The Nexus Review

Well I finally got Swathcutter transferred over to Cairne and was able to get a group together to run my first instance in WotLK... The Nexus. I was able to run the dungeon twice in one night, once as a tank and once as DPS. Despite being horribly out of practice I think I did alright.

First off I have to give The Nexus a big thumbs up for ambiance. The look of the place was very nice I thought, and the layout lends itself well to go and hit any boss in any order you like (there were no restrictions that I could find). Which means if you and your friends are farming for a particular piece of gear you can head straight there. To add to the ambiance I thought the soundtrack for the dungeon was very well done.

There seemed to be a rather good mix of mob types in the dungeon as well... Humanoids, Elementals, Dragonkin, etc. If you were to go the Crowd Control route in this dungeon (like maybe on Heroic) it would make a number of different classes viable to help with CC in different sections of the instance.

The boss fights themselves I thought were rather lackluster. Mainly due to the fact that their "gimmicks" were easily dealt with. The caster chick splits into copies, just focus fire them down. The giant glowy voidwalker guy does nothing special, when he turns Pally on you any becomes invulnerable just kill the adds that show up, rinse and repeat. Now the Treeshaper boss had really good potential for a fun fight, but his spikes shooting out of the ground are easily avoided by simply standing on top of him. The mechanic for the (what has been the usual) final fight with the dragon in the central area, is easily avoided by staying mobile throughout the fight.

I wasn't impressed by the loot drops from the bosses, although they might be worth it for someone who just hit level 70. The quest rewards however I found very nice and was able to pick up a few upgrades to my tanking set.

The Nexus gets a B+ in my book. I just hope it gets more difficult on Heroic since it did seem overly simplistic.

Raking in the gold

I don't know what it is, but I must be doing something right this time around. My hunter has been making great money off of the Auction House. I thought I would write a little post about what I've been doing to help anyone else that is leveling a new character.

The first thing I noticed when I starting making money off the AH is that on a mature server with lots of level 80s people have a ton of extra cash to spend on leveling their other characters and their professions.

Preparation

There are a few addons I would recommend getting (hit up Curse for your addon needs):
Auctioneer
SellJunk
Gatherer

Apart from this you will need the ability to disenchant. As I am a Skinner / Leatherworker and have no other characters on this server I have just been asking my guild mates to DE for me. I try to spread the work around so I don't spam anyone's mail boxes too bad ;)


Step 1 - Get the biggest bags you can afford
Step 2 - Take at least 1 gathering skill (2 if you don't feel like crafting, although I have found Leatherworking to be quite lucrative in a roundabout way, more on that later)
Step 3 - Never sell greens to the vendor. Always put them on the Auction House. If they do not sell the first time around I just DE them and post the resulting enchanting mats for sale on the AH
Step 4 - Buy Low & Sell High. I know it sounds dumb because everyone says it... But how many people do you know actually do it? I see incredible deals on the AH all the time. Stuff priced WAY below what it should be. So I just buy them up and repost at a more lucrative price point.

Now I haven't even been working hard at this at all, just doing it every time I pass through a major city and leveling like crazy. I had made my first 1000g by the time I was level 50 and that was at like 2.5 days /played. I power leveled my way through to 300 LW rather quickly by using the cash I had made to buy the materials I needed. This seemed like a big investment at the time but by selling what I made back on the AH I ended up making money in the end. If you work hard at it I think you could do far better than I have.

Good items to make money off of are good gear for twinking out for low level Battlegrounds, namely the Level 29 BGs. Any of the Eagle leather for druids or Monkey leather for Rogues seem to sell especially well for this bracket. You can usually pull in 15-30g at a minimum for these types of items.

Also good are any materials for professions. Level 80s working on new professions or starting alts for new professions would rather just buy the materials than go out and farm them. Cloth, Leather, and Ore all sell extremely well.

Conclusion

Level up and make plenty of cash while doing it! There is no reason why leveling a new character needs to be a drain on your main characters resources. Or why your new character shouldn't be able to afford everything they need on their own. Be creative, I have found the oddest things sell really well. If you are short on cash, browse the AH and see what is selling high and get to farming!

Brewfest in BRD

Yeah I get it... I should have a level 80 character and be farming Coren or whatever his name is for the Brewfest loot. But while leveling my lowly Hunter I thought it was rather rude of Blizzard to put in high level mobs right at the entrance to BRD to one shot the unsuspecting new people leveling up.

Note to all players under level 55:

Run hard to the left when zoning into BRD or you will be granted a one way ticket to the Spirit Healer before you can even get yourself oriented.

Also note that the first pull of dwarves you pull WILL run when low on health. Often in a very unwelcome direction. >8(

Back in the saddle again...

I'm back! With a new name for the blog, new template, and a fresh perspective on the game. For those that get the reference of the new title of the blog I need your help! Does anyone have my old avatar kicking around from our old guild forums?

For those that don't know I have moved to Cairne as my main server after coming back from a long break to Vek'Nilash to find all of the people I enjoyed playing with have transferred there. Since I quit playing prior to WotLK I had to shell out the cash for the expansion so I am little short currently to be able to pay for a transfer for Swathcutter, but he will no doubt make it to Cairne eventually in all his Fury!

In the meantime however I created a Tauren Hunter named Swath. Current level 55ish. Looking to hit Outlands by this weekend. I am REALLY enjoying playing as a Hunter solo. Not sure how I am going to like it in Raids. But as far as a Farming / Soloing / PvP character you can't really go wrong with the Hunter class.

Current plan is to get both my Warrior and Hunter to level 80 and then focus on whichever my guild needs more. Keep an eye on the blog for some informational posts in the future! For now it's all about the leveling grind!

Is it time?

I've been away from WoW for a long time now. Lately I've had the itch to come back. I wonder who is still around... are my old comrades in arms still about? How is the Wrath of the Lick King expansion? What has it done to Warriors?

If anyone still swings by here to check on me hit me up on AIM (BGregorius0810).