The winner of the next apprentice program is Aosoth. While I'm 99.9% sure he is a guy, since the character is a girl, "she" is appropriate. This character was power-leveled to fill a hole on the guild's roster consuming previous founds. As a preparation, I overlooked the alchemy recipes and listed those which seems to be useful for other people. Be advised, "useful" does not surely mean sellable.
Obvious stuff are used by every raider, and crafted by every living alchemist. They are usually at a low profit rate, or even below material cost (since many alchemists are herbalists and materials farmed by them is "free" according to the M&S lore):
Finally, the crown jewels, that make poor alchemists rich:Obvious stuff are used by every raider, and crafted by every living alchemist. They are usually at a low profit rate, or even below material cost (since many alchemists are herbalists and materials farmed by them is "free" according to the M&S lore):
- Runic healing potion
- Runic mana potion
- Flask of endless rage
- Flask of pure mojo
- Flask of stoneblood
- Flask of the frost wyrm
- Flask of lesser resistance
- Fel mana potion, since, unlike most mana sources, it works on Vezzax hard mode, recipe is rare drop
- Frost oil, needed for quest, recipe sold by vendor
- Swiftness potion, used by many BG fighters, recipe in AH
- Elixir of water walking, loved by those who do the Stranglethorn fishing race (list it on Saturday evening)
- Mighty protection potions Used by hard mode doing guilds, recipes are drops
- Transmute earthsiege
- Transmute skyflare
- Transmute eternals 20hr CD
- Transmute primals 20hr CD
- Transmute arcanite
You might guessed it, since most alchemists are on elixir spec, a few on potions, you should be Transmutation master, and focus on these items.
--------------------
The above was the prewritten post. Now comes the ugly fact of the server:
flasks: 0 profit
transmute eternals: 1-5% profit, 10% if you consider transmute mastery
other stuff: almost no profit
The only things that had profit, before Aosoth posted anything: arcanite, frost oil, swiftness potion
There were no major protection potions and fel mana potion in the AH, so poor Aosoth could start grinding the recipes without knowing if it's profitable at all!
I tell you honestly, I've never seen anything like this. I'm used to being able to make gold from absolutely anything and took some time by the AH data to figure out what's wrong with alchemy: the herb - potion way is straightforward, the number of items limited, the quantities large. So it's a climaxed market with lot of "I got materials for free" kids (who would be better off with herbalism/skinning, selling only herbs, plus getting skins)
But I will find out how to make money of it.
--------------------
The above was the prewritten post. Now comes the ugly fact of the server:
flasks: 0 profit
transmute eternals: 1-5% profit, 10% if you consider transmute mastery
other stuff: almost no profit
The only things that had profit, before Aosoth posted anything: arcanite, frost oil, swiftness potion
There were no major protection potions and fel mana potion in the AH, so poor Aosoth could start grinding the recipes without knowing if it's profitable at all!
I tell you honestly, I've never seen anything like this. I'm used to being able to make gold from absolutely anything and took some time by the AH data to figure out what's wrong with alchemy: the herb - potion way is straightforward, the number of items limited, the quantities large. So it's a climaxed market with lot of "I got materials for free" kids (who would be better off with herbalism/skinning, selling only herbs, plus getting skins)
But I will find out how to make money of it.
67 comments:
Alchemy is the same way on my server. This is terrible and I have considered dropping it many times, hopefully you can teach this poor sap (and myself) how to make some money. The worst thing about it.... I also have engineering which is even worse.
Investigate Pygmy Oil.
Did you considered Haste potion ( quite good with Bloodlust ) and Free action potion ( another BG potion. ) ?
Elixirs and potions are usually overpriced comparing to mats.
Check elixires, they are not as ovvious as flasks, less competition. Sp + int pair is as good for healers as flask, and int is usefull for Vezax.
Guru + armor elixir is better than flask for some tanks, so they could be sold too.
Some crazy melee dps that are geared for armor pen may use elixir for it too instead of flask.
Potions of speed, of wild magic are usually overpowered, but recipes for them are coming from research.
Also undestructable potion is good for tanks.
As for low-lvl recipes, there's int flask for 60lvl, was on demand for Vezax too. Shadow oil is needed for some alt crafts, usually hard to find.
Bear in mind there's a new raid instance being released this week. There will be a rush on flasks (but they're gated on frost lotus and really only make a profit if you are elixir specced, which most people are.)
The big problem with alchemy is that it's easy to level so lots of people have alchemy alts.
Transmuting eternals is reliable, but low, income. There are also gem transmutes in the 3.2 patch.
fel mana potion recipe only drops if you are an alchemist. disregard the drop rate and definitely go kill a few mobs for it.
spinksville-
You don't know that it's being released this week.
Interesting. On my server the thing with the single highest profit margin is the Runic Healing potion. Yet frostwyrm selling at a big loss.
One thing to note is now that 3.2 has dropped Druids can use rage potions. Should be interesting to see how many bears go for them. I bought up some mats cheap just in case.
Noak: I do know. Check wow.com.
@DeftyJames
I've never seen a bear tank in a raid that can get rid of his rage during the fight. Usually red bar is full while tank is using everything he can fit into gcd.
Really interested in this. Alchemy is one of my fav professions. Good luck!
Disclaimer: I'm not much of a goblin, really. I've tried being goblinish with Alchemy but found there is no guaranteed way to make lots of gold quickly, for the same reasons Gevlon has stated. Most of the gold I have is from dailies (*) and selling farmed herbs.
One problem I've always found with Alchemy is that by the time someone (such as Gevlon, or Markco from JMTC) has said, "try X," by the time I investigate X everybody else has already tried it and there is no profit margin at all. You need to get lucky with mastery procs.
Earthsiege and Skyflare transmutes are sometimes profitable, but not by much.
Back in the BC days, elemental transmutes had decent but not spectacular profit margins, but for some reason the WotLK transmutes make no profit at all.
I tried speculating on the saronite to titanium transmute, because of the supposed huge demand for titanium in 3.2, and am lucky to even 1 G on the transmuted bars. Once again, everybody must have got the same idea around the same time.
I'm currently experimenting with flasks, but again the profit margins are less than 5 G per flask and that's only if you're lucky and you post very small numbers in the AH.
And no, this is not me whining for help. I have gold enough from other sources. I just find it interesting to see Gevlon having the same trouble with Alchemy I've historically had.
Best way to make money with Alchemy? Make potions for yourself and sell the leftover herbs that you probably gathered with your own Herbalism skill.
(*) I almost never see anybody do Blood of the Chosen, the Champion level Scourge quest, and the Valiant level Scourge quest all at once. Why don't people do this? It takes all of five mintues if you're slow and you get close to 50 G for your trouble.
My server sounds like it's exactly the same. People sell flasks at basically lower than mat costs since the mat costs are jacked up pretty high for the scribes to buy. Only four guilds have even attempted hard modes, so those items are out, and things such as haste potions make no money since no one wants to use them (they "waste" the once per fight potion CD that could be used for a healing potion. >_> ).
Basically, it's a server full of M&S. And if there's one thing I know, it's that M&S love vanity crap.
The one thing that makes me a good bit of money is Pygmy Oil. I can buy a stack of suckerfish for 50s, turn it into a stack + 6 or 7 oils and get around 8g for the oil stack. The M&S don't use it for the Haste potions like I do. They drink it to turn into the pygmy gnomes. I've seen contests where they drink oil to see who turns into a gnome first.
It makes money, but it seems to be the only thing that makes money. The transmutes don't even pull in much because people undercut down to below mat costs, especially on the meta gems.
On my server, flasks sell for less than average material costs (one alchemist said that he needs strong suppliers and makes money only from proccs), the inscription market is flooded by heavy undercutters (including me), herb and eternal prices jumped 30% in the last two weeks (nobody has any idea why) etc.
I think it's interesting that Gevlon through his apprenticeship program has the same problems many others have with their professions -- being on a competitive server. Looking forward to see how you handle this week, Gevlon.
TBH No one creates Flasks of Distilled Wisdom (65 int, requires exalted Cenarion Expedition I believe) But it is my flask of choice as a holy paladin since int is that important to me.
Mats aren't too hard to come by, maybe you should look into it and see if its worth crafting.
Love to see what you come up with Gev. I will certainly be paying attention to this as I have both an elixir and a potion master alchemist.
Another wannabe goblin reporting here... Unfortunately the situation is the same on my server. Lvl 80 Flasks and Potions are zero or negative (!) profit. I managed to make some gold out of transmuting Eternal Water to Fire, but that went the way of the dodo as well. Pygmy oil is a no-go. So, very interested in this series...
My alchemist makes a decent profit with Runic Mana Potions. You have to be potion spec'd. Just the procs give me 25% profit on break even mat costs.
I make much larger profit exploiting the cyclical nature of Lichbloom prices over the course of a week. I can buy a stack of Lichbloom at 30% less on a Sunday morning, usually there are huge amounts available.
These are crafted into pots and carefully sold during the week at peak raiding times. Some idiots dump pots at 30% less than the going price, these are bought out immediately. It is low risk as no one can sustain producing pots at a loss.
Granted, the amount of gold per week is not a lot, I make between 600 to 700g with potions, but it is a good filler for my other more risky ventures.
There is no profit to be had with buying mats now and trying sell the pots immediately.
Runic health pots does not produce any profit. The going rate is 40% less than the mat costs.
Yay, alc! I have alc on one of my chara and my server is a bit better than the one your apprentice is in.
1g profit :3 (Instead of 0 profit)
I think the general rule of thumb is (mats to make elixir once) = elixir x 2. If proc, you make 4, so 2 free ones. But proc rate is so low >_<
Go Go GG!!
I've been selling Shadow Oil, Strong Troll's Blood Elixir and Elixir of Defense with some success (volume tends to be low but people pay a hefty sum since they usually only need 1 or 2 potions)
Arcanite is also a big seller for me. I'm yet to try the Primal Might.
I make around 300g/week with just this if demand for Arcanite doesn't spike.
Well, on my server you can still make some money with the flask of distilled wisdom which seems to be the favourite flask for holy paladins and some discipline priests.
With the other flasks, you make the profit with the procs.
And sell on wednesday between 4pm and 7pm.
Your missing Free Action Potion... How can you forget this?
I sell these for 45g per 5 on my server...
Alchemy on my server sounds about the same as everyone else's. Flask prices are a joke when the Frost Lotus costs twice as much as a single flask.
Never ceases to amaze me why anyone would pay so much for a single Frost Lotus when you can buy 2 flasks for the price of the Lotus, and still have some change leftover.
Methinks that Blizz really needed to mix-up the ingredients to produce flasks, rather than the same 3 ingredients for most of the flasks.
On my server, Emerald Dream, Flasks are still really good money if you sell on on the proper days. herbs/flask prices jump up and down all the time, sometimes it's a lot, but on good sell days you can make a lot of gold
Frostwyrm - 19-24g
Endless Rage - 18-25g
Stoneblood -20-25g
Best days i've found were to sell on tuesdays before 6pm server(this is when raiders generally begin)
Wednesday-Thursdays don't realy follow a pattern, or at least i haven't noticed one. Friday are amazing, Naxx PuGs happening and alt runs, Sat-Monday is the worse, prices are really at their lowest, but so are herbs, which makes restocking for tuesdays raids easy and cheap
Potions of speed may also be prety good for selling, as well as Potion of Wild magic, both are used often from high end raiders
Shadow protection potions are probably not a big seller on AH as most ppl that would consider General Vezax hardmodes have the guild supply all the items needed to make, and the fel mana potion doesn't really compare to the benifit of the shadow protection potion for that fight
As for transmutes i have no experiance with this and i'm eager to see what you come up with.
@ Sat-Monday is the worse, prices are really at their lowest, but so are herbs, which makes restocking for tuesdays raids easy and cheap
that's because a lot of people don't have time during the week to grind out stuff and do so on the weekend. with a lot of people doing this all at once, prices on everything will drop across the board. so buy the herbs, wait a few days, ???, profit!
this is especially true on my server, during the week, all stacks of herbs are 20g to 28. on weekends they're 15. yet i've never seen a flask priced over 20g on any day at any hour with the lotus always 15-18g a piece. this apprenticeship has me most intrigued...
Long time reader, first time commenter.
In my opinion, I think it will be exciting to see the results of transmuting when 3.2 hits. I bet those epic gems sell really good in the start at least. And if you can get several gems (from transmute mastery), I suspect this could be a good income.
But yeah, as you others have mentioned. I am looking forward to see what Gevlon comes up with in this case. (and also as many of you have asked for: Engineering tips. Perhaps in a later edition of "LF Apprentice")
-Unpossible, Al'Akir (eu)
The situation is the same on my server the last time I checked. The best way to make money as an alchemist is to sell the herbs.
Frankly I'm glad to see the difficulties! If this server continues to match mine, the next issue will be that trade volume is low, making it difficult to practice the standard Gevlon tactics in two different ways (It will be hard to buy raw materials in bulk and even harder to sell in bulk).
I eagerly await seeing how Gevlon finds a niche here, as the method for such a situation is what I've been missing. I recall him making a statement to the effect that a "bad" economy mean there were few inefficencies to exploit, but my experience has been that a bad economy is low demand, low supply. I'm confident there is a way to make money in such a market but I've not yet found one that doesn't involve a lot of AH time - not very goblinish! I look forward to what this apprenticeship teaches me!
Yep, just like my server (hence why I applied for the position!), be interesting to see what you come up with...
/skalgrim
Money can be made from flasks if you're patient, aware of your market, and post them at the right times.
Transmutes may make a fortune this week. We'll see soon enought.
On my server transmutes(pre 3.2) don't make much. There is a lot of competition for elixirs and flasks.
However potions especially health, mana, speed, wild magic sell well.
I think people overlook the potion master specialty. I usually get 10 to 30% extra potions for the same mats.
I don't sell flasks but here's what I usually make money on as an alchemimst:
* Elixir of Accuracy
* Elixir of Deadly Strikes
* Elixir of Protection
* Elixir of Mighty Thoughts
* Elixir of Mageblood
* Potion of Speed
* Potion of Wild Magic
Are the raid flasks actually selling at zero profit level based on stated mats prices or post the elixir spec proc rate? At least on my server, we're in that middle ground to where it is not profitable on stated mats but still pays to be elixir spec.
Speaking of Vezax HM (and the Fel Mana Potion), and alternative flask we used was the old +65 INT flask to expand the mana pool, in lieu of MP5 or spellpower.
Not really related to the article, but to the whole concept of WoW gold making:
Blizzard has now made mounts from the card game Bind on use, allowing them to be sold on the auctio house - Are they effectiovely legalising gold buying?
After all it should be a fairly simple procedure to buy a card on Ebay and then sell the code for in game gold.
What, if any affect will this have on the economy?
typo tastic sorry about that
Looking forward to this and engineering too! Only profitable thing I found on my server is transmutes and not a high profit either.
I think the biggest reason is that there are now several glyph competitors on my server and herbs are few and expensive as hell! Flasks/Elixirs are many and cheap.
I'm not sure why it is so surprising that alchemy is so low profit. I'm sure there are possible small profits hidden within... but expect they will be small enough (and low selling enough) to prevent them from really being worth the time.
Alchemy and Inscription are using the same matsmaking the poduction costs reliant upon one another. One has a universal market, and the other a smaller market. Demand differences with a tied supply cause the production prices of the lower demand craft to follow that of the stronger demand craft (inscription). I really believe the driving factor behind Alchemy prices is not losing money, where in Inscription it's still profit based. What I mean is, Inscription is still following a supply/demand curve where Alchemy is generally so off the curve due to sauration that it is simply following a curve of production costs.
A relatively small number need flasks, and while everyone could use Healing Potions... it's an item people think they can do without and thus the majority of buyers there are also likely raiders.
Engineering is in much the same boat in that their market is predominantly other engineers, and their competition for mats are people making much more sought after items. Split up the mats required such that they are unique to a profession and you would see profit in those professions. As long as the mats are used by crafters who are much moe in demand... you'll never get production costs to the point where you are only competing against your own profession.
Want to find something profitable in Alchemy? Start with an item that uses mats not used very often (or at all) in Inscription.
I can echo pretty much what has been said regarding alchemy. Pricing of potions/elixirs/flasks is often below mat costs. My response to this is a combination of diversification and market timing. I don't make all of my gold from just alchemy. I am diversified into multiple markets. This allows me to watch material vs finished product prices. When the markets are glutted I'll buy low. Hold until the glut clears and then start selling. While at the same time selling the mats. I watch the material markets and bottom feed there as well.
One nitch I haven't seen mentioned that will go away with patch 3.2 is the injector kits that will allow runic mana/health potions to stack to 20. Those kits are sold in stacks of five and are dirt cheap. Get 20. Convert them into an injector and sell for decent profit.
I look forward to see what Gevlon comes up with that can compare with what he has done with inscription.
Welcome to Alchemy Gevlon! That is pretty much the reality everywhere.
That doesn't mean alchemy is worthless, just that it isn't the easy, big-profit nirvana that some of the other professions are. I make, averaged over an entire week, a couple of hundred gold a day with my alchemy toon. Alchemy requires more patience than a lot of other professions, so here's my advice:
1. You are right that transmute spec is the best.
2. Primal mights are great money and profit, though not a high-moving item. I make about 40-50g profit per might. You have to watch the AH closely for mats - primal airs are particularly rare on my server, so I few times I've used my transmute on that.
3. Runic mana potions. To make money with these you really need to get cheap mats (usually on the weekend) and then list them a few hours early on raid nights. For my server I sell the most on tuesday's and wednesdays and can usually (but not always) command a nice profit because the AH runs out. Runic healing potion is a waste of time on my server.
4. Flasks use the same strategy as runic mana pots and I only make endless rage and frost wyrm. The key is the snatch settings in Auctioneer to nab the frost-lotus when they are cheap and then listing them (in pairs) on raid nights.
5. earthseige/skyflare. Since these require no cooldown, I keep my bank-alt stocked with about 10 at all times. To make money here you really have to wait until there is a temporary supply problem in the market. Again, I have my snatch function setup to get the mats for these as cheaply as possible.
That's it in a nutshell. You're not going to get even, steady income with alchemy and alchemy does take more work than many other tradeskills. It also takes the realization that the mats you bought last week may not turn you a profit until next week in some cases. Patience is key to purchase mats and sell at the appropriate times and patience is also necessary to learn, understand and anticipate when the demand spikes for certain items occur.
Not Even Gevlon Can Make Money With Alchemy!
Alchemy is seriously not for making money in wotlk, and the reason is simple; No rare recipes.
In BC I could make as much as 40g per gem, sell ten a day and proc trans mastery for lols, mostly because those recipes were rare. People either didn't know those recipes existed or didn't know how to grind rep.
For advice I'd say speccing trans-mastery is a horrible mistake; Gem-muting prices collapsed on day one. Why? Because every alchemist leveling from 405 to 410 made no less than five gems.
And then dumped them on the market for half the mats cost. Since then the market has somewhat recovered, but Skyflare and Earthsiege still sell just barely above mats.
Personally I make money by making flasks, almost exclusively Endless Rage (The Rage! It's endless!) as flask prices are just barely profitable in the Scarshield Legion. Profit per flask is 5-10 gold depending on competition. The only way to win is then to sell LOTS of ERage. And in light of that, elixir mastery really pays itself off.
Elixirs themselves are complete waste of time, outside of opportunity sales. Potions have some 40s profit margin I think.
Suprisingly, Arcanite bars still sell for 10g. That's that.
PS. Thanks for reminding me of Mighty Prot Potions. Forgot I grinded those recipes.
PSS. Appearently 3.2 goes live tomorrow. Appearently there are some rare gem-mutations there. Just specced trans-mastery. Hopefully not in vain.
Alchemy is a weird one. On my server, I sell just two flasks--Frostwyrm and Endless Rage, and I provide Stoneblood ones free to one of our tanks. Buying all my materials, I've made something like 30,000 gold in the last few months (a gracious plenty for me!). It's not huge earnings, but I don't put in a huge amount of time either.
The key was volume. I make very little profit on each individual flask, but be sure you take the procs into consideration when figuring out how much that is for an elixir master. I used to keep a notebook of my procs. For a set of 20 materials, the average proc is 4 extra. That's not that bad! That guarantees that the profit for an elixir master will always be above 0.
I'm pretty sure Transmute masters won't ever make much because they have one cooldown shared on all their abilities, making sure that they can't produce anything in volume. In addition, the products aren't that interesting. It would be different if the transmute product were something desireable, but as of now, they're not. Maybe when the patch hits transmuting epic gems will be profitable?
@Sukugaru: 5g per flask is not bad at all for profit!
What I do is go to the AH when convenient and post what I think the market will bear. How do I know? I looked up the major guilds on my server and figured out their raid nights. Post flasks one hour before the big guilds raid if you can--it all gets bought. Raiders have money, and they want what they want at exactly the right moment.
Since my guild raids on the early side, I'm always using our break to AH stuff on my alt :)
Several people have mentioned using the level 60 flask that grants 65 int. I'll point out that you get the same amount of intellect by combining the Elixir of Mighty Thoughts and the Guru's Elixir. Plus you get the bonus of +20 to all your other stats.
This difficult part is marketing this to people as an obvious alternative.
I remember my first character I got to 60 was herbalism/alchemy and I had the same experience. The market was absolutely awful for anything I could find to make with alchemy. It took many months to afford my fast ground mount. Still to this day I would be afraid to try to make money with alchemy again. I believe that you will find a way to make money at it like you say, though. This will be more interesting because it will be more difficult.
I'm surprised there is such low profit percentage potential for eternal transmutes. Shadow to Life on my server is 150% profit. Granted that works out to only about 15g per day.
You may also want to look into taking the meta gems you transmute to a JC and tip them for cuts that are going to sell more than the uncut metas. Maybe you're trying to restrict your focus to pure alchemy but I've found this approach to offer much better profits.
M&S dont flask.
Top Guild supplies members.
Mid Level Raiders farm / craft.
perhaps offer a top guild to take over their production? save them time for a fee.
if they farm their mats themselves have them COD to you and you COD the flasks back for a slight fee.
if they buy mats offer them a fixed price and attempt to buy the mats low to increase profit.
I'm betting that a lot of Alchemists are going to switch to Transmute spec (if they haven't already in prep for today's 3.2 patch).
This makes Flask-making all the more attractive. I plan on focusing my gold making with Alchemy this week while everyone is crazy for epic gem transmutations.
I'm curious to see how the Goblinism works with the new apprentice. Good luck!
Oh, what a wonderful choice! You picked my guild leader! But maybe you were aware of that?
Having alchemy as one of my professions on my main I would have loved to get some ideas from you how to make money out of it. Now I can get it anyway, even though I won't have the pleasure to chat with you ingame. After all you'll be scanning my AH, yay!
I'll be curious what you come up with. I've never had great luck making money with my alchemist (transmute-specced), and those speed potions that are supposed to be so popular tend to sit on the AH; haven't made one in years or had much luck selling the ones from quest rewards.
i hope someday you cover how to make money at engineering
Good luck, Gev. If anyone can do it, I have confidence it's you!
hum, Heres a thought for you though multiple profession:
Make the Arch Bars, Find a black smith and make rods, but how much that is going to vary from buying the arch outright and making the rods is another question, i have no problem selling rods for considerable profit, but my alch is one of the trade skills i have that i barely use, there is not even a high demand at all for Quest pots (frost oil, Strong Trolls Blood(at least horde)
i sell the occasional swiftness pot but not nearly as many as i once could, and flasks, its cheaper to buy them then make them, unless you grind your own mats at which point i might as well sell the mats...
Elemental transmutes are to far inbetween to really grind, leaving with the lack of cooldown Diamonds, ive sold a few of those, i mostly made to up my skill though, demand may not be real high and margin may not be great.
but i can mill those same herbs into a lovely inscription that i can sell for as much as 50g some times. (usually 5-30)
somewhere a boat has been missed here... imagine what would happen if you could go to Jessica Sellers, and trade a stack of Adder's Tounge for a stack of dreamfoil?
They also really messed things up with that pot timer, and battle/guardian elixers, you can only use a flask or 2 elixers.
You cannot chain use mana/healing potions in a fight so potion use is minimal, and yea serious guilds are going to provide their own services on what pots are used (flasks or what not) heres to a broken profession (and the mat competiion doesnt help, but i can buy 3000 Adder's tounge and 4 dreamfoil so leveling or making lower pots is tought)
People don't sell flasks below materials cost. They just don't count procced elixir spec flask as bonus, and calculate the price with procs in mind.
On my server, as a Jewelcrafter, sometimes I'm happy to buy Earthsiege or Skyflare uncut metas for 15-30g, cut them, and sell for profit (unless theres an alechemist/JC undercutter who sells them for raw transmute costs).
The only money I've made off of alchemy is to give the raw mats I got from prospecting on my JC to make meta gems, and then giving them back to the JC to cut and post on the AH. The profit is very good, but you can't sell the uncut gems all the time because there are always people who level their JC by making those gems and then dumping the uncut ones on the market. The other problem is that there is only a fixed amount of meta cuts you can dump on the market as it's not in huge demand and there's always competition. So you're going to sell maybe 5 the first couple days then another 5 the rest of the week as your competitors start to undercut you. After that the demand is probably met for 5-7 days.
You ought to make money off of potions except for the fact that there is only one cooldown per fight so most people don't bother using a potion at all (and if they are they're high end and have their own source).
There should also be an opportunity for niche markets, except for the fact that alot of the "cool" potions (like invisibility and free action) are only known and used by other alchemists (sort of how it is with engineering gadgets). Sure, anyone can use them, but most people don't care to pay for it.
The only profit I have of my mains Alchemy is the proc on flask's that I create, I usually have enough to get back the investment money (500-800g for a week) and have like 40 flask's left to use in raids
Aswell, Pygmy oil while the values aren't high they do sell and when u have lots of these it gets a little profitable but I prefer to use professions of alts for moneymaking atm.
For alchemy, on my server (which resembles yours) - profitable items include:
primal might (cooldown removed)
low level dps potions (twinks)
_primal_ transmutes (particularly shadow->water)
Otherwise, flasks make some gold, if elixir-specced.
I guess for once my crappy low-pop server is bucking the norm...
I can regularly buy frost lotus for 16-18g each and the other herbs for 1g per or less.
So using the higher numbers... 17g50s + 7g + 3g: 27g50s + 1g for the flask lets round it up to 30g for x2 flasks...
I can turn around and sell a stack of 4 flasks pretty consistently for 85G - 90g (cost to produce of 60g or less).
Not a TREMENDOUS profit but nothing to sneeze at either...
Alchemist should consider selling uncut meta gems NOW. I predict the demand will skyrocket for the next week as everyone realizes that they are only 440 JC and you need to be 450 JC to prospect ti ore. (At least that's my case).
Anyway my first char was alchemy and it was useful in BC when we went through 2-3 pots every boss attempt. Nowadays it's not as useful. I also had the same problem with flasks in BC; they wouuld always sell for mat prices or less, the only profit would be the proc. Interesting to note that fel mana pots are back in vogue; the recipe can be farmed from the blood elves in shadowmoon valley. I got it in an hour or so.
I agree with this post. Alchemy after TBC, sucks now and isn't much use for making money, but may be good for self use if you are a serious end game raider.
Otherwise, drop it and make glyphs. Much more opportunity there.
With the help of a gem cutter skyflares and earthsiege diamonds can be very profitable. Mats run about 10g per diamond, master transmuter gives me about 25% additional diamonds from procs. Identify the cuts that sell well, pay some gem cutter 5-10g each for the cuts and sell for 30-35 each, realizing a 10g profit each and making a serious undercut on the most profitable gems, not a big market but 500-1000g per week
Suggestion for making money with alch: cut meta gems.
Meta gems by themselves are a relatively poor money maker however cut you can make 50+% profit. Obviously you will need to find a guild JCer and tip them well but the profit is pretty good.
The important thing with cut metas is to know the right ones, there are 5 useful pve meta cuts:
Relentless Earthsiege (Agi based dps classes)
Insightful Earthsiege (healers)
Chaotic Skyflare (Caster and str dps classes)
Austere Earthsiege (Tanks)
Eternal Earthsiege (Tanks)
Now you may not find a lot of JCs with all these patterns but since eternal and austere are 100% drops from HoL and UP respectively they tend to be somewhat common and at the very least most jcs will have the cut they need for themselves.
In my experience the most profitable cut are on chaotics since the skyflare transmute is cheaper then earthsiege and there is significantly higher demand then with other metas.
A final caveat, you will likely not find an empty market. You will most likely either find
a)current sellers are selling for very high profit (300+%) since people have become conditioned to expect cut gems to be expensive. Most of these sellers will be unlikely to follow if you undercut down to 50% profit (or lower) territory.
OR
b) A someone competitive market in the 50-100% profit territory, in this case undercutting to near cost like Gevlon suggests can clear out the market somewhat rapidly.
Either way cut metas can be a very profitable use of alchemy.
go for flask of distilled wisdom.
mats from AH cost 40g or so. one flask goes for 40 - 60g in my server.
"Anonymous said...
Several people have mentioned using the level 60 flask that grants 65 int. I'll point out that you get the same amount of intellect by combining the Elixir of Mighty Thoughts and the Guru's Elixir. Plus you get the bonus of +20 to all your other stats.
This difficult part is marketing this to people as an obvious alternative."
Yes, but those flasks DO NOT persist through death, making them much more expensive to upkeep and thus making less people likely to buy them. 65 int ones do persist through death, making them much more useful for raiders.
@Mistas
Not entirely accurate, Depending on how you get mats.
on my server, i can go to the auction house and get northrend hebs for any where from 15g a stack to 30 gold a stack, and i can easily get 3000 herbs or more, i can buy til my profits run out...
the 2 partial stacks of dreamfoil sell for 30 gold each, Non northrend herbs are in short supply and more costly then they are worth, and honestly i dont want to spend my time running around picking them.
The best thing that I've found is when someone is selling Stacks of Frost Lotus' in trade for under the AH, I'll snake them all up so that I can make the profit from there alone. I'm also a MASSIVE bargain shopper. When I find herbs WAY under the price I buy as many as I can with the amount of funding I have avalible at that time.
I know that these are "Duh" things but these simple tricks allow me to double my profit almost every other day.
With Alchemy anyways :)
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