The Most Valuable Item in the Game

4/29/2010

What is the most desirable mat for recipes in the game now? Primordial Saronite? Abyss Crystals? Titansteel Bars? Frozen Orbs? Not likely. Prices for high level mats are falling fast, with Primordial Saronite, once up to 1.8k gold each, now down to about 800 gold on the servers I play on.

And, exactly how much profit margin can you make with high level recipes? My enchanter Banesidhe can barely get work, even after dropping my crafting price from 30 to 20 to 15 gold for any of the Wrath enchants (of course I don’t have Blade Ward or Blood Draining, since he’s only level 69). Even when I enchant scrolls with those recipes, I find that the Auction House already has Berserker/Massacre/Super Stats in there already, at….and get this…..less than mat cost. So, enchanters get mats together, pay for or make their own Armor/Weapon Vellum III’s, then put them in the AH at less of a cost than the mats would sell for. Ludicrous!

What is it about the fact that it’s a game that prevents people from considering making a decent profit? I always measure things against how much gold my level 80 Bloodshrike can make doing the Argent Tournament Dailies, which is 13g 23 silver per, plus 4 of the quests have the option to make an additional 10 gold and a chance at another Champion Seal. When someone wants me to craft something for them, and they want to party up and then spend time gathering the mats, and 5 minutes later are ready for me to start crafting, then I get a 5-10 gold tip…..It’s not worth it to me.

My Blacksmith Bullkathos had someone whisper him to come to Orgrimmar to make a Razorplate chestpiece for them. I said sure, but I wanted to discuss the crafting fee first. This guy, just because he had mats, thought that that entitled him to have me make it for him free. I’ve bought all the Ulduar and TOC recipes that I have off the AH, and I’d like to make a profit on them.

I’ve probably used this analogy before, but I think it’s a good one. When people get accustomed to you crafting for free or for tips, that’s like them showing up at a carpenter’s house with bunch of lumber, and asking the carpenter to build you a house. When the carpenter is done, he maybe gets a $20 tip. Having mats means nothing! You can have all the mats in the world, but unless someone on your server has the recipe you want, you aren’t getting the item you need.

Getting the recipes, which for the most valuable ones means going out and either grinding specific mobs or building up reputation with a faction, that’s what makes you stand out among the crowd of other crafters who “LFW [Profession] Your mats free, tips appreciated.” I refuse to lower my standards on pricing. I spent hella gold/time either searching for bargains on the Quest items tab in the Auction House, or by doing dailies or killing monsters to gain rep with factions for the recipes that I possess. And for someone to compare that to a Max level enchanter who doesn’t have any other recipes than what the trainer taught him, and want to tip me the same? Hell no.

/end rant

So, getting to the original point of the post. Large Brilliant Shards are the most valuable items in the game to me right now, offering 500-5000% return on the cost of buying them from the AH. They have a multitude of uses in enchants, for heirloom items as well as enchants for equipment slots that don’t have heirloom pieces. Crusader, 15 Agility to 1hand, 25 Agility to 2h, Spellpower, Healing Power, and various other enchants to gloves and chest pieces.

So stock up, enchant scrolls, use the Auction House, and save yourself the grief of dealing with customers!