Old Shuffle Same as the New Shuffle

Posted by J.E. Douglas at 1:20 PM

Here at JMTC branch headquarters,  we are always busy looking at strategies.   Okay,  so not really because i do have a personal life.   Exercising,  going out with friends and overall enjoying real life time as well as my Warcraft gaming life.

Some strategies die a horrible death.  With Mists of Pandaria,  Blacksmiths will lose a very lucrative rod creation market.   Leatherworkers and Blacksmiths will see changes in how they craft PVP gear, armor patches and overall money making methods.

But it's not quite time to put the old methods to bed just yet.   Lets take Jewelcrafting for instance.  Every week I get someone who will ask me "I have a Jewelcrafter,  how do I make gold".   Right from the start I ask them "are you still doing your Elementium shuffle".    If they answer yes then we can discuss much more advanced methods including flipping markets,  low level cuts and prospecting.  But if the answer is no,  then they have either abandoned or ignored the base of their Jewelcrafting operations.

Elementium ore is hovering at the 1g per ore.   Remembering that players were making gold at 80g per stack,  this should be encouragement to keep into the market.   Buying Elementium,  prospecting and cutting specific gems can still make a profit.   Now here is the catch to look at.

There will be a large influx of players who want to use Elementium ore to level their Jewelcrafting,  Blacksmithing and even the brave player who levels and Engineer.   Where there seems to be a lot of Ore available now,  this will slowly dwindle as has every ore from previous expansions.   This is where continuing with the Elementium shuffle becomes important.  But we are going to add our own little twist for future investments.

With the normal shuffle you prospect ore,  transmute Carnelians into Inferno Rubies,  craft jewelry from the Hessonite,  Nightstone, Jasper and Alicite.   Once you craft the jewelry you send to your favorite disenchanter and rep the material rewards.   A much more detailed description is found in our archives here.

Zephyrite was always the red headed step child of the shuffle.  Never quite knowing what to do with them,  many players vendored them for whatever they could get.   Some would hold them back to list on days they were the main gem used in the daily Jewelcrafting quests.   We're going to expand the idea of holding these gems back to all of the gems that are used in the dailies.   Yes,  that's the Alicites, Hessonites,  Nightstone and Jaspers.   Now you might ask why would I want to do this?   Simply put,   we are banking on asset reduction as MOP matures.  Players will still look to level both Jewelcrafting and Enchanting.   If Hypnotic dust starts to rise,   take 10 minutes to craft a few rings,  send over to the disenchanter and you have profits. If Hessonites start to raise in demand,  place some on the AH to sell.   Even the dreaded Zephyrite can become an investment.  

There is a basis for this technique.   At the end of Wrath of the Lich King expansion, many of the basic gems could be purchased dirt cheap.  25s was the normal price to see for Sun Crystals and Huge Citrine.  Now you can buy them for 7-8g on many servers.  And it will only increase as we get farther and farther away from the Cataclysm expansion.

This also plays into my Zero Balance Investment method I presented to you earlier.   Taking the blue gems,  crafting to sell at a profit will pay for the longer term investment of your other colors.  You can even take some of the basic gems and place them on the AH to sell,  or craft your jewelry for disenchantment.   The object is to work out what will give you the most profit vs your time used.

Adjusting old techniques by just a little bit can place you in a better drivers seat with your investments. And reap large profits at the beginning and during the upcoming panda expansion.