Alchemy Vs Inscription

[Arstaria]

Hey all,

I just got my main to 90 today and I maxed out Alchemy and Herbalism. As usual, I find that its very hard to make a good profit with Alchemy. I was thinking about switching it up and leveling Inscription to go along with my Herbalism. What do you all think? Will I be able to sustain myself gold wise more with Inscription over Alchemy? Also what proves well for my character? I play a Feral / Resto Druid.

[Regen]

Firstly, for your character, it doesn't matter really. One provides a trinket, another a staff.

Money wise, inscription is good if you really put in the time. Like, you have to put in a lot of time and effort to get all the glyphs and recipes. And it will also take a huge effort to get yourself into the market especially if there's more than 1 person on your server doing it.

Alchemy, however, being consumables, is easy. Flask/transmute alchemy is easy to just figure out the most profitable and do it so depending on which of these sounds beset / worst to you then pick based on that. Alch would be the way I would go.

[Deleted]

You sound like a beginner, so stick with alchemy and its steady flow of reasonable income.
YOu are really too late for inscription in this expansion pack as the DMF deck where everyone made their money is now in decline. Selling glyphs takes a huge amount of effort to break a market.

Stick with alchemy. How much gold do you want/ expect? If you are only just to 90 then how much time have you spent trying to make money by selling Lvl 90 products?

[pkm]

Alchemy is still easier to make money with. I havnt had much luck with inscription. Glyphs are hard to sell. Managed to sell some inks but it was slow.

Go with alchemy it's less of a headache to deal with.

[jetersky]

Unless you're very dedicated, Inscription doesn't make a ton of gold, other than the beginning of an expac with Darkmoon cards. Alchemy is easy to make a steady income with though.

[Ceece]

I would keep Alchemy because of quicker profits. Inscription is nice, but making any real money with it is difficult. The glyph business is slow, since you have to wait around for glyphs to actually sell. The Darkmoon cards on the other hand, I'm sure will be popular throughout the expansion, if they keep the gear ladder in effect and being able to upgrade it twice is really cool. In the end, Alchemy wins. It has transmutation, flask and potion crafting. I find it enjoyable.

[Dakara]

I'm amazed at the response to inscription. You don't need to sell Glyps to make gold (infact, I avoid it) and the DMF cards are still and will always be easy gold. Just pump one out per day and eventually you get a deck. The trinkets are still selling for 30k+ on my server and the cards are pretty much free to make if you only mill herbs below a certain price.

There's plenty of ways to make very easy gold with inscription.

[Deleted]

I'm amazed at the response to inscription. You don't need to sell Glyps to make gold (infact, I avoid it) and the DMF cards are still and will always be easy gold. Just pump one out per day and eventually you get a deck. The trinkets are still selling for 30k+ on my server and the cards are pretty much free to make if you only mill herbs below a certain price.

There's plenty of ways to make very easy gold with inscription.

But lots of people arent on your server. It is possible for the trinkets not to sell and herbs to be expensive plus he could have serious competition.

[vian]

I've always thought of Inscription as a secondary profession. Also, you wont be guaranteed a major profit past the few weeks of every expansion.

[Socialhealer]

But lots of people arent on your server. It is possible for the trinkets not to sell and herbs to be expensive plus he could have serious competition.

its really quite impossible to make a loss on DMF cards, people wont make them at a loss, if herbs are high trinkets will just be a bit higher than usual server.

DMF cards ALWAYS sell, unless you are on some kind of almost dead realm they never fail to sell i've probably sold 50 decks in 2 x-pacs, and i know of some people who have probably sold over 500, its easy gold if you put time into it.

[Dakara]

But lots of people arent on your server. It is possible for the trinkets not to sell and herbs to be expensive plus he could have serious competition.

Possibly. Unlikely, but possible.

However, on a Forum such as this, every reply will be server specific so why should anyone reply at all? If the OP's server economy is that dead, then there wont be any answers here.

Regardless, there's more to Inscription than just DMF cards/Glyhs. It has it's own shuffle just like JC does.
Check Herb Prices
Check Ink Prices
Buy
Mill
Profit.

I play on 3 servers, and on all of them, herb prices are cheap enough that I can make a profit purely from selling Inks while keeping 1 of each shoulder enchant listed. If Ink of Dreams are going cheap/don't sell trade em up for Starlights.

[Deleted]

I personally prefer Inscription. But it does take a lot of time milling all the herbs and making inks. I sell quite a lot of glyphs just make 1 of every glyph and post a couple of times aday. Any Starlight ink i get i make cards and form decks. Alchemy can be really useful however making your char flasks and pots etc

[Hayro1]

I'm kind of shocked people are saying it's easier to make gold with Alchemy, when it's just as easy if not even easier to do so with Inscription while spending less time and making more. I stopped buying herbs a long time ago, I bought the inks and made an easy profit in about 10 minutes. Spend 500-1k on inks, make 3-5k+ in return, in 10 minutes. And that's just on 3 Inscriptions, on a high pop server - it's even better on lower ones where stuff is higher.

[DeadmanWalking]

Make an alt and do both. My main has herbalism and alchemy, its a Warlock and since ques are long I spend my que time gathering herbs. Then I send them to my inscriptionist alt where I turn the inks into cards and scrolls into the purple staff for my warlock (BOA).

Don't go into DMF cards. the value of DMF cards will drop signifigantly once 5.2 comes out because that gear will out shine the DMF cards and make them less desirable. Currently DMF cards could be bis and they are a way to toss money at the ilevel problem to get into raiding. Unless they upgrade the card rewards or introduce new cards in 5.2 then the cards will only be sought to temporaily raise ilevel which a lot of people won't spend a lot of money on it for just that reason. The trick now is to know when to get out of the market so you reduce your supply while squeezing all the profit out of it as possible and not getting caught with your hand in the money jar. For all we know there may only be one more DMF before 5.2 is released.

For alchemy I suggest getting your farm up to exalted so you can grow herbs, its an overly steady supply of Golden Lotus. I usually pull up 4-5 a day and a guildie told me he pulled up 10 in one day last week. If you have an alt at level 90 they can also farm and double your herb gathering. In fact you get so many lotus from farming that my friends who sent me herbs from their garden to get DMF cards were unhappy to see golden lotus in their garden all the time because that meant less millable herbs.

A good combo for alts is herb gathering + alchemy and Jewel Crafting + Inscription. Herb gathering feeds inscription and alchemy, alchemy will feed better gems to your Jewel Crafter. You will save money not buying your own gems and not spending money means having more money. If you go a 3rd alt I suggest mining and enchanting, which will allow you to pull up your own ore, turn it into gems and then disenchant into enchanting mats for sale.

[Quackie]

I've got both maxed and honestly I just sell herbs. Pots really aren't selling much and I lose a bunch of gold from the deposits of constantly relisting them on the AH. I can't get the DM cards to sell either.

[Quackie]

For alchemy I suggest getting your farm up to exalted so you can grow herbs, its an overly steady supply of Golden Lotus. I usually pull up 4-5 a day and a guildie told me he pulled up 10 in one day last week. If you have an alt at level 90 they can also farm and double your herb gathering. In fact you get so many lotus from farming that my friends who sent me herbs from their garden to get DMF cards were unhappy to see golden lotus in their garden all the time because that meant less millable herbs.

One of the more ridiculous statements I've ever read on these forums. When you farm an herb, you only get 1-3, and that's with guild perks. When you get a Golden Lotus, you can sell it for 85-125g/per depending on your server. Then you turn around and buy anywhere from 1-4 stacks of millable herbs with that gold. 1-4 stacks is far better than 1, 2, or 3 herbs.

[Karazee]

I'm amazed at the response to inscription. You don't need to sell Glyps to make gold (infact, I avoid it) and the DMF cards are still and will always be easy gold. Just pump one out per day and eventually you get a deck. The trinkets are still selling for 30k+ on my server and the cards are pretty much free to make if you only mill herbs below a certain price.

There's plenty of ways to make very easy gold with inscription.

Trinkets sell for between 8k (tank) to 17k on ym server when the Faire is in town. 15k-20k when it's not.

I can't imagine most servers are in the 30k range.

[Deleted]

Inscription is not a real goldmine before you have ALL the glyphs.
After that you need to spend about 30-45min a day to make it matter.

My scribe makes about 7-8k pr day right now - even though it's a slow period.
- I play on a medium+ pop server.

[Deathrag]

Inscription does provide some pretty good cash with glyphs, fans, and even pets. I haven't tried Alchemy yet so I can't give you any tips on that though.