aktlingit wrote:
It's hard to say for sure since the amount of pigment you get from milling varies. Therefore, if you had a bad luck run you could in theory get only 4 pigments out of a stack of a herb. Depending on the ink, 2 pigments per ink. So an entire stack of herbs netted you 2 inks to make glyphs with. So then you'd have to do research as to what glpyhs those inks can make and seem to be selling, and then for how much but in most cases it won't be for as much as the stack of herb would have sold for.
On a good run, I've gotten 15 pigments from a stack. In that scenario, even selling the glyphs over a stretch of time at moderately reduced prices I doubled the amount that stack of herbs would have sold for.
I am a tradeskill fool - have them all, multiples of ones that have specialties - but so far I'd have to say I'm really not impressed with Inscription. I would just sell the herbs you gather unless you are really jones'ing to make your own glyphs. The "research one time every day for a random glyph" is annoying. The random number of pigments is annoying (yes, Disenchanting gives random dusts too but they aren't then combined in multiple stages to get to the final product.
Is this true? I don't think I've EVER gotten less than 2 pigments per mill.
Inscription right now is good for a couple of things, IMO. The scrolls are nifty if you're missing a particular buff. Don't have a priest in your party? A scroll of stamina will replace PW:F. Don't have a shaman or a death knight? I usually use a scroll of agility to replace Strength of Earth/Horn of Winter. No mage for Arcane Intellect? Scroll of Intellect. So Inscription makes up for those lacking class buffs (whereas alchemy adds to those buffs). It's a good niche, although I think some people are slow to catch on and other are reluctant to use like 5 slots in their inventory for scrolls just in case they don't get X class.
Besides scrolls there are glyphs. And as said, these aren't amazing to sell. There are always a few "best" glyphs for each class/spec, and the other 2/3 - 3/4 of them are useless. Those best ones are underpriced and overproduced. The niche market with researched glyphs was based on you being lucky enough to get a good one, and by the day is becoming less of a niche because more people are discovering the good ones. The price is dropping as scarcity is decreasing.
The off-hand items are... interesting. Some are good. The epic ones, well, one of them, is good for casters. But they can't be sold to non-scribes, which bites. Not a big market, and not a huge buff for scribes, especially non-caster ones.
Which leads the best part of being a scribe, IMO. Darkmoon Cards. While once rare, decks of Darkmoon cards are now available. And as far as I know, the Northrend Darkmoon Cards can ONLY be found through inscription. The card decks from these are awesome; I am personally aiming for the Nobles set for Darkmoon Card: Greatness. They also sell for several thousand gold O_O. The price to make these is very high, obviously, but I think you can still turn a profit.
I'm not sure how I like inscription overall. I think the glyphs were made too haphazardly and too limitedly (is that a word?). Ideally instead of there being a glyph of fireball, there would be, say:
1. Glyph of Scorching Fireball: Your fireball places a stack of Scorch on the target.
2. Glyph of Burning Fireball: Your fireball's DoT proportion gains x% of your bonus spell damage.
3. Glyph of Blasting Fireball: Your fireball's critical hit chance is increased by 5%, but it no longer causes the DoT.
You know, some more options. Also, change it so inscriptionists can have TWO glyphs affecting a spell.