Whirly: good to go

A return, final, visit to Ragefire Tuesday. This time, we did the third boss who turned out to be a push over. Again, we had no deaths and only one close call. Lots of gear drops in there, though we used only a few. The experience was good. I made 13 bubbles in two hours. We’ll be moving to bigger things Friday.

That new heal, I received at 16, made a positive difference in my mana use. Timing is the thing with longer casting heals. The healer needs to delay casting the heal, waiting for the right heal-per-mana moment. That wait, choosing that “just right” moment, separates the great healers from the rest. It can also give a little adrenalin goose to both the healer and the tank as they wonder if the heal will arrive in time.

What does three mid-teen Horde players do on a Monday night? Why, Ragefire Chasm, of course. Ragefire is an instance located in the Horde city of Orgrimmar and is considered for levels 13-18. With only the three of us, I expected we might be a little low. That wasn’t the case. We killed two of the named and everybody else we ran into without a single death on our side. We had a couple of close calls, probably caused by my poor healing. We ran out of time or we’d have wooped the rest of em.

Who knew healing would be so complicated? I’m completely un-impressed with the time required for my big heal; it seems to take forever. With two or three mobs, the Warrior’s health drops terribly fast. Later, after I dinged 16 and purchased my new heal, I checked and the heal I’d been using was only 2.5 seconds. It seemed much longer. My new heal is 3 seconds and burns a ton more mana, another problem. The difference is an added 2 health per mana with the new spell. Healing errors will be more costly now.

I tried to cancel my EQII account last night. Mark has been playing some and seems to be having a good time, but I don’t have the heart to continue. I pull up a character and… nothing.

I don’t recall ever giving my birthplace to the account department. I’ve signed up for a lot of games though. If they asked, I probably gave it to them. We were unable to come to an agreement on where I was born. They want me to call to cancel. Yesterday was my billing date anyway so I’ve got another month to squeeze out some fun.

I played the Auction House game most of the day Saturday and lightly Sunday. I made over 90 gold. It’s not all profit, but still an impressive first-showing for a level 10. Next week I’ll have some cash and a little more experience.

I think I’ll switch to a shorter auction length. With the 24 hour auction, I become the market and the competition can undercut me. With shorter auctions I can respond or withdraw as needed. I’m also going to avoid mechanical squirrels. I can’t seem to make money with them.

I took a little time and my second auction house mule, a hunter, is now level 10. He has a pet and is a killing machine. Well, he will be when he gets pet heal. I’ve played a little of everything now and the Hunter is the easiest, point and shoot.

I haven’t written much lately because I’ve been busy trying to get rich. I did solo my Priest to 14 –boring-, my auction house mule-Druid to 10 (got bear form, it’s easier for Horde than Alliance), and raised a Hunter to 8 (you’ve got to love the ease of playing Hunter).

While I’m having fun with the auction house game, I don’t think it makes for much of a story. For instance – A stack of copper ore sells for 35 to 45 silver on a  good day. On a bad day it sells for 20 silver or less. If you place copper ore, on my Auction house, for 2 silver each or lower, bid or buy out, I’ll bid or buy out and sell it later. Is that an interesting story?

This is my first weekend with real product to sell. I should know Sunday night if I killed the auction house dragon or not.

Things are progressing well with our new Horde toons, we are all 13ish and looking forward to our first instance. Mark and I had a chance for a short conversation about our Warrior-Priest reversal. He asked, at one time, for some Warrior pointers, I’m reluctant. I love that we each play our character as we see fit. Equipment, skills, technique, there is no “right” way. I’m continually re-considering my fighting process, looking for improvment, and I know the others are as well. But, as a level 13 Priest, I have opinions.

Warrior and Priest dream of doing more DPS, that’s not their job. Their job is group survival, reducing group damage-taken using armors and spells. Their damage output is a far distant second or third. Warrior and Priest are always aware of group health and mana, and who’s taking damage. Unlike other games we’ve played, where the tanks job is taunt/kick forever, in WoW the Warriors has many options and their situational response is very fluid. In many ways Warrior and Priest have the same roll in group. It’s only their methods that differ.

As a Priest, I’m just learning to focus on health at the expense of almost everything else. One thing I’ve yet to accomplish, as a priest, is avoiding aggro. Nothing worse than a great Warrior pull, placing the mob right there, and having the dumb priest throw a buff or debuff causing the mob to run over. As a Troll Priest I have a debuff that reduces the damage output of the mob, a great thing, but it doesn’t help if I toss it too early and the mob switches to beating on me causing the Warror to have to go looking for the mob. That’s a failure on my part. I’m working on timing.

I’m not sure I’ll ever be as good a Priest as Mark. We’ll see if he’s as good a Warrior.

I had a busy weekend getting rich. Well, I’m not rich, but I’m working on it. I’ve yet to define what rich means in WoW. First the process then the definition.

I figure the way to riches is in the auction house, buy low sell high. How to pull that off is what I’m working on. I’m not going to spend hours a day on this so it’s got to be quick.

Some folks get angry when you buy at their price and sell for more. To protect my main’s reputation, I’ll be trading with an auction house mule. Does this make me evil? How about if I go from 3 gold to 30 gold my first weekend?

Oddly enough, I’ve found the copper ore can sell for almost twice as much as copper bars. Here’s my working theory – Twinks, or players who take up mining late in life, would rather buy copper ore and gain mining experience by smelting than running around in newbie zones looking for copper.

My new priest made it to level 10 as planned. I’ve got a little over 2 gold, not as much as I’d like, but my expenses are low. Equipment, other than weapon, isn’t all that important at these levels. We all have a full set of bags, thanks to Mike. I was standing in front of the bank and a higher level gave me an 8 slot bag. I said, “thanks you,” of course, and he returned with more stuff. This has happened to me before while playing Horde. It’s never happened while playing Alliance.

I met up with Mark’s new Warrior near Cross Roads. We both died within two minutes, my first death. Both Mark and Mike are more stand-and-die than I. I’m more, you’d better root me if you want to kill me cause I’m out of here.

My stack of copper ore sold for 40 silver. Woo Hoo! I’m rich. I purchased a serviceable, not uber, wand. Now I shield up, toss a nuke, DOT, engage wand and loot. I like a good system.

When I returned to the auction house with my newly found copper ore there were 10 other stacks being sold for around 25 silver. Looks like I was lucky with the 40 silver windfall.

I’m trying to come up with an action-bar arrangement for a working Priest as opposed to my usual solo Priest. In the past I’ve kept two bars, one for solo, one for group, but I want just one this time so it becomes automatic.

My current arrangement: 1) Attack (always). 2) Wand. 3) Shield (Power Word). 4) Instant cast heal over time. 5) Big heal. 6) Big nuke. 7) DOT. –Blank_ +) Fade. This is for a level 9 Priest. I’m sure it will change over time. I want the heals in the same place always.

Mark has mentioned a few add-ons he’s experimented with as healer. I checked them out, but I’m not convinced. I’m going to give it a try old-school first. Mark has been our healer for years. I trust him always. I just don’t know if I can muster the continuous concentration required. When I was playing healer in City of Heroes I never knew what was going on. I only knew health bars.

Mike and I took our Troll Horde newbies from 4 to 7 last night. I then soloed to 8.

Along with leveling I’m trying to make some cash. What’s worked for me in the past is mining and skinning. As the Priest, I’m kind of expected to take up alchemy, not my favorite. I just hate carrying around all those plants.

I intended to take herb gathering and mining to sell the raws in the auction house. That’s a failure on two levels. You can’t track two resources at the same time and nobody wants low level plants. My get-rich-quick plan is floundering already, but I’ve got a stack of copper ore in the AH and my eyes on a wand if it sells.

The plan is to meet at the Cross Roads on Friday and be level 10. I should make level 10 in two days, but I’ve got some real life content tonight which will limit my play time. I’ve worked this Valley of Trials to Crossroads many times which helps with the speed though the excitement is a bit low. We’ll be able to do the low-level Horde instances, Ragefire and Waling Caverns, soon. That will perk things up.