Death Knight listeners have been burning up after Sihx’s “You Might be a Death Knight” bit
Click below for the audio segment:
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.
Click the play arrow above to hear the audio segment!
Upgrade vendors are going away with patch 5.2, and many players think that you should upgrade your gear before the patch hits. This sounds reasonable at first, but I took a deeper look into the numbers and the efficiency of this strategy, and with an exception, I believe you should NOT upgrade your gear.
Ok, nerd-alert!
It costs 750 valor points for a 4 item level upgrade, which equals the benchmark value of 187.5 valor points per item level. This is not a good exchange rate compared to most of the vendor gear you can purchase. I recommend you rep up with Operation Shieldwall or Dominance Offensive to get ilevel 496 gear for 4 different slots: a ring, trinket, waist and feet. Even at this rate (before patch 5.2), it would take amassing 6,500 valor points to purchase these 4 items, which would take you no less than 7 weeks with the 1,000 VP/week cap. Obviously, there are some exceptions to this advice: 1) if you have a best-in-slot piece that you are confident that you won’t be replacing for 6+ months, then you may want to upgrade. 2) If you have capped at 3,000 valor points and don’t have the rep anywhere to purchase gear, then you may want to burn 750 to bump your best piece 4 item levels (but sheesh, get going on some rep!!). 3) If you refuse to do ANY dailies, well then, yes, upgrade your gear I suppose, but it better be 476 or higher from LFR and regular raiding (You can upgrade blue gear with justice points).
Bottom line: The math says that until you have only item level 483 equipment or higher left to replace, replace it with vendor reputation gear, UNLESS you have a best in slot item that you know that you won’t replace in the next 6 months. Additionally, in patch 5.2, 5.0 vendor gear, which is ilevel 489, will cost 50% less, and 5.1 gear will cost 25% less. Knowing this, you may only want to spend valor points when you reach the 3,000 VP cap and use whatever you save to immediately purchase discounted gear once 5.2 drops.
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.
Orange is purple, and purple is green, and well, I'm colorblind anyway
Click below for audio:
I think I was level 10 when I got my first orange item, and I thought I had to check my jedi sage’s robe for stains. Well, much to my initial consternation, which turned into understanding and appreciation, Bioware has introduced a very interesting system in The Old Republic, Custom Items that are fully moddable. Moddable gear is colored with an orange border, but don’t confuse the color with legendary items from other MMOs. Orange gear is actually quite common and can be acquired as early as level 8 via quest rewards, heroics, drops, craftable items, and even through underworld trading. What’s unique about this system is that it allows players to potentially acquire a look that they desire and wear it all the way up to end game. To scale an items stats and power, it has several slots that you can insert mods into and extract from. These mods are acquired through rewards, drops and professions, and crafters can even reverse engineer their older mods to create blue and purple mods. Some green gear is also partially moddable, and end game epic, or purple gear, is also partially moddable, but not fully like orange. This has to do with gear progression and balance.
Blizzcon was fantastic! Three nights without children bring a certain sense of wonder and excitement…and a little funny tickle in the nether region for a 37 year old man. Yes, getting out of the house without any responsibilities but to that of my liver and what I put into it was liberating.
The convention itself was unlike anything else I’ve experienced. Nerd-dom for sure. I did smell quite a bit of BO, but the AC seemed to whisk most of it away. Many of you may have seen my pics from Blizzcon. If not, head on over to my new Facebook page and check it out. (You can “like” my page while you’re there!).
Geeking out about scuba diving with Ghostrcrawler
Me and Mike Morheim
With a few libations in me, I even geeked out about marine science with Ghostcrawler (yep, I’m a marine biologist) and met Mike Morheim. They both have more money than me, fact.
Oh, and AIE had a guild hall that was nothing short of fantastic. Many props (not propositions) to Belthaz and others that set it up and made it work. While hanging out there, I set up my audio equipment for a possible AIE recording (which didn’t happen), but it served as a backup to Scott Johnson’s own equipment. Since I had a full copy of the recording of him and Turpster doing a live show there (ep #249), I had a little fun with my own interview, posted above. It also was included in the latest Instance, episode #251. Let’s just say they got some dirt on Blizzard’s next “augmentation” of WoW characters.
Hafrot and Stompalina recording "Rawrcast" in the AIE guild hall
I also invited the Rawrcast crew over to the guild hall and we recorded an episode at the very same table…with a few more cuss words and booze. You can check out that Blizzcon Drunkfest, Stompalina, Hafrot, Pignasty and their crew are freakin’ loose and hilarious. I had a blast!
I had a little rant for my fifth segment of “Epic Diapers” on “The Instance.” With my limited schedule, I plan my 6 hours of raiding each week (2 nights, 3 hrs each), and opportunistically play whenever I can. Some of this time is filled with quick leveling of alts, but if I think I have an hour or so, I’ll join the dungeon queue with my main. The problem is, I often am interrupted unexpectedly when trying to squeeze in this playing time. It might be my daugther, son, or my wife that need me at that very moment, or perhaps the house caught on fire. It’s surprising how little personal time you can count on having when raising a family.
I like to tank, but with these constant interruptions, I personally feel it’s rude to drop frequently if you are a tank. The other 4 members are relying on you, and if you can’t give the community a reliable commitment, just DPS. DPS can be replaced immediately in a random PUG, but when a tank drops, it can take 5-10 minutes sometimes. Of course, it’s your right to tank if you want, even if you have to drop 4/5 randoms you run. It’s your $15 a month. I just believe proper dungeoning etiquette can go a long way.
If you want to listen to segment 3 of “Epic Diapers,” please download episode 231 of “The Instance” at www.theinstance.net or look for “The Instance” on iTunes.
Audio
In this short segment, I continued from last week how you can make lots of gold with your limited time. There are a few addons that I use to make several hundred to several thousand gold a day:
Auctionator: This is a great addon that helps you price your auctions with a 5% undercut and in stacks of your choice. It saves time.
Altoholic: This addon helps me find that item or look up a profession skill across all of my many alts.
ArkInventory: This addon will organize your bags, including your bank bags, into virtual containers that you can set up rules for. I set up my bags to sort soulbound items by item level, BoE items by item level, and all my materials into sections by profession.
www.theunderminejournal.com: This website is fantastic! You can look up the price history for the last two weeks for any item on your server’s auction house. What’s nice about this is that you can also set up email alerts for items that cross a certain threshold. For example, if you want to purchase volatile life under 10 gold, it can email you when it drops below that amount. Or, perhaps you have been stocking up on a certain item that you want to flip for a specific price. Once it rises above that threshold, again you are emailed! It gives you the opportunity to capitalize.
Mobile Auction House: The Underminejournal ties into the mobile auction house. Granted, it’s $3 per month, but for me, it’s worth it. In conjunction with email alerts from the Underminejournal, I can quickly log onto the mobile auction house on my iPhone and post or buy such items. Great money making opportunity enhancer!
Feel free to share your tips on how you make most of your limited time in the World of Warcraft by sending me email at epicdiapers at gmail.com or tweet me up @epicdiapers.
I took about an hour to produce a little audio segment (with wonderful voice acting, btw…ha!) about prioritizing one’s limited WoW gaming time; particularly parents and those with very busy schedules. It was light hearted and fun, and apparently Scott Johnson et al thought it barely worthy to include in the most recent (ep. 229) episode of “The Instance.”
RT @TortureCast: Our zany conversation after that tough loss this morning.We talk bare thighs, boobs, and punching people in the face. http… 12 hours ago
Got home from the Giants game at 3 am. Up at 7. Work is draaaagging along. 12 hours ago
