Miners Trick with Felsteel

Here's a quick little trick I have found decent success with as a miner. Get some Fel Iron from Helfire Peninsula - it's all over. Make Fel Iron Bars. Now, hit the AH and look for Eternium Bars. It takes 2 Eternium and 3 Fel Iron bars (4 Eternium ore and 6 Fel Iron ore) to make a Felsteel Bar. I usually find 2 Eternium bars for 3-4 gold. So, I pay the 3-4 gold for it, smelt a bar of Felsteel, and turn around and sell that for 12-15 gold! It's a quick trick, very easy to do, and as long as you aren't overpaying for the Eternium, it's always a profit.

Mining in Nagrand

One of my friends was, at one time, a very dedicated WoW player. He could put so much time into it that it baffled me, and still does. I can only go for maybe 2 hours of play at a time, and usually only once a day! My friends, through a combination of question at 70 and mining, made the 5000 gold for his epic mount in about 3 weeks.

Now, I've already done a post about questing at 70. If you've got the stomach for it, grind as much as possible. That will leave you with tons of quests to do at 70, and you'll get gold for each. I may, if I can stand it, do that with my shadow priest, once I get there. I'll definitely keep track, though, and post the results if I do.

Now, mining. The best place to mine in Outlands is Nagrand. Almost all the nodes are adamantite, or rich adamantite deposits. I did about 30 minutes there just now, and got got 27 ore, 20 motes of earth, and 4 eternium ore. All told, that's about 70 gold. I know, 70 gold an hour isn't huge, but it's RELIABLE. I'm going to put this money to use in the Auction House, which I still think is the best way to turn a little money into a lot. I'm going to start keeping a log of what I do with a starting amount of 70 gold or so, rather like Derek's Gold Project X. It'll be an interesting way to show Auction House tactics, and it'll force me to not be lazy and abandon it! Thoughts?

The Daily Quests

Okay, here we go, time for me to go over daily quests. If you don't know why they are good, here is why: there are about 15 daily quests over all of the factions, and they give an average of 10g or so per. However, you can only do 10 per day, so plan accordingly! This is how people usually get the 5,000 they need to get their flying mount! Anyway, here we go!

Netherwing Quests
First of all, you need to be Neutral with Netherwing to begin the daily quests. If you aren't neutral yet, follow this link to the WoWHead list of the quest chain, with lots of helpful comments! Netherwing is the faction that allows you to get a Netherdrake at the end of the long, long road.

Once you are Neutral (9 quests later), and have some sort of flying mount, you can do the dailies. Here they are, with links to WoWHead for details. I will include gold approximates, but if you want the real skinny on them, follow the links.

Netherwing Crystals : 12g, 250 rep
A Slow Death : 12g, 250 rep
The Not-So-Friendly Skies : 12g 250 rep

When you get to Friendly, more become available.
Picking Up the Pieces : 18g, 350 rep
Dragons are the Least of our Problems : 12g, 350 rep
Booterang: A Cure For The Common Worthless Peon : 12g, 350 rep

At Honored you can begin to do one more.
Disrupting the Twilight Portal : 12g, 500 rep

Two more become available at Revered.
The Deadliest Trap Ever Laid (Scryers) : 12g, 500 rep
The Deadliest Trap Ever Laid (Aldor) : 12g, 500 rep


Skyguard Quests
There are two Skyguard quest hubs, one north of Skettis in Blackwind Landing, and Skyguard Outpost, in Blade's Edge Mountains. You need to do do these prereqs before you can do dailies. Skyguard is the faction that allows you to get a Nether Ray at Exalted.

Threat from Above : 250 rep
To Skettis! : 10 rep

Now, the dailies.
Fires Over Skettis : 12g, 350 rep
Escape From Skettis : 12g, 350 rep


Ogri'la Quests
To do the Blade's Edge Mountains quests, you need to unlock the Ogri'la quest chain. The best 2 Ogri'la dailies also give rep for Skyguard, which is handy!

Speak With the Ogre
Mog'Dorg the Wizened
Even Gronn Have Standards
Grulloc Has Two Skulls
Maggoc's Treasure Chest
Grim(oire) Business
Into the Soulgrinder
Speak With Mog'Dorg
Ogre Heaven

There are two pre-quests to being able to do Ogri'la dailies (28, 56, Blade's Edge)
The Crystals
An Apexis Relic

Now for the dailies:
The Relic's Emanation : 12g, 250 rep, 15 Apexis Shards

When you get Friendly, do these pre quests:
The Skyguard Outpost
Bombing Run
Wrangle Some Aether Rays

That opens up Bomb Them Again! : 12g, 500 rep (Ogri'la AND Skyguard), 15 Apexis Shards
and Wrangle More Aether Rays! : 12g, 350 rep (Ogri'la AND Skyguard), 15 Apexis Shards

Once you get Honored, you can do Banish the Demons
Which opens up Banish More Demons : 12g, 350 rep

That's a lot of quests! I hope I presented it in a form that makes it easy to understand. As always, leave a comment if you need to point something out to me; I always read them!

Fishing for Motes of Water

Tired of grinding water elementals? Have a high fishing skill you never use?

Well, let's be honest. Grinding water elementals is probably the most efficient way to get motes of water. Fishing, great skill though it is, isn't one many people keep up to snuff in Outlands. However, aside from being able to fish for then cook some very nice +stat food, you can fish for motes of water, if you'd like a change of pace!

Fishing spots work a bit differently from other nodes. The best place to fish for motes of water is in Nagrand, in the 3 MAIN lakes (the 3 that almost touch, biggest on the map, hard to miss). Across all 3 exist about 30 pools of water (bluefish school, mudfish school, or pure water). When you fish one, it immediately respawns at another location, as one of the 3 types I listed.

Now, you want to look for the Pure Water, though you need to fish ALL of them you see, in hopes that when the spot respawns elsewhere, it will be pure water. There's about a 90% chance you'll get a mote of water from it. If you get 4 or 5 motes per pool at maybe 8 pools an hour, that's somewhere between 2.5 and 4 primal water per hour, roughly. The good thing is that fishing is somewhat hard to get to the level needed (about 450, preferably), and pretty annoying to boot, so your competition should be minimal!

New Chest Farming for Rogues

So, Blizz fixed the old Mechanar chest farming exploit, which flooded the market with world blues, and generally contributed to a large drop in price for many items. Well, someone has already figured out a new one for Manatombs, if you have a decently geared 70 rogue.

So, here's the thread on the WoW forums discussing it, and here is the link to a handy instructional video!

Have fun not-quite-cheating, you sneaky people. :p

Ragesteel Shoulders

Okay, here's one that's time based, but it works pretty well for now!

Everyone is all abuzz with the new recipes out in the 2.2 patch. One of the nicer ones if the addition of Ragesteel Shoulders to the Ragesteel set for warriors. The shoulders are probably the nicest part of the set, and at the moment, not many people have the plans for them. (Plans drop from the Enraged Air elementals in Shadowmoon). The materials to make them are pretty ordinary, except for Scroll of Strength V, which you need 2 of.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't mean anything. You can't buy them, and pretty much need to rely on drops for them. Now that they have a part in a nice recipe, prices have skyrocketed, especially because buying them on the AH is the only way to reliably and easily find them. Or is it? If you haven't finished up Zangamarsh, you might be in luck! Unfinished Business for the Alliance, or A Job Undone for the Horde, has FIVE of these babies as one of the optional quest rewards! So if you haven't done it, go do it! Put those scrolls on the Auction House, and underbid the competition by a fair amount. No matter what you sell them for, it's pure profit.

AoE Grinding in Shadowmoon Valley

Whoa, sorry for the long time between posts! The days just got away from me!

Here's a very nice spot for a level 70 mage to AoE grind and make some serious gold! Head to Shadowmoon Valley and go to the Ruins of Karabor. You're looking for Demon Hunter Supplicants, and they won't be hard to find because there are 15 or 20 of them, all close together, all level 70. Don't be alarmed! Blizzard, thankfully, has them training with each other, so they aren't all at full health. Being the sneaky, opportunistic type that we are, we will take advantage of this!

These mobs are mainly melee fighters, so if you're good at kiting with AoE, you'll have dished out some serious damage before they even get to you. I know they are all level 70, but if you know how to AoE properly, you should be alright. One thing to remember is that they respawn very quickly. Yeah, that's pretty great in terms of little downtime, but be careful they don't spawn on you while you loot the huge pile of bodies. Try to pull them a little bit away from where you found them, just to be safe.

Bits of silver from each mob, decent amounts of greens, and lots of Scryer rep items are to be had! Unless another mage is AoE grinding, there's really no reason for anyone to be here other than for doing quests, so competition should be minimal. Get to it!

Grinding Advice for Rogues

Rogues, there are only 2 things to consider when looking for a good grinding spot: Are the mobs wearing cloth, and are they melee or casters? For maximum efficiency, they must be cloth wearers. You'll go through them much more quickly than beasts or armored mobs. If they are melee, fight a few to find out what kind of damage they do to you, and judge if it's worth it. If they are casters, well, you've got it made. Low health, squishy armor, and casts you can interrupt, what more could you ask for?

Now, there are tons of spots in the world to grind mobs, but most people don't need to grind until 70, as you're better off questing before then. So, I will offer my 2 favorite spots with squishtastic mobs, and good rewards. If anyone would like me to add spots for other level ranges, leave a comment and I will!

Deadwind Pass: The ogres in Deadwind (Deadwind Brutes, Deadwind Maulers and Deadwind Ogre Mages) are actually fairly weak. As a Rogue, you should just breeze through them. They drop lots of Runecloth, and of course, some silver and copper. The birds that fly around are weak in hitpoints/armor, but do decent damage and have a DoT they constantly use. Unless you're combat specced, I'd avoid them, as being dotted will ruin an ambushing Rogue's efficiency.

The Legion Hold, Shadowmoon Valley: If you haven't guessed, this is one of my favorite places ever to grind. Look for Wrathwalkers, as they are all over the place. They drop Netherweave by the truckload, also rep items you can sell/turn in. At the top of Legion Hold, where the infernals are, you will find Shadow Council Warlocks. These mobs are just too easy, and also drops tons of cloth and good greens. Low hitpoints, and all they do is cast Shadow Bolt. If you're 70, they will likely only get through one cast before dying, which you will interrupt anyway. VERY little downtime here, folks. The respawn rate seems to vary, but even with 3 people here at once, you will never have to wait for a target. The Warlocks in particular are a nice grind, as they have the chance to drop Recipe: Fel Strength Elixer, if you're an Alchemist.

Remember Rogues, bring bandages, bring lots of food, and bring empty bags. Enjoy the grind!

Primal Water and Primal Air for Alchemists

In response to a request, here's some info about primal waters and primal air.

Now, alchemists can transmute water to air, which is nice to have, as air can be somewhat difficult to farm sometimes. On my server, primal air is the most expensive primal of all, and the least available, likely owing to that it has no particularly awesome farming spot (use my search bar if you're interested, I think I covered good farming spots in another post). Also, the recipe to transmute primal water to primal air is indeed a revered reward from the Cenarion Expedition, so a huge amount of people aren't going to be doing it.

What it comes down to is patience. The cooldown on transmuting Primals is a long one, so it isn't as though you'll be making a ton of gold a day by doing it. But, you WILL make gold. Primals are one of the most easily sold items, in my opinion. I always sell mine through the trade channel, and they always sell well, if you undercut the AH by a gold or two. Again, the problem is simply time taken to transmute. If anyone wants to try this, my advice is to grab up multiple Primal Waters at the lowest price you can, and keep them in your bag to transmute whenever you can. When you market them in /trade, be sure to give the option of buying them individually, in case someone doesn't want "10x primal air!".

On a related note, you can also transmute Primal Earth to Primal Water, via a Sporeggar revered recipe. Primal Earth is just dirt cheap, because it's so easy to get. You can make a much bigger profit with this recipe, transmuting Primal Earth to Primal Water (in the neighborhood of 20g profit, on my server).

May the Grind Be With You - More Aldor Rep

Boy, am I sick of grinding Aldor rep. I've been LIVING at Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley for a week, grinding whenever I play. It's contributing well to my flying mount fund, but still, it gets old.

So, today I tried a new spot - the Arklon Ruins, southeast of Area 52 in Netherstorm. Wow! It's actually a great place to grind. The mobs are Artifact Seekers and Felblade Doomguards. Unlike the Legion Hold mobs, who have high-damage spells you need to watch out for, these mobs only auto attack, and weakly. They are quite squishy, and I only had to stop to eat about once per 10 or so kills. Also, they drop Marks of Sargeras at about 30%, which is 5% higher than the mobs at Legion Hold! It doesn't seem like much, but it really is. They also drop Fel Armaments more. In 1 hour of grinding I got 2 greens, 42 Marks, and 4 Fel Armaments! The only downside is that I didn't come out with 100+ Netherweave to sell. :(

So, there you have it. For a speed grind, hit Arklon Ruins. For lots of gold as well as rep items, Legion Hold.

Mapwow.com

Mapwow is a very, very useful tool. Basically, it's like Google Earth, but for World of Warcraft! Even better, you can set it to show the spawn points of any environmental nodes, like herbs, mining nodes, or treasure chests!

With the ability to zoom out, you can find which zones have inherently more of whatever item(s) you are looking for. If you're a rogue, I suggest you begin farming treasure chests in Outlands as soon as you have the ability. You can gather lots of blues or epics with some persistence and luck (or, lacking luck, just lots of persistence). Or if you're a blacksmith, make some keys and go to it! I do recommend that if you're going to go farming for things like this, have at least your epic ground mount. Of course, a flying mount makes everything in Outlands even easier, ESPECIALLY when you can bypass all the mobs and get to where you want to go without hassle!

Alternatively, look up the Cartographer addon in Google, and you will find that it can be set up to modify your maps ingame to show these same spawn points. I have more info about that particular functionality in my post about Cartographer databases!

May the Grind Be With You - Alliance and Horde in Shadowmoon Valley

Okay, everyone, this one is kind of fun. In Shadowmoon Valley, in the Outlands, the Alliance town is "Wildhammer Stronghold", and the Horde town is "Shadowmoon Village". These are two of the main quest hubs in the zone for each faction, and interestingly, you don't even need to leave town to complete one of them!

For the Horde, the quest begins with Chief Apocethary Hildagard, and for the Alliance, Zorus the Judicator.

The quest you are interested in is the second of a chain, the first of which there are no requirements to take, other than speaking to Fantei in Shattrath first. So, find your NPC and knock out the first quest, and accept the second, which for the Horde is Spectrecles, and for the Alliance is Harbingers of Shadowmoon.

This is a typical grind quest, but here's the kicker: It takes place INSIDE a town. The mobs are very easy to kill, level 67-68. They drop lots of Netherweave, and are plentiful and quickly spawning. In short, this is a perfect, safe, lucrative place to grind! And the best part is that you're perfectly safe! So, next time you get ganked at your favorite grind spot, keep in mind that you have a much, much safer option open to you!

Questing at Level 70

Here's something many people don't consider. When you hit level 70, the experience you can no longer get from a quest is made up for by having a larger gold reward. Currently, my quests in Netherstorm are worth 11g99s, even the easiest little things!

When I was leveling, I grinded quite a bit for gold. The end result is that I've still got 3 ENTIRE zones of untouched quests. At at least 12g per, and 20g for elite/group quests, that's more than enough for my first flying mount, especially when added to the gold I'll get from drops! Don't underestimate this, everyone. There's a huge difference between getting 3.9 gold for a quest and getting 12 gold per quest. This can be serious money, and you still get the equipment and reputation. It's win-win-win! So, if you've got the stomach for grinding, do it! Save up those quests, and complete them at 70. Your wallet will thank you!

Picking Manathistle

Mana Thistle is a great herb for alchemists. Other than having a cool name, it is needed for many higher end recipes, such as the various Cauldrons, and most of the highest level elemental protection and healing/mana potions. Also, when you pick it, it restores some mana! How cool is that?

Mana Thistle can only be picked by a master Herbalist, that is, 375 skill. Aside from that, the places it grows most consistently can only be reached with a flying mount! So, this is not an easy herb to get, which means it tends to sell high and well.

• In Terokkar Forest, you can pick it in the southeast corner, at Skettis. Also, in the Barrier Hills just above the Aldor base.
• In Blade's Edge Mountains, check out the Pinnacle Vortext to the west, and Felstorm Point in the north.
• In Netherstorm, in the northwest, at Socrethar's Seat.
  
• In Shadowmoon Valley, check out the southeastern Netherwing Ledge.

Here's a link to Thottbot to help you. Just click on the zone you want to check out and it'll bring up a map. This stuff sells for 50-60 gold per stack on most servers, so if you're an Herbalist, get picking!

Rep and Gold From Skyguard Quests

Right now, the Holy Grail of World of Warcraft is getting an epic flying mount. A massive 280% speed increase, and the added bonus of being able to avoid troublesome ground paths and mobs entirely! No wonder everyone wants one.

To get one, you must first be exalted with the Sha'tari Skyguard faction of Shattrath. Now, grinding rep with them is a little different, because it is done mainly through "daily quests", which are quests that can be done every day, but only once each day. They give not only Skyguard rep, but also 12+ gold per quest! Do the 4 daily quests each day, and you're looking at a lot of gold! Of course, this is intentional, because it takes 5000 gold to get the epic flying mount. By the time you get Exalted with Skyguard, you'll have earned a ton of gold.

First thing to do is complete Threat From Above in Terokkar, to join the Skyguard. Then, simply do each quest every day. Here are the 4 main Skyguard quests, linked to Thottbot. There are more quests that can be repeated each day; I will be adding them soon enough.

Skyguard quests: Fires Over Skettis, Escape From Skettis, Bomb Them Again, Wrangle More Rays.

Netherweb Spider Silk

Netherweb Spider Silk is needed in almost every Tailoring recipe above 350. This stuff is particularly hard to get (unless you read this!), so a lot of players resort to simply buying it.

Now, one good place to get it is in Terokkar Forest. My favorite spot is the little green strip of land on the East side of the Bone Wastes. Look for Allerian Stronghold on your map, and then follow the mountain range south, and you should see it. There are more spiders here than elsewhere in Terokkar. However, the drop rate is rather low, and it is very often farmed. But even a low amount of silk will sell for a pretty penny!

Now, if you happened to be able to go into the Caverns of Time, I suggest the Black Morass. Look for Blackfang Tarantulas. Like most non-elite instance mobs, they give no rep per kill. Worthless, right? Wrong! They have a decent chance of dropping Netherweb Spider Silk! And the best part is, there is no competition if you're farming in an instance. These mobs are only 67-69; very easy for a level 70 rip through. If you kill them all, just reset the instance. When you're bags are full, hit the Auction House. Don't be afraid to undercut the competition to sell! When you sell all of yours, that negligible loss of gold won't even matter. Happy farming!

May the Grind Be With You - Shadowmoon Valley's Legion Hold

So, I'm currently in the middle of grinding for Aldor rep, and I've discovered my favorite place to grind that, experience, and items: The Legion Hold in Shadowmoon Valley. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but it bears going over in more detail.

If you're melee, you want to go after the Wrathwalkers. They hit me (warri0r) for about 80-100 each hit, without a shield. They attack slowly, and other than they only cast one spell, maybe once per battle, and it can be easily interrupted. They have low armor and low HP, and I have been cutting through them in under 10 seconds, usually. They drop Marks of Sargeras, which is what I was there for. But they also drop Netherweave like candy -- I got 100 pieces in an hour. I also got 3 decent greens.

I only ever saw a few other people here, and even if there are, there are tons of mobs. Casters, you can probably focus on whichever mobs you want. Just be warned, the Terrormasters cast fear sometimes, which can run you into more mobs, even when they're spaced out as they are here. Otherwise, these mobs are unremarkable in their abilities.

Ranging in level from 67 to 68, this is a great place to farm gold (especially if Netherweave sells well on your server, and it does on most!), and simply grind out levels. I was hitting about 110k xp/hour. Plus, there are Horde/Alliance areas nearby, if you need to junk vendor trash, mail stuff to your banker, or buy more food/water.

May the Grind Be With You - Terokkar's Shadow Tomb

The best grinding spots are places where the mobs are relatively easy for their level, plentiful, but not dangerously so, and somewhere where you'll be safe and left in peace by both factions.

Go to Terokkar and look on your map. In the Bone Wastes, there are 2 icons for buildings of a sort. The one on the left is a Shadow Tomb. It's a 3-wing area, and each wing has 7 to 10 mobs, built of warrior types, mage types, and rogue types. Now, the rogues don't stealth, the mages don't do much damage, and the warriors are rather squishy. They're level 64 and 65, mostly.

This spot is a fantastic place to grind from maybe 65 or 66 on. Not only will you get tons of Aldor rep items (Marks of Kil'Jaeden and Fel Armaments), you'll rarely find other players in here, because most people grind on the mobs above the surface, not in the tomb. The mobs are easy to pull one at a time, and even if you pull two, you can probably handle it. I grinded here for about 1 hour, and I got 3 greens, 1 blue (Boots of Savagery), 50 marks of Kil'Jaeden, 4 stacks of Netherweave, and 1 stack of Runecloth. I was averaging about 120,000xp per hour, because by the time you clear the last wing, the 1st wing is respawned. There is almost no downtime aside from resting.

Grind on!

May the Grind Be With You - The Legion Hold

Keeping in theory with my guide about farming in Deadwind Pass, here's another tip on a great spot to simply grind mobs for reliable gold. These are good things to know, because selling items to other players is simply too variable of a thing to be relied on ALL the time.

Go to Shadowmoon Valley, to the Legion Hold. Here, you'll find Terrormasters, Wrathwalkers and Mo'Arg Weaponsmiths. They aren't terribly hard to kill, and there are lots of them! They drop silver, Aldor rep items, and Netherweave. They also have a chance of dropping Eternium Lockboxes, and various other greens and blues.

Remember, it isn't always about being smart. Grinding mobs is a reliable way to bring in some quick gold, as long as you've got the patience for it!

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.