Recently, a reader wrote in with a question that everyone ponders from time to time. When trying to make money from a profession, it can be difficult to determine what to sell, what to convert, and what to avoid doing all together. Here's what she asked:

Hello,

When making gold from Mining, is it better to Prospect the Ore? Or is it better to just sell the Ores and Bars?

Thank you!

Regards,
Kristy.

Taking a break from the faction recipe series to shake things up a bit, let's take a look at how this breaks down.

See, this is (one reason why) everyone wants to be an Engineer. Why can't us Leatherworkers get some sweet gear like this?

Name: Gadgetstorm Goggles (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdb)
Type: Epic Mail Headpiece
Armory: 726
Abilities:

• +28 Stamina
• A meta and blue socket, with a socket bonus of +5 spell damage and healing
• Requires Engineering 350 to wear -- if you lose your Engineering skill for some reason, you won't be able to wear these anymore. See "How to Get It" below.
• On equip: improves spell hit rating by 12, spell crit rating by 40, and increases damage and healing up to 55. Pretty sweet for a helm.
• Also on equip: shows the location of all gas clouds on the minimap, very useful if you've got a mote extractor (and if you're Engineering at this level you should).
• And on use, allows you to see into the distance. This is similar to the Shaman Farseeing spell -- only really useful in certain instances, but kind of a little added bonus to wearing the goggles.
• Very good gear for caster Shaman Engineers, which admittedly is a small group. But Blizzard catering to historically ignored gear specs like this is good to see.

How to Get It: You've got to be an Engineer to make and wear these -- they are trainable from the regular Engineer trainer at around level 350, and you need to be 350 to actually make them. Total ingredient list is pretty steep: thirty Knothide Leather, 120 Adamantite ore, six Khorium ore, a Primal Fire, forty-eight Fel Iron ore, thirty-two Eternium ore, two Living Rubies, and one Primal Nether, which will run you a few hundred gold just picking them up off the AH. Not to mention the costs of actually leveling up Engineering, although there are tons of costs and advantages to leveling up any manufacturing profession anyway.

But get the skill, train the recipe, grab the mats, and the Goggles are yours. In my humble opinion, it's one of the cooler-looking crafted helms out there, too. Assimilate or die!

Getting Rid of It: Sells to vendors for 5g 83s 63c, and of course with the Engineering requirement on it, it's BoP. Does disenchant into a Void Crystal however. But it'd be an expensive Void Crystal.

As we round out the final stretch series, I thought it fitting to end with the three gathering professions; mining, herbalism and skinning. While these are fairly self-explanatory in terms of maximizing one's skill, there are tips for the most profitable avenues available.

For miners, I've compiled a list of where mining deposits are to be found, what else they drop, and what level you'll need to have in order to mine the ore up and smelt it.

I've broken down each of the Outland herbs for herbalists, including the buffs they might award, which provinces have which herbs, and where the herbs tend to grow. Many herbs also drop motes and other herbs, as well.

Skinners will be interested in the list of the types of leather, hides, and scales, where best to farm them, and how profitable such a venture might be.

Along with a brief discussion of the benefits of gathering daily quests, you should leave with all the information you need to plot a quick and profitable route to skill 375.

Know a Blacksmith or Engineer who haven't really been in the holiday mood? Looking for that perfect present for your friend who took up Mining? (Or are you perhaps the person who just has a World of Warcraft fan as a friend and don't have any ideas?) Well, if you've been hunting for a fun WoW gift for that hard-to-shop-for geek on your list, you should check out this nifty holiday item by Paul Pape. That's right, it's a Khorium Ore-nament, hand-made with little sparkly Swarovski crystals!

I have to admit, if my tree wasn't already overflowing with geek ornaments, I'd snap one of these up myself. I know how thrilled I am to stumble across a Khorium vein on my Rogue when I'm running around in-game. It seems like a fun thing to just "run across" in your holiday decor as well. Of course, I suppose you will have to watch out for other WoW players who might gank your node when you're off getting some pie!

[via Wonderland]

There's rare as in "hard to find," and then there's rare as in "nonexistent." Some players were wondering which one Khorium, a new mineable metal in the expansion, and the rarest metal in the game, was, after a few of them leveled all the way to 375 mining without seeing one node of it pop up.
Neth first said it was spawning as normal (very, very rarely). Apparently it's a rare spawn from Fel Iron or Adamantite nodes, but players just weren't seeing it come up at all, or seeing it come up very, very rarely-- as in one node every few hours. Finally, earlier yesterday, Tseric acknowledged that the rate was spawning lower than intended, and a hotfix was planned and pushed. When players still complained that they weren't finding it, Tseric said one more fix was on the way, and so Khorium should now be back in the game and spawning as normal.

Now, fixed in three days isn't bad for a bug, and now that it's back in the game, there's really no problem. But didn't anyone in beta hit 375 mining? How did they not catch this one?