Well, it was an interesting week to say the least. Some key points! Wednesday 10.1.5 hit, and cross realm trading was enabled. Sadly, it created some server instability because of all the phasing we all do from one realm to the next, so they disable it a day later. It has not been turned back on yet. I did manage to complete a few trades and move some things around that I wanted to move, but now I’m back to a waiting pattern in that regard. It’s not a huge deal, after all we barely had it live for one day, but I know a lot of people are really looking forward to that change, whether they’re buyers or sellers.
Sales for the week held strong, with last Sunday being far beyond what I expected – I imagine people were stocking up. There was talk in the WoW Economy discord about taking advantage of the new Naxx items, most notably righteous orbs, but I decided to go the opposite route and sold before the event went live to those who were stockpiling for after. The price of orbs dropped from 600g to 300g and have risen slightly since then to around 400g. I wasn’t interested in playing the long game for this item when there are bigger fish out there, so I let mine go.
I did start unlocking the secrets to old scholomance and old Naxxramas – I’m not sure if I’m actually going to sell anything / recipes / components, but I do want to be able to unlock them for myself, and if gold happens to come from that, all the better. It’s slow and annoying with lots of RNG in there, so if you’re also working on that, just hang in there.
One thing to note, there was a LOT of confusion about whether or not we’d be able to MAIL across server – you cannot. This was never implied or hinted at. Normally when Blizzard makes these changes their language is clear – for example when they told us we’d be able to mail cross faction on the same realm, and when they told us we could trade certain items in dungeons. Their announcement was for trades, and that means you do need either a 2nd account or a friend to help if you’re looking to trade with yourself. The intention of this change is NOT to benefit gold making goblins – it is a QoL change for regular players who are spread across multiple realms from their friends. This allows them the opportunity to help out their friend with gold or items without feeling the barrier of the server. You do also have to be same faction (as far as I am aware).
That isn’t to say it won’t change in the future, but you have to remember that World of Warcraft is an OLD game, and the code wasn’t meant to allow any of this stuff. Managing to change it and adjust it in a way that does allow for cross realm trading is a BIG DEAL and of course there are going to be unseen issues with it since it’s old and was never intended. Let’s give them our support through these growing pains, and keep our fingers and toes crossed that they get it sorted (soon).
With this update also came a region wide update to TSM – but I’m saving that for its own post in the near future.
As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!