Insider Trader: A young crafter's guide to the Darkmoon Faire

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The Darkmoon Faire is in full swing, and in between checking on the live breaking news being posted from our folks at BlizzCon, leveling craftsmen are being given an opportunity to make some gold.

The Faire has much to offer the citizens of Azeroth, from fancy foods and frog pets to tickets that can be handed in for nifty prizes. It is this ticket system that offers you the opportunity to make some money.

You see, tickets are awarded in exchange for certain items. Many of these items are crafted, while others are looted, such as [Vibrant Plume]. Because players hand these items in to the Faire both for reputation and for tickets, they are highly marketable a few days before the Faire begins, as well as the first few days after it arrives.

The items do not include Outland craftables, so this income opportunity is primarily geared towards the population that is still leveling their characters. While skilling up your trade, you can hoard certain items to be auctioned off at higher prices around the time of the month that the Faire turns up.

Unfortunately, there are currently only opportunities for engineers, blacksmiths and leatherworkers, although the rest of the population can still make a nice profit from the various "trash" items dropped from certain mobs.

If you are planning to hand over some of your creations to the Faire yourself, it is important to note that the ticket system works in tiers. The cheapest and lowest level items are on the bottom tier, scaling up to the highest level items on tier 5. Because reputation climbs quickly, you might only be able to complete a handful of hand-ins for each tier before being ushered on to the next.

In this manner, do not hand in the most expensive items first, or you will never be able to hand in the cheapest ones.

It is important to note that depending on the price of the items from the same tier in the other professions, your item might not sell for as much as you would like. For example, once on tier 5, a player might purchase [Rugged Armor Kits] from a leatherworker because they are cheaper on that server than [Dense Grinding Stones].

Still, your items should sell for their highest amount just before and during the presence of the Faire, and when skilling up your trade, choosing these items is a great way to earn back some of the money you have spent.

Engineers
As a low level engineer, you will find yourself making an awful lot of parts, rather than actual items. While these parts do come in handy later, most players find that they have quite the surplus of un-used parts that usually are unloaded on the poor vendors.

The [Copper Modulator] can be crafted from skill level 65 right up until level 125, when it goes grey and no longer offers points. Because copper is an abundant metal, and linen is common in the early stages of a player's career, this is a fairly cheap item to craft for skill points.

Players who talk to Rinling can acquire the quest Copper Modulator, and will hand them over in stacks of five. These are a tier one item, and cannot be handed in many times.

The tier two item is the [Whirring Bronze Gizmo]. My young engineer still has a bank full of these! In fact, they are the direct upgrade from the modulators where materials are concerned. Instead of copper, you will be using bronze, which is a fusion of copper and the next metal, tin, and wool instead of linen.

Again, all of these materials should naturally turn up in the course of leveling your character. These items are handed in to Rinling in stacks of seven, for the quest Whirring Bronze Gizmo.

The tier three item is a bit more fun to construct, but you won't learn how to do so from your trainer. [Schematic: Green Firework] can be purchased from Gagsprocket in Ratchet. This engineering vendor can be found in an odd-looking hut north-east of the bank, or Crazk Sparks in Booty Bay.

Players will hand these over in groups of 36. Fortunately, the pieces of heavy blasting powder and heavy leather actually make three fireworks. This item will begin as yellow at 150 and become green at 162. Still, for the materials given, this is not an expensive skill-up.

The fourth tier will see you making [Mechanical Repair Kits]. Your trainer will teach you how to construct them, and plan on selling them in multiples of six, because that is what the quest Mechanical Repair Kits demands. This item also begins as yellow at 200, becoming green at 220.

Finally, for the fifth tier, you will be able to sell [Thorium Widgets] to be given to Rinling six at a time. These are not going to be cheap to manufacture at all. While the runecloth is abundant, you will probably feel hard-pressed to part with your thorium. Nonetheless, the item is orange at 260 and does not become yellow until 280, almost guaranteeing you a cool 20 engineering points for 20 widgets.

Blacksmiths
The tier one blacksmithing item is [Coarse Weightstone], and considering how abundant coarse stone is once you begin to mine up tin, you should have no problems constructing these in bulk. Players will hand these in to the Faire in sets of ten, to a one Kerri Hicks <The Strongest Woman Alive!>. This item is yellow at 65, green at 72, and grey at 80.

[Heavy Grinding Stone] is the tier two item, and will be delivered to the Faire in sets of seven. Because they contain heavy stone, which drops from iron, these can often be sold for quite a bit, and are an excellent skill leveling tool. Grinding up your stone will take you from 125 when it is yellow, through to 137 when it becomes green. You can keep grinding it up for the odd skill point until it goes grey at 150.

The tier three item is a bit more complicated. [Green Iron Bracers] can be handed in three at a time, but do consume six iron bars per pair. Of course, compared to many of the other items, this is quite cheap to manufacture. Because it is white-quality, your only chance of selling it to other players rather than a vendor is going to come during the Faire. You might do best to advertise their availability over trade channel.

These bracers are orange at 165 and become yellow at 190.

The tier four item is one [Big Black Mace]. This is a pain to make, and might not be worth the effort unless you are using it for skill points anyway. This item is orange at 230 and becomes yellow at 255.

The tier five item is [Dense Grinding Stone] to be handed in 8 at a time. Again, because this only involves stone you'll be mining up anyway, this is both a keen leveling tool and an excellent opportunity to make some money from them. This item is orange at 255 but quickly goes yellow at 255, and green at 257.

Leatherworkers
For the first tier, plan on making [Embossed Leather Boots]. Players can hand in six at a time, and because they are a white quality item, you have a chance to fetch above-vendor prices when the Faire is open. These are orange at 55 and do not become yellow until 85! At 100 they become green.

The second tier item is [Toughened Leather Armor], another "junk" piece that can be handed in to Chronos <He Who Never Forgets> in threes. His quests are more creatively named than the others. For example, this one is called Carnival Jerkins. Orange at 120, this spell grows yellow at 145 and green at 157.

[Barbaric Harness] is the tier three hand-in, in sets of three. Yet another junk piece, while it may only sell well during the Faire to other players, it is still a valuable leveling tool. This item is orange at 190 and yellow at 210, green at 220.

The tier four item is one [Turtle Scale Leggings] which is actually of green quality, and will require the demise of many turtles to craft. Orange at 235, this does not become yellow until 255 or green until 265. Try hunting the turtles along the coast in Dustwallow Marsh, the Hinterlands, and Tanaris.

Finally, at tier five, players can repeatedly hand in [Rugged Armor Kits] in sets of 8. These are not only great for leveling, very useful, and marketable year-round on the auction house, they are a cinch to make. As long as you are a skinner, and skinning all of your beastly kills, you should have no trouble producing these in bulk. These are yellow at 250, green at 260 and grey at 270.

Each week,

Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. Check out more about the Darkmoon Faire, or learn about how you can make a profit as an engineer. See our tips to specializing as a blacksmith, or plan out which Outland factions have the best leatherworking goodies.