One of the better early expansion goldmakers and one that often stays consistent throughout the game is jewelcrafting. In Mists we also get some fun new categories of items to take advantage of!
Recipe acquisition
Jewelcraftings main goldmaking vector is prospecting ore to cut and sell gems. Getting the right gem recipes is therefore very important, and recipe acquisition is changing in MoP. In stead of having daily quests to unlock tokens you now do a daily cooldown corresponding to one of the gem colors and you will discover a random recipe for that color. You can also speedrun it by doing the cooldownless version that costs 3 spirits of Harmony, but that does require farming spirits. Meta gem recipes are world drops for jewelcrafters, so you will have to kill some mobs to get them, the drop rate is fairly high, so it should not take too much time.
Serpent’s Eyes
The new jewelcrafter specific gem is called Serpent’s Eyes and they are now part of the regular prospecting economy. You get Sparkling shards when prospecting Pandaria ores, and 10 shards will turn into 1 Serpent’s Eye. They are used in various jewelcrafting crafts and will be very important for your overall setup.
Prospecting
Prospecting is back, and for the most part you will be prospecting Ghost Iron Ore, this is the main ore of Pandaria. The rare trillium ores will usually be too expensive for rare gems. There is also an ore that can only be found in the Dread Waste in Kyparite. This can be an option, as it has the exact same drop rate for gems as Ghost iron. It’s usually not available in the same quantities though.
Rings and necklaces
Rings and necklaces are obviously great for entry level gearing, and the options for jewelcrafting are FANTASTIC. The main reason is that they use Serpent’s Eyes in stead of Spirits of harmony. This means you can support them just with items from the AH. That being said, there’s no epic jewelry, so the high end is a bit more limited compared to some other professions.
The panthers
Lastly we have a new vanity item set in the panther mounts. The recipes come from the Order of the Jade Serpent reputation in Jade forest. This requires you to be max level. The reputation is similar to Netherwing in that you are limited by dailies, but you can farm for eggs that have random spawns to finish it faster. It does take a while though, so be prepared!