The most anticipated change coming with patch 2.4.3 for a good portion of the player base is the lowering of the requirement for basic land mounts to level 30, complete with a slash of the price of training down to 35 gold. Overall, this is very good news for anyone who is leveling or plans to level a new character any time soon.

With this change, though, has come a dilemma for many people with characters in the level 30-40+ range in the past few weeks:

• If my character just hit 30, do I keep on going, or shelve him until I can buy a mount so I don't have to hoof it through Stranglethorn Vale?
• If my character just hit 40, do I buy the mount now, or do I wait until the patch so I can save a whole pile of gold?

Welcome to Hybrid Theory, where we discuss all things hybrid in the World of Warcraft. Hybrid Theory is brought to you each week by columnist/blogger Alex Ziebart.

It's a little early to get nervous about not being prepared for the upcoming expansion, but it's never too early to start the preparations. If you start ahead of time, you'll never even need to worry about it coming down to crunchtime. Plus, if you finish getting ready ahead of time, you can take those last few weeks before Wrath nice and easy. Something I noticed a lot as we neared The Burning Crusade, everyone and their mother spent eight hours a day in battlegrounds that final month before the expansion, and by the time we could go through the Dark Portal most of them were burned out on playing WoW.

The absolute number one thing we can be sure you'll need in Wrath is gold. It doesn't matter what they do to your gear or your class, gold will be needed. Even if gold won't be worth as much as it is right now, you'll need it. You can be sure of that. Heck, even if you don't need gold for anything at all in Wrath by some miracle, it's cool, don't worry. 10,000g can buy you roughly 6,666,666 bottles of Moonglow when the Lunar Festival comes around. Think about that, man. Moonglow is awesome.

...Hm, I hope that math is right.

We've covered the topic of an insane amount of money being paid for an Amani War Bear before, namely about 20,000g. Gold is much easier to come by now-a-days, and most people are finding it easier to amass a small fortune. This number of 20,000g for a bear mount isn't seeming all that far off.

My guild is running two bear groups through Zul'Aman a few times a week, and many of us have our bear mounts now. Those that don't are going to get it quite soon. When this is done we have some different options. We can either run some of our alts and what not through and have a character in greens-galore with a bear mount, or we can sell one of the spots on our run.

This selling thing has got me thinking. While our guild doesn't need any more money for repairs and such (we have plenty in the coffers), we can definitely all go to have a few thousand more gold individually. If we ran one person through on a run for 20,000g we'd each make 2,000g for doing 45 minutes of farm content. That's not too bad.

It has begun. Anti-inflation measures intended to reduce player Gold before Wrath of the Lich King arrives have been put in place on the test server. Everyone's favorite (or most hated) socialite Haris Pilton has transformed into more than just a nod to bad pop culture, Patch 2.4.3 sees her as the single biggest gold sink in the game. Just like her enterprising real-life counterpart, Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry that is sure to bait some players into parting with their hard-earned Gold.

Pilton's flagship product, the epic "Gigantique" Bag is the only 22-slot bag of any sort and the biggest non item-specific bag available to players. It is bigger than the Pit Lord's Satchel, which drops off Magtheridon; the Sun Touched Satchel which is a zone drop from Magister's Terrace; the Tattered Hexcloth Sack from a quest in Zul'Aman; and even the Phat Loot Friday-featured Primal Mooncloth Bag. At a whopping 1,200 Gold, it's also the most expensive bag from a vendor or otherwise. Clever little Haris has also dissociated herself from The Lower City, so no discounts will be honored and she'll earn full profit from your Gold. The kicker? "Gigantique" Bags aren't unique.

It's Friday, which means that it's payday for some of you. With that in mind, why don't we take a look at an addon that helps you stay on top of your virtual finances. For those of us who are not only information junkies, but also control freaks, this addon is a great way to maintain sovereignty over how your gold comes and goes.

AuditorFu, contrary to what the name implies, will function with or without the Fubar addon. However, I find it best suited as a center-aligned, top-bar, Fubar mod, as it allows me to see the important stuff at center stage. (Alongside AuldLangSyne) There's nothing worse than having an inflated view of your gold total and quickly realizing the mats for your Red Belt of Battle are out of reach.

The good news is that this addon can help you be more diligent if you're saving for a crafted epic or your Artisan Riding skill. Every copper counts, my friends.

Eyonix made a lot of players happy the other day by announcing the start of Season 4. It's something that a lot of players have been waiting for, even planning for. Some players will be making the mad rush to accumulate Arena and Honor points. Within the first week of the new season, players who have stashed away the maximum 5,000 Arena points will be able to purchase anywhere from two to three pieces of Brutal Gladiator gear, provided they achieve the required personal ratings.

For other players such as those who have only recently dinged 70 or those new to the PvP scene, the 75,000 maximum Honor -- or whatever Honor they have stashed away -- will likely be used to purchase Merciless Gladiator gear when it goes on sale. More seasoned players will use the Honor to purchase Guardian gear to round out their equipment slots. When Season 4 starts, players will be strutting around Azeroth in brand spanking new gear. For a select few, these players will look like walking piles of Gold. New Arena seasons flood the community with enchant-worthy, gem-hungry gear like no other event.

Drysc has written a book about epic flying mount costs on the forums -- there aren't many goldsinks left in the game, but that 5000g you've got to pay for an epic flying mount is still there for sure (just ask anyone who doesn't have one).

He says that yes, the flying mount is definitely worth it (it makes playing the game much faster, since most of the time spent in the game is actually travel anyway), but also that actually obtaining an epic flyer was always meant to be optional -- only for players who want to "go the extra mile." Not sure how he can say both of those things at the same time, but there you go. He also says the main consideration in the cost wasn't any effect on the economy, but rather simply making sure that it took a certain amount of time for players to obtain all that gold -- they averaged how quickly players could pick up gold versus how long they wanted players to work for the mount, and arrived at 5000g.

There is some (kind of) good news on the horizon for players who don't want to spend all that money, however. If and/or when Blizzard releases a higher riding skill, Drysc says they'll probably drop the price on this one. Of course, that doesn't really tell us anything concrete -- with the onset of siege vehicles, there may be all kinds of changes to how riding and driving works in the game. Until then, keep grinding, because apparently the only thing that will get you flying fast is a whole lot of gold.

It's that time again -- we're in the slump right before the expansion, when people get bored of playing, no one wants to reroll another character because new options are just around the corner, and there's a general sense of apathy around the game. Why play what we've got when the new and shiny is almost here? Fortunately, this time seems a little better than last time -- lots of guilds are still rolling through the endgame, and there's still lots to do, from Arena to battlegrounds to reputation and daily quest grinding.

Fortunately, Part Time Druid has some good ideas about how to "fight WoW apathy," just in case you can't think of any yourself. PvP and money farming are in here (those are goals that are practically never ending for sure), and the time-tested idea of going back and finding refreshment in an old alt is a good idea as well. But there are some more original ideas in here as well: helping out lowbies (whether they be 16 or 61) is a good idea, and organizing for five mans might be the best idea. With the daily Heroic quest, there's no better time than now to find four friends who want badges and gold, and set up a regular weekly or even daily time to run a Heroic instance.

Let's be honest: we're going to at least be waiting a whole summer for this expansion, if not a few months after that. Might as well make the most of it -- set some goals now and get productive (or go try out Age of Conan, we're not picky), and the boat to Northrend will be loading before you know it.

A player by the name of Kunzite recently submitted to us that he had released his gold-making guide, subtitled "How I Made 100,000 Gold." With a title like that, I had to check it out, and it has some very interesting tips in it. It is extremely long, which makes it all the more surprising that it's free. A lot of the tips are along the lines of playing the auction house, but there are also some helpful introductions to concepts like opportunity cost (a vital thing to wrap your head around in WoW), and detailed lists of what crafts you can turn a profit in (if only by disenchanting them), and so on.

I know I'll be coming back to this site – I haven't read it all yet, but it is a very nice resource, and who couldn't use a little more gold? I've already implemented one of his suggestions and found it to be quite lucrative: farming for Fel Armaments and Marks of Sargeras from warlocks at Legion Hold. My previous go-to gold-making strategy (fishing in Nagrand) was getting me 200-300g an hour typically; Legion Hold would be more like 400g if I sold everything, and I need the Aldor rep anyway (so I'm selling the Armaments and turning in the Marks). The best part about Legion Hold is that the mobs there are perma-spawned: there are always at least certain number alive at a time, so no matter how many people are farming there, you never have to wait for spawns.

Kunzite's guide, like Jame's killer leveling guides (Alliance, Horde), is astonishingly high-quality – and completely free! Go check it out if you have any interest in better ways to make gold. And to Kunzite, thank you for making this great resource available to the community.

It used to be that selling Arena points was a very profitable venture. In Patch 2.4, however, Blizzard introduced a new mechanic designed to curb Arena point selling -- something they had previously declared to be perfectly compliant with their Terms of Use. Players now need to have their personal ratings within 150 points of the team ratings, otherwise they will earn Arena points based on their personal ratings rather than the higher team rating. This put an end to high rated teams selling spots on their roster for easy Arena points.

The new mechanic has given rise to a new form of Arena point selling, however -- mercenaries for hire. Many players who aren't after end-of-season rewards have used their PvP skills to earn a bit of Gold on the side by instead joining low-rated teams in need of a little push. Most of these players have already gotten full Season 3 gear and have no use for personal or team ratings and Arena points. With the onset of Arena Season 4, which is slated to begin on June 24, it might happen that we'll see a few of these mercenaries peddling their services all over again.

With the new personal ratings requirements for Brutal Gladiator items, players will need to work a little harder to get the latest PvP gear. For some players, this means looking to swords-for-hire (or axes-, or daggers-, or spells-...) for help. It's actually more profitable for seasoned Arena player in the new scheme of things, as they no longer need to maintain a high-ranked team and no longer limited to taking on a few customers at a time for the minimum three games (out of requisite ten). Arena mercenaries (or usually a pair) can simply hop from team to team helping raise players' personal ratings. With a modest 1700 personal rating the only requirement to get 4/5 Brutal Gladiator, it seems that PvP progression will finally catch up to PvE progression. With a little help for some, of course.

For many reasons I've never felt compelled to buy gold or pay for leveling on World of Warcraft. So I had no idea how the process worked. We got a tip from Kyron of Andorhal about a friend whose account was hacked. In addition to having all of his gear and gold stripped from his characters, he had 2 emails in the inbox for cheap items that he'd purchased off the auction house that the hacker had purchased for 500 gold a piece.

They recorded the name of the seller from the auction house and confronted him when he next came online. It turns out that person wasn't a gold seller but a gold buyer. He'd been told to put Coarse Thread on the AH at the 500 gold rate and would receive his gold when the hacker purchased the ridiculously priced item.

I didn't know how gold-buying worked, but this sounds like a way to exchange gold easily. This is something that blizzard could check into pretty easily. While sometimes players make strange prices in order to dupe would-be buyers, something like Coarse Thread would go unnoticed because most players wouldn't look for such items on the auction house.

Aysel is a little ashamed about spending 1000g on a title, though she shouldn't be -- "of the Shattered Sun" is as honorable a title as any other, and if you've got the money to get it, more power to you (though her suggestion that her guildies call her AOTSS is pretty funny).

But I like her other question better: what's the dumbest thing you've ever spent a bunch of ingame gold on? My waste of money is probably more of a mistake than an actual embarrassment -- I remember spending a good 100g to outfit my level 40 Mage in the shiniest stuff I could find on the AH, including a couple of world drops and the whole shabang. I had in mind that I was going to take her all the way to 70 -- and then I think I never played her again. What a waste.

I'm sure you all have better stories, though -- ever accidentally dropped a lot of cash on something you couldn't actually use, or splurge on an item that was a little silly, just so you could have it? What's the most money you've ever wasted on anything in the game, and what did you buy?

Let's take a poll for a future article I'm working on about daily quests. I want to know (and I'm sure some of you will be interested too): on average, how many daily quests do you complete each day?

For me the number is nine. I do six out in the Isle of Quel Danas, and then three in Outland (the mining, fishing, and cooking daily). I have a couple of friends who do 25 every day, and I have other friends who only do one or two. I was surprised yeterday in my article about making money through the AH that there were several of you who mentioned that doing all 25 was the norm.

So vote away and lets us know how many daily quests you do every day.

I like to have a bit of gold on me at all times. When I see something I want for one of my alts, it's nice to be able to just buy it without thinking about the ramifications for next week's farming and raiding. There's a strategy that I've been using for a couple months now that'll let those that follow it earn upwards of 10,000g a month.

To use this strategy, you need to have access to the following:

• Rare T5/ T6 patterns
• A steady stream of Badge of Justices or Hearts of Darkness
• 5 hours a week set aside for hard core farming
• A second account
  

Those might look like insane requirements to some, and they're not wrong. They are a bit steep. However making this amount of gold should not be easy and be able to be done by everyone. But with that said, it's not too hard to get into a T5 guild these days, and weekly Kara runs plus a few heroics can get you 30+ badges a week.

Read on after the break for the complete strategy.