To Tailor or not to Tailor?

[Alastair]

Hi all,

When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char, however the only potions that I
still use are healing and swiftness (for BG).

I am considering having a change of professions soon to mix the game up
a bit for me as the levelling of my chars professions has slowed down
and I use them less, and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for
my warlock "Robes of the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only
create it =( ). My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.

This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).

Thanks in advance

Alastair
----
Garhartra - lvl 45 Undead Warlock - Divine Retribution - Shadowsong EU
Server

[BombayMix]

Post by Alastair
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch)

Not idea about your exact quest but Alchemy a big money maker and very
useful in the end game. ie selling potions to raid groups and BG
players.

Personally I wouldn't drop it so close to level 60. Tailoring not
that useful if you plan on raiding, since all the best gear dropped and
not crafted.

[Jack D]

Post by Alastair
Hi all,
When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char, however the only potions that I
still use are healing and swiftness (for BG).
I am considering having a change of professions soon to mix the game up
a bit for me as the levelling of my chars professions has slowed down
and I use them less, and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for
my warlock "Robes of the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only
create it =( ). My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).

We had some of the same cases in our guild. My advice would be to stick
with alchemy/herbalism for now. It truly is the biggest money maker,
let me tell you I spend 20-30 gold each week for potions. Best earners
are Major Mana and Healing Pots and Greater Fire Res Pots for PvE
raiding. Swiftness and Free Action pots for PvP.

Once you hit the level required to tailor the Robe of the Void, you can
grind it quite cheaply (do wait until the AQ War Effort is finished for
cloth prices to drop) in a day or so. Make your robe and respec to
herbalism/alchemy (whichever you dropped, though I suspect Herbalism
being the cheapest to re-grind...).

Robe of the Void is definitely worth it :-) Should you find this too
much of a hassle you can always stick to Robe of Winter Night, which is
also a very nice tailored warlock robe and not BoE on creation.

[valpozzo]

Post by Alastair
Hi all,
When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char,

-CUT
My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of

Post by Alastair
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).

Have you never seen prices of dreamfoil, mountain silv., ghost
mushroom, bloodvine (for example) in AH ?
You should level up, find higher herbs in higher level zones, then you
will have a *lot* of money. Install gatherer.

[T A R T]

On Tue, 17 Jan 2006 11:13:37 +0100, Alastair
<***@hotmail.com> wrote:
My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of

Post by Alastair
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.

I haven't jumped between profs but I am a tailor... and I have to tell you
that you will need to grind a lot to get all the cloth that you need. I
can make silk and mageweave items now... and gathering silk is not hard
but since it takes 4 silk cloth to make one bolt of silk fabric... it can
take a while to gather all the silk you need. It takes several bolts of
silk to make a simple item. Also, selling stuff that you have made can be
a hit or miss thing. Often you make stuff but no one will buy them..
unless you sell them really cheap.

IMO, you should stick with the profs you have now. It is possible to make
lots of money in all profs and you have done lots of work already. I do
believe that all profs require varying degrees of grinding, so you may as
well stick with what you have.


T

[Urbin]

Post by Alastair
When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char, however the only potions that I
still use are healing and swiftness (for BG).
I am considering having a change of professions soon to mix the game up
a bit for me as the levelling of my chars professions has slowed down
and I use them less,

If you want to change to have some fun with different professions, by all
means do. But...

Post by Alastair
and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for my warlock "Robes of
the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only create it =( ).

So basically you would grind tailoring up to the necessary level and then
gather all the materials needed for just *one* item? I have no experience if
afterwards you can make money from the crafted items, but as others said, at
levels above 50 typically most gear dropped in instances is likely to be a
better price/gain ratio than crafted items.

Post by Alastair
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).

You mentioned picking herbs/mining for money. If that is still an issue, you
can actually make quite good money on herb/alch at high level. A good spot
at your level is the swamp of sorrows. Mobs there are in the range from
35-38 I believe, so they should not disturb your gathering and you can find
many herbs that sell quite well there:

- blindweed
- goldthorn
- liferoot
- khadgar's mustache

They all sell at around 2-4g on my server. Not gigantic but nevertheless a
nice amount at lvl45. Later you will find herbs that easily sell for 8-16g.

Also, once you get the transmute Arcanite bars receipe you have a means to
earn anything from 3g (people providing the mats, you charge them 3g) to 6g
(buying arcane cristals at 15g, selling arcanite bars at 22g on my server)
every 2 days.

Additionally, figure out what potions sell well at the AH (others mentioned
them in their posts) and go pick the herbs for them yourselves. This way you
will easily get money with little investment but time (and I usually manage
to grind some XP and drops while herb gathering as well).

Also, as others said, get Gatherer which helps you to see where certain
herbs grow, for the times when you need a specific herb in a hurry.

Cheers
Urbin, herbalist/alchemist

[valpozzo]

Post by Urbin
You mentioned picking herbs/mining for money. If that is still an issue, you
can actually make quite good money on herb/alch at high level. A good spot
at your level is the swamp of sorrows. Mobs there are in the range from
35-38 I believe, so they should not disturb your gathering and you can find
- blindweed
- goldthorn
- liferoot
- khadgar's mustache

lol, i've never heard "mustache" !!
Khadgar "Whiskey" may be??
In Swamp you'll find also Kingsblood, non-herbalist will buy a lot
those for reputation with Thorium Brother.

[Christian Stauffer]

Post by valpozzo

Post by Urbin
- khadgar's mustache

lol, i've never heard "mustache" !!

I would laugh at the translation, but fact is I woldn't even have
an idea how to translate the item name :o)

Post by valpozzo
Khadgar "Whiskey" may be??

Actually it's "Khadgar's Whisker".

I ditched 300 skinning and levelled enchanting (currently at
about 283) to make myself a smoking heart of the mountain.
Basically the same case like the OP, nothing that drops in
the game yet is like this trinket for my class/build.
Recently, I ditched 315 herbalism and took up skinning again :-)
Herbs don't really sell well on my server, and it's boring to
gather them, and I hoped to profit a bit from the war effort
quests. At least I found tons of cloth items to send to my
alt while levelling skinnning

Chris

[Urbin]

Post by Christian Stauffer

Post by valpozzo

Post by Urbin
- khadgar's mustache

lol, i've never heard "mustache" !!
Khadgar "Whiskey" may be??

Actually it's "Khadgar's Whisker".

Ah, I knew it had something to do with shaving :)

Cheers
Urbin, once more caught by the language difference

[Jack D]

Post by Urbin
So basically you would grind tailoring up to the necessary level and then
gather all the materials needed for just *one* item? I have no experience if
afterwards you can make money from the crafted items, but as others said, at
levels above 50 typically most gear dropped in instances is likely to be a
better price/gain ratio than crafted items.

Hmm, Robe of the Void is definitely worth it (+49 shadow dmg...). It is
by far the best warlock robe you can get prior to any Raid-Instances. I
crafted it as soon as I was level 57 and am still wearing it
practically all time. Felheart Robe might be better now for certain
cases but I let other locks without Robe of the Void bid on it first.

[Mel]

It may not me a bad idea, especially ig you like the Robe.

However, I would suggest against dropping alchemy, I suppose you have
already found recipes here there and everywhere; if you drop it and want
to retake it later, you will have to re-find all these recipees.


I would suggest that you keep what you have for the moment, check out
all the differnt things you can do for tailoring (and what you need for
different recipees), save all the cloth you can get your hands on, and
when (WHEN) you have all the ingredients required, drop herbalism, grind
your tailoring, make your robe, and then go back to herbalism.


Herbalism is the way to go to make money!

Post by Alastair
Hi all,
When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char, however the only potions that I
still use are healing and swiftness (for BG).
I am considering having a change of professions soon to mix the game up
a bit for me as the levelling of my chars professions has slowed down
and I use them less, and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for
my warlock "Robes of the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only
create it =( ). My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).
Thanks in advance
Alastair
----
Garhartra - lvl 45 Undead Warlock - Divine Retribution - Shadowsong EU
Server

[Alastair]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I think I will go with the path of keeping Herbs/Alch till I am high
enough to make the robe, drop herbs for tailoring, level that for the
robe, and then drop it and re-grind herbs again =)

It sounds very nice on paper... will see how it turns out.

Might wait for the Burning Crusade add-on and see if any new gear for
tailoring comes along with that.

...

On another note, as the patches have came out I haven't paid much
attention to the release notes that weren't relevant to my own char, so
not paid any attention to tailoring up until now.... are new patterns
for tailoring added with each patch?

E.g. If I am going to level up tailoring at some point then drop it on
the Tuesday before a patch, am I going to find something in the new
patch that I REALLY want to have?

Just a thought, to avoid any stoopid mistakes in the future :)

Ta

Alastair

[Christian Stauffer]

Post by Alastair
E.g. If I am going to level up tailoring at some point then drop it on
the Tuesday before a patch, am I going to find something in the new
patch that I REALLY want to have?

Not necessarily, but it can happen. A good example are the soul bags
that have been introduced in 1.9. The pattern for the basic version
(20 slot) can be bought in Gadgetzan. The material costs for these
bags are somewhere between 1 and 3 gold (very rough, I know, and
it's also effected by the war efforts), and the bags still sell for
over 7g on my server. So, ditching tailoring just before 1.9 would
have been a bad idea, because here's a little fortune to be made.

As much as I know, the number of tradeskill recipes that have been
added in patches and aren't bound to reputation requirements (which
means you can just buy them straight away after the patch) is
quite small, though.

Chris

[Jack D]

Post by Alastair
On another note, as the patches have came out I haven't paid much
attention to the release notes that weren't relevant to my own char, so
not paid any attention to tailoring up until now.... are new patterns
for tailoring added with each patch?
E.g. If I am going to level up tailoring at some point then drop it on
the Tuesday before a patch, am I going to find something in the new
patch that I REALLY want to have?
Just a thought, to avoid any stoopid mistakes in the future :)

Some cool things have been added for locks like the soulpouches etc.
But Robe of the Void is the only BoP one, so you are better off selling
herbs and buying the things you want from a tailor.

[ASKF]

Post by Jack D

Post by Alastair
On another note, as the patches have came out I haven't paid much
attention to the release notes that weren't relevant to my own char, so
not paid any attention to tailoring up until now.... are new patterns
for tailoring added with each patch?
E.g. If I am going to level up tailoring at some point then drop it on
the Tuesday before a patch, am I going to find something in the new
patch that I REALLY want to have?
Just a thought, to avoid any stoopid mistakes in the future :)

Some cool things have been added for locks like the soulpouches etc.
But Robe of the Void is the only BoP one, so you are better off selling
herbs and buying the things you want from a tailor.

There are a couple of other BoP recepies for tailoring. If I recall it
right, there is one for Priests (shadow) and one for Mages, but they're
lower level blues.

I'm pretty sure Blizz will add a lot more faction-sold recepies, since
they've increased the relevance of factions with the last patches. Thus
it is likely they'll add more BoP recepie items later on.

[Jack D]

Post by ASKF

Post by Jack D
Some cool things have been added for locks like the soulpouches etc.
But Robe of the Void is the only BoP one, so you are better off selling
herbs and buying the things you want from a tailor.

There are a couple of other BoP recepies for tailoring. If I recall it
right, there is one for Priests (shadow) and one for Mages, but they're
lower level blues.

Indeed, next to Robe of the Void, you have an epic counterpart for
mages and priests.
Robe of the Archmage / http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=14152
Truefaith Vestments / http://wow.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?witem=14154

But as they are class-specific they are quite useless to a warlock.

[pv+ (Paul Vader)]

Post by Alastair
and I use them less, and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for
my warlock "Robes of the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only
create it =( ). My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).

Herbalism, like mining, just takes time, and it's easy to skill it up while
doing other stuff. So if you want to drop it it's not that terrible to get
it back later if you change your mind. You'll have to spend a couple hours
in newbie zones, that's the worst of it.

On the other hand, a production skill represents serious gold invested in
recipes, all of which you will lose if you drop the skill. So changing your
mind, especially at the artisan level, means tossing away that investment.
If you want to take up tailoring, you might think about doing it with an
alt. Other than the level minimums for advancement, you can easily have a
bank slave do tailoring, because the materials they use can easily be fed to
them by other characters. My warlock was a 225 tailor at level 15 - I fell
in love with the class while running it up to 35 so I could advance
tailoring to artisan, since a number of friends liked the stuff the tailor
produced as 'fill in' items while they were questing or shopping for better
ones. *

[chocolatemalt]

Post by Alastair
Hi all,
When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char, however the only potions that I
still use are healing and swiftness (for BG).
I am considering having a change of professions soon to mix the game up
a bit for me as the levelling of my chars professions has slowed down
and I use them less, and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for
my warlock "Robes of the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only
create it =( ). My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).
Thanks in advance
Alastair
----
Garhartra - lvl 45 Undead Warlock - Divine Retribution - Shadowsong EU
Server

Do what you think is fun.

I'm going to disagree with some of the other advice you've been given
here and say: Don't do it for the money. Sticking with a gathering
profession strictly for the cash is really really dull. The game is
already a huge time-suck, and if you're like me, you'd rather spend your
time doing instances with the guild, or fighting in the battlegrounds.
Grinding for materials just to increase your cash is, in my view, like a
job. You'd be better off working an hour or two extra at work (i.e.
real-life work) and using that cash to buy ebay WoW gold. It's just a
logical conclusion, and I say it even though I hate the farmers at
places like Tyr's Hand, and hate the in-game spammers for gold sales
websites, and would never buy it myself. But, don't buy the gold, just
read on...

If you think tailoring would be cool, making bags and making awesome
robes, then do it. If alchemy is dull for you, drop it. If you like
the potions you make, then keep it.

I leveled a warrior to 60 with herbalism/alchemy, and he did make a fair
amount of money by selling stacks of high level weeds, and doing the
arcanite transmute every two days. And with a bunch of grinding, he
eventually even got the 900g for the epic mount. It was ok, and the
potions were useful, but it was also a grind.

I leveled a mage to 60 and took tailoring/enchanting. I used all mats
for the professions (and enchanting REALLY burns the mats) and
definitely lost money on them, probably many hundreds of gold. But it
was fun. Bags are great, making cloth stuff as you level up is lots of
fun, and some high level patterns are nice. In spite of the money-pit
that these professions were, this character had more fun with
professions than the warrior, and bought the epic mount much *sooner*.

The difference was simply the Auctioneer mod. At risk of sounding like
a broken record (check other threads in this newsgroup), this mod allows
you to sell loot intelligently and completely avoid grinding for AH-able
materials.

If you like grinding, then certainly you can get money that way. But
you can also avoid it entirely and still buy all the skills, bags, and
epic mounts that you need. I simply speak up here because many people
will repeatedly state that you need TWO gathering professions (ugh!) or
even if you just have one, you have to grind grind grind and sell the
mats. I say it's unnecessary, there's a better way and you can be rich
and avoid the grind at the same time. It's a game. Have fun. Don't
make it a job.

[David Carson]

Post by chocolatemalt
Do what you think is fun.

I agree wholeheartedly. That's why, when new players ask for tradeskill
advice, I do NOT say "take two gathering skills, make a lot of money,
respec to a crafting skill at level 40, etc. etc."

A new player should try as much of the game as possible, to see what
they enjoy, and imho that means taking one of the traditional
gathering/crafting combos.

Post by chocolatemalt
I'm going to disagree with some of the other advice you've been given
here and say: Don't do it for the money. Sticking with a gathering
profession strictly for the cash is really really dull. The game is
already a huge time-suck, and if you're like me, you'd rather spend your
time doing instances with the guild, or fighting in the battlegrounds.
Grinding for materials just to increase your cash is, in my view, like a
job.

Well, a converse view is that while you're out adventuring, it's a lot
more fun to whip out the old pickaxe when you see an ore node than it is
to have to walk past it because you're not a miner. :-)

Cheers!
David...

[Christian Stauffer]

Post by chocolatemalt
I'm going to disagree with some of the other advice you've been given
here and say: Don't do it for the money. Sticking with a gathering
profession strictly for the cash is really really dull. The game is
already a huge time-suck, and if you're like me, you'd rather spend your
time doing instances with the guild, or fighting in the battlegrounds.
Grinding for materials just to increase your cash is, in my view, like a
job.

Funny, that's exactly the reason why I don't like tradeskills at all.
If you have 2 gathering skills, you can use them on the fly, and if you
really feel like making big money with them you can still go and farm
stuff. If you have a trade skill like tailoring or leatherworking, you
HAVE to farm for materials, or otherwise your tradeskill will fall behind
and won't be of any use anymore.
I fail to see where tradeskills are really fun. Except engineering of
course. Tradeskills mean nothing but farming materials, and then clicking
the button to make an item. Meh.

Chris

[ASKF]

Christian Stauffer ytrede sig i

Post by Christian Stauffer

Post by chocolatemalt
I'm going to disagree with some of the other advice you've been given
here and say: Don't do it for the money. Sticking with a gathering
profession strictly for the cash is really really dull. The game is
already a huge time-suck, and if you're like me, you'd rather spend your
time doing instances with the guild, or fighting in the battlegrounds.
Grinding for materials just to increase your cash is, in my view, like a
job.

Funny, that's exactly the reason why I don't like tradeskills at all.
If you have 2 gathering skills, you can use them on the fly, and if you
really feel like making big money with them you can still go and farm
stuff. If you have a trade skill like tailoring or leatherworking, you
HAVE to farm for materials, or otherwise your tradeskill will fall behind
and won't be of any use anymore.
I fail to see where tradeskills are really fun. Except engineering of
course. Tradeskills mean nothing but farming materials, and then clicking
the button to make an item. Meh.

You're forgetting that the best recepies can be very hard to get. Some
of the factions are pretty annoying to get exaulted with. Fx the
Timbermaw Hold only have a couple of small areas, where we can farm
reputation points, and those areas are mostly farmed constantly. Argent
Dawn stops giving reputation from normal mobs when Honourd, and Elites
when Revered, this only leaves you with Bosses and Scourge stones.

I must say however, that I find it really nice having my main char being
able to make cloth items for my caster alts, and even enchant them too.
This means I don't have to buy items at AH, since I'm having good
produced items to fill in the slots where I miss better quest and drop
items, and I can upgrade the items for nearly no cost at every level.

If I wants even better items, I can just enchant the crafted ones, befor
sending to my alt :-)

[Melkuth]

Herb/alchemy is extremely useful for me in MC/BWL/ONY etc.

Essencially i get all my end-game potions for free.

As a warlock you could make the +shadow damage potion. Fire protection
potions. Mana potions etc.

Post by Alastair
Hi all,
When I started WoW, I took the professions herbs/mining as I read on
here that I could make most money out of them, but I got fed up with
mining early on and changed to herbs/alch as I was fed up not making
any money from the herbs and mining and decided to use the herbs to
make something useful for my char, however the only potions that I
still use are healing and swiftness (for BG).
I am considering having a change of professions soon to mix the game up
a bit for me as the levelling of my chars professions has slowed down
and I use them less, and I also have my eyes on a nice purple item for
my warlock "Robes of the Void" (binds when picked up, so can only
create it =( ). My char is level 45 and won't be able to make use of
this item for a few levels yet, but I was wondering if anyone has any
experiences of going from herbs/alch to A.N.Other/Tailoring and if I
should make the jump now, later or not at all.
This may be a stupid thought, but was hoping for some advice before I
undo months of work (280 herbs, 255 Alch).
Thanks in advance
Alastair
----
Garhartra - lvl 45 Undead Warlock - Divine Retribution - Shadowsong EU
Server