If you rather not have the upfront costs, make it a habit to sell the cool down when you log on every day so you don’t forget. Its easy gold for very minimal work. Cool Downs sell for 30-50g depending on your server. This is the same amount of gold for doing 2-5 dailies, without ever leaving a major city.

Pre-BC ore is selling for high amounts right now. The influx of Jewelcrafters has created a high demand for lower level ore for prospecting. That with the addition of Death Knights smelting to power level Blacksmithing, has increased prices to double what they were in BC.

The one ore that caught my attention is Thorium ore. On my server it has jumped to 3g+ per ore. Now it is harder to farm thorium than it is WotLK ore, since you cannot use a flying mount. However, in most Thorium areas (Silithus) are desolate, meaning you won’t have as much competition as you do in Northrend.

So, if you are having a hard time farming Saronite or Cobalt, check out your Auction House prices and see if your server has had a huge increase in Pre-BC ore prices. You may be able to find a way to farm ore with out the competition of Northrend. If you need a mining route for a zone check out the mining route maps for the area you are looking at: Kalimdor Mining Route Maps and Eastern Kingdom Route Maps

Today’s gold making tip is a response to an email I received a couple days ago. The person wrote:

Hello !

I’m planning to level a second character on the other faction of my server, using a death knight as a banking alt.

And I was thinking, since that death knight can be leveled to 60 without blinking, and Grand Master <Profession> requires lvl 60, I could perhaps use it as a profession mule too.

What would you recommend as the best four-profession combo ? The main I would be leveling from 1-80 would be a rogue.

Thanks in advance,

Aeltyr

This is a very good question. First I will cover the Death Knight aspect. If you have a DK “bank alt” that you can get to level 60 that you do not plan on playing, there is one way you can make fairly good amount of gold. I would recommend Tailoring + enchanting. You are probably thinking WTFBBQ are you talking about?!?! There are 6 main reasons why I say this.

1. Tailoring and Enchanting go very well together. You can level Tailoring at no net loss if you sell the DE mats, or use those mats to level your enchanting.

2. There are also many ways to make gold off crafting tailoring items and DE’ing them for profit. (I DE Brown Linen Robes, Azure Silk Cloaks, White Bandit Masks, and Low level Netherweave items for a 50% profit margin)

3. Tailors can make gold crafting Netherweave Bags, I sell about 100 a week. This also gives you a cheap source to obtain bags for other alts/banks etc. (I will have a article on the numbers of this tomorrow)

4. You can Purchase items off the AH and DE them for profit if you don’t want to craft things.

5. You can take the cloth that you receive from leveling and turn it into something more valuable (enchant mats) and that have no listing fees.

6. You can DE all the greens you get and sell the enchant mats, again enchant mats have no listing fees while greens do.

However if you do not want tailoring as a profession on your alt, you can try inscription. This is a nice way to make gold (through Northrend Darkmoon Faire Cards, crafting glyphs etc).

For leveling, I always recommend Skinning + (Mining or Herbalism). I know some people say to do Mining and Herbalism, but I find it rather annoying to use macros to switch tracking etc. Skinning is easy money that you can get just for killing the mobs you need to xp and you don’t need to go out of your way.

If you want to be a leatherworker at 80, save the leather you skin. This will allow you to not have any upfront costs of leveling the profession. You can do this by having a bank alt with a bunch of bags, or use the mail system to send mails to your alt that you never open. (if in 30 days you haven’t cleared it out, it will be sent back to your main, but make sure you do something with it then or it will disappear when the mail expires)

Choosing between Herbalism and Mining depends on what you want to do when your 80 .

Do you want to be an Alchemist or Inscriptionists? Choose Herbalism. Herbalism also works great if you choose Inscription on your DK and Alchemy later on your main.

Do you want to be a Jewelcrafter, Engineer or Blacksmith? Choose Mining. However, do NOT smelt the ore, I repeat do NOT smelt it!!! Even if you’re going to choose Engineer or Blacksmith. Lower level ore sells for more than bars since it can be used for more professions (all three + someone leveling mining with smelting). Bigger market to sell too also means a quicker sale. If you choose to go Mining or Engineering, I recommend dropping skinning first to pick it up so you have your smelting ability still available to help speed up the process of leveling.

If you want to pick professions based on money making abilities I would choose Jewelcrafting and Leatherworking (assuming you already have tailoring and enchanting). There are several Leatherworking items you can DE, along with selling armor kits. Jewelcrafting is also a goldmine as well. However, with the increasing numbers of Jewelcrafters, you would need to be smart with the market. Save gems for big rush times (ie new seasons, new instances that provide lots of new gear)

If you have any questions your self, feel free to email me at webmaster@wowconomics.com and I will try my best to answer your questions.

Most guides give you the maps, zones and type of ore to look for while leveling. But what if you want to just level it as quick as possible or you have a Death Knight that you want a profession on? The quickest way is to smelt you way up.

Now it isn’t the cheapest way to level. But you can make more gold in the time you saved from smelting (instead of looking for nodes) than you lose on buying the ore. Also on most servers, the bars sell for around the same price as the ore.

How to level with smelting is pretty straight forward:

1. Buy ore off the Auction House that will give you levels (try to pick an AH that has a forge nearby like Thunder Bluff).

2. Smelt it.

3. List the bars up for sale.

4. Continue to the next type of ore.

However if you want to plan ahead and save up ore, you can look at the guide below and it will show you the level range, the ore that is most likely to level you, and finally the color range for each ore with Mining level gains.

(If you rather level the traditional way of looking for nodes check out my Mining Leveling Guide.)

Patch 3.0.3

Durotar

Horde ~ lvl 1-10 ~ Copper

Mulgore

Horde ~ lvl 1-10 ~ Copper

Teldrassil

Alliance ~ lvl 1-10 ~ Copper

Bloodmyst Isle

Alliance ~ lvl 10-20 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver

Darkshore

Alliance ~ lvl 10-20 ~ Copper, Tin

The Barrens

Horde ~ lvl 10-25 ~ Copper, Tin, SIlver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Turesilver

Stonetalon Mountains

Contested ~ lvl 15-27 ~ Copper, Tin, SIlver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Turesilver

Ashenvale

Contested ~ lvl 18-30 ~ Tin, SIlver, Iron, Gold

Thousand Needles

Contested ~ lvl 25-35 ~ Copper, Tin, SIlver, Iron, Gold

Desolace

Contested ~ lvl 30-40 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Dustwallow Marsh

Contested ~ lvl 35-45 ~ Tin, SIlver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Turesilver

Feralas

Contested ~ lvl 40-50 ~ Silver, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Tanaris

Contested ~ lvl 40-50 ~ Silver, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium

Azshara

Contested ~ lvl 45-55 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Felwood

Contested ~ lvl 48-55 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium

Un’goro Crater

Contested ~ lvl 48-55 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Winterspring

Contested ~ lvl 53-60 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Silithus

Contested ~ lvl 55-60 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Patch 3.0.3

Hellfire Peninsula

Contested ~ lvl 58-63 ~ Fel Iron, Khorium

Zangarmarsh

Contested ~ lvl 60-64 ~ Fel Iron, Adamantite, Khorium

Terokkar Forest

Contested ~ lvl 62-65 ~ Fel Iron, Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, Khorium

Nagrand

Contested ~ lvl 64-67 ~ Fel Iron, Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, Khorium

Blade’s Edge Mountains

Contested ~ lvl 65-68 ~ Fel Iron, Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, Khorium

Netherstorm

Contested ~ lvl 67-70 ~ Fel Iron, Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, Khorium

Shadowmoon Valley

Contested ~ lvl 67-70 ~ Fel Iron, Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, Khorium

Patch 3.0.3

Borean Tundra

Contested ~ 68-72 ~ Cobalt, Rich Cobalt

Howling Fjord

Contested ~ 68-72 ~ Cobalt, Rich Cobalt

Dragonblight

Contested ~ 71-74 ~ Cobalt, Rich Cobalt

Grizzly Hills

Contested ~ 73-75 ~ Cobalt, Rich Cobalt

Zul’Drak

Contested ~ 74-77 ~ Cobalt, Rich Cobalt

Sholazar Basin

Contested ~ 75-78 ~ Saronite, Rich Saronite

Storm Peaks

Contested ~ 76-80 ~ Cobalt, Saronite, Rich Saronite

Icecrown

Contested ~ 77-80 ~ Saronite, Rich Saronite

Patch 3.0.3

Elwynn Forest

Alliance ~ lvl 1-10 ~ Copper

Eversong Woods

Horde ~ lvl 1-10 ~ Copper

Dun Morogh

Alliance ~ lvl 1-12 ~ Copper

Trisfal Glades

Horde ~ lvl 1-10 ~ Copper

Ghostlands

Horde ~ lvl 10-20 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver

Loch Modan

Alliance ~ lvl 10-20 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver

Silverpine Forest

Horde ~ lvl 10-20 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver

Westfall

Alliance ~ lvl 10-20 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver

Redridge Mountains

Contested ~ lvl 15-25 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver

Duskwood

Contested ~ lvl 18-30 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold

Hillsbrad Foothills

Contested ~ lvl 20-30 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Wetlands

Contested ~ lvl 20-30 ~ Copper, Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold

Alterac Mountains

Contested ~ lvl 30-40 ~ Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Arathi Highlands

Contested ~ lvl 30-40 ~ Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Stranglethorn Vale

Contested ~ lvl 31-45 ~ Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold, Mithril

Badlands

Contested ~ lvl 35-45 ~ Tin, Silver, Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Swamp of Sorrows

Contested ~ lvl 35-45 ~ Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

The Hinterlands

Contested ~ lvl 40-50 ~ Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Searing Gorge

Contested ~ lvl 45-50 ~ Iron, Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium

The Blasted Lands

Contested ~ lvl 44-45 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver

Burning Steepes

Contested ~ lvl 50-58 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Western Plaguelands

Contested ~ lvl 50-58 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Eastern Plaguelands

Contested ~ lvl 53-60 ~ Gold, Mithril, Truesilver, Small Thorium, Rich Thorium

Isle of Qual’Danas

Contested ~ lvl 60-70+ ~ Adamantite, Rich Adamantite, Khorium

Patch 3.0.3

There are ideal places to farm, but they vary from server to server. My recommendation is to try a couple zones out and see what works best for you. Maybe you don’t have good gear and your a clothie so farming in Nagrand is easier for you since mobs don’t aggro as easily. Maybe you rather farm Northrend since you can use the ore there to craft other items to make money.

One thing to consider is that if your server is full of people farming in Northrend try farming in outlands. Adamantite might be the same price as Saronite (maybe less) and the gems are worth less, but if you have no competition you can get more ore per time spent farming which depending on your server prices can yield more gold.

Another thing to consider, is to look at a ore map before you start questing in an area when leveling. You can see where ore tends to spawn so when you’re questing you can try and alter your run back to turn in quests etc to maximize the amount of ore you see. These small alterations can save you time from needing to farm up and power level your mining later on.

Eastern Kingdoms Mining Maps

Kalimdor Mining Maps

Northrend Mining Maps

Outlands Mining Maps

Patch 3.0.3