Of WoW and Gold

You create a character on World of Warcraft, you level him up to level 10, find a main city, and then head over to AH, you see "Furious Falchion of the Monkey" for 3G. All of your funds at this point in the game. But you spare no expense and buy the sword. This happens some more as you level, until you hit level 30. Then you have to buy a mount, a mount that costs an average of 35 G, a bit more money than you've ever had. You scrape, save, and beg until you get that money. Then you see the price for the next mount. 500G for the training alone. Not cool. Ok, so you understand that you need the make some Gold, but how? I faced this issue as level 45. I had recovered from the level 30 mount and amassed about 45 Gold for myself. Quickly realized that I was, with my current spending rate and such, making about 1-3 G per level. In 15 levels, I would have 60 Gold, I would need about 550 Gold for the mount training and actual mount itself. I quickly set out with the goal to make some serious money. My first stop? The all-knowing Google.

Enchanting. Mining. Playing the AH. Dailies. Skinning. Don't play the AH. Save. Quests. Don't Enchant. Herbalism. Tailoring. Dailies. Alchemy. Farming. Don't use professions. Sell your soul. Buy gold online. I was besieged with all of these things on my first search page of Google. Ok, lets sift through the mess and pick out the real gems in this pile. First off, Dailies. This is the BEST average source of income, with an average GAURENTEE of over 100G a day, this is the number one money maker. Downside? You have to be level 70 to do this, not ideal for getting your level 60 mount. So I won't include these as a HUGE money maker, but if you're a level 70 NEVER UNDERESTIMATE these quests, they're quick (Under an hour and half to do the Vast majority of them, not including Daily Heroics), easy, and you get a TON of gold for them relative to other things.

Dailies seem to have a dark brother that earns the same amount of money, maybe even more. However, this side of gold making is a dark and dangerous, it will be death deifying, it will...oh screw it, its actually just really really really freaking boring. Farming. Farming Primal Manas, Fires, Earths, Lifes, Nethers, etc. These are some seriously good money. Downside? They're super freakin' boring to farm. Kill a monster, no Mote of type x. Kill another monster, no Mote of type x. Kill another monster, no Mote of type x. Kill another monster , HURAH! 1 mote of type x. Only 9 more motes to go to make a primal! Not a very fun thing, but hey, when a primal can go for 60-120g a pop? Not bad money, plus you got all the money that the monsters dropped, plus any other little goodies. Like dailies though, this is can only really be utilized at level 70. You could farm some lower level items at 30, 40,60, etc, but it won't be as good money for your time.

Lets take a look at the second bunch. Professions. Here are some interesting bunches, take Enchanting for example, if you can enchant Mongoose, +30 Stam, etc. You can make an average 75-150 G a chant (Maybe WAAAY more depending on your server) ...with someone else's materials, so all of that is profit. Pretty Amazing right? So what’s the catch? IT COSTS A TON TO LEVEL!! I have a level 70 Enchanter on my Horde Server, and it sucks. In order to get him to 375 it took me about 2K-4K Gold just to level him up there. So keep this mind, there are two types of professions, Gatherers and Makers. Makers (Enchanting, Tailoring, Alchemy, Black Smithing are some examples) take serious gold to level up, but once at high levels, they bring in Bookoo Bucks! Good stuff. Gatherers (Skinning, Herbalism, and Mining) take almost no money to level, but don't offer nearly as much gold when they're at a highlevel. Keep this in mind and then keep things in moderation and make a decision thats right for you.

I would recommend that if you really want to try and level a "Maker" skill before you hit level 70 and have some serious cash, you should choose the complimentary gather skill. So Leather Workers should have skinning, Alchemists should have herbalism, etc. This will save you some money on your way to the big leagues of your profession. This said, professions are A VERY good source of income, if you focus on your profession every five levels and keep it up to date, you'll start seeing the money roll in and you make stuff and put up on the Auction House.

Speaking of the Auction House, lets get onto THE major point. The Acution House is your primary source of income, doesn’t matter what you do, profession wise anyways, you will learn to love the auction house if you love money. First things first, there is an invaluable addon for WoW that no serious player, or even casual player really, should be without: Auctioneer. If you do not have this addon, stop reading this, open a new tab, go to www.curse.com and download the damn thing. It is without a doubt one of the Top 3 Addons EVER INVENTED for WoW. What does this do? It takes a mere 5 minutes or so (Depending on how big the AH is on your sever) and will scan and get the price of EVERYTHING on the AH and store it. Do this at least once a day and you'll get an idea of the prices of the market and can place items you have for a profit on the AH.

Some people swear by playing the AH, no its not a little mini-game that you didn't know about, well I guess it is, but it just isn't meant to be. The game of AH is: Buy low, Sell high. The same concept of good old Wall Street and stocks applies to WoW. Some people make some serious money off of this. One thing to note though, until you pick up some steam, get some good cash, get a feel for the market, and understand some basic economic principles, this isn't really a good idea, even less of a good idea if you lack common sense or don't have a clue about the economy or how to correctly predict demand on your server. Playing the AH will either make you rich or broke, so approach this idea with caution. If you see a Krol Blade selling for 50G by some moron, you can buy it, then turn around and sell it on the AH for 150-200 G depending on your server, maybe even 250 G. Thats a 50-200G profit, BOOM, instant cash, gotta love it. However, you may buy something, and it won't sell and you end up losing 50G. Not so good as the profit scenario. Overall, if you're going to do this, don't read this guide, there are some EXCELLENT guides I found on the net about this that go into far more detail that I will. I personally play the this mini-game VERY little. If I see a good deal, I'll take it, but don't bother with it otherwise.

If you're not playing the AH, never fear, the AH is still invaluable for you. You know those items whose names you see in white? These items are used for things, with Auctioneer installed, and few AH scans under your belt, you can hover over the item and see how much it was sold on the AH for the past week, last day, last month, etc. Then you can place it on the AH and make a nice tidy profit just because you killed a few monsters. Woohoo! Green items or Blue items that are Bind on Equip? Put 'em up for auction, you don't need plate as a Warlock, so sell that piece of plate for some gold, 10-150 times more than you'd get by selling it to a vendor! If you truly play WoW and enjoy getting gold, use the auction house to sell that stuff you don't need.

Ok, time for a taboo subject, Buying gold off the internet. You don't play often enough to ammass 500 gold, you don't even have 30g, repairs on your armor are taking their toll, what are you going to do? well you take up one of the bazillion ads on the internet to pay like $20 and get 1000 gold. Done and done. Well...not really. First off realize that buying WoW gold is against the rules of the game oh and btw Blizzard is nowhere near dumb, they probably have a team looking for this kind of stuff, a few more guys who are probably a bit smarter than than the guy in his mom's basement who's selling you that gold. I don't know this, but I think that half the ads are Blizzard ads trying to trap people who are trying to buy gold. Regardless, If you are caught, your account will be banned for cheating. Everything you just worked for? That Level 70 Warlock with full T6 that you spent over 6 months leveling and raiding with? Gone. Lets be honest, its not worth the risk of losing EVERYTHING, all the months worth of leveling and working hard, just for 1000g? Not worth it at all.

Ok, here it is, you've read down to the bottom, I saved the best tip for down here so the lazy people wouldn't get to it! Ok, if you manage to start making good money, it does you NO good if you don't save. I'm sorry for all you guys looking to spend a ton and still have a ton of money, you can't have it both ways, you will need to save your money if you want to have some serious cash. Plain and simple. This means, don't go the AH every level to see if there is some new armor you can buy. Seriously, you can live with the one you have for now, find a good quest that gives that piece of armor as a reward, go run some instances for gear. It works out much better if you learn to save your money.

So I did everything that I said above, plus one little thing that will be my secret (Sorry I gotta have an Ace up my sleeve guys), so what are my results? Well I am now a level 50, five levels above what I was, I should have 50G now, instead, I have 475g. With this said, I did spend some of that gold too, I spent about 75g on new bags and a new ring for myself, plus some bags for my alt. If you add those back into the equation over five levels, I made 550g, bingo if I didn't need those damn bags, I would have had enough money for my level 60 mount! AND I'm still 10 levels away!. That’s good money for only 5 levels. Oh and if you're wondering how long this is playtime wise, I went from 45-50 in about 20 hours, and that whole time WAS NOT spent just making money, I was leveling and questing (Which gave money, but minor detail, not 475g worth I assure you). So, making some good gold? Difficult? A bit. Does it take some practice? A bit. Can it be a bit tedious? A bit. Is it worth it? You bet.