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Is your guild bank going dry?
I raid with an extremely generous 25-man raiding guild that is chugging along quite nicely through the Siege of Orgrimmar. They are kind enough to provide not only guild repairs, but potions, flasks, and feasts -- now noodle carts -- as well. The guild is pretty good about keeping everything managed, and raiders do a pretty good job about keeping the guild bank filled with materials for all the stuff that the guild supplies on a typical guild run. But we've had a problem recently that picked up in patch 5.4. Someone mentioned that the guild bank wasn't making quite as much gold as it used to, and player repairs are bleeding the guild bank of gold almost faster than it can be put in. This seemed odd to me at the time, but I re-doubled my efforts to continue sticking herbs, gems, and whatever other useful items I came across into the guild bank, figuring it would all balance itself out. It turns out, however, that we aren't alone with our weird little problem.
Patch 5.4 will not bring epic gems to Mists
Patch 5.4 is bringing a ton of exciting content, as we've recently discussed in video and several articles. One thing it's not bringing, though, is epic gems, as Blizzard Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street recently confirmed. @B_Cogs Not happening for 5.4. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) August 2, 2013 Note how he doesn't say "not this expansion", rather just confirms that, as many expected given their total absence from the PTR, the epic gems are not coming right now. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? It will certainly ensure that the value of the blue-quality gems stays high, for now at least. But could this be another indication that there is a patch 5.5 coming? Epic gems would certainly be one way to push players into additional content without devaluing the Siege of Orgrimmar final raid content, and many are growing concerned that, with the next expansion likely to be announced at Blizzcon in November with a beta to come shortly thereafter, we could be besieging Orgrimmar for a long old time.
Gold Capped: This is the wrong way to do epic gems
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Epic gems are here, and they're designed differently than we're used to. To be specific, they're designed without fairness baked in, which is somewhat of a new feeling for people who weren't around buying epic gems in The Burning Crusade. Fairness is actually the wrong word for this. Life isn't fair, and neither is WoW. Instead, I'll talk about balance. Blizzard has gone to great lengths to ensure that the game remains fun for as many people as possible by trying to avoid changes that suddenly disadvantage an arbitrary subset of players or shift the desirability of choices made a long time ago. Balanced changes don't force competitive PvP and raiding group to play the gold-making game to be on a level footing with the competition. They also don't provide a tangible itemization difference between the profession perks of different crafting professions.
Patch 4.3 PTR: New jewelcrafting vendors and recipes
Hey jewelcrafters, if you're wondering where exactly you're going to learn to cut all those new epic gems we're getting in patch 4.3, you can rest easy. Two new jewelcrafting vendors have been added on the PTR. For Alliance, you'll find Farrah Facet at the trainers in Stormwind, for Horde, you can find Taryssa Lazuria in the jewelcrafting hut. Currently the huts on the PTR in Orgrimmar are overrun with piles of Ethereal junk, leaving poor Taryssa literally buried under a pile of crates, but she is there. New epic gems include Queen's Garnet, Lightstone, Deepholm Iolite, Lava Coral, Shadow Spinel, and Elven Peridot. There's a twist with these jewelcrafting recipes, however. Each recipe costs five jewelcrafting tokens, compared to the three required for rare gem cuts. On top of that, the vendors sell the Tome of Burning Jewels, which will teach you a random Cataclysm epic gem recipe. The cost for the tome is only four tokens, so savvy jewelcrafters can spend their tokens on the cuts they need immediately, and then just purchase the Tome to save on token costs when they no longer care what recipe they are getting. Check out the gallery below for screenshots of all epic recipes, and thank you to The Godmother from Alt:Ernative for sending in the tip! %Gallery-136599% Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Gold Capped: Epic gems in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen and Fox Van Allen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Epic gems will come in patch 4.3. They'll not be prospectable from Pyrite or anything else -- instead they will drop from geodes on raid bosses. This may not be the final design, but it's what Blizzard has decided so far. The people who need the gems most are going to be the source for the uncut gems, and the quantity available will be very low. Every time I've talked about this before, I've hedged my bets that Blizzard might drastically change the design for epic gems compared to the last expansion. As things turn out, it did, and we're going back to a design reminiscent of epic gems in The Burning Crusade, which were mostly available to raiders. Everyone who stockpiled Pyrite now has to decide what to do with it.
Patch 4.3: Epic gems and more on the Deathwing encounter from Ghostcrawler
Plaintively waiting for epic gems? They're on the way in patch 4.3 -- and the mechanic to obtain them is a little different this time around, according to Lead Systems Designer Greg Street, aka Ghostcrawler. In an interview with Tankspot, Ghostcrawler clarified how those epic gems are going to work. "The way we're hoping to set it up, and we kind of have this working but things could change before we go live, is when you kill a boss on normal or heroic mode, each player gets a geode, and when they open the geode there's a chance they may find an epic gem inside. If not, it'll have blue gems or something like that," he said. Along with the scoop on epic gems, Ghostcrawler talked a bit about the upcoming legendary daggers and how they will work, as well as the Deathwing encounter. For those wondering if the Deathwing encounter will be challenging, it certainly appears so -- and Deathwing himself will change from how we've seen him so far in game. Rather than the plate-wearing, mammoth-chinned beast we're accustomed to seeing, Deathwing will be hurt and resemble something Ghostcrawler calls "Cthulhu Deathwing." The entry for the Deathwing raid will be in the Caverns of Time, along with all other 4.3 instances. For more on the Deathwing encounter, epic gems, tank threat and other 4.3 information, check out Tankspot's full interview. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Gold Capped: Epic gems must be in patch 4.3
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Now that we know that patch 4.3 will be the final Cataclysm content patch and contain the means with which to kill Deathwing, we know beyond reasonable doubt that epic gems will be released in that patch. It's unreasonably doubtful that Blizzard would introduce epic gems before 4.3, and aside from not introducing epic gems at all, that's the only option that would lead to my prediction being wrong. That said, there's tons of stuff we don't know about how this will work. Here's a big one: Where will epic gems come from? If we knew that, intelligent auctioneers would start stockpiling ages before the patch in preparation.
Gold Capped: Will epic gems be prospectable from Pyrite Ore?
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! This week's gold blog spotlight is the JMTC guide to profiting with engineering. So far in Cataclysm, the best gems we can cut for gear are blue quality. They give 40 core stats, depending on the cut, and are obtained from prospecting Cataclysm level ores. Blizzard will, of course, eventually release epic gems. The question is when and how.
Gold Capped: Making gold with alchemy
Want to get Gold Capped? This column shows you how. Join author Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, also of outdps.com, the Hunting Party podcast and the Call to Auction podcast. Alchemy is an awesome way to make money in WoW. As we've said before, some businesses are proactive, requiring you to invest time and money in order to make profits. Some are reactive, allowing you to use a cooldown to craft something that's in demand for smallish volume of sales at high profit. Alchemy is unique in the sense that it allows you to both! You can craft and sell potions, flasks and elixirs, and you can transmute an epic gem once a day and Titanium Bars without a cooldown since patch 3.3.
Time Is Money: Putting your emblems to work
Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply). After all, Time Is Money. If you're like me, you have a lot of excess emblems sitting around. Maybe you never got around to spending them before the next tier came out, or maybe the badge gear just never quite compared to your raid drops. Whatever the case, there is no sense letting them go to waste when you could put them to work and earn some gold! First, here is a quick breakdown of the current badge system, from most recent and difficult to acquire on down: Emblem of Frost: These can be acquired primarily by raiding Icecrown, completing the Raid Boss Per Week "weekly," or by completing one WotLK heroic dungeon per day using the Random tool. Emblem of Triumph: Most raids now drop these badges, as well as heroics. You will also be awarded these for doing any number of WotLK heroic dungeons past your first one per day using the Random tool. You will also get some by completing your first normal WotLK dungeon per day using the Random tool, as well as completing the Raid Boss Per Week "weekly." Also of note: If you get Heroic Oculus using the random tool, don't drop group! Not only has it been nerfed like crazy, but when you defeat the end boss, every player will receive a loot bag that will contain these badges and more, plus a chance at getting the super rare Reigns of the Blue Drake, which used to be available only by killing Malygos, who now drops his 25-man version (Azure) in both 10 and 25-man. Emblem of Conquest: Originally, these were acquired by running 10-man Coliseum, or 25-man Ulduar. Emblem of Valor: Originally these dropped from Ulduar 10-man and Naxxramas 25-man. Emblem of Heroism: These were among the first WotLK badges, and dropped from Naxxramas 10-man and heroic dungeons.
Yogg-Saron in blues
This story's from last week, but I love it anyway -- over at the Greedy Goblin, Gevlon's guild was getting a little tired of all of the achievement-checking and gear requirements for endgame raiding, and so they set out to do something that many experienced raiders might admit seems impossible: take down Yogg-Saron with nothing but blues on. That means no epics at all -- no epic gear, dropped or crafted, no epic enchants, no epic gems. They did use profession bonuses, but everyone should have access to those by now (all it takes is money, and all that takes is time). And of course, they did it: toppled Yoggy with the group you see on the page there. The combat log is also posted, and it's about what you'd expect: none of the damage numbers are crazy high, but the group works so well together and plays so evenly that they get it done. That's the message to be taken away here: gear is nice, but nothing will get you farther than a well-oiled group of solid players.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 updates and Engineering analysis
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Over the past few weeks, Insider Trader has been discussing and analyzing the changes to professions set to go live with patch 3.2: Patch 3.2 Profession Change Analysis takes an in-depth look at the early announcements. Patch 3.2 Q&A answers questions being asked in the WoW community. Recently, a rather large list of Patch 3.2 Engineering Changes was released. This week's column will be devoted to updating you on some of the newer changes, clarifying as many details as possible, and analyzing some of those juicy Engineering changes.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 Q&A
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Patch 3.2 has been shaping up to be a welcome event for professions in World of Warcraft. Soon, we will all have access to the next "tier" of gems and profession-unique buffs. This week, I will be devoting the column space to answering some reader questions. Pre-patch notes and Public Test Realm data can often create confusion, especially when we know that anything could change before we ever see it live. At the very end, I have included a bit of a spoiler, although I attempted to keep the details to a minimum and the wild speculation to a maximum. Are the new flasks for Alchemists only? - JoemamaThe new flask is called Flask of the North and can only be used by Alchemists with a skill of at least 400. This flask is clearly inferior to the Wrath raiding flasks because it is meant to be used in arenas. While it should give you a bit of a boost, Blizzard does not want everyone suddenly becoming Alchemists in order to compete. Of course, if you play the game primarily for arena, then you might consider switching if you haven't already. The most exciting changes for Alchemists will likely be the new epic gem transmutes and the fact that potions will stack to 20.
Officers' Quarters: Patch 3.2 -- An officer's perspective
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.The last time I did an officers' patch perspective, the numbers were reversed (2.3). In that column, I talked about mage tables, spell damage being added to healing gear, and the Horde finally getting Fear Ward. It was October of 2007. Yep, a lot has changed in the past two years of WoW!Patch 3.2 isn't yet up on the PTRs, but it's never too early to anticipate issues or plan for future success. Here are a few interesting changes to the game that might have an impact on guilds as we head into the late summer.1 Raid, 4 Lockout Timers: That's right, the Crusaders' Coliseum will have four different versions with four different lockouts. The kneejerk reaction to this bit of news on the official forums (is there any other kind?) was generally not one of celebration. The most common complaint was, "Great. Now I have to farm the same five bosses four times a week." Many players would balk at the thought of "have to" in this context. After all, just because you can, doesn't mean it's mandatory. But in hardcore guilds, the drive to be competitive (and keep your raid slot) can lead you down some strange roads. In some guilds, it is expected that you attend every scheduled raid you can. Some players are getting burned out just at the idea of running the same content four times in a single week.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 profession change analysis
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Over the past few days, some upcoming professions changes for Patch 3.2 have been announced, and although they are not as detailed as they could be, several of the changes will have quite an impact. First and foremost, every profession-specific buff is being upgraded. This includes an Enchanter's ability to enhance their own rings, a Leatherworker's bracer enchants, and more. For a complete list of the current profession bonuses, check out Insider Trader's guide to Profession-Specific Buffs, parts one through three.These buffs also answer some of the concerns surrounding the upcoming Jewelcrafting nerf that epic gems might be introduced without a buff to the Dragon's Eyes, which, in combination with the fact that these gems will no longer be prismatic, would effectively squash the Jewelcrafting bonus.Jewelcrafters will also do well to note that they will be able to acquire epic gems by prospecting Titanium. Combined with a Blacksmith's two extra prismatic sockets, this powerful duo is one of the most popular profession combinations.In addition, Engineers will be seeing some welcome changes to their profession that may make it more appealing. Unfortunately, some of the details have not been made public, so the competitiveness of their self buffs, for example, remains to be seen.
Epic gems and profession changes in Patch 3.2
With all the things I'm waiting to hear about in patch 3.2, completely unforeseen news takes me by surprise. Bornakk just revealed that epic gems are coming in that patch, as well as some changes to other professions. Jewelcrafters will be able to buy epic gem cut patterns with their Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Tokens. Raw epic gems will be available from prospecting Titanium Ore and alchemy transmutations, and will also be buyable with both honor and Emblems of Heroism. Given that the availability of epic gems raises the value of the Blacksmithing perk (extra sockets), other professions are having their perks buffed. Details after the cut.
Insider Trader: Jewelcrafting nerf incoming
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Bornakk just announced on the forums that Jewelcrafters are about to see a new nerf, and as a result, people are already beginning to weigh the benefits of switching to a different profession for min-maxing, or working out how they are going to re-itemize their gear. Bornakk:In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon's Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation. This probably won't be enough to entice players to drop the profession, but it is a bit of a blow. Stratfu points out that because Mage T8 is equipped primarily with yellow and blue sockets, the only way to actually meet socket bonus requirements will be to use sub-par gems. The JC-only Runed Dragon's Eye offers +32 spell power, and currently fits into any socket, conforming to meet the necessary color requirements. This is compared to the +19 spell power that the rest of us folks get from Runed Scarlet Rubies. While Jewelcrafters will still be able to use these gems, they won't be able to stick them just anywhere.
The Queue: Uber Epic DPS
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Let's jump right into The Queue today. Lots of questions answered after the break.Valdorin asked... "What DPS is expected before you start heroics, 10-mans, 25-mans?"
Insider Trader: Faction recipes for jewelcrafters, part two
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.For the past several weeks, Insider Trader has been examining the recipes that craftsmen can acquire from factions by earning reputation with them.So far, we've covered: Designs for jewelcrafters, part one. Plans for blacksmiths. Recipes for alchemists. Patterns for leatherworkers. Patterns for tailors. Last week, we covered several factions that offer jewelcrafting recipes, but because of the sheer number available, are continuing with the last five factions this week. The first five factions listed here can be viewed by checking out last week's edition of Insider Trader, while the last five factions, in bold text, will be covered today. Violet Eye, honored. (Karazhan) Thrallmar or Honor Hold, revered. Lower City, revered. Aldor or Scryers, revered. Sha'tar, revered. Keepers of Time, revered. Scale of the Sands, revered. (Mount Hyjal) Cenarion Expedition, exalted. Consortium, exalted. Shattered Sun Offensive, exalted.
Patch 2.4.3 is going live today
It's official now: Patch 2.4.3 is indeed going live. You can download it now by logging into the game, and when the servers go up again, you can go buy mounts for all your level 30 alts. Here's some of the other highlights of the patch: Epic gems can be purchased for Arena points -- and yes, the Arena versions are not unique-equipped! You can now undertake a quest to beat up an old man and steal his hat. Haris Pilton is showing off her new line of 22-slot designer handbags, now for sale in Shattrath's Lower City. A new holiday boss and holiday boss loot appeared on the test server and will hopefully appear in time on live. Coren Direbrew is now a 5-man boss for the Brewfest, and new Headless Horseman loot should appear this Hallow's End. There was a bit of a nerf for the Rogue talent Cheat Death WWI attendees can now use their pet code to grab their own pet archangel! The new in-game loot from the Hunt for Illidan TCG expansion is now live. There were many profession changes as well, including new tailoring patterns. You can also check out the full official patch notes (via MMO-Champion) after the break.
