Crafting is tied to the daily cooldown and work orders. That means, even at 700 skill, you can only get 22 Burnished Leather per day:
10 from the daily cd (scales up from 4 at level 1)
6 from work orders
6 bonus from your follower working in the Tannery
But the garrison really does supply everything you need these days, and the 6.1 'visitors' can help massively.
Keeping a Barn fully stocked, with a worker, produces masses of leather so there are plenty left over and this is where the visitors come in.
Exchange 50 leather for 25 Primal Spirits with a daily quest
Use 10 leather plus 1 Primal Spirit to skip the daily cd and produce 1 Burnished Leather.
If you have the whole 300 raw leather available, that means an extra 25 Burnished Leather every time Jake the Fox comes to see you.
I had to do some extra skinning to reach the whole 300 the first time but the Barn soon kicks in and takes over.
You can take it further though...
There is a different visitor every day with a daily quest to convert 50 base material into 25 Primal Spirits.
Herb Garden easily supplies enough herbs if you pick daily
Mine supplies the ore
Salvage Crates supply enough greens to DE for Dust - you can easily find someone with an Enchanter's Study via Groupfinder
So, using the groupfinder, you can find one of the traders every day and make another 25 Primal Spirits.
The Barn will supply a big chunk of the extra raw leather you would need to do it every day but not all, so it means more skinning or the auction house to get the rest.
There are a couple of things you can do if you can't leave your garrison long enough to do some skinning:
Convert surplus mats/GR into Leather using the Trading Post
Spend surplus Primal Spirits on more leather
Both have limited use and/or are very expensive so I would only do them if you have exhausted all the other options but still need that one or two more leather and can't wait for the next day.
So, with a little bit of gold or time spent, you can increase your Burnished Leather generation to 47 per day.
If you want to take it even further, with gold (or time if you are farming mats yourself) no object, the traders will convert 5 raw mats into 1 Primal Spirit outside of the daily quest.
Herbs are usually the cheapest at around 75s on my server, raw leather is around 1.5g, so you are looking at roughly 19g per 2 Burnished Leather with the limit only being the supply on the auction house or the depth of your pockets.
Happy crafting!
Tuesday 16 June 2015
Monday 15 June 2015
Obligatory Post About Flying...
As everyone else is doing a post (or two or three) on the subject I thought I would jot down my tuppence-worth on the subject...
I don't care.
Will that do?
I suppose I could flesh it out a bit...
I really don't care.
Ok, a little bit more...
There is absolutely no reason for me to want flying in Draenor.
Flight paths are excellent, Ogre Waygates are well-placed and I have the Mole Machine and Aviana's Feather to help too.
What would flying give me?
It would save me a few seconds travelling to the raid...
I could collect the treasures I have missed... (I wouldn't because if you aren't doing it properly, what's the point?)
If I did pet-battling, I would save a few seconds travelling between trainers...
Show off my cool flying mounts... (to who? they are all in their garrisons)
Gathering professions... (in my garrisons anyway)
Archaeology... Ok, I'll give you that one
I'm afraid my time just isn't so important that I need to shave a few seconds off my journey to the raid instance (If it was, I probably wouldn't be playing at all... or writing blog posts).
I feel these days that efficiency has become the over-riding factor for so many people, as if they are trying to min-max every aspect of their play.
Enjoyment is often compromised to reach that ultimate efficiency, and that's not a compromise I am willing to make.
This compromise doesn't necessarily apply to the flying argument but the point is that efficiency is just not very high on my priority list...
so I really don't care about flying.
I don't care.
Will that do?
I suppose I could flesh it out a bit...
I really don't care.
Ok, a little bit more...
There is absolutely no reason for me to want flying in Draenor.
Flight paths are excellent, Ogre Waygates are well-placed and I have the Mole Machine and Aviana's Feather to help too.
What would flying give me?
It would save me a few seconds travelling to the raid...
I could collect the treasures I have missed... (I wouldn't because if you aren't doing it properly, what's the point?)
If I did pet-battling, I would save a few seconds travelling between trainers...
Show off my cool flying mounts... (to who? they are all in their garrisons)
Gathering professions... (in my garrisons anyway)
Archaeology... Ok, I'll give you that one
I'm afraid my time just isn't so important that I need to shave a few seconds off my journey to the raid instance (If it was, I probably wouldn't be playing at all... or writing blog posts).
I feel these days that efficiency has become the over-riding factor for so many people, as if they are trying to min-max every aspect of their play.
Enjoyment is often compromised to reach that ultimate efficiency, and that's not a compromise I am willing to make.
This compromise doesn't necessarily apply to the flying argument but the point is that efficiency is just not very high on my priority list...
so I really don't care about flying.
Friday 12 June 2015
Blackhand Progress - Time is Running Out
With the patch looming we have now locked out our raids to focus solely on Blackhand!
The decision has come a couple of weeks too late in my opinion - I think we should have been spending 2 out of our 3 nights on Blackhand with the best available team and farming the other bosses with everyone on the 3rd night.
It's never an easy decision to make, particularly with new recruits in the guild that need gearing up, but a balance has to be found that is inclusive but maintains guild progress.
Blizzard handed us the tools to find that balance, flex raids and loot lockouts, but we have erred on the inclusion side and it has come at a cost with a couple of our 'better' players not signing up any more.
I gave up my officer role though so it's out of my hands these days, and I am left to complain about it in my own little backwater of the internet.
Anyway... on to Blackhand!
I'm really enjoying this fight so far!
Phase 1 is about surviving the Demolitions but keeping the dps up to make sure you only have 2.
The randomness of where the big Demolitions come down makes a huge difference to the amount of movement needed and therefore my dps - If I get lucky it's all covered by Fox or SWG and my dps soars, often it isn't though so my numbers can be quite erratic.
Phase 2 brings in Siege Engines to cover the floor in lovely fire. Our kiting hunter (or siege engine slave as she likes to be called) does a great job with these so the rest of us can focus on the killing.
Phase 3 seems like a regular burn phase but we have not reached this phase much yet.
Our biggest issue seems to be the Impaling Shot... Either people not making it behind a Debris Pile/Siege Engine or getting in the way when someone else is targeted.
It's the usual tale of personal responsibility which is the lynchpin of raiding these days and everyone has to be able to deal with the mechanic.
You can explain the mechanics and how to deal with them over and over but, in the end, it relies on each player seeing it for themselves and learning to react appropriately.
So many of the failures are not from people not knowing what to do but from their focus being on their dps or the health bars so they miss the cues.
I have some sympathy for the healers but the dps need to sort their priorities out. Dead dps does no dps, after all.
It's looking like Monday could be our last raid night before the patch and we will be without our raid leader and a couple of healers. While we will definitely miss the leadership, the lack of healers will force us to restrict the team to only the players most likely to get the kill which could work in our favour.
Wish us luck!
The decision has come a couple of weeks too late in my opinion - I think we should have been spending 2 out of our 3 nights on Blackhand with the best available team and farming the other bosses with everyone on the 3rd night.
It's never an easy decision to make, particularly with new recruits in the guild that need gearing up, but a balance has to be found that is inclusive but maintains guild progress.
Blizzard handed us the tools to find that balance, flex raids and loot lockouts, but we have erred on the inclusion side and it has come at a cost with a couple of our 'better' players not signing up any more.
I gave up my officer role though so it's out of my hands these days, and I am left to complain about it in my own little backwater of the internet.
Anyway... on to Blackhand!
I'm really enjoying this fight so far!
Phase 1 is about surviving the Demolitions but keeping the dps up to make sure you only have 2.
The randomness of where the big Demolitions come down makes a huge difference to the amount of movement needed and therefore my dps - If I get lucky it's all covered by Fox or SWG and my dps soars, often it isn't though so my numbers can be quite erratic.
Phase 2 brings in Siege Engines to cover the floor in lovely fire. Our kiting hunter (or siege engine slave as she likes to be called) does a great job with these so the rest of us can focus on the killing.
Phase 3 seems like a regular burn phase but we have not reached this phase much yet.
Our biggest issue seems to be the Impaling Shot... Either people not making it behind a Debris Pile/Siege Engine or getting in the way when someone else is targeted.
It's the usual tale of personal responsibility which is the lynchpin of raiding these days and everyone has to be able to deal with the mechanic.
You can explain the mechanics and how to deal with them over and over but, in the end, it relies on each player seeing it for themselves and learning to react appropriately.
So many of the failures are not from people not knowing what to do but from their focus being on their dps or the health bars so they miss the cues.
I have some sympathy for the healers but the dps need to sort their priorities out. Dead dps does no dps, after all.
It's looking like Monday could be our last raid night before the patch and we will be without our raid leader and a couple of healers. While we will definitely miss the leadership, the lack of healers will force us to restrict the team to only the players most likely to get the kill which could work in our favour.
Wish us luck!
Wednesday 10 June 2015
Gearing the Hunter...
Ding! Level 100!
Now to find some gear. Many gearing options are available but I had a plan! :-)
I do like to have a plan :-)
The planning started back at 91 with me building a Dwarven Bunker. I wanted my questing in Nagrand to give me enough gear to hit the 610ilvl needed for heroics and bypass normal dungeons completely.
This worked (almost) perfectly! I just needed a quick trip to Mr. Pinchy in northern Nagrand to pick up the trinket, plus the Skyreach normal dungeon for the 640ilvl ring and I was there. 611ilvl after around 30 mins of being 100.
First target... Proving Grounds Silver.
Laughably easy as hunter, by far the easiest time I have had on any class.
Second target... 615ilvl - Highmaul LFR
Easily reached as I needed to run heroic dungeons for the Legendary questline. Even when I had completed those quests I was still running at least one heroic per day for the 175GR daily quest (where were those quests when I needed them on my main? :-P)
Third target... Use Heroics and LFR to set up my TMW (aka L2P Hunter)
Hmmm... where did all my focus go?
Yeah, this one still needs some work but I have TMW set up to show me:
Explosive Shot
Black Arrow
Barrage/Glaive Toss/ A Murder of Crows (on one icon)
Explosive Trap
Warning when Focus <40
I don't think there is anything else I need to track at this stage and this basically gives me my whole 'rotation' nicely positioned near the middle of the screen.
I might need to make the Focus warning bigger though as I seem able to not see it somehow, or I need some better way to track focus.
Other gearing options...
Crafting... Under Way
Crafting is under way but it takes time. I can shortcut to a certain extent with the Primal Spirits but that will probably come later when I am upgrading the crafted pieces.
Followers... Work in Progress
Doing so many heroics eventually gets you into groups willing to go for Croman and Leeroy so they joined the ranks. Meatball from Brawler's Guild is another easy 100 epic follower.
Harrison Jones is great for bringing the others up to speed.
Unfortunately, the hard part is gearing them up. It's a long grind of missions, salvage and the Dwarven Bunker.
Apexis Crystals... No Thanks!
Needing them for the first part of the legendary quest prevents you even getting on the ladder with these. It would take horrendous luck with drops in lfr and heroic dungeons to still need the gear by the time you had the crystals to buy it.
I imagined myself doing the Apexis daily as I waited for queues to pop but it made more sense to go skinning/trapping instead.
Challenge Modes... Nope.
No confidence in my play as a noob hunter to pug them and no friends doing them.
Invasions... Nope.
Not doing Apexis dailies means not killing the mobs needed to trigger the invasion.
Poor luck in Highmaul LFR left me at 629ilvl at the end of the week. Normally at this point I would have headed for the auction house and bought a BoE or crafted piece to boost ilvl to the next stage (at least). Not on this char though so this is where I finished the week.
Next target... Blackrock Foundry LFR - 635ilvl
Now to find some gear. Many gearing options are available but I had a plan! :-)
I do like to have a plan :-)
The planning started back at 91 with me building a Dwarven Bunker. I wanted my questing in Nagrand to give me enough gear to hit the 610ilvl needed for heroics and bypass normal dungeons completely.
This worked (almost) perfectly! I just needed a quick trip to Mr. Pinchy in northern Nagrand to pick up the trinket, plus the Skyreach normal dungeon for the 640ilvl ring and I was there. 611ilvl after around 30 mins of being 100.
First target... Proving Grounds Silver.
Laughably easy as hunter, by far the easiest time I have had on any class.
Second target... 615ilvl - Highmaul LFR
Easily reached as I needed to run heroic dungeons for the Legendary questline. Even when I had completed those quests I was still running at least one heroic per day for the 175GR daily quest (where were those quests when I needed them on my main? :-P)
Third target... Use Heroics and LFR to set up my TMW (aka L2P Hunter)
Hmmm... where did all my focus go?
Yeah, this one still needs some work but I have TMW set up to show me:
Explosive Shot
Black Arrow
Barrage/Glaive Toss/ A Murder of Crows (on one icon)
Explosive Trap
Warning when Focus <40
I don't think there is anything else I need to track at this stage and this basically gives me my whole 'rotation' nicely positioned near the middle of the screen.
I might need to make the Focus warning bigger though as I seem able to not see it somehow, or I need some better way to track focus.
Other gearing options...
Crafting... Under Way
Crafting is under way but it takes time. I can shortcut to a certain extent with the Primal Spirits but that will probably come later when I am upgrading the crafted pieces.
Followers... Work in Progress
Doing so many heroics eventually gets you into groups willing to go for Croman and Leeroy so they joined the ranks. Meatball from Brawler's Guild is another easy 100 epic follower.
Harrison Jones is great for bringing the others up to speed.
Unfortunately, the hard part is gearing them up. It's a long grind of missions, salvage and the Dwarven Bunker.
Apexis Crystals... No Thanks!
Needing them for the first part of the legendary quest prevents you even getting on the ladder with these. It would take horrendous luck with drops in lfr and heroic dungeons to still need the gear by the time you had the crystals to buy it.
I imagined myself doing the Apexis daily as I waited for queues to pop but it made more sense to go skinning/trapping instead.
Challenge Modes... Nope.
No confidence in my play as a noob hunter to pug them and no friends doing them.
Invasions... Nope.
Not doing Apexis dailies means not killing the mobs needed to trigger the invasion.
Poor luck in Highmaul LFR left me at 629ilvl at the end of the week. Normally at this point I would have headed for the auction house and bought a BoE or crafted piece to boost ilvl to the next stage (at least). Not on this char though so this is where I finished the week.
Next target... Blackrock Foundry LFR - 635ilvl
Friday 5 June 2015
Onto the Treadmill...
So... you've reached 100. What next?
Get some shiny new gear so you can kill all the things!
There are many ways to gear up in Draenor:
1. Garrison - Let your followers do all the work while you put your feet up after all that hard questing. You can obtain gear directly from the Follower missions or, if you are really lucky, from thecrap Salvage they bring back.
2. Dungeons - Normal dungeons drop 610ilvl gear, Heroic dungeons drop 630ilvl gear with a guaranteed drop from the last boss. The bread and butter of early gearing.
3. Crafting - you can gear any slot with a 640ilvl (which can be upgraded later) item but they use a lot of mats and you can only wear 3 crafted items at any time.
4. Apexis Crystals - The gear starts at 630ilvl and can also be upgraded like the crafted pieces. Horrendously expensive but might be worth grabbing one piece if you are really, and I mean really, desperate (wait until you have done no. 5 though).
5. Legendary Ring - You pick up the first quest at 98, one run through Skyreach on any difficulty nets you a 640ilvl ring. A few quests in heroic dungeons at 100 allows you to upgrade it to 680ilvl but it also needs a load of Apexis Crystals (making option 4 even less viable).
6. Challenge Modes - Daily quest offers decent rewards to the new 100 but difficult to find a group if you lack experience. Great if you have a few friends to run with.
7. Garrison Invasions - Notoriously difficult to trigger for the newly-dinged 100 as they require killing lots of level 100 mobs in the specific "Apexis Daily" areas. Worth a look on the groupfinder to see if anyone needs help with one though.
8. Auction House - There are more raid-level BoE's than ever before, just ask Grumpy Elf - Not a route I want to go down in this experiment but you can basically just buy yourself a full set of raid gear.
So, which are the best options? Have I missed any?
Get some shiny new gear so you can kill all the things!
There are many ways to gear up in Draenor:
1. Garrison - Let your followers do all the work while you put your feet up after all that hard questing. You can obtain gear directly from the Follower missions or, if you are really lucky, from the
2. Dungeons - Normal dungeons drop 610ilvl gear, Heroic dungeons drop 630ilvl gear with a guaranteed drop from the last boss. The bread and butter of early gearing.
3. Crafting - you can gear any slot with a 640ilvl (which can be upgraded later) item but they use a lot of mats and you can only wear 3 crafted items at any time.
4. Apexis Crystals - The gear starts at 630ilvl and can also be upgraded like the crafted pieces. Horrendously expensive but might be worth grabbing one piece if you are really, and I mean really, desperate (wait until you have done no. 5 though).
5. Legendary Ring - You pick up the first quest at 98, one run through Skyreach on any difficulty nets you a 640ilvl ring. A few quests in heroic dungeons at 100 allows you to upgrade it to 680ilvl but it also needs a load of Apexis Crystals (making option 4 even less viable).
6. Challenge Modes - Daily quest offers decent rewards to the new 100 but difficult to find a group if you lack experience. Great if you have a few friends to run with.
7. Garrison Invasions - Notoriously difficult to trigger for the newly-dinged 100 as they require killing lots of level 100 mobs in the specific "Apexis Daily" areas. Worth a look on the groupfinder to see if anyone needs help with one though.
8. Auction House - There are more raid-level BoE's than ever before, just ask Grumpy Elf - Not a route I want to go down in this experiment but you can basically just buy yourself a full set of raid gear.
So, which are the best options? Have I missed any?
Thursday 4 June 2015
Raid Frustration...
Wipe on Hans and Franz yet again...
4 months into the raid and people can't (or won't) move out of the presses.
Always the same people, never learning.
It's the same people in every fight...
Gruul's Overhead Smash
Oregorger's Rolling Fury
Darmac's Heavy Spears
Kromog's Reverberations
Thogar's trains
Iron Maidens' Alpha Cluster Bombs
Ka'graz' Enchanted Armaments
Every boss has something, and every week the same people fail to it in every fight.
Mistakes can happen, I know that.
I know I've been hit by every one of those mechanics at some point (well, not Gruul's smash because... come on, really?), especially when learning the fight, but not EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
This week, after a nightmare couple of weeks, we one-shot Iron Maidens.
This was because we went with 5 healers for safety (16-man team) and managed to keep the bomb damage down to 'only' 3.4 Million :-s
Side-stepping is really really hard so it was quite an achievement :-P
Tonight we go to Blast Furnace again, there's some fire there that needs standing in...
4 months into the raid and people can't (or won't) move out of the presses.
Always the same people, never learning.
It's the same people in every fight...
Gruul's Overhead Smash
Oregorger's Rolling Fury
Darmac's Heavy Spears
Kromog's Reverberations
Thogar's trains
Iron Maidens' Alpha Cluster Bombs
Ka'graz' Enchanted Armaments
Every boss has something, and every week the same people fail to it in every fight.
Mistakes can happen, I know that.
I know I've been hit by every one of those mechanics at some point (well, not Gruul's smash because... come on, really?), especially when learning the fight, but not EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
This week, after a nightmare couple of weeks, we one-shot Iron Maidens.
This was because we went with 5 healers for safety (16-man team) and managed to keep the bomb damage down to 'only' 3.4 Million :-s
Side-stepping is really really hard so it was quite an achievement :-P
Tonight we go to Blast Furnace again, there's some fire there that needs standing in...
Tuesday 2 June 2015
The Project - Hunting in Draenor
We last saw our intrepid huntress saying farewell to Pandaria and about to take her first steps with Khadgar through the Dark Portal into Draenor...
Mrs. Alt is not too keen on the Tanaan Jungle opening questline but, even on my 10th run through, I still find it enjoyable. It sets the scene nicely and barely takes any time anyway and, once it's completed, I feel like I am ready for Draenor.
I wasn't sure how difficult it would be in my mishmash of gear from three expansions (No Timeless gear for this alt, that was chucked to make space long ago) but any fears were completely unfounded.
Whether the content is easy or hunters (with their own private tanking dog) are just OP for questing is up for debate but the whole journey to 100 was remarkably straight-forward.
I had a plan though for my Garrison, I do like to have a plan :-), to set me up for when I reached 100.
First up, get the Lumber Mill up and running as quickly as possible to bring in the Garrison Resources. That level 3 garrison once you hit 100 costs a fortune, get saving as early as possible!
Next, demolish the Barracks and replace it with a level 1 Dwarven Bunker. It only takes a couple of lucky procs on the quest rewards in Nagrand to allow you to skip normal dungeons completely and head straight into Heroics.
Finally, build a Salvage Yard as soon as possible to get the free gold flowing in. That level 3 garrison costs more than just GR :-)
With no professions at this point, I also levelled up Skinning/Leatherworking as I was going along. I'm not convinced that it is an improvement being able to level professions from 1 to 700 purely in current content but it definitely makes it easier!
Ding! Level 100!
Now the gearing begins...
Mrs. Alt is not too keen on the Tanaan Jungle opening questline but, even on my 10th run through, I still find it enjoyable. It sets the scene nicely and barely takes any time anyway and, once it's completed, I feel like I am ready for Draenor.
I wasn't sure how difficult it would be in my mishmash of gear from three expansions (No Timeless gear for this alt, that was chucked to make space long ago) but any fears were completely unfounded.
Whether the content is easy or hunters (with their own private tanking dog) are just OP for questing is up for debate but the whole journey to 100 was remarkably straight-forward.
I had a plan though for my Garrison, I do like to have a plan :-), to set me up for when I reached 100.
First up, get the Lumber Mill up and running as quickly as possible to bring in the Garrison Resources. That level 3 garrison once you hit 100 costs a fortune, get saving as early as possible!
Next, demolish the Barracks and replace it with a level 1 Dwarven Bunker. It only takes a couple of lucky procs on the quest rewards in Nagrand to allow you to skip normal dungeons completely and head straight into Heroics.
Finally, build a Salvage Yard as soon as possible to get the free gold flowing in. That level 3 garrison costs more than just GR :-)
With no professions at this point, I also levelled up Skinning/Leatherworking as I was going along. I'm not convinced that it is an improvement being able to level professions from 1 to 700 purely in current content but it definitely makes it easier!
Ding! Level 100!
Now the gearing begins...
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