Saturday, October 24, 2015

Leatherworking Insights

When I first started playing World of Warcraft back in the days of Lich King, I created a hunter, I didn't really know what I was doing. I wasn't apart of a raiding guild, I wasn't apart of many of the cities in World of Warcraft, and it took me 6 months of playing 4-6 hours a day to learn to play my hunter, and even then, I didn't really know what I was doing but could dungeon and level, exploring the world around me.
So by then I had figured out that professions is where the gold is, I was spending it as fast as I made it. Gold was like the flowing waters of the Dalaran Fountain. If you could fish, cook, and craft you could make bank. Along came a new level cap and new dungeons and new raids, but I really didn't care to be apart of that, except that every raider and every dungeoneer needed what I made, as soon as they got new gear.
My staples were cooking, fishing, and leatherworking. Much like they are now, except that no one needs anything except a new enchant if they get a new piece of gear, they have taken all of the fun out of crafting. I used to spend hours on end farming Savage Leather, Borean Leather and a few other rare materials just so that I could have supplies on hand every night at 10 server when the raiders finished raiding and wanted new leg armors. My focus now, is among twinks and levelers, not raiders, I could care less what they want.
The following example of Burnished Essence proves my point, if you look closely at the crafting cost and the current auction pricing, you will notice, every one unless they are farming all the materials themselves, is losing money.
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Crafting cost for one Burnished Essence is 2205g and current auction house prices on US Sargeras are 2119g. So everyone who makes and posts, is losing money. This does not account for that person farming all their crafting goods. So in a sense your spending hours on end fishing, skinning and killing things in Tanaan for 0g. Now to me, that seems sort of like a bad deal, but ever since Legion was announced the auction house has taken its standard dive, and no one cares that they are losing money. They just want to get rid of everything before its totally worthless. But as a greedly goblin goldmaker I am, I soak up all that cheap stuff, send it to an alt bank and sit on it, someone will need it shortly after the release of new content.
So to move on, into some leatherworking insights, I have now reduced my post cap for Leg Armors, to one. I post one, I sell one, I make another and rinse and repeat. There aren't many competitors in my market, a lot of the patterns that I sell on a regular basis take more work than the average joe is willing to invest. I liked it when patterns were behind huge reputation gains, I can only hope they go back to this in Legion.
The work required for Nethercleft Leg Armor is a tremendous hill climb of a rep grind. Cenarion Expedition Exalted takes some work. Clefthide Leg Armor comes from Cenarion Expedition Honored. However, Drakehide Leg Armor came during Cataclysm and only required visiting your local leather supplies vendor and spending 10 Heavy Savage Leather, the same for Dragonscale Leg Armor and Charscale Leg Armor. One of the hardest patterns for me to acquire was the Nethercobra Leg Armor, it requies Honor Hold Exalted to purchase. Since I am not a pvp person, this task was excruciating, but nonetheless for an over achiever crafting pattern nut such as I. When you hold 99% of all Leatherworking patterns in game, you have accomplished something.
Now, since no one is really leveling, and all the Chinese farm bots have been banned from the game, Savage Leather, Thick Clefthoof Leather, and a bunch of other leatherworking supplies have ceased to exist on the US Sargeras Auction House. So in order to craft these armors I must spend hours farming again. During Mists of Panderia, life was easy, I go to my local auction house and purchase whatever materials I needed, craft 3 of every leg armor and post to the auction house, usually overcutting everyone by ten to twenty percent. Now I pretty much set my price and twinks pay the price.
The odds for pulling a Thick Clefthoof Leather are decent, usually about one in three nets a usable hide. You can easily farm Savage Leather and Blackened Dragonscale's in the Twilight Highlands. Along the way farming a few elementals and primal's and motes. So farming isn't totally bad, I was pretty comfy atop the stairs leading to my Level 3 garrison Town Hall, and only visiting my Garrison auction house, but as this expansion drags on and new content is a ways off, I must do more to make more. Which in the end, making gold is the end goal and selling my wares to twinks for 200% markup because I have to farm the materials myself because they are no longer available on the auction house.
You can find me in The Burning Crusade Outland Nagrand, farming Aged Clefthoof's for Thick Clefthoof Leather and other materials, or you might see me farming Twilight Highlands for Savage Leather and Blackened Dragonscale's. So in turn I'm back out in the world farming my own materials again. Which leaves me where I am now.
Toodaloo More later.

TSM & Leatherworking Part 1
TSM & Leatherworking Part 2
Leatherworking Insights 2

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