Crafting for Cataclysm Noobs Recap

Over the summer I wrote a series of posts which compiled the most promising items for each profession. Some of you may not have been following us at that point in time, so I thought I'd recap those articles for anyone who's interested in making crafted items for young goblins and worgen. We have just over a week before the Cataclysm hits and you still have time to jump into this market if you're looking for a way to pass the time.

Alchemist's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Blacksmith's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Enchanter's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Engineer's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Jewelcrafter's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Leatherworker's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Scribe's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers
Tailor's Guide to Cataclysm Buyers

I hope these guides give you some good ideas - feel free to leave feedback and suggestions in the Comments!

Cataclysm Daily Fishing Quests

I know these quests have been up for a few days and some of you have already done 3-4 of them, but I wanted to share my information for those of you who might not have seen all the quests. I did most of the Alliance quests on the Beta realm, so I may be able to provide a little extra guidance for those of you who happen to get stuck. If nothing else you can satisfy your curiosity about what you may be asked to do tomorrow, lol.

Cataclysm NOOB Guide!

Yes, the famous Noob Guide is back for Cataclysm :) I wrote this a couple of weeks ago and since some of the content is already on the Live realms I'm posting it. Some of the information is applicable now and some will become available on Launch Day. Either way, I hope it answers questions for those of you who are still confused.

Don't forget that you can find articles here for information I've covered throughout the Beta. Just because it's not on the front page of the blog doesn't mean it's not here. I see some of you popping in on posts that are a couple of months old... use the search box or the tag cloud to find more recent articles about professions. There's a leveling guide for every tradeskill, make sure you read up before release day!

Take me to the Noob Guide

Cataclysm Daily Cooking Quests

I hope everyone saw my Tweet/Wall post yesterday about the new Cooking quests being activated on the Live realms. I probably should have posted my screenshots before now, but better late than never eh? For the longest time the Cooking quests weren't rotating on the Beta, we got the same one every day until a few weeks ago. I had been collecting the information but I'm not sure I have a full set of quests. I've got four Alliance quests and one Horde. At this point it's better than nothing at all :)

Leveling Mining 450-525 (BETA)

I've gotten more requests for a Mining guide than any other profession. After reviewing my previous post for leveling Mining, I can see some glaring omissions that need to be corrected. I know some of you would like me to post farming routes for Mining, but I'm not going to do that. With the use of extensive phasing, it would be difficult to account for changes in the zones. Plus the number of players in each zone will be so high that I doubt a map would be of any real use. I remember the first day of WotLK in Howling Fjord, there was literally no ore anywhere. People in chat were complaining about hunting for an hour and seeing nothing. In all likelihood any ore that spawns will be snatched up within seconds.

Cataclysm Beta is Over

We just received word on the Beta forums that testing is over. The server went down about ten minutes ago. I'm sad to say that I will no longer be able to bring you new information from the Beta realm. I'll do my best to answer questions from what I've already learned whenever possible. Plus, I still have many screenshots I took in anticipation of this moment. Blizzard is famous for giving no notice on testing schedules, so I tried to document as much as I could. I plan to continue working on the material I've collected and bringing you new content that didn't make it into a post.

I've enjoyed sharing all my information with you and I hope you guys will continue to visit us in the future!

My Tips for Preparing for Cataclysm

Ok, I didn't really think this was going to happen tomorrow. I've been working on this post for the last few days and adding to it as I think of new things. But since the world changes are likely going in tomorrow, I'm pushing this out for your guys to take advantage as best you can.

Change your hearth stone to a Classic city. Start acclimatizing yourself to travel without portal cities. It's not that terrible =)

Craft any items you've been planning to sell to lowbies. Post these for sale the day before Cataclysm launches so they're ready to purchase on release day.

Farm the materials you need to skill up after you unlock Illustrious rank, if you intend to use WotLK recipes for early skill points.

Purchase any Limited Supply recipes you need to power level professions on your new Goblin/Worgen before the world changes. Some vendors may be lost or confused in the mayhem.

Snatch up Limited Supply recipes from zone vendors who may be affected by the Cataclysm. Many zones are changing and these recipes could be hard to find later! This tip does not apply to vendors in the city.

Make or purchase copies of Scroll of Enchant Gloves: Gatherer for all your characters who need one. Use a pair of Herbalist's Gloves if you have a flower picker :)

Skinners: Farm Finkle's Skinner from The Beast or Zulian Slicer from ZG for less hassle while skinning.

Make all relevant crafted items for your new Goblin or Worgen and have it waiting in the bank so you don't have to waste time on launch day. This includes any glyphs and enchant scrolls they might need as well. Don't forget to give them a gathering enchant too!

Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Leveling Guide (450-525)

This is it - the BIG one! I know many of you have been anxiously waiting for me to publish a guide for Jewelcrafting. I'm doing a big push this weekend to finish all my guides... just in case Blizzard decides to shut down the Beta server before Thanksgiving. I'm not taking any chances on them cutting me off like they did the last two expansions . The good news is that my patience with JC has paid off with a more solid guide than we would have gotten previously. It would seem that one of the recent builds has adjusted meta cuts to give skill points all the way to 525 and removed the evil Fire Prism from consideration. Good riddance I say!

Cataclysm Blacksmithing Leveling Guide (450-510)

I wish I could bring you a full Blacksmithing guide, but my Smith is only level 81. I don't know if I'll have time to get her high enough for Twilight Highlands before the Beta realm is shut down. This guide should get you most of the way up and I'm going to include some worst-case scenario estimates for the vendor phase.

Cataclysm Leatherworking Leveling Guide (450-525)

Since we're getting down to the wire here, I decided to take on Leatherworking. I know this isn't a super-popular profession, but Kaliope has had it since I first created her six years ago. That makes Leatherworking special to me, even when it falls out of favor. Additionally, I have three characters who wear leather-crafted gear (hunter/druid/rogue). So my toons make out like bandits when I level it up :)

Cataclysm Inscription Leveling Guide (450-525)

The new guide for today is on Inscription, which is our least popular profession yet still generates lots of conversation and inquiries. Inscription is already suffering from the loss of glyph revenue, so it wouldn't surprise me if this becomes an even more unpopular profession. Right now the main thing that Scribes can make are off-hand books and relics, neither of which are high demand items.

Cataclysm Engineering Leveling Guide (425-525)

After losing a good chunk of yesterday and today to server outages on the Beta, I was finally able to log in a couple of hours ago and work on a new guide. I started to work on Inscription, but the recipe I'm stuck on is still broken. So I moved on to Engineering and I'm happy to report that it was pretty painless. It has only taken me 90 minutes and that includes taking notes and doing the mailbox shuffle between characters.

Cataclysm First Aid Leveling Guide (450-525)

Since I missed having a fresh post yesterday, I'm posting two leveling guides today. This guide is for First Aid, which usually isn't a high priority for crafters. However, I've gotten several requests for it so I'm including it to help those folks who want to know what's involved.

Cataclysm Cooking Leveling Guide (450-525)

Today I'll be focusing on Cooking in Cataclysm. Currently the Cooking trainers will only teach you two recipes over 400 skill. These are Blackened Surprise and Darkbrew Lager. The lager will be gray to you at 450 skill and the Blackened Surprise will be yellow. Unfortunately this doesn't make Blackened Surprise a viable leveling recipe. The toughened flesh needed to make it seems to only drop from level 82-85 mobs. Even if you could handle killing them, the drop rate is terrible. I tried farming the wolves in Twilight Highlands and got maybe half a stack after 30 minutes or so. I would estimate the drop rate at 15-20%. I think it would be a huge time waster to use this recipe, especially since it can't help you skip any of the vendor recipes.

More Fun Stuff from Beta

Well I kinda got myself in a pickle today with professions. I used up all my cloth for Tailoring, so I have none left for First Aid. I tried to buy some but there's only one stack up for 4000g, pretty insane. I also tried to farm some but every spot I picked seemed to have a drop rate of 20% or worse. Igh.

I also tried Cooking and I had nine tokens to purchase recipes. Then I stupidly tried to do the "buyback" trick for the crate of meat and lost 2 tokens. Apparently that little bug is fixed now, heh. So now I have to wait 2 more days to get enough tokens for the recipes I need. After that I tried Inscription and got stuck at 500 on a genuine bug with the Runescroll of Fortitude II - it's not giving skill points. I just can't win today.

Cataclysm Gathering Chart

I opted to do something a little different today. Instead of bringing you a new leveling guide, I'm giving you a Gathering chart. Up to now we've talked some about herbs and ore and I've shared some of the upcoming changes with you. The reality is that Azeroth will be changing quite drastically in some zones. It's one thing to read about it, quite another to experience the change.

Cataclysm Tailoring Leveling Guide (450-525)

Today I decided to level Tailoring, although I'm not super-comfy with the progression. I did the final 25 points with rare PVP gear. Since Blacksmithing and Leatherworking both had their rare PVP gear moved to the phased vendor in Twilight Highlands, I'm not confident that Tailoring will keep these recipes for launch. However, I moved forward with the leveling so we could see what to expect. Whether the recipes are vendor or trainer-based shouldn't change how they work, it only changes when you can get them.

Cataclysm Enchanting Leveling Guide (450-525)

I debated all morning over which profession to level today and ultimately went with Enchanting. At this stage it has the most polished progression, second only to Alchemy. New recipes are learned every five skill points all the way up to 510 skill. Recipes stay orange for 5-10 points, including the final three recipes learned at 510. The required materials are reasonable too, you can level up with just dust and essences if you like. There are some weapon recipes where you can use shards and other materials if you like, but you can easily skip over the more novel items if you prefer.

Guest Post "Profession Powerleveling: Cataclysm Gold Guide

Markco from Just My Two Copper was kind enough to send me this guest post with tips on making gold in Cataclysm. I know you guys are devouring all the Cataclysm goodies I can throw at you, so I thought I'd share this too. I think his suggestion has pretty high relevance for the early days of Cataclysm. Lots of players will be leveling brand new toons and some of them will dump their loot on the auctions for dirt cheap just to clear their bags. It's certainly worth a read if you're interested in ways to cash in on the leveling frenzy that will happen after the Cataclysm launch.

Check it out: Profession Powerleveling: Cataclysm Gold Guide

New Powerleveling Guides Debut!

One of my BIG projects for this Beta has been to write some power-leveling guides for the Classic professions. I saved materials for several months on my Live realm, copied all my characters with their bags stuffed with cloth/leather/ore. I made five premade characters to learn the new professions so I could save my existing characters for Illustrious training. Then I waited for Blizzard to finish dorking around with professions so I could start testing.

Last week I gave up waiting, I just don't have any more time left to spare. Cataclysm launches in less than four weeks and I had 20+ guides and lists to compile. So I just started leveling professions anyway. My apologies if any of this information gets revised before launch, I had hoped to bring you guys the freshest data possible. I'm still waiting another week to see if the Illustrious tiers get any more clean-up before I start leveling them as well.

We just got these guides put online over the weekend. I leveled each profession from scratch, most to 300. On a couple of them I went a bit higher because I had enough materials to do so. I hope to extent these guides in future PTR realms, but I think this should be enough to get all you new Worgens and Goblins started on your professions!

New Power Leveling Guides:

Alchemy
Blacksmithing
Enchanting
Engineering
Inscription
Leatherworking
Tailoring

Jewelcrafting has an existing guide, so I'm not including it here. That said, I plan to update with with more current information when I get a chance. I need to do a complete rewrite and I ran out of time for that. Also, Inscription has been updated with the new 3 inks per Glyph change that just went into the last patch. The rest of the guides are all new and about as current as you can hope to get for next month's launch.

I hope these will help you prepare for your new adventures!

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Monty Python(tm)

Ok. So. I got a little bored in between Beta builds last month. And then I3ig Al left a comment on my blog about how he loves Weird Al. I love Weird Al too. And I wondered why don't we have a Weird Al of WoW? I mean, we have tons of people who make machinima. We have Oxhorn, who does the occasional WoW song, but I think he's more about the funny videos than the music. We don't really have someone giving us funny WoW songs. Our best (and basically only) funny WoW song is the Purple Monster. That thing is like five years old! In five years no one else can do a funny WoW song?

So like I said, I was bored. I decided I would take a stab at this idea. I'm not especially funny, but I do have about 3 years practice writing (aka: blog you are reading). I ran this by my hubby and he immediately proposed Cee Lo Green's viral hit - (bleep) You. The theme I wanted to try writing about was bad pugs. Basically our #1 QQ topic for the past year.

Just so you know, we're not recording experts or video experts. Mostly I just wanted to see how hard this was and whether it would turn out funny. I'll let you guys decide... try not to be too brutal =)

Cataclysm Alchemy Leveling Guide (450-525)

At long last the posts you've been waiting for! Yes, I'm finally writing some leveling guides for Cataclysm tradeskills. We've only got a few weeks left before this Beta is likely to end, so I guess I have to start leveling. I'm still not entirely comfortable with some of the professions at this stage. Therefore I'm just going to start with the ones that look most viable and hope the others get some love before I get to them. Right now Alchemy is pretty solid so it's getting the first guide :)

Cataclysm Jewelcrafting: 450-475

Lots of new Jewelcrafting recipes went into the latest Beta build, but no new Jewelcrafting recipes on the trainer. From this I assume there won't be any new recipes, although I hope I'm wrong on that. The last 25 points of Illustrious look pretty horrifying (Fire Prism on 1 day CD. Gag.) The 500+ recipes are already blocked off by the daily quest, I don't see a reason to make leveling JC even worse with daily cooldowns for required leveling recipes.

Cataclysm Jewelcrafting Recipes Now Online

In case you guys missed the latest tweet/wall post, all of the Cataclysm Jewelcrafting recipes went up on our web site last night. We got a new Beta build late Wednesday night, so I spent all day yesterday adding 120 new recipes. Most of these are from the daily token vendor who was implemented in the latest build. She's the new version of Timothy Jones. She offers the daily quest and she redeems the tokens for recipes. Now that Jewelcrafting seems to be mostly (or completely, who knows) implemented I'll run you guys through the likely progression.

Cataclysm World Maps

A few days ago we had a reader request for maps of the new zones and continents from the Cataclysm beta. I normally don't cover this sort of thing, but who am I to argue with our readers? I took some screenshots of the new zones and the continent maps. Hopefully this will answer some questions you may have about Cataclysm!

Featured Blog on Allakhazam!

I just wanted to share with you guys that our blog is the spotlight on Zam's Featured Blogs(formerly Allakhazam for us old-timers). I'm so pleased that we've gotten a bit of notice in the community. I know crafting isn't glamorous but for all of us who've been working hard in this little corner of WoW it's nice to get a bit of love :)

Visit Allakhazam and check out the article!