MoP Era Expansion Twinking | 80 Is The New 70



MoP Era WoW Battle Chest

 Expansion Twinking In Mists of Pandaria

The playfield has recently changed completely in a specific twinking specialization bracket: Expansion Twinks.  Catering to PvP Twinks of all brackets can be very lucrative, especially if you have a large Twink community on your WoW server.  So with the recent major change to the Expansion Twink bracket, some auction house tactics need to be adjusted.

What Is Expansion Twinking?

Expansion Twinking is a specific style of Twinking that requires the lack of the more recent expansions.  With the current PvP Battleground System, a Twink character must turn off their experience level in order to prevent leveling out of their chosen PvP Battleground level bracket.  If a player has a WoW account that does not have all of the WoW expansion upgrades, then their character is capped at a certain level based on which expansion upgrades have been applied to their account.  That's where Expansion Twinking comes in.  An Expansion Twink is simply a Twink character that is on an account that does not have all of the WoW expansions.  This results in a Twink character that cannot gain XP (due to the level cap for not having an expansion), which means the character also does not have to turn off XP in the battlegrounds.  The Expansion Twinks are able to reek havoc on the battlefields due to being able to join regular battlegrounds instead of the XP off battlegrounds that other Twinks are forced to join. 

Until just recently, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest only included WoW plus Burning Crusade, which left level 70 as the most common Expansion Twink Bracket.  Since the last WoW patch, some players in that bracket were unexpectedly leveling out of their level 70 and forced to abandon the level 70 twinking career.  What went wrong?  Blizzard changed up the standard WoW Battle Chest.  The current MoP Era WoW Battle Chest now includes WoW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King.  While a level 70 character can remain twinking at level 70, that character must now pay to turn off their XP to do so, thus they are no longer an Expansion Twink.  The new Expansion Twink Bracket will be at Level 80, since players without any WoW expansions will be able to play through Wrath of the Lich King, since it is now part of the standard WoW Battle Chest.

Profiting From The New Expansion Twink Bracket

The biggest change I would make regarding profiting from this change to Expansion Twinking is in regards to selling level 77-80 Cata Greens.  This change instantly increases the value of any of the 77-80 Cataclysm gear pieces.  Due to the increased amount of stats on these pieces, they are no longer just for leveling characters.  Expansion Twinks will also be seeking out the best pieces to wear as they continue leveling within the battlegrounds.  Once the Expansion Twinks hit level 80, they can continue their gear acquisation, but most of the level 80 green gear from Cata drops are going to be better than the top end Wrath gear, including most epics. 

So if you are already in the market of flipping level 77-80 Cata greens, then it's time to raise the prices on the best gear, especially any lvl 80 BoE Cata gear with +Stamina and +Primary Stat.  Don't sell yourself short, bump the prices up and make more gold per sale.  Now level 80 blue gear with great stats combos, especially gear with gem slots, will be able to sold for a premium price as Expansion Twinks can use that Blue Cata gear and add Cata gems as well.  There will also continue to be a niche market for the level 80 useable Enchants, Gems, and Belt Buckles, etc.

Twinking.Net

If you are into Twinking or are looking to get started, be sure to check out the newer site Twinking.net, which is a twinking dedicated site ran by Inkobah, an old guest poster and friend of the site here at Cold's Gold Factory.

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Check out some of my Squidoo lenses:  Alliance Vs Horde - Come Vote! | Diablo 3 Gifts For Gamers | Getting Started Podcasting 101 | Play Money by Julian Dibble | Auction House Junkies | Fluxx - My Fav Card Game

Recommended Guides: Secret Gold Guide | Journal of Marcus Ty | WoW Secrets

Surprise Markets Of Cataclysm - May Gold Blogging Carnival

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnivals

Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival - 2012

Welcome to another 2012 edition of Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival. 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 tell them what you think.

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 live post link via email (ssmith0911 at live dot com) before the 10th of the month. Read up on the benefits of participating in blogging carnivals at my other blog designed to help new bloggers, Blogging Vitals.  (Lots of tips for those of you starting out or interested in blogging.)  Articles for the CGF carnival are listed in the order they are received. Thank you to all the bloggers participating in this months carnival!

If you are not a blogger, you can still participate in the monthly carnivals as you can have a post hosted at Goldgrubs.com.  Now I present to you this month's participants answering the question:

Looking Back Throughout The Cataclysm Expansion:

What Was A Niche Market That You Were Suprised To Find Or That You Did Better Than Expected In During Cataclysm?

Selling Level 81 Greens by Farli of The Overcut


Most Surprising Cata Market: Nightmare's Tear by Cold of Cold's Gold Factory

My Surprise Cataclysm Niche Market by Nev of Auction House Addict

Thanks again to all of this month's participants.  Be sure to check back later for next month's carnival topic and remember to look for next month's gold blogging carnival on the 11th.  If you have a topic idea, don't be afraid to send it in.  We may use your idea, which will get you proper credit as well.  

Until next month,

Happy Diablo 3 Launch Week!

Come Vote and Comment On What Class You Are Starting With In Diablo 3.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

How To Make Gold During End Of Expansion Lulls | Up & Down Markets

How To Make WoW Gold During The End Of The Expansion

Cataclysm has ran it's course.  The final Cataclysm content patch has already been deployed to live servers for a while now.  The servers are less busy.  Competition is less fierce in many markets.  End game raids are being conquered.  Players are taking time off until Mists of Pandaria launches.  Welcome to the lull that we see at every expansion's end.  The Diablo 3 release date has been announced, so we can expect to see even more of a decline in the WoW population once Diablo 3 launches in 2 months. 

With the expansion ending the players activities in game tend to change.  Understanding how these changes affect the demand for items on the WoW auction house, will help you to supply items in the markets with increased demand.  Staying out of or cutting back on other markets may be a wise choice this late in the expansion.  Remember that every server is unique and not all server's will follow the same trends, but there are many similarities that can be generalized.  Let's look deeper at how to make gold during the end of an expansion.

Increased Demand Markets

These are markets that always see an increase in demand.  This increased demand can result in more sales and / or higher purchase prices.

1. Netherweave, Frostweave, & Embersilk Bags - Bored players are rolling new alts.  These leveling characters need bags and many can afford the more expensive bags instead of just the standard NW Bags.
2. Profession Bags - New characters pick up new profesions and they need bags too.
3. Profession Leveling Items / Choke Point Materials - The materials needed to level a profession are good sellers as players are leveling their alts up prior to the expansion, when it will become more expensive.
4. Blacksmithing Rods For Enchanters - Enchanting Rods and their required materials are a good seller as players roll Enchanting alts and need the rods to level up.
5. Vanity Items - The combination of less things to do and less items to buy, leads to larger gold reserves.  Players with extra gold are more willing to spend that gold on high ticket vanity items like companion pets, mounts, and gear for transmogrification.
6. Glyphs - New alts and returning Scroll of Resurrection 80's need glyphs.
7. BoA / Twink Enchants - New characters with new BoA gear for leveling quickly will buy up the BiS enchants for the heirloom gear.  These same enchants are good for twink characters and twinking is always more popular during expansions lulls when players are bored and trying new things.

Decreased Demand Markets

The decreased demand markets can get ugly in no time.  As demand dries up, you see less sales.  As less sales are made, undercutting amongst competition gets worse and drives the prices down.  Those items that do sell, end up selling for less gold per sale.

1. Raid Consumables - Flasks, Foods, Potions etc. as they aren't required for LFR and more players are beating the end raid content.  Also summer is coming and WoW raid teams tend to fall apart during summer vacations.
2. End Game Upgrades - Gems, Enchants, Belt Buckles, etc. will lose demand the closer we get to Mists of Pandaria. 
3. Darkmoon Faire Cards, Decks, Trinkets, & Inferno Ink - They have dropped enough already, but the value will continue to decline.  Inferno Ink is already a damn near dead market and it will only get worse.
4. Last Tier of Raw Materials - Cata Ores, Herbs, And Leathers will all drop in value as more players are on alts and are gathering while they level.  A drop in player population also means less buyers, which contributes to auction house flooding by bots and ultimately leads to drops in prices.  You may already be seeing the prices trending downwards on your server.

Expansions End Is Stockpiling Time

There are many factors that lead to the dropping in prices of raw materials at the end of an expansion.  It never fails.  Remember the great market crashes prior to Cataclysm? The prices will drop as more players pick up gathering professions on alts or are out in the World of Warcraft leveling new characters or Ideal Alts.  Less players will be requiring the materials as the prices of the end products are dropping with less demand.  When the prices start to bottom out and reach their lowest points, it is time to build your stockpile for going into the new Mists of Pandaria expansion.  Stay tuned for the next Gold Blogging Carnival here at Cold's Gold Factory, where the discussion topic is on Stockpiling and Inflation Hedging for MoP.

The discussion in the comments is getting good.  
Be sure to weigh in with your own opinions or share your experiences.

Enjoy The Posts Here at Cold's Gold Factory? Check Out Cold's Mysterious Fortune Card Mastery Gold Making Guide. Also Check Out My New Favorite All Around WoW Gold Making Guide and J!inx - Clothing For Gamers And Geeks.

Embersilk Farming In Deepholme In Cataclysm

Embersilk Cloth Farming in Deepholme

Leveling My Enchanter / Tailor

I am making a push to level 84 on my tailor who is also my enchanter.  Right now she stands at character level 83.75 and I soon will be able to visit the Twilight Highlands vendors for both Enchanting and Tailoring.  There will be a wave of sales in the Enchanting market as players will be replacing gear with the release of new content.  I need to hit level 84 before Patch 4.1.

Major patches always bring in a larger number of players and sales across many markets will peak during at least the first week.  So this is why I have been pushing hard for level 84.  I want to take advantage of the gear replacement, re-enchanting, re-gemming craze to the fullest.  By getting my enchanter to the Level 84 where she can buy the high end patterns, prior to the Patch 4.1, is a must in order to accomplish this. 

Embersilk Farming in SW Deepholme

In Southwestern Deepholme is a nice spot to grind and farm Embersilk Cloth.  There is a great battle taking place  between the dwarves and troggs.  These Earthen Chapions and War Constructs will fight on your side attacking the enemy Stone Trogg Beserkers and Stone Trogg Geomancers.  You can get a lot of experience, if you come here while leveling at level 82, once Deepholme unlocks.  Since the dwarfs will acts as tanks, this location is very nice for herding and farming the mobs together and finishing them off with AoE spell damage.  you can even run around and loot all of the Embersilk Cloth during the battle. 

So I have been using my warlock tailor and have been gathering hefty amounts of Embersilk Cloth to also level with tailoring skill at the same time.  Instead of just mindlessly following the quests for gear that will be replaced from anything that drops in a dungeon, I have been farming the hell out of these Stone Troggs all up and down the SW perimeter of Deepholme.  Bolting up what I collect, looting, spamming DoTs on mobs everywhere, while continuing to be in combat.    The more damage you do to these mobs, the more experience you will earn for the kills.  As long as you do some damage, you will be able to loot them.  It really is a great spot to level and farm Embersilk Cloth at the same time.  And it is also a great spot to pickpocket as well.  Bring along a potion of treasure finding for a nice bonus.

You May Also Like: Farming Embersilk Cloth On The Shadow Wardens Quests

Anyone else pushing their profession crafting character to level 84 before Patch 4.1?

Engineering Cogwheel Exchange

Zim Bamzabble

Cataclysm Engineering Item Exchange


Zim Bamzabble is the Engineering item vendor at Dragonmaw Port in the Twilight Highlands.  Frank Natale is the Alliance version and is located within Highbank. All the high end profession vendors in Twilight Highlands are only accessable after completing the quest line that requires a level 84 character to begin.  This limits the number of players that can access these vendors significantly.  Most of the items acquired are Bind-on-Pickup, but not the engineering items that Zim and Frank trade.  So you can sell these engineering cogwheel gems on the auction house.  


Cogwheel Gems


All of the new item level 359 Engineering only epic helmets, Bio-Optic Killshades, have a slot for a meta-gem and 2 slots for engineer only cogwheels.  These cogwheels can only be obtained after leveling to level 84, completing the quests required to unlock the npcs in Twilight Highlands, then trading the appropriate items to the vendors.


The Bio-Optic Killshades however, can be worn at level 81 and the pattern can be learned at 525 Engineering skill level.  This pattern is taught by any of the various Engineering trainers.  So you could have the pattern at max skill taught to you and be ready to wear it at level 81.  You have to be level 84 to access the cogwheel vendor yourself.  See the dilemna?  This gives players who have unlocked the Twilight Highlands vendors an opportunity to sell the cogwheels to lower level players who cannot access the vendors themselves.


Engineering Vendor Cogwheel Exchange


List of Cogwheel Gems and Costs:
Fractured Cogwheel- 208 Mastery Rating - Goblin Barbecue
Precise Cogwheel - 208 Expertise Rating - Lure Master Tackle Box
Quick Cogwheel - 208 Haste Rating - 4 x Handful of Obsidium Bolts
Rigid Cogwheel - 208 Hit Rating - Elementium Toolbox
Smooth Cogwheel - 208 Critical Strike Rating - 4 x Handful of Obsidium Bolts
Sparkling Cogwheel - 208 Spirit - Authentic Jr. Engineer Goggles
Subtle Cogwheel - 208 Dodge Rating - 4 x Handful of Obsidium Bolts
Flashing Cogwheel - 208 Parry Rating - Volatile Seaforium Blastpack


Some of the items are rather cheap to craft and others can be found on the auction house.  The best thing about this strategy is that you don't need to be an engineer to access the engineering vendor.  So look on the auction house for these items to trade in to the vendors for a profit.  


Props to Justmytwocopper for touching on this information first.  Although in their original post on the New Engineering Market, Mageshadow just recommends the 3 cogwheels that take the Handful of Obsidian Bolts.  After further delving into this, I realized that none of the items are very expensive to craft for trading to the vendors.  Some can even be found rather cheap on the auction house, since many lower level engineers will dump some of these cheap as they used them to skill up their engineering profession.

The Importance Of Pre-Patch Auction House Posting

Can You Feel It?

Only 1 days left until Cataclsym goes live and we are surrounded by tons of worgen and goblins.  New and returning players have been returning in droves.  Blizard has dropped the prices for the original game and the first 2 expansions down to only a $20 total purchase to get caught up to where current players are today - software wise.  This will definately lead to a nice influx of Christmas Noobs this year.  Probably more than any other previous year.  More players entering the game means more options for sales and more options for great finds from incorrectly priced auction house postings. 

Can you feel the excitement from the anticipation of the Cataclysm launch?  Hopefully you have completed your pre-Cataclysm checklist and are ready to start making gold off of the new World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion.  Today I will discuss why it is important to have your auctions posted the night before any new patch or expansion goes live. 

Posting Before The Patch

One of the most important lessons you should learn is the importance of posting your goods the night before a patch, holiday, or expansion goes live.  There are several reasons for this strategy.  Maybe you already learned your lesson when you procrastinated the night before Glyph-mas.  Those of us that posted the night before saw much more success than those that got a late start on posting glyphs to the auction house.  Posting ahead of the curve is of vital importance whether a new expansion releases, a patch goes live, or you are looking to make major gold exploiting in-game WoW holidays. 

9 Reasons Why You Should Be Posting The Night Before:

1. Holidays go live at 3am.  So the demand spike starts at 3am server time.
2. Posting early prevents against delays posting if the servers come online late.
3. Posting early means you have less competition and maybe even a monopoly until others catch on.
4. Posting early on holidays is vital as copycats will steal your tactics a day or two into the holiday.
5. Posting early means you planned ahead and already did the bulk of your crafting or farming.
6. Posting first means you set the fallback price standard.
7. Many times your stock will be completely depleted before you can log back on again.
8. The first day of a holiday or patch is usually the day with the most sales.
9. Early posting also helps prevent late postings that could result from a real life issue that delays your chance to log in early.

So tonight at midnight it all starts.  Get your auction house stocked up tonight before you log off.  If you are planning on farming herbs or ores, have you planned out your Cataclysm Gathering Strategy?

Good luck to all who start racing tonight.  Don't forget to check out the fund raising over at http://www.wowmarathon.com/ as the gang attempts to get the world first level 85.

And in case you missed it, Cold's Gold Factory's Win A Pet Code Contest is now free to enter.

Mysterious Fortune Cards & Fortune Cookies

Goblinish Wisdom

The Interaction of Scribes and Cooks

Fortune Cookie and Fortune Cards are an interesting pair of craftable items that perplex me.  Fortune Cookies are a nice consumable that will be created by the cooking profession.  These Fortune Cookies require 1 Simple Flour and 1 Mysterious Fortune Card for each cookie.  The Simple Flour can be bought at any cooking vendor, but the Fortune Card must be crafted by a scribe through the inscription profession.  The Mysterious Fortune Card only requires 1 Resilient Parchment and only 1 Blackfallow Ink, which comes from the pigments of Cataclysm herbs.  I myself like to craft these type of items for profit because the interaction of requiring multiple professions tends to lower the number of competitors.  A good current example is Fused Wiring, which requires a jewelcrafter and an engineer to craft, and aren't typically a heavy competition item on the auction house. 

To Gamble, To Cook, Or Both?

Gambling
Now for the perplexing part.  The Mysterious Fortune Card is a new form of World of Warcraft in-game gambling.  Just crafting the card itself, you can sell it outright to gamblers or gamble yourself.  Using the Mysterious Fortune Cards give you 1 of 58 possible vendorable Fortune Cards that sell for anywhere from 10 silver to 5000 gold.  Yeah, you didn't misread that.  1 Mysterious Fortune Card can turn into 1 Fortune Card, which will vendor for the nice sum of 5k gold!  Fortune cards can vendor for 5k, 1k, 200g, 50g, 20g, 5g, 1g, 50s, or 10s.  So in a sense it is gambling for gold. 

Cooking
The option other than gambling is to use the Mysterious Fortune Card to create a Fortune Cookie.  These cookies give a nice 1 hr buff of +90 Stamina and +90 to a player's prime stat.  The crazy thing is once you eat the cookie you receive a Fortune Card just like if you had used it gambling.  The card from the Fortune cookie is the vendorable version, not the reagant version. 

Fortune Card Market Fluctuations

As auctioneers we need to be on alert and watching the markets for both Mysterious Fortune Cards and Fortune Cookies.  If you are looking to gamble and try your luck at getting a profit from these cards, then instead of buying or using the Mysterious Fortune Cards it may be cheaper at times to just buy the Fortune Cookies and eat those.  If the auction house market was in equilibrium, then the Mysterious Fortune Cards would be near the same price of the Fortune Cookies.  I am sure we will have some chances to play within both of these markets as players will be unaware of this relationship.  Scribes and cooks both should see nice demand and profits from both of these items. 

Options For Mysterious Fortune Cards

There could exist other options for using these Fortune Cards.  The 5k ones will be rare, but instead of vendoring for 5k you may be able to hold these and sell for a little more than 5k.  Why?  Players that are transferring servers are only allowed to transfer with a maximum amount of gold.  Therefore, some transferring players may be looking for high value items to take along in a non-liquidated form to further maximize the starter gold on their new server.

Gold Sellers could also be on the lookout for using these cards as a much more discreet way of paying players for their gold they have purchased unscrupulously.  Blizzard may keep a close eye on lareg exchanges of liquid gold, but will they be watching for these high value items?  Just food for thought...

Check out part 2 of this 3 part series:  Mysterious Fortune Card Barking Tips

Anyone else got a creative idea for these Fortune Cards or Cookies?

How I'm Preparing For Cataclysm

Out of Game Excitement
So I have been spending like crazy on Amazon with all of the crazy Black Friday week and Cyber Monday and Tuesday deals.  I'm approaching spending around $1K this week at Amazon.  Got my new headphones, which I am loving.  Ordered a few books for me and the wifey, but I can't wait for the ProBlogger Book to arrive, as I've finished Blogging All-in-One For Dummies, which was 6 great books in one.  I got a Wii bundle for my wifey to play on, which came with a $50 credit towards a game, since we bought it together with a Wii Fit.  I found a Wii DJ Hero 2 Party Bundle for $99.99 minus the $50 credit, so I got the game, 2 turntables, and a microphone for $50 - no tax, no shipping.   I love Amazon!  And thanks to my Cataclysm Pre-order through Amazon, I'll be getting a $10 credit towards another game soon.

In Game Excitement
"Ok Cold,  enough about all of the cool stuff you are getting from Amazon.  What are you doing in World of Warcraft?"  Not a whole lot.  I'm doing the same thing every one of you should be doing.  Getting ready for Cataclysm.  I procrastinated on the last couple of Patches and got caught without enough glyphs pre-made to fully take advantage of the glyph-mas bonanza.  So these are the main things I am doing in this final week to get preapared for the Cataclysm in World of Warcraft.

1. Buying out cheap items.
2. Crafting as many items as I can to be able to post properly.
3. Crafting tons of glyphs also.
4. Cleaning old junk out of banks.
5. Clearing out excessive mail and organizing my 6 guild banks.
6. Leveling up any crafters that aren't to 80 yet.
7. Raising reputations on crafters that are missing some reputation required recipes.

What else are you doing to get ready for the World of Warcraft Cataclysm release that is a week away?

Cataclysm Profession Strategy : Common Commodity Crafting



"Thanksgiving is over.  It's time to work on our Cataclysm strategy."

Cataclysm Professions Race

The World of Warcraft Gold Blogging Community is all buzzing about what professions to level first. Gathering is going to very popular once Cataclysm releases as many players will be willing to spend hundreds of gold on resources on their quest to the world or server first achievements. Dual gathering is also feasable with the new ability to track herbs and ores together without the macro requirement. Some players are wanting to reach the highest level recipes before others as an attempt to monopolize specific high end profession craftables. Others are just racing for the server first requirement without much thought into whether its is profitable to do so.

Cold's Cataclysm Common Commodity Crafting Strategy

Cold's Gold Factory will not be pushing for any server first attempts. Why not? In my opinion it is a major waste of gold, another gold sink that costs extra gold just to light up an achievement box. I will be following the same strategy I have used on all my characters and my profession leveling strategy in Cataclysm will be no different. Power leveling is a very wasteful approach when in comes to leveling the World of Warcraft crafting professions. The Common Commodity Crafting Strategy focuses on looking for "sweet spots" in your crafting recipes list.

Profession Sweet Spots
These "sweet spots" are items that you know are going to sell on the auction house. These "sweet spots" or "common commodities" can appear anywhere within your recipe lists. Every profession has these "sweet spots" of common commodities that you will probably be mass producing eventually. Why not use Cold's Common Commodity Crafting Strategy to grind those sweet spots for profession skill gains while you can get skill-ups? I grind these "sweet spot" common commodities until the recipe is grey, thus milking every skill point out of them. A lot of poorly planned characters just follow a power leveling guide to get to max skill, then look for ways to make gold from the profession. They may turn around and mass produce these common commodities for profits after blowing through a bare minimum the first time while power levelling through. This power leveling approach is very wasteful, poorly thought out, and a major expense. Cold's Common Commodity Strategy is much more profitable and more of a timed careful efficient approach to leveling professions. Cataclysm will be no different. There will be a fast and expensive way to level your professions and there will be a slower more efficient and more profitable approach: Cold's Cataclysm Common Commodity Crafting.

 

Common Commodities
What exactly are these common commodities? The common commodities or "sweet spots" are any item in your recipe lists that you know will continue to be in demand over the course of the expansion regardless of where they are located in the crafting list. Sometimes these common commodities are available long before the maximum skill level of the profession. Using the Common Commodities Crafting Strategy, I craft these typs of items until they become grey and are no longer offering profession skill-ups. Can you think of some of these common commodities that you probably have already crafted time and time again? Some excellent examples from craftable items are:

1. Any BoE craftable pet
2. Belt buckles, shield spikes, weapon chains
3. Enchanting rods
4. Meta gem transmutes
5. Bags
6. Leg armors
7. Transmuted bars
8. Specialty cloth

Can you think of any other examples of craftables that would be common commodities?

 

Image Credit: http://ewpopwatch.files.wordpress.com

Potion of Treasure Finding and Tiny Treasure Chest

Potion of Treasure Finding
In Cataclysm, Alchemists will be able to craft a rather interesting new potion.  The Potion of Treasure Finding allows the imbimber to sometimes find extra treasure from monsters in the new Cataclysm zones of Mount Hyjal, Vash'jir, Deepholm, Twilight Highlands and Uldum.  This effect lasts a full hour, persists through death (like flasks), and is not limited to the alchemy profession.  Any level 80+ character can use this potion of treasure finding.  The extra treasures come in the way of allowing mobs to drop a Tiny Treasure Chest.

Tiny Treasure Chests
The Tiny Treasure Chests on average were dropping 3-5 Gold, had a 75% chance to contain 8-15 Embersilk Cloth, and a 15% chance to contain a single volatile element.  Extra Embersilk Cloth and volatile elements will be an excellent find for anyone out grinding mobs or killing for quests.

Will Potion Of Treasure Finding Be Profitable?
In the first weeks, all items are going to be ridiculously priced to craft just because of the horribly inflated prices we will see on the auction house.  Once the market settles down and prices on herbs are reasonable, then we can look at more accurate data as far as the return on investment in using these potions of treasure finding while grinding or farming.  I would expect these to be much more valuable to any of the heavy dps classes that can ramp up their kills per hour ratio.  The potion of treasure finding lasts for a full hour so the more mobs you can kill within that hour, the more chances you have of finding a tiny treasure chest, thus increasing the potential of this potion.  If I was grinding specific mobs for a certian drop, I would definately try one of these potions out.


Requirements To Craft:

■Cinderbloom x 8
■Stormvine x 4
■Heartblossom x 8
■Whiptail x 4
■Crystal Vial x 1

Anyone else have thoughts on the Potion of Treasure Finding and its uses?

Image Credit: http://duplexchick.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/116/files/2008/07/hidden-treasure.jpg

Cataclysm Gathering : Want An Advantage?

(Promotional Review : Affiliate Links Enclosed)

Ready...Set...Farm!
Maybe you are trying for world first at a gathering skill.  Maybe you just want to farm for the first week to make an absolute killing selling herbs and ores on the auction house to all of the power levelers looking for server first in their profession.  We all know that Cataclysm ores and Cataclysm Herbs will be selling for lucrative prices during the first weeks.  I myself had already planned to do nothing but farm and post for at least the first week.  There never is a better time to make gold from farming than during the first weeks of a new expansion.

Are you ready for the Cataclysm Gold Rush?
Farming isually the lowest gold/per hour method of all the ways to make gold in WoW.  Once every few years, things get a little interesting. When Wrath of the Lich King went live, the Cobalt was selling for 200g/stack. Saronite for 300-400g, Titanium for 1k+, and all the herbs for 100-500g/stack.

This time around, due to the inflation of Gold in WoW, expect to see 500g/stack and up for even the lowest ores and herbs. That’s 5k/hour, even if you only get get 10 stacks. And if you were one of the first people to sell the new items, well... You would really have it made!

What if you had complete Farming Maps for all the Cataclysm Zones on launch day? You would definitely be one of the first and main sellers right?

Make A Game Plan
Anyone serious about trying for any server first or raking in the gold from farming needs to have a game plan.  You will not succeed without prior knowledge and a pre-planned route or strategy.  One of the problems I was going to have was understanding the new high level zones.  I wasn't lucky enough to get into beta, so I have seen next to nothing from within the new zones.  This would put me at a great disadvantage as players with Beta experience would be able to complete quests and create farming routes and strategies much better than I could.  That was until I was contacted by Ryan from Cataclysm Mastery.  He offered me a sneak peak into his new blog / membership site that is specifically focused on all the knowledge and secrets I had been missing out on from Beta.

Cataclysm Mastery System
After reviewing the site, I was compelled to share this opportunity with my readers at Cold's Gold Factory.  I am going to be using his system as it gave me exactly what I was looking for - Pre-mapped routes for farming the new zones.  His site also goes over tons of helpful information.  Just some of the great topics:

1. Detailed Cataclysm Herbalism and Mining Farming Maps with In-Game add-on Data and Advanced Filtering.
2. Quick-Start Cataclysm Game Plan for Super-Fast Leveling and Gold Creation.
3. The Masters Selling Secret to instantly increase your Auction House profits potential.
4. Fully Complete Cataclysm Profession Guides for On-going Gold Making.
5. The Guide to Understanding the AH.

The Detailed Cataclysm Herbalism and Mining Farming Maps is worth it to me.  This just helps me not only catch up to the players with Beta experience, but allows me to already have a way to jump ahead of them in the race.  So if you are like me and missed out on Beta you definately need to check out The Cataclysm Mastery System.


Thanks Ryan for allowing me to review and use your product.  Keep up the good work!

Cataclysm: The Shattering: Guest Post by Sykez of JustAnotherGoblin.com

The Shattering 4.0.3a - Live this week
With the Shattering hitting live servers today for US and on Wednesday for the EU you’re going to need a plan. Not an escape plan or a how to not die in molten lava plan, a gold making plan. Strategy and preparation going into new occurrences in World of Warcraft will always put you at an edge over your competitors and today I’m going to talk to you about what I feel will be the best strategies for when the Shattering goes live.

Cue the Return of the Quitters
People have been returning at a steady rate after they ‘quit’ when Wrath of the Lich King entered its slump in entertainment, however with this patch comes most of the major changes that Cataclysm will make. I’m going to present a list of the important ones to you and show you what I feel will be the best way to make gold from them.

Re-rollers, Returners and Alts - I want to cast your mind back to 4.01 within the chaos of people wanting new gems, glyphs and enchants for the characters they may not have played since pre 4.01. Also in my opinion any BoE’s that you have, I recommend that you sell as people will be returning to their alts so they’re ready for Cataclysm as well as re-rollers on things such as Tauren Paladins and Priests, which I’m sure some people will be excited about and level them straight away.  Levelers need BoE’s and Heirloom enchants :)

All your Portals, they belong to the Mages again!
Portals Removed in Dalaran and Shattrath - This doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but it is. There are actually quite a few ways that you can make gold from this, either by sitting on a Mage in Dalaran and using a macro saying “Portals *name your price* - Unless you’d rather go to Borean Tundra”. There’s also the rather noticeable fact that without a portal hub and very little raiding occurring, there will be a lot less people in Northrend. Exploit this by farming something that you feel will sell well in Cataclysm (Saronite /Titanium for example) or even go enjoy the peace and quiet whilst you pick up Argent Tournament pets. Remember that with less people in Northrend the prices of the pets are bound to inflate, add arbitrage to that and these pets are a good time investment.

Profession Panic
With the expansion being so close expect to see two things, people panic selling and people panic buying. People who want the first few skill ups on their professions will be buying out items that will grab them those first few levels before the materials required becomes a lot more expensive. Be sure to capitalize upon this or be ready to when Cataclysm drops, make sure not to sell all your stock as the prices may rise exponentially in Cataclysm to meet the demand.

However, on the other side of the coin, be ready to buy as well as sell. People are bound to panic and be unprepared and sell the stock that they have acquired at potentially low prices. If this happens in a market you feel will be good for Cataclysm, do not list your items. Just take advantage of people’s idiocy and improve your stock.

The Final Countdown
The Monday before Cataclysm maintenance will be a good time to list certain items that will potentially sell the second that servers come up. This way you’re getting the edge over your less clever competitors as whilst your inventory is listed the second the expansion hits, they may be still preparing there’s for the first few hours after it goes live. A few examples of these are -

1. Saronite Bars - Alchemists will be wanting to grab quick cheap levels from Transmuting these. As well as Blacksmiths and Engineers.
2. Saronite Ore - Same goes, except slightly more diverse as people will look to buy this and smelt it before using it, expect this to move at a similar volume to bars.
3. Frostweave cloth - This one is odd, I was thinking about it and it should inflate due to Tailors wanting levels from it, maybe even First Aid of people wanting to get 450 or the first few levels into Cataclysm.
4. Borean Leather - Same as the points above, Leatherworkers will want to get some quick levels from this and it’s heavy counterpart.

These are just a few examples, be creative and think about what might sell in volume on patch day and release day and use it to your advantage.

This post was brought to you by Sykez from JustAnotherGoblin.com and I’d like to thank Cold for allowing me to post here at Cold's Gold Factory.

*************

Sykez has been on hiatus to Starcraft 2 lately, but has returned this week and is back into blogging about World of Warcraft and gold making strategies.  Head on over to his site and check it out.  Welcome back , Sykez!    - Cold

Image taken from http://phoniamaguk.files.wordpress.com

WoW Cataclysm Expansion $10 Bonus

Another Reason To Pre-Order


Amazon is now giving 100 Pre-Order Bonus Points for all World of Warcraft Cataclysm Expansion Pre-Orders.  Just $0.99 Shipping for Release Date Delivery.  The 100 Pre-Order Bonus Points are equivalent to an extra $10 Video Game Credit for later use.  


You can't get a better deal than Release Date Delivery Plus $10 Store Credit.


$39.99 for Game
$0.99 for Release Date Delivery on Dec 7th!


Bonus = $10 Store Credit for Use on Video / Computer Games


Win-Win-Win!  That's Better Than A Double Rainbow!




Note:  If you already pre-ordered you will get the $10 credit as well.

Profiting on Rated Battlegrounds: Reader Submission

"Hello again Cold.

I'm writing because I would love to hear your thoughts about the following subject: Profiteering on rated BGs in Cataclysm.

With the introduction of rated BGs in cataclysm, I have been considering whether a market will rise for BoE profession items. Assuming BGs will work the same as now, with usable potions, flasks, bombs etc etc I have been speculating if I should invest in some of the follwing items:

Alchemy:

Swiftness Potion: Swiftthiste & Briarthorn

Free Action Potion: Blackmouth Oil (Blackmouth) & Stranglekelp

Invisibility Potion: Ghost Mushroom & Sungrass

Purification Potion: Icecap & Plaguebloom

Living Action Potion: Icecap, Mountain Silversage and Heart of the Wild

Rage Potions

The two big questions I have to ask.

1. Will hardcore Arena/BG players/teams want to stock up on these items?

2. Is there a profit to be made now, so close to Cataclysm with the prices as they are now, or should this stuff be added to a snatch list in Cataclysm with (perhaps) lower herb prices due to levelling?

Are there any other professions aside from Alchemy where we might see a chance for profit when the rated BGs go live? I can't think of anything besides EZ-Thro Dynamite II, however, the healthpools in Cataclysm will effectively make this ~200 dmg non-engineer dynamite useless.

Thank you for a good blog

Kind regards, Dahmek"

Player Versus Player Battles On The Rise

The twink community will return.  Rated battlegrounds will lead to more players and guilds doing

PvP.  The PvP supplies market could be a great gold making niche.  The PvP market varies 

greatly on each server.  If you want to try out this market, I suggest you do it slowly.  Only craft a 

few of the items that you think will sell.  List a few and see if they sell before going all out with 

production.

Alchemy Potions

Regarding you alchemy question on herbs and potions, I would grab any herbs you can get that 

are priced low.  Save them as herbs without crafting anything so that you can move them as 

stacks of herbs if needed.  There could be more profit in moving the herbs themselves and 

crafting potions may not be cost efficient.  Early into Cataclysm, especially on the Horde side, I 

would think that selling herbs to players leveling alchemy and inscription may be more profitable. 

Then once those markets settle down, the PvP market consumables may become a better option.  

You are on the right train of thinking for those potions, it just may be a little later that they are more 

reliable sellers.

Other Items To Sell To Player Killers

I agree that EZ-Throw Dynamite isn't worth selling.  What kind of things can be profitable?  Here 

are a few items that PvP players could buy.  Again, test these markets out before jumping in too 

deep.

1. Blacksmith crafted weapon sharpening and bludgeoning stones.
2. Rumsey's rum from Old Hillsbrad Secret Vendors.
3. Poison removing anti-venoms.
4. BoA useable enchanting scrolls.
5. Flash Bombs can be used by anyone.
6. Old School awesome gear for twinks and people who like to level in style or in maxed gear:  Barbaric Bracers, Spidersilk Boots, Toughened Leather Gloves, Deviate Scale Belt, etc.