With the new 4.0.1 patch came a whole ton of bugs, exploits and opportunities. =]
We're talking infinite Justice Points exploits, unlimited Honor Points, crazy Gold Making exploits, and Remote Auction House exploitation.
Most of them are easily detectable by Blizzard and these exploits have worked for the past 5 days - but players haven't been banned yet. I'm interested to see how long it will take Blizzard to crack down on these cheaters and exploiters. As mentioned in a previous post, if Blizzard is having concerns regarding Cataclysm (or worried about financial figures) they'll have a ban wave in Q4 (ending Dec 31). Otherwise, they'll save up the ban wave until Q1 next year (Jan/Feb/Mar) so that they can pad their revenue numbers even higher.
Here are some of the many cheats & exploits going on:
1. Infinite Justice Points Exploit
Containers that used to drop Emblems of Frost now drop Justice Points, however they are bugged and you can loot them over and over. 1000-1500 Justice Points in under 10 minutes is easily possible.
Here are the specific items, and you needed to have the ones from before the 4.0.1 patch. I'm not sure if NEW drops work as well.
For the [Sack of Frosty Treasures] for example: just open the bag, pull out JPs, enter Blasted Lands portal, pull out again, keep going back and forth. Each time you go through the portal it resets the JP contents. Don't loot all though, just the JPs.
[Brewfest Kegs] work too and provide 24 Justice Points each time. You can also logout and log back in again, and the items reset. It doesn't work with all zoning methods, however you can use the Undercity/Silvermoon Translocator to also reset the bag contents. There are other ways too.
2. Infinite Justice Points Exploit #2
You can kill the end boss of Hellfire Ramparts over-and-over for Justice Points. He's not supposed to drop them by the way. =] Clear the Heroic Instance to the last boss, kill his guards and he'll dismount, kill Vazruden only (not the Drake), jump off the bridge and exit the portal. Go back in, kill him again. Each kill gives 250 rep and 5 Justice Points.
Apparently, a couple other 70 Heroics are bugged as well. Anzu (Raven Lord Mount) doesn't need to be summoned anymore, so anyone can farm the mount without a Druid present. I hear that it's working on some realms, but not others - so I don't know if it's intentional or not.
3. Remote Auction House
A bunch of new web-based Remote AH bot applications have hit the market (the developers are profiting from it, just like the SC2 hack developers), and I'm seeing them in use on my own server. It makes Glyph selling fairly difficult.
One individual in particular that exploits heavily (he's logged in 24/7 making transactions - cancelling auctions and undercutting automatically) is actually the GM of one of the biggest PVE guilds on my server. He's fully geared in 277 and the guild is well progressed. For the past week though, he hasn't been raiding but rather running a bot to exploit Glyph sales. Players using Quick Auctions 3 (Auction Profit Master) is easily noticeable, but his activities are obviously automated. I chatted with a member of his guild, and apparently they're aware of his "exploits" and how he shares his account with others for heavy raiding which is why the account is logged in so much.
In regards to the other exploits, I'll post some more once I get confirmation from other players. Some methods involve gold making related to the 4.0.1 Undocumented Changes (ie, how everyone can get Wrath gear for honor now which can be sold back.) They removing Tailoring Specializations FYI, and apparently some other Profession Specializations might be impacted currently (Blizzard might be removing them later) such as LW Elemental, Blacksmithing, Alchemy Transmutation nerfs, etc.
*UPDATE:
I'm moving the lengthy SC2 hacks post (that was originally in this post) to a new entry to keep this post short.
I've also confirmed that other loot bags are bugged as well, some of them have been hot-fixed however.
Here are more bags that also provide infinite amounts of Justice Points and can be reset:
[Cache of the Ley-Guardian]
[Large Sack of Ulduar Spoils]
[Sack of Ulduar Spoils]
[Stachel of Spoils]
[Large Satchel of Spoils]
Blizzard finally made an official announcement about what will be happening in 4.0.3 regarding those unique ZG mounts and items.
However, Blizzard also added "Although we have no current plans to introduce new ways to obtain the Zul'Gurub mounts, pets, and the tribute mounts, they may return should we find a place where they fit in the future."
While everyone on the WoW forums and websites were claiming that the mounts would be "gone for good" (and to farm ZG as soon as possible), I heard information to the contrary from my inside sources. I had actually predicted this in a post I made last month. =]
Also, although their statement says "no current plans", Blizzard actually does have plans (or should I say "options that they are considering"). The "original mounts" with their "original achievements" will be gone but the mounts will be making a reappearance (as explained earlier) either through drops, rewards (eg Archaeology), the Pet Store, or other ways.
The Pet Store definitely has a very high probability. =]
Also, a little birdie tells me that a mount similar to the [Black Qiraji Battle Tank] will be making an appearance in Cataclysm as well. My sources weren't as certain on the new scarab mount as they were on the ZG mounts, however.
So I spent the last couple days selling Glyphs and re-selling [Vanishing Powder].
Trade Chat was filled with players asking, "where do i buy vanishing powder????" so I simply purchased stacks from the Scribe Vendor, directed Trade Chat users to the AH, and re-sold to them for 30G per stack. =]
I probably made about 3k gold just reselling cheap [Vanishing Powder] to people who didn't read the patch notes. From my Glyph selling, I gold capped one of my characters and the other is 50% capped. I had a lot of competition too unfortunately, but all-in-all it was a good day. Mat and ink prices sky-rocketed, so it was a good thing that I had made all of the glyphs (40 of each) during the weeks before. (Since ink requirements for Glyphs went from 1 ink to 3.)
All of the new 4.0.1 Glyphs can be learned from the trainer, 1 x Northrend Research (Living Bomb), and 1 x Book of Glyph Mastery (Colossus Smash). Don't waste any more than that, you won't learn anything new.
So here's an interesting gold tip:
[Glyph of Vanish] is currently bugged and no one is able to craft it. It will be hot-fixed eventually, so most players won't know when it will be available. But if you check the Trainer after each server restart, you'll be able to get and sell the Glyph before anyone else. For atleast the first few hours, you'll be able to sell it for 100-200G each.
Other broken Glyphs (not available YET) include [Glyph of Mage Armor], [Glyph of Armors], and [Glyph of the Long Word].
Mage Armor still might be available from your old crafted glyphs, but there's no way to make new ones - so they're very pricey at the moment and you should buy out all competition.
Don't advertise sales of these Glyphs in Trade Chat either, otherwise other Scribes will clue in.