I get a ton of questions from players who want more specific training in WoW, step-by-step guides and other techniques to dominate World of Warcraft. If you like playing WoW, and you want to master it:
Hi Tony! I’ve been using your strategies in WoW for quite some time now, and it’s been working like magic: my guild is closing in on Deathwing 25 Man and my bank gold has almost tripled!!! YEAH! My guildies have really started to take notice and begun to nag me for my secrets (i’m trying to keep them all to myself though muahahah *evil laugh*)
As an avid trader in the Auction House, I was wondering what your take was on the new Epic Gems in Patch 4.3 and which gems I should be focusing on, in terms of trading for profit?
Cheers
-JJ Kristos
**************
Hey JJ,
You’re in luck, I just finished an article on how to make a fortune with Epic Gems and since you asked for it, here it is!
How To Make A Fortune With Epic Gems
It was obvious months before Patch 4.3 hit that epic gems would be making their appearance in Cataclysm’s final, major patch of the expansion.
New Jewelcrafting vendors have been introduced in the game with Epic Cut Patterns, which can be bought with 5 Illustrious Jewelcrafter’s Tokens which is equivalent to 5 day’s worth of dailies. Opportunists can take a risk and learn a random cut by purchasing a Tome of Burning Jewels, which required only 4 tokens.
Without a doubt, this new vendor will have a tremendous impact on the jewelcrafting profession — and, with any luck, a tremendous positive impact on your in-game bank account as well.
At the moment, Auction Houses across all servers are experiencing high trade volume over these in-demand items as every player regardless of skill level wants to have their gear decked out in epic gems. Unfortunately, many do not have the gold or access to the gems and this is inflating the price of uncut epic gems to astronomical heights.
Identifying the Profitable Gems.
The fact of the matter is, not all gem cuts are created equal. Past events have shown that only a few cuts will see serious trading action, mainly the Bold Queen’s Garnet and the Brilliant Queen’s Garnet which bestow +50 Strength and +50 Intellect to their respective sockets. Others, like miscellaneous Deepholm Iolite cuts (the new blue epic gem), will see weak demand at best.
The fact that each Gem color has about 6 cuts on average, requiring 5 days worth of dailies make it absolutely imperative that you identify the most popular cuts to trade on. Most players are an impatient lot, and when they get a new piece of gear, they will waste no time in gemming it for maximum performance.
They will most likely start at the top of the pile and will rarely waste their hard earned money on inferior quality gems. Take advantage of these opportunities to sell your gems for an avalanche of profits.
Conclusion
For Auction House traders intent on making their fortune with this approach, it is obvious that you start stocking up on Illustrious Jewelcrafter’s Tokens right away, if you aren’t doing it already. Considering the fact that each Tome will set you back 4 tokens, with 60 epic gem patters to learn …. You do the math but the point I’m trying to make is – that is a lot of dailies on your plate.
Also, because it is relatively early days, I fully expect prices to continue to drop as epic gems become more accessible to the community at large. . As prices fall, which they will, the volume that these things sell will increase. Budding Auctioneers should start monitoring their servers for signs of price stabilization and step in to fill the demand when it happens.
P.S. If you liked what you read here, you shouldn’t miss out on all the great stuff that’s going on at this site. :-
So, the patch is live. Everyone’s happy. Prices are rising, demand is great, money is flowing. It’s been 3 days into the patch so I think it is time for the first review.
First of all I have to say that I wasn’t playing at all on Wednesday, so I can only rely on two days of experience. The patch in many aspects brought exactly what most of us expected. There were a few surprises though, at least for me.
Traffic on the AH increased very much. It’s been long since I’ve last seen a crowd like this in the AH or in the capitals cities for that matter. Materials have twice the price as prior to the patch. That is bad, but not surprising, everyone is crafting. What’s more troubling though is that realm stocks are running low on mats. There are less then 25 stacks of ores, herbs and what-not on the AH usually, and you can’t find much more. With a million crafters spamming the trade chat with WTB macros, you can’t even find a decent amount at the chat either. I hope you guys stocked up on mats before. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to play before the patch due to IRL reasons, so on some items I’m already running low, but I manage.
As for the products, the demand is incredibly high. As usual, gems and enchants are the best-sellers. Yesterday I sold a stack of Bold Inferno Rubies in about 10 minutes. Surprisingly (for me) there is a high demand for crafted gear too. I expected that the Vicious PVP sets will be a hit, but I just can’t understand what people still want with these Hardened Obsidium sets (and others like it). I know that the racional explanation would be that people are leveling alts, but first of all, right after the patch no one is on their alts, and second of all, that still doesn’t explain why can I sell 10 complete sets a day. Actually I can’t now because I have to prioritize with my obsidium but no matter how much I post on the AH, they all get bought.
Another thing I’d like to point out is that if you still have leftover Bloodthirsty pieces, check if there is a Vicious piece posted on the AH which match your Bloodthirsty, because if not, you should post the Bloodthirsty first, and hold back your vicious untill it gets sold. People are not looking especially for a Vicious Leather Gloves, but rather a good PVP gloves, so no they will take the Bloodthirsty. In this sense the patch also increased the demand for old items.
Epic gems are also here. As expected, their price is extremely high. As it turned out, there is no other way of acquiring the raw gems other than raiding. You cannot transmute them, and they are not in the fire prism. If you are raiding, selling these gems can be a great source of income, but if not, speculating with them, reselling, or cutting them is a risky investment. They only came out three days ago so their price is still very unstable. However if you know what you are doing, and have enough capital you can easily earn thousands of gold with a 3 second cast. Or lose just as much.
Altogether the patch is a blast, Thursday I closed with +73k and +61k on Friday. Too bad I couldn’t play more (I was only home about 2-3 hours each day).
Now, if you’re anything like the hundreds of WoW players I’ve spoken to over the past few months, chances are you’re SICK and TIRED of the same old Leveling, Gold-Making and PvP Guides flooding the marketplace every few weeks or so
The reason you probably haven’t heard of me in the World of Warcraft arena until today is because…
For the last 4 years, I was too busy playing the game and refining my strategies and techniques
You see, the problem with World of Warcraft right now is that the ‘gurus’ you buy from make THEIR money selling tired old strategies to honest players like YOU!
Everything’s been done to death… the same old strategies have been regurgitated a million times
The average player could not possibly advance in such an environment!!
And when you have been dominating the game for as long as I have
It kinda makes you wonder why everyone’s buying all those half-assed guides out there filled with outdated information..
If you’re like the thousands of players worldwide who have found it tough keeping up with all the new changes in Patch 4.3, then I urge you to watch this video:
It is my pleasure to present to you the latest issue of my Patch 4.3 newsletter, chronicling all the latest developments in our beloved World of Warcraft.
Making Gold in Patch 4.3 and the Fun of Transmogrification
Question from Chloe in Taiwan
Hello, Tony – I have a question for you but before I begin I would just like to thank you for all help you’ve given me so far – I’m definitely a better player than I was before, and it’s all thanks to you!
Anyways, at present I’ve got a couple of high level characters and a bunch of low level alts. I’m having trouble making money, though. I make some gold from my professions, but it’s not enough. I need more enchants for my high level characters so I can run heroics better. Do you have any tips on how I can make gold? Thanks!
****************** Hey there Chloe,
Well, if you’re looking for good tips on how to make more World of Warcraft gold (WoW gold) then you’ve come to the right place! There are plenty of gold making opportunities in Azeroth, but they can be hard to ferret out, so I’m glad to help with advice and tips.
As is usual for patches in the game, Patch 4.3 has stirred things up and changed things around somewhat, and some of these changes offer an opportunity for profit to the cunning, the alert, and the patient. Here’s a look at a few of the better examples.
One of the good money earners at the moment are Chaos Orbs. These are obtained only in maximum level heroic dungeons, and were BoP until the most recent patch came out. They are a fairly infrequent drop, and are needed for practically every high end profession in WoW. You can make a bit of a profit if you run a lot of heroic instances by selling your Chaos Orbs to those who do not have enough time to gather large numbers of these items, but still need them to develop their professions.
Some professions have more to offer than others – for example, Jewelcrafting was rather short-changed by the fact that epic gems come from raid bosses and not prospecting. Leatherworking, on the other hand, can make good profits from the high demand Vicious Leather set that sells for a solid profit on the auction house. You can also check the prices of Savage Leather and Heavy Savage Leather on your auction house, and see if it is worth buying Savage Leather, turning it into Heavy Savage Leather, and reselling it at a profit.
Blacksmiths have several options for making gold in the new patch. The Bloodthirsty Pyrium set is a good money maker, and Ebonsteel Belt Buckles are also quite profitable. Working together with an enchanter, you can make Stormforged Shoulders and disenchant them into the highly profitable Heavenly Shards, which sell quite well on the auction house. Look for upswings in price before selling, as the Heavenly Shard market is somewhat volatile (though not disastrously so).
Finally, if you have any spare Sinister Squashlings from Halloween in your bags, these are now BoE and can be sold on the Auction House, often at a robust profit. This will not get you rich, since you are unlikely to have too many (and cannot get more until Hallow’s End 2012), but you can potentially make a few hundred gold depending on your server’s market for these pets.
Transmogrifying your Gear for Style and Individuality
I also want to talk a little about transmogrification, which is a new service introduced in 4.3, allowing you to change the appearance of your character’s gear to match the look of another piece that you have in your bags. This is an amazing little feature that is popular with just about everyone who wants their character to look more individual, rather than wearing the same cookie-cutter endgame gear as every other warrior, rogue, death knight, druid, etc.
Transmogrification doesn’t change the name, stats, or other characteristics of your existing gear. Rather, it replaces the visual model of that gear with the visual model of another, similar piece of gear. For example, you can change your epic mail shoulders to look like Herod’s Shoulder, or your endgame tanking sword to the plain, vigorous look of the Bloodsoaked Skullforge Reaper.
You can make your character look as plain or flamboyant as you wish, keep a single look for them throughout the leveling process (once you have the gear that you want to transmogrify your other gear’s appearance to match, of course), or switch between looks for different roles. Even just changing the look of a few pieces of gear really helps your character stand out from the crowd.
This is great news for everyone who is tired of their character looking like every other character in the game. It also gives you an incentive to have fun collecting lower level armor sets which you find aesthetically pleasing, as well as keeping items whose appearance piques your interest.
Transmogrification can also be an interesting way to gain a momentary edge in a player versus player situation in the open world. The gankers from the opposing faction may not realize that the drab, seemingly low level rogue sauntering into their midst is actually a lethal, top-geared arena player until it is too late – bringing a touch of excitement and uncertainty back into open world PvP.
Of course, transmogrification isn’t without its limits. You can only make a piece of gear resemble a fairly similar piece of gear by type – plate can only be made to resemble mail or plate, not a cloth robe, for example. Concerning weapons, these items can only be made to look like another weapon of the same type – a staff can only be transmogrified into a staff, a sword into a sword, and so on. Missile weapons, however, are interchangeable, so you can make a bow resemble a gun, a gun resemble a crossbow, and so forth.
Items must have stats of some kind to be eligible for transmogrification.
Transmogrification costs a fee, of course, and this can range up to 30 gold for the highest level characters. This is a low price for this level, however, and prices are proportionally lower for lower level characters.
Thanks for reading.
***************
By the way…
If you haven’t caught up with the latest craze to hit the internet….
My good friend, Alan Hunter, has developed a system that anyone can follow and he shows real proof that he is indeed one of the best players to ever grace the game……using this system
As we all know, Patch 4.3 was released a couple of days ago, bringing tons of new content and challenging raids for us to sink our teeth into.
Here’s a question I have been asked many times over the past few days.
Have a look!
Question from Blaise of Dethecus.
Hi Tony,
First of all, thanks very much for the insightful and varied info that you provide to us WoW fans. There’s a lot of second rate information out there, so the high quality stuff you provide is really appreciated since it cuts through the b.s. and gives us the tools we need to actually succeed in the game. Bravo!
Anyway, I’m pretty strongly into the raiding scene, and I’m excited about the Dragon Soul raid that’s being introduced in Patch 4.3. Do you have any useful advance pointers that will help me and my guild get ready for the last fight of the raid – the one against Deathwing?
Thanks very much!
Hi Blaise,
Thanks for the kind words and the knowledge that my guide and other World of Warcraft information is making a positive difference for other players.
Now, let me get to the meat and potatoes of this week’s newsletter, which is giving you some useful strategies for getting through Dragon Soul successfully, as per your request.
The Dragon Soul raid, as you probably know, is a new raid introduced in Patch 4.3 along with Void Storage, Arena Season 11, and a lot of other goodies that we’ll be talking about more in the coming weeks. Dragon Soul is the peak of the Cataclysm storyline and features six bosses leading up the seventh boss, Deathwing himself (who, of course, needs to be officially “killed off” to bring the Cataclysm story arc to an end before the release of Mists of Pandaria sometime next year).
This is pretty exciting stuff, with the final encounter being a fight with the dragon who caused the Cataclysm in the first place. Epic excitement, deadly encounters – and of course, plenty of interesting strategies to challenge you on your way to victory over Deathwing. Note that these strategies for fighting Deathwing apply to the new “Looking for Raid” difficulty (a somewhat easier, introductory raiding difficulty for those just starting) and for Normal Difficulty.
The earlier fights have plenty of challenging mechanics and different phases to keep you on your toes, but the most complicated is naturally the Deathwing fight. This fight takes place as two separate encounters, as befits such a mighty, legendary foe. The first follows right after the “skyship” battle with Warmaster Blackhorn, and involves removing Deathwing’s armor plating while clinging to his back in order to make him vulnerable enough to slay in the second encounter.
There are three armor plates on the back of the dragon that must be removed. The battle centers around getting these off while surviving damage dealing abilities and the possibility of being thrown off by one of Deathwing’s barrel rolls. At least two tanks are required for this encounter – it is impossible for one tank to handle.
Four Corruption Tendrils sprouting from Deathwing’s back must first be attacked, and three of them destroyed. They have both a squeezing attack and a debuff, Searing Plasma, which can be removed by casting 300,000 healing on the character suffering from the effect. Grasping Tendrils spawn once three Corruption Tendrils have been destroyed; go to these when a barrel roll is imminent as they are the only method of keeping your character from being thrown off the dragon entirely (except for the uncommon Fiery Grip debuff). Destruction of a Corruption Tendril spawns a Corrupted Blood – a fiery ooze – and a Hideous Amalgamation – an elemental made up of fire and armor fragments. One tank should hold aggro on the Tendrils and the Bloods, and the other focus on Amalgamations.
Killing a Corrupted Blood leaves a motile pool of residue which creeps back to the hole where it spawned – the second tank must lead the Amalgamation through this residue, which will be absorbed and give the Amalgamation a buff.
You need to stack 9 of these buffs, called Absorbed Blood, on an Amalgamation and lead it quickly to one of the armor plates on Deathwing’s back. Once there, the Amalgamation will explode in a Nuclear Explosion after 5 seconds – get clear, as this will inflict huge damage, but it also loosens the armor plate and creates an add called a Burning Tendon. Killing this Burning Tendon is what removes the armor plate – you only have a 23 second window to kill it, so DPS quickly.
Standing in one of the holes on Deathwing’s back both triggers Grasping Tendrils to keep you in place and a Barrel Roll. The Roll throws off Corrupted Bloods and Hideous Amalgamations, so if large numbers have spawned, you can clear the field by triggering a Barrel Roll – usually a good move, actually, after killing the initial three Corruption Tendrils. Then kill the fourth Corruption Tendril and use the Corrupted Blood and Hideous Amalgamation spawned from it to start removing the plates.
Once you have removed all three armor plates, it’s time to take on the dragon directly in the Madness of Deathwing encounter, which we’ll take a closer look at in some other time.
P.S. Found this information useful? If you’re anxious about experiencing all that Patch 4.3 has to offer, you should take 2 minutes of your time to watch this interesting video.
WoW Crusher is not just another “guide”, it is a system that provides you with endless results.
Kevin and Markco will be providing a blueprint each and every month with the most up to date, top secret information directly out of Blizzard… you are going to get something no other WoW players have seen before.
They’re basically holding your hand and forcing you to be at the top of your server.
Every month comes with the most recent insider tips… red hot sizzling mats to stockpile or sell for the month… patches to expansions to price fluctuations to hot fixes, and how you can legally exploit this information and make a killing from it.
Login to the private members area and absorb all of the changes, then slaughter the server when a patch hits due to Auction House price fluctuations….
Loot Hunter is the first ever Treasure Hunting guide for World of Warcraft. It was created for everyone who is tired of the same old questing or pugging instances and battlegrounds for experience, or alternatively wants to spice up their questing by combining it with Treasure Hunting!
It shows all points of interest on the zone maps. Points of interest being objects or npcs that when interacted with, grant you either loot or experience, or both!
Gold is also vital if you want the best equipment and enchants for your characters. Not everyone knows how to play the auction house or can stand the non-stop farming mobs for some gold. Loot Hunter comes to your aid! All you have to do is sell the loot!
For the last few weeks I’ve been seeing a lot of buzz about the new gold guide on the market from Jonathan. It’s called Cataclysm Scalper
and it’s been built around a few very simple ideas that we’ve seen many
times before – most of them dealing with the Auction House.
By now, you should know that the only real way to make gold in World of
Warcraft is to use the Auction House to trade goods based on economic
conditions. This isn’t new and a lot of good guides have been written
showing players how to take advantage of the tools and add-ons out there
that analyse the auction house.
But with the Undermine Journal
now defunct and with other guides failing to update or adapt to
post-cataclysm changes, a lot of us were looking for something new to
take on the mantle of “ultimate auction house guide.” Cataclysm Scalper hoped to do that and has mostly succeeded.
What Cataclysm Scalper Does Right
The reason I can so highly recommend Cataclysm Scalper
is that it actually SHOWS you almost everything you need to know to be
effective in the game making gold. You get the text descriptions and
walkthroughs, but you also get a series of images and videos, plus a
slew of tools that show you how to develop your own spreadsheets, charts
and diagrams to track prices and choose the right items to buy.
I’ve never seen it done before and probably for good reason – it looks like a
lot of work. But, it’s absolutely successful in that you now have every
tool you need to be effective making gold. If you’re like me and are
tired of old, unupdated guides trying to tell you what to do, get over
to Cataclysm Scalper.
HowToMakeGold.com
