Don't sell your account!

I really hate it when people sell their accounts. Beyond the usual rule breaking associated with it, it's sad to see your friends give up a character they put so much time in to and you had fun interacting with. Like people who delete their characters, they usually regret it. Maybe not now, but in a month or a year when they get the itch to start playing again. Out of the hundreds of people I've met on WoW, I could count on one hand who quit and never came back.

A month or two into Wrath, two of my WoW friends gave away their characters to people at school because they were bored with the game. I sometimes see their old characters in a city or in trade, and it's sad. Although that feeling changed when the new owner node-ninja'd me in Sholazar Basin. Now one of my other friends is considering selling his character he has been playing for three years. Like a lot of people these days, he's having financial troubles (nothing overly serious) and needs some cash. I don't think selling his character is a good idea, but I'm not the one in his position. I really hope he doesn't sell it, because he's invested so much time into this character, and I hate to see my friends make mistakes. I guess it's his mistake to make and ultimately I have little say in it. But I will certainly miss seeing him around on his character. With over 130 days played on my main, I don't think I could ever get rid of her (the fact that I even refer to it as "her" says something) but I guess not everyone is as attatched to their toons.

Rogues and Leatherworkers can make some money in 3.1

Being the least played class does bring some advantages to it. Rogues are pretty hard to find these days, and I'm usually the only one in an Archavon Pug, and free gear is always welcome. One surprising side effect has been the increased cash flow from opening lockboxes. In Burning Crusade I had really given up on charging people for opening them, even asking for one would get you looks of disgust and a "lul i ken find 100 other rouge to opan". Fair enough, I can provide a service and if you think you can find a better deal, go get it.

The situation is pretty different these days, and I would say 95% of people are happy to pay what I charge. My prices are 2g for Khorium, 3g for Froststeel, 5g for Titanium and 1g for anything lower. Typically I'll add another 5g to that if you want me to travel to another city. I think that's pretty reasonable considering the value of the contents (I opened an old Azeroth box for my guild a few months back which had an Orb of Deception).

The good news is that El has dug up some information about a new lockbox from the upcoming Fishing Dailies in Patch 3.1. The catch is that the Tiny Titanium Lockbox requires 405 lockpicking (maximum skill available is 400), so you'll need Dark Leather Gloves to even open the box. This is a fairly rare world drop recipe from vanilla WoW but the leatherworkers lucky enough to have it should get to making some. I've been keeping an eye out for the recipe and gloves on my Auction House, and finally spotted some guy selling the gloves today for 30g each. I don't think too many people know about this, so you can make some very nice money. One thing to note, the materials of the recipe are going to be reduced according to the PTR.

I've had these gloves for a few years now, and it will be something I'll have to add to my bags on permanent basis. The new lockbox will actually contain epic gems, and considering the value of these in TBC, I will probably be charging anywhere between 25 and 50g to open these boxes. Expensive? Sure, but a gnome needs her gold.

Arena Season 5 flops

WoWInsider has an interesting article on the decline of Arena based on stats for Season 5. For me this is just an indicator of the decline of PvP since Wrath, with the exception of Wintergrasp. I've never been a really big fan of Arena, but I was tempted to join the Arena tournament because of the Armored Murloc pet. The tournament really changed my mind about how fun Arena can be though. It's great being with two mates on vent, having a laugh and slaughtering priests with your rogue. Even after my first few games however, I could tell how badly broken the class balance was; Death Knights and Paladins are just way too overpowered. As great as my Rogue is in Arena, it's pretty frustrating to see he's gimped in PvE because of it, but that's a separate issue. In most games we entered, we could pretty much tell the outcome of what the game will be by just looking at the classes of the other team, and the rankings show that most of the top teams all have the same classes dominating.

Around a week after Wrath came out, I wrote my review of the expansion and even as a player who had been away from PvP for several months, it was clear in my eyes that this Season was not going to be a success. Here's what I wrote;
- I really don't understand Blizzards philosophy towards PvP gearing, because it goes against everything they're trying to push for in PvE. In case you don't know, all the PvP gear available at level 80 requires you to do Arena. Basically there will be 3 tiers; Blue quality gear which requires Arena points (no rating), normal Purple quality items that also require an Arena rating and finally the high end Purples that require a high level rating. Now for someone who enjoys BGs (mainly Alterac Valley) and has zero interest in Arena, we're basically forced into doing Arenas. It's the equivalent of telling people you can do 5 man instances but sorry you cant get any gear rewards till you step into a 10-man raid. Can you imagine the reaction? Blizz has really been pushing Arena and E-sports for a while, but I don't thinking forcing people is the way to go about it. I spent most of my level 70 end game (over 95%) in Battlegrounds, I think this will flip it the other way. I know the new Season does not start till December, so I'm still hoping they change their minds on this, but so far no one in the community seems to care. Maybe I'm missing something but at the moment I have no idea where I will be getting resist gear, so I won't be able to enjoy BGs even casually.

It's funny how my prediction was correct, I've gone to spending most of my time in Alterac Valley to becoming a raider. The new gearing rank structure has been a total failure. Not only is Arena less popular than ever before, but the best Battleground in the game (Alterac Valley) is unplayable on many realms. It either has one hour wait times, or not enough people of either faction participating. The main problems;

- Honor is less important, so why go to BGs? Also you can get easy honor from doing Wintergrasp which is still new and shiny and more fun for people who are sick of playing in the same BGs for the last several years.
- Why bother getting your ass handed to you in Arena by Pallys when you can just get your PvP gear from Vault of Archavon, Wintergrasp or Honor?
- People gravitate towards the easiest way to get gear, which has shifted from BGs/Arena in TBC to Puging Naxx in Wrath.

It's strange that Blizz's strategy for raiding has shifted in the last four years to encourage everyone to enjoy it, yet in Arena they are rewarding literally a few hundred players and leaving the rest out in the cold. I'm not suggesting cutting back on the rewards for the top 5% but the bar is too high for the casual player, i.e. total disparity between the effort involved and the reward. Even people who played for just fun (and not gear) will be bored once they are beaten by the same class combination 10 games running.

I really hope they do learn their lesson for Season 6, and there have been some encouraging signs. Alterac Valley will be added back to the requirement for BG mark hand ins quest, and also you will be able to enter BGs from anywhere in the world. Certainly I would be more likely to sign up for a BG whilst waiting for the raid to begin. I think they should add more vanity awards in for BG marks and honor also, these have been barely improved for a long time. Put in new pets, tabards and mounts. Even some bind on account items would be useful. Ultimately though, the class changes in patch 3.1 will determine if Arena can make a recovery in the next season.

The good news is that Blizz are adding a new Battleground to the game and hopefully this time it won't be Diet-Wintergrasp (I'm not too keen on Strand of the Ancients). We might just see a return to the good old days of making Battleground Pre-mades! In the meantime, I'm off to make some easy money in Wintergrasp.

The Mining Myth

If you frequent any of the Warcraft forums (official or fansite), you will constantly see threads pop up asking for gold making advice. The most common answer will be to get a gathering profession and preferably Mining. Whilst this is good for a new player or someone who is extremely bad at managing their WoW finances, it's not really good advice. Mining is a solid profession, with a guaranteed income but it will not lead to your riches.

The economy in WoW is build on inflation/deflation (increase/decrease in prices), which is very cyclical i.e. the economy rises and falls depending on the timeline of the game; how close it is from a patch/expansion. There are other factors such as realm population & supply/demand issues, but they're less relevant in this case. If you simply judge Mining on inflation, it's not a great profession. Let's just look at some basic stats from within the game to explain my point:

Stack of Fel Iron & Adamantite ore during TBC; 20-30g
Stack of Cobalt & Saronite ore during Wrath; 20-30g

20-30g might sound like a good price, but considering the value of gold today compared to 2 years ago, it's not so valuable. The biggest gold sink in Burning Crusade was the 5,000g for epic flying, today it's 16,000g (after rep) for a Tundra Mount. In simpler terms, to pay for my flying I would have to sell 200 stacks of Ore at 25g a stack, but to buy the Tundra mount I would have to sell 640 stacks. I realise this mount is less vital than epic flying, but this is just a simple example to illustrate the deteriorating value of your mining. Even basic daily costs like repairs or flight paths will need you to sell more ore to cover.

This diminishing return seems even worse when you consider the alternatives. Many other professions have seen a rise in auction house prices (herbalism and cooking for example). Even daily quests offer more gold than they did in the previous expansion. So in relative terms mining is no longer as valuable, and this is a trend that will likely continue.

I'm not suggesting mining is a bad profession because I have it on my main, but you'll have to think outside of the box if you want to increase the cash flow.

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.

Sell your Christmas pets!

For Christmas, every higher level player gets a pet in Ironforge. There are one of four you can get, a Green Helper, Red Helper, Snowman and Reindeer. Last year I got the Red Helper and a friend who I can't remember gave me a Green one too. As a serial pet collector, I was disappointed not to get one of the other two this year (Green Helper for me this year).

These pets can be sold on the Auction House and in a few months will be very rare and expensive. I'm sure even now they will be worth a fair amount. One thing to note, they don't seem to be listed under pets at the auction house yet, so you may need to advertise. It's worth saving these pets on all your alts, especially if you have no interest in pets. With a new "Collect 100 Pets" Achievement incoming, pet prices are going to rise even further, which is a shame because I think the black tabby will be forever out of my reach now. Still one disappointment leads to riches, can't be all bad. Not that I would say no to any pet donations if you're reading from the Doomhammer EU realm. What you want puppy dog eyes too? I'm begging on my short gnome knees already!

Christmas farming

Christmas means Azeroth is not so busy, at least for things as mundane as farming mats. In 45 minutes of Mining and extracting clouds I got this in Scholazar.

132 Saronite Ore
5 Titanium Ore
72 Crystallized Fire
54 Crystallized Shadow
46 Crystallized Earth
23 Crystallized Water
5 Crystallized Air
1 Chalcedony
1 Huge Critine

I don't really do Christmas (beyond my television marathon) so it's been very nice to be able to get the materials for the Engineering motorbike and 3 epic Leatherworking pieces I want, with such ease. Personally I think Scholazar is the best place to farm for stuff like this because you can just go around in circles on auto-pilot and the mobs rarely bother you.

I forgot to mention I just hit level 80 a couple days back (nothing wrong with being a "Gz" whore!). I only completed Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord & Dragonblight, and was halfway through Grizzly Hills. Having so many zones left will help me get some cash for the 8000 gold Kirin'Tor ring. I'll definitely wait to get some better gear before stepping into the level 80 zones, as I'm still in mainly level 70 gear except the new epic engineering head and have struggled the few times I've visited Icecrown.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Keep your eye on Enchant prices

After the release of Wrath there was a big crash on the price of the Outland enchanting materials (Arcane Dust, Greater Planar Essence and Large Prismatic Shards). No one was interested in old enchants and there was a massive supply of them thanks to Death Knights.

Things seem to be heading in a completely opposite direction now. The materials are needed by enchanters leveling their profession and now is a very popular time for people to do this (Death Knights leveling up now or people taking on the profession because of its usefulness as raiding/arena starts in Wrath). Burning Crusade enchants are also popular at the moment because people do not want to waste money on expensive Northrend enchants while they are still gearing up in raids or arena, so they settle for the Outland ones.

On my realm Greater Planars have gone from 7g to about 17gold in the last few weeks. Arcane Dust has gone over the price they sold for during Burning Crusade. Large Prismatic shards are still worth very little because people still avoid the most expensive Outland enchants that required them.

If you do happen to have Outland gear you want to disenchant, here is a guide on if you should vendor or disenchant;

- Level 65-70 Blue quality or Level 70 Purple quality items; vendor these because you're more likely to get large prismatic shards that sell for a few gold on the auction house. Level 70 purples can vendor for more than 10 gold.

- Level 60-65 greens; These are more likely to disenchant to Arcane Dust so it depends on the vendor value. If they vendor for 2 gold, you're more likely to make a profit from the dust. If they vendor for 8g you might be better of just selling them.

- Level 65-70 greens; These are the opposite of the above. These have a higher chance of rewarding Planars, so unless they vendor for over 10g, you're better of disenchanting.

Of course there are add-ons that can help you determine this, but that's my tip of the day. This ignores listing the gear on the auction house. This should be avoided because there is very little demand and very high deposit costs. Most likely you'll waste a deposit for a week before selling, meaning it's hard to break even selling gear on the auction house.

Sell as Eternals or Crystals?

End of term work for University and Christmas has meant a slow down in posting, but I'm trying to get some more posts in around Christmas. Today I want to talk about selling Eternals on the Auction House.

In Burning Crusade you would need 10 Primals (Earth, Water, Fire, etc) to turn them into one Primal. They were found through multiple sources (mining, killing mobs, gas clouds, etc) and used for most crafting recipes. In Wrath we now have Crystals that can be turned into Eternals. Selling these on the Auction House is very lucrative and even casual players can make a few hundred gold off this weekly. Just like in the last expansion Fire, Air and Water tend to be more expensive due to their rarity and some of them can sell for as much as 50g each.

I've seen lots of posts online recently about the best way to sell them; should you sell the Crystals individually or wait until you have ten to sell as an Eternal?

In most cases selling them separately as crystals will net you more money, however there are some limitations to this. If you put ten on the market, it is unlikely they will all sell and a big chance you will be undercut due the the quantity you have put up. Often after a few hours of questing you can have enough crystals to make 2 or 3 eternals. Selling these as crystals could take days if not weeks because you have to limit yourself to only putting a handful on the market at once. On the other hand selling a few eternals will usually only take a few hours. Personally I think having a faster cash flow is far easier, instead of wasting time constantly trying to sell your crystals. If you rarely come into contact with them you're probably best of selling them as crystals but I don't think this applies to most people.

Many people are overly reliant on Auctioneer and it's exactly this type of item it will let you down with. The price of eternals are extremely volatile and it is better to use your own brain for a change. Most items fluctuate on price during busy times of the week by a reasonable amount; a stack of ore might be 40g on Friday night and 50g by Sunday, auctioneer will therefore give you a fair average price. Eternals work differently, and can change by as much as 50% in price during the week. It's really up to you to check the prices regularly for a week or two to find out what your ideal selling price is.

In Burning Crusade Primal Fire on my realm moved between 20 gold and as much as 60 gold. Most of the time they would be between 20g and 40g, so personally I would only list them on the auction house at times when the price was at least 30g. It definitely the type of item you should not settle for selling at a low price because the demand is always high.

When it comes to setting a price for them it's wise to be aware of other sellers. I'll run through a few models. You scan the auction house for the price of an eternal and find a decent supply of eternals on the auction house;

- You find that there are numerous auctions at 30g and one auction at 27g; in this scenario don't undercut the seller at 27g. Eternals are always high in demand and most people are usually buying more than one, so in this case list your item at just under 30g.

- You find that there are numerous auctions at the same price. In this case you should be looking to undercut because there are multiple sellers all at the same price.

- If you find there are only a few on the auction, you might want to risk putting it a much higher price.

Some people will ask if the prices are so volatile why don't you just sell them at the times of the week when prices are high? Well in my experience there is no set time of the week where the prices will be extremely high and it's too unpredictable. Enchanting mat prices are dependent largely on when instances are run and mining materials on when people are questing. Eternals on the other hand usually depend on other factors. Most servers have thousands of miners so there is a steady supply of metal but eternal prices can be dependent on just a handful of engineers on a realm and when they decide to go farming, meaning they can change the market price at their own discretion (with or without realising it). Due to this, I think it's best to find a price you are happy with and sell if you feel the average price is it a decent level.

Winter Veil tips

The Christmas holiday will be starting on Monday and it should be a good time. I enjoyed it last year and achievements will add too it hopefully. I decided to write a quick run down on some things you might want to have prepared before Monday to either save yourself money or even make some, for a more detailed guide check out this WoWInsider article.

A Frosty Shake and Scrooge require snowballs, which you can pick up in zones like Arathi Highlands. You will also be able to buy them off vendors now for just 10 copper. If you've been selling Snowballs on the AH, you probably want to get rid of them now because they won't be worth much anymore. Then again some people won't realise you can buy them from the vendor and maybe you'll still make some money.

The Winter Veil Gourmet is an interesting achievement for a few reasons. You'll need to cook all three of the Winter Veil recipes, so level your cooking to 325 if you are yet to get there. You can expect cooking materials to rise in price as people realise this. Two of the recipes also require Small Eggs. I've bought some very cheaply from the AH, and I'll resell the ones I don't need. You can probably make a tidy amount of money off this. There's also a way of making money off the vendors by making Hot Apple Cider. Check out the comments on WoWHead, an interesting discovery.

Let It Snow has potential to be a real pain, especially if your Alliance looking for a Orc Death Knight. I advice teaming up with a friend to create alts of the opposite faction although that will be limited to PvE realms. PvP players will have a bit more work to do, although I'm sure you can do it eventually hanging around Dalaran.

Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la doesn't require Preserved Holly but there will still be a market for them. Although it's likely you can sell them for more during the year.

Tis' The Season is one you should really start saving for now. You'll need three parts of the Christmas outfit. The hat is available from Outland instances although they may update that. The clothes are made by tailors and the boots by leatherworkers. It's worth buying Runecloth, Wool, Rugged Leather and copper bar now, because the prices of these will be rising. If you're a leatherworker or tailor, you might want to start selling these now if you have the recipes from before or saving the materials if you hope to make some money after buying the recipe from Monday. If you have those materials, it's also better if you start selling them on monday at an inflated price. The good thing is both these pieces are not soulbound, so you can share them with your guild.

I'm really looking forward to this holiday. Most of the achievements are easy to get and won't get you frustrated. Hope everyone has a nice Winter Veil!

December's here!

I have a feeling that December will be a very busy month in Warcraft. Sure everyone might be busy with Christmas but it also brings a ton of free time for people who are usually working. Most people will be hitting level 80 and starting heroics & Naxx. There are also a few in-game events kicking off that will keep everyone busy. December 15th sees the start of Winter Veil which should be fun (Hallow's End left me a little jaded) and a day later the new PvP season will begin.

I'll probably still be battling away, trying to hit 77. I'm still double minded on if I'll get the Northrend flying skill, because I'm having a lot of fun exploring the continent from my mount. I'll probably only be on Dragonblight by then, I'm already level 74 and so far only done Howling Fjord. On the other hand I really want to start working on my engineering and it would certainly help if I could farm for metal whilst flying. Do you guys have any plans for the holiday period?

Also seeing as it's the start of a new month, I'll drop a reminder for Consortium Gems for old time's sake. I think I'll still head down to Nagrand because it's the first time I'll be revered with the Consortium.

Armory & Gold Stats Update

Last week Blizzard updated the Armory website so it now included achievements and statistics. This included the Gold statistics I previously mentioned. I admit curiosity got the better of me and it was interesting to see the gold the top raiders had. It's also interesting to note that Blizzard has reacted fast to the community's complaints over these statistics now being available to people who don't even play the game (let alone your realm), and removed them from the Armory. I think this is a sign that Blizzard let this slip through the cracks and that a future patch will hopefully see them removed in-game too.

Mining in Wrath

Most miners will need to use their metals to level up their other professions, however now would be the time to focus on selling; level later when the metal prices have normalised. Your first priority should be to level your skill, and frankly the easiest way to do this is to head back to Outland. The nodes in Northrend are harder to find (especially if you can't fly yet), over farmed and you're likely to get ninja'd too. I've managed to get my skill up to around 425 in Outland with relative ease. The zone's hardly have anyone in them except Death Knights (who can't fly) so you can fly around and you'll find an abundant supply of nodes. Fel Iron & Adamantite will give you some skill ups, but Rich Adamantite and Khorium will get you well into 420 skill. If you don't want to do this, it's still worth making a detour to Shattrath if you're heading off to your normal capital; The Barrier Hills. This small hub just on top of Aldor Rise is every miners secret farming spot. It usually spawns 2 or 3 nodes of Adamantite, Rich Adamantite and even Khorium. These days there is almost always a few nodes there because no one is using Shattrath. A very easy way to get cheap skill points before heading off to Stormwind or Orgrimmar. If you have the bank space, I'd save the Outland metals for a few months because they are worthless now, but are likely to shoot back up in price (just check the price of Iron, Mithril or Thorium). It's so easy to level in Northrend that you're likely to end up in zones where the nodes are too high for you to mine, this can help you stay ahead of the curve and not waste nodes.

This should put you in a fairly comfortable position to get your skill to 450. Most of the new metals are selling for crazy prices at the moment. If you want to make some real money, getting to 450 is vital because you can begin to smelt Titan Steel, which is going for 500g per bar on my realm, and this is the cheapest price. You can only smelt one every 20 hours, so supply is low and demand is high because they are required for all the best recipes in Wrath. Even if you don't have the materials to smelt a bar, advertise in Trade Channel to do it for other people. A huge number of people are after them and you can make some serious money off tips (make sure you agree a price before smelting). The good thing is the price of these bars is likely to remain fairly high because you need 12 of them to make the new Engineering Motorbike, not to mention countless other high level recipes. I would definitely recommend getting to around skill 420 in Outland, and then hopefully you can hit the rest of the points quickly in Northrend. If you have not maxed the skill by level 77, the first thing you do with your flying mount is to finish off leveling mining. Every 20 hours is money lost!

The Fishing Quest Bug

Most of the Outland Dailies are nerfed pretty bad once you upgrade to a Wrath account, they offer far less gold than they did before. The fishing daily quests seem to have been over looked though. They still offer about 7 gold, and usually more with the useless junk that drops with the bag. You can also get lucky and get some of the vanity gear that sells well on the Auction House. Also for pet collectors the Crocolisks in the City quest will still be a priory. The main reason you might want to keep this daily on your schedule is the fishing bug that has been around since at least patch 3.0.2, in which you catch the Quest Fish on the first catch. 10 seconds work for 7 gold is never bad. When I'm on my down time, I always drop by Shattrath to check if the Crocolisk quest is the daily. This bug will probably be fixed in the next patch, so enjoy it while you have an easy chance to get some pets and money.

Realm First! Cooking Grand Master

It's been an insane few days for me, but I did it!!!

I'm usually the type of player who likes to take his time in doing anything in the game...but every so often I will be taken over by something (usually a reputation grind) and dedicate every living hour to getting what I want. Usually it means I become a miserable, selfish git - sorry guildies! Last Thursday I found myself fishing in Ironforge in the afternoon and noticed I was well into my 400's. Maybe I had a chance to get the realm first Fishing Grand Master. I frantically fished those last 30 or 40 skills and was disappointed when I didn't get the achievement. Not because I didn't get it, but because I was looking forward to leveling fishing in Dalaran's fountain, and just wasted it for no reason. I felt it served me right for breaking my own rules about taking my time.

I didn't learn my lesson though. I was in Dalaran only a day after release, thanks to a mage who took me there for 20g. The first thing I did was the cooking daily quest, because I was after the "Chef" title. 15 minutes later the daily quests reset and I was able to do it again. I was one of only a handful of people in Dalaran by this point, and it got me thinking that maybe I had a chance of actually getting the realm first; to get the recipes you must get Dalaran Cooking Awards by completing the daily quests. By being one of the first people in Dalaran I had a big advantage. My main competition would be a mage who had got there before me, or someone who had got more Awards than me by lucky drops.

I made some terrible mistakes though. Firstly, I bought the wrong recipe to get me to 425; instead of buying one that needs the commonly dropped Chilled Meat, I had bought the one that needs Chunk O' Mammoth. This meant a huge amount of grinding. Secondly, for some odd reason I though Northern Spices were soulbound, so I wasted a huge amount of time when I could have bought them off other people. Surely someone with level 70 alts or deeper wallets would beat me easily. After I realised this second mistake I was sure I'd blown it. I felt really frustrated because I had spent over 2000g (which you'll remember I had spent the last few weeks grinding before the release of Wrath) for no reason. Also a number of people had really helped me out in my attempt and I felt like an idiot because I'd failed due to a rookie mistake. Skill point 424 was particularly painful, it took me over 300 meals to get the skill up and well over 1000g.

But my guild got me re-motivated after my downer, and I decided I would max out my cooking just to keep me satisfied the effort was for something. So I continued the endless grinding of innocent Mammoth Cubs in Borean Tundra, and the frustrating fishing of Deep Sea Monsterbelly in the Frozen Sea. I was half way through level 70 when I started killing the Mammoths and now I'm halfway through 71. One whole level seeing the same mobs, and to mix it up endlessly fishing in the same spot.

Skill 449 was getting as frustrating as 424 had. I completed the new daily quest a few minutes after it was given and decided to cook with the few northern spices I had won that day. I was changing the song on iTunes when suddenly the yellow achievement sign popped up. Then I see a "WTF" from my only guildie online (who didn't know about my attempt because he had just returned to the game after a fortnight away), followed by about 30 whispers of "Gz". It took me a few seconds to realise I had done it! I can't tell you how great it felt after having spent countless hours grinding, thousands of gold and finally giving up.

There are some people who I was to say a big thank you to for helping me out over the last few days. Everyone in my guild Looney Tunes, especially Winks and Mal, & also Dolbz and Sidi. People from my old guild The Village People, especially Josh, Tippy, Bakku and Gem. Finally my old guild master and friend Keyhunter. I got a lot of moral support, as well as materials they could have used for their own cooking. Thanks guys, couldn't have done it without you!

Here are some pictures


I'm in a great mood now, but I think I need a few days off to recover!

Some changes to the blog

(I wrote some of this blog a week or two back, so you may have noticed some of these changes already)

Hopefully you guys have noticed a steady increase in my blogging. I've decided to make some small and big changes to the blog. First off I realise that whilst some people do reply to my posts, most don't bother (I know this because I get far more emails than replies). Maybe having to log in does put some people off, so I've decided to let anyone post comments. I would still prefer to see your names so I can check out your blogs in turn, but I'd rather have more interaction, even if it is with anonymous users. I've also decided that I will moderate replies that are for posts older than two weeks. Hopefully this will cut down on gold seller spam, whilst not getting in the way of new posts. I added a little subtitle to the blog also and I'm probably going to drop the anonymity I've guarded so far. I'm not as money driven (or rich) as I used to be, so I don't mind if I do get a little grief. Also I'm not a guild leader anymore, so I have far more free time.

I googled "warcraft trade" and noticed I was number six on the results. Not bad for a blog I should put more effort into. The site description is a bit odd though, although I have no idea how that can be changed. I've been thinking about getting my own domain name, but the obvious ones are taken. Do you guys have any suggestions for domains? (Edit: I re-added the poll to the home-page now, sorry if you have to vote again)

Finally, the biggest change I'd like on the blog is having some guest bloggers. Whilst I do try to keep up to date with all the goings on in the WoW economy, I am limited to my own areas of expertise. I thought it would be nice if some of you who have experience in different areas were to write some posts to share with the community. The blogger would get full credit for his work, although I might edit certain things although that will be minimal (spelling corrections, breaking up paragraphs, keeping the posts concise, etc). If I like your stuff, I'd even be open to sharing the blog with other writers. Content wise I'm open to anything, although it's probably best to avoid writing about professions I'm already familiar with (Engineer, Skinning, Mining in particular). If anyone is interested, I would love to hear from you at wow.hustle@gmail.com

I've posted more this month than any before, so hopefully things can pick up. I've got some other ideas too, but all in good time. Thanks for the feedback as always.

Missing your first Ding!

I'm one of the slowest levelers you will ever meet, so I'm usually very aware of when I will be hitting my next level. I've usually spent days of play time waiting for it, so it's one of those great feelings. I was particularly looking forward to hearing my first Ding in close to a year, but I missed it!

I was grinding some Mammoth meat in Borean Tundra for cooking, when I accidentally over pulled and had about 4 Mammoths on me with 20% life left. Just as I hit the vanish button I notice I'm at full health and very confused. After 10 minutes of thinking about all the possible explanations I realised I was now level 71 after killing one of the Mammoths, I'd got my full life back. Shows how strange it is to be leveling again. My confusion meant I didn't even get the obligatory and forced "Gz" we all crave. /cry
I better not miss the next nine level ups, but alteast we have Achievement Gratz now.

Wrath of the Lich King Review

Reviewing a MMO is an impossible task. An early review can be skewed because you can only see a small percentage of the content. By the time you can give a fair review, is months down the line and no one actually cares what you have to say because they've seen it themselves. Wrath of the Lich King is so exciting I can't help but talk about it, especially because I know some of the readers of this blog have yet to jump aboard the ship or zeppelin to Northrend.

The Good:
I don't even know where to starts, I could go on for pages so I might just be adding to this section for the next few days.

- Since 3.0.2 we suffered lots of technical problems, but the launch was just fantastic. Most people simply logged into the game and were playing 5 minutes later. Makes the trouble of the last few weeks well worth it.

- The two start zones are just fantastic. Everyone will have their preference, but I liken it Lord of the Rings (Howling Fjord) and Jurassic Park (Borean Tundra), completely different films but both are great. I've wondered about some other zones too, and so far Storm Peaks blew me away. It just looks so huge and epic, added to the fact I have a huge soft spot for snowy zone (since I started playing the game in Dun Morogh and spent a lot of time in Winterspring grinding the mount). Actually most of the zones feel very epic.

- The music in the game is just fantastic. I've always liked some of the music in the game, but they have stepped it up a notch here. I've been torn between listening to the new Killers album or leaving the in-game music on whilst playing (usually Killers would win without a doubt). I briefly stepped into Lake Wintergrasp and the music there was so unusual, it had a bit of a Japanese influence which I loved. The quantity of music that has been created is hard to describe, it's no longer the same song remixed for every single zone. I can't wait to listen to the soundtrack I got with the collectors edition.

- The variety of quests they have is just staggering. The game is full of new ideas but even the popular old ones have been re-invented brilliantly. Tired of bombing runs? Well now you can hop on to a zeppelin (pretty exotic for an Alliance exclusive player) and throw bombs on pirates below. There's a fantastic quest chain where they use hunter and druid mechanics where not only do you own a bird pet but get to fly around as it later on. Which leads on to...

- The immersion into the world is just overwhelming. I remembering going to Outland for the first time and seeing a huge lava-fire zone (my worst type) and being told to kill 10 boars (I'm sure the Burning Legion was scared of that epic feat). Now you are explicitly told you're a hero of some renown within your faction. In Northrend everything seems to be built around the huge war that is taking place and there is a sense of urgency to all your actions. I really did not have a clue what the story about Outland was besides the usual vague details the quest givers gave. In Northrend it's hard to avoid the details and even if you don't read quest text, the Lich King might show up to make sure you do next time, spoiler (highlight to read;within 20 minut es of questing in Howling Fjord, I stumbled into the Lich King, and after telling me I was not ready to be his servent yet, he killed me. Even the kill 10 of "X" creature quests seem part of this massive effort, and usually have some other relates quests mixed in, so you barely notice them (although I am yet to visit the ass Hemet Nesingwary). The music, quests and zones really mesh together for a great experience. Even the world around you seems much more realistic. You'll see different types of mobs interacting with each other, not just ignoring each other like they usually do.

- Daily quests whilst leveling are also well made. Most are very easy, give great XP, good money and reputation to boot. In fact the entire world just seems very easy on XP, you can do 20 quests & one instance run, and be half way through your level. Most people will have a great deal of content to explore long after they hit 80.

- We may have had our flying mounts removed for a while, but the zones and quests really seem to get around that problem. The quests are well structured that you can do a large amount in a small area before being moved on to other areas. Traveling between these areas also seems to be made much easier. You'll get random rides (on planes for example) to random outposts with just a few quests. No more large rides to get flight paths like we did in TBC, the zones have many more.

- I've only had a 10 minute look at the Death Knight and so far I am loving it.

- Short instances? I love it. Blizzard tried to put forward the case that most Burning Crusade instances were 45 minutes, but I never bought it. I remember my first Shadow Labs taking two hours and Magister's Terrace four hours (both PuGs). You can genuinely PuG Utgarde Keep in half an hour and actually enjoy the experience. I've always been hesitant to go into instances not because I don't enjoy them, but because I hate bad PuGs, wiping continuously and realising an hour has passed and we just killed the second boss. I liked Post 3.0.2 Kara, and I like these new instances.

- I tried out the new BG, Strand of the Ancients, and it was confusing. But then what BG isn't the first time? Once I got my head around it, I think we may finally have a BG that's close to how great I feel Alterac Valley is.

- I should try to wrap this up, so I'll end by saying I love how even things like Reputations and Professions have been improved significantly.

- Dalaran; I feel this deserves its own final paragraph. The new Mage City is just amazing. It looks stunning and feels like a real city like the old Azeroth ones did (as opposed to Shattrath or Exodar). It doesn't capture the bustling medieval feel off Stormwind, the Elven tranquility of Darnassus, the might of the Dwarves in Ironforge, or the creepiness of Undercity. Instead it has its own unique character (unlike Shattrath which was just a portal to other places, oh and some Bird-men refugees you better avoid). Dalaran feels every bit as magical as you would expect a mage city to be, without overstating the fact (no Beauty & the Beast style living brooms like in the Blood Elf cities). Fountains where you can fish up wishing coins, toy shops where you can by train sets and vendors for everything you could want. But just like every great city, you have the under-classes (for mages that's every class that can't produce its own glass of Diet Coke with a spell) all residing in their own ghetto; in this case the sewer. I'll leave you to discover the place on your own, but I can see myself spending a lot of time here.


The Bad:
I had to think hard about these.

- I really don't understand Blizzards philosophy towards PvP gearing, because it goes against everything they're trying to push for in PvE. In case you don't know, all the PvP gear available at level 80 requires you to do Arena. Basically there will be 3 tiers; Blue quality gear which requires Arena points (no rating), normal Purple quality items that also require an Arena rating and finally the high end Purples that require a high level rating. Now for someone who enjoys BGs (mainly Alterac Valley) and has zero interest in Arena, we're basically forced into doing Arenas. It's the equivalent of telling people you can do 5 man instances but sorry you cant get any gear rewards till you step into a 10-man raid. Can you imagine the reaction? Blizz has really been pushing Arena and E-sports for a while, but I don't thinking forcing people is the way to go about it. I spent most of my level 70 end game (over 95%) in Battlegrounds, I think this will flip it the other way. I know the new Season does not start till December, so I'm still hoping they change their minds on this, but so far no one in the community seems to care. Maybe I'm missing something but at the moment I have no idea where I will be getting resist gear, so I won't be able to enjoy BGs even casually.

- I don't really know if this is actually the case, but it seems like Blizzard has really made professions overly difficult and expensive to level. There are plenty of money sinks in the game (even small items such as toys and year long drink kegs in Dalaran), and I feel this was an unnecessary move.

- Dalaran is the probably the greatest city that has ever been in the game, there is so much to do and see. I think there are some major design problems in how they made the city that just encourages lag. I've often heard of people complain about lag in Irongforge, Stormwind and especially Shattrath, but for me it's never been a problem. So for me to get 2 frames per second when the city is not even half as busy as Shattrath is worrying. I can only imagine it in a few weeks when more people make their way there. I've had reports from friends who find themselves disconnecting as soon as they enter the city. The problem will get worse because unlike Shattrath where people were quick to head off to their home capitals, the content of Dalaran only encourages you to stay longer. I really think making it slightly bigger and less cramped would have helped significantly. Luckily I've found the sewers don't suffer from this problem, so it's my hangout for the time being.

- Whilst the reputation shift from dungeons to quests is welcome, the structure of them is very confusing. Here's to some quick updates on WoWWiki.

/Silly:

- It's not all seruious, you'll still see plenty of Blizz humour all over the game.

- I want more non-combat pets! They have only added about four in the entire game, and only one that you can just buy without having to get reputation/achievements. Even that one was just a skull, which is a little bizzarre.

- Everyone should go to the sewers in Dalaran and look for some lootable bottles. They can turn you into a Tuskarr or one of the giant fireflies from Zangarmarsh. Good fun.

- The gnome female Death Knight voice is...weird. Just imagine your four year old cousin trying to do be Johnny Five from the Short Circuit films.

- Everyone needs to head to K3, the new Goblin Town. Some of the outfits the goblins are wearing are really funny, the flight master looks like a goblin-mummy. The wallpaper in one of the buildings is interesting too. Strange that the goblins never felt this cold in Winterspring.

- I think I might contact D.E.H.T.A. about the Tuskarrs' cruel treatment of sharks and giant turtles.

- I hear rumours of more poop quests. Win!

Overall:
I've given enough glowing praise by now, so I don't have to repeat how much I am loving Wrath so far.

As usual, the spellings and grammar for this post won't be checked for a while (if ever, its way too long).
I have had a few posts I've wanted to make on the blog, but didn't know where to start. Now that I have the review out the way, we can get down to some business minded stuff tomorrow. Would love to hear your thoughts on the game. Also if you have actually got to the end of this overly long post, 10 achievement points to you!

London Midnight Wrath Launch: Epic Journey and Imba Loot!

What a tiring day it has been and with my Wrath 88% installed, I'm afraid it's only just begun. I was planning on arriving at the HMV shop in Central London at 9pm, but after previous experiences with queuing (damn you iPhone and Harry Potter!) I decided 8 would be a safer bet. I left home at 6pm but it was past 8pm when I arrived, thanks to a horrible McDonalds meal and some bad planning (they have 2 branches of HMV on the insanely busy Oxford Street, and I walked to the wrong one!). I was pleased to find no one in line, so I casually bought some music albums and the guy at the counter informed me that the line had in fact already started in the morning. I was directed to an alleyway to the side of the shop and frankly it's nice to know both real crack and e-crack can be purchased in the same location.

The line was already about 300 people deep and it was the start of a miserable four hours. I really was not in the mood to be there in the cold but my Collector's Edition copy was sent to my Scotland address and I really wanted it now. I have to admit it was worth it in the end because I managed to snag a few extras that made it a great night.

Here are some pictures I took, excuse the bad quality;

* We were let inside the shop just before midnight, and if you squint you'll notice a guy dressed in blue armour, apparently it's Arthas himself! Oh noes!


* At midnight, Blizzard COO Paul Sams and Associate Producer Lee Sparks lead the countdown. I could have got them to sign my game but I didn't feel it was worth a two hour wait, so I grabbed the game and rushed to the bus stop.

**Insert picture of Paul Sams and Lee Sparks that I never took**

* Here are a few pictures of the shop from the outside.




By massive coincidence I got chatting to a girl on the bus who had also just bought the game and lived in the same neighbourhood as me. I know millions of people play WoW, but for me it's still a strange experience to meet them in real life and know they live 100 yards away from my friend Leon! Anyway...

* After seemingly years of waiting I finally had my hands on...Mariah Carey The Ballads!

Personally I think "All I Want for Christmas is You" is the perfect track to enter Northrend with. (And to the guildie who asked me if I was gay, the answer is still no)

Some other extras I got

* A really high quality laminated double-sided poster of Arthas.


* A large card with a Fel Reaver and a Murloc HMV badge I got overly excited about (Murlocs have feelings too!). The badge is actually pretty funny if you know what the HMV logo usually looks like. I was happy I managed to grab another one for my sister who was unfortunately unable to make it. Would have been a lot more fun if she had come, if only so we could moan together, like only Londoners can.


They were actually giving out T-shirts and other posters to random people, but I was happy enough with what I did get. There were also film crews, and maybe you'll see me on the Blizzard website.

* This really made my night though; I got a loot card inside the box and it was one I really wanted. Papa Hummel's Old-Fashion Pet Biscuit, which makes your pets turn huge! I didn't realise they were giving these too and I can't wait to try them out. Too bad you only get a stack of 50.


In the picture you can see the art book, making-off DVD, Papa Hummel's Card, soundtrack, game DVD and mouse mat.

I've managed to log in, and the game was not too busy surprisingly. I guess people have school and work. I checked out the towns in both start zones, looks very pretty. Trained all 5 professions which cost several hundred gold including recipes. Tomorrow I plan on some serious dungeon running! Hope you guys have had a nice and smooth experience too. Now I'm off to bed, it's almost 4am and I'm exhausted. You'll have to forgive the spelling mistakes and typos, I'll fix them tomorrow.

The final weekend of The Burning Crusade

This time next week I'll probably be coming back from a midnight launch in London, ready to install Wrath of the Lich King. The coming weekend definitely marks the end of an Era then. Most likely in a year the people moaning about how they disliked TBC, will be moaning about how they dislike Wrath and can they have realms with only Azeroth and Outland. I'm not a huge fan of some of the zones in Outland, in particular Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm, far too bleak for my tastes. I still have about 70 odd quests left in the two zones, so I'm planning on some serious questing this weekend. Firstly, this is going to be your last opportunity to benefit from the XP-Gold conversion you get at level 70. Northrend will be offering plenty of gold, but the fact remains your enjoyment of the new content will increase if you can just power-level your professions with your gold reserves. Secondly, while I'm not a fan of these zones, the quests are still very entertaining and with the achievements incentive I am really looking forward to completing them. I think many people will forget the negative views they may have had with Outland and look back fondly in a few years. With that in my mind I plan to give the continent one last hurrah. Then again, I'm sure many of you will still be sick of it in a few weeks as your Death Knight hits Hellfire.

If you want some basic figures on why finishing off these zones might be useful, here's some very rough estimates of how much gold you can make. Last weekend I headed into SMV and Netherstorm, after a few hours I had complete about 40 or so quests. The few sessions in which I completed these quests rewarded me with about 900 gold, this includes quest money, quest rewards vendored, mob loot and any mining nodes & engineering motes I picked up. Even with the inflation of money with Wrath, that's an impressive amount of money. I fully expect to add another 2,000g this weekend which will no doubt be very useful.

Still not tempted? Well I had originally planned on making the new Motorcycle mount my primary object to save for, as I felt the other mounts were over priced. This video won me over:
20, 000g, 3 Person Mammoth Mount
The idea of having a portable vendor, repair man and poison/food seller just blew me away. Is it worth 20K? Probably not. Do I want one? Hell yeah!

Even if you feel you've totally completed The Burning Crusade, I think you should make an effort to enjoy the coming weekend. Go do some of the little things you never got round to doing. Have one last go with level 70 Battlegrounds. Go to an instance you got so bored with that you have not entered it in a year. Visit a spot you and your guild have fond memories of lazing around in. Outland is not going anywhere, but with so much new content to come it will be great to give it a fitting farewell.