Another fun aspect of end game is the farming. You might have done it during the grind from 70 to 80, but its at 80 when you will really have time to get some good quality farming in. I have two characters in Northrend--one a miner and one an herbalist. And from my limited perspective I think mining is way easier or more plentiful than herbalism is. Am I imaging things that there are more mines than herbs up here?
For mining, you might notice that Sholizar Basin is by far the best mining spot. And now everyone else in the world knows it. Thieves are thick as flies these days, and will try to rip you blind either when you are finishing off a mob that attacked you, or strait up while you're mining. I had a horde DK try to leech a Titanium mine the other day and finally got rid of him by not auto-looting and just leaving my guy there with the loot window up. I chatted away in guild chat for a while, then alt-tabbed out to read some news. After about 10 minutes he finally flew off but there were two others hovering on mounts directly over me when I finally finished mining the node. The second best mining zone that I can see is actually Wintergrasp of all places. I have no earthly idea what Blizzard was thinking about by putting mines in that zone, let alone making it the second best zone in Northrend. Do they not remember the problem they had in AV when people would come in and just fish for Salmon? They removed the fish.
Other than the plentiful amount of mines in Wintergrasp there are also tons of elementals. Of each type which also makes it the best zone for farming them as well. In between Wintergrasp matches you can find any number of people riding around farming. But you can also find that during matches which is my point. In a PVP setting I would rather people focus on PVP. Blizzard created a system with a berth of rewards for controlling that zone, so why temp people from the goal of capturing or defending the keep?
So herbalism. All I want to know is where are all the herbs? My herbalist is only level 73 so I admittedly haven't see all there is to see on him yet. But just from the first 3 zones it certainly seems to be about half as much as mining nodes. Am I wrong?
Yes, farming is alive and well at 80 thank you. And some of the rewards you get for farming are well worth the effort. Can't wait to get the final few bars of Titansteel for my Death Knights Titansteel Destroyer! 4 more bars to go!
