Future of Inscription? The eraser?

In a recent gameplanet interview Ghostcrawler talks about how exactly the new glyph system will work in theory.

Gameplanet: What does that mean for the inscription profession?

Street: We’re going to focus inscription on more of the non-glyph aspect of the trade skill. So, Darkmoon Faire cards, trinkets, offhand items, things like that. We also want to tie the ability to change glyphs into inscription. We’re not sure of the name yet but the idea is that scribes would basically sell a kind of eraser and the eraser is what allows you to blank out your glyphs and write in new ones.

What does this mean for scribes? I honestly think Inscription will be the new big money maker. Not that it is not currently but I think the potential will be greater then that of gems and raid consumables.

We will get new glyphs called "medium" glyphs at the moment. These glyphs are not meant to be the power house skill / spell changers that major glyphs are but they will increase your overall performance somehow, just not directly.

So on top of everybody filling out their glyph books for their characters, we will have new glyphs to craft on top of it. Add in a consumable to change the glyphs and viola we now have a secure raiding requirement. I think that with this change a lot more people will be changing their glyphs depending on the fight and every time they do, they consume an eraser in which we create and sell.

I'm probably the only scribe that is actually excited for cata. I truly am looking forward to the new expansion because I really think we will be pulling in the buku bucks since all the mmo-champ bandwagon scribes are already jumping ship. Go take a look around the web at sites such as wowhead and the sort. People are already writing off inscription as a dead profession and beta hasn't even been released. lol.

For more information on the interview with Ghostcrawler and gameplanet check it out at http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/pc/games/159702.World-of-Warcraft-Cataclysm/features/135036.20100613.Blizzards-Greg-Street-on-new-systems-in-Cataclysm/page2/

Look before you buy and about yesterday's post

So today's post is going to be more of a reminder and to not follow my errors.

The AH on my server has been somewhat dry of high end herbs and when there was an abundance of herbs they were all more then I wanted to pay. I assume from the fair but who knows.

Well this morning I'm going down my auctionator list of items I normally buy or at least keep an eye on and noticed 90 some odd stacks of adder's tongue for 14g a stack. A little on the high side for me (my preferred price is 12g or less) but I jumped on it as I was under 500 inks and haven't made glyphs in about a week. I was happy that I finally had a nice surplus of ink once again until I check icethorn prices and noticed there was 2x the amount for only 10g a stack -_-.

Yea, I bought them up as well (I couldn't pass it up) but I wouldn't have splurged on the adder's tongue had I looked at the other herbs first. I blame it on it bein 7:30 am and I've yet to sleep.

While on the subject of inscription I figured I'd write up a blog post for yesterday since I simply cut and paste and linked. I was too tired to spend time to write up a quality post but I wanted to at least pass on the news while it was still news.

My thoughts on it? I'll still be a scribe and I'll gladly watch everybody jump off the ship. Why? I feel that it is not a lost cause quite yet and it could still be VERY profitable in quick short bursts.

Think of it like cooking recipes. You learn the recipe and you are done but yet I can still get away selling recipes for 10-20g a pop when they cost me 2s off the vendor. Raiders are typically completion freaks and will most likely snatch up all the glyphs for their class just so they don't have to buy them in the future. If they add in an achievement for having all the glyphs for your class learned then I can see this being an even more boost the income as you will get all the achievement freaks out there gobbling them up too for achievement points.

So what happens when the initial rush of cata is all said and done with and all the raiders now have every glyph? Things resume to normal; people still level alts and will continue to do so. Those new chars will need glyphs and not every single person is going to buy every single glyph. You will still get the casuals buying their glyphs as they need them.

The same sort of freak out happened when dual spec was put in and everyone screamed the sky was falling when it really wasn't. Sure instead of pulling in 5k a day in glyphs you're pulling in 2k a day but that is still pretty good money. (for my server it's damn good money for glyphs :P)

So my final thoughts on it are:

If you are a scribe; don't drop inscription (yet).

Should you level up inscription and get into the glyph market? That's up to you. Do you feel like you'll be active enough in the glyph game to pull in the money you invested before cata? If so then why not? If you invest 2k to level inscription and make back that 2k in a week then it paid off and you have a source of income.

Sometimes looking to far into the future can make you blind to the profits now. People are probably already dropping inscription and leveling up JC or some other bandwagon profession. If it's still making money then do it ;)

Inscription in Cataclysm

Think most of ya probably read this on the forums but figured I'd toss it out here for those who didn't.

"At BlizzCon 2009, we learned of the Path of the Titans, a new alternate advancement system that would see PCs allying with various titan cults in order to gain various character bonuses apart from simply leveling up. At the recent Cataclysm press event, Blizzard announced that they'll be completely scrapping the system.

To offset this, they've chosen instead to work on an overhaul of the glyph system, as they noted they didn't quite get it to where they wanted with Wrath. Here are the basics:

* There will be a new tier of glyphs, currently called "Medium" glyphs, that will provide "fun alterations" to abilities. Major and minor glyphs will act much as they currently do. You'll have 3 of each glyph type at level 85.
* You will no longer have to re-buy glyphs when you respec or rearrange them. Rather, you will will learn each glyph like a skill and be able to swap them at will from a list.
* This list will show all glyphs available to your class, but will only allow you to use the ones you've purchased."

http://www.wow.com/2010/06/13/cataclysm-press-event-path-of-titans-scrapped-inscription-over/#continued

Preparing for Cataclysm

Figured I would start talking about how to save for the next expansion and what to invest in. For many (not all), the auction houses are slowing down as less people are raiding and overall most of the general population in wow is preparing for Cataclysm (leveling alts, suspending accounts, etc).

I'm still somewhat playing the auction house; nowhere near the amount I was previously doing but I am still tossing up glyphs once or twice a day and same goes with gems and other assorted goods (considering I was posting 1-2 times an hour, 1-2 times a day is nothing). I am also not buying nearly the quantity of goods that I previously was and slowly dwindling my assets in one area down and reinvesting them for items to sell off in Cataclysm.

I know this is an old speculation but I still feel strongly about it when it comes to speculation and that is netherweave cloth.

On top of all the new Worgen and Goblins running around cata you will see the following new race / class combos:

* Human Hunter
* Orc Mage
* Night Elf Mage
* Blood Elf Warrior
* Dwarf Shaman
* Dwarf Mage
* Undead Hunter
* Tauren Paladin
* Tauren Priest
* Gnome Priest
* Troll Druid

Now, how many of these new characters are going to need bags? All of them right? Unlike the rush in wotlk where we had tons of dks running through outlands we wont have nearly the amount of players in Outlands and more will be level 1 for the initial rush.

Now think about how much netherweave is on your server and what would happen if tomorrow we got 2 new races that have 6? classes and 11 new race / class combos that previously were unavailable.

People won't be out farming netherweave on the initial days of the expansion. Everybody will be racing to 85 or playing on their newly created characters and prices on netherweave bags (frostweave is even a possibility as well) are going to sky rocket simply because the demand is going trump any remote supply of cloth on the servers. (Remember when inscription was launched? We all knew that they would require milling herbs and at least on my server prices jumped as high as 100g+ a stack of peacebloom. Friends reported pulling in thousands of gold in under the first hour)

Currently on my server netherweave prices are hovering at 5g a stack and I'll gladly accept any bet that you will be hard pressed to find any cloth in the first week of cata for under 50g a stack. Actual bags are going to be even higher so if you have a tailor you should definitely start investing in the cloth now. Bags on my server are 9-15g each currently and some days guildies have reported selling bags for 75g.

So how much cloth have you stockpiled? I'm working on my 2nd tab atm and been slowly buying it when it drops in price to prevent artificial inflation. Plus I just dont have the room to hold as much cloth as I can buy. The best method for storing it is in bolts simply because it takes less space then the actual cloth.

Keep checking back for more Cataclysm speculation tips. I am hoping to get into the beta simply to get a heads up, I even submitted my account info to this guy named Blizzadrian who said he'd get me in. /sarcasm