The Inscription Profession, How it Works

Once upon a time it was cheap to buy herbs from the Auction house. Then came the new World of Warcraft profession: Inscription. Now, herb prices are generally higher than ore prices and Herbalism is the gold making gathering profession of choice.

There are several detailed inscription guides available, but the basics of the profession are are pretty simple and, unlike other crafting professions, Inscription is cheap to level, especially if you pick your own herbs.

The process for making any of the inscription products goes like this: buy, beg, borrow, steal, or gather certain herbs (in multiples of 5,) mill them, make inks, grab some paper from the Inscription supplier, and make your items.

The Herbalism skill provides the raw materials for Inscription and the herbs that you will need are easy to find, no rare or exotic herbs (such as Fel Lotus) are required. (With everyone and his alt taking up the new profession, what do you think has happened to the herb supply?)

One of the unique features of Inscription is that the herbs required for any one ink (more on inks below) can come from any of a group of herbs, not just one herb in particular.

For example, the Lion's Ink, required for glyphs such as Eviscerate, Judgement, and many others, uses Grave Moss or Kingsblood or Liferoot or Wild Steelbloom. It makes no difference which herb you use, so use the herb that's easiest for you to gather or cheapest to buy off the Auction House.

All other materials needed for Inscription can be found off the Inscription supply vendor. All you need are the Virtuoso Inking set and the various papers.

Once you have the skill you can make Major and minor glyphs, Vellum (allows an enchanter to make a scroll with an enchant on it,) Scrolls (Agility 1-6, etc..)Cards (Darkmoon cards, Rogue Decks, etc.,) Tomes (bin on pickup, for inscribers only,) Scrolls, name changes for pets, and so on.

One note: while most of the above item recipes are available from the trainer, the Minor Glyphs have to be discovered through research and only one per 20 hours time can be discovered, this means that the minor glyphs will be pretty uncommon, and a little expensive, for awhile.

By the way, Glyphs are permanent enhancements to your characters, much like enchants are for your items. Also, like enchants, you can always decide to drop in a different glyph to replace the old one. If you find you made the wrong choice in glyphs, just get a new one and drop it in over the bad one. Glyphs are pretty cheap, unlike enchants or other crafted items, so swapping out your gyphs for new ones is fairly painless. You can even stock a few for different occasions, such as switching from raiding to PvP.

Which glyphs are available? Just have a scribe post her list, browse the Auction House, or hop over to Thottbot.com. Remember, that not all minor glyphs are in the game yet. More glyphs will appear over time, from the trainer and probably as drops and reputation items.

What's it cost to make a glyph? As an example, let's say you are spending 30 gold for your stack of 20 herbs. You will figure out your costs like this:

* Milling a stack of 20 herbs will yield 10-12 pigments.

* Inks require 2 pigments each, so 20 herbs yields 5 or 6 inks (let's say 6, for now.) Take that 30 gold and divide by 6, then each ink costs 5 gold to make.

Glyphs require 1 or 2 inks each, therefore, it will cost either 5 or 10 gold each to make each one. Of course, if you buy your herbs for less than that, or pick your own, the costs drop.

Inscription does provide some fun buffs. My Rogue will enjoy sprinting on top if the water, rather than swimming through it, for example. Other glyphs increase one's crit chance, add damage, decrease cooldown times, and so on.

By the way... How many stacks of herbs can you gather in an hour if they're selling at 30 to 40 gold a stack? If you can find a place without too much competition? Leveling your Herbalism skill might be a good plan to cash in on these prices.

If you can get your herbs cheaply enough then the glyphs are cheap to make. Browse the Auction House for the glyphs that are selling at high prices, make those, and sell them. Or sell (or resell) the herbs and use your new found riches to just buy the glyphs you want.


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