In Mists of Pandaria, there are three types of dig sites – Pandaren, Mogu, and Mantid. Brann Bronzebeard is the archaeology trainer in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms and is located in the Seat of Knowledge.
Things to note:
- Each location can be dug up 6 times with 5-9 fragments looted each time
- The fragment limit is still 200, so you’ll have to use them up pretty fast
- Common and rare solves give 3 skill points
Pandaren
Keystone: Pandaren Pottery Shard
Locations: include Emperor’s Omen, The Gong of Hope
Rare Items:
Mogu
Keystone: Mogu Statue Piece.
Locations: include Camp Gormal
Rare items:
The Anatomical Dummy makes some rather interesting emotes when you use him as a target dummy. :)
Ow. That really hurts. Not.
That doesn’t even tickle.
Bring it on, jerk.
You’re not very good at this torture thing.
Is that supposed to hurt?
You want a piece of me?
Oooh. Mr Mean Mogu.
I’m so scared.
As a trinket, the Quilen Statuette wasn’t too impressive damage-wise but it could be used to bump up your alt’s ilvl. I was surprised to see him talk though. He’s said to share the same dialogue as the Anatomical Dummy.
The hardest thing was getting my summoned pet and I to face the same direction :P
Mantid
Keystone: Mantid Amber Sliver.
Locations: include Sik’vess and The Underbough in Townlong Steppes and Dread Wastes.
Rare items:
Mantid sites aren’t that hard to come by but there are some annoying ones filled with elite groups. Thankfully, the Quartermaster in the Seat of Knowledge can supply you with a Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator for the price of a Restored Artifact. As long as you have the locator in your bag, you’ll only get Mantid digs for an entire day (real-time). I was lucky and managed to receive a Pristine Artifact on my second completion.
Archaeology Spawns
Sometimes an Ancient Haunt can spawn from picking up fragments. The mob can drop between 7-8 Mogu fragments per kill, regardless of dig type. The mob itself is dependent on player level as it scaled with me.
Note: If you’re in a group when an Ancient Haunt pops up, the other person can loot your fragments if it’s their turn to loot. =/
Seat of Knowledge
Common items of Pandaria may be converted into Restored Artifacts. These artifacts can be turned in to Braun Bronzebeard by flying into the Seat of Knowledge, located inside the top floor of Mogu’shan Palace in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The crates (which are stackable) may be traded in for older fragments such as a Crate of Tol’vir Archaeology Fragments and yield the same amount of fragments if you were to dig them up yourself – between 5-9 fragments per crate. This is a great way to supplement your digs if you’re still trying to discover the Scepter of Azj’Aqir or any other rare artifact.
A max skill of archaeology (600) and player level (90 for flying) will be required to access this service.
Pristine Artifacts
From time to time, a pristine version of any given artifact can be discovered. These items are displayed in the Seat of Knowledge to learn some extra lore.
Restored Artifacts may also be traded in for each of the following:
If only we could do this with all our earlier novelty items. Think of all the space it would save and you could still enjoy them.
So, if I’m looking at that correctly, we get Vyrkul, Pandaren, Mogu and an unnamed one. Do you think it could be the Mantid? That would make my day, I think.
Vyrkul was available pre Cata, but I’m not sure about the third disabled icon which to me looks like a Panda. Mantid would be cool to have as the third though :)
Ah, well I’ve admittedly maxed out my Archeology outside of both Outlands and Northrend.
So you think we’re getting two panda ones? Like, one for each “faction” of pandas?