/bye leveling
/hi endgame, again…

My Shaman dinged 80 while flying in the cold peak of the storm…

I had stopped raiding for around 3 months
And now I am ready to come back…

With much more gold for my expense, and as one of the High demand role, the healer (I did had a lv 80 healadin but she is on the horde faction).

This time, I don’t need to grind nor be in the pathetic Pug…. for long…

Being healer as a Healadin, is an eye opening thing for me, as I was always play as a Damage Dealer before. I saved much time on finding pug, and I can ask bad player to leave, which would be the wildest dream of a DD. As I am confident of the answer of “He or me, your choice?” now.

I had some BOE gear purchased, Crafted, and 40 Flask of the Frost Wyrm sitting in my bank.
I’ll be back in no time.

Once my gear is complete (From ToC), I’ll join a progressive raid for Normal Ulduar (Overgeared according to Gevlon’s Achievement ).

About me, the author…

I am Zekta, your host.

In short, I had played Wow for two years, and try to reasoning some interesting phenomenon on Azeroth.

Here’s my personal detail, just in case you really interested.

About you, the reader…

You are a reader of my blog.

For whatever reasons, you bother enough to read this about post.

What can you do…

In case you want to be more involved with us, here is what you can do…

1. Leave me a comment. For any opinion or amendment regarding my post, feel free to use the comment system for each post. I really appreciate commenting. (I still on a record on 1 vs 10 troll ratio)
2. Email me / fill the following form for contacting me…
3. Link me – I am more welcome for anyone would like to link me… here is some code and banner if you really want to introduce me to your fellows. ( Stil woking on this)
4. Guest posting / Co-authoring – I actively looking for blogger who would like to guest post or coauthoring on topics. If you are not quite sure how it takes to building your own blog, you may try to start your journey here as well. The Form

P.s This page is messy at the moment, will have it revised when I had time (or if you like, join my team on editing!)

Side Note 3: Damn! I lost my edit version yesterday. Seems like I only previewed but not saved the content >.<

Sin of being Red

The Sin of Being Red.

Recently, I was quite busy at work and for my wow game hour, I spend most of the time with my girlfriend, as she just started to join me in Azeroth.
(Thanks for the effort, my love). (Another reason for slow update on blog as well. No, darling, I am not blaming you)

Okay, there is a lot of curious question a new player will ask, when they just started. And there are some I find particular hard to answer, here is one of them.

“Why we are killing these animal/people ? they looks pretty cute to me”
“Because they name is red, that means they’ll attack us if we get too close”
“My kitty(in RL) will bite you if you piss her off, will you kill her too?”

and I recalled recently Larisa talked about moral, and Gevlon talked about raiders of dungeon. This raise some question for me, long ago.

Reasons

Why should I kill them
because their name is red,
because killing them drop loots,
because killing them give me XP,
because those NPC asked me to! (Which give me gold/loots/xp)

This question strike me before twice..
1. when I was leveling my paladin, and I would try to role-play it, upon each judgement I would try to come up with some war-cry. “May the light forgives you”
I am not having problem with miners, and students, but for helping a crazy prince for killing his citizens?. “You are damned since your name is red to me.” seems the only universal answer for me. Other than that, it’s hard to come up with any “rightful” reason to justify myself. Isn’t that paladin means to be good? or I am just some zealous paladin which kill everything on the “path of the light” which is not good (aka, the name is not green?)

2. The Second time is my paladin’s first run on Alterac Valley, on my way to get my [item]Cold Forged Hammer[/item] . My BE paladin is my first Horde Character, I kept running on Alterac Valley with my Alliance main, and did little pvp on my BE. That run is a slaughter, and I am healing my way thought there. I put a macro for playing “Lament of the Highborne” on my BE’s hotkey bar, And I played the song all along that battle.

It’s go like this

By the light, by the light of the sun
Children of the blood
We ride through the “cross road”

Our enemies are breaking through
On the first tower, the battle is swift, 5-6 Hordies vs 1 gnome warlock,

Children of the blood
By the light
Failing children of the blood
They are breaking through

The are trying to resist on the First Towner, an Female Draenei paladin try to defense, but was chopped down Brute-force by Tauren Warrior, we burn that flag right a way

O’ children of the blood
By the light of the sun
Failing children of the blood

The Alliance formed a defense line on the bridge, as any other “turtle” game in Alterac Valley. Billzard, Arrow Rain, Rain of Fire…
Tons of corpses of Gnome, Dwarf, Draenei. (My Alliance is a Gnome Mage).
We finish the battle with exceeding alliance’s resources, aka creating Corpse Piles.

Post-Alterac Valley Syndrome

That shocks me, while I was so get used to, the alliance’s races.
We won, single handedly, but I was sad.
I never set foot again in Alterac Valley with my BE Paladin. (I do in winter-gasp later thought, when I get used to it)

Finally, I gave up reasoning or justify my brutal killing again in the game. It just pure self-fish earning as a person, not big heroic thing, I kill because I need that/this as a hunter preying on its prey.

I still refuse to kidnap kids everyday just to make those cute Seal-Men happy.

Others percept this differently from me, some could just rightful themself, and even ganking others. In which I never understand, it seems meaninglessly to me just to grief others, and the ganker cannot generate any profit either, just a waste of both time (At the end of the day, Blizzard wins with the game time consumed)

Some refused killing for leveling,
but for others it’s too much to be leveling that way. (Which I admire the effort on doing so, I can never done that myself)

How did you reasons for the dreadful life for your wow character? especially if you are “Holy” as priest or paladin.

(Sidenote: My Warlock alt, smirk a lot and find it very enjoying just to see other suffer, so no guilt at all, MuWahahaha~~~~ )

Nice to have business with you, mon

Spamming Channel or Gold panning field?

I know, many people hate channel and I was one of them.
I even /leave trade when my alts first got into city.

But, it’s very different for me now.

End of Spam, Beginning of Gold Mine – The Second Chat Log

I got a second chat log frame solely for chat channel, and get it off the main chat log frame (And this really help a lot, and I recommend on that)
And yes, people will keep spamming it with the same sentience again, again and again.

But once in a while, just once in a while, something very different will happens. I got a [item]Proto-Drake Whelp[/item] for 100g and resale if for 400g the week after. I got four [item]Frostweave Bag[/item] at 40g, while immediate reselling in AH for 68g.

Rusher do announce on the trade channels, when they need for leveling, or get rid of the goods, they annouce in trade channel. And also for the fellow trader wish to get rid of goods.

The Talking

Some people like direct trade since they can squeeze more from the seller. I normally avoid that, since it gives a bad reputation around.  What I do is to ask around if the buyer/seller who are willing talk about it. It’s free for them, but I’ll get to know more about what’s going on.

The Leveling Crafter:

• What’s in demand, why is he buying but not on the AH.
• What’s in need when they raise a certain profession especially when you are not familiar of them.

• And Chances are,

• they’ll need some other goods very soon as well.

The (Rushing) Farmer :

• These poor souls had no other methods for making money, or at least not willing to learn about it
• they’ll keep supply goods when they are in need of money, so forming a COD relationship with them is great. Or at least tell them to look for you instead of yelling at trade channel. If your pricing is right, they’ll probably come back

Fellow Trader or (Long Term) Famer:

• What profession he’s in, and goods that possible will interest him. (E.g. a Epic-Trader will always found interested on [item]Titansteel Bar[/item])
• It’s good to know if ever there are goods I’ll need to get rid of, I’ll know who to ask first

Okay, I admit My BElf Paladin is not as sexy

My raider career

My raider career started back at TBC.

I was a late comer, When everyone is raiding on DT, I had just ding 70 and started on raiding Kara. I got my T4 set and then Wotlk came out. And I raised my main and alt to 80 since then.

I had a healer (Paladin) and two dps (Mage and Hunter(just ding 80 in two weeks ago)).

I am a traditional (and responsible one) instance runner,

that’s I’ll only go to a heroic instance/raid, if I

• Run the normal instance once (for heroic), and know what’s going on
• Read notes about the boss changes and his skills

And I also raid much, the same reason for Gevlon. I can’t stick with the “every week raiding” for 2-3 nights for 3-4 hour thingy. It’s just not my playing style. I’ll talk about my Healer career.

The Pug

My gears are from pug, and pug are disaster, always.

Under-gear tank, what-is-healer-mana-bar tank , and the I-am-in-a-hurry tank. Mindless DPS, Mr. I-like-stand-in-fire-or-anything-look-funny etc etc. (I guess everyone is familiar with them)

Well, to be honest, I wasn’t a good healer either. But it’s really hard to tell, if it’s the tank’s fault, the dps fault or my fault.

I got my gear to 1600sp (from reputation and drops) and then I started to raid Naxx with my guild.

The Raid

I started raid for Naxx-25 (Yes, not 10-man) since my guild is lack of healer (as it’s always be) willing to go. While there are more than 40 people of naxx-25 gear-ready people, They seldom join our raid. (That’s a little specious) We had to take 10-12 pug people to fill the remaining slot.

While I knew(thought) I am under-gear, I take 4-5 [item]Flask of the Frost Wyrm[/item] with me.

That raid was horrible. First day (Fri), 8pm-12am, Second day (Sat) 12pm-12am, Third (Sun) 12pm-1am. And yes, we take down Kel’Thuzad after 28 hour.

And I was one of the only 2 guild members left in there.

You'll know when it came to the end

The Burn Out

I run couple of time with them afterward, but not a full run, 28 hours of raiding exhausted me. But then raiding is so repeative for me.The only different is what gear drop, and what people we take with us. I do know every single boss in naxx will do, and what to do about them. And yes, there are many M&S who does not take flasks and not even have well-feed buff which piss me off.

I can’t said I excelled in healing, There are many things I can learn (and My reflex is not that  good either). (Side note:I am not a good “dancer” yet either) But raiding to me is no more fun.

And I hate farming for gears, and with M&S dragging you backward is much more painful.

What to do?

What I did

I didn’t raid with my healer anymore (That was two month ago) , I seldom login as well on the horde side (My healer is on the horde faction, while my other toons are on Alliance side). I leveled my NElf Hunter Alt to 80, and do the mindless dps afterward.

I may go back to my BElf Paladin and /gquit one day and start my raiding again, but with the poor quality of PUG and gear farming process, It’ll take a long time to recover.

I Can Haz Dual Spec, Already ?

Everyone got their Dual Spec now, right?

No, I didn’t.

All my toons are still in the old, cold, monotone single spec world.
For some reason, I didn’t go for instance and raid for nearly two weeks now. And I consider it’s time to buy more and earn more, instead of spending on the static priced dual spec system. (I did the price of waiting though…)

This is Madness! no, This is the Patch!
(Okay, I admit it isn’t fit very well here)

[item]Titansteel bar[/item] Hits 50% marks of pre-3.1, [item]Saronite Ore[/item] and [item]Saronite Bar[/item] still at their 60%.
But I didn’t start buying,…. yet. I expect it’ll drop more later.

I do get a lot of profits from the [item]Mammoth Cutters[/item] and [item]Saronite Razorheads[/item] from those rushing hunter, and reinvest them into the [item]eternal life[/item] as suggested by WoWenomics

And I do take my time on making the [item]Nesingwary 4000[/item] for my hunter who just ding 80. With merely 200-300g cost. Someone sell the [item]Sun Scope[/item] in 10% price on the very day of the 3.1 patch. (For reference, someone had sold lots of epic that day with 888g for the [item]Nesingwary 4000[/item], but the price raise back to 1000g on the following day)

I keep selling my stockpiled of pre-wrath’s material, and make a nifty profit on it. Especially on the Primals. The increased traffic more “price-insensitive” seller and buyer had entered the market, I got lots of sweet deals to pickup. With the 10kg asset base, and 2kg cash. I do gain 2kg this week, not as good as the inscription industry, but still, looks nice for me.

I may find a tailor for the [item]Netherweave Bag[/item], as the market had no idea of the material cut yet. (I found more people step into the trade already though…)

On a side note about the white kitties though, there were 6 kitty show up on the market recently, on price 120-140g. I do pick them up with bid, and tends to dry up the market.

Carrot on a Stick?

Carrots keep us running – Gold, Gears, Fame, Friends, Oh and pets. To me, Argent Torment is another one.
Vanity Item, mounts, Pets… I had a hobbit of collecting pets, so I always keep an eye on Breanni’s Site .

Blizzard do a great job on the target marketing.

Target Marketing

The Marginal cost of time increases steeply if you really want them fast.

Take the Aspirant Phase as example:

In order to go to the next rank you need to complete Up To The Challenge which requires 15 [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]. Which is from the following quests.

1. Learning The Reins, takes around 2-3 minutes without flying, reward 2x [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]
2. Training in the field, takes a flight to the nearest  for mob, around 6-8 minutes, Rewarding 1x [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]
3. A Blade Fit For A Champion or or A Worthy Weapon or The Edge of Winter takes 20+ minutes (Just the time for flying forth and back are huge) rewarding 2x [item]Aspirant’s Seal[/item]

As there are only 3 quests you can do per day. Player will takes different part as their preference.

1. Very eager player who wish to finish the phase as soon as possible. Doing 3 quests for 30 minutes each day, Totally 90 minutes.
2. Only do the first 2, will takes you 5 days, with 10 minutes each day. Totally 50 minutes.
3. Only do the Learning The Reins for 8 days, 2.5 minutes each day. Totally 20 minutes.

So basically, The more eagar you want to get thru the phase, you pay more time than the others.

If anyone aim for the top, they are actually playing near double time for the next group (90 mins vs 50 mins) to take a lead of 2 days.

Blizzard set up different grind plan for player to sign up. So if you want to get there faster, you pay more.

Personally I don’t pay much attention to the “I-have-something-you-don’t” thing, so I just going for the second option (The 20-30 minutes flying really cool me down).

How about you? How many quests you take?

P.s Miy at Auction House Trading, simplified. consider the issue on the gold gathering perspective, which is nice to provide you another view angle for the event….

I wish this page will ease people shy out from asking me for linking them
(I had that feeling when I started this blog).
Linking me back is nice but not required.

Wow Trade Related :

I follow one of my friend’s policy : I link every businessmen blog, (except professional gold sellers and gold-guide-sellers).
Markco’s JMTC is an exception, since he’s good
I do expect a frequent update however, but say once per week is nice for me. (I won’t require much quality check, readable is more than enough)

Wow Related – Life/Raid/PVP/Guild/Movie/Comic:

Wow, You’ll be under the category of the Mighty BRK!
I don’t link much to Raid/PVP blog, since I am not that interested in the aspect. However, I do read lots of them, and I would like to include yours as well. So let me know.

I personally do some wallpaper making for Wow content as well (with modeler). Let me know if you need help as well.

Feel free to contact me on mail, they’re on side bar on the right hand side.
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Change of name

No, Your link is not hijacked
I had change my blog name! previous known as Zekta’s Stuff!

[Start - boring background, skippable]
I was write a main blog, and here was some random thoughts dump..
But recently I found that I have more and more to say about WoW’s Trading here and many support from others.

The Name was Zekta’s Stuff, but it seems too generic and personal. So, I keep thinking about a new name for it.
[End - boring background]

So, I decided to hunt for a new name. While I am doing this, I find a new nice blog over

http://ahtrader.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-direction.html

by Marvco’s Suggestion. After reading his post, I got a sense “That’s also what I need to do too: Focus!”

Keep Focus!

Now, what I am going to do, Gevlon is really cool on the philosophy thinking on raid and market, Skrooge is good at all the fun stuff and encouraging discussion, and I won’t talk about Addon for sure.

What I excited me and get me interested, is the big question, Why?
There are reasons behind everything (Most of the time), and I am eager to find them out. It won’t be 100% of post here, since these topic is somewhat dull and hard to find(But I like it anyway).
I’ll try to pick once a week.

The Name, The Name

Here comes the hard part,

Most the great name had been taken, for instance (Goblin and Gnomish). I decided to use a catch phase of South park.
Phase 3, Profits

What Phase are we now?

What target of mine is to feel the gap on the big question mark, (of course it didn’t start at collect underpants)
Where is phase 1 and phase 2?
Where is Profits?
Why there are Profits?

that’s what I want to answer here.