WoTLK, winding down?

I expect the Lich King to fall soon on many realms, and with that, the slow death of raiding the rest of the expansion. That will have quite an effect on professions, especially those of us who use multiple professions for making gold. I am curious to hear other opinions on how to maximize the end of WoTLK. Who knows how much time is actually left, but I wouldn't be surprised at 4-6 months left.



1) Alchemy, keep selling flasks obviously. Epic gem transmutes as long as they are worthwhile and still selling.

2) JC, start unloading stock. I do not want to go into Cata with a bunch of WoTLK gems in my bank, I figure they will quickly become useless. I don't even know what direction this profession will go in the new expansion. I have heard a huge amount of stats are getting thrown out of the game, like hit rating, defense, spellpower. If the game is simplied down to 5 stats, that will be terrible for this profession. It might have its focus shifted to jewelery, but then it just becomes another type of tailoring. If this happens, the profession will still be OK but nowhere near the gold mine it once was.

3) Inscription, barring major changes to Glyphs I think I'll run the Glyph business almost as normal, with few modifications. Main one being Snowfall Ink. I used to price Glyphs lower, knowing sold snowfalls made up most of the cost. But with the expansion winding down, I don't know what will happen with the DM Card market. I have low confidence in it now. I would guess, a month from now after many people have killed the Lich King, less sales, lower prices on the trinkets. 2 months, lower still, 4 months from now you are in the danger zone. I don't want to end the expansion with a bunch of unsold cards, unfinished decks and an excess of snowfall ink. Glyphs may retain value across expansions, I can't say the same for cards, trinkets or inks. So I expect to drop the prices on my snowfall inks, possibly in half, and have to readjust glyph costs slightly. I'm not afraid to go into the expansion with bags and bank tabs full of glyphs and herbs. I expect with herbs, they will drop in price dramatically for months, then eventually raise again. Just don't bank frost lotus, sell those for as much as possible the rest of the expansion. I still see Lotus from TBC at 2g a piece and not selling. Don't want to hang onto those. Herbs on the other hand may triple in time to the profession levelers.

4) Enchanting. Unload scrolls, except a few leveling scrolls. I don't expect a big market for 60+ "leveling" enchants. The enchants themselves may also change, as the entire stat system in the game changes. I hope to go into Cata with 0 scrolls, but a decent stockpile of mats. Not afraid to hold tons of infinite dust. I look at the end of TBC, and stacks of Arcane Dust for 15g a stack. Now I see them at times sell for 150-180g a stack.




Those are my main markets, I won't comment on the others. Interested to hear opinions from others on how they are winding down this expansion.


What I'll do at the start of the next one, depends on how much gold I have going in. If I have >100k I will powerlevel Inscription and JC first. Possibly BS as well. I will probably spend my first 24 hours in the expansion gathering non stop, mining and herbing.

I want to stockpile the "new" lotus immediately at the beginning of the expansion, and save them until a serious raid hits. People didn't flask much for Naxx, but when Ulduar came out they sure did. Frost Lotus prices really didn't rise until then. In the early days they were 5-7g a piece, now they are 50-70g.