Getting started as a new goblin

Getting started as a new goblin is the most intimidating thing for a lot of you guys. I have already covered this very superficially in my post on the journey to master goblin. Reading this post on the woweconomy subreddit inspired me to go a bit more in depth into how I would approach goblining if I was just starting out today.

Analysis paralysis

Analysis paralysis is a common “affliction”. People get way too caught up in optimizing the details before taking any action.

Gold making is something you “learn on the job”. There is no substitute for experience. In fact I mostly think that spending any meaningful time on the undermine journal or wowuction is fairly wasted.

Setting up for gold making

There are some activities that are pre-requisites for effective gold making. They are:

  1. A dedicated auction house character
  2. Tradeskillmaster

Dedicated bank alt

Your dedicated bank alt is the hub of your gold making empire. Posting all your auctions from the same character ensures you can use the bag space as effectively as possible as well as utilizing your time and mailbox to avoid hassle. Most of my bankers are level 10 as that means they can be restored. Just go ahed and make a new character if you don’t have a spare alt.

Tradeskillmaster

Tradeskillmaster is THE gold making addon. Without it I would not bother with gold making at all. It will help you make generic rules for posting auctions and purchasing materials.

Long term your goal is to learn it well enough to set up groups yourself. If you are new you can find a ton of finished TSM settings. I have published almost all of my Legion settings in my pastebin. You can also find Sheyrah’s very extensive TSM setup here. Most of these are plug and play and ensures that you can get started with very little time spent.

To start understanding TSM I suggest heading to one of these video guide series, or you can just experiment with stuff if you prefer to learn on your own. If you have any experience with programming or spreadsheets it should be fairly easy to grasp.

The TSM 4 Beta is currently under way, if you want to enter it you can get an invite by becoming a TSM premium member (this will also have the advantage of supporting continued development).

Starting out

We know have the basic setup needed to start generating gold. For new aspiring goblins I have to very generic pieces of advice, and then we will look at how I would go about implementing them with some very specific actionable items you can go out and do today!

  1. Focus on high volume markets
  2. Start out small

Picking your markets pt. 1: Legion crafting professions

What markets should you start out in?

First find out which professions you have access to. From my point 1 above we want to focus on current expansion crafts. The reason is simple. These crafts are much higher in demand as they will typically give some kind of power advantage. Old expansion crafts will typically only give cosmetic benefits and thus they sell much more slowly.

Sadly there are some professions that are quite lackluster when it comes to Legion crafts, especially Engineering. The list below shows which crafts I would suggest for all the crafting professions:

Picking your markets pt. 2: Flipping and old world stuff

There are some notable old world crafts that are great even for beginners. There are also some flipping markets that have really high volumes and that are great for new goblins.

For old world crafts the most notable ones are any intermediate crafts that are used for old world crafting. Living Steel, MoP rare gem transmutes and Smelting ore into bars are all great examples. In terms of finished goods the best market to be in by far is hexweave bags. Most other old world markets have slower sales and I would not recommend them if you are just starting out. They are great once you reach a higher gold level as they tie up a bit of capital. Examples include transmog and expensive mounts.

The best flipping market for new aspiring goblins is the Legion material market. I have done this extensively to get started on several realms, including in my zero to one million challenge. The volume is incredibly high and you can easily turn around your gold for 20-50% profit several times per week.

Start out small

What does start out small mean?

Let’s look at an example where someone has 100k gold. Professions are leatherworking and Inscription. Here’s how I would go about it:

Craft 5 each of dreadleather bracers and gloves and gravenscale bracers and gloves. This should cost somewhere around 20k, depending on your realm and recipe rank.

Then I would craft 500 Tomes of the Tranquil mind. At the EU median price for felwort (100 gold) that is a cost of about 25 000 gold.

Next I would spend about 15k crafting vantus runes using whichever milling method that would get me the pigments for the lowest cost.

That would leave me with roughly 40 000 gold and I would spend this on any legion materials I could find below 80 % dbmarket.

I hope this helps you out!

As always let me know in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts or you just want some more specific advice!

If you like my blog, you should consider follow me on twitch and twitter because it will give you a live glimpse into my gold making adventures!

2 thoughts on “Getting started as a new goblin

  1. So you have one level 10 alt on each realm that you use as bank and to post everything on AH?

    Also, have you been farming those duns that are now dropping “unobtainable” itens?

    1. Yes I have one level 10 alt on each realm that I use for all of my banking and Auction House needs.

      I have not farmed any of the dungeons that drop unobtainables as I generally do not have time to farm.

Have a question or a thought? Leave it here:

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.