Here’s an important thing you want to remember. Volume and Diversity. You need a lot of things, and those things need to come from different areas. You can sustain on reliable markets, like current expansion Trade Mats fairly decently, but if you want to be a big seller you have to invest a lot of time, gold, and effort into expanding your revenue stream.
Study the market you want to make it in as well. If that’s selling mats, see what hot ticket items are reliable sellers that you know you can spend some quality time gathering. If it’s battle pets. Look up guides on how to level your pets (If you’re leveling them), look up which pets may sell. Resources others post are tools you can use.
The above is especially true for Transmog, which is a historically slow market and daunting to get into, but worth it if you are turned off by the negatives and slow start. If you want to make money doing something like Transmog, you’ll want 500-1000+ Items ready to go on market. Those items will vary from small pieces that might sell for a little bit to bigger sellers.
Don’t waste your time and money de-listing auctions. It’s a trap that a lot of people get into when they get undercut. I would say this is true for pretty much all markets. This drives prices down and causes you to spend even more gold since you’ll lose the deposit. Especially on a server like WRA where you’ll have more competition.
It’s important to remember that there are some items that just won’t sell and worth vendoring or disenchanting depending on how much you will get out of either option. Look and see what it’ll DE Into and find out if it’s worth the time.
Now, continuing with Transmog because it’s the only market I know well enough even if I’m an amateur at the auction house. It is important to note you can only do 10 instances per hour, meaning some of these will leave you with a bit of dead-time here or there that you can fill with whatever you prefer. II’ll break it down by expansion the areas and dungeons I feel are worth farming.
Also good to note while you can farm on any class you want, some classes are better. Any class with fast move speed and AoEs are the best classes to farm on. Druids, Demon Hunters, and to an extent rogues. Druid is far and away the best farm class for these old dungeons (Feral in Cat Form with Swipe/Thrash). Demon Hunter is fairly good as well. They got a lot of mobility in the double jumps and have lots of base move speed with the right gear. Rogues can open chests, but aren’t as fast as DHs or Druids.
Classic Farming
I am just going to say Horde have favored easier access to the best farm spots, but of course you can do them on either faction. Also, Classic is the biggest moneymaker over all in the transmog market. Note for all dungeons in the 20s and up: You can get world drop Blues and even rarer world drop epics from any of these dungeons. If they aren’t dungeon specific we won’t be including them with the exception of one I will mention later.
Ragefire Chasm : An area that may be worth the effort to get to as alliance but as horde you got a good spot worth hitting up for a few runs and I’d consider it a must for any horde. Examples of Notable drops include Native Pants, Battle Chain Vest, Grizzly Pants, Ancestral Woolies, Barbaric Loincloth, Ancestral Tunic.
Deadmines: Not super worth farming. There are a few value drops that sell for a good amount but they are super rare. That being the Defias Items off of the Defias Overseer Mobs located about in the middle of the dungeon. They are both yellow and there are only two of them. You can get the Defias Gloves and Pants from them, which still sell for a solid amount.
Other semi- Notable items that can sell solidly well but aren’t worth too much is the ‘Bandit ‘set No other greens are worth much, if any amounts of gold. The blue BOEs that drop are also not worth it. The blackwater cutlass sword drops fairly easily and the stonemason’s cloak, while rare, still is only worth a few hundred gold.
Westfall World farm (Alliance Only): After completing every quest (come back to Sentinel hill and start slaughtering the phased mobs (At both entrances/exist). Just fly back and forth between the two sets. What you’re after is the Deadmines Cleaver, a Blue BOE that can only drop from these mobs, in particular the Defias Henchman. The Wicked Blackjack that is a BoE Green dropping from the Knuckledusters is also a decent seller but not worth near as much.
Wailing Caverns: Now this is a place worth farming. There is a wide disparity in worthwhile items that can drop but you can get some solid money-makers here. A few examples being, The Aboriginal Robe, The Lupine Vest, Mystic’s Woolies, The Brackwater Vest, Aboriginal Loincloth. These items when they drop are worth selling.
Shadowfang Keep: Here you can get the Bard Set and the Bandit set, both of which are solid sellers. There are a few big ticket blue items that would be big sellers if you can get them. This is one to run for those long shot drops such as Guillotine Axe, Witching Stave, Assassin’s Blade, Night Reaver, and of course the most coveted Shadowfang. There are also some patterns to watch out for, Stylish Blue Shirt, Pheonix Pants, and Pheonix gloves. The patterns themselves sell for a solid amount, but you can also just learn them and sell those transmog items as they do sell .Otherwise it’s just an alright place to farm and since those drops are so rare, you may want to keep any runs here to a minimum.
Blackfathom Deeps: Yeah this is a good dungeon to hit up. With green items such as the Pagan Vest, Rigid Leggings, and Outrunner’s Chest you can certainly rack up the dough in the drops. As with a lot of Classic Dungeons there are notable long-shot Blue BOEs worth grabbing. Examples: Tree Bark Jacket, Doomspike, Grimclaw.
Stockades: The Alliance drew the short straw as this is one of the single worst classic dungeons worth farming. Every drop either just isn’t worth it or is a world drop you can literally get anywhere else from mobs of the same initial level range, including the dungeons listed previously before that are around the same level range. There are a few items that can be worth it. Defender Tunic and most especially the Buccaneer’s Vest, but they don’t drop with any consistency. A few patterns you can get here as well, but overall it just isn’t worth doing. Now if you specifically want the vest, Stockades is an easy way to get it, but it can take you upwards of 40/50 runs just to potentially see it drop.
Gnomeregan: This is a solid place. Some notables include: Scouting Tunic, Battleforge Shoulders, Lambent Scale Breastplate. Long-shot BOE Blues: Mechbuilder’s Overalls, Gizmotron Megachopper, Petrolspill Leggins. P.S as horde you can take a teleporter at Grom’Gol in Stranglethorn Vale for a quick, easy way to get here.
Scarlet Halls and Monastary: Not the most exciting or best place to farm but there are some good reliable sellers. Durable Hat, Insignia Leggings, Emblazoned Chestpiece, Glimmering Mail Breastplate. Some big ticket BOE Blues that drop in here include the Beguiler Robes, The Butcher, and Watchman Pauldrons.
Razorfen Kraul and Razorfen Downs: Now this is a superb place to farm transmog.There are so many valuable drops that even listing just a few examples here feels cheap. Warbringer’s Legguards, Warden’s Wraps, Nocturnal Leggings, Steadfast Breastplate, and so many more. I would say these are a must farm spot if you want to get into the Transmog game. Some Notable Zone Specific Drops for RFK are Slaghammer, Vendetta, and Sword of Decay. For RFD, Death’s Head Vestment and Boneslasher.
Mauradon: Another Fantastic place to grab yourself some items for your stock. Another dungeon with a massive list of items all worth value such as Pillager’s Leggings, Thistlefur Robes, Maurader’s Leggings, Slayer’s Skullcap, Wicked Chain Chestpiece, Dokebi Chestguard, and Resilient Robe.
Scholomance: This is a solid place to go but there aren’t a ton of mobs dropping items and the ones they drop do vary wildly in value. There are plenty of trash tier greens on the loot table, but among them are some notable drops such as Chief Brigadier Armor, Headstriker Sword, Sentinel Breastplate, Field PLate Leggings. You can do a few runs but I wouldn’t recommend it as a reliable farm spot for anything of value.
Dire Maul: All of these three carry a ton of value and are worth farming, but Dire Maul East and West are superior to North (ogres). There is some overlap between the tree dungeons loot tables but as they were changed initially level wise for some time, there is variance as well. Some notable drops from East include: Headhunter’s Headdress ,Hawkeye’s Leggings, Pillager’s Chestguard and Stonecloth Robe.
Dire Maul East also has a great farm route. Spawn in, immediately jump down and work your way backwards towards the entrance. Skip pretty much every boss and you just clear the trash. Doing this will also net you some fel cloth and a ton of herbs so bag space fills up quickly with this dungeon. Be ready to go fly to the nearest mailbox fairly often.
Dire Maul West is a solid way to get some super big ticket items like the Salstone Surcoat and it’s entire set. Other notables might be the Trickster’s Headdress, Lunar Slippers, and Sparkleshell Breastplate, Wolf Rider’s Padded Armor, Windchaser Coronet.
Salstone (And other) World Farm Area: The ogre cave in Thousand Needles with Elite Ogres may have had a bit of a stealth Nerf but is still a way to try and get some big ticket items, all of which are worth a ton of money.
Uldaman: Now I am editing this in because I forgot about it for some reason. Uldaman is another one of those dungeons with mid tier to weaker Greens that drop, but has super massive BOE blues to chase for in stuff like the Excavator’s Brand. The biggest possible BOE blues can drop from here but are also ultra rare. Pendulum of Doom, Papal Fez, and Miner’s Hat of the Deep.
Zul’Farrak: Another popular place to farm for some quality items and another one you ought to hit up quite a bit to get some inventory. Notable examples include: Bonelink Armor, Khan’s Mantle, Bloodwoven Pants, Gryphon Mail Legguards, Imposing Bandana, Ancient Chestpiece, and Darkmist Wraps. There are also a few chase BOE blues you may come across such as Gutwrencher, Troll Protector, or Bloodletter Scalpel.
Stratholme: Stratholme is broken up into two different parts. Live side and dead side. Both are solid places to farm but aren’t as lucrative as any of the Kalidmor farms in other level ranges. That being said there are still quite a few good drops that will come your way. Notable examples include, IImperial Leather Breastplate, Royal Blouse, Chromite Chestplate, Blackforge Breastplate, Gossamer Robes, Overlord’s Spaulders, Warmonger’s Chestpiece. And the very rare, but very valuable Plaguebat Fur Gloves as a chase Blue BOE on Dead Side only.
Sunken Temple: You may want to do a few runs of this one. I wouldn’t recommend heavily farming it as I find it’s rather weak in terms of drops that happen, but there are some notable items on the loot table (Keep in mind Blackrock Depths has the same and more so it’s far better for EK). Ebonhold Armor, Lord’s Legguards, Alabaster Breastplate, Duskwoven Pants.
No, the thing you would be after would be those ultra rare blue BOEs that are zone specific drops. Stealthblade, Deathblow, and Silvershell Leggings for example all fetch hefty prices once once you’re able to sell them.
Blackrock Depths: Due to having just so many mobs and such a wide variety in loot tables, Blackrock Depths has the potential to be a massive pull. It won’t be as consistent as Zul’Farrak or RFK/RFD due to the sheer nature of EK Green Mogs being worth less on average.
THAT BEING SAID. There are a ton of drops. Anything I’ve mentioned for the past few eastern kingdom dungeons can drop in this one. To list a few more, Valorous Chestguard or Myrmidon’s Breastplate.
What you’re after are not the green drops though. This dungeon is my one exception for world drops. Again, the massive original level range plays a key here. There are some zone specific and a ton of world BOE blues. A few zone specific examples are The Judge’s Gavel or Battlechaser’s Greaves.
The real cream of the crop are those BOE Epic drops. You may get a stinker like the Freezing Band which just isn’t worth it but they drop at a fairly consistent rate on my route I’ll outline here in a moment. Some examples being Bloodrazor, Edgemaster’s Handguards, and Taran Icebreaker.
I get one on average about every 10-12 runs on my route. It may be luck, but so far I found it fairly consistent. The route is That I enter, use the mole machine to go into the dormitory, then clear the dungeon up through the bar area to the other mole machine located in the dungeon. It’s fairly straightforward with only a slight detour to hop down and click the shadowforge lock, but it’s not really much out of your way. Once at the other mole machine, you take it back to entrance, walk out, reset, and then go back in for another run.
Blackrock Spire: Blackrock Depths Less lucrative, but still worth running friend. It is solid to run every now and again. Some examples of drops might be the Imperial Red Robe, Mystical Armor, Emerald Legplates, Templar Chestplate, Engraved Leggings. Of course there are some very high end BOEs Blues and Epics that are world drops as well, but they don’t seem to drop that often in my experience.
Raids: Aq 20 and to an extent aq 40 are worth doing for those few greens that can drop Kalimdor side. Do these every week. Stuff like Glorious Legplates are what you would be after here.
Burning Crusade
Not quite as lucrative as the Classic transmog market, but still worth beefing up your inventory.
World Bosses: There are two world bosses that have the potential to be up but likely aren’t. Still worth checking anyway. The one over in Throne of Kil’Jaden and the one in front of Black Temple. Both drop BOE Epics that sell for good amounts.
Old Hillsbrad Foothills and Black Morass: Like all BC dungeons they do have a good range of drops that can happen. Black Morass is an absolute skip in my eyes. If you’re going over there to do a dungeon, do Old Hillsbrad Foothills. That being said I prefer to opt to not do both. Items you might wanna look out for include Boulderfist Armor, Blood Knight Greaves, or Clefthoof HIdemantle.
Hellfire Ramparts The Blood Furnace and Shattered Halls: These two are the ones I hit up the most. Ramparts and Blood Furnace are super easy clears. Shattered Halls is here but in the high level dungeon range you wanna hit up something else. You can do it if you want though. They stealth nerfed Ramparts a bit in terms of green drops but I feel it’s still worth going for. Some notable Drops are Outlander’s Tunic, Ango’Rosh Pauldrons, Fireheart Skullcap, or Darkcrest Breastplate.
Underbog, Slave Pens, and Steamvault: All three are worth doing from time to time. The problem with these is that it’s a little out of the way being under water. It’s a slight time-sink more to get to them but it can be worthwhile and they often drop more than the ones I listed above, the others are just faster farms. Steamvault is a lot weaker being the higher level of the three dungeons, but still solid from time to time. Some notables are Bogslayer Legplates, Vindicator Tunic, Laughing Skull Tunic, or Bloodscale Legguards.
Auchenai Crypts, Mana Tombs, Sethekk Halls, and Shadow Labryinth: All these 4 dungeons are in the same area and super easy to get to being right outside the Shattrah portal. Shadow labs sucks in terms of drops so you can skip out on that one if you aren’t feeling it. Otherwise these 3 can provide some good potential drops.Fenclaw Armor, Khan’aish Legplates, Mistyreed Tunic.
The Mechanar, Botanica, and Arcatraz: Arcatraz sucks. It’s rough to navigate and back-track and the drops aren’t there. Mechanar and Botanica on the other hand are great places to hit up. They’re two of those BC dungeons that loop back around making them very easy to clear, leave, reset, and hop back in if you want. The Higher Level BC greens aren’t worth as much but there’s still some value in them. Some examples, Warmaul Greaves, Deathclaw Talons Conqueror’s Legplates, Ghostly Battle Axe.
BC Raids: Do them if you want. There are some good world epic drops that fetch a fair price if you want to chase them. The most notable being the Blade of Wizardy, which typically will only drop in Karazahn or Tempest Keep. Karazahn is the most lucrative BC raid. I often skip bosses so I can reset and go back in to farm the trash on a route.
Wrath and Cataclysm
These transmogs sell at an irregular rate but you may want to pick a few up. These dungeons have rare Blue Boes in each but none are really worth chasing unless I mention them as they drop with such a fair regularity on top of being low in demand. Most of the Greens from either expansion sell between 200-1000 gold if you’re lucky to pick up a rarer one. There are a few extreme outliers, but they aren’t worth mentioning.
Azjol-Nerub: This dungeon sucks for everything except 1 item. This is because almost no mobs are lootable making the one item worth a ton if you manage to pick it up.The Unknown Archaeologist’s Hammer. Only 4 mobs in the entire instance aside from bosses drop loot and if you’re lucky it’s on the table.
Wrath Dungeons Worth Running: Utgarde Keep, Gundrak, Drak’Tharon Keep, Halls of Lightning, Ahn’Khanet the old kingdom.
The Pit of Saron: This one is worth farming for one item in particular and another one where you’re going to not want to kill any of the bosses. You go around gathering up and slaughtering all the NPCs, then reset. The Battered Hilt is a lucrative item worth a lot of gold if you want to farm it, or if you want to farm it for a quest chain end mog yourself. Once you complete the lengthy quest chain you are rewarded with a nice transmog and considering the rarity of this items drop rate ,it fetches for a nice price on the Auction House.
Cataclysm Dungeons Worth Running: Blackrock Caverns, Grim Batol, The STonecore The Vortex Pinnacle, and Lost City of the Tol’Vir.
You may also want to check if a world spawn rare boss is up in Uldum if you wish that drops BOE world drop epics. He spawns in front of the door on the western side of the map and it’s pretty close to Halls of Origination I believe.
Raw gold from Cataclysm raids is fantastic and absolutely worth doing, but not worth it if you’re going for anything else.
Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion
Dungeons: NOT WORTH DOING. Seriously, if you want the items yourselves knock yourself out, but otherwise steer clear of these dungeons. They offer little in terms of value and transmog farming in general.
That being said there is a few Mists of pandaria areas with worthwhile items to farm. The Isle of Thunder has Zandalari worth farming for their items that fetch some nice prices. There’s also a zandalari hotspot on the isle of giants. These also frequently drop pets you may not have. They aren’t worth much to sell but if you don’t have them you can go ahead and pick them up.
Here are where some raids are worth doing just to clear for the raw gold as previously mentioned in the past.
General Notes: You will get a lot of cloth from these of which I say look up which ones tend to sell to craft as transmog. Or alternatively turn stuff like Netherweave into bags. Or sell them and any other mats straight up to someone else looking to do this.
TSM is a right pain to set up properly but it’s definitely worth using. There are lots of guides but I’d recommend Hazel’s for those who are just starting out. She explains the basics pretty well:
Sorry for the bit of spam I’ve done here.
