Thursday, January 7, 2010

10 Ways to make your own Gold

An important part of being a successful raider is having enough funds to cover the costs of raiding and keeping your toon in top condition.

There is a lot of information on the net about how to make your own gold in WoW. Everyone has their own way of managing their virtual money, but this is my take on it.

1. Always Loot
No matter how junky and how little the reward, picking up loot will give you a few extra coins, and it all adds up. Be in the habit to always stop to loot. Always vendor the junk whenever you get back to town.

2. Manage Bag Space.
Have big bags to carry junk while you are out in the field. Only destroy something when you really have to, eg. if you're not near a vendor and need the space to pick up something more valuable. There is an option in the default UI that allows you to see the value of the vendorable items in your bag. That way, you can destroy the least valuable item 1st if you need space.

3. Always Roll on Greed Items.
When the guild started, some us donated Everything we picked up to the guild vault. Over time we realised this was not a good thing, as we didn't have funds to pay for what we needed when the vault had run out of stock. Good raiders are well funded, and that is what is good for the guild, not an overstocked vault. Please do not pass on greed items on guild runs, especially 5mans. You're not doing yourself, or the guild, any favours. The guild loot rules are currently being rewritten, so it should be clearer on how to deal with loot in raids etc, but rolling greed on greens in 5 mans, even if it is a 100% guild run, is a good thing to do.

4. Don't donate too much to the guild vault.
That might sound contrary to other things I've written at this website, but the fact is, nobody should be donating to the vault that which they can not spare. The system is meant to be convenient, not a burden or a hassle. Always keep at least 50% or more of what you pick up and gather for yourself.

5. Don't buy over priced stuff from the AH.
If you don't spend your money you will have some to spend when you really need it. If you can farm it yourself, don't be lazy if you are not well off financially, go out and get it yourself before spending the last of your money buying something from the AH. Likewise, if levelling an alt, don't buy levelling gear, especially over priced blues, you just don't need it. A levelling toon is well enough geared by what they pick up and wearing quest rewards.
Good raiders are well funded, and that is what is good for the guild, not an overstocked vault.

6. Limit Crafting.
For many, crafting is one of the most fun parts of the game. I should know, I've maxed every crafting profession except smithing. But it is very expensive. If you craft, you must also gather. No one can afford to craft without gathering at least most of the materials. Do not ever imagine you will be able to only craft and sell at a profit so you can buy all the materials you need to level your crafting skill without gathering anything. There are literally hundreds of others on your server trying to do just that and they are your competition. There are lots of players who change their minds about trades, unlearn them and start crafting another trade. You can make money by taking advantage of this fickleness and sell raw trade mats, not the crafted items.

7. Gather, gather, gather.
Feeling too 'lazy' to get out for a farming session? I rarely have time to go out for a few hours and fly around just to farm. I usually only gather during the normal course of the game, always stopping to gather when I see it while I'm doing other things. I always skin the drakes in OS, I always mine the ore in H UK, my druid always herbs when she sees some while she is out levelling. I have 3 miners, and whenever any of them are standing in the north bank in Dal, sometimes I will see some ore down below appear on the map. I usually go get it! Basically, always find time to stop for one moment and gather, it's not going to hold up the dungeon that much. It's worth it, especially if you don't have time to spend hours on sessions devoted to just farming. While levelling any gathering trade you can sell the low level trade mats for quite a bit on the AH, to those rich players too lazy and too rich to get it themselves. And it usually only takes a couple of days to level a gathering trade from 1 to Northrend. After you have levelled your own mining, sell ores unsmelted as it is used to level mining.

8. Sell, sell, sell.
I rarely vendor anything that is not grey named, unless it's a BoP on a non-enchanting toon. If I had my time over, I wouldn't have invested so much money in virtual space to stash stuff away and I would have sold more. Now I have nearly finished my goal of levelling every trade I know which trade mats I no longer need and I'm selling them on the AH. I always sell just below the competitor selling at the lowest price, to maximise my profit while increasing my chances of getting a sale. Sometimes, the cost of the deposit and the low chance of a sale mean it's just not worth it, so I do on the rare occasion vendor things that are not worth the space of storing while waiting for a better price. Sometimes a blue BoE of any level can sell at a nice price, but sometimes the price you might get is not worth the deposit and its better to DE it on your enchanting toon. I access each blue to decide if it's worth selling or sharding.

9. Do quests for gold.
Questing has got to be one of the most straight forward ways to make gold in this game. If you need some rep for something, do a daily or two, or three a day. Most don't take long and reward you with gold, and are easy to get into a routine. Levelling alts make a lot of gold in Northrend by just questing. Its a quick way to level and make gold, as long as you don't buy silly blues from the AH!

10. Cook and Fish
Cooking your own buff food from the raw food you pick up is cheaper than buying the cooked food from the AH. Cooking fish you have gathered yourself is even cheaper and you will have all you need, plus some. It doesn't take long to fish and you can do it while you're waiting for friends before a raid. Vendor the junk and AH the non-junk. There is some food that only cooks into non-buff food but it's valuable because it levels cooking. Once you have levelled your own cooking, sell that raw on the AH.

I hope this has helped anyone still having trouble managing their virtual gold. If anyone can think of other ideas that can help, please add them here.

Happy Adventures!

edit: I wrote this for our guild website, Bloodlust of Nagrand
http://www.bloodlustofnagrand.com/index.php?topic=378.msg2298;topicseen#new

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