Phase 3: Profit !

Author’s Edit: Apparently, as CJ pointed out in the comments to this post, the ZG lockout has not been reduced and I was mistaken. Consequently, it looks like everything in the post is wrong. I feel like a dummy for putting up an incorrect post, but with all the 4.0 changes, I got overwhelmed and made a mistake. I’m tempted to delete the post, but for the sake of a little bit of tough love, I’ll leave it up, look like a boob, and take my medicine. Sorry for any confusion, Dear Reader.

Early in the evening/morning of this, the first day of 4.0.1, I went into ZG to take another shot at getting the Tiger Mount. I went in, didn’t get the drop, and left. Then, just out of curiosity, I took a look at my raid panel. After about a half hour of messing around in ZG, I got out, and this is what my raid browser said:

What?! 4 hours and change! Does that mean that ZG is on a 5 hour lockout? Is this a stealth-nerf? I didn’t hear about this, but maybe I’m out of the loop. Or, possibly, I’m the first to notice it. In any case, I imagine that this is one last cookie that Blizz is throwing our way, in hopes of getting us to go into ZG. For all of us AHers, this just means that we have 800% more access to ZG and all the stuff that you should be selling that drops in there.

So go into ZG! It’s even easier now. Go, farm stuff, and sell it. Until Auctioneer is fixed for 4.0, this is a bigger hassle than in the past. However, Auctionator works, and that’s a fine addon in and of itself.

GL! /bow

Everyone else has used this image, so why not?

It is widely speculated that patch 4.0.X will begin tomorrow.* That gives us about 12-14 hours to enjoy the vanilla world as we know it. The Cataclysm probably begins tomorrow.

With the end coming, why not spend a few hours seeing some of the old content, and wrapping up a few gold-making loose ends in the old world? No reason not to! So here’s a short list of a few things that you can do, at 80, in the next few hours, to make a little gold and have a little fun in the old world:

(1) Go into Zul’Gurub: This has been well covered already. It’s not clear if ZG is gone with Cataclysm or with 4.0.X. I imagine that it will come with Cataclysm, so you still have a few more weeks of trying to get the tiger mount and failing. With that said, it’s a gorgeous instance, you should see it while it’s still there, and there’s lots of money to be made there.

(2) Go Kill a Dragon: There is, arguably, nothing more emblematic of the Vanilla experience than the four world-boss Dragons: Whatshisname’gos, Whose-e-whats’gos, Forgotthename’gos, Thatotherone’gos, and the venerable Azuregos.

All kidding about names aside, these guys are on a long cooldown, and one of them is in the world at a time. Ie: every X amount of time, one of them spawns, much like every other world boss in the game. Back when purples were Holy-Jeebus-Purples!, and Hunters had to walk to school and back uphill both ways, some of the truly elite aspects of WoW went through these dragons. While those days are long gone, the dragons remain.

Another thing that remains? A few low drop-rate items on the loot tables of the dragons. The one that jumps out at me is Schematic: Lifelike Mechanical Toad. However, there are a few other goodies on there too. That schematic is worth a few thousand gold on any server, and regularly runs around 5,000 g on my server. There are a bunch of other valuable things as well.

These bosses have a very interesting bunch of lore behind them, and they’re almost certainly gone in Cataclysm. Also, don’t try to solo them- they have mechanics that require at least 3 well-geared players. (Unless you’re a hunter with way too much time on your hands.) But go try to kill them, have fun, see the fight, and maybe get lucky and make some gold.

Side note: A while ago, this was going to be my submission to Markco’s Blog Carnival, re: Turning 1,000g into 2,000g. I figured that everyone would cover the obvious things (ie: Cold recommending the Saronite Shuffle), so I was trying to think of something outside the box, and fun. So this was my idea- find a few 80s, pay them 25g to head out and kill the thing with you, and offer a 100g bonus each if the Toad Schematic drops. By my math, that costs (with 4 other people) 100g total, 500g if you get the drop worth 5,000g, and at worst leaves you 900g to play around with and use the rest of the strategies on. That was my wonky, “Turn 100g into 2,000g-5,000g” idea for Markco. However, we had site issues and I couldn’t write it up in time. So here it is, in all it’s glory- better late than never, I guess?

(3) Go Get a Chimerachop: Getting the book involves a long, involved quest chain. You have to go into BWL, among other things. However, the island that is part of this chain is going away, so go do this quest. This recipe is going, going, gone. Seriously. Right now this thing sells for 10k gold. Get some friends and go do it. Tonight.

(4) Go farm crimson whelplings: These guys are a great money-maker Just kidding! Did you, Dear Reader, seriously think I’d recommend this? Shame!

(4a) Duck into Dire Maul: While you’re out, killing dragons (#2) and getting chops (#3), duck into the Dire Maul Arena. This is the area outside of the actual instance, by the front entrance to Dire Maul. One of the two rare-spawn mobs may have spawned in there. If one has, kill him and loot for a chance at an Orb of Deception. It has a low drop rate, but you’re out there anyway, so you might as well take a look. It’s a shot at a quick 1,000g.

(5) Get Your Glyphs in Order: Spend an hour buying, selling, and taking are of your glyphs. At this point, it’s probably too late to sell anything on the AH that will become a Charred Glyph. But it’s a good idea to get a few stacks of glyphs ready if you’re in that market. As we’ve covered on Call to Auction, the QA3 addon is going away, and it will behoove you to be ahead of the general market re: glyphs. (At the very least, buy one of every relevant glyph for yourself now. The market will be all over the place for the next few days.)

In closing, most of this stuff will take a significant amount of /AFK flying time. Also, putting together a dragon or chimerachop group can be a hassle. But it’s a bunch of old content that’s going away, so enjoy it while you can.

GL! /bow

*Speculation is so rampant that you can go to almost any major blog- MMOChampion, WoWInsider, etc.- and see some reference to 4.0.X coming this Tuesday. Normally I try to be factual when making declarative statements, but in this case, I don’t think a link/cite is necessary… because speculation really is that rampant! (I know that’s a tautology, but that’s the state of WoW blogs in this area, at least today.)

Today, Monday, October 4, 2010, we received an official Cataclysm expansion release date: December 7, 2010. We also know that Patch 4.0.X will come ahead of Cataclysm, changing the world in anticipation of the expansion. The end, Dear Reader, is nigh. The game as you know it, that you’ve been playing for almost a decade (I’m rounding up), is going away in a few weeks. And you can make money on this.

We’ve talked about it on the Call To Auction podcast (subscribe on ITunes/Zune!), but I’ve not yet written about it, so here’s a sure-fire money maker: go farm Zul’Gurub. Seriously. Go do it right now. Kill everything in there and loot, loot, loot!

Why? Well, there are a bunch of reasons. First of all, ZG is going away. In Cata, it’s not going to be there in the same fashion as it is currently (ie: a 20-man instance). It may still exist in some watered-down, part-of-the-zone fashion- we can’t be sure about that yet. However, the ZG that so many know and love is gone in a few weeks. So the best reason to go farm it is to see it now, before it no longer exists. It is a truly gorgeous instance, and one that I’ve come to love over the past few months.

But why have I been in there so much, you ask? Because there’s gold to be made! First of all, there are two bosses that have a very small chance to drop mounts: the Raptor mount and the Tiger mount. They’re both gorgeous. The drop is pure RNG, and since I have the Baron’s mount, I seem to be unable to get either of the ZG mounts to drop. While that has nothing to do with making gold, it is still a good reason to head into ZG.

But if you want gold? Well, because the instance is going away, the corresponding reputation achievement, Hero Of The Zandalar Tribe, is also going away. It’s going to be a Feat of Strength in Cata. This means that everyone and their mother(s) are grinding Zandalar rep right now. Zandalar rep is achieved by killing mobs in ZG, but also is achieved by turning in items that drop only in ZG- various Hakkari Coins and Bijous.

The Coins and Bijous drop frequently off of trash mobs and bosses, so you can farm them even if you can’t solo a boss in ZG. The coins are going for 1g-4g each, and the Bijous are going for upwards of a whopping 20g each! Furthermore, they are selling like hotcakes! Demand for these items is very high, as folks are trying to knock out the Zandalar rep while they still have the chance.

Here’s the take-away: Go farm ZG, right now! If you don’t have a tank spec, this could make some of the bosses difficult. But no matter what, if you have a level 80 toon, you’ll make great gold per hour by farming ZG and selling what drops.

Normally I’m not one to recommend farming, but this opportunity is just too juicy. Seriously, go do it. Now is the chance. If you’re spending your time running in circles around a zone (Sholazar-Un’Goro-wherever) to farm nodes, you’re losing money. Every second in ZG will make you more money for the next few weeks.

So seriously, go farm ZG! Right now!

(Also, I’ve totally ignored the potential to get the Turtle Book off of the optional boss, Gahz’ranka, and the potential to get a pet. The book and/or pet will sell for thousands of gold each in the next few weeks, making this an even more desirable place to farm. Plus, you get all the greens that you can handle, as well as vendor trash and souldbound items to disenchant or vendor. So even if you get unlucky with drops, you’ll still have a chance to make good gold per hour in there.)

GL! /bow