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Lazy Gold Science
It’s practically falling out of the digital sky!
You’d figure I’d be better at this blogging thing. I’ve been doing this long enough, it shouldn’t be an issue. I was going to write this on Tuesday, right after the results… nevermind. Let’s carry on as if I’d planned this – on to the cash, baby!
Last week, right after the server reset, I decided to see which lazy (re: minimal effort) method would make me the most gold in a week. Method one was using the Order Hall treasure missions. Method two was logging in every few days, making Hexweave bags, then selling them on the Auction House.
Both seemed fairly balanced in their own way. They were on separate servers and different factions, and naturally there would be the usual random variables at play. There was no way to know exactly when a treasure mission was going to come up, or how many per character would be available over a week. The Auction House is the Auction House, and while Hexweave bags still sell quite well there’s always ways to manipulate the market.
After their surprisingly profitable run the previous week, I decided that the Horde server would continue running their Order Hall missions. Six characters would essentially just sit by the Order Hall board, renew and refresh missions, and replenish Order Hall resources as necessary. I’d play my main once in awhile as I had time.
The Alliance server would be my Hexweave crew. There were five tailors there, and my Alliance main made six. Since his Order Hall was almost as optimized as the Horde Halls were, he would generate his gold through Order Hall gold missions. That would roughly balance out with the tailors, plus compensate for any extra gold my Horde main might earn by being played. The tailors would load up their tailoring huts with sumptuous fur, and every three days I’d log in, gather the cloth, convert to bags, send to AH mule, then replenish the tailoring hut orders and log off.
Both methods involved minimal time investment once each character was “set up” properly. With the Horde, I could monitor their progression without even logging into the game. I could do it all through the Legion app, and log in only to replenish Order Hall resources. With the Alliance, I had to log in to generate the bags but I only had to do that every three days or so. I didn’t have to touch them otherwise.
Yeah, this wasn’t rocket science. Gold science, is that a thing? Sure, let’s call it that.
So what were my findings after a week?
Well the Alliance was a bit borked. First, it turns out that not all the bags I had been selling in the prior weeks actually sold. So I had more in my AH toon’s inventory than I expected. But the bags all sold this week, and at a good rate. Some other things in the inventory also sold as well, but the bag were selling at 2000g a pop. By the end of the week, the AH netted me over 48000g. The Alliance Order Hall test turned a tidy profit as well, bringing in over 8000g. So the Alliance Lazy Gold results were a grand total of approximately 56000g in a week! Even if I just counted the Hexweave bags generated for the week, that would still be 20000g just for logging in once every three days!
Horde-side, the results were all over the place. The gold missions were definitely random. Everybody got a few during the week, but some more than others. My lowest gold count was 4500g on one character. The highest was almost 29000g! But between everyone, the grand total was almost 83000g! Combined with the 75 grand they pulled in last week, I could almost buy a WoW Token in only two weeks!
I’m definitely going to keep the Horde experiment going. I’m planning on taking a couple more characters to Argus to unlock the Order Hall missions there. Those drop some Champion gear that increases mission successes, as well as tokens that increase Champion iLevels. And THAT opens up more profitable gold missions.
Okay Doc Rokk, what are your conclusions?
Only one, and stand back because Imma shout this one out for you.
*ahem*
THERE IS NO REASON ANYONE CANNOT MAKE GOLD IN WORLD OF WARCRAFT!
Even if you have only one character, and you only use that one character for, let’s say, raiding and running the occasional Mythic+ dungeon. You can easily make at least four thousand gold a week on that character WITHOUT EVEN LOGGING INTO THE GAME! Check my previous post to see how you would go about getting your character set up for success. But once you do, you should be able to make enough scratch to cover your raiding needs at the very least. Maybe, if RNGesus smiles on you, you’ll pull in enough to get yourself a nice transmog piece too.
Have you tried using the Order Hall to make gold? What kind of results have you seen? Give me the deets in the comments below. I’d like to see how this has been working for other people.
Rokk out!
Order Hall Goldmaking
My Grandpappy used to say – “Fucking Goblins keep stealing my lucky underwear!” He also used to say, “When life hands you lemons, kick him in the bollocks.”
Grandpappy was a unique duck.
Still, if you sifted through the madness you could salvage a kernel of wisdom. Like the lemon thing. Make the most of a situation, or something like that.
My work schedule last week was atrocious. I was covering for a co-worker, so I ended up working six nights in a row. That meant that not only was I a barely functioning zombie with blood consisting of 20% coffee, but I wouldn’t have very much time to play World of Warcraft. My non-work waking hours, few as they were, would be spent with actual people doing actual things. Life can be busy like that.
Last Monday before I started work, I was at the gym trying to sweat some life back into me while running on the treadmill. Soaked in my sweaty shame, I came across this Youtube video from Bellular – How to use the Order Hall to make some easy gold. Like, a lot of gold.
I was intrigued. Most of my Order Halls were functional enough to run like the video suggested. I did use the catchup mechanic and bought the armor tokens for a few of my Order Hall Champions. Once everyone was sitting at 880 iLevel, I spread some resources around to everyone and set things in motion. I decided I’d try this for a week, from server reset to server reset. I’d do this with the five characters I had on my Horde server, using the mobile app to check on their missions while I was at work. I would only run gold missions, or armor missions to boost any Champion who was not yet at 900 iLevel. When resources ran low, I would log into the game for a few minutes to redistribute bloods to resources. I’d pop in, snap a few screenshots, and log out. I didn’t farm, didn’t sell on the auction house at all. I also didn’t pay attention to how much gold was on each character until the week of testing was done.
Today was the magic day. I would see just how much gold my five characters made with almost next to no playtime. I logged in and transferred all the gold to one character so I could see the results.
The grand total: 75,092 gold.
I was a little shocked, and a little more impressed. Granted, the gold missions were more plentiful on the two characters with more epic followers. But even the characters who has mostly blue level followers still managed to make anywhere from 5-8k each. Prior to this, I was making my gold by selling Hexweave Bags on the AH. But the Order Hall seemed much more lucrative without sinking a whole bunch of time into it.
Naturally it’s not as easy as it sounds. Like Warlords of Draenor’s Garrison gold factories, it took a great deal of setup before they became profitable. Order Halls are much the same. You need the Champions, the gear, and the missions for it to pay off. Maybe this past week was just a run of good luck. Maybe I couldn’t repeat those results.
So I decided to try it again.
I wanted to compare the Order Hall results with my previous passive gold-making technique with Hexweave Bags. I have four tailors on my Alliance server, and one character with a fleshed out Order Hall. On the Horde side, I will run the Order Halls again. In another week, I will compare the results and see what the results are. Will the old lazy style bring in more gold? Will the Order Hall method pay off again? I will find out in a week!
In any case, I think I’ll have a WoW Token waiting for me at the end of this.
Grinding Levels for Gold
Ding. Another 110.
Congratulations.
Yep, got another Death Knight to 110.
Uh, what? Don’t you have, like, six DK’s at 110 already? And most of them on the same server?
Okay first, I only have five Death Knights at 110. Second, I just leveled him up for the gold.
Again, I ask – uh, what?
Like in Warlords of Draenor, I strive to make gold with minimal time investment. This means having many alts set up in such a way that each can earn a bit of gold quickly, rather than one or two characters grinding for longer periods of time to earn gold. It all adds up, in both time and gold, and both are valuable.
In Legion, I feel like I’ve found the best way to make gold with minimal time investment. How? A mix of professions, World Quests, and Class Hall qualifications. Let me explain. No, that would take too long. Let me sum up. For each character –
- Cooking at 100 – World Quests with Bacon rewards. Bacon sells well.
- Gathering Profession (specifically Skinning, Herbalism, and Mining) – World Quest with a rare drop reward. This usually involves killing only one mob to get 1-5 of those rare mats. Those mats also sell well.
- Tailoring Profession – Make Hexweave Bags every three days. It’s like a recipe for printing gold.
- Enchanting Profession – Complete a World Quest with a purple drop. Disenchant drop, sell Chaos Crystal for muchos gold.
- Order Hall – Class Upgrade that allows for the ability to auto-kill one World Quest every 18 hours. Use that nuke to gain Blood of Sargeras, Resources, or Professions rewards (see above). Not all classes have class halls that provide this. Death Knights do, as do Warriors (AKA my two main groups of alts).
If I manage to get all of that done on a character, it can take about five minutes and net me mats that will sell for a grand or so in gold. Repeat every day, and that’s seven thousand gold a week, twenty-eight thousand a month. Multiply that by four and I’m damn near buying a token a month with not all that much time investment, all things considered. That’s all above and beyond what I earn just by playing World of Warcraft on my main.
While poking around on one of the servers I had an army of alts on but no longer really play, I found a DK with some potential. He was level 100, with maxed Herbalism. His garrison was also sound – Level 3 with enough followers to generate resources and the Pleasure-Bot for buffing my Tailoring Emporium. Coincidentally, I had just bought a couple of tokens and was flush(?) with Blizzard Bucks. So I thought, what the Hell. Level another toon up, transfer him somewhere I may be more active and plug him into the gold making routine.
So like I said at the beginning of this post – Ding 110. I’ve just unlocked World Quests, and finished the Broken Shore scenario on my latest addition to the family. Once I get him a little further along (geared to the point where he can survive the necessary World Quests), he’ll be yet another cog in the production wheel.
Only that wheel’s got some golden hubcaps, playa.
Addendum – I swear, being a shift worker messes with your concept of time. I had no idea it had been so long since I posted. Seems like only a week or two, rather than a month.
Easy Gold Making in Patch 7.2.5
Every good bank alt has a tuxedo shirt, yes?
Gun to my head, if I had to come up with a life philosophy it would probably be KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid.
If you wanted to farm transmog for a couple of hours, grind out mats for a couple more, maybe craft some gear, you could potentially make plenty of gold per day if everything sold. But the folks who tend to make the big money are usually the ones who put in the big hours. Still, there’s no reason that someone playing casually can’t earn enough scratch to buy heirloom upgrades, or even pay for their subscription with gold.
I don’t want a bunch of expensive mounts or fancy transmogs. I don’t need a hundred thousand gold per day. I just need enough gold to buy at least one token a month to keep me subbed, or to pay for a race change/server transfer/etc. I also don’t want to spend hours doing the grinds. I want to progress my character, be it a main or an alt, rather than my bank account.
But I still want my bank account to get a little attention. Not a lot, just enough.
Sometimes we just don’t see the obvious staring at us in the face. Youtube phenom Soul showed me, via the power of the Youtubes, an easy way to earn gold while doing my regular day to day in-game chores.
The beauty is in its simplicity.
- Save your gold.
- Get Boon of the Bloodhunter, using Bloods to buy mats from the Blood vendor (get the most valuable ones as listed on The Undermine Journal) .
- Get Bacon from World Quests.
- Assign Bodyguard with Gold Gear.
- Complete all gold missions.
Are there more optimal ways to earn gold? Sure, if you’re willing to put in the extra time. For me, in just under three weeks I’d earned enough gold to upgrade all my plate, chain, and leather heirlooms. I also bought a WoW token. I wasn’t doing anything different, I was just doing things a bit smarter.
Try it for yourself. Hopefully this helps put a little extra coin in your changepurse!
Spend a Little to Lose a Lot
Work work work
I don’t know why I do this. I make a game within the game, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to win. There is no winning. There is just playing. Maybe that’s the victory in it. Maybe I’m writing this on the tail end of a night shift and my brain is running on nostalgia, alarm bells, and coffee. Who can say for sure at this point.
I like making gold. But I’m a simple man with simple needs. I don’t raid, so I’m not spending thousands of gold per week on consumables or repairs. I tend to reuse transmog sets, so I’m not spending gold on making my toons look pretty. And while I can appreciate a good looking mount, the novelty doesn’t last very long. I’ve got a couple hundred mounts, but I use maybe six of them and those tend to be more utility based (mounts with vendors, mounts that walk on water) rather than “oooohhh pretty” (mounts that are pretty).
Function over frills.
But like I said, I like making gold. I enjoy having the option to lose my mind every once in awhile and buy a piece of gear, maybe twink out a leveling alt. Throw the WoW tokens onto the fire, and I’m motivated to have a steady stream of gold coming in. Covering contingencies and so on.
Back in WoD I set up my sweat shop, stacking alts in such a way that they could generate some passive gold for me without having to invest much time in the proces. I enjoy making gold, but I don’t enjoy spending several hours doing it. I’d rather be inventing other ways to spend my time I guess. The whole thing seems a bit fuzzy. When did I sleep last?
Captain Fun, my new leveling alt, may be moving to a new server once he’s finished the whole leveling up thing. I wanted to have things set up for him on his new server once he got there. Even though he probably won’t be raiding, should he join a raiding guild I want to contribute in the two ways that will benefit the guild the most – mats and gold.
I decided that his welcoming committee would consist of three alts, with professions I could use to generate gold without much time investment – three tailors, one with a barn and two with trading posts. Hexweave bags still sell, and sell well. To move the alts, I bought three tokens and took advantage of the WoW services sale. Naturally the token price spiked just before I decided to buy them. Rather than wait to see if the price would go down, I dove into the Scrooge McDuck vault with a mighty cry of YOLO and paid just a top hat and monocle over 100k per token.
That… stings.
The tailoring trio landed on their new server, and like cheap labor in a third world country they started cranking out Hexweave bags. Satisfied with the starter batch, I put them up on the Auction House. The next day I checked the mailbox, expecting envelopes fat with gold. Instead, I found the Hexweave bags I had posted. Odd, but these things happen. I reposted them and came back the next day. Again, just bags.
Dubya Tee Eff?
I started to panic. Had the Hexweave bag market collapsed overnight? Had I just wasted 300,000g moving characters that would generate a whopping total of zero gold for me?
It was at this point that I was reminded of a little Gold Making 101 knowledge. It’s not just about knowing a certain market and what to post. It’s knowing when to post things. At this stage of the expansion, people were buying bags for their alts. I posted my bags just as patch 7.2 went live. People were not interested in, nor focused on, their alts. They were attacking new content with their mains. Therefore, items being used by alts would naturally not sell. Things like Hexweave bags.
D’oh.
I know that sales will pick up again. The gold, she will flow. But even in a click and go world, it still pays to stop and think a little. I hadn’t given much thought to the new patch, and that could have cost me a small fortune. I think the point of this post is a “look before you leap” message. It’s been a rough night and I wanted to get this down before I forgot.
Content! Legion! Patch 7.2! Now where the Hell is my flying?
Rokk Talk 