Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Patch 5.2 First Week of Sales


Patch 5.2 First Week of Sales




The first week after the patch turned out to be a decent profit. My preparation of stocking mats appear to be accurate. Generally I stocked up heavily on leather, just enough cloth to meet my personal crafting needs, and stayed away from the metals market.


Just before server shutdown I bought out all gems and reset the gem market. I was able to buy out all cut and uncut gems for very low prices. I re-listed cut gems at 500 gold per and uncut gems at 750 gold per. These began to be undercut almost immediately after server restart but the prices generally stayed above the 250 gold mark for about three days allowing me to turn a huge profit. I did expect a surge in buying of gems but, if anything, I appear to underestimated the demand. It is now over a week after the patch and I am having a hard time keeping up with the continuing demand for gems.



Before server restart I crafted multiples of all enchant scrolls. I then bought out key enchants to reset prices. Also with this market I underestimated the demand. My supply of scrolls sold out within two days and my supply of raw materials were used up by the end of the week. I am now forced to buy mats off the auction house which decreases my profits. However the initial demand has yielded me huge profits. I am now limited to crafting only the highest priced, most profitable, scrolls.


Of all my auction sales I am most disappointed with the crafted weapons. I made two of all the crafted ilvl 463weapons and only two out of ten have sold. Also the inscribed fans, off-hands, have remained on the auction house and have not been sold even after being discounted.

 

My enhancements have been selling faster than I can craft them. Belt buckles, leg armors, spellthreads, and shoulder enchants are difficult to keep on the auction house for long. Even with stiff competition the sales are so fast that prices remain strong even now.


I crafted several pieces of ilvl 476 and ilvl 496 armor expecting an uptick in demand by buyers to meet the ilvl 480 requirement for LFR. I was surprised to see more sales in the 476 market than the 496 market. With the drop in prices of blood spirits and the resulting drop in prices of the 496 gear I expected the opposite would be true.


The sales of the crafted PvP Contenders gear is still strong. With the slow release of the Crafted Dreadful Gladiators gear both markets are showing decent sales. Once the patch hit and people began learning the ilvl 458 gear these items began showing up on the market. With new items most sellers tend to underestimate the true value of their items. Thus I was able to buy up many under priced pieces of armor and re-list them for huge profits. Still many people tend to list items at ridiculous low prices tanking the market. This is most seen in the cloth market. I am buying up a decent stockpile of these now because once these temporary sellers leave the market I doubt prices will be this low again.


Two additional markets I am involved in are ilvl 417 armor and transmog gear. Item level 417 rare gear is the best gear for level 85 toons. This gear has the highest equipable stats for 85's and will carry a player through the leveling process with gear that will not be replaced till level 88. Thus this gear is highly sought after by players trying to level their alts as quickly and easily as possible. I expected to see a drop in sales as players focused on the new content. I was pleasantly surprised to see no drop in sales in both of these markets.


All in all the patch was a decent profit maker for me. With approximately 150,000 gold in sales means I made about 100,000 gold in profit. Not a bad take for one week. With the new raids being slowly phased in for LFR I expect a continued strong market for enhancements, enchants and gems. Also with the slow lead in to the crafted PvP armor market should bring good profits. I expect the plate gear and new weapon recipes should be available within a week or two and will plan accordingly for these markets. All told I'm very happy with the patch and expect the auction house market will be viable for quite some time.





Thanks,


Jafo








Saturday, March 9, 2013

Are you ready for Patch 5.2 LFR?


Are you ready for Patch 5.2 LFR?



While a few guilds have ventured into the normal Throne of Thunder raids many of us are waiting for the LFR feature to be released on March 12th. Blizzards release dates for raids are:



March 5 – Normal Throne of Thunder
March 12 – Heroic Throne of Thunder and LFR Wing 1 “Last Stand of the Zandalari”
March 19 – LFR Wing 2 “Forgotten Depths”
April 2 – LFR Wing 3 “Halls of Flesh-Shaping”
April 16 – LFR Wing 4 “Pinnacle of Storms”



If you wish to participate in LFR on your main or alts there is a ilvl 480 gear requirement. You do have a few options to help you gear up. Fortunately when Patch 5.2 dropped Blizzard lowered the valor cost of ilvl 489 valor gear by 50%. Here is a quick list of which faction to check for gear:



489 Valor Gear

Shado-Pan – Head, Back, Trinket

August Celestials – Hands, Wrists, Feet

Golden Lotus – Chest, Shoulder, Ring

Kalaxxi – Neck, Legs, Belt



Also in the recent patch Blizzard reduced the ilvl 496 valor gear cost by 25%.



496 Valor Gear

Operation: Shieldwall – Ring, Belt, Feet, Trinket

Dominance Offensive – Ring, Belt, Feet, Trinket



Also remember that ilvl 496 gear can be crafted by blacksmiths, tailors, and leatherworkers. With the latest patch the mats required for this gear has dropped in cost. Especially the cost of Blood Spirits have fallen recently making the cost on the auction house affordable to many.







Good Luck,



Jafo


Sunday, March 3, 2013

New Professions Review and Stockpiling for Patch 5.2


New Professions Review and Stockpiling for Patch 5.2



In my previous post Patch 5.2 New Profession Recipes I showed all the new profession recipes in the upcoming patch. In this post I will discuss them along with my opinions on all the profession changes.



Overview

Most of the new recipes we will see will be for Blacksmithing, Tailoring, and Leatherworking. The new PvE recipes will be for feet and head armor. New PvP armor is also introduced with some nice changes. Engineering and Jewelcrafting will see a little bit of love as well. An important thing to note is that none of these recipes require Blood Spirits. They have been replaced with a new item Haunting Spirit. We know Blood Spirits are obtained from disenchanting 5.1 raid gear it appears that Haunting Spirits are obtained from disenchanting 5.2 raid gear.



Leatherworking

Leatherworkers will receive 8 new PvE armor patterns along with 77 new PvP armor patterns. Leatherworkers will also receive one new bag pattern and two new Magnificent Hide crafting patterns.

Along with Haunting Spirits the main crafting reagent for PvE ilvl 522 leather gear will be Magnificent Hide. It will require 7 hides for the feet armor and 14 hides for the head armor. Leatherworkers will receive two new recipes for crafting Magnificent Hide. They are Pattern: Magnificence of Scales. and Pattern: Magnificence of Leather both of these are found from random world drops from all mobs in Mists of Panderia. The drop rates of these are pretty common on the PTR and should be easily obtainable once the patch hits. Our current recipe for creating Magnificent Hide will stay in the game costing 50 Exotic Leathers to craft. The new recipes will only cost 20 Exotic Leather or 20 Prismatic Sale to craft, however both recipes are on a shared cooldown of once per day. The important thing to note is that the new PvP and PvE recipes are discovered from crafting the hide once per day using the new recipes. Thus learning the new recipes will be gated at one new recipe per day. The discoveries are random and there is no way to choose if the discovery will be for a PvP or PvE recipe. The new bag recipe Magnificent Hide Pack will be a new 36 slot leatherworking bag replacing the old Trapper's Traveling Pack a 28 slot leatherworking bag. The new ilvl 458 PvP armor will require Magnificent Hide to craft.





Tailoring

Tailors will receive 4 new PvE ilvl 522 armor patterns along with 34 new PvP ilvl 458 armor patterns. Along with Haunting Spirits the new PvE head armor will require 6 Imperial Silk while the new Feet armor will require 4 Imperial Silk. As with leatherworking, the tailor patterns are discovered once per day while using the Imperial Silk crafting. PvP armor will require Bolts of Windwool Cloth to craft.







Blacksmithing

Blacksmiths will receive 6 new PvE ilvl 522 armor patterns, 6 new ilvl 463 weapon patterns, and 33 new ilvl 458 PvP patterns. They will also learn a new reagent recipe Living Steel Ingot. Along with Haunting Spirits the new PvE Head armor will require 8 Living Steel and 3 Spirits of Harmony while the new Feet armor will require 6 Living Steel and 2 Spirits of Harmony. The new weapons will require Lightning Steel Ingots, Living Steel, and Spirits of Harmony. The PvP armor will require Ghost Iron Bars to craft. As with the other professions recipe discoveries are gated behind a daily Lightning Steel crafting.





Conclusion

The PvE patterns show promise but with the reagent requirement of Haunting Spirits these items will not be realistically craftable for 6-8 weeks from patch release. My plan is to make gold from the new PvP items. With leatherworking I plan on stockpiling large amounts of Magnificent Hide. This will allow me to make all the PvP items and the new Leatherworking bags. For tailoring I plan on stockpiling Windwool cloth and bolts. I also plan on hoarding my Imperial Silk until I can make the PvE cloth items, however I will watch the leg enchant market closely and may use a few to make leg enchants if the prices rise dramatically. With Blacksmithing I will stockpile Ghost Iron Ore/Bars, Living Steel, Trillium, and Spirits of Harmony. I will craft PvP gear for all professions as soon as I learn the recipes.



While stockpiling all the mats is wise I feel that the hidden gold mine is in leatherworking. Blacksmithing has a large number of suppliers for the market. Players farm ore and botting helps provide a large supply to market. While questing, dungeons and raids provide a continued supply of cloth. The truly limited supply item is from skinning. The supply is the most limited of all the professions. Many people have alts to farm herbs and ore but few have skinners. Due to the large demand there will be for leather and scales I do not believe the supply will be able to come close to meeting the demand. While I expect ore and cloth prices to rise in this patch I expect the highest price spike to be with leather. Not only will leather prices rise the highest but I expect the leather market will have a longer time to stabilize compared to the cloth and ore markets.



One important thing to remember about ore and bar prices is that there will be two separate price spikes. The first will occur immediately after the patch release. This will be due to players needing more bars to craft the PvP gear and those using the new method to level up their lower level blacksmiths. The second, and larger, price spike will come after the server unlocks the Thunder Forge. The exact amount of time for a server to unlock the Thunder Forge will vary by server but estimate it will take approximately 30-40 days for an average server to complete it. Once the Thunder Forge is open up to blacksmiths you can expect the second price spike to hit so be prepared for it.



I also advise stockpiling all items necessary to make item enhancements. This includes all enchants for Enchanters for the new supply of gear players will be replacing from the new raids. Also leg enchants made by tailors and leatherworkers, shoulder enchants made by Inscriptionists, and gems made by Jewelcrafters. Alchemists can also expect an increased demand for potions and flasks. Don’t forget there will be an increased demand for specialty foods if you have leveled your cooking. Thus expect an increased demand, and price, for key cooking mats.



A special note for Jewelcrafters: in the past PvP crafting gear never had gem slots. Thus PvP gems were reserved to armor bought with honor and conquest points. However as of this patch the new crafted PvP gear will have gems slots available in them. This might be a good time to take a new look at the PvP gem market. Now would be a good time for all players to check their auction house for cheap PvP gems and for Jewelcrafters to collect mats to meet the demand for this increasing market.



Hopefully this will help you for the upcoming patch.





Thanks,



Jafo





Friday, March 1, 2013

Patch 5.2 New Profession Recipes


Patch 5.2 New Profession Recipes



In this post I will show all the new profession recipes in the patch so everyone can gain a bit of perspective in whats coming. My next post I will discuss my opinions and plans for planning and stockpiling for these.





Leatherworking

Cloud Serpent Helm
PvP





Tailoring
 
Falling Blossom Cowl
PvP





Blacksmithing
 
Haunted Steel Greathelm
Thunderforge Weapons
PvP

 
Jewelcrafting
 
Design: Serpent's Heart



Engineering
 
Pierre
Advanced Refrigeration Unit










For additional information I would recommend the following resources:


Zerohours Nameless Blog:

The Golden Crusade:

Kaliope's WoW Crafting Blog









Thanks,

Jafo