Gathering Warcraft Gold

One of the fastest and easiest way of making gold at very low levels is to take up one of the gathering professions - herbalism, skinning or mining.


Mining will make you the most gold by a long way. With this skill you gather ores from nodes in rocky or mountainous areas, and smelt the ores into metal bars. These are in great demand for tradeskills and sell easily in the AH. Even the lowest level ore, copper, will smelt into copper bars which sell for two gold a stack of 20. Since you can get up to 5 ore per node, this is very fast to gather.

Skinning isn't going to make a lot per piece of leather, but there are plenty of killed animals to skin as you level up. Light leather which can be gathered at very low levels and sells for around one gold per stack of 20 on most servers. Not as much as mining, but it's free gold when you really need it.

Herbalism at high skill levels can be well paid, but it's much less rewarding at low levels. The two early herbs, Peacebloom and Silverleaf, sell for almost nothing, if indeed they sell at all. Herbalism is fine if you want to take it to 200+, when it really starts to bring in the gold.

Copper, Tin and Iron sell for a lot more than leather or herbs, but you will need to travel further afield to gather the ore and there is more competition for the nodes. For mining, you can smelt the ores into metal bars and sell them in the AH. Check the prices in the Auction House before you smelt ore to bars, as sometimes the ore can sell for more than the bars. This is because the prospecting skill (which comes with jewelcraft) can be used to prospect valuable gems from the ore. I'm going to cover how to make WoW gold from prospecting in a later post. Once you get to higher levels, you will be gathering Mithril, Thorium and Truesilver which will sell for 20 gold a stack or more.

Personally I usually take up skinning and mining with a new character then move onto other professions at around level 40 once I have my first mount. There's no reason you can't keep gathering until level 70, but I will usually have gathered more gold than I can spend by this level!

Farming Arakkoa Feathers

How would you like to gather 90 gold an hour and get experience at level 65?


I was looking to increase faction with Lower City in Shattrath the other day. A little research indicated that the best way was to hand in Arakkoa Feathers. These drop from a number of mobs in Terrokar Forest in reasonable quantities. I worked out that I would have to turn in over 200 feathers to get Honored rep. Being lazy, I popped into the AH in Stormwind intending to buy a few stacks.

Ouch.

They were selling for well a over a gold each. It was going to cost me 260 gold for the rep I needed.

So I went farming.

Which bring us to the point of this narrative. The feathers can be gathered quickly and easily by any mid 60's character, and very quickly once you reached 67 or so. You can expect 70 feathers an hour at level 65 and 90 an hour at 68. This will bring in 90 gold an hour easily at 65, even if you undercut the regular AH price a little. Over 100 gold an hour at level 68+. In the three hours I spent there a few days ago, I also had one green and one blue item drop. These sold for over 100g as a nice little bonus.

The best drop rate for me was from the Lithic Oracle in the South West of Terokkar Forest. Since they are humonoid, these mobs also drop a little silver, Netherweave Cloth and Runecloth adding to your hourly farming rate. These are level 65 and are in the camp Veil Lithic together with a few level 63 Lithic Talonguard. The camp is at coords 25,73. If you want a lower level mob, go for the Shienor Talanite in the North East of the zone.

Level 70 Warcraft Gold

I'm often asked about gold farming areas for level 70.

There are, of course, many areas to make WoW gold at these levels so I'm just going to list two of my favorites. These will earn you 100 gold an hour plus. You can certainly farm these areas a level or two lower plus you will get some good experience.

Farm Voidspawn for Motes of Shadow. These are level 64 to 66 mobs which congregate in South West Nagrand. These can be tackled by almost any non-melee class at level 62 but for speed of farming 70 is better. The drop rate is about 1 in 3 mobs and the Motes sell for 2 gold or so each. They will also drop Netherweave Cloth and the occasional green item.

Farming Motes of Fire from Enraged Fire Spirit in Shadowmoon Valley. These drop a little more often than the Motes of Shadow, probably 1 in 2 mobs. The Motes sell for 2.5g each, or combine 10 into Primal Fire if this sells for more on your realm. Get fire protection if you can, or wait until level 70. Apart from the Motes, they seem to drop mostly vendor trash with the very occasional green item.

Although the Motes of Fire sell for a little more (usually), the secondary drops from the Voidspawn make up for the difference so there isn't much to choose them for the best hourly WoW gold rate.

For the best collection of WoW gold making tips for all levels, see Valkors Gold Guide.

WoW Fishing Addons

You can make an impressive amount of gold in WoW simply by fishing. You might even become the first Warcraft Millionaire!

I strongly recommend the use of an addon for fishing. This will save some of the tedium buy automating looting and lure application.

Back in the early days of World of Warcraft there were a number of fishing addons developed with varying degrees of usefulness. As is often the case, these became neglected and stoped working with newer WoW patches. Luckily one very talented developer came to the rescue and developed a one stop fishing addon. He has continued to maintain and update this and it is now available for the latest WoW patch.

The addon is Fishing Buddy and, amongst other things, it allows you to:

• Double right-click to cast
• Auto add lures
• Auto loot fish
• Keep track of your previous catches
• Choose your fishing outfit and easily change

Fishing Buddy is free to download and use. It's still in beta testing but I've been using it for a while without any problems.

Grab this if you spend any time fishing in Warcraft.

High Level WoW Fishing

The real gold to be made from fishing in World of Warcraft is at higher levels. Higher in both terms of character level and in fishing skill.

The best "old world" fish is Stonescale Eel. Demand for these is sporadic, I've seen them selling for 3 gold each at times. A few days later demand may fall off and you can't give them away. I usually just keep them and check for demand every few days.

The best places to fish for these are:

Bay of Storms in Azshara
Feathermoon Stronghold in Feralas

Feathermoon itself is Alliance only but Horde on non-PvP servers can fish just outside the stronghold without problems.

Another fish to consider is Whitescale Salmon from Winterspring and Eastern Plaguelands. These sell easily for a gold each.

If you can get to the Outlands (Burning Crusade expansion), you can make a lot more gold once your fishing skill is 350+. A favorite of mine is Goldenscale Vendorfish which I guess was put in as some sort of joke by Blizzard. Either way, you can turn around and sell it to any vendor for 6 gold. It seems that these can be caught in any Outlands zone. I've caught several in Zangarmarsh and Nagrand. You won't catch many of these, maybe two an hour but even these few improve your hourly gold rate.

Another favorite Outlands fish is the Furious Crawdad which sells for between 1.5 and 2 gold any day. These are very easy to catch in Blackwind Lake in Terrokar Forest. The bad news is that this lake requires a flying mount to reach. The good news is that the drop rate is around 40% so it's easy to make 60 to 80 gold an hour on these.

Terrokar Forest also has Golden Darter in the area around Allerian Stronghold. These will sell for 2 gold but have a lower drop rate than the Furious Crawdad.

Other outlands fish can sell well at times depending on demand. Many fish are a key component in high level cooking recipes and if somebody is trying to lvl up cooking then they will get snapped up quickly in the AH.

Gold from Low Level WoW Fishing

Fishing in World of Warcraft is a "secondary" skill which you can learn in addition to your two main professions. Other secondary skills are First Aid and Cooking. Although many people will learn first aid for fast heals between, or during, fights and cooking for the stat foods you can create, fishing is often ignored. This is a shame since certain fish are in high demand for use in trade skill recipes. Unfortunately you will often catch a pile of "junk fish" which are virtually worthless apart from their occasional use in cooking recipes.

The secret to making gold from WoW fishing isn't how you fish, or how high your skill level, but in WHERE you fish. Fish in the canals in Stormwind and you will make 1 gold an hour if you are lucky. Fish in the right zone and you can pull in 60 gold an hour.

Let me say right away that WoW fishing can be boring and, personally, I never fish for more than 20 minutes or so. I fish when I'm waiting for a group or maybe when I'm winding down after a raid. It may suit your personality more, so give it a try.

If you have never fished before, all you need is a fishing pole purchased from the local fishing vendor. You learn the fishing skill from the trainer who is usually close to the vendor in the newbie zone. Go to the edge of the nearest body of water and click on the fishing icon. I usually move this to the toolbar for ease of use. Watch the float and it will bob under the water. Right click on the float after it bobs and, if your skill is high enough, you catch a fish and maybe increase your skill level. You won't catch many fish at first but don't get discouraged, your skill will soon increase.

So, where is the gold in fishing?

Three fish are in demand for lower level character. Firefin, Oily Blackmouth and Deviate Fish.

Firefin can be found in:

The Blackwolf River in Stonetalon Mountains
Dreadmurk Shore in Dustwallow Marsh
Western Strand near Southshore in Hillsbrad Foothills

You don't need to do anything special to catch these, just fish as normal in the zone and a proportion of the fish will be Firefin. Sell the Firefin you catch in the Auction House. Check to see what other are selling them for and match or beat their prices. The normal price is around 10 silver per fish. Not much, but this can be caught in conjunction with Oily Blackmouth (see below)

Oily Blackmouth can be caught in:

Menethil Harbor in Wetlands
Western Strand near Southshore, Hillsbrad Foothills
Zoram'gar Outpost Ashenvale
The Merchant Coast in The Barrens
Near Northwatch Hold also in The Barrens
Baradin Bay

Notice that both Firefin and Oily Blackmouth can be caught in Southshore which makes it first choice for low level WoW fishing gold. You can usually make between 15 and 25 gold per hour fishing in Southshore, depending on pries on your server.

Deviate fish can only be caught in The Barrens. Any oasis has these as well as the lake inside the Wailing Caverns instance. This is a really good money-maker for Alliance characters, selling on the Alliance AH as very few Alliance go to The Barrens, especially on PvP servers, for obvious reasons. It's easy enough once you get to level 25 or so as most Horde in The Barrens are lower level. If you get aggro or they gang up on you, just zone into Wailing Caverns in your own instance where you can fish all day undisturbed. I've seen Deviate Fish sell for a gold each in the Alliance AH on PvP servers. Prices for Horde are much lower - around 20 silver each.

You can make a lot more - up to 60 gold per hour - at higher levels which I will cover tomorrow.

Reasons for Playing World of Warcraft

There are many different reasons people play World of Warcraft (WoW). Maybe they like the social aspects. Chatting in the Barrens or in Stormwind. Maybe the like to mindlessly kill every thing in sight, either because they are social deviants or to relieve the pressures of a lousy job. Perhaps they like the challenge of defeating another player in PvP.

My main enjoyment, which many may find odd, is making as much gold as possible. Oh sure, I've leveled a few characters up to 70 and I'm sure I'll take them all up to level 80 when the new expansion – Wrath of the Lich King – arrives. But whenever I log on my first move is towards the mailbox to see how much gold I've made from yesterday's auction sales.

Most of my playing time revolves around finding different ways of making gold. I bought all of the gold guides (most of them are crap) and searched every Warcraft forum and website for every tip.

Maybe you play for similar reasons, or maybe you just want the best gear and stumbled here looking for ideas for quick gold. Either way, I have a whole bunch of gold making tips to share over the next few days. I've ignored all the stupid ideas you see everywhere and will give detailed tips for the stuff that works.

It won't be a total newbie guide - I'm not going to tell you how to use the AH or how to find your way to a specific zone. If you are that new, go buy an ebook or something.

World of Warcraft Gold

This blog will detail the many ways of making World of Warcraft gold easily and quickly. I've been playing WoW for 3 years and have several level 70 characters as well as over 70,000 gold as well as the best items and enchants.

I should point out, for legal reasons, World of Warcraft is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. This blog is not associated with, nor endorsed by Blizzard Entertainment. Use at your own risk. You can visit the official WoW site here