Preparing for Patch 3.2: Tradeskills
Posted by 
Heartbourne on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 18 Comments Tags: alchemy, economy, emblems, epic gems, gold, jewelcrafting, making gold, patch 3.2, preparing for patch 3.2, profit, prospecting, titanium ore, transmute, wow gold
Heartbourne on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 - 18 Comments Tags: alchemy, economy, emblems, epic gems, gold, jewelcrafting, making gold, patch 3.2, preparing for patch 3.2, profit, prospecting, titanium ore, transmute, wow gold 
One of the fundamental things that players should understand about the WoW economy is that there is massive deflation. Items, in general, become less valuable over time as new items are introduced. Players no longer want iLvl 200 or even 213 crafted gear, as well geared players from high level raids can easily carry them through heroics or Naxxramas. As such, materials for crafted gear are less in demand than they once were. Blue gems should lose value once epic gems become accessible. Additionally, once an item is introduced, the players that want it the most will pay ridiculous prices to get it first. Prices lower over time as supply ramps up for non-top tier raiders.In general, its a bad idea to stockpile items. However, understanding how new changes will affect the economy and acting early can lead to huge profits.
There are two major changes that will affect the economy in patch 3.2. The first is the introduction of epic gems; the second is that Emblems of Conquest are now obtainable in all pre-Crusader dungeons and raids. We will talk mainly about epic gems for now.
Epic gems are obtained in a few different ways. Lets review:
- Alchemy Transmutes
- Icy Prism. You can't save them up now, so don't try
- Prospecting Titanium Ore
- Buying with Honor or Emblems of Heroism
Buying them with Honor and Emblems will probably be very unpopular, as everything will be dropping Emblems of Conquest and players will be eager to grab new gear before they will grab new gems. The other three will have a profound effect on the market.
First, lets look at Alchemy transmutes. Most Alchemists are Elixir Masters. As as Alchemist myself, I can vouch for how useful this is. I make dozens of flasks a day, and this generates tons of gold. If I can get a friend to craft my elixirs who is elixir specced, Transmutation Master for myself might be profitable. Since transmutations are on a 20 hour cooldown, its hard to share that ability with anyone, but a group of a few alchemists could have 1 elixir master and all the rest be Transmutation Masters to optimize overall output. I know my guild is organizing something like this.
Transmuting an epic gem usually requires a blue gem of the same color as the desired epic gem and a specific Eternal. The following is a list of transmutes as they are now on the PTR:
- Transmute: Flawless Amytrine: Monarch Topaz and Eternal Shadow
- Transmute: Cardinal Ruby: Scarlet Ruby and Eternal Fire
- Transmute: Dreadstone: Twilight Opal and Eternal Shadow
- Transmute: Eye of Zul: 3 Forest Emerald
- Transmute: King's Amber: Autumn’s Glow and Eternal Life
- Transmute: Majestic Zircon: Sky Sapphire and Eternal Air
The first thing to note is that players will be getting epic gems from a few sources. Players will largely be consuming the same amount of gems overall, as they will have about the same number of sockets. Some of the new recipes require epic gems, but it won't have a huge impact on the market. Since only some portion of the epic gems being consumed use current rare gems as a material means that consumption of rare gems is going to go way down. There will still be a market as the poor man's gem and as reagents for transmutes, but the prices of uncut and cut rare gems should drop significantly. Get rid of any stock that you have. The exception may be Forest Emerald, which requires 3 gems for the transmute. Only time will tell relatively how valuable they will be, but blue gems are used a lot by tanks, so I'm predicting a good market for the epic blue gems and hence Forest Emerald. Also, expect Eternal consumption to go way up with lots of new recipes and the transmutes.
Its unclear how often Icy Prism will give epic gems. It will be the only thing keeping Frozen Orbs valuable. It will continue to be the only thing keeping uncommon gems in consumption. There are lots of these in Titanium Ore, so expect them to lose even more value in patch 3.2. We are looking at vendor trash level of value. According to WarcraftEcon's results, they are getting around 6 uncommon gems per prospect, and people will be prospecting a lot to get epic gems.
Speaking of prospecting Titanium, this is going to be the game changer. People are stockpiling Titanium now, which may or may not be a good idea. It might be overvalued right now; it's risky to do. However, with rare gems losing demand and rare gems being the result of Titanium prospects as often of epic gems, rare gems should lose a significant amount of value from this alone. The flipside to this is that the value of Saronite and Cobalt should crash, as they will no longer be valuable to prospect. This is going to be a huge window of opportunity for Blacksmiths, who can potentially make lots of BoE stuff and disenchant it. Expect Enchanting supplies to increase in supply in the long run and prices to drop.
Finally, note the materials for the new crafted items, including a new orb from the Argent Coliseum: Crusader's Orb. This list was complied by the writers at WarcraftEcon:
- Titansteel Bar
- Saronite Bar
- Arctic Fur
- Heavy Borean Leather
- Icy Dragonscale
- Nerubian Chitin
- Moonshroud
- Spellweave
- Ebonweave
- Crusader Orb
- Various epic gems, Eternals, Enchanting materials
- Deadly Saronite Dirk
- Corroded Saronite Woundbringer
These will probably enjoy a small price boost in the first month or so of patch 3.2.
Remember, the first two weeks will be crazy, as everyone will want epic gems and consumption will be through the roof. Expect it to level off within about 6 weeks.
What are your plans to profit in patch 3.2?
Reader Comments (18)
NONE,
this is due to me being a part-time player and I still ain't max'd Tailoring or Enchanting yet lol
On the flip side I should be able to purchase some cheap lvl 77-79 gear to DE for enchanting mats :)
Also expect the price on the argent tournament pets to crash as well. Right now on my server they sell for about 1600g on the neutral AH. With the new daily quests, everyone will be getting more champion seals thus buying pets quicker and possibly flooding the market.
Being a JC myself and having a mining DK im just stocking up on titanium ores to prospect myself to sell epic jems, cut or uncut, depends on whats selling for more.
As an engineer i'm actually really looking forward to the changes in 3.2, the need for eternals doesn't look like it's gonna drop especially with transmutes being a key way to get epic gems. And farming eternals as an engineer is as easy as pie.
And more dailies=more easy gold in my book. I'm looking forward to a very profitable 3.2 ^_^
I've always been a potion master alchemist, but with the incoming patch I seriously might consider switching to transmutation since I'm not aware of any fellow guildie alchemist being that spec. The possible downside is that as far as I know, I'm the only potion master in the guild. Choices, choices...
In respect to the alchemy method of creating gems you mentioned the transmutations are on a 20 hour cooldown which is true except for the meta gems that we make. We can sit there and make all the gems we want without having to worry about cooldowns.
sounds like great news i am planing on using "buy low sell high" strategy titatium ore droping even lower i am going to buy a few stacks prospect am sell teh gems i get from am but untill teh patch drops and prices are stilll at whear they are any chance i get i am farming some titatium
My plan is to finally max my enchant and mining. Heard that enchant on rings will have a boost so that will pay off for myself, and since I have a JC alt, mining to him for prospecting will be easy money. Both my main and 2 alts have epic flyer so that wont be a subject to worry about. Maybe I'll respec my alchemist to Transmutation Master, but I dont think the flasks of will drop so easy so thats going to be a tough choice. Looking forward to it!
At current my guild has 3 miners stockpiling titanium ore, buying as much as they can get their grubby little mitts on as well as what they can dig out of the ground. At the time of writing between them they have 5 1/2 Mammoth Mining Bags full of titanium ore betweeen them and they should hopefully have another bags worth by the end of the day.
I'm looking forward to the Tournament pets dropping in price though ^^.
im a leatherworker/skinner and iv been hoarding all my mats since iv hit 80. i dont farm them but i still have quite a few stacks of arctics furs, nerubian chitin, icy dragonscales, eternals and heavy borena leather saved up. looks like i may make a small profit :D
WEll I don't expect the price of icy dragonscale to go up. I mean..... I don't know a single skinner who doesn't have at LEAST 4 stacks in his or her bank. But I am farming leather for arctic fur.
Heheh, I suppose my mining laziness is paying off. An engineer that's just been mining and stockpiling a proverbial tonne of titanium, just because I pass it and I'm too lazy to go to an AH to sell it. Looks like I could be in for a pay rise... not to mention engineering eternal selling. Heheheh, Looks like I might be able to make that Meckgineer's Chopper after all.
im a miner by trade, and i never got a second profession up, so ill have my 2 friends(1 a blacksmith, 1 a chanter) and i will mine the mats needed for the blacksmith to make stuff and the chanter to de and sell the mats. we split the profit 3 ways and that should be a good income for a few weeks
My plans are the same as with every new content patch. The one thing they all have in common is new gear. New gear means more ppl want enchants and enchanting mats always and I do mean ALWAYS increase quite a bit after every new content patch. They soon die back down to what they previously were, but the initial boost is a big bonus and a lot of disenchanters look out for these chances. U can generally AH high end enchant mats at above the lowest AH price and still sell them every time for at least 2-3 weeks post patch on my 2 main servers.
On another note it'll be good to see skinning actually make a comeback to its TBC and pre-BC gold making potential.
as a skinner and miner i cant wait. ive been stock piling titansteel bars when i remember to and also been doing the same with titanium ore considering that JCs will want to prospect. im hoping to make somewhat of a profit when 3.2 comes out
i have 3 80s and enuf honor saved for around 10-12 gems woohoo!
Great blog.
I've been saving JC tokens from the JC daily quests and have nearly 20 tokens now. Buying as many epic gem recipes as possible when the patch gets released. I've saved a few titanium ore stacks and frozen orbs for the Icy Prism, but I doubt I'll get enough gems out of it.
Since everyone buys the raw gems and not everyone can cut them, I can just buy the raw gems and still get profit for cutting them.
im mgonna be on the low end of the totem pole XD i have eng and i think mining i havent played in about 2 weeks but the thing is my eng is like 390 and mining is probably still a low lvl so i doubt it will be at 450 by the time the patch comes out so there goes my money out the window haha i hope i can level them soon