Ok so a few days after my post, the spawn rates have definitely been toned down. When I could literally net 300saronite per hour in stormpeaks, flying from the eastern side(anvil east of sons of hodir) and all the way to the west through the valley, and on my way back stuff would already respawn middle way, now I hardly find 2-3veins per rotation, which isn't worth it. I've found a spot that still has fast spawn rate, in Icecrown, and that's where I took my 74 hunter to lvl mining to 450(took about 1hour to do 400-450, without moving just waiting for respawn, at a safe spot). The curious thing is, all those tries were done between 3AM and 6AM, so the population couldn't have been very high, and now, during the weekend, it's not getting any better(when I initially posted it was during weekdays). So unsure how it is done but well, at this current rate, it's very reminiscent of normal BC mining, and I'd say it pretty much sucks considering prices are still retarded high(saronite bar stacks go for 150g each on my server).

Is it possible that Phasing is screwing up the node timers? Say the separate phases have different spawn times or something along those lines?

On the whole i found Engineering easy to level with a semi annoying stretch in the 430's and 445+(i used about 800 Saronite on gnomish knives to level it).
Does anyone else think it's ridiculous that the motorbike takes 13k gold worth of vendor mats to make..i have to sell it for at least 16-20k to make a reasonable profit. I think they should have just made it require more bars or engineer crafted mats, or make the Salvaged Golem Parts a low drop from Scavenging Golem mobs along with the other items from their namesakes.

One important thing to notice about the JC bonus gems is that they are prismatic - As a balance druid that means that I use them in blue sockets to:
a) Get additional socket bonuses which I would be likely to skip without JC.
b) Meeting the 2x blue gem requirement for my meta gem, without actually using +dam & spirit gems.

This builds up alot more itemization points than alchemy, enchanting, blacksmithing & leatherworking does -- & if you are able to utilize a positive socket gain out of all 3 gems, then i'm pretty sure JC can compete very well even with epic gems.

I went to learn the [Armored Titanium Goggles] recipe yesterday, after hitting 400 engineering, but discovered that, while the item requires 400 engineering to wear, it requires 430 engineering to learn the schematic. This would be understandable if the goggles themselves were BOE, but they are BOP. Is this a known/confirmed/acknowledged bug?

It's not a bug at all. The requirement exists only to ensure that you must keep the profession at a high level to use the item.

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Mixology with Lich King flasks give a bonus equivalent to around 64ap of item budget? This makes it on par with Inscription/Leatherworking/Enchanting and JC/BS with blue gems.

My reference is this post. There's also the fact you get 100% increased duration which is a nice little benefit from Alchemy.

Overall I'd say Alchemy has solid profession bonuses.

It is repeatable. I've done it twice on Live.

Even though the Northrend Inscription research is on a 20 hour timer, it seems very hard to do it every day unless you are willing to mill a large amount of herbs because of the horrid proc rate of icy pigment.

This morning, I milled through 6 stacks of herbs and got 3 icy pigments. This gives me more than enough ink of the sea for 7 days of research, but only 1 single snowfall ink. And the prices of azure pigment on the AH confirms my own finding. I can buy a stack of them for 40g on AH, much much cheaper than the herb prices. I suspect a lot of scribes are burning herbs to pray for the icy pigments.

I've been buying massive amounts of herbs to fuel my newfound addiction to making Darkmoon cards, and it definitely seems like "better" herbs give more pigments. For instance goldclover seems to have a 50% chance to give enough for an ink, while Adder's Tongue usually has enough for two.

Seems to be a 6:1 ratio or so of common to rare pigments.

I noticed a few days ago that the Loremaster of Northrend acheivement unlocked a pattern for tailors, and that the dungeon one unlocked a 2nd.

I was hoping this was the same for JC but upon getting my Loremaster of Northrend award (and global loremaster) no new recipie opened up.

I'm specifically interested in anyone who has seen this gem: Shifting Twilight Opal - Item - World of Warcraft either the recipie or in its cut form. There are a couple more gems too that have no apparent source too but none as valuable as the one above. Any ideas?

That one is just MIA it seems, along with the Spellpower Spirit one that my healers have been nagging about. Probably an oversight with the insane amount of gems that are available.

Icethorn or Lichbloom. A single stack usually gets me 2-3.

There's some evidence here that higher item-level herbs (within each bracket) tend to produce more pigment: Critically far more secondary pigment. Primary pigment differences are relatively trivial. The theory isn't perfect, so there may be other factors.

Wait, WHAT?

Which patterns?

Er, search Wowhead?

Northrend Dungeonmaster: [Wispcloak]
Loremaster of Northrend: [Deathchill Cloak]

Wowhead confirms that. Low-end herbs yield icy per 4 milling average, and higher-end ones 2 per stack.

Well, of those, the Topaz and Twilight Opal patterns are the most important, very good cuts desirable by multiple classes. I would be shocked if the patterns were either world or dungeon drops, with the new 100% drop rate for JCs, someone would have found them by now. They aren't reputation rewards. There, apparently, aren't any loremaster rewards for Jewelcrafters, so thats out. They maybe be achievement awards of a different type? Maybe Heroic Dungeon Master or Normal Dungeon Master?

I'd be Blizzard just forgot them though, there are a ton of jewelcrafting patterns now.

Has anyone else noticed the skill up rate for yellow cooking recipes going down significantly? I was at 375 pre-WotLK, all the recipes I received from the trainer were either green or yellow, and I'm seeing an average of 4-5 items created between skill up on the yellows. Also, the cooking daily seems very limited. I've seen the Rhino Dog and Infused Mushroom several times each, and the catering one once. Is this because my skill is <400, or are there only a couple cooking dailies available?

Definitely not normal Dungeon Master. Hit up Heroic yesterday, but didn't check the trainer, will do that when I get home tonight, but I doubt it. Not like Blizzard never forgot to implement certain designs before.

@Balog, it's just ye olde RNG acting up again. For reference, our server had only had the Shrimpin' Ain't Easy fishing daily up only once since the achievement system was in, second time was 3 days after WotLK release. Just be patient and it'll pop up.

I believe I've only seen 4 different cooking dailies in the past weeks: northern stew, wine/cheese, mushrooms, and carrots. Haven't seen the rhino dogs one yet. TBC only had 4 different daily cooking quests, so I wouldn't be surprised if the WOTLK daily has around that same amount.

And yes, skilling up cooking is now an exercise in praying for good RNGs with mostly green recipes. However, there doesn't seem to be any benefit from pushing yourself to hit 450 once you get the two 425 skill recipes.

I haven't done all of them but there appears to be 5 Dalaran cooking quests. The quest givers Awilo Lon'gomba and Katherine Lee both start 5 quests, all dailies.

I should have refreshed before posting. I was also beaten to the punch.