(Dis)enchanting. 4.0.3

All right, I know it's nothing overly new, but it's certainly an awesome way to bring in the gold and I thought I would share my thoughts and logic about how amazing disenchanting is for item shuffling. Jewelcrafting + (dis)enchanting was a classic combo in Wrath, and it's still a great way to shuffle ore into larger profit margins.

Right now ore has dropped to 100g a stack on my server, sometimes you can get lucky and catch it below that. Last week ore was 200g a stack. Suddenly prospecting has become profitable. But wait, now everyone is prospecting gems. While uncommon gems still sell well, especially for dailies, the rare gem prices are unreasonably low. I haven't bothered selling any of mine yet. I'll either donate them to my guild bank or save them for later epic gem transmutations or when there's higher demand for gems.

I have been selling my uncommon gems in singles and stacks for levelers (mainly Hessonite) and daily required gems. When the gems aren't in high demand I craft them, yes *all* of them into the misc, random enchant items. While Jasper Ring seems the most logical to make, and is clearly the most profitable, I've still found it worth my while to also craft Nightstone Choker, Hessonite Band, Alicite Pendant and Carnelian Spikes. Obviously Carnelian Spikes are the least profitable, so I only make this when the market price for the gem is low and will have a higher DE value than selling the gems themselves. Since Carnelian isn't in very high demand on my server, it's more profitable to DE them.

A stack of Greater Celestial Essence goes for about 700-800g market price at the moment (23g per Lesser Celestial Essence), and a stack of Hypnotic Dust is going for about 600g+ as well (30g each dust). So, each green that disenchants into 1-3 Lesser Celestial Essence or 1-5 Hypnotic Dust is giving me anywhere from 23g-150g. While a large variable, if we wanted to just take an average of that (1.5 for lesser essence and 2.5 for Hypnotic Dust) we'd be getting (34g+75g)/2 = 54.5g per disenchant.

Ok so you're thinking, "but the uncommon gems are worth so much more on the AH than 54.5g, even just for one gem." Well, that may be true on your server, but the only time gem prices hike up are the days when JC needs them. There just isn't enough demand for uncommon gems. Most people just prospect themselves or get someone else to prospect, since it's so much cheaper to do it this way. For example Carnelian is only worth 22g50s, but the market is flooded and there's a very low demand for the gems. All gems but Nightstone, which is the JC daily today, are roughly 22g on the AH B/O.

When you factor in the price of the ore, 100g for a stack or 4 prospects yeilding 2 uncommon gems nearly every prospect, and we won't count the rare gems into our equations. So 100g/8= 12.5g per uncommon gem. Zephyrite is the worst to get, but you can still sell it on the AH for a fair profit to levelers, and also when it is up for JC daily. So you *could* just post your uncommon gems up and hope for a demand. Or...

You can convert them into a market that doesn't have enough supply. As I stated above, the enchanting market is so dry at the moment. It needs more, and is generally a fairly healthy market. So when you think about it, you're turning 54.5g-(12.5x2) = 29.5g per DE profit. This is assuming all your DE's are done using two uncommon gems, and ignoring the price of the JC settings. So a stack of ore at 100g turns into 218g. You're already making a 100%+ ROI, and enchanting mats sell much quicker and easily than the raw uncommon gems are now. And at 22.5g market price for uncommon gems, you would only be making 10g off a gem costing you 12.5g. Still a fair profit, but why settle for that?

Well I really enjoyed getting into the maths of that. A bit worried that I made a mistake in there somewhere. Note my numbers are based on MY server's current market values, and I chose the lower end of the price ranges for my calculations.

Christmas 4.0.3

Merry Christmas to the West, and Happy Boxing Day to the East!

I had a wonderful Christmas, however the Holiday is not over for me until post-New Years, so my postings will continue to be sporadic.

This is an interesting time of year, and a lot of you may have been profiting off of vendor purchased items, Christmas attire, and all the new accounts coming into play. If you have time, farm, farm farm. I've been logging in and farming while I chat to all my relatives back home (thank god for Skype) and running around snatching up herbs and ore.

While the prices on my server are declining, others are anticipating an incline in prices again, or at least an increased demand on ores, bars and herbs. Either way, it's still a great time to profit from farming, and possibly the low prices on the auction house.

Just a reminder that Darkmoon Faire will be returning next week. You have about 7 days to start preparing some card decks if you're going for The Insane title, or just looking to try your hand at profiting from the trinkets. Keep an eye out, if the market seems flooded, be patient and hold back with your sales. The cards will sell to raiders and alts through the expansion, and most of them are looking to be fairly high on the better in-slot items for most classes.

I hope you all have, and continue to have, a very wonderful holiday season, whatever it is that you may be celebrating.

Fortune Cookies! 4.0.3 Cataclysm

I have found a new love. Yes, the delicious little Fortune Cookie.

At first I thought, "oh hey, a useful stat. So for my rogue that means agility. Oh wow this could be great for my hybrid characters as well!" So I made myself a batch or two of these. I was a bit concerned about using up so much Blackfallow Ink and my chance at 5000g from the Mysterious Fortune Card. And then I noticed used Fortune Cards in my bags, and I was thinking "oh crap, maybe when I cook them something is happening and I'm flipping the fortune cards!" No, my friends, I was not. Upon consuming my tasty treat and gaining my food buff I was getting my fortune card flipped as well.

So what does this all mean? Well, instead of just making the Mysterious Fortune Cards and selling to gamblers, why not up the value by investing some Simple Flour into it and adding a 90 stam 90 useful stat bonus to the gamble?

Lastly, these are the easiest buff food to make right now once you get the recipe. And possibly cheaper to produce than specific stat foods. The universal usage of these cookies makes them a very viable product for profit. All it would take is a bit of advertising in trade to get the idea out there.

I have noticed this has been a fairly talked about topic, but this is just my own little anecdote about how I came across my love of these. I might change my mind if costs change, but fish and meat has always been fairly expensive. If herbs keep declining in price, these may be the most profitable buff food short of feasts.

Gold and heroic dungeon grinds. Cataclysm 4.0.3

I've been so swamped with grinding rep, running dungeons and Christmas that I've hardly found much time to really focus on any gold-making. 

However, I've found JC to be the most profitable by far. If you can get yourself a cut that is desired, but no one else has, it's pretty logical that you're going to make a fair bit. Gem cuts that no one else has, or few people do, or even few people have the raw gems to cut, are going for about 300-400g on my server. Common cuts are going for about 115g. Either way, at 150-200g a stack of ore, even just prospecting and selling the gems you get is an easy win when you have little time. 

Cloth and leather are also a steady 150-200g a stack, and I'm really hoping they come down soon. Herbs range from 225g to a low of 60g a stack. If you're trying to make anything with inscription or alchemy I advise doing the herb farming yourself. People are posting items at incredibly competitive prices (at least on my server) and the only way to really stay in the game is to put the effort in yourself and wait for herb prices to decline.

Another gold mine if you're a farmer is to go and fish up all the new fish. They are all extremely expensive and extremely hard to find on the AH because who the hell fishes at the beginning of an expansion? Yea, well if you're waiting on slow-poke guild mates or dungeon queues, bust out that fishing rod and make yourself 250-500g a stack. While you're fishing you're also earning the That's A Lot of Bait guild achievement earning your guild the purchase of Seafood Magnifique, fish feast. 

Fortune Cookie is something that might be a great seller, especially for players that change spec frequently, and what I'm personally aiming for as far as cooking recipes go. The materials for the card are pretty simple to come by, and easily made if you're a scribe, the only risk is whether one of the cards you send to be made into a cookie is one of the ones that vendors for 5000g.

So, about those dungeons, eh? Yes, spending up to 4 hours (it's happened) in heroic dungeons is not fun, however, it's proof that the new content is at least a challenge until we get a bit more gear and can achieve larger amounts of dps, HP on tanks and greater mana pools and regen on healers. So whatever happens, stay chill, relax and enjoy the few points you do earn. Eventually we'll out gear the new content. If you really don't have the patience for it, do something else, seriously. Nothing is as big of a downer as some crabby pug at each other's throats.

Overview of the first week of Cataclsym.

First off, sincere apologies for taking my sweet time. I've had a very busy week and this month is about to only get busier as the holiday season approaches. This means I won't be posting as frequently as I'd like too, but I will be back into my normal posting schedule soon after New Years and hopefully I'll be able to write about some more detailed ideas. But for now I haven't even had a chance to go farming and check out new routes since the hotfix that nerfed all the nodes because I've been cramming to get my main to 85. I'm falling behind! So today's post is just some bits and pieces from my own experience in Cataclsym so far.

From my own experiences the best money-makers are the items that the rich can invest in and get richer off of. Hardened Elementium Bar is/was outrageously expensive on my server for a long time, and last I checked it did not change much. This was because Volatile Earth was really expensive as well, actually all volatiles were and still are, except life has dropped a bit (thank god). However, this crunch lead people, like me, who had leveled 6 professions in the first few days were able to profit by simply being the first to get there.

I made a fair amount off engineer crafted weapons, Truegold is an amazing investment with nearly triple return for me on my server. The Adventurer's Journal  were also selling well, considering the 10% bonus to questing XP.  Manual of the Planes and other inscription relics are also solid sellers, just watch out for market flooding. As soon as I can start gathering Chaos Orbs I'll be pumping out a few Overpowered Chicken Splitters since rogues can use them for single-target fights as a stat bonus, and I've seen a good few hunters looking for them. The biggest name of the game at the moment is item level, and of course everyone wants gear.

I had no luck with the DMF idea I had, mostly because of the bugs my main experienced and real life demanding my presence else where. But it looks like no one else made any decks either, which also disappoints me a bit, because I wanted one.

I don't have anything exciting for fresh yet, because, let's face it, it's only the first week. Making gold right now is easy, but takes a bit of craft to quickly pick up the flow of the market. Use your cooldowns wisely as well. I've been doing Transmute: Truegold and Transmute: Shadowspirit Diamond. Since shadowspirit diamond and Fire Prism require the same reagents, I don't bother with Fire Prism, since the meta gems are more valuable at the moment.

If you're a leatherworker, you should make some PVE gear. All I see is PVP gear on the AH, and I would really like something to wear on  my rogue that isn't a 305 ilvl green I got from questing. BS and tailoring too, will make an absolute killing once they start running heroics and crating items everyone needs to help them gear up, however, the sooner the better.

A bit of a side note:

The leveling content is pretty awesome, when it wasn't bugged out. Everything seems to be sorted now, so go back and unlock all the reps and enjoy the quest chains, this is what I've been doing while waiting on dungeon queues. The dungeons themselves are awesome, and I'm enjoying the challenge. Heroics are hilarious, and you have to have a good sense of humour going into one, especially if you're planning to pug.

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves. :)

Expansion day 2.

So when Blizzard gives you massive issues with your main... go farm.

I've farmed an insane amount of Obsidium Ore, and herbs with my DK in just a few hours. I was selling the Nightstone Choker and Hessonite Bands for 200-600g each, depending on the stats/ uncommon or rare quality and was on my way to getting closer to 525 JC (maybe server first) when suddenly I could not interact with NPC's anymore on my rogue. Very sad day for me. :( However, I'm saving myself some gold and making some in the mean time. Maybe now I will be forced to level my inscription up and just beg some really nice guild mates to grab me items from Twilight Highlands.

I did opt to send all BoE non-crafted greens over to my enchanter, but have not collected enough mats to bother leveling her up quite yet.

Sorry about the short, kind of pointless updates. I'm sure many people are too busy exploring the new content and making their own gold as well. Don't worry, I promise some more insightful stuff later on. Posting might be a bit sporadic with Christmas coming up as well, but I will still be posting as often as I can.

--Fractella

Expansion release 4.0.3

Firstly, yay!

I got to 82 last night, before getting surpassed by 5 other rogues for server first, decided I'm too old to stay up all damned night, and went to bed to get back at it in the morning. People are already level 84 after 7 hours of being away. So far that's only about 13-14 hours of total played time.


Ore is unsurprisingly high, but all of my sleepily priced jewelcrafting items sold, today I'll have to give it a bit more attention.

Any way, I don't have much advice for you, or any insight yet today, since I'm fairly distracted with all the sweet new content.