How to Efficiently Spend Your Valor Points

Like my boots? Oh right, I'm a tauren.

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So you’ve been stacking your valor points and you can’t quite decide on what item to buy next. Is it the tier gloves, oh but wait, you don’t yet want to break your Tier 11 4 piece bonus. Or how about that trinket? But, it’s only 13 item levels above your current one.

If you’re having trouble prioritizing your loot, try and break it down into compartments and follow some general guidelines to make your purchases more efficient while having the best upgrade possible.

An easy first cut is to look at which item gives the biggest boost to your most important stat (strength, intellect, agility). If it’s close, look at your secondary stat increase. You can also go with the gear with the largest item level increase.

If you want a brainless approach, using a gear optimizer such as askmrrobot.com allows you to review how good each upgrade is in terms of a relative weighted point system. If the trinket boosts your points by 75, but the ring only by 30, well, go with the trinket. It also considers breaking and making tier set bonuses and procs.

Finally, in most cases, I would recommend leaving the tier 12 hands and legs for your last valor purchases if you do baradin hold every week, as these items drop off Occu’thar. It’s happened to all of us, you have just purchased the tier gloves, and they drop 2 days later.

And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.

Sihx

You’ve Lost That Loving Feelin’

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I know work or school is draining, your kids and spouse are barking behind you every day, and you just dropped that delicious chocolate cake you were looking forward to munching, icing side down of course. So, after you put the kids to bed and turn on some horrible reality TV show for your wife, it’s time to…power UP that computer, plug IN that headset, and LOG ON for a little WoW time, one on one baby, oh yeah!

…but wait, it’s not there for you, you don’t feel it, the chemistry is…is…dare I say it…gone?

If you’re a little burned out, or just not feeling it when you log on, maybe you’re in a rut and need a change of scenery in Azeroth.

Change it up, stop doing those mind-numbing dailies and try some random PVP, perhaps experiment tanking with that alt that’s been collecting dust. Roll an alt with the other faction, dual box, tinker with addons, try to make some money in the auction house, work on a pet or mount collection, role play, anything that you don’t normally do in game brings about a fresh perspective and new challenges in this virtual world, which will just keep you coming back for more.

But, if none of this does it for you…well my friend, it’s time to take a break and find another hobby, because if you don’t enjoy your hobby, it’s work.

And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.

You can hear this segment from the stream above, or listen to “The Instance: #243: Do The Humans First ” on iTunes or at http://www.theinstance.net/

Sihx

Now entering heroics…..there’s an app for that…

Are you there yet?

Despite the farming for elementium ore, I can be a little ADD, especially when I thought the prices had bottomed out. I wanted to explore the new content, despite the fact that I would be cutting into my profits. Alas, I leveled my DK main to 85 and promptly purchased the ilevel 346 shoulders and legs with my 4,000 justice points I had banked before the expansion hit. That, along with several reputation items from Hyjal and Therazane, my ilevel sat at the precipice of heroic dungeoneering at an enticing, yet frustrating ilevel average of 328 (329 is required). Frustrated at the concept of being one point short, I realized that one of my dps rings was level 318, highest for that slot. Well, what if I purchased the level 333 tanking ring from Therazane….would that up my average? So, I purchased it and magically, I witnessed that average level bump up to 329!

So, here’s a tip: if you’re still short of the 329 average item level, just purchase any reputation rewards for slots with low item levels, even if it’s not for your spec! It worked for me!

Afterwards, I visitied all of the dungeon entrances I had yet to discover, and promptly entered the queue to face 45 minute waiting times.

The problem with being a father of a 5 year old and especially an infant, I rarely, if ever, have long periods of uninterrupted time to play this game. That’s okay when I’m questing or farming; I can just hop on my flying mount and hover safely for 15 minutes while I attend to pressing family matters at 1am (mainly a crying infant). However, with these new heroics taking some time to complete, I cannot just walk away. I have tried 3 heroics thus far and have yet to complete one, as something always hits the fan after entering the queue. It’s frustrating, but to be expected. This is also the reason why I can’t tank heroics. Although it would be faster to farm rep and rewards this way, it’s unfair to the others in the dungeon. So, it will take some time to get those valor points and reputations raised with this process. That’s okay, I still need to quest out Twilight Highlands, Uldum, and Vash’jir anyway….then there’s my alts to level too!