Welcome to "Preparing for a Cataclysm," a new series of articles between now and World of Warcraft's next expansion, aptly titled, Cataclysm. This series will focus on all things to do with and to prepare for this new expansion as well as express opinions and known updates about it. Currently the release date is speculated to probably be Q2, 3 or 4 of 2010. Blizzard has confirmed they are shooting for a 2010 release and Game Stop has a release date holder for November 2010. Chances are high that it will be released sometime between May and November of 2010. That's a large window to work with for now, but at best, I figure we have six months before the start of that window to prepare.

These articles are not designed for the hardcore player. Nor is it for just the casual WoW player. I classify myself as simply a "gamer" or a "hobbyist" gamer to be even more specific. That's somewhere between casual and hardcore, which I find represents a fair number of players. These articles are designed for you - that person somewhere between casual and hardcore. You like and experience endgame content, but that's not your sole drive. Neither are you in game to just fiddle around with friends or play an MMO as a first person RPG.

As a player myself, I was first exposed to WoW in Beta through a friend's account. I played a Troll Hunter and an Orc Rogue. It would be a little over a month after release before I got my own account and started playing seriously. I ended up playing a Night Elf Rogue, which is one of my main toons today. Not having much success at getting into end-game content on the server I was on, I ended up going to another server and played an Undead Priest. When Burning Crusade came out, I left the game for awhile. About half way through BC, I ended up coming back to the game and got both of these toons up to 70, but stopped playing Horde.

When Wrath of the Lich King came out, I continued to play the Rogue and left my Horde toon behind. However, when faction change came to WoW, my Undead Priest became a Draenei Priest. In addition to these two "main" toons, I have a Death Knight, a lowbie Dwarf Hunter, Human Warlock and Draenei Shaman. Throughout my days of playing WoW, I have been an officer, a guild leader and back in Classic, a raid leader. When Cataclysm comes out, in addition to reaching the new level cap of 85, I also intend on leveling a Worgen Warrior or Druid.

Tying Up Loose Ends

As we prepare for Cataclysm, the first step I suggest is tying up loose ends. Once the new expansion comes out, we will be busy leveling to 85, playing with the new races and race/class combinations and experiencing new content, which will leave much of the content elsewhere even further in the background, much like what happened when WotLK and BC came out.

Tying up loose ends means getting the things done that have been on our back burners anyway. They usually fall into one of three categories:

1. Leveling.
2. Attaining tangible (in-game) items.
3. Attain intangible (in-game) goals.

For some, you may have aspirations in more than just one of these areas, so you also need to decide which are more important to you. You're going to have to prioritize a little. You're also going to have to figure out some time management in order to get a lot done (if you have a lot to do that is).

Leveling

Let's look at leveling. For starters, if you do not have a toon at level 80 yet, get one there! I am not saying rush through content and not enjoy the journey - indeed it is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game if you haven't leveled a toon to 80. That said, you will really want a toon at max level before Cataclysm comes out. It will be very easy to get side tracked with all the new content, or beginning a new toon as a Worgen or Goblin.

Many of you I am sure, like me, have at least one level 80 and probably another couple that are leveling along but not there yet. Mileage will vary greatly but you can expect that if you are putting a sincere effort into leveling, it takes anywhere from 10-15 days playing time to get from level 1 to level 80. Power-levelers and players with great time management can do it much faster, likewise us "slow" levelers can take even longer. With 240 hours to level to 80 from first level (10 days) and playing an average of two hours a day... that's four months to level a toon in real time.

Again, mileage may differ and of course many of us have toons well on the way to 80, so some time is spared. All in all you can still expect some significant time spent leveling your alts. I suggest doing so however. The reason is the same as for someone who doesn't have a level 80 yet. When Cataclysm comes out we will be leveling to cap again, perhaps starting one of the new race/class combinations, experiencing new content, etc. This means our alts who are not level 80 yet, will still not be level 80 and the chances of that happening will most likely decrease.

The hard part here is deciding which alt(s) you want to focus on first to get to level 80. I've personally made the mistake in the past that I could level them together and for some that may work. I have found that focusing on one toon at a time for leveling works better for me. Whichever toon you decide to level to 80 first though should be one that is furthest along the way to begin with and one that you do enjoy playing. Using myself as an example, I have my level 80 Rogue and my Priest is 79. I want to get the Priest to 80 first, and then I have a level 74 Death Knight and a level 31 Hunter as my next highest level toons. If you gathered that I would level the Death Knight and then the Hunter, give yourself a gold star. Time-wise it is feasible to get the DK and the Hunter to level 80 before the expansion comes out. My other two alts, the Shaman and the Warlock I "may" have time for one of them to level but with my play style I have to be honest with myself and know I won't be able to do both.

In a near-future article we'll take a look at some leveling strategies, heirloom items, how our mains can assist our alts and other ideas to speed the leveling process for our alts.

Tangibles

Next, let’s look at in-game tangible items. For everyone, this category is going to be different. These items can include PvP gear, Tiered gear, mounts, pets, trade skill items, etc. If you have more than one toon at level 80, this can even get further complicated as you try to meet your needs for each character. The best way I can describe this process is using my toons as an example.

The Rogue. He’s been my longest played toon and has been with me since the beginning. As far as gear goes, he’s “ok”. What tangible items does he need though to go into Cataclysm? Or more truthfully, what items do I want him to have? The answer to this is simple: mounts. Currently he has 25 mounts, but I am after 50. Many of these will become available as I work on faction (next section of the article), but some is going to cost both faction and gold. Luckily I have the faction already. The main mounts I want for the Rogue though are: Traveler’s Tundra Mammoth (for the vendors), the Red Rake from Wyrmcrest and the Chopper. In the end, since I already have the faction, I just need the gold: a lot of it. I also would like for him to have the Sea Turtle for the prestige factor.

The Priest. She’s almost 80 but going forward once she is, I want her to have some decent gear of at least Uldar standard. In addition I want her to have the epic Flying Carpet mount. Not a lot to ask for.

The Death Knight. He isn’t 80 yet but will be soon enough. For him, I definitely want some gear and also the WotLK faction mounts like the Red Drake and an Ice Mammoth and just because of attitude a Chopper.

So, now that I have defined items I want for these toons, I have to do a couple of things. I have to weigh them with the other goals I have for these toons and while on these particular toons I need to work toward these goals ASAP. The reason being for me, is that I know I have a couple of toons left to level up that will take time, some intangible things I need to do for them and need them in a position to help my guild and my other alts. Notice I didn’t list anything for my Hunter – it will be enough to just to get him to level 80.

Intangibles

What do I mean by in-game intangible goals? Again, to use my own toons as examples, these are goals that are not directly tied to items per se, or to leveling. Again, I leave my Hunter out as it will be enough to just to get him to 80.

The Rogue, Priest and Death Knight: I want all of them to be maxed out in their professions including secondary professions. This will cost some gold, some time grinding away for mats and, of course, time. Fishing is a time-sink for example.

Titles: these come with achievements, and I would like to collect a variety of them for the different toons. For example I would like to have the Priest get the Loremaster achievement.

Tournament: I would like for at least the Rogue and the Priest to max out the reputation and items from the tournament.

For you, these intangibles might be different. Perhaps you’re working on the achievement for completing all the holidays, or you want to max out reputation, become an Explorer, or earn the Loremaster title yourself. These are your intangibles.

Putting It All Together

So, I have my three categories of goals, a rough timeline on how many of my alts I can feasibly level in the next six months and an idea of what tangible and intangible items and goals I want to achieve for my three toons.

Since I don’t want to play under the gun on too stiff of a schedule, I’m just going to put out the ideal playing scenario I will work toward:

While on the Rogue, I need him to earn gold for his own goals but to assist with the other toons as well. In addition (more on this in another article) I want him to do emblem runs to get heirloom items. He also needs to work on getting all of his professions to 450 and still make his weekly commitments for raiding.

While on the Priest, I need to get her that to 80 and max out her professions. I also need her to focus only on the couple of goals I have for her. Since I also need to gear her up, she needs to be available for the occasional raid or heroic dungeon.

While on the Death Knight, I need him to focus on making some gold for his stuff and work on his professions. And finally on my Hunter I need him to level.

Here is where time management comes in. You’ll have to do your own math for your own uses:

I figure it will take about eight more days playing time to get the Hunter to 80. I’ll have the Priest to 80 in a couple of days and the DK to 80 within a couple of weeks playing. I play about 25 hours a week – missing that by some or a lot depending on how busy my week is. That’s about two and half hours a day during the week and five to six hours a day on the weekend. Yes, I have a job, a wife, a business, two dogs, mountain bike regularly; watch my television shows on TiVo, host dinner parties on occasion, go to church, write both articles and fiction all the time, and even play some Rock Band.

I want my level 80s (considering them the Rogue, Priest and Death Knight) to bring in 1K gold a piece each week. I make gold slow, so that’s about four hours per toon. This is done mostly through dailies, which also increases faction. The four hours also includes heroic runs. So there is 12 hours a week. I raid about five hours a week, which leaves eight hours I can dedicate to leveling, first as my Priest and DK and then my Hunter. That’s 192 hours over the next six months I can dedicate to leveling. I know that’s not enough to safely level all my toons, so I know about four months in I need to step back from at least one of my level 80s grinding out gold, which should give me just about the right amount of time.

With this figured out now, I know I can meet my goals of getting alts leveled. We’ll look at alt leveling strategies in the next article. I know that I have five hours each week I can spend raiding – not very much but enough to sufficiently keep up with progression, especially with heroic emblem runs that are already considered in my time. With bringing in 3K gold a week, that’s 12K gold a month. That takes care of dual specs and epic flying for the Priest and Death Knight in just one month. Leaving me three more months of concentrated cash flow = 36K and two months of abbreviated cash flow = another 16K. So my goal at the end of six months is everyone is dual spec’d, has epic flying and I have 42K that I can use toward mounts. Technically speaking, one of two things is going to happen: Either I need to bring in a little more gold in order to make these goals or I need to figure out who is going to lose a mount or two.

The intangibles are worked on while making gold and running around the game, and so I am okay with the pace of these and if by chance they don’t get done, for me they’re not as high of a priority to begin with.