Cataclysm Gold Making Tip
The million dollar question…how to make gold in Cataclysm? After 2 years of WotLK there’s a certain level of expectation when it comes to making gold, but virtually all of that expectation and experience will be turned on it’s head come Cataclysm. So, it’s time to take a hard look at how we’re going to change to the new environment of the Cataclysm economy.
How to Make Gold in Cataclysm
Making gold during the first stages of a new expansion is perhaps the easiest it’s ever going to be. There’s a few reasons for this, most centered on the boom of the overall economy.
- More people are playing
- Everyone is gearing up
So, on day one, and really for the first several weeks I am taking a lesson from TBC and WotLK launches and going to power grind herbs and mining nodes. Simple? Yes. Effective? Insanely. Why? Simply put, everyone is gearing up…they need materials to level their professions, improve their gear, and of course raid / battleground.
Special note: Your will be able to use consumables in rated battlegrounds, consider the implications here…it would be like using pots, flasks, etc. in arena. Crazy…most definitely. Hardcore teams will be fully buffed, guaranteed. Meaning a huge increase in the demand for alchemy and herbs.
A great deal of my gold making tactics are centered around the auction house because it’s generally the most time effective, but when Cataclysm hits you can be sure as Ralph Blitzer’s beard is hiding a 34th trapped miner, that mining / herbalism nodes are going to go through the roof. During the Cataclysm launch period (probably up to 12 weeks after) I was pulling close to 1,000 gold per hour herb’ing in a 3 zone circuit.
With the advent of tracking 2 nodes at the same time I can see this potentially reaching 3,500 gold an hour in the launch period for Cataclysm (that number is adjusted for forecasted inflation).
The Step by Step Process
- Level mining and herbalism to 450 prior to Cataclysm’s release
- Level to 85 as quickly as possible, herbing / mining while leveling is okay, but leveling is your primary focus. Remember, you want to focus on getting the ability to fly again, which increases your gathering efficiency 10 fold.
- Track both nodes and develop a gathering route for the top 1-3 herbs / mineral nodes needed.
- Be specifically on the look out for the “rare” type nodes used in flasks, fireleaf was insanely profitable before it was removed from the recipe. Also be on the lookout for mineral nodes in similar recipes.
- Watch the price differences between herbs / mineral nodes. If one is selling better than the other you should focus on that. Some zones may be better or herbs, others for mining, just be aware of the price gaps and change your gathering routes accordingly.
It’s a simple tactic, but one you shouldn’t overlook. Just like the business world first-movers get the advantage. If you’re going to make it to 85 pretty quick you ought to reap some of the benefits!
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Are you saying we should drop our current professions (mine are Enchanting and JC. For Mining/ herbing?
That’s a tough call, and really depends on a lot of factors. If you are going to drop a pair or crafting professions, especially expensive ones to level like JC / enchanting, then you need to make sure it’s going to be worth it.
If you are going to level up very quickly and devote time to doing a lot of gathering circuit farming then, yeah, it could pay huge dividends for you.
It’s a basic cost vs. benefit analysis. To level enchanting from 1-450 is say…2,500g, perhaps the same for jewelcrafting. This is just a shot in the dark estimate, so it would be a huge idea for you to take a look at crafting material prices on your server so you have an idea of how much it costs before making the decision.
You’ll take this value and consider it your net loss currently. This is the amount mining / herbalism will have to profit you before you break even. Hope that helps to answer your question.
Zuggy – you mentioned “forecasted inflation.” Are you guesstimating on the figure? Just what of the 3,500 (250% increase over 1,000g/hr) is “buying frenzy” and what is inflation?
Several blogs have raised the issue just in the past week.
As a result, I’ve decided to put together an index to measure the wow inflation. If you have any thoughts on this, let me know.
Hey Midas,
Sorry, I should have been more clear on that point. If we were using today’s currency value I would say that the fact that you can now track 2 nodes (and thus gather up to 200% more efficiently) increases the level from 1k an hour to say 2,000g.
I think because you are in both herb and mineral markets the buying frenzy portion of the increase will be increased as well over previous expansions. Being in both markets mean you go from just supply say 2 profession (alchemy / insc) as I did in WotLk to supporting 5 (alch / insc / jc / blacksmithing / engineer). It s really hard to put down hard numbers on these, but I would expect to see perhaps a 20% increase.
2000 * 1.20 = 2400
Now, adjusting for inflation…which also is quite speculative. Based on avg. quest gold rewards which for WotLK were 6.25 and for Cata are 8.25, we see a 32% inflation rate. It’s hard to know for sure if the hardline inflation will be this bad, because it’s only taking one part of the grand equation (which is huge).
2400 * 1.32 = 3168
Now, the kind of super estimation is the effect of inflation increase due the overall supply of currency in the economy. Before expansions players hoard up their gold. Blizzard tries at the end of every expansion (and is largely successful) to give people new things to buy…the glyph craze is a good example, to help reduce the supply, so as it reduce inflation in the expansion.
When the money supply goes up the currency is devalued and inflation goes up. These are just economic principles visible throughout the work.
As much as they try Blizzard cannot correct it all. So the remaining 332 gold would easily make up that portion of the overall 3500 gold per hour.
Sorry if that was a bit of a rambling. I’ve just really started to seriously consider this inflation issue, I think it’s fascinating. I think I’ll look at doing a post about it tomorrow and we can have a more conclusive discussion.
Zug -
Got a lot of food for thought for you.
Regarding your first point, I used to toggle herb/mineral find constantly while flying, so being able to “find both” is more of a convenience factor than an efficiency driver. I’d guess that having them both up improves my farming by no more than 5% – perhaps 10% now that we have 310% mounts (and by we I mean I – some people already had the faster mounts).
However, I suspect the multipliers you list – good points, all – may be quite a bit larger than what you suggest.
The paragraph where you wrote (“Now, the kind of super estimation…in the expansion.”) contains a number of different concepts worth teasing out. I have spent some time on that. I’ll admit I went a little overboard and did some more inflation research. Here’s my painfully long post on the topic:
http://wowmidas.com/2010/10/27/wowflation-sinks-sources-and-velocity/
Looking forward to reading any thoughts you may have.
Cheers!
You make a good point regarding switching the two trackers back and forth. At the very least my estimate there may be a high, and potentially elsewhere as well.
I just read through your post, lots of great stuff. I like how you full explored the idea of money sinks, that was something I didn’t talk as much about in my look at inflation.
http://wow.zuggaming.com/2010/10/26/cataclysm-inflation-and-the-wow-economy/
I think the big problem with Blizzard’s money sinks is they simply are not enough. WotLK has been out too long and player’s have too much gold, unless there are some very dramatic and expensive money sinks for Cata I think inflation may be a serious problem in this coming expansion.
“I think the big problem with Blizzard’s money sinks is they simply are not enough.”
Yep. If they were to add more sinks but make them “required,” i.e. skills and abilities everyone would need to have, then people would complain. If they were optional, they’d have to be pretty darn snazzy…then those who couldn’t afford those things would complain. So far, they have kept the expensive fancy items to a minimum.
Mount training has been the obvious (and acceptable) work around, so I was a bit disappointed to see there was not going to any new big mount training.
I was hoping for “Ship Captain” training. Though anything would have been great…tank, submarine, or even a cop out of just making flying mount training for the old world 10,000 – 15,000 gold.
Better yet, playing housing! Just make it so cool that players wouldn’t feel bad dropping huge sums of gold. I know I’d spend really no limit on player housing.
Player housing is a really neat idea, but there are such wealth disparities it would be a pretty regressive move. It would create HUGE incentives to buy gold, possibly driving inflation rather than the opposite.
It could also take a lot away from the game. Right now, the game is reasonably egalitarian – you put in the time, you get the rewards. The difference between a 1 million gold player and 1,000 gold player are not that stark. However, real estate is one of those highly visible, ever present distinctions of have vs. have nots. Plus it discriminates against new players, which may in turn make it impossible to maintain server populations.
Just a bunch of random thoughts. Thanks for the conversation!