WoW, Casually: December 7 - 13 activities and making cash
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.
This week I want to talk about how and why we should be making some in-game cash, but first let's get the schedule out of the way.
Darkmoon Faire: It's still going on in Elwynn Forest, just south of Goldshire. This weekend is your last chance to turn your stuff in, redeem tickets or just get shot out of a cannon.
Arathi Basin: The Call to Arms is for Arathi Basin this weekend, meaning shorter queues for getting bonus honor and your AB marks. If you are Alliance, this forum post is great for all BG strategy . If you are Horde, like me, well then you can wait until Zach posts his Arathi Basin strategy or just go back and read my brief summary.
Battlegrounds: If you are trying to get a complete set of the Season 1 gear (and if not, why aren't you?), you should be doing a little bit of Battlegrounds a day. I try to do the BG Daily quests every day, not so much for the honor, but to force myself to get the marks from the different BGs. The fact is that I am a huge AV fan which means I have the marks for hats and gloves and that's it. Do as I say, not as I do and stuff.
I think crafting is a great way to spend your limited playtime. It can be done when you also need to be paying some attention to your family or while watching TV. As a stay at home mom, I find that I can get some fishing done while coloring with my two year old. Of course, washable crayons are best for those times when you focus on fishing for a second to reel in something rare only to find that the wall has been artistically enhanced, but I digress. Now, I'm a crafter in real life, so I'm biased. But you don't need groups for crafting. Except for the quests involved, you don't need to travel much. In fact, grinding is usually done by running back and forth between your bank, the crafting area, the trainer and the AH.
What you do need for crafting, however, is cash. Getting your crafting skill up costs money and lots of it. Yes, you can farm for the stuff -- and I do as I level up for the most part -- but the training and patterns/recipes and low drop-rate mats cost cash.
Alts also cost cash. Even if you don't twink them, you still want them to have enough for all of their first few levels of skills and nice big bags. Mounts cost cash -- particularly if you have a lot of the aforementioned alts. Casual players may not have the repair bills and supply requirements that raiders have, but we still need money to have our fun. So here are this week's highlighted gold-making methods:
Small eggs: Don't forget to farm for them. Whether for crafting or selling, you're going to want these when the Winter Veil event starts this month. Allies can find them in most of the starting areas and the Human areas up through Lakeshire. Horde can find them in Eversong off of Dragonhawks and Mulgore off of Swoops. After the holidays, they will still be in demand for the Delicious Chocolate Cake.
Skettis Daily Quests: These quests are very casual friendly. They don't require any group prequests and are mostly soloable. You do need a flying mount or flight form to get to them, however. The escort quest is best done with more than one person, but there are usually plenty of people around willing to PuG it up with you on the fly. Just pick up the initial quest from the Skyguard chicky near the Shattrath flight master and fly over to the northern part of the lake in the middle of Skettis (southeast in Terrokar Forest).
Cooking: I find the Cooking Daily Quests fun and challenging without being too hard. The money is decent, but the cooking goodies are even better. If your cooking is high enough, it's a great way to earn extra cash and have a bit of fun. You can also sell the cooking mats you get as rewards on the AH.
Fishing: Have you seen the prices for the Furious Crawdads, Zangarian Sporefish, Golden Darters and the food they make on the AH? Bring up your fishing and get in on that action. The food you can make out of these fish are great for raids or soloing. The Sunday Fishing Tourney is a great way to bring up your fishing skill while making some extra cash.
What is your favorite way to make money in your limited play-time?
Robin Torres would have more gold if her husband didn't borrow it to fund his raiding.
Check out more of Robin Torres's work on Massively, where she helps you balance playtime and lifetime in Gamer Interrupted.
