Phase 3 is upon us, and with it some actual changes to professions.
Epic gems are coming
This is the big change in phase 3. Epic gems will now be the de-facto Best gems, and players can gett hem in every slot. THey can be sourced from prospecting titanium ore, as well as from Emblems of heroism.
With the gems becoming available we also get a ton of new recipes to cut the new epic gems into spcketable gems.
Red is king
As always red is by far the most important color giving the most valuable raw stat bonuses in the form of strenght, agility or spell power. The gems have an equal chance to drop from prospecting, which means you are getting most of your value from a small number of gems,.
Emblem oversupply
Due to the ability to buy gems for emblems we coule be facing a short term oversupply when the phase drops. One of my friends is rocking 600 emblems ready to go, which would be equal to 30 Crimson Spinel, more than enough for regemming everything instantly and still having enough gems for the entire phase. I expect a lot of these will hit the AH at once. How the long term supply balance will be depends on many factors, including how many dungeons players keep doing.
There’s definitely the potential for the price to be relatively low just after the patch drops for the red gems in particular, stocking up may not be a bad idea.
Titanium dust for recipes
To get the new recipes you will need Dalaran’s jewelcrafting tokens. Hopefully, you have been playing the game and staying on top of your dailies so you have a chunk of tokens ready to roll. If not then Damaged Necklaces or Titanium Dust will be your way in. The patch adds a new turn in of 10 titanium dust, obtained from prospecting titanium ore for one token. If prospecting for epic gems is popular then titanium dust will likely be relatively cheap, compared to damaged necklaces as you need to prospect a LOT of ore to get epic gems of any appreciable quantity.
Potential price ranges
Based on the current prices for gems and ore you would need epic gems to on average sell for 75 gold to break even on my realm. I would not be surprised to see significant demand at a much higher price than that, so to me this seems like a good potential investment. I’ll be updating the spreadsheet for prospecting with titanium prospecting as well, I have all the rates already, so stay tuned for that.