Now this isn't my typical kind of post. I generally talk about playing the AH from a level 80 point of view but meeting a newb on my server somewhat inspired me to talk about playing the AH while leveling. And it might help those of you make some extra cash while leveling your alts :)
The back story for those of your who don't read the JMTC forums is recently I've had to spend time in Exodar as my connection is utter crap (I'm using my neighbors network about a block away). Well sitting out here so much I tend to see names come and go but 2 people seemed to spend a ton of time in Exodar. I got to talking to them and found out they are brother and sister and new to wow. The brother is a AH junkie and has figured out he can monopolize on certain markets. He is currently level 38 and as of last night he broke 3k liquid gold (has over 10k in auction sales). This is someone who is completely new and so I've been giving him small pointers here and there and explaining what I can without spoon feeding him. Truly impressive and he is a JC and will be a future competitor which I really look forward to because I'm not going to treat him like a typical competitor. 1. His sister is cute and I'm a sucker for cute females and 2. I could possibly have him help me control the gem market and between the two of us we both can be rich. Sort of like an apprentice.
This guide is not a step by step guide on what to do. It is more or less showing you what to keep an eye out while your questing to make some extra money in the process (or if you like to mindlessly grind to level). Occasionally I will give exact coords but many times I will not. I'll tell you the general area and let you do the exploring yourself.
Well here it is. My guide to playing the AH while leveling. Broken up into the BG brackets
Level 1 - 9
Starting out I suggest picking up your professions early and figuring out what you want to do with it. There are various combinations and they all make money if played right. Here are the common combination's:
Mining / Herbing (suggest using spotter)
Mining / skinning
Herbing / skinning
Tailoring / enchanting
If your feeling really confident you could do mining / jc but forewarning your mainly going to prospect extra ore for your money. So unless you plan on taking your dear sweet time leveling this is not recommended (or if you have a main who is a JC lol).
Now because you can essentially level 4 characters and travel through completely different parts of the game I'll try to name certain spots as examples to teach you what to look for.
Level 1-5 will be in the newbie area and you honestly won't be making that much money here. You might find the occasional 4 slot bag but nothing worthwhile.
At 5-9 You'll be at the first starting town. (Goldshire, Bril, Kharanos, etc) This is when you can start picking up your professions. All of the previously mentioned combinations will work but I suggest two gathering professions unless you know what your doing. Mine and herb anything you come across (or skin). At these low levels you still wont be making a ton of money but you can get enough to get by. Things worth keeping would be various meats, eggs, greens, cloth, potions, ore, herbs, cooking recipes.
If your a skinner and a Dwarf / Gnome the wendigo cave southwest of Kharanos is a great place to skill up at and farm up some leather. The wendigos respawn relatively quickly.
If your an Orc / Troll farming for boar meat off the Dire Mottled Boar's is excellent source of income.
If your a Night Elf there are numerous furblog camps throughout the island. Linen cloth, the occasional gem and potion and coin are the common drops. (plus vendor trash grays)
At this level your pretty much farming while questing. One of the best tips I can give you is to kill EVERYTHING. It might take you an extra minute or two to reach your destination but the exp and loot adds up.
Level 10 - 19
At level 10 you should be finishing up the starting zones or just entering the second newbie zone such as Westfall, Silverpine Forest, Barrens, Darkshore, Loch Modan, Bloodmyst Isle, etc. Your pretty much following the guidelines as before.
Westfall - An abundance of beasts and humanoids here. Also along the coast you'll find murlocs. There are a handful of mines spread across the zone for you miners and packed full of humanoids for your tailoring needs. Along with the humanoids there are like I said tons of beasts. The birds drop feathers and eggs. Eggs tend to sell well on the AH because they are pretty boring to farm up and the opportunity cost for a level 80 makes it inefficient to farm.
Barrens - Fishing comes into play here. Deviate fish tend to sell well if your ally (not sure about horde). There is a zone wide recipe for savory deviate delights that can only be found here. On my server it sells for 700g+ (again I'm ally and it will vary server to server). Skinners can skin up extra deviate scales. There is one hidden jewel here that I absolutely loved while leveling up. The Kolkar's Booty chest. Level 13-16 kolkar mobs drop the key and the chest (last I checked its been awhile) drops a green item almost every time. Being ally I didn't quest out here but I did spend a good amount of time farming these guys for the keys.
Loch Modan - Like the Barrens there are humanoids and beasts everywhere. Also you'll find a decent amount of spiders which drop silk + cooking reagents (spiders legs / meat). Not my favorite zone in terms of questing. Westfall is a much better choice in my opinion but you could hit this area up first then hit up Westfall in terms of questing. I do however like this zone for herbing more then Westfall but that's about the only perk.
Silverpine Forest - For you horde players out there. Two words. Dalaran Spellscribe. This guy is a rare spawn over in the 63, 63 area and has a 19% chance to drop Cat Carrier (Black Tabby). Have a trust worthy friend help smuggle it through the neutral AH to the alliance side and sell it. I have a friend who has a horde DK parked out there and he sends over 4 or 5 every few days. Sells em for 1k each (prices may vary).
Again not to much you can "farm" but more then the previous bracket.
Level 20 - 29
If your on a pvp server this is where you generally will start entering contested zones such as Wetlands, Ashenvale, Duskwood, Thousand Needles and Hillsbrad Foothills.
Wetlands - Suprisingly this is a great zone for low level farming. There are quite a few items that drop here and generally sell well. Flamesnorting, Crimson, and Red Whelps all drop Tiny Crimson Whelpling. Granted this is an extremely low drop rate (about .7%) but generally sells pretty well. Especially for the level required to get it. Another great item is raptor eggs. There are raptors all over the place and they frequently drop eggs which sell fairly well also. (bonus for skinners). The Incendicite veins in the spider cave are a great spot to level your mining up (note: the ore does not sell well). Another decent Zone for herbing and a great zone for skinning. Mining not so much (besides the spider cave).
Ashenvale - Not my favorite of zones mostly because of the nightmares growing up on a pvp server during the initial launch of the game but there is one spot I loved and I farmed to death. The thistlefurs north of Astraanar are awesome. They drop pages to the shredder manual (horde only I believe) pretty frequently along with wool cloth. There is a cave somewhere in those hills and I would spend hours out there farming and grinding out exp.
Thousand Needles - Supposedly one of the best low level mining zones in the game. I honestly haven't spent much time here. However I do know that you can farm the Screeching Harpies for Vibrant Plumes.
Hillsbrad Foothills - Another zone I haven't spent a ton of time in but I do know of the turtles along the river are pretty awesome. You can farm up turtle meat, skinners can skin, they also drop Thick-Shelled Clams. Also the southern shore is packed with murlocs which drop the same clams as the turtles. Also skinners can check out the yeti cave in addition to the turtles.
Tomorrow I'll be posting levels 30 through 59 and leaving Friday open for 60 to 79 (Outlands and Northrend). I know most of you don't farm and don't like farming but there is only so much I can talk about in terms of playing the AH without getting to repetitive. So I'm trying to mix it up a bit. Let me know what you think and feel free to tell me to stick to talking about the AH cause I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to farming. :P
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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Good, interesting blog you have.
ReplyDeleteI just started a mage fresh on another server, so my supply network was not available. What I did is,well I first did get lucky, and chatted up a guy who was doing hTOC-25 raids (that's the cream of the crop right now), and so we chatted about raids and so forth, and he gave me 40g.
So, that's a good start right? So what I did was, again I'm level 10 at this point. Run to ironforge when it was appropriate. Ask for a port to shat and tip 2g. Set your hearth there. Grab some recipes there and in the other capital cities. Immediately I turned that 40g in to a 100g. Bought some bags for my AH mule and 'main'. Then from my port I ran to various places like felwood and collected recipes. I just continued the recipe business until currently I have 8 frostweave bags and 400g, and another probably 200-400g in potential profit.
So that's one way.
But what if you are dead broke and have nothing. Well, every silver is important. You pick herbalism for your first profession (and whatever is the other prof, doesn't matter). You make a AH mule, and park it at a capital city. You sell your herb stacks. Even peacebloom sells for about 1g a stack. It doesn't take long until you have a few gold in your pocket. Buy fishing recipes from the capital cities, just one of each at first. Sell those. Quickly you'll have 10g or so in profit. At this point, get a port from a mage, make your way to exodar or IF, and buy the pets therein. On my server I sell 4-6 moths every day at 2000% profit. So I buy for 50s and sell for 10g. Within a week you will expend your horizons and have enough money for bags. Keep expanding, and keep leveling your main. Every town you go to, buy recipes. Some sell well, some don't. Figure it out by trial and error. By level 20 if you are playing casually you should have 8 netherweave bags and steady income stream. You can continue to make money for profits sake, but at this point you have it made. Buy some frostweave bags when you can, continue to farm herbs, they become quite profitable in theh 75-150 skill range.
If you follow this method, You will have all the gold you will ever need for mounts, repairs, training, etc.
Oh one more thing. If you can make a DK, do so. Even if you hate the class. Go through the intro period, you'll come out with some gold and 4 bags, and inportantly flight points. Go fly to various places in Azeroth, buy recipes. Just one each at first, some never sell at a profit.
ReplyDeleteI made my DK a tailor/enchanter, and currently am about level 200 in both profs. You can start turningn a profit with this combo right away by buying cheap cloth, DE, and selling mats. And once you get to mid 300s you can make netherweave bags (you will have to be 60 for this).
If nothing else, make the DK, get out of the start zone, sell what you have, that's 20g or so right there (i got lucky and a blue dropped, it should sell for 100g eventually). 20g for a brand new toon is huge, enough to get you to level 40 and epic mount.