The Tol Barad honor change and how it affects the markets

Tol Barad was recently changed so that the attacking side gains 1800 honor for winning. There is also a borderline exploit where you can stand at the bridge just outside the zone, run in just before the last base is captured, and still get the honor even if you never got the queue for the battle (seriously, go check out that bridge when your faction is attacking, it's hilarious how many people are there). Because of this change, honor is extremely easy to come by, which means the pvp gear you can buy with honor is quickly becoming very common. So how does this affect us as gold-makers?

The market for crafted pvp gear has dried up quickly. With honor so easy to come by, who wants to spend the money to buy crafted pieces? 1800 honor is just about 1 piece per Tol Barad battle, and as most of the time the offense now wins, that's 1 pvp piece every 4 hours. I'm a bit sad about this, because I made an absolute killing off of the crafted pvp gear, as in hundreds of thousands of gold. And I hope a lot of readers made money off of it too while it lasted, but I suppose all good things must come to an end.

There is an upside to this change, however! Lots of fast gear replacement means lots of business for jewelcrafters and enchanters. When people are getting gear so quickly, the first thing they'll do after buying it is hit up the auction house to gem and enchant it. This is a great time to be selling gems and enchants that pvp'ers want, and I would definitely recommend keeping a stock of supplies to list immediately after a Tol Barad attack ends. The half hour or so after an attack, as people do dailies and then filter back to town to get their new gear, is a very busy time for selling gems and enchants.

I expect that you're going to see this market pattern for the next few weeks. Some players already have their full honor sets, but keep in mind that most of the population is a lot more casual, so they might get one Tol Barad battle a day. I've actually started getting pvp cuts on my jewelcrafter to take advantage of this while it lasts.

The early days of Cataclysm have been all about rapid market changes, and those able to react fastest to it are those making the most money. Be aware of changes to the game and what players are doing, and you'll be able to figure out where they will be spending their gold.