Project Lore

One of the fundamental things that players should understand about the WoW economy is that there is massive deflation. Items, in general, become less valuable over time as new items are introduced. Players no longer want iLvl 200 or even 213 crafted gear, as well geared players from high level raids can easily carry them through heroics or Naxxramas. As such, materials for crafted gear are less in demand than they once were. Blue gems should lose value once epic gems become accessible. Additionally, once an item is introduced, the players that want it the most will pay ridiculous prices to get it first. Prices lower over time as supply ramps up for non-top tier raiders. In general, its a bad idea to stockpile items. However, understanding how new changes will affect the economy and acting early can lead to huge profits. There are two major changes that will affect the economy in patch 3.2. The first is the introduction of epic gems; the second is that Emblems of Conquest are now obtainable in all pre-Crusader dungeons and raids. We will talk mainly about epic gems for now. Epic gems are obtained in a few different ways. Lets review:

• Alchemy Transmutes
• Icy Prism. You can't save them up now, so don't try
• Prospecting Titanium Ore
• Buying with Honor or Emblems of Heroism

Buying them with Honor and Emblems will probably be very unpopular, as everything will be dropping Emblems of Conquest and players will be eager to grab new gear before they will grab new gems. The other three will have a profound effect on the market. First, lets look at Alchemy transmutes. Most Alchemists are Elixir Masters. As as Alchemist myself, I can vouch for how useful this is. I make dozens of flasks a day, and this generates tons of gold. If I can get a friend to craft my elixirs who is elixir specced, Transmutation Master for myself might be profitable. Since transmutations are on a 20 hour cooldown, its hard to share that ability with anyone, but a group of a few alchemists could have 1 elixir master and all the rest be Transmutation Masters to optimize overall output. I know my guild is organizing something like this. Transmuting an epic gem usually requires a blue gem of the same color as the desired epic gem and a specific Eternal. The following is a list of transmutes as they are now on the PTR:

• Transmute: Flawless Amytrine: Monarch Topaz and Eternal Shadow
• Transmute: Cardinal Ruby: Scarlet Ruby and Eternal Fire
• Transmute: Dreadstone: Twilight Opal and Eternal Shadow
• Transmute: Eye of Zul: 3 Forest Emerald
• Transmute: King's Amber: Autumn’s Glow and Eternal Life
• Transmute: Majestic Zircon: Sky Sapphire and Eternal Air

The first thing to note is that players will be getting epic gems from a few sources. Players will largely be consuming the same amount of gems overall, as they will have about the same number of sockets. Some of the new recipes require epic gems, but it won't have a huge impact on the market. Since only some portion of the epic gems being consumed use current rare gems as a material means that consumption of rare gems is going to go way down. There will still be a market as the poor man's gem and as reagents for transmutes, but the prices of uncut and cut rare gems should drop significantly. Get rid of any stock that you have. The exception may be Forest Emerald, which requires 3 gems for the transmute. Only time will tell relatively how valuable they will be, but blue gems are used a lot by tanks, so I'm predicting a good market for the epic blue gems and hence Forest Emerald. Also, expect Eternal consumption to go way up with lots of new recipes and the transmutes. Its unclear how often Icy Prism will give epic gems. It will be the only thing keeping Frozen Orbs valuable. It will continue to be the only thing keeping uncommon gems in consumption. There are lots of these in Titanium Ore, so expect them to lose even more value in patch 3.2. We are looking at vendor trash level of value. According to WarcraftEcon's results, they are getting around 6 uncommon gems per prospect, and people will be prospecting a lot to get epic gems. Speaking of prospecting Titanium, this is going to be the game changer. People are stockpiling Titanium now, which may or may not be a good idea. It might be overvalued right now; it's risky to do. However, with rare gems losing demand and rare gems being the result of Titanium prospects as often of epic gems, rare gems should lose a significant amount of value from this alone. The flipside to this is that the value of Saronite and Cobalt should crash, as they will no longer be valuable to prospect. This is going to be a huge window of opportunity for Blacksmiths, who can potentially make lots of BoE stuff and disenchant it. Expect Enchanting supplies to increase in supply in the long run and prices to drop. Finally, note the materials for the new crafted items, including a new orb from the Argent Coliseum: Crusader's Orb. This list was complied by the writers at WarcraftEcon:

• Titansteel Bar
• Saronite Bar
• Arctic Fur
• Heavy Borean Leather
• Icy Dragonscale
• Nerubian Chitin
• Moonshroud
• Spellweave
• Ebonweave
• Crusader Orb
• Various epic gems, Eternals, Enchanting materials
• Deadly Saronite Dirk
• Corroded Saronite Woundbringer

These will probably enjoy a small price boost in the first month or so of patch 3.2. Remember, the first two weeks will be crazy, as everyone will want epic gems and consumption will be through the roof. Expect it to level off within about 6 weeks. What are your plans to profit in patch 3.2?

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When patch 3.0 hit, I dropped Engineering for Herbalism to prepare for Wrath. I thought it would better complement my Alchemy, and raw materials like herbs were likely to be in high demand as people level their professions. I thought that the Lifeblood ability would far outweigh the benefits of Engineering as far as usefulness goes, as the Engineering item enhancements do not stack. Months later, I'm wondering if I made the correct choice. Lifeblood is barely useful in PvE; healers don't expect me to cast a small heal over time and the health I regenerate in that period is unlikely to save me before a healer gets to me. It doesn't provide me with any stats. It is questionably useful in PvP, and I've been eying other professions like Jewelcrafting to provide me with more usefulness in raiding and arena. Blizzard has very much begun to treat professions like they treat classes: diverse, but all useful. Hardcore raiders will spend thousands of gold to squeeze out another dozen or so DPS, and Blizzard wants players to choose the professions they enjoy, not the profession that they should choose in order to best perform in content. All the different professions have comparable buffs to each class in both PvP and PvE situations, often in the form of bonus stats. These often take the form of special item enhancements, like Enchanter's ring enchants or Scribe's shoulder inscriptions, or passive abilities like Toughness. To me, Lifeblood is not nearly on the same footing. It has its uses in some situations, but having to use another action bar slot or hotkey as opposed to doing an enchant or getting a passive enhancement for a lesser effect gives me a sour opinion of Herbalism's PvE/PvP usability. As far as money making, some professions have some ability to make money by doing things you normally do while questing and exploring and an ability to make money by spending time on just the profession. Usually, this is in the form of gathering and crafting. For example, engineers can craft epic BoE items and collect from gas clouds they encounter in the world. Miners can mine from nodes that they find while out and about and can smelt ore into bars. Tailors can craft BoE items and have the Northern Cloth Scavenging to find more cloth while killing mobs. Either way, most professions are designed to be able to be lucrative both passively while roaming in the world or by investing time into them. Professions that satisfy this are Enchanting, Engineering, Tailoring, and Mining. I consider these professions to be much more appealing than the others. With the carpets from tailoring, I just may pick up Tailoring on my main (rogue). Its interesting to note that these professions are generally considered not to have a direct "complement", like Alchemy/Herbalism or Skinning/Leatherworking. For now, if Frost Lotuses weren't selling for 30 gold or more on my server, I'd be dropping Herbalism for something else right now, because it gives few benefits compared to other professions. The only benefit I would miss is being able to track herbs, which helps immensely for some of the Cooking dailies. As far as effort required, some professions are very easy and some are very difficult. Inscription requires you to stock a lot of herbs, pigments, and inks, and also requires you to sell a wide variety of glyphs to make the same amount of money as the other professions. Enchanting can be difficult to market - many players have an enchanter in their guild or someone they know rather than check the AH or shout in trade. Inscription seems very unappealing on a main for me for this reason and that its hard to "passively" make money. I think this needs work in the long run. What professions did you choose? Do you ever switch professions, and why?

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Up until the past couple of months, I always stuck with Horde characters. Sure, I've tried out Alliance here and there, but never found them quite as intriguing. I'm sure the fact that my RL friends I play with are all Horde also plays a role. But now that I've been true to the Horde since the WotLK release, I decided to try out an Ally once again. And the fact that I wanted to roll a character on the Executus server so I could play in the Alliance Project Lore fan guild gave me a good push. I know my way around gameplay pretty well, and I expected a refreshing change of pace when I rolled a draenei hunter. But as I've been leveling with her, I've been surprised by how much it has changed my perception of the game by adding to it. Obviously, Alliance is a new faction, and draenei a new race for me. And therefore, it's a new starting area to learn my way around. Pixie is my first hunter character (but thankfully I have a little guidance on how not to be a huntard). I've tamed my first combat pet, Artemis, and started training fishing and cooking for the first time to support his dietary needs. I picked up a couple of professions I've never leveled before - herbalism and alchemy -  just to keep the excitement going. And the friendly group of players in the guild that I'm new to have done a good job of making me feel welcome. So how has all this affected gameplay? Well, there have been a couple of funny moments. Like the first few times I came back from questing and initially thought it was weird that I was walking into a group of Draenei and not getting attacked. Then, realizing I'm one of them now. Also, the first couple of quests to kill Bloodelf spies or other Hordies tore at my heart a little. My Locomomo started out just like them! And now that I've pointed out differences in how we speak in vent, I owe my guildies some props. I've gotten a lot of help learning my way around the Alliance areas that up until now, I've only ever heard of and never fully experienced. And, I learned how to cluck at a chicken until it laid an egg that I now have for a pet. That confirmed my suspicions that indeed each faction has a few surprises up their sleeves. So all this new stuff makes it almost like I'm playing for the first time again. But at least I know the basics and lingo to help get me through. And it's making clear to me just how wide the world of warcraft can be, if you choose to utilize all it has to offer. One aspect that I'm looking forward to seeing in action will come once I leave the starting area. This is my first time on a PvP server. Have mercy! Has anyone else had a similar experience when starting up a new character?  And how long did it take you to get into the groove and past the feelings of awe that come along with the unknown?

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How do you choose your professions? If you just want to make money, clearly there is a general consensus that taking a couple of gathering professions such as mining and skinning would be best. Just head out for a little while, gather up some materials, and sell them. No sinking money into leveling, no rare recipes to find, no investing in mats to make something and hoping it sells. However, if you want to make your character as effective as possible in battles, it will probably cost you a bit of cash. All of the crafting professions have a few items that can only be used by characters with the right profession, but some are better than others. A couple of the nice ones are engineering for goggles, leatherworking for drums, enchanting for ring enchants, and alchemy and jewelcrafting for trinkets. Let's say you decide ring enchants and drums are best to make your character top the dps charts. How are you going to make that profit? Doing enchants and making armor kits will only make you so much money, especially if you have to buy mats. So, now you have to make an alt in order to provide mats and make a little more money. But don't you want to make your alt as uber as your main? I guess that's just something you'll have to decide for yourself.

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