WOW Jewelcrafting Guide 1-450

Despite the overwhelming support from our readers during our brief but flower-tastic adventures as HKO-Insider, I will be unable to delve any further into the professions of the Flower Kingdom. That’s okay; they were prejudiced against jewelcrafters anyway.

Two weeks ago, I posted Insider Trader’s guide to the final stretch of Alchemy, and Runstadrey posted the following comment in response:

Excellent article, very in depth and thorough. I’m eagerly awaiting the same treatment for my stalled JC.

How could I resist a request preceded by flattery? I might have even produced this last week, had patch 2.4 not have dropped; after all, we can’t have all of our jewelcrafters stalled mid-level. I am looking forward to reading the comment section for this guide, as the cheapest way on paper always varies because of unique server economies.

For the first part of the guide, which will show you how to reach 355 jewelcrafting in the cheapest manner possible, pass on through the break.

Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. For more guides to maximizing your chosen profession, check out the final stretches for Leatherworkers and Alchemists alike. For a complete list of profession guides, feel free to peruse our directory.

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Virtual Currency and the 2008 Presidential Election

Over 10 million Americans regularly indulge themselves in the gaming phenomena of the 21st Century; Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs). The genre has developed into a global, multi-billion dollar industry with titles such as EverQuest, Warhammer Online and the infamous World of Warcraft. These virtual online worlds captivate the minds of players and act as a space from which people can escape the real world.

However, there are numerous examples of where the real world breaks in to inform, capitalize on or entertain the virtual inhabitants. Musicians, charitable organizations and big business have all made their mark “in-game”, often making a big impression on the masses of orcs, elves and post-apocalyptic humanoids.

But now there is an opportunity to reverse the roles. Players of MMORPGs are being given the opportunity to make a difference to one of the biggest real world events in history – the 2008 US Presidential Election.

Massive Online Gaming Sales (MOGS), an American MMORPG services company, have started a new initiative to aid with voter registration in the USA. They are enabling players of seven major MMORPG titles to donate their virtual currency to make a difference to the democratic process. Players donate their currency to MOGS which is then converted into its US Dollar equivalent and donated to the prominent voter registration charity Rock the Vote. The company claims this is a way for MMORPG gamers to influence the democratic process in a way that is relevant to them and meaningful to the spirit of democracy.

The issue of voter registration is one that has sparked civil rights action and wide-scale government inquiries in the past, and remains an important issue today. By enabling a wider section of the electorate to have their say, the end result is more representative of the population and reflective of their views. This gives the future President and the government as a whole a stronger mandate from the people on which to act.

Whilst MOGS claims the programme is a fair and balanced way to encourage participation without them showing any leaning to one candidate or the other, it can be argued that great voter registration favours Barack Obama. The Illinois Senator has a commanding lead amongst young voters, those who are more likely to be disenfranchised without the help of organizations such as Rock the Vote. Encouraging voter registration therefore improves the chances of Obama more than it does McCain. However, the company stands firm on their claim; “We recognize that our customers, and MMORPG gamers as a whole, have a vested interest in the future Executive and are equally eager to support the democratic process. It is through this process that we are granted our freedoms and develop our ideals, two things which our company relies on and could not succeed without.”

Partisan politics aside, if you’re interested in increasing awareness of voter registration or have some spare MMORPG currency you’d like to donate then be sure to check out the Donate Your Virtual Currency page for further details.

Blizzard's Economy Actions Backfire?

Unless you’ve been hidden under a rock in the farthest corner of Azeroth, you’ll have noticed that the price of many vendor items have dropped over the past few months. This is seen as an attempt by Blizzard to curb what they see as a Gold farming/selling/buying epidemic. The principle was simple; reducing the price of core items requires players to have less Gold, thus lowering the temptation to purchase Gold from third parties.

The problem lies in the heart of the Azeroth economy; the Auction House. WoW players are finding themselves with a larger expendable income when they approach the AH, and are thus more able to pay higher prices for the items they want. This is reacted upon by sellers who no longer need to cut their prices to sell items, and infact opt to increase their prices across the board. Whilst Blizzard’s economic plan may have had good intent, it seems they didn’t pay too close attention to economics in school.

The result is two-fold; players need more Gold (to afford the higher priced items) and farmers are able to sell their farmed items for more, thus producing more Gold and becoming more cost-effective. This seems like another situation that will lead to Gold saturation on the main servers, and see another dramatic drop in Gold prices in the near future, regardless of the recent price hike.

The only thing that can seemingly save Blizzard from this situation is repeating the mass bannings seen recently, removing Gold from the economy and sending Gold prices shooting up once again. This is a proverbial game of cat-and-mouse, bust-and-benefit for both the game developer and RMT companies, but one must ask what the effect is on the average gamer.

Will we see constant fluctuations in the AH, where tools such as Auctioneer are rendered useless? Or have Blizzard simply preparing the landscape for another big change? Only time will tell, and we’ll certainly be watching closely!

WoW Gold Prices Surge After Recent Bannings

A wave of mass bannings instigated by Blizzard’s anti-RMT unit has shook the WoW Gold industry and sent prices soaring… well, kind of. WoW Gold has decreased in price month-on-month since January 2007 ($126/1000g) to it’s lowest point recently in June 2008 ($17/1000g). Prices have now doubled-up to the $35-$40/1000g range; a bitersweet blow for the Chinese farms that were hit. Whilst many have lost tens, even hundreds of account and thousands of dollars in lost Gold, the price hike will allow for double the profitability while it lasts.

Industry analysts predict this to be a temporary rise and for prices to return to the $20 mark within 2 months. Though some farms will have ceased operation after this latest Blizzard offensive, the rate at which new Gold farms are springing up will more than take up the slack.

Suprisingly the vast increase in price has not deterred the average RMT customer, with major companies only reporting a minor dip in sales. With the majority of gold-buying-gamers residing in the United States, this is an interesting turn of events when considering their economic fortunes in the real-world.

4 Fundemental Auction House Tips

If you’re planning to start gaming the WoW Auction House we suggest you observe the following 4 tips.

These are the basic fundamentals, but mastery of these fundamentals is fundamentally fundamental if you wish to… Ok enough – just read them!

Auctioneer (www.auctioneeraddon.com): This add-on scans the AH and compiles a database of all the items posted and the prices they were sold for. It uses that information to determine who is over or under selling, how often items are sold, and what the ideal sale price should be. Use the suggested price as a guide to what you should sell the item for, but don’t rely on it – it can be prone to manipulation by your competitors. To keep your data up-to-date, use Auctioneer to scan the AH two or three times per day.

Use your Alts: Create a new character and get them to Stormwind/Ogrimmar. This gives you the versatility to sell your items under a name other than your main character and create artificial competition. Having a trading Alt is smart if you’re going to be aggressive in how you approach selling at the AH because people will hate you. Also, If you’re looking to prevent someone else from trying to flip the items your focusing on, having two of your own characters sell the same item makes it look like you already have competition.

Keep your poker face on: No matter what you’re selling there is going to be competition. Unless you are dedicated to just one item, or have a significant amount of money already, you can’t buy out everyone who sells lower than you. What you have to determine is if it’s worth it to cancel and re list or just let it sit and wait for the price point to go back up. Unless you’re sitting 20 stacks deep in Essence of Fire, you shouldn’t cut your losses just to put some coin back in your pocket because it will hurt you in the long run. Sometimes if the item is popular enough both your items will still be sold.

Playing Dirty: Auctioneer is a great add-on, but it can’t tell the difference between items meant for sale and items meant to inflate/deflate the market price. If you find that the market for the item your selling keeps dropping price, you can place an item or to for sale with no buyout at a ridiculously high price. This will drive the market value up, making it look like their items are selling for nothing. Once someone purchases all of those, the desire to undercut your items being sold at the lowest price will decrease the competition. This works the same an item for 1 copper to bring down the price in the item so you can replenish your supply at a price lower than what you will sell it back for.

Mining Profits at the AH

The biggest advantage of dealing with mined resources on the AH is that a player has to manual head out and harvest the raw material. After they do that they have three options: sell the raw material, smelt it then sell it, or use it. Although your AH will have plenty of mined resource for sale, there won’t be much overflow as Engineers, Blacksmiths, and Jewelcrafters rely on these materials.

The easiest way to break into this market is with Coarse and Solid Stone. These Stones have a lot of different uses over several skill levels so they don’t often stay on the AH for long. You need to sell these in stacks of 10 or 20. Rarely are people looking for just a few stones. Unfortunately with there not being a surplus of these items on the AH, you’re going to have to buy out every one within reason and continue to buy those who have undercut you. You can be confident that these will sell all week long regardless of the price you list them for. You have to keep in mind that these are a byproduct of mining and not what the player was working towards. If a miner plops down 15 stacks of coarse stone for 2g each and yours are sitting at 7g and actually selling, you’re going to have to spend the 30g to buy them out.

If you have more money to spend, Bars would be the next choice. Gold, Mithril, Thorium, and Adamantite Bars go fast on the AH especially on the weekends. Players tend to be pre-occupied with raids and running instances on the weekend so mining supplies will be scarce on the AH. This doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to try and level their skills, but they won’t be wasting time mining while their entire guild is online. You don’t need to own the entire market for bars to make you money; you just need to hold your spot as the lowest priced listing. You’re going to find these sold mostly in stacks on the AH but they sell much better individually. If a player only need 10 bars and a stack of 20 is going for 25g, they will buy your individuals sold at 1.5g each.

WoW Gold Prices Drop After Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year has now finished and China’s golden army is back to work.

As you may have noticed, WoW Gold prices increased by 40-50% across the industry at the beginning of February. This yearly price increase is caused by the mass exodus of Chinese workers travelling back to their families for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). Now the fesitivities have ended and prices have dropped back down to their normal price (even lower from some sellers) you may think this is the ideal time to grab a deal – think again!

Many WoW gamers previously put off by inflated prices are flocking to buy WoW Gold at what they see as reduced rates. This is putting huge strain on supply, as it does every year, and is causing extended delivery delays across China. So if you’re looking to bag a bargain you’d be wise to wait until mid-March.

If you can’t wait then we suggest you find a seller in Europe or the USA, as they tend to have a more sustainable stock in the West. Be sure to ask what stock levels are like on your server and as always ensure the provider is legitimate (check their BizRate feedback) – nothing is worse than paying for Gold you’ll never receive!

Blizzard's War on (In-Game) Terror

On February 22nd 2008, Blizzard issued a statement via their US and EU websites explaining the negative impact of buying Gold and Power Leveling services. This was yet another attempt by the game developer to hinder the growth of real-money transactions, but focussed on the “detrimental effects” it had to WoW players and the in-game economy. Blizzards intent was stated as follows:

“So, we hope to raise awareness about the practices they engage in and the detrimental effects they have on all players, including their own customers, as well as on the game environment as a whole.”

As a third-party commentator on real-money trading within World of Warcraft, with many years experience on both sides of the issue, I would like to present our perspective on the “issues” Blizzard raised in this latest statement:

OMG – Not the Economy!

Blizzard: “What many people don’t realize when buying gold is the large impact it has on the game economy”

And it would appear Blizzard don’t know either.

This is the classic argument put forward by economically-minded gamers and game developers alike; the introduction of additional currency into a marketplace has a “large impact”. It’s interesting to note that this point is not elaborated on further in this statement, or anywhere in the vaults of anti-RMT propaganda.

Propaganda Rating: 8/10 – whilst a mass influx of currency would effectively hyper-inflate any market place, the volume of players relative to the number of servers makes the current effect of new Gold miniscule.

Stolen Gold

Blizzard: “We regularly track the source of the gold these companies sell, and find that an alarmingly high amount comes from hacked accounts”

Accounts being hacked, stripped and their valuables being sold off is indeed an issue in modern-day MMO gaming. Whether it be addons laced with keyloggers or illegitimate Chinese RMT companies selling off Power Leveling account details (though usually 3-6 months after completed), account theft is an issue everyone should be aware of and Blizzard is right to increase awareness of it.

However, two equally important points must be highlighted that I’m assuming Blizzard forgot to mention.

Firstly, account theft is undertaken by a small minority of RMT companies who are unable to be brought to account for their actions. This lack of accountability is a simple case of geography; if your account is stolen by a company located in China, and you live in America, you have virtually no chance of winning a legal dispute with them. Such companies are aware of this and take full advantage of it. However, the statement that “an alarmingly high amount (of Gold) comes from hacked accounts” is pure misleading legal-speak. What constitutes an “alarmingly high amount”? We don’t know, but it sure sounds scary doesn’t it?

The fact is that whilst a small minority of Gold (sold by a small minority of companies) comes from stolen accounts, the vast majority comes from two sources; active WoW players and South-East Asian workrooms.

The second point is internal to Blizzard and the World of Warcraft staff. If you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to have your account stolen you’ll be aware of the tricky process of getting it back. The World of Warcraft Billing & Accounts team rightly asks users several security questions to ensure you are the rightful owner before returning your account. If you have further difficulties most of the Billing & Accounts team are very friendly and go out of their way to help you, and they should be commended for this!

However, you may not know that no measures are put in place to track password changes via the World of Warcraft web site. The first port of call for an account hacker is to change your password, and would seemingly be the ideal point at which to track the IPs of these undesirables. Sadly not – not only do Blizzard fail to deter account hackers at the change password stage, they keep no record of account password changes (via the website) what-so-ever. If we’re going to discuss account security issues, this is number one on my list.

Propaganda Rating: 5/10 – Blizzard highlight a very real issue here, but fail to talk straight or explore the issue fully.

Power Leveling Takes “Years to Recover From”

Blizzard: “(Referring to Power Leveling) In many cases the companies they paid use their personal information to perpetrate identity theft and credit card fraud. These are long-lasting effects on players’ personal lives that can take years to recover from”

After reading this particular sentence I expected the next paragraph to state, “And we also believe the evil doers have obtained weapons of mass destruction”. That’s right – evacuate Stormwind, the bombs are going to fall!

This marks a sign of desperation on the part of Blizzard. In 8 years of MMO gaming, I have never come across identity theft or credit card fraud as a result of ordering Power Leveling. That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen, but no more so than it happens with buying electronics, books or anything else online.

As a WoW gamer I felt insulted by this blatant attempt at scare-mongering.

Propaganda Rating: 9/10 – that’s one more than Hitler!

Player Responsibility

Blizzard: “The negative effects these companies create depend directly on people using their services. Without them, the companies have no way to continue their unethical actions”

In other words, RMT exists because there is demand for it. RMT continues due to the positive experience most gamers have with it and the repeat custom they provide. From this statement, and the rest of the article, you would think Blizzard wanted to wipe out RMT – but you’d be wrong.

Let’s think from a different perspective for a moment. Blizzard makes money from accounts registered, upgrades purchased and subscriptions renewed. Take away RMT and two things happen:

1. Blizzard no longer sees accounts registered and subscriptions renewed from workrooms in China (the source of the majority of traded Gold). Commentators have suggested the value of these accounts, in initial registration/subscription and re-registration/subscription after banning, to be worth around $10,000,000 per year to Blizzard.

2. Some of those who don’t have sufficient time to participate in “the grind” of the game (and thus purchase RMT services to compensate) decide to stop their subscription.

Whilst I would not be so foolish to state that Blizzard is pro-RMT, for legal reasons more than anything else, it seems that eradicating real-money trading would be significantly detrimental to Blizzard’s bottom-line. Combine that with the multitude of statements-without-action, and a very different picture begins to emerge.

Propaganda Rating: 10/10 – “We don’t want you to buy from them – honest!”

Conclusion

The purpose of this article was not to present retaliatory propaganda in favour of RMT, but rather to allow gamers an insight into the areas Blizzard does not discuss. There are real issues with RMT and companies that exist with the intent to defraud their customers. However, by properly researching a company prior to purchase and making sure the proper security measures are taken (as you should do with any online purchase) you will be able to join the hundreds-of-thousands of WoW gamers who benefit from and enjoy legitimate RMT.

We hope this article and the free services offer at WoWGold.net can help you make an informed purchasing decision.

US Gamer Becomes First World of Warcraft Millionaire

Whilst America is suffering an economic downturn, gas prices rise day after day and the dollar weakens under pressure, one American is going against this trend; virtually. An avid Internet gamer from Chicago IL, known only as Jake, has made history by making the largest purchase of “virtual currency” ever reported. He did so through the game World of Warcraft, purchasing 1,000,000 Gold (the game’s currency) at a cost of just over $40,000.

The exchange of “real money” for its virtual gaming equivalent, whilst an insane concept to many, is nothing new. Real-Money Trading, or RMT companies as they are better known, have been around since the early days of Ultima Online but only became newsworthy with the release of World of Warcraft. The game’s population of almost 11 million subscribers makes it a lucrative marketplace for third-party companies, with no shortage of customers and suppliers (though the majority of the industry’s “product” is sourced through China). Industry analysts have predicted the RMT market to be worth around $2 billion in 2008, with a large proportion of that coming for World of Warcraft.

Though many gaming addicts will admit to purchasing virtual currencies and services, perhaps spending as much as a couple hundred dollars at a time, one wonders why someone would spend so much money on what is essentially pixels on a computer screen.

“My friends ask me, ‘You could have bought a car, a boat or put down a deposit on a house – why waste all that money on a game?’. I don’t like cars, I get sea-sick and I already own a couple of properties of my own.”, Jake contends. “I find less sense in blowing $40,000 on a BMW – at least WoW Gold retains its value.” You can almost understand his point – almost. After all, expendable income is all about enjoyment, whether it’s expensive holidays, a luxury sports car or the ability to own (literally) your friends at your favorite game. But still…

The lucky recipients of this record order were www.MOGS.com, an American provider of WoW Gold, based out of Lakewood, Ohio. “When we saw the order request come in, we just laughed; it’s not unusual to get joke requests”, said Joe, the Customer Service Leader managing the shift the order came in on. “But the guy persisted and provided us with a phone number that matched up with his registered address. When we realized that this might be a serious order, we took the steps to further verify Jake’s identity and the validity of his request with his bank.” Within a few days the deal was done and Jake was on his way to being what must certainly be the only World of Warcraft millionaire on the planet… though he’ll have to spread the wealth over atleast 5 characters as the currency limit for a single player (only ever acheived twice before in the game’s history) is just over 210,000 Gold.

Jake plans to gear up his characters with the best of everything the game has to offer, but he’s not forgotten his fellow guild members either. His girlfriend, also a World of Warcraft player, was pleasantly surprised when she found a 50,000 Gold 21st birthday gift from Jake in her in-game mailbox. It’s no diamond ring, but it’s pretty close in WoW!

Enchanting at the AH

Enchanting supplies are the most flexible items you can sell at the AH. They cost nothing to list and they are always in high demand. No matter what their gear is, a character can always use better enchants.

The items sold the most on the AH are enchanting supplies. Dusts, Essences, and Shards are all high demand items, especially for end-game players. While most Enchanters keep a solid supply of these items, enchants often require the buyer to provide the materials themselves. This means that a majority of your customer base is comprised of people with little to no knowledge of enchanting.

Arcane, Dream, Vision, and Illusion Dusts are the quickest turn over when selling enchanting supplies. Dusts are needed for nearly every enchant out there, making the demand for them very high. Search the AH for all four of those dusts and find out what the lowest price is for a single unit. Check off the box that Auctioneer provides to let you see the price per unit. What you’re looking for now is a decent sized stack that costs at least 15 silver less than what you saw earlier. Buy it and repost it as individual units for around 5 silver less than the lowest priced unit.

While you’re maintaining your hold on the dust market, keep an eye out for Essences. Enchanters need the Greater form of Nether, Eternal, and Planar more than the others. You can follow the above strategy if the price difference exists, but the real trick is watching their Lesser form. 3 Lessers = 1 Greater. If you can combine 3 Lessers for at least 15 silver less than the cost of the Greaters listed, post it up there for 5 silver less than them and watch how fast it sells.

Shard sales are cutthroat. The only one that’s in serious demand is Large Prismatic Shards. These are high priced items that don’t often have a good margin between the highest and lowest ones listed. If you do happen to find ones with a good margin, make sure your bank account can handle it.

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