Tailors in TBC can craft very powerful BoE and BoP gear that uses specialty cloth. These items can only be crafted by tailors and they are on a whopping 4 day cooldown, making them very lucrative.
Specializations
Tailors can pick up a quest to pick a specialization once they hit 350 profession skill. The quests will take you to a 70 zone and will definitely be out of range for profession alts right now, but are not too hard to complete.
Once done the quest will give you the ability to craft more than one of the associated cooldown material. There are three specializations, spellfire, Shadoweave and Primal Mooncloth corresponding to the three types of cloth.
Every tailor can craft all of the materials, but the specialization gives you the ability to get two cloths when you craft the recipe. This is obviously very valuable from a goldmaking point of view.
Cooldown cloth usage
The cooldown cloths are all heavily featured in end-game tailoring recipes, many of which show up frequently on pre-raid BiS lists. Any spellfire tailor who wants the full spellfire set will need 26 spellcloth, which will take a month+ with just a single tailor even with spellfire specialization. The same holds true for the other two specializations, although primal mooncloth and shadoweave sets are a little more specialized. Either way all of the cloths will be a highly sought after commodity, particularly early on.
Getting the recipes
To start crafting the cloths you need to be skill level 350 in Tailoring. You can then buy the recipes from the tailoring vendors in the Lower City in Shattrath. They are in the south end of the city. These vendors also sell recipes that use these cloth types and you will eventually want to pick up those too.
Crafting the Cloth
All three cloth types have location requirements. Primal Mooncloth needs to be crafted in a moonwell. There’s one just to the east of Shattrath at the Cenarion Thicket. Spellcloth needs to be crafted in Netherstorm. It can be done anywhere in the zone, so just fly up and click the button. Shadowcloth can only be crafted at the Altar of Shadows in Shadowmoon Valley. The altar is surrounded by level 70 mobs, so getting there is a little dangerous, but I was able to do it at 62. It’s at the south edge of the zone, just east of Sanctum of the stars.
Profiting
The price is incredibly high on my realm right now. Whether you want to sell gear, sell materials or sell the crafting service is a little uncertain until we see what buyers prefer, but all three could be happening. How players prioritize their specializations will have a significant effect on the profit. The more players pick one the worse that cloth will be for players without the specialization as they are crafting with a much higher material cost.
Pay attention
This market will be in flux for a while, and will be very variable as supply is based on a 4 day cooldown. Look closely at prices and there may be opportunities for resets and flips down the line!