Back when I started my first WoW character , starting with zero money and scraping together those first coppers and then silvers, the idea that at level 40 I would have to pony up 100 gold or so for… well… a pony… (or in my case a mechanical ostrich) filled me with trepidation and awe. 100 gold?! Was there that much money in the world? Scrimping and saving through the 30’s I was able to go get my first mount at 40, and was happy. Heading towards 60, the 500+ gold for a fast mount looked daunting – and I was 62 or 63 before I managed to afford it. Increasingly though the money rolled in and the 1000 gold for the first flying mount at level 70 was actually easier than the epic ground mount had been at half that price… but the 5200 gold for the fast flyer was truly terrible to consider. Eventually I had the money (and now have a cool gyrocopter too).
When I leveled my second character it was (unsurprisingly) much easier, and my little Shaman has had not inconsiderable money lavished upon her.
Mounts and flying mounts aside though, until today the most expensive thing I’d purchased was her (very cool looking) Shoulders of Lightning Reflexes, at a bit over 1600 gold – roughly 800 each for the pattern and the Black Temple materials that I couldn’t gather for myself – but this pales now beside the 3000 gold for the Blessings deck to get the Darkmoon Crusade card. (I like my crusade card… it’s so nice).
So… what’s the coolest gear and/or most expensive stuff that you’ve decked out your characters with?
(And does this really make us sad geeky addicts? Hmmm… perhaps we don’t want to answer that one)
Yeah, gold has become easy to come by. My first level 50+ character never had more than about 450 gold. But my current main, completely un-twinked, has nearly 3000 gold. I’m only 54, so I’m waiting for higher levels before spending much. I’ve bought a few purple guns, and I don’t hesitate to buy elixirs and stuff, but I’m hoarding for now. I’m one of the ones who likes playing the Auction House - I like to buy low and sell high. I’m also a miner and skinner, which pays nice at my level - mithril ore at 30G per stack, thorium and truesilver 40G, rugged leather 17.5G. I also like to play solo - I haven’t done a single instance on this character. So I’ll need the gold, since I won’t be getting those nice purple BOP items…
Well, the Crusade card+Frozen Shadow Weave set+Spellstrike set+belt of blasting, I’m not really sure how much all that is… probably around 6k total. Not all at once though.
Since they added a bunch of daily quests and raised the daily cap to 25, gold is very easy to come by. I did all 25 one day to see how much it would rake in. By the time I was finished selling my vendor trash (greens are the new greys!), I had a little under 400g. If I really put my mind to it, I could probably make 2k a week.
That was for about 3 hours of work.
The most expensive thing I’ve bought to date was either my epic flyer or my complete spellfire set when I first hit 70. I was impatient and just bought up all the spellcloth instead of crafting it.
Most expensive for me was easily the training for 300 riding skill so I could get my fast flight form. I tend not to spend a lot in general, but I shudder to think at how much gold I’ve had to spend at times to make new gear into worthwhile upgrades (blue quality gems, enchanting mats, and in a couple cases I had to shell out for crafted loot. Damn defense cap…)
I could have a lot more gold (I’m at around 1.5k), but I’m rather burnt out right now and tend not to log in unless I’m planning to raid. Thankfully we’re far enough into Black Temple now that a week’s worth of raiding usually turns out about even.
My mage has an epic flyer and two pieces of black temple gear (mantle and bracers of nimble thought, for about 2000g total each), and I’ve had them since before I’d ever done Gruul’s. I guess the four primal mooncloth bags were expensive, but worth every copper.
There’s not much else that money can buy, so for a while I was just saving up so that I could buy nifty sunwell loot when the T6 guilds started selling it. Top of my wish list are the sunfire robe and handwraps and a loop of forged power. I was back up to about 4000g when 2.4 went live, and reached 7000g shortly.
All the while I’ve been wasting money on fancy toys for my alts; I bought a kang the decapitator for my warrior and a staff of jordan for my priest, both for leveling. As soon as my warrior hit level 50, I powerleveled his engineering up to about 363. He could have made his epic engineering goggles in 2.4 thanks to the nether I mailed to him, but I think that 2.4 also added the level 62 requirement to them . Oh, well. At least he’s still got his goblin rocket launcher.
Overall, I really like that the really nifty stuff can’t be bought. Keeps the goldsellers from overrunning everything.
The most expensive things I’ve bought for my blood elf mage are both things that I actually paid real-world money for–the Spectral Tiger mount and the X-51 Nether Rocket X-Treme flying mount (and yes, it’s perfectly legal–they both come from scratch-off trading cards that it’s legal to sell in the real world).
I recently spent 1000g to get him the “of the Shattered Sun” title from the Shattered Sun Offensive (I wanted him to have a title–he joined his current guild, one of the top-progressed on our server, right as they were transitioning from T5 to T6 content, so he hasn’t yet killed Kael’thas and gotten the “Hand of Ad’al” title despite the fact that he’s now 5/5 MH and 5 (almost 6)/9 BT. Grumble.)
Other than that…his epic flying mount training was expensive but he needed a netherdrake (for RP reasons, if nothing else), and when he turned 70 I bought him The Will of Edward the Odd (an epic robe). Fortunately he didn’t have to buy his Belt of Blasting, as the guild supplied him with most of the materials. Most of the rest of his gear he’s either farmed the materials for or gotten from drops.
My favourite piece of equipment, that my gnome mage even now still carries around at 70, is her Deepdive helmet. Unable to afford the pattern from the AH, and too low level at the time (mid 20’s) to get to the pattern vendor in Azshara by land, I swam from Ratchet, right up the coast of Durotar. It’s a long swim.
Now, I’ve spent my fair share of excessive gold, besides the epic flyer, I bought the pattern and mats for the Swiftheal mantle months ago for about 1200g. I’ve bought a few enchanting patterns for around 1400-1500g.
But none of that compares to one of my guildies who just sent 4250g on the Bracers of Nimble Thought. With 4.2, all the guilds that use to sell Hearts of Darkness for as little as 250g a piece stopped farming BT and Hyjal, and all the guilds that recently started (like us) have to save them up for the Shadow Resist gear, so… the price on our server went up from 250-300g, to as much as 1000g per Heart. I wouldn’t have thought those bracers were worth it, but he likes being right at the top of the DPS charts, so… more power to him.
The BT-level crafted gear is nice largely because of how much use one gets out of it. I got my pieces when I was in a guild that hadn’t even started Kara, so they were huge upgrades. My current guild (old one sorta disintegrated) is on SSC/TK, and I have yet to see a cloth drop that was comparable; the only reason I’d want T5 shoulders is for the set bonus. This has the side-effect of getting the other mages in the guild geared faster (but not better than me ;)), which means slightly faster progression, which means earlier access to gear that money can’t buy.
I’ve been on a hiatus from WoW for about a month now. It’s annoying, but at least the Sunwell-level Horde guilds on my server are getting closer to being able to sell the gear and patterns from there.
You can, as a warlock and probably a mage, get gear the day you hit 70 that will last you through all of Hyjal and Black Temple. Now you won’t be the best geared person in your raid if you don’t get any drops, but you’ll compete. I’m not sure if I like that or not.
I feel sooooo frugal! Or perhaps, just a minimalist.
On another server, my level 57 hunter has yet to be mounted and with the running feat and the FP’s, I guess I just dont know what I’m missing (it took me several years to switch from dialup to DSL/cable too).
Maybe I’m just too damn easy to please - afterall, I was thrilled to have 3 of my characters on the new server complete the Orphan quest. Of course, I took the money as the reward!
. Oh, well. At least he’s still got his goblin rocket launcher.