What do you think of it? Did Blizzard release it half-baked? Are you happy with its current implementation? What else do you hope to have added to it in future patches?
At first, I was very happy. It reminded me of fishing and I'd enjoyed fishing. I didn't enjoy fishing as much as somethings, but there were plenty of times that was the pace of what I wanted to do. I'd find a pool and watch TV while listening for the sound indicating a fish had bitten.
Good enough. I'll pursue it more after leveling to 85 and poking around in dungeons. It's fine to have as a lower priority and I knew the pet and mount collector in me would return.
Syylia, my daughter, followed it much more doggedly. She once was an archaeology major, so maybe that was the appeal, but even she eventually tired enough to drop it to the back burner.
Only in the last week or so have I really returned to Archaeology and thank the little green apples the toon that is trying is a Mage! I pity those needing to fly long distances. There's far more idle time in moving to the next dig site than anticipated. The travel time is a required part that can't easily be ameliorated.
I suppose I'm looking at it wrong. I'm already level 85. What would it be like to level Archaeology as you level your toon? Well, that's funny because I have been leveling a toon, but without surveying et al. Why not?
Kallixta has been on a Vanilla WOW account. I only upgraded to Burning Crusade in the last few weeks as she approached 60 and Blizzard happened to drop the prices. She isn't crippled without Wotlk or Cata. Her purpose is to explore things I missed with Martuska and that included a lot of Vanilla. She couldn't explore Jewelcrafting yet? Horrors! I'd run a Draenei up through a few zones already. So you see what I've been missing? Yeah, Archaeology is about the only thing.
So I'm only seeing it like most old-timers, from the vantage of end-game. I think it'd be less boring to do it while leveling an alt. "I'm going to Redridge Mountains? Oh look..."
Unfortunately, I restarted Archaeology after news of the increase in common artifacts was out, but before the patch with its release. As a consequence, my bank now has a bunch of gray items waiting for 4.0.6. Of course, that's what a bank alt is for!
Overall, it does seem to be missing some depth. It isn't hard to believe it was part of something else that got dropped and they wanted to salvage something out of it. I have hopes that future patches can tweak some improvements into it.
- For example, I could see tradeskill recipes as future drops. Why couldn't we rediscover an ancient dwarven beer recipe or nightelf tailoring or whatever?
- I wasn't the only one disappointed that the reconstructed dress artifact wasn't something that could be worn. Why not? Couldn't these artifacts be something RPers would fight for?
- I haven't forgotten how there used to be quests where a tradeskill was required or helpful, like Incendicite Ore. Seems like it wouldn't be difficult to have some quest that as a reward gave a keystone. Or yielded something extra with those fragments.
- Another way Archaeology could have been integrated into other aspects in reputation. Why couldn't there be a Dwarf/Troll artifact that asked to be turned in to a quest/vendor that rewarded reputation? Blathers gasps at the site of your widget. "Of course! It's fragments of the legendary Holy Hand Granade of Antioch that Brother Maynard once carried." Wouldn't that give a nice tingle?
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