TradeSkillMaster: Special Searches

The Special Searches option is one of the features of TSM that can easily be overlooked. There are a few things are included in this portion of TSM. You have the option to search the auction house for items that you can purchase then sell to a vendor at a profit. It also includes the ability to search the auction house for items you can disenchant for a profit. One of my favorite features is the ability to search your entire dealfinding list. This feature is especially useful when updates to the desktop app are not possible (often due to Blizzard disabling access). 

We start by opening TSM at the auction house. We then click the Special Searches option at the top.

Vendor Search

The vendor search option will search the auction house for items that you can purchase from the auction house and then sell to a vendor at a profit.

I will admit, I was quite skeptical that this would return any results the first few times I used it. It is actually quite rare that I don't return any results. Often the profit from these items can be small but every little bit matters. A profit is a profit, even if it is only 2 copper!

Here we have returned 3 results. The necklace is going to be my largest profit. The purchase price is 1g 40s 46c. I can sell it to the vendor for 3g 20s 23c. That is a profit of 1g 79s 77c just for buying an item then selling it to a vendor. 

I tested this out on a high population server as well and found it returned more than a dozen items. I ended up with just under 10 extra gold simply by purchasing the items and selling them to a vendor.

Disenchant Search

The Disenchant Search option will only be useful if you have an enchanter or access to one. Do keep in mind that if your profit will be enough to cover a tip then you could always pay someone to disenchant them. So if you are lacking an enchanter then don't abandon this option just yet!

You have the option to use the materials from the disenchanting to make enchants or to simply sell the materials. 

Dealfinding Search

This option is priceless in those times that you don't want to manually click and search every dealfinding list you have made or when the desktop app isn't returning results due to a shutdown of the Auction House API where TSM retrieves it's information. The shutdown is most commonly due to problems with the mobile armory app. This option will give you a way to do a complete search in game so you don't miss out on those deals!

It can take some time depending on how many items you have in your dealfinding lists but that just means it's time to make tea!

Conclusion

I was using TSM for a bit before I accidentally discovered these options. The beauty of this addon is that, with a little exploration, there are always new things to discover. With TSM 2.0 around the corner I think it is important to remember the little bits that make this addon so great. Think of all the new and wonderful things to discover!

Darkmoon Faire Goes Cross Realm

Last month when visiting the Darkmoon Faire I noticed that there was a massive amount people there not from my realm. It almost looked as if ever US realm was in the same place. There were plenty of people not from my battlegroup and they were piled up on top of each other at every booth. It made each daily difficult to accomplish as best. At worst you would have to deal with the over done "mammoth trolling" in which a person mounts a mammoth mount in order to block a desire objective. On top of that the first aid weekly was near impossible to finish. There were tons of people fighting to bandage the slow spawning injured carnies. Fortunately, the amount of people at the Darkmoon Faire did reduce a bit as the week progressed.

I wasn't sure if it was a glitch that so many people were in one place or if this was going to be the standard. So this week I visited the Darkmoon Faire again on day one to see if I would find it the same as last month. I was grateful to find the population of people to be reduced. Perhaps Blizzard decided to reduce how many realms shared a single Darkmoon Faire location, at least I hope this is the case.

Either way it seems cross realm for Darkmoon Faire is here to stay. This got me thinking about what this mean for gold makers. It will certainly change the way we use Darkmoon Faire for building starter gold and even some of the advanced gold making methods.

Making Starter Gold

In my previous post called Gold Making 101: Darkmoon Faire I discussed how to make starter gold from the Darkmoon Faire. It focused on using fishing to get current expansion materials to sell on the auction house. Now, because of the higher population there will be more competition for the Shipwrecked Debris. We will have to work a little harder and take a bit more time finding these lovely little gold makers.

I took Misselane out and she only managed to find one pool after doing an entire lap around the island. Keep in mind that this is on day one of the Faire. If you want to increase your chances of finding these I would recommend waiting until the middle or end of the Faire when less people are likely to be out on the island. 

Also, don't forget that the dailies now award you a Darkmoon Game Prize that not only drops a Darkmoon Prize Ticket but can also drop one of the pets. So the dailies are worth doing. At the very least you will be able to save up and purchase one of the pets with your tickets and if you are lucky you will have one drop for you!

Advanced Gold making

The more advanced gold makers will be hit as well. Mostly due to the increased competition for the Darkmoon Rabbit. Instead of having to compete with only those from your server for the kill, now you have to compete with those from cross servers. 

Sadly, this increases the likelihood of ninjas. It seems that when people aren't on the same server as you they can be more inclined to be a jerk. They will sometimes change the loot to master looter and award themselves the rabbit when it drops. It can sometimes occur during the fight so checking the looting rules before starting combat isn't always helpful. My advice is to be in a trusted group. If you are unable to do so then  at least request that the raid leader state the looting rules. You can simply ask if the rabbit will be open roll for all. If the raid leader replies with a "yes" then you will have recourse if he ninja loots it. Simply open a ticket and a GM will assist you. 

The increased competition can make the value of the rabbit increase but that has yet to happen on my servers mostly due to the complete lack of the rabbit being available. I am curious to see if the value increases due to the larger pool of people from various realms competing for the same loot. I'd love to hear about any changes or lack of that you might have seen on your server. Your comments are appreciated!

Conclusion

The Darkmoon Faire transition hasn't completely removed it as a viable option for making gold but it has some new challenges. Hopefully, the decrease in population from last month is something Blizzard has intentionally done to help reduce the difficulties that can come with too many people fighting for the same things. As tempting as it is to run out on day one to the Faire, waiting is your friend. Feel free to do the dailies but save the fishing and even the weekly profession quests for later in the week.