Mining+Herb & Scribe+Alchemy OR Mining+JC & Scribe+Alchemy ??

[Deleted]

I got two characters, my main is a druid with mining and herbalism, and my alt got inscription and alchemy.
I was thinking about dropping herbalism for jewelcrafting.
what do you guys think? which would be a better combination?

[xskarma]

JC will allow you to make more gold with the ore you get BUT you need to keep in mind that when next expansion rolls around you'll be paying through the nose for herbs to level Inscription & Alchemy. So if you do this I suggest getting an alt with herbalism leveled up if you can, or to make sure you have some cash on hand to level.

I'd go for it though

[Ebonheart]

I got two characters, my main is a druid with mining and herbalism, and my alt got inscription and alchemy.
I was thinking about dropping herbalism for jewelcrafting.
what do you guys think? which would be a better combination?

To be quite honest with you, I stay away from Gathering/Farming professions other than the self provided ones like Enchanting and Tailoring.

I learnt this early in my time in WoW. I started with Skinning and Leatherworking on my Hunter. However, I found LW to be a real pain. So I dropped LW for Mining cause back then you could only have either Mining or Herbalism so most gatherers were forced to settle between either one of them.

Anyway, long story short. I realized that I spent more of my time in game farming mats than actually playing the game. And when I got the bug for gold making, I actually realized its profitable in the long run to actually have people farm you stuff. You are therefore able to produce on a larger scale.

People often rationalize that since they farmed their own mats, whatever they sell from that is pure profits. So if they sold a PVP piece for 199G that required 10 bars of Ghost Iron ore, 199G is pure profit. However, those same 10 bars probably sell on the AH for around 90G, which is what you would have probably got if you did sell it on the AH. So you have to take in the potential sales you could have made from the mats you farmed into account as well.

However, now if you have 2-3 suppliers supplying you with large quantities of Ghost Iron Ores/Bars for a fraction of the AH cost, you can actually turn out bigger profits that you spending the time to farm the mats will also being more efficient.

I ain't saying either route is the right or the wrong way to go about it. Its just more efficient paying someone else to farm. The big gold makers will tell you to farm your own mats, but they have a ton of time on their hands often having multiple accounts, 1 camping the AH, another on the other faction and 3rd one that simply farms. Its more of a business for them rather than another part of the game.

So I would personally not recommend having any Gathering profession. What I would suggest is to level Mining and Herbalism on a level 90 - your druid since it is your main and farm all the mats required to level JC and Alchemy. Then drop the 2 gathering professions and level up JC and Alchemy. So then you can simply have your suppliers supply you with the end level ore and herbs.

Often times its a complete waste even bothering to farm herbs, cause some random farmer will come and crash the AH prices which makes farming them quite pointless. That should be your time to buy them all out. And often times Herbs from current expansions are quite cheap.

[Bluecard]

Farming isn't profitable. Unless you actually enjoy farming, it's not worth it. If you really want to make money, drop your gathering skills and pick up JC and enchanting. JC, enchanting, and alchemy are pretty much the holy trinity of gold making. Inscription is nice if you play the AH as a full time job, but most of the time the time involved in playing the glyph market is brutal. At the start of a new expansion, however, cards/decks/trinkets will make you very, very rich.

TL/DR drop gathering, take up JC and enchanting.

[Kazgrel]

Farming isn't profitable. Unless you actually enjoy farming, it's not worth it. If you really want to make money, drop your gathering skills and pick up JC and enchanting. JC, enchanting, and alchemy are pretty much the holy trinity of gold making. Inscription is nice if you play the AH as a full time job, but most of the time the time involved in playing the glyph market is brutal. At the start of a new expansion, however, cards/decks/trinkets will make you very, very rich.

TL/DR drop gathering, take up JC and enchanting.

To run with this suggestion, you could do mining/JC on your main, saving all the greens you make, then dump mining for enchanting and use the greens as DE fodder to help level it up.

Due to the presence of Farmville aka Sunsong Ranch, I've found little to no use for herbing on the toons I have that can herb. Mining can still be fairly profitable since you have an alchemist (trilium/LS transmutes).