Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A Brief Word on Buying or Selling Gold

To put it bluntly, I do NOT support the practice of buying World of Warcraft Gold, or selling to companies. Some of you who read my site (oh, how lucky and rare you are, gentle reader!) may have noticed that my Google ads are serving up gold-selling sites. Not to worry! Thanks to Google's Competitive Ad filter, I've blocked every gold-selling site I can find on Google, to keep that kind of content off of the page. I'll be blocking ones that continue to show up as I see them. Hopefully, with time, I'll be rid of that kind of content. (After all, encouraging people to BUY gold runs contrary to my desire to make people read my guides! ;)

In other news, check out my Primal Farming post! It's a rather large write up, but (I think) worth the read!

Also, plans are underway for me to host this blog on a "real" domain. Once I think up a name, I'll probably move over there, and redirect traffic from here as well. If you've got a catchy-cool name idea, let me know!

Herbalize Those Guys!

Never having been a fan of herbalism, I never realized you could "herbalize" plant enemies, essentially allowing you to get extra loot from them! Here's a cool tip I found which will have you making some nice money!

Go to Skettis, in southeastern Terokkar Forest. Look around the lake there for Talonsworn Forest-Rangers. Usually there are 2 up, and respawn in under 5 minutes. It's not the loot you want from them, because their loot isn't anything special. But if you're an Herbalist, you can "herbalize" them and get 2 sets of herbs containing 2 to 4 herbs, which can include: Felweed, Dreaming Glory, Mana Thistle, Terocone, Ancient Lichen, and even Black Lotus, one of the hardest herbs to find in the game. They can also give up to FIVE motes of life at a time.


They're 69-72 elites, but they can be stunned/feared, so a well-geared Warlock or Hunter or maybe Mage could solo them. Otherwise, bring a friend. If it takes about 2 minutes to kill one, you could do them almost non-stop until you were tired. At that kind of rate, you'd be able to make a huge profit from all of those herbs and motes of life.


The Complete Primal Farming Guide

"Primals" are needed by most high level professions and crafting recipes. They are created by collecting 10 motes of the same element, and combining them.

The demand for Primals is high, and what is more, unless Blizzard makes some very unexpected and dramatic (and silly) changes, demand is not going to go down. In fact, as more and more players achieve level 70, demand is only likely to go UP. This all means that farming Primals can be very lucrative, IF you know what you’re doing, and willing to put in some time.

Before I get into the best ways to farm for these items, there are a couple ways to get them without the need to farm. Check the Auction House for motes. They aren’t frequently for sale, given their value, and when they are, most players are good about calculating value according to current Primal prices. But still, keep an eye out. With some patience and luck, you’ll sometimes find you can buy 10 motes for less than a Primal is going for, and make a profit!

Dealer Najeeb and Dealer Tariq, in Netherstorm and Terokkar respectively, sell various motes, under limited supply (3 of each kind). IF you’re around either of them, give them a check and see if they have any. At 16 silver each, they’re a bargain, but don’t expect to find them in stock much. (Hint: Keep a character by them at all times, and check them as soon as the server comes back up!) Don’t try to farm motes from these dealers, it is too unreliable!

Understand first that Primals are a huge deal right now. You aren’t the only player looking for them, and so you’ll often find your spot of choice is inhabited. If that happens, just move on to a different spot, or wait a few hours and try again. Expect to be semi-frequently attacked by the opposing faction, as well. However, often the other faction’s farmers will leave you alone, as it’s in both of your best interests to make as much profit as peacefully as you can.

Farming Primal Earth
Anything that looks like a big, floaty-swirling pile of rocks is a likely candidate for Motes of Earth. Far and away, I prefer Nagrand for the large amount of likely mobs to kill, and their relatively low level (mid 60s) There are plenty of Shattered Rumblers south of Osh’gun, near the edge of the world. You can also find various earth-based creatures wandering Nagrand proper (Tortured Earth Spirits and Enraged Crushers), so be sure to kill them when you see them! You can make runs along the mountain’s edge between the Throne of the Elements and Laughing Skull Keep to find Enraged Crushers.

As a bonus, Nagrand contains a lot of mining nodes, especially if you’re running the mountains I mentioned above. You can often get 3 or 4 motes from node, so if you’re a miner, this place is perfect.

In Shadowmoon Valley, you can go to the center of the zone to the Hand of Gul’Dan and kill Enraged Earth Spirits. They won’t drop as easily as the mobs in Nagrand, but when they drop additional loot, it will be better!

Primal Earths fetch the lowest price in the Auction House, probably owing that there aren’t a huge amount of good, popular items that especially need them. They’re also the easiest to get, thanks to them being found during mining. HOWEVER, if you are an alchemist, or know one, they can Transmute your Primal Earths into Primal Water!

Farming Primal Air
All those high-level tornado-looking mobs drop Motes of Air. Again, Nagrand is a great place to farm these, because of the Throne of the Elements. If you have a flying mount, head to the northeastern corner to get there. You’ll find plenty of Storming Wind-Rippers here. Be advised though, this place is constantly and heavily farmed by both factions.

Again, you can find more in Shadowmoon Valley, in the southeastern area. Look for mobs called Enraged Air Spirits. There is another group of them north of the Altar of Shatar.

Farming Primal Water
According to Thottbot, Shimmerscale Eels seem to be the best combination of low-level and decent % drops. They can be found in Terokkar Forest, at Slimyr Lake, north of Shattrath. These mobs drop fast, and have a decent drop rate. However, I found them to be always heavily farmed. Still, it’s a decent area to spend some time at, and there is also a lot of good mining in the mountain area.

You can also go to the Elemental Plateau in Nagrand and kill Crashing Wave Spirits for these. Previous warnings about this area still apply, especially to Motes of Water, as Primal Water is a particularly huge seller on most servers. Still, the elementals respawn quickly, and drop high-level greens sometimes, so this is a very good place to farm.

Another favorite spot of mine are Lake Spirits, found in Nagrand, in the lake just south of the Throne of the Elements. The lake is huge, so even if others are farming, you can probably go about your business steadily and in relative peace. I usually get about 20 motes per hour or so. If you’re not Undead or a Druid, and you have some Nagrand Cherrys left over from A Rare Bean, they let you breath underwater for 30 minutes per cherry. Otherwise, get a Deepdive Helmet, which lets you breath under water.

Muck Spawns around Halaa also drop motes of water, with the added benefit that you don’t need to be under water all the time. Blackwind Lake in Skettis in Terokkar Forest has Skettis Surgers, and they can also drop them. This place is somewhat less-often farmed, in my experience. Watch out for the 72 elite! He is deceptively sneaky.

Most high-level fishing spots will also fetch you Motes of Water. Look for Pure Water and fish! That also means you can combine killing at the lakes with fishing. But be warned! Other people want to farm these, too, and there are only so many viable farming spots in the world. Any popular primal farming spot is a good place to get PK’ed.


Farming Primal Fire
Motes of Fire can also be farmed at the Elemental Plateau in Nagrand. See why that place is so popular and dangerous? Kill Raging Fire-Souls there, they drop them often.

You can also go to Forge Camp Terror in the Bladefist Mountains to kill Vile Fire-Souls. This place is nicely out of the way, and you'll have a better chance to farm in peace here. Also in the Bladefist Mountains (northeastern part) you can go to Skald and kill Searing Elementals.

The Hand of Gul'Dan in Shadowmoon valley is another good source of Motes of Fire. Kill Enraged Fire Spirits here.

Wherever you go, if you've got fire resist gear, use it. It will greatly decrease your time between mobs, which will increase your gold per hour! Just watch your back -- if you had an easy time getting to the spot, opposing players will be able to as well, and they'd probably love to kill you.

Primal Fire sells very well in the Auction House!

Farming Primal Mana
Netherstorm is just about the only place where you can farm for Motes of Mana. I recommend Wizard’s Row in Kirin’Var village. Look for Mana Seekers and Mageslayers. You can drop these guys pretty quickly, and make great gold here.

Head south of Area 52 and you’ll find Nether Rays and Mana Wraiths. You can also kill Mana Snappers along the edges of the islands (check Thottbot for a map), which are less frequently farmed.

Primal Mana is probably one of the most expensive Primals on the Auction House, so don’t be afraid to sell high.

Farming Primal Life
The Bone Wastes in Terokkar are a great place to farm lower-level mobs. Look for Infested Root Walkers and Rotting Forest Ragers, which both have decent drop rates, and are only around level 64.

The Dead Mire in Zangamarsh is another good spot, with even lower level enemies. Remember how many Withered Bog Lords you killed here when you were questing? They’ll go down even more easily if you’re around 70, and they drop Motes of Life regularly.

Primal Life, like Primal Earth, is fairly easy to come by, and so doesn’t fetch a huge price in the Auction House, unfortunately.

Farming Primal Shadow
Motes of Shadow are the most easy to come by, out of all of them. Go to Hellfire Peninsula’s Pools of Aggonar and kill Terrorfiends for them. They are only level 61 ish, and you’ll go through them like butter. Chances are this was the first place you saw a Mote of anything drop, and you said to yourself “What the heck is this thing?” There’s also less of a chance of any higher-level PK’ers wandering around.

Also in Hellfire Peninsula is The Warp Fields, in the south. Kill the Uncontrolled Voidwalkers to quickly build up your Mote of Shadow supply. There seems to be an endless supply of these mobs, and I’ve never seen them farmed.

That’s all I’ve got for information on Primals. I hope this guide is helpful to some people! You can send me questions via e-mail or private message on the TenTonHammer forums (wave1345) if you need more information.

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