Cute Fuzzy Meow

Hello everyone! With Cataclysm right around the corner, I thought I should take a moment to write up a short article explaining how it works and what the rewards are. Most of the rewards are disguises, mounts, fluff, or vanity items but not all of them. Note that while some are even Bind on Account none are heirlooms. (An heirloom scales from a level range.) With that said, let’s talk about Archeology and how to get started. Also, before we really begin, it’s freezing in my house so my typing may be a little off. I’ll fix it later, when the heat is on!

Archeology is a secondary skill like fishing, cooking, or first aid. This means you can have your gathering and main professions and it won’t affect your ability to be an archeologist. When you train Archeology you learn two new skills on your professions tab. One surveys, the other shows you what artifacts you are currently working on. Think of Surveying as being similar to prospecting, milling, or disenchanting. It’s how you gather your archeology items. The real archeology interface shows you what you have going and what is needed to complete it. Upon training Archeology, open your map of Kalimdor or Azeroth. You will notice four shovel icons added to random zones. Head out to those shovel icons on the map and on the zone map you will see an area around them lit up. This is the area where you can use your survey skill. Your survey skill puts a telescope on the ground. The telescope will point in a direction and have a blinking light. Red means “go that way, it’s a long ways off!” Yellow means “Go that way, it’s still a good ways away.” Green means “You’re either in the right area or almost on top of it.” For yellow I usually mount up an run until my mount is off cooldown and then dismount again to check. Practice makes perfect, and you’ll notice that the surveying telescope doesn’t always point exactly where you need to go. This can be frustrating, but as long as you know that it’s pointing at 90 degrees because it can’t point at 75 or 80 degrees you will understand what it’s doing. Once you are in the green it becomes easier to narrow down, like a game of Hot and Cold. When you are very close instead of a telescope the artifact will appear. Each surveying node has three artifacts in it. After three are removed, it will disappear and a new location will appear. Note that if you remove two another node with one will not appear. This can be frustrating. On the other hand, if you get Dire Maul in Feralas and one node is bugged a server restart will change the location of the artifacts inside it, allowing you to possibly find them. In the beta, some artifacts were frustratingly close to the edge of the survey zone. For your first 100 skill points in Archeology you should do this as it will grant skill ups. Surveying won’t later, so appreciate it now! Note that if you mouse over a node on the map it will tell you what type of artifacts are found there.

You will either pick up the appropriately typed artifact from the node or the artifact and one or more keystones. Keystones are interesting, and you will not use them at first. Still, hang onto them! There are different types for each type of Archeology except Fossil. They are Highborne Scroll (Elf), Troll Tablet, Dwarf Rune Stone, Orc Blood Text, Draenei Tome, Nerubian Obelisk, Vrykul Rune Stick, and Tol’avir Hieroglyphic. When an item has a keystone slot in it when you view the item you are working on in your Archeology book, clicking and dragging a keystone to the slot adds 12 artifacts towards completing it. Note that if you close the archeology book it resets them. I found them to be very common items and suggest using them whenever an item will allow it. Early items take no keystones, middle items take 1-2, and big items can take 4 or more keystones.

Now that we know what keystones and artifacts are, let’s talk about the relics themselves. Your book will have an item for each type of archeology you have unlocked. You don’t choose which you get, after you complete one another pops up. Blizzard claims that until you’ve created each item once you will not see repeats, so theoretically the RNG only slightly affects your ability to get all of each race’s artifacts. As the good stuff is all Tol’avir and Tol’avir nodes appear in Southern Kalimdor rarely this is more frustrating than it sounds. As you collect artifacts you will see the bar under that type of artifact increase, even going past the number required. Any extras you have are rolled over to the next one. So if you have 13 artifacts without using a keystone and the item takes a keystone, putting one in adds 12 to that item. Then clicking create uses the keystone and 1 artifact, rolling the remaining 12 over to the next item. You will notice that the good stuff requires much, much more to complete than the others do. The keystone slot is just above the progress bar if there is one — many early junk items do not take keystones! And fossils never take them at all.

You start out with Night Elf, Troll, and Dwarven archeology. When your skill reaches 300 new Draenei and Orc nodes will be added, mostly in Outlands. When your skill reaches 375 Nerubian and Vrykul nodes will be added, mostly in Northrend. When your skill reaches 450 Uldum will have Tol’avir nodes. Note that the level range of the zone does not necessarily dictate the requirement. Troll fragments can be harvested at skill 1, yet appear in Northrend. The Twilight Highlands are a lv 84-85 zone, yet contain many orc and draenei artifacts. Once fragment collection has stopped giving skill ups at around 100, it’s all creating artifacts the rest of the way up.

This profession is very time-consuming but has some very nice vanity rewards. The rewards are either Bind on Pickup or Bind on Account, and I made a short list of both types to help people decide which nodes to farm. Remember that more items were likely added past Beta, but this should give you an idea. The common artifacts not included here all sell for a decent amount when created, but have no fun effect or use. Also included is the full list of keystones for easy reference.

Archeology Keystones:

• Highborne Scroll
• Troll Tablet
• Dwarf Rune Stone
• Orc Blood Text
• Draenei Tome
• Nerubian Obelisk
• Vrykul Rune Stick
• Tol’vir Hieroglyphic

Bind on Pickup Rewards

• Druid and Priest Statue Set. Use: Summon a fountain of knowledge. 15 min cooldown. Acquired by Night Elf Archeology.
• Blessing of the Old God Use: Receive the blessing of the old god for 20 seconds. 10 min cooldown. Acquired by Nerubian Archeology. Note: transforms you into a Qiraji that resembles the battle tanks.
• Bones of Transformation Use: Endure the transformation for 20 seconds. 10 min cooldown. Acquired by Night Elf Archeology. Note: transforms you into a naga for 20 seconds.
• Fossilized Raptor Mount. Requires level 40. Requires Riding (150). Use: Teaches you to summon this mount. Acquired by Fossil Archeology.
• Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron Use: Make a vain attempt to open the puzzle box. 1 min cooldown. Acquired by Nerubian Archeology. Note: Yogg-saron whispers you each attempt, an homage to the fact that both him and C’thun whisper to you in their respective instances.
• Scepter of Azj’Aqir Mount. Requires level 40. Requires Riding (150). Use: Teaches you to summon the Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank. Acquired by Tol’avir Archeology. Note: like the Black; but unlike the Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow Battle Tanks; this mount is usable outside the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj.
• Wisp Amulet Use: Take on wisp form for 20 seconds. 10 min cooldown. Acquired by Night Elf Archeology.
• Arrival of the Naaru Use: Witness a recording of the arrival of the naaru. 3 min cooldown. Acquired by Draenei Archeology. Note: much like the battle of gnomergan or Garrosh fighting Magtheridon in game, this place a small hologram of the scene where the Eredar first met the Naaru.
• Chalice of the Mountain Kings Use: Witness a historical sword dance. 10 min cooldown. Acquired by Dwarven Archeology.
• Clockwork Gnome Use: Teaches you how to summon this companion. Acquired by Dwarven Archeology. Teaches you to summon a mechagnome like the ones in Northrend. Mine was always pink, but screenshots suggest it may be slightly different colours at times.
• Fossilized Hatchling Use: Teaches you to summon this companion. Acquired by Fossil Archeology. Teaches you to summon a fossilized raptor hatchling companion pet.
• Highborne Soul Mirror Use: Look into the mirror… 10 min cooldown. Acquired by Night Elf Archeology. Note: summons a translucent copy of your character.
• Kaldorei Wind Chimes Use: Hold the chimes up to the wind and check the weather. 1 min cooldown. Acquired by Night Elf Archeology. Note: makes a chiming sound when used.
• The Last Relic of Argus use: Teleports you exactly where you want to go… if you aren’t too picky. 12 hour cooldown. Acquired by Draenei Archeology. Note: I never received this item. but ViceVersa on WoWhead has a list of locations it took her. If she is correct, the locations include the Wailign Caverns, Duskwood Catacombs, Dark Portal, Wetlands Dam, Nighthaven, Dire Maul’s Maul, Narain Soothfancy’s house, Mardenholde Keep in Hearthglen, Fuselight-by-the-sea in Badlands, Golakka Hot Springs in Un’Goro, floating island east of the Dark Portal on the Outlands side, and Lost Rigger Cove in Tanaris. Sounds a lot like when you use a Scroll of Recall and you’re above the level restriction for it!
• The Innkeeper’s Daughter Unique. Use: Returns you to your Hearthstone Location. Speak to an Innkeeper in a different place to change your home location. 30 minute cooldown. Shares a cooldown with Ruby Slippers, Trans-Dimensional Fabricator, and Hearthstone. Aquired by Dwarven Archeology. Note: This just replaces your normal hearthstone, it does not provide you with the ability to hearth twice as often. The flavor text is long but funny enough for me to include: “According to legend, Bryher Stonekeeper ran a prosperous tavern near Loch Modan. His daughter, Keelin, travelled far from home, eventually developing the kind of reputation that embarrassed her father. Bryher made a deal with a gnome warlock to keep his daughter close to home. The warlock turned Keelin into a hearthstone, so that she would always return to the inn.”

Bind on Account Rewards

• Crawling Hand Small pet, teaches you to summon a crawling hand. Acquired by Tol’avir Archeology. Note: I don’t know if it goes away after one use like most pets or sticks around. All of the collector’s edition pets that bind to account let you teach it to your entire account, but I didn’t manage to dig this one up.
• Headdress of the First Shaman Requires level 70. Mail Helm. +39 Agility, +21 Stamina, Red Socket, Blue Socket, Yellow Socket, +6 Stamina Socket Bonus, +22 Hit, +22 Crit, Use: See far into the distance (1min cooldown).
• Nifflevar Bearded Axe Requires level 80, iLevel 226. One-Hand Axe. 312-850 Damage 2.60 Speed (171.5 dps). +36 Agility, +87 Stamina, +24 Hit, +37 Crit. Acquired by Vrykul Archeology. Note: This is like getting your very own Bind on Account Tankard of Terror! It also isn’t Unique-equipped so you could dual wield two.
• Pendant of the Scarab Storm Use: Summons a storm of peaceful scarabs on a 2 hour cooldown. Just a fun item, the “storm” is more like a small army that runs along behind you.
• Queen Azshara’s Dressing Gown Requires level 60. Cloth Chest, 258 Armor. +27 Stamina, +41 Intellect, +23 Haste. “The rumors of the Highborne’s poor fashion sense seem to be true.” Acquired by Night Elf Archeology.
• Ring of the Boy Emperor Requires level 85. Ring, Unique-equipped. +286 Stamina, +190 Intellect, +127 Haste, +127 Mastery. Acquired by Tol’avir Archeology.
• Scimitar of the Sirocco Requires level 85. One-hand sword, 841-1563 Damage, 2.60 Speed, 462.3 dps. +145 Strength, +219 Stamina, +111 Crit, +74 Haste. Acquired by Tol’avir Archeology. Note: Not unique-equipped, so dual wield two if you’d like.
• Staff of Ammunae Requires level 85. Two-hand Staff, 443-666 Damage, 2.40 Speed, 231.2 damage per second. +512 Stamina, +341 Intellect, +247 Spirit, +194 Crit, +1955 Spell Power. Acquired by: Tol’avir Archeology.
• Staff of the Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan Requires level 85. Two-hand Staff, 388-583 Damage, 2.10 Speed, 231.2 damage per second. +512 Stamina, +341 Intellect, +228 Crit, +228 Haste, +1955 Spell Power. Acquired by Dwarf Archeology.
• Tyrande’s Favorite Doll Requires level 85. Unique-Equipped Trinket. +321 Intellect. Equip: Recaptures 20% of all the mana you spend on spells, and stores it within the doll to be released at a later time. Up to a maximum of 4200 mana can be stored. Use: Releases all mana stored within the doll, causing you to gain that much mana, and all enemies within 15 yards take 1 point of Arcane damage for each point of mana released. (1 Min Cooldown). Acquired by Night Elf Archeology.
• Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds Requires level 85. Unique Two-Hand Sword, 1894-2843 Damage, 3.80 Speed Sword. +341 Strength, +512 Stamina, +216 Hit, +238 Crit. Acquired by Troll Archeology. Note: This weapon was originally a lv 60 weapon that dropped from Hakkar in Zul’gurub. With the removal of Zul’gurub as a raid instance it is good to see an homage to this blade. Note that for any roleplaying troll fury warriors with Titan’s Grip you can find its twin in Zul’aman, Jin’rohk, The Great Apocalypse from Troll Warlord Zul’jin himself.

That’s Archeology in a nutshell! If you have questions about this or beta please let me know and I’d be happy to answer any questions before December 7th. Goblin starting zone, Worgen starting zone, what to farm, where to go — anything!

Edit Fimlys of Twisted Nether Blogcast suggested I add some images. I hadn’t because I lost my beta screenshot folder with my adorable mechagnome pictures. I have decided to recreate them using paint shop pro. Surely no one will be able to tell the difference between my drawing of an Ultramarine Qiraji Battle Tank and the real thing… right?

EDIT 2 Now that Cataclysm has gone live, I’m getting some screenshots. I took the first two days to get my Worgen from 1 to 85. A big note are that Surveying gives about 5,775 experience per survey at lv 80, doubled if you have rested. I’ll survey on some alts to see how it scales. Level 81 gives me 7,297 xp per survey. That’s a little over a third of 1% of the xp it takes to go from 81-82. So that’s 100 dig sites unrested, 50 dig sites rested to hit 82.

EDIT 3 It looks like once you pass about 225 Archeology skill the number of fragments per survey goes up from 3 to 4-5. Obviously dwarves get more due to their racial, but for us mere non-bearded folk.

Cataclysm has finally gone to beta and the major news sites are flooded with the latest information. MMO Champion has the lion’s share of the new information, and I have to say the first thing I went to see was the new feral forms. Troll Bear Form looks a little awkward, but the glow-in-the-dark feel works slightly better on the troll cat models. I think I’d like for my Horde druid to go trollish just for the teal cat form. The worgen bear form looked familiar, and finally it hit me: isn’t that the same bear form the druids of the claw changed into during Warcraft 3? The Worgen cat form looks pretty good. Sort of like a male version of the night elf version. You can expect me to be playing a Worgen druid (that black model, most likely) when Cataclysm occurs. I also enjoy the Worgen druid plot, though I won’t spoil it for anyone!

Speaking of spoilers, most of what I’m enjoying about the beta information is all spoilers, and I know most of my readers won’t want to read them. There are two points of interest which are not spoilers that I wanted to share, though. First, there are lv 78 green quest reward weapons that put Shadowmourne to shame. No matter how good your gear is right now, it will be replaced by greens quickly. This makes me a little sad. In Vanilla, my Field Marshal’s Sanctuary set lasted me through most of the Burning Crusade. Then my Feral Tier 6 lasted me from 70 to 80 when Wrath of the Lich King became the new hot thing. Now my Death Knight’s heroic Cryptmaker is going to be vendored in favor of quest reward greens. Oh, the shame! And yet, since I want to go Worgen druid, it is a little bit liberating to know that all are made equal.

Oh, and mounts! We have a blue post saying the Frostwyrms and Proto-drakes from Glory of the Meow Raider won’t be going away. So I can spend time at my job and fixing up my home and not worry about missing out on the Frostbrood Vanquisher mount. Also, archeology seems to include some cute skeletal raptor companions and even skeletal raptor mounts! Nice, isn’t it?

And finally, an introduction. I’ve had a guest poster who would like to post her own versions of dungeon guides here, and I said I’d be happy to have them as a party of The Cute Fuzzy Meow. With Fire Festival winding down (I hope everyone has their Ice Chip and Frostscythe!) she’ll be posting her guides over the next week or two. Give her a warm welcome for me!

On a non-WoW note, I just rewatched The Big Empty. Rachel Leigh Cook is one of my favorite actresses, and Sean Bean rocks any role you put him in. While some of the dialogue Rachel gets is a little awkward to listen to, it’s great to see such two great actors working together. Somehow I imagine Sean Bean’s roles in this and Sharpe as being less about acting and more about just being himself. “Where did you come from?” Sean Bean is asked. “Your Momma sent me. She asked me to give you this” he replies with his Sheffield accent, shooting the man again. Oh Sean Bean. Now if only Billy Zabka and Dean Cain worked so well in Dark Descent. My goal for the summer is to finally sit down and finish that and There Will Be Blood. Well, and Jeanne d’Arc and Chocobo’s Dungeon.

Welcome to the weekly update. You would think that with all that’s going on, I would be updating less, but this is a nice thing I can spend a few minutes on between studying for midterms. I have a full semesters and a ton of work to do in the next two weeks. Some of it is midterms, some of it is catching up on work from being sick and missing class. All-in-all, though, I’m loving all of my classes still — even Calculus. But you’re not here to hear about Calculus, French irregular verbs, or the Bhagava-Gita — let’s talk about WoW.

I have up two new articles this week. I probably should have spread them out, but I didn’t want to get busy and forget! The most recent article is Heirlooms Continued: Enchants. I’ve had a lot of people messaging me about Heirlooms, which led to the write the initial article. I’ve had a blast with heirlooms in game, though in a slightly odd fashion — I do the fishing daily on each of my alts, and a full set of heirlooms adds +25% xp from that fishing daily. Most of my alts, after a year and a half of fishing dailies, have nearly hit 80. The next question I anticipated being asked, however, is what you can enchant on an heirloom. A lot of people had incorrect ideas — Sons of Hodir enchants are Bind on Account, so surely they work on heirlooms from the get-go, right? — and I thought it was time for a companion article to help straighten everyone out. I think that the Zandalar Signets of Might/Mojo/Serenity are some of the best investments if you’re serious about heirlooms, but I’ve got a full list of what works when, how, and alternative choices for the harder-to-find enchants. Speaking of Sons of Hodir, don’t miss the guide that’s up from months back on how to get started — just keep in mind that reputation values have skyrocketed in recent patches.

Preceding that is another article entitled Where is Wrath of the Lich King Going? which I’ve been working on in chunks ever since my raiding guild killed Arthas on 25 man two weeks back (Hard Modes time!), dealing with the future of the Scourge and where I see them going from here. It’s pretty difficult to talk about without getting into spoilers, but if nothing else it’s amusing, well, musings. Hopefully some of you out there are interested in more than the guides!

The PTR has been quite exciting with the things the data miners have found. Mounts are one of my favorite aspects of the game, and there’s a celestial version of Invincible that’s made of stars. Of stars! Who needs nasty spaceships when you can have a magical flying pony made of stars?! I’m interested in finding out where this is from, though I need to go pad my mount totals with the pvp mount I’m missing and a few Argent Tournament Mounts.

Do you have an authenticator? It seems like lately more and more people have been hacked, and while Blizzard is being pretty good about restoring accounts, it takes a long period of time. After a friend of ours watched her little brother’s account get hacked and him sit in Storm Peaks for a few days, Sare and I bit the bullet and picked up authenticators. Word on the street is that the battery lasts 5-7 years, which is good enough for me. I thought it would be a hassle since we have two computers and we don’t always use the same one for WoW, but by keeping them nearby it’s been extremely easy to log in and I feel safer. Plus, the Core Hound Pup is adorable on our weekly Molten Core runs. Two years and counting and no Biznik’s Accurascope pattern. Next week is the week!

After Hard Modes and Mounts, do you know what I love? Small pets! And Gryphons! I’ve spent a long time looking for a gryphon stuffed animal for Sare, with many failures. I found one semi-puppet, and that’s the best I could do. Well, it looks like Blizzard has finally given into my demands, and they’ve released a gryphlet plushie that comes with a gryphlet small pet. How cute! The only thing I can’t understand is why my friends haven’t gotten me one yet? My old main from Burning Crusade was actually named Gryphlet, for crying out loud! Harrumph. Well, my only gripe with the gryphlet is the unusually large head. Is that normal? There’s a horde counterpart, the Wind Rider Cub, and except for his cowlick hair he’s adorable, too! It’s funny how the wyvern models are some of the most complained-about in the entire game, but this little Wind Rider is just plain adorable. Gryphlets and winged-kittens, who could appeal to me more?

Speaking of kittens, I do casually read a few comics some days. I’m not a big fan of most of the WoW-related comics, but the one that has kept me coming back is NPC Comic. Hopefully the artist, Mary Varn, won’t be too upset if I tell her that the reason I read the comic is for the two cats, Chloe and Bink. The druid-cat necklace is just too adorable, and I love blue cats! For the curious, I also read XKCD (it’s geeky, but sometimes I can’t help myself) and Exploding Dog (My computer background is often one of these).

Finally, I’m excited about the things on the horizon for World of Warcraft. Gnomeregan reclaimed, Echo Isles, Ruby Sanctum — bring it on! In the mean time, we’re working on Lich King 25 hard modes. We have a handful of them down with another two nearly complete. My gear is finally starting to shape up a bit so I don’t feel under dressed for the Lich King Ball. All-in-all, good times. Except for my Calculus Midterm coming up. Or the French Writing Assignments (Quelle Dommage!). Or the Gilgamesh, Book of Job, Bhagava-Gita writings coming up. Ick. Pray for me!

I suppose since the last paragraph began with “Finally” this is actually a post script, but now that the heirloom questions should be handled, what do you want to hear about next? I keep getting demands for the Ultimate Gnome article, but I need to load up WoW Model Viewer to get a good picture since I don’t actually have a Gnome with most of the items it would require. Would you like to hear about the Argent Tournament? I’ve had a few friends start it up, and someone close to me just found out you can get Champion Seals from heroic Trial of the Champion. An achievement guide? Let me know what you need, and I’ll provide it!

First, a warning — this article contains spoilers. Chances are everyone has either seen the final cinematic from defeating the Lich King. Maybe you clicked the new statue in Dalaran, saw it on MMO Champion, or killed Arthas on 10 man. There are also some spoilers concerning Culling of Stratholme, Warcraft III, and the Scarlet Onslaught plot in Northrend. So if you don’t want those spoiled for you, turn away now!

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Wrath of the Lich King introduced a wonderful new class of gear that makes levelling alts a much more pleasant experience: Heirlooms. Heirlooms are gear with a light yellow text that bind to your account. Their level, stats, and armor type is based on the level of the wearer. Often they mimic a blue of the same level, with some mail evolving to plate at 40 and some leather evolving to mail at the same level. They don’t have durability, and therefore don’t require any money to repair. While all of these things are more of a convenience, they also have one more big thing going for them: many heirlooms grant an increase in experience from quests and monsters. Wearing heirloom shoulders, chest pieces, and rings together grants you a current maximum of +25% extra experience. Nice!
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