Thinking about the future is one thing, actively planning for the unknown is another.
That has been taking up a good chunk of my time lately. Planning, plotting, and gathering has been on my list of things to do for a while now.
Like a squirrel putting away nuts for the winter, or the ant in the famous story stocking up for a rainy day I have been gathering.
Gathering up things that I will need for my new characters when the Cataclysm comes later this year.
In a way that is a shame.
It’s not that I am not enjoying the game that I am playing now, far from it. It’s more along the lines of looking forward to the content to come.
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People who like to raid are getting their fix of new content now, as Icecrown opens its doors to their not so tender advances.
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People who prefer PvP are getting a new arena season. (Or so I have been told, I don’t participate.)
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People like me who actually enjoy the leveling process are still running the same content we have for the last four years. Soon though, that will change.
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I for one am looking forward to it.
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New places to explore, new quests to do, new lore to see, it will be great.
Ok, it will be great unless I am required to swim everywhere. I prefer my gaming environment to be rather two-dimensional. Thats probably why I don’t care for Eye of Eternity or Oculus, but I digress.
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What does any of this have to do with gathering stuff towards the Cataclysm?
Well, it turns out that looking at it I am not gathering like it’s the end of the world.
I am gathering like I am going on vacation.
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I want enough cash in the bank that I don’t have to worry about grinding dailies or working the auction house to support the characters I will be leveling. That sounds an awful lot like vacation to me. I just want to have fun and not “work” to support it.
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I want basic starter gear for both of the ones I plan to start. I am not talking about having a complete changout of gear I can swap to every ten levels sitting, already gemmed and enchanted, in the bank.
I am just talking about a few heirlooms and other odds and ends.
That leads me (as such things often do) to making a list of what I want to have set aside for my new characters. Since I am writing it down anyhow, and need to put it somewhere where it won’t get lost, it’s going to go here.
- Cash. 8K gold should be enough to cover money sinks all the way through cold weather flight, so I’ll likely go with an even 10K to be safe.
- Bind to Account chest(s) appropriate to the class.
- Bind to Account shoulder(s) appropriate to the class.
- Bind to account weapon(s) appropriate to the class.
- Inventory bags. I figure four Frostweave Bags at 20 slots each will do fine.
- Bank bags. Seven Travelers Backpacks will do well here. 16 slots each, and non-binding so I lose nothing by updating them later.
Is that perhaps going a little overboard?
I don’t think so.
Going overboard would also include things like this:
- All the cloth to level first aid to 450.
- All the meats to level cooking to 450.
- All the raw materials to level both chosen professions to 450.
- A well stocked personal guild bank full of consumables and recipes.
- A second tab in that bank with complete gear sets (minus the heirloom slots) to carry you all the way to 80. Bonus points if there are sets for multiple specs.
When the Wrath of the Litch King was still on the horizon I was planning and gathering as well. The difference is I was a raider back then. Everything revolved around getting to 80 as quick as possible so I could get back into the raid group.
Leveling those ten levels from 70 to 80 was a chore to be done, an obstacle in my path. Work I had to do before I could play the game I wanted to. Everything I stockpiled was with that in mind.
Now it’s the leveling I am looking forward to, and raiding is just distant smoke on the horizon.
This time instead of having ten levels of work before I could start to have fun, I am looking forward to 85 levels of fun before I start having to work.
It’s actually kind of refreshing.
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Filed under: World of Warcraft | Tagged: Alts, leveling, making money, raiding |
Dechion's Place 
First!
Coincidentally, I discovered the other day that I am preparing my main alt (if there is such a thing) for the upcoming switch, without even really knowing why I was doing it. I have a lvl 18 Belf Mage I’ve been enjoying the heck out of, so I got her the heirloom shoulders and have been shipping money, dust, shards, and cloth to her hand over fist for her tailoring/enchanting as well as various other incidental expenses. Right now, she’s set until at least 40, although she has been such a joy to play I find it hard to keep her on the bench as much as I should. Definite switch from an Arms Warrior.
My list is somewhat sparser, probably because I haven’t been playing near as long, but I want her to have at least about 2k gold, the heirloom shoulders and dress, bags are already handled (since she tailors and all), the BoA shoulder and head chants, cold-weather flying scroll, and a modest supply of higher-level cloth (mageweave and up).
Now, here’s the $21,000 question: How much do we think Outlands is going to change? Tons? Barely at all? Will the power levels of the baddies there suddenly get a huge boost because the forces of chaos are, for all intents and purposes, winning in the really real world? These are the things I think about when it’s dark and the power goes out…
I am pretty sure that both Outlands and Northrend will see little, if any, changes.
It would be interesting if they did, but I just don’t see it.
I wonder how many others are starting to squirrel things away….
I might grab an heirloom weapon or two, and the trinkets, for leveling, but you won’t find any of my Cataclysm alts in the XP gear.
There was enough content in Azeroth to hit 60 twice per faction without too much overlap in content…why would I want to consume less of the reworked stuff that I just paid $40 for.
Might consider the mooncloth bags instead? They have the same number of slots, are equally transferable, and you can make them for less gold than I usually see the traveler’s backpacks run.
All of us altoholics who enjoy the lower levels are creating little hoards, I think. I’m planning to race to 85 on 2 toons, then I’ll sit back and enjoy my bitty toons. My prep actually includes making sure that I have all the tons I want maxxed for trade skills done before then so I don’t have a “need” for any of them to be higher level. Then I can taste and explore… as you said, have a vacation.
I thought of the mooncloth bags as well. Actually I have a set of four left over from many moons ago, but the price of the mats for a mooncloth bag is actually more than I can find a travelers backpack for.
Good Idea, I guess it just depends on your server economy though.