9.2 Crafter's marks: Which is the cheapest one? (Patreon)

The first reset is done and many of you should be closing in on Honored reputation with The Enlightened if you have been keeping on top. That means you can get rolling with the Crafter's marks!

Get to honored

Both Crafter's mark recipes unlock at Honored with The Enlightened, and this is now attainable if you have been keeping on top off your daily reputation gains. If you have not started farming yet, then get to it. I already posted a guide on the reputation, so check that out for more in-depth information.

Crafter's mark of the first ones or IV?

The two crafter's marks are used to upgrade the rare crafted gear to either item level 230 or item level 262. The Crafter's mark of the First ones also turn the item Unique-equipped, so you can only wear one item level 262 piece at the time.

The 262 piece will be an upgrade for most characters in the game now, so the demand will likely be very strong, that was certainly the case for the same type of item in 9.1. Personally I would mostly focus on the 262 gear as it has a much higher potential yield per item.

The costs?

I've done the math on the cost of all of the marks based on EU median prices. You can make your own copy of the google sheet and change the prices to get the setup for your realm.

The balance is very different for the two different marks. As you can see for CM 4 Alchemy is the cheapest one, followed closely by alchemy. Blacksmithing is the only other one that is even remotely competitive, with the rest being a lot more expensive. I would expect alchemists to price most other crafters out here after a while, but early on some more of these should be profitable.

For the First ones marks tailoring is the cheapest by a significant margin, followed by jewelcrafting and then alchemy. Leatherworking is currently completely dead as the Protogenic pelt is just too expensive. If you have the normal legendary profession combinations of BS/JC and tailoring leatherworking you will have access to both of the cheapest marks fairly easily and you should be able to make some very good gold for the ilvl 262 gear.

What will happen though?

Prices are EXTREMELY volatile right now. Expect the balance to change very significantly when players unlock the recipe. If everyone piles into one mark then we will see both new and old materials used go up in price, which will change the dynamics.

TSM Settings?

I'll have TSM settings coming later this week in another post, so you can start getting these things onto the AH effectively!