srsbusiness

An Apology
This is going to be a long post, I have a lot to say. It’s been a successful week despite certain setbacks, which I will discuss at length later in this post. If you want a TLDR version of what’s going on, skip to the very bottom of this post, if you want some meat and potatoes read on…

A Letter
Aspiring Goblin writes:

Hey, I’m an avid reader of your website. After watching you post frequently about your money-making endevours, I decided I wanted to give WoW gold hoarding another try. I see that you’re using your alts to create massive amounts of revenue, and I was wondering if you had any big pieces of advice for someone who doesn’t have access to multiple alts like you do. I have an 80 warrior with min/BS, and an 80 mage wth 425 tailoring and 125 enchanting. I’ve always wanted to build myself a little gold empire, but I’ve never really understood the prime ways of doing so. I don’t really have any gold to invest at the moment (less than 800), so I’m not entirely sure about the goblin way of building from there.

If you have any advice, it’d be really neat if you could share it.

Well AG, there’s several things you need to take into consideration here. And several questions you need to ask yourself. First, I’m going to assume that your warrior is your main, and that like me you probably raid with him. As I said in my previous post about synergy, you need to find a way to make your two 80s work for you.

IF these were my characters, this is what I would do:
First, I’d seriously consider dropping Mining from the warrior. Time is money as they say, and depending on server population, the profit to time ratio on gathering skills can really stink. Especially with a skill like Mining, my Warrior atm is a Smith/Miner himself, and right now I’m stocking up on gems/ores to power level Jewelcrafting as soon as possible. Why JC? Well, a couple of reasons. First, it gives a little more Stamina than Mining does (only 3 points, but hey we’re talking about min/maxing for PVE when talking about the stats) and has more versatility with it’s stat bonuses, since the Dragon’s Eyes can be cut for ANY spec/stat rather than just Stamina. Second, Jewelcrafting offers a great coincidental benefit (you can cut gems for profit, buy cheap uncut gems, cut, and relist for a profit) and also the daily quest. The JC tokens can be traded in for a Dragon’s Eye which typically sells for around 100g. That’s 100g you can be making everyday with about 5 minutes worth of work. And when it comes down to it, there should always be a need for cut gems. Anytime a new raid instance is released, or a new arena season starts you can bet your Mechano-Hog that people will want new gems to fill those sockets.

But back to the Goblin reason to drop mining: everytime I pop off to Icecrown or Sholazar to scout some nodes, I find at a minimum of ten other guys who all had the exact same idea. This competition over nodes results in some fun world PVP (if that’s your thing, and server permitting of course) but again this is not very profitable. Worse, bars and ores are about to take a hit in the face when 3.3 drops. On Bloodscalp, I’ve already been following a noticeable downward trend as smart players are dumping their Titanium stocks in anticipation for the absolute nose dive resultant in the removal of the 24 hour cooldown from Transmute: Titanium. And they’re right, it’s a smart move to liquidate any Titanium assets now, rather than after the patch when prices will be dropping faster than a Warlock in Arena. So, from a speculative standpoint, Mining doesn’t have a great future.

However, if you DO want to continue with Mining/Smithing, there are options. First, you have 2 level 80s, you can easilly create a Death Knight. In fact, I would highly recomend it in your situation. A DK alt to use as a bank/AH alt would be perfect as you can use the new alt for farming ores. I know what you’re thinking, but he’d only be level 58 when done with the starter area and I don’t want to level another 80. Have no fear, first even if you don’t want to level him to 80 (and honestly, it would be easy and probably a bit helpful, you make a ton grinding quests that could help stimulate your pocket book on your main) but with Mining you can take the guy to farm “old world” and BC nodes. Sounds funny I know, but there’s practically no one farming these old ores. That leaves a market readily available to the unscrupulous Goblin farmer. Even if you don’t decide to make a DK alt for this, you might consult your AH and get an idea for what “old” ores are selling really well.

In general though, I don’t consider gathering professions to be the great boon. It’s quicker to buy mats off the AH, or from farmers (if you can find one) and simply craft popular goods to sell. With Smithing, you’re a bit limited. Most of the epic items really aren’t selling that well, items like Titansteel Destroyer for instance are going to drop further because of the a fore mentioned buff to Transmute Titansteel, but also entry level epics are so much easier to get right now. The level of ease a fresh 80 can get gear is only going to increase with 3.3, since we’ve got a new dungeon/heroic with tons of great gear, and Emblems of Triumph dropping readilly from all mobs that currently drop Conquest… this means you’re average entry level 80 is going to be sporting full T9 and probably a 232+ weapon, etc within a couple of weeks of 3.3′s release.

Now, you can sell Belt Buckles, if you can get a good supply of materials, you might actually be able to make a good bit of coin from these on the AH especially when the patch hits, since pretty much everyone is going to be getting upgrades. Infact, anyone able to make enchancement items like Enchants (enchanting materials or scrolls), Buckles, Armor Kits, Gems, etc should be able to turn a good profit with the patch. With a limited amount of investment capital, I’d say work on building a good stock of items and work on getting your remaining skills up. Enchanting can be a huge boon for you, but not at that skill. My recomendation there is to get your hands on as many blank armor and weapon vellums as possible, enchant those suckers to max skill then sell off the vellums on the AH.

This strategy along with the crafting of items such as Netherweave Bags can build a steady stream of income (buy Netherweave Cloth at 2-4g per stack, turn each stack into a bag, sell for 8-12g depending on server).

Really, this is what being a Goblin is all about. If reading the work of Gevlon and others like him teaches us anything, it’s that making 10g profit on one item is less important than selling 10 items at a little over 1g profit. If you really want to go Goblin then you have to set up for the long haul so to speak. And diversify, diversify, and diversify some more. I can’t stress the importance of have your hands in multiple pies, at best it means you’re maximizing your earning potential. At worst, it means you aren’t hit as hard when someone tries to muscle you out of a particular market (Glyphs for example). You might sell many Belt Buckles one day, but you might sell double your normal NW Bags. Every different item you have for sale is another opportunity to make money. In the end, I can’t really tell you what to do to make money on your server. Hopefully though, after these suggestions you see that with a little research into material costs and going rate of particular crafted goods, you can make some serious gold.

Thanks for writing, and I hope that helps.

The Bloodscalp Report
Things are progressing quite nicely on my Scribe, I’ve been getting a couple of Books of Glyph Mastery each day (depending on how much I’ve sold for the day). The biggest moneymaker however has remained the Netherweave Bags, though recently I’ve received a little competition from an AH camper. A minor annoyance since I recently made the acquaintance a farmer who specializes in Netherweave Cloth. We’ve worked out a deal and now he’s my official supplier, which I think will work well for both of us. I’ve had to drop my price and therefore profits a bit to stay ahead of the AH camper, but with my new supplier I don’t think that’s going to be a problem in the least. I’d much rather sell 40 bags at 6g profit each than a handful at 10g profit each.

The lesson here is this my friends: every holiday event, patch, etc is another opportunity to make a little extra gold. For whatever reason, some people will buy anything. Maybe it’s because of a staggering lack of the requisite information, maybe it’s laziness, maybe it’s just a lack of skill (profession not ability to play the game). Either way, if it is somehow usable… somebody will buy it (probably)

Retension
I want to talk a little bit about retension, all Goblins realize that the gold you’re not spending is just as important as the gold you’re making. To put it more simply, your Total Gold (TG) = Incoming Profits (IP) – Gold Spent (GS). Now, your GS is determined by two basic factors: incidentals like repairs, consumables, etc. The second factor are the impulse factors: such as buying a mechano-hog, or epic flight for an alt, etc. Maximizing your retension really means controlling your impulse spending, you have to ask yourself, “is this really that important?” it may be. I think that most people save up gold in WoW for a specific reason, ie they save up the gold so they can get the Hog, because that is their goal. If your goal is to hit the gold cap however, you may be faced with a decision to delay gratification in favor of either hitting the cap or getting the Hog.

Now, don’t get me wrong… investing is quite different from impulse buying. For instance, if you spend 1000g getting Alchemy up on an alt in order to begin transmuting epic gems, you’re making an investment. Yes, it will put you slightly behind in the short term, but in the long term developing your available pool of resources can only help your earning potential. IF you’re going to do something like this, be real about the investment however. In the example above, every day that you’re not making gems is a day you could’ve been making up for the gold spent to skill up. In other words, if you’re going to invest an amount of gold into the skill, do it and get it done asap. OR farm the materials yourself. It’s a one or the other decision. A guild mate asked me once what he could do to make more gold, and when I suggested he get his skills up so they could start working for him, he started buying materials (a little each day).

Buying skill raises piecemeal is not a sound investment, if you’re spending the money to get the skill up in one day you’re increasing the amount of days you can viably use the skill. This is especially important with a profession like Alchemy that has a 20 hr cooldown on the noncomittal abilities (Epic Gem Transmutes). In other words, if you can’t commit to power leveling that skill today, don’t waste your money getting a little skill here and there. You’re better off from a cost standpoint of simply working the appropriate gathering profession alongside that profession.

So the lesson this week is, control spending. Reduce costs when able, but for the love of all that is unholy… stop spending your gold on stupid shit. I know, it’s hard. It wouldn’t be called impulse buying without the impulse, when you feel the itch, breathe and ask yourself is it really worth it?

Anyhow, that wraps it up for this week. And remember, reading is fundamental (don’t be lazy looking for the TLDR version).

Weekly profits remained pretty close to last week’s (around 7K), despite losing out on my normal Orb supply and dropping 1K on Alchemy for an alt. Findail’s maxed Herb/Alch now, so I hope to see a marked increase in my profits next week.

This week I found myself under Org. Yes, under it. Thanks to Deathfuzz for bringing me to another weird place.

GUILD.news
Last week’s success in 25 TOGC put us up to rank 12 on Bloodscalp, not as high as I’d hoped but still not bad for a casual guild that only raids once or twice per week. Now if we can just get people to finish what they started, and show up Thursday for the rest of the bosses… This week’s a holiday though, so we’re going to be cramming all our raiding into one night (tonight) which shouldn’t be too bad really.

No real progress on the Glory of Ulduar yet either, we’ve got everything except Freya, Mimiron, Vezax, and Yogg. We probably won’t make any headway on it this week either with the holiday and everything, but we’ll see.

KHAAS.news
Last night I single tanked all of VoA, which leads me to believe we could pretty easilly knock out Earth, Wind, and Fire (with the right group setup). I’ve been focusing on personal achievements lately, not necessarilly ones that have any Achievement Points attached to them though, things like soloing raid bosses and heroics. I’m putting together a couple of videos of these things for later, check back for awesome.

The quest for more money continues, but I realized the other day I’ve actually knocked a few things off the old honey-do list. So, I’m starting to add new things to the list. You know what they say, idle hands are the devil’s ding-a-ling!

The List:
+ Break 40K HP unbuffed before Blizzard nerfs DK stamina AGAIN!
+ Create Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros.

Complete the Following Achievements:
+ Classic Dungeonmaster
+ Classic Raider
+ Outland Dungeon Hero
+ Outland Raider
+ Glory fo the Ulduar Raider (10 Player)
+ Glory fo the Ulduar Raider (25 Player)
+ 40 Exalted Reputations
+ Leading the Cavalry
+ Insane in the Membrane
+ Shop Smart, Shop Pet…Smart
+ Glory of the Hero

Get a character of each class to level 80: (3 to go!)
+ Death Knight – Khaas
+ Warrior – Grimmand
+ Druid – Caerroil
+ Sedlec – Paladin
+ Mage – Miraru
+ Shaman – Hergrom
+ Priest – Findail
+ Hunter – Ghim
+ Warlock – Infelice
+ Rogue – Cicatriz

ALT.news
I’ve started working on Cicatriz, he’s almost 72 after a few hours in Northrend. After this, I’m going to move to the Hunter, but so far it’s going well. The plan is to save up for Northrend flight and get his Skinning and Leatherworking maxed. I’ve been neglecting gathering professions on my alts, it’s hard getting motivated to go pick flowers when you can go kill dragons.

Anyhow, that’s it for me right now. I’ve got a lot on my plate today.

Synergy
You hear it a lot in movies like Office Space by people who are trying to sound professional. But understanding synergy is paramount for maintaining a business at peak efficiency. A Goblin must embrace synergy if they intend to diversify stock, and thereby maximize earning potential.

How Does a Goblin Achieve Synergy?
First, you need to understand what I’m talking about here. I’m talking specifically about making your alts (more specifically the professions of your alts) work together. Understanding how these various skills interact is even more crucial if you have a smaller number of high-level characters. If your main character is a Scribe/Alchemist, what should your alt be? And why?

The average player has at least one alt, Goblins may have more. For the purposes of this exercise, let’s assume a main and a secondary eighty. The trend for most goblins will be to have Inscriptions on one of these characters. Herbalism of course defers cost for Inscriptions, in fact you can quite easily skill up with nothing but your own herbs (given enough time). But you have 2 other profession slots to use. Herbalism is likewise a great companion to Alchemy, Flasks, Elixirs, and Potions never go out of style. (Tip: Load up the AH Tuesday following maintenance, you’ll find a lot of raiders quick to buy their pots before raid time). Now, for the not so obvious option, Enchanting. If I had to choose, this would be how I would set up two level eighties. With Inscriptions, you will be able to generate plenty of Vellums (and likely will as you skill up anyway) then create Scrolls to sell on the AH. Now, with this said you have 2 characters feeding each other materials and producing products that will sell, and sell consistently.

Having this type of synergy makes your alts work efficiently, and it helps to get your hands into other markets when/if possible. Ideally, having multiple eighties to cover each of the professions. But, with a little scrupulous planning of professions can go a long way into making your job easier as well as increasing your profits.

WEEK.one
Right now I have two major sources of income: Noncommittals and Professions. The Noncommittals are those things I do regularly that are pretty much a gimme. 100g per day from doing dailies, at least 130g from my Alchemist doing an epic gem transmute (he’s xmute mastery, so sometimes it’s 260). Then there’s the Jewelcrafting Dailies, which get me 110g each (4 total) from the Dragon’s Eyes. Similarly, I get about 5 Crusader orbs per week, which is another 2K under current Bloodscalp conditions. The latter of course, I keep expecting to drop anytime now with the impending release of 3.3 and Icecrown Citadel, since the announcement of the patch the Orbs have dropped to under half their pre-announcement levels.

The point is after getting things squared away with my daily run is 6690g per week, before repairs and any incidentals like potions, stat food, etc. I have likewise stopped purchasing items for the Insane title (for the time being). Much like avoiding the home shopping network, skipping out on vanity items or other “useless shit you don’t need” results in a healthier cash flow (no surprise there). I will of course finish the Achievement someday, but for now I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

As for the Professions, right now these are not running at full capacity. The bulk of my profits are being reinvested into my business here, buying Books of Glyph Mastery, and other profession recipes to ensure a diverse stock. I have however managed to buy a large quantity of the Books already, and fully intend to complete my hunt for all of the Glyphs in the next couple of weeks. My rogue has gone to Skinning/Leatherworking. Leather always sells well, and I want to dip into the armor kit business. Not only would it be nice for my main not to have to hunt down a leatherworker or overpay for a kit on the AH, it would also diversify my business. These kits, like potions and glyphs aren’t going to be going out of style.

After finishing up Leatherworking Engineering will be my next target, I’m not sure I can do much with it money-wise. But perhaps making bullets and arrows will prove lucrative. I know there are epic bullets/arrows in the patch though, so I’m somewhat hesitant to go full tilt into Eng just yet. I am in the process of buying up bank slots on my AH alts, and filling those slots with raw materials. Despite being in a build up phase, my business has done well this week. I feel the patch has a great earning potential in the first few weeks, before things normalize again.

It’s that age old story: new patch brings new instances, new instances bring new gear, new gear brings new and old customers alike to the Auction House in search of Scrolls, Consumables, Gems, and Materials. So I make my preparations and hope that when it’s over, I’ve done a little better than break even. That’s all for this week, thanks for reading…

No, 3.3 didn’t come out today. But, Death Knights everywhere (and to a lesser degree warriors and paladins) had reason to rejoice. Shadowmourne, the long awaited super weapon was unveiled by both Blizzard and various news sites. Blizzard of course released a great little teaser webpage to whet the appetites of all those blood thirsty axe wielding beasts out there – link. In fact, even the epic axe received early on in the quest chain Shadow’s Edge is badass.

Now, normally this segment is reserved for items I actually have. This one however, I’ll go ahead and say it: I went into total spazz mode when I found out this item would be in the game, though like many DKs I was hoping for Frostmourne itself (especially considering melees got Illidan’s blades last xpac) but, from a lore standpoint I understand why it had to be this way. And frankly, speaking as an Orc, I’m quite glad it’s an Axe.

The interesting thing about this weapon is the drama that’s already ensued. I imagine any DK (tank or otherwise) is going to want this thing, it speaks to the part of us that made a DK in the first place. It’s as Iconic for our class, as a Holy Avenger is to a Paladin (in Dungeons and Dragons). Thematically, it suits us perfectly. It’s not a glowing Gladius, Polearm, etc. It simply oozes, Death Knight. But of course, this alone is not enough to warrant a Death Knight receiving this item, seriously. And let’s face it, the chances of getting this on an RP server are slim to none, in other words: you can’t play the Lore card on this one as a DK and expect any guild to let you have it.

But as I said, this thing is the new Drama Bringer… Already on various news sites and forums there are heated discussions about who should get this massive chopper of the damned. In all seriousness, almost all of the people arguing one way or the other won’t get it. The quest chain, though not exactly a Herculean task, but the chain is also nothing to sneeze at. Just the shards of the throne are going to prove difficult (if the current count of 60 stands, and assuming they drop only from bosses). At best, with absolutely perfect luck it would take five weeks of full clears to complete the thing. That said, whoever decides to work on the thing is going to have to be dedicated, absolutely to their guild. They’re going to have to be someone who has flawless (or quite nearly) attendance. And in the case of one of the quests in the chain, it would help to be a tank.

The common argument I’m seeing from people as to why this bad boy should not go to a tank, is that all a tank gets from it is more threat. Assuming that were the case, which I assure you it is not, let’s see why the added threat is important. First, there is the proc. Is it a deal breaker? No, but in the Wrath environment of pull first, CC… LOL. A little extra threat is never a bad thing, especially for Blood tanks who have somewhat limited tools for AE threat, and no AE snap aggro abilities. Again though, it’s not make or break. Just another thing to keep the odd overzealous ranged DPS from pulling aggro early and dying on trash (or gimick bosses like Dreamwalker). Likewise, the Str buff that builds up with each proc adds … more damage (threat) and Parry, which of course helps the tank live longer (which is kinda his job). Similarly, there is a huge chunk of Str on the weapon already, previous comments about Str apply here. In the end, this is going to be quite obviously the absolute best threat weapon for a DK tank in the game, definitely. And with maximum threat comes a higher ceiling for the DPS, Mages don’t have to hold off when their Ice Block is on Cooldown. There should be no worry about lucky crit strings, etc picking up aggro. They can lean on the damage longer, and harder with a tank that’s doing max TPS. It’s in the logical self-interest of the DPS to have a tank with maximum threat, especially on weird gimmick fights where huge buffs make DPS numbers skyrocket (think Valks in TOC and Hodir in Ulduar). So, yes it gives us more threat. And that is a good thing.

Beyond this of course, there are the rest of the stats. Stamina normally reserved for Arena weapons (which btw are arguably the BIS tanking weapons for DKs currently, yes ARENA weapons for TANKING… that is wrong). Along with the Parry gained from the Str on this item, the Stamina of course provides a sizable chunk of health for the tank (and we like health). Of course, then there’s the question of Armor Penetration and Critical Strike. It’s not enough for some people to even read Blizzard’s class description and see that by design, DKs are meant to use DPS 2 handers to tank. In the case of ArPen: The argument could be easily made that Retadins probably get less use out of this stat than we do. Blood tanks such as myself however love ArPen and Crit, it’s a very crit dependent spec. And all but one of our attacks (Death Coil, or RP Dump) are melee based attacks. So, essentially Crit and ArPen is going to result in even more threat for a Blood Tank, and with some of the changes incoming to the other trees (such as the new mechanic for Scourge Strike) it will likely be a solid choice for those tanks as well, though if you’re an Unholy tank trying to do IC, all I can say is good luck (you’re probably going to need it).

As for sockets, there are very few 2 handers with a socket bonus that’s inherently “tank” oriented. So losing out on the 8 Str bonus in favor of 3 Solid Dragon’s Eyes is not a horrible loss (and what tank doesn’t want an additional 153 Sta on their weapon, from gems alone). Of course, there are those who will continue to say that any tank going after this is selfish, and undeserving. But I simply disagree, I think there’s a strong case for a DK tank using this weapon. That does not of course preclude the value of this weapon for a DPS class. If anything, I’d say it’s fairly equal. There’s no real wasted itemization here for either role. And it’s definitely going to be BIS for anyone who gets it. So, in the end all I can say to anyone who’s seriously wanting this thing like I am. Good luck!

The Quest for Shadowmourne
+ 1. The Sacred and the Corrupt
+ 2. Shadow’s Edge
+ 3. A Feast of Souls
+ 4. Unholy Infusion
+ 5. Blood Infusion
+ 6. Frost Infusion
+ 7. The Splintered Throne
+ 8. Shadowmourne!
+ 9. The Lich King’s Last Stand

GUILD.news
My guild held off on TOGC 25 for a couple of weeks, we had a pretty sizable influx of new recruits that needed a little bit of gear as well as some experience in the instance before we went full tilt into the heroic version of the instance. I’ll be honest, sitting on my hands waiting wasn’t easy. But we’ve broken in, after a couple of weeks of boning it we caught a lucky break last night (though server lag screwed us out of a 1 shot on Beasts) we fought our way through it, and not only did we get Beasts but we also gave Jaraxxas a taste of the Coliseum floor. Overall, a good way to start off the week’s raiding.

Similarly, we made a run at 10m Uld Hardmodes this weekend. We knocked out nine of them, leaving me with only four more to get my drake. We were so successful, that there’s even been talk of (possibly) starting up a regular 25m Uld HM group. I know me and Rukar would definitely love to get our hands on that sexy Reins of the Ironbound Proto-Drake.

KHAAS.news
I managed to nab my last trophy from a tribute run last night, I’ve decided to hold off on turning it in though. I do fully intend to get that fifth piece, but just for the sake of “completion”. Since everyone was greeding on the trophies, I don’t feel too bad about it. Even the newly returned FoF officer Krusherizer is up to 4 pc bonus already. I also managed to grab the heroic version of these rockin boots Greaves of the Lingering Vortex. That puts me completely hit capped and expertise capped, I’m still using Exp food though to lower parries, and it’s been working well. I noticed last night I was only parried four times out of all of the raiding that we did.

Going Goblin
I’ve started a new segment on the blog about making money, as I said some time ago one of my goals is to hit the gold cap before Cataclysm drops. I’m refining that to possibly hitting it four times before Cata drops, but first we walk… you can read more my adventures in auction house piracy here.

ALT.news
Since I’ve started working on my mission to rule the world, er I mean generate more Gold than Switzerland, I’ve been working on professions. My mage has already made it to max Tailoring and Inscriptions. It’ll be a few weeks though before the new self sustaining money machine has all of the Glyphs, but he’s already been cranking out some nice ones. Next, I think I’ll work on Leatherworking. For that though, I’ll need to actually start playing my Rogue a bit, which is fine since he’s on the list to get levelled up anyway. So, look for him to be hitting 80 with max skills in the next week or two.

Achievements

The quest for 310 drakes continues!

That’s it for this week, but be sure to check back regularly. A lot’s been going on of late, so the updates should be coming hot and heavy as 3.3 approaches.