Question and Answer From Goldgrub's
Over at the great new gold making resource site, Goldgrubs.com, is where I and a handful of other writers are working together to help those players that are brand new to the auction house. Players that are just getting started working in the auction house, or farming, or learning the trade of flipping have a different set of questions and concerns that those of you that are already in the business and understand the basics of the auction house. Over at Goldgrubs Goblin Academy we write content that is geared towards the beginners. Establish gold makers are welcome to come and share your understanding and knowledge with those that are just getting started.
There was a good question over at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy on a post I did on Buying WoW Gold. Since it was an off topic question, I chose to answer it as a blog post. I feel that others may be interested in my answer to the same question.
Just like with buying WoW Gold, paying for a power leveling serive is a bad idea. If you are giving your account info and password to anyone, then you are putting your character at risk. Even if you paid for the service and they power leveled your character, chances are one night when you are asleep your account will be drained by the same players. Don't do it. Never share your account info with anyone.
Power Leveling A Profession
My stance on power leveling your professions is pretty simple. I don't power level my professions quickly, because it usually is a waste of gold. Player that power level their professions or change professions a lot are usually wasting a ton of gold. Many times when power leveling you are stuck paying the current auction house prices of the required materials. The time that you save by power leveling is going to cost you in the end, unless you carefully pre-buy your required materials over time, while picking the materials up at regular or low prices. When I think of power leveling, I instantly think of wasting extra gold just to quickly level a profession.
A wiser option yet, is the profession leveling strategy that I have written about before. I call it the Common Commodity Crafting strategy. This older post explains how I prefer to make my profession leveling profitable, and not just for skill points. Ever level to max profession skill and then start making a bunch of items in that profession to sell? I like to make as many of those items for profession skill ups on the way to maximum.
Who wants to disagree that believes power leveling is a good idea for professions? It would only be worth it if you are able to make up all the extra you spent maxing out the profession quickly, due to having a sole share of a market. In this day and age, that won't last long and you risk losing out on your super fast profession leveling investment.
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| WoW Power Leveling Question |
Over at the great new gold making resource site, Goldgrubs.com, is where I and a handful of other writers are working together to help those players that are brand new to the auction house. Players that are just getting started working in the auction house, or farming, or learning the trade of flipping have a different set of questions and concerns that those of you that are already in the business and understand the basics of the auction house. Over at Goldgrubs Goblin Academy we write content that is geared towards the beginners. Establish gold makers are welcome to come and share your understanding and knowledge with those that are just getting started.
There was a good question over at Goldgrub's Goblin Academy on a post I did on Buying WoW Gold. Since it was an off topic question, I chose to answer it as a blog post. I feel that others may be interested in my answer to the same question.
How Do You Feel About Powerleveling A Toon Or A Profession,Power Leveling Services
Whether You Are a New Player Or A Hardcore Vet?
Just like with buying WoW Gold, paying for a power leveling serive is a bad idea. If you are giving your account info and password to anyone, then you are putting your character at risk. Even if you paid for the service and they power leveled your character, chances are one night when you are asleep your account will be drained by the same players. Don't do it. Never share your account info with anyone.
Power Leveling A Profession
My stance on power leveling your professions is pretty simple. I don't power level my professions quickly, because it usually is a waste of gold. Player that power level their professions or change professions a lot are usually wasting a ton of gold. Many times when power leveling you are stuck paying the current auction house prices of the required materials. The time that you save by power leveling is going to cost you in the end, unless you carefully pre-buy your required materials over time, while picking the materials up at regular or low prices. When I think of power leveling, I instantly think of wasting extra gold just to quickly level a profession.
A wiser option yet, is the profession leveling strategy that I have written about before. I call it the Common Commodity Crafting strategy. This older post explains how I prefer to make my profession leveling profitable, and not just for skill points. Ever level to max profession skill and then start making a bunch of items in that profession to sell? I like to make as many of those items for profession skill ups on the way to maximum.
Who wants to disagree that believes power leveling is a good idea for professions? It would only be worth it if you are able to make up all the extra you spent maxing out the profession quickly, due to having a sole share of a market. In this day and age, that won't last long and you risk losing out on your super fast profession leveling investment.
As a minor, albeit situational counter to your theory, you could possibly consider the opportunity cost of NOT power leveling your profession in some cases.
ReplyDeleteYes, powerleveling can be expensive, unless you have pre-planned your path to the profession cap in advance, knowing your server and it's economy is key.
If you were, for example, destined to be the only player in the Maelstrom Enchant Market, does that opportunity not more than offset what is generally speaking a lesser amount of gold to get to that cap and participate in a more fluid market.
I personally have always and will always powerlevel my professions, that's not to say I don't think in advance and get an idea of how i'm going to do it and profit the most from it though!
After just powerleveling my Alchemy, I would disagree with you and relate it to the previous point of opportunity cost.
ReplyDeleteEvery day I delayed leveling, I miss out on a Truegold CD and whatever sales I can make on my goods -- It cost me somewhere around 4-5k gold to level which should be recoup'd within a week.
It was also important to me to have my skill maxed prior to patch day for the increased value on potions/flasks/truegold and to avoid paying even higher costs to level.
I've gotta respectfully disagree to an extent on your post. I'll explain why. When I powerlevel something I can effectively get it done in a day and depending what profession it is I am then making the end game items which will always be the best sellers. Sure old world stuff sells but it’s a much smaller market. I can spend that gold up front but I will make it up much quicker on the tail end of the operation. Its sort of a question of spend little now and grind my way or spend more now and get to the end result right now which is ultimately where the true money will be.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cold in that my strategies for power leveling crafting professions starts when I roll the toon. I know that I want toon X to be a JC when it reaches 75, therefore I am sure to mine while I level and bank all the ore, watching the AH for snatch-able deals for the mats I'll need to level. However, I agree with Thelegend for one profession: alchemy. Alchemy is cheap and quick to level, and transmute specced alchemists are so profitable with minimal effort, that I usually recoup the investment in power leveling alchemy in less than a week. I have power leveled four of my level 80+ toons to Xmute specced alchemy in the last two weeks. Each one cost me around 2,500g and took under three hours to level. However, I've made 20,000g profit off just transmutes over those two weeks. This doesn't include the rare gem procs I'm profiting from, just the daily transmute CDs for volatiles and truegold.
ReplyDeleteWhile I have barely tasted the 'chance for an extra skill point' bonus, the major point of a Leveling Guide is to ensure that you SAVE gold by making the most efficient items to skill up.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I've read of people who've made gold by selling Leveling Kits in /2. They prepare all the mats and start barking.
The concept in this post is good in principle, but the advice is wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe real advice should simply be to plan ahead. Determine what to craft while you level up, and then accumulate what you need when it's within your buying thresholds. Once you have everything, THEN start you power leveling.
But never delay your profession leveling just because you might not be able to make profitable materials as you go. It's far more costly in the long run NOT to level professions quickly.
(This is, of course, assuming you're powerleveling specifically for using that profession to make gold at max levels.)
This is somewhat OCD of me, but I maintain a spreadsheet of all crafting professions, which calculates cost of materials from level 1 to 525. I use this as my guide when I switch a profession, but I ALWAYS power level them. And I have also always made a profit overall when switching a profession, both short term, and long term. Otherwise, there's no point in switching!
Right idea, Cold. But wrong approach.
Bravo! I'm so pleased to see another blogger, and better still a "gold making" blogger who champions smart profession leveling over power leveling =) I've been saying the same thing to my readers for years. I practice what I preach as well - I'm currently leveling a new Scribe/Alchemist and she gets stuck from time to time because I abhor making junk that doesn't sell. On the flip side she has brought in over 10k gold by making valuable pre-Cata items while she levels instead of costing me money. Thanks for spreading the gospel Cold!
ReplyDeletethere is nothing wrong with powerleveling, but that is not to say that you should craft 40 times an unsellable item. I'll only craft stuff i can sell off for a profit, but i will lvl from 0 / max in one go. Thats what i have 2 guildbanks for. I just grab whatever is there, lvl up an alt that was stuck in mid lvl with mining or herbalism if need be. And rather then selling off the items in the ah, i'll keep them to lvl up a profession. Not leveling up a profession is a waste. Especially when switching. Why would i want to get stuck with a profession in mid range lvls for a week, not making me any profit where right now its maxed out and does make me profit? I'll simply make sure that i have all the mats i need before i start, and might be working on that for multiple weeks prior to changing. But when changing, it is powerleveled.
ReplyDeleteSimilar trying to lvl any crafting profession as you lvl your toon. Worst thing ever. You're better off keeping 2 gather professions on there. The only exception being tailors, for the additional cloth drops.
You can quickly level a profession either a smart way (preplanned) or just a power leveling wasting any amount of gold to get this over with as fast as possible way.
ReplyDeleteOne way is wise and another is foolish.
Often times too many people take the foolish route because it is faster. And profession leveling guides are for people who can't figure out what to make on their own and are gonig to be wasting money. Some of the power leveling recommended items are just for speed leveling. They don't incorporate sellable items.
It is my belief that you should craft as many of the sell-able items on the way to max as you can, even when the skill points are green.
Why not craft Belt Buckles for every Blacksmithing point while it is orange, yellow, AND green until it turns grey?
Oh wait, you power levelers would rather waste gold and max your skill, then go back and craft those belt buckles over and over after they are giving no skill points.
Power leveling is a wasteful way of leveling.
How long do you think all of those server first professions took to make back the extra gold they wasted trying to be the first to earn the title?
Alchemy is easier and cheaper to level than most professions, but you should still level it wisely. Craft potions that you and your alts can use, or that will sell. Don't blindly rush to max skill then go back and craft the same potions for profit that you skipped on the way up.
I'm lazy as hell, so I never would *not* power level my profession. I just go to one of the websites that has a profession guide, buy all the mats required and level it up within an hour.
ReplyDeleteIMO, it's worth it, because the sooner I get that profession maxed, the sooner I can incorporate that profession into my gold making. The 10k-15k it took to power level it is deemed insignificant when that profession will increase my daily profit by 1.5x or 2x.
Though, I won't play flatout ridiculous prices for power leveling. The price of mats has to be somewhat reasonable.
I'm currently in the process of gathering mats to powerlevel Alchemy in place of Mining when I hit 85. I've got plenty of time to go, so what I've done is to incorporate a snatch list for the mats I'll be needing to level and only buy them when they're cheap. Then, when I have maxed my JC and hit 85 I can drop mining and get my Alchemy up right away.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I'm not levelling Alchemy right away while levelling is because I'm on a new server and just started making gold, so I don't have the capital to buy all the mats for 2 professions yet. Also, the xp from gathering is quite nice, and it allows me to level one of my professions with very little extra effort as my character progresses.