Christmas Time and RL

I'm sorry to say RL is raising it's head again so my play time has been reduced significantly. I am hoping to get in some play over the weekend but then it will be Christmas time. I make no promises for new posts or reports on my experiences until at least the weekend following Christmas.

I'd love to say I've been leveling like mad and have made another level. This just isn't true. I've been on a couple of my alts lately as I've onlyi been online in 30 to 45 minute spurts and it's nice to ding a level in that time to feel like you've accomplished something. In Northrend your just getting your feet wet questing in that small amount of time. Or at least that is how I feel. I have spent a couple of hours in the wee morning hours before work making circles around Warsong Hold (I finally finished that stupid Peon quest, bleh!) massacring everything in sight. This has netter me a grand total of 4 stack of Borean Leather, which has been further crafted into Heavy Borean Leather (16 pieces in total)... Sadly no more Artic Furs dropped.

I'm just over 410 in LW and I am already crafting items above my level for once which is nice. The gear is pretty decent compared to what I'm seeing from quest rewards so I'm spending most of my trying to level it even higher. I definitely want to be at 450 before I hit 80. The nice thing about this is that I'm really making nice money from this. Jormungar Leg Armor has been selling for 45g per item in the AH for me. I still gain levels from this so I've been making a decent amount of the stuff when I have the mats. Just since last weekend I've made close to 500g off selling this item alone. :D

So for everyone out there, where have all the Bows gone? I am having to use guns ATM to keep up with my level weapon wise and I have been searching far and wide for Bows. I have only seen one bow in my AH on Gilneas and it was a +Spirit bow. This can't be true is it? Are the drop rates on bows really that deplorable? My hands have been aching for a month now for a finely crafted wood and sinew bow. If anyone has any leads please let me know.

Zulu.

Professions - The Love/Hate Relationship

Since I've gotten my epic riding mount I'm no longer as worried about hording money like I was for a while. This morning as I was drinking my coffee before getting ready for work, I decided to bring my Leatherworking up to at least 300. Looking in the AH for the rugged leather I was nicely surprised to see that it was selling for a good price. Over the last week or so Auctioneer was showing that rugged leather was selling in stacks of 20 for 145%+ or higher in price compared to my database prices. This morning there was a lot of it for sale at 70% of medium. I bought up enough to craft enough Wicked Leather Headbands to reach 300. Then I trained, when to Thrallmar and trained some more and crafted some more with all fel leather stuff I'd been collecting. I now stand at 316 which is a relief in some ways. Now I just have to farm enough leather to finish levelling as high as I can before LK comes and hopefully be in a position where I can craft some decent gear before entering Northrend. This may be a pipe dream though.

While I dearly love all my professions on all of my characters, I have yet to bring a professoin to 375. This kinda disturbes me given that I have a level 70 that I have had for over a year now and his enchanting is only at 366. Hmmm..... (His other profession is mining)

I guess my struggle with the professions is the cost/gain issue. It costs far more to level up a profession than what you'll make is selling your wares. Well. At least until you can make and sell the epic quality items. But here again it comes down to mats and whether you farm them or buy them. So far I have been farming most of the mats for my LW, and using what I skin while questing to level the profession, but I know that as I go through the outlands that will probably not get me to 375 by the time I'm 68th level or so. So my main expenditures until LK comes out will probably be on mats for finishing out my LW. Some people would deem this as silly, but given the state of the game since the release of BC, keeping your profession up is to your benefit. While i know that the gear in Northrend would replace anything I could craft fairly quickly, having crafted epics on when I go there will help during those early levels.

Happy hunting all,
Zuluki