Big Profession Changes in WoD

Hey everyone, long time no post! I've been really busy IRL, I won't bore you with the details but the TL;DR is I actually have a bit of time to write now, so I'm more or less back. Anyway this past weekend a few other gold bloggers and I put out a gold making magazine called The Golden Keg. It's a really great read, lots of great articles from some talented authors, and will be a monthly publication that's going to be coming out. It's available in .pdf form (for free) at the link above. Definitely check it out when you've got the time! I wrote an article in there and this is going to be a follow up to it, and while it's not necessary to read prior to this post, I suggest you read that before diving in!

Even since I wrote that article, a lot has changed in the landscape of what we know about professions moving into WoD. For example it has been announced that along with no Realm First! level 100 achievements, there will also be no Realm First! Profession achievements:

@twitchietgw @perculia @Seerax Realm First profession achievements are also gone. They don't integrate well w/profession changes.
— Owen Landgren (@olandgren) February 27, 2014

First of all, a shout out to Twitchie, who asked this insightful question and got (albeit minorly) a gold maker featured on the front page of MMO-Champion for all of 3 hours! Twitchie wrote a really great follow up post to this, and I highly suggest you check it out. Anyway, to me this is an interesting piece of information, but is even more interesting when coupled with the following from a tweet conversation with Utesdad, a Wind Trader over at The Consortium Forums:

@WoWUtesDad More seriously, though: I think profession skill is cooler as something that increases your yield, rather than gate you.
— Hwoo (@hwoome) February 11, 2014

To me these two tweets coupled together can mean only one thing, that we're going to be leveling professions a lot slower in WoD. This will be a very interesting thing to see on the beta, as they seem to be putting a lot of work into changing up professions for WoD, something that has not really been done since they added Inscription as a profession in the beginning of WotLK. Hwoo also mentioned how Much like the changes I made to Cooking in Mists, this is going to feel different." In this tweet she was referring to (I assume) how once you hit 525 you had to level 6 different specializations to learn everything. It will be interesting if this is the sort of branching that we see in WoD. I can't even imagine how they'd structure it, but I think that the more complex it is, the better it is for us crafters!

Honestly though if you want to be caught up on everything we know about professions in WoD go over to Hwoo's Twitter account and read everything that she's said so far. She's only had about 108 tweets so at most that's going to take you 10-15 minutes to read, maybe 30 if you're checking out different threads that lead to comments, but there's so much there that I can't even begin to touch on in my blog, and I highly suggest you read it (although I will be covering the highlights).

The last thing I want to go over, that I'm personally pretty excited about is this Tweet:

@machineman87 There were things we liked/didn't like about Spirits of Harmony. Plan atm is not to for 6.0.
— Hwoo (@hwoome) March 7, 2014

Now this was a question about whether or not they'll be using a SoH type system, or the old different elements type system, and to me this answer basically says "neither", but could be interpreted as the elemental system. This to me is excellent. SoH were the only thing that crafters were basically required to farm in MoP, and even if they were to go back to the elemental system (which were not soulbound), that would be a huge step in the right direction. Now they could be thinking of Orbs, but to me Orbs pre-BoE and SoH are identical entities. I'm really excited about them moving away from required BoP mats, which I think that everyone else will be as well.

Even though the game itself is indeed in a lull, there's a lot to keep up on, and learn about. Hopefully this gave you some insight into what's going on, and I plan on keeping up with this WoD news as it comes out as I get my blog back into full speed again.

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

New Goldmaker Advice

This is for Day 18 of Nev's 20 Days of Goldmaking.  Interested in reading other's views on the topics?  Nev made a post with all the participants here.  Check it out, there's some really great posts!  Todays topic:

What is the most important bit of advice you could give to a new gold maker? (not a game newbie though, just a newbie gold maker)

Control your Spending
This is probably the easiest concept in gold making, yet so few in WoW have really mastered it.  When players on my server realize how much gold I have, they always ask why I don't buy some cool looking mount or tons of TCG items etc.  I only buy things (generally) that will get me more gold, which is the best way to make gold.  It's just like real life, you invest into profitable things, make good returns, and you gain gold.  Don't waste a ton of gold gemming your LFR gear, when you only have a few thousand.  Focus on a few markets, get into them, and learn them.  The only true way you can master a method is by getting your hands dirty.  Even if you only spend 15 minutes of your play time each day doing this, you will learn the markets, and make gold.

Professions are the Key
If you want to unlock true gold making potential, don't just try to flip things or sell the cloth you get from doing dungeons, get maxed professions on all the characters that you can.  If you have characters that are 80-89, and won't be 90 any time soon, don't get them LW, BS, Enchanting, or Tailoring.  Those 3 need a lot of SoH or reputations to fully maximize, get them on a main instead.  The more professions you have, the more cooldowns you have, the more diversifying you can do, the more sales you will make, the more gold you will have.  People are often hesitant when they don't see instant profits from their work.  Don't expect a million gold by tomorrow if you're just starting out.  Set goals and hit them.

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Calculating the Value of Spirit of Harmony

Okay so you've been farming Motes of Harmony, both literally with the Tillers, and also by killing mobs and receiving drops.  Now you have a decent amount, but is it worthwhile to use it for a craft?  What's the price point for one of these things?  These are the questions I'm here to answer.

Point for Comparison
Since we have a vendor that will trade Spirit of Harmony for various goods, we can calculate the "Opportunity Cost" of using a Spirit of Harmony in a craft.  9 times out of 10 on any given server the conversion from 1 Spirit of Harmony -> 3 Golden Lotus will be the most profitable, BUT if you would like to compare the other options as well, The Undermine Journal has a neat tool for doing so for you.

Once on your server page, simply hover over Consumables, then select Elementals.

Click to Enlarge

After doing so you should see a page similar to this one, which will multiply by the number you can buy from the vendor by the current going rate for each item.

What this table shows us is that for every Spirit of Harmony you have, you can trade it for about 880 gold.  So if a recipe you're crafting has say 6 Spirit of harmony, and the raw mats + 880*6 = raw mats + 5280 is less than the price that you could get for that item, don't craft it! Now not everything is as black and white as say the LW or BS that NEED this in their Epic crafts, some professions have CDs that you can ignore by using SoH, and others have recipes you can buy with them. So the question for those professions is "Is having this extra CD/recipe worth the gold that these SoH are worth?" or "Is this PvP recipe worth 880g?" For example, on most servers an additional Living Steel CD for your Alchemist is NEVER worth the price of the 9 Golden Lotus I could get instead.  So it's just something to keep in mind.

Additional Valuation
So, you thought that was it huh?  Unfortunately for you it's not!   We have another problem because if you're Revered or greater with the Tillers, you have the opportunity to grow these from the ground!  Is it worth it?
Okay so make sure you've done the above step, which way is worth more?  What's a SoH worth to you? Let's say like the above example your server had the SoH worth 880g to trade in for Golden Lotus, but your LW craft for example takes raw mats that sell for 720g and 8 SoH, but you can sell it for 34k.  TUJ even does THIS math for you!

Click to Enlarge

Since it's worth crafting we can calculate the value of your SoH to be (Selling Price) - (Other Mats) = 34k-720g = 33.3k divided among 8 SoH = 4,162g per SoH!!  So it's definitely worth it for you to craft this item instead of trade it to the vendor.  On the other hand, if you determine the opposite, such as an Alchemist, that it's not worth it with your 90's professions, it's only worth 880g.

Now here comes the interesting (and slightly annoying) part.  Each plot in your farm grows 1 Mote of Harmony (1/10th of a Spirit).  To the LW each plot is worth 416.2g (very nice!), but to the Alchemist, it's only worth 88g.  Not that great...could you get more planting something else?

Currently the other Revered seeds won't (on most servers) get you something worth more than 88g, as they are the most basic of Raw Mats for professions.  BUT, right now there is a very high demand for vegetables!  So back to TUJ to check: Consumables -> Cooking

Click to Enlarge

You will be able to see a chart like this:

Note the price and that each plot will grow not one but five of these each day.  *Note: Ginseng is sold by a Tillers vendor. Basically multiply any of these numbers by 5 and you'll get more than that 88g.  Juicycrunch Carrot would be my go to because Intellect lovers are always my best buyers, but also note that Jogu the Drunk, for a fee, will tell you which one of these to grow each day to harvest 8 the next day.  So one of these will get a x8 multiplier instead of x5.


Now that I've thoroughly bored you to death, get out there and start getting THE MOST out of your Spirit of Harmony!! If you remember to reply after checking, leave a comment with your 2 primary professions and how much your Spirit of Harmony are worth!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

Top 5 Professions to Level ASAP!

Today I figured I'd do a post on what professions I personally will be leveling as soon as possible.  Mists releases at midnight on the west coast US, which is a relatively ungodly 3 AM for those of us on the east coast.  That being said I'm still considering setting my alarm and having a pot of coffee on hand, but right now it looks unlikely. Once I do eventually log, I am going to focus on leveling my professions before stepping into Pandaria.

Living Steel

My main focus though is the new "Truegold", Living Steel.  This new alchemy cooldown is used in 28 recipes, all but 10 of which will be craftable at launch, given the crafter has the correct (and in some cases absurdly high) amount of Spirit of Harmony in some cases.  This precious metal is used in many crafts.  16 total are required to craft the new JC Epic Mount (which will require Exalted rep to get all recipes for), 1 is required to craft the new Belt Buckle, as well as quite a few needed for the BS and Engineering Epics.  Let's just say there's going to be quite a demand for this item, especially from those elite raiding guilds on your server.

Primordial Ruby

A JC's Best Friend

My second focus will be leveling Jewelcrafting acquiring all of the Jewelcrafting Primordial Ruby base cuts (Delicate, Bold, Brilliant) ASAP.  These cuts will be learned through research or doing Golden Lotus Dailies at Revered.  **Here's the thing to consider with Jewelcrafting though**, they're scaling gem cuts this expansion.  This means they're scrapping the Cataclysm (and previous expansion) model of say 40 base stats total for all gems. Instead, the off color gems will have more base stats to compensate for the lack of Primary stats (Int, Str, Agi).  This doesn't concern me because I think during the first few weeks people will still be following their old gemming ways, and I'm not too worried about these not being HOT sellers.  I may however stop once I get the Brilliant cut, so I can diversify.  The more colors of rare gems I can cut the first few weeks the better.

Without Further Ado, my list:
Top 5 Professions to Level (IMO)

1. Alchemy
• As Stated above, Alchemy transmutes will be used in many recipes, so I will be focusing on leveling the Alchemy my 4 Transmute Masters as soon as possible, to get these xmutes on the AH before the price drops 1 copper!
2. Jewelcrafting
• Again as stated above I want to take good care to learn as many cuts as possible, as soon as possible, and you can start researching once you hit 550, so after that I'm going to stop and focus on other professions.  It's also useful to note I have 2 JCs for double the research possibilities.
3. Tailoring
• Tailoring also has a new daily cooldown that will be added, which again will be craftable at only 550, so getting my 2 Tailors up to burn their daily cooldowns is necessary as soon as possible again.
4. Inscription
• Once again, Inscription is another profession has a once daily cooldown (525), which is a necessary material for Darkmoon Cards(600).
• This makes the individual Darkmoon Cards way more valuable, and will focus trinket seekers on getting individual cards as opposed to full decks.
• Take into consideration that there is also 3 BoA Staves that require 20 of these first daily CDs to make.  Priorities!!! **Note that you can acquire 7 per week doing proffesion specific (level 600) weekly quests, so this is where maxing your Scribe comes in handy.
• I'm not sure if you need to be a certain level to access the area, if so you will need to obtain that level as well. 
5. Mining
• This may seem like a curveball to some, given my (and most gold makers) "Gathering isn't the best GPH" stance.  I still agree with this, and think my profession leveling order above will payout the most, but my go to craft, Living Steel Transmute requires 6 Trillium Bars EACH, each of which require 2 of each color of Trillium Ore (so needs 24 raw ore total, 12 of each color).

• This bar cannot be smelted by Miners until 600 Skill Level, which can only be obtained by farming nodes (no smelting skill ups), so you KNOW the bars are going to be in high demand, and are also going to be very expensive for the first few weeks. By having my own miner smelt the bars, I can cut my costs, and acquire some ore for the transmutes.  It's a win win (except I don't want to level my Tauren Druid, but oh well).

So this is it, my master plan.  If anyone is curious I will be leveling my Mage (Tailor/Alchemy) to 90 first after all this, and starting my farm ASAP, so my mage will be the first one to be able to benefit from the Tiller's Bonus Spirit of Harmony, which is nice because then I'll have the option to choose between the most profitable of the two daily CDs (Tailoring/Alch) that character can craft, based on established AH prices. 

So that's my plan (and suggestion) on which Professions to level first.  Which professions are you planning on leveling up first?

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

If you like my blog follow me on twitter, @PhatLewtsGold!!

My TSM_Crafting Enchanting Setup

If you like my gold blog follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!!

In my last post, Handera asked how I set up my TSM_Crafting module to make enchanting scrolls, so this is just going to be a short post in response to his question.  He said that he uses it for glyphs, so this post is going to assume a general knowledge of TSM_Crafting, but not the specific enchanting parts.

What I do for this, is I override minimum profit, in both gold and %profit so that I only make crafts worth my time.  This is how you do that:

Setting up TradeSkillMaster_Crafting For Enchanting


Step 1: Type /tsm and click on the Enchanting module

Step 2: Go to Options, and check the box "Override Minimum Profit"

Step 3: I use both Percent and Gold Amount.  My Minimum Profit (in %) is set to 50% and my Minimum Profit (in gold) I set to 150g.  This ensures I'm making a good return on my investment AND each scroll is (theoretically) making at least 150g, at current market prices.  

So that's basically how I set up the options before I craft.  Making non-Cataclysm scrolls is acceptable, granted they are profitable enough.  

Creating Crafting List

Then you can go into enchanting and open the crafting window.  Click Restock Queue and you should come up with a list like this:

Shopping for Mats

When you open the TSM window at the AH, click on "Crafting Mats", and make sure only enchanting is selected in the top, and for Destroying modes to use you can have Disenchanting selected (disclaimer below).  

If you do have Disenchanting selected, it will bring up search results like this, if not it will only bring up the mat you need to craft, which is less time consuming, but you can find some good deals this way.

Explanation of Above: We're searching for Greater Cosmic Essence here.  The top item (when disenchanted) will turn into GCE at a certain rate.  On average disenchanting this item that costs 17g will yield a GCE that cost 15g11s11c.  In this case I would just by the GCE for 19g 26s 90c, as I only need 6 of them (shown on the right under "Need").  Note: Using this method comes up with many items can turn into either Dust or Essence, and it's a random proc, so unless the deals are like 25% off or more of the raw mat, go with the mat itself.

From here you can go back to the profession screen and craft all your scrolls, or use TSM_Destroying to DE all the weapons/armor you bought, then craft.  

Note:
The one thing I would highly suggest doing when using this method is if you do the obsidium/elementium shuffle, disenchant the rings/necks before doing these searches.  The shuffle is THE utmost cheapest way to come up with these mats on probably any server.  If you're looking to optimize profit, that's the route to go!

Hope this Helps!

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

1,000,000 Gold on a Low/Med Population Server

Follow me on twitter @PhatLewtsGold!

Finally made it to 1,000,000 gold this past Thursday!  On December 9th I hit half a million, so in 47 days I managed to make 500k, or about 10,500g per day profit on a server that is Low pop during the week and Medium on weekends.  For those who are curious I'm going to post some of my data taken from TSM for my favorite gold making strategies.


1) Jewelcrafting


Spent

Item	Gold Spent
Elementium Ore	320,156
Obsidium Ore	37,051
Pyrite Ore	33,301
Total Spent:	390,508

Gold Earned on Cut Gems (Sums of Rare Cuts)

Item	Gold Made
Inferno Ruby	585,408
Ember Topaz	93,296
Demonseye	64,942
Amberjewel	27,367
Ocean Sapphire	17,046
Dream Emerald	16,785
Total Earned:	804,844

This alone puts my profit from JC over 400k gold, more than doubling my original investment in the ore.  Now, this data is only for the cut gems that I sold, not to mention the rings/necklaces I made with the common gems and Disenchanted for enchanting scrolls/raw enchanting mats.  JC is my favorite, can you tell? 

2) Cata Twink Gear

Armor Type	Gold Earned	Gold Spent	Profit
Lvl 77 Cloth	13,375	4,476	8,599
Lvl 77 Leather	13,052	7,325	5,727
Lvl 77 Mail	11,495	5,658	5,837
Lvl 77 Plate	13,703	6,768	6,935
Lvl 77 Ring/Neck	4,796	1,813	2,983
Lvl 77 Weapon	15,576	6,342	8,984
Lvl 78 Assorted	9,322	7,660	1,662
TOTALS	81,319	40,042	41,277

The reason I've included this is because, like the initial cut gems, it has basically doubled my investment.  The only difference is that this method literally takes seconds per day, compared to the enormous amounts of time jewelcrafting takes to prospect and cut.  

NOTE: The "Gold Spent" column also reflects gold I have spent on items that haven't sold yet.  

3) Mogging

Love it or hate it, mogging has become a great source of quick income for many gold makers, and I'm no exception.  Unlike most moggers I prefer crafting and selling items on the AH, although when I have no work to do for JC you can find me at the AH looking through models.  Here is my data for crafted and resales.

Type of Mogging	Profit	Number in Category
Resales:	13,784	28
Crafted	7,786	3
Total:	21,570	----

The three items that I am able to resell that I craft are below with their average profit per item.  The links are to posts about them by me, or in the case of the axe, Power Word: Gold:

• Icy Cloak: 2195g Profit per sale
• Big Voodoo Robe: 1402g Profit per sale
• Huge Thorium Axe : 688g Profit per sale

A lot of the responses I got from my Icy Cloak post was that there's another cloak that's purchasable from vendors in Shattrath for 300ish Justice Points.  I've sold 2 of these cloaks on a small server, and what I have to say to that is don't assume that all players have the same resources that you do, or know how to utilize them properly.  

4) Misc. Sales

Some other sales data that I think is worth noting:

Wrath Epic Gems

Gem and Cut	Number Sold	Gold Made	Average Gold/Sale
Brilliant Cardinal Ruby	110	22,288	202.6
Solid Majestic Zircon	61	12,870	211
Mystic King's Amber	96	21,535	224.3
Reckless Ametrine	23	4,563	198.4
Willful Ametrine	13	3,130	240.8
Purified Dreadstone	4	763	190.4
Total:	307	65,149g	212.2

Easily the most profitable use for Justice Points when the gear is too cheap, will also buy @100g raw to cut.

Transmutes

Volatile Life Avg Price Bought Per: 5.24g

Volatile Air Avg Sale Price: 17.59g

Profit per "Living Element" Transmute: 185.25g (procs not included)

Volatile Air Sold: 3,690

Total for Living Elements: 45,571g (Didn't include procs)

Avg Price of Volatile Air x10: 162.5g

Avg Price of Volatile Water x10: 118.8g

Avg Price of Volatile Fire x10: 47.99g

Avg Price of Pyrium Bar x3: 36.65g

Avg Cost to make Truegold: 365.94

Cost after factoring in x1.2 proc: 304.95

Avg Truegold Sale Price: 606.34

Avg Profit per Truegold: 301.39

Truegold crafted: 55

Total Truegold Profit: 16,576g 

The reason I tended to do Living Elements more even though Truegold was more profitable, there was a point in the expansion where someone who seemed to have been stockpiling Truegold decided to sell about 150 for under 400g each, which would have drastically reduced my profit margin.  

Alright that's it for now, thanks for reading until the end, not all my data, but the interesting bit of it.  Look out for more gold making posts as I ease down on game time after hitting my milestone.

Cheers,

Phat Lewts

Half a Million (How to Level Alts)

FINALLY!  I finally hit half a million gold.  It wasn't because I couldn't have earned it before now, but I'm a chronic spender!  Every time one of my alts dinged 85 (and I now have 6) I had to get them the latest gear (even though I now regularly play 2).  Repair mounts?  "Had" to have them!  Dalaran Rings, etc.

Did I put a lot of gold into my alts?  Yes.  Did they end up paying for themselves?  ...mostly.  Either way, today I'm going to focus on my theory of leveling alts.

How to Make Gold Using Alts.
This is my key method to making tons of gold leveling alts.  Some may disagree, some may have suggestions to tweak or better use my general method, but this is what I do, and I will provide an argument for why, and how to better it.

Farm.  Yup I said it, Farm.  Get Herbalism and Mining on your alt from the first profession NPCs that you see, and get out there and farm (don't forget a Mining Pick).

Yes, I know, farming at max level isn't the most effective way of making gold, but due to these professions rewarding XP just for doing them, it's the best way of making gold while leveling!

**Note: If you are interested in having a max level mine/herbalist farmer Horde side, I suggest rolling a Tauren Druid.  Taurens have a passive racial Cultivation that allows them to gather herbs faster than other races, and Druid Flight Form at lvl 60+ is an instant cast and you don't have to leave it to Herbalize.  It's the most efficient Mining/Herbalism combo in the game, if you care.  (If you roll Alliance, a druid in general is still the fastest because of the reasons listed)

Why This Method Works:


This is the most cost effective way to level your toon.  If you're going to level an alt, why not have it work for you?  Mining and Herbalism are the 2 professions that will grant you XP solely for doing them.   My advice now is to sell the raw materials and start making gold for this toon.  You can farm sitting in a queue, and farming gets you around the same XP as grinding quests, but makes you A LOT more gold!

If you are interested in finding the best places to level your herb/mining or just professions in general I suggest using wow-professions.

The 75 Conundrum
Once you hit 75 you have the ability to max your professions, which leaves you two options.  Learn Illustrious Grand Master Mining/Herbalism OR use the gold your toon earned to max out serious gold making professions (with no farming) like Alchemy or JC.  My personal goal is to have a character that, through leveling, pays to max out their really good gold making professions.  The one argument I can think of for holding out to 85 to drop herbalism/mining is that you can continue to get XP using your professions if you stick to mining/herbalism.

If you choose to continue leveling past 75 using Herbalism/Mining you can start in Mount Hyjal.  You're going to have to grind a bit here, but there are a lot of nodes that don't have nearby NPC's.  Once you hit 500 Herbalism and 475 Mining, go to The Violet Citadel in Dalaran and take the portal to The Caverns of Time.  Once there, fly south one zone and start farming in Uldum.  A little dangerous in the 70's, but there are plenty of nodes not near NPC's and these nodes will reward TONS of XP.

Have fun leveling your toons!

Phat Lewts