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.