Your opinion of single character professions for highest profit?

[Shodokan]

Post up two professions for a character, and talk about why.


If i had to pick two... i'd honestly say mining/herbalism. This is due to the fact that there are 5 professions that rely on materials from these professions combined and there is always a demand for all items that can be obtained by both professions including old world mats for power leveling said professions.

If you agree, post that you do... if you think something else then post up what you believe it would be and why.

[Selz]

If im going to do PVE id deffently do Herb / Alche.. in that way I could support myself and the guild while im not raiding with something usefull, and flasks has always been a good seller.

You should not focus on 2 gather proffesions, rather 1 and then a support proffesion.

If im going PVP Id have Engineeing for sure, and the other proffesion would most likely be Mining. for making some money when i need, but also support my engineering.

[EaTCarbS]

Also take into consideration the time investment of each profession.

[Shodokan]

Also take into consideration the time investment of each profession.

Might want to elaborate.

[shadewalker]

Enchanting and alchemy, gathering takes much more time IMO. With these 2, you can log for 15 min a day to craft / post on the ah, and still make plenty of gold.

just my 2 cents.

[zenga]

I have each tradeskill maxed out. If I need to farm i basically consider that a waste of time for myself. Crafting requires less attention. With that in mind:

- jewelcrafting is very efficient: you know if you buy gems for cheap you can sell them for more, there is a constant demand for them
- enchanting: if you run lots of dungeons, quest a lot, ... disenchanting rocks, the enchanting scrolls will always sell, but people enchant their gear less compared to gemming it
- blacksmithing / leatherworking: if you take ICC for example, provided you get the required rep for the recipes, it was a very good moneymaker, though not entirely risk free, both have other tools (item enhancements) that sell very well as well
- tailoring: bag business is very reliable, though takes a lot of effort, crafting gear equals bs / lw
- engineering: never used it to make a profit
- mining / herbalism: wow, requires lots of effort, but you can make a killing. it requires an effort i don't want to spend though
- alchemy: never really cared to list many flasks/pots, eventually they sell, but used it more for my own, the transmute is stable income, but works best for me when you have a shitload of them
- skinning: so many mobs that can be skinned inside dungeons, out in the world ... it doesn't require any extra effort for me

my absolute favorite profession: inscription
it requires some effort/time, but it's by length the very best moneymaking profession in the game for me
still make easy 8/10k a day with it nowadays

so if i only had 1 toon available, i'd go for enchanting / inscription or jc / inscription

[Bigfish]

Having all profesions available, I'd have to say the real money is in blacksmithing. I don't know what it is about plate, but that stuff outsells everything else combined. Probably something to do with 3 classes that share their DPS/Tanking pieces, I guess the break down is (counting same class/different spec as a different class)

Plate Tanking - 3 classes
Plate DPS - 3 classes
Cloth DPS - 3 classes
Leather Physical - 3classes
Mail Phys DPS - 2 classes
Mail Spell - 2 classes
Leather Spell - 2 classes
Cloth Healing - 1 class

So I guess Leather and Blacksmith are both up there.

But I say this from an investment perspective where you need to have around 50k to keep invested in the highest tier mats.

But overall I would say its all relative to your individual server and whether anyone else is in that market. It is very easy for just one more person to hop in selling the stuff you do to trash the profit in it.. You also have to pay attention to the supply of various goods.

There's also the matter of whether we're talking as an individual profession or with multiplication potential via daily cooldowns. If we're talking altaholics, they'll probably say something like Alchemy or Jewelcrafting or something that lets them produce large quanitites of low supply goods. You only really need 1 blacksmith or leatherworker, and repeats don't add anything.

[Shodokan]

I'm just looking for perspectives to use for a study. So thanks for posting and keep on doing so.

[Sam DeathWalker]

The reason blacksmithing is more profitable is that if you tank you HAVE to have the gear. You can be a mage and still do well enough without top gear but the Tank just HAS to have the best he can get.

Mining/Herb is not the best in my opinion because there will not be a shortage of such items in general, if the price goes up then gold farmers will flock to that item and get a lot of them. Gold farmers do mine/herb, no reason for me to do so.

[Littleburst]

There is no way you can state what proffesion is most profitable, without indication playstyle. If you play 5 minutes a day, then that's a whole different case then playing 1 hour or 10x 5 minutes a day.

Gathering proffesions will never have the same efficiency as someone who has 2 craft proffesions and knows how to work the AH. But someone who's clueless about the AH, will make more money with gathering proffesions.

Profit is held back by demand, so you want to craft items that will have a high demand. So i'd definitely say Inscription / Jewelcrafting atm. Inscription might change once people have all their chars fully glyphed, allthough I doubt that will ever happen. Besides that it's also dependant on how much competition you have and how active they are.

BS/LW/Tail have a to low demand imo. Allthough it can be golden in the first couple of days when cata hits. IF you're an active player.

[EaTCarbS]

Might want to elaborate.

How much you make in 10 minutes with an alchemy transmute vs mining for 10 minutes.

[Fat Tire]

How much you make in 10 minutes with an alchemy transmute vs mining for 10 minutes.

Or just 10 mins of playing the AH-

Professions are overrated. Even hand rockets.

I guess I am bitter. I wish blizz would allow every character the ability to learn all the professions individually.

[Mickthathick]

My first choice would be BS and JC. BS can make mucho bank off of crafted epics, and also item enhancements such as belt buckles, shield spikes etc. JC made me many many thousands off the Saronite shuffle, and I am keeping my eye open for the Cata equivalent. There is also the ability with JC to buy raw gems off the AH and easily value add to them. Everyone needs gems, almost everyone has bought gems off the ah at one time or another.

If you like camping the ah, managing inventory and spending large amounts of time at the mailbox, then pick inscription and bs/jc. I really can't see any potential to make consistant gold off glyphs in the future on my medium pop server, however I will be making darkmoon cards (a huge earner for me in WOTLK) and off-hands.

[Owltoid]

Is it Mick tha Thick or Mick that Hick?

[Ualaa]

Two professions...

For a one-boxer, probably Enchanting and Jewelcrafting.

Even without the supply of transmuted gems, there is a steady profit from buying and cutting gems and then listing them; I can often make a profit just from prospecting.

If I charge for an enchant, I make an ok amount. If I enchant for free (their mats) and accept tips... 25-30% don't tip at all, 5-10% tip a lot more than I'd charge and the rest tip 5-10g. I've made 500g an hour, at times... leveling my enchanting with other people's mats.

[Mickthathick]

Is it Mick tha Thick or Mick that Hick?

Mick tha Thick :)

[zenga]

What surprises me a little bit is that so many people in this thread don't mention inscription. Is this because they have never really 'tried' it/focused on it? Because tmho it's basically printing gold. I mean for me it's totally out of the question that any other profession can make more gold than the glyphmarket.

Maybe I'm blessed and lucky to be on a good server, but I'm on a low horde populated realm (medium pop server and horde is about 1/4th of alliance pop), there is good competition and herb prices are higher than on busy realms i've checked. So I can only imagine it's at least comparable to other servers. To give you an idea: this screenshot (http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/6057/wowscrnshot112810174318.jpg) is from this afternoon. I've posted one in another topic as well a while ago, not to brag, but just to show how incredible easy and lucrative the glyph business is. 1 glyph costs me approx 8-10 gold to craft, and I don't sell them under 15g. The only new ones I craft are the highest priced (typically only those above 40g that I don't have up or in stock).

If you don't have inscription active, I can only recommend it to start asap.

[Ualaa]

I've got a toon with every glyph. Initially took the profession for the shoulder enchant, actually; but eventually got all the glyphs.
I've also got about 7-8 people who actively watch the glyph market on my server, and constantly undercut you on glyphs. Most glyphs are under 5g to buy.

Conversely, there are three of us who list a lot of cut gems daily.
One of them has agreed to match my prices, so we basically add each other to APM.
The other guy insists on undercutting us, but is not on that often and happens to be a friend for all of my toons; if he's been on, and was in a city, I relist gems.

I guess it depends on your market. I've heard glyphs can be lucrative.
The herbs sell better than the glyphs, at least on my server.

[zenga]

That makes sense ualaa. Have to add that inscription is very time intensive with the new posting / canceling restrictions. Seems like a few are less re-listing for that reason. Not to mention that milling a few 100 stacks of herbs, make inks and craft the glyphs can be boring. But there is often enough downtime during bg queues to do that for me. And luckily I have the tendency to smoke weed, so it affects me less.

[Mickthathick]

Regarding inscription, it really does take a certain type of personality to succeed in it because you really need to be dedicated and have the ability to focus on the profit potential of many, many different items.

btw zenga do you see the glyph market growing or dropping in Cata?

[zenga]

Regarding inscription, it really does take a certain type of personality to succeed in it because you really need to be dedicated and have the ability to focus on the profit potential of many, many different items.

Couldn't say it better. And the same is true for herbing / mining I guess. Some consider that relaxing aka therapy, but it drives me nuts.


btw zenga do you see the glyph market growing or dropping in Cata?

I hope it grows for me and shrinks for everyone else. But joking aside:

- a couple of retired players with maxed inscription will probably return to the game, so competition will most likely increase
- a couple of retired players will probably return to the game and be in need of glyphs
- once everyone has leveled their main to 85, people will start to make their new worgens & goblins

so for the first few weeks / months business will be good
and then it will stabilize i guess, but people will always be in need of glyphs ... very few players that I know have bought all the glyphs for their class. so whenever there is a new patch, whenever they want to try out a new spec ... they'll need glyphs. That plus people will always make and level up new alts. However I don't expect that the new players attracted by cata will turn into new customers.

[Littleburst]

Couldn't say it better. And the same is true for herbing / mining I guess. Some consider that relaxing aka therapy, but it drives me nuts.



I hope it grows for me and shrinks for everyone else. But joking aside:

- a couple of retired players with maxed inscription will probably return to the game, so competition will most likely increase
- a couple of retired players will probably return to the game and be in need of glyphs
- once everyone has leveled their main to 85, people will start to make their new worgens & goblins

so for the first few weeks / months business will be good
and then it will stabilize i guess, but people will always be in need of glyphs ... very few players that I know have bought all the glyphs for their class. so whenever there is a new patch, whenever they want to try out a new spec ... they'll need glyphs. That plus people will always make and level up new alts. However I don't expect that the new players attracted by cata will turn into new customers.

I agree with you. I also asume that the market will grow at first, due to people leveling and creating goblins and in 2-3 months it'll be stable, but still well worth the effort to profit from it.

[Sbrowne55]

If you have gold to spend, there is lots of money in making epic gems through JC. A lot of xmuters dump stacks on my server for around 60-90 gold and they resell for 110+. With cata coming out things might change there.

Or enchanting, requires no gathering, and those sell for tons on ah.

Personally hate gathering profs, to much time running and gathering, when ah simply does all the work for you with ench/JC.
Alch and JC are good combo, and enchanting allows you to pick any random other. Maybe JC and enchanting :P

[wrs]

Inscription has definately received quite a boost of late. And I deeply regret missing the wave that 4.0.1 produced for inscribers. While a new spec means new glyphs, the old ones are not lost and the market might stabilize over time.

JC has the upside of always being in demand. There is always new gear. The saturation point for gear is VERY high. For Wrath, the key was to learn the higher demand cuts, which you could directly target. With inscription, research is a crap shoot.

Also, I'm very lazy and time limited. Once my JC/Alch toon had a few choice cuts, I'd just hang out in the AH. I could be in and out. No running to the anvil or shops for mats. I'd do my prospecting, cuts, xmutes and be in and out.

In general, I believe for max profit with least effort, it would be JC/Alch first, followed by Inscription/Enchanting. This is not to contradict the profit potential of BS (or others), it's strictly from my vantage point. The JC/Alch/Inscription/Enchanting also have the benefit of helping you to watch price trends. I would watch saronite ore and buy it all day at 14-15g a stack. Eventually the price would float up above 20 and I would sell my surplus.

And back to my being lazy, as an inscriber you need to be more vigilant about mats/prices. There are several different herbs that will result in the same ink, so you have to track a bit more (I'm not the best when it comes to the AH tools, which I'm sure make a big difference here).

I think more information is needed. What is the most amount of time in a given day do you want to spend making gold? For me, it was as little as possible so, I did xmutes and prospected. If you have more time, I'd place inscription above alchemy.

Lastly, with enchanting, one thing I'm sure many here (being a community of boxers) will agree - enchanting works well because you have 2+ toons leveling/gearing/running instances at any time so you have a surplus of BOE gear. So for the 'single' character I'm not sure if it is AS beneficial, especially now that people can roll for d/e. Sure, you can always play the AH, but I imagine most here with enchanters recieve a good deal of mats from their own toons.

[Shodokan]

This was meant for reasons other than informing myself about things. I just wanted people's opinions for some reasons and I appreciate everyone's posts.

On a side note in cata i will have every profession...other than engineering

Inscription/Enchanting
Mining/Herb
Skinning/Alch
BS/Alch
LW/Alch
Tailoring/Alch
29x Jc/Alch

[Mickthathick]

I have the following professions maxed out on level 75+ toons:

JC
Ench
Inscritpion
Alchemy (7 transmute masters)
Tailors (4)
BS
LW
Engineer
Mining

[Tonuss]

I have all of the professions covered. Three or four gatherers for each of herb/mining/skinning (don't ask) and two each for the crafting professions. Actually I have one alchemist at 450 and five others at 95-99.

The best way to make a profit, depending on your server, would be one of the following IMO:

- herbalism/inscription- depends on whether or not you've got a lot of competition and/or how fierce it is. On Stormrage horde side, there seem to be a few folks who have the market pretty well controlled and if you start listing glyphs they're very aggressive in undercutting. I don't know if they will try to drive people out of the market or not.

- herbalism/mining/skinning- depends on how vigilant you are in terms of trends to see which particular resource is in high demand and/or short supply.

In the past I've made more gold just by playing the market and bottom-feeding (grabbing ridiculous bargains for re-listing). I will mostly use the AH to dump stuff that I would otherwise just vendor, because I won't be hurting for gold through this expac.

[Mickthathick]

I planned on not worrying about leveling professions during the first 2 weeks, but seeing as how mat prices are dropping so fast, I am going to watch them weekend and possible level some crafters up.

My main focus will be on 'gearscore gear'. Currently there is a choke point for new 85s getting into random heroics, and I see massive opportunity for crafters to supply this gear at massive prices. For example, a guildie sold a purple boe (wotlk i200 equivialnt) for 19k yesterday!