Patch 4.2 Pyrite Ore and No Epic Gems

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

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Pyrite Ore – Fools Gold?

Hello readers of JMTC I am here today to talk to you about the wonderful world of speculation.

For a couple of months or so I’ve been stockpiling pyrite ore, now there is a couple of reasons for this but the largest by far is the thought that in a couple of months time I could be sat on a stockpile worth many times more than what I’ve been paying for it now.  I am of course talking about epic gems!

Now before you stop reading thinking this is another post telling you to buy, buy, buy on pure speculation it isn’t, I am here to simply suggest just a couple of ways to give yourself a fall back should things turn sour with the pyrite or you decide you need to convert some of it back into liquid quickly. (By the way as a little side note, if you didn’t already know, the mineral pyrite, is in real life is also known as fool’s gold and that is defiantly worth noting)

So, are we fools for stockpiling now, maybe... However come patch 4.2 if you decide to off load some of your ore to reduce your risk then I have some good news! It’s not a bad time to do so. With the demand for gems, belt buckles, the new introduction of crafted epics (Requiring 8 true gold each) along with an increase in active players which generally follows a major patch should increase the demand for pyrite ore to higher than usual levels.

My first observation when I looked at the PTR version of wowhead was that pyrium bar will be the currency for the new blue crafted pvp epics. That’s 6 new recipes each costing 10 x pyrium ore and so I think bars will sell like hotcakes come patch day. Especially since the set itself only costs elementium bars and a selection of volatiles, this means even the laziest of blacksmiths will be able to craft from AH mats, so where do you think they will buy the pyrium bars used to buy the recipes?

Now as a raw mat pyrium bar is pretty exclusive, you only have four options. The first option comes from alchemy, in the form of your truegold transmute, demand is going to rocket approximately 36 days into patch 4.2. It will take 31 days to unlock the first of 3 recipe vendors and a further 5 days to unlock another. Which means that by day 36 some people will have unlocked 2 vendors others just one but why is this so important?

Well that’s simple they sell recipes which require a staggering 8 truegold each, note to self that’s 48 pyrite ores. I would suggest you use your own truegold cooldown now and take a visit to outland to make sure you are a transmute master because for a couple of hundred gold it’s well worth the visit. It’s not difficult simply visit the trainer who taught you your current specialisation and then fly your backside up to Netherstorm and speak to the transmute trainer.

If you’re not lucky enough to have an alchemist, and your too lazy to level one which by the way costs no more than a few thousand gold and is well worth it, your other options with pyrium bar are dependent on blacksmithing, you have 3 options, first up the classic ebonsteel belt buckle, the recipe uses 8 x pyrite ore, 8 x elementium ore (AH Bots I thank you) and guess what 4 x Volatile Earth which I am sure you have got plenty of from prospecting all that pyrite ore you decided you no longer need. Not much needs to be said about this item, demand will increase with all the new gear 4.2 brings and they are already big sellers with an average profit so it’s a great way to use up some of your stockpile but expect established competition if you are new to this market.

The last two items are questionable, pyrium weapon chain, it’s used occasionally in PVP, don’t expect demand to be massive but on the up side it is cheap! Costing just 2 pyrium ores you should be able to make a hell of a lot more than you will sell so be careful.  Finally we have the pyrium shield spike, again not a massive seller and costing a lot more, 10 ores to be exact. However neither of these requires any other materials and so if you’ve got a glut to clear then this is the best option as it requires no further investment, plus the added demand from the acquisition of new shields and weapons which are included with patch 4.2 will help boost sales.

Ok so we’ve covered most aspects of pyrium bars, it’s up to you where to go from there if you have alchemist available then make good use of the transmute in the 31 days between the patch and when the recipes hit the live servers.  If your lucky enough to also have a blacksmith I suggest you attempt to corner the buckle market, look at the pyrium shield and weapon enchants but be wary if you have little experience of this market and remember you don’t have to craft 200 to see if they sell, go easy and test the water by crafting no more than 1 stack.

Now let’s look at raw pyrite ore, so as we discussed earlier the belt buckles provide a good use for some of the volatile earth which you will receive from prospecting the ore.  The demand for volatile earth will increase quite substantially in the first month or so of patch 4.2 for the following reasons:

• Demand for the new leg enchant for tanks, produced using leatherworking which requires 25 x volatile earth this should therefore cause the price to rise slightly.
• The new leatherworking PVP cloak requires 4 volatile earths to craft.
• The new jewelcrafting PVP jewellery costs  8 x volatile earth each to craft but it also requires 4 or 5 inferno rubies so this is likely to reduce the effect as the limited factor here is more than likely going to be the rubies.
• The new mining bag also requires 20 x volatile earth however demand for this will not begin for at least 31 days into patch 4.2 but you should be prepared for this.

The demand for hardened elementium will increase and each bar smelted requires 4 earths, there are an incredible 15 new recipes which require varying amount of hardened elementium, however some of these come from the new raid instance and others from the new vendors so expect demand to be staggered a little depending on your server progression.

Moving on from volatile earth let’s look at the rare gems which you will receive whilst prospecting, there’s around a 3% higher chance you will receive a rare gem when prospecting pyrite compared with elementium. This coupled with the demand for rare gems come 4.2 should give you a healthy supply to cut. You should expect the sales of red gems to increase dramatically along with a less exciting increase in demand for ember topaz and demonseye as people attain the new gear.

Also bear in mind you will receive carnelian which can be used with an alchemist transmute and will provide you with a great source of inferno rubies during the spikes of 4.2 so stock up heartblossom now. The gems which are not profitable to transmute can always be used to produce enchanting mat,  which if sold as scrolls will lead to further profits, this has actually one of my best sources of income during 4.1(from prospecting elementium of course), and inevitably with new gear the demand enchants will only increase.

So there you have it a variety of uses for the pyrite which is stocked up in your guild banks all around Azeroth, now for me personally the “prospect” that patch 4.3 might finally bring us those epics we have been craving and our “fools gold” might suddenly become the most in demand item in game is too much for me to sell up now. My plan is simple I will use some of the pyrite ore I have stockpiled and I will turn it for a half decent profit come patch week, the next 2 months however will be spent using the profits from this endeavour  to buy up all the cheap pyrite ore that becomes available between now and 4.3/4.4?

And who knows maybe blizzard will throw a curve ball and come patch 4.4 pyrite ore will be exposed as useless and drop to 50s each on the AH and I will have lost almost everything! Oh well at least it’s only a game...

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