Preparing for The Shattering and Cataclysm

First of all, I’m going to apologize for being quite absent on the blog for a couple weeks… had a lot of family stuff going on that I may explain in another post.  I have quite a few posts on the brain but at the moment it’s a matter of getting the thoughts out in some coherent form :).  Anywho, here are my recommendations for preparing for the Shattering and Cataclysm.

The Shattering is about to be upon us [this coming Tuesday if rumor is right] and we only have a few weeks till Cataclysm.  What should you do to prepare?

1. On Monday evening this week, I highly recommend resetting your toon’s hearths to appropriate locations.  Stormwind will have portals to new areas in the expansion – so you might consider there or IF [easy flying distance and connected by the tram].  On the PTR, the portals in Dalaran and Stormwind are disappearing – to be replaced by class trainers.  Note, Azeroth flying will not be in until Cataclysm itself – so please bear that in mind.

2. Cap out your justice points and honor points if possible before Cataclysm hits – even what you can manage on your alts.  Given history, you might be able to use JPs on alts to purchase necessities for crafting or buying recipes [ie the new primordial saronite] and possibly jump start your main.  If not, you’ll at least have plenty of them to get alts a couple new pieces.

3. Decide on your main.  Soon.  I realize that many of you, like me, will be leveling multiple alts at once [ie whatever you feel like working on… or who has rested XP :P].  However, know who your main is… and give them priority.  If you play many toons poorly it doesn’t benefit anyone at all.  Get one well-geared in the xpac, then worry about gearing any others.  Some people might be able to juggle two toons and keep them fairly equally geared and played… however, that’s a minority that doesn’t include me.  I play my alts well but not nearly as well as my main.

Again, if you are planning on swapping mains – talk to all your raid leaders – don’t assume that they’ll automatically be room for your new toon and show up one day expecting to get them in.  Some guilds may have too many healers, tanks, or that particular class [hunters, mages] or they could be SORELY lacking.  Also, be prepared to develop your offspec if needed.

4. Spring Cleaning:

Clean out your banks on every toon.  Vendor whatever you can stand to get rid of, bank what you want to keep.  If you have a personal guild/vault – clean that out as well.  Even if you keep old mats, knowing what items are where can maximize your efficiency or ability to sell them in the early days of the expansion.

Clean up your bags.  Give yourself a clean slate to begin questing again…  Dump that gray that got mixed in with your gear, restock food and any reagents needed [mostly mage I believe?].

If you’re planning on creating new toons – get the mats together for any bags you want to give them or even have the bags made and ready to mail up front.

Go ahead and delete any toons you’re going to want to [presuming they aren’t name savers].  Psynister has a great guide on how to delete a level 80 but many of the steps can apply to low level toons as well.

5. Don’t count on taking December 7th off work to play on live servers…  Given the bugs in the last patches and the company’s history with releases – I have exactly zero confidence the servers will be playable at midnight on the 7th as they’re currently promoting.  If you’ve been here for an xpac change you should remember… and the bugginess has gotten worse with each patch.  [Given that bugs exist in the PTR “release” version for the Shattering patch, expect them to be in live as well since 4.0.3 had bugs reported on the PTR that were pretty much all still there].

6. You’re going to be bent out of shape and antsy to play Cataclysm.  Instead of growling at the computer, do chores or set up an activity or look at experiencing one of the free 2 play mmos.  Many of them have some nice things to offer.  I’ve really enjoyed playing LotRO with my sister in law a couple times a week and there are others out there [I have no doubt that Kanrad will list a few below ;)].  You’ll be sucked into the new world soon enough.