Diary post: 5.2 - What's the Game Plan?

"Right, let's make the next move!"

This was written prior to 5.2, but posting it has it's value.

 If i've set a goal, reached it and have other goals to achieve moving on becomes the only option.

Patch 5.2 is going live tomorrow on the EU servers. I can't seem to stay away from the blog when i'm excited about something, so here's a little update.

• Gold making is completely dead. I don't have the willpower I once had to dedicate tons of time into researching markets and being online, undercutting mofos x amount of hours per day. Don't get me wrong, there is gold to be made, but after Cataclysm which was one huge gold expansion for Grayz, especially due to crappy internet which made raiding impossible, I just feel like i've done it and that there's no point in going hardcore into it again.
  You could argue that I could do it on a soft mode, which I do, but honestly even sticking to only posting auctions with TSM, relogging bankers to post twice a week feels like a waste of time. So there's been a huge shift @ how I view time and how I spend it.
  
• Stockpiling for the patch? I'm not doing it on a large scale like many others gold makers seem to do. I'm very conservative when it comes to mainstream trends (remembr epic gem transmutes?)I have around 1.5k bars and 1.3k ores total. I don't count on the Blacksmithing boom which many gold makers are hoping for. What I will do is use the Ores/Bars in which ever markets I see fit and adapt. Now, since I don't follow the gold making side of things on Twitter like I used to i'll miss out on most major opportunities to make a huge profit. But that doesn't matter since using that time elsewhere is more important. Also, I believe that the profits can be made eventually anyways and if I decide to keep the Ores/Bars I can always make use of them at a later time.
• Jewelcrafting is dead. This is the first expansion ever where my JC is as good as inactive. And I can't say that I miss all those hours of prospecting although I will admit that prospecting with the Mousewheel up/down was an act that I enjoyed doing while doing other things, ie while browsing AH.
• Enchanting and Engineering and time spent on toons in-game. Since most time in-game is spent on my Hunter the best thing to do gold making wise would be to use him and his professions a lot more than any other banker and i've thought of using him as my major source of income. With gold being less important I haven't acted on this idea, but eventually that might change. Currently the time I spend on my main is 98% vs 2% on alts/bankers. Doing it this way could make things smoother, in theory. The big problem that arises with this strategy is that bag space is far from enough, especially if I want to make/post scrolls. Yes, I could send them off to a dedicated banker, but just logging into different toons feels like a waste of time at the moment. So it just comes down to time vs fun vs goals. Time will tell how/if I solve that puzzle in this particular case.
• Raiding. I'll keep on doing runs once a week with Devotion when I can and the guild  currently only raids once a week. We need to discuss which path we'll take to progress in 5.2. Since our guild is way behind the curve (Mogu'Shan Vaults normal cleared 2 weeks ago) it's important to choose a path that fits us and that is realistic. With my raid orientated mindset that i've reaquired in Mists i've been having my own theories on why the raid progression has been as slow as it has been. But after careful consideration there are multiple factors and not all of them have to do with skill or the players themselves.