Post by DeathBlood
It doesn't seem like many people know how to make 1,000's of Gold from Battlegrounds (BGs), so this post is a public awareness announcement. A few of my hardcore PvP friends said they had 100 marks in every BG. I couldn't help but think, what a waste! At no time should someone be 75k honor-capped or capped with 100 marks... you're missing out on gold!
Ok here's how it works. Each faction has a Jewelcrafting Quartermaster,
Lady Palanseer in Orgrimmar for the Horde and
Captain O'Neal in Stormwind for the Alliance. These Jewelcrafting Quartermasters sell 6 epic gems for 10k honor each:
- Ametrine - sells for 150 gold on Auction House (AH)
- Cardinal Ruby - sells for 150 gold on AH
- Dreadstone - sells for 150 gold on AH
- Eye of Zul - sells for 100 gold on AH
- King's Amber - sells for 150 gold on AH
- Majestic Zircon - sells for 150 gold on AH
Except for #4 Eye of Zul, they all sell for 150 gold. That figure of 150 gold is an average across all realms based upon the Wowhead Looter addon's uploaded data. On YOUR realm, they may sell for even more! Meaning you can make more gold from selling them!
A bit of economics, why do they sell so high? There is demand for them... these are the gems used to make epic gems such as +40 Attack Power, +20 Defense, +20 Hit Rating, +20 Strength, +20 Intellect, etc. Players are always going to demand the best gems for their new items, be it from a new patch, new Arena Season, new PvE content, or new character. So why not be a supplier, and make gold for helping meet this demand?
So it now makes sense how one can convert their Honor into gold... but what about those marks? Most PvP veterans probably know about the
For Great Honor and
Concerted Efforts quests: you can exchange one mark from each of the 6 BG's for 1489 Honor. This way, you can dump those excess BG marks into Honor, and buy gems and sell them for gold!
But it gets even better: You can convert Wintergrasp (WG) marks into gold as well as Stone Keeper's Shards! Just visit the Wintergrasp Quartermaster when your factions holds WG,
Stone Guard Mukar for the Horde and
Knight Dameron for the Alliance, and exchange 9 WG marks or 30 Stone Keeper's Shards for a
Wintergrasp Commendation, awarding 2k Honor.
Here is a basic flowchart to recap this strategy:
Battleground Marks ------------------------------>
Wintergrasp Marks -------------------------------> Honor -------------------> Gems -------------------> Gold
Stone Keeper's Shards ------------------------->
So as you can see, unless you're Gold-capped in the game, and Gold-capped on all of your alts as well, (which is highly unlikely), it makes sense to never let your Honor reach 75k, and to never have 100 marks of all BG's. Even if you're stockpiling Honor for a new Arena season, so you can purchase all the best gear, it makes sense to have maybe 60-70k Honor and 90 marks of each BG, so you can still make gold this way.
Why reveal my secret for making thousands of Gold? Although I do make money this way, I also spend a lot on gemming my toon. And in the end, I just really enjoy BG PvP. I hope this post achieves several things:
- Lowering the cost of epic gems on my realm and across all realms, so that gemming gear becomes cheaper.
- Increasing the number of players in BG's, by adding the incentive of making gold.
- Distributing the number of players in BG's evenly across all BG's: instead of players participating in their personal favorite BG, there is now incentive to play all BG's evenly for the marks.
- More players in Wintergrasp, for both the WG marks and Stone Keeper's Shards from the Weekly quests.
This strategy, along with looting corpses (it adds up), will allow you to get rich from PvP. Happy hunting everyone, and get those gems! =)