Swapping mining for alchemy

[vaeevictiss]

Currently on my DK alt i have herbalism and mining and the first two months it was great. I was able to make a ton of money. Now it seems mining has lost a bit more than herbalism, tho both have taken a hit. Stacks of ore sell for no more than 50g. Right now the only benifit im seeing is the fact you do get a lot of volatiles and those still have value.

I am thinking of dropping it for alch, is this a good idea? I like the fact i can just make my own flasks and pots and its a good pair with herbalism. I do know that the return right now is not that great, so im not sure if it would be better to just sell the herbs as stacks, or turn them into pots/flasks. the big thing im curious about is if ore will skyrocket when epic gems come out and people will be buying it to prospect.

Just looking for any insight. Thanks

[Lune]

On Whisperwind, my server, mining just plain sucks. At the beginning, Hardened Elementium Bars were selling for 500-700g. Now they're down to about 30g a bar. Elementium Bars are 3g a piece. Alchemy on the realm is amazing. Flasks are currently 250-300g a piece and I hear they're very easy to make.

[tgrosh]

I just did this on my preist as my second alchemist. Not only is it great for access to quick 359 trinket but still a good money maker for transmutes or flasks.

[vaeevictiss]

sounds good, tho will i be missing out once epic gems appear? im sure they will sell for a ton at first

[sciarc]

I just did this on my preist as my second alchemist. Not only is it great for access to quick 359 trinket but still a good money maker for transmutes or flasks.

I also did the same thing on my shaman alt, after making lots of gold just selling ores and herbs. Alchemy was very easy to powerlevel quickly and at a low cost and the epic trinket is really nice. I also love the mixology bonus and flask of enchancement. I say go for it - you'll get more out of alchemy than mining is giving you anymore.

My only disappointment so far is that alchemy doesn't make much money, at least on my server. Flasks and truegold sell for much less than the mats, and pots are hard to move in large quantities. Your server may differ.

[Agallochh]

I recently dropped Skinning/Enchanting on my Shaman. Albeit, my Enchanting was only at 150. I picked up herbalism and alchemy. I already have an herbalist but I wanted to stay on my shaman for gathering/crafting and didn't want to log on and off to level it up.

[Nume]

Heh I am also dropping mining for alchemy on my shaman, though for a bit diff reason. I just find that I NEVER have the patience to spend any time farming ore :P. I never did, and with prices as low as they are now I have even less motivation for it. I dont have herbalism either for the same reason, but I figure I can use alchemy for the transmutes+flask bonus+making flasks for guild achievement (we have like 1 alchemist and only ~120 flasks made lol).

[vaeevictiss]

Well i did it last night, spent about 1000g on the mats and it took only 90 mins to level it. easiest and cheapest profession by far. Now if i could only get the drive to level my shaman sitting at 49 and make HER my herbalist and miner and just keep it as stricly a farming toon, i could drop herbing on my dk and learn JC maybe.

[ddk]

A neat trick with alchemy that I use on one of my alts, is to spec Transmutation Specialist. I spend about 15-20 minutes every other day farming herbs on a farming toon. This nets me roughly 30-40 volatile lifes and a few stacks of herbs. I do different routes to collect different herbs each time. Over a few weeks I build up mats to make heaps of flasks all at once. In the meantime, I use my transmute cooldown every night in Uldum to get some volatile airs and whatever procs with it (airs are the most expensive on my server by about 5-10g over everything else). I then sell the airs in stacks of 10 which tend to sell very quickly.

Once I've built up a good stock of herbs and volatile lifes, I pay the 150g to respec to Elixir Specialist. I then go nuts and make about 50 flasks. I can get anywhere from 10 to 20 extra flasks from procs. That more than makes up for the 300g (150g to spec back to Transmute Specialist) spent to switch specs.

[Nume]

Interesting idea. Do you just need to go to trainer to switch? Or do you have to go somewhere special? I still havent lvled it yet but I'm going to be shortly. I had planned to do basically what you said, but didnt think about switching to elixir spec before making the flasks (want to help guild get flask achieve at same time).