Yeah....I kinda sorta agree with both of them, as strange as that sounds. - Edit 1
Before modification by Brian at 07/09/2010 10:14:06 AM
Shadow:
You:
I was in a big raiding guild at the time though, so getting some of the high end materials and patterns/enchantments was a lot easier for me than a casual player.
Sounds like you agree with Shadow, not ranagrande.
Anyway, you are of course correct that crafters don't HAVE to lose money. Without serious guild support though, they do have to lose money if they want to progress at a reasonable rate. Materials quickly become so rare that you must buy some of them if you want to do anything in game besides farm mats. And the stuff you produce is never worth more than the mats, because every other crafter out there is trying to dump his stuff too. This isn't even taking into account the high end reagents, which are typically available only from vendors.
Anyway. It's possible to be a crafter who doesn't lose money, sure. It's not possible to be a USEFUL crafter who doesn't lose money, though. Sure you can toss stuff to lowbies (and that's fun), but if you want to help yourself or anyone else at your stage of progression, you'll be losing money.
Only top-tier crafters in raiding guilds actually make any money off of crafting professions like blacksmithing, enchanting, etc.
You:
I was in a big raiding guild at the time though, so getting some of the high end materials and patterns/enchantments was a lot easier for me than a casual player.
Sounds like you agree with Shadow, not ranagrande.
Anyway, you are of course correct that crafters don't HAVE to lose money. Without serious guild support though, they do have to lose money if they want to progress at a reasonable rate. Materials quickly become so rare that you must buy some of them if you want to do anything in game besides farm mats. And the stuff you produce is never worth more than the mats, because every other crafter out there is trying to dump his stuff too. This isn't even taking into account the high end reagents, which are typically available only from vendors.Anyway. It's possible to be a crafter who doesn't lose money, sure. It's not possible to be a USEFUL crafter who doesn't lose money, though. Sure you can toss stuff to lowbies (and that's fun), but if you want to help yourself or anyone else at your stage of progression, you'll be losing money.
A non-raider is not going to be able to make money off the crafting part of their crafting profession. They just won't be able to collect some of the mats that you only get in raids, so their only way to get them will be through the AH, and the prices are really insane there, because no guild is going to sell mats they might need down the road. They might sell some to pump up their repair fund or guild bank, but it's going to be costly.
Additionally a lot of the patterns a non-raider will get are going to be common as dirt, so you can't make money off the crafted items realistically, so they're usually only good for personal use or disenchanting and selling.
But, if you're willing to be someone that doesn't care about what they sell, you can say screw the crafting stuff, and make your money selling the mats that only that profession can make. Mooncloth, spellweave, etc. Tailors can always make money on bags as long as they time it right, blacksmiths have rods, leatherworkers.....ummmm I don't know, but I'm sure there's something they have they can fall back on.
So yeah, if you want to make money creating armor, weapons, etc, you have to be a raider, but if you're willing to just use the profession to sell mats, you can make money.
And hey....if worse comes to worse, anyone can make money off fishing and cooking!