Discipline: The Most Hated Word in Gold Making

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:04 PM

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Mommar here.

Discipline is one of those words that brings memories to the forefront.  Whether it's talking about how your parents raised you,  or the need to control your actions and choices to reach a higher goal.

Since I don't know how your parents raised you,  nor do I really want to know I'm wanting to talk about the latter.  Fun toys all the time come up for sale or auction.  Players wanting to get rid of BOE pets,  gear,  transmogrification items tempt the best of Gold Goblins in spending their hard earned gold. 

I was sitting on the Black Market Auction House deciding if I wanted to raise a big higher for an item I wanted.  This last week I was on a pet collecting march and one of the rare Trading Card Game pets came up.  The Banana Charm was up for bid,  with the price when I arrived at 21k.  That's a hefty amount of gold for a pet,  but I was in a spending mood plus it's an 80 dollar real money pet if you buy the card from ebay (or other sources).

So I sat there thumbing through the web while I waited for the auction to end.  I was outbid once,  twice (nope,  not three times a lady) by someone who obviously wanted this pet too.  I used all of my auction house techniques other than calling them bad names (they were Alliance) and then proceeded to make a decision.

I had enough gold I could drop a 100k bomb on them and knock them out pretty quickly.  But that is a seriously overpriced payment for a battle pet.  Or I could discipline myself into saying this is the amount I'm willing to pay and no more.  So mentally I set that price,  and then walked away.

As I logged on this morning I found myself the owner of a new Banana Charm and the pet that comes with it.  Frankly, it doesn't always happen like this.  Someone might want the item a little bit more than I do.  Items such as rare mounts tend to get a lot of interest and spirited bidding.  The key is to discipline yourself into knowing just what you want and what it is worth to you.  If you have higher plans for your gold (Spectral Tiger anyone) then you have to look at each purchase you make and how much that will delay your ability to reach your goal.

My Achilles heel is helping others.  I probably have given up a million gold simply by not charging my guildmates for items.  Giving materials that could be resold for bundles of gold is one of the simple pleasures I get out of life.  If I know you then I will probably help you.  But there is a limit to any generosity because I have plans of my own.  I have goals I would like to reach gold wise and purchases in the future that will be my next expectation.

So finding balance and discipline in every transaction goes to the heart of being a Gold Goblin.  Keep this in mind the next time you bid on your own Banana Charm.  Not just looking at it in how much gold your spending,  but how much time it will delay you from reaching your true epic expectations.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

Crashing The Market
Pet Battling For Profits
Prime Time Professions
Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Crashing The Market

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:01 PM

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I was gluffing around Orgrimmar, getting ready to run through some old raids when an interesting chat discussion came along.

Paraphrasing,  two players were taunting someone else for a advertisement they had been barking for cheap glyphs.  In their advertisement they bluntly stated that they wanted to crash the inscription market to bring 'cheap glyphs to all'.

I had spoken about this before the first time that I watched an inscription market crash and burn.  Of all of the different markets, inscription is really the easiest to crash.   Herbs on many servers are at dirt cheap prices.  Being able to craft hundreds of glyphs,  listing them at inexpensive prices and still being able to net a small profit. 

To crash any market you need to have a base amount of gold sitting unused.  Mostly because it would be impossible once someone has bought out your first round of glyphs to have that many herbs stockpiled.  I probably shouldn't say impossible but ultimately you will run out of raw material and either have to purchase extra or go and farm them.

A conglomerate of players would find crashing the market easier simply by one or two funneling the herbs into the scribe.  That way the scribe can be keeping the product artificially low.  

Where morally crashing a market could be seen as reprehensible,  financially it can be a very strong strategy.  There are 150+ glyphs.  Only about 30 of those actually making a large amount of profit.  The others end up dribbling profits since they are not in high demand.    So let's say you take the 10 highest profitable glyphs.  You can live healthily off of those 10 glyphs and then crush the rest of the scribe market.  Many players run away from markets that aren't quick 'list and profit' type of markets.  This leaves only the die hard players who know how to fight back.

Ultimately a market will snap back simply because the planning on keeping the market artificially becomes boring.  Even the best of intentions will get someone only so far.  But the damage has been done when a player leaves the market for easier and more fertile ground.

With Warlords of Dradnor,  inscription is going to have some changes in different glyphs.  Many of the more powerful glyphs will be given to players in their book as they level.  New Glyphs will become important to players,  with the 'best set' of glyphs yet to be determined.

Don't let the chain rattling of someone determined to sew anarchy into the mix to remove you from the scribe market.  Look at how the scribe market has always reacted to incursions and be prepared.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

Pet Battling For Profits
Prime Time Professions
Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Pet Battling For Profits

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:58 PM

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Every profession can make a profit.

This should have been written into your mantra from day one of your adventures in Azeroth.  We have talked about it many times how each profession can make some profit (yes even fishing and Engineering).

Even the quasi profession of Pet Battling can make a profit.    It just takes some planning and some time to rake up major gold.

I started off the Pet Battling profit making journey by leveling one of my pets to level 25.  The reason this is important is because you cannot add to your journal any level 25 pets that are purchased until you have hit level 25.  In this case I leveled up my Anubiseth Idol.  He dropped for me on one of my runs through Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.   Took me about 3 hours to level (I took my time over the weeks, so that would be three hours of actual pet battling time).  During this time I also added to my collection through the different leveling zones.

After he hit level 25 I picked up a couple of pets that I knew could be repackaged and sold.  When looking for the future captives of other battlers I wanted the more rare pets that people weren't stacking on the AH.  This cut out a lot of the holiday pets and easily purchased pets.  I decided to power level my Ghostly Skull (found in the Dalaran sewers).   While power leveling him from level 1 I dropped in one of my higher level pets to protect just in case there were issues with taking on the wrong type of pet.

Leveling Bobtheskull (yep,  that's what I named him) took about an hour and a half.  The basic idea is to throw him quickly into the ball from the start,  let him have one round (and make sure he survives) then drop the hammer for one of the higher leveled pets.  After you win all of the pets that are used in combat receive the XP (and any bonus XP for the pet being a higher level). 

Profiting with Bobtheskull is where you have to learn the way your server works.  If you have a strong pet battling group then you can drop your newly minted level 25 on the market for the going rate plus a premium for the time it took to level your toon.  The more rare the pet is,  the higher the sales price the pet should be put in.  So a pet such as Lil' Bad Wolf from Karazhan should be placed at a higher cost than one that can be purchased and sold quickly.

There are two paths you can take when selling your pets.   You can go for the quick turnover on sales.  If it takes your pets an Avg of an hour of game time to level and you sell them quickly then you are filling the need quickly.  The problem with this theory is that there is a limited amount of players willing to pay for higher level pets.  Once that quota is full (the ones that actually have the money to spend on a luxury item) then the sales will dry up.

The other thought process is to make sure that the pet is going for a higher price.  Even at 10x the sales cost of a lower level pet.  This will put a higher profit in your pocket and still keep the demand intact.  Basic sales technique says that if your item is continually out of stock then you raise the price to meet the demand. 

You can expand these ideas to your farming for those that one an extra type of income.  Paying a premium for your farming group for resellable pets can allow you to keep a different revenue stream together without tying up all of your time.  The important thing is to keep an eye on how your pet sales market is functioning.   A poor pet battling server can have you placing highly profitable pets on the market and having to list them time and time again.  A strong market can allow you to resell pets and even look at flipping pets that are listed by unaware sellers of their value.

Expanding your profit pyramid into Pet Battle sales can give you another road to profit as your other professions begun to wind down with the end of the Mists of Pandaria expansion

Good Luck and Good Pet Hunting

Prime Time Professions
Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Prime Time Professions

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 10:52 AM

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Mommar here.

Get ready for a big shock.

Professions and crafting is one of the major backbone elements to your gold fortune.   Okay,  so it isn't that big of a shock.  The basic tenant is that if you don't craft you don't make gold.

I've shown over the months of talking to you that you could technically make gold without ever needing a crafting profession.  Between questing,  gathering and reselling you can make a large amount of gold.  Add onto this a network of crafters you can request items to be made and resold you never have to have a crafting profession of your own.

But then a man with a bad leg could technically walk around without a crutch.  It will be slow,  tedious and painful, but it is possible.   Every so often the popular question is 'what is the best gold making profession?".  It could easily be on repeat for every time it is spoken in forums and in game.  Players want to know what profession to jump to making their small fortune. 

But choosing that first profession is a personal choice.  Three rules that I set up when I tell anyone what profession they should choose.

1)   Choose a profession that looks beneficial to your character.

A freshly laundered Druid will get more benefits out of having a Leatherworker/Skinner than they will have a Blacksmith.  The same for a warrior running around with the tailoring profession.  This doesn't mean that you shouldn't ever have a profession that seems odd for the class,  but as a first profession look at what will be the most beneficial.

2)  Do not choose a crafting profession till you are close to the maximum level of the expansion pack.

I have always believed that the first two professions a player should take are gathering professions.  Mining/Herbalism/Skinning are all very strong base professions to have when you look to start building a gold fortune.  With the benefits of receiving experience points with each gathering node/skinning mob you get, the quicker leveling opportunities along with sales.

3)   Market conditions can tell a lot about what professions to choose.

Just looking at the market and seeing what sells will answer a lot of questions on the best profession that you take.  This is affected, especially if you have someone teaching you the ropes on what to sell and where to sell it.  Most players do not have a guru sitting around with them helping them to not make mistakes their first time out.  Looking at the conditions of the market should tell you what will be the best items to sell from the crafting professions.

4)  Have fun

The biggest item when choosing that first profession is to choose one that you will have fun with.  Even with the removal of profession quests there is a certain amount of enjoyment of crafting that plate item to strut around your home city to wear.  That uber awesome sword that people go ooo and ahh about.   Or just simply flexing your crafting muscle to raise your ilvl gear to shock and awe factor.  Making gold with professions, isn't just about putting items on the Auction House to sell.  Making gold becomes a new profession in itself.  If you are not having fun doing it,  then you will slowly drift away.

Keep in mind that choosing that first profession is a personal choice.  Everyone has an opinion about what to choose the same as everyone has a... well you know the rest of that saying.   Choosing your own profession path and your reasoning behind it is why every character is different, unique and enjoyable to come back to time and time again.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting


Retrain Your Gold Instincts:  Trigger Words
It's Patchy McPatch Day
Timeless Coins They Are A Changing
I'll Buy That For A Gold Piece
The Value of Garrosh BOA's
It's Monday Already?
Adopt A Warcraft Child Today!
Welcome To The Tuesdaydome 
Not My Server.. No No No
Maintenance Of Your Toon Army: Garrisons
The Art of Negotiation: Warcraft Style
Cooking For Fun and Profit

Some Day I Will Learn

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 10:04 AM

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Mommar here.

Another Tuesday has come and gone,  resetting the loot tables for Garrosh runs as well as world bosses.  With the change in the most recent hotfix that made world bosses taggable by everyone celestial runs have become a lot easier.  Running in there,  tagging an active mob that players are already killing and getting credit (along with your world famous Bag o' Gold) makes running 7 players through the grinder that much quicker.

After the success of adding more gold (and the occasional piece of gear) to my alts I then look to tackle the wonders that if flex 4.  Having said it many times I like to get my flex 4 runs done early in the week simply because the better players during this time and my chances of success are that much better.

So I popped open the Oqueue extension and watched the filling of run requests.  Words like 'quick' 'easy' 'no noobs' (my personal favorite) flash through each group loading up.  Usually I ignore most of these simply because they rarely are quick and if you only have 3 players in your group how do you really know it will be quick and easy?  To borrow a line from a favorite movie of mine "... Quick and easy is how you bake a cake,  no run a multi-million dollar business such as ours ".

I queued up for a couple of seemingly interesting groups forming.  They were listed as being run by 10/14H (shorthand for 10 of 14 bosses down in heroic) and waited to see if I got invited to the dance.   Getting my magic golden ticket I was ready to go.  I bring my own food and go and repair before I even queue.  Similar to my views on queuing for groups on the Timeless Isle (be on the island,  be ready to go, don't expect summons) etc.

After finishing off Garrosh and receiving my bag of nothing I logged onto my Hunter to see if she wouldn't be as successful.  Being a Hunter generally I get chosen to run belts on Seigecrafter and end up killing the engineer for the Garrosh kill.  Luckily, there was another hunter that volunteered to go.  Both Seigecrafter and the Bugs went down pretty easily.  Then it was time for the main event.  Even the trash between the bugs and the Garrosh went down pretty easily.

Having high hopes that this would be a 1 shot kill we got set up.  Lately the big strategy is to stack up on the spot just in front of Garrosh and kill the weapon as it pops.  Seems to make things a lot easier because of less required running around and more DPS on the boss.  But the RL decided that we needed to dance for the run.

First attempt we died pretty quickly.  Second attempt we made it a little bit further and then the tirades began.  Players blaming tanks,  tank blaming healers and my little 170k dps sitting there deciding if it was time to call it a night and try the next day.

But being a little bit stubborn I stuck it out and we went at it with 11 people.  Now generally the sweet spot I have seen is 13-14 players (or a full 25 grouping) when it comes to being successful.   After the fourth attempt being a complete and utter failure I decided it was time to retire from the group and check on some auctions.  Politely I thanked them for the attempts and went on my merry way.

Moral of the story?   Even heroically attuned players are not always successful.  Maybe I should have gone with the quick and easy cake.   mmmm Cake.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

Garrosh Is My Friend
You Lost That Alpha Feeling
Too Many Coins On My Hand
We All Make Mistrakes
World Without The Auction House
Not So Smart Loot
It Was A Great Day
WOD:  Prepping For The Storm
Special Brand Of Stupid
Silver And Gold Have I None
Worth What Someone Will Pay For It

Garrosh Is My Friend

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:18 PM

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Mommar here.

Every week,  even if I'm looking to do other things to cleanse my pallet of World of Warcraft, I go and finish my flex raid runs on Garrosh.  The pets that drop from the two bosses previous to him are bonuses but my main goal is to obtain the BOA's that he drops from time to time.

I have two toons that are Garrosh worthy. (I refuse to be carried through a Flex 3 or Flex 4).   If I cannot do 125 dps then I need to upgrade.  This is just my personal view of raids and other raid leaders will have different views.

The thing I find a little funny is the cursing that occurs after the Garrosh kill happens.  Many players are in the same boat that they only reason they run Seige of Orgrimmar is for the BOA gear.  Obtaining one of these items sets a toon up for leveling if not all the way up to heroics.  I can see the frustration that people will have when the item they need won't drop.

Having played this game for years I have gotten used to grinding for gear that is useful.  During the Burning Crusade expansion I lived in Terrokar working on heroics for as many times as I could scrape 4 other people to run.  Shadow Labryinth was where I lived and breathed easily for 2 months plus just to obtain one or two pieces of gear.

This is why I switched to making sure that I had gold to craft the items that I needed.  Even now there are belts that can upgrade players over and above what drops in Timeless Isle.  As the Mists of Pandaria expansion matures gear becomes less and less important.  With the Alpha notes having been seen, it is obvious that the quest for gear will change completely.  Main stats will no longer be as important as the secondary and tertiary stats.

So as others curse and gripe about how Garrosh has stiffed them again (I know,  stiffed isn't the word that they use) remember that the benefits of having the entire summer for Garrosh runs gives players plenty of time to fill in the BOA weapon slots that are desired.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

You Lost That Alpha Feeling
Too Many Coins On My Hand
We All Make Mistrakes
World Without The Auction House
Not So Smart Loot
It Was A Great Day
WOD:  Prepping For The Storm
Special Brand Of Stupid
Silver And Gold Have I None
Worth What Someone Will Pay For It
Please.. Wait.. I Wanna Tag
WOD: Waiting Til The Fall?
Boost Me, Buy Me, Pay Me Gold
Save That Boost for a Rainy Day

Lent.. Mighty Lent... Super Lent

We All Make Mistrakes

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:06 PM

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Mommar here.

A school principle of mine used to tell his students 'I'm perfect,  I don't make mistrakes'.  When your 12 years old this is way too thought provoking.  But as I've become older I can see the wisdom in what he was trying to impart.

This weekend I took a look at a couple of weak markets and decided to flip them.  I grabbed 32 Magnificent Hides at an average of 125 per hide.  With the daily burn for leatherworkers and the glut of exotic leather sitting on the AH, to me these were still undervalues.  I double checked some of the bigger ticket items that were created by them (Angerhide Leg Armor,  Shadowleather Leg Armor) which were hovering at about 550 per.  This could turn a nice quick profit and set me up for future profits.  Along with listing some of the leg armors I also went ahead and tripled the cost of the Magnificent Hide themselves and dropped them on the AH.

Dropping in a couple of hours later I had sold three of the leg armors, but all of my relisted magnificent hides had been undercut almost immediate.  The undercuts had dropped them to even lower costs to what I had purchased the original batch.

Wait Mommar,  you're saying all of this was a mistake?   In one way of looking at it it was a mistake in that I did not take into my mental calculations the cost of the exotic leather itself.  Also not taken into respect was just how many Magnificent Hides that leatherworkers were still sitting on.   So instead of calling it a mistake let us call it a half win.  In the long term I will be able to get about 2x the amount of gold that I invested.

The other market I took a look at and decided to reset was the bag market.  Netherweave bags had been a hotbed of sales for me.  Usually, clicking to 500g a day in sales just from the stock I still had sitting in my bank.  Recently the market had dropped to 12g a piece (still profitable, but not so much that I was willing to again list some bags).  I looked at some other bags (the 24 slot bags crafted from higher level tailoring materials).  The Illusionary Bag and Royal Satchel will be strong come the next expansion.  Players get the automatic 4 x 24 bags with their new level 90, but they have 8 slots in their bank to fill with new shiny bags.  Most will buy 16 slot bags but some will spring for a couple of the 24 slot bags for their new toys.

Both the Illusionary Bag and Royal Satchel have tailored daily timers using Dreamcloth and Imperial Silk respectively.  Dreamcloth is on a weekly timer while Imperial Silk still sits at a daily timer.  Collecting the materials and taking a few minutes to craft and sell these have added some nice coin into my pocket.

What may seem like a mistake at first can be turned into a success just from taking a deep breath and seeing potential instead of just instant profit.  Time is gold and gold is time.  Both will happen if your patient and look at not just short term sales but long term sales.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

World Without The Auction House
Not So Smart Loot
It Was A Great Day
WOD:  Prepping For The Storm
Special Brand Of Stupid
Silver And Gold Have I None
Worth What Someone Will Pay For It
Please.. Wait.. I Wanna Tag
WOD: Waiting Til The Fall?
Boost Me, Buy Me, Pay Me Gold
Save That Boost for a Rainy Day
Lent.. Mighty Lent... Super Lent

Who Is Your Nemesis On the Gold Market

World Without The Auction House

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 9:22 AM

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Growing up I used to sneak in and read my brothers comics.  My money went into other items that I wanted (usually involving too much sweets).   He liked buying comic books and reading them over and over again.   They still sit in my parents' closet in need of being bagged and boarded.

One of both of our favorite series was the 'What if' versions that both Marvel Comics and DC had.  They would ask the obvious question for the title 'What if'.  What if Wolverine had forks on his finger.  What if Superman had a cold vision.  Things that were good, sometimes for a laugh or a quick adventure.

Diablo 3 got my mind to thinking of what if World of Warcraft did not have an auction house.  The introduction of the Auction house in Diablo,  including the real money auction house changed the scope of the game.  It made the need for massive amounts of gold almost required to be able to play at a high level.  Gold ended up costing more and more, both in real money and time as players tried to get the best gear.  If it didn't drop or couldn't be crafted then you just went out and bought for obscene amounts of money.  Sound familiar in regards to our friendly beloved WOW?

But what truly happened if the WOW auction house didn't exist?  Or it limited to only trinket items and the occasional non equipment.  Could a game survive in that type of atmosphere?   Diablo has become a game more for the materials than the actual gold.  You can make a large amount of gold in finding different places to farm.  Selling unused equipment is also available.  But for the most part gold becomes a non factor in playing Diablo 3.  Would the same occur with World of Warcraft where gold was only used for vanity items and not necessary for gameplay?

Do not take this as me being a proponent of removing the Auction House from the game.   There is a large difference in the raid/progression style play that Warcraft has against the pick up and beat something down style that is Diablo 3.  But sometimes it is a good thing to take a look at why something is important to learn how to master.

The Warcraft auction house doesn't just give you access to high quality weapons, but also to high equality enhancements.  It also gives you an opportunity to sell those enhancements and items to others.  Diablo 3 anymore, only allows you to take care of your own personal needs.  Both games, share a repair cost,  with the high the equipment levels you have the higher the repair cost.  Both hold legendary items,  though against some popular raid beliefs they aren't just handed to you in Warcraft.

The final thing to look at for where the auction house in Warcraft differs than from Diablo is that you have the option of playing it or not.   This may seem like a counterproductive idea vs what I said earlier.  But with dailies,  questing and vendoring items, as a player you do not have to step anywhere near the auction house for your day to day expenses.  But to be the very best player,  even a little bit of auction house ability can put you farther up the food chain game wise than others.  Especially at the beginning of patches where access to high level patterns are limited.

So take a look at your patterns in the Auction House and imagine yourself without access to the sales or the purchase ability.  Respect can lead to mastery of something that is necessary for your playstyle.

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

Not So Smart Loot
It Was A Great Day
WOD:  Prepping For The Storm
Special Brand Of Stupid
Silver And Gold Have I None
Worth What Someone Will Pay For It
Please.. Wait.. I Wanna Tag
WOD: Waiting Til The Fall?
Boost Me, Buy Me, Pay Me Gold
Save That Boost for a Rainy Day
Lent.. Mighty Lent... Super Lent
Who Is Your Nemesis On the Gold Market

It Was A Great Day

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:23 PM

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Having been playing World of Warcraft for years,  I have developed little quirks about myself.  One of them is when something finally drops when I have worked for it.

Since the start of the Timeless Isle patch I have been working the rare mob Houlon to have her drop the Reigns Of The Thundering Jade Cloud Serpent.  Having read in one of the Blizzard notes that you were only guaranteed a loot drop once each day from rares (yes,  I know it's possible to get more but they said guarantee),  I had been farming her every day.  Each time I was on the isle and the timer came up I joined 10-30 of my favorite strangers for the quick 2 minute kill and loot.

Finally the mental trumpets played and wallah,  I see in the loot window my next pet.  Being excited I added it to my collection,  dragged it onto my tool bar with some other mounts and then found out that you can't fly it on Timeless Isle.  Really, Blizzard?  Had to get that one final tease in didn't you.

But putting that aside, I started looking for my weekly Garrosh runs.  My hunter has an easier time of getting a better run than my Warrior does.  I would probably link it to Melee DPS being less popular than Ranged DPS or just blind luck.  Either way a couple of weeks ago, my Warrior had obtained his uber mega blade of awesome;  Hellscreams Decapitator.  In my own mental battle my hunter was getting a little bit jealous of him lugging that big shaving axe and wanted her own new BOA toy.

After finishing the first two bosses in one shot (hitting 3 and 4 on the dps respectively) we approached Hellscream.   The first try got him down to 12 percent before the fickle finger of fate disconnected a healer and a tank.   We regrouped,  no one started with the great noob debate and we went after him a second try.  Finally he went down,  and the loot window popped up and there it was:

(it's so pretty)

After doing a little bit of a happy dance in front of my computer (thankfully not having the camera on at the time) I zipped over to my jewelcrafter/engineer to get the enhancements done.   Two Delicate gems and a Lord Blastington's Scope of blowing things up and I was set for the next adventure.

But then I ran into a problem.  What was next?   I work better with a goal in mind.  Both of my main raiders now have their epic capes.  They are both exalted with the Grand Pooba of the isle.  My Warrior is exalted with everyone except for the furry little tribe in la la land.  I have all the coins that I could want,  and all of the gold I really can want (I know.  Blasphemy).  So what's next in the land of Mommar?

Do I make more gold.   Well of course I do.  That's half the fun.   Do I try to go for a 3rd epic cape.  Absolutely not.  No more grinding stones and lost information and you can go find that stuff yourself you little toad dragon.  Do I continue to raid and even look to jump into some regular runs instead of flex raid runs?

There is always a question of what motivates someone to continue to strive to play this game.  The next 6 months some people will decide to take some time off.  Some players will go and continue to work on their game.  Some are playing with new boosted level 90's.  Some are even leveling toons the normal way for a challenge.

So many things that can be done.  So many motivations that still are out there for the picking.  Archaeology looks like it might need to be dusted off and played with some more.  Pet battling (gotta catch em all, POKEWOW).

But one day,  one glorious day I got to run naked through the main horde cities on my new mount with my new weapon in my hand.

This is my weapon,  this is my gun.   This is for.... What you should join the military to hear the rest

Good Luck and Good Profit Hunting

WOD:  Prepping For The Storm
Special Brand Of Stupid
Silver And Gold Have I None
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5 Tips To Survive Cross Realm Raids

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:46 PM

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The latest PTR (Player Test Realm) just popped up on the boards.  The biggest change was that Blizzard has created it's own cross realm version of Oqueue.

If you have not used this mighty addon yet,  go out and download it.  It makes Flex raiding much easier because it adds your name into a swarm between servers allowing you to get involved quicker than just waiting for a raid to pop up on your own server.

But as always,  there are a few tips that will help with surviving these cross realm raids with your sanity in tact.

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1.   Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth

The odds are that if you jump into an Oqueue raid then you will be with 13 or more strangers.  They do not know how good (or how bad) you are.  The only time that I would suggest saying anything is that if you do not know what you are supposed to do.  This doesn't mean that Oqueue flex raids are the best source of learning what your role is.  That's what LFR is for.  But if you are a tank,  then tank.  If you are dps then soak up those puddles in Flex wing 3 and say thank you very much.  If you get involved with strategy and 'my guild does it this way' you will only irritate people and the raid will break up that much quicker.

2.   Your Raid Will Fail At Times

No raid is perfect.  Someone will probably die in the raid.  Having your finger on the abandon button only will drive you bonkers.  Repair bills are part of the game.  If your raid starts to wipe continually on the same thing over and over again.  Then look for the eject button and move onto a better group.

3.   Oqueue will probably flag you PVP.

This doesn't occur all the time.  But 7 out of 10 you will be transported and flagged PVP.  Too many times have I ended up right dead smack in the middle of 10 or so enemies all flagged and looking to put uncomfortable items into my body part.  If this happens then just look for your happy flight path and stay there for a while.  Where you can do some farming,  being in a raid keeps you from being able to complete most quests.  So sit around and chat with your new found raid buddies and get a lay of the land.

4.   When Looking For Raids in Oqueue,  Look For Raids With 6 or More People Already Joined.

This tip will not make everyone happy.  Mostly because those raids that are looking for 'fast clears' need quality people.  You probably are quality simply because you read this journal.  But your awesome abilities might also be carrying someone that is not as good as you.  The Oqueue gives a lot of information including how many are in the queue,  and even how many wipes on bosses have occurred with that raid group.   If there is a lot of wipes and no boss kills then reconsider whether it's going to be the group for you.

5.  Be Geared For The Content

If your new shiny toon is running around in ilvl 502 gear,  you are not prepared for flex 4 Garrosh.  Sorry to say that you will be probably dragging down the group and cause more problems.  The odds are that you won't even be invited into the group.  For me a good idea of what ilvl to expect is

Wing 1 496+
Wing 2 510
Wing 3 515
Wing 4 525

Of course your mileage may of course.  your 502 gear might be awesome and can solo everything.  These are tips and not laws.  But being a good part of a team,  even a pickup team like flex raiding is to be prepared to carry your weight.  Everyone has been in a raid where there is someone dragging the raid down.  If you look to your left and right and cannot find the person who is dragging the raid down,  there is a good chance it is you.

Bonus tip

Mind your tongue.  The temptation is to let loose your four letter word prowess when your angry for that last failure.  It is frustrating to crash and burn in something that not just last week you cleared quickly.  No one is motivated by calling someone a *(*&( nub.  If you feel that your point cannot be made by calling everyone your entire cursing repertoire then you are taking this game far too seriously.  Unless you are getting paid to play and players are taking money directly out of your physical pocket,  it might be time to go and play some Angry Birds for a little bit.

Just keep these tips in mind when you go into your next flex run and enjoy the game.  It's just that a game and not real life.

Good Luck and Good Hunting

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

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