C’mon, you know you want to. Email me your best creations (splat [at] myguildhome.com) and I’ll post’em here, too.
Heya! I’m putting off my morning medication just long enough to type this up. Hopefully it’ll remain coherent. 
In Part I I told you to install Auctioneer and start using that to scan the Auction House on a regular basis to keep up to date on the prices of … well … everything. It was a long post in my opinion, and to make up for it I shall dispense this post’s advice in the form of bullet points.
- Pick a bank alt to run your auctions. It’s nice being able to unload all my marketable items any time there’s a mailbox nearby, and psychologically it’s a good way to save money – can’t spend it if it’s out of sight, out of mind, right? No need for the bank alt to be a lvl 1 created just for that, either. Just pick whichever alt you already have that you haven’t bothered to play with for a while.
- Pick one or two tradeskill categories. Go through them daily (or more often than that if you’re saving for something big) and buy everything priced under 50% value (Auctioneer will tell you the % – it even color codes it!) for the purpouse of reselling at a profit.
- Careful, though! Some items, even priced far below market value, just don’t sell often. That’s why you only pick two tradeskills – you’ll quickly get a good sense for what will and won’t sell. I’m looking at YOU, Black Whelp Scale!
- Beware of bulk – yours and others. If someone just posted 5,000 Copper Bars to the AH then they’ve officially flooded the market. Go ahead and buy some if they’re a good deal, but don’t think you’ll be able to resell them the same day. Just hold onto them for a while first to let the market calm down. Likewise, if YOU post 5,000 Copper Bars to the AH, you can expect to see most of those come back to you – less the deposit fee the AH charged you, of course.
- People who play twinks, as a rule of thumb, tend to have a lot of gold handy. Searching for blue BoE gear in the level 17-19 range (or 27-29, or 37-39…) might net you a bargain, but be careful not to jack the price up too high when reselling.
There you go, a few more tips. I’ll write more later, but first I think I’m going to finish leveling up Splat’s fishing. Seriously, do you see what Deviate Fish sell for in the AH?
Well, contrary to what some might think after reading that last post of mine, I have not in fact abandoned Fortune Favors for an RP server. In fact, my lack of posting here has been due partially to my leveling of two new alts in the guild (I rather like McSplat, my new hunter), and partially due to the fact that I’ve been sick for a week now.
Really sick.
Party wipe because I had a coughing fit at the wrong time, sick.
Codeine cough syrup sick.
McDonald’s was wrong, I’m not lovin’ it. Maybe it’s just because I made the mistake of taking my first dose on an empty stomach…. nevermind. Let’s get on topic before it kicks in and things get out of hand.
First, let’s get some things out of the way:
- I do not give gold to beggars.
- I do not beg for gold.
- I do not endorse the purchase of gold for real-world currency. Well, maybe Zimbabwe currency, but only because it would be like paying for something with a rapidly melting ice cube. I want those gold farmers/sellers to squirm.
- “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” – Lao Tzu
So… here’s how I make money in WoW without even doing dailies. I’ll probably divide this into multiple parts, because it’s a lot of tips and frankly this site could use the extra traffic.
The first step is to get Auctioneer. No mater what your professions are, what level you are, or what class you play, you can make a mint with this addon. I use WowMatrix to install, manage, and update all of my addons, but if you prefer to do so you can find it at Curse.com too.
Auctioneer is not like most addons, in that it doesn’t start working for you “out of the box.” That’s enough to turn most users away, but it’s really only one button-click to get it ready.
The problem is that every server is its own isolated economy. The price of Wool Cloth on one server doesn’t mean it’ll sell for the same price on another server, or even for the other faction on YOUR server.
To figure out what’s what, the first thing you need to do is head to the nearest AH and talk to the auctioneer. You’ll notice the interface is a little different, with some DVD control-like buttons at the top. Hit the “Play” button to start a scan, then go watch TV, make a sandwich, do your homework, tell your parents you love them, or something else that’s meaningful. Most of my scans take 10-15 minutes to complete, depending on how many things are in the AH.
Once you’ve done that Auctioneer is ready to go! Of course the more data Auctioneer has the more accurate it’ll be, so I re-scan every day. You should at least re-scan every week, if not every couple of days, just to stay current. Certain holidays will see sharp spikes in prices for particular items and you’ll want to stay on top of that.
Now that you’re done scanning look down at the bottom for the last tab on the right. The “Appraiser” tab is where you go to unload anything and everything you don’t need to keep on you. I have enough tips about this one section to fill two, maybe three posts, but for starters you can get by just by using the recommended prices that Auctioneer throws in there for you.
That’s right, you never have to guess at a price again. Auctioneer looks at what that item is selling for and gives you a price that might not be the lowest but is very likely to sell. Won’t work for everything (scrolls are hard to sell these days, for example), but my ore, leather, and cloth almost always sell.
I think that’s enough to get you started, at least. Next time I’ll either talk about professions or how to play the AH like a stock baron, either of which is a lot easier now that you’ve got a great addon to do the number crunching so you don’t have to.
When World of Warcraft first came out it was hailed as an awesome MMORPG, which indeed it is. Unfortunately (in my opinion), many players don’t quite get the “RP” in “MMORPG.”
I’m not saying everyone who plays WoW has to actually role-play their character, mind you. After all, I’ve created a gnome warrior named “Theyhitme” not once, but twice. Not exactly prime RP material there.
But I do think that creating a character, assigning it a history and personality, and then pretending to be that character in game for a short length of time is a fun diversion. I first got into pen-and-paper roleplaying games because I got to explore dungeons, kill dragons, and level up. I kept playing those games because I got to do improvisational acting. WoW isn’t so much different from that.
Granted, Trollbane is not the best server for that. As a “Normal” server it’s great for leveling and learning the game, but start pretending your character is real and people will look at you funny. When I’m in the mood for roleplaying, I’ll often just look for whichever of the RP flagged servers has the lowest number of people online. Lately, that’s been the brand spankin’ new Wyrmrest Accord server.
I’ve found it has a decent population of people who understand what RP is and how to do it well, with few, if any, people who don’t quite get it.
Oh, and just an FYI: I am not abandoning Fortune Favors! Yes, I’ve been spending time on another server, but I’m not the only member who’s done that and returned. I still log into a Trollbane character or two every day, and I spend a good deal of time logged into our Vent server just in case someone needs to get in touch with me. This post is merely to let you know RP servers can be a fun diversion if you’re bored and want to try something different for a few hours.
And hey, if enough of us try it and like it, we could always start another chapter of the guild over there. Just sayin’.
First, a hearty “Grats!” to our new guild officers:
Daynear (when he gets back)
Inch
Lehon
Nianeve
Nymper
They make the guild better by being in it, just like all our officers do.
In somewhat related news: To compliment our now somewhat larger officer corps, I’d like to start a recruiting drive!
At this point all members can recruit new members simply by clicking on the guild tab and hitting the “Add Member” button. I would, however, like to make a few clarifications. I really shouldn’t need to say most of these, but some less than reputable behavior has gotten back to me during some guild recruitments (not necessarily for this guild), so I figure better safe than sorry.
- I’m not asking you to spam General Chat. Once every 10 minutes? Maybe, if you really want to. But anything more frequent than that will probably either get you placed on an /ignore list or give the guild a bad name. Most likely both. When I do put an ad in Gen Chat, it’s once – just once – for the whole time I’m in that zone. I don’t post an ad again until I’ve moved on to the next zone.
- Do not, under any circumstances, send unsolicited guild invites. Seriously, in my opinion as someone who has a few non-guilded alts floating around on other servers, that single act is the most annoying thing a recruiting guild can do. At the very least, ask first in whatever channel seems apropriate (Party, Whisper, whatever).
- One of the best places to find new members is the Guild Recruitment channel found in every capitol city. Just type “/join guildrecruitment” and not only will you have a channel where guild ads are socially acceptable (you should still only post in moderation), but you will also have a channel where non-guilded people will actually request guild invites.
- Players you know and respect are almost always good additions to the guild. Have someone on your friends list that isn’t in a guild? Ask if they’d like an invitation! Just finish a really good PUG group where one or more members aren’t in a guild? Why not ask if they’d like to join ours? If they say no, then that’s fine. Some people like being guild-free. But if they say yes, then we just got a new member! Yay!
As I said, some of this should already be obvious. Just think about what behaviors were annoying to you when you weren’t in a guild, and don’t do that.
Well, I’m not quite sure how I’m still up, so I’m going to hit the hey. Happy hunting, everyone.
It’s more of an in joke than anything else, but … well … here. See for yourself.
That’s right, the 2 people in my fan club can now get shirts that proclaim as much. /shrug.
This was kind of fun to make, though. Maybe I should try creating a few more that actually have a chance to sell.
Just booted up my WoW client to find this little nugget of uncertainty stareing back at me. This patch is supposed to have some good and bad about it, depending what you play and how you play it. Let’s hope for the best.
(I want my darned Healadin Goggles, dagnabit!)
Looking for something to do while the server’s down? Tired of waiting for your favorite webcomic* to update? Well you could always do some real work around the house … eheh, let’s move on before my wife looks over my shoulder and reads this.
Why not start a blog? They’re easy, free, and can be very fun with very little effort.
But Splat,I don’t have a blog!
Then make one, silly! There are plenty of free blog providers out there that can get you started with almost no muss or fuss. I won’t begin to list all of them here, but some of my favorites are:
- Vox – Everything you need is built in, but it’s still simple.
- Blogger – Owned by Google
- WordPress – Runs the same software that manages this site
I’ve used all of these at one point or another and while I’ve since moved on to self-hosting, I think they’re still good services.
I don’t know what to say!
Write about your class. (Paladins are awesome.) Write about what you did recently. (Dinged to 80 last night, Rhonin mailed me some fireworks to celebrate.) Write responses to things other people have said. If you find yourself talking about a subject for more than 5 minutes on Vent or in game, you could probably make it into a blog post with little to no effort.
No one will read it anyway.
I will, if you send me a link. I’ll even link to it here if it’s relatively kid/work-safe (see Rule 5). And you’ll be surprised at how many people will find your blog through Google searches or perhaps when they do a search to see who’s linking to them. (Remember when I mentioned posting responses to what others say?)
Still seems like too much work. Can’t I just post on this blog?
*Is probably not your favorite webcomic.
Thanks in no small part to a donation by Lehon, (I’ve mentioned him here before…) we now have a 5th bank tab. I played with a few options for how to divide the tabs up but settled for a 1-tab-for-every-16-levels model.
- Anyone can access the first tab, which should include items usable by characters up to level 16. This is where I also have my tailor put all of her 16 slot bags that she makes. It’s really her only job, besides playing the Auction House. Don’t judge her!
- The second tab is for anyone who is Prepared or higher, and should contain items that are usable by players from level 17 through 32.
- The third tab is for Well Prepared or higher members, and should have items for players level 33 through 48.
- The fourth tab is also for Well Prepared or higher members. That’s right, when you get to Well Prepared you gain access to two guild tabs at once! This one should have stuff for levels 49 though 64.
- The last and final tab is for Officers only, with items for levels 65 through 80. This may sound restrictive, but since anyone in the guild can work their way up to Officer by simply adhering to the guild rules I think it should work out.
If I have things set right, any guild member should be able to see and contribute to any of the tabs. If you encounter problems/requests just talk to me or any officer.
Today on a whim I made some 1,000 Blank White Cards.
1kBWC, as it’s often abbreviated, is a fun, free game that does NOT actually involve 1,000 cards. It was named for a box of blank flash cards, as memory serves.
The rules of the game are pretty simple, starting with making up a bunch of silly little cards out of 3″x5″ blank index cards that you’ve cut in half. The coolest thing about the game (in my opinion), is that when you’re done making the deck you throw some blank cards in there as well. That way, you’re actually still making the game as you play it. It’s still balanced, since everyone else has the same opportunity. Especially if you have a house rule or two about making “I win the game!” cards.
Anyway, if it sounds like something you’d want to try, the rules and history of the game are here, some sample cards are here (might not all be kid friendly), and my own contributions are below. Enjoy.
Is this something you’d like to see more of? Have your own ideas for cards? Let me know in the comments or email me at splat [at] myguildhome.com!
