Woo! Halfway to ...oh wait, the level cap is 70 now.

8 days since the last post. Given the posting frequency of a lot of my frequented blogs, I might as well have just stopped posting altogether. :)

The game is really starting to pick up for us on several areas. Rasaiel is 32 and I've reached 30 (we ended up doing some impromptu grinding on ogres in Duskwood trying to find an alchemy pattern, which never came about, but definitely helped my experience bar). I feel like I'm really coming into my own as a priest now. I've almost filled out my 24 actionbar slots (that are hotkey mapped, anyway) with all manner of skills, so I feel less like the patient "I have three heals" robot, and more like a standalone (albeit very empathic) caster. Most importantly of all:

I have Mind Control now.

*insert evil grin here*

I've never played a class nor an engineer that could mind control before, and ever since picking up that skill last night I've tried to MC any humanoid add that came into the picture. After a couple attempts taught me that the Bongos UI I was using still had the pet bar hidden, I started playing with innate skills of humanoid mobs (I've never been a murloc before...) and generally causing havoc in other critters' brains. It's the most fun I think I've had in this game. Pure chaotic-good bliss.

Other "I'm a big priest now" skills have been fear, which has been getting me in trouble since I picked it up some 20ish levels ago; Prayer of Healing, which finally lets me top off everyone at once (screw the mana efficiency, full speed ahead!), and shackle undead, which I mentioned last time. I still love having some manner of crowd control, I really never bothered with my druid's sleep spell until the later stages of the game our first time through (somewhere around the late 40's, I think I was schooled in the spell on a run through Maraudon). Learning to use them efficiently and effectively (since Rasaiel has the pet-dot/pet-tank and freeze traps, which we've been relying on for the majority of our leveling) is up on the top of my list of "things to do" during play.

Also up there has been "make money," which I've actually been very successful on compared to my previous experiences in WoW. I don't know if I've gotten lucky, if the game economy is just richer, or what, but I don't recall sitting on ~50 gold at level 30 before. Granted, we've had one or two blue drops that sold decently, but almost all that money went back into gathering skills/pet skills/bo skills/nunchuk skills...you get the idea (and the reference, I'm horrible). What's really set me up is the potion-making, more specifically the Swiftness Potion market. I understand almost all of these are going to PvP battlegrounds folks, and I've actually sent some freebies to my most frequent buyers (one character claims 75% of all my sales). Still, it's got me eyeing every briarthorn and mageroyal in sight, and my herbalism skill passed those nodes a looooooooong time ago (I've already picked up Artisan Herbalist).

Rasaiel has been equally guilty of "rolling in it", as her mining skill (which is up to Mithril nodes by now) has proven worth it's weight in...well, tin and copper. Stacks of both of those have been selling completely out for her, and she's not too far behind me in wallet contents. I don't think we'll be having a problem affording our initial mounts at level 40 at this rate.

I almost find that the auction house is a significant part of the fun of the game for me, actually. I check it every morning when I get up--partially as an attempt to wake up more before work, as it requires I interact with something and engage my brain past "shower on, soap go here, clothes where?--to see if there are any materials or recipes for sale below their "value threshold" for me. The materials (primarily swiftthistle) values are easy to calculate, since I know that at a set price, my potions will ALWAYS sell, so I look for any stacks that are an an acceptable distance below the potion sell value. (Acceptable distance, because making less than a net gold on the whole operation just isn't worth the time). Recipes are just a shot in the dark to find popular ones that are on sale for way below the "still worth it to buy" price. I.E. I buy it for 10 silver and sell it for several gold. The original vendor makes their money, and I spend little on a chance at a lot.

I've also been guilty of snooping for ridiculously-low priced bags. I've managed to pay only 2 gold for a netherweave bag due to a short auction. I feel like I'm eBay sniping. Thank god I never got into THAT.