Cataclysm: Start with what you know

As we head into the final days of wrath and look towards (re)starting our business in cata - I want to take a look at ways to make gold with knowledge you already have. Originally I was going to discuss this within the confines of Inscription my last post, but it's worth taking a more broad look.

Abbreviated Inscription: Lich King Edition

Inscription is currently my main gold making mechanism. I'm not sure of its long term usefulness - cata will surely change how scribes make their money, either for better or worse, and I'm honestly not sure of my personal interest/investment level in it staying consistent. Right now it takes up the bulk of my time - but again, bulk is relative. Right now I'm investing probably between 2 and 5 hours a week to inscription. Let's take a look at some of the key points of what I've been doing these past few months in lich king, and then I'll speculate a bit on what this means come cata.

Weekly Recap: 11/21/2010 - 11/27/2010

Had a bit of a busy week towards the end of this past week - didn't find myself online much and got a bit lazy with my gold making and my posting. Fortunately it didn't affect my income that much. I was disappointed in not being able to update more frequently - and I'll be posting a bit more the rest of this week to make up for it. Now on to the recap!

Cataclysm Essentials [3/3]: Leftovers

As Cataclysm draws near, I've been recapping my focus points for expansion preparation. In today's last installment, I'll talk about all the other "little things" that I've been making sure I have covered so I'm all ready to go.

Cataclysm Essentials [2/3]: Stockpiling

Yesterday we talked about stockpiling quests to get you ready for Cataclysm. Today I want to talk very briefly about 4 key things that I'll personally be stockpiling, that I think everyone should be doing, regardless of their other strategies.

Cataclysm Essentials [1/3]: Quests

This seems to be a pretty big topic lately. There's already some very excellent blog posts on the matter. Some are extremely comprehensive, to say the least.

I will be spending much of this week in game prepping my new raiding toon for the expansion, so I'm here to offer my own series of insights into what I'm doing to get ready for Cataclysm.

Weekly Recap: 11/14/2010 - 11/20/2010

Going to try and make this a recurring thing, simply for my own records. This should give any of my readers an idea on the returns I'm getting with my proposed strategies, as well.

Daily Routine

For me having a daily routine is very important. It means that I start out every session with a game plan, and on days where I can't devote more than a few minutes of quick time, I still come out with a tidy profit.

There's 2 big things that my daily routine offers me:
(1) Sets realistic expectations
(2) Ensures I'm not "lost" making gold

Diversity

Diversity is important in WoW, in gold making, and in what you do in game. Without diversity a player becomes bored with the game. Run Violet Hold 20 times in a row and tell me that you're thrilled at the end (or start) of each one.

In the same token buyers will become "bored" with markets. They might be dying for 4 netherweave bags today, but you can't expect them to need another 4 day in and day out. And obviously the auction house in particular has tens if not more competitors in every market trying to lure your potential buyers away for something more interesting (see: cheaper).

Vendor Flipping

A common theme in gold making, and a great one to start with if you're on a limited time budget, is the purchasing of vendor items and flipping them on the auction house. There are a bunch of these vendors all over the place. For example, here's a guide on all the limited supply vendors in outland  alone.

The focus for today's post is on two specific vendors, who can be accessed quickly and repeatedly for some easy, consistent gold.

First Post / Welcome!

Welcome to "Abbreviated WoW" - first here's a little info about me, and what this blog is about.

I'm currently a fresh out of college 20-something, who much like a lot of you, finds himself with a lot less time on his hands than he used to. Less time for gaming, less time for sleeping. Plenty of time to work overtime though!

Less time and more responsibility for me meant figure out what I really wanted to accomplish, both in terms of real life and in terms of WoW. I've gone from playing far, far too much (40-50 hours a week), down to about 15 hours a week of game time. This is still a lot by some people's standards, but when it comes down to more time consuming popular activities such as raiding, levelling alts, or making gold - it certainly adds a fun twist to things.

The focus of this blog will be, hopefully, a series of tips on how to play the game on a semi-abbreviated schedule. The two key topics will be gold making and raiding, with a fairly up front focus on the former. The idea of this is that we've all read hundreds of blogs and posts on how to gear up, how to make gold, how to farm, but a lot of us don't have time to execute these strategies to the fullest.

If you're looking for something comprehensive, by all means please look elsewhere. Otherwise, stick around for some quick, easy to follow tips for Cataclysm and perhaps beyond!