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A recent GDKP TOTC25 run in my server turned out to be a very disappointing ninja run. At the end of the raid, the raid leader went offline and never returned. Of course everyone got pissed and started opening a GM ticket to report the incident. A friend of mine who was part of the TOTC25 run said in the ticket that a GDKP ninja is considered an in-game scam and should be punished accordingly. Furthermore, he stated in the ticket that if Blizzard turns a blind eye on the GDKP ninja, they are allowing scamming and possibly RMT. The GM replied that the ninja would be banned and all the gold would be returned to the raid participants (sorry, no screenshots).

From this story a successful punishment for GDKP ninjas are reports  from most raid participants and a detailed description of what happened. Furthermore, a professional letter to the GM is most advisable. No “OMG PLS BAN XXXXX HE NINJAD OUR GOLD IN GDKP RAID. BAN HIM NOW” would be successful. Stating the situation very clearly and formally will help the GM figure out the incident and take action as quickly as possible. State the date and time, what raid, the name of the ninja, how much gold was taken (if possible), and give a very good reason why the ninja’s actions should be punished (e.g. scamming, possibly RMT, etc.).

Future GDKP Ninjas be warned! You will be punished!

There’s some info going around that some people farm battered hilt from PoS. If you’re lucky enough to get even one drop in a day, that’s not too bad. It will, however, require a lot of patience if you’re soloing it. Some decide to bring 2 or 3 along with them and farm the skeletons and the mobs. While personally I haven’t tried this yet, I did a little googling myself so you won’t have to.

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Ever since random dungeons were first implemented, there was a confusion whether or not to need or greed on frozen orbs. Every server has its own culture whether or not to need or greed, and my server needs all the time. By the time my server was playing with other servers in random dungeons, we were all called orb ninjas. Eventually, the price of frozen orb dropped so much it almost matched its vendor price. Need or greed no longer mattered as frozen orbs were almost considered trash loot. Some even just passed.

Now, with the upcoming patch 3.3.3, frozen orbs will become a currency. Even servers who usually just go “greed” on orbs suddenly presses “need”. Some people wait until someone selects “need” before they “need” as well to avoid ninjas. There are some sneaky people who will go /afk just when the orb drops so the players will become impatient and just leave the instance, and then when the player is the only one left, he’ll “need” on it. Everyone wants the orbs now!

Just to avoid ninjas and QQ on orbs, tell the group as soon as the dungeon starts to roll “need” on orb.Using a macro helps.

/party Just roll need on frozen orbs to avoid ninjas

Frozen orbs has gone up to 20g+ each and people have been stocking up on it, thinking the price will go much higher when patch 3.3.3 hits. A chance to get an extra 20+ gold worth in a run is something you could no longer pass on, nor could you lose it because of a ninja. Just roll “need!”

Gold sellers have been bothering the World of Warcraft since the beginning. Now their methods are becoming too annoying, and we just wish they could just leave us alone and stfu.  Most of them are big gold-selling companies spamming in the trade channel or yelling advertisements in Orgrimmar/Stormwind. But recently, there are individuals who try and sell gold themselves using very ingenious ways.

Gold seller companies way to spam:

1. The classic trade channel advertisement. “We love you long time. Visit blablablab.com and use coupon WOW1. $8=1000g, $79=10,000g…”

2. Yelling in cities the same advertisement they have on the trade channel.

3. Spelling out their gold-selling website using dead level 1 bodies in front of the AH.

Individual seller’s way to spam:

Now these sellers are not so obvious at first. They try their best in social engineering to get you to talk to them. I guess their best isn’t good enough because they’re just a pain in the ass. I wonder how hold they are?

1. Spamming in trade channel “I’M QUITTING WOW GIVING AWAY GOLD PST” and when you pm them, they’ll reply with “Do you want to buy away my gold cheaper than buying it from websites?”
2. Whispering you while you play with “Hey, are you busy?”. And of course you think he’s just an honest man on the other side of the computer with honest questions to ask. And when you say “Not really. What’s up?” they reply with “Do you want to buy gold fast? We have 5kg left.” ….

3. Inviting you in a party/raid and spamming their gold advertisements there.

I’m pretty sure there are other ingenious ways of torturing us gamers with these gold-selling advertisements. Therefore, I searched for some anti-gold seller addons to finally shut them up:

1. Badboy – this one will auto-report and block gold selling advertisements. It also blocks spam messages in the trade channel. This is very useful if your server likes spamming “lfg” or “lol”.
2. Badboy Levels – a plugin for Badboy which blocks whispers from people not in your friend list or in your guild. I think it’s a good idea to have this while leveling, so you don’t get bothered a lot by strangers. Otherwise, this could be a hindrance if you’re doing PUGs.
3. Bugmenot – this addon can be configured to autoreject party/raid/guild/duel invites if they’re not your friends/guildmates.  As the name of the addon says, this keeps buggers from destroying your precious playtime.

A new loot system is on the rise. It’s called GDKP or Gold-DKP. Instead of using DKP to purchase items, gold is used. For instance, in a 10 man raid, the boss dies and the loot is bid upon by players in their raid spec by whispering the loot master their bid. Whoever has the highest bid gets the item. If no one bids on main spec, then bids are for off spec before it gets disenchanted. By the end of the raid, the loot master divides the pot by 10 (some say by 11 for the guild bank, if you’re running with guildies), and distributes them among all the players. Sounds cool? Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pros

• Those who have been looking for this 1 item can finally get it! Just spend gold rather than raid for that item every week and fail on your roll.
• Already uber geared but lazy to farm and play the AH? Gold DKP raids are for you. Have fun raiding with your friends while you earn some moolah.
• For those alts with low gear but have a ton of gold, gearing up can’t be easier than this!

Cons

• Gold DKP leaders should have a good reputation. I wouldn’t join a gold DKP group with a shady leader. Sounds like trouble, QQ, and gold ninjas to me if the leaders don’t have good rep.
• Leaders have to balance how many undergeared people can join in. You can’t have many fresh 80s even though their pockets are deep.
• Some say this encourages buying gold. But then again, don’t tell me the mechano-hog and the tundra mammoth doesn’t.

Skill is still a must in a GDKP raid. Even if you have tons of gold but you’re lying dead 5 seconds after the encounter, you’re as useless as a bent paper clip. Kick these people out!

An addon that helps manage the gold in a GDKP raid is GoldRaidManager. Quoting its description:

Helps raid leaders running gold pugs (gdkp). Sets minimum bid/raise for loots, do countdown, tracks and announces gold pot for each boss and the whole gold pot, and calculates and announces the gold split.

This 100% player devised concept looks really awesome. This gives a chance for those who love raiding to earn gold or get that piece of equipment you’ve always wanted for. And for those who have gold to spare, this is a chance to finally use it!

One line you will always see in the trade channel is this: “WTB port to DAL 10g”

Even though the hearth cd was already reduced to 30 minutes, people still prefer to pay for portals instead of riding the zeppelin and flying to Dalaran. It is a very long route after all. Add to that the low level characters who wants to see where the big boys hang out. The market on mage portals never runs out.

A reader sent me the picture above of one of his unusual days in WoW. A player whispered him and asked if he could be ported to Dalaran. He made a portal and the player suddenly ported without paying a tip. My reader let the situation go as whispering curses and flames won’t do any good. Besides, the reagent for a portal costs just a few silver anyway. The next day, he receives this letter from the guy he ported, with an Obsidian Hatchling attached to the mail! The pet is purchasable at 50 gold and sometimes sold at the AH for 100g. I guess the player got so happy he got to see Dalaran he sent 50 gold worth of tip.

A helpful addon for mages who want to sell portal services would be Broker Portals. Instead of putting portal spells on your action bar, it will attach itself to the minimap.

So mages, at your idle time, do not ignore people willing to buy portal. Who knows how much tip they will give you?