Mining 300 on my Death Knight
2nd December 2008 – 1.10 pmMy initial plan for Gnomesblight, my Death Knight, was to level up my mining and blacksmithing concurrently, and hopefully take advantage of running through the low-level areas to gain some faction reputation and cookery ingredients. The idea was that if I didn't do this initially it would be frustrating to level through the Outlands without being able to mine any ore there, as well as more tedious to have to revisit all the areas at some point in the future in order to be able to craft anything of any use.
Unfortunately, mining ore increases skill more quickly than that recovered ore will advance the crafting profession, which means that either more ore needs to be mined than is necessary to advance only the gathering profession or the crafting profession is left behind at some point. Mining in low-level areas also doesn't require much in the way of protecting yourself from wandering mobs, which could provide at least some cooking meats, so it is easy to bypass cookery too.
There is also the decision as to what my blacksmithing specialisation will be. For Tiger, my previous blacksmith, I chose her to be an armoursmith. This choice reflected her desire to be a tank, thinking that armour would be more important than weapons for that role. I'm not sure quite how much armour she made that she wore over high-level instance loot, but it seemed like a rational decision at the time. For Gnomesblight I chose weaponsmith, if only to be different. I know that weapons take more materials than armour to create, in the sense of types of materials, often requiring items from other gathering professions, but I didn't quite fancy gathering a few hundred bars of mithril again for the armoursmith quest.
The weaponsmith quest is, perhaps unsurprisingly, just as involved as for the armoursmith. I don't think as many pieces need to be crafted but those that do require about as much gathering and cost, as well as requiring iron and mithril combined. As my mining skills no longer find extracting iron to be any sort of challenge completing the weaponsmith quest will require time to advance my blacksmithing that has no effect on my mining, a significant time contribution at that.
My desire to get mining high enough to mine in the Outlands was two-pronged. First, so that I could mine the ore I find when levelling Gnomesblight, rather than leaving it behind and having to return later only to mine, which seemed a waste of time in itself. Second, so that Sapphire's jewelcrafting skill could be improved. Sapphire is a jewelcrafter and enchanter, so has no way to gather ore herself and is not affluent enough to buy the ore she needs from the auction house. Having a second character send her ore is the most effective way I have of improving her professions.
Up until the dash to 70, prior to the release of Wrath of the Lich Kind, Knifey was her miner, also being my main character on the server. Then Sapphire overtook him and is now sitting ready in Northrend, but with her professions lingering below the level required to train to the highest level. To increase her skill she needs more ore, but it seems that Knifey likes the environment of Zangarmarsh and is unlikely to move from there any time soon. Gnomesblight will take on the mantle of mining for Sapphire.
With plenty of ore required to raise Sapphire's jewelcrafting profession skill, and hence enchanting, it makes more sense to concentrate on that first. Now my plan is to get Gnomesblight able to mine in the Outlands and gather as much ore as possible to send to Sapphire, which I achieved last night when hitting the 300 skill level in mining. Once Sapphire can train in Northrend I'll feel more comfortable to send her questing there, as well as getting Gnomesblight caught up in her own professions. It is still going to be a long path and my main concern is that my guild will not race past me in Northrend or levelling with me content to take my time and enjoy the Death Knight class and the scenery of the new continent.
I have a companion Death Knight with me, also in the guild, which is helping both to enjoy the class as well as the Outlands content again. To be honest, I really quite like Outlands still, even if there is so much more awaiting me in Northrend. I'll get there soon, but I don't feel any great desire to rush there lest I also rush past it. With the speed boost given to levelling in Outlands it also means that I can send Gnomesblight in a different direction to Sapphire. Whereas Sapphire headed south from Zangarmarsh to Terrokar Forest and Nagrand quite early, Gnomesblight can head north to Blade's Edge Mountains and beyond. I get to experience all the content, merely split over two characters.
The only problem will be in levelling cooking and blacksmithing at some point, but I don't see that spoiling my current enjoyment at all. It's all working out quite well right now.
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