As someone pointed out in the comments on my video about TBC prep my suggestion of getting alts is not particularly lazy. So let’s lazify an alt!
Level 20 only
Today we will cover a method that works right now and will be very relevant throughout TBC. On top of that it only requires a level 20 character to do, making it absurdly accessible.
The vision dust shuffle
We willl be using Enchanting and tailoring to shuffle mageweave cloth into vision dust and nether essences. Vision dust is a major bottleneck material for leveling enchanting, and is almost always in strong demand. Mageweave cloth is very cheap right now so this is the perfect time. We will be using a world drop recipe the White Bandit mask to do this, but the recipe is just 1 gold on the AH on my realm, and should be available on most realms for cheap.
Level tailoring
You then also need enough gold to level tailoring and enchanting so you can craft and disenchant the masks. In TBC you do need enchanting skill to disenchant the items, so you will have to level enchanting to level 125 to be able to disenchant it. That is usually quite cheap to do, so it should not be a significant hurdle.
The math
Below I’ve illustrated the disenchant formula so you can see what you get. Usually I focus on vision dust as that is often the most valuable part of the output, but if prices are very low then it is nto enough. If you only look at vision dust the quick check is simply to look at vision dust and mageweave cloth prices. The craft requires 5 mageweave cloth and yields a little over 2.5 vision dust, so if Vision dust is selling for more than 2 times the value of mageweave cloth you are in profitable territory.
BUT vendor materials matter
If the price of mageweave is very low, like right now the price of the Heavy Silken thread is actually a considerable part of the cost of the bandit mask. With current prices on my realm Mageweave is 3s75c, which is about 18s for a mask, and then you will have to pay between 20 and 18 s for the heavy silken thread depending on your reputation level with whoever sells you the thread.
Profitable right now
With current prices on my realm you can craft a White Bandit mask for about 36 silver and the disenchant value is 52 silver. Now unusually the value is spread out across all the possible outcomes. You are still making a substantial profit, but you do need to consider everything. Tradeskillmaster’s disenchant calculation will generally be enough to figure out if it’s worth it, so make sure you set it up under tooltip settings.
