Wowhead’s database is up and running and we have started getting results for what items we can craft in cataclysm.
Gear is money
Gear is one of the best ways to make gold with crafting professions in WoW, and always will be. Understanding where gear can fill an important role in upgrading gear is crucial. Players are happy to spend gold to get stronger, but most gear is eventually swapped out, so the value needs to feel high enough.
Item level is king
In cataclysm we take a significant step towards item level really becoming king in gearing. With a simplification of stats the value of more stats starts trumping the right stats more often, even if there are differences. This is particularly impactful with gear for leveling, where players are willing to buy upgrades, but only if the impact is large and the cost is fairly low.
Tiers
Crafted BoE gear in cataclysm gradually follows the leveling curve. There are recipes with reuired level 81, 82, 83 and finally 85. The low level gear includes both uncommon and rare items, with the most interesting items being item level 316 weapons equippable at level 81, which is a huge upgrade over even the best ICC heroic gear. At max level the main gear in the database right now is ilvl 346 rare gear (on par with heroics) and some item level 359 epics (on par with normal raid). In both cases the recipes rely on the new Chaos Orbs that replace Frozen Orbs from heroic dungeons.
Leveling gear right away?
The level 81 recipes are mostly craftable right away at skill 450. As such you only need to unlock your profession. Of course so will everyone else, and many of us will be powerleveling our professions. That being said the weapons are unlikely to be the cheapest option for leveling blacksmithing, so they are worth taking a look at for blacksmiths. I would not be surprised if you can recoup your costs for leveling to a significant degree.
Entry level gearing
Gear to give a quick boost to fresh level 80s was my bread and butter in early wrath, and I want to dig into the same market in Cataclysm. The recipes are obtained for materials from various recipe vendors. This time around most of the 85 gear does require the heroic chaos orbs, which will make it relatively expensive early on. Either way the volume is usually really high, unless the price is just too prohibitively expensive. The epic gear is raid item level, and should therefore sell really well and will likely be a part of many pre-raid Best in Slot gear lists.