Posted by Heartbourne on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 - 13 Comments
Tags: -1, economy, fishing, kalu'ak, patch 3.3, ptr, ptr 3.3
There are some pretty big things changed or added in the new patch 3.3 build that didn’t make it to the patch notes, some of which discovered on the PTR, others announced by blue posters.
- Kalu’ak Fishing Derby (held on Wednesdays): “The Kalu’ak hold a fishing derby every few days in Northrend. Be the first to catch a Blacktip Shark and win respect with the Kalu’ak, and an amazing prize!”
- Master Angler of Azeroth: “Win the Booty Bay fishing contest or the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby.” Hopefully this will replace Master Angler of Stranglethorn in the meta-achievement.
- Titles for killing Arthas: 10 player heroic: “the Frost Ender”; 25 player: “the Kingslayer”; 25 player heroic: “the Light of Dawn”.
- Transmute: Titanium no longer has a cooldown.
- New enchant: “Enchant Gloves: Angler: Permanently enchant gloves to increase fishing skill by 5.”
So I’m going to guess that the fishing contest and Enchant are somehow related. Perhaps the Kalu’ak sell the enchant at a certain reputation level? I’m also going to guess that the fishing contest rewards Kalu’ak reputation to come in line with the other reputation changes we’ve been seeing. All in all, this is something that I would have loved to have in the game earlier and fleshes out fishing, as well as the Kalu’ak, even more.
As for the Transmute: Titanium change, this is going to be huge. The transmute is the first one that Alchemists learn, and by performing it, they have a chance to learn an eternal elemental transmute, such as Transmute: Eternal Earth to Air. This is the only way to learn the eternal elemental transmutes, and I imagine alchemists that leveled post patch 3.2 have been performing epic gem transmutations instead, as they are more profitable. However, the fact that Titanium can now be transmuted in bulk may turn some heads.
This is going to drastically change prices on gems and ore. The transmute takes 8 Saronite Bars and turns them into 1 Titanium Bar. On my server, 8 Saronite Bar (made from 16 Saronite Ore) run you about 15g, while a Titanium Bar (made from 2 Titanium Ore) runs you about 32g. The demand for Titanium is largely rooted in the demand for epic gems, as one of the few places to obtain epic gems is from prospecting Titanium Ore. Players who want Titanium for things like enchants (Titanweave), Engineering, or other crafts for high-end gear, now have to pay top copper because Titanium is largely being used to make epic gems. On the flip side, Saronite has “bottomed out” in price; its price is being held steady by people who are turning it into enchanting materials by crafting it en masse into gear and disenchanting it. There is still huge downward pressure on the price of Saronite, as players farming Titanium also come across lots of Saronite. Since the supply of Saronite is so high and it has no real use to players anymore, its become very cheap.
With this change, the cheap Saronite can be turned into Titanium in bar form only. This is going to destroy the status quo on the price of Titanium and Saronite, as cheap old Saronite can now essentially be the reagent for Titanium-based recipes. As such, the demand and price for Saronite ore and bars is going to go way up. The price of Titanium bars will likely be lower than the price of the ore required to make it, and as such no ore should be turned into bars. The price of both will lower significantly. As such, epic gem prices will decrease nearly proportionally to the decrease in the price of Titanium Ore. Here are my predictions in price changes effective 3 weeks after patch 3.3 hits:
| Saronite Ore: | +30% |
| Saronite Bar: | +40% |
| Titanium Bar: | -50% |
| Titanium Ore: | -20% |
| Epic gems: | -10% |
| Infinite Dust: | +10% |
| Cosmic Essence: | +10% |
| Titanium-based products: | -30-40% |
I base this off the assumption that there are lots of people on your server farming Saronite/Titanium and there are enough people privy enough to how to make money to turn Saronite into enchanting materials. This also does not account for the increase in demand for gems in the short run as players get new gear at a faster rate right after the release of a patch than months into its lifespan, and it may take a few weeks for the market to respond.
Do you agree or disagree with my analysis?
Related Posts: Preparing for Patch 3.2: Tradeskills, Profession Buffs and Epic Gems in Patch 3.2, Kalu’ak Fishing Derby and Heirloom Rings, Patch 3.3: The Lich King Is Out, Now What?, WoW Life Lesson #30: You Can Always Make A Change,
By Dibullba on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 2:11 pm
FIRST!!!! IMMA LOSER!!!! YAY!!!!
By Dibullba on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 2:18 pm
on a serious matter, your accurate within general consensus. But another thing to take into consideration is that if ICC is anything like BT it will be dropping epic gems and mats for new patterns meaning that epic gems should drop more in price and the gold will be made through the mats needed on these items.
By Alayea on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 2:26 pm
While removing the CD on Transmute: Titanium is great, I wish even more that Blizzard would remove the shared CD from old world transmutes.
By 4KhazModan on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I hope they also lower or drop the CD on titansteel, there are some patterns i would LOVE to get my hands on but dont hav the money for both 12+ titansteel and 1 crusader orb
By cocopuff on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 6:24 pm
•Transmute: Titanium no longer has a cooldown
its abotu freaking time
By Pegraath on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Khaz - that’s what alts and guildie’s alts are for
By littleraven on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
omg i want the title “the light of dawn” the sad part is i will probably never get it though
guess ill just have to settle for “the kingslayer”
By ubasrawr on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:49 pm
@cool down for titansteel, best way to deal with it is to shout in trade to buy smelting for titansteel, providing your own materials
i managed to buy a smelt at 20g per smelt of titansteel, it is cheaper than buying them on the auction house
on the fishing enchantment, there already exists an old vanilla enchantment that gives +5 to fishing, don’t remember where i got it from or what slot it aids to, but i think it is bracers
i don’t have an alchemist, would love to train one, but it takes time to level up an alt
By Cotytto on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 am
Enchant Gloves Fishing only adds +2 to your gloves and is the only fishing enchant in the game currently, not including fishing lines which only enchants your fishing pole.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=11152#dropped-by
By Fordrus on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Holy Crap!
I have three maxed miners and two maxed alchemists- yeah, don’t worry, I swear I have a life too- amongst other things- but this change will ROCK my world- I haven’t used the titansteel transmutes in ages often or seriously, because the titansteel bars sell CHEAPER than the purchased reagents- or for so little more that the AH cut destroy my profits.
All the sudden I will have 3 more magnificent cooldowns- take the saronite, make the titanium, get the eternals, transmute the titansteel, collect or sell for profit and happiness and peace.
So excited!
I know there’s some possibility of the prices stabilizing at the same ratio as now, making my titansteel smelting STILL not worth it- but I can even easily farm the saronite myself if necessary, and well- I mean- this change is just beautiful in so many ways.
By Daniel on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
The price of Saronite will not rise. All those miner who are now mining titanium will just mine saronite instead. Miners have to make money somehow. Saronite ore is just way too easy to find for the price of it to rise long term.
In other words, titanium prices are high not due to high demand but because the supply is limited. There is no such limitation on saronite ore.
By ahnold on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
If Saronite sells for 15g on your server, buy it all up and vendor it, they pay 25g.
By Dei on Monday, December 7th, 2009 at 2:17 am
15g for saronite ore, not bars.