Time is money, friend!

In my previous guild, I was by far the richest person in the guild. I had many thousands lying around whilst a large percentage of them usually had a few hundred to spare. In jest, many of them referred to me as Scrooge McDuck. Although it was in good humour, I found it an inaccurate caricature of myself. There is certainly a difference between greed and avoiding free riders. In real life many of my friends are now in the work place, whilst I'm still a student. I wouldn't take money they worked hard to earn, and I feel the same way about it in game. Ultimately, you have spent the time and effort (usually in a very boring manner) to make that gold, so no one else should expect a share from it. If you refuse to listen to practical advice I have given to you in the past to help your income (and I dish plenty of this out to people I know), don't expect me to be sympathetic tomorrow when you lost all your money due to a bad night on repair bills.

What throws a major spanner in the works of this way of thinking is personal relationships you have with people. My current guild is full of members who have plenty of gold (some even more than me), and are always sharing and actively listening to advice on how to increase their wealth. So whilst I value their friendship no less than my other friends, I'm far more likely to throw them a bone if they come across hard times.

Only relatively recently have I become a hardcore raider (4-5 nights a week is hardcore in my books), and this has changed my perspective on certain issues. I never understood the value of repair bots. Why would I spend 20-30g to craft an item with limited charges? Of course not being a regular raider, I did not put a value on the down time between wipes. Just like I hate "farming", when I could make money in easier ways, I hate sitting around before a boss waiting for everyone to get ready. Repair bots, cooking feasts, mage tables are all things that help cut down this down time. The conservative side of me is cautious with throwing out a repair bot. At the end of the day I farmed for the mats, so the value of cutting the down time between pulls is diminished by the time spent farming mats. So I set myself certain limits on when I feel the use of a bot is valuable. Before we cleared Eye of Eternity, the repair bot here was highly useful because repairs would mean people re-entering the instance for the body and then flying back for repairs. On the other hand, coming to a Naxx raid with 50% durability and needing a repair after the first boss is a waste of my effort (not that this situation has occurred in my guild). A bad night on 4 Horsemen, sure I'll chuck one out because the walk back is too long when the healer is ressing at the boss.

Of course these feelings are shifted by your relationships to people within your raid. If my friend asks me, I will use my bot without hesitation, as I know they genuinely need it. Conversely the fact that you didn't quest in Dragonblight whilst leveling (how?) and therefore don't have access to the Wintergarde Keep repair man is not a valid reason. If you're not willing to put in minimal effort to benefit yourself, don't expect me to put any in. For a friend, I'd probably use my bot, but tell them to get questing!

The "Time is Money" saying the Goblins often shout is something I take to heart. For me there is zero fun in waiting around, and this is often at the expense of my own bank balance. Today in our Heroic Naxx run we has just killed some trash in the hall before Thaddius, and the rest of the raid was in my opinion taking to long to recover. You've cleared 5/6 trash mobs, why stop there when you will be doing so before the boss fight to arrange groups anyway? So I marched on ahead knowing I would likely end up dead from the shade usually occupying the door in front of Thaddius' room. Predictably I was dead within seconds, but I got the raid moving forwards and it saved us a few minutes of slacking.

There is a hard balance between making money, being efficient with your time and enjoying your WoW friendships. I'm sure there's an answer somewhere within these ramblings.

On a separate note, this is my first post in a long time. My raiding schedule has meant there has been lots to talk about but usually less to do with money making. It's also meant less time to spend on posting. I've decided to carry on posting on the blog, but the focus with switch to whatever topic comes to my mind.