I can confirm. I didn't max cooking in BC, and had 353 cooking when I got into Dalaran, and that was enough. The dailies have a specific 350 cooking requirement when you need a quest combine.

I find that Thorium is still very profitable. I don't really know how long this can last but I'm finding it less busy than saronite areas.

It doesn't. The ICD is 45 seconds, making the proc, well, lackluster.

It's a bad trinket that is pretty unlikely to be fixed if past Darkmoon cards are any indication.

The problem with trying to make Nobles decks right now is that 3/4 cards have a value of nearly nothing and 1/4 of cards are Nobles. That makes the cost of a Nobles ~1200g less whatever you can get for selling off the other three cards. I'd estimate that value at 400g or so on my server for the three cards combined. Effectively, each nobles card is therefore on the order of 800g and in truth it's probably worse. The higher end herbs that would actually reliably yield 6 snowfall inks run 5g a piece. Using only inexpensive herbs may or may not be cost effective.

People will pay, of course, but 8000g+ for a trinket without even seeing what Ulduar loot looks like seems excessive.

The last 2 days I have been collecting Eternal Life at a really above normal rate. I thought I was just crazy. Seems like it will only get even easier too now that the elemental mobs in Wintergrasp will be properly "herbable" after they die. Prices were bound to drop because once the Faire is gone the card demand will be much lower, so this will only help (or hurt, depending on your profession) even further.

Min-maxers will always want to have the best they can get at the moment regardless, this is an MMO remember? Besides, smart players came close to breaking even if not profiting off crafting those decks. Personally I crafted more then half the cards myself, traded dupes for cards I needed, and bought cards to fill in gaps in other decks crafting those as well which will most definitely sell.

Quiet, you! I almost have my tundra mammoth paid for!

On a related note, putting the 16 Crit Rating gem on the Sons of Hodir rep guy makes me cry, both with joy, and horror. I keep neglecting the Sons of Hodir, because I hate doing the same quests every day, but at the same time, I know I need the shoulder enchants, and know I'll make a killing once I hit exalted.

With putting all recipes, for the most part, on cheap shard traders, enchanting doesn't look like it will have any really profitable enchants. Jewelcrafting will, eventually, be in the same position, because the daily-limited tokens, and the rep enchants will eventually be had by all. However, until that time, since few people on server run enough heroics to be exalted with more than one faction (if that), the rep-cuts are pretty good profit.

EDIT: Does it seem like the way of obtaining "rare" patterns was done by different teams, with almost no coordination? Enchanting and leatherworking hand in easily obtainable mats. Cooking and Jewelcrafting are time-limited with dailies. Tailoring is based off easy achievements. Alchemy and Inscription are time-limited but random. I don't know about Engineering and Blacksmithing. It really seems like different teams were told to eliminate 1% drop rate patterns, and did it in very different ways, leaving different professions far easier to obtain all patterns, with enchanting, for instance, essentially putting all patterns on the Trainer, but just with the cost being in shards, not gold. Although I've heard much complaining (in-game) from it, my personal preference is the the Jewelcrafting daily method, plus putting some patterns on exalted reps. I don't really like everyone running around with every single enchant.

I noticed the same disparity of methods, but to me this said "hey, we have no idea what the best way to do this actually is, we just know the old way was bad -- let's try a zillion new things and see what works!".

I've found this to be a great method for my main, on whom I'm a completionist. But it makes my alts' professions rather useless outside of DEing and Prospecting. I really wish they would make some of the grindy-rep recipes BoA so my alts could get a little better use out of their professions.

All Blacksmithing recipes I'm aware of are learned from the trainer. The same is true for Engineers with the sole exception of the motorcycle.

The Jewelcrafting method works well, but I'm afraid it will penalize those who come late to the game. If additional options for getting tokens aren't added anyone starting six months from now will be ridiculously behind. It's the longest and most drawn out of the professions, and maybe that's by design.

I think Douglas is fairly on the mark. I don't think it's a coincidence that professions are displaying new means of learning recipes in pairs. It seems very intentional and experimental.

Jewelcrafting question: Why does Pristine Monarch Topaz (16 AP/ 8 Hit) sell for such a large amount of money? Isn't either Etched Monarch (8 STR/8 Hit) or Glinting Monarch (8 AGI/8 Hit) always going to be strictly better? They sell for far less than this gem.

Glinting Monarch and Pristine Monarch are fairly comparable for rogues because we get 1 AP per agi, plus some crit. Therefore, depending on a rogue's exact gear setup, 1 agi can be worth slightly more or slightly less than 2 attack power, and it varies on a person-to-person basis. Thus, while one might be generally better, people will buy whichever one they feel is better for them, and apparently a lot of people like 16AP/8hit gems.

There is no etched monarch topaz in the game at the moment, so any class that doesn't really want agility is going to go for the AP one.