Why am I in (Outland) Nagrand at 05.10 in the morning? I can answer the time question by way of a messed up body clock that us WoW players get from time to time. However, as a gold blog writer who hates farming and often writes about how Opportunity Cost means that farming is a waste of time, why am I farming!?
The answer lies in an odd situation I discovered on my server auction house. Primal Air sells for over 100g each. I wanted a piece of that action!
Primal Air is used for crafting a lot of items but especially by enchanters who are currently making a small fortune selling retro enchants
- Enchant Boots – Cat’s Swiftness
- Enchant Cloak – Greater Agility
- Enchant Cloak – Major Resistance
- Enchant Gloves – Superior Agility
- Enchant Weapon – Greater Agility
Back in The Burning Crusade expansion, primal farming was one of the ways to make quick profits. The Elemental Plateau in Nagrand is home to a number of fast respawning elemental mobs which drop lots of lovely motes, including motes of Air. 10 motes make a Primal Air. So each mote is worth to me around 10g each. Which is not a bad profit for a sleepless feral druid to make with a single swipe of her over-geared paw.
If you saw 10g lying on the ground, wouldn’t you want to pick it up, too?
Talking Points: Can farming ever be fun? Do you know any other things to farm that can make this sort of gold-per-hour? Do you ever farm or grind for relaxation and a change of pace?
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About the Author
The Gold Queen is written by Alyzande. With many level 100s, 9 years expertise in making gold, 10 garrisons, 16k achievements, 1505 days played, and over 18m gold earned. The Gold Queen blog teaches you how to make gold playing World of Warcraft using ethical trading, auction house flipping, crafting, reselling snatch lists, and farming gold making.
Heya Cold, nice to hear from you as usual. Some very thought-provoking ideas there. it’s good to look back and see if any of the old gold-making strategies are still viable.
I enjoyed having a good run around the old Nagrand and Elemental Plateau areas and picking up those motes just lying around.
Nagrand is also nice to fly around with a miner if you’re looking for khorium ore, and other mining nodes!
Hi Zathanos thanks for chiming in. I didn’t notice any difference in the drop rate when I was there, compared to back in TBC.
Fantastic tip, as usual Flux, thank you! <3
Well Flux stole my comments about the Primal Mights (great minds think alike), but I would also like to add that a lot of alchemists are following old outdated leveling guides, which say that the cheapest way to get any of the alchemy specializations is to just become a transmute master, then switch to the actual desired spec (potion or elixir) for the 150g fee. Obviously with prices this high on Primal Mights and Primal Air, this is an out-dated strategy, but it is still be followed by a lot of players, not to mentioon the legion of alts that go transmute spec just for multiple daily Alchemy Cooldowns.
Also be sure to check your materials prices, because on some World of Warcraft servers, crafting the Primal Might itself is going to be a less efficient use of the Primals, if the materials are selling for more than the Primal Might. Don’t craft to lose money.
This is also a nice “Grinding / Farming” Spot for a level appropriate character. Got a level 68 or 69 characters with buffed gear from Wrath? Bring him to the Elemental Plateau and farm while leveling up too. The respawns are great, there are ore nodes, you can “mine” the earth elemental corpses, and you can fish up motes of water from the watery areas as well. Primal Water is probably the 2nd most expensive Primal on most servers and can go for just as high as the Primal Airs.
[How’s that for a keyword rich comment ;)]
Actually, this location was nerfed a while ago. There are elemental that spawn there, but the drop rate i much lower than it used to be. I find that the best place to farm them is the Enraged Air Elementals ( http://www.wowhead.com/npc=21060 ) in Shadowmoon Valley. The drop rate is pretty good, and I can usually end up with at least 20 to 30 motes in an few loops around their spawn area. I would estimate probably about 15 – 17 mobs each loop.
Most of my time spent farming I keep Music or a podcast running in the back round. I find it greatly increases flow state and keeps farming from becoming a mind numbing endeavor.
I farmed a lot here towards the end of Wrath. It helps that you have earth, wind, fire & water elementals all in the same small area but on my server there always seems to be someone there already. I pop over occasionally or if I’m in the area & can usually get a few motes in a few mins to add to my stock.
The reason these sell for so much is that they are used to transumute Primal Mights. 4 Primal Mights are required for the Alchemy quest to gain the Transmute Specialization. By the time Alchemists have spent all the money to level up Alchemy they hardly bat at eye on spending 400g+ per Primal Might just to get it over with and move on.
Like I brought up on a recent Power Word: Gold podcast these were selling for 200g at the time my 4th Alchemist need Primal Mights. Definitely worth looking into farming if the price is right.