Optimize your gathering routes.

[Talmir]

(Update: Appearantly this is a repost, and as the link below in a comment testifies that one is a repost as well (And reposts of reposts of reposts) :P I´m leaving this up myself until a mod decides to delete this but until then. Hope it helps ya)

Hi and welcome to my first guide for this website. I´m a long time viewer, first time contributor.

(Disclaimer : I did not find another guide like this in this section. It may have been posted before, if it has. I appologize)

Now then, we all know the feeling of running around in circles around some area farming some precious herb/mineral/somethingortheother and how random it feels. Might there be some money to be made by straying from the popular farming paths or is your time better invested by going in the same circle as always before?

Well.. To help alleviate some of those worries I have written the following guide on how to streamline your gathering process with the use of addons to create a easy to follow path for you to follow.

Addons needed:
Gathermate (A very nice gathering addon similar to gatherer).
GathermateDB (A database of coordinates to nodes).
Routes (The meat and potatoes of this guide).

After we download these addons and load them up in world of warcraft (By putting the required folders into your ../wow root/interface/addons/ folder and enabling them in your character screen) we are ready to get up and running.

What to do?
When you are in the game type /routes to get the following screen up:


This is the control screen for Routes. On your left hand side you will see a few options. Lets click on "Add" to bring this screen up:


As you see I have selected to name my route "StrangIron" as I was farming iron at this point. I choose "Stranglethorn Vale" as my farming spot and tick off a few options on what I want to farm. Here I selected Iron, Silver, Gold, Mithril and Truesilver (Even tho I use minerals here, this works for herbalists as well) and then click on "Create Route". After this is done you can go into your map and you will see the following :


Nasty, isnt it? Its like a spiderweb. Well this is because the Routes addon has not processed the points yet. It has just written a temporary path on the map screen which is not something you might want to follow unless youre, well, strange.

Lets go back into our Routes addon screen again by typing /routes and selecting Routes -> Strangiron (or whatever you named your path earlier) -> Optimize Route, to see these options:


This screen deals entirely with optimizing your route (as the title might suggest). First we "cluster" our route. This effectively makes it so that the path becomes optimized so nodes within 60 units of each other are "clustered" to make the path shorter. If two nodes are near to each other the addon puts the path point straight in the middle of them instead of making you go to each one individually. This takes only a couple of seconds to finish but the result will be much more pleasing.

After you have done this, press the "Backround" button.



It is recommended to use the "background" instead of "foreground" buttons because the foreground use pretty much stops anything else in the game from running until the path is optimized. Since this might take a few seconds there is a risk you might be disconnected so we use "background" instead. It takes longer, but it is safer.


After you click it this pops up in your chat. Give it a little time and eventually you will see:


which means it is done.

If you go into your map now you will see:


There! This is much more like it. A nice smooth path around the area optimized for faster gathering. All you need to do is follow the white line on your minimap and pick up whatever shows up.




This method works by far best in outlands or northrend where you can fly between points since the addon might put a obstacle or two in your way (fx, a mountain) that might be hard getting over on the traditional landmounts. In cataclysm I expect this will be less of a issue since you will be able to fly in all of azeroth.

I hope this helps someone (and if a repost at least refreshes some memories).

Thank you.

[PhillyPhong]

repost? http://www.mmowned.com/forums/wow-gu...gathering.html

[Talmir]

damn, didnt find that. Oh well, delete this topic as you wish moderators Just tried to post something for once.

[Gankenstein]

Clear explanation thanks for that.

[Subset]

I don't see whats wrong with some reposts, imo I think they are just trying to revive the topic. +Rep from me even though I did this before.

A little tip, turn on Extra Optimization