I've asked a
version of this question previously in a Breakfast Topic when I was curious about which class had the easiest time making gold. There didn't seem to be much of a consensus in the comments, which is a good thing. No one class seemed to have an overwhelming advantage when it came to piling up a boatload of gold. But since
Cataclysm launched, it's a question I've occasionally pondered whenever I hear someone grouse about the expense of gemming a tier set or enchanting a new weapon. One of the players in question was a max-level jewelcrafter, which threw me for a moment.
"Shouldn't you be making money hand over fist on the Auction House?" I asked.
"You can," he said. "But a lot of it just pays back the expense of leveling JC in the first place or recouping the cost of buying ore and gems."
I'm curious. For all those of you out there who have two primary professions or just a host of alts with different trade skills, which one has earned you the most?
What is WoW's most lucrative profession?| Alchemy | 952 (13.1%) |
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| Blacksmithing | 256 (3.5%) |
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| Enchanting | 1292 (17.8%) |
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| Engineering | 225 (3.1%) |
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| Inscription | 1185 (16.3%) |
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| Jewelcrafting | 2980 (41.1%) |
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| Leatherworking | 165 (2.3%) |
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| Tailoring | 193 (2.7%) |
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Jan 23rd 2012 at 8:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
trefpoid Jan 23rd 2012 11:55AM
@Edymnion how can you not? one time I bought cheap hearbs for about 500g and transformed them into 8k in 3 days. There are glyphs selling for 300g on my server, it's insane how much money you can make with it. The only problem is the fierce competition, but if you are willing to fight, you will swim in cash.
Jax831 Jan 24th 2012 5:15PM
Sorry but I have to disagree. I make at least 5k gold by farming the stone dragons in deepholm. Then making the mats into leg enchants. Its not usually a time buster either, just farming a couple hours a week.
mabibba Jan 24th 2012 3:48AM
I honestly didn't expect people to even look at my comment let alone reply.
@Galatea, I can honestly say I never thought about that. Perhaps I need to do more work on my LW. I quite enjoy this topic so far, it's educational to me, so maybe now I won't be sitting at only 1k gold most of the time.
...What? I like to buy companion pets.
Kram Jan 23rd 2012 8:36AM
If you're not making money with jewelcrafting, you're doing it wrong. I will admit that it can be server specific though. I had a guy in my guild complaining he couldnt make any money with it, and didnt believe me when I told him I'd made 7k that day already with it. Especially with high red gem prices, carnelians will almost allow you to break even on a stack of ore, even at almost 100g a stack...
Though to be honest, combing alchemy and enchanting with jewelcrafting is definitely the way to go for max gold this xpac. Elementium shuffle ftw.
Edymnion Jan 23rd 2012 8:49AM
I make the most money off my Alchemist. When most of the herbs I can buy off the AH for 50g a stack (including the volatile lifes), I'm looking at less than 75g per flask to craft, and I sell them at 100-150g each, plus my elixir mastery, its not uncommon to see my inbox flooded with gold on Tuesdays.
Which is good, I can't tell you how many other professions its paid for or how many fast flyers its bought.
Zura Jan 23rd 2012 9:02AM
Ive had most luck with jc, but it only works if paired with transmute alch or ench. The low quality gems don't sell on ah so you need to turn them into ench mats or meta gems to see the real profits. I know Fox loves inscription, and it maybe ok if only selling trinkets and fortunes, but I found selling glyphs exhausting... Too many different products to list to be fun.
Vagrant Jan 23rd 2012 9:06AM
trade skill master is your friend there. I recently set foot into the exciting world of inscription. I'm on a small realm, but still, I make some ok money, though it has a lot of relisting efford. But the margins on some glyphs are mad. 90-95% profit. So it sells slow, but when you sell, it's nearly pure profit
Zura Jan 23rd 2012 11:15AM
"lot of relisting effort" was the exhausting part. Just emptying mailbox took forever. I was scared away from TSM by the 2-or-3 part how-to series that Basil did on gold capped articles, it looked very complicated. I found a nice flow with JC with 2-5 cuts of each color and about 9 cuts meta. I'm up to 350k gold now and kinda bored with gold making, yay for raid finder giving me something else to do.
xenothaulus Jan 23rd 2012 8:59AM
Right now for me it's Enchanting. I'm pulling in 5-10 times g/day compared to my other profs (all but tailoring and engineering.) Honestly JC is a losing game right now for my server, and glyphs have been totally dead most of this expansion.
Chetti Jan 23rd 2012 9:00AM
I have a max JC (that is now coupled with a max mining, but that wasn't always the case), a max alchemist (who's 2nd profession is now herbalism, again, after I'd drop max herbing for mining mid another prof change on an alt), and a max Tailor/Engineer. Odd grouping ya might say, but even though some 2nd profs changed, the main crafty ones didn't (except JC was a late decision therefore powerleveled and pricey-er than it may have been if I'd be doing it while leveling). Once I realized how they worked together, I ended up being able to save some money. For example, 3 of each green level gem transmutes into 2 shadowspirit diamons (x-mute mastery), heart blooms and the red gem make an inferno, etc.
JC at the last 100 points was expensive, but while I was really at it and still playing that toon I made a bit of the money back on the gems. Sometimes it wasn't the cut gems that made me the most money, it was the green level gems that are used in the JC daily or to make fire prisms that brought me the most income. Infernos, bold or brilliant, were always good sellers. I don't do this much anymore, I just use it to save me money gemming my own gear now that my main is a raiding toon.
My Tailor/Engineer is my main. No matter what level of tailoring I was at, I could always make money on extra cloth (bolted or not). When I hit netherweave, those bags sell pretty good all the time. They still do. Even when I was past it, and way into frostweave, I'd go farm up some netherweave and make bags. The last 100-150 points were a little expensive, I tried to make only the things that gave me more than one skill up OR only used cloth and thread. At max though, I sell more bolts of cloth now than products. I'll make embersilk bags when the price is up and there aren't many on. Mostly I'll sell single bolts depending on what is up. Getting the cloth is free (tol barad dailies, dungeon runs) and I get LOTS of it, I bolt it and hold onto it. I'll keep 2 stacks on me for dreamcloth making, but slowly unload anything over that into the AH. Whatever I make is profit. Engineering on the other hand wasn't chosen for its ability to make money, I wanted the fun (and useful) stuff. However, I've been selling woodchuckers left and right since I got the pattern. Not because I make them and put em in the AH, but because people in trade will ask for one and they'll give me mats and a nice tip. I don't require the tip with their mats, but I will take it. While leveling I did sell some pets, but I wouldn't call it "lucrative".
The alchemist isn't even 85 yet, but her herbs are high enough that when I hit 80 (yeeah I been slightly lazy with this alt) I will be able to pick herbs in cata zones. I will be attempting to make some of the money back on flasks that I spent maxing it early. But, that won't be for a while. She's my shadowspirit/inferno transmuter at the moment. It was also nice to have transmute titanium without a cd for making bars when I was making choppers. :)
So, overall, I'd say tailoring has made me the most money and continues to make me the most money. It surprises me what people pay for a single bolt of embersilk, but I won't complain. Also, I farm up a CRAP TON of frostweave from icecrown when I'm bored and put those stacks up, and those always sell for nice amounts and I never get any back for reposting. I have the purchase-able epic patterns (when the dreamless belt was the best you could have), and made a little on those. I haven't seen DS patterns at all, but I'd imagine tailors with those could rake in some gold (once they made their own of course).
Michael Jan 23rd 2012 9:00AM
The most lucrative profession is always the one(s) I don't have on any of my alts.
Gendou Jan 23rd 2012 9:05AM
My bank alt is JC/Inscription.
If I actually put in time and am not lazy, I make decent money.
The problem is that I don't put in time and am lazy. :(
Tauren Fan Jan 23rd 2012 9:05AM
It's tough to make the call between professions where you can easily make a nice bit of gold each day with little effort (JC or Alch xmutes as two examples) vs ones where you can put in effort and make a huge amount of gold. I voted for inscription since it probably has the most limitless market, provided you have the time and patience to put up with undercutting and reposting. Even chanting, while very lucrative, runs into the issue that the demand can be limited and it is an easy market to saturate.
To summarize, I would recommend alchemy or enchanting for players looking to make a solid, consistent profit, but if you are looking to amass a fortune go for inscription.
slim1256 Jan 23rd 2012 9:14AM
Ugh - do NOT go inscription unless you:
1 - have the proper addons for cancelling relisting
and
2 - are prepared to camp the AH constantly.
The margins are HUGE in that market, but the competition is constant, cut-throat, and omnipresent. It all comes down to - who's got the lowest cost "Glyph of _____" at the exact moment someone decides to go to the AH and by a "Glyph of _____" In that sense, it's a little like hitting the lotto, though the odds aren't quite THAT bad.
Noyou Jan 23rd 2012 9:40AM
I like the idea of people telling others NOT to go into a profession. It makes it better for those of use who make money from ours ;) I don't use any addons, I do fine. If you can't put a little time into a crafting profession that can make you thousands of gold a week, it doesn't matter what addons you have. Making gold of anything is a matter of will. You either have it or not.
slim1256 Jan 23rd 2012 9:52AM
I don't strictly disagree with you, but the point is - if you get into inscription, you should know what you're getting into.
My best advice on this front is - pay attention to the market on your server before you get into it. How many people are already in it? How frequently are they undercutting each other? What's the cost of mats vs the price point of the glyphs? How much are Books of Glyph Mastery (since many of the most valuable glyphs only come from this source)? Are you ready to spend 2 months of doing inscription research EVERY DAY to learn new glyphs?
Once you have a feel for all of that stuff - then make your decision.
I've done the glyph thing, and made very good money at it... but it wasn't my bag. There was so much competition in that market, I chose to go elsewhere. I'm at about 400% of my gold total from when 4.3 dropped, so it's working for me. :)
Legs Jan 23rd 2012 10:14AM
I make a decent chunk of change on my inscription, and I specifically ignore glyphs: I do it all with fortune cards, and by selling my inferno ink off (since I don't want any part of trying to make decks). I have experimented a bit with using the inferno ink for the PvP relics, but I think I came to that a bit late in the expansion.
Artificial Jan 23rd 2012 1:07PM
If you're doing inscription right, you never have to cancel/relist your auctions, you don't have to camp the AH, and the competition is not that much. The margins are not huge, but the cashflow is. The problem is, most people try to do it wrong way, trying stupidly to maximize profit per glyph (despite having an unlimited supply) instead of trying to maximize profit per day (done best by selling lots, rather than selling few for lots), thus both increasing the amount of work they need to do (camping and relisting), increasing the amount of competition they have (high margins attract competitors in droves), and decreasing their sales (pricing themselves beyond the reach of many new players, casuals, etc, not to mention all the sales lost to all those competitors). Luckily, such players are easy to steamroll right out of the market by anyone with a clue. Price your glyphs right and undercut aggressively when do your daily posting (once per day is enough -- I don't have time to camp the AH), and the competition folds en masse while you rake in gold like crazy.
slim1256 Jan 23rd 2012 9:06AM
I chose JCing for the poll, but honestly - there is a lot of potential and synergies in most of the professions. It mainly requires paying attention.
I've made very good profit on JCing, Enchanting, Alchemy, and Inscription. Tailoring has been ok (Bags sell well, but are fairly low margins, and spell threads have tanked on my server for some reason - I think there's a lot of competition there for Tailors, cause right now they have nothing else). I'm still leveling my Blacksmith, and I haven't even started Leatherworking or Engineering yet.
Bottom line, though - if you find your niche, you can make money with most (probably all) of these professions... but JCing was by far the fastest, highest profit profession for me.
Chetti Jan 23rd 2012 9:15AM
Spellthreads tanked on my server too. Sometimes I can catch them high, and in time to cash in, but I just don't make them to have them on hand anymore. I always have dreamcloth in my bank though. I have embersilk in mass quantity all the time, so whenever I have enough of whatever volatile or orbs I'll make one. I've been stashing them in hopes of DS patterns (bracers are what I need now). But lately I've been holding onto my volatiles/orbs just in case I don't get the pattern but I know someone who does.