Preparations for Shadowlands is a hot topic, so I thought I would share what I will personally be doing. Obviously my situation will be unique, so I don’t think the specifics will be too useful for all of you, but the thought process should be helpful.
The goal: Get Shadowlands professions maxed ASAP
Before we go into any preparations we need to know what we are preparing for. For me the main goal early in Shadowlands will be to max every profession. This means I will want to dedicate as much time as possible to leveling and unlocking recipes. I will have to level more than one alt most likely. I’ll also start working on any reputations ASAP.
Current prep
The main limitation for me is the time I have available. I’m definitely on the casual side of the spectrum in terms of playing time and I expect I will continue to be. I want to get sales from other markets as well when Shadowlands launches so I want to stock up on many cosmetic items now. This is really the only thing I’m doing right now, which is buying battle pets and BfA mounts more than usual. I’ve spent 4 or 5 million on battle pets and mounts over the last two weeks, so hopefully it pays off.
Leveling my alts
Obviously everyone is focusing on the pre-patch for the relic vendor shuffle. For me personally I will primarily utilize the fast leveling to get more alts to level 50 and get some gear so they can level quickly in Shadowlands. I may level another alt or two from scratch to get more sky golems, as my realm was just connected so I have a ton of character slots I can use.
Get recipes or mounts
With the rest of my time I will work on getting recipes or mounts. Right now I have more time than usual for stuff like cosmetic hunting and getting some recipes that will be profitable in the future, so that is definitely on the menu.
Relics
I feel like the relics deserve their own paragraph. I’m not planning to engage in that market at all. Even the best method looks like it’s about 36k gold per hour. While that is not bad, the profit margin will quickly drop as players start buying, and I personally find doing vendor shuffles incredibly boring. Overall it just does not seem worth the hassle of all the materials, inventory management and boring shuffling. If I was just starting out however I would probably consider it more closely.
No other big investments
I’m already several million deep in mounts. I’m not planning any other investments, and I’m posting and flipping the mounts with settings that work right now. I don’t focus much on investment, and I’m not going to do it this time around either.
That best method of 34k per hour is shuffling?
The best relic shuffle. Last time I checked the numbers are quite a bit lower though, clocking in at about 20k, and I expect it to further fall as players buy out the materials
Thanks for the insight into your thought process. Quick question since my situation is different than yours – in the down time before pre-patch / Shadowlands, do you think it’s a good use of time to level all the old content professions? I’m catching up from a couple year hiatus and never been big into gold making until recently. So now I have all the professions and plan on using them for SL content, but don’t have really any old patterns.
Yes, now is a great time to level old professions and obtain old recipes.