Monday Jan 24, 2022
Lower-level stuff can be good for your mental health, and your character’s wallet.
Once I ran out of rested XP on Nmbnutz and Quinnd, I figured I’d go on to another character and work on that while they gained some rested XP. The only other option I had for levelling someone was Slapnutz the Paladin, and lately I just don’t feel like tanking. He’s 66 and the choices of Mana Tombs (icky mana drains) and Auchenal Crypts (1st boss ewwww). OHB I’d happily tank but there’s another level in there before I’d be comfortable with the incoming damage. I could be wrong, could have a crackerjack healer, but I don’t want to put the onus on anyone but myself when taking on the responsibility of tanking.
So, I thought to myself I could fart around on my 70s, lord knows there’s enough of them to earn money and gain some gear, but I just didn’t feel like grooving on those guys. Being an altoholic, what to do, what to do….
The Birth
Of course I created more characters, this time I looked up a high population pve server, which had a definite Horde bias. Mankrik on US East fit the bill nicely. I had a plan in mind, using both of my accounts to simultaneously level 2 characters. I was having a very good time with Nmbnutz the Warlock and Quinnd the Priest that I decided to duplicate that winning combination. Gronrod and Quind. I like to stick to certain names, as you can see.
To launch a new server is to face what every new player face: lack of funds and bagspace. Bagspace you can solve quickly by making a tailor and at least getting 6-slot bags going, and since you’re questing on a lot of humanoids, cloth is a major drop for quite a bit. Eventually 8- and 10-slot bags are easily made. The only problem left is money.
I thought about it a bit. Usually one of my fun things in WoW is the progression of your professions. I get quite a bit of satisfaction being a self-contained unit by the time I have a server full of max level characters. This time, I thought about this question… I wonder how much money professions actually cost me? Not just in paying money out for recipes as you level up, but the difference between selling everything versus using the mats yourself. With that in mind, I decided to level tailoring enough to get some bags, and since I had two characters running together, make a miner/herber on one, and do tailoring/mining on the other.
My rationale for this combination was for a few reasons. In playing two accounts at the same time, and alt-tabbing back and forth, there’s always a leader and a follower. Keeping in mind that once I hit max level I would probably be switching to crafting professions on at least one of them, I started by having Gronrod the Warlock take up the tailoring and added mining. He’s almost always in the lead so I grabbed mining so he’d see the veins on the mini-map. Quind the Priest, who’s usually following Gronrod, took up both mining and herbing. While going through areas for questing, I’ll alt-tab back and forth between the two characters, with the searches set for mining on Gronrod and herbing on Quind. It’s worked out fairly well, as now they’re in their low 40s with their 60% mounts. If I’m travelling far on the mount to get to different quest areas, I’ll have Quinnd take the lead and with a search-swap macro, have him monitoring the area for both herbs and mines.
The Auction House for Profit and Fun
That decision made, I decided to sell everything, either on the AH or to vendors. Green weapons usually went to vendors, as the AH deposits on those aren’t usually worth it, and they don’t sell all that well. I created a new AH toon, the easiest race to get to the Auction House at level 1 appeared to be Blood Elves, and so Slappiness the Paladin was created and made her way easily down from the starting area and into Silvermoon City. Everything that Gronrod and Quinnd gathered in their travels would be funnelled to Slappiness, and she’d put everything up on the AH that she possibly could.
The results have been quite amazing, frankly. I’m a lucky recipient of the times I believe, where even low-level mats have a hefty price tag on them. A five stack of wool cloth was going for almost a gold. That’s just nuts. After I’d gotten to 10-slot silk bags on Gronrod’s tailoring, I checked out the price of mageweave on the AH, and also the price of 16-slot Netherweave bags. With mageweave going for about 70 silver per piece, and the 16-slot bags going for about 5 gold, it wouldn’t take me long to make up purchasing 8 bags for Quind and Gronrod. Within a day I’d made more than enough back for that purchase, and the gold keeps rolling in. It’s a nice mini-game that I have going. Every time I get near a mailbox after questing for a while, Quind trades his stuff to Gronrod who then mails it to Slappiness. Switching toons, empty Slappiness’ mailbox and put it up on the AH. Stuff sells quickly, and I have a nice steady stream of revenue.
So far I’ve been able to purchase the mount for Quind at 30 without even flinching, and any decent gear upgrades that make sense. I’ve not hit a single instance on either toon, I’ve decided that I won’t even bother until I really feel the need. I know I’m not going to run both toons at the same time through an instance and am having such a great time just levelling through questing. I’ve run the instances already a ton of times while levelling the alliance characters… I’m good.
Wylset