WoW Jones

Tip: How to Make Money and Level Enchanting

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:38:00 +0000

Most of us that have leveled a toon or two (or more) to 70 knows that there are some quests out there that you simply did not do. If you are one of the lucky ones that leveled your toon after the big experience boost from 20-60, you probably have more unfinished quests out there. Well, now you are 70 and all of those unfinished quests are a breeze to complete and since you no longer need experience, the monetary reward for those quests has grown.

Well, guess what? Aside from free semi-enlarged monetary reward, you are still welcome to choose many of the fine item rewards for these quests. These quest items can then be Disenchanted for Enchanting Materials (or Mats). Now, I am not suggesting that you go back to Elwynn Forest or Durotar and start doing the quests out there. Low-level enchanting mats are generally very affordable in volume. But around the time you start requiring Vision Dust and Greater Mystic Essence, you can start questing around and getting those free items to DE along with some free money. You can't go wrong with FREE.

In a single day of questing (in the pre-Outlands world), I made about 135 gold and leveled my Enchanting a good 40 points. Not to mention the reputation you will earn, which is making a HUGE comeback in Wrath of the Lich King. Think about it. Happy Questing!

The true cost of your profession (enchanting)

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:38:00 +0000

Okay. The enchanting plot is ready. Refer to my original posting on tailoring on how to read these plots.

1). Plot 1, cost in gp plotted against skill points gained.
2). Running total of all GP spent to skill point 375
Observations:
much more expensive than tailoring (at least 500 GP more expensive). There are two maximums: around 300 and around 375. I also found that there is a huge jump in cost whenever you have to create an new rod.

Gem Cutting - A One-Click Business

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:43:00 +0000

Without a doubt, the most lucrative profession in the World of Warcraft is Jewelcrafting. Aside from the stuff you can make, gem-cutting is a one-click business that can make you tons of money, but in order to do so, you need some key designs.

Gemcutting requires no special sub-materials (with the exception of the Purified Shadow Pearl, which requires a Purified Draeneic Water, which can be purchased in just about any city in Outlands. You just need to have the standard Jewelcrafting tools and well, a Gem.

Below is a list of gem-cutting recipes that make a lot of money. (Click the links to see where they drop or can be bought.)

1. Design: Delicate Living Ruby - +6 Agility

2. Design: Balanced Nightseye - +8 Attack Power and +6 Stamina

3. Design: Glowing Nightseye - +5 Spell Damage and +6 Stamina

4. Design: Purified Shadowpearl - +9 Healing and +4 Spirit

5. Design: Shifting Nightseye - +4 Agility and +6 Stamina

6. Design: Solid Star of Elune - +12 Stamina

7. Design: Teardrop Living Ruby - +18 Healing

8. Design: Wicked Noble Topaz - +4 Critical Strike Rating and +8 Attack Power

9. Design: Smooth Dawnstone - +8 Critical Strike Rating

10. Design: Mystic Dawnstone - +8 Resilience Rating

You can also find a list of all Jewelcrafting recipes by clicking Here.

Now, most Jewecrafters with these cuts and other recipes will make about 5% of their money just by cutting gems and accepting tips for services rendered. The real money is made by what I like to call BCR, which is "Buy - Cut - Re-list". You see, most people that sell rare gems (uncut) in the Auction House sell them for less than the cut gems. So, as a Jewelcrafter, you should constantly keep watch on rare gems in the AH, buy those that are listed under the cut price, and then cut it and re-list it.

The hardest part about this concept is just getting the popular cuts. They tend to sell for 1,000+ gold in the Ah and sometimes as much as 2,000 or more gold. Your other option is to run the instances they drop in over, and Over, and OVER! If you're lucky, you'll get one on the first run. Happy Farming!

The true cost of your profession (tailoring)

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Cross posted from my blog

We all know professions are expensive. Exactly how expensive? Wowwiki says it will cost you about 1200-1500 to skill up to 375 on tailoring. I was hoping I can find something that will give me a break down on how the money would be spent. To my disappointment this data was not readily available. So I decided to rely on myself and plot out the relationship between gold spent and skill gained in the tailoring profession.

Here is how I calculated the base cost. 1). I used WOWWiki's powerleveling guide as the base to plot out how someone would power level from level 0-375. 2). I used WOWhead to look up cost of each components needed to get the skill ups (price is current as of 6/30/08). 3). I plotted skill gain against cost required for leveling up on a XY plot.

This guide is for calculating material cost only. I didn't take into account the money necessary to train on the recipes needed. My eventual goal is to compare resource required to power level all professions. In this regard I imagine the recipe costs will even itself out across professions.

Here is a plot of gold cost against 1-375 tailoring. X axis is skill point, Y axis is cost in gold pieces.

The most striking thing about this graph is that tailoring is incrediblely inexpensive to level if you are only shooting for 360. As depicted by the figure above. The cost of the last 10 points is a whooping 1100 which is majority of the power leveling cost. If you remove the last data point and graph again you will get something like this.
Observe they are serveral dips in the cost structures corresponding to where you can turn raw cloth pieces into bolts of cloth.

If you start graphing running total of tailoring skills against total money spent up to the point you get something like this.

A total of 1300 GP to powerlevel tailoring from 1-375 which is pretty close to what WOWwiki had suggested. Now let's observe the difference with that last data point removed.
Essentially if you will only need to spend about 220 to power level to 360. A bargain comparing to a profession like enchanting which I plan to cover next.

Looking into the future: planning for WOTLK

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:17:00 +0000

Although this is not a 100% money making post there is enough money related issue I feel warranted to post on WOW Jones.

Here are some suggestions on what to do before the release of WOTLK.

Get all alts to level 70
Coming release of WOTLK most of the classes will see dramatic changes the way TBC did to the original WOW. Some classes will be nerfed, some classes will be buffed. You will never know which class you will enjoy playing coming the expansion. It doesn't hurt to have a few 70s in the pocket so you can pick the ones to take to 80. Currently I have a level 70 priest for healing. A level 62 hunter for DPS and a level 43 warrior which I plan to use for tanking. I plan to get as many of them to 70 as possible before the release. Adding the free death knight I think I will have all the corners covered coming release day.

Clean out your bank and bags
If you are like me, you will be carrying a full bank + bag of stuff. Some are junk, some are treasures, some are stuff with sentimental values only to you. Coming release day a lot of the treasure you collect will become junk overnight. For example, mooncloth's market disappeared overnight when TBC replaced it with primal mooncloth. A lot of "valuable" you have in the bank will go the same route when expansion gets released. Can any one say primal life for 1 GP? Liquidate them before every one else start dumping them.

Level up your crafting professions
You have probably been too busy leveling up your character and have neglected your secondary professions. This is a excellent time to level them up. Current secondary profession cap is 375, WOTLK will likely to revise this upward. It will be even more painful if you have to level it up from 0 coming expansion.

If you are still raiding, stop.
Your gear will be obsoleted coming WOTLK. You may be able to use your T4 for another 4-5 levels but new drops and quest items in WOTLK will surely push them out. Raiding is expensive and time consuming. Your time can be better spend leveling up another character. I however isn't oppose to running 5-men instances for team building purpose.

Cash is king
There is no way to predicate what will be hot what will be not. Save up cash, do some dailies. They will be inflation coming WOTLK but gold is the universal currency. I would say 2000-3000 GP is a well round number to have. Don't spend money on things that won't be useful coming WOTLK. Example, my priest desperately wanted to have the primal mooncloth set, but I can't justify spending another 1200 GP for it when expansion is close at hand.

Make friends
Coming WOTLK new guilds will form, old ones will disband, new people will join the game. Right now is the perfect time to meet up with a group of new virtual friends who will be sticking with you coming WOTLK. Smaller guild will be in fashion again because any 10 men guild can see the end game content. People who hasn't left WOW right now are the ones who have long enough attention span to stick around with you coming expansion. Maybe you should be "LF 9 More friends for WOTLK?" in /1?

That is all the rants I have time for. Remember, change is the only constant.

George Carlin passed away at the age of 71.

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:57:00 +0000

R. I. P.

May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008

No matter who you are, George Carlin has

at some point in your life, made you laugh.

His eye-opening, comedic genius will surely be missed.

Aldor Envy - It's not the size that matters, its the necklace.

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:23:00 +0000

Many of you should have noticed a recent imbalance in the cost of reputation-yielding items for Aldor over those for the Scryers faction. This is due to the Shattered Sun Pendant of Might which is available to anyone who is Exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive.

You see, if you are a member of the Aldor faction, the neck piece has a chance to proc, granting the wearer an additional 200 Attack Power, which when scaled with talents and abilities can produce allot more damage than the 333-367 Arcane damage granted to those of the Scryers faction.

When this was discovered by a Hunter friend of mine, he immediately began to grind out Venom Sacks, Marks of Sargeras and Fel Armaments and he is the first person I know that went from being exalted with Scryers to being exalted with the Aldor. That's not to say it hasn't been done before, he's just the first person that I know who has done it. The idea of him being out in Terokkar Forest in full epic gear just running around slaughtering every spider he saw had us all laughing for a good while, but we stopped and marvelled when he achieved his goal.

Anyway, what I am getting at is that farming Marks of Kil'Jaeden, Marks of Sargeras and Fel Armaments can make you an excellent amount of money in the Auction House, and it's easy farming. So from the inhabitants of Kil'sorrow in Nagrand to the Eclipsions of Shadowmoon Valley, grab your weapons and get to farming and you will find it to be quite lucrative.

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:37:00 +0000

Imagine going to bed and waking up the next morning to find that your WoW Toon gathered up 5 stacks of Heavy Clefthoof Leather and 25 stacks of Knothide Leather, not to mention acquiring some gold and a few good loot drops. Too good to be true you say? Well, in a sense you are right, but it does exist.

Blizzard Entertainment recently banned a huge number of WoW Accounts because they were found to be using Glider, a program which according to their website ... "plays your World of Warcraft character for you, the way you want it. It grinds, it loots, it skins, it heals, it even farms soul shards... without you."

Blizzard Entertainment is currently in the middle of a lawsuit against the makers of Glider, MDY Industries, claiming that it violates their EULA (End-User License Agreement). They are seeking injunctive and monetary damages, essentially saying that they want to stop production of Glider. They claim that it allows players to cheat, giving them an unfair advantage over players who do not use automation software.

Now I personally do not see anything wrong with the application. It doesn't alter Blizzard's source code by any means. It does not PvP for you with skills beyond human capability. All it does is grind, farm and gather for you. I would love to have a program to do my farming while I sleep so I could dedicate my play time to raiding dungeons and actually be able to afford my repair bills.

How do you feel about it?

Dailies Plague the WoW Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:53:00 +0000

Most people who play World of Warcraft have recently noticed a huge flux in their server's economy. The general Auction House price for consumables and materials have gone through the roof and it is making it very difficult for casual players to obtain enchants and crafted materials. What is the cause of this sudden global WoW inflation? Daily Quests.

Thanks to recent patches and updates, the amount of daily quests that can be completed, and the amount available have increased considerably with the patched extension known as the Isle of Quel'Danas and the new faction, The Shattered Sun Offensive.

As it stands now, you can make over 400 gold per day just doing daily quests. So, if you do your dailies every day of the week, that's over 2800 gold each week. That means that a level 70 toon can conceivably obtain their epic flying in a short two weeks of doing dailies. Not to mention that after you do get your epic flying skill, you can then do more dailies by completing the Netherwing Ledge dailies to obtain your Swift Netherdrake mount.

Now, since the daily quests are in every sense of the word, easy money, there is less of a need for people to farm. Less farmers equals less crops, or in the case of WoW, less materials. That means that the few people who stick to farming can basically name their price on the materials they sell or the items they have crafted. Since the patches, I have seen the price of most Elixirs go up a good 15-20 gold per stack (5) and Flasks go up as much as 10g each. Don't even ask about Enchanting materials. My goodness!

So, as Blizzard continues to make this game easier and easier and more casual-friendly, it appears that they had absolutely no foresight into the damage their on-the-fly redesigning would do to the existing environment. Typically classic of big business.

A couple of things...

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:14:00 +0000

#1 - Due to a recent SPAM attack on WoW Jones, I have enabled the Blogger option for a "word check" for all comments. I apologize for the annoyance of this comment traffic stop, but it makes things easier to moderate.

#2 - I have been on a small hiatus from WoW Jones because of a promotion and additional responsibilities at work. Those things have since reached a plateau and I am now acclamated in my new position, so.... I'M BACK!

#3 - A special thanks to Faradhim for keeping WoW Jones up and running in my absence. You rock!!!

Disenchanted for life

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:31:00 +0000

One of my lab mate had his car stolen last month. It was a really old beat up dodge. At the beginning I wasn't sure why anyone would want to steal such a beat up piece of *&.@. He explained it to me this way, people who stoles it probably aren't going to sell it as this, instead they will chop it up and sale it for parts. Ahh, that I can relate to, it is kinda like disenchanting.

Disenchanting transmutes any uncommon, rare and epic quality items into their magical elements (crystals, shards, essences and dusts). Disenchanting in WOW has became very popular and even profitable. When used correctly, disenchanting can be used as a gathering profession. In this article I will show how to make nice profits with just disenchanting.

First, let's us get some concepts out of the way. Disenchanting is a profession of averages. Since each item has certain chance to become a number of different components. The result from a single enchant is unpredictable. An example, if you disenchant a green piece of armor at level 20 (item level, not required to use level), there is 75% chance it will turn into 2-3 strange dust, 15% chance it will turn into 1-2 greater magic essence, and 5% chance it will turn into a small glimmering shard. Although it is not possible to accurately predicate what a single level 20 green armor will turn into, if you disenchant 100 pieces of the exact armor the law of averages will give you a close approximation of the percentage listed. And your profit margin should be calculated by doing large number of disenchants and not rely on luck for 1 or 2 disenchants.

The best profession to pair with disenchanting is tailoring and leatherworking. Both these professions give you access to large and reliable amount of green items to disenchant.

In order to make this activity profitable the very first thing you need is to figure out how much it cost to make a particular item and how much the component materials can be sold on AH. Typically the first few items within craftable item level bracket will require the least amount of material to make and is the best candidate for disenchanting. I will use the example of White Bandit Mask. The material costs to make this item are as follows: 1 Bolt of Mageweave, 1 Vial of Bleach, and 1 Bolt of Heavy Silken Thread. The total price to make 1 white bandit's mask is about 1.2 GP. If you disenchant the mask you will 76% times get 2-5 vision dusts, 19% times 1-2 lesser nether essences and 5% times small radiant shard. If you happen to be very unlucky and only get 2 vision dust you are not going to break even for that enchant. But if you hit 2 lesser nether essences you will be netting more than 4 GP in return. If you turns out white bandit mask by the dozens, the laws of average guarantees you will make money in the long run. This technique works especially well where a large amount of enchanting materials are needed for people that power levels. Namely any dusts up to levels of 50.

Tallstalks are incredibly useful mushrooms

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:28:00 +0000

The sporelings are a peaceful mushroom loving races that makes their home in western bogs of Zangarmarsh. In order to exchange goods and services from the Sporeggar, quartermaster Mycah takes Glowcaps you gather from around Zangarmarsh. Glowcaps are gathered much like herbs but you don't need an herb gathering skill. After you have them in your inventory you can use them just like gold to exchange to Sporeggar specific items.

You can make an excellent profit from one of the the most worth while high level cooking recipe here. What I am talking about is Sporeling Snack! This recipe requires 310 coking and can be bought for 2 glowcaps. The AH value for this recipe is a staggering 10GP. Just imagine gathering every two glowcaps can net you 10 GP!

Even if you don't want to resale this recipe for profit the Sporeling Snack it makes sales well by its own right. The only food buff for pets in the game. This snack is often thought after by hunters and warlocks alike. The average b/o price for each piece of cooked snack is 25 silver while the strange spores it is made from will only cost you 15 silver. That is 66% of pure profit people!

Making money with Minipets

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:25:00 +0000

Yesterday Children's week started. For those of you who are uninitiated in the art of mini-pet collection, this is a huge thing for a lot of players. A segment of WOW population has no other end game goals other than collecting cute minipets (campanions). If you want to learn a little bit more about pet collecting you can get a lot great information on this website.

Since this is a money making article I will show you how some minipets can bringing in handsome profits.

The following is a small list of mini pets that you can buy at vendors (possibly in limited supply) and sold for much higher price on AH.

Ancona Chicken Sold for 1G by Magus Tirth - Thousand Needles, AH price is 4G
Black Kingsnake; Brown Snake; Brown Snake Sold for 50S by Xan'tish - Orgrimmar, AH price is 3 - 3.5G
Blue Dragonhawk Hatchling Sold for 10G by Dealer Rashaad - Netherstorm, AH price is 20G
Blue Moth Sold for 50S by Sixx - The Exodar, AH price is 2-3G
Brown Prairie Dog Sold for 50 by Halpa - Thunder Bluff, AH price is 4
Brown Rabbit Sold for 10G by Dealer Rashaad - Netherstorm, AH price is 15G
Cockatiel Sold for 40S by Narkk - Stranglethorn Vale, AH price is 2G
Cockroach Sold for 50C by Jeremiah Payson - Undercity; Dealer Rashaad - Netherstorm, AH price is 2.5G
Golden, Red, Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling sold for 50S by Jilanne - Eversong Woods, AH price is 5G
Great Horned Owl, Hawk Owl, sold for 50S by Shylenai - Teldrassil, AH price is 2.5G

There are a lot more. But you get the idea. Whenever there is a need in WOW. Profit is usually handsome.

The butterfly transformation.

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:19:00 +0000

A miniature guide on how to turn Felcloth to Mooncloth.

Mooncloth is the primary reagents for high level tailoring recipes (both blue and purple).These sell for as high as 20 GP each piece in AH and can only be created by a tailor. I have compiled the following information to help you make a profit using this transformation.

What do I need as ingredients?

Tailoring skill of at least 250.
Recipe of Pattern: Mooncloth.
2 Pieces of Felcloth.
A moon well

Where do I get Pattern: Mooncloth?

Sold by Qia from Winterspring, cost is 1 gp 20 silver. This is a limited supply pattern.

Where do I get Felcloth?

This is a rare drop from most of the daemons level 52-62. The best spot to farm these are: Legashi Satyr encampments in Azshara; Jadefire camp in Felwood, and Darkwhisper Gorge in Winterspring (Warning: Darkwhisper Gorge is surrounded by elite 59-62s daemons, if you are not at least level 66 or above don’t attempt to farm here). The drop rat is fairly low (4-6%). I typically can get 1 drop every 10-15 minutes in Azshara. Your mileage may vary. It is also possible to farm in AH. But be prepared to pay as high as 2-3 GP for each piece.

Where do I find a Moonwell?

These are all over the place, some locations to get started are: Ashenvale, Felwood, Silithus, Feralas, and Zangarmarsh.

Other thoughts:

This transformation has a cool down timer of 4 days which means you will only be able to process one transformation every 96 hours. If you specialize in “Mooncloth tailoring” you can transform two for the same cool down period. The skill is orange at 250, yellow at 290 and green at 305. It is like having a free skill up in tailoring every 4 days.

Shattering for Sheckles: Courtesy of the SSO

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Thanks to Patch 2.4, if you are an Enchanter and you can stomach the idea of grinding for more Reputation with yet another faction, get your butt over to The Isle of Quel'Thalas and get cracking on Daily Quests and Magister's Terrace runs. Why?

Well, the good people at the Shattered Sun Offensive will recognize your Honored status and offer you the opportunity to purchase Formula: Void Shatter. This will give you the ability to shatter a Void Crystal into two (2) Large Prismatic Shards, which are far more common as a needed material in enchanting recipes. Unfortunately, all of the raid items from loot are high-level Epics and always disenchant for Void Crystals, leaving you with a shortage of Large Prismatic Shards.

So, where Void Crystals sell for 12-14 gold and Large Prismatic Shards sell for 24-26 gold on most servers, even the less math-savvy person can determine that this could be a very profitable recipe to learn. Now, keep in mind, it does come with a 23-hour cool down period, but still, 48-52 gold per day is a heck of allot better than 24-28 gold per day. Wouldn't you agree?

Trade Networking: The Strength in Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:27:00 +0000

Have you ever asked a friend if they knew someone who could cut a certain gem, craft a certain item or who may have loose mats that they would be willing to sell at a friend price? Have you ever asked for an enchantment from an enchanter you know and they said, "I don't have that recipe but ask ______, I know they can do it"? Have you ever sent anyone to a friend for a trade service, bringing them extra business? Well, all of that is a part of Trade Networking.

The process of Trade Networking first begins on the Guild level. That is to say that most of your guild members will have a variety of Trade Skills. Some may have the same profession(s) as you and others may be completely different, but that shouldn't stop you from interfacing with their network as well as your fellow tradesmen. In fact, most professions have recipes that require items from other professions, so its always good to know crafters from all schools of design. You never know when you will need that Fel Iron Casing, Heavy Knothide Leather, Iron Buckle or some other component made by a trade that differs from your own.

A huge chunk of business that most trades get stem from referrals, word of mouth. Now, if you have a strong trade network at your disposal, their customers will often become your customers and vice-versa. So, if someone in your network is a high-level Leatherworker and they have a couple of people who always go to them for their Nethercobra Leg Armor Kits when they get new leggings, chances are they will at some point want enchants if you are an enchanter, gems if you are a Jewelcrafter etc, and when that need arises and they ask someone in your network if they "know someone", chances are that business is coming your way. You in turn should return the favor when your loyal customers inquire about trades other than your own.

Along with networking comes the need for professional courtesy. This is very important because in larger networks you will have multiple people of the same trade. The highest form of courtesy you can pay someone of the same trade in your network is by not under-cutting their prices in the Auction House and not under-cutting their asking price of specific craftables. So if you are an Engineer and you see another engineer selling a Gyro-balanced Khorium Destroyer in the AH for 300g, by all means, do not under-cut their price. If for some reason you do not agree with their price, communicate with them. Ask them how they can afford to sell something for less than what you would normally sell it for. Perhaps you can get them to come up to your price bracket, or maybe they know a trick that will help you cut your cost and therefore, meet their asking price.

A strong network can make amazing amounts of gold for everyone as long as all of its members stay lawful, diligent and loyal to one another. Always remember, there is strength in numbers and profit in partnership.

Run! It is a bear's market

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:03:00 +0000

Buried deep inside the 2.4 patch notes are two new recipes for aspiring cooks.

“Charred Bear Kabobs and Juicy Bear Burgers, can be purchased from either Bale (Horde) or Malygen (Alliance) in Felwood. These recipes requires 250 skill to learn, and are created from meat found on level 48-56 bears. This will aid players in leveling up their cooking skill to 300 without fishing.”

Since 2.4 patch went live these two recipes have been selling like hot cakes in AH. Not only do these recipes help leveling cooking from 250 to 300, they are also the only recipes in the game that raises spell damage and attack power respectively.

These recipes can be bought for a little bit over a GP each at Bloodvenom Post (horde) or Talonbranch Glade (Alliance). I have been selling them at AH for 8 GP buy out. I have made close to 100 GP flipping these in the past weekend.

The Bear Flank which is required to make both of these recipes also sells well. These can be farmed in Western Plagueland, Felwood or Feralas. The drop rates are very decent from large bears.

Patch Go Live, Market Go BOOM!

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:40:00 +0000

Patch 2.4 went live on Tuesday, March 25 2008. Its release brought some major changes that directly affect the crafting industry as well as the Auction House itself. Lets examine some of these changes, and as always, all of the current patch notes can be found here.

One of the biggest changes to come with the 2.4 patch is both Primal Nethers and Nether Vortexes no longer being BoP (Bind on Pick-up). Within the first 30 minutes of the patch live, Primal Nethers were listed in the AH for as much as 200g and Nether Vortexes were going for over 600g. Thanks to these prices, people were actually handing in their Heroic badges for Nethers and Vortexes to sell. Crazy? Perhaps. But profitable none the less.

Alchemists are rejoicing. Not only did they increase your chances of picking a Fel Lotus, but they also replaced Black Lotus with Fel Lotus on the skinning tables for all of Outlands. This means that when you kill the Tree Guardians in Skettis, loot them and then "herbalize" them, you have a good chance to get Fel Lotus with your plant loot. For those who do not know, Fel Lotus are a key ingredient in all Flasks made by alchemists. Also, the alchemist's ability to Transmute Arcanite has been made cool down-free. This should make blacksmiths and engineers very happy.

Jewelcrafters have been given the ability to turn green gems (Deep Periodots, Golden Draenites, etc.) into a random blue gem (Talasite. Dawnstone, etc.). It requires 3 of each green gem-type and like most things with Blizzard, comes with a hefty 23-hour cool-down. Though with the cooldown, you will not be a gem-making machine, you can still use this to help get over those dry spells of getting gems when mining or prospecting.

After obtaining the required reputation with the Shattered Sun Offensive, Enchanters will have the ability to shatter Void Crystals into 3 Large Prismatic Shards. This is a very big deal. Not only will 3 Large Prismatic Shards sell for more than 1 Void Crystal on any server, there are far more enchanting recipes that require them. Now the question remains... will the price go down?

Well, with these changes now in place, it will be interesting to see how the Auction House fares. Will they change the market for the better or for the worst? What do you think?

Resale limited supply recipes for fun and profit

noreply@blogger.com (Faradhim) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:40:00 +0000

Making money in the world of Azeroth is not easy. Hours of grinding (killing mobs for loot) is generally needed before you can make a gold piece at lower levels. One of relative easy and profitable activity to make ends meet is to resale limited supply recipes. To do this requires a good understanding of your server's economy as well as inherent value in each item you resale. Limited supply recipes are recipes, plans, schematics which vendors sale in limited quantities. This means after a particular item is purchased by a player it disappears from the vendor's inventory until restocked (typically a few hours). You can recognize limited supply recipes by the (1) in next to the item of sale.

This activity is fruitful because players who frequents auction house want the instant gratification of getting their hands on a new recipes and unwilling to hunt for them (it is also possible most people simply don't understand how these type of things work). This is even true when the asking price is much higher than the buying price. In the above example, the design of pedant of agate shield sales for 14 silver and 25 copper in limited supply at Freewind Trade Post in thousand needles. The resale value of the same design in the local auction house commanded as high as 8 gold pieces plus minus 2 gold pieces SD (standard deviation) in the past three days. It is not hard to see a handsome profit can be made flipping this design to the auction house.

I have compiled the following hints on how to successfully use this tactic to make money:

Have auctioneer add-on installed and do full scans at least once every two days. This add-on will give you an exact market snap-shot on how much each item is worth.
Travel far and wide, even it means above your level. Stick to the main road and discover as many fly point as possible.
Visit all vendors at a newly discovered location. Note the limited supply recipes at each location.
Stock these recipes (regardless you can use them or not) as your budget allows and sale them when they are in short supply in your auction house.
Sit back and enjoy your profit.

WoW's Oldest Profession...?

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:00:00 +0000

Ever heard of the saying, "the oldest profession"? Well, if you have, it refers to prostitution. Lucky for us, the game mechanics of WoW do not allow for prostitutes to take your hard earned gold. Well, technically that's true.

You see, even the most seasoned players of WoW confirm that one of the first ways they were told to make money was to make a female alt, get her to a major city, and showcase her assets by stripping her down and dancing in the middle of town square. Believe it or not, if you put enough time in, you will begin to earn tips. Yep, you heard me right. Your virtual stripper will start earning you moolah!

I've known about this but have never tried it myself. I know a few people who have and one in particular, who got his level 11 Female Draenei to Stormwind, got on top of the fountain and danced him(her)self 63 gold richer. He did suggest to anyone that does this, that they do their best to keep the illusion of if there was a "real" female behind the keyboard. Dishonest? Yes, but if you are so naive to think that every virtual stripper you see in WoW is being controlled by an actual female, you deserve to have your money taken by farce. (That was not a typo, I really did mean by farce. LOL)

After I thought about this for a bit last night, I decided to take the time to ask some random folks on my server, both male and female (toons), what race had the sexiest female skin and if they were all lined up naked, who would you most likely give your tip to? Here are the results: (I polled 30 on the Alliance side and 30 on the Horde side.)

Female Draenei ______ 29 (17 Alliance votes, 12 Horde votes)
Female Blood Elf ______ 16 (3 Alliance votes, 13 Horde votes)
Female Human _______ 8 (7 Alliance votes, 1 Horde vote)
Female Night Elf ______ 3 ( 3 Alliance votes, 0 Horde votes)
Female Troll _________ 2 (0 Alliance votes, 2 Horde votes)
Female Tauren _______ 2 (0 Alliance votes, 2 Horde votes)

So there you have it. The Draenei are the #1 choice for purveying adult entertainment in the WoW Universe. The Draenei were followed by the Blood Elves, Humans, Night Elves, Trolls and eventually, the Tauren. Surprisingly, Gnomes, Dwarves, Undead and Orcs were not even a factor.

(NOTE: Most people who had additional comments thought that Blood Elf women were the "hottest", but that their dance in no way compared to the seductive motion of the Female Draenei, to which they often referred to as "the stripper dance".)

Unfortunately, I could not find enough real female players to further my survey into the opposite sex. So, if you are female and you are reading this, please let me know of which race you would most likely respond to monetarily, if you had seen them flaunting their God-given-goods in the middle of town?

WoW Jones is Recruiting

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:32:00 +0000

Wow Jones is now recruiting for additional contributors. If you have extensive knowledge on way to earn money in the World of Warcraft, we want YOU. With your help, we can continue to produce a free resource for World of Warcraft players across the world.

WoW Jones would also like to wish its former contributor and co-founder, One Among Many, as she embarks on her life journey, leaving behind good times and good memories to those who had the opportunity to play with her. We hope that her real life experiences treat her well, and that she will always have her friends back in the virtual world, if ever she decides to pop in and say hello.

For those of you who may be interested in becoming a contributing factor here on WoW Jones, please write a short article that is World of Warcraft related but regarding any topic of yiour chosing and send your piece to messyah29@gmail.com.

Patch 2.4 - Profession Changes on the Horizon

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Be prepared! This is a rant as much as it is informative. You have been warned. :-)

There are quite a few changes planned to the professions of the World of Warcraft in the upcoming 2.4 Patch release. Some appear to me minor changes and corrections while others look as if they could make a huge impact on their respective trade.

You can always check the official Test Realm (PTR) Patch Notes by clicking here, and the official current patch notes by clicking here.

Let's examine the changes to come...

Added several new tradeskill items to the new Sunwell Daily faction vendor:

Enchanting recipe to shatter a Void Crystal into two Large Prismatic Shards.
Enchanting recipe to increase Defense Rating by 15 for chest armor.
Three jewelcrafting recipes to cut gems with spell haste from Dawnstones, Talasite, and noble Topaz.
Two new meta gem recipes.

All of these new recipes require certain levels of reputation to be purchased and/or learned. Once again, it appears that Leatherworking, Blacksmithing and Alchemy are getting the short end of the stick when it comes to new rep-based recipes. I had made a comment to a friend of mine, who coincidentally is a Jewelcrafter on his main, that both Jewelcrafters and Engineers were the Shamans and the Warlocks of the trade community. Of course he took offence to it, but it really is the case. Tailors have a 4-day cooldown on some of the stuff they have to make. Alchemists have a 1-day cooldown on their Transmutes, and yet both Engineers and Jewelcrafters can make as many of whatever they want, whenever they want. Once again, Blizztard shows they have no sense of balance in design.

Though the best thing listed there is the recipe for Enchanters to make Void Crystals into Large Prismatic Shards. Most enchants still require LPS's but when your Level 70 and raiding in 25-man instances, you will be seriously hard-pressed to ever see another LPS from a disenchant.

Alchemy

Gift of Arthas now stacks to 20.
Transmute Arcanite no longer has a cooldown.

Does anyone even use Arcanite anymore? LOL - I know that Blacksmiths use it for keys, and Engineers have a few things that use it as a component, but how come Blizzard never made "Arcanite Recipes", such as an arcanite armor set, arcanite weapons, etc. As far as the stacking of the Gift of Arthas potions, I guess that's a good thing. Less bag space is always better.

Cooking

Broiled Bloodfin now increases resistances to all schools of magic instead of increasing Stamina and Spirit.
New recipes, Charred Bear Kabobs and Juicy Bear Burgers, can be purchased from either Bale (Horde) or Malygen (Alliance) in Felwood. These recipes requires 250 skill to learn, and are created from meat found on level 48-56 bears. This will aid players in leveling up their cooking skill to 300 without fishing.

I'm glad to see that the WoW Gods continue to put effort into the wonderful world of cooking. I mean, nothing makes dealing with those annoying class-specific bugs and program flaws than a nice, new cooking recipe. I will be the first to tell you that Cooking should be leveled up by everyone. It becomes more and more essential the higher level you get, but seriously Blizzard, there are far greater demons that need banishing!

Enchanting

Reduced the materials required for Enchant Shield – Resistance

I guess this is a good thing. My enchanting is not that high and even if it was, my enchanter is a Warlock and would not use a shield.

Engineering

Gagsprocket in Ratchet now sells the plans for the Minor Recombobulator.
Goblin Jumper Cables and Goblin Jumper Cables XL now display cooldown information in their tooltips.
Removed the level requirement for the Craftsman's Monocle.
The stun caused by engineering Bombs and Grenades is now considered an Incapacitate effect and uses the appropriate Incapacitate diminishing returns.
Bomb and Grenades can now inflict damage to targets immune to Stun and Incapacitate effects.
A new recipe has been added for Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite, a cloth version of the Rocket Boots Xtreme.
This pattern drops from Mechano-Lord Capacitus. Rocket Boots Xtreme now have all their stat points allocated toward Attack Power, and will no longer have Stamina.
Rocket Boots Xtreme and Rocket Boots Xtreme Lite will cause players to drop a PvP flag if used while carrying one. (Warsong Gulch, Eye of the Storm, and Zangarmarsh)

The Craftsman's Monocle is a cloth head piece that gives 40 Armor and +15 Intellect, so those twinks that are (a) Engineers and (b) use Mana should be very happy. - As far as the other changes go, it does appear as though Blizzard put some thought into correcting a few errors, but they forgot to nerf the craftable T5+ and soon-to-be T6 helms. *grin*

Fishing

New Fishing Daily Quests! Visit the mysterious old man fishing at Silmyr Lake outside of Shattrath City to discover what treasures he has to offer.
Find Fish now correctly tracks Schools of Tastyfish and Muddy Churning Waters.
Feltail fishing nodes have been changed to Brackish Mixed Schools; they now produce mostly Golden Darters and some Feltail.

(See cooking.)

Herbalism

Ancient Lichen now has a chance to drop a Fel Lotus where it used to drop a piece of random green jewelry.
Black Lotus replaced by Fel Lotus in herbalism skinning tables for Outland creatures.
Increased the chance that Felweed, Dreaming Glory, Ragveil, and Flame Caps will contain a Fel Lotus.
Warp Splinter can now be skinned with Herbalism in heroic difficulty.

There are mixed emotions with these changes. For Alchemists, they are superb. Every flask that is made requires a Fel Lotus, and the only way to get a Fel Lotus was as a random drop from picking specific Outland plants, and let me tell you, the drop rate was horrible. Now, with these changes, Alchemists will be able to farm these elusive plants on a regular basis and supply the Auction House with an ample selection of Flasks for raiders and PvPers to shop from.

Now, on the other hand, those who have Herbalism as a gathering profession and are not alchemists are in fear that their business will plummet. Yes, currently you can get 20-50g for each Fel Lotus (depending on availability), and certainly that price will come down when they become more available, but that just means that you will have more to sell at a lower price and a balance should remain. Plus remember, you will always have the lazy to prey upon. LOL

Jewelcrafting

A new jewelcrafting recipe has been added to transform many green quality gems into a single random blue quality gem. This recipe is available from grandmaster jewelcrafting trainers.

Word is that you will need 3 of each green gem to make into 1 random blue gem. Sounds good, right? I mean, maybe even sounds amazing to JC's across WoW, but I have one serious question for Blizzard... WHERE IS THE COOLDOWN?!? Tailors have to wait 4 ***ing days for a piece of ***ing cloth and Alchemists have to wait 23 hours to make one crappy Primal, and you didn't think of putting a cooldown on something so lucrative as making blue ****ing gems?!? I seriously hope this is an oversight.

Leatherworking

Shadow Oil will now fit into Leatherworking Bags.

I am so glad. I was growing tired of hearing LW friend screaming about how Shadow Oil wouldn't go in their LW satchels. Now I can rest knowing their problems have been solved.

Mining

Increased the skill up potential for most smelting recipes.

I have to admit, this is a good change and it has been long past overdue. No more weeks of mining useless Dark Iron just to raise your skill.

Ok, glad I got all of that off my chest. I feel much better. How about you? :-)

GRATUITOUS MAXIMUS - Tipping for Services Rendered

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:17:00 +0000

I know that you have all seen messages such as "Opening lockboxes for tips" and "Free enchants with your mats, tips accepted but not necessary." How about when its someone you know? You know they have a particular recipe, pattern or whatever and you want something made. You hit the Auction House, buy all the mats you need and agree to meet them somewhere. Do you tip?

The answer is a resounding "YES." No matter what the situation is, you should always offer to tip. Whether it is a guildy, a real-life friend, or someone you have leveled with since level one. If they are providing a service for you, you should always offer to tip them. Now, if they are charging you for services rendered because they are supplying the materials, that is a different story.

Now, how much you tip is entirely up to you. I can, however guarantee you that if you tip a Level 70 player with 60 silver, you will not only get shunned by them, you will get shunned by the entire trade community after he puts it out in Trade Channel that you are a cheap bastard. Now, in most cases I am sure they are not expecting a 100 gold tip, but it should definitely be substantial enough that it was worth their while. I usually assess the general cost of the mats that person is providing, sum it all up and give them 35%-70% of that total, depending on the amount in question. If it is something that takes 5 leathers and 2 threads but usually sells in the Auction House for 45 gold, I won't be so cheap as to tip 35% of the cost of 5 leathers and 2 threads. That would label me a cheapskate and rightfully so.

My closest friends (in WoW and in real life who play WoW) and I often have an unspoken agreement. We essentially help one another out and simply don't charge or expect a tip because we share our trades to one another. If I need an armor kit made, it will be made and given to me and in return, I will provide that person with Flasks, Potions and/or Elixirs. In some cases, my trade items will be given to someone else who in turn is making something for the person that just helped me out. Trade networking is an easy way to keep the gold in people's pockets, but it is best practiced amongst friends and fellow guildies.

In short... DON'T BE CHEAP! Tip well, and future services will be provided with pleasure.

Raiding to Rags - The Battle of Raid-Induced Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Life after Level 70 can be a wild and rewarding ride. There is no greater feeling in this game than when your Raid Group drops a boss for the first time. Cheers fill the voice channel and happy expletives spam across the Raid chat channel. Sure, your team wiped on numerous attempts, but now you are victorious and let's not forget the first voice to call out, "OMG, look what dropped!" There is so much gratification to be found in seeing those Epic loot items, especially when it is something you yourself can use. But there are oh so many more considerations that come with the raiding territory.

For one, with Raiding comes Raiding Repair Bills and guess what? The better your gear gets, the more expensive it gets to keep it all nice and shiny-like. Being a leather wearer, I used to laugh at my plate-wearing friends because they would be shelling out 15-20 gold for repairs and I'd be in the 4-7 gold bracket. Well, now that I am fully epic-geared, my repairs have reached as high as 40 gold. Though, I still get to laugh because epic leather is still cheaper than epic plate. Ha ha!

On top of repair expenses, you have potions, elixirs, flasks, scrolls, well-fed foods, cloth (for bandages - yes they are essential in big raids), gems for your new gear, mats for the enchants you want bestowed upon your new digs, etc. In short, Raids are expensive, and in the fashion of true Progression, most of your time will be spent raiding and less time will go to farming, harvesting and ultimately, making money. So, what do you do?

Well, you need to assess how much time you have to play the game. Once you have done that, you need to schedule your earning time aside from your raid times. If you have a trade that makes you money, farm mats for that trade. If you make money by selling mats, harvest until your ears fall off and make the best of your time. You can also take the time to farm old-world instances for Twink items and enchanting mats.

Another very important way to make your money is doing Daily quests. When the 2.4 patch arrives, the amount of daily quests you can complete in one day will be raised to 25. This should allow for all of the Ogri'la, Skettis, Cooking and hopefully the daily quests that arrive with the birth of the Sunwell Plateau, the new 10 and 25-man raid instance. The current daily quests alone can yield up to 70-100 gold, possibly more if you include the heroic and non-heroic daily quests. But depending on your gear and what you use, that could barely cover the amount you spend on each raid, so them alone cannot be your only source of income.

If you are WoW-loot savvy, you can also play the Auction House, scanning for good deals and then re-listing them. There are plenty of mods out there that can help with this. This is often a good and easy source of income. Just remember that it takes money to make money this way.

So, trust me when I tell you that raiding is where the fun is at level 70, but it comes with a hefty price tag. So, be weary of over-raiding only to see your stockpile of gold to quickly diminish.

If it gets them rep, it gets you gold!

noreply@blogger.com (Messyah) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:22:00 +0000

So many sell-worthy items drop off of mobs, you often find yourself wondering what to list in the Auction House and what to vendor for a quick buck, so-to-speak. Well, one thing you should never vendor are those items that reward reputation with a group or faction. Perhaps not so much in the Old World, but the reputation items for Outlands are big, BIG sellers.

Why? Well, Outlands is very reputation-oriented. One of the first official things you do once hit that pivitol level and get into Outlands is pick a faction, Aldor or Scryers. Then, aside from the two main factions, almost every area in Outland has a specific reputation you can work to earn and a Quartermaster or "vendor" from whom you can purchase rep-based items. In somce cases, this is the best way to get your toon some good starting gear, aside from racking up honor in PvP of course.

So, with that in mind, it would only make sense that these items would be great sellers in the Auction House. I mean, not everyone wants to grind their way to exalted with a faction. No, for some it is much easier to cough up the loot and simply "buy their way to the top." There are so, so many items that can be turned in somewhere for reputation. So many in fact that I dare not attempt to list them all, but here are a few examples...

Fel Armament = Aldor Reputation - Avg. Sell Price: 12-20 Gold

Arcane Tome = Scryers Reputation - Avg. Sell Price: 12-20 Gold

Coilfang Armament = Cenarion Expedition Reputation - Avg. Sell Price: 15-25 Gold

Every level 70 will want to be "Exalted" with their faction. Both Aldor and Scryers offer special Recipes/Patterns/Plans for multiple crafts, and the faction's "inscriptions" vendor offers inscription enchant tokens which you can buy to enchant a shoulder-slot item. Inscriptions are purchased with the dust that you get when you turn in a Fel Armament or Arcane Tome.

As far as the Coilfang Armaments, any self-respecting Feral Druid will eventually need to be Exalted with the Cenarion Expedition so that they may purchase the Earthwarden, which is one of the best Feral Tanking weapons in the game. It's not too shabby in cat form either. Cenarion also has patterns for Nature Resistance gear, inscriptions for head-slot items and a few other recipes. You also require a certain level of rep with Cenarion in order to purchase your Heroic key, which allows you access to all of the available heroic Coilfang dungeons.

There are so many other reputation-yielding items that can be sold in the Auction Hourse for a serious profit. Items such as Sanguine Hybiscus for Sporreggar Rep, Bone Fragments for Argent Dawn Rep, Incendosaur Scales and Dark Iron Residue for rep with the Thorium Brotherhood, and so many more. So as you can see, there are many things that you can collect/farm for profit. You just need to know where to look, and for that I suggest using such resources as Thottbot and Wowwiki. Once you have your destination, travel there and beging making money.