Free Glyphs in Warlords of Draenor

I'm back!! Now, there's some patch notes for the Warlords of Draenor alpha testing phase!!!   Woohoo!!! Stuff to chew on.... or at least I thought.  Most of what was included in these patch notes has already been announced in Blizzard's news or strongly hinted at in tweets from various Blizzard devs and/or CMs.  However, there is one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb in all of this, mainly because I don't remember hearing or reading about it anywhere before.  (I have been afk for roughly 6 weeks though)

Automatically Learned Glyphs

Here's a little excerpt from the WoD Alpha Patch Notes about glyphs.

"All classes now learn some of their Major Glyphs as they level. Recipes for these Glyphs have been removed. "

What does this mean exactly?  Well, on the up side, that's 76 (correct me if I'm wrong) less glyphs for us scribes to worry about making, stocking, and listing/relisting.  On the slight down side, of those 76, only 12 (15.78%) of them are in my best selling glyph list.  To be honest, with all the spell removal, class chages, stat removal, and whatnot, we'll likely see some other glyphs move to the top of the top sellers list.  Keep in mind that it's likely that we are going to see a few new glyphs per class, probably mostly cosmetic/minor glyphs, and the good ones are always decent sellers. If you're going to be slowly cutting back your stock in the months leading to WoD release, obviously you'll want to keep just a bit more of your better sellers than the others that are set to be removed.

Here's the list of my best sellers that are getting removed in WoD, they have also been updated in my original post.

Ferocious Bite
Cat Form
Mending
Water Elemental
Dazing Shield
Alabaster Shield
Double Jeopardy
Penance
Flame Shock
Demon Training
Siphon Life
Bull Rush

I know that hwoome was working on 'revamping' inscription due to the massive amount of milling it takes to acquire the necessary inks to make all these glyphs.  I'm hopeful that the resolution will be something we all can work with.  Her tweet:

@Yogs_Zach In any case, for Warlords content, I'm planning on using a different mechanism for ink creation.
— Hwoo (@hwoome) February 4, 2014

If you haven't already, give her a follow to keep up with profession questions as she answers them.


Well, well... while I was writing this post, Tailswish of Swishco Ventures posted his two cents on the patch notes as far as it's related to gold making.  Tailswish has been afk a while and recently returned in March.  So head on over there and give his posts a good read!

Selltacular's Glyph Groups 1.0

Awesome! I've gotten a few requests from the twitter crowd and I feel compelled to work on my glyph set up.  For now, especially with as much as I'll have on my plate for the next week, this will have to suffice.

I divide my groups by class in order to easily cater to the insta 90's of the future.  I will then create a substructure for each class based on the way that each glyph is learned:

5.4 World BoP
5.4 TI common
5.4 TI Rare
Scroll of Wisdom
Book of Glyph Mastery
Northrend Inscription Research
Minor Inscription Research
Vendor
Trainer First Pick
Trainer Rarely Picked

You can group these together however you'd like, but once you've gone through the tedious task of setting up your substructure, you can use a base operation for all of them just to get you started.  Then, if you need/want to you can set operations based on your own circumstances and apply them to each subgroup.  I honestly don't even recommend making the Trainer First Pick glyphs on servers with any scribe leveling activity.  I'll identify why I decided to split trainer glyphs in that manner in a future post.  For now, we're just gonna stick with the basic set up that I have at the moment.

!!!!!!!!DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!

Please note that I do not have some of the newer glyphs (complete list here), so these will be missing from the item string for the time being.

TSM Glyph itemstring as I have it set up:

group:all`Death Knight,104047,104046,104048,104049,104101,43533,43534,43535,43536,43537,43539,43541,43542,43543,43544,43546,43547,43548,43549,43550,43551,43552,43553,43554,43671,43672,43673,43825,43826,43827,45799,45800,45804,45806,68793,group:all`Druid,104102,104103,40896,40897,40899,40900,40901,40902,40903,40906,40908,40909,40912,40913,40914,40915,40916,40919,40920,40921,40922,40923,40924,43316,43331,43332,43334,43335,43674,44922,44928,45601,45602,45603,45604,45622,45623,48720,67484,67485,67486,67487,68039,89868,group:all`Hunter,104270,104276,42897,42898,42899,42900,42901,42902,42903,42904,42905,42906,42907,42908,42909,42910,42911,42912,42913,42914,42915,42917,43338,43350,43351,43355,43356,45625,45731,45732,45733,45734,45735,85683,85684,87278,87279,87393,group:all`Mage,104104,104105,42735,42736,42737,42738,42739,42741,42743,42744,42745,42746,42748,42749,42751,42752,42753,42754,43339,43359,43360,43361,43362,43364,44684,44920,44955,45736,45737,45738,45739,45740,50045,63416,63539,69773,group:all`Monk,82345,84652,85685,85687,85689,85691,85692,85695,85696,85697,85698,85699,85700,87880,87881,87882,87883,87884,87885,87887,87888,87889,87890,87891,87892,87893,87894,87895,87896,87897,87898,87899,87900,87901,90715,group:all`Paladin,104050,104051,104108,41092,41094,41095,41096,41097,41098,41099,41100,41101,41102,41103,41104,41105,41106,41107,41108,41109,41110,43340,43365,43366,43367,43368,43369,43867,43868,43869,45741,45742,45743,45744,45745,45746,45747,66918,80581,80584,80585,80586,81956,83107,group:all`Priest,104121,104122,42396,42397,42398,42399,42400,42401,42402,42403,42404,42405,42406,42407,42408,42409,42410,42411,42412,42414,42415,42416,42417,43342,43370,43371,43372,43373,43374,45753,45755,45756,45757,45758,45760,77101,79513,79514,79515,79538,86541,87276,87277,87392,87902,group:all`Rogue,104123,104124,42954,42955,42956,42957,42958,42959,42960,42961,42962,42963,42964,42965,42966,42967,42968,42969,42970,42971,42972,42973,42974,43343,43376,43377,43378,43379,43380,45761,45762,45764,45766,45767,45768,45769,63420,64493,group:all`Shaman,104127,104128,104129,104130,104133,104134,41517,41518,41524,41526,41527,41529,41530,41531,41532,41533,41534,41535,41536,41537,41538,41539,41540,41541,41542,41547,41552,43344,43381,43385,43386,43388,43725,44923,45770,45771,45772,45775,45776,45777,45778,71155,group:all`Warlock,42453,42454,42455,42456,42457,42458,42459,42460,42461,42462,42463,42464,42465,42466,42467,42470,42471,42472,42473,43389,43390,43391,43392,43393,43394,45779,45780,45781,45782,45783,45785,45789,50077,93202,group:all`Warrior,104055,104056,104135,104136,104137,104138,43395,43396,43397,43398,43399,43400,43412,43413,43414,43415,43416,43417,43418,43419,43421,43422,43423,43424,43425,43427,43428,43430,43431,43432,45790,45792,45793,45794,45795,45797,49084,63481,67482,67483,80587,80588,83096,85221



Copy that entire item string and paste it into a bare glyph group.  Ensure you check 'Move Already Grouped Items' if your intention is to use this setup by class.  Alternatively, you can paste into notepad and remove the group setup and re organize as you wish.

Operations

This is currently the ONLY auctioning operation I use for my glyphs, as there is almost no need for other auctioning operations in my situation.  Your situation may vary and I'll try to suggest ways to set up your operations in the future.  I highly recommend taking a look at Wowuction's section on glyphs and see which glyphs are more profitable for you to make.  I also recommend studying the data so you can familiarize yourself with your server's glyph market before you decide to jump/dip your toes into the market.  Keep in mind your average price to make an ink if you are doing the milling yourself.

Auctioning: I don't do cancel scans unless I've been lazy on restocking and need to cancel in order to relist the more popular glyphs.  I have price ceilings (6g per ink of dreams, all inks are set to that cost due to herb availability on the AH) for my materials and a minimum profit 27g per glyph built in to my pricing scheme.  This is why I choose manual pricing over market based pricing in most of my crafted groups.  This is what my posting setup looks like:

 I'm only posting 1 at a time since I'm on a low pop server.  I tried 2 for a while, but rarely did I ever sell 2 of the same glyph in one posting cycle.  If you'd like to read more on inventory, Stede of Late Night With Stede did an excellent post on the Power of Inventory.  I highly recommend reading that post as well as the rest of his work.  In that post he uses glyph inventory as an example to demonstrate his point.  Oh while you're at it, listen to his shows, always good discussion about loads of gold making topics.

I hope this post can help some of you get started or adjust your glyph groups as you see fit.  In my opinion, the ability to analyze your server and understand the logistics of the glyph market there, will give you a good edge over many of your competitors.

I'd like provide so much more really soon. As the time to move across the country draws near, I'm extremely pressed for time.

My Patch Preparation Rundown

For this month's Gold Blogging Carnival, Stede of Late Night With Stede asks, "How do you prepare for changes in the game?  How does it affect you at patch time"


Reading the Patch Notes

The first thing I do for a new patch is read the patch notes in their entirety and then re read them while taking notes of my own.  Normally these notes are just taken mentally but I've vowed to write them down and share them from now on in order to (hopefully) avoid missing something.  I can't even begin to stress how important it is to read the patch notes.  Often times I'll find myself in trade chat, dungeons and raids, trying to explain changes to those who haven't taken the time to read the patch notes.  While I don't mind being helpful, it's impossible to help those who won't help themselves.


How I Take Notes

I categorize my notes in the same way that the official patch notes are categorized.  I start at each category and take a mental note of the change, then I look at how that change could affect me, and more recently I also look at how each change could affect my readers as far as gold making goes.

I start with the classes and look for any changes that will affect popular glyph, gem, and/or enchant choices.  I'm actually horrible with this, as I'm not SUPER familiar with all of the classes.  This is something I'm working to improve upon.

Second, I look at the profession notes.  For each profession, I review the new recipes and take note of the new recipes, materials and calculate new material requirements.  From these notes, I then determine whether or not demand for their materials will be affected.  I then act accordingly.  Stock more mats if needed or stock less than normal.  For me, it's all about having a feel for my server's economy.  In addition, for materials obtained by daily cool downs, I look at the requirements for those cool downs and decide when and how I will be either selling the materials or buying them up.

After that, it's all about catching changes to items and creatures.  This time around, the popularly farmed troggs in Deepholm are getting their drops nerfed, which may mean even less availability of Embersilk Cloth.  I didn't go out on a farming frenzy but I'm buying up some less than normal priced cloth to hopefully sell off for a higher price once I see the availability of it decrease.  If it doesn't, then no big deal, I should easily be able to break even at least.  As for changes to gear that can be purchased via valor, justice, conquest, or honor points, it pays to know when it gets extremely easier to get that gear.  And with the LFR and Flex content being released in stages, it's good to know that your "LFR only" affected customers may be focused on other alts until they get their new content.  What's this mean for me?  Well for certain, I won't be camping the AH after day one of the new patch!!!  Hmm... that's kind of falling into the next part of the question.


How Patch Preparation Affects Me

Preparing for an upcoming patch helps me know what to expect and develop a game plan for meeting customer demands as theirs begin to match or outweigh the supply.  If I do it correctly, or at least close to it, I'll see my rewards in terms of high return on initial investments and I'll especially yield significantly more profit in significantly less time.

Every Day 

Every day, I'll be shopping for all of my crafting materials and buying as long as I feel comfortable with the prices.  Ensuring that I keep doing this every day will help me keep track of availability and cost of all of my required materials.  It will also help me determine if I need to increase the cost of any of my end products that I sell.  I can also keep track of this via charts from The Undermine Journal, but I like my mental notes better :)


Day One - Tuesday

On the first day of this patch I will be doing my normal posting routine of gems and glyphs since these sales will be affected by the class changes and changes to items with effects that no longer benefit from haste.  From there I will log all of my crafting characters to farm their patterns and complete their cool downs.  I will also craft any new items learned as a result of this.  I will avoid posting any gear other than the new ilvl 476 pvp gear until the weekend.  After that, I'll do another round of posting those glyphs and gems  Oh... I might want to make sure all of my gold making related add-ons are up to date, which pretty much means updating TSM and all of its modules.

Day Two Through Four - Wednesday to Friday

If my competitors in the glyph, gem, and item enhancement markets are still wasting their time, fighting over sales, I won't even bother with those markets.  With ONE exception: New glyphs!!!!  I'll make a separate group in TSM just for the new glyphs and I'll use it until my competitors become more competitive in this market.  I'll be posting more of these than the older glyphs for sure.

I'll continue to do my daily cool downs, craft the new items and send them off to list on the AH.  With the normal SoO just being released, content isn't going to go down that fast.  Only 1 wing of Flex difficulty will be available and none of the LFR content will be released until day eight!!  This means (for my server, your mileage may vary) everyone will have time to gear up their alts with the points they've been stockpiling and they'll likely eat through my competition's 'cheap' supplies.  Depending on how things look, I may take the time to OVER CUT everyone by 100-300 gold, just to see what happens.

Days Five Through Seven - Saturday to Monday

For me, this means it's time to start selling those greens again and to attempt to sell what's left of my 458 pvp gear.  I'll continue on with posting glyphs, posting 1 extra for the new glyphs.  Gems and item enhancements may or may not be posted, dependent upon how the market is acting.  As stated in days two through four if the market looks right, I'll just OVER CUT everyone, just to see what happens.

Week Two Through Week Seven - 17 September to 21 October

In the following weeks, I'll be slightly ramping up my efforts to make some sales.  I'll continue to do cool downs and craft new items and restock any that have sold.  However, for the most part, I'll be lying in wait.  The real sales most likely will pick up on 22 October, when everyone will have all modes of SoO available to them.  This will be the first week that my LFR customers get their full experience and a chance at gear from EVERY boss on ALL of their toons.  And IMO, most of my sales go to LFR loot and new alts since most people don't have time to raid in a normal group 7 days a week.


My List

Check out my Patch 5.4 Preparation Post for detailed information on all of the profession changes and updates.  I wish you all the best with your upcoming sales in this new patch!!!

Patch 5.4 - Speculation, Preparation, Price Inflation

***Any further PTR changes will be noted in red as they pertain to gold making***


There are soooo many changes coming in Patch 5.4, The Siege of Orgrimmar!  I feel so overwhelmed just thinking about covering them all from a gold making perspective. Check out that link to the official 5.4 patch notes and feel free to follow my reference links as you follow along.


Flex Raiding

I'm hoping that along with the new raid content, flex raiding will increase the number of people picking up gear upgrades.  As of right now, flex raid will have its own lock out, separate from raid finder and normal/heroic modes.  To account for the increase in gear avaliability, my stockpile of gems, enchants, belt buckles, and shoulder inscriptions are stocked even more than they were for the release of patch 5.2!  This time, I also have the tailoring leg enchants to add to my arsenal.  I'm getting close to being able to obtain the leather working ones as well!  Despite all of my stockpiling, I believe that I still won't be able to keep up with the demand.  Which is fine by me, with that kind of market, it makes it really easy to inflate the prices.


Redesigned Arena System

With just a quick look at the patch notes, I can see that it would be much easier just to grab a friend or two and queue up for an arena match.  The necessity of having a team is one of the factors that drove me away from PvP.  Couple this change with the upcoming Connected Realms, and you might have a formula for increased PvP related sales.  My realm is pretty much dead when it comes to PvP.  When it comes to being able to spread the availability of gems, amongst a larger variety of cuts, combined with the increased AH activity brought to us by Connected Realms, I actually welcome this change.  I probably won't venture back into the realm of PvP, but you can bet I'll be keeping my eye on that market once again.  Should the opportunity for profit present itself again, in the name of PvP, I'll be quick to capitalize on it.


New Freaking Glyphs!!!!!

Currently 38 new glyphs are being added, I'll list them below by class to make it easier to read through than the patch notes.  All of these are technique type patterns that drop off of Pandaria creatures or off of powerful creatures on the Timeless Isle.  If your scribe isn't geared up or can't rely on a group for the Timeless Isle, I'd suggest getting some gear together to make the acquisition of the new glyphs a little easier for you.  Of course, this is assuming that the techniques are only visible to be looted by a scribe.  To top this off, I'd recommend that you go ahead and stockpile a little extra ink for these while you can.  New zones without resources normally leads to a slight dip in AH resource availability and a slight rise in their prices.  Expect to sell quite a few of these glyphs, especially if your competition has left the glyph market, or the game for that matter.


Death Knight

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Festering Blood
• Glyph of Regenerative Magic
• Glyph of Swift Death
• Glyph of the Loud Horn

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of the Long Winter
• Glyph of the Skeleton

Druid

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of One With Nature 
• Glyph of the Sprouting Mushroom 

Hunter

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of the Lean Pack
• Glyph of Enduring Deceit

Mage

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Condensation
• Glyph of Evaporation
• Glyph of the Unbound Elemental

Monk

No new glyphs to learn

Paladin

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Divine Shield
• Glyph of Hand of Sacrifice

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of the Exorcist
• Glyph of Pillar of Light

Priest

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Angels - as listed in the Wowhead database.  The patch notes refer to this as the Glyph of Feathers
• Glyph of Inspired Hymns
• Glyph of Shifted Appearances
• Glyph of the Sha

Rogue

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Improved Distraction
• Glyph of Headhunting - as listed in the Wowhead database.  The patch notes refer to this as the Glyph of the Headhunter which is the name of the aura applied to the character.

Shaman

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Eternal Earth
• Glyph of Purging 

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of Astral Fixation
• Glyph of the Compy
• Glyph of Elemental Familiars
• Glyph of Flaming Serpents
• Glyph of Lingering Ancestors
• Glyph of Rain of Frogs
• Glyph of Spirit Raptors
• Glyph of Spirit Wolf

Warlock

No new glyphs to learn.

Warrior

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of the Executor
• Glyph of Impaling Throws

Minor Glyphs

• Glyph of the Raging Whirlwind
• Glyph of the Subtle Defender
• Glyph of the Weaponmaster
• Glyph of the Watchful Eye 

Blacksmithing - More Cool Downs, Yay!!!

Plans: Balanced Trillium Ingot and Its Uses - This drops from any pandaria mob and teaches your blacksmith how to make a Balanced Trillium Ingot as well as one of the new recipes.  The Balanced Trillium Ingot is made using only one Trillium Bar OR you can use one Trillium Bar and one Spirit of War for Accelerated Balanced Trillium Ingot as often as you like, in order to learn the new recipes faster.  The new 476 PvP recipes (Crafted Malevolent Gladiator) will require Ghost Iron Bars to craft.  Top off your stockpiles of bars while (if) you still can.

12 Ghost Iron Bars - Bracers
15 Ghost Iron Bars - Belt, Gloves, Shoulders, Boots
20 Ghost Iron Bars - Helm, Chest, Legs, Shield

Yep, there are currently 3 476 PvP shields that can be created this time around.    The two intellect ones may rival the current 476 PvE Off Hand Items (created by Inscription) when it comes to sales.  Here's a link to the comparison of the intellect based items: 476 PvP vs 476 PvE


Cooking - Ummm, at Least I Have a Chef's Hat?

Nev of Auction House Addict did a couple of excellent posts, summarizing everything I can think of as far as cooking goes.  Read her 2 part post in Feeding the Raiders and Cooking for Raiders in 5.4.  I've never really focused on cooking other than leveling the profession.  When it comes to cooking, I go to Nev to see what she's written.


Enchanting - Fragments and Scaling

Sha Crystal Fragment - Obtain these from the newly crafted 496 PvP gear, or from the Justice Point gear that was previously available for Valor Points.  Take 3 of them and combine them to make a single Sha Crystal.  I wouldn't spend justice points just to get your hands on these fragments though, I'd stick with the 220 JP per Wrath epic gem.  This method of obtaining a Sha Crystal does NOT have a cooldown.  The least amount of mats to get one fragment will be 6 Bolts of Windwool Cloth (30 Windwool Cloth) which ends up being 90 Windwool Cloth to make 1 Sha Crystal as often as you'd like.  Currently I use 4 bolts (20 cloth) to make the pvp bracers or cloaks and  disenchant them into Ethereal Shards and then convert 5 of the shards (100 cloth) into a Sha Crystal.  With the new fragments being added, Sha Crystals will be a little cheaper to make.   Lots of one lining due to the 27 August change :( new PvP gear now only DE's into an Ethereal Shard.


Enchant Scaling - All enchants will scale down to level 1, regardless of the original intended level.  All enchants will scale up to their intended level only.  Meaning the Crusader Enchant will scale appropriately from level 1 to 60.  At level 61, the enchant will still work, but it will no longer get any powerful as you increase your character level.  I am unsure as to whether or not this will affect twink enchant markets as of yet, as I do not know how each enchant will stack up to others at certain levels.  Unless twink guides are updated to show the comparisons between the current BiS enchants and their counterparts, in each twink bracket, I don't see many people venturing off to buy a different enchant than what is recommended for them.

05 September Update ~ A thread on this topic was started in the forums at stormspire.net.  Sterling posted a pretty good preliminary list of enchants and there is some additional discussion on this topic, it's definitely worth reading!!


Engineering - Peculiar Additions

Jard's Peculiar Energy Source will be a new item that Engineers will be able to create using a daily cool down.

Daily Cooldown - 10 Ghost Iron Bars
Sky Golem - 30 Jard's Peculiar Energy Source and 30 Living Steel
Advanced Refrigeration Unit -  5 Jard's Peculiar Energy Source and 5 Living Steel
Pierre - 15 Jard's Peculiar Energy Source and 15 Living Steel
Rascal-Bot - 15 Jard's Peculiar Energy Source and 15 Living Steel

Sadly, both pets are BoP and neither can be caged and traded.  Perhaps this may be an opportunity to sell some engineering profession kits to those who are obsessive pet collectors.



Inscription - Techniques

In addition to all of the new glyphs listed above, there is also a technique for crafting a ilvl 476 trinket.

Technique: Crafted Malevolent Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity - Likely drops from the more powerful creatures of the Timeless Isle and teaches you how to create the Crafted Malevolent Gladiator's Medallion of Tenacity which only takes 10 Ghost Iron Bars to craft.  This will make a great companion to the Ghost Iron Dragonling trinket for quickly boosting a new 90's ilvl.



Leatherworking - Hardened Magnificent Hide

Another new set of cool downs for another new set of materials!!!

Hardened Magnificent Hide - Learned from Pattern: Hardened Magnificent Hide and Its Uses .  The pattern drops from any pandaria mob.  Once you use the Pattern, you will learn a random recipe (either ilvl 476 PvP or ilvl 553 PvE).  The pattern also teaches you how to bypass the daily Hardened Magnificent Hide cool down with Accelerated Hardened Magnificent Hide.  You can use 2 Magnificent Hide and 1 Spirit of War, the new special item you get from disenchanting your SoO raid gear.  Hardened Magnificent Hide will be used for crafting the ilvl 553 crafted PvE gear.

The new ilvl 476 PvP gear will require Magnificent Hide to craft.

2 Magnificent Hide - Bracers, Belt, Boots, Shoulders, Gloves
3 Magnificent Hide - Helm, Chest, Pants



Tailoring - Celestial Cloth

Yay!!  Even more cool downs for another new set of materials!!!

Celestial Cloth - Learned from Pattern: Celestial Cloth and Its Uses .  The pattern drops from any pandaria mob.  Once you use the Pattern, you will learn a random recipe (either ilvl 476 PvP or ilvl 553 PvE).  The pattern also teaches you how to bypass the daily Celestial Cloth cool down with Accelerated Celestial Cloth.  You can use 10 Bolt of Windwool Cloth and 1 Spirit of War, the new special item you get from disenchanting your SoO raid gear.   Celestial Cloth will be used for crafting the ilvl 553 crafted PvE gear.

The new ilvl 476 PvP gear will require Bolt of Windwool Cloth to craft.

6 Bolt of Windwool Cloth - Bracers, Cloaks
7 Bolt of Windwool Cloth - Belt, Shoulders, Gloves, Boots
8 Bolt of Windwool Cloth - Helm, Chest, Pants



Summary 

This should post should serve as a pretty good run down of everything a gold maker needs to know for 5.4.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to provide your input in the comments section.  This should post should serve as a pretty good run down of everything a gold maker needs to know for 5.4 and will even get it's own page pretty soon.

***Any further PTR changes will be noted in red as they pertain to gold making***

Fun Fact Friday - Frost Lotus

This Fun Fact Friday post is long overdue.  I really hope to be able to bring you this content on a weekly basis.  I actually have another post ready to go for next Friday, let's make sure I get those screen shots in for it in time!! Onwards!!! To the gold making tip!!

My Hunter as a Frost Lotus prepping for a Firelands Raid.

Where does Frost Lotus come from and how can I use it to make gold?

Frost Lotus is mainly acquired when leveling herbalism or simply farming WotLK herbs.  While they don't serve much use other than crafting flasks for alts to use from 75-80, they can still make you a little profit if you have a tailor or tailor friend/guildie that is at least revered with the Kalu'ak and has the Emerald Bag pattern. If you're grinding the rep yourself, you can also go the extra mile to get exalted so you can pick up a Nurtured Penguin Egg from the Kalu'ak quartermaster, cage him and resell him on the AH.  You can even level him to bring in some additional gold!  Go check out The Kalu'ak on Wowhead.com for info on gaining reputation with The Kalu'ak.


Why should I try selling this?


Like the pattern for the Hyjal Expedition Bag, the pattern for the Emerald Bag requires some rep grinding in order to obtain the pattern.  There doesn't seem to be too many people selling these across the US servers, so there should be little to no competition.  They are cheaper to make than their 36 slot brother and may be a more appealing option to players with shallower pockets.  For around the same price, they still provide 10 more slots than the 22 slot Embersilk Bag.  

Who are my customers for this bag?

I can't promise you that it will sell very quickly, and I am by no means implying that this will make you a lot of gold.  Simply test your server's market.  Keep an eye on the different herbs on TUJ and learn when they are generally posted in small quantities, not huge batches like a farmer.  These non farmers are your target, they are leveling alts who may want more bag space and wouldn't mind dropping ~500g for a 32 slot herb bag (15g62s50c / slot) versus spending ~1000g for a 36 slotter (27g77s77c / slot).  That's an extra 500g for 4 more slots!!!!


I hope you enjoyed this Fun Fact Friday's trip to the past!  Join me next Friday when I show you a few good reasons for some dragon slaying. 

Fun Fact Friday - Frozen Orb

Frozen Orbs - Their Eternal Use 

I believe that I might start taking a look into the past every Friday to find something from past expansions that is worth sharing and that may bring you a little extra coin.  These things might be new to some of you, or maybe a reminder of something we've forgotten about.   Today's topic is the frozen orb and how it will likely have a use in current content for years to come.

What is a Frozen Orb?

Frozen Orbs are items used in many Wrath of the Lich King crafting patterns.  They drop from the last boss of any Wrath Heroic Dungeon.  Farming them may not be worth your time, but they do appear fairly frequently on the Auction House.  Their appearance on the Auction House is mainly the result of high level players doing Wrath Heroic Dungeons for transmog items or for the purpose of grinding out reputation such as the Alliance Vanguard, for the mekgineer's chopper pattern.

I don't want to make any Wrath gear, so why should I care about these?



Let me introduce you (a reaquaintance for some) to Frozo the Renowned.  He was implemented in Patch 3.3.3 to assist in alleviating players of the immense supply of Frozen Orbs that no one wanted anymore.  He is located behind the Magus Commerce Exchange in Dalaran.  He accepts Frozen Orbs to trade for Runic Orbs, Crusader Orbs, Eternals, and Frost Lotuses.  I don't know what this guy does with all the orbs he gets, but that's not the point.  I normally pick up Eternals from him with the goal of creating a Mekgineer's Chopper.  This is probably the best way to get the most amount of money from your Frozen Orbs.  If you don't have an Engineer or the starting capital to invest in making a chopper, you can still buy up some orbs for cheap and trade them in for the most expensive Eternal and sell those on the Auction House.



Processing Frozen Orbs into a mount.

1. Buy out the Frozen Orbs that are cheaper than the Eternals you need.
2. Buy up some cheap Arctic Fur and keep a nice stock of it on your engineer.
3. Send some Cobalt Bars to your engineer and make Cobalt Bolts. (Buy the bolts or ore if they are cheaper)
4. Use a ring to teleport yourself to Dalaran or get a Mage to port you. (Keep a toon in Dalaran for even more convenience)
5. Trade in your orbs for the most expensive Eternal (normally Eternal Fire)
6. Figure out which is cheaper to obtain, Titanium Bars or Saronite Bars (search Titansteel Bar on TUJ, it will tell you which way is cheapest.) Ore you can go mine the mats you need prior to purchasing extra Eternals. (see what I did there?)
7. Transmute the Saronite Bars into Titanium Bars and smelt the Titanium Bars and eternals into Titansteel Bars
8. Get your Engineer to K-3 in Storm Peaks and pick up the required vendor materials
9. Make the Mekgineer's Chopper and sell it for profit.

Now that mounts are account bound, wouldn't it be harder to sell the mount?

Actually, no, it won't be.  New content continues to bring new players to the game.  As time goes on, more people get around to saving and/or making gold and will be looking for places to spend their hard earned gold.  It's a good thing for them that you'll be there to help them get rid of it :)  I have stopped doing this because I simply forgot all about it (time to pick it back up again).  When I'm in full swing I usually sell 1 mount per week.  It's a nice additional 4-5 thousand gold profit every week for some very minimal work, provided that I purchase all of the materials.   You can better economize your time spent on this by making multiple mounts at once, but it requires a large investment just for the vendor materials alone (12500g per mount).  In the meantime you can be watching the auction house using a dealfinding list to snatch up the materials you'll need to craft more mounts once you've depleted your stock.  Try barking in trade chat while you are posting your auctions, newer players might not even be aware that the chopper exists.  Some players may have forgotten that they want one.  Make a barking macro and be creative with it. 

My macro that generates the most chatter and sales goes something like this:
"Cruise the Isle of Thunder in style with this shiny new two person Mekgineer's Chopper.  Go pantless for that extra breeze! Get yours now for only xxxxx gold!"


Good luck and happy mounting!

Patch 5.2 - The Aftermath of Patch Release

Here we are, at the beginning of week 4 of patch 5.2!  The belt buckle rush has slowed down and on my server, we are have just unlocked stage 4 on the Isle of Thunder. 

~ These numbers were gathered on March 20, 2013.  I've had way too many distractions in the last week to finish this post in time :(

The Belt Buckle Rush

The belt buckle rush is something I anticipated prior to patch release.  Looking at the available gear from the Kirin Tor Offensive, I knew that once people started hitting honored, the under geared alts and returning players would be needing to add that extra socket to their belts.  This rush completely ate through my tiny stock of 60 living steel belt buckles, I currently have about 40 more crafted, but sales have slowed back down and prices have begun to drop back to their norm.

Belt Buckle Total - 28776g69s27c

The Lightning Forge

Once the Lightning Forge becomes available (it's available now), I'm hoping that Living Steel will be in a higher demand, again raising prices to just under the belt buckle rush numbers.  On my server, I predict that the active black smiths will most likely run out of belt buckles after a few weeks of playing with the Lightning Forge.  Once the supply is shorter, the prices for belt buckles will be able to be tailored to my liking, for about 350 gold profit each.  From what I have seen so far this expansion, most of the active black smiths on my server are kobolds (posting for little to no profit - Thanks Cold for coining this term for those players).  These guys make it difficult to stay competitive in the blacksmithing market, but I'm still holding my own and making profit.

Crafted Gear

Patch 5.2 has brought many new crafting patterns to my arsenal.  Sales for this gear are very slow and competition is very high.  Prices are bottoming out to minimal profit right now (mostly the tailoring items) but some items still hold a good profit margin and I am continuing to post those for 100% profit or more.  I look for this market to make a good rebound once everyone stops learning their new recipes every day and dries up their supply from crafting one or two of each item. 

It seems as if crafters on my server leveled up their crafting professions at the last minute, either right before or just after patch release.  I am constantly finding ilvl 415 crafted blues at rock bottom prices.  I've been snatching every one of them up and re listing them at the normal prices.  However, they haven't really been selling well up until this last weekend.  I'm not sure if it's because I was getting undercut with ridiculously low prices or if the gear just wasn't selling.  Every time I would check for undercuts, I was the lowest seller.  Oh well, we're back to making profit in that market now, thanks to all of the leveling crafters restocking my supply and for way less than crafting cost at that!

Crafted Gear Total - 26876g66s24c (Mostly flipped items)

Finding a Major Increase in AH Listing Mistakes

Since patch release I have noticed a lot more mistakes being made across many markets on the AH.  I have been snatching up every single deal that I discover and flipping the items for some nice profit.  The only items that I'm not flipping yet are the darkmoon cards.  I haven't decided whether to take the time and extra investment to craft the decks or just flip the cards themselves.  The best deal I've found on a card was the Five of Cranes which is shown below (I'm pretty sure they meant to list it for 726 gold).

When people get busy and try to rush through things, they tend to make more mistakes.  I've always known this, but I've never applied this to the auction house.  People seem to be listing their auctions in a hurry so that they can get more dailies and LFR runs in.  I'm going to apply this principle to peak pre raid times on my server and focus more of my time into deal finding when people are listing as much as they can before they have to raid.

Flipping Total - 25975g (does not include flipped gear or gear enhancements)

The Gem Cutting Market

Sales are still strong in this market and the competition's stockpiles are drying up.  Less auctions are being posted for each cut that I sell (basically all but any non pvp cut and the expertise, parry, and dodge cuts).  When prices get too low for my taste, it's becoming increasingly cheaper to buy up all the auctions and re list them.  This helps keep my stock a little more healthy but it does slightly eat into my profits, but profit is profit! 

Not many guilds on my server have progressed very well and a lot are not doing the new raid content yet.  Raiding consumables (specifically flasks) are still dwindling in price as well as their raw materials.  As flasks get cheaper, so do the Golden Lotus it takes to make them (or maybe it's the other way around).  They've dropped from 50-70 gold each to 30-50 gold each.  I've been buying them all up and using them to transmute gems.  This actually just compensates or over compensates the recent increase in price of the uncommon gems. 

Gem Cutting Total - 108435g75s06c



Shoulder Inscriptions

Shoulder inscription prices were drastically affected by the patch release being during the same week as The Darkmoon Faire.  Unfortunately, I didn't account for this coincidence.  My stock was completely dry before the beginning of week 2.  Starlight Inks were either extremely expensive or unavailable on the AH during the week of The Darkmoon Faire.  The tanking shoulder inscription has since then dropped to well below pre patch prices.  The rest of them still sell for twice what they sold for pre patch.

Shoulder Inscription Total -  25282g44s28c

Glyphs

I finally restocked my glyphs two days ago and have only posted once since the patch.  I know, bad Selltacular! BAD!  I didn't make very much off of that one posting session, but I did learn something!  Most of my competition has left the market, at least for now.  I think I am only left with one or two major competitors and the occasional person who lists the glyphs they used for leveling inscription.  Some of the levelers are smart and list with the competition, and some of them are blind or careless (KOBOLDS!) and list their glyphs for just a few gold or even silver.  I often check for glyphs that I sell often and occasionally am able to restock them by purchasing them for absurdly low costs.  Hopefully sales pick back up and the competition stays away for a while.

Glyph Total - 975g ish.... I don't even want to look at the exact number again!

Heirloom Enchants

Enchants for heirloom gear are still selling just as slowly as they were pre patch.  I guess my server is just too small for a rush in the heirloom enchant market.  As long as it's still providing profit, I can't complain.  Heck, maybe the rush will come once more players go back to putting significant time into leveling alts, rather than their level 90s and the new content.  Only time can tell.

Heirloom Enchant Total - Less than 5k, but definitely more than 2k.


5.2, Thoughts So Far

This is the first set of content that I've ever attempted to prepare for as far as gold making goes.  I feel like I've done pretty well so far this patch.  I've made some mistakes as well.  Everything that I've learned from this patch experience can and will be applied to the next major content patch (5.4?).  My total income for the patch so far is - 219821g54s85c

I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't get into the enchanting scroll market like I had planned.  I should be ready for the next major content patch when it eventually gets here.  I still have professions that need to be used to their fullest extent, but that will require getting those toons from 85 to 90 and then raising their reputation with the factions respective to their professions.  I'm missing major money makers such as; leg armors, spell threads, bracer enchants, and weapon enchants.  I can't wait to tap into those markets, especially for 5.4!

I Use Sunsong Ranch for My AH Salad

Cold's Blogging Carnival topic for the month of March revolves around the Sunsong Ranch.  This month, Cold asks us to blog about our current Sunsong Ranch activities.  So what am I currently doing with my Sunsong Ranches?

Currently, I have three level 90s at my farming disposal, each with their own 16 plot farm which I utilize every day.  I have two level 85s with 4 plot farms, but I have abandoned those, as vegetable sales, and the ironpaw shuffle have lost their luster on my server.

Hunter - Alchemist (Transmute Spec)/Herbalist

My hunter is using Enigma Seeds for the herbs and Golden Lotus procs.  Each plot has a chance to spawn as a Golden Lotus or any other Pandaria herb.  I use the Golden Lotus that I get each day to transmute gems.  I send the other herbs (save Fool's Cap) to my Scribe to mill and turn into inks.  I send the Fool's Cap to one of my bank toons to post on the AH.  During the weekdays when supply is shorter, I can sell the Fool's Cap for 100-120 gold per stack.

Shaman - Engineer/Jewelcrafter

My Shaman plants Songbell Seeds for the Motes of Harmony.  I use these in crafting Lord Blastington's Scope of Doom and the Long-Range Trillium Sniper.  My original plan was to use these to craft the occasional Geosynchronous World Spinner.  Once I amassed 12 Spirits of Harmony, I did the research to see how much that mount was going for.  After factoring in the cost of all of the materials, I was extremely disappointed to find that I would only be making about 1-2k gold in profit.  At best, that would be about 166 gold per SoH.  Yep, I think I'll stick to making 500-1000g per SoH by selling the scopes and rifles.  As an additional note, whenever I end up with a stockpile of scopes and rifles, I'll start using the SoHs to create Primal Diamonds, which, when cut, bring me 400g-800g each.  I'm glad this option for creating the diamonds was introduced in patch 5.2!

Paladin - Blacksmith/Scribe

My Paladin plants Songbell Seeds as well.  And again, I use these for crafting.  I craft all of the Masterwork weapons, as well as the ilvl 476 gear from patterns picked up from the Klaxxi. (Fun note: Wowhead has listed the Klaxxi as 1337 !)  There's a lot to list so I have included links to Wowhead.com if this piques your curiosity, leaving you to want to learn more. I also craft the Inscribed Fan which use in crafting the Inscribed Jade Fan and the Inscribed Red Fan.  Once the initial rush of 5.2 is over, I will get back into crafting the level 85 gear on all of my toons, as right now, not many people have time for leveling due to the need for completing the new dailies on their level 90 toons. More on this in a future post.

Overview

Overall, I feel like I put my farms to good use.  I can't wait to get the rest of my crafters to level 90 so I can start pumping out some more gear to list on the Auction House.  I feel like it will be a while before I get back to that project.  The new content of patch 5.2 is currently occupying most of my time.

Check out what others are currently doing on their farms!  Cold of Colds Gold Factory posted a list of this month's Gold Blogging Carnival Participants.  Add him to your blogroll, follow him on Google Plus, or just see my blogroll to see his latest updates.  Didn't participate and want to add what you do?  Leave a shiny new comment below :)