Introduction
Gold is very easy to come by in retail World of Warcraft nowadays. Daily Quests, Auction House, Professions, and even things like WoW Tokens provide Players with a wide variety of Gold making possibilities, not to mention that Everybody gets new Skills for free after leveling up. This comfortable state of affairs results in people not appreciating the value of the WoW's in-game currency. However, things look much different in WoW: Classic. When you start your adventure with Classic World of Warcraft, you will almost immediately notice that Quests award pitiful amounts of money, Skills have to be learned from Class Trainers and cost a ton of Gold, flipping the Auction House is not really an option during the early weeks of the Game, because no one has any Gold and everyone is quickly vendoring almost every Item, but most of all, you will realize that level 40 Mount costs a small fortune and there is no way that you will save enough Gold to learn your Riding Skill and buy it by just leveling...
With this Guide, we will try to prepare you for Classic's economic every-day reality by comparing all Professions and helping you choose the ones that will earn you the most Gold during your adventure in Azeroth. On the other hand, if you are more of a Fighter that prefers to take Gold from your enemies' dead bodies, rather than being a Gatherer or Crafter, check out our guide on WoW's Best Farming locations.
Important Note: Despite being underwritten by experience and extensive research, some of the information featured in this Guide might be somewhat subjective, and not 100% accurate. Please keep that in mind, and if you notice a piece of information that you don't agree with please let us know, and we will do our best to update and correct it.
Making a real fortune in Classic is quite an achievement.
WoW Professions breakdown
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Leatherworking allows you to Craft Leather and Mail Armor pieces, as well as Cloaks, Quivers, Ammo Pouches and various Armor Kits from raw Leather, Hides, and some other, more rare materials. At high skill levels, Leatherworking branches into three distinct specializations:
These specializations limit you when it comes to the variety of High-Level items that you can craft, as you can pick only one of them, which blocks you from learning Recipes specific for any of the other two. If you are Profit-oriented, you should probably choose between Dragonscale and Tribal Leatherworking. Leatherworking requires a rather high Gold/Time investment to level up but can provide you with some advantages during leveling in return. Note: Leatherworking is often paired with its corresponding Gathering Profession, Skinning. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Skilling up Leatherworking will generate costs rather than profits, but the ability to Craft Level-appropriate Gear will make the leveling process much easier if you are willing to take your time and grind Leatherworking's Crafting materials in order to skill it up. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Ability to craft starting End-Game gear might come in handy, and there is some Gold-making potential in selling ready Crafted Items that are in high demand or charging fees for Crafting them with other people's materials. Overall, Leatherworking is a mid-tier profession when it comes to Gold-Making on matured servers. |
Tailoring focuses on Crafting Cloth Armor and Bags from various Cloths, Threads, and other rarer materials. Unlike other Crafting professions, it doesn't have a Gathering profession associated with it, but players often pair it with Enchanting, as skilling up Tailoring creates a large number of Uncommon Items that can be Dusted for Enchanting purposes. Cloths mainly come from slain Humanoid Enemies and the amount of them that is needed for skilling up Tailoring forces Tailors to do quite a lot of mob grinding/spending money on Auction House. Tailoring allows Players to make three Bind on Pickup Robes: Robe of the Void for Warlocks, Robe of the Archmage for Mages (Best in Slot before AQ 40), and the Truefaith Vestments for Priests (please note that these items are BoP and therefore can not be traded to other Players). The other notable Tailoring Crafts are Flarecore Leggings (they grant 16 Fire Resistance and 43 Spell Power), the Bloodvine Garb Set (available from Zul'Gurub Raid, provides Intellect, Spell Damage and Healing, and Spell Hit), Sylvan Set (recipes available from AQ Raids, it provides some Spell Power and a lot Nature Resistance that is mandatory for Princess Huhuran as well as some other AQ40 encounters), and Felcloth Items (Felcloth Hood, Felcloth Gloves, and Felcloth Bag, which is a 24 Slot Soul Bag), unlike the above-mentioned Robes, these Items can be sold to other Players, and will provide you with some nice profit when Crafted and sold on the Auction House. There are also Bottomless Bags (18 slots), that are expensive to make but sought out by rich players nevertheless. Note: It is important to use your Mooncloth cooldown each day, as Mooncloths will be in high demand constantly. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - The ability to craft Bags and level-appropriate Gear is very appealing, especially to Cloth-Wearing Classes that don't require First Aid (as the First Aid competes with Tailoring for Cloths). Bags will be in very high demand on Classic's early days, and aspiring Tailors will make good money out of Crafting and selling them. Some lower level Tailoring recipes, like Spider Belt (which on use effect resembles Gnome's Escape Artist racial), are also sought after and valuable but must be bought/farmed as they are not available from Trainers. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Bags will be in high demand for the whole lifespan of Classic Servers, and thus will enable Tailors to make a steady profit. Some of the Cheap-to-Make Cloth items, like White Bandit Mask, may allow you to make Gold by buying Materials on the Auction House, Crafting them, Disenchanting, and selling the acquired Dust at a large profit. New in-demand recipes will become available with successive Raid Tiers, so you will be able to make a decent profit for the most of Server's life cycle if you are lucky enough to get the recipes. Overall, Tailoring is a very good choice for making Gold on matured Servers. |
Blacksmiths convert Bars of various metals and other, more exotic materials into Melee Weapons, Heavy, Mail or Plate Armor, Skeleton Keys needed for opening Locked Chests, Metal-based Trade Goods (Rods and Belt Buckles) and some Item-Enhancements, like Shield Spikes, Weapon Chains and Sharpening Stones. Blacksmithing is a good choice for Plate Classes, which means that Paladins and Warriors will often opt to skill it up. There are two specializations available for Blacksmithing, with one of them having three further specializations (just like with Leatherworking, you have to choose one of those specializations, and can not change it, unless you want to skill your Blacksmithing again from scratch):
All Blacksmithing specializations give access to many worthwhile Patterns, but Armorsmithing beats all Weaponsmith specializations when it comes to Crafting Gear for profit. Note: Blacksmithing is often paired with its corresponding Gathering Profession, Mining. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Leveling up Blacksmithing will require a lot of Gold/Time investment, but will also provide you with access to some much-needed Armors and Weapons, which are especially great for leveling as a Warrior, for example. The abundance of Descent Statted items, which you will create during leveling Blacksmithing, that can be sold on the Auction House will let you get at least some of your Gold/Time back (and you may even profit if the demand on the Auction House is high enough - and it most likely will be, as Warrior will be very popular Class). Ability to craft Rods (that are needed by enchanters), Grinding Stones, Shield Spikes, and Mithril Spurs will be a nice additional source of profit when leveling. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - The demand for Weapons and Armor will always be there, so Blacksmiths will not have problems making money on matured servers. New Raids will provide you with access to new Patterns (for example Ironvine Set from AQ40 - an essential Nature Resistance Plate Set), so the demand for your services and Crafted Items should remain stable for the whole lifespan of the Server. Overall, Blacksmithing is a great profession for Gold-making if you have time to Farm Crafting Materials/Advertise your services on Trade chat. |
Alchemists brew various Potions, Elixirs, Flasks, and Oils from Herbs and other, more exotic ingredients. These brews have many positive and sometimes very interesting effects, like Restoring Mana or Health, Increasing Primary Stats or Health Total, Raising Resistances, or even making you immune to all Crowd Control effects for some time. Skilled alchemists can also transmute more common materials into very rare and powerful magical ones, like Arcanite. The main source of Alchemist's income comes from selling large quantities of consumable Flasks, Potions, and Elixirs. Most of them do not require too many rare or expensive ingredients, which makes Alchemy one of the top Gold-making Professions. The more interesting, highly valuable, in-demand Alchemical brews include:
Note1: Flasks can be created only at the Alchemy Lab located in the Scholomance Dungeon. Note2: Remember to always use your Transmute cooldowns, as transmuted materials are limited in supply and in great demand because of that. Note3: Alchemy is often paired with its corresponding Gathering Profession, Herbalism. It also requires a lot of ingredients that come from Fishing, so the sight of an Alchemist with a Fishing Pole will be a common one. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Leveling Alchemy will consume some Gold, time and effort, but will repay you with various buffs and utilities almost immediately. The market for various level potions will be present for the earliest days of Classic Servers, as consumables greatly improve Leveling efficiency. Almost every potion that you make to level up Alchemy can be utilized for your own benefit or sold to other Players at a profit. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Flasks, Elixirs, and Potions are essential for Raid progression, so the Market for them will always be there, and the prices will skyrocket each time a new Raid Tier opens. This, combined with the abundance of rather cheap-to-make, powerful recipes makes Alchemy the best Gold-making profession for matured Servers with established economies (and we didn't even mention bonus gold that comes from Transmuting Arcanite every 48 hours). |
Engineers craft various helpful, interesting, and often very deadly, volatile, unstable, and unreliable gadgets, explosives, and equipment, like Googles, Trinkets, and Guns. They mainly utilize Metals, but also commonly use Leathers, Cloths and some rarer, more exotic materials. Engineering has two distinct specializations, that have their unique set of Schematics:
Other handy Engineering Schematics include various Grenades that are useful in both PvP and PvP and the Field Repair Bot 74A which is a consumable that allows an Engineer to set up a mobile Repair Station for every Raid member. Hyper-Radiant Flame Reflector (Trinket that provides 15 Fire Resistance and can be used to reflect a Fire Spell at its Caster once every 5 minutes. Very useful in the Molten Core Raid). Other useful Engineering gadgets are Goblin and Gnomish Rocket Boots that increase wearer's movement speed for 20 seconds but have a chance to misfire (great in PvP). The main sources of Gold for an engineer are Crafting Fees charged for creating items from rare Schematics, which means that making a living out of Engineering is rather difficult, and requires fast Schematic farming. Note: Engineering is often paired with its corresponding Gathering Profession, Mining. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Leveling up Engineering Skill will consume your precious Gold, and require you to Mine a lot of minerals. The time and Gold investment will return to you in the form of various utility items provided by your Engineering Profession. Grenades will allow you to escape packs of mobs more easily and enable you to stop enemies from kiting you in world PvP. Engineering Inventions can be sold on the Auction House, but the market for them is very limited, as most of them require Engineering Skill to use. You can still make some money out of selling Scopes and Guns to Hunters. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Do not expect to make a lot of Gold out of Engineering in the late Game. You will charge a fee for crafting a Rare Engi Item from time to time, but the biggest benefit provided by Engineering Skill will not be measured in Gold, and rather in the convenience and fun. Engi gadgets will make your life more interesting, PvP experience more rewarding, and will provide you with a thrill each time you activate one of your inventions (those random misfires, man...). |
Enchanters permanently imbue Items with various magickal effects, using magic Dust, Shards and Essences extracted from other magic Items. They are also able to create Wands. Every Player who wants to stay competitive needs their Gear Enchanted, which means that the market for Enchanters is always present. The most powerful and in-demand Enchants and other Enchanting Recipes include:
Note1: Enchanting does not have corresponding gathering Profession, so it is often paired with Tailoring, which provides a steady supply of magic Items to Disenchant. Note2: Collecting all High-End Enchanting Recipes requires a lot of Dungeon, Raid, and Reputation Grinding. This means that the profession is well-suited only for persistent and competitive Players who have quite a lot of time to play (if taken with making Gold in mind, that is). Note3: If you plan to make real money out of Enchanting, you should prepare a large stock of Enchanting Materials. This will allow you to sell ready Enchants to People that don't have their own mats. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Enchanting is very expensive to level and will consume enormous amounts of Uncommon Items. The market for low level enchants will not be too profitable, but you will be able to make some money by making Wands, which are needed for leveling Warlocks, Priests and Mages. If you manage to get a Rare Recipe early on, you might be able to make some good money by charging fees for enchants. Selling Dust and Essences can also provide some additional income, at the expense of leveling up the actual Enchanting Skill. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Making good money out of enchanting will require you to be an active Raiding Guild member, as most of the expensive, well-selling enchant formulas come from 40-man Raids. If you manage to collect most of the formulas and grind all needed reputations, you might be able to build up a base of Clients who will return to you for all their enchants, which will result in nice money from fees. Good advertising is the key (spam that Trade chat), and providing discounts for multiple services is a good idea. Disenchanting cheap-to-make Tailoring Items and selling Enchanting Materials on the Auction House can be a good source of Gold as well (this can also be done by grinding low-level Dungeons and disenchanting all uncommon and rare drops). |
Skinners collect Animal Hides and Leather from slain beasts. Collected materials can be then used in Leatherworking Profession to create Mail and Leather Armors, as well as some other useful items or sold to other Players or even Vendored for profit. Leatherworking is the most convenient of the three available Gathering Professions, as Skinnable monsters are encountered naturally during adventures and questing, and going out of one's way to make use out of skinning is not required. Moreover, being able to Skin monsters will open up some Grinding Spots that would not provide you with a worthwhile profit otherwise. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Skinning is a great starting Profession that will provide you with a steady Gold influx during your WoW Classic adventures. Collected materials can be used to level up Leatherworking or sold for a profit at the Auction House (or even Vendored if the Server is very young, and AH prices are almost equal to Vendor prices). Overall, the Skinning profession, at the early stages of the Classic, is a very convenient way of getting some additional income. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Market for Leathers will always be present but as the Server progresses, the demand will shift towards High-End Leathers and Hides (Rugged Leathers, Rugged Hides, Devilsaur Leathers, etc.). At this point, you will probably be better off leveling up Leatherworking and offering ready Gear crafted with your own, gathered materials. |
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Miners extract various Minerals, Stones, and Ore from Veins, and then smelt gathered Ore into Metal Bars that can be used by Engineers and Blacksmiths. Mining is less convenient than Skinning when it comes to making use out of it, as Ore Veins are encountered mainly on ridgelines, hilltops, and in the mountains, which means that Miners have to make detours to gather them. Note: Prices of Ore can sometimes be higher than prices of the corresponding Metal Bars, as people use Ores to level up their Mining in a more convenient way. Be sure to always compare Auction House prices before Smelting on your own. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Mining can be treated similarly to Skinning in the early Game, as it will provide you with some additional income (but most likely much lower than that provided by Skinning). Leveling up Mining can be troublesome, as Ore Veins are not too abundant, and active farming might be necessary for Mining to not fall behind your Character Level. If you are lucky, some additional Gold income will come from rare Vein drops, like Arcane Crystals and other Gems. Overall, Mining is best chosen with one of its corresponding Crafting Professions - Blacksmithing or Engineering. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Demand for Bars will increase over time, as more and more people will start to level up their Crafting professions or look for ways of upgrading their Equipment via Blacksmithing Recipes. This will result in higher income from Mining on matured Servers. The demand for Crafted Weapons and Armor will also raise so, selling unprocessed Bars might turn out to not be less beneficial than using them to level up Blacksmithing Skill in order to provide people with Crafted, High-End Gear. |
Herbalists gather Herbs used by Alchemists for crafting various Potions, Flasks, Oils, and Elixirs. The popularity of Alchemy makes Herbalism a very profitable Gathering Profession, but still not as convenient as Leatherworking. Leveling up Herbalism will require some hassle, but not as much as leveling up Mining will. Herbalism, especially combined with Alchemy will provide you with worthwhile profits, as there are many low-cost Alchemical Consumables that are in high demand constantly. Selling Herbs on the Auction House will present you with a high income as well (thanks to the above-mentioned popularity of the Alchemy Profession, and the great demand for consumables). |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Herbalism will provide you with some additional profits, or various buffs, bonuses, and utilities if combined with Alchemy, from the earliest days of Classic. Herbs should be in high demand (the popularity of Alchemy, again) constantly, and monetizing your gathered Herbs should not be a problem at any time. However, putting some additional effort into farming Herbs, and leveling up Alchemy with them early might be a better idea than just selling them, as unlike other Crafting Professions, Alchemy provides you with great benefits and some Gold from the start. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Herbalism greatly rises in value over time, as more and more people start to use Consumables, which bumps up the value of Herbs and Potions/Flasks/Elixirs/Oils. If you don't have Alchemy at this point, you should strongly consider leveling it up quickly and getting your hands on highly demanded Alchemy Recipes as fast as possible, because additional income is literally passing you by at this stage of the game. |
Most profitable Profession's Combinations
Double Gathering Professions A great choice for the earliest stages of the game. Picking up two Gathering Professions will allow you to get your Mount money more easily. If you are power leveling, you can just quickly vendor all gathered materials. Otherwise, you can be more patient, and sell them as they steadily rise in value. The other idea is to Pick one gathering profession to profit from, and the second one to gather materials for leveling up the corresponding Crafting Profession in the future (For example, you make money out of Skinning, and collect Herbs for your future Alchemy Profession at the same time). The best combination of double Gathering Professions is most likely Skinning+Herbalism (in reality, Skinning is the one that you should get, and Herbalism can be freely swapped for Mining). |
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Crafting Profession + Corresponding Gathering Profession The standard Profession combination. Great if you plan to take your time and level up Crafting profession steadily as you Level up your Character. The choice between Leatherworking+Skinning, Blacksmithing+Mining, Engineering+Mining, and Alchemy+herbalism should depend on your Class, preference, and playstyle, for example, engineering supports dynamic players that like to PvP, Leatherworking, and Blacksmithing are great for leveling up Classes with corresponding Armor Types, and Alchemy is just great in all circumstances (which means that you should probably pick Herbalism+Alchemy if you are only Gold-oriented, after all...). |
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Tailoring + Enchanting We treat this combination separately, as Tailoring and Enchanting complement themselves well, but not fit into any of the above categories at the same time. This combination is great for every Cloth Armor Class and can be profitable if enough effort is put into developing both skills. Leveling them up is troublesome and time-consuming, however, as you will not get enough Cloths during Questing, and Enchanting is the hardest Profession to Skill up. |
Secondary Professions
First Aid lets Players make Bandages out of Cloths and Anti Venoms out of Venom Sacks. Bandages can be used in combat, which makes them almost mandatory for Classes that can not Heal themselves via magickal ways. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - First Aid is a very good quality-of-life and support profession, but leveling it up will consume some resources that would be otherwise sold on the Auction House/Vendored. It is worth it for Rogues, Warriors, and to a lesser extent Hunters, Mages and Warlocks. Bandages will allow you to increase your efficiency, save some Gold by replacing Food from time to time, and let you avoid Death in close call situations. Moreover, Bandages made out of Silk and Higher Level Cloths are worth more at a Vendor than their components, which means that Cloths can be turned into bandages for some increased Vendor value (if the price of Cloths on the Auction House is low, or the Server's economy is not established yet). |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - On matured Servers, First Aid remains the main source of In-Combat healing for some classes, and a stack of Bandages should be carried at all times. The prices of Cloths will raise over time, making selling them on the Auction House more profitable than Vendoring Bandages. |
Cooking lets Players prepare Hearty Meals out of raw ingredients and Spices. The Food provides various Buffs that make Questing and Raiding much easier. Collecting all worthwhile Cooking Recipes requires some Questing, leveling up Fishing (to catch Fishes required for some Cooked Fish Recipes, and completing Fishing Quests that award those Recipes), and visiting many far corners of Azeroth. The best and most useful Cooking Recipes include:
Note: Learning Cooking Secondary Profession also teaches you how to set a Basic Campfire that can be used for preparing meals and provides a minor Spirit Buff. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Cooking is a very convenient secondary skill, especially in the early game on a new Server, as it provides you with very good Stamina + Spirit food Buff from the start, and allows you to save some of your valuable Gold by preparing your own meals instead of buying them (and they get very expensive very quickly). Processed Cooking ingredients usually Vendor for more than unprocessed ones, so Cooking every dropped piece of meat can provide you with a slight increase in Gold gain, even if you don't want to post Cooked food on the Auction House. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - On matured Servers, Cooking will remain very useful and provide you with constant benefits in the form of Food Buffs and Gold savings (as long as you will farm Leather, and get raw Cooking ingredients in the process, for example). The best kinds of food will also be required by some Raiding Guilds, so there will be a demand for them on the Auction House. |
Fishermen catch various types of Fish, as well as other Aquatic Animals, and are able to salvage floating wreckage. A lot of caught Fish find application in Cooking and Alchemy, which makes Fishing a rather worthwhile Gold-making Secondary profession. The most valuable and in-demand Fish include:
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Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession in the early days of Classic Servers - Leveling up Fishing can be very relaxing, or infuriatingly boring, depending on your approach and temper. The skill will provide you with some Raw Fish that can be eaten or Cooked (and then eaten) in order to save some Gold that would otherwise be spent on Food. Some of the in-demand Fish are available for low-level Fishermen (these include Oily Blackmouth and Deviate Fish), which makes Fishing a great Gold-making Profession for low-level Characters. If the Auction House prices are too low, be patient and wait for the market to develop. The prices are bound to raise with the progressing economy. |
Gold-making potential/advantages of the profession on Classic Servers with the established economy (few months after launch) - Fish are needed in a lot of in-demand Alchemy and Cooking recipes, which means that Fishing will remain a good Gold-making secondary Profession on matured Servers. If you can't be bothered to Farm Herbs, Leather or Ore, Fishing is a very good alternative, especially if you are not level-capped yet. |
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END NOTE Earning Gold as a highly-skilled professional is an inherent part of the Classic World of Warcraft experience. With the help of this Guide, you will be able to choose the most profitable professions and make Gold with increased efficiency. Empty pockets will become a thing of the past. We hope that you have found this Guide useful and informative. If we have missed a piece of information that is important to you, please let us know! Please do note that this is an early version of our guide, and we will be happy to receive constructive criticism, that will help us improve it, so leave your suggestions in the comments section below. |
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