No Limits

I am not a Twitter user, I don't fully understand the need to tell the world what you have just eaten, and every little thought that goes through your head. I don't understand the need to divulge everything about yourself on Facebook, I understand that it is a decent place to find people that you have lost touch with.

I am quite a fan of Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, but never in a million years, am I that bothered that I would follow him on Twitter. Anyway there is no need to, when any salient points are re-communicated by WoW Insider and the other WoW news sites.

One item that fell down between the cracks is this little snippet from WoW Insider. On it's own it is just a throw away remark, appearing in a throw away medium, but taken in conjunction with the historical context, it shows another twist in Blizzards game philosophy.

It is quite common for Blizzard to take polar opposite philosophies from one expansion, but this more than hints at the current status of Mist of Pandaria. Let's take a look at what transpired.

RigelWoW@RigelWoW - @Ghostcrawler Can a new 90 alt catch up gear-wise this arena season with conquest being usable for item upgrades? MoP seems alt-unfriendly.

Greg Street@Ghostcrawler  - @RigelWoW We agree we need more alt solutions. MoP was designed to be compelling without alts. That means if you have alts, there's too much

In a nutshell MoP is alt-unfriendly, and Blizzard state that it was designed that way. Gee thanks for consulting with all the Altoholics about how they wanted the new expansion to pan out.

The following is my list of how the expansions affected Altoholics.

• Vanilla - Alts were non existent due to the levelling times - Alts were Rogues and Mages taken to level 8 or 10 and then dumped for Hunters.
• The Burning Crusade - The birth of Alts as max level characters. Blizzard screwed up the end game content by swapping and changing between 10 and 25 man Raids. After Zul'Aman everybody not in 25 Man raiding guilds went off to create Alts.
• The Wrath of the Lich King - Not intended to be Alt friendly, with 4 different lockout on the raids, but it was very easy to gear up to just under the current gear content. Levelling Alts was preferable to the Argent Tournament
• Cataclysm - The restrictions on Raid lock outs should have been a golden age for Alts, levelling from 80- 85 was quick and easy, but the content was dry and boring, and the Molten Front was very anti-Alts.
• Mists of Pandaria - content galore, removal of daily quest cap, scenario's, challenge modes, LFD, LFR, Pet Battles and the Tiller's Farm mean that there is no free time to devote to Alts

In my opinion Alts flourished in TBC and WotLK by accident. In Cataclysm they were actively encouraged and punished in equal measures and MoP is the anti-Alt expansion.

All this can go away if Blizzard makes Reputation Account Wide. There is enough Account Wide functionality already in the game, that one more would not make much difference. If Role Players want to climb hills backwards then they could even toggle the facility on or off depending on their level of masochism. With 5.1 now live, most of us are still coming to terms with the content released with the expansion. Now would be a good time to let us move onto the new content and let us play the game that we choose in a world of multiple choice.

I Want You To Want Me

I want you to want me, this is not some desperate plea on my behalf, but is a reference to the current Reputation grind, that is making lot of people hot under the collar. Cataclysm was a big failure as an expansion and the overriding complaint was that there was not enough to do at max level.

MoP is the polar opposite, with more new features than ever before and a bucket load of dailies to accompany the long reputation grinds. Ultimately we have ended up with the game we all wanted to see, but this has confused many people who see everything as a challenge that must be completed.

1. Level to 90
2. Max out Primary Professions
3. Max out Secondary Professions
4. Achieve minimum of Revered with all Factions
5. Obtain all the best gear and patterns from the Quartermasters
6. Gem and Enchant your gear
7. Transmog your gear so that it looks amazing again
8. Keep your farm up-to-date for the Spirits of Harmony
9. Complete the New Scenarios
10. Complete all the 5 Man Heroics
11. Plunder the LFR once a week for gear upgrades
12. Start Normal Raiding
13. Cap your Valor points for the week
14. PvP for some high octane griefing
15. Do Pet Battles for relaxation
16. Obtain as many Achievement points as possible
17. Purchase as many mounts and pets as possible
18. Level the next alt
19. Start the sequence again

In reality we should be concentrating on the parts of the game we enjoy, it is not a competition to see how quickly we can burnout. I am not stressed that I have not completed everything, I am still enjoying levelling my alts. The Godmother is not enjoying the alt levelling and the daunting rep grind for essential profession recipes. This is not the first expansion where important recipes have been gated, and in Cata I was unable/unwilling to do the Molten Front any more so that my engineer could craft some decent scopes. This time it looks like Tailoring bags might be a grind too far for many altoholics.

The Godmother has synthesised the alt levelling process, which The Grumpy Elf devised and I have tried to refine.

1. Jade Forest main storyline (unless you want to the optional extra hubs)
2. Skip Valley of the Four Winds and Krasarang Wilds
3. Summit of Kun-Lai
4. Townlong Steppes
5. Dread Wastes at level 89 (Can be quite challenging at times)

After expansion 5.1 drops the alts should gain extra rep from Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes providing your main is already revered.

An alternative to doing Dread Wastes at level 89 is waiting until you hit level 90, then buy a complete set of PvP gear and the whole process becomes so much easier. I have noticed a huge reduction in the time it takes to kill mobs, and my hunter struggles to get a Kill Shot off in time, now that mobs are committing Hara-Kiri.

The stat inflation on gear is as rampant as ever, and the quests have changed from quite challenging to the equivalent of skipping through the forest and picking wild flowers. Multiple mobs can be handled easily and Elites can soloed by my pet whilst I skin some beasts and complete the daily quest objective. Why do the gear stats need to grow so quickly and make the content superfluous?

On a lighter note, the Tillers now love me and so does Lorewalker Cho. I just need the rest of them to want me.

Neck Deep in Deepholm

Previously I stated how annoying Shoulder Enchant Rep grinds can be. Blizzard fixed this in WotLK by making the enchants Bind on Account, thereby allowing all the alts in your stable to be able to fully enchant all their gear. All of my alts followed similar paths whilst levelling:

1. All of Hyjal
2. Obtain 1 part of the World Pillar in Deepholm
3. All of Uldum
4. Obtain the portal ability in Twilight Highlands

Since I wrote the original post on how I would not be grinding 9 characters through Deepholm, I have of course been doing the opposite. So far I have steered half of my team through the dark purple area known as Deepholm, and I am surprised by my findings. Deepholm is quite a good zone. I can safely say it is vastly superior to the long watery road to hell that is Vashj'ir. Back at launch Murloc Parliament described the zone as Deepholm: It is like Netherstorm except really depressing.

For those people suffering from short-term memory loss, Deepholm is a deark forboding place with splashes of bright vibrant colours (see pictore above). The zone is fairly evenly divided by the 3 seperate quest chains to retrieve the World Pillar initiated by the Earthen Ring. The first part is help the Earthen defend their homeland against the Troggs. The second part is uncover the cult of the Twilight Hammer, and the last part is the befriending of Therazane's Stone Lords. Of course the objective of all this is to achieve the last part of the quest. With the portal in Stormwind and Ogrimmar it is easy to dip into this zone whenever the mood takes you.

The reputation grind starts at Hated and will move in very large chunks until the quests stop just shy of revered status. At this point grab a tabard and if the mood takes do some Dailies. Personally I think that is step too far.

As well as gaining the right to enchant your shoulders, there are some impressive side effects. Doing quests at max level will net yourself a considerable chunk of change, also the zone is usually devoid of other adventurers and there are plenty herbs and ores up for grabs. The zone is home to Heartblossom and due to its unique status makes this herb worth more than the more plentiful Whiptail from Uldum. Surprisingly for a lower level zone of the expansion I have found plenty of Rich Elementium Nodes. One other advantage of this zone is the abundance of closely packed troggs waiting to be AoE'd into oblivion for the quest Test Your Strength and for the seasonal quest to make Lovely Charm Bracelets (Love is in the Air).

I can safely see all my characters leveling through this zone in the months ahead, and in some respects I am even looking forward to it.