Let’s Level! Archaeology 1 – 525 Profession Guide

With players now digging into the meat of Cataclysm, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the new Archaeology profession. Fortunately, Archaeology is a pretty straight-forward profession to level, and it’s also on the cheaper side of leveling professions.

Digsites

Once you accept the archeology profession, digsites will start appearing on your map (not the mini-map). These digsites are a pretty unique addition because they are completely player-specific, which means your digsites will not be the same as your guildmate’s digsites (or farmer digsites). This is great because there is a lot less competition and frustration with a system like this.


There are four digsites per continent–the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, the Outland, and Northrend. The digsites are level-locked, so you can only see digsites in zones appropriate to your level or lower.


Because all sites are race-specific, you will also find fragments of a single particular race at each site. A lot of the fragments are pretty predictable such as the Eastern Kingdom Dwarf Ruins, but some may surprise you.

Fragments

Each digsite can be searched up to three times before disappearing and leaving you with a new digsite to explore. This means that if you have a digsite in a particularly annoying location, you can pretty much ignore it since clearing another digsite three times will always give you a new site.


Searching for a new digsite can be done using your “Survey” skill, whcih will spawn and point you towards your next fragment. Green means that you are very close (within 40 feet), yellow means you are almost there, and red means that you aren’t even in the ballpark yet.


Once you discover the racial fragment, you will be able to start researching it.

Artifacts

A player can only work on a single research project per race, but you can eventually solve the artifact once you acquire enough fragments. Once a player solves the artifact, they will be gifted with some pretty nice items. At lower levels, you will receive some pretty unexciting common items, but higher levels can yield more worthwhile rewards.


If your artifact is rare, you will be rewarded with a much better items. This can include some very nice account-bound armor and weapons if you’re lucky!

LET’S LEVEL! ARCHAEOLOGY 1-525 GUIDE

Level 1-100

The first step is, of course, to find your Archaeology trainer for your faction. They will be located in either Orgimmar or Stormwind.

With two fancy new abilities, Archaeology and Survey, it’s time to get down to the boring stuff. For 1-100, you will be using only these two abilities. To find a digsite, look for the little shovel icons on your map.

After arriving at the chosen digsite, you will use the Survey ability to try and find your artifact. A little steampunk themed telescope will swivel around and point in whatever direction the artifact is in, and the light will change color depending on how far away it is. If it’s red, you might as well pack up and get back on your mount.

After you discover the artifact, your Archaeology will level. Each digsite may be surveyed up to 3 times, and you will continue repeating this exact process for the next 100 levels. During this time, don’t complete any artifacts until you are at level 100! This is the secret to leveling Archaeology quickly. After level 100, you can no longer survey to level your profession. Take advantage of easy levels!

Levels 100 – 525

The scurrying around is finally done, and it’s time to solve your artifacts. The process is a lot less interesting that it sounds, unfortunately. In order to solve an artifact, you simply choose your Archaeology ability and select “Solve.” Each solved artifact will give you a solid 5 levels alongside a reward for all of your trouble.