Alchemy over Skinning...Follow

You will be ok money wise since you still have a gathering profession. It's arguable if you will make less money but your expenditure will be larger with a crafting profession since you'll need to train and buy recipes. (I'm taking the assumption that you'll only have a fix amount of time playing WoW). If you work at it, you'll collect a lot more herbs then you'll drink or need to skill up. You can then sell the left over herbs for profit. Also, since you won't have skinning, try questing, or if you want farming, with humanoid mobs as much as possible. They drop cloths which sell for a lot on the AH. I assume that you have been killing skinnable mobs exclusively before for the skins.

You should only take up alchemy because you want to use the potions on yourself and give them to friends. It shouldn't be for profit. By the way, alchemy is one of the cheapest craft to level since it only needs mainly herbs and vials. What is profitable depends on your server. Have a look at the AH and since you're a herbalist, it should be obvious to you if a potion is profitable. On mine, frost oil is the only money maker. Free action potions and swiftness sell less than the herbs and fish, and I think it's because it's PvE. Arcanite transmutes probably make money too.

Edited, Feb 19th 2007 11:42am by LittleHamster

Thanks all for the advices.
I think i'll keep both gathering skills until i get my flying mount, and re-think them afterwards :)

I have 350 in Alchemy and i make about 100 g a week.
I have herbalism 350 but i actually buy herbs at AH, only when they are very cheap and then make pots. You have to be ready to inverst loads of gold when a herb is available for cheap. For instance i got gromsblood x20 and sungrass x 20 for 5g all, then made elixir of giant wich give 20str for 1 hour and sell x5 for 8 g so those 5g becomes 32g. of course gromsblood is somtimes up to 25g x20 so you have to keep checking for prices every days. Same with stonscale oil, the eel necesary is expensive, 30g x 20 but ones i bought 100 stacks for 10g x20 and sold my stonescale for 40g x 20. Its all about timing. With flasks i can make up to 40g per flask.

As others have posted, alchemy is primarily for buffing your character. But you can make money from it if you take the time to learn the ins and outs of the profession and watch the auction house.

In my opinion, it really comes down to what type of player you are. For example, I am not the type of person to use alchemy. Even when I have potions in my packs I forget to use them 99.9 percent of the time. I have the same problem with scrolls and holiday items that give buffs. I even have the same problem with talents that have timers. So I usually simply avoid them all since I won’t use them. Healing potions are one of my few exceptions.

On the other hand, a friend of mine played a rogue with herbalism/alchemy. He always had three or four potion buffs up at times while adventuring. He told me it made a huge difference in the outcome of his fights. He also made a decent profit from selling potions in the AH.

So, are you the type of person who would take advantage of the alchemy profession? Is it worth it to you to farm the herbs to keep your character buffed? Are you willing to learn what potions sell and what the market is like? If so then I say go for it. If not I’d suggest sticking to two gathering professions.



This sounds like a good idea either way. Even if you do make money from alchemy, there is likely to be a certain amount of financial investment to get your skill leveled up.