Lich King AH Impressions
Nov 16th, 2008 by tyson
As it had been a few months since I’ve logged on to check the auction house, my big question going in was, “Is it much different than before?”
Yes and no.
Differences:
- I saw level 80 items (even if they were just crafted)!
- New categories added: glyphs are amazing for actual gameplay! But they’re crafted, so I expect to be keeping an eye on them to see if there are differences in rarity and therefore price
- Some new stats on items like “spell power” which requires some investigation on how it’s different than the old “damage and healing” modifier
Similarities:
- Prices of older items are actually taking a little while to go down as more people get the new stuff… so I’m still seeing maybe a 10-40% drop in overall value of most pre Lich King items on first inspection with definitely several exceptions in the 50%+ category. I expect this will keep going down fairly linearly.
- No new auction house filters which I thought was odd. It would be great to have a “skill level” filter for searching out crafting recipes for example.
- Still huge server differences in item/quality density
- Still big differences between alliance and horde in item quality and density, with alliance having the big advantage
Observations:
- Pet prices are inflated… some oldies like the White Kitten are already going for up to 100x the amount they sold for pre Lich King. I’d try and fit checking out pets into your routine somehow.
- Extreme sales are already happening! On first logging on with Celwyn (from the podcast), within 1 minute in checking out the epics I saw the epic lvl 70 robe “Will of Edward the Odd” selling for 6 gold. The other two were still selling in the upper 600’s so I think I’ll make a profit here.
- Insane jump in item powers post level 70, just as in Burning Crusade. Item modifiers are incredible and having played a priest through Karazhan several times (but not really further than that), I’m seeing things that are already competing with my epics in some ways and blowing them away in other stats.
Differences:
* Glyphs - Note that the AH doesn’t let you separate the minor from the major glyphs, but you’ll see that it is the minor ones which command the higher prices.
* Spell power affects both spell damage (1-1 conversion) and healing (about x2 conversion, so each point of spell power is 2 points of healing, give or take). This was done to consolidate items (e.g. so mages and priests can roll on same item). Similar changes include hit and crit ratings from gear now affecting both spell and melee hit and crit. You should read the patch notes for the patches 2.3-3.01, 3.01-3.02 and 3.02-3.03
Similarities:
* Some older items will sell well for a long time, especially with all the DKs leveling (and looking for good plate BoE blues for levels 60-70) and power-leveling professions. Some are practically worthless now.
Observations:
* Pet prices were inflated as soon as people heard there was an Achievement related to pets. Of course when the Achievements system was released that was really the big jump. Not just pet prices either, for example I expect Runecloth to keep selling well as people try to achieve exalted status with their city factions. Press “y” to open the Achievements window.
* Item power has jumped significantly less compared to vanila->BC jump. Back then I had full T1 and a few T2 and I replaced practically everything before level 73. Now I have many pieces of badge gear (about T5-T6 gear level) and it will probably mostly keep up to level 75, maybe beyond. Talk is that people in full T6/Sunwell gear do not get any really good replacement all the way to Naxx, the first raid instance!
Personally I think the AH will be a bit insane right now due to everyone busy leveling, so that few people have the time to gather mats. On the other hand people are leveling professions so are naturally looking at the AH for mats… last but not least, level 80 daily quests are expected to give ~30g per daily (!!). All of these are driving current AH prices through the roof. I’m going to stay away, the stakes are too rich for my blood - but if you have the mojo to get in on the action, it is very likely you can make very nice profits in the coming days. GL
Great info, thanks Solidstate.