Rep and Gold From Skyguard Quests

Right now, the Holy Grail of World of Warcraft is getting an epic flying mount. A massive 280% speed increase, and the added bonus of being able to avoid troublesome ground paths and mobs entirely! No wonder everyone wants one.

To get one, you must first be exalted with the Sha'tari Skyguard faction of Shattrath. Now, grinding rep with them is a little different, because it is done mainly through "daily quests", which are quests that can be done every day, but only once each day. They give not only Skyguard rep, but also 12+ gold per quest! Do the 4 daily quests each day, and you're looking at a lot of gold! Of course, this is intentional, because it takes 5000 gold to get the epic flying mount. By the time you get Exalted with Skyguard, you'll have earned a ton of gold.

First thing to do is complete Threat From Above in Terokkar, to join the Skyguard. Then, simply do each quest every day. Here are the 4 main Skyguard quests, linked to Thottbot. There are more quests that can be repeated each day; I will be adding them soon enough.

Skyguard quests: Fires Over Skettis, Escape From Skettis, Bomb Them Again, Wrangle More Rays.

Grinding Scryer Rep

The Scryer are one of 2 factions that you will have to choose to be friends with in Shattrath, in Terokkar Forest. The main benefit to getting Exalted with one faction or the other is that they sell some pretty nice gear at that level! Plus, the grind up to Exalted will load you with lots of money, and tons of experience!

I recently did a post on the official forums about this, but here it is in a more convenient location.

To get to Honored with the Scryers, you need to turn in Firewing Signets. The best way to get them is to head over to Terokkar's Firewing Point. These mobs, especially the casters, are very squishy, and you'll go through them like butter at high level 60s or 70. Being humanoid, they drop cloth and silver, as well as occasional greens. Bonus! Turn these in to the quest giver on the Scryer section of Shattrath.

For getting to Revered and Exalted, you need Sunfury Signets and Arcane Tomes. The various manaforges in Netherstorm have mobs for the signets (Blood Knights, Bloodwarders, any other Sunfury mobs). There are lots of forges to choose from, so finding one for yourself shouldn't be too hard. They all drop Sunfury Signets often enough to farm effectively. They will also occasionally drop the Tomes!

Don't forget, rep items can be bought easily. Everyone (you included) probably has rep items for the other faction. Don't junk or vendor them. Sell them, or trade them to other players. They're probably holding on to rep items they have no use for, too! Best place to look for deals like this Shattrath, in Terokkar.

Netherweb Spider Silk

Netherweb Spider Silk is needed in almost every Tailoring recipe above 350. This stuff is particularly hard to get (unless you read this!), so a lot of players resort to simply buying it.

Now, one good place to get it is in Terokkar Forest. My favorite spot is the little green strip of land on the East side of the Bone Wastes. Look for Allerian Stronghold on your map, and then follow the mountain range south, and you should see it. There are more spiders here than elsewhere in Terokkar. However, the drop rate is rather low, and it is very often farmed. But even a low amount of silk will sell for a pretty penny!

Now, if you happened to be able to go into the Caverns of Time, I suggest the Black Morass. Look for Blackfang Tarantulas. Like most non-elite instance mobs, they give no rep per kill. Worthless, right? Wrong! They have a decent chance of dropping Netherweb Spider Silk! And the best part is, there is no competition if you're farming in an instance. These mobs are only 67-69; very easy for a level 70 rip through. If you kill them all, just reset the instance. When you're bags are full, hit the Auction House. Don't be afraid to undercut the competition to sell! When you sell all of yours, that negligible loss of gold won't even matter. Happy farming!

Give Me Direction

It occurs to me that I have no idea what level my readers are. Should I focus more on 60+ info, 70 info, lower than 60, a mix of both? Give me direction, folks. With so much info available, I need a way to refine my posts! Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday -- it was the 4th of July, after all. I was out and about most of the day. Hope you all had a safe and happy 4th! No worse injury for a WoW player than losing a finger. =)

Skinning for Gold in Winterspring

Any area that has an excess of animal mobs is a great place to skin. Lately, Nagrand in Outlands has been getting a lot of attention, and rightly so, as it is simply amazing for high-level skinners.

But what if you aren't a high-level skinner? Where can you go to raise your skill quickly, and earn some decent gold at the same time? Try Winterspring! Shardtooth Bears (and Elder Shardtooths more specifically) can be skinned here for Rugged Leather and Warbear Leather. Remember what I mentioned in a previous post: lower level craft items sell even more well than higher ones, because there are simply more lower-level crafters. Head to Winterspring with some nearly empty bags, fill up, and go hit that auction house. Remember, if you're a Leatherworker too, you can turn that leather into other items that may sell even higher than the leather alone. Know your market, and do some research before unloading it all. And remember, let people KNOW it's for sale in the /trade channel!

May the Grind Be With You - Shadowmoon Valley's Legion Hold

So, I'm currently in the middle of grinding for Aldor rep, and I've discovered my favorite place to grind that, experience, and items: The Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but it bears going over in more detail.

If you're melee, you want to go after the Wrathwalkers. They hit me (warri0r) for about 80-100 each hit, without a shield. They attack slowly, and other than they only cast one spell, maybe once per battle, and it can be easily interrupted. They have low armor and low HP, and I have been cutting through them in under 10 seconds, usually. They drop Marks of Sargeras, which is what I was there for. But they also drop Netherweave like candy -- I got 100 pieces in an hour. I also got 3 decent greens.

I only ever saw a few other people here, and even if there are, there are tons of mobs. Casters, you can probably focus on whichever mobs you want. Just be warned, the Terrormasters cast fear sometimes, which can run you into more mobs, even when they're spaced out as they are here. Otherwise, these mobs are unremarkable in their abilities.

Ranging in level from 67 to 68, this is a great place to farm gold (especially if Netherweave sells well on your server, and it does on most!), and simply grind out levels. I was hitting about 110k xp/hour. Plus, there are Horde/Alliance areas nearby, if you need to junk vendor trash, mail stuff to your banker, or buy more food/water.

A Typical Day in the Auction House

My Auctioning on Monday-Thursday is fairly limited. On any given day I scan the Auction House about 3 times: morning, afternoon, night. After each scan, I immediately check for auctions almost finished, and place my bids if the profit is high enough. On Friday afternoon/evening, I do a scan and put up everything I have. This is when the most players will be logging on for the weekend. I do the same on Saturday evening and Sunday evening.

Having just moved to the Kil'Jaeden server, I'm still feeling out the economy. With my current data, the top profiting items are always "Savory Deviate Delight", because my data is not built up enough. It's very frustrating, actually, having the market skewed like this. In time, and with more data, it will reflect correct market information. Until then, I'm walking carefully so I don't get burned. Still, I've made about 150g profit on very modest auctioneering in a couple of weeks. This number has gone a lot higher, but I'm back to work for the summer and working on leveling my main, so I'm not in profit-overdrive. Once I hit 70 and need money for the epic flying mount, THEN I'll be having some fun, and probably do a more detailed log of my auctions.

In my experience, the highest profit items are almost always blues, and crafting items, usually in stacks.

I check the blue items for how often they've been seen at Auction - items that have only been seen a few times are either rare, or just very poor sellers that people know better than to put up. Or, they can been seen many times, in which case they either move very quickly, or barely at all; either case will have it appearing in many scans. So, it does take a little bit of market knowledge to know what's in demand. The easiest way to gauge blues is to just look at the item. If it's a great item, take it. If it's something you'd probably never want on a character, let it be. Some blues are just not that good. One important thing to remember is that if you're putting a blue item up is that you'll be paying a lot in deposits, and you aren't likely to sell the item in the first few auctions. They do take some time to move. To avoid the fee, I usually check the Auction House for duplicates, and unless they're priced too low for me to undercut, I advertise in the /trade channel that I'm selling one for cheaper than the Auction House. If you don't have time to sit around and do that, just post that you're putting it up for auction at less than all the other competition. Be patient! Wait for the weekend to sell -- more people are on, more money is moving. If someone undercuts you, or a bidding war drives down prices, wait for them to come back up. I've got a level 70 blue dagger that I'm waiting to sell, because the prices have dropped from 100+ gold to 40 gold! I could still profit if I sold it at 40 (I bought it very low), but I'll make much more if I wait for prices to go up. If you see an item is going to become harder to get in the next patch, or have its stats boosted, BUY IT. Prices are going to go up.

The other items I make the most profit off of are generally stackable items like Nexus Crystals, other enchanting items, crafting items, and recipes. Buy low, sell high, simple enough. I bought a stack of 4 Nexus Crystals yesterday for about 20 gold. I broke the stack into singles, and sold them each for about 10 gold, which was still 2 gold under the market. When you buy in stacks, it's easier to sell them individually, because people don't have to buy more than they want.

Any time I buy items, I advertise the better deals in /trade. Some people just aren't browsing the Auction House when you're on, and you don't want to miss them, so spend at least a couple minutes doing this. Also, keep your eye on the trade channel yourself. Some good deals can be found there!

When I play the Auction House, I generally do most of my buying/bidding on high profit items, as I just started new on the server and don't have as much money as I'd want if I'm going to buy tons of items. Still, the better option is generally to buy even the low-profit items, so long as you buy according to market needs. The gold does add up, and fast. Don't be afraid to try moving new items. But I do advise that you find a niche and corner it. Specialize in certain items that you KNOW sell well. If it's a small market, monopolize it. If you're the only one ever offering the item, you can set the price. I'm thinking of doing that with a couple of blues I'm seeing fairly often, but it's a significant investment, so I'm not decided yet.

When I'm done hawking my items or sharking others, I get on a different character and check some vendors for recipes and the like (see my PPP posts). Usually I can snag at least a couple, and I send them to my banker to sell.

I'll do a more detailed post when I have the time to sell more, and a better idea of Kil'Jaeden's economy!