u/TimmiHendrix

I loved the idea of the Arcane Salvager ever since I read about it. So I did a little experiment including the calculations.

I disenchanted 100 green Items iLevel 26.

Total cost of investment:
100 greens 12g97s
+ Arcane Salvager 2g85s
= 15g82s

Total material output:
- Large Glimmering Shard: 9
- Greater Astral Essence: 37
- Soul Dust: 152

Raw value if I can sell everything at current market price:
26g31s

AH cut (5%):
1g31s

Expected return:
26g31 - 12g97s - 2g85s - 1g31s = 9g17s

If we assume that the salvager increases output by 10% then:
Output without Arcane Salvager = 23g92s
Output from Arcane Salvager (10%) = 2g39s
Cost of Salvager = 2g85s
Profit of Salvager = -46s
Profit of Salvager after AH cut = -58s

In this scenario the salvager reduced total profit by 46 silver.
If the output increase if even less (let‘s say 5%), the salvager would decrease the profit even more.

My summary is that the salvager can create an increased profit but only if the underlying disenchant mats are of greater value where +10% can make a bigger difference - or if you‘d disenchant more in one disenchanting round.
After I finished with the 100 greens, the salvager stayed for like another 5mins (I‘d say it stayed for 15mins in total) which would give time for like another 50 items to disenchant.

Happy to hear your experiences with it :)
I will do the same disenchanting round without the Salvager to compare the results and approximate the Salvager‘s effect.

Seems like we can no longer see other players talents when inspecting them.

Is this intended?

I found this feature quite interesting, helpful and handy.

TL;DR:

My main hypothesis is that WoW Forever could create a very liquid but highly competitive mega-economy. Layering may keep raw-material supply high, while mounts, skills and professions drain player liquidity early. The best opportunities may therefore be materials with low early demand but strong later raid/profession demand, plus profession cooldowns and other production bottlenecks.

5 hypotheses:

1. Raw materials may be liquid, but low-margin

One shared market means huge demand, but layering also means much more herbs, ore and other farmable materials entering the economy.

That could make gathering good for cash flow, but weaker for long-term speculation. The question that remains is: How will layering be implemented?

2. Mounts and spells bought at the class trainer could create an early liquidity squeeze

Players need gold for skills, professions and especially their level 40 mount.

That may force people to sell materials cheaply even if those materials become much more valuable later.

This could create a strong early accumulation window.

3. The five weeks before raids could shift demand heavily

Early weeks should mostly revolve around levelling and mounts.

Later, demand shifts towards pre-BiS, consumables, enchants, crafted gear and raid preparation.

The key question:

Which materials are cheap while everyone is levelling, but heavily needed four weeks later?

4. Profession bottlenecks may outperform normal farming

Layers can create more herbs and ore.

They cannot instantly create more daily cooldowns, rare recipes or levelled profession alts.

Anything with limited production capacity could therefore become especially valuable when raid demand starts rising - relatively speaking.

5. Information and capital may become the real edge

With one large market, obvious arbitrage should disappear quickly.

The advantage may instead come from identifying future bottlenecks, understanding recipe demand and having enough liquid gold to buy when other players are forced to sell.

So instead of asking:

"Which herb is expensive?"

The better question may be:

"Which material is cheap now, but will have much stronger demand later?"

To answer that properly, I think the next step is understanding the new profession recipes, their inputs, cooldowns and timing of demand.

What would you rather hold during the first month: raw materials, profession cooldown capacity, rare recipes or liquid gold?

What are your views on these and what are other hypotheses that you have?

Edits: numeration