Pilgrim

Pilgrim's Bounty has arrived! Stuff yourself silly, level up your cooking and get messy in a food fight!

Above anything else, however, the most important thing to do this week is sign up for the Blog Azeroth Thanksgiving Event! Amerence has come up with this lovely way for bloggers to show how thankful they are to the community around them, so make sure you join in and you could win some great prizes! Check out the Blog Azeroth forum for more information.

Get the Look: Part 4 - Leatherworking

The promised Transmogrification process in patch 4.3 has everyone excited about the prospect of being able to change the way their gear looks. I've put together a few posts exploring some possibilities of old-school leather sets.

1. The twelve Druid tier sets and their recoloured look-alike sets.
2. Other leather dungeon and raid sets.
3. PvP sets.
4. Crafted by leatherworkers.
5. Uncommon (green) sets.

I've listed a few of the leatherworker-crafted sets, but also for each slot I've picked out a few of what, in my opinion, are the nice- or interesting-looking pieces. Almost all crafted pieces are Bind on Equip so you can pick them up from the auction house or have someone craft them for you.

Sets

Dark Leather Dark Leather Shoulders  Dark Leather Tunic  Dark Leather Gloves  Dark Leather Belt  Dark Leather Pants  Dark Leather Boots  Dark Leather Cloak
	Guardian Guardian Armor Guardian Leather Bracers Guardian Gloves  Guardian Belt  Guardian Pants
Wild Leather  Wild Leather Helmet Wild Leather Shoulders Wild Leather Vest  Wild Leather Leggings  Wild Leather Boots  Wild Leather Cloak
	Big Voodoo Big Voodoo Mask  Big Voodoo Robe  Big Voodoo Pants  Big Voodoo Cloak
Runic Leather  Runic Leather Headband  Runic Leather Shoulders  Runic Leather Armor  Runic Leather Bracers Runic Leather Gauntlets Runic Leather Belt  Runic Leather Pants
	Darkbrand Set Darkbrand Helm Darkbrand Shoulders Darkbrand Chestguard Darkbrand Bracers Darkbrand Gloves Darkbrand Belt Darkbrand Leggings Darkbrand Boots

Enchanted Clefthoof Set Enchanted Clefthoof Gloves  Enchanted Clefthoof Leggings  Enchanted Clefthoof Boots	Heavy Clefthoof Set Heavy Clefthoof Vest  Heavy Clefthoof Leggings  Heavy Clefthoof Boots
Primal Batskin Primal Batskin Jerkin  Primal Batskin Bracers  Primal Batskin Gloves	Primalstrike Note: Primalstrike Belt doesn't match the Vest and Bracers. Primalstrike Bracers  Primalstrike Vest

Random Bits and Pieces

Head

From left to right:

• Comfortable Leather Hat 
• Big Voodoo Mask 
• Wolfshead Helm - Druid only, but BOE
• Stylin' Jungle Hat 
• Stylin' Purple Hat 

Shoulders

Most of the nicer-looking shoulders are part of a set, but the Trollwoven Spaulders are a nice stand-alone piece, if you like a tusky look.

Chest

Left to right:

• Moonglow Vest
• Black Whelp Tunic - (Black Whelp Gloves are no longer available!)
• Same model as the chest from the Scouting set
• Dusky Leather Armor - Shown with Dusky Leather Leggings

• Barbaric Harness - shown with Warbear Woolies
• Warbear Harness has the same model
• Also see Ceremonial Leather Harness, Loincloth and Gloves 
• Living Crystal Breastplate - Bind on Pickup!
• Shadowprowler's Chestguard
• Feathered Breastplate - shown with Wildfeather Legging
• Ironfeather Breastplate - shown with Ironfeather Shoulders
• Preened Ironfeather Breastplate and Preened Ironfeather Shoulders (heirloom items) have the same model

• Lunar Eclipse Robes (Horde)
• Same model as Runetotem's chestpieces (Tier 9)
• Lunar Eclipse Robes (Alliance)
• Same models as Malfurion's chestpieces (Tier 9)
• Knightbane Carapace (Horde) - Shown with Imposing Pants
• Knightbane Carapace (Alliance) - Shown with Booty Bay Pantaloons

Hands

Most of the LW gloves are quite unremarkable, except for these Firelands sets.

• Clutches of Evil - Firelands recipe
• Heavenly Gloves of the Moon - Firelands recipe

Feet

• Winter Boots
• Redeemed Soul Moccasins
• Boots of Natural Grace
• Treads of the Craft - Firelands recipe

Back

• Embossed Leather Cloak
• Frost Leather Cloak
• Guardian Cloak
• Big Voodoo Cloak
• Shifting Cloak
• Cloak of Darkness - Violet Eye Exalted (Karazhan)
• Twilight Dragonscale Cloak

Updated again - Cataclysm Herb Charts

Once again, I've updated the Cataclysm Herb Charts to take into account the latest spawn counts from Wowhead.

Cataclysm Herbalism Charts

This update was important because it allows us to see the distribution of new herbs in level 80+ zones more easily.

I hope you've found the charts useful for your flower picking!

Mining Charts Updated

When Deathwing roasted Azeroth, he left fiery destruction in his wake. The volcanoes, tidal waves and rents in the crust thrust different metals to the surface, while melting others clean away.

I have now updated both my Mining charts, showing the post-Shattering zones where ores can now be mined, and my charts showing Gems from Mining and Prospecting.  

The current versions were created using current spawn count stats from Wowhead. I plan to revisit the charts in a few weeks once the stats get a little more mature. 

I hope you find the charts useful for leveling your Mining or Jewelcrafting!

Cataclysmic Flower Picking

When Deathwing roasted Azeroth, he left fiery destruction in his wake. The volcanoes, tidal waves and rents in the crust changed the ecology of many zones, allowing different plants to flourish and others to die out of certain areas.

Suddenly my Herbalism charts didn't work so well anymore. I've now updated them, using a combination of exploration and the first batch of stats on Wowhead. It's still a work in progress and I'll be updating them regularly over the next month or so, until the stats in Wowhead have settled down and give a better indication of the numbers of spawns in each zone.

Leveling Herbalism: Cataclysm Edition

I hope you find the charts useful as you level up Herbalism!

Gem conversions for 4.0.1

With Patch 4.0.1 due out in the next week or so, one of the major things that will be changing is the stats on not only gear, but gear enhancements such as enchants and gems. I have looked at gems only in this post - enchants are a whole other kettle of squid.

Gems in our gear and inventory should automagically convert to their new forms once patch 4.0.1 is installed. The table below shows how those conversions are taking place at the moment on the PTR. They've shuffled around some colours and descriptors to remove duplicates, and in doing so removed a lot of the obsolete recipes.

But what does it mean? At present there will be twelve new types of gem introduced. It's possible that the "old" recipes will convert to the new ones, or we will be able to train them again from the Jewelcrafting trainer. It's also possible they might make us buy them from the epic vendor, but that seems unlikely.

What happens to our Jewelcrafting Tokens anyway? I can't find any source information as to whether they are going away after the patch, but they certainly won't be able to buy anything useful after we start leveling up to 85, so it seems to be a good idea to wait until closer to the Cata release date buy up Dragon's Eyes or other epic gems before the Cata release, for leveling up JC and putting into gear as we level.

By the by, after the patch we will no longer be able to buy epic gems with honor (Source: MMO-Champion).

Please note I do not have access to the PTR, so I am not able to check that all of these gem combinations are correct. If any PTR Jewelcrafters read this and are able to help me out to confirm the info in this post, I'd appreciate it.

I have based the gem list on the following assumptions:

• Spellpower becomes Intellect
• MP5 becomes Spirit
• Attack Power becomes Agility for Druids, Hunters, Rogues and Shaman (?)
• Attack Power becomes Strength for Warriors, Paladins and Death Knights
• Armor Penetration becomes Critical Strike Rating
• Defense becomes Dodge

I also could not find equivalent gems for a few current ones - I've marked them with a question mark.  If anyone can enlighten me as to whether they are just going to disappear or what they are converting to on the PTR, please do.

The formatting is a little icky but Blogger isn't great at tables... I'll go through and update the links at some stage but I wanted to get this out there first.

As usual, if you can add any information or correct me, please let me know. I hope you find this useful!

Gem

Current Stats

Action

Will Convert To

New Stats

Red

Bold Cardinal Ruby	+20 Strength	no change	Bold Cardinal Ruby
Bright Cardinal Ruby	+40 Attack Power	removed	Bold Cardinal Ruby or Delicate Cardinal Ruby	20 Agility or 20 Strength
Delicate Cardinal Ruby	+20 Agility	no change	Delicate Cardinal Ruby
Flashing Cardinal Ruby	+20 Parry Rating	no change	Flashing Cardinal Ruby
Fractured Cardinal Ruby	+20 Armor Penetration Rating	removed	Smooth King's Amber	20 Crit Rating
Precise Cardinal Ruby	+20 Expertise Rating	no change	Precise Cardinal Ruby
Runed Cardinal Ruby	+23 Spell Power	removed	Brilliant Cardinal Ruby	20 Intellect
Subtle Cardinal Ruby	+20 Dodge Rating	removed	Subtle King's Amber	20 Dodge Rating
Brilliant Cardinal Ruby		*NEW*	Brilliant Cardinal Ruby	20 Intellect

Orange

Accurate Ametrine	+10 Expertise Rating	removed	Accurate Dreadstone
	+10 Hit Rating
Champion's Ametrine	+10 Strength	altered	Champion's Ametrine	10 Strength
	+10 Defense Rating			10 Dodge
Deadly Ametrine	+10 Agility	no change	Deady Ametrine
	+10 Critical Strike Rating
Deft Ametrine	+10 Agility	no change	Deft Ametrine
	+10 Haste Rating
Durable Ametrine	+12 Spell Power	removed	Wilful Ametrine	10 Intellect
	+10 Resilience Rating			10 Resilience Rating
Empowered Ametrine	+20 Attack Power	removed	Lucent Ametrine or Resplendent Ametrine	10 Agility or 10 Strength
	+10 Resilience Rating			10 Resilience Rating
Etched Ametrine	+10 Strength	removed	Etched Dreadstone	10 Strength
	+10 Hit Rating			10 Hit Rating
Fierce Ametrine	+10 Strength	no change	Fierce Ametrine
	+10 Haste Rating
Glimmering Ametrine	+10 Parry Rating	removed	Stalwart Ametrine	10 Dodge Rating
	+10 Defense Rating			10 Parry Rating
Glinting Ametrine	+10 Agility	removed	Glinting Dreadstone	10 Agility
	+10 Hit Rating			10 Hit Rating
Inscribed Ametrine	+10 Strength	no change	Inscribed Ametrine
	+10 Critical Strike Rating
Lucent Ametrine	+10 Agility	no change	Lucent Ametrine
	+10 Resilience Rating
Luminous Ametrine	+12 Spell Power	removed	Brilliant Cardinal Ruby	20 Intellect
	+10 Intellect
Potent Ametrine	+12 Spell Power	altered	Potent Ametrine	10 Intellect
	+10 Critical Strike Rating			10 Crit Strike Rating
Pristine Ametrine	+20 Attack Power	removed	Glinting Dreadstone or Etched Dreadstone	10 Agility or 10 Strength
	+10 Hit Rating			10 Hit Rating
Reckless Ametrine	+12 Spell Power	altered	Reckless Ametrine	10 Intellect
	+10 Haste Rating			10 Haste Rating
Resolute Ametrine	+10 Expertise Rating	alter	Resolute Ametrine	10 Expertise
	+10 Defense Rating			10 Dodge
Resplendent Ametrine	+10 Strength	no change	Resplendent Ametrine
	+10 Resilience Rating
Stalwart Ametrine	+10 Dodge Rating	altered	Stalwart Ametrine	10 Dodge Rating
	+10 Defense Rating			10 Parry Rating
Stark Ametrine	+20 Attack Power	removed	Deft Ametrine or Fierce Ametrine	10 Agility or 10 Strength
	+10 Haste Rating			10 Haste Rating
Veiled Ametrine	+12 Spell Power	removed	Veiled Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+10 Hit Rating			10 Hit Rating
Wicked Ametrine	+20 Attack Power	removed	Deady Ametrine or Inscribed Ametrine	10 Agility or 10 Strength
	+10 Critical Strike Rating			10 Crit Strike Rating
Wilful Ametrine		*NEW*	Wilful Ametrine	10 Intellect
				10 Resilience Rating

Yellow

Brilliant King's Amber	+20 Intellect	removed	Brilliant Cardinal Ruby	20 Intellect
Mystic King's Amber	+20 Resilience Rating	no change	Mystic King's Amber
Quick King's Amber	+20 Haste Rating	no change	Quick King's Amber
Rigid King's Amber	+20 Hit Rating	removed	Rigid Majestic Zircon	20 Hit Rating
Smooth King's Amber	+20 Critical Strike Rating	no change	Smooth King's Amber
Thick King's Amber	+20 Defense Rating	removed	Subtle King's Amber	20 Dodge Rating
Subtle King's Amber		*NEW*	Subtle King's Amber	20 Dodge Rating

Green

Dazzling Eye of Zul	+10 Intellect	removed	Purified Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds			10 Spirit
Enduring Eye of Zul	+10 Defense Rating	removed	Regal Eye of Zul	10 Dodge Rating
	+15 Stamina			15 Stamina
Energized Eye of Zul	+10 Haste Rating	altered	Energised Eye of Zul	10 Haste Rating
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds			10 Spirit
Forceful Eye of Zul	+10 Haste Rating	no change	Forceful Eye of Zul
	+15 Stamina
Intricate Eye of Zul	+10 Haste Rating	removed	Energised Eye of Zul	10 Haste Rating
	+10 Spirit			10 Spirit
Jagged Eye of Zul	+10 Critical Strike Rating	no change	Jagged Eye of Zul
	+15 Stamina
Lambent Eye of Zul	+10 Hit Rating	removed	Lightning Eye of Zul	10 Hit Rating
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds			10 Haste
Misty Eye of Zul	+10 Critical Strike Rating	no change	Misty Eye of Zul
	+10 Spirit
Opaque Eye of Zul	+10 Resilience Rating	removed	Turbid Eye of Zul	+10 Resilience Rating
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds			+10 Spirit
Radiant Eye of Zul	+10 Critical Strike Rating	no change	Radiant Eye of Zul
	+13 Spell Penetration
Seer's Eye of Zul	+10 Intellect	removed	Purified Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+10 Spirit			10 Spirit
Shattered Eye of Zul	+10 Haste Rating	no change	Shattered Eye of Zul
	+13 Spell Penetration
Shining Eye of Zul	+10 Hit Rating	removed	Lightning Eye of Zul	10 Hit Rating
	+10 Spirit			10 Haste
Steady Eye of Zul	+10 Resilience Rating	no change	Steady Eye of Zul
	+15 Stamina
Sundered Eye of Zul	+10 Critical Strike Rating	removed	Misty Eye of Zul	+10 Critical Strike Rating
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds			+10 Spirit
Tense Eye of Zul	+10 Hit Rating	removed	Radiant Eye of Zul	10 Critical Strike Rating
	+13 Spell Penetration			13 Spell Penetration
Timeless Eye of Zul	+10 Intellect	removed	Timeless Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+15 Stamina			15 Stamina
Turbid Eye of Zul	+10 Resilience Rating	no change	Turbid Eye of Zul
	+10 Spirit
Vivid Eye of Zul	+10 Hit Rating	removed	Nimble Eye of Zul	10 Hit Rating
	+15 Stamina			10 Dodge Rating
Lightning Eye of Zul		*NEW*	Lightning Eye of Zul	10 Hit Rating
				10 Haste
Nimble Eye of Zul		*NEW*	Nimble Eye of Zul	10 Hit Rating
				10 Dodge Rating
Regal Eye of Zul		*NEW*	Regal Eye of Zul	10 Dodge Rating
				15 Stamina

Blue

Lustrous Majestic Zircon	+10 Mana every 5 seconds	removed	Sparkling Majestic Zircon	20 Spirit
Solid Majestic Zircon	+30 Stamina	no change	Solid Majestic Zircon
Sparkling Majestic Zircon	+20 Spirit	no change	Sparkling Majestic Zircon
Stormy Majestic Zircon	+25 Spell Penetration	no change	Stormy Majestic Zircon
Rigid Majestic Zircon		*NEW*	Rigid Majestic Zircon	20 Hit Rating

Purple

Balanced Dreadstone	+20 Attack Power	removed	Shifting Dreadstone or Sovereign Dreadstone	10 Agility or 10 Strength
	+15 Stamina			15 Stamina
Defender's Dreadstone	+10 Parry Rating	no change	Defender's Dreadstone
	+15 Stamina
Glowing Dreadstone	+12 Spell Power	removed	Timeless Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+15 Stamina			15 Stamina
Guardian's Dreadstone	+10 Expertise Rating	no change	Guardian's Dreadstone
	+15 Stamina
Infused Dreadstone	+20 Attack Power	removed	?
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds
Mysterious Dreadstone	+12 Spell Power	altered	Mysterious Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+13 Spell Penetration			13 Spell Penetration
Puissant Dreadstone	+10 Armor Penetration Rating	removed	Jagged Eye of Zul	+10 Critical Strike Rating
	+15 Stamina			+15 Stamina
Purified Dreadstone	+12 Spell Power	altered	Purified Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+10 Spirit			10 Spirit
Regal Dreadstone	+10 Dodge Rating	removed	Regal Eye of Zul	10 Dodge Rating
	+15 Stamina			15 Stamina
Royal Dreadstone	+12 Spell Power	removed	Purified Dreadstone	10 Intellect
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds			10 Spirit
Shifting Dreadstone	+10 Agility	no change	Shifting Dreadstone
	+15 Stamina
Sovereign Dreadstone	+10 Strength	no change	Sovereign Dreadstone
	+15 Stamina
Tenuous Dreadstone	+10 Agility	removed	?
	+5 Mana every 5 seconds
Accurate Dreadstone		*NEW*	Accurate Dreadstone	10 Expertise
				10 Hit Rating
Etched Dreadstone		*NEW*	Etched Dreadstone	10 Strength
				10 Hit Rating
Glinting Dreadstone		*NEW*	Glinting Dreadstone	10 Agility
				10 Hit Rating
Timeless Dreadstone		*NEW*	Timeless Dreadstone	10 Intellect
				15 Stamina
Veiled Dreadstone		*NEW*	Veiled Dreadstone	10 Intellect
				10 Hit Rating

Dragon's Eyes - Jewelcrafter Only

red	Bold Dragon's Eye	+34 Strength	no change	Bold Dragon's Eye
red	Bright Dragon's Eye	+68 Attack Power	removed	Bold Dragon's Eye or Delicate Dragon's Eye	34 Strength or 34 Agility
yellow	Brilliant Dragon's Eye	+34 Intellect	no change	Brilliant Dragon's Eye
red	Delicate Dragon's Eye	+34 Agility	no change	Delicate Dragon's Eye
red	Flashing Dragon's Eye	+34 Parry Rating	no change	Flashing Dragon's Eye
red	Fractured Dragon's Eye	+34 Armor Penetration Rating	removed	Smooth Dragon's Eye	34 Critical Strike Rating
blue	Lustrous Dragon's Eye	+20 Mana every 5 seconds	removed	Sparkling Dragon's Eye	34 Spirit
yellow	Mystic Dragon's Eye	+34 Resilience Rating	no change	Mystic Dragon's Eye
red	Precise Dragon's Eye	+34 Expertise Rating	no change	Precise Dragon's Eye
yellow	Quick Dragon's Eye	+34 Haste Rating	no change	Quick Dragon's Eye
yellow	Rigid Dragon's Eye	+34 Hit Rating	no change	Rigid Dragon's Eye
red	Runed Dragon's Eye	+39 Spell Power	removed	Brilliant Dragon's Eye	34 Intellect
yellow	Smooth Dragon's Eye	+34 Critical Strike Rating	no change	Smooth Dragon's Eye
blue	Solid Dragon's Eye	+51 Stamina	no change	Solid Dragon's Eye
blue	Sparkling Dragon's Eye	+34 Spirit	no change	Sparkling Dragon's Eye
blue	Stormy Dragon's Eye	+43 Spell Penetration	no change	Stormy Dragon's Eye
red	Subtle Dragon's Eye	+34 Dodge Rating	no change	Subtle Dragon's Eye
yellow	Thick Dragon's Eye	+34 Defense Rating	removed	Subtle Dragon's Eye	34 Dodge Rating
blue	Nightmare Tear	+10All Stats	no change	Nightmare Tear

Further Resources

• www.wow-gem.com
• Wowhead - List of current level 80 epic gems
• Wowhead - List of level 80 epic gems in Cataclysm (and patch 4.0.1)

On Fishing

If there's one thing this game has taught me it's that I have a short attention span. It's also possible that is caused by playing the game as well.

In any case, if there's a solo activity that is boring me, I won't do it for long. I'll do boring stuff in a group to help others, but my own grinding activities tend to happen in short spurts.

For this reason, I have never had a character with max level fishing. The few times I tried to fish, I was struck down with boredom almost immediately.

Enter WotLK. I leveled my cooking to the new cap and provided my own buff food for raids, but then people started bringing Fish Feast. The fisherpeople in the guild were suddenly spreading feasts all over, and I felt guilty as hell.  I was determined when I started Leesah that I would make a fisherwoman out of her.  It must be the closet "provider" type in me.

I'll share something with you that I only found out recently:

You can level your fishing in any pool. 

You can fish in the pond in Mulgore or in the Stormwind canals or wherever and level your fishing to 450 if you want to. 

If you fish in an area that requires fishing higher than your current fishing level, you won't catch any fish.  You'll catch weeds, tattered cloth and other random junk, but you will still get skill-ups in fishing.

If you fish in areas lower than your current fishing skill (when added to any bait you have used such as Nightcrawlers or Shiny Bauble), you will (most of the time) catch fish, and that is where it really comes in handy for leveling up your cooking at the same time. There are different fish habitats and schools all over Azeroth, and if you fish in the right place, you'll catch fish you can level cooking with.

Sometimes if you're really lucky, you can fish up treasure, or even pets!

I used this guide at Almost Gaming - Fishing & Cooking Guide. It tells you where to catch fish and where to get the recipes to cook them. While leveling my cooking I had a generous stock of different meats in my bank (jeez it was whiffy in there by the time I got around to it), so my cooking got ahead of the guide a bit, but I was able to fish the areas where I needed to catch fish to level cooking.

Once I reached 300 cooking I stopped fishing for a while because after leveling two characters through Outland and Northrend I had all the meat I needed to get up to 400 cooking. 

I thought that getting to a high enough level of fishing to be able to fish in Northrend would take hours of pain, but for some reason now with only 250 fishing, I am able to catch fish in Wintergrasp with the Sharpened Fish Hook. I'm not sure why that is, because according to Cromulent I shouldn't be able to fish there until level 430 and even with the hook and Nat Pagle's, that only puts me up to 370. Did they recently drop the requirements for Northrend or something?  Not that I'm complaining!

I've started doing the fishing dailies both in Outland and in Dalaran now.  It will be a long grind up to 450 but I'll get there on the dailies.  Plus I can fish in Wintergrasp  and that's where the ingredients for Fish Feast are found. Now to get my cooking up to 450...

 

I'm almost a provider again!

Shinies part 2: Mining and Prospecting for Gems

** Now updated for Cataclysm **

Leveling up Jewelcrafting can get very expensive, very quickly if you are buying materials from the Auction House.

If you don't need the income from selling metals, Mining is a great way to get the mats you need. If you're trying to level Jewelcrafting along with Mining, these charts may help with collecting gems through prospecting.

My Mining charts might also help you locate the ores you need.

Early and Outlands gems:

Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm gems:

How the charts work
Each gem has a chance to be mined from a node or prospected from ore. These values are gathered from wowhead.com and represent the percentage drop rate.

I've separated the mining and prospecting values for each gem, from each type of ore. This means you can see for example that you are more likely to get Star Rubies from prospecting Mithril than you are from Iron or Thorium.

Cataclysm gem drop rates are still only a few weeks old and therefore possibly not accurate due to the small sample size.  I'll try to revisit the numbers in a few weeks to update them.

I hope you find these charts useful!

Leveling Mining in Cataclysm - Where are the shinies?

Last updated: 21 Dec 2010 - This is a work in progress!

When Deathwing roasted Azeroth, he left fiery destruction in his wake. The volcanoes, tidal waves and rents in the crust thrust different metals to the surface, while melting others clean away.

I have now updated my Mining charts, showing the post-Shattering zones where ores can now be mined.  The current version was created using current spawn count stats from Wowhead. It will be updated again in a couple of weeks once the stats get a little more mature. 

Mining 1 - 300 & Outland:

Click the chart to make it bigger

Mining in Northrend and Cataclysm zones:

How to use the charts
The number in each box is the number of nodes of metal that spawn in in each zone, based on data from wowhead.com. I have put an asterisk in the starter area boxes because there are a LOT of nodes in each of these zones.

Look at the metals that you are able to mine at your current level of mining. Where do those veins spawn the most? Where does the next level of ore spawn, and what level do you need before you can mine it?

For example, if your mining is currently at 79, you can currently mine Tin, and combine it with Copper to make Bronze.  Smelting Tin goes grey at 75 so you won't get more levels from smelting Tin, but Bronze isn't gray until 115, so you could mine more Copper and Tin and make Bronze out of it. Iron isn't available until 125, so you're either going to have to hang around in Ashenvale or other areas spawning Tin until you get up to 125, or come back and do it later.

Once you get to Outlands, keep in mind that you need to have at least 350 mining to start your Northrend gathering, so pick up any Fel Iron you see.

Cataclysmic Metals
Mining Obsidian starts at 425. On Wowhead at present no counts are showing for Mount Hyjal, but commenters report that there are indeed plenty of nodes there. There seems to be an issue with phasing, similar to that experienced in Icecrown, where you can see nodes on your map but they are not in your phase so unable to be gathered. I'll try to update this in a few weeks if the issues have been worked out.

Note that Dark Iron is now only available within Molten Core and Blackrock Depths.

There is one last thing that I can't help you with, and that's that you must remember to train the next level of Mining before levels 75, 150, 225, 300, 375 and 450!

Please feel free to comment with any suggestions for improvements for the charts, or to tell me if you found it useful!

EDIT: I have created another chart showing the gems that can be mined and prospected from ore.  You can find it here. It is not yet updated for Cataclysmic ores.

Leveling Inscription

I recently dropped Leesah's Herbalism and leveled up Inscription.  I tried to make sure I had a good stock of herbs of each type before I dropped herbing, since I didn't really want to have to buy herbs. 

I originally found the leveling instructions and recommended herb amounts in the slightly out-of-date Inscription Guide from Siha at Banana Shoulders.  The guide was first written during the PTR before patch 3.0.2 (when Inscription was first introduced to the game).  I tried to get as close to the amounts Siha suggested as I could before I went mad from flower-picking.

When I finally started actually leveling Inscription, it turns out that the numbers of herbs recommended in Siha's guide are really high compared to what you actually need. I'm guessing they either increased the drop-rate of pigments from milling, or they reduced the number of inks needed to level up to each new training level.

I built this quick-reference shopping list chart similar to my Herbalism Chart, so that I could see which herbs are in which pigment group, and the herbs that mill into certain pigments and inks.

Click image to make bigger!

The numbers of herbs in the chart are approximately the numbers I used in my leveling process.

Now it turns out that once patch 3.3.3 goes live, many of the glyphs that require two inks to make will only need one.  So you will need even less herbs than I have in my chart!  I'd estimate about two-thirds of the values I used will be needed after the patch.  Of course I am over the moon about this, especially since they decided to announce it after I was already over 400 inscription (/grump).

During the leveling process, try to make orange and yellow glyphs and scrolls to level up.  Make sure you make the rare inks such as Hunter's Ink and Fiery Ink as they become available and before they turn gray.  Also, make sure to train every five levels to get the next set of orange glyphs.

Once you reach 75 Inscription, Minor Inscription Research is available.  This 20-hour cooldown spell teaches you one minor glyph, until you have learned them all. In Patch 3.3, there are currently 35 minor glyphs in the game.

At 385, Northrend Inscription Research is a second 20-hour cooldown through which you learn the remaining major glyphs that can't be learned at a trainer.

As you level up, blue and epic off-hand items become available to craft.  The mats for these items are usually fairly expensive but once you get to the higher level items they usually sell well at the Auction House so check out the values of mats compared with the finished product on your server to see if making them is worthwhile.  The epic items [Faces of Doom] and [Iron-bound Tome] can sell for hundreds of gold on my server.

At level 400 Inscription, the Master's Inscriptions become available.  These are the replacement for the Sons of Hodir reputation shoulder enchants, and was often the sole reason people level Inscription in the first place.  Now it's not quite as arduous to get to exalted with the Sons of Hodir, but I'm happy to not have to bother with that rep grind.

And that's pretty much the deal with Inscription.