Month: September 2010

Becoming a Better Barker

Posted on by Gazimoff

I’m probably what you’d call a semi-casual auctioneer. I have a dedicated bank alt and a clutch of addons to help me sell stuff. I tend to avoid risk though – I deal in raw materials, BoE blue gear and items that I can flip easily. I don’t spend much time on it, but likewise I don’t make big profits from it.

Over the last few days I’ve been hit hard from firesales. People are converting the last few badges they have to gems or Primordial Saronite to sell for whatever they can. Prices (and profits) on most materials are plunging as supply far outstrips demand.

Craftables are also a source of anxiety. Get it right and you’re in the money. Get it wrong and you’ve wasted time, effort and materials on something that won’t sell. And right now, it feels like most markets are seizing up. While the smart players are cleaning out their bucket lists and putting down plans, there’s a lot of “wait and see” stagnation.

Right now, the real growth area for me is in barking. By that I don’t mean barking at the moon, I mean having a little advert for my crafting skills that I can paste in the trade channel when I’m not doing anything. Depending on the time of day, it can net me a few hundred gold an hour of pure profit. There are some great secrets to barking that I’ve learned in order to get the best results.

The Meta-Cataclysm

Posted on by Gazimoff

It feels like Cataclysm has become a euphemism for change. My favourite TV show just cataclysm’d. My car needs an oil cataclysm. “Cataclysm I can believe in”. You get the idea.

It’s no surprise then to see the Web of Warcraft go through it’s own mini-cataclysm. WoW.com has gone back to being called WoW Insider, and has moved to a new address under the Joystiq brand. Although it’s a strange move at first glance (wow.com is a great domain name), it makes sense in other ways. Readers will be more likely to check out the rest of the Joystiq site for the rest of their gaming needs, the site gets more page impressions and generates more revenue.

It also means there’s a chance for cross-pollination. The talented writers at WoW Insider might have more of a chance to create content for the wider Joystiq site. This helps them move from Warcraft journalism through to videogame journalism, and possibly even to the wider entertainment scene. This can only be a great thing.

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The Impending Release

Posted on by Gazimoff

There’s currently a lot of theorycrafting about the upcoming release of Cataclysm. Almost all commentators are agreed that it’s going to be out soon, but none of us quite agree on when exactly it’ll happen. Add to it the amount of work that still needs to be finished in the current beta, and you begin to wonder if it’ll be released this year at all.

The gauntlet has been thrown down by MMO-Champion, who are now predicting a November 2 release date. It’s a fair prediction as well: patch 4.0 has just hit the PTR servers, bringing with it the new spells and talent trees that are a core part of the Cataclysm changes. Never mind the new levelling content and dungeons – the PTR should give players an immediate feel for the mechanics of their class.

One of the pre-expansion events has also made it onto the live servers. Operation Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles quests are now active, being a clear mark that the expansion is approaching. It’s new content, but only of a sort – the events take only half an hour to complete, making them more of a light snack rather than a feast of new stuff for players.

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Inspiration for A World

Posted on by Gazimoff

I recently had the luck to visit Avebury for a weekend. It’s a fantastic place if you like to get away from it all – there’s no wi-fi, no mobile phone signal. The whole area feels like it’s some kind of Bermuda Triangle for modern data communications, which makes it perfect for those who crave a little peace.

While I was there I did a little exploring. There’s a stone circle that surrounds the town, a barrow den on a nearby hill and a large stretch of heath and farmland. It felt a lot like the Arathi Highlands, you could just imagine Forzuk lumbering around a raptor-filled countryside.

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Mementos and Keepsakes

Posted on by Gazimoff

I think that as much as I hate to admit it, I’m a creature of habit. Over the years I’ve managed to collect vast quantities of technical gubbins that I keep thinking will be useful “one day”. The gizmos that were once geek fashion items, but have since been consigned to the plastic crate of a gadget graveyard. And it’s not just smartphones that have lost their shiny sheen – all manner of clips, cables and converters are lying around just waiting for a chance to become useful again.

Separate from all this electrical junk are the things that help to mark parts of our lives. Things like my collection of collector’s editions. Things like the architectural schematic of a lighthouse that hangs on the wall, marking the place where my wife and I married. Things like the huge Lego kit that I bought with my first paycheck. Stuff that probably has little monetary value, but are still things that are very important to me.

It’s not just in the real world where I have my keepsakes or mementos. The BlogAzeroth Shared Topic this week was about these virtual items that take up space in the back of our bank vaults or the bottom of our bags. The stuff we can’t bear to part with, even though it’s no longer useful. I’m no exception, so let me show you the stuff that a mage carries around through the expansions.

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Getting the Guild Appeal

Posted on by Gazimoff


I don’t know if I’ve talked much about it, but a while back I was searching for a new raiding guild. I was lucky at the time – one guild came from a recommendation and responded to me making enquiries in trade chat, while the other was a guild that I had real-life friends in. For me, they were easy choices.

This might not be relevant any more – after all many raid guilds are in a holding pattern until Cataclysm comes out. Several are taking a summer break, while others have shut down completely. Others are struggling with membership, either having to recruit to keep raiding, or in just retaining their existing members. It’s summer, there are some fantastic new games out and the choice between the same grind and the big shiny is an easy choice to make.

One thing I have noticed is that there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of new raiders out there looking for a spot. But often I hear complaints about having to gear up new recruits, or help them learn the fights, or similar. And it becomes a chore, and guild progress fades, and you’re dealing with discontented raiders. And the last thing you want is for the thing you’ve built together to implode, but you can feel it on the horizon. I don’t think it has to be that way though, although I think as raid guilds we’re our own worst enemy sometimes. Let me explain.

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Cataclysm UI: Mage Auras

Posted on by Gazimoff

I’m a big fan of the Power Auras addon. Ever since I got to grips with it, it’s been a huge boon to my play, purely because it displays high priority information in an easy-to-digest manner. Since it arrived on the scene, it’s been a must-have for anyone looking to customise their UI.

It’s no surprise then that Blizzard have decided to incorporate a large chunk of the Power Auras capability into the Cataclysm beta. With last week’s build (number 12857) this capability has been switched on by default. But what do they look like for mages? Hopefully this handy video will explain all

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