When you’re looking for deals, beware of what seems like a reasonable or even good deal, especially on armor, at least in World of Warcraft.  WoW’s professions have always been extremely broken.  I was in the alpha and remember when Enchanting actually used herbs. Seems strange doesn’t it? Well at that time you could also distribute points into stats as well.  Ever since those days, professions have been broken.

Time for a temporary rant. I’m playing a game where as you level you have absolutely no use for the items you can craft pre highest level (70 currently). How is this good, or fun in the slightest?  Now in general, WoW is fun. Not nearly as fun as EQ was when I was playing that way back when, but that’s another story. I’m talking EQ 1.  Professions in WoW suffer from one major thing: that you level too fast for your gear to mean much of anything. You barely put on an item, crafted or not, and you’re ready for an upgrade.  This of course stops at level 70 (currently) where you’re capped and where items mean just that much more for the hardcore player.  I could write an entire article on professions and how they could be fixed, but it wouldn’t be appropriate for the front page. Maybe in the forum. I’m sure the designers are well aware, though why they aren’t doing anything about it I have no clue.

Back to the task at hand. When you’re looking for items in the auction house or trade, beware of items, especially pre-60 armor, that seem unusually low in price. Ask first if it’s a player crafted item. At level 70, it’s not as much an issue, as rare or epic level 70 craftable gear is actually desirable. But lower levels, it’s very selective and since you’ll often have multiple people who are making it, not worth as much.  Rule of thumb. Always be sure whether the item you’re getting is crafted or not, both at lower levels, and at the epic level.
Set Pieces. In World of Warcraft, set pieces pre level 60 were often worth quite a bit and were worthwhile to search out on their own as hot items. Now, set items are mostly crafted or bought from faction vendors. Since you outlevel that kind of gear much faster now, pre-60 set pieces in Burning Crusade+ mean almost nothing. They are useful for reminiscence mostly, and actually are better than what you can get… for a few levels at least.

If you’re playing another game, set pieces are probably going to be worth it to consider searching for deals. They were big money makers for me in the past and if not outdated, are definitely a hot item in any game. Look for them in your game of choice.

Tags: auction house, set items