Painbunny did a great job articulating the fact that you efforts and investments (time and gold) are rarely recovered in the process of leveling a profession especially pre-WoTLK.  The thought process was to allow items to be deconstructed in a way where some ability existed to level.   It’s sort of let’s take it apart and see how it works type option.  If I were to draw this picture in my head it would be the equivalent of a Blacksmith being able to disenchant an item for points.   Although I find it unlikely,  I find this a refreshing viewpoint that definitely warrant discussion.

Making an option to deconstruct an item certainly does make things a bit more interesting.   One option that might make this viable is to provide a XX% chance to recieve a skill point in the deconstruction process.   One thing that would happen is that people looking to level professions would in turn start buying those rarely used crafted items. 

For example,  let’s say your a tailor on your way to level 80, you’re out in the Plaguelands and the Pattern: Ghostweave Vest drops,  you decided to craft a few of these since you can still level with them,  normally you would just vendor these items or disenchant.  If the deconstruct option were to exist,  someone who was leveling tailoring between 250-275 could deconstruct the item to attempt to learn how it’s made.   In that event that person could earn leveling points or even perhaps even learn the recipe at no charge.

This would create a viable market for more products,  I would find it hard to believe that the prices would be absurd for the items,  after all market would be driven by two factors,  the potential value of the to obtain a profession level and the value of disenchanting such an item.  I don’t think it would be too difficult to come up with the math to balance the mechanic.  I do believe that they could also shut such mechanic off for latest content (Cannot be done with WotLK items).

Overall I think this may be a very plausible path for Blizzard to take,  as the level cap increases,  XP bonuses make shopping for gear less of a requirement.  I would be surprised to see Blizzard make a change like this when I try to think about the development hours involved but it would certainly make leveling such professions a bit more fun to say the least.

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So we’ve had a few years or approximately 5 years (congrats Blizzard) to figure out what is going on during a holiday weekend like Thanksgiving and from what I have observed in my 4 participating weekends is that this Black Friday just isn’t for the retail sector it’s can be a Black Friday for you in game as well.

Friday is a day off for most of the masses in the US (except those working in retail).   So one thing for sure,  you’re going to see more players on than usual compared to previous weekends this fall.   This doesn’t bode well for the farmers,  things are going to be a bit crowded.   There is some upside to this,  you might be able to find a pug to get a Nax done if you haven’t gotten out in a while,  it might be easier to put a 5 man team together to chain heroics but if you’re bottom line is you focus,  you might want to grab those reserve funds and make some money playing the markets in AH.

If you’ve never done any day trading in AH.   Here’s a few pieces of advice before you go betting piles of gold on certain commodities.

1. Do your research,  if you aren’t using an AH add-on to track market prices.  I’d suggest going over to WOWOAH.com to check your prices.  It’s not as efficient as Auctioneer or some other add-on’s but this is a great place to do some research to help you spot good markets and make educated bets on trading certain items.

2.  Don’t bet the farm on a single item,  what I’m saying here is that you’ve got a real opportunity to shoot yourself in the foot by putting all your eggs in one basket.  It only takes one guy to show up and dump enough mats in there to keep you out of making a reasonable profit or let your efforts turn into a loss,  so diversify.

3.  Set a goal for yourself.  If you’ve got 5000 gold you’re willing to risk,  set a reasonable goal for yourself.  Sure it’s a great weekend to make some extra gold,  but it’s really easy to throw the blinders on and waste a day playing markets.   Go enjoy the other content or even better yet don’t forget to go spend some time with your RL Guild (aka Family) too.

4.  Try to be that guy that doesn’t buy stuff in the AH this weekend.  You’ll be paying some higher prices for sure.  Holding off until next week to make those expensive purchases will save you boat loads.

5.  When the Black Friday hangover hits next week,  keep an eye on prices.  There will be some really good deals.  Take a look at our Patch Notes section for items you might pick up on the cheap that you can resell for a much higher number in the next couple weeks when patch 3.3 hits.

Best of luck in your Holiday Weekend revenue goals!

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A late surprise unearthed in Patch 3.3,  Engineer swill have a new source of income with Ammunition.   It’s a bit of relief I’m sure,  most engineers were a little distressed when potion injector market crashed when Blizzard allowed these items to stack up to 20 instead of 5.

What’s really interesting is that you’ve the dev’s splitting the ammunition up this time where Gnomish Engineers can make the Iceblade Arrows and only Goblin Engineers will be able to make Shattered Rounds.    The key to obtaining the recipes is pretty simple and that’s becoming honored with Ashen Verdict (new faction with the release of Icecrown). 

Since Blizzard has included tabbard reputation model,  I’m sure it will be easy for everyone to go run some 5 mans and get to honored.   I’m thinking that the split of the engineering recipes does add some value.   What Blizzard has done is essentially limited the amount of people who can produce both recipes.  There aren’t that many enterprenurial engineers these days as well so we might even see some descent prices.  But considering the recipe material is so cheap to make,  I’m really not holding my breath.   Sure it’s great dps,  but I don’t think the recipe was added to make the profession happy as it may have been some sort of balance mechanic necessary for Icecrown hard mode or something, it may have been a little item necessary to allow hunters to complete a possible forthcoming Item Level Achievement.

I was excited for engineering and as usual after giving it some thought – not so much.

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The WoW Economist will be covering add-ons from time to time.   Although some may be old school,  not every reader has been around since vanilla WoW.  This week we’ll be covering what is considered best in game for bag management and that’s Ark Inventory.

Ark Inventory is probably one of my favorite mods and becomes even more valuable over time as bag slots continue to grow and we’re allowed to carry, store or bank more items.   Ark Inventory is incredibly simple to use and gives you basically unlimied configuration utility to display your loots.   It works with bags,  banks and even your guild bank.  Personally I don’t use it for the Guild Bank,  I do appreciate how the Guild Bank is set up by Blizzard so I haven’t felt a need to change.

Some key features to consider if you haven’t installed this add on.

• Split and create as many bag sections as you want.   You want a section just for you PVP Gear, DPS Gear and Tanking Gear,  this is not a problem.
• Assign Items specific or unique categories to go in the bags sections you’ve designated.
• Standardizes categories and bag sections across all toons,  so you’ll be looking in the same spots for every thing.
• Hover over an item,  it will also tell you how many of those items you have on your alts as well as bank and guild bank. Great to check to see if you can find an extra item you need before going to the Auction House.
• Easy on the eyes,  you can scale the bags down so they aren’t taking your entire screen up.  Your bags are easily move-able as well with this mod. 

One of the things I love about Ark Inventory is the fact that you can customize your storage pretty much anyway you want.   Ark Inventory is available to download on both WoW Interface and Curse.   Spend 5 minutes with this add-on and you’ll be in love with the functionality,  that’s a WoW Economist guarnatee.

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