Busy Is As Busy Does

And at the moment, busy makes glyphs.  Seriously, I’ve been spending waaaaay too much time making glyphs.  And milling ink to make more glyphs.  And cancelling and relisting glyphs to annoy my competitors.  Because glyphs have been selling like you wouldn’t believe.

The lesson I’ve learnt from these usurpers trying to steal my market away from me is that one man’s undercut is another man’s opportunity.  Cue the last week’s sales:

For the seven days from 20th July – 26th July:
Total glyphs sold: 1457
Average price per glyph: 5.28g
Average sales per day: 1097.53g
Total income from the AH: 7682.74g

Despite the savage drop in price-per-glyph, it’s still a nice improvement over last week, and although the profit margin has shrunk considerably, my sales leave me in the black all the same.  I also suspect I’m proving something of an annoyance to those who insist of undercutting me, which cheers me up to no end.  (If you’re in a similar space I’d recommend the addon Quick Auctions 2, which has given me something of an advantage by reducing my turnaround time substantially.  If you’re one of my competitors, please feel free to skip over this paragraph)

25-man raiding took a step back last night, as we spent most of it wiping on Yogg-saron – quite a turnaround from the awesomeness of our raids on Wednesday and Thursday.  I’m sure he enjoyed the opportunity to kill us again and again and again.  And again.  And then some more.  It’ll be interesting to see how we do after the reset tonight.

The “New races in the expansion!” theory took a bit of a hit when Blizzard added several additional new masks, at least until we saw them.  Naysayers have held up the additional new masks as evidence that the first new masks are purely cosmetic, and are not evidence of anything new that may or may not have anything to do with the expansion.

As for me?  I’m still of the “Yay, playable Goblins!” school of thought.  Sure there are new masks, and the Vrykul ones actually look almost as good as the Goblin and Worgen ones.  But the Murloc ones don’t look all that detailed (just look at their teeth).  Although the male ogre actually looks decent, the female ogre is apparently line art from one of the RPG manuals.  The male naga is pretty poorly done, and don’t get me started on the female naga, that’s just awful.

Needless to say, I don’t think Blizzard’s non-response was quite as effective as they would hope,  Still, it’s under a month until Blizzcon, so we’ll find out for ourselves soon enough (hopefully).

I’m also still working on the last installment of my PvP gear guide, so for whoever is actually waiting for that, it’s still coming.  (Fingle’s actually getting quite well geared as well – time to start looking for an arena team, i think)

Time to go do things – I’m about to try healing Naxx-25 on Fingle, and I suspect things could get interesting.  Or painful.  Or both.

/wave

Competing For Profits

AKA “There ain’t enough glyph sales for the both of us.”  Needless to say, I expect my profit margins to take a hit while I try out my cunning plan to get my share of the market back from some rather insistent competitors.  And I’ve been amusing myself with a resurrection quote addon.

Thanks to a bit too much time spent in Wintergrasp, Fingle’s PvP gear is coming along nicely.  In about 17k more honor, she will be able to pick up the Hateful chest, which will give her the four-piece bonus, and she’s now wearing both the Titan-forged boots and belt.  I’ve been distracted by other things, so the frequency of her PvPing has come down a bit, and I’m seriously considering not putting too much time into it until after 3.2 and the battleground changes that will make them less painful (especially Warsong Gulch – yes please to a 20 minute game limit!).

It looks like my healing with Fingle will be affecting my raiding as well, as I’m going to be changing Mingle’s second spec to discipline to help out with healing Iron Council hard-mode.  We tried it a few times last night, and the raid damage was just flattening us.  I was on primary dispelling of Steelbreaker’s Fusion Punch (with our very talented other shadow priest backing me up), and with all my attention on that I didn’t really have the time to do much dps.

After a couple of wipes I whispered our healing officer and suggested that it might be a good fight for me to do as disc, to help with raid healing (or at least raid shielding) when I’m not dispelling.  The suggestion went down well, so if we go back to that fight tonight I’ll be sporting my shiny new (mostly repurposed) disc gear and a positive attitude.

Last night’s raid actually went surprisingly well, considering how often we’ve been off-form lately.  We started by one-shotting Flame Leviathan with four towers up, followed by one-shots of Kologarn and Mimiron, and two-shots of Auriaya and Thorim.  Iron Council was troublesome, as new hard modes usually are, but we were keeping a pretty good attitude about it all.

I’ve finally reached another milestone on Pringle, and it’s surprising they haven’t made an achievement out of it.

I mean, seriously.  450 fishing isn’t worth at least some kind of achievement spam?  That’s just ridiculous (and kind of disheartening).  They’re failed to recognise when you max out other professions as well, and I think it’s a missed opportunity on Blizzard’s part.

Speaking of professions, I’ll touch on the interesting times I foresee ahead of me thanks to some increasingly persistent competition in the Glyph market.  I noticed over the last few days that my sales have dropped considerably, and when I checked after posting my glyphs on Monday I found that by the time I’d finished listing my second group two people had undercut almost every glyph I’d listed in group one.

Needless to say, I’m not taking this lying down.  (Actually I’m seated, but that’s beside the point.)  I’ve changed my posting system to minimise the effect of being undercut, and lowered the undercut percentage in Auctioneer while I work on regaining a more substantial share of the market – I only started yesterday, and while my net profit has dropped quite a bit, I am still making a profit, plus I think I’m cutting into their sales as well.  I’ll see how things look later in the week, though, and see if further changes need to be made.

For now, though, I have things to do, fish to catch, and other chores to complete.

/wave

The Week That Was

(Not to be confused with the Week That Will Be, or The Week That Is)

PvP is, I must admit, a lot more fun when you’re doing it with a group of guildmates who know what they’re doing – random battleground pugs (at least the Alliance-side ones) are awful at least 50% of the time by my calculations (although perception bias may have some small effect on that number).  All the same, I’ve managed to get Fingle off to a good start with her PvP gear (which I’ll probably post about before too long), and I’ve picked up a little how-to about disc priest healing from both my desperate efforts to keep teammates alive in battlegrounds, and the couple of PvE instances I’ve healed since starting to gear her up.

I’ve made some changes to Mingle’s UI based on what I’ve learnt from PvPing on Fingle (and setting up Vuhdo), which helped last night when our main dispeller died early on Yogg-Saron last night, and I had to help make up for her absence.  Also, after last nights raid I splashed out and made both the Ulduar crafted belt and boots for Mingle (the latter using discounted orbs from the guild bank, but the former completely on my own coin) – I’ve been regularly selling the crafted items I’ve been putting on the AH, so I have enough gold to treat myself to something nice every now and then.

I’m beginning to consider dual-speccing Mingle to shadow/disc after my pleasant experiences with Fingle (which is to say healing as disc has been fun, but it’s no comment on battleground pugs).  I’ve been juggling gear to try put together a set to try healing with – admittedly that mostly means trying to find pieces without hit rating, at this stage.  She will have two pieces of t7.5 to start with, and a badge trinket, so she’s not starting off too shabbily.

I’ve been enjoying the “New Races in the Expansion!” rumour that surfaced after someone found new Halloween masks in the PTR data that have been interpreted as evidence that we’ll be playing Goblins and Worgen when we enter the Maelstrom.  My take on it?  I like the thought of Alliance finally gaining a bestial race, and the goblins have been a loooong time coming to the horde.

I’m not sure if I’d roll a goblin to level to 80 (or 90, considering expansions raise the level cap), but I might give a worgen a try (depending on what classes are available – I’m still hanging out for a new dwarf class, of course).  Certainly a goblin would be the ultimate bank alt, but considering all my active toons are on the alliance side, it’d be kind of ineffectual if it’s a horde-only character (which I expect will be the case).  In any case, the idea is covered pretty thoroughly over on Random Ravings of Warcraft, which I recommend checking out.

Finally, this weeks glyph industry report.  The changes I made to my undercut value pushed my average sale price up by over 1g, and while my gross volume of sales was down, the total was up slightly from last week.

For the seven days from 13th July – 19th July:
Total glyphs sold: 612
Average price per glyph: 10.51g
Average sales per day: 918.814g
Total income from the AH: 6431.7g

This would have been better, but there was a huge drop in sales on the last day of the week – weekdays seem to be much more reliable for glyph sales than the weekend, quite possibly due to casual players doing their undercutting thing.  I’ve also trimmed my stock based on what hasn’t sold over the last three weeks, so I’ll see if that makes any difference over the coming week’s sales.

Anyway, time to get my chores done (I’m doing the dalaran fishing daily on all my 80s, cooking daily on Pringle, Kringle and Fingle, and the JC daily on Pringle) so I can decide what I want to do with the rest of my day.

/wave

Disc Priest PvP Gear Guide – Part Two

In the last installment I went through the armor sets available for your priest, along with bracers, boots and belt, now it’s time to cover the remaining items you can wear and the PvP-specific item enhancements.

Cloaks:
The first item available for this slot is the generic crafted caster cloak, the Cloak of Crimson Snow.  (Hit up your friendly neighbourhood tailor for this item).

The first epic tier of cloaks are the Deadly Gladiator range, which are all purchased for 38,000 honor points (and occasionally drop in VoA).  Level 213 epics, they were introduced in arena season 5.  There are five variants, one “vanilla” cloak with Spirit, and four others with Haste, MP5, Critical Strike, or Hit Rating.

Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Deliverance
Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Subjugation (haste)
Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Salvation (MP5)
Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Dominance (critical strike)
Deadly Gladiator’s Cloak of Ascendancy (hit rating)

The next tier is the Furious Gladiator range, which are the season 6 items, which are purchased for 47,400 honor points (and occasionally drop in VoA) .  They also have a personal and team arena rating requirement before they can be worn.

Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Deliverance
Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Subjugation (haste)
Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Salvation (MP5)
Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Dominance (critical strike)
Furious Gladiator’s Cloak of Ascendancy (hit rating)

Amulets:
Again, the first item available is crafted, the Sky Sapphire Amulet.  This level 200 blue will tide you over until you can afford to buy an upgrade.

The first tiered of amulets are Deadly Gladiator items.  These level 213 purples are purchased for 38,000 honor points (and also drop in VoA).

Deadly Gladiator’s Pendant of Deliverance
Deadly Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation (haste)
Deadly Gladiator’s Pendant of Salvation (MP5)
Deadly Gladiator’s Pendant of Dominance (critical strike)
Deadly Gladiator’s Pendant of Ascendancy (hit rating)

The second tier are Furious Gladiator items, and are purchased for 47,400 honor points each.  These items also have a personal and team arena rating requirement.

Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Deliverance
Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Subjugation (haste)
Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Salvation (MP5)
Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Dominance (critical strike)
Furious Gladiator’s Pendant of Ascendancy (hit rating)

Rings:
This time we start with two crafted items.  The Savage ring has a useful red socket, but the Runed band possesses higher stats.  One of each makes a good start for your PvP gear.

Savage Titanium Band (item level 187)
Runed Mana Band (item level 200, unique-equipped)

The epic rings have less of a selection – there’s only one in each tier for casters, and each is unique.  The Furious band also has a personal/team arena rating requirement to be met before it can be purchased and equipped.

Hateful Gladiator’s Band of Dominance (30,400 honor points)
Deadly Gladiator’s Band of Ascendancy (38,000 honor points)
Furious Gladiator’s Band of Dominance (47,400 honor points)

Trinkets:
Now you have more of a selection.  PvE trinkets can also be of some use, especially once you have sufficient resilience to allow more freedom with your other stats.  I’ve included some that have been used by disc priests in high-end arena, thanks to the research done on the Penance Priest blog here.

Resilience trinkets:
Medallion of the Alliance (49,600 honor points)
Flow of Knowledge (25 Wintergrasp marks)
Platinum Disks of Swiftness (25 Wintergrasp marks)
Platinum Disks of Sorcery (25 Wintergrasp marks)
Medallion of the Alliance (62,000 honor points*)

Non-resilience trinkets:
Battlemaster’s Accuracy (49,600 honor points)
Battlemaster’s Avidity (49,600 honor points)
Battlemaster’s Bravery (49,600 honor points)
Battlemaster’s Hostility (49,600 honor points)
Titan-forged Rune of Accuracy (25 Wintergrasp marks)
Titan-forged Rune of Alacrity (25 Wintergrasp marks)
Titan-forged Rune of Audacity (25 Wintergrasp marks)
Titan-forged Rune of Cruelty (25 Wintergrasp marks)

PvE trinkets:
Forethought Talisman (Heroic Naxxramas)
Spark of Hope (Ulduar – Normal Kologarn)
Spirit-World Glass (Normal Naxxramas)
Living Ice Crystals (Heroic Eye of Eternity)
Je’Tze’s Bell (World drop)

For your weapon, off-hand and wand you’re out of luck for PvP items unless you’re doing arena, as all three pieces have personal and team arena rating requirements - you’ll have to use PvE items in these slots when you start.

The wands and off-hand each have a single tier, with wands possessing one variant with critical strike and one without, and off-hands being available with spirit, spell penetration, and critical strike.  The weapons have a low-level and high-level variant for each piece, the differences being the item level and the arena rating required before you can purchase and equip the item.

Dagger:
Furious Gladiator’s Spellblade (1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Mageblade (2350 arena rating)

Mace:
Furious Gladiator’s Gavel (1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Salvation (2350 arena rating)

Staff:
Furious Gladiator’s Energy Staff (1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s War Staff (haste – 1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Focus Staff (hit rating – 1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Battle Staff (critical strike – 1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Light Staff (2350 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Combat Staff (haste - 2350 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Acute Staff (hit rating – 2350 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Skirmish Staff (critical strike – 2350 arena rating)

Wand:
Furious Gladiator’s Touch of Defeat (critical strike - 1950 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Baton of Light (1950 arena rating)

Off-hand:
Furious Gladiator’s Reprieve (1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Grimoire (spell penetration – 1850 arena rating)
Furious Gladiator’s Endgame (critical strike – 1850 arena rating)

Lastly, these are the PvP enchants available which are suitable for a priest.

Arcanum of Dominance (40 Stone Keeper’s Shards)
Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator (exalted Alliance Vanguard)
Arcanum of the Savage Gladiator (exalted Horde Expedition)
Inscription of Dominance (30 Stone Keeper’s Shards)
Greater Inscription of the Gladiator (10,000 honor points)
Earthen Leg Armor (crafted)
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Resilience (crafted)

In the next (and last) part of this guide I’ll start putting this all together.  I’ll look at gems, make a recommendation on what pieces of gear to buy and in what order to buy them, and what enchantments you should be looking at.

/wave

Disc Priest PvP Gear Guide – Part One

Note: I've updated (and abbreviated) the basic gear list for patch 3.3, and this new list can be found here.

Now that I’m starting to pick up gear to replace the crafted PvP gear Fingle started with, it’s time to add a new guide that explains where the next level of gear comes from. To start with, I’m looking at gear suitable for Fingle, my discipline priest.

As I write this (with 3.2 on the horizon, but not expected all that soon) there are currently five tiers of PvP gear suitable for the level 80 healing priest.

The first, which Fingle is currently wearing, is the Frostsavage Battlegear set. Rare items with an item level of 187, they are a full tier below the “real” PvP sets, but have the singular grace of being readily available to anyone.

This set differentiates itself in being a full 8-item set, as opposed to the 5-item size of the other sets. It is also different in that the stats are designed as a one-size-fits-all cloth set, so it isn’t optimised for specific classes or specs. Also, as none of the items have sockets any stat modification will have to come from an eternal belt buckle and enchants.

Frostsavage Cowl
Frostsavage Shoulders
Frostsavage Robe
Frostsavage Bracers
Frostsavage Gloves
Frostsavage Belt
Frostsavage Leggings
Frostsavage Boots

From now on, there are two sets for each tier. The main difference between them is that one (usually considered the Holy set) has Spirit, where the other (the Shadow set) has Crit.

The next sets, the Savage Gladiator’s Investiture and the Savage Gladiator’s Raiment, are blue items with an item level of 200, and are the first that are priest-only. These are purchased with Emblems of Honor from doing heroic dungeons. These items all have sockets for gems, giving the set more flexibility than the Frostsavage set. They are also the first set to have a dedicated PvP equip effect, the Psychic Scream cooldown reduction on the gloves, which is also found on all higher-level priest PvP items.

Holy Set
Savage Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood
Savage Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle
Savage Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe
Savage Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves
Savage Gladiator’s Mooncloth Leggings

Shadow Set
Savage Gladiator’s Satin Hood
Savage Gladiator’s Satin Mantle
Savage Gladiator’s Satin Robe
Savage Gladiator’s Satin Gloves
Savage Gladiator’s Satin Leggings

The next is the Hateful Gladiator’s Investiture and the Hateful Gladiator’s Raiment. Epic items with an item level of 200 (equivalent to heroic and 10-man Naxxramas items), these were the lower-level arena rewards from arena season five which started with the launch of Wrath. These days you can purchase them with honor points, emblems of valor, or a combination of honor and arena points.

Holy Set
Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Hood
Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Mantle
Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Robe
Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Gloves
Hateful Gladiator’s Mooncloth Leggings

Shadow Set
Hateful Gladiator’s Satin Hood
Hateful Gladiator’s Satin Mantle
Hateful Gladiator’s Satin Robe
Hateful Gladiator’s Satin Gloves
Hateful Gladiator’s Satin Leggings

Next is the Deadly Gladiator’s Investiture and Deadly Gladiator’s Raiment. These epic 213-item-level sets (equivalent to 25-man Naxxramas items) were the top-level arena rewards from season five, and are now available for purchase for either badges of conquest or a combination of honor and arena points. (I won’t be linking these sets as they’re the same as the Hateful sets, only with slightly more stats)

The current top level gear is the Furious Gladiator’s Investiture and Furious Gladiator’s Raiment (which I can’t link, as WoWHead has a broken link for the sets). These epic 232-item-level sets (equivalent to 25-man Ulduar items) are the current reward for arena play in season six, and are only available for purchase with arena points. The items also have a personal and team arena rating requirement.

There are also non-set alternatives available for your head and chest slots; these are cost Wintergrasp Marks of Honor, and the vendor is to be found in Wintergrasp when your faction controls it. (All of the cloth Titan-forged items are variations of the Shadow set items, but with Hit Rating or Haste instead of Crit Rating.)

The helm and chest are almost identical to their level-equivalent set items, so are only really an option if you have enough Wintergrasp marks and wish to spend your honor points on other items. Also bear in mind that you can only equip one of these items if you have four class set items and wish to have the four-set bonus active.

Item Level 200 Helm: Costs 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
Titan-forged Hood of Salvation
Titan-forged Hood of Dominance
Item Level 213 Chest: Costs 40 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
Titan-forged Raiment of Salvation
Titan-forged Raiment of Dominance

For the other three slots (namely belt, bracers and boots), you have a choice of two item types that are shared with all three cloth-wearing classes. At each item level, there is one with spirit and one with critical strike rating.

Item Level 213 Belt: Purchased with 15 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
Titan-forged Cord of Salvation (Haste item)
Titan-forged Cord of Dominance (Hit item)

Item Level 213 Belt: Purchased with honor points
Deadly Gladiator’s Cord of Salvation
Deadly Gladiator’s Cord of Dominance

Item Level 226 Belt: Purchased with honor points, requires arena rating
Furious Gladiator’s Cord of Salvation
Furious Gladiator’s Cord of Dominance

Item Level 213 Bracers: Purchased with honor points
Deadly Gladiator’s Cuffs of Salvation
Deadly Gladiator’s Cuffs of Dominance

Item Level 226 Bracers: Purchased with honor points, requires arena rating
Furious Gladiator’s Cuffs of Salvation
Furious Gladiator’s Cuffs of Dominance

Item Level 200 Boots: Purchased with 15 Wintergrasp Marks of Honor
Titan-forged Slippers of Salvation (Haste item)
Titan-forged Slippers of Dominance (Hit item)

Item Level 213 Boots: Purchased with honor points
Deadly Gladiator’s Treads of Salvation
Deadly Gladiator’s Treads of Dominance

Item Level 226 Boots: Purchased with honor points, requires arena rating
Furious Gladiator’s Treads of Salvation
Furious Gladiator’s Treads of Dominance

When you’re starting out, your options are dependant on what resources you have access to:

1. Get the Frostsavage set crafted. (The best option for a new level 80 or non-raider who doesn’t have any emblems of heroism)
2. If you have emblems of heroism, purchase Savage Gladiator pieces. (Available from heroic dungeons and 10-man Naxx)
3. If you have emblems of valor, purchase Hateful Gladiator pieces. (Available from 25-man Naxx and 10-man Ulduar)
4. If you have emblems of conquest, purchase Deadly Gladiator pieces. (Only available from 25-man Ulduar)

As you don’t start with any honor points (or Wintergrasp Marks), you’ll have to make do with the Frostsavage belt, boots and bracers until you’ve got some points (and marks) in hand.

(Note: With the badge changes coming in 3.2, emblems on conquest will become the new badge from heroic dungeons, both instances of Naxxramas and 10-man Ulduar. For now, though, those are your options)

That is what priests have to choose from, at least when starting out, as far as armor goes. In the next installment I’ll go through the rest of the PvP items you have available to you, and possibly gems and enchantments. Hope it’s helpful!

/wave

So How Long Do Glyphs Take?

In terms of a glyph industry, that is.  I was wondering about this, and decided to see how much time I put into it each day.

1. Cancel unsold glyphs
   4 minutes
   (There was 821 unsold today)
2. Collecting unsold glyphs, part one
   9 minutes
   (This is the Priest/Rogue/Shaman/Warrior/Warlock glyphs. The 50-mail-at-a-time limit slows things down quite a bit here, as does the delay between emptying 50 and waiting for the next 50 to arrive)
3. Back to the bank to change equipped inscription bags
   1 minute
   (I list so many glyphs that I can only work with half of them at a time.  It’s a little unwieldy, but I’ve made it work for me.)
4. Collecting unsold glyphs and sales, part two
   12 minutes
   (This is DK/Druid/Hunter/Mage/Paladin glyphs.  See #2 for mail server delay complaints)
5. Log onto Mingle, do Inscription Research, craft 10 of the new glyph
   2 minutes
   (Yay, I discovered the last Druid glyph!  Anyway, I only make the glyphs if they’re profitable – most glyphs discovered from Northrend research are, thankfully, so it’s then just a matter of finding out if they actually sell)
6. Check Bingle’s inventory levels and queue glyphs needing to be restocked.
   24 minutes
   (Thanks to the BankItems addon, I can see Bingle’s stock levels from the tooltips in Mingle’s crafting list.  I also record sales in a handy Excel spreadsheet, which adds to the time it takes – however, the extra information is well worth the extra time invested)
7. Brief interlude in Wintergrasp on Fingle with timer paused.
   - cue elevator muzak -
    
   (Yay!  Plus we won Wintergrasp back, so I scored three Marks)
8. Start crafting, and mail the glyphs to Bingle
   4 minutes
   (57 glyphs today)
9. Log back onto Bingle and perform a full scan with Auctioneer
   5 minutes
   (Not forgetting to set price levels for the new glyph I learnt and enable it for batch posting)
10. Start batch-posting the first glyph set
    15 minutes
    (Fortunately I can go AFK to make myself a nice cup of tea while this runs.  Unfortunately I have to remain in the auction house while this runs, and it takes quite a while with the numbers I’m posting currently.  I’m currently listing 4 each of 120 glyphs, so it takes a while.)
11. Back to the bank to equip the other bag set, the back to the AH to list the second half
    18 minutes
    (There’s fewer glyphs in this group, only 4 each of 112 glyphs.  Total glyph listed, 928)
12. Profit!
    (Or at least, there will be tomorrow)

So, 94 minutes later, that’s how it’s done.  That’s 61 minutes where I have to pay attention to the computer, and 33 minutes (while batch-posting goes on) where I can do other activities (such as catching up on my daily browsing).  It’s not the quick and efficient setup that, say, Gevlon uses, but it turns a regular and respectable profit for me for an affordable investment in time.  (I use lower price-points than he does, which is why my stock is so much larger, and the result of larger stocks is more time spent managing it – I suspect I’d do well to rethink my approach at some stage)

At this stage I can calculate how much gold/hour glyphs make me (which I’m curious to actually work out – up until now I’ve just collected my gold without thinking about it).  I think I’ll be reducing the range of glyphs I’m making soon (again), as I didn’t realise just how much time the lower profit glyphs are costing me (and also how much they’ll be cutting into the profit from my higher-valued glyphs).

So I think what I’d taking away from this exercise is that a little careful analysis of your gold-making activities has the potential to save you time (and increase your profits).  But of course, YMMV.

For now though, my dailies are waiting.

/wave

You Dirty Rat!

Well, considering how long the critter would have been swimming in the sewer before you fish it up, it’s a tad more likely to be filthy than clean…  Unless it’s a clean sewer?  (Isn’t that an oxymoron like “military intelligence” or “an honest politician”?)

Financially, it’s been a pretty busy week.  Between my raiding needs (flasks, potions and fish), wheeling and dealing (with eternal belt buckles and leg armors), my investment in Fingle’s PvP gear and enchants, and the crafted Ulduar gear I’ve got on the AH currently (along with two Ulduar patterns that I’ve bought), I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel…  er, of my wallet at this point in time.  I also off-loaded those books of glyph mastery (at around 52g each), so that’s one less thing nagging at the back of my mind.

I made one small change to my glyph listing process (reducing the undercut value in auctioneer from 50% to 40%, which increases the minimum price at which my glyphs would be listed), and in the days since I’ve experienced both a reduction in overall sales along with an increase in price-per-glyph that keeps things roughly equivalent in gross turnover.  Essentially, it means I’m selling fewer items (lowering crafting costs) for more (increasing net profit) – this kind of adjustment would be something to bear in mind if you’re regularly listing items on the AH.

But here’s how the glyph market has been treating me this week:

For the seven days from 6th July – 12th July:
Total glyphs sold: 676
Average price per glyph: 9.26g
Average sales per day: 894.41g
Total income from the AH: 6260.85g

This wasn’t helped by a substantial dip in sales on the day I made the undercut change, but if today’s sales are anything to go by, this week could be quite a bit more profitable (only time, and sales figures, will tell).

Yesterday I did a few battlegrounds with Fingle (including my first visit to the Strand of the Ancients), and the decrease in her mana pool in PvP gear has been quite noticeable – I probably spent as much time drinking yesterday as I did while I leveled her from 70 to 80.  I also have to make up my mind whether I want to be dps or healing, as quite often my dps has been more than triple the amount of healing I’ve done in a BG – I guess my shadow priest upbringing is shining through.  But I think it’s time to put together a new UI for healing – Vuhdo has been suggested as an addon to look into.

All in all, considering how few healers there seem to be in BGs, I think I could prove useful in that regard.  But as the screenshot above shows, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.

But it’s time to get today’s glyphs listed, and fishing (and cooking and jewelcrafting) dailies completed, then time for some more PvP.  (Fingle should have her first piece of non-crafted PvP gear today!  Hurrah!)

/wave

Beginning Disc Priest PvP Gear

I’m putting together some items for Fingle’s PvP set, and thought I’d document it here.

The idea is to put together a set that’s as much crafted gear as possible (including rings and neck), to minimise the need to do PvP wearing nub PvE gear in order to get items with resilience.

Non-PvP gear that Fingle is starting with (due to a lack of alternatives):

Titansteel Guardian (with the +50SP enchant)
Prison Manifest
Gwyneth’s Runed Dragonwand
Darkmoon Card: Illusion
Mercurial Alchemist Stone

Now for the crafted items.  First, make your Frostsavage Battlegear, a cloak and some Jewelry

Frostsavage Belt
Frostsavage Boots
Frostsavage Bracers
Frostsavage Cowl
Frostsavage Gloves
Frostsavage Leggings
Frostsavage Robe
Frostsavage Shoulders
Cloak of Crimson Snow
Sky Sapphire Amulet
Savage Titanium Band + 1x Durable Monarch Topaz
Runed Mana Band

Total mats required to make that all: 

31x Bolts of Imbued Frostweave
73x Crystallized Fire
33x Crystallized Earth
4x Eternal Shadow
4x Iceweb Spider Silk
16x Eternium Thread
8x Titanium Bar
2x Twilight Opal
2x Sky Sapphire
1x Monarch Topaz (or buy the cut gem on the AH)

Time for enchants!  (Tip:  There’s a handy filter on WoWHead for item enhancements with resilience)

Head: Arcanum of Burning Mysteries
  (to eventually be replaced by the Arcanum of Dominance)
Shoulder: Lesser Inscription of the Crag
  (to eventually be replaced by the Inscription of Dominance)
Enchant Chest – Exceptional Resilience
Enchant Cloak – Greater Speed
Enchant Bracers – Superior Spellpower
Enchant Gloves – Exceptional Spellpower
Eternal Belt Buckle + Durable Monarch Topaz
Earthen Leg Armor
Enchant Boots – Tuskaar’s Vitality

(I’ll leave the mats for these for you to work out – if you’re like me, you will have picked up most of the enchants from the AH, which reduces mats to a sum of gold that varies depending on your server and when you’re buying)

But now for the taste-test.  Fingle’s stats in her normal gear (including one item with resilience) versus her stats in her shiny new PvP gear:

PvE Gear	PvP Gear
12650 Health 16738 Mana 1655 SP 11.18% Crit 395 Haste 283 MP5 29 Resilience	16170 Health 14323 Mana 1557 SP 17.94% Crit 126 Haste 105 MP5 545 Resilience

There’s one last item that I expect will be very useful, the Lesser Flask of Toughness.  As Fingle is an alchemist, her Mixology buff increases the flask to 82 resilience and a 2-hour duration.  Sure she’s starting pretty cheaply, but 627 resilience should be enough to get her off on the right foot.  Time will tell what effect the substantial drop in MP5 (and lesser drop in mana) will have, but I guess the next step is to actually try it all out.  (Hmmm, I wonder what guildmates I could convince to participate?)

One other little change I’ve made (while farming the AH for all those mats), has been to dress Bingle, glyph vendor and bank alt extraordinaire, in a more appropriate fashion for her station.

You can keep your tuxedos and fancy dresses, I’ll stick with my classy Netherweave.

/wave

And Now For Something Completely Different

It’s…

PvP!  (And good PvP, at that)

Now, I’m pretty sure all my guildmates are aware of how much I’ve vocally exclaimed how much I detest pvp on my rogue (an attitude that dates back to some awful experiences in WSG and arena).  They must, therefore, have been quite surprised to see me raising my hand for an invite when doing semi-premade battlegrounds.

I started off with Dingle last night (still specced and geared as prot), and not only did Wintergrasp twice, but also ventured into AB and EotS.  I have to say, PvP is a lot more fun when you’re not being used as a doormat by your opponents (which had been my previous experience).

Later on in the evening I decided to try something quite out-of-character, and switched to Fingle, my discipline priest.  Yes, I was going to try my hand at healing.  And you know what?  While I was pretty ineffectual, it was still fun!

It was actually so much fun that I’m considering whether I want to invest some time into farming honor in order to put together a set of PvP gear for Fingle, to see what it’s like when I’m less squishy (which was something of a problem).

For now, though, it’s time to do my chores (an accurate description of the glyph industry process if ever I heard of one) so I can afford to PvP.

/wave

Diplomacy Has Its Place

Exalted with Timbermaw?  You know what that means…  Meet Dinglemouse the Diplomat.

Yay! for the WoWWiki Timbermaw Hold reputation guide, which made it quite a bit easier.  (Just a tip: If you want to work on it yourself, it’s a lot easier when you’re not doing at the same time as anyone else – I had to slow down the speed I was killing them in order to avoid getting delayed while waiting for respawns)

It’s actually been quite a fun few days.  My assorted decks have almost all sold (I’ve still got a single Berserker card to liquidate), and I was able to get a second pair of Spiked Deathdealers crafted.  That was sold, and I used the proceeds to get a pair of Indestructible Plate Girdles crafted, one for Dingle and the second to sell.

I’m currently waiting for it to sell, with a view to getting another item or two crafted for resale – sadly, patience is essential when trying to sell items at this kind of price, even when there’s no competition.  I’m also dabbling in the Eternal Belt Buckle and leg armor markets, and picking up cheap Runed Orbs as the opportunity presents itself.

If there’s one thing I’ve not experienced anywhere near enough, it’s the pleasure of tanking for a capable (and well-geared) group of players – this occurred last night, when I managed to finagle my way into the hard-mode Ulduar 10-man run that was idling last night.  They weren’t working on hard modes though, other than plans for hard-mode Mimiron – the main tank wasn’t able to get online at the planned time, so there was a couple of hours to play with, and they had Thorim, Freya, Razorscale and Ignis to play with.

Needless to say, I felt a tad overwhelmed (as this was my first time tanking these bosses), but apart from a nub mistake on Freya trash (where I used thunderclap next to some CC’d mobs, causing a wipe) I think I performed competently enough.  I was the Arena tank for Thorim, and we finished without a wipe (and in good time).  Freya wasn’t quite as smooth, but we downed her despite some co-ordination issues with the 3-add group where we kept killing one too soon, and had to deal with the trio self-rezzing while we were dealing with the exploding swarm of lashers that came next.

Thorim dropped the T8 shoulder token, but I passed on it for the other tank (who tanks the 25-mans, and needed it to get the awesome 4-piece bonus).  I was rewarded for my generosity with the T8 glove token from Freya, which has given me my first piece of T8, the Valorous Siegebreaker Handguards.  (The fact that it co-ordinates with my awesome new boots and belt is something I’m quite happy with – sure, the better stats are nice, but there’s still something to be said for aesthetics)

I’m still doing the fishing dailies on all my characters who can reach Dalaran, but the appeal is slowing fading – probably because of the lack of interesting rewards.  I think I’ve got a Porcelain Bell once in the last four days, and worthless glass the rest of the time.  (Mingle really needs that skull fishing rod – the one from the Walrus-men is quite lacking, especially for a shadow priest.  And whatever became of those fishing bobber models?)

Mingle only has four days remaining of Argent Tournament dailies before she’s an exalted champion with all the Alliance factions; she’s currently working on Gnomeregan.  It’s a pity that the limited appeal of jousting runs out so quickly – only Dingle has completed the grind so far, and the new dailies with 3.2 are quickly approaching, with the extra dailies that are only available when you’ve completed the existing Tournament quests.

But now it’s time for dailies (and regular AH checks – Yay, the belt just sold!)

/wave (of a profitable nature)

More Numbers and an Ex-God

You’d think the flu would end a lot more quickly, but nooooo.  Which isn’t to say I still have the flu, because I’m no longer contagious, but I’m still coughing.  Needless to say, I’m getting rather tired of the whole thing.  (cough)

Raiding with Mingle has progressed, and above me is exhibit A.  Meet the ex-old god, Yogg-Saron.  Of course, that’s the good news.  Now we’re going to be doing hard-modes in an attempt to reach Algalon.  (Sadly, I wasn’t blessed with any loot to commemorate the event, so I had to make do with a fleeting feeling of relief – it’ll be interesting to see how we do next week)  We followed that up with a 6-minute Malygos kill which was quite satisfying.

I’ve spent a bit of time on Dingle as well, running Naxx10 and some Ulduar10.  Naxx was as much of a pushover as you’d expect, but Ulduar was a tad more punishing.  (Just a tip:  The trash before the cat lady Auriaya can’t be 9-manned by alts – we had someone go afk to go to the dairy and buy some cigarettes who didn’t come back for over an hour, and we had to do something with our time.)

Also, PvP.  Yes, Dingle actually did a little, and even picked up a couple of the simpler achievements from it.  (She picked up the end of a fail AV, an AB, a couple of EotS, and the tail end of Wintergrasp)

The Midsummer Fire Festival has been and gone (yes it was very funny, celebrating summer in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter while I was sitting in front of a heater, wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing, sipping a hot cider vinegar and honey drink while recovering from the flu), and I mostly ignored it.  I did a little exploration while honouring/extinguishing fires to get Tingle some flightpoints and a little more xp (she’s currently in Southshore, sitting on level 35), but I didn’t spend much time on it with any other characters.  (My money is on the next in-game event being Northrend Children’s Week, which is apparently being introduced some time after the 3.2 patch goes live.)

Glyphs are continuing to treat me well, not to mention profitably.  I’ve switched from manually price-checking and listing them over to batch-posting, and the time it takes to post them all has more than halved (plus I can be afk while they go up).

Anyway, here’s the (100% batch-posted) numbers for last week:

For the seven days from 29th June – 5th July:
Total glyphs sold: 721
Average price per glyph: 8.88g
Average sales per day: 914.89g
Total income from the AH: 6404.22g

Remember those extra books of glyph master that I assumed I’d be able to resell for a profit?  Well, do you remember the saying about assumptions?  Needless to say, I suspect if I want to sell these anytime soon, I’ll have to eat a small loss on the deal.  On a more profitable note, I’ve sold about half of the decks I made for the Faire; I still have a handful to go, but I expect to have them sold before the faire moves on.

I’ve spent quite a bit of the proceeds already, on Runed Orbs to make a pair of Spiked Deathdealers for Dingle (which was a little cheaper than it would otherwise have been, thanks to Mingle being able to buy four orbs with Emblems of Conquest) and a Scroll of Blood Draining to put on Stoneguard, which dropped from Kologarn.  The crafted plate tanking belt from Ulduar is the next upgrade I have planned, but I’ll have to check if we have a blacksmith in guild who has the recipe.

After the mixed results from my minimal time spent tanking in Ulduar, my respect for Ulduar main-tanks who also lead their raids is substantial.  I had enough trouble keeping track of the things currently pummeling me, without keeping track of everyone else at the same time.  But on the positive side, I’ve managed to get an achievement on Dingle that my ‘official’ raiding character hasn’t managed yet:

Meet Flame Leviathan+2.

/wave

(cough)