Urbin
2/23/2011 8:15:00 AM
On Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:35:49 +0000 (UTC), John Gordon wrote:
> In <ik1216$m7$1@news.eternal-september.org> ToolPackinMama <philnblanc@comcast.net> writes:
>
> > I haven't even tried archeology yet. How... is it done?
>
> Go to the trainer and train the first rank.
>
> Bring up the continent map and look for little shovel symbols -- these
> mean there is an "active" digsite appropriate to your skill level somewhere
> in the zone.
>
> Go to the zone and ride/fly to the highlighted digsite area.
>
> Use your "Survey" ability. This makes a telescope appear briefly on the
> ground. The telescope will have a colored dot on it -- red means the next
> survey location is far away, yellow means it is somewhat close and green
> means you're right on top of it. Also the telescope will be pointing a
> given direction -- that is the direction you go when the colored dot is
> red/yellow. (The fat end of the telescope points the way, not the small
> end.)
>
> Once you have a green dot, use your "Search for Artifacts" ability and
> right-click on the artifact when it is revealed.
>
> You can collect three artifacts per digsite (even if someone else is also
> digging).
>
> There's a window you can use to track your progress in recovering artifacts
> for all the various races, but I don't know a lot about that, because I
> gave up on Archaeology after going through the above procedures twice.
As others have said, you get 1 skill point per artifact up to 50 skill.
If you have a sufficient number of artefacts of one race, they can be
combined into archeological finds. Typically these are grey vendor trash
(called common) and if you're lucky you'll get a rare item which can be
anything from a vanity pet, a mount to BoA items (weapons/armour) or BoP fun
items.
Combining artefacts into items gives you 5 skill points and is the only way
to skill up once you reach level 50, so - as others suggested - it makes
sense to keep gathering artefacts until you have 50 skill and then start
combining them.
Once you complete an item you'll see what the next item will be that you
collect for, this is nice, so you know in advance that if you are working on
a "good" item, though it also means you know in advance that you're working
on yet another trash item...
If you want support from an addon I recommend Archy. The version on curse is
currently broken (not updated since 4.0.6) but wowinterface has a patched
version that works flawlessly for me.
During skill 1-300 digsites will only spawn in the old world (4 sites on
each continent), from 300-375 you get additional ones in Outlands (though
you can still use those in the old world as well), from 375-450 you get 4
more in Northrend and presumably from 450-525 you get 4 more digsites spread
across the Cata zones, though I'm not sure (recall something about none
spawning in Vashj'ir anymore).
As far as I know you can use any dig site to skill up all the way to 525 but
if you want some of the archeology achievments you'll want to be digging for
all races (and these are tied to continents/areas). I'd also assume (though
am not sure) that certain items will only be available from higher level
races but could be wrong on that).
If you are doing archeology on a low level character, dig sites will only
spawn in zones that you can go to (don't ask me how to *get* to some of
them), i.e. with mobs not too high for you to handle. If you are at max
level they are spread across all zones.
Also, mostly due to travel times between dig sites, skilling up alchemy is
about as bad a profession as fishing was back in vanilla, i.e. slightly
worse than a root extraction :-(
Cheers
Urbin
--
Dun Morogh-EU (PvE) | Juran (65), Druid
Urbin (85), Hunter | Surana (70), Mage | Greeta (62), Rogue
Mymule (80), Warlock | Kordosch (75), Deathknight | Gera (26), Paladin
Sunh (80), Priest | Taalas (73), Shaman | Vargal (14), Warrior