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Master of Arms

Raise four weapon skills to 400.

Criteria

	Axes (400)
	Crossbows (400)
	Guns (400)
	Polearms (400)
	Swords (400)
	Two-Handed Swords (400)
	Unarmed (400)
	Thrown

	Bows (400)
	Daggers (400)
	Maces (400)
	Staves (400)
	Two-Handed Axes (400)
	Two-Handed Maces (400)
	Wands (400)

Comments

Comment by Aleom

A good place I have personally found to level any weapon skill are the Infernal spawns outside your respective settlement in Shadowmoon Valley. The groups of three guards pick up and (generally) hold the threat from the Infernals, and you can just go in and grind away. They spawn so fast and there's always one around that the most downtime you have is the 4 second run to the nearest Infernal. And since I *believe* the levels are based on number of swings and NOT damage done, you can do this at any time.

Comment by Qmccumber

Or you can try the Corrupted Shamans that have the 3 totems around them. As long as you don't take out their totems so that their shield goes down,they just sit there and take the hits and won't attack you.

Comment by CrimsonTemplar

For the ranged weapons (Wands, Bows, Crossbows and Guns) you could also visit Dr. Boom.

Comment by Jeedar

Seems guns are counted as a weapon skill...yaay?

Comment by Corbon

The entrance to Shadowlab with its neverending stream of mobs pouring out is a good place, as well as every low or mid-level instance (SM etc.)

Comment by YesIPlayWow

/sigh quite a bit harder for caster classes then it is for melee

Comment by Chillincold

Class weapon proficiencies

Warrior/Hunter
One handed axes, Two handed axes
One handed maces, Two handed maces
One handed swords, Two handed swords
Daggers
Fist Weapons (unarmed)
Polearms
Staves
Bows
Crossbows
Guns
Thrown Weapons

Warlock/Mage
One handed swords
Daggers
Staves
Wands

Shaman
One handed axes, Two handed axes
One handed maces, Two handed maces
Daggers
Staves

Rouge
One handed maces
One handed swords
Daggers
Fist Weapons (unarmed)
Bows
Crossbows
Guns
Thrown Weapons

Priest
One handed maces
Daggers
Staves
Wands

Paladin
One handed axes, Two handed axes
One handed maces, Two handed maces
One handed swords, Two handed swords
Polearms

Druid
One handed maces, Two handed maces
Daggers
Fist Weapons (unarmed)
Staves

Death Knight (Beta speculation - may differ in WotLK live)
One handed axes, Two handed axes
One handed swords, Two handed swords

Comment by bluntaxed

Warlock tactic - the banished infernal

I go to ashenvale, punch up a ghostly infernal, feel manly

Comment by Denalian

Deeprun Rats in the Tram!
Might not be the easiest way, but could be good for lower level players.

/target deeprun rat
/startattack

Spam away!

Result!

Comment by Syraen

I attacked these guys and got the message "Immune". No damage was done and I never got any skill ups as a result. Perhaps this worked in the past, but it didn't seem to work for me when I tried it.

Comment by alguem

how can we earn this achievement if no class can learn all weapons?

Comment by blupache

If you're going to take along four (or more) weapons and do it via this approach, some advice:

- Don't just take the cheapest weapon you find enroute there. I picked up a Hand Axe from Thunder Bluff.. and it broke while I was at 398 skill (started at 170)... at a rough estimate, I'd say pick something with a minimum of 35 or 40 durability to be safe if you're leveling from 1 (or bring a repair bot if you're an engineer).
- Considering your skill ups only come on a weapon swing, faster weapons & haste gear speeds things up.
- If you are picking up cheap weapons.. Horde can get most from Thunder Bluff (not sure about Alliance, sorry), but vendor pole-arms are only sold in Undercity (and Stormwind for Alliance) and fist weapons only come from Orgrimmar, Shattrath, Darnassus & Ironforge (but you don't need a weapon to level unarmed.. so...)
- Starting from 1, I find you'll get to 350ish after about 20 to 25 minutes.. 390 within 40 to 45.. from there it gets slower & slower... that last point can take up to an hour.

Oh, and DM North is a joke at 80. There are only 4 mobs you actually need to kill, 5 if you're not a rogue/blacksmith/engineer. Remember that you will need to have the Crescent Key from Pusillin in DM East to open the door to DM North (or West if you wanted to take the scenic route to the ghosties).

And I'd recommend doing it now, before Bliz decides to nerf these like they did the Blasted Lands mob... wasting hours leveling weapons is annoying enough without have to grind regular mobs to do it.

POST 3.1:

Gordok spirits no longer work, however kudos to seancwatson's comment hidden over on the next page - apparently you can get the Spiritual Immunity buff if you're standing close enough to a spirit healer in Wintergrasp. So just kite an elemental over to the healer & you can /afk away again.

Comment by fibby

The best way I found to level weapon skills -- fighting demon Azaloth at Ruins of Karabor (on top of the Black Temple). Warlock npcs keep this demon banished all the time, so you can just come there, start autoattack, and go afk for 30mins or so. Surrounding mobs won't aggro you at level 80, and unless there is someone doing quest to release that demon, there will be no interference.

Also make sure to unequip all your gear before you start leveling -- i've lost about 25% durability on my equipped items just from autoattack with my bare fists.

PS: hope Blizzard won't fix this mob, because right now skilling up weapons is even easier than it was with servants of Allistarj in Blasted Lands.

Comment by einSyndication

One of the best places for this is Wintergrasp, as the graveyards make you immune to all damage. Some classes might have a little trouble getting them to the graveyards, though there's often small areas around the edges that still give you immunity.

Comment by danslemur

Cross posting from another comment thread:

I did the training up of 2H axes and swords early on in Borean Tundra (having used mainly 2H maces until 70) with the following method. I don't think that you can skill up on target dummies, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Buy a high speed white axe - the Dalaran Great Axe is purchasable in Dalaran and has a 1.80 speed, the current fastest 2H axe speed.
Get some haste food - Baked Manta Ray, for +30 haste for 1 hour, is easily made from the fish caught in Borean Tundra, or purchased off the AH.
Drink some juice - Elixir of Lightning Speed for +45 haste for 1 hour.
Haste gear - There is quite a bit of haste gear in Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. Although this is not totally necessary, it just reduces the time taken to do the skilling up.
Haste enchants - Enchant Cloak - Speed (+15 haste for 6 Inifinte Dust) and Enchant Gloves - Minor Speed (+10 haste for 2 Large Radiant Shards and 2 Wildvine) come to mind, minor mats involved. You can place these on cheap white or grey items and keep as your skill-up set.
Intellect - although I'm not crunching numbers here, I think that haste is going to help you more than intellect in skilling up, with the available buffs for each. But if you can get an AI from someone, or use an Intellect scroll, or wear a set of wacky intellect gear then it might squeeze out a couple minutes of the 1-350 grind.

These same strategies could be used for the various max weapon skill achievements (Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? for 400 Unarmed, Master of Arms for 4 weapon skills raised to 400) if you ever get around to it.

If anything, paladins have one of the easiest jobs of AFK skilling up weapons. Just turn on Devotion Aura, turn off any damage increasing blessings, and throw an FoL or an HL on yourself every so often. Then go to town on one of the many mobs with only physical damage and no debuffs (I used a Harvest Collector next to Valiance Keep).

Good luck and god speed.

Comment by Hwii

The easiest way would be to find Rothin The Decaying in Dragonblight. He is immune to everything and does not aggro you when attacked. Just run in the cave, set on autoattack and go afk for a while :)

He is also on a 2min respawn timer for those that wonder.

Comment by Ikutaina

Instead of trying to level your weapon skill on mobs in low level instances or zones, lvl up against an 80 mob. When your health gets low just kill it and move on to the next. I completed my ach. in less than half an hours this way in Crystalsong Forest underneath Dalaran.

Skill ups will occur faster on higher level mobs.

Good Luck

Comment by Rerox

"Thrown" Weapon skill is missing from the achievement list :(

Comment by Nooya

It took me 291 hits once I reached 399 to get to 400.
Good to know if you're gonna get this achievement, try getting as fast and low-lvl items as possible to hit faster and for lower damage so you can stay on 1 target for a longer time, and therefore get your skill a lot faster.

Edit: If you're able to; choose 1-hand skills instead of 2-hand skills as they're a lot faster to skill.

Comment by bubbleboy316

If your grinding this out on a mob where you can leave it and go afk. Important thing to remember: you're gonna take dura damage, so either be careful not to leave it on for a long time or take off any gear that doesn't give INT

It has been confirmed that intellect increases the rate at which weapon skills are learned. Before patch 2.0, this was listed in the tooltip but was removed shortly after that. If you want to level a weapon skill, try asking for an Intellect buff or using a scroll which can help the process.

Comment by wizart

personaly i use the spores in the fjord. they have a aoe atht deals 250 dmg but at lvl 80 u resist 90% of them and some nature rez is always nice to have.
me as lvl 80 mage just used mana shield to keep dmg of me but not rly needet since u kill them qwite fast.

Comment by andrilin

The unhatched eggs in the Savage Thicket in Sholazar work well (lvl 76-77). They do not attack and have about 6k hp each. There are many eggs that are safe from the dragons. You just have to make sure that you are there to switch eggs when they're hatched by the dragons' fire breath.

Comment by tiiti

yup what's the deal with missing "thrown"? Rogues don't want to use guns, bows and crossbows! :/

Also, in your list you have unarmed and fist down. They are one of the same "unarmed"

Comment by amphora

I got 4 skills up to 400 by attacking 1 single target: Grove Walkes in Crystalsong Forest http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=31228
These NPC's heal themselves and by keeping a HoT (I'm druid) on me it was an infinite battle. My melee dps was low since I was using healing gear (and ofc the weapon type you need skills with)

Comment by pityness

There's another good way of raising your skill.

Lady Sevine, lvl 59 elite demon at 41,30 in Blasted lands.
This mob doesn't die just like the servants. She doesn't go immune, she just sticks at 1 hp forever (you need to use a certain quest item to get her killed).

I got to afk-hit this woman for a while to raise my skills. She summons infernals but as a healer or any class it shouldn't be a problem I think.

Comment by G002

Rothin the Decaying in Dragonblight: Maw of Neltharion (31, 31)
Good option for high lvl players, he is immune to any attack :) and u can lvl up the skill easily, the bad thing is if your not 78+ you'll aggro random mobs on the room :S

Comment by Saldor

Theres a shielded mob inside a cave in Dragonblight (northend), if you're level 80 you can avoid the mobs there and they don't agro as you attack him, keep infront of him and pound away for the rest of your'e life and he'll never die =) (carefull of people doing the quest you'll have to wait for him to respawn and start attacking again, if you get him at night you're usually pretty safe)

Comment by Jops

Even thought the servants in Blasted Lands no longer allows you to gain weapon skill, the 'bosses' still do, and they do not die either.

* Grol the Destroyer
* Lady Sevine
* Archmage Allistarj

All 3 are immune to magic, Grol is melee, Sevine summon adds and Allistarj throws fireballs.
Unless you got heavy tanking gear or self healing procs I would not recommend these for afk-leveling of weapon skill.

Comment by ColaFles

Don't search for a special mob to train your unarmed on. Just use This "unarmed" weapon.
You can take any lvl 1 mob, critter or whatever. Just without any other people around.
You will not do any dmg but will raise you skill.

Comment by Horgande

Some classes have the advantage of leveling 2 skills at once, or 1 twice as fast (Hunters/Warriors/Shamans). Fury warriors can level 2H skills and 1H skills at the same time.

Uber much?

Comment by orangelick

There are three good options for autoattack and walk away. All the mobs are invunerable, don't hit back, and are easy to skill up on.

#1 - Gordok Spirit in Dire Maul
#2 - Rothin the Decaying in Dragonblight
#3 - Azaloth in Shadowmoon Valley

#1 Was a pain to get to in an area that I don't ever visit any more. If you want complete desertion, this is where you can go, but it's distance away from everything and the fact you have to navigate through an instance make it the least desirable of the three.

#2 Rothin is the best located to your day to day activities in Northrend. So great to pop over while you are waiting on other things going on. The only downside is you have to navigate through a cave, and since this is an active quest for a bunch of folks, you will get cross faction and quest hunters disturbing you. Not the best option if you are looking to auto attack and go AFK.

#3 Azaloth is my personal favorite for skilling. You can fly directly to him, it's reasonably close to Shattrath so porting in and out is painless. Fly over to him, drop directly down on him (you won't aggro his warlock keepers at 80), and go to town. Remember to unequip your armor before you start pounding on him, as dropping aggro is somewhat of a pain (run a good distance away or log). Also SMV is pretty deserted nowadays, so you're unlikely to run into any other players.

Comment by ceravantes

Ambassador Hellmaw in Shadow Labs still gives weapon skill. You can easily reach him at 80 without aggroing anything.

Comment by Gusstavv

Extra tips for AFK leveling: (using banished/ immune non aggresive mobs)

Unequip all your unnecesary gear (While you attack these guys, you'll be getting durability damage on your equipped gear little by little).
Just mantain all your +haste gear on so you attack faster
+Hit rating gear is handy too.
Do this in non peak hours, so you dont need to watch for ganking (on PVP servers), or respawning (if people comes to do the quest and kills the mob).
Equip your desired weapon to level skill, start autoattack, and go watch a movie/ TV/ browse wowhead/ read a book/ do laundry or whatever... this is going to be loooong.
And finally: Cross your fingers so you dont get reported for botting (lol).

Happy leveling ñ_ñ

Comment by Gighalen

I just earned mine by doing Stormwind Stockades. I started at about 330 in Unarmed and it took 3 runs to get it to 399.

Comment by Occivink

Here is a list of the most easily obtainable and fastest weapons :

One-handed

Daggers : Poniard
Fist Weapons : Dalaran Knuckles in main hand and Left-Handed Brass Knuckles in off hand
Axes : Dalaran Axe in main hand and Tomahawk in off hand
Maces : Dalaran Cudgel
Swords : Dalaran Sword

Two-handed

Ranged

Bow : Dalaran Bow
Crossbow : Frigid Crossbow or Dalaran Crossbow if you can no longer obtain the first one
Gun : Dalaran Rifle
Thrown : Dalaran Dart
Wands : Wand of Amber

Comment by Synapto

The Spirits behind the king are, indeed, the best place to level weapon skills without interruption. There are 2 curious effects you need to be aware of, though.

1. Although the Spirits do not attack you nor do any damage whatsoever in return, you will find your durability reducing inexplicably. It appears that one of the mechanics for durability loss is the time spent in combat. After a few hours, you might have racked up a significant repair bill, so take off all your durabilty equipment before you engage the Spirits.

2. Melee autoattacks (and ranged Autoshot for hunters) allow you to "fire and forget", meaning that you can just attack the Spirits, then wander off and watch a movie or something. Even though you will go AFK, because you are in combat, the game will be unable to automatically log you out!

Comment by notstrider

after reading an article on tankspot, i've leveled up all my skills to 400 on Ambassador Hellmaw without any problems.

link to article - http://www.tankspot.com/forums/f64/42759-leveling-your-weapon-skills.html

Comment by superboot

Spent hours leveling up my Thrown weapon skill, then figured out it was not on the list. :'(

Comment by Toldu

Ok, so I'm writing this with the assumption that you will have multiple 80's, you want this achievement on all of them, and you want to do it as fast as possible. If you look in above posts you'll see recommendations for haste/int food/buffs/enchants/etc. and what mobs to grind this out on. There's even a list of which classes can use which types of weapons. The purpose of this post is to show you the fastest non-pvp weapons of every type to get your attacks in quicker. The added bonuses for using these weapons is that they can all be bought with just gold in Dalaran (not badges or marks) and none of them become soulbound. Just level the skill on one toon, send the weapon to another, rinse, repeat!

Axes = Dalaran Axe
Bows = Dalaran Bow
Crossbows = Dalaran Crossbow
Daggers = Dalaran Dagger
Guns = Dalaran Rifle
Maces = Dalaran Cudgel
Polearms = Dalaran Spear
Staves = Dalaran Stave
Swords = Dalaran Sword
Two-Handed Axes = Dalaran Great Axe
Two-Handed Maces = Dalaran Hammer
Two-Handed Swords = Dalaran Greatsword
Unarmed = Dalaran Knuckles (should make things go faster since I believe everyone's default unarmed attack speed is 2.00)
Wands = Here you have 4 choices in case you like arcane, fire, nature, or shadow better

Granted, thrown weapons are not included in this achievement but, just in case you were wondering, Dalaran Darts are the fastest ones available given this lists parameters.

Hope this helps. Have fun being bored!

Comment by meschen

I've been working on this for my level 80 Dwarf hunter. I hadn't picked up a bow since Burning Crusade came out, so I purchased Dalarian Bow, a quiver full of new arrows and spent last night leveling my bow skills from 300 to 400. This was relatively easy to do as a hunter as I let my pet get and hold agro so the process was relatively painless as I quested. Here's roughly how many arrows I used to level up:

300 to 350: Exactly 50 arrows (I got I skill point per shot until I hit 350)
350 to 398: About 375 arrows. Needless to say, most of those were after I hit 390.
398 to 399 (one skill up): Just under 200 more arrows - I think I got a little lucky here.
399 to 400 (final skill up): Over 400 arrows. Ouch.

Comment by IrenicEmbers

I went the Rothin way myself but it was a tad frustrating because of the people that had to do the quest. Felt that I was in their way, especially when I was AFK. Over the course of two days, I did this and the Higher Learning achievement. I would hearth to Dalaran and then fly back.

Roughly 1 hour from 399 to 400 on most weapons.

Comment by CanadianIAm

Agreed. After getting my thrown to 400, and finding out Thrown is the ONLY skill not on there, I'm kind of sad :(

Well, I still have my daggers to work on...

Comment by seancwatson

Easily the best place to get this achievement is in Wintergrasp. Kite an elemental near a graveyard until you get the Spiritual Immunity buff.
This is the ultimate afk spot because absolutely nothing can kill you.
If you are a pet class (Hunter, Warlock, Mage with permanent Water Elemental, and Unholy DKs), you can send your pet in to aggro one of the elementals then pull them back up onto the platform where the Spirit Healer is.
Here's a few spots (thanks convulse for the coords for the Alliance spot)
Horde: 20.85, 35.16
Alliance or Horde*: 68.7, 30.3
* This spot depends on who is controlling WG at that time.

Tested and verified working in 3.3.5. Here's a pic

~~PLUS you can get honor if your side gets Wintergrasp.~~ As of patch 3.2.0. you now get ported out of WG if you aren't selected to be in the battle once it starts.

Comment by kcz421

Ambassador Hellmaw was the perfect suggestion.

Level 80 mage, used him to get my last point in staves, then used him to get from 289-400 in Swords. (Unarmed and Wands were completed elsewhere previously.) Completely unbuffed, and as I think someone else mentioned, AI wouldn't have helped anyway.

Staves probably took me about 30 minutes to level in general, but I didn't really keep track since I'd been unsuccessfully working on that last point on high level mobs, until I found this page.

Swords took me about 12 minutes to get from 289-390, then 19 minutes to get from 391 to 399. That last point to 400 took 30 minutes.

If you have time to spend, you can use this guy to level up anything that you're working on. Like other folks said, might as well do some other things while you're working on leveling - watch t.v., laundry, homework, take a bath, give the kids their baths, run some errands, level your other account, research Einstein's theory of relativity, study the paradigms between time wasted on WoW that could've been spent doing other things, ride a bicycle, run around the block a few times, meet a neighbor, spend some time in bed (I'll let you translate that to whatever you want. :P), try out those new clothes/skiis/rollerblades that you got but never used/wore, maybe finally clean up your room/basement/apartment so your roommate(s)/significant other/parents/@#$%roaches get off your back.

If I'd brought a dagger with me, I would've leveled that as well, but as of right now, I've got the Master of Arms achievement so I'm happy! :)

Comment by Snuzzer

Confirming that you still (the 4th of January 2009) can train your weaponskills on Gordok Spirits.
This will be useful for following achivements:

It's a great idea to get the Crescent Key yourself for the following achivement:

The Keymaster

You get the Crescent Key in Dire Maul East and it's required to enter Dire Maul North. Read about how to get this key in Phazz' guide.

Comment by zeeb1

I tried the max intellect route. Purchased green gear from the auction house (cloth of the intellect). 6 items for 30 gold. This raised by intellect from <100 to 492 with a food additive as well. The remaining gear was too expensive for my test.

I went to Nagrand, Oshu'Gun, for a lower level than 80. The casters were perfect for range. I receive 5-10 skill up per mob till 390 then it drops to down until I had to kill 3 to get the last skill up. They didn't attack until their mana was drained. Sometimes they just stood there instead of attacking. Very quick.

For melee, I grabbed some lvl 16 mace and sword (being a dagger rogue, these were at 350.) I went to Searing gorge for less damage. I received little damage and the same skill up rate.
I had to kill more at the end for my last skill up.

I was always ready for someone to jump the rogue in a robe though.

All my weapons skills are now at 400.

Comment by Tekaru

Master of Arms is not an incremental achievement. After levelling the four weapon skills to 400, there is no new achievement for more. When you link your Master of Arms achievement, it does show which weapon skills you have at 400, so if you are a completionist, you will want to do them all, anyway.

Comment by Camay

For any class who can heal themselves, I found Violet Hold a great place to skill up. The mobs do very little damage, have ~10k HP and keep coming. I was able to keep up with their damage by keeping a Renew active on my Priest.

Comment by capsomere

Primordial Drake Eggs in the Savage Thicket, located in northwest Sholazar Basin worked well for me. It takes a little more attention than these AFK leveling mobs, but it is just as effective and seems less likely to get fixed by Blizzard any time soon, since the eggs are necessary for a quest.

Also, if you have a low-damage weapon equipped, it still takes a while to break one egg, so you can leave it for a few minutes at a time.

Comment by ZnakeByte

(I'm a bit lazy today so forgive me if this is mentioned above)

I just found out a great thing! ALL weapon types can be bought in Dalaran, with lowest speed in the game. Just bought a Dalaran Stave to get my last weapon skill to 400 (i just gotta :), and not only the best speed but also low dps, so you don't have to "change mobs" so often.

Just search for the weapon type you need here at wowhead.com, and then sort by clicking the speed column. The weapon you're after is named in bright yellowish "Dalaran <weapon type>". Good luck with your skills.

Comment by rowkem

I would highly suggest using the Gordok Spirits in Dire Maul North. I won't go into details why since there are an abundance of reasons on here already.

That said, you only need 4 weapon skills at 400. It may seem obvious but I know some people who haven't done this, pick weapons that you're already somewhat proficient in. Also, and I'm not certain of this but I don't think broken weapons will count towards the achievement. SO, bring at least two of every weapon you plan on skilling up.

As mentioned above, take a trip to Dalaran and pick up the weapons from there so you can get the best speed. A short trip there will save you a ton of time.

Also - I got kicked out while skilling up. Even though I was in combat, I would still get put on AFK and I did get kicked several times while doing this. So be aware of this.

Also - set aside a good couple hours for this achievement. Depending on where your weapon skills are at before starting, it could take in excess of 6 hours to get it all done. Perhaps it was bugged but I sat at 399 for atleast an hour and got nothing....went back the next night and sat for an hour..so be weary. This was all with the same weapon so, IDK.

Lastly - unarmed is a weapon skill. So you only need to get 3 real "weapons" to 400, then just unequip your weapon and start pounding. You'll get part of this achievement as well as the entire "Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich" achievement.

Good luck!

Comment by rockefeller

too bad theres no achievement yet for capping all theyre weapons skills... anyone know of a possible addition in a later patch?

Comment by xtrem

Thrown is now counted for the achievement, as of 3.0.8!

Comment by Ghaleon

As of Patch 3.0.8, Azaloth, the banished Pit Lord in Shadowmoon Valley, no longer provides weapon skill-ups.

Comment by Pastortom

Latest updates: as of patch 3.0.8 you cannot use Ambassador Hellmaw in SL to levelup..

But Gordok Spirit is confirmed as working for weapon skillup :)

Good thing blizzard didnt "fix" this bug :)

BTW.. As a lock I didnt think about durability with wand, melee sword/dagger/Stave.. so after a while of wanding it lost durability and I couldnt use it any more =/

so bring extra wands/maces/staves/swords whatever.. just incase :P

Really a pain in the arse the long way to walk to get it fixed :P

Comment by jevchance

Another good mob to whack on is the Grove Walker, a tree that walks around below Dalaran. They are level 78, do very little melee damage, and they heal themselves. :) They also have the pleasant side effect of being close to Dalaran.

Comment by Rainfall

As of patch 3.0.8 you can no longer gain weapon skillups from Ambassador Hellmaw while he's banished.

Comment by Xeenych

Raising your weapons skill with
Ambassador Hellmaw no longer works

Gordok spirits working/

Comment by ardezar

Patch 3.0.8 severely reduced the amount of time required to level up weapon skill.

Getting to 399/400 is a joke. The last point which would take an eternity before only took around 5 minutes, and I'm being generous.

I did this at Sunwell Isle at the Dead Scar. There are undead mobs that have around 6k health and that hit for very low damage. You can go semi-afk while you do this. Remember to check back every once in a while to top off your health. Enjoy!

Comment by Peeveepee

amusing that nobody mentioned it, but you need to get only 4 weapon skills maxed to receive the achievement.
(at least so it was for me, and I am dk)

Comment by Jerenn

My favorite are the Grove Walkers just below Dalaran. You don't have to spend such a long time going to Dire Maul, and they work very well.

They hit for like 200 a swing, which my Healing Stream evenly counters. I have to toss a heal every 3 or 4 minutes, and that's about it.

They also heal themselves once they get below 50%, so you can stay on the same mob for all of your weapons.

Comment by Cipri

I'm betting nobody mentioned that, since it's clearly listed in the description...

Master of Arms
Raise four weapon skills to 400.
Criteria – Requires 4 out of 15

Comment by Astrya

for some odd reason, i'm stuck at 399 daggers, and 399 swords. it's been like that for about a month now :(

Comment by carrion177

I think each class should have it's own secondary achievement. It's pretty easy to get 4 weapon skills up to 400. I'm a hunter, and have every skill available to the class at 400. I feel this deserves something 8P

Comment by DtM2000

I levelled using a Gorok Spirit in Dire Maul.
Took 45 minutes to get from 399 to 400 in unarmed
Took 55 minutes to get from 399 to 400 with staves.

Comment by krawnight

VERY IMPORTANT:

If you do any of these methods that keep you in combat for a long time, make sure you either take off ALL your armor or stop before it gets 0 durability.

Once your armor gets 0 durability you lose ALL GEMS and enchants.

I left WoW on overnight attacking mobs in Dire Maul and came back to completely ungeared, ungemmed 0 durability gear. =(

Comment by Mmaster

All immune/banished mobs have been fixed to not grant any skillups. But there is still a bug you can use. Near K3 there is a scrapheap with Gnolls stealing parts. Unequip all your gear, pull a Gnoll to the Tauren NPC and he will shoo it away, making it non-aggresive. Happy grinding.

Comment by JoViX

Mmaster is spot on with this! Thanks for the post.

Just a few extra Notes:

Some of those Gnolls Evade - Evading Mobs DO NOT give skil ups
The Tauren patrols and will posibly cross your path again, he will then tell the Gnoll to "go away" again so keep doing this till your not in his path anymore then go AFK
The Gnolls are "Savage Hill Brute"
The Tauren is "Dim Flathoof"

Happy Skill ups!

Comment by foard32

that it is correct as of the last patch they no longer grant any weapon skill level ups

Comment by KingOfKings

Just a sidenote for the Gordok Spirits, not sure if it has been mentioned, but if you have the "Gordok King" debuff, these will be friendly for you and you wont be able to hit them, just to avoid people coming here and wondering wtf is happening :)

Comment by Artexus

Just to give you an idea on time involved - as a level 80 human DK in Unholy Presence, beating on Gordok Spirits, it took exactly 24minutes and 58seconds to level one-handed maces (I was dual-wielding) from 1-400.

Comment by asktgm

Decided to work on some weapon skills today on my priest, took me 21 minutes of constant swinging with a 2.3 mace to get my mace skill from 399-400. Also got my unarmed up, took 29 minutes from 399-400 with just my fists (2.0 speed) ridiculous....

Comment by SlashBlack

Don't know if this achievement is even possible for a mage, but I spent 1h leveling daggers from 399-400 without luck, until my dagger broken, no joke.

Comment by didron

It looks like this has been fixed in 3.1, I went there today and didnt get a single skillup anymore. I have been there a week or 2 ago on my other toon and it worked fine then.

Comment by Fogo

A good way I found in 3.1 to level weapon skill is to go to the Argent Tournament area and attack valiants or champions that other people are fighting. There's no risk of getting attacked and they're high level so it goes relatively fast.

Comment by Starlin

For Frost Mages:

This is not a guide for AFK skill ups, but it can be done while watching tv or eating or whatever.

I found a good mob to grind weapon skill on in the Violet Hold. The Azure Mage Slayer in the Violet Hold can be pulled away and attacked near indefinitely.

It has a buff called Arcane Empowerment that can be stolen that will really help speed up your skill up rate. It only lasts 10 seconds, so you'll want to steal it as soon as it is cast. It gives both a visual cue (looks like Dampen Magic) and audio, so you don't have to watch the screen the whole time. It is recast every 15 to 20 seconds.

Stand between two of the portals where you won't pull the mobs that spawn into the zone.
Use fast weapons that do low damage like a Poniard or the Diamond-tipped Cane
Keep your Ice Barrier up. It takes about 35-40 seconds for the mob to eat through it, so re-cast after every other Spellsteal.
Don't take your gear off, you'll need your health and mana bars for endurance reasons. I only lost about 30% durability.
Eventually you'll run low on mana, just frost nova, step back and Evocate. Or use Mana Gems.
If you get in trouble, just run back to the NPC guards.

I was able to get staff, unarmed and dagger to 400 relatively quickly on this mob. And it's a lot easier than trying to manually target new mobs and move around.

Comment by patrickhenry

Doing this achievement in DM, using the Spirit tactic.

As of 3.1.1, it does NOT give weapon skill.

Comment by frazamagorf

Druids can also use polearms.

Comment by Shada

Here's a tip, as long as you're not allied with the Frenzyheart in Sholazar. Go to Kartak's Hold and start killing. The mobs there respawn incredibly rapidly, meaning they're always around. Having dual specced fury after being prot since vanilla WoW I needed to get my weapon skills up, and I decided to go here. In particular there's a large stone at the back of the Hold (about 22,80) where about 20 mobs spawn at a time. Take plenty of food and bandages to heal up between massacres. It's even better if you have the quest Power of the Great Ones; the crystal buff means you self heal as you cause damage.

I maxed out two-handed axes and two handed swords in just under an hour this way. No, you can't afk, but it was relatively painless. I also got a fair bit of money, runic potions, and some green drops.

Hope this helps!

Comment by Klocker

For those that are high level (preferrably around level 80). I found a mob that very easy to level on. His name is Mennu the Betrayer. He is in Slave Pens and for those that are 80, you don't even have to fight to get to him.

He drops healing totems and stoneskin totems. So basically you can never kill him with auto swings. Heck he is a chore to take down when you are down right serious cuz of his constant totem drops and 77k health. This mob is an ideal candidate for weapon skill level up!

The best class to do this is Pallys, DK's, Shamans etc. any class that you can occasionally heal yourself. If you get a bit low on health just heal. He hits for 250 a swing on plate. Rogues, I think he is immune to blind and such so bandaging might be a task for you if you get low on health. He is immune to certain stuns too which also makes him harder on rogues.

Pallys (hint), buff youself with sheath of light, you will heal most of his swings. Flash of light and Divine plea every now and then and this guy is nothing. I literally fixed myself a sandwich, ate, watched TV for 30 minutes and he barely took me below 80% health.

So far this is the only guy I have found to level up weapon skill on my Pally.

Good luck!

Comment by Ordah

Did this as a level 80 prot paladin in Hellfire Peninsula. Just grab a felreaver and use seal of light. I have Heroic/Naxx gear. The felreaver only hits me for 650hp and does occasionally a stun.

Btw, if some one tries to "help"... just bubble :) Most level 60's around will just get two-shotted.

Comment by shamanhealz

Ok, i found an excellent place to lvl your weapon skills. Its the Snowdrift Plains near Bouldercrags Refuge in Storm Peaks. There are earthen fighting Iron dwarfs. bring some low dps weapons and you wont pull aggro off of them. and when they die they sometimes Relics of Ulduar. now how much win is that?

Comment by dondo

This is a very specialized form of leveling this but I took my priest to Dragonblight into the Snowfall Glade area and leveled off the shamans. Because I was a priest, I didn't do much damage and they lived longer. I also mind controlled them and had them heal themselves. It was tedious as hell but I never died and I was able to level a lot just off a few mobs (took me a bit to get a rhythm going).

Comment by Orella

Something I have found that works well is to go outside of Dalaran in the Crystalsong Forest. The Grove Walkers there are pretty easy to kill even for level 77 mobs. If your a warlock like myself just banish and have at it. Alt tab and check your favorite site, tab back in and keep beating on it.

If your not a warlock these guys have an ability to heal themselves. So as long as you have a way to heal you can beat on them for a long period of time without them dying as soon. Unlike a lower level mob.

Plus its right near Dalaran!

Just an idea! GL to everyone whom are raising their skills :D
(mines almost done!)

Comment by kipperkahn

Not sure if this was mentioned but.....

There is another way to lvl your skills in DM North

kill the first boss to get the inner key, get the courtyard key from the chest, avoid the doomguard mobs from that point on. You will have to kill a couple that are unavoidable.

Kill the king and run back to a doomguard and you will notice it is attackable, but it is bugged and when you hit the mob his health regens back to full.

Not advised to afk skill though unless you have some form of health regen.

Worked for me for my warrior just 10 minutes ago.

Happy skilling up. :)

Comment by Sygmoral

None of the methods above still work.

There is, however, a new way. I found it on the second page of comments here and expanded the information a bit. I tested this with an Alliance priest.

The graveyards in Wintergrasp grant you immunity. This means you can't die while you're fighting any mob there that still give you weaponskill. However, the graveyards are on raised platforms, so you can't just kite a mob there (you can't get back on). One way to get onto one is flying from a neighbouring zone (such as Icecrown).

The easiest way to make this work is use graveyards that have pullable mobs close enough. Alternate between the north west and north east graveyards ('Broken Ring' and 'Sunken Ring' graveyard). You can teleport between them by asking the Spirit Guide. Both of these two have a pullable mob: one has a Glacial Spirit, the other a Chilled Earth Elemental close by. Pull them, start hitting them with whatever weapon you have, and go do something else until it is dead... then go to the next platform so you don't need to wait for the respawn.

If your faction does not own Wintergrasp, you can still use the graveyards you always have near your starting zone. In that case you do not even have to be on the platform, but very near it is enough. 72.0, 29.4 works for Alliance, 20.9, 35.2 works for Horde.

A remark from many other posts that I will repeat here is that is best to unequip all your items with durability. You're immune to everything anyway.

Comment by calico88

As a warrior, I just found whatever weapon I needed to level (if 2h, spec titans grip) and went out to kill Brittle Revenants just East of Dun Niffelem. All the mobs there are level 80, it took me about 1 hour of grinding mobs to get from 350 to 400 for any weapon.

Hope this is Helpful ^^

Edit: you also get lots of Relics of Ulduar, which is coin

Comment by Karnivore915

I currently have two characters who have this achievement, here's a quick little guide:
----Warlocks----
Quite simple, go to Crystalsong Forest and find a Grove Walker. Banish it and start swinging. Keep the banish up and you got it.
-As a side note, if you are looking for your defense skill up also, this will help:
While banished, you can start getting ready to hold out on your HP as long as possible by creating a Fel Healthstone, possibly having a health potion, and making sure the cooldown of your Death Coil is up. Wait until you have full HP and then wait for the banish to run out. As soon as it does, cast Curse of Weakness and hold out for as long as possible, burning the Death Coil first, as it has the shortest cooldown, then use the Fel Healthstone, and finally a health potion if you have one, by then the cooldown on Death Coil might be up, so use that again and then once you get to around 1K health, banish him and cast Fel Armor. Wait until your HP has gotten to its max again and repeat. If your going for 2-3 weapon skills starting from 1, you should be able to finish whatever defense you didnt pick up while leveling.

----Warriors----
This one is best done WHILE leveling, as it carries along nicely, not to mention you have a MUCH wider range of weapons to choose from, making sure of course that you keep one of every weapon in stock for leveling that skill. What you want to do is while leveling, until the weapon skill hits its max for that level of course, spam Rend, as this counts as a hit. If you have high enough rage, you can get a good 30 or 40 swings in on one fight, depending of course. Note that Hamstring also counts as a swing, along with Overpower, and a heck of a lot more. I simply used Rend because its aquired at a low level, and I got used to it.

Comment by Namtara

AFK leveling with the Wintergarsp Spiritual immunity works like a charm, specially if you're a pet class (much easier to pull distant mobs with your pet).
It also levels your defence rating since you're getting hit but not taking any damage due to the buff :)))
Only problem here is sometimes players kill your mob so you can't really go afk for hours.

Comment by fsngnshiekfan

SO unfair for druids...

Comment by solistan

I just finished this in Gnomer. I solo'ed the "trash" and pulled out the weapons for the Boss fights. Being a mage, and max herbalist, I hit for very small amounts and whenever my health got low I used lifeblood. All four in about 2 hours, and got the key which I seemed to have missed pre-bc.

Comment by gamerunknown

I've always found level ups to be faster against elite, higher levelled mobs in instances.

confirm/deny?

Comment by spyvingen

To get unarmed use Torch of Retribution on a lvl 1 mob and just wait

Comment by patrickhenry

I started doing the achievement as such.

Equip nakedness, grays or heirlooms, that durability won't really affect.

Equip the lowest damage weapon you are trying to raise the skill. (buy one from an Ironforge Vendor or something, for low damage.)

Hearth back to Dalaran.

Fly just below dal to where the small ruins are (crystalsong carrot place for you cooks.)

Find a treant. They heal themselves. So can you, if you are a pally, druid, priest, etc...

Swing away!

This brought me from 0 (1h axes) to 368 before I finally killed one. unfortunately, past that level, I could only get up to 375 after a few kills. Did a few dailies every day and had it in 3 days.

Your mileage may vary.

Comment by triggz

The Argent Tournament jousters in Icecrown also work. Go at peak hours while people are doing their dailies and just start slapping away. It's one of the more entertaining methods, not very good if you're looking for an AFK lazy way since you have to chase them around and find new targets frequently- however you will never take damage and there is absolutely zero chance of being attacked here so it does have that benefit.

Comment by triggz

Found another good spot for leveling ranged- Go stand on one of the masts of the boats between Hrothgar (I think thats what it's called) and the Argent Tournament, there are lots of weak mobs and the North Sea Kraken there that you can wail away on. If you're creative with macros and programs, you can AFK to 400 here.

Comment by Vjorlana

I'm working on my last skill point (for staves) for this achievement as a warlock. I already maxed out daggers, wands and unarmed.
Daggers and wands were no problem at all. I leveled wands easily while doing low-level quests in Durotar and the Barrens for Orgrimmar reputation, just shooting stuff down because I didn't feel like wasting mana.
Since I have a spellblade I occasionally melee stuff when I'm out of mana or when doing low-level things, so that went pretty fast too.

Unarmed and staves took a bit longer, since I don't usually have a staff or no weapon at all equipped. I leveled unarmed completely in Silithus since I was farming worms there for a cooking quest and was watching TV at the same time. In my PvP spec I have Soul Link, meaning my pet takes some of my damage and with that and fel armor up, my voidwalker on passive and soaking up my damage, I only had to stand there and run to another worm occasionally.

I'm now leveling staves in Howling Fjord while killing Shoveltusk and Worgs for the meat, pretty much in the same way as I leveled unarmed, except a little more running around because staves do more damage.

Comment by wqube

I think that the best way to skill a weapon to 400 is to go to "Ymirheim" in Icecrown and kill "Ymirheim Chosen Warrior" since they are high lvl and they have 12600hp wich means that it will take some time to kill them, they also have this buff that heals them every time they get a sucessful hit on you! Meaning, they are immortal when you skill fist fighting :P

Comment by wingsofscion

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the En'kilah Blood Globes, as they will level your weapon skill and (best part) they don't attack back. As well, if you get into particular spots (along the wall, not in the corner), there's also no risk of getting attacked by the Necromancers in the area. Optimal spot if you ask me for those wanting to get the Unarmed part of the achievement but can't wield fist weapons (clothies, pallies and death knights), or otherwise don't hit very hard.

Alternatively (the way I got this on my priest), a good way to level your weapon skills is to get a (really) low level weapon, such as Spring Flowers or Rusted Pitchfork, for example, and beat on some mobs while doing Loremaster.

Comment by Morerice

The absolute best place to do this as a tank, is farming the Grove Walkers that are in the Crystalsong Forest, under Dalaran.

Comment by jevchance

I've had reasonably good luck leveling weapon skills by attacking the Grove Walker (trees) along the river just below Dalaran. They hit weakly, and heal themselves until they run out of mana. I go unbuffed with only Seal of Light active and can usually hack on one for a good 20 minutes before it dies. That is, of course until whichever weapon skill I am leveling gets into the 380s or so.

Comment by kohemi

Have they changed the speed that you gain weapon skill? i felt like they may have when i noticed my weapon skill increasing quickly,

the last point in 2 handed maces took ~13 minutes, 958 intellect and 2.94 attack speed auto attack only, does that seem fast to anyone or is it normal?

Edit: 1 hand mace, 1.74 attack speed ~7 mins for last skill point

Edit: spent 23 mins trying to get last point in staves attacking a Grove Walker, lvl 77, in crystalsong forest , dont know why it was taking so much longer, i skilled maces on Ancient watcher, lvl 80 elite in the same area, dont know if the lvl of the mob your attacking has anything to do with the speed you gain skill, but maybe?

Comment by wintercoat

some non-damaging abilities such as the hunter ability wing clip still count as hits and do give weapon skill ups, making things go much faster

Comment by Anamcha

As an 80 druid I found the best place to level from 320 onwards is in icecrown just below sindragosa's fall around 67.44. The decomposed ghouls and the frsotskull magus's are not a big deal. Just pop some hots and wail on them to your hearts content. Rarely any other players, you can pull one at a time. I got from 320-400 in about 30 mins per weapon at max. May not work so well if you don't have heals as they do hit hard though.

Comment by Anamcha

The level of the mob you are attacking also comes into effect. I have taken 25 minutes to get the last point on a level 77 mob, or 9 minutes on a level 80 mob. That may be why.

Comment by taimin

Would just like to point out for those looking to level their weapon skills and attempting achievements, with the stealth nerf on the mobs in blasted lands and Dire Maul, try these mobs instead:

Horrified Drakkari Warrior (lv 73) http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=26582
Horrified Drakkari Shaman (lv 73) http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=26583

These trolls come in waves at the bottom of Drak'Tharon Keep and can keep you occupied with a steady stream of mobs to whack on. Also, they hit pretty low at roughly 130-190dmg per swing.

Hope that helps :)

Comment by SIMSteven

I had done extensive testing in vanilla WoW and don't believe this has changed since. I have seen nothing different happen in how skill-ups are given. I have tested this with my shaman, as respeccing to and from enhance had reset your two-handed maces and axes skills at that time, and those weren't the only weapons I've tested. I've also been testing on several other classes as well.

It seems the only major factors in increasing your weapon skills are your class, your own level, and your skill level for the said weapon (int STILL may be a factor, though it's fairly small). That said, it is very much akin to how fishing levels up -- where you go or what you kill doesn't matter for skill ups. It's only based on "use Y weapon an X number of times."

The only major time when your own level comes into play is if the weapon skill is at a deficit (rogue with a Bow skill of 50/400) or if your skill level is almost maxed (rogue with a Bow skill of 399/400). In the case of a deficit, your skill will increase quickly, and then slow down when you're getting closer to a skill level appropriate to your level. When your skill level is nearly maxed out, it takes many, many more attacks to get those last couple points (80 attacks @ 390 compared to 200+ @399, based on ammo used between skill levels).

Class is also a factor. Level any cloth class and your Wands skill can easily max out in only a handful of attacks while your melee levels very slowly. Level a hunter and their two-handers level slowly, while their ranged is fast compared to a melee's ranged. There are many cases where this is true and the skills you'd think level fast for the specific class WILL level fast.

The level of the mob you fight should be irrelevant, as is the zone you fight in and the speed of your weapon itself (a slower weapon will skill up slower than a faster weapon of the SAME TYPE -- not proportional to the attack speed). The only time it doesn't not count is when the mob requires you do something other than ordinary means to be killed (a bugged mob that's evading and many mobs that have already been listed below). I tested this the evading part in BC where my mage found an elemental on the Elemental Plateu (Nagrand) and let her attack him unhindered and went AFK. And as far as I know, it has NEVER been possible to level your skills in PVP either.

So overall, you JUST need to attack X number of times on normal mobs, which you can get through grinding. As for boring ranged on classes like Warriors and Rogues, feel free to use a mob such as the North Sea Kraken in the Hrothgar's Landing, as you can shoot him without taking any damage from the mast of the ships he's attacking.

Comment by sinistar

Ret paladin, trying to get my last 20 pts in 2h maces. Bought the fast mace from Dalaran vendor.

Decided to try these mobs: http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=32467 in Icecrown, 80 elite, melee dmg only, hits for abt 900 avg. Pretty easy to pull one from the group.

Comment by tokalak

Go Zul'Farrak
Clear two mobs around Sanffury Witch Doctor
than slay with Sanffury Witch Doctor
They are healer :P

Note: I weared all haste items and skilled all my weapons to 400 with this mob he heals own when he near the die. I go out and come again. I skilled all my weapons with low lvl but faster weapons. If u go with 2x witch doctor they wont die :)

Easy and safe way for skill weapons.

For ally druid :P

Maul
Mace
Poniard
Short Spear
Right-Handed Brass Knuckles

Comment by Seiferthiago

I just uploaded this video..

How to raise your weapon skill: (Easy mode)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdgkeCI6FQ

Comment by seancwatson

It's a shame that this is on the last page. To add to this back up against the middle divide if you're gonna go afk. He does a knock back, but if you're against the wall you won't go anywhere.
Grol the Destroyer is the guy you need

How-to:

Equip 1 or more of the "Dalaran Weapons"
Back up to the wall as shown here
Use Healing Stream Totem, Stoneskin Totem, and Windfury Totem.*
Put Windfury Weapon on both weapons.*
Make dinner and enjoy!

*For Shaman Only

Comment by danielams

wy sould i visit DR.BOOM

Comment by coyote72

Rogues, don't go AFK for this, Slice and Dice is a great ability.

Comment by Discohorror

I found the Stair of Destiny in Hellfire a fine place to level weapon skills.
There are constantly elite mobs being 'tanked' by npcs and you're free to go nuts with any weapon you have. You can't go afk though since they move around and are replaced all the time.

Good luck with the achievement!

Comment by bob99b

As a Resto shaman, I was able to raise every melee skill against the Grove Walker's, right below Dalaran, in Crystalsong Forest. These mobs will cast Rejuv on themselves when they get low and heal almost up to maximum health. Simply drop Stoneskin, Healing Stream and Windfury totems then AFK 5 minutes at a time.

Edit: Don't forget to buy the lowest DPS weapon possible or they WILL die!

Comment by Slayershinigami

As I needed to level my mace skills today, I went to my old weapon skill farming spot.

Just go into the crater in Sindragosa's Fall in Icecrown, pull one of the Cultist Corruptors to a wall and start smacking his head, they have a fair amount of health and do a bone shield which absorbs damage!

Pretty handy!

Also, I can confirm that +haste and +int gear and stuff really helps.

And I'm typing this while my paladin is smacking the same cultist, and he's still at half health thanks to his shield (after about 5 mins of smacking) at a weapon skill of 398 :O

Hope this helped, as it helps for me! =D

Comment by AmenSvk

i did this when i was doing The Battle For The Undercity quest.. i repeated that quest about 10 times XD..but i think its the best way how to do this achiev bcs you cant die and if you equip level 19 weapons mobs cant die too.

Comment by Spectrallink

This achievement will probably become a Feat of Strength when Cataclysm hits as weapon skills will then be removed from the game.

Source: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1&pageNo=1#0

Comment by Lycaon

Just thought I'd chime in. I went to do this on my DK, the grove walkers mentioned above are indeed a great mob to raise skill on, BUT if you're starting from 1, I recommend popping Unholy aura, grab the lowest dps weapon you can find, and mash one of your strike abilities from 1-300. Below 300, your abilities are almost guarenteed to never hit, and the 15% attack speed bonus with the lowered GCD means you can zip from 1 to 300 in about a minute and a half of mashing (I'll avoid calling it facerolling, it's one button). Quite often my skill jumped two points instead of just one. I am assuming this is because of a simultaneous skill up from the melee weapon swing as well as the special ability.

Once you hit 300ish, you can then pop Blood to semi-afk and self heal, using Blood Tap if needed. Bonus if you're Blood specced and have Bloodworms. Once you hit about 330 it procs often enough that you can almost not pay attention.

Comment by Boozh

As far as i can tell, nobody confirmed if you would get skill-ups by fighting a dummy?

Anyhow, confirmed on the Grove Walkers in Crystalsong Forest are recommended for this and the knucklebuster achievement.

Happy hunting!

Comment by rhagz

Easy way to get this and the unarmed achievement (Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich?) at the same time for an Arcane Mage is to go to Violet Hold. Not sure if it affects these mobs but just in case make sure it's on normal difficulty.

Go down the stairs into a corner and wait for one of the dogs, Azure Mage Slayer, to run by. Grab it and pull it to the corner. You can't really AFK this way, but going from 1-400 unarmed took me around 20 minutes. My method was just to keep Mana Shield up and Spellsteal the haste buff (Arcane Empowerment) every time he cast it. It gives 50% melee haste, lasts 10 seconds and is recast every 20 seconds.. so about half the time you will be hasted 50% for around 25% total effective haste. If you have decent haste gear already you should be around 75% haste during this period, making your attacks really fast.

Use Mana Sapphire, and when your last charge is gone use a Presence of Mind to instantly recast a new one (does not work just to refresh charges). If you are a Blood Elf use Arcane Torrent every chance possible and lastly, when you are at 50% mana or below wait for the last second of the haste buff and before it fades start casting Evocation. The buff gives 50% casting haste as well, so my Evocations were casting in under 4 seconds.

Between all these mana regaining abilities you should be able to fight one dog for easily 10 minutes or more.. and if really careful you may be able to fight the same single dog for the entire trip from 1 to 400.

Comment by Euredice

I've found that the Reanimated Crusader provide a great source for skillups since they heal themselves. Using a low damage weapon enables them to regenerate enough mana to keep it up forever!

Comment by pritrix

As a priest (and druid) I went below Dalaran and beat up on the small Grove Walker trees. They heal themselves and therefore take a lot longer to die which means you don't have to keep searching for mobs. I leveled 3 weapons with only 3 mobs.

Give yourself Fortitude and Spirit. I occassionally threw myself HoTs and turn on a mod (I think it's DBM) that flashes a warning when I'm low on health so i can AFK and just wait for the warning sound. I kept all my gear on as it meant i had to heal myself less much more often. I'd rather spend the gold than the time. Also, everytime I hotted myself, I also put on Inner Fire and Power Word: Shield for added damage reduction.

I also bought a Dalaran Cudgel which has a 1.5 Mace Speed.

Below is a time log of skill increases in case you want to schedule your time. Anything below 389 seems to level up very quickly so i didn't include it.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 389.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 390.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 391.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 392.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 393.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 394.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 395.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 396.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 397.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 398.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 399.
Your skill in Unarmed has increased to 400.

Your skill in Maces has increased to 399.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 400.

Comment by Zevia

A tip for people trying to find something to hit that will stay alive long enough to actually get skill from;
In Crystalsong forest there are some tree mobs, they look like resto druids and are called Grove walkers. They seem to stay alive for ages as they keep rejuvinating themselves.
My (badly geared) DK raised her polearm skill from 270ish to 320 just using one mob.
Good luck :)
-Zev

Comment by Maclaury

The Risen Soldiers worked great for me (level 80 warlock) going from 53 to 400 for unarmed, and finishing off the last point I needed for both daggers and staves. In total it took about an hour and 20.

They respawn fast and don't hit for hardly anything. With unarmed and low level weapons, you can get a lot of hits on them.

They're just southeast of Fleshwerks where Master Summoner Zarod is.

Comment by djsdjs

> For any class who can heal themselves, I found Violet Hold a great place to skill up.

This idea is wonderful and worked very well for me in getting my priest's weapon and unarmed skills past 399. Keep the following in mind:

Weapon Skill is GOING AWAY in the next expansion, Cataclysm. This achievement is likely impossible once that occurs. See this blue post:

Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23425636414&sid=1
FASTEST WEAPON - Though mentioned by others here it should be repeated... bring the fastest weapons (i.e. smallest weapon speed number) with you so that you can get in more hits to get to your goal faster. For this purpose, speed matters, damage does not. Examples, all of which can be purchased in Dalaran:

Dalaran Stave - STAFF (STAVE?) - 2.00 speed
Dalaran Cudgel - MACE 1.50 speed
Wand of Amber - WAND - 1.30 speed
Dalaran Dagger - DAGGER - 1.30 speed
ENTER VIOLET HOLD BUT DON'T START - Do not talk to Lieutenant Sinclari. If you tell that NPC to leave then she will take the Violet Hold Guards with her and lock the door. You'd have to hearth or die to get out, and it is much more difficult to survive the never ending onslaught of Azure Binders, Azure Mage Slayers, Azure Invaders, and Azure Spellbreakers.
AGGRO FIRST - The Violet Hold Guards do a phenomenal job in ripping the incoming mobs apart. To ensure that you are going to get in as many hits as possible, stand in front of them, right on top of the edge of the circular stairs. You will aggro the incoming mobs first and there will be a several second delay before the Violet Hold Guards pitch in to help you.
STAY ATTACKING - Typically there are more than one mob attacking the player and the Violet Hold Guards. Watch which mobs are *not* being attacked by the Violet Hold Guards. Attack that mob instead so that you get in more hits and get to your goal faster.
TROLL BERSERK - If you are a Troll, don't forget to keep using the racial Berserking ability so that you can get in more hits.
SHIELD SPELL - Priests, Mages: Keep your shield spell up. Priests don't forget to refresh as soon as the Weakened Soul debuff vanishes.
UNARMED - kevinjohn3d said it first up above... included here for the sake of completion. Don't leave without finishing off your Unarmed skill for the Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? achievement. If you're going to bother with the Master of Arms achievement, then chances are you're looking for as many achievements as can be had.

Comment by wilki24

In case anyone is wondering about the effect on intellect on weapon gains, here are the results of my test using 4 pieces of random level 70+ intellect plate on my DK along with an int scroll. I'm dual wielding a pair of Tomahawks.

I started at 330 skill fighting a water elemental.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 330.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 331.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 332.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 333.
...
Your skill in Axes has increased to 390.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 391.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 392.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 393.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 394.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 395.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 396.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 397.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 398.
Your skill in Axes has increased to 399.
... mob died here so I moved to another one ...
Your skill in Axes has increased to 400.

My total int was 417.

It took me 2.5 minutes to go from 330 1H axe skill to 400 axe skill vs. over a half hour to gain 11 points for the post above this.

Stacking int really makes this process go faster.

Edited for additional info
Here I am training 1H maces up from 1 skill, using two Dalaran Cudgel's:

Your skill in Maces has increased to 2.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 3.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 4.
...
Your skill in Maces has increased to 99.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 100.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 101.
...
Your skill in Maces has increased to 198.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 200.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 201.
...
Your skill in Maces has increased to 299.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 300.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 301.
...
Your skill in Maces has increased to 396.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 397.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 398.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 399.
Your skill in Maces has increased to 400.

That's 1 to 400 skill in just under 5 minutes.

Moral of the story: STACK INT GEAR!

Comment by Floptop

The Battle For The Undercity
This quest you gain a buff that pretty much gives you unlimited health as well as fills undercity with high hp mobs. You can sit there all day without getting killed. Also there is no need to worry about getting reported for botting because no one else is able to see you during the special event.

Comment by Htipiti

It has been stated that the Weapon Skill statistic will be removed in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion pack. Here is a quote posted by Eyonix, a Blizzard Poster on 03/01/2010.
Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.
Feel free to read the rest of the thread here.

That does mean that this achievement will be removed though in Cataclysm, as with the Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? achievement.
Edit: Removed unrelated stuff.

Comment by Ajelio

If you are bored like I was for a while ago you could always go to Anachronos outside Caverns of Time and train your weapon skills on him. I did this on my Paladin and don't know if any other class can do they same but I'm pretty sure atleast druids can do this and meaby some other classes. Please go and check it out and good luck to train all your weapon skills to 400 :D

Comment by bebeusz

For me, as mage the best critters to level on were Spores from southern Howling Fjord, which are virtually immune to physical attack and do little damage. You can almost AFK skill with them (occasional heal is needed), the trick is to find a place where you won't be interfered by Thornvine Creepers or Keeper Witherleafs. For me 54.04 19.09 worked perfectly. Two spores there so once I killed one I moved to another and so on... I levelled there: Unarmed, Daggers, Swords and Staves. It is nice to have low level weapons to not harm the Spores too bad. Not the fastest way but still works. Good Luck.

Comment by noxcrucifix

Grol the Destroyer, located at Dreadmaul Hold in the northern Blasted Lands, works quite well if you are level 70+. He is a level 58 elite who cannot be killed, but he is not banished/immune in any way. His health will not go any lower than 1 hit point, and aside from the occasional knock-back (stand against the wall) he is very easy to smack in the face.

Comment by Vorbis

A good target are the frenzied ghouls in the Dead Scar at the southern end of the Isle of Quel'Danas.

They can be single pulled and do little damage (~1-4 per hit) so you can just pull one, start attacking and go... do something else. Every 10 minutes or so (depending on your class) you have to pull a new one assuming you use lowest damage weapons.

Just did my Achievement this way as a druid, using resto non-durability items for int/haste.

Vorbis, Arthas-EU

Comment by mortirius

Grark Lorkrub in burning stepeswill do it and you can afk

Comment by pezz

Fast weapons are good, weak weapons are good (since mobs don't die as quickly), and highly durable weapons are good. It's been hinted at but never mentioned: You should be able to find a common (white) weapon of any type in Dalaran that is also going to have a ridiculously fast attack speed. Buy any of these you need for leveling weapon skills.

After you get all the weapons you need, fly just below Dalaran and beat on these. They're easy to get to and they heal themselves.

Intelligence DOES increase the speed at which your weapon skill levels, but apparently it has diminishing returns in this regard. You can stack a ridiculous amount of intellect or you can grab 5 or 6 greens off the auction house to the same effect. So buy a couple cheap greens and cut your time hugely.

I can't prove it, but I'm 99% sure that melee specials give weapon skill-ups. While doing this achievement on my paladin I'd use Crusader Strike at the same time as an auto-attack and get two skill points. I can't imagine any other place that extra point could have come from. But that lack of a better explanation is my only proof that CS was giving me skill points.

Edit: lol achievement gone.

Comment by boxxington

These elementals in Crystalsong Forest are amazing targets to auto-attack and afk while leveling any of your weapon skills assuming you get healed for damage done (e.g warlock with fel armor, dk with blood presence, etc). They cast rejuvenation on themselves on occasion so its a constant target you can damage that shouldnt die from such small white hits. Please note that this achivement will become a 'feat of strength' in cataclysm.

Comment by Kanariya

Now a Feat of Strength, along with Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich?

Comment by budgie

Master of Arms has now been turned into a Feat of Strength with the patch.

Comment by Tricky75

Since you can no longer train up weapon skills (including unarmed combat)... This has been converted into a feat of strength to those who already did it. Those who never made this one will not be able to get it anymore.

Comment by xkorpio

Someone misses the Feat of Strenght for this achievement? I dont have it, and I had this one and Master of Arms, but none of them are on my list.

Comment by Gilmamesh

I am so mad that I couldn't get this achievement before Cataclysm. I wasted hours trying to get this up to 400. I only made it to 360 or so on all my weapon skills before this was changed. I wish they had would have left weapon skills in until Cata was released.

Comment by ChibiRory

As of 4.0.1 this achievement is now a Feat of Strength along with the unarmed version of the achieve

Comment by Furydeath

In case you didn't know Master of Arms is now a Feat of Strenght.

Comment by link07

this would be cool if they brought it back.....

Comment by Tush

I see that this is pritty rare archie. I have met only 5 guys in my realm who has done this. I'm proud owner of this Archie =)

Edit: 6 now

Comment by Spectrezh

Due to the pain that it took to get this achievement, months before it was converted to a FoS (grrrrr), I request Blizzard give us something more than just a FoS. I request a title like Weaponmaster. It was a pain, let me repeat, a pain grinding those skills; we demand something more than just a FoS, lost to our toon history ;)

Master of Arms

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