I’m feeling a little all over the place in WoW at the moment. I’m officially at “end game” I think but what does that really mean? You know when X Files used to have monster of the week episodes and then other more absorbing (in my opinion) arc episodes involving Mulder’s sister, black oil and a man smoking some cigarettes. Well that’s what it’s like. I’m on a constant treadmill of monster of the week stories but the cohesive absorbing nature of the arc- the levelling arc- has gone now that I’m 85.
I miss the excitement of it all – the goals, the discoveries, the newness. I’m aware I sound like a bored partner at a counselling session but at least I’m not sniping about toilet seat transgressions. What can I do to get the thrill back? It’s the 7 day itch here – 7 days since hitting 85 (totally not – much longer- but I’m going with the 7 year itch theme regardless).
Help me. Please. Below is my daily WoW routine. How can I insert some magic into it to stop me waltzing off and having a thing on the side with the Sims?
1. Log on & drag my sorry ass over to Rokk for my day’s work. Grit my teeth as I make him yet another bowl of spiritual soup and blindly hit my keys looking for the “kill Rokk” button I know is hidden there somewhere when he once again fails to give me the chocolate cake recipe.
2. Portal over to Dalaran in the hope that Katherine Lee will give me something instead – certainly something more than bloody spices (Columbus could only dream of having the spices I now have). But no of course not. She never does. Nevertheless I run around Dalaran collecting half full glasses of wine for her without even a minimum wage as consolation. She & Rokk ring each other up & laugh heartily over it all and wonder how long they can keep it up.
3. Hearthstone to Hyjal and fly to Sanctuary of Malorne for my Mark of the World Tree dailies. Start with the Sethia’s Roost bit and hope as usual I can find enough Behemoths to kill so I don’t have to fight the Pyrelords who always seem harder (annoying bloody Seethers making me have to turn around to kill them). Finally destroy the 6 I need taking more damage than I would have thought possible at my level with such “able” assistants & go back for my measly marks.
4. Do the other dailies both sides of the portal. Enjoy in a way that will take several sessions with my therapist to work through the mindless act of kicking tortoises into the water & moan when I’ve got to fly “all that way” to the shrine of Aesinna to rescue some bears and then remember how much running I had to do before I got my mount at 40 and cluck about how easy the kids have it these days. At Molten Front I heal some victims while creating lots of my own by killing charred combatants and muse philosophically about how futile it all is while eating a chocolate.
5.Queue for a HC on my own or with guild – clenching my little hands together to pray that it’s not End Time (I hate that globe thingy at the end because when I’m asked to do it I get really nervous and flustered that I’ll do it at the wrong time). Cheer when I get Well of Eternity which is now my favourite and allows me to claim that Tyrande and Illidan are my BFFs forever.
6. Open my bag and look at the gold I don’t have. Browse the AH to see what certain cloth items are going for. Look at my tailoring recipes to see if I can make anything that will make me a millionaire. Work out that everything costs too much to make so resignedly sell off all my Embersilk cloth with a bitterness that only a skilled tailor who once dreamed of making her fortune with cloth can feel.
7. Think about fishing for a rat in Dalaran. Read up on how to do it, realise it sounds like a rather long and boring process (plus won’t the rat have drowned?) so decide that there have to be better things to do with my time like…
8. … go and find some critters to love …
9. …and then stop when they start reminding me of the restraining orders they’ve issued.
10. And finally end up in Stormwind Old Town haggling with the valor gear seller because I’ve not got enough points to buy anything good and in any case what I really want I can only get with tokens from raids I’m not confident enough to go in and then slumping to the floor as the futility of it all overwhelms me.
This is my life now. And it’s driving me a little bit more insane each day. What can I do? I have levelled all my skills except Archaeology & the only thing that can do is fast track me to full blown madness (10 steps for green, 20 steps for yellow, count the steps, gibber gibber, give me my precious sparklies etc. – I’ve seen it in action with my husband). I’ve ventured a little into Tol Barad and quite enjoyed that but not sure my blood pressure can take it (nor the neighbours judging by the way I screamed in joy yesterday when I killed my arch nemesis horde Thom – arch nemesis since Sunday when he killed me several times in Tol Barad and laughed at me a lot).
But there is something out there for me. I feel it. Something elusive I can’t quite put my finger on – something that if I find it will transform it all for me and give me the arc that I and Seashell both need- an arc of meaning. But where can I find it?
Bravetank 
A little hint for the last boss in End Time.
He has 18k health, and you can hit the hourglass five times. I always use health indicators of 15k, 12k, 9k, 6k and 3k. Much easier than watching for certain buffs or other timers, since you’re already targeting Murozond anyway.
Even easier – as a mage – hit timewarp as soon as you start attacking, then when timewarp finishes, press the hourglass and hit timewarp again as the cooldown and debuff will both get reset. The boss should be dead before you run out of hourglasses that way. 100% uptime on timewarp ftw.
I did the Timewarp thing today & it really helped as well. Thanks 🙂
Great idea!! Thank you 🙂
Thank you. That’s great. I’ve noticed some groups like to do it with only 2 resets whereas others take full advantage of them all. Is it just up to the group?
Some groups like to be “daring” or claim that they don’t need all of them. Frankly, I see no reason not to use all of them. There’s no achi for doing it with less, so why make it harder?
I too am looking for that something new. Lately I’ve been feeling burned out and am really hoping for rejuvenation from MoP. Later this year with an upgraded computer I will try out SWtOR not for endgame but the storyline I keep hearing about.
Yes I wouldn’t mind trying it but I realistically I haven’t got time to play two games so I’d have to leave WoW for a bit & I really don’t want to do that- I’d rather rejuvenate the game somehow!
Have you done the loremaster achievement? Did you do all the quests from A-Z, reading the questtexts, enjoying the stories, sightseeing all of Azeroth, discovering new and beautiful places?
There´s a vacation retreat beach between Silithus and Feralas. There’s a fairy circle in Tirisfal with dancing Fey Dragons. There’s a forgotten Island between Feralas and Desolace with NPC’s named after Blizzard people.
There are ghosts partying in Shadowmoon Village in Shadowmoon Valley that you can only see when you run through it as a ghost yourself.
Have you done all the Horde side quests? It’s amazin to see how they compliment the Alliance quests, to see the other side of the story. There’s a lot of fun stuff and heartbreaking stuff. There`s a beautiful Drop Quest in Tristessa that lets you see and hear (!) the heartbreaking lament song of Lady Sylvanas.
Yeah – I’m a nut when it comes to questing and lore and I always have to see ALL the quests on both Horde and Alliance side. Because there are abundant secrets to discover.
I have been thinking about the Loremaster achievement. Would be a great one to have. And no- I’m the world’s worst for not reading the quest texts. You are right. I once did hear the lament song though- and it was truly heartbreaking. Thank you- I really do need to embrace the questing for its own sake & story not just for levelling!
Ok, well here are some suggestions.
1) Dont do so many dailies. Dailies are a horrible grind. If you are doing them for pets or something, that cool. If you are doing it for the gear, dont bother. You can get better with JP or the End time instances.
2) As for gold. I make tons of golds. One thing I would recommend is flipping rare recipes if you can get them cheap enough. Collectors will pay a small fortune for them. Pick a small niche market to buy out and sell at a mark up. Wool or Silk Cloth are good markets if they are cheap.
3) If you like achievements, then go solo the Outland Dungeons and Heroics. Since you are a tailor, you should get gobs of cloth. Turn the Netherweave cloth into bags and sell the crap out of them. Put the green items for 1000 gold each. I am not kidding. I sell them at 1200 gold and have probably sold at least 50. They may take a bit to sell, but after the first sale you will be HOOKED.
4) On another AH note….cater to the lazy. Google Outland Vendor Recipes. There should be an article on where to go to buy them. You can post them on the AH for a significat markup. If you are running dungeons out there anyways, then why not?
I am always glad to help someone make a bit of extra gold! Glad to answer any questions.
There is plenty to do that is more interesting than dailies.
Yes I’m cutting down on the dailies. I thought I could get good gear but you’re right- I’m getting better from End Time instances. Do you really sell green Outland dungeon items for 1000 gold? I’m not having much luck with the tailoring items will sell. Really like the idea of catering to the lazy 🙂 Thanks for all the ideas. Gold earning might be the exact way forward!
I’ve burned out on WoW twice since I started playing, without ever having been a hardcore raider, so yeah, I know exactly how you’re feeling. Hopefully that means what I found helpful will help you too:
– Run away from dailies like the plague. Some people love the grind, but your description makes it clear you’re not one of them. Grinding dailies will suck the joy out of the game and slowly wither your soul. Use tabards to get reputation if you REALLY need it, but apart from Therazane (which is pretty quick) you shouldn’t have to.
– In fact, avoid absolutely anything that feels like a chore or an obligation; if you pick up your mouse with the intent of doing something just because you “should be” doing it and not because you actually want to do it, rethink that choice.
– By now, it should be clear that repetition is the poison for my enjoyment of WoW. I solved that by turning, for the first time, to PVP. Specifically to Battlegrounds, where every match is different and you’ll never know what you’ll end up with; some are failing groups of failure, others are matches so memorable you’ll be telling them to your grandchildren.
That’s MY solution, though. PVP might not be fun for you (though I spent years thinking it wouldn’t ever be fun for me either…), but there’s plenty of other options. I’d suggest soloing old dungeons, but Darraxus beat me to it. 🙂
See if your guild isn’t into running old raids too, for fun and sightseeing – that’s a thing these days.
There’s also transmogging – it’s all the rage with the kids now, or so I hear. You might wanna visit some of the older dungeons with your über mage to get the best look for your mage, even making more than one set and swapping them about. 🙂
All your ideas are great – thank you. But your second point in particular struck a chord. I do those Rokk dailies really grudgingly just because I want the Chef title. So it is definitely a feeling of I have to do this but don’t want to. It’s ridiculous. I mean- who cares about the Chef title. It’s taking me so long I could have qualified as a real chef by the time I get it!
You could try PVPing in random bgs. Bring a friend or two (the more, the merrier)! Stick with the pack to die less if you don’t have resilience gear. 🙂
Also, now is the time to farm/ quest/ rep grind for those rare pets that you want to have for MoP pet battles! Such as the nether ray pet or, yes, Dalaran’s giant sewer rat, or the little whelplings or the fox kit from Tol Barad.
Now is also the time to farm up JP/ Argent Crusade tokens/ Darkmoon tokens/ honor to buy heirlooms for the next character you’ll be making, such as a monk in MoP *wink*. Don’t enchant them yet, though, as Blizzard is apparently turning heirlooms into some sort of account-wide buff instead of items to be mailed (?). (Not sure about buff, but they want to get away from the mailing thing, so not sure how else it will be.)
Thank you for those ideas. Hadn’t thought about heirlooms for my monk!! That would be excellent 🙂
Don’t grind so many dailys at the same time: do one grind at time or you’ll dump the game a lot faster than you can imagine.
You can also level alts, to see the leveling content on the opposing side, or, if you really love exploring and quests, just go play another MMO while waiting for Pandaria. If you’re into Tolkien stuff, LotRO has a very nice world and the best MMO zone ever done (Moria), Star Trek online has some very well done player-contributed missions (if you liked the Star Trek series, you’ll like them).
Or you can do the real thing in WoW: get into HM raiding 🙂
It’s the raiding that appeals if I’m honest – I’ve only come to realise that though from reading all these comments & realising it is my own apprehension leading me to rule that out & then get frustrated that there’s nothing else I want to do as much. But I would like to do Loremaster & earn lots of gold as well!!
I love most of the things in wow but my most favorite time I had was the 2 years I was in a 10 man raid team. If you can find a like minded group of people who are out to have fun then you will have a blast and finally have a real reason for grinding out the gear drops.
You’re right. When I really think about what I’d like to do if there were no obstacles it’s that- raiding. I like upgrading gear & there is no other way than that. It’s just I’m very apprehensive about my abilities to do it. But as I’ve said in one of my other comments – the guild I’m now in are lovely and they run 10 man raids every Friday. I need to sign up for it & get in there!
Well let’s see, my daily routine on my paladin is:
Log on
Do fishing, cooking, and JC daily. I’ll skip JC if I don’t have the gems.
Go do molten front dailies. I used to do TB dailies too but i hit exalted and 25 dailies is just too much.
Maybe go grab a few levels in Archaeology, run MC if I haven’t yet, run some other raid though I have to do the trial account dance with any besides MC.
If it is Tuesday, switch to heal spec and do both LFRs
Otherwise, maybe run a dungeon if I need valor. Not sure why I need it as I haven’t spent any in weeks. Still can’t figure out whether I should use it for ret or prot gear.
Log off
Log on Mage
Do an LFR, mine while waiting
Log off Mage
Spend remainder of day leveling rogue
Now that I look at it, it isn’t very exciting.
But it does sound very busy! What’s levelling a rogue like – that’s one class I’ve done.That might be an idea!
even if I’ve not been playing WoW for some time …. let me point out you are playing a MMRPG essentially like a single person adventure
focus on group activities – and I do not mean LFR or LFD. Maybe start a new character together with your husband? After all he brought you to the game.
Try out a RPG on a real RPG server
but stay away from daily grind, you do not seem to be the person for it
Rauxis, chosen of CAT
Thank you. You’re right- I need the group activity more & definitely less of the grind. Tiny tiny point- I brought husband into WoW not vice versa. In fact I’m proud to say I introduced him to all the games he loves (Resi Evil, The Sims- he thought that was a stupid idea but now will happily spend 10 hours designing a new house!) & then WoW. The problem is he’s definitely less interested in WoW at the moment. If we’re going to do anything together I guess it should be Bravetank & Anadin (his pali healer)….but it does end up in marital warfare then!! 🙂
Why don’t you try raiding ? With LFR there aren’t much requirements, and as a dps among 25 other players, if you do a mistake there’s a great chance nobody will notice, and it won’t have any consequence anyway.
While I played wow I enjoyed LFR as it is a fast and easy way to have fun in a raid with any level 85 character (the restrictions are easy to meet). Plus, in my experience, there was often less snarky comments about that guy who didn’t do enough damage or was standing in the fire than in a 5-man.
After getting some training and better gear, you can have fun maximizing your dps or healing (so much fun to try and ninja heal every bit of health in the raid <3). Or you can try a normal raid with some guildies, it shouldn't be hard to make the transition to normal mode then.
Yes I’ve done a few LFRs now & they are getting better & slowly I’m building the confidence to try a proper raid with guilds. They run them every Friday. Will put my name down soon!
Here’s some things what I does fer ta keep it fresh. Fer starters, don’t do the same dailies every day. It’s not a race, so there ain’t no reason fer ta do get it done as fast as ya can.
Next, explored everywheres. Follow the storylines in every zone. Get yer Seeker and Loremaster achievements. Check out the level 60 and 70 raids, many of which be soloable (and all be 2-3 mannable). Why does I do these things when they don’t make me more powerful? ’cause they’s interestin’.
Collectin’ mounts an’ pets. Puttin’ tagether a transmog outfit or three or twelve – the kind ya gots ta bust up old dungeons fer, ‘stead of just craftin’ stuff.
Check out all the startin’ zones with alts.
Form an arena team with a friend. Give it a goofy name and get yer arses whipped, until that gets old.
Point is, don’t let it become yer job. Ain’t about how long ya can keep at sumthin’ after it goes stale, is about shufflin’ stuff around fer ta keep it fresh. Lucks to ya.
Best way fer ta make money with tailoring, no matter the market on yer server? Netherweave and frostweave bags. Them things is always in demand.
Thanks Rashtag. All great ideas. I think I’m going to go for Loremaster. I really would love to do that. But I’m going to read ALL the quest texts too!! And make plenty of bags while I’m at it!
At 85 it is really fun to go back and solo some old content, it’s one of my favorite things to do. Karazhan and *most* of the Vanilla raids are soloable, though BWL and AQ40 are hard to solo (I’ve gotten as far as Emperors in AQ40 solo),
If you haven’t done these, it’s a great, great, great fun thing to do with friends – grab 4 or 5 people and just go do these raids – trust me, you’ll see some amazing things and have a ball exploring the raids. Those raids are HUGE!
PvP as a lot of people said, and also…. alts and off-specs.
Honestly, I love playing alts and off-specs as it makes the game different enough to be fun again when I’m hitting my buttons on auto-pilot and instead, now I have to change a rotation or learn new abilities or a new role or whatever…
Finally, you might just need a break! 🙂 Nothing wrong with walking about for a week and coming back when you miss the sqwak of your mount or the moonlight on Stormwind’s canals.
Thank you. The guild I’m in run some of the old raids/dungeons so I will try to sign up for them. I would definitely like to see them. Went to Karazhan once and thought it was amazing.