Account Action: 72 Hour Suspension
Reason for Action: Terms of Use Violation — Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy

This suspension happened because one or more characters on the account were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for “real-world” currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.

Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.

We’ve found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/basics/antigold.html

The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html. Note that additional Terms of Use violations may result in more severe actions against this account, up to and including permanent closure.

For any disputes of this action, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and Contact page here: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/exploitfaq

Regards,
Blizzard Entertainment Support

Calm Like a Bomb
Last night was a solid night of raiding, in four hours we managed to clear up to Sindragosa and get in a couple of attempts. Feeling good, a few of us decided that since Jaraxxus was the weekly we should do an alt run through a 10 man ToGC, we were going for Insanity (we came very close actually). Even so, we managed it with a ragtag group that included my Elemental Shaman, Ghroth. I got a few upgrades and logged over to my main account to get the goodies gemmed and enchanted. While on my banker alt, I noticed someone selling stacks of epic gems (cheap). I made away with a stack of Cardinals, 2 stacks of Dreadstones, and an assortment of other gems and goods. The level one alt named Jinshao gave me the lot for about 10K, I figured good investment. There was a little haggling on those items that I wasn’t real keen on, I figured out pretty quickly “want sell quick, give good deal” so the Crusader Orbs and Epic patterns I got for about 200 lower than the original (already low) asking price.

Feeling good, I began processing the raw mats I got (a couple hundred stacks of Saronite Ore and 50 stacks of Titanium Ore for prospecting). I made a few stacks of Belt Buckles (none were in the AH so should’ve made some profit) after processing and listing my stock, I switched back to Ghroth to gem and enchant the stuff. By this time it was nearly four AM and I was beyond ready for bed…

Twenty Minutes Later
After a trip to the bathroom to get ready for bed, taking out my dog (one last time) and checking the lights in the house I heard a familiar beep. Apparently I’d left my speakers on, and I had mail. So I decided to check it before I went to sleep, that’s when I saw the above message from Blizzard…

Now, I’ve been getting a lot of fake phishing emails in the past, so I gave the email enough skepticism to verify my account status. I tried to log on, and found that my password had changed (curiouser and curiouser). So, I logged into battle.net and changed my password and verified that yes, my main account was indeed suspended. I’ve sent Blizzard an eMail concerning this and as I write this, I’m on hold with customer service… waiting for an answer.

In classic Blizzard fashion, they’ve not really given me an explanation as to what I’m accused of. They’ve simply suspended me and told me I’ve been found guilty of something. Judging by past experiences and anecdotal evidence, I don’t suspect I’ll ever know why I’ve been suspended. And if I ever DO get a meaningful explanation, it will likely be AFTER the suspension is up. My thoughts, a while back I gave out some gold to guild mates to help with Shadow’s Edge, etc. This I suppose could be a red flag, however I was giving gold to people in my own guild… it’s not like I was logging an AH alt and meeting random people in Org to give them gold…

The other thing, low level (probably asian) alt that I bought from late last night. Jinshao said a couple of times that he/she was in a hurry and needed to sell this stuff quick, and therefore willing to make a deal. At the time, I was just in “how much can I flip this for?” mode. But in light of what’s happened, I have to concede it’s possible this was a bunch of hacked goods, which gibes with (exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for “real-world” currency).

Of course, they may simply be running along the lines that most people do when they see someone with 70,000 gold (or more)… I must’ve bought it on eBay or something. Of course, there’s the worst case scenario, which is what I’m most concerned about right now… The possibility that my account was compromised. This was my first thought when I saw that the password had been changed, as far as I know when Blizzard suspends an account they don’t change the password. I do use an Authenticator, but after the recent news about the Man in the Middle scheme, I have to concede it’s possible someone got me.

The Long Short of It
Whether the guild wins or loses against Sindragosa Thursday, I won’t be there. And that pisses me off more than anything, more than missing out on a few days of wheeling and dealing, more than if I lost all of the gold I have. We’ve worked hard to get this far, and after last night’s raids I was on a high, fully expecting to down Sindy Thursday night. It’s a real punch in the gut. Anyhow, I should be back in this weekend (hopefully) and it looks like I can still play my Shaman so stay tuned, if there’s any new revelations you can be sure I’ll post about it here.

There’s something of the hypnotist in marketing, they say you’re selling yourself which in a sense is true. What does that mean? Well, it means it’s all a confidence game, you’re just trying to convince the other person it’s in their best interest to buy from you…

Different Sales Methods
At it’s core, sales fall into two basic categories: passive and active sales. Passive sales are fire and forget situations, an example: making multiples of each glyph in the game, listing these and collecting your gold in 12 hours, then listing again. Active sales as the name implies requires more effort than passive sales, the most common Active sales are people sitting in trade chat spamming

[2. Trade] [Soandso]:[Inscriptions] will undercut AH guaranteed!

Both methods have their merits, and some professions lend themselves more readily to one or the other. Let’s talk a little more about each so you can decide which is best for your needs.

Passive Aggressive or Aggressively Passive?
+ Passive Sales: Fire and Forget, these are the keywords of passive sales. For me, passives are my bread and butter. They tend to be very low on the time investment by nature, and (hopefully) a good return in gold. I primarily use Alchemy and Jewelcrafting for my passive sales, with Alchemy I make Flasks and do daily gem transmutes, sending these off to Khaas for cutting then listing them on the AH. This produces (and cuts) four or more epic gems and has them sitting in the auction house in minutes.

Flasks: If gems are my daily dose of gold, Flasks account for a weekly infusion of quick gold. I have several herbalist farmers in my employ, this keeps me stocked with herbs for both Inscriptions and Alchemy, likewise I look for deals on the AH periodically. I find early mornings are best, in particular on the weekends. Since the drop in Lotus prices by half since the announcement of 3.3.3 changes (allowing players to exchange Frozen Orbs for items like Frost Lotus) I’ve seen a surge in Lichbloom prices up to 30g per stack. However, recently I found multiple stacks for 15g each. Naturally, I snatched these faster than you can say “win”. Now, I do apply the fire and forget philosophy on Flasks, however I only post them on Tuesdays. The reason is, this is when the prices are highest and the flasks move the most. The reason, raids unlock and people need consumables to get things moving.

+ Active Sales: Active sales are not all necessarily spamming trade, the important thing is that you are a proactive in your approach to sales. My glyph market is a perfect example of a change in sales philosophy, for the longest time I did exercise a very laid back fire and forget mentality as relates to Glyphs. However, that time is gone. It just doesn’t work that way on my server anymore. What that means is, that I post fewer glyphs with a higher return and tend these on the AH with a higher frequency.

Hyper Active: Anytime that the trade channel is visible, I’ve got my eye on it. Looking for opportunities, either it’s a deal that I can buy and turn a profit on. OR it’s another opportunity. As stated some time ago, with the introduction of the Looking for Group tool I’ve been able to sell my tanking services to DPS (and even some healers) trying to skip the que times. I’ve reached a point where I no longer have to spam my services, in downtime I actually tend to look for people spamming “WTB Tank” this tends to give me quite a bit of gold actually. Friday I actually found a group (complete with healer) that paid out 100g each… 400g and 12 minutes later, I had a couple of extra badges, it was at that point that I was able spam my Enchanting and Jewelcrafting links while I waited for more groups.

Final Thoughts
Obviously, the best way to make maximum gold involves a combination of both Active and Passive methods. The important thing though is to remain agile, the market does not exist in a vacuum. Prices can change DRAMATICALLY in a matter of hours, so it’s absolutely critical that you are able to change with the market. It’s been my experience that those who can not adapt are doomed to failure.

The Bloodscalp Report
Inscriptions is really dead right now, it’s possible to make money with it. However it does require a much more proactive approach than in previous months. Fire and forget just doesn’t work anymore, there are too many competitors in the market to remain passive. As such I’ve modified my methods, I’m posting fewer different glyphs at a time but more of each, and I’ve set myself a minimum value, ie if it doesn’t sell for 5g+ I don’t bother (as an example). This means there are broad swathes of glyphs I’m not making, however these are listed on the AH generally for 1g or less each, and worse glyphs that don’t sell very quickly, so to me just not worth the effort.

Despite the poor showing from Glyphs, I actually made out decently. I added a fourth Alchemist, and started work on a fifth. Darkmoon Decks for instance brought in a large amount of gold (and continue to do so, as I still have a several in the AH). I invested a lot in decks while the faire was in town and managed to get Khaas exalted with DMF for my Insane in the Membrane achievement.

My Miscellaneous items like Weapon Chains and Shield Spikes aren’t exactly flying off the shelves, but I generally sell a little here and there. Belt Buckles sell really well with a smaller profit margin than the Chains and Spikes, but again they sell REALLY well. The market for cut gems seems to be coming down slightly, but even so they’re still selling well. And since I’m making them with transmutes the profit margin is insane, especially when compared to the time investment. Unfortunately this was a week where I spent most of what I made this week, I spent about 30K but I cleared 10K profit despite this spending. What did I get? Well, lots of materials for one. And I started working on my Elemental Shaman which has of course sucked away some gold.

This week though, I have a plan: to finish skilling up my fifth Alchemist and start another. Likewise, I’m going to finish off professions on my Shaman, Ghroth. Anyhow, that about wraps it up for this week, thanks for reading this late entry.

We’ve been looking for an Elemental Shaman in the guild for a long time now, we’ve recruited several and have without fail been underwhelmed. Excuses abound, and I’ve been left wondering do Shamans really suck this bad? Is it a problem with the class, or the itemization? Why are these guys underperforming? It was with that in mind that I decided to try my hand at the class I’ve largely avoided since I started playing World of Warcraft.

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
I have a long history with Shamans, but not in WoW. I played a Shaman in EverQuest for six years, it is no doubt the time I’d spent playing one already coupled with the fact that the Shamans of WoW are such different animals when compared to their EQ equivalents that I’ve largely avoided the class thus far. A bit over a year ago however, I decided to start five boxing my own group. It began with a Protection Paladin and four Shamans.

I had a lot of reasons for deciding on this group composition, and for even doing it in the first place (for more info read my interview with The Escapist Magazine located here the finished article can be found here). It was fun, but we started raiding. Face on Fire began to have enough members that I didn’t have to box to get things done, so I began to focus on Khaas and all was right with the world.

Until…

When we started working on a raiding roster we realized we were quite caster heavy, much of this was born of necessity. Kel’thuzad for example is much easier with minimal melee DPS, and in general many ranged DPS tends to eat less cleaves and incidental damage, which therefore relieves stress from healers. With our raid force we wanted to promote diversity which would ideally decrease direct competition on many items, the idea to get one of each of the specs (where possible) to fill our roster. So, we wanted to get a Resto, Enhance, and Elemental Shaman. It’s taken a while to settle on an Enhancement Shaman, and our guild leader (Exvanlane) fills the Resto slot. So, Elemental?

Well, we’ve had several Ele Shamans, unfortunately as gear has gotten better the disparity between the top DPS and the Eles has gotten more and more pronounced. Personally, I would expect the Ele Shaman to be right around our Boomkin and fellow officer Someshta DPS wise. But no, we’ve been running into Ele Shamans pulling 4-5K even on low movement fights. That may sound good, but that’s in 25 man with all possible buffs, infact with buffs stacked in FAVOR of casters. And where similarly geared players are doing double this number. Something really doesn’t add up.

I’ve spoken to several about it, and a lot of it has been “Gear isn’t itemized properly for Eles” or “This is a really difficult class to DPS with” etc, etc. Now, to the first I can’t lie… the lion’s share of mail gear with spell power is not itemized for DPS, it’s itemized instead for heals with haste and MP5 and maybe some crit. While not optimal, an upgrade is an upgrade. And let’s face it, sometimes there’s a case to be made for lesser armor class. Cloth tends to have the stats an Elemental Shaman or Balance Druid craves, the pervading notion however, is that using lower armor types is somehow wrong. Again, an upgrade is an upgrade.

But even forgetting all of that, it seems that an Ele Shaman as geared as my guildmates tend to be should be putting out significantly more than 4K damage doesn’t it? It was with all of this in mind that I decided to take a page from my buddy Cozmo D who had similar concerns when he ran into a fail DK. So, much like his DK Kaustic, I decided to wipe the dust off of one of my old multi box Shamans, Tuesday I logged on Ghroth for the first time in nearly a year and got to work running heroics…

Enter the Shaman
So far I haven’t dual specced for heals or anything, I’m going strictly with Elemental for the time-being. I wanted to see how hard the rotation was, and just how much damage I could put out. After raids Tuesday night, I logged Ghroth on and spent my talent points, got Glyphs from my Scribe. Then I headed to the target dummy in Org, I found that with my crappy gear (I had some iLevel 200 crafted epics, blues, and greens from quests) I was doing 3.5K on the boss dummy. It should be noted, this is also without Flame Tongue on my weapon, because I forgot to configure it in my SmartBuff Addon.

So, it was time for some randoms, I got lucky that first night and qued quickly. But I really didn’t do much till Weds, I ran some heroics with guildies apparently I’m not the only one with the itch to play alts lately. My buddy Sharp’s been playing a DK tank, I’ve been trying to help him out with as much advice as he needs but generally he’s doing fine without me. He’s gone DW Frost however, which seems to work beautifully in 5 mans. Similarly, one of our rogues has been playing a Resto druid. And the a fore mentioned Someshta’s been playing an Enhancement Shaman. So, we’ve nearly got a full regular group of alts. Even so, I’ve had my run ins with random pugs during these little excursions. And though I’ve been proud overall of my success at playing this new class, and have been having nothing but fun hurling lightning at my foes, some of these randoms have been … well, again Cozmo will appreciate this I think.

Raiding is Hard (Apparently)
Thursday I ran heroic COS with one of our guild tanks Threedrakez, 3d is a troll and he comes to us from the alliance, but don’t let his racial short comings or previous choice of faction mislead you, 3d is a great tank. Somewhere along the way 3d asked me a couple of questions about Khaas and raiding, at which point we were greeted with a great deluge of QQ from Ticc of Boulderfist. This turned out to be one of two huntards I would encounter in the random que this week. But I divert from the point…

Ticc apparently has a beef with raiding, and without preamble began to regale us with his reasons. And in a holier than thou attitude began to basically present a case for I have a life, you don’t because you raid. He said he didn’t have 18 hours per week to dedicate to raiding (after we’d told him we raid 8 hours per week, 2 nights at 4 hours per stretch). When this was repeated, he repeated that he didn’t have 18 hours per week to raid. He also doesn’t like the randomness of loot drops in raids. And apparently raiding is hard, especially if you’re in a sub optimal time zone.

Now, I’ll admit. If you’re living in Korea and playing on a US server. It might very well be difficult to find raiders in your time zone. Worse, finding a competent/successful guild will be similarly difficult by virtue of the limited options. However, it has been done. The number 2 guild on Bloodscalp for example is a predominantly Chinese guild named Gansita joining the guild is not horribly difficult, and they run multiple raids to accomodate the large number of people in their guild.

To be fair, Ticc probably isn’t Chinese. I do recall him saying something about moving from the West Coast to East Coast or something like that… And how that makes finding a raiding guild hard. In other words, it’s easier to cry about it than to look on tankspot for guilds recruiting that raid in his available time. What I gathered from the limited time I was around this person (and let me tell you, I couldn’t get away from him fast enough) is that, he simply likes to complain, about everything (I assume this is to distract people from looking at his numbers on recount). I can only imagine why no one wants to raid with him…

+ Fail Hunter #2 – Basals of Stonemaul
This failure was so epic, it was a screenshot or it didn’t happen kind of situation. Saturday after work, I hooked up with Sharp and Wow on their alts to run some randoms, our first was TOC which went fairly quickly (The last fight is honestly a lot easier with a DK tank that knows what they’re doing). This was when we met Basals, he stayed in the group when Sharp qued us again and we landed in Halls of Lightning.

I really didn’t notice the fail damage, I was honestly watching my own DPS and seeing how the new upgrades from running TOC 10 and 25 were doing. It wasn’t until someone (I think it was Wowiown) said something in Vent about the fail hunter. I looked at my Recount after killing Ionar the Lightning Elemental boss that I noticed the following:

DPS was low for everyone on this fight, because of the phase changing. But 562 DPS? Are you kidding me? Worse, when my wife got back home with an arm load of groceries I excused myself for a sec to get the door and help her get in. I came back to find they still hadn’t killed the trash mob they were on when I left…

The rogue in all honesty was kinda fail too, but he was atleast doing something… This hunter… /facepalm.

So when I said I was back, I got a “thank god” in Vent and we pushed on to the last boss Loken. Suddenly, Sharp says in Vent, “Where’s that hunter, he’s getting hit by something” a quick look at Grid confirmed the Hunter was about to be dead. So, we went looking for him. We didn’t find the guy, and he didn’t respond when we told him we were at the last boss… So we pushed on without him.

The numbers from Loken:

I’m not going to play a Hunter to prove it can be done better than these failures, because I know it can. We have several top notch hunters in our guild, but sometimes I’m just amazed. More so when I checked out the second failure on armory and looked at his talents…

In Conclusion
A lot of people blame their gear, or their class, or maybe it’s that Ghostcrawler owes them a pony. But in the end, there are good players and there are bad players. Sadly, some classes have less good players (to the outside observer) than others, but if you’re not performing well it’s ultimately up to you. Obviously, performance is a subjective thing, this is why Gear Score and similar rating methods are so controversial, it’s impossible to quantify skill in an accessible and meaningful way that we can all agree upon. If you feel you’re under performing, do some research. Ask around, “Hey do you know any of class X? Who’s the best?” Then talk to them, don’t be a sycophant, but try to form some kind of relationship with them. Learn from them. Or even if you just know a good player and they aren’t the right class, talk to them.

What I’m saying is, ultimately if you’re failing it’s your responsibility to get better. Myself, I use a combination of Recount and Gear Score to tell me how I’m doing. There’s an option if you have both that shows you what your DPS/Damage is in relation to your GS for everyone in the group/raid. It then ranks people based on their performance relative to their gear. It’s a very interesting feature, and probably the closest of seen to truly quantifying player performance in a meaningful way. It’s definitely helping me to push harder at being a DPS. So, for now I leave you. Expect more from the Shaman in the weeks to come, and I may just pick up dual-boxing again, though admittedly on a much smaller scale than I did previously.

P.S. If you’re reading this and you ARE an Elemental Shaman looking for a good raiding guild, check us out. But be warned, if you can’t out DPS my alt don’t bother to apply!

It seems our faction leaders have decided to lend their arms in the battle against the Lich King. Upstart horde leader Garrosh Hellscream and King Varyan Wrynn took their first steps into Icecrown Citadel yesterday. Though I’m glad to see these guys actually lending a hand with the heavy lifting, it does complicate things for the leaders of raiding guilds…

Icecrown Citadel and the Infamous Buff
Tuesday Blizzard turned on the Easy Button, a faction specific buff that gets bigger as time goes on. When ICC was announced, this buff was described along with the much maligned “Chill of the Throne” debuff. The activation of this buff has sparked some debate about it’s use and ramifications. Before we get our teeth in this thing, let’s talk about what the buff itself actually is.

The buff; Hellscream’s Warsong (Horde) or Strength of Wrynn (Alliance), can be canceled by any raid member by talking to the faction leader at the entrance of the Citadel. The buff is raid wide however, so individual raiders can not simply “opt out” for moral reasons. Once the buff is canceled it can not be turned back on without a reset. As we found out last night, you can clear trash (at least up to Marrowgar), zone out, then reset and turn the buff back on. The buff functions in both 10 and 25 man as well as both normal and heroic difficulty. That being said, there are concerns…

Easy Button Ethics
Innocuous as it sounds, the buff can actually be a MAJOR headache for officers of a progression guild. Tuesday night, before our first pull we held a vote (one of the many wonderful uses of Ready Check). Yes for keeping the buff, No for turning it off. Very simple. The results were an overwhelming twenty-two in favor of keeping the buff. Of the three who voted no, two gave a “Really? Lame. Well, let’s kill shit.” while the third bristled and stewed in his own juices. It became very obvious (very quickly) that the third dissenter was exceedingly opposed to the idea.

Since then, it’s come up several times. Some people have treated the situation a touch indelicately, but I think I understand why. Before I talk about the pros, I want to talk a little bit about the cons. As far as I can tell, the argument against using the buff is that it somehow cheapens the experience and/or accomplishment(s) of the raid. We used the buff to get our first Blood Queen kill, and have been using it in our attempts at Sindragosa. There is an overriding sense that “we are better than that” and that the buff is in some way “cheating” or the equivalent of using “cheat codes” in a console game.

To address the first, the experience is the experience. We all get different things out of it. Personally, I don’t find another week of wiping on Blood Queen that entertaining. And in all honesty, I’m fairly confident we would’ve put the bitch to bed without the buff. Did some people make some mistakes? Yes. Were they talked to? Yes. Would it have cost us an attempt without the buff? Maybe, who knows? In all honesty, it’s academic at this point, because we killed her. But the point is, we did well and we killed her. And I for one, am glad. I’m glad to be past her and on to something else. In past weeks, we’ve been at a point where we could’ve given Sindragosa a try… but it would’ve been half-hearted at best, with our limited raid time it would’ve been fool-hardy to rush at her I think. In the end, different people like different things. As any teacher can tell you, different people respond to different rewards. Some want only praise, others it is material (a gold star on your paper), and there are those who measure success by their own standards (these are often the most difficult to please). But on to the second issue…

It is a buff, it’s not “cheating” it’s not a cheat code that you have to enter at the character select screen. It is a BUFF put in by the developers of the game. Perhaps people feel it’s too much, too soon, etc. In which case, we could have a discussion about it. But, the fact is Blizzard put it in. Not me. So, I’m left with this problem. Do I make the raid harder for some self serving sense of pride? Do I purposefully make things harder on the raid itself to fulfill my own ego? When it comes right down to it, it’s about bragging rights. And as one raider noted in Vent, “You don’t get tagged with an achievement for feat of strength or anything for clearing the instance without the buff, the only thing that’s tracked is when the bosses are killed. So we’re already past the point where it matters, all anyone is going to see is that we killed Blood Queen, Sindragosa, and Lich King after the buff became active. So it’s our word against theirs on whether we used it or not. So why wouldn’t we use the buff?”

In some ways, the problem is an exercise in utilitarianism. It’s problematic because I really want all of my raiders to be happy, not just most of them. But there’s a point where you have to ask yourself, who’s in charge? And who’s more important, one raider or the other twenty four? I have the distinct feeling that there would be a lot more moaning and grumbling if the buff was taken off. And the person who wants it off desperately would be frustrated constantly saying, “Guys we can do this, we don’t need the buff. We’re better than that.” But worse, since he’s not an officer… he wouldn’t be the one dealing with multiple people complaining “Why aren’t we using the buff? It’s there, this is retarded.” It becomes a question of one strong will versus another (or others). One is absolutely convinced in the rightness of an action, while the other is absolutely convinced otherwise. In these situations it’s almost pointless to try to talk about it, because both parties really believe their right. You’re not going to convince the other that you are, so why bother?

My Conclusion?
World of Warcraft has been out for several years, as an MMO it has been unquestionably successful. It remains engaging and relevant. However, as the game manual itself will tell you “Game Experience May Change During Online Play“. Raiding in WoW was a different animal five years ago, so few people were able to muster a fourty man guild to raid back then. And even if you did have the requisite people, you still had a smaller pedigree capable of clearing the content consistently or at all. I raided back then, and before in games like EverQuest. So maybe that gives me a different perspective, to me raids in WoW in general are “too easy” by default. There’s an old bastard inside of me full of piss and vinegar saying, “in my day, raids lasted twelve hours minimum. It took at least four hours clearing trash to get to the bosses. And if anyone on the server killed the boss, you were shit out of luck for a week while you waiting on the boss to respawn.”

I can say that I miss being one of a handful of Warlocks walking around my home city with tier gear, one could truly stand out in the crowd back then. It’s certainly harder to stand out now, I think a big part of it now is earning a reputation. But the raiding experience has simply changed, not all for the better but certainly not all for the worst. I’m glad I can have a job and a meaningful relationship (with a woman, and I don’t have to pay her!) and still raid. Before, there simply weren’t enough hours in the day for all of those things. My sense of accomplishment is not diminished by the buff, Sindragosa is still a challenge for example. I want to see the rest of Icecrown Citadel, I want to kill the Lich King. But I don’t want to join a top 100 guild to do it. I want to do it with my friends, I don’t want this experience to pass me buy like Yogg 25 and Algalon did. To me, the buff is a lot like Yogg hardmode… in a way ICC is already at a higher difficulty by default, it’s up to you to decide if you want to play at the higher or lower difficulty rating. Do you keep the buff that heals you more, gives you more HP and damage. Or do you forsake it and go for the gusto! Maybe it would’ve been different if the buff had been active from day 1? Who knows.

For me, I’m all for the buff. It’s fun for me, and I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t use it. I can’t justify turning it off. In the end, the “other guilds” are going to be using it too. It seems foolhardy to purposefully play at a handicap without a real reason. Some may have that reason, I don’t. And so, my way of thinking is likely as alien to them as theirs is to me. My only hope is that the friction caused by the easy button doesn’t get out of hand.

To my guildies, I love you all… and you feel me.

Playing the Auction House is sometimes like playing the slots in Vegas, it’s all about the numbers. Sometimes they fall in your favor, other times… not so much. But unlike Vegas, there’s no scary guy with a bat to make sure you “play by the rules”. So I say, hedge your bets and double down. This week, it’s all about playing the odds…

Probability
Believe it or not, everytime you post an item in the auction house you’re gambling, every item posted is a coin toss. You’re betting that someone will drop their hard earned gold for it. If you’re posting gems for instance you have a few things to keep in mind: First, uncut gems have the highest probability of selling (and quickly) however at a smaller payout. Cut gems have a higher payout, but a lower probability of selling (and often times slower, possibly you’ll even have to relist before they sell).

In the case of gems, it helps to identify what gems are best for what classes. Tanks, the least represented role is dependent on: Blue, Green, and Purple gems. Healers (the second least represented role) are dependent on: Red, Yellow, and Purple gems. DPS classes (the most represented role) are dependent on: Red, Yellow, and Orange gems.

That said, we find the highest probability of resale in Red and Yellow gems.

+ Red Gems of Interest:
Bold Cardinal Ruby
Runed Cardinal Ruby
Delicate Cardinal Ruby
Fractured Cardinal Ruby
Bright Cardinal Ruby

+ Yellow Gems of Interest:
Quick King’s Amber
Brilliant King’s Amber
Smooth King’s Amber
Rigid King’s Amber

Risk
This late in the expansion, it’s not reasonable to try to go after all of the various gem cuts. So focus is key, for the most profit you’ll want to go after the big bang cuts. Looking at the red and yellow cuts the first two cuts I would recommend are Runed Cardinal Ruby and Quick King’s Amber, these two cuts are going to have the highest probability of sale because Healers will use them as well as DPS. By going after the higher demand cuts you lower your risk, and at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about… not losing your shirt.

In the event of multiple gems (say red gems) you really want to avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket. Let’s say you have 4 Cardinal Rubies, and only 3 cuts for them: Bold, Runed, and Fractured. In which case, I would make 2 Runed, 1 Bold, and 1 Fractured. This maximizes earning potential while minimizing risk, the Runed can be used (and therefore purchased) by Healers and/or DPS. And so, I leave you with that friends. See you next week.

The Bloodscalp Report
The Glyph Market is abysmal right now (and I don’t really care). Inscriptions is still making me a good amount of gold, I made a good chunk this week from making decks, in fact the lions share of the gold I made this week was from Greatness Decks alone. My Alchemy/Jewelcrafting system is chugging along nicely, I’ll be adding another Alchemist tomorrow in fact. At my current rate, I should hit the gold cap before too long. I’m holding off on a few things right now till I see what kind of an impact 3.3.3 is going to have. Flasks for example, the prices of Lotus have already dropped considerably on Bloodscalp as a result of the patch news. So now just doesn’t seem like a great time to buy. I am however always looking for deals, so anyone looking to unload some Ore or Herbs, feel free to look me up.

When I was a kid I loved comics, I was particularly fond of Mad Magazine and Spy VS Spy. The spies have been waging their “silent” war since 1961, and though creator (and Cuban national) Antonio Prohias passed away some years ago; the strip remains. It is with this in mind, that I decided to write about the Cloak & Dagger world of AH Espionage.

De cape et D’épée
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word espionage much as you might assume, as being the practice of spying. Espionage in and relating to wow’s auction house can be a fairly complex issue. At it’s root, what we’re doing is trying to gather data to extrapolate for business purposes.

+ Example
You are making some Eternal Belt Buckles on your Blacksmith, and you notice the following in trade chat:
[2. Trade] [Soandso]: WTB Adder’s Tongue, Deadnettle, Tiger Lily and other herbs in BULK.

In this example, we can infer that this player is likely a scribe looking to get materials. Why is this important? People who post messages like this tend to be the very same people who are going to be undercutting every glyph you’ve posted in the next hour. You add him to friends along with a note saying, “Possible Scribe” and move on. When relisting glyphs you notice his name come up as being one of your undercutters, so now you know he’s competition.

How does this help? Now that you know he’s a competitor you can actually keep an eye on him, when he logs on you know he’s going to be posting glyphs. When he logs off, you can relist glyphs and undercut him. This of course, is a simple strategy that I’m sure many who read this have already thought of, so I won’t belabor the facts on this one.

Counter Espionage
Now that you understand the basic psychological aspect of this primitive method, it’s time you understood the other edge of the blade. Alts are handy, and for someone trying to make large sums of gold, it’s almost a necessity. One thing we notice when looking at the Spy VS Spy strip is that often times one spy wins by presenting false information to the other guy.

Take for example, my current set of characters. I have each and every character on my main account listed on this blog to the right. This does not mean however that these are my AH alts. Though I do post with them, I may make a new character (or characters) from time to time on my second account to post without fear of someone undercutting me seconds later. I know for instance that when I log on Miraru he’s on atleast one person’s list… they watch, and when Mir goes AFK or logs off, they start cancelling their glyphs. They then undercut me… Meanwhile, I’m getting my glyphs out of the guildbank on my second account on a new character and while I wait for people on my list to AFK, log off…

It’s all about feint and counter feint. Getting a list of possible competition together is actually pretty easy, watch trade chat, watch QA3 when you relist auctions. See who’s undercutting you, see who’s spamming trade saying they are “Looking for work, will undercut AH guaranteed!” Obviously, this is much more effective with multiple accounts, but it’s definitely doable with one.

Assets and How to Develop Them
CIA Field Operatives and other covert agents are often depicted in films and novels as having assets, that is people who they use for specific purposes. Sometimes it’s for information, other times it’s to provide a convincing cover, etc. The point is, assets are people who are being used for something… Enter the farmer.

Developing assets in WoW is simpler than it is in real life, when spying on Trade chat you may see someone looking to offload large quantities of materials, when you do talk to them. Even if you’re currently doing well on that particular material, it never hurts to get a good deal. Most of the time, you can squeeze a good discount out of people if you’re buying their entire stock of a material. Often times I find these people offering to sell me more later.

Case in point, a couple of weeks ago I found someone selling copious amounts of herbs in trade, I asked her “How much for everything you’ve got?” There was a moment of silence before she said, “You really want to buy all of it?” to which I replied, “Of course, I always need herbs. Figure it up and we’ll deal.” It turned out to be a much better deal than I anticipated, after some small talk I learned a bit more about her playing habits and have since then received regular shipments of 1-2 stacks of Frost Lotus multiple stacks of assorted other herbs and usually 1+ stacks of Eternal Lifes… for under 2K. Lesser herbs are of course immediately sent to my Scribe for processing as Inks, and others to one of my Alchemists to be made into Flasks.

Developing these types of assets is crucial to maximizing your success. Maybe it’s part of my Italian heritage, but I’ve always felt that it’s important to “give em a little extra” on occasion, keep these guys happy because they’re the backbone of your empire. If you don’t, someone else will…

Also critical to your success when dealing with assets is the ability to communicate effectively with them, this can be a problem in the case of the proverbial Chinese Gold Farmer… Never fear however, if you find yourself in such a situation Sarainy of AH-Whoring has a very useful write up for talking to farmers: Chinese Farmer Phrase Book.

The Bloodscalp Report
Stock is still selling well despite prices slowly trending down. I’ve been spending a bit, getting materials stockpiles built up as well as getting tabs for the new SRS Business guild bank. I also loaned my buddy Sharpobject a few K for Primordials, so grats him on getting our third Shadow’s Edge. I’ve also been working on a little side project: my druid Caerroil who is now Restoration spec and gearing quickly (more on that later). Despite the spending, I’ve still managed to bank 20K for the week.

Call me old fashioned, but I learned the fundamentals while playing Nintendo in the ’80s. You might not think that dated 8-bit platforming plumbers have any bearing on a game of WoW’s pedigree, I for one however feel otherwise (so does this guy). If there’s one thing I learned from games like Battletoads, Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, etc. It’s that sometimes you just have to Reset…

When to Reset
Play the market long enough and you’ll find yourself in a situation where prices are no longer what you’ve come to expect. Profits are down, cost is up. And you end up wondering where you went wrong. You may even wonder why you tried to make gold with Engineering in the first place (a valid question). It’s times like these that you may consider resetting. There are several approaches however…

+ 1. Scenario: You’ve been posting glyphs on the same alt consistently for months, and suddenly it seems everytime you log off all of your glyphs are undercut.
Solution: Make a new alt (or alts) to move your glyphs. It’s inevitable, if you’re posting tons of glyphs several times per day from one character… he’s going to piss someone off just enough to make it to their friends list (usually accompanied with a note along the lines of “glyph competition, crush him!”). So periodically making new AH alts is a sound strategy for securing your foothold in the market(s).

+ 2. Scenario: You’ve come to the conclusion that this profession is more work than reward.
Solution 1: This happens a LOT. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses, and work on a new profession instead. My first experience with this was back in Molten Core and Blackwing Lair: a guildmate was frustrated, we both played Mages. He had Tailoring and Skinning, and wondered why he could never really make as much gold as me. I was Alchemy/Enchanting with all of the old school recipes. Back then I made a solid amount of gold disenchanting and selling mats, as well as making/selling Flasks. Supreme Power and Fire Protection potions in particular sold like hotcakes.

Solution 2: Another option for many is to simply make an alt for more lucrative professions. Some of us take this off the deep-end (myself included). I would wager most people can at least make a Death Knight (if they haven’t already) to use as a crafting or farming “alt”. You’d be amazed at what a difference just having one character dedicated to the “professions you wish you had” can make. This particular option is especially appealing to raiders like myself who want to min/max professions on their main and make money with alts.

Note: There are significant possible gains to be made through alts, there is however similar potential for loss. It’s tempting for instance to just throw all of your gold into getting Jewelcrafting up on an alt to start gem cutting… unfortunately this is a problem. The amount of gold needed to get your JC skill from 0-450 is prohibitive, add to that the cost of getting some designs and raw gems to cut… And you have yourself a SNAFU waiting to happen. In the case of levelling a new profession like Jewelcrafting, it just might be more cost effective from a Gold VS Effort standpoint to actually farm the materials necessary to skill up, at least to a certain point. In which case, I refer to my original rule of starting in new markets… RESEARCH, DO IT!

1UP
I’ve decided to do a reset myself, though not in the order of the situations listed above. I’ve decided to start from 0g and see how quickly I can get from 0 to gold cap. And from there, to one million. I’m confident I will reach each goal, and probably faster than I anticipate. In the process of preparing for this, I’ve also taken the liberty of making yet another ALT guild bank: SRS Business. Yes, the name wasn’t taken on Bloodscalp, and it took me this long to figure it out (actually, someone else had the name once upon a time, but they disbanded).

I’m reorganizing my business structure around this guild/guildbank. I am however maintaining a handful of alt banks on my second account for bulk storage. With my new network of banks I should have no problem storing massive amount of goods and materials for “rainy days” and moreover, moving said goods to the proper alts for processing/sale. As a friend of mine said recently, there’s the way most of us sell stuff on the Auction House and there’s the way Hor sells stuff on the Auction House (two completely different animals).

The point is however: it was time to reset. And so, I decided to start “fresh” though I still have my alchemists and jewelcrafters along with several other crafters. Essentially, I wanna just run with it and see how far it’ll go. As such, I’m not leaving Khaas empty handed. I’m leaving him some walking around money. Right now though, the “new” gbank is empty and about to have some new tabs added. I’ll be tracking my progress via the small image to the right of the blog titled Current Gold. As well as consistent weekly updates here, every Tuesday.

The Bloodscalp Report
The market seems to be recovering from the recent lack of farmers, but slowly. Prices on various commodities remain high such as Frost Lotus and other herbs. Enchanting Scrolls are pretty dead. I’ve been selling one or two per week, just trying to liquidate the stock I have. Instead, I’m finding excess enchanting mats selling reasonably well. But I’ll have more on that next week. TTFN!

The end is near, the Lich King has already been killed by a handful of guilds with more to follow. Blizzard’s even removed the limited attempts mechanic from the normal modes. So it’s only a matter of time before everyone is farming the instance from start to finish, and only a matter of time before they get bored and stopd. To reiterate, the end is near…

The Beginning of the End
The fall of the Lich King marks the end of our time in the expansion, it’s been the primary goal of many a player since they set foot on the shores Northrend. For many, even longer: since playing Warcraft III and WCIII: The Frozen Throne. Looking ahead to Cataclysm, there’s a new enemy to face and with that the promise of new adventures and new ways to play the game. While considering the possibilities of the expansion I stumbled across this wow.com post by resident Hunter aficionado Brian Wood. In the article, Wood poses the quest should veteran players really be expected to level from one when they make an alt? That set my mind in motion about Cataclysm, and what I would like to see happen.

Making the Case for Veteran Players
First, let me be clear here: my intent is to outline what I personally think would be a great solution to veterans of the game rolling new alts. In other words, this is how I would do it…

Let’s begin with the reasons for and against established players getting a “leg up” on a new alt. There is an idea that skipping over low levels means you learn less about your class. Second, it’s held by some that by skipping those levels you’re skipping content that you should experience.

Let’s deal with the first one, leveling from 1 to 60 teaches you one thing really… how to level from 1-60. You learn to grind levels, you build up professions (maybe) and that’s about it. There’s generally not much if any interaction with other players, because the lion’s share of players are not interested in grouping up for old content that was designed for a completely different set of talents/spells. Let’s face it, the mechanics of these old instances are not up to par with current class mechanics. So, even if you were to find a group willing to run these old instances, you’d only be learning to faceroll your way through outdated content. I say, this is not learning to play your class. This is not even learning to play well with others, in fact I feel if you DID learn how to group from running instances like Scarlet Monastery with friends you would have a LOT to learn come raid time.

Most players who are going to be leveling especially veterans are just going to grind their way through quests anyway. They’re not missing much by skipping the content that many of us have seen multiple times already to start at a higher level. I’ve been playing for a very long time myself, and sometimes I DO get nostalgic and I may get a wild hair someday to suffer through the first 20 levels of being a Druid *shudder* … when and if that time ever comes, I’ll do it. If not, I would like the option to skip it if I choose.

Obviously, there’s a precedent in place for allowing established players a chance to roll a new alt with level appropriate gear at an advanced level; I’m referring of course to my beloved Death Knights. This gives us a solid framework to build on so we’ll start from there.

Veteran of War Program
The Basic Description: Accounts with a character of level 55 or higher will now have the option to create a character of any class starting at level 55.

Since there are those who may want to eschew the “insta-fifty” and go from level one on, it’s necessary to have the option available. Luckily, there’s another feature Blizzard already uses that is perfect for our purposes. Character Copy has been around for a long time, it allows you to make a premade character on the PTRs of any class. So simply adding the feature to the Account Management page would be the best bet, this would allow those who don’t want to participate the option to do so while still allowing the veteran option.

Implementation

With Cataclysm we have Deathwing to worry about, and there’s obviously going to be a lot of build up for it. But what about the new Worgen and Goblin characters? And what about those who decided they want to be class X for Cata? Well, my solution would be quite simple and a great way of kicking off the lore of the expansion. Chromie along with other ambassadors of the various allied dragonflights are building an army to neutralize the threat of Deathwing. The threat however is sufficient that they need to move to advanced training as quickly as possible. Your new fifty-five character starts out in the training grounds, much like those of the Death Knight starting area. Quests give you access to more talents, gold, and blue starter gear.

There’s a lot of possibilities with an approach like this. The fate of the dragonflights hangs in the balance, Chromie needs our help!

Final Thoughts
For those of you sitting there saying, Blizzard would never do anything remotely like this… They said they wouldn’t. Blizzard has said a lot of things, and as is often the case those who make declarative statements tend to look foolish in retrospect. For example, back when I played a Mage in vanilla one of the things that had me pulling my hair out was the inability to summon more than a meager handful of water per cast. This was over four years ago, and Conjure Water (Rank 7) was a staple of every raid and group. If you were a Mage and didn’t have the spell you were a useless noob. And … it only summoned four water per cast. Mages rabbled about it repeatedly, and we were told “We are aware of your concern, but it has been decided that allowing mages to conjure more than four at a time would be imbalance the class and raid dynamics”. A week later this response to the Mage community was deleted, along with all of the angry responses provoked by it, and replaced with “upcoming changes to Conjure Water (Rank 7) in patch 1.9, will now create ten Conjured Crystal Water per cast, up from four.”

This of course was only my first experience with Blizzard flip flopping on these types of things, and the guy who said one thing then deleted the evidence and posted something else: and then banned people from the forums for calling him on it/deleted their posts, etc. Well, it’s ok… a Shaman told me he got hit by a bus sometime during BC. Anyhow, the point is there’s precedent for Blizzard changing stances on things, look at micro transactions: race, gender, name changes. All of these things were once unheard of in MMOs, and Blizzard for a long time said an emphatic “no” to each of them. Now we have them, it’s a brave new world friends. Time to evolve ideas if you want the game to continue to be engaging and exciting. In my humble opinion, cutting out the boring parts at the beginning for those of us who’ve already experienced them one or more times already is a step in the right direction…

Sometimes there just isn’t time to do what you want, that’s why I do this blog update traditionally during realm maintenance. I slept in today, and I have to go to work in about two hours so… I’m short on typing time. So here comes a quick and dirty update, enjoy.

Opportunities
I’ve talked a lot about taking advantage of opportunities, that means you have to be diligent. You HAVE to watch for those opportunities constantly. Doing this is paramount for understanding trends and patterns. For example, flasks… these tend to start selling late Monday night and as soon as servers come up Tuesday. They will continue to sell (on Bloodscalp at least) for a couple of days. There is a simple explanation for this, Tuesday = realm maintenance and raid ID resets. More importantly though, sometimes the supply taps out…

Last night I noted that Frost Lotus had risen to a new high as seen in the pic above. And Flasks, were all but non existent. A handful of Endless Rage and Frost Wyrm were all that were on the AH.

Moments later I had a load of Flasks posted. Now, as I’ve found a couple of great farmers I’ve had a steady flow of materials. I’ve been on the lookout for flask materials in particular, getting them cheap at one part of the week, making flasks, then storing them for “raid nights” I fully expect these to sell out by the time I hit Icecrown tonight. Why are these things selling like this? Well for one, I bought out all the Frost Lotus on the horde side (and quite a few on the Alliance side) and because now all of ICC is open, the Lich King is available. And now Blizz has announced a removal of limited attempts in normal modes (source: link).

The Moral of the Story
Sometimes you have to make your own opportunity, by buying out all of the cheap materials to a point where the finished product “appears to be a deal” you ensure your product will move AND you help ensure that your competition has less raw materials to work with. This applies to all professions, and it works… fixing the AH is possible. I talked about this a while back when I mentioned my scorched earth campaign and the Zamboni method. I also mentioned I’ve been dipping into the Jewelcrafting market, and I have to say it’s been paying off rather well. Even considering me spending gold to get new cuts, it’s still making really good gold from it…

Inscriptions and the End
I’m by no means giving up on Inscriptions, it has to be said however that the market has gotten a lot slower. Where once I was making 3000 per day easily from glyphs I’m now making 1000 average, and I have to hustle a bit more. I can still make 3K or more, but only if I’m making cards/decks and that is a lot more reliable when the faire’s in town. But friends, this is why I’ve always preached the virtues of diversity and why I’ve dipped into multiple markets from the beginning. In the end, 1K per day from Glyphs isn’t bad at all. It’s just not as good as it once was, it’s not “carrying” my other professions as I skill up anymore. Which is fine, because I’m making enough from my various endeavors to easilly level a new profession each week and still hit my weekly goal(s).

Anyhow, that’s it for this week. Need breakfast before work.

Taking advice from a self-proclaimed “Agent of Chaos” might not seem like a great idea, in fact it sounds downright crazy. But the question Ledger’s Joker poses is a relevant one. And recently it’s one I’ve taken to heart. Read on as we find out the answer to the question, why so serious?

I’d like to dedicate this week’s poster to the best tree ever, Ysosrs.

Where Did It Start?
I started aiming for the gold cap for a variety of reasons. One because it was a goal to accomplish, a new challenge for me personally. The only way to realize your full potential is to challenge yourself constantly. Another factor was the sense that gear may become irrelevant one week to the next, but gold always retains value. Unless there are radical changes to the game 214,748 Gold 36 Silver and 46 Copper will always be a significant amount of wealth. Significant enough in fact to assure yourself that anything you might reasonably want is obtainable. Take for instance my quest for Shadowmourne, this thing is initially daunting for a lot of people because of the amount of Primordial Saronite needed to get past the first quest. I was able to get my 25 before the Plagueworks was open, ensuring I had no problem completing the quest and gaining Shadow’s Edge.

And Then the Penny Dropped
You can only hoard for so long without giving yourself some kind of reward. The point really of hoarding the gold is to have it available to spend, when you want. So that you don’t feel like you “have” to save your gold in case something comes up. I think it really hit home when I read a thread over at the JMTC forums (Original Forum Post: Father Markco…I have sinned). As I say later in the thread, I’ve decided to say goodbye to useless guilt, and spend when I feel like it (and when I feel I can afford it).

I have since then spent a bit getting professions up for various alts, grabbing materials for my Insane in the Membrane achievement. And even hooking up some guild-mates with gold for Choppers, or their own Shadow’s Edge, or whatever (I must confess that this wasn’t entirely altruistic however). I feel better, and enjoy playing more now that I’m not necessarily burdened with the thought that I have to make X amount of gold this week (or I’m a failure). It’s my own fault, I’m a very competitive person.

So, that being said I won’t be doing regular gold reports anymore really. Unless it’s for something specific like say, reaching a certain goal. Or to go over a new method/market I’ve been working in. I’m still keeping tabs on how much each of my AH alts is making and keeping things separate. And I’m dipping into some new markets right now, so I’m definitely going to come through with some numbers to support my findings and theories. I’m just not going to make it into a “race” anymore. In the end, I’m only competing with myself anyway… and that can never be anything but tiring.

With that said…

The Bloodscalp Report
Glyphs are still down. But with the new arena season having just started, and the Darkmoon Faire in town I’m seeing sales begin to rally. Now for the bad news, if you play on Bloodscalp then you may already be aware of the terrible drought of raw materials in the Auction House. The price of Frost Lotus alone has skyrocketed to as much as 100g per. Where have all the farmers gone? One theory is that many of the Asian farmers are on holiday thanks to Chinese New Year, and that after a mandatory week off they should be back at full capacity. Hopefully this proves true, in either case I’m not paying 25g for a stack of friggin Tiger Lily. Prices have been so out of whack that I even started buying mats like Icethorn and Lichbloom because it was cheaper to mill those (12g per stack for a few hundred stacks recently) compared to the a fore mentioned price for Tiger Lily and others.

So, consider this an open letter to any farmers on their lunch breaks… WTB Adder’s Tongue, Tiger Lily, Deadnettle, Frost Lotus, Eternal Life, Eternal Fire, and Pristine Black Diamond in BULK! Contact Khaas with details. And seriously, I MEAN bulk.

In other news, I snagged a copy of Mongoose this week on a whim in Karazhan. Now I’ve got an excuse to go farm those heroics for the meta achievement. I’ve already sold a few scrolls of Goose at 800g each. Other enhancement items like Buckles and the like are moving well too. I’ve been dipping a bit more into gems lately with great success. That’s all for this week, thanks for reading. I leave you with a look at my Auditor info…