Recently I’ve levelled a priest to cap and am currently levelling up my bank alt Bankgrrl as a prot warrior. Along the way I’ve rediscovered a couple of very lucrative flip points for gear purchases on the AH.
The Cata Flipping Point
Cata gear starts at around level 77-78 which is at the high end of a battle group band. To avid PVPers this represents an ENORMOUS jump in stats, by comparison to the lesser geared members of the opposition, causing you to have access to one-shots and the like.
Level 40 Mail to Plate Flipping Point
Specifically for tanks this one represents an almost doubling of armour on various pieces by comparison to mail. All 40 tanks will be looking for these pieces so you can charge a premium.
Level 40 Leather to Mail Flipping Point
This one is for the shamans and is less likely to be profitable. For PVP shamans this is the beginning of a new band so even with an upgrade to mail the added damage mitigation is not going to be a great deal of help. PVE shamans are even less likely to be concerned here. It’s worth a look though.
What to buy
Now, as you approach these flipping points you’ll find at least one if not a few AHers firmly ensconced. Don’t be concerned by this – remember you’re not trying to buy ‘their’ stuff and flip it, you’re looking for the guy who’s had a drop and posted it up for 90g. A quick buy later and you have a piece that will likely provide somewhere between 300g to 500g profit. Making gold at this method requires a daily pruning of your gold bush (hmm, not sure I’m comfortable with that metaphor) to garner in the good deals and quickly flip them up onto the selling floor.
Control of the market?
Don’t even try it! Except for this one item: shields! Shields are a major source of armour for prot tanks. In the early days almost half your armour can come from your shield. There is NO heirloom shield so all tanks will be looking for that good drop or something special from the AH. If your realm is like mine then you won’t see many good tanking shields on the AH (although you will find a large number of items with Int on them). If you’re buying up to 100g and flipping to around 300g I think this could be a good market.
A Few Links for Starter Warrior Tanks
Go here for a brilliant level 15 tanking guide – this was so helpful to me – but also read on for general prot tanking tips in the bigger guide.
Pulveriser’s guide was also wonderfully graphic and contains some good high-level information – check the youtube version as well.
And best of all for a newby starter tank go to Maps For Tanks! Just go there! It has maps laid out in the sequence they come up in the LFG tool with the best path through the instance for you to take (including where quest items are). The folk from Disciplinary Action who run this site seem to be taking a break from updating it so the maps run out around the level 40 mark atm but they assure that they’ll be back soon. I can’t overstate the usefulness of this site for familiarising yourself with the instances before you get there.
That’s all for now folks.
Stay liquid,
Mogul.
I will say, in my experience, leveling a new toon and professions.. I have learned many ways to make small bits of gold... Leveling in its own way is such an easy way to stop doing the same old thing and start doing something new... try things different, play with new addons and such... As well as find little markets to make some gold in. Continuing to play on my mains has often led to continuing to do the same old familiar things and not make the big step or changes needed to really change things up..
ReplyDeleteWant to make more gold, Start a new toon, give them nothing but heirlooms, or not, maybe some bags, or not, but see what you can learn by makeing the new guy pay for his own way... You value things more or less, your perspective on time and investment is likely to change, but MAKE SURE, if you want to do this... START it from the begining as a project to learn and discover, do as little as possible to speed level and power grind, do as much as possible to learn and discover new things, examples, like new professions, new race, class, armor type, new zones to level in, PVP, vs. PVE... TWINK... Look for ways to twink your toon, others are looking and it could provide similar info to what Mogul is saying... There are little niche markets that thrive...
Something I have been making a bit of extra gold on is green items for trasmogging strangely enough. I have sold several pieces at 1200 gold and picked them up for around 10-20 gold.
ReplyDelete@Achieve - I totally get that. As a former raider and someone who was very 'very' keen on warlock pvp at cap I almost find it surprising that these days I'm loving the levelling game, and yes, the reason is the exposure to different parts of the game.
ReplyDelete@Darraxus - I've got mine in two categories, greens for transmog with a sellout of 650g and blues with a sellout of 1450g. For me 650g was the sweet spot. : )