Gold Making Guide

[vi6six]

I know there are SEVERAL of these threads here, this one and this one are good starter guides, but I thought I'd share what I use to pull 500+ gold in about 10 minutes a day. Yes, a lot of this is common sense as well, but people don't always believe it until it's written down. This one mainly shows how to make gold with certain professions, and how I ultimately saved it all.

First off, I have 5 level 70 characters: two characters max alchemy, two max tailoring, one max jewelcrafter, one max enchanter, and one gatherer (max mining/herbalism)

Now, any two of those professions can rake in major cash, especially if you dedicate more time to it than I do.

Alchemy:
Unlike other professions, you DON'T need rare recipes to make gold. There are four potions which bring in major cash:
Super Healing Potion
Super Mana Potion
Major Healing Potion
Major Mana Potion
The super pots always sell very well. I throw up 10 stacks a day, and 90% of the time, they sell by the next day. The amount of raiders that buy pots every week has caused the demand to explode. First thing: never hugely undercut the rest of the market. I put mine up 1 silver less than the average (healing pots usually go for 6.99 and mana pots for 7.99). Potion mastery makes this an even better money maker.

So, why the major potions? I throw up two stacks of four for each potion type at a huge markup each day for one purpose: Vitality. So few people still sell these even though it's used in the most common healing enchant for the boot slot in the game. I put them up for 12g a stack, and they usually sell at least every other day.

No herbalism? No problem! The herb market has bottomed out since so many people now gather, I can buy all my mats and still turn a good amount of gold a day.

If you don't mind grinding a (fairly) easy reputation, hit Revered with the Sporeggar for the transmute of Primal Earth to Water. One of my mages is a transmute specialist, and I do this one the most frequently (meta gems and mights also do well). Even without a proc, I get 2 a day, for an easy 20-30g profit.

Tailoring:
This profession serves two purposes for me: crafting, and specialty cloth. Tailoring, unfortunately, requires a few rare patterns. My priest has a few rare patterns (girdle of ruination, resolute cape, spellstrike/whitemend, unyielding), so once every other week, I craft one of these and put it up on the AH for 1k+ gold. Without selling the specialty cloth (which fluctuates in price very regularly on my server now), it's a very nice profit for a quick craft on my tailors every four days. For Horde, it's worthwhile to pickup (or farm for) the Robes of Arcana pattern. With everyone believing Warlocks are the be-all/end-all of OP'd solo ability, there are TONS of alts that want to pick this item up to make their Bloodrobe. I sell at last 1-2 a week at a 30g buyout.

Specialty cloth is also a decent gold maker, especially when you specialize. I pull in two primal mooncloth and two spellcloth every four days for the price of mats for one. Check the AH before you go crafting. If the value is way down, craft but don't sell until later. If there are none, craft and put up the cloth at a huge mark up. There's almost ALWAYS that one person looking to craft that piece of gear TONIGHT and WILL pay 20g over the regular price to do it.

I also regularly check the price of the mats: particularly Primal Fire, Water and Mana. The prices hit lows usually on Saturday as everyone does their weekend farming, and I can easily pick up primals for 5-10g below normal cost. All that cost goes into your profit margin. This is also helpful if you transmute primal mights.

Jewelcrafting:
Unfortunately, this profession does require some rare recipes, but even without it, you can make some decent gold. I used to farm adamantite/fel iron to prospect, but now I just buy it. Basically I prospect all my ore, and open up my JC profession window and checkmark "Have materials". I head over to the AH, and then check which gem cuts have either: 1) the largest profit (some cuts still go for 5-10g on my server) or 2) the one there are few/none of on the AH. I make 5 of each jewel based on 1/2, until all my gems are gone.

If there aren't any good profit opportunities, just go with what the market is selling at, or (if you've got the gold) buyout everything of a certain cut and relist at a higher price. This is a very common practice on some servers, and I've seen friends that control entire gem markets because they're so stinking rich.

A good note: don't prospect for a fee (or even free). The gems those people get will be used to undercut YOUR auctions, and since they're not in it for the long haul, they ultimately bring the market down because they don't undercut responsibly. "Oh, look, that auction is up for 50g, I'll put mine up for 45g so it sells faster". All it takes are 3 or 4 of those guys, and the whole market for a gem or cut shifts down a few gold.

Enchanter:
This profession is pretty much entirely based on rare recipes for gold making. However, there are a few enchants you can get solo that there is a demand for/sell decently:
Bracer - Spellpower (+15) - Bloodmaul Geomancer (Blade's Edge Mountains)
Weapon - Major Intellect (+30) - Sunfury Researcher (Netherstorm)
Weapon - Major Spellpower (+40) - Razaani Spell-Thief (Blade's Edge Mountains)
There's also a few you can get in 5 mans. Argue for a full clear for the most rep.
2H Weapon - Major Agility (+35) - Eredar Deathbringer (The Arcatraz)
2H Weapon - Savagery (+70 atk pwr) - Shattered Hand Centurion (The Shattered Halls)
Boots - Dexterity (+12) - Raging Skeleton (Auchenai Crypts)
Boots - Fortitude (+12) - Ethereal Priest (Mana-Tombs)
Bracer - Fortitude (+12 stam) - Coilfang Oracle (The Steamvault)
There's also a couple pre-BC enchants that still sell very well (read: twinks) and are easily obtainable, and often below the dignity of 375 enchanters to still carry the mats for:
Bracer - +9 stamina
Chest - +4 all stats (the recipe is usually cheap since BC has +6 stats from Thallmar/Honor Hold)
Weapon - +15 agi (Honored with Timbermaw Hold)
Weapon - fiery (AH or go solo Pyromancer Loregrain in BRD)
Boots - +7 stamina

A good amount of gold also comes from disenchanting. If you're just starting out and in need of gold, go hit up the old instances and DE all the loot. There's still a huge market out there for people who want to hit max (or close to max) enchanting skill in a day or two. That old dust still sells well. Most essences are hit and miss, with the exception of Magic Essence. It's used in the beastslaying enchant, and still gets a few gold a piece (at least on my server) for all those alts who want a glow on their new weapon. Once you get a comfortable amount of gold, you can do like with alchemy. Buy your mats (in this case, level 60-70 greens for Arcane Dust and Planar Essences).

It's also not a bad idea to check the price of Large Prismatic Shards (LPS) and Large Brilliant Shards (LBS). Once you get a good idea of the price, hit up the AH and buyout any 65+ blue that is below the buyout price of a LPS, and any 50-60 blue that is below the buyout price of a LBS. Unlike putting up other gear for auction, enchanting mats have no deposit, so you're not eating a loss if your mats don't sell.

Finally, if you're in the market purely for DE'ing and selling mats, don't DE other's items for free. Even a fee if you can avoid it. As per the JCer, most people without your profession undercut by a lot. It screws you in the end.

Gathering:
This one always makes money because people are willing to pay you for their time (you farm, not them). My route used to start in Area-52 or Shadowmoon Valley (wherever I set my hearth), and I would go to the opposite. I would travel along the 'coast' of each zone, hitting my detect herbs/ore macro every time I could (every 1.5 seconds) until I had flown a full circle. Then, I'd simply fly into the next zone. After doing this for a week, I bought an epic flyer, and it went twice as fast, and I expanded my run to include the middle of the map as well.

Macro: create a new one, choose your name/icon. Under the macro commands, enter the following:
/castsequence find minerals, find herbs
Bind a key to the macro, and you're done. Hitting the key the first time detects minerals, when you press it again it detects herbs. I also find it useful to checkmark "Auto Dismount in Flight" so my character dismounts automatically when I right click a node/herb.

Saving:
Finally, my surefire way to save all that gold:
Send it to an alt. At first, I did it slowly (anytime I hit 20 gold, I'd send the excess to my alt), and then later every time I hit 200 gold. I kept a seperate gold and AH mule. My AH mule had 100g or so for all those deposits, and sent my daily AH haul to the gold mule. I made sure not to check the gold mule any more than once a week, or at least open the mail any more than once a week. After a while, I stopped mentally adding all those little 2g mails I sent to the gold mule on my characters, and even the 200-800g AH hauls.

Finally (and this is in every gold guide), try to not get distracted buying stuff on the AH. Even with only checking once a week, I always wanted to buy stuff that showed up and I wanted. Unless that UBER RARE pattern/item is never going to be there again, you WILL earn enough gold to eventually pick it up later (even if it is at a marked up price somewhere down the line). Make a list (even mentally) of what you want, and don't deviate from it. If you put Epic Flying Mount at #1, don't move onto anything further down the list until you have it. I wrote mine down on a mini scrap pad, and left the page taped by my computer desk. After my mount (the biggest purchase), the rest of the list got done within a couple weeks.

Making gold is a lot easier in BC than it ever was in the originally shipped WoW, and even a limited amount of diligence can be rewarded to casual players. My wife HATES WoW, and has hit the power breaker on the box in the basement several times just to kick me off. I am very much a casual player, and there were many days in the early going I had 1-2 hours a day to do anything, and spent them doing a little bit of farming. Once I got familiar with where nodes were, and which ones were ALWAYS protected by mobs, I started shortening my route, and then spending the last 20 mins putting stuff up on the AH. Even with limited playing time, and sporadic earning, gold can add up quicker than you think.

Good luck

[metus]

A lot of common knowledge, however a nice collection of all those little tricks.
Thanks mate, you have been a great help.

[bobslaede]

common knowledge yes but still good knowledge. Also alot of noobs should read it. Thats why i read it

[spike999]

obviosly took some time to make up the guide, rep once i can.

[dreamtwicer]

A lot of common knowledge,

Retype all of it in your own words if its common knowledge; not everyone knows about this because not many people rely on instances for patterns/recipes.

Nice job on this find. You might want to search on wowhead for other recipes that can also be dropped in heroic instances.

[Trakit]

+rep, thanks for putting this together.

[Gharole]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, +Rep

[Chillinotz]

Really great helped me alot!