Top Ways to Earn Gold in World of Warcraft

Many new WoW players often ask the question: "How can I earn gold?". To some, it seems to be impossible to stay on top of your game whilst maintaining a comfortable amount of gold.

Earning gold isn't that hard, so long as you're willing to put a little time and effort into it. Saving gold isn't that hard either, you simply need to learn to control a little "impulse" shopping. Here are a few tips on how to save gold in WoW:

• Avoid the Auction House. Advertise in trade chat what it is that you are needing and try to find someone willing to sell it to you for cheaper than the Auction House listed price.
• Try not to buy mats for professions. If you're leveling a profession, try to have an alternative profession that compliments this main profession. Farm the mats that you need. This requires a lot of time and patients, but you'll save a lot of gold in the end.
• Don't die. Dying equals broken gear which equals repairs which equals no gold. Basically, dying makes you go broke.
• Dungeon and Raid for gear. Do this instead of buying all of your gear. This will save you a LOT of gold in the end.

Now that you know of some easy ways to save gold, here are some ways to actually earn gold:

Professions are one of the best ways to earn gold for non raiders, casuals, raiders, and die hard gamers alike. Gathering professions, such as Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning, provide one of the easiest ways to earn gold. These professions require very little expense and mats; all they really require is time and patience.

Other professions, such as Jewelcrafting, Leatherworking, Blacksmithing, etc. can provide a decent amount of gold, but they can also cost you a lot of gold as well. You really do not see profit from these professions until you have them at max level. The reason why these professions can cost you a lot is that they all require a gathering profession for most of their mats. If you don't have the necessary gathering profession (such as Mining for Blacksmithing), then you'll really spend a lot of gold.

What I have done to manage to save gold whilst having non gathering professions is that I have a Druid that is just my farm toon. She has Skinning and Herbalism on her. I also have a PvP Rogue in which I keep Mining on. This a way, my main toons (Death Knight and Shaman) can have their professions for raiding (Inscription/Blacksmithing and Leatherworking/Enchanting) without having to worry about needing to spend lots of gold to make new gear and such. I have found this to be the most efficient and profitable way to work my professions. However, I understand this route is not for everyone, because not everyone is willing to level so many toons.

If you're still intend on having a non gather profession, but don't feel like leveling a farm toon, try to have one gather profession and one non gather profession. Decide what main profession you want and pick the best desired gather profession for the main profession. Let's say you want Blacksmithing on your Warrior; the best side profession for Blacksmithing would be Mining.

The most gold I've ever earned from the game was when I went for the Loremaster achievement on my Death Knight. Loremaster is an achievement in which you've completed almost all of the quests available in the game. It's a fun and challenging achievement that really reaps the benefits in the end.This achievement is best completed at max level, because you earn more gold when you are level capped.

Earning Loremaster is not for everyone. If it's not for you, I still recommend doing at least some questing to earn gold, especially at the early levels. Quests are really the only way you'll earn any currency when you're first starting off in WoW.

Dailies are by far the best way to earn gold on a consistent, daily basis. Dailies are repeatable quests that can be completed each day. Each character is limited to a total of 25 dailies each day. This might not sound like a huge number, but when you actually do them, 25 dailies can take a large portion of your day (especially if you have 4 maxed characters like myself.

The best place in Cataclysm to do dailies is in Molten Front. Molten Front is located in a portal in Mount Hyjal. In order to access these dailies, you have to have completed almost all of the quests in Mount Hyjal.

Once you get pretty far in the Molten Front dailies, you will actually come close to doing all 25 dailies each day in the one area. This is extremely convenient because you don't have to fly around to different locations to find different dailies, which just takes more time.

Also, don't forget the cooking and fishing dailies located in your faction's major cities. These will help you earn levels in these skills (if you're not maxed out already) and will also give you a small portion of gold.

If you're in a good raiding guild, you can actually make a decent amount of gold with each raid you attend. Earning gold this way will take a while, as you need to count in the cost of constant repairs, purchasing food and flasks, gemming and enchanting new gear, etc..

Having professions that help you avoid the cost of having to buy your raid products will be very helpful. Leveling cooking is the best way to save gold on the food you'll need for buffs. You might also consider getting professions like Jewelcrafting and Enchanting so you can make your own gems and enchants and not have to spend a lot of gold.

Once you've learned how to maintain a little gold for the essentials you'll need for raiding, earning gold from raiding will be a breeze (provided your raid guild doesn't wipe constantly). This is probably one of the slower earning routes, however in the long run it will end up being the most fruitful.

Running old content is a great way to earn gold, especially if you're one of the classes that can solo easily (Death Knight, Druid, Paladin, etc..). I like to go to old raids, like Molten Core, on my Death Knight and farm. You'll be surprised with how much gold you'll end up earning once you've farmed up all the old content gear and random drop items. Just be sure to have plenty of bag space!

Some of the best old content places I've found to farm are: Molten Core, Gruul's Lair (very short and sweet), Karazhan (you will need at least a second person for the Chess Piece fight), and AQ. Not all of these require classes that are made for soloing. I've managed to solo AQ and Karazhan up until the Chest Piece fight on my Resto Shaman and Disc Priest. It was slightly more challenging than it was on my Death Knight, but it is doable.

The best part about running old content is that you get to see how the game has evolved since the early years. If you're like me, you get to reminisce on how these fights that you are now soloing used to wipe your guild's raid team constantly! Also, a lot of these old content places give you rep with old factions that are relatively hard to get now days. So if you love farming rep, this is definitely a great option.