The experienced gatherers among us know something we don't know – they know where to find stuff. The real old hands know where the nodes are based on years (yeah, literally) of experience. They've collected so much for so long that they've developed time-tested, favorite routes for every zone. And then there are the tech-savvy gatherers who let technology map things out for them. We all know there are mods out there that show you where the nodes that you've gathered are, and most of us even know that you can download data packs that show where other players have found nodes.
There's yet another tool out there that puts all that information together. This mod maps out the easiest route from node to node, connecting the dots in a single, efficient path. All you do is follow the path! Find out how after the break, as well as how to nab a pattern for Green Winter Clothes or Red Winter Clothes if you didn't receive one in the mail at the start of the Winter's Veil season.
For efficient gathering, my friend, what you need is Cartographer! Cartographer's specialty mods (pick the ones for your professions) dot your map with node locations. Cartographer Routes connects the dots, showing you the shortest and most efficient route between them. You can tweak all sorts of fancy effects on your main map, and it shows the basics on your mini-map as well for easy reference.
Here's what you'll need:
- Cartographer
- Mods for your specific profession(s): Cartographer_Mining, Cartographer_Herbalism, Cartographer_Fishing, Cartographer_ExtractGas
- Cartographer Routes
- If you've just installed Cartographer, you won't have any data to work with yet. You'll want to stop by wowace.com and get Cartographer Data to get you going.
If skimpy outfits are your thing, you'll want to make sure you get your mitts on the Winter's Veil Green Winter Clothes and Red Winter Clothes. With a red version for the Alliance and a green version for the Horde, outfit patterns were supposed to be mailed out to players at the beginning of the holiday season. After a mail system snafu scatter-shotted the patterns, missing many players, the patterns were placed on vendors in Ironforge and Orgrimmar for any and all to buy – even those from the opposite faction.Although the patterns are BoP (so you can't get one for another character), they are not faction-specific, so anyone with a little gumption (or a little luck, or both) can go into the opposing faction's city to purchase a pattern. You can try to find the ready-made outfits on the neutral Auction Houses, of course – but why ruin a magnificently chaotic holiday run for the border?
[via MMO-Champion; thanks, Starfury!]
Insider Trader's Lisa Poisso is a freelance writer, but she usually wears something a little more substantial to write in than this year's Winter Clothes. Her office is cold.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-28-2007 @ 6:18PM
drew said...
Neat add-on. Thanks for the info.
I'll try to mock up something similar for mapwow ( http://mapwow.com ) this weekend.
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12-28-2007 @ 6:20PM
Blake said...
Ooooooh. I shall be making a run to Orgrimmar then to get myself the Green Winter Suit pattern as soon as I get home! I was quite bummed to hear green was Horde only.
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12-28-2007 @ 7:44PM
Verit said...
Cartographer will do this for you - even plot a flight plan between quickest nodes.
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12-28-2007 @ 9:46PM
Luke Jacques said...
@3
That's what 50% of this entire blog is about, nice point out...
Reply
12-29-2007 @ 4:12PM
Semorhage said...
Just d/l'd and leveled my alt 30 points in mining!! Nice add-on.
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12-30-2007 @ 12:54AM
Kel said...
Aagh this would be great if I could find the Cartographer data on WowAce...
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12-31-2007 @ 1:19AM
tripdream said...
What you need to do is go to http://files.wowace.com click the letter C in the upper right corner and then in the file list you should see Cartographer_Data. If you want to do it the real easy way, download the WowAce Updater at http://wowace.com/wiki/WowAceUpdater so that you can downloaded it from the application and also see when addons have been updated :)
12-31-2007 @ 1:21AM
tripdream said...
I've been using both Cartographer and its Data set for the past couple of months just to have an idea of where certain items are located, but I never thought this was possible. Great job, folks. My alts can now have a much easier time of leveling their gathering professions :)
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1-04-2008 @ 9:37PM
zeph said...
I've downloaded everything it says, but I don't know how to make the nodes appear on the map. Can anyone give step by step instructions?
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