Patch 12.1 is on the PTR and we can look at what the new patch has in store for goldmaking.
New recipes
New recipes is always the main focus for what you can make gold with professions. New and improved consumables or enchants are big gold makers, particularly if the recipe is a little hard to obtain or the new items are significantly stronger than the current consumables.
What are the recipes
The impact of new recipes vary a lot, and 12.1 is still in early days. Currently there ar enew buff foods, new potions and new embellishments as the main new recipe, alongside wone new weapon ehcnat. There’s also some new decor items coming.
New consumables are usually required
New and stronger consumables usually completely invalidate older consumables. In this case there is a new feast that gives secondary stats as well as two new potions. It’s unclear from Wowhead it Alluring Nostrum gives a main stat buff or a damage proc, but Liquid Luster gives versatility. The new potions could be better for some specs, but overall they do not seem like they will be broadly used compared to Light’s Potential and RecklessnessThe new feast could also be good for some specs, compared to the main stat one.
The new vantus rune
The new vantus rune is VERY interesting. The most interesting aspect of it is the fact that currently the PTR recipe requires a Vantus rune: radiant as one of the materials. This makes the recipe substantially more expensive than the current one. This is good news for concentration crafting as the more expensive something is the more value there is in saving some gold and going for the cheaper tier 2 version. This will help drive concentration demand and keep the value higher. With current Vantus prices both are so cheap that you just go max quality anyway, which heavily limits the price difference between 1 and 2 as there is no real demand for tier 2.
Mass crafting tier 1
Mass crafting the lower level vantus rune can be quite valuable in 12.1, as it will be used as a crafting input assuming recipe costs stay. I have to say I quite like Blizzard making recipes relevant for longer, having a lot of recipes that are relevant for just one patch or not even that is one of the bigger weaknesses of current WoW professions where vast swathes of recipes are functionally useless outside of patron orders.
Embellishments
12.1 is also adding a swathe of embellishments. Generally speaking the value of embellishments is very short lived as players craft their items within the first 1-4 weeks of the season and after that demand is very low. Depending on tuning some of them have the potential to upend current trends and that will lead to a potential short gold rush once you unlock the new recipes. Longer term I find embellishments underwhelming, mostly due to the relatively low sale rate compared to other crafted items like consumables and enchants.