WoW, Casually: December 7 - 13 activities and making cash

Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.
This week I want to talk about how and why we should be making some in-game cash, but first let's get the schedule out of the way.
Darkmoon Faire: It's still going on in Elwynn Forest, just south of Goldshire. This weekend is your last chance to turn your stuff in, redeem tickets or just get shot out of a cannon.
Arathi Basin: The Call to Arms is for Arathi Basin this weekend, meaning shorter queues for getting bonus honor and your AB marks. If you are Alliance, this forum post is great for all BG strategy . If you are Horde, like me, well then you can wait until Zach posts his Arathi Basin strategy or just go back and read my brief summary.
Battlegrounds: If you are trying to get a complete set of the Season 1 gear (and if not, why aren't you?), you should be doing a little bit of Battlegrounds a day. I try to do the BG Daily quests every day, not so much for the honor, but to force myself to get the marks from the different BGs. The fact is that I am a huge AV fan which means I have the marks for hats and gloves and that's it. Do as I say, not as I do and stuff.
This week I want to talk about how and why we should be making some in-game cash, but first let's get the schedule out of the way.
Darkmoon Faire: It's still going on in Elwynn Forest, just south of Goldshire. This weekend is your last chance to turn your stuff in, redeem tickets or just get shot out of a cannon.
Arathi Basin: The Call to Arms is for Arathi Basin this weekend, meaning shorter queues for getting bonus honor and your AB marks. If you are Alliance, this forum post is great for all BG strategy . If you are Horde, like me, well then you can wait until Zach posts his Arathi Basin strategy or just go back and read my brief summary.
Battlegrounds: If you are trying to get a complete set of the Season 1 gear (and if not, why aren't you?), you should be doing a little bit of Battlegrounds a day. I try to do the BG Daily quests every day, not so much for the honor, but to force myself to get the marks from the different BGs. The fact is that I am a huge AV fan which means I have the marks for hats and gloves and that's it. Do as I say, not as I do and stuff.
I think crafting is a great way to spend your limited playtime. It can be done when you also need to be paying some attention to your family or while watching TV. As a stay at home mom, I find that I can get some fishing done while coloring with my two year old. Of course, washable crayons are best for those times when you focus on fishing for a second to reel in something rare only to find that the wall has been artistically enhanced, but I digress. Now, I'm a crafter in real life, so I'm biased. But you don't need groups for crafting. Except for the quests involved, you don't need to travel much. In fact, grinding is usually done by running back and forth between your bank, the crafting area, the trainer and the AH.
What you do need for crafting, however, is cash. Getting your crafting skill up costs money and lots of it. Yes, you can farm for the stuff -- and I do as I level up for the most part -- but the training and patterns/recipes and low drop-rate mats cost cash.
Alts also cost cash. Even if you don't twink them, you still want them to have enough for all of their first few levels of skills and nice big bags. Mounts cost cash -- particularly if you have a lot of the aforementioned alts. Casual players may not have the repair bills and supply requirements that raiders have, but we still need money to have our fun. So here are this week's highlighted gold-making methods:
Small eggs: Don't forget to farm for them. Whether for crafting or selling, you're going to want these when the Winter Veil event starts this month. Allies can find them in most of the starting areas and the Human areas up through Lakeshire. Horde can find them in Eversong off of Dragonhawks and Mulgore off of Swoops. After the holidays, they will still be in demand for the Delicious Chocolate Cake.
Skettis Daily Quests: These quests are very casual friendly. They don't require any group prequests and are mostly soloable. You do need a flying mount or flight form to get to them, however. The escort quest is best done with more than one person, but there are usually plenty of people around willing to PuG it up with you on the fly. Just pick up the initial quest from the Skyguard chicky near the Shattrath flight master and fly over to the northern part of the lake in the middle of Skettis (southeast in Terrokar Forest).
Cooking: I find the Cooking Daily Quests fun and challenging without being too hard. The money is decent, but the cooking goodies are even better. If your cooking is high enough, it's a great way to earn extra cash and have a bit of fun. You can also sell the cooking mats you get as rewards on the AH.
Fishing: Have you seen the prices for the Furious Crawdads, Zangarian Sporefish, Golden Darters and the food they make on the AH? Bring up your fishing and get in on that action. The food you can make out of these fish are great for raids or soloing. The Sunday Fishing Tourney is a great way to bring up your fishing skill while making some extra cash.
What is your favorite way to make money in your limited play-time?
Robin Torres would have more gold if her husband didn't borrow it to fund his raiding.
Check out more of Robin Torres's work on Massively, where she helps you balance playtime and lifetime in Gamer Interrupted.Filed under: Events, PvP, WoW, Casually, Battlegrounds, Fishing, Cooking, Making money






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Popowski Dec 7th 2007 3:23AM
If they have 2 hours or less to play do you really think they have the time to read WoW Insider?
Let alone this WALL OF TEXT that they post in this column.
Fizzl Dec 7th 2007 3:56AM
Yes, plenty of time to read it at work/college. Don't be such a dick.
JPN Dec 7th 2007 8:16AM
shut up
JPN Dec 7th 2007 8:22AM
And another secret news flash, you don't HAVE to read everything on this "wall of text"
ThorinII Dec 7th 2007 8:32AM
Yes. We do.
Ernoldsame Dec 7th 2007 3:53AM
@1 The fact that the column was introduced in the first place, and that it has attracted much praise in the comment section leads me to believe that people DO read it and enjoy it.
Such a useless comment.
Back on-topic, i'm going to be in AB myself this weekend getting my 30 tokens for my Gladiator Chest. With my skills it should take about 30 games :)
dotorion Dec 7th 2007 4:27AM
Ssshh ... don't spread the egg thing ...
Josh Dec 7th 2007 4:33AM
I remember last year as a lowbie I was able to make a decent amount of money selling the cookies needed for the Greatfather Winter quest for around 5g a stack. I think I was the richest level 20 in the guild at the time.
This weekend I'll be grinding out the last bit of honor I need for the season 1 mace, doing some arenas, and probably some heroics.
K Aug 28th 2008 2:50PM
Haha seriously, I've been collecting those things for months just to make a killing during Winter Veil.
Smallshinyant Dec 7th 2007 6:54AM
God, i wish someone could explain to me the mysteries of money in the game. i still consider myself a new user and im pretty limited with my time. Only in mysecond month. I just got myself(with some help of other newcomers) to lvl 40, but cant afford my pony!How much time should i dedicate to making the cash? And what is the most fun in a group.
Lottomannen Dec 11th 2007 1:52PM
I grinded my mount-gold in Scarlet Monastary. Pretty nice droprate of ah-greens in there. The downside beeing that i can't stand the place now though...
Kuroyume Dec 7th 2007 7:41AM
it's all about professions, imho... mining has been very profitable to me, but i have been leveling so fast lately that it got left behind... (i'm 64 and a few days short of my second month in the game)
Enchanting was a bit of a money sink at lower levels, but when i started running instances regularly i managed to get a pretty decent stash of mat... i use dusts to level up the skill and try to save shards... when i hit 60 i was 150g short of my epic mount, so i sold part of my shard stash and had the money the next day...
Also, get auctioneer, it will make working the AH a breeze
JPN Dec 7th 2007 8:20AM
Good luck...making money is part of the game, and if it were so easy, it wouldn't be a game...or as fun?
Anyway, you have to figure out how to make money in a way that you both enjoy and acceptably profitable for you. I don't like to play the AH, but I don't mind farming, but I play more "grown up" hours (4-7 PM, Saturday/Sunday days) and have trouble with PUGs and not as many guildies on running instances. I make a lot of money with crafting and also skinning.
ThorinII Dec 7th 2007 8:37AM
I have to agree. Run around mining and either skinning or herbing and sell everything you pick up. If you weren't lucky enough to get drops worth the mount costs, this is about the only way to get the cash.
I got lucky on my first two toons to get mounts. Both picked up pretty pricey blue BOE's while lvling through mid thirties. Funded their mounts that way.
Rob Dec 7th 2007 2:35PM
I'm pretty good at making money. That said, you need to do different things at different times to make gold. At low levels, you need to farm those mats such as small eggs, and definately have at least one gathering profession. Mine/skin is good for pre-outland. Herb is fantastic, not many do it, so there seems to be a benefit for that. Otherwise farm for mats that others need. Spider silk from ashenvale spiders (among others) is always in demand and sells for a gold or two each. All those green items that drop - sell em or disenchant em (and sell the mats you dont need). All the white items (white text), sell em on AH. All grey items, sell to vendor.
In OL, its a little different. Greens have a hard time selling on AH (for me), and skinning starts to suck. Mining is hugely profitable, and jewelcrafting becomes useful (but not profitable until youve sunk 1000s of gold for patterns). Herb is fantastic in OL, you can fly around to destinations, grab a herb or three, by the time you get there you have a stack which sells for 15g (on my server). Thus i strongly recommend herb in OL for that reason.
Further in OL there are things that will sell for alot, for ex rep grind tokens that are sellable (from scryer/aldor), coilfang armaments for CE, etc). Fishing and cooking also become hugely profitable.
I don't do much crafting but my guess is none of the crafting profs are actually profitable, nobody wants your lame crafted items. Crafters always make the mistake of selling for cost of mats alone. Its as cheap to farm for mats for pots, put it on the AH, and buy the pots from AH. This is probably due to a lack of understanding of economics by some (and those who do can't compete w/ those willing to lose money or break even on their crafts).
Hanguyver Dec 7th 2007 7:26AM
I just started my first toon about two months ago, and I find articles like these to be very informative and helpful. Running off to the Darkmoon Faire sounds like a good break quest grinding.
Bresh Dec 7th 2007 7:54AM
My only warning about the Faire: Watch out, it's addictive fun. I've been playing for over two years, and I still find myself giggling in delight every time the Faire comes around. I even have a list of all the stuff you can turn in for tickets somewhere around here. I find myself going through withdrawals when it's not around, but I get myself through somehow...
JPN Dec 7th 2007 8:17AM
I agree....and I don't want to reveal my egg-gathering spots...but I wish WoW Insider would quit telling people to gather eggs!
William Dec 7th 2007 8:27AM
Looking forward to Darkmoon Faire, for sure... And when I need cash I sell all that useless junk in my bank account that I've out-leveled. You know, when you switch from Heavy silk bandages to mageweave and you don't need the stash of Heavy silk bandages in your bank anymore... Or old gear... basically just sell anything lying around... :) And there's always the Daily quests for some cash... That's what I recommend.
ThorinII Dec 7th 2007 8:46AM
I hate AB, avoid it as much as possible. The only time you'll catch me here is if I need the tokens!