Blacksmithing Guide to Lightning Steel Ingot

If you haven't realized already, Phase 4 has opened on the Isle of Thunder, and the mob that drops the pattern for the new Blacksmith daily cooldown Lightning Steel Ingot, Itoka, is now spawning.  This post will summarize all you need to know about it!

Daily Cooldown
Lightning Steel Ingot are made by a cooldown also named Lightning Steel Ingot, which requires 10x Ghost Iron Bar, and has a research aspect.  With the research you can learn a plethora of new patterns, such as the Crafted Dreadful sets and the 522 patterns that require Haunting Spirit from Throne of Thunder.

Crafting with Lightning Steel
Lightning Steel is actually only used in a grand total of 18 patterns.  The first 6 you get when first completing the chain from killing Itoka.  Each of these "Phase 1", ilvl 463 weapons are then used as a reagent in crafting "Phase 2" weapons, epics of ilvl 476.  From there, those Phase 2 items are used as reagents in crafting ilvl 502 (raid finder) weapons, that have item models of old no longer obtainable weapons for potential transmogging.

Phase 1
Phase 1 requires 5 Lightning Steel Ingot, 3 Spirit of Harmony, and  2-3 Living Steel.  All these patterns are learned initially when doing the quest from Itoka.  All phase weapons are BoE (see chart below for links), and are required as a reagent, and also unlock the patterns for the Phase 2 weapons.

Phase 2
You learn the recipe for all Phase 2 weapons by crafting their Phase 1 counterparts.  Mats are 10 Lightning Steel Ingot, 6 Spirit of Harmony, and  4 or 6 Living Steel.

Phase 3
You learn the recipe for all Phase 3 weapons by crafting their Phase 2 counterparts.  Mats are 15 Lightning Steel Ingot, 9 Spirit of Harmony, and  6 or 9 Living Steel.

As you can see the mats to craft an ilvl 502 weapon are astronomical, so there will probably be a limited market for these, at the price they'd go for.  The chart below summarizes the evolution models with Wowhead links.  Phase 3 is not on Wowhead yet, so they are battle.net links.

L.S. P1	Phase 1 Version (ilvl 463)	L.S. P2	Phase 2 Version (ilvl 476)	L.S. P3	Phase 3 Version (ilvl 502)
2	The Planar Edge, Reborn	4	Black Planar Edge, Reborn	6	Wicked Edge of the Planes, Reborn
2	Drakefist Hammer, Reborn	6	Dragonmaw, Reborn	6	Dragonstrike, Reborn
2	Fireguard, Reborn	4	Blazeguard, Reborn	6	Blazefury, Reborn
3	Thunder, Reborn	4	Deep Thunder, Reborn	9	Stormherald, Reborn
3	Lunar Crescent, Reborn	6	Mooncleaver, Reborn	9	Bloodmoon, Reborn
3	Lionheart Blade, Reborn	6	Lionheart Champion, Reborn	9	Lionheart Executioner, Reborn

Finally, for your viewing pleasure, the evolution of the models via their battle.net pictures (Click to enlarge).

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Phat's Weekly Lewt Review 3/27: Multimillionaire Edition

If you read my weekly review from last week you'll know I ended up about 30k shy of 2 million gold, at 1,968,760g.  Well this week I surpassed the 2 million marker and more.  I'm up to a grand total of 2,127,034g!  I am officially a multimillionaire!

I am also up over 150k, so I've made over 20k per day the past week, much better than last week.

Posting
I had a posting rut the previous week, but I got out of that this week, and was up to date with all my crafting.  It was really nice to sit back and post after crafting everything I needed the previous week, like sitting on a beach with a cool drink in my hand.  It's been a zen week, but I need to get back into the buying scheme

Sour Deal
I think I've mentioned in previous posts that I've gotten a supplier of GIO, and this week I got an in game mail out of the blue, from a new toon, claiming they were my supplier, saying that their original account got banned (I didn't ask questions), but that the 90 they were mailing me from had herb/mining, and would gladly farm for me, but they didn't have flying, and wanted 10k up front.  I checked out the old toons, and his story checked out, neither had logged for a few days, and this one had mining/herbalism, and being that this guy has given me so much ore in the past I obliged and sent the 10k.  The next day I got 48 stacks of GIO in the mail, a nice down payment, but since then (about 4 days now), I have not gotten a single piece.  So right now I've payed an average of 208g/stack, and I'm not too pleased.  The toon hasn't been on in 24 hours, but hopefully next week I'll be telling you how it wasn't a bad investment.

Lightning Steel
The long awaited legitimate entry of the Lightning Steel CD came yesterday, and WOW for the "second stage" xmog weapons, it's going to take 2 weeks of daily CDs.  Another 2 weeks for "stage 3".  Yikes!  I'm going to have to really show some self restraint and not use it for myself!

Thoughts on 2 Million
Hitting 2 million has been my goal since I bought Invincible a while back, trying not to make any extravagant purchases since then, and in that aspect I've been successful.  I've had up weeks and down weeks, but overall I've made a truckload of gold in the past 2 months, and I'm on track for tons of gold in the months to come!  My new long term goal is a tough one, not really sure what to be, 3 mill doesn't seem all too interesting, and 5 seems too far off, but only time will tell!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Reader Request Phriday: New Markets

If you're interested in submitting a topic for next week's Reader Request Phriday post, please click here for more info!

Since they were the only one who responded this week, once again our question comes from Leeu, who is currently sitting on 80k, through Ghost Iron Ore shuffling, and flipping.  Leeu asked if there were any other markets that they could break into without leveling more 80+'s.

Jewelcrafting Sub-markets
Since you have what you need to do the shuffle, you may want to look into other profitable Jewelcrafting sub-markets.  My favorite is Wrath Epic Gems, this is a great method to make gold, and is a great submarket.  In addition to what's in the post I linked, you can add Nightmare Tear's to the list, YMMV.

On top of that a hot topic that I keep hearing from both Elvine and Profitz is disenchanting Tin Ore to get the leveling gems for JC to sell raw on the AH (think Moss Agate etc.).  I don't use this method personally, but it comes from two reliable sources, with many behind them backing it up.

New Tabs!
It's funny that Leeu ended up asking this question, because I had already been writing a post I was going to come out with today, and it coincides well with this question.  Yesterday someone asked me a question and I wanted to link them to one of my past posts for more info, and I found that going through my blog to find some useful information can be tedious.  To that extent, I've compiled a list of my still-relevant past posts, and put it under a Gold Making Ideas tab in the top bar of my blog.  I organized the post subjects the best I could, but if you're ever looking for some inspiration, or a new market to dive into, this will hopefully be an invaluable resource.  So go check it out and dive into some new markets!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you enjoy my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Phat's Weekly Review 3/21

If you are interested in submitting a topic for this week's Reader Request Phriday post, feel free to send one in ASAP, I still don't have a topic yet!

This week has been painfully slow for me gold making wise.  My numbers are based on an 8 day week (numbers from yesterday).  My new gold total is 1,968,760g for an 8 day increase of only 62,800g, dismally low considering that I made twice that in only 6 days last week.

Excuses
So here is the section where I list all my excuses, but honestly, this week's lack of income can be attributed to laziness.  I make about 5k/day selling glyphs, and I only posted them twice this week.  Shame on me.  On top of that I did not play much this weekend due to St. Patrick's Day festivities.  All is good though, I'm on track to hit 2 million by Friday (hopefully)

Semi-Productivity
This week I did manage to prospect and cut 250 stacks of GIO that I had been putting off for a while.  I actually ran out of a few cuts, which is when I knew I had to do something about it.  On top of that I DE'd all the resulting rings/necks for enchanting mats and crafted scrolls, I shuffled this week more than I have in the past month, which is promising for me actually hitting my 2 million mark some time in the very near future.  My realm's market value is 3.6 million.  Considering my transmog seller controls about 1.2 million of that, and my gems/glyphs/enchants account four another .5 million, and I have 2 TCG mounts that add up to .3 million, I can buy out my server's auction house today.  Fun facts.

TSM Application
Sapu, Lead Developer of TSM, linked to some interesting stats this week about the TSM App on twitter.  Quick aside for those of you who don't use it: the TSMApp is a free application that updates your scan data every hour so you never have to scan the AH in-game. The stats can be found here.  The stats are from people currently running the app, and in order they are the current version everyone is using, followed by the number of realms that people have set up for each individual tab.  Just thought some of you might find it interesting.  Also you all should follow Sapu on Twitter, as well TSM's twitter page.  Be up to date on your favorite addon!  I hope you all had a more product



Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Improving Gold Making Efficiency

If you're like me, you have your gold making machine up and running, and you're churning out lots of items, using TSM as well as you ever will, but your whole operation is getting a bit disorganized.  Every once in a while it's good to take a step back from your operation and checking to see where you can fine tune things.  I of course took the realm maintenance to draft my ideas, and I figured I'd share my battle plans

Bank Alt
I've been putting off dealing with this problem for a while, but I have so many items posted from my bank alt every 2 days that I'm going to have to deal with it.  I'm looking for the most efficient ways to do so, and here's what I've come up with for the time being.  As a note I post items by Item ID, aka ignoring suffixes.

Twink Gear

• Have TSM post (at most) 3 of each item (down from 6)
• After posting, go through extras (by hand and with comparing to suffixes posted) and send off worst stats to Enchanter for DEing
• Keep all extra blues in Guild Bank

Twink gear has some of the highest posting costs from my toon (especially in comparison to the low level transmog gear), so I want to eliminate as many superfluous auctions as possible.

Transmog Gear

• Have TSM post (at most) 2 of each item (down from 4), except high tiers.
• After posting send off all extras to Enchanter for DEing (easier than with twink gear because stats dont matter)

This should (roughly) eliminate about 40-50% of my stock, and save me ~15-20 minutes per posting (every 2 days).  Hopefully it will both save me time and help organize my auctions.  What do you do every so often to increase your efficiency in gold making?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

So that's Competition?

A character who was sending me transmog hate mail, has now committed themselves to being my competitor.  It's been an interesting chain of events, and a story I thought would be worth telling, this is a blog after all.  I hope you enjoy it and consider contributing to the discussion.

Alli Side
First a little background.  I play mainly on the Horde side of my server.  I have a 25 guild and all my crafting characters Horde side, but I wanted to dabble in the Alliance auction house, and have made over 100k there  by flipping items in two markets - Twink and Transmog.

The Letters
So being that I flip transmog, I of course get the occasional hate mail.  My general policy is this: If you take the time and ask me for a deal on the piece of gear, and do it in a polite way, I'll be more than happy to cut you some sort of deal.  On the other hand if you're rude and/or condescending, I just won't respond to the mail.  So the first mail went something like this, I really wish I kept them so I could just Screenshot them.

"Hi, the cloth gloves you have on the AH are way overpriced, only an idiot would sell them for that much.  I'll give you 50g for them, you should be happy to get that."

As is my policy (above) I just ignored it, but this person really wanted the gloves.  A few days later I got the following:

"I see those gloves haven't sold yet.  50g is a great offer and the most you'll ever get"

Well at the very least he is persistent.  Again, I ignored it and went about my business.  Wouldn't you know it, 3 days later:

"I don't know why you won't sell me those gloves, they're not worth that much.  You probably don't make any gold with your ridiculously overpriced auctions."

I considered putting him on ignore, but I decided to respond.  I sent him a mail with the following:  "Since you want them so badly, I've decided to reevaluate my pricing model."  I then proceeded to list the item at gold cap.  I got a few other mails followed, but I put his toon on ignore, and kept listing my auctions as per usual.

Out of the Blue
Randomly, about 2 weeks later I get a mail from a character with (phonetically) the same name as this guy.  The title was "Hurry Up" and read something as follows:

"Hurry up and finish posting so I can undercut you!"

Okay, you caught my attention now.  Did he just figure out the transmog market and is trying to beat me at my own game?  Naturally I looked up this toon on The Undermine Journal and had a good laugh at the results.  He was selling a decent amount of gear, but maybe only 1/50 items I actually recognized as transmog gear.  So what he thought I was doing is just buying up all the greens and relisting at absurd prices for my own entertainment and profit.  This struck me as a bit of culture shock, but it provided some keen insight into why transmog toons are particularly infamous on servers, because they are assumed to be big jerks by those not "in the know" of the market.  Heck, even people "in the know" might just dislike them as well.  Hope you enjoyed this, and if you have any stories you'd like to share please do so in the comments!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Phat's Weekly Lewt Review 3/12

If you're interested in submitting a topic for this week's Reader Request Phriday, make sure to have it in by Thursday afternoon at the latest! 

I'm doing my weekly review today because I will be unavailable all day tomorrow, but normal Wednesday weekly reviews will resume next week.  In the past 6 days I am up over 133k gold.  That's over 20k a day, which are some nice post-patch numbers, at least on my server!

Glyph Mania
I really wish I could say I owe a lot of this to the patch, and gems/enchants all selling well, but in the past 6 days I've made 35k g in glyphs alone.  Now I'm on a small-mid pop server, and there are a few major players in the glyph market, but none of them showed up this week!  I was able to post lots of glyphs at fallback, and raked in quite a bit of gold because of it.

Transmog/Twink
I've been using my method for Twink gear almost daily now (used to only repost every 48 hrs), and now I'm seeing some nice results every day.  I like shying away from the useless gear, and having it rot on the AH, keeps prices low.  My inventory has already been paid for by the gold I've made, but I'm getting quite a few of each item on backlog, and may start to disenchant some of them.

Patch Profits
I must add to all of this that the patch has been treating me well.  Gem sales are through the roof, and Ghost Iron prices are right where they were pre-patch.  I was hoping for a little more of a dump, with some low prices, but haven't seen it on my relatively small server, but I hope some of you are able to reap the benefits of the Great Specualtion of 5.2.  I was up a lot this week, especially considering I was focusing less on my gold making and more on the new content.  I'm pleased with the results.  How have patch 5.2 sales gone for you thusfar?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!