I'm a crafter, howbout you?

My first character that I played to level 60 was a warlock. (I still have that character, but she's been stuck at 70 for a while now). Her trade skills were tailoring and herbalism. And when I discovered how fun and profitable trade skills were it didn't take too long before I had crafted not only my own gear, but I was also making good money on crafting bags, and selling my gathered herbs.

I think this has set the tone for the rest of my moneymaking in WoW because ever since I haven't bought materials on the AH too often anymore. I levelled various other characters, and by the end of BC I had 5 70s whose trade skills could all work together and combined with Thror's characters we could create just about anything there was to create in the game.

When I switched to my priest she started out with herbalism as well, and I have to say that I honestly believe that this is one of the better trade skills while levelling. She had enchanting as her second trade skill, and I feel that this has been the best choice ever. Though, I do believe that being powerlevelled through instances, and getting all the greens did help in levelling my enchanting...a lot.

Eventually I switched her to alchemy for min/maxing, and the alchemist's stone back then was quite the enormous upgrade over herbalism, which had no perks at all back then (well, other than making money). And since I had levelled a druid it was only a logical choice to stick her in herbalism, being that you don't even have to switch out of bird-form to pick flowers.

Show me the money!

There are various blogs very good at telling people how to make money, so I'm not going to go to deep into this. But I do believe that I can safely say that most money making strategies are to buy base materials, craft stuff with them, and sell the end product. The tradeskills I have seen used most for this are inscription, jewelcrafting, and enchanting.

Here's the catch though. Most of these blogs say that making money is not about having fun. It's about getting the highest return on the lowest investment. And while technically I cannot agree with them more, I do want to remind people that you're not actually earning your real life bread with this. And I bet that most of you, myself included, started playing this game for one simple thing; fun.

So while you can make a lot of money in the AH grind, most people don't think this is particularly pleasurable, and instead are choosing to make slightly less money, but do it in a way that they enjoy.

(In between I am reading this out loud to Thror, and he says that he believes that Gevlon is deep down taking pleasure out of raiding the AH more than out of real raiding, I think I have to agree with him).

Some quick tips and tricks

• Pick a trade skill that goes well with your class. Leatherworking on a mage is not the most useful combination.
• If you do want to use your trade skill for some money making find out what others want from your tradeskill. Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog, and the Crafter's Tome are both very handy tools in this.
  
• Do what you enjoy doing. This might sound odd, but believe me, there are only a few dark souls out there who really enjoy the AH grind. Most (like me) would just give up on it if they didn't enjoy what they were doing.
  

Where does crafting fit in here then?
Well, I personally use crafting as a tool for what I enjoy most in the game, raiding. I'm still an alchemist/enchanter on my main, and those give me the extra perks of mad alchemist potions, cheap flasks (you need quite a few while wiping on progression content), mixology, and ring enchants. On top of this, enchanting enables me to pick up the items in our raids nobody wants, and shard them so we can enchant the rest of the raid members, or sell them to get what we need instead.

On my other toons I use crafting mainly so that I can be self sufficient. My druid was my first alt at 80 so that I could get herbing again for alchemy, and I enjoy doing so on her. It feels as if she's stalking a prey from high up, only to dive down when I see a yellow dot on the map.

So while crafting is not really a moneymaker for me, it is definitely a money saver. On top of this I have to admit that I secretly really enjoy the RP aspect of crafting. Even though I'm not an RPer in the game (well, not most of the time), I like the thought of being able to twiddle my hands and magically enhance my rings to turn into a better version.

How about you, are you a crafter or a buyer?

Buying or Crafting?

A conversation with Nimayne on twitter just made me think of quite an interesting question. We were talking about the whole WoW for Free concept, and we both sort of agreed that buying your high level gear would be so much less interesting than actually having to fight for it. (#followfriday @Nimayne btw!)

I said how I even went to grind for what I needed, and that I hardly ever went out to buy stuff in the AH. (I would be the worst goblin ever).

But it does open up an interesting train of thought..more later when I've had time to form these thoughts fully...and uhm, when I'm not at work.

WoW for Free!

I posted a primer earlier today, and linked to an article that writes how Tom Chilton has said that some day in the future WoW might be available for free.

The whole article can be found here, but I was mainly interested in this part of it:

Tom Chilton: I certainly think it’s possible that we could do some kind of micro-transaction stuff. Whether or not World of Warcraft ever goes the direction of, I guess like Anarchy Online has gone the direction of going free-to-play with micro-transactions. Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point. Anything I say now could easily five years from now end up seeming like, oh my gosh, that was an incredibly dumb thing to say, how naive!

Of course I can now speculate on if Blizzard really has a timeline set out already for the game to be phased out (ack, scary thought! think positive, think positive, WoW will go on till I'm done...ah, better!).

But what did get me thinking is how our World of Warcraft could possibly look like today if it hadn't been pay to play all this time.

First of all I wonder if it would even still exist. There's only a few out there within this genre who are managing it, and none of them is even close to the size of player base that World of Warcraft has.

But lets say it would still be around...

click to enlarge (opens in same screen, just click back)

Content
I think we would be at least one expansion behind, and the game would look less pretty as well. Blizzard has some of the top-designers in the world on their payroll and these guys don't work for peanuts (though with how some of the new tier gear, looks I do wonder where those spikes on the shoulders keep coming from).

I was completely against pay to play before I started playing WoW. But having seen the game, and the fact that they keep bringing patch after patch of new content, I can see where the money is going, and it's worth it.

This game is brilliant to play, and brilliant to already just look at. I just cannot imagine anybody being able to get it set up like this and not charge a monthly fee.

Players
The other thing that would be different is the type of players playing this game. And also the type of players being the top-geared players. Since skill would have far less to do with it, it would get people who have a large enough income, but no skill, easily in very nice gear....and possibly even gear that you just cannot get without real money.

Imagine /trade like this..and places like Amazon and Ebay would flow over with WoW stuff, well...more than they already do now then.

The content would be far more player driven as well. Since those who pay for the designer's wages do sort of have a pretty loud voice in what's getting done I can imagine.

I read the Greedy Goblin, and the way he bought himself into a guild, players would now be buying themselves into just about everything. I'm not sure if I like that thought, at all >_<

Would you play?
B-Rab commented on my earlier post, and I have to agree with him on the flappers. I would not gladly pay 50 or 60 bucks for my mount.

I don't agree with him on how fast Blizzard will phase out this game, however. Even though some people might seem to get tired with it, the game is more alive then ever (not counting China atm..).

And by the time we do actually get to be level 100, I'm sure Blizzard has found a way to make it much easier on new players to get there.

But how about you, would you play if you had to pay for...lets say each patch?

Free-to-play World of Warcraft is a possibility says Blizzard

Free-to-play World of Warcraft is a possibility says Blizzard

In a recent interview, Tom Chilton of Blizzard stated that the “free-to-play” model is a definite possibility for the worlds biggest MMORPG. Currently the game is pay-to-play and has millions of subscribers.

No comments yet, but the headline is interesting! Will pick it up this evening...after having read it carefully! ;)

My apologies for yesterday, I'm a noob sometimes. *blush*

Heirloom Cold Weather Flying, OMG! Part 2

Zarhym on Just discovered: cold weather flying at 68! (Source)

Just to confirm, Tome of Cold Weather Flight is actually a new heirloom item planned to go into patch 3.2. At level 80 players can buy this heirloom item from the Cold Weather Flying Trainer in Dalaran for 1,000 gold and send it to an alt of the same realm, faction and account. The tome can be used to learn Cold Weather Flying at level 68, consuming the tome in the process.

Please note this feature is not yet in the newest version of the public test realm patch notes updated today. The item and its functionality are subject to change during the testing process.

I was at work today when I saw this, and misread it a little. I also unfortunately didn't have time to comment too much on it, so instead it just span around my head for the whole day, and I saved up all my thoughts until now.

My Initial Reaction

Reading this it really seems as if Blizzard is going to allow people to fly upon entering Northrend at level 68.

I can see how this is meant for alts mainly, but what is going to happen is that everybody and their mommy will be able to fly around Northrend, because getting a portal to Dalaran isn't the hardest thing to do, and getting a 1000G isn't either.

I felt cheated by Blizzard. I did all the hard work, and the slowpokes are getting it for nothing?! I was completely blar about it. Not only were they getting all the other mounts earlier, now they would also get this one early. Again more blar.

But as often happens, I let the news settle a little, and thought about it.

My experience is my own

I actually have to say that I'm pretty ok with this.

Wait! What?

Yeah, I'm pretty ok with this. You know why?

Because it doesn't change my first experience if other people are getting an easier job. It doesn't make the fact that I got to experience it differently any less good, less pretty, or less valuable.

I have my memories in this game, like everybody who has been playing for a while I assume. And I can look back and actually see how the game is changing, evolving over time. And for those people who are trying to catch up (my dad has started playing only 3 months or so, for example) they will never experience what I have experienced.

I played through the story of Onyxia. I saw the epic battle. Anybody who started playing after Lick King arrived has no idea.

I came into Northrend being level 70 in Black Temple gear, I can tell you that quests and dungeons are a completely different experience if you come in as a newbie without money or gear at all. And then you're even expected to go into Northrend at level 68. This is hard, I know, I just recently did it on my EU server. Those mobs kicked my ass.

And I know what a glorious sight the Wyrmrest Temple was when I came riding from Star's Rest for the first time. It was an awesome view. The light was amazing, and here I was one with my mount just staring at that gorgeous building.

A bit less glorious perhaps, but I also know how to get to Dalaran from Valiance Keep on mount. Which was quite the adventure at that point still because that pass in between Crystal Song Forest and Dragonblight, was not the best place to be for my priestie at the time.

So no matter how much they are giving in to others so they can catch up, my experience doesn't get diminished by this, not one bit.

A possible future

Looked at more analytically, this change is actually very interesting. Bind on Account, but it gets used up. So if this technique is possible, surely they can also make Bind on Account, with Bind on Equip, right?

I can see myself gear up my alts by raiding on my main. Since I'm a healer, and we seem to always be short on supply in healers I often raid on my main while I really just don't need the gear anymore. So wouldn't it be pretty darn cool if instead of always disenchanting we could just send it to our alts and it would bind to them?

Thinking a little further ahead it does make me think about all the different kinds of trouble this sort of stuff could give in a PUG. It actually makes me giggle a little if I imagine the kind of situations you could get with this.

I mean think about it. You would roll main char, main spec first. Then main char, offspec. Then main spec for alts, offspec for alts...and how on earth will the pug raid leader check this stuff. Wow, this opens up all sorts of avenues.

And enchanting, hmm, enchanters would have more difficulty getting their shards together. So maybe as compensation we could loot enchanting materials off mobs instead? That thought is sorta cool actually...

But hey, getting ahead of things. This is one of the changes coming in the next patch, and I can see why they did it. I can think of a couple of ways on how it may work out, but in the end..it really just doesn't affect me too much. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

"They're learning to fly younger, and younger"

Random Announcement
Been poking at the look and feel of my blog today, and some had noticed that all of a sudden it only showed 1 post on the main page instead of the usual 5. I must have pressed the wrong button or so, but it should be fixed now.

Also, am working on a complete haulover on the layout, but that will be announced (well, and shown) when it's done.