[Note - this is the fourth post in a series covering Thursday through the weekend]
Saturday morning got off to a bad start. Auction House sales were light on both the alliance and horde side. Happy and Lost were not that concerned as it was about time for players to take a collective breath from the leveling and reputation grinds and dungeons and heroics and profession skilling etc etc etc. Players were taking stock and simply weren't buying at the same levels as before.
That gave Rakta and Melasahnd a chance to move some stock through the neutral AH. Strange dust was still cheap on the alliance side and very profitable on the horde side so a lot of dust was moved to where it would bring the most profit. Also going from alliance to horde were eight stacks of infinite dust. Lost got a bonanza on Thursday when all that infinite dust showed up at under a gold apiece. They sell for around five gold apiece on the horde side.
In all the months of transferring stuff through the neutral Auction House, there has never been an "accident." This time, someone was targeting infinite dust. As the eight stacks of dust appeared on the neutral AH, posted automatically by Rakta all at once, they were immediately snapped up by someone else. Melasahnd frantically tried to capture them, but managed to get only one stack. Seven stacks equal 140 dust and at 1g cost each plus a loss of 5g each from the hoped for sales, it was a total loss of 840 gold. It was probably done using an automatic setting in an AH addon, but in that case the buyer would still have had to be in game and have the Auction House window open. I'm sure there are illegal bot addons that do the same thing. Rakta could have gotten the name of the buyer, but I forgot that info is only available for an hour after the sale. But it doesn't really matter. The dust is gone.
This will change how the neutral AH transactions are handled. There will be no more weekend transactions, since there are more players in game and therefore more risk. Rakta and Melasahnd will also test transactions with a single sale to make sure they don't get picked up before sending stacks of material through. There is a slim chance that someone has figured out what Rakta and Melasahnd are doing. Booty Bay has three locations where there is a neutral AH Auctioneer. Rakta goes to the semi-hidden location in a back room on the lowest floor of the town, and has never seen anyone else in there. That's pretty safe. Melasahnd goes to the bank area. That is a trafficked area, but Melasahnd does not conduct AH transactions if there is anyone else there. It's possible, I guess, that someone could use the third location, which is on an open deck but can't be seen by either Melasahnd or Rakta, but I think that's unlikely. So, I hope that the new procedures will keep this from happening again.
Alchemy leveling Guide for Cata Alchemists
Nobody is bothering to make leveling guides for professions above 450 skill anymore and Wild is anxious to start getting better flasks for Heroics and raiding than what he has pre-Cata. That's JB's job. So, here is her tailored leveling guide, which she plans to post in Wowhead. She is at skill 464 at present.
First, burn down your pre-Cata stocks of mats to skill up using the yellow recipes you still have at 450. That will help. Also, the cost of the mats are still fluid so always check. Your mileage may vary. And don't forget your crystal vials.
451-455:
Ghost Elixir - 2 cinderbloom x 5 = 10 @ 4g each = 40g
Earthen Potion - 2 stormvine x 5 = 10 @ 5g each = 50g
456-460:
Deathblood Venom - 1 stormvine x 5 = 5 @ 5g = 25g recommended
Elixir of the Naga -1 stormvine + 1 Azhara's Veil(10g)
461-465:
Volcanic Potion - 1 cinder(4g) + 1 AV(10g) x5 = 60g recommended
Potion of Illusion - 1 cinder(4g) + 3 Vol. Life(16g)
466-470:
Elixir of the Cobra - 1 cinder(4g) + 1 AV(10g) x5 = 60g recommended
Potion of Concentration - 2 AV(1og)
471-475: Use the oil to make mysterious potions. If you fish for the cavefish yourself I'd make these recipes until they go green.
Deepstone Oil - 1 Albino Cavefish(5g) x5 = 25g
Mysterious Potion - 2 Deepstone Oil
476-480:
Elixir of Deep Earth - 2 Heartblossom(11g)
Mighty Rejuvenation Potion - 2 whiptail(9g) x5 = 90g recommended
481-485:
Elixir of Impossible Accuracy - 1 cinder(4g) + 1 heart(11g)
Prismatic Elixir - 1 cinder(4g) + 1 whiptail(9g) x5 = 65g recommended
Note: Transmute: Living Elements is learned at skill 485. It has a one day cooldown so I consider these bonus skill ups.
486-490:
Mythical Mana Potion - 1 cinder(4g) + 2 whip(9g)
Potion of the Tol'vir - 1 storm(5g) + 1 whip(9g) x5 = 70g recommended
491-495:
Elixir of Mighty Speed -
1 storm(5g) + 1 twilight jasmine(10g) x5 = 75g recommended
Golemblood Potion - 1 VL(16g) + 1 heart(11g)
496-500:
Elixir of the Master - 1 TJ(10g) + 1 heart(11g) x5 = 105g
Mythical Healing Potion - 1 VL(16g) + 2 TJ(10g)
501-505: This is where it gets expensive. Who's got a calculator?
Flask of Enchancement -
8 each of cinder(4g),storm(5g),AV(10g),whip(9g),TJ(10g) x5 = 1520g
Flask of Flowing Water -
6 VL(16g) + 12 each storm(5g), heart(11g) x5 = 1055g
Flask of Steelskin -
6 VL(16g) + 12 each cinder(4g), TJ(10g) x5 = 970g recommended
Transmute: Dream Emerald - The gem transmutes do not have a cooldown so they can be used for leveling.
506-510:
Transmute: Dream Emerald - 3 jasper(35g) + 3 storm(5g) x5 = 600g
Flask of Draconic Mind - 6/12/12 each VL(16g),AV(10g),TJ(10g) x5 = 1680g
511=515:
Transmute: Ember Topaz - 3 hessonite(21g) + 3 cinder(4g) x5 = 625g
Flask of the Winds - 6/12/12 VL(16g),AV(10g),whip(9g) x5 = 1620g
Flask of Titanic Strength - 6/12/12 VL(16g),cinder(4g),whip(9g)x5= 1260g
516-520:
Transmute: Demonseye - 3 nightstone(47g) + 3 TJ(10g) x5 = 855g
Transmute: Ocean Sapphire - ocean sapphire(19g) + 3 AV(10g) x5 = 435g
521-525:
Transmute: Amberjewel - 3 alicite(12g) + 3 whip(9g) x5 = 315g
Transmute: Pyrium Bar -
4 Elementium Bar(20g) + 4 Volatile Earth(15g) x5 = 700g
Ok, let's see if I have enough fingers and toes to give a total cost (using the least expensive mats, of course)
451-495 = 560 gold
496-525 = 3050 gold
Total = 3610 gold
JB got her in game time to start on her Alchemy skills. Under the best case scenario getting to her first target, skill 495, should cost her 560g. Happy staked her to 1000g.
JB got two breaks. First, she was already at skill 464, 14 skill points that she wouldn't have to buy mats for. Second, Wild agreed to spend some time in Deepholm fishing albino cavefish. That gave JB 10 more skill points that she didn't have to pay for.
JB did get to skill 495, but it cost her 742g to get there. Mat costs started out where they were estimated above, but the low cost mats didn't last long once the buying started. Who knows how many alchemists were looking for herbs, but JB would look at five great deals and try to buy them, but three would already be gone. Great deals became good deals became ok I really need these deals to I'm not going to pay that much decisions.
Another thing she totally missed out on were three points where she could have made one recipe and gotten multiple skill ups. I forget that this is a new feature of profession skilling. At least JB can take advantage of that from 496 on.
For Wild, it was hugely disappointing to discover that yes, JB will soon be able to make Flask of the Draconic Mind, only to learn that the mats cost over 750 gold - for ONE flask! They sell for half that on the AH (300g+ is still a LOT of gold for one flask) obviously because they farm all the mats. Until mat prices come down Wild will be at the mercy of the guild to get the flasks he needs. JB will farm some, but only those herbs available in the 80-81 zones, unless she wants to play death tag with higher level mobs.
Later ... JB, out of money to improve on her alchemy skill, decided it was time to really see what she had gear-wise. JB used to be enhancement, and used to be elemental, and used to be restoration. She used to be pve before she was pvp. She had gear from all three specs as well as pvp gear cluttering up her bags and her bank. Currently JB is dual specced in enhancement and restoration. JB has never done much healing in pve situations, but has some modest pvp healing gear which she's had fun with in Wintergrasp. A pvp based healing set was gear she would keep. She also decided that for pve purposes she would go back to her first love - enhancement. The problem there is that whatever gear she still had from that spec was old. Very old. Thanks to Wild and his DE friends JB received a few pieces of BOE Cata gear she could wear. JB was happy with what she could cobble together, but just between me and the fence post it was a pretty sad collection of gear. At least there was an i289 off-hand axe JB could dual wield with her i200 dagger. All the rest of that pile of junk was vendored, including a set of pve healing gear that pre-dated even i200 gear. If JB wants to pve heal in the future, she'll need to work for it.
JB couldn't stand just hovering around Orgrimmar, flying back and forth between the Alchemist trainer, the bank, and the Auction House. She received a letter ordering her to Moonglade and she decided to accept. At Moonglade her letter got her a trip to Mount Hyjal. From there JB took off and went flower picking. She wasn't interested in doing quests, and as long as she wasn't bothered she didn't even try to kill anything. Just picking flowers gives experience points, though, and on two occasions she had to kill random mobs that had the audacity to question JB's right to those herbs. JB's melee power is pretty good, but she's a bit squishy, falling to around 60% health against level 80/81 mobs. Good enough for collecting herbs, though, and with the herbs she was able to collect she improved her alchemy skill from 495 to 500 - at no cost, JB wanted to point out.
And don't worry, Lao, JB's xp only got up to 11%.
And here's a secret that has Wild particularly annoyed - JB is after an i359 item, and she'll get it before Wild ever sets sight of one.
Here's another secret. JB added five pieces of green mail Cata level armor to her melee set. JB gained 4,000 health, and should be a little less squishy now. Thanks, Happy! Some of it was a poor fit, such as the healing mace main hand - but at i289 it beat out the i200 dagger that was in that slot (and will help big time as a pvp healer). The under i300 gear doesn't have much specifically for enhancement shaman (ie, with both +int and +agi), at least not the BOE stuff. And unfortunately even on gear without +int on it, I can't reforge for +int.
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