The festive break - and making gold

This isnt a post about Winter Veil. I think thats been more than covered in other blogs - personally I do bother listing ice cold milk on the AH for the suckers to buy - mostly because it seems there aren't the suckers on my server that there are on others.

This observation comes from the fact that since 3.3 the prices of saronite and borean leather hasn't moved. My snatch list is still full of stacks of borean leather for 10g or less and saronite ore for under 13g a stack.

These were my two threshold cut offs ... at these prices I could make titanium bars for 10g40s, and arctic fur for 30g.

Prices this morning on the AH show that arctic fur is selling for 25g (!) and titanium bars for 12g.

So it appears the masses weren't fooled - all that happened was that the end product fell to meet the price of the raw materials. This makes sense in a way - the availability of the materials hasn't changed - skinners still skin, miners still mine. In fact in many ways the supply has increases due to the new LFG system - there are mining nodes in several of the heroics and any skinner in Violet Hold will come away with couple of stacks of borean leather. This weeks weekly raid is OS - which just makes the leather situation worse!

But fear not dear reader - Breevok isn't quite broke yet. I am slowly feeding supplies back to the market when there are lull times in the AH - and being the virtueous person I am - patience is paying dividends.

Meanwhile - the festive break has meant an easing in the glyph market - people aren't AH camping as intently as they usually do. I'm posting twice a day - and each time listing around 80-100 different glyphs. Sales are steady - bringing in around 500g a day.

I ran into a guy who was selling herbs - lots of herbs. Spent 10k on icethorn (15g a stack), lich bloom (15g a stack), frost lotus (35g each) and eternal life (15g each).

The icethorn is being milled and turned into glyphs and vellums (which are still selling like candy), the lich bloom is being sold back at 25g a stack, the frost lotus was split and half sold for 50g a pop and the other half supplied to my partner to make flasks for the guild.

The Eternal life - is interesting. At the time I purchased it - I really needed some for personal use. Prices on the AH were 25g each. With the 100 I bought at 15g each I sold off immediately - turning 1500g into 2500g. I've since bought Eternal Life at 20g each to regain the 100 I need (costing 2000g). This has meant I've paid only 10g a piece for them - and with the faire just round the corner I am hopefully to eventually any leftovers I have to cover all my costs.

Other than that - its been business as usual. Christmas came and went - and New Year approaches.

I thought I'd post to show that Breevok hasnt gone anywhere - but that the blog has taken a little more of a back seat over the festive period - I'll return to work on the 5th where there are less distractions (i.e. WoW) to my writing.

I wish you all a wonderful end to your break - and may 2010 bring you all the gold you desire!

Peace.

Merry Christmas From Breevok

Just a quick post to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully each and every one of you have a nice relaxing break.

Professions - Engineering

Following a comment/request from a reader (/greet ThRiNiDiR), and following the poll  which showed that, other than first aid, engineering was the least used of the professions for gold making - I thought it was about time I spent a little time on this funky little profession.

I picked Engineering and Inscription on my hunter really because they were two of the few remaining professions I didnt have easy access to. On top of this, it's a great fit for a hunter - giving easy access to weapons, ammo and later on epic armor.

Engineering - The Basics

To be brutally honest - engineering is a pain in the ass to level. Its expensive, it probably the most complicated of all the professions (in terms of efficiency anyway) because of the numerous steps in making a crafted item. There could be 4 or 5 steps between raw materials and final product - and its easy to get muddled at a step through a process and make too many of one component and end up wasting mats.

However on the positive side - making components themselves can be used to level the profession itself - and these are often flicked off for prices lower than the mats themselves (for example Mithril tubes (2g50s) are made from three mithril bars (1g20s) - which means that with careful buying you can reduce the cost of leveling the profession.

If you are leveling this profession driven purely by efficiency - then I recommend a leveling guide (just google it) - but personally I would advocate spending the little extra gold and enjoying it.

Ideally partnered with mining (you will be requiring a lot of bars of various metals) if you have access to a miner you will save a lot of gold.

At skill level 200 you get to specialise - choosing either Goblin or Gnomish specialisations. Roughly speaking - Gnomish patterns have the funky quirky stuff and Goblin has the stuff that go BOOM! The decision of which one you choose has little affect as you level - and in fact it really had little impact on gold making - right up until 3.3.

Engineering - For Money

Quite possibly the biggest weakness for Engineering is the limited gold making potential. However dont give up - by picking your way through all the possible designs there are a few gems in there to ensure this profession can make you money.

Ammo - the main stay of the engineers income. Pre 3.3, all 350+ engineers could make Saronite Razorheads (arrows) and Mammoth Cutters (bullets) for a reasonable cost (Two saronite bars per 1000 for razorheads, two saronite bars, 3 cobalt bars and an crystallized water per 2000 for Mammoth cutters). 2g50s worth of mats would sell for 4g a stack. Easy money - but in a saturated market.

Come 3.3, things have changed. Once you get to honored with the Ashen Verdict - you get access to the new uber ammo - Iceblade Arrow and Shatter Rounds. However which you can make is dependent on your chosen specialisation - only those with Golbin speciailsation can make the bullets, Gnomish for arrows. You can switch between the two but the cost to switch is fairly expensive - so you have to be sure of your profit before doing so.

NB Right now - there is a very nice crossbow which drops in Heroic PoS - and there isnt a better gun until Blood-Queen Lana'then in ICC 10 (and she isnt available yet) or out of one of the chests in ToC25H. Therefore bullets are a dead ammo, for now at least.

Scopes - used by hunters and warriors - scopes can be attached to any ranged weapon. Heartseeker Scopes are the best of these - and only take 10 saronite bars and two twilight opals to make. Can make 10g profit on these easily.

Pets - there are five vanity pets in total that can be created by engineers - however only three of these are BoE. The Life-Like Mechanical Toad, the Mechanical Squirrel Box and the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti have varying costs to produce but all sell for profit to these people who love their companions or who are achievemnet junkies. Its worth having the parts on 'AA Snatch' and make them when you have all the bits today.

Quests - there are a couple of items that can sell well because they are required for  non engineers to complete a quest.The overcharged capacitor is one such example - used by Alliance players in the Borean Tundra.

Farming Gas Clouds - introuduce in BC - an engineer with a Zapthrottle Mote Extractor can extract motes/crystallized elementals from gas clouds. These can be found in certain regions in both Northrend and the Outlands - can can be a good way to farm those eternals when you need them. I personally dont farm but if thats your thing :)

Epic Range Weapons - at lvl 450 engineers can make two good entry level guns the Nesingwary 4000 (great entry level gun especially for dwarf hunters) and Armor Plate Combat Shotgun (great for warriors). Expensive to make, these can turn a profit but you might need to be patient.

Mekgineer's Chopper/Mechano-hog - the two motobike mounts. Not the source of profit they once were - with the mats being a minimum of 12,500g just for the parts that cant be farmed. Throw in another load of arctic fur, titansteel bars and cobalt bolts and you are likely to be spending close to 14k to make one of these. Thats a huge investment for possibly 7-10% profit. However people give big gifts at Christmas to who knows....

Engineering - Maximising Your Profession

The real key to maximising profit with engineering is knowing your manufacturing processes. Have key items on snatch - never just go out and buy the parts you need to make an item - you are just punishing yourself.

Just be ready to pick up a stack of random items when some idiot dumps them on the AH for a low price. You might need to wait a couple of weeks to gather up all the parts you need but patience will bring its rewards.

You are going to need a decent amount of storage space as an engineer - parts mostly stack but you need so many of them you will need to be organised with your inventory.

Engineering - Other Benefits

Oh boy - the benefits! Where to start...

1. Access to the AH in Dalaran
2. Access to a mailbox whereever you go - 1 hour cooldown
3. Access to your bank whereever you go - 1 hour cooldown
4. Teleports all across Azeroth - depending on your specialisation you can have access to  Toshley's Station, Gadgetzan, Everlook, Area 52 and various locations across Northrend
5. Repair bots
6. Epic headpieces in the mid 70s.
7. Best cloak enchants + a parachute
8. And so on and so forth....

I fully recommend engineering as a profession - and not just because its a lot of fun. If you have engineering as your main AH toon it means you have a lot more flexibility - no more being stuck in Exodar all day! (Mind you dont even consider a fast scan in Dalaran!)

Gold Making - An update

Well its a gold making blog after all so I thought it best to make some mention of profit and gold making...

Prices have settled it seems. Titanium bars (<20g) and Arctic Fur (<50g) have dropped significantly in price - but we have seen an increase in borean leather nor saronite. Its all rather distressing to be honest. I can just flick them back at a little over the price I purchased at - but to be honest I was hoping for a bit more than 10-20% profit when I got into all this. Glyphs have continued to be a slow but steady source of income (a few hundred gold a day), vellums continue to sell at the 3-4g mark by the dozen bringing in several hundred gold. Enchanting mats are profitable as always - especially pre-WotLK mats. Mongoose enchants are popular as always, selling for 600g+ in very short time. And rather than selling mats for their now rock bottom prices - scrolls for top end enchants are still selling well (Dont these people have enchanters in their guilds?!?) Netherwaeve bags have stopped being profitable - but thankfully bolts on netherweave have surged in price over the past week. I'm pleased I didnt make all my supplies into bags - with it being a lot more profitable to sell the bolts right now. With the prevelence of bows for hunters, plus the new ammo - the price of Eternal Shadow has more than doubled since 3.3. I never invested heavily in this market - but at 17g a unit I'm glad I held back on my limited supplies. It does meant that Rituals of the New Moon arent as viable these days but I think I have somewhat covered that market over the past few weeks anyway. Investments I made in the 2nd tier of the greater darkmoon card sets (Death and Illusion) have paid dividends. With everyone desperate for Noble Cards - Prism and Undeath cards get flicked relatively cheaply. I put together several of each deck, Illusion for 240g each and Death for 400g each. They have now sold for 500g and 1000g repectively. Gem prices seem to have remained high - but my limited sources of these are being used to gem my own gear so no profit there! Overall money still comes in - purchases have been made which have lowered my actual bank balances (Bought my partner a Hog for instance) but I'm comfortable enough - although I think it'll be the New Year before I hit gold cap.

PUGs, Gear and Guild Sociology

A couple of experiences over the weekend have left me with things to contemplate.

Firstly, I was invited by a friend, on my healer to an ICC 25 man run on Sunday - 80% of the raid was from a single guild. Now as a rule I don't like running a new raid on my healer as a PUG. Mistakes made through inexperience as a healer generally get amplified compared to similar mistakes made as a DPS. However the opportunity presented itself and I decided to take it.

I was honest to the person that invited me and the RL that this was my first time in ICC. I'd cleared trash for rep and had made one attempt on the first boss in 10 man, and neither seemed bothered that I didn't know the boss fights.

After a couple of wipes on the first boss we cleared it and then wandered off to the second boss.

That's where the troubles began. We tried the guilds strategy for the boss. We wiped. We tried again. We wiped. We wiped when someone agroed the boss.

After 5 wipes, a couple of the PUGs (including myself) asked some simple questions regarding the mechanics of the boss herself. Oh boy did we cop it. Suddenly the guilds healer started making snide comments about "why are there people here who haven't even cleared 10 man?".

Now I'm a fairly calm guy (most of the time) but I do get a little pissy when someone has a go at me for not knowing a fight when they (as a guild) don't even have a strategy themselves for the fight. Shit, I can stand on the stairs all day and heal ... it isnt my fault the tanks can't pick up the adds. Doesn't make a difference that I don't know the boss or not.

After another few wipes I made my excuses and left. I don't spend my $$s to be belittled by a know it all healer - especially when I had already confessed to not knowing the fights.

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The Politics of gear - I do feel that healers get a bum deal when it comes to loot. For example, two items dropped from the first boss in ICC25. There was a spellcaster dagger (no hit rating) and a caster ring (with hit rating)

There were 6 healers in the raid - 10 people rolled on the dagger. Fair enough - it was an upgrade for all of them. Then the ring was rolled for and two of the healers rolled - a mage actually won the roll so it wasnt a biggie but there was a comment made in /raid about a healer rolling on the ring.

The ring would have been a huge upgrade for me - but I didn't roll because of the hit on it. But it did get me thinking about the dagger. DPS casters get to roll on gear with and without hit - but if a healer rolls on an item with hit on it - watch out!

I don't think there is an answer that is satisfactory on this one - I can see both sides - but it did get me thinking.

__________________________________

My partner runs my guild, and I have a rather odd position within it as one of the main healers, some raid leader experience and happy enough to give opinions about most things.

We are now over the 60 member level, with more than 100 level 80 accounts. We have a range of experience - some havent seen the inside of OS others have cleared ToC25 in hardmode.

We have a core of around 15 players who are capable of running most things in game.

I like my guild. I like the people in my guild. However, I accept that just because I like two people that that doesn't necessarily mean that those two people will like each other. And this is where problems start.

I guess I am worried about people - I know there are niggles which unless they get resolved will magnify and become problems. I know we would all love to develop some of the other guildies and be able to move onto 25 man content - but thats going to be tricky with social politics around the place.

I'm sitting on the fence and playing the 'can't we all be friends' card to be honest. When new members join they will always have ideas of their own - and sometimes personalities will clash - but rather than seeing that as a negative I encourage people to embrace the challenge of this.

There will always be quirkiness around players - I haven't come across a rogue yet that doesnt shadowmeld and wander off to stand under the bosses nose - makes me twitch everytime but I deal with it.

And yes occasionally some silly action of someone will cause a wipe or at least some panicing whilst a mob is picked up and dealt with. Rather than getting up tight - I tend to see it as skill building. I'm not advocating that traps be triggered or mobs pulled before we are ready - but when it happens I actually see it as catching practice.

What I don't want it to see factions form - we are meant to be a single guild - and I want it to remain that way.

My worklife is a continual game of internal and external politics - I've learnt to ride the rapids and keep myself out of one side or another - whilst maintaining the freedom to express my own individual opinions.

I feel I achieve the same within guild. I just wish I could be as assured that others won't get distracted by the little issues as this can result in the bigger picture being overlooked. Sometimes it honestly is easier to just let it go rather than let the little things eat away. I've been down that road and its not a healthy place.

WTS - Saronite Ore, Saronite Bars, Borean Leather....

...but hey could be worse...I could have stocked up on Etneral Earth to make oodies of the new bullets only to discover there is only one gun in 3.3 better than the Felglacier Bolter...and then you have to wait for another few weeks for the boss to even become available.

New Poll - whats the best thing about 3.3?

We've had it for a week - most of the bugs have been ironed out... so what have you enjoyed most about this latest patch? I'm limiting you to a single answer so choose wisely :)

New LFG system

A weeks worth of random pugs has been an experience. Running both as a hunter and as a priest have left me with memories of good times and bad....

Waiting times - as we have all experienced LFG is very good when you are a healer or a tank. Wait times of more than 30 seconds are unusual. Unfortunately as a pure DPS class I tend to be waiting for 5-15 minutes when using the feature on my hunter. In many ways it would be a lot better for my gold exploits if my enchanter/JCer was my hunter not my priest - waiting for a group wouldn't be such as issue if I could have the AH as a distraction.

I'm interested in seeing what happens over the coming months once everyone is triumphed to the hilt and running far fewer heroics again. There is actually very little you can do (as a DPS) when waiting - you can't BG, you can't arena. All you can do is dailies (erm I make money on the AH specifically so I dont have to do dailies!) - or hang out in Dalaran ignoring trade!

Rampant tanks - I guess tanks are an odd breed at the best of times. Little, if any, conversation - just heading off to the next mob, head down, getting their work done. Personally I don't mind unless as a healer I'm in the wrong spec as I enter the instance and in no position to do more than arbitary healing.

However on the plus side - a standard per 3.3 heroic takes around 15 minutes when chain pulling, and both my heals and DPS are most than capable of keeping up, so its a great way to get quick emblems.

Crap DPS - and I have seen some wonderful examples. Did an Old Kingdom run with a well geared tank (with me healing) and three reasonably geared DPS (well in terms of Gear Score at least (around 4000 GS)). After the first boss I checked recount to find the tank at the top of the DPS charts - and the hunter pulling 400 DPS. I checked his gear and found a neckpiece with spell power, strength gems and by rough calculations a hit rating of around 100. Quite how the tank and I dragged them through the whole instance I havent a clue (Two DPS just wouldnt move out of the fire!) but actually a quiet sense of achievement was the result.

Inability to whisper party members - I mean why not?

Rudeness - I caused a wipe on my hunter or at least according to the ret pally I did. I was running the Forge of Souls on my hunter. We reached the 2nd/last boss the 'Devourer of Souls'. Now my misunderstanding was that the 'Mirrored Soul' defuff only caused issues when it was specifically cast on you (and I still think this for the record). However according to newest member on my ignore list, I killed three members of the group because I didnt stop DPSing when the debuff was on someone else. Evidently I'm a 'F***ing Noob Huntard' which is nice.

(I didn't protest about this specific point at the time (as I didnt have time to recheck), however I did tell the ret pally that "For someone with a gear score 600 higher than mine putting out 1400 less DPS perhaps he should shut the f*** up'. )

I find there are a number of rude people in these groups - no one yet has called my by my toon name - I am officially 'hunter'. This is one of the negatives of these groups - I have to help idiots.

Need/Greed/DE - oh the politics. Firstly needing on orbs - for my server its just not done - but on a lot of servers it is. I guess my server doesnt have trust issues! ;-)

As for the auto DEing - still not happy.... when Blizzard lets me roll on nodes and herbs and leather then I'll be happy. It's my profession and I should be allowed to choose who I share it with (see rudeness above).

Traveling to and from instances - of how I love this. Oh boy this is wonderful. I use this feature all the time, even when running a full guild run. No more long flights to Gundrak or UK! :)

As as you can see - good and bad all round. Your thoughts?

The Jot Pad - Saronite and Borean

More than two months ago I mentioned that part of the reason I blog is that it "allows me to drop randomness down to review later"

A week after the madness of patch night I'm decided to rationalise my thoughts on my two large pre-patch investments. Forgive me as I talk to myself and do some calculations so I clarify my next steps.

I am going to assume that I purchased at my maxmium purchase price over the past couple of mohts. That way I cover AH fees and so on...

Borean Leather/Heavy Borean Leather/Arctic Fur

Purchase price -
Borean Leather - 10g a stack (50s a unit)
Heavy Borean Leather - 60g a stack (3g a unit)

Selling options -
Sell as BL - current price 50s a unit - No Profit!


Sell as HBL - current prices 5g a unit - 66% profit
Convert to Arctic Fur - current prices 50g a unit - 66% profit
LW and DE - Nerubian Legguards - 8 borean Leather - 4g to make.
DEs into 1-3 ID (75%), 1-2 LCE (20%), 1 SDE (5%)
=> 100 Legguards = 600 BL ( 300g)
DE'd will produce 150 ID, 30 LCE, 5 SDE.
ID - 1g20s, LCE 3g, SDE 5g. Total 295g - No Profit! 

Decision - Turn all BL into HBL. Spend half on arctic fur and drip feed at 60g+ selling level. Sell HBL at 6g+


Saronite Ore/Saronite Bars/Titanium Bars


Purchase price -
Saronite Ore - 13g a stack (65s a unit)
Saronite Bar - 26g a stack (1g30s a unit)

Selling options -
Sell as ore - prices currently 80s a unit - moving towards 1g. Selling at 1g 54% profit
Sell as saronite bars - prices currently 1g50s a unit - moving towards 2g. Selling at 2g 54% profit
Sell as titanium bars - currently selling at 18-24g. Cost to produce (8 saronite bars) - 10g40s. Selling at 20g - 92% profit
Prospect and sell gems - 25 stacks will prospect in 162 (average price 2g) pre-epic and 24 (average price 15g) epic gems. 25 stacks cost 325g. Gems 684g. 109% Profit
Prospect, JC and sell enchanting mats. As above - but 108 gems combined with 2crystallised earth (cost 1g) - DE materials worth less than gems. Plus lots of work

Decision - much as the gems are the highest profit margin they arent quick sellers and have a posting fee. Will convert to titanium bars on an ongoing basis selling at no less than 20g a unit. Maintain saronite as ore and sell ore at prices over 1g25s and bars at 2g50s (92% profit - same as titanium)


Right I'm pleased thats resolved... no more numbers running around my head!

3.3 - My impressions so far

What a wacky ride this past week has been.

Its been a funny experience to be honest - made a great deal of gold - but not from the sources I was expecting.

When 3.3. hit on Tuesday night - I had around 100 stacks each of saronite bars and heavy borean leather, and around 400 stacks each of saronite ore and borean leather. On my server prices havent moved.

Borean leather is still 10g a stack, HBL 5g each. Arctic fur has dropped to around 70g. I'm flicking bits and bobs of leather when there are blips in the market but its going to be a long road to clear it all.

Similarly saronite has remained steady as well. Prices for bars have gone up a little (now around 30g a stack from 26g), and ores unchanged (still around 13g a stack)

However there have been some amazing killings - heartseeker scopes were going for 200g like candy, I was lucky enough to get a battered hilt on my first run through the new heroics... it sold for 25000 gold.

Friends tell me gems have been a amazing seller - not surprising with all the new gear people are getting.

For me one of the shining lights have been vellums - weapon vellums III selling for 6g, Armor Vellum III selling for 5g. Glyphs arent moving (had a nice 24hr window right after the patch when I sold a few 100, but the campers have returned since) - so these vellums are a wonderful bonus.

Flasks are selling well - I am please I set my threshold so high so I had a good supply - they are selling for 35-40g each right now - and long may that continue.

Overall - profit is great. Just not from the expected sources - but who knows what will happen with leather and saronite over coming weeks!

The parent affect...

...a couple of days ago my parents arrived in New Zealand for a six week holiday over the Christmas and New Years period. This has had me distracted somewhat (why do I still feel it necessary to tidy my room when my mum comes to visit?) to ensure my house is sparkling, my lawn mown, weeds pulled etc!

This has eaten into my leisure time somewhat, so unfortunatly this blog has taken a back seat for the last week. However fear not (or get really scared - which is more appropriate) I'll be back later in the week at full volume.

Today is maintainence day - and undoubtably 3.3 patch night. Winter veil will be in full swing in a weeks time, so its got to be tonight that we finally get to see ice-crown.

Enjoy your last daily heroic before the cross server PUG comes into action, top up those stores of borean leather and saronite and sharpen your blades in preparation for the final push to spank Arthas.

Results of Poll Three

The latest poll asked the simple question:

Which is the best new gold making opportunity for Patch 3.3?

We had 30 votes, and the results are as follows:

New Glyphs 5 (16%)

Heavy Borean Leather/Arctic Fur 7 (23%)

Titanium/Saronite Bar Transmute 12 (40%)

Other 6 (20%)

So it seems there is no clear cut winner here - although Saronite came out ahead of the other possibilities. I've hedged by bets and covered all three of the named opportunities plus I have a few ideas up my sleeve which I talk about following the release (if they work out).

New Poll shortly.