In preparation for MoP, I’ve been looking more at my server’s horde auction house and thinking about how I could maximize my WoW gold making activities.
The horde side of our server is nearly “dead”, and as such there are a lot of opportunities on that AH to play with.
I have one toon over there already, a lvl 85 paladin that loves to solo old dungeons and disenchant anything she can get her hands on. She’s also currently a miner. As my only toon horde-side, those were the best two choices at the time.
But now I’m thinking of giving her a support staff, and that’s got me considering what to level up to work in concert with her.
Cold’s Ideal Alts series has fascinated me since he wrote it. It really highlights the differences between playstyles and approaches to making WoW gold.
Cold breaks it down like this:
- The AoE herder – paladin, engineer/skinning
- The low-level dungeon runner – rogue, enchanting/skinning
- The heroic dungeon runner – druid (for healer queues), tailor/skinning
- The solo raider – dk, enchanting/JC
- The collector – mage, engineering/scribe
I look at that list and I see skinning three times, enchanting twice, and engineering twice. There’s no alchemy for transmute cooldowns. There’s no herber or miner to feed the JC, scribe, and engineers. There’s three different dungeon runners, four if you take the AoE herder into dungeons to skin.
That’s a lot of toons doubling up on duties – and even though I have access to far more accounts than I should be paying Blizzard for, I certainly don’t want to double up on professions while separating out duties to such a degree that I need five different toon slots to do two basic tasks (running dungeons, and collecting). With five toons, you should have all but one of the professions covered. Not to mention, the more toons you have, the more time you need to spend leveling them up and gearing them to be able to take on new content solo. Having leveled engineering on my hunter main twice, trust me when I say that it’s a royal pain in the ass to level, and it’s not a money-maker. It’s fun for PvP and gives you a bit of mobility and utility, but that slot sure would be better served with a cooldown profession: Jewelcrafting, Tailoring, or Alchemy.
Here’s my list:
- The collector – mage, JC/Alch/Fish/Arch (possibly dropping Alch for Engineering, if you have Alch on another toon)
- The dungeon/raid runner – pally, enchant/tailor
- The farmer – druid, herbing/mining
- (Optional) The skinner – hunter, skinning/Alch, or skinning/LW if another toon has Alch
- (Optional) The herb-eater – any class, Alch/Scribe – being able to send all of your herbs to one toon is a real time-saver
I love the idea of an engineer mage with the ability to port nearly anywhere in the world. However, looking at the locations of Horde portals, I’ve come to realize that combination would be much better served to an Ally mage than a horde. Horde mages get much wider coverage of Azeroth with their portals than Alliance mages do. Throw in the city portals for Cataclysm zones and you can be nearly everywhere in the blink of an eye, and once we hit 90 we’ll have a portal to the old Dalaran spot in Hillsbrad.
Still, if your server/faction has a slot open for engineered pets (mine doesn’t) or you trade primals, an engineer is still a great choice for a Horde mage. One wormhole generator hop away from Sholazar Basin plus the zapthrottle mote extractor, and you’re raking in the cash. The other engineer teleports can also save you a lot of time if you’re frequently visiting Winterspring or Netherstorm for recipes and/or pets.
I would also make this toon the primary Archaeology and Fishing toon, if you’re into those markets.
If your engineering pet, vendor recipe flipping, and primal markets are already stuffed with competition, I’d skip the engineering (especially if you’re Horde) and go with JC/Alchemy. The glyph market on every server I look at is so competitive that it’s simply not worth getting into anymore. (You can thank all of those WoW gold-making guides for that. They all stress being a Scribe as being the equivalent to printing your own money.)
For the dungeon/raid runners, I’d collapse them all into a single toon – a prot paladin with enchanting and tailoring.
Paladins don’t need engineering for long-range pulls; their captain america shield and judgement do just fine filling that niche. Add to it the new glyph that allows them to throw their consecrate anywhere, and you’ve got a nearly-perfect dungeon runner. The only thing missing is the ability to open chests in those old dungeons. (Believe me, I growl every time I take run one of my farming pallies up to a chest only to find out it’s locked.) Cold’s point on only Wrath+ dungeons dropping extra cloth (scavenging) is offset by the sheer amount of cloth dropped in old dungeons. Do one run of Upper and Lower Blackrock Spire and you’ll be wishing you had a tailor there to roll all of that runecloth into bolts to save bag space. Also, by having tailoring and enchanting on the same toon, you can easily make use of that cloth to make enchanting mats. (Wizardweave Turban, I’m looking at you!)
For a pure farming toon of mining and herbing, nothing – and I mean nothing – beats a druid. Instant-cast flight form, plus being able to herb while in flight form trumps every other class, period. You’ll never herb and mine as fast on any other class as you will on a dual gathering druid. Get this druid a Kirin Tor ring or Argent Tourney tabard for ports to Northrend, with a Blessed Medallion of Karabor for a port to Shadowmoon Valley, plus all of the Cata city ports, and you’re golden. (Be sure to give this toon a Gnomish Army Knife and a set of Mist-Piercing Goggles.)
The must-have list skips out on Cold’s choices of skinning, inscription, and the ability to open chests in old dungeons.
I’ll never have a rogue. I just cannot stand their playstyle. It’s the same thing that keeps me from leveling a DK past the mid-sixties. Being forced to wait for your energy to build back up, with no way to actively build it up yourself, is just not fun. I leveled a rogue to 20 once, and there he sat for years until I RAF’d him up to level 60 so that my hubby could use him to farm lockboxes for the Insane title. Now he’s just taking up space, still sitting in his low 60s, because neither of us can stand to play him for more than one fight. I leveled a horde DK to 82 so my hubby could farm her for PvP tokens and achievements, and then happily deleted her.
If you must have a skinner, I’d recommend a hunter. If you’re Alliance, go Worgen for the super-fast skinning racial. Not only are hunters insanely fun to play, their long-range pulling ability and fast killing abilities cannot be overlooked. You can misdirect tons of mobs to your pet and just keep mowing them down until the pile would make Hemet Nessingwary jealous. Also, as a hunter, coupling your skinning with Leatherworking is a no-brainer; you’ll be able to make your own gear and sell leg armors. If you’ve already got a leatherworker, then go Alchemy for your second profession – you can never have too many Alchemy transmute cooldowns at your disposal.
If you must have a scribe, then at least be sensible and couple it with Alchemy. Being able to send all of your herbs to one toon is a real time-saver, and that toon can have its own guild bank stuffed with herbs.
Other than through transmutes, Alchemy hasn’t traditionally been a big money-maker, but I see that changing in MoP. While leveling in Beta I never once saw a health potion or mana potion drop. If that stays the case in Live, Alchs are going to be making good money with those potions.
So what am I going with?
The Farmer druid (troll) for herb/mining, and The Collector mage (goblin) with JC and Alchemy.
As horde, she just has such better coverage of Azeroth that I don’t need engineering for portals. The primal market on Horde looks slow, and I can always buy eternals with frost orbs. The engineering pet market can’t handle more than two or three sellers normally, and there’s about five on the AH. Engineering would be a lot of fun, but it won’t make me much money. Alchemy, on the other hand, has the potential to make me a lot of money with the need for pots coming in MoP, but especially for Potions of Treasure Finding. Being able to make those, rather than paying markup for them on the AH, will quickly pay for itself… not to mention the transmutes. Rather than use an engineer portal to get to Netherstorm, I’ll just set my hearth there. I can get to Winterspring quickly through the Mt. Hyjal portal, and be in Tanaris quickly through the Uldum portal or the Shatt/Dal portals to the Caverns of Time. Being a goblin will get her serious discounts on vendor items, which will come in handy for recipes/patterns and for the Sands of Time/Pyrium-Laced crystal vial for the sandstone drake.
I’ll also be making sure to get the druid all of the various “port me around” items like the Argent Tourney tabard.
I’ll drop my pally’s mining and replace it with tailoring, and then I’ll have all three major cooldowns covered and the best money-making professions available on just three toons.
(Sorry, but on my server, inscription just is not a money-maker unless you have time to babysit the AH all day long and constantly repost your glyphs.)
Those locked chests in dungeons? I’ll just have to keep glaring at them as I run by.