Archaeology in Mists

[Deleted]

I was wondering, what do you think Blizzard will do with Archaeology in Mists?

In Cataclysm, Archaeology had one big flaw for me, and that was the gear rewards. At the beginning of Cata, a lot of people felt 'forced' into doing it to try and get Zin'rokh. However, once Firelands came out, the gear from Archaeology wasn't too great, and then completely useless once Dragon Soul came out.

There's also the argument that it's very time consuming and boring, considering the rewards. Personally, I don't think that's a huge issue, since if you find it boring, unless it's giving BiS weapons, you don't have to do it. That said, the amount. However, I would like to see more digsites in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, maybe even some more in the other zones, just so that you don't have to spend ages flying. It's very annoying when you can't get anything from Night Elf/Fossil/Troll digsites, but a Tol'vir digsite won't appear, and instead you're kept digging for Night Elf fragments in Darkshore.

Aside from the dailies they're planning on implementing, do you think Blizzard will do much to change Archaeology in Mists?

[Jeffyjimbob]

More sites per continent - yes please. I hate spending most of my time moving to the next site, rather than digging. That or at least make sites static, and they just "recharge" after X minutes. That'd make tol'vir farming a lot easier.

As for what they're gonna do with it? No clue. I'd assume more focus on vanity items (mounts, pets, silly hats), instead of BoEs.

[ComputerNerd]

Due to regular crashing I have not been on the beta a huge amount.
Though from reading I am aware of some apparent enhancements.
The sites on the continent of Pandaria seemingly allow 6 digs before being exhausted, and according to earlier data-mining there may be a rare loot which allows teleportation to another digsite.

[Nanotech]

I'd assume more focus on vanity items (mounts, pets, silly hats), instead of BoEs.

This. 100%. I don't like feeling like I HAVE to farm for gear rewards considering the wild RNG on some of those pieces (640 troll solves and no Zin'Rokh says hi). If they make ultra rare mounts, pets, vanity stuff I'll be happy since they do not give an advantage in game play except looking cool.

[avilia]

One small thing I discovered while digging on a Panderian site: an npc appeared when I was looting one fragment. And it dropped some more fragments! Good I didn't FD, or else it might have disappeared)

[Ennustaja]

I would have stuck with archaeology to a greater degree if one or two current tier level drops were added each patch. Having that "freebie" item for alts, etc, was something nice to look forward too.

[Deleted]

Been doing some archy in pandaria, getting about 9 digs per site, which is generally enough fragmenats to make 1 artifact, along with 1 to 2 key stones. They are giving 1 skill up per artifact at 525, but considering you are makeing 1 artifact per site, youd only need to dig at 75 sites to re-max it.

And yes you do occasionally dig up mobs, 'Sha' that drop 5 - 9 mogu fragments along with the pandaran lootable stone :P

[Entilzha2161]

I'm guessing it will be the same, some good gear early in the expansion then it'll be down to a just for fun thing after a raid tier or 2. I've always done archy cause of the unique things you could get and not so much for epics, which i saw as gravy if i got them.

[sxefluff]

I want archaeology to feel like archaeology, just waltzing into some random site and digging once to get a random thing to appear seems incredibly dull and uninspired.

[Deleted]

I wish they changed it so it's something similar to this:

5.0 comes out and you go ahead and do archaeology, you get a rare epic item, let's say 2h sword. It's really good for current lv90 content.
5.1 comes out, the sword you got isn't as good as the latest 2h swords. However, you can now upgrade it, but it costs 250-300 of X fragments.
5.2 comes out, same as the above.

[ClearlyConfused]

I'd like to think that Blizzard will do some things different or tweak some things from some feed back from players already about archaeology. Maybe they will add some more dig sites or do something do you don't have to fly around for ages just to get the site that you were looking for, like you had stated. IMO, I wish they kept Path of the Titans system. I think it would have made archaeology much more enjoyable. Though one may hope and dream, we will only know once the game goes live.

[Twiddly]

I want archaeology to feel like archaeology, just waltzing into some random site and digging once to get a random thing to appear seems incredibly dull and uninspired.

IN case you did not know, real life archaelogy is nothing like indiana jones, it is quite boring 99.8% of the time.

[Irisel]

More rewards, including updated gear per tier, kind of like craftables.

My all time hope for it, would be a neck slot enchant, only obtainable from archy.

[Cernunnos]

IN case you did not know, real life archaelogy is nothing like indiana jones, it is quite boring 99.8% of the time.

No but in real life archaeology if you want to study Egyptian stuff you dont fly halfway across the world to dig up Pervian artifacts. You go to Egypt, and stay there.

[Twiddly]

No but in real life archaeology if you want to study Egyptian stuff you dont fly halfway across the world to dig up Pervian artifacts. You go to Egypt, and stay there.

That would remove any time sink at all in arch, and that is one of the reasons they made it. I understand what you are getting at-I have all night elf everything, yet I still get there spawns sometimes when finishing up tol'vir, and it can be annoying, but at least it has interesting lore (even if you have already completed something, still fun to re-read it) and that is what they are going for.

[Cernunnos]

That would remove any time sink at all in arch, and that is one of the reasons they made it. I understand what you are getting at-I have all night elf everything, yet I still get there spawns sometimes when finishing up tol'vir, and it can be annoying, but at least it has interesting lore (even if you have already completed something, still fun to re-read it) and that is what they are going for.

The RNG on something like Zinrokh or Staff of the Sorcerer Thane is bad enough without having to dig up Night elf and fossil stuff too.

1400 troll solves and I still dont have Zinrokh, at least if I didn't have to fly to EPL to dig up night elf and nerubian stuff then I might have more time for alts, or just more troll digsites/solves.

[hellboyy]

it would be fun if they changed it a bit for the rare items. for example if u were constructing zinrokh u had to find specific parts of zinrokh, like the hilt or whatever. and made these components rare and tradeable. ppl would be able to trade them on the ah.

this would allow them to reduce the awful rng of getting zinrokh as a project, yknow like ppl doing 1k+ solves or whatever. let us keep multiple archeology projects per race going on at once, so we can pick which project to finish. but make the components for the rare items rare, so it is still not just a giveaway epic, there would still be an element of luck involved in finding a piece and if u really wanted to complete it u can buy the bits u r missing.

[Raugnaut]

I personally hope that they take the lvl 85 items, and make them equipable at lvl 80-81, akin to the other lower lvl archy items. I would also prefer it if the MoP archy items are the same- equipable at lvl 85-86. I personally am hoping that they make them equipable at lvl 80, being uber-twinked is always nice ^.^

[loki504]

i saw a video where there is a x change to spawn a mob that drop extra fragments.

but can't find the video atm

[Avrantia]

I would like to see some kind of limitation of the RNG. I am at my 250th solve for Tol'vir mount, and I'm fully aware that I might have to complete 250 solves more and still have absolutely no guarantee of getting the mount whatsoever. I could also do 2000 solves and still be without the mount. Now, this is fine for dungeon runs and rare drops from end bosses, but this is a profession. Sure some luck is involved in for example alchemy with mastery procs, but this isn't at all as dire as hoping for a 1% item to pop up.