So I’m back in sunny sunny UK (lol) after two weeks of non stop Diablo 3 action and i can honestly say although it was a lot of fun, although very tiring and I’m glad to be home so I can have some chillout time. Having said that I’ve done anything but chillout since getting home since there’s just one week left of rated phase of TR to qualify for regionals so most of my efforts have been and will be on that for the next few days.

So i figured I’d cobble together a blog quickly before streaming this afternoon to let everyone know a bit more about the trip and how it went etc.

First of all it’s important everyone realises the purpose of the trip which wasn’t just to get first 60, but to gain publicity and awareness for athene’s charity campaign http://opsharecraft.com/. Over the duration of my visit of about two weeks they managed to raise $130,000 for people in the horn of africa due to the increased stream views gained from the Diablo 3 event.

The trip started out with the usual 2hour bus ride to London Heathrow airport where i would meet up with redhot aka mike aka bigbadmike where we would enjoy an english breakfast/tropical smoothie combo.

Moral of the story, food at airports sucks and is a ripoff; but i guess everyone knew that already.

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The RMAH is scheduled for release on 5/30/2012, according to the latest Blizzard update. What I’d like to do today is help you to prepare for making money in the most unlikely and at first unreasonable method imaginable. I am recommending that you start buying up Normal, Nightmare, and Hell crafting materials.

Why should you start buying these materials? Well, for starters, they are selling for far too little at the moment. This is due to massive surplus of players leveling through those areas, but also due to ignorance. You can actually vendor magic and rare items right now for more than the cost of their corresponding salvage results. For instance, by vendoring early magic gear instead of salvaging, you can buy four to eight times as many subtle essences on the auction house as you could get from salvaging the same gear at the blacksmith.

Knowing this, it makes a lot of sense to expect for prices to get back up to an amount closer to the vendor price of items. Especially because big websites (like this one) are going to educate people on the value of the materials. Plus, I have every incentive to “spread the word” so that my ridiculous stockpile of these materials can sell when the RMAH comes online.

Why wait for the RMAH? Because of the inevitable inflation of gold that will happen when people can just buy hundreds of thousands of gold with their credit card. This will help raise prices, and coupled with players leaving these leveling areas and vendor education, prices are going to skyrocket.

How do we know crafting materials can’t get any lower? Because vendoring the crafted materials results in a set amount of gold. Subtle essences SHOULD NEVER go below their vendor value of 14 gold, yet I’ve seen them go for anywhere from 10 to 20 gold at the moment. This is a low risk, high reward opportunity for the shrewd auctioneers out there.

For more ideas on making gold and eventually real money, check out Diablo 3 Gold Guide Blog. I currently have two free ebooks, totally 30 pages on the auction house and making gold/money within it. There’s also a guide with a massive forum community for those interested but, full disclaimer, it does cost money: Diablo 3 Gold Secrets.

In order to encourage posting auctions in Diablo 3, Blizzard took away all posting fees associated with creating auctions on both the GAH and RMAH. Because this could potentially lead to players posting thousands of items and quickly bring their infrastructure to its knees (as well as open up opportunities to scam players with crap items), Blizzard also limited the number of auctions you can have to 10 per auction house (10+10 = 20 total). What I’ve discovered is a terribly simple method (you’re going to facepalm yourself for not thinking of this) for getting around this limit.

How to Circumvent the 10 Auction House Limit

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Hey guys,

It’s been a while since i posted any updates so i thought I’d write something to let you all know what’s going on with me, with hydramist and in general! I guess I’ll also include some cool vids music and whatnot, who knows; i only just started writing! The possibilities are endless.

So first up I guess you better get some music on while you read this.

Done that? Okay great!

Current events

So unless you’ve been living under a rock or all of your sensory inputs have been rendered completely null and void by cataclysm, you’ll know Diablo 3 is coming out on 15th May. I was contact by my old arena buddy and personal trainer Athene (we especially worked on my shoulders!) who asked me if I’d like to be flown out to Belgium on 12th May to play Diablo 3 with him and Redhot aka carekoala aka bigbadmike. We’d be going for world first level 60, of course due to my competitive nature in general I couldn’t really decline, plus I wouldn’t really pass up the chance to travel or go hang out with mike again so I glady accepted!

So yeah thats the plan, we’ll see whether we can make it or not, after all; we’re sick cunts right?

We’ll probably be goofing around at the airport and stuff so i guess I’ll be taking some videos of the trip and whatnot for you guys and stick em on youtube when i get the chance.

Anyway the day before that is the Yas Presents tourny which I’ll be playing in with Dice and Salv playing priest hunter feral druid most likely for a laugh. We’ll see how that goes, who knows!

Boosting/Coaching

I’ve recently been receiving a lot of queries regarding boosting/coaching. I am infact still available for both and if you’d like more info on either then email me at hydra@hydramist.tv

Hydramist T Shirts/Store

We’ll be starting up the T-Shirts again shortly so keep your eyes posted for that and be sure to let me know in comments if you’d be interested in any kind of Hydramist merchandise and what you’d like to see!

Thanks

Finally a big thanks to everyone whos been supporting me/hydramist by subscribing, donating etc. Everything is much appreciated and goes back into the site which we’ll be revamping entirely in the next few weeks to create a vastly better visiting/community experience for all you guys!

Much love <3

(As a thinks heres some lolage stuff)

ps still trying to find johnnyblaze clip, if anyone has the link for it post it in the comments!!

full night’s action here:

http://www.twitch.tv/hydramist/b/317392150

The era of Blizzard showing the middle finger to the PvP community continues. Bashiok, community manager for Diablo, has stated:

While we’re talking about PvP it’s probably worth reminding everyone that what we’re targeting is a very loose and ‘for fun’ system. Imagine clicking a button, being matched up against another team of equal skill and gear, and win or lose you move forward (although faster if you win) on a personal progression system that gives you some cosmetic recognition as you go. There won’t be ladders or leagues, we have no intent to expose team ratings, and very likely nothing besides a win/loss record to track performance etc. etc. etc. Anyone who has tried it at BlizzCon knows the PvP in Diablo III is a blast, but I’ve seen some people start to get ideas that it’s going to be an eSport, and that’s just not something we’re targeting – for the sake of our goals in the single player/co-op experience.

WoW arena has had its issues, there is no doubt about it (but that’s a topic for another blog). But even despite those problems it was considered by some E-sport fans as a legitimate, competitive title. The statement of Bashiok quells any doubts: there won’t be any support for PvP players, at least not from Blizzard. Hardly any sponsors will care about the Diablo PvP scene because of this. However the most important thing in this topic is the PvP player. What is going to be his or her motivation and goals for the upcoming game?

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