Insider Trader: Most popular crafter gear on the Armory
by Michael Gray 
Jan 29th 2010 at 2:00PM
At the same time, you need to make sure they actually sell. Like the Big Deal said in the Priceline commercial, "Is it wise to allow a perishable item to spoil?" Titansteel and most other reagents aren't perishable, of course, but they sure as heck don't make you money chilling out in your bank. You want those puppies to move.
WoWPopular is a neat site that scans the Armory and pulls down data about the most popular gear, specs, and enchants sitting on extant characters. The Crafter's Tome got together with WoWPopular to put together a list of the popular crafted gear items on the Armory. We can use this information to guess how you should use your reagents to stock the Auction House, minimizing the number of reagents that go to waste by collecting dust.
As you would probably expect, a lot of our best guesses about the most popular classes goes a long way towards showing us what the best selling items probably are. Since everyone and their 5-year-old sister has a death knight, there's a lot of plate items on the most popular crafted gear list. When we're collecting money on the Auction House, an alt who's dressed in all crafting items spends money that's just as valid as any main's cash.
So, let's take a look behind the jump and talk about what the most popular crafter gear is for each profession.
Gems
The most popular gem on the Armory is the Runed Scarlet Ruby. (I'll pause a moment for all your dramatic gasps of shock.) It's almost three times as popular as any other gem cut, presumably because the +19 Spell Power gem is worthwhile to the largest cross-section of characters: any spell caster. (Strength gems only really work out for the three plate-wearing classes, for example, while the rest of the physical types tend to rock raw Attack Power.) A close second to the Runed Scarlet Ruby, according to WoWPopular itself, is the Runed Cardinal Ruby. The epic level pattern is probably slightly less popular because the epic gems are more difficult to come by. There will be proportionally more alts and dusty characters wearing the old blue-quality gem.
The next most popular gems are the Solid cuts of either the Sky Sapphire or the Majestic Zircon. The Sky Sapphire is actually much more popular, but I'm guessing it's for similar reasons as the Scarlet Ruby. It's cheap and easy to get compared to the only slightly better Majestic Zircon. This +Stamina gem probably ranks so high because every tank wants as much Stamina as possible . . . and so do many PvP players. The cross-section makes Stamina a very attractive gem stat. (I guess it'd only be completely useless to those players who never, ever die and are somehow nearly immortal. Note that I'm not advocating Stamina over your usual powergame stats, I'm just saying it's not total slop. Dead rogues do no damage.)
The third most popular gem is the Bold Scarlet Ruby. If you got the materials sitting around, expect its epic counterpart -- the Bold Cardinal Ruby -- to go for similar big bucks.While I pointed above that only three plate classes get the big benefit from Strength. But those three classes are immensely popular. So the sheer raw number of people playing death knights, warriors, and paladins drive the demand for these three gems up through the roof.
Blacksmithing
Blacksmiths get a little lucky in their crafted gear choices, since they get to make everyone's weapon. Healers, DPS, and tanks can all find some good stuff from the blacksmithing trade. Still, I bet you can guess the single most popular blacksmithing item still to this very day, right?
If you guessed the Titansteel Guardian, you win yourself a prize. It can service all the healing classes, as well as providing DPS items for all of their casting DPS specs. It goes both ways, you see. Other than that, the next two popular items for blacksmiths are the Tempered Titansteel Helm and the Spiked Titansteel Helm. I think these two items are so popular because of the relative difficulty of picking up a hat until you have sufficient Emblems of Frost, and folks want the quick headstart on gear. (Get what I did there?) The Spiked hat does have a lot of tasty hit rating, as well, which will make it serviceable to plate DPS classes for a very long time.
All of these items are still good for bootstrapping someone into a raid, and they're relatively quickly and easily made for the cost of their materials. That kind of longevity is going to keep these items relevant, even in the current Icecrown Citadel environment.
Leatherworking and TailoringLeatherworking and Tailoring both have the same benefit: they provide relevant enchants to even the very highest tier of gear, so they haven't dropped off in value at all. I already talked about these items a great deal a few weeks ago, and I don't want to rehash that territory. Check out What to sell, what to sell.
Inscription
In a radical change from normal operating procedure, there are a few very clear winners for most popular glyphs on the Armory. According to The Crafter's Tome, the four most popular glyphs on the Armory are Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth, Glyph of Raise Dead, Glyph of Horn of Winter, and Glyph of Levitate. So there we go. If you're a master of Inscription, you have a good target for the four most popular glyphs to list on the Auction House.
Engineering
Engineering only has so many saleable materials, two of which are the obvious Icecrown arrows and bullets. The Armor Plated Combat Shotgun is still amazingly popular on Armory characters, as is the Heartseeker Scope. While hunters don't seem to still be the default character class for new players or farming characters, they're still very popular. These crafted staples of hunter gear are still valuable to folks who aren't rocking raid gear.
Explanations for Popularity
The first and obvious example for why many of these items are still so popular has to do with the nature of alts and alting. While you want your secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary characters to be in viable, feasible gear, you're not going to go hilt-deep in trying to equip them with the very best items. And there are so many hours in the day!
So if you want a fresh-to-80 character to be viable without running a bunch of old instances and raids, crafted gear can still give you a quick jog up. If you list a Destroyer on the Auction House for 900 gold, for example, that's not a lot of cash to someone who just wants to get their brand new death knight viable as fast as possible.
Secondly, it's easy to forget that there are millions of players in WoW. This could be hard to believe for many of us, but there are people who don't like raids or instances. For those folks, these crafted items will be the best gear they'll see in Wrath. While it might be below an Icecrown raider's preferred iLevel, it's all still pretty awesome to someone who'll barely see the inside of 5-man isntances.
Thanks to The Crafter's Tome and WoWPopular for the data!
Each week, Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness.Filed under: Insider Trader (Professions)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Lathana Jan 29th 2010 2:08PM
What.....no love for enchanting...still a profession that crafts items (scrolls) right?
Viper007Bond Jan 29th 2010 2:19PM
People actually buy enchants off the AH? Not to mention scrolls aren't cheap.
I honestly think most people use trade chat and rely on tips, or at least they do on my server.
Lathana Jan 29th 2010 2:23PM
You'd be surprised how much Massacre sells for. I think mostly because people are too lazy to farm the mats themselves and would rather just shell out the gold.
Catalyst Jan 29th 2010 2:26PM
From my experience with enchanting, all of the 440+ enchants sell. It's just a matter of finding which ones are not being undercut to all hell. On my server it's Powerful Stats and Armsman that sell consistently well.
Hal Jan 29th 2010 3:01PM
Enchanting would have been here a while ago, but with the advent of the disenchant option for loot, most people are carrying around more enchanting materials than you can shake a stick at. The price of the mats seems to be bottoming out, and most people would rather just tip a person from trade chat than spend the cash on the AH.
That being said, there's always a market for the lazy, for those who don't get mats from dungeon-running, and those rare(ish) enchantments that your trade merchants don't necessarily carry (for example, I spent two weeks looking for someone with Accuracy).
Sunaseni Jan 29th 2010 3:13PM
Enchants are a very lucrative business. You can sell enchants for far more than the material cost, simply due to the convenience of only having to search the AH and never having to trade your mats to another player. This convenience is what people pay for, and sometimes it can be more than the materials themselves.
Kylenne Jan 29th 2010 3:30PM
My main is an enchanter, and my consistent big money makers are Massacre, Powerful Stats, and any of the best old world enchants. Basically any enchant considered BiS for an heirloom sells like hotcakes. I make more money on Fiery, Crusader and the +15 Agility to 1h weapon than I do on most Wrath enchants, for far less mat farming effort.
Number one seller for me? Mongoose, by far. If you're an enchanter it's worth trying to farm it from Kara, due to its relative rarity these days on a lot of realms. Depending on your class/spec you may even be able to solo Moroes (a friend of mine did this on her protadin, in a mixture of T9, badge and ICC-5 gear).
Evelinda Jan 30th 2010 12:52AM
honestly, i have made so much money from enchanting scrolls its not funny. admittedly, with the new disenchant option, there's less money to be made, but the highest glove/bracer chants i find still sell for 100-150g each on the ah on my server, and with the abundance of cheap mats, its easier than ever to make them...
johnthediver Jan 29th 2010 2:10PM
Why do I always feel like Alchemy gets the short shrift on new content and new recipes? We are still making the same flasks that were available on release day of wrath. Why cant we get upgrades of our flasks?
Kavu Jan 29th 2010 2:19PM
Amen!
faradhim Jan 29th 2010 2:22PM
They are not. I have 4 level 80 epic toons(GS 2400-2700 wowheroes) and 4 maxed out professions. All of them can bring steady income if you know what you are doing. My Alchemist has xmute mastery. She transmutes epic gem once a day and pocket the profit (120-140gp/transmute). There is little money in potions on my server but gem transmutes are very profitable. It is all about research and crafting the right items.
(cutaia) Jan 29th 2010 2:41PM
I wish you'd get some new flasks too. Somehow, going from 43,000 health to 44,300 health doesn't have that much wow factor...
Gulliver Jan 29th 2010 3:09PM
@ fardim. Shhhh.... Don't let everyone on to our secret!
(2 max lvl alchemists here)
Jorges Jan 29th 2010 3:31PM
I think of this very frequently. Blizzard has just forgot about us chemical-mixer folks. There's no love for us :(
Damarlen Jan 29th 2010 3:31PM
Lol. Lolololololol. Try being an Engineer. We have almost NOTHING that sells...the only people who can USE engineering items are the people who can MAKE engineering items. The exceptions are scopes, guns and ammo. Making the Combat Plated Shotgun is EXPENSIVE, and on my server at least, the finished product sells for less than the raw mats. No profit there. We used to be able to make injectors to sell, but now they have no benefit for anyone except engineers, so that is shot. No profit there. Mammoth Cutters used to sell for 8g per stack, but now with the new ICC ammo, the mats are so cheap that they sell for less than 2g/stack and the market is flooded. No profit there. We can make the Chopper, but not many people can afford that, and the mats add up to at least as much as the finished product sells on the AH. No profit there. Getting the trend here? 2 new recipes since Wrath started, and very few of us can get them, and they don't sell for much either. Nothing else we make sells. To anyone...for anything. Oh you poor hard done-by alchemists. :-)
nikdaheratik Jan 29th 2010 7:29PM
The point seems to be that either you have a very competitive market on your server, or you aren't doing your research. You can make a fair chunk on pets, guns and a few other novelty items, but you have to know how to get the mats cheap. You can't print unlimited cash like JC/Enchanting/Inscription but you are about the same level as blacksmithing or alchemy. Plus, you can always pick up a 2nd profession to make gold off of.
Sehvekah Jan 29th 2010 7:38PM
Engineers have the mechanical yeti, mats arn't always cheap(average about 100g on my server, can flux as high as 200), but they sell for 180-300g each. Mechanical squirrels are good too, especially at lower levels, as maybe 50s-1g in mats turns into 5-25g sales per squirrel. There's also the mechanical toad, *if* you have the schematic for it. Cheaper mats than the yeti(by 25 g on average), *and* it sells for more(250-400g).
Yes, non-combat pets are "boring", but people will buy them, and more gold in *your* pocket is never boring.
KrusherX Jan 30th 2010 4:05PM
No money in potions??? I make roughly 5-10g per flask as profit. Add to this the random procs of flask mastery (30-40g profit per flask) and you have yourself a steady income of money.
It doesnt seem a lot but I produce around 30-40 flasks a day depending on frost lotus prices and availability. Add to this the epic transmute and I make a good 500-700g profit a day from alchemy (depending on competition, cost of raw materials and random procs from mastery).
Of course it needs a major investment (roughly 2k gold to buy all mats for a day's production).
faradhim Jan 29th 2010 2:20PM
Things that are really popular aren't necessary the things sells best. How well something sells is governed solo by supply and demand. Demand maybe very high but it is probably also true 2000 crafters are making those items to sell. As a long time goblin, take this advice. Do reality on local AH to see what sells well and are most profitable instead blindly following others' advices.
t0xic Jan 29th 2010 2:25PM
The link to the Glyph of Unburdened Rebirth is pointing to Glyph of Raise Dead. They sound similar, but they're really quite different =)