With the World of Warcraft beta economy bustling with activity, many players are asking how to make money. Each trade can be very complex and involved and even a little daunting. This guide will detail the casual and hardcore pursuit of alchemy, enchanting, and the necessary herbalism to pursue them.

Background
I made most of my WoW money with one character: my human priest. My priest is 150 skill in herbalism, alchemy, and enchanting. I'd say I've made more than 1000 potions and more than 1000 enchantments for money. This single character ha funded numerous tweak characters (Sorry if you are against tweaking).

Right now, enchanting recipes only go up to 150 skill, while though alchemy goes up higher, most of the recipes at that level aren't worth making. So, I decided to stay with all three tradeskills. For a while I operated the "Enchanting and Alchemy Co" guild with the sole purpose of making money in WoW's market. Result was at its highest, when, with 2 tweak characters already existing, I had more than 30g at level 17.

Currently, I am pursuing a rogue who is a master miner and smith. I also have a master skinner and leather maker. However, among all of these, my human enchanter has been my most profitable.

Herbalism
Picking herbs sounds pretty simple. In reality, it isn't. Some herbs are much harder to find than others, and when you are out searching for specific herbs, you need to know specific locations.

Youa re given an herbal-radar to detect herbs. I suggest your place this ability as an easily accessible hot-key, as you will be pressing this button a lot.

Luckily, WoW's herbs are found in predetermined locations. Their respawn times vary depending on the rarity of that herb. So, if you find an herb, remember where you found it. If it is a very rare herb, like steelbloom, write it down.

Each herb has a certain required skill in herbalism to pick it. Snakeroot, for instance, requires 25 skill in herbalism before you can harvest it. When you do harvest the herb, it will loot between 1 and 3 of the herb. As an herb goes up in required skill, so will its location become more elusive and its respawn time greater. Steelbloom, for example, is a rare herb and is not found in zones for levels below 20. So, it can be very dangerous to pick steelbloom if you are below level 20. The steelbloom will also respawn at a much lower frequency than, say, snakeroot, which reappears every 5 minutes or so.

Each herb also has a typical climate it grows in. Snakeroot, for instance, grows on hills and cliffs. So, if you are looking for snakeroot, make sure to use your herb-detection and travel near hills and mountains. You'll be sure to find plenty of snakeroot.

Here are the basic herbs categorized by the location they are found in. If the herb requires a difficult zone, the minimum zone level is listed beside the herb.

Open Space
Peacebloom
Magebloom (12+)
Crown Royal (19+)

Near Trees
Silverleaf
Thornroot (12+)

Hills/cliffs
Snakeroot
Steelbloom (19+)

Shade
Bruiseweed (12+)

Attached to Other herbs
SwiftThistle (12+)


There are other herbs out there, such as fadeleaf and liferoot, but the vast majority of all potions or enchantments do not use these. As new patches introduce new recipes and raise level caps, these will become more useful.

Buying herbs
Buying herbs is not as easy as it sounds. Most people who harvest herbs do so to make potions or enchant, as you do. Still, herbs can be found. The best places to buy any herb are where it is harvested. So, if you want thornroot, for example, go to Loch Modan or Westfall, where thornroot is commonly harvested. Waiting to buy herbs in the busy cities, like Stormwind, can be murderous. If you are not already widely successful at enchanting or alchemy, chances are you cannot outbid someone who is.

Enchanting and Imbuing
Enchanting means you are able to create a permanent effect on an item. Imbuing, on the other hand, is when you place a timed effect (usually 1 hour) on an item. Imbuing is great, but only enchantments are sold.

Imbuing is very useful before a duel or before your group digs down into a dungeon. Imbuing has a huge variety of effects, ranging from magic resistance to absorbing attacks. Still, few players pay for non-sustained effects, so imbuing recipes won't make you any money. These are good, however, to raise your skill in enchanting as you are leveling. Early on, you can use imbuing to power-level yourself until you have the skill to make enchantments.

Enchantments are typically higher in skill and require more difficult herbs. This makes sense, as enchantments are permanent. Players strongly desire enchantments on their "uber" equipment and will come to get another enchantment when they replace their old equipment. This makes enchanting a hot skill, since people need you and they need you repeatedly.

Whenever I am selling any item to a player, I examine their equipment. Note their class and level. You can probably use this information to suggest a sale, such as to a rogue, "I can enchant those boots to have +1 agi for you" if his boots look nice already. Players wont want enchantments on poor equipment.

If you loot a bind-on-equip item, you have a perfect opportunity to make a sale. Sell the item in auction. When the winning bidder comes to get the item, inform them that in fact, you cannot have the item enchanted once it has been equipped. Everyone knows that a player buying a rare item will want to equip it immediately. Voila! You just happen to be able to enchant it right now for a discount!

See my attached spreadsheet for a list of the best selling enchantments and potions. The ingredients of each are listed.

Alchemy
Alchemy is not nearly as profitable as enchanting is. However, alchemy has far more use in leveling and gaming to the alchemist than enchanting does to the enchanter. Potions can provide a huge array of valuable effect. However, there are few potions you can actually make a dollar at.

Included on the above-mentioned spreadsheet are only the most common, moneymaking potions. Yes, there are other potions, but I was only able to list what my character is capable of making or that I was able to find the ingredients for. As you raise your skill in alchemy, you can edit the chart and re-print of easy access to the information.

Alchemy does have the ability to make reagents though. Reagents are necessary ingredients in several trades, such as enchanting. The alchemist who is able to regularly produce these reagents, like fire oil, CAN make a lot of money. Otherwise, most of alchemy is personal benefit.

The drawbacks to alchemy also include space. Yes, space. You will quickly run out of bag-room if you are hauling around 10 kinds of herbs, 2 kinds of vials, and stacks of various potions. Early on you will want to purchase bags to help you. If you are having to destroy loot for the sake of keeping your herbs, you should consider this a loss and find some bigger bags!


The Art of Selling
Selling is where profit is made. Assuming you've gotten a few of the recipes listed in the spreadsheet, lets talk about how we can make the most of your services.

First, if you are low on an ingredient for a potion, do not make the potion yet. Instead, use the Alchemy menu and shift+click on the icon for the potion to link it in your sales pitch.

Sell your items where they are needed. Obviously if you are in the Searing Gorge, a fire resistance potion would be a hot-item. If you are selling enchantments, it is best to be where players are getting new equipment (Stormwind).

Discount in bulk. If you have the same price for a single unit as you do for multiple, no one will buy multiple from you if they weren't already. If you sell an item for 20s normally though, and discount it to 18s for multiple orders, you just might convince a few people to buy more.

Remember people's names. Write down the guy's name that bought 45 healing potions from you. Odds are, he will be wanting more sometime. People also come back to the tradesmen they know. If you are polite and have reasonable prices, many players will be writing your name down. Don't try to rip people off; you can permanently damage your ability to sell.

Don't spam a channel with a sales pitch. Spamming makes your services look common if you do it too much. Likewise, people get tired of seeing it and will feel adversely towards you. Not to mention, spamming over and over makes it look like your services aren't worth buying, as you are still looking for buyers.

Don't list your price in your sales pitch unless you are sure you cannot be undercut. Also remember that selling a service at a low price can mean that your competition will begin price matching it. If you aren't then able to keep your items at that price, you might find yourself out of business. Don't over or undersell anything!

I listed the median price for most of the potions and enchantments out there on the spreadsheet. Yes, your prices may vary, but these are reasonable prices to charge or pay for these services.

Macros
Macros make your life easy. Right above the chat scroll arrows on the left side of your screen, there is a punctuation bubble you can click on. This opens up the macro window. Here, you can assign an icon to a series of chat commands or speech. These macros can keep you off the keyboard and in the game. Here are some suggested macros that I've used to make money while saving me time.

Buy: "/2 Buying all herbs! Paying well for Thornroot and Steelbloom!

Enchanting: "/2 Enchanter open for business! 15s per 1h wep enchant, 20s for 2h wep, +30hp for 50s, +2 res all cloak for 15s, and many many more, message me"

Thank you: "/say Thank you very much. Write down the name Azrul for anything you need in the future" (note the ambiguity so that I can use for Alchemy or Enchanting customer)

There are many more. You can make them anything at all. Once you have 3-5 good macros, organize them on your 3rd or 4th hot-key bar. Then, whenever you are in a town, you can flip the bar open and instantly get across ant messages you need to.

I realize that each trade skillc an be very difficult to pursue. Please email any questions you have past those answered in this guide. Also, if you have a particular topic you'd like to see me write about, send me an email or post it in the forums. Thanks and good luck turning the green leaves into green paper!

-Crow

PS-I included an updated race/class stat sheet for the next push! You can print it out and fill out the missing numbers as we see them in the upcoming patch.

 

Never Buy WOW Gold Before Comparing Prices and Services Carefully...