Marathon Aftermath

So, the long holidays are finally over, and we’re back on the posting tracks.

It’s been hell of a farming ride. Whenever I had spare time from IRL activities (and there was more than enough spare time!), I’ve been ploughing all the raids with all the toons in no particular order.

Still there were some priorities.

Upon reset I led all the eligible toons through Ahn’Kiraj and Sunwell, which are the tricky ones. I’m glad to report that rep requirements for aqir raid are now complete, and the few remaining items depend only on drops. You can effectively skip most of the bosses and head straight on to the needed ones. Yet C’Thun will occasionally kill you in its belly, and while you win the encounter anyways, you’ll have to get back for loot throughout the whole dungeon, as you respawn at the entrance. Solution: either use a mail toy outside of dungeon, or talk to bronze dragons at its beginning to teleport to C’Thun chamber. The latter will give you this option only if you kill the big worm Ouro too, so better not to skip it just in case.

Sunwell has this mad thing of vendoring certain class items via other class gear! That is, you must get priest items first and trade them for mage things. The pairs include druid -> rogue, warrior -> paladin, and so on. The good thing is: if you are a warrior, you can still trade for paladin etc. So I can have 4 tries per week with my plate armor toons for a paladin set. After a run I teleport outside and walk to the vendor of the boat to try and trade the items I’m missing. Weird, but technically it’s a bit of extra legwork, nothing else.

The second obligatory weekly goal are Tol Barad and Vault of Archavon, the PvP-related raids. The worst thing is that they hold some insane amount of PvE set gear for Naxxramas, Ulduar, Trial of Crusader, Firelands and Dragon Soul raids – up to 5/8 Naxx set items may come from Archavon raid only! The worst thing is that you are not allowed there unless your faction controls the zone, and while Tol Barad is worth checking and can be done in the same week for all toons, Wintergrasp seem to swap sides on a weekly basis. I think I’ve never managed to run for both factions there on the same week, even if I spent a couple of days camping the periods of battle/zone control – it’s just no use. Yet upon reset it was the other faction, like a charm.

The third trend was the whole set of latest raids – namely from Pandaria and Draenor. Beyond the fact that most of them are quite beautiful to wear, they are the best cash mills nowadays. The fact that you can complete most of them on three difficulties per week – mythic, LFR and either heroic or normal – doesn’t hurt.

Side note: Klaxxi in SoO are so annoying because bugged (pun intended). It’s a lottery whether the encounter starts OK, with 3 paragons joining the fight, or whether one of them will choose to remain on platform, rendering it a failure. It is determined without you undertaking any actions except launching the encounter: you just have to take your chances. Good thing is: if it’s three paragons turning red and attacking you, then you can unleash hell and cut them all down like a lawnmower, it’ll be fine.

***

The results of the farming weeks are somehow mixed.

I’ve earned some cash – I will need it for Ny’alotha tokens once the new raid starts. Hopefully I will collect most of the LFR items from open world activities, and yet gold is most welcome. I’d like to have around 100k on every toon just not to feel poor :) And although I’m not hoping for an AH mount, I would still like to purchase the other ones from BfA, which are plenty. Namely it’s the 400k air unit from Mechagon and extra faction mounts for 75k.

Obviously the greatest thing is that I’m starting to see the end of the farming tunnel. Many-many sets are now a couple of pieces from completion, and I actually finalize one or two on a daily basis! I love the feeling of becoming picky and skipping wings or certain bosses.

Also this:

These mounts were a side result of transmog farming, and it’s nice to have them off the grid.

On the downside, it’s been a marathon. And despite the variety and complete freedom of choosing the routes, raids and toons to play at the given moment, it’s still been a farm. And like every continuous farm, it got me quite exhausted.

But hey look! Head up from holidays, I notice that patch 8.3. is happening in less than a week! And that will be a completely different activity streak to go for!

I regret nothing, it’s been quite an enjoyable and a very rewarding ride. I think that round two is happening during the next lull. Still I think I may do certain runs even during the busy 8.3. days – just for the change of scenery :)

P.S. One more week before 8.3…. a couple of Hellfire Citadels… and Throne of Thunder… and Blackrock Mountain… somebody stop me! :)

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