Introduction If you haven't done dungeon farming for gold, get to it! This is a great resource for gold farming, and each dungeon has it's own unique resource, from transmog, to leveling greens, to craftable goods, to rare BoE twink weapons. If you HAVE been around the block and have read a few gold guides before, the reason I started this particular series is because I find it slightly unethical to tell people that they can make "X gold per hour" when the person writing the guide only tests the instance by running it once, twice, or even five times. With 0.5% drop rates on gear, and when the blogger/youtuber extrapolates from a lucky drop, you then go in thinking that lucky Gold per hour is the average, when it isn't. So, I'll be running each dungeon 15 times- 5 times each on 3 differently geared toons (tank, healer, and dps) to give the most accurate information possible. Also, rather than just the gold made I made, you'll also be getting pretty much everything you'll need to know about the dungeon to prepare yourself for your goldmaking journey. I hope you find it useful, that it raises the bar for gold bloggers out there, and that everyone reading this demands more from dungeon guides you read in the future. Enjoy!
Blackrock Caverns
Oh, who doesn't love Raz (RAZ SMASH), the sweethart? BRC is one of the first dungeons you run in Cata and is a surprisingly good farm thanks to 1) lots of mobs being tightly grouped together, 2) ever-in-demand cata 77-79 BoE greens, 3) lots of humanoids for embersilk cloth, and finally 4) the ability to use the Potion of Treasure Finding get an extra 500-1,000 gold per hour. The dungeon is located in the interior eastern ring of Blackrock Mountain. To get to it, run into the the southern entrance of the mountain, once inside follow the right wall around until you get to a corridor, and then at the split take a right. The entrance is straight ahead.
The Stats
Run time: <11 minutes
Bag Slots Req'd/run: 25
Mailbox: Searing Gorge-Iron Summit(N)
Main Loot: 77-79 Greens
Vendor @ Instance: No
Run time: <11 minutes
Bag Slots Req'd/run: 25
Mailbox: Searing Gorge-Iron Summit(N)
Main Loot: 77-79 Greens
Vendor @ Instance: No
Boss Count: 5
Lootable Enemies: 97
Mob Level Range: 82-85
Run Back Req'd? No, portal@3rd boss
Dangers: Evolved Zealots,
Shadow Prison debuff
Lootable Enemies: 97
Mob Level Range: 82-85
Run Back Req'd? No, portal@3rd boss
Dangers: Evolved Zealots,
Shadow Prison debuff
Walkthrough
I like to start off pulling a the first big group together and killing all the mages and then the first boss. The first boss' Skullcracker isn't a problem anymore, so just burn him. Raz has a nice trick where as long as you DPS the other guys a little, he'll finish em off whenever he gets released (Raz hits harder than you do, but feel free to help him out...or loot, whatever). This saves a decent amount of time if you're going for speed, or if you're running on a low dps class. After you cross the bridge, you'll an fight Evolved Twilight Zealot (big monster guys). Kill these quick! They do an ability that knocks out 60% of your hp, so guess what two hits will do. :)
Anyways, take a right after the zealot (away from Corla) for a couple extra mobs, kill another Evolved zealot down the ramp, burn Corla, then round up the huge pack of zealot humonoids by hiding behind a pillar and just AoE them all down. After you cross the next bridge (thanks Raz!) don't kill the boss immediately. Make a ring and a couple small stops along the perimeter looting the 19 mobs there; I got a Blue or Green from them almost every single run for some strange statistically deviant reason. To kill the Karsh Steelbender, hold him in the fire and single target him. Easy Peasy.
These next packs can actually be pretty tricky if you aren't paying attention. Gathering up the 6 Twilight Obsidian Borers will give you 6 or more stacks of Shadow Prison that end up ticking for 24k damage per second each if you're moving. This hurts at 90. So even though you're in a hurry, stand still until the debuff falls off or is low. You can handle running around with a stack or two, but it's remarkable how quickly things can spiral with those guys so watch your debuffs after the forge. Also, I've found it much more efficient to skip Beauty and her pups entirely.
Finally, for the run back there is a portal, although it is a little hidden. Just run to the forge room where you killed Karsh Steelbender, and it's located in the corner. It will take you all the way to the entrance. The run should take somewhere in the range of 7-11 minutes.
Profit-Results:
For this test, AMAZING! But first there are three things you can do to increase your gold take on this dungeon. First (and my only recommendation) is to use a Potion of Treasure Finding. I got an average of 2.8 chests per run from the 97 mobs with a minimum of 0 chest drops per run, and maximum of 7. The loot contained within averages out to a +850 gold gain per hour. Also, if you're not hurting on DPS, you can equip the Golden Fleece and the Golden Moss for an extra ~150g/hr and 300g/hr respectively, but since you actually have to click around and pick up all the gold piles, I dunno. I'm just too ADD for all that. I prefer speed.
In this 15-run test we earned
"Cash" - 433g
Gold - 312g
Vendor Trash - 183g
Repairs - (62g)
Loot - 16,494
Greens - 12,673g (71 @ an average 172g/item)
Blues - 3,821g (15 @ an average 253g/item)
Embersilk Cloth - 2060g (497, 33/run)
Chests - 2,597g
Embersilk Cloth - 218
Volatile Life - 8
Volatile Fire - 31
Volatile Water - 7
Volatile Earth - 15
Volatile Air - 15
Pyrite Ore - 16
Elementium Ore - 10
Greens - 4 @ 224g avg
Total: 19,524g
GOLD PER HOUR: 6,508g
Conclusion
This is a fantastic dungeon for making gold, especially if you have a decent-dps Tailor who can get some extra cloth off the mobs. Greens are almost always in high demand, and you can even sell them for more than the prices listed recommend by the undermine journal. Jim, over at PowerWord:Gold recommends selling them most at 245 or 395 a piece and has kept those price points since Cata. You'll make fewer sales, but will make more per sale, so it's your call (adjust your prices depending on how often you farm up gear). If there's anything you think I left out of this one that could have made it better or more thorough, feel free to leave me a comment.
Thanks so much for reading! I'll see you next time [btw, sorry for not posting in a while; I'm getting married in a few weeks and have been moving, blah blah first world problems] You can follow me on Twitter here and YouTube here (Want to see a video of the most efficient way through the instance? Well lucky you!) Until next time remember that the key to making gold in WoW is just to
Search. Craft. Post.
Every Day.
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well at first big thanks couse this guide is just awesome but i wanna add that u should do hc run too couse i got more greenies and cloth and it took only about 3min more :)
ReplyDeleteWell you're very welcome! And you're right that HC is easier, but thank you for reminding me to add in NOT to do heroic mode. It doesn't drop 77-79 greens and only drops lvl 80 greens (ilvl 272-283 vs ilvl 300-312) The price difference is that the 77-79 greens sell from 120g to 299g medians and the lvl 80 greens sell from 40g to 89g. Sooooo, yah. Don't do heroic. The only upside is that the soulbound boss drops are more expensive and you have a guaranteed Chaos Orb. I love your initiative though! Way to take the reins and do some testing. :D
DeleteHi, Im new to WoW and I wanted to ask you how you price the dropped greens?
DeleteActually just put out a new video on that :) Gogo FAQ!
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn4yR8W_jD8
It really depends on the server. I like, personally, Jim's method from PowerWord:Gold, where you buy out the market and post everything at set 245g, 295g, and 395g prices, depending on if it's cloth mail or weapons. Things still sell and you make a ton. However, as a blogger, the backlash from saying "you can make 40,000gold an hour in blackrock caverns" just isn't worth it. If I vary from that, read my TSM sources article, and you'll see that I recommend 120% TUJGE Median for most things. On high pop servers this is too much though. It really depends on your competition. Play around and test out what works for you, your server, and your posting and playstyle. :)
DeleteSome things you just shouldnt tell....a market I have built up over a year is destroyed within 3 weeks due to articles like this.
ReplyDeleteSo only you should make money off it ?
DeleteAnonymouse from 9:16AM...you are a goblin! The whole point of these sites is to SHARE the "secrets" with people that are willing to put the time in!
ReplyDeleteMarkets you have carefully nutured and grown don't "get destroyed", they just get adjusted temporarily. Those that have jumped in late are "opportunists" and follow the crowd. They will move to the next shiny thing very soon. If you get into inscription, you learn this quickly, "new sellers" come, break things, then disappear"
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this guide. I always enjoyed this dungeon. Now I have a reason to go back!
ReplyDeleteYou mean selling the greens through Auction house mate? that how youre making 245G a green?
ReplyDeleteNew to the game so happy you opened this side of it for me :)
Yah, the link has all the info. But in short, PW:G says to sell greens for 245g on the AH. You'll sell a few a day, so it will take a while to clear out your inventory from as many as you get soloing this place
Deletethanks for replying. ps love the blog, good work!
ReplyDeletegreat guide. but I think the title is a little misleading as to get all that gold you need all of your blues & greens to sell on the AH within 1 hour. It might take anywhere from a day (if youre really lucky) to a week to sell everything
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, anonymous. A commenter after my own heart. Two things. One, it's become an unfortunate convention for guide writers to put things in terms of just the farming time and stop the clock before any mailing to alts, flying back to town, porting around, running around stormwind, posting auctions, or gathering mail time is included. This makes it simpler to compare one dungeon's loot to another, but isn't its true profit. Read my post on "is mining ore more profitable than buying it." There was a great discussion in the comment section about this dead-weight time.
DeleteSecond, I don't know your setup. Do you have fast flying? Do you manually sell soulbound trash and greys? How optimized are your groups and operations? I can sell, mail, and post everything from these runs in about 5 minutes. Someone less OCD about efficiency probably takes a little longer, but with so much possible variability, I couldn't calculate for it.
In short, while I do spend time thinking about how to write a title that gets readers' attention (what I think you were implying) I work to do so ethically, and spend more time thinking about the state of the gold blogging community and what we can do to improve it.
Hi! Nice work on the guide, this really helped me. But, can you explain how to make a TSM group for the greens/blue from this area and stuff? Thanks :)
ReplyDelete