October 2009 | Too Greedy - WoW and Gold, The Perfect Combination

2006. Pre-TBC. "The days when having epics meant something". Was it better than today?

I found this while browsing the web: WoW @ 60. It's a (now outdated) guide that teached 'new' 60's what to do when they got to max level. They could do instances like Stratholme, Scholomance, Blackrock Spire/Depths (which were raids at that time, by the way); they could do some nice quest chains...everything required a solid group to beat. And hell, it would be hard to get a 40 people PuG back in those days. Was it enough?

PvP "wasn't balanced"; has it ever been? Rogues only needed one skill to kill people. Shamans only needed Frost Shock to crit and they were successful. Basically, it wasn't much different from nowadays, except for the whole plethora of skills you have to use now. The only totally new thing that was implemented in PvP was Arenas, but that's a whole new story.

My point is: was it a lot different? Therefore, was it better or worse back then?

It was definitely worse from a 'casual' point of view. Very few had epics back then, and whoever did was admired by others, who only managed to get blues from 'lower quality' raids. Doing MC/BWL/OL meant you were pro. You were recognised by your T2 helm. Having a Thunderfury was amazing, and it actually required effort rather than luck to obtain.

From a hardcore player point of view, it was probably better, because people complimented their gear and how pro they were. I'm sure they loved that, everyone does. However, they can't say it was better because content was harder to beat. I'm willing to say that I find some encounters from WotLK (Hard Modes) even harder than MC or BWL.

I'm completely sure there will never be a conclusion about the previously stated questions. It's something that people will always be divided about, but if we think about it, we have a much bigger variety of stuff to do now, than we did in 2006. We got lots of intances, heroic instances, barber shops, arenas, a lot of dailies, achievements...I could go on all day. And last, but not least, 2 new professions: Jewelcrafting (introduced in TBC) and Inscription (introduced in Wrath). And that's why I prefer WotLK against Vanilla. It wasn't as easy to make money as it is now, not even close. A lot more money circulates; people have new things to buy (which they didn't back in pre-TBC), specially 'must-have' items like gems and glyphs. That's why those 2 professions are the best features ever. I make insane amounts of money with them. With that money, I make sure that I am properly prepared for my raids (or any activity I'm part of), and I can certainly enjoy the game more than I did 3 years ago, and still not be a hardcore player.

Not much happens on Wednesdays because usually the servers are still waking up from their long night asleep. Patch days are very active, but only on MMO-Champion and such, because servers are usually unplayable.

From now on, Wednesdays will be the day when I relax and when I post funny stuff I'm part of, or general videos/tunes/etc. that I find on the internet.

This week, here's something I've found on Youtube. A video from wowcrendor, which refers to Hallow's End and how (not very) interesting it is:

By the way, there is a Blog Schedule now so you can have an idea of what happens on which days. Link already added on the top bar.

Some of you may not be altoholics, but I believe a lot of people are. I've read this topic in the Official Forums, and started getting curious about my readers' toons. I'll talk about myself first.

I've got 17 toons (even though I don't play on all of them regularly) among 4 servers. 8 on Thunderhorn, 5 on Al'Akir, 2 on Grim Batol, and 2 more on Trollbane These last 4 are the ones I have just to keep in touch with friends on other servers; I don't actually play there often and the toons aren't very high level either.

On Thunderhorn, I've got a level 70 Mage, a level 80 Warrior, a level 80 Shaman, a level 14 Warlock and a few low levels for banking purposes. On Al'Akir, I've got a level 70 Hunter, a level 41 Rogue, a level 25 Druid, a few low levels too. The other 4 toons on Grim Batol and Trollbane are either level 1's or level 55 Death Knights.

I've heard a few people saying that being an Altoholic isn't good because you can't focus on your main and therefore you'll never be able to make it a good as possible. But is it? If you have the time for it, it's completely fine if you want to try every single class in the game. Having many alts doesn't necessarily mean you will neglect your main (I refer to "main" as the toon you do the most important stuff with, like raiding, achievements, etc.). In fact, it lets you free your mind so you can perform better when you're on your main. It frees you from the monotony of always using the same skills, the same techniques...

So, please comment: do you rather stick to 1-2 toons and tune them to the max, or do you have a lot of alts which you keep swapping around? How many toons do play in total? Let us know :)

If you're new to blogging and wish to get known, feel free to send me a guest post. You will get a link to your blog, and you'll get more readers. Feel free to share your thoughts on game features (check label "Thoughts"), share your experiments in the Auction House, anything that relates with what Too Greedy has been so far. To do this, just check the Contact tab at the top, e-mail me your desired guest post to the e-mail account you can find there, and it will be published a few days later (less than a week!). This is your opportunity for some link love!

By the way, if you haven't noticed yet, I have added a new subscription option. You can now subscribe by e-mail, and get the latest updates right in your inbox. Just type your e-mail address on the form to the right, press "Subscribe", and it's done.

We follow and "mymic" the ones who we think we have something in common with. Since childhood, we always have someone who we take as a role model. A family member, a friend...someone whose life seems perfect, hassle free. Someone who doesn't by any chance connect to a "bad" adjective, like "greedy" (did you see what I did there?) or "arrogant". It's usually someone who we connect to knowledge and we would just love if that person would give us advice all day, teaching us how to, well, become someone like him/her. But no one is perfect. Everyone, even those who look flawless, fails in some aspect of life. And when we realise that our "mentality master" - the one who we want to be like - is not perfect, it doesn't feel good. What do we do?

Boubouille from MMO-Champion is an example on how most people behave on these "take someone as a role model" situations. He shared his knowledge on several aspects of money making in WoW. I've talked about what I think of his reasons already, but let's deeply analyze the situation (this will be kind of a followup from my previous post about this). He "taught" people on how to make money using Enchanting, Inscription, and Jewelcrafting. His website is incredibly big, reader wise. Bigger than we can imagine. That would probably mean these ways of making gold would become obsolete (because everyone would do it), but they didn't. A large portion of the readers who would like to make tons of gold is filtered by one single fact: all the work these methods require in order to work properly and award large amounts of gold, which is what everyone wants. Those who used Boub's techniques along with a functioning brain might have found out beforehand it wouldn't work so well on their server. But! Just like Markco mentioned on his post a few days ago, some people kept buying Thorium, no matter the price, thinking they were making a wise decision. It was their role model, Boub, the one who knows a lot about economy he even made a few guides, who told them it worked, so it must always work, no matter what, right? I'm sure a lot of people did have this way of thinking, and that is my point. They followed someone they thought that had superior knowledge on something, and if he said it worked, it's because it works everywhere, anytime. Wrong way of thinking, but pretty obvious.

Bring more MMO-C guides! They don't actually teach people how to think. Those "guides" show people how Boub can make gold himself, not how they can make gold themselves. Read the guides deeply you'll find most people will find emptiness in it, because they won't even care reading it properly. They'll just copy their master's decisions. He, the wise one, will guide them to success. Or at least they think he will. Will they profit? Perhaps, and maybe it's a good profit for them, but if they search around the internet for more knowledge instead of just getting spoonfed by their gold making master for a short time, they probably wouldn't regret it. But hey, I'm not against making gold with the usual "casual" methods. I actually prospect Saronite now and then and hate to find only overpriced stacks in the AH.

Recently, a new donation option was opened at the JMTC Forums. With it, some stuff changed, some say for worse, some say it's for the greater good. Who is right?

As we all know, a website doesn't run itself, and out of empty pockets. It requires investment, not just time investment; JMTC required money investment too, and if we all like to read stuff there for free, we should be aware that someone was in the background making it possible. That was Markco. His blog reader numbers are big, and the Forums are growing each day. In order to keep the website alive, money is needed. Of course that it won't become mandatory to donate. Not all of us are able to donate, not all of us are willing to donate. But some people are starting to say they're upset by seeing some functionalities being used only by Premium members. They feel like it's their right to use everything. Now tell me, how many places like JMTC can you find in the whole Web? Where else can you find the most brilliant auctioneering minds, who constantly share their thoughts and bathe you in knowledge?

Every single WoW related website you know gets donations to stay alive. When you go to any big WoW website, someone is donating so you're able to know how the latest Armor Tiers look like, and how the latest PTR is working for testers. Someone is donating so you're able to learn the tactics for the latest bosses. Someone is donating so you're able to get the latest analysis on your class. Why would it be different for JMTC? If it gets to a point where many thousands of members pass by during the day, someone must be willing to keep it alive, other than Markco. It's changed from a 1 person project, to something made by an entire community. You can't donate? No one said you must, but if you can't, contribute by being a good member. Help others, be part of the Forums positively, and help the Admins run the place. It's not easy to run such a big house.

Why so much drama? It's part of the evolution process of a website. If it gets big, you can't expect the costs to be covered by just one person. Think for a moment on everything Markco has done to provide you the best gold making website around. And be thankful for it.

As a blogger, the writer-reader interaction means a lot. After all, the readers are the ones who motivate the writer to actually keep writing, and sharing his ideas. Through comments, people can share their thoughts on a subject, they can let the writer know his ideas are "chewed" on...and at the end of the day, that's all that matters to make a blog something special. But you see, it's proven that 90% of the blog/news website readers are considered lurkers, which means that they do read the content, but do not interact with the writer in any way. The objective of this post is making you believe that being part of the subscribers list (and perhaps being an interactive being towards your favourite bloggers) is something good. Something you should do. Let me show you some of the reasons.

The biggest joy of a blog writer is knowing that (many) people read, and enjoy, his blog's content. If you subscribe to his/her blog, you're making him/her know you appreciate what he writes, and you have an interest in reading more. By subscribing you make sure you don't miss a thing, and that's the spirit us bloggers appreciate.

Being a subscriber does not only make you keep in touch with the writer, but it also motivates the writer to actually write better, and more often. If one sees his subscriber pool rising a lot, he will surely be more motivated to keep bringing fresh content very often. This is unlikely if no one communicates at all, and many blogs end because of this lack of feedback.

Put yourself in the blogger's place. Or just imagine you're providing some sort of interesting information for a quite large pool of people. Wouldn't you be happier with yourself if you knew people enjoyed listening to what you think?

If you didn't subscribe to your favourite blogs yet, try it. It's very useful for you, and by doing it, you make sure the blogs you read stay alive and fresh.

Have you subscribed to Too Greedy yet? If you haven't, click on picture to do so:

My gear is significantly better since my last update. I finally got a new mace, a new ring, and a new totem.

My performances have been rising in quality also. A few days ago, I've even reached 5,000 HPS on ToC 25 Heroic (a very good achievement for me). With all these upgrades, I'm also able to reach 3,000 Spell Power when I'm fully buffed and flasked. Things are working good for me, and I'm starting to enjoy playing again, now that I've got more time.

My guild's progress has improved also. We've finally killed Yogg-Saron on 25 man, and we're clearing every Normal Mode currently available in the game every Wednesday and Thursday, which allows us to go for Hard Modes on Mondays (our 3rd raid day).

That's it for the raiding updates. Now, onto even more shiny things: gold coins. The glyph market on the Horde is definitely worth it, just like on the Alliance. The glyphs have usually higher prices than they did on the Alliance, and they actually sell very often. The competition isn't very strong also, so I'm lucky once again!

Here's a partial example of a few hours after my posting session:

The total income was 543g.

(Oh, the accent!)

Yes, some glyphs sell for over 30-40g, and those are not even fallback prices! I'm digging deeper and deeper onto the glyph market every day, and my total glyph posting should reach 500 soon like they did on the Alliance. I still haven't got rid of the laziness and haven't really tried to even go mill "a few" herbs now that I'm over 50k gold. I've lost some of my momentum, but my regular income from glyphs is usually around 500g per posting session (only 200ish glyphs), which covers my raiding costs easily. Maybe I'll get going for 100k if I get the motivation for it soon. Until then, sorry, but don't expect those nice profits over 2k.

That is all for now! Things are definitely looking good.

2G is back, and I'm resuming what I started in August. Slight changes occured, nothing too big. They're due to the fact that sometimes I can't deliver the daily posts I commited to post, so it's better to have only a few posts a week (other than every day), than not having time to post any at all

I'm not comitting to daily posts anymore (if I did, there would be a risk of having to stop again sometime in the future, which isn't good). Instead, I will post in the same quantity as I brainstorm stuff. This may mean daily posts if I have lots of different ideas to share, or it may mean there will be only a few posts per week. It all depends. However, the post time will still be 6:00 AM GMT+0.

Since the quantity will lower, the actual content on the posts might get richer. By this, I mean I will probably explore some topics better than I did in the past. More detail, basically.

The rest of 2G will probably be the same, the blog theme and content is pretty much what I intended to do in the first place. Thank you to those who stayed with me while I was away, and hope you keep enjoying 2G!

Since I've been lacking the availability to play and to write lately, posts on Too Greedy are being suspended for an undetermined period of time. This should be a few days, or maybe a week or two, depending on several stuff. Bear in mind that it's not a "farewell", it's a "see you soon". I might aswell come back with a refreshed mind on the topics I usually write about, so if you liked it so far, stay subscribed. It may not be a long wait. I understand many people enjoy the content I provide here, and 150+ subscribers (and growing each day) definitely shows it, but it's not really because I don't want to, it's because I cannot do it at moment; real life is slowing me down a lot.

Trust me, blogging is something I really enjoy, and the readers are the ones I care the most about, because you're the ones who keep this alive by giving feedback and sharing your stories too.

Thank you all for reading 2G so far. I'll be back in touch soon, promise!

Stay subscribed!

The mace from Razorscale didn't drop again! And I wasn't the 1st on healing, so it wasn't one of my best nights! Erm, just kidding, healing wise it was good, but still...damn you Razorfail!

Well, Shamans still on top, what can I say?

We got everything until Freya down, everything except Thorim was one-shotted, can't complain about anything. Everyone played their A-Game.

Now, to other stuff...I have been having less and less time to play lately (only played a few hours - if that much! - last week), and I can hardly attend raids now because of RL. Hopefully the work will lower soon, so I can resume my WoWing full throttle. However, it hasn't been just about more work. I'm also getting kind of bored from the current content. Hard Modes don't feel special. It's just the same bosses with harder features, which makes it boring for me. I find myself logging in to get gold from my mule's mailbox, then log Verde, play around a little bit, do the JC daily, and sometimes raid. When there's no raid, I just log in, run around and log out (I'm sure all of you have felt like this before). Maybe I need a break until 3.3, or maybe it's just a temporary feeling because I got my hands on other games which are being released now. I'm seriously thinking about suspending my WoW play time, and perhaps this means Too Greedy may slow down, or even be "suspended".

Yes, it's a nice acronym for Too Greedy (2G). ^^

This week, I implemented the MVP section on Too Greedy, and you're the ones who vote for Too Greedy's Most Valuable Post(s). Very few voted already, and if you want to make me know what you think about "old" posts, now's the time. It's on the sidebar. Only a few days left until the poll closes! It won't be there forever.

Other business...
I've been Horde for 2 weeks now, and it's definitely being an interesting experience. Still, I keep getting kicked out of the Alliance area in Dalaran, because I'm so used to get in it to reach the portals. In 2 weeks, I still miss the Horde zone. Oh well, hopefully I'll learn soon!

Economy wise, MMO Champion's guides had little to no effect on the herb, glyphs, or leather markets. I guess not many people tried them. Did anything change on your servers?

Have a nice weekend everyone!

My gear is now better. I have managed to craft [Ensorcelled Nerubian Breastplate], and I also won [Bracers of the Cloudy Omen]. The breastplate is now enchanted with +10 Stats, and gemmed with Reckless Ametrine (+12 SP/+10 Haste), Quick Dragon's Eye (+34 Haste), and Forceful Eye of Zul (+10 Haste/+15 Stamina). The bracers are enchanted with +30 SP of course.

However, my gear still feels strange. Both my trinkets are iLevel 200 (Heroic instance quality), because I can't find better ones to drop. But despite of their iLevel, they're amazing (one has a chance of +500 mana on spellcast, and the other has a chance of +500 haste), and that's why I haven't really bothered with getting anything better, although I'm hoping for some trinket love in ToC.

Another issue is the quality of my rings. They're both from Naxxramas 25 (iLevel 213). And I'm never lucky enough to be able to acquire better rings (don't say "Use Emblems of Triumph", because I'm saving them for T9 Leggings, the ones which cost 75 Emblems + Trophy of the Crusade).

Luck hasn't been with me when there are trinkets or rings in the loot list of a boss, and that's what's making me fall behind on gear score (note that I don't fall behind on the skill meter). I won't say the RNG hates me, because I've been getting nice upgrades on the past few weeks, but hey, better trinkets/rings would be nice too!

There is challenge in ToC after all. After clearing ToC 25 Normal in less than an hour, and one-shotting Onyxia 25, we tried ToC 25 Heroic, and didn't even get past Northrend Beasts. The DPS wasn't enough for it, even though most people were above 4-5k. Apparently every DPS need 6k+, which is an amazing amount. Nothing too worrying, though, because we got ToC 10 Heroic on 4/5, which just means that we need to gear up some DPS a bit more.

I enjoyed this raiding day very much, and I was the second on healing, and again, one of lowest overhealers. First place was for a Holy Paladin who was doing 4,700 HPS, while I was doing "just" 4,000 HPS. Soon, I'll go to a hard mode again, and definitely have some more fun, because it was a great time, even with all the wipes.

Any thoughts you want you share on these Hard Modes? How are your guilds progressing there?

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