Progressive Percentage?? What the Hell?

Since I'm now leveling another toon, I am always up for doing some complaining about drop rates but apparently this was done in vain. According to a former World of Warcraft lead designer and current next-gen Blizzard MMO director, Jeffrey Kaplan, Lich King Warcraft has now adopted the Progressive Percentage system.

So, with this system your chance of getting a quest item increases as you farm it. There is apparently a base drop rate now of 45% which, depending on how long you farm a quest item, that percentage will gradually increase. Of course as soon as I read this I did notice with the quest I was working on that it did drop more frequently/faster for the last 4 quest items I needed.

Hmmm has anyone else noticed this? Here is the link to the article....interesting stuff. Hopefully I explained it properly. Here is a link to the article.

Progressive Percentage

Favorite Places in WoW

I have found traveling from zone to zone that certain zones appeal to me for different reasons. Westfall I love for the errie music which I actually find quite peaceful. Elwynn Forest is just so quaint...who wouldn't want to live there.

When I first walked into STV I was amazed at the jungle atmosphere. The colours of tigers against the flora of the jungle. The sounds of the gorillas and the birds. It was very captivating.

If I could live anywhere in warcraft where would I live? I guess Elwynn Forest since my husband also loves it there and its close enough to a large city for shopping and a nice walk to the beach in Westfall:)

We are often very quick to get on the attack of Blizzard with the issues we have but I think if you take an indepth look around in the zones, you will gain a greater appreciation of the work and detail put into creating this magnificant magical world and all the entertainment and fun it provides us with.

My First WoW Embarrassing Moment

I think I was probably level 8 or 9 when I first went to SW. The impressive buildings, beautiful scenery were pleasantly surprising to me. I made my way to the Trade District and was told by a friend there was a bank to store any extra items. That sounded very cool to me and so that was one of my first stops in SW.

I walked into the lovely building and was smiling as I entered seeing the cordoned off section of line up space. I navigated through and saw 2 or 3 people standing at each teller. I stood at the end of the roped off area waiting my turn...yes you heard me right, I was stood in line at the bank waiting until the people in front of me finished with the teller. I thought people were just being kinda rude in each others space while the other person did their banking. Besides what was the roped off area for ?? Esthetics?? (Yes fool thats exactly what it's for.)

When people started to go ahead of me and running up to the teller I couldn't believe how rude they were. I know its just a game but come on people, wait your turn.

My husband laughed his buns off when he realized I was waiting in line.

Now I'm always first in line:P

Authenticators – An Absolute Must

It was our worst Warcraft nightmare come true. I logged in first thing in the morning to check my AH sales. While stood at the mail box I got a glimpse of my husbands toon standing there as well. I glanced at his screen to see if he had logged in before me, but it wasn't opened. When I opened up my bags, all my gold was gone. Nothing else, just my gold. I yelled for my husband who immediately logged in but quickly gets kicked, as now the hacker has changed his password. My daughter now checks her account only to discover all her gold is gone as well.

I was shocked and felt very violated. Yes its just a game but I consider it my personal space on the internet. We finally resolved that we had all at some point logged in at my husband’s computer into WOW where the key logger obtained all 3 account information. Our security system didn’t flag it unfortunately. My husband immediately mailed Blizzard and got the password changed.

That day, we ordered our Blizzard Authenticators which were about $7.00 each. We keep them on cords attached to our desks so we always have them on hand. It took about 2-3 weeks to get our accounts back to their existing state and as much as we were frustrated about the hackers, we were more frustrated with ourselves for not ordering the authenticators sooner.

For those that are not familiar with the Authenticators they are a small electronic device with a digital screen. Once you enter your user name and password, another little screen appears to enter your authenticator number. Every time you log into Warcraft, you simply click the button to get your new code. This prevents key loggers from obtaining the information since it changes every time you log in.

For more information about the Authenticators you can visit this Blizzard page to get the details.

Trash or Treasure

If you have leveled a toon before you may already know this information but for those of you that don’t or may not think of it there are few tips about what you are vendoring. There are many items that you might normally vendor that have value to someone in the game.

One item in particular that has value is meats. Most animal meats you come across are used in a recipe or two. Take a look at the list of cooking recipes and keep in mind any meats that you could sell in the AH. A lot of folks with gold could not be bothered farming meats, especially the low end stuff. Take a look at each item before you vendor it and determine whether any professions can use that item.

Also, note which festivals or events are going on at the time. Right now small eggs are required for Children’s Week to make the Chocolate Cake and are selling for about 1g each. For my lowbie toon this is a great opportunity to boost my income.

Please don’t trash those low end greens. New enchanters are always looking for inexpensive greens to DE. Even at my low level of 14 I can get a couple of gold for the low end greens I pick up.

So never be too quick to vendor the goodies from your bags. Perhaps some hidden treasures will bring you closer to your first mount.

Making A Living

Well it’s a been a huge adjustment starting over financially on a new server. Usually when I start a new toon on my main server I simply send myself a few gold to get things going. This is different though. This is truly a fresh start but now I have the knowledge of the game and professions to get me moving.

My initial instinct was to take Herbalism and Mining since there is no gold investment in these professions but I really wanted to try out alchemy and knew at the high end of the game there is good money in Alchemy. Herbalism feels easy and while I level its easy to pick flowers. At level 12 I’ve just capped my first level at 75 and have gone for training. I may have to wait a while to level any higher since my next herbs are mage royal, briarthorn and stranglekelp which will be in an upcoming zone.

I’ve already earned 12g, which at level 12 I felt was pretty impressive. I can sell my stacks of peacebloom, earthroot and silverleaf for about 1.5g-2g per stack which is a nice sum at my level. For those that don’t have gold to get their first mount I blame it either on their lateness to start their professions, not having any professions or just laziness. Making gold isn’t that difficult.

Checking Out The Carebear World

What's this? No ganking? I can complete a quest without interruption you say? I must check this out, and so my adventure begins. I've started a Draenei Mage on a server with my good friend Bre.

I've now been considering moving a toon over with some gold but I thought it may be a fun adventure to start from stratch to see how quickly I can now make gold while I level. Bre helped get me out of Exodar since I really hate questing in that area and made the journey to SW. Should be fast leveling since I know the area and quests pretty well. (Hey I thought Hoggar was a non-elite now ...lets just say "it got ugly")

I think when I start questing in STV that the realization of no horde confrontation will really hit me. STV was always one of the nightmare zones while leveling. This is certainly an efficient way to get a toon to 80 without those ganking interruptions. Will I miss the excitment of calling on guildies for help and watching my guildies kick some horde buns...we'll see:)

Right now, I am enjoying the quiet with my level 10 but look foward to playing with the big boys at level 80.