Northrend

I heard something about a new product the other day from a few friends of mine that spent a lot of time sorting through all the new wotlk leveling guide content out there. They had stumbled across what they said was a monthly eBook membership site – I didn’t believe them at first because I couldn’t see how a website could produce an eBook every month. There just isn’t that much to talk about in World of Warcraft. But, I stopped by the site to check it out and make sure it wasn’t a scam. Too many times, these big promising sites will say more than they can deliver. Here’s what I found out.

First of all, the pedigree here is pretty solid. The authors of the guides on Warcraft Formula are Brad Johnson (of Warcraft Millionaire fame) and T Dub Sanders (of PvP Bible and WotLK Secrets fame). The two are a great pair, bringing in gold making and PvP – the two most popular sources of information and guides for the game – and they pretty much have all the resources you could need to be effective in the game.

The premise of the site is pretty simple. You pay an upfront fee to get their Fast Track Action Plan – a guide that shows you how to put a solid account together. The guide is actually a lot more useful than it sounds at first look – it shows you how to pick a character but it also shows you which mods to get, how to join a guide, where to level and farm gold, and how to start in PvP and raiding. It’s a solid walkthrough of all the basics of the game for a beginner or a casual veteran.

After this, you get the actual product, a monthly newsletter that comes complete with details on PvP in the current month, new changes to the game, questions from readers and just about any kind of info on the game you can imagine from class changes to whatever else might come up. There are a ton of different topics already covered in the first four issues (with PvP covered in every issue).

In the end, you get a solid starter guide and brand new, time sensitive content each month from two of the best guide writers in WoW for a pretty low monthly price. It’s hard to believe, but this is a great deal and even better than my friends told me about. I’ll be subscribing to my own monthly membership, just to see where Brad and T Dub take it.

After all the rush to be an Inscriber I’ve eventually got around to it. This was my second attempt, the first was a lag fail, I traded the vendor standing near Catarina Stanford in Stromwind shortly after Patch 3.0.2 and stood there for another 10mins with nothing happening. When I eventually got back to the land of living I had purchased 190 light parchments <dam>.

I gave up after that and thought I’d wait until release day when everyone else was off to Northrend I’d ride about farming herbs for Inscription. While waiting though I wasn’t just twiddling my thumbs I actually did some work and watched the Auction House for cheap herbs.

Like all new professions I’ve never really consider making money from Inscription, it’s purely for my own characters and friends ofc. Anyway the best way to make money from any new recipe or trade is to sell the materials, people cba to go collect them, so I charge a hearty collectors fee for the most precious ones.

If you still want to take Inscription as one of your trade skills then you’d better consider leveling herbalism fast. The cost of herbs are high at the moment but as inscription starts to take off and more patterns are added those pesky little plants will become even more expensive. Whatever herbs you don’t use you can always sell but better be fast as there’s always someone willing to undercut you.

Inscription Leveling - Step 1 Training

Find an Inscription trainer!  All major city will have one of these, just asks a guard to mark your mini-map. Here’s a list of the major cities and the Inscription trainers located there:

Alliance Inscription Trainers

Ironforge: Elise Brightletter
Stormwind: Catarina Stanford
Darnassus: Feyden Darkin
Exodar: Thoth

Horde Inscription Trainers

Orgrimmar: Jo’mah
Silvermoon City: Zantasia
Thunder Bluff: Poshken Hardbinder
Undercity: Margaux Parchley

(src)

When you learn the Apprentice Scribe ability, you’re also given four recipes, the most important of these will be the ink. Without ink there will be no inscription, but more importantly they increase your Inscription level as they are created. Each new ink will increase your level by about 20 and this ink can then be used to make Glyphs and other stuff.

Inscription Leveling - Step 2 Making Ink

To get the ink you need to mill herbs and this is the cost will come into Inscription. Milling works exactly like prospecting by Jewel-crafters and disenchanting by enchanters. If you’re going to level inscription all at the same time it may be a good idea to put the Milling icon on your hot bar. Right click the icon the left click your pile of herbs and two or more pigments should be given in exchange for 5 of the same herb.

Inscription Leveling - Step 3 Collecting Herbs

This is a list of the type and amount herbs you’ll need to have if you plan to power level Inscription to 350 before getting to Northrend. The number of stacks is actually the number of 5 of the same type of herb you’ll need, give or take 5.

Type of Ink

25 Ivory Ink & 25 Moonglow Ink NEEDS 50 Peacebloom, Silverleaf or Earthroot

25 Midnight Ink NEEDS 30 Mageroyal, Briarthorn, Swiftthistle, Bruiseweed or Stranglekelp

60 Lion’s Ink NEEDS 75 Wild Steelbloom, Grave Moss, Kingsblood or Liferoot

70 Jadefire Ink NEEDS 90 Fadeleaf, Goldthorn, Khadgar’s Whisker or Wintersbite

70 Celestial Ink NEEDS 90 Firebloom, Purple Lotus, Arthas’ Tears, Sungrass, Blindweed, Ghost Mushroom or Gromsblood

75 Shimmering Ink NEEDS 95 Golden Sansam, Dreamfoil, Mountain Silversage, Plaguebloom or Icecap

70 Ethereal Ink NEEDS 90 Felweed, Ragveil, Terocone, Dreaming Glory, Ancient Lichen, Netherbloom, Nightmare Vine, Mana Thistle

Remember to Mill you need to have 5 of each herb so dot buy 27 Peacbloom and 23 Silverleaf, you’ll need to buy/collect them in bundles of 5-10-15-20. To try and make some gold while your doing this before you mill your last 2 stacks of herbs check to see how many pigments you have, sometimes you’ll get 3 instead of 2.

Inscription Leveling - Step 4 Power Leveling Inscription

So you’ve now collected or bought all the herbs you needed and milled them and your bags are bulging with pigments, time to get that pen out and start inscribing.

I found the best place to do this was standing right next to the trainer, this allowed me to get the next level of training as I needed it but more importantly I was also near a vendor who would have all the extra Inscriptions goods on him that you will need. Mainly you’ll be using the various parchments such as Light, Common, Heavy and Resilient Parchment as you level up. It makes sense really if you think about it, after you get the ink you something to write on.

This list is obviously one of many different ways of doing it. If you’ve found a better way then let us all into the secret and leave a comment below. The levels are on the left and what to make are on the right, but remember that inks are not good grinding recipes, they turn gray very quickly. However you will need much more ink than skill points, so don’t stop making the ink because it doesn’t give you anymore skill points, check your numbers!

Level 0-100

01-15 Ivory Ink
15-35 Scrolls
35-50 Moonglow Ink
50-75 Armor Vellum or Scroll of Recall (use first)
75-80 Midnight Ink
80-100 Class Glyphs*

Level 100-200

100-105 Lion’s Ink
105-125 Class Glyphs*
125-135 Lion’s Ink or Dawnstar Ink
130-150 Class Glyphs* (Strange Tarot if you have Dawnstar Ink)
150-155 Jadefire Ink
155-175 Class Glyphs*
175-180 Class Glyphs* (Royal Ink if you got pigment for it)
180-200 Class Glyphs* (Arcane Tarot if you have Royal Ink)

Level 200-300

200-205 Celestial Ink
205-210 Armor Vellum II or Class Glyphs*
210-225 Class Glyphs*
225-230 Fiery Ink
230-235 Class Glyphs* (Shadowy Tarot if you have Fiery Ink)
235-250 Weapon Vellum II or Class Glyphs*
250-255 Shimmering Ink
255-260 Scroll of Spirit V
260-275 Class Glyphs*
275-290 Class Glyphs* (Ink of the Sky if you got Sapphire Pigment)
290-300 All recipes start yellow at 290 and green at 295 (Good luck is need to get to 300 here without using too many herbs).

Level 300-350

300-305 Ethereal Ink
305-325 Class Glyphs*
325-330 Class Glyphs* (Darkflame Ink if you have Ebon Pigment)
330-350 Class Glyphs*
350+ OFF TO NORTHREND!!

*= mix it up a bit don’t just do the same class

Extra Points To Consider

I have read that making Glyph’s go from orange to yellow after only five skill points, this is what I mean by mix it up a little when making class glyphs. I didn’t seem to have any problems with this but it should be remembered. Easy way to do this is to learn a glyph that is orange and make 5, then learn another make 5 and so it goes.

Rare Inks

If you are lucky enough to get some nice rare inks from the random pigment drops, Dawnstar Ink, Royal Ink, Ink of the Sky, I would use it to make the appropriate leveled item and save some normal ink, helps it go further.

Inscription Items

Inscribers can make a variety of stuff not listed in the power leveling path, such as scrolls, trinkets, armor and weapon vellums and card decks. The glyph recipes are the cheapest way to level Inscription, but if you have any alts that would benefit from a few scrolls or a vellum I would make sure I made these first before following this inscription power leveling guide.

Benefits To Enchanters

Not really an extra point to consider but the main point why I got one of my alts to level Inscription. I have long been annoyed that I’ve had to pay others to enchant my weapon or my gear with an enchant my enchanter has, (he has a lot) but with the new vellum’s this will be a thing of the past. Not only will the Inscribing priest pass vellums to my enchanting warlock but the warlock will then put an enchant on the appropriate vellum and pass it back. An add bonus of this is also the ability to sell my enchants on the Auction House, no more will I waste Saturdays stand outside the major Auction houses and sell my wares I can just have a vellum sent over and enchant that, put it AH and join my friends in Utgarde Keep.

Finally