So, the world has been ravaged, the zones have been discovered, and you, too, have reached 85. Time to take a look at something you may not have been paying attention to. You may have peeked at it or even given it a shot, but did you know that archaeology is a real money maker?

Arch Prof is something I dabbled in at first and now I devote a great deal of time playing. And you will need quite a bit of patience to skill up. Simply put, once you talk to your Arch Prof Trainer, look at your world map and see the zones that offer dig sites (little shovels), go there and start digging. You play a little game of hot and cold until you find the correct position to dig up your treasures. Collect enough dug up pieces and make a relic of some type. Three digs per site and four sites on a continent at any given time.

Now that the intro is over let’s get to the money. Nearly everything you pick up is BoP, so selling those companions or the mounts is out of the question. Every now and then (and more so when you have higher skills) you will get a keystone. These count as a piece of a puzzle that can be used with any artifact you are trying to assemble of the same “tribe.” And they are sellable. Each keystone is going for about 175 GP each and dropping no lower than 75 GP.
Yes, they are selling.

Keystone list:
Rune Stone – Dwarf
Troll Tablet – Troll
Highborne Scroll – Night Elf
Dwarf Rune Stone – Dwarf
Orc Blood Text – Orc
Draenei Tome – Draenei
Nerubian Obelisk – Nerubian
Vrykul Rune Stick – Vrykul
Tol’vir Hieroglyphic – Tol’vir

Tip #1. Do not assemble anything until you have reached 100 Skill points. After that, you no longer get skill points for each dig. You do, however, get experience points (about 1/8th a exp bar/section). Each time you assemble an artifact you will receive 5 skill points. Once you hit skill point number 100, head back to your trainer. You should have enough pieces to skill rank up at least once or twice once you finish piecing the fragments together.

Tip #2. Remove any keystones in your inventory before you complete any artifacts. AH them or send them to your mule. You don’t want to take the chance of them being used up by mistake. Hey! That’s good gold you are throwing away!

Tip #3. Get these two addons: Archaeology Helper and GatherMate2. The helper requires some manual button pushing, but is a big help in those larger dig sites. The GatherMate2 will record each find you make for future references. Both can be turned off in game.

Tip #4. Make your home somewhere in the middle of the continent. You will have four sites to dig at in total. Once you hit a few, you will see that future dig sites tend to show up on the opposite side of the map. I hit North then South. Being a Mage really has it’s advantages. If you can teleport around via engineering, that’s a bonus, too. Do whatever you can do to lessen your time traveling from dig site to dig site.

Tip #5. Remember to farm! You will want to drop in and out of a dig site, and then move onto the next one. However, if you are in it for the money, don’t forget these sites are filled with mobs, herbs, and ore. That’s all potential AH GP just waiting for you. The little stuff all adds up.

Tip #6. Remember this is not an instant skill where you can buy your way up. This skill takes time to be successful in terms of making gold. Be cool and be patient. Good things will follow.

That’s all I got for you for now. Using these tips will net you some good gold. I usually net in about 500 GP (1000 GP on a good day) per AH visit on my mule in keystones plus extras (cloth, meats, greens/enchanting mats, etc.). Time in? About 2-4 hours. Have Fun!

Until next time….