Monster 3.2 Warcraft Patch Gold Guide

As with all major WoW content releases, the upcoming 3.2 "Crusader's Coliseum" patch will bring many changes that allow alert players to profit at the Auction House by preparing ahead of time. There will be new crafted items, some changes to professions and a lot of existing materials will become more valuable, with very few items devalued. The basics:

- Crusader's Coliseum, new 5, 10 and 25-player dungeon and raid content
- Isle of Conquest, 40v40 siege battleground
- New Argent Tournament daily quests

With the new PVE content, the opportunities to make money are largely related to 1) the expanded daily quests available at the Argent Tournament, and 2) the introduction of Tier 9 level crafted items and their new bind-on-equip 'orb' material Crusader's Orb, which drops in the Crusader's Coliseum heroic raids.

I'm not going to go into detail on the new daily quests because I personally find dailies to be a very low gold return for the time invested, but if you are already doing the Argent Tournament circuits you should be able to fit them right in.

Now for the details of what you need to buy now, in order to profit for weeks to come after patch day. If I list an item, it means start buying it from the Auction House and Trade Channel (get the AuctioneerSuite from Auctioneer if you don't yet have it), and save it for 3.2 for your own crafting, or relisting as soon as the value rises significantly. Some of the demand will depend on the number of raiding guilds on your server getting patterns to drop, but everything here should be in play within 1 month of 3.2, and the raw materials will be expensive long before those patterns are available.

General item changes in 3.2

All dungeons which dropped Emblems of Heroism or Valor, will now drop Emblems of Conquest. This is a big change, and I'd recommend that you use any remaining Emblems of Heroism to buy Frozen Orbs for sale on the auction house. The plus side is that Frozen Orbs should increase in value since the emblems-for-orbs transaction is no longer a great idea, and they are going to be used to create epic gems (see Jewelcrafting changes below!), so if you can buy them cheap now, stock up.

For item stats, block value bonus on all items has been doubled, so if you craft items that have +block value on them (other than shields, which aren't included) you may want to stock up on their materials now. Likewise, resilience is being changed to reduce a percent of all incoming damage, not just damage-over-time, so the PVP crafted items and resilience enchants should become even more valuable for players gearing up for Arena and Battlegrounds.

Blacksmithing, Leatherworking and Tailoring in 3.2

The changes for these professions which will affect the economy are similar. They involve the new Tier 9-level crafted items which use Crusader's Orb, the new Crusader's Coliseum heroic raid dropped material. Here's the breakdown of confirmed materials used for new items, by professions - make sure you have as much of these items on hand as you can get before patch day!

• Blacksmithing: Titansteel Bar, Saronite Bar, Eternal Life, Majestic Zircon, Deadly Saronite Dirk, Crusader Orb
  
• Leatherworking: Nerubian Chitin, Arctic Fur, Eternal Shadow, Eternal Water, Eternal Life, Heavy Borean Leather, Eternal Air, Greater Cosmic Essence, Abyss Crystal, Crusader Orb
  
• Tailoring: Cardinal Ruby, Eye of Zul, Majestic Zircon, King's Amber, Spellweave, Ebonweave, Moonshroud, Dream Shard, Crusader Orb
  

Alchemy in 3.2

Alchemists have really lucked out in this patch, and the epic gems we have all been waiting for in WotLK are going to be available via Alchemy transmutes. There are six transmutes available at skill 440, each one sharing the same 20 hour cooldown, so start hoarding their materials now:

• Transmute: King's Amber uses Autumn's Glow x1, Eternal Life x1
• Transmute: Ametrine uses Monarch Topaz x1, Eternal Shadow x1
• Transmute: Cardinal Ruby uses Scarlet Ruby x1, Eternal Fire x1
• Transmute: Dreadstone uses Eternal Shadow x1, Twilight Opal x1
• Transmute: Eye of Zul uses Forest Emerald x3
• Transmute: Majestic Zircon uses Sky Sapphire x1, Eternal Air x1

The transmute cooldown means that it is going to take at least 2 weeks after patch before the hardcore raiders are fully epic gemmed, and the general market will continue throughout the expansion, with every new item requiring new epic gems for players. Alchemists should be able to sell their daily cooldown for 25g or more for each day from this point, as it will be much in demand in addition to the current titansteel bar market.

Cooking in 3.2

For cooking, the number of Dragonfin Angelfish required to craft the premiere melee food, Blackened Dragonfin has been reduced to 1. This means the value of Dragonfin Angelfish will drop noticeably. I'd suggest selling your stocks now.

Engineering in 3.2

Almost all the Engineering profession-specific enchants got buffed noticeably for this patch. My personal feeling is that we are going to see more players choose Engineering as a result of these buffs, since for a very long time it's not been a worthwhile profession for PVE. The new changes make it viable for DPS and Healing classes to drop tailoring or leatherworking for engineering.

All engineering materials from skill 0-450 should be on "buy" status - due to the large buffs to the profession I predict that we will see a lot of switchers, who will need to buy everything in a hurry and will be willing to pay a premium for it. Check engineering powerlevelling guides for an idea of what to buy for that niche.

Stock up on Saronite Bars as well as all the lower level bars, ore and engineering widget materials, if you see them cheap! The reason I advise Saronite Bars and not Saronite Ore, is because ore will remain most valuable for Jewelcrafting. Bars often go much cheaper than the ore that is used to make them, and many new Engineers levelling their skill will not be miners, thus preferring to purchase bars since they can't smelt their own. Double win for resellers.

Jewelcrafting in 3.2

New recipes have been added to cut various flavors of epic gem from the Alchemist-transmuted raw gems. These recipes require a Jewelcrafting skill of 450, and are purchased with Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Tokens, so save those tokens, do your JC dailies and consider stocking up on Damaged Necklace from the Auction House before the rush. There's also a new prismatic gem, Nightmare Tear which gives +10 to all stats, crafted from a vendor pattern with Dragon's Eye x1 and Infinite Dust x5.

Here are the ways to get uncut epic gems:

• Transmuting, see Alchemy news above
• Icy Prism can now yield uncut epic gems, so save those Frozen Orbs
• Prospecting Titanium Ore will yield epic gems - stock up on as much Titanium Ore as you can get. Prospecting Titanium Ore will also yield Titanium Powder, which can be turned in for a quest in stacks of 10 for a reward of 1 Dalaran Jewelcrafter's Token. Preliminary results from the Public Test Realm show approximately 1 epic gem and 2 dust per stack of Titanium Ore prospected, which is in line with the rare gem yields from Saronite Ore prospecting.
• Purchased with Honor
• Purchased with Emblem of Heroism

Final notes

As far as the economy goes, there don't seem to be any noticeable updates to Enchanting, Fishing, Herbalism, Mining, or Skinning. For Inscription, Glyph of Unholy Blight got buffed to now be a flat damage increase, so save those to sell after the patch as it will be a much more desirable glyph.

If you're a crafter, make sure to note the profession-specific sections above. If you're an auction house player, you know what to buy now to be ready for patch day, so get to it. Good luck to everyone making your easy gold in 3.2!