Archaeology in Cata

What is this and what does it do for me?

Its a secondary profession, a time sink and a way to get some cool rewards. The other aspect it brings into the game Lore *GASP* why did they do this? To add another thing for people to do with their toons. To see the rewards check out this link.

How do you do this?

See your trainer in for your faction in any major city. For Stormwind it is Harrison Jones and for Orgimmar it is Belloc Brightblade. Now if you intend to go forward with this WoW give you a bit of info if you click on your profession tab. Pull up your map and it will add little shovel icons to show you were to go. Next put your dig icon on your hot bar to make putting out your scope faster.

Head off to your dig site, you view this by the little icon of a shovel on your map. As you enter the zone you will see on your map an area oranged out for you approximate location. Now when you get there know a few things; you can dig 3 times in this area, no one else has this dig location and it can be anywhere in the world (according your skill and toons level).

Are you ready to dig? Click on the shovel icon it looks like this and was the one I suggest to be put on the hot bar.

Now the only thing left to do is read where you need to be. After the scope is placed you will get a direction and a color light. The bigger end of the scope is which way you need to go and the color will tell you approx. how far you need to go. Red indicates you are the furthest, yellow is closer and green means you are within yards. If you are in the area you need to be a clickable treasure will appear.

You will need up to 27 to finish the artifact you are working on. Once you get enough of the items, click on solve and you will get the item you were looking for as well as some lore to read about the artifact.

As of launch in cataclysm, this is not a extra raid buff for you or PVP buff type job. Right now its just a ton of fun. According to the video below there may be something later on in game but as of now it might lead to an epic or boa weapon. For leveling purposes I got XP, at level 81 I was receiving almost 9k per dig.

Please enjoy the video below for further details.