It’s hard to get to a point in the majestic world of Azeroth where you don’t need at least a little more gold. Whether it’s new gear, a new mount, or just daily grinding supplies, everything you do is up to your gold bank. Basically your gold determines your entire gaming experience and can make the game very fun or very tedious. WotLK’s gold farming is particularly difficult because, as the game has grown in popularity, more and more Chinese gold producers are cramming major gold farming locations in hopes of making some real money.

First of all, whether you love them or hate them, it’s probably good to realize that you probably won’t be able to compete with professional gold producers. They are doing this for their bread and butter, and they will be there taking up most of the space in just about any WotLK gold growing area.

I’m sure you’re wondering by now “Well what am I supposed to do then? Buying gold from these players because the game is getting crowded? “

Buying gold is a bad idea too – Blizzard will hit it pretty quickly, no matter how discreet you may think it is. All these gold farmers are on their radar and they are looking at the gold to see where it goes.

If the WotLK gold growing sites are dead and you cannot buy gold, the only solution left is to use lesser known gold growing methods. Here are some ideas to get started:

Air Cultivation Essence

This is one of the best gold growing methods as it can make over 500g quickly. The mobs you are looking for are in the northwest of Silithus. They will also drop Breath of Wind and Elemental Air, which are common floor mats that you can sell at the Auction House or use them yourself. However, be careful not to kill the elemental boss, because it will cut your monsters in half and it will be much more difficult to farm!

Cobweb spider silk and boreal leather

Another great farming location can be found in Zul’Drak, where the Trapdor Crawlers spawn (a little north of Argent Stand to be specific). These mobs drop cobweb spider silk and boreal leather, both of which sell very well at the auction house. It can average around two to three Iceweb Spider Silk per minute, which turns out to be a good amount of gold per hour.

Wool

Okay, this isn’t exactly the most exotic mat, but it really is profitable. Not many popular instances have wool drops and not many humanoids drop them either. Still, wool is extremely popular with tailors trying to improve their profession, and its scarcity makes it one of my favorite rugs to grow.

The best place to grow wool is the palisades (only applicable to the Horde, unfortunately). If this doesn’t work for you, I suggest you look in the southern wetlands, where there are quite a few gnolls who would be more than willing to let you drop their wool (they reappear quickly, too).

Mining for profit (finally!)

Mining has been pretty tough lately and many players have just switched professions out of frustration. The ore has been very difficult to sell due to the large number of mining bots (automated player characters that are made to perform a specific task) that have been flooding Azeroth.

However, Blizzard has finally cracked down on these malicious economic disasters, and mining and herbalism are once again a profitable profession (Adder’s Tounge costs around 18g per stack again).

This is pretty server-specific, so I’ll just suggest you look at your local auction house to see what minerals and herbs are selling for what price. Find one you like, go out and get your hands dirty to make some gold.

Dominating the auction house

Sometimes it is more profitable to know what is valuable on your server and resell it rather than taking the time to farm everything yourself, especially if it is outside the level range for certain mobs. Get yourself a good auction house guide (you could write a book just about the auction house, so I won’t go into it here) and you will be living a rich life no matter what server you are on.