WoWGrrl's World » herbalism

Mana Tombs Run #2 – PUG'ing it

Valdesta — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:44:17 +0000

My first run of Mana Tombs was mildly successful, in that I did well on my sheeping job, others did well on their jobs and even when we wiped because the tank was undergeared, the general attitude of the players in the group remained positive and non-abusive. I hadn't actually turned in any quests by the time I logged out after that run, however.

The next night I queued up into the LFG tool at about 11 PM realm time after most of my guildmates had gone offline. Funnily enough, the party I landed myself in had the same tank and same healer from the previous night! The tank had taken time to improve his equipment, however, and had a lot more stamina and armor than the previous night.

Costumes, Consortium Rep and Uncommon Drops!

Since Hallow's End is still going on and people are still actively picking up the various wands that can provide "costumes" for players in their party, all of us were in some kind of costume form while we ran the instance. I particularly liked my form at this point - Undead Pirates rock!

In general, the run went a lot better than the night before - the Pally tank had taken time and cash to his equipment and improved his stamina and armor and was much better able to stand up to the beating that the mobs in the instance were giving him - especially the boss.

The healer himself was given huge accolades all through the instance, critting with some 4k heals on occasion - from a 65 Holy Pally! So, I knew that we were in good hands there, when I'm not only staying alive but other people are pretty actively patting the guy on the back for the job he was doing.

Mana Tombs has a fair amount of Adamantite in it, I noticed - from the mining on the ground to the mining of some of the bosses themselves. I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm bringing my Warrior Miner/Blacksmith through, as Adamantite is what I'm stuck on right now.

There's also a nice collection of [Ancient Lichen] in there, but I'm neither a miner nor an herbalist on this Mage toon.

The drops were way better during this second run than they were during the first run - I got three equipment upgrades from regular trash mobs and then a nice Mage piece dropped from the final guy but the other mage in the group won it (which is fine by me, 3 upgrades is lots).

Consortium Rep - Friendly

By the end of this second run I was Friendly with the Consortium - 534/6000. From what WoWWiki has to say, it'll probably take another 2-3 runs to max out my rep from the dungeon run side of it at 5999/6000 but that's fine by me, I need the experience and levels from this process to head into Nagrand and blast my way through some more Consortium reputation quests that I can do before hitting 68/70.

When I hit Honored here, I'll be honored with two factions that offer heroics keys at the highest reputation level, and one that offers nifty gems each month.

How many heroics keys are there, anyway? Five?

Blacksmithing Sucks, Herbalism Is In – But Where?

Valdesta — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:51:11 +0000

I've been having a battle within myself, and it finally came to a peak today and I made a decision.

No More Blacksmithing.

It sucks! I have rarely used it to do anything other than create enchanting mats for my Enchanter. It's expensive, and I don't intend to deck my Warrior out in the uber epic gear I'll be able to make when I finally advance it to a respectable level (the BS or the Warrior)

And what what the thing that pushed me over the edge?

Having to move my 70 Hunter/Herbalist OUT of Shadowmoon Valley and back to some of the Azeroth zones to farm certain herbs that are part of potions that sell really well, but that my banker toon is running low of stock on.

I feel like, if I'm going to play my Hunter these days, I should be doing the plethora of Daily Quests in front of me for this Netherwing rep, and going far away from the zone just seems like a waste of time.

However, if I do it on another toon...

But... Mining AND Herbalism??

If I make this move on my Warrior, however, I'll have both Mining and Herbalism on the same toon, which isn't great in a "you can only track one at a time" way.

Sigh.

Maybe I should drop Skinning on my Mage, Blacksmithing on my Warrior, pick up Skinning on my Warrior and Herbalism on my Mage? Seems wise, since the Mage is the Alchemist...

But a few more hours of work than I was originally anticipating when I started this blog entry. Skinning on this AOE-capable toon is something I'd very sorely miss.

But I'm runnin' out of herbs! But I don't want to take my Hunter ALL THE WAY OUT and park her the way she needs to be parked for a few days of collection in an area or three, and stop grinding on the Netherwing quests to boot!

*ponders grouchily*

Level: 54. Alchemy: 375

Valdesta — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:17:56 +0000

Wow, after posting that last entry about the professions levels of my post-50s toons, I logged in and realized I was already at 368 with my Troll Mage Alchemist!

That's the benefit I get from having my 70 Hunter being my Herbalist - getting a hold of the materials to progress Alchemy hasn't been hard since I picked up Herbalism on that toon and left the Leatherworking for a lower toon.

I was able to get to 375 just by buying vials to process the herbs I had sent across from my time in Shadowmoon Valley. I guess I should look up information about specializations some time??? :)

Next up, Blacksmithing!

I hopped over to my Warrior Blacksmith and spent about 65g in the Auction House buying [Fel Iron Ore] at 11g a stack of 20, then gathered up what bit I had in the bank and headed over to the Undercity War Quarter to smelt and smith the ores.

It only got me two more points, from 335 to 337.

It's going to be a long haul, especially since that same toon is also my only high-level miner.

How about Enchanting...

I think it's time to have another enchanting materials sale on the Auction House and get rid of anything that's "Old World", to help reduce bank clutter. But we won't get started on the bank clutter topic...

Enchanting is currently at 340. Lots of work to do there, too. Looks like I need to farm Level 66-67+ mobs for lvl 64+ equipment... I'm thinking this one will wait for a long time, beyond what drops from the beasts in Shadowmoon Valley for my Netherwing rep quests.

I'll check in again in a few weeks, and see how everything's improved. It's fun to look back on these things, I find.

Secondary Professions Are For All

Valdesta — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:42:50 +0000

When I first started playing WoW, I read Blizzard's page on professions but didn't completely understand what it meant in terms of how I could choose them myself. Therefore, now that I understand, I'm writing this entry so others may also understand.

Primary and Secondary - poor terms

I think my main problem was that Primary and Secondary put specific things in my mind when I hear them. Like the fact that generally in life (except if you're into Polyamory), if you have something assigned to a "Primary" slot, there are no other slots available that are also labelled "Primary". One primary. That's it. Except in WoW, where a Primary profession means it counts towards the two professions you're allowed to choose at any one time in the game.

"Secondary" on WoW in terms of professions basically means "a skill that anyone can learn in addition to the Primary professions they've selected".

Secondary Professions Available

There are three Secondary professions available: Fishing, Cooking and First Aid.

You still need to "train" in these professions as you would your Primary ones, meaning you still need to find the Cooking, Fishing and First Aid trainers (aka Physician in some areas), but they're skills you can work on right away at low levels while you're deciding what Primary professions you want to commit to.

Committing to Primary Professions

The commitment to your two chosen Primary Professions gets to be more serious as you advance them. You cannot switch Primary professions and still maintain the old levels you had trained up in the previous Primary professions pairing, so it's a good idea to really THINK before you commit to your Primary professions.

I've heard that Alchemy, Leatherworking and Herbalism are good Primary skills to engage in, but of course it depends on whether you're looking to collect/create things to sell or whether you're looking to create things for your own use within your class specialties.

Personally, my Troll Hunter is Skinning/Leatherworking and my Gnome Mage will be a Herbalist/Alchemist once she's a little bigger.

Conclusion

If you're looking for something to do at low levels instead of just hacking and slashing and questing, find Cooking, First Aid and Fishing trainers to get you started on your way. You can fish in almost any puddle you run across, humanoids drop linen for your creation of bandages, and as your Cooking level advances, you can cook most of the fish you catch, which provides for healing and pet food.

Give it a go!