Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Laptop go boom.

My laptop's video card has died and the machine is in the shop. It will be a few days until I can come back and post again.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

The true price of inks.

Inscription is one of, if not the, best gold making professions in the game right now. It is kind of the perfect storm in terms of profitability. It sells a disposable item as its commodity. It tailors to everyone in the game. And it has almost no deposit price for the AH so that working in bulk is encouraged.

The adage slow and steady wins the race is in full effect here. We are talking about hundreds of sales for a few gold each. They add up though. My server is listed as a high population realm. There is about 6 hardcore scribes and about 20 part timers. I still pull about 2k gold out of my mailbox the day after I restock glyphs. My average profit on a glyph is 5g right now.

The only true way to know your profits is to know your costs. I decided that I wanted to know exactly how many inks I could make from an average stack of herbs. I built up a spreadsheet that let me enter how many stacks of each herb I milled and how many Ink of the Sea (Iots) and Snowfall Inks (SI) I got out of each stack.

Not all herbs are created equal, the lower level northrend herbs have a different ink yield than the higher level northrend herbs.

1 stack of lower level herbs = 5 IotS and ½ SI (1688.25 stacks milled, 8339 IotS, 855 SI)
1 stack of higher level herbs = 6 IotS and 1 SI (1652 stacks milled, 9804 IotS, 1628 SI)

I had to split the spreadsheet up into these two categories. From there I documented how many inks of each type I could get from a stack and divided the price of the stack by this number. This gave me the actual cost of each ink.

The problem is that milling herbs gives you two types of inks. With each ink on a different variable of cost it would take some advanced math to get a solid price point. I decided to simplify. I figured that I had two scenarios:

Scenario 1. 10 IotS can be turned into 1 SI, therefore 1 SI counts as 10 IotS as far as ink pricing is concerned. The cost of the stack of herbs is divided by both ink types. [ Stack price /((SIx10)+IotS)]

Scenario 2.I consider SI as a bonus product and only count IotS as far as ink pricing is concerned. The cost of the stack of herbs is divided by only IotS and SI has an effective price of 0 [Stack price / IotS]

If I could sell all of my SI either as inks or as a finished product then I would use the pricing scheme in scenario 1. If not then I would use scenario 2

The problem comes when you are milling in bulk that most of the items made by SI do not sell in bulk. The only thing that you can make in bulk and have them sell reliably is Darkmoon Cards of the North. I turn all my SI into cards using the pricing structure in scenario 1.

If you can't sell the SI or its products for the price laid out in scenario 1 you must price your IotS off of scenario 2 and consider any SI sales as a bonus.

Here is a list of Ink prices depending on the price of a stack of herbs. Add 50 silver for parchment prices to get your glyph price.

Low Level Herbs

Price per stack // Scenario 1 IotS Price (x10 for SI Price) // Scenario 2 IotS Price
all prices in gold
1 // 0.1 // 0.2
2 // 0.2 // 0.4
3 // 0.3 // 0.61
4 // 0.4 // 0.81
5 // 0.5 // 1.01
6 // 0.6 // 1.21
7 // 0.7 // 1.42
8 // 0.8 // 1.62
9 // 0.9 // 1.82
10 // 1 // 2.02
11 // 1.1 // 2.23
12 // 1.2 / 2.43
13 // 1.3 // 2.63
14 // 1.4 // 2.83
15 // 1.5 // 3.04
16 // 1.6 // 3.24
17 // 1.7 // 3.44
18 // 1.8 // 3.64
19 // 1.9 // 3.85
20 // 2 // 4.05
21 // 2.1 // 4.25

High Level Herbs

Price per stack // Scenario 1 IotS Price (x10 for SI Price) // Scenario 2 IotS Price
all prices in gold
1.6 // 0.1 // 0.27
3.2 // 0.2 // 0.54
4.7 // 0.3 // 0.79
6.3 // 0.4 // 1.06
7.9 // 0.5 // 1.33
9.4 // 0.6 // 1.58
11 // 0.7 // 1.85
12.6 // 0.8 // 2.12
14.2 // 0.9 // 2.39
15.8 // 1 // 2.66
17.4 // 1.1 // 2.93
19 // 1.2 // 3.2
20.5 // 1.3 // 3.45
22.1 // 1.4 // 3.72
23.7 // 1.5 // 3.99
25.2 // 1.6 // 4.25
26.8 // 1.7 // 4.52
28.4 // 1.8 // 4.79
30 // 1.9 // 5.06
31.6 // 2 // 5.32
33.1 // 2.1 // 5.58

Friday, April 16, 2010

I can't pay for repairs!

I just cringe when I see people talking about being broke in chat. The way the economy in WoW is now, there is no need to be broke.

I am known in my guild to be an AH whore and people come to me when they need to make some money. I will tell you the same thing I tell them all. Use your professions to sell stuff on the AH.

There are 2 hard and fast rules about making money in WoW.
1.Know your costs.
2.Never underestimate the ability of the average person to buy something that is of absolutely no use to them.

Lets examine those rules.
Rule 1 is all about the old adage: you make money when you buy not when you sell. Every profession has items that someone wants. The trick is buying the mats for less than what the finished product sells for.

The easiest way to make sure you are doing this is to set up a spreadsheet. Wowstability.com has many fan made ones ready to go and free to download. All you need is a spot to input the cost of each material and a spot to input the sale price of the finished item. Add a 5% loss to the AH for their cut and you should know what your profits are.

Rule 2 is about the fact that you will never know what sells well until you make some and post them. They could make a glyph that makes your character die every time you cast a heal, or a gem that disenchants your gear upon socketing and people would still buy it. As long as you can sell it for more than the cost of the materials you should be making it.

One note here. You may have noticed I said mats that you have bought not mats you have farmed.

YOU SHOULD NEVER FARM FOR MATS

and rarely ever farm for sales. Mats you farm are not free. They cost you the time you spent farming. Would you rather spend 3 hours farming 100g worth of mats or spend 10 minutes buying the mats that would make you 100g in profits? The other 2 hours 50 minutes you freed up can be used to raid or run a dungeon or, god forbid, log off and clean the house.

I firmly believe that to make lots of gold in WoW you should have two max level crafting professions. The state of the game makes a farming profession the easiest way to get some gold in your hands. I pick a flower or chip a rock and I get 20 silver. For those of us who look beyond to what that flower or rock can be turned into, that same rock is worth 6 gold. The only difference between you getting 20 silver and me getting 6 gold for that rock is the work I put into it.

It is the old adage of work smarter not harder. The reason that most people don't do this is because it takes a lot of time and effort to find the profitable items in each profession. You have to work hard to make sure you know what a fair* market price is. Once that is done you have to understand what the normal costs of each material to make the item is. When you have this information and it comes out that the finished product is worth more than the materials you have to try and sell it. Do people want it? How many can you sell in a week? It can take weeks to do this whole process. By understanding the process and following it, you can turn that 20 silver rock into a 6 gold rock. If you don't want to work that hard, by all means go mining or herbing and I will buy that rock from you and smile all the way to the gold cap.


*(fair market price is defined as: the price at which the item will sell on a consistent basis.) It doesn't matter what you think it is worth, It only matters what the people will buy it for time and time again

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Late Night Wipefest

My guild has a weird habit. We will get stuck on a boss sometimes and will wipe and wipe until the end of raid time. We usually try one last time, sometimes even requiring fresh flasks for that one last attempt. 9 times out of 10 that last attempt will go perfectly and we down the boss. Is it luck?

I'm not talking about a boss or hard mode we haven't killed before. Usually the previous week we had 1 or 2 shot it. I have no idea why it falls apart so bad or why we can pull together so well on an attempt that we shouldn't have done according to our raiding rules.

Our Sartharion with 3 drakes was a perfect example of this. This was back when it was the hardest encounter in the game and we barely met the gear requirement. We started and ended the night in that instance. 4 ½ hours in that hole, wipe after wipe. I could do my job with my eyes closed. I knew when to move and where just because we had done it so many times. End of raid time came and one of our people had to leave. We brought in a replacement and we killed that damn dragon with no deaths.

First lich king kill? 3 weeks of wipes. One week had 18 wipes and another had 12. When did he get killed? That's right, the last try of the night, after the raid time is officially over, giving it "just one more try".

I can't explain why that last try when we should be logging off and going to bed is so magic for us, but I do know that without the mentality to keep grinding it out, failure after failure we wouldn't be in the position to get that magic attempt. Maybe it is just luck, but it reminds me of an ancient roman saying

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

I see people complain about others, or show up without enough flasks or reagents or whatever and it puts me off. I've never really thought about that until now. Its easy to discern my dislike for the attitude of not being prepared. That last try is only within our grasp because we tried so hard the rest of the night. Those of us who don't complain and make sure to have an extra flask for that last attempt are saying that doing this matters to us. Those that aren't prepared or in a good attitude are telling the rest of us that they just don't care enough for the group to try.

Wiping is annoying. Its counter to what we as individuals and as a group want to accomplish. Winning feels good. It furthers our goals in the game. I can understand the frustrations, but I won't forgive the attitude of apathy to our fellow members when a person doesn't try or come prepared.

And WoW is so easy now. Whenever I get frustrated I think back to the days of Black Wing Lair and Vael the Guild Killer. I swear to God I knew at least 2 guilds on my server that actually disbanded because they couldn't kill Vaelestraz. It took my guild (a different one than I am in now) about 3 months to kill him. 3 MONTHS! We made our own luck. We came prepared, we tried and tried and tried some more. We kept showing up. Night after night, week after week.

So if your guild is getting stuck, don't get discouraged. Get more prepared and get in there and wipe. If you have people who won't show up because its a progression night, recruit someone to take their place. If you want to complain, think about the hardest encounter you have personally been through and completed.

The one quality that is needed in a raider over any other is persistence. You need to be able to put your head down and take a beating night after night. After all, 2 steps forward and 1 step back will eventually get you to the finish line. And when you do, the reward will be that much sweeter. So go get prepared, find that opportunity and...

Go make your own luck.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Personality types in a server 5th type guild

Here is a quick overview of the different types of people you will encounter when joining a Hardcore-Casual or Server 5th guild. You may even see yourself in some of these stereotypes.

Boss Man: The most assertive voice in the guild. Usually an officer but not always. Known to some as "the biggest dick on the planet". Usually gets his way.

Raid Leader: Sometimes the boss man, but not usually. The raid leader needs to be mom, dad, big brother, teacher, and babysitter. Not only does he play with you but he has to watch everyone else while he does and tell them what to do. Thankless job, but probably the biggest authority figure in the guild. If he is the boss man you get raids like this .

Invisible Girl: The first of 3 possible women in the guild. She will speak on vent about once a month. She is wanted by all the guys who don't have a real girlfriend.

Slutty Girl: The 2nd type of woman in the guild. She is sexually provocative in gchat and vent to get attention and in game favors. Many, many, many times she ends up dating the raid leader or guild leader. Usually a bad player but gets to stay in the raid/guild because of her social (sexual) ties to the leader(s) of the guild.

Just one of the Guys Girl: The last type of woman in the guild. She tries to pal around or be friendly in gchat and vent. She is the only type of woman in the guild that is seen in a non sexual light by the guys in the guild. Her worth is measured by her ability to play the game.

The Kid: someone in his low teens or even younger. Most guildies give him a hard time about his age, but is usually a solid player.

The Bragger: The guy who lets everyone know when he does something good. He posts damage meters from a 5 man instance in guild chat when he severely out gears the others. He does achievements just to see the announcement pop up in guild chat.

The Rule Breaker: Also known as The Padder, as in padding the damage meters. He will not follow the guidelines or rules of an encounter so that he can do better personal DPS. Expect him to always AoE, stay on the boss when adds need to be killed and to cheat the encounter so he can look better on damage meters.

The Rager: He will scream and yell, point fingers, and berate people for their inability to be perfect. Never point out his shortcomings or you will make an enemy for life.

The Quiet Raider: This is the majority of your raid makeup. They will talk every once in a while or when the strat requires it, otherwise they keep their head down and just try to perform.

The Talker: He always has something to say. If there is a joke going around hes a part of it. You will see his name in gchat or form posts every day whether you want to or not.

The Know it All: Usually he is also a Talker, but not always. He always has the latest news. He spends as much time visiting fan sites as he does playing the game. Anyone who has a question about anything he has an answer to. Sometimes its even right.

The PvPer. This guy squeaks in through the application process by sounding knowledgeable about his class. He doesn't have a lot of raiding experience because he is rated at 15 gazillion on his arena team. He states he is "here to raid" but 2 weeks in he is deliberately missing raids because he needs to get his arenas in.

The "Partner Application": Two friends or a couple who both apply to the guild and want to be accepted together or not at all. 99% of the time one will suck and one will be great. If you accept them you will have to either sit the bad one out of every raid and hear the drama about it or bring the bad one and carry him through every encounter just to keep the good one.


That's it for now. If you can think of any others feel free to post in the comments section.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Intro

My name is Choice and I am a member in a World of Warcraft guild that is consistently in the top 10 on my server. Not usually first, but, in a good enough position to have our accomplishments envied by the majority of players out there.

What this means in practical terms is that we kill all the bosses and even most of the hard modes in a respectable time frame (within a few weeks of server first or sooner). Raids are 4 nights a week and 4ish hours a raid. This doesn't include personal time used to get ready for raids, run the auction house, or do any "casual" things like holiday or daily quests. We are friends (mostly), but we constantly recruit new members and push out the members who do not perform.

In the original WoW and the Burning Crusade expansion this guild would have been called "Hardcore" In the Wrath of the Lich King expansion the term "Hardcore-Casual Guild" was coined and fits nicely. As things stand now, a hardcore guild is one who accepts no failure or inability to help the guild progress. A hardcore-casual guild has friends and family raiding with them, and while they have set raid times, they do not harshly punish members who aren't the best of the best. A casual guild is one whose focus is more on friends and the social aspect of the game than downing the pve content.

I plan on posting the things I learn from my time playing WoW. Hopefully it will be interesting to somebody out there. Expect posts on making gold, raiding and general attitude of the player-base on a server.