Breakfast Topic: Classes shakin' their moneymaker
by Amanda Rivera 
Jul 6th 2007 at 8:00AM
When reader Morthagrid wrote in asking us to discuss the best moneymaking class I first had to read the email twice to confirm he was talking about classes, not professions. Then I sat down and thought about it for a while, days in fact. Which of my characters do I make the most money on? I am quick to respond mage, since she pounds down the mobs fast enough that even gray loot stacks up in sufficient enough quantities to be a financial boon. But she is also my main, so naturally she's going to make more money simply because I play her most.
I'd be interested to here what you have to say on the subject. Which class do you think is best at raking in the dough?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Classes, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Prester John Jul 6th 2007 8:06AM
Night Elf Mailboxdancer. It's a hero class.
p3ngu11 Jul 6th 2007 8:07AM
Mining and Herbing can be done by all classes. The same goes for daily quests that don't require you to kill anything.
The only class with an advantage would be a Paladin because of Crusader Aura.
Ryan Jul 6th 2007 8:49AM
I've herbed and mined on a few different classes, but I have to say that my druid is by far the best gathering class. Instant cast mount means you are less likely to pull a mob. Also with cyclone, entangling roots and soothe beast, you can grab the resources before ninjas even if you do pull aggro. I've gotten about 4200 so far after about a week of farming (4-5 hours per day).
Lunada Jul 6th 2007 8:17AM
It most likely would be the DPS classes (mages, locks, rogue, etc) cause the faster u kill something the sooner u can move on. Remember all the posts that prot warriors and pallies dont farm or quest cause they cant dps =P
daniel Jul 6th 2007 8:19AM
I'm so happy I chose alchemy/herbalism for my priest, since I'm PvE healing specced it's absolutely horrible to grind mobs with it. Even though I have atleast some half decent damage gear for around +630 dmg my mana is gone after 2 mobs and my shield/fear can hardly keep me alive while fighting more than 1-2 mobs.
With alch/herb I can make some 150-200g easily in a couple of hours farming and the 5 dailys I do.
Dvalin Jul 6th 2007 8:28AM
I am a prot Paladin (0/49/12) and I AoE farm blood elves in Netherstorm to make stupid amounts of gold...don't take my spot. :P
Dan Jul 6th 2007 8:30AM
I think there's a reason why most bots are hunters :) Easy to take on multiple mobs, very little downtime (no damage taken to player), and you can mine/pick flowers/skin while your pet sorts out the next mob...
Angael Jul 6th 2007 8:31AM
Hunter imo,
Great dps, great survivability and little downtime between mobs.
malo7913 Jul 6th 2007 6:39PM
I would have to say my mage as well. I can make an easy 12-20 gold avertising to port people to shatt from Org at 2g a pop. Yeah, I burn through mobs fast also, but it is the ability to make money just by standing in org that makes the mage the best money maker. Tips on water also comes in sporadically. Combine that with enchanting and I feel like I am losing money when I go out to grind.
khaosworks Jul 6th 2007 8:32AM
I'd have to vote for the hunter. One of the positives not mentioned already is the low repair costs, even on a non-death basis.
Jogimux Jul 6th 2007 8:43AM
I believe it would be a close tie between hunters and rogues.
I, personally, am a rogue, and I am never short of cash. I'm an enchanter/skinner, and they both work very well with my class.
There are a few BC instances (I won't mention here, because if everyone knows about them, they'll get nerfed) which I can stealth to a chest, loot the contents.
Loot includes...a guarunteed green (which I DE), sometimes a BOE blue (which I've sold for upwards of 100g), health/mana potions (help the guild out, along with minimising my raiding costs) and a gem of some kind (blue gems selling for 40-70g on my server, or go into my own gear).
I can do this 5 times an hour. The instance I do most often, I pickpocket everything on the way out, which gives all my flash powder/blinding powder/poison regeants, along with cash, and many gems/grey vendor trash.
All this is done without any repair bills of any kind. After I've done this, I'll jump on my flyer, go do my dailys OR I will go to the Coilscale Cobras and skin them for 40 minutes or so, netting me 100-200g worth of skins.
I then go back and repeat. I made 3000g in about 15 hours of farming last weekend.
Jogimux Jul 6th 2007 8:45AM
I forgot to mention, the chests themselves give about 8g, so without any other loot whatsoever, I'm getting 40g an hour.
ThorinII Jul 6th 2007 8:56AM
My main is a hunter and I have a rogue and a mage. My Hunter is in Outland now, so money is pooring in, but if you look at the same level span for each I'd say they all collected close to the same amount of money while leveling in the same areas.
IE: lvl 30 - 40 all three did the same quests in the same areas and I'd say they all gathered pretty much the same amount of cash.
Paw Jul 6th 2007 9:07AM
Strictly considering drops (not vendor farming):
My instinctive response would be hunter...with skinning as a prof, but my hunter only made OK money. Mage is the other top contender, with the ability to drop multiple mobs simultaneously.
But---
My paladin, oddly enough, had the best money-making abilities. For whatever reason; luck I guess; my paladin got more green and blue drops while leveling than any one my other toon. I'm talking good drops too, like skeletal shoulders off of a naga in STV, and several other blues selling for 30+ gold at the AH from mobs in the wild. And my pally always had good luck getting spider silk to drop. My other toons rarely get spider silk off on any of the spiders that drop it. When I was playing her full time, I was pulling down up to 30g every couple of days (my days, not game days) in the 20's and 30's I had mount-money (before I realized I didn't need it because I was a pally...duh) by the time I hit lvl 22.
I've stopped playuing her for now, and have been working my lock up (lvl 38) and the drops are just not coming like they did for the pally. So, though common sense says hunter, or mage, my proof indicates pallies have been given loot-love by Bliz.
FireStar Jul 6th 2007 9:08AM
i'd have to bring the feral druid into play here. I have a 62 hunter and a 44 rogue, but my 45 druid hardly Ever has to stop between mobs, and downs them in around the same amount of time as both those avg. when i get it to 70 it will be my cash cow over the 70 shadow priest.
Greta Jul 6th 2007 9:12AM
I would think rogues have an advantage since they can get pickpocketing money on top of drops. I've never played one very far though, so maybe this is negligible.
Areis Jul 6th 2007 9:25AM
chinese goldfarmers of course
Threecubed Jul 6th 2007 10:20AM
I'd have to dispute at considering Hunters and Rogues the best farmers, though they are quite good, and a Hunter with a good spot can flow seamlessly from mob to mob with only a couple seconds between, both classes have money sinks... ammo and pet food for the Hunters, and poisons for the Rogues. Those *do* cost money and time to acquire, something that Feral Druids and Mages don't have to worry about.
The Feral Druid kills just as fast as a Rogue, has only a four or five second downtime when (if) they get low on health, thanks to Imp Leader of the Pack, and only have to pay for their repair bill at the end of a farming run.
Mages are similar, they make all their own food and water, so they cut the cost of farming to only their repair bill, which is low, considering they wear cloth. They seem to kill a bit slower overall since they have large amounts of downtime when they need to drink, but they need nothing that they don't come with anyway.
Don't underestimate cutting your own farming costs when it comes to making money, the less you spend on food/water and ammo means more money that goes right into your profits.
Razakel Jul 6th 2007 9:28AM
As an Affliction warlock, with the three piece set bonus from my frozen Shadoweave, I can fight 8 water elementals at a time in the lake North of Garadar and walk away with full health and 75% mana. I don't have gathering professions, so farming drops and motes is the only real option for me, and the only other class that can really match my efficiency is a hunter.
ben1778 Jul 6th 2007 9:50AM
Even though a hunter can rip through 1-3 mobs in quick order, any class who is skilled at AoE grinding will always pull in more G per hour if they are killing the same mobs.
The key here is really the player. If the same player using different classes is farming the same areas, the skilled AoE characters will make more.
Even though a warlock or hunter can burn down mobs fast, you really can't compete with the efficiency of a pally or frost mage aoe grinding 10-20+ mobs at once -- depending on how many you can find. You can wipe a manaforge clean in Netherstorm in short order using AoE. Those BElfs are weaksauce.