Expansion Ore

I have a bit of a predicament coming up with the impending release of Cataclysm. You see, my main character is a blacksmith/jewelcrafter. These are two professions that both require massive amounts of ore to level. You get ore by being a miner or by buying it from one. Now, I believe the price of the expansion ore is going to be astronomically high when the expansion is first released for a few reasons.

- There’s likely to be an achievement for being the first one to max out a given profession. As such, hard core achievement people are going to want to get there first. I don’t see any way to mine enough ore yourself, so even a miner/blacksmith is going to need to buy ore to max blacksmithing first.
- Mining is a useless profession stat-wise for any hardcore raider that isn’t a tank. Jewelcrafting is the best. Blacksmithing is second best. (At least for some classes, and they’re both very good for everyone.) As such, a lot of the hardcore raiding player base can’t produce ore but will consume ore.
- Jewelcrafting makes an absolute fortune when everyone is gearing up and few people are providing gems. Therefore hardcore money makers are going to see getting a lot of ore early to level jewelcrafting to be a good investment.
- My friend Sky is a hardcore raider who cares about achievements and loves to make money. I know he intends to buy gobs and gobs of overpriced ore. He has way more money than I do, therefore outbidding him isn’t feasible.

So, what can I do? I saw three options and Blake provided me with a 4th. (Go false trichotomies!)

- Wait for the price to go down. I don’t necessarily need to cap my professions right away (especially if I’m not trying for the realm first achievements) and I’m sure the price of ore will fall at some point.
- Drop blacksmithing now and level mining. That way I can accumulate ore at a reasonable pace to level jewelcrafting. I won’t get there first, but I will still get to a point where I can make money off cutting gems and then I can sell the rest of my ore off while it’s very expensive. Note that I am a tank so mining actually has a raiding relevant benefit for me.
- Level my hunter to 80. She’s a miner, so I can use her to mine ore to level both blacksmithing and mining. I still won’t get there first, but I will get there before the price of ore goes down I would think.
- (Blake’s plan) Level my druid to 80. Drop one of her professions so I can level mining. Do the same as above, but with a character that has instant flight form. I don’t like the idea of dropping a profession on my old main for sentimental reasons but there’s no real reason why I couldn’t. (He actually suggested dropping both professions to get mining and herbalism and go crazy on the gathering. Not a terrible plan; if I go partway I might as well go the whole way.)

There are still a few months before the expansion hits at least, so I have plenty of time to decide, but since most of the options involve levelling characters or mining or both I need to get a head start on it. Does anyone see something I may be missing? My gut feeling right now is to go with Blake’s plan. I do like playing a druid…