Currency Changes

Blizzard recently announced that changes would be made regarding the in-game currency. By currency, I don't mean gold or silver, but rather all the badges, emblems and marks that have been collected relating to both PvP and PvE. In short, Frost and Triumph emblems convert to Justice Points, all other PvE emblems (including BC ones) become gold, and PvP marks and honor are converting into solid Honor Points. MMO Champion has a nice guide and converter that you should really check out. The changes are also on the PTR now if you've transferred a character.

This has put me in a bit of a pickle because now I'm unsure what to do with the badges I have left. I spent all of my Conquest and lower emblems on Heirlooms for my new Cataclysm alts. I was planning to downrank a few Triumphs as well to finish off with some trinkets and offspec gear, but with Triumphs and Frost emblems being combined into snazzy new Justice Points, would I be better off saving and getting some more T10?

Hell, at this point is T10 really worth it? The 4.0.1 patch is already background downloading and the PTR has been running for a week. Cataclysm can't be that far off at this point. Is it worth it to spend these points on gear that will be replaced with much needed mastery in two months? Should I get more heirlooms to help my new little dudes out? Or should I just save the points, since it basically sounds like Justice Points will be the currency for 85 purchasable gear as well (though I'm sure the cost will be much much higher than the little pittance I still have left).

What are you doing? Choices?!

What A Wonderful Day For Fishing!

Yay for pets I didn't know existed!

After writing about my horrible gem luck yesterday, today I struck gold, twice, on the fishing daily.

Runed Stormjewel
Rigid Stormjewel
Fantasy Portrait (Yay vendor trash!)
and Strand Crawler, on my pet collector character no less. (10 more to go and that fawn will be mine!)

Now I'm feeling lucky. Giant Sewer Rat? Sea Turtle? Finishing off Dalaran coins? I should get back to fishing. Damn, Hearthstone down. Old Ironjaw perhaps?!

Random Frustrations

There is, statistically, a 20% chance to receive each type of green quality gem when prospecting Saronite. So why does it always seem like this game doesn't want me to have Sun or Shadow Crustals? I have two miners, my current 80 main and a 75. I collect absurd amounts of ore just questing and doing dailies. While selling off Cobalt in stacks has proved profitable, I typically prospect all of my Saronite. And despite getting loads of all the other four colors, yellow and purple constantly elude me.

What's worse is that Shadow Crystals are one of the three gems required to make an Icy Prism every day, which, for the non-JC's out there, takes a Frozen Orb, a Shadow Gem, a Chalcedony, and a Dark Jade, and combines it into a container that always contains blue quality gems, but has the chance to include Dragon's Eyes and Epic gems. I have stacks of those first three, and despite obsessive amounts of prospecting. Blizzard just doesn't want me to have Shadow Crystals.

Waiting on AFK's = Time to write rambling posts.

There are so many things in this game that are so completely up to chance. Like the gems, there are other completely mundane bad-luck failures that I experience often. Like the aforementioned frozen orbs. There is a 20% chance in every random dungeon to win one (provided no one passes). There have been entire weeks were I didn't even come close to winning. Making my Icy Prisms even more annoying.

Then there are the more frustrating examples. Horror stories of 250 failed runs keep me form even trying to get Baron Rivondare's mount. Then there are things like profession patterns that only drop in raid instances. Some you see every week... others, like in the case of the +30 Spellpower to Weapon from MC, dropped twice in the entire absurdly long period I was raiding in there. Luckily, of the entire 40 man... I was one of two enchanters.

The bad-luck randomness hits us all, unfortunately. And then of course.. right after I write this, I mine three nodes in a row that give me my much needed gems. Weird. That's just how it goes.