Love Fool

So I figured I'd play around with my Mage. I haven't played her in months.

Apparently back during the Valentine's day holiday event she picked up a Love Fool (works just like a Target Dummy). I wasn't quite sure what to do with it but I put it on my action bar in case I needed out of a jam.

Sure enough I was trying to "discover" an area and wound up aggroing a Dragonmaw Raider a few levels above me. What to do? Voila... Love Fool.

And the dummy took the bait. I didn't realize he had until I turned around and saw the sight above. I started laughing and then saw...

... the bugger trapped it!

It just seems so prophetic that he tried to capture love. Of course it all turned very unfunny when he turned on me.

I also love that in the last picture it's as though the failure of love is chasing her and the skills she has to help her on the screen are: Love Fool (still in cooldown); Dampen Magic; and Remove Curse. If only we could learn real life love lessons so quickly, and have these same skills around when we needed them...

Red Jack Flint

Sure, this NPC said "What can I do for you?"



But it sure sounded like "How you doin?" to me.

A Sleeping Bear

I sent out a handful of alts into Azeroth to rustle up some ad revenue. Obviously the Alliance alts have done their job so far. They understand the business side of things. They sent me contracts with Outfitter Eric and The Crazy Cat Lady. Not the greatest but something.

But the Horde alts don't quite get it. They are more interested in the artistic side.
One sent me this:



He thought he was getting some artistic photo from a secluded spot in Orgrimmar. What he actually got was a photo of a bear taking a nap on an arch.

And the bear's not paying for ad time. :(

Profitable Recipes <=225

After playing around with Fizzwidget's Reagent Cost and discovering the Shadow Hood, I wanted to see if there were more recipes than just that one that would yield me a nice profit (particularly with my tradeskill levels are capped at 225 since my profession alts aren't much more than level 20).

Top Four Tailor Recipes

RECIPE Cost of Materials/Potential Sales Price/Net Profit
Component	Shadow Hood 6./21/15	Hands of Darkness 3/7/4	Icy Cloak 2./5./3	Red Mageweave Pants: 1/4/3 Vest: 1/3/2
Bolt of Cloth	4 Silk	3 Silk	3 Mageweave	3 Mageweave
Thread	1 Silken	2 Fine	2 Silken	1 Silken
Potion	1 Shadow Oil	2 Shadow Protection Potion	1 Frost Oil
Item		2 Heavy Leather	2 Thick Spider's Silk	2 Red Dye

Top Four Leatherworker Recipes

RECIPE Cost of Materials/Potential Sales Price/Net Profit
Component	Red Whelp Gloves 1/6/7	Thick Murloc Armor 2/8./6.	Barbaric Bracers 3/7/4	Shadowskin Gloves 4./9./4.
Leather	4 Medium	10 Heavy	8 Heavy	6 Thick
Thread	1 Fine	3 Fine	2 Silken	1 Heavy Silken
Hide		1 Heavy	1 Raptor	2 Heavy 8 Shadowcat
Item	6 Red Whelp Scales	12 Thick Murloc Scales	4 Small Lust. Pearls 4 Large Fangs	4 Shadowgem 2 Black Pearls

I have a blacksmith too; she's over 225 or so but she didn't have anything with profit of more than 3 gold (which were the Jade Serpentblade and the Moonsteel Broadsword).

It was a lot of work to go through these recipes but it was tons of fun. I love "navigating" the economic part of the game; figuring it out; selling stuff; making a profit. Plus I love logging in and seeing that I have mail.

Especially when it has money in it. :)

Mod: Fizzwidget Reagent Cost

I tried out a new mod the other day. This one is a little different. It's not something I'll use every day. Instead it's more of an analytical tool. It's called:

Fizzwidget's Reagent Cost
It analyzes:

• Auctioneer data
• Your learned recipe skills

Note - Auctioneer is a separate add-on that stores price data when you perform an "Auctioneer Scan" of the auction house. (Unfortunately it takes 15-20 minutes to do a scan.)

Then tells you which of your recipes will produce a profit and how much (based on the cost of the component parts and the possible sales cost of the final product). You just have to make sure you open the Auction House once and open your tradeskill window (to load the data) before you type "/RC report."

The results were quite interesting. I looked for the biggest profits. Since it weeded out the lowest profit makers I was pleased to see several recipes would make me a gold or two if I sold it on the auction house. I hadn't expected much because most of my characters' trade skills are 225 and below.

BUT THEN...

Boy was I surprised by something. There was an item that would yield an estimated 15 gold profit! With each sale. The results weren't easy to read but I scrolled up and carefully read through to see it was the "Shadow Hood" in my tailoring tree. Now I've done the buy low/sell high thing before. But never with something with such promise. I frankly doubted it would work. Luckily I have an alt who is an herbalist and an alchemist. I had the parts for some shadow oil (a 4-5 gold component if bought) and whipped some up. Then I put my first Shadow Hood auction up for sale.

The results? See for yourself:



Links:

• Shadow Hood on thottbot
• Recipe for Shadow Hood
• Download the Mod from ui.worldofwar.net

Update 10/4/06: I made 2 other Shadow Hoods at the same time I made the one above that sold immediately. But I STILL haven't sold the the other two! I keep putting them up, one at a time at the same prices but no takers... :(

Just a Nice Day in WoW

It's the little things that make for a nice day. Got this after planting a ninja buff on someone:



Update 10/6/06:
Yet another nice day. The last whispers were after I stopped to heal a random stranger. But I didn't heal his pet in time before it died.

Patch Day - 1.12

Apparently today is Patch Day. I wish I could speak from experience but I can't even get through the log-in. Here is a link to The Post of Patchy Convenience including a link to full patch notes. Additionally here's a forum post re: help with patching.

Plus here are some I want to remember for future reference:

Selected Patch Notes - Interface

• V Key

V key functionality has been improved in several ways.
V key now shows summoned monsters (such as the gargoyles in Stratholme.)
V key now shows both monsters and player enemies.
V now shows enemies only (no longer shows friendly targets.)
Shift-V now shows friendly targets only, not enemies (with a new bindable hotkey.)
Control-V shows both friendly targets and enemy targets (with a new bindable hotkey.)


• New floating combat text has been added to the game with a number of options. You can see when you take damage, when you are healed and how much, when you acquire and lose auras and much more. You can turn on the new options in the newly revised options screen.


• There is now an option to turn on the display of your own name above your head. You can find the option in the interface options screen.


• Automatic Quest Tracking has been added to the game and is turned on by default. Any time you advance a quest by advancing one of the requirements, the quest information will appear on your screen for 5 minutes before fading. You can turn this option off from the options screen.


• The player inspect range has been increased to 10 yards.


• We added "Auto Self Cast" as an option that if checked makes all friendly target spells automatically cast on self if you don't have another valid target selected when you cast it. (You can be fighting an enemy and stun them and use a bandage and it knows automatically that you meant to use it on yourself, even though you don't have yourself targeted).

Tuxedo Recipes Sold

In yesterday's post you may have seen the Commercial Break for an Alliance NPC that sells the recipes for 3 tuxedo parts (Pants, Shirt, Jacket). Well I've visited this store and periodically make a handful of gold by buying and then reselling these recipes.


In fact, when I start a Human, Dwarf or Gnome alt on a new server this is one of the ways I try to go from having just a handful of silver to a few gold. It's easy to get to the store, it usually has the recipe I need and with just a little in savings I can make the initial investment.

NPC Commercial Break - Outfitter Eric & Stonebrow's Clothier

WoW Video: Time of Our Lives

This may not be the clip show of you and your friends...



... but it might as well be.

Home is Where the Hearth Is

What do you consider your hub for town activity? Ironforge? Orgrimmar? Well apparently Blizzard thinks that we'll all flock to (and stay in) the new cities once the Burning Crusade is released:

From this gamespy article:

We also got brief tours of the expansion races' home cities -- Exodar for Draenei and Silvermoon for Blood Elves -- as part of today's demo, and suffice it to say that Blizzard is predicting that these areas will replace Orgrimmar and Ironforge as their factions' premier gathering hubs. They're anticipating the rush by putting two banks and auction houses in each city.

And from Sprawl's Scrawl:

The fully functional Silvermoon City is so large, there will be "translocation portals" placed through the isle to help with travel. The capital city is outfitted with multiple Auction Houses and Banks to accommodate the overwhelming stress this new town will see come release day.

I would be happy just as long as there was no indoor lava moat.

p.s. This picture is my PC's background. If you like it, you can see more like it here, where I got it.

Temporary Weapon Enchants

I just saw this message pop up while I was playing tonight:
Essentially if you have a temporary weapon enchant on top of a permanent enchant at the time you log out, there's a glitch right now that disables your permanent enchant. Oops.

Update August 16, 2006 WoWInsider reports on the issue and also that it is now solved.

So what temporary weapon enchants do you use? Here are some big ones.

Sharpening Stones
Used for Sharp Damage, e.g. Swords
Made by Blacksmiths

Type	Damage Increase	Minimum Level
Rough	+2	5
Coarse	+3	15
Heavy	+4	25
Solid	+6	35
Dense	+8	45
Consecrated	+100 Attack Power Against Undead	55
Elemental	+2% Chance to Critical hit	60

Sharpening Stone Thottbot Link
WoWWiki Sharpening Stone link

Weightstones:
Used on blunt weapons, e.g. Staves.
Made by Blacksmiths

Type	Increased Damage	Minimum Level
Rough	+2	5
Coarse	+3	5
Heavy	+4	15
Solid	+6	25
Dense	+8	35

Weightstone Thottbot Link
wowwiki Weightstone Link

Mana Oils
Made by Enchanters

Type	Increased Mana Every 5 Seconds	Minimum Level
Minor	+4	20
Lesser	+8	40
Brilliant	+12 Plus Increases Effect of Healing Spells	45

Mana Oil Thottbot Link

Wizard Oils:
Made by Enchanters

Type	Increased Spell Damage	Minimum Level
Minor	+8	5
Lesser	+16	30
Wizard Oil	+24	40
Brilliant	+36 +1% Chance to Critical Hit	45

Wizard Oil Thottbot link

You may also want to check out these links from WoWWiki of various Weapon buffs:

• Imbues
• Enhancers

Burning Crusade Racial Mounts

This Gamespot.com article includes references to the racial mounts for the two new Burning Crusade classes.

Like with all other standard mounts in the game, both the elekk and cockatrice will, as Chilton puts it, "look cool and go fast," though they won't possess any exceptional powers.

Information is Growing
Little is known about them at this time, and in fact this picture is not confirmed as the Elekk (although it is suspected). The links below are "under construction."

The Draenei Mount: The War Elephant
www.wowwiki.com/Elekk

The Blood Elf Mount: The Mythical Cockatrice
www.wowwiki.com/Cockatrice

Also keep watching The Burning Crusade Bestiary for more information as well.

NPC Commercial Break - Crazy Cat Lady

Brat Handler

And you thought it was going to be Michael Garrett, Bat Handler.

Easter Eggs and Pop Culture References

I don't mean Noblegarden here. An "Easter Egg" in electronic media typically means some hidden feature in a DVD or game. Like entering a secret code and suddenly everyone's heads are 3 times normal size.

These references to Easter Eggs aren't going to give you a code to put everyone into Panda suits but they do include some great references to pop culture:

Find Lists of "Easter Eggs" here:

• BlizzPlanet
• WoWWiki

Also check out:

• WoWWiki's In-Jokes and References
• Pop Culture References in Warcraft from wikipedia
• G4TV.com's World of Warcraft Secrets

And here are references I've highlighted in this blog before:

• Fight Club Anyone?
• Jaws!
• Uldaman Jones
• Stone Heads and Mount Rushmore
• Sanford and Sons

And the best for last:
Literal Easter Eggs Decorated WoW-Style

Unisex Porta-Potties

How do the Darkmoon Faire Carnie's know which bathroom is which?

Hoarding for Jewelcrafting?

In a Blue Post from Tseric we learn that:

The exact jewels used in Jewelcrafting have not been finalized, but we plan on using existing gems and creating new ones. Obviously, we are going to avoid any gluts in the market by not announcing them, so hoard at your own risk. ;)

The prospecting skill of Jewelcrafting will operate similarly to smelting, in that you will use the skill to extract gems instead of making bars. While mining is a complimentary profession for this, there are other methods of gathering gems, such as through drops or from other miners(Auction House).

You may want to also check out my older Jewelcrafting Notes.

I have personally found mining to be a good money making skill set so based on this kind of information I can't wait to make my Jewelcrafter/Miner.

Update 10/4/06: I found a post with a description of some BC Jewelcrafting information. I'm not sure how credible it is but here is an exceprt I pulled from it. This could be a list of gems that we see today that might also later be useful in jewelcrafting.

Cut Agate
Cut Aquamarine
Cut Azerothian Diamond
Cut Citrine
Cut Emerald
Cut Jade
Cut Malachite
Cut Moonstone
Cut Opal
Cut Ruby
Cut Sapphire
Cut Shadowgem
Cut Tigerseye

WoW vs. Cow

Two very weird posts to have occurred so closely to one another:

WoW vs. Real Life

Auction House

I've been collecting some Auction house Posts. Here they are with some interesting or representative excerpts:

From worldofwarcraft.com
Auction House Basics

Deposit Fees. All auctions will be initially charged a deposit fee. The deposit fee is refunded upon the successful sale of the item. All successful sales are charged an auction consignment fee which is extracted directly from the final sale price. All fees are higher in Gadgetzan.

Auction House Tips

Sound. You can hit control-s to disable the sound effects if someone is making really annoying sounds in the auction house. Don't forget to re-enable them after you leave.

From wowwiki.com
Auction House Formulas

Don't lower your starting bid below 70% of the suggested amount. (70% in a factioned auction house, 79% in the neutral house.) Otherwise you risk getting less money for an item than a normal merchant would give you.

The Dressing Room Feature from Patch 1.7

Other:
WorldofWar.net's Auction Houses Guide - Includes a link to Auction UIs/Mods

Bid increments are 5% of the current bid

When a bid is made a minute is added to the auction duration.

The Day the Auction House got Bought

Auction House Bomb Video

Two Magazine Updates

There are two updates to the Magazine world:

Computer Gaming World (Previous Introduction) Update: Big News CGW is transitioning to a new magazine this fall - "Games for Windows"

Becket's Massive Online Gamer Magazine (Previous Introduction) Update: Ouch! A review of the magazine from mmognation. I believe the words "Utter Crap" were used.

Amazon Now Says November

I keep checking Amazon to see if the release date for The Burning Crusade is updated. It's different on so many sites as wowinsider points out because the retailers are just guessing.

Recent Developments: wowvault says there was a blue post that Blizzard is looking at November 31st (31 days hath November? ha ha.). But it was this post (an obvious error) that made me peak at Amazon one more time to check out the release date.

Ooooh, it's updated. But not in a good way. Amazon was kind of an outlier by saying October. Now it says November. Again, I think this is just an updated guess based on the information you see in the posts above.

Underwater On the Tram

I remember the first day my friends showed me the deep run tram. We had played Night Elves in beta so I was NOT expecting this. I think I was sold on WoW for sure that day.

Anyway, I created yet another alt and was running her to Ironforge and I noticed that we went under water. So here are the pics:



I love this one. I imagine it was a pirate ship.... of unicorns... (check out the sail).

2006-August Events

Well it looks like August and September are shaping up to be uneventful...

From the Events Calendar for August:

Darkmoon Faire (Elwynn) August 7 - August 13

Call to Arms: Alterac Valley! August 4 - August 7

Call to Arms: Warsong Gulch! August 11 - August 14

Call to Arms: Arathi Basin! August 18 - August 21

During a Call to Arms, emmissaries from that Battleground will be found in the major cities, and honor/faction rewards for performing objectives in that battleground are increased.