Guide to Archeology (currently on beta, with pics)

[soto]

First you train it and now look at your map
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The shovels show where you can find the artifacts. Now that you know where to go its time to head on over there.

You finally arrived at the place, now you get to use your nifty new ability "Survey" Its a 1 second cast with a 4 second cooldown. What it does is plant a thing that looks like this on the ground.
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The little bulb shows how far you are from the nearest artifact, red is very far yellow is far and green is close. Now to see which way you go you look at the direction the scope is pointing and head in the direction.

Check every once in a while for progress and to make sure you're still going in the right direction. Here you find out you are closing on the artifact.
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You are very close now, you should use the Survey ability every few steps.
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Now you just keep using Survey every few seconds until something like this pops up instead of the scope.
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Now for the best part! LOOTING!
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Here are screenshots of other stuff that has to do with Archaeology.
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------UPDATE 2------
The things you loot from whatever you find do not take up inventory space, instead they work kinda like emblems but instead of your currency page you keep track of the stuff you looted in what I like you call, your Archaeology journal.

It seems as you collect the artifacts of a specific race you have a bar to fill
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For this I needed 30 of them to "Solve" the mystery or something like that.

So you click solve and it combines 30 of your pieces into a new item, now because my level was low I obviously didn't get anything amazing. Just vendor trash, but it also leveled my skill by 5! Drop rates currently seem to be 2-4 per find.
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Also for those of you wondering how to tell if you're in the zone when you get closer, it shows a highlighted area like you would see in quests. Imageshack - wowscrnshot091010044621.jpg - Uploaded by MortalWombat67

Currently you cant just pick one place and grind it, after some time you will run out of things to find and have to move on to another location. A great way to encourage people to explore. But don't worry they respawn and will show you on your map, so you will always know when you can go back to that zone.

Feel free to ask questions, I may not know a lot about it right now. But I will answer them as best as I can.

And because many of you are probably going to ask, yes there are shovel icons in Northrend and Outlands.

Current list of what area gives what that I know of
Night Elf Archaeology Fragment:
Ashenvale, Stonetalons, Feralas, Hyjal, Felwood

Tol'vir Archaeology Fragment:
Uldum

Fossil Archaeology Fragment:
Un'goro, Desolace, Dustwallow Marsh, Southern Barrens, Eastern Plaguelands, Redridge

And what would Archaeology be without some Dwarf artifacts to find?
Dwarf Archaeology Fragment:
Hillsbrad, Wetlands, Twilight Highlands(It took ninja skillz to do that as an 82), Searing Gorge

Troll Archaeology Fragment:
Stranglethorn

Orc Archaeology Fragment:
Hellfire Peninsula, Shadowmoon Valley, Nagrand

Draenei Archaeology Fragment:
Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm, Zangarmarsh

Current things I've solved(completed). Keep in mind that my level is low so they're greys to vendor but they have some nice text on your little journal.
Nelf:Imageshack - wowscrnshot091010044438.jpg - Uploaded by MortalWombat67
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Fossil:Imageshack - wowscrnshot091010052136.jpg - Uploaded by MortalWombat67
Imageshack - wowscrnshot091010063118.jpg - Uploaded by MortalWombat67
Dwarf: Imageshack - wowscrnshot091010065857.jpg - Uploaded by MortalWombat67

----How Rewards Work(My theory atm)----
It seems that as you complete a part of it, your next creation is decided and I think becomes a higher quality item than the last after awhile. So you don't have to worry about RNG hating you. I wish I could tell you the higher rewards, but this is going to take some time to get that far. I haven't even started on Outlands/Northrend/Eastern Kingdoms yet.

A lot of stuff to find out, I hope I eventually get to it!

-----UPDATE 3-----
Tablets, what do they do and where can I find them?
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The Orc version is called "Orc Blood Text"
The Draenei version is called "Draenei Tome"
I found this one when digging for fragments, not sure but they seem to make it so you can complete a step without collecting all the fragments. No idea how many it makes up for atm.

----How leveling it up works----
At first you gain levels by digging the stuff out, but that isn't the main way to level it(well isn't currently). Imagine that part like disenchanting. After some levels it stops giving them.

The way you level it from what I have seen is by completing an item with the required number of fragments. You can currently dig up anything as a level 1 Archaeologist. But you can't complete the items until you get the appropriate rank for that specific type of fragment. The ranks are when you learn the next step of the profession, like Journeyman etc. You will unlock a new set in your journal with each rank.

---Achievements---
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Only current reward achievement in atm is
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found this on the mmo-champ forums, might be usefull for those on the beta & those who are interested in how it works

I also found http://www.amazastrophic.com/archaeo...eveling-guide/, some guy making a guide, so that might be usefull aswell

[Bloodyme]

Very interesting, looks like an awesome new profession. Can't wait to try it out

[Giony]

looks hard to actually find something i think, nice guide tho

[Deathyaw]

Good job Will help me alot i guess when the time comes ^^

+Rep

[Kazin420]

Awesome read, this looks like it will be very interesting and fun =)

Thanks for taking the time to make this +Repx4

[Pyrobover]

thanks a lot, i will try it

[outkast82889]

I have a question, are the rewards you get in a specific order, as in youll have to do every troll artifact and the last one will be that BoA epic lvl 85 stuff or is this based on your skill rating?

Im curious because Id like to get these epic lvl 85 BoAs and Im wondering if I should focus on (for example) troll artifacts only so Ill be able to make the lvl 85 BoA faster or should I power level the heck out of it, get to the skill cap, and then expect the next item to be the BoA?

[aurevoir1]

Thanks for dong this man.

[hurly1223]

Awesome guide will save me time working it out on the day XD