Not enough

Plus the fact that the transmute for E->W is considerably harder to get is obviously a factor in the prices too.

Essentially on my server, prices fluctuate something like:

Earth: 5-10 (I recently bought 12 @ 4g90 to set me up for the next fortnight)
Water: ~30
Air: 30-40
Fire: 30-40
Mana: 20-25

Might is usually about 5-10g less than whatever the combined mats are going for at the time

I've been doing an earth --> water transmute everyday and have done 50 transmutes. I've had 1 extra proc 4 times. I was also doing might transmutes or other random transmutes with no procs before getting earth to water, but can't include them since I didn't keep track until I was revered with sporegar. I'd say for me it's been more like a 6-7% chance since the beginning of bc.

1x - 90%
2x - 10%
3x - 0%
4x - 0%
5x - 0%

Wow, the prices on your realm are about 33% higher than mine almost all around (mana is about the same price on ours however). I wonder what causes such a vast difference in pricing.

Amount of farmers? And also that we're not very high pop = more volatile market.

My Mongoose enchant cost me over 1100g too.

Then again, mine is also the type of server where you can easily still turn a profit buying greens, DEing them and selling the results. Ditto for prospecting ore. It's a bit weird really.

My most recent moneymaking scheme was Netherweb, which is insanely easy to farm outside Shattrath in between BGs / Arenas. I've probably sold at least 30 at 8g each in the last 2 weeks. Though the price is now slipping towards 5g at last (all the tailors are finished, maybe?)

Apologies for the de-rail.

More often than not, it's the number of raiding guilds on the server. Raiders consume more materials such as craftables and pots and such as they're more interested in maximizing their character than a typical casual, and they want it sooner rather than later... and with sooner comes the willingness to pay more. How many raiders have their tailoring sets compared to your nonraider? That's a lot of primals needed if you have 15 mages after the massive amounts primal fire etc. rather than 5.

Transmute Master
22 Transmutes
0 Procs

Dropping it come patch time.

Dropping xmute mastery or alchemy? I'm considering switching masteries to potion come patch and I'm wondering if that's a wise decision.

Dropping transmute, more than likely going Potions myself since SMP's and Resto Flasks will be all I need to worry about.

We can switch our mastery in the 2.1 patch?

Yes, 100g fee and you dont have to do a quest when you pick your new mastery.

I have been keeping track of my proc rate since I obtained my Specialty (Elixir) and while I do not have the x1,x2... and stuff tracked, I think the overall amount of extra's created is what matters. So from a sample size of 1722 elixirs created, I have had 297 procs for a 17.247% proc rate as an elixir specialist.

I still have not discovered any of the TBC flasks however, and hope with 2.1 coming out the discovery rate increase will help me with my chances. Elixir mastery has been very profitiable even without the new flask recipies however.

Ive been 'Mute specd since two or three weeks into the expansion. I havent recorded all of my data, but I can say this. Its just as susceptible to the worthless streaky RNG as is the rest of this game. I know the longest Ive gone without a proc is 38 transmutes. Ive had a single x4 proc(3 extra), a handful of x3's but by and large its the x2's. Havent seen a x5 yet. The best streak ive gotten is 3 procs in three transmutes. As much as speculation is frowned upon without raw evidence, from my own eye's I average a proc every 4 transmutes.

Kalman, the expected profit of unit 1 on the Might transmute is zero since you don't ever supply the mats yourself. Substituting numbers from my server (earth=5, water=18, air=27, might=90) that gives expected profits of 16.6 for e->w, 14.4 for w->e, and 18 for might. That is of course assuming 20% is the right number.

Cowbell, I don't think most people are that smart, but at any rate it doesn't make a difference. Trading a Might for the mats and transmuting it later is the same as actually performing the service, you just avoid the uncomfortable conversation when mastery procs.

I funded my pre-TBC raiding as an enchanter; I'll pass on sitting in trade trying to find someone else's might mats to transmute. I do doubt 20% as a number, I suspect the actual rate is probably 10-15%.

I'm probably dropping alchemy post-patch, take up a gathering profession, most likely. At least once I finish abusing it to double my fire farming rate (farm fire and air, air->fire and pray for procs) so as to make all my spellcloth and spellfire mats needs.

You're not really sitting in trade -- I generally see "WTB Might Xmute" at some point during the evening when I'm in a major city. If not, then I either use my mats (which I try to stockpile for just this scenario), see if anyone in guild needs an xmute, or transmute a gem (it won't hurt nearly as much to do this come 2.1).

And honestly, I'm suprised not more xmute masters do this. If I'm not burning a cooldown I also don't charge for the xmute though either, so I have repeat business I can count on as well.

I am pretty sure the proc rates I have seen would average out to around 10-15%.

Ditto for me. I specced Transmute I believe week two of the expansion. It was painful to burn some cash on those early Mights. But over the next three weeks or so, I had 3 - 2x mights. So I'm thinking hey, almost payed off my initial investment, and soon it will be all profit.

Then the RNG turned evil on me. I went the next 20-23 transmutes without a single proc. I started to grumble like many others.

But then I hit a 3x and a 2x on back to back nights. (And finally made my Alchemist Stone from this)

Now I don't sweat it so much. I've made back my initial investment, and the mights for my Alchemist Stone. The procs will happen, and I'll take the profit as it comes.

I can see why people are dissapointed in the transmute spec because of the large start up costs and random rewards, but I personally don't have any complaints.

Before TBC I didn't bother with arcanite transmutes and instead transmuted essence of water to air for a steady source of income I was happy with. Now I ignore primal might transmutes and instead make a steady income from earth to water or earth to air. I got a bit lucky with the transmutes for my alchemists stone, so transmute spec has already paid for itself. Now it contributes about 5g of the 15g a day I make from transmutes, and I will get this income essentially for free for over a year. When I need to make raid consumables I send the mats to guild alchemists with a different spec and they are happy with the extra chances for discoveries.

If I didn't like my alchemist's stone so much I might drop alchemy, but as it is I have an alt with the gathering professions anyway. The only odd thing is the temptation to get the epic mount for my gathering alt instead of my main.

I hate giving away secrets, but your scheme is terrible. Go buy a primal earth for 4-5g, transmute it to water and you've just made at least 15g per transmute (primal water is 20g on my server). That's double what you're getting. You can do your same "stockpile" trick and wait for a good time to dump them all on the AH.

Unfortunately I haven't kept track of the exact number of times I've done might transmutes, but I do remember the number of procs:

50+ primal might transmutes: 4 double mights, the rest single

3 earth -> water transmutes: 0 procs

1 skyfire diamond transmute: 1 double

Unfortunately, like Spaceman above, I havent kept any records of my transmute master's proc rates, suffice to say that the average rate has been high enough to continue farming Primals for the daily transmute. I have seen only 1 x5 Primal Might so far, but approximately 5 of my last 6 transmutes have procced double Primal Mights.

Earthstorm Diamond
2 single procs
1 double proc

Skyfire Diamond
2 single procs
1 double proc

Primal Air
4 single procs

Primal Might
7 single procs
1 double proc

Primal Water
37 single procs
3 double procs

Totals
Sample Size: 58 Transmutes
Things Made: 64
Increase In Output: 10.3%