The Spoils of War

There's tons of information coming out of beta about the new trade skills.  Some if is rather exciting...epic offhands and staves for inscription.  But instead of talking about that, I am going to talk about the spoils of war.   Yes, the spoils.  What do you do with all your money?  I was on my paladin last night and we killed DW again (we are really casual, it was only on normal) and sure enough the Blazing Drake dropped.  I bribed the winner with 150k and took it for myself--ironically I had just sold my last darkmoon deck.

In my very first entry, I show off the Ashes of Al'ar.  I spent 200k for that mount to a guild mate.  In both cases neither really cared about the vanity and essentially, they no longer had to worry about farming stuff anymore to pay for enchants, gems, and the like.  I know Ashes in in theory soloable, but I was really focused on my shaman at the time and thus didn't think I would be able to do it for a very long time.  I have no regrets.

During Wrath I bought the 3 drake Sarth mount on 25 man for 25,000 gold.  I was really afraid it would leave the game, and even though it didn't, it was a relief not to worry about it.
Let's see what else have I bought in the way of mounts.  I bought the

One of the things I started doing was buying card game mounts.  I noticed their price is so high in theory the biggest limitation is the amount of gold people have.  So a mount that went for 40k in wrath is going for 100k now.  Thus they inflate as the gold does.  In some ways they inflate better than gold.  That's why the screenshot shows me peaking at 2.4 million gold in my first entry even though I've much less capital on hand.

I tend to buy card game mounts whenever possible because they are so rare, you might wait literally years before you see another one show up.  I bought a real epic spectral tiger for 300k.  That and the phoenix were my two primary goals.  After that, I have a Blazing Hippogryph, Amani Dragonhawk, Big Battle Bear, and Savage Raptor.

The mount from the Shadowmourne box was bought for 85k.  I got the other two items, the music box and muradin's favor for a mere 15k each.  The reins poseidus was only 40k, about half their usual price.

200 Ashes
150 Blazing Drake
070 Spectral Tiger
300 Swift Spectral Tiger
115 Shadowmourne items
040 Reins of Posedius
080 Blazing Hippogrpyh
080 Amani Dragonhawk
060 Big Battle Bear
090 Savage Raptors
Total=1,215k

If we tally them all up, I've spent quite a bit of gold on card game mounts--over a million gold.  In fact, that's about 40 percent of my total worth.  Most of these mounts are kept as bindable, but I don't see myself selling them really.   In many ways the gold was means to an end and I continue to grind it out for future mounts.   The spoils are certainly one of the most fun things about the game.

This entry could be the companion to the last entry.  I haven't been doing much besides emptying the mailbox again.  If you go by the numbers, I pulled in about 100k and spent only 3k.  I basically didn't do anything but cycle my auctions.  I find it important to write about this because much of our focus is simply about doing the same things over and over again.  It is not very interesting and exciting I'll admit, but by keeping with it with a dogged persistence, the money rolls in.

But let's steer away from that and look to the future.  I am sure, you dear ready have read about the MOP beta information.  Today, I am going to take a look at the glyphs.  To cut to the point, they are really darn good.  Many of the old talents were rolled right into glyphs.  Also, there's a host of new ones--druid glyphs look really darn awesome to be honest--tons of vanity ones.

Here's a copy and paste straight from MMO champion.  It is not a complete list by any means and beta is schedule to change as always.

Death Knight

• Glyph of Anti-Magic Shell - Causes your Anti-Magic Shell to absorb all incoming magical damage, up to the absorption limit.
• Glyph of Dancing Rune Weapon - Increases your threat generation by 100% while your Dancing Rune Weapon is active, but reduces the parry chance gained by 5%.
• Glyph of Dark Simulacrum - Reduces the cooldown of Dark Simulacrum by (30000/-1000) and increases its duration by 4 sec.
• Glyph of Death and Decay - Your Death and Decay also reduces the movement speed of enemies within its radius by 50%.
• Glyph of Death Coil - Your Death Coil spell is now usable on all allies. When cast on a non-undead ally, Death Coil shrouds them with a protective barrier that absorbs up to ((0+0.495*AP)*1) damage.
• Glyph of Death Grip - Increases the cooldown of Death Grip by 10 sec but stuns targets for 1 sec.
• Glyph of Enduring Infection - Your diseases are undispellable, but their damage dealt is reduced by 30%.
• Glyph of Icy Touch - Your Icy Touch dispels one helpful Magic effect from the target.
• Glyph of Mind Freeze - Increases the interrupt duration of your Mind Freeze ability by 1 sec, but also raises its cost by 20 Runic Power.

  Druid 

• Glyph of Amberskin Protection - Reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by 25% while Barkskin is active.
• Glyph of Cat Form - Increases healing done to you by 20% while in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Claw - Your Claw and Mangle (Cat) attacks reduce the movement speed of the target by 50% for 12 sec.
• Glyph of Cyclone - Increases the range of your Cyclone spell by 4 yards.
• Glyph of Fae Silence - Faerie Fire used in Bear Form also silences the target for 3 sec, but triggers a 15 sec cooldown.
• Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration - While Frenzied Regeneration is active healing effects on you are 40% more powerful, but causes your Frenzied Regeneration to cost 60 Rage initially and no longer convert rage into health.
• Glyph of Grace - Feline Grace reduces falling damage even while not in Cat Form.
• Glyph of Healing Touch - When you cast Healing Touch, the cooldown on your Swiftmend is reduced by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Lifebloom - While not in Tree of Life Form, casting Lifebloom on a new target grants that target as many applications as the old target had.
• Glyph of Mark of the Wild - Mana cost of your Mark of the Wild reduced by 90%.
• Glyph of Master Shapeshifter - Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifts by 90%.
• Glyph of Might of Ursoc - Increases the health gain from Might of Ursoc by 20%, but increases the cooldown by 2.0 min.
• Glyph of Nature's Grasp - Reduces the cooldown of Nature's Grasp by (30000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Prowl - Reduces the movement penalty of Prowl by 100%.
• Glyph of Regrowth - Increases the critical strike chance of your Regrowth by 40%, but removes the periodic component of the spell.
• Glyph of Shred - While Berserk or Tiger's Fury is active, Shred and Ravage have no positional requirement.
• Glyph of Skull Bash - Increases the duration of your Skull Bash interrupt by 4 sec, but increases the cooldown by 10 sec.
• Glyph of Stampede - You can now cast Stampeding Roar without being in Bear Form or Cat Form.
• Glyph of Stampeding Roar - Increases the radius of Stampeding Roar by 30 yards.
• Glyph of Stars - Your Moonkin Form ability is replaced with Astral Form, conferring all the same benefits, but now appearing as an astrally enhanced version of your normal humanoid form.
• Glyph of Survival Instincts - Reduces the cooldown of Survival Instincts by (60000/-1000) sec, but reduces its duration by 50%.
• Glyph of the Chameleon - Each time you shapeshift into Cat Form or Bear Form, your shapeshifted form will have a random hair color.
• Glyph of the Orca - Your Aquatic Form now appears as an Orca.
• Glyph of the Predator - Your Track Humanoids ability now also tracks beasts.
• Glyph of the Stag - Your Travel Form now appears as a Stag and can be used as a mount by party members.

Hunter 

• Glyph of Aimed Shot - If used while your Camouflage is active, your Aimed Shot ability also reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.
• Glyph of Animal Bond - While your pet is active, all healing done to you and your pet is increased by 10%.
• Glyph of Aspect of the Cheetah - Your Aspect of the Cheetah no longer causes you to be dazed when struck. Instead, the effect is cancelled and all your Aspects are placed on a 4 sec cooldown.
• Glyph of Camouflage - Your Camouflage ability now provides stealth even while moving, but your movement speed while Camouflage is active is reduced by 50%.
• Glyph of Chimera Shot - Increases the healing you receive from Chimera Shot by an additional 5% of your maximum health.
• Glyph of Disengage - Increases the distance you travel when you Disengage.
• Glyph of Endless Wrath - While Bestial Wrath is active, your pet cannot be killed, but can still be damaged.
• Glyph of Explosive Trap - Your Explosive Trap also knocks enemies back from the trap when it explodes.
• Glyph of Icy Solace - Your Freezing Trap also removes all damage over time effects from the target.
• Glyph of Marked for Death - Your Arcane Shot, Chimera Shot, Kill Command, and Explosive Shot abilities automatically apply Hunter's Mark.
• Glyph of Mend Pet - Gives your Mend Pet spell a chance of cleansing 1 Curse, Disease, Magic or Poison effect from your pet each tick.
• Glyph of Steady Shot - Your Steady Shot now reduces the target's movement speed by 50% for 6 sec if used on a target within 8 yards.
• Glyph of Tame Beast - Reduces the time required to complete Tame Beast by (4000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Tranquilizing Shot - Your Tranquilizing Shot no longer costs Focus, but has a 10 sec cooldown.

  Mage 

• Glyph of Arcane Explosion - Increases the radius of your Arcane Explosion by 5 yards.
• Glyph of Arcane Power - Increases the duration and cooldown of Arcane Power by 100%.
• Glyph of Armors - Reduces the cast time of your Frost Armor, Mage Armor, and Molten Armor spells by (1500/-1000) sec, and increases the defensive effect of each Armor by an additional 10%.
• Glyph of Combustion - Increases the duration of the damage over time effect and the cooldown of Combustion by 100%.
• Glyph of Cone of Cold - Increases the damage done by Cone of Cold by 200%.
• Glyph of Counterspell - Your Counterspell can now be cast while casting or channeling other spells, but its cooldown is increased by 4 sec.
• Glyph of Crittermorph - When cast on critters, your Polymorph spells now last 24 hrs and can be cast on multiple targets.
• Glyph of Deep Freeze - Your Deep Freeze spell no longer has a global cooldown.
• Glyph of Evocation - Your Evocation ability also causes you to regain 60% of your health over its duration. With the Invocation talent, this healing is reduced to 30% of your health. With the Rune of Power talent, you gain 1% of your health per second while standing in your Rune of Power.
• Glyph of Fingers of Frost - Your Fingers of Frost can build up to 3 charges.
• Glyph of Fire Blast - Your Fire Blast and Inferno Blast spells can now also spread Living Bomb.
• Glyph of Frost Nova - Reduces the cooldown of Frost Nova by (5000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Frostfire Bolt - Reduces the cast time of Frostfire Bolt by (500/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Ice Block - When Ice Block terminates, it triggers an instant free Frost Nova and makes you immune to all spells for .
• Glyph of Ice Lance - Your Ice Lance now hits 1 additional target for 50% damage.
• Glyph of Icy Veins - Reduces the cooldown and duration of Icy Veins by 50%.
• Glyph of Loose Mana - Your Mana Gem now restores mana over 6 sec, rather than instantly.
• Glyph of Mana Gem - Your Conjure Mana Gem spell now creates a Brilliant Mana Gem, which holds up to 10 charges.
• Glyph of Remove Curse - Increases the damage you deal by 10% for 10 sec after you successfully remove a curse.
• Glyph of Spellsteal - Spellsteal now also heals you for 10% of your maximum health when it successfully steals a spell.

Monk (Forums)

• Glyph of Enduring Healing Sphere - When attacked, the cast time of your Healing Sphere is reduced by 50%. Stacks up to 2 times.
• Glyph of Expel Harm - Your Expel Harm can now be cast on any friendly target.
• Glyph of Fists of Fury - While channeling Fists of Fury, your chance to dodge melee and ranged attacks is increased by 25%.
• Glyph of Meditation - You can now channel Meditation while moving.
• Glyph of Rapid Healing Sphere - Increases the duration of your Healing Sphere's by 30 sec.

Paladin 

• Glyph of Avenging Wrath - You are healed for 0% of your maximum health every 4 sec for 20 sec.
• Glyph of Beacon of Light - Removes the global cooldown on Beacon of Light.
• Glyph of Bladed Judgment (NYI) - Your Judgment spell depicts an axe or sword instead of a hammer, if you have an axe or sword equipped.
• Glyph of Blessed Life - While Seal of Insight is active, you have a 50% chance to gain a charge of Holy Power whenever you take direct damage or are affected by a Stun, Fear or Immobilize effect. This effect cannot occur more than once every 20 sec.
• Glyph of Blinding Light - Your Blinding Light now knocks down targets for 3 sec instead of Blinding them.
• Glyph of Cleansing - Your Cleanse will remove one movement impairing effect if cast on yourself.
• Glyph of Consecration - You can now target Consecration anywhere within 25 yards.
• Glyph of Denounce - Increases your Holy damage by 20% for 6 sec.
• Glyph of Divine Plea - Divine Plea now has a 5 sec cast time, but you receive 12% of your total mana instantly and your healing is not reduced.
• Glyph of Divine Storm - Instantly heals the caster for 1% of their total health.
• Glyph of Divinity - Increases the cooldown of your Lay on Hands by 0 min but causes it to give you 10% of your maximum mana.
• Glyph of Double Jeopardy - Judging a target increases the damage of your next Judgment by 20%, but only if used on a second target.
• Glyph of Fire From the Heavens - Your Judgment and Hammer of Wrath criticals call down fire from the sky.
• Glyph of Flash of Light - When you Flash of Light a target, it increases your next heal done to that target within 4 sec by 30%.
• Glyph of Focused Wrath - Holy Wrath only affects one target.
• Glyph of Frugal Blessings - Reduces the mana cost of Blessing of Kings and Blessing of Might by 50%.
• Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous - The physical damage reduction caused by Hammer of the Righteous now lasts 50% longer.
• Glyph of Hammer of Wrath - You take 10% less damage for 10 sec after using Hammer of Wrath.
• Glyph of Holy Shock - Decreases the healing of Holy Shock by 50% but increases its damage by 100%.
• Glyph of Illumination - Your Holy Shock criticals grant 1% mana return, but Meditation returns 10% less mana.
• Glyph of Immediate Truth - Increases the instant damage done by Seal of Truth by 20%, but decreases the damage done by Censure by 50%.
• Glyph of Inquisition - Reduces the damage bonus of Inquisition by 10% but increases its duration by 100%.
• Glyph of Protector of the Innocent - Word of Glory also heals you for 20% of the amount.
• Glyph of Righteous Retreat (NYI) - During Divine Shield, you can invoke your Hearthstone 50% faster.
• Glyph of the Battle Healer (NYI) - Using melee attacks while using Seal of Insight heals a nearby injured friendly target, excluding the Paladin, within X yards for X percent of damage dealt.
• Glyph of the Falling Avenger (NYI) - You slow fall during Avenging Wrath.
• Glyph of Word of Glory - Increases your damage by 10% for 6 sec.

Priest (Forums)

• Glyph of Circle of Healing - Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target, but its mana cost is increased by 35%.
• Glyph of Dispel Magic - Your Dispel Magic spell also damages your target for 0 Holy damage when you successfully dispel a magical effect.
• Glyph of Enfeeblement - When you critically hit with your Mind Blast, you cause the target to be unable to move for 4 sec.
• Glyph of Flash of Light (???) - 40 yd range, Instant, Requires Spirit of Redemption, Can't be cast in Shadowform
• Glyph of Fortitude - Reduces the mana cost of your Power Word: Fortitude spell by 90%.
• Glyph of Holy Fire - Your Holy Fire spell is now instant.
• Glyph of Inner Sanctum - Spell damage taken is reduced by 6% while within Inner Fire, and the movement speed bonus of your Inner Will is increased by 6%.
• Glyph of Leap of Faith - Your Leap of Faith spell now also clears all movement impairing effects from your target.
• Glyph of Lightwell - Increases the total amount of charges of your Lightwell by 2.
• Glyph of Penance - Reduces the mana cost of Penance by 20%, but increases the cooldown by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Renew - Your Renew heals for 33% more each time it heals, but its duration is reduced by (3000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Spirit of Redemption - Increases the duration of Spirit of Redemption by 10 sec.

  Rogue 

• Glyph of Blade Flurry - Your attacks have a 30% higher chance of applying Non-Lethal poisons while Blade Flurry is active.
• Glyph of Debilitation - Your Eviscerate and Envenom abilities also reduce the target's movement speed by 50% for 6 sec.
• Glyph of Expose Armor - Your Expose Armor ability causes three applications of Weakened Armor.
• Glyph of Feint - Increases the duration of Feint by 2 sec.
• Glyph of Killing Spree - Your Killing Spree returns you to your starting location when the effect ends.
• Glyph of Shadow Walk - Your Shadow Walk ability also increases your stealth detection while active.

  Shaman 

• Glyph of Capacitor Totem - Reduces the charging time of your Capacitor Totem by (2000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Chaining (NYI) - Doubles the jump distance of your Chain Heal spell, but reduces its healing done by 15%.
• Glyph of Cleansing Waters - When you dispel a harmful Magic or Curse effect from an ally, you also heal the target for 4% of your maximum health.
• Glyph of Earth Shield - Your Earth Shield charges are no longer depleted when taking damage, but Earth Shield's duration is reduced to 45 sec.
• Glyph of Feral Spirit - Increases the healing done by your Feral Spirits' Spirit Hunt by 40%.
• Glyph of Fire Elemental Totem - Reduces the cooldown and duration of your Fire Elemental Totem by 40%.
• Glyph of Flame Shock - Increases the duration of your Flame Shock by 25%, but reduces the initial damage dealt by 25%.
• Glyph of Ghost Wolf - While in Ghost Wolf form, you are less hindered by effects that would reduce movement speed.
• Glyph of Healing Storm - Each application of Maelstrom Weapon also increases your healing done by 20%.
• Glyph of Healing Stream Totem - When your Healing Stream Totem heals an ally, it also reduces their Fire, Frost, and Nature damage taken by 10% for 6 sec.
• Glyph of Lava Burst - Your Lava Burst spell will always be a critical strike regardless of the presence of Flame Shock on the target, but it deals 5% less damage.
• Glyph of Lava Lash - Your Lava Lash ability no longer spreads Flame Shock to nearby targets.
• Glyph of Riptide - Your Riptide no longer has a cooldown, but also no longer instantly heals the targeted ally.
• Glyph of Spiritwalker's Grace - Increases the duration of your Spiritwalker's Grace by 5 sec.
• Glyph of Telluric Currents - Reduces the damage dealt by your Lightning Bolt spell by 30%, but causes it to restore mana equal to 50% of damage dealt.
• Glyph of Totemic Vigor - Increases the health of your totems by 10% of your maximum health.
• Glyph of Unleashed Lightning - Your Lightning Bolt takes 5% longer to cast, but may be cast while moving.
• Glyph of Water Shield - Increases the passive mana generation of your Water Shield by 10%, but Water Shield no longer activates when you receive damage.
• Glyph of Wind Shear - Increases the school lockout duration of Wind Shear by 1 sec, but also increases the cooldown by 3 sec.
• Glyph of Healing Storm - Each application of Maelstrom Weapon also increases your healing done by 20%.
• Glyph of Totemic Encirclement - When you cast a totem spell, you also place unempowered totems for any elements that are not currently active. These totems have 5 health and produce no other effects.

  Warlock 

• Glyph of Burning Embers - Increases your maximum Burning Embers by 1.
• Glyph of Carrion Swarm - Your Carrion Swarm no longer knocks targets back.
• Glyph of Conflagrate - Reduces the movement speed reduction of Conflagrate to 100% and increases the duration by 100%.
• Glyph of Curse of Exhaustion - Curse of Exhaustion now reduces the targets movement speed by ((30+40)*-1)%, lasts half as long and has a 20 second cooldown.
• Glyph of Demon Hunting - Demonic Fury now reduces damage taken instead of increasing damage dealt. In addition, while using Metamorphosis, Soulshatter taunts your target, Twilight Ward will absorb all schools of damage and Demonic Slash is shorter range and generates fury.
• Glyph of Demonic Training (Voidwalker) - Maximum health increased by 20%.
• Glyph of Eye of Kilrogg - Your Eye of Kilrogg is no longer stealthed and can now place your Demonic Circle. In addition, the movement speed of your Eye of Kilrogg is increased by 50% and allows it to fly in areas where flying mounts are enabled.
• Glyph of Felguard - Your Felguard will equip a random two-handed axe, sword or polearm from your backpack.
• Glyph of Health Funnel - Your health funnel instantly restores 0% of your demon's health, but has a 10 sec. cooldown.
• Glyph of Healthstone - You receive 100% more healing from using a healthstone, but the health is restored over 10 sec.
• Glyph of Nightmares - Your Felsteed and Dreadsteed can cross water while running and leave a trail of flames.
• Glyph of Shadowflame - Your Shadowflame also applies a 70% movement speed slow to its victims, but Metamorphosis no longer reduces the duration of Stuns or Snares.
• Glyph of Soul Shards - Increases your maximum Soul Shards by 1.
• Glyph of Unstable Affliction - When Unstable Affliction is removed, it instantly deals critical damage to both the target and the dispeller, but no longer silences.

  Warrior 

• Glyph of Blitz - Your Charge stuns an additional 2 nearby targets.
• Glyph of Bloodcurling Shout - Your Battle Shout and Commanding Shout terrify small animals.
• Glyph of Bloodthirst - Increases the healing of Bloodthirst by 100%.
• Glyph of Bloody Healing (NYI) - Increases the healing you receive from bandages by 20% while your Deep Wounds is active.
• Glyph of Bull Rush - Increases the duration of your Charge stun by 1 sec.
• Glyph of Burning Anger - You get so angry when Enraged that you catch on fire.
• Glyph of Cleaving - Increases the number of targets your Cleave hits by 1, or 3 when Enraged.
• Glyph of Death from Above - Reduces the cooldown on Heroic Leap by (15000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Enduring Victory - Increases the window of opportunity in which you can use Victory Rush or Impending Victory by 5 sec.
• Glyph of Enraged Speed - While Enraged, you move 20% faster.
• Glyph of Gag Order - Your Pummel, Heroic Throw and Storm Bolt hits silence the target for 3 sec.
• Glyph of Gushing Wound - Your Bloodthirst critical strikes are even bloodier than normal.
• Glyph of Hamstring - Using Hamstring reduces the cost of your next Hamstring by 100%.
• Glyph of Heavy Repercussions (NYI) - While your Shield Block is active, your Shield Slam hits for an additional 50% damage.
• Glyph of Hoarse Voice - Reduces the cooldown and rage generation of your Battle and Commanding Shout by 50%.
• Glyph of Hold the Line - Improves the damage of your next Revenge by 50% following a successful parry.
• Glyph of Long Shout - Increases the duration by 2 min of Battle Shout and Commanding Shout.
• Glyph of Mortal Strike (NYI) - When your Mortal Strike is affecting a target, healing effects on you are increased by 10%.
• Glyph of Murder of Crows - Your Execute critical strikes summon a flock of carrion birds.
• Glyph of Overpower - Cleave hits increases the damage of your next Overpower by 10%.
• Glyph of Raging Wind - Your Raging Blow hits increase the damage of your next Whirlwind by 0%.
• Glyph of Recklessness - Recklessness no longer increases damage taken.
• Glyph of Resonating Power - Reduces the damage by 20% and increases the duration by 20% of your Thunder Clap.
• Glyph of Rude Interruption - Succesfully interrupting a spell with Pummel increases your damage by 5% for 30 sec.
• Glyph of Shield Slam - Your Shield Slam now dispels 1 magical effect.
• Glyph of Spell Reflection - Reduces the cooldown on Spell Reflection and Mass Spell Reflection by (5000/-1000) sec.
• Glyph of Thunder Strike - Your Thunder Clap visual includes a lightning strike.

 When I read about them,  I see gold.





Druids aren't the only ones with vanity glyphs either---paladins seem to get them to replace their horrid mana savings ones and almost every class has a few.  Also, several of the glyphs are game changers...again like old talents or things like Riptide glyph that makes the spell just behave differently.

Let's consider the risks.  There's a chance that the old glyphs will be converted over into the new ones.  I don't see this as likely but Blizzard has done this type of thing before.  (I was reading one of their goals was to have people not make glyphs while leveling instead enchanting a staff--so there's less mudflation on glyphs as a result.)  As a side note, many of our prime glyphs could become burnt out glyphs like they did between Wrath and Cata.  This means you don't want stacks of 20 stored up unless you are sure they'll survive.  Storing materials seems safer and converting them to glyphs just in time for the expansion.

The other two possiblities is the glyphs will be on the leveling path...or only made with the new materials.  If they are on the leveling path, we can continue to use old materials and it is in our favor to do so.  Historically, Blizzard has tied the level in which you get an ability to the type of materials for the glyphs, catering to new players.  (Then again epic gems came from titanium and you could transmute them--and they certainly didn't follow that path this round.)  If these glyphs require the new materials to make then prices will be really, really high.  Granted, that's exactly where we want them to be as glyphmongers.

This is certainly the time to build a nice nest egg to prefer for the next expansion.

Just emptying the mailbox

Truthfully, my interest is lagging a bit, but I thought I'd do a quick update--lately I'll have been doing is pulling gold out of the mailbox.  Today is the first day in awhile that I actually bought up more inventory.  Prices have finally failed--I am actually surprised they've maintained their current levels as long as they did.  Ore is a mere 24 gold on my server and herbs for 15. The cheapest I've seen either for during Cata.

I have basically been following the same battle plan that I've described previously with the notable additional of mysterious fortune cards.  I get about 6 cards (or 2 glyphs) from a stack of herbs.  Each card is selling for about 10 gold.  At the mentioned 15 gold price, I make about 45 gold in profit.  That's good enough for me.  Plus free inferno ink though I am not sure what to do with it since I think I am done with the faire.  (I still have half a dozen volcanos, 2 hurricanes, and a tsunami left.)

 My last month was 677,00 gold brought in!  And only 358,000 gold spent, so well over 300k in profit.   The last week is also telling, 62k brought in and only 7k spent.  The cycle of rising and falling material prices and us goblins making money in between continues.   may not be new, it is still incredibly effective.

 

The Red Gem Bubble

I was worried about the gem market crashing after giving advice to some people on my own server.  First let me say this, I don't mind helping people on my own server.  The information is readily accessible enough online as you my dear ready already know.   Secondly, I've been fairly dormant the last few months as is and simply talking about it gets me more interested in doing it.

So anyway, I was watching the gem market closely and of course elementium ore.  Sure enough, I noticed ore was crashing in price.  Ore was incredibly low from 30 to 40 gold.  I can speculate that people were eithe really farming or botting, but at the end of the day, that's Blizzard's issue not mine.  So I bought it all up.  I ended up dropping 35k on the market to prevent ore from rock bottoming and the entire gem market from going up in smoke with it--nearly 1,000 stacks of ore.

Prospecting this was beyond tedious.  Though, since I wasn't doing anything in the real world, I turned on the TV and started at it.  The one interesting thing I noticed was simply that while processing all this ore, I could simply camp the market and undercut like crazy.  Tuesday is a patch day and I exceeded my own expectations.  I sold red gems as fast as I could prospect ore to keep them up and literally brought in 32k.  That's outstanding.

Though inferno rubies have gone down by 50 percent, ore is has gone down by by almost 60 percent.  Effectively, by bailing out the ore market, I kept the inferno ruby bubble alive.  Unlike a real bailout, no one was aware of this but myself.  It created the illusion that prices were going to stay high.  Effectively, by using my massive wealth, I had my cake and could eat it too.

The price was the literal babysitting of the market.  I kid you not that I was posting 3 gems of each red type at a time every 3 to 6 minutes--I didn't even bother with the rest since I was trying to clear all the ore out.  Normally, I couldn't stand to spend my time that way, but since I was trapped on my druid breaking ore, I figured I really didn't lose anything watching it like a hawk. 

By looking at my totals, I've already made more money on gems than I have on inscription.

 Here TSM really shines again.  It does the accounting for me and lets me really understand what I am doing better.  I mean before, I knew I was turning a huge profit, but I didn't understand how much.

152 gold Delicate x 212=32,224
175 brilliant x 340=59,500
145 bold x 308=44,660

My grand total is 107,384 gold!

Gold spent on ore is  98,593.

With 223 red gems left to sell.  If I average the three cuts and assume they sell evenly (averaging I get 157 gold per gem), then I have 35,085 gold to earn before auction house cuts.  That's 45k...ignoring all the enchanting mats and other gems.

Jewelcrafting very well may be king among professions.

Failure

Sometimes our great plans fail.

The other night, I bought up around 60 maelstrom crystal for about 200 gold each.  Then I decided I'd put them up for 800 each.  I thought people had stopped running as many dungeons, but alts and such would still need to get weapons from Deathwing and the rest of dragonsoul.  It was a good gamble or so I thought.

Prices were still at 500, but by now the entire market has shifted to like it was before.  I didn't sell a single crystal for an inflated rate.

So my plan was an utter disaster.

I've converted the crystal to the higher end enchants...power torrent, landslide, windwalker, 50 Int to bracer, and lavawalker.  This diversification is my plan to overcome this failure.

Sometimes, you have to have a backup in case you fail.

Ink Shortage

One of the inevitable realities is you will reach a shortage of materials.  The last week, I started taking
screenshots to illustrate this as I ran out of ink.  I’ve been a bit sick, so I finally writing about it.

I wouldn’t say I was in a panic, but I was running out of ink.  So in order to stretch the last bit of ink,  I started buying cheap lower levels herbs.  In theory, a wise goblin would do this constantly.  In reality, my short log ins don’t usually allow for it.

The only real difference for the milling process is I save myself time and use panda to mill it.  In theory I could combine the hotkeys but in practice panda just saves me the effort of typing every single herb in.  The panda addon allows for one click milling if you want to clear out all those different types of herbs.  I definitely find it useful.






It is worth noting, I couldn’t find any wrath or TBC herbs cheap enough to use.  Thus, I used the last bag of ink I had left to focus on both ink of the sea and ethereal ink.  I burned nearly half my remaining supply.  Eventually, if prices weren’t favorable, I was going to coast with my current stock and reluctantly give up a portion of the market.  Alternatively, I could have raised my profit threshold and crafted glyphs fewer glyphs for larger margins only.

This is a really decent problem that any marketer will face eventually.  Hence, this type of idea is useful to almost any creator of glyphs.

Of course this probable doesn’t  last forever either.  25 gold is the upper limit for me of acceptable.  I don’t like paying it.  But the alternative is worse--no profit.  From the early screenshots to the late ones, I’ve made about 30k on glyphs and darkmoon cards this week.  Let’s look at the numbers…25.4x384=9,753 gold.  So I’ll give up about 1/3 my profit for the week to replenish my stock.  As unhappy as I am at paying 25 instead of 19 to 20, it beats paying 40 and keeps the cheaper materials out of the hands of my enemies.








Over the course of the day while I was milling I sold a few more hurricane decks and recouped my profit even faster than I expected.  Overall, this tactic of using low level herbs basically let me get away with waiting for more favorable prices.

Commodities

Commodities are essentially something tangible people want. In Warcraft, these could be gems, ore, glyphs herbs, enchanting mats, and so forth.

Controlling one of these markets is nearly impossible. No matter how many stacks of ore I buy, more can be farmed. Thus, if you are attempting to invade such a market...one must move...cautiously. You can manage to control one in the short term, but never in the long term.

A bad example of a short term market would be hypnotic dust. There's an endless supply and most enchants that people demand do not require massive amounts of it. Prime glyphs are likewise dangerous to invest in too heavily...since they are being removed.

A better choice would be maelstrom crystals. With LFR and normal raiding, many people don't do heroics anymore and the amount of these entering the game is greatly lessened. .On my own server there's less than 100 in the auction house, averaging around 200 gold each. If I bought the entire supply for 20,000 gold...and put them all up for 800...what would happen? Certain enchants that require them would spike up in value—if your pockets were really deep you could buy all the premade versions of every maelstrom crystal enchant and spike those as well. This is generally what happens before a big patch day with new raiding content. The same could be true of red gems or whatever else.

As a side note, is this against the eula? It is definitely not. This post talks about it. Blizzard operates in a perfect capitalist economy. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4081812872

Let's look at other potential markets. The first to consider is new characters. New characters often will level gather skills and then switch to production skills at max level. If your corner the markets on materials from say 30 to 80, you can really stick it to them. Especially valuable are the 50 to 60 enchanting materials that are use on bind on account weapons and armor. Also, burning crusade materials and lich king are in much lower supplies and demand higher prices in the AH. The speed in which someone levels through TBC these days makes fel iron and the herbs of that expansion very easy to monopolize. These materials are often the beaten path for level 85's and their pandarians will surely need assistance (as do most death knights). Low level herbs can be used to craft high level glyphs, so these are another good choice. Cloth will be highly sough after as well, especially to create bags for all the new monks. One must again be patient and cautious about which markets are worth invading.

It is interesting to note that maelstrom crystals won't be highly sought after, after Cata is over—it is the dust and essences that people will need in the long term to level enchanting. If Blizzard maintains their model, enchanting will be leveled from 425 to 500 on cata mats, and new recipes will help new enchanters get to 525. This type of speculation means it will pay off to have a large stockpile of dusts and essences. Wrath was different because you could shatter abyss crystals into dust and essences....maelstroms only are turned into shards. This matches the TBC model, and if you investigate it, both crystals and shards from that expansion are nearly worthless.

Once you are an established gold guru, cornering a market is a risk you can potentially take. I did this with flasks right before Ulduar to great success. During the end of wrath, I gambled glyphs would increase in value immensely as gold became more plentiful and that people will still want them in the future. I spent almost 50k (almost 20 percent of my wealth) buying up 8 gold icethorn and would crank glyphs out when they took one ink each out for 1-2 gold and in turn resold them for between 200 and 275 gold each—a massive profit margin when I had 16,000 glyphs at my height.. But, the goblin must be wary...for grasping the wrong market can be like trying to hold onto lightening.

Know Thy Enemy

ThiMilitary tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards... Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions. He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain.

-Sun Tzu

We all know the Auction House is a type of pvp. It is player vs player to make the sale. Eventually, you begin to realize who your real enemies are.

Identifying your enemy is the first step to defeating them. The first step is simple enough. If you have a persistent competitor that is invading your market...you simply add them to your friend's list. When you are on, then you'll know when they are on.

In game, you can find a constant foe and then look at their achievements. By looking at the amount of gold they've earned and how many auctions they've posted, you can better size them up.

This guy has done about 34,000 auctions...to my 457,000.  He's aquired a mere 400,00 gold to my 3.7 million.  He's bought 3,100 auctions to my 32,000.  Basically, he can compete but he's not going to have deep enough pockets to be a real threat--of course unless he does business on other characters.

The next step requires the Undermine Journal. This allows for you to watch their schedule over time. It also lets you investigate their business—what pots do they have their hands in? If you have more time than they do, then you can invade all of their markets. I've figured out the schedules of my foes...when they go to work or in the case of college students their school schedules by watching their activity. This is pretty extreme, I'll admit, but again you have to adapt like water.

Basically, if you can babysit your auctions more than you can be the lowest price and win the undercut war. Jewelcrafting is really high traffic, and thus this is especially true of that market. Enchanting is middle of the road (because it used to not be possible to sell enchants on the open market, many people still seek out enchanters) and glyphs are really low traffic since most people won't engage in that market.

Inevitably there will come a point where you run into a bigger fish. He's got more time to spend undercutting you. There's literally nothing you can do to stop him—he's on 24 hours a day and undercuts like no one's business. Maybe its someone who is unemployed, works from home, or that is stay at home, or even a retiree.

In this case, they'll always undercut you and you don't have the time to stop him—this is the main reason I don't spend too much time jewelcrafting these days

 Businesses in real life used a tactic called predatory pricing. They'd sell at a loss sometimes to force other businesses out of business. You really can't do this in Warcraft. They can simply pull their wares and wait. You might demoralize them but more often than not, they merely hibernate. If you learn their schedule, you can tank the market, then when they aren't around, cancel your auctions and reset it.

For example, if I drop glyphs to 15 gold each and my enemies leave the market completely, and I know he won't log on a few hours on a Saturday, then I can raise glyphs to 375 each that day. When I know he'll come back around, then I'll tank the market back to 15. He can stop this...if he makes a “wall of glyphs” at 20 gold.

How do we counter that? If you have deep pockets, you simply buy all his cheap glyphs and repost. If you are really powerful, you can use the money to buy all the herbs up out of the market, so he can't get good ink. In most cases, you can't keep the market for say glyphs really high forever. You might drive whiptail up to 80 gold a stack, but then people will farm it. If people buy it and make glyphs, glyphs will fall in price. If they don't buy whiptail, then it will fall in price and then glyphs will eventually get made. Furthermore, who is to say, how many glyphs a person has in reserve? I had 16,000 at one point! Even at only 20 gold per, that's 320,000 gold to buy me out.

Ultimately, a marketeer has to accept prices will rise and fall. These cycles are the key thing to under. If I sell most of my glyphs at 375, then when they are only 20, I can let other people sell. Adapting, again like water, is the key to the market.

Accounting

One of the most important parts about doing almost thing you will repeatedly do, is reflecting. You realize what went well and what you should repeat and what didn't go so well.

During this last week, I saw a huge gain from Darkmoon card sales. I still have over half my supply to sell, but I am making progress with moving them. There's so much profit there, I wonder why I make glyphs at all sometimes. Logging in once or twice a day for 4 auctions is much easier than dealing with several hundred glyphs at least.

Not that glyphs have been terrible to me either really...

On that note, I've been looking at the accounting function on this mod. I bought up a ton of glyphs earlier in the month to resale them. It actually tracked that for me. As you can see, the profit percents are really nice. If I was more active in the market, maybe I should start doing that again. I hadn't really considered it before reflecting. I used to do it more often. Of course there's always the risk of the glyph changes. There's been very few herbs for sale again lately, which makes me think that maybe it is time to pounce the cheap glyphs out there.

Another nice feature in the accounting gives me a break down. I've spent almost 189k on materials this past month. That's a staggering number. I've brought in nearly 261k though.

My most sold number was clogged up with the volatile life I resold after the fair and most of the cost of the decks were from all that life. Apparently, I've milled almost 24,500 whiptail. At this point, I am coasting and haven't really made a major purchase in the last week. It is just time to watch and wait for deals.

Tournament Pets

At the start of Cataclysm I had a death knight on another server, but to make a long story short I quit playing him about this time last year. He literally was completely broke. I started playing him again because my friends over there were active and twisted my arm. My guild is casual enough that I have plenty of time for side projects like this (we only raid twice a week for 2 hours and often times raids are canceled because someone can't make it.)

I dislike waiting for queues and I've always been fond of the blood spec, so I fixated on working on a tank set. Truthfully, I liked the old blood dps much better, which is part of my reason for dragging my feet with the character (and why my glyph dk is only 84). I started with enough normals to buy a few 378 pieces and went right to heroics.

After a few intense seasons, I steadily made money from running dungeons, but in one of the bags, I received a mechopeep. I had sold a few of these during Wrath and bought a few horde set on my alliance characters. My DK was horde and if the pets become account wide, he'll get everything from my shaman. I decided since I had one I didn't need, I might as well try to sell it. Within a few hours, it sold for a tidy sum.

I really don't have ambitions to make thousands of gold on my DK—the money generated will keep me in gems and enchants for awhile. I really wasn't trying to make any money, simply get 378 equipped so I could run with my friends there. 

I started thinking about the tabard that ports you to tournament in icecrown and how fast a level 85 could run those dailies and accumulate pets. If you have two accounts, you could launder the pets to the opposite side. No one knows which pets will be good in the pet battle system yet. Everyone is speculating. This is a great chance to generate pets through hard work and sell them to the side that can't do the factioning. In effect, it is the same as the lanterns.  I bought most of the pets in Wrath for 500 gold each--the fact that the prices have gone up by a factor of 7 makes me predict they'll go up again as gold becomes more plentiful.

Warcraft has traditionally had only two routes of advancement---pvp and pve. Pet battles are a side system and if they are fun, maybe people will really get into it. I've truthfully disliked most of their mini games, though the exception was the Zombies vs Sunflowers. If pets really catch on, this would be a great way to generate funds for a newcomer to the market.

In The Black

So I am starting the 6th day of this case study; I am in the black as the saying goes, I've started to make profit.  I've included inscription in the mix because I invested quite a bit of cash during the darkmoon fair and maybe you guys will be interested in seeing how it turns out.  This type of information may be useful for the darkmoon fair in mop.  The big "if" is how good the trinkets are.  Tsunami and Volcano and greatness before have been the sort of trinkets that are exceptionally strong.  They perform way better than their item level suggests.  The new darkmoon trinkets may not be this good.  If the new ones are equal to the monsters they've given us in the past, then the fair is definitely worth investing in.
   
With my jewelcrafting this week, I've sold probably 2/3 of my red gems and most of my oranges, but raked in 22,626 gold.  This is a thrilling profit for almost a week.

I never really fixed or restocked my enchanting market, but my profit margin was a respectable total of 8,882 gold.  I definitely could push this one harder if I diversified.  The amount of dust I have left is woefully high and probably will not sell easily, if at all.  The enterprising investor, keeps it for people that might try to level their skill in mop.  Great if you have a few enchanting bags on an alt or a guildbank of your own to store stuff in.


I had mentioned I'd made almost 50k since my low point during the darkmoon fair between selling a few decks and glyphs.  With a constant flow of glyphs selling (already down to two bags of ink in the bank and have reduced my crafting amount drastically) and selling a handful of decks, I've pulled in 38,232 gold.  To be honest, I need to push the decks harder and I am alarmed about how few I've sold.  On the other hand, I am still confidant, they'll continue to sell over the next month.  I've resold about 7 stacks of volatile life as well.  I was buying them for 5 gold per and selling for over 12.  That's a great payoff.  Normally, I would stockpile life for making more darkmoon cards for the next fair, but I really am beginning to think I'll avoid doing the fair in the future.  My current stockpile of cards will likely last.  Admittedly, I've told myself this many times before and always find cheap whiptail that changes my mind.

My grand total is 69,740 gold!  The gems and enchants have turned about a 10 percent over what I invested in them.  From here on out, everything I get from the remainder is pure profit.  Glyphs and the fair continue to great cash cows, but this is partly due to the time I invested in them.

If you are wondering why I focus on these professions, I talked about in my early entries that inscription had strong barriers to entry.  The thing that should be noted about jewelcrafting and enchanting is you get repeat customers often.  The basic progression in Warcraft leads to a constant flow of upgrades.  Most players want to be "the best" so they will always gem and enchant their new gear.  Whether this is for pvp or pve, is irrelevant.  The desire to be strong is constant.  Thus, these professions are highly contested and highly sought after.

Anyway, happy selling...unless you are on my server!

Reset Day Profits

One of the most important things is when to sell. Usually, I have seen the weekends have a huge increase in sales (Friday Night/Saturday/Sunday) and Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursdays, Mondays, and early in the AM on almost any day are the best times to buy. Weekends is fairly obvious since more people are off work, and Tuesday and Wednesday are when raid lockout reset, so you'll see fairly high profit. When the lockouts reset people get new gear from raids (either through drops or valor points which buy them drops) and in turn there's a frenzy for enchants and gems.

Using my example of the other day, let's see what I raked in on Tuesday:

My inscription reset was interrupted last night, it was split into two parts. 3,261 was my first log in for the day. After I got back to it, I had made another 920 was my second. I pulled in 1,584 this morning from over night glyphs. I didn't sell any darkmoon cards unfortunately, but I still pulled in 5,765.

For jewelcrafting on my first log in, I brought in 3,479. My late night gems included no reds, and was a mere 463. I was merely undercut and ignored in this market over night. I tend to stick to only the best selling cuts as opposed to inscription where I craft any glyph that is profitable. For a grand total for jewelcrafting over 3,942.

My shaman sells my caster leg enchants and enchanting. I really haven't made a large enough variety. Mostly because I want safe sure things and I don't really want to micro manage scrolls. On my first log in, I made 1,464 (not counting the two pvp rings I sold for about 500 total), so 1,964. I made another 1,842 over night bolstered by selling some of those way over priced enchants. This totally, my profit at 3,306.

5,765+3,942+3,306= 13,033 for my grand total for Tuesday.

I could have probably had a much stronger showing with jewelcrafting if I would have spent more time on it. My gut tells me I was just undercut too quickly. I am used to doing glyphs once or twice a day and that's it. Jewelcrafting isn't that friendly—there's huge competition. I did jewelcrafting in “waves”--I'd post two at a time and then repost. Each time, I'd gain more and more auctions. This tiered system, saved me some time on cancel and repost cycles.

For enchanting...I just wasn't selling enough. I mentioned It before, but only a few types of enchants doesn't really grab the whole market. I probably needed about 20 more.

Inscription did so well because I have 350 different items up as opposed to 10 or 20 like the other two professions. The one major difference is...all the glyphs are the same to craft. It doesn't really matter what it is. (This isn't entirely true because shimmering ink is much cheaper than other types, but relative to say enchants, it is easy to price glyphs in a range.) Jewelcrafting has this same truth within colors, but a red gem is very different than a yellow one. Glyphs are definitely easier to micro manage.

I don't know if I'd bother disrupting the status quo, but those would be the best ways to do so.  Knowing your market and putting your time in to do so are the strongest skills.

Jewelcrafting--A Case Study

In the previous entry, I talked about the theory behind jewelcrafting—it was more theory than anything else, but let's test that theory, shall we? Let's look at an actual example. Jewelcrafting takes much higher amounts of money to start with, but the principles remain the same whether you can afford 20 stacks or 2,000 stacks. The time to sell of course and the risk goes up the more you buy.

First, we invest in the market and buy ore. I bought 274 stacks for about 100 gold a stack or 27,400 k in costs for this example. That's a sizable amount but again you can do more or less depending on how your auction house is.

After watching the history channel and breaking the ore, I yield 37 red gems x300 gold each =11,100 gold. 

I transmute the carns into inferno rubies. This should yield 61 red gems (x300 gold each=18,300). During this process I procs 10 times for 71 gems total, adding another 3,000 gold. Included is one lucky 5 proc! This brings my total estimated bring it at 32,300 gold!

 

The profit rate is about 17 percent or for every 5 gold invested, we get 6 back. That's not too bad. Of course, we gained both common and uncommon gems of other colors too. These are all pure profit.

If we count in 70 oranges and 66 purples (at 15 each is 2,040).  This is a real low number--you'll probably get more than that.  I like to pad my margins some, just in case.

When I actually started selling, I didn't get quite what I had wanted, but they were flying off my virtual shelves.  That's one of the reason I like really big margins.  Of course this left me with a slew of common gems.  The theory says we make enchanting materials and then DE them.

 The jewelry itself is easy enough to make, but sending them all to your enchanter would be...tedious.  Thankfully, TSM has an automailer.  You just choose the item types you want send, add them to a list, and then the addon will send away.



The first screen shot shows you how to add them.  It is just like adding glyphs to your list.  The second screenshot shows the addon whisking the materials away to my enchanter.

I also decided to take a gamble and make some pvp jewerly.  I had quite a bit of volatile water around that I wanted to get rid of and amberjewels, so why not.  They always disenchant into 1-2 shards with the guild perk, so it seemed like a way to convert stuff I didn't want into stuff I could sell. 

 

On a whim, I put a few rings up and sold them for even greater profit!  The rings were going for almost 250 gold per.

Our  macro trick doesn't work with all the different jewelry names.  Doing it by hand would be tedious.  I don't want to spend my time looking around in my bags!  So I use the addon Panda to find the stuff I want to disenchant and make it easy clicking.

 I disenchant the jewelry and then scour the market.  There's plenty of profit to be made.

918 hypnotic dust x 1 gold = 918

69 greater celestial essence x80 gold=5,520

39 heavenly shards x 100 gold =3,900

This brings our enchanting total to 10,338! That's a combined grand total of 44,678 gold!

 Why sell the raw materials when we have an enchanter?  I want sure things, so I look for Int enchants mostly.

 Of course there's always more. Look at 50 Int to cloak. 9 gold in dust and 4 essences (320 gold) somehow equal 625 gold?

Int to offhand...4 essences of 320 gold and 6 dust is somehow 630 gold? These are almost 100 percent mark ups!

I found mighty stats and earthen vitality to boots to be great as well.  They took fewer mats and the later was a great way to move dust.

If we consider that most of the pricy enchanting mats will sell as enchants for double their price, we can project profit as high as 54k range...just over double our initial estimates.  Jewelcrafting is very profitable and even if we don't hit some of the higher ranges we were hoping for, it certainly offers great yields.