Is druid money making pretty good?

[Cen]

I have a Bard, a Shaman, and now I made an Enchanter. I love support and control classes.

But I hurt for cash ;D Im wondering if I should up a druid just for the sake of ports. Is the money roll in worth it compared to just using other classes to farm stuff? My bard can eat hill giants for breakfast all day long and my shaman can slowly xp on them (which is probably what I should be doing).

I don't know if Druid is in my blood other then for porting for cash. There's also just so many of them :p

I do want a badass melee character someday soon, but I don't like pulling. Just tanking or melee damages :p

[Jauna]

A 44+ druid can easily make 2-4k a day casually porting. If a raid target is in window then fucking forget about it, cash flow.

But, at level 58 you can succor people through SG and thats when the big dick cash comes in, those raid rushers toss lots of cash at you. I remember taking a group of 5 <[redacted]> and they gave me 4 rubies. others tip stuff like a black sapphire and other shit.

wait why am I telling possible competition this

[Wetdawg]

Druid ports can be decent cash if you bind yourself in EC or in OT, you can easily make a few thousand a day semi afk. Just make sure you are using tell windows and always sow and offer a levi.

That being said I would suggest to keep pushing on your shaman until you're 52 or so then parking in Seb. You'll have plenty of chances to roll on some solid loot, probably make more money than the druid porting and gain xp while doing so.

[Tupakk]

Yes.

Join DaP and you can make roughly 1k an hour peak times.

44 is good enough to make decent cash.

[Ravager]

Would be better off getting a high level character and waiting for a cash drop vs starting over and hoping to make port money. My first big 'come up' was getting a T Staff from KC. Since then I have gotten numerous CoF's, T Staffs, Fungi's, Heiro cloaks, Chest gems, ect, ect...none of this is possible on a lower level char.
This. Those saying they're making 1k an hour are lying. They might have made 1k in one hour occasionally, but they're not making 1k an hour every hour and there's a shit ton of porters on this server to compete with. You'll make more in 5 hours in a Seb pug than in 5 hours of porting.

But there's nothing wrong with making plat from porting. It's laid back and easy. It's just not the fastest.

[d3r14k]

This. Those saying they're making 1k an hour are lying. They might have made 1k in one hour occasionally, but they're not making 1k an hour every hour and there's a shit ton of porters on this server to compete with. You'll make more in 5 hours in a Seb pug than in 5 hours of porting.

Respectfully disagree with the above statement.

If I spend 5 hours porting I'll bet you my earnings I make ~5k, give or take 1k. Edit: This is not just me sitting with my tag on, this is me trying to hustle OT ramp / hammer spot, EC tunnel, pick up ports from /guild, et cetera. If you just sit waiting for tells there's no way you're making 1k an hour.

Having said that, I get burnt out on ports after about an hour. I use it as supplemental plat income these days on my downtime rather than spending my entire play session porting folks.

[Alanus]

This. Those saying they're making 1k an hour are lying. They might have made 1k in one hour occasionally, but they're not making 1k an hour every hour and there's a shit ton of porters on this server to compete with. You'll make more in 5 hours in a Seb pug than in 5 hours of porting.

But there's nothing wrong with making plat from porting. It's laid back and easy. It's just not the fastest.

I'd say I average 750/hour when I port. I've gotten over 2k an hour when porting during prime raid times, but generally, 500-1k is about right depending on competition and how many people are on.

[Cen]

If you know how to swarm you can make a ton of money PL'ing on your bard

I swarm well but at my current level i'd have to get a very specific subset of leveled people

[Wonkie]

honestly dap sounds like it's bad for your soul

wishing you well

[Foxplay]

My druid is in DaP, although I rarely if ever port just to make plat. When I do it's usually only for a short time, maybe make a quick few hundred plat and then check on other things I can do

That being said druid is the ultimate errand boy to have. (I mean this in a good way). They travel fast, are good soloing *nowhere near enc shm or necro* but still very good, have good enough tracking to find annoying mobs, can power noobies 1 - 15 with just buffs. And if you have the will to get 60 ppl always want PotG, I've had ppl pay me 100+ plat just to cast it on them when I was just standing in the tunnel not even advertising before.

Are they the best at making plat? No... ec fatcat is the best class for that.... Actually playing the game I'd say enc and shm. But porting is lazy mode plat

[Expediency]

I have not been very active recently but my main is a 60 druid, and I think the money has dropped off from what it was in the past. I noticed that once I hit 60 people gave me noticeably less money and stiffed me regularly, when I was lower level that rarely happened. I also noticed a dropoff in porting profits about 8m-1 year after velious dropped, which I assume was related to many old rich players retiring.

The best way to make money porting that I found was to avoid any areas with low level players. Let dap handle that business, the independent porter should be bound in KC, OT ramp/hammer hill, ToV, or possibly the EC tunnel. Succoring through SG is also good money but collect up front, people love to stiff on that route and there is a small but real chance you can die on every trip.

Sow is very little mana, I cast it on people who havent even asked for it, its got huge utility and should be cast for free. POTG however is a *huge* waste of time to cast on people unless they pay you significantly. POTG should be a much larger tip than a port; it costs 1200 mana and far fewer people can cast it.

[mefdinkins]

My druid is one of my least geared char - never spent a DKP on him, don't go out of my way to funnel plat towards his gear but he has gotten some scraps of gear and finished the druid epic. He has earned the most plat for me out of all my chars.

It's all what you have fun doing - I could earn plat on my better geared chars but druid isn't too gear dependent and is a good solo class. Can do random shit like port, PL people, charm kill in some scenarios, can track shit so good for finding shit, questing and getting around to check for certain mobs and are money makers too. A porting class is easier to use for your needs/farming because you don't have to take extra time to get anywhere and then it lets me leave my other characters parked out for raid targets or grouping/XP spots/whatever.

Porting itself is good plat and sort of mindless but I never really did it for plat, just would do it if someone happened to need and I was available. Eventually you'll get to a tier of gear where your upgrades are pretty expensive and you don't want to farm 1k an hour to build up for that 100k item. At least that's my opinion I'd rather work towards upgrades through raiding, or taking shots at rare/more valuable loot.

That being said I'm not super rich and only have some decent plat b/c I've been on the server for so long. There's plenty of other classes that are way richer than I am. Shaman, Enchanters, Necro are huge solo money makers - monks, clerics, warriors, rogues, all can make great money grouping. Any class has options for plat farming, there's a million ways to earn money - do what you like.

[d3r14k]

honestly dap sounds like it's bad for your soul

wishing you well

I guess it just comes down to preference? I'd rather make money helping people get where they need to go and occasionally making friends along the way than staring at the same "cash camp" for 8 hours.

[Tupakk]

DAP leadership is toxic

and porting around people all day for minimal plat gains is definitely very unhealthy :(

Haters still hatin. How long you been holding that grudge bro.


DaP is stronger than ever as of last week were 1612 and growing more each day since. As any member of DaP will attest we are more healthy than we have ever been.

[Speedi]

Don't port for plat.

Just go solo some camps. This will make you a better druid as well by learning the limits of your class.

[Bboboo]

Ported up about 100k during the early days of Dial a Port.

After all that time porting with my Dial a Port tag up I can say that you're better off /anon at SF ramp if you want more plat. Dunno how it is now a days but back then people would hardly make the effort to come to a druid ring and expect you to go to remote places like Lake of Ill omen for 15pp.

Many times people would ask you to come to KC for a port/EJ and as you were about to make it there they would send you a tell saying 'nm got another port'. Fucking rage inducing. I learned very quickly to never respond to a blank "hello" as those were always the fuck you ports.

At the end of the day the plat isn't super crazy. You'll have your lucky days of generous tippers, but those days are evened out with the slow days. It's a reliable income, people will always need ports. Obviously get a movie/podcast/something to watch while porting.

A few helpful things I've learned over that time of porting is this.

If you're wanting a port

Send 1 tell with all the info that is short and easy to read, example /tell Treeitek "WC -> DL (amount of plat)?" (We are sometimes flooded with tells)

Make an effort to be at the druid/wizard rings or close by.

Most of us port for plat, that doesn't mean shower us with plat, but don't expect us to make a trip to you if it's not worth it. I could run 3 zones over for a low payout or I can sit at SF Ramp and make much more.

If you ask someone for a port stick with that porter. Don't send multiple tells to everyone on the /who list. It's fucking annoying.


For DaP

During my brief time back this year, I noticed that some of you do not SoW unless asked. SoW should always come with a port. I can't believe I had to ask, specially after giving 50pp.

Be smart, if you're porting someone to DL also give them a levitate. Keep a good stock of bat wings with you.

Also be mindful of KoS people when porting to NK/WC/ect... Invis them.

If you need to med up go /anon. Don't let tells back up and have people wait forever as you get your mana back. It makes DaP look bad and you'll end up getting less tells in the long run as people will notice you as a slow porter. During my time back I had this happen to me multiple times, sometimes waiting 15min+. At the very least let them know you're LoM and it will take a while, or that you wont mind if they ask someone else.

Port assholes to Toxx



I also never kept track of how much plat I made an hour as it always varied. It's dumb to advertise porting as plat per hour.

[Malik_Gynax]

Port assholes to Toxx



That's kind of genius. I want to start doing then, and then /tell DAP members that the guy doesn't tip.

[tylercanuck]

My druid is in DaP, although I rarely if ever port just to make plat. When I do it's usually only for a short time, maybe make a quick few hundred plat and then check on other things I can do

That being said druid is the ultimate errand boy to have. (I mean this in a good way). They travel fast, are good soloing *nowhere near enc shm or necro* but still very good, have good enough tracking to find annoying mobs, can power noobies 1 - 15 with just buffs. And if you have the will to get 60 ppl always want PotG, I've had ppl pay me 100+ plat just to cast it on them when I was just standing in the tunnel not even advertising before.

Are they the best at making plat? No... ec fatcat is the best class for that.... Actually playing the game I'd say enc and shm. But porting is lazy mode plat

I thought the druid was your girlfriend's character? So you were in fact boxing in WL? tsk tsk.

[Sonderbeast]

Don't port for plat.

Just go solo some camps. This will make you a better druid as well by learning the limits of your class.

[skarlorn]

Take screenshots of everyone who stiffs you, or is a dick. Be really vindictive about it. Compile evidence of people slighting you and then post massive RNF threads targeting p99 somebodys.

I will personally donate to this cause

[kjs86z]

"Good" is relevant.

If its your first / highest char, absolutely.

If you've been on the server a long, long time and have other resources...ofc not.

[kaev]

Port assholes to Toxx



Possibly the greatest advantage of not putting your druid in DaP is that you can port guildies who try to tip you to Toxx. I mean, why waste that on undeserving assholes when you can troll guildmates instead?

[applesauce25r624]

It's like being an Uber driver. The pay isn't much, you can do it whenever you want, and the customers are often stingy. Punt that druid into the air and roll a real plat-making class.

[Nikkanu]

Well I'd think (or at least hope) that on a top-heavy server that there are lots of generous players like myself that always pay 75-100pp per port unless I just don't have much plat on the character at that moment (such as when I buy ports to WC to transfer plat off a mule because I'm running low). So for a first character, I'd like to think there's good income potential.

[Jimjam]

Honestly, when I see the 1k/hour figure, it just makes me want to tip less.

[P99Druid]

You're better off leveling the enchanter up and farming with it. You can make way more with that than anything else.

[Txavo]

15-20 pp for a port is enough ^^. 1k plat per hour... OMFG ¡¡

[kb2005]

Honestly, when I see the 1k/hour figure, it just makes me want to tip less.

Anyone making that much is hustling p hard.

[d3r14k]

Anyone making that much is hustling p hard.

This ^

Not to mention the "normal" payments of ~50pp make up for all the 10pp payments and free CRs that come with the job. I hope the 1k per hour figure hasn't discouraged anyone from tipping their porters well because you think they make "too much". You have to be dedicated to it to get to that level.

[Nikkanu]

Honestly, when I see the 1k/hour figure, it just makes me want to tip less.

That's pretty dumb. Normal PLing rate is 2k/hour. There are countless camps with potential far better than 1k an hour. If more people think the way you do and start tipping less it will get harder and harder to find a port when you need it.

[xzhaa]

That's pretty dumb. Normal PLing rate is 2k/hour. There are countless camps with potential far better than 1k an hour. If more people think the way you do and start tipping less it will get harder and harder to find a port when you need it.

People apparently fail to realize that these porter Arent there only to serve you.

1k/h seems to be the golden standard in most way to make plat, I see no issue there

[Jimjam]

That's pretty dumb. Normal PLing rate is 2k/hour. There are countless camps with potential far better than 1k an hour. If more people think the way you do and start tipping less it will get harder and harder to find a port when you need it.

Mate, I've levelled a wizard and know 1k / hour isn't realistic for fair weather porting. The point is Toopack makes it seems like the day to day porter can easily make more money than they are realistically likely too.

Perhaps I should have mentioned the qualifier "If I didn't have this personal experience I'd feel like (blah blah blah).

Personally I believe in tipping what it is worth to you.

Then again my wiz was csg tagged so 3 big guilds and the 2 large 'competing guilds' rarely attempted to tip.

[kb2005]

Perhaps I should have mentioned the qualifier "If I didn't have this personal experience I'd feel like (blah blah blah).

Yeah, wasn't at all clear what you were trying to say without that.

[Raavak]

Port assholes to Toxx


Its more fun to be a wizard and port assholes to CT. These days not many know their way out of the maze.

[Jimjam]

Its more fun to be a wizard and port assholes to CT. These days not many know their way out of the maze.

The trick is to blacklist non-tippers and use donations to fund your hate stone stash and dump tightwad a in hate.

[Gozuk]

I always drop what I'm doing to port Cloke immediately if he asks. He's a great tipper

[skipdog]

Then again my wiz was csg tagged so 3 big guilds and the 2 large 'competing guilds' rarely attempted to tip.

Sorry don't buy it for a second. People who don't tip, regardless of tag, are incredibly rare.

[loramin]

Sorry don't buy it for a second. People who don't tip, regardless of tag, are incredibly rare.

Everyone's experiences are different, but based on my time porting I'd say they're maybe about 1 in 5 (maybe even closer to 1 in 4; I don't keep statistics and you'd really have to keep track of a bunch of customers before you could get a proper answer).

My druid is only level 46, with no guild tag, and he's not wearing anything fancy, so it's not like people are thinking "oh he's rich we don't need to tip": they just choose not to tip.

[skipdog]

Everyone's experiences are different, but based on my time porting I'd say they're maybe about 1 in 5 (maybe even closer to 1 in 4; I don't keep statistics and you'd really have to keep track of a bunch of customers before you could get a proper answer).

My druid is only level 46, with no guild tag, and he's not wearing anything fancy, so it's not like people are thinking "oh he's rich we don't need to tip": they just choose not to tip.

Maybe people just don't like you? Haha, JK :) Maybe it is the lack of a guild tag that makes them think there aren't consequences to not tipping. I've literally ported/TLed 100+ people in the past few weeks with my Wizzy guild tagged and I've probably only had 2 or 3 who didn't tip and if I remember correctly, they all warned me about their lack of plat.

[Nagoya]

It depends how and why you port as well.

I think my macro looks something like that "/auc porting to all druids locations! please donate :)" - people will literally always donate, because they understand i'm not just smoking weed and trying to make friends, i'm opening a small window in my playing time to make a few plats hehe.

When it's the other way around and people ask me for a port out of nowhere, i will answer "not atm sorry" pretty much 95% of the time (you're not entitled to stop XPing or whatever you're doing just cause someone asks). If I do say yes, you just hit your macro when you port in to their location. Aka sure I can take the opportunity of you asking to open a small "port money window" in my play session, why not. I'm not your slave tho ^^

That being said, i also port tons and tons of people on CRs, low level, past group members or whatever for free, refusing donations and it's fine too. But these don't counts. I think we're talking about "porting as a source of plats" in this topic :)

But 1 in 5 means you're doing it wrong Loramin (I mean if your goal is to make a little money), not because 1 in 5 are cheapos.

With the way I'm doing it, without ever insisting, asking twice or forcing anyone to tip, I would say it's more like 1 in 20 that does not tip, and maybe not even. Honestly can't remember any. 99% of tips are in the 10-100pp range, loose avg probably 25pp or so.

However, porting on druids like a job is quite lame indeed :P just do it if you think it's fun, which I understand. Sometimes I'm in the mood to port for a bit and it's not more shameful than spending 1h farming some MOBs guys come on! don't try to make it sound more pathetic that how you use your everquest time, in the end it's only everquest, nothing relevent ;)

[kaluppo]

I'm in ALS so I am not allowed to take any tips or donations for ports. That said, I can't believe how often I am sent a tell asking if I can port for donation or how many trade windows I have had to cancel. I thought with dial-a-port around that making pp porting as a non-DAP druid would be difficult but I that is certainly not the case.

A druid can certainly make money porting around as well as PL for PP. Even though I can't/won't do either I have found that making money as a druid the old fashion way is real easy once you hit lvl 30. I started soloing giants at the FM fort and was eventually quading them till I hit 39. Then I moved to DL and started quading yetis. I did that till 47. Between the yetis and giants I have made thousands of PP just leveling myself.

So I highly advise making a Druid. They are a fun to play, easy to solo with and easy to accumulate plat with.

[Bboboo]

I'm in ALS so I am not allowed to take any tips or donations for ports.

The fuck is wrong with this guild?

[Nagoya]

The Vegans of Norrath man.
Can't say two sentences without mentionning how they are in ALS and so proud of it :P

[Teppler]

I'm in ALS so I am not allowed to take any tips or donations for ports. That said, I can't believe how often I am sent a tell asking if I can port for donation or how many trade windows I have had to cancel. I thought with dial-a-port around that making pp porting as a non-DAP druid would be difficult but I that is certainly not the case.

A druid can certainly make money porting around as well as PL for PP. Even though I can't/won't do either I have found that making money as a druid the old fashion way is real easy once you hit lvl 30. I started soloing giants at the FM fort and was eventually quading them till I hit 39. Then I moved to DL and started quading yetis. I did that till 47. Between the yetis and giants I have made thousands of PP just leveling myself.

So I highly advise making a Druid. They are a fun to play, easy to solo with and easy to accumulate plat with.

Will you get in trouble if I give you an unsolicited tip and you accept?

[kaluppo]

The fuck is wrong with this guild?

A better question is why can we take donations from guild members but not from non-guild members? It would make more sense to me to either reverse that or just say you can't take donations from anyone. So subsequently I don't take tips from anyone and give everybody free ports.

The Vegans of Norrath man.
Can't say two sentences without mentionning how they are in ALS and so proud of it :P

Hey! I resemble that remark :P


Will you get in trouble if I give you an unsolicited tip and you accept?

Probably not since they would never know unless I was dumb enough to talk about in guild chat. In a way we are kind of on the honor system when it comes to that for that very reason. But I would know and that is unacceptable to me because I signed up for this and gave my word which means something to me.

So everyone gets free ports, free sows, free item transfers, ect. I had an unguilded player yesterday give me 40K pp and a bag of items to transfer from one character to another. I never would have given 40K pp to a player I didn't know. But he did it because I had a ALS guild tag. It's pretty well known server wide that we have strict rules of honor and conduct so people trust us. Go figure.

[Teppler]

Maybe I'll take you guys up on this. I haven't transferred items in years cause I'm paranoid someone will steal.

[kaluppo]

Maybe I'll take you guys up on this. I haven't transferred items in years cause I'm paranoid someone will steal.

Send me a tell in game and I would be happy to help you out.

[TrueJohn]

Majority of the times I've transferred pp or items it was a total stranger. I just seek out a level 60 with an epic in hand or a notable guild tag. I figured it would not be in someone's best interest, with all that invested, to rip off lil ole me.

[akahdrin]

I main Camillo druid and Akahdrin wizard. I have never auctioned for ports, yet I make pretty good money. If some ever asks I usually give them a price depending how busy I am. 50 if not really, 100 if sorta, 150 if I am busy and I have to do pick ups. I tend to Port the same people over and over for 50-150 per port.

Granted I make a lot more money actively trying to farm than you guys are talking about.