I've always vaguely wanted a raptor mount, but not quite badly enough to level a troll character or lose 90 PUG battlegrounds for the PVP version. With Cataclysm poised to wipe out a bunch of the old world Horde content, much of which I have never completed, I figured it was a good time to go complete low level quests. Obviously, you don't get much challenge when you run in and one-shot everything, but at least you get to see the storylines. If this activity incidentally propels me to exalted with the trolls, that's two birds with one stone.
All of which is just as well, because Greenraven kind of got screwed over by the mount changes. I purchased epic ground mount training for him last expansion, but then never finished Outland. If I was already level 70, I would be in Northrend, without Cold Weather flying, and not really missing the entry level flying mount. As is, I could be flying around Outland right now if I hadn't spent all of his savings on a purchase that I didn't really benefit very much from.
Professional Issues
As long as I'm running around lowbie zones anyway, I decided to take Gevlon's advice on gathering skills. Greenraven was originally mining/skinning because, as a Horde alt, he needed money and I was not inclined to do a lot of work on his professions. The problem is, mining can be a pain to level in the 40-60 range, as you will either be passing a lot of minerals you cannot mine yet for lack of skill, or you will be mining a lot of minerals that no longer award points, in the hopes that they will respawn as something better. I fell behind and realized that I have zero interest in keeping up.
On top of all of that, Wrath added more self-only perks to professions. Mining and skinning do offer some modest bonuses, but I would like the character to have more interesting professions, but without having to invest in major rep grinding to unlock key recipes. After some brief consideration, I decided to try herbalism and either alchemy or inscription. (I'm unlearning the skinning now and leveling herbalism to Outland standards first, so that I can also continue to mine anything I see while I'm working on this project.)
Alchemy would probably be more useful to this particular character, but, as Gevlon notes, raiding consumables are a mature, high volume market with relatively little room for major profits. By contrast, inscription features a large number of recipes, many of which are equally relevant to high level characters. I saw several minor glyphs posted at 75G. There probably isn't anyone buying at that price, but my mount cash problems would disappear if I could turn some level 1 herbs into even 10-20 gold glyphs.
Onwards and upwards
After I deal with the profession issues. I will also be leveling the warrior through Outland and Northrend, skipping neutral faction content that I've done to death whenever possible, so I can see the unique Horde stuff. If I get to 80 in a timely fashion, I might do Wintergrasp in the hopes of earning a heirloom gun for my hypothetical Goblin Hunter. All of my other WoW alts are effectively parked until the expansion; I'm not going to miss the stuff I've already done on the Alliance side. Fortunately, two characters are probably enough to keep me occupied in Azeroth for the time being.
Hey, so the guys in /general won't tell me where to find Mankirk's wife, can you help?
I'll be honest with you, after a certain point with inscription you can drop the herbalism. It's the only crafting proffession where that happens, and it's because the market is a free for all still.
ReplyDeleteThis became a bit more of a posting about your professions than over Greenraven, other than that he wants to ride a Raptor.
ReplyDeleteI still advocate two gathering professions. The crafting professions might offer some gizmos and gadgets, but the money you spend to create yourself some expensive bind on creation items is enormous. Plus they devalue their epics so quickly by adding more of them with each patch by now that their crafted items cannot compete with easy drops and badge gear.
Enchanting was once much better and more profitable, and Inscription will not be different.
You fell into the trap. The vicious circle that my friend Steve also experienced. He is a bit lazy and always broke, so I hope you are not that much like him... ;)
The problem is you went on levelling while your mining skill was not on par with the area you were levelling in, and as levelling goes much faster nowadays, mining is even easier to fall behind.
Painfully patrolling Thorium spawns for the final points necessary for the next ore nodes also happened to my char, and I was going slowly. But guess how hard it was for Steve to go back to much much earlier areas to catch up with mining.
Finding rare gems later on with mining was very rewarding, I cannot recommend any of the crafting professions. The minor bonuses of Mining and Skinning are very good. Do not say minor, they are permanent buffs and beat the crafted crap all the time. Unless you really want a certain gadget, of course.
Gevlon is true. Inscription is money making poor. And that right from the start.
ReplyDeleteI think with level 60 in inscription you will be able to start minor inscription reseach.
Each day every 20hours you are able to learn a new minor glyph. As you noticed many of those glyphs are rather rare and good selling for money.
Hugh benefit, inscription grant you best shoulder enchant, so no grindig for those giants anymore.
Even a comparsion with the downfall of enchanting like longasc made is not valid.
Since you constanty offer 200 differen glyphs for sell. If you do not offer this broad variety of glyphs, you do it wrong.
There is allways a discussion how much time is necessary to make the money. Sure it is more that gevlon makes us believe.
You have to pick up 600 failed auction mails. Make the replacement of sold glyphs and so on.
So for sure ther is a time investment to make 3000g a day. But at least it does not involve killing mobs again and again.
It is just you and the ah.
So start with herbalism and inscription. If you have enogh money you can get rid of gathering is is only for the purpose of leveling.
pure instead of poor. ups.
ReplyDelete@Pan: Good to know for future reference. I guess I could get both inscription AND alchemy if herbalism turns out to be a waste. Right now, I need startup cash so it all works out.
ReplyDelete@Long: That's why this is holiday weekend filler, it's random stuff I'm doing rather than focused analysis. ;)
That said, your comment makes me wonder if you've actually looked at crafting this expansion? BOP items were the big thing in TBC, and they were overpowered until you replaced them and then worthless. Now, every profession gets a best-in-slot enchant or two that offer passive bonuses on top of your gear whether it's quest greens or top raid tier epics. They also get some other items, for instance, Inscription gets a shoulder enchant and a scroll that lets you hearth an extra time on a separate cooldown from your hearthstone.
Alchemy is slightly different in that it instead gets a bonus for every consumable that you know how to craft, and gets an infinite reuse low-quality flask to compensate for not having a permanent enchant when you're not using elixirs etc. The leveling curve is much friendlier than other professions - you're going to be able to make something every two herb bushes or so. I think you're right that it will be a slight net loss of cash (due to training costs), but it would also mean a slight net improvement to performance, since I would be able to level by making elixirs and potions that I would not have purchased and can subsequently consume.
@Mela: Gevlon has very different needs than I do. He's paying a raiding guild 5000G per week plus misc projects. I don't care about epic flying mounts or BOE level 80 gear on this alt, so I'd be happy with 500G TOTAL. If I'm relisting 200 glyphs that aren't selling, I'm doing more work than I need to.
I remember the scrolls of return/recall, and I played WOTLK of course. The money I made by skinning all the many leftover corpses in the Howling Fjord plus mining in Lake Wintergrasp between the battles really made me rich.
ReplyDeleteI know, now every profession gets an even better item and extras, like extra belt slots for armor/weaponsmiths and all that. I do not see a proper reason why Inscription should not go the way of Enchanting sooner or later.
You will always make money, can always undercut prices and just make money by gathering stuff. Your dependance on the market is not as high and you do not have to constantly watch out for trends or read up what is making money at the moment, only to notice your profession is out of business right now.
Suggestions like getting rid of gathering professions to make money are awful IMO! I am a huge advocate of gathering, it makes you money, it does not suck you dry and is not so dependant on the market or dev decisions what gizmos to give to this or that profession.