You are not prepared... but you should be!

The Burning Crusade was the first expansion for the World of Warcraft and prophetically the video contained Illidan speaking the lines "You are not prepared", and we were not. In general, WoW players worldwide were not really prepared for the changes that the Burning Crusade brought about to the game and the economy in it. That's why with the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, still likely several months away, I believe it is time to begin preparing for it.

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Make sure you have gold and bank space

This topic and now editorial came about by a lot of discussion that has taken place between myself and many of my guild mates and friends. I would especially like to thank Xanduin, Kaarma, Woodchick, Forusall, Rosablade and many others on the Lightbringer server for helping come up with what we collectively think the best plan to get ready for WotLK is. Thanks Guys!

So what did we come up with? What should you be doing to prepare for the Wrath of the Lich King? Here goes...

• Make sure you have gold - This is a big one. No matter what else I say in this article, currency is king. While it is nice to have all sorts of ideas on how to be prepared, in the end they could all be wrong. On the other hand though, if you have gold, you can simply buy what you need in the way of items from the auction house to allow you to get by. How much gold? The more the better, but it is fairly easy to have 5,000 gold set aside for purchases in WotLK if you have more than 1 level 70.
• Do some spring cleaning - I know its summer already and that the expansion will not be around until at least fall, but the process is the same. Almost everything you have will be worthless after the expansion. Even if you can't sell it for anything, get rid of it. You know those old raid tier 1,2 and 3 sets you have been hanging onto for sentimental reasons? Toss them. They take up valuable bag and bank space that you will need to horde new goodies.
• Max your professions skills - When the WotLK launches you want to get right into it and everything it has to offer. This could, and likely will, mean many new and cool profession items. You do not want to have to go back and spend time farming items in the old content so that you can access new profession items, get it done now so that you are ready.
• Sell off your remaining high end profession materials - Just remember what happened to all the old top end profession items when BC was released. Prices dropped to 1/10th of their pre-BC prices in just a few days. In all likely hood this will happen again, and even if it doesn't you will still have the gold to buy what you need (see point 1 above). You could risk holding onto things like primal's, nether's, hearts of darkness, vortexes, sun motes, and more, but I believe the key word there is "Risk". The market is high right now, everyone has gold from dailies. SELL!
• Spend your Badges of Justice - As with the Burning Crusade's release, old level cap gear will quickly become worthless. While we have been told it will not happen as quickly as before, it will still happen. Therefore saving badges for gear is pretty worthless. It may even be worth spending them on nether's, vortexes or gems just to turn around and sell them.
  
  
• Unless you have all your characters ready and lots of gold, stop raiding and PvP (once arena and honor capped) - All your items are going to be very quickly replaced. While these activities are fun, the rewards are hard to justify any longer. If you are low on money, don't have all your professions maxed, still have alts to level, or any number of other things, your time is better spend getting them done. Of course you do not want to drop out on all your friends, but then you should probably talk with them as well and come to some sort of group decision on how to handle the transition to WotLK. Without WotLK just around the corner spending months on progression and 1000's in gold was worth it for an item, now it's at the point that it is very hard to justify. For PvP, do it as long as it is fun, but once you have enough arena points and honor to be capped and carry it over into WotLK there is not much point.
• Stock up on materials now for your Death Knight - If you plan on leveling a Death Knight, it would be a good idea to stock
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  Everyone wants a Death Knight, right?

  up on materials for your chosen professions and for first aid. In the test build at the Worldwide Invitational, Death Knights started with 270 first aid skill, so you can skip the lower level cloth, but stock up on the higher end. There is no word on how other professions with start, but it would not be bad to have a stockpile to level your chosen profession as most professions cost far less than 300 gold to get to 300 skill points, this could get much higher if everyone needs the materials at launch though.

• Stock up on items for your Death Knight - This is almost the same as above, however has to do with items. You know that a Death Knight will use what is essentially DPS Warrior / Ret. Paladin gear, so grab it now. Get a stock pile of greens and blues to take you from 55 through 70 while you can. Once WotLK launches everyone and their dog will be looking for it and prices will sky rocket! Even if you have no intention of leveling a Death Knight, this could be a huge money making opportunity.
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  Join a Large Guild!

  Find a leveling guild - Once the expansion is released you will want to move through new content to get to the new end game. The best way to do that is with help, especially since you will probably want to explore all the new instances along the way. This means looking for a guild now that has a lot of level 70 players, and getting to know them now so that they are your friends and ready to explore with you when WotLK launches.

• Form a Progression Group - Many players are really looking forward to 10 man progression raiding. While it will not be the pinnacle of raiding it will allow raiding to be far more accessible. However, it will still need a highly motivated and skilled group to progress with. Start ahead of time. In fact we have already started. Plan out which class types you need and in what number, what kind of player you get along with, what times are good with everyone, and much more. If you can come up with a group of 10-12 like minded players you can be up and raiding within a few weeks of the expansions release. They could be members of one guild, or just a bunch of friends from different guilds. This leads to the next point...
• Get any character you need for that group in WotLK to 70 - While this seems like a no brainer, many of us still have alts kicking around that we want to play at the end game still at sub 70 levels. While looking at our mains and alts, we found a few holes where we will need characters for raid progression. To fill these holes and allow us to swap in and out we have started leveling several alts, and should have them to 70 and at least Karazhan geared before WotLK launches.

The Messiah has had his say, what’s yours?  Did we miss something big? Do

you think something is wrong? Have a different opinion?

Email me at: Byron Mudry - ([email protected]) or post in our forums.

Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.