World of Warcraft: How to Avoid Having Your Character Banned & Deleted on WOW

World of Warcraft is a "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game," (MMORPG,) which allows thousands of players to interact with each other in a real time online mythical world. Just because it's a fantasy world, though, it doesn't mean money ain't making it go 'round.

I'm aiming to begin a three part series in WOW economics. It began as one article and then realized I was getting onto page ten and didn't even feel one third of the way done.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the accounts of high leveled players being deleted due to those players breaking the TOS (terms of service,) and buying gold off scalper websites. These websites employ gold farmers, players whose sole purpose in the game is to make gold in order to resell it illegally. Also, they employ or use bot characters which spam other players with incessant messages advertising their websites. This is an extreme nuisance & buying gold from these sites not only wreaks havoc on the WOW economy, it can also get your character banned & deleted.

Regardless of whether or not you feel the crime justifies the punishment, I'm here to explain some of the ways you can make gold in the game that are legal. Some of these methods are a lot of work, but I'd like to remind the players of WOW that it is a game & leveling up your skills and character is part of the game, part of what is supposed to be enjoyable about playing. Power-leveling your characters may get you to that all high and mighty level 70 all the more quickly, but it is my opinion that you're creating an imbalanced character, one that will always be running out of gold due to costly repairs.

The goal of this first article is to explain how to get through the first twenty levels on WOW, regardless of your race, class or skill set. I'm talking about secondary professions here, the three that everyone can take on top of your two primary professions. Often, these professions are overlooked until much later in a character's life. This, I feel, is a huge financial mistake.

We are talking about making a balanced character.

So, how does one create a balanced character, one that doesn't (or rarely,) runs out of gold, has enough money for armor repairs, food, drink, & the occasional armor upgrades? These are a few tips I have for making your character a nest egg for future financial stability.

The first thing you need to know about WOW economics is that at the lower levels your costs are relatively low. You'll find a lot of pretty decent armor in drops, and repair costs are not nearly as pricey as they are at higher levels. Now is the time to start building up cash, especially thinking ahead for your mount, the training for which at level 40 for the first mount cost 90 gold. Not bad, right? At level sixty the second mount you will want to purchase at level 60 is a staggering 600 gold. Insane!

One of the first things you'll want to do to improve your economic situation is to learn all of your secondary skills as quickly as possible. These skills are as follows: Cooking, First Aid, Fishing. Don't spend money leveling up these skills, farm the necessary ingredients and items, it is extra work, but well worth it.

Cooking

So you've learned how to cook. Congratulations! This skill can help a low-level character keep more money in their pocket by providing a consistent source of food around at a fraction of the price of buying food from vendors. One way to save even more money when cooking is to forgo the flint & wood and just use the open fires you can find in any town to cook over. At higher levels your food will bring in money on the auction house, providing you even more income from cooking. Higher level cooking recipes also provide the extra bonus of the “well-fed” buff, which increases your stamina for 15 minutes, which is why it sells on AH, (auction house,) for a bit more than other food-stuffs.

Other ways to save money on food and drinks:

• Mages can summon food and water. Make friends with a mage! Offer them buffs if you can, then very nicely ask if they would summon some food / drink for you. Summoned food & drink only lasts for a set period of time & when you log out it will be gone when you log back in, so don't be greedy!

• At higher levels there are different lakes with Water Elementals bobbing about in them. Killing them can lead to a nice stack of enchanted water which you can drink to regain mana.

• Chests often provide the basics: food and drink are commonly found in chests. Don't pass chests up just because it means killing a few more mobs & you don't want to be bothered. Every little bit helps.

• Who needs food and drink? People do! So mobs who are humanoid will often drop food and drink, if you're running low run some humanoid mobs in your level range and stock up.

First Aid

Probably one of my least favorite secondary professions, it still definitely has a place in making money. You'll save money on potions & food if you use bandages instead when you can. On AH the higher level anti-toxins & bandages can be sold with judicious pricing. Again, don't spend money leveling up this secondary skill, it's just not worth it. The cloth used to make bandages is a high ticket item for other professions, why pay oodles of cash when you can farm it from humanoid mobs?

Fishing

Fishing in WOW is almost a secondary game in itself. There's something incredibly relaxing about finding a beautiful enemy-free spot, setting up camp, breaking out the pole and tackle and letting the fish flop in. But, wait, there's more! You can make money fishing!

• Raw fish are a good substitute at lower levels for food. These are the lowest levels, of course, but why not take a break from all that grinding and catch yourself some dinner?

• With the cooking skill you can have yourself a fish fry. Cooked fish will reap higher heal rates than non-cooked & offer special bonuses like the well-fed bonus at higher levels.

• Go clam diving! Some mobs have clams on them, right click on the clam and you'll receive clam meat or pearls. Iridescent pearls, black pearls and golden pearls can be sold at the auction house for a pretty penny! Diving into some of the oceanic regions you'll find gigantic clams underwater. Click on them and you can find all manner of goodies inside.

• Sometimes when you're fishing you may find locked chests or trade goods. Find a rogue to open your chests, (don't forget to tip your rogue, you don't want to be cheap, now, do you?,) and you'll find treasures inside. Sell trade goods at the auction house and you can catch yourself a reasonable chunk of change.

• Occasionally you'll find a special pool of water within the water. When you hover your mouse over it you'll get an explanation, whether it be a special school of fish that has collected up, or floating wreckage / debris or pure water. Fish these whenever you come across them. Some fish are used as trade ingredients, (like the oily blackmouth,) and are good for selling on AH. The pure water pools give Mote of Water, which is worth a lot on AH, but is only found in Nagrand. Floating wreckage often offers the lower priced trade goods to be sold but every once in awhile you may hit it big and receive something truly valuable.

• Occasionally when you're fishing you'll come across a message in a bottle which sometimes will have recipes or other important blueprints for primary professions. Sell these at the AH or if your able, learn them, you'll save yourself money instead of buying it later from a vendor or the AH.

That wraps up our secondary skills. While these skills can help you save money, especially in those precarious first twenty levels of a characters development, using these skills alone to make money is not enough. Everyone who plays WOW can learn all of the secondary skills, but primary professions are where the real money is at and each character can only learn two primary professions at a time.

Read my next article to find out what groupings of primary professions work best, in my opinion, of course, how to maximize your primary professional earnings, and which professional grouping has the biggest charismatic draw.