Jewelcrafting Tid Bits

With the Wrath expansion I have to say I’m very pleased with the changes in my crafting. I was a jewelcrafter from the start and I have to say felt darn near useless in Burning Crusade because all the nice patterns were random world drops and I got maybe five patterns despite the millions of dungeons I ran in.

The new earn it yourself method of doing a daily and spending tokens is still time consuming but allows me to get what people want and not have to constantly say “Sorry I don’t have that pattern”. Now I can say “Sorry I don’t have it, yet!”

See the difference?

I know I can get it, it just takes some time. I’m not always going to have junk as I’m constantly working on improving my recipe listing. Also I’ve had tremendous luck with jewelcrafting patterns dropping in Wrath dungeons and even at random in the world that I completely didn’t expect.

I spend my jewelcrafter tokens and can earn shiny new recipes. This is great! I can reliably get one token a day by doing the daily quest set up for jewelcrafters. I’ve been very diligent about this and haven’t missed a single day! Patterns range from costing a couple tokens for plain gem patterns up to 6 tokens each for the really nice stuff. So it takes me about a week to learn how to make a new item.

I can pick up an extra token if I get my greedy little hands on a damaged necklace which starts a quest and will grant me a token on turning it in. I have never seen one of these drop myself. I have gotten one I found in the guild vault and Dellesia was nice enough to give me two she had and was saving for herself. These haven’t been a very reliable token source and I don’t think they were intended to be.

Basically the changes are for the better and I’m feeling more useful than ever! My skill is valued by my friends & my guild. I can even make some cash on the auction house when I have some spare baubles.

Now for my little gripe. The dragons eye. This little gem can only be purchased by jewelcrafters with jewelcrafting tokens.

This really wasn’t a problem until some recent recipe purchases I made. Namely the Titanium Spellshock Ring, Titanium Impact Band and Titanium Earthguard Ring. These puppies require 4 dragons eyes each and everyone wants them! What’s worse is I desperately want to make them for everyone and these dragons eyes are severely slowing down production!

Right now the choices are for my customer to purchase dragon eyes off the auction house (which I have strongly suggested they don’t do) or wait 4 days for me to earn enough tokens to buy the eyes so I can make their ring.

Dragons eyes on the AH go for hundreds to over a thousand gold a piece because of the rarity of only jewelcrafters able to obtain them. Frozen Orbs are more readily available than these gems! I don’t feel its worth my friends going broke to buy these gems and I always recommend they wait for me to buy them myself if they can.

I've only completed three rings so far. One of them was for myself. I think I deserved at least that much. I finished Keste’s ring this morning wiping out my token supply. At least the hubby is happy!

Now I have at least four others in line for a ring which equals sixteen dailies (minus any damaged necklaces I can find) to get all the gems. I’m tied up for over half a month in just making people rings!

I’m not complaining about having to make them. I’m pleased as punch that people want my sparklies. I just wish I could get it to them sooner!

The additional problem with having me use 4 tokens on gems for one ring is that it is also using up my currency to buy other new patterns. There is still one more ring and four epic necklaces I have yet to purchase that I’m certain will be highly desired.

I’ve gone from being nearly useless in burning crusade to having a back log of requests that I fear is taking too long to complete. I have tried to explain what the hold up is to those wanting items and I hope they understand the limitations I'm facing. On top of that it is hampering my ability to fill out my recipe book. All due to one silly little gem!

Looking long term I realize this will not be an issue forever. After a while everyone that wants my rings will get them and I can purchase the necklaces. After the necklace craze has died down I can continue to do the jewelcrafting daily to stock pile tokens for the express purpose of buying dragons eyes when needed. The crunch I’m feeling is only temporary. It just doesn’t make it less annoying.