Fallen Sword Answers - How To Make Gold In The World of Warcraft

Easy Strategies & Tips For Making More Gold In WoW

Are you sick and tired of having to beg alongside the urchins in Stormwind? Have you done a few things in Undercity that you'd rather forget? Would you just like to nab some gold for that shiny mount you've always wanted?

Well, look no further! In this lense we will look at a few general tips that will have your character rolling in the dough faster than you can say "Zug Zug!"

A Short Introduction To The Warcraft Economy

The basics of a free market system.

Before we get into all the nitty gritty details of making you a ton of gold in Azeroth, it would probably be a good idea if we discussed what kind of economy exists here. You see, the principles of a Free Market Economy are in existence, though there are some limits in place to make sure that people don't go stabbing each other in the back and taking their money.

The first limitation of the economy is that while you might beg, barter or trade your goods, most often, you will use the fairly easy to access Auction House to get the job done for you. It's easy, it's convenient, gives you up to 24 hours of time, and charges a fairly low tax for auctions (boy could I use a piece of that action). On the flip-side, Bind-On-Pickup items (BoP) and SoulBound items cannot be sold on the Auction House or traded openly.

Of course, there are plenty of other things you can do as well. Everything from being a mercenary running people through instances, being a street vendor for things people need or just grinding away as it were, are all decent ways to make some gold.

The biggest advantage you will have besides the knowledge of the game is an imagination. Your imagination and indeed your mind are your most powerful assets in the hunt for shiny things. Keep that in mind, you will need it.

More Information...

Random Tip

Gettin' out the goods...

Good at killing stuff? Check out the Argent Tournament and Shadow Vault dailies. Each quest nets over 13 gold plus rep and can be done pretty easily. And with a good eye, you can do some herb running or mining at the same time.

A Short Introduction To The Warcraft Economy

The basics of a free market system.

Random Tip

Gettin' out the goods...

Latest Patch Notes (3.2.0)

Selected general & professions changes...

Latest Patch Notes

. The Crusaders' Coliseum. Formidable Horde and Alliance champions, ferocious beasts, and Scourge lieutenants are just some of the opponents awaiting adventurers in this gladiatorial arena.

. New PvP battleground: Isle of Conquest.

. The Argent Tournament has been expanded and many of the quests revamped slightly with new rewards.

. Players will now be able to trade soulbound items with other raid or group members that were eligible for the loot.

. The Item Buy Back time will now expire if the player enchants or sockets an item. Players will see a confirmation dialog box now when they attempt to enchant or add gems to an item giving them a last chance to reconsider.

. The cast time for summoning any ground mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

. New mount levels and mounts can now be learned at level 20.

. Flying over Dalaran and Wintergrasp is now possible so long as players keep a healthy distance above the ground.

. The quest log is now double-paned for more easily viewing quest information. The list of all quests a player has will show in one pane, while the quest details of any highlighted quest will display in the next.

. Vendor prices will now be listed on items whether or not players are at a vendor.

. Portal areas in all major cities now offer a portal to the Blasted Lands near the Dark Portal.

. The local Postal Service has grown tired of walking so far each day to collect mail and has decided to install a large number of new mailboxes in Stormwind, Undercity, Darnassus and Orgrimmar.

. All stackable potions now stack to 20.

. A Steam-Powered Auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one's faction Auction House. The Steam-Powered Auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with Grand Master engineers.

Full Patch Notes...

Test Realm Patch Notes...

General Tips & Information

Basic stuff you'll want to know...

General Tips & Information

Things I've Learned In Northrend

It's not all snow and ice... Well, half of it is.

Nused to be seen as a barren frozen wasteland inhabited by monsters, spiders, and hapless treasure hunters. Don't worry, it still is for the most part, but the Northrend of today is diverse in temperature, habitation, and exploitation...

1. Gold is in decent quantities for the expansion, doing quests won't make you really rich, but it will pay the bills and then some. All the cool stuff from Outland is back in this expansion, which brings us to...

2. Daily quests are back with a vengeance, including cooking and PvP dailies, almost all of which pay out a pretty decent sum of gold, XP, and more.

3. The best fishing pole in the game currently can be had for the player with enough spare time to get exalted with the Kalu'ak.

4. Sholazar Basin is a gold mine for any gathering professional. Beware though, competition is pretty fierce and faction combat can break out at any time, especially around Nesingwary Base Camp.

5. One of the best places to get Chilled Meat (used extensively in cooking dailies) is in Howling Fjord at [79,74] right on the water. Look for the seals and start whacking away and you'll have multiple stacks in minutes.

To be continued...

Things I've Learned In Outland

Changes & more in Burning Crusade.

Outland is as beautiful as it is diverse. Indeed, Outland is the major hub of the game at this point for higher up players and is one of the best places to be earning money right now. No, it's not the only place, but you can make some serious gold here. Just be aware that everyone else with the expansion is probably thinking the same thing you are...

1. Making gold in Outland is easy. Especially after you stop running away from the scary monsters and your pants dry.

2. If you have the tenacity to get your professions skilled up to 375, you will discover some professions have nifty specializations!

3. No matter how many rocks you get, your mining only goes up by one point per every qualifying rock node you mine.

4. The price of an arcanite bar may have dropped, but the transmute has no cooldown now! (Which means you can still make some serious gold with this when the timing is right).

5. Motes are easy to get if you know where to look. Life in Zangarmarsh, Mana in Netherstorm, Fire in Shadowmoon, and Shadow, Earth, & Air in Nagrand. Otherwise just look for corresponding elementals in Outland.

6. Flying mounts are really fun and necessary for making more money because of areas you can get access to as well as safety and efficiency that a flying mount can provide to a gathering operation.

7. Engineers have gotten a few nice upgrades since the expansion came out. Mana and health injectors sell great, mote extractors are really useful, and they even get specialized mounts that can be built.

General Money Making Tips

Professions Are A Good Start:
Primary and Secondary professions are good places to begin making money from. Most professions allow you to make goods for other characters that you can sell to them.
Learn To Use The Auction House (AH):
The AH can be your lifeblood whether you are dealing in potions, epic weapons, or reagents. Learning to use it can be tricky, but is more than worth it when you find a hot commodity.
Keep Your Eye On The Trade Channel:
When you can, keep your eyes on channel 2 because occasionally you will find very good deals as many people are competing with the AH in terms of price and this can be even better if a particular market is in a slump.
Know What You Are Selling:
This seems to be common sense, but if you look up item A and it has 5 more uses than item B, it's probably going to sell better. If item A is a trade good or consumable, it should be easier to manufacture. The better you get at making Item A, the better the feel for the market you will get.
Know Thy Market:
This goes along with knowing what you're selling. If you sell an item long enough, you get a feel for the average price on the server (a good way to know when someone is trying to cheat you), the major players in niche markets, and exactly how much profit margin you can get for your sale.
Invest In Macro Training:
If you are planning to bark out that you are doing enchants in a busy city, make sure that you can do so without needing to type a small paragraph each time. 3 lines seems to be the respectable max for a post in the trade channel.
Fishing May Be Boring, But Worth It:
You would be suprised at what fisherman pull up. Yes, I know it's boring sometimes, repetitive all the time, and most of the time you get worthless fish. But if you know where to fish, that changes the game. Fish schools of specific fish like Oily Blackmouth or Firefin Snappers and they sell well in a stack. Find yourself with some Stonescale Eels and they sell for gold. Not to mention all the junk you can get out of the water from wreckage.
Make Alts Work For You:
An ALT is an alternative character often on the same server. If you have some extra materials that can be processed and resold, send them off to the alt, log in an hour later and run them through the profession of choice (will require leveling in most cases), send them back and resell.
Have An Alt In A Capital City:
Since you don't always play Alts, a tip I read about somewhere made the suggestion to have an Alt in a capital city so that your main character doesn't always have to travel back to post item in the AH. Definitely a good idea if your character is going to be away in the wilds for a bit. This works as long as you can easily get to a mailbox.
Gold Farmers Are People Too:
This is fast becoming a time honored tradition in WoW that is simultaneously loved and hated for various reasons. If you're good about it, farming from a gathering skill in the right areas is like panning for gold and consistently getting it.
Be Nice To People:
Another no brainer, but be sure to be nice and respectful when closing a sale because they are paying you for something that they could get somewhere else. Plus, it might even net you some additional sales down the road and increase your reputation on the server.
Don't Be A Ninja:
If you're in a group and you need an item, ask first. If you just want that item, again, ask. If you roll need on a item you can't use or just because, that makes you a ninja, and yes, ninjas don't get re-invited into groups.
Hit The Smaller Instances:
If you are a higher level player (45-60), there are lesser instances that you can solo to get additional money. Granted, most items coming from places like ShadowFang Keep and BlackFathom Deeps aren't worth a lot, but keep your eye out for rare items that fetch handsome prices on the AH as players buy them for ALTs.
Find Limited Recipes:
Most recipes can be bought from a specific vendor, however some can only be bought once or maybe twice from a vendor in a certain time frame. The recipes that have limited availability and have a vendor who may not be easy to get to will usually sell very well.
Secondary Profession Books:
A corollary to the above rule might be to not sell unlimited purchasable items. However, the exception to that rule is that books for advanced Cooking, First Aid, and Fishing tend to sell marginally well and can be usually purchased for a gold a piece. Sell it for 1.5 or 2 gold on the AH and that profit will add up over time. Just be careful not to flood the market with these.
Ride Like The Wind:
I know part of the reason for these tips is to be able to purchase a mount, but once you have a mount, that is a tremendous speed boost in your gathering ability that can help you earn money at a faster rate. Plus, it's nice to be able to travel at faster speeds.
Neutral Auction Houses
Keep you eye out for factional type stuff that can be sold over the neutral AH for a decent profit. Recipes, pets, items, and more can all be sold for gold if you have the patience.

Get More Blizzard Games Online!

Games, guides, clothing, and other cool stuff!

Helpful Links

The following are some good places for information concerning items, professions, UIs, and well, anything else that might help you.

Wowhead

Currently the best online World of Warcraft database available for quests, items, and all kinds of great information.

Allakhazam

Another good resource for all things WoW. Good to double-check information from one site to another.

Curse.com WoW Addons

Great source of popular addons for the game client.

World of Warcraft Official Site

No better source than straight from the creators for news on what's going on. Keep an eye out for world events requiring certain resources, or for money making opportunities!

Auctioneer Add-On

Auctioneer is an add on that gives you advanced tool tips for various items that allow you to check out properties like how well it did in the Auction House, what it disenchants into, and what professions use it for.

Auctionator Add-On

Auctionator is a great substitute for Auctioneer if you want a simpler to use interface for posting auctions.

Gatherer Add-On

Gatherer is an add-on that will help you track the places that you get things like herbs and ore from so that if you are farming them on a fairly consistent basis, you'll know where to look as well as develop a route to ride.

WoW.com: The new WoW Insider

Pretty much the best World of Warcraft dedicated blog with lots of info, guides, articles, and more!

WoWWiki

WoWWiki is a community updated portal for World of Warcraft. It's been going since 2004 and improves every time it's updated.

Goblin Joe

Goblin Joe has tips, tricks, and more info to help you make more gold in World of Warcraft (WoW)

Latest Patch Notes (3.2.0)

Selected general & professions changes...

Latest Patch Notes

General Tips & Information

Basic stuff you'll want to know...

General Tips & Information

Things I've Learned In Northrend

It's not all snow and ice... Well, half of it is.

Things I've Learned In Outland

Changes & more in Burning Crusade.

General Money Making Tips

Professions Are A Good Start:
Primary and Secondary professions are good places to begin making money from. Most professions allow you to make goods for other characters that you can sell to them.
Learn To Use The Auction House (AH):
The AH can be your lifeblood whether you are dealing in potions, epic weapons, or reagents. Learning to use it can be tricky, but is more than worth it when you find a hot commodity.
Keep Your Eye On The Trade Channel:
When you can, keep your eyes on channel 2 because occasionally you will find very good deals as many people are competing with the AH in terms of price and this can be even better if a particular market is in a slump.
Know What You Are Selling:
This seems to be common sense, but if you look up item A and it has 5 more uses than item B, it's probably going to sell better. If item A is a trade good or consumable, it should be easier to manufacture. The better you get at making Item A, the better the feel for the market you will get.
Know Thy Market:
This goes along with knowing what you're selling. If you sell an item long enough, you get a feel for the average price on the server (a good way to know when someone is trying to cheat you), the major players in niche markets, and exactly how much profit margin you can get for your sale.
Invest In Macro Training:
If you are planning to bark out that you are doing enchants in a busy city, make sure that you can do so without needing to type a small paragraph each time. 3 lines seems to be the respectable max for a post in the trade channel.
Fishing May Be Boring, But Worth It:
You would be suprised at what fisherman pull up. Yes, I know it's boring sometimes, repetitive all the time, and most of the time you get worthless fish. But if you know where to fish, that changes the game. Fish schools of specific fish like Oily Blackmouth or Firefin Snappers and they sell well in a stack. Find yourself with some Stonescale Eels and they sell for gold. Not to mention all the junk you can get out of the water from wreckage.
Make Alts Work For You:
An ALT is an alternative character often on the same server. If you have some extra materials that can be processed and resold, send them off to the alt, log in an hour later and run them through the profession of choice (will require leveling in most cases), send them back and resell.
Have An Alt In A Capital City:
Since you don't always play Alts, a tip I read about somewhere made the suggestion to have an Alt in a capital city so that your main character doesn't always have to travel back to post item in the AH. Definitely a good idea if your character is going to be away in the wilds for a bit. This works as long as you can easily get to a mailbox.
Gold Farmers Are People Too:
This is fast becoming a time honored tradition in WoW that is simultaneously loved and hated for various reasons. If you're good about it, farming from a gathering skill in the right areas is like panning for gold and consistently getting it.
Be Nice To People:
Another no brainer, but be sure to be nice and respectful when closing a sale because they are paying you for something that they could get somewhere else. Plus, it might even net you some additional sales down the road and increase your reputation on the server.
Don't Be A Ninja:
If you're in a group and you need an item, ask first. If you just want that item, again, ask. If you roll need on a item you can't use or just because, that makes you a ninja, and yes, ninjas don't get re-invited into groups.
Hit The Smaller Instances:
If you are a higher level player (45-60), there are lesser instances that you can solo to get additional money. Granted, most items coming from places like ShadowFang Keep and BlackFathom Deeps aren't worth a lot, but keep your eye out for rare items that fetch handsome prices on the AH as players buy them for ALTs.
Find Limited Recipes:
Most recipes can be bought from a specific vendor, however some can only be bought once or maybe twice from a vendor in a certain time frame. The recipes that have limited availability and have a vendor who may not be easy to get to will usually sell very well.
Secondary Profession Books:
A corollary to the above rule might be to not sell unlimited purchasable items. However, the exception to that rule is that books for advanced Cooking, First Aid, and Fishing tend to sell marginally well and can be usually purchased for a gold a piece. Sell it for 1.5 or 2 gold on the AH and that profit will add up over time. Just be careful not to flood the market with these.
Ride Like The Wind:
I know part of the reason for these tips is to be able to purchase a mount, but once you have a mount, that is a tremendous speed boost in your gathering ability that can help you earn money at a faster rate. Plus, it's nice to be able to travel at faster speeds.
Neutral Auction Houses
Keep you eye out for factional type stuff that can be sold over the neutral AH for a decent profit. Recipes, pets, items, and more can all be sold for gold if you have the patience.

Get More Blizzard Games Online!

Games, guides, clothing, and other cool stuff!

Helpful Links

The following are some good places for information concerning items, professions, UIs, and well, anything else that might help you.

Wowhead

Currently the best online World of Warcraft database available for quests, items, and all kinds of great information.

Allakhazam

Another good resource for all things WoW. Good to double-check information from one site to another.

Curse.com WoW Addons

Great source of popular addons for the game client.

World of Warcraft Official Site

No better source than straight from the creators for news on what's going on. Keep an eye out for world events requiring certain resources, or for money making opportunities!