Finished!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Tear them from the Sky!
Tear them from the Sky! is a quest so awesome, I stopped in the middle just to post these screenshots. Not a complicated quest, by all means. But then again, I'm not a complicated guy. Give me a BIG gun, and some dragons, and I'm there.
Inscription: Herb Comparison
Here's my guide to the relative herb prices you should be looking at when milling cataclysm herbs.
Unfortunately, on Dath'Remar at least, the party is over as far as cheap cataclysm herbs goes. The base price of the lower quality herbs seems to have settled around 3g50 up from 2 - 2g50 quite soon after the expansion hit.
Here's a guide to the table.
Unfortunately, on Dath'Remar at least, the party is over as far as cheap cataclysm herbs goes. The base price of the lower quality herbs seems to have settled around 3g50 up from 2 - 2g50 quite soon after the expansion hit.
Here's a guide to the table.
- Blackfallow Ink - The average yield of Blackfallow Ink from each mill.
- Inferno Ink - The average yield of Inferno Ink from each mill. I'm now valuing Inferno Ink at 10 times the price of Backfallow, since there is such a huge demand for the rare ink, many people are using the Dalaran vendor to convert them.
- Weight - Using Cinderbloom as the base herb, the weight indicates how much 'product' you get in comparison to this baseline.
- Price Eq. - An example of the equivalent price for each herb based on the baseline of Cinderbloom at 3g50s. If Cinderbloom is at 3g50s, and I see Twilight Jasmine at under 5g98s, I'll buy the Twilight Jasmine and know I'm getting more 'product' for my coin.
- Sample - The number of mills that I've used to derive my numbers. Naturally the more expensive herbs have a much lower figure, but it looks like the average product scales with the herbs item level pretty much as you'd expect.
| Blackfallow Ink | Inferno Ink | Weight | Price Eq. | Sample | |
| [Cinderbloom] | 1.21 | 0.12 | 1.00 | 3.50 | 165 |
| [Heartblossom] | 1.23 | 0.13 | 1.06 | 3.72 | 310 |
| [Stormvine] | 1.25 | 0.13 | 1.05 | 3.68 | 256 |
| [Azshara's Veil] | 1.29 | 0.17 | 1.25 | 4.39 | 35 |
| [Whiptail] | 1.43 | 0.26 | 1.70 | 5.96 | 34 |
| [Twilight Jasmine] | 1.51 | 0.26 | 1.71 | 5.98 | 72 |
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Protection Warrior Gear Enhancements for Cataclysm
Here are a selection of available enhancements for the protection warrior.
I'm looking forward to trying out Windwalker and see how that movement speed boost works out. I'm a big fan of run speed enchants, so I've put those above the straight master enchant for boots.
I'm looking forward to trying out Windwalker and see how that movement speed boost works out. I'm a big fan of run speed enchants, so I've put those above the straight master enchant for boots.
| Slot | Enchant | Source |
| Head | [Arcanum of the Earthen Ring] | Revered - Earthen Ring |
| Shoulder | [Greater Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz] | Exalted - Therazane |
| [Lesser Inscription of Unbreakable Quartz] | Honored - Therazane | |
| Cloak | Protection | Enchant |
| Chest | Greater Stamina | Enchant |
| Stamina | Enchant | |
| Wrists | Dodge | Enchant |
| Precision | Enchant | |
| Expertise | Enchant | |
| Hands | Greater Mastery | Enchant |
| Heavy Savage Armor Kit | Leatherworking - Materials | |
| Belt | [Ebonsteel Belt Buckle] | Blacksmith - Materials |
| Legs | [Charscale Leg Armor] | Leatherworking - Materials |
| [Twilight Leg Armor] | Leatherworking - Materials | |
| Feet | Lavawalker | Enchant |
| Earthen Vitality | Enchant | |
| Mastery | Enchant | |
| Weapon | Mending | Enchant |
| Windwalk | Enchant |
Protection Warrior Starter Gear for Heroics
Here's my guide to gearing up your Protection Warrior for heroic Dungeons as efficiently as possible. There's no drops on the list (aside from a trinket), so as you are gearing up, this guide should help you spend your time and energy outside of those dungeons for maximum return.
Some of the craftable items are extremely expensive. Some are clearly worth the cost, and others are extortionate (where running a normal or heroic dungeon for an equivalent drop is a better use of your time). Items with an asterisk (*) have at least one [Chaos Orb] and at the time of writing these are BoP. I'm not sure why the Devs chose to do this as it seems to be arbitrarily punishing players without armor crafting professions at a time when they tell us they want to even things out.
Items marked with two asterisks (**) are PvP gear. I have included these items where they are generally much better than any alternatives which are easier to get than the items higher up on the list.
On the trinket front, unfortunately the best Darkmoon Card for tanking is Volcano because mastery is just that much better than dodge. The use of Earthquake, with Last Stand could provide a pretty large health pool for a while, so time will tell.
Any questions comments, item suggestions are most welcome so do leave a comment!
Some of the craftable items are extremely expensive. Some are clearly worth the cost, and others are extortionate (where running a normal or heroic dungeon for an equivalent drop is a better use of your time). Items with an asterisk (*) have at least one [Chaos Orb] and at the time of writing these are BoP. I'm not sure why the Devs chose to do this as it seems to be arbitrarily punishing players without armor crafting professions at a time when they tell us they want to even things out.
Items marked with two asterisks (**) are PvP gear. I have included these items where they are generally much better than any alternatives which are easier to get than the items higher up on the list.
On the trinket front, unfortunately the best Darkmoon Card for tanking is Volcano because mastery is just that much better than dodge. The use of Earthquake, with Last Stand could provide a pretty large health pool for a while, so time will tell.
Any questions comments, item suggestions are most welcome so do leave a comment!
Monday, December 13, 2010
Prospecting in Cataclysm
Here are my numbers for prospecting so far in Cataclysm. So far, aside from helping to level both Alchemy and Jewelcrafting it is looking quite profitable.
Here are my results for [Obsidium Ore] and [Elementium Ore].
The biggest difference is the number of rare gems gained from Elementium, but both sets of prospecting have a similar total yield of gems. Early on in the expansion, uncommon gems have been used for leveling and transmuting and are actually more expensive in a lot of cases than rare gems. So when Obsidium ore is cheap, it's a great way to help level Alchemy and transmute some meta gems. Cut rare gems are quite profitable if you pick the right pattern, and have as little competition as possible while still picking a highly desired cut that sells well.
The "Cost per Gem" figure is reasonably crude, since the value of gems varies a lot from gem to gem, and is changing fairly quickly. At the time of writing it represented a large markup in selling raw gems, but as the price of gems and ore comes down, transmuting and cutting the gems will help the raw gems retain their profitability.
| Obsidiun Ore | 550 |
| Number of Prospects | 110 |
| Cost Obsidiau Ore | 11.4 |
| Cost per Prospect | 57 |
| Total Cost | 6270 |
| Uncommon Gem | Rare Gem | ||
| [Alicite] | 34 | [Amberjewel] | 4 |
| [Jasper] | 28 | [Dream Emerald] | 1 |
| [Zephyrite] | 32 | [Ocean Sapphire] | 0 |
| [Nightstone] | 24 | [Demonseye] | 1 |
| [Carnelian] | 23 | [Inferno Ruby] | 0 |
| [Hessonite] | 26 | [Ember Topaz] | 3 |
| Total | 138 | 37 |
| Yield Common | 1.52 |
| Yield Rare | 0.08 |
| Cost per Gem | 37.54 |
| Elementium Ore | 1080 |
| Number of Prospects | 216 |
| Cost Elementium Ore | 11 |
| Cost per Prospect | 55 |
| Total Cost | 11880 |
| Uncommon Gem | Rare Gem | ||
| [Alicite] | 34 | [Amberjewel] | 6 |
| [Jasper] | 44 | [Dream Emerald] | 13 |
| [Zephyrite] | 39 | [Ocean Sapphire] | 8 |
| [Nightstone] | 34 | [Demonseye] | 9 |
| [Carnelian] | 43 | [Inferno Ruby] | 12 |
| [Hessonite] | 47 | [Ember Topaz] | 14 |
| Total | 241 | 62 |
| Yield Common | 1.12 |
| Yield Rare | 0.29 |
| Cost per Gem | 39.21 |
Friday, December 10, 2010
WotLK Flashback: Gearscore vs. Blizzards Item Level
I wrote this piece back in 4.0.1 when the iLvl metric was introduced, so here goes...
TL;DR: GearScore is weighted for the relative total itemisation of gear (chest is worth more than wrists). GearScore’s average item level is a straight average of iLvl across 17 slots. Blizzards item level is freakishly weighted for relative total itemisation of gear (chest outweighs wrists by A LOT), and is also based on your highest iLvl pieces from ALL possible gear you own (not what you are wearing).
I’m a fan of GearScore. It’s kinda like being a fan of guns. Gearscore doesn’t annoy people, people annoy people.
Gearscore is a convenient metric, with a whole ton of limitations (like every $#@%ing metric ever). If you know and understand the limitations, it can be a useful tool. Like most tools, it can be used for evil. I’ve mentioned guns, which can be used for hunting [yes, we don’t need meat now... but if we didn’t hunt at some point our civilisation would already have perished... so stay out of this vegans]. Guns are also used to kill people, via tragic accidents, murder and what have you. However, a big ass wrench has also been used to kill people, but we’re not trying to outlaw those are we?
So my point is, in my hands... gearscore is like a wrench and I’m an awesome plumber and I’m going to fix your plumbing good. Don’t hate gearscore just because some arrogant know it all used it to club your alt to death and keep him out of a raid. Do you really want to raid with a sociopath anyway?
I’m super impressed with the recent version of gearscore for patch 4.0.1, which has an eloquent disclaimer, “This is your raw Gearscore before spec and gem calculations. This value reflects your GS if fully gemmed, enchanted, and wearing appropriate stats”. That pretty much says it all right there. GearScore is directly telling you what it’s NOT telling you. When I look for extra members for a raid (how did PUG become a verb?) I choose to look them all up online (wow-heroes is my current favourite) so I can exclude people that don’t take pride in their toon like my peers do. Missing enchants, missing or rare gems are an excellent way to make obvious exclusions.
So with that brief introduction out the way, we get on to comparing the item level and GearScore, and why I’m bothering with the comparison in the first place.
I have 5 toons at level 80 with which I raid. Borgthor is my main and is guaranteed to raid ICC every week (both 10 and 25 before the patch). However, the others all raid a lot less and are just opportunistic with pugging opportunites. Wrathborg, my beloved rogue was the last to hit 80, and low and behold... has the highest Blizzard item level rating. “WTF!?!?”, I hear you exclaim. With some gaps in his gear (232 pants, 245 wrists and a 264 PvP cloak) he surely couldn’t be rated higher than Borgthor with 264 items across the board (with the only 277 item being the reputation tanking ring).
Alas it was true, so I set out to test both systems with a new upgrade for Wrathborg.
Wrathborg in PVE gear, GearScore: 5890 (GS iLvl 260).
Wrathborg best possible GearScore (includes PvP gear): 5952 (GS iLvl262).
Wrathborg Blizzard item level: 276.
So the Blizzard item level doesn’t change, and it is based on the best possible gear you own for each slot, regardless of which spec it’s for, or if it’s PvP gear. The drawback of this metric is that when people quote this number for when they come into a raid in their offspec (as their main role for the raid) it may be well out of whack with what they are wearing. Of course, many puggers are unethical or just plain sociopaths, relying on them to give you information has it’s downside anway. On top of that, toons in offspecs may be extremely well geared, but just not know how to play their offspec anyway.
In testing the GearScore raiting, its iLvl rating is just a pure average of the item level across the 17 gear slots.
See the TL;DR up the top for the conclusions.
Jumping right back into this post, post-Cataclysm! I was surprised to find the minimum iLvl for the starter dungeons at 272. Surely ICC epics will do the trick, right? Well, a couple of drops later... and some green junk loot and quest rewards littering my Portable Hole, without exchanging a piece of get I was over the iLvl requirement. Maybe here, Blizzard has done the right thing... if you think of the iLvl metric as, “if you bothered to collect the right stuff, you certainly look like you’ve been seeing the right level of content, so go ahead throwdown in this dungeon”, then that fits the bill nicely. After all, GC keeps telling us that the Devs don’t want to preside over a nanny state.
TL;DR: GearScore is weighted for the relative total itemisation of gear (chest is worth more than wrists). GearScore’s average item level is a straight average of iLvl across 17 slots. Blizzards item level is freakishly weighted for relative total itemisation of gear (chest outweighs wrists by A LOT), and is also based on your highest iLvl pieces from ALL possible gear you own (not what you are wearing).
I’m a fan of GearScore. It’s kinda like being a fan of guns. Gearscore doesn’t annoy people, people annoy people.
Gearscore is a convenient metric, with a whole ton of limitations (like every $#@%ing metric ever). If you know and understand the limitations, it can be a useful tool. Like most tools, it can be used for evil. I’ve mentioned guns, which can be used for hunting [yes, we don’t need meat now... but if we didn’t hunt at some point our civilisation would already have perished... so stay out of this vegans]. Guns are also used to kill people, via tragic accidents, murder and what have you. However, a big ass wrench has also been used to kill people, but we’re not trying to outlaw those are we?
So my point is, in my hands... gearscore is like a wrench and I’m an awesome plumber and I’m going to fix your plumbing good. Don’t hate gearscore just because some arrogant know it all used it to club your alt to death and keep him out of a raid. Do you really want to raid with a sociopath anyway?
I’m super impressed with the recent version of gearscore for patch 4.0.1, which has an eloquent disclaimer, “This is your raw Gearscore before spec and gem calculations. This value reflects your GS if fully gemmed, enchanted, and wearing appropriate stats”. That pretty much says it all right there. GearScore is directly telling you what it’s NOT telling you. When I look for extra members for a raid (how did PUG become a verb?) I choose to look them all up online (wow-heroes is my current favourite) so I can exclude people that don’t take pride in their toon like my peers do. Missing enchants, missing or rare gems are an excellent way to make obvious exclusions.
So with that brief introduction out the way, we get on to comparing the item level and GearScore, and why I’m bothering with the comparison in the first place.
I have 5 toons at level 80 with which I raid. Borgthor is my main and is guaranteed to raid ICC every week (both 10 and 25 before the patch). However, the others all raid a lot less and are just opportunistic with pugging opportunites. Wrathborg, my beloved rogue was the last to hit 80, and low and behold... has the highest Blizzard item level rating. “WTF!?!?”, I hear you exclaim. With some gaps in his gear (232 pants, 245 wrists and a 264 PvP cloak) he surely couldn’t be rated higher than Borgthor with 264 items across the board (with the only 277 item being the reputation tanking ring).
Alas it was true, so I set out to test both systems with a new upgrade for Wrathborg.
Wrathborg in PVE gear, GearScore: 5890 (GS iLvl 260).
Wrathborg best possible GearScore (includes PvP gear): 5952 (GS iLvl262).
Wrathborg Blizzard item level: 276.
So the Blizzard item level doesn’t change, and it is based on the best possible gear you own for each slot, regardless of which spec it’s for, or if it’s PvP gear. The drawback of this metric is that when people quote this number for when they come into a raid in their offspec (as their main role for the raid) it may be well out of whack with what they are wearing. Of course, many puggers are unethical or just plain sociopaths, relying on them to give you information has it’s downside anway. On top of that, toons in offspecs may be extremely well geared, but just not know how to play their offspec anyway.
In testing the GearScore raiting, its iLvl rating is just a pure average of the item level across the 17 gear slots.
See the TL;DR up the top for the conclusions.
Jumping right back into this post, post-Cataclysm! I was surprised to find the minimum iLvl for the starter dungeons at 272. Surely ICC epics will do the trick, right? Well, a couple of drops later... and some green junk loot and quest rewards littering my Portable Hole, without exchanging a piece of get I was over the iLvl requirement. Maybe here, Blizzard has done the right thing... if you think of the iLvl metric as, “if you bothered to collect the right stuff, you certainly look like you’ve been seeing the right level of content, so go ahead throwdown in this dungeon”, then that fits the bill nicely. After all, GC keeps telling us that the Devs don’t want to preside over a nanny state.
Cataclysm Milling
I've been doing a lot of milling since the prices of herbs, while not 'cheap' have stabilsed pretty quickly. I'm surprised by just how much people are prepared to pay for Inferno Ink (up to 500% above cost)... but it's great for the bank balance.
Some assumptions for the numbers below.
- Inferno Ink is worth 8 times as much as Blackfallow Ink. The exchange rate is 10:1 but I'm being a little conservative, since in WotLK the ratio was at times 1:1, but Inferno Ink is looking to be a lot more useful in Cataclysm than Snowfall Ink was in WotLK.
- Prices for herbs are changing dramatically, so expect that to change from day to day and from server to server.
Cinderbloom
Sample: 127 mills
Yield of Blackfallow Ink: 1.2
Yield of Inferno Ink: 0.12
Cost of Herb: 2g
Cost of Blackfallow Ink: 4.59
Cost of Inferno Ink: 36.75
Heartblossom
Sample: 266 mills
Yield of Blackfallow Ink: 1.23
Yield of Inferno Ink: 0.13
Cost of Herb: 2g
Cost of Blackfallow Ink: 4.35
Cost of Inferno Ink: 34.77
Twilight Jasmine
Sample: 36 mills
Yield of Blackfallow Ink: 1.53
Yield of Inferno Ink: 0.26
Cost of Herb: 2.7g
Cost of Blackfallow Ink: 3.71
Cost of Inferno Ink: 29.68
So Twilight Jasmine is currently my herb of choice for milling, since you can pay up to 50% extra over Cinderbloom and Heartblossom to get the same result. I'm not sure if it will pan out (since the sample was only 36 mills) but Twilight Jasmine producing twice as much Inferno Ink is pretty awesome.
I'm really enjoying that I can make a profit from all the products of milling herbs, and it means I can really keep cranking out glyphs for sale at a base price of around 12-15g. Unfortunately Blizzard set the exchange rate of Blackfallow Ink to Ethereal Ink at 10:1, so I have to keep hunting for Outland herbs in order to make many of the (now) most profitable glyphs.
The changes to inscription are fantastic, and I'm looking forward to getting into the darkmoon cards as soon as possible. Today, Twitchie has a trip planned to Stormwind to deliver his Forged Documents.
One last tip: make sure you get your friendly Inscriptionist (or Scribe for you heathens) to craft you a Adventurer's Journal to get a 10% buff to your quest XP. Based on the prices above, you should be able to find them for around 15 - 30g on the AH if there's any kind of scribbling competition on your server.
As prices come down further I'll have a look at milling the other Cataclysm herbs.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Last Minute Wrath: 150k gold
After I posted that I had reached 100k gold on the server, the coin just kept flowing. The nice thing about automating many of the steps in coin generation, it doesn't take a lot of effort to keep things ticking along. Sure if you have a burning desire to have a ton of gold you can expand to new markets, and find new niches... but if you are comfy with where you're at, you can focus on your highest profit for time markets and participate in the others when you grab those bulk bargains from the AH.
A month or so ago I had 160k at my peak, and then between getting involved and another "Last Minute Wrath" project and transferring 10k horde side.... I was down to 125k.
Fortunately after the doom and gloom about the post Glyphmas slump prediction for Inscription when patch 4.0.1 hit... I found precisely the opposite. Increased materials for glyphs meant a larger mark up for each glyph, and even after the massive demand subsided... demand has been steady and the market humming along nicely.
I was completely caught out by patch 4.0.3a, and had not traded nearly enough Ink of the Sea for alternate inks before the ink trader was 'upgraded'. However, there most be a whole bunch of people leveling alts prior to Cataclysm hitting, since I've found the lower to mid level Herb markets far more accessible in the last couple of weeks. I'm still constantly short of Eternal Ink, but I make hay when the sun is shining.
The picture above has my most recent takings from selling glyphs in a single session, which at 3.8k is a new record for me. With the last taking coming in at 1.8k, hitting 5.6k worth of glyphs sold in 12 hours was a nice present just before Cataclysm.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Nitro Boosts: Now a Liability in Combat
It's pretty funny to go shooting up into the air in a heroic, when you're desperately trying to get back to a the boss so you can stab him just once before he transitions.... it's somewhat less funny when you're on your DK is tanking Sindragosa (well it was actually pretty hilarious the first time).
Unfortunately since the boost moved from boots to belt, what was a useful tinker for PvE has become more of a liability. If the increased failure rate is because the enchant is over powered, I completely get that. Don't make them fail in combat though silly! That's the worst possible nerf. How about the speed increase is reduced? The time you are boosted is reduced? Put the $#@%ing cool down up to 5 minutes... anything is better than making them a giant liability.
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