The Sheep Are Getting Away
Posted on April 27th, 2008 by Gavin under Auction House, Gold Building
One of the biggest secret money-makers in WoW is wool. It’s weird that everyone seems to know that wool always costs about as much or more than silk, everyone needs it to level up first aid, but no one seems to know why. Well you’re about to find out, and how to cash in as a low level toon or even farm a bit from time to time on your main.
Wool is expensive because it’s one of the harder cloths to get in the whole game. It’s actually surprising it doesn’t sell for more than Runecloth, since it actually drops a lot less often. To explain why, let’s look at the levels cloth drops from mobs.
Analyzing the chart shows us why wool is so hard to get. Although all cloths drop for about 20 levels, take a look at the 30% drop rates. When we look at the levels of mobs that drop the individual cloth at a 30% chance, we can see that you only have at least a 30% chance to get wool for a mere 5 levels. Another interesting fact is that for the two highest level cloths Runecloth and Netherweave, about 90% of the mobs that drop these cloths do so at a 30% or higher rate. This means it’s much easier to collect Runecloth than it is to get wool.
Wool is even more difficult to farm for Horde characters than Alliance since the best drop rates are in the Deadmines and the Stockades. Since you would have a really hard time getting into the stockades instance in the middle of Stormwind, which leaves Horde toons with only one really good farming run and that in contested territory.
You may get your hands on a ton of silk, and it sells well, but it is just as profitable to run for wool. The best spot is definitely the Deadmines. But you can also grind through the Foulweald Furbolgs in Ashenvale forest. The Furbolgs are easy to get to for both Horde and Alliance and drop enough wool to get about 5 stacks an hour if you can kill them fast enough.
Also watch the wool prices on the AH. If someone is selling too low, be sure to scoop it up and repost it for sale at high market value.
Have you subscribed to Dominate Your Server yet? Our subscribers are eligible for contests and giveaways that non-subscribers don't get access to. Click Here to Subscribe!
For horde, you can also farm wool off of undead kobolds on Fenris Isle, which is the island in the middle of silverpine forest.
Although I don’t know who told you silk cloth sells AT ALL, wool is indeed profitable. Another good place to farm it is in Durnhold keep, in Hillsbrad Foothills.
Well, Ren, I’m hurt! You’ve been posting in our comments for long enough that you should know I don’t just pull stuff out of a hat. I don’t just run around in the game asking people what sells. So nobody told me silk sells, I know it for a fact from personal experience. I actually sell a lot of silk cloth. It’s far easier to get and people use a lot of it.
Prices are far lower for silk, so you normally can’t buy it for resale very often (although sometimes you can if you buy on Monday and Tuesday and then sell it all on Saturday), but you can certainly sell every single piece you farm while questing. It definitely won’t rot in your bags.
I guess the question is: who told YOU silk WON’T sell? It’s not the greatest money-maker, but it might buy you a few deviate delights from time to time. Think of it as gum money.
When you list farming locations, be sure you don’t lead people down a hard road. The reason the Deadmines beats any other spot silly is because almost all of the mobs in the joint drop wool at the 30% drop rate. Virtually every other location the drop rate will be in the 10-15% range.
But I do understand that you might only be able to farm wool in VC if you are in a group (negates the loot rate) or are truly farming for wool on a higher level character. Just wanted to let everyone know that your drop rate will probably not be above 25% anywhere much besides VC and Stocks.
The best horde wool farming I have found is at the dwarf escavation site near the bottom of the Barrens map. Decent drop rate and respawn rate.
Gavin, I never thought about it, but it seems so logical.
The only question I have is on the netherweave, on my server I don’t know about the others, since the new Island and dailys opened up it seems to have fallen to even sub Linen Cloth prices. The market is getting flooded with netherweave. I know just from doing dailys I get about 5 to 6 stacks per day which I am a blacksmith so don’t use much of it. I am lucky to get even 2 gold per stack at this point. Is this happening everywhere?
The dead scar is also a pretty decent place to grab up some wool. Pop on over on Ghostlands sometime, and check out the drop rate out there.
For netherweave, the best thing to do is to make bandages and sell them on AH or vend them, depending on the demand for bandages. The bandages vend for a slightly greater profit in comparison to vending the cloth outright. I think Gavin made mention of this in one of his other posts, when he was sending them via mailing list.
@Gavin: I know you research all of your information but Silk Cloth (despite it being crucial in leveling First Aid) does not sell well at all on Hyjal. At 30s a stack, I’m sure you could get through all those skill levels of first aid or grind through tailoring, with just a few gold. Perhaps its just a Hyjal phenomenon but its tied for “useless mid level trade item” along with Medium Leather.
True story. Having played on Hyjal for 3 yrs now I can attest that on that server silk and medium leather go for next to nothing. However on the others servers I run on although they are cheaper than other cloth/leather they do sell much better than on Hyjal. Just to many ppl loading down the AH with these particular items…my solution is to make silk bandages and vendor as well as vendoring or giving guild mates all the medium leather I don’t need (gets you a little more than you can score at the AH).
Try farming deammines if you have a high enough toon. I can clear it on my 55 warr in about 20 30 mins and come out with 4 stacks of wool each time. Sells for about 3 - 4g per stack on my server. GL
I understand your theory on looking at wool being a “essential” to leveling F.A. and Tailoring. But this debate can go round cirlw with back in the Pre B.C. days. Look at Scarlet Monistary (SM). This place with a well geard prot pally can pull all of Cath. in 2 pulls. Thats ALOT of silk and gold. not to mention the greens can add up to another 5g. thus with all the silk you can send to your alt and have him make it inot bolts of silk cloth and sell then on AH or trade from half prince and instantly make a killing. Wool is much much more tricky to get and not as sellable as Silk.
Ren,
If silk cloth goes for 30s a stack on your server, why would people even bother taking the time to put it on the AH? With personal farming experience, I’ve ran SM Cath/Arm 300+ times, including leveling all my toons. Silk doesn’t make that much on Skywall, but its selling for around 40-50s a stack. Just running my friends new warrior through Cath, He easily got 800 silk cloth, divide that by 20, You get 40 stacks, multiply that by about, 45, and you get 18g. This obviously isn’t much, but, If your a lowbie and don’t have a main, this could be very useful. Therefor silk is actually worth something.
I also agree with John and Natdog, with their ideas of turning the silk into bandages, or bolts, they sell for significantly more, depending on the server. So you could make 40g+ if you have a high enough tailoring skill, or first aid.
SILK CLOTH IS USEFUL.
By the way, silk cloth vendors for 30s, which I meant to put after “If silk cloth goes for 30s a stack on your server, why would people even bother taking the time to put it on the AH?”
Yes, wool is worth 50s-1g on my server and on my main i ran VC liek 10 times got about 15stacks of wool cloth and i made lots of cash.
Another way to get wool, as a skinner, is to kill the sheep critters and skin them. IT does not give you leather scraps or anything like that, it gives you some wool.
Now just to find a place where they spawn a lot. I know they do near the farms outside SW.
Well I have found that silk gets me a couple silver on Greymane, but wool I can get at least 5g a stack