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!!!

That's insane

http://www.worldofraids.com/wow-blue-tracker/us-forums/27401643624-blizz-the-insane-and-cataclysm.html

Insane in the Membrane is a feat of strength, not an achievement. Feats are things that you can't be guaranteed to complete, which is why they're feats and not achievements. ... It's possible that in some very specific situations where someone has completed the reputations which are being removed, but not others that will still be in the game, that it can still be completed. But it's something we're waiting for clarity on, and will let you know as soon as we do.

If you are running for Insane - have a look at what reputations will be removed when cata drops, and concentrate on them first.

If you supply to the 'Insane' crowd, point them at the above thread, and encourage them to quietly panic, and buy lots of stuff.

A strange trip

I am not always 'productive' in WoW.  We might like to think that saving 5k on fast flying is good deal, but I strongly suspect that my gold/hour from achievements is aweful.

One of the first projects I had was to collect cooking recipees and eat and drink all the samples of food, on my first toon on my own account (Foosecond)  So, off to Brewfest I went (before the days of 'achievements'), and then to Pilgrims festival, as well as a bit of pottering around.  I completed last years Brewmaster to get brew of the month, but didn't bother much with Hallow's End.

Then when Pilgrims festival turned up (more cooking recipees), I decided to look harder at a long strange trip.  Tips I have picked up:

• WoW Insider has a great resource for all of the festivals, it makes it a lot easier.
• Keep an eye on upcoming festivals and prepare what you can ahead of time.
• The AH is your friend, both as buyer and seller.
• I do respec/glyph for PVP, but apart from that, I largely fail at PVP.  While I am achievement hunting in a BG, my only concern is that achievement.  Once I have it, I will finish the battleground and attempt to work for the group.  It is well worth oranising a PVP if you want the PVP achievements.
• Random Number Generators can be 'mean', but given enough opportunity will play nice.

The last item I needed was the Sinister Squashling pet, and will confess to being concerned about the drop rate (rumour said 7% of the HH instance, 1% from an inkeeper treat, and 1% from putting out the fire in small town).

However yesterday afternoon after fulfilling my duties on the volunteer country fire fighter service, the pet dropped.

I'm done.  Goldshire can burn to ashes

Secondary markets are being ignored

I've been ignoring them.  The markets we used to play in in our free time.  Profitable, but not on our radar.

I've been hard enough pressed with respec's, regems, runeforging, rotations, rerolls, revelry and of course glyphs (couldn't think of how to start glyphs with an R, and I'm using poetic licence to declare that lvl 80 toons are re-rolls).

They are harder to post, as you need to press a button.  Whether it is the button press or the above distractions markets have been abandoned.

I still have 20+ Glyphs of Mage armor, so (with the prompting of Breevok), I shifted 1/2 to my horde side toon, and I am now selling - with advertisements - at 350-400g.  Only a few sales so far but at that price - thats all I need.  My horde toon had nearly a dozen alliance cooking recipees in his bag (vendor ones), so I did an auctioneer scan to see what they were currently listed for. 

Most of them were not listed.  Normally there are 3 different players in the market.  From conversations with a couple of others on our server, they have concentrated on 'core' business too.  Core business, by definition, is where you get the majority of your gold, but it does mean opportunities are being ignored.

I am assuming that most readers are catching up with their activities, or will soon.  If you have not yet played in the 'off markets', or have abandoned them, now is a good time to look.  The things that generally slip under the radar are:

• Cross faction recipees, out of the way cooking recipees (Also stockpile these for Pilgrims Festival - new cooks).
• Pets (even vendor ones).
• Outland/old world Engineer Repair bots (for making jeeves)
• Inscription offhands and runescrolls. 

Predictions for Cata glyph prices

Yesterday I posted about how glyph stocks were running down, and how inks and even herbs are still expensive.  Today I predict what happens next. Like all predictions take them with a grain of salt.  The chickens may have different entrails on your server.

Things I know:

• Inks and herbs are more expensive than they have been in a long time.
• Many inscriptionists are worried they will be left with unsellable stock.
• Many inscriptionists are selling out of popular glyphs.
• Cataclysm will drop 7 December 2010
• Pre-made glyph stockpiles are getting smaller
• No one will be farming northrend come cataclysm
• You can't trade down Ink of the sea come cataclysm
• There are XP gains for levelling toons gathering herbs.
• Players are re-evaluating what classes/roles they like
• New races means a wave of new alts all needing glyphs

Things I think:

• Many players have only got those glyphs they need.  Players currently need raid glyphs.
• Most of these players will swap to DPS spec/toons come cataclysm for levelling. They will want more glyph
• Part time professionals (who are in it for the buffs) will consume a huge amount of herbs
• New glyphs covering new spells will be released (needing herbs)
• Most levelling toons will be 'gogogo' and won't bother to read up on the XP bonuses.

Based on this, and yesterday's post, my predictions for Cataclysm are:

• On the first week of cataclysm, a single cataclysm herb will cost your first born lvl 85.
• For the first 3 months of cataclysm, cataclysm herbs will cost about 60g/stack.
• Ink of the sea will drop in price due to selling of stockpiles - about 2g/INK again (pre-4.0 levels)
• All other inks will be in short supply.
• Type 1 glyphs that were previously best in slot will sell well below replacement cost (See yesterday's post/Breevok's explanation)
• Type 2 glyphs will raise in price - especially for DPS spells of tank/healer classes.

My predictions are mine.  I am betting my gold and stockpiles on it.  Use your own judgment as to whether these strategies will work for you.

Falling stockpiles of glyphs

I am in no rush to sell down my glyph stocks.

I made 40 of each glyph type before 4.0 hit (with the exception of some charred glyphs).  Some of these are now down around the 20 glyphs level, others have not sold at all, and this is fine.  I missed out on much of the first mad rush of Glyphmas due to patching issues, stuffing up with pre-posting, and stuffing up using the armory AH. Small change in comparison to some others, but still more than worth doing.

With all of that, I still am doing OK.  I got some of the spike, and am still making about 1.2-1.5k (and rising) / day in glyph sales, and I am thinking about how/when to restock.

On my server, Ink of the Sea (Iots) is sitting around 13g ea, Snowfall 6g ea.  Lower value northrend herbs can be picked up for about 30g/stack.  Back of a napkin maths says a stack cheap herbs make 5 Iots, and 0.5 Snowfall (caveat emptor - I dont do a lot of ink making), making 5 * 13 + 0.5 * 6 = approx 65g.  Ink making seems profitable.

A lot of inks are being made as shown by the pitiful price of snowfall ink (used to be 12g).

A standard glyph - taking 3 inks + 1 parchment - call it 40g in cost, selling for 25g+ means that making glyphs from ink is a bad deal.  Making them from herbs will still cost 18g means that 25g glyphs are marginal, and you may be better of with stopping at inks.  However, 40g+ glyphs are worth making, and I will restock all of these as needed.  Have a look at Breevok's explanation of type 1 (vendor taught) & type 2 (research based) glyphs. I think there is a further breakdown - those glyphs that were 'best in slot' (and therefore don't need to be re-bought), and those that have been re-worked into 'better' glyphs.

Most glyphs are not worth making yet being sold in huge quantities, and more than just levelling glyphs, ergo stockpiles are being consumed; most likely because players believe that glyphs won't be 'sellable'. 

My predictions on the cost of inks between now and just before the Cataclysm:

• Type 2 (reasearch based) glyphs will recover in prices, especially those that were not previously best in slot
• Type 1 (vendor based) glyphs will fall way below replacement cost as all the part time scribes dump stock, especially where these glyphs were 'best in slot'
• Herb prices will largely stay where they are, with both more supply and demaind; rising in the fortnight before cataclysm
• Ink prices will be server dependant.  They should fall based on herb prices where you have enough goblins in the market.  If not, they will rise to re-crafting of glyph prices.

My cure for gogogo

I just dont get gogogo DPS players.  They wait 20 minutes in a DPS queue, then want a 3 minute dungeon skipping as much as possible.  The bonus 'xp' for a levelling dungeon is about 1 mob.  Oh well, I will try to run as fast as I am capable.

Last night I had Mauradon purple on my bear tank. I had gogogo warrior dps, and newbie warlock, and a favorite pocket healer.

As a bear tank I still need more rage.  My main is a DK tank, so I am used to multiple button spamming, which just does not work ok a mid level bear.  I have Enrage on cooldown, and carry copious rage potions.  I keep an eye on what agro the healer has, and whether I am picking up loose extras.  This is all so much easer if I have rage.  The easiest way to get rage is to be hit, meaning I want to be the targetted player.

Last night, after the first mob where the DPS rushes in front of me, I tried my 'I can go faster if you let me get agro' speach.  Response (as some of you predicted) was 'Not gonna happen'.

Problem: My stress levels trying to hold agro, with toons actively sabotaging it.  Then inspiration hit.  Why get upset?  I have no fear of being kicked.  Near insta requeue as a levelling tank.

My solution?

Yup. I popped cat form, /follow healer, said in party pull whatever you like, and told healer I was going afk (and I mostly did).

After one particularly hard pull entire party stopped for a drink.  I was fine, posting auctions on a second account.  I offered to tank again if I had the support of the DPS. "QQ" was my reply.

A little later Mr Warrior dead on the floor, I pop bear form and get all agro.  Someone resurects Warrior (grumble grumble healers grumble).  I continue tanking, we pick up speed, and Warrior no longer fights me for agro.  In all honesty, Mr Warrior was OK at holding agro.  But if he wants to tank he should queue as one.

The newbie lock was trying his best, cc'ing all over the place.  Kept one sattire banished and another enslaved most of the instance.  Appreciated being told that a second banish 'frees' a mob to be killed.  A couple of other tips were also appreciated, and he asked to re-run another instance. I requeued as soon as Warrior dropped group, for a mostly smooth run.

It kinda bothered me being a 'jerk'.  But it bothered me far less than fighting for control.  I will still start instances correctly, and if things get uncontrolled offer a polite reminder that they queued as DPS not tanks, and I run faster if I get hit.  But after that cat form is so less stressful.

TL; DR
If you are tank or healer, and DPS refuse to play nice, tell them why you need to be hit. Failing that /follow works well.  It is in your interest to be kicked rather than get a deserter debuff.

Recent Gem Prices

The blogs have been talking about the Glyphmas we have just had.  But to be honest there is still a Gemmas in prgress.

A while ago I posted about how I bought a truckload of gems at 40g, and that I liquidated most of them.  As I didnt see a large gap between 4.0 and Cata, I didnt worry much about it.  I still kept some.

However the prices are very large.  Raw epics are still selling 130g+.  Cut epics are selling up to 200g.
There are large gaps in the cut rare gem markets.

I know that Alchemists were expecting Christmas where there was no cooldown on transmutes.  You got Boxing Day instead.  There are uncut rare gems for 6g, and uncut epics for 130.  At these prices it is most definitely worth transmuting every day.  Buy transmutes from guildies and trade.

Finally logged in. 16k in glyph sales

I had a rough time getting in (look at my last few posts), but finally success.  I was able to successfully finish the upgrade of WoW on my backup on a portable HD.

Looking back, there were several things I could have done better:

• Post 48 hours of every glyph at 60g on Monday night just in case.  (I didnt think it was going live but many others did and said so)
• Practice using the Web auction house so I was familiar
• run the final upgrade concurrently on two PC's.
• Have a large enough stockpile of inks

What I did right:

• Posted many glyphs - concentrating on classes with large changes - especially DK
• Crafted glyphs early so I did not have to when the patch hit
• Had a stockpile of inks - about 80 stacks of different types, and another 50 stacks of herbs
• Thought about recovery strategies
• Had a complete backup of my warcraft folder
• Used the Web AH to post glyphs
• Did my reading on addons so I was prepared with a QA replacement (APM), and had a manual strategy in place.

After I got on, last night I posted one toon worth of glyphs 8 each, 40g threshold, 70g fallback, 48 hours, 5g undercut, auto fallback.  This takes a very very long time, meaning I did not get to post on toons 2 & 3.
I also created the new glyphs types, bemoaning how small my ink piles now seem.

Tonight I am going to post without auto fallback on all toons, then re-post on toons 2&3 as I have time. 

I also noticed that some glyphs are already being sold for less than the new cost.  This should be unsustainable, and a non-inscriptionist guildy (Wek) bought some for flipping.

All in all, I could have done better.  But for someone who could not even get on, 16k gold is OK.

Patch Day Blues - Goblin Style

Things do not always go according to plan.
Some people :

• did not attempt the PTR (I tried the Beta).  Using a test realm is a good way to test for errors.  That is what they are for.
• were suprised when the patch hit (Sob, sob)
• did not have a stockpile (I did)
• did not have 48 hour auctions up (I had some)
• did not download the available patch files (I did)
• found their addons broken and were surprised (I had both updated addons and a backup plan)
• could not download/install the last part of the patch (Sob, sob. WTF is cannot connect to the updater? How do I fix this?)

I am reading reports of profits of 15k in the two hours, 60k in the first day.  This adds insult to injury. So, I can not install the patch.  Now what?

• Don't panic. Controlled frustration can be productive.  Uncontrolled ranting is not. Sit down and work out your options.  They will vary for your scenario.
• Consider the Web/Mobile AH (US$3/month).  It is a poor substitue for being in game, but it works.  I had all my glyphs in toon bags/banks.  You are allowed to post 200 stacks per day.  I want to post multiple stacks of each of 300 glyphs, but this is not possible.  Instead choose the highest profit items, and don't enter into undercutting wars.  Don't cancel - you cant afford the stacks.
• The WoW folder has various log files in both the base folder and the Updates folder.  Have a look, you might get a clue.
  
• Google is your friend.  If you have an error message, search for WoW "error message".  It might provide a clue.
• Consider using the WoW forums for technical help.  Another user might find a solution for you.  Don't expect a Blizzard response - they are too busy.
• Consider your firewalls, routers, and hard disk errors.  I can't provide instructions in a blog post as it is a little complicated, but Blizzard technical support has howto's for some of these.  Consider asking a friend/paying a shop for assistance.
• Do you have access to another patched (or unpatched) WoW installation that you trust?  For me - I had WoW on two computers, plus a copy of WoW on a portable hard drive. I am updating both the portable hard drive installation and the second computer while I am at work today.  A friend's installation may work too.
• Download the entire client from Blizzard.  While it is downloading use the whatever alternatives you can. Log into the Blizzard website - I start at www.worldofwarcraft.com and 'manage account' (takes you to battle.net), and download the client, or use https://us.battle.net/account/management/download/index.xml.  Depending on your connection speed it will take a long time - possibly days.  If you have a small download quota, consider using someone else's connection and a portable disk.

Without full WoW access, I am not going to make the profits that others are making.  By working with what I have, I am still making thousands of gold.

PS. For those listing glyphs at less than 30g. Are you sure of your ability to restock your glyphs? You must have very large stockpiles of inks, herbs and/or glyphs. Oh well, if you are really cheap, I'll flip them. (I'm looking at you Wek)

Herbalists rejoice - while you can still find herbs

Breevok posted about the glyphers making a fortune.  Earlier today I checked on the armory those glyphs I did manage to post .

There are apparenly 130 herbs (not stacks) on our auction house.   If you can, go and herb.  Anywhere.  Post for a fortune.

This will also put pressure on flasks, potions and elixirs.  Keep enough for your raids, but sell the rest.  Supply may return to normal in (take a punt) 3 weeks, but there are plenty that want to raid and are now newbies again.

Advertise Guru's elixirs - they require fish instead of herbs.  They will be cheap (in comparison) to make and will provide enough of a buff to be worth it for broke/unprepared toons.  However, you will need to advertise because players are not used to drinking it.

Feed the general panic and chaos.  Advertise other temporary buffs (drums, runescrolls, food) and permanent buffs (gems, enchants).

There are gold rich and under prepared players out there.  Help them become prepared (for a fee).

Update:  As soon as I got home this evening I installed the last update.  It was 'only' 100 MB, that still took an age to load.  Now I am sitting next to a 'Blizzard Updater'  that has finally hit 50% while everyone else is posting auctions.  Grr.  Oh well.

I tried (again) the Web Auction house.  You can post 200 items/day.  As it has a post #stacks option the same as the online auction, I naively thought that I would be able to post 10 of each type of glyph (up to 200 glyph types).  This was not to be. Instead I managed to post 20 glyph types of 10 each.  Grrr.

I know that I am grumpy because I can't get my WoW fix; either that or I'm grumpy because you lot are getting my sales.  They are mine I tell you, so mits off. 

Post those glyphs now.

According to the blue posters, the realms have now been up for about 1.5 hours.  With about 40% of my glyph types posted yesterday lunchtime (wish I had time to post more), selling at 60g each.

I have made about 2k in sales so far (according to the WoW Armory).  This is before the Australian kids have got home from school, and before people have downloaded the patch (some people had it disabled).   Post the glyphs by hand if you need to.

Now if I could somehow justify spending a bit more time on the mobile AH instead of working .....

Addon's for WoW 4

Version 4 caught me by surprise.  I really did not expect it for another 3 weeks.  From what I have read, the 3.0 dropped about a month before WoLK.  For me surprise means that I did have my stockpiles, and many glyphs up for 48 hours, but not all glyphs.  Oh well.

WoW 4 will be back 'soon'.  Blizzard has a bad track record for bringing servers back up on time when they reserve 24 hours for a shutdown.   Use your downtime to get your addons up to date (where there are updates).  The update sites are going to be hammered hard once WoW is back up.

I will be starting with a clean slate for addons. We get a lot of crap over the years, and a new version is a good time to clear it out.  Others may prefer to wait for Cataclysm, or not clear out at all.

• Backup your addons folder. On my PC this is in C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns. I will move everything that does not start with Blizzard to a new folder in the interface directory : Addons-3-3.

• Move your WTF folder. On my PC this is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WTF, and will be renamed WTF-3-3. This is where all your customisations are held, including where addon 'Save' files remember data when you log out.  Also, if you feel the need to backup data in case of data corruption, this folder is the one you want.

One of the first addons I will be looking at is the QA3 successor : Auction Profit Master (currently only on WoWInterface).  I have no idea as to the quality of the addon.

Even with QA3 I will be looking at Auctioneer.  I can not find an update, but I would be astounded if it is not updated.  I like it's pricing history and other features, even if I think that pricing will be unreliable over the next few months. I am uncertain what will become of auctioneer, with it's author citing it's financial status.  Edit: There will be an update (Auctioneer Forums)


Curse has a page for addons that authors feel are Cataclysm compatible.  Caveat Emptor - these are new days, and there will be bugs.

New bright shiny distractions.  Players wanting 9 glyphs instead of 6, with some of their existing glyphs being charred or repurposed.  Post your auctions however you can, at higher prices than we previously had, and watch the profit roll in.

How to teach those that don't want to learn

Assumptions. 

• Everyone is incompetant at something. There is always something that can be improved.
• Everyone is good at something else.  There is always something that someone can be praised for.
• People learn more when they are not defensive.
• Yelling at someone, calling them a noob, rubbing their noses in a mistake is a good way to make someone defensive.

Tobold and Klepsacovic recently wrote posts on 'I hate you all', talking about a community that knocks down rather than builds. up.  I have been guilty of this.  It is theraputic. There is also a call to get us to help newer players.  I do this too.

When I am not at work, not playing WoW or with the family, I am a Rostrum critic.  At Rostrum one of my roles is to give feedback to new speakers & experienced speakers.  New speakers in particular are very nervous and sensitive to negative feedback.  Much like many WoW players.  Rostrum does not expect people to learn/change a lot of things all at once

In Rostrum we have a formula for feedback.  Give one item of positive feedback and one item for improvement.  For each of these we care about are

• What was done well?  Expand on this a little.
• What is the problem? 
• Why is it important? 
• How should it be done?

The example of the Wannabee Wanding Warlock 

• What is done well? It can be tricky.  If you cant find something positive, see the next example.  Umm. Recently dinging? Nice wand?  Not pulling agro?
• What needs improvement?  DPS
• Why it is important?  Enrage Timer (not in a 5 man).  Healer mana (not in a 5 man). Faster run
• How?  Simple rotation: Corruption + Shadow bolt spam for single target.  Count to 3 + Rain of fire for multiple mobs.

The conversation could go something like:
Hiya.  Thanks for not pulling agro like the other DPS (I hate it when they do that).  However, we will have a faster run if we all do a bit more damage.  Did you know that using corruption once then using lots of shadow bolts will do a lot more damage?

The example of the Bullying Bourgeoisie Blogger

• What is done well?  Good information, well researched.
• What needs improvement?  Their method giving the information.
• Why is it important?  They are being ignored, having no meaningful impact on those that need it most.
• How should it be done?  Get them to read this post.

Hiya.  Love your work.  We have been convinced that /roll should be dropped, and in our guild we are moving to a GDKP system.  But I noticed that you are having problems with getting people like the Wannabe Wanding Warlock to change his ways.  Foo recommends a What, Why & How approach that works most of the time.  His post is linked here.

Broken AH addons come patch 4.0

Chad posted a comment about the upcoming 4.0 AH changes, where every posting will need a hardware event.  This is likely to break QA3 and Auctioneer in 4.0, at least temporarily.  My guess 4.0 hits first week in November, others guess next Tuesday.  I had one guildy sure that it was dropping last night.

Come 4.0, the demand for glyphs should be astronomical in the first week.  The demand for some gems will be 'very very large', as players juggle the new stats.  The enchanting and leg armor markets may also experience a smaller 'spike'.  There should be a large increase in alt's running dungeons, so levelling enchanting supplies should get cheaper.  I will be adjusting my prices to match my expected demand.  I am more worried about selling out of glyphs than I am about being undercut.




Change happens.  Market rules change, both in real life and in WoW. Anything computer related can break at any time, including your PC, WoW itself, and our addons.  It hurts when it happens, but you should always have a plan.  The better prepared you are, the better your profit.  Some of your competitors may even drop out for a week untill they get organised.


On day 1 of 4.0, I fully expect that our addons will be broken.  I will be starting with a clean slate, starting with a default UI, and adding addons back in on a case by case basis.  I will attempt to have a full set of auctions posted before each shutdown, on a 48 hour posting, but this is business as usual.



In the worst case scenario, become familiar with the default auction posting methods.  It is slow, but works.  It is more important to be on the AH than to be the cheapest on the AH.  Other posters will also have problems. 

Watch for updates for the addons, both QA3 and Auctioneer.  Look at their forums.  Offer to help.  This can be taking part in an 'alpha' release (bugs and all), assist with the programming (a lot of student/professional programmers play WoW), or by cash donations.  It is always easier to use someone else's work, but sometimes if you want something done, you have to /assist

Beta second glance

Finally, I have downloaded enough of the Beta to be able to start running it, with only about 2GB left to complete the downloads.

As I am only downloading on one computer, and will copy the files to another, tonight we spent some time 'discussing' who got to play.  I will confess to finding my son a couple of extra tasks to do.

Graphically it is prettier.  I am a little concerned for those raiders who already run 10 man in low res graphics.

It was nice to find pre-mades starting with 5k gold.  Given that it is a test realm and hyper inflation is common on the PTR, the AH prices were surprisingly sedate.  What little AH there was.  2 pages of glyphs, when live has about 80 pages?  I am still working out how I am going to get professional toons over to the test realm.

If anyone on Caelestraz (Horde or Alliance) would like to swap 'live' gold for Beta mats, please let me know via a comment here.

I am a tank.I don't like DPS players

Nothing personal.  Yes, I'll have some cheese with this whine. 

My 'main' is a DK tank, and I am levelling a Druid tank.  Very different beasts.  For some bizzare reason I need more rage.  With the DPS that LFG gives me, I am astounded.

This last week, running Scarlet Monestary - yet again.  DPS rogue decides to run ahead. 
Me: DPS that runs ahead of tank pulling agro makes me a grumpy tank.
DPS: Too bad <3
I drop party. I think I am a grumpy tank.

In Scarlet Monestry with another group.  I am tank, on 50% health.  Healer calls AFK.  I start eating, DPS miss that, all run past and agro the next pull.  We survive that pull, standing outside the beastmaster boss.  I sit and eat.  DPS stand there all at 30% health. I suggest that they might like to eat/bandage.  They still stand there.  I brought the whine.  Please eat your chesse.  Eventually I pop out of bear and heal them.  Am I am a grumpy healer or a grumpy tank?

Yet again in Scarlet Monestry, Hunter pet pulling all over the place.  Healer is going OOM, so I whisper him to stop healing the pet, and that I actually would just like it to die.  Healer says OK, and does better with mana.  Later in the instance, healer is totally OOM, I am low on health, and the DPS still keep going.
Me:  Healer, if you are low on mana, no need to heal the DPS
Healer: It's OK, I need the practice.

The DPS is still all over the place on the next pull.  I stop even trying to hold agro from the DPS, but we survive.  Best thing is that the DPS start to be better behaved on low health.
At the end of the run, the healer wants to run again.  He thought we were a good group.

So tell me again why I need more rage?  I am most definitely a grumpy tank.  

Distractions from glyphs

TL;DR
I will be posting at 20g threshold, 60g fallback, 50s undercut, post 1.  For those that read this blog, this is a huge change in strategy.



I am not easily distracted by bright shiny WoW things, but Blizzard has managed it.

World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™ Beta Test Invitation
Congratulations! You’ve been selected to participate in the beta test of World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™.
As a beta test participant, ...
Please note that your Battle.net account should be flagged for beta access within roughly 24 hours upon receipt of this email....

I noticed the beta access while unsubscribing from RealID, a good 12 hours before getting this email.

My first impressions are:

• First of all, I needed to muddle my way without instructions.  I thought I had missed an email (I just don't read them), but in fact I had pre-empted it.
• Secondly, there is a lot to download.  I was already nearing my quota, and having an addtional 15GB to download is going to take some juggling.
• As regular readers know, I have access to two accounts, mine and my sons.  My son is ... not interested in the gold or trade skills game.  He does not raid either.  So, of course, it was his account that got the Beta invite.
• I will you know of what happens once I actually get the Beta running, unless I get .... ooh look sparklies - seeya.

This means that I will need to find some extra time for the glyph posting account.  Both my son and I will be interested in what it can do.  My son will adore archeology and Worgens.

How does this relate to glyphs?  Well I was already in the process of turning most of my ink into glyphs, as it will take 3 inks to make a glyph in 4.0 (due real real soon now).  I am up to paladin glyphs, ... sigh. 

My opposition will love me, for now at least
Buying (glyph related)

• All glyph making inks below 2g
• What few cheap herbs are available (which is not many - I failed on that call).  
• Glyphs below 2g, where I do not already have 'too many', and the glyphs will not be charred.

Selling

• I want more time on the glyph posting account for Beta.  (I assume I can not be logged into Beta and live on the same account at the same time).  Regardless, I want more time.
• I am currently using more inks than I am replacing, and I am happy for others to consume their inks/herbs instead.
• My eye is now firmly on 4.0 prices.  I am expecting that there will not be enough glyphs, inks, herbs or time to meet demand, so prices will rise significantly.  My call is that glyphs will sell around the 50g mark come 4.0, which I still expect within 3 weeks.
• I have given up on scaring off the opposition, letting them have the cheaper end of the glyph market.  This means that there will be more inscribers active come 4.0, unless another inscriptionist takes over the deep undercutting role.
• I am raising my posting prices significantly in anticipation.

Real ID by stealth

Blizzard has just released Real ID 'upgrades', defaulting players to have Real ID active.

For the record, while Blizzard insists on linking real life names and email accounts to Real ID, I will not be using it. By default, your account is protected by two items : your email account and your password. Blizzard implementing by defailt Friends of friends means there will be many more accounts hacked.

I have just disabled Real ID. You do this by logging into your battlenet account. For US based players, the link is https://us.battle.net/account/management/settings/change-communication.html

I find that (WoW Interface) Friends with Benefits is a great way to track friends on multiple alts.