trade skill or not

[leroyreborn]

i got 10 chars that are over 68 but have not trade skills to speak of. think its worth the time and money to lvl alchemy (xmute master) on them all this close to Catal. or should i wait and see if alchemy will make any money after catal. comes out? lol as you can see i rather lvl toons than trade skills but golds all ways nice =)

[Kedash00]

i made one of everything and i'm waiting to see what the money maker is gonna be with cataclysm with the other 5 but that's just me

[Littleburst]

Cata is months away. People will be leveling new characters once Cata hits, thus prices of mats needed will rise.

Besides that, alchemy has always has transmutes to make money, even in vanilla. I highly doubt they will remove that in cata. My advise would be to atleast stock up on herbs, if you don't want to level it allready.

[OzPhoenix]

I personally think professions are something to do mostly if you enjoy it. I don't see mine (outside of Enchanting and Blacksmithing) being enormous money earners (compared to what else I can do to make gold), but I do t for the enjoyment/independence of it, so my current team covers all professions bar Inscription.

[Ualaa]

I'd level the alchemy across the board.
Which then leaves one profession per toon, that can be something else.

It costs 2.5k to 4.5k to level an alchemist entirely through AH purchased herbs.
By buying when they're cheap, instead of what you need for a toon who needs whatever now, it is closer to the lower end of that scale.

Even with the price of gems having fallen, if you have a JC toon for epic cuts, you're looking at least 100g per transmute.
Even without a JC, you should make 75g a transmute, just selling the transmutes raw gem on the AH.
Prices will vary with server of course; some cuts would make me only 50g (I don't cut these gems) but yesterday Runed Cardinal Rubies were selling for over 200g (which is 175g profit per gem).

Even assuming only 50g per gem, and 4k to level an alchemist... they pay for themselves in under 3 months, after which you're making a profit. At my server prices, its three weeks or so before they start to show a profit. With dailies, you can make 1,000+ gold in an hour per team at 80th, so put out 2 alchemists a week.

With a new arena season, or a new raid zone, gem prices skyrocket to at least 150-200g profit per gem. I'm sure Cataclysm will have cycles too; you could look at tradeskills purely as getting ready for the next expansion.

It might be an idea to have one of each production skill as well. But that's a fair bit of work. Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Tailoring, each of these will likely have combines (or cuts) which can make a fair bit of profit.

[leroyreborn]

yeah guess i should of stated that i all ready have one of every prof maxed just wondering rather or not if people that alchemy would make money in cata. and rather or not i would make the money back befor cata. hit or i should just save the money.. i got close to 50k gold in the bank i could use to lvl them.

kinda off topic but what dose ever one do with the uncommon and rare gems you get when prospecting for scarlet rubys. is worth trying to cut them and sell them or just sell them in balk because you got so many of them. i got close to a full guild bank tab full of uncut gems

[Ualaa]

I'm averaging 3500g a day, from alchemy on 24 toons.
They're all transmute spec.
That includes buying Eternals and prospecting Saronite.

Most days, it is an even number of Red, Yellow and Blue gems.
But I transmute whatever was selling the day before.
So, for example today I did 4x Purple, 4x Orange, and the rest were Red, Yellow and Blue.

I try to transmute whichever I have the least of, but don't take Green, Orange or Purple cuts into double digits.
But then only do the more profitable cuts, which is generally 100g profit over mats.
Yesterday, Runed Cardinal Rubies were selling for a lot, so that was the only Red cut I did.
But in a typical day, I just cut one of each type I can do, and replace them as they sell.

Alchemy is a consistent gold maker; I'd recommend them.

[leroyreborn]

i started shopping for low priced flowers on the AH today to start lvling their alchemy. thinking of doing couple tailors, that 1 week cool down might be good money. might just stock up on cloth until more info is out.

[zenga]

In addition to what ualaa said: (and listening to him can never be bad :P )

During the latest weeks i only put out a couple of gems/cuts per day on the AH during the week. I just stack them for the weekends. Prices seem to be sky high on saturday/sunday morning/afternoon. And by flooding the market with 60 gems at once, 1% under the lowest AH price, they sell like candy (stacks of 5 & 10 works best for me).

i can do 3 cuts: runed cardinal ruby, bold cardinal ruby & solid majestic zircom. My rule of thumb is to have max 10 of each kind (both listed and in the bank). Any raw blue/reds I have extra, i just sell them uncut. This to avoid having too much in stock.