Ideas for explosives.....

11/26/07
What did my toons do over the Thanksgiving weekend? Well, Horde side they discovered that the prices for Arcanite bars have doubled, so I’ve been selling off my reserve bars at 22 gold each. That’s well worth it because I can always make more, especially when I switch my Warlock from Mining to Alchemy at level 35.
Ally side, I was working on my Shaman for most of the time, getting almost all of the Darkshore quests finished up, so I could go on to Stormwind and get all the quests for the Deadmines (VC). I also ran my Rogue and Shaman to Refuge Pointe-South Shore to get the flight points, and left the Rogue at SS to work on her fishing skills. There’s 3 pools that spawn right at the SS docks, so it’s easy to leave a character at the inn (so they can still rest, and avoid the 20 second countdown for logging out), and log into the character every hour or so to fish the pools and check Alchemy supplies for the lvl 21 healing potions, since the cost of mats for those potions is worth way more than you can get for a 5 stack of them. It’s nice to have those static pools, since they often drop unlocked lockboxes with a few silver, Bolts of wool and silk cloth, leather, and occasional weapons & recipes. After she’s gotten to 225 fishing, I’m going to run her up to the Hinterlands, and camp out at the engineering supplier there to get some Mithril Mechanical Dragonling recipes, and the Ironfeather Shoulders recipe that the vendors have. Also, I powerleved her Mining from 155 to 180, so she can definitely mine Iron and Mithril, both of which spawn right down the hill from the engineering supplier. It’s very worthwhile to leave a Mining alt there for a while, because you can put a big markup on both of those recipes, as well as collecting some Ore for your time.
I also progressed further in Redridge with my Rogue than any of my other characters, going up to kill the Mystic and Brute gnolls, collecting Rivets and Bolts for the bridge, and getting enough Rethban Ore for all of my characters in one collection. I joined up with a lvl 22 Rogue (I was level 24), and we clobbered everyone in the Rethban cave. In the back of the cave, there’s a ledge with a Mystic, some assorted Gnolls, and a Gnoll named Ardo Dirtpaw. He’s not associated with any quests, and he’s not elite. However, they’re all around the 22 level, and normally that would be kinda daunting to take all of them on at once. Not with Engineering! Every time we passed by the ledge, I’d go up, lay down a Goblin Land Mine, and shoot Ardo to bring them running over, just in time for the Land Mine to arm itself and explode. The ones left alive immediately start running, and it only takes one hit to kill them after that. If the Mystic would run over with the rest of them, I wouldn’t even get hurt at all. That’s an idea though. With groups of mobs that have casters, lay down the mine, shoot the caster, and run for it. That’ll force the casters to run towards casting distance, and they’ll get caught in the explosion as well.
I now only have Hangfire (Druid) to get all the VC quests, as well as leveling him and Kishigishi (Paladin) to Engineering lvl 225. Hangfire is 150, Kishi is 202 right now. I just discovered that the expert level (I didn’t check the Journeyman) Engineering trainers now have Artisan (Master?? XX) level training and recipes available on them, instead of having to trek down to Gadgetzan. Very nice, especially since I’d have to fly to Ironforge for the 150 to 225 level of Engineering, and run back and forth between the trainer and the forge every 10 levels or so. Now I can train in Stormwind, where the forge is just across the plaza from the trainers. Kudos to Blizzard!