Shields: Chips off the old Block

April 19, 2012 1 Comment

After the transmogrification hype died down a bit, I strolled over to my local auction house on the Horde side. I was doing my normal daily scan of items to flip, when I came across the Shields up for bid/buyout. My mouth almost dropped when I saw a Skullflame Shield up for 25,000 gold! I remember selling this same shield before Cata for maybe 5000 gold at the most. I went to check the rest of the shields and saw low level shields going for slightly more than what their stats and levels would otherwise dictate. I realized that the transmog die hards viewed shields as a major transmog piece of gear due to their instant transformation from mehville to coolsville. I went to my own bank on my horde toon and realized I had a large amount of shields (both twink and non-twink) that might net me some profit. Excitedly, I went to the Undermine Journal and started looking up the prices on each shield for my realm and faction. I had collected around 50 shields from dungeons, auction house deals, etc. I found that I had a pretty nice collection that I could put up on the auction house for transmog purposes. I put up maybe 10 of my 50 shields to see if I could get any bites. I logged off for the night.
The next day after breakfast, I leisurely logged on to my horde to do his daily fishing/cooking quests when I noticed I had mail. I checked my mail and to my delight, I had sold 9 of the 10 shields I put up in the auction house the night before. I netted around 5000 gold on these shields! I proceeded to put up 5 more shields and within two days, I sold all 6 of the shields. I have been doing this for around two months and would like to share my own personal Top 5 Shields for transmog to sell on the auction house. All 5 of these shields are based on my personal preference and profit as well. Please keep in mind that these prices are tentative based on each realm’s supply and demand.

Skullflame Shield –

Probably one of if not the best looking shield in the game as of now. This skull spews fire from around it making it very easy to identify on any toon’s back or arm. This shield can command anywhere from 20k-50k on the auction house. This shield is a rare drop from 55-61 level mobs. Although, you can farm Mana-Tombs Heroic for a similar shield: The Fel Barrier which has around a 25-30% drop rate (Nexus Prince Shaffar can drop this shield), interest in the Skullflame shield is still high at the auction house.

Zom’s Crackling Bulwark –

This is another rare and cool looking shield with a moving circular motion inside the shield. This shield has been sold on my realm for close to 15k. It can drop from any level 75-80 mob. There is an alternative to this shield: Stormshield Renewal which is a 12-15% drop from The Black Stalker in the Underbog Heroic dungeon. Once again, farming is something most don’t enjoy doing, so they will go to the auction house and spend the gold instead.

Crystal Pulse Shield-

A very nice and world drop that has been peaking on my server’s auction house lately and has a unique look. This shield sold for 5k. It can drop from almost any level 60-70 mob. This shield has a nice pulsating light emitting from the middle of it.

Don Gonzales’s Shiny Shield:

A very nice world drop shield with a unique symbol and shape to it. This shield has gone for 3k-4k on my realm. It can drop from almost any Cataclysm mob. The shield has also been known to be found in silken treasure chests as well.

Ward of the Red Widow –

Last but most definitely not least is a rare drop from Beth’tilac (The Red Widow) boss in Firelands comes a nice shield which as commanded around 15k-20k gold on my realm. This shield is a very unique one with a wicked design. The drop rate has been rumored to be around 1%.

Honorable Mentions:

Troll Protector – A very simple wooden shield with a cool design on it.
Aegis of Stormwind – A nice light blue shield which looks like Alliance should wield it.
Garrett Family Crest – A nice red shield that might look better for a Horde toon.
Mountainside Buckler – A nice triangle shaped shield which is glimmering and shiny.
The Green Tower – A simple rectangular shaped shield that is…you guessed it..green.

Filed Under Farming, Uncategorized

Pilgrim’s Bounty: Gobble Gobble That XP

November 21, 2011 1 Comment

Gobble Gobble Nom Nom: It’s XP Time!

It’s that time of year again WOWheads: Pilgrim’s Bounty! Not only can you get a title and a free pet turkey (who you can’t cook and serve at the dinner table) but you can also get some massive XP from the daily quests and level up your cooking quick and easy. Pilgrim’s Bounty starts on November 20 and ends November 27. One full week of eating, cooking and questing can fill any player up to last until next year (or the next major world event).

Roasting Skill Points in Cooking:

Cooking is a pain for most who don’t level their cooking as they level their toon. There are many level 85’s walking around who only know how to make Spice Bread. Whether you dislike cooking or just don’t’ have the gold/meat/fish for leveling it up, Pilgrim’s Bounty offers plentiful recipes with plentiful skill points for your Cooking profession. There are 5 recipes that one can learn whether you are level 1 or level 85. Each recipe also creates a food that gives buffs respectively.

Spice Bread Stuffing can be learned at level 1 and can level your character’s cooking up to level 100
Pumpkin Pie can be learned at level 100 and can level your character’s cooking up to level 160
Cranberry Chutney can be learned at level 160 and can level your character’s cooking up to level 220
Candied Sweet Potato can be learned at level 220 and can level your character’s cooking up to level 280
Slow-Roasted Turkey can be learned at level 280 and can level your character’s cooking up to level 340

The best thing about leveling your cooking during this once-a-year world event is that the ingredients are very easy to obtain. The herbs, pumpkins, cranberries and potatoes can be purchased at your city’s Pilgrim’s Bounty vendors. The wild turkey can easily be farmed in Elwynn Forest (Alliance) and/or Tirisfal Glades (Horde). The wild turkeys drop from wild turkeys and lonely turkeys respectively. Let me point at that you do not have to be Alliance to farm in Elwynn Forest nor do you have to be Horde to farm in Tirisfal Glades. If you choose to farm in an area mostly occupied by the opposing faction’s players, be forewarned that you might be flagged PVP if you venture too close to that faction’s city or town.

Daily Quests for You Gobblers

There are 5 daily quests for each faction that all players can participate in. Completing these five daily quests can yield xp, silver/gold and 1 of 6 Pilgrim’s Bounty items. Here is the list of the five daily quests that can be completed during the Pilgrim’s Bounty week:

We’re Out of Cranberry Chutney again?
She Says Potato
Don’t Forget the Stuffing!
Can’t Get Enough Turkey
Easy As Pie

Here Turkey Turkey

So you want to go for the Pilgrim title and the free plump pet turkey? There are a list of achievements you will have to complete in order to receive your title and pet. Do keep in mind that achieving the Pilgrim will not count towards the achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been (which rewards one with a Violet Proto-Drake flying mount). Here is the list of achievements you will need in order to get your Pilgrim title and pet:

FOOD FIGHT
Now We’re Cookin’
Pilgrim’s Paunch
Pilgrim’s Peril
Pilgrim’s Progress
Sharing Is Caring
Terokkar Turkey Time
The Turkinator
Turkey Lurkey

Pilgrim’s Bounty is a very fun and great way to level up your characters either via cooking or daily quests. So get out your turkey shooter and go hunt those wild turkeys!

Filed Under Guides, Leveling, Uncategorized Tagged With Holidays, Leveling

Fill Up Your Mug With Some XP and Brew

September 23, 2011 1 Comment

Brewfest is here again and there is more to fill up with than the brew. Brewfest is a great time to fill up your mug with some extra xp and gold. All levels can participate in the fun events being offered. Brewfest is located outside Ironforge (Alliance) and Orgrimmar (Horde). This year’s brewfest has many new rewards for those lucky enough to face off against Coren Direbrew.

Coren Direbrew Rewards

Doing this daily boss/dungeon will get you a special keg which can drop an epic item and/or even a mount! Not to mention Coren himself drops different trinkets which are now item level 365. For a list of all the trinkets click here. There is also a chance to get two awesome looking mounts: Swift Brewfest Ram and/or the Great Brewfest Kodo. These will only drop in your Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest which is a daily reward you will receive if you defeat Coren Direbrew. There are two epic weapons that can drop in the daily keg as well: Direbrew’s Bloody Shanker (BOP) or Tremendous Tankard O’ Terror (BOE). Direbrew’s Remote is a nice item that can drop as well. This item allows for the teleportation of you and/or your party members straight to the Grim Guzzler located in Blackrock Depths.

Brewfest Daily Quests

Every day until October 5, you can do daily Brewfest quests. For most of the quests you complete you will collect experience, silver/gold and Brewfest Prize tokens which can be used to purchase other goodies from a token redeemer. You can also obtain two different vanity pets/companions as well. The Wolpertinger is part of a daily quest and the Pint-Sized Pink Pacheyderm can be purchase with 100 tokens. You can also get many achievements that are funny and crazy. For a list of all the achievements, click here.

Brewfest is a joyous celebration of beer, food and XP. Take all your toons and join in on the festivities before the kegs run dry!

Filed Under Guides, Leveling, Uncategorized Tagged With brewfest, grinding, Leveling, world events, xp

Leveling Your Alt Toon

September 9, 2011 1 Comment

So, you decided to make an alt toon but are dreading the leveling you will have to face? No worries anymore. WOW has made it quite simple to level your toons a bit faster. If you have a main toon that is 85, you can always send mats, gold etc to your alt toon to help it along with professions as well. Mining and Herbalism do grant you extra experience if you choose to learn these specific professions.

Guild Perks

First of all, if your toon is an alt, you may already be part of a guild which has guild perks. One great guild perk is achieved at Guild Level 2. This guild perk gives your toon an extra 5% increase when completing quests and killing monsters. If you are part of a guild whose level is already 6, you get a 10% increase when completing quests and killing monsters.

Blue Bar, Blue Bar!

No matter which starting area you start at or which faction you choose, questing is easy. I went up to level 5 easily within 30 minutes of playing my alt toon. One thing you want to make sure of before you turn in any quests is that your experience bar (which is located above your ability/user interface bar) is blue and not purple. When you turn in a quest and your bar is blue, you get 200% of the experience instead of 100%. You will turn purple if you fight or kill something but if you are simply turning in quests, your bar can remain blue as long as you rest at an inn or major city. This means you must stay there until your bar turns blue or leave your toon and log off for a bit.

Quests

Questing is a great way to level up your toon as well. I usually take quests which are orange (coloring of the quest title) and yellow. If a quest turns green on me, I will abandon it. Keep in mind as you are completing quests, you are also killing monsters, beasts, etc. So you are getting experience from killing things as well as completing the quests. Don’t forget to rest at an inn or any major city before you turn in your completed quests.

Battlegrounds

Once you reach level 10, you unlock two battlegrounds: Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. The interesting thing about battlegrounds is that if you enter while your experience bar is blue, it will not turn purple when you are playing a battleground. Of course, you can earn honor points and experience in these battlegrounds. You can receive double experience and honor points if one of the battlegrounds happens to be Call To Arms as well. Your honor points can be stored (cap is 4000) until you are ready to purchase something with them.

Dungeons

When you reach level 15, you are eligible to enter random dungeons. Dungeons are another great way to level your toon quick. Not to mention, you will get gold, extra experience and a bag of goodies which usually contain a rare piece of gear.

Questing, battles and random dungeons are all great ways for you to level up your alt toon. Chances are you may know the quests from previous toons as well as the dungeons. I have seen some of my guild mates level up 10 levels very quickly. Hopefully these basic tips can help you when you are ready to make an alternate toon. Good luck!

Filed Under Guides, Leveling, Professions, Strategy, Uncategorized Tagged With battlegrounds, dungeons, Leveling, professions, questing

Murlocs, Coyotes and Cooking..Oh My!

September 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

My horde death knight is mainly pvp but I realized that his cooking was extremely low. I decided to check out my local auction house for some low-level meat to level up my cooking. Two of my recipes required clam meat and coyote meat. The auction house had none. I decided to find out where to farm these. I was hoping to stay in Kalimdor but unfortunately had to venture to Westfall (Alliance territory). I went to Longshore in Westfall and started from one side of the coast. I killed every murloc I came across (ahhh sweet revenge). The murlocs there drop small barnacled clams. These clams contain clam meat and sometimes a small lustrous pearl. I farmed for about 30 minutes and collected 40-45 small barnacled clams. The drop rate for the small barnacled clams was 1 in every 2 murlocs. Each of these clams contained 1 clam meat. I proceeded to the Jansen Stead area in Westfall and killed as many coyotes as I could find. These coyotes were also located near of Furlbrow’s Pumpkin Patch. Coyote meat drops from around 1 in every 4 coyotes. I farmed these coyotes for 30 minutes as well and picked up 25 coyote meats. I headed back to Orgrimmar so that I could start cooking.

Light My Fire

I ended up using only 20 of the clam meats and decided to put up the rest of the clam meat in the auction house in stacks of 5. Since there was none up for sale, I posted my clam meat for 45-50 gold per stack of 5. To justify this price, I figured the travel time, time spent farming and carrying charges. I only used 15 of the coyote meats and decided to post the other 10 up in stacks of 5 as well. Once again, there were none up for sale. I put the coyote meat up for 45-50 per stack of 5 utilizing the same justifications for the clam meat. By the time I was ready to log for the day, that all too familiar notification popped up in my general chat box: A buyer has been found for your clam meat. This repeated 4 more times indicating I had sold all of my clam meat. Sheer delight engulfed me. Then, not a minute later, I received more notifications. They read: A buyer has been found for your coyote meat. This repeated once more. Eureka! My farming had paid off. Interestingly enough, both meats had been purchased by the same buyer. No doubt, they were also leveling up their cooking and didn’t want to go out and farm for the meat.

I did a little personal research and found that the small barnacled clam also drops from coralshell lurkers in Azshara which is much closer to Orgrimmar. The coyote meat, however, only drops in Westfall. Although, you can level up to move to higher recipes with the clam meat and it is easier to acquire. Keep in mind these prices are realm dependent. Supply and demand on each realm varies. Whether you are trying to level up your cooking or make some extra gold, check your ingredients for your recipes and check your auction house to see what you can farm to raise your gold level.

Filed Under Farming, Guides, Uncategorized Tagged With clam meat, cooking, coyote meat, Farming, meat, professions

Here Fishy Fishy…

August 26, 2011 2 Comments

Every time I see a yellow dot indicating a fishing pool, I fish. I do enjoy fishing even though most dread it. The one thing I have noticed on my realm is the lack of fish available for sale in the auction house. I decided to farm for any fish I could find in the areas I was questing. You must obtain a Weather-Beaten Journal to track these pools in your map. The Weather-Beaten Journal can be obtained in: daily fishing bags or any crate/box you pull up from fishing pools. This journal can only be learned when you have obtained a fishing skill of 100.

My Fishing Trip

I was out leveling up my mining skill on one of my toons when I decided to level up her fishing as well. Anytime I saw a specific pool on my map, I would plop down, turn on my music and fish in serenity. I probably did about 30 minutes of fishing in an area that was abundant with Oily Blackmouth and Firefin Snapper fishing pools. I obtained close to 30 Oily Blackmouth and about 20 Firefin Snapper. Since I had no use for the fish at that time, I decided to check the auction house and see what they were going for. One person had 1 Oily Blackmouth up for 10 gold. I ended up putting the Oily Blackmouth up for 30-35 gold buyout per stack of 5. Oily Blackmouth are used to make Blackmouth Oil for Alchemists. I checked the Firefin Snapper and saw that there were none for sale. I put the Firefin Snapper up for 45-50gold per stack of 5 just to see if they sold. Firefin Snapper is used to make Fire Oil which is also used for Alchemists. Within the day, all of my fish had sold. I checked my realm for different fish that I could fish for and ended up reaping in nice benefits. I farmed for fish for the next week and even had a guild mate make me a Lure Master Tackle Box to hold all my fish.

My Results

I gathered many stacks of different fishes for various professions. I sold 80-85% of all the fish I farmed for within 3 days totaling almost 1000 gold! Please note that every realm is different but nevertheless, a little research on which fish are selling great on your realm’s auction house is encouraged. You can check out The Undermine Journal for what fish are selling well on your realm. Even though fishing can be boring and tedious to some, don’t underestimate the profit you can get from farming these fish. I will also add that the Deepsea Sagefish sells for close to 175 per stack of 20 on my realm. This fish is used to create a delicacy which most healers and casters hunger for in 85 dungeons and raids. Even the two created foods: Delicious Sagefish Tail and Severed Sagefish Head sell for a nice profit on my realm. All you need to do is check out what is selling, grab your strong fishing pole and turn up the music. Oh, one more thing…it doesn’t hurt to say “Here Fishy, Fishy” as the pupils in your eyes turn into gold coins.

Filed Under Farming, Professions, Uncategorized Tagged With auction house, Farming, fishing, grinding

Farming For Cloth Can Increase Your Pocket Change

August 19, 2011 2 Comments

I logged in the other day to my level 68 Horde Death Knight and realized his pocket change was growing thin. He only had 25 gold and is a level 68. That was quite embarrassing. I decided to head over to Wailing Caverns and farm a bit. I ended up with close to 15 wool cloth and 20 linen cloth along with some uncommon (greenies) items. I headed over to the Auction House to put up my cloth and see if I could sell it. To my amazement, linen cloth was going for 15 gold per stack of 20 and wool cloth was going for 25 gold per stack of 20! I immediately put my cloth up and within 1 hour it was sold. The amount of gold made will vary on realm and auction house prices since they do change and depend on supply and demand.

My Farming Adventure

I headed over to Deadmines and snatched almost 40 wool cloth and 10 linen cloth. I decided to head over to Scarlet Monastery dungeons and see what cloth I could get there. After running the Library and Armory, I walked out with around 80 silk cloth. I put those up in the auction house for around 20-25 gold per stack of 20 and sold those within the hour. I decided to head over to Stratholme dungeon and see what cloth might drop there for me. I did the Main Gate and ended up with around 100 mageweave cloth. I put those up on the auction house for around 15-18 gold and that sold withing 2 hours. My guildmate told me to go to Blackrock Depths for runecloth, so I went with her and came out with almost 140 runecloth. Those sold in the auction house for 20-25 gold per stack of 20. I went to Auchindon and ran a couple of the dungeons there with a guildmate and came out with close to 100 netherweave cloth. Even though it wasn’t selling very high on my realm, I still made a nice profit from it. I went to Northrend and farmed and grinded quests there with two guildmates. I ended up with 120 frostweave cloth. I went to look frostweave cloth up on the auction house and saw that someone had put a stack of 20 up for 175 gold! I immediately put my own stack up for 100 gold and it sold within two hours. I only sold two stacks since someone came and undercut my outrageous buyout but realized that frostweave cloth seemed to be the cloth that will net the most profit in my realm. I will be farming and grinding for more of that cloth until I reach 80 and can go for embersilk cloth next.

Places You Can Farm For Cloth

So here is a short list of areas and/or dungeons where I personally farmed cloth (drops may vary depending on location):

Linen cloth – Wailing Caverns (Horde) Elwynn Forest (Alliance)

Wool cloth – Deadmines dungeon (Horde and Alliance) The Stockade dungeon (Alliance)

Silk cloth - The Scarlet Monastery dungeons (Horde and Alliance)

Mageweave cloth – Stratholme dungeon (Horde and Alliance) Zul’Farrak dungeon (Horde and Alliance)

Runecloth – Blackrock Depths dungeon (Horde and Alliance)

Netherweave cloth – Auchindon dungeons (Horde and Alliance)

Frostweave cloth – Northrend mobs and dungeons (Horde and Alliance)

Embersilk cloth – Cataclysm zones and dungeons (Horde and Alliance)

Cloth can be used for creating bags, armor and bandages. Since most people don’t enjoy farming, you will profit from that. Don’t forget to check your realm’s auction house for prices before you put them up. Farming for cloth is an easy way to make quick gold and increase your pocket change.

Filed Under Farming, Professions, Uncategorized Tagged With cloth, Farming, frostweave, linen, professions, wool

Go Team Go! Get Your City Faction Tabards!

August 12, 2011 2 Comments

So just what are those blasted faction tabards actually for? Those city faction tabards are used to grind reputation with a specific faction. One might also want to collect the faction tabards for fashionable purposes. Tabards can also be collected for an achievement. Tabards can be purchased at any level, however, they can only be used for the reputation gain starting at level 10. Wearing faction tabards in most dungeons will gain you reputation for each kill you obtain. Support your city faction. Imagine the last thing you kill seeing your tabard as all goes dark. What a vision!

There are 6 Classic city faction tabards for each side: Alliance and Horde. City faction tabards may be purchased in its respective city. You must equip/wear your tabard before you enter a dungeon that will allow reputation gains.

Alliance:

Darnassus tabard – Moon Priestess Lasara is located near of the flight master in Darnassus. She is mounted on a saber.

Exodar tabard – Kadu is located near of the flight master in Exodar. He is mounted on an elekk.

Gilneas tabard – Lord Candren is located near of the flight master in Darnassus.

Gnomeregan tabard – Master Tinker Trini is located near of the flight master in Ironforge. She is mounted on a mechano strider.

Ironforge tabard – Captain Stonehelm is located near of the flight master in Ironforge. He is mounted on a ram.

Stormwind tabard – Captain Lancy Revshon is located at the bottom of the ramp leading up to the flight master in Stormwind. He is mounted on a horse.

Horde:

Bilgewater Cartel tabard – Frizzo Villamar is located near of the flight master in Orgrimmar. She is standing next to a trike.

Darkspear tabard – Champion Uru’zin is located near of the flight master in Orgrimmar. He is mounted on a raptor.

Orgrimmar tabard – Stone Guard Nargol is located near of the flight master in Orgrimmar. He is mounted on a wolf.

Silvermoon City tabard – Magistrix Nizara is located near of the flight master in Silvermoon City. She is mounted on a hawkstrider.

Thunderbluff tabard – Brave Tuho is located near of the flight master in Thunder Bluff. He is a tauren standing nearby.

Undercity tabard – Captain Donald Adams is located near of the flight master in Undercity. He is mounted on a skeletal warhorse.

Whenever you enter a specific dungeon that allows reputation gain, make sure you wear a city faction’s tabard. This is a great way to grind faction reputations.

Cataclysm Faction Tabards

There are also tabards for the new Cataclysm factions. Keep in mind these tabards will only yield the specific faction reputation while in level 85 dungeons. Here is the list of Cataclysm tabards and where to obtain them:

Baradin’s Wardens tabard – Quartermaster Brazie is located in the Tol Barad Peninsula (Alliance Only)

Hellscream’s Reach tabard – Pogg is located in the Tol Barad Peninsula (Horde Only)

Tabard of the Dragonmaw Clan – Grot Deathblow is located in Blood Gulch in Twilight Highlands (Horde Only)

Tabard of the Earthen Ring – Provisioner Arok is located in Shimmering Expanse, Vashjir (Alliance and Horde)

Tabard of the Guardians of Hyjal – Provisioner Whitecloud is located in Nordrassil, Mt. Hyjal (Alliance and Horde)

Tabard of Ramkahen – Blacksmith Abasi is located in Ramkahen, Uldum (Alliance and Horde)

Tabard of Therazane – D’Lom the Collector is located in Therazane’s Throne, Deepholm (Alliance and Horde)

Tabard of the Wildhammer Clan – Craw MacGraw is located in Thundermar, Twilight Highlands (Alliance Only)

You may also wear your Cataclysm reputation tabards in level 85 Heroic dungeons for even more faction reputation. If needed, you can also wear your city faction tabard in Cataclysm dungeons (example: Stormwind, Orgrimmar etc.) Remember the order of gained reputation is:

Neutral
Friendly
Honored
Revered
Exalted

So grab a tabard from the faction you want to support and cheer on the reputation as it comes your way.

Filed Under Farming, Uncategorized Tagged With dungeon, faction tabard, grinding rep

Digging For XP And Other Goodies: Archaeology

July 29, 2011 Leave a Comment

When Cataclysm was released last year, a new profession became available. Archaeology is a secondary profession which came in with Cataclysm. Archaeology is also a great way to level up your character. I had a friend who leveled up his character 15 levels on Archaeology alone. You can train for Archaeology at level 20 or higher. Usually there will be a trainer in each faction’s major cities. Once learned, one can go out and venture like Indiana Jones. In order to do this, you will need to check your map out and see where you might find the dig sites. The dig sites will only be available in your character’s zone level. For example, if you are level 20, the dig sites will only pop up in the zones where you can access. When you open up your map, you will see a small icon which looks like a shovel which will signify a dig site. You may have to zoom out to a larger area such as Eastern Kingdoms or Kalimdor to view where you can go for a dig site.

Once you have found which dig site you want to go to, simply travel to that specific zone and when you arrive open your map again. You will see a red area on your map as to where you can start digging.

How To Survey

You will use your survey icon to find out where the artifacts in that area are. Simply click on the icon and it will display a survey tool in front of you which has a telescope pointing in a specific direction. Beside the telescope is a rod with a light on it. If the light is red, it means you are about 80+ yards away. If the light is yellow, it means you are around 40-80 yards away. If the light is green, it means you are within 40 yards away. If the green light is blinking it means you are a few steps away from the artifact. Once you do find the artifact, you will see a cogwheel on it for you to click on and pick up. There are only 3 artifacts per dig site. Once you get your 3 artifacts, you will repeat the search on your map for another dig site. You will only be able to search Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor until you are level 300 on your Archaeology. At that point, you can search Outlands for dig sites. Once you reach level 375 you can search Northrend and once you reach level 450 you can begin searching for dig sites in Uldum.

Solving

Once you collect fragments from the dig sites, you will need to put together the fragments and solve them so to speak. For example, if you have collected 35 Dwarf artifacts, you can now solve one which will give you 5 level points.

You can find certain texts and scrolls which can be applied to help you solve faster. These texts or scrolls are found from the artifacts you dig up. The can also be sold on the Auction House and net you some extra gold. You can level up from 1 to 50 by collecting fragments. Once you hit level 50 on your Archaeology, you will need to level up by solving. Each time you solve, you get major experience depending your character level. My level 66 Death Knight was receiving around 12-13k experience per artifact I collected. I went up 2 levels on collecting artifacts alone.

Nice Rewards

Gaining major XP is a nice reward in itself, but how about finding 2 more new mounts? One can piece together fragments to discover the Fossilized Raptor or the Scepter of Azj’Aqir. Not to mention there are various non-combatant companions or vanity pets that can be discovered by solving or piecing together the fragments you find from specific races. There are even some BOA (Bind To Account) gear and weapons that can be discovered. For a full list of all the items please visit WOWpedia.

Archaeology can be a great dig for leveling your character and getting extra goodies from it. Remember, the more you dig, the more you level. Happy Digging!

Filed Under Uncategorized

Call To Arms: Support your faction and get awesome benefits!

July 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

Semper Fi! This shortened term means “always faithful” and is often used as the motto for the U.S. Marine Corps. Whether your Alliance or Horde, most of us are loyal to our faction. There is a weekly event which happens on every server and faction that tests our loyalty. This special event is called Call To Arms. Every Friday through Monday, there is a designated battleground which hosts Call To Arms.

Benefits

Call To Arms is a great way to level and/or farm honor points. It is also a great way to learn how to play your character better. You may enter battlegrounds at level 10. There are 2 battlegrounds you can enter at this level: Warsong Gulch (one of my personal favorites) and Arathi Basin. Check your game calendar by right-clicking the calendar icon located at the far right corner on top of your mini-map. Make sure your filter is set to Battleground Call To Arms. I power leveled my alternate character from 10-30 on a Call To Arms: Warsong Gulch weekend. I also obtained so many honor points that I capped at 4000 by the time all was said and done. Honor points can be exchanged for PVP items at your faction’s PVP vendors located mainly in Stormwind’s Champion’s Hall (Alliance) and Orgrimmar’s Hall of Legends (Horde). There are a few other locations which sell PVP items for lower levels as well. Here is a list for Alliance and Horde on where to purchase lower level PVP items. One can check which battleground is Call To Arms during that specific weekend by clicking on their PVP icon located at the bottom of their user interface. You can join by yourself or get a party of 5 and join as a group.

Alliance:

Arathi Highlands – Refuge Pointe (Samuel Hawke) Items for level 28-60.
Ashenvale – Silverwing Grove (Illiyana Moonblaze) Items for level 18-60.
Hillsbrad Foothills – Alterac Mountains (Thanthaldis Snowgleam) Items for level 55-60

Horde:

Arathi Highlands – Hammerfall (Rutherford Twing) Items for level 28-60
Northern Barrens – Mor’shan Base Camp (Kelm Hargunth) Items for level 18-60
Hillsbrad Foothills – Alterac Mountains (Jekyll Flandring) Items for level 55-60

You want to make certain that your experience bar is blue which means when you get experience in these specific battlegrounds, you will never turn purple. You will get 200% experience when your experience bar is blue as opposed to 100% when purple. Did I mention that if you do engage in a Call To Arms battleground, your honor points and experience will be doubled? This is great news for anyone trying to power level their character.

What If I Am Level 85?

Benefits for a level 85 when you can no longer get experience is pleasant as well. You will still obtain double the honor points and be able to purchase some nice epic PVP gear and weapons. Not to mention, you will be able to get achievements and reputation with some of the PVP factions.

So make sure you check your Call To Arms weekly battlegrounds and support your faction. Whether you are power leveling or just farming honor points, Call To Arms is sure to benefit your character. Oorah!

Filed Under Farming, Leveling, Uncategorized Tagged With battlegrounds, grinding, Leveling, pvp