1500 Cinderbloom milled

On vent, there have been some discussion about what Cinderbloom mills into, with some speculation that drop rates may have changed.  So today, I milled 1500 of them, converting them into ink.  I now have cramped fingers and some real numbers.

The macro I used for milling is
/cast milling
/use cinderbloom

So the final results are available on my milling spreadsheet on the CinderbloomTest page, with

• 65 Burning Ember (becoming 32.5 Inferno Inks)
• 751 Ashen Pigments (becoming 375.5 Blackfallow Inks)

This gives 0.216 Burning Embers/ 5 herbs, vs an expected 0.25.
And 2.5 Ashen pigment/5 herbs, being the expected amount.

Tank you very much

A couple of days ago, I finally dinged 85 on my DK tank.  (Yes, last of the great levellers but you get that).  Tonight, I tanked the last of the normal mode instances. - Halls of origination.
I want to 'shout out' a great resource for these at Sword and Board:

• Blackrock Caverns, Throne of Tides.
• Stonecore, Vortex Pinacle
• Grim Batol, Halls of Origination, Lost City of te Tol'vir
• Heroic Deadmines, Heroic Shadowfang Keep

It doesn't matter if you are tank, healer, or DPS.  These sheets are great, and easy enough to copy/paste into party chat.

On a vaguely gold related topic, getting heroic rated gear is cheap enough - if you like PVP gear.  (I do not).  With my tank being a Dreani DK, the trinkets are nice, and the rings were levelling items.   (I have 529 JC yet no 'acievement' - vain, but I still want it).  All my gear is gemmed (where possible), and enchanted - using Northrend head and shoulders enchants before I get the rep for Cata enchants.

My prediction for the day : Prices of gems and enchants will go up as we start getting more 'real' gear, or as people start wanting to get through those heroics.  We will also get many many toons balking at the real cost of mats.

Tomorrow is a special day.

Merry Christmas, but for this post, I am thinking what this actually means.  I don't recall what happened the Christmas that Wrath was released, so this is pure speculation. 

Ok.  I expect a lot of boxes of cataclysm under various trees.  So - a lot more Worgen, Goblins and starter zones.  Whatever sold well the first time round should sell tomorrow as well.  Bags, maybe water breathing elixirs for Vashir.  Those that start tomorrow are likely to be kids, possibly with gold from wealthy benefactors, or well wishers.  Pets will probably move.

It is still festival, so there should be an additonal focus on completing the outstanding achievements.

Casual farmers/tradeskillers are likely to stop farming, so I also expect the auction house to be 'off' with both bargains and sales opportunities. 

Single players - especially teenagers, will be playing in the afternoon with a vengeance.  PVP gear and battleground supplies might sell OK?

Happy Winters Veil

Healing is easy right?

Umm.  Not so much any more.

I am an OK tank.  Not the best out there, but good enough to keep the agro of healers most of the time, and maybe even off the DPS too.  At the risk to an overblown ego, I might even be better than that.  However, I chose tanking, because of the 3 roles (ranged DPS, Healing and Tanking), tanking came hardest to me.  (Yes I started out as your typical wannabe DK 'tank').

I am not the fastest leveller, unless professions are involved.  I have 4.9 tradeskill professions at 525 (0.9 is because tailoring is 521), maxed cooking on 3 toons, but my tank is lvl 83, and my primary healer is lvl 82.  I will start working on my second healer's tradeskills once I run out of rested on my first two toons again.

My DK tank (Foolich) was first out of the rank, with Blackrock caverns, Throne of tides and Stonecore.  Tanking these, ... well it was tanking.  Nothing particularly hard.  Plenty of opportunity to use defensive cooldowns when DPS stand in bad stuff because the healers are struggling.  Being a JC/Enchanter, most of his gear is gemmed and enchanted - maybe with older stuff, but still kept moderatly well.  By the way - Blood is fantastic to level with.  I might not burn stuff down as fast as Frost/Unholy, but ... I need my 5 year old's help to die.  There is zero downtime.

My priest healer (Foofixit) has been neglected since I did TOC.  Now - for me - that was not that long ago, but still a few months.  Fixit's gear was a mix of 200's & 232's, with maybe a couple of 'recent' badge pieces.  But the last time I went healing, ... Yawn.   According to reports, other healers considered healing to be easy.

Last night I ran my first healing instance - (pug) Throne of tides as a level 82 priest.  Umm.  Hot keys not touched since TOC, no new spells, no practice.  Umm.  One DPS died due to mishealing, and a second due to standing in bad stuff while I was being thrown in the air by a boss. No wipes. Umm. Toto, I don't Think we're In Kansas Anymore.

Looking at dungeon finder times, there is still a shortage of tanks? I can only assume that this comes because a lot of previously 25 main raids are running 5 mans.  If I recall :

• 5 man dungeons need 20% tank, 20% heals, 60% dps; 
• 10 mans take 20% tank, 25% heals, 55% dps, and 
• 25 mans take 12% tanks,  25% heals, 63% dps.

Some DPS standing in fire will die.  Some healers will become discouraged.  (Some tanks will remain arrogant - but I think arrogance will be roundly beaten out of healers).  I expect that with the same quality of loot dropping from 10's as 25's, more 10's will be run (but 25's will still happen for more loot), and this is worth considering.  Guilds - while you need your tanks now, look after your healers - you will need them later.

Milling spreadsheet

As what might come to an absolute shock to regular readers, I have been playing with glyphs.  (Ok absolute shock might not be the right term).  Some of you may have read that I converted a lot of Ink of the Sea into other inks before patch 4.0.  I am running out of some of those inks, and in the main, blackfallow inks are still to expensive to trade down.

So, I have been buying older herbs and milling, for fun and profit.  I had an instinctive feel for how much to pay for northrend herbs, but very little 'feel' for older herbs, and blackfallow inks are still expensive.  So like any good min/maxer, I wrote a spreadsheet for milling.  It is written as a google docs spreadsheet.  If you use google docs, you can 'make a copy'.  If you use Excel or OpenOffice, you can download it.

Auctioneer's milling values seem to be based on the value of pigments.  Pigments are rarely traded at a reasonable value.  Consider selling the odd pigment for a 'reasonalbe' value.

Enter 'your' values for herbs, pigments and inks.  If the 'markeup' column is green (high profit), mill it.  If it is red (loss), avoid it.  If the markup is white (no profit) or yellow(small profit), consider it if you must.

This spreadsheet is still to be considered 'beta' quality.  I am still finding a few mistakes in it, but as a whole it works for me.

Have fun

Buying for the future

At the moment a lot of players are madly levelling up tradeskills.

For example, and enchanter I know has 520 skill, trying to get to 525.  The mats are costing him about 500g per point, and he can only sell the scroll for 40g.  This is only sustainable while tradeskills are being levelled.

One day soon, there will be less toons levelling enchanting.  As I didn't pay much attention during the start of Wrath, I dont know how long this rush of tradeskill levelling phase will last.  What I do know is that in the long term, either mats will come down, or the cost of the scrolls will go up; probably both.

I have always been a contrarian investor - sell during panic buys, and buy during panic sells.  On average this has worked well.  I advocated hanging onto snowfall ink when the price fell to a few gold each.  On my server, snowfall ink is now selling for 13g.

I don't know what the long term prices of items will be, but it does seem that some items are currently oversold, and that oversupply will dry up. 

It may be time to go shopping.

Volatile Air

We all want to have 525 tradeskills, and be working on paterns for heroic dungeons.
And I am sure at the top for some professions there will be gold to make.

However, to make those high end patterns: (A) toons need to get to 520 (or near enough), and (B) someone needs to make the underlying mats.

So much relies on volatile air: Engineers need electified ether, I hear that blacksmiths need it too.  Tonight I used my Alchy transmute to ensure I made volatile air.  Bought the mats for about 200g, paid 20g for a teleport to Theramore and flew down to Uldum (my alchemist is still 80, with no cata quests except cooking and fishing).  Aparently transmutes of volatile life in Uldum guarantee air.

The transmute netted 16 air, which I listed for 200g each.  Within 10 minutes 12 had sold.

This is a market worth watching, especially if you have an alchemy alt you are happy to park in/near Uldum.

Out of traction, back in action

I have been spending too much, for too long, and not earning enough.

I have to purchase gear to for a single evening of attempts at lich king, tradeskilling up, purchasing cheap old world mats (my banks are still bulging at the seems), and generally acting as if I had bottomless wealth. 

I still have gold, but have hit a point where I am uncomfortable.

Problems/opportunities:

• In glyphs, I still have too much stock and not enough sales.  That is an easy thing to fix.
• My Auctioneer suite (Enchantrix I think) does not know what cata gear disenchants into.  There is a beta download of the suite at http://auctioneeraddon.com/dl/?dl=Preview/AuctioneerSuite-5.10.5043.zip
• Market imbalances.  They are all over the place at the moment.  There is money working out what is needed alliance/horde side, converting scraps -> leather -> heavy leather, smelting, prospecting, milling, disenchanting, lesser <-> greater enchanting mats.

I still am not planning on selling northrend many mats, there are just too many in the market; and I will wait for the inevitable re-rolls that will come soon, as classes lose/gain favour, and toons get to 85 and are 'sufficiently' geard (whatever that means).

Weekend observations

On Caelestrasz, herbs are now cheap enough for me to mill for fun & profit (and levelling inscription and alchemy), specifically Cinderbloom and Stormvine, at a significant profit margin.

I am mildly envious of both those who have time &  lack of distractions to play during the day, and the focus not to succumb to distractions.  My most advanced toon - Foolich, is now level 81. 
That said, I have Alchemy at 525, waiting on one more JC daily before nudging it up, and am 1/2 way there on Inscription. 

Transmuting alchemy seemed to be the most economical way to level it, with the resulting products being the same (or higher) value that the source materials.  I am not sure I want to play in the potions, elixir or flask markets at the moment, (though some flasks & elixirs seem OK).

Inscription has a forged document for me to level with.  I ... am not sure this is ethical.  Walking up to an NPC, with 'proof' that he gave someone food poisoning, and aksing to be paid off seems ..., well it is not 'nice'.  I can be 'not nice', Taking advantage of an NPC = good, while taking advantage of a game mechanic = bad? Mmmm.  Oh well, off to slay a few thousand pixelated people.  With Inferno ink selling for 200g+ each, I want to be sure I am not throwing thousands of gold away for a few points, so foofixit's conscience may just have to be paid off.

JC dailies are OK.  I've heard concern about the cost of doing the dailies, but it does not seem as expensive for me - possibly because I started a few days later.  Prospect your own ore, moving up to Elementium ore as soon as you can.  (If I recall, Saronite ore was almost always cheaper than Cobalt ore).  It also seems that vendors like cut green quality gems more than the AH.

On the guild front; after hints and concerns (both mine and theirs), I joined Breevok's guild - More than Raids, and have tanked a grand total of 1 instance (Blackrock Caverns).  In fairness to More than Raids my concerns were 'Oh my goodness, I don't have control'.  When I blogged about this, it immediately set up a red flag on their behalf as well.  I still don't have control, but so far that's OK.  The guild seems to be a good fit.

Readership, a Glyph update, and the illusion of independance

Readership

We all are a little distracted at the moment. It happens. The quality of posts on gold blogs is down, as is readership:

Website	%Change Month to Date	%Change Week to Date
foo-wow.blogspot.com	+2%	-17%
network.phase3profit.net	+11%	-11%

So, for both of you that are still reading blogs, ...

Glyphs
I do not understand what is happening.  Where are the purchasers?  Where are the sellers?  For me at least, Glyphmas part 2 has not happened. 

Possibly this is due to setting prices in the 50-100g bracket (I only want to sell best profit glyphs at the moment).  I split my glyphs into 3 groups : Best sellers, OK sellers and poor sellers.  At the moment my previous Best selling glyphs are not even being listed; thats OK, lots of competition explains this. 

Some of my OK glyphs are being listed, without sales.  Most of my poor selling glyphs are being listed - with very little - if any competition, but still not selling. Mmm.  Distractions.


Maybe that is it.  So many distractions and players are not bothering to either list or purchase glyphs. 

The Illusion of independance
As I have said before, Blizzard is discouraging both micro-guilds and running a majority of out of guild 5 mans and dungeons, so I have been guild shopping. I didn't realise that I was so fussy.

• Family friendly.
• Large enough to keep regulars busy, and get various forms of guild achievements.
• Small enough for me to invite toons yet still know everyone.

Last night I left Death's Head.  The gulf between a guild for primarily 17-23 year olds and family friendly seemed too large.  I have a standard of behaviour that I expect.  I am happy to run with any of them, providing the attempt is made.  My thanks to the players that tried.  In regard to a few of the players, absence will make the heart grow fonder.

I think I have found a guild that I should be compatible with.  They have an active blogger that the majority of readers here will be familiar with.  However, from our conversation last night, it is clear that I will not have the autonomy that I am used to, especially in terms of inviting toons.  In reality I don't invite a lot of strangers to guild, and the majority of players I do invite want to raid more than once a week (hence only having a few raiders in Arozcaldo).  The truth be told - I am feeling 'gun shy'.  Right now, I wish Blizzard did not implement the guild changes.  Let's see if I move beyond asking questions and join this new guild.

Levelling professions - soon

The WoW AH - in some ways - is maturing, at least on my server.

Some cata mats (admitidtly food) is down to silver, others are merely coming down.

I will be levelling my professions soon, maybe this weekend, maybe Monday/Tuesday.

Talking about levelling professions, my Ackis recipee list had not updated. It is currently in alpha for cata recipees, available via wowace, or you can update your curse client to allow 'alpha' releases by right click - preferred release type - alpha.

Alpha means very early and likely lots of bugs and missing functionality. Beta means some bugs, but most functionality is done. Production means that everything is in, with no bugs.

Of course, we all know that 'Production' quality applications never have bugs don't we.

This server will be shut down in 3 minutes for urgent mainten.........

Professions and guild drama

Random notes from day 2.  (No in depth analysis at the moment - not enough time either RL or in game)

You may have noticed that the prices of mats are dropping - fast.  This is because there are some players who must have max professions now.  These players are mostly loosing a lot of gold for the privlidge, with most of their items selling well below mats price.

Mats are not free just because you farmed them.  They have a price according to their current value on the AH.  If you wont (max) level your tradeskills for 3 days, sell your mats now, and buy them back later.  Your gold reserves will thank you.

Wek spent about 15k on a server first in Alchemy.  Grats to Wek, but it cost him a bucket.  I expect to spend much less in a few days.

Guild's are interesting.  With Cata ... penalising micro guilds, I have joined a larger guild.  I may have made a poor choice, time will tell. 
I have two children that also play WoW, and for better or for worse, we come as a package.  By raiding standards, I am also a part time raider.  I don't do much grinding of dungeons, preferring to run everything in order.  My raiding night is Saturday, with liberal use of raid extensions, but will run some dungeons throughout the week.  My requirements are:

• Caelestraz Alliance. Too many toons to move
• Toons to fish : I want the new fish feast recipee, and guild fishing of 10,000 fish is a bit much for me by myself.
• A guild large enough to be able to get a Lvl 85 of every class, for the Stormwind teleport cloak.
• (mostly) PG guild chat.  Innuendo is fine - I use it a lot, but if I don't want to hear my sons saying it, I dont want to read it. The same goes for vent.
• A place for alts.  I have 1 tank, 2 heals and a DPS, all with max WoLK skills, and will have max Cata skills soon.
• A place for my kids. My younger child is prone to randomly spam party invites, and is on occasion very chatty on vent. I wont be offended if he is occasionally ignored. My older child is mostly harmless.
• Understand I raid Saturday nights, and am more likely to extend than allow a reset.
• I have some other players that I raided cata with that I may be bringing with me

My preferences are:

• A guild small enough for me to know (at least in passing) the majority of members
• An active voice (vent/mumble/whatever) culture - or be willing to try one.  (I maintain a vent server).
• A healer or two willing to heal my tank. Failing that, a tank or two for my healer.
• Takes raiding serious enough to do basic research, and at least try not to stand in the fire.
• Understands that many players do not just 'get' things.  (I wipe very well), or have very bad lag.
• Privlidges to invite to guild vetted pugs that I want to run on saturdays with

I really like running with my new guild's GM. Regardless of starting late, we ran a significant portion of ICC togehter, with a majority of players in his guild. In fact he poached the majority of my players (I am fine with that - I don't raid enough to justify monopolising players time).

However, I can be a curmudgeonly old sod.  The expectation that I will either put up with foul language or not be included in the social aspect of the guild is grating.

I would like to turn the guild I recently joined into something that meets my requirements, but if not, will explore my options.

Things that make you go hmm

I misremembered where the Throne of the Tides instance was.  I thought I read it was in Uldum, but oh well.  WowWiki for the win.

To get to Vashyr, go to the stormwind docs, pick up the quest, and have some reading material while waiting for the docks.

I also fail at breathing underwater in Vashyr.  Elixirs of water breathing might sell well, especially if you take them to the zone and offer them in /say (would probably sell for 50g+ each - at least while the chaos is on at the start of cata).  Once toons have got their permanent breathing they will not be interested.

WoLK flasks seem to be selling OK.  I suspect that health pots will too.

Remember to post your gathered materials on the AH before you log out for the night.  Mail everything to a bank alt and post it.  If in doubt, post it too high.  Take advantage of the players with gold that just want to level professions now.  Unless you are going for realm first, wait a few days to level your own crafting professions.

Twas the night before ...

Well at least I think its the night before glyphmas part 2

Over the next few weeks we will all be very busy.  That said I intend to try and do a few things, in addition to finishing off this round of my 'What Profession?' series.

With luck, I will be posting highlights of market observations, things I think need to be done.



For tonight, before cata drops I am

• am posting all my glyphs, 6 each, between 50 & 100g each regardless of the competition (APM 50g threshold, 100g auto fallback).
• Emptying my bags on my toons that I will level first, mailing to alts/disenchanting/vendoring/throwing stuff
• I have joined another guild - Death's head aux.  Blizzard are discouraging very small guilds, and I want some of those guild achievments (Flask cauldrons, fish feasts, teleporting cloaks)
• I will attempt to get my BOA enchanting stuff on the AH.

Terrorism (Politics)

The US Republican Senate leader has called WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a “high-tech terrorist”.  In my opinion the US Republican Senate leader is an ass.

I already have problems with the real and exceptionally expensive war on so called terrorism.  I can cope with a war on the enemy, but this "terrorism" is bullshit:

• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

While I am not a lawyer, I suspect that Wikileaks might have broken copywrite law. It has published a lot of stuff that I think was written by someone else.

Wilileaks may be seditious. Every opposition party is probably seditious.

Terrorism is serious. Lots of people have died of it. For a point of reference compare the number of deaths by terrorism vs other causes. Some politicians will call those that disagree with them terrorists. This cheapens the term and makes it meaningless.

Australia's ABC News Radio has a newspoll (right hand side) about whether or not readers agree with the US Republican Senate Leader. There are no prizes for guessing my vote.

I will rarely subject readers to my political views. I know it is not what some of you are here for. I will label political posts in the title.

By today's definition, Guy Fawkes was a terrorist. One that the west has celebrated for centuries.

Making gold - Writer's cramp

Inscription is like that.  Milling and Writing.  Again and again. Read the setup post for information on recommended addons.

This is about my 4th draft of this post. There are disavantages to being intimately involved in a profession. This draft has been published - whether it's ready or not.

This profession is yesterday's golden haired child.  More gold caps have been made via inscription than via any other profession. It became flavour of the month.  But now that young tanned 'hard body' is now old, flabby and is worried about skin cancer.  That's OK, there's plenty of money left in it.  I have made about 1/2 of all my gold with this profession.

Advantages:

• Will make gold from new toons.
• New toons have aboout 30 glyphs to learn - gotta catch em all.
• A long startup time to keep out competition 
• Good gold making for levelling players
• Potential for huge markups
• A changing profession

Disadvantages

• Too many players in the market, with very heavy competition on most glyphs
• Once a player has caught em all - very little left to sell
• A long startup time to keep you out
• If you want to sell it all, you may need 3 posting toons
• Time consuming (Edit )

If you wish to take up this skill, do your research (minor and major) and read up on your glyph mastery.   Do each research every day untill you stop learning glyphs, and start researching again after patches (I discovered I was missing a minor glyph last night). If you know everything from glyph mastery, you will not be able to consume your book.

On our server, there are several scribes that list every glyph above their threshold - with the only difference being the threshold.  I have 3 'ideal' thresholds, from 0 profit for glyphs I am overstocked on, to a minimum 8g profit on 'best sellers'

Levelling scribes should do your research and read this post by Breevok.  Also keep an eye out for cheaply priced herbs to mill and sell on the AH.  One day Blackfallow Ink will be available and cheap enough to trade down (Jessia Sellors in Dalaran, not sure who else), but in the meantime you should check the AH for correct herbs/look for a herbalist.

For scribes, I do not consider that you are at 'maximum' level until you have completed all your research (Minor + Major + Books of Glyph Mastery), regardless of your skill level.  When first entering the glyph market, look at the expensive glyphs on your AH; make + sell those.

As you get up in levels, consider novelty items like the off hands that turn you into wolves.

Start regularly crafting and selling your money making glyphs. For something different, mill herbs and sell them where milling is profitable. Be warned - the auction prices for pigments is inaccurate. No one buys pigments.

Max Level scribes should consider two more addons:

• Enhanced tradeskill window : Gnomeworks WowAce (Not yet on curse? You may need to manually install it)
• Queing making tool : KTQ curse or CurseForge
• Yet another auction poster : APM curse or Curseforge(or ZeroAuctions)
• Multiple toon/account inventory : Altoholic curse or Curseforge

My thanks to the authors of these addons.  Gnomeworks does not play nicely with multiple accounts, but adding in KTQ + Althoholic works a treat. In order to keep this post to a vaguely reasonable size, I will post later on how I make glyphs.

You need to sell the most expensive glyphs that are on your server.  This traditionally does not involve too many vendor taught recipees - but I am always surprised. As always - get all the recipees (Ackis Recipee List) and sell if it makes a profit.

Consider darkmoon cards. The pricing and manufacture of darkmoon cards requires it's own post, with a lot of gold made and lost on these. (For the record I left the darkmoon card market when other trinkets became relatively easily available)

Blizzard has other plans to give us goldmaking, but I am reserving judgement.

TL;DR
Theres gold in them inscription hills, but by the great goblin - you'll hafta to work for it.

WoW Econ Network

As you might tell from the right hand side of my blog, I read a lot of WoW blogs.

I have selected what I have considered the top 15 WoW gold making blogs on the net, and show a list of their recent posts on another site - network.phase3profit.net

I have just updated these lists as per this post

If you think that the list needs updating, please leave a comment; either here or over at network.phase3profit.net.

Lich King attempt this week

This post is primarily for Arozcaldo and Death's Head members, plus regular ring-ins.  However, if you wish to be considered as a reserve, please whisper/in game mail Foolich on Alliance Caelestrasz.

Sindragosa is dead.  How I ended up with a lockout that required me to down Marrowgar again, but allowed to move directly to Sindragosa is somewhat confusing.

Due to in part running with Death's Head guild and swapping players back and forth, and some weirdness with lockouts extended over patches, we now only have Lich King standing. We have only a week to down him.  Some of us (notably me) have never seen the fight.

Order will be :

• Lich King 

Requirements for attendance:

• Have read up or watched at least two sources for the Lich King fight.  WowWiki and Tankspot are suffiicient.
• Fully Enchanted and Gemmed.  You will be checked to see if you are a Bimbo.  If you have financial difficulties, please let me know.
• Epics.  We are not going to be entirely undergeared.  If you see a shiny on the AH or on a recipee book, and need financial assistance, talk to me.
• Be prepared to wipe.  It will happen.  Lots.  Morale is important.  Quiet desperation is permitted.  Whispering to a GM (between pulls)  - either Deaths head's or me, is permitted. Public ranting at other players is not.
• 2 Tanks, 3 Healers, 5 DPS.  I will be one of the tanks. 
• All healers will have a healing library addon - Vuhdo, Healbot, Grid all include one.  Other addons are fine as long as I see what heals are incoming.
• Attend at least one briefing session / attempt during the week.
• Bring personal buffs including flask, potions, and any other consumable.  For Saturday night assume at least 20 attempts.

Being a Lich King attempt, there is a possibility I may ask you to be a reserve, even if you meet all the above requirements.

Raid times:
I normally only raid Saturday nights.  This week I will make an  exception.  I want to have training attempts during the week.  I will only be available for a few attempts each night, but I  deem those attempts to be worth it.  During the week we will discuss strategy, review gear, and make a few attempts, generally starting 8:30 - 9 pm server time for about an hour.

Saturday night attempts
Logged on your raiding toon by 8:30 unless you have specifically confirmed an alternative login time.  You may be asked to be a reserve.  

Loot Rules.  Master looter:  For what it is worth.  In two weeks you will not care.

• Need if you need, but you will lose a roll to someone who has won less than you.
• Greed if you want

I am breaking a personal rule, doing 3 ICC bosses out of order.  For the record, the bosses I personally have left to kill - out of the entire expansion, are:

• Algalon (H Ulduar)
• Halion (Ruby Sanctum)
• Blood Prince Council
• Professor Putricide
• Blood Queen Lana'thel
• Lich King

I wanted a full set, completing Nax roughly Jan 10, progressing at my own pace, in order, raiding once a week (sometimes twice).  I will not get that this expansion, but will get a full set for Cata.




This post is also a static page.

TL;DR:
I have stepped into ICC 10 a grand total of 8 times as of update.  I hope to down Lich King before Cataclysm

Ethics

Tonight I offended someone in game, who's opinion I respect, over a matter of ethics.

Readers may be aware that a guild member found a way to farm volatile water (since fixed by Blizzard).  The three of us that were on obtained mats. 

I was informed that Blizzard sometimes takes a dim view on cheating, and was reminded of the Lich King world first being withdrawn, and I would not enjoy an account suspension for a week.  Being gidy with the thought of selling the volatile water, I made a stupid comment about using a son's account.  Putting another players enjoyment at risk for my own profit crosses the line.  I acknowledge that.  It was  unworthy of me, and an insult to the person I was talking to.

For the record, his advice is that if you already have cata mats (this post is still 12 days till Cata), you should destroy them.

I am unsure of my own opinion or advice.  There is evidence that Blizzard turns a blind eye.  I have knowingly exploited the game environment (like many others).  I do not know if I will post those mats I have, or encourage others to buy them.

What I will do will be at my own risk, on my own account.

Welcome to our new transport system

Imagine a world where there

• are no capital city portals in Dalaran or Shattrah.
• is more than one flight point in a zone.
• is a flight point in the starter towns just ouside your capital city (Kharanos, Goldshire etc)
• is a flight point at every quest hub I have seen so far
• you can fly in the (remade) old world

Oh look - amongst all the QQ regarding the first point, we missed what we have been given with the rest.
 Wondering around Wetlands  I found (alliance) flight points in the middle, and on the border with Arathi Highlands.  This would have been so useful when I originally quested there, and will be usefull on my next alt.

But lets assume you are stuck in Dalaran.  There is still one portal left - to the Caverns of time.  For Hordies, take the portal, ride to Gadgetzahn and the flight point to Thunderbluff/Origmar.  Similarly for Alliance, you can fly to Darnasus (admitidtly a long ride), or to Wetlands/Ratchet and catch the boat.

The flight points between some cities are short enough : Thunderbluff <-> Origmar and Ironforge <-> Stormwind, but the travel between other cities is hard?  There is plan B

All the cities still have the portal to just out of the Dark Portal.  From there, run to Outlands; to (but don't take) your flight point.  Looking behind you, there is a portal to Stormwind (alliance) or (I assume) Origmar (horde).  This makes the Exodar or Darnassus -> Stormwind run relativly short.

(This post was originally planned for last night, but the hotfix/listing of volatile water took precedence).

Very few of my toons (if any) will be hearthed in Stormwind

Volatile Water for sale

(Edit: I bring to your attention Breevok's comment below)

The Cataclysm crafting water element.  Yes.  Now.

During a gold rush, you make gold by selling shovels.  Water Walking was that shovel.

A guild mate saw something I didn't know about.  For a very brief window you could farm Volatile Water.  Not useful for anything now, but an incredibly valuable head start to any server first profession toons.

He asked that I keep it quiet and not blog about it.  In order to both honour that request, but still to get a 'scoop', I did the next best thing.  I advised readers to make Water Walking elixirs and fishing aids.

The trick (now fixed) was you needed to be between Wetlands and Arathi Highlands, walking on water and fishing.

So, if you want a head start on those professions, have a look at your AH.  There just might be volatile water or Cata fish.  Be warned - there is not much supply, and should be priced accordingly.  (Yes I do have a limited supply)

If you are after that professional server first, you will need every bit of assistance you can get.

Fishing in Cata

Fishing in Cata (and maybe even before) will be an important skill.  Not only will it be needed for the guild perk for the new fish feast, but it will be an important source of volatile water.

Fisherman can help this by fishing up Glassfin Minow from the lake/river in Crystalsong forest, selling these to alchemists who can make an Elixir of Water Walking. DK's and Shamans (and maybe Priests) can all walk on water and fish

Engineers can make Aquadynamic Fish Attractor to give +100 fishing.

I expect demand for both of these items to skyrocket before cata hits.

UPDATE: Blizzard fixed the issue that made Elixir of Water walking a must have.  It is still worth stocking up on fishing aids, but no longer essential.  Yes I knew something I didnt say.

Caelestraz Alliance glyph sellers are idiots

Every single one of you (Did I ever mention I sell glyphs on Alliance Caelestraz?)

If in doubt - create/use a horde toon and have a look at the horde AH prices.  I picked Warrior glyphs and looked at the first two pages.

Glyph of Demoralizing shout : Horde 99g; Alliance 44g
Glyph of Enduring victory : Horde 100g; Alliance 13g
Glyph of Mortal Strike : Horde 125g; Alliance 13g

Do I need to continue?
Some of us need to sell glyphs to the other side.  Many of us already have access to children, spouses, guildmates who can help us shift glyphs.

My fellow competitors, if you don't do it, I am going to start.

This is today's second post.  If you missed it, you may also like to read Convert Ink of the Sea immediately?

Convert Ink of the Sea Immediately?

I don't know.


www.wowconfidential.com says in 4-0-3 jessica sellers now trades only blackfallow ink for other inks, in turn quoting WoW insider and MMO champion.

I am expecting another fortnight of Nothrend herb gathering, plus a couple of weeks of herb dumping come the Cataclysm.  I am relying on this to produce Ink of the sea.  I have converted all of my existing Ink of the sea down.  I already had guild bank tabs of herbs, and I bought about 5000g of herbs last night. I will busily mill more inks tonight before shutdown (and I don't normally do milling).  I wont be able to mill everything before shutdown.

I already have a large stockpile of glyphs (most of which I have more than 30), I use KTQ and Gnomeworks, with /ktq queue 50 glyphs to give me an approximate weighting of what type of inks I should stock.  If that sounds complicated or you dont have those addons, use Breevok's ink weights to know what to buy.

As an inscriptionist, if you only have northrend herbs or northrend inks when Jessica stops trading, you will be at a significant disadvantage.  As a levelling alchemist or inscriptionist, you will similarly want to have your levelling pack put together.

If Jessica will play nicely for the next 2 weeks, I will have converted sooner than I needed to.  Either way I will need to restock on Ink of the Sea.  If Jessica gets upset by the shattering, I will be better off.

Welcome to our glyph market

On our server we have some hardened glyph sellers.  In total we have 65 pages of glyphs for sale:

• Moonvengence : 24 pages of glyphs
• Foobarfoo/fooglypha/fooglyphb : 7 pages of glyphs
• Fiorina : 6 pages of glyphs
• Neoriv : 4 pages of glyphs
• Epicbanker : 3 pages of glyphs  

Moonvengence is a new name.  Welcome.  I suggest you read up on our market:

• War, what is it good for?
• Glyph (This site), and
• Glyph Experiment - Coffee, Smokes & AH fees

We welcome any commentary you have, or a link to a website.  We play for keeps.

Making gold - with style

We all want bling and that enchanting smile, and we are prepared to pay for it.  This means that Jewelcrafting and Enchanting are solid money earners, with a slight preference for Jewelcrafting being the more 'complicated' of the two.

Use Lil Sparky's Workshop, Auctioneer and Ackis Recipee List (see the setup post in this "whatprof" series) to work out what will sell.

Advantages

• Everyone raider, every PVP'er feels they needs enchants (as opposed to most players choosing dungeon/reputation clothes)
• All level 85 toons will be replacing their entire Gem set and enchants.
• New raids are your friend
• Toons will be juggling stats for a while to come, meaning that lots of extra enchants and gems will be needed.
• Every raider feels they need JC gems (some PVP'ers use vendor stuff - I think)
• The AH is full of stuff to crush
• Daily quest to get best JC recipees - less competition
• Enchanters get to crush unwanted BOP gear

Disadvantages

• JC will most likely have a lot of new competition, as toons switch out of Inscription
• Not as good as other professions for those that don't like complications

Levelling Jewelcrafters will want to make as much as you can with stone.  Stone is cheap and plentiful.  Gems can be hard to find, so prospecting ore - both for your personal use and resale is generally worth it.  Lookup the value of ore vs likely value of gems (Auctioneer is great).

Max Level JC's will have a licence to print gold.  You should get the Illustrous but difficult to obtain recipees (Ackis Recipee List is good.)  In the Wrath, this mostly meant JC dailies (or later prospecting titanium ore).  Prospect for gems.  Hit gems (both primary and secondary colors) will sell well at the start of Cata, being replaced with other gems later in the expansion.

Enchanters need to know that the Auction House is your friend.

• It has scrap armor and weapons to be disenchanted.  Auctioneer will help you work out what is worth disenchanting.  Disenchant for both your own mats and for selling on the AH
• Enchanting Vellums are relativly cheap.  A mature AH should keep some in stock.  Failing that, make a business relationship with a inscriptionist or two.  You can apply your enchants to these vellums and sell them via the AH.
• Offer to crush surplus levelling items for other tradeskills - for a percentage of the mats gained.
• Sell a mix of enchants on Vellums on the AH.

Levelling Enchanters 

• Keep your enchanting up at least to the point of being able to disenchant BOP gear you wish to discard.
• Sell via the AH a mix of levelling enchants you can make on vellums, especially once the mats start to cost a few gold. Lil Sparky will let you know what enchants sell best, but if in doubt make a mix and sell them all.

Max Level Enchanters will also have a licence to print gold (probably a little less than JC), and again should seek Illustrous but difficult to obtain recpiees.  Twinks will be looking for the best enchants in their brackets (not always the highest levels), but some of these will take a while to farm or be very expensive on the AH. 

Pilgrims Bounty

Pilgrim's festival is a once a year opportunity to level your cooking on the cheap.  It is also the last regular festival before cata drops (ignoring pre-cata events).  Caveat Emptor : This is a speculative post based on the assumption that the event is largly similar to last year, with a lot more recently levelled alts running around.

Other sites (including wow.joystiq.com) will contain a breakdown of this event (this link is last years faq), but I have a few things to add.  Many alts are currently being levelled, many of which don't have cooking. (even some of mine).  For those toons that get the festiva'ls shortcut to 300, many will push on to 450.

• Tracker snacks allow you to track turkies for the turkinator.  People wont buy them unless you advertise it in trade/outside the relevant areas.  Once you advertise, others will enter the market.  So make a stack or two, post them (individually) then advertise them.
• Recipees to fill the gaps - essentially 300+ will be popular
• Raw mats to for the 300+ recipees will sell out -extra points for posting mats for the easily obtained recipees.  If you are planning on levelling skinning or fishing soon (or now), keep this in mind.
• Northern spices - obtained via the Dalaran cooking dailies will be in short supply.  If you do dailies and have cooking, add this daily to your list.
• For those that do get near 450,  noting that many (most?) festival participants won't, mats for Small Feast and Gigantic Feast will be in short supply.
• Mage portals will be very popular
• Enterprising warlocks who can co-ordinate a small raid might be able to hustle in on the portal business - with the added bonus of directly porting toons to the festival grounds.

Making gold - Dress with the best

By which I mean Tailor, Blacksmith, Leatherworker.  Thse are solid choices for the raider, and have a nice money making capacity, and can provide more gold per hour than gathering.

Use Lil Sparky's Workshop, Auctioneer and Ackis Recipee List (see the setup post in this "whatprof" series) to work out what will sell.

Advantages

• Potentially higher gold/hour than farming
• Nice clothes
• Different approaches to gold making - basic and advanced

Weaknesses

• High cost items can be difficult to sell.  These professions have some of the highest cost items.
• Gear Obsolescence even at maximum level.
• Competition often works for tips (which is better than being in competition with bots)

The levelling toon has difficulties making money, but it is still possible.  Make a mix of items and slowly feed them into the market.

There are types of items that can sell well, however they will be pointed out by Lil Sparky

• Quest Items(e.g. Hillman's cloak)
• Starter gear like level 20 hats, lv 40 chain/plate, or tanking gear because a player is looking to fill a specific slot.

Some gear will sell particularly badly:

• Items in a levelling guide.   Everyone else is makeing them and not enough toons buying.  These generally have the 'fewest mats'
• Chest and shoulders sell poorly because many many levelling toons have BOA gear for the XP bonus.

The max level part time crafter has easy gold making opportunities

• leg enchants (tailors and leatherworkers)
• belt buckles (blacksmiths)
• various bags (primarily tailors)
• Improved cloth - making bolts, imbued bolts, extra special bolts (mooncloth, spellweave etc).  Many players seeking cut price tailors (eg guildies) will buy the immediate previous step and will pay for the cloth.  
• Cloth cooldowns - the best cloths will have a cooldown to make.  This makes for scarcity, and will guarantee an income (at least untill the cooldown gets removed)
• Improved leather (think heavy borean leather)
• Armor kits (leatherworkers) (depending on your server)
• Enchanters rods (blacksmiths)
• Sheild spikes and weapon chains (blacksmiths)

 The full time crafter has even more opportunities, all of the above plus

• PVP gear.  Even at the end of Wrath, basic PVP gear still sold at a profit.  I have read that "last season's" PVP gear will be craftable.
• Starter tank gear (mostly blacksmiths) as historically starter tanks need more gear than any other class
• The latest pattern - Every raid seems to create new patterns to learn and make that many part time crafters won't make.

Comments are especially welcome

Making gold - With a Guarantee

There are low risk professions that will enable you to make gold. Skinning, Herbalism, Mining, Fishing.



Your risk comes from a few sources:

• You will be competing with bots.  Bots exist, and it is suspected that Blizzard doesn't ask, doesn't tell.  
• Gathering is traditionally low gold/hour compared to other skills.
• Skinning, Herbalism, Mining are not traditional raiding skills, as they do not provide the best bonuses.
• The may be an oversupply of fish to as guilds attempt to obtain the guild reward of  Seafood Magnifique Feast (10,000 pool fish caught). 

Gathering skills advantages

• At the start of the expansion, there will be a huge demand for toons to get 525 skill needing large amounts of raw mats.
• Mining provides a Stamina boost.
• Skinning provides a Crit boost
• Herbalism not only provides a personal heal, but now also provides a haste boost.
• You and your party get XP when you gather a herb or mine a node (but not from skinning).  At low levels at least, it is about twice the XP from killing a mob when you have a rested bonus.
• All toons can take fishing.
• Fishermen will have an advantage to get into some guilds.
• The fishing daily traditionally has the most lucrative reward of all the dailies in the form of vendor trash.
• Guilds to trying to get the 'Master Crafter' achievement with the reward of a Cloak of Coordination continue to maintain demand.
• Can generally be combined with daily quests to provide additional income.
• No significant financial expenses (a few copper for a skinning knife or pick axe don't matter, or a bit more for ongoing training)

I recommend http://www.elsanglin.com/ for advice on fishing.
Skinning happens.  If you find yourself wanting a quick skill up, look for Hemet Nesingwary in Nagrand or Sholozar Basin, or Hemet Nesingwary Jnr in Stranglethorn vale.
Mining and Herbalism are worth looking at a guide for if you are struggling.

You will want a skill of about 5* your current level between toon levels 1-60, 375 at lvl 70, and 450 at level 80, and it maxes out at 525 at lvl 85.

This post is part of a series, where I talk about what professions you should take.

PS.  This post has been re-entered as it was meant to appear after the 'setup' post, and some readers will have missed it due to the joys of blogger.

Making gold - setup

The first thing you need is a Bank alt.  This is a low level toon that you create and run to your nearest capital city, near a bank and auction house.  Even if you are levelling your first toon you want one of these.  It's job is to post stuff on the auction house for you, and to hold bits and pieces you dont want to carry on your main toon.

It is possible to make gold with out any addons, but addons really do make it easier.  I generally use the curse client to download items.  Alternatively, you can download addons and manually install them in your Addons folder.  On my PC, the folder is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns.

An addon to price stuff  : Auctioneer primary website or curse. This is also a good all round posting addon too.

Crafters need two other addons:

• Addon to tell you what you can learn (and where) : Ackis recipee list at WowAce or Curse.  Not only that, but you can open every recipee as a tradelink to see the components.
• Addon to tell you what should sell for a profit : LilSparky's Workshop at WoWAce or Curse.  It does this by using pricing data from another addon like Auctioneer to get buy and sell values.

I will continue to post in this series on how I have made gold from each of the skills.  At one time or another I have had all the skills at 450.  I had previously dropped the gathering skills, but am using the time between now and Cata to level toons I wanted to have anyway, but put gathering skills on them.

Embersilk alms for testers

Kaliope has been researching professions on Beta. It is a great cataclysm resource.

I use profession leveling guides to tell me what not to make, and as a rough guide to know how much I need. (I use more mats than the minimum with the expectation of selling the product for a profit.) That said, I wait on his her every word.

Kaliope needs embersilk to finish his guides. So, entirely selfishly, I want players on Beta (Alliance) "Lost Isle" Server to either post your embersilk on the AH, trade him her for cata herbs, obsidian or eternium ore, or if you just want the guide done and dont care about the profit, simply mail "Kalliope" (raw) embersilk.

Trying in ICC

Last night we had an interesting run.  As happens we were a few short.  Silly things like bucks nights and work and road trips. Many of those that were on were ... tired and/or grumpy.

So we pugged.  So far in my pugs I have generally had people with a clue.  Not always the best, but good enough.  Not last night.

Entry level bosses (on any raid) test that the tanks and healers can walk and chew gum.  Later bosses are harder.  Sindragosa (our current joy) tests more of the raid.  I really thought that this was a 'no shit sherlock' idea. 

I dont insist that players have the achievement.  I dont insist that players are overgeared.  I really do prefer that players have a basic set of gems and enchants, and a set of consumables.  I also prefer that players have a basic understanding of the fights. For the record I have no problem with failure. But I do prefer to fail better than last time.

Last night I got an overgeared moron DPS. Had not done Sindy (no problem). Good gear (better than mine), and gemmed solid red, to the point of an unactivated meta gem that required two yellow gems. Had exaclty 1 enchant. When I pointed out the lack of enchants I was told 'I was hoping to upgrade my gear before enchanting it'. For me this was Strike 1 - on the Foo grumpy meter - Do not lie. He forgot/didnt know/couldn't care about enchants.

We have vent. We explain strategies that we are going to use. Sometimes we will get these strategies wrong. We called the location of ice tombs. At every point our pug took extra damage - standing in the wrong position as a tomb. Standing next to an incoming tomb and getting frozen. Consistently getting hit by tail swipes and the frost waves. Strike 2 : Don't consistenly take more damage than the tank.

One person however good or bad does not cause consistent wiping or carry a raid. I knew that we were doing it wrong. So - A couple of us announced a brief AFK to look at strategies. Our pug announced AFK to do facebook. Strike 3 - at least look like you are making an effort. And yes he also came out with "It's only a game". I do not for a minute assume that the failed run was due to him alone, but it did not help.

WoW is a game. However a 10 man raid means that 9 others are depending on you to some degree or another. I am happy to provide training and work with most players, but last night I may have found my limit.

Attraction of achievements

First of all, some assumptions.
Q: How much is an achievment worth?
A: However much the seeker is willing to pay, in time and/or gold.

Q: What influences how much an achievement is worth?
A1: How cool it is
A2: For completionists, how hard it is

Q: What says how cool an achievment is?
A1: An obvious marker, like a pet, mount or title
A2: What peers and role models say is cool.


Q: How hard is an achievement?
A1: The amount of grind involved
A2: The hardest task(s) eg school of hard knocks for What a long strange trip its been
A3: Whether it must be done at a certain time.


As readers of this blog know, Blizzard have removed the requirement for Insane to be done by the Shattering, and will remove the requirement for Shan'drelar reputation.  Blizzard will also add a seperate feat of strength for Shan'drelar reputation.  If you want the Shan'drelar feat of strength, you must achieve it by the Shattering.

Some people who would have liked insane were discouraged and stopped because it was (for them) unobtainable due to a lack of time.  For others, this unobtainability was it's attraction.

Insane is still going to be a popular time distraction between now and Cataclysm.  It is a large solo time and gold sink, firmly in many peoples mind.  But as a whole for the completionists, Insane is now less urgent than Shan'drelar rep.  This rep grind will provide a solid base price for librams and diamonds between now and a few days before Cata.


I have no doubt that without the title Shan'drelar reputation is less cool than it was last week, due to it not being required for a title.  However it still has inherent coolness due to being it's own achievement.  The remainder of it's coolness is in part due to how the bloggosphere markets it.  Do a google search on marketing campaign brown diamond for a real world example.

For the record, the Undermine Journal for Alliance Caelestraz, has a current market price of about 497g.  I predict a price crash just before Cata hits as players either have their rep or give up.  Between now and then there will be a large amout of price volitility as people panic sell & panic buy.

Imagine the price effect on Librams and Diamonds after the following two headlines on a well read website.

• Only 3 weeks left to get your Shan'drelar feat of strength, or
• Insanity after Cata, Shan'drelar rep removed so dump those diamonds

If you are desperate to get a few cheap diamonds, choose your headline. If you want to sell Pristine Black Diamonds at a profit, choose the other one.

A deep love of Dire Maul

The latest big change (from a goldmaking perspective) is the news that you will that players will still be able to attain> Insane in the Membrane and "The Insane" title in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

From what I have seen, those seeking insanity have providing us with cheap darkmoon cards, cheap runecloth, the occaisional cheap recipee. The have also propped up the herb market (for those darkmoon cards), pushed up the prices on librams and pristine diamonds.

The biggest change to the criteria to be delcared insane is that Exalted reputation with Shen'dralar will no longer be required.

However For those who already earned Exalted reputation with this faction ... In a future patch, we'll be adding in a separate Feat of Strength to recognize your deep love of Dire Maul..

By definition, anyone seeking insanity is a completionist. Blizzard has just told them that they don't need to spread themselves out to get all the achivements now, they only have to worry about Dire Maul to have that extra achievement. Serious contenders are likely to already know about this change. Those I know who want to be insane also want to have Exalted reps, and one is about to become unobtainable.

WoWwiki lists the requirements of the Shen'dralar, including the Pristine Black Diamonds and the librams.

It is my expectation that instead of madly panicing over getting all the achievements will now concentrate on Shen'dralar, including some that had previously thought they had left their run too late.

TL;DR
I expect a small drop in price for Librams and Pristine Black Diamonds, but one that is likely to have occured by the time you read this post. If you see either of these being panic sold, I would flip them.

Sell, but dont dump those diamonds

Very quickly - other bloggers (breevok, cold) have highlighted the fact that we will be able to do insane later

However they are encouraging almost panic selling of diamonds/librams.  I disagree

By all means they will beome useless on 7 Dec.  However there is still "the separate "Exalted with Shen'dralar" feat


Anyone going for insanity will make a priority to get the reps for those factions that are going away.

More on this here

Always question your assumptions.

The easiest way to lose a lot of gold is to assume something that everyone else knows to be true, but might not be.  For me personally, the most useful blogger posts are those that challenge assumptions.

I remember a little while ago when the cooldown was removed from the Alchemy titanium cooldown.  Everyone 'knew' that now was the time to buy saronite ore and sell it to all the alchemists because saronite supply was going to dry up.  Huge fortunes were spent, the price of saronite went up untill the patch, then crashed hard.  Too many bought saronite before the patch, with too much supply after.

How about the expected removal of the Epic Gem transmute.  The cooldown was removed from the PTR.  Serveral large sites advertised this. 'Everyone' expected that there was going to be a boom time for transmuters. Many players stockpiled large amounts of mats, but the cooldown was not removed.

Most of the time the gold blog sites get it right.  If we get it wrong we suffer both reputationally and financially, and we know it.  However most of us explain not only what - but why as well.  We got glyphmas down pat.  We got tailoring cooldowns right too.

If you want guaranteed gold, do dailies.  If you want to make more gold (on average), do what we do.  If you want to make a lot of gold, challenge our assumptions and do it better than we do.

The reason for the above rant is the percieved necessity for Breevok to post part 3 in his followup for his netherweave bags post.

Breevok made a judgement call about what might happen. He called it as it was - a hunch, in bold.  His advice to store netherweave as bolts is sound (they stack better anyway).  You may even like to store it as cloth to allow you the option of making bandages.   If he is right you have plan (B).  If he is wrong you still have not lost anything.

Breevok - thank you for your post.  In my opinion it was one of the most usefull posts I have seen for a while.

What should professions should I level?

TL;DR.  If you need the too long didn't read version, choose two gathering skills and do dailies.

There is a small amount of speculation, assuming that in the main similar themes from the WoLK expansion will continue in Cata. For 'breaking news' on cata tradeskills, follow Kaliope's site.

See this post on why to take an alt.  In my opinion, taking an alt just for new tradeskills is a bad idea.  That said, I am on my 5th alt working towards 80.  (A level 1 bank alt is always a good idea)

Before you can know what professions to level, you need to know what type of player you are.  Not only that, I am not even going to tell you what to level.

Some players like their reward now. It doesnt matter too much how much you get as long as you get it reliably and quickly.  You think that you could make more gold but can't/won't be bothered.

• If you are levelling your first toon, take two gathering skills (skinning, mining or herbalism) and gather while you do your dailies. You can now have both mining and herbalism on your minimap at the same time.
• On a primary raider you should still take at least one (preferably two) tradeskills - possibly something that traditionally has a cooldown, like Tailoring or Alchemy. Use your trade cooldown regularly - you can also sell these on trade. 
• One alt (assuming you have one) should be the same as the the first levelling toon just above.
• Add fishing for a diversion. The fishing daily, with it's vendor bait has the best return of all the dailies
• Sell your gathered stuff on the AH for the 'mid range' of what you see it listed for.
• Mail all your gathered mats to a bank alt, and post them on the day you gather.
• Take cooking (getting a leg up with training using the Pilgrims festival), do the cooking daily and sell all your cooking tokens - especially cata tokens (there is a surplus of northrend tokens at the moment).

Some players know it is better to wait a little for a bigger reward.  You want more gold/hour than instant gratification.  Large scale manufacturing is not for you, nor is the idea of taking up trade wars

• On a first levelling toon, consider either two gathering skills, or possibly taking enchanting into the mix.  If you take enchanting, you are going to disenchant lots of items (many bought of the AH), and will think about selling those enchants you do make using enchant
• On a primary raider you should take two tradeskills - possibly something that traditionally has a cooldown, like Tailoring or Alchemy. Use your trade cooldown regularly, buying and selling the mats yourself.  Keep an eye on regularly bought items - starter PVP or raiding gear and sell them
• Diversification is better than duplication.  On different alts take different skills.  I would recommend no more than one farming toon (per realm).
• All max level alts should have maxium skills
• Mats are not free - even if you farmed them. However, having an alt with gathering skills lets you control whether to spend gold or time.  On an alt take two gathering skills (skinning, mining or herbalism) and gather while you do your dailies. You can now have both skinning and herbalism on your minimap at the same time.
• Add fishing for a diversion. The fishing daily, with it's vendor bait has the best return of all the dailies.
• Sell your gathered stuff on the AH for the 'mid range' of what you see it listed for.
• Mail all your gathered mats to a bank alt, and post them on the day you gather.
• Take cooking (getting a leg up with training using the Pilgrims festival), do the cooking daily and sell all your cooking tokens - especially cata tokens (there is a surplus of northrend tokens at the moment).

Some players want it all.  You are working towards a gold cap (or at least wondering if you should). Bring it on.

• You are not on a first levelling toon. Really.  You might be an experienced player doing 'rags to riches', but you are still not on your first levelling toon.
• Tradeskills with lots of complications and daily quests and research are best.   In Wrath, Jewelcrafting, Inscription (and even cooking at the start) were all good options.  (edit) Enchanting isn't bad either.
• You know that you can make gold from any profession.
• Alts may start off with gathering skills but will end up with unique trade skills.
• You probably know most of this anyway because you spend as much time reading gold blogs as you do in the AH.

I will be writing another post on how I would make gold by skill as the above people.  This will be done Soon(tm).

Insane in the Membrane

Egamad's missus here to talk about the Insane in the Membrane title and all the fun things associated with it - specifically things you can make money from. For those that are unsure this title requires the following:
Honoured with Bloodsail Buccaneers
Exalted with Ratchet
Exalted with Booty Bay
Exalted with Everlook
Exalted with Gadgetzan
Exalted with Darkmoon Faire
Exalted with Ravenholdt
Exalted with Shen'dralar.

In going for this myself, let me tell you it is a pain in the arse and I do not recommend doing it for the faint hearted. Here is a list of the factions that require bought items, and some better ways to potentially make money from it:

Shen'dralar:
The main problem I had with this faction - as I'm sure everyone else does - is the Pristine Black Diamonds (PBDs). As a Human, to get from 0/3000 Neutral to 999/1000 Exalted with these guys, you need a total of 77 PBDs + one turn in of your class book (for me, it was Harnessing Shadows). Now - according to Wowhead.com these pretty guys have a highest drop rate of 1.1%. The most annoying thing for me was not being Horde. I had a friend regularly check the AH prices and they varied from 200g-300g, whereas Alliance was upwards of 400g at any given point. I would advise not actively farming these for gold unless you are that bored, as you can make the same money from less-rare items.
This brings into play the Librams that are needed for the 3 Shen'dralar quests - Focus, Protection, and Rapidity. These are unique and you can only have 1 of each kind in your bag at any given point. But! Alas! They are stackable in a Guild Bank. If you find yourself in Dire Maul, keep any of these that you have, because they go for 100g-400g on the AH.

Ravenholdt:
This is the most annoying faction to get Exalted with. The Syndicate mobs are farmable from 0/3000 Neutral to 11999/12000 Honoured. Then you need to turn in Heavy Junkboxes to reach Exalted. Each quest turn in requires 5 Junkboxes, and (as a human) you need 1275 Junkboxes to reach exalted. Being a Warlock, this is going to be the most hardest thing for the title. Not many Rogues are willing to farm these Junkboxes, gold being rewarded or not. The Junkboxes are not BoP, so they are able to be sold on AH. Depending on how desperate people are, you can probably get away with selling these from 10g+ each on the AH - this is providing you wish to farm them yourself). I've read reports that the best places to farm these are Tyr's Hand in EPL and BRD and BRS.

Darkmoon Faire:
Aside from Darkmoon Faire (DMF) only coming around once a month, this is pretty easy. I myself have stuck to making the Northrend decks, due to more people farming Northrend herbs, etc. If you regularly go farming for herbs and AH them, great! If not, try and do it for an hour a day or something, and chuck up whatever you farm. If you have an Inscrpitionist, mail these herbs to that toon and mill them down and create Snowfall Ink and Ink of the Sea instead of putting the herbs themselves up - take it from someone who knows, people would much rather buy the Inks than have to buy the herbs and get them milled down. Another thing that will sell very well for this faction is Eternal Life. On the Alliance AH at the moment, these are going for 13-16g/Life. I would recommend farming WG for these if you have the guts, or just stick with what you have from herbing.
If you come across any of the cards required for DMF decks (Northrend decks only) I would recommend putting them on the AH for 50-100g. I know personally my limit to spend per card was about 80g. I guarantee if you find yourself collecting the cards during runs, etc - or just making them yourself from the Inks - they will sell faster if you don't overprice them at 200g+ like I have seen some people do.

Signing off,
Nundaii the Slowly-Going-Insane :)

Should I level an alt

Recently there have been various blogposts about this, especially where professions are involved.

Markco likes levelling alts, and recommended using them to gain a variety of tradekills.

Gevlon thinks that levelling an alt (for profession's sake) is a waste of time and you should concentrate on a main toon, especially as the opportunity cost of levelling an alt is so high (100 hours played at even 200g/hour doing dailies or farming is a lot of gold).

My take is that the best reason for levelling an alt is so you can tank or heal (all toons can already DPS). Even if your main is a ranged or melee DPS, understanding how tanks and healers play will make you a better raider. For most players becoming the tank or healer is the best way to understand the role. I have my tank, healer and DPS toons, but I am levelling my 5th 80 because I can (not because I need to).

Your primary raider should have two 'primary' professions at maximum level (i.e. in addition to cooking, fishing, first aid or archaeology). You should know what your bonuses are, and use them. In most instances a raiding toon should have two tradeskills (instead of gathering), but consult a class/role forum or website for specific information.

Losses or learning opportunities

I was chatting with Breevok the other day about gold 'stuff', expressing my jealousy at his gains in the 4.0 patch.  (I merely made a stuff load of gold - he made so much more).

He said something that struck me as odd.  "Don't worry - I made a loss over the last two days".  But did he make a loss, learn something, or merely add to his stockpile?

Regular AH players will make occasional losses.  Every time we buy something, there is the risk it won't sell, that we will be undercut by a new player/strategy or Blizzard will change the rules.  If you get it right you will make gold.  If you get it wrong you will lose gold.   (Just don't be this guy)

I am never happy with my gold making strategies, and am always tweaking them.  Read up on upcoming changes, observe the market. Do I have more/less time.  Am I accomplishing goals and/or burning out.  What can I change to make it better/easier/faster/richer?

Buying Darkmoon cards

This is pure unabashed speculation.  As I often do, I note what I know, and what I think.
What I know:

• WoW is awash with cheap snowfall ink
• At least one reputation is disappearing come Cata, making Insane harder.
• Many new levelling toons (Worgen/Goblin)
• There are not a lot of trinkets for levelling toons
• Raiding toons have BOP options for trinkets that levelling toons do not. 
• The emphasis will move from finishing raids, Insane, miscellaneous achievements to levelling and the new dungeons and raids when Cata hits.
• Most high end 80 raiding gear will be replaced by about level 83 questing greens.

What I think:

• There will be a soft 'gold' reset in Cataclysm.  The repair bills in Cata for premade starter gear is about 500g to repair red armor. (This topic alone deserves a series of post from different authors)
• People wanting to be Insane the main are purchasers of Snowfall, and the main providers of Darkmoon cards.  
• Darkmoon cards are being dumped below cost. I have not done the sums with the new prices, but my recollection of crafting costs for cards (even with cheap snowfall) made them much more expensive.
• Trinkets won't be replaced by questing.  This is the least researched of my 'thinks'.

In summary:
When the emphasis moves from raiding to levelling, I expect a bigger market for trinkets with a much smaller supply.  This, combined with a general devauling of gold (size of which is to be determined), means I will be stockpiling cheap trinkets for Cata.

Replacements for elitist groups?

TL;DR
I know about Bimbo to spot missing enchants & gmes.  I am after replacements for some of the rest of Elitist Groups.



I don't like gearscore.  For me it is a largely useless addon.  I barely care if your gearscore is 3000, 5000, or 10,000, but then as a rule I don't run random lvl 80  'heroics' either.

I am far more interested in :

• Minimum Ilvl - and what the item is.  It's worth keeping an eye on this to upgrade sooner rather than later
• Average Ilvl - This suggests the best raid for you.  ICC 10 normal drops Ilvl 251.  If you average Ilvl is less than this, consider earlier raids, first 4 ICC bosses (or heaven forbid - dungeon farming).  If your average Ilvl is higher than this, consider hard modes (or at least extended raids)
• Correct stats for your role.  Intellect for DK's is so last season. (Even if I did roll on it last ICC run - oops).  That said, I am not after something as strict as ElitistGroups was.  Elitsist Jerks (and the addon) are primarily interested in the 'best' on the hardest fight, with nearly the best gear.  My toons spent a long time in Ulduar wearing Nax gear, and had different needs to the ICC crowd.

You can tell your own ILvl (and other stats) easily from your character sheet, and click on the arrow on the bottom right. (though I hear it also includes gear in your bags).  I would love to be able to see this for /inspected toons. Bonus points for allowing me to specify what I am looking for by role.

I also spend some time in levelling dungeons.  Many players accidentally miss taking their talent points.

I would like to know what bosses you have downed (both the current tier and previous tiers).  While I don't mind if you are new to a boss, it is good to have an idea so I can make adjustments as needed.

If you know an addons that would give me some of the above, please leave a comment.

ICC progression

A new permanent page regarding our ICC progression - primarily for those I run with, but feel free to browse.

Snowfall ink - stockpile or sell

A couple of comentators asked why I am stockpiling Snowfall ink.

Basically I am a contrarian investor.  If the hordes (even the alliance ones) say panic sell, I buy.  If players are panic buying, I sell.

I said that I am willing to sit on snowfall inks, up to a guild bank tab before cata, for selling later.  Lets actually examine whether my gut feeling stacks up.

What I know

• Snowfall historically sold between 7 - 12 gold on our server, currently listed at 6 gold, and falling
• Ink of the sea historically sold between 2-3g on our server, and after the patch, became unavailable, then stuck at 11g, now is down to 6g
• Glyphs are steadily selling
• Herbs are now available for sale, with falling prices. 11g (basic) - 18g ('advanced')
• Recipees that use snowfall ink.
• Levelling Inscription early using Cata herbs will cost a fortune.
• Recipees making blue quality items will provide multiple skill ups.
• Glyphs are still selling well enough.

Recipees (taken from wow.crafterstome.com): 

• Northrend Inscription Research : 3x Ink of the Sea, 5x Resilient Parchment, 1x Snowfall Ink
• Darkmoon Card of the North :3x Eternal Life, 3x Ink of the Sea, 1x Resilient Parchment, 6x Snowfall Ink
• Faces of Doom :1x Frozen Orb, 2x Ink of the Sea, 10x Resilient Parchment, 5x Snowfall Ink
• Iron-Bound Tome :1x Frozen Orb, 2x Ink of the Sea, 10x Resilient Parchment, 5x Snowfall Ink
• Master's Inscription(shoulder inscription) : 1x Snowfall Ink
• Runescroll of Fortitude x 5 :5x Resilient Parchment, 1x Snowfall Ink

What I think

• This blog and directly in game influenced the fall in ink of the sea prices (I bought a lot at 5g), pushing it down from 11g.  Either that or it was natural anyway given the prices and availability of herbs.
• Many herbs will continue to be milled for glyphs, creating a surplus of snowfall inks
• Scribes will be able to use runescrolls to level the first few points of Cata level inscription
• Many levelling worgen/goblins will want to make the above.  I assume this will be true of the above.
• Darkmoon cards will still be the 'easiest' of the trinkets to obtain for the 80-84 bracket.

Based on the above, I am not willing to pay much for snowfall inks, but do see a market for them post cataclysm.  I have the banks space, therefore will stockpile these while cheap.

This is speculation.  I am betting my gold and bank space.  Use your own judgement for your server, gold and bank spaces.

Glyphs missing and pricing

Looking at the patch notes from last night, it appears that the missing glyphs are still missing (writing this over lunch at work). Good news for me - I still have too many glyphs of mage armor.  I am currently selling these at 350g Alliance side, and 250g Horde side, subject to demand and supply.  At various times, I advertise them in trade "Glyph of Mage Armor in AH.  Very limited supply (Scribes can not make any more)".  Taking an each way bet about when Blizzard will fix this, over a 3 week period, it is my intention to only have 5 of these, selling the rest before Cata.

Herbs are now available.  Not at old prices, but getting there.  I buy ink (generally from Wek), but I am now squeezing him down to 2g50 per ink (either snowfall or ink of the sea).  He balked at the new prices, but that is where I think they are heading.  I have a moderate stockpile of inks (1.5 guild bank tabs), looking to fill up to 3 tabs with cheap inks between now and Cata.  On that note, remember to convert the majority of ink of the sea down to a mix other inks between now and Cata, as it appears that Jessica will only play nice until then.

I am planning to sit on the snowfall ink to sell after Cata, and will be content to carry up to one guild bank tab of them.

I am currently pricing inks at 5g (a small discount on the AH), with re-crafting costs of about 16g.  With a couple of exceptions I post daily with a 21g threshold 90g fallback, 2 each, 48 hours, no autofallback; pulling 2.5-3K in daily sales.  I intend to tweak this further.

I want to hit Cataclysm with 20 of each glyph - down from my pre-patch levels of 40 (the reason I still have mage armor), and I will be discounting some glyphs that have not sold down to replacement costs (at the moment 16g).  I really should set up high sales and no/low sales glyphs as seperate groups, but the Auction Profit Master UI for sorting glyphs is painful (as was QA3 before it). 

Finally, keep an eye on inks other than Ink of the sea.  There are not many around, but every so often I see good prices for 'lesser' inks, buying them when I do.

Post patch blues??

Has anyone else been running around and noticed various post patch 4 issues?

I bet you have, I bet you need a new keyboard or close to it now.

These are mine...

Well lets look at the BG's alone for now.


That is 2 alterac valley runs I have been in over the CTA, if you cannot see the importance this is not a "look I'm on top" chart, its a holy s##t there is 41/43 horde in a 40 man????

I had this is in a WSG run as well with 17 horde but failed to screenshot.

Is anyone else experiencing any other interesting post patch blues? Or simply seeking a blue post patch?

Since patch and a week before I started a druid, hell no point using 1 of my 4 80's with raids at a close and inevitable ripping a sunder. So I started anew for a class I have always been keen on. Now I have my druid on the way up, and looking forward to the 2 sets of gear for 4 specs that will be cataclysm. While I'm not an expert on anything, by any means and I choose for it to remain that way, when you look at wow, there are people that know less about there toons than the character creation pane and with blizzards new healing zones the exact opposite of what we have been forcing down the throat of PUG's, you will find people instinctively running from efflorescence and so on. The void zone war is now a healing zone vs void zone war, hopefully not a great learning curb, but with blizzard as it is who really knows, they went from mana galore to healers doing DPS, and AOE weakening to threat nerfs, and so on. What will cataclysm hold apart from raiding pains, healing pains, and tanking pains?

HOPEFULLY SOME FUN!!!

Hell all spells are level based, half the stats you needed a degree to work out the effects of, and now we have it easy. Game has been made new player friendly (the people haven't) the raids are normalized for smaller guilds, and heroics are hard??? We will see, but as with Wrath it started hard and then gear made it a laughing matter, where you tried to see what heroics you could solo. NO SERIOUSLY!! there is a guy who was soloing FOS normal, no kidding.

The raids, the dungeons, the classes, the spells based on level, and the guilds...

Anyone else having fun with Cataclysm so far... you know before cataclysm...

Of course I have been eating lag, downloading over my limit and raging at the fact my instant spells take minutes to show up and my addons are in the virtual bucket...

But hey, you win some you lose some and then you get a GIANT FREAKING DRAGON KILLING YOUR WOMAN AND EATING YOUR CROPS!!

NOW WHAT WILL SHE COOK!!!