WTFaid?: Blizzard screwed up with beta invites.

Welcome to another installment of WTFaid?, a semi-regular column in which I discuss things that might not directly impact gold making, but that I want to talk about nonetheless. If you're looking for gold-specific tips, check out my archive and blog roll! If you're looking to get some insight into the mind of Faid, God help you. Also, read on!

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Mists of Pandaria beta invites are being dispensed now. Eluniar's received one and he launched the beta for the first time tonight; he seems to be enjoying it though I've not talked to him much about it. While it interests me I've decided I'd rather experience it first-hand when I, some day, receive an invite.

Now, don't worry, I'm not going to complain about how I've been been playing WoW non-stop since launch day so I'm more deserving of an invite than others. I can't imagine what's happening in the minds of those with the audacity to say they are more important to Blizzard than another fan. 

I think, though, you have to admit Blizzard's not going about this invite/beta process very well.

First off, like it or not they did give the impression that annual pass players would be given instant access when the beta went live. Mike Morhaime said "in addition to getting Diablo III free you will also get guaranteed access into the next World of Warcraft expansion beta when it goes live."

I'm not sure if it was in the fine print that what he said wasn't actually true but they certainly worded it to give the impression that players will get access to the beta when it goes live, also known as instant access.

So there's a point to the upset fans.  Still, fine print and semantics abound here so I try to push this aside. (Plus the multiple times Blizzard have been inconsistent and fickle in other statements has lead me to take anything Blue with a grain of salt.)

Here's my issue, and where I think Blizzard really screwed up on this.

Many people don't even want the beta but are taking spots from those that do. 

The majority of invites going out right now are going out to Annual Pass holders.  The problem is that the Annual Pass had three perks: MoP Beta, an in-game mount, and free Diablo III. 

In other words if you knew you were going to be playing WoW for a year there was no reason not to get a pass. It was essentially saying "I'll do the same thing I was already doing but now I get a free new game, yay!" It was just a smart decision for WoW players interested in D3.  That's not even taking into account folks who were most interested in the mount.

I have no statistics, I'm sorry to say, but I will dare to say that many, if not the majority, of players who signed up for the Annual Pass did it for free D3, not beta access.  And there's nothing wrong with that at all.

The problem is that Blizzard assumed that anyone who has the Annual Pass wants and will use beta access when that's flat out not true.  I have two guild members who have beta access who have said plainly that they don't intend to install or use it at all since they want to avoid spoilers.

Then you've got people like many of us in the gold community who are chomping at the bit to get in but still haven't received an invite.

I'm not going to say anyone is more deserving of a beta invite than anyone else. I am going to say that it sucks that beta invites are being sent to people who don't even want them.

Blizzard could have fixed this easily. They've already got the system in place and it could give them better testing data.  Put annual pass holders at the front of the invite queue but require anyone who is interested in the beta to fill out a beta profile. This way those not interested in the beta could have avoided opting-in and those who really wish to try out the new content could have those wasted invite spots. 

At the end of the day I'm excited to get guaranteed access to the beta at all. It will be my first time in a beta and I look forward to testing a lot of stuff out. So all in all I'm pleased, I just wish there'd been more thought put into the Annual Pass/Beta combination.

From the Vault: The Behemoth and Large Brilliant Shards

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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Large Brilliant Shards. Needed for almost all good heirloom enchants, these items are in high demand. The news that heirlooms will soon be able to sent to other accounts on your same Battle.net account may also spike demand a bit.  You've seen from my most recent Faidian Slip that I tend to farm my Large Brilliants in Lower Blackrock Spire.  

But what about that guy who doesn't want to farm? He just wants everything handed to him like some entitled, laz-- Oh, wait, there's an app for that. I mean, a rare spawn.

Jim at Power Word: Gold mentioned in the most recent JMTC Q&A session that he often found The Behemoth patting around the entrance to BRD.  I decided I would go find out just how quickly he respawned.

The Numbers

What I found was very encouraging!  After killing him about fifty times I have pegged his respawn between 6.5 and 7.5 minutes.  He always spawns in the exact same location and will always drop the Vilerend Slicer, a blue BoE fist weapon that DE's into a Large Brilliant Shard.

He sometimes will drop Runecloth, greens of various use, and basically anything else on that level's loot table for an added bonus.  

He's level 50 and hits pretty hard on a target of his level but anything higher or an alt with heirlooms should be able to handle him without much issue.

What This Means to You

So how do we use this information?  Well, it's not uncommon for people to camp an alt next to a vendor with valuable limited quantity items and the same can be done here.  Due to his fast respawn he is pretty much guaranteed to be up at any given time, assuming no one else on your server takes this advice!  Park an alt within the quarry and anytime you're switching characters, anytime you log in, and before you log out go give him a slap and get a Vilerend Slicer.  Once a week take the alt to a mailbox and mail them to your enchanter. Voila, stacks of Large Brilliant Shards without moving a muscle.

Another option is  to actually camp him.  Now, this can be boring if you don't have much else to do but, say you've got bag fulls of cloth to turn into Netherweave Bags, or some other time consuming task. Consider doing it here for that extra added benefit.  I personally have one account camping him while the other account is flipping auctions or crafting!  It's an amazing passive way to farm shards without having to move a pixel!

Thanks to Jim at Power Word: Gold for mentioning this mob and getting me interested enough to check this out.

Below is a video that may be of interest. There shouldn't be any "new" information beyond what's in this article, but it will give you a nice visual of how to get to him, his spawn point, what he looks like, etc.

This video is hosted on my old YouTube account; don't forget to subscribe to the new Youtube account for up to the minute gold making tips!

From the Vault: Three Tips for New Auctioneers

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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Check Out => Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival!

Last month Cold's inaugural blogging carnival topic was about farming. I pouted around since I don't really farm as a regular gold making tactic and chose to sit that one out. This month, however, I feel I can at least ramble on and maybe make some sense!

What 3 Pieces Of Advice Would You Give A Little Goblin? (3 Top Tips For New Auctioneers?)

Because this is apparently aimed at Auctioneers and not just "gold-makers" (though many of us will often use the terms interchangeably) I'm going to try to focus on tips that deal with the auction house specifically.

Many players reach max level, clear raid content, achieve awesome PvP ratings, and do all of this oblivious to the real power of the Auction House. Many people will say the most powerful tool in a gold maker's arsenal is a transmute specced alchemist. Some will say it's knowing certain addons like Auctioneer inside and out. Others will say it's consistent and dedicated farming. But at the end of the day the single most important tool you have is the AH.

It can be frightening at first, and possibly overwhelming. Sure you can buy and sell now, but against the big dogs of your server you may feel overwhelmed with how many addons they use, how they always seem to undercut you. How can that guy sell something that cost you 50g to make for 25g? There's a lot to learn and a lot to practice with, but here's three of the biggest tips I can give you:

What 3 Pieces Of Advice Would You Give A Little Goblin? (3 Top Tips For New Auctioneers?)

Know how to use addons. Know how to function without them.

There are some amazing addons for using the AH. There are behemoths with many features like Auctioneer or Trade SkillMaster or there are less extreme ones like Auctionator. All of them have great uses and you can research each of them yourselves and find out which ones work best for you.

My advice here is to know how to function without them. If TSM breaks, like it's predecessor Quick Auctions 3 did on possibly the biggest day in the history of auctions, will you be able to make a profit or will you be stuck in the mud?

Do you know how to configure that addon you're using? I can't count the number of auctions I've bought up at <1% of their value because someone's addon malfunctioned and posted that Truegold for 7g instead of 700g. If you're not comfortable letting an addon post for you or buy for you don't. Things can go terribly wrong. Learn to buy and sell without addons, then use addons for ease. Don't rely on them completely. 

Don't be hasty. 

It's tempting to want to jump right in when you've found a good deal but take a step back if you're not knowledgable in the market. Personal anecdote time. It was BC, I was a level 68 Blood Elf mage. I was so excited because I'd just installed Auctioneer and was going to take on the world. I'd done two auction house scans and noticed that this particular market looked great! It was Fel Iron Bars and according to Auctioneer there were only 4 stacks up, all of them at 60% of normal price! I bought them all at 400g a stack! Yay, I'm going to make so much! Well, turns out of course, that they aren't worth nearly that much and Auctioneer, with such a small amount of data to go off of, was comparing an inflated price against an even more inflated price, making my deal look great when in fact it was just terrible. 

Learn about what you're buying. Watch the markets you're interested in for a while to notice trends, average prices, etc. And never ever ever buy something just because your addon tells you it's a good deal. Your brain > Addon brain!

Don't tie up all your assets in one market.

Many brand new auctioneers probably only have professions to hit one or two markets, or at least they may feel that way. Knowing one market inside and out is great, but if suddenly something happens to that market that makes it less lucrative you can be out in the cold with a bunch of inventory you can't move.

Diversify! Are you a miner/blacksmith? Don't just make Bloodied Pyrium! Sell belt buckles, enchanting rods, and open lockboxes with your keys. If your server prices are great for it buy Elementium and Volatile Earth, smelt it, and sell Hardened Elementium Bars at a markup. Just because you only have 2 professions doesn't mean you can only sell two things!

Orgrimmar Roundup - Low Level Gold Tip

Don't worry, Horde players, I didn't forget about you. A follow-up to my previous run around Stormwind, this video focuses on items which can be purchased in Orgrimmar to resell for a profit. This probably won't be "worth it" to most max-level players but it's my favorite way to make gold on a new server or faction.

If you are interested in making gold selling vendor items be sure to check out the Ultimate Recipe Collections available from the ClockworkRiot store!

From the Vault: Which professions should you stack?

I received a comment on one of my videos and attempted to answer it via a Youtube comment but my explanation quickly grew too large for the comment box.  Well, let's get this sorted out right here right now!

Hi Faid, I am subscribed to ur channel and absolutely love watching ur vids. I am on a wow break because of school, but I am coming soon to the game and I have a question which I think u most qualified to answer. What profession(s), other than gathering and regardless of race/class/PvE/PvP, is most beneficial to have on multiple characters for profit? Also, it would be great if u refer me to 1 of ur videos that shows, explains or supports ur answer. Thanks in advance. -ralfzmina 

So the question is basically: If you're going to have multiples of the same profession, what profession is the best to do this with?

Well, there are several different options which will have varying degrees of importance for you and your gold making set up.  Here's the basic rundown of every profession, and how it may benefit from having multiples.

Alchemy

Most people will recommend Alchemists. I would be remiss if I did not mention that there was a great WoW Insider article by Euripides about Alchemists and their CDs, first off. I may repeat some of what he says, but I just want to cover all bases here, while giving credit where credit is due for a great post on the same subject.

• Cooldowns - Alchemy has some of the strongest gold-making cooldowns.  They had epic gems in Wrath and many believe they will get Cataclysm epic gems in the future as well.  They currently are the only source in the game for Truegold on a one-day cooldown, and can also turn Life into any other volatile using their cooldown.  This creates a powerful gold making opportunity for any alchemist, and having multiple alchemists allows you to use more cooldowns per day for the same thing or multiple types of cooldowns. Pretty simple stuff.

• Specializations - Most will tell you that the best bet for gold-making with Alchemy is transmute spec, and I don't disagree.  However, keep in mind that if you have multiple alchemists you can have multiple specializations.  You can get top dollar in potions, flasks, and proc off your daily CD on one of your alchemists! (The other alchemists still get their transmute cooldown, they just won't proc.) 

Blacksmithing

This profession, like many other crafting professions, used to have a specialization a la Armorsmith and the like. These specializations are now gone from the game and at the time of this posting there will be no direct gold-making benefit to having multiple Blacksmiths.

Enchanting

Like Blacksmithing, Enchanting lacks cooldowns and specializations and so there is no obviously beneficial factor to having multiple enchanters. However, Enchanting does pull ahead of Blacksmithing since, as you're leveling the character or running dungeons on it, assuming it is not just a profession mule, you can DE more items that would otherwise have been vendored, which could allow you to come ahead in profit. I know many players will level every character they have with Enchanting as one profession then drop it later, all so the quest rewards don't go to waste.

Engineering

Engineering is an interesting situation.  Engineering was one of the few professions that did not have its specializations removed.  For a while in Cataclysm your specialization didn't matter from a gold making perspective, any engineer, after going through the proper channels, could make both of the new pets. That's been "fixed" however and you now must have either Gnomish or Goblin to craft their specialized pets.

There is likely some benefit to having an Engineer of each type if you are heavy into the pet market, however, this is a small factor for most gold-makers and I would not recommend multiple engineers from a gold-making perspective. 

Herbalism

Herbalism, to my knowledge, has never had any cooldown or specialization associated with it.  This can benefit in the same way Enchanting can, in that if you play the character a lot this would allow you to gather while you're on it which you otherwise would not be able to do, but beyond that it has no amazing gold-making factors associated with multiple herbalists.

Jewelcrafting

This profession is another that can definitely benefit from multiple characters having it.

• Cooldowns - The Jewelcrafting cooldown is in the form of Icy and Fiery Prisms and Brilliant Glass.  Icy Prism no longer has a cooldown associated with it.  Fiery Prism takes the now lesser-valued green quality Cataclysm gems and can turn them into rare quality gems, JC gems, and perhaps one day even epic gems.  This can be a very nice CD to use multiple times if that is your preference.
• Dailies/Tokens - JC is interesting in that earning the cuts is a rather long, drawn out process.  For both Wrath epics and Cata blues you must do dailies and after a few days you get enough tokens to buy one cut; this greatly limits the amount of cuts any one person is able to get right off the bat.  However, if you have multiple Jewelcrafters you can buy more patterns more quickly, allowing you to meet demand when it's at it's peak.  When you've bought all the patterns you can also start turning your multiple tokens per day into Chimera's Eyes/Dragon's Eyes, giving you more income on the AH!

Leatherworking

Like Blacksmithing, this profession once had specializations associated with it that are now removed form the game.  Lacking any daily, cooldown, or specialization I will say I don't see any strong benefit to having multiple Leatherworkers.

Mining

Mining has had an interesting history.  As far as I know it's the only gathering profession that once had a powerful gold-making cooldown associated with it in the form of Titansteel. However, the cooldown has been removed and it lacks specializations and quests as well; thus it is similar to Herbalism in that it will allow you to gather on more characters, but has no direct gold-making benefit.

Tailoring

Like the other crafting professions, Tailoring had a specialization in the bygone days that is not around anymore.  However, unlike the others, this profession still has a cooldown associated with it.  Each tailor can make a Dreamcloth per type of volatile once per week, so five Dreamcloth per week plus whatever they can gather in Chaos Orb form.

So if you want more Dreamcloth you can always get more tailors; the problem is that Dreamcloth is currently soulbound and cannot be traded around on your Tailors.  Thus, if you have two tailors, you can make 10 Dreamcloth a week, but you won't be churning items out any sooner. However, when you can make that item, you can instead make one for each tailor, so you won't make items faster but you can deal in larger quantities.

Skinning

Like all the other gathering professions, skinning does not have any associated cooldown or specialization, and will only benefit you in that you can gather on more characters.

Inscription

Inscription's benefits are very similar to JC, but without the longevity.  In Jewelcrafting, once you've covered all the gem patterns, you can start moving extra JC tokens into Chimera's Eyes to sell.  With Inscription, you can possibly learn all of the glyphs faster, but once you've learned them all you'll see no benefit to multiple Scribes.

• Training - Scribes learn new glyphs mostly through research.  If you have multiple scribes you can do this research more per day. However, since you don't choose your pattern like JCs do, you have a chance of learning the same Glyph and effectively seeing no benefit. Also, as stated above, once your scribes know all the glyphs, there is no benefit to multiple scribes.

So what to pick?

With all of this in mind I usually will toss Alchemy into free profession slots.  My runners up for what I would choose if I couldn't choose alchemy would likely be Enchanting or Jewelcrafting.  However, keep in mind your own gold making situation.  Do you only have limited play time?  Then Alchemy's probably your best bet as you can see great results from just a few minutes of toon-hopping and transmuting while if you have lots of time you may get more benefit out of multiple Jewelcrafters and playing the cut gem market.

Stormwind Roundup - Low Level Gold Tip

During one of my gold-making livestreams Cryan requested that I make some guides and/or videos about the items I buy in town to make gold on low level characters.  In Orgrimmar and in Stormwind there are some great items you can pick up for resale and this video hits some of my favorite Stormwind pieces. Next time we'll do Orgrimmar so you Horde folks don't feel left out!

If you are interested in making gold selling vendor items be sure to check out the Ultimate Recipe Collections available from the ClockworkRiot store!

SuperGuildInvite: Configuration Tips

In my adventures using SuperGuildInvite, an addon assisting players in mass-inviting people to their guild, I've come across three types of people. Some people don't care or even acknowledge the invite and whisper, some folks are polite, and a good amount of them become very very irate.

I'm not going to preach about whether or not you should use a guild invite addon to grow your guild but I am going to offer a few tips that should improve the experience for both people who use the addon as well as for people who absolutely hate it and think I'm the scum of the earth for using it.

The first thing to know is that players can block all incoming guild invites if they wish to using the default interface. Press Escape, Interface, and right there you'll find a checkbox to block all incoming invites.  This is the strongest tool a player has to stop the guild invite spam and players who don't want random invites should use it.

But what about the whispers, you ask?  Well, that's where I want to talk to you, the aspiring guildmaster and SuperGuildInvite user.  SGI is a simple addon but if you configure it properly you can greatly reduce the amount of junk whispers you send out, as well as reduce the amount of people who become annoyed by your invitations.  Unfortunately these aren't the stock settings, so let's walk you through them.  Type /sgi config to bring up the options and let's go through the steps to be the least annoying you can be while using this mod.

#1: Whisper Before Inviting

I wish this setting was worded a bit better, maybe more people would take advantage of it.  Nothing is more annoying than a blind guild invite; whispering people first (even an automated tell) is preferable in nearly every case for all parties involved.

But what about all those Starter Edition accounts? We don't want to send them whispers just to find out that they can't even join!  Well, that's the drop down menu. As counter-intuitive as it may seem you want your settings to be "Send Whisper Before Inviting" and "Whisper After Inviting."

What this essentially makes the addon do is it will first attempt to invite the player. If the invite is successful they will get a nearly simultaneous whisper.  If the invite is unsuccessful because they are a Starter Edition, they are already in a guild, or they have blocked guild invites they will get neither a whisper or the subsequent tell, meaning you won't bother that person one bit.  This way you only contact players who are able and willing to join guilds and also send them a whisper.

#2: Whisper!

I use SGI and even I get irritated when someone sends me a random invite without a tell.  Even an automated whisper about what sort of perks I will get from your guild shows that you are offering something and not seeing me as an experience-grinding robot.  Open SGI and hit customize whisper to write your own greeting. Be sure to write a tell that's friendly and informative and gives an accurate description of your guild. (If you only have level 20s don't say you're a raiding guild. If you only raid don't say people should join for guild battlegrounds.)

#3: Auto-Blacklist

A blacklist is a master list of every player you will no longer invite. You can manually blacklist that guy you really hate but the main use for blacklisting is auto-blacklisting. If you have this box checked but make no other changes the default is three. If a player declines a guild invite from you three times they will no longer be invited.

I think that's pretty dumb. While you can also set a "lockout" and not invite people for x days or weeks without blacklisting my opinion is that if a player doesn't want to join my guild today they won't want to join it next week and my whispers will just annoy them more.

With Auto Blacklist checked type into your chat the following

/sgi blacktime 1

Now anyone you invite will be blacklisted after the first time they decline your invite and you won't bother that person again. 

SGI is a great addon for folks looking to build a large guild; folks in my random invite guild seem to get along very well and it's recently passed Level 5 with 400 members. Remember, though, not everyone wants to join your guild. They should do their part to block guild invites but you should be sure to do your part in not being an annoyance.  With a great addon comes great responsibility? Heh, that's a bit over the top but just be sure you put yourself in the shoes of a random player on your server and set up your SGI with that attitude in mind.

For more information about using SuperGuildInvite with gold-making in mind be sure to check out Acry's thread on the Consortium forums by clicking here.

TSM Guide Videos

Special Note: Third time's the charm! This is the third, yes, third time I've uploaded these TSM videos. Hopefully they're here to stay. The audio should be loud enough, if a bit crackly, they contain the right URL, and are on the right channel. Please be sure to thumbs up/like the videos just one last time. Thanks! (Sorry to be such a bother with these. Last time, I promise!)

The time has finally come! Sapu and the rest of the dedicated TSM team have released the newest version of TradeSkillMaster! I've been using a pre-release version for a while now and have had a lot of fun with it. The team's done a great job and I'm sure you all will enjoy the changes.

At the bottom of this post is a series of videos which should help newcomers to the addon find their way around and perhaps teach veterans a few things. They are not designed as an advanced manual of tactics; my goal in creating these videos was to help people who have just installed TSM to learn the basics. I'm still learning certain aspects of the addon mysef (Sapu even gave me some tips on my own use of it after I showed him the videos!) but this should be a sufficient primer for those who have found it intimidating in the past.

There is currently no video for Warehousing.  While I have used the tool for a limited time I am still fairly clumsy with it myself as I attempt to learn how exactly it works with my setup.  Once I am more  well-versed with Warehousing I will make a video but it is not required to use the core of TSM so for now it is absent from my video guides.

So what's new?
A lot! In its new form TSM has shed the side-bar style and has integrated into the main AH panel with its own TSM tab from which you use the TSM plugins like shopping for crafting mats and posting auctions. There are new reset scants, shopping lists, and an easy to understand UI.

I hope you all enjoy these videos; I admit my editing isn't top notch but they should serve their purpose well! PLEASE watch these in HD so that you can see the settings and whatnot.

Auctioning (Posting, Cancelling, and Group Creation)

-This should be the first video you watch if you are new to TSM-

Crafting

Shopping, Dealfinding, and Destroying

Mailing

Reset Scans

If you have any questions for me feel free to leave them as a comment here or on the videos. If you have questions or concerns about TradeSkillMaster be sure to visit the development forum over at The Consortium forums!

From the Vault: I'm Faid's Bank Toon

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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So I just glanced over The Gold Queen's post over at her blog and it's basically a great list of ways to remain "unseen" when posting your auctions. There's some great benefits in remaining "unknown." I bet a lot of us have competitors on our friends lists and track them to easily keep them undercut and such things.

But being known isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I use an AH alt but I make no secret of who it is; I've listed Liquidate's name many times here and if anyone on my server asks who my main is I will tell them.  This can definitely have some drawbacks, but I don't really mind all that much.  You see, there are benefits to being known as well.

It's the closest you can get to "branding" in WoW.

Before the Apple cult was formed one of Apple's biggest marketing ventures was that they would offer discounts to schools. I believe they still do this. This is why almost all schools have Macs in their computer labs instead of PCs.  The concept behind this was that if kids grew up and learned to use computers while using a Mac that child would then go on to buy a Mac when they had grown up and were shopping for a PC. It was familiar to them and they had the name Mac in their brain associated with computers. (Granted, our Macs broke down about 90% of the time so it just made me not ever want my own!)

You can copy this a bit by having a character known for selling a certain item. It doesn't have to be your main, as long as it's a constant character selling the same item.  If I know that Cardmaster sells Mysterious Fortune Cards at 10g a piece and all that's up on the AH are for 12g a piece I will probably wait for Cardmaster to log on and ask if I can buy his stuff directly.

This has happened to me a lot with rare items, craftables, etc.  People have seen Liquidate posting +4 Stats to Chest scrolls and if they all sell out they will come to me because they know I can do the enchant. (I, of course, charge them the same profit I'd make off a scroll on the AH!)  I've had people whisper me requesting glyphs, fortune cards, and crafted PvP pieces before.  Had that item been constantly posted on different throwaway toons I would never have received that business.

By posting on the same character you will, in some players' minds, cause them to associate you with that item and this can pay off in your favor.

Loyalty

I've been making bank on the cut gem market the past few days, I intend to make a post about this in the near future.  But from this comes a story. I've been controlling the Inferno Ruby prices since the patch hit and have been able to keep the prices stable and high.

I offer cuts free to my guild members but often they're not patient enough to wait for me to cut it, which is cool.  I was on Vent with a guild member last night who warned me that I'd been undercut by a ridiculous amount.  While I went off on a huge spiel about how that person was stupid since demand was so high they were just harming their own profits while not hurting mine at all apparently my guild member purchased a gem. Did he buy the undercutters? Nope, he bought mine. He paid more for the exact same item because it was mine and he wanted to benefit me and not some random undercutter.

If your AH posting alt is not associated with your main this may not crop up much, but if you have a reputation on your server, either as your bank alt or as your main, you can capitalize on that in the AH if you post on known characters.

So which  is better? Transparency or Anonymity?

Both of them have their pros and cons.  You will probably see more of a benefit of anonymity, especially in markets like glyphs and cut gems. But one glance at The Gold Queen's list in the post I posted above and all I can say is . . . that's a lot of work.  Even with addons that auto mail or a shared guild bank that's a lot of toon swapping, character slots taken up, white lists and black lists . . . just a lot of work!  I think this is a beneficial practice if you go through all the motions.

I just wanted to post this and say to those who, like me, aren't going to go through all these motions to remain secretive: There're benefits for us lazy people too!

The Ultimate Vendor Recipe Collection

Vendor recipes have accounted for over 200,000g of my net income since I began making gold in World of Warcraft. Players will buy these because they don't know where they come from or they simply don't want to make the effort to figure out where to buy it.

Players buy my vendor recipes time and time again at a very high mark-up. They are a consistent and reliable seller for me and they can be for you as well. While I've done posts and videos about the vendor recipes before, I had yet to see a complete, definitive list of every vendor recipe organized in an easy-to-use way. These guides change that.

I've compiled two complete guides, one for recipes and locations available to Horde players and one available to Alliance. Each guide highlights recipes that are faction-exclusive (good arbitrage money!). 

Each guide is organized geographically by zone and by vendor (something I've not seen from anything else like this). This makes it easy for a player to hop on a flight path from zone to zone picking up these lucrative items.

These guides are designed to be used as a tool for a gold-maker looking to thoroughly cover the vendor recipe market. These guides are the first (of hopefully many) items I'm selling directly on my site. I know these guides are well worth the small price ($2 each) I'm asking for them.

These guides are unlike anything else out there and are tools I would personally be willing to pay for (especially when the price is less than a cup of coffee). I hope you enjoy the guides. Thanks in advance to those of you who decide to purchase them thus supporting Clockwork Riot and the creation of future guides. May they help you make as much gold as they've helped me make.

Ultimate Alliance Recipe Collection (ver.0.10) - Buy Now: $2  

• About The Guide: This guide is the most thorough and definitive list of vendor recipes available on the net. Aimed at Alliance players this guide lists recipes available from vendors all around the World of Warcraft in a simple, easy to follow format. 

Ultimate Horde Recipe Collection (ver.0.10) - Buy Now: $2     

• About The Guide: This guide is the most thorough and definitive list of vendor recipes available on the net. Aimed at Horde players this guide lists recipes available from vendors all around the World of Warcraft in a simple, easy to follow format. 

Can I pay for the guide using PayPal?
While I may eventually look into adding additional payment options, at the moment gumroad.com (and thus credit card) is the only official way to purchase the guide. (If you are determined to purchase the guide with PayPal, feel free to send me an email at GoClockworkRiot@gmail.com and we will see if we can work out an individual exception to allow you to do so.)

You can always find any guides I have for sale in the store which is linked at the top of the sidebar.

From the Vault: Importable TSM Transmog Lists v2.0

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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A while back I made a post on the Consortium forums containing importable TSM shopping lists for Keelhaul's Cloth, Mail, and Plate mog armor recommendations.  However, there were some issues with it. For starters, it was a full list.  It included things like pants which wouldn't even show under the robes, tons of bracers that wouldn't show, etc. Also, there was no leather list.

This morning I decided to completely redo my shopping lists. I completely deleted my original lists and began recreating them now that I know a bit more about mog selling.

What I Used

The lists are almost entirely based off of the lists by Keelhaul, farli_wow, and EpicPennyPouch which can be found in Power Word Gold's Hatchery. Here are the original lists, if you would like to take a look at them: Cloth, Leather, Mail, Plate. 

What I Did

My previous effort to make the lists which resulted in the Consortium post was essentially taking the entire list and everything in every set and making it importable into TSM. It was very helpful as a starting point but many people found themselves filling up on bracers, ugly hats, and cloth pants that they don't need.

When creating the importable version of the leather list, and in revamping every other armor type, I was much more discerning this time around.  I removed almost every bracer and simple-looking hat or belt. Most cloth pants and shoes are not in this list, nor are most simple looking shoulders.  To put it simply I included the sets that looked best or most unique, and the most important pieces of those sets. Many lower tier sets, or sets that look so plain or similar to many other sets were removed altogether. I trimmed the fat, so to speak.

Miscellaneous Notes

Some items that are very rare and sell very well on your server may have been removed; every server is different.  I tailored these lists with my own experiences in mind (e.g. the Lord's set was removed since I have a million of those sitting around, too common for my tastes!) and while the armor may be one-size-fits-all this list probably isn't.  You may want to use these lists as a starting point to add or trim to work for you.

Leather sets were an interesting animal. They have many sets that look almost identical but are different colors. (Chieftain's Set shares a skin with several others in the list.) I included all the different colors and types that share a color. Understand when buying and selling though that one item may have a much more common item that's virtually interchangeable; this is especially apparent with the leather belts that appear to have studs or rivets in them, like in the Chieftain's Set previously linked.  I included them but buy at your own risk!

The Lists!

==Cloth==

s1@10214,14025,10216,7110,14413,14294,14296,14297,14425,6610,14175,17050,3291,6615,6617,14441,14442,14443,4714,14445,14192,14452,14453,10143,7517,7518,14213,7520,7521,14091,14231,14232,14106,4035,7468,14367,7470,4037,7471,14371,6393,14120,6395,3309,8111,4040,7522,8113,10215,8114,18486,24585,6527,14119,10178,2800,14254,6531,4038,14234,8110,14272,14273,10210,14275,3308,14113,14117$@

==Leather==

s1@6409,15168,10220,10221,10222,14670,14671,10227,24773,24775,14675,24779,14677,14680,15189,15191,15192,14685,14559,14560,14562,14564,14565,14566,4055,24694,24696,24698,6430,4057,4721,9887,9892,9894,4062,15372,15370,4063,15374,10183,14684,10186,8255,20575,15369,8258,15142,8260,24776,8262,4054,15376,10189,15378,15379,6431,15381,15144,15383,6581,15385,6582,14681,15167,10182,6584,9782,10225,15139,6586,10188,24695,10190,24699,24774,15130,15194,15148,15149,15150,15151,24778,10187,9947,9948,15386,9950,6587,9952,8256,9954,15162,14687,15164,6408,15166,15195$@

==Mail==

s1@8309,7489,7490,6411,4079,6412,14793,14794,15050,7494,15052,14799,10230,14803,10232,10233,10234,10236,15575,15576,15578,10118,10119,15581,10121,4712,10124,10125,12415,15591,4717,24839,15596,24843,15598,10266,15601,10268,10269,10270,15609,7454,10273,10274,4725,2989,15582,14802,4727,4075,10154,14805,14798,10157,12420,15680,4697,10161,10162,8267,8271,14796,9933,15669,6386,14792,8265,14789,15506,15607,8269,15509,15510,15511,7455,15513,15514,2990,9928,16984,15051,2991,4076,4071,24863,2992,15524,4072,15529,15527,15528,4073,6590,1988,24840,4074,6402,6592,7491,6594,24862,6595,10122,6596,8303,7486,24864,7487,24865,24867,6597$@

==Plate==

s1@14913,25001,14915,14917,14918,14920,14921,14922,14924,14926,14927,14928,14929,10368,10369,8138,10371,24934,10373,8140,24940,10376,24944,10378,10380,10382,10383,10384,10385,10386,10387,14833,10389,10390,14838,14966,14840,14968,24984,14970,14971,14972,14975,14976,14977,14978,14980,14854,14855,14856,14857,14858,14859,14860,14862,14863,14864,14865,14867,14868,8141,8143,8139,10205,10201,10208,10206,12619,24935,24937,24939,10209,24999,25003,24947,25000,24985,24983,24982,24988,24936,14895,14896,14897,14898,13072,14900,31232,10203,12618,14904,14905,14906,24987,14908,14909,14981,14911,14839,14967$@

How to Import These Lists
I made a short (~2 minute) video about importing lists to walk you through the process. If you're anti-video you can also check out the first link in this post to my Consortium thread which includes a screenshot walkthrough.

This video is hosted on my old YouTube account; don't forget to subscribe to the new Youtube account for up to the minute gold making tips!

New Video: Unlimited Maelstrom Crystals

Hi folks! Today's video tip isn't particularly new; folks have been talking about it at the Consortium for quite a while and I bet there are at least a few blog posts out there mentioning it.

So I'm pretty surprised that, without fail, any time I go out to Hyjal to snag some cheap enchanting mats someone's always out of the loop.  They're amazed when I explain this tip to them and I'm amazed they didn't know about it beforehand! So this tip is my attempt at making sure everyone knows about this awesome source of Maelstroms and Heavenly Shards.

New Video: Farming Righteous Orbs

Hi folks, my most recent video is an old school gold making tip that still works to this day.  My first gold making video ever was about farming Stratholme (check out how far I've come!) and so I wanted one of the first videos on ClockworkRiot to be a bit of a throwback. Plus, come on, Righteous Orbs are timeless, eh?

From the Vault: Using the Neutral Auction House

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From the Vault:  Every Tuesday and Friday we'll be shining a spotlight on some of the most popular and timeless posts from Nerf Faids here on ClockworkRiot. Folks who missed them the first time around can enjoy some of the best pieces and folks who have seen them can maybe be reminded of a trick or two that they'd forgotten.

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The Neutral AH is an amazing tool in a gold maker's arsenal.  When one has learned to use it effectively it is a gold mine.  However, it's easy to get burned when learning the ropes and many people are so worried about the risks they never even give it a fighting chance.

I've been growing my Horde business by leaps and bounds lately.  My problem is I don't have as much infrastructure set up on the Hordeside.   Here's where the Neutral AH comes in.  Today I bought about 80 stacks of Elementium on the Horde and prospected it all there.  The problem was that I ended up with a lot of rare gems and very very few patterns.  Rather than burden a guildie to cut them or tip a JC, I decided I would send them to my Alliance DK to cut then send them back to sell.  This meant moving rather large amounts of rare gems across the AH, something that I'm never happy to do, but I've become more and more comfortable with over time.

Basically the way the Neutral AH itself works is both factions can buy and sell on it. However, unlike your faction's AH, the Neutral AH (Blackwater Auction House) will deduct a 15% cut of the take instead of 5%.  In order to avoid losing out on large amounts of gold because of this cut many players like to post their items for very very cheap, such as 1c-1g for an item often worth 50-10000g!

Herein lies the risk.  Other players, or often even bots, will watch the Neutral AH for someone attempting to move items like this and will "snipe" the item when it's up.  Some may see a moral problem with this practice, but as far as Blizzard is concerned, they are not breaking the rules and have every right to snipe your auctions.  (I agree with this. I don't like snipers and would not do it myself, but if you lose an item on the Neutral AH it is your own fault in the end.)

The most foolproof way to avoid having your auctions sniped (besides never posting them, of course!) is to post them at a value you'd be willing to sell it for. Then, if someone does buy it, you didn't really lose out all that much.  However, most people don't want to take that 15% cut and so it becomes a game of managing risk.

Some have probably heard me say I take a lot of precautions to avoid sniping on the neutral AH and have been mostly successful.  I wanted to share these with you so that, hopefully, you guys can lower the risk associated with cross faction trading as well!

• Have instant communication with your accomplice.  - Ideally you would be buying and selling your own auctions with a second account.  However, if you cannot do that, you will likely be using another person to help you.  Make sure that this person is in Vent/Mumble/Teamspeak with you, or better, in the same room! Communicate often. "I'm about to post up 14 Resplendent Ember Topaz. Posting in 5, 4, 3, 2, Posting!"   This will make sure they're always searching for the right item quickly and can buy it before anyone else gets the chance to.

• Minimize clicks. - Using addons is great for this.  With Auctioneer you can enable Easy Buyout so that you can Shift+Click (Or whatever you set it to) to buy out auctions quickly.  With Auctionator you can buy large amounts of items by spam-clicking the Buy button.  If you use the default UI frame you will find your self having to click on the item, click buyout, click accept, click next item, etc.  All this clicking can mean a few extra seconds a bot is able to scan and snipe your auctions.  Be sure your accomplice knows how to use these addons for this purpose too!

• Mix it up. - Do not schedule times to meet your accomplice to do this.  If someone is watching you and sees these same two characters go to the Neutral AH every Wednesday at 4 AM they'll start connecting the dots.  Make the transfers at different times and different days each time.  When possible, use different characters at different Neutral AHs.

• /who the Zone.  -  Before posting you can /who Winterspring  /who Tanaris  /who Cape of.  This will give you lists of the toons in the areas.  Now, people may just be questing, but if you see my level 1 Mage Neutrality in Winterspring, a place a level 1 has no business being, you can probably bet that toon is made with the Neutral AH in mind and you may wish to be wary.

• Cover as many Auctioneers as possible. - Rather than meeting your accomplice in Booty Bay have him go to Everlook while you chill in Booty Bay or Tanaris.  This way you can visually watch multiple auction houses for anyone slinking up to take a peek at what you're doing.

• Talk to the others. - If you see other pairs of people who appear to be flipping items extend a friendly tell.  Not everyone is necessarily out to get you and they may be just as afraid that you're going to steal their auctions.  Often I've found that politely approaching others has created a rapport and I've even found people who are willing to do gold trades (I give you gold on Alliance, you give me the same amount on Horde) to avoid the hassle of moving gold straight across.  If the person gives you a bad vibe then don't risk it, log off and transfer your items tomorrow.

• Slow and steady transferring is key. - Twenty different gem cuts you say? Don't post them all at once.  It's easy to create a TSM list and post up everything you want to transfer but it takes a large amount of control out of your hands.  Which cuts will appear on the AH first?  While you're frantically spam clicking to buy out all the Bold Inferno Rubies is someone else taking that time to snipe your Etched Demonseyes? Post one type of item at a time to reduce the amount of time your inventory is sitting on the AH.

• Off-Peak hours are best. - Many times when an item is sniped it wasn't by a "professional sniper" but by someone who just happened to be in the zone, saw you run up to the Auctioneer, and figured they'd do a search and see if anything interesting was happening.  By transferring your auctions at, say, 3 - 5 AM you can often limit the amount of exposure your habits receive and lower the risk of sniping.  This also allows the /who of zones to be more "accurate," as you're less likely to see large amounts of people out questing at these times.

• Don't be obvious. - Many people may end up making characters just to transfer via the neutral AH.  Don't follow my lead.  Neutrality was a funny and fitting name, but not very secretive.  One look at a level 1 named Neutrality in Gadgetzan and you know what she's up to.  If you make a Neutral AH banker give it a "normal" name, not a funny bank name or anything to do with transferring.

EXTREME AH TRANSFERRING

It's worth mentioning there are a few other things you can do when transferring that I do not do; either because my server is not built for it, it doesn't interest me, or I don't want to pay for it.  They should probably be mentioned though.

• If you play on a PvP server you can watch the neutral AHs.  If you see anyone nearby that you think may snipe your auctions get on a character of the opposite faction and continuously gank them to keep them from meddling in your AH affairs.

• Regardless of your server type, if you're willing to take a beating from the guards you can attack and kill Neutral Auctioneers.  This would allow you to limit the "auction kiosks" available to only the ones you are using, allowing you to have far greater control on who can hurt your business in-game.

• Many of the sniping programs work by doing constant scans of the AH.  If you post up tons of junk (20 pages of Skinning Knives, for example) the bot must scan all of those 20 pages, giving you more time to post/buy what you're actually transferring.

• I'm under the impression that you can flip items using the Remote Auction house without ever having to visit an in-game Neutral AH or mailbox.  I cannot talk much about this since I do not use the Remote AH, but it's something to remember.  Also, keep in mind, if competitors use the Remote Auction house there's not much you can do to "watch out" for them.  Just be sure you limit the amount of time your items spend in their reach; make sure the item's bought within a few seconds of posting and you should do okay.

There may be other tactics to avoid having your auctions sniped.  These are the tactics that I personally use or have heard a lot of other gold maker's talk about, I hope they help take some of the weight off when you're deciding if flipping across the Neutral AH is too dangerous to risk or too lucrative to pass up!

This video is hosted on my old YouTube account; don't forget to subscribe to the new Youtube account for up to the minute gold making tips!

New Video: Damn, I love vendor recipes.

I know I'm always talking about vendor recipes.  I just love selling them. Items you never have to farm for that you can consistently sell for 100x what you paid for them? Sign me up!

Early on in my cross-faction vendor recipes and pets adventures I found myself in Gadgetzan an awful lot to move the items across to the other faction.  I figured there were so many vendors around I'd give them a look.  Since then Gadgetzan recipes have been my hottest selling stuff; I would dare to estimate I've made over 50k just selling Philosopher's Stone recipes.

Here's everything I buy in Gadgetzan, I hope you enjoy the video! (Don't forget to subscribe to the new YouTube channel to stay up to date on all of my video tips.)

Beginner Tip: Stringy Wolf Meat

Often folks will ask me about how to make gold on a new server or faction. I like to recommend my old go-to vendor recipes and pets. But the problem is if you are truly brand new on a server you may not even be able to afford those vendor recipes to start with!

On the livestream recently I've been experiencing this first-hand. I started a new toon on a brand new server intending to try out gold making from scratch for the first time in a long time. (If you'd like to watch the recording of the streams here they are: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7.  Sorry about the staticy audio, I fixed it this morning so future episodes will be crystal clear!)

While on the livestream a very old tactic of mine resurfaced, an item I love to sell but had completely forgotten about.

Mmmm look at that tasty profit.  Now, every server's different but on most servers I've started I was able to sell Stringy Wolf Meat consistently at over a gold a piece. Sure, it doesn't sound like much once you're a big-time gold maker but for a character just starting out 20g per stack's a pretty great start.

Why Stringy Wolf Meat?

From a new character perspective Stringy Wolf Meat is a great gold-making item because it's so easy to farm up.  Both factions have at least one starting area that is crawling with wolves (I recommend Human for Alliance and Undead for Horde.) Worgen will have access to wolves as well. Goblins don't have the option of wolves but you lucky goblins get Kaja'Cola so no complaining! 

On my new character experiment I have made over 200g selling Stringy Wolf Meat so far and I didn't even go out of my way to farm it; that's just what I picked up while leveling through Tirisfal Glades.

Who buys this crap?

The reason Stringy Wolf Meat is such a lucrative item is it is one of the best super-low-level cooking ingredients to level with. You can start cooking with it at level 1 though most players will likely cook Spice Bread till level 40.  However, what happens after 40? Stringy Wolf Meat, that's what happens.  Stringy Wolf Meat can give you skill ups from 1-90. Ninety. Folks leveling cooking eat this stuff up (haha, a pun!) and it's a great way to get some starter cash on your new server.

Psh, it's only like 10s on my server.

Reset that meat, my friend! While resetting the market is probably out of the question for brand new players once you've got 20 or 30g to your name a good amount of gold can be made controlling the Stringy Wolf Meat market. It probably won't be your ticket to gold cap but buying out all that 10s meat and reselling it for 1-2g per piece can be a very lucrative venture for a new gold-maker.

Moving On Up

Welcome, Faidfans, to the new digs!

When I first created NerfFaids I did not anticipate it ever becoming anything beyond a public journal for my own gold making. I never thought there would be fans or any reason I may need to give out the URL and so the URL was always clunky. "Uh, it's nerffaids.blogspot.com but that's with a double f and Faid is spelled weird . . ."  Just don't really flow, does it? Let's not even start on the fact that it caused people to refer to me as Faids more often than not!

Thanks to generous donations from fans (if you'd like to chip in check out the widget to the right!) I was able to register a domain. Clockwork Riot? Yeah, it's a bit nonsensical, but so is my blog so that's alright. Plus it just sounds badass, which also describes my blog.

Don't worry, I'm not about to change my content; you can expect the same quality Faid-content here, it will just look prettier and be easier to direct people to the site.  NerfFaids will no longer be updated. Don't worry, if you ever need to reference anything or just want to relive past memories the entire blog will still exist at nerffaids.clockworkriot.com for your viewing pleasure.

I've also renamed my Twitter to @YoClockworkRiot and created a new Youtube account to mesh with the new domain.  Be sure to follow/subscribe and all that good stuff at the links below to stay up to date on any Faidnews from here on out.  I will be making my "Best of Nerf Faids" videos available on the new Youtube channel in the coming weeks and will also be publishing all of my new gold making videos there, so be sure you're following!

So what do you need to do?

Here's a quick to-do for all Faidfans so you can stay with me through the move:

1. Bookmark ClockworkRiot.com
2. Be sure you're already following @YoClockworkRiot
3. Subscribe to me on Youtube.
4. Update your feed reader.
5. Tell your friends about the move!

(If you're a blog owner don't forget to update your blog roll!)

Thanks, I hope you like the changes as much as I do!