Max quality items is the bread and butter of goldmaking, so today we will look at what items can achieve max quality, and how much profession knowledge is necessary to get there.
You can guarantee max quality for most recipes
Eventually you will reach enough skill to get max quality on most recipes. In fact depending on the recipe it can vary from 70-100 knowledge for many recipes. This does require max skill, as well all the profession tools maxed out. If you have a profession racial, you can get away with a bit less knowledge.
Knowledge gains
You get 24 knowledge points from one time treasures. Then you can get weekly knowledge from the NPC work orders. I counted 11 points available on the beta. Couple that with 20-40 points from first crafts and it will be possible to reach guaranteed max quality for certain recipes as early as week 1. This will not be the case for every recipe, as some do require a lot more (the elemental chaos flask stands out requiring on the order of 200 knowledge).
Concentration?
Concentration value will vary a LOT between recipes and professions. Obviously early on players will be hyperspecialized and only be able to guarantee 1 max quality craft. For anything sold into the region wide AH those few will dominate. That being said you can utilize concentration with lower tier materials to cut your costs, as you do need q3 materials to guarantee max quality crafts. This is also relevant for crafting orders, but you can just sell crafting orders for gear utilizing concentration to guarantee max quality until you run out.
Alts are incredible
Since you can reach max quality relatively quickly for many recipes alts are incredible this expansion. You can also get a lot of the knowledge just standing around in town doing patron crafting orders. This will also give you some Artisan’s acuity that you also need a LOT of as you need all profession tools maxed.
First craft shuffles?
Doing first craft shuffles for enough acuity to get all your profession tools ASAP will be a significant advantage. You need 900 Acuity for all three tools, which is equal to 180 knowledge points gained. There may also be some other one time sources, but if you want this week one you have to shuffle first crafts and drop professions. To get to the required mark you will probably have to go through 6 or more professions, so the up front cost is substantial.