· prices from today's US auction house snapshot (2026-10-03)
Where to sell in the chain
| # | Sell point | What you make | Who buys | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missives | Profession-stat and combat-stat missives | Every crafter making gear | Top-rank missives are easy to make; margins compress |
| 2 | Ciphers | Soul Cipher, Codified Azeroot | Crafters and scribes further down the chain | Codified Azeroot shares an icon with Petrified Root |
| 3 | Inks | Munsell Ink, Sienna Ink | Other scribes | Rank 1 inks are crowded from day one |
| 4 | Vantus Runes | Vantus Rune: Radiant | Raiders, weekly | The 12.1 rune changed the recipe |
| 5 | Darkmoon | Sigils, decks, cards | Players chasing trinkets | Decks trade per realm |
| 6 | Contracts | Reputation contracts | Players pushing renown | About two inks each: margins crash fast |
The rule under the table: vertical integration is the margin. Buying herbs and selling missives captures five steps of profit. Buying inks and selling missives captures one.
How 
Inscription crafts stack up today, from our US auction house snapshot:
| Craft | Reagent cost | Sells for | Profit |
|---|---|---|---|
  Thalassian Missive of Perception | 74 69 | 15642 | 7390 |
 Thalassian Missive of the Harmonious | 7441 | 11599 | 3578 |
  Contract: The Singularity | 14228 | 15094 | 111 |
The chain, step by step
- Buy herbs.
Argentleaf, 
Sanguithorn, 
Mana Lily, 
Azeroot and 
Tranquility Bloom. Prices are in the herbalism guide. - Mill into pigments.
Argentleaf Pigment, 
Sanguithorn Pigment, 
Mana Lily Pigment and 
Powder Pigment. - Craft inks.
Munsell Ink and 
Sienna Ink. Open each recipe to see its pigment mix before you mill. - Craft ciphers.
Soul Cipher and 
Codified Azeroot. - Finish. Missives, Vantus Runes, Darkmoon items or contracts, whichever the tables below favour today.
| Item | Today's lowest | 7-day median | vs 7-day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentleaf Pigment | 399 | 421 | -5% |
| Argentleaf Pigment | 31 | 3272 | -5% |
| Sanguithorn Pigment | 925 | 1440 | -36% |
| Sanguithorn Pigment | 40 | 44 | -9% |
| Mana Lily Pigment | 1694 | 1480 | +14% |
| Mana Lily Pigment | 139 | 175 | -21% |
| Powder Pigment | 210 | 117 | +80% |
| Powder Pigment | 192 | 195 | -2% |
| Munsell Ink | 1699 | 1142 | +49% |
| Munsell Ink | 6039 | 6496 | -7% |
| Sienna Ink | 20 | 2049 | -2% |
| Sienna Ink | 81 | 8498 | -5% |
| Soul Cipher | 1547 | 1847 | -16% |
| Soul Cipher | 5965 | 6529 | -9% |
| Codified Azeroot | 7614 | 7614 | +0% |
| Codified Azeroot | 17999 | 19896 | -10% |
Codified AzerootInscriptionSell Price: 956Auction house today: 17999
Every item comes in two IDs, one per quality rank. Compare like with like: price your herbs, then the pigments they make, then the inks, then the ciphers. Stop at the step with the widest gap that day and sell there. Keep a small buffer at each step so you can switch tomorrow.
Which herbs to buy
You do not need a herbalist. Buy herbs on the commodity market when they trade under their 7-day median, and mill them in one long session. Herb rank changes pigment output, so price both IDs of a herb against the pigment each one makes before you buy the cheaper one. Your resourcefulness tool stretches every stack either way. If you also farm herbs, mill only what you cannot sell raw above the value of its pigments.
Setup: two tools and about 50 points
- Milling cannot multicraft. Put a resourcefulness tool in the slot for milling sessions: it saves herbs.
- Every later step (inks, ciphers, missives, runes) shows multicraft in the craft details. Swap to a multicraft tool for those.
- Use a
Sin'dorei Quill if you can afford it, or a 
Hobbyist Scribe's Quill to start. - Spend knowledge on the milling nodes (Improved Milling, then Perfect Milling) and the multicraft nodes for your finishing products.
- About 50 knowledge points cover the core stats. That is why rank 1 inks are crowded: everyone gets there fast. Your edge is the back half of the chain.
- Install CraftSim for the crafts. It does not price milling, so the herb-to-pigment comparison is yours to do.
Missives: the steady finisher
Missives are optional reagents that add a stat to crafted gear, so every gear crafter needs them. There are two families. The profession-stat set is led by 
Thalassian Missive of Multicraft, 
Thalassian Missive of Resourcefulness and 
Thalassian Missive of Ingenuity, plus Crafting Speed, Finesse, Deftness and Perception. The combat-stat set has six names, such as 
Thalassian Missive of the Aurora.
| Item | Today's lowest | 7-day median | vs 7-day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missive of Multicraft | 609 | 791 | -24% |
| Missive of Multicraft | 169 | 16950 | -0% |
| Missive of Resourcefulness | 61 | 4999 | +22% |
| Missive of Resourcefulness | 16948 | 16948 | +0% |
| Missive of Ingenuity | 2998 | 30 | -0% |
| Missive of Ingenuity | 9947 | 135 | -26% |
 Missive of Finesse | 6095 | 4094 | +49% |
| Missive of Finesse | 144 | 14695 | -2% |
| Missive of Perception | 48 | 70 | -31% |
| Missive of Perception | 15642 | 160 | -2% |
 Missive of Deftness | 69 | 30 | +130% |
| Missive of Deftness | 14096 | 16948 | -17% |
| Missive of the Aurora | 70 | 3995 | +75% |
| Missive of the Aurora | 19497 | 17423 | +12% |
 Missive of the Feverflare | 63 | 3760 | +68% |
| Missive of the Feverflare | 1798 | 17554 | +2% |
| Missive of the Harmonious | 11599 | 3469 | +234% |
| Missive of the Harmonious | 17293 | 17576 | -2% |
Thalassian Missive of MulticraftOptional ReagentsSell Price: 2046Auction house today: 609
- Sort the table by units listed. Craft the missives with steady volume, not the one with the single best price.
- Craft a small batch of each, see what sells in a day, then scale the winners.
- Watch the gatherer missives (Finesse, Deftness, Perception) at the start of a patch, when gatherers regear.
Vantus Runes
Raiders use a Vantus Rune on a boss each week, so demand resets every week. The Midnight rune is 
Vantus Rune: Radiant.
Vantus Rune: RadiantVantus RunesSell Price: 850Auction house today: 400
On the 12.1 PTR, the new Vantus Rune took the previous rune as a reagent (higher rank for higher rank) plus other materials. That adds one more step to the chain and gives old runes a second buyer. Before you stockpile Radiant runes, open the 12.1 rune recipe in game and confirm the input.
Darkmoon sigils, decks and cards
Scribes make Darkmoon items in four suits: Void, Rot, Blood and Hunt. The sigils, such as 
Darkmoon Sigil: Void, stack and trade on the commodity market. The cards, such as 
Ace of Void, also trade there. A finished deck trades per realm, like gear.
| Item | Today's lowest | 7-day median | vs 7-day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darkmoon Sigil: Void | 37464 | 379 | -1% |
| Darkmoon Sigil: Void | 54175 | 54175 | +0% |
 Darkmoon Sigil: Blood | 344 | 344 | +0% |
| Darkmoon Sigil: Blood | 49890 | 49890 | +0% |
 Darkmoon Sigil: Hunt | 27498 | 340 | -19% |
| Ace of Void | 11999 | 150 | -20% |
 Ace of Rot | 1454 | 150 | -3% |
 Ace of Blood | 14095 | 150 | -6% |
 Ace of Hunt | 14239 | 180 | -21% |
 Two of Void | 325 | 593 | -45% |
Compare each Ace with the Two to Eight of its suit. The gap tells you whether to sell cards one by one or finish a deck for your realm.
Contracts: a short window
Contracts such as 
Contract: The Silvermoon Court use only about two inks, so anyone with the recipe can make them. Make a few when a new contract appears, sell into the first rush, then stop.
A daily scribe session
- Check the crafts table and the missive table. Note which finisher leads today.
- Equip the resourcefulness tool and mill only the herbs that pigment you need.
- Swap to the multicraft tool. Craft inks, then ciphers, then the leading finisher.
- Post each product in small stacks and reprice the ones that were undercut overnight.
- Bank a buffer of pigments and inks so tomorrow can start at any step.
Twenty minutes a day keeps five markets posted. Skipping days is fine; the chain waits for you. What you should not do is craft a week of one missive in a single evening. Other scribes watch the same tables, and a flooded missive can sit unsold for days while the one next to it sells out.
How this ages
Early-chain products crowd first, because they need few knowledge points. The back half holds margin longer, and each new patch recipe gives a short head start before other scribes catch up. Recheck every step's price before a big milling session, and let the crafts table above steer which finisher you make that week.
Questions
Is Inscription good for gold in Midnight Season 2?
It is the top mass-crafting profession in 12.1 if you run the whole chain from herbs to missives. Selling only rank 1 inks is crowded and thin.
Which tool do I use for milling?
A resourcefulness tool. Milling cannot multicraft, so resourcefulness is what saves herbs. Swap to a multicraft tool for inks, ciphers and missives.
Where should I sell: pigments, inks or missives?
At the step with the widest gap between input and output today. Price each step in the tables on this page, keep a buffer at each one, and switch when the gap moves.
Are contracts worth making?
Only briefly. They cost about two inks, so margins crash soon after a new contract appears.
Changelog
- Rewritten for Season 2 / 12.1.
- Added item tooltips and more in-game art.