Low level dailies experiment

Back in early March, I decided I wanted raise my bank mule to level 20 so that I could develop a couple professions to Expert and make a bit more gold. I often find myself with a few minutes sufficient to craft items and play the auction house, but not enough time to run a dungeon. Also, if a distraction arises, I don't fear to leave my character as I would if she were mid-adventuring. This means I've more time to play the Auction House Game than other aspects of WoW.
From Aldonza's Activity Log:

• Earned the achievement Giddy Up! for 10 points. 5/7/2011
• Earned the achievement Level 20 for 10 points. 5/7/2011
• Earned the achievement Cooking Award for 10 points.  5/7/2011

Yes, even on the day I dinged Level 20 and grabbed the Riding skill, she did a cooking daily quest.

• Earned the achievement 5 Daily Quests Complete for 10 points. 5/13/2011

So, subtracting days we can see Aldonza managed 5 dailies in the next week. It was likely six because I almost always did both Fishing and Cooking. Well, I always at least checked the daily, but some of those quests might take a bit longer than others and I'd skip. It wasn't important to me at the time.

• Earned the achievement Professional Expert for 10 points. 5/14/2011

I was more diligent about doing Minor Inscription Research every day and adding to my possible Glyphs and max'ed my skill in one week. I wanted to make gold, so I raised my skill inexpensively and that meant slow and steady, not ASAP. But I continued the occasional Cooking and Fishing daily.

• Earned the achievement 250 Fish for 10 points. 5/22/2011
• Earned the achievement 10 Cooking Awards for 10 points. 5/30/2011
• Obtained Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat. 6/5/2011
• Earned the achievement Fish Don't Leave Footprints for 10 points. 6/5/2011

Aldonza wasn't trying for any particular achievements at this point. They just dropped as she did enough of these dailies in the normal course of life. The hat was in the fishing reward sack as was the journal that granted fish tracking. Around this time Aldonza dinged level 21 and I noticed just how much XP those dailies were granting. So I started being a bit more diligent at doing them. My schedule also meant it was easier for me to perform them in the mornings before heading to work. That meant the next achievement to pop shouldn't be a surprise:

• Earned the achievement A Simple Re-Quest for 10 points. 6/7/2011

This regular pursuit of two dailies showed results:

I belatedly realized that I could improve this rate. Kallixta didn't have access to heirlooms while levelling, but she was high enough now to pass something over to Aldonza of the guild "Sages of Tabasco".

• Obtained Renowned Guild Tabard. 7/1/2011
• Obtained Tattered Dreadmist Mask. 7/1/2011
• Obtained Ancient Bloodmoon Cloak. 7/1/2011
• Earned the achievement Represent  for 10 points. 7/1/2011

I would still occasionally forget to switch from my fishing outfit to the heirlooms for the XP bonus when turning in the quest. In this case, style was more important than a few XP. If Aldonza is fishing, she's damn well going to wear her fishing hat, not some ugly Mask!

Continuing with this pattern had regular consequences:

• Earned the achievement 25 Cooking Awards for 10 points. 7/8/2011
• Obtained Jeweled Fishing Pole. 7/9/2011

This fishing pole requires skill level 300, which won't happen until after Aldonza trains as Artisan at level 35.

• Earned the achievement Fish or Cut Bait: Ironforge for 10 points. 7/20/2011
• Earned the achievement 50 Daily Quests Complete for 10 points. 7/21/2011
• Earned the achievement 50 Cooking Awards for 10 points. 8/3/2011
• Earned the achievement Let's Do Lunch: Ironforge  for 10 points. 8/7/2011
• Earned the achievement Expert Fisherman  for 10 points. 8/10/2011

So, Fishing finally max'ed, but only from the skill granted by the quest and the required fishing the quests asks for. The cooking dailies don't get this secondary side effect. No skill bump from Spice Bread! So cooking lags behind. Note that she's actually earning gold in cooking without purchasing any new recipes. With the accumulated Cooking Awards, she purchased Imported Supplies and sent the Cocoa Beans to Kallixta, who made the Chocolate Cookies, posted stacks on the Auction House and mentioned on /trade how You'll Feel Right As Rain.

That is nice extra income. Aldonza is not a philanthropist.

Aldonza had been avoiding the I Need to Cask a Favor until she learned the trick of switching to walk speed to negotiate the steps and doorway at the end. The achievement reminded me that Aldonza can Teleport easily enough to any capital as needed, so expect the other similar achievements to fall soon.

Life as a Bank Alt at the various capitals has its differences. The mailbox in Darnassus and Stormwind is a bit more convenient than in Ironforge, but the combination of Auction House, Mailbox and Guild Bank is best in Ironforge. And I'm happy to avoid Stormwind. Aldonza likes being a Stormwind ex-pat. Another big advantage of Ironforge is its Limited Supply Recipe circuit as I learned from The Consortium. It's a great Gold/minute rate for a low level character.

By the way, the dailies have a Reputation consequence, too. Besides the capital city reputations, Aldonza is also earning tiny amounts of Guild Reputation, about 3 points each quest! Bank Guilds like mine typically stay level 1 for a long time. With Aldonza slowly leveling, some Guild XP is coming in and Sages of Tabasco is about halfway to level 2. Guild Achievements are also slow in coming, but because of her business, the first to actually pop is likely The Pen is Mightier, which is at 65% already.

Seeing other bloggers experiment with alts, such as Eccentria Jones's Mad Murray, inspired me to post this story now. I'll provide an update after Aldonza dings 35 and trains up her profession to the next stage.

Day Twenty One - 27 August 2010

I was Called To Arms to the Arathi Basin this weekend. Being level 29, it all seemed like destiny was demanding it. We won on the first try and the Honor just flooded in.

Not that I have plans on spending it immediately. I'll probably pick up another trinket as that second empty slot is burning a hole in my pocket... so to speak. Do other folks have this yearning to see slots filled? Leaving my tabard and shirt empty gives me an ache, although not one big enough to do anything about it.

Now with Vertiferrous Fluoride!

I also enjoy seeing all these blues! When I was levelling Martuska, I know I never had many. It might be a residual effect from running around at level 80 and trying to improve my gear score, but on Kallixta, overgearing is just funny. It tickles something.

So I had another empty slot, head, that I knew was there, but was attempting to ignore. After running AB, I decided to do something with all my accumulated cheap iron that Aldonza had been picking up at 25% normal price. I cranked out some green iron items to 170 and then went to buy whatever new recipes were on offer. Green Iron Helm? Well... let's just jump up and down. We will pretend I knew that was coming all along. Oh and those Green Iron bracers I was making to level Blacksmithing just happen to be an improvement?

So I stopped for a minute to do research, just in case I was missing something important. I also checked the Auction House for usable recipes. It just so happened that Shining Silver Breastplate was sitting there with less than 2 hours remaining and while its buyout price was over 10 gold, the bid was only 2. Fine, I'll put in a bid. Since I had jumped on Kallixta without giving Aldonza a peek at the Auction House, I decided I could check on smithing supplies. I grabbed some more cheap stone and iron bars and lesser moonstones. Because of my haphazard planning, I must have made 6 trips from the AH to the forge in the Dwarf Quarter. Is there a closer forge? When I returned to the AH, someone had bumped the price of the Breastplate, but it was down to less than 30 minutes now. With some patience, discrete purchasing and a final bid, I got the recipe for around 3 gold.

After spending all this gold, I felt a horrible spendthrift, but looking at my cash reserves, I realized that I was still doing fine. Aldonza has been making plenty of money plus while the leveling blacksmithing is costing money, it's nowhere near as expensive as expected. Those Golden Rods in particular provided some nice profit.

So while tonight only witnessed Arathi Basin runs, I did improved my wrist slot and got my first helm and I levelled my Blacksmithing to 180.

Day Nineteen - 25 August 2010

Playing without a Plan


I logged onto Kallixta without a plan. I hadn't thought past my previous plan, so having completed BFD and Stocks, I didn't know what to do.

Well, I had some ideas. I needed to finish up the Stockade Riots questline. I had turned in Thredd's Head, but still needed a couple of Clara's Fresh Apples for the next step. Having a mount at this level makes this whole business of dashing around (and outside of) Stormwind so much simpler. It's still a bit of a pain having to run up and down the halls of the keep. I remember the pain of soloing these two as a Mage and I'm so happy being a Paladin on occasions like this. It was also brought home just how long ago it was that I did this as Martuska. I'm sure it wasn't the King that gave me the final blue reward. Was it his son?

With the new ring

That was some easy XP and nice reward for a few minutes of running around. It sparked a memory of a prior plan to gathering quests for upcoming instances. In particular, there are several quests for Gnomeregan and at least one requires getting the first punch card prior to the instance itself. So, I have a fresh plan for the next few minutes!

The dash across western Dun Morogh by horse meant I could finish Explore Dun Morogh. Soloing my way through the first hall of Gnomer was simple and I got a Yellow Punch Card in no time at all.

Picking up the Achievement as a side effect reminded me of another minor plan. By doing all of these Dungeons and not quests, I hadn't been collecting flight paths. I had entered the Wetlands before to mine Incendite Ore, but never made the long trek to Menethil Harbor. By horse it wasn't that painful. I rode the boat to Theramore and picked up the green arrow there. I even waited for the boat to Northrend before remembering that Kallixta is on a Vanilla account and aborted that trip.

After another long ride, I made it to Refuge Point in Arathi Highlands for the flight path there. Seeing the Quartermaster made me check my Honor Point total and pencil in some PvP time onto my sketchy plan. Since I couldn't immediately buy a trinket to fill my last slot, I postponed any purchase at this time.

I next headed for Southshore and the small accumulation of discovery XP actually got me to ding 29!

With Southshore's flight path, I was uncertain of my next move. I wasn't ready for more riding to someplace else when I remembered the fishing pools just off the docks. I should explain that I enjoy fishing sometimes, but usually when I can multitask. I'll watch TV and listen for the splash. I'll fish on Kallixta, but it's very much a low priority thing. Still, there were Oily Blackmouth just waiting for me and the first to get pulled flashed the Old Gnome and the Sea achievement! I emptied three pools. I wasn't sure if I could find something else to do while waiting for them to respawn.

This is when I decided to queue for Arathi Basin. The recent visit to Refuge Point made it easy to just push the PvP button and jump in. I had done some research on AB and knew as a level 29, I wanted to visit now and before I moved brackets again.

I couldn't tell you much about the Alliance team, except there were at least 3 paladins and we all were happy to buff the others with their preference. As the gates opened, I found myself the first to the Lumber Mill flag by a small margin. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do when fighting a hunter and pet, but I became very good at finding someone less than 50% health and finishing them off! I need to improve my awareness of my allies and heal some of them. I wasn't particularly good at strategic awareness, but someone would spam the /BG with suggestions and I'd run off to the suggested location and help. We won an Arathi Basin Victory and I was middle of the board in most things, too low at healing and I did have one cap, so I felt pretty good.

I was back to Southshore and the fish hadn't respawned and I didn't want to wait anymore, so I hearthed back to Stormwind. I did the sell, mail, repair stuff and realized I had some tasty clam meat to cook. The Auction house didn't have any more obvious food to cook, but I did raise my cooking enough that I thought it useful to check with the cooking recipe vendor. I bought 4 recipes I didn't know and had Lunch Lady flash.

It was nice to have several small achievements to measure an evening without a plan!

Day Eightteen - 21 August 2010

I've been worrying I'd level out of being able to LFD either BFD or Stockades, but I had remembered their level ranges wrong. I queued up and managed both.

I won no greed rolls in BFD. I managed to share some quests and found the dead quest giver. None of the bosses were difficult. It only got hairy because of runners attracting a few more adds, but never too many. So Blackfathom Deeps has been added to my achievements. After teleporting from the end to Darnassus, I turned in some quests and one gave me Arctic Buckler as a nice reward. It's my new shield, after having carried that ugly turtle shell since Wailing Caverns.

I next queued for Stocks, The prior instance made me aware that we didn't have much for crowd control, especially since so many prisoners want to run. We'd just turned the corner for the East Hallway and Kam Deepfury when the runners and adds got to be too much. The healer stopped paying attention to me and then dropped the group. We wiped and started the long run from the graveyard outside Stormwind. The new party members wanted XP, so while we didn't do the West Hallway, we did make sure to gather anyone we saw. We continued a bit after Stormwind Stockade popped up.

I managed to ding level 28, but two dungeons was enough for one night.

With my new Buckler

Day Seventeen - 16 August 2010

I want to overcome my worries over logging on for a couple hours on a week night. Too many lowbie dungeons take too much time that I'm afraid to push the Random Dungeon button without knowing I've a few hours of uninterrupted time.

After queuing for BFD for several minutes without seeing anyone else in the queue, I did it anyway, switching to random. Razorfen Kraul popped right away.

The healer was another Paladin that didn't talk or bless. I did all the initial buffs. We had a Drainei shaman, a gnome warrior and a warlock. The first encounter didn't go well. Instead of just two, runners gathered more and soon there were ten dead bodies, one of which was Kallixta. I don't think I received a single heal except for the health potion I drank. I whispered to the paladin, trying not to make a big deal of it. He still said nothing and didn't even rez me. It took the shaman to do that.

We continued to struggle with runners that wanted to gather more adds, but no fight got quite as hairy as the first one. And the healing paladin would only select need, so we kicked him after the first boss. We were doing fine with only four (and the shaman healing), and the new healer showed up sometime during the second boss! Welcome to the party.

We were enjoying ourselves after that, despite the difficulty in runners. If I tried to keep something back to hit runners, I'd lose aggro to the shaman! I passed on most stuff. I won a chest on a /roll, lost the Corpsemaker - Two-Hand Axe to the warrior, and maybe the shield Heart of Agamaggan, too. All I got was cloth, gray junk, my satchel and level 27. Oh, and An achievement

The satchel yielded Earthbound Handgrips of the Soldier

With a bit of time after the instance, I grabbed the Iron Ore Aldonza had picked up and leveled Mining to 154. One skillup short of Smelting Gold!

With the new Iron Bars and some plans picked up cheap, I produced 7 Green Iron items that might show some return. My Blacksmithing is now 163.

I really need to do BFD before it rolls off.

Day Sixteen - 14 Aug 2010

This was a 'Tying Up Loose Ends' day

Starting in Ironforge made it easy to do the Incendicite Quest and level my Mining to 137 while killing enough spiders to ding 26. This also gave me stacks of spider parts and silk. That should yield a few gold from the Auction House. The gooey legs helped level my cooking, too.

I managed to learn my new level 26 spells. I forget that step too often.

I knew I might not get to Black Fathom Deeps today.

I wanted to finish the level 20 Paladin quest. I already had the wood from Deadmines and the hammer from Shadow Fang Keep. Careful reading told me I didn't go inside an instance for the other two parts. I journeyed across Loch Modan (twice) to visit the Ogres of Mo'grosh Stronghold and found the ore. The final piece required a boat ride to Darkshore and a ride to just outside the instance. I noticed just how much there is after the swim and before the actual instance gate. While the gem dropped quickly, I also managed to gather the brain stems. Turning those quests in gave a nice XP hit. I now have a new 2 Handed weapon.


Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick


With my Mining improved, I also spent a bit of time leveling my Blacksmithing. I think the Golden Rods and stuff I made my actually give a profit! That won't happen again for a while.

Day Fifteen - 13 Aug 2010

I ran three dungeons today. First up was Shadowfang Keep, but I forgot to look for the paladin quest item. I didn't notice before already queuing up for Deadmines. That was an excellent group, working well except for the Warrior that needed on everything, even greens. We kicked him before the end and 4-manned Edward. We then went for Cookie and instead of passing, like I'd been doing, I greeded and won a blue cloth shirt?! I tried giving it away, but the others declined. I don't know why.

Kallixta turned in Edward's head for the blue Leg armor. I think this must have been when I dinged 25, but didn't notice.

I did a little Role play at the Stormwind Cathedral. Someone was running an afternoon prayer service. I got to chat with one person as we gathered and then we had a nice service. I only figured out how to log chat at the end. I was also slow to figure out this laptop's function key and how to make screen shots.

After a break Kallixta returned to Shadowfang Keep. I grabbed the "Jordan's Smithing Hammer" this time. No one complained with my speed, although I needed to stop for mana myself a few times. The healer called herself a noob and the mage agreed. My health was never in any danger, but the healer seemed very low on mana. I had to ask the mage for water and she seemed to only produce one at a time. She gave me a stack of 5 which didn't last long. I won a nice blue chest piece, a blue one hand sword and a blue two-handed axe, all upgrades.

My new chest and pants with the Arced War Axe over my shoulder

Day Fourteen - 10 Aug 2010

Kallixta got the Paladin quest going, dinged 24, grabbed her new spells and headed into Deadmines. The healer dropped at the start of the buzzsaw encounter. Somehow we survived without healing, but while waiting for a new healer, folks dropped. I had my wood pile, so fine. She's got what she needed.

I want to hit SFK next, but it was too late tonight. If DM is still on my LFD after that, I'll return to get VC's head. I did gather some of the next quests.

Day Thirteen - 9 Aug 2010

I don't know when Kallixta hit level 23 as it was already that before logging in. Again the point went into Diving Strength.

I trammed up to Ironforge to get the start of the Level 20 Paladin quest. Part of its chain is running Deadmines, Shadowfang Keep and other dungeons, so I wanted to get started before they disappeared from LFD. It meant I spent time riding around for both this and a couple other quests, to Northshire Abbey and Redridge.

In chat, I talked about "commuting". It seemed odd returning to Ironforge. Kallixta appears to feel more at home in Elwynn Forest, although she was disgusted at the slovenly habits of human librarians. There were books left on the floor both in Stormwind Keep's library and at the Abbey. It mades it difficult to be [Well Read].

Next steps: visit Daphne in Westfall (and protect her from attack) and reattempt the traitor escort. There's another tram ride to Ironforge before being ready for a 2nd run of DM. There's also a quest to pick up in Auberdine before BFD.

Day Twelve - 7 Aug 2010

I applied to guild Saga. I was contacted while at the Auction House and introduced to their OOC channel. It was a funny and diverse group.

I ran two more Warsong Gulch runs. The first was a Call to Arms and with the win awarded 500 Honor Points! The second run was a loss. With my new HP and traveled to the vendor and bought the Trinket and Necklace.

I ended the night skilling up Blacksmithing to Expert and sLvl 148.

Day Eleven - 6 Aug 2010

Busy evening!

Although the travel time was long, Kallixta rode through Darkshore and Ashenvale (making some exploration discoveries on the way) to the Silverwing Outpost outside Warsong Gulch. Martuska had never had to find a PvP Vendor and I needed to lookup where the hell to go! She spent 100 Honor Points for the Protector's Band ring, but should have just run a couple games and bought the Trinket, especially as this was a "Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch" weekend, but felt uncomfortably low at 21 in the 20-29 range.

The queue for Wailing Caverns ran over 8 minutes even as Tank. It was an excellent group from my perspective. We had a rogue that knew the route and a warrior that made an effective off-tank. Kallixta never saw a health problem except for the first Boss pull when I didn't get to Lady Anaconda before she hit a squishy too much. The two squishies included one warlock and it's clear I don't understand how they work.

Kallixta got the blue tank shield from the neutral Turtle boss and then the Boots off one of the penultimate bosses. Somewhere along the way she dinged 22 and earned more than one level of XP. At least one other party member dinged, too. One squishy left after the last boss, but before the event. We had a perfectly fine substitute for the last piece.

Folks left, but Kallixta did some fishing in the cavern and caught about 5 Deviate Fish. The drop rate seemed like it was around 12% and they showed a value of over 1 gold each. We'll see how well they auction.

Hearthing back to Ironforge, she organized her loot, sending much to Aldonza. She equipped the new boots with a medium armor kit and swapped the shields. She then tackled the accumulated stone and ores to skill up Blacksmithing to 102. She really should make a couple more Silver Rods for enchanters before the next batch of items.

This comes from Wow Head.

Day Nine- 1 Aug 2010

I ran Deadmines.

The healer failed to notice my healing needs and let me die twice. I kept getting others that wanted to be tanks, not melee DPS. I did get Taskmaster Axe, Smite's Reaver and Cookie's Tenderizer.

I did some fishing in the canals of Stormwind and cooked up the results. This helped level my professions a bit. [Expert Fisherman], [Expert Cook].

I decided to drop Skinning for Blacksmithing, but Rough Stone was selling for 900% too much. It can wait.

Oh, and somewhere in Deadmines, I apparently hit level 21! I didn't notice until later.

Day Eight - 31 July 2010

I tried doing some pre-Deadmine quests. Running around on my new Charger and picking up [Tin Ore] made it easy to earn [Explore Westfall]. I don't think I ever went into the Gold Coast Quarry much before, at least not as a Miner!

I failed the Defias Traitor escort as solo. The Traitor took off after a runner and attracted too many adds.

Day Seven - 28 July 2010

So I started out with two more runs of Warsong Gulch. Allies won both. I managed to play offense, flag carrier support and wasn't awful, I don't think.

I remembered to hug for [Make Love, Not Warcraft], picked up my [100 Honorable Kills] and the second game went 3-0, earning [Warsong Gulch Perfection]!

After that, I hunted down a few more Defias to reach level 20. I learned my new spells and remapped my keys. I've only made one macro so far, the one for taunting. Oh, my mount triggered [Giddy Up]!

I feel I should manage DM or WC when I've time next.