Preparing For Patches - All Change!

I think Blizzard have been very uncooperative this time around! Fancy letting a big patch go live the same day as our monthly Gold Blogging Carnival! Disgraceful! Ok, now I've vented (yeah, that's about all I got!) lets get on with this month's topic! Selltacular put out a tweet asking for topic ideas and Stede came up with this one

How do you prepare for changes in the game? How does it affect you at patch time?

Well, until now, I haven't really made any big efforts for patches - they always seem to arrive at inconvenient times for me but this time around, I have been slaving over the patch notes & writing posts like crazy! I know you guys think these posts are for your benefit but really, they are just my to-do lists in disguise!

My post on How to Prepare for a New Patch pretty much covers the beginning of my preparations and since then, I've been watching various markets & writing about them too. I've been buying up crafting materials like a crazy woman but I'm sure I'll be buying more right up to the last minute! It's going to be a long time before the next patch or expansion so even if I buy too much stuff now, as long as I can store it, I'll be able to sell it over time.

Selltacular asked for some useful links in this post too so rather than go through all my preparations, here are a few posts that cover most of what I've been doing!

• Tailoring/Blacksmithing/Leatherworking - Want to know what the new crafting materials are? Try 'New Crafting Materials for Patch 5.4'
• Enchanting/Enhancements Markets - these are changing to scaleable items 'Enchanting Changes'
• Cooking/Buff Foods - new Noodle Carts & Buff Foods - see what's changing in my 'Feeding the Raiders' post
• Engineering - There's a fantastic new mount coming for Engineers - the Sky Golem - and it will be saleable too! Get those cooldowns working - I reckon this one will sell like crazy!

That's about it for the information posts but I have also leveled a second Leatherworker to reduce the amount of time it takes to learn all the new crafted PvP gear and I've been looking for shortcuts to cheaper enchanting materials - I think the Enchants market will be an interesting one to watch as the changes take effect.

As for all the other changes like classes, glyphs, pvp, new areas to explore, new raid etc - I spend way too much time in the Auction House so I kind of skim read that part of the patch notes. I really want to get my girls out & about again though so maybe once the rush dies down, I can get them moving at last!

My plan for this weekend is to finish leveling Engineering on my Gnome Rogue - I really, really want that Sky Golem mount and I think my Gnome will love it! She already has the Chopper, a Kodo & a Grand Ice Mammoth & her favorite battleground move is Fan of Knives - she kneecaps everyone! I'm a terrible Rogue player but the sheer ridiculousness of that move always brings a big grin to my face! Have a great weekend everyone - the wait for patch is almost over - Are you ready?

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Time To Get Back To Some Serious Gold Making

I've had a quiet couple of weeks in game - real life got a bit too busy for me to do much other than just maintain my auction house activities. But it's quietened down a bit now so it's time to get down to some more serious gold making efforts! I'm planning on being a very busy bee over the next few weeks so hold on to your hats people! lol

Whilst I may not always agree with how Zerohour phrases his posts, I do agree with much of what he says. I guess I'm a gentler soul & I've always worked on the basis that sugar is better than vinegar! After his first post or two, I wanted to hate him but how can you hate a guy who talks so much sense! Some of his stuff hit a nerve with me & I've been doing a little analysis of my gold making style. I realised that I am very risk averse so taking a gamble on flipping high cost items has never been my thing but in my safe little world, I've also not been buying much more than what I really need to craft stuff for the next day or two.

His post about stockpiling (or Just in Time crafting) made me realise that I have all this gold just sitting there & not really working for me - in keeping my 'costs' down, I actually wasn't investing in future profits either. It can be easy to get tunnel vision and just keep doing what works for you & that's what I think I've been doing.

So over the last week or two, I have been buying up raw materials like crazy. The cheap stuff has been there all along, I just didn't want to buy too much. Not anymore though! I am now the proud owner of almost 200 stacks of Exotic Leather, 150 stacks of Ghost Iron Ore & 60 stacks of Bolts of Windwool Cloth not to mention about 40 Ironpaw Tokens & 20 stacks each of Mushan Ribs, Raw Tiger Steak & Raw Crab Meat!

Now as stockpiling goes, I know that still isn't that much stuff but I'm working on it! With the leather at 17-25g, I can make Magnificent Hides for a cost of 63g by using the non-cooldown way (50 leather = 1 hide) & with Magnificent Hides selling during the week for 100g or more, I can still make a nice chunk of change without even crafting anything else! I am doing the daily Magnificent Hide cooldown too though - got to get those PvP patterns discovered after all!

The Ghost Iron Ore is fuelling my 2 transmute spec Alchemists for their daily Living Steel cooldown & I'm also prospecting stacks on my Jewelcrafter - making rings/necks to disenchant & keeping my daily discovery of new cuts going too.

The Windwool Cloth is fuelling my daily Imperial Silk craft & as I discover more PvP patterns, I'm making sure I craft those too. Unfortunately, whilst the leather/mail PvP gear is maintaining its price, the cloth PvP gear is dropping rapidly - some pieces are as low as 90g!

I'd forgotten how much of a buzz it can be to open my mailbox to 10k+ gold overnight. I've been poodling along since early last year really and it shows in my gold balance. I'm almost back to my 1 million gold balance & if the Amani Dragonhawk I bought to flip sells soon (negotiations are in progress!) then I'll be a happy camper once more.

I'm going to start doing my weekly 'What's Been Selling' posts again. I had a lot of positive comments on those & I think they can be helpful to kickstart your own ideas. I've got a lot to relearn over the next few weeks & a fair bit of exploring & testing some new markets so hopefully my posting frequency should return to normal service shortly!


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Leveling Zen Master Alchemy - My Way & The Right Way

Leveling Zen Master Alchemy

I currently have 2 Alchemists - both Transmute Masters. One is my rarely played Rogue & the other is my main candidate for leveling to 90 first but whilst I'm still faffing with banks, auctions & getting to grips with all things Pandaren, I thought I'd get these two started with their farms at least.

My Leveling Method

In my usual manner, I checked the Auction House for pandaren herb prices & was pleasantly surprised by how cheap the Green Tea Leaf was, so I grabbed 18 stacks for around 490g (just 25g a stack!). I knew they were the starter herb for Alchemy & of course my main money making profession of Inscription uses them too. In doing so, I may have got slightly sidetracked from my plan to get my farm started & I started leveling my alchemy.

I dived straight in & learnt the Zen Master level & the 2 trainer taught recipes - Master Healing Potion & Master Mana Potion. Almost 2 stacks of healing potions later, I'd picked up about 10 new 'discoveries' & off I went, back to the Auction House to price up the next leveling potion. Within about 1 hour, I was at skill level 590 and had picked up a nice bunch of new recipes, including Transmute: Living Steel - yay!!!

Back to the Auction House to price up the Trillium Bar - Eeeek! no way was I paying those prices so I took my little Rogue out to start her farm. With that done, I logged into my Hunter & did exactly the same thing again! I still had a load of Green Tea Leaf left from earlier so that reduced my costs this time round. As I neared 590 skill points, the discovery for Transmute:Trillium popped up - phew! That was lucky otherwise both my girls would have been stuck until Trillium prices dropped or my Miner actually got out of Stormwind!

Again I got lucky - someone had listed Ghost Iron Bar for just 262 gold a stack or 131 gold per Trillium transmute so of course, I snagged as much as possible, having 2 alchemists waiting for it now. Just 5 transmutes later, I'd maxed my skills for my Hunter & on the very last transmute, the discovery for Living Steel popped up.

Now I know there are some folk out there who are going to hate me but my very first Transmute:Living Steel proc'ced for me -  woop woop! 2 Living Steel to sell straight away. To make you hate me even more, I've now done 3 days of Living Steel transmutes & have had a proc every day - giving me 9 Living Steels out of 6 cooldowns!

Overall, I spent 3090 gold on herbs & ghost iron bars to level both alchemists to 600. Out of the potions, elixirs & transmutes I made, I have sold 3524 gold's worth so I am already back in profit & have 7 Living Steels still to sell as well as enough Healing potions to keep my alts alive whilst they level through The Jade Forest. What I don't have yet is all the recipes so once my herbalist starts to level, I will go back & make more potions to complete the discovery process on both alts.

How I Should Have Leveled!

As I sat down to write this post, I realised I hadn't noted down everything I had done, so off I went to Kaliope's Crafting blog to look for some of the details I'd missed. What a slap head moment that was! One of the very first points she made in her Alchemy summary was

'don't learn Zen Master Alchemy straight away, just the healing & mana potion recipes'

Basically, you need to make a whole bunch of the Master Healing Potions to start learning the discoveries. Once you have made about 5 potions without a discovery, you have probably learnt all the discoveries at that level and THEN you can learn Zen Master Alchemy & continue making Master Healing Potions until the recipe goes grey. In this way, you will maximise the number of discoveries you make with the cheapest & easiest potion, giving you a wider selection of recipes to make for the rest of your leveling process.

So that's my Oops! of the week so far. I'm off to read the rest of Kaliope's profession summaries - I do not want to find a similar oops on any of my other professions, that's for sure :)

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Engineering Pets - Part 1 - Squirrel, Lil Smoky & Pet Bombling

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I've been leveling my Engineering Warlock for over a year now but with the release date for Mists of Pandaria, I thought I should promote her from 'stuck in Ironforge banker' to 'let's get this done at last' leveling project. As part of that leveling push, I'm also trying to raise my Engineering skill whilst making some gold too. The Engineering pets are a big part of the gold making arsenal & now that pet battles are on the horizon, I'm sure these pets have a pretty good potential to be more profitable.

But one of the problems that many newbie Engineers face is the sheer variety of bits & bobs required to make almost anything! I know I often go round in circles trying to work out which materials I need for what gadget or gizmo so I thought I would take a few posts & summarise the materials for all the current Engineering pets.

This post will cover the Mechanical Squirrel Box, Lil' Smokey & the Pet Bombling, part 2 will be the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti & the Mechanical Toad & part 3 will be the De-weaponized Mechanical Companion & the Personal World Destroyer. I'm not certain & haven't been able to find confirmation but it looks like there will be at least one more mechanical pet available once Mists of Pandaria is released. I'll add a part 4 later if there is!

Mechanical Squirrel Box (skill 75)

Probably the easiest to make & the easiest to get the schematic for, I love this little fella! It only requires an Engineering skill level of 75 & although the schematic is a world drop, you can usually find it on the Auction House for 50 gold or less (depending on server of course!).

Materials

1 Handful of Copper Bolts (uses 1 Copper Bar)
1 Copper Bar
2 Malachite

Yup! Just 2 copper bars (which is just 2 copper ores) & 2 malachite gems - I usually sell these squirrels in the 25-35 gold range - I call that good profit although looking at The Undermine Journal, it would seem the mean price for EU servers is over 100 gold!

I have malachite on a shopping list & I buy all of them below 1 gold each. If I am running short & squirrels are selling well, I will go to 2 gold each but that is rarely necessary. Depending on the prices of the other gems prospectable from copper ore, it may even be profitable to buy some ore & prospect for yourself if you have a jewelcrafter.

Pet Bombling (skill 205)

This is another fairly easy to get schematic - it drops from Mechgineer Thermaplugg in Gnomeregan so as long as your engineer can get into the instance, you will get this from the boss. As far as materials goes, it's not too complicated but one spanner in the works is the fused wiring required. Fused wiring requires a skill level of 275 so you will either need to buy some, find someone to craft some for you or wait until your own skill is that high before you can make a Pet Bombling.

Materials

6 Mithril Bar
1 Big Iron Bomb (190)
1 Heart of Fire
1 Fused Wiring (275)

Big Iron Bomb takes 3 Iron Bars, 3 Heavy Blasting Powder(125) & 1 Silver Contact (90)

Heavy Blasting Powder = Heavy Stone

Silver Contact = 1 Silver Bar

Fused Wiring takes 3 Delicate Copper Wire (jewelcrafting) & 2 Essence of Fire (makes 5 fused wires though)

Delicate Copper Wire = 2 Copper Bar, JC skill level 1

Summary of most basic level materials

6 mithril ore
3 iron ore
3 heavy stone
1 silver ore
6 copper ore
2 essence of fire
1 heart of fire

I am currently selling these for around 165 gold each although the price can vary quite widely. The Undermine Journal says the mean for my server is 156 gold and for all EU Alliance servers of 220 gold. I think I'm underpricing here somewhere! lol

Lil' Smoky (skill 205)

This is also a fairly easy schematic to obtain but it will depend of the RNG this time. There are 3 types of NPC's in Gnomeregan that drop this schematic - the Crowd Pummeler, Arcane Nullifer & Peacekeeper Security Suits. Luckily the drop rate is not too bad so if you are lucky, you may get it on your first run through.

Like the Pet Bombling, this skill level 205 pet also requires Fused Wiring, a skill level 275 item (see note above).

Materials

1 Core of Earth
2 Gyrochromatom (170)
1 Fused Wiring (275)
2 Mithril Bar
1 Truesilver bar

Gyrochromatom takes 1 Iron Bar & 1 Gold Power Core

Gold Power Core = 1 Gold Bar (makes 3 cores)

Summary of most basic level materials

1 core of earth
2 iron ores
2 gold ores
6 copper ores
2 essence of fire
2 mithril ores
1 truesilver ore

I don't have this schematic yet - I didn't get it on my first run through & my dungeon running buddy is taking a break for now. Once my leveling gets a bit more advanced, I'll go back & solo Gnomeregan for it as many times as necessary!

I'd say this is one of the more profitable pets if you can get the materials cheaply enough. The Undermine Journal mean price for my server is 477 gold & for the whole EU is 296 gold. However I rarely see this on my Auction House so I'm guessing there may be only 1 or 2 players crafting them & keeping the prices high.

Materials Snatch List for these three Pets

Malachite - 1-2g each
Heart of Fire - less than 50 silvers
Essence of Fire - less than 2 gold each
Core of Earth - less than 2 gold each

Truesilver ore/bar - less than 5 gold each
Gold ore/bar - less than 3 gold each

Heavy Stone - less than 50 silvers each

I haven't included the basic ores as there is always stock on the Auction House for when I need it. I also tend to keep a basic supply of various ores anyway - it's part of my pack-rat mentality! The other materials to look for are the component parts - sometimes leveling engineers sell stuff to make space & don't realise that they will need them later. So I also look for cheap listings of

Big Iron Bomb
Gyrochromatom
Silver Contact
Delicate Copper Wiring
Handful of Copper Bolts
Fused Wiring
Gold Power Core

Summary

If you have an under-used Engineer, maybe now is a good time to at least look at these pet markets. Mists of Pandaria will definitely have some kind of effect although with the crafted pets not being counted as rares, there may not be as much of a boost to these as to some other types of pets. It's always been a small but constant market for me, even with my Engineer stuck at 275 skill level! Next time, toads & yetis!