A Return to Low-End Enchants

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Remember back in the start of Cataclysm when the prices on high-end enchants were through the roof because of the prohibitive cost of Maelstrom Crystals? Even gold makers like me refused to pay those prices for the top enchants since they were a marginal improvement over the cheaper variety.

With the return of higher prices on maelstroms and heavenly shards, many of the high-end enchants (Landslide, Power Torrent, Windwalk, Bracers [Agility, Strength and Intellect] among others) are again becoming cost-prohibitive for people to purchase, especially when coupled with the smoother upgrade curve I talked about last week. Why would I spend between 2-3k on enchants for 378 Gear from Heroics that I'm going to replace soon (because we all think our next upgrade will be Soon™, right?) with 384 LFR Gear? I'll wait to purchase the best enchant for when I get my "best" drop, where "best" is defined as the highest level gear I think I'll be able to obtain.

A comparison of Low- vs. High-End enchants:

Weapons
Mending instead of Windwalk (Tanks)
Avalanche instead of Landslide (Melee DPS)
Hurricane/Heartsong instead of Power Torrent (Spell DPS/Healer)

Bracers
Speed (50 Haste) instead of Greater Speed (65 Haste)
Critical Strike (50) instead of Greater Critical Strike (65)
Most Bracer Enchants (50/65 Secondary Stats) instead of Agility/Strength/Intellect (50 Primary Stats)

Gloves
Exceptional Strength (35) instead of Mighty Strength (50)
Mastery (50) instead of Greater Mastery (65)

Chest
Mighty Stats (15 Primary Stats) instead of Peerless Stats (20 Primary Stats)
Stamina (55) instead of Greater Stamina (75)

Cloak
Critical Strike (50) instead of Greater Critical Strike (65)
Intellect (30) instead of Greater Intellect (50)

Legs
Ghostly Spellthread (55 Int, 45 Spirit) instead of Powerful Ghostly Spellthread (95 Int, 55 Spirit)
Enchanted Spellthread (55 Int, 65 Stam) instead of Powerful Enchanted Spellthread (95 Int, 80 Stam)
Scorched Leg Armor (110 AP, 45 Crit) instead of Dragonscale Leg Armor (190 AP, 55 Crit)
Twilight Leg Armor (85 Stamina, 45 Agility) instead of Charscale Leg Armor (145 Stamina, 55 Agility)

In most cases, the higher cost item sells for 7-10 times more than the lower end one. Some of the higher-end enchants (I'm looking at you Bracer - Mighty Strength) have huge markups (Around 1,000g on my server). Most however, tend to be not much better than the lower level enchants. But I've noticed that lately I'm selling a lot more of the low-end enchants than the high-end. So even though the lower-end enchants have a smaller gold markup, I make more gold on them because I sell a lot more.

Have you forgotten about the lower-end enchants and focused on high-end only? If so, it's time to revisit the lower-end, more affordable enchants.

Bonus Somewhat Unrelated Tip: Enchant scrolls can now be placed in enchanting bags. The change seems to be an undocumented (at the time) one that came with 4.3. If you keep a lot of scrolls in stock at any given time, it might be useful to pick up an enchanting bag.

The secret of my success

Posted by Mommar at 6:21 PM

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In the past few weeks there have been more and more messages arriving at the JMTC office Midwest campus.

Some end up being thanks for tips,  some are comments about my style (or lack of).  And even the occasional spam from a African princess looking for love in all the wrong places.

But one of the most popular ones are looking for tips on how to make more gold.  Many of them lately being of the "I'm just restarting to play wow again,  and I need to make 5-10k gold every day.

I thoroughly enjoy helping people making warcraft gold.   And having 2.3 million in the bank seems to say that I am semi decent at it.    With the different methods,   economic builds,   elementium shuffles and other strategies that we talk about all the time here.  There is one ideal that should be put into any gold sellers mind as being their mantra:

I supply,   they demand.

Everything gold related expands on this ideal.   You have consumers that want products,  you have methods to make these products and to supply them.    The rest is a matter of learning the mathematics behind the sales.   What can I sell to someone,  and what will they pay for it.   This seems like a simple idea,  but you build your millions based on this one statement.   Everything else is extra curricular on what you do with your money.

The other answer  that seemed to be a popular answer from others have been you need to have TSM or another favorite addon to make gold in the game.   It was even presented at one point that you needed to have the Android/Iphone app and two accounts to make gold in warcraft.  Where these ideas do open a lot more opportunities.  They really are in no way required to make lots of gold in the game.  It takes time,  and knowledge and even a form of discipline.   The addons make things a lot easier.  But just like science.  If you do not have a baseline knowledge of how the warcraft economics work,  you are limiting your gold making opportunities

Gold making should always be fun in the game.  It can easily become a game into itself. one that you know the score by hearing the ringing of the coin purse as you answer your mail.  IT's a basic skill that will open up areas that you never believed possible.    Gearing alts quickly,  buying that stronger piece,  buying your way into mount runs.   The only limits are what your mind can develop.

There is no truly easy button to press to make gold.   Everyone has an opinion on how it's done,  and sometimes they are right,   sometimes they are wrong.   The decision has to be your own on whether you want to try something with the chance of failing.  Or just look at that 85k mount you have always wanted and not be able to afford it.

Good Buying and selling

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at  "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here.   You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server,  chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.


Secret of my success

Straight to the hearth

Dont flip out

Go invest young man

Engineers do it with Power .. and Portals

Happy New Tear

Tip the light fantastic

Tis the season to be goblins

My rod shall comfort thee.. and make gold

Lunar... looney, it will both drive you mad

Posted by Mommar at 5:34 PM

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Today is the start of the lunar festival.    One of the longest warcraft holidays of the year.  3 weeks of explosions of firecrackers,   kissing long lost elders feet for coins,  and lots of fancy dresses.

For the gold goblins,   there ends up being a couple of new twists this year.   Two new pets are introduced the [Lunar Lantern] for the alliance and [Festival Lantern] for horde players.

The interesting thing about these pets is that they are Bind on Equip.  So they can be traded (for now)
and also sold on the AH.    The color description on the pets also do not show a faction limit so
both can be seemingly owned by one toon.  A great opportunity for those having the ability to swap
across faction Auction houses for a big sale.  Or listing on the joint AH in either Tanaris or in Booty Bay.

Don't forget as well the Engineer patterns for the fireworks and the tailoring patterns for the dresses.

With cataclysm elders you have 84 possible coins as well as any you kept from previous years (one good reason to continue to do these even if you've completed the achievements.

Wowhead has a very detailed walkthrough with all of the different positions for the elders,  as well
as the patterns available here.

Enjoy the holiday,   and don't let the elune bite you too much.  

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at  "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here.   You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server,  chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

Straight to the hearth

Dont flip out

Go invest young man

Engineers do it with Power .. and Portals

Happy New Tear

Tip the light fantastic

Tis the season to be goblins

My rod shall comfort thee.. and make gold

Making Gold on the Dragon Soul Nerf

Posted by Aleithia at 8:00 AM

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Back in September, I wrote an article about how to make gold with the nerf to the Firelands raid. If you'll recall, the premise was that Blizzard wanted more guilds to experience the raid content, so they they made a substantial nerf to the difficulty of the raid.

Now, they are at it again, this time with the Dragon Soul raid. You should go back and re-read the Firelands article because much of it applies to this new nerf. The big difference this time is that there are actually three levels of difficulty for Dragon Soul: Looking For Raid (LFR), Normal and Heroic. Rather than a substantial nerf all at once, the devs are also returning to the Icecrown Citadel style, with a progressive 5% nerf over time (as opposed to a 5% character power increase in ICC).

Smoothing Out the Curve
Prior to the Firelands nerf, sales were lagging across most industries. I remember Inferno Rubies sitting around 90g for the cut variety, then going up to 140g after the nerfs, but working their way back down within a few weeks. Sales were on a steady decline, but the nerf brought a large spike, then a relatively quick return to the steady decline. The spike was the abnormality.

But now we have the LFR difficulty. As a casual raider, this has been wonderful. I've been able to upgrade gear in ways I've never been able to before. At best, my upgrades were limited to Valor Point items after exhausting the current-tier dungeons. Now, however, VP gear is the consolation price and LFR is providing my gear upgrades. Some weeks I don't get any, but some weeks I get multiple upgrades. Across three characters participating in LFR, I get about 4-5 upgrades each week.

More importantly, I've learned encounters in a way I was never able to do in the past. Already this tier, I've done more Dragon Soul Raiding than I did in all but the final month of Firelands. Now I can understand the fights and adjust from the LFR starting point and do more Normal mode raiding. This has netted additional upgrades to my gear as well.

Trending Up

The result of 3 tiers of difficulty for raiding has been a smoother progression path for characters. Tiers and their gear iLevels:

• Hour of Twilight Heroics (378)
• Dragon Soul LFR (384)
• Dragon Soul Normal / Valor Gear (397)
• Dragon Soul Heroic (410)

This smoother progression path has propped up sales far longer than previous patches. Consider Brilliant Inferno Rubies, a leading, high-end commodity in gear upgrades. Currently, the US average for Brilliants according to AHSpy.com is 291g (Alliance) and 284g (Horde). After a strong initial surge with the release of patch 4.3 to as high as 400-450g/Brilliant on many realms, prices settled to a range of 260-280g. Now, nearly 2 months since the release, prices have remained steady because of increased demand overall.

I suspect that many more people are experiencing content across all levels. LFR has been wildly successful. I suspect it's also boosted participation in Normal modes and to some extent Heroic. This translates into more players getting more upgrades more regularly, which results in steady or even increased demand. Now, at the end of January, we start getting progressive nerfs, almost like mini-patches, that will allow more people to move farther through Normal modes and into Heroic. With each nerf, you'll see an increase in sales. Unlike previous patches, instead of prices trending downward throughout the lifecycle of the patch, they seem to be holding steady and even trending up.

This is good for auctioneers. So what to expect? Some quick-hit thoughts:

• Increased enhancement markets (gems, enchants, leg armors)
• Increased raw material prices (ores, leather and enchanting mats especially)
• Decreased Essence of Destruction prices
• Decreased Epic gem prices
• Decreased Pattern prices

 What are you expecting from the nerfs? How are you planning to capitalize on them?

Straight to the Hearth

Posted by Mommar at 12:04 PM

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The hearthstone,  one of the few items that will follow you all the way through your adventures in azeroth.    Sometimes the bane of your existence when it's down and you just want to go back home,   take a quick hot bath and pack it up for the night.

Something that people do not realize is that it's a very powerful item.  Especially when you have the timer down to 15 minutes on it though a higher guild level.   It can zip you around the world in a moments notice.

When I started playing warcraft I set my characters hearths at the nearest inn as they were questing.  Made it very easy to zip back to a safe spot and finish up turning in quests.  But once I maxed out my toon,  it just seemed to be a random place to place the hearth at.   I could go anywhere I wanted with the zeppelins,  and the flight paths.

But with the hubs that first were in dalaran,  I realized that it could be a good tool to have.   So I looked at the best places to have my different professions.   As they were leveling I kept my hearth in Dalaran (and then in Orgrimmar with the introduction of cataclysm).   Then I decided where to place permanently them at their best advantage.

Two of my engineers remained in Dalaran.  Having access to the engineer only auction house gave me quick access without any of the lag of the major cities.   It also gave me access to all the profession patterns via a hop/skip and jump over to Orgrimmar (Stormwind would be the same for the alliance).

Placing my leatherworker in the valley of wisdom freed up the ability to grab from the mailbox my money for the day,  and then let me work with the anvil and the smelting area in that same zone.   Auction house access right in front of me sealed the deal to where to place that hearth.

My jewlcrafter ended also in Dalaran.   Picking up the Dalaran jewel crafting daily,   going to the portal  and picking up the cataclysm jewel crafting daily and then going through my normal routine for the day.

I placed one of my bank toons down in Tanaris for quick access to the joint alliance/horde auction house.   I could quickly jump to that toon,  check out any auctions to snipe or switch over,  and i was finished with that gold making chore.

Placement of your hearths might seem to be tedious,  but take a look at the different options and what your crafter needs are.   You might find out that there is a much better spot to be doing your daily routine.

Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at  "@Dragonbearjoe" or leave a comment here.   You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server,  chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.

Past articles by Mommar:

Dont flip out

Go invest young man

Engineers do it with Power .. and Portals

Happy New Tear

Tip the light fantastic

Tis the season to be goblins

My rod shall comfort thee.. and make gold