Buying food is humiliating

My era of self sufficiency is officially over.

It was humiliating and I hesitated for a long time but finally Larísa took the step. At level 73 she bought her first stack of food from a vendor. Ever.

Blizzard is playing a joke at the mage class in the expansion. While they did add new food to the vendors, they didn’t give mages any new rank for conjuring it. Our food is now only half as good as the sold one and won’t become any better until level 75, when we learn to conjure mana pies.

At first I didn’t believe my eyes when I happily went to the mage trainer at level 70 to train the new food spell. I took it for granted that they would give us one. But the trainer just stared at me with a blank expression in his face, offering me nothing at the moment.

Trying on my own

Until now I’ve tried to manage on my own, changing my habits slightly. There’s no point starting every gaming session conjuring food since it’s useless and I won’t eat it anyway.

In order not to leave Larísa starving, I’ve stopped throwing away or vendoring food dropping from mobs. Instead I’ve stored it carefully in my bags, swearing a bit over the fact that the diet is so varied; it takes up quite a few slots. I’ve also come into the habit of using evocation as often as possible – I gave it an inscription so it returns heath as well as mana.

But finally I realised that my efforts wasn’t enough. In my long journeys, following questlines all over the place and rarely getting to an inn, I saw there was a potential risk that I’d end up with nothing but the Mage Emergency Food. So for a few silver, but at the cost of my self respect, I gave in and bought my first stack of vendored food. It was a Salted Yeti Cheese and I hope Larísa enjoyed it. After all she’s had quite a few croissants in her days, perhaps it was time for a change, even though salt cheese doesn’t sound too tasty.

Still, on behalf of the mages, I’d like to grumble a bit about it. All classes have some benefits. Shamans can walk on water, druids can swim, warlocks can make health stones. Mages can make food, that’s one of the things that characterizes us. And why not let us make decent food then?

Vacation
However, I wouldn’t be Larísa if I didn’t try to look at it from the bright side. Because in my misery, I’ve also noticed that the devaluation of the mage food has an instant effect on the demand of it. I don’t want my own food anymore, and of course no one else wants it either. In every instance I’ve run so far, I’ve offered the group a table, as any decent mage would do. But it’s always turned down.

Maybe we should view this period as a short vacation, when mages are free from their duties to cook? Soon enough we’ll be back to baking pies, not only for ourselves, but for everyone else too. Proud and independent of vendor food.