Groinstabber's Gold: Tol Barad = Cataclysm Goldmine

Tol Barad is the new contested PvP zone for Cataclysm (much like Wintergrasp was for Wrath). It is broken up into two zones: A PvE zone for questing and the PvP zone where, the battle will take place every 2.5 hours or so. This is also the only place where the Baradin's Warden reputation (and of course Horde equivalent) can be farmed.

From a goldmaking point of view, this area is a true treasure trove if you know what treasures are there to be had. The most obvious way are the dailies. There are 6 daily quests available each day on the PvE peninsula, ranging from killing mobs to collecting items, and eliminating NPCs. But should your faction conquer Tol Barad, more dailies unlock on the PvP part of the islands. There are 12 possible dailies from 4 different NPC, but only 2 NPCs will appear at a time. However, after each battle 1 of the 2 NPCs seems to be randomly chosen. This means that it is possible to complete all 12 dailies in this area through the course of a day, provided your faction is able to continue to win the battle of Tol Barad. Now, I know that the gold reward from dailies are increased by certain conditions (guild perks I think) and can get sizeable indeed. For me each daily pays 18g80s and reward between 367 to 263 reputation. That in its own is a decent chunk of gold for 30 mins work, not counting any extra loot that can drop of the mobs.

I've found that the loot provided by these mobs do add up considerably as well. In my runs I get regular greens for disenchanting, plus plenty of cloth from humanoids. The crocs in the PvP area required for one of the dailies also provide cooking materials and, if you are a skinner, some nice Savage Leather. Because of the high volume of players doing these dailies there should often be a huge supply of dead, looted corpses, ripe for budding skinners.

Of course, just as in Wintergrasp you will find a nice concentration of herbing and mining nodes. Although my herber and miner aren't levelled high enough for me to take them in, I have come across plenty of Elementium nodes, as well as all kinds of herbing nodes.

Lastly, I would like to point out what a great fishing spot Tol Barad really is. This is the only area where you can catch Fathom Eels (a sought after fish for the best Agility food) and find Shipwreck Debris pools. When fishing these pools you may fish up any kind of Herb (so far I have fished up Whiptail and Azshara's Veil), Volatile Water and, my personal favorite, Sealed Crates. These crates usually contain several items including any kind of Cataclysm ore, heavy Savage Leather, Embersilk Cloth, any of the Cataclysm herbs, gold, Volatiles, Cataclysm basic foods and drink, as well as alcoholic beverages. These pools share their spawn points with the Fathom Eel pools, and there are a great many spawn points in this zone, making this a fantastic farming spot for fishers, with a great gold return. Drink a bottle of Waterwalking Elixir and traverse the coast lines and waterways. One roundtrip generally takes me aroun 5-8 mins. After doing some data-recording I've found the value of a crate coming to around 150g-200g (this is of course server dependent) on average and I've had up to 14 crates in 15 minutes. You do the math.

So pack your fishing rods, skinning knife, mining picks, bows, wands and swords and see what riches Tol Barad can bring for you.

Keep on hunting,
Serebihm