Thursday, February 4, 2016

Goodbye, Dr. Boom.

I recently crafted Dr. Boom. I was thrilled to finally have the card that I had been teching to get rid of for so long. Now others would have to pull out their Big Game Hunter to deal with MY Dr. Boom.

Boom Bots EXPLODE!!
Except, the thrill is already gone. Dr. Boom will only be viable in the new Wild format, which is not the competitive format. As much as I want to have a full collection of cards, my focus has turned to getting as many of the cards I can from The Grand Tournament expansion. I am still missing some great cards from the classic set, but since I get a pack a week from the Tavern Brawl and another here and there from the Watch and Learn quest, I feel my gold is better spent building on the most current expansion.

For a late Christmas gift, hubby told me to buy the holiday deal. I gained quite a few cards from the classic set that I was missing, and with the dust I crafted a few more. Before opening the packs, I was missing only some epics and most of the legendary cards from the set. Here is a list of what I have left to collect from the classic set.

  • Ancient of Lore x 1
  • Ancient of War x 1
  • Cenarius
  • Gladiator's Longbow x 2
  • King Krush
  • Ice Block x 1
  • Shadowform x 1
  • Patient Assassin x 1
  • Kidnapper x 1
  • Earth Elemental x 2
  • Al'Akir the Windlord
  • Pit Lord x 2
  • Twisting Nether x 2
  • Lord Jaraxxus
  • Brawl x 1
  • Grommash Hellscream
  • Hungry Crab x 2
  • Murloc Warleader x 1
  • Southsea Captain x 1
  • Faceless Manipulator x 1
  • Mountain Giant x 2
  • Millhouse Manastorm
  • Nat Pagle
  • King Mukla
  • Harrison Jones
  • Cairne Bloodhoof
  • Hogger
  • The Beast
  • The Black Knight
  • Gruul
  • Ragnaros the Firelord
  • Malygos
  • Nozdormu
  • Onyxia
  • Deathwing

Some of these would be really nice to have, but I think I have done pretty well crafting all the rare and common cards, as they are the biggest part of most decks. I do that with every expansion, so that I make sure to have most of everything I need, then I save up for a legendary. Doing that, if I run up against an epic I have to have, I will have the dust for it, and it only puts the legendary off for a little while longer. Looking at that list, I wish I had just told you what that deal did to better my collection (Sylvanas, Antonidas, Fordring and Alextrasza, oh my!). I dusted a lot of cards, but the results were definitely worth it!

Speaking of legendaries, I saved up enough dust to craft Justicar Trueheart last night, which seems to be a pretty formidable legendary to have put off making for so long. Curse you, Dr. Boom, and your cute little boom bots!

So, the task ahead of me seems to be returning to The Grand Tournament and fleshing out my collection, then reworking any decks that do work for me to make them ready for the Standard ladder. I am missing some rare class cards and a slew of epic and legendary cards. Do I use my gold or do I splurge and buy twenty bucks of fun? I'll probably use my gold, and when the Spring 2016 Expansion goes live I will do better than I did with TGT and buy the special pre-order deal when it is available. I might even think of dusting some cards to help beef up the expansions I'll need to be competitive.

(What, are you crazy? *smacks own face* You don't dust cards you could use to make a deck!)

(Just let me dust Iron Juggernaut and Gahz'rilla. Oh, and maybe Gazlowe. I won't really miss them...)

 (You won't miss them until you need Gahz'rilla for a Tavern Brawl, then you'll be sorry!)

(But I want new cards! You're right, I don't really want to dust them. They can stay, for now...)

So, what do you all think of the changes headed our way? I'm excited to see if I can compete!


Monday, January 11, 2016

Something To Do.

I rarely kill the last boss of an expansion. I was about to say never, but I seem to remember finishing at least one Garrosh fight in the midnight hours of Mists of Pandaria. I lose momentum a month or more before the big announcement, due to whatever life has placed in my path, and I just don't rejoin at any meaningful pace. It's like I dropped the baton, looked at it sitting on the ground, then meandered off the course to pick a flower, then take a swim, then run back to the starting line to chat with the spectators.

I was sitting here (ok so I still am, but go with it, ok?) playing with the WoWhead quest inventory thingy, and I notice there were a lot of things I haven't earned yet.

Get it, behind? *giggle*

I know, the image is a little distracting. Just look at the tiny number above the line of armor icons that says "missing". I'm missing roughly 1/3 of the quest rewards available to me to wear. This is bad. Delgada got everything done so long before Cataclysm that she has to do a lot of zones over, despite having the Loremaster achievement. But, (giggle) this number is a little faulty.

I have the tiara, and I know I did Nat's quest line. I must have that hat somewhere...

The Tiara of the Oracle quest is repeatable so that if you ever throw it away, you can turn in the items and get another one. The game never counts it as complete, I guess. Del has the whole stinking Oracle set in void storage.I guess she will have to take them out and put them in the bank, just in case void storage disappears. As for Nat Pagle, I swear if he makes her fish up more fish for a stinky hat, I will make sure she always fishes over open water so that he joins Delgada in undeath permanently.

What's wrong, Nat? Can't swim?

Another problem with these numbers is that it doesn't hide things that you cannot possibly get. I have been twiddling with this tool while writing this, and I found a staff that Delgada would use almost exclusively, except for one little problem. The quest giver won't talk to her. He would rather shove a sword between her rotting ribs and call for reinforcements, then run away screaming. Oh, and there is a cool mechanical looking mace from a quest in the Jade Forest that she can't have, either.

I decided I needed to know about the new rules when it came to the improved wardrobe in the next expansion, so I asked my friend Google. I'd ask Siri, but she just doesn't get it. I ask her where the nearest 7-11 is and she tries to send me to Nottingham. I ask her for cheap gas and she sends me to the 76 station. I ask here where the closest McDonald's is and she sends me to their museum. At least Google understands me. The first link after I asked about "new wardrobe rules Legion" was on the Blizzpro forums, and it was helpful. I guess I won't have to worry about things disappearing, but those really special, no longer in game items I will make sure end up in the bank, just in case. I understand it says anything that has ever been soulbound to my character, useful or not, will be available to all the characters on my account, provided they can use them, as a cosmetic option. I just don't want to take the chance! Delgada has really nothing to lose (I don't think she'd mind losing those zandalari bracers, since they're not really a desirable transmog item) But Halinka has her main robe that she would hate to lose (and I would love to gain access to, because va-va-voom!), so to the bank with those not-found-in-game-files items.

Anyhow, so I have spoilered myself a little and looked at some Legion stuff. I'm really looking forward to seeing what I have available that long ago was vendored, disenchanted, or simply cast off to make way for something more valuable. And think of all the extra bag space! I'll leave you all here thinking along with me as I wander off, dreaming of items I can stash in my bank in place of all those tabards! See you in Azeroth.