If you want to know which profession actually fills your bags fastest in The War Within Season 2, the honest answer is that it depends on whether you want consistent passive income or explosive high-effort spikes. Below is a practical ranking based on real gold-per-hour potential on a healthy Undermine economy, factoring in mat costs, market saturation, and how much your time you actually spend clicking versus farming.

The ranking at a glance

  • 1. Alchemy — best passive-to-effort ratio, transmute cooldowns plus flask volume
  • 2. Inscription — Darkmoon decks and Algari Missives carry it
  • 3. Herbalism — highest raw farm-route gold with zero mat investment
  • 4. Jewelcrafting — gem cutting and Algari crests demand
  • 5. Enchanting — steady, but disenchant-dependent
  • 6. Mining — strong early-season, fades as supply catches up

1. Alchemy: the quiet money printer

Alchemy wins on gold-per-minute-of-actual-effort. Flasks remain the single most-consumed raid consumable, and with three flask phials and a full raid tier still being progressed, demand never dries up. A specced Alchemist with high Algari Alchemy ranks produces flasks in bulk with a strong multicraft proc rate, meaning you regularly get free extra units off a single craft.

The real edge is the transmute cooldown line. Converting cheaper reagents into Ironclaw Alloy and other intermediate mats, plus daily phial-stone procs, gives you income that accrues whether you log in to craft or not. Spec into one path (phials OR potions OR transmutes) rather than spreading knowledge points thin — a half-specced Alchemist competes with nobody.

Realistic gold-per-hour: 80k–150k once your concentration is spent on the right recipes, with most of that being near-passive.

2. Inscription: decks are the whole game

Inscription lives and dies on Darkmoon decks. Each completed deck sells for a large premium over the sum of its cards, and the card market in Season 2 stays thin enough that a dedicated scribe controlling deck supply prints reliably. Beyond decks, Algari Missives (the stat-reroll items every raider and M+ pusher buys after every gear upgrade) are constant low-effort volume.

The catch is the milling and ink pipeline. You need a steady herb supply, so Inscription pairs best with your own Herbalism or a cheap herb market. Spec heavily into Draconic-to-Algari ink efficiency and missive multicraft before you touch anything else.

Realistic gold-per-hour: 70k–130k, spiking hard in the first days after any tuning patch when everyone re-rolls stats.

3. Herbalism: zero investment, pure route gold

If you have no capital and want to start earning in the next ten minutes, Herbalism is the answer. There is no mat cost — you fly a route, you sell what you pick. With a gathering spec into Lush and Bountiful Herbs, plus a Dragonriding-speed mount setup across the Isle of Dorn and Ringing Deeps, you can clear a full loop quickly.

Mycobloom and Arathor's Spear are the backbone, and because Alchemy and Inscription both eat herbs constantly, prices hold up better than ore across the season. The downside is obvious: it's active. Every gold you make requires you to be flying. There's no passive tail.

Realistic gold-per-hour: 60k–100k on a clean uninterrupted route, less on contested high-pop realms.

4. Jewelcrafting: gems plus the crest angle

Every raider and Mythic+ pusher slots three gems per character and re-gems on upgrades, so cut-gem demand is structural. A Jewelcrafter who specs into the epic gem cutting line and keeps multicraft high turns raw Algari gems into a steady stream of sales. The intermittent-but-lucrative bonus is crafting gear and facets that feed crest and embellishment demand for alt gearing.

Saturation is the risk — JC is a popular pick, so margins compress on big realms mid-season. Your defense is concentration on the highest-tier cuts that fewer players have unlocked.

Realistic gold-per-hour: 50k–110k, very realm-dependent.

5. Enchanting: steady but capped

Enchanting income is reliable rather than explosive. Weapon and ring enchants sell in volume to every raider, and the disenchant pipeline gives you a second income stream from cheap gear and your own crafting failures. The ceiling is lower because dust and shard supply is gated by how much gear flows through the economy, and prices on common enchants get undercut fast.

It shines as a second profession on a crafter alt — passive-leaning, low time cost — rather than your sole gold engine.

Realistic gold-per-hour: 40k–80k.

6. Mining: front-loaded, then fades

Mining is the strongest farm in the opening week of any season and a shadow of itself two months in. Early on, Bismuth and Ironclaw Ore command premium prices because every crafter is leveling knowledge and consuming ore. As supply catches up, prices sag below herbs. If you're reading this mid-Season 2, mining is a fallback, not a flagship.

Realistic gold-per-hour: 50k–90k early, dropping toward 30k–50k as the season matures.

How to actually choose

Pick by your playstyle, not the leaderboard. If you log in twice a day for fifteen minutes, run Alchemy or Inscription and let cooldowns and concentration do the work. If you'd rather decompress flying routes while watching something, Herbalism is the cleanest no-risk income. The strongest setup overall is a gathering profession feeding a crafting one on the same character or account — Herbalism into Alchemy or Inscription removes your single biggest cost.

One honest note on the time-for-money trade: the gold itself is best earned by playing. Professions reward consistency, and most players hit a comfortable income within a week of focused effort. Where buying gold genuinely makes sense is the narrow case where you need a large lump sum now for a BoE upgrade, a token, or a mount you've been chasing — and grinding it would cost you raid nights or M+ pushing you'd rather spend progressing your character. If that's you, a one-time gold top-up is a reasonable shortcut; if you're just trying to fund repairs and consumables week to week, level a profession and keep your gold.

Whatever you pick, spend your knowledge points narrowly. A fully specced single recipe line out-earns a broadly-leveled jack-of-all-trades profession every single time in Season 2.