Are you prepared for the coming glyph storm?
Understanding the Cataclysm Glyph Change
Soon glyphs are going to be one time use items which teach you a spell in your spell book. This new ‘spell’ will then be turned on or off based on which glyphs you’d like to have at any given time, meaning that once you buy a glyph you then know it forever and can switch it out at any time. Some people believe this is going to kill inscription, I do not. In fact I believe this is the greatest thing that could happen to inscription since the bastard profession was created.
Glyphs in 4.0 and Beyond
When 4.0 is released and the new glyph functionality is created an army of hurried buyers are going to hit the auction house looking to buy every glyph they don’t currently own (or even those as well depending on how it is implemented). You’ll see buying up of glyphs like you’ve never seen before and then… it’s not going to crash. Sure buying will slow down somewhat, but think about how glyphs are purchased today: randomly when someone hits 80 or wants to switch roles that doesn’t have dual specs (they could also be juggling three or more specs/roles). This buyer will grab no more than 3 minors and 3 majors per spec. Now think about how many glyphs you’ve purchased since wrath was launched for each of your characters. Was it more than 30? Probably not. Guess how many you’ll be buying if you want to get every glyph your class will ever need… it’s closer to 40. Following my reasoning, glyphs would continue to sell randomly without predictable demand however glyph purchases would be in massive groups instead of 6 or less at a time.
I’m sorry but I have to disagree with the masses on this one, the cataclysm change to glyphs is going to be the best profession change in the history of wow. All glyphs are suddenly becoming valuable and the more expensive ones will probably drop in price to come closer in line with a new average price. More importantly glyphs which are worth silver today will suddenly be of equal value and demand to the currently popular glyphs. I doubt the new average price is going to be less than 10 gold on most servers and with inflation I wouldn’t be surprised if we are all paying 20-30 gold for glyphs in the expansion. During the initial rush of 4.0 we will probably be paying much more.
What can you do NOW to prepare for 4.0 and the expansion?
- Start stockpiling inks. Thousands of them. Why stop at what you need for the release of 4.0? Why not stockpile for the whole next expansion? NOTE: Ink of the sea will not be tradeable in the current beta for all inks so be sure to actually do the exchange and craft the glyphs prior to cataclysm's release and possibly even 4.0.
- Prior to the release of 4.0 start creating your glyphs. Have 20 of each glyph ready to go if you’re serious about supplying the next wave of buyers on a scale we have never seen before. It’s going to be BIGGER than when inscription was released.
- Learn to use QA3
- Learn every Minor/Major glyph you can through daily research.
- Learn all the glyphs from books of glyph mastery as quickly as possible. The books are cheap now, they will be super expensive in cataclysm.
New Character "Glyph Kits"
Imagine a new glyph industry where you supply players with every glyph their class can have in the game for a set price. We'll call this idea a "Glyph Kit." The service of providing glyph kits would be done via trade chat and probably for a decent profit. Wouldn't you pay 200 gold now if this new glyph system was implemented to have all your glyphs crafted by a single scribe and not have to worry about finding them on the auction house one at a time? Depending on the class that would be around 5.71 gold per glyph. Not bad! Maybe you should start creating these kits now so when 4.0 is released you can sell glyph kits for obnoxious profits.
