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Archaeology 1-800 Leveling and Collecting Strategies

Last updated 2018/06/02 at 10:15 AM View Changelog

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Comment by Sas148

I think you've done a great job with this guide. I don't personally have anything to suggest at this time. Thanks for creating it.

Comment by darthwarcraft

Great Guide! How many hours will it take to max from 1 to 525?

Comment by Dolemite

Great Guide! One suggestion would be to list out all artifacts per race, broken down into commons, rares and epics.

Comment by Philander

Excellent guide, just one addition: Nerubian artefacts can, in fact, be found outside Northrend (at least one digsite in the Plaguewood area of Eastern Plaguelands, possibly more).

Keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing what you know.

Comment by zuljintoon

Don't forget the Darkmoon Faire! Just 15 Fossil Fragments to level 5 points.
This is an excellent opportunity to level up other professions by 5 skill points. Especially if there is an expensive hump to get over. Your profession level must be at 75 to pick up the given quest.
Things to bring:

Alchemy: 5 Moonberry Juice
Archaelogy: 15 Fossil Fragments
Cooking: 5 Flour
Inscription: 5 Parchment
Leatherworking: 5 Coarse Thread, 10 Shiny Baubles, 5 Blue Dye
Tailoring: Coarse Thread, Red Dye, Blue Dye

Also note:

All other mats are either supplied or around the faire.
The above items are mostly available near the DM Portal.
Enchanting - just click on the junk, don't try to DE it normally.
Blacksmithing - there's an anvil behind the Heirloom Prize Vendors.
Be sure to visit your trainer to have room for those 5 skill points. : }

If you forgot something, your Engineer can always drop a mailbox near you. Pretty tough to mail the fossil frags though. ; )

Comment by Ghazpharro

Don't know if it is a hotfix or a bug, but as of Oct 20, 2012 Archeology skill ups are being awarded for every dig. No mention was made in patch notes about this kind of change.

Comment by sabrestryke

Awesome guide!

Comment by pac123

good work

Comment by Tertiam

In the crates of archaeology fragments that you can buy from Brann Bronzebeard, you actually can get keystones. I have gotten Tol'vir Hieroglyphic from Crate of Tol'vir Archaeology Fragments.

Comment by MarsJenkar

While for power-leveling "Don't solve any artifacts until skill level 150" seems the most effective on paper, the problem is that you'll run out of room for new artifact fragments well before that. (Thanks, Mists of Pandaria.) And yes, that does assume that you spread the love between the four sets of artifact sites possible at that skill level. I speak from experience here.

A better way of putting it would be "Up to skill level 150, solve artifacts only as needed to make room for new artifact fragments".

Comment by DrakkonDarkspell

Interesting information, but I have a question: Why wait so long before starting the solves? Is there some advantage to waiting you didn't discuss? I don't understand why you say to wait so long. Thanx if you can explain the logic.

Comment by zuljintoon

Bad Archeology Changes

• #1 Blizz has added 1 second to the CD of survey (giving the ‘that item is not ready yet’ warning) costing us more time when trying to quickly narrow down a red survey. Why a survey should have more than a 1 second CD is certainly a mystery anyway – are we getting a more powerful cast / lol.
• #2 they made the distance of a green survey longer. Now you can NOT be basically guaranteed a discovery when surveying at 5 ‘paces’ or ‘yards’ after getting a green.
• #3 an orange survey is now less accurate, it no longer yields a straight path to a discovery.
• #4 you need to be closer to get an actual discovery to show now. I’m not positive about this, but the distance here seems to have been narrowed slightly – again causing more surveys.

These may seem like petty changes, but when all combined they are adding significant unnecessary time to this profession. (BTW, this seems to have occurred circa 5.0.5.)

Although I can only conjecture, perhaps this has been done to ease time pressure on crowded cross realm servers by keeping people out of congested areas.

I’d highly recommend pulling a ticket and pointing out that your game is no longer working as it had been and should be working. We are paying for playing time, not waiting time.

<Blizzard, why are you making an already barely credible "profession" more difficult?> --> "Time is money, friend."

Comment by Vis4ge

Tks a lot by this guide. very organized! good job mate :P

Comment by Knightofnoskill

What do we do if we max out the artifacts for a certain race

Comment by Odshealer

Just a heads up, the power leveling section of the guide is no longer applicable for the first 150 points if you're trying to just save.

There was a change (don't know when) where we're capped at gathering 200 of the artifact. I hit about 60 in Archaeology and I had to start solving for both Dwarf and Fossil.

Overall, a great guide.

Appreciate you editing in the information in the power leveling section.

Comment by Shadowewolfe

I just reached 450 Archaeology, how do start to dig/collect from Tol'vir? Do I need to complete a race collection first?

Comment by dehcantao

I just reached 600 but am still missing lots of itens.

Now i wonder if it´s better to go to pandaria, and use common itens to trade for old fragments or keep following the collector leveling guide.

Comment by alvexman

Great guide I'm using it now to level my Arch

Comment by billymm

nice guide, thankyou ;)

Comment by breebee

Once you're down to the last rares/achievements you're trying to collect, it might be smart to move along to Draenor, where you will be accumulating Restored Artifact items. These can be traded for fragment crates which can help you continue to produce artifacts without needing to Survey.

Do you mean move to Pandaria? Or was this changed for the new upcoming expansion, Warlords of Draenor? I just want to make sure I'm in the right place while trying to level and complete everything! Thank you! Great guide!

Comment by ir0nmike

For the people who are completionists, like me, I've made a google docs document, which you can use to "tick off" the artifacts you have found already. You just have to convert it to your own google docs or excel document.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wndfh9bxL6OYq5YpdLnWxywk0l4yVA_5HhDiktX6bgQ/edit?usp=sharing

Comment by yarinasher1

amazing ty !

Comment by pat33

The greatest hotfix of all they did in 6.2.2 is to give flight back to cut time to dig for artifacts.

I also suggest a Drud to get all your achievements because of the instant incantation in bird form.

Comment by windinface

is there a cap on the amount of digsites on the continents? My Monk is in the eastern continent, but can't find any more digsites there. I have ready done quite a bit of digging in the Eastern Continent

Comment by nickyjean

For those who wish an Auctionator List for Keystones:

Dwarf Rune Stone
Highborne Scroll
Troll Tablet
Orc Blood Text
Draenei Tome
Vrykul Rune Stick
Nerubian Obelisk
Tol'vir Hieroglyphic
Pandaren Pottery Shard
Mogu Statue Piece
Mantid Amber Sliver
Draenor Clan Orator Cane
Ogre Missive
Arakkoa Cipher

--Reminder: No Keystones for Fossils.

Comment by Xoros

@Karadine

Thank you for the guide.

An important point for 90+ characters that I didn't see specifically mentioned:

If you are just starting out / resuming low-level Archaeology, (i.e. 40/75 Arch skill), instead of going back to trainer every 75 skill points to learn next tier (and potentially waste skill-ups if you forget you're capped), simply Survey a site or 2 in Draenor, you'll get the Brittle Cartography Journal and *poof* your Arch skill cap is 700.

No need to return to an Archaeology trainer as you level.

(An added bonus: you save Arch skill trainer costs for all the tiers you skipped.)

Comment by Luongo

Question... if I only want to get rares from the dig sites, do I need a high skill to obtain certain things, or are they all obtainable even with a skill of 1?

Comment by DrummerKane

Hotkeying the survey button can shave, what turns out to be, quite a bit of time.

Archaeology 1-800 Leveling and Collecting Strategies

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