Sick

Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone. I'm sick right now, haven't felt up devoting that kind of brain power to anything. I work tonight, and that is going to suck. >.<

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.

Skinning Quillfang Ravagers in Hellfire

Crystal Infused Leather, aside from sounding very cool, is used in most high level Leatherworking recipes. However, it's kind of a specialty item in terms of where it comes from. It sells anywhere from 10-15g per stack on my server, so it's worth it to grind for it. It's not very hard, either!

Head to Hellfire Peninsula, and grind on Quillfang Ravagers. Kill, skin, rinse, repeat! Hold onto the Fel Scales they may drop, and keep your fingers crossed for greens! This is a somewhat out of the way spot (check the map for location), so don't worry about too much competition!

This isn't fancy: skinning is a straightforward deal! File this info away into your list of good gold grinding spots, or for when you roll a Leatherworker. ;)

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!

Get the Edge in the Auction House

Something few people take into consideration in the Auction House is the ORDER that items are listed in. The major factor in this is what the BID is set to. So, if you're undercutting someone's buyout, and they have a lower starting bid, their item gets listed higher up on someone's search results.

Now, no one is going to buy an item they don't even know is on the Auction House. Every little edge counts, and this one is easy to apply. Before listing something, check to see what your competition is. You'll already be undercutting their buyouts (you'd BETTER be, if you're listing it with competition!), but make sure you undercut their BID price as well. It only needs to be a little bit, and that will ensure that your item gets highest priority in someone's search! Every little bit counts.

Warlocks Need Ghost Mushrooms!

So, everyone always complains how easy it is for a Warlock to get their epic mount. They just quest for it, they don't need to buy it! True enough, but they need a lot of materials to fulfill the quest, and Elixers of Shadow Power, the main ingredient of which happens to be Ghost Mushrooms (3 of them).

Ghost Mushrooms are not easy to find. So, they are low in supply, and at least in the case of Warlocks, high in demand. They don't show up on the Auction House terribly often, because they are somewhat difficult to grind for, and the potions that Warlocks need almost never show up! So, if you're an Herbalist, head over to the Hinterlands and start looking. This is one of the few places the show up reliably. They also show up in Marudon, the Desolace instance, if you can solo it.

It's hard work getting these, but the rewards make it worth it. Warlocks, in a frenzy to get their awesome-looking mount, and NOT going to want to spend days on end grinding these mushrooms, and then brewing the potions. If they aren't Herbalist/Alchemy, they have no choice but to buy them! I don't recommend putting these on the Auction House, at least not all of them. Make sure to poll your guild or in /trade to see who needs them. Most Warlocks are aware of what they need before they even begin the quest, so they won't mind getting a jump start on materials!