So, after spending most of BFA learning how to make gold reliably, and Shadowlands being able to buy my sub on multiple accounts and friend’s accounts with gold, I had big dreams for the Dragonflight revamp.
Some thoughts now that we’re well into the expansion…
The region wide AH for raw materials was the worst decision I’ve ever seen implemented as it single handedly widened the gap between WoW millionaires and casual gold farmers even wider. The same whales from the previous expansions are significantly wealthier as they had the gold to maximize their professions in what is an awful change to professions, and the normal player is fighting for scraps.
The profession knowledge system is great in concept, but the execution is awful. You’ve got some people that’ll be lucky and get 12-15 knowledge points a day through rare farms, dirt piles, packs, etc. But then we have the same problem back in Legion where if you’re not lucky, you get no knowledge (just like legendaries) which means you fell behind, and professions are worthless for you.
Gathering professions are useless. With the region wide AH, bots from ALL servers have flooded the market and drove down costs of materials, which would have already fallen sharply due to the entire region pooling in on the AH.
With these changes, I believe it has affected professions in such a case where you make 90% of anything at a loss.
Now, that being said, I am not saying it’s impossible to make good gold this expansion, I’m just pointing out some major flaws and drawbacks I’ve encountered (went from making 200k a week to 20k if I push for it a week).
I am curious what other people’s thoughts are, maybe there are methods that I’m just not finding.
I’m going to have to disagree. People who put more time and effort should see more rewards. Also, it’s pretty easy for casual crafters to be on par with the most dedicated ones if they’re focusing on a few money making crafts (recipe acquisition issues not-withstanding). For example, to make a lariat as well as someone who has literally maxxed out JC knowledge only takes 150 knowledge points. Leather/Mail boots/belt (the most commonly ordered items) are 140/160 points for one/both. Some professions do suck, like engineering where it’s like 255 pts to be on par with the best engineers for bracers, but overall it’s pretty easy to get rolling on the more frequently requested items.
This also means that the points have diminishing returns. The points that let you craft a lariat are way more lucrative than the final few points that let you craft trinkets, glassware, or statues. The flaring cowl points in leatherworking are way more valuable than the final drum or mail chest points. The engi bracer points are likewise way more valuable than the final bomb points.
This was a letdown for me too. I was hoping that if gathering was a significant enough investment that, when(if?) they did bot ban waves, it would take a while for them to catch up and would be a deterrent to bots. Alas, gathering knowledge comes extremely quickly and the ban waves still aren’t frequent enough to do anything.
It’s probably because you’re on a pretty small server and are used to AH post and forget, but I make ~75-100k a day just from passively watching trade chat and I can get upwards of 250k a day if I’m actively posting and watching it. It’s definitely slowed down a lot since the beginning, but there’s still lots of gold to be made out there.