Going by the first recipe, which requires Peacebloom, they'll rely on the herbalist gathering profession. (Eurogamer.net)
Glyphs can be sold at the Auction House

From MMo Champion

Firstly it looks like you can stock up a lot of the mats for Inscription prior to the Expansion :9.
And secondly it will be a huge money maker, if you can sell them at the AH.

# very player will get a new spell book page to which they can add six glyphs - currently, four major and two minor. (Eurogamer.net)
# Major glyphs will be effective in combat - adding damage over time or stun to a physical attack

Sounds like you can change the used Inscribtion based on the encounter you are at.

As someone else earlier in this thread stated, (I can't find the post), spending a couple hundred gold to stock up on some of the cheaper mats for any particular thing, herbs in this case, can prove to be a lucrative money maker if they are necessary and in demand. If they aren't in demand, or necessary, then you are out a couple hundred gold, no big deal. I would imagine most of the people with significant amounts of gold always have a stock of pure gold, in addition to items, because it simply takes to long to keep all of your gold in the market.

I would say that assuming just herbalism is a bit short-sighted. We know that the first recipes looks for [Peacebloom] but nothing else. I would think that if it uses one profession as a base, it uses more. I can easily imagine gems, dusts, herbs, motes, ore, etc all being used for various ranks. Understandably, the assumption that it is herbalism to allow for the leveling of both skills for newbies. However, there may be different paths that leveling the profession could take. Maybe defensive inscriptions require ore, maybe offensive ones require enchanting mats, etc.

It would seem a little odd to me, if they are going to make inscription fully reliant on herbalism as a gathering profession. Herbs are already in high demand for raiding consumables, so doing this might make prices go up the roof.

I wonder if they may be thinking of making inscription work with several different gathering skills. For example, you could have different types of inscriptions from certain skill levels require materials from different professions. For example something like this:

Inscription Materials Skillup region
Minor Glyph of Soothing 2 peacebloom 1-40
Minor Glyph of Cunning 3 light leather 5-45
Minor Glyph of Power 1 copper bar 1-40
etc.

This would create several different skillup routes using materials from different professions, and lessen the massive demand for key materials, that was seen with ores/gems at the start of BC.

Well that certainly would take all the fun out of this thread

I don't see why it could just use herbalism as a gathering profession. Ore is already used in BS/Engi(somewhat)/JC and Enchanting mats have shown up in nearly all professions now (see enchanted thorium/imbued netherweave etc), it seems that this leaves herbs as only being useful in 1 profession (alchemy). Makes sense to expand the usefulness of herbalism.

Does this mean prices will go up? Most likely, but supply will aslo go up as the new inscribers (inscrptors?) take up herbalism to fuel their habits. Of course this leaves the rest of us free to capitalize on the rush.

I wouldn't expect Blizzard to make inscription reliant on a number of different gathering professions like that; it would make the development of your profession entirely too reliant on AH/trade. Every profession right now can provide its own materials, or get everything it needs from a single other gathering profession. The cases where a certain recipe requires materials provided by a gathering profession other than its logical pair (when tailoring recipes call for leather, when you need a blacksmith to make belt buckles, enchanters needing rods, etc.) are not the leveling recipes. I wouldn't be surprised at all if high level inscription required esoteric materials from a variety of gathering professions, but leveling it up will almost certainly be self-sufficient.

Now, that's not to say that the associated profession will necessarily be herbalism; one low level recipe that requires peacebloom is hardly proof of that. That could easily be a black sheep recipe that's totally different from what all the other recipes will be (unlikely at that low level). Or, between now and launch, they could decide to go in a completely different route with what they want the associated gathering profession to be (more likely). Herbalism is the safest bet at the moment, if you really want to get started gathering/investing early. But the better idea would be to wait a few more weeks, as we're likely very close to seeing a lot more WotlK information coming out, and after you see a few more recipes, you can get a better idea of what you want to start hoarding.

I'm not sure I see this happening. While there will likely be come cross-gathering requirements like we've seen with other crafting professions (Tailors requiring leather, Leatherworkers requiring Blacksmithing items, etc. etc.), it's typically in a limited fashion. About the closest we come to a larger relationship is Alchemists and Jewel Crafters. Even then, the meta gems aren't required to level the skill. It seems more likely that Herbalism will be the base for inscription than just one of many. It creates far too many problems for self-sufficiency while skilling up that other professions don't have.

On a side note, if Inscription does stick to herbalism for mats, I'll be pleased to see my prediction on it correct.

In the months before the release of TBC, detailed jewelcrafting information was available. On release date, that information was 95+% accurate. It gave us plenty of time to learn which mats to stockpile.

Based on the information that was available, I drew up a spreadsheet that ranked ores and gems in order of a "desirability" metric I defined as a product of estimated profit margin and value per stack. For example, I predicted that copper ore would have a high profit margin, say 300%. But a stack of copper ore that would sells for 4g (compared to the 1g pre-TBC price) would have a low value per stack. So copper ore was not very desirable overall. On the other side of the spectrum, there were Huge Emeralds which might only increase by 50% in cost, but a stack would sell for 100g.

In the end I stockpiled mostly iron, mithril, and thorium ore. I created bank alts and loaded them up with 14-slot bags. A month into TBC, I had sold most of my ores, with some stockpiles of bronze bars and iron ore remaining. And I had money to buy my epic flying mount when I dinged 70.

This was before Google spreadsheets. When inscription recipes start showing up, I'll create a public Google spreadsheet and post a link in this thread. Hopefully we can have some good discussions about the estimates of price jumps.

Speaking of stockpiling, what do people think about rare gems in anticipation of arena S4? Sure, there will be a few hardcore players who have bought all of their badge gear and epic gems. But I'd bet there's a large population of unskilled BG players who have banked 75k honor and waiting to buy up the S2 5-set pieces. That should create a temporary huge spike in demand, similar to what happened at the start of S3. The new personal rating requirements will deter the sub-1500 players (about half the arena-playing population) from a big set of S4 purchases, but I would guess there are far more BG players than arena players.

Raiders are also a smaller overall percentage of the player population. On a high raid-based server, you may see high costs for herbs. On my server, you're in for some tough competition for ore whereas herbing tends to have relatively light competition, those raiding being the primary consumers.

Also, recall that those one-time upgrades can come quite frequently with BG's and arena whereas mat prices may not as many raiding guilds will realize the necessity of alchemists and likely have several (many?) on board to help with the guild needs. Likewise, many smart raiders may well have alchemy either on their main or on an alt to take care of these situations. That's certainly the case in my guild where a good portion of the officers are herb/alch on either a main or alt with several of us working on alchemy.

Good stuff. I just artifically jumped the price of talasite on my horde server. For some reason, they were going uncut for 8g a piece. So after my prospecting frenzy, I was doing price checks before throwing up gems on the AH, and saw the stupid low price of talasite (And according to auctioneer...it's been that way.). The rest of my blue I threw up for 50g (most sold so far, might have to relist a couple), then I bought out all the talasite, threw them up for 50. Naturally, they didn't sell. Everyone and their brother undercut me...so I took the 6 I got from prospecting, and undercut them. Sold them at 34g99s99c a piece. Now I get to relist the originals. Not the profit I got from the other gems, but hell, better than nothing. Got the idea from this thread. Good advice on cornering the market. Took a small loss on listing fee's, but I made it all back up easy.

Talasite are currently going on my server for 4-5g a piece. While this was great for recently levelling my jewelcrafting from 350 to 365 (100g for gems, sorted.), it's not great when I'm prospecting adamantite and get a heap of them. Do you think there would be a great gain from buying them all out and relisting closer to 40g or so? Other gems are around that, and I can't understand why talasite are any more common.

Actually talasites are statistically the highest droprate rare gem ahead of dawnstones and stars of elune. This does not just mean from prospecting but also brilliant glass and other gem sources(consortium rewards). This fact in combination with the relative weakness of talasite cuts (aside from stam/resil) makes it the cheapest gem.

Looking at WoWHead I'm pretty sure it's just a coincidence Talasites are currently on top. They do appear as the highest drop rate, but within the expected margin of other gems for it be considered an equal drop rate. For Brilliant Glass the drop rate is 18% while all other gems are 16-17%. For Prospecting Talesites are at 17% of the rare quality gems from Adamantite Ore with all other gems types slightly below this (All within the 15-17% range).

So to put it different, the reason that Talasites don't sell as well is simply because they have less desirable cuts.

So Lately I have been saving my gems I get from prospecting and buying all the cheap ones of the AH because I am planning on saving them and cashing out come season 4. I was talking with a guildie about this and he recommended that I do not because he believes once epic gems and patterns become available on our realm that the blue gem market will fallout and also that many of the hardcore pvpers will save up badges for when season 4 comes out. This seems very logical to me and so I am now worried I should sell my gems now. I am curious to your guys oppinion as I have been reading this thread for months now.

P.S. my first post

I find that for me the best way to make gold is through the Gaining The Advantage daily quest.

I complete it up by the Allerian Stronghold killing the basilisks. They can drop the Nether Residue from skinning them to complete the quest, but you also get the knothide scraps/knothide, crystal infused leather, fel scales, and on the actual corpse you get intestines, dampscale eyes and most importantly, chunks o basilisk (as well as the occasional green/blue drop). Everything but the intestines that drop can be sold on the AH for a good price per stack. Especially the chunks o basilisk when you cook them up into blackened basilisk. I can sell those for 40-50/stack on the AH on Tuesday nights.

sorry i dont mean to be rude but we open up the vendors on my server within the next week so I would love for you guys to weigh in on your oppinion, because If you decide i should sell well then i need to do so quickly.


TY

I personally don't understand why people think the gem market for anything other than crimson spinels even exists in on a practical level at all, because I don't see it going anywhere on my server. I'm not a jewelcrafter and I don't even watch the market that closely but conceptually I don't see the potential profit at all. Pve wise, people with gear which is good enough to put epic gems on have access to any gems except the spinels usually. I would be very surprised to see anyone in t5 content buying epic gems. The most extreme case I could see is a main tank gemming for avoidance in t5 content but anything else will not be worth it. PvP wise, no one is going to buy any new gear or gem their current gear until the new season. Don't get me wrong, there will be a market at that point, but right at the "oh my god the vendor is open!" moment?

I have the AH window open right now. Even having cut gems on the AH seems like a poor marketing decision. All the cut gems are marked up about 150g which baffles me because I refuse to believe that I couldn't find someone able and willing to cut any gem for a 10g tip. We are down to what now? 6 cuts(?) nowadays that aren't on rep vendors? All of which no one would use except maybe [Design: Mystic Lionseye]? Am I forgetting anything else?
All the haste gems are listed at 700g. Cool beans.
[Infused Shadowsong Amethyst] 599 gold. Yep, that's ever going to sell. Good work, king of the auction house.

Am I missing something obvious? Just not seeing why everyone thinks the JC vendor opening really changes anything, it certainly didn't affect my server as far as I can tell. Please explain it to me on the conceptual level.

That's just it though - people do have trouble finding JCs sometimes. Depending on your server I guess it could range from "tricky" to "a dire lack". That's why the cut gem market exists. And if people want a gem now, they're often willing to pay that little bit extra.

It's a niche market. There's not a lot of room for growth or reliable profits in cut gems unless your server has a small number of cutters. I occasionally throw up a couple of cut gems when I notice that there are no others of that particular cut- if I know it's a popular cut. Example: I put up a pair of Reckless Pyrestones at a 70g markup from the base gem- other cuts were averaging a 90g markup but there were no others of that particular cut (which is fairly popular among my guildmates- spell haste+spell damage). One sold within the initial 2 day list- the other didn't. I could have put the second back up still at a profit (although probably less since the cuts are coming in more frequently with casual JCers hitting exalted with SSO) but instead I just socketed it in my dps kit. If you kept a close watch on it you could play with the market there- especially if you have enough gold to invest in the uncut gems and the wide variety of cuts... but that's pretty much advanced auction manipulation and more the ballpark of someone who plays the AH much more often than I do... and not for a ton of profit.

this right here is my fear, because I have been saving gems for season 4 but now that i realize it i am afraid the market wont be as large becase people will go to gem with epics....so I am wondering if it is even worth it to wait for season 4 or if i should just sell them now. Now maybe I wont make less come season 4, but If im not going to make anymore there is no point in not seling now.

Season 4 is going to unleash a flood of Season 2 gear onto the market, and I doubt the people rocking welfare prices Season 2 are going to want to go to the expense of gemming it up with epics, seeing as the whole point of collecting it is to make it easier to get S3/S4 in arenas.

As a PvP resto druid, my preference for slotting uses no spinels (1 Kailee's Rose would be the pseudo exception). Infact, you'd be surprised at the number of popular PvP classes that dont purely use crimson spinels. Warriors gemming with Str/Crit pyrestones, disc priests gemming for +stam/+resil, warlocks prepping for haste stacking, etc.

Additionally, its important to note that many people, regardless of gear level, will try to push for the best possible stats available. If a T5 MT can replace 6 Solid Stars with 6 Solid Sapphires, that's 18 more stam. Or, consider the rogue who can slot an additional +ap gem because he's made up the lost +hit with epic gems.

As such, I've found that there are individuals who are willing to dump badges of justice for epic gems at a very reasonable amount (150-200g), which can net a very nice turnaround.