Showing posts with label gold making strategies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gold making strategies. Show all posts

Diablo 3 Gold Guide -- Maximizing Cash Profits

Posted by Dave On Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Here's an awesome tip for single-players who are interested in cashing in and leveling quickly.

* Diablo 3 is a one-time cost and there are no monthly fees.
* There is a party limit of 4, and the game is designed for the more difficult encounters to be handled by 4 people.
* Each player has their own drop modifiers for personal drops and magic finds. There will be group drops and personal drops for each player in the group.
* When playing in co-op, you kill faster and there's much better loot available.

The tip? MULTI-BOXING!

And you only need to buy a maximum of 4 copies!

With your own party of 4 and in your own game instances, you can level faster and get better loot than most of the competition. All of your characters can stack on top of each other too and they don't all require varying locations in combat. :)

Blizzard has no problem with this, it's not against the rules and is widely used in World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs.

With a powerful enough PC, you should be able to get away with this on a single PC. Each Diablo window, though, might require lower graphics settings. It will take a while for the Diablo 3 retail price to drop too, so this is something you need to decide whether to do right in the beginning or not.

There's still 4-5 months to go, so take this time to research and prepare. :)

Some links to get you started; What is Multiboxing, Dual-boxing.com Forums, MMOWNED Forums

If you guys know of any other good starter sites, let me know. I'll write more about this in the future too as this is probably what I'll be doing.

Hope you kept these recipes.

Posted by Daeity On Wednesday, December 1, 2010

If you followed my cross-faction gold-making strategy, chances are that you still have a guild bank full of recipes like I do.

Well, stop posting [Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy] and [Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak] immediately!

Some of your recipes might have become Bind on Pickup, but HOLD ONTO THOSE AS WELL if you have them stored in your (personal) guild bank! The two recipes I just mentioned are no longer available - meaning that prices for these two cooking recipes will sky-rocket once people figure this out.

For the new soulbound recipes [Recipe: Westfall Stew] and [Recipe: Cooked Crab Claw], hopefully you still have those in your Guild Bank. If you do, they're not soulbound and can still be sold! First, just wait to see if they become rare or not. If they're introduced again after Cataclysm, just vendor them. If not, you can sell the recipes (after a long wait period) in Trade Chat. What you do is move a single recipe to a Guild Bank tab, and invite players to the guild who want to buy the recipe from you. You give them access to the single Guild Bank tab only (or only allow 1 withdraw for their rank), and then kick them after. =]

For Frenzy and Tasty Lion - as of right now, no one has been able to find any vendors that offer these recipes. The Tasty Lion/Menace quest has been removed from Southshore, and Laird (the NPC who sold Fillet of Frenzy) was killed during the Shattering.

No word on whether these will be available after Catacylsm, so I would recommend you hold onto these for dear life!

Right now, they don't seem to be available but they might be back in Cataclysm.

If you like taking risks, you should start hunting down these recipes and buying them out on the Auction House before others realize how valuable they've become (spend up to 500G per recipe for example). The other option is to advertise that the recipes have been removed, and try to sell them for 5,000 gold each or more - in case it does make a return in Cataclysm.

Otherwise, if you don't want to take any risks - just wait to see if they're available again from NPCs after Cataclysm, or watch as they become extremely more rare and valuable. (The longer you wait, the more valuable they will become.)

Remember the [Ruby Shades]? They were widely available for 5 copper, Blizzard removed them, and now they sell on the Auction House for over 100,000 gold.

(Note: I'll update if I find any other missing recipes - I heard that there are 6 recipes missing from Tanaris, but I haven't investigated yet.)

* Update:

The other missing Tanaris recipes are sold by Gikkix (first 4) and Jabbey who are both MIA.

Recipe: Grilled Squid
Recipe: Nightfin Soup
Recipe: Poached Sunscale Salmon
Recipe: Spotted Yellowtail
Recipe: Undermine Clam Chowder

According to Blizzard, however, the recipes will be making a return sometime after the Cataclysm release but they weren't sure on an exact date.

If you have these recipes, you should buy them out on the AH and start selling for very high prices (tell everyone that they were taken out of the game.. you know, a half truth.) =]

No word on Tasty Lion and Fillet of Frenzy however.

* Update (12/03/10):

I've received confirmation from a GM that [Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy] and [Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak] will NOT be making a return. The NPCs were killed during the Shattering and therefore the recipes died with them. So, hold onto these recipes - they can only go UP in value. In 6-12 months, they'll be worth 60-75k at least. Maybe they'll even reach the heights of those Ruby Shades one day (eg 150,000-250,000 in a couple years)..

[Recipe: Keldorei Spider Kabob] has also been removed - another extremely valuable recipe if you still have it sitting in your bank space.

Gold for Next Year's Halloween Event

Posted by Daeity On Saturday, October 23, 2010

If you're a long term gold strategist such as myself, you'll start stocking up on "Hallowed Wands" now for next years Hallow's End event.

On the opening day, transformations sell for over 25G a piece so you can quickly make a lot of gold on the first day before anyone else collects Wands from the Innkeeper Trick-or-Treat bags.

The next day, prices will drop to 15G, then 10G, then 5G, etc. So you'll want to advertise Achievement transformations as much as possible on the first day of Hallow's End next year.

The cooldown on "Trick-or-Treat" is 1 hour whether you're logged in or not - so just rotate through all of your realm characters and try to collect as many Treat Bags/Wands as possible and just store them in your bank. All of the other Hallow's End items pretty much expire and disappear.

With Christmas coming up, you'll also want to fill up a couple (personal) Guild Bank Tabs with the Gingerbread Cookie and Egg Nog recipes. Wait a few months after Christmas, and you can re-sell those recipes for 25G a piece or more (and there's almost no competition in Jun/Jul/Aug).

How To: Professional Glyph Selling

Posted by Daeity On Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Just wanted to make this quick post because I noticed a lot of readers were interested in how to sell Glyphs. You don't even need Auctioneer to do this either, although it does help in tracking quantities and it's Quick Buyout feature.

It's definitely the most lucrative gold making method right now (selling Glyphs) and will pick up again when Cataclysm is released. Although Glyphs are now permanently learned, there will ALWAYS be a need for them and will always sell well.

Based on statistics I gathered from over two most recent (pre-4.0.1) months of selling Glyphs (50,000+ transactions), all Glyph sales were based on UNIQUE users. Meaning that Glyphs were purchased for permanent reasons, and there were a negligible quantity of players that actually bought REPLACEMENT glyphs. And this was YEARS after Glyphs were first introduced. Bottom line: they will always sell, and this new change to Glyphs won't effect sales that much.

Here are the basic tools you need:

Auction Profit Master - Used to be called Quick Auctions 3, this is your bread and butter.
Postal - for quickly collecting Mail Items.

Additional Tools (optional):

Auctioneer - From just a Glyph selling perspective, this is extremely useful for it's EasyBuyout feature (it's DISABLED by default FYI!) Make sure you download the latest Beta btw to ensure it's always up-to-date.
Altoholic - for tracking mats and item quantities that you have on all of your characters.
Panda - For Mass Milling of your herbs.

Note: As of 4.0.1 automatic posting and cancelling does not work anymore, so you have to click on a button for each transaction. It's just a minor annoyance, and probably upset most of the Glyph sellers that were AFK posting/selling. Didn't bother me at all though, and I was hoping that Blizzard would actually do something more significant.

Getting Started

First thing you need to do is learn how to use Auction Profit Master. Here's an old video on YouTube for using Quick Auctions 3 and it best explains. There are very little changes between QA3 and the new APM version.

(FYI: Quick Auctions 3 was abandoned by the developer, and he gave the source code to a new developer to continue the work on, hence the tool was renamed to "Auction Profit Master".)

All of the other tools are just automated and require no setup (except for Auctioneer - TURN ON EASY BUYOUT and set limits!). Other than that, APM is the only tool that requires configuration to start selling Glyphs.

Follow the instructions in the video to get started. Type "/apm config" instead of "/qa config" to configure the Addon.

After watching that video at least 3 times, here are some key items (and strategies) you should be aware of:

1. Item Group -> Add Items. Remember, you can only Add Items if they are currently in your inventory. So make sure you find out which Glyphs are selling the best, craft them, and THEN add them to your Glyphs Item Group. (Keep reading to find out which Glyphs sell the highest.)

2. Override Undercut: This is how much you undercut other sellers by. You can make this 1 copper to really piss them off, but I usually undercut by 50 silver or 1-2G. If there are very few sellers and little competition, undercut them by 1s.

However if you have a lot of time and gold on your hands and there is a lot of competition, drive down the prices significantly (10G each undercut for example). It will hurt both of you (you'll be selling Glyphs to break even), but will come out on top if you have a steady supply of mats and inks. Basically, you want to drain them of all of their resources so that they can't create any new glyphs.

3. Override Threshold: This is the MINIMUM amount you want to sell Glyphs for. This should be _slightly_ above the cost of crafting the Glyph. This amount is HEAVILY influenced by herb prices too so pay attention.

- Milling stacks of Adder's Tongue, Icethorn, Lichbloom gives 6 total [Ink of the Sea].

- Milling stacks of Deadnettle, Tiger Lily, Goldclover, Talandra's Rose, Fire Leaf, Fire Seed gives 4 total [Ink of the Sea]. (It's actually closer to 5 on average, but I'm using 4 for safety).

Glyphs require 3 of each Ink + Resilient Parchment (40s if Exalted).

If the average price of a stack of Adder's Tongue sells for 40G for example, you MUST sell your Glyphs at a minimum cost of 21G or higher.

If the average price of a stack of Adder's Tongue is 30G however, you can sell your Glyphs for 15.5G (to break even) or higher.

Use a calculator when deciding minimum thresholds for your Glyphs. APM won't post Glyphs if their too cheap, it will only post the ones that make profit for you.

You'll want to sell all of your Glyphs for 30G or higher, and keep buying out all herbs/mats off the AH using EasyBuyout. If you have any competition that falls below the crafting price, BUY THEM and put them back up for auction (classic Buy Low/Sell High strategy.)

4. Fallbacks -> Override fallback: This is the price you want to sell Glyphs for if there are none on the AH or the only competition is very expensive. I usually put in 120G or 150G per Glyph. This is all server dependent though, but don't get too greedy or they won't sell.

5. New Auction Tab Features

If you open up the AH, and click on the "Auctions" tab you'll see a bunch of new entries at the top. Familiarize yourself with these.

Status: It will let you know if anyone is undercutting you, but Cancel already does it anyways so this is pretty useless.

Cancel: Will scan all of your posted Glyphs and cancel the ones that were undercut so that you can repost them.

Post: Posts all of your Glyphs and will automatically undercut each of your competitors.

Summary: Very important. This will show you the prices for all Glyphs, and is very useful when first setting up APM. Click Glyphs, then Get Data. You can click on each of the Glyphs to Queue them for crafting later. Left-click to increase the quantity, right-click to reduce.

Log: This LOG button can be toggled on-and-off while scanning is taking place. It's a history log of all transactions.

6. Your New Inscription Menu

Finally, if you open up your Inscription crafting menu you'll see a new button in the top-right corner called APM. Click on the button and it will open up the Crafting Queue mentioned above.

Here you'll see all of the Glyphs that you queued for crafting and each quantity selected. Scroll down below and you'll see all of the materials required to craft the glyphs. Collect the mats, and start clicking on each entry and they will be automatically crafted for you.

Once all of your Glyphs are ready, and they have all been added to your Item Group, just click POST and all Glyphs will be automatically posted and undercut for you. The only new feature is that you need to confirm each post, so get ready for a lot of clicking. =]

One you're all good and setup, it's just a matter of constantly clicking CANCEL, retrieve your mail items, and POST again. Once every hour, every 30 minutes or every 10 minutes depending on competition.

Glyph selling is a VERY time consuming process and you'll have little time for anything else. You'll always be watching to see if players are undercutting you for example. However, it has a high rate of return.

4.0.1 Glyphs and Busy Making Gold

Posted by Daeity On Thursday, October 14, 2010

So I spent the last couple days selling Glyphs and re-selling [Vanishing Powder].

Trade Chat was filled with players asking, "where do i buy vanishing powder????" so I simply purchased stacks from the Scribe Vendor, directed Trade Chat users to the AH, and re-sold to them for 30G per stack. =]

I probably made about 3k gold just reselling cheap [Vanishing Powder] to people who didn't read the patch notes. From my Glyph selling, I gold capped one of my characters and the other is 50% capped. I had a lot of competition too unfortunately, but all-in-all it was a good day. Mat and ink prices sky-rocketed, so it was a good thing that I had made all of the glyphs (40 of each) during the weeks before. (Since ink requirements for Glyphs went from 1 ink to 3.)

All of the new 4.0.1 Glyphs can be learned from the trainer, 1 x Northrend Research (Living Bomb), and 1 x Book of Glyph Mastery (Colossus Smash). Don't waste any more than that, you won't learn anything new.

So here's an interesting gold tip:

[Glyph of Vanish] is currently bugged and no one is able to craft it. It will be hot-fixed eventually, so most players won't know when it will be available. But if you check the Trainer after each server restart, you'll be able to get and sell the Glyph before anyone else. For atleast the first few hours, you'll be able to sell it for 100-200G each.

Other broken Glyphs (not available YET) include [Glyph of Mage Armor], [Glyph of Armors], and [Glyph of the Long Word].

Mage Armor still might be available from your old crafted glyphs, but there's no way to make new ones - so they're very pricey at the moment and you should buy out all competition.

Don't advertise sales of these Glyphs in Trade Chat either, otherwise other Scribes will clue in.

Serious WoW Gold-Making Strategies - Part 3

Posted by Daeity On Thursday, September 23, 2010

This is actually more of an addendum to "Part 2".

In Part 2, I had discussed how there are many items, pets, and recipes that are Faction Exclusive (can only be obtained by one faction), and how they can sell very well on the other side. I forgot to list one interesting item that you can transfer through the Neutral AH from the Horde side to Alliance that's highly valuable.

To Horde players, it's trash. But to the Alliance, it's pure gold. =]

I'm referring to the [Sleeveless T-Shirt]

What most players don't know is that the [Sleeveless T-Shirt] only drops from Alliance bodies in Alterac Valley, so it's impossible for Alliance players to obtain this item unless it's through the Neutral Auction House.

They're cool looking outfits and their description is priceless. You can actually sell them for 50-100G on the Alliance auction house. Or just throw them up onto the Neutral AH for a reduced price. =]


Right now, the gold markets seem to be favoring Glyphs and Recipes/Pets (cross-faction trading works very well), but disenchants aren't selling for very much anymore. But then again, it's server dependent.

Here are some other interesting items that can be sold Cross-Faction.

1. The [Black Tabby] pet can only be obtained by the Horde, killing the Dalaran Spellscribe in the Alliance-friendly village Ambermill. The silver elite spawns quite a bit at 3 different locations (Humanoid Tracking is recommended so that you can login/logout and just quickly scan the area for the Spellscribe) throughout the day, but the Pet drop rate is around 20%. It'll easily sell for 700-1000G on the Alliance AH.

What's nice about the other NPCs in Ambermill is that they drop other rate items that can only be obtained by Horde. Such as "Channeler's Staff", "Dalaran Wizard's Robe", and "Jewel-Encrusted Sash". Alliance don't really know how rare they are (and that the Robe is required to look like a Dalaran Wizard) so your best bet is to advertise in Alliance trade chat. I sell the Robes for 75G each, and the Sash/Staff for 20-30G a piece. Their drop rates are very high, which is nice.

2. [Ripped Ogre Loincloth]

This item can only be obtained by Horde when looting the Gordunni Dirt Mounds (Gordunni Cobalt quest in Feralas). They look awesome, very rare on Alliance side, and I sell for 75G each.

-----------

Old World items are also selling very well right now, but they won't be as soon as Cataclysm hits. On my server for example, here's how much they sell for:

Adamantite - 60G/stack
Fel Iron Bars - 70G/stack
Goldthorn - 80G/stack
Purple Lotus - 80G/stack
Gromsblood - 80G/stack
Rugged Leather - 50G/stack
Wool Cloth - 30G/stack

Botters are still foolishly collecting WOTLK ores (ie, Saronite) and have no idea how well Fel Iron and other Old World items are selling. I report bots all of the time in WOTLK zones, but never see any in Outlands surprisingly.

Anyhow, in preparation I had stockpiled all of these items during the WOTLK launch (and prior to) when everyone was running new DKs. I filled up several Guild Bank Tabs with these items, and just waited for 4-6 months to sell them. I had paid about 5-10G per stack for most of these items and resold them at significantly higher prices.

With Cataclysm approaching, though, I would recommend that you sell all Old World items that you have right now and then buy them out again when everyone is leveling their fresh toons (only to resell them again 4 months down the road.) If you have the guild/bank space that is. =]

Speaking of Old World items, don't worry too much about farming the [Swift Zulian Tiger] either if you just want the cool looking mount. Everyone is saying "The Swift Zulian Tiger is gone forever! Farm them now while you still can!". However, according to my trusted sources it will actually be back in Cataclysm but much easier to obtain (the "Insane" title will also be available in Cataclysm but easier to get as well) with the Zul'Gurub zone rebuild and new quests. (The mount will still be a drop, reward, or an exalted reputation purchase - it's not exactly clear yet.) The achievement won't be the same though, only those who got the "original" will have that special mount and achievement, but there will be a new mount with the same look and texture.

Serious WoW Gold-Making Strategies - Part 2

Posted by Daeity On Friday, August 6, 2010

Outside of Tailoring & Enchanting (previous post), Inscription is currently the best profession for making gold. However, it can be rather time consuming because there are so many people competing on the Auction House, and you have to monitor your sales every 30 minutes to ensure that no one is undercutting you.

If you're okay with that, investing 2-10G of mats and getting a return of 20-100G per Inscription is a very lucrative method. Especially with Cataclysm coming out soon, you can make a killing on low-to-mid level inscriptions.

The other method which I use quite often is Cross Faction AH Trading (2 accounts are required for this, so get a friend to help you out and you can split the profits.)

There are plenty of guides to trading Gems/Ores/Epic Recipes from one PVP faction to another, however all of the servers I am on have identical pricing on each others' Auction Houses. So, those Gold Making tricks have never worked for me.

However, what DOES work (and very well) are selling faction-exclusive recipes and pets.

1. [Recipe: Kaldorei Spider Kabob]

Create a new Night Elf toon (no leveling required), run to Dolanaar, and mail yourself 7 Small Spider Legs and 2 silver. Go to the Cooking trainer there, learn first recipe, then a quest appears. Accept it, turn in the Spider Legs for the recipe. This toon can then be deleted (and a new one created) once you mail the recipe to your primary character.

Transfer it through the Neutral AH to the Horde side and put on the Horde Auction House for 300-500G. This recipe also sells on the Alliance AH for 100-200G.

Most NE toons just learn this recipe when they first start out and forget all about it. It's hardly ever on the AH, and folks need the extremely rare recipe for their achievements.. they usually have gold to burn too. I buy out Spider Legs on both Auction Houses so that I can quickly mail the cooking quest requirements to each toon I create too.

2. [Recipe: Roasted Moongraze Tenderloin]

Same approach as above.
Create a new Draenei toon, level to 6, get "The Great Moongraze Hunt" quest from the hunter trainer at Azure Watch. Transfer through Neutral AH, sell on Horde AH for 300-500G. You might be able to get away with 1000G each, since it's even more rare than the Night Elf recipe.

3. Unlimited Supply Faction-Specific Cooking Recipes

Buy for pennies, sell on the opposite faction AH for 15-30G each. I typically sell 3-5 of EACH on a daily basis.

I usually just focus on the recipes sold by Kendor, because I can buy 12 or 24 at a time, mail them to my counterpart in Booty Bay to transfer through the Neutral AH. However, there are a ton of other "rare" faction-exclusive items below that you can also sell on the Neutral AH (have to sell much cheaper) or on the opposite faction side.

PURCHASE ON ALLIANCE SIDE:
[Recipe: Beer Basted Boar Ribs] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Blood Sausage] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Murloc Fin Soup] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Redridge Goulash] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Westfall Stew] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Seasoned Wolf Kabob] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Crocolisk Gumbo] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Crocolisk Steak] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Gooey Spider Cake] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Goretusk Liver Pie] - Sold by Kendor Kabonka
[Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy] - Sold by Laird
[Recipe: Loch Frenzy Delight] - Sold by Khara Deepwater
[Recipe: Clam Chowder] - Sold by Kriggon Talsone & Heldan Galesong
[Schematic: Blue Firework] - Sold by Gearcutter Cogspinner & Darian Singh (Sells for 25-40G each on Horde AH)
[Pattern: Black Whelp Cloak] - Sold by Clyde Ranthal
[Pattern: Black Whelp Tunic] - Sold by Amy Davenport
[Pattern: Herbalist's Gloves] - Sold by Harlown Darkweave
[Pattern: Raptor Hide Belt] - Sold by Androd Fadran
[Pattern: Red Whelp Gloves] - Sold by Wenna Silkbeard
[Pattern: Bright Yellow Shirt] - Sold by Danielle Zipstitch

PURCHASE ON HORDE SIDE:
[Recipe: Bat Bites] - Sold by Master Chef Mouldier
[Recipe: Crispy Bat Wing] - Sold by Abigail Shiel
[Recipe: Crispy Lizard Tail] - Sold by Tari'qa
[Recipe: Heavy Crocolisk Stew] - Sold by Ogg'marr
[Recipe: Lynx Steak] - Sold by Landraelanis
[Recipe: Roasted Kodo Meat] - Sold by Wunna Darkmane
[Recipe: Scorpid Surprise] - Sold by Grimtak
[Formula: Enchant Chest - Lesser Mana] - Sold by Kithas (Sells for 40G each on Alliance AH)
[Schematic: Red Firework] - Sold by Sovik (Sells for 25-40G each on Alliance AH)
[Pattern: Raptor Hide Harness] - Sold by Tunkk

4. Same approach as #3 but for Faction Exclusive Pets.

Snakes in Orgimmar (e.g. [Black Kingsnake]), for example, sell for 40-50G each on the Alliance side, and you can purchase an unlimited number of these. I sell 2-3 of each daily.

HORDE
[Crimson Snake] – Xan'tish, Orgrimmar
[Brown Snake] – Xan'tish, Orgrimmar
[Black Kingsnake] – Xan'tish, Orgrimmar
[Brown Prairie Dog] – Halpa, Thunderbluff
[Cockroach] – Jeremiah Payson, Undercity
[Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling] – Jilanne, Fairbreeze Village
[Red Dragonhawk Hatchling] – Jilanne, Fairbreeze Village
[Silver Dragonhawk Hatchling] – Jilanne, Fairbreeze Village
[Black Tabby] - Drops only from Alliance-friendly NPCs.

ALLIANCE
[Bombay] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[Cornish Rex] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[Orange Tabby] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[Silver Tabby] – Donni Anthania, Elwynn Forest
[White Kitten] – Lil Timmy, Stormwind
[Snowshoe Rabbit] – Yarlyn Amberstill
[Great Horned Owl] – Shylenai, Darnassus
[Hawk Owl] – Shylenai, Darnassus
[Blue Moth] – Sixx, The Exodar
[White Moth] – Sixx, The Exodar
[Yellow Moth] – Sixx, The Exodar

There are also Parrots in Booty Bay, some people are too lazy to travel there to buy them or don't even know where they are sold. And the Argent Tournament pets sell for 1000-2000G each, but they require work and time to collect the required points to purchase.

5. [Recipe: Savory Deviate Delight]

My other favorite. I buy these on the Horde AH for 10-100G each, then sell on the Alliance AH for 900G. I can sell 1 or 2 daily easy.

6. Faction-exclusive even-more-rare recipes/plans. Time consuming, but high reward.

Create a new Deathknight character, run through the intro quests, and then level up their professions (options below) as quickly and cheaply as they can. Do the quest, get the reward (non-BOP recipe), and sell on the opposing faction's AH for big money. They will take a longer time to sell (because no one is ever looking for them), but you can sell for 2000-5000G because of their rareness. (Trade Chat announcements help.)

ALLIANCE SIDE:
[Plans: Golden Scale Gauntlets] - "The Origins of Smithing" (Req: Level 40, 205 BS)
[Plans: Heavy Copper Longsword] - "Supplying the Front" (Req: Level 12, 35 BS)
[Plans: Ironforge Breastplate] - "Gearing Redridge" (Req: Level 16, 100 BS)
[Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak] - "Costly Menace" (Req: Level 34, 150 Cooking)
[Pattern: Moonglow Vest] - "Moonglow Vest" (Req: Level 18, 90 Leatherworking)
HORDE SIDE:
[Recipe: Discolored Healing Potion] - "Wild Hearts" (Req: Level 11)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Boots] - "Trampled Under Foot" (Req: Level 36, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Breastplate] - "Barbaric Battlements" (Req: Level 32, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Gloves] - "Joys of Omosh" (Req: Level 36, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Helm] - "Horns of Frenzy" (Req: Level 36, BS 140)
[Plans: Barbaric Iron Shoulders] - "On Iron Pauldrons" (Req: Level 32, BS 140)
[Pattern: Kodo Hide Bag] - "Kodo Hide Bag" (Req: Level 10, LW 10)

If you have no need for the recipes/plans, you could just use existing characters if they are high enough level.

As you can see, there are a ton of ways to do this. Use Auctioneer to determine which recipes are least available on the AH to find the most valuable and rare if you want. I just do a fraction of the amount listed above, but I can still pull in 3000G per day easily (1-2 hours work max, no boring grinding.)

I have no idea why gold farmers spend all of their time grinding when 10x the amount of gold can be made using the strategies I have posted. =]

The "Gnomish Cloaking Device" completely breaks you from combat when used - it's the engineer's Vanish or Shadowmeld and can be used to survive wipes, drop aggro, and leave combat.

The Gnomish Cloaking Device used to NOT break combat/lose aggro (it was previously useless) - but it was changed in an undocumented patch so not a lot of people know about it, which is why the device has been forgotten.

It requires 200 Engineering to use and the Limited Supply item is sold by Zan Shivsproket in the basement of Ravenholdt Manor. (Recipe sells for 15-25G on the AH by the way.)

What few people know, though, is that it allows for a new Rogue strategy: Keeping your normal stunlock rotation even if the target uses a PVP Trinket in the opening CS/KS moves!

You see, once the Cloaking Device breaks you from combat you are invisible for 10 seconds. During this time, you can refresh the duration another 18 seconds by popping an Invisibility pot (which can't be used while you are IN comat) OR simply go back into Stealth, re-equip gear, and then re-open with Cheap Shot. =]

This works great in PVP and I have tested many times with great success (and to their surprise). It's like having 2 Vanish skills available (or 3 with Preparation.)
  • Druids can also activate the Cloaking Device, jump back into Prowl mode (immediately or within 10 seconds before the Invisibility wears off) and re-open with their standard attack rotation.
  • Mages: Extra long Invisibility. 20s + 10s (w/ Glyph) + 10s Engineering trink + 15-18 second Invisibility Potion
Disadvantages:
  • 1 hour cooldown, can't be used in arenas.
  • You have to lose a Trinket slot for this.
  • Warlocks can see invisible players if they have the associated buff.
  • DOTs break invisibility (use Cloak of Shadows before popping.)
Other than that, this can be used in World PVP/BGs or in serious Duels (ie, for Gold). It catches players off-guard and typically causes a lot of confusion (especially when you "Vanish" 3 times).

Anyhow, it's a balancing act of big disadvantages and big advantages.. I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Serious WoW Gold-Making Strategies - Part 1

Posted by Daeity On Thursday, August 5, 2010

I never really like the standard Auctioneer, grinding, and Neutral-AH Sniping approaches, they were time consuming, high-risk, and not always guaranteed.

So I'm moving some of my old gold strategy posts from MMOWNED/E*PVPERS here. They're low-risk and high return with little work required. Once I get back into WoW (when Cata is out), I'll have plenty more strategies to add on the blog too.

This first one was originally posted in September 2007, but it's still relevant today and can be highly lucrative.

Note: I was the first to post something like this, well, actually anywhere at the time.. but the strategy has since been reposted hundreds of times and has even been put in some paid Guide Books for professional gold farmers. (In many cases word-for-word. In fact, a lot of my strategies on MMOWNED were reposted word-for-word and taken credit by someone else.) =]

What To Expect

Basically - you're going to be crafting items, disenchanting them, and selling in mass quantities.

I typically spend 2 hours max per day doing this, and collect 3000-4000G in return (each day.) The more you do it, the faster your technique. (I have 10 toons on one server, and they all have maxed professions so I can do a wide variety of crafting for this approach. But you really only need 1 toon to do this.)

What You Need

The Enchanting profession is a must, but check the spreadsheet to see if any of your crafting professions are applicable.

First, download one of these spreadsheets:

Daeity's Disenchanting Guide (Open Office Format - my personal favorite)


Next, all you need to do here is check AH/Vendor prices and plug them into the spreadsheet at the top. The bottom matrix will calculate everything else and tell you what the return on investment is.

The spreadsheet will be different for each realm, since we all have our own independent economies. The attached documents show the prices that were on my PVP realm for example.


Note:
  • Don't change anything in the "BOLTS" column. This is just used as a basic calculator to convert the cost of ONE BOLT from their associated cloth.
  • Don't let all of the materials listed intimidate you. You can start out by just focusing on popular DE's like Infinite Dust, Illusion Dust, Vision Dust, Eternal Essences, Cosmic Essences, etc.
  • All of the currency in this spreadsheet is in SILVER. There is only one column "Return (GOLD OUT)" that shows the value in GOLD.
  • For example, 4 = "4 silver", 40 = 40 "silver", 400 = "4 gold", 6000 = "60 gold", 12550 = "125 gold 50 silver".
  • Everything is in individual quantities, there aren't any stacks or anything like that.
Finally, look under the column "Return (GOLD OUT)" and look for any entries that are at 90G or higher. (You could go lower if you wanted, but I like the really profitable stuff.)

What this means is that for every 100 items you DE, you will receive 90G profit. (Or roughly 90 silver per disenchant.) Frostsaver Tunic, for example, will net you 8.16G for every single disenchant you do. (100 DE's - 816G profit!)

And that's pretty much it. If you got it figured out, start using it right away. Keep reading if you want more details how it works though.

Here's an example of what this spreadsheet will calculate for you:

[Volcanic Shoulders]

Materials:
10 Rugged Leather (45s each on AH)
1 Essence of Fire (1.0G each on AH)
1 Essence of Earth (1.5G each on AH)
2 Rune Thread (40s each from exalted vendor)

Cost to Craft: 780G to make 100 x [Volcanic Shoulders]

Disenchanting Results:
222 x Illusion Dust (Sells for 3G each on AH)
64 x Greater Eternal Essence (Sells for 12G each on AH)
4 x Large Brilliant Shard (Sells for 4G each on AH)

Total value of disenchants: 1450G

Total value of D/E - cost to craft = profit of 670G for every 100 you disenchant

To summarize, if you were to buy 50 stacks of Rugged Leather (at an average of 9G per stack), craft into Volcanic Shoulders and disenchant, you stand to receive almost 700G in profit every 15-30 minutes.

Note: In regards to the [Volcanic Shoulders] recipe, this pattern is dropped by Firebrand Legionnaires in LBRS. Took me about 30 runs to get it. They're located in LBRS, at the base of the ramp leading up to Smolderweb. There are only 2 Legionnaires there, so this will take a lot of runs/resets - but definitely worth it if you crunch your numbers using the above Disenchant Results. You could also sell the recipe on the AH for 300-500G - but it won't be bought by anyone unless they know of this method (or just trying to complete achievements.)

Other Important Notes:
  • Keep in mind that AH prices are typically lower in the morning than later in the day. I buyout 20-60 stacks of Rugged Leather for 5-9G in the AM, but the prices jump to 20G per stack in the afternoon. Watch the trends.
  • When filling out the AH prices in the above section, pick the lowest AH "average" prices you can find. Arcane Dust, for example, people will dump for 90-99 silver, but you know that others will still buy it for 1G 10S. In that case, just put down 1G on the spreadsheet (just enough to sell, but not too low).
  • You could avoid selling the DE's on the AH.. just advertise in Trade Chat. (e.g. "Selling starter kits for levelling Enchanting Skills to 300".)
  • What's nice about these spreadsheet guide is that you can use this to level your Professions, all the while making a profit and selling back the DE's. Only focus on the profitable returns.
  • I control the AH market to maximize profits. Buyout all existing DE inventories, put up my own prices on multiple toons (to make it look like the prices are reasonable), and I completely corner the market. I drive down the prices of materials and drive up the prices of disenchants.