Just My Two Copper - WoW Gold Guide

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

5 habits of successful goblins

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter

Gold-Making 101: Your First 100 Gold

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Join us on a journey from rags to riches. The Gold-Making 101 series will walk you through the basics of getting started on your road to the gold-cap. This week we cover some of the basics that will be the foundation for your gold-making journey.

Getting Started
The hardest step in your gold-making journey is going to be your first few steps. If you're continually low on cash, can't pay repairs, can't afford enchants and gems, or are just scraping by, you need to invest some time and effort into making gold. Generally speaking, gold-capped is reached through discipline and doing small tasks consistently over time. There are very few "get rich quick" schemes in life and there are very few in the World of Warcraft also. Every gold-making empire is built on doing small tasks consistently over time.

I'll be assuming you're starting from scratch with no gold and no level-capped characters. If you have some character assets to start with, great! You're ahead of the game! But what if you don't? Well, the first step is to create some. Their race and class don't matter at this point. The point is that we need something to work with on our way to gold-cap.

The Bank Alt

One of your characters is going to function as the banker for your gold-making empire. While race and class don't matter a lot, you might consider races/classes that have speed-boosting abilities. Worgen have the racial Darkflight, which grants a running speed boost. Rogues, druids, shaman and mages all have some sort of speed boost. This will help save you some time while you run around the city. It's a minor advantage, however, so don't get too caught up on it.

You'll want to level this character to at least level 5, then head to the capital city for your faction. Horde should ultimately end up in Orgrimmar, Alliance should end up in Stormwind. This will give you access to face-to-face deals with people in the future. There are also some low-level gold-making opportunities in these cities for this character to take advantage of.

The Adventurer

The second character is the one you're going to be using to adventure and make money out in the world. This might be an existing character, or it might be a new one. You'll use this character to complete quests, farm materials, level professions and generally be your "main" character. Pick a class and race that you enjoy playing. While there are some advantages for different races with different professions, they aren't so overwhelming that you need to worry about them now.

Your First Steps to Gold Cap

Now begins your journey to the gold-cap. Here are some things you should be doing with each character:

Adventurer

Your first priority is getting to max level. A mix of dungeons and questing will probably be the fastest, though questing will generally provide you with more gold along the way, which should be useful for you in the future.
Don't buy upgrades. Nothing is so difficult while leveling that you'll need upgraded gear from the Auction House to overcome it. Questing and dungeon drops provide all the power you need. Don't buy enchants or gems (levels 60+). If your class has a glyph that will help you level faster, buy it if they are reasonably priced. However, you can always come back to this later when you have more gold.
Buy upgraded bags. Every rule has an exception. The one upgrade you should purchase is bigger bags. Netherweave are a great bang for the buck at around 10 gold on many servers. If you don't have that, there are faction bags available from the capital cities (There are 6 bags in all for each faction, from each of the playable races). These bags are 2 gold once you reach revered, which you should do in no time while questing in their zones.
Sell everything you get. Back when I was a guest writer for this blog, I wrote an article about how to optimize the gold-making process while leveling. You should read it. Most of that still applies today. One thing that's new since then, however, is Transmogrification (or mogging for short). Mogging allows people to change the look of their armor/weapons while keeping the stats of their high-level gear. So gear for a level 85 character can be made to look like a level 30 player if you wanted to. (Note: Control-Click gear to see what it looks like on your character to evaluate if it's worth selling) There's a big market for this gear, especially:

Head, Shoulders, Chests, Legs, Hands, Feet, Cloaks and Waist slots. These are the visible pieces of armor.
Weapons, especially if it has a more unique look to it.
Anything black. Black boots might be worth 3-4 times as much as green boots with the same model.
Headpieces that show the face while active.

Learn a gathering profession. You can learn professions at level 5 from trainers in the capital cities or other locations around the world. I'd suggest mining and skinning, mostly because I find herbalism to be the most difficult to keep up with my level. Farm as you level and you can make some good gold.
Pick up recipes from vendors as you find them. Generally speaking, if a vendor sells a recipe and it's not bind-on-pickup, you can sell it for a profit on the auction house. Send them to your banker for sale. WoW Confidential has a pretty comprehensive list of what's out there, though the page requires Internet Explorer to see it correctly. You can download the spreadsheet version of the list directly here.

Banker

Scan the Auction House. Get an addon like Auctioneer, Auctionator, or Trade Skill Master (I prefer Trade Skill Master with the automatic updates. Faid at Clockwork Riot has some great videos that go over how to use Trade Skill Master if you've never used it before. Your goal here is to look for good deals on items that are low-priced to purchase and resell for a higher profit. Much of my early gold-making success was built on flipping a small variety of items like low-level gems (Malachite, Citrine, etc.) for profit. The way to tell if something is underpriced is to have good auction data to work from, so scanning the auction house regularly (if you don't use the auto-update feature) is critical.
Buy Low, Sell Normal. This post from 2009 is still applicable today and goes over the strategies to make this successful. As you look at the markets, you'll start to notice trends and get pretty good at flipping items. Snatch lists are going to be your friend here.
Systematically sell your drops. Did you read that article I linked earlier? Read the part about using Trade Skill Master again. There's some work involved setting up the initial groups and systems, but once you do, you can re-use it for your next character that you level, and the one after that, and the one after that. You can easily make 10,000 gold on the way from level 1 to level 85 (or 90 in Mists of Pandaria) by just selling your drops. If it's green, blue or purple, chances are it has some value on the auction house.
Check the capital city for goods to resell. The Gold Queen has a good overview of items and why this works. Again, if it's a recipe, or it has a limited quantity available (it's limited if there is a number in the bottom right corner of the icon), it's worth something on the Auction House. Find out which ones sell well on your server and focus on those things. These aren't big profit makers, but as you get started, they can help get you going quickly.

If you missed any in the series, check read up on the rest of the Gold-Making 101 series:

Gold-Making 101: The Basics

Grey: The New Purple

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:09 PM

Now from the title you might be thinking that blizzard made a game changing announcement, that all those items you have been vendoring with extreme prejudice have become the most valuable items in the game.

Sorry to bust your bubble but when Mists of Pandaria releases, the great purple search will begin again. All of these things we have spent hours collecting will mostly become as valuable as what they can be sold for when replaced.

But I've been a collector at heart since I started. Whether it was trying to collect the entire [Moldy Leather Armor] (Ultimately I collected it all, it was only amusing to me when I brought up my stats on the old Wow Armory). To my current obsession which is hats. Seems that the stranger the hat, the better.

But can this obsession make people money? The view of things I have is yes. Some of the coolest looking items are items that have no real game value other than to the collector. Whether it's hats, or all of the different old school metals (anyone remember when you had to do a Naxx run just to do some basic smelting?). The niche market in odd items still exists.

Does this mean you should post all of your grey items in the hopes that you might get a sucker on the hook? I wouldn't suggest it currently. Noone is going to want the [Gold-Capped Troll Tusk] from zul farrak. But take a moment to look at what your vendoring on one of your grinding sessions. Sometimes posting up an unusual item might grab another bit of gold for your stash.

Anyone got any hats to sell?

Just call me Mommar. The Mad Hatter

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries
Have you posted epics today?
Netherweave Cloth: It's math time
Time to Invest... Invest in Time
Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

5 habits of successful goblins

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter

Have you posted epics today?

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 2:10 PM

Yesterday being server reset day, I was posting up my normal allotment of items. Epic armor patches, Spell threads, everything that a raider with new equipment would ask for. Including in this is my epic and standard gem package etc.

As we get closer to the release of Mists of Pandaria (the new pet battle system has just been released), we get closer to the tipping point that players will stop purchasing items of gear for their alt toons. As with any economic system, there is a point in the curve that the investment stops being worth the time and the money that is put in.

Are we there yet? Probably not, as long as items still sell then there is profit to be made. But now is the time to keep track of your investments more closely. Are you getting the most bang for your gold? Is your army of Alchemists or Jewelcrafters posting up gems at the right times, or are the base mats better to be stored for later sales.

Items such as Truegold and epic gems will start to lose their value, and when MOP is finally released they will end up having even less value. Players will look to either gem or enchant with cheaper materials, or ignore altogether looking for the gear at the next level.

A good idea currently is to make absolutely sure how much you have invested in your craftable items, and balance between what items will be more valid sales when Mists if released. Discounting sales of items to produce more turnover will allow your profits to remain at the same level, but not end up getting left with materials that devalue in the long run.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries
Got Glyph?
Netherweave Cloth: It's math time
Time to Invest... Invest in Time
Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

5 habits of successful goblins

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter

Got Glyph?

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:45 PM

One of the biggest money making opportunities coming up before the release of Mists of Pandaria will be
'Glyphmas part 2'. 'Glyphmas' originally was when Blizzard expanded the glyph mechanics to 3 tiers and added/removed multiple glyphs. Players bought multiple glyphs to fill the gaps they had in their toons. Large amounts of gold were made by the inscriptionists that were prepared.

But left out in the cold were the non inscriptionist who watched players rake in 1000's of gold per day. This time the non inscriptionist can be prepared to make a sizeable profit from just a little time and investment.

On many servers glyphs are going for inexpensive (I'm hesitant to use the word dirt cheap, but 1.5g per glyph is right next to dirt on it's cost). These glyphs are going for less than it costs to purchase the ink itself. So a wise investor will start to look for these bargains to sell when the rush hits. I set my purchase limit to 10g and my total limit to 20 glyphs. Depending on your server size you may raise or lower these limits.

The easiest way to do this is to go into the standard search directory for the auction house, click on the glyph category and then flip the search so that it goes from lower to higher. Doing this will also allow you to look at glyphs that are for a low bid. Bidding low is a good way to occasionally get a high level win in the gold rush. If you lose your bid, you get your gold back. Win and relist either now or later when the demand is at it's highest.

Also a good target will be the inks themselves. Just stay away from the speciality inks [Fiery Ink] etc unless your very familiar with what each ink can be used for. Mid level inks such as [Jadefire Ink] will retain it's value.

Later on we will have a more detailed suggestion on 'Glyphmas revisited' and how to take more advantage of this boon in the market.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries
Netherweave Cloth: It's math time
Time to Invest... Invest in Time
Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

5 habits of successful goblins

Its all in the bag

They call me the mad hatter

We have you cornered

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:00 AM

Neatherweave Cloth: It's math time

As I was on my server Friday night waiting for my random dungeon timer to pop. A guild mate of mind commented that someone was attempting to corner one of the enchanter markets.

Now I'm all for taking advantage of certain behaviors. There are many ways to remain on top of a market without gouging for cheap profits. So the guild mate and I chatted a little bit about this idea. The market the random person had decided to try to corner was the [Dream Shard] market.

Becoming perplexed of why they decided to try to corner this market, I did a little mental calculation. [Dream Shard] are disenchanted from blue items from the Wrath of the Lich King content. These are used for many of the enchants from Wrath, but haven't been in seriously high demand for a while. Some of the epic enchanting patterns that some will use for armor and weapons during cataclysm still use them, but not to the point that cornering the market as a whole will make a dent in the supply.

So where was the mistake that the investor made? His biggest mistake is overpricing an item that isn't in that high of a demand. He purchased the dream shards for 5g a piece, and instantly listed them for 35g. Not very long after multiple people checked into their stacks from guild banks, enchanters and undercut him in a heartbeat. So where he made money, unless he babysat the investment it would quickly drop off the purchasable market.

The first rule of cornering a market is to find something that is not easily renewable. Many guilds still have stacks of [Dream Shard] sitting in their banks. As well as pack rats who throw nothing away. So the supply was quickly replenished, far above the demand.

I would have suggested an item either from the Cataclysm expansion ([Maelstrom Crystal] and [Heavenly Shard] is always a tasty target for a quick market corner and flip investment technique. Personally I have many times did a quick corner of the [Savage Leather] market and [Pristine Hide] sales. Both of these are items that take time to replenish, and most will pay the premium price rather than farm or wait til they are available later.

The other rule of cornering a market is timing. Friday night does not get the same crafting traffic as does a saturday night, or even the night after a server reset. The quick corner technique is dependent on having someone there quickly to sell to. If the crafters are not on, or the enchanters then sales do not exist, and the replenishment factor continues.

Another rule is how difficult it is to replenish in itself. [Titansteel Bar] is in high demand due to the creation of [Mechano-Hog] ( the alliance version included as well). With the limited amount of [Eternal Fire] and [Titanium Ore] available, the [Titansteel Bar] becomes easily controllable with a few select investments.

With these few tips hopefully your late night corner marketing becomes successful in the future.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries

Time to Invest... Invest in Time

Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

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

Neatherweave Cloth: It's math time

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 2:49 PM

One of the parts of writing a journal/blog is to present my logic of why I do things. Why I invest

in certain items as well as choose not to invest in others. Granted I'm not correct in everything (at any point you have my permission to remind me of the great pyrite debacle). Next week I will be looking at all the cloth and it's investment potential come Mists expansion, but i felt that netherweave deserved it's own look.

Currently stacks of [Netherweave Cloth] sell from 5g to 10g (anything higher I tend to ignore because it's not within a safety parameter I've set for investing). There ends up being four different investment possibilities for the cloth. Tailors can make both Bags (16 slot [Netherweave Bag]) or the (18 slot [Imbued Netherweave Bag]). Mid level patterns can also be crafted for toons leveling ([Netherweave Pants] for example). Also the benefits of crafting these mid level pants and tailoring items is that they can be sent to an enchanter to be disenchanted into enchanting materials ([Arcane Dust], [Large Prismatic Shard] and [Greater Planar Essence]). All three of these can be sold on the AH for decent profits (ranging from 2g to 10g depending on your server).

The third and fourth investment opportunities are to sell them in their raw form. With the Mists expansion there will be another shortage of materials from previous expansions. Burning Crusade will be 2 expansions behind, and with the accelerated leveling process, less and less time will be spent leveling and farming in Outlands. So that will set less and less opportunities to grab cloth from mobs in the Outlands area. Stacks of Netherweave in raw stacks or in bolts will be in higher demand. High demand and low supplies always drive up the prices

of items.

So here is the math I promised you. All of these numbers are based from possible projections as well as numbers from The Undermine Journal

First lets look at just purchasing and flipping stacks of Netherweave

[Netherweave Cloth]

(stack of 20) (Cost 10g)

- Potential sale price 15-35 per stack

- Potential profit 150% to 350%

- Easiest investment/profit for non tailors

Next Bag Creation

[Netherweave Bag]

(20 cloth (10g) + 1 run thread (.50s )

- Total investment per bag 10.50g

- Potential sale price 25g (rough estimate, with the release of cataclysm some bags sold at 35g per)

- Potential profit percentage 250% to 350%

[Imbued Netherweave Bag]

(60 [Netherweave Cloth] (10g per stack) + 2x [Netherweb Spider Silk] (6g per ) + 8 [Arcane Dust]

(2 gold per) + [Greater Planar Essence] (12g per)

- Total Investment per bag - 70g

- Potential sale price - 150+

- Potential Profit Percentage 100%+

- (one caveat with sales. Many people will not want to pay a premium price for 2 extra slots)

Tailoring Options (example)

[Netherweave Pants]

(30 [Netherweave Cloth] (10g per stack) + 1 run thread (50s)

- Total Investment per item 10.50g

- Potential Sale Price 20g or less

- Potential profit Percentage 75% of less

(caveat with sales is this pattern is heavily used to level tailors. So it will be listed often on the AH)

[Bolt of Netherweave]

(5 cloth)

-Total Investment - 2.5g

-Potential Sale Price 10-15g

- Potential Profit Percentage 400% to 600%

Enchanting/Disenchanting options (requires tailoring/enchanting combination or outsourced profession)

[Netherweave Pants]

(30 [Netherweave Cloth] (10g per stack) + 1 run thread (50s)

- Total Investment per item 10.50g

- Potential Disenchanting sale price

- 2-10 [Arcane Dust] (4g per arcane dust assumed) = 8g to 40g )

- 1-5 [Greater Planar Essence] (10g per Essence = 10g to 50g )

- 1 [Large Prismatic Shard] (12g per Shard)

- Potential Profit percentage (-25% to 400%)

(caveat is what you end up having an item disenchant into. Assuming low amount of materials)

All of this math is very dependent on your server and it's expectations. If you have a high farmer population then the prices will be driven lower. Or a high new character generation, then bags will become more popular and thus be driven higher. The enchanting/disenchanting options become the biggest gamble. Possibility exist to purchase the Netherweave items from the AH at inexpensive prices and resell them or Disenchant them into their base materials.

One of the biggest suggestions that I offer is to keep your inventory liquid. Do not be in a hurry to craft the bags currently. 1 bag = 1 slot, and locks you into selling just that item. Keeping your stashed inventory in either bolt form or in stack form with give you the flexibility to take advantage of how the market fluctuates.

My current investment strategy is to stay with Netherweave/Imbued Netherweave bags as well as selling stacks of Netherweave cloth. But if the market calls for it, I want to adjust accordingly my sales priorities.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries
Time to Invest... Invest in Time
Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

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

Gold-Making 101: The Basics

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

Options For Making Gold

There are lots of options for making gold in the World of Warcraft. I'll go into specifics more in future posts, but for now, here are the basics:

QuestingCompleting quests, especially at the level-cap, can bring in a steady supply of gold. Once you've reached max-level, any quests you complete that would have awarded experience, instead reward gold. The more experience you would have gained, the more gold you can earn. In addition, you can sell or disenchant the quest rewards from some additional gold.
Daily QuestsEach character can do 25 daily quests each day. The gold reward varies between 10 - 20 gold per quest. As an added bonus, daily quests can help increase your reputation with various factions, granting access to recipes or other perks.
GrindingTake your best Area-of-Effect DPS toon, gather up a bunch of mobs, kill and loot. You gain gold from the junk you sell, plus you could net some valuable gear to sell on the auction house. There's also a very slight chance for rare world-drops worth big cash on the auction house or direct to other players.
Farming/GatheringGathering herbs, ore and leather can be quite lucrative and is a relatively safe gold-making venture. Sell your materials on the auction house or directly to other gold-makers in trade chat (use /2 to access the trade chat channel). Standard practice in trade chat is to post something along the lines of "WTS [x] stacks of [item] for [y] gold/stack. PST." WTS is short for "willing to sell", PST is short for "please send tell". If you aren't sure how much an item goes for, you can look up the average value at The Undermine Journal or check your local auction house. You need one of the gathering professions to collect the herbs/ore/leather. You can also farm cloth by killing and looting humanoid mobs. All of these items have good value to other players.
CraftingYou can actually increase the value of the raw materials received from farming/gathering by processing them into more lucrative finished goods. You will need professions such as Jewelcrafting or Enchanting to do this, and not all recipes are profitable.
Auction House FlippingLook for deals on the auction house on items that are underpriced, then re-sell the items for a higher price. This is a classic gold-making strategy that can be accomplished just by monitoring the auction house. There are some risks involved in the process as some items seem like great deals, but you're never able to sell them for a profit. Others are consistently available for deals to be resold later.

Professions

There are 2 classifications for professions: Primary and Secondary. Each character can have a maximum of 2 primary professions and all of the secondary professions. The primary professions can be broken into 2 groups as well: Crafting and Gathering. Each gathering profession supports a few crafting ones. The existing professions are:

Primary

Alchemy (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates potions, flasks and transmutations. Uses herbs from Herbalism.
Blacksmithing (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates plate armor and weapons. Uses ore from Mining.
Enchanting (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates scrolls for enchanting weapons and armor. Also allows you to disenchant items for materials.
Engineering (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates fun gadgets, scopes for ranged weapons and vanity pets/mounts. Uses some ore/bars from Mining.
Herbalism (Gathering, Blizzard's Overview)
Gather herbs from nodes placed throughout each zone.
Inscription (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates glyphs, Darkmoon Cards and relics. Uses herbs from Herbalism.
Jewelcrafting (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates gems for enhancing gear, as well as rings and necks. Uses ore from Mining.
Leatherworking (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates leather and mail armor, plus leg enchants for melee classes. Uses leather from Skinning.
Mining (Gathering, Blizzard's Overview)
Gather ore from nodes placed throughout each zone.
Skinning (Gathering, Blizzard's Overview)
Gather leather from certain mobs throughout each zone.
Tailoring (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates cloth armor, leg enchants for casters and bags. Uses cloth from killing humanoid mobs.

Secondary

Archaeology (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Dig artifacts from the ground in designated areas, found on the world map. Artifacts range in value from a few silver up to several hundred gold. There is also a chance for some rare drops for your character to use.
Cooking (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Prepare food that characters use to buff stats, including party/raid-wide feasts.
First Aid (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Creates bandages from cloth.
Fishing (Crafting, Blizzard's Overview)
Catch fish from pools or bodies of water. Fish can be sold at the auction house raw or processed via cooking for sale as food.

Up Next: First Priorities and Your First 100 Gold

Come back next Friday for the next post in the series about getting started on your journey to gold-cap by making that first 100 gold.

Time to Invest... Invest in Time

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 4:34 PM

Every so often I get requests for personalized help. If I can help people from time to time to specialize
tips to their server then I'm grateful. It means that this small tour of my thoughts reaches someone.

But there is a common thread with all the requests. A misunderstanding or sorts that makes me wonder
just what the expectations players have with making gold. No matter the updates, patches, addons, advice given by any blog. There is no easy button when it comes to time.

The same amount of time that is used to level a toon, gear a toon, prepare them for normal dungeons, heroic dungeons and even raiding. Preparations also have to be done for making gold. Whether it's just getting used to the Auction House, farming or purchasing materials for crafting. Or learning how the market works. A learning curve is necessary every day to become the ultimate in gold goblins.

When an emailer messages me asking how they can make "lots of gold", my first question is what do you bring to the table? What professions, what farming abilities do you feel comfortable with. But ultimately it comes down to how much time do you have to invest. One of the best addons for making gold is Trade Skill Master has a steep learning curve from the start. Even with the "semi automated" system it installs, there is an amount of time that is necessary to gain materials, craft items and list on the auction house.

Farming for patterns requires an amount of investment in time. Leveling alternate toons for acess to other professions adds more time to the investment total. All of these add up to just how much is brought to the table to gain your goblin gold.

Many goblins make 10k+ gold a day. They spend hours just listing auctions and gaining materials. And that is the cut off between what is necessary to make gold. Your knowledge will only get you so far, your time becomes more valuable the farther up the gold ladder you want to rise.

Trading off is that knowledge can help shorten up the required time. A 10 minute look at Wowhead or one of the many gold blogs will show you how to increase your gold per minute spent. And with knowledge becomes power to be that much farther towards your goals.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries
Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

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

The 64 bit client blues

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 4:19 PM

4.3.3 64 bit client must be uninstalled

Generally this journal is about making gold. Being a gold goblin and wanting to post up auctions today
early after the server restarts, I attempted to log on. The client automatically tried to update. Not a problem, happens all the time.

Then I got this error.

Okay, annoying, but lets just restart the client again. Nope. Same error.

So a quick search of the worldofwarcraft.com technical support gave me this

My house was filled with the sounds of "ugh". Figuring this might end up being a long drawn out process

I clicked the link. Thankfully not a lot of work was necessary.

1. Go to your installation folder for warcraft

2. Delete these 3 files

Wow-64.exe

MovieProxy.exe

Battle.net-64.dll

If you have a mac delete

World of Warcraft-64.app

Restart the warcraft loader, you might end up getting a message of corrupted game files, don't panic

just let the booter run it's course.

Then keep an eye on the link to the warcraft site at 64 bit client and download it when available.

No harm, no foul. Thanks Uncle Blizzard. Could you warn us next time before I get more grey hair?

Added: Updated client now available here

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries

Loot rule changes in MOP

Cleaning out your closets

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

Thinking Outside the Old World Box

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 8:00 AM

1 comments View Comments

When I started playing Warcraft a couple of years ago. I brought some of my personal habits along with me. one of them is to use and reuse items such as papers and folders. In the case of Warcraft I detested throwing away anything. This included scrolls, items that dropped such as feathers. The idea being at some point someone would need something, and I wanted to have it.

So as I was doing an auction scan I saw some [Nexus Crystal] on the Auction house for relatively cheap. Knowing I had a few still in one of my guild banks I decided to do a little research (against popular opinion, no one can know everything right off the top of their head).

Low and behold I found the enchanting spell of [Nexus Transformation]. This peaked my interest. Transforming a [Nexus Crystal] into a [Small Pristmatic Shard]. The quest gets a little more interesting
and my goblin senses start to go a little wild.

Delving into my own knowledge that combining 3 x [Small Pristmatic Shard] into a [Large Prismatic Shard] I knew I had something. Prismatic shards go easily for 10g a piece now, and soon will go higher. Enchanters need these for their [Runed Adamantite Rod] as well as a few Burning Crusade recipes [Enchant Chest - Exceptional Stats] being popular with levelers and twinks.

Now, will this break the goblin bank and bring you riches? No, but what it does is show that you can take what looks like a complete throw away item, and transform it into something that will sell for multiple times the value.

As we look into our Mists of Pandaria future, old world items will be cast away by those that don't think outside the easy box. It's the future gold goblins that will take those mats, and see a new way of making gold with them.

Good luck and Good Hunting

Past Entries

Loot rule changes in MOP
Cleaning out your closets
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

Mists of Pandaria Beta: Moving Away from Red Gems?

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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There has been lots of Jewelcrafting news from the beta this past week. Most notably, we heard about not 1, but 5 new mounts that Jewelcrafters can make: Dawnstone Panther, Emerald Panther, Ruby Panther, and the Sapphire Panther, plus you can combine them into the Jeweled Onyx Panther. All signs point to this being the major gold sink that Mists of Pandaria needs to help bring the economy back into balance for the majority of players.

But there's a much more significant development for Jewelcrafters hidden in the beta files: we might be moving away from red gems as the flagship gem. For comparison, here are the "Purified" hybrid gems since Burning Crusade:

Burning Crusade

Common: Purified Shadow Draenite (+3 Intellect, +3 Spirit)
Rare: Purified Nightseye (+4 Intellect, +4 Spirit)
Epic: Purified Shadowsong Amethyst (+5 Intellect, +5 Spirit)

Wrath of the Lich King
Common: Purified Shadow Crystal (+6 Intellect, +6 Spirit)
Common: Perfect Purified Shadow Crystal (+7 Intellect, +7 Spirit)
Rare: Purified Twilight Opal (+8 Intellect, +8 Spirit)
Epic: Purified Dreadstone (+10 Intellect, +10 Spirit)

Cataclysm

Common: Purified Nightstone (+15 Intellect, +15 Spirit)
Common: Perfect Purified Nightstone (+18 Intellect, +17 Spirit)
Rare: Purified Demonseye (+20 Intellect, +20 Spirit)
Epic: Purified Shadow Spinel (+25 Intellect, +25 Spirit)

And here are the datamined "Purified" gems in Mists of Pandaria:
Common: Purified Roguestone (+60 Intellect, +120 Spirit)
Rare: Perfect Purified Roguestone (+80 Intellect, +160 Spirit)

Notice the difference? For the first three expansions, there was essentially a 1:1 relationship between primary stats (Intellect in this case) and secondary ones (Spirit). This meant that unless there was a great socket bonus on gear, people would ignore the bonus and just gem primary stats, all of which are red gems. But now the relationship seems to be moving to 1:2. For every point of a primary stat on a hybrid gem, there are two points of secondary stats.

At first, people will happily gem red because that's what they are used to doing. But eventually, knowledge will trickle down that hybrid gems are actually worth more point-for-point than red gems. This fits perfectly with Blizzard design goal of more interesting choices. Talents were revamped to make everything more interesting.

Why wouldn't gems get that treatment? I suspect Blizzard has data that shows a large percentage of people simply gem red in most sockets and they don't like it. They want players to have to think about their choices and weigh all the options. Making gems less of a no-brainer is a good thing in their mind.

For Jewelcrafters, this means that you'll be selling other colors (at least, orange/purple hybrids that contain a primary stat) with more frequency. This diversification will help raise the profitability of the profession and normalize prices a bit more across colors. I can see the new ranking for gem values to be:

Lowest: Blue/Yellow (Single stats, none of which are primaries)
Lower Middle: Green (Hybrid stats, none of which are primaries)
Upper Middle: Orange/Yellow (Hybrid stats, some of which are primaries)
Highest: Red (Single stats, most of which are primaries)

The groupings aren't that different from current, but instead of a large gap between Red and all others, the gap between Red and Orange/Yellow will be much smaller, with a larger gap between Orange/Yellow and Green.

So what do you think? Will this change make it live? Will we see more profitable options for Jewelcrafters?

Pricing A Guild... Pawn Star Style

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:25 PM

A couple of days ago a friend of mine approached me. They informed me that a friend had a guild
to sell. Ever since Warcraft implemented Guilds and Guild banks, it's been a good way to obtain extra storage slots.

Buying a guild is a negotiation. Many of them are empty of items, just ending up being purchased for the storage area. But in this case the guild itself contained multiple items. Some were vendor bait (poisons, vendor materials, items that would never sell). Also contained in these were some sellable items.

Working through my mental progression of what the items were worth, and where they would be best used for, I came up with a suggested value, then slashed my offer by 40%. Negotiation brought to you by History Channel and Pawn Stars.

So here is a quick guide on how to value a guild bank for purchase.

Each slot gets a base value. Slot 1 being 100g, Slot 2 being 250g, Slot 3 being 500g (this was a 3 slot guild bank I was purchasing) Value + 850

Add any gold still contained in the bank (yes, I have purchased guilds that the bank still had money in it)

Add value for any items still in the bank (items to be vendored can generally be counted as zero) Addons will be helpful to get a quick value of the item. But be careful because sometimes an item may come up as being very valuable, but it might not sell on your server.

Add up all that value, then decide on the discount that you feel is appropriate. I used 40% simply because all the items that were in the guild bank to purchase I could craft myself at about that price.

Look at the level of the guild. If you are using a leveling toon for this, or have an interest in building a guild. A higher level guild will give you a jump start for success.

Be prepared to walk away. Sometimes people just feel that their time is more valuable. You have an advantage over the seller. He wants a quick profit over his sale. The odds are that he isn't going to want to continue to look for a buyer. There will be more guilds available. And they might be worth more than what the seller wants at that point.

Enjoy your new guild. And your new prosperity

Good luck and good hunting.

Past Entries

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

Noblegarden: It wasn't that lucky for the rabbit

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 2:46 PM

1 comments View Comments

O Noblegarden. How I loathe thee. with the new loot table, the greedy goblin in me started off being

mildly miffed. I could only truly sell one item at a profit? The [Spring Rabbit's Foot] being the one thing that I can sell for a profit. Wait, I can sell something? Yay right?

Lets look at the math:

Most people will be grinding 500 of the [Noblegarden Chocolate] for the [Swift Springstrider]. Now this isn't that bad, there are dailies I can do for extra eggs right? Nope, no dailies for extra eggs.

But the eggs are super easy to get right? Drop off of mobs I kill right? I can buy them right? Trade them right? Beg for them right? Nope, Nope, and Nope (and I did say nope). You have to pick them up yourself. That's not a big deal, there everywhere right? Nein, Nada, you remember I said nope again?

4 places to get them. Brill, Bloodhoof Village, Falconwatch Square or Razor Hill for the Horde (Azure Watch, Dolanaar, Goldshire or Kharanos for the Alliance).

So our player X grinds out 500 chocolates (510 if he's doing the daily quest for the [Egg Basket] that day).

Wowhead has the drop rate for any of the items available on the loot table (Loot table] of .5%. So you have a .5% chance of having the [Spring Rabbit's Foot] drop from the [Brightly Colored Eggs]. Many people have reported having 4 or 5 drop while they are collecting the're 500+ eggs. Making the odds pretty high that player x is going to have a basket full of [Spring Rabbit's Foot] to sell.

So for each [Spring Rabbit's Foot] that drops, there is one more placed on the AH for sale. The [Elegant Dress], [Black Tuxedo Pants] and [White Tuxedo Shirt] also being on the collection table. Your profits start to look bleak in the short term.

But, being a patient greedy goblins. With Mists of Pandaria being released later in the year, and the pet battle system peaking a lot of interest. Pets will be in high demand from the start. So saving your unofficial rabbit collection in your bank, to sell for later will be the best play for your sake.

Also keep an eye for the sales war that tend to break out on the AH. Where investing 100g would be goblin gold suicide, buying them for 20g and setting them aside would be a wise decision. Bringing this chocolate gold grinding goblin a tear to his eye.

And my favorite place to grind for chocolate? The local Amish candy store. Guaranteed I can get enough to buy something.

Good luck and good hunting.

Past Entries