This week we look at the patch notes for 10.1.5 and any last minute nuggets of information that might help with gold making. We also look at a great set of tools from The Saddlebag Exchange for trading cross realm. Plus, we take a dive into the “Why” of gold making and discuss what the economy might look like in Classic Hardcore.
My name is Samadan and I’ll be your guide through the World of Gold Making!
10.1.5 Is Upon Us!
This week will see the release of 10.1.5 and with it a few changes that are particularly pertinent to gold making opportunities as posted in the patch notes this week …
- CROSS-REALM TRADING
Players will now be able to trade items and gold directly to characters on other realms in their region. Previously this was limited to things like conjured items or eligible raid/dungeon loot, but all those cross-realm restrictions will now be lifted. Play with your friends and trade whatever you want to whoever you want!
Updated some legacy raids to drop bind-on-equip items more often when running them solo.
- Developers’ note: We found that some legacy raids had a very low BoE drop rate, so this change is to make farming those transmog items easier.
Slightly increased the frequency of all mounts that appear in the Black Market Auction House and added Battle for Azeroth dungeon and raid mounts to the list of possible auctions.
PROFESSIONS
- There is now an Apprentice Crafter and Gatherer near the Crafting Orders vendors of Valdrakken. Adventurer’s who have fully specialized into their professions can trade in excess profession knowledge for Artisan’s Mettle.
- Frozen Runes can now be found along the walls of Naxxramas for players interested in crafting legacy Frost Resist patterns.
- Players who have completed the quest “The Gordok Ogre Suit” can now acquire the recipe for the Gordok Ogre Suit if their Classic Tailoring or Leatherworking skill is at least 275 by speaking with Knot Thimblejack inside of Dire Maul.
- Blacksmithing
The legacy plans for Truesilver Champion, The Shatterer, and Masterwork Stormhammer can now be purchased from Ironus Coldsteel in Eon’s Fringe after completing his questline.
Cooking
- Roland, your befriended Recipe Rat, will now train a player’s other characters the recipes for Deviously Deviled Eggs and Charitable Cheddar without needing to locate him again in Zskera Vaults or Zaralek Cavern.
Inscription
- New Glyph: Glyph of the Shath’Yar – Shadow Priests can once again speak Shath’Yar while in Voidform. The Inscription recipe has a chance to drop from N’Zoth the Corruptor in Nya’lotha, the Waking City raid.
Leatherworking
- The legacy patterns for Deviate Scale Cloak, Deviate Scale Gloves, and Deviate Scale Belt can now sometimes be found within Stuffed Deviate Scale Pouches which drop from Druids of the Fang inside Wailing Caverns.
- The legacy patterns for Girdle of Insight, Mongoose Boots, Swift Flight Bracers, Chromatic Cloak, Hide of the Wild, and Shifting Cloak can now sometimes be found within Knot Thimblejack’s Cache for players who acquire the Gordok Shackle Key within Dire Maul.
There’s a number of interesting changes, most notably the cross realm trading as this opens up more opportunities for those who want to spread gold making opportunities over several realms. We’ve talked about it over the last couple of blogs, but the impact of this and how soon we see ourselves in a region wide Auction House remain to be seen. Expect prices to equalize more readily over several servers and players with two accounts can easily spread their merchandise over several realms.
The re-introduction of several old world patterns, items and transmog is going to open up some fun little niches. Not massive sellers for sure, but those collecting everything and those that have been investing in the materials to supply them should see some nice rewards.
Boosting drop rates and BMAH items is a welcome addition for the avid collectors and expect the prices of these items to drop further as supply is increased. Perhaps we will see some more Brutosaurs in the world?
Overall, these are great quality of life improvements for the average player. There have been gold making opportunities around these as news has been released, but nothing significant that is going to change the economy right now. The biggest news with cross realm trading is more indicative of where the economy is headed..
“An Auction House divided will not survive what is to come”.
Saddlebag Exchange for Cross Realm Trading
With cross realm trading comes a particularly useful site – The Saddlebag Exchange. We covered this site a while back when it first released and it’s even more relevant now with cross server trading is becoming more accessible to anybody with friends or two accounts (or both). What is does is look over prices of items over all realms and spot where certain items are much cheaper on one realm that can then be moved to another realm and potentially sold for a higher price (among other tools that are particularly useful cross realm)
You can see here that Plans: Shadowed Impact Buckler is available on some realms priced around , but can go for upwards of in other realms.
Graph courtesy of undermine.exchange
This is a great set of tools that will be useful to players looking for bargains in an entire region. I expect once cross realm trading becomes more convenient with 10.1.5, we will see these prices equalize over time.
Also note: The team are looking for more Addon Lua, React js and Python devs to join their open source projects, so do reach out to them if you’re interested.
The Why Behind Gold Making
Penguin2gt has a very important video that goes behind understanding the thinking of gold making and the behavior of other players and using that to recognize patterns of demand vs. supply and when to anticipate rising markets.
It really goes to show that understanding players and what they want can lead to much greater sales as a gold maker.
Gold Making in Hardcore?
With Classic Hardcore now on the PTR and it’s release due sometime over the next month or two, it opens up and interesting discussion around what will gold making look like in Classic Hardcore?
I feel like blacksmiths, tailors, etc will really be able to rake in some dough as the risk of dying for quests/dungeons may no longer outweigh simply paying for a decent gear bump.
This is exciting because it has potential to open a new style of economy in the game, that could be more in line with how these professions historically functioned in society.
It’s certainly going to open up a fresh new dynamic. With the emphasis more on levelling rather than the end game, where will the demand be?
- Will there be a greater demand from players in getting early gear and potions to help them out?
- How will they fund such purchases?
- Will players start to funnel gold/items to a bank alt in case they die?
- Will we see level 60s farming lower dungeons for gear?
- How will bots/RMT be dealt with?
- Professions that rely on other professions should see a healthy trade between them.
- Will the Player to Player dynamic be more or less supportive of each other?
- Will we see players creating “Trade Characters” that wander the lower areas selling directly to players that are struggling?
The opportunities are exciting and the idea of a game focused on the levelling journey rather than the end result could see some interesting dynamics open up, economy included.
What are your plans with Classic Hardcore? How do you think the economy will work out?
Further Reading
Most of this information was discussed and originally posted on the /r/woweconomy subreddit or in the accompanying Discord Server.
I hope you found this useful and If you have any suggestions or feedback, please do say so in the comments below..
Until next time, Happy Goldmaking!
Samadan
