Originally posted by: Xavier434
If you use a lot of pots on a regular basis, it can be well worth it. I haven't done the research to compare the potential profit one can make assuming they have all recipes if they spec potions as opposed to specing transmutation. However, considering the cost of herbs on most servers, transmuting is still probably worth more considering how easy it is to transmute earth -> water.
The only problem is... the initial cost of transmute mastery is absolutely huge. 5x Primal Might? That's around 450G! The others require a couple easy potions or elixirs and some instance run.
Personally, I'm thinking about making my mage either potion or elixir mastery. Potion would be good for all the people that buy mana potions for karazhan, etc. Elixir would be good if I had some nice flasks to make or even the fact that some people would buy elixirs for raiding.
Haven't really figured out which one would be the best as a difference of 5% gold between the two isn't a big deal. It'd also be nice to figure out which one would benefit me the most. I don't think potions would benefit me much since Mana potions are easy to make so it's not like a lack of mats is common. Flasks on the other hand require a bit more in mats and might be more beneficial to have the possibility to make more than one at a time.
Originally posted by: Xavier434
One thing for you to reconsider is this:
It takes a total of 48 hours to transmute one primal earth into a primal air or primal shadow. If you need primal air or shadow then doing the transmute from water to air/shadow may not be the fastest way for you to obtain them. It depends on the economy of your server. The way to figure out which is better is to first find out how cheap you can purchase your primal earths. Next, you need to see how much profit you can obtain by selling two primal waters (48 hours worth of transmuting). Next, find out how much each primal air and each primal shadow will cost you. If the cost for one of those primals is more than the profit you will obtain by selling the 2 primal waters then you are better off using those 48 hours to sell the waters, use that profit to purchase one or two primal air/shadow, and still have gold left over. The result is you end up getting more bang for your buck that way as opposed to using the 48 hours to transmute earth -> water -> air/shadow
I thought about possibly selling them like that, but one thing is I'd most likely run out of Primal Earth faster than I'd desire. I only go on mining runs sparingly, so constant earth->water would hamper my supply immensely. I've never been the person that plays the AH in buying an item and changing it to something worth more money as I tend to keep what I make. I tend to do these transmutes to make farming easier for the most part. I find Water -> Air is kind of worthless for me as I can farm Primal Air easily in Nagrand with my warrior, but kind of like my mining runs, I don't do it every day.
So essentially, the transmutes are for my own convenience rather than trying to make money. It also serves as a method of not wasting my cooldown since I highly doubt I could sell my PM transmute when a lot of people give it away for free.
Originally posted by: Anubis
i always had better luck farming the phase hunters on the ridge just as you enter netherstorm form blades edge, however their mana drain/burn can be problimatic for non warlocks or mele, and the stacks of ele fragments sell for a ton of gold
I think they're alright, but there's a vendor in Kirin'var Village which makes it nice if you fill up. It's also a quick flight from Cosmowrench, so it's not horribly out of your way. But keep people going to those guys instead... keeps them out of Mage Row

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EDIT:
Originally posted by: BadRobot
What server are you on Aikouka
My Alliance are on Alleria, my Horde are on Lightning's Blade and my Alliance used to be from Lightning's Blade before I transfered them earlier last year.