I know I said I was going to be focusing on twinking, but saving money for my epic flyer has me in more of a mind set to discuss making gold, rather than spending it. I’d like to preface this article by saying that this method of making gold is entirely dependent on your server’s economy. This statement is doubly true if you do not have access to a character with 375 mining and an epic flyer. That said, if the economic clime is right on your server, you can make disgusting amounts of gold by doing this.
The first step is to level jewelcrafting. An excellent guide can be found on the WoW forums here. Just a note, assuming my server’s economy is fairly typical, it will cost you around 800-900 gold to level to 300, and an additional 200 or so to level to 350. From 1-300, you should be able to make at least 400 of that back if you have access to an enchanter to disenchant the rings and necklaces you make. From 300-325, the items start disenchanting into arcane dust and lesser planar essences. At this point, you should be able to recoup the other half of your initial investment. At 325, you can stop buying mats off of the auction house and start prospecting Adamantite Ore. This is where jewelcrafting really starts to shine. You have around a 15% chance per prospect to get a blue gem that sells for between 15-60g on average. These are the main reason you are prospecting. Hang on to your green gems that you get, you’ll be cutting them to level to 350. Once you get to 350, stop cutting green gems and save them for disenchantable rings and necklaces. As far as the blues, you have 2 options. You can either bank them until you have bought a pattern to cut them with, or you can sell them raw.
Now that you’re at 350 jewelcrafting, you can either continue playing the prospecting slot machine, or you can focus on obtaining patterns for rare gems and making easy money by buying raw gems, cutting them, and relisting. My advice would be to browse different class forums and buy one or two patterns that are considered essential for each gem type. My first pattern purchase was for Glinting Noble Topaz (+4 hit rating, +4 agility) which is THE de facto red slot gem for raiding rogues under the hit cap. The first day I had it, I bought 2 Noble Topaz from the auction house for 40g each, and resold them for 60g. I made 40g for clicking a button twice. As far as prospecting, I generally only prospect when I have a decent amount of gold to sink into it, and when ore is under 27g per stack. After buying ore at 30g per stack and losing about 20g due to a string of Talasites (Yes, they’re rare, they’re better than a green gem, but they are seriously the gag gift of prospecting) I’m a lot more patient waiting for the market to settle.
A general rule for the auction house is to buy on weekends when supply is higher, and sell on weekdays when it is mostly the hardcore crowd playing. Doing this, I have picked up Noble Topaz for as low as 30g per, and sold the cut gem for 70g. Definitely not a bad ROI, in my opinion.
- Stray
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
the problem here is related to the unlucky BOE drops you’ll encounter regarding the patterns. You _have_ to buy them on the AH and any pattern worth a salt is upwards of 300+g. Every time. The VERY valuable design (Royal Nightseye) is commonly going for 750g+.
March 4th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hi Drew! Yes, that is generally the problem with relying on cutting raw gems and posting them for a markup, but really with the sheer amount of money you can make from prospecting alone, I haven’t found the rare patterns to be that out of reach.
Also, a lot of the time you can get a good deal from people hawking them in trade. I’ve seen them go as low as 200g for a couple of cuts worth getting. You’re right though, it really is just a matter of luck.