5 Ways To Survive Without The Obsidium Shuffle

If you keep up with gold-making news you know by now that the Obsidium Shuffle, as we know now, is going away soon. (See "The Obsidium Shuffle Is Dead - Patch 4.1 Uncommon Gem Vendor Price 75s")

Patch 4.1 is expected to drop in the next few weeks and bring with it a lowering of vendor price for cut uncommon cataclysm gems (Alicite, Carnelian, Hessonite, Japser, Nightstone and Zephyrite) from 9 gold to 75 silver.

Today we are going to go over the top 5 ways you can adapt and survive the weeks before and after this change.

#5 - Engage Your Brain
With big changes like this is it important to take time out of your normal routine and assess you current gold-making scheme. What is working? What isn't? Think hard. Think in the car. Think in the shower. Most importantly think.

Get creative. Be actively thinking while you play the game. What are new ways you could make gold? What are ways you made gold in the past but abandoned? What was too expensive in early Cataclysm that may be profitable now?

We are going to need to innovate or die. The best gold-making tool we have is our own brain. Switch it on.

Pondering new ways to make gold is very worthwhile.

#4 - Remember Change is Good
I'm sure I'm not the only gold-maker who has found myself invigorated by the changes I've had to make since hearing about the vendor price changes. Many of us have been stuck in a rut as far as our gold-making goes.

Making large amounts of gold is (almost) never a bad thing. Doing the same thing day-in day-out though can get monotonous. As creative and thinking creatures we like to be challenged. Figureing out just the right angle is one of my favorite parts of making gold in World of Warcraft.

Change brings challenge. Expect to be stretched in the first few weeks after Patch 4.1. The earth is going to be shifting underneath all of us on a day-to-day (or even minute-to-minute) basis as markets try to readjust to these changes. Enjoy the change of scenery.

#3 - Level A New Profession or Character 
We all have unfinished projects. Characters or professions that we started with good intentions but never seem to find the time to finish. Diversity is going to be one of the strongest ways to hedge against the changes coming in Patch 4.1.

The next few weeks is a great time to start changing gears in your gold-making efforts. Take some time away from the auction house. Uncurl that 'claw' you use to press the Prospect button and get a change of scenery.

Leveling a character and/or profession is a great way to find new markets and ways to make gold. I recently leveled alchemy and I was shocked at the prices of some of the lower level herbs. I would have never known this unless I had been leveling alchemy.

Doing things outside a capital city is a great way to not only find new ways to make gold but also help you rekindle your enjoyment of World of Warcraft as a whole.

I'm not sure this is the best guy to get gold-making advice from.

#2 - Ignore The Blogs
While this may seem funny coming from a blog that writes solely about gold-making in World of Warcraft the reality is all us bloggers are just people. People who love writing about making gold. We are not prophets.

As much as we'd like to think so no gold-making blog knows what the future brings. At best we give educated guesses colored with past experience. We all mean well but unless one of us secretly works as a Blizzard developer you have just as good a change of predicting the future as any of us.

As the patch draws closer you will hear lots of advice about what and how to prepare (this post in fact is just that). Just remember that gold bloggers are coming from their experience on their server. What happens over there may have little or nothing to do with what happens on your server.

We mean well. Remember it's always about the server. You are the one best qualified to give gold-making advice about your server.

#1 - Have Fun!
Remember why you first started playing World of Warcraft? I'd bet it was because you had fun playing the game. You had fun leveling and exploring. You loved learning about new classes and new spells. You enjoyed finding new creatures (and often being eaten by them).

This is the WORLD of Warcraft. Azeroth is a huge place with lots of exciting things to do. Markets are going to be shifting and roiling for the foreseeable future. While it might sound silly one of the best ways to make money in the near future is to not.

Taking a temporary break from gold-making to recharge your WoW batteries is a fantastic idea. Do something crazy. Do something fun. Go for your 100 mount achievement. Grind out the last few reps for the "Insane" title. Level a hunter by only meleeing (I've actually done this. He's level 72).

Mr. Bear is clearly not impressed with the melee hunter.

Do what ever you can to make WoW enjoyable. There is more to this game than making gold. If all you do in the game is make gold eventually you'll find the world seeming a bit less enjoyable. The colors will seem to dull.

You may even find yourself contemplating stopping altogether. While I heartily advocate taking breaks from playing World of Warcraft I always hate to see players who simply no longer enjoy their time in the game. Games are meant to be fun.

If you're no longer having fun find a way to recapture that spark that first hooked you. There will be plenty of gold to be had in the future. I promise.

Talking Points

• What are your Top 5 Survival tactics for 4.1?
• What professions or alts have you been ignoring?
• What are some ways you would recapture the 'fun' of World of Warcraft.

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