Hidden Warcraft » Alchemy

Crafting the Flask of the North is expensive

Renei — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:31:36 +0000

I have finally discovered the reason why Frost Lotus are ever so profitable to sell on the Auction House. There is a little recipe that you learn, as an Alchemist, at still level 425. It is called the Flask of the North. Sounds cool, eh?

The Flask of the North is a Bind on Pickup item that has the following effect: Increases your Spell Power by 47, Increases your Attack Power by 80, or Increases your Strength by 40 for 1 Hour. It has the clear disadvantage of counting as both a Battle Elixir and a Guardian Elixir, however you’re free to die as many times as you want withing the allotted time, since the “effects persist through Death.”

The Flask of the North requires nothing more to craft that an Enchanted Vial and (4) Frost Lotus.

In all my years of playing World of Warcraft, I have never encountered a situation where it is clearly so much better to sell the materials than to sell, or in this case use, the crafted item.

I have been selling the Frost Lotus for over 50 WoW Gold each. Conservatively, this means 200 Gold for each Flask of the North you don’t make. This is pretty significant.

If you are looking to level your Alchemist skill, you are much better of making ‘green’ recipes and only leveling at 1-in-5 than making the Flask of the North. In fact, I recommend casting the Northrend Alchemy Research and crafting what you find there. I got the ‘Elixir of Lightning Speed’ the other day, made a whole bunch and sold them on the Auction House for close to what the mats would have sold for.

Don’t make the Flask of the North. It’s expensive to make, you won’t be able to sell it to anyone, and if that wasn’t enough, it’s not even that good.

Sell the Frost Lotus and buy yourself something pretty, instead.

Bookmark and Share

Make a Killing With Frost Lotus My Paladin Wesha is now an exalted level 77, and...
Crafting The Mighty Alchemist Stone My Alchemy skill is now 405. Still a bit short...
Make WoW Gold Farming Terocone in Terokkar Forest Frustrated by the slow speed of my Alchemy leveling, I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Talandra’s Rose in Dragonblight

Renei — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:25:34 +0000

I completed the Wrathgate quests yesterday, although I have not yet taken care of the missions that should bring me to Undercity to kick some serious Forsaken butt. I’ll take care of that this weekend, when I have the time to enjoy it.

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 300 Gold an hour, legally! ***

No, this morning I decided I wanted some Talandra’s Rose, and instead of going to Zul’Drak, the number-one source for Talandra’s Rose, I figured I’d try my luck at some Frozen Herbs in Dragonblight. As you may know – ot not – Frozen Herbs drop, as far as I’ve noticed, either Goldclover, Tiger Lily or Talandra’s Rose, with a slight chance for Frost Lotus.

Turns out I was lucky, and in only a few minutes aquired (13) Talandra’s Rose to use in my Northrend Alchemy Research. I promptly hearthed back to Dalaran, where I performed said research, and I learned the “Elixir of Lightning Speed.” Boosts your haste rating by 45 for an hour or something. I’ll have to see if it sells.

Incidentally, I also made a nice Dragonblight Herb Map, with recommended herbing routes. Here it is, it’s kind of a throwaway, since I have to get to work, but anyways, maybe you can use it. I’ll write more about it tomorrow or something.

Bookmark and Share

Farming Frost Lotus from Talandra’s Rose in Zul’Drak I’m trying to figure out from which Herb nodes Frost...
Farming Frozen Herbs in Zul’Drak In my ongoing efforts to gather some Frost Lotus, this...
Crafting the Flask of the North is expensive I have finally discovered the reason why Frost Lotus are...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Crafting The Mighty Alchemist Stone

Renei — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:29:17 +0000

My Alchemy skill is now 405. Still a bit short of ultimate glory (for now, until they raise the bar again) but nonetheless respectable.

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 300 Gold an hour, legally! ***

So respectable, in fact, that I crafted for myself the Mighty Alchemist Stone, a beautiful Bind-On-Pickup trinket that gives some interesting bonuses to the effects of potions, but also to Attack Power and my favorite, Critical Strike Rating. Here’s what it looks like:

Despite the fact that it’s a Blue item and provide all sorts of mildly interesting bonuses, the Mighty Alchemist Stone is relatively easy to craft. As stated before, it requires only a 400-plus Alchemy skill level, which is hardly unobtainable, even for one such as I that did not spend 10 minutes Fishing with this character.

In terms of actual mats, here is what you’ll need:

15 x Adder’s Tongue –> Find them in Sholazar Basin
15 x Tiger Lily –> Anywhere in Northrend
1 x Frost Lotus –> Rare Drop from Northrend Herb nodes

If you have been furiously leveling your Alchemy skills since level 1 and finally reach level 400, I guess this is a good way to reward yourself and feel like what you’ve been doing has meaning. Incidentally, 50 Critical Strike Rating is worth 1.57% at level 75, which is nothing to sneeze at.

On another, stranger note – yes stranger! – this morning, just before server shut down, I was witness to a bizarre mammoth procession on the streets of Dalaran. I took a picture for your edification, and if you can tell me what it was, for mine.

That’s me on the left, bemused, looking at the Mammoth procession going on before me. I asked if they were on a pilgrimage, which would seem “normal”, and if so, if they had “alms for the poor” (pronounce “pure”), but none of the exalted characters had an answer for me.

Maybe you can tell what’s up.

Bookmark and Share

Make a Killing With Frost Lotus My Paladin Wesha is now an exalted level 77, and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Alchemy: Resurgent Healing Potion

Renei — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:31:33 +0000

Wesha’s Alchemy skill is now at 360. It’s funny that in all my years of playing World of Warcraft, farming for gold and other materials, and learning all sorts of new things, I’ve never had an Alchemy skill quite that high.

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 300 Gold an hour, legally! ***

I was desperate to reach 350 so that I could get the Grand Master level and start learning Northrend and Wrath of the Lich King recipes.

The first recipe that becomes available, correct me if I’m wrong, is the Resurgent Healing Potion. Strangely enough, this Healing Potion heals exactly the same amount, 1500 to 2500 as a Super Healing Potion.

I’ve read on Thottbot people asking questions as to why this is the case, and while I didn’t read anything definitive, I do have an idea. The Super Healing Potion requires Netherbloom, which requires you to go to Netherstorm to farm, and needless to say, is quite the PITA.

I think that the Resurgent Healing Potion is one of the recipes that was included just to make leveling a little easier at the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King. After all, all you need is (2) Gold Clover and an Imbued Vial to create a Resurgent Healing Potion, which I’m sure you’ll agree beats the hell out of a pair of Netherbloom and some Felweed.

Gold Clover is all over the map in the Warath of Lich King starting areas – Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord, making creating the Resurgent Healing Potion very quick and easy. This potion, however, turns Yellow at 360, so it’s not really good for a long term plan, but its the easiest 10 high-level points you can get, that’s for sure.

In short, creating the Resurgent Healing Potion requires two Gold Clovers, an Imbued Vial and an Alchemy skill level of 350. It heals 1500 to 2500 Hit Points, just the same as a Super Healing Potion, but much easier to create. And if you’re looking for WoW Gold, as most people are, you’ll be glad to know that the Super Healing Potions are quite popular on the Auction House with your fellow WoW players, so you can rotate the stock, so to speak, selling the Super Healing Potion and replacing them in your inventory with Resurgent Healing Potions. Nobody will notice a difference except your bank balance!

Bookmark and Share

Farming Netherbloom in Netherstorm is FUN! Playing a Horde character is fun. For instance, you can...
Make WoW Gold Farming Terocone in Terokkar Forest Frustrated by the slow speed of my Alchemy leveling, I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Farming Netherbloom in Netherstorm is FUN!

Renei — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:46:22 +0000

Playing a Horde character is fun. For instance, you can pretend you’re really bad ass and so much better, and cooler, than all those Alliance pussies with their pretty toon and fancy thingamajigs and whatnots.

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 300 Gold an hour, legally! ***

Once of the disadvantages, at least in my case, is that I know nobody and since I hate people (not really, I love you guys!) I find it difficult to get groups to do instances that are not douchebag-heavy. Which brings me to my actual point: I have hit a wall leveling alchemy. I’m stuck at skill level 347 and I need three lousy points to be able to learn the Northrend-level alchemy and the cool recipes that come with it.

Since I can’t do Instances, I am somewhat limited in my choices for leveling. All that’s left that’s not grey is some sort of Super Healing Potion, and it requires Netherbloom. Since my leveling was so wicked fast, I didn’t even make it to Netherstorm, the only place where Netherbloom is found. I made a little foray there, riding my trusty Blue Wind Rider.

To start with, here is a partial Netherstorm Herb map:

As you can see, the map is not entirely explored, because I had to do this this morning and my time is limited. Before you go off looking for Netherbloom in Netherstorm, better know what it’s used for, and – conveniently enough – here is the list:

Destruction Potion
Elixir of Empowerment
Elixir of Major Mageblood
Flask of Blinding Light
Flask of Chromatic Wonder
Haste Potion
Shrouding Potion
Super Healing Potion (the only one I care about!)
Super Rejuvenation Potion
Superior Mana Oil

Wow, Renei, what a pleasantly polyvalent herb! Yeah well who cares. All I want is to level up 3 freakin’ points!

I spent about 40 minutes of my life this morning farming Netherbloom in Netherstorm, with somewhat disappointing results. This is due in great part to the fact that I had no flight point to Netherstorm, and had to fly on my crappy flyer all the way there, cutting down on my actual farming time.

Anyways, here is what I got:

33 Netherbloom
15 Dreaming Glory
5 Felweed
1 Golden Sansam
5 Motes of Life
1 Mote of Mana

I also got about 1 Wow Gold’s worth of grey stuff and loot, and 1 Green Item which I can’t disenchant so will be vendored.

All in all, not a total catastrophe, but I’ll be back there tomorrow and I’ll see what I can actually get in a REAL 30 minutes of farming, with no taxying about…

Bookmark and Share

Make WoW Gold Farming Terocone in Terokkar Forest Frustrated by the slow speed of my Alchemy leveling, I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Adder’s Tongue Herbalism in Sholazar Basin

Renei — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:26:30 +0000

Adder’s Tongue is one of the three herbs that grows naturally in Sholazar Basin. Adder’s Tongue can be used by high-level Alchemists for potions and Elixirs, as well as by high level Scribes (Inscription).

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 200 Gold an hour, legally! ***

This morning, I had in my mind when I woke up to do a grand gathering tour of Netherstorm and see what grows there, as well as discover the map, get the achievement, etc. I kind of like Netherstom, as it is very otherwordly, but alas, all my carefully laid plans were foiled by the dreaded server maintenance.

Turns out that I had left Mordauk parked at the Nesingwary Camp in Sholazar Basin after yesterday’s Crystallized Water affair, so my time was extremely limited.

In only 14 minutes of farming Adder’s Tongue in Sholazar Basin, I managed to gather 25 Adder’s Tongue, which is very good.

Since I stop for the other herbs, I also gathered:

25 Tiger Lily
18 Goldclover
2 Deadnettle
10 Crystallized Life

I did not take a screenshot of the map this morning – it was too late by the time I remembered I should, however, you can read my article about Herbalism in Sholazar Basin. Incidentally, I just realized it doesn’t have a map!

Darn it. I guess that will be my mission tomorrow!

Bookmark and Share

Farming Adder’s Tongue in Sholazar Basin When it was time to do my twice weekly Northrend...
Make a Killing With Frost Lotus My Paladin Wesha is now an exalted level 77, and...
Farming Netherbloom in Netherstorm is FUN! Playing a Horde character is fun. For instance, you can...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Farming Tiger Lily in Borean Tundra

Renei — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:03:11 +0000

The endless quest for more Snowfall Ink to help my Inscription skill progress – it is now at 445 – takes me to all sorts of places, always looking for an abundance of herbs.

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 200 Gold an hour, legally! ***

This morning, my perigrinations took me to Borean Tundra, where I seemed to recall a magical place where the Tiger Lily sprouted from the ground even before you were done gathering it, or close enough.

That place was supposedly the lake right in the middle of Borean Tundra. So this morning I made my merry way there, and gathered… Here is what I got, in 30 minutes:

25 Tiger Lily
8 Goldclover
10 Deadnettle
17 Crystallized Life

As you can see, in terms of farming Tiger Lily, Borean Tundra may not exactly be the very best place. The drop rate in general is not bad, and the fact that all the Tiger Lily spawn points are very concentrated in the same are makes it convenient, but overall, as far as herb gathering, this is not the best.

Just to help refresh your memory, here the the Borean Tundra Herb Map:

Now a distinction must be made between types of gatherers. I am an Scribe – I have the Inscription profession – so any Northrend Herb is the same to me: they all mill down to Azure Pigment and sometimes to Icy Pigment as well.

So for a Scribe, gathering Tiger Lily is pointless – much better off gathering Talandra’s Rose in Zul’Drak, or Adder’s Tongue in Sholazar Basin.

But for an Alchemist, who actually needs Tiger Lily for a recipe, then Borean Tundra might now be a bad place to look.

Bookmark and Share

Farming Crystallized Fire in Borean Tundra I realized that my previous article about farming Crystallized Fire...
Farming Netherbloom in Netherstorm is FUN! Playing a Horde character is fun. For instance, you can...
Farming Adder’s Tongue in Sholazar Basin When it was time to do my twice weekly Northrend...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Farming Deadnettle in Howling Fjord

Renei — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:59:36 +0000

Deadnettle is a valuable herb, found as a drop in all Northrend Herbs. Its basically the Swiftthistle of Northrend.

*** Tired of being poor? Try this proven WoW Gold Guide and make over 200 Gold an hour, legally! ***

By itself, it is used by Alchemists for various high level Flasks and Elixirs, and the Indestructible Alchemist Stone.

For Scribes (Inscriptors) such as myself, Deadnettle is just another Herb to be milled down to Azure Pigment, and if you’re lucky, Icy Pigment.

It seems that Deadnettle has a slightly better chance to mill down to Icy Pigment than other Northrend herbs, although that might be completely anectodal, so this morning I figured I would do a little run to gather it.

The thing is, since Deadnettle is a drop from gathering other herbs, you can’t really plan for it. You just gather whatever you can and hope for the best.

In 30 minutes for farming Deadnettle in Howling Fjord, I got:

31 Deadnettle
36 Goldclover
13 Tiger Lily
24 Crystallized Life

(click here for the Howling Fjord Herbalism Map)

This basically means that I needed to gather 1.58 other Herbs for every Deadnettle I received which in my humble opinion is not bad at all.

Since I was in the area, I also took the opportunity to do the Steel Gate Patrol Daily Quest, which sees you climb aboard one of the gnomish planes and shoot down Gargoyles. One of the quickest and most fun-per-minute to be had in Howling Fjord! Also good for 275 Explorer’s League Reputation Points, in my case because my Death Knight is human and gets that nifty 10% rep bonus.

For you non-human characters out there, 250 Reputation Points it is.

All in all, I’m very satisfied with my little 30-minute Howling Fjord Herb run. I must admit that I’ve not checked the Auction House value of what I gathered, not have I milled it – server maintenance “oblige” – however 80 Herbs in 30 minutes is more than decent.

On top of that, I also got 2 Eternal Life and 4 Crystallized Life, for which I have no use at the moment, but that I’m furiously stacking in my Bank against a future need.

Bookmark and Share

Farming Netherbloom in Netherstorm is FUN! Playing a Horde character is fun. For instance, you can...
Farming Frost Lotus in Storm Peaks Because I don’t have a huge network of WoW gamers...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.