The value of questing after level 80
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 7th 2009 at 3:01PM
I'm always amazed when people hit 80 and then start wondering how to make gold. Sure, there are all kinds of money tricks floating around (playing the AH is always fun, and everyone has their own tips they've picked up), but quite frankly, the easiest and most reliable way to pick up a ton of money at level 80 is just to do what you've been doing: go quest. Blizzard has made it so that there's no way you've hit all the quests in Northrend when you've reached the highest level, so odds are that you've got at least one (if not two or three) untouched zones of quests to do. And as folks have discovered on the forums, there's a ton of money to be made there.Given that after level 80, experience turns into gold, the return on time invested with leftover questing is awesome. You can pick up over three thousand gold easily just by clearing out the zones you haven't hit hard, and by vendoring off the quest rewards that you get for completing the quests, you can pick up even more. Sure, some folks will have AH schemes that will bring in more money, but Blizzard has done their darndest to make sure there's money in them there questgivers, so if you're slouching around at 80 wondering what to do, go finish up your quests.
And of course if you really have finished up all of the quests in the game (and seen all the amazing storylines and character development that go along with doing so), then there's always daily quests to work on. While they won't pay out quite as much as one-time quests, when you break down the time you invest versus the gold you get out of it, they're often the best way to cash in your playtime as well.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Economy, Leveling, Factions, Guides, Making money, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Andrew R. Jan 7th 2009 3:06PM
I'm making about 13g a quest in the storm peaks right now. It's nice because I'm trying to level my other pets and I'm getting rich.
One zone is still the best zone if you have a certain profession though. Such easy money depending on your server.
Murdock Jan 7th 2009 4:52PM
I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your magazine.
So... cough it up, what are you talking about? Mining Sholazar? Something else?
AyaJulia Jan 7th 2009 7:13PM
I'm a linguist. Allow me to translate. *ahem*
Nyah-nyah-nyah-nyah-booo-booo, I found some money and I'm not tellin' hooowww!
little_warlock Jan 9th 2009 3:44AM
I'm broke.
I'm also Loremaster.
There's only the horribly repetitve dailies if I want to make money through questing...
No thanks!
SnippyMcPhail Jan 7th 2009 3:09PM
And if you're a tailor you get a hot little recipe out of finishing up those quest achievements!
number9 Jan 7th 2009 3:47PM
I missed that - what might it be?
Thank you!
Arras Jan 7th 2009 3:53PM
the Deathchill cloak comes from getting the Loremaster of Northrend achievement
you get the Wispcloak by completing the Northrend dungeonmaster
John Jan 7th 2009 3:10PM
Mike - great post! Also if you're just getting started. You might want to do both starting zones as well. It's XP's and maximum gold opportunity.
The WoW Economist.
Justin Jan 7th 2009 3:48PM
I'm not sure that makes total sense. Given that XP decreases substantially from killing mobs lower in level than your character, you will likely take more time hitting 80 if you complete both starting zones. I tested this myself, just to see the effect. I hit 72 in Howling Fjord, then went to Borean Tundra. The mobs I killed in Borean Tundra were 1 to 4 levels lower than me, and my XP per hour (recorded via an addon) dropped 20-35%, and even more substantially after I hit 74. The same logic holds for quests, as each higher level zone's quests give more XP and more gold.
The reason why slower leveling leads to less gold intake overall is that the opportunity cost of hitting lvl 80 later (and getting the XP to gold conversion later) is likely much greater than the gold received from doing more non-daily quests at 80. The only way that you could possibly increase your gold intake by delaying leveling is if you routinely complete all 25 daily quests each day, and therefore need a large stock of non-daily quests. If not, the best strategy is to rush to 80 ASAP and cash in on dailies rather than saving single-time quests.
lightningjynx Jan 7th 2009 4:29PM
@ Justin
Your XP per kill may substantially decrease, but you won't be missing out on more than 1k xp per quest on those low level quests. All the quests, except maybe the green ones, will give you approximately the same amount of XP per turn in. The nice thing though is that the higher level quests in the end will then turn into more gold. Sure, you may get to lvl 80 quicker by going up in higher level zones, but if you are missing at least 5g per quest after the conversion ratio is it really worth it? Besides which, the lower level areas are much easier and you should be able to wipe through mobs without even trying. This should make your turn around on completing quests quicker.
/shrug
I know on my second toon I'm going to Borean Tundra, then HF, and moving onward from there. Saving the endzones for after 80 if at all possible. makes me feel like I'm making more gold that way.
Rob Jan 7th 2009 4:38PM
I'll just mention that IMO going back at 80 and doing quests you missed in dragonblight or lower aren't all that great. I'm getting 5 gp or so per quest, which is just fail and a waste of time (except that the quests are easy on me as a resto druid). So, yeah, save those end-game zones! I burned through as fast as possible, and I only have half of dragonblight (fail), and all of SB to work through as gold potential. I'm doing much better on my hunter who is just burning through the level 70 quests.
stevens.ce Jan 7th 2009 5:02PM
That low-level quest return stuff is my issue with the current system. In Outland, a level 62 quest at max level still gave you about 9-10g, and I assumed the same would be true when I hit 80, so I skipped around more than I should have. Now I find I get half the gold I expected from those early quests. I think that kinda sucks compared to how it was handled last time. And couldn't we go ahead and have Quel'Danas at the level of gold reward it had prior to Wrath? I'd like to do exhalted with them on new toons, but at 2-4g per daily, there's hardly any point.
Justin Jan 7th 2009 5:50PM
@lightningjynx
"Sure, you may get to lvl 80 quicker by going up in higher level zones, but if you are missing at least 5g per quest after the conversion ratio is it really worth it?"
This is, in my opinion, a common misunderstanding on two points. First, given that there are plentiful daily quests at level 80, there is no such thing as "missing the 5g per quest" by skipping lower level quests. Unless you are doing more than the 25 daily quests per day, you are missing zero income from the lower level quests because you can fully replace non-dailies with dailies.
And second, my point is based on what's referred to as "opportunity cost." If it takes you a week longer to hit 80 (based on the 20-35% decreased xp/hour), that's a week less of getting full gold on quests. If you play like me and do ~20 quests per day, that's 980 less gold (20 * 7g difference * 7 days) by the time the "save the zones" player catches up in level. The 980g is the opportunity cost of saving those zones. It could well be the case that this opportunity cost is a good investment if you play more than 25 quests per day and therefore need an additional stock of quests to augment the daily quests, but if not, it's most definitely less gold over the long run.
From a theoretical point of view, the best strategy choice is determined by which resource is more scarce for the player, time or available quests. Lol, I'm getting off topic now (warning! stop reading!!), but the best example in economics of this decision process might be the economics of forestry. There, you have a case where you have a regenerating resource (farmed trees, or equivalently, dailies) that may or may not offer adequate supply, and in the latter case, you can choose to draw from a finite and depletable resource base (old-growth forests, or non-daily quests). Interestingly, the result in forestry also varies by the interest rate, which in WoW terms could be roughly approximated by the marginal benefit of current gold consumption compared to future income potential and the discount rate on future WoW expenditures.
Angus Jan 7th 2009 7:20PM
We did Both Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, then went to Dragonblight. By the time we were done we were level 75. We skipped about half of Dragonblight and went into some of Grizzly Hills and some of Zul'Drak. (I wanted certain tanking gear)
After that it was Scholzar to more or less finish. The rest was instances with their quests.
Right now I can pop off half a dozen quests, solo, in any of the missed areas in half an hour and not even notice, the missed money in the basin and zul'drak and GH is minor.
I recommend those 3 zones, as the Wrath Gate is worth it. After that, instances will hold you well and you can do some of the important gear quest lines. That will speed up your run to 80.
Eversor Jan 7th 2009 3:11PM
Doing quests for money is a great thing. After hitting 80, I had Scholazar, Storm Peaks and Icecrown left to do for gold. Was enough to cover most of my needs, and you get an awesome storyline along with it!
Mcdubs Jan 7th 2009 7:25PM
Wait...there is a storyline? I thought the whole point was to stand in Dalaran wearing "purple" gear lol'ing at noobs...
Liel Jan 7th 2009 3:15PM
I had three untouched zones when I hit 80. One weekend using Carbonite I went through Sholazar Basin and did all the quests there. 13-14 gold per quest and the ones that gave items especially weapons were vendoring for 8-12 gold also. I ended up making close to 2000 gold over the weekend from quests, vendoring item rewards and trash and earned tons of rep.
Cyno Jan 7th 2009 3:18PM
Absolutely. I hit 80 on about my 2nd quest in sholozar, which left me with three whole zones where i got nothing but money. Getting the Loremaster of Northrend achievement pretty much guarantees you getting the Breadwinner achievement (10,000g from quest rewards). I'll definitly be doing all the quests on my other toons once theyre 80.
Scribe Jan 7th 2009 3:18PM
Only bad thing about skipping one of the starter zones as a hunter - No experience for any pets when going back to the starting zones at 80 :(
So, to level pets, you have to do the dailies or do mob grinding in Icecrown, Scholazar, Storm Peaks or a regular/heroic 76+ level instance.
Once my pets are 80, I work through the remaining starting zone, and then start working on the loremaster requirements from the other zones. Still have some quests I need to do in Outlands and Vanilla WoW to get my loremaster and 3000+ quest achievements.
sephirah Jan 7th 2009 3:28PM
If you like grinding mobs, go in Storm Peak and level your pet on mobs that drops Relic of Ulduar.
In next patch they won't be soulbound anymore, and I guess they'll sell well at AH...