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WoW Economics 101, or...Money Making For Dummies Part 1
What this guide is about and who it is for:
This guide is about different strategies on how to make some gold in World of
Warcraft. I’ve created this guide primarily for players who find themselves
always saying, “Dang, you have 17g!!? You’re rich!” However, this guide can be
used even for players who have a set money-generating strategy and just want to
explore some ideas. I will cover strategies for players who are new to a realm
or who are starting their first character, different professions and ways to
make money within each, and some basic theory behind the overall in-game
economics. So if you’re a dummy or a smarty, you might want to read.
NOTE:To many, the topics in this guide are so elementary and obvious, but I’m
sure every person who’s played WoW for more than a couple of hours has been
asked randomly by somebody for a few gold. Well, this is for them.
Starting out with your first character or starting the first character on a
server
If you’re just starting out whether it be your first ever World of Warcraft
character or you are starting fresh on a new realm, you are going to be finding
yourself with no monies whatsoever. Starting from this point is the hardest way
to generate an income, but do not be discouraged, there is gold at the end of
the rainbow!
First things first, start questing (I know, it’s obvious). Questing will allow
you to get some nice gear and experience while finding tons and tons of junk to
sell. In the very beginning, all of the gear and items that you will not use,
sell. Don’t throw a single thing away! I know it’s tempting to throw away all of
that grey junk you know sells for 3 copper to make room for better items, but
that 3 copper will add up. This is why your first investment should be in some
bags. If you have guild mates or friends who can sport you some bags, great. If
not, head to your nearest capital city and buy some bags right-quick from your
local auction house. Try to get all of your bag slots full and try to get at
least 8-slotters. Now you’ll save time in-between looting and selling, and just
like in the “real” world, time is money!
In the very beginning, almost everything you loot will be worthless at the
auction house (except for profession materials, but we’ll get to that perty
thing later…), so you will be able to sell it to a vendor. Once you start to
encounter more uncommon and useful items you will be able to start peddling your
wares.
Professional Addons
Time to look at some especially useful addons to help you out in your road to
making some nice gold. All of the following addons are either directly useful to
a profession or are worth looking into for their benefits into the insight of
the WoW economy. You can find all of these addons at
Curse-Gaming.
Auctioneer
Auctioneer is a addon that allows you to scan the pages of the auction house and
make a catalogue of all of the items up for bid. Then, every time after you scan
the auction house, you will be able to see the average starting bids, buyouts,
and medians for every item and even quantity. Already you can see why this is a
very handy addon. And there is more…Not only will you get a nice idea of how
much an item is worth, but included in the Auctioneer package is a passive addon
which will tell you what an item is for, whether it’s for a profession and which
ones, how many quest it belongs to, or if it’s not used for anything.
If you’re going to use Auctioneer (which is highly recommended) you shouldn’t
always look to its sell prices as your automatic sell price. While Auctioneer is
a great way to get a general idea for the price of items, it is fallible.
Rather, players are fallible because often you will notice players who
drastically over or under-price items because they are unsure of the prices
which in turn causes the overall average to get all wacky and inaccurate. So,
before posting anything in the auction house, it is always a good idea to either
research that item or items of similar ilk to get an idea of its price range. I
know, it’s extra work, but sometimes it means not cheating yourself out of
several gold.
Enchantrix
Enchantrix is a nifty addon that comes bundled with auctioneer. This addon is
primarily useful for enchanters. What Enchantrix does is give you a list of what
an uncommon item is capable of dropping in terms of enchanting reagents (soul
dust, large glimmering shard, etc.) and what the percentage-likelihood that item
has of relinquishing those reagents.
For example, you have an uncommon staff and are not sure whether or not to sell
it or disenchant it. Enchantrix tells you that it has a chance to drop a small
glimmering shard, greater magic essence, or soul dust. The chances of dropping
each are 2%, 10%, and 88%, respectively. Seeing as how soul dust is most likely
to drop and you don’t really need soul dust, you can safely decide to sell the
staff.
Because this addon has a profession specific use, you can just choose not to
load it if you don’t enchant/disenchant.
Gatherer
Gatherer is an essential for everyone. Why? Because in your first many days you
will be gathering! What gatherer does is keep a record of all of the places
you’ve collected different gathered materials such as herbs and minerals. NOTE:
it will not display nodes that you have never used before like the tracking
ability, it will only remember all of the nodes you have ever used. After you’ve
picked from a node it will display a marker on the mini and world map for quick
reference.
Where Gatherer really begins to shine is in its search and report functions. It
is possible to open up the Gatherer window and get a report or search for a
particular herb or mineral. The report will show all of the regions you have
gathered said material and will show the area that has the most nodes, highest
density, etc. This can be especially useful when you want to go out and farm a
specific herb or mineral.
NOTE: although Skinning is a gathering profession, it is not tracked by Gatherer
because you do not gather the materials from a node, but rather beasts.
First Professions
Time to start thinking about a career. I know, you started a warrior and you’re
going to pick mining and blacksmithing because “sweet! I can make myself armor
and weapons and then I can mine all of the materials I will ever need!” Well,
that strategy is for the weak-stomached who can’t stand the taste of sweet cash.
To many people it may seem quite counterintuitive, but what you’re going to want
to do is pick two gathering professions, that is, two professions in which you
do not craft anything, but gather materials. The choices then, are herbalism,
mining, skinning, and enchanting (“enchanting!? L2p nub” is what you might say,
but we’ll get to that later…). It really doesn’t matter what two professions you
pick out of each three, but you might want to consider not picking mining and
herbalism together as you can only track one type of object at a time. Let’s
take a look at our gathering choices.
Herbalism
Herbalism is a gathering profession that allow for the picking of, you guessed
it, herbs. It allows for a tracking ability, so you will be able to track nodes
on your mini map for easy pickings. Herbs stack in stacks of 20 and require no
alteration before selling. Example herbs are Silverleaf and Earthroot. Herbalism
requires no special gear.
Mining
Mining allows for the collection of ore and stone from mineral veins found all
over Azeroth. It also allows for a tracking ability, so you can easily find
nodes. You will be collecting ore and stone and later smelting (which is an
ability that comes with mining and requires a forge) to make bars of said ore.
The ore stacks in stacks of 20. Different types of bars can be smelted together
to make alloys. Examples of ore include Copper and Gold. Mining requires the use
of a pick-axe for the actual gathering and a forge (available in most major
cities) for the smelting of ore.
Skinning
Skinning is a gathering profession that does not require the use of nodes, so
you will not be getting tracking ability. Instead, you are able to skin beasts
after you’ve killed them for useful materials. NOTE: the beast must be
completely looted prior to skinning (this is why it is necessary to have lots
and lots of big-slotted bags). Examples of some useful skinning materials
include light leather and Shadowcat Hide. Different items stack in different
sizes. Skinning requires the use of a skinning knife.
Enchanting
Enchanting is not often considered a viable gathering profession because,
technically it is a crafting profession. However, enchanting is unique in that
not only are you able to enchant objects, but you are able to disenchant objects
for enchanting materials. It is the only crafting profession that gathers its
own materials, and so, in a round-about way, it doubles as a crafting and
gathering profession.
People will tell you to hold out on enchanting, and I agree. Enchanting may be
the most monetary consuming profession in the game, and while it is capable of
generating a nice amount of steady income due to twinking, it takes lots of work
and money before you start seeing results. But what you can do is choose
enchanting and use it as a gathering profession by disenchanting all of the
uncommon you encounter in the game. This is especially useful for being able to
disenchant those pesky bind-on-pickup items that you would otherwise have to
vendor. Instead of selling the uncommon item, you can sell the disenchanted
materials which often go for much more, especially if you’re lucky enough to get
a shard or some essences out of it. All of these materials are used for
enchanting and this is what you’ll be selling. It is especially nice to note
that there are no deposit costs for posting auctions for enchanting materials.
It should also be noted that choosing enchanting as a means of gathering
materials is profitable, but not right away and it also means that you will be
limiting yourself to either buying low-priced uncommon items or looting uncommon
items. It also means that you will usually not be able to sell any uncommons
that you find. Enchanting as a gathering profession should usually be picked if
you either really love enchanting, or are considering keeping enchanting through
until level 60.
After you’ve chosen your two gathering professions, you are set to continue
questing. Gather all of the materials you can get your hands on, but be sure to
respect other gatherers (don’t skin a corpse that you didn’t kill without making
sure that the other player doesn’t want to skin it). Start collecting your
materials and when you have plenty of materials, time to head to the auction
house.
Before you put any of your materials up for auction, do some research on the
items you’re going to sale because there is a very good chance that there is
already a market for the items you’ll putting up. Always always always put a
buyout price! Many people think that by not capping the bid-amount on their
items that people will bid and bid and bid until, alas! the bid is at 87g! This
even goes for those of you “smart-guys” who put the bid super-low and the buyout
super-high. Well, that will not happen. Often people will just skip over your
item because, yes, so many of us prefer to have our items right this instant!
Even if it means paying a little bit more. So set the buyout at around the price
of the other items on the auction house (try to undercut a little bit) and set
the bid price a little below the buyout.
With the right attitude, a little glue and paint, you should be on your way to
making some nice profit as you progress in levels in the game. Before you know
it you’ll be turning 40 and then you will be mounted for the first time. Yes, it
happens to even the best of us.
End of Part 1
This concludes the money-making guide for World of Warcraft. Part one of two,
maybe? Mabye three, or even four. Anyway, part one, as seen, covers the basics
of making money for brand new players or players unfamiliar with the schema of
making money simply. Part two and beyond will cover more advanced topics such as
crafting professions, playing the trade channel, farming, etc. Special thanks to
GenerikB as his theory has influenced my own. Hope this guide helps out at least
one poor Stormwind urchin.
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