I can really only speak for myself, but If I was to tank a non-guild run in a dungeon for which I couldn’t find a gear upgrade and had no objectives…yeah I’d want payment or it’s literally a waste of the time i could spend gearing for our next raid. I’ve considered doing this rather than straight gold farming at times, but never pulled the trigger on the idea.
However, tanking for gold should be treated carefully. Again, I can only speak for myself, but you should consider yourself to be the typical professional if this is your plan. check all the boxes:
-know the dungeon well
-gather a list of objectives from everyone at the start, and do all of those
-fully prepare: full stack of arrows, fresh repair, etc.
-Be geared enough that you can reduce the challenge of the dungeons. Overgearing isn’t necessary, but they can’t pay you and then struggle just to keep you breathing.
-finally, PASS ON ALL NON BOE LOOT.
Yep. That last one’s a stinger. But if I’m gonna do this, I’m considering myself on the job. If the group pays me 20 gold or so to tank, I’m not going to take any typical loot from the dungeon unless they explicitly permit me to roll. I’m also not going to add any objectives to their list: I can’t justify tanking BRD for gold, then asking if they’ll take time to deliver me to the black anvil. If they want Incendius and I happen to have some crafting mats, that’s a lucky circumstance, but you’re on the job. The group gets full control of objectives.