Diablo 3 beta patch 10 is incoming. I covered a lot of the incoming changes in Diablo III News System Changes already. But today, as I was going about my ‘pre-patch’ business, I realised I was doing a few things that would be of interest to someone following the Beta – in particular the Diablo 3 RMAH.
My characters are all naked. All rare items (yellows) are up for sale. All other items have been salvaged into common scraps and subtle essences (with a fallen tooth or two) and they’ve been listed as well (in the small stack manner I talk about in Diablo III Gold Guide: Merchant Shuffle Results II). Why? Check out my latest video:
It’s quite simple really: The new beta patch that’s coming will wipe all beta players characters, items and gold. It won’t wipe beta bucks (I hope – there’s always the element of uncertainty in a beta). What I’m doing is carrying over as much of my game ‘earnings’ and stock as possible in the only form that will survive. I’ve already made a bit of money (compare the total in the video above to the total in my earlier posted video in Diablo III Gold Guide: Merchant Shuffle Results I) but I’m listing everything at knock down rates, just $1 in the case of commodities (the going rate at the moment), and $5 or less for the yellows.
You would be right in thinking that this is a technique that has limited uses when the game goes live. That’s true. However there are two things I’d like you to consider:
- Yet again it’s an application of my key principles. Yet again it’s netted me some profit where others might have just passively let their accounts be wiped.
- There ARE some uses for such an approach in the released game.
Point 2 might have some of you scratching your heads. I’ll explain. The beta patching process is a special case – everything bar beta bucks is wiped. In reality, what I’m doing is the only choice for the economically minded beta tester. We certainly won’t see account wide wipes in the live game (imagine the uproar!) but what we will see are patches and expansions that introduce new items, new systems (for example the reintroduction of the now removed Mystic), and new methods of using commodities (or perhaps the removal of an existing method of using a commodity).
Let’s use an example that some of you with World of Warcraft – or another MMORPG economy – may have experienced. Game X, in which you play the auction house, is about to get a big content patch. This patch does 3 things that will really impact your approach to selling:
- It introduces hundreds of new items the majority with better stats. You’ve been making a respectable steady income crafting existing popular items.
- It introduces 2 new professions a crafting profession requiring existing materials in the economy, and a gathering profession.
- A crafting material that has been a rare drop up to this point will become common/accessible with the new gathering profession. You’ve been selling this material well and have a large stock.
The outcome of these changes (I’ll give you the short version as this example could be thousands of words alone) is that basic materials will be in more demand (new crafting profession); Existing crafted items or world drops will be in less demand (new tier of items); the rare and valuable crafting material drop will experience a plummeting demand.
In this example you would treat your existing crafted items and the rare material as if they were being removed in the next patch. Even if you will suffer a loss of investment, any return is better than little or no return. You’ll sell at any price. Much like I am with beta patch 10. It’s the only way to win in these scenarios.
Oh and I probably don’t need to mention this but I shall: The fact that I’m selling even a small percentage of listed stock at these low rates indicates some beta testers are either not aware that the items they’re buying will be wiped come Monday (approximately) or that they don’t care – “because beta”. The former are in for a shock the morning of the patch and the latter… well let’s just say I believe that it’s best to treat this beta as the real deal. It’s a far more potent Diablo 3 RMAH education tool that way.
If you follow my principles and my Diablo 3 gold guide material you’ll never make a similar mistake through lack of information again.
Ray