Greedy Goblin

Friday, August 7, 2009

Alchemy update

The patch had its toll. Aosoth's server was down "and we cannot offer a date of being online at the time". However on Thursday we could meet and see the results.

Many things turned upside down by the patch:
  • low level stuff stalled as no one bothers his alts
  • flask are free-falling as people go to 5-mans and not raids
  • Skyflare and earthsiege diamonds sell like candy, mostly to JC-s, who just noticed that they need 450 skill to cut epic gems
  • The new hot seller is obviously epic gem transformation, and a must be for every alchemist, but I assume you found it out without my help.
  • healing and mana potions are up, since people are back and even M&S have heal pots.
  • We found some items that normally (not now) sell well: Elixir of mighty mageblood, Elixir of mighty strenght, Elixir of fortitude, Strong troll's blood elixir, Lesser flask of toughness
  • The stuff listed "less known" in the previous post sold nicely before the patch (and probably after the craziness ends)
Aosoth managed to collect 1500G cash and the invested stuff.

PS: if you are still not on transmute spec, respec. 2x on an epic gem means 200G free income.

27 comments:

Molinu said...

Aw jeez. I hate to admit it, but I'm one of those JC's who didn't realize he needed 450 skill.

Earthsiege diamonds were selling for huge amounts, so I hired an alchemist to transmute me a bunch of them and paid him a 50g tip. Probably saved me about 400g total.

As for the gems themselves... good grief people. Shelling out 500g for a +4 stat increase over the old gem is insane, but people keep doing it. At this rate, I'll never have to touch the auction house again, just bank it all and make withdrawals as needed.

I also made about 3000g by buying titanium ore before the patch and selling it afterwards to JC's who don't realize that the epic gem drop rate from prospecting is pretty low. Then I buy the raw gems they put on the auction house, cut them, and resell for even more profit. It's been a fun couple of days.

Leeho said...

Out of pure interest and really off-topic, but - did you buy titanium ore and sell it after the patch? On my new server, with lots of hardcore guilds, prices didn't jump - but on my old server it was so funny to sell ore for 350 (bought for 125). I couldn't expect it.
As Molinu said, drop rate is pretty low, so i didn't even try to prospect it.

Smeg said...

Everyone's back? i thought this was the "exodus" patch?

Wooly said...

Respeccing as we speak. Even though I always had my alchemist for personal/guild use, providing the raid consumables.

Kevin Marquette said...

I was wondering why my raw meta gems where flying off the AH. I figured it was just me under cutting the market.

I had a ton in my bank that I just now decided to start selling. With this real demand, I will try and get more out of them. I still have 5-10 stacks of them. Don't ask me why I had so many.

Anonymous said...

Hmzz I noticed you didn't put frost oil into your list of profit making pots.

A lot of people follow Jame's Alliance/Horde free leveling guide. Within that guide one frost oil is needed. I've encountered a lot of time that no frost oil was being sold on the AH. Each pot can easily sell for 15-20g. This is not a lot of profit but it is enough to make some extra golds.

Zamboni said...

I've seen transmute specialists go for months without procs on daily transmutes. It was broken for a long time in BC so it wouldn't proc at all, and Blizzard danced around the issue for months. (I have one Alchemist of each spec - my transmuter hasn't procced on a daily cooldown since LK was released.)

An elxir specialist can make a big batch of flasks and see procs all through the run, earning more from one batch than a transmute specialist may earn in months trying to proc epic gems. This is why Alchys are willing to sell flasks sell for mats cost - they're relying on the extra flasks from the procs for profit.

Unknown said...

Another "less known" item is the Mighty Shadow Protection Potion (http://www.wowhead.com/?item=40217).

These are also excellent and almost required for vezax hard mode.
Everyone in the raid that has no mana-problems should down one of these during the late Animus phase to help conserve healer mana.

They don't sell in huge quantities but almost as good as fel mana potions.

Unknown said...

What other than 450 do you need.
I can't figure out where to train/get the recipe.

Baelas said...

I assume you buy them for Dalaran jeweller tokens like you do with the dragon's eye cuts.

Baelas said...

Hmm, making assumptions can be bad, though. If you are referring to the potion mentioned above, I suggest you follow the link displayed in the same post.

Anonymous said...

tbh i was a fool to change my profession to tarnsmusion cuz of the proc of potion or elixir is muck higher thin the cool down of transmutation i can make unlimited elixir or flasks and get the proc but i only make 1 transmutation every 20 hour make the math plzzzzzzzzzz

Unknown said...

Wait, wait. Did you (Gevlon) just say "Free" and mean it? I thought nothing was "Free"? Isn't the "Free" gem actually the return on the investment of 4 Primal Mights of the transmutation spec quest?

Before I started reading this blog I would have agreed that it was "Free" and kept on reading, but you've gotten me to think about words like that. I thank you for that. I only wish I had more time to devote to the game and implement it. Only being able to play for about an hour every 3 days leaves me little time to do anything, let alone hit up the AH.

Keep on posting, Gevlon. :)

Baelas said...

Anonymous, it is the excessive use of "z" that make you look like a fool ;)

I'd have to agree that getting transumation spec for the daily cooldowns alone is probably not the best idea though, if you intend to continue with making flasks. I've always been a transmutation master myself, because I generally do not use alchemy to make gold, so getting a bit extra on the daily cooldowns is enough for me.

That said, transmutation master combined with the crazy market on meta-gems is a goldmine right now.

Ayonel said...

@Molinu

I agree with your point, and this goes to the demand side of WoW economics, as well as M&S.

I have never understood why people will pay 80-100 gold for a +19 spellpower gem when they can get a +16 spellpower gem for under 20. I know people who replace their gear frequently(we have been raiding heavily lately) and buy new meta gems, arcana, and the high end enchants like candy, which also confuses me.

I suppose that if these are all 80's with loads of gold, or they take it out of the guild bank, it is irrelevant to them, but personally, I don't see the benefit. Most of my gear is decent, and all of it has Tier 2 enchants and gems(perfect when i can get them: great value.)

If you calculate the difference in cost between the Tier 2 gems and enchants vs the Tier 1 versions, for a warlock you are probably talking about a cost of thousands of gold for a total of maybe 30-40 spellpower. I think that for a high end raiding guild this may be worth it, but for 99% of players, a better skilled player will more than make up for the difference in spellpower, and have a loaded wallet as well.

But then, this branches into a philosophical issue: I would not want the top of the line enchant even if you offered it for free and used your own mats. The marginal benefit to me, as compared with the resources being consumed, does not survive any rational cost-benefit analysis I would do because I am gaining something at your expense. There is no mutual benefit. This is more pertinent in the context that as an active raider I hope to replace almost any gear I have on a given day.

Anonymous said...

Drop rate isn't that low for titanium ore, it's what they predicted, 1 epic gem per stack. As for epic gem prices on my realm they started out at 1000g+ and dropped to below 100g in 2 hours, I picked up 4 cut green epics for 14g each.

Also titanium ore has stayed around the same price as pre patch.

Kevin Marquette said...

Anyone that is already an alchemist will already have a mastry. The cost to change is only 150G.

If you want to know how long it takes to get the return on your investment, figure the procrate over time as 15%.

If you are making more of a profit on flasks then you are epic gems per day then you prabably want to stay elixer mastry. But if those 7 epic gems sell for more profit over the week then your flasks do, transmute mastery is the way to go. Your adding 15% profit to one or the other.

If you move 1400g worth of flasks, then the 15% proc rate will be about 200G on top of that.

Khalli said...

My alchemist was prepared for the earthsiege/skyflare boom and so far I've made a couple thousand gold on those alone. They are selling for 2-3X normal price on my server at the moment, but I expect that to drop considerably after this weekend.

Bernard said...

@Ayonel

Have you ever wiped on a raid boss at 5% left? What about at 1%?

Imagine if everyone had squeezed a few more dps out of each piece of gear, each healer squeezed a few more heals?

Although you may be saving money by accepting second best, the reality is that if you start compromising on enchants, where does it end?

Everyone can save money on enchants, consumables, purchasable gear, talent respecs and repairs.

You'll be very rich with zero progress.

Anonymous said...

"low level stuff stalled as no one bothers his alts"

Because of the added heirloom chests and weapons, my server has seen a huge influx of newly made alts. Stuff like copper ore, tin ore, low level herbs, linen have been flooded onto the ah.

It's a new wave of a ton of alts, a great buying opportunity over the next month or two for stuff you might have been running out of. I deal mostly in JC leveling mats, and I had stacks and stacks of stuff a few months ago, but ran out of a bunch of items recently. Looking forwards to refilling stocks.

Ayonel said...

@ Chris

I have had 5% wipes on a number of occasions, and we usually down the boss eventually. But I am arguing that in most cases, the wipe is not occurring at 5%, and that the reason for the wipe is player skill, not gear. If I was in a skilled, geared guild and we were deep into Ulduar and doing 5% wipes, then I expect that everyone would either be required to max out everything, or would have the sense to do it on their own.

My thinking is simply that for the majority of players, the correct spec, rotation, and skill would more than make up for the marginal difference in stats the top level gems and enchants get you. On the other hand, an unskilled, or even sub-optimized, player can lose many times the boost of those gems and enchants simply by having uptime under 90%.

Is it worth it for some people to spend the money on this stuff? Absolutely. But if you're doing 5% wipes on Anub'rekhan 10 man, spending a couple thousand gold to gem out and enchant your blues or even herioc purples is probably not the best use of your resources.

Seajunk said...

Just to reinforce Chris's point above about high end raiding. Its a game of one's at this level. Yes +19 spellpower is better than +16, +10 stats over +8 etc.

Our raiders have until the weekend to switch out gear otherwise they lose their raid spot.

MyName said...

Molinu:
>At this rate, I'll never have to touch the auction house again, just bank it all and make withdrawals as needed.

Would you believe I've done this months ago when I realized that you don't really have anything you can buy once you have 30K + gold and an epic flyer on all your high level toons.

I actually decided that it was more important to grind out the Crusader title and get the pet achievements on one of my toons then to spend 10+ hours a week doing the AH thing so I could hit 50K (or 100K). I really did enjoy finding new ways to make gold though, I think that was the best part of it all.

Unknown said...

Props for clueing me on the diamond-market, completely missed that. And appearently so did every other alchemist on my server as there is literally no competition (and I have made hundreds of golds of it already).

A more humorous story about FAIL; The second I heard about new epic gem recipes I bought a ton of rare gems.

The second the servers went down I learned that JCs can prospect epic gems from titanium ore. And that, in the process of prospection, they generate a LOT of rare gems.

So, sad and disappointed, I logged on and went to sell all my gem-piles.

Only to discover that their prices had doubled overnight. Step 3: Profit. (as well as eternal shadow; I bought a ton of them at 4g, then sold a ton for 35g)

I DO disagree about Speccing transmutation. On my server flasks still sell for profit, and I sell 20-40 per day; Elixir-spec procs at about 10%.

Even assuming that trans-spec procs at a generous 25%, you would barely make an extra 200g per week; Elixir-spec procs basically every day for two or four flasks, which sell for 20-35g. Per week that would be (10-20)x(20-35) = 200g-700g. Or more if you can sell more flasks.

That is, assuming flasks ARE selling at profit in whatever server one resides in...

Rob Dejournett said...

I noticed the raw meta gem problem on tue when the patch hit; I was expecting a few more weeks to catch up to 450. Plus, after finding enough mats for 10 meta gems, i only got 7 procs. Anyway, I also tipped a alchemist for some metas, made a few extra, and posted them in AH, meanwhile telling him that there was none on AH. He posted a bunch for 25g. I bought em all out and reposted for 50g, which sold within hours. Meta gems were the in thing this patch, I think; as I think the majority of JC were at 440 or so.

The thing about the Ti ore is that the dust is so valuable. Screw the epic gems, you can get tokens for the dust, which leads to more patterns, and more money. I got enough for 1 pattern after prospecting 10 stacks of ore.

I didn't make a killing in JC, but probably 3000g so far and mats for another 2000g, buying uncut and selling cuts. At this point i have epic flyers and dual spec for all my toons so I don't really need the money. Some vanity pets/mounts would be nice but I don't feel like sinking 10k or 20k into a mount.

Selling cuts in trade again proved to be a horrid experience. Either someone will ask for 10 cuts and flood the AH, or 5 cuts and tip 10g for everything. After the first day I stay far away from trade. Hint, if they aren't 80, stay the hell away from them.

Cristobal Cardona said...

dude forget about prospecting and using the ore for the patterns. Sell the ORE . If you prospected the ORE, sell the powder. It is so not worth it for the patterns which you will get eventually anyways.....

Fex said...

Not worth it for the patterns? i disagree strongly, most jewelcrafters all went with the pre patch best sellers first ( crit, spellpower, strength. A few took the tank combo and some pure dps combo gems. But all in all around 90% took the others first. With only the daily quest to get the new recipes, unless you stacked up on the tokens, wich most jc's didn't there are tons of rarer cuts around.

I went and picked up purified dreadstone for instance, by now the prices of the "first choice cuts" are at rougly 200g with heavy competition. My purified dreadstone, sees no competition and is selling steadily at 500g per gem still. And it does so on every listing. There are ton's more of those rarer listings and with all the m&s not knowing their demand / supply basic economics. Plus missing a bit of insight into psychology or market behaviour. If you buy the ores, get the recipes in general it only takes you 24 hours to earn your investment back. And in doing so you gain a considerable advantage on the competition.

At the moment meta cuts are selling huge aswell, all the jc's are to busy in trying to make money on their epic gems that you will basically sell every listing on the cuts ( assuming you are not picking the wrong unusable ones ofcourse )

And as for market being dead for low lvl stuff :P well the uncommon gems, wich proc from every titanium prospect are still a nice 30% of my ah income. The blue gems that occasinally drop from them are still selling well on the market aswell. The competition has even gone down in that area.

I get both of them for "free" since my reason to buy the titanium is the powder in the first place, The epic gems i get i can sell for roughly two times what the competition is making on them again solely due to the extra patterns.
And since they are NOT the reason i'm buying the ore again they are "free"

Free is used loosely here, however since i'm not spending time or effort on them, and neither is it my goal to gain either of them in my opinion they are nearly a pleasant side effect.

I'd really urge you to reconsider you're opinion on the low lvl stuff, if you dump those green cuts on the market at low prices you'd be amazed how many actually sell, all in all the listing of the green cuts returns more then enough to pay for all of your ah listings