Archaeology - Northrend

It seems as though I am still on a archaeology kick since my last post. I took a little break to /love some critters (for the achievements, of course) and do a little fishing but I am going to assume this interest is going to continue until I move onto to solving the rest of the continents or just become filled with irritation at common finds and flying everywhere via flight points.

Since I last posted, I went to work on finding Northrend artifacts. I was hoping as I started out that it would be like Outlands and I would only come across two different types of dig sites. Sadly, this is not the case. I have found Night Elf and Troll out here, as well as Nerubian and Vykrul. I wouldn't have been so bothered about it if there was only one or two sites for each but I acquired so many that I had to start solving them. It wouldn't have been too much of a problem if I didn't find a Night Elf rare.

I have to admit that I was a little superstitious when it came to Archaeology. I only wanted to solve one artifact once I got that rare - the rare itself. If I had to solve one of the others, then I'd have to solve it but I definitely didn't want to. Getting a Night Elf rare in Northrend put me in the situation when I found my superstition was invalid.

At two points, I did have two rares in my book. The Wisp Amulet and the Blessing of the Old God and then later the Nifflevar Bearded Axe and the still unfinished Wisp Amulet, as of course I could never get Night Elf dig sites once I picked up that rare. As I took flights all across Northrend trying to get Night Elf sites, my Vykrul and Nerubian start stacking up, so solving those two rares were rather a breeze.

The first Northrend rare I found was the Vrykul Drinking Horn and my last was Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron. I also solved the Voodoo Figurine while I was out there as it just did not want to give me the Puzzle Box for quite some time. Of course, just as I had trouble finding Night Elf dig sites in Northrend when I had the Amulet, I had trouble getting Troll dig sites when I had the Voodoo Figurine. Once I did manage to get the Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, of course, I had difficulty finding Nerubian dig sites for it. I have a new hypothesis that once you get a rare, dig sites for that one can be so difficult to find. I am dreading how long it's going to take for my Tol'vir pieces to be complete.

On a slightly related note, while hunting down dig sites, I managed to get two rares for my Frostbitten Achievement (Zul'drak Sentinel and Syreian the Bonecarver). I also came across, to my surprise, the Time Lost Proto Drake, which I managed to get for my main and took a little time out to camp Skoll for my husband while I was working on other things.

I never thought I would get this!

After (finally) solving the Puzzle Box, which now whispers sweet, sweet, creepy things to me, I solved all the extra Troll & Night Elf pieces I had and ended up getting another rare Night Elf to solve. As Northrend archeology took me much longer that Outlands, I am debating taking a break from it before I move onto solving the rest of the artifacts.

I have reset my hearth to Eastern Kingdoms now just in case I do decide to continue doing Archeology. If not, I will at least be close to popping over to the Service Entrance of Stratholme for my daily run. 

Here's my Excel listings I made for my Northrend finds. I'll include Night Elf and Troll finds in one of my other posts.

Blessing of the Old God

Nerubian

Name	Fragments	Type	Discovery Dates	Notes
Blessing of the Old God	140	Rare		Toy
Ewer of Jormungar Blood	45	Common
Gruesome Heart Box	45	Common
Infested Ruby Ring	45	Common
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron	140	Rare		Toy
Scepter of Nezar'Azret	45	Common		Part of the Seven Scepters Achievement
Six-Clawed Cornice	45	Common
Spidery Sundial	45	Common
Vizier's Scrawled Streamer	45	Common

Vrykul Drinking Horn

Vrykul

Name	Fragments	Type	Discovery Dates	Notes
Fanged Cloak Pin	45	Common
Flint Striker	45	Common
Intricate Treasure Chest Key	45	Common
Nifflevar Bearded Axe	130	Rare		Agility Axe
Scramseax	45	Common
Thorned Necklace	45	Common
Vrykul Drinking Horn	100	Rare		Toy

Dig sites I came across:

Night Elf

Crystalsong Forest
	Violet Stand/ Crystalsong Forest
	Ruins of Shandaral
Borean Tundra
	Riplash Ruins
Dragonblight
	Glittering Strand
	Moonrest Gardens

Nerubian

Borean Tundra
	Temple City of En'kilah
	Borean Tundra/ Sands of Nasam
	Talramas
Icecrown
	Scourgeholme
	Scourgeholme/ The Pit of Fiends
Zul'Drak
	Kolramas
Dragonblight
	Icemist Village/ Stars' Rest

Troll 

Zul'Drak
	Alter of Quetz'lun
	Alter of Sseratus
	Zim'Rhuk
	Zol'Heb
Grizzly Hills
	Drakil'jin Ruins

Vrykul 

The Storm Peaks
	Brunnhildar Village
Howling Fjord
	Baleheim
	Nifflevar
	Wyrmskull Village
	Skorn
	Shield Hill
	Gjalerbron
	Halgrind
Grizzly Hills
	Voldrune
Icecrown
	Ymirheim
	Njorndar Village
	Jotunheim

The Not-So-Crafty Old Crafty

Such a pretty bird.

Usually in my adventures through Azeroth, I try for two things - Lord Aurius Rivendare and the Heroic: Sethekk Halls mounts. I'm taking a (slightly) frustrated break from these two. I'm still under 100 kills for each of these and I know I'll be working at them forever. I would probably do better with finding them in a Call-to-Arms bag with the drop rate.

I am not usually lucky in getting mounts to drop and when they do and I'm with other people, I never get them. This is also the case for me getting the last piece I need in my raiding set. There's usually that one thing that holds you back from getting what you need to complete it and for me, that's my shoulders. It took me until after the Hour of Twilight dungeons released to finally get an upgrade to better shoulders from the ZA/ZG runs. I already hated the place and the fact that it wouldn't give me a much better item made me dislike it anymore.

Rivendare, give me your mount, you jerk!

Fast forward to months after the HoT heroics have been released and I'm still in my ZA/ZG shoulders that I got months ago. Raiding hasn't even been kind to me in that regard. So now I start hitting up the Archbishop every day instead of running randoms and I finally get my shoulders to drop not long after that and my iLvl finally raises enough and I hit Cataclysmically Epic. Finally! I'm rather pleased with that and go on to knock out some lower achievements that day to work on Loremaster and some Lich King achievements that I missed.

At the end of the day, I decide to set myself down and do a little bit of fishing in Orgrimmar just for the heck of it. Okay, I did have a reason. Usually my bags are almost always full to the brim with random items. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a hoarder in WoW and sometime I'll post about some of the things I have picked up along the way. So here I was with about eight or nine empty slots and a free moment so I plop myself down and decide to fish enough to fill up my bags. With my bags almost full, I manage to fish up this.

I got my shoulders to finally drop and I fished up an achievement in one day. Thinking it may just be my lucky day, I try for my dailies but no Raven Lord or Deathcharger. Apparently, this luck isn't something I could push.

Off-hand-ing Old Crafty!

I am still rather pleased I got this off-hand fancy fish. Although, I was rather disappointed to find out that I couldn't go out and slap someone with it. As with most things, I'll just keep this in my bags/bank as a souvenir for something silly later on.

And if you try mounting with a weapon and a fish, it looks like you're getting it sliced for cooking!

See you next week!