Ask WoW Insider: What does a naked level 60 mage do?
by Mark Crump 
Feb 29th 2008 at 1:00PM
Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery -- now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week, reader Meliv writes:Hi WoW Insider! I need some good advice. About August I leveled a mage to 60 but due to my very crappy computer at the time I could barely play in Outland so I decided to quit. However, to stop the addiction pulling me back I sold all my gear to repay some old debts and deleted my characters.
Now it's December and my situation has changed, I (kindly) asked a GM to restore my Mage and now I'm back in the game. Only problem is that I'm completely naked with no money and no gear. What should I do?
There's a joke about what naked mages, sheep, and money we'll leave on the table.
As an aside, never delete your character. As WoW addicts we tend to treat quitting WoW with the same seriousness Gene Simmons takes monogamous relationships. Instead, have a spouse or friend do it for you, That way you have someone else to blame.
You haven't said what you've got for professions, so I'll assume you have none. What you're going to want to do is earn enough money to grab two gathering professions -- it's short money so don't sweat it. If you're lucky and have a few quests that just need you to chat with an NPC to complete, wrap those.
The lazy way is to level your gathering skills up enough to get some OK gear off the Auction House and then head to Outland to run quests. Outland's quests give decent gold and items as rewards. Heck, you can even try running a few as a naked level 60 and see what happens -- it's not like you need to worry about repair bills. Just expect some odd looks. Or tips.
The forward-thinking way is to level up your gathering professions and keep leveling them through 70. That way you'll pretty much guarantee you'll have enough gold for your flying mount.
How about you, oh wise peanut gallery: Any advice for the freshly-restored?
Got questions? Don't wait! Send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com and your query could be up in lights here next week.
Filed under: Ask WoW Insider, Making money
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matthew Rossi Feb 29th 2008 1:08PM
A naked level 60 mage could probably run Shadowfang Keep for BoE greens and blues to sell on the AH pretty easily. Two or three runs and you'd probably have enough gold to get decent enough gear to run a few outlands quests.
Arras Feb 29th 2008 1:12PM
as a mage/ranged dps, you could probably do a few kill 20 boars quests for easy money or run deadmines/lowbie instances for BoEs to sell off.
You could also make some quick money killing grey mobs and selling the vendor trash they drop for cash to buy portal reagents and hang out in major cities, offering to port lowbies to Shatt city.
vanye111 Feb 29th 2008 1:23PM
IIRC you have to be level 65 to get the Shat portal, so not an option, yet.
Sakerin Feb 29th 2008 1:55PM
@3: You do not recall correctly. One may step through the portal at 58.
Raaj Feb 29th 2008 1:57PM
Uh, no, vanye111 is correct.
http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=35717
Dave Williams Feb 29th 2008 2:31PM
A naked 60 mage can probably handle a quest or two in outland. Mages aren't terribly gear dependant, so it should be doable. At the very least, it's worth the 10-15 minutes it'd take to head there and try a quest or two. If you can finish a couple quests, take your 10-15g back to the auction house and buy a couple greens to help out.
peaglemancer Feb 29th 2008 1:20PM
"head to Outland to run quests"
This, just do this. Outland has tons of quests for half decent equipment, you'll easily re-outfit yourself in a day or two.
vanye111 Feb 29th 2008 1:30PM
That would kick a naked mage's butt. At the very least, she should do a few low level instances and get some basic equipment, and to re-familiarize herself with her spells and talents...and talent changes. Once she's got some basic equipment, then yeah, jump into the Outlands.
peaglemancer Feb 29th 2008 1:38PM
I'm imagining they wouldn't do everything solo, and I'm also not seeing a problem with the gathering quests. I guess my point was I don't see a need to spend ages leveling up gathering professions or getting pre-bc gear as some inbetween stage or two-step process to refit yourself.
billgates Feb 29th 2008 1:28PM
I never realized you could get back deleted characters
And just cuz their a mage does not mean they don't need equipment, a lvl 60 mage sans gear would get their ass handed to them in outlands
Bresh Feb 29th 2008 1:54PM
Yep, you can, as long as the info is still resident in Blizz's database. Word of warning though, you only get so many restores per account, so be careful. Also of note, if you put in a request for restoration and request that 4 characters are restored, that only counts as 1 restore against your lifetime total. How do I know? I essentially did the same thing last time I walked away. Except I didn't delete/sell the gear first, so that all came back. The only thing that was truly lost was my one man guild (with three bank tabs) on my alt. But it appears the money was refunded to my 'lock in some way, so I didn't lose everything.
The best piece of advice I could give anyone is simply don't sell off your stuff and then delete. Just delete your characters fully clothed, then if you come back and get restored, you're right back where you were before the deletion.
Raaj Feb 29th 2008 2:03PM
...or just cancel your damn subscription. This game isn't THAT addictive, folks. I have a couple level 70 characters (and I'm about to have a third), but it doesn't bother me in the least to unsubscribe for 3+ months at a time.
imtraum Feb 29th 2008 1:36PM
Easy. Deadmines + Arcane Explosion = lots of quick cash. Unless the mage in question is really horrible and pulls too much at the same time, there's cash drops, cloth, and greens that can sell really well in AH.
Zhalseran Feb 29th 2008 1:39PM
Not every quest involves killing things
David(Postal) Feb 29th 2008 1:41PM
If you have any gathering professions take advantage of that too. Once you have some minimal gear, you will be gettign awesome gear in outlands.
Cailleach Feb 29th 2008 1:44PM
Yup, Nake Mage meets Naked Deadmines. Slap on any old thing that drops that you can equip. sell the rest for bags. Repeat, get more bags. Repeat, start to profit.
The hard part will be getting enough bagspace that you don't have to run to town every 16 mobs to sell stuff. Hearth in SH and port yourself to SW as soon as you can afford some reagents.
mcsaeki Feb 29th 2008 1:47PM
Spam the /1 channel in Stormwind begging for money.
Repeat until you're rich enough for blues.
JPN Feb 29th 2008 1:50PM
I agree - do non-killing quests, or get in some groups where you can get rewards without DOING anything.
tuck Feb 29th 2008 2:01PM
You guys are totally underestimating what a naked level 60 can accomplish. I was in the exact same position except with a Priest. I had no money/gear/mount.
You CAN do quests in the Outlands naked. It's not that bad. The quest rewards gear you up a lot faster than you think.
If you have a chance to respec, go Frost. Kiting is your best friend and a Water Elemental can do a lot of the work for you.
And if you die, no big deal, you won't have any gear to repair anyways.
Rob Feb 29th 2008 2:10PM
Lol, I was in the exact same boat with one of my characters... I didn't delete them, but I did vend/sell everything I had to give the gold to a friend.
I still had my skills though... so all I did was just farm herbs outside IF until I had enough money to buy a fishing pole... then I sold savory deviate delight until I had enough green gear to run some basic instances.