WoW Gold

The things that make a big difference, overall, to a character’s wealth, are the small habits that earn you gold almost automatically while you play. As I already discussed, the right professions are a very prominent example.

This (shorter) article discusses a much simpler, but equally important aspect: your bag space. Everyone fills their bags, frequently. When this happens, a lot of the trash (and other!) loot which make up a large portion of the gold you make on dungeon runs and such gets left behind. Not just that, but deciding which loot to leave behind slows you down. More space means you will loot more and sell more. Simple.

Dungeon runs have a built in cost (repair bills) and a built in profit (random loots) which can offset this. Once repair bills have been deducted, everything left is profit. So a seemingly small thing like 25% extra money on all dungeon runs (a few extra bag spots = a lot more money, as we all have a lot of stuff we carry around permanently) makes a big difference. And it’s cumulative. Set it up well and you never need worry about it.

How to get Bag Space

Well, here’s the obvious one — buy bigger bags! Ok, so I don’t expect a Nobel Prize for this revelation — but you really should weigh up the benefits of going for 18 or 20 slot bags. (I’m assuming everyone has at least full 16 slot bags).

Whether it’s worth it or not is different for everyone, but generally — especially if you do a lot of dungeon runs or farming — it is going to be a worthwhile investment.

Spring Clearance

Upgrading your bags is not the only way to get at more bag space. To stand a chance at succeeding, you need to remove all the clutter from your character. You need to completely clear (stringently!) both char and your bank (and by the way, paying for bank bag slots is also generally a good idea). Possibly, you need to set up a mule alt.

Dealing with space issues slows you down. That’s bad. Not being able to pick stuff up costs you gold. That’s also bad. You need to make this efficient.

Step 1: AutoProfit: There is a WoW Mod called AutoProfit. This is pretty handy, and well worth installing. This mod will basically automatically sell all the vendor-trash loot in all your bags, with just one click. Go get it. Do it now!

Step 2: Anything You Don’t NEED! — Anything you don’t need, and I mean in the immediate future, needs to go into the bank, or even just get rid of it. Be realistic about what you need. People generally hate to waste something, so we end up with stuff like very situational use consumables, 1 piece of old, low-level food that gives a small stat increase, etc. We think oh, I won’t throw it away — I’ll just use it up quickly. If you are harboring useless consumables, ditch them. The time it will take you to use them is just too epic.

Step 3: Get Everything in Order: When you pick something up, it goes into the furthest bag to the right. It’s much easier to quickly empty your bags then it is to separate useful and useless items, one by one. Take everything in your bags, decide if you can possibly leave it out, and put the things you really do need to keep on your person in the furthest bag(s) to the left. That way you know everything in the right bags can (generally) be sold.

Apply the same process to your bank. If you saved it for situational use, think about if you ever will use it. If not, sell it or find someone to dust it. Bank space means you can offload stuff easily from your main character. We’re aiming for an efficient pitstop in cities here! If you have a lot of tradeskill relevant stuff, consider getting tradeskill bags.

Don’t save useless stuff you’re never going to use for ’sentimental’ reasons. Just don’t. It’s stupid, and you’re not genuinely attached. Get rid of it.

It’s often a good idea to have a mule for selling. I do, and I recommend it. Some people have multiple mules. Set these up, give them some gold to start with, buy them a load of bags (bank and normal), and find a decent mail mod — one that lets you easily mail 20 things at once to your alt. Again, just get it done.

If you get this right then you can come into town, immediately post almost everything from your right bags to your AH mule, put anything BoP that you want to keep immediately into your bank (WITHOUT spending 20 minutes deciding what to replace) and you’re good to go again. Using your AH mule is also a lot easier than your existing char, as you know that everything on him wants to go on sale. Again, look at good AH mods — these make your life a lot easier. (I might do an article just on this subject in the future).

So — you want to earn more gold? This isn’t entirely uncommon! One really significant factor in how wealthy your character is likely to be, is your choice of professions.

The fact is, if you have the right professions, you will make money automatically. This isn’t exactly a revelation. If you’re a miner, you will stumble on hot mining spots, and the same for the others. They work differently, and I will discuss the pros and cons in detail - but it’s a significant part of the game’s economy, and a nice side income.

Crafting Professions

- Ok, so you can make money with these, but it’s a very active process. Let’s face it, you’re better off with a gathering profession. Here’s why: Crafting professions are fairly common, and you only need one person to do each combine once. Plus, skilling up these professions takes ages — so a lot of the stuff that could have turned a profit is being sold at a loss on the AH, so that someone gets the skill up. The big trade off to all of this is that you get exclusive BoP craftable armour, weapons and other items of interest.

The Burning Crusade did help, however. This is because of Primal Nethers being needed for most of the higher end combines. These drop almost exclusively in level70 content, specifically, they drop once in every heroic dungeon run - although they can drop in regular difficulty instances, it’s just significantly rarer. You can expect to make a profit of 250-300 gold from each nether you come across - but this is only useful if you are:

- A level 70 doing regular (ish) heroic runs.

- Very close to maximum skill in your chosen crafting profession.

- In possession of some quality patterns. (Fortunately, there’s often a variety available. But you will generally either need some highly farmed reputation, some AH investment, or to make some targeted runs looking for a rare drop. Often heroic only too.)

Another small plus for Gathering professions:

Gathering professions can also sometimes make you WoW Gold if you are willing to put the work in supplying the various quest components that are needed. Having craftable quest components there will earn you a significant “convenience fee” markup. However, this gold-making tactic can actually be applied almost as easily without actually having these professions. I will be explaining this in detail soon in another guide!

Ok, so in general, crafting professions will NOT earn you much gold.

That’s the rule. Although one profession that stands out here as an anomaly is enchanting. This is almost certainly the most profitable crafting profession to take, for more than one reason. When people want something crafting, it’s generally a rare, one-time purchase, and one that is often available on the AH at a loss to the crafter.

However, with enchanting this is not generally true. People need enchantments on far more items than they are likely to want items crafting. The demand is much higher — and add to that the fact that they need a fresh enchantment every time they make an upgrade — then add to that the fact that enchanting is for everyone, not just plate/leather/cloth classes respectively. See where I’m getting at? And then on top of THAT we have the fact that enchantments cannot be sold on the AH, so there’s no making routine losses. When someone wants an enchantment, they have to find an enchanter and receive it in person. This works well for you. Supply and demand — the supply is bottlenecked. Think of this like mass production versus the old school craftsmen!

Dependent on patterns though: You do need a real investment to make enchanting worth it. It’s not exactly easy to skill up, and if you’re reading this, you’re coming to it late in the game. It’s much, much, much easier to roll enchanting from the start than if you’re re-rolling on your level 70. Enchanters are very limited by patterns. More so than other professions, so expect this to hold you back. When there’s two patterns, one clearly superior to another, you’re gonna have a hard time selling the lower version, no matter how much cheaper it is. Certainly at the endgame — and let’s face it, we’re a long way in to this expansion, so the end-game market is big and growing. (When WotlK comes, this will be different for several months. Obviously.)

Not just a crafting profession: so, enchanting is the most profitable crafting profession — it’s also a gathering profession. Therefore also a routine income booster. For every quest you do, every BoP item you receive, and everything your group loots on a dungeon run, you can expect to make much more dusting than looting. AND you save bag space — sort of — (I’m assuming you have a gathering bag as described below) — and bag space = money.

(Please note, what I am saying is based on supply and demand, and if everyone rolled enchanting tomorrow, it would become very close to useless. So always think things through based on your server, class, playstyle, and the principles of what I am saying. Not just blindly leaping into the void.)

A Note on Jewelcrafting: Not everything I’ve said in general about the crafting profs applies to JC. In particular, there is an ongoing demand for gems much the same as the ongoing demand for enchants. You can make money with JC if you are likely to be able to access the high end patterns (even more important for that profession than enchanting, indeed almost any), and if you are willing to put some more active AH work in. JC makes you nothing when you’re out and about, you have to be trading in the cities, cutting gems, monitoring the AH, etc. In other words, to make some serious gold in World of Warcraft with JC, you have to treat it like your own virtual business.

- Also should mention that, as the new profession in TBC, it is quite heavily subscribed on most servers - think about supply and demand. Check the markups that people are making on the Auction House on your server. It’s not hard, and stops this being a blind leap. Remember — profession choice is important!

So, I recommend enchanting quite heavily - IF you’re willing to invest the time and gold to do it properly. What else?
If you’re wanting to earn, you need a gathering profession as your second. I’m going to rule out skinning quite quickly: the demand is constrained mostly to leatherworkers, and most of them take it themselves. You might find it hard to sell stuff compared to the others.

Mining is a good one. Apart from anything else, it’s needed by both blacksmiths and engineers, and while a lot of blacksmiths will take it in combination with mining, a lot of uber/powergamers will take engineering with another crafting profession: as this theoretically often gives your character the biggest improvement, and there are a certain segment of players who will trade off any amount of gold for the BoP advantages.

- That’s just their style of play/thought - but it does mean that mining can be very profitable. (These people sometimes have gold to burn too, so don’t mind paying premiums.)

Jewelcrafting and tailoring get their supplies from standard play, without needing a specific gathering skill to supply them, while enchanting encompasses its own gathering skill automatically. Having discussed leatherworking and blacksmithing, this brings me to…

HERBALISM!

Profitable Plants. Tell me, who makes the real money, fossil collectors or drug dealers? Herbalism is an absolute gem of a profession. It has a really sustainable demand, one that only grows as the game moves further and further towards a high-endgame percentage playerbase. It’s also really not glamorous. Nobody wants to do it, but everyone needs it, visa-vie, it’s an absolute goldmine.

How often have you been in a group and had people fighting over the mining spot, versus how many times you’ve seen herbs around with nobody to loot them? And as I said before, there is more need for these than pretty much anything else in game. Raiders in particular simply have to have them towards the end. Significant amounts of pots is a requirement of many high end guilds. (I should mention that this demand is slightly specific. Mana pots in particular are required constantly. Flasks don’t do badly, temporary boosts of all descriptions, some resist pots — but not all herbs are as easy to process and sell as this.)

Herbalism comes highly recommended. Here’s some specifics to help you decide:

- Herbalism is a great way to make extra cash just as you play, stopping to pick up and herbs you happen across.

- It’s also an ok way to farm, but making gold this way is crowded. (Like most others). If you’re only on at peak times, then you might want to consider mining instead. Herb spots can be even more crowded than mining spots.

- Another thing to mention (I go into detail below on Alchemy) is that you can’t sell herbs well as herbs. You need to sell pots. In the herbalism vs. mining equation, metals (and sometimes even ore — it helps people smelt their skill up who have rerolled mining) can sell straight off. You will be able to sell bars on the AH as is far easier than herbs. So if you don’t plan to take alchemy (because — for example — you’re taking enchanting) and you don’t fancy the hassle of organising production (or don’t play enough to make it worthwhile) then take mining. It’s a simple earner - just not as much.

Alchemy

So, I’ve recommended enchanting and I’ve recommended herbalism. You only get two of these things, and herbalism goes quite obviously with alchemy. Selling herbs as is can be very hard.

Alchemy can be useful, but for a herbalist, you can think of it as a convenience. Everything alchemists will be selling is BoE. If you have the time, play a lot, or are simply willing to put the most in to get the most out, you can stock up herbs and then find or pay an alchemist to combine the herbs en-masse. I would recommend this approach for a hardcore player. It means you can take two gathering professions and get the biggest passive benefit from just herbing-as-you-play.

Running an efficient bank is important anyway, as I will be definitely exploring in a future article, so stockpiling herbs on an alt, then getting a hundred combines done at once can be very cost-effective in terms of what you pay the alchemist (or time-effective in finding one for free). The problem is that you will not see money from your herbs until you’ve done quite a few, and then you’ll have a lot at once to sell.

How to handle this problem:

Stockpile herbs on an alt. Have an alt bank fitted out with half herb bags if that’s what it takes. Just mail everything to that char after farming. Then when you’ve got enough to make it efficient, mail them to your alchemist friend/employee (lol)/alt and get 200+ of the same pot made at once. Then sell these a few stacks at a time on the AH over time.

Ok, so there is a time delay involved in gratification, but when you’re started this stops being a big deal, and you can make some serious gold.

If you do want to take alchemy it’s not bad. It helps you profit from herbalism (which damn sure better be your other profession! Unless you’re an alt) and transmutes are a pretty much auto-pilot way of making a few gold (not massive, but definitely use them every time they pop).

If you play a lot, don’t take it. Actually, the ideal way to handle things would be to take this on a lesser-used high level character if you have one. So you can make the most out of your “accidental” gathering as you play.

In Conclusion, to make the most gold in World of Warcraft…

- Alchemy: An ok choice. Definitely convenient, and transmutes help. Take this if you want help monetizing your herbalsim, and the above listed method doesn’t appeal.

- Blacksmithing: A bad choice for gold. Gets you equipment.

- Enchanting: Recommended. Two in one gather and craft. Generally good.

- Leatherworking: A very bad choice for gold. Gets you equipment. Particularly bad as you need to take it with the weakest gathering skill.

- Jewelcrafting: Can work. NEED to check AH profits before you commit to this. I’d say specific circumstances only.

- Mining: Can be a good choice. Not quite as good as herbalism, but you can take it along-side herbs or it can be better if your playstyle warrants.

- Skinning: Definitely the weakest gathering skill. Only take it if you’re SET on leatherworking.

- Tailoring: Bad for gold, good for equipment. Better than LW/BS though as it doesn’t commit you to a gathering skill. Runethread etc. is a good sustainable demand, good way to profit from your primal nethers. (Still wouldn’t recommend it for gold though. It’s just slightly better.)

Here’s what I would take:

1) Herbalism.

2) Enchanting.

3) Mining.

The above three are all acceptable choices. Enchanting is a good cash cow, herbalism is just great, but mining makes a reasonable alternative for either. So to clarify: I would take herbalism+enchanting as a first choice, with mining also being an option.