[World of Warcraft] - Starting out - How to make Money?

[Ziroc]

Okay, I just installed WoW, and I am now level 6 after an hour or three. I am a Dwarven Paladin, and on the (PW Frostlady server--I think thats right) I am in the first Inn you reach so far.

I just thought that it would be good to give tips for new users starting out. How to make money--It's slow going. So far, the only money I am finding, is off of semi-humanoid types (trolls, and such) they give a few coppers. And the quests sometimes give you 50-90 copper, but when you see items that are like 5 silver (100 copper = 1 silver) its kinda slow to find loot.

Any tips? I've completed 8 quests in the starting area, and have my inn as my home, and if you log out in the inn, you gain a rest bonus.

[SecretMaster]

When you get a profession, life becomes much much much easier.

Since your a Dwarven Paladin, Mining and Blacksmithing is a great choice.

And since your a dwarf, there are great options for you in terms of making money. Early on Wendigos offer great things while demanding little. They can be skinned. They almost always drop money and cloth.
The real key is finding your own money making area however. Humanoids always drop good coin, and linen cloth. Linen cloth is your best little friend early on. It sells for a great price, and sells even better once you find an auction house.

Also, early levels don't see to much of the silvers. You'll really start getting some nice coinage around level 14+, when good (green) items are semi-frequent.

So basically, low level characters look for humanoids, and wherever gets you the best deals. Everyone finds a certain hunting zone of their preference, where they can maximize the most out of a small area.

Also, never underestimate the auction house. It is your best friend. An example: I found an alchemy recipe that require an alchemy skill of 70. It could be sold for a vendor for 4 silver or so. I put that bad boy up in an auction house, walked out with a jingling of 2 whole gold pieces.

The auction house (when accessible), is sorta like the WoW stock market. If you study the trends carefully, you can make a huge profit and have few losses. But if you aren't careful, you won't gain much.

Some tips for the auction house: Hold onto any recipes you can't use, they sell like wildfire at the auction houses.

Supplies for production professions (Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, Alchemy, Tailoring) often sell well. However, the key is to see what is selling. If there are hordes of light leather on the market and they are being auctioned off like crazy, join in. But if another product, say linen cloth, ain't selling to well, don't waste your time.

Auction during peak hours. Thats usually afternoonish around your realm, when most players are on. You can get the best deals when everyone is rushing in and out.

I could write a tome on this...

[Ziroc]

VERY good advice! Also, when making an auction, should you leave it up for a short time if you don't know if it'll sell well? Because the house gets a percentage?

Yeah, I went to the auction house, and it was packed (in Ironforge). BTW, I do plan to make mining and blacksmithing my trades! [img]smile.gif[/img] I may start up a little business!

[Luvian]

I tried gathering/crafting combo, and I tried 2 gathering skills, and it seem that just getting gathering skills pay more. For example mining and herb picking, since you can get tons of cash for the material. The only problem is that you then need to buy your equipments.

I used up so much material to raise my tradeskills that i'd probably be rich by now if I had just sold them.

I have a decent level tailor and leatherworker, as well as a low level 15 Smith and engineer. If anyone join the Icecrown server give me a shout and I can hook you up with bags and armors.

[SecretMaster]

Originally posted by Luvian: I tried gathering/crafting combo, and I tried 2 gathering skills, and it seem that just getting gathering skills pay more. For example mining and herb picking, since you can get tons of cash for the material. The only problem is that you then need to buy your equipments. I used up so much material to raise my tradeskills that i'd probably be rich by now if I had just sold them. I have a decent level tailor and leatherworker, as well as a low level 15 Smith and engineer. If anyone join the Icecrown server give me a shout and I can hook you up with bags and armors.

Lol, our own little IW black market.

As for Ziroc...

Experiment with all kinds of things. I haven't played the short auction time yet, mainly because I just don't think it would sell well. But it makes me wonder if you auctioned a nice item at a low auction time for during peak hours, maybe it would be a buying frenzy. My guess is no but why not give it a try.

But for starters, go with whatever you feel comfortable with. I started auction houses with long durations, and while the percentage fee is a problem, when you get higher money amounts it is negligable.

Also, once you get a feel for the market itself, start putting up buyout prices. If you know what sells great and have a feel for how certain items sell, put it up. You'd be amazed what happens.

[Luvian]

Presonally, I don't bid on long auctions.

I want the short ones. Maybe a medium (2hours) one if I'm desperate, but not long ones.

I don't see any value in leather. Beast are just too common.

My recipes use the equivalent of about 80-100 light leather now. I got that and more in one run in any beast populated area.

Leather is so common I stoped going out of my way to find beasts because I was at the point I could create items 4 and 5 levels above me.

[ 01-04-2005, 04:04 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[SpiritWarrior]

Tailoring pays the most IMHO since bags retail for high prices and gathering the material is less choresome than most other skills. Still, I'd never take tailoring just for the money as some people do, I'd of course have to be a cloth-wearing mage or sommat.

The value in leather and ore lie in the time spent to mine/collect it. Linen kills time but gets you xp as you loot it mostly from kills.

[Luvian]

But that's my point. You don't lose any time getting leather, I'd say about half the monsters in the games are beast. You can't go in a zone and not encounter beasts.

I agree with mining, mines are rares and spread around, but if I wanted, I could get tousand of light and medium leather in a day.

In about 30-60 mins of hunting, I can fill all my pack slots with maxed stack of leather.

Leather is way more common than any other material, even linen/wool/silk/mageweave.

You get maybe one piece of tissue every 5-20 humanoid. You get 1-2 leather every beast. Anything above level 15 don't drop ruined leather either.

[SpiritWarrior]

Well I took leatherworking on my Druid and I did find I still have to go out of my way to find leather.

Most of my quests at one stage involved Gnarls so in theory if I wanted to find leather I'd have to deter from my quests a bit and do some random animal hunting. I then need to find where the higher level animals are at but may end up settling for some lower levels with less to no xp.
Like I said, I found tailoring to be way easier cuz you find linen in chests more and on every second foe from Gnolls to Spirits. But then it also depends on where you are I suppose, I do see your point and leather is defo. up there with the 'easier' skills. Just not sure if it is as easy as tailoring is.

[SecretMaster]

Well in terms of trade skills, it depends on your region. Naturally, Orc, Taurens, and Trolls will have an easier time skinning because the surrounding environment is great for skinning.

Azeroth has much more humanoids that drop clothes, so tailoring looks like a better match.

Like I said, it mainly depends on your area, although they try to give every region everything, some places are better than others.