With the current lull in new content in WoW it’s time to revisit some basic economic principles. Today I want to talk about the cycles of WoW and how you should adapt to maximize your profits.

The booms

The booms in WoW are always around expansion and patch launches. Expansions or new versions of WoW like classic anniversary realms or similar always lead to a massive influx of players. Everyone is racing to get to max level and to gear and improve their characters. This leads to massive concentration in terms of what items are bought, mostly whatever new high end items are available that are useful for max level characters.

The lulls

The lulls are the periods usually starting about 3-5 weeks after the launch of a patch or expansion. At this point a lot of players are done with most of their seasonal goals or done with gearing. This means most permanent upgrade markets like gear and enchants fall off a bit of a cliff in terms of demand. Consumable stay relevant of course, but even here the profits and sale rates fall off.

Go hard during the booms

If you have the time the booms is where it is easiest to make a lot of gold really fast. Particularly if you can play hardcore and unlock new recipes that few players have, or if you have time to set up multiple crafters in retail. Once you find something that is very profitable you want to push it as much as you are able and ride the wave. Examples include crafting orders for mythic crest gear, enchants, materials for max level gear crafting, new epic craft recipes and daily cooldowns in Mists etc. Exactly what recipes and approach is the best varies a lot from game mode to game mode and patch to patch of course, but when conditions are right you can get disgustingly rich.

Spread out during the lulls

During the lulls in endgame markets there is still a lot of activity in WoW, but it is not concentrated in end game stuff. Consumables still sell well, but at lower prices and profits. There’s also a lot of players who turn to collectionist activities in the content lulls, and this is a prime opportunity. This is the time to spread out into cosmetic long term markets. There are many different markets you can focus on, battle pet flipping, transmog farming or crafting, decor, etc.

If you’re interested in Battle pets I have a video outlining the method linked below.

These markets help sustain constant profits

These markets can be sustained constantly and can eventually reap really high profits. A lot of the long term cosmetic markets have been used to make multiple gold caps on their own. They are less boom and bust than focusing on the current content, and you can get away with less effort per day over a long time. You can even sustain them on a slower schedule during the booms to have a constant source of extra profits.