Alpha/Beta: On the New Models

The new models are gorgeous. They are supple. They are detailed. They move beautifully. The new emotes and animations are fun. A great deal of effort has been put into them. And I really, really wanted to love them. But I don’t.

This is Shayed: the old on the left and the new on the right.

Old Shayed, New Shayed, White Shayed, Blue Shayed…

On Leatherworking

As a leatherworker I feel that the profession is really grindy. And perhaps unfairly more grindy than other crafting professions. Compared to tailoring, for example, it feels like a lot of work. Leatherworking requires hides which can be acquired through skinning, bought off the auction house, or at the current top level, grown on the Farm. Tailoring needs no additional profession to support it. Tailors get cloth off drops AND have an ability to make cloth drop more frequently.

Now I’m sure I’m not the first to do this, nor will I probably be the last, but for my own edification, and as fuel for future whinging, I decided to conduct a simple comparison. I decided to see how my Farm yielded cloth vs. leather. I don’t think that professions influence Farm yields but to be on the safe side I decided to run this with both my leatherworker and my tailor and see how they did.

The Planted Farm

On Boosting

Yeah, I’m a Booster. I admit it.

On top of the world in my Boost Gear!

I am currently raiding and running a guild which takes up quite a bit of time and mental effort. I decided to use my boost on a different server and in the opposite faction as a place to get away and relax a bit. Because I was creating a character with a very limited support network I figured I’d stick with a class that I knew decently well. I also figured that I’d get to 60 and take advantage of the Veteran Bonus to boost my professions as well.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how smooth and easy the boosting experience was. A few button clicks and there I was, all 90 like. I had shiny new 483 gear and a set of 22 slot bags. Everything that I had been wearing was in my mailbox along with everything that had been in my bags. I also had a small gold stipend; not enough to make a difference to anyone, but there it was.

On Noodle Carts

Noodle Carts. They are the new feast. How have Noodle Carts worked out as replacement feasts for raids?

Pros:

• One Noodle Cart can feed any size raid.
• Each person can get five Noodle Bowls, eat one, and get another to replace the consumed one. The sixth Noodle Bowl can be bought without interrupting eating and although the vendor can’t eat while the Cart is deployed,  he/she gets the food buff automatically for throwing the cart. This means you only need to throw the cart every six hours or six wipes – whichever comes first.
• Assuming that you use the Pandaren Treasure Noodle Cart, everyone gets 300 level food so you don’t have to rely on individuals keeping 300 food on hand.
• The Noodle Bowls are persistent so if you don’t use them all in raid, you can use them for other things or have them for next time.
• Nomi provides all of the ingredients for the Pandaren Treasure Noodle Cart Kit so if your team/guild has a few Nomis and completes his quest every day the carts are fairly easy to maintain.