Friday, June 17, 2011

Dark Jade and Shadow Crystal Return To Value

Dark Jade and Shadow Crystal

Oh how I loathed thee...

If you were using your jewelcrafter during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion era, then you probably hated Dark Jade and Shadow Crystal as much as I did.  These were useful for damn near nothing, yet they continued to pile up as a bi-product of the Saronite Shuffle.  The Saronite Shuffle was the way to shuffle Saronite Ore back in Wrath of the Lich King, similar to how we currently shuffle Obsidium Ores

The problem with the Saronite Shuffle was that it wasn't as efficient as the current Obsidium Shuffle.  Today you will see bloggers and players complaining about their stacks of Zephyrite gems and what to do with them, but this is nothing compared to the problems we had finding uses for Dark Jade and Shadow Crystals.  The Dark Jade could be sold on days when it was required for the Dalaran jewelcrafting daily, but unlike the current Cataclysm JC dailies, only 1 was required.  This method wasn't the most effective way to unload the tons of Dark Jades, as all Saronite Ore prospectors were also accumulating stack after stack of Dark Jade and Shadow Crystals.  The only other option was crafting the focusing crystals, which never caught on over here at my server.

Both Dark Jade and Shadow Crystal continued to pile up in guild banks and character banks everywhere.  Some players would resort to just vendoring these gems as they were next to worthless.  There wasn't a way to shuffle them into jewelry for disenchanting for a profit.  The only real use of Dark Jade and Shadow Crystal was in the daily cooldown for crafting Icy Prisms, but being limited to 1 per day didn't help the massive stockpiles of Dark Jade and Shadow Crystal.

Icy Prism Cooldown Removal

Then things changed.  With the release of World of Warcraft Patch 4.1, came the removal of the Icy Prism cooldown and many of us rejoiced.  Why?  Because now we had a way to utilize all of those extra Dark Jades and Shadow Crystals.  I never sold any of my Shadow Crystals or Dark Jades to the vendors.  I tucked all of my stacks away in a guild bank and let them sit.  I originally planned on selling the stacks to players leveling Jewelcrafting as a new Profession in Cataclysm, but sales didn't work there either.  So back in the bank they went.  Since the removal of the Icy Prism cooldown, I have been making great profits in the Wrath Jewelcrafting gems markets.  There aren't many competitiors, if any.  I am glad that I saved these horrible gems from Wrath because they are now useful in crafting Icy Prisms.  My old stacks of both Shadow Crystal and Dark Jade are almost completely exhausted.

I'm not just using them for my own Icy Prisms.  As other players got fed up with these gems and vendored them at the end of Wrath of the Lich King, I have been able to sell some of my gems on the auction house as singles for other JCs looking to make Icy Prisms.  These same Dark Jades and Shadow Crystals that at the end of Wrath couldn't be sold for a single gold piece, are now selling on my server for 8-10 gold each.  This is why I like to stockpile materials that may be used eventually, as opposed to vendoring then to save the bank space.  (When you have 6-7 guild banks, space isn't a real issue anyway.)  If you are a stockpiler or a hoarder, be sure to periodically clean out your banks, as you don't want items decaying in your banks.

Sometimes its good to be a hoarder, as Blizzard may make a change that will allow you to profit from your stockpile. 

Anyone else been unloading these darn Dark Jades and Shadow Crystals?

1 comment:

  1. They were useful for earthsiege diamond transmutes also which still sell cut and uncut. Frozen orbs to eternal fires + dark jade + huge citrine

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