Alt Leveling for Gold in WoW Forever: Gatherer Alts, Bank Alts and Legacy Points

The short answer

Alts earn gold in WoW Forever in three ways: as gatherers that feed your main's crafting, as bank alts that hold stock and run the Auction House, and, new in Forever, as a source of account-wide Legacy Points that make every later character cheaper to run. On the beta, the strongest two-profession gathering alt for the first thirty levels was Mining with Skinning, because ore and hides both carried big premiums. Legacy Points come from 65 achievements in the client, and 27 of them are simply reaching levels 25, 45 and 60 on each class for the first time. A bank alt needs bags more than anything; a Journeyman's Backpack listed at 22 gold on the beta.

The gathering alt: which two professions

A dedicated gatherer takes two gathering professions and no craft, then sells everything or mails it to a crafting main. The question is which two. Here is the most valuable common material each gathering profession produced in each bracket on 2026-10-08, from the beta scans. We only counted items with a real stock behind the price, so thin-listed outliers are left out: Firebloom (34 units), Blindweed and Arthas' Tears (22 units each) and Silver Ore. Thorium Ore is the one exception, because nothing else from Mining was listed in that bracket.

From that table we built a simple score: add the two best materials of each pair, bracket by bracket, and see which pair leads most often.

The scoring is our arithmetic on one day of prices. It says Mining and Skinning is the best pair for a gatherer levelling from 1 to 30 on the beta, with Herbalism and Skinning edging ahead from 30 to 40 on the strength of Goldthorn and Thick Leather. That also matches what the client says about demand: the bars and leathers have the largest recipe counts at every tier (Bronze Bar 81 recipes, Heavy Leather 133, Thick Leather 112, Rugged Leather 213, Thorium Bar 132). Herbalism earns its place later, when herbs like Arthas' Tears and Purple Lotus carry the biggest premiums over vendor of any material in the 40 to 50 bracket.

Live Auction House prices

Copper Ore42 copper2 houses listing

Tin Ore3 silver2 houses listing

Briarthorn1 silver17 copper2 houses listing

Heavy Hide20 silver89 copper2 houses listing

Thick Leather21 silver99 copper2 houses listing

Goldthorn29 silver25 copper2 houses listing

Lowest buyout from player scans of the WoW Forever beta Auction House, as of beta build 70291. Beta prices are a testing economy and will not carry over to launch. Last verified7 hr ago

What a gatherer alt should never do

1. Never smelt or cure blindly. On the beta, Copper Ore and Truesilver Ore sold for more raw than smelted, and Heavy Hide sold for more than Cured Heavy Hide. Check the strip each time.
2. Never vendor a trade good. A gatherer's whole value is in the Auction House premium.
3. Never level a crafting profession on a pure gatherer. It takes a slot from a second gathering skill and the bag space from stock.
4. Never over-list. A gatherer floods one market fast; list in small stacks and keep the rest in the bank.

Legacy Points: why alts matter more in Forever

Forever adds an account-wide Legacy System. Blizzard's Forever page says each character can spend up to 16 Legacy Points at launch, out of up to 65 that can be earned. Points are shared across your account, but each character spends its own. Our Legacy extract confirms the 65: there are 65 achievements in the client that each say "Earn 1 Legacy Point".

Counts and descriptions come from our Legacy extract (build 70058). Two things matter for alt planning.

First, levelling alts is the single biggest source of points. Nine classes times three milestones gives 27 points, and the first one on each class arrives at level 25. An alt you level to 25 for gathering also earns a point for the whole account.

Second, the tradeskill points come only from crafting professions. Herbalism, Mining and Skinning have no Legacy achievements in the extract. A pure gatherer alt earns its class points but no profession points. If you want those 18 points, each crafting profession has to reach 150, 225 and 300 on some character.

The Legacy perks that save gold

Points buy ranks in three trees. The client lists 21 named perks and 65 ranks, with six slots marked "To be added in a future update". These are the ones that touch gold, with the client's own descriptions.

The client does not say whether those percentages are per rank or for the full perk, so we quote them as written. For a gatherer alt, Bountiful Harvest is the obvious pick. For an alt that travels a lot, Frequent Flier halves a cost every character pays. Reagent Economy matters for classes that buy reagents, and Reinforce cuts repair bills. With 16 points to spend per character at launch, a gatherer might take Bountiful Harvest, Working Overtime and Frequent Flier, while a main takes Reinforce and Bartering.

The bank alt

A bank alt holds the stock your gatherers produce and does your selling, so your main does not stand at the Auction House. In Forever it costs nothing but a character slot and a pile of bags. Bank slot prices are not in the files we have read, so we cannot give you that bill yet. Bags we can price.

Linen Bags are cheap and plentiful: 718 listed. That is the bank alt's starting set. Forever also adds reagent bags for Tailors, a Linen Reagent Bag and a Mageweave Reagent Bag, and a Light Leather Reagent Bag for Leatherworkers, which listed at 16 silver. If those bags hold only trade goods, as their names suggest, they are exactly what a bank alt full of materials wants. We have not checked their slot counts or restrictions in the client yet.

1. Give the bank alt a full set of Linen or Woolen Bags first.
2. Park it next to the Auction House and the mailbox in your faction's capital.
3. Mail every gathered material to it at the end of each session.
4. List from the bank alt only, so your main never pays a deposit it forgets about.
5. Keep one bag on the bank alt empty for returned listings.

Moving gold and stock between alts

Alts only help if moving things between them is cheap and safe. Mail between your own characters on the same realm is the standard way, and in Classic it carries a small postage cost per letter and a delay on items sent to another account; we have not measured Forever's mail costs. Keep these habits regardless of the exact fee:

1. Batch your mail. One letter with several stacks attached costs less in postage than several letters.
2. Send raw materials to the crafter, and finished goods to the bank alt. Do not send stock back and forth.
3. Keep a little coin on every alt for repairs and training, so you are not mailing silver every session.
4. Never mail bind on equip gear to an alt unless that alt will wear it. A green sold from the alt that looted it saves a stamp.

When an alt is not worth it

Alts are not free. Every hour on an alt is an hour your main is not levelling toward the materials with the biggest prices, and on the beta those sit at level 30 and up: Thick Leather, Goldthorn, Mithril and the 40 to 50 herbs. A level 15 gatherer selling Tin Ore and Briarthorn earns silver; a level 35 main selling Thick Leather earns several times as much per item. So the order matters.

1. Level your main first if your goal is gold. The prices climb with level faster than an alt can make up for.
2. Start the gatherer once your main can fund its training and bags without strain.
3. Level the gatherer to 25 for the Legacy point even if you never take it further.
4. Make the bank alt on day one. It costs nothing and saves your main time from the first listing.

The exception is launch week. When everyone is level 1 to 10, starter materials are at their most expensive, so a gatherer alt parked in a starting zone can sell copper and Light Leather into the profession rush while your main levels.

A three-character plan

1. Main. Your real character, with the crafting professions you care about. Spends Legacy Points on Reinforce and Bartering.
2. Gatherer. Mining and Skinning from level 1, levelled to 25 for the first class point, then to 45 for the second. Spends points on Bountiful Harvest and Working Overtime.
3. Bank alt. Level 1 is enough. Holds stock and lists everything.

Requirements

Level

1 or higher; 25 for the first class Legacy Point

Profession

Two gathering professions for a gatherer alt

Gear

Bags for the bank alt

Group

Solo

Walked route status

Gatherer alt, levels 10 to 40

Not walked yet

No hourly gold figure is published here until this route has been walked end to end with a timer and a full loot log. Until then this page gives you the inputs (live prices and what drops) and leaves the arithmetic to you.

For the gathering professions compared in depth, read the best gathering professions to level with. For what to stockpile on a bank alt before launch, see gold from level 50 to 60. For greys and greens your alts loot, see vendor prices in WoW Forever and BoE greens while leveling. The lane lives on the leveling gold hub, and every Forever page is on the WoW Forever gold guides index.

Changelog

• 2026-10-08: First version. Legacy achievements and perks from our Legacy extract (build 70058), Legacy spending limits from Blizzard's Forever page, item and vendor data as of beta build 70291, recipe counts from our beta profession extract (build 70124), prices from player scans of the beta houses read on 2026-10-08.