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Zarhym clarifies the Mists Black Market Auction House

If, like many people, you're looking forward to the Black Market Auction House in Mists of Pandaria, Zarhym has a post for you. Zarhym points out that the BMAH is not intended to be a reliable means to gear up a character.

Zarhym - Black Market is starting to go too far
No one should count on this even being close to a viable option for gearing up a character. If you can raise that kind of gold in the game, you're going to have much better success paying your way into raids for gear than hoping the right items appear for you in the black market AH (which doesn't include set pieces), hoping you can afford to outbid everyone else on your realm, and hoping you're the last one to bid before the auction ends.

Sure, it'll have some of the best rewards for sale. But that doesn't mean it'll be remotely reliable for one person to gear up quickly. It's the black market, after all. :)

Ultimately the system is going to benefit the extremely wealthy and the extremely lucky. But in all likelihood the benefits won't at all be consistent, even for those who can pony up the gold.


This is a gold sink, plain and simple. It's a way to bleed off the vast amount of gold some people are acquiring, because when you buy an item from the BMAH, your gold doesn't go to anyone. It's a fancier, more random vendor, and if you're trying to use it to gear up your character, you'd probably get better results with the actual AH. Blizzard seems fine with this not being something designed to benefit most players, and I think that's the best way to approach it.


It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!