Kevmar was all 'rawr' and then a lightbulb went off in my head, so I thought I'de better write it down.
The problem I most see with these ultrapowerful tools is that their usage is indirect. That is, they have such abstract information that everyone wants the tool but no one knows how to use it, like a gameshark. Okay, so you have infinite lives. Now what?
This breakdown post really demonstrates a practical use for the powerhouse that is Rawr.
1. Check for all upgrades
2. Set realistic gear goals
3. Compile cost and %-increase per item
4. Decide if ratio matches budget
5. Pursue upgrades!
And then you end up with your cost/upgrade, which isn't very useful in a void (actually it's a mind-staggering number in his post.. 3% dps upgrade from using proper enchants? On a 3500 dps player, that's an additional 105 dps. If 6/10 of your players are dpsing (5 dps + 2 tanks), that's an extra 630 dps. That's an additional 113,400 damage over a 3 minute fight. This is why you shouldn't put mp5 to chest on a rogue, even if its free. (Or should you?)
Kev's post takes you through an actual example of how to do it, so read up and stop slacking!
Holy Paladin Guide
This is just a guide to show you how to solo as a holy paladin. It is not a guide to teach you how to heal.
The spec:
Level 20
Level 40
Level 60
Level 70
Level 80
The gear:
Intellect and spellpower. Other choices are haste, mp5, and crit. Stamina last; all other stats are irrelevant.
The gems:
Intellect, haste, and crit are yellow. Use intellect.
Spellpower is red.
Mp5 and stamina are blue. Use whichever you think you need. Stamina can be helpful while learning hard fights.
Most of your gems should be part yellow (for intellect).
If a socket bonus doesn't matter, use pure intellect gems.
The glyphs:
Honestly? It doesn't matter. At least one should be for Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom. Another, probably Holy Light. Third for Beacon or Divinity.
but if you're really aching for damage: Judgement, Exorcism, and the last is up to you.
The macros:
Yes, create macros! For all of these, choose the giant red question mark icon, and name them whatever you would like.
Below, I refer to these macros by spell name. Obviously, "Holy Shock (macro)" is the macro above that casts Holy Shock.
The spells:
Exorcism, Hand of Reckoning, Hammer of Wrath, Hammer of Justice
Other spells:
These are spells that aren't primary, but you should have them ready for when you need them. Include your racial ability here. (Every Man For Himself, Arcane Torrent, Stoneform, etc.)
Sacred Shield, Flash of Light, Avenging Wrath, Bubble, Hand of Freedom
Blessing, Seal, Judgement:
Blessing of Might, Seal of Wisdom, Judgement of Wisdom
How It Works:
Step-by-step!
The rules:
The claim-to-fame:
Holy/Shockadin dual-spec, 80 Human Paladin. Naxx 25 down, working on Uld10. Haven't raided since 3.1, that's why my holy build is messed up.
The spec:
Level 20
Level 40
Level 60
Level 70
Level 80
The gear:
Intellect and spellpower. Other choices are haste, mp5, and crit. Stamina last; all other stats are irrelevant.
The gems:
Intellect, haste, and crit are yellow. Use intellect.
Spellpower is red.
Mp5 and stamina are blue. Use whichever you think you need. Stamina can be helpful while learning hard fights.
Most of your gems should be part yellow (for intellect).
If a socket bonus doesn't matter, use pure intellect gems.
The glyphs:
Honestly? It doesn't matter. At least one should be for Seal of Light or Seal of Wisdom. Another, probably Holy Light. Third for Beacon or Divinity.
but if you're really aching for damage: Judgement, Exorcism, and the last is up to you.
The macros:
Yes, create macros! For all of these, choose the giant red question mark icon, and name them whatever you would like.
#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Judgement of Wisdom
#showtooltip Holy Shock
/startattack [harm]
/cast [mod:shift,target=player][harm,nodead] Holy Shock
#showtooltip
/startattack
/cast Shield of Righteousness
#showtooltipRepeat the last macro for your other blessings.
/cast [mod:shift] Blessing of Might; Greater Blessing of Might
Below, I refer to these macros by spell name. Obviously, "Holy Shock (macro)" is the macro above that casts Holy Shock.
The spells:
Exorcism, Hand of Reckoning, Hammer of Wrath, Hammer of Justice
Other spells:
These are spells that aren't primary, but you should have them ready for when you need them. Include your racial ability here. (Every Man For Himself, Arcane Torrent, Stoneform, etc.)
Sacred Shield, Flash of Light, Avenging Wrath, Bubble, Hand of Freedom
Blessing, Seal, Judgement:
Blessing of Might, Seal of Wisdom, Judgement of Wisdom
How It Works:
Step-by-step!
- Target a mob from far away.
- Exorcism
- While Exorcism is casting, spam Hand of Reckoning.
- After Exorcism and HoR go off, Judgement (macro) as the mob approaches. (For ranged mobs, start moving closer and cast Judgement (macro) while on the move.)
- Holy Shock (macro)
- Shield of Righteousness (macro)
- HS (m), SoR (m), or Judge (m) - whichever is available first.
- Hammer of Wrath to finish it up.
The rules:
- Only use Exorcism at the start of a fight, and never while being attacked.
- HoR will only deal damage if the mob isn't targeting you, so it's only good at the start of a fight.
- Keep Sacred Shield active all the time (if you have it).
- If multiple spells are ready to be used, prefer Holy Shock (m) above all others. After that, prefer Judgement (m).
- You can use a different Seal if you remember to use Divine Plea when you need to.
The claim-to-fame:
Holy/Shockadin dual-spec, 80 Human Paladin. Naxx 25 down, working on Uld10. Haven't raided since 3.1, that's why my holy build is messed up.
What to Farm
Everybody knows that the auction house is the key to making quick cash. But what items do you put up, and where do you get them? I'll be covering Northrend exclusively in this post, but if you know of an Outland or old Azeroth item that goes for a lot on the 'house, leave a comment.
Cooking
Skilling up cooking is fun for many players. Not only do I advise taking it, but gather more meats than you actually need. Many people are too impatient to go out and get their own meat, so they'll happily buy it off the auction house. That's where you come in.
These four meats make up the Great Feast, which serves a whole party.
Rhino - Some in Storm Peaks and others in Borean. For you non-AoE grinders, there are some spread out around Sholozar.
Chilled - I wouldn't eat this raw, but it drops off of every single beast type mob. You'll get quite a few while farming the other types of meat. It's also the most common meat, so it doesn't sell for a whole lot on the auction house.
Shoveltusk - On the other side of the world as mammoths and rhinos are the shoveltusks. Their flanks sell nicely, even though they're really easy to take down. They travel in herds, but are neutral (similar to rhino and mammoth), with a few aggressive types spread out here and there.
Mammoth - Big, mean, and scrumptiously delicious. Grab a chunk o' this beast from Borean for you AoEers, and for single-targeting try the higher level ones in Storm Peaks.
The Fish Feast is higher level than its 'great' counterpart, but you have to have a high fishing skill to make farming these more profitable. Wowhead has excellent info for each fish on their page, so take a click if you find yourself desiring to cast a pole.
Musselback Sculpin
Glacial Salmon
Nettlefish
Other high-demand meats to keep an eye on include Worm Meat.
Skinning
...is a fairly straight-forward profession. One that I can't really touch upon because it's so direct. It combines well with cooking, as just about all the beasts you kill can be skinned. If you know any skinning friends and you're going AoE farming on mammoths, invite them! Not only will they be greatful to you, they may even but you a portion of their skins if you kill things fast enough. Hope for those Arctic Furs!
Ore
Three types of minerals exist in Northrend soil, each one more rare than the last.
Cobalt Ore - Okay, I lied. Cobalt sometimes goes for more than Saronite because there are fewer nodes, as well that everyone needs Cobalt ore to skill up their blacksmithing and jewelcrafting to Saronite levels. Cobalt is best mined while leveling up, but if you have a flying mount, apparently Zul'Drak and Howling Fjord have the most deposits.
Saronite Ore - The most common end-game ore. Icecrown and Sholozar are the way to go.
Titanium Ore - Un-prospectable, but used for many recipes. Very, very hard to find, but plenty will show up while on your Saronite route because it only spawns in saronite/cobalt nodes.
Herbs
For the most parts, herbs are easier to find than ore. Farming for these is less competitive, but there are still a few things you should know.
If you are an alchemist, I suggest seeing what potions and elixers you can make after a long flower-picking session. You might be able to sell the potions for more than you could the combined flowers. But sometimes, it'll just be more profitable to sell the raw flowers.
What do you sell?
Cooking
Skilling up cooking is fun for many players. Not only do I advise taking it, but gather more meats than you actually need. Many people are too impatient to go out and get their own meat, so they'll happily buy it off the auction house. That's where you come in.
These four meats make up the Great Feast, which serves a whole party.
Rhino - Some in Storm Peaks and others in Borean. For you non-AoE grinders, there are some spread out around Sholozar.
Chilled - I wouldn't eat this raw, but it drops off of every single beast type mob. You'll get quite a few while farming the other types of meat. It's also the most common meat, so it doesn't sell for a whole lot on the auction house.
Shoveltusk - On the other side of the world as mammoths and rhinos are the shoveltusks. Their flanks sell nicely, even though they're really easy to take down. They travel in herds, but are neutral (similar to rhino and mammoth), with a few aggressive types spread out here and there.
Mammoth - Big, mean, and scrumptiously delicious. Grab a chunk o' this beast from Borean for you AoEers, and for single-targeting try the higher level ones in Storm Peaks.
The Fish Feast is higher level than its 'great' counterpart, but you have to have a high fishing skill to make farming these more profitable. Wowhead has excellent info for each fish on their page, so take a click if you find yourself desiring to cast a pole.
Musselback Sculpin
Glacial Salmon
Nettlefish
Other high-demand meats to keep an eye on include Worm Meat.
Skinning
...is a fairly straight-forward profession. One that I can't really touch upon because it's so direct. It combines well with cooking, as just about all the beasts you kill can be skinned. If you know any skinning friends and you're going AoE farming on mammoths, invite them! Not only will they be greatful to you, they may even but you a portion of their skins if you kill things fast enough. Hope for those Arctic Furs!
Ore
Three types of minerals exist in Northrend soil, each one more rare than the last.
Cobalt Ore - Okay, I lied. Cobalt sometimes goes for more than Saronite because there are fewer nodes, as well that everyone needs Cobalt ore to skill up their blacksmithing and jewelcrafting to Saronite levels. Cobalt is best mined while leveling up, but if you have a flying mount, apparently Zul'Drak and Howling Fjord have the most deposits.
Saronite Ore - The most common end-game ore. Icecrown and Sholozar are the way to go.
Titanium Ore - Un-prospectable, but used for many recipes. Very, very hard to find, but plenty will show up while on your Saronite route because it only spawns in saronite/cobalt nodes.
Herbs
For the most parts, herbs are easier to find than ore. Farming for these is less competitive, but there are still a few things you should know.
- Borean and the Fjord have mostly Goldclover.
- Avoid Dragonblight, as it's all frozen herbs, which can be 1-3 of just about any low level herb - even ones you're not after.
- Frost Lotus (a hot seller) can be found equally from all Northrend herbs, so if you're seeking those, pick a zone with a lot of nodes. Icecrown, lower Zul'Drak, and Sholozar come to mind.
- Talandra's Rose is just about only found in Zul'Drak. If you dislike that zone, then stock up a lot at once.
If you are an alchemist, I suggest seeing what potions and elixers you can make after a long flower-picking session. You might be able to sell the potions for more than you could the combined flowers. But sometimes, it'll just be more profitable to sell the raw flowers.
What do you sell?
Useful macro habits
There's already an excellent guide for making macros and a catalog of the options at WoWWiki's Making A Macro page.
If you're an absolute beginner and want to get in on the helpful world of macros, go ahead and click that link, read that page (or at least make sure you understand how to do most basic functions) then come back here.
I'll be discussing habits that I personally use and have seen friends use to make life easier using macros. If you've ever said to yourself, "Wow, macros seem amazing! But where do I start?" then you've reached the right blog post.
Use #showtooltip
Adding #showtooltip as the first line in a macro will let you read the spell tooltip by hovering over it. In a macro like the following:
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Frostbolt; Fireball
...you will get to read the Fireball tooltip naturally, and the Frostbolt tooltip when you hold down shift. You won't have to open up the spellbook and find them to see how much damage they do or what their mana cost is.
Also, if you choose the giant question mark icon, it will show the spell icon naturally... and the icon will change! In the above example, it would show the fireball icon normally, and then the frostbolt one if you hold down shift!
Choose icons that stand out
If you have an ability that you MUST be watching the cooldown on, macro it, give it the #showtooltip line, and choose an icon that's bright and you can't miss. For an arcane or frost mage, a bright red or green icon will stand out wonderfully.
Keep in mind that if all your macros use bright icons, your bars will be overwhelming to look at, and nothing will stand out at all! I would only suggest three bright/noticeable icons at most. Two or even just one is further recommended.
Group spells that don't trigger the global cooldown
Trinkets, Potions, Arcane Power, Heroic Strike... These can be grouped together and used in one macro. My example is as follows:
/cast Arcane Power
/use Potion of Wild Magic
/use Mark of the War Prisoner
/use Mana Sapphire
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Arcane Blast
Only the final spell in this macro triggers the global cooldown.
Using this will activate my AP and IV, use my trinket and an offensive potion, restore some mana using a mana gem, then start casting an Arcane Blast. I named this macro "Combust" and gave it a bright red icon. You might guess why! Be sure your tank has adequate threat lead before using...
Use left and right mouse buttons for out-of-combat buffs
The abilities you don't have keybound (the very select few!) can be grouped by using [mouse:1] for left click and [mouse:2] for right click. Using those pesky paladin buffs as our example:
#showtooltip
/cast [mouse:1] Greater Blessing of Might; [mouse:2] Blessing of Might
to take it one step further, we could remove [mouse:2]. That way, if you keybind it, or click it with a third mouse button, it will still cast something.
/startattacking!
Melee and hunters should change all of their primary offensive abilities to have /startattack as the last line - or first line if the ability has a cast time. (I'm looking at you, Steady Shot!)
/cast Icy Touch
/startattack
It's that simple!
That's it for now. Put em to use, find some more, and comment if you have any good ones I haven't posted!
If you're an absolute beginner and want to get in on the helpful world of macros, go ahead and click that link, read that page (or at least make sure you understand how to do most basic functions) then come back here.
I'll be discussing habits that I personally use and have seen friends use to make life easier using macros. If you've ever said to yourself, "Wow, macros seem amazing! But where do I start?" then you've reached the right blog post.
Use #showtooltip
Adding #showtooltip as the first line in a macro will let you read the spell tooltip by hovering over it. In a macro like the following:
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Frostbolt; Fireball
...you will get to read the Fireball tooltip naturally, and the Frostbolt tooltip when you hold down shift. You won't have to open up the spellbook and find them to see how much damage they do or what their mana cost is.
Also, if you choose the giant question mark icon, it will show the spell icon naturally... and the icon will change! In the above example, it would show the fireball icon normally, and then the frostbolt one if you hold down shift!
Choose icons that stand out
If you have an ability that you MUST be watching the cooldown on, macro it, give it the #showtooltip line, and choose an icon that's bright and you can't miss. For an arcane or frost mage, a bright red or green icon will stand out wonderfully.
Keep in mind that if all your macros use bright icons, your bars will be overwhelming to look at, and nothing will stand out at all! I would only suggest three bright/noticeable icons at most. Two or even just one is further recommended.
Group spells that don't trigger the global cooldown
Trinkets, Potions, Arcane Power, Heroic Strike... These can be grouped together and used in one macro. My example is as follows:
/cast Arcane Power
/use Potion of Wild Magic
/use Mark of the War Prisoner
/use Mana Sapphire
/cast Icy Veins
/cast Arcane Blast
Only the final spell in this macro triggers the global cooldown.
Using this will activate my AP and IV, use my trinket and an offensive potion, restore some mana using a mana gem, then start casting an Arcane Blast. I named this macro "Combust" and gave it a bright red icon. You might guess why! Be sure your tank has adequate threat lead before using...
Use left and right mouse buttons for out-of-combat buffs
The abilities you don't have keybound (the very select few!) can be grouped by using [mouse:1] for left click and [mouse:2] for right click. Using those pesky paladin buffs as our example:
#showtooltip
/cast [mouse:1] Greater Blessing of Might; [mouse:2] Blessing of Might
to take it one step further, we could remove [mouse:2]. That way, if you keybind it, or click it with a third mouse button, it will still cast something.
/startattacking!
Melee and hunters should change all of their primary offensive abilities to have /startattack as the last line - or first line if the ability has a cast time. (I'm looking at you, Steady Shot!)
/cast Icy Touch
/startattack
It's that simple!
That's it for now. Put em to use, find some more, and comment if you have any good ones I haven't posted!
Setting up keybindings
Many players underuse their keyboards while playing WoW. Using keybindings is a vital way to speed up your responsiveness and awareness to the game. It can be the difference between a 1900 and a 2100 arena rating, or the difference between 2000 and 2300 dps in a raid.
Clicking your action bars with your mouse is only okay in a very limited number of scenarios. Spells you would never use in combat or in a panic situation are spells that you don't have to keybind. Silly macros for things like /target Xaxziminrax /kiss are okay to click. Long-term buffs, rogue poisons, mage portals... these are things you would not use in an emergency, so it's okay to leave them as mouse-clicked.
Resurrection spells, food and water, and short-term buffs (Warrior shouts, shaman elemental shields, mage and warlock fire/frost/shadow wards, hunter aspects) are all things that you should keybind. All these spells are cast either while in combat, right before you enter combat, or right after you leave combat.
An entire well-written, with-pictures article has already been posted, and I won't reinvent the wheel. Take a look at TankSpot's General Keybinds for some detail on how and why to bind.
After you've read that over, there are a few more things to mention.
The numpad is a fabulous way to have all your buffs and non-combat spells in order. I use the big "zero" button to use my Mana Strudels because its easy to find and I can just start spamming it the moment I think I'm about to leave combat. I use 1-9 on the numpad for my buffs. With 3 different mage armors, 30 and a 60 minute intellect buffs, dampen/amplify magic, and two conjure food spells, I'm really glad to have such an out of the way yet easy to remember section of keys. You can even put your hearthstone over there! It's not that hard to remember, "Seven means Dalaran." And then you still have plus and minus, asterik and slash left over for whatever you desire.
I also use backslash. On all my keyboards, it's below Backspace and above Enter and it's really big so its easy to find. I have a non-emergency but vital spell bound there. Shattering Throw, Evocation, or Fire Elemental Totem are good choices because they will be used fairly infrequently, but are still important enough that you'll want to have quick access to them.
Remember: Take it slow at first. Don't overwhelm yourself! Frustration is not the way to go, and even if it takes you a whole month just to remember two spells on your keyboard... that's better than nothing, and will give you a definite edge against people who haven't any bound!
Clicking your action bars with your mouse is only okay in a very limited number of scenarios. Spells you would never use in combat or in a panic situation are spells that you don't have to keybind. Silly macros for things like /target Xaxziminrax /kiss are okay to click. Long-term buffs, rogue poisons, mage portals... these are things you would not use in an emergency, so it's okay to leave them as mouse-clicked.
Resurrection spells, food and water, and short-term buffs (Warrior shouts, shaman elemental shields, mage and warlock fire/frost/shadow wards, hunter aspects) are all things that you should keybind. All these spells are cast either while in combat, right before you enter combat, or right after you leave combat.
An entire well-written, with-pictures article has already been posted, and I won't reinvent the wheel. Take a look at TankSpot's General Keybinds for some detail on how and why to bind.
After you've read that over, there are a few more things to mention.
The numpad is a fabulous way to have all your buffs and non-combat spells in order. I use the big "zero" button to use my Mana Strudels because its easy to find and I can just start spamming it the moment I think I'm about to leave combat. I use 1-9 on the numpad for my buffs. With 3 different mage armors, 30 and a 60 minute intellect buffs, dampen/amplify magic, and two conjure food spells, I'm really glad to have such an out of the way yet easy to remember section of keys. You can even put your hearthstone over there! It's not that hard to remember, "Seven means Dalaran." And then you still have plus and minus, asterik and slash left over for whatever you desire.
I also use backslash. On all my keyboards, it's below Backspace and above Enter and it's really big so its easy to find. I have a non-emergency but vital spell bound there. Shattering Throw, Evocation, or Fire Elemental Totem are good choices because they will be used fairly infrequently, but are still important enough that you'll want to have quick access to them.
Remember: Take it slow at first. Don't overwhelm yourself! Frustration is not the way to go, and even if it takes you a whole month just to remember two spells on your keyboard... that's better than nothing, and will give you a definite edge against people who haven't any bound!
Using the calendar to plan instances and group quests
The in-game calendar has a lot of quirks and is missing a couple of features, but that doesn't mean it's entirely useless. The calendar is a wonderful tool for alerting your friends that you'll be online at a certain time and that there's a quest or instance you would like to do. You can create events, invite anyone, and then check to see how many have signed up.
Using the calendar, you can rid your quest log of all those built-up group quests that no one ever seems to want to do with you. By giving plenty of time advance notice, your friends will have time to gather the same quests you have, and you'll all be able to reap the rewards together.
Creating an event is easy. All you do is right click on the day you want the event to be on. I suggest at least a week in advance, but no more than three weeks notice. A week gives them time to catch up to you, two weeks gives them time to do it themselves, and in three weeks they'll forget you even planned a day.
The layout is simple and the options are practical.
For a name, you should choose something that could be understood at a quick glance. "Icecrown group quests" would be perfect. "Blackrock instance clearing" would also work.
is server time.
Remember when choosing a time that it's the time that will show up to all other players who are invited, so enter it as server time so no one gets confused.
For group quests, you should enter the name of the quests in the Description field. If it's an instance and you have quests for it, put them there also. This way players can look them up on thottbot or wowhead and get them for themselves.
Let me bring up that you can right click on an invited player's name and promote them to moderator. This allows them to recruit their own friends to join you. It's very worthwhile to promote your trusted friends to moderators for any of your events that you don't think you'll have enough people for.
Try to only have one or two events waiting on the calendar at any time. Players can be overwhelmed when the calendar is used for raiding, instancing, world events, and heroic resets. Too many future plans, and they could become confused and miss out.
The calendar and event planner are simple but effective tools. Play around with them to become more familiar before setting up regular events.
Using the calendar, you can rid your quest log of all those built-up group quests that no one ever seems to want to do with you. By giving plenty of time advance notice, your friends will have time to gather the same quests you have, and you'll all be able to reap the rewards together.
Creating an event is easy. All you do is right click on the day you want the event to be on. I suggest at least a week in advance, but no more than three weeks notice. A week gives them time to catch up to you, two weeks gives them time to do it themselves, and in three weeks they'll forget you even planned a day.The layout is simple and the options are practical.
For a name, you should choose something that could be understood at a quick glance. "Icecrown group quests" would be perfect. "Blackrock instance clearing" would also work.is server time.
Remember when choosing a time that it's the time that will show up to all other players who are invited, so enter it as server time so no one gets confused.
For group quests, you should enter the name of the quests in the Description field. If it's an instance and you have quests for it, put them there also. This way players can look them up on thottbot or wowhead and get them for themselves.
Let me bring up that you can right click on an invited player's name and promote them to moderator. This allows them to recruit their own friends to join you. It's very worthwhile to promote your trusted friends to moderators for any of your events that you don't think you'll have enough people for.
Try to only have one or two events waiting on the calendar at any time. Players can be overwhelmed when the calendar is used for raiding, instancing, world events, and heroic resets. Too many future plans, and they could become confused and miss out.
The calendar and event planner are simple but effective tools. Play around with them to become more familiar before setting up regular events.
Rules of the auction house
This is a list of very important rules you should follow while dealing with the auction house. Scan the bold, and if you're curious about a topic, read the summary. If you're even more curious, leave a comment and I'll address the matter in a later post.
Don't post on your main
- Always use a bank alt. See my long list of reasons.
Buy raw materials
- A netherweave bag goes on the auction house for 9-15g on my server. The mats - 1 stack of netherweave and a rune thread - fluctuate in cost between 3 and 8 gold. That's a bargain for your bags.
Don't impulse purchase
- By not buying things right away, you can save a bundle. As the market becomes further saturated with a particular item, prices drop.
- Two examples I've watched closely are Frostweave Cloth and Titansteel Bars. When Wrath of the Lich King was brand new, I sold cloth on the auction house for 50g per stack. Now I see stacks for as low as 9g per, even lower sometimes. Titansteel was the same - once upon a time, I was able to sell them for 200g each. Now they go for less than 75.
BottomScanner SearchUI is your friend
- Although I'm not a big fan of the bloated Auctioneer Suite,BottomScanner SearchUI is a proven method for finding under-priced items that you can quickly buyout and re-post. It's also an excellent excuse to stretch your legs and refill your coffee. (SearchUI is included with the Auctioneer addon.)
- Please note that due to the size and scope of Auctioneer, I advise against running it at all on a laptop If you have to, only run it on one character.
Pennies matter
- A player will buy the cheapest item presented to them in the auction house - even if that item is only one copper cheaper than the alternatives. Undercutting a 6g cost with your own priced at 5g 99s 99c, you're equally as likely to find a buyer as if you had posted yours for 5g 80s.
Overprice enchanting materials
- Dust, essence, and shards have no cost to auction them. Even if your dream dust only goes for 1g normally, you're welcome to price it at 5, or even 10 gold if no others are up. If no one buys it, no problem, you can just re-list it later for a (slightly) more reasonable price. And fi they do buy it... then you're rich!
List auctions for 48 hours
- Always post your auctions using the longest time period possible. Over the course of one day, the market might not fluctuate much and someone could undercut you, negating any of your profits. But two days is a long time for the auction house, and once the other auctions have expired or been bought out, yours will be left standing, the only option for potential buyers.
Don't post on your main
- Always use a bank alt. See my long list of reasons.
Buy raw materials
- A netherweave bag goes on the auction house for 9-15g on my server. The mats - 1 stack of netherweave and a rune thread - fluctuate in cost between 3 and 8 gold. That's a bargain for your bags.
Don't impulse purchase
- By not buying things right away, you can save a bundle. As the market becomes further saturated with a particular item, prices drop.
- Two examples I've watched closely are Frostweave Cloth and Titansteel Bars. When Wrath of the Lich King was brand new, I sold cloth on the auction house for 50g per stack. Now I see stacks for as low as 9g per, even lower sometimes. Titansteel was the same - once upon a time, I was able to sell them for 200g each. Now they go for less than 75.
- Although I'm not a big fan of the bloated Auctioneer Suite,
- Please note that due to the size and scope of Auctioneer, I advise against running it at all on a laptop If you have to, only run it on one character.
Pennies matter
- A player will buy the cheapest item presented to them in the auction house - even if that item is only one copper cheaper than the alternatives. Undercutting a 6g cost with your own priced at 5g 99s 99c, you're equally as likely to find a buyer as if you had posted yours for 5g 80s.
Overprice enchanting materials
- Dust, essence, and shards have no cost to auction them. Even if your dream dust only goes for 1g normally, you're welcome to price it at 5, or even 10 gold if no others are up. If no one buys it, no problem, you can just re-list it later for a (slightly) more reasonable price. And fi they do buy it... then you're rich!
List auctions for 48 hours
- Always post your auctions using the longest time period possible. Over the course of one day, the market might not fluctuate much and someone could undercut you, negating any of your profits. But two days is a long time for the auction house, and once the other auctions have expired or been bought out, yours will be left standing, the only option for potential buyers.
Should you buy gold?
First of all, you should be informed that buying gold is against the World of Warcraft Terms of Service. Buying (or selling) gold can get your account banned if you're not careful.
The concept of buying in-game currency has touched on many gamers' minds throughout MMO history. The reason is simple: Those with the most gold have the easiest gaming experience.
I'll be examining the scenario of buying and selling to answer the question: Is it really worth your money?
The pros are easy to think of: buy BoE gear, epic flying, six mounts; never having to worry about repairs...
And the cons: bypass fun encounters; meeting fewer new people; missing opportunities to learn your class better; chance to get banned; loss of RL funds; supporting illegitimate trade, gold site spammers, farmers, etc...
In this scenario, we'll imagine a gold-farming company selling 1000g for $15. We'll also say that I have a job that pays $7.50/hr, and I can farm 400g in one hour when I put my mind to it.
If I go to work for two hours, I'll come home with $15, which I can spend to buy 1000g. That's 500g per hour I've made.
If I stay home and farm gold for two hours, I'll end up with 800g. That's 400g per hour (as noted) I've made.
In this case, you're better off buying gold if all other factors are equal. If you hate your boss, and your job is boring, and your co-workers are mean to you, and you have to deal with angry customers all day... then you're probably better off taking those two hours and just farming gold. You can talk to guildies, watch tv or listen to music, and generally have fun (as long as you're earning on schedule, of course).
The following chart shows when you should buy gold, as a function of the amount you can farm per hour and your hourly wage. This chart is based on a 1000g for $15 price. It doesn't vary a whole lot for the $12-14 price range.
With this trend, if you make $20/hr, you shouldn't farm your own gold until you can farm well over 1000g/hr. That's a lot! I personally can make anywhere from 400-600g/hr, so I don't ever buy since I don't value my [unemployed] job skills above $8.00/hr.
Other factors apply. Not everyone can secure a job (which means you're stuck farming anyways), and not everyone is privy to accepting extra hours.
As well, it's tough to accurately measure the amount of gold you make. You have to consider items that you're auctioning, the money looted, grey items vendored, and then cost for flight and repair.
The concept of buying in-game currency has touched on many gamers' minds throughout MMO history. The reason is simple: Those with the most gold have the easiest gaming experience.
I'll be examining the scenario of buying and selling to answer the question: Is it really worth your money?
The pros are easy to think of: buy BoE gear, epic flying, six mounts; never having to worry about repairs...
And the cons: bypass fun encounters; meeting fewer new people; missing opportunities to learn your class better; chance to get banned; loss of RL funds; supporting illegitimate trade, gold site spammers, farmers, etc...
In this scenario, we'll imagine a gold-farming company selling 1000g for $15. We'll also say that I have a job that pays $7.50/hr, and I can farm 400g in one hour when I put my mind to it.
If I go to work for two hours, I'll come home with $15, which I can spend to buy 1000g. That's 500g per hour I've made.
If I stay home and farm gold for two hours, I'll end up with 800g. That's 400g per hour (as noted) I've made.
In this case, you're better off buying gold if all other factors are equal. If you hate your boss, and your job is boring, and your co-workers are mean to you, and you have to deal with angry customers all day... then you're probably better off taking those two hours and just farming gold. You can talk to guildies, watch tv or listen to music, and generally have fun (as long as you're earning on schedule, of course).
The following chart shows when you should buy gold, as a function of the amount you can farm per hour and your hourly wage. This chart is based on a 1000g for $15 price. It doesn't vary a whole lot for the $12-14 price range.
| 300 | 350 | 400 | 450 | 500 | 550 | 600 | 650 | 700 | |
| $6.00 | B U Y | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm |
| $6.50 | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | |
| $7.00 | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm |
| $7.50 | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | |
| $8.00 | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | Farm | |
| $8.50 | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | ||
| $9.00 | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | Farm | ||
| $9.50 | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | Farm | |||
| $10.00 | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | |||
| $10.50 | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | Farm | |||
| $11.00 | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | Buy | |||
| $12.00 | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | ||||
| $15.00 | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | Buy | ||||
| $20.00 | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y | B U Y |
With this trend, if you make $20/hr, you shouldn't farm your own gold until you can farm well over 1000g/hr. That's a lot! I personally can make anywhere from 400-600g/hr, so I don't ever buy since I don't value my [unemployed] job skills above $8.00/hr.
Other factors apply. Not everyone can secure a job (which means you're stuck farming anyways), and not everyone is privy to accepting extra hours.
As well, it's tough to accurately measure the amount of gold you make. You have to consider items that you're auctioning, the money looted, grey items vendored, and then cost for flight and repair.
Network!
Believe it or not, you can save (and even make) gold just by getting to know people.
Nine times out of ten, someone is only a jerk to you because they don't know who you are. Maybe you're in a pug or you've accidentally (or purposefully) tagged their quest mob. While situations like these are tough to avoid and it's impossible to please everybody, it doesn't hurt to get to know some people. Through a guild or instancing and questing together, or even just talking when you're both up late night and no one else is on to keep you entertained, getting to know people can make you money. Let me tell you about a scenario that has kept money in my pocket for well over four months now.
I have a good friend who's a jewelcrafter. Many 80s can tell you right off the bat that JCing is a very good profession to have at level 80. This particular JC I've known since vanilla. She's a good friend and although we generally walk different paths, we've remained good friends (or gone in and out, depending on who you ask). Because I hit 80 before any of my guildies, I was looking for people to run instances with. My lazy and casual friends were taking their time, but this JC of mine moved up pretty fast. Her guild is a bit more towards the hardcore end, and a lot of their members wanted to gear up in epics as fast as possible. I was more than happy to run with them, and at a time when there were very few heroic groups moving and H-AN was just about impossible, I always had a place in their party, even as a "replaceable" dps.
There were only two things I did that kept me in that group. The first... was to always try my hardest. I top damage meters and I make it a goal to keep up with my past dps records and contribute as much as possible. Beating a previous sustained-dps record for a particular instance is fun for me! Now, no one expects dps to be any good, but the fact that I was very good was just a perk. The real reason they kept me around was because I was nice. That's it: I was polite, always said my pleases and thank yous, always checked if anyone needed some refreshments, kept everyone buffed, and made quirky jokes (the only kind of humor I'm good at). Over all, I made everyone's life easier by taking care of myself and helping to take care of the rest of them.
Now how did this earn me gold? I can list a number of ways right off the top of my head. First of all, I got emblems which helped me to get new gear without buying Bind-on-Equip items from the auction house. That right there saved me 100-700g for each equipment slot. Also, I got money and vendorable loot from the corpses in the instances. I also rolled on the frozen orbs and received dream shards when I didn't get any loot.
Ah, an enchanter in the group. This brings me back to the mention of professions. With both an enchanter and a jewelcrafter on my good list, I had life made. Now, I could acquire the raw gems and I had someone to cut them. The JC was able to achieve exalted reputations with the instance factions and learn the rare-gem recipes quickly because I had helped her through the heroics. Ah, runed scarlet rubies reflected in my eyes! At 5g a tip and a slot in my helm, necklace, shoulder, cloak, two in my chest, bracers, gloves, a belt slot, and then two in my pants and one in my boots, I saved 60g right there. In the end, I'll save much more as I replace my old gear and need more gems.
And now that I was on the good side of an enchanter, I had someone who would accept my greens (mailed to her 12 at a time) and disenchant them, taking a very, very modest cut for herself each time. Anyone will tell you that you make much more money off of auction-housing enchanting dusts and essences than vendoring greens.
Every now and then, when I proc an alchemy mastery, I'll send either of them the bonus. I have friends to talk to whenever I need, and they've made me more money than they've cost me. Keeping them happy is not only a small part of the business, but something I would do even if their professions didn't work out in my favor.
It pays to network.
Nine times out of ten, someone is only a jerk to you because they don't know who you are. Maybe you're in a pug or you've accidentally (or purposefully) tagged their quest mob. While situations like these are tough to avoid and it's impossible to please everybody, it doesn't hurt to get to know some people. Through a guild or instancing and questing together, or even just talking when you're both up late night and no one else is on to keep you entertained, getting to know people can make you money. Let me tell you about a scenario that has kept money in my pocket for well over four months now.
I have a good friend who's a jewelcrafter. Many 80s can tell you right off the bat that JCing is a very good profession to have at level 80. This particular JC I've known since vanilla. She's a good friend and although we generally walk different paths, we've remained good friends (or gone in and out, depending on who you ask). Because I hit 80 before any of my guildies, I was looking for people to run instances with. My lazy and casual friends were taking their time, but this JC of mine moved up pretty fast. Her guild is a bit more towards the hardcore end, and a lot of their members wanted to gear up in epics as fast as possible. I was more than happy to run with them, and at a time when there were very few heroic groups moving and H-AN was just about impossible, I always had a place in their party, even as a "replaceable" dps.
There were only two things I did that kept me in that group. The first... was to always try my hardest. I top damage meters and I make it a goal to keep up with my past dps records and contribute as much as possible. Beating a previous sustained-dps record for a particular instance is fun for me! Now, no one expects dps to be any good, but the fact that I was very good was just a perk. The real reason they kept me around was because I was nice. That's it: I was polite, always said my pleases and thank yous, always checked if anyone needed some refreshments, kept everyone buffed, and made quirky jokes (the only kind of humor I'm good at). Over all, I made everyone's life easier by taking care of myself and helping to take care of the rest of them.
Now how did this earn me gold? I can list a number of ways right off the top of my head. First of all, I got emblems which helped me to get new gear without buying Bind-on-Equip items from the auction house. That right there saved me 100-700g for each equipment slot. Also, I got money and vendorable loot from the corpses in the instances. I also rolled on the frozen orbs and received dream shards when I didn't get any loot.
Ah, an enchanter in the group. This brings me back to the mention of professions. With both an enchanter and a jewelcrafter on my good list, I had life made. Now, I could acquire the raw gems and I had someone to cut them. The JC was able to achieve exalted reputations with the instance factions and learn the rare-gem recipes quickly because I had helped her through the heroics. Ah, runed scarlet rubies reflected in my eyes! At 5g a tip and a slot in my helm, necklace, shoulder, cloak, two in my chest, bracers, gloves, a belt slot, and then two in my pants and one in my boots, I saved 60g right there. In the end, I'll save much more as I replace my old gear and need more gems.
And now that I was on the good side of an enchanter, I had someone who would accept my greens (mailed to her 12 at a time) and disenchant them, taking a very, very modest cut for herself each time. Anyone will tell you that you make much more money off of auction-housing enchanting dusts and essences than vendoring greens.
Every now and then, when I proc an alchemy mastery, I'll send either of them the bonus. I have friends to talk to whenever I need, and they've made me more money than they've cost me. Keeping them happy is not only a small part of the business, but something I would do even if their professions didn't work out in my favor.
It pays to network.
Learn first aid
While it can be expensive to learn first aid at the higher levels and skill-up by purchasing cloth from the auction house, first aid is still a very vital profession for all classes to have.
At level 42, my rogue has first aid up to craft mageweave bandages. They can restore 800 life over 8 seconds. That's 100 life every second! The food I can use is level 35 and restores 1392 life over 30 seconds. That's 46.4 life every second.
Using a bandaid instead of eating food will more than HALVE the time you spend restoring life between battles.
Bandages also have the bonus of being able to be used in combat, and they don't consume mana. This is especially nice on a healing class such as a shaman, because then you can use your precious mana to deal more damage instead of running out trying to keep your life bar at full.
As if that's not enough, using a bandaid can be handy when grouped in an instance during an emergency situation. The healer will probably be too busy keeping the tank alive to spare any thought for the DPS. Commonly, DPS players will be expected to step back and bandage themselves before jumping back into the fray.
The only reason you might not want to bandage in a group is if you're the tank. A stingy healer could interpret the tank bandaging himself as a sign that he doesn't trust the healer to keep him up. I would like to send a message to all those healers: A tank may bandage even if you're a GREAT healer! Bandaging is a reflexive skill to an experience player. Do not discourage your tank from doing so, it may save your life someday!
At level 42, my rogue has first aid up to craft mageweave bandages. They can restore 800 life over 8 seconds. That's 100 life every second! The food I can use is level 35 and restores 1392 life over 30 seconds. That's 46.4 life every second.
Using a bandaid instead of eating food will more than HALVE the time you spend restoring life between battles.
Bandages also have the bonus of being able to be used in combat, and they don't consume mana. This is especially nice on a healing class such as a shaman, because then you can use your precious mana to deal more damage instead of running out trying to keep your life bar at full.
As if that's not enough, using a bandaid can be handy when grouped in an instance during an emergency situation. The healer will probably be too busy keeping the tank alive to spare any thought for the DPS. Commonly, DPS players will be expected to step back and bandage themselves before jumping back into the fray.
The only reason you might not want to bandage in a group is if you're the tank. A stingy healer could interpret the tank bandaging himself as a sign that he doesn't trust the healer to keep him up. I would like to send a message to all those healers: A tank may bandage even if you're a GREAT healer! Bandaging is a reflexive skill to an experience player. Do not discourage your tank from doing so, it may save your life someday!
The perfect mount macro
This macro was taken from the Arena Junkies macros page and edited by myself.
/run if IsMounted()then return end local t if((GetRealZoneText()=="Dalaran") and (GetSubZoneText() ~="Krasus' Landing") or (GetZoneText()=="Wintergrasp") or not IsFlyableArea()) then t={9} else t={1} end CallCompanion("MOUNT",t[random(#t)])
/dismount
You have to edit the t={9} and {1}. You want the 9 to be your ground-mount, and 1 to be your flying mount.
The numbers are taken straight from your mounts panel (Shift-P by default), your upper left mount is 1 and your bottom right mount is 12. The first mount on the second page is 13. For me, my Swift Palomino is the 9th mount in my mounts panel. The Azure Netherwing Drake is the first mount in my panel.
Mounts are arranged alphabetically in your mounts panel, so my Swift Palomino will become number 10 once I learn a new mount named "Cobalt Netherwing Drake".
Unfortunately, this macro takes 250 characters, which leaves no room for modularity. You can't put [mod:shift] conditionals to it to make it force-cast your ground mount (which it shouldn't need anyways, but might be nice to have).
I previously had an alt-click cast Slow Fall on myself as I love jumping off of high places and having a quick safety-button, but I won't be able to do that with this macro.
Players who don't have a 280% speed mount: If you haven't learned flying or are in Northrend and haven't learned cold-weather flying, you shouldn't use the above macros. If you are in Outland or Northrend, have the appropriate flying skill, and only have a 60% flying mount, then you might prefer a more modular approach, letting you cast your fast ground mount more often than your slow flier.
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Slowflying Mount; Fast Ground Mount
The #showtooltip line is a convenience line, you'll find it comes in very handy. If you choose the Question Mark icon for your macro, it will change to show your preferred mount all the time.
This will always cast your Ground Mount unless you hold shift while clicking the macro. Other options are to cast your slow flier all the time in flying zones unless you specify otherwise.
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Ground Mount; [flyable] Flying Mount; Ground Mount
This will cast Ground Mount if you hold shift, otherwise it will try to mount your flying mount, and then your non-flying. It works in any non-Dalaran, non-Wintergrasp scenario.
--
Hopefully, with these macros you'll be able to unclutter your action bars by removing multiple mount buttons and it will save you some confusion over choosing which mount to use and when.
/run if IsMounted()then return end local t if((GetRealZoneText()=="Dalaran") and (GetSubZoneText() ~="Krasus' Landing") or (GetZoneText()=="Wintergrasp") or not IsFlyableArea()) then t={9} else t={1} end CallCompanion("MOUNT",t[random(#t)])
/dismount
You have to edit the t={9} and {1}. You want the 9 to be your ground-mount, and 1 to be your flying mount.
The numbers are taken straight from your mounts panel (Shift-P by default), your upper left mount is 1 and your bottom right mount is 12. The first mount on the second page is 13. For me, my Swift Palomino is the 9th mount in my mounts panel. The Azure Netherwing Drake is the first mount in my panel.
Mounts are arranged alphabetically in your mounts panel, so my Swift Palomino will become number 10 once I learn a new mount named "Cobalt Netherwing Drake".
Unfortunately, this macro takes 250 characters, which leaves no room for modularity. You can't put [mod:shift] conditionals to it to make it force-cast your ground mount (which it shouldn't need anyways, but might be nice to have).
I previously had an alt-click cast Slow Fall on myself as I love jumping off of high places and having a quick safety-button, but I won't be able to do that with this macro.
Players who don't have a 280% speed mount: If you haven't learned flying or are in Northrend and haven't learned cold-weather flying, you shouldn't use the above macros. If you are in Outland or Northrend, have the appropriate flying skill, and only have a 60% flying mount, then you might prefer a more modular approach, letting you cast your fast ground mount more often than your slow flier.
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Slowflying Mount; Fast Ground Mount
The #showtooltip line is a convenience line, you'll find it comes in very handy. If you choose the Question Mark icon for your macro, it will change to show your preferred mount all the time.
This will always cast your Ground Mount unless you hold shift while clicking the macro. Other options are to cast your slow flier all the time in flying zones unless you specify otherwise.
#showtooltip
/cast [mod:shift] Ground Mount; [flyable] Flying Mount; Ground Mount
This will cast Ground Mount if you hold shift, otherwise it will try to mount your flying mount, and then your non-flying. It works in any non-Dalaran, non-Wintergrasp scenario.
--
Hopefully, with these macros you'll be able to unclutter your action bars by removing multiple mount buttons and it will save you some confusion over choosing which mount to use and when.
Create a bank alt
Hearthing to a major city and then flying back to your quest hub can take a lot of time. But you need to do something when your bags are full and you just can't loot that one extra piece of cloth.
One method has gained popularity due to its ease and modularity. Bank alts hold an infinite amount of storage in their mailbox. Technically it's not infinite, as you can only view 50 mails at a time, and each mail can hold 12 items. (50*12=600 storage space possible.)
When you're far away from Dalaran, such as in Grizzly Hills, and you just can't carry anymore bear livers or wolf teeth, you can just visit a mailbox, drop in all the items you want to keep but don't need at that moment, and send the mail to your bank alt! Then you can get back of your way of questing, without ever leaving the zone. Worry about all those items later!
Bank alts should be parked in a major city with a bank and auction house that are near each other. A vendor is also preferred, but unnecessary. It's also very convenient to choose a city other players frequent. Stormwind and Ironforge are the preferred cities for the Alliance. The horde cities are Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff. With a connection in a major city, your main character can now bind their hearthstone to the current zone they're questing in.
Using an alt to manage your money will also help you save it. Without having your stacks of gold on your main character, you'll be less likely to spend. Easily avoided will be spur-of-the-moment spending. By the time you log on to your bank alt, send the money over, and then log back to your main, you'll have realized you probably don't need to spend 50g for that 1 dps increase.
A bank alt will also let you free up some computer resources. Addons like the Auctioneer package use a lot of computer memory and processing power. When they're enabled and active alongside other addons, your computer can quickly become overwhelmed. When you use a bank alt for managing your auctions, you can disable Auctioneer on your other characters, leaving your precious RAM to be used for more important things.
They can also serve the purpose of taking the burden off logging on your main. Some tanks and healers in large guilds dread logging online due to the shear amount of group invites they'll be expected to accept, even if they only have a few moments of time. Using a bank alt unknown to your guild, you can check your stash of items and gold, and post and purchase auctions unhindered by those guildies you hardly know.
A few people feel the need to equip their bank alt in the best equipment... a haliscan suit and silver cufflinks with a monocle to match. However, many of those items are expensive and you needn't have them to utilize the bonuses of an alt. You simply need a snappy name (iamabankalt, dontrenameme, sirbanksalot, iliketobank, richrthanaig) to begin the trade.
Update: I've thought of a few more reasons you should have a bank alt.
Having multiple bank alts lets you sort items conveniently. Zul'Gurub and the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj have zone- and faction-specific items that are only useful after saving up for a certain time. Now that those two instances are easily farmable on a regular basis, these items can become bulky on a main and take up your entire bank if you're not careful. Making an alt (named "zgfarmbank" maybe?) can be a good way to store those items until you have enough to use.
Placing and hawking items anonymously can find you prospective customers you might not have found on your main. If you've grouped with players who turned out not to like you, or your guild is infamous, people might be wary of your items and would not buy from you, even if you're offering the cheapest wares. Using a bank alt lets everyone buying from you know that you're an alt, clearly, but no one will know who your main is (as long as your have a dissimilar name, and aren't in your main's guild). And trust me: No one ever asks. Generally, no one cares because most people use or know people who use bank alts.
Having a handy bank alt will save you trouble! Sometimes I don't feel like going to town in the middle of a good grind/quest session to post my auctions and put up with trade chat. Other times, I'm in a group and don't want to abandon them or burden them to wait on me. With a bank alt, you can put off handling the tedious details of trading until you're more fit for the task. If you're not in the mood for it, it shouldn't be getting in your way until you do it.
And lets not forget the roleplaying opportunities. With a properly-equipped alt, you can partake in the major-city roleplay scenes quite seriously, with a very humorous character. Having a class you wouldn't like to roleplay as a bank alt can let you experience their character when you're in the mood, and keep to your main the rest of the time. Also, since no one knows the alt is you, you can have fun with comical gnome or undead characters, or a stuck-up blood elf. Just remember to respest your fellow roleplayers and the roleplay-realm rules, as always.
One method has gained popularity due to its ease and modularity. Bank alts hold an infinite amount of storage in their mailbox. Technically it's not infinite, as you can only view 50 mails at a time, and each mail can hold 12 items. (50*12=600 storage space possible.)
When you're far away from Dalaran, such as in Grizzly Hills, and you just can't carry anymore bear livers or wolf teeth, you can just visit a mailbox, drop in all the items you want to keep but don't need at that moment, and send the mail to your bank alt! Then you can get back of your way of questing, without ever leaving the zone. Worry about all those items later!
Bank alts should be parked in a major city with a bank and auction house that are near each other. A vendor is also preferred, but unnecessary. It's also very convenient to choose a city other players frequent. Stormwind and Ironforge are the preferred cities for the Alliance. The horde cities are Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff. With a connection in a major city, your main character can now bind their hearthstone to the current zone they're questing in.
Using an alt to manage your money will also help you save it. Without having your stacks of gold on your main character, you'll be less likely to spend. Easily avoided will be spur-of-the-moment spending. By the time you log on to your bank alt, send the money over, and then log back to your main, you'll have realized you probably don't need to spend 50g for that 1 dps increase.
A bank alt will also let you free up some computer resources. Addons like the Auctioneer package use a lot of computer memory and processing power. When they're enabled and active alongside other addons, your computer can quickly become overwhelmed. When you use a bank alt for managing your auctions, you can disable Auctioneer on your other characters, leaving your precious RAM to be used for more important things.
They can also serve the purpose of taking the burden off logging on your main. Some tanks and healers in large guilds dread logging online due to the shear amount of group invites they'll be expected to accept, even if they only have a few moments of time. Using a bank alt unknown to your guild, you can check your stash of items and gold, and post and purchase auctions unhindered by those guildies you hardly know.
A few people feel the need to equip their bank alt in the best equipment... a haliscan suit and silver cufflinks with a monocle to match. However, many of those items are expensive and you needn't have them to utilize the bonuses of an alt. You simply need a snappy name (iamabankalt, dontrenameme, sirbanksalot, iliketobank, richrthanaig) to begin the trade.
Update: I've thought of a few more reasons you should have a bank alt.
Having multiple bank alts lets you sort items conveniently. Zul'Gurub and the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj have zone- and faction-specific items that are only useful after saving up for a certain time. Now that those two instances are easily farmable on a regular basis, these items can become bulky on a main and take up your entire bank if you're not careful. Making an alt (named "zgfarmbank" maybe?) can be a good way to store those items until you have enough to use.
Placing and hawking items anonymously can find you prospective customers you might not have found on your main. If you've grouped with players who turned out not to like you, or your guild is infamous, people might be wary of your items and would not buy from you, even if you're offering the cheapest wares. Using a bank alt lets everyone buying from you know that you're an alt, clearly, but no one will know who your main is (as long as your have a dissimilar name, and aren't in your main's guild). And trust me: No one ever asks. Generally, no one cares because most people use or know people who use bank alts.
Having a handy bank alt will save you trouble! Sometimes I don't feel like going to town in the middle of a good grind/quest session to post my auctions and put up with trade chat. Other times, I'm in a group and don't want to abandon them or burden them to wait on me. With a bank alt, you can put off handling the tedious details of trading until you're more fit for the task. If you're not in the mood for it, it shouldn't be getting in your way until you do it.
And lets not forget the roleplaying opportunities. With a properly-equipped alt, you can partake in the major-city roleplay scenes quite seriously, with a very humorous character. Having a class you wouldn't like to roleplay as a bank alt can let you experience their character when you're in the mood, and keep to your main the rest of the time. Also, since no one knows the alt is you, you can have fun with comical gnome or undead characters, or a stuck-up blood elf. Just remember to respest your fellow roleplayers and the roleplay-realm rules, as always.
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