Each week, Lisa Poisso brings us Insider Trader, your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

How can you pimp that hawt new epic if you don't know what gems and enchants exist to put in it? And once you find out what's available, how can you find a craftsperson who can do it? What used to be an excruciating hunt-and-peck process is easing up, thanks to several mods growing in popularity among crafters. These mods allow customers to whisper a tradesperson and run direct searches for specific types of products -- a direct peek into what that crafter can do for you and your gear.

First popularized by jewelcrafters and enchanters, these handy mods are now available for other trades as well. If you like to ponder the possibilities without feeling like you're tying up a crafter's time and attention, you'll love the power of running your own searches. It's all handled via /whisper, so there's no public spam and you won't bother a soul. Rifle through what's available by stats, gem color, enchanting reagents required, gem rarity and more, all via the tradesperson's mod -- you install nothing to be able to use it. It really is that simple!


Look for a tradesperson advertising some variation of "Whisper me !gem to see what I can do." You can send that crafter direct, automated queries on all sorts of different criteria:

• Stats (stamina, heal, damage, crit, etc.)
• Color (blue, red and so on)
• Rarity/Quality (rare, uncommon, etc.)
• Gem Name (such as Golden Draenite)
• Reagents (such as Arcane Dust, Netherweb Spider Silk, etc.)
  

To reduce spam, most systems limit searches to 15 possibilities or so, so try to be fairly specific with your requests. You don't have to know special terminology or abbreviations. To search for a stamina gem using GemList, for example, you could type any of the following: sta, stam, stami, stamin or stamina. And you can combine terms to narrow your search – for example, you could run a search for "yellow mana heal" or "red defense rare." Just start your requests with "!gem" and go from there:

• /w Joolerdood !gem yellow mana heal
• /w Gemguy !gem red def sta rare
  

More examples, with an enchanter using EnchantList:

• /w Enchanter !enchant agi boots (will list available agility enchants for boots)
• /w EnchanterX !enchant [Ashbringer] (link your item; will list possible enchants for that item)
• /w Crafter !enchant [Ashbringer] crusader (will list reagents required)
  

The initial command (such as "!gem" or "!enchant") will vary according to the mod the particular crafter is using. An attempt to use the system will return a whisper back to you with basic instructions, so just about any system will be straightforward once you get started.

So if you're a crafter, where do you get these mods? Look for EnchantList from Athou, which was modified to create GemList by Mikezter. EnchantBot 2.9.14 from Deffling (an update of previous EnchantBots by Adys and Revenger) has already been updated for patch 2.1, as has Deffling's non-trade-specific CraftBot.

Insider Trader tip: Crafters, these mods will work even when you're logged onto a non-crafting alt. Your mod will still search and reply to guildmates' requests while you're off duty – now that's service with a smile!

Wondering what to buy, how to sell, what to use, how to craft? Ask Insider Trader at lisa.poisso (at) weblogsinc.com. We'll dig up the inside tips you're looking for to get ahead!