I’m Still Here

I see Im still getting visitors. For those few of you who might be looking for a new post I am working on it. I currently have a son who is exactly 1 week old so as you can imagine my WoW time and blogging time have been extremely limited. Furthermore, if I have just enough time to do one or the other you better believe Im going to pick playing the game over blogging about it 😉 I hope to have some stuff up soon. Thanks again.

Quick Hit

Just purchased Ruby Shades for 100g thanks to a combination of TUJ notifications and the Remote Auction House. In other notes, I obviously missed the last Blog Carnival on diversification and specialization. I may still put up the post but I havent decided yet. I have a couple others in the works but real life has been busy this week. I will be out for the weekend so I hope to push out one more post before I take off.

Week in Review

During the last review, we saw my limited gold due to several factors that I talked about. This week was basically a week of recovering and slowly branching out to different markets. The screen shots more or less speak for themselves.

Total Gold

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now folks. My JMTC Blog Carnival post is forthcoming and some others are in draft. Thanks again to all of you that keep visiting, I’ll do my best to keep the content flowing.

In Defense of Add-ons

So recently there was a post at Not So Secret Society (great blog btw) which was a response to a post by Cold over at Cold’s Gold Factory (another great gold blog). These two both more or less agreed the only add-on that you need for the AH is your brain and Cold went so far as to say he wouldn’t even recommend that a new auctioneer use add-ons at first. I think we’ve found some gold blogging Luddites!

I’m sorry folks but I cant condone this line of thinking. Well in the strictest sense of the word, I agree that the only add-on that you “need” is your brain. And I do agree that if you rely solely on addons to guide your auction house decision making then you are making a mistake. But it is as equally mistaken to not become familiar and proficient with the tools of our trade as we learn how this particular game is played. I could make any number of analogous comparisons to show the silliness of this line of thinking; the bottom line is there nothing inherent to addons that prevent you from learning the whys and hows of what goes on in the AH.

I also disagree with the notion that we can do everything just as well with our brains and the default UI just as easily or as competently as we can with addons. These addons are much better than we are at storing data, manipulating that data, etc. Of course there are also the addons that automate various tasks to perform operations much more quickly than we can as well.

Again, I have to point out that I absolutely agree that relying on addons completely is not the path to success. But there is no reason to deprive a budding auctioneer of these tools. You can teach the tools and how to use the information they provide to maximize your auctioneering results.

Week in Review

I hoped to get this post up yesterday. I am back in the US and have been enjoying the family time. I did get some WoW in as well. Without further ado, here are the screen shots and then I’ll give you the blah blah blah.

 

 

So as you can see, I dont have a lot of gold right now. There was a sort of convergence of many factors which drained my gold rapidly, which was wasnt too deep to begin with since I’ve only been back in game about a month. Here is all the different issues:

1. Prepping for my travel home (less selling and AH prowling)
2. Bought a huge stack of raw gems from a farmer at well under market price
3. Leveling enchanting on an alt.
4. I also have some gold tied up in some future flips.
5. Had a serious facepalm moment and while transferring gold from toon to another via mail I screwed up using the auto-complete function and emailed some random person a pretty nice pile of gold. No of course they didnt return it.

I will admit I also lost some focus this past week. A lot of that was about my real life stuff, but Ive also been pvping like a mad man. I’ve managed to grind myself about halfway through a full set of the Bloodthirsty Gladiator gear. I’ll probably be posting more about this soon but Ive been queuing non-stop in RBGs and Tol Barad.  On the plus side I’m now exalted with Therazane and the Wardens.

I hope you all are still reading and more posts will be coming soon!

Quick Update

Folks, I see I’m starting to get a few more visits. I do appreciate you reading. I am currently traveling back to the United States from where Ive been deployed with the military for the past 5 months. Obviously travel + reuniting with the family will impact my playing and blogging time. But I do have some half finished posts in the works. I hope that you continue to visit and I’ll get those posts up as soon as I can.

Knowing is Half the Battle

Scientia potentia est (knowledge is power)

Knowledge is key to maximizing the value of your time spent in game. I think this is very critical to playing as a Super Casual. It also has fairly obvious implications for the gold making game as well. Even more importantly there is a lot of synergy between your knowledge of your class(es), professions, etc and your ability to make gold. In other words the better player you are, the easier you will find it to make gold whether you are a hardcore auction house player or not.

First let me clarify what I mean by being a “better player.” I’m not talking about being on top of the DPS meters, having the most gold, having the most killing blows in battlegrounds, or anything like that. I’m talking about your ability to make the most of your time in game, whatever your goals may be. Its knowing what dungeons you should be running first to gear up, what factions have the best rewards for you, understanding why its bad to fight on roads in battlegrounds,  and why pulling aggro as DPS is ALWAYS your fault (yeah I said it).  I agree your primary aim in WoW is to have fun. I submit that taking the time to learn about the game will lead to more enjoyment for you.

Let me give you a quick example of the sort of synergy I’m talking about. As you know by now, my main is a Hunter. I love this class. I read everything I can about it (when I’m not playing or reading about other facets of the game).  Because of everything I read (and then put into practice, a very important point), I’m a pretty good Hunter. I’m not God’s gift to Hunters but I’m above average. I put out good DPS, know how to use my CC, etc. I also know what gear, gems, enchants, foods and other consumables, etc are important for Hunters. This automatically clues me into where demand in the market is going to be.  I know agility trumps all for Hunters, almost to the point where certain lower level enchants are going to be better for a Hunter than some of the high end ones. This in turn may allow you to exploit a niche market that other people have abandoned thinking those enchants are not longer worthwhile.

There are diminishing returns on this knowledge. At some point you are going to know must of what you need to know about a particular class or profession. You need to branch out. In fact diversification of knowledge is arguably as important as diversification of your gold making ventures. I don’t expect that you would know the ins and outs of every class. But you ought know the high points. Knowing what a raiding prot warrior is going to gem for versus a fury warrior who loves to PvP might be a good thing to know. What stat is most important for a healing priest?

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite sources of knowledge.

The Undermine Journal – I could almost end this post right here if we were talking solely about goldmaking. This is an incredible tool for would-be auction house players. Cold over at Cold’s Gold Factory has done a couple of very nice posts on this site. I would only caveat this by saying that you need to understand the data you are looking at, and also note that TUJ is rather sensitive to grossly inflated auction prices. Just be aware of this fact. Seriously, learn it, live it, love it. Its that good. I’d pay real money to use this tool.

Wowhead – The penultimate WoW reference. I’ve yet to be disappointed when I go to this site looking for info. The comments section is actually very helpful, unlike many sites on the intertubes. Its self-moderated and it works surprisingly well. Ive found some very good information in the comments sections of this page.

WoW Insider – I can hear some of you groaning. I dont know why or when it got popular to to pan these guys but it’s unfounded. Focus on the articles on the classes and other stuff obviously. Even if it’s not always quite right (and this doesnt happen as often as some people would have you believe) LOTS of people read this site and follow their advice. Thats their only source of information.  What do you think this does to markets if they make a certain recommendation. And for a bonus, you should absolutely salivate when they publish a gold making article. Seriously. If you cant figure out why,  I’ll need to see you after school for some extra instruction.

Elitist Jerks – The place for serious raiders. It will teach you more about your class (for PvE at least) than you ever wanted to know. No, I’m serious. You will overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information. There is no chaff. This is because the slightest breach of the rules will get your post deleted or moved to The Banhammer or The Dung Heap. Your intrepid blogger has been to the Dung Heap for a seemingly innocent post. The ruthless moderating ensures a high amount of high quality information. Read here as much as you can. If Elitist Jerks says “Class X should gem with Y”, you can be damn sure Y is going to be selling on your server.

Blogs – Yeah, I kind of took the easy way out here. Find as many blogs as you can stand to read and read them. YOu will pick up all sorts of little bits of knowledge that will help you optimize your play time, earn you gold and all that other stuff. If you don’t know how to use a feed reader, do some research. I use the Google Reader.  Check my blogroll for some, and check back because it will get longer, but inputting those links is so painful… 😉

So go out, get smart, and continue to enjoy the Super Casual lifestyle.  In the comments, let me know what your sources of knowledge are!

Down and Dirty

Alto is one of my favorite gold bloggers. Recently he posted about how he likes to show what he is doing so his readers can really see what the fruits of his labor are, whether it be success or failure. (In fact, most times you probably learn more from failure than success. I will caveat this by saying dont let failure make you gun shy! Dont be afraid to take a flyer on something, especially if you feel like you really did your research.) I really like this approach, especially as this blog is intended to show people how to do things a certain way (min/maxing all areas of game play with limited time). I want you guys to know that I’m really doing what I’m talking about. You can judge the results for myself. I think I am going to divide this up to into something like where I’m at in gear progression, gold making, etc. I’ll probably play around this a bit but my goal is about once a week to show you where I’m at via screen shots. This may be separate posts for each category, Im not sure.

As an aside, be aware that you are going to see a lot of posts on gold making in the near future. This is my current major focus in game right now. I’ll explain why in another post, but it’s very germane to the Super Casual style of playing WoW.

Re-entry initiated

The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates, Apology 38a

To thine ownself be true – Polonius, Hamlet

As I said in my intro post, I recently returned to WoW after a substantial hiatus. My WoW history goes something like this. I started playing WoW near the end of vanilla WoW. I started getting interested in how to make more gold. At the time, the AH subculture really hadn’t taken shape and the only real voices were Marcko and Gevlon. My initial foray into the AH scene was focused in three areas: auction house flipping, the twink market, and enchanting mats. I got very good at those and frankly made a mint in the enchanting mats department. At that point I rolled a character on a different server. I didnt want to pay for the server transfer and so I had to start from scratch. I never really got back into the AH scene at that time. I rolled on yet another server, where I am still at today. I went on a hiatus just before ToC dropped, came back for a bit and then the most recent hiatus began right around the time ICC opened up.

I immediately had a strong desire to get back into the AH game and so I went back to the old standbys I referred to above. I discovered that Marcko’s endeavors had expanded incredibly and Gevlon wasnt really writing about gold making and instead had taken to ranty, vaguely anti-social posts. I also discovered the gold making scene had absolutely exploded and frankly I was a little overwhelmed by all the great blogs and discussions out there.

This post is intended for the returning AH player, the Super Casual who wants to focus his efforts on the AH for a time (or longer), or the new aspiring goblin who isnt sure where to start. I like to explain by example, a nod towards my own bias to how I personally learn best. With all the great information out there, is hard to know where to start. There are so many divergent ways to make money in WoW. Farming, crafting, flipping, the list goes on. Hopefully you’ll find some use in my methodical approach to developing a money making business plan.

What I Got

First we need to talk about what resources you currently have at hand. Although gold making nirvana is a stable of toons with all the professions covered, most of us arent starting there right now. If you are, good on you, you have a leg up but thats not the end of the story, so please read on. I’m only listing toons of mine that have somewhat developed crafting professions. I’m a firm believer that leveling toons should have gathering professions. This is doubly true with the changes in Cataclysm. The XP gain is nice and it lets you build a bit of a stockpile of mats without doing dedicated farming.

1. Dwarven Hunter(main, 85) – Mining(525), Jewelcrafting(320)
2. Dranei Death Knight(65) – Enchanting(350)

Yeah thats it. Stop laughing. Jewelcrafting is a no-brainer, I’ll talk a little more to that in a bit. Mining obviously has some nice synergy with JC if you feel like some farming, but more importantly gives you the ability to smelt ore. I think bars tend to be a somewhat unexploited market and of course you’ll need them for other crafting toons as well. Eventually this will be maxed out on another toon and I’ll level another crafting profession for the main. The enchanter as you’ve probably guessed is for disenchanting. This market isnt quite as hot as it used to be, but it’s still a good one and an important link in your crafting. Eventually I’ll look into doing enchants but right now disenchanting is the primary point of this toon.

Whats the takeaway? Its pretty obvious that my profits at this point are mostly going to come from auction house flipping and enchanting mats right now as I get other toons up to speed. Id also like to get JC maxed out ASAP so I can start leveraging that as well.

What I Want

I cant stress enough the importance of goal setting. If you dont have goals your approach is going to be scattershot and unfocused. When you are talking about setting goals, there are some specific things that make it a goal rather than just some fuzzy wishful thinking. A goal is something that is specific, measurable, and time-targeted (from Wikipedia).  For the purposes of this post, I think a more general timeframe is acceptable. I would divide your goals into short, medium, and long-term. These are fairly subjective measures but for me it’s something like under a month, 1 to 6 months, and 6+ months respectively.  The goals should be somewhat related and have a logical progression. Here we go:

1. Short term: JC to cap, enchanting to cap, level DK to 85, guild bank for my AH toon.
2. Medium term: 100k gold liquid, second profession on DK to cap, another toon to level cap
3. Long term: 2 more toons to level cap, Alchemy, Blacksmithing, and Tailoring to cap.

How to Get It

So now we have  a starting point and where we want to go. The next step is map out how we’re going to get there. There is a little handwaving involved and I don’t really need to expound on how to level a toon to the cap since a blind monkey could pull it off fairly easily. What I do want to talk about is why I prioritized the professions that I did.

JC – In my estimation, JC is really the premier profession right now, if for no reason other than prospecting. It’s the basis of the popular Obsidium Shuffle. Gems are always in demand too.

Enchanting – Disenchanting is a nearly foolproof money maker so long as you pay attention to prices and dont flood your markets. Enchants are little trickier but still fairly reliable.

Alchemy – Like JC, has several ways it can be a moneymaker. Daily cooldowns are a steady revenue stream and consumables are always in demand due to virtue of being, well, consumable.

Blacksmithing – I recall that BS used to be a bit of dud but its gotten much better. I dont have a lot concrete here so this could fall as I get more in tune with the market.

Tailoring – Cooldowns and disenchanting fodder really.

Stuff I didn’t prioritize:

Leatherworking – I just dont see a whole lot of value here. Some niche areas are really all Im seeing right now and maybe some limited “shuffling” type opportunities.

Inscription – I know a lot of people make beaucoup bucks. This is where your situation matters. I dont have time to babysit glyph auctions. Also, people price these things stupidly to say the least. Much of the market hasnt caught onto the implications of the glyph being a one time purchase. If I had the time and money, that fact might actually represent some big potential value. But I dont have the time, though eventually I’l have the money. If and when I pick it up, it will most likely be for the purpose of arbitraging inks.

Engineering – I actually want this. The toys are awesome and fun. But I just don’t see huge money making potential. Most likely it will become the second profession on my main.

Gathering professions – I will eventually have a toon with maxed mining/herbalism but frankly farming is not a good investment for someone with limited play time. But it’s nice to have just in case.

So thats it. A bit long-winded but I really do believe that taking the time to methodically think through these things will be a big help. Being focused and understanding where you are trying to get will help you immensely with your decision making and planning. See you in millionaires’ club!

Hello World!

Hello all and welcome to Super Casual. As you may have figured out from the tagline, I play a Dwarven hunter in World of Warcraft. I’ve been playing off and on since the end of vanilla Wow and I just returned from a hiatus (due to a combination of burnout and real life commitments). I do a little bit of everything in-game. I’m particularly fond of the Auction House “game” and you will see that as a major theme in this blog.

Of course at this point you are already cursing your luck at somehow stumbling on to this blog and wondering what the heck is has to offer that the other 70 billion WoW blogs don’t already offer.  Well the answer is in the name of the blog. Super Casual is what I label my approach to WoW. Super Casual, simply put, is that although you may not focus on any one aspect of the game, you try to maximize whatever you are doing in the game. In other words, you take the time to research the best specs, gear, the fastest way to accomplish certain tasks, etc.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that I have fairly limited playtime due to a time-consuming job and a big family. This leaves me with not a lot of playtime, and I feel as if I’m wasting that time if I don’t try to do everything optimally. It’s not that I don’t want to experiment with different approaches in-game, but I don’t have time to. If we were playing a tabletop RPG, you might even call me a munchkin(look it up if you aren’t a current or former tabletop RPG geek).

I hope to blog from this perspective, although not everything is necessarily applicable. You will see a lot of posts about the Auction House and making gold(a major focus in-game for me right now), Huntering as a Super Casual, and whatever else my fevered imagination can come up with. as that is a major focus in-game for me right now. I hope you enjoy. For the Alliance!