World of Warcraft Gold

Let's face it, in World of Warcraft, if you don't have enough gold, life can be pretty difficult.

In general, you'll make enough gold in World of Warcraft just from questing and killing monsters for your day-to-day expenses (repairs, food, water, skill training, etc.), as long as you're not in the habit of buying new weapons and armor at the auction house every level.

However, if you are like most players, there are a few times when you won't quite have enough gold - mainly, at level 40, when you're allowed to purchase your first mount.

Now, some people may be tempted to go off and buy gold from ebay, or a gold-selling company, but you should avoid this at all costs. You're risking your account when you buy World of Warcraft gold with real-world money, as this is against Blizzard's terms of service.

So, what can you do? There are a number of ways to build up your gold supply, but I'd say the best are

1. Playing the auction house. This is similar to playing the stock market - buy low, and sell high. In general, less people play during the weekdays, and more people play on the weekends. The laws of supply and demand tend to kick in here, so you can usually buy items on weekdays for less gold, and then sell them on the weekends for more gold.

2. Farming for gold, or grinding for gold: I personally don't like this method, but lots of players swear by it. There are certain places in Azeroth where you can earn more gold per hour than normal, because of faster monster respawn rates, or monsters whose loot tables are out of synch with other monsters of the same level. These locations change regularly, because when Blizzard discovers them, they will "fix" them so that they don't allow so much gold to be earned. After every patch that is released, keep your eyes open for faster than normal respawn rates or scour the fan site forums for other people talking about such locations.

When you find such a location, you'd better take advantage of it quickly. because Blizzard will probably "fix" it with the next patch.

3. Tradeskills. For the most part, tradeskills (such as blacksmithing, alchemy, or leatherworking) are designed to suck gold out of your pocket for the first 40 or so levels. Except in rare circumstances, I would advise you to not try to earn gold in World of Warcraft using this method. However, if you keep your eyes open for "holes in the market", you stand to make some good gold. For example, Horde players who know how to make Robes of Arcana can do pretty well, since that pattern only drops in Alliance-controlled areas.

One more World of Warcraft gold tip for you: there are a number of "How to make gold in World of Warcraft" guides available on the internet. Most of them are rehashed tips from two years ago and no longer work. The only one I can recommend (and one that I recommend highly) is this one: