TheWoWDB
TBC Instance Gold Farming: the Solo Farmer's Dungeon Tier List
Outland's dungeons are the competition-proof farms: no rival players, no bots, reset on demand. The tier list of gold dungeons by class fit, what each one drops, and the disenchanting math that turns greens into steady income.
Every open-world farm in Outland has a tax baked in: other players. The contested spawn, the mined-out route, the bot circling the elemental plateau at three in the morning. Instances are the one place the tax does not reach. Reset on demand, zero competition, and drop tables that pay the same on the fifth run as the first. The trade is travel time and a class fit, and for players with the right toolkit, no outdoor camp in the expansion matches a good instance hour.
This is the tier list, what each dungeon pays, and who each one is for.
The tier list at a glance
| Dungeon | What it pays | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| The Botanica | Raw gold, cloth, greens at volume | Any AoE class, herbalists |
| Mana-Tombs | Ore nodes inside the instance | Stealth classes, miners |
| The Steamvault | Rep turn-ins and BoEs | Groups, tanks |
| The Slave Pens | Dense AoE pulls | Protection Paladins |
| Shadow Labyrinth | Disenchant value and reputation | Group farmers |
The Botanica: the raw gold standard
The Botanica is the densest dungeon in Tempest Keep: mob after mob of soft, tightly packed blood elves and plant creatures that die to area damage and leave behind cloth, greens and vendor trash in industrial volume. Every clear banks multiple stacks of 
Netherweave Cloth, a stream of un common quality gear for the disenchanter, and raw gold from drops and clear speed. For a geared AoE class it is the most consistent raw gold per hour in the instance economy, precisely because there is no single valuable drop to be lucky about. It is all floor, no ceiling, and the floor is high.
It is also the herbalist's dungeon. The instance grows real herb spawns as you clear, Felweed and friends on the walk to each boss, which stacks a gathering route income on top of the combat income without ever leaving the instance.
Mana-Tombs: the stealth mine
Mana-Tombs carries actual mining nodes inside the instance, and a stealthed miner can walk past every pack in the building, extract 
Adamantite Ore and the occasional 
Khorium Ore, and be out in fifteen minutes. Reset, repeat. The reported range for a practiced rogue runs 120 to 150 gold per hour with zero combat, which is the entire appeal: no fighting, no repair bill, no competition, and node respawns on your own reset schedule rather than a zone's.
The honest version: this is a rogue-shaped farm above all. Druids can pull a slower version. Anyone who has to fight through the dungeon is better served by the Botanica, because Mana-Tombs' combat clear is merely fine while its node value is the point.
The Steamvault: the rep that sells
The Steamvault's trash drops Coilfang Armaments, the Cenarion Expedition reputation turn-in, and unlike most dungeon rep items they move on the auction house all expansion, because raiders buy the reputation for its head enchants and never want to set foot in Coilfang again. Add large trash pulls tuned for groups, solid BoE potential, and a dungeon that groups run for keys and reputation anyway, and the Steamvault becomes the social farmer's pick: the gold comes partly from your own loot and partly from selling the run's byproducts to people who would rather pay than swim.
The Slave Pens: the AoE playground
The Slave Pens is the Protection Paladin's gym: pulls that chain cleanly across the whole first stretch, mobs that come in packs sized for consecration, and an exit that resets it all. The reported band is 100 to 130 gold per hour from cloth, greens and vendor trash alone, before the disenchanting math below. Any tank with strong sustained area threat can run a version of it, but the dungeon is practically designed around the class.
The disenchanting economy
The quiet profit center in every one of these farms is the green item stream. Vendored, a dungeon's greens pay copper. Disenchanted, they become 
Large Prismatic Shard, the enchanting material that moves by the hundred on raid nights, every week, all expansion, because every gear upgrade in the game needs enchants and every enchant eats shards. An enchanter, or a guildmate who is one, converts your worst drops into your most reliable auction house listings. The decision rule is simple: greens become shards when shard prices are healthy, and get vendored only when your bags are full and your patience is not.
The other repeatable conversion is cloth. Netherweave stacks sell raw, become bolts for tailors, or become bags, and the bag market is the stealth annuity of the TBC economy: every alt and every bank slot needs them forever.
Class fit, honestly
The instance economy is class-shaped. Stealth miners take Mana-Tombs. Protection Paladins take the Slave Pens. Warlocks and Hunters, with a pet to hold the line and self-sufficiency in the dark, do well in the Botanica and the longer clears, and by Phase 3 a well-geared Warlock can begin soloing Black Temple trash runs at reported rates north of 200 gold an hour off BoEs, crafting materials and vendor gold. Mages AoE the Botanica and also sell the portals that get everyone else to their farms. Everyone else's best answer is usually a group: the gold per hour of a fast, chatty Steamvault or Shadow Labyrinth clear beats a solo farm your class was not built for.
One farm deserves the skeptic's discount: solo Ethereum Prison runs west of Manaforge Ultris in Netherstorm get advertised at hundreds of gold per hour, and some players genuinely clear well there. Treat any headline number from a gold-selling site as the best hour of the best-geared player, and your own first hour as the real benchmark.
Where instances sit in the economy
An instance hour competes with a primal farming hour and a gathering hour, and the honest ranking is: outdoors pays more on a great night, instances pay more on a bad one. Primals spike with raid demand; dungeons pay the same every reset. The strongest weekly plan mixes them deliberately: primals and herbs on the nights the market is hot, instance resets on the nights it is not, and the daily hub circuits threaded through both because they are twenty minutes and they are always there.
FAQ
What is the best gold farming dungeon in TBC Anniversary?
The Botanica for consistent raw gold across classes, Mana-Tombs for stealth miners, the Slave Pens for Protection Paladins, the Steamvault for groups farming sellable reputation items. Best depends on your class and whether you solo.
How much gold per hour is TBC instance farming?
Realistic solo rates run roughly 100 to 150 gold per hour for a class-fitted farm, with optimized and Phase 3-geared soloists pushing past 200. Gold-selling sites advertising 500 and up are quoting exceptional cases, not medians.
What do I do with all the Netherweave Cloth?
Sell stacks, craft bolts, or craft bags, and check which of the three your realm pays most for. Bags are the evergreen choice because every new character needs them all expansion.
Is disenchanting worth it for dungeon farming?
Yes, decisively. Greens vendor for copper and disenchant into Large Prismatic Shards, the enchanting material with permanent raid-night demand. The farm's floor rises materially the moment a disenchanter enters the loop.
Can I farm dungeons for gold without a group?
Depending on class: stealth classes take Mana-Tombs, pet classes and Paladins manage several dungeons solo, and everyone else falls back on outdoor farms or pays the social cost of a group, which the Steamvault's sellable reputation items conveniently offset.