Pyrite Ore now prospectable at 500 Jewelcrafting skill

Actually, it has been so for two days now: the change happened on December the 16th:

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/136974/cataclysm-hotfixes-updated-dec-16

Anyway, it's worth talking about it for those who didn't already know, since prospecting [Pyrite Ore] can grant you huge amounts of money, depending on your server's economy.
This is because every 5 ores you prospect you'll get 1-3 [Volatile Earth], which on most servers is enough to totally repay the Pyrite and even have some golds left. And this before selling the gems, raw or not!

Obviously, this is very server-dependent, so you should check carefully the AH to see if this is a good opportunity for you. Compare the price of a stack of [Pyrite Ore] to the price of 8 [Volatile Earth]. If they're similar, you can safely buy the Pyrite.

Talking about raw gems, remember that the blue gems we have today are (just for now) the "equivalent" of the purple gems in the last expansion: they're the best available, and they're the ones we'll cut for profit for some other time... So, try not to dump them crazily, thinking they'll loose value: I suppose that there are even server in which their prices will raise as more people will sell cut gems to the top players... On my server that already happened, with prices rising from 30g to 60g for the raw gems (I made a nice profit from that, but I didn't talk about it until now because I wasn't sure of the outcome).
It may be worth noting that, even if now we only have blue gems, sooner or later we'll also get purple ones, and when that will happen, we will be prospecting  [Pyrite Ore] for them... So if something crazy happens on your server and Volatile Earth greatly drop in price while you still have some  [Pyrite Ore] to prospect, you may want to keep them in ore form waiting... Just don't start to stockpile now, because it will take a long time before we have those purples, and prices of  [Pyrite Ore] can still drop.

Go diving - Gathering in Vashj'ir - Part 1

This post is part of the Cold's Gold Blogging Carnival of January. From January the 11th you can check this page to look for other posts about gathering in Cataclysm.

While I was writing this post I discovered that Cold at Cold's Gold Factory was going to host a blog carnival exactly on the topic of my post!
Well, I suppose that since farming is still the best way to get gold in Cataclysm this is really something worth writing about.

The problem and the solution
Mt. Hyjal is getting more and more crowded and, at least on my server, you see more nodes being gathered than free nodes... And if your gathering with a not-maxed character in a PvP realm you'll get attacked a lot by players from the opposite faction, since most of those farmers are lvl. 85.
Yesterday I was questing with my gathering alt in Vashj'ir (as I suggested in my post about Cataclysm "leveling and time schedule" made for another blog carnival, this time hosted at JMTC). And suddently I started seeing more and more herbs and mining nodes, spawning too fast for me to gather them. Sadly they're in the middle of a lot of mobs, but this actually also help keeping other characters from gathering them.
Here there is the location, "The Clutch" in the Kelp'thar Forest:

The number of nodes doesn't seem so great, but I tested it again this morning (the image is from yesterday, after just 10 minutes of questing and gathering in the clutch, check on wowhead and you'll see there are more nodes than that) and I didn't have nearly any downtime between gathering two nodes.

Continuing the research
So, today I tried to wander through Vashj'ir looking for nodes (I usually look for my good spots, because even wowhead can't catch that "feeling" about the rarity of the nodes or the crowd of people gathering them). The results were amazing: I tried it just for half an hour, without knowing were to go and discovering new zones of the map in the process, and still manage to gather as many [Azshara's Veil] as the [Cinderbloom] that I would gather in Mt. Hyjal, just a little less [Obsidium Ore],  and more [Stormvine] too. And this was just wandering casually in the three Vashj'ir maps!
Even if I've shown you a spot from Kelp'thar Forest, both from wowhead and my personal experience it seems that Shimmering Expanse is the best map for nodes, but you should try both to see which work best for you. You could also take sometimes a break from gathering and do some quest, so your gatherer will be stronger against the few mobs that will aggro you... In this case you'll visit all the zones in some time, and you'll be able to make a better decision.
And know what? This maps are huge and solitary.
If you manage to orientate yourself in this three-dimensional world (for some it will be easy, for others difficult), you'll soon be able to discover your personal spot, away from the crowd of gatherers the other zones know.

Some other things to know:

• When you see a node on your mini-map, start looking for it on the ocean floor: if it's a mining node it will always be there, and the same will happen in most cases also for herbs. If you can't find the node, look above you: if there can be some kind of plane thing (a big oyster shell, a coralline reef, a rock) go higher until you find some other kind of "floor" it will be usually quite easy to locate the herb your looking for.
• If you're a druid, your swimming form will work as well as the seahorse (after the first quest in the map, the one who gives you underwater breathing), with a difference: you can shift form while in combat. (and, as always, you can gather maintaining your swimming form).

What about higher level maps?

With the nerf on the number of nodes in Deepholm and Twilight Highlands, the benefits of going to gather in higher level maps is really server dependent. In my server, [Obsidium Ore] sell higher than [Elementium Ore], and the prices for herbs doesn't vary too much (and [Azshara's Veil] are more valuable than [Cinderbloom], another reason to choose Vashj'ir over Mt. Hyjal for farming).
You should also notice that being in a zone that you outlevel (as you'll do sooner or later) will make your gathering easier and faster.

This may change in the future, especially when the mats where more required for actual crafts than for leveling. You just have to be smart about that and know your market, as always.

(Update*)Further reading about [Azshara's Veil]
Just days before this post, Mageshadow at The Gnomish Coin posted his favorite route for farming [Azshara's Veil] ... This beautiful farming spot is in Tol Barad, so you need to be level 85 to get there, but if you're interested just in the [Azshara's Veil] (and you don't like the 3D world of Vashj'ir), you should give it a try.
It's also worth checking while doing the Tol Barad dailies!

(Further Update) This post now has a follow up that you should check: Go diving - Gathering in Vashj'ir - Part 2 

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* I put this here from the comments so it's more easy to spot ^^

From BoP to BoE: [Vial of the Sands]

Update: there is a new post about this in this blog: Other informations about Vial of the Sands. If you're interested in this item you should check it.

[Vial of the Sands], the cool alchemist potion that has the imbiber transform in a drake, ready to transport another character on his back, is becoming BoE.
This is the new chopper, a flying one!
As the chopper, some of the mats can only be bought from a vendor, and they're really expensive:

1 [Pyrium-Laced Crystalline Vial], 5.000 gold
8 [Sands of Time], 3.000 gold each = 24.000 gold
= 21.000 gold in vendor-mats.

And then you'll need:
12 [Truegold] (it's the "new Titansteel"), 8x [Flask of the Winds], 8x [Flask of Titanic Strength], 8x [Deepstone Oil] (I linked the recipes so you can mouse over the names and see the reagents... I'm not putting everything there, since you can easily find all you need on this comment page on wowhead).

Now is a bit early to try and get any profit from this (but if you can afford it, there could be some player full of gold that is willing to pay anything for this... good luck), but I wanted to share this good news with all the alchemists out there.
Go and check how Engineers sold their chopper! Now it's your turn.

• (Updated) Where to find it: 

Now, the thing that makes Vial of the Sands even more valuable is the rarity of the recipe. It's so hard to get that very few, if any, alchemists of a server will have it.

Has far as it's known now, the recipe only drops from [Canopic Jar], which are found trough Archaeology discoveries, using Tol'vir artifacts... So you'll need 450 points in Archaeology to have a chance to find the recipe (it seems that  [Canopic Jar] don't have 100% chance to drop the recipe).

Note: although the [Vial of the Sands] itself is BoE, the recipe to make it ([Recipe: Vial of the Sands]) is BoP. So be sure you're raising Archaeology on your Alchemist (if you don't have a good reason to raise it on another character... But most of the items are BoA, so it shouldn't be the case)

I already made a post about Archaeology. This profession can be more valuable for certain classes than others, and the [Vial of the Sands] could remain the only way to make a profit out of it... But if you were already planning on raising Archaeology (for the BoA vanity items or for the BoA weapons) consider doing it on your alchemist.

Update: there is a new post about this in this blog: Other informations about Vial of the Sands. If you're interested in this item you should check it.

Reading advice

Hi, everyone ^^
Lacking good advices on gold- making (markets are too crazy right now... I'm gaining huge amounts of golds both by farming and by crafting, but you already know about the first and the latter is too server-dependent to make for a good post), I want to tell you about a great book that you can even read for free, since it goes under a Creative Commons' licence: FTW by Cory Doctorhow.





For The Win is centered around MMORPGs and takes place a few years from now (nearly in the middle of the book they say: "The last time Ira played a game, it had been World of Warcraft, in the dawn of time"). Most characters are gold farmers (yes, like the ones in China, just without using any bot, since the game has get too smart for bots) and the correct use of gaming slang in a real book is something amazing.
The book is also full of accurate economical notions, presented in a way that really anyone can understand and those notions are also applied to the gaming world (there is nearly a whole a chapter about the value of vanity items in game).
If you're really a gamer, hardcore or casual, you should read this.

You can read the book from here: http://craphound.com/ftw/Cory_Doctorow_-_For_the_Win.htm

Surviving the Cataclysm

After a long break due to Cataclysm (I was playing every free moment I had), I'm finally back.

I've seen lot of people complaining because they weren't able to sell the goods they stockpiled from Cataclysm... Big mistake, you shouldn't be trying to sell them NOW, but in some months. Obviously you should still check the AH (on my server WotLK enchanting mats have actually risen in price), but the real gain will be in the future, not now.

For today, just some quick tips:

• Continue to check for [Saronite Ore] on the AH... Yes, you read me well. There is still people dumping it for incredible low prices. In this minute (yes, at the same time I'm writing this) I managed to buy 4 stacks of [Saronite Ore] at less than 8 gold each stack. These apply for all the other WotLK things you've been buying in the past weeks: lots of people decided they didn't wanted WotLK mats only after Cataclysm, and they've panicked out 
• Check [Pristine Hide] on the AH... There is still not so much people buying them, since they're needed for high-level recipes, so for this first weeks supply is very higher than demand, so it can be very cheaper now than the next month (depending on your server economy... use your head). 
• If you're leveling Enchanting (the same can apply to other professions), don't sell your scrolls unless you can make a good profit from them. The market is now flooded, keep them for some time. It will take some months before they reach their full price again... It's better to wait than waste money.

Have you found some other craziness in the AH lately?
Some items that you're sure will be more valuable in a month or so, and that now sell for very low prices?

Cool free pet contest hosted by Cold's Factory

Hi, just a brief post waiting for Cataclysm: there is a cool contest hosted at the Cold's Factory, a great blog you should already know.
To celebrate the first anniversary of the blog, Cold is giving away free pets in the  Cold's Gold Factory Win a Pet Code Contest... At the beginning there was an entry cost, which Cold would have used to pay the pets... But yesterday Cold changed the requirements and decided to pay himself for the prizes!
So, head on now to this beautiful blog and try to get your own Pet Code! But don't stop with that: continue reading the very cool tips Cold's Factory has.
Happy Birthday, Cold's Factory!

Cataclysm leveling and Time Schedule

This post is my entry for the WoW Gold Blog Carnival.
This is the gold strategy I will apply in the first weeks... After some time, when more people reach max level, things will change... But we have time for that.
I've already talked about the importance of taking more than one alt to 80 before Cataclysm here... Now it may be a little late to start leveling something new, but if you don't have anything else to do it surely won't hurt.

Let's now talk about leveling and professions in Cataclysm.
There are three widely known things you should take into account:

• Gathering profession will make you a HUGE profit in the first week of the expansion
• To max out some professions (Tailoring, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing) you'll need to be level 85
• Jewelcrafting will have new daily quests, Alchemy will have new researches

Now, lots of people will try to max out their crafting professions first, mainly because is what they have on their main and because farming mats isn't considered a good way to make money... The second one is usually true, but not in the beginning of a new expansion.

All these people will need mats to do this. A huge amount of them. And they'll usually be eager to pay any price it takes... 

Will they make a lot of money maxing a crafting profession so fast?

The answer is No.

Even if you are the first one to max out a crafting profession, having so total control over a market, you won't have people to sell things for a few days: everything is still leveling, both their characters and their professions. 

If you're an enchanter selling scrolls, they first want to have some blue or purple gear before buying anything. 

If you're a jewelcrafter, people will still need to put their hands on some equip with sockets before buying you gems.

If you craft equip pieces you need to find a wealthy player to sell them... But you'll spend a lot on mats (which prices are still high) and there won't be so many wealthy players with a maxed out character of the right class for what you're selling.

Add to this that most of the things you'll craft to reach this point will be crafted by anyone else trying to max out the same profession, thus flooding the market.

Some words about gathering

As I already suggested in my guide about leveling, your gatherer alt should have mining and herbalism (since you can track both kinds of nodes). 

If your alt is an hunter, your pet will take care of anything that attack you while you're gathering.

If your alt is a druid you'll be able to collect herbs without getting out of your swift flight form (so you'll be able to flee if anything attacks you)... If you're a druid AND a Tauren, you'll also gather herbs more quickly.

If you're a paladin Crusader Aura will let you move faster travelling from a node to another.

You could want to do one of these two things:

• If you really want to level your main first, and it has no gathering profession:

This could easily happen if you don't thing just about gold but you also care about PvE... Maybe you just want to start doing heroics with your guild as soon as you can. There are still some things you could do to improve your gains:

1. Sell every kind of white item mobs will drop (meat, cloth), as soon as you can. This is some kind of "gathering" after all... And lots of people will be trying to level cooking and tailoring, so the prices will be high.
2. If your main is an enchanter, DE everything you're not equipping and sell the dusts and essences. Otherwise, keep the BoE items and find as fast as you can someone to DE them for you (some of the items you'll find in the first levels will still be disenchantable by alts with 450 of enchanting... So check it if you have one).
3. If your main is a Jewelcrafter, level JC to 475 the sooner you can and start doing the jewelcrafting dailies!
4. When you finished leveling your main, start gathering things with a gathering alt every time you can... You can still do your heroics, and you should slowly start to level your professions, but when you're not doing these things (or the JC dailies), you should be gathering... At least for the first two weeks.

• If you want to just get the most gold you can:

Spend at least the first 2-3 days gathering in Mount Hyjal, disregarding the quests.

Mount Hyjal is an heavily phased zone, and you'll want to level your gatherer (when the time will come) in Vashj'ir, since the "first phase" of Mount Hyjal has more gathering nodes than those you get after some of the quests (you could also check which quests changes the phasing). 

You should also check this two guides made by Kaliope

Leveling mining 450-525 (Beta)

Leveling herbalism 450-525 (Beta)

Depending on your server economy, the prices of the gathering mats could stay high for a while or drop down as everyone starts farming: you're the only one that can see when stop the "just gathering phase". After that you have two options:

1. Continue leveling your gatherer (good if you don't think you're main professions won't be lucrative at the beginning of the expansion): you'll be able to collect more easily mats from high level zones (and you'll actually gain access to those zone that have a level requirement), while you'll still be able to gather along the way.
2. Start leveling your main (follow the advices given before, but also start to level its professions when you can).

Time Schedule

There will be great differences between prices in the first days, prices in the first weeks and prices in the following months. These is what I expect to happen:

First days

Everything from Cataclysm (both mats and crafted items) will be posted at high prices in the first days... The difference between mats and crafted items is that the second ones will have a very small profit margin (since they're done with overpriced mats) or maybe even at a loss.

First week

Slowly, mats prices will start to go down, becoming affordable by most players, but still quite high. Volatile air/earth/fire/water will remain very high.

Crafted items will appear more often in the AH, and those which will bring more profit will be the ones crafted by Tailoring/Leatherworking/Blacksmithins, since people will be try to acquire gear before enchantments and gems. The recipes which requires [Chaos Orb] will be the more profitable, since there will be very few crafter with these... They could value double what they'll be worth in some weeks.

Second and Third week

These will be the best time to sell Gems (if you have chosen wisely your recipes) and Enchantments.
In some servers Enchantments could take a little longer, as players leveling up Enchanting will be offering their service for free.
After that
Is difficult to make such long-therm guesses, but we'll probably see the profit margin in Enchanting Scrolls go up (prices may go down, but so will do the mats), while most of the other professions will start to have lesser profit margins than in the first weeks (but still huge).
"Volatile" mats will go down in price and stabilize, some at high prices, other quite cheap... The same goes with herbs, while probably anything that is "mined" will still be quite valuable for a while.

As a last advice... Check this month WoW Gold Blog Carnival hosted by Just My Two Copper: you'll surely find lots of useful information to get rich or richer come Cataclysm!