Thanks a lot for all the info

Oh yeah, when I say brewing is "nice" I just mean in the "like" catagory, not the big moneymaking category... for sure lol. Jut didn't want to confuse anyone thinking you can PL yourself off of $$$ from tumpy tonics hah. But it's got it's advantages, especially for making components for other crafts and the few buffs it offers. And though it doesn't sell big, it sells regularly and doesn't cost much to raise... though it can be time consuming finding ingredients for certain things.

That's another drawback too, you will need ingredients from other crafts, or even enchanted components from an enc. So if you do a craft, plan it out well, consider where you will be getting those ingredients and if you are going to level multiple crafts or have someone to trade or buy from.

Man, I definitely wouldn't recommend alchemy as a skill to "reap repeatable large dividends." You have to be an insane tunnel trader to even recoup part of the plat it costs to max the skill. The last 7 or so points cost approximately 280 platinum per attempt. That's thousands of plat per single skill increase. You probably don't need to go that high, but you're still probably better off spending the time farming plat/items.

The value mainly comes from providing potions to a raiding guild, and for personal use while soloing. Having IVU as a shaman is nice, and so are some of the "high end" effects.

I'm curious what kind of profit other shamans have turned from selling stuff like SoW pots. Stuff like resist and gate pots are mainly used in raid situations, and are provided to the guild by guilded shamans at cost.

Well, if you think about it, that's not true at all: everything you listed (bone chips, belts, etc.) can be done at higher levels also, and in fact a higher level character can do those things more easily/faster.

For instance a level 30 can kill more Crushbone orcs per hour, and thus get more belts, than a level 15 can. Of course you won't be getting any XP if you do the same stuff 15-30 as you did 1-15, but in terms of plat per hour a 30 can make plat faster than a 15.

True, but it really-really sucks when someone with anon on is one-hitting things to farm, blocking out all the lowbies wanting the camp to level. Well bone chips isn't a problem, skullys are everywhere outside starting areas, but belts can be a naughty thing to farm imo. I do farm belts on occasion, but 1. if some level appropriate players come long, I'll ask if they want the camp and then I'll move on (or just move on), or 2. I'll PL lower lvl players for their belts they collect and if there aren't other lowbie players wanting the spot for my PL lowbie to just group with. Sadly tough, I often see too many OP lvl players blocking out newbie camps, some even throwing a tissy if you ask for the camp or one of their camps for your lower level character you're on. I mean really, at times it's pretty bad... need to just log and play another character somewhere else rahter than just get in a big fight with some high lvl player in the zone there to just farm :(

There were plenty of easy plat camps for my ~30 necro. I dunno how well a monk or druid would do but probably not much harder.