BradyGames released a strategy guide for L.A. Noire a short time ago and more recently released the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Atlas.
If you play either of these games, the guides may provide useful tips and tricks to improve your enjoyment.
Tag Archive for World of Warcraft
BradyGames Guides for L.A. Noire and Cataclysm
Category: Gaming Accessories, World of Warcraft | Tags: BradyGames, Cataclysm, L.A. Noire, World of Warcraft
The Auctioneer Add-on for World of Warcraft
One of the most useful World of Warcraft utilities I’ve found to date is the Auctioneer Complete Package. This includes several actual tools, including Auctioneer, Bean Counter, and Bottom Scanner. If you are a regular WoW player and you haven’t picked up this add-on set, you’re probably not making as much gold in the game as you could be. In this article, I’m going to cover the major functionality of the Auctioneer package (but there’s a lot more I won’t be covering – mostly because I haven’t used those capabilities enough yet).
After you install Auctioneer on your system, the first thing you’ll notice is that you start getting a LOT more information about the items you move your mouse cursor over, as shown in the image below:
The topmost window you see here is the normal Wow information about an inventory item. Below that is a second window provided by Auctioneer. Auctioneer provides a lot of information, starting with the item’s level (if any), how many times Auctioneer has seen the item up for auction, average starting bid, current bid, buyout, and median (most-common) buyout price, and so forth. It provides a suggested price for the item you’re carrying, automatically quoting the price based on the size of the stack of items you’re carrying at that moment. It also tells you if your “competition” in the auction house is overpriced (“Competition above market”), underpriced (“Cannot match current price”), or not. The “Buy 20″ and “Sell 20″ refer to the in-game vendor prices for the item. In other words, if I tried to sell this stack of Runecloth Bandages to an in-game vendor, I would get 1 gold coin for it. However, based on the suggested selling price above it, I should be getting 1 gold, 14 silver, and 40 copper from other players in the auction house. Thus it makes more sense to sell this item at auction than to dump it on a vendor.
Useful Outside the Auction House
This functionality is useful when you’re at the auction house trying to price something, but the real value is when you’re out questing or farming in the game. For example, imagine that your inventory is full of things and you’ve just found a potentially valuable sword. To pick it up, you’re going to have to drop something. But what? If you drop something more valuable than the sword, you’re throwing money away. To figure out what to drop, take a look at the suggested price of the item you want to pick up and the items you’re already carrying. This will help you decide which item you’re carrying is the least valuable, so that you can drop it in favor of the new sword. Thus, Auctioneer is helping you make money even outside the auction house.
More Functionality at the Auction House
Aside from the item pricing windows, the next most visible change Auctioneer will make to the WoW interface is in the auction window, which will look something like this when you bring it up:
Notice that there are now several tabs at the bottom of the Auction interface now, and a new button marked “Scan”. This Scan button is a very important one. When you have about 15 minutes to spare, click the Scan button. This tells Auctioneer to go out into the auction listings and “learn” the current item pricing on this particular server and auction house. While it’s scanning, you’ll see a display like the following in the auction window:
This tells you that Auctioneer is busy learning what items cost at the auction house. In this example, it has 165 pages of items to go through, and it goes through each page at about the rate of 10.53 items per second. Based on that, it will take about 12 minutes and 58 seconds to complete the scan.
About 13 minutes later, Auctioneer will have scanned all the items in the auction house and will “know” the real market value of all of them. The more times you scan the auction house, the better Auctioneer’s pricing estimates will be. For example, while the price on an item it’s seen 3-5 times in the auction house MAY be a good one, the price on an item it’s seen 120 times is probably going to be a lot more accurate. Thus it is to your benefit to scan the auction house regularly. Personally, I like to start the scan when I am about to log off for the evening. I just go to one of the auction houses, click the button, go AFK (type “/afk” in the WoW chat window), and leave. Eventually my WoW session will time out, but in the meantime Auctioneer will be able to collect all (or at least most) of the auction data.
Auctioneer Helps Price Your Items at Auction Time
Another major change Auctioneer makes to the WoW interface is on the Auctions tab of the Auction interface. As shown in the example below, it will automatically fill in a Starting Price and Buyout Price for you, based on its past auction house scans. It will fill in the Auction duration you normally use as well. If you decide to set a price that is different from Auctioneer’s suggested price and you want Auctioneer to always use your price instead of its own, checking the “Remember price” box before creating the auction will ensure that Auctioneer remembers your price and uses it.
BottomScanner Helps You Make More Money
Technically, BottomScanner is a separate add-on from Auctioneer, but they are so well integrated in the complete package that you wouldn’t notice. The BtmScan tab in the auction interface allows you to start, stop, and monitor BottomScanner.
What is BottomScanner? Like Auctioneer, BottomScanner scans through the items in the auction house for you. Unlike Auctioneer, BottomScanner looks at the lowest priced items and compares them to its database to see if there are any “bargains” on the auction house right now. That is, if an item currently up for auction has a buyout price that would allow you to make some quick money, it will display an alert like the following:
In this example, BottomScanner is telling us that if we buy the Shadow Draenite that it’s telling us about, it will cost us 1 gold and 19 silver. It believes we should be able to resell it later for 1 gold and 75 silver, making a 56 silver, 15 copper profit before auction fees. If we think this is a good deal, we click “Yes” to buy it. If we think it’s not a good deal, we click “No” to ignore the item. If we don’t want to “speculate” on this particular item, we can click “Ignore” and we won’t see it again this session.
So how do you know if something’s a good deal? Use that Auctioneer window! Note the following example:
In this case, BottomScanner has found us a Libram of Rumination which is priced at 1 gold for buyout. It believes we can resell the item for 1 gold and 97 silver. When we move our mouse over the Libram’s icon, Auctioneer tells us what it thinks, based on previous scans of the auction house.
As you can see, Auctioneer says that we should be able to sell this item for 1 gold, 26 silver, and 8 copper starting bid, 1 gold, 57 silver, and 61 copper buyout price. (I look at the suggested price rather than the BottomScanner prices since you’re more likely to get the Suggested prices than the others.) Auctioneer also tells me that it’s seen this item 15 times in the auction house, so its pricing is probably pretty accurate. If I choose to buy this item and return to the Auction house with it, I can drop it onto the Auction tab and Auctioneer will automatically fill in the suggested prices for me. With a 1 gold investment and a few mouse clicks, I stand to make at least 57 silver. (Whether or not that’s enough for you to personally risk 1 gold is naturally for you to decide.)
Brokering Items Can Be Risky
When you use BottomScanner and Auctioneer together in this way, you can sometimes make a lot of in-game money. You can also, if you are unlucky or not very careful, lose a lot of in-game money. Personally, I avoid buying any item that Auctioneer hasn’t seen a lot of, or for which it suggests a price that isn’t at least 50% higher than the item’s current buyout price. Even at that, I occasionally get stuck with something and have to either use it, sell it to a vendor, or auction it off for less than I paid. A good strategy is to buy items during the week while fewer people are playing, then hold on to them until the weekend. Then relist them when lots of people are playing and bidding. This should give you at least a small profit in most cases.
Remember, Auctioneer’s prices are always a “guess” and not a guarantee. While Auctioneer may have scanned 100 auctions and make you feel pretty confident that the shield you just paid 1 gold for will sell for 2 gold, you might find that there really isn’t a demand for that particular shield on your server anymore and you end up having to sell it to a vendor for 1 silver (thus losing 99 silver!).
Conclusion
I hope I’ve helped you see the value in using the Auctioneer package while playing World of Warcraft. If so, you can download it here and install it for yourself. If not, there are other auction tools you might find more useful. Have a look on the web and see.
Leveling First Aid in World of Warcraft
Battling, taking damage, and healing that damage is a big part of playing World of Warcraft (WoW). The game offers a number of ways to heal damage. Over time, the character’s normal healing processes will restore damage done in battle. In addition, healing potions can restore a set amount of damage instantly, though there is a cooldown period between potions. Eating food will restore hit points as well. Certain character types like warlocks can drain hit points from an enemy and use those to heal themselves. Another useful healing technique, especially for characters who have no warlock-like method of instant healing, is the First Aid skill.
To develop a character’s First Aid skill, that character must first receive initial training from an NPC. This NPC varies for each race, but can usually be found in the race’s starting city. If you’re not sure where to find yours, ask one of the city guards. They can point you in the right direction.
Once you’ve found the First Aid Trainer for your race and paid to receive the initial training, you can begin very quickly leveling the healing skill using the instructions provided here.
Collect Linen Cloth
First Aid skill doesn’t level up with use, which means it’s possible for you to reach the maximum level (currently 375) without ever healing a point of damage. I know that sounds a little odd, but it’s true. A character gains healing skill by making bandages, even if he or she never uses them. So if you want to max out your healing skill, that’s what you need to do.
At the lowest levels of First Aid skill, you need to make Linen Cloth Bandages. Naturally, this means you need to collect Linen Cloth. Linen Cloth drops most often from humanoid enemies. For example, for the human race, killing Defias bandits near Stormwind will yield Linen Cloth. Personally, I found that going to the Westfall area (west of Stormwind), killing the Defias humans (Looter, Pillager, Smuggler, Trapper, etc.) and the Riverpaw humanoids (Bandit, Mystic, Oracle, Scout, Outrunner, etc.). You’re going to need at least 120 pieces of Linen Cloth. What I’ve done for my characters is take my highest-level character (currently a level 50 Dwarf hunter) and run near (but not ON) the coastline in Westfall, killing every humanoid I encounter, making sure to keep all the cloth. By the time I’ve made one pass around the coast, I’ve usually collected 120 Linen Cloth or so. Another good technique is to volunteer to be part of a group adventuring in Deadmines and making a deal up-front that you get all the cloth and give some of the other items or money you get. Failing that, you can also buy Linen Cloth at the Auction House if you’d rather not spend time collecting it.
First Step – Getting to 75 First Aid
Now that you have amassed 120 or so Linen Cloth, you’re ready to begin. Bring up the First Aid interface under your Spellbook & Abilities (default keystroke “P”) menu. Select Linen Cloth Bandage and click “Create All”. Watch your First Aid skill climb as you make bandages. When your First Aid skill reaches 20, hit the Esc key or move around to stop the bandage-making. Go back to the First Aid trainer and buy the Heavy Linen Cloth Bandage skill.
The First Aid Training Menu
Bring up the First Aid menu again, select Heavy Linen Cloth Bandage and click Create All. Watch your skill continue to climb until it reaches 50. Go back to the First Aid trainer again and purchase the Wool Cloth bandage skill. You’ll probably be out of Linen Cloth by this point, but if not, and if the item name isn’t gray in your First Aid menu, continue making Heavy Linen Cloth bandages until it is.
Nissa Firestone, the Gnome/Dwarf First Aid Trainer
Shaina Fuller – the Human First Aid Trainer
Dannelor, the Night Elf First Aid Trainer
Wool Cloth can be gathered in Westfall and Deadmines also. It’s dropped by Sheep, Riverpaw Overseers, Riverpaw Bandits, Riverpaw Taskmasters, Riverpaw Mystics, Defias Renegade Mages, Defias Diggers, Defias Conjurers, Defias Henchmen, Murloc Tidehunters, Riverpaw Gnolls, and other humanoid creatures in the level 11-20 size range. Kill enough of these that you have somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 to 175 pieces of Wool Cloth (or buy approximately that amount at the Auction House).
Begin making Wool Cloth bandages until you reach 75 First Aid skill. Stop as soon as you reach it.
Getting to 150
Return to the First Aid trainer and buy the next level of First Aid skill from them. Also buy the Heavy Wool Bandage skill. Make Heavy Wool Bandages until you reach 100 skill. At this point you’ll need to obtain 120+ pieces of Silk Cloth. You’ll use this to make Silk Bandages until your skill reaches the 150 limit.
Getting to 225
At this point, you’re going to need to make a trip to Stromgarde castle in the Arathi Highlands, have a friend make that journey for you, or visit the Auction House. The castle has a lot of humanoid mobs in it, with levels in the 35 to 40 range. If you can handle those, you’ll save money by going to the vendor yourself. If not, you can get the book elsewhere.
You’ll be looking for a Scrolls & Potions vendor named Deneb Walker there. His location in the coordinate system is approximately (27,58). For 1 gold coin, he’ll sell you a book called “Expert First Aid – Under Wraps”. While you’re there, you should also buy the “Manual: Heavy Silk Bandage” that he sells for 22 silver and the “Manual: Mageweave Bandage” that he sells for 50 silver. If you aren’t high enough level to reach the Stromgarde castle in the Arathi Highlands safely, look in the Auction House for a copy of these items or ask another player you trust to get them for you.
The Expert First Aid manual will allow you to grow your First Aid skill to 225. You’ll begin by making Heavy Wool Bandages until you reach skill level 100 or so. At that point you’ll need to start making Silk Bandages.
Silk Cloth can be purchased in the Auction House. You can also obtain it by killing Level 27-40 humanoids such as Witherbark Trolls in the Arathi Highlands, Boulderfist Ogres in the Arathi Highlands, Drywhisker humanoids in Arathi, and Syndicate humans in Arathi. You’re going to need somewhere in the 120-175 piece range.
Make Silk Bandages until your skill hits approximately 125. Read the “Manual: Heavy Silk Bandage” at this point to learn how to make those, then begin making them until you reach skill level 150 or you stop gaining skill from them. At that point, read the “Manual: Mageweave Bandage” which should get you to about 200, maybe even higher.
Getting to 300
After you reach 225 First Aid, you’ll need to make a trip to get the next skill level. There’s no other way around it. You’ll first need to go to the Wetlands and make your way to Menethil Harbor on the west end of the map. There you’ll find a dock with two ships departing from it. The left-hand ship as you’re facing the water goes to Theramore on the Kalimdor continent, and that’s what you need. Ride the boat out there. When you get to the dock in Theramore, walk straight ahead until you see the Hippogriff Master. Turn a bit to your right and walk between the two buildings. Turn right again when you get past the right-hand building and go in that right-hand building. If it’s the right one, there will be a man out front practicing fighting.
You’re looking for the Trauma Surgeon Gustaf VanHowzen in the building (location 67,48). As you face the front door, he’s on the first floor, in the far-right, back corner. He will offer you a quest, take it. This quest will have you healing wounded soldiers in their beds. It’s extremely difficult, and you’ll probably fail. That’s fine. Do it two or three times and you’re going to find that you’ve unintentionally collected a bunch of trauma bandages. Don’t get rid of them. You’ll want them.
What I recommend doing at this point is finding another player who wants to accomplish this quest. If there are more than two, that’s even better. Help each other. One of you takes the quest. The others station themselves near the beds with the injured soldiers. All of you use those trauma bandages from past attempts and start healing the soldiers nearest you. If you’re all doing your part, few or none of the soldiers will die and you’ll all heal enough of them that you eventually complete the quest successfully. Remember to play nice and stay there until everyone completes the quest. Your First Aid skill will now top out at 300.
If there isn’t anyone available to help you do this quest, it can be done solo if you’re really careful. Before the quest starts, stand in the center of the room so that you can see every bed in it. Press Ctrl-V so that the health bars are activated over the patients to make it easier to assess who to heal first. Start the quest, and make sure that you heal the most seriously injured patients first, keeping track of which ones have been in the room the longest. If necessary, press the Esc key to stop healing a patient and switch to a more-injured one.
To build your skill to 300, you first need to make Runecloth Bandages, then Heavy Runecloth Bandages. The Trauma Surgeon in Theramore will teach you these skills when your First Aid level is high enough. Build your skill to 260, then talk to Doctor VanHowzen. He’ll give you the Runecloth Bandages skill. When your skill reaches 290, talk to him again. He’ll teach you Heavy Runecloth Bandages, which will allow you to get to 300 skill.
Runecloth is dropped by a number of humanoid mobs. Level 1 snakes, such as those found in Westfall, are also rumored to drop it on occasion (though I’ve not seen this). Most of the mobs that drop Runecloth are over level 50. For example, many of the humanoids in the Alterac Valley zone drop Runecloth. Rather than spend a lot of time fighting those tougher mobs, I just gathered up a bunch of Silk Cloth, sold that at the Auction House, and used the proceeds to buy Runecloth instead. You’ll need another 120-200 units to hit 300 skill.
Beyond 300 First Aid
The current maximum First Aid skill level is 375. Reaching that level isn’t easy or cheap, but it’s certainly doable. When your skill hits 300, you can either buy the book “Master First Aid – Doctor in the House” at the Auction House, or you can buy it from an NPC named Burko in the Temple of Telhamat on the left side, in a small building.
Make Heavy Runecloth Bandages until your skill reaches around 320-340. At that point, you’ll need to acquire some Netherweave Cloth and begin making Netherweave Bandages. At 360 you can make Heavy Netherweave Bandages and get to the maximum skill of 375.
Netherweave Cloth drops off humanoid mobs in places like the Acratraz Dungeon, The SteamVault Dungeon, Shattrath City, and Caverns of Time Dungeon. The mobs dropping it are in the Level 60-70 range. Unless you’re capable of taking down these mobs, I recommend buying the cloth in the Auction House.
Alliance First Aid Leveling – Quick Reference Chart
Healing Level | Character Level Required | Trainer Location | Material Needed | Product Made |
| 0 – 75 | 1 | Human: Shaina Fuller in Stormwind at the Cathedral, coordinates (42, 26)Dwarf/Gnome: Nissa Firestone in Ironforge, coordinates (54, 58) Draenei: Unknown at this time. Night Elf: Dannelor in Teldrassil, coordinates (51,12) | Linen Cloth, 120+ piecesWool Cloth, 25-50 pieces | 1-40 Linen Cloth Bandage41-50 Heavy Linen Cloth Bandage 51-75 Wool Cloth Bandage |
| 76-150 | 1 | Human: Shaina Fuller in Stormwind at the Cathedral, coordinates (42, 26)Dwarf/Gnome: Nissa Firestone in Ironforge, coordinates (54, 58) Draenei: Unknown at this time. Night Elf: Dannelor in Teldrassil, coordinates (51,12) | Wool Cloth, 50-150 piecesSilk Cloth, 150+ pieces | 76-100 Heavy Wool Cloth Bandages101-125 Silk Bandages 126-150 Heavy Silk Bandages |
| 151-225 | 35 | All Races: Deneb Walker, at Stromgarde Castle in the Arathi Highlands, coordinate location approximately (27,58). | Mageweave Cloth, 50+ pieces | 151-200: Mageweave Bandage200-225: Heavy Mageweave Bandage |
| 226-300 | 35 | All Races: Gustaf VanHowzen in Theramore, coordinate location approximately (67,48) | Mageweave Cloth, 120+ piecesRunecloth, 120+ pieces | 226-240 Mageweave Bandages241-260 Heavy Mageweave Bandages 261-289 Runecloth Bandages 290-300 Heavy Runecloth Bandages |
| 300-375 | 35 | All Races: Burkho in the Temple of Telhamat, coordinates (22,39) | Runecloth, 120+ piecesNetherweave, 100+ pieces | 301-320 Heavy Runecloth Bandages321-360 Netherweave Bandages 361-375 Heavy Netherweave Bandages |
Category: World of Warcraft | Tags: first aid, guide, information, leveling, tips, World of Warcraft, wow
Finding Deneb Walker in Stromgarde
I’ve seen a number of people on World of Warcraft forums saying that it’s very hard to find Deneb Walker in Stromgarde. In reality, it’s very easy if you’ve done it before, but perhaps not so easy if you are going in blind. This guide is as detailed a step-by-step walkthrough of how to get to Deneb Walker as I could create. Hopefully it will solve your navigation problems.
The first step in getting to Deneb Walker is to make your way to the Arathi Highlands. Once there, you need to follow the road west out of Refuge Point until it reaches a “T” shaped intersection. There, you’ll go right (North) until you reach the entry road to the castle, where you’ll turn left and face the entrance, which looks like this:
You’ll proceed up the path and under the walkway seen here:
Just past the overhanging walkway, you’ll turn right, and your view should look something like this:
You need to go through that doorway you see that’s “approximately straight ahead” in the screenshot.
When you get to the doorway, your view will look something like this:
Notice that the path makes an approximate “T”shape here. You want to go to that intersection and make a right, whereupon your view will look something like this:
You’ll go down the right-hand path here, which is heading roughly northeast. Further down that path you should see a view looking approximately like this:
You’ll go straight here, stopping just at the other side of the doorway you see in the distance.
Just through the doorway, you’ll turn right and Deneb Walker will be straight ahead of you through the overgrowth.
After you step through the overgrowth, turn a little to your right and you’ll find him:
If you like to use coordinates like I do, you’ll find the following waypoints helpful in locating Deneb Walker. If you go to the Arathi Highlands and make your way to each of these in the order presented, you’ll be standing right in front of Deneb Walker:
Entrance to Stromgarde: 26,50
In Stromgarde: 26,55
Heading to the Sanctuary area: 25,59
In the doorway: 23,60
At the intersection: 22,60
Near the archway: 24,58
In the overgrowth: 26,58
Standing in front of Deneb Walker: 27,58
Good luck finding Mr. Walker and improving your First Aid skill (or making a few coins selling the First Aid manual)!
Category: World of Warcraft | Tags: deneb walker, first aid, stromgarde, trainer, World of Warcraft, wow
Should my Wow Character “Rest” When I’m Not Playing?
In World of Warcraft, a character “rests” when it spends time in a city or inn. If the character rests long enough, it begins to accumulate a bonus which doubles the amount of experience (XP) it earns per kill. You can tell if you’re rested by looking at your XP “meter” at the bottom of the screen. If it’s purple, you’re not rested. If it’s blue, you are. Just “how” rested you are is indicated by the presence of a small “tick-mark” or “slider” on top of the XP bar. If you don’t see that tick-mark, you’re rested at least until you complete the current level you’re working on. If you do see the tick-mark, you’re rested until your current XP reaches that mark, at which time you’ll cease being rested.
I’ve heard players ask if it’s better to log out in a place where you are resting or not. The answer generally comes back as “no, it’s not worth it” but that’s really NOT the correct answer. The correct answer is, “It depends on how frequently you play that character.” Let me explain.
Let’s say that you play WoW every single day without fail, for several hours per day, and always log off in a place where you’re gaining rest. Odds are that you won’t accumulate that much rest during the few hours per day that you’re not playing, so the benefit you get from being rested is probably minimal compared to the time it takes you to get from the place of rest to the place you enjoy questing or farming or PVPing. For a person who plays a single character on a very regular basis for long periods of time, resting is probably more trouble than it’s worth. So in that sense, the common answer is the correct one.
On the other hand, let’s imagine that you’re more like me. I play WoW a few times a week at most, with long breaks in between where my job and personal life prevent me from playing as much as I might like. Sometimes I travel for vacation or business, and I can’t play WoW for several days at a stretch. In those situations, if I log out in a city or inn, my character gains “rest” even though I am not playing. When I come back a few days later, the character may have accumulated enough rest so that it can complete an entire level earning double XP. Was it worth it for me to rest? You bet! It will take me half the time to gain my next level because I took a moment to log out in a place of rest. So, for me personally, it’s very worthwhile to rest my characters. Also, since I have more than one character, I always make sure to log the alternate characters out in a place of rest. That way they, too, accumulate entire levels worth of “rest”. So in this case, the common answer of “rest isn’t worth it” isn’t true. Because I am not in-game for long-ish periods of time, my characters accumulate enough rest that when I AM in the game I can level much faster than I would otherwise.
How do you know when you’re resting in WoW? Look at your character’s portrait in the upper left corner. If you can see your level number inside the little circle at the bottom left of the portrait, then you are NOT resting where you are. If you see “Zzz” instead of your level number inside that circle, then you ARE resting and accumulating “double XP” time. Generally speaking, you will “rest” inside of the major cities like Stormwind, Ironforge, and the like. You will also rest in certain inns and locations outside major cities, but you won’t know for sure unless you check your level indicator and note that it is filled with Z’s.
Is it better to Grind XP or Quest in WoW?
A question I often see asked in chat channels is whether it’s better to focus on completing quests or kill monsters if you are trying to gain levels and experience points (XP). In this case, the common answer is generally the right one, which is that questing will probably yield more XP than simple farming of mobs. However, that’s a rather simplistic answer to a more complicated question.
As with many of these kinds of recurring questions, the correct and complete answer is that it depends on several factors.
One of the most important factors to consider is the type of quests you’re working on and the level those quests are designed for. For instance, if you are a level 20 character working on a quest designed for level 10 characters, you might be wasting your time. The amount of XP you’re going to gain for completing that quest is going to be relatively low. If that quest involves killing lots of level 10-11 mobs, you’re not going to be getting any XP for those either. So unless the quest involves a reward you particularly want (like lots of gold) or you are just having fun with it, you’re probably wasting your time.
Similarly, even if the quest is of a level that provides sufficient reward, if it’s the sort of quest that has you going lots of traveling and very little fighting, it’s probably not the best use of your time.
To determine whether questing or farming (where by “farming” I mean just staying in an area killing all the monsters you can) is a better option for you, you can do a simple estimation in your head.
Estimate how long the quest will take to complete. Let’s say it’s one hour, and it’s a quest where there is little or no killing involved. After looking on sites like thottbot.com or allakhazam.com, you learn that this quest usually rewards 8000 XP when complete. That means you’re going to be earning around 8000 XP in an hour, or about 133 XP per minute.
Suppose that your alternative is to stay in an area and farm a particular kind of monster. If you’re getting 200 XP from each kill and you can kill one about every 30 seconds, you’re earning 400XP per minute. That means you’d earn 3x the XP farming that you would completing the quest. Thus, in that example, you’re better off farming.
But the numbers can work the other way, too. Suppose your quest has a reward of 5000XP and requires you to collect a number of items that drop off a certain mob. After killing a few, you estimate that 1 in 10 mobs drops the item, and you’re getting 150XP per mob. You can kill the mob about every 45 seconds, resulting in around 80 kills in an hour, for a total of 12,000 XP (150×80=12000). Thus, completing this quest would earn you around 17000XP in an hour, estimated. You’re better off in this case doing the quest since you will get XP from completing it, in addition to the XP from the mobs.
Fortunately, it’s not necessary to do all this math yourself. There is an add-on called Titan Panel which can be configured to display your current “XP per Hour” and “Time to Level”. Using this tool, you can gauge how quickly you’re REALLY earning XP and how quickly you can expect to reach your next level. I found that the Titan Panel interface started to annoy me after a while, but it did help me to get a sort of “gut feel” for whether I was better off doing one thing than another.
For me personally, I tend to alternate between questing and farming depending on my mood. If I want to scare up a bunch of money and XP, I tend to go farming mobs somewhere I feel relatively safe. If I’m more interested in traveling or seeing some places I haven’t seen before (or haven’t seen in a while) I’ll tend to quest. This openendedness is one of the nicer things about WoW.
Thorium Ore Locations in Un’Goro Crater
Below is a list of the coordinates in the Un’Goro Crater area where I’ve found Small Thorium Veins and Rich Thorium Veins in the recent past on the Fenris server. I’m told that the ore locations should be pretty much the same on all the servers, but your mileage (and server) may vary. I’m also told that a maximum of two Rich Thorium Veins spawn at any one time in an area, so it’s possible you will visit many of these locations and find nothing, though eventually I suspect you will find a Thorium Vein.
How to use this list: If your character can survive in Un’Goro (approximately a level 50-55 zone) and has mining skill of 275 or higher, you can visit the Un’Goro Crater. It is assumed that you have an addon installed in World of Warcraft, such as MetaMap, which allows you to view your current coordinates on-screen. If not, you’ll need one to take advantage of these coordinates. Make your way to one of the locations listed on the map. If you find an ore vein, mine it. If not, move to the next location on the list, and so on. You should eventually run into a Thorium vein. Start over at the top of the list if you reach the end. I find that doing this for about an hour will get me at least one stack of ore, if not more. If you notice a lot of other people mining in Un’Goro at the time, you may want to go somewhere else where there is less competition.
Confirmed Un’Goro Crater Thorium Locations
20,42
21,61
28,70
30,74
34,69
31,81
39,70
39,77
41,65
51,48
54,51
54,46
Unconfirmed Un’Goro Crater Thorium Locations
25,39
45,53
51,45
46,45
40,53
46,44
Category: World of Warcraft | Tags: coordinates, location, mining, thorium ore, un'goro crater, World of Warcraft, wow
World of Warcraft Herbalism Guide
I’ve managed to get this skill to around 300 on one of my characters, and I can confirm that Herbalism does generate some cash in WoW. I’ve heard some players say it doesn’t, and others saying it’s a fairly well kept secret how profitable it can be. The truth may be somewhere in the middle. According to one guide I read, “Herbs are a bit hard to find, but if you know the spots it becomes actually easy if you have no competition. Herbs sell surprisingly well on the AH and are not offered often.”
If your Herbalism skill is 245 or above, you should be able to gather Ghost Mushrooms. They are one of the most sought-after herbs in the game. These are located in a cave called Skull Rock in the Hinterlands. Supposedly you can gather 10-25g worth of these per hour in that cave. Your character needs to be at least level 44, because the mobs in the cave are level 46-48. The mushrooms respawn approximately every 12-15 minutes. The first spawn area is on the upper ledge of the cave on the east side, occasionally on the pathway down to the lower level of the cave. The second area is on the lower level in the western room with the small pond in it. The third area is on the lower level in the easternmost room. The mobs in the area will occasionally drop rare and epic items.
A guide I read says that if you start an Undead character, get it to level 5, learn Herbalism, and then start looking for Silverleaf, you’ll find that it’s very abundant in the early Undead and Human areas. You should, they say, be able to accumulate a stack of Silverleaf in about 10 minutes and sell it for between 85 silver and 1.25 gold. The prices for that ore are lower on my server. Your mileage may vary.
A different guide suggests creating a Tauren for Herbalism because they start with a 15-point bonus in the skill.
Following is a list of the various herbs in the game, and the places where each one tends to be most common, other locations where it can be found, and the kinds of locations it likes to grow in, as well as a typical price you might expect to get for a stack (based on Auctioneer’s scanning of the prices on the Fenris server for the Alliance Auction House):
| Herb | Minimum Herbalism Skill | Locations Where Most Common | Other Locations | Growing Locations | Typical Selling Price per Stack |
| Peacebloom | 1 | Teldrassil, Elwynn Forest, Durotar, Tirisfal Glades | Dun Morogh, The Barrens, Mulgore, Loch Modan, Westfall, Darkshore, Silverpine Forest | Open areas | 19s-24s |
| Silverleaf | 1 | Teldrassil, Elwynn Forest, Durotar, Tirisfal Glades | Darkshore, Dun Morogh, Durotar, Loch Modan, Mulgore, Silverpine Forest, Teldrassil, The Barrens, Westfall | Shady areas, such as under trees | 35-44s |
| Earthroot | 15 | Dun Morogh, Teldrassil, Durotar | Darkshore, Elwynn Forest, Loch Modan, Mulgore, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, The Barrens, Tirisfal Glades, Wailing Caverns, Westfall | Hillsides | 1.37-1.71g |
| Mageroyal | 50 | Loch Modan, Silverpine Forest, The Barrens | Ashenvale, Darkshore, Durotar, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Mountains, Teldrassil, Wailing Caverns, Westfall, Wetlands | Open areas | 1.25-1.56g |
| Briarthorn | 70 | Loch Modan, Silverpine Forest, The Barrens | Ashenvale, Darkshore, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Orgrimmar, Razorfen Kraul, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Mountains, Westfall, Wetlands | Hillsides | 4.76-5.95g |
| Swiftthistle | 50-70 | Loch Modan, Silverpine Forest, The Barrens | Ashenvale, Darkshore, Durotar, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Orgrimmar, Razorfen Kraul, Redridge Mountains, Stonetalon Mountains, Teldrassil, Wailing Caverns, Westfall, Wetlands | Found with Briarthorn and Mageroyal | 9.4-11.76g |
| Stranglekelp | 85 | Stranglethorn Vale, Wetlands | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Blackfathom Deeps, Darkshore, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Silverpine Forest, Swamp of Sorrows, Westfall | Underwater | 1.48-1.86g |
| Bruiseweed | 100 | Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Stonetalon Mountains, The Barrens | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Ashenvale, Blackfathom Deeps, Darkshore, Desolace, Loch Modan, Redridge Mountains, Silverpine Forest, Thousand Needles, Wailing Caverns, Westfall, Wetlands | Hillsides | 42-52s |
| Wild Steelbloom | 115 | Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Stranglethorn Vale | Alterac Mountains, Ashenvale, Desolace, Duskwood, Hillsbrad Foothills, Stonetalon Mountains, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Wetlands | Hillsides | 6.8-8.6g |
| Gravemoss | 120 | Duskwood | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Desolace, Razorfen Downs, Scarlet Monastery, The Barrens, Wetlands | Graveyards | |
| Kingsblood | 125 | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Hillsbrad Foothills, Stranglethorn Vale | Ashenvale, Desolace, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Stonetalon Mountains, Swamp of Sorrows, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Wailing Caverns, Wetlands | Open areas | |
| Liferoot | 150 | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Stranglethorn Vale, Swamp of Sorrows | Ashenvale, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Scarlet Monastery, The Hinterlands, Wailing Caverns, Wetlands | Riverbanks, Shorelines | 1.54 – 1.93g |
| Fadeleaf | 160 | Badlands, Swamp of Sorrows | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Dustwallow Marsh, Razorfen Kraul, Scarlet Monastery, Stranglethorn Vale, The Hinterlands | Open Areas | 7.47-9.34g |
| Goldthorn | 170 | Alterac Mountains, Badlands, Stranglethorn Vale | Arathi Highlands, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Razorfen Downs, Scarlet Monastery, Swamp of Sorrows, The Hinterlands | Hillsides | 6.95 – 8.82g |
| Khadgar’s Whisker | 185 | Badlands, Stranglethorn Vale | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, Hillsbrad Foothills, Swamp of Sorrows, The Hinterlands | Shady Areas | 6.66 – 8.33g |
| Wintersbite | 195 | Alterac Mountains | Doesn’t appear to be elsewhere | Snowy Hills | |
| Firebloom | 205 | Tanaris, Blasted Lands | Badlands, Searing Gorge | Desert areas and Hillsides | 1.96-2.45g |
| Purple Lotus | 210 | Tanaris | Ashenvale, Azshara, Badlands, Feralas, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, The Hinterlands | Hillsides | 3.6 – 4.5g |
| Sungrass | 230 | The Hinterlands | Azshara, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, Un’Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands | Open Areas | 5.88-7.35g |
| Blindweed | 235 | Swamp of Sorrows | Un’Goro Crater | Riverbanks, Shorelines | 5.48-6.86g |
| Ghost Mushroom | 245 | The Hinterlands (Skull Rock cave) | Zangarmarsh, Maraudon | Southeast of the lake in The Hinterlands | 28.1-36.2g |
| Gromsblood | 250 | Desolace | Blasted Lands, Felwood | Hillsides | 7.8g-9.8g |
| Arthas’ Tears | 250 | Western Plaguelands | Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Razorfen Downs | Hillsides | 7.37-9.21g |
| Golden Sansam | 260 | Un’Goro Crater | Azshara, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Feralas, The Hinterlands | Open Areas | 3.29-4.11g |
| Dreamfoil | 270 | Un’Goro Crater | Azshara, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Un’Goro Crater, Western Plaguelands | Open Areas | 7.92-9.9g |
| Mountain Silversage | 280 | Un’Goro Crater | Azshara, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Felwood, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring | Hillsides | |
| Plaguebloom | 285 | Eastern Plaguelands | Felwood, Western Plaguelands | Shady Areas | 11.96-14.96g |
| Icecap | 290 | Winterspring | Doesn’t appear to be elsewhere | Open Areas | 9.93-12.41g |
| Black Lotus | 300 | Winterspring | Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Zangarmarsh (Bog Giants/Lords Corpses), Silithus | Various | 233.2-291.6g |
Category: World of Warcraft | Tags: guide, herbalism, herbs, information, tips, World of Warcraft, wow
World of Warcraft Mining Guide
According to one gold-making guide I read, “Mining is maybe the most profitable gathering skill. Why? It’s used for 3 different tradeskills.” That means you always have lots of potential customers for your ore. Some ore veins will drop rare gems, which are in high demand for jewelcrafting and other skills.
I can tell you from my personal experience that mining can be very profitable. I put together a list of all the places in Un’Goro Crater where I found Thorium Veins. Then, I spent an hour or two moving from one of those places to another, looking for a Thorium Vein to spawn there. When it did, which was maybe 1 in 4 places, I would collect anywhere from 1-6 Thorium Ores, Dense Stone, and sometimes a gem or two. At the end of the night, I was able to sell a stack of Thorium Ore for 19 gold. That’s definitely a nice profit. Along the way, I also gained XP from killing the mobs and managed to complete a quest or two for additional XP. So if Thorium sells for as much on your server as it does on mine, and you’re level 50+, this could be a very valuable tip for you.
If you’re going to be serious about mining, get an add-on like MetaMap that allows you to keep track of where you find ore in a given area. Ore spawns in a limited number of locations in an area, so if you mine that area for long you will have a pretty good idea where all the ore locations are. This can make your mining efforts incredibly efficient. You can literally just run from one location to the next picking up ore. Remember, this can be useful even if all you’re doing is loading up on Copper Ore, since there is always someone who needs whatever ore you’re selling. An area that’s rich in Copper Ore is also probably populated with very low-level mobs an thus is pretty safe for you to mine in.
Following is a table of the various ores, the skill needed to mine them, and the most fruitful places to mine them (places whose names are in bold are those other players have recommended are ideal locations for mining that ore):
| Ore | Skill Needed to Mine | Best Locations to Mine | Other Locations With the Ore | Price per Stack |
| Copper | 1 | Darkshore, Orgrimmar, The Barrens, Mulgore, Thousand Needles, Westfall, Elwynn Forest, Redridge Mountains, Loch Modan, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Silverpine Forest, Tirisfal Glades | Wetlands, Duskwood, Desolace, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale Forest | 63-79s |
| Tin | 65 | Darkshore, Ashenvale Forest, Stonetalon Mountains, Desolace, The Barrens, Thousand Needles, Duskwood, Westfall, Redridge Mountains, Loch Modan, Wetlands, Hillsbrad Foothills, Silverpine Forest | The Shimmering Flats, Stranglethorn Vale, Arathi Highlands, Alterac Mountains | 1.68-2.10g |
| Incendicite Mineral | 65 | The Wetlands (in the cave near Loch Modan) | No other concentrations of Incendicite Mineral noted. | 60-75s |
| Silver | 75 | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Redridge Mountains, Duskwood, Stranglethorn Vale, Thousand Needles, Desolace | Silverpine Forest, The Hinterlands, Wetlands, Loch Modan, Swamp of Sorrows, Westfall, Tanaris, The Shimmering Flats, Feralas, The Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale Forest, Darkshore | 12.4-15.6g |
| Lesser Bloodstone | 125 | Arathi Highlands (near Hammerfall) | No other concentrations of Lesser Bloodstone noted. | 1.67-2.13g |
| Iron | 125 | Alterac Mountains, Arathi Highlands, Swamp of Sorrows, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, The Shimmering Flats, Thousand Needles, Desolace, Ashenvale Forest, Badlands | The Hinterlands, Wetlands, Badlands, Searing Gorge, Duskwood, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, The Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains | 3.12-3.92g |
| Gold | 155 | Alterac Mountains, The Hinterlands, Arathi Highlands, Badlands, Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, Thousand Needles, Desolace | Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, Wetlands, Duskwood, Swamp of Sorrows, Blasted Lands, The Shimmering Flats, Silithus, Dustwallow Marsh, Feralas, The Barrens, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale Forest, Azshara, Felwood, Winterspring | 10.8-13.6g |
| Mithril | 175 | Desolace, Azshara, Felwood, Sunrock Retreat, Feralas, Tanaris, Stranglethorn Vale, Blasted Lands, Burning Steppes, Badlands, Searing Gorge, Hinterlands, Alterac Mountains, Western Plaguelands, Winterspring | Eastern Plaguelands, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, Swamp of Sorrows, Silithus, Un’Goro Crater, Thousand Needles, Mojache, Dustwallow Marsh | 6.39 – 7.99g |
| Truesilver | 230 | Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands, The Hinterlands, Badlands, Burning Steppes, Un’Goro Crater, Azshara, Winterspring, Uldaman | Alterac Mountains, Hillsbrad Foothills, Arathi Highlands, Searing Gorge, Swamp of Sorrows, Blasted Lands, Stranglethorn Vale, Tanaris, Silithus, Feralas, Dustwallow Marsh, Stonetalon Mountains, Felwood | 14-17.5g |
| Dark Iron | 230 | Blackrock Depths, Burning Steppes, Searing Gorge | No other concentrations of Dark Iron noted. | 2.90-3.62g |
| Thorium | 250 (Small Thorium Veins), 275 (Rich Thorium Veins) | Winterspring, Azshara, Un’Goro Crater, Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, Western Plaguelands | The Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, Blasted Lands, Tanaris, Silithus, Feralas, Felwood | 13.72-17.15g |
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World of Warcraft Gold-Making Guide, Part 4
Become a Sporting Goods Vendor
Most in-game fishermen want the “Big Iron Fishing Pole” and will pay a decent amount of gold to get it. According to one guide, this pole can only be found in one place. That one place is “inside the cage traps on the ocean floor near the Horde town on the West coast of Desolace”. Supposedly, if you head out of the town, go into the water directly west of the dock, and swim down, there are traps on the bottom of the water. When you open these traps, inside you’ll find shellfish, spawn a mob, or get a Big Iron Fishing Pole. The author of this tip says that he was able to find 2 in a “fair amount of time” and sell them on the Auction House for 25 gold each.
Broker Limited Supply Recipes
I’ve had some success with this technique myself. There are several recipes you can pick up from NPC vendors in the game and resell on the Auction House for a serious profit. Below is a list of items, where you can buy them, and the kind of profit you may expect. I recommend checking the prices in your Auction House before attempting to resell any of these items. You may find they’re not profitable on your server or that many other people are already selling them.
Item: Blue Fireworks Schematic
Buy from: Darian Singh in the Mage Quarter at Stormwind
Profit: Buy at 18s and sell for 1-2 gold
Buy from: Darian Singh in the Mage Quarter at Stormwind
Profit: Buy at 18s and sell for 1-2 gold
Item: Free Action Potion Recipe
Buy from: Soolie Berryfizz in Tinker Town at Ironforge
Profit: Buy at 18s and sell for 3-4 gold
Item: Green Leather Armor and Red Whelp Gloves Patterns
Buy from: Wenna Silkbeard in Sundown Marsh in the Wetlands
Profit: Buy at 20s and sell for 1g
Item: Minor Recombobulator Schematic
Buy from: Frad Swiftgear in Sundown Marsh in the Wetlands
Profit: Buy for 15s and sell for 1-2g
Item: Shadow Oil Recipe
Buy from: Bliztik at Raven Hill in Duskwood, Montarr in Thousand Needles or Blasted Lands
Profit: Buy for 15s and sell for 3-5g
Item: Gnomish Cloaking Device Schematic
Buy from: Zan Shivsproket at Ravenholt Manor in Hillsbrad
Profit: Buy for 15s and sell for 8-10g
Item: Gem-studded Leather Belt and Shadow Skin Gloves
Buy from: Rikqiz at Booty Bay in Stranglethorn Vale
Profit: Buy for 35s – 1g, sell for 3-5g
Item: Elixir of Shadow Power
Buy from: Alchemy vendor in Stormwind
Profit: Buy for 15s, sell for 3.5g
Item: Elixir of Demon Slaying
Buy from: Nina Lightbrew in the Blasted Lands, Rartar in Swamp of Sorrows
Profit: Buy for 90s
Item: Elixir of Superior Defense
Buy from: Kor’geld in Orgrimmar or Stranglethorn Vale, Soolie Berryfizz in Ironforge, or Vosur Brakthel in Ironforge
Profit: Buy for 1.30g
Item: Fire Protection Potion
Buy from: Kor’geld in Orgrimmar or Stranglethorn Vale, Soolie Berryfizz in Ironforge, or Vosur Brakthel in Ironforge, Ulthir in Dustwallow Marsh, Tally Berryfizz in Ironforge
Profit: Buy for 18s
Item: Frost Oil
Buy from: Bro’kin in the Alterac Mountains, Bro’kin in the Hillsbrad Foothills
Profit: Buy for 25s, sell for 2g
Item: Frost Protection Potion
Buy from: Drovnar Strongbrew in Arathi Highlands, Glyx Brewright in Stranglethorn Vale, Hammon Karwn in Arathi Highlands, Skuerto in Arathi Highlands
Profit: Buy for 20s
Item: Great Rage Potion
Buy from: Hagrus in Orgrimmar, Ulthir in Darkshore, Ulthir in Dustwallow Marsh
Profit: Buy for 20s
Item: Major Healing Potion
Buy from: Argent Quartermaster Hasana in Tirisfal Glades, Argent Quartermaster Lightspeak in Alterac Mountains, Argent Quartermaster Lightspark in Western Plaguelands, Quartermaster Miranda Breechlock in Eastern Plaguelands, Evie Whirlbrew in Winterspring, Evie Whirlbrew in Badlands
Profit: Buy for 36s to 1.5g
Item: Major Mana Potion
Buy from: Argent Quartermaster Hasana in Tirisfal Glades, Argent Quartermaster Lightspeak in Alterac Mountains, Quartermaster Miranda Breechlock in Eastern Plaguelands
Profit: Buy for 18s
Item: Nature Protection Potion
Buy from: Alchemist Pestlezugg in Hillsbrad Foothills/Tanaris/Swamp of Sorrows, Bronk in Feralas or Stonetalon Mountains, Glyx Brewright in Stranglethorn Vale, Logannas in Feralas
Profit: Buy for 20s
Item: Superior Healing Potion
Buy from: Bronk in Feralas or Stonetalon Mountains, Evie Whirlbrew in Winterspring, Evie Whirlbrew in Badlands, Logannas in Feralas/Stonetalon Mountains, Nina Lightbrew in Blasted Lands
Profit: Buy for 9-10s
Item: Superior Healing Potion
Buy from: Bronk in Feralas or Stonetalon Mountains, Evie Whirlbrew in Winterspring, Evie Whirlbrew in Badlands, Logannas in Feralas/Stonetalon Mountains, Nina Lightbrew in Blasted Lands, Rartar in Swamp of Sorrows, Ruw in Feralas, Thultazor in Swamp of Sorrows
Profit: Buy for 9-10s
Item: Superior Mana Potion
Buy from: Ulthir in Darkshore/Dustwallow Marsh
Profit: Buy for 1.2g
Item: Transmute Mithril to Truesilver
Buy from: Alchemist Pestlezugg in Tanaris/Hillsbrad Foothills/Swamp of Sorrows
Profit: Buy for 80s
Pearl Farming in the Wetlands
One player tells me that if you go to the Wetlands to Menethil Harbor, exit Menethil and head northeast to the area where the “Bluegill” mobs (level 20-25) are located, you can make a fair amount of money. About 30% of the time these mobs drop a Thick Shelled Clam. When you open these clams, you will usually get Tangy Clam Meat, but sometimes get Small Lustrous Pearls or Iridescent Pearls. Iridescent Pearls can sell for 1-3 gold in the auction house. If you farm the Bluegill area for very long, you will probably collect several of these pearls.
Basilisk Hunting in Tanaris
In Tanaris, south of Gadgetzan (and elsewhere), you’ll encounter level 40-45 mobs called Glasshide Basilisks. If you farm these mobs for a while, you will amass a collection of tails, eyeballs, scales, and other items that sell for a few silver each. You will also occasionally receive some rarer weapon and armor drops that can be sold for 3-5 gold.
Farming Ghosts in Winterspring
According to one source, in Winterspring you can find a spot where level 55-57 ghost spawns appear. These mobs are said to die fast, not hit too hard, and drop the Formula for the Icy Chill in around 30 minutes worth of farming. This formula can sell for 25g or more depending on the market on your server.
Low Level Characters Can Make Money with Light Feathers
The Light Feather reagent is used in a number of mage and priest spells. It also is relatively easy to obtain, if you can kill level 8 birds. Areas like The Barrens and Westfall spawn a number of birds that drop these feathers and they can sell for up to 4 gold per stack on some servers.
Collect Runecloth in the Western Plaguelands
Not far from the entrance to the zone, near the Hippogriff post, is a graveyard filled with level 50-52 undead mobs. These mobs will frequently drop runecloth, which stacks into lots of 20 and can sell for up to 5 gold per stack. If you have the tailoring skill, you can turn the cloth into Runecloth Bags which sell for 8g or more each on some servers. The reporter of this particular tip estimates you can make around 33 gold an hour doing this.
Category: World of Warcraft | Tags: gold, gold-making, guide, money-making, tips, World of Warcraft, wow
World of Warcraft Gold-Making Guide, Part 3
Don’t Sell Stacks of 20
If you have a stack of 20 of something that sells for, say, 10 gold, don’t sell it as a single stack of 20. Sell it as four stacks of 5, and price each stack at 3.5 gold (for example). You’ll earn 14 gold that way instead of 10. Also, don’t list too many stacks of items at one time.
Broker Items
In some cases, when I’ve checked the current prices for an item, I find one or more sellers who are pricing it drastically lower than the others. For example, I might be looking at Medium Hides. Player A might be listing 5 of them for 5s, Player B might be listing 5 for 6s, and Players C-F listing them for 9s each. In those cases, I’ll often buy out Player A and B, then immediately re-list those stacks of hides for 8s or 9s. That now, at least temporarily, makes the going rate for a stack of 5 Medium Hides 8-9s, and since mine are the lowest priced, they’ll probably sell first. In the process, I make 5-6s just for re-listing them. But that’s just an example. You can find many more-expensive items in the same situation. Just be careful that the price you’re paying for the items isn’t more than they typically sell for on your server. That’s where the Auctioneer add-on can help a lot. It tracks the current pricing in the Auction House for you and lets you know what you should expect to get/pay for an item based on your server’s market.
Disenchanting and Enchanting
I’ve done a little of this with a lower-level character in my account and I can vouch for the fact that disenchanting CAN be profitable. One guide describes this as the “certainly least profitable gathering skill” though I’m not so sure, for a reason I will explain momentarily. If you search the Auction House for green, blue, and purple items, you will find that there are plenty of lower-level items available for sale reasonably cheaply. I’ve seen some mediocre green weapons and armor selling for prices of 20 silver or less at buyout. If you buy those items and disenchant them, my experience has been that I often (though not always) end up getting ingredients that can be sold for far more than I paid for the item. I suspect that if an enchanter made a regular practice of buying up all the cheap green items in the Auction House, disenchanting them, and selling the results, he’d make a decent profit at minimal risk to himself.
Similarly, an enchanter who happens to loot a “binds on pick up” item they can’t use may find that disenchanting that item offers a better reward than dumping it on an NPC vendor. I’ve seen this strategy used in dungeon crawling. Each time a player loots an item that binds on pickup that no one can use, they roll for it. The enchanter disenchants it for the winner, so that the winner can sell the ingredients later.
Farming Scarlet Monastery
The Scarlet Monastery in Horde lands contains multiple instances. It’s possible to solo these instances if you’re at a high enough level (most of the mobs inside are in the level 35-40 range). It’s said that if you go through there and disenchant the items you loot from the mobs, you can easily collect a lot of Small Radiant Shards, Large Glowing Shards, and other useful items. These can be sold on the auction house for a lot of gold. The author of this particular strategy says he was able to make about 60 gold in an hour by disenchanting and selling stuff from these instances.
Another guide mentions that if you go in the Graveyard instance, there is a torturer in the first room who spawns a chest with 3g worth of green items in it every time. If you leave reset the instance, and repeat, you can collect a lot of good loot. (At least, that’s what the author of that guide says. Personally, I think you run the risk of this being deemed an “exploit” by Blizzard.)
Farming the Un’Goro Crater Gorilla Cave
In the Un’Goro Crater, in the northeast corner of the map, you’ll find a cave filled with gorillas. They’re all level 51-55. A level 60 warrior said that after 1 hour there, he returned with 19 tufts of Gorilla Hair, 18 Gorilla Fangs, 2 empty barrels, 3 Coarse Gorilla Hairs, 1 green item (leather pants), and 12 Un’Goro Soils. He was able to sell all this on his server for around 8gp. On my server, I’ve seen the soil sell for more than he got, so this might be very profitable on some servers.
DM East for 400gp an Hour
Supposedly in the DM East instance there is a Rich Thorium Vein. If you mine that vein, reset the instance, mine it again, etc., you can supposedly get quite a bit of Thorium Ore and rare gems. On the other hand, the author of this particular strategy claims that Blizzard banned his account for doing this, so I don’t recommend it.
World of Warcraft Gold-Making Guide, Part 2
Mining for Fun and Profit
According to one guide I read, “Mining is maybe the most profitable gathering skill. Why? It’s used for 3 different tradeskills.” That means you always have lots of potential customers for your ore. Some ore veins will drop rare gems, which are in high demand for jewelcrafting and other skills.
I can tell you from my personal experience that mining can be very profitable. I looked at MapWow.com to locate all the Rich Thorium veins in Un’Goro crater, and put together a list of all the coordinates. Then, I spent an hour or two moving from one of those places to another, looking for a Thorium Vein to spawn there. When it did, which was maybe 1 in 4 places, I would collect anywhere from 1-6 Thorium Ore, Dense Stone, and sometimes a gem or two. At the end of the run, I had a stack of Thorium I was able to sell for 19 gold. That’s definitely a nice profit. Along the way, I also gained XP from killing mobs and managed to complete a quest or two for additional XP. So if Thorium sells for as much on your server as it does on mine, and you’re level 50+, this could be a very valuable tip for you. Burning Steppes, Eastern Plaguelands, and Winterspring are supposed to offer good Thorium deposits, but I’ve never farmed those so I can’t vouch for that.
If you’re going to be serious about mining, get an add-on like MetaMap that allows you to keep track of where you find ore in a given area. Ore spawns in a limited number of locations in an area, so if you mine that area for long you will have a pretty good idea where all the ore locations are. This can make your mining efforts incredibly efficient. You can literally just run from one location to the next picking up ore. Remember, this can be useful even if all you’re doing is loading up on Copper Ore, since there is always someone who needs whatever ore you’re selling. An area that’s rich in Copper Ore is also probably populated with very low-level mobs an thus is pretty safe for you to mine in.
While a number of people say that mining Lesser Bloodstone Ore in the Drywhisker cave hear Hammerfall in the Arathi Highlands can be profitable if you list it in the Booty Bay auction house, I’ve not found this to be the case myself. The theory behind this tip is that you’re making the ore available in the only place in the game where you can actually use it. In my experience, it seems to remain unsold for days on end, at any price.
The same is also said of Incendicite Ore, which is in a cave north of Dun Algaz in the Wetlands. This ore is used for Pilot Stonegear’s quest “Search of Incendicite” in Dun Morogh. Again, I’ve personally had little success selling this particular ore.
Skinning for Fun and Profit
If you’re a hunter, this is one heck of a valuable skill. It’s also very easy to max out. Most beasts you kill can be skinned, and the skins can be sold in the Auction House for quite a nice bit of money. At the higher levels, you can sell a stack of hides for 1-2gp or more. You can also follow behind other players who don’t have the skill and skin their kills for them, giving you the chance to make money without taking the risk of being killed. I can definitely recommend this.
If you have skinning skill, I recommend doing your level-up grinding at areas where there are lots of beasts you can skin. The reason being that if you make it a habit of skinning the beasts you kill as you level, you’ll return home to find that you have backpacks full of valuable hides you can sell. And don’t sell those hides to an NPC vendor. You’ll be throwing away money. List them in the Auction House.
If you’re up to the rigors of Outland and have a high skinning skill, you have a unique opportunity to make a good bit of gold by farming the Clefthoof Bulls which are just beyond the Northeast exit of Halaa in Nagrand. These particular creatures seem to drop the expensive “Thick Clefthoof Hide” fairly often. I’ve spent an hour or so there and gathered a stack or more of it, which sells for over 20 gold on my server.
Herbalism
I haven’t tried this skill, so I can’t tell you if it works or not. I’ve heard some players say it doesn’t, and others saying it’s a fairly well kept secret how profitable it can be. The truth may be somewhere in the middle. According to one guide, “Herbs are a bit hard to find, but if you know the spots it becomes actually easy if you have no competition. Herbs sell surprisingly well on the AH and are not offered often.”
Elsewhere, I’ve heard that you can make a lot of money farming the Black Lotus with Herbalism. The herb can supposedly sell for 5-25g depending on the server. The herb can be found in Alterac Valley, Silithus, Winterspring, Burning Steppes, and the Eastern Plaguelands.
If your Herbalism skill is 245 or above, you should be able to gather Ghost Mushrooms. They are one of the most sought-after herbs in the game. These are located in a cave called Skulk Rock in the Hinterlands. Supposedly you can gather 10-25g worth of these per hour in that cave. Your character needs to be at least level 44, because the mobs in the cave are level 46-48. The mushrooms respawn approximately every 12-15 minutes. The first spawn area is on the upper ledge of the cave on the east side, occasionally on the pathway down to the lower level of the cave. The second area is on the lower level in the western room with the small pond in it. The third area is on the lower level in the easternmost room. The mobs in the area will occasionally drop rare and epic items.
I’m also told that the Elder Shardtooths in Winterspring drop a lot of Rugged Leather and Warbear Leather. I haven’t confirmed this.
Instance Loot Analysis: Deadmines
In my study of how much gold a player can make by soloing various lower-level instances, I decided to make a run through the Deadmines instance. I was able to run through the entire instance in approximately 30 minutes.
Loot from mobs: 1 gold, 43 silver
Junk items sold to vendor: 26 silver, 13 copper
Common items sold at auction house: 18 gold, 52 silver, 68 copper
Uncommon items sold at auction house: 19 gold, 60 silver, 58 copper
Rare items (bind on pick-up) sold to vendor: 1 gold, 89 silver, 83 copper
Total take for Deadmines run: 41 gold, 72 silver, 22 copper
I should point out that I got extremely lucky with rare items, picking up a total of 8 rare (blue) items in this run. However, those items are responsible for less than 2 gold of the total take.
Based on the above, my estimate is that if you ran Deadmines back to back as fast as you could, you’d take in approximately 82-83 gold per hour, based on my server’s (Fenris) pricing.
To help you identify your own estimated value for a solo run through Deadmines, see the list below for a list of the items I looted on my run:
JUNK ITEMS: QTY.
Light Hunting Bow 1
Unbalanced Axe 1
Canvas Cloak 1
Ornamental Mace 3
Stock Shortsword 1
Shiny Fish Scales 1
Murloc Eye 1
COMMON ITEMS:
Pattern: Blue Overalls 1
Wool Cloth 63
Linen Cloth 92
Tin Ore 8
Coarse Stone 9
Rough Stone 4
Copper Ore 9
Parrot Cage (Green Wing Macaw) 1
Lesser Healing Potion 1
Dalaran Sharp 1
Haunch of Meat 5
Copper Modulator 1
Scroll of Strength 2
Pattern: Murloc Scale Breastplate 1
UNCOMMON ITEMS:
Buccaneer’s Cape of the Eagle 1
Edged Bastard Sword of the Bear 1
Seer’s Belt 1
Defender Shield of the Tiger 1
Bandit Bracers of Agility 1
Buccaneer’s Cape of the Whale 1
Pattern: White Leather Jerkin 1
Inscribed Leather Breastplate 1
Blackened Defias Boots 1
Northern Shortsword of Strength 1
Shimmering Boots of the Eagle 1
Moss Agate 1
Bandit Cloak of the Monkey 1
Bandit Bracers of the Whale 1
RARE ITEMS:
Cruel Barb 1
Buzzer Blade 1
Taskmaster Axe 1
Smelting Pants 1
Smite’s Mighty Hammer 1
Emberstone Staff 1
Rhahk’Zor’s Hammer 1
Cookie’s Stirring Rod 1
Instance Loot Analysis: Stormwind Stockades
Having recently spent a big chunk of my hunter’s gold on an epic rifle and a scope, I decided to see what kind of gold I could generate by soloing some of the lower-level instances. I first decided to tackle the Stockades in Stormwind. Here’s how that turned out…
Cash looted from mobs: 1 gold, 92 silver, 92 copper
Junk items sold to vendor: 1 gold, 12 silver, 39 copper
Common items sold at auction house: 10 gold, 62 silver, 69 copper
Uncommon (green) items sold at auction house: 20 gold, 70 silver, 3 copper
Total take: 34 gold, 38 silver, 30 copper
I ran the instance in exactly 20 minutes, killing all the mobs, looting all the corpses, and claiming the contents of the two large chests inside.
On a second run, my take was approximately the same and it took approximately the same amount of time to run the instance, so I think for my server (Fenris) 34 gold is a typical “take” for soloing Stormwind Stockades.
To help you see how running the Stockades on your server compares to mine, here’s a list of the common and uncommon items I looted during one run through:
COMMON ITEMS, QTY
Linen Cloth 21
Melon Juice 3
Wool Cloth 77
Healing Potion 2
Silk Cloth 16
Dwarven Mild 3
UNCOMMON ITEMS, QTY
Polished Zweihander of the Wolf 1
Ivycloth Sash of Intellect 1
Silver-thread Boots 1
Bright Armor 1
Forest Leather Boots 1
Moss Agate 1
Defias Renegade Ring 2
Bright Gloves 1
Forest Leather Bracers 1
Zircon Band of Nature Resistance 1
Bright Bracers 1
