Hey everyone,

Below is the Farmer’s Class Guide. There’s alot to it and I had to split it up into two sections. Sorry, no pics. If you are a mild OCD player, or a casual looking for more profit to get your flying rites, then this guide is for you. I may be a bit direct from time to time, but just take it with a grain of salt. I’m writing this as if I’m writing to myself.

The following has been cut/pasted from various mental notes and experiences, edited, simplified (so you can follow my train of thought), and tested again, just to make sure. Some is theory is the works. Some is simple direction for easy to swallow advice. While this may or may not be for you, I made this to scratch my own ****, and this is for anyone who also has that GP ****.

Enjoy.

–Daknit

Azeroth’s Farmer’s Almanac

The Farmer’s Class Guide: The Short Version (part 1 of 2)

By BD “Daknit” Blake

This is a Meta-game guide for the World of Warcraft. If you want the complete guide to making money, gain control of the Auction House, and/or compete in a true PvP test of skill and cunning, then look no further. I will take you to a new server that you know nothing about, with only one character, and show you how to build a finical empire at the cost of at least 1 hour a day. If you are further along than that, I will show you how to stabilize your market that you are in and build upon skills that you already know.

Let’s start at the very beginning. If you are farther than this, don’t worry, I’ll get to you soon. At the beginning, I am going to assume a few things about you. Firstly, you have no characters on the server. Perfect! Nothing like starting at nothing, where there are few restraints and the sky is the limit. Secondly, I assume that you have all the expansions. Thirdly, I am going to assume you have great knowledge of the lay out of the lands and have Dugi’s Leveling Guide Addons. And last, but not least, I am going to assume that all that you want to do now is to see how much money you can make and quickly.

Addons:

We have to do a little planning before we go on. We are going to build a couple of characters, maybe even at the same time. Forget about making a “Main,” that can come later. We need farmers, so that means classes that can grind easily, you are comfortable with, and solo efficiently. Take some time to read the rest of the Azeroth’s Farmer’s Guide for key locations (and vendor spots, too) and understand which routes to take while leveling. For the most part, when you travel, you will be ignoring the Tom Tom Arrow and following routes that are more congested with nodes and mobs.

Character #1 — The Mule

Check out the Mule Guide and get that Character to level 10. Have him squat in a city by a mail box. If you can, try to set this toon up as the head of your soon to be empire. Have all actions regarding money and savings go through this character. With that in mind, try to give this guy a “cool” name, because people will be seeing it a lot.

NOTE: In the Mule guide, I give the advice to create your own guild to expand your bank size. That is not to say that all your characters are to be in that guild. Not that there is anything wrong with it (if you can get them in), but there are some finical advantages in being separate from the “Empire’s Guild.” While there is the convenient appeal to have the free ability to drop off and pick up items at will from the guild bank, playing solo allows you to gather additional coin while in cities for signing charters to other guilds.Plus, having friends and guild mates at your side can make the game alot easier to manage.

Character #2 — The Twinker

Take a look ahead on your AH as your Mule and see which are doing the best in trades (we’re looking for stable markets here. If none are really appealing, that’s ok. We’ll fix it later.). Look at ore and herbs and see which is better. Choose a mining profession if Ore is doing well (or if trades are hard to come by). Choose the profession of a herbalist if herbs are selling better.

The second profession will be Enchanter.

This character should always be your highest “employee” on your team. This character will be responsible for enchanting weapons and armor of lower characters. Also, as an enchanter, you’ll be able to corner the Enchanter’s Market.

When the character reaches max level, switch the mining over to Jewel Crafting or Blacksmithing. If you were collecting herbs, switch to Alchemy or Inscription.

TIP: Play at your own pace. You can decide for yourself when the best time to switch professions. Some people prefer to keep a high level gathering profession for the easy extra cash. You may not want to switch over until another toon is in range to take over the duties.

Character #3 — The Skinner

To corner the leather market, you’ll need a skinner. The second profession should be the “other” profession you didn’t choose between mining and herbing.

If you feel the need, you can switch to leather working later on, but only after another toon has taken up the reigns of skinning. Otherwise, at max level switch the mining over to Jewel Crafting or Blacksmithing, or to Alchemy or Inscription if you were a herbalist.

Did you know: The most sought after professions are Jewel Crafters and Enchanters. Alchemy and Inscription are also high in demand, but not as visible in the trade chat. Blacksmithing is lower in demand. Leather working and Tailoring are slightly less in demand with Engineering becoming the last to be called upon.

Character #4 — The Filler

This character is used to fill up the remaining gaps in your “empire.” Start off as Herbalist and Miner. Trade up to Jewel Crafter, Blacksmith, Alchemy, or Inscription to fill the roles needed.

Character #5 (aka #1) — The Mule

Every now and then send your Mule out and profession him with Tailoring. Your crew will need bags and someone to convert cloth at later levels. If you feel a need to do some Leather Working, then use some of the skins that come your way to skill yourself up.

All truth be told, you could get a group of players together to cover all these spots. Trust is the main issue because gold and materials will be at the heart off all empire matters. Assign one player to handle all Mule activities and trust with complete faith that the Mule will do his job for the greater good of all the players.

Let’s talk routes and Profession combos:

Herblist/Miner: This is a popular combo. Both are very profitable. You will be able to search for both ore and weeds at the same time, so expect alot of “Zig Zag” like paths on your routes. Carry the big bags as soon as you can, because you will fill them quickly.

Herblist/Skinner: This is a great second choice. By not having to worry about scenic mountainous routes or the occasional cave crawl, you can stick to the more fertile areas. The skinning allows extra cooking meat from all the beasts you kill, which is also a nice profit.

Miner/Skinner: This is not as popular as the ones above, but no less profitable. Many of these routes will take you to the Mountain land borders (walking the perimeter of the map, that is.) where you will probably end up killing more spiders than beasts. When culling a land, hang close to other adventures and play clean up. Take up as many DF (Dugeon Finder Groups) as you can. Many players don’t skin inside the instances and many instances offer great skins and scales that you can’t find out in the wilds.

Enchanters: Pick up as many quests and you can handle. Yes, stick to the Dugi Guide, but do each guide 100%. No skimping. Even go back and do the starter area quests in different fractions. The quests like to keep putting you out into the wild, so more chances for disenchant-able items plus the quest rewards. Do a DF at least once a day. Have the Mule buy up to 25GP a day in armor and weapons for disenchant. Cheap ones are good. (Duh moment: items must be disenchant-able!)

Crafters: I’ll come back to you later. If you need advice now, read the Peddler’s Class Guide.

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OK GO!

If you only have 1 hour a day to put aside for your crew, that’s good. If you have more to give, then the more returns you will see. If you already have a leveled up toon, then just use Dugi’s Profession guides to max out your professions.

If you have a level 1 character as your current farmer, or a toon that is basicly low level, then you have an OTJ Farmer. An On The Job Farmer is a gathering collector that skills up as you level up. Every route you take to get from point “A” to point “B” needs to be along the routes seen in the AFA. Forget about the Tom Tom arrow. If you are looking for ore, stick to the most hilly/mountainous path to your destination. If weed that grows along the water are what you are looking for, then follow waterways as best as you can.

You need to level up as quickly as possible. Take in a random DF at least once per day. Jump between the Leveling and Dungeon guides. Grind everything in your path (don’t over arrgo). And sleep in cities. If your XP bar turns purple, get back to the inn, log out, and log in with another character ready for farming.

Plan about 15 minutes before you are ready to log off for the night to manage your mule. Sort through your inventory and decide what it is you want to sell for the day. Store the rest.

Plan about the first 15 minutes of each day with your Mule, sorting out which auctions to repost and which ones to store away (or even vendor away). Do a quick check on Altoholic to see what your “team” needs. Money for mounts? Materials? Potions? Training? Make it happen.

So let’s figure out what a farmer needs.

1. Bags. Neatherweave bags usually offer the best price per slot. The average is 5 GP a bag. Max out your farmers as best you can with these bags and it should last you for a long time. Stay away from “Profession” bags. While it might be nice to have a 16 slot ore bag, you can’t put anything else in there should your other bags fill up.

2. Potions. Time is the biggest enemy in the game. Anywhere you can save time is a bonus. Mana and health potions are great for eliminating those sit and eat moments. While you are at it, if you can find cheap elixirs, pick those up, too. If you are going to throw food at your team, find food that offer stat bonuses.

3. Stat Buff Scrolls. These are pretty cheep to buy on the AH because the supply is high and the demand is low. Take advantage of that and send the appropriate scroll to the right farmers to use. Sharpening stones and leather kits are good, too. They are far cheaper to buy than weapon and armor enchantments.

TIP: When hunting for jewels for your empire, refer to Wowhead’s Gem Database. You need to find exactly what you need to buff up your toons. Find the best stats then go one lower. The difference is usually 2 points. So you get a +18 Haste instead of +20. What’s the difference? Probably about 150 GP! Highest end gems can sell in the mid to upper 100 GPs while the next highest usually level off at 30 GP, give or take a few GP. Save where you can.

Now that the farmers are set to roll out, let’s set up our Mule properly.

Max out the Mule’s bank first before opting to form a Guild Bank. Every time you get bulk items (large stacks of meat, ore, cloth, herbs, etc.), divide it into fourths. One fourth will be used to sell on the AH that week. One fourth will be saved to give back to your toons when they need to level up in a crafting profession. The rest should be saved to sell when the timing is right (population spike during the holidays, for example).

Let’s look back at CIL (Core Item List). Here’s how to sell. Sell low demand items on high population days for 48 hours. If there is high competition for those items, lower the duration to 24 hours. If the market is flooded, refrain from posting and save the items for the next day. Sell high demand items on low to mid population days at 24 hours. If you have to compete to sell high demand items during high population days, then sell sparingly over a course of 12 hours. If the market is flooded, avoid posting and hold your items. (if you can’t, then read FLOOD!: The Story of One Small Egg)

TIP: How can I tell if an item is flooded? On low demand or slow moving items, if there is more than 10 to 20 items at sale at once, it’s flooded. For popular or high demand items, if there is more than 2 pages of the same item for less than market average, good chances are it is flooded. Look for players constantly selling a flood (if a player takes up 2 pages, for example) or several players posting at the same time (Every item has 48 hours left.) Long posts can really lengthen a flood.

If you have to sell, as in must, go low on your bid (so that it shows as blue in the auctioneer) and undercut the average (yellow listing) by up to 10%. This works great for high demand items. If you have a slow moving item (an item that will eventually sell over a longer length of time) that you have to sell, set a couple of the items REALLY high for a period of 24 hours. After a couple of hours, remove the auction and repost high again. Repeat for the span of one or two days. Then post it again, but at the price that you feel you need to sell at, and it should be seen as a blue listing on your auctioneer, and those others that use it too. Anyone using auctioneer will see your items as a “must have.” Works well on high pop servers.

If you have a surplus and you need to dump to make room or get quick cash, auction stack at 1 CP a bid and a 5-10% undercut on the leading buyout. Then advertise “Selling stacks of (item) at 1 CP each on the AH. Look for (your toon name) on the AH for all the best deals.” Yes, you can sort the AH by seller name.

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THE FOLLOWING IS THEORY. THIS DOES NOT CARRY OVER TO ALL SERVERS. FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU:

What can I sell at what price?

If you are reselling, then you will want to get double back for what you bought at. If you are selling what was farmed from the field, then the price you post will be 100% profit no matter what the price. If you undercut and your wares and end up selling as a blue or green listed item, then hold off until you can get a better return.

If you are crafting, add up the total cost of mats and times 3. Times 5 for max level items. Times 7 for epic mounts or gear. This is on average. If players bring mats to you, try to give them a discount.

Selling uncommon and rare items can be challenging. There is two ways to judge a price. You can sell at the affordability of the item. Can a sword for a level 12 really be bought at 20 GP? Think about the character who is going to use it. Is there a better item on the market? Does it have the lowest DPS for its class? Are the stat buffs higher than others of the same level? If so, then raise the price from the going average. If not, sell cheap.

**In all truth be told, there is no base price to sell green weapons and armor at.** It be nice if there was and that there was base factors to raise or lower the price of a item. For the most part, many players just “fake it” when pricing an item. A stat to one is worthless (intelligence for a warrior) and of high value to another (+2,000 intelligence necklace for a mage, for an extreme example). Plus, the bulk of what a character needs is enchantments to the gear they either found in instances or bought from vendors.

The other method is understanding what the item can be disenchanted into. With auctioneer, it will tell you. Look up the most common material it will form. Find the average rate of price for that material and times it by the rate it will appear in your disenchant. For example, one sword offers 2.5 strange dust per disenchant. I look up strange dust and it is selling at 20 GP a 20 stack. Well, that’s 1 GP a item, which makes my sword 2.5 GP. Since we want to make at least 1:2 profit, we can double the price to 5GP. If you want to go cutthroat, sell at a ratio of 1:3 (7.5 GP in the example).

Superior Items (Blue Named Items) should be sold at an average of x5 of it would have been as an uncommon. Epic Items (Purple Named Items) should be sold at x5 of a rare item price. Again, let’s revert to the example above. I have a Uncommon Sword for a level 15 toon at 7.5 GP. It’s Superior version of the same sword would be 37.5GP. The Epic version of the same sword should be 187.5 GP

Armor tends to sell higher than weapons when it comes to Epics. Look at the equation above. Add x10 if max level gear. Add 400 GP for each socket. Add 300 GP for each “Equip” feature. Add 500 GP for each “Use” feature. However, the reverse is true if the Armor is not epic; the weapons usually sell higher then.

Item conversion:

For those of you nesting in at a AH, here is a simple way of making money and doing a civic duty as well. Below is a list of item conversions from 1 sellable object into another sellable object. Here’s what you do, and you don’t even need the auctioneer to help you.

First, check item 1 on your AH. Second, compare it to item 2. If these two objects do not equal each other in their equations, then buyout the lesser and even it with the greater.

Example:

1 Copper Ore = 1 Copper Bar
If 1 Copper Ore = 1 GP, then 1 Copper Bar = 1 GP
If 1 Copper Ore = .25 GP and 1 Copper Bar = 1 GP, then Buy Out Copper Ore at .25 GP and Repost it at 1 GP

Now, this doesn’t always work out this way (if the market is flooded, for example). However, if the market is scarce or heavy, you can use this method to adjust the market to equal itself out.

Also, if a gem type is scarce, buyout the ore it comes from and up the price. You can then up the price for the bar that it smelts into to keep balance.

You don’t need alot of gold, but enough to make a dent, and make more. Use this method in the coming months as servers get populated again.

Leather Working

3 Ruined Leather Scraps = 1 Light Leather
4 Light Leather = 1 Medium Leather
5 Medium Leather = 1 Heavy Leather
6 Heavy Leather = 1 Thick Leather
6 Thick Leather = 1 Rugged Leather
5 Knothide Leather Scraps = 1 Knothide Leather
5 Knothide Leather = 1 Heavy Knothide Leather
5 Borean Leather Scraps = 1 Borean Leather
6 Borean Leather = 1 Heavy Borean Leather

Tailoring

2 Linen Cloth = 1 Bolt Linen Cloth
3 Wool Cloth = 1 Bolt of Woolen Cloth
4 Silk Cloth = 1 Bolt of Silk Cloth
4 Mageweave Cloth = 1 Bolt of Mageweave
4 Runecloth = 1 Bolt of Runecloth
2 Felcloth = 1 Mooncloth
5 Netherweave = 1 Bolt of Netherweave
5 Frostweave = 1 Bolt of Frostweave

Inscription

1 Alabaster Pigment = 1 Ivory Ink
2 Alabaster Pigment = 1 Moonglow Ink
2 Dusky Pigment = 1 Midnight Ink
1 Verdant Pigment = 1 Hunter’s Ink
2 Golden Pigment = 1 Lion’s Ink
1 Burnt Pigment = 1 Dawnstar Ink
2 Emerald Pigment = 1 Jadefire Ink
1 Indigo Pigment = 1 Royal Ink
2 Violet Pigment = 1 Celestial Ink
1 Ruby Pigment = 1 Fiery Ink
2 Silvery Pigment = 1 Shimmering Ink
1 Sapphire Pigment = 1 Ink of the Sky
2 Nether Pigment = 1 Ethereal Ink
1 Ebon Pigment = 1 Darkflame Ink
2 Azure Pigment = 1 Ink of the Sea
2 Icy Pigment = 1 Snowfall Ink

Ore

1 Copper Ore = 1 Copper Bar
1 Tin Ore = 1 Tin Bar
1 Tin Bar + 1 Copper Bar = 2 Bronze Bar
1 Silver Ore = 1 Silver Bar (NEVER SMELT SILVER UNLESS YOU NEED A SILVER BAR!! Never make Silver bars to sell)
Tip: For best results, sell silver ore in stacks of 7.
1 Gold Ore = 1 Gold Bar
1 Iron Ore = 1 Iron Bar
1 Iron Bar + 1 Coal (1.25 SP) = 1 Steel Bar
1 Mithril Ore = 1 Mithril Bar
1 Truesilver Ore = 1 Truesilver Bar
1 Thorium Ore = 1 Thorium Bar
8 Dark Iron Ore = 1 Dark Iron Bar
1 Thorium Bar + 3 Dream Dust = 1 Enchanted Thorium
2 Fel Iron Ore = 1 Fel Iron Bar
2 Adamantite Ore = 1 Adamantite Bar
2 Eternium Ore = 1 Eternium Bar
3 Fel Iron Bars + 2 Eternium Bar = 1 Felsteel
1 Cobalt Ore = 1 Cobalt Bar
10 Adamantite Bars = 1 Hardened Adamantite Bar
2 Khorium Ore = 1 Khorium Bar
3 Khorium Bars + 1 Hardened Adamantite Bar = 1 Hardened Khorium
2 Saronite = 1 Saronite Bars
2 Titanium Ore = 1 Titanium Bars
3 Titanium Bars + 1 Eternal Fire + 1 Eternal Earth + 1 Eternal Shadow = 1 Titansteel Bar

Materials

10 Crystallized [elemental] = 1 Eternal [elemental] (WotLK)
3 Lesser Essence = 1 Greater Essence (Enchanting)
10 Motes of [elemental] = 1 Primal [elemental] (BC)

NOTE: I’ll up date this list as Cataclysm comes out.

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When to Sell

Let’s break this up easily.

Tuesday Morning or as soon as the servers go up

Sell:
Medium and High demand items. No need to go into the Green/Blue list items. If you can’t stay in the yellow (average) or above, don’t sell.
Meat. Cooking supplies.
High price fetching vendor run items.
High end potions and weapon enchantments for raiding or 10 man instances.

Buy:
Browse around for medium and low demand items in the blue or green. If the market is flooded with high demand items in the cheep, then buy up some of that market and repost at red listed prices (very high) to elevate this market for the weekend.

Wednesday

Sell:
Sell Medium or High demand items. Set these items for 48 hours to set the bar for Friday.
Try to sell off high end crafted items such as titanium ore, bars, and prospected gems from the ore.

Buy:
Find low surplus herbs for any given pigment. Resell them for a higher price (make it reasonable. Don’t force people to farm and undercut you.)

Thursday

Sell:
Last day for Medium and High demand items. Set these for 24 hours. Don’t worry if you undercut yourself.
Sell 20% of that which you are planning to sell this weekend that you have in stock or know will have. Sell it high to set a standard. If flooded, do not sell in the Green/Blue listing (no undercutting). This is only to help set the average.

Buy:
Flooded low demand items, if any.

Friday

Sell:
Medium and low demand items. Set for 12 hour run times with a few at 24/48 hour no buyout posts.
Cooking meats.
Post up weapons and armor for 24 hour run times. Blue list the bid with a yellow or orange list buyout.
High end potions and weapon enchantments for raiding or 10 man instances.
Glyphs.
Any items found on a vendor run. (12 hour posts)
Herbs that cannot be found on the AH. Stacks of 5 and no more than 5 stacks at a time.

Buy:
Equipment in blue and green listed prices and sell them for 1) additional (level/10) GP or 2) x3 GP of it’s original buyout price, which ever one give you more cash.
Any uncrated epic level gem that sells for less than 100 GP. Resell them for +20 GP (at least) or -2GP from the lowest current poster, which ever will net you the greatest profit and stay at the lowest competive price.

Saturday

Sell:
High demand items that do not have flooded markets. (12 hour posts)
Medium and low demand items. Set for 12 hour run times with a few at 24 hour no buyout posts.
Cooking meats.
Post up weapons and armor for 12 hour run times. Blue list the bid with a yellow or orange list buyout.
High end potions and weapon enchantments for raiding or 10 man instances.
Glyphs.
Any items found on a vendor run. (12 hour posts)
Herbs that cannot be found on the AH. Stacks of 5 and no more than 5 stacks at a time.

Sunday

Sell:
Medium and High demand items at 12 hour posts.
Cooking meats.

Buy:
Any blue listed CIL items.
Any blue listed herbs, ore, and leather.

Monday

Sell:
Nothing. Due to server down on Tuesday, most AH posts become wasted money.

Buy:
Leftover last minute bids from the weekend.
Check the resale list (auctioneer item) for items you may have missed.

Treat any Eve of a holiday event as a Friday, first day of a event as a Saturday, and last day of an event as a Sunday (and the day after the last day as a Monday.).

NOTE: This method usually works good for me when I’m in the hunt for more GP. However, if everyone followed this exact method, we could stagnate the market. Vary it up to allow for more AH variety. Maybe low demand items sell better Mid-week for your server. Do your homework before getting crazy.

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When to farm when not leveling.

Off hours are great, less competition for common nods or spawns. If you finish a DF and the group disassembles, go back through the instance and look for herbs, ore, and skins left behind. It is amazing what people leave behind. You can also follow behind other adventurers who are clearing mobs from an area (ie. The Barrens.) and collect what they leave open such as skins and nodes. Do a vendor run at least once a week. Don’t over run it.

TIP: If you are a leather worker, make a request to hit all the skinnables on your run through. In Northrend, some of the best skinning is in the instances.

When traveling by flying mount, keep low to the ground. Being high up can miss you some choice nodes/mobs. Plus, if you are in competition with others in the area, the person closest to the node/mob will win the right to farm it.

Mostly, the Mule will do a quick scan of the AH to see which items are lacking. Then the appropriate Farmer will go out and, well, farm it. For example, there is no silver ore on the AH. A farmer with mining will then get the call, go out do some routes and report back in. Silver ore is back on the menu and you profit directly from it.

Funny thing about nodes. Most nodes and mobs share with surrounding nodes and mobs of different names. Rare spawns and uncommon ones tend to have longer respawn times than normal ones. Since each node shares a node with another spawn, farm each node you find, even if you do not need that node. It is a way of making room for a new node to spawn in. Lower level nodes spawn in quicker than high level nodes. Nodes can also mean mobs, if your a skinner or looking for cloth.

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End part 1 of 2.

That’s alot of info, I know. I didn’t want to put everything into one post. Stay tooned with the second half of this class guide.

Until next time…..