Proper Bag Usage
If your backpack looks like this right now, then you probably need some help. It's important that for any of your main leveling toons for the expansion that you get them set up properly. For example, my main which I will be leveling to 85 is a Fury/Prot warrior with Alchemy and Mining.
My bag setup that I'll be going with for the expansion is as follows:
Backpack (3/16): Hearthstone, Mining Pick, Fishing Pole
Frostweave Bags #1, #2 (0/38): All slots free
Frostweave Bag #3 (14/18): Prot gear set for instances
Mammoth Mining Bag (0/32): All slots free.
This gives me all the gear I'll need to level initially, everything for my professions, and leaves me with 32 slots for ore, plus another 65 for greens, tradeskill items, etc.
The last thing you want to do is be miles from a vendor, and have to decide if you want to swap out those 2 volatiles for a green, or vice versa. Keep your bags down to the minimum. The last thing you want to be doing leveling is wasting free items, or making extra needless trips to keep your bags empty.
In accordance with the above - make sure you have a bank alt, and make sure they're ready to go with empty bags and next to an auction house ready to post or store your overflow items.
Profession Items
This one seems obvious - but you'd be surprised how many guildies last time around wound up in the middle of borean tundra without a mining pick or skinning knife. Make sure your primary leveler has the items they need to gather and craft, and only the items they need to gather and craft.
Once again, I'll be going miner/alchemist. This means the only thing I need come day one is my mining pick. I won't be transmuting any gems, or making any potions without an herbalist stock - that means there's no need to stock up on vials or hold onto my philosopher's stone.
This does mean however, that I can save a few silver here and there by stocking up on vials from an exalted vendor, and storing them on an alt. I'm not personally doing this, but if you like being ultra prepared, I suppose this would be the way to go.
Worgen won't need skinning knives, so remember if you're rolling one that this is one slot you can free up.
Clean House
Organize, prioritize, repeat. Go through all your character's banks. Go through your bank alt(s) guild bank(s). Make sure you're storing only what you need, and make sure its organized.
Come cataclysm space will be at a premium. It might have made sense to hold on to those 2000 northrend spices for wotlk - but do you really need them now? Every bank slot you're using should exist for one of two reasons. It should either have a maximum stack of an item because you'll need it for crafting or selling come cata, or it should be empty so you have room to stock your new wares.
An hour spent cleaning out your bank alt can save you a bunch of hassle for the expansion, and is honestly something that can make your life easier across the board.
I've only got a single bank alt with a 6 tab bank, so for me I've chosen to use 3 tabs for stockpiled glyphs, 2 tabs for stockpiled saronite ore. The 6th tab is currently empty. I'll be filling it with saronite for the expansion if I can find any more <12.5g stacks, or I'll leave it empty for another major commodity (gems or DE mats, most likely). I'll be handling the rest of my assorted goods (volatiles, ore, cloth, herbs, etc) across a couple banker alts with empty bags, but no gbank.
Guild Perks
And finally, here's the really important one long term. Get your alts into a guild before cataclysm, pronto. Your posting alt can and should probably remain out of your main guild, but everyone else should be in your main's guild, or at least an alt leveling guild. Why is this so important for cataclysm? Take a look at the list of guild perks that come from being in a high leveled guild.
Out of the 25, I count 15 that aid you in terms of lowering expenses, speeding leveling, or increasing revenue. Past that, once you're at the max level you then get four more perks involving faster acquisition of justice and honor points. Faster points means less time spent. Less time spent is always a good thing for the abbreviated wow player.
Realistically speaking, you won't have access to all of these perks for the first few weeks of cataclysm, but if you get by on your first character with nothing more than increased experienced gain, it will be well worth it. By the time cataclysm has matured, you will absolutely need some of the more critical guild perks. Find me a serious auction player who wants to compete against someone else with 15% more raw DE mats to work with, or a farmer who has 15% more ore or herbs from their farming session. No thanks!
That wraps up my post for today, and this small series on cataclysm. I'm certainly looking forward to the expansion, and I think I've done a good job of readying myself for it. Have you? Let me know your thoughts!
1 comment:
I think that this blog starts rather interesting. Keep up the good work!
The whole idea of minimising your money-making time is something I like very much and also the final goal I try to achieve in Cataclysm.
Well, I've added this site to my "needs further investigation" folder and will watch it progress.
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