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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Patch 4.01 - the (brief) revival of inscription

Any WoW player who has a pulse and is still interested in the game should have noticed by now that patch 4.01 is on the PTR and can also be downloaded with the background downloader. WoW Insider has also made the announcement.

Among the many, many goodies that this patch brings, which is pretty much all the class changes and new mechanics from Cataclysm - sans the new races, the sundered continents and other Cata-only features - is the revamped glyph system.

As a brief refresher, the new glyph system will consist of 3 tiers instead of the current 2 and will also allow any player to learn all the glyphs for their class, just once, and then swap them into the glyph interface when needed. Once you learn a glyph you won't be needing to re-learn it again, ever.

Untold amounts of electronic ink have already been spilled over this controversial change and I don't believe any consensus has been reached. One thing is for certain: inscription, as a profession and a means of making gold, will change. For bad or for worse, it remains to be seen.

Seeing that patch 4.01 will hit before Cataclysm, bringing with it the new changes to glyphs, I suddenly realized that this might well be inscription's last big breath in terms of gold profits, before it will be dragged in line with the other professions.

What will 99.99% of people do shortly after patch 4.01 hits? They will buy all the glyphs they need for their various specs. This means instant high demand for all sorts of glyphs, even those that weren't popular before. Those who are anticipating this change (like myself), stand to profit from it. The only requirement here is to have enough inks or herbs in stock. Luckily I have both inks and herbs and I was just wondering how I was gonna get rid of all those herbs short of selling them for a pittance.

Now, profits from the glyph business won't simply peter out with Cataclysm. I'm sure the overall demand for glyphs will drop but it will stabilize at a certain level and perhaps prices will even become more stable since every single glyph will potentially be useful to someone.

In conclusion, with patch 4.01 I'm expecting a spike in demand for glyphs (along with a corresponding spike in profits) followed by a gradual dip, another spike when Cataclysm launches thanks to all the new characters and people returning to the game, another gradual dip and finally a relatively stable (but lower than currently) demand post-Cataclysm.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think there will be 6 or so glyphs per class that will sell very well. The rest will probably sell fairly evenly perhaps after an initial rush by completionists and those wanting every glyph `just in case'.

Darth Solo said...

Of course, that's always the case. But there will always be people (me included) who will want to have as many glyphs as possible for those few situations in which they might need them. For example a tanking paladin might swap Glyph of Avenger's Shield in and out depending on whether he's fighting one mob (a boss) or multiple mobs. I will certainly love being able to do this.