It’s no secret that for the finer things in WoW, cash is involved. Nothing puts a strain on your pocket like raiding repair bills, trying to gem and enchant the upgrades you do get, trying to buy things to buff up sets (why the hell are most of the good plate tanking pieces in three slots only craftable?), and trying to complete time-and-money-sink achievements that you can’t afford to put money into anymore… argh!

A while ago, in a post on my new UI, I posted this screenshot, which includes a little peek into my wallet. See 353 gold shown in that bar in Fortress? That’s basically what I have on my toon at all times.

Let that sink in, because as far as I can tell, no one really understands that. “Oh, well you can just pick up blahblahblah for cheap.” No I fucking can’t, pardon my French.

I’m in a near-permanent state where single epic gems are expensive, some enchants are unbuyable, the craftables from Crusader’s Orbs are out of reach even after getting emblems to get the orbs (and even one piece of Primal Saronite is way beyond my budget). Darkmoon Cards are unpurchasable. Essentially I manage to keep enough to repair after raids or astoundingly bad heroics, stock up on consumables again, and then that’s it.

I have neither the patience nor the intelligence to play the Auction House. I’ve tried it - I’ve followed the advice of Arthas-damned Auctioneer geniuses and I lose money, every single time. I don’t know what to farm because I have no idea what I should be farming. I can’t fund myself entirely through dailies like I used to in TBC (this is not a new problem, in case it wasn’t obvious - I had to borrow 500g to even get epic flying for my DK, and that was the most gold I’d ever had, at any one point, ever.)

Essentially, readers, despite how good I am at everything else, I am an abysmal failure at making money in WoW and I don’t know how to improve that.

I need your help. Badly. Leave comments below.