Patch 5.4: Mental Preparation

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:27 PM

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Unless there is a major catastrophe between today and next Tuesday,  patch 5.4 will be in full force.  There have been a lot of comments,  suggestions,  demands about what to save,  how to save it and even what to prepare toon wise.

But there is a different view when it comes to mental preparation for a patch.  It is not just a matter of having your Mountain Dew and Popcorn bowl ready to go for a marathon those first couple of days.  The mental preparation is also about what to expect and how to bounce back.

Players will be running instances at a much larger rate trying to stack their Justice Points and Valor points for the new gear.  That means that there will be players expecting to be carried through instances.  Also there will be players that are impatient because they are just there to blitz to the last boss and move onto the next instance.

Sales other than raw order will dry up for the most part because players will be waiting for the access to the uber gear that is available from the different reputation vendors.  

But my personal favorite will be the chatter in trade chat about how this patch is the worst patch ever. How nothing works,  everything is broken and epic items are not dropping each time players walk over the new island area.  This can become very frustrating for players to have to listen too as they are churning through areas and looking for items.  Very very frustrating to the point that you feel the need to call your therapist for a Warcraft intervention.

Just keep your head above water in the next week and grind out what your goals are.  Don't sweat the small stuff and keep at what is important to you.  Gathering for your professions,  gathering to resell and then being prepared for the carnage that will be patch 5.4.

And if an epic drops for you that first day next week?   Do a little dance and know that you were one of the lucky ones.

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. 

You Found What????
Hearthstone:   The Beginning
Patch 5.4: Budgeting for the Patch
Get thee To a TradeSkillMaster 2.0
Patch 5.4 Prep:  No Sleep til Brooklyn
Customer First
You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?

You found what????

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 10:03 AM

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As I was going through my storage areas; crafting,  looting and pillaging the auction house, I ran into an issue.  First lets go back into the way back machine where I told you that I had caught up on all of the items I had saved from the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions and processed them all.

With sales starting to slow down on different fronts due to the loot pinata that will be the new patch,  I have been exercising more the brain cells looking for new places to ply my trade.  As I was saying I ended up going through some guild banks and came face to face with two guild tabs full of cloth.

Yes gang,  I accidentally told a fib to you about having finished all of the processing of materials.   Not sure whether I found another goldmine or needed to cuddle with my stuffed gold goblin I looked at what I had.  Most of the stacks were Netherweave (both in bolt and in raw form) as well as a smattering of Frostweave etc.  Most of these could be processed easily into bags which still sell pretty well. 

I had forgotten one of my cardinal rules when it comes to long term storage.  Know where your stuff is.   I have add-ons that tell me the contents of all of the different guild banks but for some reason I missed all of this stuff.

The 16 slot bags sell between 15-30 a piece.  This might seem like a paltry sum of gold for most players but as we get closer to patch day and the sales dwindle even more that extra 500g a day can add up quickly.  Other professions still have opportunities to chunk money into the coffers.  Flipping between the arbitrage of raw ore and bars can net a good chuck of profit as well.  Same thing with players processing exotic leathers into Magnificent hides.

As we get closer to the day that it all changes your mind will be your best tool to use.  A simple profit can add up to an immense fortune as you continue towards total domination.

Now can I borrow some needle and thread?  I have some bags to make today

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. 


Hearthstone:   The Beginning
Patch 5.4: Budgeting for the Patch
Get thee To a TradeSkillMaster 2.0
Patch 5.4 Prep:  No Sleep til Brooklyn
Customer First
You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?





 

Hearthstone: The Beginning

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:27 PM

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Sometime on Friday I was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of a Hearthstone beta key.  I posted up a comment on twitter about receiving the key.  Pretty quickly I got some interesting offers to 'buy' they key from me.  But I had already decided to give the game a try and see what I thought.

First a little history.  I've played some collectible card games before.  Notice I did not say I was very good at them.  Playing one CCG that was based off of the Dragon Ball Z universe and another that was a relative copy of Magic the Gathering.  Seeing the basic strategy I could see the enjoyment of the game but at the time I didn't have the money it would require to be able to become good at it.  I still have the cards somewhere in my treasures.

After loading up the game onto the computer (including the new combined launcher for all Blizzard games) I watched the opening intro and graphics.  Since there really is no storyline of sorts to get you involved in from the start it was just a basic mini movie of the classes and cards available.

Once I got into the game I took a look at the starter deck (mage).  It had some powerful cards from the start but it was again obvious that to become very good at the game there would need to be some argumentation to the deck.  Win or lose (and there has been a lot of losing in regards to my playing style) you end up gaining levels for points.   At some point you obtain your first add-on pack for free.  Also as you level you unlock other cards to interchange in your deck.   Overall you get a good experience to learn how the game is played and can get in there from the start.

There are a definitely a couple of things that any new player will want to do as they continue on their Hearthstone search.   Looking up suggested decks for different classes can help with keeping the pain of losing continually.   You have the option of purchasing packs from Blizzard at 1.99 average.  You end up getting 5 cards per deck with some guarantees of rare and even epic cards.  But finding good suggested decks will help a lot even from the start to get your goals finished.

This is going to be one of those games that players will either love or they will hate.  I can't see where it will meet the crazed fanbase of the original World of Warcraft franchise.  Especially with the lack of storyline and even customization of your name from whatever class you choose.  But it's an interesting pickup to play a few hands with friends or just to check out and see if you will enjoy it.

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. 

Patch 5.4: Budgeting for the Patch
Get thee To a TradeSkillMaster 2.0
Patch 5.4 Prep:  No Sleep til Brooklyn
Customer First
You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?




 

Patch 5.4: Budgeting for the Patch

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:37 PM

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It is only days away from Patch 5.4 and the rush to whoop some Hellscream butt.   Players are going to finally get to see just how much work has gone into the last (possibly) patch for the MOP expansion and the end to an epic storyline.

If you have been keeping up with the joneses you already have a large amount of your materials stocked up for the two week push after the patch.  After purchasing your ore and your cloth and every item that can be sold for a buck you're raring to go.

But there are still a few that are looking at the last days to pick up deals.   The most important thing is to not get swept up in the hoopla of investment.   If you have already stockpiled you should be looking at just how much of your budget has been spent on your own crafters.  How much have you invested to flip for profits.  Whether it's in gold or percentage a budget can keep you from falling into the pit of overinvestment that players fall into. 

For the new patch I split my investments four ways.   I decided to budget 10,000g towards what I needed for my own crafters and 20,000g for resell.  The 10,000g was split among the four different raw materials (herbs,  ore,  cloth,  Misc), and the 20,000g was split among four investment types (weapons,  armor,  crafting flips,  Misc).   My goal with that two week period is to hit about 400% profit margin.  

Budgeting may seem tedious to perform.  Why not just throw money at something that looks good.  This ends up being a hit or miss strategy with more misses than hits.  The importance of being surgical in your investment is just as important as knowing what buttons to push when your raiding.

Speaking of raiding,  players are going to want to max out their justice points so tanks and healers can net a large profit just from offering to sell their services for gold.  Runs will be quick (especially with level 90's in good gear) so just grabbing a few sales from players and running 2-3 instances can net 1000g an hour easily (assuming 15 minute runs at 250g per player).

Budgeting your time is also as important as budgeting your gold.   If your not running instances look for flips and for sales.  Buying stacks off the auction house and barking in trade chat for a profit can net profits just as much as any other worth investment.  Just look outside the well worn box for what can bring in the gold.

This weekend will be interesting.  If you need me I'll be the dancing Tauren on the mailbox in Orgrimmar accepting tips.

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. 

Get thee To a TradeSkillMaster 2.0
Patch 5.4 Prep:  No Sleep til Brooklyn
Customer First
You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?

Get thee To a TradeSkillMaster 2.0

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:09 AM

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If you have ever looked over at Curse.com or Wowinterface.com there are a plethora (there is your quarter word for the day) of addons.   Addons that can change your view of the world.  Addons that can change how you attack,  defend, play pvp etc.   Just about anything you can dream about (other than farm for you).

One of the caveats I've always had is the attempt to automate gold making.  Addons can give you a large amount of information on the economy.  Addons cannot make those decisions for you with 100% accuracy.  No matter what the amount of information put into any gold making system,  there are peaks and valleys in a market that can cause hiccups in the system.

The other caveat I've always had with large money making addons is the idea that they are a jack of all trades and master of none. Addons becomes so large that it takes a college degree to be able to do the simplest of actions.  The Auctioneer addon fell into this trap.  The original version of Trade Skill Master also fell into this trap.  Both are excellent pieces of programming without the Blizzard API system.  But unless you spent hours and hours of tinkering most players would only use 2-3 parts of the system.

Now many journals ran reviews of the new Trade Skill Master.  I delayed mine the same reason that I delay jumping from one version of Windows to the 'upgrade'.  There are always bugs to work out even after an extensive beta testing.  Bugs are just going to happen with new software.  It is a part of having worked with computers for over 30 years (yes I'm that old).  I downloaded the beta version of the software and liked it.  Upgrading to the release version of the addon didn't change my like for the new interface and changes to increase productivity.   Now a couple of weeks ago version 2.1 was released that fixed many 'undisclosed software features' and made Trade Skill Master into a force to be reckoned with.

Sapu94, Bart39 and Drethic along with a large contingency of testers and developers have created the must have addon for any serious gold maker.  But fair warning:  It is still big and daunting.  It has a high learning curve to be able to put it through it's paces.  But it has improved many of the simple functions as well as made a complete overhaul for posting and storage.

There are already many tutorials and walk throughs on setting up your new toy properly.

TSM Official Forum from Sapu94
Cyan TSM has a good starting setup guide on TSM 2.0
TSM 2.0 video Tutorial by Phat Lootz

After you have all of your items ready for the patch day next week.  Take a look at TSM 2.0 and see if you're ready to take a dive into the deep end of the pool. 

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. 

Patch 5.4 Prep:  No Sleep til Brooklyn
Customer First
You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?

Patch 5.4 Prep: No Sleep til Brooklyn

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:33 PM

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Mommar here.

In theory this will be the last week of prep work before patch 5.4 lands on our doorsteps.  That means this is the last week for your Barrens dailies to obtain those last items you want from Darkspear Rebellion Quartermaster.   Just remember that some of the items such as Griftah's Authentic Troll Shoes will no longer be available.   Some of the items like Gahz'rooki's Summoning Stone and Raptorhide Boxing Gloves will still be rare drops from the Kor'kron in the Northern Barrens.

Valor and Justice points will not be reset (thank you).   What is a major change is that all of the reputation items up to the new raid reputation (Shaohao) will be available for justice points.  Also included is that reputation for these gets thrown out the window.  That pretty much means the majority of the gear (other than weapons) that is crafted will do a serious drop in price.   The main goal will be the addons (enchants,  armor patches,  enchants) that will be in high demand as players jump from newly minted 90's to raid worthy for just a few instance runs.

Another thing to make sure to grab in the next week is your Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator if you plan on doing any Archeology with the new patch.  It will become much more difficult to obtain this nice little toy after next week.

If you haven't stockpiled your leather, ore and other raw materials for the new transmutes:  your in a little bit of trouble.  With the key to new patterns being the new daily profession transmutes,  there will be a serious shortage at first as players look to burn through their stockpiles.  Anytime there is a major change in the professions transmutes/crafting the economy starts bouncing up and down.  Make sure to send your farmers and extra treat this week to have them all on the same page.

The last thing to do is to double check all of your absolute need addons.  Look at the addon page for your go to addons on Curse.com  to verify that your addons are going to be updated.  If the author has announced they won't be updating anymore then it will be a good time to look for the replacement. 

This next week will be active times to both empty out your items that will take a huge hit and also look to flip some commodities.  Use the Zero Balance Investment as one of your major weapons this week and come out on top. 

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. 

Customer First
You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?

Customer First

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:58 PM

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Mommar here.

Early in my working career I worked for a software company as tech support.  Calls during the day included how to turn on the software,  how to install it,  how to use it etc.  Most of the calls were easy to field.  I just needed to phrase the information in a way that the caller could understand.

Part of my job was also to sell to customers after we had solved their problem.  Many times this included an upgrade to the newest version of the software.  Other times this included offering them other pieces of software that they might find just as useful.

The perfect opportunity to double your sales is to just inspect what equipment they are currently wearing.  If it's a new player they might be willing to take a little advice and buy a gem cut from you.  Viewing what they have at the point can lead you to upgrading a green item they have to a blue or even epic item in just a few clicks.

The key to being a good gold goblin starts with customer service.  Your knowledge and ability in the field of sales can help lead you into multiple sales from the same source.  Players might not know what you carry and offering one or two items can turn a simple sale into your gold mine for the day.

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. 

You're Squishing My Items
The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?

You're Squishing My Items

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 11:49 AM

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Gamescon in Germany is almost done.   All the beer,  all the gaming and lots of little tidbits getting released.  

Game Director Tom Chilton,  the grand poohbah of giving us little tidbits of information was asked about item squishing in future expansions.   The basic idea of item squishing is to compress the numbers so that the damage numbers don't become so ridiculous they blow up the game itself.

A good dps during Burning Crusade could crank out 4 digit dps regularly.  As the expansions and stats on items became larger and larger,  the minimum 'good dps' numbers increased exponentially.   To the point that during Mist of Pandaria you saw burst dps that went into 6 digit (yes gang,  that's 100,000+) numbers.

So why talk about this now?   What's the benefits to the gold goblin for item squishing?   Anytime that there is a change in stats on items it brings looking for the best stats to have into play.  With new expansions (and in theory new races) you have lots of players looking for the best weapons to purchase to go back to uber god (or goddess) status.  The basic philosophy of I have what you want and I'm going to charge you a lot of gold for it becomes prevalent again.

So does this mean I'm saying jump out there and buy a bunch of items right now in the long term hope that we can make lots of gold?   Nope,  not at all.  But I would keep an eye on the market and if you see some blues or even epic BOE items on sale to take a few chances.  

In the next week gold goblins are going to be busy prepping for Patch 5.4.   Collecting materials and getting ready to drop into new zones and raids.  But that mental backburner can always be busy thinking whats ahead with the next expansion.  Item Squishing might be your new best friend.

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. 

The Ways of The Force Are Strange
It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous

The Ways of The Force Are Strange

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:27 PM

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Most of the time I've kept topics on this journal based around World of Warcraft.  At times I've delved into other areas including Diablo 3,  Marvel Heroes and other games.  Mostly trying to share little nuggets of what each of these games has taught me.

Blizzard has just dropped the closed beta to their new online card game Hearthstone.  It looks interesting and can be fun.  But anyone who has been a veteran of closed betas knows that you have to be careful about scams.

There are some very interesting offers for beta keys going around with different journals.  Wow insider and MMO-Champion have already started offering beta keys as different prizes.  It brings new readers into a journal.  But one thing that always burns me is when people offer to sell their keys.   And Blizzard has the same attitude.

Blizzard has always had a 'we catch you,  we nuke you' policy when it comes to selling anything that isn't approved by them.  Selling Characters,  items,  beta keys,  etc.  Anything that they don't approve of you selling they will nuke you from high orbit just to make sure.  That includes both the seller and the buyer.   On the surface it isn't that big of a deal.   Great,  I got banned from a little card game.  But sooner or later Blizzard is going to take a major whack at these sales and ban entire battle-net accounts.  That means you lose access to not just Hearthstone but also to World of Warcraft,  Diablo and even future games.  You start all over with a brand new email account,  brand new keys etc.  Not really worth it to get to play a game earlier than everyone else.

So be smart about when you see these 'sales'.  Decide if it's worth the risk of everything you've built up to now just to get an early start on a game.  If you feel it is,  more power to you.  I will continue to hope that the beta key fairies show me some love.  And that they are redheaded fairies.

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. 


It's a Date.. Maybe?
Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous

Patch 5.4: It's a Date? Maybe?

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:39 PM

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So one of the powers that be (Tom Chilton) in an interview on a german fan site (yes,  we are multicultural here) that the 5.4 patch has been pushed back to September 10th (11th for the gang in Europe).

This gives everyone about 2 1/2 weeks to get moving on finishing their goals leading up to the new patch.   This new date isn't etched in stone but the background downloader kicked in a couple of days ago so the waiting was upgraded to 'sooner if not later'.

With all the changes that are going to occur with the new patch,  finishing up your honey-do list becomes that much more important.   Even my list has a large amount to work on:

-   Max out Valor/Justice Points on Three toons

-   Max out Honor/Conquest points on one toon

-   Finish Dailies in Barrens for Radical Mojo for armor upgrades

-   Look for deals for gahzrooki

-   Buy supply of Exotic Leathers and Ghost Iron Ore/Bars to cover daily crafting burn

-   Finish off leveling two crafters to 90 (yes I have been slacking)

-   Prepare to craft new glyphs (need more inks)

-   Gear up two farmers to farm new areas with 5.4

-   Keep addons updated (more on this later in the week)

-   Work with TradeSkillMaster 2.1 (Definitely more on this later in the week)

All of this along with listing auctions and flipping for profit.   It will be a busy two weeks waiting for the patch to download.   What is on your agenda to get finished?

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. 


Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now
Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous

Kill The Death Knight.. Kill It Now

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 9:53 AM

0 comments View Comments

I have never fooled myself into the belief that I am the best World of Warcraft player around.  Over the years I have become better at playing certain toons.  But there is one class that has escaped my ability to be anything more than subpar.

Just like the majority of players,  when Blizzard introduced the Death Knight I ran out and rolled one as quickly as I could.  Starting to level her (I chose a Tauren Death Knight) It ended up feeling like a spam fest to me.  I would learn a rotation only to have it changed with another patch.  Doing my due diligence I researched the different options and playstyles to see which one would end up being the least complicated.

If you have been seeing some of the videos that get posted up,  Death Knights seem to be able to solo anything.  Even before the end of Cataclysm they were shown soloing bosses.  They were unstoppable in PVP and every raid group seemed to want to have at least one DK in their pocket for tanking duties.   But my poor lowly DK was feeling left out because she was crippled by the guy behind the keyboard controlling her.

As I was going through my toons again it struck me that other than selling pets and a few supplies I hadn't played my DK through either Cataclysm or Mists of Pandaria.  7 other toons got my attention while my little dead eyed girl sat in Dalaran waiting for her chance.  One that probably wasn't going to happen in the near future.

Everyone has lost toons.  Ones that struck a fancy for a bit but weren't as enjoyable as they seemed at the start.  Deciding whether to delete them to roll another class,  or just let them sit in the hopes that they can be entertaining again after tweaking and changes.  The decision to delete can be a tough one.  Especially if they are the link to your storage guild you have then sitting in.  What is the payment that I am willing to make to change class and toons.  I could take all of the materials in the guild and mail it to another toon.  After that delete my mad cow and then roll another toon.  Then find another guild,  buy all 7 slots and then reload all of the materials back into the guild.  

This would seem like a huge waste of gold and time just because I'm not feeling like bringing out the uber god of death to the field of play.   But then I could always suck it up and see what the thrill that other players are finding.   Level her to 90 and the go PVP with her?   Let her run around when I"m bored and smack mobs for farming duties.   Re-purposing her from sitting on her buns and let her wreck havoc.

It is also not like I need to make these decisions now.  There is nothing wrong with having her sit a little bit longer deciding if I want to keep her or not.  I already have the other 10 toons to babysit for one reason or another.  But the longer she sits there without any purpose,  the farther she will need to level once it's her time to come out and play.

Decisions decisions decisions.  But isn't this just another part of the game along with making gold?

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. 


Time to Remodel The Financial House
Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous


 

Time to Remodel The Financial House

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 12:24 PM

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With Patch 5.4 just over the horizon the next few weeks will be very important with what items you purchase for use.  Just as important will be getting your house in order for the upcoming patch and beyond. 

I have talked many times about your lineup of professions and how important they can be.  Do you have all of the professions covered?   Do you have all of the farming professions covered between your alt army?   Where do they sit when it comes to leveling and access to patterns?

Goblins cannot assume that they are ready just because they show up every day.   With the changes in daily timers for all of the professions.  For changes in farming the different areas for patterns and access to new recipes.  These should be put into your mental picture of just how your team needs to be set up.  Is your Blacksmith's inability to farm continually going to affect your access to future patterns?  Can your farmers keep up for the demand both from your own money factory as well as others that you service?

Just sitting down with your trust paper and pencil and jotting down your lineup will help.  Knowing what changes you need to do in the next two weeks will get you a goal to accomplish in the upcoming two weeks.

As the scouts say,  be prepared.  Or as our faithful enemy from Outlands repeated over and over again.  YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!!


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. 


Sense Of Entitlement
Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous

Only Worth What Someone Will Pay

Sense of Entitlement

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 10:58 AM

0 comments View Comments

Mommar here.

When I started playing World of Warcraft it was a very creative,  difficult game to master.   I've given you many stories of my questionable calls when playing.  Just as everyone else who plays WOW,  there is a steep learning curve on how to play.

As the game progressed through expansions it became easier and easier to obtain epic items.  At first it was only during raids and very high level of reputations could you get the ultimate in purple gear.  Later expansions opened it up to crafting,  making epics more and more available. 

Now it feels that you only have to shake a stick and an epic falls from the trees.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing.  The good is that it can make the game enjoyable to play.  Setting up the idea that players talent isn't dwarfed by the luck of the epic drop.

The bad thing is that there builds a sense of entitlement for epic drops.  As Patch 5.4 approaches this will become more and more apparent.  How many instances will you run where someone will start cursing up a storm because 'their drop' didn't happen.  Or worse,  they lost the roll for that drop and it's all your fault.

This is why I like making gold.  Where I might not be able to be the most epic of items with gold.  I can put together a nice set of gear just from crafting and buying.  My ability to make gold in the game is the only limitation that I have.  It can relieve the pressure of waiting for 'my drop' to happen.  This doesn't give you everything in the game of course.  Just read my not so legendary search for the Reins of the Raven Lord here and you can feel some of my phantom pain.

The biggest tool you have is your mind.  And making gold in this game,  obtaining epics and enjoying the game is completely dependent on that tool.  So the next time that someone throws an epic tizzy because they didn't get their drop for the 50th time.   Take a peek at that epic sword you bought and enjoy the rest of the run.

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. 


Patch 5.4:   Golden Lotus Beatdown
Four Levels of Wow Activity
Patch 5.4:  Preparing your Farmers
Patch 5.4:  Easy Gear.. Easy Go
Prepping for Patch 5.4: The Beginning
The End of a Pricing Era
Patch 5.4 prep:   Do You Know Where Your Tailor Is?
The Pitfalls of Trade Barking
7.7 Million Customers and Nothing Sells
Priorities in PVP Gear Pricing
Prep for Patch 5.4: Long Term Goals
Weekend Is Here
Take Me To Naxx
Profit Anonymous

Only Worth What Someone Will Pay