Cold's Gold Factory Blogging Carnival June | Applying Real Life Knowledge To The WoW AH

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival

Welcome to the June edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals. These carnivals will continue to take place the 11th day of every month and will be hosted here at Cold's Gold Factory. All World of Warcraft bloggers are welcome to participate and feedback both here and on the original authors' sites is strongly encouraged. So show some support and please leave some feedback in the comments section. These bloggers put a lot of time and hard work into these blogging carnival posts so please let them know what you think of their blogging carnival entries.

If you would like to be included in the next month's carnival, please review the guidelines for Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals and submit your link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of blogging carnival participation at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals. Articles are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this months carnival! And without further ado, I present to you this month's participants answering the question:

Add-On Spotlight:  What Real Life Learnings Have You Been Able To Apply To The World of Warcraft Auction House

Here this month we have a nice collections of tips for helping to take your WoW gold making to another level.  If you are new to the auction house game or are just curious about getting started be sure to listen to your elders. We have gone before you and can teach you many things. 

My first guide, Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery, has been helping a handful of players (51 sold so far) who have already got their fortune card business up and running and are raking in the WoW gold.  Grab your copy now before the price goes up.  Also remember to check out the other great guides in the WoW Gold Guide Shop.  Be sure to check out AuctionHouseJunkies.com for the podcast on making gold hosted by myself and Wes of Capped By Cata.  Goldgrub's Goblin Academy has also opened doors for helping newer gold makers.  Be sure to check the site out!

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How I Learned AH Selling Tactics From Paintball by Wes of Capped By Cata

"Paintball gave me my roots as someone who could identify with an economy. Cycles exist just as much in the resell of paintball equipment as they do in World Of Warcraft."

The Economics of Prison by R9sid9nt9vil of Eviscerated.net

"Finding a market in WoW is a lot like finding a market in prison. You are essentially replacing the dollar for a system that still reflective and in some cases parallel the dollar in all aspects.

In prison, since they banned cigarettes, inmates had to find something else that was of comparable and equal value to use to barter with. "

The Convenience Factor by Epidermuss of WragsToRiches

"This topic peaked my interest and got me thinking quite a bit. One of the biggest things I see in the real world is the need for things now or in the easiest form of getting what you want in the amounts you need. I call this the convenience factor."

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure by Epidermuss of WragsToRiches

"So what does this mean in real world terms and how does it translate to WOW. I’m sure you’ve all seen a scrap man driving around in a truck or a clothing recycler or know of charity shops or even one of the biggest websites on the world-wide web e-bay. all of these people or company’s offer us a chance to reuse or they recycle our unwanted goods, now how does that apply to WOW I can hear you thinking."

Auction House PvP - Do Not Lose Focus by @JimmyDargocey of Bids and Buyouts

"How much time do you spend focusing on your competition? Are you constantly watching what they are doing, when they log, when they post, what other markets they are in? Do you find yourself constantly cancelling auctions and re listing based on what they do on the Auction house? Could this actually be hurting you?"

Keeping Balance Without Spreading Yourself Too Thin... by Gimp of Gimp's Golden Adventure

"I want you as a gold maker to think about your past targets and future ones, and consider how you could balance these actions within your routine, and if there is no balance, maybe you should stop running after the rabbits, as you may just fall down a hole."

 

Using Real Life Theories In WoW by GrayzBDF of WoW or Gold

"I have my integrity, my honor, my principles and my way of doing things. If I find an idea on a blog or in a podcast that I like, but that has a few details that I dislike I just change those details so that they fit me. Adapting is key in gold making as well as being flexible."

Applying What I've Learned by ThriftyDraenei of Herding Elekks

"But in real life, I am not particularly entrepreneurial. I don't sell stuff on eBay or work on commission. I work a 9 to 5. I am mostly fiscally responsible, but I am a compulsive saver. This attitude is great if you're always planning for a rainy day in real life, but not so great when it comes to making gold. I actually have to fight against my severe risk-aversion when I make moves on the AH sometimes."

Power Leveling Professions



WoW Power Leveling Question

 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. 

How Do You Feel About Powerleveling A Toon Or A Profession,
Whether You Are a New Player Or A Hardcore Vet?

Power Leveling Services

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.

Ideal Alts Series | The Solo Raider & World Boss Killer

Ideal Alts Series Concludes

Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

The awesome World of Warcraft character building series on Ideal Alts comes to an end today.  This will be my last installment for this series.  The alt character templates that I came up with are by no means exactly perfect as these ideas are based on my own personal preferences and ideas.  You may tweek them to meet your exact needs.  Hopefully, they have inspired you to make a new alt, with a specific role.  Or they may have given you some ideas for starting your very first alt character!  The great thing about World of Warcraft is the variety between builds and specs and this is no different with the alt characters in WoW.  So have some fun with a new alt, but plan ahead.  I may eventually do a post about some more Ideal Alt ideas, but I also may be opening the Ideal Alts topic idea up to the other bloggers by using it as the WoW gold blogging carnival topic.


Readers:  Is this a topic that you readers would like to see explored further by various bloggers?
Bloggers:  Sound like a good topic for you to do a post on?





Ideal Alts - The Solo Raider & World Boss Killer


The Solo Raider & World Boss Killer is a super fun alt to play.  This is the type of character I play as my main, although my professions are completely different.  This Ideal Alt actually makes an amazing main character and can be a legitimate high end content raider and can  fulfill the solo raider and world boss killer roles as well.

Role:  The Solo Raider's role is to be able to run old raid content, solo old heroic instances, and kill world bosses all by yourself.  The combination of professions will allow for maximizing your raiding ability as well as maximizing two of the best potential gold making professions in the game.  The Dungeon Running Ideal Alt varies greatly from the Solo Raider.  The dungeon runner can't solo raids and is a support character for dungeon groups (since it's a healer).  The solo raider needs to be able to kill and heal itself somehow or it just won't last.

Class:  Deathknight - Blood Tank
Some would go with a Paladin, but to me a deathknight blood tank is the better choice.  Stacking mastery will get you a really nice raid tank that can solo the old raids and world bosses with help from no one.  DKs tend to be faster killers than Protection specced Paladins.  Death Strike buffed with stacked Mastery rating, the ability to heal yourself with deathcoils while Lichborne, and the ability to explode a ghoul for a ton of health make this an awesome self healing damage dealing solo spec for the role of farming old raids.  Having an army  of ghouls as well as a single ghoul and a dancing rune weapon are also excellent additions to your arsenal of abilities.  The various cooldowns are great for mitigation when those big raid boss hits come at you.

Race:  Horde - Tauren  /  Alliance - Night Elf
Really, any race would work.  I would lean towards Night Elf for their Quickness ability which gives an overall 2% more chance for mobs to miss you.  That is a nice bonus when facing raid bosses and world bosses.  On the horde side Tauren is nice for the base health increase, which plays well with death strike too.  You could pick another race for their profession bonus, but once your maxed skill, the bonus has less luster.

Professions:  Jewelcrafting and Enchanting
Enchanting and Jewelcrafting alone are 2 of The Big 3 Professions when used in shuffling, so there is a ton of gold making ability with this combination.  Having 2 of the 3 major shuffling professions on the same character is a huge time saver.  For raiding though, you get extra stats from using the Jewelcrafter only gems and the Enchanter only ring enchantments.  That's a lot of extra Mastery rating to stack to further buff that Death strike.  Enchanting allows you to disenchant anything you come across and both Enchanting and Jewelcrafting allow you access to some of the old patterns / recipes that are BoP or only drop if the profession is present for the kill.

You can also dabble in PvP since you are going to be shuffling items in town for profit.  Shuffling ores takes forever and you can get into the PvP queue while doing your work.  Once you are inside you the battleground you can either help your side try to win the battle (Blood knights are fun and survivable) or you can continue your shuffling inside the battleground while you gain free honor.  Yeah, that won't make you any friends in the battleground, but greedy goblins don't need friends.  You can then turn that free honor in and get some Large Brilliant Shards for your honor or  use that honor to get other enchanting materials from disenchanting items.

Ideal Alt - The Solo Raider & World Boss Killer

• Night Elf
• Deathknight Blood Tank
• Jewelcrafter
• Enchanter
• Extra Powerful Gems
• Extra Ring Enchants
• High Survivability
• Get BoP and Prof Only Recipe Drops
• Farm BoE Epics
• Can Also Be An Awesome Main

WoW Gold Makers Blogging Carnival Tips

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival


Today is a reminder about the World of Warcraft Gold Blogging Carnivals that I host here at Cold's Gold Factory - The Place For Top Notch Free Daily Gold Tips.  The number of entrants to the blogging carnivals hasn't been as great as I would expect it to be this month.  I am still wondering why.

• Is it the topics?  I would like to think that my blogging carnival topics are original, unique, and good topics for carnival participation.  Participants and readers have enjoyed the topics.
• Is it the timeline?  No. I give nearly a full month between topic announcement and entry deadline.  Unlike another site that expects you to get the entry idea done and posted with less than a week warning of the topic announcement.
• Is it the result of too many bloggers listening to a outright blatant liar who does nothing but slander me and my carnival because his is lacking, as is the quality of his site's content due to no one's fault but his own for hiring someone incompetent to manage his site?   Probably.  

Why are so many people listening to this fool?  Because just like any strong dictator, the minute you speak against said leader, he and all his little henchmen come after you.  Why?  Because dictators don't like people that don't agree with them.  They rule by conformity.  Step out of line of the pack of lemmings and you get hammered for being a non-supporter.  Who likes being held under the authority of a dictator?  Say one free-thought comment on Twitter against the dictator's camp or his henchmen and a wave of attacks comes.  When it boils down to it, it's just that they have more people in their camp.  What really does that matter though?

I recall one young Israelite that faced the massive army of the Philistines and their Pagan leader, Goliath.

Just be careful Mr. Dictator.  Pride goeth before a fall.

Why You Should Be Participating In The Blogging Carnival

1. Exposure - Guest Posting and Carnival Participation are 2 of the best ways to get new readers.  Maybe those new readers will turn into subscribers, buyers, or commentors.
2. Page Ranks - You Link to the Carnival which grows that page's rank with Google.  The Carnival links to you, which helps your site's page rank.  It's a win-win.  As we both grow in ranking, we help build each others rank.  As my site ranks higher, all sites I link to rank higher.  My largest traffic source every day is from Google/Yahoo/Bing searches.  That means new readers end up here first before they find other sites.  I don't have to leech my traffic from other sites, but when starting out that is a great way to start building your reader base.  You can benefit from my SEO practices when people search and end up coming to my site first, where do they go next?  Better chance of getting a referral from here, if you are actually participating in the carnivals, guest posting, and leaving intellegent comments.
3. Build Relationships - Carnival Participants read each others posts.  Continued participation and exposure in the Blogging Carnivals helps to build your authority and reader base, but also can get you that foot in the door you are looking for to be submitting guest posts to others sites.  
4. Topic Ideas - Blogging on a daily basis is by no means easy.  The topic for the carnival is your free idea for a daily post.  Stuck on what to write about next?  Why?  You haven't written a carnival entry yet!
5. Fun & Revisits - The readers love these carnivals as they are a great exposure to many opinions of the same topic.  These are some of the most read and re-visited posts throughout the year, not just the day of the Blogging Carnival.  So your post for 1 day for the carnival will get your traffic through the year as readers visit the Blogging Carnival tab.

So quit listening to the liar of all liars and get those entries in!  The June blogging carnival topic at Cold's Gold Factory can be found with this link.  

Don't you want to be linked from a site that is continually growing?

Traffic Graph

Don't you readers prefer to have more than just a handful of entries each month?

Ideal Alts Series | The Low Level Dungeon Farmer

Ideal Alts Series Continues On

The series of creating Ideal Alts continues today with another entry - The Low Level Dungeon Farmer.  This is the 4th installment in the Series on Ideal Alts.  If you are looking for ideas for a new character or swapping professions be sure to dig into this great series.

Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

The Low Level Dungeon Farmer

Role:  The Low Level Dungeon Farmer varies greatly from The Dungeon Farmer.  The Dungeon Farmer focuses on profiting from the high end dungeons and heroic dungeons.  The Low Level Dungeon Farmer requires a separate set of skills to match the goal of farming the low level dungeons most effectively.  The goal is to farm lower dungeons for prime items and materials in as fast as effectively as possible.

Class:  Rogue
One of the big differences between the current Cataclysm level dungeons and the lower level versions is the lack of chests within the Cataclysm dungeon content.  The low level dungeons have a lot more chances to spawn chests within the instances and some of those chests are locked.  Without a rogue (or a pricier option blacksmith lockpicking or an engineering lockpicker) all of the locked chests will be unable to be looted.  So a rogue is the Ideal Alt for the access to all locked instance chests.  The BoE blues and recipes items that can be found within these chests cannot be overlooked.  The ability to stealth undetected directly to instance bosses is a great benefit.  Pickpocketing can also add a slight boost to earnings.

Race:  Horde - Troll / Alliance - Worgen
Not many of the races have racial traits that help a rogue character, but Worgen is definately the ideal choice for any skinner.  The extra 1% crit is nice on a rouge too along with a 2nd sprint-like ability in Darkflight.  The Troll does get 5% extra damage to beasts and has regeneration and bow and thrown weapon bonuses.  That as good as it will get for the Horde racial options for a rogue.

Professions:  Enchanting and Skinning
Enchanting is a must.  The whole reason for farming dungeons is mainly for 4 things:  Enchanting Materials, Cloth, Blues and Recipes.  There is no bonus for being a tailor in the lower level dungeons.  Lower end dungeons don't have many herbs or mineral veins when compared to skinnable mobs, so Skinning is the ideal choice for a 2nd farming profession for the lower instances.  There are some super profitable farming spots for skinners within instances.  One of the best spots for gathering Rugged Leather in Cataclysm is inside of Dire Maul.  Rugged Leather brings a premium price these days on the auction house.

Worgen Rogue Low Level Dungeon Farmer

Ideal Alts - The Low Level Dungeon Farmer

• Worgen
• Rogue
• Enchanter
• Skinner
• Stealth Right To Bosses
• Sprint + Darkflight - Super Speed Buffs
• Can Pick Locked Chest
• Pickpocketing
• Option to Disenchant Anything
• +15 Skinning Skill
• Faster Skinning
• +1% Crit
• Get In, Get Out, And Repeat

Ideal Alts Series | The Herder AoE Farmer

Ideal Alts Series - The Herder

Ideal Alts Series

We've already discussed The Dungeon Farmer and The Collector, which are both excellent options for your factory of alts.  If I were a new player looking to make my first alt new character today, The Collector would be the type of character I would make.  It is an excellent choice for expanding into both the pet and recipe flipping markets as well as the Inscription market selling glyphs and Mysterious Fortune Cards.  Both can be excellent income sources for any gold making player.  Today's Ideal Alt is focusing on The Ideal AoE Farmer Alt - The Herder.

Ideal Alt - The Herder

This was once a very fun alt character for me.  It was a lot of fun during Burning Crusade when this type of character was my main, before I switched to my current Deathknight main character. 

Role:  The Herder - is a farming character, but is a farming specialist.  The Herder can round up large numbers of mobs and survive the onslaught while killing wave after wave of humanids, dragonkin, beasts and more with the AoE abilities and the healing skills that Herders possess.  The Herder is the farmer that doesn't kill things one at a time.  They kill things 5, 10, 20 at a time.  Herders looking for locations with mobs that are closely packed together or in groups.  This allows for maximum benefit for the AoE abilities they posses.

Class:  Paladin is in my opinion the best AoE farmer for an Ideal Alt.  Many players may choose a Mage as the best AoE farming alt, but I disagree.  You can overcome one of the major drawbacks of using the Paladin, it's short range, with one of the profession selections.  A Paladin has some excellent AoE abilities as well as some stacking-DoTs and has the survivability to endure the major damage received as a Herder Alt.  You will be Protection specced similar to a tank, but with talents focusing on mobility as well as AoE damage and survivability.  Something similar to a 0/31/10 Paladin Herder Build would be what you are aiming for.

Race:  Horde - Tauren  / Alliance - Dwarf 
The Tauren is the ideal choce for the extra 5% base health and the AoE stun Warstomp.  Dwarfs are another good option for Stoneform.

Professions:  Goblin Engineering and Skinning
By giving this Ideal AoE Farming Alt Goblin Engineering, we can both further increase the AoE damage and stunning options and also greatly increase the pulling distance with the Engineer Only Rockets.  The Engineer only extra shield belt attachment as well as the rocket speed boost are also excellent additions to the increased survivability and mobility that The Herder Ideal Alt is centered on. 

Skinning because you are a farming character and the sheer numbers of mobs you can kill in quick order make skinning a much better farming option then mining or herbalism.  Then again, you could choose Tailoring over Skinning if your main purpose was cloth farming off of humanoids.  As a Tailor you would get extra cloth from your Cloth Scavenging ability once you hit Northrend.

This is really a fun Ideal Alt to play as you can herd up massive numbers of creatures, zap ones that are far away with your rocket, speed boost for faster herdings of even larger herds of mobs, and tons of other fun tricks.  Creating massive trains of mobs that all stack around you is a lot of fun, especially once you start to take those massive numbers of attacks all at once.  Better burn em down quick!

As an Engineer you have plenty of ways to empty your bags without leaving your farming spot either.  Toss in a Traveler's Tundra Mammoth and you may never need to even go to town.  If you decide to go with this Herder Alt build, you can really do some amazing things with an item like a Demon-Forged Breastplate and a Skullflame Shield.  I would try to collect those 2 items for the alt before I started leveling it.  Trust me, you can do some amazing pulls with built in drains.  You have so many mobs pounding on you at once, that there are soo many RNG rolls for the proc that a lot of times you will visually see them procc multiple times each pull.  Once you get the correct level and reputation, upgrade your shield to the Petrified Lichen Guard with a Shield Spike and it gets even nastier.  Those poison DoTs stack up and inflict the many attackers that are already on your Consecration, while you Hammer them down.  This build is all about letting the mobs kill themselves in addition to the AoE damage.  It is possible to lose you connection and log back in to all dead mobs surrounding you.

Ideal Alt - The Herder AoE Farmer

• Tauren
• Protection Paladin (0/31/10)
• Engineer
• Skinner
• Survival Specialist
• AoE Specialist
• Ground and Mounted Mobility Specialist
• Massive Kills per Hour
• Independent - Engineering Services
• Engineering Portals to Northrend Farming Zones
• Loot-a-Rang - Ranged Looting and Engineering Utility
• Engineering Pet Seller
• Can Farm Anything Mob Related
• Also great option for Profitng From GlowCaps since you want the Sporeggar reputation shield anyways.

Be sure to check out the other entries in the Ideal Alts Series and catch Wes and I discussing them on The Auction House Junkies | WoW Gold Makers Podcast.

Who has a different option for an Ideal Alt that is a Herder AoE Farmer?

Ideal Alt - Tank AoE Herder

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Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

Ideal Alts Series - The Collector

Ideal Alts Series Continues

Today we have another installment in the series on Ideal Alt World of Warcraft Characters.  This series is geared to give you some ideas on various types of alternate characters to add to your World of Warcraft gold making arsenal, or the Gold Factory as I call it.  Here we are taking a look at some of the roles that your alts may perform.  We are looking to maximize the benefits of each specific type of these Ideal Alts to get the most out of each individual character slot, since we are limited to 10 characters per server (per account).  Yesterday I discussed the Ideal Alt - The Dungeon Farmer and today we will be looking into another Ideal Alt - The Collector.

Ideal Alts - The Collector

Role:  The collector is an important alt character in many gold making line-ups.  The collector is an alt that has the sole duty of traveling around and collecting items to sell on the auction house.  This ideal alt is not a farmer.  The collector is strictly a buyer.  He is a buyer of vendor sold goods.  He collects items from npc vendors to flip on the auction house for a nice profitable mark-up.

Class:  This one is a no brainer.  Which class is the most portable (No pun intended)?  The Mage class is far superior to any other option.  Mages can port to the major cities in a few seconds, thus making them the absolute ideal class for your Collector Alt.

Race:  Horde:  Goblin - Alliance: Any would work fine, but I lean towards Worgen for their Darkflight racial ability, which would assist in running to and from various vendors.  Goblins are an easy choice as they get the Best Deals Anywhere (20% off all reputation linked items) and Pack Hobgoblin (1 minute of bank access every 30 minutes) racial bonuses.  Pack Hobgoblin is a great help when out purchasing large quantities of items in remote locations with no mailbox access.

Professions:  Engineering and Inscription.  Engineering is an awesome addition to a mage's portal library as being an Engineer is sorta like being a ghetto mage.  Mages can teleport to many cities, but an Engineer can port himself to a lot of wilderness locations in Northrend via the Dimensional Ripper.  Depending on your engineering specialization choice, you can also use an engineering transport to get to Toshley's Station and Gadgetzan (if Gnomish Engineer) or Area 52 and Everlook (if Goblin Engineer).  Since your main role is to travel around and grab items to flip and some of those items are in remote locations, having a Mage who is also an Engineer is by far the most mobile of all character options.  And while you are in those remote locations you can use your Zappthrottle Mote Extractor while in Outlands and Northrend for free primals and eternals.

Any of the other professions would work alongside Engineering, but I chose Inscription as the best 2nd profession for The Collector Ideal Alt.  Why?  Because your main job as The Collector is to gather items to flip for profit then post on the auction house.  This means you will be spending a great deal of time within cities, so barking is a great secondary income source.  You're going to be in a lot of cities, so you can bark Mysterious Fortune Cards and make a killing like I do. 

So we have came up with the best combination for a Collector type of Ideal Alt, whose main role is to travel around and collect items to buy from vendors and sell for a profit.  This character would be ideal for getting into recipe flipping, selling vanity pets (like Winterspring Cub), sporregar cooking recipes, and tons more!  The engineering choice is excellent as a goblin spec engineer can port to Area 52, look for Adamantite Frames and Khorium Power Cores on the engineer vendor, then can fly to Stormspire to pick up companion pets.  The Engineer also gets quick and easy access to the Scholazar Basin Oracles' Egg for hatching your way to easy gold.

Ideal Alts - The Collector

• Goblin
• Mage
• Engineer
• Scribe
• Mage Portals and Engineering Portals - Most mobile of all characters
• Forged Documents Daily
• Mysterious Fortune Card Barker
• Pet Seller
• Recipe Flipper
• Glowcap Investor
• Zapthrottle's Mote Extrator for free primals and eternals while traveling
• Dimensional Portal chance for access to the rare undergound vendor in Dalaran
• Glyph Seller
• Engineering Pet Crafter
• Fast Access to a Neutral AH (to buy and sell cross faction pets)
• 20% off reputation linked vendors
• Goblin banking every 30 minutes
• Engineering access to mailbox, vendors, and bank access in the wild
• Plenty of ways to profit with The Collector Ideal Alt

Anyone have a better combination?

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Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

Ideal Alts Series | The Dungeon Farmer

Ideal Alts Series

Today is the first entry into the series on Ideal Alts here at Cold's Gold Factory.  The purpose of this series is to give you readers an idea for some of your alts to help tweek and tailor your gold making army.  I made my characters a long long time ago and I wish I would have thought them out more clearly.  So you readers get to benefit from my knowledge and my mistakes.

Everyone has a main character, some have a bank alt, but what are all of the others?  What role do they have?  Here's the first idea to get you thinking.  Let's start building some Ideal Alts for your own personal gold factory.

The Dungeon Farmer

Role:  This Ideal Alt only runs dungeons and heroic dungeons, not old dungeon farming for enchanting mats.  This alt is a master of getting the most out of current dungeon content.  The dungeon farmer is an ideal alt to have in your World of Warcraft character arsenal.  The dungeon farmer is designed to help make the most of running dungeons and turning those dungeon runs into profits.

Class:  Resto Druid - We want either a healer or a tank as the ideal dungeon farming character so they can take advantage of instant queues.  Being a healer or a tank also opens up the Call to Arms bonus Satchel of Exotic Mysteries.  We are going to kick the tank idea for dungeon speed running purposes.  Healer it is.  Tank won't mesh with all the other options that require being in the back of the pack of dungeon running characters.  Druid is the best choice because they tend to have the shortest downtime between pulls.  We are maximizing every aspect of this Ideal Alt the best we can.

Race:  Horde:  Any  / Alliance:  Worgen (For speed skinning)

Professions:  Tailoring and Skinning.  Why not enchanting?  Let someone else bring the enchanter.  If you are a low level dungeon runner farming enchanting materials thats cool, but this is a max level dungeon runner.  Every dungeon has humanoids and some also have skinnable mobs.  Having a tailor allows you to scavenge extra cloth off of humanoids after others have looted.  Having a skinner allows you to skin a lot of mobs within dungeons including some of the dungeon bosses, which drop great loot when skinned.

Both skinning and tailoring go hand in hand for a dungeon farming alt because they both require you to hang around after the fight waiting for others to loot.  This goes perfect with being a healer who already hangs out in the back of the party and being a druid minimizes the downtime between fights, so you have time to skin and loot your extra cloth.  And if you are a Worgen you get a speed bonus to your skinning!  Another bonus of being a tailor is that you will be eligible to roll on the BoP Chaos Orbs.  You can use those Chaos Orbs to craft high end gear or save them in hopes they become tradeable in a future WoW patch.  As a tailor you can be used outside the dungeons to craft netherweave bags, Dreamcloth, Spellthreads, Rich Purple Silk Shirts, etc.

So in my opinion, the absolute best combination for creating an Ideal Alt - Dungeon Farmer would be a Worgen Druid with Skinning and Tailoring.  Here's a quick review of the bonuses of this combination.

Dungeon Farming Ideal Alt

• Worgen Druid
• Tailor
• Skinner
• Free extra cloths via scavenging
• Free hides, leathers, scraps, dragonscales, volatiles (from inside Bloated Sacs that skinners get), etc.
• Worgen Skinning Speed Boost
• Healer
• Instant or Fast Queues
• Call to Arms Eligible
• Free pets and mounts, etc. from the Satchel of Exotic Mysteries
• Chaos Orb eligible
• Can sell spellthreads and high end tailoring items
• Netherweave bag seller
• Dreamcloth cooldowns
• Perfect!

Anyone have a better combination for farming dungeons?

Anyone already have a dungeon running Worgen Druid Tailor Skinner?

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Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

Ideal Alts Series | Building A Better Bank Alt

Hagor

Building A Better Bank Toon

My good friend Wes of The Auction House Junkies Podcast ran a nice series on his great World of Warcraft gold making site CappedByCata.com.  Wes's 3 part series was on Building a Better Bank Toon and covered an area that a lot of players forget about.  There are some interesting ideas in the comments as well of those posts.  So if you haven't read Wes's series yet, make sure to check it out.

Wes's Building A Better Banker Series

• Part 1: To Level or Not to Level?
• Part 2: Choosing the Best Class
• Part 3: Professions?

I had left a comment on the original post asking what was a bank alt.  It was a serious question as I don't consider any of my alts to be a bank alt. 

Cold said...

I'm confused a bit.

What's a bank alt? I don't think I have one.

I have 9 characters that are all levelers, crafters, and gatherers. They all list items on the auction house, gather mail, etc. They mail items to each other. They have multiple guild banks for storage.

I guess the closest thing I have to a bank alt would be my Twink I am working on. Since he's just a liquidator of guild overstocked items at the moment.

Ideal Alts

Then I realized that I haven't had a bank alt character in quite some time, or at least what I would consider to be a bank alt.  I thought about the idea more and realized that while I do have 10 characters that all contribute (well the twink isn't a contributor, so 9), they all have specific functions.  They all operate as a link in the chain that runs the Gold Factory.  When I look at the alts I created, I know that I could have done a much better job of tweeking out their roles with better combinations.  Many of the reasons for certain combinations have changed, as Blizzard is always making changes.  So a once great combination, may not be the most wanted currently.

So I am going to be starting a new set of posts here at Cold's Gold Factory on some ideal combinations for your alts based on specific functions that they perform.  Some of the posts will be based off my current characters.  Others may highlight a great combination for those of you looking to start leveling some alts.  What to do with alts? is a very common question I am asked.  These posts should help to steer some of you with ideas and roles.

So check out Wes's post at CappedbyCata on Building a Better Banker and come back tommorrow for the first installment of Ideal Alts.  I will be talking about an Ideal Alts : The Dungeon Farmer.
See Ya Then!

-Cold

PS:  Hagor says go check out Goldgrub's Goblin Academy.  An All*Star Staff of bloggers and podcasters waiting to teach young goblins and new players in World of Warcraft.

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Ideal Alts Series

• Ideal Alts Series Intro | Wes’s Building A Better Bank Alt
• The Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Heroic Farming Alt
• The Collector – An Ideal Vendor Flipping and Pet Selling Alt
• The Herder – An Ideal AoE Farmer Alt
• The Low Level Dungeon Farmer – An Ideal Alt For Farming Low Level Instances
• The Solo Raider and World Boss Killer

Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Daily Quest Bonus

Supplying Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Dailies

The Shuffling of Obsidium Ores leads to a mass quantity of uncut raw uncommon Cataclysm gems.  These gems can be used to craft jewelry for disenchanting, can be used to transmute rare gems with the help of a transmutation specialization Alchemist, or one of the other many avenues that lead to profit.  One of the easiest as most reliable options is to sell the gems needed for the Jewelcrafting Daily quests on the day of the quest.

The 3 Jewelcrafting Dailies To Profit From

• Nibbler No! - Sell singles and stacks of 3 Zephyrites.
• A Present For Lila - Sell singles and stacks of 3 Nightstones.
• Ogrezonians In The Mood - Sell singles and stacks of 3 Jaspers.

Gem Auction Durations

One thing that I find odd is that the majority of players will only put their gems for the JC dailies up for 12 hour durations, maybe a 24 hour duration if posted very early in the morning.  I'm assuming that players believe their gems will be undercut before they sell, so they save the auction house deposit costs by using the shorter auction duration.  They also are listing with the shorter duration because each day the Jewelcrafting Daily Quest changes at midnight.  So there is no point to posting your gems for jewelcrafting quests longer than 24 hours.  Or is there?

There are 5 Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Daily Quests, but only 3 of them require the uncommon Cataclysm gems.  The days these are great for unloading a nice volume of uncut gems for nice prices, but why only post for 12-24 hours?  There are reasons that you should be allowing some of those stacks of gems to overlap into the next day.

Reasons You Should Post The JC Daily Gems For Longer Durations

• Stragglers - Some people will forget to do their quest even though they already picked it up.  so they will be completing yesterday's JC quest today.
• Leveling Jewelcrafters - Nightstone is a decent seller on most days as it is one of the first required to level the profession.  Other gems are used by levelers and other crafters.
• Back-To-Back Quest Days - The same quest will show up on consecutive days.  By the 2nd day in a  row, a lot of the gems have been sold and there are slim pickings left on the auction house.  The back to back sales days help to dry up some of the competitor's stock and also help to increase the value.

For these reasons you may want to consider adjusting your post times a little longer.  I tend to make a nice chunk of sales for the gems from the previous days quests and make an absolute killing when the quests run back to back.

Last week on my server saw the Nibbler No! quest 5 days in a row, and 6 of the 7 days of the week were this same quest.  Talk about clearing out some back stock of Zephyrites for hefty prices!

Recap Of Popular May CGF Posts

Welcome Back!

Welcome to all of my new and returning readers!  Each month I do a recap of the month before and highlight 10 gold posts or gold guides that appeared during the previous month.  I highlight the top 5 most popular and the 5 with the most comments / best discussion.  Comments have been down a bit, since I turned off "anonymous" commenting, but the quality is still great.  It does save me having to delete some spam and helps keeps the idiots from commenting.  (No offense to any anon commentors that have a legit reason to be anonymous.)

WoW Gold Post And Guides Recap

Last month, we had a special announcement regarding the scandalous practices of Markco of JMTC that saw a lot of page views as well as comments.  More comments (71) than have ever been on a single post here at Cold's Gold Factory.  Neither traffic, nor comments were motivations for the post.  They were just a side-effect of the public service announcement. 

Most Popular Gold Posts From May

• Patch 4.2 Engineering Love - Learn about the Engineering crafted epic gun and new scopes coming in Patch 4.2.
• Zul'Aman Amani Hex Sticks Since Patch 4.1 - Amani Hex Sticks made it through the Zul'Aman dungeon changes from Patch 4.1, but they are now unbound and are able to be traded and sold on the auction house.  This is where you farm for Sealed Scroll Cases.
• Don't Stockpile For WoW Patch 4.2 Just Yet - Great post with great comments here.  The initial reminder about the summer market cycle that begins when schools start to let out.  I'm not stockpiling for Patch 4.2 until the schools get out and prices that to tank.
• Epic Gems Guest Post | Gem Stacking in Patch 4.2 - A guest post by newcomer Shikari of Shikari's AH.  First guest post to make a Top 5.  Bloggers: Guest posts are always welcome.
• 2 Types Of Auction House Buyers - A lesson on Purchasers versus Shoppers and supplying the needs of both types of AH Buyers.

Gold Posts / Guides With The Most Discussion From May

• Twilight Highlands Vendors Nerfed - Nearly all the exclusive vendors in the Twlight Highlands Cataclysm zone are no longer exclusive. Vendors selling the same recipes and cogwheels are now available in major cities. This means you can get the Cataclysm level high end crafting recipes at character level 75 now. Bummer.
• Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery | WoW Gold Guide - This was the post I launched my WoW Gold Guide.  Take note.  This is in the Discussion Section of the Monthly Recap.  The comments section is a great journey and testimonial.
• Realm Gold Add-On For WoW - This add-on spotlight was aimed at a nice little add-on I enjoy using - Realm Gold.  Adds up the total gold on all of my characters.  Love It.
• Forged Documents Dailies For Gold - The cost to craft has been lowered, thus making these profitable to craft.  Only can make one per day though.
• Bank Item Decay and Banking Neglect - Are You Neglecting Your Banks?  Is it a Stockpile or Are You A Hoarder?

So dig in and enjoy.  Get caught up, if you're new. 

Image Credit:  http://wyrdscience.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/cartoon-lemming1.jpg

Enchant Gloves - Major Agility | Wrath Enchant Still Sells

The Wrath Enchant Still Selling

There are still a few enchants from the Wrath of the Lich King era that are still selling on the auction house in World of Warcraft.  One of those old Wrath of the Lich King enchants that is still worth selling as a scroll is the Enchant Gloves - Major Agility enchantment.  The Enchant Gloves - Major Agility scroll adds +20 Agility to a piece of handworn gear.  Who would buy this old Wrath level enchant when there are new enchants from the Cataclysm WoW expansion?

Hunters
Hunters have very few options for glove enchants.  They can get a Cataclysm enchant for either +50 Haste or +50 Mastery rating, but many hunters still go for the old +20 Agility enchant.  A search over at WoWPopular for hunter glove enchants shows that Haste is the most popular hunter enchant for gloves, winning with 6 stars.  Both the +50 Mastery and +20 Agility enchants are almost as popular with 4 star rankings each for hunters.  There are also a few Feral Druids that could pick up this enchant as well.

So if you are looking for a way to move a few Dream Shards and Greater Celestial Essences, consider adding the Enchant Gloves - Major Agility scroll to your enchanting auction house business.  Or if you are leveling your enchanting skill through the Wrath levels of enchanting, be sure to craft a few of these as part of your common commodity crafting approach to leveling your Enchanting profession.

What other Wrath of the Lich King Enchants are still selling?

For Those Who Came Before Us

Memorial Day

When you are sitting around drinking beer and cooking over the grill, remember that today is Memorial Day.  Remember those that fought for our freedom.  Remember those that came and have gone before us.  Today at Cold's Gold Factory, we pay homage to a blast from the World of Warcraft past.  You newer players can get a glimpse at an iconic clip from old school World of Warcraft players.

May they not be forgotten.

More Dots!

Back in Vanilla when the Onyxia raid was a blast, a single Deep Breath could wipe damn near the entire party.  Here is a clip of the More Dots raid leader leading his guild into the Onyxia raid.  The animation was added later, but the original was a recorded vent chat guild run.  Enjoy the show!