Just My Two Copper - WoW Gold Guide

cleaning out your closets

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:56 PM

Being less than 6 months from the release of the Mists of Pandaria expansion, the scramble is on for getting ready as a gold goblin. Structuring what items to store, what items to produce to eek out that last amount of gold that's available before people stop buying crafted items.

This is also a good time to restructure your storage system. Especially if you are holding more than one guild bank in your personal cartel. Keeping a well organized bank, including like items or items for specific professions will make things a lot easier time wise. You will know exactly what toon to swap to, and what tab holds the item you need.

Also with this change in organization you can keep track of supplies. there are addons such as Ark Inventory that will make the viewing easier. Setting your cursor on an item in your main inventory, or even on the Auction house will give you a report on any similar items you carry across your toon storage. Even covering the usage of guild banks as well as personal banks. This will also allow you to do directly to your storage center that contains what you need quicker, and with less hassle.

One other item to look to reorganize in this "down" time between the end of cataclysm and the beginning of Mists is what professions your toons carry. Mists is identifying to have an extra character slot (at least in the betas) which will allow at least one more game character per account. This gives you a prime opportunity to add another alchemist or another jewelcrafter to double your potential for profits. Some players have set up a multiple amount of alchemists to allow multiple transmutes, and multiple amounts of items on the market. With jewelcrafting it gives you the option of multiple amounts of jewelcrafting tokens, getting the prime cuts at a much faster rate.

Also your reorganization should include changes in placement of your toon. Do you have a game character in Dalaran to pick up items for resell from there? What about one in Tanaris giving you access to the joint AH to pick up items cross faction? Do you have a hearth set in Shattrath ready to do a recipe run? Placement of your toons across the continents can make things easier for not just crafting, but also for farming and resell.

The last thing to look at in your closet cleaning is your addons and game files. As the game continues, we all uninstall addons, leaving just the base files to sit there. Or stop using addons and forget they are even there. cleaning out your game files, and even to the idea of downloading a fresh copy of the game and reinstalling your addons can increase not only your gaming speed, but help to eliminate some of the possible errors when it's time to play with panda pride.

Good luck and good hunting

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

5 habits of successful goblins

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter

Should I sell or should I use

Upgrade your game, and your sales

Cruising around

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Stockpiling and Starting Capital

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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In the World of Warcraft, fortunes are made on patches and new expansions. Each new expansion and patch brings the opportunity for you to get gold-capped. Will you be the next in Mists of Pandaria? Now is the time to prepare! This series is about preparing for the next great gold rush in WoW: Mists of Pandaria!

So we've talked about building up a stable of Alts to use in our gold-making enterprise and what sorts of professions (part 1, part 2) we might want to use on those Alts to maximize our gold production. This week, we look at what to stockpile and how much starting capital to keep on hand for the early expansion push.

Stockpiling and Inflation
The purpose of stockpiling is really to fight inflation. Inflation works like this: over time, products and materials become more expensive. This process is accelerated as more money enters the Warcraft economy from non-player sources such as Bind-on-Equip loot drops, daily quests, vendor buy-backs and plain old questing rewards.

In other words, a stack of Elementium Ore might cost 50 gold. In Mists of Pandaria, that same stack of Elementium Ore might cost 70 gold. Or put another way, it takes 50 gold to buy a stack now, but 70 gold after Mists launches. Your gold is now worth "less" relative to the amount of Ore you can purchase. Stockpiling is a way to hedge our bets against inflation. If we convert 50 gold into a stack of Elementium Ore now, we can hold that ore and sell it for 70 gold later. If Elementium Ore rises in price, as in our example, we've increased the "value" of our gold.

Of course, some items won't actually increase in value, but rather decrease. Consumables for Cataclysm Content (current flasks/potions) are likely to decrease in value, especially at the start of Mists. While some items will return to a profitable state, it will be at a much lower demand, meaning you'll sell some, but not as much as you do now.

So what should we stockpile? Well, what's going to be more profitable in Mists than it currently is? Here are some thoughts:

Monk-Related Stuff

Anything that Monks might be interested in as they level should see a nice surge in prices as people start to roll Monks. Low-level PVP items for people twinking or leveling that way will be safe bets. Agility-based gear, especially for harder to fill slots like necks and rings will rise in price. The Cataclysm-level green gear (you know, the stuff that drops from the Cataclysm zones, but can be equipped as low as level 77) will be worth a pretty penny as people rush to level 90 with their new Monks.

Profession Leveling Materials

Check a place like WoW Professions for suggested leveling paths for the production professions. Where are the bottlenecks? Find those areas where supply will be short for someone leveling their profession and sell those materials on the Auction House at a high premium. Many people won't bother being patient, instead paying a premium to clear those bottlenecks. Also consider where the choke-points are for the Cataclysm level skill-ups. Finding enough Savage Leather to max my leatherworker was a pain. The problem will get worse once more people leave the 80-85 zones for good with Mists.

Wrath and Burning Crusade era enchanting mats and raw materials (ore, herbs, leather) are also safe bets initially, tho prices may drop a bit as the monk-leveling crowd moves through those zones.

Pets

With the addition of Pet Battles, and nearly all pets becoming tradeable, pets will see a surge in value. This is perhaps the safest of all the investments, especially if you can secure some of the rarer pets, because people will want to use them for their pet battle teams. Watching for deals on these now and reselling post-launch should net you a nice profit.

Starting Capital

Of course, you don't want to spend all of your liquid gold on stockpiles. Materials for leveling your professions in the first few weeks will be expensive. If you have enough gold to be able to afford the early leveling process, you'll have a head start on selling the new enchants, gems, glyphs, etc. Without enough capital, you'll be caught on the outside looking in, watching as others make sales at obscene prices to the launch-rush crowd.

It wouldn't be surprising to me if it cost 40,000 - 50,000 gold to level a profession like Jewelcrafting at launch. Any profession that relies on farmed materials (Jewelcrafting [Ore], Alchemy/Inscription [Herbs], Leatherworking [Leather]) will have higher starting costs than say Enchanting or Tailoring as gear drops and cloth can be farmed by everyone in dungeons and while questing. You'll be better off saving enough gold to level one profession to max than multiple professions to the halfway point.

The Wildcard

There's a potential wildcard in play here, however. It was recently datamined that there will be a "Black Market" auction house. According to WoW Interface (which attended the press tour), this auction house will sell rare items to players via NPC auction. This could be the largest gold-sink we've seen to date in Warcraft, as players will be able to convert some of their fortunes into gear and other power upgrades, but instead of giving that money to another player, it will leave the economy completely. As money leaves the economy, our gold will actually become worth more. Watch in the coming weeks for more information from the Beta about this feature.

Next Week

We wrap up our series talking about our starting strategy for the Mists of Pandaria launch sometime this summer.

Read the entire series!

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Alts
Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Professions (Part 1 and Part 2)

Mists Beta: Where Will AoE Looting Take Us?

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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If you haven't heard, Area-of-Effect, or AoE Looting has been added in Mists of Pandaria. Check Mommar's post yesterday for his excitement about the feature, along with a video about it.

So what does this mean for the economy and our gold-making going forward? A few areas that will be impacted, plus a surprising twist on where AoE Looting could take us in the future...

Skinning

Unlike Mining and Herbing, which rely on nodes spaced out on a map, Skinning can improve efficiency by gathering several mobs together, killing them, then looting and skinning. AoE Looting gets you to the skinning faster, which means more leather to sell.

Cloth Gathering

Cloth will see a similar boost in supply (and corresponding dip in prices most likely). I used to run the Stockades in Stormwind on my max-level tank regularly to get wool cloth. Now, I can gather up the whole instance, kill everything and loot once. Nice.

Transmogrification Farming

Have you gone back to look for old gear for transmog purposes? I know I have. You can't skip any loot, because that mob might be the one that has what you need. Much like the cloth gathering, you can now pull the instance (all at once or in chunks) and then loot it.

As a bonus, pop a potion of treasure finding if you go looting in the Cataclysm zones once you hit 90.

The AoE Looting Surprise
Of course, this stuff is all well and good, but what's the surprise twist? A while back, a question came up on the main forums about automating the prospecting and looting process for Jewelcrafters and Scribes. There were some limitations that prevented queue-able milling/prospecting (think like a Miner's smelting). I suspect the problem was that prospecting is really just a form of looting on a time-delay. You hit your prospect button, choose which ore to prospect, then wait a couple seconds before looting what you "find" in the ore.

If you think about it, the game is treating 5 pieces of ore or herbs like a mob. You "loot" it to find what's inside. So what if there were an interface similar to the trade window, where you drop in stacks of ore or herbs. The game could query the server for a loot-table on your products, then return it in one batch loot window, similar to how the mobs are being looted with this new feature.

This same system could be applied to items that need to get disenchanted as well. Drop a bunch of items in, hit the "Mass Disenchant" button and take all the materials from one window.

There would probably need to be a longer delay for a mass disenchant/prospect/mill feature to prevent these professions from becoming insanely unprofitable [Note: Thanks to Anonymous1 for catching the mistype] (can you imagine if prospecting 20 stacks of ore took only a few seconds?) but this could be the first step to making a more sensible system for handling these time-consuming processes.

O my O my O my

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 3:42 PM

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(video courtesy mmo-champion.com and youtube.com)

To borrow a phrasing from Quagmire of Family Guy fame. Giggity Giggity.. Giggity.

There is one big reason why I detest mob farming. Separate when you have to skin mobs for leathers, that's a part of the farming necessity. It's having to stop after 4-6 kills and individually gather up what they have, then start killing again. If you don't stop, then it times out. Or even more annoying when your on a speed run and your tank just wants to burn through everything, non stop without the need to loot mobs.

It may be a teaser, it may be the powers that be playing with our minds. But Mists of Pandaria beta has AOE loot access. Play the video and at the top and you will get a taste of the looting goodness. It wouldn't be the first time a cool feature from a beta doesn't make the finished product (can you say Dance Studio?) but this would definitely make a large change in the mob looting strategy. Especially dealing with reputation grinds. Kill... kill... kill. Loot. Kill Kill Kill

What does this mean to the gold goblin soul? Faster looting, less irritation with getting left behind on low level runs. And more Gold per hour looting in the future. All that warm my little gold loving heart.

But then you look at the other side of the coin. Is there a negative to something like this? Is it possible that blizzard will adjust this by lowering drop rates on certain items? Anytime that blizzard has adjusted looting rolls and looting rules, they tend to adjust on the downside for reputation grinding purposes. To make it even out as far as getting exalted reputation.

Is this going to open up the solo running of dungeons if you can do a low level dungeon in 3-4 pulls and fill your bags in minutes? In 70's tank gear I used to try to three pull Scarlet Monastery. Taking me longer to loot all the mobs in the throne room than it did to finish the instance (I really really wanted the hat from there).

How is this going to effect farming in general? Areas with more compact mob packs will be AOE'd down and looted in minutes. And the items they drop arrive on the AH in more frequency?

Okay, enough of the questions, back to Giggity .... giggity o my giggity.

Good luck and good hunting

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Professions (Part 2)

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Strong But Declining

These professions will start off with strong initial sales, but will decline to more normal levels after a few months. They will not remain as strong as Jewelcrafting and Enchanting, but should be a better gold/hour investment than the gathering professions and Engineering.

Alchemy

People are willing to pay for shortcuts in Warcraft, and that means high-end gear that can be sold will be bought by someone. I remember getting 200-300% profits, not counting procs for transmute specialization in the early days of Cataclysm thanks to the demand for first-tier (359) epics. While the profits eventually declined for Truegold, they remained high in Volatiles. This is likely to happen again for the high-end metal (Mists-Truegold) and there will likely be a fallback plan as well.

In addition to the Mists-Truegold, however, you'll also have gem transmutes. If the cooldown remains off, you can transmute as many common "green" quality gems into rare "blue" quality gems as you can get materials for. This will help your Jewelcrafter make even more gold (if you have one) or still turn a tidy profit selling the gems to other Jewelcrafters.

Potions, especially healing and mana seem to be in decline in Cataclysm (no health/mana pots drop from mobs), thought they've remained profitable if you're a good shopper for raw materials. I'm uncertain what to expect from potions in Mists, but I think they'll continue to be small profit items overall compared to other markets. Flasks could see a surge if the guild cauldrons aren't updated to Mists-level buffs. If they are, you'll likely see a surge at first, then decline as guilds get their people leveled and stocked with cauldrons.

Recommendation: Because of the daily limit on transmutes, they will remain extremely profitable throughout launch and into the 2nd content patch. While the initial leveling at launch may be high, there's probably enough profit to support 3-4 alchemists. If you're looking for a good pairing, Jewelcrafting and Herbalism are good partners for Alchemy.

Inscription

I initially wrote this post before the Mists of Pandaria Press Tour. At the time, glyphs didn't seem to be in line for a major overhaul. Now, however, it looks like we'll be seeing a large surge with the extremely large number of datamined new glyphs entering the market. Read the full list at MMO-Champion. My big question now is if these sales will be limited to after Mists of Pandaria launches by requiring the new herbs/inks to create, or if they'll use older inks, allowing us to sell them during the pre-launch event where they patch in the new systems, but don't open Pandaria for a few weeks.

There will be money in creating Darkmoon Decks and Cards. Darkmoon trinkets have historically been best-in-slot for the first tier of raiding in an expansion, but have often remained strong contenders into the 2nd and even 3rd content patch. Mists should be no different as people look to spend some of their amassed wealth on top-level trinkets. Expect to burn through a lot of herbs creating the cards, as well as doing lots of wheeling and dealing with other scribes for the cards you're missing, but the payoff could be huge. Darkmoon business alone could get you to the gold-cap.

In addition to the decks, expect a surge in Mysterious Fortune Cards due to a shortage on the market. Blackfallow Inks will be in short supply as the farmers rush into the new content and Mists-level herbs. While the Mists-level herbs can be down-converted into Blackfallow, they'll cost significantly more. Smart scribes (and non-scribes for that matter) will stockpile Blackfallow Ink as well as MFCs for sale after the supply dries up a few days or weeks into Mists.

Recommendation: One scribe will do. Books of Glyph Mastery and research are the current limiting factors on Inscription. You'd be insane to want to do that more than once.

Blacksmithing

Blacksmithing has lots of niche markets, but very few wide-appeal ones. They are, however, the only game in town when it comes to enhancing belts. The belt buckle enhancement is needed anytime someone upgrades their waist slot, and you'll be the one making them. Prices fluctuate throughout the expansion, but generally remain quite profitable.

You'll also want to craft and post some rods for enchanters to use right at launch. Be the first to get some up and you could command a premium price. Enchanters will need a new rod in order to start leveling their profession and making the new enchants. You'll want to supply them.

Tank Plate and all the weapons are traditionally strong sellers for Blacksmiths as well. Guilds will want to outfit their tanks as quickly as possible to begin running heroic dungeons and raids. Tanks are usually among the first to get guild support for gearing and enchanting, so you should see some strong sellers here. Weapons of any kind can be the most difficult and painful slot for people to fill, usually because there's strong competition for them. They also are responsible for some of the biggest DPS gains, so people are going to want them. You'll likely be limited by the number of Mists-Orbs (like the current chaos orbs) you can obtain, should Blizzard keep the existing paradigm of them dropping from dungeons.

Recommendation: One Blacksmith is sufficient.

Tailoring

PVP gear is going to become less critical for people getting into the PVP scene, plus it will be a lower iLevel than equivalent PVE gear, so it won't be as useful for bypassing the iLevel restrictions on dungeons and Looking For Raid.

Tailoring should continue to see profits into Mists of Pandaria with the leg enchants for casters, as it is currently the only source of the enchant. The smoother upgrade path of Dungeon/Heroic/LFR/Normal Raid/Heroic Raid will help keep a steady supply of upgrades flowing.

Another point in favor of Tailoring is the bigger and better bags that will arrive in Mists.We'll almost certainly see one larger than the current Embersilk Bag and wealthy pack-rats everywhere will rejoice at paying a steep premium for 2-4 additional slots in their inventory.

Recommendation: One tailor is sufficient, though a 2nd could be beneficial for the first tier of crafted items if there's a similar cooldown to Dreamcloth in Mists.

Leatherworking

Leatherworking has many of the same issues that come with tailoring. The gearing issues for PVP should be mitigated by the larger pool of people needing the gear (Caster/Melee Leather plus Caster/Melee Mail). Monks using leather will also be a nice boost.

Also like tailoring, this is the only source of leg enchants for melee classes, so there should be a steady supply of income from them as well. Mining bags in the early part of Mists should be strong with the added number of people farming to take advantage of the initial surge in prices, but should taper off quickly after that.

Recommendation: One Leatherworker is enough, but don't worry if you don't get there.

Overall Recommendations
If I'm ranking all the professions and putting them into slots on a character heading into Mists of Pandaria, I'd go with the following order:

1. Jewelcrafting / Alchemy
2. Enchanting / Alchemy
3. Inscription / Herbing
4. Blacksmithing / Mining
5. Tailoring / Alchemy
6. Leatherworking / Skinning

One caveat to this is that you might consider going Inscription / Blacksmithing in slot 3 so that slot 4 can be a dedicated farming Mining / Herbing alt that you use for the first couple weeks.

Read the entire series!

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Alts
Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Professions (Part 1)

The race is on

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:29 PM

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It's almost here. Your Warcraft world is about to change.... again. Are you prepared????

Mmo-champion.com and other websites have started the rush of information. New stats, new classes, new glyphs, new gear. The list is endless, and just like every expansion previously, a gold goblin will sift through the information to find that little tidbit that will increase their profits.

In the next few weeks we will talk about specific areas to look to farm when MOP opens up. What to collect, how to get the most bang for your buck. But there is one thing right now that will make your life much easier in the long run. And with any beta, information can change by the minute as new builds are released, and new areas are explored. But there is one thing that you can do right now that will put you ahead of everyone else.

Go to your local store, buy yourself a notebook and prepare to make copious amounts of notes. The small pieces of info to the large pieces of info. From our website, from forums, even from your friend that you talk over a beer. Each little piece of information that you get, write it down, and get ahead of everyone else.

Every expansion since Burning Crusade I opened up a new notebook to start taking notes. dividing it into areas that I was the most comfortable with. Why? Because information is power. And the more information you have, the more power you have to offer others. Whether it's the small bit of info on where to find small eggs. to finding raptor meat, skins, metals etc. Each part of the puzzle creates the mosaic of your gold making pattern.

Will this be required to make gold in MOP? Not really, the inflation of quest rewards and more gold being available will make higher and higher gold plateaus available. Where 1 million gold is a very high goal for many, don't be surprised if it becomes more commonplace. But as with anything, the more gold available, the more specialty items will cost. And ultimately more demand on skills that pay the billz. That's really what we're all here to do isn't it?

So go get that notebook, get your favorite pen and get ready for the race. Don't get left behind.

Good luck and good hunting

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

5 habits of sucessful gold goblins

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:29 AM

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As a overall strategy is developed in making gold with World of Warcraft. Developing repeatable habits will continually give you the upper hand on your competitors.

Building your ethereal function isn't a matter of luck. It's a matter of repeatable skill bases that are developed or learned as you continue. Building on one block to another as a pyramid of gold is built.

1. Set goals.

Many beginning gold goblins flounder around trying to "get lucky" with their gold sales. Basic goals such as "have enough gold to play" doesn't general give the pleasant satisfaction that you get from arriving at 50k gold, 100k gold even a million gold plus. Setting goals that build on other levels you have arrived at. Even the seemingly unobtainable goals of giving a tundra mount to all of your fellow guild members. Each step to the goal gives you the understanding that anything is possible.

2. Be active

It's a guarantee that you have no chance of obtaining a gold strategy without being active. This means to know both the mechanics of the auction house and trade channel. And also logging in, putting up your crafted items and selling. Where a vacation is nice from time to time, as the game winds down waiting for the beta of Mists of Panderia expansion. the gold goblin remains active in different markets. Even if it's a matter of storing up for the upcoming sales.

3. Think outside the box

A simple sale of a crafted item is always nice. But at times the competition is extremely heavy. Where if you add an incentive to the sale (pre-socketed items, pre-enchanted items, ) you can beat your competition to the punch. The gold going into your coffers and not into your competitors pocket.

Instead of selling individual items, selling in bulk. Selling leveling packets for professions. Selling full sets of PVP gear. If you can think outside the normal sales flow, you create your own product lines. And your own sales.

4. Prioritize

What is the driving force of your sales cartel? If you only have time to post up one set of auctions, which one will you post? This is where your knowledge becomes important. Spend an hour on inscription that nets you 1k gold each time, or your jewelcrafting that nets 5k gold? Your time is really what you offer to the gods of warcraft gold, time plus your knowledge is what sets you apart from those floundering in their sales.

5. Think long term

Making gold in warcraft is not a sprint, it's a marathon. There will be good days, and there will be bad days with little or no sales. You will sell 50k one day, an 5g the next day. It's the goblin that stares at the future and looks for the opportunities as they arrive, and is prepared when they show up. Having stored up material for crafting while others are searching the auction house for each scrap. Knowing farming patterns and timing to be at the peak of efficiency. Planning ahead is the gift that a gold goblin must develop.

Your habits is what builds your portfolio and even your reputation of having the right materials, the right gold monies and the right knowledge. Habits of a gold goblin developed over time.

Good luck and good hunting

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter

Should I sell or should I use

Upgrade your game, and your sales

Cruising around

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Its all in the bag

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 2:28 PM

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For those that have asked, or even if you've just asked yourself. I've been having some personal issues

that's prevented me from writing. Hopefully they are taken care of. But on with the show.

Anyone who has played wow will tell you. It's all in the bags. from the 16 slot [Netherweave Bags] crafted by tailors. To the larger profession bags that add multiple slots to your toons personal storage ability.

But one of the biggest questions to ask is which one should I have? Should I use the 32 slot [Pack of Endless Pockets] for my crafting inscriptionist. Or just use the now common 16 slot bags found from multiple locations (you can even get larger storage bags from rare drops in certain dungeons and running quests).

It's really all about time and storage on why it's important to have as much bag space available for it's use. Many of my toons I've leveled to 85 and then they just are used for crafting. So it becomes more important for them to carry profession specific bags to give more room to store items. Where two of my characters are used for raiding, so they need the flexibility of regular bags to store anything, plus also the ability to store mats during crafting cycles.

Also remember when looking at bag storage your personal bank for each character uses bag for it's storage area as well. Swapping between regular bags and profession bags much each to move crafting materials between the bank and being on hand. Leatherworking and blacksmithing makes this a very useful idea when swapping out bars and skins.

Gathering toons always will enjoy the convenience of the larger storage bags for skinning and mining. Where the highest bags can become expensive depending on the server economy, you might look at the slightly lower level bags that can be made available for a few coins.

If you don't have the crafting ability to make the large bags, don't forget to just advertise having the materials and offering a tip to the crafter. It can easily save you 100's of gold just for a few moments time.

One of my favorite sites Crafters Tome will give you a good idea of what bags are available for crafting
in the chosen profession.

Good luck and good hunting

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

They call me the mad hatter

Should I sell or should I use

Upgrade your game, and your sales

Cruising around

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Professions (Part 1)

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Choosing Your Professions

If you're starting with a blank slate, some combinations of professions are better than others streamlining your gold-making business. Which professions should you choose? Which professions should be your highest priority if you can't get them all? Based on Cataclysm and Wrath of the Lich King, and what we know right now about Mists of Pandaria, here are some things to consider when choosing your professions...

The Long-Haul Professions

These professions will be the mainstays of the expansion. These will be some of your strongest gold-makers in the early stages of the expansion, but will also remain very profitable throughout.

Jewelcrafting

Nearly every gear upgrade once you hit heroic dungeons will contain sockets that need to be filled by your gems. I expect dungeons to be shorter in length, more in the style of Wrath of the Lich King based on the return to that formula late in Cataclysm. Faster, smoother gear upgrade cycles will result in steady business.

There will be some sort of shuffle for you to participate in, which leads to lots of gems for selling in addition to other revenue streams. Leveling your Jewelcrafter from the Auction House will be expensive in the early days, but the key will be getting to the Jewelcrafting Daily Quest on day one to start collecting tokens. Every day you miss the quest, you'll fall behind for grabbing patterns. If Mists is released in the first (or last) week of the month, you might be able to use the Darkmoon Faire profession quest to skip a particularly troublesome leveling block (like the Hessonite/Nightstone or Shadowspirit Diamond bottlenecks in Cataclysm).

You'll also be able to sell blue rings/necks to characters in the early months of the expansion, with profits dropping as time goes by and the rings become outdated.

Recommendation: Two JCs will serve you well in the opening days, but the benefit will tail off with time as you get all the best patterns. If you've got slots to spare and money to risk, you might give it a try. Most people will want to stick with just one JC.

Enchanting

Another mainstay for this expansion will be enchanting. The same dungeon difficulty change theorized above will result in more enchants being needed more consistently throughout the expansion's life cycle. The first level of enchants will be popular early on because of high crystal prices. I don't expect the difference to be as severe as Cataclysm because Looking For Raid will likely introduce epic gear that could end up getting disenchanted once that gear is replaced in the normal version of the raids. There will still be an extended period of high crystal prices, but it won't last quite as long as Cataclysm's Maelstrom prices did.

The real value of the Enchanting profession, however, will be the ability to disenchant gear. Your own leveling gear (quest rewards/world drops) and gear from leveling your other professions (Tailoring/Leatherworking especially). Even more profitable, however, will be pairing Enchanting with Jewelcrafting to participate in the new shuffle. This will lead to raw materials for leveling Enchanting, plus extra mats to sell to others on the Auction House.

Recommendation: You'll probably only need one enchanter as the existing bottlenecks for enchanting tend to be gold-based in the form of recipe costs, not token-based like Jewelcrafting.

The Launch Rush Professions

These professions are going to be extremely strong out of the gate, then settle into an average to below-average return on your time invested. If you fancy big profits quickly, focus on these for the first 3-4 weeks of the expansion, but don't neglect basic maintenance/leveling for the mainstays above. One significant change from Cataclysm worth noting is farming will generally be slower than the rush at the start of Cataclysm. Players will be restricted to ground mounts until they advance to level 90. This means slower travel between nodes, decreasing overall supply, sending the price/unit higher.

Mining

Mining provides the bulk of the raw materials for Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing and some for Engineering. Jewelcrafters will be your biggest consumers in the early days and weeks of the expansion. Mining retains some value throughout as Blacksmiths need the processed bars for use in their products. Alchemists will need some of the bars as well for their transmutes.

Recommendation: You probably want one farming alt for the early stages of the expansion if you can spare the slot. Pairing it with herbalism could be a strong setup if you plan to sell the materials at the auction house. If you plan to use the ore yourself, then pairing with your Blacksmith or Jewelcrafter would be safe bets.

Herbalism

Herbalism provides the bulk of the raw materials for Inscription and Alchemy. Scribes will be burning through your herbs for Darkmoon cards and glyphs, while alchemists will use them for potions, flasks and gem transmutes.

Recommendation: If you want a farming alt, pair it with mining as mentioned above. If not, consider pairing with Inscription or Alchemy.

Skinning

Skinning is probably the weakest of the farming professions early on, but seems to fluctuate the least throughout the expansion. Because it only really supplies Leatherworking in large quantities, demand is simply not as high overall as Mining and Herbing. There are a lot more Jewelcrafters, Alchemists and Scribes looking to burn through Ore and Herbs than there are Leatherworkers looking for your leather. Still, there will be strong sales out of the gate, just not as good as the others.

Recommendation: One skinner is enough. It's the weakest of the farming professions overall, so make it your last priority in this category.

The Step-Child: Engineering
Unless there are major improvements made to the Engineering, it will continue to be a niche profession. There are some fun things you can do with it, including lots of convenience/quality of life improvements like mailboxes, repair bots, looterangs and more, but as a pure profit center, it just doesn't cut it.

The major selling points for Engineers has been the motorcycle mounts (though I rarely see them in the cities these days) and some pets. You've also got the perk of epic first-raiding-tier quality goggles. Engineering is the only profession I don't currently have (which I plan to correct on my current crop of alts hitting 85 before Mists), but there was a reason for that. Engineering just hasn't been a priority for me because it's too niche for my gold-making strategy.

Recommendation: One Engineer should be enough for anyone, but don't me afraid to leave this out of your arsenal if you don't have lots of max-level alts.

Next week, we'll look at the remaining professions, what I'm calling the Strong But Declining group.

Read the entire series!

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Alts

What I Hope to Learn From the Mists Press Tour

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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If you didn't know, there's a "plethora of information" being released on Monday about the newest Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. I thought it would be good to share some of what I'm hoping to learn from the press tour. I'm not sure all of these things will be covered, but I'd like to know:

More Information on Stat Changes
We already know a little about the stat changes coming in Mists. These changes will affect Jewelcrafting and Enchanting in big ways. We know expertise is going to become more desirable for Melee and Hunters, which means more options for selling red gems and hybrids with Expertise. We also know resilience is going away and being replaced with PVP Offense and PVP Defense. What will happen to our existing resilience gems? Will there be new gems for these stats? Will colors be affected like the move from yellow to blue for Hit gems from Wrath to Cataclysm?
Realm Population Balancing
Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym said they're working on a solution to low-population realms. I'm wondering if there is a plan in place to seamlessly merge some lower-population servers into super-servers. We already have our server name appended in dungeons, why not in the real world? These super-servers would see immediate improvements and changes in their economies. It would bring wild fluctuations in prices as a new normal is determined, but new competition as well as clients.
Profession Plans
I'm not expecting any new professions. But how will they treat our existing ones? Will there be gating for recipes similar to the Twilight Highlands vendors that we saw in Cataclysm? What about daily quests for all of the professions? Will we continue to use the Chaos Orb pattern from Cataclysm, where they are untradeable at first?
Economy Improvements
What new gold sinks are being added to the game to fight inflation? Are there any major improvements coming to the aging Auction House interface? Was the Winged Guardian Cub a success and can we see more BoE Pet Store options?

These are just a few of the things I'd like to know. My hunch is that we'll see the Beta released shortly after the press event, possibly even on Monday when the information starts flowing, though it's more likely to happen a week or two later after the initial surge in publicity that the event will generate. It doesn't make much sense to open the floodgates of information from fan sites, only to overshadow it with the release of the Beta.

What are you hoping to see and hear on Monday?

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Alts

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Multiple Max-Level Characters

One of the most critical cogs in the gold-making machine is having multiple markets in which you participate. The more professions you have, the more gold you'll be able to make. But in order to get more professions, we need to have more max-level characters.

Unless you've already maxed out your character slots on your server, this is going to be an important step for you as you look to make your fortune. If you're sitting on only one or two max-level characters, this step is even more critical. Thankfully, leveling characters has never been easier. However, there are still some tips to share about the leveling process to maximize your efficiency while also making some gold along the way.

Simultaneous Leveling

Historically, I've committed to a single character and brought them up through the levels until they were level-capped, then started on my next character. While this is a workable solution, it's often not the most efficient. It's actually much faster to level multiple characters at the same time. Here's why:

Rested Experience
Whenever you log off, your character will accumulate "rested" experience. When you are in an inn or capital city, you gain one "bar", or 5% of a level, of rested XP every 8 hours. You'll know you're receiving it when you see a little "zzz" in the bottom left of your portrait. In 10 days, you'll gain the maximum 1.5 levels of rested XP. When you return to your adventures, you will receive double XP for all kills, farming (herb/ore) and archeological digs. So if you level one character, then let them rest while leveling the next 2-3 to the same point, you'll return to some rested XP bonus.
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
If you don't mind the repetitive grind, level all your characters in the same zones. I've liked revisiting the remade starting zones, but I find it's faster to level through zones I know already. The first time through, I'm constantly checking the map and quest text for directions, but the 2nd and 3rd times through go much faster. If you're chain-running your alts through a single zone, you'll find the subsequent trips to get faster and faster as you learn the routes and locations for quests. You might consider taking each character through the zone, then starting back with the first for your next zone and repeating the cycle.
Shared Drops
Another point in favor of simultaneous leveling is that your characters will be receiving the same "junk" as they level. Read my post about optimizing gold while leveling for some tips on how to sell the valuable goods (and how to identify what's valuable). Trade Skill Master will be critical to your success here. Use your first character to set up groups for the items. (TIP: The TSM tooltip tells you what group an item is in. If it's not in one, nothing will be listed so you know you should add it.) At the end of each zone (or whenever your bags get too full), mail all of the auctionable stuff to an Auction Alt and post away. I like to price this stuff to move out of my inventory, not necessarily make the most gold. If you want until all your characters have been through the zone, you'll be able to list everything in the largest groups possible.

Professions While Leveling

Next week's post will go into more detail about professions to use, but a quick word here about them. For most of my characters, I've opted to level with one or two "gathering" professions. Generally speaking, I don't like to level my production professions until I hit (or get near) max-level. I've found skinning to be the easiest to keep up to date with my current level, followed by mining and herbalism. But if you're using heirlooms, you're likely to out-level your gathering professions and will need to spend time "catching up." I like to build up rested XP (see above) and then use that on catching up the gathering professions.

I then use the resources from this farming to level my production professions later. If you have a lot of gold already, you might consider skipping the farming as it will definitely slow down your leveling overall if you have to go back to level your gathering skills. If you're short on gold, you'll want to do this and save the materials in your bank for leveling your production professions later.

One exception here: if you know one of your characters is going to be an enchanter, it's worth leveling it enough to be able to disenchant your unneeded quest rewards and old gear, which in turn helps reduce the cost of leveling your enchanter. You can also send the enchanter all your Bind-on-Equip gear you find while leveling if it doesn't sell for disenchanting.

Next Week: Professions

You will farm... and you will like it

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 3:53 PM

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Playing WOW long enough and you will hear it referred to as "world of farmcraft". Between having to farm for gear, and even at times for materials to sell or craft, it's an integral part of the game as it's set up.

It also becomes a matter of knowledge and time on how to gain the materials. Want [Elementium Ore]
to sell or crafting? Find your favorite spot, and put on some music and mine your characters heart away. Need gear for a low geared toon? Farm heroics and the most recent dungeons for the gear, and the VP to purchase gear. It's a part of the game that you cannot get away from.

Personally, I dislike farming. I farm the AH for the most part of items and materials i want, freeing me to either craft items, to try new strategies or to level toons. Regardless of what I try, there are still times that I have to go dig the ore myself, or skin a mob myself. It's just the nature of the game as a whole.

It's also the easiest way to make money in Warcraft. Put on some music, get into a comfortable position and kill, mine, fly to the next area. Going back over to the AH to put up your loot and then return to the scene of the crime. It is part of the arsenal of any goblin gold making toolbox.

Almost every gold making guru has a "farming" toon of their own. Their main existence is to be the farmer for the entire toon cartel. Having a combination of two out of the three major gathering professions (herbalism, skinning, mining) keeps them busy and active. Making them fundamental to the overall strategy of gold making goblin.

If you don't have one, make one. If you have a low level one, level them. If you don't want one, your putting yourself one step behind the competition. Which is never a good place to be at.

Good luck and good hunting

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

They call me the mad hatter

Should I sell or should I use

Upgrade your game, and your sales

Cruising around

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Gold Making too easy?

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:10 PM

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Every so often I get emails from fellow players. Requesting specific tips, or strategies for their servers

or to their current professions. Generally I try to provide these to the best of my ability. Hoping to not just open up opportunities for their professions, but to help educate them on advancing beyond what I share with them to be able to find their own market niches.

With each progressive expansion more and more gold is poured into the economy. Also with the plethora (there is your quarter word for the day) of guides, websites and sheets on how to make money in WOW. Has making gold become to easy?

Any player that has a large amount of money in their banks will tell you, it changes how you play the game. You no longer worry about gear repair, or how much that sword of awesomeness is. If you want it, you buy it, if it drops you either decide to equip it for one of your alts, or you sell it. Occasionally even the generosity of people show up with showers of 10k gold to random strangers, or games of hide and seek appears in trade chat.

So what would happen if WOW actually tightened up the gold making process? Currently you are not required to craft or sell a single item to make gold. The opportunity to just do solo and daily questscan make a significant amount of gold. Many quests at 85 being over 50g per to turn in, vendoring greens and even vendoring blue items (please do not do this, every time you vendor a Blue BOE a kitten cries somewhere). What would occur if WOW lowered quest rewards to 5g per turn-in. Dailies just gave reputation/xp? That would make knowledge of making gold separate from questing that much more important.

In all reality, this isn't that far off of an idea. Diablo 3 introduced a Real money auction house (RMAH for short) going hand and hand with a regular game gold auction house (more details and strategies can be found on one of friend sites at http://www.diablogoldsecrets.com/. Would this type of strategy work with WOW? A complete overhaul of the AH we know now that lowers the gold amount, and evens the playing field?

Gold making at its heart has quickly become a stable part of the warcraft game format. With it's own pitfalls and rewards. But goblins are prepared for anything, even the possibility of something being too easy.

Good luck and good hunting

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

They call me the mad hatter

Should I sell or should I use

Upgrade your game, and your sales

Cruising around

Didn't I just read that there?

You talk to much... losing the sale

Five things you should be selling: Cooking Edition

Five things you should be selling: Engineer Edition

Cataclysm's Impact on the Mists Economy

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

0 comments View Comments

Way back in Vanilla WoW, making gold was extremely difficult. I remember thinking I'd never be able to afford a standard ground mount, let alone the higher level one. With each expansion, however, making gold has gotten easier and easier. In the Burning Crusade, daily hubs were introduced to help people grind gold more efficiently. In Wrath of the Lich King, the daily hubs were improved and gold-making became more accessible to more people.

But with Cataclysm, the gold-making scene exploded. There was enough gold in the economy at the end of Wrath to prime the pump for exponential gains in gold. People had more disposable income by the end of Wrath to spend on new things in Cataclysm, plus there was an increase in gold entering the economy from vendor gear/goods (whether that was quest rewards, or the insanely high value of common gems at the start of Cataclysm.

So what will happen in Mists of Pandaria? Unless Blizzard acts, we'll continue to see a widening gap between those who have a lot of gold/resources and those that are scraping to get by. Farming will likely increase if ore/herb/leather prices continue to rise. Farming isn't for me, but it can still be quite profitable, especially if you enjoy doing it. Farming will of course be lucrative early on in the expansion, but I can see it being more popular longer into the expansion.

With the even larger disposable income we'll have at the end of Cataclysm, you can expect people to be more willing to pay premium prices out of the gates for vanity items as well as gameplay-improving stuff (gear, enhancements, etc.). This could include mounts, transmog gear, crafted weapons and armor, etc. There's also the entirely new market being created for pets with the pet battle system.

How can you prepare for this transition? I'll be sharing some thoughts over the coming weeks on what you can do to get ready.

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Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Professions (Part 1)

What I Hope to Learn From the Mists Press Tour

Mists of Pandaria Preparation: Alts

You will farm... and you will like it

Gold Making too easy?

Cataclysm's Impact on the Mists Economy

Insider Gold Strategies

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