WoW Journal - 11-July-2006

Does anyone know what exactly triggers the war effort event in World of Warcraft? I had thought it would start 30 days after the server opened, which was what happened on my previous attempt to start on a new server. But this time the even started just 27 days after the server opened up. I wonder if it is triggered by somebody doing a quest step for the Ahn'Qiraij sceptre.

In any case, the war effort starting had the usual effect on the economy: resources disappeared in no time from the auction house, then reappeared at much higher prices. And at the same time the supply of green items on the auction house substantially increased.

Of course I had saved up all the bandages I produced when skilling up first aid, and the light and medium leather I had gotten from skinning. I handed in the bandages and some of the leather, until I had 105 commendation signets, and tons of greens. I exchanged the commendation signets for more green items, kept what I could use, and put the rest up for sale, together with the remaining leather. Soon money was pouring in. I think I'll spend some time fishing and cooking for the cooked fish part of the war effort, as I'll need the money for buying a mount at level 40.

After all the transactions for the war effort, I went questing. I set my hearthstone to Southshore, then went to Thandol Span. First dived under the bridge to get the letter from the dead dwarf, which starts one quest. Then up again, and used a swiftness potion to jump onto the freestanding western column. Got the quest from the dwarf there to transport alcohol quickly to Southshore, and used the hearthstone to do it without problems. Handed in the letter from the dead dwarf to his wife, who sent me to the king, who sent me to the sculptor, who sent me back to Hillsbrad to gather granite. The granite is in the yeti cave, which is one of the best grinding spots in the low 30s, especially if you are either miner or skinner. So I killed a lot of yetis, leveled to 34, got a lot of medium leather skinned from them for the war effort, plus bits of yeti fur and granite for quests.

Right now skinning is quite profitable. But I'm still wondering whether I should abandon it for mining. I'd be at a good level for mining, I could gather copper and tin easily, and then get iron and mithril while killing yetis and ogres in Alterac. I never had a miner able to mine thorium, and the idea to be able to find the extremely overpriced arcane crystals is tempting.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:19 AM Permanent Link