Ink Purchase Distribution Calculator To Help You Stockpile

Today on the livestream I wanted to know how many of each ink I should be buying to properly stock up for Mists of Pandaria.

I knew some inks were used more than others and had been given numbers of inks needed to craft one of every glyph currently in the game by a livestream viewer. What I needed was a tool I could enter how many inks I wanted to buy and have it tell me how many of each ink type to purchase to keep the proper distribution of inks.

Read on past the jump for my solution: The Ink Purchase Distribution Calculator and how you can get it for yourself.

How It Works

(For the impatient here is the link to download/copy the spreadsheet.) The Ink Purchase Distribution Calculator is a spreadsheet (learn how to download it below) that works by entering how many Blackfallow Ink you have to purchase inks with into the yellow box. The spreadsheet then automatically calculates how many of each ink to purchase from the vendor that day.

I'll be using this calculator on a daily basis as I get extra Blackfallow Ink or if I come across a large amount of cheap Cataclysm herbs that I purchase and process into Blackfallow Ink to purchase inks to stockpile for Mists of Pandaria.

Modifying The Spreadsheet

The percentages are based on the numbers I was given on my livestream and may not be 100% accurate. They also may not reflect the amounts of ink that any given individual may want to purchase.

Some people may want to, for example, stockpile far more of a certain type of ink because they know glyphs made with it sell for more.

Others may want to stockpile less of a certain ink due to the fact that they already have a huge stockpile of that ink and instead want to stockpile more of the others.

Once you have a copy of the spreadsheet the amounts in column "B" can be changed to build any percentage situation you'd like.

How To Get It

In order to utilize this spread sheet you will have to have Microsoft Office Excel, OpenOffice.org (free download), or a Google Account (Gmail, etc.) to use Google Docs. (I personally do all this directly in Google Docs.)

Copy It

To make a copy of the spreadsheet inside your own Google Docs account:

• Go to the "Ink Purchase Distribution Calculator" page on Google Docs.
• Select "File" from the top left.
• Select "Make a copy...". (This will make a copy of the spreadsheet to allow you to do calculations and/or edit your copy.)

Creating a copy of the spreadsheet.

Download It

To download the your own copy of the spreadsheet:

• Go to the "Ink Purchase Distribution Calculator" page on Google Docs. 
• Select "File" from the upper left. 
• Select "Download as"
• Choose file type: "Microsoft Excel (.xls) or OpenDocument Format (.ods) (For use in Open Office).

Downloading the spreadsheet.

Once You Have It

Once you have an editable version of the spreadsheet simply enter how many Blackfallow Inks you are wanting to use to purchase stockpiling inks into the yellow box and the spreadsheet will automatically calculate how many of each ink you should purchase to maintain a proper distribution of inks.

Example Spreadsheet (Locked)

Below is a non-editable embed of the spreadsheet that has the amount of 100 Blackfallow Ink entered into the calculator. While you won't be able to actually change the value (unless you follow the instructions above to get your own copy) it will at least give you an idea of what I'd buy if I had 100 Blackfallow Ink to spend.




(Download and/or copy the spreadsheet here.)


Errors?

This spreadsheet was made taking into account the current (pre-MoP) craftable glyphs only. If you find any glaring inaccuracies, ways to improve the spreadsheet or make it more useful please don't hesitate to send me an email at powerwordgold@gmail.com with copies of your own versions or leave a comment below.

Special Thanks

I wanted to give a special thanks to Jabberie (from our livestream chat) who was able to take my instructions on what exactly it was I was looking for in this spreadsheet and whip up an early version in a very short time.

Update: Jabberie came onto our livestream and provided an update to the spreadsheet where you can enter your current ink stockpiles and have it give you updated values based on how many you have.

You can find the update in the "Have Ink?" spreadsheet page. (Look for a tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet.)

---

Like this post? Get even more Power Word: Gold - Purchase our 100-Page Illustrated Gold Guide, subscribe via RSS, subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes or RSS, watch our Livestreams, follow us on Twitter, Circle us on Google+, Like us on Facebook, subscribe via Youtube and join us on reddit.

---