It has been reasonably some time since I’ve last played World of Warcraft (WoW). I’m not one of those players who will play it till the next expansion rolls out. I’m simply one of those that show up for a couple of months. I might take some time off from the game and then come back for a couple more. After that, I’m done till the next one rolls out.
What I’m Looking Forward To
Between reconnecting with old friends, exploring, and just enjoying the new content I don’t know what else to expect. I have been radio silence on looking up too much information other than the odd trailer that comes my way about this next expansion. I’ve only logged into the game 24 hours prior and I did not even do any of the pre-event stuff either. I’m sure I missed out on some nice items but I would have replaced those not too far into the new stuff I suspect anyway.
This is just one of those games where a bunch of old friends I’ve not seen since the first few months of Legion will hopefully make an appearance again. We will be able to do some catching up and share some fun moments as well. Sometimes we might find out we play similar games and might adventure off in those once we have had our fill of WoW.
I am by no means someone who enjoys raiding anymore. It has been quite a few games since I really wanted to commit that kind of time and have a schedule for just a game. I find myself just far too busy these days. I might do some Looking For Raids kind of raids but we all know those are not like doing the real thing. For me, WoW was not a very challenging sense of raiding in the first place so I just never cared much for it. I’ve also just grown older over the years where other responsibilities are more important than trying to make it for every raid and be that kind of team player.
I tend to enjoy exploring new lands, crafting, and yes farming! I am one of those weird people that would be just happy mining in a game like WoW for hours on end day after day. I just find it rather relaxing. During Legion that was farming some basilisk for Leystone and Felslate. I rather enjoyed not farming ore nodes but an actual creature as it was a nice change. Will such a tactic be something Battle For Azeroth will want to repeat or will things be different again? That I have no idea since I’ve not been reading up on anything.
Preparing for Battle For Azeroth
Every player has their own routines they go through when returning to their former favorite and long played games. I am no exception when it comes to WoW. I’ve been playing off and on again since Burning Crusades which was back in 2007. I was never around for vanilla as I had another MMO in my life at that time.
First thing is first is tracking down all my old favorite Add-ons. I’m sure I’m missing a few since it has been a while.
Trade Skill Master Auction House And Auctionator
I’m glad to see it is still working and going strong. That to me is a core element in saving time with all the trading and farming I will be focusing on. I was messing around with it this morning to try and get accustomed to the changes and everything I forgot about it.
A great way to list a bunch of items all at once in the auction house. Meanwhile getting current prices of items if you just want to be run up and list one item. I am by no means an expert when it comes to pricing items and the markets. I am after all just a returning player. I really don’t want to do a bunch of research to find out some pair of boots I looted is only worth 10 gold and I’m better off just junking it to the vendor.
On top of that, it makes it easy to try and find what could be good deals for possible flipping. I’ll be honest I’m not that much of an item flipper kind of guy. I would much rather go out and farm the item than anything else. In the end, this add-on is one of my first weapons in my arsenal for the economic war I will be waging in however long I end up playing Battle For Azeroth
Loot Appraiser
I more than likely will be going after a few markets with my time these days. Sure I love to farm the ores and my main is also set up to farm herbs as well. Everything from pets, mounts, and even transmog gear will be up for grabs. At some point, the market and all the good places to farm current resources will become over camped and over farmed. That is when having this addon to help diversify your knowledge if you are looting something worth anything these days.
While out in the field farming this one is amazing to have. Even more so once you have filled up your bag and are still on the run. No one wants to just go back to town and sell off a bunch of junk you did not need anyways. You also don’t want be making room in your bags either by removing an item you thought was worthless but it turns it was worth a lot.
While not always the most accurate (from what I recall from it) it at least does its best to let you know when you have looted something worth taking note over. Overall it is just a great way to track gold per hour farmed in items and pure gold. It is just nice to know when a pair of transmuting boots are worth 20 gold and are junk or 20k gold and something that just made up for some bad runs.
Trade Skill Master Mailing
Since I will be getting a ton of mail from the Auction House and alts as I farm around the place. This is another one I just need. Could there be better mailbox add-ons out there by now? Perhaps I just really enjoy this one.
Just being able to loot all very quickly and reload UI if I have exceeded the maximum about of mail the game will display at once is handy. Not to mention the auto fill in for names for spending items to or from alts is also nice. Sending mail to the wrong person when it comes to a high-value item is not a mistake you ever want make. Changes are that player is no longer around and even if they were good luck getting something worth a fair amount back.
I use to be a bit fan of Postal. In fact that what I thought I was using until I realize it said TSM at the top of the window. It looks like I’ll have some add-on testing to do later on. My knowledge of add-ons is not that great these days.
Server Hop
This use to be a really big tool for me. It let you change realms at the random to be able to farm an area that has not respawn yet. To get away from areas that have too many other farmers or other kinds of people in it. Not to mention if you are just going thought servers looking to see if a certain node has spawned in a cave that is also great.
Expect they really nerfed this one during Legion removing some of those functions. Instead, you just had to join groups and hope for the best there were not already a bunch of people in that public group in your area. This also really annoyed anyone looking trying to form a raid or get a group for something as well the Server Hoppers would just show up all the time. Yep, I’m that guy to blame for showing up and not being there for the raid group. I had ores to farm and people to evade!
Other Add-ons
I’m sure I’m missing quite a few. Even the Trade Skill Master suite might have more add-ons I’ll pick up later on. Some of them I’m not a fan of and will just disable them as call me old fashion I like to do some things more manually. I’m sure someone has already come up with an add-on that shows all the questing and a bunch of other stuff as well.
I also don’t have a DPS tracker and I’ve yet to add anything to assist in giving warnings during fights in what you should be doing. That as well just takes away some of the fun of the game. Then again I might just end up being so lazy and not wanting to learn the fights that having such a visual aid will be the route I go.
So when it comes to add-ons are there any you find must-haves? Keep in mind I only care about the legal ones I know there a whole host of “other” kinds that people get off some interesting websites. Outside of ones from Curse I just don’t care too much about that kind of thing.
Acclimating
Getting used to some of the older styles of game mechanics is something you always have to plan for. Even when it’s not WoW returning to an old game leaves some odd challenges for first few days.
I always find when I return that I just need to get used to how movement works again. It is quite different than most other games I play. First few steps are like walking like a baby again. You run sideways with the camera not facing the right way. You get somewhat annoyed at not moving in a straight line as again camera issues. After not too long I find myself back into the swing of things and then I don’t mind this older style of movement.
There is also just getting used to the combat system again. I really liked how the Demon Hunter faired last time. While I don’t’ know yet if you will have access to flying mounts right away or have to earn it like last few expansions. Having his wings and other movement skills to get to farming nodes is key to me.
There is also just getting used to the UI again. At least WoW has never acted like Eve Online in regards to this with massive unspeakable overhauls to that system every single time you want to play it again. It is nice to return to a game and just having to relearn what you have forgotten about elements of the UI. Old veterans of a game don’t like change. I fit into that group for this game.
Cleaning Things Up
I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of a packrat when it comes to storing strange things and just junk. I could not even tell you what half the nonsense I had in my bank and bags where this time around. I know just they are worthless and off to the vendor they went for a few golds each.
As someone who enjoys a lot of crafting, farming, and just gathering of all bits and odd things. I just need a fresh start excluding some items when a new expansion rolls around. Nothing worse than holding onto some quest item for 4 years that you are never going get around to using anyways. Not to mention I have long forgotten what it was even for in the first place.
The same is also true for my quests logs. Bunch of stuff in there I’m just not going do now. I might as well just purge it all right now before the new stuff. That way I’m not getting confused or running into that annoying issues of hitting the quest max. I’m not quite sure why there even is a quest maximum these days in any game. While I wish that was a relic of the past many games still go about doing this.
Final Thoughts
Outside of the guild I’m in being dead. A couple of friends that I know will be returning to the game. Perhaps me finding a couple more add-ons to aid me in my future journeys is all I’m lacking for now. The servers have gone down to start patching to Battle For Azeroth if I’m not mistaken. Soon I’ll be off on a new adventure.
At some point, I’m sure I’ll start reading more about everything in the expiration but I like the mystery feeling of not knowing exactly what is going be going on. That to me is some of the joys a game still has. I’m sure some have watched every video and went to every beta and they will be the first level 120 with such and such gear. Yep, I just don’t care these days.
Please blizzard doesn’t make some of the mistakes you made in Legion. They know what ones I’m talking about! For those returning to the game may your bags be full of loot, your pockets dripping of gold coins, and the next adventure just a short distance away. Have an amazing week!
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Screenshots were taken and content written by @enjar. Screenshots are from a game called World of Warcraft.
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