You dinged 70, you're thrilled, and then you open your bags and remember you're nearly broke. Welcome to the most expensive part of TBC. The jump from hitting max level to actually being raid-ready costs a small fortune, and the grind to cover it can eat the very playtime you wanted to spend raiding. Here's an honest look at the numbers and where buying gold quietly wins.

The Real Cost of Being a Functional Level 70

Nobody tells you this at 69, but the bills start immediately:

  • Epic flying: roughly 5000g for the skill plus around 200g for the mount. This is the wall every fresh 70 hits, and it's non-negotiable for daily quests, gathering, and most attunement chains.
  • Heroic and raid attunements: the reputation grinds and key chains for Karazhan, the Heroic dungeon key, and beyond don't cost a flat fee, but the consumables, repairs, and respec gold while you push them add up.
  • Gearing up: crafted BoE pieces, enchants on every slot, and gems for your sockets. A full set of quality enchants and gems can run several hundred gold easily, and the good leg armors and weapon enchants aren't cheap.
  • Raid consumables: once you're raiding, every night means flasks (a Flask of Relentless Assault is usually 30g-plus), battle and guardian elixirs, potions, food buffs and reagents. A serious raid week is a recurring tax.
  • Respecs: at 50g a pop once you're swapping often, an off-spec habit gets pricey fast.

Add it up and a fresh 70 is staring at five figures of gold just to be a contributing raider. That's the context for every "should I farm or buy" decision.

If You Want to Farm: The Honest Routes

Grinding is viable if you have the hours. The reliable earners for a new 70 are:

  • Gathering professions. Herbalism and mining are the steadiest income at 70. Fel iron, adamantite, and the herbs feeding flask and potion demand sell constantly because raiders consume them every week.
  • Daily quests. Once flying is sorted, the daily hubs in zones like Netherstorm and Shattrath churn out a dependable few hundred gold a day for maybe an hour of work.
  • Farming primals and motes. Primal life, mana and fire hold real value. Specific elemental farms can be lucrative, but they're competitive and the per-hour rate swings with the market.
  • Timed runs. The ZA bear timed run and efficient heroic clears drop gems, BoEs and vendor trash, but you need the gear and a group first, which is a chicken-and-egg problem when you're broke.

The catch is brutal: these routes mostly require epic flying to be efficient, and epic flying is the thing you're broke trying to afford. Many new 70s burn a week or two grinding ground-mount herbalism just to fund the flying that would have made the herbalism fast in the first place.

When Buying Gold Simply Makes More Sense

Be honest about your time. If you're a working adult with a few raid nights a week, the math is stark. Grinding 5200g for flying at a realistic few hundred gold an hour is many evenings of repetitive farming, evenings you could spend actually raiding, running keys, or, frankly, not playing a spreadsheet simulator.

Buying gold to clear the flying wall in one move is the single highest-leverage purchase a new 70 can make. The moment you have epic flying, every gold-making route on this page gets dramatically faster, your dailies take a fraction of the time, and gathering becomes genuinely efficient. You're not just buying gold; you're buying back the dozens of hours that flying unlocks.

If you go that route, take delivery face-to-face. PewPewShop stocks gold on EU realms like Spineshatter and Thunderstrike and hands it over character-to-character, usually in around seven minutes, with no bots and a clean ban record. Buy enough to cover flying plus a starter buffer for enchants and your first few raid weeks, then use the time you saved to actually gear up.

FAQ

How much gold does a fresh level 70 really need?

Realistically five figures over your first weeks: about 5200g for epic flying alone, plus several hundred for enchants and gems, plus an ongoing weekly tax for flasks, potions, repairs and respecs once you start raiding.

Is it faster to farm or buy gold for epic flying?

For most players with limited playtime, buying is far faster. Grinding 5200g at a realistic few hundred gold per hour costs many evenings, while a face-to-face delivery clears the flying wall in minutes and instantly speeds up every farming route afterward.

What's the best way to make gold once I can afford flying?

Gathering professions plus daily quests are the most reliable for a new 70. With epic flying unlocked, herbalism and mining circuits and the Netherstorm and Shattrath daily hubs become genuinely efficient, and primal farming opens up as a higher-ceiling option.