Brand new, started yesterday. Blown away by the game so far, incredible.
Serious Question: Do I need to craft to enjoy the game or become better at soloing?
I will solo 99% of the time due to my RL schedule, so will crafting advance my character in game and make them better? I just want to kill stuff and do some questing really…never have been the crafter type… but anything I can’t make can I instead buy on a vendor or something? I just want to know why I might want to look into crafting.
Thanks so much!
Crafting can help make good gear, but many items can be obtained through the Auction House. Crafting is a big money maker for some though which is why it can also be a big deal.
Dragonflight really emphasizes crafting thanks to the overhauls it received and the new Crafting Orders systems that allows you to place orders to have items made for a small fee.
Overall though, you don’t have to craft if you don’t want to. You’ll still be able to get away with questing or running old content and catchup gear added in future patches will help you fill in pieces as well.
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Crafting is only going to be worth it if it’s something you want to dedicate a fair amount of game time towards. If that’s not your thing, you’re probably going to be happier just getting other people to craft stuff for you. (Although it’s generally a good idea to hold off on spending gold on stuff like that until after the world/server first races have ended for a raid tier. Those tend to really inflate prices of stuff.)
For new players, I think that two gathering professions are the best way to start. (The exception I make is if you are the type of person who really gets enjoyment out of the fantasy of making your own stuff. Then you should craft away!) Production professions can be a big gold sink, and so it’s better to be at a point in your WoW journey where you have more experience with it’s game systems before you make the investment.
I have already noticed that just questing is not enough gold to be able to do much with.
What do you recommend as the best and second best gathering to do just purely for money? Something that doesn’t take a ton of time that I can do while I am out questing? Is gathering really my only, or just best, option? Look forward to your answers, thank you.
In general, unless you want to make gold making the focus of your gameplay, the best strategy is to minimize your expenses. The reality is that you don’t need most of the expensive stuff in game to just play it.
As a new player, I wouldn’t buy anything off the AH at all aside from bigger bags. Gear is very often way overpriced. Early in the expansion is priced for big guilds with near infinite resources looking for any small edge. Later on it’s priced for people who want to play alts and are looking for a gearing shortcut and are willing to pay a premium for it. The main source of your gear should be from quests, dungeons, and raids.
Gathering professions are the best “extra” thing you can do while questing for extra gold. Loot everything you kill as it does add up over time. Set up a bank alt that you can mail anything white quality or better that you loot and don’t need to potentially sell on the AH. (That way you can deal with AH stuff when you feel like it without interrupting the flow of your normal gameplay.)
I think it’s still too early in the expansion to guess which gathering professions will be the “best” moneymakers. Historically, mining tends to be the most consistent and skinning tends to lose value the quickest. (With herbalism falling in between.) But any of the 3 will make you gold.
Skinning feels the most passive, since you just use it whenever you kill skinnable mobs, so it always feels the easiest to me.
Alchemy tends to be one of the more consistent production professions for gold throughout an expansion, so going with herbalism will set you up better if you want to make that pivot once your more familiar with the game.
Mining feeds the most professions, which is probably why it’s the more consistent option. Engineering is a huge gold sink, but it’s also the profession with the most fun (non-power based) stuff. If you thing that’s something you might be interested down the line, then I’d give mining the edge.