Step Right Up!

Step right up!  Darkmoon Faire is here and there is a lot for a Gold Goblin to profit from.  To profit, you’re gonna want tickets.  Read on past the jump to find out how to get the most tickets possible and other ways to profit from DMF.

So, it’s the first of the month and Darkmoon Faire is active, or like I like to call it, my WoW Wellfare check is in.  There is absolutely no reason why people cannot make at least 5000 gold when Darkmoon Faire is around.

First, let’s look at tickets. 

Daily Quest Tickets:  Darkmoon Faire becomes active on the first Sunday of each month at 12:01 AM.  To get the most tickets, players need to start doing the daily quests on that day before the server resets.  Doing these daily quests every day, players will earn 40 tickets (given that they started before the server reset on Sunday).

Dungeon Artifacts* Tickets: Imbued Crystal, Monstrous Egg, Mysterious Grimoire, Ornate Weapon, and Soothsayer's Runes award 10 tickets each.  Of note, Soothsayer’s Runes only drops from raid bosses.  A Treatise on Strategy awards 15 tickets and drops from heroic dungeons.  I’ve noticed a lot of times that I have been the only person in my group to roll on these items.  I believe that this is because people don’t keep the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide in their bag at all times.  I know that it’s one less slot to keep things in, but considering that you can sell any extras for 50+ gold during DMF, losing that one slot is well worth it.  If you want to know where to pick up these artifacts, the kind people over at Wowhead have compiled a list of known drops for each artifact.  (*Note: the term artifact in this instance is not related to artifacts gained through archaeology and a player does not need archaeology to obtain these).  Gaining and turning in each of the artifacts awards players with a total of 65 tickets.

Player vs. Player (PVP) Tickets:  Banner of the Fallen, Captured Insignia, Adventurer's Journal are looted off enemy corpses while fighting in battlegrounds.  Again, these can be looted at any time (even when the Darkmoon Faire is not active) as long as you have your Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide in your bag.  These artifacts award 5 tickets each for a total of 15 tickets.

Profession Tickets:  Players can earn 12 tickets by completing the quests for each of the secondary professions (cooking, fishing, first aid and archaeology).  Players earn an additional 4 tickets for each of the primary profession quests they complete.  This is where players can maximize their ticket potential.  Disclaimer, doing more than two primary profession quests requires players to drop their primary professions and can be costly, proceed at your own risk.  To complete any profession quest, players need to have a skill level of at least 75.  If players drop their primary profession and learn another primary profession up to at least skill level 75, then they can pick up the other profession’s quest.  Conceivably, players can earn a total of 44 tickets from primary profession quests alone.  If you choose to go this route, plan accordingly that your last profession quests are the ones you intend to keep so that you can benefit from the extra 5 skill points awarded for completing the quest.

Test Your Strength:  The final quest for obtaining tickets is called Test Your Strength.  The best place to obtain the Grisly Trophies required for this is really dependent on your play style.  If you like to play PvP, then battlegrounds are the best place to earn these.  If you’re a spelunker, then dungeons are your best bet.  If you just want to grind them out, Converted Heroes are great for level 80-85, or Unstable Flameragers while on the quest Enduring the Heat (just be sure to stand in the blue circles) for level 85-90.  Other good places to farm these by level are Riverpaw Gnolls at Sentinel Hill for level 7-15 or Hillsbrad Worgens in Silverpine Forest; Dragonmaw Whelpstealers and Ebon Slavehunters in Wetlands or Stormpike Engineers (for Horde) in Hillsbrad Foothills for level 20-27; Blackhoof Village is a good place in Dustwallow Marsh for level 33-40; Dunemaul Ogres in Tanaris for level 43-50; Twilight Cultists in Silithus for level 51-58; and Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley killing Shadow Council Warlocks and the like for level 64-70.  I apologize I don’t have a complete list of mobs that will respawn quickly.  If you happen to have a list, please post it in the comments section.

Now that tickets are taken care of, let’s consider how to spend them.  Sometimes you can find someone looking for a transmog item that you buy at the faire such as Replica Vest of Five Thunders.  If you want to sell something like this, I recommend advertising your tickets for sale in trade chat so that you’ll be more apt to find someone looking for a specific item.  You can also use the tickets to purchase vanity pets which will be tradable when MoP releases.

Other ways to make money during DMF:

Fishing- This is why I call DMF my monthly welfare check.  If you can’t do anything else, you can at least fish and fishing up Sealed Crates pays!  These crates contain end game level items that sell well on the auction house.  Often times, the crates contain gold too!  And don’t just throw away the junk items you get such as Crunchy Frog; you can vendor these items for a few gold too.  Lastly for fishing, you have a chance of picking up the Sea Pony which will also sell well on the auction house.

Inscription- If you’re a scribe, check out The Gold Queen’s Post on selling Darkmoon Faire Decks.  She’s got some great tips and has put together a great guide for DMF over there.

A final word regarding selling DMF items:  I’ve found that it is sometimes more profitable if you wait a couple of weeks before selling items that you’ve picked up at the faire.  This is the case with most in game event items.  The further it is from an item’s specific event (about the middle of the month for DMF), the higher price an item can fetch.  This is due to a number of reasons, new players, lazy players, players who missed the event on vacation, players who weren’t high enough level to obtain an item, etc.  Watch the auction house and post when the price is highest or, better yet, there are no other posts for a particular item.

Keep it real!