One night, as Saami was flying over a corner section of the mountains separating one region from another, I saw flashed on my screen You have discovered the Elemental Plateau. OMG!!!!! I had heard of this legendary place on the World of Warcast podcast, from Cryler (Starman was sick) and Renata. Cryler had been telling a tale of farming on a PVP server (not fun), and when he mentioned he'd been working on the Elemental Plateau he added, and if you don't know where that is I'm not going to tell you.
Now I knew why. I landed and realized I was in a small plot of land that felt about 100 sq yards. In one burnt section, I saw 6-8 fire elementals. In another hilly section, 5-6 earth elementals, another section *PRIMAL AIR* elementals. As a leatherworker, Saami desperately needed those to make clefthide leg armor. And heck, the rest was AH gravy. I was sooooo stoked.
As it happened, I was there pretty much alone, something that NEVER happens anymore. I could write a whole entry on the etiquette, or lack thereof, of fellow farmers, but I don't feel like ranting. I'm in the zone and I don't want to be brought down by my experiences with fellow players who are not only unable to cooperate and share, but who also lack grace and manners.
Now as it turns out, being my second 'toon, Saami has benefited from my experience with Hallgrima. Saami has all her professions almost maxed out. This means that for Saami, farming is a big, big deal. You name it, I farm it. I could wax a bit on the zen of fishing, and well maybe I will.
I discovered, quite by accident, that the small pond up on the plateau had pools of "pure water" that occasionally made an appearance, and from those pools I could fish out motes of water, sufficient to make primal water (another AH professions commodity). I then noticed, upon departure, the same sorts of pools in the larger lake below. I set up fishing. Well, much to my joy, I started pulling icefin blue fish out of the lake. And these, my dears, can be cooked up in to this:
Poached Bluefish
Requires Level 55
Use: Restores 7500 health over 30 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 23 Spell Damage and 20 Spirit for 30 min.
Hallgrima would kill for those. Alas, her fishing and cooking are not even above 100. She could neither fish nor cook the dish.
Thus began the quick free fall into farming, cemented even more firmly after the first single set of Clefthide Leg Armor sold for 120G (well, 115G after the AH took its cut). There were at least two weeks where Saami (and I) spent more time farming than playing the game.
Here's a partial shopping list I regularly farm now:
- air motes
- mana motes
- fire motes
- earth motes
- cobra scales
- clefthide
- knothide
- golden darters
- figlusters mudfish
- zangarian sporefish
- icefin blue fish
- chunk o' basilisk
- ravager meat
- serpent flesh
- raptor ribs
So Saami is a busy gal. But I find I sort of enjoy it. I think this is because it is a real low level task, with a few exceptions when hunting the meatier items among MOBs. I do get satisfaction from making the items for my others toons, for Sarah, and other folks, and selling the left overs. It is not play; it is not chores. I don't know what it is other than some sort of zen state with a semi productive outcome. LOL.
Now actuallly, farming is the wrong word. I am NOT engaged in planting or animal husbandry. I am really a hunter-gatherer. But the expression is farming, as distinct from playing, and so the misnomer continues. Me, I'm just living off the land, something in between the indigenous people and the Russian trappers in Alaska.
I'm heading out to farm right now. Need anything?
PS
Like Cryler, I will not be telling you the location of the elemental plateau. I already told Via and Clive.
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