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Hey all, it’s Sihx, and well, after more than 4 years of raiding with my team, I’m taking the summer off to spend more time with my family instead of my virtual family. It does feel nice to get more time at night with my wife and kids on Wed and Thursdays, but man, I really do miss the raiding scene. However, I’ve refocused my few hours of weekly play time in Azeroth into farming, I mean, literal farming, and of course, leveling alts with the 33% nerf to xp between 85 and 90. If you aren’t raiding or don’t have a weekly committment, I’d suggest you think of things you’d like to do in game, and then make a checklist, in order, of what you can get done in a short window of playing time. Perhaps it’s trying out the new heroic scenarios for ilevel 516 loot. Maybe expanded pet battles, leveling alts, killing 3 bosses in LFR, transmog runs, making a little cash in the auction house, or maybe just getting your sexy blood elf to dance on the mail box all night long. Whatever it is, do what you want, and make sure you’re having fun without taking away from someone else.
I have fun raiding, acquiring gear and rep on my main, but I also had fun doing it on my alts. My main was always better geared than my alts, but that gap was much narrower than it is in Mists of Pandaria. While I understand the philosophy of how Blizzard is handling alts in MoP, I personally enjoyed my alts more in Wrath and Cataclysm. Now, I can barely log onto an alt because of the time it takes to grind reputation, farm (literally) and raid on my main, and the fact that I know I can’t level more than 30 minutes a week on any given alt. We’re not even talking about touching pet battle or going on transmog runs!!
After 5 months in Cataclysm, I had 7 level 85s with about the same amount of playing time as I have today (6-10 hrs/week). After 5 months in MoP, I have one 90, and those other 6 alts are still sitting at 85 (disclosure, I RaF-boosted a Panda monk to 81 and leveled him to 85)…I haven’t been able to touch them.
As someone with limited playing time, I long for the days that I could quickly gear up an alt and experience a raid from a caster or healer point of view (frost DK is my raiding main). However, it’s not keeping me from the game, or is it a major complaint, just a disappointment, really. I still thoroughly enjoy MoP on my main, as my “main dish,” but I miss all of the alt “sides” that I used to be able to enjoy.
I personally would like to see an “alt leveling perk” system for every level 90 toon that you have. I’m not sure of the actual buff levels here, but maybe now that I have one 90, Blizzard could give me a permanent 25% leveling experience boost to all other toons on my account, and every additional 90 would boost my account an additional 5-10%. I would also like to see some of the reputation grinds lowered even more than it is currently (100% bonus to all server toons when you purchase a faction commendation at revered). I guess I’m a bit put off by doing even half of the same rep grind over again.
I’ve been playing WoW continuously since October 2006, but I will never be that player that claims to have walked uphill in the fel-tainted snow both ways to the auction house, I don’t care if things are easier for the newer players!
Do you like the way Blizzard has dealt with alts this expansion? Are you happy it’s not easier to level and gear up alts? Or, do you wish it was a bit easier to level and gear alts because that’s what you enjoy? Could Blizzard award leveling speed perks to alts for every 90 you have?
Death Knight listeners have been burning up after Sihx’s “You Might be a Death Knight” bit
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I reads some hate mail that I received from death knights for my “You Might Be a Death Knight” standup bit from Episode 31.
Also, check out TortureCast.com, a podcast by and for fans of the San Francisco Giants. Last week, we were able to go up to AT&T Park and video tape one on one interviews that we had with players such as Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo and manager Bruce Bochy.
After a busy holiday season, I’m back producing audio segments. In this installment, I take a left and right, and left turn again, to produce a 90 second stand up segment honoring Jeff Foxworthy and the bad rap that Death Knights get in the World of Warcraft.
Recruit a friend and dual boxing = instant level 80 panda monk!
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I took the summer off with the kiddos, but now I’m back for more Epic Diaper segments.
I’m a bit of an altoholic, and as of today, I have 7 level 85s and 3 level 81s, all 10 slots are full. Before 5.0.4, I assumed that we wouldn’t get that 11th character slot until MoP drops on September 25. However, Blizzard surprised me in giving us that 11th slot in patch 5.0.4!! What did that mean for me? Well, another alt! But, wait, I have one of every class, and monks aren’t available until MoP, so what would I put there?! Good question, Mr. third party brain!! Why, I do WANT a panda monk, afterall, and there’s a way I can get a level 80 panda monk within hours of MoP launching. You cannot boost a panda monk with the Scroll of Resurrection, unfortunately, but Blizzard has been clear about allowing you to grant levels from Recruit a Friend!
So, it’s a bit tricky, but this is what I’m currently doing: I bought the WoW Battlechest and Wrath for $5 each during the August sale on Blizzard’s site. $10. Now, I emailed myself the RAF code and established the new account on my Battle.net account, which starts the clock for the 90 day duration of benefits (summoning, triple xp, etc.). I then created 2 blood elf mages, and equipped BOTH of them with a full caster dps heirloom set (yes, I spent the justice points and gold on a second set). The reason is that heirloom XP boosts (a total of 35%) STACKS with the 300% RAF boost for a total of 335%!!!
I plan on leveling this first pair of mages to 80, then deleting the mage from my veteran account, as she takes up that 11th character slot, and I need a new team. The referred account mage now has 40 levels to grant my panda monk (you get 1 level to grant for every 2 levels you gain). But that’s not enough. So, I will level a SECOND pair of mages to 40, so the referred account now has 20 levels to grant, and then I’ll level a third pair of mages to level 20, so the referred account has 10 levels to grants! That’s 70 levels total, why not 80? Well, when you create a panda (and I’m creating a panda monk), you need to level through the starting zone to the point where you choose a faction, which is at level 10. You can’t grant a panda monk levels before that, as stated by Blizzard. That’s fine, I want to see the starting zone anyway!
Once MoP drops, I’ll level that Kung-fu panda to 10, then have my level 20 mage summon him to Orgrimmar to grant him 10 levels to level 20. Then I will log on the level 40 mage, grant the panda 20 levels to level 40, and finally, log on with my level 80 mage and grant him 40 levels to level 80.9999! Note: make sure you have your boosted character at a bubble shy of the next level. This way, he/she will be one bubble away from level 81 and save you an hour or two of leveling in Cata content.
Bind on Account heirloom gear is the focus for the latest audio segment. If you are an alt-oholic like me, heirlooms have been a god-send. They can stack to a maximum of a 40% boost to your leveling speed. Most max out at 35% due to the difficulty in getting the fishing derby ring (+5%). Some heirlooms don’t provide a leveling boost, but they are blue-equivalent gear, level up along with you, and don’t require repairing. Plus, you can sell even more questing/dungeon gear that you acquire, saving you significant gold along your journey.
First, you pretty much need a max-level character (although you can earn heirlooms through the argent tournament, starting at level 77). The most common way to purchase them now is with Justice Points. There is a specific heirloom vendor in each main capital city. If you have multiple alts, try and consolidate your gear across multiple alts. For example, you can use agility leather for your hunter, enhancement shaman, and feral druid. The armor bonuses aren’t crucial, especially considering the grinding time you’ll save.
You can also spend your time pulling your fingernails out by grinding seals through the argent tournament, but personally, that’s not my recommended method.
Helms and cloaks are available through your guild vendor, and require reputation and quite a bit of gold. However these pieces work from 1-85, and all other heirlooms lose their benefits at 80.
You can follow me @epicdiapers and follow my blog and hear all of my segments at epicdiapers.com.
And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.
Yep, it’s that time of year again, Pilgrim’s Bounty is back for a short 7 days, November 21 through the 27th.
What I try and do with this segment is make your WoWing more efficient, and holidays are always a great way to advance some part of your character’s progression in some way. I personally don’t care about holiday achievements, but if you want to quickly level cooking on a toon or three, time to tie on that apron and grab a glass of sherry!
You can level your cooking from 1 to over 330 in less than an hour. First, go to Stormwind or Undercity and pick up your Bountiful Cookbook, which contains all the recipes you’ll need. Start by making Spice Bread and Spice Bread stuffing to skill 100. Next, make pumpkin pies to 160. Get over the Orgrimmar/Ironforge and make Tangy Wetland Cranberries to 220. Fly on over to Thunder Bluff/Darnassus and make Candied Sweet Potatoes to 280. Finally, go hunt wild turkeys and make slow roasted turkeys to 420 330! (420 wasn’t discovered until after the holiday launched, thanks for catching this!) Don’t forget to train your cooking as you level!
You can follow me @epicdiapers and follow my blog and hear all of my segments at epicdiapers.com.
And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.
Hey all! Hope you got to hear my last segment on “The Instance” about the Firelands dailies! Unfortunately life has gotten in the way of producing a segment for today’s show. My daughter’s at camp, I’ve been diving a lot, and I was honored to be selected to play in my baseball league’s all-star game a couple nights ago (not bad for a 37 yr old!).
I’m still a few days away from unlocking the Molten Front vendors. I have 10 orbs saved up to immediately craft some 365 gear for me, but since that time, I finally have equipped 359 in every slot. I’m not sure it’s worth expense, or rather, missing out at the potential income of crafting and SELLING the 365 gear…especially the weapons. Could be a quick 20-30k or more. Not much to gain for 6 item levels in my own gear.
I haven’t had much time to dungeon (nor desire), but I have hopped back on my Warrior/Priest dual boxing RAF team. They hit 40 last night, and they are at 13 hours played. That also includes a couple of hours just tweaking my ISboxer settings. Last night was smooth grinding. Just skipped the collection quests, focused on the kill/target quests, and I went from 30-40 in 2.5 hours last night. And remember, that’s for 2 toons, not 1, and I’ll be able to grant 40 levels to another level 40 character once these hit 80. Both toons are guilded, so that’s a 10% mount speed increase and another 10% leveling speed boost, on top of all the heirloom gear and RAF boosting. Typically 3-4 quests completed equate to a full level. It’s almost unfair.
Off to 1k Needles and Tanaris for another quick 10 levels….
EDIT: I posted this one hour ago. Since then I’ve gained 4 levels on both toons…sheesh….
copyright Blizzard Entertainment...I don't want to be sued.
You can listen to Segment 4 of “Epic Diapers” at the end of episode 232 of “The Instance” at www.theinstance.net.
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If you’re like me, you like alts…a lot. But, I don’t have the time to level them one by one. Heirlooms are nice, but dual boxing with recruit a friend is about 5 times as fast. What you get with this program is 300% experience gain from all sources.
10% bonus reputation gain, each toon can summon each other once an hour, and the recruit can donate up to 30 levels to the veteran account….plus, you get a swanky rocket mount.
So, how does it work exactly? Well, without going into the fine details of the process, you basically send yourself an email through the recruit-a-friend option on your battle.net account management page. Once your new trial account is established, your two WoW accounts are now “linked.” You will need to purchase a full copy of WoW, about $20, or you can wait for Christmas like I did and pick up a copy for $5. These accounts are linked for 90 days, and in that time, each account gets a free month. So, in all, you’re only shelling out $35 for everything…it’s the same cost for a winged eagle lion and cenarion hatchling, and quite honestly, I think it’s way more worth it to get lots of level 60s for this price…and you still get a mount on top of it, which is a $25 value anyway!
To play, just launch two sessions of WoW on your computer and create two toons that will be grouped together for the next 60 levels. As far as class selection goes, it’s generally easier to level two of the same class, say two mages, double pyroblasts anyone? It’s really up to you and your end goals. Either way, it will take some time to set up your follow and assist macros.
I generally get a pair of 60s up in 24 hours or less of played time. I then start another pair of toons, level them up to 30 in about 8 hours, and with the original recruit level 60, I can now grant 30 levels to my level 30 veteran toon, making him a level 60 instantly….man, you should see the language in chat when you gift these levels in the middle of Orgrimmar! Anyway, that’s 3 level 60s in about 32 hours played total!
You can do this as many times as you can within 90 days. If you have additional cash lying around, you can even transfer your level 60 toons from your recruit account to your veteran account.
And if you wondered, yes, this is completely legal, does not violate the terms of service; Blizzard has absolutely no problem with multi-boxers…I mean, it’s more money for them in the long run! And personally, I feel it’s a new, different, and challenging way to play the game.
