Making gold - Writer's cramp

Inscription is like that.  Milling and Writing.  Again and again. Read the setup post for information on recommended addons.

This is about my 4th draft of this post. There are disavantages to being intimately involved in a profession. This draft has been published - whether it's ready or not.

This profession is yesterday's golden haired child.  More gold caps have been made via inscription than via any other profession. It became flavour of the month.  But now that young tanned 'hard body' is now old, flabby and is worried about skin cancer.  That's OK, there's plenty of money left in it.  I have made about 1/2 of all my gold with this profession.

Advantages:

• Will make gold from new toons.
• New toons have aboout 30 glyphs to learn - gotta catch em all.
• A long startup time to keep out competition 
• Good gold making for levelling players
• Potential for huge markups
• A changing profession

Disadvantages

• Too many players in the market, with very heavy competition on most glyphs
• Once a player has caught em all - very little left to sell
• A long startup time to keep you out
• If you want to sell it all, you may need 3 posting toons
• Time consuming (Edit )

If you wish to take up this skill, do your research (minor and major) and read up on your glyph mastery.   Do each research every day untill you stop learning glyphs, and start researching again after patches (I discovered I was missing a minor glyph last night). If you know everything from glyph mastery, you will not be able to consume your book.

On our server, there are several scribes that list every glyph above their threshold - with the only difference being the threshold.  I have 3 'ideal' thresholds, from 0 profit for glyphs I am overstocked on, to a minimum 8g profit on 'best sellers'

Levelling scribes should do your research and read this post by Breevok.  Also keep an eye out for cheaply priced herbs to mill and sell on the AH.  One day Blackfallow Ink will be available and cheap enough to trade down (Jessia Sellors in Dalaran, not sure who else), but in the meantime you should check the AH for correct herbs/look for a herbalist.

For scribes, I do not consider that you are at 'maximum' level until you have completed all your research (Minor + Major + Books of Glyph Mastery), regardless of your skill level.  When first entering the glyph market, look at the expensive glyphs on your AH; make + sell those.

As you get up in levels, consider novelty items like the off hands that turn you into wolves.

Start regularly crafting and selling your money making glyphs. For something different, mill herbs and sell them where milling is profitable. Be warned - the auction prices for pigments is inaccurate. No one buys pigments.

Max Level scribes should consider two more addons:

• Enhanced tradeskill window : Gnomeworks WowAce (Not yet on curse? You may need to manually install it)
• Queing making tool : KTQ curse or CurseForge
• Yet another auction poster : APM curse or Curseforge(or ZeroAuctions)
• Multiple toon/account inventory : Altoholic curse or Curseforge

My thanks to the authors of these addons.  Gnomeworks does not play nicely with multiple accounts, but adding in KTQ + Althoholic works a treat. In order to keep this post to a vaguely reasonable size, I will post later on how I make glyphs.

You need to sell the most expensive glyphs that are on your server.  This traditionally does not involve too many vendor taught recipees - but I am always surprised. As always - get all the recipees (Ackis Recipee List) and sell if it makes a profit.

Consider darkmoon cards. The pricing and manufacture of darkmoon cards requires it's own post, with a lot of gold made and lost on these. (For the record I left the darkmoon card market when other trinkets became relatively easily available)

Blizzard has other plans to give us goldmaking, but I am reserving judgement.

TL;DR
Theres gold in them inscription hills, but by the great goblin - you'll hafta to work for it.

Making gold - with style

We all want bling and that enchanting smile, and we are prepared to pay for it.  This means that Jewelcrafting and Enchanting are solid money earners, with a slight preference for Jewelcrafting being the more 'complicated' of the two.

Use Lil Sparky's Workshop, Auctioneer and Ackis Recipee List (see the setup post in this "whatprof" series) to work out what will sell.

Advantages

• Everyone raider, every PVP'er feels they needs enchants (as opposed to most players choosing dungeon/reputation clothes)
• All level 85 toons will be replacing their entire Gem set and enchants.
• New raids are your friend
• Toons will be juggling stats for a while to come, meaning that lots of extra enchants and gems will be needed.
• Every raider feels they need JC gems (some PVP'ers use vendor stuff - I think)
• The AH is full of stuff to crush
• Daily quest to get best JC recipees - less competition
• Enchanters get to crush unwanted BOP gear

Disadvantages

• JC will most likely have a lot of new competition, as toons switch out of Inscription
• Not as good as other professions for those that don't like complications

Levelling Jewelcrafters will want to make as much as you can with stone.  Stone is cheap and plentiful.  Gems can be hard to find, so prospecting ore - both for your personal use and resale is generally worth it.  Lookup the value of ore vs likely value of gems (Auctioneer is great).

Max Level JC's will have a licence to print gold.  You should get the Illustrous but difficult to obtain recipees (Ackis Recipee List is good.)  In the Wrath, this mostly meant JC dailies (or later prospecting titanium ore).  Prospect for gems.  Hit gems (both primary and secondary colors) will sell well at the start of Cata, being replaced with other gems later in the expansion.

Enchanters need to know that the Auction House is your friend.

• It has scrap armor and weapons to be disenchanted.  Auctioneer will help you work out what is worth disenchanting.  Disenchant for both your own mats and for selling on the AH
• Enchanting Vellums are relativly cheap.  A mature AH should keep some in stock.  Failing that, make a business relationship with a inscriptionist or two.  You can apply your enchants to these vellums and sell them via the AH.
• Offer to crush surplus levelling items for other tradeskills - for a percentage of the mats gained.
• Sell a mix of enchants on Vellums on the AH.

Levelling Enchanters 

• Keep your enchanting up at least to the point of being able to disenchant BOP gear you wish to discard.
• Sell via the AH a mix of levelling enchants you can make on vellums, especially once the mats start to cost a few gold. Lil Sparky will let you know what enchants sell best, but if in doubt make a mix and sell them all.

Max Level Enchanters will also have a licence to print gold (probably a little less than JC), and again should seek Illustrous but difficult to obtain recpiees.  Twinks will be looking for the best enchants in their brackets (not always the highest levels), but some of these will take a while to farm or be very expensive on the AH. 

Making gold - Dress with the best

By which I mean Tailor, Blacksmith, Leatherworker.  Thse are solid choices for the raider, and have a nice money making capacity, and can provide more gold per hour than gathering.

Use Lil Sparky's Workshop, Auctioneer and Ackis Recipee List (see the setup post in this "whatprof" series) to work out what will sell.

Advantages

• Potentially higher gold/hour than farming
• Nice clothes
• Different approaches to gold making - basic and advanced

Weaknesses

• High cost items can be difficult to sell.  These professions have some of the highest cost items.
• Gear Obsolescence even at maximum level.
• Competition often works for tips (which is better than being in competition with bots)

The levelling toon has difficulties making money, but it is still possible.  Make a mix of items and slowly feed them into the market.

There are types of items that can sell well, however they will be pointed out by Lil Sparky

• Quest Items(e.g. Hillman's cloak)
• Starter gear like level 20 hats, lv 40 chain/plate, or tanking gear because a player is looking to fill a specific slot.

Some gear will sell particularly badly:

• Items in a levelling guide.   Everyone else is makeing them and not enough toons buying.  These generally have the 'fewest mats'
• Chest and shoulders sell poorly because many many levelling toons have BOA gear for the XP bonus.

The max level part time crafter has easy gold making opportunities

• leg enchants (tailors and leatherworkers)
• belt buckles (blacksmiths)
• various bags (primarily tailors)
• Improved cloth - making bolts, imbued bolts, extra special bolts (mooncloth, spellweave etc).  Many players seeking cut price tailors (eg guildies) will buy the immediate previous step and will pay for the cloth.  
• Cloth cooldowns - the best cloths will have a cooldown to make.  This makes for scarcity, and will guarantee an income (at least untill the cooldown gets removed)
• Improved leather (think heavy borean leather)
• Armor kits (leatherworkers) (depending on your server)
• Enchanters rods (blacksmiths)
• Sheild spikes and weapon chains (blacksmiths)

 The full time crafter has even more opportunities, all of the above plus

• PVP gear.  Even at the end of Wrath, basic PVP gear still sold at a profit.  I have read that "last season's" PVP gear will be craftable.
• Starter tank gear (mostly blacksmiths) as historically starter tanks need more gear than any other class
• The latest pattern - Every raid seems to create new patterns to learn and make that many part time crafters won't make.

Comments are especially welcome

Making gold - With a Guarantee

There are low risk professions that will enable you to make gold. Skinning, Herbalism, Mining, Fishing.



Your risk comes from a few sources:

• You will be competing with bots.  Bots exist, and it is suspected that Blizzard doesn't ask, doesn't tell.  
• Gathering is traditionally low gold/hour compared to other skills.
• Skinning, Herbalism, Mining are not traditional raiding skills, as they do not provide the best bonuses.
• The may be an oversupply of fish to as guilds attempt to obtain the guild reward of  Seafood Magnifique Feast (10,000 pool fish caught). 

Gathering skills advantages

• At the start of the expansion, there will be a huge demand for toons to get 525 skill needing large amounts of raw mats.
• Mining provides a Stamina boost.
• Skinning provides a Crit boost
• Herbalism not only provides a personal heal, but now also provides a haste boost.
• You and your party get XP when you gather a herb or mine a node (but not from skinning).  At low levels at least, it is about twice the XP from killing a mob when you have a rested bonus.
• All toons can take fishing.
• Fishermen will have an advantage to get into some guilds.
• The fishing daily traditionally has the most lucrative reward of all the dailies in the form of vendor trash.
• Guilds to trying to get the 'Master Crafter' achievement with the reward of a Cloak of Coordination continue to maintain demand.
• Can generally be combined with daily quests to provide additional income.
• No significant financial expenses (a few copper for a skinning knife or pick axe don't matter, or a bit more for ongoing training)

I recommend http://www.elsanglin.com/ for advice on fishing.
Skinning happens.  If you find yourself wanting a quick skill up, look for Hemet Nesingwary in Nagrand or Sholozar Basin, or Hemet Nesingwary Jnr in Stranglethorn vale.
Mining and Herbalism are worth looking at a guide for if you are struggling.

You will want a skill of about 5* your current level between toon levels 1-60, 375 at lvl 70, and 450 at level 80, and it maxes out at 525 at lvl 85.

This post is part of a series, where I talk about what professions you should take.

PS.  This post has been re-entered as it was meant to appear after the 'setup' post, and some readers will have missed it due to the joys of blogger.

Making gold - setup

The first thing you need is a Bank alt.  This is a low level toon that you create and run to your nearest capital city, near a bank and auction house.  Even if you are levelling your first toon you want one of these.  It's job is to post stuff on the auction house for you, and to hold bits and pieces you dont want to carry on your main toon.

It is possible to make gold with out any addons, but addons really do make it easier.  I generally use the curse client to download items.  Alternatively, you can download addons and manually install them in your Addons folder.  On my PC, the folder is C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns.

An addon to price stuff  : Auctioneer primary website or curse. This is also a good all round posting addon too.

Crafters need two other addons:

• Addon to tell you what you can learn (and where) : Ackis recipee list at WowAce or Curse.  Not only that, but you can open every recipee as a tradelink to see the components.
• Addon to tell you what should sell for a profit : LilSparky's Workshop at WoWAce or Curse.  It does this by using pricing data from another addon like Auctioneer to get buy and sell values.

I will continue to post in this series on how I have made gold from each of the skills.  At one time or another I have had all the skills at 450.  I had previously dropped the gathering skills, but am using the time between now and Cata to level toons I wanted to have anyway, but put gathering skills on them.

What should professions should I level?

TL;DR.  If you need the too long didn't read version, choose two gathering skills and do dailies.

There is a small amount of speculation, assuming that in the main similar themes from the WoLK expansion will continue in Cata. For 'breaking news' on cata tradeskills, follow Kaliope's site.

See this post on why to take an alt.  In my opinion, taking an alt just for new tradeskills is a bad idea.  That said, I am on my 5th alt working towards 80.  (A level 1 bank alt is always a good idea)

Before you can know what professions to level, you need to know what type of player you are.  Not only that, I am not even going to tell you what to level.

Some players like their reward now. It doesnt matter too much how much you get as long as you get it reliably and quickly.  You think that you could make more gold but can't/won't be bothered.

• If you are levelling your first toon, take two gathering skills (skinning, mining or herbalism) and gather while you do your dailies. You can now have both mining and herbalism on your minimap at the same time.
• On a primary raider you should still take at least one (preferably two) tradeskills - possibly something that traditionally has a cooldown, like Tailoring or Alchemy. Use your trade cooldown regularly - you can also sell these on trade. 
• One alt (assuming you have one) should be the same as the the first levelling toon just above.
• Add fishing for a diversion. The fishing daily, with it's vendor bait has the best return of all the dailies
• Sell your gathered stuff on the AH for the 'mid range' of what you see it listed for.
• Mail all your gathered mats to a bank alt, and post them on the day you gather.
• Take cooking (getting a leg up with training using the Pilgrims festival), do the cooking daily and sell all your cooking tokens - especially cata tokens (there is a surplus of northrend tokens at the moment).

Some players know it is better to wait a little for a bigger reward.  You want more gold/hour than instant gratification.  Large scale manufacturing is not for you, nor is the idea of taking up trade wars

• On a first levelling toon, consider either two gathering skills, or possibly taking enchanting into the mix.  If you take enchanting, you are going to disenchant lots of items (many bought of the AH), and will think about selling those enchants you do make using enchant
• On a primary raider you should take two tradeskills - possibly something that traditionally has a cooldown, like Tailoring or Alchemy. Use your trade cooldown regularly, buying and selling the mats yourself.  Keep an eye on regularly bought items - starter PVP or raiding gear and sell them
• Diversification is better than duplication.  On different alts take different skills.  I would recommend no more than one farming toon (per realm).
• All max level alts should have maxium skills
• Mats are not free - even if you farmed them. However, having an alt with gathering skills lets you control whether to spend gold or time.  On an alt take two gathering skills (skinning, mining or herbalism) and gather while you do your dailies. You can now have both skinning and herbalism on your minimap at the same time.
• Add fishing for a diversion. The fishing daily, with it's vendor bait has the best return of all the dailies.
• Sell your gathered stuff on the AH for the 'mid range' of what you see it listed for.
• Mail all your gathered mats to a bank alt, and post them on the day you gather.
• Take cooking (getting a leg up with training using the Pilgrims festival), do the cooking daily and sell all your cooking tokens - especially cata tokens (there is a surplus of northrend tokens at the moment).

Some players want it all.  You are working towards a gold cap (or at least wondering if you should). Bring it on.

• You are not on a first levelling toon. Really.  You might be an experienced player doing 'rags to riches', but you are still not on your first levelling toon.
• Tradeskills with lots of complications and daily quests and research are best.   In Wrath, Jewelcrafting, Inscription (and even cooking at the start) were all good options.  (edit) Enchanting isn't bad either.
• You know that you can make gold from any profession.
• Alts may start off with gathering skills but will end up with unique trade skills.
• You probably know most of this anyway because you spend as much time reading gold blogs as you do in the AH.

I will be writing another post on how I would make gold by skill as the above people.  This will be done Soon(tm).

Should I level an alt

Recently there have been various blogposts about this, especially where professions are involved.

Markco likes levelling alts, and recommended using them to gain a variety of tradekills.

Gevlon thinks that levelling an alt (for profession's sake) is a waste of time and you should concentrate on a main toon, especially as the opportunity cost of levelling an alt is so high (100 hours played at even 200g/hour doing dailies or farming is a lot of gold).

My take is that the best reason for levelling an alt is so you can tank or heal (all toons can already DPS). Even if your main is a ranged or melee DPS, understanding how tanks and healers play will make you a better raider. For most players becoming the tank or healer is the best way to understand the role. I have my tank, healer and DPS toons, but I am levelling my 5th 80 because I can (not because I need to).

Your primary raider should have two 'primary' professions at maximum level (i.e. in addition to cooking, fishing, first aid or archaeology). You should know what your bonuses are, and use them. In most instances a raiding toon should have two tradeskills (instead of gathering), but consult a class/role forum or website for specific information.