar at the thought of running Heroics. Maybe they’re afraid that they’ll suck, or more likely they’re afraid that they’ll be told by others that they do in fact suck. There are steps to be taken that will keep the humiliation to a minimum, or at least to a bearable level.
Prove Your Worth
There are two barriers that will keep you from queueing for Heroics. The first is that you must complete the Proving Grounds scenario on Silver (for whatever role you plan on running in the dungeon). This is actually a good thing. I’ve only done this as DPS, so all I can tell you is that if you can pull off the DPS to complete Silver, you should be able to hold your own when it comes to not putting up embarrassing numbers on Recount. It also has the additional benefit of being a solo scenario, so no one else will be there to point and laugh at how bad you suck.
You Need The Gear
To keep you from being thrown to the wolves and torn into meaty pulp, the UI won’t let you queue for Heroics unless you have an iLevel of 610. If you find yourself on the lower end of that 610 prerequisite, there happens to be a few ways to beef up your iLevel. Crafted gear is probably the easiest, but with the caviat that you can only wear three pieces of it at a time. The first stage of the Legendary ring is pretty easy to get, and it’s a nice iLevel bump. Apexis gear is an option too, if you have a pile a crystals at your disposal. If you happen to have a War Mill, work on quests in Nagrand. The War Mill will give you a chance to have your quest reward gear proc into an upgrade. Or hey, just run garrison follower missions and let your followers bring you piles of gear upgrades.
Addons
Nobody likes to do stupid shit when they’re running a dungeon for the first time. The peanut gallery members in your group will put you on blast, and nobody wants to be That Guy (or Gal). Still, even if you read the dungeon journal (btw, read the damn journal), stuff happens during an encounter. Addons can seriously help to keep that kind of shenanigan to a minimum. If you don’t already have them, there’s a couple of addons you should definitely consider getting. Deady Boss Mods is one of them (notifications and warnings during an encounter are so win). GTFO is another, because it will tell you in an annoying tone when you’re standing in the bad.
Belly Up To The Bar
Congratulations! You’re ready to run Heroics! You have adequate gear, you know what the dungeon bosses do, and you have addons to keep you on point. All that’s left to do is wait for the quest to show up in your garrison’s Inn or Tavern.
You DO have one of those in your garrison, don’t you? If you don’t, get one. Next, wait for the quest “Aviana’s Request” to pop up in the Tavern. All that remains is to then run Heroic Skyreach, kill the end boss, and collect its plumage as per the quest.
Is this going to replace flying? No. Does it beat walking? You damn well better believe it.
Rokk Talk 