Social engineering a fresh start

I'm still looking for a better way to play World of Warcraft. My problem is that I'm a bit bored during the week, because I can't find a group. I play from 6 pm to 10 pm continental European time, that is 5 pm to 9 pm UK time, and the majority of other players are playing later than me. At level 60 getting a group together and finishing a dungeon in 4 hours is already not easy, but add a bad time slot, and the fact that I'm playing on the less numerous Horde side, and I'm reduced to soloing most of the time. Soloing at 60 isn't really all that interesting, I make good money by farming or gathering herbs, or gain a bit of faction, but I don't really advance my characters any more. I raid with my guild alliance on the weekends, which is kind of okay as an experience, but due to the DKP system I'm not getting any epics and character advancement there either.

The obvious solution are alts. I have a level 42 shaman on the same server as my two level 60s, but again the same problem: Horde side, too early time slot, and on an old server where not many people are playing characters lower than 60 any more. Twice I tried to make Alliance alts on new servers, a hunter and a paladin. But the hunter couldn't get into groups at all, and even the paladin wasn't exactly a class favored for groups.

Yesterday I read the Warcraft Weekly, where there was a comment from the US WoW forums that the Euro WoW forums had such a nice thread with recommended servers, and why didn't the US forums have that? I followed the link, and stumbled upon an entry that there was a "brand new" Euro PvE server. I checked it out and found that the server was less than 24 hours old, having come online just 6 hours before the maintenance window. Highest level character was level 19.

Brand new servers are always interesting. So this time I decided to try social engineering to get the maximum of fun out of WoW. I didn't take a class that I hadn't played yet, but I chose the class where I would find a group fastest: the priest. Good that I like priests. I chose Alliance for being more populated, and because I know the Alliance quests less well than the Horde quests. And I chose human as a race, for the useful spirit and faction bonuses, and because my last two Alliance characters were elf and dwarf.

Up to now I am having fun, although I'm only level 9 yet and haven't really grouped by now. I first did all the newbie zone quests, but then shortly after arriving in Goldshire decided that doing what everybody was doing was not the most clever of ideas. Finding a kobold in the kobold mine was hard, because there were so many other players there, and doing my quests there was rather slow. So instead I decided to go after the Defias bandits in Elwynn Forest, which are less hunted, because there are no quests to exterminate them.

Hunting bandits had the big advantage that they are dropping linen cloth. And while crafting armor on an old server is often not worth it, such crafting can be quite profitable on a young server. So I went for tailoring, and quickly had enough linen from the bandits to get the 45 tailoring skill needed to make linen bags. So I checked the AH to see how the bag market was. There I found out that either the other tailors are stupid, or they were trying to scam their customers, selling linen bags for 8 silver pieces. As NPC vendors sell 6-slot bags for 5 silver pieces, asking for more than 5 isn't realistic. So I ran around and offered making bags for people for the 6 linen cloth needed and 1 silver. As that cost me 30 copper for the thread, I still earned 70 copper per bag, and I got my tailoring skill up further. And with the linen I farmed myself, I made more bags and sold them easily for 4 silver on the auction house. My thanks to the other tailors trying to sell the same bags for twice that, they made me look positively cheap.

By the time I was level 9 I not only had all of my training paid for, but also had over 30 silver left. And then I saw another intelligent crafter offering his wares on the auction house, an enchanter selling lesser magic wands for a totally fair but profitable price of 30 silver (others were trying 40 silver and more). So I bought the wand, which is totally unbalanced and uber for that level. The mace I was wielding had 3.0 dps, the wand has 11.3 dps, better than any melee weapon I can get for the next dozen levels. Having already leveled one priest to 60, I know that pulling with a damage spell, putting a shadow word pain on the mob, protecting myself with a bubble, and killing the mob with a wand is the best soloing strategy. In fact that works so well that I'll probably spend my first talent points in Discipline, for improved wand and improved bubble, instead of the conventional wisdom of going shadow priest.

So right now I'm having lots of fun with my new priest. I'll have to see how long that remains fun. My characters tend to get stuck shortly after level 30, in what I call the "Stranglethorn Hole". But what I'll try with this priest is more grouping, starting when I'm the good level for the Deadmines. I will probably do less questing, just doing the quests I don't know yet, plus the quests I know that they are fun or give good equipment. And instead of chasing after every available quest when soloing, I'll do some intelligent grinding / farming, as long as it doesn't get too boring, and gets me more xp and loot (e.g. cloth) than the less good quests. On the weekends afternoons / evenings I can still go raiding with my level 60's. I have enough money and potions in reserve that I don't need to solo them during the week.

There are already lots of guilds on the new server hiring about anybody. But I've decided to remain guildless for the moment. I don't want to join another impersonal guild with hundreds of members, most of which are never online. If I ever meet a particularly nice guild with selective recruitment, I might join. Otherwise I'll just level up, and if I ever make it to level 60 I count on being able to pick a guild with a fair DKP system. Every guild will be looking for priests at that point.

You would think that more people would have the same idea that I had, and that on a new server there would be more priests. But no, history repeats itself every time. I did a first census and again priest is the least numerous class, with only 8% of Alliance players having one. So I really should be able to find groups easily as soon as people reach the dungeoneering levels. I'm looking forward to that.
- posted by Tobold @ 7:51 AM Permanent Link