I've never found that mass production of potions or elixirs made any money at all.... the cost of mats was only slightly below the cost of sale, and AH cuts and the occasional failed sale ate right into the profit. Only rare recipes made any money.

Maybe with the specializations in TBC things will change. But probably not -- anything that can be made with no cooldown and is a big profit will have its supply flooded quickly once people find out, and in the end its the materials that are the limiting factor to supply and hence are where the money is.

I had friends who said they made their money back after paying 300G for greater fire pot recipe, but I looked at the prices of the sale versus the materials and the margin was very slim. I think they didn't factor in the fact that they could sell the materials for 95% the price of the finished product. Heart of fire transmutes though... they still make money today.

Well, that and you can sell potion or elixir making for nearly free to the public, and just keep the 'proc' extras yourself for sale. That, might be profitable but you will have to spend a lot of time peddling your potion making and isn't much different than making them and AH'ing them except for the auction cut and you shield yourself from material acquisition price risk.

Yeah, if you happen to luckily get a rare potion or elixir recipe early on, then that specialization might make you a lot of money until supply is again limited by materials because many people have the recipe.

On that note, how easy is it to change specialization?

Actually, another big moneymaker would be the Earthstorm and Skyfury transmutes too. That's a whole 'lotta mats.

What's the C/D on those two anyway?

The question for Potion and Elixir mastery is: how much throughput are you going to have? If you're in a situation where you're making potions for a lot of people, be it as a known Alchy on the server who sits in capital cities or just as a friendly Alchy suppling your guild's raids, then Potion / Elixir mastery is strong. It doesn't even matter if you make the potions for free (and I expect most people will). You simply wish to handle as many herbs as possible, and you'll have a steady stream of "procs" that are pure profit for you.

If you do not think a large volume of herbs will be funnelled through you by others, then transmutations looks like the way to go. Every alchemist will probably be using one transmute or another whenever the cooldown is up.

I will pick Elixir. Why?

Ever had a friend want you to make some pots for him? Just think about it (if we take a 10% proc rate)...
He to make him 50 assorted elixirs, with all his mats. I do so, and I just got 5 free elixirs, just for pressing the create all button. Dunno, that seems pretty good.

The problem I see with Transmute is the fact that you can only transmute once every day or two days, and depending on your luck, you can go a long long time before you actaully get lucky enough to get it to proc.

Sorry to pull this up from a few pages back, but wouldn't it make more sense for Master Transmuters to have a random chance to avoid the cooldown of transmuting completely? Would make it theoretically possible to get a 2 for 1 without having the etiquitte dilemma of what to do w/ your extra transmute product.

Etiquette dilemma my ass. They paid for the price of the transmuation of materials they owned to a designated object. Anything else that is created in the process through your own choice of specialization is yours. This is the benefit of a sub-specialization and random chance. They got what they paid for.

Ciaras, I like your idea. This is my favorite suggestion so far. It provides something for the customer at a reduced cost, it should help bring in business, and it allows the transmuter an immediate market for extra goods without spending time hawking it, or risking AH-cuts.

It's far more valueable to the transmuter to get two for one rather than a 'free' cooldown. Typically the 'cost' of the transmute will be fairly market based, i.e. Arcane Transmute was 5g. However, if the material cost of the item is high, you create more value.

For instance, assume the base material was 50g, transumate fee is 5, a Two for One proc would net you 55g in profit. Where as a free cooldown gives you 5g in profit. I know which I would want.

Avoiding the cooldown would be a huge nerf to transmuting masters. Look at how it would have worked for arcanite. If you get a free arcanite bar on a proc that is a 20 to 30g value where if you got another transmute and had the matts to use it right away you got 5 or 10g depending on prices.

Anyway the free extra of whatever you transmute will probably give a topic to replace "Who has a right to the Pristine Hide of the Beast: skinner or group?" threads that pop up every month or so on the offical forums.

Id much rather have a free primal might than the option to transmute another ! the value difference is huge. Every proffesion has its bonus, alchemy is free pots/primals/etc once in a while :)

If anything, thats a rather weak bonus compared to the bop stuff of some professions.

I guess I see your points from an economic P.O.V., I just get nervous about players arguing over extra items generated by Master Alchemy and going around in one of those chicken-egg type circles when they're doing transmutes for other people.

"Well, I transmuted it for you and it's my skill, so I deserve it!"

"You wouldn't have anything to transmute if I hadn't given it to you in the first place, so how can it belong to you?!"

"QQ More!!"

"Fucking n00b!"

*to the Realm Forum!*

I'm sure I'm overblowing it, but people get pretty heated about these kind of things and it's just seems like better practice in general not to give people extra reasons to bicker in WoW, b/c they whine enough as it is.

Well id just tell the person that he gave me mats for something and he got it, the fact that i got more than his gold is none of his business...

but i think the idea of keeping an extra primal of might is a pretty good one, saves you the trouble, ill most likely do that

Does anyone have an inkling about what the % of getting a free transmute/elixir/potion is?

My thoughts on which to pick are as follows:

Potion spec seems the weakest. It's never been profitable to sell major health and mana potions, as money farmers get those from farming and dump them on the AH. Ironically the only ones that do sell are the lower level ones for people's alts.

Elixir spec seems really nice due to all the new elixirs they added. I don't imagine you'd make any money this way, because people just get their guildies to make stuff for them, and solo players don't pay for buffs. And even though you wouldn't make any money, you would save money with all your free elixirs, especially as a raider. I'll file this one in the "a penny saved is a penny earned" category.

Transmute spec seems like the early favorite. There's going to be a mad rush for everyone to get their fancy craftables from blacksmithing, or whatever. Then I imagine the market will dry up just like it did with essence of air and arcanite back in the day. The only "consumable" that needs transmutes are jewelcrafting, and I doubt there'd be a lot of turnover on that. I'm nervous about this one, because my gut's telling me to take it to cash in on the short term goldrush, even though I have doubts about it's long-term viability. If the proc rate of a free transmute is too low, then the luster of this one becomes even worse.

My take on the specializations depends somewhat on a factor I have not heard anything about. From what I understand, other professions have BoP craftables that require X specialization. This includes tailoring, leatherworking, blacksmithing, and engineering. Now, naturally they can't do this for alchemy but if I had to guess, the specialization will affect the recipes you can learn through the discovery feature. If this is the case, all of the specializations will be valuable to an extent (although, as has been stated already, there may not be a demand for certain types of consumables).

Potions masters will do the health pots, mana pots, and protection pots.
Elixir masters will do all the other (raid) buff pots.
Transmute masters will make money.

Depending on the number of transmute masters on the server (and especially if my guess is correct), it may actually be more profitable to go for elixirs and potions instead. If this thread is any indication, the market may very well be flooded with primal <insert here>.

Edit: Left out a word.

I could swear that you don't see the items from transmute or disenchanting unless you are grouped with the person in question.

I know the action Transmute/Potion shows up in the combat log, but I don't know if the number created shows up.

if I remember correctly, combat log shows all kinds of professions "outcomes" (including bandages, pots, transmutes, etc) unless the profession in the options is ticked off - I remember I had it on very early in the game and seeing what everyone around me was making standing near the IF mailbox... was very spammy though.

You can still see it in the group, since you see the "recieves X (loot)" part. I think.

And i totally agree, the "extra" transmute product issue will produce big drama... although, all the people that said "i would give my friend/guildy both primals (if it procs), but not to strangers", this opens the question, aren't you effectively implying that supplied mats are the decisive factor, and not your specialization? If you would give the extra to a friend, same logic demands you give it to the "stranger" as well.

And yeah, I'm aware its not only about logic...

Dunno, that just speaks to me of an attitude of generosity towards guildies.


By default, you "deserve" the extra transmute. It's your skill, and unless specifically stated, the other person is paying you to transmute his set of mats into one particular item.


Of course, better to avoid drama in the first place from this by pre-transmuting. Besides allowing for safer transactions and drama-less transmuting, it allows you to get better prices. (selling the product when transmute price is high, instead of trying to find a person who wants a transmute at a particular point in time.)

Does this mean I, as an enchanter, can carry with me a stack of dusts/shards/essences and trade few of them with someone asking me to disenchant something? Or take 10% of what I get from disenchanting 2 pages of mail from someone? After all, it's my skill as well. And even if disenchanting it self does not require some big investment, having enchanting as a profession (especially while leveling) is really expensive.

If I get to give away everything that is a product of me using my skill, then it's only fair that the others do the same.

Has anyone found a list of all the alchemy recipes you can get in TBC and where it comes from? Especially faction/rep. I can't decide whether my main should be alchemy or an alt, obviously my main is the one thats going to get most of the rep grind going so if the recipes are like other professions and scattered throughout the factions it makes sense to make him alchemy.

http://www.wowhead.com/?items=9.6&fi...82;crs=1;crv=0