Guide to Leveling Alchemy and Making Gold in Shadowlands

As has been the case since the start of World of Warcraft, Alchemy will be responsible for creating most of the consumables used in the end game, as well as some rare materials, through transmuting.

There will be only one throughput flask in Shadowlands, Spectral Flask of Power, which increases your primary stats. Alchemists still have increased duration on their own flasks through Mixology, which is a great perk, especially when compared to those of other professions.

There are many new potions, some of which honor WoW Classic, such as Potion of Unhindered Passing, which has a similar, albeit less powerful, purpose as Free Action Potion, alongside more general health / Mana / stat buffing potions and other utility potions. All Shadowlands potions share a 5-minute global cooldown and require Level 51+.

Speaking of WoW Classic, Weapon Oils are back: Shadowcore Oil for damage and Embalmer's Oil for self-healing. Using these also increases the power of certain combat potions, such as Potion of Empowered Exorcisms!

The Kobold-minded will enjoy crafting and wearing Red Noggin Candle, a transmog head piece that...well, we will let the picture speak for itself!

Finally, you will also be able to learn how to craft a unique trinket, Spiritual Alchemy Stone, but keep in mind that its baseline 165 item level is lower than that of gear from heroic dungeons (171). In order to bring it up to par with the current Shadowlands end-game, you will need to add the highest level Crafter's Mark optional reagent available at the time. New ranks should be released whenever the item level cap is increased upon the release of a new raid tier.

Reaching 175 skill in Shadowlands Alchemy is easy, and you are likely to make a profit in the process if you use or sell your crafts, but there will be several skill points at which you are forced to craft green items in order to reach the next new craft. Fortunately these points will generally only require about 3 green skill-ups, which are easy to get.

The trainer can be found in Oribos, in the southeastern part of the Hall of Shapes:

Craft Spiritual Healing Potion or Spiritual Mana Potion, depending on what your character can use. You can make 7 of each potion and combine them into Spiritual Rejuvenation Potion at Level 14 in order to get to level 21 cheapily, or swap into making Spiritual Anti-Venom at 15, which is more expensive but leaves you with a lot of end-game potions.

Total Materials for 7 Spiritual Healing Potion, 7 Spiritual Mana Potion, and 7 Spiritual Rejuvenation Potion: 28 Death Blossom and 14 Rune Etched Vial (Vendor).

Materials such as Ground Death Blossom are good to create while leveling because they are used for your transmutes, which create Shadowghast Ingot and Shadestone. The Ingots are used on the best Blacksmith recipes while Shadestone is required for Eternal Cauldron. These rare materials are likely to command a high price in the auction house. Oils are also great to craft, as they will be extensively used in end-game pursuits.

With this in mind, you have several good options to level at this point:

• Ground Death Blossom (becomes green quick, craft it first)
• Ground Rising Glory
• Embalmer's Oil
• Shadowcore Oil

Potion of the Hidden Spirit is trained at 30 and is quite expensive to craft, but as an invisibility potion, it will likely be required for advanced Mythic+ pulls when not in a Rogue group. Craft it once the other options go green, up to 45.

Total Materials for 7 Ground Death Blossom , 8 Ground Rising Glory, and 10 Potion of the Hidden Spirit: 34 Death Blossom, 46 Rising Glory and 10 Rune Etched Vial (Vendor).

Continuing with the Shadestone preparations, craft Ground Marrowroot until it goes green at 55, and either Potion of Unhindered Passing (uses a Revendreth herb) or Potion of Soul Purity until Level 65, at which point you can learn Potion of Specter Swiftness, which take you to 75.

Total Materials for 10 Ground Marrowroot, 10 Potion of Unhindered Passing, and 10 Potion of Specter Swiftness: 60 Marrowroot, 20 Death Blossom, 10 Rising Glory, 10 Vigil's Torch, 10 Widowbloom and 20 Rune Etched Vial (Vendor).

Craft Ground Nightshade, Ground Vigil's Torch, Potion of the Psychopomp's Speed and either Potion of Spiritual Clarity or Potion of Hardened Shadows, depending on AH price or your role.

Total Materials for 5 Ground Nightshade, 10 Ground Vigil's Torch, 10 Potion of the Psychopomp's Speed and 5 Potion of Spiritual Clarity: 10 Nightshade, 75 Vigil's Torch, 30 Rising Glory and 15 Rune Etched Vial (Vendor).

Craft Ground Widowbloom, Potion of Sacrificial Anima and either Potion of Divine Awakening or Potion of Phantom Fire, depending on AH price or your role.

Total Materials for 10 Ground Widowbloom, 10 Potion of Sacrificial Anima and 10 Potion of Phantom Fire: 80 Widowbloom, 30 Marrowroot, 30 Rising Glory and 20 Rune Etched Vial (Vendor).

To finish your leveling, craft Potion of Deathly Fixation or Potion of Empowered Exorcisms to 150, followed by Potion of Spectral Agility, Potion of Spectral Intellect or Potion of Spectral Strength to 160 and finish your climb to 175 by crafting Spectral Flask of Power (expensive, but very useful) or the cheaper Spectral Flask of Stamina.

If you are not in a rush, you you can level from 165 to 175 with transmutes: learn how to create Shadowghast Ingot from the trainer at 165 and buy Recipe: Shadestone from The Avowed reputation vendors.

Total Materials for 15 Potion of Empowered Exorcisms, 15 Potion of Spectral Intellect and 10 Shadowghast Ingot: 45 Widowbloom, 120 Marrowroot, 100 Ground Death Blossom, 20 Ground Nightshade and 30 Rune Etched Vial (Vendor).

Ideally, Alchemy allows you to convert cheap herbs into expensive potions, but due to its commodity producing nature it is very likely that the consumable market will quickly get loaded with potions that are only marginally more expensive than the materials used to create them.

Thus, most of your profits will come from timing the market in two steps:

1. Figure out your server's raid days. Wednesday, Sunday and Tuesday are the typical candidates. On these days it will be easier to sell consumables for higher prices. To make sure, track the worth of your crafts over time in your server with The Undermine Journal website, and sell during high price periods.
2. Before leaving the website, search for the herbs used in the crafts. Take note of when they are cheapest, and aim to buy during these periods.

Although it sounds simple, most players do not have the patience or knowledge to take advantage of timing the market, and doing so correctly is where your profit will come from in the long term. Buying herbs to craft and selling the crafts randomly could actually lead to losing money if you buy high and sell low, so take a little bit of time to understand the market before you dive in!

As ever, the time limitations on Alchemy transmutes make them the best options for Gold making, although the Gold will be made slowly, one transmute a day.

There are two transmute options: Shadowghast Ingot and Shadestone. The Ingots are used on the best Blacksmith crafts, such as when creating armor that can become Legendary and when creating optional reagents to upgrade crafts to the highest item level available. Blacksmiths can create these Ingots without cooldown and for a much cheaper price, so this might not be a profitable way to make gold, depending on your realm's prices!

Shadestone is required for Eternal Cauldron and the Alchemy trinket. Because guilds are always needing more Cauldrons and have deep pockets, profit is all but guaranteed, at least once guild alchemists can buy Recipe: Eternal Cauldron by become Revered with The Wild Hunt in the Ardenweald zone.

As mentioned before, Red Noggin Candle is a new Shadowlands item that you can craft and sell for profit. Because it is not tied to a rare recipe, it is somewhat unlikely to make a profit, but it is worth mentioning, regardless.