Best Places for Archaeology!

[Simca]

Edit 7: Updated for Patch 4.0.6, which added 11 new dig sites: 7 Tol'vir in Uldum in Kalimdor, 2 Nerubian in Northrend, and 2 Nerubian in Eastern Plaguelands in Eastern Kingdoms. You should now find ~62% more Tol'vir sites in Kalimdor now and ~30% more Nerubian sites in Northrend. I'm going to just call Pre-375 Pre-450 for the sake of the table.

Well I haven't seen any other topic with conclusive evidence, just random assertions like "NE sites are more common in Kalimdor", which while true, left me wondering about numbers. So while this data isn't exactly hard to come up with (Wowpedia + Excel spreadsheet + If statements), I still thought I'd share the conclusions. Specifically, the data comes from http://www.wowpedia.org/Archaeology#Zones_and_dig_sites and http://www.wowpedia.org/Dig_site.

These are percentages describing what percent of the continent's dig sites are of that culture. A 25% next to Troll at Northrend would mean that 25% of the dig sites on that continent are Troll. A higher percent indicates a higher chance of getting that dig site on that continent, so that is obviously more desirable and is helpful information if you are hunting a specific culture's rare.

Here's a picture of a shiny table.


Dwarf
There is only 1 Dwarf site in Kalimdor compared to 18 (post-450) or 14 (pre-450). No contest on this one, but here are the percents anyway.
Eastern Kingdoms (pre-375): 28.57% (14/49)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-375, pre-450): 27.45% (14/51)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-450): 32.73% (18/55)
Kalimdor (pre-450): 2.08% (1/48)
Kalimdor (post-450): 1.45% (1/62)
Verdict: Eastern Kingdoms (All skill levels)

Fossil
After the removal of the Vashj'ir dig sites, I am forced to recommend Eastern Kingdoms post-450 for Fossil fragments. Before that though, they're exactly even.
Eastern Kingdoms (pre-450): 26.53% (13/49)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-375, pre-450): 25.49% (13/51)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-450): 23.64% (13/55)
Kalimdor (pre-450): 27.08% (13/48)
Kalimdor (post-450): 18.84% (13/69)
Verdict: Kalimdor (pre-450) and Eastern Kingdoms (post-450)

Night Elf
There are only 2 Night Elf dig sites in Eastern Kingdoms, and just a few more than that in Northrend. On the other hand, over half of Kalimdor is Night Elf.
Eastern Kingdoms (pre-450): 4.08% (2/49)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-375, pre-450): 3.92% (2/51)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-450): 3.64% (2/55)
Kalimdor (pre-450): 62.50% (30/48)
Kalimdor (post-450): 50.72% (35/69)
Northrend: 13.79% (4/29)
Verdict: Kalimdor (All skill levels)

Troll
Troll relics are also in Northrend, so here's a three-way comparison.
Eastern Kingdoms (pre-450): 40.82% (20/49)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-375, pre-450): 39.22% (20/51)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-450): 36.36% (20/55)
Kalimdor (pre-450): 8.33% (4/48)
Kalimdor (post-450): 5.80% (4/69)
Northrend: 17.24% (5/29)
Verdict: Eastern Kingdoms (all skill levels)

Draenei
This one is easy because there is only one location, but I'll list it anyway for completion sake and just for fun.
Outland: 53.57% (15/28)
Verdict: Outland

Orc
See above.
Outland: 46.43% (13/28)
Verdict: Outland

Nerubian
In addition to upping the number of Nerubian sites in Northrend slightly, Blizzard added two Nerubian sites to Eastern Plaguelands, requiring 375 Archaeology, of course. I'm not going to create a new column in the table just for 375-450 Archaeologists, so you'll just have to live with the numbers being here!
Eastern Kingdoms (post-375, pre-450): 3.92% (2/51)
Eastern Kingdoms (post-450): 3.64% (2/55)
Northrend: 24.14% (7/29)
Verdict: Northrend

Vrykul
Only one possible area for these.
Northrend: 44.83% (13/29)
Verdict: Northrend

Tol'vir
Only one possible area for these as well, but luckily, Patch 4.0.6 has nearly doubled the amount of Tol'vir sites in Kalimdor.
Kalimdor (post-450): 23.19% (16/69)
Verdict: Kalimdor (post-450)

And just for kicks, in their most populated areas, Tol'vir and Nerubian are the two rarest races to get things from. Luckily, there are only two Nerubian artifacts of any value, so you won't have worry about them very often.

Also, I figured I'd use this space to point out this: My post is based on assumption, like most things in the world. This assumption is that the the number of dig sites of each culture is directly proportional to the chance the dig site is selected. As far as I can tell, this assumption appears to be accurate though. The results appear to justify the assumption (low Tol'vir/Nerubian rates, etc).

[Sesto]

/wishes he would get more nerubian spots instead of stupid troll/night elf

[Azshira]

Nice little post Nice to see some percentages. What I'd love is if you could stop getting a race once you collected all their artifacts Damn stupid fossils go away! lol

[bluey04]

What's the only Nerubian artifact of any value?

[Israfel]

Pro list. Thumbs up from me.

---------- Post added 2010-12-21 at 02:32 PM ----------

What's the only Nerubian artifact of any value?

I'd argue theres two, the only two rares.

The Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron
and
Blessing of the Old God

[Azure P]

Tol'vir
Still only one possible area for these, but the percentage is depressingly low, especially for such a desired faction.
Kalimdor (post-450): 14.29%
Verdict: Kalimdor (post-450)

Reading this only depresses me more.

But fantastic list.

[Simca]

I'd argue theres two, the only two rares.

The Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron
and
Blessing of the Old God

You're right! Fixed it. I was getting them confused with the Vrykul.

[Radux]

Stickied so people can find their information first before asking!

[Deleted]

Most useful, thanks Simca.

[exdeath202]

Up to my experience, some just cant be true, but others look accurate. I have every draenei and orc artifacts and i finished draenei far before orc. And fossils cant have such a low chance, i get lots of them.

[Simca]

I'm smrt. If you can't put HTML in your posts, take a picture of Boubouille's shiny table and put it into your thread that way.

Up to my experience, some just cant be true, but others look accurate. I have every draenei and orc artifacts and i finished draenei far before orc. And fossils cant have such a low chance, i get lots of them.

That may just be user experience though.

It is true my post and those numbers are based on an assumption that the number of dig sites is directly proportional to the chance the dig site is selected. However, that seems to be common sense, and my experiences in-game are in direct correlation to these numbers (which isn't saying anything in itself, I know).

[Grubby]

Awesome post, thanks..

Any idea on what the drop rates are on rares? Been farming for Dwarf Staff and its winning..

Thanks again

[Draeblin]

Are we allowed to put the table and the text on wowpedia?

[Simca]

Are we allowed to put the table and the text on wowpedia?

Considering Wowpedia was the original source of the data before I just added it up and turned it into percentages and that Wowpedia is a sister site of MMO-Champion, I have absolutely no problems with that.

[Bethan]

Thanks for the table Simca, yet there seems to be some errors in the data you took...

for example, in kalimdor (post 450), for the NE fragments, two tables exists in wowpedia :
"Dig_site" article gives 35 out of a possible 62
"Archeology" article gets really dizzy and says :
Kalimdor (34/61): Feralas (8), Mount Hyjal (5), Ashenvale (4), Desolace (4), Felwood (4), Winterspring (3), Azshara (2), Stonetalon Mountains (2), Darkshore (1), Silithus (1), Southern Barrens (1)

but 8+5+4+4+4+3+2+2+1+1+1 = 35

and according to the number you gave you counted 30/56 NE fragments

so could someone checks which source is right, and starts again from here ?

this means that, for tolvir in kalimdor, according to the "corrected" wowpedia numbers, the "real" droprate should be 12.9%, but if none of your 4 dig site is tolvir, the next dig site has a probability 8/58=13.79 of being tolvir

furthermore if one digsite is tolvir then it drops to 12.07%, if two are tolvir the third one being tolvir has a 10.34% probability and if you have 3 tolvir sites and dig the fourth one, he'll be tolvir with a 8.62% probability ... so if you want to farm tolvir artifacts you'd better go to uldum as soon as tolvir digsite pop out, especially for mages or glyphed shamans (7.5mn hearthstone is fine^^)

[Simca]

It is possible I made an error in the spreadsheet. I will double-check.

Edit: Yep, I am dumb! My formula was only taking into account the first 56 entries instead of all 62. The correct number is 35 Night Elf dig sites in Kalimdor and 13 Fossil sites (the other affected site). The two incorrect numbers I had were 30 Night Elf sites and 12 Fossil sites, but of course, adding 6 more sites affected the other percentages slightly.

This has affected all Kalimdor data by around 2-3%. I'll give the new numbers to Bibi. Double-checking all other data before I pass the change along.

Edit 2: Rechecked my formulas and everything else seems right. Poking him about it.

Edit 3: Reposted my own version of the table in this thread and have completely updated this thread to match the new data.

Edit 4: Also, updated the Wowpedia article on Archaeology to correct their mathematics mistake you pointed out, which is ironically unrelated to mine. Both Wowpedia and my data should be correct now.

[syteless]

Table is useless apart from stating common sense.

pre-450 = the continent where the races fit.
ie trolls mainly inhabited EK as well as dwarves.
night elves stayed around Hyjal so Kal, but some were near EK before the sundering.
fossils are everywhere.
Tol'vir are from 1 zone.
Draenei and orcs are aliens from Draenor = outland.
Nerubians = not Aqir so = northrend.
post-450 = same shit.


This comes from a loremaster who already knows where each race should be without archaeology, so disregard at will.

[Deleted]

Very helpful list, thanks

[Simca]

Table is useless apart from stating common sense.

pre-450 = the continent where the races fit.
ie trolls mainly inhabited EK as well as dwarves.
night elves stayed around Hyjal so Kal, but some were near EK before the sundering.
fossils are everywhere.
Tol'vir are from 1 zone.
Draenei and orcs are aliens from Draenor = outland.
Nerubians = not Aqir so = northrend.
post-450 = same shit.


This comes from a loremaster who already knows where each race should be without archaeology, so disregard at will.

Trust me, I know my fair share of lore myself, and I agree with you.

Most of it is common sense to people who know tons of lore or game history. However, a huge portion of the player base doesn't, and even to those who do, it can still be helpful. I mean the Nerubians controlled most of the continent at one point, so you'd expect more Nerubian sites in Northrend, but there aren't hardly any at all. That's just an example.

I don't think it is entirely without use.

[Radux]

/Raises hand at not knowing much lore.
For someone who is just starting the profession, this is awesome.