BRK is always checking the site meter to see how everybody is finding this little corner of Hunter Heaven. Google searches are the most popular method, which means you people aren’t bookmarking. Shame!

But I love seeing the google searches; it gives me ideas for what to write about. Today there is a referal from a WoW-Hungary forum that is discussing my Bite versus Claw post. Isn’t that cool! But…

I can’t read what they’re saying!

I can take criticism, laughter, insults, challenges to BRK’s cathood, and snide and contemptuous critiques. But non-comprehension is new to me, and it’s driving me crazy! Are they impressed, disappointed, laughing… what are these guys and girls saying. Can anybody help?

Jazzy, Damh, and pets, hanging out and looking hot in Shattrath.

Edit: is this who I think it is? 65.210.205.# Tulsa, Oklahoma 12:19:12pm

A long time ago, (it seems), when I was showing the DCoE where one purchased the gryphon mounts, I was looking at them in the vendor’s window when she exclaimed how pretty they were. I asked if she could actually see how they looked, she said, “Of course I can.” Wow, I thought, there must be some special key-combination that allows one to see what one looks like riding one of these. I wonder what it is…

Shift-right click was not it. That’s the “purchase immediately” key combination, and at the tender level of 65, I accidentally bought an epic green gryphon for 200 gold. Of course, she was looking at the birds in the stable to see what they looked like, a place I had neglected to visit.

We have continued to blame her for that bit of BRK-idiocy, much to her denials and laughter. Priests… I don’t care what their spec is, they’re all mildly evil.

But anyway, I really wanted the red epic gryphon in the worst way. So much so, that my plan was to grind an extra 200 gold before I bought the riding skill so that I’d not have to use the green gryphon in my bank at all. Well, when I hit 5001 gold yesterday, that plan went out the window. Gotta fly fast. Gotta fly fast now. Where’s that stinkin‘ green epic?

So, to the Shattrath City bank, grab the green bird, a quick stop at a vendor to sell some trash loot, and boogie over to Wildhammer and the riding trainer. In three seconds, I went from 5007 gold to 7. But who cares, I get to go fast!

…

You. Have. NO. Idea.

I was so fast, my guild chat was Doppler-shifted. You don’t understand what +288% speed is until you experience it. I need to do some time trials and post the data so you have some quantative idea of what I’m talking about. Frankly, this thing makes Outland small. Shattrath to Area-52? Pfft. Wildhammer to Zangarmarsh? Please. Look away for a moment and you’re half-way across Terokkar Forest.

And now the green guy has grown on me. I like him; I haven’t seen another whereas I’ve seen a bunch of reds. I’ve already begun collecting the mats for my +70 attack power enchant for my Quill, so I really have a better use for my gold right now than a second epic flying mount.

Yup, Greenie is gonna be BRK’s Ride. He’s got the BRK-attitude, that’s for sure. First time we brought him out, he squinted his eyes from behind his armor, looked us up and down, turned his head, spat, then looked back at his trainer. The Wildhammer dwarf gave him a single, smooth nod. Greenie then turned back toward us, leaned in a little, and in a slow, melodic rhythm, said,

“Get on. Sit Down. Shet up. Hang on.”

It was good advice.

Lassirra at The Hunter’s Mark has done us all a tremendous service by giving life to the best Hunter Pet Talent Calculator that has seen the light of day. What started as a stolen, hodgepodge at BRK was gratefully handed over to the talented web mistress and she has delivered a product that is graceful, simple, and accurate. Lassirra, you’re hired.

So what are you waiting for? Go get some here!

And send the girl some mad propz for all her hard work at finishing this project. She deserves it.

As my quest log is now filled with nothing but group and instance quests, I spent the evening grinding my Kurenai reputation. A stack of ten warbeads gives 500 reputation points, so making exalted isn’t going to be that hard. I don’t need another mount, but the Talbuk is different and rare, so what the heck.

But as for grinding, I flew among the three major ogre encampments in Nagrand, mining along the way, killing ogres for 10 rep each and collecting warbead, Netherweave cloth, and anything else that dropped. Since this post-series is specifically about farming, I’m not going to talk about the BoE greenies that dropped and how much I sold them for. But let’s do talk about the mats I collected and how much cash BRK raked in.

Netherweave Cloth. I collected 80 pieces of it, which is four stacks. The best price at the auction house was 6 gold per stack. I advertised in the Trade channel:

“WTS [Netherweave Cloth]x80 for 20 gold, 5 gold per stack, all or none”

Sold in 15 seconds to a person who had never purchased from the Trade channel before, but couldn’t pass up a great deal for so much cloth. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Impulse-buying, rarity of item, good price… all add up to a quick sale.

Adamantite Ore. This stuff was in good supply, and I mined 60 ores, or three stacks. Low price on the auction house was 25 gold per stack. I advertised in the Trade channel:

“WTS [Adamantite Ore]x60 for 60g, all or none”

Sold in 15 seconds to someone who has purchased from me before and, I assume, knew that this price was excellent.

Eternium Ore. Only found five pieces, but the auction house was completely empty. Whether this was due to low supply or high demand, neither know nor care. But this stuff was not going for a discount.

“WTS [Eternium Ore]x5 for 15g”

Sold in 15 seconds. The standard price for Eternium is 3 gold per ore, so I commanded full price.

Netherweb Spider Silk. Feeling really good about my take so far, and seeing how I had some time to kill, I decided to go get some spider silks. Flying to my favorite harvesting spot, I began farming at 10:53pm. At precisely 11:25, I looted my tenth silk. As I killed spiders exiting the forest, I happened upon an eleventh silk. WooT!

There were a number of silks on the auction house already, but none less than 7 gold each. I started with the Trade channel:

“WTS [Netherweb Spider Silk]x11 50g - nice price in bulk, tailors “

But apparently, no tailors were interested. So, off to Ironforge and the auction house, where I listed them individually for 5 gold a piece. This morning, all had sold and by mailbox was stuffed with cash. Made an extra 5 gold by not selling in bulk. Some days you’re good, some days you’re lucky.

So what was the total haul for the farming: 150 Gold. And that doesn’t count the trash I vendored, or the BoE greenies I put up in the auction house.

How is the Quest for Epic Flight doing?

Beautifully.

BRK was tickled and giggling after the 2.0.10 class nerfs were published for the test realms. Screaming, crying, and bickering people make him hungry because he knows that, while they’re focused on whining in forums, they’re not paying attention in PvP. So, in the spirit of derision and unfair play, BRK has some ideas for the next nerf from Blizz. Hunters, let’s see just how much anger and hostility we can whip up, shall we?

Druids

Forget leather armor, go back to cloth. A druid wearing leather is like a PETA activist wearing a housecat fur coat with matching kittenskin boots. When a druid shifts to animal form, they lose all the cloth armor they had and have to equip another set made from fur or scales. Druids, you already carry fourteen sets of gear, what’s one more?

Priests

Every time a priest dies, he or she drops a [Catnip-Flavored Piece of Soul] kitty treat. BRK is tired of his breath tasting like candles.

Mages

Mages get leather armor. I mean, why the heck not? They don’t run, maneuver, duck, jump, parry, or do anything to get out of the way that doesn’t involve blinking or free-falling. In fact, let them wear mail and plate, too. And cement boots. Oh hell, just nail them to the ground. Also, the reward for making level 10 as a mage is a nice shiny skateboard to encourage them to move a little.

Warlocks

BRK has a slight affinity for warlocks as they too have “pets”. However, as other warlocks have pointed out, a warlock’s pet is actually a conjured slave. That’s fine, but why do all these demons just do nothing put complain? If BRK was told to that he was being sacrificed to boost his hunter’s stamina for a few minutes, he’d open up a Friskies can of whoop-@ss, you can bet. If the Infernal pet rebels at his captivity, so should they all.

Let’s give all warlock pets a 1% chance at breaking free of his master’s power every tick, shall we? Master of the subtle arts of the shadow? How about giving your felhound a damn Milkbone every once in a while, you heartless b@stards.

Paladins

For this, BRK wants CT_Raid Assist modified. Every time a paladin is assigned as a Main Tank, all other non-paladins in the raid spontaneously burst into laughter for 10 seconds. After a three second pause, they do it again. Every other class also gets special new emotes for this situation only:

“Guess I gotta go back to Fireball Rank 1 for this instance; don’t want to grab aggro.”
“Ha! I gotta go back to Arcane Shot Rank 1, and I have to wait 30 seconds before I begin to fire, and my pet has to spam Cower the entire time.”
“Can I off-tank? Shadow Priest FTW!”
“Hello? Warrior with a shield here! Hello?!”

Shaman

Every time a shaman gets an armor quest reward in Outland, Magatha Grimtotem will descend from the heavens and give the shaman player a swift, Tauren-sized boot in the pants. The butt-kicking will add a “-1 mana per 5 seconds” buff on the leggings, leave a visible horseshoe imprint, and can stack 127 times.

Rogues

Every rogue who purchases a white gryphon mount will lose the ability to stealth. Jeebuz guys, it’s not that hard; you’re supposed to be difficult to see. Don’t ride a white beacon of light visible from one side of Outland to the other.

And finally, Warriors

Every time a warrior challenges a beastmaster hunter to a duel, the warrior is presented with a text box that says,

“Just assume you lost. Please hit OK to continue.”

Making money in WoW is no different than in real life; find a need and fill it. The more people with the same need, the more the price of the item required to fill that need will be. Simple Adam Smith economics. For example:

Bags. Just about everybody needs bags. The Enchanted Netherweave Bags are especially sought. Tailors make them, and unless you’re already filled with 18-sloters, (like BRK is, thanks to his inside connections with the DCoE Bag Emporium,) you want them. On Madoran, these bad-boys easily sell for 40 gold a pop in the Auction House. Why so high? Because there are enough people willing to pay that price; they have a need, so the DCoE fills it.

The DCoE and I were questing in Shadowmoon Valley this weekend when the pattern for a 28-slot shard bag dropped, (no, I didn’t roll on it, sheesh). Pretty cool, loads of money to be made with that, right?

Nope. Of course, shard bags are only used by warlocks, one of the least-played classes in the game. The market for these is not great, so while the price for a single one may be higher, the potential for profit due to multiple sales is lower.

As a Farmer, it is your first order of business to find out what to farm.

1. Find Out What They Need.

This can be raw materials or finished products. If you don’t aleady know what special items crafters need, talk to your guild’s crafters and ask. They will usually come back with, “If you get any _______ I’ll buy all you bring me.” Let’s continue to use Bags as our example.

Imbued Netherweave Bags take a lot of mats:

72x Netherweave Cloth
8x Arcane Dusts
2x Netherweb Spider Silks
1x Greater Planar Essence

If you’re in Outland, you already know that Netherweave Cloth is dropped by everything. I send a stack of 20 to the guild tailor for every stack I sell on the Auction House. If the price for the stuff is below 4g per stack, then I either bank my stack or also send it to the guild tailor.

Arcane Dust and Greater Planar Essence. Enchanter stuff. I don’t have any, I can’t get any. When I send my trash BoEs to the guild enchanter, I do so because I want her to have the mats to level her profession.

Netherweb Spider Silks. Now we’re talking. Terokkar Forest is stocked with spiders that drop this stuff. However, the drop rate is around 15%, making farming them just boring enough for crafters to not want to do it, and since they only need two of them per bag, they usually buy the mats of the Auction House and consider it the cost of their profession. And tailors have no problem buying these for 6 gold each on my server.

Bingo. That’s our “need” for which we’ve been looking.

2. Get The Stuff They Want.

We want Netherweb Spider Silk. Where do you find it? Terokkar Forrest. There are some specific places there where the only mobs are spiders; no humanoids, no undead, nothing to aggro by accident while you slaughter spiders for thirty minutes. That’s right, I will do a thirty-minute spider farming session and come away with 5-10 silks. That translates to a 30-60 gold profit if I get the going rate for them.

3. Sell The Stuff.

And by that, I mean sell the stuff and don’t let it sit in your bank. Items in the bank do not generate revenue. Sell sell sell. Get rid of it. You’ll never take a loss as you didn’t pay for the stuff you farmed anyway. But letting it sit in the hopes of a higher purchase price is a waste of time and cuts into your cash flow. You want rapid turnover, not inventory management.

The Auction House is the typical vehicle for selling mats, obviously. Since we know tailors need two silks per bag, we list them in stacks of two, and price them so that they are cheaper than the other two-stacks, and also cheaper than those being sold one at a time.

Remember, an item that sells for below auction house average is more profit for you than an item that doesn’t sell at all.

But we can also use the Trade channel. When you see something in the Auction House, you see it with a bunch of items just like it; the rarity-factor isn’t there. When you advertise in the Trade channel, you usually have no competition. Continue to undercut the Auction House price, but not by too much. What you loose in “bargin-buy” status you make up for with “instant-gratification” for yourself and your buyer.

When I advertise a twenty-stack of ore and get a reply, I confirm the order and ask if he wants it send COD, to which they usually reply, “sure”. When you send the order, say thank you and then hit them with,

“You know, I have four more stacks of adamantite ore in the bank. You just bought one stack for 25g, I’ll sell you the other four stacks for 20g each if you buy them all now.”

Now we’ve got impulse-buying, rarity, and bargin-shopping all tied up in one little package. They don’t back away from this deal, ever.

Did you lose 5g per stack if you had sold them in the Auction House? No! Something is only as valuable as someone is willing to pay for it. If nobody is willing to pay 25g per stack of adamantite, it’s not worth 25g. So instead of 100 adamantite ores in your bank collecting dust, you have 105 gold in your pocket.

And as I said, this does work. Look though my blog, track my gold. BRK is closing in on his epic gryphon, are you?
Edit: Subtract 10 gold from that total. I completely forgot that I owe the DCoE for an Arcane Tome I sold for her. If she reads this, I could be in big shadow-priest trouble. Keep it under your hat, please!

I’m selling everything, all my potential jewelcrafting stuff, ores, gems… except Spider Silk, which I always give to the Former Diet Coke of Evil. Priest Karma, remember? Gotta stay in the plus-column.

If you ever had a druid or priest friend commisserate with you over the agility nerf last year, it’s time to break out the good booze and invite them over for some therapy. The WoW 2.0.10 test realm patch notes are out, and whatever phrase you wish to use to describe when someone is mugged, beaten up, left for dead, run over by a garbage truck, “scented” by a flotilla of giant skunks, and finally smacked by Brittney with her [Umbrella of Unbridled Wrath], it’s gonna happen to our druid and priest buddies.

BRK knows little about the mechanics of druid or priests, (frankly, BRK just knows they taste great with Netherguard Ale,) but look at some of the stuff planned for them and imagine if they were targeted to you or your pet:

Druids

• “Bear Form” now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health.

• “Dire Bear Form” now grants 25% increased stamina instead of 25% increased health. In addition, the armor bonus has been reduced from 450% to 400%.

• The multiplier on base weapon damage for “Mangle (Bear)” ability has been changed from 130% to 100%. In addition, the bonus damage has been reduced by the same ratio.

• “Savage Fury” no longer affects “Mangle (Bear)”.

• “Savage Fury” no longer applies to “Maul” or “Swipe”.

• The critical damage bonus on “Predatory Instincts” reduced from 3/6/9/12/15% to 2/4/6/8/10%.

• “Improved Leader of the Pack” can no longer get critical heals.

Elune must be on a vacation or sabbatical, ’cause her boys just got their collective bear-form-@sses handed to them.

Priests

• The base healing percent from “Vampiric Embrace” has been reduced to 15% from 20%. In addition, this ability can no longer get critical heals.

• “Silent Resolve” no longer reduces threat generated by Shadow spells.

• Prayer of Mending now has a 20 second cooldown.

• If a targeted enemy has a magic effect granting immunity to spell or physical damage, “Mass Dispel” will now always pick that effect as its target.

BRK spends a lot of time increasing his priest-karma. They are fickle and can just “forget” you in a battle on a whim, so it’s best to try to be on their happy-side. Looks like when this hits the fan, there won’t be a happy side for a while.

At the other end of the bar, your warrior comrades need to step up and buy everybody a round or seven, as they just got some Thor-like Love from the Blizz boys.

Warriors

• The rage normalization equation has been adjusted to grant more rage. The typical warrior should see an increase of 15% to 20% in their rage generation.

• All warriors had their critical strike chance adjusted upward slightly (about 1%).

• “Thunder Clap” is now useable[sic] in Defensive Stance. In addition, the tooltip has been adjusted to indicate it causes additional threat.

• The cooldown on “Victory Rush” has been removed, and it can now be used up to 20 seconds after killing an enemy.

• “Unbridled Wrath” has been modified so that rather than a fixed chance to grant rage, it has an increased chance when using slower weapons.

Yep, gonna be some serious partying by our Arms, Fury, and Protection brethren soon. I suggest that we keep them separated from the druids and priests. Perhaps we should send the warriors to Vegas, and the others to Atlanta. The more space between them, the better.

Closer and closer, step by step, and that Corvette of a gryphon is almost mine.