Thursday, October 29, 2009

OMG, I Can't Believe I Did All That Grinding

One of the things I love dearly about World of Warcraft (the MMORPG) is the way you can choose goals to shoot for in any one of a number of areas. Want to play a lot of Capture the Flag? Hit the Battlegrounds. Want to play dungeons? They're adding new ones all the time. Just want to hang out and go for a particularly awesome piece of gear? Like the Mekgenieer's Chopper? Like this one my toon is riding on?

I'm what I'd term a semi-casual player - I can go for days without playing, then play for five or six hours in a single day, but usually I'm on for an hour or two. This toon, Leonadril, is still my only level 80, although I have a Tauren Druid who's at 76 that I haven't futzed with in months. Leo is my first, though, and the one closest to my heart. We discovered the entire world together, and managed to farm something like a bazillion titanium (you would not believe what a scarce resource that is), bought a couple of Arctic Fur at AH prices (again, a particularly precious commodity), and saved up the 13,000+GP you need to buy the parts and plans for this beast.

It was, in game parlance, quite a grind. However, I was surprised a couple of days ago, after a particularly good day of farming Saronite, to find myself with enough money to buy the final parts so that I could build the Chopper.

And then I was faced with a dilemma - sell it? After all, you only need to be an engineer to *build* it, not to ride it. Of course, it binds to your character once you learn to ride it, but unlike a lot of mounts it's one you can actually sell. Considering that the mats alone are probably worth close to 20,000gp at the AH, I could probably have demanded close to 30,000 or more.

But then what would I do with the money?

Besides, I'm an instant gratification kind of guy. So I hopped on and rode it.

Did I mention this thing does wheelies when you press the jump button? And you can give rides to people in your party? Aside from the War Mammoths and the various proto-Drake mounts that are rare drops (or require massive instance grinding) this is perhaps the most sought after mount in the game, and one of the few that doesn't require multiplayer work to get.

And, of course, because this toon is in many ways an extension of my own personality, especially the engineering element, I love having stuff that belches smoke and looks like parts may fall off at any moment, which is why I have the Mechanopeep pet, both Flying Machines, and three different Mechanostriders. I also got the Silver Covenant Hippogriff for all of my work in the Argent Tournament, but that was because I didn't know what else to buy with that particular currency.

Here are a couple of shots of the chopper, with Leonadril riding it (of course). Good times.











5 comments:

Greg W said...

Pretty cool. :D What do you think has kept you in the game? I got out before the first expansion.

Laurent said...

Congrats. This is an awesome mount
BTW, I switched my alliance character to Horde side
I"m currently trying to get my squashling pet for Halloween meta achievement

Dug said...

Why I love WoW:

1) It's native on the Mac.

2) I can play in any one of a number of ways (doing solo quests, doing raids, doing battlegrounds) that fit my needs at the time.

3) The world is large and things are always changing, making it interesting for someone like me who loves exploring. Cataclysm will refresh large parts of the old world, so even better.

4) Well thought out professions. I'm starting to consider new ones, now that I've maxed out engineering, just to see where it takes me. Enchanting seems like it would be a good choice, although inscription doesn't strike me as all that interesting. I'm not a fan of fishing or cooking, though, but I may still try to max them out.

5) Rich "lore" in-game that creates a sense of history. Why are these two factions fighting so much? There's an in-game reason for it.

That, and I'm obsessive-compulsive. ;-)

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Matthew said...

Sweet ride. My warrior main is an Engineer too. Jen and I are playing about 8 hours a month at the most right now. It's a looong way to 80 at that rate. (75 now). I keep thinking of dropping but I feel like we get our money's worth even at our low frequency of play. And it seems to keep me from buying other computer games.