Soloing Strathholme
Any level 60 dungeon from vanilla World of Warcraft should be frustratingly easy to any level 80. That is why they make perfect targets for making gold.
(See how I am repeating some of what I said from my Scholomance post? I’m cool like that.)
Number one, it’s an instance, which means there
is no competition for loot or mobs. Two, you can repeat it over and over if you wish (for the most part). And three, it’s fast. Clearing an entire level 60 dungeon solo as a ret paladin (or any class for that matter) should take no longer than 45 minutes. An average of about 30 minutes is good for me.
Paladin Requirements
I took my level 80 Paladin alt, Brittany, who has yet to really touch anything other than herbs in Storm Peaks. The key to farming old dungeons is to do it with a character that can disenchant, and she is an enchanter. This can be done if you are not an enchanter, but it is better gold income if you are.
Bags must also be clear, as there is a ton of loot that is going to drop. I am not picky, I loot everything. You should too, even the stacks of random food items add up over time. Of course, if you run out of space, dump the food and other trash first.
Stratholme (Undead) Items I Am Looking For
Going in, I know there are certain items I will be looking for as good gold makers:
- Large Brilliant Shard
- Illusion Dust
- Greater Eternal Essence
- Runecloth
- BoE Blue (Rare) Items
- BoE Purple (Epic) Items
- Pristine Black Diamond
- Crypt Fiend Parts
The enchanting items will come from disenchanted greens and BoP blues. Anything on top of these items will be added bonuses.
The Strath Run
My run started at 1421pm and ended at 1446pm. 25 minutes. I know I have done it in 20 minutes with a full clear on Khor, so that’s not bad.
My loot was as follows:
- 13g trash coinage
- 11g vendor trash
- 155x Runecloth – 26g
- 1x Pristine Black Diamond – 150g
- 2x Star Ruby – 8g
- 1x Pattern: Mooncloth Bag – 10g
- 1x Formula: Enchant Bracer – Superior Stamina – 5g
- 3x Essence of Undeath – 15g (was high for my server, but that’s what the current price was)
- 40x Crypt Fiend Parts – 13.2g
- 18x Bone Fragements – 2.16g
- 11x Large Brilliant Shard – 37.5g
- 8x Illusion Dust – 10.8g
- 6x Greater Eternal Essence – 42.5g
That puts my total for this Stratholme Undead run at 345g!
Now, let’s subtract the Pristine Black Diamond, since that was a lucky drop. So, 345g – 150g = 195g
Now, we are looking for a gold per hour here, so let’s bust out some simple math:
195/25 = x/60
That comes out to 468g per hour! These results may vary, especially depending on the quantity of disenchanting materials you get. Clearly, disenchanting the gear is where the money is at.
No Lightforge Pants for me this run, or Baron’s Mount for that matter. Maybe next time…
Absolutely wonderful guide! Thanks for putting it out there. Just a question though. Anyone know if this could be done as easily with an 80 Arcane mage? I have a ret pally, but he’s just little. (just 30). Long way to go to being geared and 80
Thanks for the great work!
an arcane mage can easily solo this instance, my guildie meolodie was the one who started running strath to farm money, takes her a little longer then a pally do to the undead bonuses and plate, but she makes up for it with her ability to disenchant and engineering with jeeves.
Do you reckon i will be able to solo this instance on a level 76 ret paladin with full epic Tier 6?
at the moment i only have 4k g im looking to increase the amount of gold i make. at the moment my professions are skinning(maxed) and engineering (low level) could you think of any other ways i could increase the money i make? thanks
Absolutely, at 76 this is a cakewalk!
Okay man, thanks
Thanks for the Info, i cleared Strat and made 169g, also the added bonus of the deathcharger mount at the end of it woohoo
I recently went on a little spree of boosting a friend, who was in their early lvl 40′s so i worked my way through most of the 40+ dungeons on various 80′s.
Out of the most profitable ones, depending on your skill and attention span. Scarlet monastery, a ret pally can normally clear it in 5 herds, and if you ditch the junk that really isnt worth much, you can normally fill your bags with cloth, and disenchant a ton of goodies. The Blood furnace is normally a 10-15 minute clear, this is the dungeon where i first experienced the maximum 5 dungeons per hour. its possible to farm the first half of Utgarde keep without too much trouble, although its at this point that repair costs start going up. The benefit of course of farming UK is that the loot drops will give you larger amounts of infinite dust and cosmic essences. Im sure its possible to farm all of UK, but at present i have issues with taking down the Terrible twosome.
I havent yet tried it but its probably not too taxing to go through Nexus on a well geared pally too.
The difficulty of course is balancing cash per run to runs per hour.
Strat is pretty good apart from the distance between the dungeon and the vendors. I much prefer Blood furnace, as its much faster to nip back to honor hold and sell everything.