Cataclysm has been out about 8 weeks now. So far I have managed to join a great raiding guild, level my 3 main playing toons to 85, level my professions so I have max or near max in most categories and had great success in earning gold. So why do I feel like I'm spinning my wheels?
Gold earning has become almost an all-encompassing activity. My AH time has been so dominant that I rarely find time to do anything else. The exception has been to level professions.
I hit a fairly comfortable gold plateau in the first two weeks after Cataclysm. From that point until now I have bounced around within a 10k gold window. It seems this window has served to define how much time I spend doing non-AH activities.
I'm not a "realm first" kind of player so I didn't become consumed with hitting any one goal very fast. Nor am I particularly motivated to hit the gold cap. However, my goals to get max profs for everything I can has been a constant motivator. I now have Tailoring at 505, Leatherworking at 515, Blacksmithing at 520 and max Alchemy, Enchanting, Jewelcrafting and Inscription. All my gathering skills are also maxed.
I can max Tailoring, Leatherworking and Blacksmithing fairly quickly but will have to spend some gold to do so. My Tailor is only L76 so he can't gather Embercloth yet. Have to buy raw and turn into bolts. Fortunately I have seen the cost of raw Embersilk fall to around 4g/cloth. Any time I see it for 3.5g/each I buy as much as I need for the next skill threshold.
My Leatherworker is L81, almost L82 now, and he is questing in the Abyssal Maw. The leather he skins up has gone to the next few skill points. Just a few hours more and I'm sure I can get another level down and enough mats to get to 550. Or, I can simply fly to Hyjal and skin in some of the great farming locations. Or there is a very good skin farming location near the wreck that begins Vas'jir, on the bottom of the ocean--the crabs are great to skin, spawn quickly and exist below the Naga.
Blacksmithing could have leveled by now but I have been using all the ore I can mine for my JC. I buy quite a bit and prospect, craft and sell the cut and some uncut gems. I could probably spend two hours and get max Blacksmithing.
So why do I feel a little unfulfilled?
The biggest reason is that I have not done any dungeons or raids. I joined an awesome raiding guild to get the experience but raid nights have been inconvenient for me thus far. And I have really shied away from doing instances without guildies. Most of them have long since passed my gear levels and are now 9/12--and I'm still trying to figure out when to "discover" Blackrock Spire and Deadmines.
Yet my daily routine is very full. First, I log my AH toon and get mail, do a scan, re-list my auctions, buy any mats I need to "AH farm" and mail to my alts. Then I run the SW cooking and fishing daily quests on 5 toons (sometimes 6) and the JC daily for that toon. For a while I did the Dalaran cooking and fishing dailies on 3 toons but have finally decided the travel time back and forth just makes this practice too cumbersome.
Then I go back to the AH and do that grind again. By then my morning play time is over. Got to do some work, return calls and emails, that sort of stuff.
When I log again in the evening I do the AH shuffle one more time, craft whatever needs to be built for use or sale, do my milling, prospecting and DE anything I need to DE, and hit the AH again. Or, I may need Northrend herbs or Outland ore--so I'll spend an hour or two running those circuits.
If I have any time left before bed I may run a quest or two or check my Horde toons. In any event, I find little to no time remaining in my day for anything fun.
Forget the time I spend on other people's blogs (and commenting on their posts), I rarely have the willpower or desire to jump into a raid after a day like I just described. And that day has become my Groundhog Day.
I'm tired of treading water. I will spend the rest of this weekend leveling profs but after that, no more. I will gear up and get into the swing of dungeons, heroics and eventually raids.
Maybe then the 3k gold I make every day will actually stay in my bank. And maybe then I won't feel like such a mule.
I'm kind of in the same position. I just finished prospecting all the cheap ore I bought last weekend (300 stacks? in that neighborhood.) I've been thinking of scaling back my operation to accommodate my playtime to allow for some dungeons or something. It has become a bit monotonous.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely don't want to spend so much time blogging about the game and making gold in the game that you don't actually get to play the game!
ReplyDeleteNice to see you posting again Kamm :) thanks for your comment on my blog too :)
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that this is a fairly common goblin problem. I'm kinda lucky in that I do get a lot of playtime & my guild is nowhere near ready to raid so that's 2 pressures I don't have but I still seem to find actual 'play' time very scarce.
I want to get to old cap then I think I should go 'cold turkey' and get back to proper wowing!
Hi Kammler and also thanks for the comment on my small corner of this blog sphere, We as player all have a goal, to have fun , being it the AH,raid,quest pvp whatever,but for my personal experience (like doing IC all the time ,during the LK days i had to take a break of the game after killing Lord Morrorgar like for the 999 its no fun anymore ) if you keep doing the same thing every single day you become bored and fed up ,try to do something different ,go explore the old content if you haven't do it already,make a new toon ,just to check the new content in lower levels,do whatever breaks your daily routine .If not your will became so bored of the game you most will start to call this a job and not a game .Or also hang out whit friend in game for me its was what keep me coming the guild and friends ,but that to ended now i take things slow no pressure just fun. Came back to the game 30 days ago whit 0 gold and now after 30 days even whit few time invested and just selling what i git in quest,mine and so one i am got 9K gold almost going 10k^^. And my next ting to do is do Molten core thing i never did ,maybe in a few minute i will,So best of luck out there and sorry for the long post.
ReplyDelete@ Drayden: I feel the pain. I think I'm going to craft during certain days, once per week and when that supply is gone, its gone. I may try that this week.
ReplyDelete@Ali: I agree. I enjoy the AH game but I need to really play more--raids and dungeons are really fun!
@Nev: Thanks, I'm glad to be back. I enjoy content at your site, keep it up! I really like the guild I'm in so far but feel like I should be contributing more than I am. Hopefully that changes soon.
@Alberthus: No worries, I am happy to have the traffic. Post what you like, I will read it.
I have struggled with this issue for some time. It was a problem (sort of) at the end of WoLK for me. Now I feel like I have some good gold strategies and that my income will survive some attention being paid elsewhere. In fact, my gold needs have declined as my profs are all just about maxed--so now the expenditures are only for crafting and flipping.
I took a break about a year ago, only for about six weeks. My account got hacked and I was really bummed. I server transferred and the rest is history.....I like where I'm at for now.
To all: thanks for the traffic. I will try to be more consistent with new content.
I know what you mean, I love making gold but I love playing my chars more. Gold making gave me an outlet in wrath after we completed all content and were left with 6 months of nothing (RS didnt count and tbh I didnt even do it).
ReplyDeleteNow cata is here the monotony has not yet set in and the gearing/levelling up element is really enjoyable. I find this directly impacts my gold making but it also makes me more efficient. I cant afford to do fortune cookies for example(easiest example before cold flames me), they take too much time and effort which I could be using to progress my raid chars.
I tried to cut down the unneccessay markets and get back to basics practicing what we all try to preach in our blogs.
/sigh
ReplyDeleteDecisions like this become harder when success comes as it did this weekend.
I made 35k gold from Friday am to Monday pm, mainly selling DMF individual cards, inks and high end scrolls--but damn!
Maybe tomorrow.....lol