The History of... err... me! Part Two - Farming

So, on with the story telling. Are we all sitting comfortably? Good. Now where was I. Ah yes...

So there I am playing Brogan, the dwarven hunter. I think looking back on it I definately wasn't a good hunter. I remember I had taken primarily Beast Mastery but I have no idea what my spec was. I remember that I had specced for Aimed shot and this was often what I opened with, after I had sent my pet in. I primarily used that, arcane shot and serpent sting and was annoyed that aimed shot and arcane shot used the same cooldown. I didn't use much else. Didn't blow any other cooldowns. I used the same approach to hoarding things as I used to abilities. I never knew when I would need them and so never used them. Looking back now, I shudder at how bad a hunter I was. Yep, I was a huntard.

Profession wise, well I started with leatherworking and skinning but soon very quickly switched to engineering and mining. I thought it would be a better approach because I could make my own guns and ammo. And of course engineering had such fun gadgets too. But I soon realised I could make money with mining. Oh, and when I found out I was just so pleased. I would gather ore from every node I came across. I would often end up with a surplas of ore. Well, this could be sold to a vendor but I discovered that if I smelted it first, well the vendors paid more for that. I was so pleased. I would go out, mine, smelt, vend, rince and repeat. I must have looked so proud when I told my friends about the two gold I had made vending copper bars. I dread to think what their thoughts were. They then explained to me, carefully I reckon, all abou the auction house. Auction house? Somewhere where players can buy from others? Where copper bars go for over a gold a stack???

So when I next logged on I ran to this mysterious place that was situated opposite the bank in Ironforge. This was when there was only one auction house per faction. I looked up the price of copper and saw what people had put it up for. I was new to this game and I proceeded to ensure that my bars were always the cheapest. I would almost always sell them for 60-80s a stack. Sure there were higher prices but I wanted mine to sell. Always. I had no knowledge about market trends, about when was best to post, that sometimes it is best to keep at a set value because they would nearly always sell. And for a while I made a small amount of money supplying copper to others.

And that was about as far as I would go. I remember I used to farm in Loch Moden along the eastern edge because mining was good there. I would also get tin and would try my hand at selling bronze. But it was a lot of work for small payouts. But I had got a taste of farming and I was good at it.

How else was I as a player. Well, I loved my engineering. I remember when I got the schematic for the Parachute Cloak. Don't remember how but I do remember that I was really pleased when I finally made one. At last, no more damage from falling. I put on my nice new cloak and went riding out of Ironforge. I just had to put this to the test. And I rode off the cliff and went falling down to impact at the bottom. I survived, just, so I rode back up to the top, ate and considered the problem. Maybe it didn't work if I was mounted. Ok, try again. Once I was at full health, I ran off the cliff and went splat again. What was wrong? I mounted up, went back up to the top, ate, and examined the cloak carefully. It was then I realised that I needed to actually use it. Ah hah! Right, I ran off the cliff, activated the cloak, floated down to a ledge, kept running and fell the rest of the way because the cloak had stopped working. Well, at least I knew how to use it. It wasn't until many years later I learnt to map the cloak to a key for a panic button for emergencies. That was on another character by then. But I wore that cloak all the way to level 60 and beyond. I never replaced it. You never knew when Brogan was going to fall.

So, I was a bad player but I learnt things. Admittedly a little slowly. But I had also learnt that I could farm. And, as time went on, I found I was really really good at it...