WoW Classic Paladin Gold Farming Guide – Best Spots and Specs

Paladins are one of the best gold farming classes in WoW Classic thanks to their incredible survivability, AOE damage, and self-healing abilities. This comprehensive WoW Classic Paladin Gold Farming Guide covers the most profitable farming methods including Stratholme runs, Dire Maul East, and other lucrative spots that can earn you 40-80 gold per hour.

Whether you’re saving up for your epic mount, raid consumables, or just want to build wealth, these proven strategies will help you maximize your gold per hour as a Paladin.

💰 Why Paladins Are Excellent Gold Farmers

Before diving into specific farming locations, let’s understand what makes Paladins so effective at making gold:

Survivability Through the Roof Paladins have more defensive cooldowns than any other class. Divine Shield, Divine Protection, Blessing of Protection, and Lay on Hands mean you rarely die even when pulling huge packs of mobs.

AOE Damage Without Mana Problems Consecration and Holy Shield let you damage multiple enemies while blocking. Seal of Righteousness procs on every target you hit, multiplying your damage output exponentially with large pulls.

Self-Healing Means No Downtime Holy Light and Flash of Light keep you at full health between pulls. Unlike warriors who need to bandage or druids who need to shift and heal, Paladins can maintain constant uptime.

Plate Armor and Shields High armor value means you take significantly less physical damage, allowing you to pull more mobs safely. Combined with a shield and talents like Redoubt, you become incredibly tanky.

⚔️ Best Farming Spec: Protection AOE Build

For optimal gold farming, you’ll want a specialized Protection spec focused on AOE damage and survivability. Here’s the core talent setup:

Why This Spec Works:

The key is maximizing your ability to pull 5-10+ mobs at once, hold aggro on all of them through Consecration, and survive long enough to kill them all. Holy Shield with Blessing of Sanctuary makes you nearly unkillable against physical damage.

Gear Requirements

You don’t need full raid gear to start farming effectively, but certain stats are crucial:

Minimum Gear Recommendations:

• 200+ spell damage (from gear, enchants, buffs)
• 5,500+ health unbuffed
• 300+ defense skill
• A solid one-handed weapon with decent DPS

For detailed gear lists, check our Pre-Raid BiS guide.

🏰 Stratholme Solo Farming

Stratholme is the absolute best gold farming location for Paladins. With the right strategy, you can make 50-80 gold per hour while also farming valuable items like Righteous Orbs, recipes, and rare crafting materials.

Why Stratholme is Perfect for Paladins

• Undead Enemies – Exorcism and Holy Wrath deal extra damage
• Humanoid Loot – Humanoids drop more gold and cloth than other mob types
• Valuable Drops – Righteous Orbs (20-40g each), rare recipes, Crusader enchant formula
• Multiple Farming Routes – Can farm different sections based on competition

Stratholme Live Side Route

The Live side (Scarlet side) is generally easier and faster than the Undead side for pure gold farming.

Getting Inside:

1. Enter Stratholme through the main entrance in Eastern Plaguelands
2. Take the right path toward the Scarlet Bastion
3. Clear straight through to the Scarlet side

Optimal Farming Path:

Start at the entrance and work your way through these areas:

• Crusader’s Square – Large packs of humanoids, excellent gold per hour
• Elders’ Square – Dense mob packs, quick respawns
• Scarlet Bastion Courtyard – High-value pulls with minimal trash

Pull Strategy:

The key to efficient Stratholme farming is proper pulling technique:

1. Gather Phase – Run through an area collecting 8-15 mobs using your speed and survivability
2. Stack Phase – Position mobs in a tight group, facing you
3. Burn Phase – Pop Holy Shield, drop Consecration, use Holy Wrath on cooldown
4. Survive Phase – Use Divine Protection if health drops low, spam Holy Light between Consecrations
5. Loot Phase – Collect everything, vendor trash is significant income

Cooldown Management:

Don’t blow all your cooldowns at once. Stagger them for maximum efficiency:

• Start pulls with Blessing of Sanctuary and Holy Shield active
• Use Divine Protection when you hit 50% health
• Save Divine Shield for emergencies or huge pulls
• Use Lay on Hands if a pull goes wrong

Stratholme Undead Side Route

The Undead side has better boss loot but takes longer to clear. I recommend this route if you’re farming for specific drops like the Crusader enchant formula.

Key Differences:

• More bosses with valuable loot tables
• Harder pulls with casters and ranged mobs
• Better for Righteous Orb farming (bosses have higher drop rates)
• Takes 60-90 minutes for a full clear vs 45 minutes for Live side

Boss Priority:

Focus on these bosses for the best drops:

• Baron Rivendare – Epic mount drop (extremely rare), but decent gold from trash
• Maleki the Pallid – Righteous Orb chance
• Baroness Anastari – Good loot table
• Nerub’enkan – Righteous Orb chance

Expected Gold Per Hour

With practice and proper gear, Stratholme farming yields:

Best Case Scenario: If you get lucky with a Righteous Orb drop or rare recipe, you can spike to 100-150g in a single hour.

🌲 Dire Maul East Jump Runs

Dire Maul East is another excellent farming spot that’s slightly easier than Stratholme but offers lower gold per hour. The advantage is you can do this as Holy or Retribution spec, not just Protection.

The Jump Run Technique

The famous “jump run” involves using clever pathing and immunity spells to skip most of the dungeon and kill only the bosses.

How It Works:

1. Enter Dire Maul East from Feralas
2. Jump Down the central shaft using carefully timed falls and Divine Shield
3. Kill Hydrospawn – First boss, drops valuable vendor items
4. Skip Trash using immunity spells and careful positioning
5. Kill Zevrim Thornhoof – Second boss with decent loot
6. Exit and Reset – Takes 15-20 minutes per run

Key Abilities for Jump Runs:

You’ll need these spells to execute the strategy properly:

• Divine Shield – Immunity while jumping through dangerous areas
• Divine Protection – Backup immunity
• Blessing of Protection – Emergency immunity
• Flash of Light – Quick healing between pulls

Step-by-Step Jump Run Guide

Phase 1: The Entry

Enter the instance and clear any mobs blocking the main shaft. Position yourself at the edge of the first major drop.

Phase 2: First Jump

Drop down while hugging the wall. Use Divine Shield mid-fall to immune the landing damage and any aggro you pick up from nearby mobs.

Phase 3: Hydrospawn Kill

Pull Hydrospawn to a corner and burn him down. He doesn’t hit particularly hard, so you can usually kill him without cooldowns if you’re in decent gear.

Phase 4: Navigate to Zevrim

This is the tricky part. You need to navigate through several packs of mobs using Divine Protection and good timing. Practice makes perfect here.

Phase 5: Zevrim Kill

Zevrim Thornhoof is straightforward to kill. Use Hammer of Justice to interrupt his shadow bolts and heal through his damage.

Dire Maul East Loot

The bosses in Dire Maul East drop valuable items that sell well:

• Blue BoE Items – Usually 10-50g each depending on server
• Vendor Trash – About 5-10g per run
• Enchanting Materials – If you’re an enchanter, DEing blues adds significant value
• Felcloth/Runecloth – Sells consistently

Expected Income: 30-50g per hour with efficient runs

Pros:

• Can be done in off-spec (doesn’t require Protection)
• Lower gear requirements than Stratholme
• Faster instance lockouts (5 per hour)

Cons:

• Lower gold per hour than Stratholme
• Requires practice to execute jumps properly
• Boss drops are more RNG-dependent

🎯 Western Plaguelands Open World Farming

If you don’t have the gear or spec for dungeon farming yet, Western Plaguelands offers solid open-world farming with minimal competition.

Best Farming Spots

Sorrow Hill Area This undead-heavy zone in the southwest is perfect for Paladins:

• High mob density
• Mostly undead (bonus damage from Exorcism)
• Drops Righteous Orbs occasionally
• Good vendor trash

Farming Strategy: Pull 4-6 mobs at a time using Seal of Righteousness, drop Consecration, and AOE them down. Move to the next pack while your Consecration is on cooldown.

Expected Gold: 20-30g per hour

Dalson’s Orchard Another great spot with:

• Undead farmers and ghouls
• Fast respawn rates
• Close to town for repairs/vendors
• Occasional rare spawns

Open World Tips

Maximize Efficiency:

• Use ground mount even though you have an epic mount – you need to stop every few seconds anyway
• Skip grey quality items unless they vendor for 1g+
• Focus on humanoids for best gold per kill
• Bring big bags, you’ll collect a LOT of vendor trash

Competing with Other Players:

If someone else is farming your spot:

1. Politely ask if they want to group up and split the loot
2. If they decline, move to a different subzone
3. Stratholme is usually less crowded than open world spots

🔥 Advanced Farming: Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands

Once you’re very well-geared, these zones offer premium farming opportunities.

Silithus Twilight Camps

The Twilight Cultist camps in Silithus have:

• Humanoid mobs that drop excellent vendor trash
• Twilight Texts that sell for 5-20g each
• Consistent respawns
• Less competition than other farming spots

Why Paladins Excel Here:

You can pull entire camps at once using your AOE toolkit. The mobs don’t hit hard enough to threaten a well-geared Paladin, and the density means you’re constantly in combat earning gold.

Setup Requirements:

• 250+ spell damage
• 6,000+ HP
• Full Protection AOE spec
• Nature resist gear helps but isn’t mandatory

Gold Per Hour: 40-60g with optimized route

Eastern Plaguelands

This zone has several excellent farming spots:

Undercroft

• Lots of undead casters
• Good cloth drops
• Decent vendor trash
• Low competition

Plaguewood

• Bears and wolves for leather/vendor trash
• Faster kills than undead
• More relaxing farming

Gold Per Hour: 25-40g depending on location and competition

💎 Consumables and Buffs for Farming

To maximize your gold per hour, use these consumables when doing serious farming sessions:

Essential Consumables

My Recommendation: Only use cheap consumables (under 1g each) for regular farming. Save expensive flasks for raids. The extra gold per hour from buffs needs to exceed the cost of the consumables.

World Buffs

If you’re doing a marathon farming session, consider grabbing:

• Songflower (Felwood) – +15 to all stats
• DMT Buff (Dire Maul Tribute) – +15% physical damage
• Warchiefs Blessing (Horde) or Rallying Cry (Alliance) – Major stat boost

These are free and significantly boost your farming speed. A Stratholme run with world buffs is noticeably faster.

⚡ Farming Rotation and Technique

Here’s the optimal ability rotation for AOE farming as a Protection Paladin:

Pre-Pull Setup

Before engaging mobs:

1. Cast Blessing of Sanctuary on yourself
2. Activate Seal of Righteousness
3. Ensure Devotion Aura or Retribution Aura is active
4. Have Holy Shield ready

During Combat

Pull Phase (0-5 seconds):

• Run through mob packs collecting them
• Use Exorcism to pull from range if needed
• Stack mobs in a tight cluster

Burn Phase (5-30 seconds):

1. Activate Holy Shield
2. Drop Consecration immediately
3. Judge your seal for extra damage
4. Use Holy Wrath if fighting undead
5. Auto-attack to proc Seal of Righteousness
6. Refresh Consecration as soon as it expires

Survival Phase (if health drops below 50%):

1. Cast Divine Protection for 50% damage reduction
2. Cast Holy Light rank 4 between Consecrations
3. Use Lay on Hands if desperate
4. Pop Divine Shield and heal to full if truly in danger

Mana Management

Run out of mana and your farming session ends. Here’s how to manage it:

Use Lower Rank Spells:

• Consecration Rank 5 instead of max rank saves mana
• Holy Light Rank 4 for emergency heals

Drink Between Large Pulls:

• Don’t let mana drop below 30%
• Keep stacks of water in your bags
• Budget 10-15 seconds per hour for drinking

Mana Per Pull:

A typical 10-mob pull costs:

• 3x Consecration = ~900 mana
• 1x Holy Shield = 165 mana
• Emergency heals = 200-400 mana
• Total: ~1,300-1,500 mana per pull

With 6,000+ mana, you can do 3-4 pulls before needing to drink.

📊 Gold Farming Comparison

Here’s how different farming methods stack up:

My Recommendation: Start with Dire Maul East to practice and build gold for better gear, then transition to Stratholme once you’re comfortable with large pulls and have 200+ spell damage.

🛠️ Useful Macros for Farming

These macros will make your farming significantly more efficient:

Emergency Panic Macro

/cast Divine Shield
/cast Lay on Hands
/cast [target=player] Flash of Light(Rank 7)

Mashes all your emergency buttons. Use this when a pull goes horribly wrong.

Efficient AOE Macro

/cast Holy Shield
/cast Consecration
/cast [target=player] Blessing of Sanctuary

Combines your primary farming abilities into one button press.

Quick Buff Macro

/cast [target=player] Blessing of Sanctuary
/cast Devotion Aura
/cast Seal of Righteousness

Gets you buffed and ready between pulls.

🎯 Common Farming Mistakes

Here are mistakes I see constantly that tank your gold per hour:

Pulling Too Small

Mistake: Only pulling 3-4 mobs at a time because you’re scared to die.

Fix: Paladins are designed for large pulls. If you’re only pulling a handful of mobs, you’re not utilizing your AOE potential. Practice pulling 8-10 mobs until you’re comfortable.

Wasting Cooldowns

Mistake: Using Divine Shield on every pull when you don’t need it.

Fix: Save major cooldowns for genuine emergencies. You don’t need Divine Shield for a standard 10-mob pull if you’re managing properly.

Ignoring Spell Damage Gear

Mistake: Focusing on tank stats like stamina and defense while ignoring spell damage.

Fix: For farming, spell damage is KING. More spell damage = faster kills = more gold per hour. Aim for 200+ minimum.

Not Using Lower Rank Spells

Mistake: Always using max rank Consecration and running out of mana quickly.

Fix: Use Rank 5 Consecration for farming. The damage difference is minimal but the mana savings are massive.

Poor Route Planning

Mistake: Running all over Stratholme with no clear path, wasting time running between packs.

Fix: Plan a circular route that ends near the instance exit. Clear efficiently without backtracking.

💰 What to Do With Your Gold

Once you start raking in 50-80g per hour, here’s how to prioritize spending:

Priority List

1. Level 60 Epic Mount – If you haven’t done the Charger quest, save 400-500g for materials
2. Enchants for Farming Gear – Spell damage enchants on gloves, bracers, weapon significantly boost income
3. Flask Materials – If you raid, you need flasks
4. Respecs – Keep 50g on hand for spec changes between farming and raiding
5. Consumables – Stock up on potions, food, and oils for raids
6. Alt Funding – If you have alts, fund their leveling and gear

Gold Reserves

Always keep 100-200g in reserve for:

• Unexpected repairs
• Auction house opportunities (buy low, sell high)
• Guild bank contributions
• Helping guildmates with loans

🔍 Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Gold farming as a Paladin is incredibly lucrative once you learn the techniques and acquire appropriate gear. Start with easier content to build your wealth and experience, then graduate to Stratholme for maximum gold per hour.

The key is consistency. Farming 2 hours per day at 60g per hour earns you 840g per week – more than enough for all your raiding needs, your epic mount, and building significant wealth. Many Paladins fund multiple alts and even other players just from their farming income.

Remember that gear improvements directly translate to more gold per hour. That 300g you spend on spell damage enchants might seem expensive, but it pays for itself within a week of farming. Invest in your farming setup and the returns compound quickly.

For more ways to optimize your Paladin, check out our guides on AOE grinding spots, talent builds, and leveling strategies.

Get out there and make that gold, champion! 💰⚔️