A Whole New World
Warlords of Draenor has been out for a little over a month, and the economy has gone through some rocky times. Jewelcrafting and Enchanting are no longer the massive moneymakers they once were. Sockets are rare, and enchantable slots are down to 5 (if you're counting both rings). But as always, there is gold to be made. Let's talk about ore.
At launch, it was incredibly easy to get a level 2 Mine unlocked at your garrison. So easy, that many people leveled multiple toons to 92 or 93 (depending on rested xp and which quests you did), unlocked level 2 Mine, and logged on those toons daily to reap the bounty of ore. While that's still viable, the amount of ore coming out of mines was nerfed a good bit about 2 weeks into the expansion. Still, the damage was done. Ore flooded the market, and drove prices down to ridiculous levels. I actually bought some ore at vendor price, which meant whoever listed it actually lost money by posting the auction (after the Auction House cut).
Even now, True Iron Ore and Blackrock Ore is around 65 to 75 silver globally. Often, especially in the morning, you can find it cheaper as people clear out their mine and dump all their ore on the Auction House. Now, a common thought is that everyone has more than enough ore to cover all their daily cooldowns, work orders, crafting, etc. And that may be true. But we do have a good use for it. Converting it to Draenic Dust.
Draenic Dust
Several professions can craft blue quality gear with ore. For me, the easiest is Jewelcrafting. Each Glowing Iron Choker takes 60 True Iron Ore, and Whispering Iron Choker takes 60 Blackrock Ore. Both pieces of gear disenchant into 8-12 Draenic Dust, or 1 Luminous Shard. I've been averaging about 9 dust each, so I base my calculations on that. Luminous Shards are fairly uncommon to get, but currently are worth more than 9 dust anyhow, so I just consider them a bonus.
Draenic Dust currently fluctuates between 6 and 10 gold on my auction house, usually staying around 7-8.5. The calculation for converting ore to dust is pretty easy:
(60 x Ore Price) / 9 = Cost per Dust
So if Ore is 75 silver: (60*.75)/9 = 5 gold per Draenic Dust. So any time dust is over 5 gold (let's say 6 to be safe), and ore is 75 silver or less, you're making a profit by converting ore to dust. Obviously, you'll need to adjust the equation for your server economy.
Dust, What Is It Good For?
Whenever you enter a market, or start any endeavor, it's a good idea to get an overall understanding of what's going on. Now, the transmog market...I understand why people will pay huge sums of gold for certain items. And it doesn't matter whether I would or not, only that other people will. Before I digress too much, back to dust.
What's Draenic Dust used for? Here's a full list. However, not it's not going to be used for everything on that list, at least not on a regular basis. Primarily, it's used for 2 things:
1. Work Orders. 5 dust makes 1 (or 2 if you have a follower assigned) Fractured Temporal Crystal
2. Luminous Shards. 20 dust makes 1. The issue right now is that 20 dust is worth far more than 1 shard. However, Luminous Shards are needed for the daily Enchanting CD, which turns 1 shard into a Temporal Crystal (a cooldown that is definitely worth it).
That being said, we have to consider how the price will move long term. I think we'll certainly see a decline in dust price. I think people will continue to do work orders, regardless of whether it's really profitable, because there's a psychological reward thing going on there. It feels rewarding to put in a work order, and then come back later and pick up something. There's also the issue of availability. Enchanters, as they level, will get a good bit of dust while leveling, simply by disenchanting greens and quest rewards during the leveling process. Once they hit 100, that'll slow significantly, even considering running dungeons. So the demand will continue as those characters run out of the dust they accumulated.
Rapping Up
For now, keeping a decent supply of dust on hand is a good idea, but don't go overboard. Ore prices are fairly level right now, so replacing your stock shouldn't be too much of a problem. But you don't want to be stuck with 1000s of dust that you've paid 5g each to make, and then dust plummets down below 5 before you can unload it.
With any commodity market like this, where it's fairly easy to convert, the only real barrier to entry is knowledge. As more people find out about converting ore to dust, the more will do it. Ore prices will go up, dust prices will go down, narrowing your profit margin. Eventually, the margin will be so small as to not be worth the effort. Move out of the market, and come back if and when it's profitable again.
