WoW Forever Gold: How the Economy Works (Black Market, GDKP Ban and the AH)

Why gold matters more in WoW Forever

Two things that shaped the gold economy in other versions of WoW aren’t in WoW Forever:

• No WoW Token. In retail WoW you can turn game time into gold and back. WoW Forever has no token, so every gold piece comes from someone playing the game.
• No GDKP raids. Blizzard has banned raids where loot is auctioned for gold and the pot is split. Its reason: where GDKP ran for years, it pushed out ordinary guild raiding.

Without GDKP, a raid boss no longer pays out a gold pot, and rich players can’t simply buy their gear in a raid. That puts more weight on the classic gold sources: farming, professions and the Auction House. It also makes your big purchases, such as riding training, the Black Market and consumables for raids, a matter of how well you earn.

The Black Market in Powderfuse Port

Powderfuse Port, a port town in the Riverglades, has two NPCs that every gold maker should know.

Mister Graphed: fixed-price reagents

Mister Graphed sells top-end reagents at fixed prices. The headline item is Black Lotus for 50 gold, with no limit reported so far. Arcane Crystals are on his list too.

This is Blizzard’s answer to price gouging. In Classic, a Black Lotus could sell for hundreds of gold on a busy realm. In WoW Forever, nobody will pay more than 50 on the Auction House when the vendor sells one for 50. For gold makers that works both ways:

• Herbalists: a Black Lotus is worth up to 50 gold, not more. Plan your farming around it.
• Raiders and alchemists: flasks have a known ceiling on their most expensive ingredient, so you can budget for them.

Madam Swyndle: the Black Market Auction House

Next to him, Madam Swyndle runs a Black Market Auction House. Players on the beta have seen Classic’s Dungeon Set 1 gear (reworked for WoW Forever), companion pets, tabards and rare mounts. Bids have started at around 100 gold.

Black Market listings are auctions, so the final price depends on who else wants the item. Save up before you go, and expect the rare mounts to go for a lot more than the opening bid once the servers are full.

The Auction House deposit bug

On the beta, the Auction House takes a bigger deposit than it shows for cheap listings. Players listing a couple of Light Leather, with a deposit of a few copper on screen, have been charged a full silver. Larger deposits have had rounding errors as well.

• You get the deposit back when the item sells, so it only costs you on items that don’t sell.
• It hurts most on a new character. A level 6 with 10 silver can run out of money after a few listings.
• List in stacks rather than one at a time until Blizzard fixes it.

It has been reported to Blizzard. Beta bugs like this are usually fixed before launch.

Making gold before and after launch

• Pick a gathering profession early. Herbalism, Mining and Skinning pay from level 1, and every crafter needs their materials on launch week.
• Level Cooking. More than 40 cooking recipes in WoW Forever give a 5% experience buff on top of their stats, so leveling players will buy food all the way to 60.
• Use the new profession tools. Recipe tracking and the “has skill up” and “have materials” filters make leveling a profession cheaper, because you stop crafting things that don’t give points.
• Don’t overpay for top reagents. Check Mister Graphed’s price before buying Black Lotus or Arcane Crystals on the Auction House.
• Keep your first mount money in mind. Blizzard hasn’t published the cost of riding training yet, so save more than you think you need.

What we don’t know yet

• The cost of riding training in WoW Forever.
• Whether Mister Graphed’s list and prices change between the beta and launch.
• How often the Black Market Auction House gets new listings once the game is live.

We’ll update this guide as Blizzard confirms them.