Frequently, we are getting many questions from our customers, especially after Blizzard’s announcement about World of Warcraft Classic at BlizzCon 2017, how to farm gold in Vanilla World of Warcraft, currently on Light’s Hope Lighbringer, Elysium Nighthaven and Twinstar Kronos-WoW realms. So, we are glad to share our experience and some knowledge with you. It might be not a discovery for someone but it is good to brush things up we all know and summarize them in one place. We are looking forward to publish more related articles to help and save your time. This guide may help you not in just Vanilla WoW but in any other expansion you are playing.
There are five basic ways to get gold in World of Warcraft:
- Gathering Resources
- Farming Dungeons
- Crafting Professions
- Speculation
- Monopolizing Auction House
1) Gathering Resources
There are lots of things to find and gather in the world: leather, fish, ore, herbs, clothes, stones, gems, recipes, essences, shards, special reagents and not only. Everything can be sold.
This way may require lots of time to get a solid amount of gold, but do not forget about luck. Pure luck finding a Black Lotus or mining a couple of Arcane Crystals may save you hours of grind and double your daily income.
It is a great advantage to start making some silver and your first gold coin at low levels already. Skinning is a nice choice here. Fast and easy way to gather resources, leather of all kinds while leveling for those who are at the race to level 60. There are many good spots to grind beast mobs and skin them. I like doing it as a Troll Hunter, trolls have a passive racial ability: + 5% bonus damage against beasts.
Most profitable professions are considered to be Herbalism and Enchanting in pair. You can have Enchanting only for Disenchanting skill, it will bring decent gold. Consider the fact of disenchanting all soulbound armor, not just selling them to a vendor, but I do not recommend to disenchant any kind of weapons, it is more profitable to sell it to a merchant if it is a soulbound item, or sell it on auction house if it is BoE (bind on equip).
Remember, you cannot pass level 225 skill in professions unless you reach level 35.
Always sell all your stuff on Auction House, don’t be lazy, it’s your money!
Good to find wholesalers and constant buyers, they usually advertise in trade channel. They might offer lower prices than Auction House ones but you save time selling everything instantly.
2) Farming Dungeons
This option is better to use at level 40+. Higher level you are is better, more money you make then. All you do is farming dungeons or specific bosses. Here you kill a few birds with one stone: you get lots of experience (make sure you have all quests in your quest log, always ask your teammates to share) if you are still leveling; improve your current gear; and loads of loot (clothes, recipes, even crappy grey items selling for a lot to a vendor). If you are in a group, think about your groupmates if they need an item or not, don’t roll need on everything.
If you are playing a mage and have reached level 55 already, it’s good to start Dire maul East or Blackrock Depths solo farming. The only bad thing here is five dungeon resets limit per hour.
With a hunter at level 60 is good to go to Maraudon or Dire Maul North Tribute. Pick up enchanting for disenchanting skill to be able to loot unique items if you get them dropped, so you just disenchant the one you have already.
Consider, sometimes it is more profitable to make quick short runs in lower level dungeons than higher level area.
Always sell all items on Auction House. If you are not sure about its value, then check the market. There are some risks that item won’t be sold and you will lose money just putting it on Auction House. Good idea to make bank low level characters and keep everything there until the weekend. All sales increasing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Besides, you can advertise in a trade channel to inform people that an item you are selling has been put on Auction House.
3) Crafting Professions
Another way to make gold. This option works well at level 60 when you have some good gear already. Obviously, you should have some gold ready to buy reagents. Be ready for expenses up to 225 skill points in any profession: items below that are not worth much. You will get first income after 225 skill points in Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, Alchemy or Tailoring. Unfortunately, Engineering and Enchanting will still require some investments. The only way to make gold with enchanting is disenchanting skill (we talked about it).
Engineering is not that profitable choice. Don’t expect to make same amounts of gold as with Alchemy or Tailoring. It is oriented for PVP mostly. But there are some items still everyone needs to completed quests: Mithril Casing, Bronze Tube, Gyrochronatom. Scopes and Basic Explosives are consumables
Leatherworking has three specializations: Elemental, Tribal and Dragonscale. I’d pick up Tribal one. It allows to craft Devilsaur set items. Hunters, Rogues, Warriors, Feral Druids, even Enhancement Shamans and Retribution Paladins are among your potential clients. On any realm there is Un’Goro Mafia on Horde and Alliance, they control whole Un’Goro Crater zone and farm Devilsaurs 24/7. They are making thousands of gold. With Dragonscale Spec you are able to craft Black Dragon Mail set. Good demand as well among DPS classes Warriors, Hunters, Shamans, Paladins, for those who wants Bis Pre-Raid items fast and easy.
Everyone needs bags! If you are a tailor then it’s good business for you to craft Runecloth bags. Besides, Felcloth and Dreamweave items are good in price and most people buy them at level 40 and higher. Some BoE epics like Hide of the Wild are must-have for any Pre-Raid healer.
Being an alchemist is being rich. Everyone needs consumable potions, flasks, elixirs. Some of them are required to complete quests. Passive income is selling transmutation cooldowns every 24 hours.
To get Blacksmithing to level 300 is much effort. It is not that thing to make fast gold. There is always a lack of Blacksmiths though. Enchanters need rods of all kinds, melee classes look for Sharpening Stones and Weightstones with Counterweights, others buy Iron Spurs. Once you have learnt rare and epic recipes, people will always use your service to craft items.
Where to get materials and reagents you may ask? Buy for cheap off farmers in bulk or track Auction House lots. Get in touch with most big sellers. Communication is important here, send a whisper or write them a letter. It would be good for both of you to establish business relationships. Constant suppliers and buyers is convenient for both parties to save the time and effort.
4) Speculation
You will need initial funds to start this way. Buy for cheap and sell for actual price or higher – that sounds pretty easy. But you should have basic knowledge of prices and always track the market. People use to sell for cheap when they need fast gold or don’t know real value of the item. So, it’s your chance to act. If you see anyone selling an item for low price in trade channel, contact them immediately. You should use all of your trade skills to negotiate about the price to make it as low as possible. It’s important ability to communicate. Besides, it’s good to get addons to trade effectively on Auction House: Aux or Auctioneer. They allow you to scan auction, compare prices, find cheapest options, post items quickly, and many other useful tools. It is possible to make your first thousand out of ten gold you have in a pocket.
5) Monopolizing Auction House
Monopolizing is risky. But where risk – there is high profit also. To start doing it, you should have some initial gold, more you can invest is better.
First thing you should do is to learn the market for the specific item you would like to monopolize. Let’s say it is Kingsblood. We can see a stack of Kingsblood is selling for 1 gold. There are 10 stacks on Auction House. To control the market, you have to buy out all the lots of Kingsblood, even single ones. Next move is to make auctions of Kingsblood you have bought for the price you want. Be reasonable and make it 2 gold. But all people are still being used to the old price of 1 gold and will not buy your Kingsblood at first. You have to maintain your auctions for 2 gold all the time, no need to put all Kingsblood you have at once, 3-5 lots are enough at the beginning. You can see, other sellers may start create auctions for 2 gold as well. That’s what we need. But if someone is selling for cheaper price, buy out their Kingsblood immediately. Soon people will start to accept your price of 2 gold as a regular price and will buy your stuff. Now you just to have to sell all Kingsblood you got. Control several markets. It can be anything, even twink blue items or items level 20-30 or 30-40. Same strategy works everywhere. It requires lots of time to track the markets and check auction house. It is not that easy as it may seem, you should spend at least a week of monitoring to be sure about prices, you will fail if you buy out everything at once without research. Soon or later, too many people will decide to sell your item as well. As they could see price change and think it had happened naturally. Market becomes overflooded. It is important to quit before the collapse. This always happens.
An advice for those who are trying to compete monopolizers: you cannot beat them by selling for less if they follow right steps. You should do opposite: sell for more. Because market will come down if the price goes unreasonably high. You can set a bid on item for the price it should cost and buy out price for higher than a monopolizer is selling. So, common buyer may get an item for the right price or monopolizer has to buy the item at his loss.
And last thing, better to stay anonymous using a bank character and not involving your main character in it. Definitely, people will not like the fact of you controlling the market and it may hurt your reputation.
