Gold is the most important currency in WoW. Pretty much everything you do in the game either costs gold or is made easier by having some: profession levelling, gear repairs, mounts, consumables for dungeons or raids, and so on.
If you want a quick boost to your wallet, you can always turn to currency platforms and services that offer WoW gold for sale. The game itself also offers plenty of ways to earn gold, and in this guide, we’ll break down the main methods and share practical tips to make your journey to riches easier and more enjoyable.
How to Make Gold in World of Warcraft
Questing
Quests are hands down the easiest and most beginner-friendly way to earn gold. Early on, story quests mostly reward you with a bit of copper and silver, along with some basic gear. Not all that gear is super useful, so you can always vendor it for some money. As you progress, quest rewards get better, and you’ll start earning more valuable items that can be sold on the Auction House.
Daily and weekly quests are also a solid source of raw gold and extra items you can sell for cash. And when you finally hit max level and unlock World Quests, those will be a great repeatable way to get both currency and valuable loot.
Farming
Farming is your second most straightforward way to make gold. There are several main types of farming you can engage in:
Open World Mob Farming
This is the classic “kill-and-loot” farm: you defeat mobs and then sell their drops for gold. You’ll already be farming mobs while questing, so it’ll give you a nice passive income while leveling, but you can also target specific enemies for high-value drops like in-demand crafting mats, BoE gear, expensive transmogs, pets, and toys.
Gathering Professions
Picking up one of the gathering professions will allow you to collect raw mats and sell them on the Auction House. Here’s what you can profit from:
- Gathering plants from herb nodes with Herbalism (e.g., Null Lotus, Orbinid, Mycobloom).
- Collecting ores from mining nodes with Mining (e.g., Dark Iron Ore, Bismuth, Ironclaw Ore, Khorium Ore).
- Harvesting leather and skins from beasts with Skinning (e.g., Stormcharged Leather, Gloom Chitin, Honed Bone Shards).
- Catching fish and other items with Fishing (e.g., Strange Goop, Albino Cavefish, Steelscale Crushfish)
Tailoring can also be used for gathering. Technically, it’s a crafting profession, but leveling the Textile Treasures specialization lets you collect cloth from humanoid mobs, giving you access to a very solid source of income.
Dungeon Farming
You earn gold by completing dungeons and also farming mobs inside for loot and raw drops. Sometimes you don’t even need to clear the entire instance. For example, in Darkflame Cleft, players farm cloth and Darkmoon Cards by repeatedly clearing just the first room (only works with the right Tailoring and Inscription specs).
Crafting
Crafting is one of the best gold-making methods in WoW. Pretty much every crafting profession can find a buyer, but some just tend to be a bit more profitable than others.
- Alchemy has always been one of the most consistent gold-makers, as it produces consumables needed for raids and dungeons.
- Enchanting provides enchants and gear enhancements that are always in demand.
- Cooking can net you a really nice profit with its food buffs.
- Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring can generate a steady income through crafted gear.
- Inscription mainly makes gold through Darkmoon Cards, but also provides valuable missives, glyphs, and tomes.
On top of direct Auction House sales, you can also make gold with the Crafting Orders system by fulfilling requests placed by NPCs and other players. The higher your skill and the better the quality of your crafts, the bigger profit you’ll make. If you keep doing your job well, you can even build a “client base” of players who come back to you for regular crafts.
Playing the Auction House
Almost every gold-making method in WoW ends up involving the Auction House one way or another. But beyond just selling your loot, you can also make gold through item flipping, which is buying items cheap and reselling them at a higher price.
It may sound simple, but in fact, it’s one of the trickier methods. Successful flipping requires you to have good market knowledge to actually spot undervalued items, predict demand, and know whether an item is worth the investment in the first place. On top of that, you’ll need a solid gold reserve to buy items before you can flip them for profit.
For absolute beginners, flipping isn’t the best starting point, but once you get comfortable with the Auction House and understand how the economy works, it’s definitely worth trying.
Gold-Making Tips
Now that you know the main ways to earn gold, let’s go through some extra tips that will make your grind more efficient:
- Pick up all Secondary professions. Cooking and Fishing are super easy to learn and level, and they’ll provide you with food buffs, reagents, and mats that you can sell or use for your own needs.
- Don’t waste gold on gear upgrades while leveling. You’ll get plenty of gear naturally through quests and dungeons, so it’s better to save your money for other stuff.
- Addons are absolutely crucial if you’re serious about making gold. Tools like TradeSkillMaster (TSM) or Auctionator will make your Auction House routine a ton easier. CraftSim will show profitable recipes and simulate crafts for you to see how much money you’ll actually make (or lose). HandyNotes and GatherMate2 are fantastic for farming routes; WeeklyKnowledge will help you track your profession progress.
- Invest in profession specializations. By putting Knowledge Points into different spec trees, you’ll unlock powerful bonuses for your professions. Without properly leveled specs, it’s hard to earn decent gold from professions. On top of that, some farms simply won’t work without the right specs unlocked. If you’re not sure where to put your points, guides on WowHead can help you figure out the best spec build for your needs.
- Take advantage of racial bonuses. Some races come with certain profession perks. For example, Gnomes get a boost to Engineering, Goblins to Alchemy, and Blood Elves to Enchanting. It’s not absolutely essential, and you can succeed in any profession no matter your race, but if you’re planning to make a few alts, these racial traits can give you a little extra edge.
- Create a Disenchant Banker Alt. Alts are extremely useful for gold-making, and even if you don’t want to set up an entire army, we strongly recommend making at least one Banker alt. Just create a character, take up Enchanting at level 5, and park by the Auction House in a capital city. Now, you’ll be able to send all your unwanted greens and blues to this character to disenchant into crafting mats, which you can then sell or keep for your own crafts. You can also transfer all your auction items to this character, keeping your main’s bags neat and tidy. And if you level this alt further, you’ll be able to disenchant epics for Artisan’s Acuity, which is a super valuable resource for crafting and buying recipes.
- Use gathering boosters. To make the most of your gathering sessions, you’ll need to use a bunch of buffs: Ironclaw Razorstone for increased Finnesse, Phial of Truesight to spot hidden nodes, Darkmoon Firewater for faster gathering, and Weaver’s Prodigy buff for extra speed.
- Always check prices before posting on the Auction House. What was profitable last week might be almost worthless today, so you should always keep an eye on the market to not sell your goods short.