Lately I’ve been thinking about how I plan on making money when 4.3 hits. Sure, I want to make money now, but patches are where the money is. I have enchanting and mining, so that’s where my focus is.

Mining

I think I’m screwed. First, I’m terrible at this. It might seem surprising that someone could even be bad at mining, but I have a terrible secret. I’ve been stockpiling ore forever. I keep toying with the idea of becoming a jewelcrafter for the JC-only rings (even though Mooglegem can already cut all my gems for me), but instead of stockpiling just what I’d need to level or, better yet, not stockpiling at all and just buying back what I need later, I’ve stockpiled everything.

With the widespread theory, now proven false, that jewelcrafters would be able to prospect epic gems from ore in 4.3, that gave me even more reason to stockpile. And honestly, I’m not even the person stockpiling my own ore. I’ve been giving it to Mooglegem. Regardless, I have no idea what to do with this ore yet. Lots of people have been stockpiling it. Some have most likely already begun unloading it, but I suspect many will continue to hold off for 4.3 just in case things change. I think my best bet here is get off my ass and auction the old ore while letting Mooglegem prospect the new ore anyways. I’m betting that will yield a higher profit. If the numbers don’t back that up, we’ll have to hold all the Cataclysm ore until the next expansion when people will be leveling new professions again.

Enchanting

What to do, what to do? The time of using excess mats to create enchants for the Auction House is behind us, left in Wrath. Shards are in far too short of supply for me to use my own mats for enchants to sell, and even essences are hard to find. What will 4.3 bring?

Maelstrom Shatter is now live on the PTR, turning a Maelstrom Crystal into two Heavenly Shards. This means crystals and shards will be plentiful, leaving us with a shortage of dust and essence. Yes, random uncommon-quality equipment does drop in instances, so we’ll still have some. It won’t exactly be a shortage, but those mats will be the limiting factor. I suppose that means the thing to do now would be to stock up on cheap dust and essence, wait for 4.3, and then resell them later or use them for enchants and sell those. Heavenly Shards should be sold now while people could still have a demand for them. They’ll be cheap in 4.3!

Ore -> Enchants

I could also use the ore to make enchants. After finding a blacksmith, I could smelt all my ore, get the additional mats needed, and have the BS craft a bunch of gear for me for the purpose of disenchanting. This would give me additional mats to either put up on the AH after 4.3 hits or with which to create actual enchants.

Too long; didn’t read

• Ore will be super cheap, so it should be used for something else and, if cheap enough, purchased in bulk. Either prospect it or blacksmith it.
• Sell Heavenly Shards now while supply is low.
• Purchase essence and dust now before demand increases.
• Purchase gems, flasks, and pots now before demand increases in 4.3. This isn’t about making gold as much as it’s about saving gold.