Vengeance Landing Zeppelin Tower.

Folly or fitness aid?

After smiting the many lupine foes that stood between me and a Cobalt node, my recently-resurrected Hunter dinged level 72 yesterday and thus I happily skipped across the pleasant landscape of Howling Fjord with a visit to my Orgrimmarian Hunter trainer in mind. The nearest route to Orcy goodness was via Vengeance Landing, so I duly hopped onto the back of my trusty white Talbuk and toddled off in that direction. After a brief near-death-experience on the high lift I was soon standing in the shadow of the Vengeange Landing zeppelin tower.

As I craned my green neck skyward, I wondered what moment of madness inspired the construction of this twisting edifice? Thrusting vertically, the zeppelin tower is built in that architectural style which is so beloved of those aromatic Undeads; funereal, menacing Gothicism. Menacing not because of the dark, looming nature of structure (although it would probably be enough to make a gnome uncomfortable, at least), no, the real peril here comes from a more tangible danger: the amount of staircases and sharp turns the bloody thing has!

My goodness! Even if you scroll in to first-person view the journey to the top is anything but fluid. Having fallen off, (and missed the first zeppelin) I made a note of the different turns the average adventurer would have to complete, just to reach the platform. I was sorely tempted to write an in-depth guide on ‘How to Climb the Bloomin’ VL Zep Tower’, I’m certain it would save at a million lives.

In the interest of filling copy with the repetition of three different words (left, right and up), I will put in writing the results below.

From the ground level: Climb the first, short ramp and make a right-hand turn, followed by a left turn, another left and climb the flight of stairs ahead of you. At the top, turn left once again, climb another flight of stairs, turn left again, up again until you see another left-hand route. Take this path, going up once again, right after that, right again, right again and right once more until you see the final flight of stairs. Climb this and you will be on the zeppelin platform just in time to /wave goodbye to the crew as they leave without you.

My fat Gorilla (sorry Kolya, but your ass does obscure the view sometimes,) didn’t help matters much on this Escheresque landscape, but I did manage to assail the seven flights of staircases on the second attempt and, eventually, reached a waiting transport which whisked my off on my brief trip to Azeroth. Thank Blizzard for the Hearthstone back.

Choices, Choices.

Okay, I admit it! I’m back playing the darn game. After taking over a month off from WoW I now find myself logging in once again. Well, it wasn’t my fault; it was the research I needed to undertake in order to produce these articles that got me back to the game. Yeah that’s it…

So, I’m faced with a dilemma which has plagued me many times: I simply can’t decide which class to play. I don’t want to start a new character as I already have quite a few high levels to choose from: 80 Rogue; 71 Mage; 71 Hunter; 75 Paladin; 70 Warrior and a 65 Warlock.

I won’t be raiding again, and I doubt I will have much time for running instances again. So that leaves me leaning towards a character that will be fun in casual PvP. Well, Hunter it is, then surely, Matthew! Don’t call me Shirley. Hunters suit my PvP playing style (which is to hang around the back and shoot people from afar. Waddya mean it sounds cowardly?!) but, annoyingly, for some reason Hunters don’t inspire me like they used to. They are much more polished than they used to be, they can take a bit of a battering in melee range once they have the gear, and they now have lots of nice, new tricks to take advantage of but, well; they feel a little empty at the moment.

Despite having a level 80, Rogues are still quite new to me and I love the whole stealthing thing that they enjoy. When my Rogue was still a lowly alt I dreamed of stealthed into IronForge and gutting unwary Alliance members, but since WotLK, I have never really enjoyed mine in Battlegrounds. I seem to spend ages stealthing behind some clothie only to be tossed about by all (at least a thousand, I counted) the Death Grips that magically appear. I also can’t help hating the end talent in my usual spec of choice (Subtlety). Can’t I have Killing Spree or something else up there instead, please?

Onto the Mage. My all-time favourite class. Fire-specced for fun, my TBC Mage tore up damage meters and made short work of all but the healthiest of opponents. I hear that Fire is still viable with excellent burst damage, and this would certainly suit my cowardly BG playing style, but I can’t help thinking that they are just a bit too squishy.

Paladin. He’s Prot-specced so if I pinged him to 80 it would be to primarily dungeon crawl, in particular the old school instances. I love the social aspect of WoW, but I also prefer to play alone most of the time and it would be great o toddle off and bash Onyxia and her ilk on the head occasionally.

Warlocks seem to have dropped off the radar since TBC. At one time all I saw was bloody warlocks running around, revelling in their overpoweredness. Now it’s mainly just their smell that lingers. The smell of flavour-of-the-month that’s been left out in the sun too long.

That leaves my Warrior. Can’t play him, no. He’s a Tauren, and he’s fat.


Well, I thought that ordering my ruminations on the page would help somewhat, but it bloomin’ well didn’t. Oh well, what’s a boy to do…?

The Big List of WoW Abbreviations.

Observing a tightly-knit community’s idiosyncrasies can confuse any newcomer and this is especially true in World of Warcraft. This bewilderment can be exacerbated by the abbreviations that the subscribers use to cut down on typing time. Instances, game mechanics, skills and spells are all shortened to their initial parts. So here I present a guide to help the newcomer.

This post contain naughty language!

1H: One-handed (weapon type).
2H: Two-handed (weapon type).
5SR: Five Second Rule. In-combat mana regeneration begins after 5 seconds of spell inactivity.
Add: An Additional (and often unexpected) mob has entered the fight.
AoE: Area of Effect. Instead of targeting a single mob, AoE spells will affect an area of ground.
AFAIK: As Far As I Know.
AFK: Away From Keyboard.
Aggro: Aggression/Aggravation. Interchangeable with Threat.
Alch: Alchemist.
Alt: Alternative character. See Main.
AP: Attack Power.
AP: Armour Penetration.
ATM: At The Moment.
BBL: Be Back Later.
BE: Blood Elf. Sometimes BElf.
BG: Battleground.
Bio: Used in place of ‘a biological function’.
BoE: Bind on Equip.
BoP: Bind on Pick-up.
BoU: Bind on Use.
BRT: Be Right There.
BRB: Be Right Back.
BS: Blacksmith.
BS: Bullshit.
BTW: By The Way.
Buff: An often temporary spell that boosts certain statistics.
CBA: Can't Be Arsed.
Creep: Aggressive NPC. See Mob.
CC: Crowd Control. Spells that prevent mobs from fighting such as the Mage spell
Polymorph.
DIAF: Die In A Fire, used primarily to wish a painful death upon the recipient.
DKP: Dragon Killing Points. A points-based loot distribution system used by many raiding guilds. DM: Damage Mitigation.
DND: Do Not Disturb.
DOT: Damage Over Time. A DOT spell has its damage delivered over a certain period.
DPS: Damage Per Second.
DR: Diminishing Returns.
DW: Dual-Wield. Having a one-handed weapon in each hand.
Eng: Engineering.
FA: First Aid.
FFS: For Fuck's Sake.
FP: Flight Path/Point.
FTL: For The Loss. Something that is so bad it will make you unsuccessful in your venture.
FTW: For The Win. The opposite of FTL.
GG: Good Game.
Gief: Corrupted form of Give.
GJ: Good Job.
GTFO: Get The Fuck Out.
GTG: Got To Go. Confusingly, sometimes used as Good To Go.
HPS: Healing Per Second.
HOT: Heal Over Time.
IDC: I Don't Care.
IDD: Indeed.
IDK: I Don't Know.
IIRC: If I Recall/Remember Correctly.
Imba: Imbalanced. Something is so good is has unbalanced the game. Too good.
IMHO: In My Humble/Honest Opinion.
IMO: In My Opinion.
Inc: Incoming. Used to warn other players of imminent danger.
IRL: In Real Life.
L2P: Learn To Play. An insult.
LF: Looking For…
LFG: Looking For Group (to complete an instance or group quest together).
LFM: Looking for more (players to complete a raid/group).
LMAO: Laughing My Ass Off.
LOL: Laugh Out Loud.
LW: Leatherworker. Sometimes LWer.
Main: Your main character. See Alt.
Mats: Materials.
Mob: Mobile. Refers to an aggressive NPC, not to movement. Also Creep.
MH: Main Hand.
ML: Master Looter.
MP5: Mana Per 5 Seconds. See 5SR.
M/T: Miss-tell, used when a whisper/tell is sent to the wrong player by accident. Sometimes used as MT, which is not to be confused with Main Tank.
MT: Main Tank. The player assigned to maintaining the highest threat rating on in-game targets.
NE: Night Elf.
Nerf: Non-Expanding Recreational Foam. According to WoWWiki: to turn a real weapon into a toy version.
NP: No Problem.
NPC: Non-playing Character.
Ofc: Of Course.
OH: Off-Hand.
OMW: On My Way.
OOM: Out Of Mana.
OP: Original Post(er). A forum thread starter.
OP: Overpowered.
OT: Off-Topic.
OT: Off-Tank. A player assuming a secondary tanking role in situations where one tank is not enough.
Pat: Patrolling NPC.
PewPew: To Shoot. Refers to ‘laser gun’ sound effects.
Pot: Potion. Usually referring to health potions when used in combat.
PPM: Proc Per Minute. The amount of times that a special ability can be expected to appear in a minute.
Proc: Procedure or Programmed Random Appearance. The appearance of a special ability. Often used to describe enchantment effect like Crusader. Relic of MUD programming code.
PUG: Pick Up Group. A group formed of strangers.
PvE: Player versus Environment.
PvP: Player versus Player.
QFT: Quoted For Truth. Used mainly in forums to display agreement with the quoted.
QQ: To Cry. The two capitalized Qs picture a pair of weeping eyes.
RAP: Ranged Attack Power.
Res: Resurrect. Sometimes Resuscitate.
RL: Real Life.
RP: Role-playing.
RPG: Role-playing Game
ROFL: Rolling Floor Laughing.
Spec: Talent specialization.
SS: Screenshot.
STFU: Shut The Fuck Up.
T#. Tier 1,2,3 etc. Refers to class-specific sets of armour.
TBC: The Burning Crusade.
TBH: To Be Honest.
TL:DR: Too Long; Didn’t Read.
UD: Undead.
UI: User Interface.
Vanilla: Plain. Used to describe WoW before the expansions.
WC: Wrong Channel. See M/T above.
WF: Windfury, a Shaman ability.
WotLK: Wrath of the Lich King.
WTB: Want To Buy. This is a statement, not a question.
WTF: What The Fuck.
WTH: What The Hell.
WTS: Want To Sell. Again, a statement not a question.
WTT: Want To Trade. Used to initiate a money-less exchange.
Xmute: Transmute. A function available to Alchemists.


Instances and Battlegrounds
AB: Arathi Basin
AV: Alterac Valley
EotS: Eye of the Storm
SotA: Strand of the Ancients
WSG: Warsong Gulch

AC: Auchenai Crypts
AN: Azjob-Nerub
AN:OK: Azjob-Nerub, Old Kingdom.
AQ20: Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj.
AQ40: Temple of Ahn'Qiraj.
Arca: Arcatraz.
BF: Blood Furnace
BFD: Blackfathom Depths
BM: Black Morass
Bot: Botanica.
BRD: Blackrock Depths
BRS: Blackrock Spire
BT: Black Temple.
BWL: Blackwing Lair.
CoT: BM: Caverns of Time, Black Morass
CoT: OD: Caverns of Time, Old Hillsbrad Foothills. (also just ‘Durnholde Keep’).
CoT: Strat: Caverns of Time, Culling of Stratholme
DK: Drak’Tharon Keep.
DM: Dire Maul. Often DiM to distinguish from Deadmines.
DM: Deadmines
Eye: Nexus, Eye of Eternity.
GD: Gundrak.
Gnomer: Gnomeregan
Gruul: Gruul’s Lair.
HFR: Hellfire Ramparts.
HoL: Halls of Lightning
HoS: Halls of Stone.
Kara/KZ: Karazhan.
LBRS: Lower Blackrock Spire
Maggy: Magtheridon’s Lair.
Mara: Mauradon
MC: Molten Core.
Mech: Mechanar.
MH: Mount Hyjal (Caverns of Time, Hyjal Summit).
MT: Mana Tombs.
MT: Magister’s Terrace.
Naxx: Naxxramas.
Nex: The Nexus
Nex OC: Nexus Oculus.
Ony: Onyxia’s Lair.
OS: Obsidion Sanctum.
RFC: Ragefire Chasm
RFD: Razorfen Downs
RFK: Razorfen Kraul
Scarlet/Live Strat: Scarlet half of Stratholme.
Scholo: Scholomance.
SFK: Shadowfang Keep
SH: Shattered Halls.
SH: Sethekk Halls.
SL: Shadow Labyrinth.
SM: Scarlet Monestary
SM: GY: Graveyard wing
SM: Arm: Armory wing
SM: Lib: Library wing
SM: Cath: Cathedral wing
SP: Slave Pens.
SP: Sunwell Plateau.
SSC: Serpentshrine Cavern.
ST: Temple of Atal'Hakkar (also called Sunken Temple)
Stocks: Stockades
Strat: Stratholme
SV: Steamvaults.
TK: Tempest Keep, The Eye.
UB: The Underbog.
UBRS: Upper Blackrock Spire
UD Strat: Undead half of Stratholme.
UK: Utgarde Keep.
Ulda: Uldaman
UP: Utgarde Pinnacle
VH: Violet Hold.
VoA: Vault of Archavon.
WC: Wailing Caverns
ZF: Zul’Farrak
ZG: Zul'Gurub.
ZA: Zul’Aman

Gold Guide: Things To Make You Money.

Specific Tips

In this section I’m not going to identify every single item that you can make money on. Almost every in-game article can make you a profit, and as such, it would be far too time-consuming (and unnecessary) to list them all here. This is especially true when you consider how massive the price fluctuations can be between servers. Even on your own server the market values can change dramatically in twenty-four hours, so my thoughts would be out-moded very quickly. I will also be circumventing the ‘obvious’ money-making techniques such as completing the daily quests, converting badges into things you can sell and utilising your professions.

Instead, I am going to talk about aspects that I haven’t seen in other gold guides, solid markets, items that many people overlook and also those high value, low drop rate items that could net you thousands of gold in one go. I will also, begrudgingly, be divulging some of my own secrets!

This article is designed top be a fluid piece, so will always be under construction. I will be constantly adding to it as I find out new information.

More to follow (under construction).

Gold Guide: Auction House Secrets.

Playing the Auction House.


The auction house is a mini-game in itself. You can use it as a vehicle to sell your finely crafted masterworks, as an up-to-date reference point for item valuations and availability or as a repository for all those bloodied drops you’ve plucked from the still-warm bodies of your fallen enemies.

But first, we shall outline a way of creating profit from the auction house without having to even leave the building.


Speculate to Accumulate.
If, for example, you search your friendly, neighbourhood auction house for epic gear and scan the list of seller’s names you might see that quite a few of these BoE world drops are listed by the same people. Chances are that these people are not lucky enough to have had a multitude of purples drop during their routine daily killing sprees. No, more likely they have seen the epic bits and pieces on the auction house and decided that they could buyout the items and relist them at higher prices and make a profit that way. This technique can work for anything that can be auctioned but things like BoE epics require a beady eye and a large amount of investment capital.

There are usually at least a few people on each server who have already cottoned on to this idea, but not all of them are successful. When I first thought about trying this technique I noticed that a certain player on my server was watching out for low-priced BOE epic gear, buying it out and relisting it at higher prices. I quietly observed his auctions to see if they all sold with regularity and noted that he wasn’t being very successful due to his tendency to relist things at a much-inflated price, and his Prince-like predilection to buy almost anything that was purple, no matter what its use. Unfortunately for him, he serves as a great example of how someone can make things difficult for themselves, despite being on the right track.

He was doing the right thing (in general) but his shotgun approach wasn’t maximising his profits. In fact, by failing to be discerning about the goods he bought and the resale price, he was minimising his profits. But despite this caveat, big rewards can be forthcoming if luck and skill are on your side.

Investment capital is also necessary for top-end crafting sales. The Mechano-Hog (or Mekgineer’s Chopper) requires a vast amount of time input and pricey reagents, but they can reap great rewards. The greater the article’s price tag, the more the profit margin. Big players can even control the price that the entire server pays for certain commodities by maintaining a monopoly on specific goods. For example, stacks of Saronite Ore might sell for 20g each on my server, I decide that I want to sell them for 30g each so I buy out all the ore currently listed for under that price and relist it at 30g. Thus, as long as I keep this up I now control the price of the server’s Saronite Ore. This can be used to maintain a good profit for your miners and as a nice way to temporarily hike up the price of something that has fallen below what would be considered its usual market worth by players who blindly list items at low prices. These blinkered souls are the auction house connoisseur’s arch-enemy and they can destroy the fine balance of any market they poke their bony fingers into.


More Price Maintenance and How to Resuscitate a Dying Market.
Big, bold manoeuvres like establishing monopolies can be risky and time consuming and it is often better practice to drip-feed products onto the auction house a few at a time to keep good profit margins rolling in. Even if you’ve worked hard and made thirty [Scroll of Enchant Weapon – Mongoose]s you should resist the temptation to swamp the market with all your scrolls as this will inevitably cause the price to plummet, and you probably will only sell a couple before you yourself are undercut. However, if you drip in a few each day, undercutting the competition by only a small amount to make sure your listings are the cheapest -but not enough to cause a global devaluation- you will, with patience, see far more return than flooding the marketplace.

Annoyingly though, undercutting is inherent in the World of Warcraft’s auction dynamic. It seems to be the opposite of how real-life auctions work where the price steadily rises through the bidding system. In good ol’ Azeroth, the products slowly become cheaper and cheaper until somebody buys out the entire stock and another seller begins the new list price higher.

If your favoured commodity has taken a nose dive in value recently you can re-inflate the price tag by listing one or two of the items at a much higher price and for at least 24 hours. When the original, cheap ones have been bought out or expired new sellers will, of course, see your inflated price and undercut you. This doesn’t matter though, as your high prices were not designed to sell for the big bucks that they were up at (, if they do it’s a bonus), they were meant to get the average price back up to a better bracket and you should find that even though the new sellers undercut you, their new price will still be much higher than the old, cheap price. This tactic is not something that will work with fast-moving commodities like ores and cloth, but works better with goods that are usually few in number but sell regularly like enchanted scrolls, the slightly rarer potions and elixirs that raiding requires and components for larger crafting recipes.


Advertise Your Wares.
Real-life companies spend billions on global advertising with proven results, so why shouldn’t you take advantage of the city-wide trade channels and throw out the odd message here or there? This is a very useful (and totally free) weapon in the fight to get your sales noticed among thousands of other vendors.

A simple “/2 In the Auction House: [2ron Ore] and [Arcane Dust], cheapest prices!” will suffice. The cardinal rule here is to refrain from spamming, as this will annoy people and, God forbid, might even get your all-important bank character on some players’ ignore lists. A couple of handsomely spaced advertisements is more than enough to let people know that you’ve just listed some bargains, and should only be elaborated upon if you plan to create a ‘public awareness’ of your vendoring identity. Adding a small, creative flourish like “Frank’s Herbalism supplies back on the AH: get the cheapest [Peacebloom] & [Ragveil] before they’re snapped up!” can help your advert stand out in the crowded, ever-scrolling chatbox and if buyer's are happy with your service or prices they will make an effort to check out what you advertise next.

One of the most bothersome aspects of using the auction house as a sales vehicle is the money you can lose. If your auction does not result in a successful sale you can lose the initial deposit, which can often be surprisingly large. Not only that, but there is also a hefty cut taken from the value you sold your products at. While these annoyances are normally modest, they can be significant when trading in very high value commodities. BoE epics and very rare items with ultra-low drop rates that are in high demand often sell for thousands of gold, and so it is often better to be patient and try to sell them through the trade channel first to avoid losing gold in deposit fees and auction house cuts.

Remember you can easily pop a small advert for your extra-special sales on the realm forums that your server might be affiliated with.


Do Your Homework.
In the introductory article I mentioned the importance of research and this is worth reiterating here. Be prepared to spend some time (hours, if necessary) scanning the World of Warcraft forums and auction houses for possible areas of profit, learning what all the reagents are used for and don’t hesitate to dip your toe into other markets, even if that means assigning (and losing) a spot of venture capital. Quite often a great area that you are exploiting now will slowly become less exclusive as more and more players notice and try to grab a share, so you might find that what was once your bread-and-butter is now a white elephant. But, if you’re alert and willing to experiment you will find that as one door closes another one can open.

One of the reasons why many of the markets do not stay static is the evolutionary nature of WoW’s economy. Each patch can herald new achievements, boss tactics and recipes, all creating a ripple effect in the demand for different things here and there and sometimes even rendering existing items redundant. Seasonal holidays are one of the regular occurrences that can bring a small shift in the supply and demand of any related commodities, often having a knock-on effect to other, more everyday areas. When December the 25th comes around, not only will people be start to farm items such as Small Eggs for the holiday quests, in doing so they also neglect their usual farming duties, so auction house becomes slightly less well-stocked with reagents.

This can drive ore and herb prices up somewhat and, coupled with the fact that the seasonal content also requires a great deal of time and many players will choose to expend their playtime engaged in the temporary events, they are more willing to purchase items that they would normally farm themselves. So, there are two reasons why the savvy profiteer should prepare for seasonal events and patch-days in advance.

Lastly, make sure you check the auction house for current prices before you post your sales. In fact, this last point is one of the most important general lessons you can learn and you should adhere to it with every single thing you list. Even if you receive items that you have no idea about, check them out on the auction house and throw them through the Wowhead.com search engine to see what they’re used for before you try to sell them. There are quite a few drops in the game that seem run-of-the-mill or useless but can be actually be sold for thousands. Rare non-combat pets are a very good example of this, and it is not unusual to hear tales of woe from players who have vendored or discarded drops that they have later discovered to be worth hundreds or thousands.


Check out http://www.wowwiki.com/Formulas:Auction_House for specific information about deposit, cancellation fee, and cut percentages.


Join me in the guide’s next instalment where we shall take a look at some of the specific money-makers.

Gold Guide: Maximise Your Profits.

The most fascinating aspect of World of Warcraft for me is being part of the ebb and flow of the economic current. Raid instances come and go, gear is acquired and replaced, and there will always be the odd stray Gnome to pummel, but it is the metallic clink of gold that oils the game’s sinews and keeps everything flowing nicely.

Quite simply, you need gold for almost everything in the game, from repairing your battle-dented armour to collecting pint-sized companions.

Fortunately, gold comes easy. Well, I should say: just enough gold to survive on comes easy. Quest rewards, drops from slain creatures and the proceeds of any gathering professions you might have can all supply enough gold for you to keep your gear in good order, purchase your new skills or spells and perhaps have a little left over to put towards a mount, or a shiny, new sword from the auction house.

If you are satisfied with this rate of income, then you don’t have to read any more of this article, go into the kitchen, make yourself a cup of coffee and login to WoW, you don’t need this guide and you’re wasting valuable playing time! If however, you drool enviously at the folks chugging along on clattering motorbikes, or wish you had one of those three-seater, pimped-out Traveller’s Tundra Mammoths then fear not: this guide will endeavour to help you to maximise your rate of income and, because there are an almost infinite number of ways to make money, hopefully it will help to identify the paths that excite and interest you.

Due to the length of this guide, I’ve decided to hew it into manageable chunks, and so this first instalment will be a general overview. In future, I will add other guides dealing with the auction house, each of the primary professions, a run-down of seasonal cash-ins and a look at specific money-makers. Probably.


Open A Bank Account.
Everybody should have an alt that is set up to act as a ‘bank’. Bank characters save you so much time and money that, other than the initial run from the starting area to the nearest city, there really is no negative aspect to them. My bank character (a level 1 Orc Warrior) even has his own personal guild to take advantage of the extra storage that a guild bank offers. As you make more and more gold you can buy extra bank tabs and eventually have more than enough space to hoard items for future use (or sales). With a bank alt stationed patiently in a city your main characters can frolic murderously through Azeroth, Outland or Northrend, only pausing briefly at a mailbox to send any items marked for storage or sale to your bank. This frees up a great deal of time.

With hindsight, I wish that I had chosen a Hunter as my bank character and levelled him to 20 to take advantage of Aspect of the Cheetah. That run from the auction house to the bank can rapidly become tedious. I would strongly advise against using a high level character as a bank alt purely to help limit loss in the case of your account being hacked. I have had the misfortune to be hacked during the early days of The Burning Crusade and, despite having 5,000 gold on my account, I only lost the 300 that I had on my highest level characters. Similarly, don’t draw attention to your bank alt by kitting them out with expensive ‘Twink’ or novelty items that can be identified from the login screen.

It’s useful to note here that naming your bank character can affect your future income. As this character will be the conduit from your main characters to the auction house it could be maintaining an almost constant presence on the auction house and in city trade channels. Thus, if you call yourself a name with negative connotations such as ‘RipoffMerchant’ or ‘Ninjabank’ there is a chance that buyers will be less likely to want to give you their money. This is especially true when selling on a face-to-face basis through the trade window, where people are more wary of scams. So choose something inoffensive and remember that, as with all character names, you could be stuck with that name for a very long time.


Start Small.
Not all gold making guides recognise that it can be difficult to earn a good gold reserve when starting with a low level character. You may think that WoW has been around for long enough that players should all have at least one level 80 character by now, but this is simply not the case. New players are constantly signing up and many participants who have subscribed for years still have yet to reach the acme due to a very casual playtime schedule and real-life commitments or perhaps they have just scattered their playing time over many alts. Even veteran gamers who have multiple high level characters still begin new (non-Deathknight) characters on new servers where they are severed from their industrious level 80 sugar daddies.

Unless you are aiming for having enough gold to buy your mounts as soon as they are available to your character I would not advise being to ardent about cash generation while you are still low level. The rewards and drops you get from questing and killing should suffice every player other than the ‘Twink’ (who should be exclusively funded by a high level character anyway), and don’t forget that while that fetching robe on the auction house might give you 300 extra points of mana as well as bringing out the colour of your eyes, it’s very likely that it will be replaced in a few levels time, meaning that you wasted your money.


Level First, Farm Second.
This is true for many reasons, the primary being that levelling in itself is the greatest possible boon to increasing your income rate. Your level 20 shaman may be able to farm a thousand Gnolls an hour, but the gold generation will be pitiful in comparison to what you could do with a level 80 shaman in that time (especially if you lack decent-sized bags and mounts). That is not to deflect you from any kind of money-making enterprise. On the contrary, it is always nice to have a degree of buffer money in case you need it, just don't go out of your way unless you really, really need the cash.


Crafting Professions Are Money Pits.
They may sound like fun and offer useful or enjoyable items to augment your avatar, but in general advancing crafting professions (Leatherworking, Engineering, Blacksmithing, Tailoring and Enchanting) are the best ways to become impoverished. Aside from enchanting (more on this later) none of them offer anything that can be considered a must-have for the money-savvy levelling character. Even if you take the crafting profession’s corresponding gathering profession you will still need to spend a large proportion of your gold supply (and time) on items from the auction house, new recipes and trainer skills. Often without being able to sell the items you have crafted for anything more than the vendor price. Crafting professions only cease to become profitable when they are at the maximum level and it takes a massive amount of gold to get to that stage. For the lowbie on a budget this means alternatives should be sought.


Gathering Professions Are Money Makers.
Despite crafting professions requiring a great deal of money and time to progress, people still take them up all the time and are willing to pay for anything that will help them advance the profession quickly. This is where you can really start to make some ‘entry-level’ money from the auction house. Mining, Herbalism and Skinning all give you something for free that other players are willing to pay for, and while the lower level ores, flowers and skins are generally not worth that much (because they are easy to obtain) the higher you get the more worth the middle and later ones have. This is especially true for the natural resources commonly found in the level 40-60 zones where there are the fewest players passing through. Items like Iron ore and Mithril ore are worth more now than in ‘Vanilla’ WoW days because today’s high level players who need them to craft articles for alts, or to level up a new profession are less willing to spend time traipsing around the old places like The Badlands, and those that do revisit the original zones probably consume the things themselves.

So, if you have time, learn Herbalism and Mining (usually the most profitable two choices of the three) and develop them while you’re levelling your character, keep everything that drops from the nodes for selling off later or storing for your own personal use and watch the rise and fall of the auction prices, selling when they are high.


Always vendor grey items.
I make a point of keeping as much bag space free as possible, whether I’m levelling an alt, farming for something in particular or hitting an instance. You never know what is going to drop and I hate destroying things to make space in my backpack. Many people destroy, or even neglect to pick up grey weapons and armour, but this is a huge error: grey items are always worth decent money (relative to your level), and once you start to reach level 55+, they start to break the 1g vendor value. If you do have to discard anything, make certain to retain the grey weapons, as these are by and large worth the most, chiefly the two-handed variants.


Think Big.
So far, we have looked at small investments and low level activity, and while these are excellent ways to learn the capriciousness of the auction house and bring relatively rewarding ends, in the grand scheme of things they garner only small payoffs. To make hundreds and thousands of gold you really need to think big, and for this you will need investment capital and higher level characters.

Most of the money-making techniques that lend themselves to the maximum levels are ones that surround the auction house and high level crafting professions. This is where professions come into their own and can begin to turn a serious profit if enough research and time is dedicated to finding and exploiting their niche products. I will hopefully write separate guides to turning a profit from each of the professions so I won’t say much here, preferring to concentrate on the idiosyncrasies of the auction house in the next installment.

Suffice to say that each major profession offers creations that will make you money. How much money you make is rather dependant on your server’s prices & demand, sales techniques and research. The key word here is research and it is that which separates the sellers at the top-of-the-food-chain from those bottom-feeders that do not maximise their profit potential. Almost everything in the game is worth something to somebody and will sell for a certain price that is based on various factors. The trick is to use research to identify the items that people want to purchase but the supply is limited (or non-existent) or to find out how you can make the product cheaper than the other sellers. To that end I cannot recommend websites like Wowhead.com enough. Wowhead’s database lists every in-game item, where it drops or how it is created, what it can be used for and even displays invaluable players’ comments.


Check out the next guide where I’ll be taking a look at the ups and downs of the auction house.

Ban World of Warcraft!

Yeah, you heard me: ban World of Warcraft!

I recently stumbled upon an interesting web site:

http://www.banwarcraft.com/

As you can probably tell, the main idea of it is to encourage visitors to sign a petition which demands a ban on World of Warcraft, the grounds being that the MMO is fuelling video game addiction and is, I quote: “Present[ing] a clear and present danger to the mental, social and cultural development of teenagers and young adults in the United States.”

So, everyone under the age of thirteen and over the age of twenty-five, and those of you that reside anywhere else in the world are fine, then. Phew, that was close!

Not only does the author give examples of how the nefarious MMO has devastated four bright, young lives which are, frankly, of a rather dubious provenance (one of the self-titled WoW addicts writes that: “Warcraft meant being accepted into clans and gaining levels for your account so you could be highest in the overall rankings”, not how a genuine player would describe the game, in my opinion.). He also offers us a handy list of how we can help to combat the evils of WoW:

• Sign our petition on GoPetition.com - click on the link here.
  
• Tell all your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues about the dangers of World of Warcraft, and ask them to sign our petition.
  
• Write to your local newspapers and radio stations asking them to do an item or feature about the dangers of Video Game Addiction.
  
• Contact your local and state representatives, and ask them for their help in addressing the problem of Video Game Addiction.
  
• Ask your local schools, colleges and local libraries to block access to World of Warcraft game on their networks and computers.
  
• Mention the http://www.banwarcraft.com/ website on your blog or social bookmark page (i.e. myspace, delicious, digg, etc.).
  
• Demand that Blizzard Entertainment establish a department to review and address Video Game Addiction in relation to their games.
  
• Send an e-mail directly to Blizzard Entertainment asking them to make changes to World of Warcraft - see our example e-mail here.

I’m afraid that Banwarcraft.com suffers from being poorly written. There, I said it! The term ‘video game addiction’ is bandied about willy-nilly, despite ‘video game’ being a huge umbrella term which covers consoles, MMOs, heldhelds, gaming applications on your mobile phone, and every single video game from the now ancient Sinclair ZX Spectrum to the more modern, remarkable incarnations, and bizarrely, the author insists on exclusively blaming Blizzard for the problem of addiction, going so far as to call for this ban on only World of Warcraft (one of many Blizzard games) as though a veto on this solitary title in an ocean of similar games would be some kind of cyber-panacea.

Why then should just WoW be banned? Well, the author fails to explain how he came to the conclusion that WoW alone was the origin of video game addiction. No evidence is presented, no sources given. If Banwarcraft.com had done any research at all it would have quickly become clear that although WoW appears to be the market leader it is in fact built upon the shoulders of giants.

Much of WoW’s gameplay has been adapted from other video games and while it makes a very pretty Frankenstein’s monster it most certainly is not in any way, shape or form unique. In fact, many of WoW’s designers themselves hail from a myriad other games studios. If the author calls for a ban on WoW, he must also tackle every single other MMO; Age of Conan; Warhammer Online; EVE online and even Runescape. Do I even need to mention the offline games?

Even then, a ban on all video games would count for nought. What would the ex-WoW, teenage players do if their servers were suddenly shut down? I doubt they would suddenly embrace their parents as omniscient benefactors and throw themselves into charity work. Instead, they would alt-tab to Crysis, Empire: Total War or FEAR 2. What if they didn’t have access to the offline games either? Well, one option would be to dabble in a bit of underage drinking, sex, and drug abuse.


Addictive Personalities
WoW has a vast, truly international player base, and although the subscription figures that Blizzard released last year don’t tell the whole story the simple truth is that eleven million players are bound to include people with unhealthy attitudes to self-regulation.

If someone has an addictive personality they can always find a means to fulfil that urge, whether it is through an obsession with alcohol, gambling, sport or collecting stamps the self-destruction could be difficult to curtail. Too much of anything can be a bad thing and if someone is so deeply immersed in any activity that it becomes an unhealthy fixation it could be an indication that other areas of their lives are greatly troubled. Perhaps they (like many teenagers) are going through socially awkward phases, perhaps they are being bullied. Maybe the parents are to blame for not being able to discuss problems with their children.

Or maybe they just enjoy playing the game.

I will readily admit that WoW is structured to make you want to keep playing (and paying) and there is always something to do in the game but since the demise of the old PvP honour system there is nothing in the game that absolutely requires a player to be in front of their monitor for hours and hours at a time. (Please comment if you think of one.) A casual player can by and large achieve the same things that a hardcore player does, albeit more slowly. Personally, I played WoW a great deal for the first couple of years since its release and despite my zest for raid content in The Burning Crusade I made the difficult decision not to raid in Wrath of the Lich King so that I could keep my evenings free for real-life social activities.

So, it is the player themselves that must regulate their own play time. Just like in life, choices present themselves constantly and you have to make your own decisions. You can’t blame video games for that.

All games offer a temporary immersion in fantastic, rich worlds where people of all ages and backgrounds can socialise and leave behind the stresses of modern existence. In my time as a WoW player I can honestly say that I have met some of the best people that you could hope to meet, learned a great deal and enjoyed myself socially just as much as any time in the rest of my life. WoW has been a very positive experience, which is its raison d’etre.

Banwarcraft.com’s author actually states:
“While it is clear from academic research and studies that the use of video games can be beneficial when used as part of a wider range of applications to support educational programs and to help individuals develop specific skills.
The benefits of using video games can include improved hand-eye coordination, reflexes, motor skills and concentration. Video games can be used in a positive and supportive manner by assisting with learning and education.”

Banwarcraft.com is just another example of the poorly researched rhetoric that the media likes pedal as factual news. The website’s author should login to the game some time, he would soon realise that WoW has a many benefits to offer the participant and, unlike the ubiquitous television, the game itself does not contain swearing, violence or sexual abuse.

He would probably like to start as a Troll, it seems fitting.