Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog

Reader Mail: Building a Trade Guild

2010-03-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

I received an email recently from a reader who asks how one might run a guild with a focus on professions. At first I kind of blew off this idea as too fringe to work, but after mulling over a bit I thought of some ways it could be done. My initial reaction was that it would have to wait until Cataclysm and all of the incoming guild changes that will presumably make players more loyal to their

New Tailoring Recipe for 3.3.3

2010-03-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was hanging out on the Test Realm (aka checking old recipes for errors) when I happened to stop by the Frozen Orb dude again. Seems they finally got that Tailoring recipe posted on him, so I took a pic for you guys:Also, I noticed they had fixed the Frost Lotus to cost 1 Frozen Orb instead of 3 gold and change. It looks like the Frost Lotus thing is a done deal, since they didn't

More Goodies from 3.3.3

2010-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

News keeps rolling in from Patch 3.3.3 and today we get a few interesting tidbits for crafters. First is the awesome Engineering change:The Pet Bombling and Lil' Smoky non-combat pets are no longer Bind-on-Pickup.How cool is that??? I know some Engineers will be miffed because their gizmatronic pets are no longer unique, but I say bring on the cash cow! I'd rather have money-generating goods

The Sky is Falling!

2010-02-19T23:31:00.001-08:00

Ok, maybe it's not that earth-shattering :) But we got some pretty huge news today didn't we? For those of you who haven't seen the patch notes for 3.3.3, serious changes are on the horizon for crafters. Most major crafting cooldowns are being removed: titansteel/spellweave/ebonweave/moonshroud. For now the cooldown is still active on epic gem transmutes and still being shared with eternal

Crafting at the Lunar Festival

2010-02-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

Once again the Lunar Festival is dragging us to the far corners of Azeroth in search of ancient cows... or something like that. Let's not forget that the Lunar Festival is also a source of new recipes for Engineers and Tailors. If you haven't gotten these recipes in previous years, now is the time to fill out your collection. There are a whopping 14 recipes for Engineers and 2 recipes for

It Must Be Done

2010-02-12T19:31:00.000-08:00

Back in August, we learned that the proposed new title for Cataclysm professions was to be "Illustrious". I said at the time time that this was lame and I still stand by that. For one, I feel it's a somewhat obscure term that won't be meaningful to some players. My other issue with it stems from my perception that it just isn't terribly awe-inspiring. The definition for illustrious on

Raid Recipes FTW!

2010-02-09T10:13:00.000-08:00

I've been percolating on this idea for awhile now, but I wanted to go ahead and share my experiences. A couple of months ago I bought the recipe for Moonshadow Armguards on the Auction House. Someone had posted it for like 500g (I don't remember exactly what I paid, but it was cheap). I was wearing the 213 badge bracers at the time, so these crafted ones would be a pretty good upgrade for me.

Old World Recipe Collection

2010-01-27T10:24:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since we've tackled the subject of older recipes here at Crafter's Tome. Since we've got some time in the lull before Cataclysm, the coming months are a good time to consider collecting projects. One of the things we've been doing in my guild is "fun runs" to old dungeons. This is a great way to get those achievements you didn't get credit for at the end of Burning Crusade.

Crafting Preview for Star Trek Online

2010-01-27T09:50:00.000-08:00

I've been reviewing Star Trek Online for the past couple of weeks, after receiving a beta code from Curse.com. In my last post I mentioned a few first impressions of the game, so I'll be attempting to expand on that here. Sadly, I was not able to access any crafting content during my time in the beta test. That's not for lack of trying, there just wasn't anything available to me. So I'm just

Still Here!

2010-01-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

I know there's been a bit of a lag since my last post... there's just not a whole lot going on in the crafting world right now! I started to tackle another of my MMO reviews (for Warhammer) and then got sidetracked by an invite to the open beta for Star Trek. Since STO is supposed to go live in a few weeks, I decided to switch over to that and get a review done in time for the big debut. So

TradeTrak Updated for Patch 3.3!

2010-01-05T00:10:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I spent some of my free time working on our 3.3 data :) All of our recipes should be current now, plus some random errors and updates submitted by our users were also fixed. In addition, we compiled all of our 3.3 data into TradeTrak so you can access it in-game. Unfortunately WoWInterface has not posted our new file yet, but the latest version is now

Icecrown Citadel for Rep

2009-12-21T12:22:00.001-08:00

I'm sure some of you have witnessed the same phenomenon as I have, but for those who haven't I thought I'd share my experiences. Over the past week I've seen a number of guild-based and pug-based ICC farming groups starting up. There are some pretty great items on the Ashen Verdict vendor, including most of the new recipes from Patch 3.3. The main thing folks seem to be focused on are the

Winter's Veil for Crafters

2009-12-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

Winter Veil has started this year and while most of it revolves around achievements and quests, there are a few items that crafters may want to pick up. Some of these recipes will arrive in the mail including a Cooking recipe, a Leatherworking recipe and a Tailoring recipe. These items are needed to complete achievements, so making them will help you take advantage of the Winter Veil frenzy.

JC Daily Quest Change in 3.3

2009-12-15T11:27:00.000-08:00

This is just a small thing, but I haven't seen mention of it elsewhere so I thought I'd write it up. For those of you who haven't noticed, the drop requirement for the Glowing Ivory Figurine has been modified. Previously, you had to kill Shoveltusks to get the ivory. Now you can also get the ivory by killing mammoths. I have to say, this has typically been my least favorite JC daily. There

Patch 3.3 is here and we are on it!

2009-12-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've updated Crafter's Tome with all the 3.3 recipes that went live today. This includes the faction recipes for The Ashen Verdict. Some of the information isn't complete or confirmed yet, but I went ahead and posted what I had.I'll be working on a 3.3 TradeTrak update this week and will post again when that is ready. Thanks to everyone who sent me an

EVE Online Crafting Review

2009-12-04T20:12:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a hard review for me. EVE Online is radically different from other MMO games I've played. As such, it's very difficult to compare it to other MMOs in a meaningful fashion. One might say this major departure in gaming style is a good thing. For me I'm afraid that really wasn't the case. I was very curious about it, and also somewhat intimidated about certain portions of

What's up with the Ashen Verdict?

2009-11-30T00:18:00.000-08:00

I popped over to the PTR last week to check out the latest build. I keep hoping to see new crafted goodies, or if nothing else find the Ashen Verdict quartermaster. Sadly I flew all over Icecrown Citadel and still didn't find a vendor of any kind. And now, the blue button of Dev harrassment is gone. This means they are no longer accepting in-game feedback and presumably testing is winding

Giving Thanks for EZ-Mode Cooking!

2009-11-23T01:30:00.000-08:00

You may have seen on WoWHead and other sites that the new Pilgrim's Bounty event allows you to level your Cooking skill quickly and on-the-cheap. Since this holiday only lasts a week, I went ahead and tested this out to see if it's legit. I used my new Hordie Death Knight, who had a Cooking skill of 6. She got a few points doing those Day of the Dead quests, what can I say :P It was the best

Kalu'ak Fishing Derby from the Test Realm

2009-11-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend I participated in the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby. I went last week too - but the quest NPC was bugged and I don't think anyone was able to complete it. It appears to be functional now, so I went ahead and put together a walk-thru for you guys. Here is me in Dalaran, waiting for the contest to start -->You can see that the NPC is a walrus from the Kalu'ak faction. He was here when I

New 3.3 Glyphs

2009-11-02T11:42:00.001-08:00

Yes, I've been a bit remiss in posting new content from the Test Realms. This is mostly because new items have been dribbling in, and I wanted to hold off until there was more to share. Since that hasn't happened yet, I'm just going to run with what I have. I really don't know if there will be more goodies anyway.So far all I've really seen are these three glyphs, which were also posted on

Desperately Seeking Cataclysm

2009-10-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

Since August, there's been a flurry of speculation about the release date of Cataclysm which refuses to die down. From what I understand, most of the guesses are fueled by player need. This is comical to me, for players to base development estimates on what "should" happen to minimize their boredom. I think we all know by now that Blizzard does not skimp on features to make a random deadline,

Why is Arctic Fur on the Vendor?

2009-10-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

One of the newest changes on the Test Realm is the addition of Arctic Fur on the Leather Trader in Dalaran, available for the price of 10 Heavy Borean Leather. I find this change a bit odd because I didn't realize that Arctic Fur had become scarce. This is primarily because I'm not actually using my Leatherworking skill, which I guess is saying something. For a while I tried making leg armor,

Lord of the Rings Online Crafting Review

2009-10-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

My second foray into crafting systems led me to Lord of the Rings Online. This game had the second highest votes in our MMO poll, so I downloaded a copy and signed up for a trial account. This game also has strong visual appeal (as did Aion) and immediately has the extra fun factor of being set in a known world. For players who are huge LOTR fanbois I'm sure this is a major selling point. As

Neo-Crafting: Guilds & Social Structures

2009-10-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

We haven't talked much about crafting and it's role in the community, so in this post I'm going to tackle that. Many people view crafting as part of the social side of MMO games, under the assumption that crafters tend to be more social and enjoy the networking aspect of building communities. This is probably true to a certain extent, but not necessarily descriptive of all crafters. Personally

Patch 3.3 Status

2009-10-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

The new Test Realm went up last week with 3.3 content and unfortunately I've not posted anything from it. I just wanted to let you all know that I have characters on the PTR and I have been hunting for new stuff. I checked the Leather, Blacksmith and Tailoring trainers and have seen no new recipes. I also checked a few of the trade vendors in Dalaran and didn't see anything that looked new.