WoW Classic Goldmaking Guide: The Best Ways to Make Gold
Welcome to our Goldmaking guide, where you will learn the best ways to make Gold in WoW Classic.
Class-specific Goldmaking Guides
Before we get started on goldmaking, we would like to present you our Icy Veins' class-specific guides.
Professions
In WoW Classic, professions are an integral part of the game and will be important in every phase. While some professions can help to make items that you will use for raiding and PvP, professions are also an excellent way to make gold. If your primary goal is to make gold, some professions are better than others. Below is a tier list for how the different professions rank strictly in terms of making gold.
- S-Tier: Skinning
- A-Tier: Alchemy, Herbalism, Mining
- B-Tier: Leatherworking
- C-Tier: Enchanting, Engineering
- D-Tier: Tailoring, Blacksmithing
While this tier list should be accurate in general, it is important to note
that there are exceptions. Certain Enchanting patterns, Alchemy recipes, and other
crafting patterns are very rare and very desirable. If you get lucky and get a rare
pattern, such as the pattern for Lionheart Helm from Ragnaros,
you can make insane amounts of gold just by nature of being one of the only people
able to make that specific item.
S-Tier Professions
Skinning
Skinning is one of the most competitive professions, but has the highest gold
making potential by far in phases 1 and 2. As a skinner, your best way to make gold
is through one specific commodity: Devilsaur Leather. Devilsaur Leather
drops from Devilsaurs, which are level 54-55 elite beasts found in Un'goro Crater.
Devilsaur Leather sells at a premium early on in WoW Classic because it is used
by Leatherworkers to craft
Devilsaur Gauntlets and
Devilsaur Leggings.
This 2-piece set is used by all physical damage dealers as a pre-raid BiS set, and
is incredibly powerful. The strength of the armor means it will be in demand for
quite some time, meaning Devilsaur Leather will continue to be valuable.
While Devilsaur Leather is extremely profitable to farm, it is also
well known. There are only 6 Devilsaur spawn points in Un'goro Crater, each of which
has a roughly 15 minute re-spawn timer. On more populated servers, you should expect
to see people camping these spots at all hours of the day. On PvP servers, you
should expect to see groups of people for both factions camping these spots, killing
anyone they see of the opposite faction. While it is possible to farm these, know
that it can be competitive, and on PvP servers especially can be rough if you are
farming these alone.
A-Tier Professions
Alchemy
Alchemy can be expensive to level, but has a high payoff. Unlike Skinning, Alchemy will continue to be profitable throughout all of WoW Classic, and will eventually become S-Tier as more people reach level 60 and start to raid, most likely around phase 2 or 3. The best way to make money as an Alchemist is to craft potions, elixirs, and flasks to sell on the Auction House. The best crafting choices are listed below. The most profitable potions to craft come down to knowing what the most popular consumables are that people use during raids, specifically Molten Core.
For the best possible profit margins, you should pair this with Herbalism. Additionally, timing is also incredibly important. Most guilds raid on Tuesday or Wednesday nights (depending on your reset day), which means most people will be looking to buy these consumables on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. To make the most gold, you will want to craft and stock up on potions throughout the week, and then list them with an 8 hour duration on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon at a premium.
Elixir of the Mongoose: One of the most important buffs for physical damage dealers.
Greater Arcane Elixir: One of the most important buffs for casters.
Flask of Supreme Power: The best buff in the game for casters, but much more expensive than most others.
Flask of Distilled Wisdom: A very expensive, but very strong buff for healers.
Restorative Potion: Required for two bosses in Molten Core by almost everyone in the raid.
Free Action Potion: Strong in PvP.
Living Action Potion: Strong in PvP.
Limited Invulnerability Potion: Strong in PvP.
Greater Fire Protection Potion: Heavily used in Molten Core, especially on Ragnaros.
Herbalism
Herbalism offers a way to farm gold without really needing to put much thought
into it. If you want the best gold income, pair Herbalism with Alchemy to farm the
herbs that you will use to make potions and elixirs. The best herb to farm is
Black Lotus, which is extremely valuable, but also quite rare. Black
Lotus is needed to make Flasks, which are the most powerful consumables in the
game for raids and will be used for all of WoW Classic.
Mining
Similar to Herbalism, Mining offers a means of farming gold without needing
put a ton of thought into it. You can just go to higher level zones looking for
ore deposits to farm. The most profitable thing to look for is Thorium deposits,
both because Thorium Ore is the best ore in the game, but more importantly
because the nodes can drop
Arcane Crystal as well. Arcane Crystals are
incredibly valuable right now since they are needed for Warriors to craft
Lionheart Helm, which is the best Warrior DPS helm for all of WoW Classic.
B-Tier Professions
Leatherworking
Leatherworking can be profitable during the early phases of WoW Classic when
Devilsaur Gauntlets and
Devilsaur Leggings are highly sought after.
For the best profit margins, you should pair Leatherworking with Skinning so you
can farm the
Devilsaur Leather yourself and then make the pieces. You can
still make a decent profit even without skinning, but not nearly as much.
C-Tier Professions
Enchanting
Enchanting can be profitable, but takes a heavy time and gold investment to get there. Enchanting is one of the most expensive professions to level, and to make any meaningful income you will need to get access to rare enchanting recipes, most of which drop from Molten Core. This means you will need to be raiding Molten Core, usually as your guild's designated Enchanter to ensure that you are given the recipe drops. Even then, most of the important recipes are incredibly rare, sometimes taking months to drop.
Even if you successfully get the rare enchanting recipes, Enchanting faces another major issue. You cannot "craft" enchants in WoW Classic. The only way to enchant gear is to trade someone and have them put their piece of gear that they want enchanted into the "will not be traded" slot so you can enchant it. This means you cannot use the Auction House to sell your enchants, which severely limits your income potential compared to other professions. The only way to make money is to advertise your enchanting in chat, and have people pay you to enchant their gear, which can take lots of time for a sometimes small profit margin depending on how desirable and rare your recipes are.
Engineering
Engineering is not traditionally used as a goldmaking profession, but you do
have some income options. Several of the Engineering bombs and trinket are highly
sought after, and can be sold on the Auction House for some profit. The issue is
that most of them require Engineering for anyone to use them, meaning people are
more likely to make their own. Goblin Sapper Charge is one example, where
you can freely sell it and potentially make a profit off of people who do not
want to spend the time making their own. Engineering is also quite expensive to
level, so do not pick up Engineering just to make gold.
D-Tier Professions
Blacksmithing
Blacksmithing is used to craft powerful gear and weapons that will be used by
level 60 players. Some items such as Arcanite Reaper are sought after and
will sell well, but require specialization and training to craft. The highest
possible gold income will come from getting
Plans: Lionheart Helm from Ragnaros,
but it is an incredibly rare drop and not something that you should count on.
Blacksmithing is generally not a reliable gold making profession, and if you want
to earn gold there are better options.
Tailoring
Tailoring is mostly used as a means for casters to eventually craft some specific
pieces of BoP gear, and less about making gold. You can make some income by using
Mooncloth to create
Mooncloth Bag, but it will not be very
profitable.
Farming
If you are not interesting in using professions to make gold, you can always fall back on farming. Farming refers to killing enemies that drop valuable items, either to vendor or sell on the Auction House. There are many places to farm for profit, but some of the most profitable places are listed below.
Maraudon
Maraudon can be soloed at level 60 by Hunters, Warlocks, and Priests. To do these
runs, you will need a Scepter of Celebras from completing the Maraudon dungeon
quests. Once you use the item to portal to the final part of Maraudon, you can
run through the instance, only killing Tinkerer Gizlock and Princess Theradras.
After each run, have an alt in your group, log off your main and onto the alt, wait
1 minute for lead to be automatically passed to your alt, then reset the dungeon.
Log back onto your main and you will be at the start of the instance, with it reset.
You can do up to 5 of these runs per hour, which should be about 35g/hour in gear
that you can sell to a vendor.
This is both an efficient gold making method and results in guaranteed gold.
You will never have to compete with other players and you will not have to deal
with the Auction House. If you want to increase your gold from this even further,
Miners and Herbalists benefit heavily from these runs since there are high level
herbs and ore in the dungeon. Additionally, Blackstone Ring drops off of
Princess Theradras, which is a highly sought after BiS ring for all physical
damage dealers. Lots of players will pay for these runs, tagging along and paying
you if the ring drops to guarantee that they get it.
Eastern Plaguelands
Some classes are better than others at farming, but Eastern Plaguelands offers farming that anyone can do. Most of the enemies are easy enough to kill that every class can farm them relatively efficiently. Almost every enemy in the zone can be farmed for profit, but the bats in the zone offer a good balance of gold, being easy to kill, and vendor-able gray items.
Hearthglen
Hearthglen is an encampment in the Western Plaguelands that can be a very
profitable farming spot for solo farmers. The Scarlet Spellbinder on the
road to Hearthglen have a chance to drop Formula: Enchant Weapon - Crusader, which is the formula for
the most sought after weapon enchant that most melee use. The formula itself
will sell for lots of gold, or if you are an enchanter, you can learn it to be
able to use the enchant. Having the enchant is rare, enabling you to charge
people decent amounts of gold to enchant their weapons. Scarlet Spellbinders
also drop
Runecloth,
Major Healing Potion, and other
useful items.
Winterspring
The Furblogs in Winterspring are easy to farm and have a chance to drop
Winterfall Firewater, which is a desirable melee consumable that sells
well on the Auction House.
Auction House
If you want to make gold without ever leaving the city, you can by buying and selling items on the Auction House. The key to making money off the Auction House is understanding the markets. You want to buy items when they are cheap, and sell them at a higher price to make gold. This is easier said than done though, and can be risky if you predict incorrectly and the price of an item you buy falls. Markets will be different on every server and faction, so you will need to do your own research if you want to make gold off the Auction House this way.
Raid Consumables
Raid consumables such as potions, weapon stones, elixirs, and buff food all will fluctuate heavily during the week. If you buy them slowly from Thursday to Monday, you can generally sell most raid consumables at a premium on Tuesday or Wednesday when most guilds raid.
Twink Gear
Lots of the lower level rare and epic gear does not sell for much at the moment, as the people buying them are still leveling up and do not have much gold. Starting in phase 3 when battlegrounds are released, twinking will become extremely popular and you can expect the prices on low level rare items to skyrocket. If you want to make some long term investments, twinking items are a good way to invest.
Changelog
- 20 Sep. 2019: Guide added.
Classic Dungeon Guides
Classic Profession Guides

This guide has been written by Impakt, an Officer in BDGG, the #2 North American guild on retail. In addition to live WoW, he has also been a classic theorycrafter and enthusiast for many years. You can watch him stream on Twitch, or follow him on Twitter.
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