I haven’t covered TBC in a while, but with phase 4 on the PTR, now is the time to take a look at what the next phase has in store for us goldmaking wise!
Major changes
Overall phase 4 does not have the most major changes. We get the 10 man raid Zul’aman, which is the major content piece. There’s no new PvP season, with this patch representing more of a general catch up patch, which Blizzard did back in classic and TBC.
In addition to this there are bunch of item and reward changes, including changes to badges of justice across the board that makes gearing easier and more accessible.
New recipes
In addition to this we are getting some new recipes, with varying levels of demand. As always new recipes are relevant as long as the recipes are useful, so let’s go through them.
Greater Drums of Battle
One infamous one is of course the Greater drums of battle. Even if they were nerfed, there are still leatherworkers across the board and the greater drums will allow you to avoid the annoyance of having to stack up that the old drums had. To get the recipe you need to be honored with the Sha’tar, which is not the most demanding of grinds.
Enchant weapon: Executioner
This is a armor penetration enchant for weapons. Mostly this is going to be relevant for PvP players. It drops from Zul’Aman, so if you have enchanting you will want to pick it up. As with most enchants you will have to put in the hours in trade chat if you want to generate significant gold, but it’s not terrible.
Tradable nethers
Another welcome change for anyone who mostly plays for the economy is the change to Primal Nethers and Nether Vortexes. Both of these can be traded, which means you can craft a ton of items now without leaving the AH. In addition you can now trade badges of justice for these items, so if you have an excess of badges lying about on your main you can now make some gold with it.
Prices will most likely fall rapidly as players liquidate their stock, but these items will remain in demand throughout TBC, with new recipes coming in the Sunwell, alongside the ever present demand from spellthread and newly rolled alts.
You might want to stock up
So you may want to stock up, there’s a chance they hit the lowest point ever some time in this phase. Of course the exact timing is extremely hard to guess, but if players are sitting on large stockpiles they want to sell we may see them go for cheap. This mostly makes sense if you can already utilize these in currently relevant recipes. As always when it comes to investment you want to be careful and not spend more gold than you are ok with risking.
More alts?
Lastly we might see the general market for catch up gear be slightly stronger. With the emphasis on catch up in this phase we will probably see more players rolling alts and more players joining TBC, as this is the best time to join up if you are still interested. Keep any catch up items you have on the AH, and be ready to restock if you see anything increase in sale rate.