srsbusiness

Friends, I must apologize from the very beginning. I went spend crazy this week. But, it’s not all bad news. This week I’d like to talk about spending and resource control. Now that I’ve got a lot of gold/time to make up, it’s time to enact my new Scorched Earth policy, with a little help from Zamboni. Read on…

Spending
I spent a lot this week, despite having a banner week for profits I’m down below 20K gold. I know, but bare with me. First, I decided after much speculation and study that now was the best time to snatch a set of Primordial Saronite in my ongoing quest for Shadowmourne. I bought 5 for my Boots of Kingly Upheaval and 25 for my legendary. This alone, was a very large chunk of change. I spent anywhere from 2.2 to 2.6 for each of those, if we split the difference at 2.4, that’s 72000g spent on the Primordials alone. I also invested in some Alchemy skill for some of my alts, not all maxed yet but getting there.

Add to this, I also made a guild bank for my glyphs, Paper Street Soap Co. Likewise, I added a full set of bank tabs, and finished off my Book of Glyph Mastery list with Miraru.

In essence, I made a LOT of gold this week, but I also spent a LOT of gold this week. Of course, the good news is: I can really start making some serious gold in earnest now that these things are out of the way.

Resource Control
Zamboni over at the JMTC forums has some good information about controlling resources, hereafter refered to as The Zamboni Method, this method is a classic war tactic: limit your opponents available resources, then squeeze. It’s a strategy that is as elegantly simple as it is effective. For those who’ve played tactical RTS games such as WC3, this method is similar to building defensive structures around mines to limit your opponent’s gold reserves.

Undestanding Resources
First, you have to understand what resources we’re talking about. Any crafted items require some sort of farm-able resources: Glyphs for instance rely on Inks, which are in turn made from Herbs for example. With Zamboni’s Method, the idea is to simply buy all (or nearly all) of the resources available in the AH at a given time. This does several things, one it has a tendency to drive the price of the resource up thereby increasing the cost for competitors. Likewise, it limits the amount of available resources for competitors significantly. While you have the AH cleared of a given resource your competitor is left with the choice of using farmers (not likely in most cases) or they have to farm the materials themselves.

There are always going to be those people willing to farm for 8 hours a day just so they can undercut anyone and make a “profit”. Truth is, you’re never really going to be able to undercut them to oblivion because, these people have already decided their time is worthless. The good news is, there are limits to the amount of competition these people can give you, eventually they will do something besides farm herbs or whatever. And incidentally, these types of people are the same ones likely to see an empty AH and flood it with expensive herbs after you’ve drained it. So, to the lifeless farmer I say, don’t worry too much about them.

The Problem with this Method
There’s only one real problem with this method, and that’s the amount of gold often required to buyout a particular market. In the case of herbs, to effectively control your competition you’d need to be buying all of the Icethorn, Adder’s Tongue, and possibly the other lower cost herbs just to be safe. That’s a pretty healthy investment, and more than a lot of people can make. But that’s also what makes this method so effective, not everyone can or will use it. Of course, the method can be applied to more than just herbs/glyphs, and it should be. And of course, if you really want to maximize your earnings, you’ll be doing this in multiple markets which again, requires a large amount of initial investment capital. But, you know what they say: it takes money to make money.

The Bloodscalp Report
Glyphs are selling better than ever, enchants and scrolls are way down however thanks surely in no small part to the disenchant feature in groups. Eternal Belt Buckles are selling again, and my new pet store is booming, the pets aren’t exactly flying off the shelves but I’m probably making an extra 2K per week off of the things. The holidays proved fruitful as well, I probably made another 1K this week just off of the holiday pets. Also, it looks like the price of gems is beginning to normalize, not a huge deal it’s still a huge profit for me. But it does make (some) difference.

Keeping the Books
This week I spent a lot, it’s true. But I made a lot too. Just how much?
I started the week at 62K
I’m down to 14K now.
I spent 72K on Primordials, and another 10K on professions, bank tabs, etc. 82+14 = 96-62 = 34K earned for the week. So, it was actually my best week to date on gold earned, but also my worst on gold spent. At my current rate though, it shouldn’t take me long to get back to where I was.

So, Christmas is here. Which means it’s nearly the end of the year. And fitting that it’s also the end of an expansion. I’m doing my part dear readers, so let’s get to it shall we?

GUILD.news
Face on Fire is still looking for a Warrior (Arms/Prot prefered) and Warlock (Demo offspec prefered). We’ve been lacking on the togc 25 progress since we’ve been focusing on ICC (the holidays haven’t helped either). We raid Tues and Thurs from 6-10 server. You can click the link to the right of the page to check out our site.

KHAAS.news
We finally got a tanking drop in TOGC 25, I snagged Pride of the Demon Lord. Likewise, I grabbed a couple of upgrades from ICC Marrowgar’s Scratching Choker (from 10 man) and I decided to skip the regular T10 and go straight to Sanctified Scourgelord Pauldrons (I got the first Mark from 25 man). I’ve even managed to pick up a handful of Primordial Saronite in my ongoing quest for Shadowmourne.

As you can see from the pic, the shoulders look amazing. They even blend in well with the few T9 pieces I’m still carrying. You might also note the tabard, last night I decided to go ahead and get both the Green and Purple Illidari tabards. It requires a little bit of a hat trick to pull off, but it’s worth it to get both (and get a step closer to the 25 tabards achievement) and to get a tabard that actually matches my gear for once.

ALT.news
Not much going on here, though I have been playing my Warrior (Grimmand) a lot more lately, I’ve been using him to farm up Emblems for Primordials, and meanwhile building his gear up a bit. Already grabbed T9 shoulders. One hell of an upgrade from the offset Naxx10 shoulders I was rockin before. I’m also working on the dailies with my other alts as possible, but they for the most part are very horribly undergeared. I’ll probably be running randoms with Khaas, Grimmand, and Findail for a while. Which should get me 2+ Primordials per week, in addition to any that I find under my threshold along the way.

I ran across a new addon this week that’s proven quite helpful for managing my alts, it’s called Altaholic. Basically, it provides you with easy access to information about all of your alts no matter what character you’re on. You can easilly compare gear/tradeskills. Or, not sure where you left those Titansteel Bars? Bring up the panel and search thru the bags before you start hopping on alts. More importantly, it tracks things like when crafting cooldowns are ready. Which is quite nice if you; like me, are using several characters to make things like epic gems.

Anyhow, that’s about it for this week. We’ll be seeing how much we can get done tonight (probably just ICC 25 and 10 mans) then we’re off to visit the family on the other side of the state for the holidays. Take care everyone, and have a good one.

Yes, you read that right and no, I don’t have any beef with Ferals. The Bear is that elusive near mythical time in a market when values of goods are in decline. And yes friends, I’m happy to say the patch appears to have lulled the Bear back to slumber, enter the Bull.

Understanding the Bear and the Bull
The term refers to markets trending up (Bull) and and down (Bear). These terms were actually created long ago in Europe by fur traders, and later adopted by the London Stock exchange. All you really need to know is that in a Bear market, prices are in decline. During a Bull trend, prices go up. To better understand the origin of these terms, I’ve found a visual aid.

“In Soviet Russia, Beer eat you!”

What, Me Worry?
All kidding aside though, understanding these trends is important. One of the best ways to ensure future fiscal success, is to identify these trends as they’re happening (which means a lot of studying WoWAH comes in handy here, and Excel of course). It’s also important to remember that even though the market is in a time of ascent, you still need to be careful. The old proverb comes to mind “ne vendez pas la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué” (don’t sell the bearskin before you’ve killed the bear) in other words: just because the market’s in an upswing, doesn’t mean you can’t lose your shirt.

In previous weeks, I’ve talked a lot about research and development time, and how important it is to your success. Of course, nothing teaches like experience. I imagine that few here reading this today can remember the first time you touched a hot pan, stove, or whatever. But the lesson of that failure is with each of us today, don’t touch hot things unless you want to be burned. This lesson carries over into WoW just as much as anywhere else. If you’re unsure of your success, test it out in a “controlled” way. If you’re unsure of the flask market, don’t dive headlong in with 10K invested and expect to turn a profit. Test the waters, it’s that old lesson again… when you get into a hot tub, what do you do? You put a toe in, make sure the water’s not too hot.

Testing the Water In Practice
This week I took my first tenative steps into the Flask market. There were several factors involved, first I had decided on 2 weeks R&D. This allowed me some time to build up Alchemy on a couple of my alts, as well as track changes in the Flask market itself. Since 3.3 was just released, I didn’t think tracking changes over the first week alone would give me a reliable test sample, and I was right. Sales figures over week one were somewhat skewed compared to the week before, and the week after. It appears that we’re now back to business as usual in the flask industry.

I also noted that on Tuesday when raids were forming something was curiously missing from the Auction House… Flasks. Yes dear readers. It was reset day, and Bloodscalp was in woeful need of flasks, who am I to disappoint? Armed with my research data from WOWAH and Auctioneer scans, I plugged in my data into this very useful spreadsheet from Whittaker on the JMTC forums. Below are the stats for one run of Flasks.

As you can see, even at a cost of 50g per Frost Lotus, I was still able to generate some serious cash off of this (assuming the Flasks sold). What I had to do was figure out a threshold, basically how little was I willing to make per flask for it to be worth my time. Last week, it didn’t matter. Because every flask sold out by the time our raid on ICC 25 was over. But the point is, I had to figure that I “may” have to lower prices in order to move my stock, especially since last week I unloaded a TON of Flasks in a very short time. The end result? I made 10K for the week after costs (including money spent on my warrior alts gear, and some tradeskill stuff).

When you’ve got your system worked out, you can start spending a little here and there. Just remember if you ever want to hit the cap, you have to earn more gold than you spend. Do that, and you’re on the right track.

The Bloodscalp Report

Flasks did well, and I got an opportunity to flip a bunch of Cloth this week too, thanks Abstraktion for your support. I did find however, that the specialty cloth though it does sell, doesn’t move very fast. It really takes some hustling to move it on Bloodscalp. So, thanks to this expirament I will definitely not be leveling up any tailors for cooldowns.

In closing, have a very happy (and safe) holiday.

Till now I’ve really played it safe in the AH. I’ve been generating my gold almost completely through things I absolutely knew would give me a return. Dailies and 20 hr cooldowns on multiple characters generate a solid amount of profit for little effort. This week however, having hit the 50K mark and with the new patch here, I decided to do some investing.

(Note: It looks like Gevlon beat me to the punch on this topic, though we’re both handling it quite differently. Recomended reading Gevlon on Investing for further thoughts on investing.)

Risk VS Reward
Investing can be scary, so there’s a few things you need to understand before you do it. The first thing you need to know before making any investment is that all investments carry some amount of risk. This is as true in WoW as it is on Wall Street. This owes in large part to the nature of a given items value, or as Gevlon is fond of saying “Real Value™”. All items are only worth as much as you can convince someone to pay. A median can be established, and this median is very dependent on various factors such as supply and demand. That said, you need to approach new markets with the mindset of an investment. As stated last week, you need to do your homework. Allow for a research period, if after a week of research you still want to invest in the item, do so.

Again, and this can not be said enough: all investment comes with some amount of risk. The important thing here is to learn to assess inherent risk, and minimize it.

An Example from 3.3
Much as many good Goblins, I was quite aware of the impending release of several major changes coming along with 3.3. One of these changes was the release of a new gold sink, the Portable Hole. It’s a 24 slot bag that sells from Haris Pilton for 3K gold. There is no faction tied to Haris, so you can not get this item with a discount. That said, it’s a nice bag, and a direct descendant of “Gigantique” Bag. That said, it’s a bit pricey. But right now, it’s the biggest bag you can get, and you’re on your main you want the biggest sack around, amirite?

Prior to 3.3 I was using a pair of the Gigantique’s, along with the Dragon bags from Sarth and Ony. I decided, I wanted a set of the Portable Holes, since it’s bigger (and I’m a raiding tank carrying around several sets of gear, consumables, etc at a time). But I also thought that I might be able to make a little quick gold offa these, possibly even enough to pay for getting my own personal set together. So, as soon as the servers came up I bought four and sent them to a mule for resale. I gave them a modest markup, and waited a couple of days. I noted in trade chat, people talking about “some newb put portable holes in AH lulz, how’d pay more for em?” and they were right, the things didn’t sell. So, I was out a couple days of sitting on these things before I finally sent them to Khaas to be equipped.

The moral of the story here is this: Buying these bags was a calculated risk. Worst case scenario, I ended up with the bags I intended to buy anyway. Best case scenario, I deferred some or all of the cost of the bags, and got them anyway.

So Why Take a Risk At All?
It’s a valid question, I’ve definitely learned with my own progress that it’s perfectly possible to make gold with very little effort (past the initial build up atleast). I can log onto an alt, burn a cooldown and make an epic gem (or 5) with my Alchemist(s). Do a daily on each of my tanks, and I’ve got 4 Dragon’s Eyes to sell. In about a half-hour, I’ve made about 1K gold with very little effort (or risk, really). The gems will sell, usually pretty quickly. And as long as I watch what I’m spending my gold on, I’ll continue to get closer and closer to the cap.

But as they say, there’s no reward without a little bit of risk. Even doing something as simple as the gems I do daily carries some risk, if I use it as my only source of income then I have to be concerned about the gem market, if it crashes there goes my major source of income. The same applies to those who only do glyphs as Tella learned. So you’ve got to make sure you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, looking at other markets and investment, then taking a risk. I’m the first to admit, it doesn’t always pay out. But if watch what you’re doing, watch what the market’s doing over time. You should be ok.

The Bloodscalp Report
The Netherweave Bag Market is down, there’s been some bullish competition from several people lately. Add to this the mysterious disappearance of my Chinese connection, and you have a very unappealing situation. Worse, the average price of Netherweave Cloth has been trending up steadilly in the face of the new demand caused by the competition. So, it comes to a point where I ask myself: is it worth shutting these guys down/out? In the end, I don’t think so. I’ll continue looking for deals on bulk cloth, and if I find them, post them. But I’m not going to fight over it, it’s not worth it.

Glyphs are doing well, I’m in the process of building up my little glyph sweat shop. I’ve managed to get quite a few super cheap Books of Glyph Mastery lately (as low as 5g each!) and I’ve been chugging away on the research daily. Meanwhile, I post some popular glyphs everyday as I build up, I’ve added a new guild bank just for my little glyph company.

Enchanting Scrolls are down, they’re moving but the patch has dropped the value of enchanting mats a bit. I’m very glad I didn’t stockpile scrolls now, or I would’ve taken a beating. Once things settle a bit, I’m going to poke my way back into this market (if it proves sustainable again).

Gems like always are moving fast. 3.3 actually bumped their value a bit since people actually need gems again.

What I’m Looking For
Netherweave Cloth in BULK
Titanium Ore in BULK
Tiger Lily in BULK

This Week’s Progress: -1771g
That’s right friends, for the first time since I started doing this… I’m showing a loss, and in a major patch week no less. Several factors went into this, the biggest being that I spent 12K on Portable Holes. Also this has been a notably rough week for me IRL. My wife was in an accident at her job, and I’ve been taking care of her instead of making gold. I know, shame on me. This week I expect to get things chugging along again, and with Winter’s Vale starting today…

Well, let’s just say a sucker logs on every minute.

Welcome to another addition of A Worthy Weapon. With the release of Icecrown there’s decisions to make, which weapon is right for tanking? It’s also time to start working on Shadowmourne. I’ll be documenting my progress on the quest line here.

A Quick Announcement
It’s official, the guild has decided to give me the first Shadowmourne. This is a big honor, and I’m more than just a little excited to get this. Hell, I’ll say it: When I got the news I clapped my hands and giggled like a fat kid with a cupcake. Really though, thank you Face on Fire for this.

Icecrown Citadel Weapons
Unlike previous tiers, we have several options for tanking weapons. We didn’t get a new version of Inevitable Defeat, but what we did get was a set of solid tanking options with different flavors to suit specific needs. My problem is: right now I’m over the hit and expertise cap. Infact, since I got my new ring I’m WAY over the hit cap. This was one of the reasons why I wanted to get Shadowmourne in the first place, since seeing the gear in this tier I knew I could quite easilly stay capped and just go with the highest TPS/EH weapon possible, Shadowmourne fits the bill.

For the Capped
Interestingly though, we’ve already had 2 very good tanking options drop in IC. Marrowgar in 25 dropped Bryntroll, the Bone Arbiter. It went to my buddy Sharpobject, a Retadin who’s been facerolling harder than usual (considering everything’s undead). In fact, our Pali tank Zelthas has been commenting that he’s been having threat issues again Sharp with his new Axe. The proc according to completely anecdotal evidence (the Recount breakdown of damage over our 10m IC run) is doing 7% of Sharp’s damage. That’s pretty damned impressive really, even more so when you consider he’s concistently in the top 5 DPS (depending on the fight). Of course, Sharp if you’re reading this you’re welcome to correct me if I’m wrong on just how much damage this thing is doing. But, it looks like the thing procs constantly. Matched with the extra healing from this proc, the sizable Str and Sta, as well as the two sockets (even MORE Sta) it’s certainly a contender for anyone who, like me, is hit/exp capped (without a weapon).

For those needing Hit or Expertise, hope still exists.
Interestingly enough the first boss of the instance (Marrowgar) provides the second tanking option, which we also got this week. Citadel Enforcer’s Claymore packs a lot of hit. The DPS of this weapon is higher than my previous weapon Mor’kosh, the Bloodreaver. It has more Hit and less crit, but it’s a bit faster and has more Str/Sta. One less socket though. So overall, it’s kinda a sidegrade to Mor’kosh. But considering it’s from the first boss, in 10 regular no less… it’s a great option for any DK tank.

Further in the instance we also have the option of Cryptmaker from the 25m Princes. It’s a mace (meh) but a solid performer all around, 100 ArPen, and 95 Hit, 2 Sockets, lots of Str/Sta, and good melee stats. (Not currently on Wowhead, so linked to it on MmoChampion)

For the Expertise we have Ramaladni’s Blade of Culling (Saurfang) and Oxheart (Dreamwalker). Both of these come from 10m IC. The key difference between these two is that Ram is an Axe that gives ArPen as well as the Expertise. And Oxheart is a mace that gives Crit in addition to Expertise. Also, since Saurfang is at the end of the first wing, you can already start farming for the axe. Generally speaking though, this is all good news. It means there’s a solid selection of weapons for us, there are even hard mode equivalents to these of course. For the first time this expansion, we have a little variety in our options in a single tier…

Shadowmourne
The real reason you’re reading this though is probably to get some dirt on Shadowmourne, which I will be happy to provide. There are three of us working on the axe atm: Khaas, Rukar, and Sharpobject. The first objective when working on this thing is to reach Friendly with the Ashen Verdict. At which point you can go just inside Icecrown Citadel, and speak to the appropriate NPC to claim your ring. You may also notice a blue ! off to the left, over the head of Highlord Darion Mograine. Speak to him and accept the quest The Sacred and the Corrupt.

From here, you begin collecting the first pieces necessary to craft Shadow’s Edge, the epic weapon that forms the base of Shadowmourne.

This is the cave where Arthas infamously throw down his mace and took up the cursed blade Frostmourne at the end of the human campaign in Warcraft III. You will see the mace laying in the snow with light surrounding it, when you move to take it the Lich King will appear, and freeze you and throw his mace across the cave.

After a brief scripted encounter with Arthas, a massive horde of level 80 Ghouls will spawn all over the cave, and an elite will spawn on the mound in the middle where the mace once was…

Clear your way through the ghouls to the mace’s new location, once there the mace will fly above your head and begin nuking everything undead in the cave.

Once all are dead, the Vyrkul will respawn and you must fight him. He doesn’t hit hard at all, but he’s got a lot of HP.

Once you’ve killed the Vyrkul claim your new quest item Light’s Vengeance (can’t equip the mace QQ) and begin collecting the rest of the pieces.

Primordial Saronite can be collected several ways: buy them on the AH (or from other players), get these from running Icecrown Citadel, or turn in Emblems of Frost for them (23 Emblems per Saronite). You may get the nod from your guild to keep all of the Primordials until you finish this part of the chain, if you’re not so lucky then you’ll have to decide between new armor/gear or Primordials for Shadowmourne. Now, the Goblin in me must speak: Do NOT buy Primordials right now. I would advise on waiting at least until you’ve obtained the pieces from Festergut and Rotface before even considering purchasing the remaining Primordials, this is because right now the price is grossly inflated. A cursory check of several servers is showing a price ranging from 6-8K per Primordial, give it a little time. The price will come down as more become available.

My advice, wait till you get the Acidic Blood. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for any cheap Primordials. And start working on your armor, the sooner you get your Emblem gear out of the way, the sooner you can start burning Emblems for Primordials. Even after you have your requisite 25, you’ll likely continue getting these as they should start making a tidy profit on the AH (I’m guessing they’re probably going to normalize somewhere between 1 and 2K).

That’s all for this edition of A Worthy Weapon, but check back as I will be posting more progress on Shadowmourne as well as more tips as I find them.