Just starting your WoW journey and trying to figure out the ins and outs of gold-making? Then this guide is exactly what you need! Right here, we’ve put together all the essential info about WoW gold, from the very basics to practical tips on how to make your grind faster and easier. While this guide is primarily aimed at newer players, we hope that seasoned adventurers might also find a few handy insights to boost their coffers.
What Is Gold in WoW, and Why Do You Need It?
Gold is the primary currency in WoW that’s used to fund almost all your purchases. Here are the most common things players spend their coins on:
Gear
Having the right equipment is key to surviving and excelling in combat. As you level up, your gear will quickly become outdated, and you’ll need to upgrade it regularly, buying newer, more powerful pieces from vendors for gold.
Consumables
These include potions, elixirs, flasks, and food buffs, all of which improve your stats or restore health and mana during encounters. For challenging content, like raids and high-level dungeons, consumables are often a must, so you’ll need to always keep your stockpile well-supplied.
Mounts
Mounts not only make a stylish addition to your collection but also help you travel faster in WoW’s massive open world. However, they can be pricey, with some costing hundreds of thousands of gold plus some extra coins to learn mount riding skills.
Battle Pets
Battle pets are more than just cute companions — they’re versatile allies that can be useful in various ways, from assisting you in combat to providing unique buffs and bonuses.
Learning Abilities and Training Skills
Learning new abilities and leveling up your skills is a vital part of your progress in WoW. In newer Retail expansions, skills unlock automatically as you level up and spend talent points, but in WoW Classic, you still need to visit trainers and pay them for new abilities and upgrades.
Traveling
Flight paths allow you to quickly travel between locations, but each trip requires payment to the Flight Master. Mages can also teleport you from one place to another, and in most cases, you’ll have to pay them in gold.
Profession Leveling
Professions are a great way to earn gold, but leveling them up requires an upfront investment. Also, you’ll always need to spend money on learning new recipes and getting materials for your crafts.
How to Earn Gold
Now that we’ve discussed how important gold is, let’s talk about how you can actually make it.
Farming Mobs
It’s as simple as it gets: you just kill mobs and loot them for raw gold or valuable items and materials you can sell at the Auction House.
Quests
World Quests offer raw gold as a reward and overall make a great way to snag some really good loot for your character. Daily and weekly quests can also help you progress while earning both raw gold and items you can sell.
Dungeons and Raids
Instanced content, especially endgame dungeons and raids, is a fantastic source of gold. The strategy is simple: farm bosses and mobs, then sell valuable loot on the Auction House. Pay special attention to BoE items — they often sell for a hefty price, particularly early in a new expansion or patch.
Professions
Gathering professions allow you to collect raw materials and sell them directly or use them in your own crafts that you can also sell for profit later. Crafting professions like Alchemy and Blacksmithing often have a solid gold-making potential because the items they produce — consumables, weapons, and armor pieces — are always in demand. Enchanting is also a good choice as people always need enchants for their gear. Mining + Herbalism combo usually proves to be profitable during expansion or patch launches.
Item Flipping
This strategy involves buying low-priced items and reselling them at a higher price at the Auction House. More suited for skilled traders rather than beginners, this practice requires a solid understanding of WoW’s economy, an eye on market trends, and an advanced use of addons, not to mention substantial initial capital.
Selling Player Services
Mages can sell portals for gold, while Warlocks can charge a fee for their summons. More experienced players can also offer their services as teammates in raids and dungeons to help others complete challenging content in exchange for gold.
What Things Can Help You Make More Gold
If you want to rake in more gold and make the process smoother, there are several tools and strategies to help you level up your gold-making game.
Addons
Addons simplify almost every aspect of the game, and when it comes to gold-making, they’re absolutely essential. Here are a few must-haves:
- Auctionator: Great Auction House tool for beginners. Helps you keep track of prices and list items quickly and easily.
- TradeSkillMaster (TSM): A more advanced option with a ton of useful features, from basic price scans to detailed market analytics. Requires some time and effort to learn.
- CraftSim: Simulates crafting by calculating costs and profits and showing missing materials. Even suggests the most profitable items to make — all without spending anything on an actual craft.
- Handy Notes: Marks rare mobs, treasure chests, and other valuable resources on your map, making farming more efficient.
- No Mats No Make: Great for Patron Orders in The War Within. Warns you if you don’t have the materials needed to complete crafting requests.
- Questie and World Quest Tracker: Perfect for efficient questing, simplifying tracking, pickups, turn-ins, and many other routine tasks.
Alts
Once you’ve mastered the basics and maxed out your main, you should seriously consider creating a few alts if you want to take your gold-making to a whole new level.
First off, alts will help you cover more professions and have access to more crafting and gathering options to sell. Secondly, running the same gold-making routines on several characters will multiply your profits. Thirdly, you can park your alts at locations where rare mobs spawn and farm them much faster and more effectively. And most importantly, you can create a bank alt to manage your inventory and Auction House activities to save time and keep your main’s bags nice and clean.
Research
If you’re planning to sell at the Auction House, remember the golden rule: always do your research before listing anything. You really don’t want to spend hours farming an item no one wants to buy, wasting time and losing Auction fees only because you didn’t check the demand first.
The WoW economy is highly dynamic, with trends shifting constantly depending on expansions, patches, and player needs. To make gold at the Auction House, you must always stay informed about what’s in demand and why, plan your farming and sales accordingly, and be ready to adapt to changes.
