http://mitarn.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/cataclysm-archaeology-guide-and-maps/

 

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You didn't fully understand how it works then. You have ZERO chances to get e.g. the troll sword before 450 skill. Zero, nada, zilch. You just can NOT get it. So using troll frags before is basically a waste.
The different rares have different skill requirements. Level 85 rares/epics need 450+ skill to appear. Before you will not get them. So collecting a specific race fragments and saving them for when you hit 450 makes sense. Not to mention that once you hit 450, you will automatically be at 525 with the saved frags.

To make an analogy, using troll frags before 450 is like playing lottery without a hope to win. The sword is the only rare troll item. If you use troll frags, you may as well use them with at least a chance to get something. Not to mention it's way easier to get troll frags when you don't have twilight highlands and vashj'ir interfering.

 

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well something i was reading on the forums is if you want the best way to get the destroyer of worlds or the nightelf trinket, etc. don't solve anything.


the reasoning behind this is you can gather and gather fragments and they never cap out or go away. BUT... as you level up you open up more zones/areas to find fragments in. a lot of these are harder to get to/take more time to get to.(i had one in vashjir... horrible zone, absolutely worthless)


so by not solving any fragments you can farm thousands of troll/NE/dwarf ones fairly easily. once you have as many as you want start solving and you can save yourself some time.


esentially though you get 1 point of archeolgy every fragment you pick up until you hit 100. after that you get 5 points of skill for every common "solve" and not sure on rare solves now because they upped the amount of skill you get for them recently and i was already maxed.


as for finding items. each race has a certain number of commons/rares to solve. you will usually solve a common but occasionally a rare will show up as what you are solving for. if you don't have a rare all you can do is keep solving commons until it randomly pops up.


and as has been said, you have to have a certain skill level before some of the items even have a possability to sohw up. you can "grind" archeology essentially to find the items you want but there's really no saying how long it will take you.

 

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Are you unable to dig/solve after you hit 525 or can you just keep on going (like fishing and other secondary skills) which would mean you could get all the rares eventually?

 

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WTB archeology digsite travel gadget. Even with 310% speed flight this is a lot of travel.

 

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Try about 75.. I didnt gain a point past there for digging.

 

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If you're doing archaeology for the experience, the fluff items, for fun, for achievements, etc... then just spend 10 minutes reading up on it on the profession forums and then dive in.

If you're doing archaeology specifically for one of the level 85 BoA epic weapons, either ratchet down your expectations (as in, "I'm probably not going to get this" or just do something else with your time.

 

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Mmhh did you forget to visit your trainer?

 

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Doing something for experience, fluff and fun doesn't stop one from doing it smartly too... personally, playing the lottery without a chance to win isn't really fun. Playing with a chance to win, even if the chance is minimal and I will most likely not win, is more exciting.

 

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There is an addon called Archy which is helpfull in that it gives you an arrow pointing to the nearest dig site. It also lists how close you are to a solve for each type.