What Are The Material Costs of Work Orders?

Cost of Doing Work Orders

Here is the table showing what it would cost me to do work orders for my various garrison profession buildings for: one work order, one day's worth of work orders, and one week's worth of work orders.

I'm also including the costs of turning in Trading Post Work Orders because that is something I keep an eye on so I can know when/if it's worth turning in Trading Post Work Orders that day.

Prof Building	Raw Materials	1 Work Order Mat Price (minBuyout)	1 Day of Work Orders (6)	1 Week of Work Orders (7*6)
Scribe's Quarters	2 Cerulean Pigment	4.649	27.894	195.258
Engineering Works	2 True Iron Ore, 2 Blackrock Ore	2.2494	13.4964	94.4748
Gem Boutique	5 Blackrock Ore	1.949	11.694	81.858
Enchanter's Study	5 Draenic Dust	24.75	148.5	1039.5
Alchemy Lab	5 Frostweed	9.7025	58.215	407.505
Tannery	5 Raw Beast Hide	15	90	630
Tailoring Emporium	5 Sumptuous Fur	8.7995	52.797	369.579
Forge	5 True Iron Ore	3.6745	22.047	154.329
Trading Post	5 Draenic Dust	24.75	148.5	1039.5
Trading Post	5 Raw Beast Hide	15	90	630
Trading Post	5 Sumptuous Fur	8.7995	52.797	369.579
Trading Post	5 Frostweed	9.7025	58.215	407.505
Trading Post	5 Gorgrond Flytrap	5	30	210
Trading Post	5 Fireweed	5.4995	32.997	230.979
Trading Post	5 Talador Orchid	4.7495	28.497	199.479
Trading Post	5 Nagrand Arrowbloom	4.65	27.9	195.3
Trading Post	5 Starflower	4.649	27.894	195.258
Trading Post	5 Blackrock Ore	1.949	11.694	81.858
Trading Post	5 True Iron Ore	3.6745	22.047	154.329

Here is the same data sorted from the most expensive material cost to cheapest:

Prof Building	Raw Materials	1 Work Order Mat Price (minBuyout)	1 Day of Work Orders (6)	1 Week of Work Orders (7*6)
Enchanter's Study	5 Draenic Dust	24.75	148.5	1039.5
Trading Post	5 Draenic Dust	24.75	148.5	1039.5
Tannery	5 Raw Beast Hide	15	90	630
Trading Post	5 Raw Beast Hide	15	90	630
Alchemy Lab	5 Frostweed	9.7025	58.215	407.505
Trading Post	5 Frostweed	9.7025	58.215	407.505
Tailoring Emporium	5 Sumptuous Fur	8.7995	52.797	369.579
Trading Post	5 Sumptuous Fur	8.7995	52.797	369.579
Trading Post	5 Fireweed	5.4995	32.997	230.979
Trading Post	5 Gorgrond Flytrap	5	30	210
Trading Post	5 Talador Orchid	4.7495	28.497	199.479
Trading Post	5 Nagrand Arrowbloom	4.65	27.9	195.3
Trading Post	5 Starflower	4.649	27.894	195.258
Scribe's Quarters	2 Cerulean Pigment	4.649	27.894	195.258
Forge	5 True Iron Ore	3.6745	22.047	154.329
Trading Post	5 True Iron Ore	3.6745	22.047	154.329
Engineering Works	2 True Iron Ore, 2 Blackrock Ore	2.2494	13.4964	94.4748
Gem Boutique	5 Blackrock Ore	1.949	11.694	81.858
Trading Post	5 Blackrock Ore	1.949	11.694	81.858

While the order of the above table shouldn't really surprise anyone who is paying attention I think the most telling column is the "1 Week of Work Orders" column.

This gives me an idea of how much I'm spending to keep these work orders flowing. This is important because, at least in my case, I'm not making anything with the cooldowns yet.

Given the above information and a list of my alts and their profession buildings I could come up with a rough weekly "burn rate". This would be the amount of gold I'm spending each week without getting any return.

If I started selling items made from these cooldowns I could start to reverse this, so far, one-way flow of gold out of my pockets and into cooldown items that I'm not doing anything with.

What's Expensive?

The most expensive Work Orders are (in order) Enchanting, Leatherworking, Alchemy, and Tailoring.

The materials for the above buildings have consistantly been of a higher price than other mats. One mat to note here is Frostweed which at the moment is by far the outlier as far as herb value and I'd bet it's due to it's use as a Work Order material.

What's Cheap?

The cheapest Work Orders are (in order) Jewelcrafting, Engineering, and Blacksmithing, Inscription.

This shouldn't really be a surprise as ore has been consistently the cheapest material around. In my building building I've favored what I like to call "ore-munching" buildingd because the costs of being a completionist is very low. Whether anything you can make out of those cooldowns is worth anything may be another story.

Conclusion

So now that I have a better idea of how much I'm spending on mats I'm sort of relieved. Yes spending 1000g a week on a enchanting building can add up over time but 1000g a week was quite a bit less than I was assuming it would be.

Part of it is that mat prices keep dropping but that's not a bad thing in that I'm spending less per work order each week. This may coincide with items crafted from profession cooldown items lowering in price as well though so it may be a bit of a wash.

I hope you found these charts useful. Remember that the above gold amounts are based off one day's mat costs on one server and may not match your server's mat costs. That said, it should give you a rough idea for how expensive it is to maintain your work orders.

---

Like this post? Get even more Power Word: Gold - Purchase our Gold-Making Guides, subscribe via RSS, subscribe to the Podcast via iTunes or RSS, watch our Livestreams, follow us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, join the subreddit, and subscribe via Youtube.

---