Deep Dive

Deep Dive: Sniping with Azeroth Auction Assassin

stargrace February 13, 2024 No Comments

I haven’t done a lot of sniping since Dragonflight came out, but sometimes I get bored and want to explore ‘new’ methods of making gold, so when Indopan started talking about Azeroth Auction Assassin (Also called Azeroth Auction Ace, so they don’t show too much ass when the name shortens), I was absolutely interested.

Before we get too far, one thing to note is that this stand alone API sniper is currently behind a Patreon paywall. This isn’t completely unheard of, there are services like Zygor (publishing guides) & goblins like BilisOnyxia & Studden who put their gold making guides for sale and I certainly don’t begrudge them for it, after all, they’ve put in the work. I also realize sniping is not for everyone – and that’s OK. The best part of making gold is that there are lots of different ways to go about it, and if one method isn’t to your liking, I have no doubt that you’ll find another.

There are two common methods of sniping (if you’re not familiar with the term ‘snipe’ it just means buying something from the AH for cheap, typically before someone else can snag the deal, in this version at least). One way is by using an in-game AH addon like point blank sniper that scans your current server in live-time (TSM also has a sniper built in but I’ve found it quite slow since the release of DF, so for the purpose of this article I won’t be talking about it), and the other method uses a program outside of the game, and Blizzard’s public AH API which publishes data once an hour for all servers. You might remember when I started using Mega Alerts, I had to install Docker and follow a lengthy tutorial to get all of that up and running – Azeroth Auction Assassin works the same way, using Blizzard’s public API but it also has an entire GUI built in making it MUCH more user friendly. You create a list of items you want to purchase, with price points (you can also import your list from auctionator), and then once an hour when Blizzard publishes the AH data, it pings you on discord if anything matches the item/price you’ve set. In the screenshot above you can see I went after +speed gear. I set a price of 300g for any 421 (and higher) gear that had +speed on it (that’s what the screenshot below is showing, too). While the more common use for an API sniper is to purchase items on one server for a low price, and then sell them on another server for a higher price, for me it was a nice way to find some recipes I was missing, and some gear.

There are tutorials for everything you might need, an active discord, and a friendly community. The one question I know frequently comes up is “what should I snipe” – and honestly, this is something every goblin out there who wants to snipe has to learn for themselves. What you want to purchase, and what price point you want to purchase it at, is part of the learning process.

When you’re trying to decide what to snipe, look at the big picture. Let’s say you want to snipe pets. Look for ones that are used in teams / popular (use TSM sales rate for this) / or rare. There’s tons of sites out there that list these pets. TCG (trading card game) pets have taken a hit since they’ve been amazon prime / twitch rewards, but they’re still popular. No Longer Available (NLA) items can be popular – but Blizzard also has a history of bringing those back, so do your research. Looking to flip some raid gear? Check out the BiS gear guides over on Wowhead & Icyveins, and add those items to your list. It’s going to be trial and error. It’s still going to require time to sell the items you purchase – and a lot can happen in between there. Maybe the price will suddenly tank, or the drop rate will suddenly increase. Figuring all of that out is a big part of being a goblin, and learning what risks to take when is just a part of it. As I’ve said many times before, even just lurking in the WoW Economy Discord is a great way to pick up some tips and tricks on what to buy – and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Deep Dive: Why Having Multiple Accounts is Ideal (for making gold)

stargrace January 8, 2024 No Comments

I know it’s difficult to think about paying for two accounts each month when you might not even be making enough gold for one – but there are some pretty big benefits when it comes to making gold – even if you don’t plan on multiboxing. ** note ** This does NOT mean you NEED two accounts to make gold! It’s just a simple list explaining why one might want more than one. Here’s a few perks that come from having more than one account.

1. Monitoring the auction house while you do things on your main account. If you create a second account on your main bnet (you can have 8 across each bnet) you share all achievements, appearance gear, mounts, pets, and more. You can create a level 10 allied race character, and park them at the AH to run PBS while you do battlegrounds / raid / whatever.
2. Hanging out in Valdrakken doing work orders while not having to hang around in Valdrakken waiting for work orders. In Dragonflight there is a LOT of gold to be made with the crafting system, but being tethered to the craft table is a whole lot of NOT FUN. Plus you want to be able to see trade chat. Maybe.
3. Posting on two accounts at once. Adding a second account can be a HUGE time saver. Split your items up (either across servers or just across characters) and you can post twice as fast if you’re using TSM. You can use a mouse scroll wheel to post and a hotbar macro to post (make sure the macro window is the one in focus, and just mouse over the 2nd window but don’t make it your focus).
4. Cross server trading. Want to buy something cheaper some place else and sell it where it’s expensive? Well you can – with two accounts (or a friend). Sure, pets can be easily moved between servers with one account, but moving items is a great way to expand your gold making empire.
5. Phase to a quieter server (or a busier server). If the item you’re camping is too crowded, or maybe you need more people for an event, you can easily phase over to where your alt might be. I know a lot of people seem to prefer keeping all of their characters on the same server, but I’ve got mine spread out all over the place (minus my core crafters, who I keep together). This allows me to swap over to a low pop or a high pop based on whatever it is I need.
6. Alt armies. This could be anything, from doing the shadowlands mission table, alchemist transmutes, tailoring cool downs, or just running dungeons / raids on as many characters as you want. The lockout of 10 dungeons is also account specific but NOT bnet specific. Once you run 10 dungeons on one account, you could swap to the second one for less downtime between runs. Having more characters is almost never a bad thing.
7. Collecting more – of everything! Currency, transmog, mounts, pets, toys. If you’re dragging along a second character, you’re going to potentially earn more of ABC123 just by having an extra body there. Doing world quests on two characters at once is really no hardship (more than that might become cumbersome but there’s nothing stopping you) especially when you can act as a personal taxi with the dragonflight buddy system.

It is not essential to have multiple accounts – but it is one of the first things many goblins end up doing after they make the decision to expand their gold making empire.

Have your own suggestion? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.