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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Buying items
I saw a Glowing Brightwood Staff for 400 gold bid, no buyout, medium duration, no apparent bidder on the auction house. This staff usually costs around 700 gold, so it would have been an opportunity to replace my priests much less good Sarah's Guide. My characters on Runetotem all together have about 600 gold, so I could have afforded the staff. But after some consideration I decided not to buy it. The reason was that I had the impression that buying the staff would diminish my fun.
Kyroc, my priest, is level 60 and thus will not gain any more levels before the Burning Crusade expansion comes out. The only way to have character development, to make my character stronger, is improving my equipment. But what is the purpose of making my character stronger? The purpose would be the ability to overcome even bigger challenges, get even better gear, and make my character stronger again. It's circular, I make my character stronger so that I can make him stronger.
Buying an epic item from the auction house is taking a shortcut on this route. It doesn't matter whether you earn the money by farming, questing, and trading, or whether you buy it from EBay or some gold farming company. If I bought the Glowing Brightwood Staff, the next couple of staves I find in dungeons, or earn with quests, become a source of frustration instead of joy, just disenchant fodder. You always compare what you get with what you have, and the better stuff you have, the less likely it becomes that you'll be able to improve it. My current staff is from a quest, and there is another quest line in the plaguelands that will give me a better staff. Earning a quest reward I can use is fun. Buying is a lot less fun, and it would prevent me from having the fun of earning my equipment. I only spend gold for equipment on twinks, because twinking speeds up leveling.
If tomorrow the Glowing Brightwood Staff would drop for me in a dungeon, I would be ecstatic. What a luck, what a joy! If I first bought the thing, and *then* it would drop, and I'd resell it for the same amount gold, the fun would be a lot less, even if the final result would be identical.
- posted by Tobold @ 7:12 AM Permanent Link
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good point.
didnt mention rod of the ogre magi, relatively easy drop in dm tribute.
didnt mention rod of the ogre magi, relatively easy drop in dm tribute.
# posted by 
: 9/5/06 13:43
: 9/5/06 13:43
Well, as I said, I twink. I have a level 39 shaman with an epic mace and an epic shield, and the best other equipment money can buy.
But probably my most expensive hobby is tradeskills. I have 300 skill in alchemy, tailoring, enchanting, and engineering, distributed over 3 characters. Getting a rare recipe often is not a fun achievement, it is just a matter of grinding mobs until you get lucky. So if I see a reasonably priced recipe in the auction house, I usually prefer buying it over farming it.
Of course my luck is not always the same. The Greater Nature Protection potion recipe I tried to farm for hours, and never got it, so I ended up buying it. The Greater Frost Protection potion recipe dropped from the 5th giant I killed for it, and I didn't have to spend money on it.
The one thing I don't spend my money on is epic mounts. I think they don't do enough for my character compared to the exorbitant cost. I would need to be a lot richer before I'd buy one.
But probably my most expensive hobby is tradeskills. I have 300 skill in alchemy, tailoring, enchanting, and engineering, distributed over 3 characters. Getting a rare recipe often is not a fun achievement, it is just a matter of grinding mobs until you get lucky. So if I see a reasonably priced recipe in the auction house, I usually prefer buying it over farming it.
Of course my luck is not always the same. The Greater Nature Protection potion recipe I tried to farm for hours, and never got it, so I ended up buying it. The Greater Frost Protection potion recipe dropped from the 5th giant I killed for it, and I didn't have to spend money on it.
The one thing I don't spend my money on is epic mounts. I think they don't do enough for my character compared to the exorbitant cost. I would need to be a lot richer before I'd buy one.
i like tradeskills a lot too - the thing is i have to get my ALTs beyond lvl 35 to get them higher then 225 and i haven't found the patience to do that - the twinking doesnt cost me a lot of money since i level so slow...
so i've got spare money - and always ask this question: Waht else am i gonna do with it?
so i try a flask, buy some potions and Nexus', a libram and buy recipe's like the Voice Amplificator Module (or something)
anybody who knows any use for that?:)
havent seen any buyable armor/weapons that are an upgrade anyway
Thorsten
so i've got spare money - and always ask this question: Waht else am i gonna do with it?
so i try a flask, buy some potions and Nexus', a libram and buy recipe's like the Voice Amplificator Module (or something)
anybody who knows any use for that?:)
havent seen any buyable armor/weapons that are an upgrade anyway
Thorsten
# posted by : 9/5/06 15:01
: 9/5/06 15:01
" I have a level 39 shaman with an epic mace and an epic shield, and the best other equipment money can buy."
Did that diminish the fun you have playing him, since now any items that drop are useless? If it did not, why would it for your priest?
Did that diminish the fun you have playing him, since now any items that drop are useless? If it did not, why would it for your priest?
# posted by : 9/5/06 20:36
: 9/5/06 20:36
I bought my Glowing Brightwood Staff in the second month of Live. I used all legit, in-game earned gold and got a good a deal on it, beating out other buyers in a frenzy of negotiations (in a private sale, rather than the auction house).
For me, being there at the right time and striking the deal was just as much fun as looting a rare drop myself. And (as anonymous already said) what else was I going to do with virtual gold? Buy dull, common items? It also made me feel better about the time spent earning the gold, since it was put to good use.
For me, being there at the right time and striking the deal was just as much fun as looting a rare drop myself. And (as anonymous already said) what else was I going to do with virtual gold? Buy dull, common items? It also made me feel better about the time spent earning the gold, since it was put to good use.
# posted by : 10/5/06 01:24
: 10/5/06 01:24
Did that diminish the fun you have playing him, since now any items that drop are useless? If it did not, why would it for your priest?
Good question. I think it is a tradeoff. For example I did enjoy playing a very poor paladin on the new servers, earning silver pieces with smithing and making my own armor. So by twinking my shaman I certainly lost some fun. On the other hand the shaman is my third Horde character of this level, I already did all the quests of his level with other characters, and leveling him up is less fun than the previous two characters. Thus twinking gains me some fun, by speeding up leveling, and getting me faster through the boring mid-levels. His equipment isn't that important to me, because it is transitory, will become useless in a couple of levels, and so I don't insist of achieving it myself.
It is different for the priest because buying items for him doesn't speed up his leveling, as he can't level any more. Gaining equipment is the only way he can progress, the only thing left for him to do, thus I prefer gathering the gear myself to just buying them.
Good question. I think it is a tradeoff. For example I did enjoy playing a very poor paladin on the new servers, earning silver pieces with smithing and making my own armor. So by twinking my shaman I certainly lost some fun. On the other hand the shaman is my third Horde character of this level, I already did all the quests of his level with other characters, and leveling him up is less fun than the previous two characters. Thus twinking gains me some fun, by speeding up leveling, and getting me faster through the boring mid-levels. His equipment isn't that important to me, because it is transitory, will become useless in a couple of levels, and so I don't insist of achieving it myself.
It is different for the priest because buying items for him doesn't speed up his leveling, as he can't level any more. Gaining equipment is the only way he can progress, the only thing left for him to do, thus I prefer gathering the gear myself to just buying them.
I have around 400g on my Dwarven Hunter at the moment, this is after buying a Dwarven Hand Cannon. I lucked out in getting my DHC (I think) as I'd been checking one out on the AH at 375g, and while contemplating placing a Bid my Guild asked if anyone wanted to do UBRS. So I went to UBRS instead, got another one of my Beaststalker pieces (6/8), forgot about the Auction and when I logged in the next day there was another DHC listed at 300g. I was the first and only bidder on that baby.
I was contemplating an Epic Mount, and while it's fun to ride around much faster than your buddies (or so it looks when my Guild mate tears around on his Epic Ram) I can't see the sense in spending almost 800g for a 20% Speed Boost, or whatever it is, unless I had like 10,000g or something.
At the moment, I'd rather spend my money on Runecloth and Faction with Darnassus so my Dwarf can ride a Tiger :)
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I was contemplating an Epic Mount, and while it's fun to ride around much faster than your buddies (or so it looks when my Guild mate tears around on his Epic Ram) I can't see the sense in spending almost 800g for a 20% Speed Boost, or whatever it is, unless I had like 10,000g or something.
At the moment, I'd rather spend my money on Runecloth and Faction with Darnassus so my Dwarf can ride a Tiger :)
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