Gold Halved?! Stockpiling for 4.2

Hello infrequent visitors. It often feels like I am writing to myself when I post entries here. Promoting yourself in the blogosphere takes commitment, tenacity and determination. Even an attitude change is enough to increase traffic. But this blog is simply my little writing outlet, entwined with my passion for the number one subscription MMO — a world that has been a part of my life for the past six years, and counting.

Whether one person or 200 people read any given entry, I will continue to write and express my own experiences and thoughts surrounding our beloved and ever-changing and maturing World of Warcraft. I'm just content with putting into words what is going through my mind and my gaming life at this moment. Promotion can be reserved for traffic-hungry bloggers within the community. :)

Now that that little spiel is out of the way, let's wax WoW, shall we? Shine on, shine off.

My gold reserves have been halved. I spent almost 35,000 of 70,000 gold! Perhaps "spent" is the wrong term. I invested a large sum of money into various areas for a predicted return. ROI may be 90%; it may be 200%; but whatever the outcome, just the thrill of spending — what is to me — so much gold makes the whole endeavour worthwhile.

I stepped out of my comfort zone in a much bigger way than at the end of Wrath. Back then, I kicked off my gold-making dabbling with a stroke of luck. And since I play casually and have taken a couple of breaks from playing since Cataclysm hit, I haven't really put much effort into utilising much of what is at my fingertips in order to increase my bankroll.

With 4.2 on the horizon, I decided to change this. I must rein myself in to prevent obsession — which also means following my own advice of not comparing my own experience and goblinning with others in the community. But I have taken some risks and have been preparing myself to try and turn my recent investments into profit.

Let's take a look, shall we?

Truegold
JMTC has been a big help, once again. I had already determined to stockpile Truegold, after having realised that there are new craftables coming in 4.2 that require 8x Truegold each. I had just started buying up Volatiles and transmuting a bar a day, when I read the blog entry about stockpiling the stuff. That was when I decided to just buy as much as I could while also transmuting once a day. So far, I have bought around 45 bars off the AH at under 500g each (the cheapest was around 465g, but that is rare). 495 x 45 is around 22k gold spent. On Truegold purchases alone. The Volatiles also put quite a dent in my funds. But at least I am somewhat stocked up on those, too!

Expected ROI is 200% for these. No one can say for certain just how long after the patch hits until blacksmiths will be in desperate need of bulk Truegold; or whether there will be quite so much of an increase in value. One thing is certain, though: there will be profit.

Pristine Hides
Another JMTC blog entry put me onto this (thanks, Mageshadow! And thank you to the anonymous commenter who pointed it out in the first place!). It was actually something I missed. I had considered trying to stock up on Dreamcloth, because I know that just as Truegold is going to suddenly be in great demand for blacksmiths in 4.2, so too is Dreamcloth going to suddenly be in great demand for tailors! I decided not to invest in Dreamcloth, however, as I don't want to overextend myself. I could, potentially still stock up a little, but when you diversify too much it can become overwhelming.

Pristine Hides are not only going to be in high demand, but they are also going to possibly be in greater demand than even Truegold. 'What?' you might ask. 'What is the biggest difference between the new blacksmithing craftables and the new leatherworking ones?' The answer, my friend, is item level!

Take a look:

• Blacksmithing epics that require 8x Truegold are iLevel 365. The iLevel 378 ones each require 8x Living Ember.
• Leatherworking epics that require 8x Pristine Hide are iLevel 378. They also each require 8x Living Ember.

Pristine Hides are currently sitting at around 225g on my server. I bought up as much Savage Leather and Heavy Savage Leather as I could where it worked out to under 200g to hand in for a Pristine Hide (each costs 10x Heavy Savage Leather, which is 50x Savage Leather). Maybe half of what I bought was closer to 150g. I also expect a 200% ROI on these.

Primal Might
Now for some reasoning of my own. Researching other potentially profitable transmutes, I noticed that Primal Mights were selling on Proudmoore for anywhere between 275-420g. Why should this matter? Aren't they an obsolete item? Not quite. There are two uses for Primal Mights: Runed Adamantite Rod and Master of Transmutation.

The former is a potential niche market; but I reasoned that the latter is where you could make more sales. With the rise in demand of Truegold coming in 4.2, I predict that more alchemists will want to spec Transmutation Master. And in order to do so, they will need 4x Primal Might. I can't say when the demand for these will increase, but I am trying to keep an eye on prices and put them up individually for now to try and get a few bites. So far, I have sold 6 of the 7 I put up, ranging from 315 to 420g (300 to 400g after the AH cut).

The Primals needed to make these range in price overall, but it has worked out a fair bit cheaper to buy them as Motes when they are cheap. You can actually save quite a bit overall if you buy Motes whenever they are available. And since Transmute: Primal Might is not on the cooldown, you can craft to your heart's content. It's just a matter of choosing when to put them up, and how many to put up at once in order to maximise profit. I am still learning this, but I intend to experiment a bit with stacks of four to see how that works out.

Now, Primal Mights are not huge profit; but they are consistent and an interesting use of transmutation off the cooldown. Competition shouldn't be too fierce, either (if it is, don't bother, or just cool off for a bit and keep an eye on movement).

Shadowspirit Diamonds
This is really something I could have taken advantage of over these past few months. Especially as Obsidium and Elementium ore prices dropped (though they do still fluctuate a fair bit). But coming back to look at the Cataclysm shuffle, I see that Shadowspirit Diamonds still have the potential to yield decent profit. It's mostly a matter of finding ore at good prices (hint: near the end of weekends), finding the time to prospect and transmute, and choosing whether to sell raw or cut without fear of overwhelming competition that results in continually wasted deposit fees on your part (and the inevitable influx of returned gems — every jeweller's nightmare).

The gem market can be nasty. But if you play your cards right, you can at least come out on top, regardless of how many people continuously undercut your attempts at providing the masses with their meta gems.

I uploaded my Professions Shuffler spreadsheet. There is a link under the Tools box to the right. The spreadsheet tries to combine Alchemy, Enchanting and Jewelcrafting to help work out what makes profit and what doesn't. I simply don't have time to get involved in a big way in multiple markets — but I can still enjoy spending gold to try and make gold, and work out where potential profit can be made. And I can still play around with shuffle spreadsheets of my own concoction. ;)

I will upload an updated version every so often. Does that mean I have to start adding version numbers? :D

--

In other news, I picked up Archaeology with my rogue, Selaena. It would be nice to eventually have a shot at getting Recipe: Vial of the Sands from an excavated Canopic Jar. The probability is insane, though. :/

I also ran my first level 85 instance with her, Lost City of the Tol'vir. The lag was atrocious and I am really out of practice with a melee toon. But it was fun, and I got a new dagger: Barim's Main Gauche, and some shoulders from a quest in there: Clandestine Spaulders.

I rolled a Human hunter on the same realm as my little Worgen priest — who incidentally is now level 28 and slowly making his way through Ashenvale. My plan is not to level as fast as possible, but to enjoy the content and the casual pace that comes with experiencing the quest chains and lore. I want to finish the zones, regardless of experience gain and level pacing. It is my own escape within an escape.

Gaiwyn isn't really much closer to being able to step into the Zandalari heroics. But no mind. When 4.2 hits, I intend to forgo a lot of what I was aiming towards and simply enjoy the new questing hub and whatever rewards I can garner through that — not to mention, of course, the whole experience of the Molten Front and its dailies and progressive nature.

So I still play, and I am still trying to balance enjoyment between various toons. I honestly can't see most of my level 80s making the journey to 85; but with three now, who knows if I will get an urge to level, say, my warrior or my hunter. :)

And with that, I leave to post another day.

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Patch 3.0.8

Time for an update. And what better time than when a new patch is released.

3.0.8 brings about quite a few tweaks and changes. Go read the patch notes if you haven't already. I tend to immediately look for Mage changes as well as profession changes that affect my mage. Even though I play most other classes and have every profession, everything else takes less importance.

That said, let's look at the mage changes:

* Arcane Blast: This ability has been significantly changed. Arcane Blast now increases the damage of the next Arcane spell by 15%. However, using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge itself. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage of Arcane spells is increased by 15% and the mana cost of Arcane Blast is increased by 200%. This effect stacks up to 3 times and lasts 10 seconds or until any Arcane damage spell except Arcane Blast is cast.

Good new for Arcane mages, getting that extra damage for your Arcane Barrage or Arcane Missiles (on your Missile Barrage proc).

* Arcane Flows: Now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by 1m/2m.

Much needed for Arcane mages who burn through mana like it was sugar-water.

* Elemental Precision: Renamed to Precision and now works on all spells.

Can't really comment on much here. I guess it's a good move -- except it pretty much forces Arcane mages to get points from the Frost tree.

* Evocation: Cooldown reduced to 4 min.

Nice. As a Frost mage it's not going to make a difference, but for Frostfire and Arcane mages, being able to recover their mana every four mins (every two mins for specced Arcane mages!) is a great option for mana management.

* Improved Blizzard: The snaring effect has been reduced to 25/40/50%.

Unless I was a farming spec, more than one point in this was pointless anyway. Still, 25% is better than not slowing mobs at all.

* Incanter’s Absorption: The amount of spell damage a Mage can gain from this ability is now capped at 5% of the mages health.

No more battleground cheating, imo.

* Mirror Image: The Mirror Image Polymorph ability now has a range of 8 yards. In addition, Mirror Images will no longer have excessive threat values assigned to them when they are created.

Not good that mobs will no longer think that your Mirror Images are you. The reduced polymorph range won't make too much of a difference if you are in the thick of things, but it won't be quite as cool when standing back and no longer seeing random sheep (or penguins) appear.

* Slow Fall is now castable on others.

Wow. I didn't see this one coming. I can imagine the organised air assaults on Blacksmith now. I see them nerfing this in the next patch or taking away its effectiveness while pvp flagged or in battlegrounds.

* Torment the Weak: Now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage against targets afflicted with any type of slow (such as the combat slow from Thunder Clap).

This is what I was waiting for. TtW will now give my Frostbolts 12% extra damage. How cool is that?

Now, for professions:

Enchanting
* Many high level enchantment recipes have had the amount of Infinite Dust and Greater Cosmic Essence requirements significantly reduced, but with Dream Shards being added to them.

This is good. It should make levelling Enchantment a little easier overall.

* Increased the Fire damage inflicted by the Icebreaker weapon enchantment.

Meh.

* Reduced the armor penalty granted by the Berserking weapon enchantment.

Great for melee peeps wanting this enchantment.

* Increased the amount of healing from the Lifeward enchantment.

Good, I guess.

* Increased the amount of damage caused by the Icebreaker enchantment.

Meh.

* Added a new recipe to enchant bracers with Stamina. You can buy this recipe from Vanessa Sellers in Dalaran.

Excellent. This should be in much demand!

Tailoring
* Reduced the cloth required to make a Bolt of Imbued Frostweave.

I was waiting for this to be implemented. I have a heap of bolts to imbue. XD

* Simplified the materials required for Shining Spellthread and Azure Spellthread.

Good change.

* Reduced the eternals required to make Brilliant Spellthread and Sapphire Spellthread, but increased the number of Iceweb Spider Silk.

Silk, schmilk. Good change.

* Greatly reduced the materials required to make the self-only tailoring leg enchants (Master's Spellthread and Sanctified Spellthread), but these recipes no longer grant any skill gains.

Skill gains, schmi- -- you get the picture. :p

* Reduced the training cost for the normal Flying Carpet.

o.O Seriously, who cares.

* Ebonweave now requires the tailor to be in the Maw of Neltharion in Dragonblight to creating it.

Good, but porting out of the old place was no problem for a mage. :p

* Spellweave now requires the tailor to be at the Azure Dragonshrine in Dragonblight when creating it.

Ya, having everything in Dragonblight is good. Now if only I had a use for creating these cloths...

I got my Tier 7.5 gloves the other night, from Archavon: Valorous Frostfire Gloves.

Have yet to make a dent into Storm Peaks but I will eventually get there. Too much else to do, it seems! For example, I finished exploring Azeroth, landing me the achievement World Explorer and the title, "the Explorer". I also killed Baron Rivendare a few more times in Stratholme. 24 kills and not a peep of his coveted horse. One day...!

I was also present for a Malygos kill. I won the roll for Necklace of the Glittering Chamber, but the loot master gave it to the wrong person. Reassignment is still being sorted out. :/

We will be clearing three wings of Naxxramas tonight, with the other wing and our Sartharion kill tomorrow night. One of our regular ten-man healers is away, so I guess we will see how it all goes. Achievements can wait.

Speaking of more achievements, I just have to do a heroic Oculus and I will be a Champion of the Frozen Wastes. 27 more heroic achievements for Glory of the Hero and my Red Proto-Drake. XD

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Improve Your Gear

On my guild forums, there is a link to a website that helps you to assess your gear (or look at other people's gear). I have a lot to improve on with more than just what pieces I have, but it is a work in progress, just as gathering gear is. Website added to sidebar.

One thing I really need to do is socket my belt. Once that is done, all I can really do is get a better cloak to make it worth enchanting with more than spell penetration, and slowly replace my blue pieces.

My Tailoring and Enchanting continue to be levelled very slowly. For both, it is a matter of obtaining mats. I hope to quest in Icecrown some more after my Christmas / New Year holiday. That will gain me more reputation with Argent Crusade and Knights of the Ebon Blade, cash from questing, and greens to DE for Enchanting mats. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Heroism

I've been doing a few heroics. My gear is slowly improving. I still need a lot of cloth to level my Tailoring, but at least I am making progress. I crafted my Magnificent Flying Carpet last thing tonight. Can't wait to take that bad boy for a spin around Northrend.

My Enchanting has also improved. I just hope to be able to enchant more gear with orange recipes for guaranteed points. ;)

We did Black Temple again tonight but failed to get the Illidari Council down. I kept losing aggro on High Nethermancer Zerevor when he became immune to magic attacks. I guess I needed to pull him as far to the left as I could, but it just wasn't happening.

At least I hit Revered with Ashtongue Deathsworn. That much closer to another Exalted faction. :)

Here is my current pre-raid gear layout:
Head
Encircling Burnished Gold Chains
Dark Runic Mantle
Back
Egg Sac Robes
Wrists
Gloves of Distorted Time
Girdle of Bane
Breeches of the Caller
Stone-Worn Footwraps
Ring 1
Ring 2
Trinket 1
Trinket 2
Flameheart Spell Scalpel
Prison Manifest
Rod of the Fallen Monarch

I should get Naxxramas upgrades eventually, but will do my best to save Emblems of Heroism to get badge gear. Two more badges and I get the 50 Badge Achievement, too. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Naxxramas Raiding Begins

On Wednesday, we killed Archavon the Stone Watcher and then went to the Obsidian Sanctum and killed Sartharion. Both were 10-man raids. We will be doing 10-man raiding until we have the guild numbers to hit up 25-man content.

We paid Instructor Razuvious a quick visit in Naxxramas, having time to spare. It didn't go so well, but it was good to go back to the instance in its non-40-man form.

Last night, we had our official Naxxramas raid. This was our first guild raid in new content. My gear is currently very, very poor, as I have been unable to do any heroics and it has been a mission to get gear through crafting or reputation. I hope that over the next few weeks I will build my gear to an appropriate raiding level -- and will replace at least a few pieces with Naxxramas drops.

We cleared the Arachnid Quarter: Anub'Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina and Maexxna. We then went and killed Patchwerk. I respecced to a more raiding friendly Frost build than I was, in order to punch out more necessary DPS.

We had one try at Grobbulus, but it was getting late and I think that only one of us had done the fight before; that being in the 40-man oldschool version, two years ago. We will get him down pretty easily, though, whenever we have our next Naxxramas raid.

The Archavon and Sartharion thing will hopefully be weekly. The big dragon is necessary in getting our T7 shoulders, anyway, and Archavon drops some nice gear -- both PvE and PvP.

After our Naxxramas raid, some of us did a heroic Utgarde Keep. It was my first heroic since hitting level 80. I hope to do many more in order to build up a better pre-raiding gear set.

I really struggled with effectively DPSing last night and felt incredibly underpowered. I also like Frost too much to veer away from that for now, and plan to continue raiding as Frost. Although, when I have all the Frostweave Cloth necessary to get my Tailoring to 440, I will go full raid spec.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

The Tailoring Nightmare

I had more time on my hands, so worked out how much Frostweave Cloth I will need to get my tailoring from 406 to 440, so that I can craft my Ebonweave Robe. Long story short, including the cloth for the robe, I will need a total of 1,945 Frostweave Cloth.

Even if I was able to farm 2,000 cloth, the extra items and reagents are going to cost me a hefty sum. There's no way I can have my robe for our Naxxramas run this Thursday. Maybe next week, eh. :p

Here is my shopping list:

5 Frostweave Cloth per Bolt of Frostweave
15 Frostweave Cloth per Bolt of Imbued Frostweave

4x Duskweave Wristwraps > 410
32x Bolt of Frostweave = 160 Frostweave Cloth

5x Duskweave Gloves > 415
45x Bolt of Frostweave = 225 Frostweave Cloth

1x Ebonweave > 416
1x Moonshroud > 417
1x Spellweave > 418
3x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 45 Frostweave Cloth
2x Eternal Shadow
2x Eternal Life
2x Eternal Fire

Frostsavage Belt > 419
Frostsavage Bracers > 420
6x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 90 Frostweave Cloth
6x Crystallized Fire
6x Crystallized Earth

Black Duskweave Leggings > 421
2x Black Duskweave Wristwraps > 423
2x Black Duskweave Robe > 425
23x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 345 Frostweave Cloth

Deep Frozen Cord > 426
1x Spellweave
4x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 60 Frostweave Cloth
4x Iceweb Spider Silk

Frostsavage Boots > 427
Frostsavage Cowl > 428
Frostsavage Gloves > 429
Frostsavage Leggings > 430
Frostsavage Robe > 431
Frostsavage Shoulders > 432
21x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 315 Frostweave Cloth
27x Crystallized Fire
27x Crystallized Earth

Aurora Slippers > 433
Light Blessed Mittens > 434
Silky Iceshard Boots > 435
13x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 195 Frostweave Cloth
1x Spellweave
2x Moonshroud
12x Iceweb Spider Silk
4x Heavy Borean Leather

Frostmoon Pants > 436
2x Hat of Wintry Doom > 438
Glacial Robe > 439
24x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 360 Frostweave Cloth
1x Moonshroud
1x Ebonweave
8x Iceweb Spider Silk
3x Eternal Fire
3x Eternal Water
1x Frozen Orb

Ebonweave Gloves > 440
4x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 60 Frostweave Cloth
4x Ebonweave
1x Frozen Orb

Ebonweave Robe!
8x Ebonweave
6x Bolt of Imbued Frostweave = 90 Frostweave Cloth
1x Frozen Orb

The good thing is, I can use some of this crafted gear. Some is PvP gear, some I will send to my Priest, and some is Frost Resist gear. This time around I won't be disenchanting quite so much of my levelling crafts.

Totals
1,945 Frostweave Cloth
And a whole lot of other stuff that I cbf typing up and linking. :o

My progress (2008-12-10 - 9.40am): I am at 418 Tailoring now. I just need to get 6 Crystallized Fire and I can craft the Frostsavage Belt and Bracers. I need to farm more cloth to get past 420, but AoE farming can be fun. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Borean Tundra - Valiance Keep

I logged into the server and ported to Stormwind before clearing my mailbox and getting rid of a few things to make room in my bags. I rode down to the harbour and took the ship to Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra.

My Lich King journey has begun.

Upon arrival, I grabbed the Flight Point and then ran around town unlocking the next level of my professions: Grand Master First Aid, Grand Master Enchanting and Grand Master Tailoring, as well as learning all recipes available to me. It took a decent chunk out of my miserable 500-odd gold stash.

I picked up quests and ran out into the nearby area to fulfil the requirements. I eventually finished those up, as well as the few around the Keep itself. I moved up into Farshire and had to go into the mine a couple of times to complete some quests in that area.

Some ghoul killing and harvester rewiring later and it was back to the farmers of Farshire -- where I hit Friendly with Valiance Expedition -- and then the inn back at town, which incidentally is now my hearthstone home.

The server had three minutes left on its restart timer, so I decided that it would be prudent to log out while in the inn.

--

After the server restart, I logged back in to finish up a few loose ends before I could head down to Riplash Strand, which I will start on tomorrow.

Day 1 of my Northrend experience complete.

I realise that playing for such a short stretch of time means I haven't progressed terribly much, but this is part of my plan. I have been reading the full text of every quest and just strolling through quests I already did in beta. So far it is basically some guff on cultists among the friendlies and some scourge activity. I know that in reading every quest's description and experiencing every scripted event, I will fully experience this new content and appreciate what the development team have done regarding the whole Lich King story behind it all.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Dual Wielding Enchanted Axes

The other day, I ran Temple of Ahn'Qiraj with a few people, mostly from one of our server's high-end guilds. It was good because it pushed my Nozdormu rep from Unfriendly to halfway through Honored. If only Hydraxian rep went up that fast. XD

What's unfortunate is that my rep gain could be better. I never won the roll for Head of the Broodlord Lashlayer, even though some -- nay, most -- people who won it when we raided BWL weren't even up to that part of the questline, nor pursued it any further or put it to good use. I was a dedicated Silithian, and yet I never received the head; thus, I cannot gain Brood of Nozdormu rep through Silithid Carapace Fragment turn-ins. AQ40 it is.

And what this teaches us is that 40-man raiding had its negative points. Trying to win a roll against 39 other people is like beating your head against a brick wall in the hopes that you will find its weak point. Oftentimes it is futile. The ironic thing is, I won Head of Nefarian on our maiden kill. o.O

Yesterday, I had the day off. I took the opportunity to play my little warrior instead of my mage. I made five levels and at 38 am ready to do a complete clear of Scarlet Monastery -- having done the prerequisites for the main quest: In the Name of the Light. I guess I will need to spec my brother's warrior to take her through. ;)

What's fun is that every ten levels or so I have been upgrading my warrior's blue weapons. I am sticking with axes, as they tend to have a higher top-end damage. And besides, Draenei don't benefit from any particular weapon, and since axes look so cool, I might as well go with a convention, right?

Currently, she is wielding Sickle Axe and Steelclaw Reaver -- both enchanted with Crusader. It looks friggin' mean -- and when they both proc at the same time: raaaape. ;)

I will enchant my next upgrades with either Strength or Potency, depending on the current cost of Essences of Earth -- seeing as I currently have a huge supply of Large Brilliant Shards, Greater Eternal Essence and Illusion Dust, from having run Stratholme a few times.

Enchanting BoP items is going to be incredibly welcome, now that Inscription has introduced Armor and Weapon Vellum III. XD

I have run into a wee bit of a gold issue right now. I can't really get motivated to do dailies even though I'm running low on cash. I really want to go into the expansion with enough money to purchase my Tailoring and Enchanting upgrades. Still, it's not a huge issue. Having a lot of gold is nice; but it's a luxury, not a necessity. ;)

I guess I need to stop impulsively buying stuff. Yesterday, while searching the AH for Iron Ore for levelling my warrior's Blacksmithing, I noticed that there was a whole lot of cheap Dark Iron Ore. So I logged my mage and bought a heap of stacks to take into Blackrock Depths to increase my reputation with the Thorium Brotherhood. I also found that there were some cheap Lava Cores, so I also got ten of those. :)

The funny thing is, Iron Ore was way overpriced, so I didn't end up increasing Blacksmithing at all. But I did get a nice chunk of Thorium Brotherhood rep. :o A few more MC runs for more cores and I will be working towards two reps at once. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Titles

There are some new user titles to be introduced with the expansion. A lot of these will be server first achievements. WTB Archmage Gaiwyn. XD

A couple of other things of note. Firstly, I remember reading about faction championing a while back. Information has been released regarding factions you can champion as you run instances. All you have to do is wear the tabard of your choice of faction to gain reputation with them. For the Argent Crusade, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, and Wyrmrest Accord, all reputation gains while in level 80 dungeons and wearing their respective tabards will be applied to your standing with them.

Leatherworkers will be able to apply item enhancements that act as enchants. The same will also probably eventually apply to Blacksmiths and Tailors.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Professionally Speaking

I read the transcript of three interviews yesterday with various Bliz personnel. The first interview was about music in the game, especially focusing on what is to be expected in WotLK.

The second interview was what I was most interested in. It covered professions and expected changes with the expansion. I have every profession across my toons, and so found many things in that interview to be interesting. Check out the following summary from MMO-Champion (edited):

General

• The alchemy discovery system could be added to all professions, but will be restricted to "fun" discoveries or more predictable outcomes.
• Players may be able to collect tokens from daily profession quests and use these to purchase select recipes from token vendors.
• 375 skill requirement for the best craftable gear was too high -- expect the required level for epic craftable gear to be lower than the max 450 in WotLK.
  
• Sets such as Frozen Shadoweave were "too powerful", damage stats being equated with Tier 6, but available to any tailor without too much trouble (eg. Didn't require nethers). School-specific craftable items will be reviewed.

Blacksmithing

• Blacksmiths will be able to add sockets to a weapon, Armorsmiths will be able to add a metasocket to armor.
• The plan is to try to balance Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing to make both specs viable and interesting.

Fishing

• Fishing will be more interesting and require more than half-conscious clicking.
• There will be fishing-specific food in WotLK just like what was introduced in TBC with recipes like Spicy Crawdad or Golden Fish Sticks. (Might be time to get both this and the cooking skill for my mage...).

Engineering

• Some of the engineering items nerfed in TBC like the Gnomish Mind Control Cap will probably be un-nerfed and/or upgraded in WotLK.
• Items like Rocket Boots will be changed to an "enchantment" allowing you to convert any footwear to Rocket Boots.
• WotLK now allows engineers to do "on-use enchantments" to items, and they're going to use it a lot. (Parachute Cloak enchant, or something to let you shoot webs from your gloves, etc.) -- each "enchantment" would replace any existing one on the armour, and vice versa.

Enchanting

• Enchanters will be able to sell their enchantments at the Auction House (or send them to alts) -- Scrolls of Enchantment.

Alchemy

• Discovery won't be used for "important" recipes anymore, it will be either predictable or just produce "fun" recipes.

Jewelcrafting

• Not as reliant on world drops.

Tailoring

• Tailoring-only flying mount -- the Magnificient Flying Carpet! (I can't wait!)

Inscription

• One inscription is equivalent to one or two talent points, and all the inscriptions aren't about increasing power; sometime they’re a big power increase but they’ll change something else about the spell. (eg. reducing the cast time of Pyroblast down to 3 sec but adding a 25 sec cooldown, or decreasing the effect of Last Stand from 30% to 20% of your max health, but giving it a 2 min cooldown instead of an 8 min cooldown).
• Inscriptions will affect talents, but probably won't affect passive talents very often.
• 15-20 Inscriptions will be available for each class, sometimes with more than one inscription available for a specific skill.

So these are some of the changes to look foward to with professions! The third part of the transcript covered a few questions that people had directed towards Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan. It makes for an interesting read.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore