Valor of the Ancients - buff not enuff

I greatly appreciate this buff, it's a step in the right direction on behalf of the WoW devs. The VotA buff demonstrates to me how they understand and want to help the plight of the altoholics. Yet, I'm still struggling capping out 3 toons. After tracking my Valor Point progression across my lvl 90 alts the last couple weeks I've come to the conclusion that it's just not enough.

Currently I have 3 level 90s I'm playing regularly yet for the last couple week there I am on Sunday/Monday cramming trying to get that 1000 VP on the last 2. I've failed every week. The problem lays in the great end game divide between these characters progression. I raid on my main warlock which yields 5 or 6 bosses worth of valor, but I don't run heroics on him anymore and now that he's exalted with several factions I'm not doing as many dailies as I once was. For my 2 alts I have a Prot Pally and  Resto Sham, both do a lot of dailies still, run a lot of heroics for gear and get quick queues, but I'm not raiding on either yet so by the time the weekend hits all 3 of my toons are roughly about half capped. By Thursday or Friday one of them is usually in the lead by 100 points, but that still leaves several hundred I have to grind out before that VotA buff kicks in which has been leaving me just a couple days to work with. I'm sure I'm not alone in this problem. I have a simple solution though. 

Allow this buff to kick in once 1000 valor points have been accrued across all your characters. Bam! I see this buff lighting up by the end of the raid week every Thursday night leaving me most of the rest of the week to get these points capped without have to sweat it out. If the devs are going to offer a buff they need to commit to the spirit behind it and go full bore. Too many times I see interesting or helpful additions to the game that are executed in a rather half-ass manner. It's like a hastily applied bandage that only halfway covers the wound. Anything that's worth doing is worth doing right. It'd be great to see this buff reapplied so it actually treats the issue of excessive player grinding, because in it's current form it's only mildly alleviating the pain.

Random Complaints About Shadow Bolt

Image stolen from Cynwise

#1. Demonology is the only spec now that uses Shadow Bolt.

#2. Shadow Bolt should be a viable alternative for Malefic Grasp with Affliction.

#3. The Glyph of Shadow Bolt shouldn't be "required" for it's dps increase from more proc chances. 

#4. Why bother to redesign the animation of Shadow Bolt at the end of Cata when only 1 spec would be using it and that spec use the glyph that makes them so tiny you can't even see the animation in all it's glory? 

I'd be happy if they could just bring it back into Affliction. To me Shadow Bolt was always the iconic warlock spell. You start off with it on your bar there at level 1. It's evil ghostly purple and black skull was just the epitome of what being a warlock was.  I liked the glyphed effect of the 3 tiny bolts for awhile, but today it just seems like a less than epic experience after winding up that long hard cast. It complimented Affliction so well as it's filler too. I really don't like that my lock is basically looking and acting like a shadow priest now with it's Mind Flay, er... I mean Malefic Grasp... I don't care how well it's topping the meters.

It's petty I know, I miss my old big nuke.

The Lorewalkers - crying out for account wide achievement progress

I know I've clicked on you already!

I tried to stay true to the spirit of exploration in my Lorewalker progression. I was aware that by simply tabbing out and looking up a guide on where all these scrolls are placed I could easily, in a couple hours click them all to get exalted and have my own little hover-disc mount. But where's the fun and feeling of accomplishment in that? I knew eventually I would find them all, for I had discovered a bunch already just through normal questing. The problem is, they were all on different characters. To curb burnout and keep things fresh while leveling up multiple alts through Pandaria I skipped over many zones on purpose so I could hit them up later on alts. This does not bode well for Lorewalker rep achievements it turns out.

What I realized after "tabbing out", looking up a guide and then flying all over to fill in the blanks for these achievements on my main is that in fact I had done all this already, just not on the same toon. This bothered me. For I had in fact, though the natural course of questing and leveling found each and every one of these across my stable of alts, but I was at this point practically forced to exit the game and look up the answer to get credit for it. It would seem to me that Lorewalker rep is a prime candidate for account-wide progression tracking as it's very much in the spirit of "not forcing you stay on a single character just to work on an achievement". While we're at it, make Glorious! account wide progressive as well. I got about 90% of this list done while leveling the alts, but I had to track and kill most of them again at 90 to get the achievement. I would have rather left those rares up for leveling players who could much more benefit from the fight with their bonus experience gains, lower level gear drops and other goodies. 

My Cata Transmogrification Time Capsule - Paladin

Before my pretty transmog sets get ruined by all those MoP quest greens I decided to take a few pics to remember what my guys were rocking in the fashion department. For the most part I just used what I've held onto or could quickly acquire.

Valori - Blood Elf Paladin
*These caps kinda suck. I was going for a more cinematic shot vs. zooming in and showing off the good.
Starting off as a pretty straight forward "Blood Knight" set I swapped in a couple of non-tier warrior pieces during Dragon Soul to accent and update the look while staying in the black/red color scheme for a strong and bold look. Though the pixel resolution differences in mixing old and new armor models is very apparent I thought they complemented each other well enough and I was happy with the end result.
The best part about this set is it can be almost entirely put together through vendors! Everything on this paladin except for the iconic shield (quest) and boots (raid drop) can be bought with Justice Points. With MoP in full swing you're probably saving all your JP for lvl 90 gear, but soon enough after you've bought everything you'll be trying to figure out creative uses for that JP again and that's where our friendly old tier vendors come in.

• Shield: Bloodforged Guard (quest reward in Shadowmoon Valley) *don't bother farming Heroic Rampants, this is much quicker.
• Helm: Jaw of Repudiation (valor vendor)
• Boots: Stillheart Warboots (Dragon Soul - Ultraxion)

The "Blood Knight" pieces: Inferno Tempered (chest, legs, hands, boots) along with the matching belt Girdle of the Protector can all be bought with JP from G'eras in Shattrath City.

1-handed Weapon choices: Find something you like, you'll be happier. This one pictured is actually a random Wrath green boe drop that I got off the AH for pennies. It has a red ribbon tied around the hilt that I liked. I originally used a couple of the Dark Iron Blacksmith weapons: Ebon Hand and Blackguard. They're small, subtle and I like the classic vanilla models. Once I got an actual Souldrinker I left it as is for awhile.

 Make sure to match your transmog with your mount!

Shado-Pan Wallwatcher - FIXED

No Mammoths Allowed

I'm really liking the new stone form mounts

I honestly thought my graphics card was glitching out for a minute. Then I noticed my debuff Chastised. Applied when you steal/loot the tribute on the shrine just north of Paw-don Village. All the little randomness in MoP keeping things fun and interesting.

WoW Brilliant Idea #219 - Dynamic Quest Grouping

Cross-Realm Zones is now a part of the game, whether you like it or not. I'm not going to get into the merits and effects of CRZ, that's a whole other post, but it's here and seeing so many more players out and about in the world while leveling has gotten me thinking.

Have an option for auto-detection questing groups. If you're the kind of friendly player who likes grouping up with people have an option you can click somewhere that will make you 'available' for grouping. When you're in an area questing this feature will monitor those who also have it selected, check for matching player levels, zone quest progress and then have a pop-up list of potentials you can group with. This can be briefly utilized for those "have to kill 100 mobs on your way to the back of the cave to finally kill the actual quest mob, then fight your way back out", kind of quests. You know, for when that other guy is heading into the cave at the same time and then you're both rushing to get to the mob first. Or that group quest you've had in your log for an hour but can't complete because you keep keeping knocked back and falling to your death. I'm looking at you Yetimus! Whether grouping for a single quest or finding a questing partner, consider it a virtual ice-breaker.

Back in the old days I'd just hit up the general chat channel /1: "just starting out  in Tarren Mill, anyone want to group up for some questing?". This actually produced good results way back when. Seemed like I was often grouping up with random players just to quest, but that was a different time and sadly through the convenience of Dungeon Finder and easily solo-able questing there's not much need for actual player interaction these days. I think Dynamite Quest Grouping could really help with that. All the people I first added to my Friends List were unknowns I met through questing. Some of them never got much further than Hillsbrad Foothills, but 1 random player I met all those years ago is currently the GM of one of the largest guilds on my server. So you never know who you might bump into out there and any feature that could help interaction amongst players could only help to make things better overall.

Or if you're like me and rather not deal with another player most of the time, just keep the damn thing off.

Hey Dooker! Mind if I hang out while you play WoW?

"Los Pollos Ardiente"

Never bring a single Phoenix Hatchling to a 3 Phoenix Hatchling fight.

He knew this day would come. It was inevitable. The world of underground pet battles is harsh, where sometimes even the victor limps away to die. There is no loyalty in pet battles, you serve your roll, you live or die, for the team. Most team mates don't even bother learning your name. Why bother, one of you will probably be dead by tomorrow. If you do manage to stay alive long enough though, you're bound to re-enter the circle with former foes and allies alike. It's just a matter of time. This was different though. This wasn't just some rag-tag band of brawlers Dave was confronted with. This was his former gang, "Los Pollos Ardiente". Deemed too small and too weak to a be a contender, their leader Rico had Dave "jumped out" right before what was supposed to be his first battle. Then to add insult to injury they had him replaced with an Ash Chicken. But that was many patches ago, way back in beta and time heals all wounds. Dave recovered, grew stronger and now was a whole level higher than his former brothers. Dave looked them each square in the eye. First Johnny, then the other Johnny before finally setting his stare on Rico. Dave could see it in his eyes... fear. He played out this fight over a million times in his head and he knew exactly how this was going down. Dave was ready. Ready for that sweet, sweet revenge.

My Cata Transmogrification Time Capsule - Warlock

Before my pretty transmog sets get ruined by all those MoP quest greens I decided to take a few pics to remember what my guys were rocking in the fashion department. For the most part I just used what I've held onto or could quickly acquire.

Evilest - Forsaken Warlock
Interestingly my lock left Cata looking pretty much the same as he did starting out. What I refer to as the "Lord Godfrey" set, but Space Cowboy is another way it's been described. Pretty much every clothie early in Cataclysm wore a least a few of these pieces in either red, purple or white and typically all three colors at the same time which kind of ruined the simple elegance to this set. The various pieces were pretty ubiquitous through the launch content found in quest rewards, rep vendors, 5-mans, and even crafted through tailoring.The problem in coordinating these sets in terms of fashion was that it lead to horrible itemization. If you wanted a full red or white or purple set of this armor you were wearing pieces with +spirit +hit +resilience. Not exactly the kind of stats you want when tackling WoW's revisit to difficult heroic 5-man dungeons. My following transmog set will clearly illustrate how bad of an armor set you have to put together, just to look so good. Links and stuff below the photo.

• helm: Helm of Temperance (Earthen Ring rep) or Vicious Fireweave Cowl (tailoring)
• shoulder: Vicious Fireweave Shoulders (tailoring - *this is the only purple colored shoulder)
• chest: Robes of Orsis (Ramkahen rep) or Vicious Embersilk Robe (tailoring)
• gloves: Bone Fever Gloves (Dragonmaw rep)or Vicious Fireweave Gloves (tailoring)
• belt: Vicious Fireweave Belt (tailoring - *this is the only purple colored shoulder)
• cloak: Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran (drops off Moroes, 2nd boss in Karazan, easy farm)
• weapon: Lightning Rod (Heroic - no transmog needed!)

* yes, I swapped out my Dragonwrath for this xmog set, I just think the heroic Lightnight Rod works so perfectly having such a complimentary hue and when that Power Torrent flame turns purple, it's like BAM!

I've never been 100% on this cloak TBH, I've held on to it for years and it seemed to match well, but I'm sure if I put some time in I'd find a cloak that I feel better about. Pepe's Shroud of Pacification (trash drop in Battle for Mt. Hyjal) is a more flashy option, but a little too "peacock-ish" for my tastes.

 Make sure to match your transmog with your mount!

Oh the lagmanity!

Pre-Mop launch the Alliance guild Onitall on Nordrassil-US wanted to come by and hang out in Orgrimmar one last time before heading off to that misty island. Level 90 guards be damned, they hung in there a good hour.

WoW Brilliant Idea #461 - Invisible Xmog Gear

They can call it "Emperor's New Armor Set" or something like that in reference to the classic tale of The Emperor's New Clothes. The concept is simple, a Replica set similar to the old tier sets made available at the Darkmoon Faire but instead of adding a new model it just removes the model altogether. Bam! Still got your gear and all your stats, just no graphics. I've heard many complaints about shoulders specifically spoiling the overall transmog look people have been going for. Mostly from those whorish Belves, but with this new set of "invisible treads" players will have a whole new level of customization to perfectly tweak their toons.

DMF Vendors Need More Stuff

I'm currently sitting on almost 1000 Darkmoon Prize Tickets across all my alts. I have 2 Dancing Bears, a Forest Strider and at least 1 of each pet, most alts have the little monkey with the fez because it's a little monkey with a fez! I've even redeemed some tickets for the Replica tier pieces, but it's been months since I've claimed a prize at the Darkmoon Faire. So where's my motivation to keep visiting our wandering band of carnies and merry makers?

Yes, I have a lot of alts, but I'm not hardcore about the Faire at all. At best I hit up the Faire once on half my toons while it's in town mostly for the +5 cooking and fishing quests and to turn my Grisly Trophies in. Those first couple months after the Faire's relaunch I collected and turned in all the dungeon/battleground quest drop artifacts for the achievements on my main. Since then however when I get a Mysterious Grimoire, Captured Insignia, etc... they all get put on the AH. At any given time I have 20+ Soothsayer Runes littering my toons bags. They don't sell for squat so often I just have to type in DELETE to get rid of them. I've learned to NOT click that first raid boss just so I can avoid looting another one of these things.

Last December I wrote about how grand and awesome the DMF redesign was and that's where my issue lays. I still think it's a beautiful and magical zone and even after 6+ months the mini-games are still kinda fun, but in this game it's gear and rewards that drive players to keep chuggin away at same content again and again. And in a relatively short amount of time, even just casually enjoying this content I've realized that there's no reward left to pursue and keep me coming back. Most of the time if I'm at DMF I'm fishing not playing. Love that Darkmoon Firewater! Gear, toys, goodies, etc... drive players to keep playing. I'm sure I'm not in the minority of players here who have exhausted the gifts DMF offers and that kind of seems like a shame.

So for now, I'll still be casually enjoying the Faire, hording up those prize tickets and crossing my fingers that at the very least those heirloom pants that were data-mined so long ago at least end up at the vendor here.

WoW Brilliant Idea #274 - Gold Sink Account Stashes for Your Alts

I want my own Guild Vault or Stash. I want a central bank, storage, etc. that only my alts on my realm have access to. The convenience of not having to look through my altoholic tabs/pop ups and see which toon has what materials then log in and out and mail various stuff to the one character who needs those items would be a major quality of life improvement in the game for me. I even briefly had my own guild just for my 10 alts on my main realm for this vary reason and it was grand. No more hopping from alt to alt to get stuff. No more struggling with what alt should hold on to my herbs, one of my 3 alchemists or one of  2 my herbalist? I traded in the perks of my recently broken up lvl 25 guild for the ease of supporting and supplying my alts with the stuff they needed. Ultimately being in this self imposed isolation took it's toll and I brought all my alts to a new guild leaving my 1 non lvl 85 as the tried and true banker alt with it's own guild. But it left me wondering why WoW doesn't have a feature to more easily share items across same account characters?  Diablo 3 has this, why not WoW? It even seems like implementing a private storage would elevate system resources for Blizzard and it's severs. All those log in servers being used every time you have to hop over to an alt for just a minute. It'd reduce the system resources of your own computer by not having to load a new character with all it's add-on's and the world/city graphics of whatever area it's currently in. Instead just a storage or bank, a simple window of stored icons that only loads when you need it. I don't know how the game/system works for this kind of stuff, this is just my layman speculation.

So my suggestion for fixing this while also combating another issue Blizzard seems to be currently concerned with, The Gold Sink Personal Vault Storage! Basically allow any toon on an account to go purchase a guild vault that only characters on that account and realm would have access to. Set it up the same as guild vaults and charge an increasing amount for every tab in it. I'd gladly pay any cost for a feature like this. I'd glady pay 100,000 gold out of my current 550,000 gold just for 1 tab. I personally don't even need much space. Just enough to store elemental mats all professions use while having enough space left over to drop the mats an alt collects in any given day so when I log over to another toon he can pick them up and add them to his personal bank.

Simple and brilliant right?