WoW Gathering Guide

WoW Gold Guide --> WoW Gathering Guide (you are here)

As depicted below, gathering fits right into the middle of the Gold Pyramid scheme. Essentially, gathering does take a little bit of work to get started in, but it is not overly difficult. While gathering alone will rarely make you rich (aside from a few notable exceptions), it definitely has the potential to make more than daily questing and farming.  

Chapter 2: Gathering Guide

Part 1: Gathering Guide Introduction (you are here)

Part 2: How to Make Gold By Gathering in WoW

Part 3: WoW Gathering Routes

Part 4: Cataclysm Ore and Herb Gathering Spots

Part 5: Best Gathering Locations

Part 6: Best Time to Gather in WoW

Part 7: Skinning Gold Guide

Note: Gathering maps for Vanilla/BC/WoTLK level herbs can be found in the Newbie Gold Guide.

What falls under the umbrella of "Gathering"?  

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Gathering refers to making gold by collecting materials via Mining, Herbalism, and Skinning. These are three professions which do not actually create much in the way of items (aside from basic things like turning ore into bars) but rather collect materials to sell to other professions. 

What Classes Should Gather?

Any class can participate in gathering. Herbalism and Mining are especially suited to healing classes that do not want to use professions or who want to play the auction house to make gold. This is because gathering does not require you to kill many monsters. 

Skinning should only be done by a DPS class or a Hybrid who has a full set of DPS gear. You have to kill beasts and dragons to skin them, so if your character kills slowly, this is a waste of time. 

What Level Players can Gather? 

The great thing about gathering is that anyone can do it. One of the best ways for low level players to earn some gold while leveling up is by gathering herbs. Many unusual low-level herbs like Dragon's Teeth (Cataclysm's version of Wintersbite) are worth 4-5 gold a piece (prices are at the time of this writing, could go down a bit once people can fly in Azeroth).  

Burning Crusade Ores and Herbs (particularly Adamantite, Netherbloom, and Khorium) are all very valuable as well. Every type of ore has some value, and even copper ore, tin ore, iron ore, mythril ore, and thorium ore sell for decent amounts on the auction house.  

All ores are valuable and can range anywhere from 2-50g per stack, depending on your server's economy. 

As a low level player, you can throw up your extra stacks of herbs and ore you collect while leveling up to earn gold. You would not want to go out of your way to mine too much though, as players on epic flying mounts will always farm faster than you.  

You can, however, pick up a few stacks of herbs and make all the gold you need to buy mount training and bags. This will make leveling up a lot more convenient. 

Is it profitable?

Ore, Herbs, and Leather fetch a decent for an interesting: the buyers are richer players. Crafters will be buying your low-level ore to powerlevel their new professions, and crafters who are looking to make gold will be buying your high level ores.  

Since professions are near the top of the Gold Pyramid, they tend to have a lot more gold than the masses who rely on daily quests to earn gold. Selling to professionals is simply more profitable because those players are then going to turn around and make the materials into items that they will then sell for a profit. 

Additionally, since the market is crafters rather than individual players, when someone comes along and buys material, they tend to buy quite a lot. A Jewelcrafter who finds ore at a favorable price is likely to buy 10 or 20 stacks, not just 1. Additionally, many players will buy more materials then they really need if the prices are good. 

For this reason the ore, herbs, and leather are "protected" - it takes a significant amount of over-supply to tank these markets. This is good for players who have a few hours or even a whole day and want to earn as much gold as possible.

---> Next: How to Make Gold from Gathering in WoW 

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