Diary of a Huntard

Mists of Pandaria and Me

I've been trying to come to grips with this expansion, and there are a few things that have been bugging me about it. 

Farming. Sure, it's easy to pick on Blizzard for introducing players to Farmville, but it's only with Patch 5.2 that I've really had any use for it. I am exalted with the Tillers (but not with each member of said faction), which means that I've been farming my hunter-butt off, but I really don't like the fact that it's a major part of leveling cooking. I think Blizzard is overplaying the importance of cooking, much like they underplayed it in previous expansions. And let's be honest: if it weren't for the cooking holiday Pilgrim's Bounty, most of us would only know how to make Spice Bread. I'm not sure what the right balance is, but I know that I'm not thrilled with farming/cooking as it stands now.

Factions. Okay, I don't hate the factions introduced in this expansion. I don't even hate that I have to grind rep with them. What I don't like is that I was nearly Valor capped before I had enough reputation with any given faction before I could upgrade my gear. I don't miss having to do the same random dungeons until my eyes bleed, but can't there be some Valor gear that doesn't require me to be enslaved to a faction?

Alts. I hate alts? No, I love my alts. I miss playing my alts. Why do I miss them? Because they weren't all raid geared like Gariath was at the onset of the expansion, and when I ventured into Pandaria with them, they got their asses kicked. To be fair, I haven't taken any of them out to level since then (I even leveled a Monk to 85, but that's another post for another day), I will say that having account bound rep bonuses for the factions that I have gotten to exalted with will take some of the pain out of leveling my alts. Oh, and while I complained about about farming, the one good thing was farming enchanting mats for my Paladin, so he's maxed his enchanting, all while sitting parked in Stormwind.

I'm sure there are other things that I can praise and damn, but I have crops to go harvest to I can upgrade my bow… to a gun. Ugh...