Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Guide

In this WoW Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Guide, I will discuss the best method for leveling up from 450 Jewelcrafting to the new cap of 525 that is coming with the Cataclysm expansion pack.

Before getting started with the guide, I just wanted to throw in a quick few updates about Jewelcrafting changes:

- Gems that provide +hit rating are now blue (previously they were yellow). This will make blue gems more valuable (in WoTLK they are worthless).

- There will be new dailies (i.e. another gold making quest!)

- Some Jewelry recipes will randomly create superior and epic version (epic ones should be worth a lot of gold, so be ready to cash in there)

- New "vanity" items - i.e. items that have no function but look cool. I doubt these will earn much gold, at least early in the expansion cycle. Players have other things to spend gold on.

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- Rare items will give multiple +skill ups. This might make leveling off these recipes a more worthwhile pursuit.

525 Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Guide

Coming into Cataclysm, you should already be at level 450 skill, which was the old skill cap in Wrath of the Ling King.

If you are not already at the skill cap, it should be very easy to hit once Cataclysm rolls around. People will be stuck with a lot of rare and epic gems that will be worth absolutely nothing as the green gems in Cataclysm are a very high quality. You should be able to scoop up these rare and epic gems to hit level 450 without a problem.

Overview

450-485 - Cut Uncommon quality gems - most valuable ones listed below
485-490 - Cut Rare quality gems
490-500 - Stardust or Rare quality Gems
500-505 - Meta gems or Rare quality gems (depending on what you have access to)
505-510 - Meta gems or Jewelcrafter-only epic gems
510-515 - Meta gems
515-525 - Fire Prism (cheapest) or Rhinestone Sunglasses (fastest)

Below, I have given more options you can use depending on your situation. I would recommend reading through the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide below so you can save gold when skilling up from 450-525.

Jewelcrafting 450-470

This is the easiest part of the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Guide. For this portion, you can simply cut the new green gems and list them on the auction house. Here are the gems you should cut in order to make the most money:

Red Gems: Bold Carnelian (+30 strength)

Orange Gems: Skillful Hessonite (+15 strength, +15 mastery rating)

Yellow Gems: Fractured Alicite (+30 mastery rating)

Blue Gems: Stormy Zephyrite (+38 spell penetration)

Green Gems: Puissant Jasper (+15 mastery rating, +23 stamina), Piercing Jasper (+15 critical strike rating, +15 hit rating)

Purple Gems: Save these gems for 490 skill.

Why these gems in particular? Well it is my experience that anything with strength sells for the most. It seems that Warriors are incredibly impatient and always have a lot of gold and are ready to spend it. I have no real explanation for this but I know it makes me a lot of gold. "Bold" gems are always worth a lot.

Additionally, I expect the +mastery rating gems to be worth a good bit. People will want to try out this new stat and are looking to spend gold in order to do so.

By crafting these gems, the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide is easier to follow because you will have more money for the next phase, which is not particularly cheap.

Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Guide 470-480

Note that from 470-480, these uncommon quality gems are slow to skill up. You can either skill up the next 5 points from these gems, or try crafting some Carnelian Spikes from 470 to 475.

This is a green quality fist weapon with +1321 spell power. The problem is they are a fist weapon so there are few buyers. There will be a lot of over eager Jewelcrafters trying to make these, so the price will plummet and you will lose money on these (supply and demand)!

If you want to sink some gold into Jewelcrafting, craft Carnelian Spikes. If you want to remain budget neutral, try cutting the profitable green gems listed above to 475.

From 475-480, the only option is to cut more green gems. Mining helps here!

Jewelcrafting 480-485

As of right now, this part of Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide is extremely painful and unfortunately expensive! Maybe there will be more recipes released down the pipe to make this easier.

It is really nice to be a Draenei here as you can practically skip this phase with the +5 racial and cut green gems easily to 485.

For the rest of us mere mortals, you will have to cut more of the green gems listed above to hit 485. This might take 30+ crafts to get those last 5 skill points. Stick to the profitable recipes listed above to maintain the most money. People will be buying those bold +30 strength gems sooner or later! Only list a few at a time on the auction house and list them during prime time hours for best results.

Jewelcrafting 485-490

Now that you made it out of that rough stretch, this part of the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide gets a lot easier. At 485 skill, you can begin crafting blue gems.

Your first 5 skill points should come pretty easy. Stick to the basic big sellers like Bold Inferno Ruby. The same green gems that were valuable will make even more valuable blue gems. Save your Dream Emeralds.

The trick (at least early on) in Cataclysm will be actually getting the blue gems. It will help to be a miner as everyone and their friend will be clamoring for these gems.

Jewelcrafting 490-500

At this point, you have two options:

- You can cut your Nighstone into Stardust for an easy 5 skill points (you did save these like I mentioned earlier, right?). You can continue to cut these to 500, but from 495 to 500 the skill ups will slow down. Save your Stardust.

- If you can get your hands on the raw gems, you can cut blue gems to 500 skill points quite easily as well and even turn a little profit.

Jewelcrafting 500-505

This part of the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide can be either time consuming or expensive. You have two options:

1. Craft the new meta gems (Chaotic Shadowspirit Diamond will be a big seller). This will be the cheaper option but will be time consuming as you will need an Alchemist to transmute the Shadowspirit Diamonds. If you are racing to be the first to 525 as soon as Cataclysm comes out, this is not an option.

However, if you are reading this weeks or months into Cataclysm, this is my recommended path for the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide. We might even get extra skill points for crafting these gems, we will have to see.

2. Craft Rare (blue quality) Gems to 505. You will need a lot of gems to do this as 500-505 is pretty slow. It will be tough to get your hands on that many gems unless you want to dish out a lot of gold.

Jewelcrafting 505-510

1. Faster option: craft more meta gems to power from 505-510.

2. Slower but cheaper option: craft the Chimera's Eye gems. These are available from the new Jewelcrafting daily quest and will take longer to make since you will need a few quests just to buy the recipes and a few more to actually get the Chimera's Eyes. Save these gems for when you have some nice gear to put them in.

Jewelcrafting 510-515

Again, two options here for the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide:

1. Cut even more meta gems. You will be investing a lot of money into this but if you sell them slowly, eventually you will make your money back (might take 2 months to sell them all off if you used these gems from 500-515!).

2. Create the Rhinestone Sunglasses. These can be a bit expensive to make and you will need someone to make elementium bars. However, if you saved your Stardust and Dream Emeralds, this can be the recipe you can use all the way up to 525 if you feel like spending the money.

Jewelcrafting 515-525

At the home stretch of the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting guide here! You have two options once again:

1. Fire Prism - This is by far the cheapest option, but this is also the slowest. This is a transmute recipe that will turn green (uncommon) gems into some rare ones. This is the Cataclysm equivalent of the Icy Prism.

This is a profitable recipe but only can be done once every 20 hours. So, you can take 10 days and level up from 515 to 525 and make money in the process.

2. Alternatively, if you are a power-leveler and the thought of taking 10 days to move up 10 skill points makes you sick to your stomach, you can always craft Rhinestone Sunglasses over and over again. There is not much resell value here so you will lose money, but you can get up to 522 skill pretty quickly.

Conclusion

With this information in hand, the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Guide is now complete. I have given you two options whenever possible: quick and expensive, or fast and profitable. The choice is yours!

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