Best Profession in Cataclysm Revisited

Right before the launch of WoW Cataclysm, we discussed what the best profession was in terms of profits. Now that a month has gone by, we wanted to revisit the topic of the highest profit profession for the first few months of Cataclysm. Then we will go on to take a survey on what the best one is for the rest of the expansion.

A recap on our pre-Catalcysm predictions:

For the beginning (first few months and first tier of raiding content) of Cataclysm

Leathworking/Blacksmithing (due to rarity and BOP status of Chaos Orbs)

Mining (seriously, mining is big money in the first month of an expansion)

Inscription (new Darkmoon cards are going to be hot, as well as Cataclysm Reclaimation that supplies BOE recipes for the other crafting professions)

Tailoring

Jewelcrafting (gem sales will be high, but will there be a repeat of the Saronite Shuffle?)

Alchemy (meta gem transmutes and flasks for nice daily income)

Enchanting (we honestly didn’t know where to put this one, any ideas?)

Cooking/Fishing (secondary professions usually do the best at the beginning of an expansion)

Herbalism/Skinning (first few weeks will be great, but will decline shortly after)

Egnineering (there is a BOE epic bow, but nothing huge on the gold making front)

Archaeology? (Everything is BOP or BOA. We don’t think there is any way to be profitable)

Now that we have experienced the first month of Cataclysm, we can see which professions were highly profitable.

Hindsight Notes

Leathworking/Blacksmithing

• Those that were able to complete heroic’s consistently were rewarded with Chaos Orbs. These orbs went for around 1000-3000g each. Both professions are still pretty strong. Aside from crafted epics, there were other sources of income which included blue PvP gear, item enhancements, and leg armors. Leatherworking has also been named the highest DPS profession for certain classes according to s Elitist Jerks. Later in the expansion, expect these orbs unbound and sellable on the auction house.

Mining

• A very profitable gathering profession in the early weeks of Cataclysm. However ore prices have come down significantly and bots are starting to appear again. Great news for prospectors though. This was the one time we recommend farming, long time readers of the site will know we rarely discuss (4 articles maybe?) gathering/farming.

Inscription

• Some players had great success with glyphs even after the change and rumor that  inscription has gone down a hole and will never be profitable. Smart auctioneers knew better and alternative ways for income. The new Darkmoon cards were a success, but not as great as in Wotlk. The trinkets are good pre-raid, however not as great as their predecessors were. Remember Noble’s Deck being best in slot for some classes all the way up to the end of the next tier of raids? The only experience we had was putting our efforts together as a guild to craft cards with everyone chipping in mats for 8 cards. We had ours made for around 12.5k and sold it for 19k after realizing our trinket ranked lower than the heroic blue ones.

Tailoring

• We keep hearing complains  from Tailor’s about the how system of how Dreamcloth is made. It can still be a profitable profession with crafted BOE epics and spellthreads. Netherweave/Frostweave bags are selling like crazy as well. Later in the expansion, Dreamcloth will probably not bind to you anymore. We don’t have much experience with this profession so if our readers have any input about it, let us know.

Jewelcrafting

• Ah yes, everyone’s favorite profession for profit, perks, or both. Jewelcrafting has been great for us even after spending 20,000g to powerlevel it for realm first. We made our money back real fast. The first meta gem cuts were selling for over 1000g each and even uncommon raw gems were going for a large amount. If you were smart about buying gem recipes, as in not following the crowd, you made good money. Add all of that to prospecting (elementium/obsidium shuffle) and disenchanting profits, and synergy with Mining/Alchemy, you’re looking at a profession with a diverse sources of revenue (the cornerstone of real life investing as well).  Everything has calmed down a bit since the release of Cataclysm, but we still think this is one of the highest profit professions ever.

Alchemy

• On the flask/potion/elixir front, income depended on what your economy looked like. Some realms had some decent profits while others had consumables selling for less than what the materials cost. The majority of profits came from transmutes such as for Truegold. The elemental transmutes are nice for converting your servers cheapest volatile (life) to the most expensive (air). Let’s not forget meta gem transmutes, but it looks like prices had stabilized. As always do your math on the price of 16 uncommon gems vs. 2 shadowspirit diamonds. Alchemy is a nice alt profession since you can do your daily transmutes and create gems for profit, it also goes well with Jewelcrafting. Remember that the next patch will have fixes for two meta gems as well as the introduction of 3 new ones through drops.

Enchanting

• Most leveling enchants are going for way less than what the materials cost while only a few like enchant weapon – hurricane are profitable. We believe that most profits came from disenchanting. Pair this up with Jewelcrafting and you have a nice way to turn uncommon gems into enchanting mats.

Cooking

• Doing the cooking daily and selling the meats to players going for realm first was highly profitable. Although when we obtained realm first, we made back all the money spent by selling +90 stat food for our realms progression raiders at 20-40g for a single piece of food.

Fishing

• Although it is still considered a lower gold per hour profession than the others, it is a decent profession for profits. We personally love this profession while we are waiting around for queues or just talking over vent. It just is a simple gathering profession where sometimes you don’t even have to move and you can even bind your fishing skill to your mouse buttons for an even easier time. Fish are going for 5-10g a piece which isn’t bad, but fishing for Shipwreck Debris out in Tolbarad Peninsula can be a great way to increase income from this secondary profession. The crates can contain ore, herbs, cloth, volatiles, and various other materials. Take advatage of those pools now while materials are still at a good price and in high demand.

Herbalism/Skinning

• If you figured out what spots were profitable, these gathering professions raked in lots of cash. For herbalism, the one spot we know of is up and down the river flowing through Uldum. We don’t have either profession so our readers will have to fill us in on the current state of these professions.

Egnineering

• The tinkers aren’t as great as they used to be and big surprise, Engineering is nowhere near the top of the list for profitable professions. The crafted gun/bow may sell every once in a while, but there really isn’t much else for income. The new extractor that gives you extra volatile air’s was not as good as it could have been since you  need to have a gathering profession for it to work.

Archaeology

• We had predicted that there was not going to be any profession profits, we were wrong. The keystones, especially the Tol’vir ones, can be sold on the auction house. At it’s peak, some were selling for up to 2000g. This profession also has some decent epics and as well as the probability of find the vial of the sands recipe if you are also an Alchemist. However the huge time sink that Archaeology is, you could have spent that time doing something else (opportunity cost) and just buy your epics or tipped someone to craft the Alchemy mount for you. Doing the later, depending on your gold per hour, may have been more efficient.

 Loading ...

Everyone’s list can be different depending on various factors such as how much gold you have, other compliment professions, and the realm you are on so we won’t try to put together an official list. If you have any input on what your list looks like, let us know in the comments. Also be sure to tell us under what circumstances the list is based on and if you have notes to add about the different professions.