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Insider Trader: Inscription from 0-100

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

This week’s edition of Insider Trader will stand as an introduction to becoming a scribe. After covering some of the basic information you will need to know, I will walk you through the leveling process until you reach the 100th skill point.

I will also discuss Minor Inscription Research and glyphs in detail, ensuring that you can make informed choices when choosing how to level your inscription. In the coming weeks, I will continue with the guide until the new maximum, 450.

Hop on through the break to learn how to boost your scribe’s levels quickly and cost-effectively.

Tips to get you started:

1.      You will find Inscription vendors near your trainer that will have parchment papers and a [Virtuoso Inking Set]. You need the paper to make scrolls and glyphs, but you need only the inking set to make inks, unlike Alchemy which uses bottles for each potion.

2.      If you’re desperate, some trades vendors will also carry paper.

3.      Milling will never grant skill points, so feel free to mill your herbs on the go, or as necessary.

4.      You will get skill points for mixing up inks, but only for a limited time. Because you will have to make so many, aim for making them until they go gray before you make anything else.

Skill 1-35:
The pigment you will be working with for this skill bracket is [Alabaster Pigment] and it can be milled from the lowest level herbs; [Silverleaf], [Peacebloom] and [Earthroot]. These are found most commonly in regions for level 5 to level 20.

Unlike most pigments, Alabaster will be used to make your first two ink types, so don’t convert all of your pigment into [Ivory Ink], because you’ll need some for [Moonglow Ink].

Still, you will want to take advantage of the ink conversion while it still gives you skill points. I recommend making [Ivory Ink] until skill level 18.

After this, use those very inks to create, in combination with [Light Parchment], scrolls of intellect, spirit and/or stamina. You probably won’t be able to auction these, so pass them along to alts or use them yourself. Stop at skill 35.

Skill 35-75:
From 35 right on up to 54, you’ll be able to coast by making [Moonglow Ink].

The easiest route to 75 if you are close to, or above level 40, will be to create [Armor Vellum] using ink and [Light Parchment]. If you have an enchanter, you can pass the vellum along and make some money on the auction house by binding various enchants into them.

If you are a low level scribe, then you might choose to create [Scroll of Recall]. These nifty items will “hearth” you to the inn that you have chosen for your real hearthstone, but will not consume your hearth’s cooldown. In fact, it is only on a 20 minute cooldown itself, giving you up to four “hearths” in an hour.

Minor Inscription Research
Get ready to start learning doing your own research! Currently this is trained at level 75, and at first, will give you skill points.

·         Anyone and everyone can potentially benefit from your research, even level 70s.

·         Trained glyphs are always major glyphs. You will only ever learn how to create minor glyphs through research.

·         You can research once every 20 hours.

·         Each round of research is guaranteed to teach you something you didn’t know. It often awards you with scrolls or vellum on the side.

·         The cost is 1 [Moonglow Ink] and 2 [Light Parchment]. This ties you to Moonglow for quite some time.

Glyphs
Now that you’ve reached the magic number 75, you will be given the option to create glyphs. In the early days after patch 3.0.2 went live, most glyphs were wildly profitable, as long as you were using your own herbs. Of course, you could likely have sold those herbs for more than the glyphs were worth. On my server, many herbs were selling for more than sought-after Outland herbs (think several gold per herb).

These days, depending on the server, you might have depressing luck when trying to sell your glyphs. Many minors can sell for upwards of 15 gold, while majors can go for as low as under one gold. If a major is in demand, you might be able to pull 4-10 gold out of the sale. Likewise, a highly coveted minor might sell for up to 30 gold.

When choosing glyphs for the rest of your career, consider the following:

·         Are you going to equip it? Would one of your alts want it? Can you talk a friend into taking it off your hands?

·         Is it orange, or yellow? Does it take two inks, or one? A glyph that is in the yellow zone and requires one ink might be better than one in the orange zone that requires two.

·         If you are going to use it, consider under what circumstances. For example, my paladin will have a set of tanking glyphs and a set for healing. Because she switches semi-often, I will need more than one of each of the glyphs I intend to use.

·         Is this glyph in demand, or a rare minor? How much is it selling for on the auction house?

75-100:
You will be using [Dusky Pigment] and the [Verdant Pigment] that is a semi-rare “spawn” when milling herbs that grant you Dusky. These herbs are [Briarthorn], [Bruiseweed], [Stranglekelp], [Swiftthistle] and [Mageroyal].

[Stranglekelp] is found in waters in and around areas of a variety of level ranges. Undead, druids with aquatic form, shaman and warlocks will be the prime candidates to farm this. Of course, the patch extended the normal breath bar, so it isn’t going to be a painful farm either way. In many areas, there won’t even be mobs. [Swiftthistle] is another “rare” spawn within [Briarthorn] and [Mageroyal].

From 75 to 80, aim to make [Midnight Ink] from your pigment. Don’t forget that your inscription research can be done once per day, and will grant you a skill point for a limited time.

From skills 80 to 100, you will be choosing class glyphs to manufacture. Use the rules above to help you determine which ones to make, and how many. Remember that minors, if they are worth skill points, might sell for more.

The damage:
Here are my estimations for the necessary materials to reach 100 skill points:

·         You will need about ten full stacks of the lowest level herbs. This will take 23-24 millings/stacks of five. You should receive a minimum of 62 pigment. See above sections 1-35 and 35-75. Keep in mind you will need to create some extras for your inscription research!

·         You will need about 25 [Midnight Ink] (see above section 75-100). To get the 50 pigments, try milling 6.5 full stacks of herbs, or 26 millings/stacks of five herbs.

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Comprehensive new death knight list  

Hey all- I need a bit of assistance here. I think I have most of my bases covered, but I thought I’d ask some people to look at this as well.

I’m going to be making a death knight when the expansion hits, and want to have all the materials, pets, cash, etc on hand to max out professions, etc that first day as well as be buffed out and looking good.

I have:

Materials for 375/375 Blacksmithing/Engineering.

Materials for cooking 1-375.

Cloth for 250-375.

Plenty of cash. (Epic flying, etc etc etc).

Azure, Dark, Green, and Red Whelpings.

Disgusting Oozling.

Enough runecloth to get exalted in every home faction (from farming the Baron’s mount ad infinitum).

Enchanting mats for some tasty enchants on gear.

2 +100 health arcanumenchants for head/leg.

I haven’t bothered with materials for Aldor/Scryer because I’m sure there will be equivalent faction based head/shoulder enchants in Northrend.

What more can I accumulate?

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Badges of Justice  

I apologize if this has been addressed before. I’m looking for some sort of finality to this issue. Is the plan to release the Badges of Justice (level 70 badges) from their soulbound status, allowing them to be traded or listed on the Auction House? Are they to be rolled into the token tab, retaining their soulbound status?

It’d be nice if we were able to use some of the badges on current mains to purchase gear for our Death Knights upon leveling to 70. Since a new “badge” is going to be implemented for level 80, I don’t think this would do much to break the gearing system.

Death Knights will, for the most part, be the primary characters bound by the green quest rewards. Unless there would be some kind of negative economic impact, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to let them acquire a few pieces of gear to aid in the leveling process. Of course, soloing 70 heroics as a money making scheme could turn into a problem, but turning off badge drops in those instances could be a way around that, though that could ultimately be bad since that would send prices on the badges through the roof since they’d be permanently gone from the system. An other route would be trade of badges between characters on the same account.

All this boils down to: what’s happening with Badges of Justice?  

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Queue groups for LFG by default  

no, no, no and please no…

I have 3 problems with this:

1) It assumes I’m starting a group for an instance. Which, to be honest, is far from always the case. Grouping for trading, grouping for group quests, etc. are very common

2) It would require me to manually take myself OUT of the LFG every time I decided to just group, say with my wife’s character. Also, if I group with a low level alt of one of my friends, whose level would it pick… mine, theirs, or an average?

3) It assumes you’re in the zone you’re looking for the instance of. Even on the beta, I occasionally start Nexus groups, but I’m done in BT and questing in Dragonblight… what if I don’t want to do Azjol-nerub, but want to do Nexus? I’ll automatically be entered in for A-N even though I’m not at all interested in it…

Just overall, I think this’d cause more problems than it’d solve. 

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Mages and Priest with Levitate   

This is a very class specific thing but since it involves two classes, I’m hoping that I can get some good feedback here.

Paying some more homage to Warcraft 3, Priests and Mages both levitate where ever they go.

Mages and Priests both have had complaints in the past how they are supposed to be casters primarily focused on feats of the mind yet they look like a ripped Jay Cutler with their shirts off. Although I know the models of them aren’t going to be changing any time soon, how about doing something to start adding to this premise.

What I’d like to suggest is this: when Mages and Priests have gained so much power and so much knowledge that the power surges through them and simply forces them to levitate where ever they go.

Basically, in terms of abilities, what I a suggesting is at level 80, they get a new ranks of levitate that are simply always on. Said ability would allow them both to walk for a duration over water without falling in but will always allow them a safe fall.

Changing a few animations to make them do something of a “mid air” blast would also be pretty cool.

This is largely cosmetic but I think it would add a lot in terms of immersion to the game.

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Around Azeroth: Work in progress

Under construction? After a day of restarts, patches, downtime and add-on chaos, I think we can all sympathize with this sign. (Except for me, because I spent the day playing Oblivion and then running up a truly horrendous bar tab. I still haven’t downloaded 3.0.2.) Touchwood and friends snapped this screenshot of the Forbidden Zone in Zul’Aman prior to the Burning Crusade release. Will anything ever be as cool as paladin Tier 2? I don’t think so.

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing  with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.

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 Earn 5 fishing achievements today

The act of fishing, particularly if one does not find it relaxing, can seem frustrating and inspire impatience within the angler. It might surprise you then to learn that, with a little effort, you could earn five fishing achievements by the end of today, without worrying about rare drops.

Itinerary:

·         “25 Fish“: Catch 25 fish. If you have done this since patch 3.0.2 went live, then your next goal will be 50, and so on.

·         “The Old Gnome and the Sea“: Successfully fish from a school/pool. This will have to be a pool of fish, not wreckage or water motes.

·         “The Scavenger“: Fish one item up from each of the five wreckage schools to be discussed in this article. If this cannot be completed due to the inability to achieve a working 305 fishing skill, then you will be completing the achievement “50 Fish.”

·         “Outland Angler“: You must fish up one fish from each pool to be discussed in this article. If this cannot be completed due to low skill, you will be completing an achievement such as “Journeyman Fisherman.”

·         “The Fishing Diplomat“: Fish something up in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind.

Beginning with the easiest of the five, you are tasked with catching 25 of any type of fish. The count began when patch 3.0.2 released, so if you have already caught 25, your next goal will be 50, and so on. You can do this during your travels.

Before you head out for the day, head over to Orgrimmar if you are Horde, and Stormwind if you are Alliance. Fish up one fish, and make sure you loot it into your inventory.

You’ll be taking a trip around Azeroth, so plan your route out ahead of time. “The Scavenger” asks you to successfully fish up one item from each of five wreckage schools around the world.

In order to complete this, you will need to reach at least a 305 fishing skill with gear, enchants, fishing rod bonuses, and lures, so hit the Auction House first if you need to. Don’t worry, I have a plan for you if you can’t manage the 305. From easiest to most difficult:

1.      Waterlogged Wreckage Pool: Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands or Stranglethorn Vale.

2.      Schooner Wreckage: Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Wetlands or Hillsbrad.

3.      Bloodsail Wreckage: Search the coast of Stranglethorn Vale, staying south of Grom’gol.

4.      Floating Wreckage: Azshara, Tanaris or Feralas.

5.      Steam Pump Flotsam: This is found throughout Zangarmarsh, and will require a minimum 305 skill after gear and lures. Stay to the east.

In your travels, did you notice a pool of fish? Any fish will do! Simply acquire a fish from any pool of any type of fish, and you’ll instantly get the achievement “The Old Gnome and the Sea.” I told you this was going to be easy!

If you cannot fish each wreckage pool, note that you will be catching 50 fish today instead of 25. While you are doing this, you can actually complete your fourth achievement as well. All you need to do is hit the next fishing skill level that allows you to train the next rank of fishing.

·         “Journeyman Fisherman“: Skill 50.

·         “Expert Fisherman“: Skill 125.

·         “Artisan Fisherman“: Skill 225.

·         “Master Fisherman“: Skill 275.

While those gaps may seem long, it will depend on how you close them. Feel free to sit in a major city and fish up junk and low-level cooking fish until you reach your goals. Alternatively, choose a province that has fish on par with your level, pack some lures, and start fishing from wreckage and fish pools. You’ll make more money, and it will be more interesting.

For players who already have their highest fishing rank, you can complete “Outland Angler”, and it is actually quite quick. You will, unfortunately, need to be able to fly to complete this achievement.

1.      Terokkar: Look for Brackish Mixed Schools in the rivers, as well as Schools of Darter. Then hop on your flying mount and visit one of the lakes above the Allerian or Stonebreaker outposts, or in the middle of Skettis for the Highland Mixed School.

2.      Nagrand: The lakes and rivers hold Mudfish and Bluefish Schools.

3.      Zangarmarsh: Look for Sporefish schools.

All that is left now is to finish up the second half of “The Fishing Diplomat.” This is best done in a group, if only for the company. Alliance should enter Orgrimmar from the Western gate into the Valley of Spirits by taking the bridge from Ashenvale. Once in the Valley, head to the shallow pools of water and try to stay partially hidden by the buildings.

Horde can travel to Elwynn Forest and jump into the water surrounding Stormwind. Swim toward the city, and you will find a sheltered embankment from which you can fish.

Note that city guards are now level 75, you will likely have to die several times to reach your destination, and you might have to remain dead for a time until lingering members of the opposing faction get bored of waiting for you to resurrect.

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Quest item inventory bag

I don’t know; i think the current bags/growing quantity are fine - if you have bags for profession items, arrow/ammo bags, and recently, pet/mounts/tokens have been taken away from using bag space, what’s really left over? Not much.

And I’m saying this as someone who has 5.5 sets of gear. I mean, be honest, you don’t carry all 5 sets around with you while raiding or you’d have no room for consumables. I have 3 Primal Mooncloth bags + 1 Gigantique; even with the extra 6 slots from having 4 gigantiques, i could never carry that much around, no matter how much i wanted to.

You also don’t carry the gear around while questing, because you simply don’t use the resist and/or all (for druids anyway) 4 dps/caster/tank/heal sets. Even when you do pull one set out or another, it’s nothing to just go to Shattrath or Dalaran and pull it out of the bank real quick.

I don’t know, i think it’s fine. We have so many bag options right now; i think it’s unnecessary for quest items to be separate. Plus, there’re vendors at practically every single town/camp/etc you come by, it’s nothing to just vendor the greys/trash you have at every stop or whenever your bags get full and you happen to come by a camp.

(basically i think it’s a personal organization problem over anything else. i have 26-30 slots devoted to actual items that i carry everywhere, and when i came to Northrend, I didn’t have to worry about my bags whatsoever until i got all the way through borean tundra + halfway through dragonblight. And about 10-15 of those are trinkets/idols that i don’t use 3/4’s-100% of the time anyway, that i could probably go without easily.)

It’s the same on my hunter too. I know people who complain about bag space and carry around their full set of tier 2 and/or 3 gear; or carry around tier 4 when they’re clearly wearing 4pc sunwell & 4pc tier 6.

Or carry full raiding consumables while farming, or carry around 1000 vanity gear pieces when leveling and still complain about bag space. Or they carry their shadow resist to Karazhan/SSC. Or me knowing I’m leveling as balance but carrying around my tank gear, cat gear, and cat-tank idols. If i need those things, i can go to the bank for them and it’s not a long trip. Things like that are not a bag space issue; it’s you carrying around a bunch of stuff you don’t need to carry that’s causing you to not have enough space for quest items.

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New Mount and Vanity Pet Storage   

or a wardrobe closet, like the key ring… for ‘other’ wearable items… tabards, holiday clothes, etc.

And totally love the pet/mount thing… i have pet issues… i find strays, they follow me home, i can’t kick them out!

I’d like to expand on the wardrobe thing.

I have a female blood elf priest who, in the course of leveling to 70, acquired a variety of different outfits. Most of these are drops or quest rewards, so are not easily replaceable.

I have a lot of these things taking up bank space, but the stats are obsolete so I don’t use them anymore (like the dress I have from Zul’Furrak).

I like having all the outfits for fun and role-play purposes. But I do hate that they take up so much room.

As another vanity addition, I’d like the ability to take an item - for example, my Zul’Furrak dress - and turn it into a “vanity item”. This would strip it of all its stats and abilities, leaving it as a purely cosmetic item, but I could then store it for free along with my other cosmetic items.

Is this possible? If not in a “Keyring-type” wardrobe bag, maybe outfits could be learned like cosmetic pets will be?

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 Caption This!

A month until the election, and over a month until Wrath … what can we do to pass the time, other than play Oblivion yet again? How about a Caption This! contest?

The last contest, featuring the running of the zombies, was won in a landslide by Roahne, with “Red rover, red rover, send — OH MY GOD!” Sladedarkonis won the runner-up prize with “Jeez, multi-boxing has gotten really out of hand.”

Here’s how the story goes: I post a picture during Tuesday maintenance. You write a humorous caption for this picture by Friday, October 10 at 11:59 PM EST. It could be a funny description of the situation or a quote that you imagine the characters in the screenshot saying. Examples of previous winners can be found here, here and here. Leave your captions in a comment on this post, and keep it clean — if Blizzard would warn you for saying it in-game, don’t enter it in the contest. During the weekend, I e-mail the post to our list, members of the WoW Insider team respond with their favorites, and ten (or so) of those favorites will be chosen for the final vote. On Tuesday morning, we put the top choices up for a public vote in a new post. Voting ends Wednesday, October 15 at 11:59 PM EST. After the voting, we notify the winners. If they respond to our e-mail and confirm that they’re eligible to win, we mail out their prizes.

Let’s show the people our fabulous prizes! First place winner gets a 60-day game card, worth approximately $30. And the second-place winner will get his choice of a Legendary Thread or Less QQ More Pew Pew t-shirt from J!NX, worth about $20.

However, to win you have to be eligible — and to be eligible, you have to be a U.S. or non-Quebec Canadian resident at least 13 years of age. Sorry, EU, Oceanic and other readers, but legal restrictions make it impossible to include everyone. The official rules for the contest can be found here. Read them or get nerfed!

This picture, featuring three gnomes and a basket, comes from the official WoW screenshot archives. A larger version can be found here. Good luck!

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