I decided to give retail a rest and try ERA. I’m leveling a rogue, like I did in '04. I’ve been doing some research and it sounds like someone wouldn’tbe able to do endgame without world buffs or paying gold??? I may have this a little twisted.
When starting my rogue I was hoping it would be like in 2004. Level, find groups, get into a guild and do dungeons. Does this experience still exist in ERA or is it a waste of time to start?
Yes - you will be forced to buy gold if you want to enjoy end game content.
Also yes - you might be able to find an SR guild if you are a healer or juiced warrior (which means you probably already bought gold to gear up said warrior)
World buffs are pretty easy to come by and are usually required for Naxx/prog.
Thank you for your reply.
Very dissapointing to hear since it really sounds like the experience is definitely not like it was back in 04/05.
I play on Mankrik Ally, raid right now, and have never done a GDKP, or bought gold. Completely possible.
Roll on Mankrik alliance. There you have no need to buy gold. Only a few guilds are GDKP, and the population is fine.
No you don’t need to buy gold to do end game and no you don’t need to do gdkp
I hit 60 about 2 weeks ago, found an awesome guild that doesn’t do gdkp but instead runs 2 MC’s, 2 ZG’s, 2 AQ 20’s, AQ 40, BWL and soon a Naxx run every lock out
The population in ERA is there you just need to find the right people. Certainly trade chat is blasted with boosts and gdkp but there are plenty of people actually playing the game.
EDIT - this is on Whitemane pvp cluster
Ha! I posted the exact same thing a minute after you.
You 100% do not have to buy gold to play end game on ERA.
You can join an SR(soft-reserve) guild. There are at least a few on Horde and many more on Alliance.
The only thing you need gold for is consumables for raids and making gold on ERA is easy because the prices are so inflated. You can just farm fish/herbs/ore/etc, convert to potions if you want and you’ll make more than enough.
The posts saying you dont need to buy gold or do gdkp are 100% correct. I’m alliance on Pagle + 1 shaman 
If you have to buy gold in any version of WOW, where its insanely easy to make gold, it simply means you don’t want to put any effort at all into the game and simply want other people to give you rewards. So those people who say you can’t do it, well they just wont put effort into the game, and expect others wont either. They are also often bitter because other people have things they feel entitled to.
So the easy way to never have to buy gold
You for sure can. Many guilds are doing fresh progression, mine included. Many people refreshing. However the gold economy is pretty messed up, but you can make a lot with professions as a result. It’ll be a bit hard to get started at 60, but once you’re going you’re solid.
Era’s in a pretty good spot right now compared to the last year or so.
(World buffs will still be wanted, but they’re easy to get so its a non issue.)
Thank you for the other diverse replies from different users. I’m going to keep going. ERA is such a refreshing breath of fresh air from retail. I’m loving it even though I died to 3 furbolgs last night, lol! But that’s one of the stuff I miss - the danger and having to be careful when questing.
Thank you all!
you’ll just have to test the water. get a feel on the factions, where guilds are at, what classes are needed.
leveling will take a bit. if youre not buying gold then boosting is gonna be out of the question. so maybe look at each faction to see who has more leveling guilds atm.
it seems like healers and warriors are always welcomed.
By the way, whatever you do assuming you want to avoid the gold buying and boosting you often see that accompanies it, get the add-on BadBoy and its sub add-on ccleaner, you can easily eliminate almost all the spam chat, making LFG and Trade much nicer.
LFG Bulletin Board is BiS
Just do GDKP. you will get full gear for pretty much free. you may not get absolute BIS items day 1, but if you put in some time, especially if you raided on multiple characters, you will be swimming in hundreds of thousands of gold in just a few lockouts. probably take you a month to get fully geared if that.
Alliance side on the Whitemane cluster have a Town Hall Discord with 20+ SR guilds linked to it.
Anyone who says you have to buy gold, unironically just sucks at making gold.
My friend and I leveled fresh to 60, and had no issue using gathering professions to make gold. By the time we hit 60 we both had our epic mounts, I ran through a gut ripper, shadowblade, and krol blade. We both had gold to spare still.
As far as gdkps, the majority of pug raids are gdkps. Guild runs exist and you’ll need to look for them with a more fine tooth comb if that’s all you want. If you are fine with gdkps, just don’t buy your epic mount and keep saving till 60. You should have more than enough to easily go into a ZG or MC gdkp and start having your gold work for you.
It’s not 2004.
Why do the retail portraits look so wimpy.
Just find a guild that does soft res and raid with them until you’ve built up your gold some…
GDKPs are best done as a healing class if you want to do them to make gold…