Countdown Begins

Well, it's been formally announced that Arena Season 10 will end on November 29th, so it seems reasonable to start the countdown to 4.3 now.  Here's a look at gold blogs around the web this week:


Alto
Today is Veterans Day (Armistice Day in some countries).  Armistice Day coincides with the end of hostilities in the First World War.  It's a day we honor those veterans who have served.  My grandfather served aboard the Destroyer USS Ault in WW2 in the Pacific theater of operations for the US Navy.  The Ault joined Naval Task Force 38 in December of 1944 shortly after TF38 had encountered Typhoon Cobra.  He watched the Japanese sign the articles of surrender from the helm of the USS Ault, as she laid anchored next to the USS Missouri in the harbor.  He later served in Korea and then ran a civil engineering firm for 25 years.  He passed away about 5 years ago.  He never told me much about his time serving, but my dad related a lot of stories to me after he died.  My humble gratitude extends to the men and women of the armed forces who defend the innocent from aggression.

Alto has a great collection of special offers for our veterans in the USA - go check it out.


Xsinthis
A great piece of highly recommended work by Xsinthis - an analysis of survey results reveals interesting facts about goblins - whether they raid, pvp, both, what resources they use, and how liquid wealth is distributed among repsondents.  This is a must read.


Faid
Forewarned is ... well, I forgot how it goes, but you get it.  Faid delivers a video review of the wow-crusher addon with no punches held.


Faid
Though you guys know I can't recommend inscription without glyphs, I can understand Faid's frustrations with them - they're all too common in competitive glyph markets.  I didn't get a  chance to check out the video, but have a look and tell me what you think about Faid's recommendations for running inscription without glyphs.


Kuja
I have to give it to Kuja, he has a knack for sniffing out a niche.  While making Origami gizmos isn't going to make you rich, it's a great way to have fun with your gold-making and get your feet wet with using Trade Chat to drive sales.  I just wish I knew what his next big secret was that he teased us with - I guess we'll have to wait :P


Wes
Wes touches on one of the several softer points of gold-making - consistency and endurance.  Being able to set realistic limits and goals for the time you spend making gold is critical to enjoying yourself.  Having a consistent routine is what sets goblins apart from the guys who run hot, burn out, and never make any real progress in their auctioneering.


Xsinthis
Xsinthis talks about how to prioritize stockpiling.  A lot of bloggers are capped, and I find that capped bloggers aren't as useful to new players.  You see them talking about stockpiles and patch speculation and how many GBank tabs they have of Leather or Ore or whatever.  X brings it back with a clear, bullet-point priority list - and guess what's at the top?  Diversity.  To be clear - X talks about long-term stockpiling, not keeping a nice cushion of mats for everyday operations (which is important).  SO go check out his post and start leveling those toons.


Gold Queen
Old tip, I know, but it's worth a reminder.  My advice?  If you have a max level Blacksmith, get off your butt and grind out the weapons patterns from the Molten Front.  The new 5-man heroics in 4.3 will have a 365 ilvl requirement, and the crafted weapons will represent a very much needed missing link in the gearing chain to anyone leveling an alt.  Think about it - grats on 85 - ready to grab a 365 weapon and start gearing up?  Yesplz.  Oh and PS - with all heroic dungeons rewarding ~140 VP in 4.3, expect the average dungeon time to drop significantly.  Most people will grind out their Valor in the original cata heroics, so I expect orbs to drop a bit in value.  having a blacksmith allows you to capitalize on this.  And Alchemists - blacksmiths will need your truegold for those weapons.


MoxNix
It's an honest mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.  MoxNix presumes that the campers we deal with are legit.  I can assure you that not all campers are legit.  Quite a few are bots.  My advice for dealing with a camped market?  Nuke it or ignore it, and focus your effeorts elsewhere.  Nuking is just posting a couple cycles worth of goods on a 48-hour auction just above mats cost.  Ignoring can be good, too.  In either case, you're probably just gonna have to wait it out and find another market to focus on for your bread and butter.  MoxNix does spend some time talking about some semi-advanced TSM features, though, so check it out if you're interested.


Flux
Flux gives us a very prudent heads-up that switching Alchemy speciliazations in 4.3 will be much more costly than the standard fee we're used to.  Go have a look at the new tax Blizzard is placing on alchemists, and start making some Truegold for all the guys who don't pay attention now and switch to transmute spec later.


Jafo
For a nice recap of the new and improved Darkmoon Faire coming in 4.3, check out Jafo's latest post.


Kaliope
Kaliope gives us an in-depth preview of the quests coming in the new Darkmoon Faire in 4.3.  High quality stuff, as always, from Kaliope.


The Consortium
Another quality guide at The Consortium Forums courtesy Gimp.  Integrating add-ons to form a smooth routine is something that every true goblin must do.  Gimp gives a great guide and video on how to setup and use his favorite system.  Worth a look - even if you are all setup in your routine.


The Consortium
An old, but good post on how to avoid getting hacked by Zero.  My brother was hacked a couple months ago and we lost hundreds of thousands of gold and inventory.  I can't stress enough how important it is to take precautions.


The Consortium
Abeni's post on selling opposite faction Argent Tournament pets gets necro'd.  It's still a nice way to make some really sweet pocket change, especially with all the buzz surrounding pets created by MoP.