TradeSkillMaster Guides - Updated for MoP

It's been a busy few days for me but it's done! A lot of people were requesting an updated TradeSkillMaster guide series using the new interface. Between that, the new features (Quick Posting <3 ) and the fact it would give me a chance to make them easier on the ears I decided it was time to update the guides.

So here they are!  You'll notice the "Advanced Tactics" video is just the first, implying there may be more. If you have something you want to learn more in-depth in TSM feel free to ask; it may be in a future Advanced Tactics guide.

Auctioning and Group Creation

Crafting, Shopping, and Dealfinding

Mailing and Destroying

Advanced Tactics #1

How to Macro Any Addon Button

Certain parts of gold making can be very monotonous, particularly activities like milling, prospecting, disenchanting, or buying out large amounts of items from the auction house.

The in-game abilities are easy enough to macro but some folks seem to stop there. Well, did you know it's just as easy to macro clicking buttons, such as clicking TSM's buyout button or Panda's disenchant button?  Let me show you how.

Essentially the macro command is very simple.

/click [Name of Button]

Not too tough! But I use this really super obscure addon and there's no one out there that will tell me what the button is called!  That's fine, you don't need anyone to do it.  You can figure it out yourself very easily and the best part is that everything you need is built into the base game.

First open your macro frame. You can do this by hitting Escape => Macros or typing /macro into your chat frame. Now here comes the fun stuff.  What we need to use is the built in framestack command.  Type /fstack into your chat window.

That will bring up a window that looks like this:

This window will display information about anything you mouse over. Below you can see what pops up if I mouse over my character pane with Shadowed Unit Frames.

So what does this have to do with making button macros? Using this tool you can learn the name of any button from any addon in the game. If you move your mouse over a button from an addon you will see that button's name displayed in the pop up.

Here's what happens when I mouse over TSM's buyout button:

Using this information you can then make a macro to click any addon button. Here are some examples of macros I've used:

This macro will click the buyout button in TradeSkillMaster and will accept the confirmation window.

/click TSMAHTabBuyoutButton
/click TSMAHConfirmationActionButton

This macro will disenchant the first item in Panda's disenchant section.

/click PandaDEFrame1

This macro will click the automatic disenchant prompt from Enchantrix.

/click AutoDEPromptYes

Hopefully that will help you guys get a handle on some activities that were just boring as could be before. Good luck!

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!