CRAFTING FOR PROFIT

Wands and Bronze for Launch Week

any capital / level 1 to 20 / wands and bronze bars / alone

On the first morning of a new server there's a queue at every trainer in Ironforge. I'm in one behind a gnome who wants to learn all the professions at once. Nobody has money or bags yet, and they all want the same few things. A level 5 character with the right profession can make some of them, and this time I worked out which the night before.

Why it pays

For the first days everyone is level 1 to 15 together. Every mage, priest and warlock wants a wand at level 5, and every blacksmith and engineer needs bars for skill points. The gatherers are low level too, so materials come in slowly. A traveller says the auction house is full of goods at the vendor price for about a day and a half, and that they cost double or more by the third day. After a week or two most players are past level 13 and skill 150, and the prices fall back.

The bronze is the part people miss. One Copper Bar and one Tin Bar smelt into two Bronze Bar. Smiths use bronze from skill 95 to 145 for boots, leggings, maces and the silvered pieces, engineers use it for gizmos and bombs, and they all reach that skill in the same few days.

What you need

For wands, Enchanting. Forever starts you on the Novice's Practice Wand, made from wood and a Mote of Magic; one Strange Dust gives three motes. At skill 10 a trainer teaches the Lesser Magic Wand for 50 copper. It takes one Simple Wood, 38 copper at a general goods vendor, and one Lesser Magic Essence. At 70 the Greater Magic Wand takes two essences and can be used from level 13. For bronze, Mining 65 and 2 silver for Smelt Bronze at a mining trainer.

How

1. Train Enchanting on the first day and make practice wands up to 10.
2. Disenchant every green your quests give you. Buy essence only while it costs less than half a wand.
3. Sell wands while the casters are level 5. Today a Lesser Magic Wand fetches price unknown and a Greater Magic Wand price unknown. On Forever a vendor pays only 1s 10c for the lesser one, so sell to players.
4. If you mine, smelt and hold the bronze until the third or fourth day. Two bars at price unknown each against price unknown plus price unknown.
5. Sell the lot before the first week is over.

What can go wrong

Enchanters raise their skill by making wands, so the auction house fills with wands made for the skill point and sold for whatever they fetch. Post a few at a time. Tin usually costs more than copper, and on some markets more than the bronze it makes, so do the sum before you smelt. A traveller says he sold twenty copper breastplates on the beta while he stood in town. I made copper belts that week and sold four of them by the end of the month.

BASTIAN'S VERDICT Worth doing in the first week if you have Enchanting or Mining anyway. I wouldn't take up either profession for it after the second.