Of course one of the biggest goals in the game is to make money. There are three ways
to make money in the World of Warcraft: Trade skills, playing the auction market and
grinding enemies. For rogues you can add a forth: Pickpocket Money is used to fund
equipment and goods early/mid game, and cool status stuff later on.
Usually, any class can support itself with equipment and spells simply by selling items on
the open market and vendors. But to get to the neat stuff, like level 40 and 60 mounts,
rare equipment, and end-game gear, they’re going to need more gold than you acquire
by standard quest progession.
6.1 Auction House
As mentioned in the introduction, WoW has an auction house system located in
Gadgetzan, Ironforge (Alliance), and Orgrimmar (Horde)
? If you have chosen mining as a profession, you want to constantly look for
ores, no matter which ones. They nearly always sell at a fraction of the
bar price. This will allow you to buy the ores and sell the bars for a
healthy profit.
? Potions tend to sell fairly cheap as well. Keep an eye out for them - they
can often boost your stats quite well for an hour each at a very
reasonable price.
? Buy on weekdays and sell on weekends. It’s not uncommon to have items
sell on Sundays for twice the amount they do on a Tuesday. You can use
this to your advantage by stocking up during the week and selling the
items again on weekends. The items best suited are usually higher level
trade skill resources – they sell in a sufficiently quantity and it’s easier to
keep track of the market prices. A good place to start is “mageweave”.
? Also, on the same note, keep in mind that a level 20+ uncommon or
better items will sell better because of enchanters. Once an item hits 20
(and then again level 40) the item can be disenchanted for better
materials.
? Always check the price of items before you sell them. If you sell too low,
you are getting gypped, if you sell too high, no one will buy your item.
Also be aware of what you’re selling. A plate which boosts intelligence is
usually not going to sell to other players. Due to the auction fees you are
usually better of selling those directly to the vendor.
? If you have a skill such as transmuting materials, create a macro and
advertise the hell out of it while you play with the auction system.
Enchanters will find that they can’t sell through auction, so they have to
advertise.
? Usually if you have tailoring, you have enchanting as a complimentary
skill. Check the market, if essences sell for more than tailored materials,
disenchant then sell the essences! The same goes for leatherworking,
the key is to sell below your skill. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll have
materials of a lower level now and then, check to see what’s selling
better, raw materials or crafted goods.
? The only white items that tend to sell are bags, ingredients, early level
shoulders (15-18) and early level hats (24-28).
? Anything you craft at the beginning will be of a lower level than you. Bear
in mind you are asking for the price based on the level of the item. An
item that is sold to level 10s, won’t sell much, even if made by a level 20.
Sell those low level items made for skill gains directly to the vendor.
? Weapons, chest, shoulder, head, and pants sell best in the auction
house. Always, always, always craft items that are in these categories
and don’t even bother with boots, arms, and wrists unless they are of
superior quality or better.
? Check the Gadgetzan AH in the morning for cheap items ending soon.
You might be able to snatch a good deal since fewer people visit it and
especially in the early morning chances are high that you are the only
interested in a particular item. Resell the same item in your home-town
AH or in Gadgetzan on a weekend.
6.2 Grinding
Wow’s system is based around random loot tables, so most of the time you won’t need
to target a particular mob. Occasionally you can find a “phat lewt” mob that respawns
randomly every 8-24 hours that always drops good items, but these are few and far
between and you won’t normally see them. They really aren’t worth camping.
Grinding out items is boring, but can make you gold, especially when you reach around
level 50 and even poor drops can sell for 1 gold. The very best way is to do instances,
they have the very best drops and can earn the most experience. Of course higher level
characters should do higher level instances.
However, grinding gets boring sometimes, so you can also mix it up by doing some
lower level instances. Sure the rewards aren’t as good all the time, but they can yield
some good blue low-level items that you can sell for a few gold and there are some cool
scripted events that will reduce the boredom factor.
If you’re grinding, be sure it’s a creature that drops trade skill items. Blacksmiths can
hunt specific creatures who drop valuable gems, if you picked skinning you might want
to focus on beasts and for miners the various mines provide an excellent spot to make
money and experience at the same time. Herbalists should grind monsters in the open
or troll shamans who have the chance of dropping wildvine while tailors should generally
stick to humanoids.
Gems Humanoids (Mines)
Teeth, claws, ect Beasts (Forests)
Pearls Murlocs/Naga (Water)
Feathers Birds (Varies)
Cogs, Oil Golems, Sludges, ect.
6.3 Grouping in Instances
If you have a dedicated instance group, you can easily earn up to 7g in the late 20ies
with per Scarlet Monestary run, plus accumulate good items and amazing experience.
Blue instance drops almost always sell for gold (that is if they aren’t bind on pick up),
people in the auction house eat up blue items. Even basic poor drops in instances sell
for a great deal of money, 2-3g per bad drop in the upper-level (50+) instances.
Instance levels are listed above, and you should heed them. Even with many people
sharing the drops, instances are the fastest way to do everything in this game. On top of
that, they are scripted and fun!
6.4 Pickpocket
Rogues can pickpocket humanoids for up to 5 gold per hour at level 35 already. The trick
is to choose an instance that can be reset. That means you do an instance, zone out,
have a friend invite you to a group and zone back in. This will reset the instance and you
can pickpocket all mobs again. The Scarlet Monastery and especially the library is an
excellent choice. At level 38 one library run takes 10-12 minutes and yields around 1 – 2
gold in money and items. Do not kill anything – only pickpocket the mobs.
6.5 Being Cheap :-)
Last but not least … the amount you own not only depends on what you earn, but also
on what you spend. Being thrifty can save you a lot of money.
?? A lot of new players will want to buy their mages/priests/warlocks the latest
equipment when, in reality, they don’t need to. Equipment will still be important,
but the increase in efficiency is by far not as large as for melee oriented classes.
?? Mail classes have the problem of needing to be on the cutting edge of
equipment. The latest armor and weapons are constantly needed and often what
you can make is much lower than your level. You really can’t be cheap if you
wear mail armors, just skip a few levels.
?? Make sure something you purchase has a real added value and do not equip
items that drop but provide only a minor improvement. You will be better off
selling it on the AH.
?? Never buy for the buyout price unless it’s very close to the auction price. Let
someone else pay a large fee for the item if they really want it.
6.6 Trade Skills
These rough guidelines will tell you which trade skills are worth your time, what they are
good for and what products will be your top sellers.
6.6.1 Alchemy
Alchemists can make a decent profit. Their products can be used up fast and you can be
certain of a steady demand. The best place to sell is the auction house, but unlike
smithing, you can also make money by occasionally offering your products in a trade
channel. Keep some extras in the bank for trade channel offers. Transmutes are very
good and should be offered as often as possible, but have a very long cool down period.
1-10 Rage Potion, Swiftness Potion
10-20 Elixir of Giant Growth, Healing Potion
20-30 Elixir of Firepower, Free Action Potion, Shadow Oil, Greater Rage
Potion
30-40 Elixir of Agility, Elixir of Detect Lesser Invisibility (PVP), Frost Oil,
Superior Healing Potion (Sometimes)
40-50 Arcane Elixir, Mighty Rage Potion, Ghost Dye, Transmutes
50-60 Elixir of the Mongoose, Purification Potion
6.6.2 Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing can generate the most profit in the game through the auction house.
Smiths can create items that sell outstandingly well, but take the most components to
build (thus the most time to create). The key to constructing items is that you should
always level with what you need to craft. If you need iron, get into an iron mine and
grind enemies that give you experience, mine away whenever one respawns.
Weaponsmiths can generally make more per item but require more components.
Level What to craft
1-15 Vendor (Most items you make will be < level 10. Most people less than level 10
aren’t going to be using the auction house.
15-20 Runed Copper Breastplate, Runed Copper Pants
20-30 Rough Bronze Leggings, Deadly Bronze Poniard, Silver Rod, Silvered Bronze
Breastplate, Mighty Iron Hammer
30-40 Mighty Iron Hammer, Iron Buckle, Green iron Leggings, Green-Iron Shoulders,
Barbaric Iron Breastplate, Golden Iron Destroyer, Golden Scale Shoulder, Jade
Serpentblade, Green Iron Hauberk, Moonsteel Broadsword (Alliance), Massive
Iron Axe (Horde)
40+ Varies. Any green item will sell, but blues sell for a LOT more.
6.6.3 Engineering
Most engineering components require you to have engineering. Engineers don’t want to
buy stuff from others, they make it themselves. If you intend to make money with a trade
skill, you shouldn’t pick engineering. You can sell EZ-Throw Dynamite, mechanical
squirrels, and components, but that won’t sell for much. Sorry, no soup for you. It’s a
very good choice to increase your own effectiveness in extreme situations: Mainly PvP
and difficult group encounters.
6.6.4 Enchanting
Another profession you won’t be making much money early on. If you intend to take this
up, expect to make nothing until you get beastslaying. If you intend to sell, head to either
Ironforge (Alliance) or Orgrimaar (Horde) and get watch other enchanters, keep track of
the prices and sell for a little less. You will also find group mates and general zone chats
to be important sales channels. Minor beastslaying will be your best seller, no matter
what degree of enchanting you have, so be sure you always have the materials around
for that.
Set up a system where you are getting the components for your enchanting cheaper
than you sell the enchanting for. Always take tailoring with enchanting and make items
closest to 20, 40, and 60 to get the best enchantment materials. Handstiched Linen
Pants are the best for what you need and disenchant into small glimmering shards 10%
of the time, these are used for basic enchantments that people will buy. For the
beastslaying ones, you’ll need to disenchant better items, those in the 30-40 minimum
level requirements, they also require large fangs that you should get from Stranglethorn
Raptors and tigers who drop them 5-6% of the time. Bring along a friend with
leatherworking.
6.6.5 Leatherworking
Leatherworking is a mixed bag as there aren’t nearly as many options for leatherworkers
as there are for other professions. The best way to make money is to set up deals with
enchanters. Whenever you see an enchanter offering to enchant goods, offer to sell
your magical items to him at the vendor price plus 10%. Unlike tailors, you’ll have a
steady stream of money and unlike smiths you won’t have to deal with the insecurities of
the auction house.
You can deal in the auction house, but you will have many competitors, especially if
you’re playing a horde race. It’s very important that you stick to these, unless you need
to make something to up your skills and grind leather whenever possible.
1-10 Vendor (Most items you make will be < level 10. Most people less than level 10
aren’t going to be using the auction house.
10-20 Fine Leather Tunic, Moonglow Vest (Horde), Dark Leather Tunic, Dark Leather
Vest, Murloc Scale Breastplate
20-30 Nimble Leather Gloves, Hillman’s Shoulders, Toughened Leather Gloves,
30-40 Hillman’s Cloak (Alliance), Heavy Quiver, Dusky Leather Pants, Dusky Leather
Armor, Guardian Armor (Horde), Gem-Studded Leather Belt
50-60 Nightscape Armor, Nightscape Pants, Voodoo Robes (Horde), Voodoo Mask
(Horde), Any Specialized Item (Elemental, Tribal, Dragonscale)
6.7 Trade skill loot
The following list is a most-wanted list for trade skills (taking into account quality and
quantity of the items you can sell). Save these items and make sure you sell them on
weekends on the AH. They will fetch a nice price. One thing to note: Alliance players will
find that Leather doesn’t sell very well while horde players can make a decent coin of
selling skinning products.
Engineers/Smiths
1. Copper Bolt
2. Copper Tube
3. Flask of Mojo
4. Gems
5. Pearls
Leatherworkers
1. Dragonscale
2. Leather
3. Leather Hide
4. Thick Murloc Scale
5. Deeprock Salt
6. Scorpid Scale
7. Turtle Scale
8. Ironfeather
Alchemists
1. Wildvine
2. Herbs
3. Sharp Claw
4. Delicate Feather
5. Small Flame Sack
6. Large Fang
7. Essences (Essence of Air, Water, ect)
Tailors
1. Spider Silk
2. Cloth (Silk, Mageweave, Wool)
3. Elemental (Water, Air, Fire, Earth)
4. Shadowsilk
5. Ironweb Silk
6. Globes (Heart of Fire, Globe of Water, ect)
7. Demonic Rune
6.8 The Level 40 Mount
These hints will help to ensure that you got enough gold to buy your mount once you
reach level 40:
?? Sell Everything. Pick up everything from bear bile to monkey fetus, you’re going
to sell it. If it’s white, it’s probably used in something by someone. If it is the gray
color, it’s meant to be sold vendors.
?? Chose skinning and mining or skinning and herbalism as crafts. Alliance players
will find that on older servers few people are buying leather. Still I recommend
skinning as you hardly loose any time and it doesn’t require an early on
investment. Other trade skills will cost you a lot of money early on and won’t be
profitable until the later levels. After buying your mount you should switch from
skinning to alchemy / smithing / enchanting or engineering if you are on a PvP
server
?? Only buy equipment every 10 levels and only what you need to be effective
enough to kill enemies 2 levels below you. Always stay 2 levels above your
quests and only kill enemies two levels below you (beyond your starting zone). If
you get an item that provides only a minor upgrade over your current equipment
sell it via the AH. This yields a better return than equipping everything and having
to sell old equip to vendors because it’s solebound.
?? Focus on hunting humanoids as it pays off much better than beasts. Especially
for Alliance players since the market on their side is quite small for leather
products. Use skinning as an additional income when you are forced to hunt
animals.