This post was submitted by Jens as her application to write here at JMTC. If you would like to see Jens write more then please give her a thumbs up in the comments!
As our dear goblins keep telling us, Time is Money. Yet for many of us time is a limited resource most days, and bountiful on other more rare occasions. In these prepatch days I see tons of posts on forums and blogs on how to stockpile different goods for maximum Money. The question I ask then is, can you stockpile Time?
I found myself with tons of time in the weeks before Cataclysm hit, and I knew I would be needing lots of gold in the expansion, yet I wanted to invest in something that wouldn’t suffer in the inevitable inflation of Cata. So I started leveling…
More specifically, I got myself a RaF account and boosted a ton of characters to level 61. At approximately 6 hours per 2 characters I got the ones I wanted in only a few days. Then one at a time I leveled these characters to 75, while buying a ton of herbs when they were cheap, to level their alchemy skill to the Wrath max. Since the frostlotuses were cheap those days, I also stocked up on flask herbs to reach 465 alchemy skill.
When Cataclysm hit us I had as anticipated no time to spare on goldmaking, yet a huge need of gold. Luckily I also had 13 Transmutation masters placed by the alchemy trainer with an alchemy skill of 465. At a comparatively low cost I leveled these to 485 and summoned them to the inn at Ramkahen in Uldum.
What I’m crafting with these Transmuters is the [Transmute: Living Elements]. This turns 15 [Volatile Life] into 14-16 random volatiles. But when standing in Uldum, the volatiles will always be [Volatile Air] which on my server sells best. Should you want another volatile simply place your alt in Mount Hyjal for fire, Deepholm for earth or Vashj’ir for water. You can expect a few random volatiles to procc from Transmutation mastery almost every day as well.
Now every day I log in on these characters, press one macro and log off again. Once every few days I place a portable mailbox by them to reduce running distance by a few yards and press one other button to mail the volatiles to my AH alt.
I craft around 200 Volatile Airs each day, making 20g profit per sold volatile, posting them in stacks of 30, 20, 15, 10, 5, 4, 3 and 2. This nets me 4000 gold per day at 3-5 minutes of invested Time. You could argue that it’s not 4 minutes for 4k, since I spent the time leveling as well. But the thing is, I stockpiled that Time when it was worthless due to being in abundance, and I’m unloading it when it’s expensive… Kinda.
I am crafting all of the Volatile Airs my server needs, and by being rather aggressive on the auction house I have ended up being the only provider on the server.
The macro I’m using to craft is this:
/cast Transmutation Master
/run for i=1,GetNumTradeSkills() do if GetTradeSkillInfo(i)=="
I’m using the addon Bulkmail to send the volatiles with a single mouseclick.
To mail the volatiles to my alts I use:
/run local n="NAMEOFALT"local x=GetMouseFocus()local b,s=x:GetParent():GetID(),x:
So whether you are a raider with lots of Time before the patches, a weekend player or even a summer wow-junkie, make sure you either level an alt or find your own way to stockpile your Time!
Do you want to write for JMTC? Send in a post to Markco and if it makes it past the initial screening process then I will publish your submission on the blog. JMTC pays 50% commission to writers on the day that their post goes live.
Do you want to write for JMTC? Send in a post to Markco and if it makes it past the initial screening process then I will publish your submission on the blog. JMTC pays 50% commission to writers on the day that their post goes live.
37 comments: on "Using the Time You Have"
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 8:36 AM
Yeah, good points there, Thumbs up
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 8:59 AM
A very intresting read, I have never seen goldmaking from this angle. Stockpiling time, fun indeed. Well written as well.
Only thing is, Jens is a male name, in Denmark at least.
Tribalh said... June 15, 2011 at 9:01 AM
Great post I did exactly the same at the end of wrath and dual boxed 12 toons to 60 using RaF, same idea I wanted a alchemy army but when cata hit I focused on main toons and I'm now in the process of leveling them to 75 :D
Thumbs up for the post these are getting better each day :D
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 9:02 AM
Excellent article, perfect even for the real world in terms of finance.
Summerginger said... June 15, 2011 at 9:03 AM
13 transumation masters, sort of excesive? = 13 toons. Theory is good but practically it sucks. But thanks for the macros
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 9:28 AM
Looks like Marcko might have some competition
Scarletohara said... June 15, 2011 at 9:49 AM
I don't know where to thumbs up your post, so I'll just comment that I want to give you a thumbs up! I have done something similar to the RAF account in order to speedily level characters for professions in preparation of patches, xpacs, etc. But I love your idea of having 13 xmute masters, I can see that being very lucrative and extremely time efficient. Great idea! Hope to see more posts from you : )
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 10:07 AM
Well done! Very detailed, just one term I did not understand "RaF account".
Tyler said... June 15, 2011 at 10:32 AM
Thumbs up on this post too(:
I've always tried to play it smart when I knew I would be gone for a span of a few days by using the time I had to get something more effective done than idling in orgrimmar but never thought of it in this way, good post(:
Saffronia said... June 15, 2011 at 10:48 AM
RAF= Recruit A Friend
Cornering the volatile air market with your multiple transmute alchemists on your server is indeed 'goblinish' Jen!
I'm leveling my blacksmith for more volatiles and just did the last Mt. Hyjal quest, 'The Firelord'. Volatile earth drops
from mining nodes and occasionally
some gems.
My alchemist does 2 dailies in Uldum, The Bomb Run and Thieving Little Pluckers and then
transmutes volatile air.
I'm spread out on my characters with most professions so I can't concentrate on cornering a market like you have. I did start picking all the starter herbs for switching my Inscription/herbalism
to Inscription/Alchemy, but decided
my druid is just too good for picking herbs!
Anyway, I was reading your article on The Undermine Journal and it was flowing good and then I hit a mental snag. RAF!
WTH is RAF again. Recruit-A-Friend.
:D Have fun Jen
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 11:11 AM
So i learned with more alchelmist's i can do more of the alchelmy cd.
Clint R. Murphy said... June 15, 2011 at 11:20 AM
Great post - I really enjoyed it.
There are quite a few of you that have alchemy armies.
Unfortunately, I only have 2 characters above level 20 so that may be out for me.
Definite thumbs up and good luck on your journey.
Xsinthis said... June 15, 2011 at 12:13 PM
Very interesting article, never really thought about time as a resource to be "stockpiled". We definitely need more of these types of articles floating around.
Also, something raped the formatting of the article in my email.
scottiegazelle said... June 15, 2011 at 12:46 PM
Well written and a good overview and reminder that we need to mind ALL of our resources, not just the ones that stack up in guild bank slots
april said... June 15, 2011 at 1:11 PM
Wow, 13 transmutation masters.
I assume that you're buying 200 volatile life each day for your transmutes? The price difference between volatile life and air is more like 5-10g than 20g, so it wouldn't be quite as lucrative for me. That said, I'm thinking of leveling up a second xmute master so that I can reap twice the profit from truegold and volatile xmutes when 4.2 hits.
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 2:15 PM
Great Advice. I only have 2 I do this with, but it's well worth it!
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 2:31 PM
Great post, i love the "outside the box" thinking. Never would have though to stockpile time :P markco, please hire her!
lostorc said... June 15, 2011 at 2:39 PM
this post is different in that it tells not how to make money, but how to use the time to make money.
Realy enjoyed the information here!
havent tried the makro's yet!
Thumbs up from me!
cujospup said... June 15, 2011 at 3:21 PM
The best post I've read on here in a long time. She covers her main point of 'making the best use of your time' well enough. But, she also touches on a couple minor topics like macro use(with examples even) and maximizing your professions. And, to top it all off it's well written. Jens stands head and shoulders above the candidates we've seen so far. Excellent work.
cujospup said... June 15, 2011 at 3:21 PM
The best post I've read on here in a long time. She covers her main point of 'making the best use of your time' well enough. But, she also touches on a couple minor topics like macro use(with examples even) and maximizing your professions. And, to top it all off it's well written. Jens stands head and shoulders above the candidates we've seen so far. Excellent work.
Sorry if this is a repost.
Skorpsy said... June 15, 2011 at 3:22 PM
hmm I like this post. I liked yesterdays writer too, i just like this one slightly more-enough to get off my ass and post. :) She makes me wish I would remember my volatile cd more often than the once a week I do. :P
Anonymous said... June 15, 2011 at 5:25 PM
Thumbs up! This is a very interesting idea that is fresh and new amid all the other stockpile posts we've seen recently
Bones said... June 15, 2011 at 7:37 PM
Excellent post Jens!
Love it when people think out of the box.
To add to Jens post, there is another way to stockpile time.
And that way, is to hire labour to help in your farming/crafting strategies.
Hiring people (in game) will free up alot of your time for other stuff all the while allowing you to bank their time for your own use.
Sure you make less money per transaction because you have to pay someone... but you gain in many more transactions.
This is how large corporations leverage employees.... a 1 employee company, will not generate and the same revenu as the efforts put forth by 10, 100, 1000 ore more employees.
More food for thought for you peeps out there.
Jafo said... June 15, 2011 at 9:09 PM
Very good post. Keep more coming.
Gaiwyn said... June 15, 2011 at 9:20 PM
Nice. Never thought of stockpiling time, or how to go about doing it. Very neat, fresh idea, even if you are a little whacko for levelling 13 transmute alchemists. Hahaha. Thumbs up, indeed! Especially with the addition of two neat script-based macros.
I would never be able to log even 5 toons in 3-5 minutes, let alone 13. How do you get into the game so fast? My crappy laptop takes 2-3 minutes to log ONE character in (and another 2 mins to log out). :(
Wow, so bulkmail is working again? That is awesome. I switched to postal because it stopped working for me earlier this year. But one thing that is annoying about postal is that you have to click the button to start opening all your mail. :/
BTW, did you choose 13 because you are a WoT enthusiast or is that a coincidence? >.< I really hope it's the former. ;)
Peter_Rotten said... June 16, 2011 at 8:14 AM
Best post I've seen on any gold blog in a long time. It is so hard to find some "new-ish" on the subject of making gold, so this really shines in a pile of buy low/sell high.ourti
Anonymous said... June 16, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Big Thumbs up!
Great tip, thanks for the info!
Anonymous said... June 16, 2011 at 11:24 AM
I like the creative base concept for the post -- stockpiling time would be a great topic for a thread that collects lots of thoughts/tips.
On the less positive side of things, though, the focus on transmuting life to air wasn't exactly amazing info...so I worry a bit about whether this author really has what it takes to consistently produce interesting posts. Am willing to give her a chance, though.
One tip for any writing: Write out and very briefly explain terms rather than using acronyms. Even some experienced WoW players don't know what 'RaF' means (as you can see in this thread). Without knowing that, a major highlight of the post is lost.
Anonymous said... June 16, 2011 at 12:22 PM
This is Stede
While 'stockpiling time' is certainly novel, I found it disinteresting.
Personally, I felt your drive towards parallelism in transmute alchemy to be a far better story.
Time is something every Goblin considers, but the reason why the big bloggers consistently harp on diversity - in terms of leveling toons for more profession slots - is because most Goblins don't level toons just to make gold.
They do it because they want to have fun with another race or class. Multi-boxing a RAF account isn't something that most folks will do. The concept of leveling alts when PvE content is stale isn't profound.
At the same time, a reader can take your transalch operation idea and apply it gradually as s/he levels alts. Again, that's the interesting part - to me.
Anonymous said... June 16, 2011 at 12:56 PM
very good post, i thought the max char you can have is 10?
Braidy said... June 16, 2011 at 6:13 PM
Not only outside the box, this is above the box. Love this one. I hope to read more from you here! Congrats for a very nice post.
Silverthorn said... June 16, 2011 at 11:49 PM
This was an exciting article and it gives me some wonderful new thoughts to mull over.
This was kind of an autobiography-- I'm not sure the author can come up with another "life story" quite as interesting or as useful, without living another life!
Fortunately, that isn't required. This is the framework, so to speak, so now it's time to fill in all the pieces, starting at L0 and going into more detail along the way to the present.
What alts did you roll and why? What were your experiences "towing"? What was hard and what was easy? What were the plums along the way? What were your tools and macros for dualboxing effectively? What about addons?
Are these alts merely slaves in quest greens and blues or were they equipped and played at some point? What are their second primary professions... and why?
I've made a lot of alts and I've gone the route to max-level all the professions. I wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible. I simply hate having to troll the trade channel for others to craft stuff, but I still do and probably aways will. Why?
Because the highest level patterns and crafting materials will always come from raiding. That's where the true altoholics cannot go, because the time and gear requirements require focus on just a toon or so. This approach seems much better!
Faid said... June 17, 2011 at 6:14 AM
To echo what an Anonymous said earlier: "So i learned with more alchelmist's i can do more of the alchelmy cd."
That says it pretty plainly.
That's right, gold makers! You too, with a substantial real-life money investment (Recruit a friend Account + All Expansions + Subscription fees) followed by a rather hefty time investment (6 Hours per pair of characters, with at least 13 characters = two full days of play time, roughly, not counting the time spent from 60-75 with no RAF triple experience) followed by the rather hefty gold investment to level 13 Alchemists along with the continued real-life cost of subscriptions for two accounts can control your server's Volatile Air market.
ITT: More alchemists = more alchemy cooldowns = more gold. Was there anything original or even outside the realm of common sense in this post at all?
MoxNix said... June 17, 2011 at 7:03 AM
It looks like your herbalist is getting fair value for the heartblossom but your Jewelcrafter isn't getting anywhere near what he could sell the raw gems for to just about anyone else. 15-20g PER carnelian would be more like it.
Anonymous said... June 17, 2011 at 3:14 PM
"You could argue that it’s not 4 minutes for 4k, since I spent the time leveling as well." True, and yet every time you use the CD the time you spent leveling is dividing into even more profit which eventually makes that time spent so small in comparison. So eventually it really does become "4 minutes for 4k."
Very good post. I really liked it. I've been doing the same thing (sort of) with regard to transmute masters and the 100+ truegold I've made recently to stockpile makes me a happy panda. Great job.
benno1980 said... June 18, 2011 at 6:15 AM
Stockpiling time at the end of an expansion, what else can you do anyway ?
Would need to set current state game to make this effective.
And yes as others pointed out, ofc you are going to make a lot of money if you have around 20 chars :-/
Anonymous said... June 19, 2011 at 4:23 AM
Great post Jen, thumbs up <3
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