A Guide to Farming Instances For Mogging Items

Today's guest post was written by Ohnekase from the gold-making blog Meet Ohnekase. You can also follow them on twitter at @WowOhnekase. If you would like your guest post to be considered for Power Word: Gold contact us at [email protected]. You can also easily publish your own gold-making ideas and writings at The Power Word: Gold Hatchery.

If you have been living under a rock (or not following  @DEazeroth) you will have no idea what transmogrification is, nor will you have any idea how to profit off it?  Shame on you, you should.  But seriously, in Patch 4.3, there are some greens that sell for far more than even level 85 blues and purples.  Why?  They look unique.

So, how can you profit off of these high green items?  Well, the most obvious way is to look at the Auction house.  In addition to that, I also subscribe to Faid’s (Nerf Faids) opinion that Farming (if done correctly) can be a very efficient use of time and resources.

This post will briefly go over a few instances that have high value green items (you are going to want to reference it with this site as well:  Mogging Item Search And Pricing With Auctionator).  In addition, I am going to try and mention a bit about the instance, and possible other things that you can do in them. Read on past the jump.

Before you Begin

This is going to sound silly, but if you are going to be farming, and you DO NOT have Exalted with all of your home factions (Ironforge, Orgrimmar, Gilnaes, Bilgewater Cartel), make sure to go to their respective quartermasters and buy a tabard.  This will give you rep for clearing out these dungeons, which is always nice because it will save you money in the long run.

Also, make sure to have a lot of bag slots full?  Personally, when I take a character farming, I send off a lot of items in the mail to another of my characters, with the idea that I will have them return it when I am done farming.


Gnomergan (lvl 26-29 instance)

Gnomergan is always an interesting farming spot.  It sports Engineering Recipes that cannot be found anywhere else.  You can also get some Fused Wiring, which other Engineers like for making pets.  There is a good amount of Wool and Silk  Cloth there as well.  Finally, for the Transmog runners,  both Glimmering and Battleforge (Tier 1 Mail pieces, going between 1500-5000g) Armor can be found there.

However, I don’t really care for this instance.  The big reason is that I am Horde, so for me it is a pain to get to.  Secondly, it is a pretty long instance to slog through and there is no easy way out once you are done.

Farming Viability: 2 (Poor).  It can be profitable, especially if you get some of the nice items (the engineering recipes sell well as well.  However, the location and getting in and out of it are a pain, so that hurts its viability in my mind.


Scarlet Monastery

If you are leveling an alt and are between 29-40, you will probably end up in at least a few SM dungeons.  These just so happen to be great dungeons for grabbing a few high tiered Transmog items when they come up.

The SM: Graveyard wing sports the fine Mail pieces Glimmering Armor, Battleforged armor, and Combat Armor.  Keep an eye out for them while you are farming or running this instance.  One good piece from there can be flipped for somewhere between 500 and 5000g.

The SM: Armory, in addition to having an angry axe-wielding boss, also has its mobs offering the shiny Combat Armor.  The Chief Brigadier Armor can be found in the SM: Cathedral.  You might also try Scarlet Mail armor items.  They may not look super unique, but people know what they are so they get some distinction.

While you are farming these items specifically, you can also pick up some Silk and Mageweave Cloth through these instances.  The market price on these items fluctuates, but you can end up with several stacks of each to pad you GPH in these instances.  Checking right  no, I see that Silk goes for an Average of 85 silver on Lightbringer - US.  Not spectacular, but with several stacks that gets better.

Farming Viability: 3 (Average).  The chance to get some high transmog pieces isn’t bad, and getting there is really easy.  The other stuff you get from it isn’t great though, so if you don’t pull something nice out of there, you aren’t going to get a ton of gold.  All in all, these are fairly quick instances that can get you a couple 100 gold while you are waiting for that LFD queue time anyway.


Razorfen Kraul

This is….not great.  It isn’t horrible for Horde to get here, but really why would you do that?  There isn’t much here.  There is Silk, which is good.  Skinners can skin several things in here.  However, I can’t see much else being here.  For transmogrification though, you can find the Vital Cloth pieces, which sells for 1 - 3k.

One thing it does have going for it is it is pretty easy to get out, you just kinda walk a path out.

Farming Viability: 1.5 (Bad).  Because there isn’t much here, its just not worth it in my mind.  Even for Horde who can get here easily.  If you can get the items, that would be a nice perk, but other than that, meh.


Uldaman

This instance holds a special place in my heart, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing.  See, I came from back in Classic, where getting a group for this horrible instance was a pain and it was even worse because of the fact that you had to run this instance multiple times if you wanted to get all the quests done.

That being said, the instance has its perks.  First, it has the Lost Vikings in it, which is always a plus in my book.  Second, the Mobs in there drop Silk and Mageweave, which I think have Value.  And, for Transmog Farming, it has the Chief Brigadier and Combat Armors, which can land you somewhere between 500 and 2000 g.

The reason I am going to dock it is the same reason for Gnomergan:  It is a long instance, it is convoluted, and getting in and out is not terribly easy.  It doesn’t even really have the Recipe Drops to redeem it.

Farming Viability: 1.5 - 2 (Poor).


Maraudon

Maraudon is a beautiful zone.  I love the colors, I love the look and feel of the whole place.  The mobs aren’t as interesting and the Farting Princess befouls the entire place (but does amuse me), however, the zone itself is beautiful.

In terms of farming, the last half is a great place for skinners who want to skin a bunch of lizards and hydras.  I don’t believe there is much cloth to be had here though, if that is what you are going for.  In terms of Transmog, the Salstone Plate Armor, Embersilk Robes (not Cata ones), and the Vital Robes can all be found here.  The Saltstone Plate alone is a high value items, and the other two are no slouches here.  Embersilk is the lowerst Tier, brining in between 900-2.5k gold.  1 Saltstone piece can bring in 3.5k-5k gold.

Farming Viability: 2 - 2.5 (Not great, but not horrible).  The fact that 3 greens here will make you some good money is a pretty good incentive to try it.  However, there isn’t a ton here other than that, and it is definitely a pain to get here.  It probably should be a 2, but the zone looks great, so that may make farming not as painful.  Not a good way to get out of the instance though.


Scholomance

This instance is a ways away for Alliance, but not Horde, so Horde may be slightly better in here than their Faction rivals.  However, the instance, while a little long, isn’t too horrible to get out of, cause it is just up a few stair cases.  As such, for farming, its not bad

In terms of loot, I find a few things that make me smile.  First, there is cloth abound in here, as a lot of the mobs will drop it.  There are rooms where you can AoE pull as well and clear out pretty quick.  Skinners can grab the Plagued Whelps leather.  Finally for transmoggers, you have the chance of grabbing the Chief Brigadier and Captain’s Mail here.  I also believe that you can start seeing Gothic Plate and Heavy Lamellar Plate, which can also be put up for transmog (though for low 100s or 200s).

When you are clearing this dungeon, there is a chest in here that most people don’t know about or miss and has a green in.  If you go into the crypts to kill Jandice Barov, make sure to click on the Torch on the right hand wall.  It will unlock and open a door in the room before the viewing room, which will have a guaranteed green..

Farming Viability: 2.5-3 (Below average).  The gear is ok at best, and the money drops get better at about this level, but still nowhere spectacular.  The Cloth drops are nice and the idea of a lot of easy mobs that can be AoEd down.


Strathholme

Ah, Stratholme.  Anyone who is a mount junky will probably bemoan the instance for its frustratingly low drop Rivendare’s Charger.  That being said, there are some good things to be had here.

On the live side, you have plenty of humanoid (read undead) mobs which give cloth.  More importantly though are the Righteous Orbs that drop, which Enchanters love for their low level Crusader Enchant.  For transmog, you can find several items here that can be sold as transmog.  I have been running this on my LFD Pali tank and gotten a couple pieces.  Most notably though, are the Chief Brigadier and Captain armor (I think I have also found some Jade armor there, which isn’t top tier, but is high tier).

On the Dead side, I am not sure that there is much there, other than of course the mount to get as well.  The gear is still there though, and I still enjoy the instance.

One other note though, is for greens that aren’t for transmogrification, you can also look at DEing those.  I seem to recall that these drop Nether Essence and Large Radiant Shards, which generally are pretty useful.  Couldn’t hurt right.

Farming Viability: 3 - 3.5 (Above Average).  You get cloth and both instances are pretty short, all in all.  Righteous Orbs are always nice to pick up and a little mini cannon from one of the bosses is fun too.  The Tranmog items are Ok in terms of top tier items, but there are other items that you will see which will sell.


Razorfen Downs

I am in a similar place with this instance as I am for RFK.  Is it great?  Not really, however, it does have a few things.  It does have some cloth, and there is skinning.  For Transmogrification, it does have the Saltstone Armor and Silksand Cloth.

Farming Viability:  2-2.5 (Poor to Below Average).  I would give this a poor grade for Alliance and a below average for Horde.  It has 2 high transmog (1000+g for each piece) sets, which is good, and I would bet has similar transmog loot to Stratholme, however, it doesn’t have much else.   Not the worst place to spend some farming, but it will not rake it all in.


Dire Maul

Ok, so on first glance, I would have probably passed on this area for farming.  Sure it looks great.  However, it didn’t look like it would have much going for it.

I am pretty mistaken and here is why.  For transmog, the sets you can get are Glorious, Vanguard, and Lofty (Rare, but Tier 1 Plate 5-10k), Saltstone (Plate T2 , 3.5 - 5k), Silksand (Cloth T2 1-3k), Embersilk (Cloth t3 900- 2.5k).  In addition, the money is ok, the cloth is good, and you even have some things you can skin.  Plus, who doesn’t love good old Ogre Booze.

Farming Viability: 4-5 (Good to Great).  I would say that you are likely to grab at least 1 Transmog piece from here.  Even with the travel and length of instance, I would say that this is probably one of the best places to try and farm.


Blasted Lands

This isn’t an instance, however, it is a great place for Transmog farming.  I caught some of this myself, but Faid owned it on Lightbringer when she started a new Death Knight, ran it down to Blasted Lands and farmed rares for a while.

Why is it great?  Simple, Imperfect Draenethyst Fragment.  These are quest items that you can turn into Kum’isha the Collector in the center of Blasted lands and he will give you a bag with another green in it.  So, basically, you go and kill a Rare spawn mob (fairly easy to do), and get 2 chances at Transmogrification.  And a lot of pieces dropped are Transmog gear.

For reference, here is a map I used to farm Rare mobs.  If there is a better one out there, let me know:

Map of Blasted Lands Rare Spawn Locations. Image Source: cataclysmfarming.net

Farming Viabilty: 5 (Fantastic).  It is easy to get to for anyone 58 or higher (take the Dark Portal in Capitol Cities).  If you can fly around, it is easy to just fly around and find them.  Note, pick up NPCScan or SilverDragon addons for this.  It will tell you when they are around.  Lots of greens to be had.  Finally, anyone at level 55+ can really do this.  While it is easier for 85s, anyone can do it.

Also you can build a simple targeting macro to mash while you are searching for these rare spawns. Copy and paste the text below into a macro. (Thanks to Faid from Nerf Faids for creating and sharing this macro.)

/tar akub
/tar blackl
/tar cassia
/tar clack
/tar deathe
/tar dreadsc
/tar grunter
/tar magro
/tar mojo
/tar mord
/tar narix
/tar rava
/tar spite
/tar terem

Molten Core

Ah, Molten Core.  How many people hate Molten Core?  Probably a lot of people.  However, it has some great items you can pull from it and not just Transmog.

For transmogrification items, you can definitely pull out a few.  On the high end, the Elegant Cloth items (Cloth T3 900-2.5k).  Any of the T1 gear that you get that is Bind on Equip I would bet will go for some good gold, cause there are a lot of people who want to transmog into them.

In terms of other mobs, though, here is where it gets fun.  There are a lot of recipes here that all sell very very well.  A lot of them.  Any recipe you get that isn’t BoP, keep on hand.  Blood of the Mountain is always a chased after item as well.

The only issue here, in my opinion, is that some of the encounters are trickier than others.  If you are trying to clear it, you may have some trouble, so it may make farming hard for some classes.

Farming Viability:  4 - 5 (Good to Great).  This is good to great because of the rewards you can get from.  The Transmog element is not great.  It has some ok stuff, but not a lot.  However, the Molten Core loot itself has always had value, so adding more to it in the form of transmog only helps it.


Black Wing Lair

Very similar to Molten Core, but I would say there are fewer other items that you could get.  Plus, it is even harder than Molten Core.  If you do go in there, though, keep a look out for Elegant items in there as well.

Farming Viability:  2 (Poor).  There are a few things in here that are good, but realistically, there are easier and better choices.


Ruins of Ahn’Quraji and Temple of Ahn’Quraji

Ok, before transmogrification even came out, I loved these instances.  They are fun, mostly low stress instances that should be pretty easy to solo without too much trouble.  The Purples in here are actually pretty interesting items and have a bit of uniqueness to them (though we cannot sell them).

For those going through, you will get a few bonuses.  First, the Scarabs that drop can be sold on the Auction House.  Though they won’t sell fast, they usually sell decently when they do.  They junk drops usually get you some good gold.  The Bosses drop some good money.  Even better is that the bosses also drop some now-gray books, which sell for 10 gold each.  This means that you can get an extra 10-20 gold from every boss.

Don’t forget that if you need mounts, there are 4 of the in the Temple of AQ

For transmoggers, there are some great high-value drops.  The items you can get are:

AQ-20 (Ruins of AQ)

Glorious:  Plate T1
Vanguard: Plate T1
Exalted:  Plate T2

AQ - 40 (Temple of AQ)

Glorious:  Plate T1
Exalted: Plate T2

In addition, I got a few other greens that I am working at trying to sell for transmog, which isn’t bad at all.

For me, I ran both of these last week at a lazy pace.  In an hour, I got a bunch of rep (which I needed), over 100 Scarabs, 500+ gold, and several greens.  I didn’t get any high tier greens, but I don’t think the time was wasted.  It was good money and took me about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Farming Viability:   4 - 5 (Good to Great).  This is definitely a good choice to solo.  Even if you get nothing out of it in terms of transmog, the money is still good.  Plus, with some more efficiency than I pulled, doing both in 1 hr is probably doable.  However, I will say that there are some bosses in the Temple of AQ you just cannot do, so you get somewhat limited there.  Most, however, aren’t too bad at all.


Burning Crusade Dungeons

I am going to lump them together because there isn’t much Transmog you can get from them.

However, BC dungeons are always pretty good for money without Transmog.  You can get Runecloth (which turn into Runecloth Headband/then DE into Illusion Dust and Greater Eternal Essence), Netherweave (Which turns into Netherweave Bags, which are always in demand), Money, and a few random other items.  Usually the money is good and you can have some fun in them as well.  They all give BC rep, which can help a bit if you are going for those.

Here are the Transmog items you can pull from dungeons.

Blood-Knight set (love this set look):  Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls, and Old Hillsbrad (while your there, pick up a couple stacks of Rumsey Rum’s Black Label.  It is an alcohol that give +15 Stam and is used a ton in low level PVP.  For a while, I sold these at 1 gold a piece.)

You can also find several other transmog sets, but they are going to be lower tier.

Farming Viability: 3 - 5 (Average to Good).  I have run BC dungeons a lot for random stuff.  They are always profitable.  They may not net the best GPH ever, but they are still good GPH.  Personally, I like running the BC dungeons.  They are quick, they are short, they give good loot, and I still make a good chunk of change for them.  Hell, Engineers can run a few dungeons, then swing over to Nagrand for 10 minutes to get Mote of Air (which sell really well).


Conclusion

Is farming for Transmogrification items going to lend you to getting them every time?  Goodness no.  In fact, you will get a lot of crap as well.  That is not horrible, as you can still get money from running these dungeons.  If I were to choose to farm a few, I would probably farm Dire Maul, AQ 20  and 40, BC Dungeons, and Blasted Lands.  For the most efficient farming, I would say Blasted Lands gives you the best chance per hour spent to get item.  But the others can be fun and have other advantages.  Try them out, figure out what gives you the best GPH.

Finally, if anyone sees anything I missed, or wants to add, let me know and I will update if I can.

Thanks to @Faidtastic for assembling the list and a thanks to @DEazeroth for making the initial list.  You both are awesome.

-Ohnekase

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