Every new World of Warcraft expansion, players feel that excitement and anticipation of going through new content and visiting new areas of the map. WoW Midnight is no different. Seeing the new zones and approaching the new glowing areas on the map is an experience that never gets old. It didn’t matter that we likely had to wait in long lines to take our first flight. It didn’t matter that we had to wait in long lines to take our first flight to the new areas. Getting to see the new content and experience it for the first time is magical. It’s also great to see old guilds and friends.
I learned this the hard way during the very first raid week. We were progressing on normal and heroic bosses, and my supply of newly added consumables completely dried up. I spent an entire Sunday flying around trying to farm materials, only to barely make enough for two flasks. Between my actual job and trying to enjoy the actual game, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to treat gold farming like a second career. I remember logging off, totally frustrated, and ending up looking into the WoW gold options available through PlayHub just to see if there was a way to fund my raiding habits without losing my mind.
What Actually Changed With the Midnight Expansion?
If you haven’t been paying close attention to the patch notes, the economy in Midnight might feel a bit chaotic. Blizzard implemented several under-the-hood changes to how professions and gathering nodes work.
The largest change is region wide Auction House for nearly every trade good that has been implemented. This has been around since prior expansions, and with the example of Midnight, it has been doubled. This has created an economy where, instead of competing with traders on just your server, goblins, you are competing with traders on your entire region; all of North America and Europe.
The Biggest Gold Sinks Right Now
Material prices may be at an all-time low for trade goods, but the amount of gold that is in gold sinks is a lot more than what is in trade goods. This expansion of gold sinks has been implemented, that take a lot of gold out of the economy.
- Profession Specializations: Fully leveling a profession, along with all its specializations and knowledge unlocks across all its branches, is a huge resource sink. It involves crafting a lot of junk items to earn the necessary crafting skill points, which can burn thousands of gold.
- Gearing Alts: With the introduction of Warbands, alt gearing became easier, but it is still a big gold sink to get all the base-crafted gear to get them through Heroic dungeon runs.
- High-End Consumables: Top-end content can only be done with optimal buffs, meaning the new top-end weapon runes, stat pots, and feasts are super expensive to make and can be a gold sink in the Auction House.
- The Vanity Sinks: Blizzard consistently releases mounts or cosmetics that are ridiculously overpriced to drain gold from millionaires. Even without buying these items, the overpriced mounts and cosmetics create gold sinks across the entire game, which influences the value of gold across the entire game.
The True Cost of Raiding and Mythic+
Now, let’s discuss the core gameplay and experience of an arena player. With the level of effort required to achieve the Mythic+ keys, the player is losing game gold every time they sign in to the game.
During a typical three-hour raid, you will likely need two to three phials, plus combat potions for every boss pull, repairs for your gear after 20 wipes on a major progression boss, and expensive new armor kit upgrades.
After tracking my expenses, I figured I was spending at least 50,000 gold a week just to show up and perform adequately. This is why veteran players burn out so quickly. If you don’t have time to grind the daily quests, the gold options via PlayHub are the most realistic way to keep up with your guild without treating the game like a job.
WoW Midnight Economy Breakdown
Here is a breakdown of what the current Midnight Economy is, to help you understand what gold is available to you and where it is needed.
| Economy Factor | Impact Level | Description of Change |
| Gathering (Herbs/Ore) | Low Profit | Region-wide Auction House leads to a huge supply and very low prices. |
| High-Tier Crafting | Very High Profit | Crafters with maxed-out skill trees charge massive commission fees. |
| Raiding/Mythic+ | Massive Drain | Consumables, enchants, and high repair costs quickly deplete gold. |
| Raw Gold Farming | Low Profit | Legacy raid payouts have been nerfed to curb inflation. |
Why Traditional Gold Farming Feels Slower Now
In the past, running old-expansion raids to vendor the epic loot you got was an easy way to gold. It was almost mindless in how easy it was.
In the last couple of patches, Blizzard has massively targeted passive raw gold generation. They’ve nerfed the vendor sell prices of legacy raid loot to the point where players tend to avoid it. They’ve grossly reduced the amount of gold players receive from the daily “callings” or world quests of yesteryear.
Blizzard appears to have intended to funnel players into the crafting and trading economy instead of goblins mindlessly generating gold. They’ve clearly taken anti-gold farming measures, such as increasing dynamic spawn rates and active loot penalties in mob farming areas.
Is It Worth Farming Gold Yourself?
Should you really be spending your free time farming when you could be doing something else?
For some players, it might be worth it. If you really find enjoyment in personally engaging with the Auction House, making spreadsheets, leveling your professions, etc., then farming gold is an engaging little side activity. Some people never even raid because they just get their enjoyment from playing the market.
Final Words
The Midnight expansion has a truly mind-blowing volume of quality content, the gorgeous new zones, and incredible dungeon design. This expansion has the best gameplay of all the recent expansion packs. The economic part of the game, however, will require an adjustment period. Understand that you will likely be less wealthy than you have been in past eras unless you are willing to go all in with endgame crafting.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is it still possible to pay for my monthly WoW token with gold?
Yes, but it’s harder than previous expansions. Since raw gold farming has been heavily nerfed, you will need to master high-end crafting or item flipping on the Auction House to fund your token by playing the game.
2. Why do some specific crafters have such high commissions?
The new crafting system is built on a ton of time, gold, and knowledge points, so crafters can be assured to have a top, epic, maximum rank item, and are essentially charging you for all the time they spent for exclusive access to the best stats.
3. What is the easiest way to earn gold for a casual player right now?
The easiest consistent way would be to passively earn gold through your Warband. Creating alt characters with passive daily cooldowns (like cloth tailoring or alchemy transmutes) is very minimal effort and time, and is a steady source of income.
4. Are BoE (Bind on Equip) drops from raids still very good?
Yes, for the first three weeks of a new raid tier, they are extremely good due to the race-to-world-first progression of the hardcore guilds. After the first month, they are significantly less valuable because the average player base gets sufficiently geared, and so the drops are less impressive.
5. Can I actually get banned for using a third-party gold service?
The mass bot networks that Blizzard bans violate the official terms of service they set for buying gold from unverified third parties. While buying gold from a third party services that is safe (using secure human-driven transfer methods) is low risk, the risk is not completely zero.
