Wowbrief: glyphs

Showing posts with label glyphs. Show all posts

Monday, November 15, 2010

Hatchling a Plan

Hatchlings Making a Comeback
It's official: Razzashi Hatchlings will not be a money-maker in Cataclysm. So the question is: do I try and sell mine now at 5k gold a-piece, or do I wait and see just how difficult and rare they become when re-introduced to the game post-4.0.3a?

Either way, the only thing I've lost is the couple of hours it took me to farm them myself. Thankfully, I didn't pay a large sum of gold in the hope that their value would skyrocket. And if it comes down to it, I can learn the pet myself on a couple of toons. :)

Saronite Shuffle
On another note, I've heard that it may still be profitable to prospect Saronite Ore, grab cheap Eternal Earth (people dumping their stock) and use that with the green gems you prospected to make items for either vendoring (if profitable), selling at the AH (if the supply is not too high) and disenchanting.

Northrend enchanting mats should rise in price in the expansion, so that isn't a bad way to go. Just work out if you can get stacks of ore cheaply enough and it could be a good market to dabble in.

Glyphs and Inks
Just this morning I got a pretty insane deal: about 20 stacks of Adder's Tongue for 14g per stack! I have been buying as many herbs as I can get my hands on (at less than 24g per stack), and crafting as many glyphs as I can from the milled pigments and resulting ink - a huge task in itself.

Dumping the Snowfall Ink is a huge problem, as they keep getting returned to my mailbox after trying to auction them off. It seems that there is too much on the market and just not enough people wanting to make and hand in Darkmoon cards. If it comes down to it, I could always just vendor them. :x

I have filled up more than a guild bank tab so far with stacks of 5-10 glyphs each and have stockpiled 3-4 stacks of lower level inks (for crafting into glyphs or even reselling post-patch). My plan is to get at least 10 of each of some of the popular glyphs as well as 8 stacks of each of the six glyph inks before patch 4.0.3a. If I can sell all 10 of about 20 glyphs per class, covering 6/10 classes, at 45g each, I will make 54k gold. Having spent around 20k on herbs to make the glyphs, that's over 200% profit.

It has been a lot of work, but the more I tried to prepare, the more I found myself making. It's too hard to balance everything, so my piece of advice today is to just do what you can do and not worry about trying to meet crazy goals. I may be taking too much on my plate, and I am definitely putting a lot more effort into Inscription than anything else. But this opportunity to take advantage of selling so many glyphs will not roll round again any time soon, and that is something I keep in the back of my mind as I continuously press that mill button.

Here's hoping that I can spread myself out more after Glyphmas II passes; just not too thinly. :)

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Beta Theta Data

There is some cool stuff on the beta servers right now.

The new glyph interface is active, although a lot of new glyphs are still under development:

Cataclysm Glyph UI

Worgen can now customise both their Worgen and Human forms:

Worgen customisation screen - Worgen form

Worgen customisation screen - Human form

The Dark Phoenix mount is acquired through a guild achievement that requires completion of the first three raid achievements:

Dark Phoenix a guild achievement

A few tidbits:

The vanilla raid instance Zul'Gurub is being removed (Source).
Possibly due to popular demand or simply just efficient development, the heroic versions of Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines will now be released with the expansion, rather than in a later patch (Source).
The patch notes have been updated for the newest beta build (12857: Source), and the level cap has been raised to 85 (Source), with Uldum and Twilight Highlands now accessible for testing.

A lot more has happened over the last couple of months. For some decent beta footage, check out the videos from TotalHalibut, aka Total Biscuit of Cynical Brit fame. He recently released one of a Stonecore dungeon run, and with the level cap now 85, expect end-game instance videos some time before the end of the beta:

Totalhobnob Stonecore run

Peace.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Thursday, March 19, 2009

PTR Build 9704

Glyph changes, spell changes, v. 9704 talent build, and stats and set bonuses of Tier 8!

Check Bobouille's post for the lowdown on all of it.

The Mage Tier 8 4-piece bonus seems pretty lame. It would be nicer if it automatically cast again whatever spell you did on the proc. Take, for example, Brain Freeze (seeing as I am a Frost mage). If it procs, I will cast a free, instant Fireball. I would then have the time of a GCD to register whether Brain Freeze was consumed or if my bonus procced and it is still up. With all that goes on in raids, someone will probably have to make a mod that gives you a warning when your proc is not consumed; otherwise you are unlikely to react in time and will start casting your next Frostbolt -- which has a chance of proccing Brain Freeze again, and therefore you could be wasting your bonus.

I will never have Tier 8 gear, so this won't affect me either way, anyway.

Perhaps we will just have to wait and see how these bonuses pan out once the top guilds have geared up with Tier 8. The Death Knight ones look nice, at least. ;)

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Exciting Pre-Expansion Changes

Patch 3.0.2 goes live tonight. The servers have been down for a while already and will continue to be down until everything is completed tomorrow. I'm going to be restless all day as I wait to finish work. I'm excited about these pre-expansion changes!

Here's a summary of what is being changed and added:

You can no longer get bear mounts from ZA

Hand of A'dal and Champion of the Naaru titles are no longer obtainable

The Onyxia attunement and Atiesh questlines have been removed

Naxxramas has been shifted to Northrend and will not be accessible until the expansion goes live

Barber shops are available in major faction cities

Graphics have been updated, including the new shadow engine

Stormwind Harbor is available but ships don't yet go to Northrend

Mounts and vanity pets are now trainable and will go into your Pet tab when learned

The entrance to Caverns of Time: Stratholme has been added, though you cannot zone into the instance

Badges of Justice, Marks of Honor, etc are now Tokens

The in-game events calendar has been added

Achievements should be live -- check Wowhead for a complete list

Healing and Spell Damage stats have been combined into the new Spellpower stat -- this includes school specific damage (nature, fire, frost etc)

A lot of armour and items have been changed to reflect the new game mechanics

Buffs, debuffs and auras are all now raid-wide

TBC raid monsters have had a 30% health reduction

New talent trees for all classes

Introduction of the Inscription profession: scrolls, vellum and class glyphs

Two new arenas: Dalaran Arena and The Ring of Valor

Honor-purchased gems are no longer BoP or unique-equipped, so can be sold on the AH

Go ahead and check everything out if you haven't already. This is a huge patch with many playstyle-affecting changes. Everyone's toons will have to be re-treed tomorrow; and there will be a lot to take in.

I was going to wait to roll my Death Knight before picking up Inscription, but people are likely to charge exorbitant prices for everything. At least we have another month to hoard our gold in preparation for levelling to 80.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Build 9038

The classes continue to be tweaked as we draw ever closer to the release of the expansion. And the dilemma of getting my hands on a copy still plagues me. It will be disappointing if I can't pre-order locally and have to get a copy sent over from NZ.

Anyway, the latest release sees a handful of changes to skills and glyphs across the board. Head over to MMO-Champion for a summary of what this patch entails.

Recently, I have not played my warrior much. However, my druid reached exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive and I have been doing dailies with my rogue.

When 3.0 is released, I intend to do some oldschool content on my mage to aim towards some of the achievements before being able to level past 70. I am currently grinding Wintersaber Trainer rep.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Glyphs Continued

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Higher, Oh! Glyph

I did a quick search around the place and couldn't find much information about Glyphs, which are crafted through the new profession, Inscription, and alter spells and skills in some way. So here is my self-gathered information from beta.

Your character has three major and three minor glyph slots. There is a tab in your Spellbook which switches to your glyphs. To equip a glyph, you must be near a Lexicon of Power. Just ask a guard in any city where you can find one. The one in Ironforge is in Thistlefuzz Arcanery, floating above the table on the first floor.

When you click your glyph to apply it, the Spellbook opens automatically to the glyph tab and the appropriate glyph slots begin pulsing -- ie. if you click a major glyph, the three major glyph slots will pulse.

To apply the glyph, just click on the appropriate glyph slot. You will cast for about three seconds to apply it, then the grid will light up and the new glyph will appear. You can Shift Right Click to remove any glyph. Once removed, you will have to buy a new glyph to replace it because the glyphs themselves are consumed upon application.

My recommendation is to choose wisely what glyphs you wish to use, unless you are an inscriber and can craft your own. I have no idea what any given glyph will sell for when the expansion goes live, but because they are consumable, they shouldn't be too expensive -- at least after the initial boom in the market dies down and prices normalise.

It's also great that you can essentially have six glyphs equipped at any given time (seven, if you are an inscriber). This allows for great flexibility in the dynamics of any class!

I think that glyphs will affect how people spec -- at least, to a degree. I know that the Glyph of Fireball is going to be a priority choice for me, considering the advantage of proccing Hot Streak. Losing Fireball's bonus DoT is no big deal in the face of gaining more chance to proc Hot Streak and throw out a Pyroblast, which with World in Flames has a greater chance of critting in itself and throwing up a bigger DoT than Fireball ever could. That, plus you have more chance of getting an Ignite, which in itself makes this glyph very worthwhile. XD

Two final things of note: you cannot equip the same glyph in two sockets -- you will get an error message telling you that it is already equipped; also, tooltips are updated to reflect the changes to skills and spells, so there is no confusion as to the effect that each glyph has.

I look forward to this addition to the game. Polar Bear Cubs are so cute!

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Friday, August 22, 2008

Beta Build 8820

It's here! The latest beta update. Changes to skills and talents. More class glyphs.

PvP Items
WotLK Arena Weapons Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3
WotLK PVP Necklaces | Rings | Cloaks | Trinkets

Lake Wintergrasp PvP Vendors
Epic Armor
Epic Belt/Boots - 24 800 Honor
Epic Bracers - 15 800 Honor
Epic Necklace - 19 000 Honor
Epic Cloak - 19 000 Honor
Epic Trinket - 24 800 Honor
Epic Rings - 19 000 Honor

Rare Armor Sets
Rare Chest - 6000 Honor
Rare Helm - 6000 Honor
Rare Shoulders - 4800 Honor
Rare Gloves - 3600 Honor
Rare Pants - 6000 Honor

Weapons
Off-hand items - 3600 Honor
Main-Hand (Healer Mace) - 10 000 Honor
Main-Hand (Melee) - 8400 Honor
Two Hands - 12 000 Honor
Ranged Weapon (Hunters) - 12 000 Honor
Throwing Weapons / Wands - 3200 Honor
Shields - 6000 Honor
Relics - 3200 Honor

New Professions Recipes
Engineering
Blacksmithing
Jewelcrafting

Level cap raised to 80 and new instances unlocked! Source.

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore

Monday, August 11, 2008

The Beta Rolls On

There were a lot of beta changes over the weekend. More blacksmith craftable weapons and armours have been released; Lake Wintergrasp (PvP zone) was made available; Mages, Warriors, Rogues, Shaman, Druids, and Warlocks all had their talents updated; Naxxramas tokens can be used to purchase a healer shield and a tank shield; many new class glyphs for the inscription profession have been released.

I still yearn for a laptop to hook myself back into playing, grarghhh. :o

Gaiwyn of Proudmoore