Using Multiple Bankers To Save Time

We never stop innovating at DYS.  There is never one perfect way of doing things; instead, you must continually refine your processes to get more and more efficient at everything you do.  This applies not only in the game, but real life as well.  The moment you think you’ve arrived, you’re sure to just get passed.

Our latest tip is one way we’ve discovered that makes pro auction house Domination much easier.  Smart players, and especially those of you who read DYS, have always used dedicated banking toons and mules to help them smooth out the process of running hundreds of auctions, now you can put those mules to even better use.

Not too long ago we proposed using Death Knights for trade skills.  During our push to complete the Alliance leveling guide (yes folks it’s coming) we decided to fire up our complete system for Domination on a new server (we’re not saying where quite yet).

The first step in any good AH system is the banker.  The toon that does nothing but stand at the mailbox and scan the AH for deals.  Since this is Alliance, the only place to be is Exodar.  So we fired up a DK and in less than two hours we were ready to roll.  Plus, we had 23g pocket change to boot on a brand new server.

The second must-have for anyone serious about making gold is an enchanter.  With the DK already at 58, it’s a no-brainer to spend another few hours hitting level 65 so we can train all the way up to Grand Master enchanting if we want (and we do).  So now we’ve got a little bankroll and a toon capable of learning DE all the way to the top.  Since enchanting is a process all on it’s own, the DK was parked at the mailbox in Exodar while we took the next step.

That next step was a main banker and a mule.  So a couple of Dranei toons were also created and run down to the Exodar.  The DK mailed his gold to the main banker and we started our daily scans for a week.  At the end of the week we had everything in place to completely crush a new auction house.

The main banking toon begins to buy for resale and it doesn’t take long to get some serious dough.  Since we were buying things for DE anyway, it leaves you with plenty of stuff to DE for the DK to level enchanting.  The main banker send all the DE items to the chanting toon, keeps all the mats for rolling auctions, and send items for resale to the third guy.

A couple of definitions are in order for those of you who haven’t yet treated yourself to our Auction House Mastery Guide.

• Mats – anything consumable.  This Category includes regular mats like cloth and leather, but also food, potions, scrolls, and anything else that is one-time use.
• Items – anything that goes in an equipment slot on your toon.  These items are weapons, armor, jewelry, off hand, ranged, and trinkets.
• Rolling auctions – normally mats that are re-posted to the AH every time they expire.  You don’t put green items on rolling auctions, only mats, blues and epic items.

So all the items went to the item banker, the DE items go to the enchanter, and the main banker keeps all the mats.  And that’s where we started doing something a little differently than we ever have before.

Up until this point the items would stay with the item mule until Thursday, when the mule would just hit “return” to send all those things back to the main banker for posting.  And the enchanter would DE everything and send the mats back to the main banker.  Not any more.

Now, we’re just leaving the items on the item dude until Thursday and then he runs to the AH himself and posts the items.  The Enchanter also is posting his own auctions of enchanting mats, while the main banker does all of the rolling auctions.  Now everything we sell is separated into neat little categories on three different toons.  We don’t even log into the item banker more than three times a week, or the enchanter more than a few times weekly.

Now, instead of mailing things back and forth all the time, we just send everything to the proper banking toon created specifically to deal with that kind of mat or item.  That banking toon posts his own auctions and this gives us a very clear record of how we’re doing on each of the three types of major auction house categories: Regular Mats, Chanting Mats, and Items.  All we have to do is look at our statistics pane for each character and we can see precisely how we have done over time on all three sets.

Plus, it’s taking less time than ever to manage the whole system.  Unloading and sorting items from the mail takes a lot more time on one toon than if you split it up once to three separate toons and never have to worry about sorting it again.

To keep an accurate total of how much gold you have you just mail extra gold from the chanting and item toons back to your main banker from time to time and it’s all in one place.  Since all the toons are on the same account, they can all use the same AADV data and settings.

(We also have a price capping toon on another account where we send all the items for price capping.  This ensures that the settings for those items stays put without interfering with our regular auction prices on the other account.  For more information about price capping read this article: Advanced Gold Making For Pros At The Auction House).

The Death Knight has also learned Tailoring to make bags and a few other items.  We find that while having a tailor is nice, the toon buffs aren’t a big enough benefit for an end-game character to be worth skipping something like Jewelcrafting or Blacksmithing – which have far greater benefits to a raiding toon.  The same thing can be said for Leatherworking.  And since we do have more than one account to work with, that price capping DK toon will get Alchemy and Leatherworking.  Our main toons will get the professions with the big buffs.

It sounds slightly more complex at first, but once you do this for a week or two you’ll wonder how you ever did it any other way.  So roll yourself another toon or two and then really go Dominate the auction house on your server.