Nov 172008
 

The land of Northrend, in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, is rich in various herbs. Herbalists will fnally be able to level their skills, again, and they will have an opportunity to get rich. Northrend herbs, for now, are selling for 30+ gold a stack, for the most common herbs, and higher for the others.

This, of course, is making inscribers unhappy since they have to grind up 5 herbs to make pigments for their inks. Alchemist are used to paying through the nose for their herbs (fel lotus) and this probably won’t change much. Still, prices will eventually drop as the farmers are done with leveling and start farming.

So here’s the list of the herbs that you can find in Northrend, with links to more info (on Thottbot.com.) Inscribers should just grab whichever herb is cheapest and easiest, likely to be Goldclover for some time) and mill those.

Alchemists can click through the links to see which recipes can be made from these herbs.

  • Goldclover, 325 herbalism, all over the place in grassy areas. This one herb will take your skill to well over 400.
  • Deadnettle, drops with Goldclover
  • Firethorn, 325 herbalism, not millable, drops leaves and seeds that provide a buff (and a debuff,) I also saw a frost lotus drop and a crystallized life. Found around the hot pools in Borean Tundra.
  • Tiger lily, 400 Herbalism, found along the edges of waterways, just like Liferoot.
  • Frozen Herbs – All over the Dragonblight. 400+ skill to pick. These aren’t really distinct herbs, rather they are frozen Tiger lily, Talandra’s Rose, and Goldclover.
  • Constrictor Grass
  • Icethorn
  • Lichbloom, Requires 425 Herbalism and is found in places with snow areas I.E. Icecrown and Storm Peaks
  • Adder’s Tongue, This stuff is all over the place in Sholozar Basin, requires 430 Herbalism
  • Talandra’s rose, all over the place in the lower tiers of Zul’Drak
  • Frost Lotus, rarely picked directly, usually drops off other herbs, much like fel lotus

Updated12/07

Note: If you are collecting herbs to sell you should think about the size of the stack that you post on the AH. If you’re selling to Inscribers then post in multiples of 5 and they will sell faster. If you are selling to Alchemists then check Thottbot or WoWhead for the number of herbs any particular potion needs and then sell that stack size.

Nov 152008
 

Wrath of the Lich king has landed and the World of Warcraft has changed. There are new talents, new builds, new gear, new areas to explore, and so on, but one of the areas that hasn’t changed much is in the gold making techniques.

Gathering is unchanged, except for discovering the new things to gather. Demand for green drops from mobs will probably be strong for awhile since much of it is better than the epic stuff people had at level 70. Certain crafted items (especially glyphs) will sell very well and the materials to make the popular enchants and crafted items will sell very well. The only real difference here will be in exactly which crafts and enchants are popular.

So here are my guesses for gold earning in Wrath. Keep in mind that prices will drop as more and more people start farming Northrend.

Skinning – As always, skin everything you can. Sell the scraps, too. Keep an eye on the Auction House for which skins sell best and which hot crafting recipes require those skins. Find areas where people are just grinding away for XP and skin everything they kill.

Mining – Cobalt and Titanium await you. Engineering, Blacksmithing, and Jewelcrafting will create a demand for these ores and that demand should stay strong for a long time. Cobalt look like it’s going for almost 50g for a 5 stack at the moment, on Bloodscalp. Mining should be interesting on the PvP servers…

Herbalism – Now that Wrath of the Lich King is here people will get back to raiding, which will require the usual collection of potions, created from the various herbs that you will be picking. Plus there’s Inscription, which has driven the price of herbs way up, since the inscription ink come from herbs.

Right now the prices for Northred herbs are truly grim, 20-40 gold per herb. With much of the playerbase arriving in Northrend, gathering away, I don’t think Northrend herbs will stay at that price for long, which is great for scribes, but less great for herbalists. With herbs at 20 gold a stack it costs about 4 or 8 gold to make one glyph. With herbs at 300 gold a stack…

Outland herbs, which have been cheap for some time now, might go up as the gatherers head to Northrend. If Northrend herbs are selling at 100 gold a stack, right now, how many stacks can you farm? As always, check prices on the Auction House first.

Fishing and cooking – Some fish will likely be needed for Alchemy, as well as for cooking, and some might turn out to do interesting things (such as Savory Deviate Delight.) Of course, certain foods are in demand for the buffs they provide and those foods should sell well.

Looting – As usual, keep a close eye on any white or better items you loot in your day to day monster mashing. Some of these items will be valuable. Send them to your banker to sell, don’t vendor them.

Limited items – I have no doubt that there will be a number of new “limited items” appearing on various vendors. Keep an eye on these as several might sell for a very nice profit on the Auction House. Make your own list of “limited item” vendors as you travel the new lands.

Speaking of the Auction House… This really is the area where people can make some serious gold. There are two basic ideas here, both of which require a good understanding of the market on your server.

  1. buy low and sell high is a tried and true one. Herbs for example. If an herb (or ore, or…) normally goes for 30gold a stack and you see that someone has dumped a bunch of stacks for 5 gold, buy them up and resell them (or send them to your favorite scribe.) If prices are starting to look depressed then just hold those items for a few days and keep a close eye on the AH. Post them at a higher price when the market allows.
  2. Find holes in the market and fill them. If a certain glyph is rare and selling for a high price then see if you can make a few of that glyph and sell them for that high price. Same with herbs. If the market needs a few more of a certain herb, because prices are so high, go out and farm a few.

Your banker: Lastly, consider using a low level alt to do all of your buying and selling. It’s less distracting than if you use your main character, plus you’ll be able to focus on making gold and not spending it on better stuff.

Just make a level 1 character to be your “Banker” and run to the nearest big city and park in the Auction House. Next have your main character mail your banker some starting money (for auction fees.) Then as your other characters collect sellable loot and limited items they mail all of those items to the banker for resale.

There are a lot of ways to make gold in the World of Warcraft and the above suggestions are only a few of them. To learn many more gold making techniques you should consider taking the advice of someone who has made enough WoW gold to hit the gold cap (over 230,000 gold) on each of four separate characters. He’s the Warcraft Millionaire and, as you can see, he knows what he’s talking about.

Oct 292008
 

Planning to play a Death Knight when Wrath goes live? Or are you going to give it a couple of weeks to let the hordes move on?

If you are going to join the Deathknight horde (at any time) then you might want to check out this free DK leveling guide (a PDF) that covers the DK starting area. Both Horde and Alliance will be using the same area, just in case you didn’t know, so this guide applies equally to both sides. (By the way – I didn’t write the guide.)

When I was running my DK through that area some weeks back there were a number of people asking “Where’s the…?” “How do I…” etc.  So I think that a lot of people will find this to be useful. Download it here and save to your disk.

Update 7/14/2012: The guide was put together by Shawn of Extreme leveling, but he is no longer offering guides.

If you want a killer leveling guide that will take your DK (or any class) from start to whatever the level cap is when you read this, then give Zygor a close look.

Oct 032008
 

For those of you interested in the PvP game here’s an overview of what’s happening with PvP as Wrath of the Lich King gets ready to invade our gaming space.

As always, keep in mind that very little of this is final. Finality won’t be reached until the actual game is in our greedy little hands.

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King PvP Portal Launched – Ten Ton Hammer – We have launched a new portal to collect all data on the PvP side of Wrath of the Lich King. If you’re looking for the latest information on PvP, from Honor, Arenas, and Screenshots from the new areas, visit our new PvP portal! …

Lifestyle of the Northrend Rogue – This is significantly more than it dealt previously, and I can see more Rogues integrating this into their PVP rotations.Gouge still adds 1 combo point to the current target (its combo point generation has been in limbo). …

WoW: State of the PvP in Beta Editorial – Ten Ton Hammer – Wrath of the Lich King’s PvP keeps adding new features and evolving so that players will have different experiences in PvP than they had when they played through WoW’s second expansion. In this article, Gabriel “DarkFact” Zamudio checks …

Wrath of the Lich King Beta Death Knight PVP Nerfs – I’ll never become a fully endorsed Blizzard fan-site because I criticize the developers for some of their decisions when it comes to the game. Case in piont, the Death Knight. They’re not a broken class in my honest opinion, …

WotLK PvP Changes and Blue Posts – There’s been loads of changes in the past few days for WotLK, specifically related to PvP. Take a look at a few of the most recent blue posts and updates regarding pvp in the last 48 hours. WotLK PvP Recap from Zug Gaming Berserker Rage …

The Eye of Eternity Loot, WotLK PvP Gear – WotLK PvP Arena Gear – ilvl 252 Warlock LK Arena 6 Warlock Helm LK Arena 6 Warlock Shoulders LK Arena 6 Warlock Legs LK Arena 6 Warlock Chest LK Arena 6 Warlock Gloves, WotLK PvP Honor Gear – ilvl 252 LK Honor 5 Caster DPS Bracers …

WotLK – PVP Rogues OP? – WotLK will certainly shift the way we play not only in PvP, but PvE as well. If you haven’t checked out the new talent points then get your butt over to Blizzard’s website and be amazed. Rogue beta talents …

Northrend will start at level 68, so if you’re not that high yet you should check out Zygor’s leveling guide, it’s the best thing out there for getting leveled fast.

Death Knight Talents, Builds, and Notes

 Death Knight, wrath of the lich king  Comments Off on Death Knight Talents, Builds, and Notes
Oct 022008
 

Death Knights, the heavy metal (plate) wearing Hero Class of [tag-tec]Wrath of the Lich King[/tag-tec], are probably going to be the most played class once people load Wrath onto their systems.

As it stands, their ability trees are blood, frost, and unholy. They generate runic power and use it to power their big smash attacks. Blizzard sees them as tanks for caster mobs, which brings about interesting PvP thoughts, but they’re solid in the DPS department and should be a blast to solo.

Talents? Builds? Powers? Well… All their talents and abilities are still being run through the beta grinder and will be buffed, nerfed, and kicked around until Bliz is happy enough with their status. Since they’re getting a lot of attention from the Devs I assume that the “happy enough” state will actually occur.

If you’re one of the few whole will actually be playing one of these death machines then you might want to check ouit some of the “How the [tag-del]Death Knight[/tag-del] Stands Right Now” posts below. Keep in mind that there will be changes between now and the Wrath release date.

Edit: While you’re here grab this free Death Knight Leveling Guide. It’s a PDF and it covers the DK starter area (levels 55-58.)

This first is advice to raiding DKs from a Druid:

Tips for new Death Knights from a fellow melee, part 1 – I’ve healed a lot of Death Knight tanks, and tanked for a lot of Death Knight DPS. Most of you seem like cool people, so I say this with sincere love in my little Druid heart and a touch of worry over what will happen in November: …

Zuggy covers Death Knight presences and powers:

Death Knight Abilities and Spells – Death Knight Presences Death Knight presences can be best described as equivalent to warrior stances. There are 3 stances a death knight may enter. Blood Presence – Increases damage done by 15% and heals the Death Knight by 2% of damage …

An Update on current talents and DPS:

Death Knight Discussions/Changes for Wrath of the Lich King (Oct 2nd) – Frost tree to get some buffs Disease damage went down a little, which will lower’s Unholy’s overall dps. Dancing Rune Weapon was doing a huge portion of blood’s dps. We thought it was cooler to let it hit hard but be out less often. …

More on DK changes and where they stand, now:

9014 Beta Build and More – As always, our friends over at WotLKwiki where quick to post the Death Knight changes. Here they are, I’ll add any other changes I find in a future post. 9014 Death Knight Changes. Blood. Bloody Vengeance – No longer increases frost and …

More DK Changes and Commentary:

New Beta Patch: Death Knight Changes – Runic Focus – Description changed to : “Unlike most casters, a Death Knight’s spells cause double damage on critical hits.” Unholy. Death and Decay – Damage Increased (Now Rank 4 – 62 Damage) (Old Rank 4 – 52 Damage) …

Here’s a free Death Knight prep guide. (Look for the button in the middle of the red text.) It’s not a talent or leveling guide, rather it gives info on recommended gear as you level to 70, as well as a number of other tips. You can also pre-order the full Death Knight guide from the same page.

Oct 012008
 

I’ve heard rumors, here and there, that one or two people are planning on playing a Death Knight when Wrath of the Lich King arrives.

Update, 10/31 – The free DK Prep Guide guide is no longer available, sorry. That was out of my control.  However, there is another freebie, below.

As for he prep guide It’s been incorporated into the full Death Knight Guide, by the Killer Guides team. In addition to the prep guide, you get info on talents, builds, strategies, leveling, gold, PvP, and everything else you need to be the most brutal Death Knight that you can be.

Check out that guide here, and then check out their screaming deal, 20 WoW guides for the price of 3.

The freebie is a leveling guide for the Death Knight starter area (covering levels 55-58.) For those of you have have played several DKs through that area (in the beta) well, you won’t find this interesting.

For the rest of you who want a step by step walkthough of all the quests, where to go, what to do, etc., you’ll want this guide. It’ll save you a lot of time getting through the new area. Click here to get yours.

Just in case this is true you might want to check out this freebie, the Death Knight Prep Guide.

It’s not a leveling or skill guide. It is a guide to potions, gear, and a few other things you’ll want to do to get your Death Knight 100% ready to go for Outlands and Northrend. Buy them and store them now, while they’re cheap.

Sep 302008
 

Inscription is coming in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and with it is another opportunity to do something with that herbalism skill.

Too Many Annas has the story on what kind of herbs you’ll need to level Inscription, as well as a link to the Inscription 101 Guide.

Siha recently posted a fantastic and extensive guide to leveling inscription in the upcoming patch (3.0) – kind of as a head-start for the expansion.

Now, I’m not one to get too into this whole beta business, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, but with a release date announced and patch 3.0 on the PTR, we’re going to see some changes to BC before we actually see the Lich King CDs on our desks. And, well, I’m all for being prepared – especially on an old server (Feathermoon has been around since release) with extremely high prices for EVERYTHING, even low level stuff. Right now stacks of low level herbs are selling for around 5g on a good day, and that’s well before anyone is going to actually use them to level inscription!

The rest: Stashing Herbs

edit: I’ve posted an herbalism leveling guide (to prepare for Inscription) and a review of Penn’s Professions Guide, which will help you to power level your Inscription skills.

Update 3/20:  Well, inscription has been around awhile, now. Any thoughts? A commenter says, “the info looks less..why don’t u provide on this..”  Parsing the mangled English, I think he’s asking for an inscription guide on this site? I wrote one, but it’s on GotWarcraft.com, here: leveling inscription.

You’ll find that Inscription is pretty easy to level and far less expensive to level than any of the other crafting professions. It has some cool items just for the scribe, too. Oh yeah, it’s also a major cash generator as far as I’m concerned.

Sep 262008
 

Transferred my 70 BE Rogue over to the Wrath Beta the other day. So here are some gameplay thoughts.

It’s interesting having to redo my talents everytime I log in. Went with a 51 pt combat build (s1 swords) this time around. With Blade furry, sword spec, adrenaline rush, unfair advantage… It’s Cuisinart Rogue! 🙂 May have to try a bit of herding…

I’ve only been through a few of the quests, halfway to 71 now, but there are some that I really like. Freeing NPCs and having them help out is always fun.

Smashing 100 undead with a tank that’s armed with a big saw… Well, that quest’s good for a little extra grinding. “Hey boss, I killed 3,650 of the scourge things, is that ok?”

Riding under the flying carpet was interesting… (sorry, no screenie, I was asleep at the switch.) Guess the Devs thought it was a glider type parachute.

Speaking of parachutes, yep you’ll get to parachute down at one point (at least.) Very cool.

Joined a guild, Violence, that has 350+ members. Quietest guild I’ve ever been in.

I like the mist effects.

Yeah, I’m looking forward to Wrath.

edit: by the way, I’m already seeing green gear that’s, in some ways, as interesting as my s1/s2 PvP gear. I expect in a couple levels I may be thinking about going back to greens.

Sep 212008
 

The Wrath is coming. Time to hide.

Of course, one of the big changes in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion is the changes to all the various talent trees. As you probably know, Blizzard isn’t just adding a few new talents or increasing the level cap to 80. No no no, there’s a little more to it than that – they’re making large changes to existing talents and shuffling around their exact position in the talent trees.

So what I’ve put together here is a collection of posts, from various places, that discuss the level 80 talents and changes. Some of these also offer build suggestions, both from raiding and PvP points of view. In addition, If you want to play around with talent builds for your own characters you’ll find the level 80 WoW talent calculator here.

Of course, the changes aren’t 100% finished, all of this is still in beta test, and Blizzard has been known to make big last minute changes. We can count on more changes along with the usual collection of nerfs and maybe some buffs. Still, it’s a place to start thinking about how you might spec your characters when you upgrade to Wrath.

Update 10/14: The 3.0 patch has arrived and here’s an update post on what’s happening with the WoW Talents and Builds.

’nuff said, here ya go!

WotLK: Build 8962 – 4 Extra Points for Frost – When the WotLK expansion hits, as I level up, I will start filling in the Arcane tree until I get Focus Magic. When I hit 80 and start raiding again, the talent build that I will most likely be using is this: 80 PvE/PvP Frost.

WotLK Paladins May Have “Shocking” Potential – All of the above said, the following, were I to PvP as a Shockadin at level 80, would be my talent build without question:.  Allow me a couple caveats with the above build: …

Tanked! Revaluing Feral Combat Talents in Beta Build 8926 – The pictured talent build is essentially what I’d like to be using at 80. All PH NYI (place holder, not yet implemented) talents are now “live” on beta, and it’s pertinent to note that the talent “Mother Bear” has been renamed to the …

Want to hit level 80 fast? Looking for ways to familiarize yourself with Northrend without wasting valuable playtime running around in circles? Check out the Killer Guides’ Wrath guide and get ready to go before the expansion hits.

Shock and Awe: The Art of Dual Shockadins in WotLK – Both of these assumptions are based off of items I found in the WotLK database at WoWhead situated around an item level of 200 (the item level which seems to be the base for epics at level 80). In addition to these two assumptions, …

Why 3.0 will change Arena entirely – Much like when Blizzard imeplemented the WoW 2.0 41-point talent trees into the game shortly before TBC, and much of the dissaray it caused, the WoW 3.0 talents are almost entirely based around players being level 80 and consequently …

Truckload ‘o Changes – At level 80, this 80 spellpower. Much higher than it was before. I believe it is still weaker than Flametongue Totem and doesn’t stack with it. Twin Disciplines – The tooltip was fixed to read: Increases your spell power on instant …

8926 DK changes, Blue Posts, and Site News – They may be fun in that you get a lot for your money, but they work against the design goal of being able to build a customized talent tree for your character. They also make spec parity or class balance a lot harder when there are …

A look at our Bear Tanking future in Wrath – Clearly (I hope) a class that could do rogue-level dps and warrior-level tanking with the same talent build is the kind of thing that makes other players a little miffed. But we’re reevaluating a lot of old (and some admittedly tired) …

[Druid] The 3.0 patch – cat build edition – That’s about .66% dps per talent point, which just isn’t that good. This may not make the cut at level 80; it’s still lower per point than master shapeshifter. Rend and Tear barely makes the cut. Assuming that you’re only hitting …

WotLK Hunter Pets – Major Changes – Pets will still have to level to some degree, but it will be a lot more transparent than it is now. A level 1 beast trained by a level 80 hunter will hop to level 70 instantly. That way the pet isn’t completely useless while you try

Edit: Big Red Kitty says – Beta Talent Builds, Just Say No – “OK, see? The hunter class is going to be totally mixed up. Anything and everything people have said, including us, is kaput and moot.”

Edit: By the way, don’t forget to grab your free Death Knight Starter Area Leveling Guide.