GDPK BWD Fri 15 July Alliance Caelestrasz 8:30 pm server 10man

With the exception of AH activities, I appear to be considered a very casual raider.  (What's wrong with raiding nearly once per week anyway?).

Historically, I have run with a rotating cast of casuals. We had downed the first boss of every raid, but didn't progress much further.

I want to see more bosses.  I care less than most about purple shinies.  I have gold.  I am too casual for a raiding guild.  I talk about gold too much for a social guild.

Gold bid runs are a solution.  (i.e. instead of /roll or arbitrary prioritisation system, you bid on loot).  It is good for wealthy casuals - we see bosses and possibly loot.  It is good for the rest - they get gold (and possibly bosses

As a pot:

• 2000 g guaranteed pool per boss downed.
• Loot can be claimed at first breaks after 10pm & 11:30pm server.
• 200g guaranteed to each tank or healer active @ 10pm server.
• 300g guaranteed to each tank or healer active @ 11:30pm server.
• No minimum bid.  (That said, if I am providing a guaranteed pot, I will likely do so via a bid even if I end up vendoring something.)

Requirements:

• You have the gear to queue for heroics.
• You are gemmed and enchanted.  (I will use Bimbo to check)
• I have a published raid ettiquette.  You don't need to read it, but you will be bound by it.
• You have vent and will at least listen in.

If this interests you, please in-game mail Foofixit on Alliance Caelestrasz, or leave a comment.

PS.  As my preffered writer has declined, I will address two items in upcoming articles

• Self censorship
• 'that deep undercut comment'.

PPS. G'day to Weatbicks (hopfully I spelled it correctly) on Horde Caelestrasz.  Great to receive your in game mail.  Yes, Foostrait (Foo's traitor) is my toon.

Fortune Cookie as preferred stat food

Personally I don't like making fortune cards for sales to suckers.  I will make them to order, and sell them.  I will use them as bribes.  I just have difficulty recommending that someone tries to get rich on them (because they won't). 

However, they do make a good +90 stat food.  My objections are smaller here.

On our server, you can make a fortune card for 7.5g just from AH bought inks (cheaper if you mill your own).  Turning these into fortune cookies costs an additional copper and a global cooldown (or even less if you have a chef's hat).

In comparison, a raw deapsea sagefish tail costs 18g, which can then be turned into +90 int food; being the preferred buff food of many casters.  Same buff as the fortune card, but 10g more expensive.

I know that many guilds now put down feasts, but by no means all.  I know that some players have been using fortune cookies hoping to get 'that card', but consoling themselves with buff food.

During raid startup times, we should bring it to the attention of new raid leaders and caster toons alike : You have a choice of best stat foods; and on many realms the cheapest food is a fortune cookie.  Buff raiders get lucky.  (groan : I am not sure I could say it, but many of you could)

Separating your sales

How do you know which professions are profitable - preferably at a glance.

I have every tradeskill @ 525, some I use regularly, some I barely use at all. That's OK, I am a collector of recipes (even recipes that I have no intention of ever using - BOP low level gear anyone?).  One of these days I will level another couple of toons and get 3 gathering skills.

I am no Breevok with the ability or inclination to closely track sales.  I find it difficult to know what actually sells well.  Yes, I have Beancounter, but it still doesn't do it for me.

A very simple method that works for me is to have a stable of alts - each selling a niche.  My selling alts are low level, ususally not the toon that does the original crafting.

When a selling toon wants something made (or mats stockpiled) - it is responsible for the gold for that transaction, to the nearest 'round' number.

When I follow this process, I can see at a glance which professions (or parts of professions) sell well, and which perform poorly - for my playstyle.  If it does well - it has gold.  If it does poorly - it runs out of gold.

The one period I didn’t do this - I got into trouble.  I kept buying herbs and inks- taking gold from profitable markets, and ploughing them into glyphs (after all - this blog is 80% glyphs - I could not possibly lose money - ... oh well - maybe I could).  I never became 'poor', but did manage to carry too much inventory , and to send good money after bad.

I was already well on the roads to recovery before my significant competition moved on, simply by concentrating on what was selling well, and finding alternatives to what was selling poorly.  The fact that a very deep undercutter has since moved on helps.

If you only have your finger in one AH pile, it doesn't matter so much.  If you play with multiple markets, or even sections within a market, it is worth segregating it with selling alts and keeping your gold separate.

Updated blogroll - slow news day

The servers are down - so much for a 1 hour rolling restart.

While I am working on a new 'shiny tool' for another profession (heaven forbid - It's not inscription), it's still in the "I'm gonna do this" rather than an actually usefull "I've done this".  Oh well, one day.

I am however tired of reading my old bloglist with Avion/Rift/Star Wars/Lord of the Rings/Some other game I don't have, so I did a great purge and bloglist recreation.  The chances are good that I have offended someone unintentionally (or otherwise). The last time I did this, I left of a few blogs that I really wanted to read.

If you think I would be interested in reading your (or someone else's) blog on an ongoing basis, please leave a comment.

To make it to this bloglist, I am after the some of the following things:

• 3 months of blogging; 
• Most posts about WoW;
• Gold making posts, with an emphasis on the how;
• WoW stuff that I didn't know and wanted to.
• WoW stuff that I want other people to know.
• I like places that teach/encourage good healing & tanking.

For those newer to blogging, please persevere.  Every WoW blog started with a post.  Feel free to mention your WoW related website, and I will look at it again in a little while.

Kaye Toogie

Kaye Toogie is a vendor for difficult to get engineering pet recipees - 3 different dragonlings - 2 pets and a level 50 trinket.  These are limited supply options.  According to the undermine journal the pet recipes are sufficiently available, but the trinket recipe is in very rare supply; with prices across servers ranging from a few hundred to 10,000g.  The servers with undermine journal recipe prices at a few hundred do not have any supply.

You get to her via the Engineer Wormhole generator, but it is very rare.  Apparently you can't camp her either - as she is only active for the first hour after your teleport.

Admittidly, I don't use my generator every cooldown, but tonight is the first time I have managed to get the Underground option. Woo Hoo.

She was sold out.  Sob sob.

Recruiting

Arozcaldo is re-opening as an active guild, on Oceanea/Caelestraz/Alliance.

For end game players:

• I will be organising 5 man dungeon runs (mostly heroics) 2-3 times a week, soon moving to raiding Saturday nights.  Runs that I organise will gerenally start around 8:30.
• Runs that I organise will largely be progression style - I do not repeat a lot of old content.  
• Mild preference is given to in-guild members (especially so we get guild points from), but is by no means obligatory.  If you love your guild but have compatible free time, you are still welcome to run with us.
• New healers are most welcome.  Training, and assistance will be given.  Older content will also be re-run if needed.
• I have an established raid etiquette.  (TL:DR - It's ok to encourage, but if you need to be a jerk about it - whisper me instead).

You need to be able to work together within a team.  When you are running heroics or raids, you will be expected to have all slots filled with at least basic enchants, and gems, and be glyphed.  Likewise, you will some potions, flasks and elixirs.  Swearing is frowned upon. Swearing at (or in the general direction of) others is not tolerated.

Members working towards Thats a lot of bait, Mix Master, and Set the Oven to 'Cataclysmic'. will be subsidised.

Questing & levelling toons will have a generous repair allowance.

I started raiding early 2009, raiding mostly once per week.  My progress for Wrath is covered here.

Don't tell me - I don't want to know

An otherwise nameless blogging guild member recently fished up Mr Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box.

Congratulations.

I would like this achievement, but want to psyche myself up to it.  From El's Angling, "On average, just two out of a thousand catches will be Mr. Pinchy. Since you'll struggle to get more than 50 catches an hour, expect to invest a lot of time to catch this."

So - this achievement is scheduled for a very slow day.  I have toons to level to 85 before I even start on it, because on average it will take 10 hours of fishing.

So, I am comforted in knowing that while the rotten scoundrel guild member got what I want, he took hours to fish it up. But then this exchange over guild chat:
Guild member : "Do you know how many casts it took me?"
chorus : No?
Guild member : 7. 

I don't want to know.   I just don't.

Sob sob

Personal milestones

Congratulations to Breevok for 50% of his milestone.

Breevok gives me something to work to.  I am good at making gold..  Breevok, at the moment, is better.  This will change :)

Not only do I enjoy the gold sub-game, it also gives me the ability to save up and say 'I want that'.  Some grind dungeons, do dailies, farm for mats.  I farm the auction house.

There are two recent purchases I am pleased with, milestones of my own.  First of all was the Heroic dungeon gear.  Foolich hit 85, completed all of the normal dungeons (once), hit the auction house and had my gear for heroics, gemmed and enchanted.  Admitidly it has some reslience which I intend to replace, but oh well.  Now all I need is time to do heroics.

The second purchase was toward Mix Master.  The guild was already a long way towards this before I realised it.  Seeing it was achievable, I gutted my farming spot, and put a dent in my horde 'backup' farming spot as well.  Regardless of whether I should or not, I like my recipees.  I purchased the herbs, and then made, far too many flasks.  I spent too much, and had a great time doing so.  Even after my spending spree, the guild was 50 flasks or so short.  A great thing about being in a guild with others that work toward common goals is that it didn't matter, someone else picked up the baton, and when I logged in today, we had Mix Master. 

Now, all I need to do is work my alchemist (Foosecond) up to 'friendly' with the guild (nearly there).

Back to work

At work I sit, already tired
Auctions sold out, undercut, or expired.


I have been more upbeat on glyphs than most of the gold makers.  In part due to others deciding that glyphs were on a dead end path, other distractions, and some moderatly agressive undercutting, I have recently been earning a lot of gold out of glyphs.  I have generally earned a living from glyphs, but now I am earning a life style, with many glyphs regularly selling for 75g, in what was a very crowded market.

A lot of alts are being levelled, which I think helps, as does an exhaustion of some pre 4.0 glyph & ink stockpiles.  I am now busily buying herbs for inks that I am short on for 1-2g, northrend herbs at 50s, and other glyph herbs at less than 1g.  With the exception of snowfall Ink, I have stopped selling 'rare' inks due to the price being below what I think the long term price will be.

As I have struggled to keep up with my glyph making, I am not participating as much in other markets as I thought I might, and have again outsourced my milling, for about 1g / ink, and convert Blackfallow ink as necessary.  I have also decided (for the time being) not to participate in the darkmoon faire cards, as with some trinkets apparently being available for rep, I think they will be seen as overpriced.

If you have a scribe without the profitable glyps, consider milling and ink making.  Assuming you have multiple glyph sellers, picking up cheap herbs and milling can be very profitiable, if somewhat lacking in glamour.  (The same applies to bolts of cloth for tailors).  I have also noticed a fairly large converstion opportunity for Blackfallow Ink to Inferno Ink via Jessica Sellers in Dalaran (on my server about 50g in 230g).