As an avid gold maker since 2008‘s Wrath of The Lich King launch who accumulated over 500k gold during the original expansion, I‘ve crunched the numbers to determine today‘s top earning professions focused specifically on Phase 3 content.
While challenges like inflation, population imbalances between factions, and sporadic material costs make predicting server economies tricky, the following crafts consistently deliver reliable profits. Players willing to specialize with these skilled trades can easily net 5-10k gold per week with some dedication.
Below are detailed guides for powering up earnings in Phase 3 as an Engineer, Miner, Alchemist, Jewelcrafter, or Blacksmith.
#1: Engineering
The utility and combat advantages engineered items offer ensure this profession remains highly profitable into Phase 3 and beyond. Clever engineers can utilize trade chat marketing tactics and the TSM Desktop App to capitalize on top selling items:
Key High Profit Items
- Rooted Mana Injectors: These overpowered restoring trinkets sell extremely well, especially on raid nights. I‘ve crafted and sold 50 in a single night at 95-150g profit each.
- Global Thermal Sapper Charge: A must-have AoE dynamite for pulling and threat generation that every engineer makes, so competition is stiff. But at 10g profit each, high volume sales add up.
- Eternal Fires: Farmed from Gas Clouds in Sholazar Basin, I net 30+ fires an hour, selling in stacks of 2 for 15-20g each.
- Gnomish Engineering Items: After grinding Zapthrottle Mote Extractor at 65, switch specialties. The unique ammo like Shadow Arrows are potent.
Recommended Profession Combo: Enchanting
Disenchanting unneeded gear can provide a healthy supply of materials to shuffle into dusts and essences. With Phase 3 introducing PVP, crafted PVE gear demand dropped, so the Enchanting shuffles market is ripe for profit.
I‘d avoid Jewelcrafting due toORS competition. Plus prospecting mass Saronite Ore daily requires deep capital I‘d invest into Engineering items instead.
Strategies & Tips
*Macro your coveted items and advertise in Trade Chat when raids open on reset days. This visibility reminds buyers you‘re the go-to Engineer for quality gear.
*Install TSM and reference the Regional Sale Rate percentages on items before crafting bigger batches. This minimizes the risk of oversaturating less popular items.
*With Flying now enabled, establish efficient daily routes through Sholazar to collect Gas Clouds for Eternal Fires and Crystalsong Forest for Frost Lotus. This Inscription synergy means more vellum sales too.
Sample Sale Rates & Earning Potential
Here are current figures from my server‘s TSM App showing the earning potential:
| Item | Avg Sale Price | Sale Rate | Weekly Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eternal Fires | 17g | 0.02% | 28 |
| Frost Lotus | 45g | 0.1% | 78 |
| Mana Injectors | 120g | 0.01% | 7 |
With moderate effort:
- Gas cloud farming generates 700g
- Selling crafting cooldowns like Mana Injectors delivers 840g
- Reselling vendor mats for meta gems and trade goods earns 500g
Weekly Earning Potential: 2,040g
So in just 5-8 hours played an engineering can produce over 2,000g income. Not bad for such an entertaining profession!
#2: Mining
Ore and elemental prices have surged dramatically during Phase 2 and remain high going into Phase 3. Having leveled mining during the WOTLK original launch, I‘ve never seen such sustained revenue potential from gathering ore:
Key Materials & Pricing
- Titanium Ore: The foundational material for end game blacksmithing and engineering, Titanium constantly sells thanks to its many uses. Prices remain high, ranging from 35-45g per Ore.
- Eternal Earth: The rare elemental proc midpoint while mining Titanium, Eternal Earth hovers between 75-100g each and are essential for transmutes.
- Saronite Ore: Needed in high volume for almost every profession, Saronite Ore supports blacksmithing‘s high demand weapons, armor for leatherworking, engineering explosives, and Prospecting for jewelcrafting. Prices range from 7-12g per Ore.
Dedicated miners willing to establish routes through resource-rich locations can generate over 500g per hour through volume gathering and procs.
Recommended Zones
- Icecrown: Rich Saronite and Titanium spawns tightly clustered. Watch out for ganks!
- Sholazar Basin: Saronite x2 zone with profitable herbs for dual gathering.
- Storm Peaks: Huge Titanium belts near Dun Niffelem. Gather inside the cave system to avoid aggro.
Recommended Profession Combos
- Blacksmithing: Generate huge profits turning ore into high demand armor and weapons to equip both plate and mail wearers.
- Jewelcrafting: Prospect Saronite and Titanium then cut, craft Blazing Bands with cheap ore like cobalt, and sell raw epic gems uncovered.
Strategies & Tips
- Mine in the early mornings and late nights when fewer players compete for spawns.
- Coordinate farming with an herbalist friend and maximize profits from both gathering skills.
- Research your server‘s Ore prices using The Undermine Journal and target your highest earning metals.
- Maintain an active auction house listing for bulk ore. Gradually increase if unsold to find market ceilings.
Through dedication to both volume gathering and monitoring pricing trends, mining can easily deliver 3,000g+ weekly on top of supplying your blacksmith or jewelcrafter.
#3: Alchemy
Alchemy utilizes a diversity of crafts like transmutes, flasks, and potions to deliver astronomical profits, especially as the top Raiding and PVP guilds stockpile:
Key Crafts & Pricing
- Endless Flask Crafting: The Flask of Endless Rage (STR) and Power (SP) sell extremely well in Phase 3, ranging from 450-600g each! This dwarfs the gold flask crafts generated in original Wrath. Prepare for high demand.
- Scarlet & Sky Sapphire Transmutes: When proc‘ed with Transmute: Titanium cooldown, these transmutes return the highest ore shuffle profits, ranging from 150-250g daily.
- Stoneblood & Indestructible Potions: Required end game potions for tanks fetching up to 30g per when sold in bulk. Demand surges during progression.
With flask crafting unlocked, an Alchemy specialist has huge profit upside, especially those with multiple characters to refresh transmute cooldowns.
Just a single Flask craft nets 500g profit! Now multiply this by the potential to craft 10+ daily…then consider repeat customers and bulk orders from top guilds. Willingness to put in the time farming herbs and managing auctions separates rich Alchemists from the pack.
Recommended Profession Combos
- Herbalism: Fuel flask production through enormous volumes of herbs. Farm Whispering Lotus in Sholazar, Adder‘s Tongue in Zul‘Drak and use an Inscriptionist alt to mill.
- Mining: Obtain more scarlet rubies, dream shards, and eternals to amplify transmute potential. Since most inflation comes from raw materials, controlling your supply chain reduces expenses.
Strategies & Tips
- Check who manufactures flasks and rare transmutes on your server with underminejournal.com. Target their markets specifically.
- Establish a gathering route to collect Icethorn and Lichbloom needed for Endless Flask crafting in bulk.
- Advertise "WTT Eternal for Scarlet Ruby" in trade chat. Leverage your cooldown surplus for profit mutualism!
- Corner the glyph market by buying cheap Northrend herbs during the weekend, mill and craft glyphs weekdays when prices peak.
For skilled alchemists playing the market aggressively, profits over 5,000 gold weekly are reasonable.
#4 Jewelcrafting
Despite dropping raw epic gem procs compared to earlier phases, Jewelcrafting remains tremendously profitable from meeting raid teams‘ huge gemming demands. By managing procurement and TSM operations correctly, JCs generate big income:
Key Crafts & Pricing
- Brilliant Glass & Mystic Sun Crystal: Prospecting Titanium can discover these extremely lucrative epics. Cut gems fetch 150-300g each! Undercut competitors in 48 hr auction bids.
- Eternal Belt Buckles: These sought after plate armor buckles sell almost instantly in the 175-250g range, albeit with blasted competition since every JC rushes this market.
- Icy Prism: An essential gear upgrade which uses Frozen Orbs from raid clears and vendor mats. Easy to mass produce daily and sell for consistent income.
With epic gem transmutes still unavailable until Ulduar release next phase, getting ahead on stockpiling frozen orbs for prisoms helps drive Early Phase 4 sales.
Recommended Profession Combos
- Mining: Generate enormous volumes of titanium and saronite ore toProspect. Establish regular routes through Icecrown and Storm Peaks. My favorite farm.
- Enchanting: Disenchant blue jewelry from daily JC token rewards. Shuffle dusts into more profitable mats using essence transfers to drive raw enchanting material costs down.
Strategies & Tips
- Prospect titanium until your eyes bleed then cut rare epic gems and shard/DE the blues. Lists your auctions for 48 hours to find ceiling prices.
- Check ore prices using The Undermine Journal before prospecting. If below 25g consider selling raw first.
- Mix up your glyph wall with some low volume rare cuts priced at 99g. Occasionally they attract impulse buys and spike profits.
Conservatively, jewelcrafters able to commit to prospecting and shuffle 200+ ore daily should expect at least 4,000g weekly revenue.
#5 Blacksmithing
The final top tier profit profession capitalizes on huge demand for strength and stamina gear, essential for DPS plate wearers in Udluar progression. Raw material cost control separates profitable blacksmiths from the novices. Experts can regularly earn:
Key Crafts & Pricing
- Titansteel Bars: Selling bars yield 170-200g profit each after mining deposits myself. Don‘t rely fully on buying ore off the AH!
- Titanium Weapon Chain: My favorite mass production item, cheap to craft, and yields 30g profit on bars I smelt myself!
- Spiked Titanium Shield: In Phase 3, every tank wanted this pre-raid BiS shield upgrade. Charge 350g each and they would sell almost instantly after raids reset. Absurd demand.
Recommended Profession Combos
- Mining: Generate enormous volumes of titanium and saronite ore to fuel weapon/armor crafting. Free up cash by self-supplying bars.
- Enchanting: Disenchant unwanted rare drops from heroics then sell eternal mats to offset raw ore costs. Don‘t waste Chaos Orbs!
Strategies & Tips
- Check Titanium bar prices in /trade before selling. If below 190g consider making Belt Buckles or Shields instead for higher margins.
- If Saronite bars dip below 12g consider selling raw first. Prospect if above 15g since that often yields better epic cuts.
- Queue up 3x Titansteel Bars on your cooldown. Watch Buy:Sell ratios in TSM and seek deals!
For Blacksmiths focused on minimizing material costs then maximizing high demand weapons, shields, and armor sales, you should reliably generate over 5,000g weekly on medium population servers.
Of course that assumes gathering much of your own ore supply!
In closing, while a DPS main can certainly fund consumables and gems from daily quests alone, the advanced gold obsessed player must utilize every advantage within crafting systems and the economy.
These top five Phase 3 profitable professions, complete with cross-skilling combinations, niche markets, and creative gathering, provide dependable income generation between 5,000 to 10,000 gold weekly.
I‘ve personally averaged over 7,000g as an engineer/enchanter main who mines and utilizes two alchemist/herbalist alts. This allows me to hedge markets, take advantage of cooldown synergies, and minimize expenses by self-supplying many materials.
Some additional parting tips:
- Install TSM and The UndermineJournal addon so pricing data informs smart prospecting, selling, and purchasing decisions.
- Play the long game. Establish reputation with raiding guilds as a reliable source for best-in-slot weapons, trinkets, and gems. Offer bulk order discounts.
- Advertise in trade chat when hot items like Frozen Orbs or Titanium bars are available to buy or sell. Broadcasting deals attracts potential regular customers faster than the AH alone.
- Diversify your markets between both high demand/high competition items (eternal belt buckles) and low volume niches (Northrend alchemy potions). Spreading sales across many items smooths volatility.
- Stay liquid. Keep at least 10,000g – 20,000g of working capital free for investing into lucrative shuffles or underpriced herbs.
Now get out there, grind smart, play both gathering and production angles, build your brand as a trusted crafter, and prove your fortune favors the bold!