Today’s gold making tip is a response to an email I received a couple days ago. The person wrote:

Hello !

I’m planning to level a second character on the other faction of my server, using a death knight as a banking alt.

And I was thinking, since that death knight can be leveled to 60 without blinking, and Grand Master <Profession> requires lvl 60, I could perhaps use it as a profession mule too.

What would you recommend as the best four-profession combo ? The main I would be leveling from 1-80 would be a rogue.

Thanks in advance,

Aeltyr

This is a very good question. First I will cover the Death Knight aspect. If you have a DK “bank alt” that you can get to level 60 that you do not plan on playing, there is one way you can make fairly good amount of gold. I would recommend Tailoring + enchanting. You are probably thinking WTFBBQ are you talking about?!?! There are 6 main reasons why I say this.

1. Tailoring and Enchanting go very well together. You can level Tailoring at no net loss if you sell the DE mats, or use those mats to level your enchanting.

2. There are also many ways to make gold off crafting tailoring items and DE’ing them for profit. (I DE Brown Linen Robes, Azure Silk Cloaks, White Bandit Masks, and Low level Netherweave items for a 50% profit margin)

3. Tailors can make gold crafting Netherweave Bags, I sell about 100 a week. This also gives you a cheap source to obtain bags for other alts/banks etc. (I will have a article on the numbers of this tomorrow)

4. You can Purchase items off the AH and DE them for profit if you don’t want to craft things.

5. You can take the cloth that you receive from leveling and turn it into something more valuable (enchant mats) and that have no listing fees.

6. You can DE all the greens you get and sell the enchant mats, again enchant mats have no listing fees while greens do.

However if you do not want tailoring as a profession on your alt, you can try inscription. This is a nice way to make gold (through Northrend Darkmoon Faire Cards, crafting glyphs etc).

For leveling, I always recommend Skinning + (Mining or Herbalism). I know some people say to do Mining and Herbalism, but I find it rather annoying to use macros to switch tracking etc. Skinning is easy money that you can get just for killing the mobs you need to xp and you don’t need to go out of your way.

If you want to be a leatherworker at 80, save the leather you skin. This will allow you to not have any upfront costs of leveling the profession. You can do this by having a bank alt with a bunch of bags, or use the mail system to send mails to your alt that you never open. (if in 30 days you haven’t cleared it out, it will be sent back to your main, but make sure you do something with it then or it will disappear when the mail expires)

Choosing between Herbalism and Mining depends on what you want to do when your 80 .

Do you want to be an Alchemist or Inscriptionists? Choose Herbalism. Herbalism also works great if you choose Inscription on your DK and Alchemy later on your main.

Do you want to be a Jewelcrafter, Engineer or Blacksmith? Choose Mining. However, do NOT smelt the ore, I repeat do NOT smelt it!!! Even if you’re going to choose Engineer or Blacksmith. Lower level ore sells for more than bars since it can be used for more professions (all three + someone leveling mining with smelting). Bigger market to sell too also means a quicker sale. If you choose to go Mining or Engineering, I recommend dropping skinning first to pick it up so you have your smelting ability still available to help speed up the process of leveling.

If you want to pick professions based on money making abilities I would choose Jewelcrafting and Leatherworking (assuming you already have tailoring and enchanting). There are several Leatherworking items you can DE, along with selling armor kits. Jewelcrafting is also a goldmine as well. However, with the increasing numbers of Jewelcrafters, you would need to be smart with the market. Save gems for big rush times (ie new seasons, new instances that provide lots of new gear)

If you have any questions your self, feel free to email me at webmaster@wowconomics.com and I will try my best to answer your questions.

I also tend to lean towards DE’ing items than selling them. You will usually recoup more of your cost of leveling the profession to tip a friend to DE all your items than to list the items for sale. The reasoning behind this is Enchant mats have no listing fee. You can re list the item till it sells with no cost to you if it doesn’t and many craftables have a steep listing fee, which cuts into recouping your gold from leveling. Enchant mats also tend to sell quicker. Someone power leveling enchanting will buy about 4-5 stacks of a dust in 1 day, while someone leveling will most likely buy only one item.

I also choose items that have better sell speeds. If it costs a little more to craft but it is more likely to sell, you will save money from relisting the item several times if it doesn’t sell for a week+

General rules when leveling crafting professions:

1. Spending more mats on something that is more desirable or gives a higher DE value will give you a smaller net loss.

2. If you have to sell items, don’t list them all on the same day. List 1-2 items at a time

3. Have an enchanter handy. Either one of your other characters (strongly recommended even if it’s an alt you rarely use) or a friend that you can trust, and just give a tip to DE the items.

4. Look for the smallest net lost, not the cheapest to make. Sometimes it’s the same item, sometimes it’s not.

5. Profits will vary by server. If you have a lot of people DE’ing for profit you won’t make as much back. If you don’t, you will make quite a bit of gold.

6. You may be making things that don’t get you a skill point every level however, you are not “losing” gold if the crafting cost is less than the AH value and DE.

The column with mats is the amount of mats needed if you skill up every time. You will probably need more, but this is a good starting point on what to purchase.

I touched on crafting enchanting rods for the Auction House in the Gold Guide. But today, I am going to go in greater detail on how to make this profitable.

If your lower level or don’t have a lot of cash flow, the lower level rods is where you can make some starter money.

However, those don’t make you a large profit per sale. The best rods to craft for resale and respective mats are:

• Fel Iron Rod: 6 Fel Iron Bars
• Adamantite Rod: 10 Adamantite Bars
• Eternium Rod: 4 Eternium Bars
• Titanium Rod: 2 Saronite Bars and 1 Titanium Bars

I recommend making only 1 of any bar you want to sell and list it on the Auction House.  I prefer listing 24 hour auctions so I can relist them in a day to ensure I am the lowest price, which will in turn create faster sales.  If you notice your selling more than one in a 24 hour period craft more to list at a time.

These rods are needed by enchanters and usually sell for more than the mats cost. Having 1 of each rod level on the AH can keep a constant supply on there. Once you get a feel on how quickly they sell you can increase the number you list.

Skeleton Keys

I usually have a couple of these on me for those moments where you don’t have a rouge to open a chest you come across. More times than not, the cost of the key is covered by what is inside plus some profit.

Eternal Belt Buckle

I sell several of these a day. (they will mainly sell when everyone on your server is gearing up, or new loot is released). The mats on the AH on my server sell for around 30g and the buckle sells for 65g+

Craftables to DE

I have not been able to find an item I can consistently DE for profit. Yes sometimes you can get ore cheap enough because someone prices it wrong, but I choose to prospect the ore instead since it usually yields better profit.

Patch 3.0.3