Should We Sell Glyphs in Warlords of Draenor?

     The world is ending! Warlords of Draenor will officially be removing all glyphs from the game, and inscription is going to be completely useless! ...That's if you believe what everyone is saying in guild chat. What is actually happening is a little more realistic. Blizzard announced a week or so ago in the Alpha Patch Notes that 86 glyphs would be removed from inscription crafting, and will be learned automatically when you reach a certain level. This will speed up the ease of learning WoW professions like inscription, give scribes fewer recipes to manage, and make it easier for new players to get up and going without requiring them to shell out 900 gold just after they bought their first mount. I have two main problems with this new system though: 1) Blizzard is removing even more glyphs than the list of those learned automatically, and 2) It's a massive decrease to demand.
     First, if you search through WoWHead, you'll see 444 Mist of Pandaria glyphs currently available to craft whereas if you head over to the WoD.WoWHead, there are 311 active Warlords of Draenor glyphs in the list. Luckily, Blizz gave us exactly what items they were changing so you can go through, compare the two with the announcement, and find the ones that they took out. Of the 86 announced autolearned glyphs, 3 are still craftable in the Alpha: Glyph of the Harsh Word, Glyph of Totemic Recall, and Glyph of Demon Training. An additional 47 have been removed (or will also be automatically learned) and are listed below

Glyph of Festering Blood
Glyph of Loud Horn
Glyph of Outbreak
Glyph of Unholy Frenzy
Glyph of the Long Winter
Glyph of Efflorescence
Glyph of Frenzied Regeneration
Glyph of Innervate
Glyph of Prowl
Glyph of Shred
Glyph of Aimed Shot
Glyph of Animal Bond
(replaced with Glyph of Burden of Guilt)
Glyph of Distracting Shot
Glyph of Scatter Shot

Glyph of Snake Trap
Glyph of Direction
Glyph of Marking
Glyph of Armors
Glyph of Evocation
Glyph of Mana Gem
Glyph of Loose Mana
Glyph of Mirror Image
Glyph of Divine Plea
Glyph of Hammer of the Righteous
Glyph of Holy Shock
Glyph of Inquisition
Glyph of Turn Evil
Glyph of Holy Nova
Glyph of Inner Fire
Glyph of Shifted Appearances

Glyph of Clash
Glyph of Expose Armor
Glyph of Redirect
Glyph of Sharp Knives
Glyph of Tricks of the Trade
Glyph of Hex
Glyph of Telluric Currents
Glyph of Curse of the Elements
Glyph of Soul Consumption
Glyph of Carrion Swarm
Glyph of Hamstring
Glyph of Heavy Repercussions
Glyph of Hoarse Voice
Glyph of Hold the Line
Glyph of Impaling Throws
Glyph of Incite

     This is just Alpha though and everything is subject to change. For instance, there are two Lightwell Glyphs, rather than having Lightwell (385) and Lightspring (255)...not gonna work. On the other hand, rather than having two glyph of Stampedes like we currently have (1 hunter and 1 druid) along with 1 Stampeding Roar, they're consolidating the Hunter one into a single better named Glyph of Stampeding Roar. While this type of consolidation is user friendly, it does mean fewer glyph sales for scribes.

     But really, take this list with a grain of salt because it could be further removals or just that WoWHead couldn't grab everything from the official database. It's Alpha. Everything is just a preview. What I'm really curious about though was their choice of glyphs for removal.

     It seems like Blizzard was going with the idea of removing the least essential glyphs, but it was worth checking to see if this was actually the case, so I did a test. I went through Icy-Veins and compiled a list of what glyphs each class requires and then cross-referenced that with the Alpha patch note announcement list to see what kind of an impact this would have on sales. Of the 86 announced, 31 were considered recommended or required for progression raiding; these are the ones people search for and buy. After the additional 47 listed above were added in, 28% of the glyphs recommended by top-tier raiders are either free or removed from the game. If any developers are reading, one problem that might need some immediate attention is Druid glyphs, as all four specs are currently only left with Grace, Stampeding Roar and Survival Instincts as viable choices for raiding.

...well, that and Glyph of the Orca.

So, we'll probably see a 30% initial drop in prices. Kathroman said it best on the Consortium Forums

Stage 1: DOOM! Scribes abandon the glyph market because it is sufficiently "ruined".
Stage 2: Plunder! Remaining scribes reap the rewards of an abandoned, but not "ruined" market.
Stage 3: Scramble! Scribes come flocking back to inscription when they see prices aren't in the toilet.
Stage 4: DOOM! Market is saturated with supply and prices DO fall. Fairweather scribes, believing their worst fears have been confirmed, leave the market again.
Stage 5: Normalization - Supply and demand stabilize, and the glyph market once again proves to be a reliable source of regular income.

     Whether you go with the flow or maintain your market is up to you, your competition, and your realm size. Although I'd like to point out that while supply and demand will stabilize, goldmakers will still leave the market whenever the opportunity cost is too high, so with so many fewer glyphs, and a set amount of gold per hour that we're expecting to make, we'll either be selling glyphs more rapidly in WoD or selling them at a much higher price. Otherwise, everyone would be a miner.

Conclusion
     So that's my gloom, doom, and rebound. With fewer glyphs, we will spend less time posting on the Auction House. Also, remember that in Warlords of Draenor every account on your server gets to level any of their lowbie alts to 90 and that those alts need a full set of glyphs. Additionally, think of all the scrub players who would have never opened their glyph tab before who will now have the pleasant reminder of "new glyph earned" and the joy/practice of switching out glyphs, so that they are now primed to buy where they otherwise would have just had blank glyph tabs. Yes, Blizzard is removing almost 50 more glyphs than they said they were and it will severely impact your raiding and goldmaking. However, as "dead" as inscription may be according to your guildmates, it might also be one of the most profitiable professions come WoD.

Thanks for reading my little WoW blog! You can follow me on Twitter here and Twitch here. My YouTube channel is growing and has lots of great guides over here. I recommend that all goldmakers download the TSM Suite and the UndermineJournalGE addon for all goldmakers. You can read my setup guide if you'd like. And remember that the key to making gold in WoW is just to 

Search. Craft. Post.

Every Day.

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Happy Birthday WTBGold! / Cold is Going Down

Have two quick announcements for everyone today.

SHOWDOWN
     First, Cold from Cold's Gold Factory was talking trash earlier on Twitter about how much better he is than me at Hearthstone

Less logic. Moar one shot.

     In his defense, he was totally right, BUT it gives us an opportunity to create a grudge out of nothing and give you guys a show! :-D So, we're going to stream a best-of-5 Hearthstone showdown between his Shaman deck and my Hunter deck on Saturday shortly after 7PM. You can follow us on Twitter (Cold - Reckles) to make sure you make it or just go Subscribe to me on Twitch.tv/WTBGold. Clearly the best class in Hearthstone against a few totems...I wish him luck.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
     Secondly, it's WTBGold's birthday today! A little over a year ago, I wanted to start sharing my ideas on WoW goldmaking so I asked Jim over at PowerWord:Gold if he had any tips. Turns out he's written a whole post on how to start a blog. When I started my first big post was Standard Deviation and You and I was absolutely thrilled (like, mind blown) when it got retweeted and got 7 views. Since then WTBGold has spread out into YouTube, gained 2000 followers there, and is just about to break the half a million view mark. More importantly, I'm having a blast sharing things with you guys because that's why I'm writing. Also, I've had the opportunity to meet and raid with some of the people I looked up to like Faid, Stede, Matticus, and PhatLewts with the first annual Gold Raid. It's been a whirlwind and I'm grateful for everyone who's reading, whether you've been with us from the start or just started following. :) Got a lot in the pipeline, so you should be expecting a lot in the coming month. If you have an RSS feed, go ahead and click our button for that. Otherwise, see y'all on Saturday for some Epic Hearthstone action,  and you should see an awesome skinning guide coming out in the next couple days.

Thanks for reading my little WoW blog! You can follow me on Twitter here and Twitch here. My YouTube channel is growing and has lots of great guides over here. I recommend that all goldmakers download the TSM Suite and the UndermineJournalGE addon for all goldmakers. You can read my setup guide if you'd like. And remember that the key to making gold in WoW is just to 

Search. Craft. Post.

Every Day.

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The Vendor Trash Gold Guide (20,000g/week from Grays)

     Hey there, gold makers! Today I'm going to be sharing a little secret with you that I've had in my goldmaking routine for a while now, and have been using to bring in an extra 20,000g to 30,000g per week. I've had fun, but it's time to share the magic. Turns out, you can make gold, and a ton of it, just by selling vendor grays for ridiculous prices on the Auction House.

Farewell, Gnimo! We won't be needing you anymore.

      Initially, I just put everything into a 1,000 gold group, and things sold. But then, either on a whim or out of curiosity, I started testing and came up with the price discrimination setup you see below. Price discrimination is where charge more for the same thing, but if someone can pay more and is willing to, you might as well let them, right? (Think Airplane tickets, some people pay $400 while some pay $199. Same flight).  I'm sure the specific numbers would vary depending on the server size, but the whole point of this is capitalizing on curiosity and accidental purchases.

     Open world farming is awful for grays, so head to dungeons. If you're farming just for grays, then I only recommend doing 1 run of each of the following six instances, but if you're also going for cloth, mats, and transmog, then go ahead and do 3-5 of each of these, although be warned that multiple runs of six dungeons will take a while. Otherwise, it's pretty quick. The goal of this route is a shotgun approach; you're not going to get all of one kind, but you're going to get a few from each expansion's vendor list. (i.e. Most of the vendor greys from the Wrath of the Lich King have a "Frozen/Frigid/Frost XXX" theme)

Also, the Crochet Hat looks amazing if you're a fisherman.

     Each of the following dungeons will require at least 40 free bag slots, so have room. To start head off to Deadmines located in Southern Westfall, then run Uldaman in northern Badlands, and then head over to Zul'Farrak which you can get to easiest from the Uldum portal. After you mail your ZF stuff in Gadgetzan, MAKE SURE to do the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj located in Silithus. One run through there will usually net about 20 unique vendor greys! Follow that up with Tempest Keep: Botanica out in eastern Netherstorm (it's the northern ship) and Halls of Lighning in Storm peaks.

      I avoid Mist of Pandaria and Cata content just because the vendor loot there are things that people see or remember, and therefore recognize as trash, whereas some of this is less recognizable, and when you post it for 3,000g, has the same effect as things like the Ruby Shades, which sell regularly for 17,000g, despite being white items. It makes people wonder, "Is this something being taken out of the game? What the heck, I have 300k gold."

     One last thought before I share my TradeSkillMaster Import lists. If you're a terrible person, you can set the Codex of Greater Heal and similar items at the same prices as the corresponding glyphs on your realm and unfortunate newbies will buy them. [Go to the Crafting tab of TSM, the nuts and bolts icon, click on materials, scroll down until you find Codex of Greater Heal, and then right click and enter in dbmarket(item:21284) ] made a decent chunk off this until my conscience got the better of me. Better to just post them for 1,000g as "Memories of Yesteryear's Patches." People still buy. (meh, probably still newbie mistakes)

TSM 2.0 Import Group Items
1. Vendor 1000 gold
     This group is your run of the mill items. Wicked Claw, Troll Sweat, and Protective Pavise. Fun or good looking items, but nothing you would write home for. For all of these, keep a post cap of 1, a high minimum price 50% of each groups normal price, and have a maximum of about 50% over. So, for this group my setup is 595g min, 995g normal, 1595g max. It's still somewhat arbitrary, play around on your server's economy.

11384,11385,11391,11392,11394,11395,13824,1504,1506,1507,1520,18222,18223,18224,18512,19938,21222,21224,21225,21281,21284,21285,21287,21289,21297,21299,21302,21307,22525,25374,25375,25376,25377,25397,25399,25418,25421,25426,25428,33424,33426,36801,3779,3780,3784,3785,3793,3794,3800,3802,3804,3806,3950,39513,3962,3964,3966,3967,3968,3986,4017,4021,4022,4023,4093,4582,4784,4787,4867,5114,6293,7073,8146,8747,90792

2. Vendor 2000 gold
     Here, you have the same general level of mediocrity as group 1, but these are either a little bit cooler looking, a little bit cooler sounding, or they're rarer/harder to get.

11404,13819,21226,2215,25380,25403,25404,3300,33368,33370,33379,33382,33383,33398,33400,33401,33402,33414,33415,33417,33422,33423,33425,33428,33429,33434,33436,3809,3811,39209,39210,39512,4025,43852

3. Vendor 3000 gold
     I reserve this group for the best pieces - the quality junk that people will really go for, and even though the 2000 gold group is my largest, I get a higher percentage of sales from this group. This is mainly composed of items that would be great transmog gear if you could transmog grays. As such, they're mainly RP items. Things like the Red Defias Mask are fabulous sellers and I'll consistantly sell at least one of those a week. You can find it in Deadmines.

11386,11393,1495,1498,1513,1514,21223,25341,25345,25347,25348,25357,25360,25363,25391,25393,25400,25402,3782,3786,3787,3936,3938,3940,3941,4018,56035,67407,7997,8151,8749,8751,9242

     That's all, good luck in your farming and let me know how you do!

Thanks for reading my little WoW blog! You can follow me on Twitter here and Twitch here. My YouTube channel is growing and has lots of great guides over here. I recommend that all goldmakers download the TSM Suite and the UndermineJournalGE addon for all goldmakers. You can read my setup guide if you'd like. And remember that the key to making gold in WoW is just to 

Search. Craft. Post.

Every Day.

Yep, this was the best April Fools Day trick I could muster. Funny thing is, you'll still make 20,000g-50,000g from transmog, rare items, and battle pets if you do this run that I "made up" for this April Fools day gag, because it's actually what I use for farming a large of diverse gear from multiple ranges. (I try and take care of my readers even when I play a joke on em) Thanks for reading and good luck! 4-2

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