Mittwoch, 17. August 2011

Know Your Enemy




Do YOU know your enemies?  


  •  Add your competitors to your friend list to see when they're online (and where they are)
    • Are they bank alts or main characters? What are they doing when they're online? Raiding? PvP? Always camping the AH?
      • Use the time while they're doing something else than camping.
  • If they undercut you although they're not online; they probably use Mobile Auction House.
    • You think you need this because you have to work? No! It's "nice to have" but nothing more.
  • If your competitor's camping in the same city as you: observe him, what is he doing right now? Creating new glyphs? Crafting gems? Milling herbs or prospecting ore?
    • Check his wealth. Compare Achievements - Statistics - Character - Wealth - gold earned from auctions? - most gold ever owned? - total gold aquired?

  • If YOU are using a bank alt for the AH game, add your competitors to every character's friend list you play a lot. Switch to your AH character a.s.a.p. when your competitors come online or went offline.
  • Keep in mind that you can call attention to yourself and what you're doing when you're posting your new stuff on AH or offer your professions in trade channel
    • Other competitors, who are not that intelligent and didn't add you to their friend list, gonna recognize that you're around and may undercut you as fast as they can.
    • Also a few players could think "oh that's a nice idea, I should sell that too, my bank is full of XY..." and you have new competitors around who undercut you.
    • It can be better not to make a show about your new stuff.
      • You're going to sell that anyway.
    • On the other hand, if you're posting your professions, you can earn extra gold for your service.
      • I prefer the "quiet way" with my AH character though.
  • You can try to communicate with your competitors. Maybe they're friendly players (or bloggers! :O) and give you tips and hints.
    • But do not reveal too much of you and your trading
    • If they're unfriendly or keeping still - ignore them
      • You don't have to deal with them, you can do it on your own!
      • Dealing with competitors is difficult in my opinion. Someone asked me to make a deal with him (about how many pieces we're posting, the undercut limit, etc.) but I didn't answer. I'm a faithfully person, but is he too? Before getting disappointed, I won't do any deals.
      • One AH camper became a friend of mine. I asked him a few things about trading, how much money he has, what he's selling and he was very friendly and told me a lot. At the beginning, we sold different things (he's only selling gems) but when I sold gems too and undercut him, everything was still fine. We're talking about our sales, incoming gold, always giving hints and tips. Don't wanna miss him. :)
  • Figure out if the undercutter is a professional AH camper or just a normal player
    • "normal" players don't sell more pieces of one product in general.
      • Is it worth to cancel your auctions because of one "normal" player? Remember the deposit.
    • undercutter who have something with "gold" etc. in their names are probably traders.
      • (of course, players with "normal" names can be traders, too.)

  • No competitors online? You can be more relaxed, but don't get careless!
    • still check your auctions from time to time. Maybe there are new traders.

I've got 16 competitors on my friend list. I know exactly how to act when they're online.

This were some tips to get known your competitors better. I'm going to write some "strategies" to beat them, hope you'll look forward to it!

      Dienstag, 9. August 2011

      My favourite profession: Inscription

      Hey guys,



      I'm going to present my favourite profession Inscription.

      What is Inscription?

      This profession came along with the 2nd expansion "Wrath of the Lich King", you can mill herbs and can create glyphs, enchanting vellums, relicts, tarot cards and runescrolls with it. You need 5 herbs to mill them into pigments, which you need to craft inks.

      Inscription is the only profession which can craft things with low skill points, which is needed by every player at maxlevel.

      If you're a beginner or new on a Realm and you don't know which profession you should learn: choose Inscription!

      This spares you reputation farming cause you can craft better shoulder enchants on your gear:

      Profession bonus

      Swiftsteel Inscription - 130 Agility and 25 Mastery
      Lionsmane Inscription - 130 Strength and 25 Crit
      Inscription of the Earth Prince - 195 Stamina and 25 Dodge Rating
      Felfire Inscription - 130 Intellect and 25 Tempo

      Second profession: Herbalism

      You don't have to buy the herbs from the AH if you're choosing Herbalism as your second profession. Since Cataclysm you also get XP by collecting herbs - ideal for people who are leveling.

      The profession bonus of Herbalism is "Lifeblood", which gains 480 tempo rating at maxlevel and heals you a little bit. (2 minutes cooldown)

      Race choice

      Unfortunately there is no race which gains a bonus to Inscription, but if you choosed Herbalism as your second profession, you should play a Tauren, because of the race bonus.



      • Cultivation - herbalism skill increased by 15, collecting herbs takes 0,5 seconds

      You collect herbs faster than other herbalists!

      • Endurance - base health increased by 5 %
      • War Stomp - stuns up to 5 enemies within 8 yds for 2 seconds (2 minutes cooldown)
      • Nature Resistance - increases your resistance to harmful Nature effects by 81


      Tauren are popular tanks.


      Class choice


      Classes don't give a bonus to any profession in general. But there's a really good combination:

      Druid


      • Travel form: available at LVL 16, increasing movement speed by 40 %

      Although you can buy your first mount at LVL 20 is this travel form very helpful when you've added mobs while collecting herbs and want to get out of combat.
      • Flight form: available at LVL 60, increasing movement speed by 150 %
      • Swift flight form: available at LVL 70, increasing movement speed by 280 %

      You don't dismount while gathering herbs and as a Tauren you're faster than other players - a really great advantage!

      Your first copper with Inscription

      With a skill of 35 your trainer will teach you how to create enchanting vellums. Cost: 1 Moonglow Ink and 2 Light Parchment. Those enchanting vellums are required for enchantment rolls, which are sold by many players on the auction house.

      You can find those vellums by an inscription vendor, too (9 silver), but many people don't know this. So if you're tired of creating enchanting vellums by yourself, you can buy and resell them. I sell my vellums between 1 - 15 Gold. Please keep in mind that prices can be very different from realm to realm. 15 Gold isn't that much, but many pennies make a dollar ;)

      With 75 skill points you can do the Minor Inscription Research, which teaches you 63 minor glyphs (you can't learn them from your trainer). Maybe you're the only one who can create all minor glyphs, so you can sell them for any price you want. I sell glyphs up to 350 Gold.

      With 80 skill points you'll learn a few major and prime glyphs.

      If someone's selling a glyph for about 2 Gold, it can be profitable to wait or to buy him up.

      With 385 skill points you can do the Northrend Inscription Research, which teaches you 76 major glyphs. You can also use the Books of Glyph Mastery, you only need a skill of 425, to learn the rest of all major glyphs. The drop chance of those books is horrible, they cost 500 - 1500 Gold on my realm. Blizzard pronounced that it will be able to learn all major glyphs by the Northrend Inscription Research someday. Can't wait for it.

      There are also a few glyph techniques:
      You can buy "Technique: Glyph of Mana Shield" and "Technique: Glyph of Lash of Pain" from Larana Drome in Dalaran. "Technique: Glyph of Colossus Smash" is sold by Casandra Downs (Alliance) and Una Kobuna (Horde) in Twilight Highlands.

      Glyphs are so easy to craft and you can sell them for 10 - 350 Gold. Definitely a great source of income.

      Tarot Cards

      You can also craft some tarot cards, which are needed to gain reputation for Darkmoon Faire. You can sell them singly, or create a deck or you can craft trinkets.

      With 4.2 it isn't profitable to create trinkets because the stats are out of date and too expensive to buy them for an alt. (At least on my realm)

      Nevertheless: single darkmoon cards are a nice additional income. Cards from the rogue deck are only 10 - 100 Gold worth, but all blue cards can be sold for 300 Gold and more. This is very profitable because you gain the required inks from milling herbs for your glyphs.

      Mysterious Fortune Cards


      You can sell those cards for about 5 - 25 Gold, or you can cook "Fortune Cookies" with them. Fortune Cookies is a bufffood which gains you 90 stamina and 90 of a useful stat. (Example: as a rogue you gain 90 agility)

      If you flip a fortune card, you can read a sapient sentence and the value of the card changed. (From a few silver to 5000 Gold) the chance to get a 5000 card is very low, so it would be better NOT to flip and just to sell them.

      Relicts

      The production cost for blue relicts is too high to sell them in 4.2.(on my realm)

      Dust of Disappearance

      To remove a glyph you need Dust of Disappearance. This is sold by an inscription vendor (about 10 Gold) or you can craft it. On the auction house they are sold from 5 Gold up to 100 Gold. Also a nice additional income.


      Tips

      • Keep new/incoming patches in mind
      • Make sure to be at the auction house when a new patch came out
      • Which class is "imba" or "overpowered" at the moment? Those classes are more played so there's a higher demand for their glyphs
      • Not every single glyph is useful. Check out a few class guides when you don't have a clue about a class and sell the glyphs which are mentioned there
      • Do not create 300 pieces of the same glyph, it doesn't make sense. Watch the market and create according to demand
      • If you're 85 and don't want to farm herbs, create a shopping list and check it every day to buy herbs as cheap as possible
      • If Dust of Disappearence is expensive enough, you can buy it from the inscription vendor. Same with enchanting vellums. Keep in mind to buy in a city you're exalted with!
      • To mill herbs easier, there's a macro:
        • #showtooltip Milling
        • /cast milling
        • /use whiptail
        • /use and so on


      All prices are based on my experience. Maybe you can sell them better - or not ;) every Realm is different. I hope I could give you a better understanding of Inscription and I also hope that I mentioned every aspect of the profession.

      Constructive reviews are always welcome!