It's New Year's Eve and time to put some of my thoughts down about what's happened here at Power Word: Gold this year.

While there has been some fairly drastic changes in the area of gold-making itself due to the release of Warlords of Draenor this post will mainly focus on what's been going on with the blog specifically.

I normally try not to talk too much about the blog itself as I like to let the details be background to the content these end-of-the-year posts are when I allow myself to be a bit more introspective. Read on for more.

I was tipped off by Twitter user @OriShmori that there's a strong chance that Savage Blood is being duplicated ("duped") on several servers.

@PowerWordGold @CM_Lore Hopefully something will be done about the rampant Savage blood dupes. http://t.co/wbaEzSI298
— Ori (@OriShmori) December 26, 2014

If this is true this could be very bad for anyone hoping to make gold selling Savage Blood or selling items made with Savage Blood.

This isn't the first time I've written on the topic of item duplication and its effects on the economy (see Strong Evidence of Rampant Item Duplication in WoW and Proof Of Jeweled Onyx Panther Duping And Its Effects On Pricing). My guess is that (sadly) this won't be the last. Read on for our evidence and the ability to check the data for yourself.

Happy Holidays! In celebration of the successful launch of the Bid Fiddlers gold-making forums we're giving away a golden Soul of the Aspects pet.

(A huge thanks to @RhoWoW from the @RealmPodcast for providing the giveaway pet. Rho is a fantastic cheerleader for all WoW podcasts out there and a very generous person. Go listen to the Realm Maintenance podcast.

HOW TO ENTER:

To enter the contest do the following things:

• Sign up for a free account on the BidFiddlers.com forums 
• Reply to this contest post with your answer to the following question: "What are you looking forward to most in 2015?" 

Your answers don't have to relate specifically to WoW. I'm just a huge fan of the feeling of new beginnings that a new year brings.

CONTEST RULES:

• Answers to this contest post will be accepted up until midnight on December 31, 2014. 
• In the week following the closing of entries one comment will be chosen at random (via random.org where the comments are numbered from 1 being the first comment to what ever the last comment is).
• The winner will be contacted by me via the email address used to sign up for the forum and will be asked to reply to obtain the pet gift code.
•  If the winner doesn't accept the gift or reply to the email an new winner will be chosen at random and so on.

SPREAD THE LOVE

In addition, while it's not required, please feel free to share this contest on your blogs, social media and any other methods you see fit.

STICK AROUND 

I also hope that if you've signed up for the forums to enter the contest that you also stick around and chat with other forum members about gold-making. We have a great little community here and we're always looking for new members to help us learn about making gold in World of Warcraft.

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Episode 094 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin discusses leveling in Warlords, what are all our cooldowns really good for?, TSM .csv spreadsheets, Trading Post flipping and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 094:

[MP3] [Ogg] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

In this video I go over how to use the (Beta) TradeSkillMaster Web APIs (Stormspire post explaining the feature) to download a .csv of my realm auction house pricing data and build a Google Drive Sheets spreadsheet that allows me to access and manipulate that data to do things like:

• Quickly show prices for multiple items on the AH in one look.
• Quickly show prices for any list of item names or item IDs.
• Be able to do things like calculate material costs for items.
• See which crafted items are selling for the most and the cost per mat etc.

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Like this post? Get even more Power Word: Gold - Purchase our Gold-Making Guides, subscribe via RSS, subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes or RSS, watch our Livestreams, follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, join the subreddit, and subscribe via Youtube.

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In Blizzard's 2014 World of Warcraft in the New Year forum post it mentioned that it is contemplating allowing players to buy in-game game-time tokens and then sell them to other players for gold.




While I'm sure there will be much player reaction to this possibility, when looking at the WildStar C.R.E.D.D. system I couldn't find much to dislike about it. Read on past the jump for a recap of the WildStar C.R.E.D.D. system and what it could look like in World of Warcraft.

In this "explainer" video, I go over how the Garrison Work Order system works. I try to break it down in terms that are simple and easy to understand and help people like me make sure that we're thinking correctly about how they work.

In addition, I go over adding a follower to your Tier 2 Garrison profession building to make even more Work Order items. I should warn you this video (while shorter than my last) clocks in at 40 minutes. Head past the jump for the final (Beautiful Mind-style) output image.


YouTube: Garrisons Explained: How Work Orders Work (Get Faster, Get More)

Looks like fur/leather cages for the Barn now stack. WAHOO!! #yougetbagspace #andyougetbagspace #everyonegetsbagspace

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Like this post? Get even more Power Word: Gold - Purchase our Gold-Making Guides, subscribe via RSS, subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes or RSS, watch our Livestreams, follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, join the subreddit, and subscribe via Youtube.

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My initial intention with this video was to sit down and make a "quick 15 minute" video about why gold-making functions differently in Warlords of Draenor. I was planning to do this by mapping out how materials flowed in the game before and after Warlords.

What I ended up with is a 1.5 hour long video that accomplishes what I set out to do. I just didn't realize how complicated the relationships between gatherers, crafters and consumers.


YouTube: Unraveling Why Gold-Making Has Changed In Warlords of Draenor

I think of what I cover in this video as some initial exploration into the underpinnings of what has changed in the game for gold-making. This is only the beginning. There is lots more thinking and theorizing to go. The whole video is embedded above. Head past the jump for the final images I created in this video.

Episode 093 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin discusses how gold-making has changed in Warlords, Blizzard fighting botters, gold-making with garrisons, passive vs. active play and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 093:

[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

I'm proud to announce that I have created a new gold-making forum at BidFiddlers.com. I've been contemplating starting a gold-making forum ever since I started the blog back in 2010 but never felt the time was right.

After 4 years of blogging, I finally feel comfortable starting my own gold-making forum and I hope you'll enjoy it. Read on for more on why I started them and what I hope to accomplish with them.

Episode 092 of The Power Word: Gold Podcast. We bring you the latest World of Warcraft gold-making tips, tricks and strategies.

In this episode your host Jim Younkin discusses hitting level 100, picking tier 3 garrison buildings, the "Working More Orders" achievement, garrison resource theory and much more. And now… on with the show!

Episode 092:
[MP3] Download or play this episode directly.
[iTunes] Subscribe to The Power Word: Podcast directly in iTunes.
[RSS] Add the podcast to your RSS reader, podcast player or manually into iTunes.
[Archive.org] View this episode's page on Archive.org.

Full show notes after the jump.

We finally hit level 100 on one of our characters and are now faced with what new small, medium, and large garrison buildings to build.

Just like when we wrote Best Starter Tier 2 Small and Medium Garrison Buildings To Make Gold? we're going to look at what we might want to do in Tier 3.

(Today's guest post was written by Animadnb. If you would like your gold-making guest post featured on Power Word: Gold please submit it for consideration to [email protected]. In the email include the post title, post text, images, and a public name/pseudonym for attribution.)

Wowhead reports many of the rare crafting recipes no longer require soulbound materials that have cooldoowns.

This will likely change (tank?) the value of these items but also allow them to be more readily crafted and bought/sold.

Keep an eye on these items and also how the ore prices might go up/down as people move into the market. (Looks like the stockpilers weren't so crazy after all.) Head past the jump for the changes.