WoW Weekly: So long, Malygos, and thanks for all the fun

WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

I'll admit: farming low drop-rate mounts isn't a huge challenge at level 90. I saw a comment on Twitter this week from someone who claims they see no accomplishment in acquiring one of those RNG mounts, but instead take pride in amassing enough gold to buy a rare mount off the auction house, or perhaps snipe one from the BMAH. As a person who has spent over 500,000g on rare mounts, I'm not sure I completely agree.

With gold-making, someday you're guaranteed to get there. If you play that game---auctioneering, I like to call it---you're going to take the time to learn some tips and strats. Eventually, you'll reach whatever milestone you're after. Simply put, if you want to, you will see your gold readout at 999,999g99s99c. And then you can buy anything you desire. In a game of pure chance, as is the case with mounts and low drop rates, your odds lie in the low single digits, or in some cases one more decimal place to the left---you're never quite assured that prize. I don't think one reward is any better than the other at the end of the day. It's all up to you, the player, and what you get out of it.

That said, I've seen Malygos at least twice each week since November. And this week I've gotten lucky enough to never, ever have to go back.

The rest of the Weekly after the break.

Auctioneering Fail: Got a little too zealous with my greens and following a three-day sales lull, my auctioneer had exhausted the 1000g reserve I keep on her at all times, solely through posting fees. Need to make a point to remove bracers, cloaks,.rings and necklaces from the auction list. They simply don't sell often.

Alani for Sale: Was hanging at the Shrine when I saw a warlock selling the mount for 35,000g (complete with a half-dozen trolls and ignoramuses screaming that the mount can't be traded or sold). Knowing this wasn't the server where I'd gold-capped, I looked in my bags to see just over 36,000g. It's been a long time since I've had less than 10,000g on a server I actively play.

Raiding with Leashes II: It took seven weeks of weekly runs (some raids on multiple characters) to collect all of the required pets for the meta achievement. In my opinion, the reward is lackluster. Sorry, boring-looking dog named Tito. I'm just not feeling it. Actually, I've just decided to name him "Dog," as an ode to Blizzard's creativity when they bestowed a name upon the hound you can lure to your plot in Halfhill.

1-Night Raids: I've nearly compiled a full 10-person raid team for a one-night progression group. Seems we have 8 solid, consistent players and a few more interested on the fringes. Though a newer group, we were easily able to clear MV in about an hour, and then half of HoF before calling the raid. Looking forward to cleaning up HoF, then ToES so we can spend some time in ToT before patch 5.4.

Malygos is a (Button) Pushover: During a Malygos run a couple weeks ago on my shadow priest, I'd noticed it was taking an extraordinarily long time to cut through the Scions in phase 2. That's when I realized I had the encounter set on 25-person. Whoops. By the time I was already into phase 3, so I decided to see what would happen if I forged ahead, being sure to execute the button-pressing sequence perfectly. Which resulted in this:

Malygos. Not so tough after all, are ya?