Production professions involve the making of or the improving of items through different processes and abilities. Every production profession in World of Warcraft is unique in its own rite and each can be a valuable skill to have when it comes to making gold. Here we will talk about the most profitable aspects of these skills.
Professions Within Professions
Some players consider the following skills professions within a profession because they are very unique and can easily bring in a lot of gold when used correctly. Some even take up their host profession just so they may take advantage of these secondary skills.
Disenchanting
Disenchanting requires destroying a green quality item or better to get materials for enchanting abilities. This is invaluable when farming instances because of the amount of BoP items you pick up that most likely will be of no use to you. This following chart shows what you may get from the quality of item you disenchant.
This next chart will be explaining what your enchanting skill needs to be before you can disenchant higher level equipment. The higher you enchanting skill goes you can DE higher level items, Enchanting was not always based like this but it was done to keep a balance within the trade skill so you actually had to invest in an enchanter to take advantage of its secondary skill.
The above chart only outlines the items that are possible to receive through disenchanting and these items are not guaranteed to drop off of disenchanted items but give you a great idea of what you might obtain. The reason for this is each item has a separate value for what will drop from it being disenchanted. Using the above 2 charts together should give you a great idea of what your disenchanted item may yield.
Prospecting
Prospecting is the ability to take 5 ore of almost any type and pull powders and/or gems from it. The higher level ore, the better gems you receive, the chart below outlines what gems are extracted from which ore and the powder for that ore.
Prospecting can turn into a lot of gold and this is why some people labor through the process of leveling Jewelcrafting to receive better quality gems. From a stack of Fel Iron Ore you can easily turn it into a Talasite and a Living Ruby along with some of the smaller gems while the above two items sell easily for 60 gold combined the rest is just easy money.
Transmutes
Transmutes require a Philosopher’s Stone http://www.thottbot.com/i9149 and have a cool down of 2 days. Items produced from transmutation are very valuable and usually highly needed. A good example of this is Arcanite Bar http://www.thottbot.com/i12360 which is needed by Blacksmiths to make some items and Mercurial Stone http://www.thottbot.com/i31080 which is needed by Jewelcrafters to produce Mercurial Adamantite for some of their higher level items. Before you start transmuting check your current markets needs or simply post in a main cities trade channel something like, “WTS Arcanite Transmute 3g with your mats!” The 3 gold is simply a tip, you will be burning a 2 day cool down so when you transmute make sure there is profit to be made.
Another strategy is to just buy or find the materials and transmute a valuable item yourself and as long as it is not BoP place it in the auction house and see what happens. I have been able to easily sell an Arcanite Bar for 30 gold on more than one occasion. The high value items that transmutation yields is why some players pick up Alchemy because you can also transmute lower selling items to higher profit items like Essence of Air to Essence of Fire or even transmute primal in the same way and save yourself some mote farming which we will be discussing later in the farming chapter.
Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing is the ability to use bars of metal to make armor, keys, counterweights, shield spikes, and using stones with cloth to produce items like sharpening or weightstones. High level blacksmiths can produce amazing epic quality BoP items like any other profession on the production side of things. Blacksmithing begins at mail armor later progressing to plate. It contains several specializations like Armorsmith, Axesmith, Swordsmith, Macesmith, and Weaponsmith; each of which has it’s own unique BoP items of great power.
Any blacksmith can produce sharpening stones and weightstones. These items provide a passive way to add to a character’s DPS (Damage per Second) and sell quite well when produced and placed up for auction. Below, I have provided a chart detailing skill needed, the item, materials required for production, and each items approximate auction house value:
Alchemy
Alchemy is a powerful and needed profession as you can produce potions with various effects, flasks of great power, and transmute materials. Your potions vary from being able to heal, restore mana, give extra hit points, boost stats, grant invisibility, and much more. The flasks you produce have huge effects and greatly boost stats and have amazing effects. These even last through death while potions do not and this quality makes them very valuable especially in a raid environment. Transmutes were discussed earlier and can make you a lot of gold if used correctly.
Below, I have listed a chart of the best selling potions, alchemy skill needed, materials needed to produce the potion, and approximate auction house value:
Healing potions are great but mana potions sell just as well. Below I have included a chart detailing skill required, the item, materials needed, and approximate auction house value:
Leatherworking
Leatherworking uses skins and hides taken from creatures killed and then skinned from a skinner. The specializations are Elemental, Tribal, and Dragonscale each which produce amazing armor depending on your character and sometimes the player’s talent spec. Elemental and Tribal are leather armor used either by druids or rogues while Dragonscale is mail armor frequently used by hunters and shamans. BoP items made from these specializations are great until you can raid and get better equipment (sometimes).
Leatherworkers can produce armor kits which add extra armor or stats when applied. Below, I have included a chart detailing the skill needed, the item, materials required, and approximate auction house value:
Enchanting
This is the art of magically improving a currently existing item. Producing wands, or making magic oils; this is enchanting. High level enchantments are often sought after for improving end-game equipment and are very valuable. Enchanting is a gold mine in it’s own rite especially if you received your mats through disenchanting. You can easily make 100 gold from each high level enchant you do this way, plus possibly a tip. This is a very valuable profession to pick up but an expensive one to level as enchanting mats are rather expensive. This is an amazing profession if you already have a max level character to fund the leveling of this skill.
Engineering
Gadgets, Trinkets, and Bombs oh my! Engineering makes use of a variety of objects and turns them into ingenious inventions. With engineering you can produce battle ready pets, goggles, trinkets, gadgets, and even use a couple of teleporters. Gnomish and Goblin engineering are the specializations within this trade skill. Gnomish engineering is taken mainly for the trinkets and inventive gadgets it lets you make while Goblin is more for those with an aptitude for explosives and extra damage potential. Epic goggles ranging from cloth to plate are able to be made at an engineering of 375 and are very nice depending on what you are looking for.
Engineers are well known for their bombs, but the problem with most engineering goods is that only engineers may use them. EZ-Throw Dynamite is an exception to this rule and when placed on auction usually sells very well.
Item: Ez-Throw Dynamite http://www.thottbot.com/i6714
Skill Needed: 100
Materials: 4x Coarse Blasting Powder, 1x Wool Cloth
Approximate Value: 1-2 Gold per stack of 20
Recipe: Schematic: EZ-Throw Dynamite http://www.thottbot.com/i6716
Target: Druid of the Fang (Wailing Caverns, 0.2% drop rate, Normal Mode)
Defias Pirate (The Deadmines, 0.3% drop rate, Normal Mode)
Item: Ez-Throw Dynamite II http://www.thottbot.com/i18588
Skill Needed: 200
Materials: 1x Solid Blasting Powder, 2x Mageweave
Approximate Value: 4-6 Gold per stack of 20
Recipe: Schematic: EZ-Throw Dynamite II http://www.thottbot.com/i18650
Target: Vendor, Blizrik Buckshot (Tanaris, 50 Silver)
Vendor, Wrinkle Goodstell (Tanaris, 50 Silver)
An amazing way to make a lot of gold is through selling Motes and Primals, this is considered common knowledge among the denizens of Azeroth. A much lesser known method though is through the Zapthrottle Mote Extractor which extracts Motes from objects that are slightly out of phase. Each node that Zapthrottle is used on will extract between 3 and 5 Motes, with no cooldown (you just need to find another node). This is amazing for engineers whom want a non-combat method of gathering a high demand resource. We will cover how to obtain the mote extractor, optional items that will help while searching for mote clouds, and which mote clouds spawn in which zones.
Zapthrottle Mote Extractor http://thottbot.com/i23821
Skill Needed: 305
Materials: 2x Fel Iron Casing, 2x Handful of Fel Iron Bolts, 4x Primal Life, 1x Delicate Arcanite Convereter
Recipe: Schematic: Zapthrottle Mote Extractor
The Schematic for the mote extractor is obtained from completeing a quest. Speak with either K. Lee Smallfry in Telredor if you're Alliance or Mack Diver in Zabra'Jin if you are Horde. This is an easy quest to complete by gathering Steam Pump Parts from the Dead Mire, but you must have an engineering skill of 305 for the quest to become available. The great thing is that you can complete this quest as early as level 58!
Mote clouds can be hard to find while you speed through a zone on your epic mount but there is an item that will track the clouds and display them on your minimap. Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles are as priceless as the mote extractor as these two items work hand-in-hand to help you gather as many motes as possible. This is an easy to obtain vendor recipe and the mats to produce the goggles aren't too expensive.
Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles http://thottbot.com/?i=56822
Skill Needed: 350
Materials: 4x Heavy Knothide Leather, 2x Khorium Bar, 2x Deep Peridot, 2x Small Prismatic Shards
Recipe: Schematic: Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles http://thottbot.com/i23805
Recipe Sold By: Captured Gnome http://thottbot.com/c19383
Guard Untula http://thottbot.com/c19380
Lebowski http://thottbot.com/c18775
Now on to Mote clouds, there are several types of these which inhabit their own specific zone. Swamp Gas http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=17378 is located in Zangarmarsh and yields Mote of Water, Windy Cloud http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=24222 is located in Nagrand and yields Mote of Air, Arcane Vortex http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=17408 is located within Netherstorm and yields Mote of Mana, and Felmist http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=17407 makes it's home within Shadowmoon Valley and yields Mote of Shadow. I used Wowhead links for the mote clouds because other people have made several custom maps documenting the possible spawn points the clouds may appear near. Keep in mind a couple things while farming these clouds; they move around their small area so you may have to look around a possible spawn area, They can spawn on floating islands or get bugged and spawn in the air and sometimes going after these will mean death for your character as there is no way to obtain them, and they can spawn inside of an arena (Windy clouds regularly spawn within the Nagrand arena, be careful!). These clouds are a great bonus while questing to 70 or just for a farming target if you're tired of combat, be patient and your bags will be filled with Primals!
Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafting has a lot of gold making potential with the ability to make trinkets, cut gems, and prospect ore. Cut gems give a variety of effects from raising attack power, boosting stats, and even adding an extra oomph to your spells. Prospecting is discussed in a section earlier and is a profession all in its own. Jewelcrafter’s can also produce trinkets, ring, necklaces, and headpieces each of which has a unique effect. A jewelcrafter’s beginning rings and trinkets can be used by low level players and usually sell well since nothing else is available yet. As you grow in the art of jewelcrafting try to place blue quality items in the auction house and high usability greens. Cutting gems for other players will make you a lot of money at high levels (much like enchanting for an enchanter).
Cooking
Work your way from a kitchen monger to a five-star chef with cooking and fill your friend’s stomachs with more than a Conjured Cinnamon Roll! Food produced by a chef in World of Warcraft has a variety of effects from turning you into a ninja to boosting your stats all while saving some money from food vendors and helping you recover your health a little faster. A marvelous feast has utility as well as whetting your appetite.
You will want to keep your eye out for Recipe: Savory Deviate Delight as a cook. This dishes holds the power to transform its eater into a pirate or a ninja for an amount of time. This dish can sell between 2 and 5 gold a serving.
First Aid
First Aid is a great way of reducing downtime by using cloth to make bandages that when used restores health. Seek out the vendor in Arathi Highlands to get some first aid training books and place them in the auction house for some profit as not many players venture out to the zone and purchase them from the vendor.
Here is a list of where to buy first aid manuals:
Tailoring
This is the technique of sewing together bolts of cloth with other materials to create clothing or special spellthread. Spellfire, Mooncloth, and Frozen Shadoweave are the specializations for tailoring and have BoP items very useful to their respective type of caster. A single spellthread can sell for around 60 gold and are rather useful to casters as they can work like armor kits and give a boost to certain spell types.
Tailoring is the only profession that has the ability to produce bags. This skill is extremely valuable because you only have to farm the mats and make the item and turn a profit. Higher level bags sell easily for 10 gold each and can roll in some cash. Below is a chart detailing what levels specific cloths drop and which bags need them as mats.
Lockpicking
Rogues of level 20 can complete a quest from their respective trainer to learn the art of picking locks. Lockpicking requires a set of thieves tools in order to use and of course a locked item as your intended target. As you level your lockpicking you can open different doors, lockboxes, and chests. Players may ask this service from you as a rogue and it is usually a good idea to ask for tips when opening lockboxes but you should not make it required. Tips are always appreciated but should not always be expected as there are poor players without this guide out there. When you are opening a chest for your group make sure to have auto loot turned off so you do not pick up loot which may not be yours and save yourself from others being very upset with you. Lockboxes can be received through pickpocketing oozes or humanoids and also through kills. A lot of rogues usually advertise in trade channel of the major cities which lockboxes they can open for players and say tips appreciated but not required. This is a good way of making friends and a solid profit to line your pockets with gold.
Here is a chart for a brief look at lockpicking skill progression:
