I see lv85 bots flying in MoP areas all the time (with hacks)
So won't happen
If the density of nodes is similar to MoP, there will be no problem. I don't like to buy mats for my profs and leveling a gathering alt is next thing I'm doing when I max my main. Farmed on ground all the way till 90 and had more than enough for Alch and Engi.
Ore prices are low now because it is not needed. Everything of value from crafting is locked behind a daily cooldown.
Red gems on my server are 60 gold. If you cut the amount of ore spawns by 500%... the cost of red gems on my server would still be 60 gold.
Even in the most extreme cases of flying, bots, or whatever being removed, there is still going to be more then enough ore for gems.
Also, don´t forget, meta gems are being removed, the amount of gem sockets on gear is being reduced, enchanting is being reduced etc etc.
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Did you see the prices to upgrade your buildings in your garrison. One screenshot I saw showed 10,000g to upgrade one building one time. What is there, about 12 building slots, each upgradable 3 times PER CHARACTER. That is a decent chunk of change.
The initial price of herbs and ore will have NOTHING to do with flying. Even the Xpac that gave us flying before max level had insane prices on mats at the start. It's simple economics, greed and impatience at work. After a few weeks the price normally settles somewhat, and I highly doubt a measurable effect of flying will be present - especially with connected realms making the worlds (and supply) bigger.
You argue against yourself here. Connected realms may combine the source of supply but also it will exponentially increase the demand too and drive markets in much the same way.
Flying will have a big impact during this period that currently Blizzard propose restricting flying 6.0.x > 6.1 becuase of two main reasons.
1. "Savage' Land - Blizzard have placed a lot of emphasis on the savage nature of WoD which implies that the gathering process itself will be impacted by this 'savage' environment. Slowing gathering (fighting mobs) and having to fight your way to nodes etc.
2. Gathering on a ground mount is not only slower because of the 1. (a big reason they state is the avoidance of fighting by being able to fly and avoid conflict) but inevitably because of slower travel seed and not being able to fly A > B as the crow flies. Therefore supply will be impacted by this decision and for a longer period than previously.
Yes prices are always insane at launch time because Demand always outstrips Supply. It will be exacerbated by this throttling of Supply and the input into the supply chain from the Garrisons will take time to kick in as others have noted.
I think people also forget that by not being able to fly even after hitting level 90, this will increase they time spent simply travelling to and fro from faction quest hubs, gathering other materials (cloth etc.), time just doing Dailies etc. All this time will itself reduce time otherwise spent gathering raw materials.
There is also another aspect which is that all resource nodes will by implication be located in places accessible by ground mount. Will Blizzard add other nodes post 6.1 to areas only accessible via flying mounts? Generally these where they exist (Kun-lai Summit for Snow Lily for example) are accessible without fighting NPCs' but those accessible by ground are often in proximity to NPCs'.
Most people feel the pain of highly inflated prices at launch but previously this usually falls off fairly quickly because people hit 90 and can fly to gather etc. or on their farming alts. This period however will be extended until 6.1 goes live some while after initial launch and other sources (Garrisons) mature. if Blizzard want to avoid frustrations running on over this period they need to consider how other sources or methods can be brought into play to help avoid this.
As already mentioned, the bots will still be "flying" around, and it'll be up to the GMs to be awake with the banhammers to stop them.
Warlord coins? They did say they want players out in the world exploring. Daily/weekly/monthly respawning chests/items could be one way of gating the influx of coins, so players won't grind their way to a 3/3 maxed out Garrison within the first week.
I'm mostly worried about the herb market, and the potential of seeing my possible trinket profits get wasted on buying overpriced herbs. There's only so much you can charge for a trinket before people feel it's too much, regardless of how much it cost to make.
That is, going off the assumption that we will be able to mass produce trinkets like we've been till now. <.< If Blizzard cuts into that market as well with a new tactic to make trinkets then we might be in for a terribly low profit first few weeks (unless you are a gatherer )
I imagine with connected realms populating servers more there will be plenty of supply to keep costs reasonable.
READ and be less Ignorant.
Or doesn't mean a whole lot since we'll have our own personal mine. Also, those of us with alts could have several mines.
I don't think flying is going to make much of a difference with respect to gathering. I did a LOT of gathering (by my standards anyway, several hours a day) without flying the first couple weeks of MoP. It worked fine.
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images...nWoWRAD019.jpg
The screenshot above seems to show a level one mine with one miner in it. It looks like you can have two minions at level one. Four ore an hour, 96 ore per day with a level one mine. At level three guessing 288 ore per day maybe? Get 11 alts on one server and... not a bad passive turnover, even if you end up shuffle vending the stuff.
The biggest impact you might see are herbalists with the sky golem. This will give a huge advantage on the ground in that if you come in aggro radius you will be able to run out much faster than a person on the ground. You could even ( if you were a jerk) snipe herbs while people deal with mobs.
Yes, gathering speed is going to be slower. We however don't know how plentiful nodes are, how costly items are to craft, and what the demand is going to be. With the new primary/secondary/tertiary stat systems, the demand for gems might go down (depending on how often gem slots end up rolling). Enchants are being tweaked too. Remember that the game isn't even in beta yet, everything is up for change, so it won't do much good to get riled up about it now.