Paying for a WoW Sub

I am not cheap, but I am frugal. I like value for money and am not one to pay out of pocket if there are other means. The world doesn’t revolved around cash-money, regardless of what people may tell you. It runs on perceived value and effort.

WoW subs can be paid either through money or in-game gold. Both require some effort. The question then becomes, which is more effort – the real world money or the in-game one?

How long does it take me to earn $15US vs how long does it take me to earn ~90k gold?

For the first part of that question, the answer is not very long at all. But I’d rather spend that money on beer.

For the second part, it’s actually slightly more complicated. So let’s break down my “regular” gold making activities. In this case, these are activities that are just part and parcel of regular play.

Class Hall quests
1. These award around 2000g per run (assuming secondary goal completion). I get on average, 1 per day, per level 110 character. I have 3 that are maxed. I don’t even have to log on for this, the WoW Legion app is enough.
World Quests
1. I run these with my Monk and Pally. Quest + gear + cache = ~500g per day.
Felwort & Infernal Brimstone
1. If these are up, I run them. Felwort gives 5+ per quest, sells for ~200g each. Brimstone gives the same amount, but sells for ~150g each. I have 3 herbalists, 3 miners, and the quest show up every 2-3 days. Worst case, 1000g per day.
Blood of Sargeras
1. Trading 1 of these gets me 10 herbs that sell for 30g each, so 300g. The acquisition rate varies greatly, but the minimum seems to be 5 a day. That’s 1500g per day.
Herbalism farming
1. Starlight Rose and Foxflower. The first sells for 65g, the latter for 30g. Both are slow going. I make no active effort here, but they are the only 2 herbs I will stop and pick when there are WQs in the respective zones.

Without any real effort, I make (2000+500+1000+1500) 5000g per day. Since WQs stick around, I don’t have to login every day, and things can roll-over into another day. Worst case, 20 days in a month. That’s 100k g per month. Without actually trying, I pay for my monthly sub.

Imagine if I actually considered this effort?