Post Cataclysm Preparation

A Guest Post By Zenith of Zenith’s Round Table.

I want to thank Warcraftecon.com for organizing this event and giving me a shot at winning the TCG loot card regardless of the card type. I plan on giving the winning card to my wife as a X’mas gift as we may not be getting Cataclysm this year. We had to cancel out pre-order Collector’s Edition this past weekend as a result of unexpected family event.

Despite our family being in a crunch, this does not stop me from helping other from pursuing their WoW millionaire status. What this blog is about are my predictions of gold making the first 6 months of Cataclysm. I’m a regular contributor at The Consortium and most of the contents of this blog are from the collective discussions of my fellow Consortium members. For specific tip, check out the blog hub on WoW Econ Hub by P3P. Foo did a fantastic job of selecting the top 15 blog rolls out there and these bloggers know their stuff.

Week 1 (Starting from December 7)

A new dawn arises and people who are online will have their nose to the grind, yes, grinding out XP points, be it from level 80 to 85 or from level 1 on their goblin/worgen race or the new class combo. World and realm race/class first(s) would occur this week or even within the 1^st 3 days of release. Folks hitting 85 within the first week would be ~5% of population. Topics range from 450-525 profession power leveling to seasonal sales to tips and tricks.

Gold tips:

1. Start listing enchanting scrolls that carry pure stats: +10 stats to chest, +30 intellect to weapon, mongoose, etc. These are for folks needing enchant for their starter Cataclysm dungeon blues. One would need full set of upgrades before attempting Heroics and a full set of Heroic blues before hitting the first raid. Don’t forget the low level enchants for the new characters. In case you missed it, BC enchants can be used on a item level 35 gear which is usable on a level 38+ character. Wrath enchants can be used on an item level 60 gear which is usable on a 58+ character.
2. Gathering professions, mining, herbalist, skinner and (dis)enchanter, should sell all their raw materials for as much as possible. I would not be surprise a price of 75g/stack and upwards.
3. Crafting professions. Expect to drop 200k to 500k+ gold for realm profession first. I expect this to occur late week 1 or during week 2 and would expect no less than 20 folks per crafting profession competing for this title. Your goal is to get to the quest gated vendors so to be able to start crafting the pre-raid epics.
4. Review your market and start posting non-Cataclysm materials you had stockpiled (you did stockpile right?) at a controlled rate. You had hedged against inflation, now don’t wally-world your stock away.

Weeks 2-4

Majority of the folks who started the XP grind from 80 should have hit level cap, considering that the holiday season falls during this time frame. Winter Veil event is also occurring thus a lot of festivities and trade chat trolling. This means folks will be taking a breather break from XP grind and get their Violet proto drake achievement. I would expect the top guild on your server to start raiding within the month of release. These folks are highly organized thus enchants, gemming, and flasks will be self supplied.

Gold tips:

1. Don’t wait until Winter Veil to start selling your Red/Green Winter Clothes, Winter Boots, event pets, small eggs, ice cold milk and flask of port. Start now!
2. Gold tips from Week 1 still applies.
3. Crafting profession – you need to focus on getting tailoring spell threads, leather leg enchants, gems, Cataclysm enchant scrolls, flasks….everything a raid needs and start supplying. Time to make back your investments.

Months 2-4

Come January 2011, folks would have to head back to school and their day jobs. The dust should settle by now and folks will be back to the regular real life/WoW schedule phase. Guild progression raids should be on a regular schedule and the remaining of the 80s should hit 85. Folks who had planned to use the new goblin/worgen race for raids should also hit 85 during this time frame.

Gold tips:

1. I would expect the price of raw materials to start dropping as the supply increases. Continue to sell that ever you have. At some point you might want to start channeling a portion of your Cata materials for leveling your alts’ profession(s). Start at 10% and increase this as prices drop, you eventually want to position yourself in the crafting market.
2. Crafting profession – unfortunately there is no love for the crafter so early in the game. You get hit twice but with the level 84+ quest gated NPCs, I would expect you to have a head start on pre-raid recipes for 2-3 months. The market is all yours until other start leveling their 2nd toon up to level 84.

Months 4 to Summer 2011

Tier 11 content should start to be on farm status and we expect to hear about 4.1 patch and Tier 12.

Predictions: Small changes to crafting professions and some news which may affect your stockpile strategy.

Gold tip:

Time is money and not spending the time to read news and understanding your markets is not going to make you money. The AH is like a woman; you got to be with her, spend time with her, and get to know her…eventually she will bring you pleasu…..gold!

This post has been entered into the contest to win a TCG loot card. See this post for more details on how you can submit a guest post for a chance to win!