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We don't need daily quests anymore
I think I've firmly established that I really love doing quests, and that I'm fine with daily quests as a whole. Sure, some of them may have had their moments of extreme frustration, but by and large the daily quest system in Mists of Pandaria is pretty entertaining. But while it's entertaining to me, and it's fine with some players, there are others who cannot stand the system. They hate daily quests. The sight of a blue exclamation point is a source of constant irritation. And it doesn't really matter how you wrap up that package, it's still going to be annoying content that players feel they must complete in order to be competitive. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to matter what is tied to the system, or if it offers rewards of value, like Lesser Charms or valor points. Adding the value to the daily quest system doesn't make completing the quests any more compelling, it just makes them another chore that must be completed. Which is why daily quests need to go away.
Moog shows off one-of-a-kind Aluminum Voyager and 10th Anniversary Minimoog Voyager at NAMM (eyes-on)
A couple of months back, Moog announced its limited edition 24-karat gold clad Minimoog Voyager to celebrate the 10th anniversary of said analog synth. But here at NAMM 2013, the outfit is showing of the latest bit of unannounced handiwork from its in-house machine shop. Feast your eyes on the Aluminum Voyager: a one-of-a-kind unit that is housed in the rugged silver material and features all blue panel lighting to complete the look -- right down to the rivets. We also took a bit of time to lay our peepers on that golden model, too. Our snaps don't really do it justice, but the combination of the shiny finish with translucent control knobs and accents of Japanese Awabi pearl make for one of the most dapper instruments we've seen. But don't take our word for it, dive in to the gallery below to take a closer look at the pair.
What you should plant on your Tiller's farm
This hit my inbox the other day: What's the most profitable thing to plant in a farm? I'd assume in most cases people plant for their profession or whatever raw material sells for the most. I, however, am a chronic alt-oholic and have every profession maxed and available to me. I don't raid and can't stand dailies, so I only have patterns available that are vendor trained, bought with spirits of harmony, or learned off a cooldown. So what's the start and end of the equation? -Matt So what is the most profitable thing to plant on your farm? Matt assumes correctly that the majority of people simply plant what they can use to avoid having to buy off the Auction House. There is plenty of opportunity to improve this, though! Generally, the least profitable thing to farm is vegetables. This is only true because everyone else already farms them, and they're all you can farm until you get farther into the Tillers reputation grind. The reputation seeds for leather, ore, cloth, or enchanting mats are generally lower yield than simply getting Harmonies and trading those for what you need, and that's generally less than you'd get by planting Enigma Seeds, selling everything you get, and using that gold to buy leather, ore, cloth, or enchanting mats. In short, the most profitable thing to plant is usually Songbell Seeds or Enigma Seeds. Songbell Seeds Songbell Seeds provide you with Motes of Harmony, which provide Spirits of Harmony. If you have a profession that requires these to make items valuable to other players or allows you to use them to skip daily cooldowns, then you can figure out exactly how much one of them is worth and do the math.
Best places to farm meta cuts and Harmonies
Mists of Pandaria's economy has been characterized by having some of the recipes that make the most valuable items gated behind things that a main character would get: reputation, random world drops, and BoP Spirits of Harmony. Profession alts that you haven't leveled but have a maxed out profession are still very useful, but they won't be able to compete with people who happen to have that profession on a character they play. Specifically, jewelcrafters won't get meta gem cuts, enchanters won't get the best bracer and weapon enchants, and other crafters won't get Harmonies that they can use to craft gear. If you have an alt that you don't have time to level and properly play, but still want to get some of these gated recipes, what can you do?
Gold Capped: Train Nomi for free Ironpaw Tokens
"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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! After writing my Ironpaw Shuffle guide, JessicaHealy posted a very insightful tip in the comments, which I had actually missed from all the way back in November on the Consortium professions forum: the Cooking School Bell is an investment that's well worth the price of 50 Ironpaw Tokens. If you have completed To Be a Master and finished leveling your cooking, you can buy the bell which will let you summon Nomi, your very own trainee! Nomi has his own reputation faction that you need to do daily quests to complete, and once that's done, he'll provide you with a one time gift of 5 of your choice of token-bought food, and then daily Tokens of Appreciation, which rewards a free Ironpaw Token. Luphian, in the Wowhead comments, calculated the time it takes to get exalted: Non-human, and no guild perk: 1000 reputation a day: 42 days, but four times through these quests, we will get two daily quests, because of the new gained friendship level. This 4000 reputation removes four days, so it will take 38 days to get exalted. Human OR Guild-Perk (10% extra reputation): 1100 reputation a day: 39 days - but four times through these quests, we will get two daily quests, because of the new gained friendship level. This 4400 reputation removes four days, so it will take 35 days to get exalted. Human AND Guild Perk (20% extra reputation): 1200 reputation a day: 35 days - but four times through these quests, we will get two daily quests, because of the new gained friendship level. This 4800 reputation removes four days, so it will take 31 days to get exalted. Once this is done, in 50 days you will have the 50 tokens you spent to get the bell. If you're using the tokens to buy Soy Sauce, Rice Flour, or Black Pepper, it'll only take 45 days if you consider the reward you get for getting exalted. Maximize your profits with advice from Gold Capped. Want to know the very best ways to earn 10,000 gold? Top gold making strategies for auctioneers? How about how to reach 1 million gold -- or how one player got there and then gave it all away? Fox and Basil are taking your questions at fox@wowinsider.com and basil@wowinsider.com.
Gold Capped: Inscription gold-making guide
"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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Have a scribe? Need gold? Look no farther. Inscription is one of the best gold-making professions in the game. You can make glyphs, Darkmoon cards, and all kinds of other odds and ends. Each of these markets has a characteristic time investment requirement and potential profit. Each realm is going to be different, but in general: Darkmoon cards: Scalable time investment, massive profits Glyphs: Massive time investment, low profit Odds and ends: Minimal time investment, medium profit Darkmoon cards start off simply enough: if you do your daily research, you can make a card a day. Different cards have different values, but on average, you'll make back way more than the value of the inks. You can trade cards, and the more cards you make, the better efficiency you'll have making decks. Assuming you can make a full deck for every 12 cards you produce (which is the ratio you see if you trade really well and/or produce a lot of cards), it'll cost you 120 stacks of any herb but Fool's Cap, or 75 stacks of Fool's Cap. At 40g per stack of, for example, Green Tea Leaf, that's 4800g per deck. Some decks can sell for over 20,000g.
Gold Capped: How to make gold as an enchanter
"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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Enchanting can be a very good way to make gold. Every time someone gets an upgrade, the first thing they do is see whether there's an enchant they could put on it, and if so, either have someone enchant it in a trade window, or buy a scroll from the AH. The first thing you'll need to know if you're going to get into the scroll market is that it's not a good idea to use the default interface. You will face challenges that it is simply not equipped to handle. Chiefly: Knowing whether a scroll is profitable Knowing whether you already have scrolls made and for sale
Gold Capped: Cheap Ironpaw Tokens
"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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Feasts are expensive, but are still cheaper than everyone bringing their own food. The reason they're expensive is that they all require an ingredient that can only be bought with an Ironpaw Token, the 100 Year Soy Sauce. Ironpaw Tokens are a non-tradable currency obtained by doing quests (including dailies, or a weekly if you're a scribe), and their short supply can be a real limiting factor on leveling cooking. Leveling the "ways" of cooking requires a lot of tokens, and once they're leveled, using them requires a lot more. If you rely on dailies for these, you'll never have enough. A better way Luckily for us, you don't have to rely on dailies! The first thing I noticed when I was first exploring Halfhill was that Nam Ironpaw, the token vendor, had a repeatable quest called Replenishing the Pantry that asked for a Bundle of Groceries. Once I worked my way past the Preserving Freshness quest, he did, at least. Anyways, essentially, you can buy an empty container from Merchant Cheng (next to the seed vendor) which can be right clicked on to consume some quantity of cooking materials to make a Bundle of Groceries. This can be turned into an Ironpaw Token.
Sony coats Xperia P in 24-carat gold, keeps up tradition of so-so phones in luxury shells
Outside of custom projects, the cardinal rule for draping phones in exotic materials is that they must never, ever be truly high end devices: at best, they should involve mid-tier hardware that could be eclipsed by a garden-variety smartphone at a fraction of the price. Sony's maintaining that all too time-honored tradition by producing a gold-coated, 24-carat version of... the Xperia P. Yes, rather than spruce up a flagship like the James Bond-approved Xperia T, Sony has instead given the luxury treatment to a smartphone with a strictly middling 4-inch display and dual-core 1GHz processor. In fairness, the company sees this as an experiment rather than a Vertu-like business model, with the intent strictly to emphasize the unibody design. A maximum 15 have been built as a result -- and rather than count on impulse purchases from oligarchs, Sony hints that it's offering at least some of its gold Xperia P stock to followers on Facebook. As long as there's no pretenses of living the high life with what's really a very ordinary phone underneath, we're satisfied.
The Summoner's Guidebook: League of Legends' revamped 3v3 mode
I really liked playing on the Twisted Treeline prior to the recent revamp. It felt like Summoner's Rift lite: a way to practice the key SR skills in a gametype that didn't require quite as much map awareness. Now, League of Legends' 3v3 mode has taken on a different face, and it doesn't feel much like SR -- or any other map, for that matter. I didn't want to comment right away on the new direction for TT. The game mode is new, and the metagame is in its infant stages. People are trying new strategies and builds, and while initially strong tactics have already been discovered, there's no telling whether those tactics will last into the start of Season 3. Any competitive game has points in time when different things are overpowered, and as people discover new counters, the true metagame will start to surface. This week in the Summoner's Guidebook, we'll look at my first experiences in TT and what I think of the new mode. It's starkly different from the old version, and the strategies are not obvious. Is it as broken as the detractors say, or is the meta still coming together?
Does gold-making prowess merit achievements?
The recent discussion surrounding Blizzard's chosen method of proliferating Brawler's Guild invitations via the Black Market Auction House, as well as the controversy surrounding the recently removed realm first Brawler's Guild achievement has got me thinking. Some commenters on the various pieces we produced on this topic here at WoW Insider asked if it should not be the case that gold making aficionados have something to show for their skills. It seemed to me, and I doubt I was wholly alone in this opinion, that an achievement such as the now-defunct realm first win five brawls in a row was the wrong choice for an achievement linked with gold. A PvE combat achievement associated with gold only because of the necessity to buy entry into the guild was just not closely linked enough to gold-making to be valid. But gold-makers already have shiny things to show off in return for their skills! They have the Grand Expedition Yak, and perhaps the new Jewelcrafting mounts, though some of them appear to be dropping down in price.
Sony offers Limited 24K Gold Edition Xperia P as competition swag
Gold-caked gadgets are usually left to luxury manufacturers and modders, but now Sony is offering a slice of the high life with its "Limited 24K Gold Edition" Xperia P. The indulgent handset was spotted on the Facebook page of Sony Sweden, where one is being offered as a competition prize (sorry folks, it's only local to Nordic countries). We have no idea whether this is a solitary handset, or if Sony plans to release a limited run for general consumers. All we do know is one of these guys will definitely silence that friend who insists on waving around their James Bond-edition Xperia at every opportunity.
Why Blizzard isn't opening a gold shop
Last year, Blizzard started an experiment with the Guardian Cub, a pet store purchase that could be bought and sold in game with gold as well, since it was Bind on Equip. At the time, a lot of WoW players (including us) saw this as an experimental foray into Blizzard finding ways to allow people to get extra gold using real life money without directly selling gold. In part, that was because Blizzard came right out and admitted that's what it was. Since that time, we've seen no new Blizzard Store purchases that were BoE in this fashion. Since then, we've heard a lot of complaints about botters who use hacked accounts to not only steal all the gold said account possesses, but also then use it as a farming bot for as long as they can keep hold of it. Some players are even suggesting that Blizzard should simply sell gold itself, cutting out the middleman and putting gold sellers out of business. Why isn't this a good idea?
Claim your place on the WoW Rich List
Last year, Xsinthis of Shadowmoon (US-A) carried out a survey of WoW wealth. The survey revealed some interesting results, quoting the previous write-up from Michael Gray: The top 1% wealthiest players control a mere 24.25% of the game's gold. Half the people who answered the survey had at least 35,000 gold. However, the bottom 75% of players controlled a mere 14% of the game's gold. This describes a huge disparity between the top gold earners and the bottom. This is perhaps less than surprising, given the chasm between the serious Auction House players and the more casual farmers, and those who sometimes need to lean on their guild for repairs! But it's really fascinating to get some hard numbers, instead of just idle speculation. If you're looking to increase your WoW wealth, Gold Capped is a great place to start. This year, Xsinthis is looking into how the average player's wealth has changed in the year since and with the recent expansion, as well as botting, gold buying and selling, and general exploits to help get a figure on these activities in game and how they relate to wealth levels. The survey is completely anonymous, and questions on the latter are 100% optional. If you're interested in helping Xsinthis out by answering 5 short questions, head to the survey. It only takes a moment. And if you're interested in finding out more, check out Xsinthis' blog.
The economics of perfect gem cuts
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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! This expansion is the first one where "perfect" cuts (which are about a 10% proc rate when you're cutting a green quality gem) are blue quality, and even though they have different names, they have identical stats as blue quality gems. People still don't generally know this, and will sometimes skip over the perfect cuts when they're gemming new gear, but over time it will become more commonly known that there's no difference between socketing, for example, a Perfect Delicate Pandarian Garnet or a Delicate Primordial Ruby. If you're an enchanter, you may have noticed that the price for the common materials has gone way down, and if you're a jewelcrafter, you're probably wondering what to do with all the green quality gems you get from prospecting, as well as potentially looking wistfully at the profit margins on some of the really desirable research blue cuts.
PSA: Watch, interact with tonight's presidential debate on Xbox Live
The second presidential debate will be streamed on Xbox Live tonight for Gold members, starting at 9 p.m. ET. Just like the previous presidential and vice presidential debates, this one will be interactive, posing questions to viewers on policy and performance.This presidential debate is in a town hall format, meaning members of the audience will have the opportunity to ask President Barack Obama and republican Mitt Romney questions directly. It will (attempt to) focus on domestic and foreign policy.The vice presidential debate saw more than 30,000 responses to each question, with more than 800,000 individual responses total. Tonight's debate is accessible through the Xbox Live dashboard.
The VP debate on Xbox Live: Who won the battle for our hearts
The vice presidential debate, featuring democrat and current VP Joe Biden and republican Paul Ryan, hit US airwaves on October 11, streaming online, airing on television and playing through Xbox Live for Gold subscribers. More than 800,000 individuals answered the polling questions posed by the Xbox Live team, with more than 30,000 responses to each one. Questions considered subjects such as religion's role in government, who is better prepared to be vice president, how truthful Biden and Paul appeared, and of course, who won the debate.For religion, 70.1 percent of Xbox Live Gold respondents do not consider a candidate's religion when voting, Major Nelson reports. Biden is viewed as better prepared to step in as VP, grabbing the nod from 53.7 percent of undecided voters, compared with Ryan's 21 percent. Swing voters also found Biden more truthful, with 72.2 percent of the vote. Biden "won" the debate, according to undecided Gold members, with 44.1 percent, compared with Ryan's 22.9 percent.Xbox Live has two new Election 2012 partnerships in the works, with BBC and Comedy Central, bringing clips from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, because those comedy shows are where we all get our news from anyway. The next Xbox Live Election 2012 event is the presidential town hall debate on Tuesday, October 16.Now let's all cool off with a little songified VP debate.
Ink traders finally accepting new inks
If you're looking to get a Darkmoon Deck made before the end of the faire, you might be interested to know that despite a false start earlier this week, the Ink Traders and inscription vendors now accept trades of 10 Ink of Dreams for a Starlight Ink. Ink Vendors finally updated. Very sorry for the delay. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) October 12, 2012 The Darkmoon Faire is only around once a month, and the one on now is ending this Sunday, October 14th. Unless the Faire is going on, you can't trade, for example, a Crane Deck in for a Relic of Chi Ji. This expansion, unlike in others, Darkmoon Cards require an item that can only be made once a day by scribes, the Scroll of Wisdom. Scribes who have been hanging onto their Scrolls should probably look into making them into cards now that the inks can be gotten cheaply, since by the time the next Faire rolls around, there will be 3 more weeks worth of daily cooldowns waiting to be turned into cards. These trinkets range from pretty good to among the best in slot for most classes, so almost everyone can use one, and many people really want one. Additionally, since the Starlight Inks have been so expensive lately, the epic quality shoulder enchants have been quite expensive. Now that you can trade the much less expensive Ink of Dreams in for them, you should see the prices lower on the Greater Ox Horn Inscription, the Greater Crane Wing Inscription, the Greater Tiger Claw Inscription, and the Greater Tiger Fang Inscription. Maximize your profits with advice from Gold Capped. Want to know the very best ways to earn 10,000 gold? Top gold making strategies for auctioneers? How about how to reach 1 million gold -- or how one player got there and then gave it all away? Fox and Basil are taking your questions at fox@wowinsider.com and basil@wowinsider.com.
Gold Capped: Shuffling Ore in Mists of Pandaria
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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! What's my favorite part of the expansion so far? The way that Blizzard has reworked the Jewelcrafting, Enchanting, and Alchemy professions to more efficiently support the "shuffle". That's a cute little name we auctioneers give to a fairly complicated business that takes ore and turns it into cut gems and enchanting scrolls. In every expansion where this has been possible, there's been a ton of waste. It's great to be able to make gold by combining profession synergy, but vendoring stacks of, for example, green quality gems feels like a waste. How to do the MoP shuffle While the business seems complicated to outsiders, it's actually a lot simpler than it looks. Let's break it down:
Gold Capped: Six tips to make gold in the first month of MoP
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. Check out Basil's re-reboot of Call To Auction, and email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! Every new expansion brings with it two things: more ways to make gold, and more ways to spend it. Making gold can be a very rewarding and engaging way to play the game on its own, but it's not for everyone. Here are a few tips that can help anyone make gold in the first few weeks of an expansion. Pay later A huge part of how much gold you have is actually how much you spend. Most people neglect this part of the equation, allowing their subconscious to choose when to splurge. A very simple way to have more money to spend on even more cool stuff is to avoid buying something until you absolutely need it. For example, if you decide to powerlevel that engineer or leatherworker, you have a choice: either pay now, or choose to wait a few weeks and level your profession when the mats go down in price. The only difference is the order you do things in, but waiting will save you thousands of gold in materials.
