I’m unsure if I’ve hit the ground running with Dragonflight or not?
I mean. I’m level 70 on my main. My gear level isn’t too bad, and I’ve done pretty well on professions. Fishing is maxed, mining is three-quarters of the way there and Engineering is over 50. If I looked at it in terms of what I wanted to do, I’d say I was on track.
Yet, I said that I wanted to use time away from the day job to get 3 or 4 characters to 70, and whilst I’ve progressed a lot of my alts professions, the best I’ve done for alt levelling is get one to 62 through herbalism.
ATT is going through that weird phase as it adjusts to all the new things in the game, and so after an extra long week, I’m actually down on last week. It always happens but yet, it helps give me a sense of having made no progress.
And on the gold front. After the alt gold mine of the command table, I’m now looking at just 37k profit after nearly 10 days of solid playing.
To see progress though, I need to dig a little deeper.
I took my time levelling and I don’t regret it. I read every quest, did side quests, and was 70 while still in Azure Span. I made the option to skip the Thaldrassuss side quests so I could unlock adventure mode and start working on weeklies and world quests, but I have been slowly doing them as the week progressed.
I’ve taken the time to enjoy the game and in doing so, I’ve had a good time. I always think an expansion can’t be judged until the x.1 patch but Dragonflight seems good so far.
Friends have as well, which means we only started doing dungeons last night. I’d been saving them until they were ready as I hate tanking PUGs (although I’m probably going to have to do that). Ended up doing a mythic 0 last night and was impressed how “easy” it felt.
My ilevel is 249 which isn’t bad compared to others. Friends are grinding Maruuk rep, while I’ve been grinding Cobalt Assembly. Still got about 1500 rep to do on Cobalt but then I’ll have access to the 289 rings. I’ve also made time to do all the weekly events. Even taking 2 days away from the computer to attend to real life, I seem to be doing OK.
And on the profession front, I’m doing really well. Engineering is always a difficult profession, but I’ve pushed it to over 50. I specialised in profession equipment and have made a little gold, but the big problem with being on a very low population realm is that no-one is buying. I realise I’m pretty much limited to commodities, and wonder if I can get my alchemy ready on an alt for the start of raiding next week?
I’ve been moving my alts across slowly. Now, I know it can be as simple as using the portal once you’ve completed the campaign on your main, but I’ve taken the time to get their professions and go do Drakmoon Faire for the extra 3 points.
I’ve also spent gold on a few professions trying to get them to at least level 25 to unlock specialisation. When I think back to Shadowlands, professions were less complex, and I had less characters, and I was nowhere near this far with them. And given I level as I craft or gather, spending this time has got one alt to 62, and another closing to dinging 61.
So I have to figure that everyone is dabbling with professions right now, but interest will drop off in a week or two and then it’ll be those that stayed their ground. I think back to Shadowlands and the legendries. I got my characters to max profession level and then never did the legendary grind (out of fear of spending money). If I’d worked at it, even after the initial rush had passed, I would have made money in 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3. Instead, I thought the moment had passed and essentially gave up.
Part of my reason for poor gold this week was because I did throw money to level alt professions. And I’ve not made the mistake in waiting until I sell. I’ve not taken a recipe and saved it for an alt. Instead, I’ve gone and sold it where I can.
However, all that said, I think a low pop realm is difficult to make gold on, or at least, gold in the traditional way. This is why I prefer raw gold alt farms, and I possibly have one. Running the Dragonflying world quest rewards 500 gold. Times that by 4 and by 32, it could be a very quick way to do raw gold.
Maybe I just need to accept that I’m a raw gold farmer and if I want to do acution house, that market is region-wide commodities.
My aim for this week is to be ready for raiding. That means dungeons and gear. But I also want to play with my alchemist and see if I can do something with phials. I don’t think I’ll ever make serious gold with gear on a server as low pop as mine, and whilst I expect margins to be low, perhaps the region-wide market place is where I can do enough volume that small margin can equal big profit.
So my plan for the week ahead is to continue with my main and their gearing journey. I want to get their rep with the factions to 10 so it unlocks boosted rep for alts. I’ll continue to bring alts through, and make sure that I take advantage of Darkmoon Faire as I do. I’d like to end this week with the entire gang in Valdrakken. I’ll try and tick them along but my main alt focus is going to be alchemy (phials and potions are commodities aren’t they?).
I expect as we head towards next week, the time I need to put into my main will reduce, and whilst I’ll have less hours to play as I return back to work, I’ll be able to start carving out a little time for alts to starts chipping away at levelling. With world quests and professions unlocked, I can just rotate through them, maximising my use of rested XP instead of focusing on one at a time.
So whilst the start of Dragonflight wasn’t quite what I’d hoped, it’s still been an overall positive experience and one where I expect to see the benefits of what I’ve done now, in the weeks to come as my main gets focused more on raiding.
