Archaeology - Outlands Style

Let me just start this post by saying I hated Archeology. Hated, the key word there. I really thought it was going to be something else when it first came out and I felt a bit disappointed when I went out and did it for the first time.

"Your find is over here!"
"Actually I've changed my mind. It's over here."
"...Maybe it's over here?"
"Yeah, you're getting closer."
"Not close enough."
"Still not close enough."
"Nope."
"Not yet."
"Nope."
"Okay. Here you go."

And that's just to find one. As I write this, I have just maxed out my Archeology a few days ago and it's been almost a year and a half since Cata launched. I don't know if I can say I still hate Archeology but I think it's just more of a frustrated feeling than a hate. I want rares, just like everyone else and solving artifact after artifact and getting nothing new, can be rather annoying.

I think I may have worked out a system to make it easier on myself. I've started tracking my dig sites in Excel with the items listed for each race and tracking when I found them. Sadly, there's some I haven't found and others I've found at least three times already.

I know it's spelled Archaeology in game but I go back and forth with the spelling of it.

Keeping track of all this, I've decided to concentrate on certain continents to knock out my finds quicker. I've just finished working on Outlands and am debating on what continent to tackle next. I may take a break to concentrate on some other achievements first as Archeology can quickly get tiring to me. It's really perfect when I'm looking to take a nap as all the flying starts to make me sleepy after a while. It's a bit like reading my Theatre History book in college but I digress, this is about Outlands Archaeology finds.

The first rare I came across in Outlands was the Headdress of the First Shaman, an Orc Rare if you didn't know already. It is rather lovely, although I have no idea what to do with it as my Hunter and Shaman already have their heirloom helms. I suppose that I can stop farming the Big Bad Wolf's Head now since this seems to be much better looking on my hunter for transmog possibilities.

Once I sat down and started concentrating on them, I basically knocked out all of my Outlands Archaeology over a three day weekend. Earlier, I had only found four of the twenty finds and it took me thirty finds exactly to get all the Orc and Draenei artifacts available. My last artifact find was the Draenei rare Arrival of the Naaru and I was pleased when I finally saw that appear after solving common after common find. Overall, it didn't really take that long since Outlands isn't that large itself, so I'm slightly dreading how long it's going to take me to dig everything up in Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend.

For those of you who are still working on your Draenei and Orc finds, here's a little set up I made in Excel.

 Draenei

Name	Fragments	Type	Discovery Dates	Notes
Anklet with Golden Bells	45	Common
Arrival of the Naaru	124	Rare		Toy
Baroque Sword Scabbard	46	Common
Carved Harp of Exotic Wood	45	Common
Dignified Portrait	45	Common
Fine Crystal Candelabra	44	Common
The Last Relic of Argus	130	Rare		Teleporter
Plated Elekk Goad	45	Common
Scepter of the Nathrezim	46	Common		Part of Seven Scepters Achievement
Strange Silver Paperweight	46	Common

Orc

Name	Fragments	Type	Discovery Dates	Notes
Fiendish Whip	45	Common
Fierce Wolf Figurine	45	Common
Gray Candle Stub	45	Common		Part of The Harder They Fall Achievement
Headdress of the First Shaman	130	Rare
Maul of Stone Guard Mur'og	45	Common		Part of The Harder They Fall Achievement
Rusted Steak Knife	45	Common		Part of The Harder They Fall Achievement
Scepter of Nekros Skullcrusher	45	Common		Part of Seven Scepters Achievement
Skull Drinking Cup	45	Common
Tile of Glazed Clay	45	Common
Tiny Bronze Scorpion	45	Common		Part of The Harder They Fall Achievement

I love working with Excel. I've charted out so many projects I'm working on in WoW, usually to track my progress towards a goal of rep or achievements. My husband also uses it mainly to track their wins/loses and probability in LFR. Perhaps I can get them to do an article in the future on their charts and numbers that they have come up since they are more mathematically inclined than myself.

For now, these are two pages in my Archaeology Excel book that I can mark as completed. Feel free to use this setup if you like or tweak it to your own liking. Personally, I liked to track the discovery dates as the Archaeology book in WoW only tells your first find date and how many times you've found that item. I like to have the knowledge that "Yes, I just solved this find two months ago and now I have it again and have just solved it twice today. Wee, what a thrill."

For those of you also interested, these are the dig sites in Outlands that I came across:

Draenei

Netherstorm
	Arklon Ruins
	Ruins of Enkaat
	Ruins of Farahlon
Shadowmoon Valley
	Coilskar Point
	Eclipse Point
	Illdari Point
	Ruins of Baa'ri
Terokkar Forest
	Auchindoun/ Ring Of Observance
	The Bone Wastes
	Tuurem
Zangermarsh
	Twin Spire Ruins

Orc 

Hellfire Peninsula
	Gor'gaz Outpost
	Hellfire Basin
	Hellfire Citadel/The Path of Glory
	Zeth'Gor
Nagrand
	Ancestral Grounds
	Burning Blade Ruins
	Laughing Skull Ruins
	Sunspring Post
Shadowmoon Valley
	Warden's Cage
Terokkar Forest
	Bleeding Hollow Ruins
	Bonechewer Ruins
	Grangol'var Village

I want to say that my least favorite find was Auchindoun/Ring of Observance because of the mounting/dismounting that had to be done flying in and out of the ring. It was rather frustrating after a while. My favorites were Laughing Skull & Burning Blade Ruins as I am also farming Mag'har & Consortium rep so I was able to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Overall, it wasn't a terrible an experience as I thought it might be so I may in fact just knock out the rest of my archeology finds over the next few weeks. Of course, once Mists becomes available, I'll probably put this profession on the back-burner again for some time.