How to Make Gold in World of Warcraft Classic

Gold is the game’s primary currency that funds all major purchases and upgrades, from learning new skills to buying mounts, consumables, and gear pieces. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the main ways to make gold in WoW Classic and share some practical tips to help you earn more, even if you’re brand new to the game.

Questing

Questing is the most natural way to earn WoW Classic gold, especially while leveling. You get gold directly as quest rewards and also pick up a lot of items to sell. Quests provide you with tons of gear that your character will quickly outgrow, so you can sell the pieces you no longer need either to vendors or on the Auction House, depending on how valuable they are. Low-level gray and white items usually go straight to vendors, while green Bind-on-Equip items (BoEs) and higher-quality stuff are usually worth auctioning if they come at a good price. 

Open-World Farming

Open-world farming means killing specific mobs at certain spots for loot. The general rule here is pretty much the same as with quest rewards: junk items get vendored, and green BoEs, consumables, and valuable crafting materials go to the Auction House.

Here’s a bunch of popular mobs and locations you can farm:

• Toxic Horrors, Irontree mobs, and Jadefire demons in Felwood
• Fire Elementals in Un’Goro Crater
• Winterfall mobs in Winterspring
• Bats in Eastern Plaguelands
• Zombies in Western Plaguelands

Mages have a noticeable advantage when it comes to farming, thanks to their powerful AoE (area-of-effect) abilities. AoE spells allow mages to pull large groups of enemies and kill them all at once, which significantly increases the kills you make and the gold you earn per hour. 

Don’t forget that markets change pretty often in Classic, so it’s better to check prices on your server’s Auction House before starting any farm to not waste your time on something that is no longer profitable.

Also, keep an eye on how crowded a spot is. If several players are doing the same farm, there’ll be fewer mobs for you to kill and, therefore, less gold to actually make. So if you come across some serious competition, it’s better to pick a different spot that is less contested.

Dungeon and Raid Farming

Dungeon and raid farming follows the same basic logic as open-world farming, but inside instances. You can clear entire dungeons and raids or farm specific sections and then just reset the instance and repeat. 

Pretty much all Classic instances come with good loot, but for gold-making, players usually focus on Sunken Temple, Blackrock Depths, Zul’Farrak, and the so-called Whip Lasher farm in Dire Maul East.

Dungeon farming offers more consistent mob density and less competition compared to the open world, but keep in mind that you are limited to only 5 resets per hour and a total of 30 unique instances per day per server.

Professions

Gathering professions (Herbalism, Mining, and Skinning) will give you a chance to collect valuable resources like herbs, ores, and skins that are always in demand on the Auction House, because they are used to produce high-end items. 

Crafting professions can be even more profitable, allowing you to create gear, consumables, bags, and other useful items that players constantly need, especially for the endgame content. The downside is that crafting requires more planning and some upfront investment to get materials and recipes.

As for recommendations, it’s always a good idea to have a character with dual gathering (Herbalism and Mining), because this combo will give you a steady stream of income both while leveling and at the endgame. Skinning is another great option, since you’ll be killing plenty of beasts while questing and will be able to skin them for some extra materials to sell. 

Don’t overlook secondary professions, either. You can learn all three: Cooking, Fishing, and First Aid. They’re easy to level and require no special setups, but still give you very solid gold gains. Fishing and Cooking pair especially well, with Fishing supplying valuable ingredients for food buffs and meals, as well as key reagents used in some of the strongest consumables in the game. First Aid, meanwhile, helps you save gold on bandages to heal in combat, and those that you don’t need for yourself can always be sold for some extra gold.

Auction House Game

Last but not least core gold-making method on our list is playing the Auction House. This means buying items when they’re cheap and reselling them later at a higher price to turn a profit.

It’s a relatively lazy but very lucrative method; yet, it’s not very beginner-friendly. You’ll need some initial gold savings to buy items in the first place, along with solid market knowledge to spot good flips and understand what’s worth reselling and when. Also, it’ll be extremely hard to play the Auction House without extra tools like the TradeSkillMaster (TSM) addon, which will help you spot underpriced items and automate a lot of the routine work, such as scanning or posting and canceling your auctions.

If you’re still new to the game, it’s best to stick to regular Auction House sales for now. Later, once you’ve gained some experience (and gold), you can slowly start experimenting with flipping cheaper items like materials or consumables before moving on to bigger markets like gear or transmogs.

Extra Income Streams

On top of the main gold-making methods available to every player, there are also a few class-specific ways to earn extra gold.

Mages, for example, can sell their portals, as well as the food and water they conjure with their spells. Thanks to their powerful AoE abilities, mages can also offer dungeon boosts, helping other players level faster in exchange for gold. Warlocks, on the other hand, can charge small fees to summon players to different locations or dungeon entrances.