- The new blacksmithing plans in Outlands have proved irresistable and I have decided to take my blacksmithing off haitus and try to get it up to level 300. After the disillusionment of buying masses of mithril to go through the Mithril Order quests and then finding there was no market for anything I was only using the blacksmithing to make Dense Sharpening Stones and Dense Weight Stones to add to my dps (I like these, I do find them useful). Ultimately blacksmithing in Outlands leads to the ability to make nice epic weapons, although you do have to raid dungeons to get the materials (the materials are bind-on-pickup and drop from end bosses) so I'm not sure if I will ever get to make them or if I would just settle for the epic weapons these bosses drop or the epic weapons I would buy in order to tackle the dungeons. In the meantime it is something I can dabble in as a sideline as long as I accept that it will never be profitable and I make sure I have other ways of generating the cash for a flying mount (see someone landing at a mail box, checking their mail, then taking off again or see a flying mount hovering and you just have to have one).
- To this end I decided to farm thorium. My Blacksmithing was at 269 and by making a few pairs of mithril spurs I squeezed another level out. Mithril spurs were ridiculously cheap in the Auction House so these are sitting in the bank until I upgrade my boots. I bought the plans for Thorium Bracers as these only need 12 thorium bars each along with a handful of blue power crystals from un'goro which I bought in auction to save the hassle of going there, it wasn't very expensive.
- From Honor Hold, the quickest route to somewhere with Thorium was back through the Dark Portal to the Blasted Lands so I went there. I ran around for a while grabbing any small thorium veins I could find (small thorium veins are good for maybe two bars).
- I found an ogre camp in the northwest that I once visited with the guild. There was thorium ore round the back and I found that at level 60 I can pretty much walk straight past the level 45 ogres, they just ignore me. There were two level 54 things among the ogres that did have a go but they were easily dispatched. In the middle of the camp was a large building and when I was there with the guild they told me not to go in so now with only myself to kill with stupid curiosity I went in. There were more level 45 ogres and a level 58 elite. I found I could kill all the 45's one at a time without agroing anything else in the room which was surprising as it wasn't a big place. I found a treasure chest and got a green. Finally I was alone with the big guy so I attacked him. He didn't like this and my health was plummeting fast so I just ran for it.
- Bored with blasted lands I wanted to go somewhere with Rich Thorium Veins, I like these as they are good for five bars each. I flew up to Eastern Plaguelands and tried to combine thorium farming with questing. I didn't find a vast amount of thorium there and I got engrossed in the questing.
- First quest was to kill a big troll in a crypt. This wasn't a big challenge, all the monsters were less than level 55 and these are very easy to kill. In the crypt I found a scroll for another quest to kill some guy and release his soul. I was supposed to search the whole Eastern Plaguelands for him so of course I googled it and he was in a camp up in the north east. I went into this camp and found two annoying types of troll: scouts who, when agroed would run off and rouse more mobs and cannibals who kept turning me into a frog. I had one epic fight when I accidently agroed two cannibals and a scout and the cannibals took turns to turn me into a frog. They also had health drain things and sucked my health for themselves. This fight went on for ages and the frog part is totally annoying as you just cannot control yourself.
- My target was wandering around in the middle of the camp. Since he was undead I could pull him with exorcism so I waited till he was close, with as few monsters nearby as possible, then I zapped him. He came running. Unfortunately the only mob near him was a scout who ran and alerted about five more mobs, including more damned cannibals. I tried running but died.
- Back again I took more time. Using the wonderful Linken's Boomerang I made sure to take out all the (non-undead) scouts and cannibals surgically before attempting the big guy. I finally pulled him with exorcism and he was an easy kill. Got his key and visited his grave for a couple of vendorable goodies. The XP rewards were about 5000, disappointing now I am used to 10k Outlands quests. Hearth back to outlands for a break.
- I made some Thorium Bracers and mailed them to my alt for auction. He put them up for knockdown prices (1g bid, 1g90 buyout) and someone has already bid for all four pairs (I think they are good for disenchanting but my alt is way too low level to do it).
- Honor hold and a quick farming trip on the laptop. Back to Blasted Lands, ran around some more, where else to get thorium, since EPL wasn't very good? Decided on Burning Steppes, a place I hadn't been to much but it was not too far away and high enough level to have lots of thorium. I flew to Lakeshire and ran up to Burning Steppes where I ran around on snowy picking up thorium. Even on the laptop this was straightforward, occasionally I would raise enough agro to be dismounted by two or three mobs but I had the shield and mace equipped all the time so I could fight my way out. Snowy is very useful for farming, I can cover large distances very quickly, a couple of laps of an area are not too boring.
- Another break and back to Honor Hold again. This time I decide to sort out the flight paths from Honor Hold where I am berthed for my questing to Shattrath City where I can use the portals to get to the major cities in the old world. Best thing about this plan is I can go straight to Darnassus and farm in Kalimdor without needing the damn boat. I found out from the internet where the flight paths are, I had to visit two places as in one of them I would have to change birds to complete my journey. The flight paths didn't take long to find, I can't remember the names right now so you'll have to google if you are interested. One of them was in a draenae town along the right side of the road to Zangarmarsh (look for a town) and the other was on top of a giant mushroom in Zangamarsh itself (look for a giant mushroom). Both these towns had masses of quests available but I'd still prefer to finish Honor Hold first.
- Back in Shattrath I used the portal to Darnassus and then flew to my favourite farming place, Winterspring. I ran around here for an hour or so. I got as far as tackling some of the level 60 elite giants down in the south and these were quite easy, needing maybe a stun/heal to keep me going. I didn't spend too much time on the giants, I didn't have a quest, the drops were mediocre and some other guys came along and did the run-past-someone-fighting-and-exploit-the-distraction thing which annoyed me so I left them to it.
- By now I was bored with farming and decided to have the evening off.
- 1:30am more farming. This was a nice session, quite lucrative, found many thorium veins. It was all in Winterspring and in a way I enjoyed it, snowy is fast, finding thorium is satisfying, there were few other people around to annoy me.
- Morning and more farming. This wasn't so successful, others had been up earlier than me. I made about 10 bars in half an hour.
- I now had a lot of thorium. I had mined 60 or so and I bought about 40 in auction but only where I could find real bargains: I don't want to buy my way to level 300, it's a waste of money. Using the thorium and the power crystals I made Thorium Bracers till the plans turned yellow. I've mailed the bracers to the alt and at the time of typing they are still in the mail.
- It's weird now running around the old world like this. On the whole snowy is fast enough to avoid most things and I haven't been killing much (haven't even used up all my rest bonus for over a day) but when I need to I can kill anything that isn't elite quite easily. My new slow one-handed mace can kill most things in 30 seconds (the time for a seal to expire). Even if the seal expires, a judgement of righteousness and a hammer of wrath is usually curtains. Have I mentioned that with devotion aura and the shield my armour is now 8000? On occasions in Winterspring I have been dismounted by three level 59-60 tigers and I can just slug it out with the slow mace, judged seal of light and seal of crusader I don't even need to switch to the fast mace for the extra healing. For these fights I don't really have to try, I don't bother to put a blessing up for example and I can do it comfortably on the laptop in bed. Farming is ok for some relaxation, Outlands is where the challenges are. I'm getting a bit overdue for some embarrasing deaths. These will probably be at times when more people are around to witness them.
- My guildies are pulling away in the levelling stakes. I don't mind, especially if I end up weilding epic's I've made with my own hands: come to think of it blue weapons may suffice, if my green mace is so good, think what a blue would do.
WoW Daily News Issue 70
Submitted by Peter on Tue Apr 10 2007 07:35
about 1 year ago
Peter Says:
Tue Apr 10 2007 16:11 about 1 year agoI only found out today that blizzard halved the amounts of thorium in these plans for TBC so this is where I will be headed next.
Peter
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Peter's Moblog
If you're looking to level your blacksmithing to 300 you might want to try buying Imperial Plate plans from the Thorium Brotherhood guy in Gadgetzan (Tanaris). See thottbot.com/?set=321 for details.