User:Tennessee Ernie Ford/Shortcuts/Articles in need of review/Gold farming

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Just as in Real Life, it seems that you can never have too much money in Guild Wars. Armor, weapons, runes, and consumables that help earn titles each cost users tens of thousands (or even millions!) in gold. This article covers the basic principles of staying flush with cash. The best method depends on lot on how long you have been playing the game and your individual play style. Here are the basic principles:

• Spend less.
• Time is money; invest it wisely.
  • Research the markets.
  • Research the job market.

Spend less

Amazingly, people still fail to follow your rich uncle's advice:

• Nearly free weapons: Collectors have max weapons fulfilling all basic needs in exchange for 3-5 trophies. Cheap at twice the price!
• Cheaper armor: Fully upgradeable max armor is available in two flavors: basic (about 15 + mats) or elite (75 or more + pricey mats).
• Trade: Buy heavily-traded items from other players whenever possible (see Research the markets below).
• Near-max instead of max mods: A max weapon mod of fortitude (+30 health) trades for about 5-10 times as much as the near-max (+29 HP) upgrade. (Often, you can get near-max mods for free from guildies.) Consider selling the max mods and replacing them with lower-cost near max versions. After all, how often is a single HP between you and death?

Time is money; invest it wisely

• Understand the trade markets (see below). You can spend more time playing (and therefore earning) if you spend less time waiting to find a buyer/seller willing to trade at your prices.
• Understand the job market (below).
• Understand your strengths (weaknesses) and apply yourself accordingly.
  • You can spend time farming for Nick, farming for feathers, or farming for ectos. Which works best for you?
• Have fun! (Grinding makes you less productive, just as in real-life).

Research the markets

You can't buy low & sell high unless you understand what others are willing to spend.

• Visit the NPC vendors to find out their prices for dyes, materials, and runes.
  • Many runes and insignias are worth 100s or 1000s of gold. Be sure to check with the rune traders before shopping these.

• Find out how much people are willing to pay for your goods. Don't waste time trying to sell cloth at 4 when people are willing to pay 20 for dust.
  • All things being equal, green items are easier to sell than golds, which are easier to sell than purples.
  • Unidentified gold items can be sold quickly to others for 500–700. You can often determine whether they have valuable upgrades by visiting the Isle of the Nameless and using them (unidentified) on the practice targets.
  • Some seemingly valuable items are worth little while items with less-than-stellar stats can be worth a fortune. Claws of the Broodmare are rarely worth more than 50 to anyone even though they are green, while a Zodiac Axe requiring q13 with only 14% extra damage can be worth many platinum.

• Sometimes, the NPCs will offer the best prices taking into account time spent trading. You can almost never find anyone willing to buy cloth (even at 4).
• NPC prices are always the same, but players pay different prices in different outposts or districts.
• Be friendly. Folks are more likely to give you a good deal.
• Be prepared for a certain amount of rudeness among a small subset of traders.

Research the job markets

• Farming: you can earn cash efficiently by repeatedly the same tasks for hours on end. However, not all farms provide items that are easy to sell. Are you better off selling high-demand (but low cost) feathers? Or farming harder-to-market 5 Totem Axes?
• Crafting: converting common materials into rare crafting materials. Only a very few rare mats are so cheap to craft that they are worth selling to NPCs or other players.
• Running: learning to quickly complete a mission or get from point A to B and having others pay you for the service.
• Chest running: a specific form of farming where the target is high-end chests.

• Trading can also be a way of making money. Some people do nothing buy zaishen keys for 4.5 and resell at 5 for a quick 12% return.

Notes

• ArenaNet has reserved the right to monitor the economy of the game and rebalance it. If a method of income is being overused by players and deemed too "powerful" by ArenaNet, they will eventually take counter-measures to nerf it.
• The use of bots to farm (or any other purpose) violates the User Agreement and the Rules of Conduct and, if you are caught, will result in a permanent ban.
• Guild wars uses loot scaling to limit the advantage of solo farming over group farming. However, ANet staff have made it clear that, all things being equal, a solo farmer will get more drops per run than they would in a group of 2 or 8.
• Beware of scammers.