archeology while leveling?

[solinari6]

Was curious how this is supposed to work ... I haven't done much with archaeology, only with max level chars.

But if I try to level archaeology while leveling up a char from level 1, is that feasible? or even possible? Seems like without being able to fly around it'd be tough ... does it always put at least 1 dig site in an area that is around your level? Or will I get to the point where I just have to level up a bunch before i can even travel to where the dig sites are?

[Soxxy]

I'd wait till level 60 to start arch, having to walk and take long flight paths makes it painful and slow.

I leveled most of 60-70 on my shaman through Archaeology, as I couldn't be bothered with Outland again. Once you can fly, it levels you up pretty fast. I'd stick to EK or Kalimdor for most of it, Outland digs will eventually throw you into Shadowmoon before you can take down the mobs.

[Delaios]

For starters you need to be at least level 20 to learn Archaeology. You can then theoretically level only on Archaeology, but it's going to be painfully slow. Archaeology itself gives good experience (I skipped most of Northrend on my priest by doing Archaeology), but travel time between digsites is long, especially with only a basic mount and flight masters. I suggest just levelling to 70 normally, learn epic flying and then level by Archaeology. It will always be slower than normal levelling though. If tabbing out of the game didn't cause you to DC, it should work with a normal flying mount as well.

I'm sure as hell going to do any Archaeology sites that pop up while levelling in MoP btw, it's very easy and fast experience if you happen to be nearby and have rested xp. Too bad you'll probably need 525 Archaeology for MoP sites to spawn.

[solinari6]

at level 20, does it give you big EXP to solve an artifact? Just wondering if it'd be worth it to gather up a few artifacts, use one of those +50% spells monks get and then solve them all at once.

[Laelais]

In my experience its better at the later levels with mop and being able to do it six times per site I would imagine that would be even more true.

[Kristya]

at level 20, does it give you big EXP to solve an artifact? Just wondering if it'd be worth it to gather up a few artifacts, use one of those +50% spells monks get and then solve them all at once.

You actually don't gain XP from solving artifacts. XP comes from the actual survey of fragments. Skillups (after 50 skill) come from solving artifacts.

I'd wait until 70 and epic flying before you bother with archaeology. I just finished leveling my new Druid main (hit 85 yesterday) and I went from 75-80 just by leveling archaeology. Was a nice break from questing, and when I hit 80 I wasn't burned out on quest leveling.

[Volkkmar]

wait til you get flight form at least or wait till your done leveling, much easier to get around to the dig sites faster and avoid all the mobs you would need to kill in order to find fragments

[Joi]

In my opinion doing archeology while leveling is great. If there are digsites in the zone you are questing in, or in a nearby zone, defintely go knock those out. The ammount of xp you get is equivilent to doing a quest or two. You can level strictly on archeology, but that'd take a while (though I did use it to get a couple alts from 80-85 just using up their rested XP whenever they had some) and feel like a grind. As a bit of a "while I'm here anyway..." bonus though it's great.

Similarly, having herbalisim and mining as your professions while leveling is a nice for the extra xp from gathering whatever happens to be in the area you are questing in.