A brief RECAP! 250k to 1 million gold

Hi folks,

Well that's done!  Nice to be back over the million again.  : )

This is where I started seven weeks ago: 5 toons came across, each with portable holes to all slots.  I'd spent months laboriously converting my gold to product, creating choppers, shuffling for chant mats, proccing out flasks and making BSing buckles and weapon chains (I also took all glyphs to 15 stacks - and then forgot to bring the pally glyphs).

TCG mounts were a definite help, I snagged two raptors (one of which I still have) and a big battle bear.  Here's what I bought em for.

And here's what I sold them for.

On my old small server I watched them drop by 10000g before I bought them.  On the new populous server I set my sell prices and waited.  Combined purchase price was 135554g, sell price was 230850 - so far that's 95k profit on the two.  I still have a raptor listed for 142k gold - it'll sell eventually.

And that's what came home to me... on this new server if an item is saleable then it "will" sell and likely at the price you set.  I've gone from a server with less than 1000 active toons to one with over 20000.  I sold all 10 choppers within a few weeks, they flew off the shelves and for reasonable prices.  I'd thought 10 was an optimistic number as on the old server they'd languish for months on end - not so on Frostmourne.  My original store of 14 stacks of buckles have gone and I'm now crafting afresh.  Gems went like wildfire and mogging flipping has been fun and profitable.

Some interesting things about making it to the mill again on Frostmourne:

• I'm selling gems where the competition is posting at less then 10g for buyout (around 195g).  I can only surmise that I have Blizz's dodgy basic interface to thank.  It happens regularily.
• I've bought some herbs to transmute green gems to blues but apart from that everything I've sold is what I brought with me which was prospected from 6 bank tabs of pyrite ore.
• I've not entered the epic gem market at all.
• Mogging flipping is great fun.  I buy blue and epic weapons only for less than 200g and post for 1500g.  They move along nicely.  I make sure only to buy weapons that are rare and "look" interesting.  Remember, people are mogging to make their toons unique - trying to sell a look that is prevalent on the AH is not going to get you far.
• Glyph competition is fierce - I only really glyphed when I wanted to get the last few thou towards cap - getting about 3k a day from this when actively glyphing (ie, 2 posts a day).

Stay liquid guys,


Mogul.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 3

Olla – how 4.3 working out for you guys. I’ve not had a lot of time over the last few days to jump in but when I was on totally loved transmogging my astonishingly ugly DK epic two hander look to a very simple 5g green from the AH – take that crazy WoW art!

Now for the third instalment of this series.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 3

WWCND?

Do ‘some’ hard things
The best games, the ones you remember are the ones that excited and challenged you. Find something that is going to be difficult to accomplish and take a run at it. It could be anything? One of my toons is in a great gulid that primarily PVEs. I’m considering trying to mobilise at least a number of guildies to get some premades going to capitalise on the new conquest point changes. There’s some interest but it’ll be hard work to get it going and make it self-sustaining. That’s why if I manage it, it’ll be fun.

Don’t chase achievements
When achievements first came out everyone in my guild started chasing them. We were a hardmode 10-man guild and the general thought was that the points you got for achievements would (to be announced at a future date) provide some form of benefit in game, something the raid group could leverage off. We weren’t alone in this, everyone thought that would be the case. In actual fact achievement points provide no benefit other than distinguishing you from your fellow players. They are purely for ePeen and seem more self-flagellating than any other element of the game.

Summing up
Relax! Take a step back. So much of the angst I read about when people quit the game seems to be related to both a level of frustration with the xpac roundabout (now the patch roundabout) and an incapacity to monitor and restrict their own time spent playing the game. Fair enough, the first is just plain annoying and the second for most people is a learned skill (it certain was/still is for me). Remember that this is a game and while most games have an ending WoW, by design, doesn’t. You need to provide your own endpoint.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 2

Hi folks – below is part 2 of this series but a little something about patch 4.3, which dropped this morning, before I get going. Chaos orbs are currently tumbling onto the server like so many over-ripe plums, sugary sweet from been kept in storage for so long and needing to be eaten soon. But hold off a little. Currently on Frostmourne there are 600 auctions up with the buy price dropping already from 325g each to just under 200g each. I’ve heard reports from other servers that orbs are as low as 100g. The stockpile of these items could be huge indeed – personally I’ll be waiting until the orbs on server hit 100g or less before buying up a few stacks. A reasonable loss could still be made buying at these prices but not a total bath.

Now onto the post.

how to enjoy playing WoW - part 2

Keep it simple

Log on – log off
Try this: log in to WoW with something you want to do, something discrete with a fixed end point. If you’re levelling it could be gaining a level, if you’re PVPing it could be doing one BG (okay, maybe two), if you’re PVEing it could be doing an instance. Once you’ve completed this task hearth back to the inn and log out from WoW. Now, go do something else. You’ve had a nice time playing the game and stopped playing before you get frustrated and begin trolling /2. Playing this game in short bursts keeps it, and you, fresh.

Don’t be leet
You want a miserable time? Then focus totally on one element of the game for an entire xPac (ie, raid progression or dare I say it… gold making. No wait, I don’t dare ; ) The cutting edge in this game is where the hardcore meme says you need to be. Leet also comes with a social obligation – if your leet mates are doing something you will have to as well. Before you know it your time is not your own and the time you spend is based upon someone else’s “WoW view”, not yours. I’m not saying don’t do hard things (see post tomorrow) but whilst hard can be fun don’t burn your precious time for leetness unless you’re really enjoying yourself.

Keep it simple
Do one thing at a time. I’m levelling my priest at the moment and it’s a bunch of fun. I love learning the new skill, both the getting of it and the exercising of it. Doing one thing and focussing on it provides a beginning, middle and end to a process. Flipping from toon to toon is not restful and will likely decrease your enjoyment.

Last part of this post incoming tomorrow folks.

Stay liquid,


Mogul.

30. how to enjoy playing WoW - part 1

As time has gone by I’ve become increasingly phlegmatic about this game called WoW. Below are a bunch of ideas as to how to enjoy WoW. The intention is not that you do them all at the same time; many are contradictory if taken together. They’re simply a bunch of things that I’ve thought about as I tailor the way I play this game to counteract the built-in methodologies that Blizzard employs to keep you burning your RL time on their game and correspondingly keep your wallet open and your sub active.

In order not to crit you for 9000 with a wall-o-text this post is in three parts.

Stop it before you go blind
Counterintuitively, one of the best things you can do to enjoy WoW is to stop playing it! WoW is designed to get you to sub each month and keep you playing repetitively, reinforcing the habit. As such like many MMOs it employs various techniques to keep you in; large MMOs are not always working in your interests. Take a month off and see what else is happening in your life. At the very least you should be able to monitor and control the amount of time you spend and keep it to a level that’s fun. Grinding anything for 10 hours at a time is ‘not’ fun.

Don’t grind (and the exception: grind when the grinding’s good)
WoW is a grinding game. Everything is set up to entice you to carry out actions on a daily basis. But doing the same things on a daily basis, especially when you may not enjoy them is not called a game, it’s called work. Grind if you think the reward is good and worth it but don’t simply move from one mindless grind to another.

Try new stuff
Try different specs, modes of play (pve/pvp) – work to the strengths of the game. Try not to get hung up on ‘perfecting’ your art. Blizzard deliberately ‘unperfects’ your art at each xPac (and recently at each patch) so perfectionism in WoW is a losing game. Wow is large, complex and pretty interesting, built to try to meet the needs of as many players as possible so launch into it and try something new!

More tomorrow folks.

: )


Mogul.

29. update update update...

Olla folks!

Here we go:

Gold
I’ve sold one of my Raptor mounts I bought for 80K… for 142K, giving me a 55K gold profit.
I’m buying all the reasonably priced mats I can for the crafting pvp armor with the upcoming patch.
I’ve stopped selling glyphs on the new server – I’ll tell you why later, but basically it’s a lifestyle choice.
My store of pets, bought for a max price of around 2K each, continue to sell on this large server for around the 4K mark.
All ten of my choppers I brought to the new server have sold putting about 165K back into my pockets – should have made more but I had thought I’d be struggling to move ten.
The gem market is dead on server with blues going for less than 5g in some instances – I’m posting but not competitively, holding back to see what joy the patch brings.
I’ve become a flipper in the pet market, best flip so far was for 6K on a Disgusting Oozling – I’m also flipping regular vanity pets; big server numbers mean that competition occasionally drops blue pets down to around the 1500-1800g level. I pick up two or three at a time when this happens.
I’ve been playing around in the transmog market, buying up anything interesting in the less than 300g market (unless it’s a really good deal). We have a single poster who is capping and regulating this market so I’m focusing on the rarer items to ensure exclusivity. I’m thinking of posting these in two bands, 750-1200g and 1000-1500g.

Toons
I levelled my hunter to 85, set up macros and keybinds and got him into resilience gear ready for 4.3.
I’ve topped out my lock for justice points and honour points ready for the new PVP season. It’s going to be a close match between him and my hunter as to who I preference; hunters are ‘fun’ in PVP with a lot of utility in the class.
I’m levelling my priest. It is a bunch of fun. I’ve got my priesty up to level 44 as I write this having levelled through instances as smite spec since level 36. This is the first time I’ve ever played heals and I’m finding it very rewarding. I’ve had only one wipe so far and liken this style of heals to kitty dps in terms of timing and managing cooldowns. Who’d have though I’d get into healing in such a big way. It’s fun to see all the old instances and one of the joys of levelling this way is you have great gear through drops whilst healing pugs which is unpredictable and fun.

Stay liquid folks,


M.

28. combats pets I’d like to see, in order of incredulousness

Run you fools!

Combat pets are on the way and that got me thinking, what new pets would I really like to see going at it?  The answer is below placed, as promised, in order of incredulousness:

Tiny t-rex – I don’t know why… wouldn’t ‘you’ like a Tiny T-Rex? You’re a hunter and have the TCG Savage Raptor mount and your T-rex pet, now you just need a tiny T-Rex pet.

Wriggling bag – every now and then some 'thing' escapes and crawls to join the fray

Hairless cat – comes with definite Mr Bigglesworth overtones

Helper monkey – an archaeology pet, has wings ala Wicked Witch of the West monkey army and a little cap - only... it's NOT helping!

Piranha – it runs on stubby little legs and when within 10 yards of a water body dives in and a red mist rises in the water ala Borean Tundra cooking quest.

Balloon animal – 5 different types of balloon animal, can try for a different type every 10 minutes, animation has character making little squealing rubber sounds and crafting animation.

: )


M.

27. 2012 is the new 1985

2012 is so 1985

Giant pandas? Really Blizz?!

I actually laughed out loud when I read this. My interwebz reading is often focussed on gold making and sometimes I miss this kind of information. I am mildly surprised that the prospect of giant panda bears doing Kung Fu (no doubt sporting a Jack Black-ish persona in an astonishingly similar manner to recent celluloid) evaded my notice but there you are.

Soo… nerd rage abounds over the announcement. Stalwarts believe that this is a bridge too far in terms of game lore. I’m assuming that these same folks were not keen on giant blue space goats falling from the skies during BC. : )

For myself I’ve never played a goat, they’re hokey and odd, but I love that they’re around and I love that the pandas are coming to join us (welcome panda bothers and sisters, the bamboo’s over there…) – you’re telling me that large hard-drinking and eating rolly polly teddy bears are joining the game? Great! I may even play one. Vive la différence!

And the other thing that I like from my Blizzcon reading… ? War with the horde! Whacking the horde is going to again come back into vogue (although for some of us it never really went out of vogue) and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t think it’ll take any concrete form – evidence suggests that there’ll be no new world PVP zone ala Halaa, Wintergrasp or Tol Barad but as a meme I’m all for the spice it’ll inject into Alliance/Horde relations.

Now, onto this post’s title and the graphic above. Back in 1985 TSM brought out Oriental Adventures. I was a keen AD&Der at that stage (yes kids, gather round and hear a tale from the days of yore… ) and we were all interested in something very new: the prospect of taking the gaming system we knew and loved and converting it to something that was unfamiliar and fascinating. There were new weapons, new classes, new locations and a new concept called honour. The very differentness of Oriental Adventures was what drew us to it. Campaigns were written by friends where ‘oriental’ met the standard western milieu and were great fun. The out of place hero in the new locale is very contemporary, just think Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon. ; )

Mist of Pandaria and Oriental Adventures for me juxtapose quite neatly. MoP is very ‘different’ to the WoW we are familiar with: it introduces, amongst other things, unarmed combat (although I think Brewmasters use polearms, details are a bit sketchy as yet), healing through combat and of course large panda bears. In the long term though as future xpacs roll out it will become simply part of the levelling experience and an added layer of complexity to the game. It won’t break anything as WoW is an evolving beast, much as early dice rolling games such as AD&D were plus we’re talking unfamiliar and fascinating folks which is always a drawcard for peeps who like MMOs. Reactionaries may game quit over this but if they do it’s a mark of a woodenness that WoW, as a game, can probably afford to loose.

Stay liquid guys,

M.

26. you can't take it with you

Wanna bet!

The move is made folks.  : )  I've brought five toons over to Frostmourne and let me tell you it's great!  There are folks dueling outside SW, both AHs are veritable hubs of activity and there are over 30k auctions up at any one time.  I can tell already that I've made a loss on a bunch of things that I had little choice but to convert my gold into on Thaurissan but there's items that'll draw a good profit as well.

I'm apping for a good PVP guild which hopefully I'll get into as I'm keen to get into some RBGs but mostly just loving being on a server which is so vibrant; I was able to get my bank guild sorted from some helpful guys in the human starting zone.  An extremely different experience from what I've been used to on Thaurissan where everything had to be done the hard way.

I've been out to Tol Barad to do the dailies to get a feel for the world(ish) PVP and had the odd experience of the Horde quietly turning the other cheek as they got on with their dailies.  On Thaurissan the general rule was to get in hard and often as you knew anyone you turned your back on would be back later with friends looking for the Alli 'rare spawn'.  Here I was questing alongside other Alliance - unheard of!  I actually had the opportunity to take a few Horde down but didn't - without the huge faction imbalance it felt odd.  I'll have to get used to that.

So here's a look at what I came over with.  You'll notice that only four toons are shown - got to keep a little mystery  : )

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

25. a poet by any other name...

...would smell as sweet!

I had 15K gold left over the 250k and decided to put it to good use - the poets of Thaurissan delivered.  A four-line poem was required with prizes of 5k for the winner, 2k for second and 1k for third.  I also did four honourable mentions for 250g each.


This was an absolute blast and really got me thinking about what sort of experiences we make for ourselves in MMOs.  Anyway, now's not the time for philosophising, onto the poems.


The winning entry was posted by Savahna and had a great visual quality to it and made me laugh  : )

Second prize was Yokono's effort - nicely done!

Lastly this gem from Victim:

This comp was a great way for me to remember this server where I had so much fun raiding and PVPing.  A great bunch of creative, fun people.

One last one before I go - loved this:

That was a bunch of fun - thanks guys!

Stay liquid (but only to 250K),

Mogul.

24. you are here!

50k to go!

Five of my guys are going across to the new server so that’s 250K liquid I can take. Recent purchases were another truckload of ore and herbs for buckles, chant mats and glyphs and many portable holes for my first alt on the new server. Once I get down to the 250K I’ll have effectively purchased, shuffled and crafted my way through 900,000 gold which let me tell you was much harder than making it ; )

I can’t believe I’m now so close; the short booms and long gluts for resources on this server have been annoying.

But I’m almost ready to move!

Just in time too… on average we now have about 4000 auctions up at any time. This is dismal and a clear indicator that bad things are happening to the faction population-wise. For reference Frostmourne has over 30,000 auctions up at any one time. A key indicator that I scan for is the price drop across the first page when searching highest price – on Thaurissan it falls to 1500g items with the first 50.

More on why people stay on this type of server and why Blizzard lets them later.

Stay (limitedly) liquid folks,


M.

23. what does a gbank tab of pyrite ore look like?

This!

The above screeny shows what happens when you prospect an entire gbank tab of pyrite ore.

That’s right folks, with their general “non”-epicness now revealed I’m deciding what to do with 12243 pyrite ores.

Now I know you’re wondering how much gold I invested into this pile? Hard to say but I started a long time ago and usually bought only when ore was low. I also remember getting a pretty good run on 150-200 stacks around the 45g mark. So taking all this into account I’m thinking about 45k gold to get my many stacks which is an average stack cost of 75g max.

The interesting question is what am I going to do with it now? Turning some ore into pyrium bars is a definite. But really, 50 stacks of pyrium is probably enough. Following this I’ll have 10243 pyrite ore to prospect into gems and volatile earths. Stats for ore and bars, based upon the prospecting above, will be 925 rares, 2028 greens and 4087 volatile earths. So 612 ore stacks gets turned into 168 gem stacks and 50 stacks of pyrium bars.

Future of the gem market
Bang – gems gems gems will hit the market when 4.3 drops. Why then? Cause most people will hold onto their ore in the vain hope that Blizz might change their minds and make epics drop from ore after all.

They won’t. Winding the process for epic gems back to BC is not an accident. It’s an attempt to maintain or possibly save the future of raiding for this game. Blizz has decided that there are now some things you simply won’t have unless you raid. I’m cool with that as the vast majority of players do not raid in any regular manner. It’s interesting from a social perspective but I’ll save that post for another time.

I will however wait until the PTR drops to prospect my ore… just to be sure. ; )

So pyrite stockpiles will be prospected and rares will flood the market having a reasonable but not huge take-up in the short term. Prices will drop, potentially plunge for some time. Expect to see cut rares as low as 30g a piece for at least a month or two. Some greens will be transmuted causing Heartblossom to spike early but the rest will be turned to dusts and essences via DEing.

Uses of volatile earth
Have a look here for uses of volatile earth.  I’ll be focussing on some bloodthirsty gear, BS gear, chants, smelting hardened Elementium and BS weapons. Even with this though there’s going to be an aweful lot left over. Prices are going to tank – maybe as low as 2g per.

Chant mats post 4.3
Will be plentiful and cheap but limited by items such as heavenly shards and maelstroms. I’m thinking we’ll be seeing dusts and essences tank at about one month after 4.3 with a slight rise over time following before they tank fully at the end of the xpac. Just remember that if it involves dusts there’ll be a far greater capacity for most people to make it and prices will drop.  Heavenly shards and maelstroms will likely rise in value as cheap mats moves new crafters towards trying their hand in the chants game.

My strategy
I’m not buying any more volatile earths. O.O There will be a glut on the market for earths and a drop in BS gear and the like that relies upon them. After a review of vol earths I’m not even sure that buying up what gets dropped on the market will be a good idea.

I’m going to trade all the JC tokens I’ve been putting together in preparation for epic recipes in for blue recipes.

I’m going to create a dedicated jewel alt, equip them with some big bags and keep 10off each cut on hand, posting morning and evening 3 per.

I’ll be shuffling green gems to dusts and essences and creating scrolls for every enchant I can and posting 5off on my jewellery alt.

Then I’ll be laughing at that hilarious punchline with the rest of you. It’s my hope that Blizz knew all along that pyrite was ‘never’ going to be prospectable for epics. I for one would not hold it against them if they came out and admitted it.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

22. transmogs, blogs and addons... oh my

Here's a few sites I'm following at the moment as I look for some great gear for my lock and mage:

1. The Visual Roleplay Gearlist - great site with a variety of 'looks';
2. Disenchanting Azeroth - simply brilliant, I can feel the science seeping into my transmog experience + there are a bunch of very elegant pictographs (Really hunny, I'm just reading the articles).  Just weapons so far it seems;
3. Wowpedia Tier Set Lookalikes - as it says tier lookalikes and where to find them;
4. MogIT is an addon that seems to tick all the boxes (not road tested it yet but looks great) - this is where I found it originally;
5. Disiplinary Action on lock, mage and priest sets;
6. Gnome Warlords - a fantastic site for early tier gear pictures.  Not updated since 2007 but if you're a gnome mage, rogue, warrior or lock looking for pics of tiers 1 to 6 then this site is for you!

Now what I personally will be going for in terms of armour is anyone's guess at this stage. Certainly on my current server there's little chance of getting in on one of the older raids. I can grind for the weapon I want though...

May I introduce Spellfire Longsword which drops from Mennu in the slave pens. I cannot wait to see what this sword does with Power Torrent on it.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

21. pet swap

I love my vanity pets! My old main has 100+ and is still collecting. Not having all my furry, scaly, feathered, shelled, gaseous, globulous friends on my new main is quite regrettable.

What can I say, I think the little guys are fun and I love to go quest for something new to bond with. This in mind it won’t come as a surprise to your folk that one thing I have not done and will not do is buy the micro-transaction pets.

In all there are eight micro-transaction pets I could purchase at this time. Had I grabbed them all Blizz would be $110 better off and I would have eight new shinies (and two freaky furry toys for the kids). It’s better this way though, cause these guys would only made me angry. WoW pet collecting from the outset has always been about venturing into the world to find your new friends. There are guides to read and websites to survey; devotees take the quest for acquisition very seriously indeed.

So along with sparkle ponies and disco lions, no pretend pets for me…

In direct contradiction to the above then here's an idea.  One thing I might buy from Blizz as a microtransaction, one purchase I’d strongly consider making would be a bulk pet xfer. All my pets from my old main xferred to my new main so that I could enjoy them. Those old buddies that ventured with me in the past could now gain a new lease on life accompanying another member of my crew.

That would be cool!

But what do you think? Would you pay to xfer your pets en masse to a new toon, or would depriving your old main of all those pets they worked so hard for seem somehow unfair?

: )


M.

20. have choppers will travel

Hey guess what – my Alliance Vanguard rep grind is almost over. Soon I’ll be making choppers as part of my server exit strategy. Thing is they’re resource-hungry buggers.

For 1 chopper:
12 titansteel bars – (3 titanium bars + eternal shad/fire/earth)
40 handfuls of cobalt bolts
2 arctic fur
1 salvaged iron golem parts
8 goblin machined pistons
1 elementium-plated exhaust pipe

For 10 choppers:
120 titansteel Bars which is 120/120/120 eternal shad/earth/fire and 360 titanium bars
400 handfuls of cobalt bolts
20 arctic fur
10 salvaged iron golem parts (vendor Roxi Ramrocket – K3 – 3000g) 30000g
80 goblin machined pistons (vendor Roxi Ramrocket – K3 – 1000g) 80000g
10 elementium-plated exhaust pipes (Roxi Ramrocket – K3 – 1500g) 15000g

I have enough of saronite ore to make 178 bars of titanium (yes, I did indeed have 2800 saronite ore - been holding it in one of the gbanks since the end of Wrath) and I have another 120 or so actual bars (again, someone offloaded very cheap titanium stacks at that time) so likely about 60 to find there. I’m short on the shadow eternals by about 40 but have heaps of Earth bought for JC/DEing. Fire is also good.

2 cobalt bars give 1-3 bolts so conservatively it’s about 3 stacks of bars per chopper or 30 stacks which I almost have. It’s an easy farm though as no one is looking for these materials any more so the rest shouldn’t be a problem.
I have about 8 Arctic furs and they’re tradeable for borean leather so and I’ve got more than enough to meet the requirement.
Then I’m down to the cost of 10 choppers worth of vendor mats which is 125000g.

I’ll keep one for Shortcut of course, he’s earned it. : )

It will be strange to see the stockpile I’ve held from Wrath for so long disappear to be replaced by shiny choppers. I’ll have so much room!

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

19. transmogrifying, epic gems and the long awaited punchline

Olla compadres!

Blizz has been spouting off about the goodness that will be 4.3 and I for one am excited! The option of transmogrifying my lock’s appearance is something I’m looking forward to with great anticipation. I have a feeling it’s only going to be tier gear we’ll be able to refashion to, which will be a shame, but I’ll still take that as a great step forward. I wonder whether you’ll only be able to transmogrify to gear you officially have the levels to wear or whether we’ll see level-one mages in T11?! I hafta say I’d be interested in starting at T1 and working my way up. : )

A side note: will this new age of transmogrification usher in druid forms with armour? I think not. bearform druid sitting in a field here>

Now, if 4.3 really does represent the ultimate or even the penultimate content patch before an xpac release next year then epic gems must surely be just around the corner. Either this patch or the next.

In Wrath epic recipes were available via the same tokens blue recipes were purchasable with. JCers everywhere have been saving up their tokens in the hope that the model will repeat itself. The previous model to Wrath was the placement of recipes within a large new quest hub. As we’ve just had one of those (a large new quest hub that is) I think there’s a likeliness that the hording of tokens we’ve all been doing may come to fruition.

Personally I’ve got over three Gbank tabs loaded with pyrite ore stacks so you can bet I’ll be glued to the patch notes as they appear in more detail. Many of those stacks were bought at about 100g each but many also were purchased for as low as 40g a stack (thanks be to you O now-banned-AH-stacking botters). So I’ve got an investment there of around 25K which conservatively, when epics drop, could garner around 100K.

This is of course the punchline. Pyrite is commonly known in RL as Fool’s Gold. So if this is really a gigantic joke perpetrated by Blizz to catch AH-players out then we’re in for a laugh soon I think.

Time will tell my friends.

; )


M.

18. Didn't you see the sign that said...

 "DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON!?"

When I was younger and at the beginning of my gaming journey I played AD&D. Those are my roots. Myself and a Group of guys (usually about five of us including the DM) would spend our Saturday nights rolling dice and living in a fantasy world populated by intrigue, danger and fast food. The rest of the weeknights would be spend thinking furiously about what our characters might get up to on Saturday next. It was wonderful!

When I was older I found WoW. During BC there was limited automation. Guild members talked over chat but then moved through the world together to meet at the summoning stone. Trade chat was full of people putting together PUGs or looking for crafters. Guilds were smaller then, your Tribe knew each other pretty well and cooperated to get things done. The intimacy of a Group was not there but so many other things were: community, shared vision, shared fortunes, a sense of identity, the thrill of venturing out into the world together to accomplish tasks. Good times.

WoW has now entered a more Global era. Players queue randomly (and anonymously) for greater rewards in 5-mans and PVP; portals whip us around the world without us ever having to touch down. It’s definitely easier. In this Global phase guilds have morphed into bulky entities as the guild XP-chase necessitates larger player pools to build levels quickly. This has produced an ennui in casual players, a certain dulling of focus and lack of connectedness. These current times are a little directionless, but with the ramping up of dailies and achievements a little too led, consequently… not so much fun.

This post sounds like a lament but it isn’t meant to be. I still enjoy this game but I’m finding there are fewer ‘reasons’ for me to play. I think this is down to simply not feeling I’m actually achieving anything. We appear to have moved from an environment where just getting around the world represented an achievement in itself to one where things have been made so easy that activities feel like pointless busy work.

What’s your take on this evolution? Time for Blizz to take a few steps back to create something not quite so easy?

Oh and… Hi! Nice to be back.

: )

Mogul.

on hiatus

Hi there folks, wowmogul is going on holiday.

In my absence there will be nobody at the helm so please stand clear as wowmogul careens around the blogosphere, scraping the other blogs' paintwork and generally creating mischief and mayhem.  I’ll be putting together posts during my downtime (including a juicy 3-parter I’m currently working on) and may even lurk comment-wise around some of my fave WoW gold blogs.

Where am I going? Nowhere! : ) I’m simply unplugging while I prioritise some RL projects for the next 6 weeks or so.

Stay liquid folks,

Mogul.

17. If Blizz made a 200K gold sink what would it be?

It’s a bus!

Where does it come from?

Gnomes… and goblins! Who else? Up in the hills above Gnomeregan there’s a workshop full of amazing gizmos and gadgets. Those who make the pilgrimage find a strange workshop, formed by an enterprising gnome called Screwtight Pinchpurse. Under his leadership a crew of fiscally minded short folk put together all manner of machinery – for a price. You must have 100K gold in your bags just to get in the door for a look.  The style?  Need you ask – steampunk for sure.

Who’s on the bus?
1) The Party Guy – a hard-drinking dwarf who sells questionable drinks and dances with the patrons when the bus stops
2) The Party Girl – a belf lass who sells ‘cakes’, glow sticks and bottled water
3) The Mech(anic) – a gnome BS and general merchant
4) The Bus driver – tauren with an attitude, or course
5) The Raid Group – that’s you and your mates, the bus holds up to 20 toons

Buses abilities:
1) Backfire – the bus gives an enormous backfire stunning all in the vicinity for 3 seconds
2) Rocket boost – 5 second speed boost
3) Anti-personnel ram – surprise your friends, pummel your enemies

Drive options:
1) Self drive – where you take the wheel, careful though, this thing is long and hard to maneuver
2) Bus Driver – available at any time the bus is on a known road, select the city you want to go to and bus drives to the gates

This bus would fast become the ‘must have’ piece of equipment for all serious PVP guilds as fleets of these suckers (well, given the price tag maybe not fleets…) could be seen pulling into the opposing faction’s cities like that campervan charge in Independence Day.

How about you guys?  Got any ideas for other 200K gold sinks?

: )


Mogul.

16. feral provides interwebs with body of work

I’m levelling Stormbear to cap and given my server part of my prep involves getting the best PVP setup I can, stam patching all gear up the wahzoo, chanting weapons, gemming where I can, flasks, bandages... Everything the best that gold can buy. Part of my process is also revisiting my UI, macros, spec and playstyle. It’s been a long time since my druid was out in the world and a lot’s changed.

How do I know a lot has changed?

Hengest!

To put it bluntly I’d been doing it wrong. I had a standard PVP spec that was not capitalising on the awesome power of kitty bleeds. I also had not been using my class’s capacity to change forms, staying cat for far too long. The last time I seriously PVPd was arena somewhere around T6/T7. Back then kitties ‘never’ moved out of cat form. BGs and the class are different these days.

I’m paraphrasing the videos here and likely not that well so watch them:

This one is the feral PVP starter and it’s great! Spec, glyphs, stats to promote – wonderful.

This one is the start of what is effectively a BG training series where Hengest basically just takes you along for the ride while he runs through a BG. There is a whole series of these. They’re terrific for a feral to watch but are excellent also from the POV of BG stratergy. Highly recommended.

There are a bunch of these that I’m enjoying working through.

Great stuff!

: )


M.

15. wake up man I’m flipping ya squirrels

I thought a brief word on monitoring could be useful.

For a long time now I’ve been buying mechanical squirrels. I buy them for 9g95s and sell them for 59g.  I sell squirrels quite regularly.

There’s only one guy on server who posts them (apart from myself) and for as long as I can remember when he posts, I’ve been buying him out.

Does he know that I’m doing this? Has he checked on the pet market and seen that I have five of everything up, selling vendor pets from 35g up to 200g? I’m thinking not. I’m thinking that he’s got a process going and is not checking the market to see what is selling and who is posting against him.

So what can you do to keep an eye on things?

1. If you notice a sudden buying streak on your stock then check to see who’s buying. Glyphers will be used to this as buying out the competition happens every now and then, especially when sale prices get close to mat prices.  Other folks may not.
2. If you’re using one of the autoposting addons (well, as auto as they get these days) then make sure you have your viewing tab set to the standard auction tab when you post. This way you’ll see the competitions’ posts as you go through and know how you're placed in the market.
3. Make sure that at regular intervals you check through your Zeroauctions (or the like) posting list and make sure your price ranges are still competitive with the market.  For example you may be selling a hard-to-procure item for way less then the market is willing to pay.  As easy way to do this is to set aside some time and check using the Enhancements and Consumables tabs on the Undermine Journal.

Don't let someone flip your 'squirrels'!

Stay liquid folks,


M.

14. Free Thaurissan Alliance Xfers!

… are never going to happen!

Bwah ha ha haaa! Apologies readers, I couldn’t resist that one.

Patch 4.2 has dropped and a new quest hub has opened. Word is it’ll take the conscientious amongst us a number of weeks to open all vendors. On the 10 to 1 Thaurissan server that equals alt-levelling time as the horde swarm over quest givers like grammar pedants crusading against exclamation marks.

So I’m dusting off my druid and getting feral.

I did cruise down to the Thaurissan forums for a serve of server xfer angst. I was not disappointed. Here’s my take on our specific issue…

When you transfer servers Blizzard gets money. When you transfer faction Blizzard gets money. When Blizzard gives you a free transfer off this rock (or others onto it), Blizzard gets no money. Simple as that.

Blizz have tried to rectify this server’s imbalance before – I know, I moved three toons from Aman’thul back in the day and it was fun while it lasted. Seriously major PVE guilds arrived on server, outgearing the unprogressed horde toons sizably and pwning followed. This energized the horde and they came to the party and much fun PVP ensued. In those days we could even form raids such as For the Alliance. But that’s all over now. The experiment didn’t work and Blizz can happily sit back and say they’ve done their part. Yes, Rift is showing them up with their free xfer policy but I doubt they’re losing sleep over it.

So it comes down to what sort of play experience you want. Personally I love my roving PVP representative status on Thaurissan but know I’ll eventually leave. Reason? Good world PVP but not enough AH PVP. And when I do go it’ll be the logistics of taking over 1 million gold off server rather than the actual money for transferring my five 81+s which will be the interesting conundrum.

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

13. Mogul gets published - 1 million gold cap interview

Hi folks - if you've not graced these pages before then welcome, if you have then welcome back!  : )

A quick howdy today to let you all know that the good folks of Warcraft Econ have posted my million gold cap interview.  This makes me a very happy Mogul!

Stay liquid folks,


Mogul.

12. wastelands of the post-immediate past

I’ve been running my lock through Northrend recently, grinding for chopper rep, and have been amazed at the ghost town it’s become. Dalaran, following Cata release, was still pumping adventurers into Northrend. Now it’s amazing quiet – everywhere else on the continent… quieter still. Questing through Howling Fjord I can go hours without spotting any toon of either faction.

It’s got me thinking about what happens in these spaces when the active toons leave.

The first response is nothing! If an electronic tree falls in an electronic forest surely no one actually hears it?! But that’s not true, NPCs continue to path, nodes sit ready for farmers, battles rage, music plays… the rain falls. These environments which we took such enjoyment in from the time of their xpac until the time of the next xpac continue to live their own inner lives. But we now pass them by.

So what, everything passes? Are we happy with this? If I had my way, if there was a single zone that could be reinvigorated and made relevant again to my game play there’s no question which one it would be – it’s Zangarmarsh. Visually stunning, beautiful soundtrack, some interesting rep grinds, but most of all the warm fuzzy feelings I get when I think back on my time spent there.

At the time this zone was active I was a member of a 25-man raid guild, but I couldn’t raid due to RL time restraints so was PVPing on my druid and fishing. : ) I was just discovering the fun of making WoW gold with my primary efforts being in gathering (ore and skinning) and realising the great profits that were in buff foods. I’d tune into vent and listen to the SSC or BT raid and quietly pass the time fishing and watching the active life of the server pass me by. The lights, the sounds, occasional player interactions, the gentle lapping of the water upon the purple-green shore were engaging and enjoyable.

Memories that now languish, a little melancholy even perhaps… It would seem that though the beauty of the place was important to my experience of it what was more important was my experience of my online community at that moment in time. Perhaps this is why, in the age of the mega guilds and Thaurissan alliance’s ongoing collapse, I have less emotional connection to current zones in game. The community is simply not there.

Perhaps Blizzard is wise in the way they move new content to geographically new areas. They give players a chance to begin again in an area with no associations and no memories; a chance to rise phoenix-like onto a new MMO stage should they wish it.

So a question for readers to ponder: is it new experiences and content we chase in WoW or is it the connection to other gamers like ourselves, to people?


Mogul.

11. tournament pets pay off - 25k day!

Howdy folks,

Back in November last year I talked about tournament pets.  Way back then I was picking these fellahs up for around 500g.  Here's a screenie of yesterday's sales:

I love it when this sort of thing happens - that's 5 pets sold at 3799g each.  I can't remember what I paid for all these now but I don't think I went over a 1000g.  That's a minimum 14K profit.

So my first 25K day, I'm not even sure that this happened during Glyphmas!  Pretty happy with this outcome.

: )

Stay liquid folks,

M.

10. Filthy Lucre

High drama in the ‘commercial’ gold blogging community.

The attack and the counter-attack. Neither poster covers themselves in glory.

Blogging in its purest sense is about recording your experiences and thoughts, for personal insight and to share them with others. Both of these sites are not what I’d call blogs – they share information on a daily basis in order to generate a higher number of people to sell gold guides and related services to. They propagate a general theme of community involvement but I think you’d have to look pretty hard in the opposite direction not to see the business edge these fellahs are pursuing.

What shows through is that this spat is personal and determinedly public. The attempt from both sides is to name and shame, to alienate each respective site from the gold blogging ‘community’.

The direction this squabbling has taken makes me wonder just how much money is actually in the selling of guides and associated product and how much, to paraphrase Jamie Wednesday, the ‘commercial’ gold blogging community “eats itself”.

Beware young bloggers… beware.

; )


M.