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Happy Hallow’s End!
Icon image from http://www.wow-professions.com
Mists of Pandaria brought many changes to learning new recipes and gearing your character for PvE content. Many of the changes are not readily apparent. I decided to put together a quick and dirty list of things to keep in mind as you level and once you hit level 90.
Here you will find answers to the recurring questions I’ve seen in guild chat. These are answers to the same questions I asked when assaulted by the mountain of content. What you see here is basically Xena’s approach to Mists of Pandaria right now. I was pretty overwhelmed with all the choices and feeling incredibly crunched for time. I had to come up with a simplified priority list of what must be done now, and it helped relieve a lot of the self-inflicted stress. I hope this information helps clear up confusion on the imposing amount of content that gets shoved in your face at 90.
Just remember you don’t have to do everything, all the time, immediately. Choose wisely, my friends.
Cooking
Each major buff (stam, int, spirit, agi, str) has its own Way. You can learn all the Ways, but be VERY careful which one you learn and begin leveling right away. Your choice will be the only Way that allows you to earn levels until you reach 600. My suggestion? Learn the Way that corresponds to your desired buff food. It saves you much heartache and frustration in the end.
Begin leveling your farm. You might not be interested in all the friends and adding extras, but growing your own crops is a necessity unless you sit on a fat wallet.
And lastly, you can provide feasts for raids and parties, but partaking of another’s feast will not buff you as well as bringing your own specialized buff food from your Way.
Professions
Three profession learn things differently this expansion. Alchemy, jewelcrafting and inscription have moved to a discovery system. (Blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, tailoring and leatherworking still level via the normal buy a recipe-create the item system.)
The “good” recipes are not available to you until you reach a certain reputation level with a certain faction. Gone are the days of having a stable of alts to be self sufficient early in the expansion. You’re going to need the help of guild mates if your main character is not learned in the particular profession you require for gear, gems or enchants. Please be sure to ask in guild if anyone has what is needed. We will all need each other’s services these first few months.
Armor
If you are raiding, gear up using heroic dungeons. They should be available to you almost immediately with the good quest rewards we receive. LFR is now available. Make use of it. (On a side note, have pity on tanks. Invite them to your group. Their queue makes pandas cry.)
After you are geared from heroic dungeons, the rest of your gear lies in the arms of quartermasters scattered across Pandaria, and they are selective with who receives their precious epics. Valor gear is not available until you are revered with the individual faction. There are a few exceptions but none apply to major pieces such as pants or chests.
Reputations
Factions abound in Mists of Pandaria. This is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, we will never run out of things to do. On the other hand, YOUR GEAR IS HIDDEN BEHIND A STUPID INVISIBLE WALL OF LIKEABILITY. Klaxxi and Golden Lotus have dailies immediately available at level 90. If you are raiding and have limited play time, these are the dailies to concentrate on, especially Golden Lotus. Once you are revered with Golden Lotus, Shado-Pan and August Celestials dailies become available. All four of these factions hide your shiny, purple, valor goodness.
If you are lucky enough to be home and have a ton of play time, DO ALL THE REPUTATION THINGS! There are so many fun reputations for silly vanity items and mounts, for example, Tillers and Nat Pagle.
Reputations are not going away any time soon. The 5.1 PTR notes recently released show more factions coming at us. Now is the time to learn time management.
Did I miss any frequently asked questions? List them in the comments and I’ll address them.
I’ve been talking about creating a blog for years. Then I end up chasing a shiny and fill up that spare thought space with something else.
So, here, finally, is my blog. You’ll find only World of Warcraft related thoughts here: things concerning running a guild, things concerning protection warriors, things concerning my guild specifically…basically ALL THE WARCRAFT THINGS.
Welcome! And thanks for stopping in!
Tales of a Warrior 