Posted on 2012 under add-on |
18
May
Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Each week, WoW Insider’s Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond — your addons folder will never be the same.
As the Mists of Pandaria beta rolls along (lots of monks are on the beta — it’s a joke about rolling), almost all of the zones are open to testing and nearing the level cap. Soon, very soon, Blizzard will flip that switch and we will be able to enable addons and it will be glorious. Until then, there are many questions about the current version of World of Warcraft (Cataclysm) that many people would like to have answered.
If you’ve got a question, answer, addon recommendation, complaint, invoice, or other correspondence, you should email Addon Spotlight’s amazing author Mathew McCurley at mat@wowinsider.com. Through that email, you will reach me and my eyes. Let’s get going.
In honor of Diablo, (H)el(l)ephant
Our first email comes from reader Jmaximus, who sounds like a totally badass paladin on the Thunderhorn server. Any name with Maximus in it is going to intimidate me to some degree. Anyway, Jmaximus has an addon recommendation for the lot of you, so thank him, because this one is pretty cool. Elephant!
Continue reading Addon Spotlight: Mailbag 5
Addon Spotlight: Mailbag 5 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 18 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
18
May
If you have been a reader of this journal from the days of Markco til now, there have been a staple of suggestions to new and experienced gold goblins. Largest of these being to have maximum profession scores as soon as possible.
But many times it skirts over why this idea becomes necessary. With MOP just on the horizon, it becomes that much more important to understand why a max profession is important for gaining gold.
First it gives you access to the best crafting items on the market. The faster that you have the best recipes available and crafted, the more profits become available. Players, especially with extra cash on hand, look for the best items they can purchase. And many are willing to pay extravagant prices to obtain these glittery swords, shields, chest pieces etc. Quicker crafting and placing on the Auction House will provide higher profits. As more and more crafters reach these top levels, and these items become more available, the profits begin to dwindle.
Alchemist and tailors when at maximum level have transmutation items become available. In Cataclysm,
Transmute: Truegold was a continual money maker for alchemist. While tailoring with their
Dreamcloth transmute became available at the 500 point level Both were money makers during the entire length of cataclysm.
Another reason for maxxing out your professions is achievements. MOP is introducing account wide achievements, one of them being max professions with all the professions over the account. So those with multiple professions can have an achievement that many won’t be able to reproduce for an extended period of time.
Even your gathering professions are beneficial to max out. Besides the ability to mine, skin or pick herbs anywhere. You also have benefits to your player themselves. Mining adding more stamina, herbalism giving you a self healing ability and skinning adding critical strike. All three can be beneficial to any of the different Race/Class setups.
The first look at making gold is always going to be try to max your chosen professions as soon as possible. This gives you access to the best recipes and best money making opportunities.
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at “@Dragonbearjoe” or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
17
May
Everyone who has played World of Warcraft for an extended period of time has gone through these times. People going off to another game to play. To enjoy the excitement of something new, something “revolutionary”. State of the art graphics and gameplay.
But never to worry faithful goblins, even if things seem slow right now (and on some servers they are pretty slow), many come back. People have sunk in large amounts of time and effort to be good or the best at warcraft. And games such as Diablo 3 do end up with a shelf life (not to say that it isn’t fun to just go mindlessly blow up things. Maybe Warcraft needs it’s own cow level)?
But for the Goblin in you, now is a good time to recheck all those plans you have set up for the introduction of Mists of Pandaria. Farming will be easier in highly contested areas because the competition won’t be there. Even sneaking in a few achievements to bolster your gaming portfolio.
Have you double checked the Auction House. It might be a great time to steal some hard to find items with people dumping product not being sure what it’s worth? Pulling together some quick runs to Black Temple to get some transmog gear? Even farming low level instances solo to get gear to sell to leveling twinks.
Right now 5 man heroics or raids might be more difficult to pull together. But don’t let that stop you from your goals and preparation for MOP. Even if it’s just sitting down with a piece of paper and sketching out exactly how many materials you need to collect and where to store them. Preparation is your key to success in a goblin society.
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at “@Dragonbearjoe” or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
16
May
Diablo 3, the latest “WOW killer” released on the 15th. As with any new release, server issues, loading issues, graphic issues and more issues than National Geographic have occurred. Anyone who has been involved with a new game has this expectation. Nothing ever goes completely smooth with the release of a new game.
As a gold goblin, anytime I see a new “WOW killer” the first thing I look at is the Auction house system. And how it compares to the World Of Warcraft system. With Diablo 3 it was the Real Money Auction House (not implemented yet), others introduced new vendors, new crafting items etc. But it always seemed to come down to how I could dominate that new system.
I was discussing Star Wars: The Old Republic mmo with a friend who had started playing the game during the beta. Where he was excited about the characters and abilities, it was obvious that at somepoint he would hit that wall of burnout that appears with many MMO’s. Doing the same things over and over again ad nauseum. At some point he would want to find something new to dominate. Many turn towards PVP or achievements. But like me, he usually turns towards the AH on the game.
The biggest question with the RMAH from Diablo 3 will be what will Blizzard learn from this to add to the franchise ship Warcraft. Is there a chance that Warcraft will get it’s own RMAH? How would they balance the scales of new players, giving them opportunities to gain real life money vs experienced players who have stockpiles of gold from the start.
Then there is the secret MMO code named “Titan” that many gamers are waiting to hear announced from Blizzard. What will it entail? Will it truly be a WOW killer, taking all the mistakes that happened with World of Warcraft and having it be at a running start from the beginning?
As Diablo 3 runs it’s course and starts to age, what will be the next “WOW Killer” and what rewards for the goblin auction house gurus will it bring?
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at “@Dragonbearjoe” or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
15
May
Diablo Gold Secrets by Tony Sanders is
Predicted to Help Gamers to Make Big Real Life Money in Diablo 3
Dean Brown from Stanford University, an
Economics Major in Virtual Economy discussing his predictions of the hyped up
Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House and how to get an edge in the game with
Diablo Gold Secrets.
Games have always offered money making
opportunities for players, from days of World of Warcraft to Aion and Second
Life… but with the launch of Diablo 3, there’s a new gold mine about to be unearthed.
Based on the basic principle of willing
buyer and seller; and with an estimated 5-10 million players in the game,
Diablo 3 will definitely have ample amounts of both, thus creating an
environment and a huge potential of an exciting in-game economy.
For aspiring players intending to make the most
amount of real life currency with Diablo 3, as with all economies, be it real
or in-game, it takes money to make more money. And in this game, initially, the
best way to make the quickest buck is to sell off in game currency, this being
gold and getting real life currency in return.
In short, it’s going to be a gold rush. And
as with any gold rush, those who get in early will be ahead of the pack.
Realistically, a full time gamer could easily
earn up to $100 a day, amounting to about $3000 a month but this is actually a
very conservative estimate. Items in similar games such as Eve Online have seen
transactions in excess of $5,000 for a spaceship! With very rare items such as
Legendary weapons and with an auction house in the game, there is just no
saying just how high these items could be sold for.
For gamers who are keen on earning a
sizable income using the Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House, the higher level
you’re at, the more gold you’ll be earning and the better items you’ll find.
Therefore, it’s advisable to be at the highest level in the game as quick as
possible (currently at level 60) to ensure that all the drops or finds which you
get are significantly higher than the other players on lower levels.
Also, there are other “off-game” principles
which can be used to gauge and monitor the auction houses which will allow
players to maximize their earnings through auction trends, much like stock
market brokers in real life as well as the application of the Pareto principle.
In 1906, Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80%
of the land in Italy then was owned by 20% of the population. Later on, after
observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas did
he develop this principle, also known as the 80–20 rule or the law of the vital
few. He states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20%
of the causes.
Hence with Diablo 3, it’s going to be for
certain that only 20% of players will be monopolizing 80% of the economy in the
game… and 20% of this select group will have a further 80% of this share. This
disparity works out to show that the top 4% of players will own more than half
of the entire Diablo3 economy (a whopping 64% in fact!)
So the question now is, how do you work
your way to be that select 4% of players? The only way is to be a leader, to be
the one right in front of the game. That will only happen when you’re at the
max level, earning the max amount of gold and getting the best items in the
game.
Then there are other auctioneer principles
which delve in studies involving human behavior, market fluctuations and the
like which also will affect the auction house and making money from it.
Hence, it cannot be stressed enough the
importance of being at the top of the game in the shortest amount of time.
Going about playing on your own and learning from your mistakes is probably the
worst way to go about it. By the time you’re familiar with the game play and at
a decent level, there will already be plenty of players right around your level
which doesn’t give you any leverage or advantage whatsoever.
The best way to go about this is to invest
in a good Diablo 3 leveling guide which will really straighten out that
learning curve so you’ll be leveling much quicker than the others. Then, look
for a great Diablo 3 gold guide which will show you the best ways to sway the
auction house to your advantage.
But with so many Diablo guides in the
market, careful analysis must be carried out to ensure that you get only the
best and most relevant guide there out there in the market and with Diablo Gold
Secrets, you’ll get just that.
This is a great all-in-one Diablo 3 Gold and Leveling Guide which was written by Tony Sanders and is currently the
benchmark for all Diablo guides with great in depth knowledge of the auction
house as well as a step-by-step leveling guide for players of all levels.
Tony
is a professional gamer who’s been involved in plenty of games which have
similar mechanics (leveling and making in-game currency) such as World of
Warcraft and the recently launched Star Wars: The Old Republic and his
Diablo 3 Gold Guide will show you how to make the most amount of gold in the game and
was recently updated to include a blueprint which shows how to study and master
the auction houses, hence showing you how to make the most real world money in
Diablo 3 as well.
Therefore, if there is anyone who wants a
clear head start in the game with every intention to dominate and own all the
best items and gold, this is clearly the best Diablo 3 guide in the market.
Dean Brown is an economist majoring in
virtual world economies with several publications under his belt. He recommends
Diablo Gold Secrets as the best guide out there:
http://www.DiabloGoldSecrets.com
Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
14
May
The major gold sink has been announced for Mists of Panderia. MMO-Champion broke the news that some of the vendors will have “black market” items to bid on. With little information other than what is on the beta this will become an interesting idea as it starts to develop.
On this black market AH will be past discontinued mounts, pets and other items. Included in this is the Tier 3 armor sets that were removed when Naxxramas was moved from Easter Plaguelands in Azeroth to the barren wasteland of Dragonblight in Northrend. These will most definitely be Bind on Pickup items. The biggest question will be whether the pets and mounts on the Black Market AH will also be BOP. If they become BOE it might end up being a big opportunity to resell. Currently the market has it set at 12 hour auctions so bidding at night when there is less population could cause deals to become more readily available. Parking an unused character at the Black market site and bidding occasional could reap a large amount of rewards.
One of the downsides of this blizzard idea will be that many of the armor sets and mounts that players have become proud of “earning” will be just as available for the right amount of gold. Already on the boards there is squabbling about how it’s unfair to those that had gained the Tier 3 armor set through dedication and hard work. While others will be able to just drop a large (or even small) amount of stored gold to gain the same elite status in the eyes of some.
Will this diminish the investment quality of some of the hard to get items in the game? Big questions of just how much this will go to evening out the gold playing field. There is already an expected low value set on many items (10,000g for pets, 10,000g for armor, 20,000g for Mounts). Looking at the list of some of the items you can see the current cost on the AH for many of these pets and there is an expectation that they will go unbidded on. The Elwynn Lamb for example is easily obtainable on both the Horde and Alliance side for 4k to 6k. So bidding 10k on one on the BMAH would be giving money away. But mounts like the Ashes of Al’ar are beyond rare to see, and will cost a large amount of gold to bid upon.
So this might be a stroke of genius by Blizzard developers, or come back to just be another forgotten idea with MOP. The new expansion will have an influx of players both returning and new. Having little or no money to start, and many not armed with the tools of making gold other than questing, there will continue to be a divide between the haves and the have nots.
Hopefully those that read this journal want to continue to be part of the Haves.
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at “@Dragonbearjoe” or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Posted on 2012 under add-on |
11
May
Filed under: Add-Ons, AddOn Spotlight
Each week, WoW Insider’s Mathew McCurley brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond — your addons folder will never be the same.
If you asked me back in 2009 if GTFO would become one of the most widely used, universally loved, and iconic addons in World of Warcraft’s history, I would have laughed you out the door. You see, not standing in bad things was the ultimate test to see if you were ready for the big boy leagues. Sartharion and his three drakes brought a whole new meaning to the phrase “if you stand in the bad, you’re losing DKP.”
World of Warcraft made standing in stuff a staple game mechanic for boss fights and player spells and abilities. A common thread presents itself — Blizzard took potentially clunky boss and game design and made it more accessible. Boss design used to be a mix of larger and stronger versions of regular mobs, like in the EverQuest planes, or unique mobs that would have some awesome new NPC abilities or even steal a player ability or two, like in the EverQuest planes. WoW might not have done it first, but the game sure did make it pretty and varied.
For every action, there is a reaction, and for every good thing to stand in, there are a hundred more bad things. Standing in bad things has become the joke of the era, culminating in Wrath of the Lich King with the ultimate send-off to positional and location-based mechanics — heroic-mode Shadow Traps. GTFO’s alarms and bells would echo down the sheer icy cliff walls of Arthas’ monstrous fortress, the angry screams and painful sighs of adventurers falling to their deaths, the alarm not even finishing its full playback.
Continue reading Addon Spotlight: GTFO revisited
Addon Spotlight: GTFO revisited originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 11 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
11
May
When World of Warcraft began in 2001. Gold making wasn’t on the map. It was a niche idea that a few were able to begin with. Auction house buying was young, and most of the fortunes made in game were from dubious methods (buying of gold, duplication of items etc).
But fast forwarding to today, there are multiple journals and opinions on how to make gold. From farming, selling, buying, crafting. All viable ideas. But with one purpose, to make you into a Warcraft virtual millionaire.
The plain truth is that making a large amount of gold in the game changes how you view playing. Deal hunting and selling becomes a unofficial profession of it’s own. Now with the right amount of gold you can have just about anything you want in the game. You can almost instantly have a raid equipped toon in under 5 minutes. You can buy that awesome mount, or even buy a run to get an awesome mount. Want a cat, jump to the AH and you can buy one of your very own.
The benefits of having gold will change the game. Also it will become a game until itself. Getting bored with raiding and dungeons (and right now it’s not that difficult to do). The AH becomes a flexible opponent that you can never truly beat. As the consortium forums say, gold making is the ultimate in PVP.
As we continue with this journal. Getting closer to the Mists of Pandaria invasion, those that are making gold now will have a huge advantage over someone who is just starting out. It is difficult, near impossible to get a realm first in a crafting profession without having enough money saved up. The first BOE mounts and getting the first combat pets require gold to purchase from the AH, or the time to farm them up yourselves.
So what is the tip for today? Be ready for tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Making gold in the warcraft game changes your gaming life, and it changes how people look at you. And how you look at yourself
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at “@Dragonbearjoe” or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Posted on 2012 under Uncategorized |
10
May
One of the first items I always add to a new toon is the [Gnomish Army Knife]. Having before to drag one or two different tools to be able to do mining, skinning or grass picking tasks. It’s a farmer’s best friend.
But MOP brings a nice little addition to the party. Carry this item around on your farmer and you will get a +10 to the gathering professions. That might not seem like much, but combine that with the +5 gloves enchant for any of the professions ([Enchant Gloves -Advanced Mining], [Enchant Gloves - Advanced herbalism], [Enchant Gloves - Skinning]. This enchant/item combination adds a healthy +15 to your abilities. Leapfrogging you over many of the dead zone areas that happen when leveling a gathering profession.
For engineers, this is going to be a nice little niche goldmine to add to the small amount of items that sell continually. Grab some Saronite, a pick, a hammer and a skinning knife and make some quick profit from the start.
It is item changes like this that will drive the price of Saronite ore and bars higher than expected. Starting to buy cheap, or farming them in Wintergrasp will put you ahead of the demand to come.
Good Luck and Good Hunting
Want to get in contact with me? . Email me at Dragonbearjoe @ gmail. dOT com or find me on twitter at “@Dragonbearjoe” or leave a comment here. You can find me hanging out on the Shandris Server, chat me up and I will buy you a glass of juice.
Posted on 2012 under add-on |
8
May
Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week
Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you’d like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you’re using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.
As many of you already know, my go-to recommendation for pre-fab compilation user interfaces is ElvUI. I love this addon pack because the skinning of the interface keeps the game uniform with easy-to-read fonts and lots of information for both the novice and expert, and it’s updated enough that, for my purposes, I’ve never really worried.
Bryce’s user interface starts with an ElvUI foundation and moves toward full-featured completion with a bevy of new addons not included in the pack. Filling out the areas that ElvUI doesn’t necessarily cover, Bryce has complemented the addon pack with addons necessary to raid and function, as opposed to addons that skin or change the aesthetics of the user interface.
Here’s the part that interested me about the aesthetics issue: None of the addons that Bryce added to his setup changed the way ElvUI actually looks. Sometimes you get to talk about behind-the-scenes addons. Let’s have fun with it.
Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: Bryce and Elv’s UI stand against any foe
Reader UI of the Week: Bryce and Elv’s UI stand against any foe originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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