The Daily Grind - Jewelcrafting

There are several methods that Blizzard has adopted for crafter-types to learn the higher level recipes. For some you just buy them, for some you trade items associated with the trade (leather or shards) for the recipes, and for some you do daily quests.

Daily profession quests were introduced way back in Burning Crusade (cooking first and then fishing) so it is not a new concept. But what I'm going to talk a little about today is the daily quests associated with Jewelcrafting.

Before I go into the specifics, I'm going to take a small moment and whine. I hate these quests. I'm almost never planning to go to the sorts of places that the required items will drop and I'm forced to go out of my way to finish a daily quest. It's also not the sort of thing I can think about on the bus ride home, like "Hey. Maybe I'll do Skettis & Ogri'la today instead of the Island." Instead, I can go pick up the quest and the quest giver can tell ME where to go. I usually try to minimize travel times from Dalaran (Sholazar is over 6 minutes by air) so that I can get back to what I want to do.

At least, in general, the drop rates on the daily quest items isn't too bad. The thing I really object to is that recipes run from 2 tokens to 6 tokens in price. Assuming you only miss one day a week ever, you're only going to be learning between 1 and 3 recipes a week. And they are almost always yellow recipes at best. Sometimes they're even green or grey!

So here are the quests:

Blood Jade Amulet: This requires a Dark Jade and a Bloodstone from your stash and a drop from Vrykul all over Northrend. Since my jewelcrafter is level 80, I tend to head out to Storm Peaks for the Sons of Hodir rep anyway and you can't swing a dead cat around on a string without running into some Vrykul out there. Howling Fjord is also rife with Vrykul as well as southwest Grizzly Hills. Icecrown also has several Vrykul towns. My good friend over at You Wake It, has told me that there are no less than 4 static JC pattern drops in Storm Peaks so that might be the place to hit for this.

Bright Armor Relic: This requires a Bloodstone and a Huge Citrine from your stash and a drop from Elementals all over Northrend. There are elementals (both ice/earth and fire) in the vicinity of Dun Niffelem in the Storm Peaks that will drop this piece. My other favorite place is the volcano in Sholazar Basin (since the Saronite is plentiful in that zone.) There are also a whole slew of lower level elementals in Borean Tundra on the border with Sholazar if you're in that zone for some reason.

Glowing Ivory Figurine: This one needs a Shadow Crystal and a Chalcedony from your stash as well as a drop from a Shoveltusk from Northrend. The shoveltusk are pretty much restricted to Howling Fjord or the eastern side of Grizzly Hills. It seems like this one is just going to force you to a much too low zone to complete.

Intricate Bone Figurine: This one requires a Chalcedony, a Dark Jade and a proto-dragon bone. The bone comes from Proto-Dragons all over Northrend. There is a burning glade in both Howling Fjord and Sholazar Basin. In addition to these, you'll find these buggers in Storm Peaks, but at a much higher level.

Shifting Sun Curio: Yet another two gems required from you (this time a Sun Crystal and a Shadow Crystal) and a drop from Scourge. Now, if I have to tell you where to find Scourge then you've not actually played the expansion. They're everywhere. There are crash landed ziggurats in Zul'Drak and Borean Tundra. There are whole camps of them in Howling Fjord. They're attacking various dragon shrines in Dragonblight, not to mention menacing a town just below Naxxramas. They've invaded a mine in Grizzly Hills. They are snowboarding down an avalanche into Sholazar. And Ice Crown is just chock full of them. Finding Scourge shouldn't be a problem.

Wicked Sun Brooch: The last of the six quests requires a Huge Citrine, a Sun Crystal and a drop from Iron Dwarfs. These will come from Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills or Storm Peaks. I like the gully in Grizzly Hills, especially now that I can strafe them on flying mount.

And that's it for the daily quest. The final one I have to mention comes from a pretty rare drop from about any mob level 77 or higher. The item, a damaged necklace, isn't soulbound and may be traded or sold. It requires you turn that in, with a Chalcedony for a free JC Token.