I think it hit me about 3 weeks ago, when I realised I had only 7 gold pieces on my World of Warcraft character. Sure every piece of my gear was gemmed, glyphed and enchanted, for both tanking, dps and for frost resistance, and all my bags are Imbued Netherweave ones which cost a bundle, but I really had to drag myself out of the poo with money. When we raid, typically we spend about 30 to 50 gold on flasks and food, and 25 gold on equipment repair, so at 3 nights a week, I was in deep trouble. As I had already maximised most of the gear I could possibly get without the need for 24 other people, I was beginning to lose motivation and direction and I wanted a new goal. The thought of an ultra fast flying mount that meant you could fly anywhere as fast as a normal gryphon was supremely exciting. I liked the idea of a long chain of quests to prove you were worthy of Epic Flightform. It captured my imagination. But it cost 5000 gold. I had a week off work over Christmas and no raids for 3 weeks – the perfect scenario. This is how I did it. 1. Took up mining. Admittedly I had dropped 375 Herbalism about a month before and had my mining around the 300 mark, but I’d never seriously endeavoured to “farm” the mining nodes. So, on the advice of the ever-clever Humus, I donwloaded Cartographer and it’s various modules (including Routes). I then ran a little wizard to setup optimised routes that included all Fel Iron and Adamantite Ore nodes. I made it a habit to finish off my evenings with 30-45 minutes of zig zag flight over areas in Blades Edge and Nagrand. I’d scoop up all the Motes of Fire I could from the Fel Iron and gleefully count each mote as 2 gold in my pocket. I sent all the Ore and Primals to my bank character and would put up auctions every day when I had a stack of 20. Adamantite goes for about 23 gold a stack and Fel Iron about 9 gold. 2. I looked up the best place to farm Elementals for Motes. Pretty quickly I discovered the Elemental Plateau in Nagrand (as had everyone else it seemed) and I’d spend 45 minutes there when I was bored, seeing how long it took to kill the Fire and Air ones. Note: Air ones drop more and they go down quicker, but they are worth slightly less. If I discovered this place empty (rarely) I could make about 6 primals an hour or maybe more – thats about 120 gold. 3. I went back and did the 6 daily quests for the Ogri’La and Shatari Skyguard factions. Not every day but every second or third. I didn’t really want to do this, being Exalted for such a long time now, but doing it with guild friends made it quicker and more bearable. It’s an easy 50 gold for 45 minutes work. 4. I disenchanted a bunch of “maybe oneday I’ll use this” items and sold the materials on the Auction House. Within a couple of weeks I’d reached 3000 gold. Kim said I’d be able to make money quicker if I had a fast flying mount, so she loaned me 2000 and I bought my 300 Riding Skill the same day. Then I looked at the 14 step quest chain and took a gulp. But it was easy! Within 3 hours I was up to Step 11, but I became stuck on a nasty hunter boss that I could supposedly solo on an island South of Terrokar. A few guildies jumped to the rescue here and then we polished of Heroic Sethhek Halls shortly afterwards – luckily it was the Heroic Daily quest that day – an omen for sure. My epic flightform is even better than I thought (280% speed increase over walking and 10% faster again with a trinket) – I love it. I made the 2000 gold back to Kim in a week, as it sped up my mining by more than double. Hmmm suppose I need a new goal now. Time to get my Herbalism and Alchemy up on my other character, and the 5000 gold for that one (sigh). At leasts the flasks and elixirs will be cheap to make then.