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Best Profession in Cataclysm? A Look Back at Wrath’s Highest Profit Professions.

By on Nov 30, 2010 in Alchemy, Blacksmithing, Cataclysm Beta, Cooking, Enchanting, Engineering, First Aid, Fishing, General, Herbalism, Inscription, Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Mining, Professions, Skinning, Tailoring, Warcraft Econ

The list of profitable professions should look more like the one below, at least for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The list is based off of experience, interviews with gold capped and millionaire players, various gold blogs, articles, and forums. There is a common theme among those players that have hit the old gold cap of 214k gold (new cap is 1 million). These players usually have Inscription and/or Jewelcrafting.

Highest profit professions of Wrath:

1. Inscription
2. Jewelcrafting
3. The 3 gear crafting professions (Leatherworking, Tailoring, Blacksmithing)
4. The rest of crafting professions (Alchemy, Enchanting, Engineering)
5. Farming professions (Mining, Herbalism, Skinning)
6. Secondary Professions (Cooking, Fishing)

Obviously your mileage may vary and is debatable. However the majority of the gold making community would agree that Incription and Jewelcrafting (even without the help of Enchanting for DE) were basically a license to print money in this expansion. Although some players make a killing off of gear crafting professions like Leatherworking. In my experience with LW in Wotlk, it was mainly profitable due to epic recipes from raiding. As each raiding tier becomes old news, players who have recipes can keep make decent gold crafting PvE epics with buyers mostly being alts or more casual players who don’t raid as much. Of course with any gold making endeavor, it does depend on the player to adapt to the economy and various factors specific to their server.

For the beginning (first few months and first tier of raiding content) of Cataclysm, our list would be:

  1. Leathworking/Blacksmithing (due to rarity and BOP status of Chaos Orbs)
  2. Mining (seriously, mining is big money in the first month of an expansion)
  3. Inscription (new Darkmoon cards are going to be hot, as well as Cataclysm Reclaimation that supplies BOE recipes for the other crafting professions)
  4. Tailoring
  5. Jewelcrafting (gem sales will be high, but will there be a repeat of the Saronite Shuffle?)
  6. Alchemy (meta gem transmutes and flasks for nice daily income)
  7. Enchanting (we honestly didn’t know where to put this one, any ideas?)
  8. Cooking/Fishing (secondary professions usually do the best at the beginning of an expansion)
  9. Herbalism/Skinning (first few weeks will be great, but will decline shortly after)
  10. Egnineering (there is a BOE epic bow, but nothing huge on the gold making front)
  11. Archaeology? (Everything is BOP or BOA. We don’t think there is any way to be profitable)

What about for the life time of the expansion?

  1. Leathworking/Blacksmithing (if there are raid recipes)
  2. Jewelcrafting
  3. Tailoring
  4. Inscription
  5. Enchanting
  6. Alchemy
  7. Farming professions (Mining, Herbalism, Skinning)
  8. Secondary Professions (Cooking, Fishing)
  9. Engineering (hard to decide if average gold per hour is better or worse than a farming/secondary profession)

So what do our readers think the highest profit profession will be in Cataclysm? What does your list look like and is it based certain requirements like raiding, having synergy with other professions, or gathering professions?

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About the Author

Oligopoly is a millionaire in various MMO economies is the founder/web administrator of Warcraft Econ and Diablo3Professions.com. He is one of the original gold cap WoW players. Launched in 2008, WarcraftEcon.net is one the longest running gold blogs and resources out there. We bring you news about the World of Warcraft economy, discuss strategies on making insane amounts of gold, and how to hit the gold cap. Enjoy your stay here!
  • http://magpawacar.blogspot.com/ Magpawacar

    Undoubtedly Jewelcrafting although those who say that Inscription is dead must be slightly delirious. Admittedly glyphs are learnable but throughout Cata there will till be a nice steady demand for those. When people get bored they’ll start looking at learning the full set of glyphs for their chars. Enchanting will remain as profitable as ever and I believe Alchemy may have a resurgence with those new potions they have on offer.

  • http://magpawacar.blogspot.com/ Magz

    Has to be jewelcrafting again I would imagine, especially long term. Even now in WOTLK people are still buying gems so I would assume something similar in Cata. I also think Inscription will hold value as a good revenue stream.

    Alchemy could well be the big surprise though of this expansion, especially with the new potions.

  • Bruski

    I would argue that enchanting made more than any of the crafting professions in wrath. Buying mats enchanting scrolls and reselling them was responsible for at least as much of my income as jewelcrafting was, and for the last year I've listed all raiding recipes for both professions.

    I expect it to be one of the top two gold makers in cataclysm.

    I'm kindof dissapointed in your lack of evaluation for it, since it's one of the biggest moneymakers out there.

  • Pelfrey

    1) Perhaps due to current personal pain, but if Inscription is ranked that high, I do not see how herbalism can be far behind. I.e., as long as DM cards sell for 10,000g, the herbalists have a job.

    2) Is there some reason why tailoring is below LW/BS? Isn't it (DK,Pal,War) vs (hunt,shaman & druid,rogue) vs (pr,mag,war); is there some profession reason why you think making cloth gear will be less profitable than leather/mail/plate? I just assumed they could all make the same level gear for the same slots, so do you see more demand or lower cost for the LW/BS?

    3) I was hoping the alchemy c/d I read about a while ago would help it

    4) Nit: If my BoA archeology obviates the need to buy / craft something (e.g staff) then it is "profitable" since it reduced my raiders cost. (My mage would love it if an alt got him a very nice starter weapon Staff of Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan) This doesn't change the fact that you are of course correct it doesn't seem like it is a profession or profit source.

    5) Longer-term, we do not know the recipe model Bliz will use: Sunwell (BoE pattern with BoP gear) (unlikely) or Wotlk initial JC (drop in instances) or ToC (BoE patterns & gear) or ICC (raider only patterns of BoE gear) This effects whether the crafting alts who may never raid can produce much.

    So there are really three lists: most profitable professions for three types of toons
    1) Mains or at least raiders
    2) 84+ non-raiders
    3) 65-83

    If you have a level 65 bank alt/crafting DK or an 80 Paladin you don't intend to level, then it is a very different list since BS/LW would be hindered by not getting access to the 84+ patterns.

    • http://www.warcraftecon.net Warcraftecon

      "So there are really three lists: most profitable professions for three types of toons
      1) Mains or at least raiders
      2) 84+ non-raiders
      3) 65-83 "

      Great way to look at it!

      As for Tailoring being below BS/LW, it is mainly due to the new Chaos orb requirements on crafted gear. Tailoring can bypass this if you look at the recipes for epic gear in Cataclysm. So I think at the beginning of an expansion where Chaos orbs are limited to the crafter, BS/LW gear will sell for a bit more. BS/LW also have 8 BOE epic patterns each vs. Tailoring's 4. However as new raid tiers come out, Tailoring may even catch up especially if orbs become tradable.

      Sterling at The Consortium did a nice break down of this:
      http://consortium.stormspire.net/content.php?170-…

    • Zandathor

      A lot of people made Hunters and Shamans recently which needs LW, also a lot of Tauren Paladins (BS). The percentage of clothies will probably go down as a result. Shame as my 80 has Tailoring, should still be a steady income though.

      Gathering always seems a bit behind crafting but you can make more profit by exploiting market gaps and understanding trends. The biggest hit to gathering will be that it is now optimal for levelling to take at least one gathering profession, as a result skinning may become more profitable as it yields no bonuses xp.

  • http://www.wowfordummies.org/ wowfordummies

    Thanks for the post. I was wondering what to add with a new profession I am starting. i already have my farmers built up but was thinking of adding Alchemy and Jewel crafting? Especially since I already have mining and herb built up…plus with the new mount coming for alchemy…might be fun
    My recent post Tips For Leveling Your Shaman In World Of Warcraft

  • http://smite.co Rigor

    JCing has been amazing since the profession came out. People are constantly getting new gear, doesn’t matter if it is the beginning of an expansion or the end. Inscription might be lower than you have it, depends on how well the cards sell.