Powerlevelling Inscription

I feel that the time is right for my shaman alt to take on Inscription as a profession. Yes I've missed the boat on the glyph market and darkmoon cards and it would've been much better to do it before 3.1 came out. This isn't the goal though, its the ability to produce cheap vellums thats the attraction.

I have never been interested in making an opportunistic quick buck. Sustainability is my game, preferring to list auctions and then go off and spend the time productively e.g. raiding, rather than sit in trade and watching the AH.

Whats the current trend? I like to delve into cheap but in demand enchants like Icewalker, +8 stats to chest and enchant bracer greater spellpower. Previously I've been purchasing vellums from the AH to test the market. Now, by cutting out the middle man and producing vellums in-house production costs should fall increasing profitability. So the shammy has dropped her rarely used herbalism profession for something a little more productive. At a price of 2k gold to powerlevel, Inscription is relatively cheap compared to the gold vacuum of blacksmithing.

Inscription prediction

When Inscription originally came out, as a concept where the bread and butter income was glyphs I hated the idea. What good is a profession (or any business for that matter) where you do not have return customers. You have a business where what you make is of such high quality that it never breaks, never becomes outdated and therefore never gets to be replaced.

Compare that with enchanting and jewelcrafting, gear gets replaced and at that time, you return to your friendly JC or Enchanter for a recustomisation of your gear. Better still, a new piece of gear might throw out the balance of your other pieces so you regem or re-enchant your other pieces to suit!

What I would like to see is either some kind of fuel made by inscribers to power your glyphs or a time decay that degrades the glyphs over time (say a month). That way it encourages repeat business and keeps inscribers in a job. Strangely enough the impact of dual specs has made inscription worse. Sure there was obscene profits when 3.1 hit but once everyone had their new set of glyphs then what?

For example pre 3.1, if you were a a pure dps class say a PvE rogue and you wanted to do arena for awhile with a PvP spec, you could respec and reglyph. In 3.1 you just switch specs whenever you please. No need for new glyphs, great for the average wow player, really poor outcome for inscribers!

Its not all doom and gloom for insribers though. Hybrids potentially need three or more specs e.g. pvp/arena spec, pve spec and an off spec. My guess is that long term, the ongoing demand for glyphs will be driven by hybrids so when making glyphs keep this in mind. If the devs bring out tri-specs Inscription will be largely killed off.

DPS Rage

I was just flicking through Jong's blog on how he does dps, and yep he likes to rage up to get psyched.

I 100% agree with that method. When the dps is on there's a huge amount of personal rage flowing through me. It gives the edge I need and like a sith lord, you just give into the hate and just let it take over. Its common knowledge on guild vent that I hardly talk during a new boss fight because I shut out well... everything. When someone asks a question at times like this, my tagline is 'Can't talk dpsing!', which basically sums up how I feel at the time.

Unfortunately this kind of gameplay is also expensive (talking about RL money here not gold!) when either a) I die stupidly in a boss fight or b) when there is a wipe on a boss when it has a smidgen of health. What usually follows in the event of a) or b) occurring is this...

1) Slam mouse on the table.
2) Remove headset from head.
3) Throw headset.
4) Swear.
5) Inspect headset and mouse.
6) Realise headset/mouse is now broken (or makes a funny rattling sound that wasn't there before).
7) Get p*ssed off that it is now broken and swear some more.
8) Open packaging for new mouse/headset.
9) Channel rage inward and focus dps more.

Its a perfect feedback mechanism! The more I rage the more dps is put out. I kind of feel like a fury warrior in RL in a way.

No kidding, my headset is replaced about once every three months and yep it's due to be replaced again. Come to think of it, my right earpiece sounds a bit dodgy if I tilt my head to one side. Time to shell out another $30 for a new Logitech headset from Officeworks.

This also probably explains why I fail at arena. I tend to get blindsided by my rage and focus on just hitting stuff. When I nerd rage I become more riled up and well playing worked up in Arenas just makes you lose more.

Is it healthy to play like this? Well it gives me an outlet to release the pent up rage stored up from say work or rl. Way better than that 'Woozah' method Martin Lawrence tries to do on Bad Boyz II.

My doctor however, would disagree. Earlier this year I had a blood pressure monitor strapped to me as I have unusually high blood pressure for my age. I had to leave it on for 24 hours while doing my normal routine. When the results came back, I had a hard time explaining why my blood pressure peaked during the period of 7pm until midnight (i.e. raid time) when in fact your blood pressure is actually supposed to come down!

RL Dilemma...

Sometimes I write posts that never see the light of day. When I write these posts, I email them to myself and think it over, usually after re-reading it I just trash it and start all over again. This is likely to be one of those articles, oh wait since this one's appeared on the blog I must've posted it...

Well I've been battling with something during my WoW career, and that is dealing with RL. I found that as I was getting better with my paladin my life getting worse. I was overweight and becoming socially isolated (apart from chatting on Vent with some close guildies).

Recently, I read this book called The Game by Neil Strauss, an autobiography of a writer who delves into the world of Pick Up Artists (PUA's), and in the course of doing so becomes a master PUA. Once I finished the book, I thought 'Hey I could do this!' and set about seeing if I really could.

I started reading the sequel 'Rules of the Game', which is a quasi self help book. The focus is on living the book and not just reading it. I tried to treat it like a game, what the book told me to do, I would do it 'because it said so'. As I got better at the Game, I levelled up! I signed up to personal training, bought some new clothes, had a haircut and started to see if I could change (and of course try the art of pick up). It all sounds a bit new-age, but honestly, what could be so wrong about trying to improve your odds in meeting a potential partner? One thing that The Game did teach me is that while physical attraction is a key driver for men, for women its more of a mental attraction. Luckily, I do have a gift with the gab, so I guess for me its more about putting struture around my game and being more concious of how I set up my approach.

That was a few weeks ago. Fast forward to last Saturday; I saw this attractive brunette in her late 20's at a Jazz club, and started to chat her up using some material that I learnt from The Game mixed in with my own stuff. Since she was holding a present at the time, I decided to open with the line 'Hi there, what did you buy me?', which was met with a laugh and the conversation opened from there. Things went really well and after about 20 minutes, I pulled out some cool dance moves, kissed her and got her phone number... but I'm also pretty sure that she has a kid.

Now sorry if I sound like a kent, but that changes things. I've been really wrestling with the thought of calling her. On one hand we got on really well, on the other, I'm not sure if I could handle it. Should I walk away or see where the path ends? Since I met her on Saturday and its now Tuesday, is it still acceptable to call her? Hmm... so many thoughts running through my head right now.

Ulduar nerfs and XT

So Ulduar got nerfed, and to be honest I'm happy it did.

In 25 man Ulduar, my guild (now called Vanderlay Industries) was coming up against a brick wall in terms of dps. We were hitting enrage timers on both Razorscale and XT Deconstructor and simply weren't progressing past Laviathan. XT in particular was the problem, if you couldn't down him (or is it a her with that voice?), you couldn't progress. I was stumped, I couldn't figure out how on one hand, Vanderlay could easily smash the Patchwerk 3 min achievement week in week out, and yet not have enough dps and hit enrage timers on XT! Don't get me wrong, I love a good challenge and facerolling Naxx hardly provides that. The step from Naxx to Ulduar was simply too far!

Post nerfs, I like how those bosses play out now. In Naxx gear, its doable but with flasks. That's how raiding should be, and will help separate serious and casual guilds.

We're up to 7/14 in Ulduar, clearing Leviathan, Ignis, Razorscale, XT, Kologarn, Assembly of Iron (I really should just cave in and call them Iron Council) and Hodir. We're working on Auriaya and once I figure out a clean kite path and pull, I'll write it up. Anyway...

XT Deconstructor Strat
Our strat for XT is different to other guilds. Strats I've read say for raiders to spread out so that the bomb doesn't get in anyone's way. What we found that if melee gets the bomb they have to run through a spread out raid, doing damage along the way.

Instead we've gone for the stacked raid approach, where the raid stacks up and if you get the bomb you just move away from the group. Much easier for the melee to find an open space if they get the bomb (yay melee!).

From there on its just a dps race, focusing on going all out when the heart pops out.

Cheers!

Rex

Argent Squire pet

Its amazing the dodgy comments coming up every time someone gets their squire pet out. My personal favourite is: ‘hey kid, wanna raise my flagpole?’

The funniest moment is when you see a male priest running past with their squire boy. The comedy just writes itself!

Ah well, its almost midnight and I'm pretty buggered, I'll write a better update soon.

Cheers,

Rex