Looking for something new to do, I went ahead and bit the bullet and picked up Jewelcrafting on Anyth. I figured that it (in theory) can eventually be a money maker and it complements her mining nicely. That being said, I did what every other person does and headed over to wow-professions to see what I'd need to buy to level it up. In seconds I was disagreeing with their 'fast strategy' and started buying up rough stones at a fraction of the price of copper to kick start those first few points.
I wondered gamely: how much was this going to cost? I figured I'd keep track and let the grinding (and prospecting) begin! Please note that I'm the type of person that buys every available recipe, despite the fact I may never use 90% of them. Is my method the best? Hell, no. This is simply what I did at the time and cost of materials at the moment greatly influenced my decisions. The moral of the story is don't follow wow-professions blindly. Check what your options are.
1-50: Rough statues a plenty and a little copper wire and tigerseye rings. 10g, including the cost of training, all recipes, and the grinding and jeweler's kit.
Running total: 10g
51-80: Coarse stones could be found on the AH for well under a silver per, making them a lot more attractive than metals and gems. At about 6 silver per attempt at a skill point, I ran this until the stones turned green at 80.
Running total: 30g
81-110: Here I got a little bit of a break as silver was running cheap for the moment. 32 silver bars only set me back 3 gold. The next 28 cost 15, but will still the better alternative.
Running total: 48g
At this point I unloaded a ton of rings on the AH for cheap and vendored the rest. Simply put, at this stage it isn't worth the effort to mail all of the crap the Strev to disenchant and relist on the AH.
Here the price started taking an upswing. The next level of stone is much pricier. I got a great deal on the AH paying around a gold a stone (about a fifth of the going rate)...and then I realized the next skill up takes eight stones each. Yikes. Ring of Twilight Shadows costing 2 shadowgems (50s per on average) and 2 bronze bars (20s per) looked a LOT better. I relisted the stones for a profit and stocked up accordingly.
111-130: Ring of Twilight Shadows x 20. 28g to manufacture
Running total: 76g
131-153: Amulet of the Moon. A couple more bronzes (still cheap) and a couple of lesser moonstones per. Buying 32g worth of moonstones gave me 52 to play with and another 10g worth of bronze left me with more than enough to play with. The recipe turned yellow at 140, but I burned the rest of the mats I had.
Running total: 116g
At this point I'm up to Mithril crafting. Ore was much cheaper than bars and since Anyth can smelt, it was a bit of a no-brainer. It worked out to 9 gold per 40 bars and I had a lot of smelting to do. I picked up a bit more than the recommended 90 ore, intending to flip the rest for a quick profit.
154-185: Mithril Filigree
Running total: 136g
186-189: Solid Stone statues...Solid stone was so cheap, 3 gold was all it took for 90 stones and nine tries for this green recipe. I'd try more, but the AH is mysteriously now out. :)
Running total: 139g
190-210: Engraved Truesilver Rings. 25 gold bought me 22 Truesteel bars and when combined with the filigrees I had just made, I now had a stockpile of rings to unload on the AH.
Running total: 164g
I sold some of the massive overstock to pay the 5g for the expert skill, then it was time for difficult choices. Cheap recipes were yellow, but anything guaranteeing points were gonna cost a bit more than I'd been paying. I was proud that I'd kept everything under 200g so far. Now it was time to start biting the bullet.
211-222: Citrine Ring of Rapid Healing. 24g for 12 stones, plus I used up 5g worth of the mithril I was planning on reselling.
Running total: 198g
(As an amusing side note, at this point Timmy walked right past me and I bought his white kitten. This was promptly listed for 185g. We'll see if it sells.)
223-225: Aquamarine Pendant of the Warrior. 8g worth of Aquamarines into the hopper and we're finally out of Mithril and into Thorium.
Running total: 206g
226-254: Thorium Setting. Once again the ore is cheaper than the bars, but at 80s per, my costs are rapidly escalating. 48g for 60 ore. Sigh.
Running total: 254g
255-268: Ruby Pendant of Fire. 42g for 20 star rubies. At least I'm finally getting to the point where I can sell or DE the trash for a little of my coin back.
Running total: 296g
269-270: Simple Opal Ring. My first major snag. Only two gems on the market.
Running total: 300g
271-281: More Simple Opal Rings. Ok...that simply wasn't going to work. The 'prospecting' button called to me and I figured I'd take my chances. I picked up 50 thorium ore for 42g and tried my luck. 6 more opals and a few choice gems. I immediately held back the urge to buy another 2k ore and contented myself with another 50 ore for 48g (I get hooked and the price goes up!) Five more opals amongst the others.
Running total: 390g
282-287: Sapphire Pendant of Winter Night. Picked up all of the Essences of Undeath on the AH for 5g a pop and everything else was 'free', as I'd already counted in in the running total.
Running total: 420g
288-291: Diamond Focus Ring.
292-295: Emerald Lion Ring.
These were 'free' to make using leftover mats.
Running total: Still 420g
296-301: Glowing Thorium Bands & More Emerald Lion Rings. ...and another 100g on Thorium Ore. I'm now to the point where I can cut gems for sockets!
Running total: 520g
302-316: Prismatic Black Diamond. It's so nice getting skill-ups for under a gold again.
Running total: 535g
317-325: Random Gem cuts! Once more into the prospecting gambling den. 210g dropped on Fel Iron...which became 27 random gems. I have no idea if this is good. There were a lot left over. Hmm.
Given there's nothing practical on the AH to get over this particular hump, we'll stop here for now and try again in a day or two.
745g in and counting!
