Introduction

This guide shows you how to make gold with the Alchemy profession in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria.

Alchemy is a profession that allows players to create potions, elixirs and flasks from herbs and other reagents. Alchemists can also transmute elements and metals.

Alchemy is a very unique profession in regards to gold-making. It is the only profession that offers additional benefits when duplicated on other characters. Alchemists can turn an easy, fast profit every day using their cooldowns. In addition, Alchemy remains the only profession with specializations (besides Engineering). Each Alchemy specialization enables new channels from which to profit.

Major perks:

• Cheapest crafting profession to level.
• Very simple leveling path.
• Extends the profitability of shuffling.
• Makes for instant and easy profits, especially early in expansions.
• Easily accessible to players of all kin.

Alchemy should not be a priority profession for those seeking to profit. However, it does make for an excellent filler profession. Indeed, most accomplished entrepreneurs tend to stacks their accounts with transmute specced alchemists – yielding nice quick profits from daily transmutes.

Potions, Elixirs and Flasks are extremely competitive markets, where one is almost required to be a potion or elixir specialist in order to yield any profits. This is mostly due to the bags of treasure rewarded to dungeon tanks and healers. If your schedule does not allow straight play time and Auction House camping, forget the consumables market and focus your attention elsewhere.

Below you will find an itemized list of profitable Alchemy crafts, categorized by type.

Profitable Alchemy Crafts

Zero-Cooldown Crafts

Blizzard systematically removes the cooldown of older transmutes once the game moves to newer content. Truegold recently encounter this fate. There are several profitable no-cooldown transmutes available. In no particular order:

Transmute: Truegold

Requires 3 [Pyrium Bar]s and 10 Volatile Fire, Water and Air. Exceptionally profitable when used to craft Vial of the Sands.

Transmute: Arcanite

Requires 1 Arcane Crystal and 1 Thorium Bar. According to The Undermine Journal, this transmute produces a profit of well over 300%.

Transmute: Primal Diamond

I must direct you to TUJ’s Alchemy page. As of this writing, only Primal Diamond transmutes are profitable (requires 2 of each Vermillion Onyx, Wild Jade and Imperial Amethyst). All rare gems requires a Golden Lotus, and are thus very unprofitable.

Transmute: Titanium

Transmutes 8 Saronite Bars into 1 Titanium Bar. The profit margin on this transmute isn’t spectacular, but it can be especially helpful if you’re short on Titanium to make Titansteel Bars. The transmute can also be used to liquidate excess Saronite Ore. The Titansteel produced from transmuting Titanium should be sold raw, or used to craft motorcycles (Mekgineer’s Chopper, or Mechano-Hog).

Daily Cooldown Crafts

Picking the best daily transmute can be confusing at first, but it boils down to a few options;

• [Transmute: Living Steel] (requires 12 x White Trillium Ore, 12 x Black Trillium Ore)
• [Transmute: Water to Air] (requires 1 x Essence of Water).
• [Transmute: Cardinal Ruby] (requires 1 x Eternal Fire and 1 x Scarlet Ruby).

So what is the most profitable option? Results will vary by server. For most, Living Steel will be the most profitable option. Since it’s the highest value item, extra procs add a huge profit margin to your operations.

If possible, your transmuted items should not be sold raw, but rather, crafted into a final product in sold. Living Steel, for example, should be used to make Living Steel Belt Buckles.

[Essence of Air] is a no-brainer. You should use it exclusively to make [Enchant Weapon - Agility] and [Wastewalker Leggings]. With proper gouging, you can increase your sale value on Essence of Air by at least 50%.

Finally, we have [Cardinal Ruby]. Unbeknownst to many, these beauties can be cut and sold at a whopping 350% profit. I’m not exaggerating – there is a healthy demand for WotLK epic gems. The only catch is that there is a significant barrier of entry to this market. Cardinal Rubies sell best on low-med population realms. On high population realms, undercutting and competition may be too fierce for you to make profits in this market.

To re-iterate what has been said:

• Living Steel is the most profitable transmute but requires more capital.
• Water to Air is the cheapest and easiest transmute, but yields less profit than Living Steel.
• Cardinal Ruby lies somewhere in between, but can be an excellent niche market due to the entry barrier.

Other Crafts

Potions, Elixirs and Flasks

The potion, elixir and flask markets are dangerous and competitive. As it stands, most of these crafts are not profitable and I would advise consulting The Undermine Journal to find the best crafts available. Should you pursue the consumables market, make sure to specialize into Potion or Elixir Mastery first, as it may be impossible to turn profits otherwise. If you have the time, schedules, and the confidence to enter these markets, do so at your own risk!

Vial of the Sands

Last but not least: [Vial of the Sands]. According to The Undermine Journal, you can expect to unload this these anywhere between 40-45k. This is a risk-free market and will remain so for all of WoW’s lifetime, barring any change to the materials. The crafting costs are about 35k (less if you have the guild perk Bartering). Elixir specced alchemists can further reduce the cost of crafting the vials with extra flask procs. As always, you shouldn’t waste your time farming the Vial of the Sands recipe, simply have a friend craft it for you.