Cutting Your Crafting Time

I hope that everyone got the chance to have a look at the spreadsheet I talked about yesterday.  One of the cool things I like about it was that it tells you how long it will take you to get through your shuffle (Sterling's has this too).  It helps me to know how long it will take to get through a certain amount of ore.  I can adjust my expectations, schedule, routine, etc. a lot more easily when I have this info.

Today I want to talk about minimizing the down time spent crafting, and give you some tips & tricks that I use to make the process less painful.  As I'm sure many of you can relate, it's hard to let a good deal go.  As a result, I keep between 2 & 4 guild bank tabs full of ore.  Prospecting, crafting, disenchanting - it all takes time.  In addition to that, I generally mill about 50 stacks of inks every week.  A lot of this is no-brainer stuff, but we don't always think about it.

Prospecting
One of the biggest time sinks there is in the JC Shuffle, and everybody has to do it.  This is one that I do a little at  a time.  My JC is my main, so when there's prospecting to do, I keep a Bag of Jewels and a Mammoth Mining Bag equipped, leaving my backpack and 2 Frostweave Bags fairly clear.  And then I'll just prospect while doing stuff that involves any amount of waiting - usually running dungeons, or waiting for a group to fill up.  While healers and casters are getting mana or figuring out what loot to roll on, I'll sneak in a few prospects.  I can usually get through a dozen stacks or so while running Halls of Origination.  Nightstone, Hessonite, and Zephyrite get sent to my bank toons for resale raw, while Carnelian, Jasper, and Alicite are saved for when I'm ready to craft jewelry for disenchanting mats.

Cutting Gems
This is pretty easy.  I try to keep my bank toons stocked with 2 full posts' worth of gems.  I usually post 4 at a time, so I make sure they have a total of 8.  Altoholic is great for this - I check the rare gems recipes I have and within a minute or two have all the gaps filled.  Not much to talk about.

Crafting Jewelry to Disenchant
This takes time, and is better done in large batches.  I have been known to take a quick break to run a heroic or two, though.  Grab a bunch of stacks of settings from the vendor - if you don't them all, you will eventually.  Then head to the Dwarven District in Stormwind.  I'll usually clear my bags and swap them out for Frostweave Bags.  I craft Alicite Pendant & Jasper Ring next to the mailbox.  As my bags fill, I jut mail out the blues to my bank toons for resale, and the greens to my Enchanter to be DE'd.  Carnelian Spikes require an anvil, but it's nearby.  If you clear your bags beforehand, shouldn't have to run back & forth.

Disenchanting
I confess, I don't do my own DE.  I outsource it to a guildie that I tip 50g per mail (12 items).  If you do it yourself, you should write up a macro, and you should probably do it in large batches since it takes more bag space than any other part of the JC Shuffle process.  Don't use the item names in your macro, but instead use the item number - all the green Alicite Pendants, Jasper Rings, etc. have the same number, so your macro should only be about 4-5 lines like this (for Alicite Pendant, Jasper Ring, and Carnelian Spikes, respectively):

/cast Disenchant
/use item:52307
/use item:52306
/use item:52492
/use item:52308

(last line added per comments below - thanks to all my readers for being more vigilant than me and posting corrections-  you guys are great!)

Milling Inks
Ugh - My scribe is my L50 Mage, which I'm not leveling right now.  I buy herbs throughout the week, and mail them to him, and then on the weekend, I'll do all my Glyph-making work.  Milling takes a lot of time.  The compression from Herbs->Pigments->Inks is slow, and so are the steps involved.  I'd do this while on the phone or watching TV.  As for actually creating the inks - if you have a lot of a single type, you can actually go afk while those are crafting.  I'd hope you're using an add-on like ATSW - just queue the inks that you can make the highest amount of together (I do them last), and find something else to do while those are crafting.

Glyphs
Not much to say here.  Like milling, I do this once a week on the weekend.  I usually run an APM scan and craft 3-5 of each of the highest priced glyphs.  This really isn't afk work - it just takes time.  When queuing these up, don't worry about how much of a certain ink you have - I just queue it, and if I don't have the inks, I just delete it off the queue when I get to it.  It actually saves me time.  I always make glyphs at the scribe trainer, too - in case I need more parchment.  There's a mailbox nearby in Stormwind, too, for when my bags get full.

That's it - the particulars are different for everyone.  Some folks may prefer to do all their prospecting on the weekend in fell swoop, and that's A-Ok.  I just wanted to share some ideas with you guys and give you a peek into my routine.  I hope it can help you with yours.