Gold farmers take note. Soon, collecting gold in World of Warcraft will become harder – Blizzard is nerfing many sources of income.
Gold is quite important in World of Warcraft. It can be used to repair equipment, buy important potions for raids, or further expand the collection of special mounts. If desired, one can even buy really good gear with gold, for example from the auction house. Having a good way to earn gold is therefore important.
But in a few days, farming gold will be heavily nerfed. This is due to the pre-patch and the reduction of the max level.
What’s happening? With the Pre-Patch 9.0, the maximum player level will be lowered from 120 to 50. Along with this comes a reduction in item level. Those currently wearing items around item level 480 will find themselves with approximately item level 200 afterwards. This is only logical, as the reduction of levels also lowers attributes to bring life points, damage, and healing numbers back to reasonable levels.
What are the implications? The reduction in item level also means that items will be worth less at vendors. This has a particularly big impact if you enjoy farming old raids and selling the resulting gear to NPC vendors. The colleagues from wowhead have calculated some examples and shown how significant the loss is that players will endure.
| Live | Beta | Reduction | |
| Crusader’s Test (WotLK) | 240 | 137 | 42.92 % |
| Dragon Soul (Cataclysm) | 996 | 579 | 41.87 % |
| Heart of Fear (Pandaria) | 970 | 633 | 34.74 % |
| Blackrock Foundry (Warlords) | 1890 | 890 | 52.91% |
Plainly stated, this means that the net profit from selling gear from old raids will be reduced by between 35 % and 53 %. For players who have viewed this as their primary source of income, this could be a significant blow.
What is not affected? The gold you receive for completing quests or the gold acquired directly from defeating bosses is not affected by this change. These gold amounts will remain unchanged, but they are likely just a fraction of what one could otherwise obtain from old raids.
Those who are passionate about farming old raids for gold will soon need to look for new methods – or dramatically rethink their strategies.
With Patch 9.0, Blizzard seems to be placing great emphasis on ensuring that many simple gold farming methods do not work. They have also chosen the blunt-force method for crafting.
Have you already spotted new methods to still rake in good gold in WoW in the future? How do you earn your gold?
