How to get to Pandaria - Mists of Pandaria expansion location

On September 25, 2012, World of Warcraft opened its 4th expansion, "Mists of Pandaria".  Pandaria is a continent located in the South Central portion of the World of Warcraft map.

To access Pandaria at level 85, simply go to your faction's main city -- Stormwind for Alliance or Orgrimmar for Horde -- and you'll receive a quest chain upon entering the city that will send you on to Pandaria and the Jade Forest.  Once you reach the first encampment in the Jade forest, you'll see a portal that leads back to your faction's main city.

The quest chain doesn't take long to complete, but you will want to have 15 minutes or so in order to complete it given it is one of those roller-coaster ride events -- meaning there is no place to hop out of the chain once you get rolling in it.

When you arrive in Pandaria, you'll begin your long trek toward level 90.  The quest flow is very linear and you'll rarely be puzzled as to where to go or what to do next.  If you are a gatherer (Mining, Herbalism, Skinning), Jade Forest is rife with nodes.  Be sure to take the time here to gather as they may be on an increased spawn rate due to the number of players in the zone.  That way you won't outlevel the node-type as you move on to other zones.

World of Warcraft Gold Challenge - Beta Competition Hour 1

I decided to make a Human Rogue for the competition, thinking that stealth may be useful in helping to get my couple stacks of copper ore that I need to begin my reselling journey at the Auction House. Stormwind is the best Auction House in terms of distance between mailbox, bank, vendor, and auctioneers, plus the run from the newbie area is not that far. Like the Alpha Competition, my plan was simple: quickly level up my character to level 5 or 6. Take the silver and buy mining and a pick axe in Stormwind. Then run the hills south of Goldshire in Elwynn Forest for 3 stacks of copper ore. Being level 6 meant that I was able to kill spiders and wolves instead of having to run or die to them.

After having done this and accrued my 3 stacks of Copper a little past the 1 Hour of /played time mark, I think the better strategy would be to skip any sort of skill up except getting the bare minimum silver it takes to buy Mining and to buy a pick axe. My guess is that you'll hit level 3. While you will certainly die more this way while trying to get your 3 stacks of copper ore, I think the time saved will more than pay off. And really, even 1 stack of copper ore *might* be enough to get the ball rolling. A stack of copper ore should fetch between 5g and 10g, and that is enough to start checking under-vendor-price items on the Auction House, plus the basic intro strategy of picking up Green items under 50s. I think to be safe though, 2 stacks should be the minimum. You don't want to have to run back out to do more, which reminds me that I was able to save a few minutes by binding at the inn when I got to Stormwind. Like I said, you are only going to be doing one mining run, so when you get your mining skill, don't forget to bind your hearthstone.

Total Assets at the end of 1 hour:  About 10 Silver and 2 stacks of copper ore

World of Warcraft Gold Challenge - Beta Competition - Hour 0, The Rules

Well, I've decided to give it another go - World of Warcraft Gold Challenge is back with the Beta Competition. If you missed the Alpha Competition, the goal was to create a new character and to make 10,000 gold as quickly as possible. For the Beta Competition, I've decided to streamline the rules a bit to make it more palatable for others who may want to give the competition a try.

World of Warcraft Gold Challenge - Beta Competition Rules

1. Create a level 1 character. This may be done on your main server, but this new character must remain completely independent of your other characters. You may also, as had been required in the Alpha Competition, start a character on a Random Server.

2. While you are running the competition for yourself, you may not "play the market" on your other characters in such a way that creates any advantage for your contestant.

3. No Direct Trading with other players. No Donations. All Activity must go through the Auction House.

4. Tradeskills are permitted, both gathering and production.

5. You may only use the Postal and Auctioneer Add-Ons to assist you.

6. To win the challenge, you must reach 25,000 Liquid Gold (up from 10,000 in the Alpha competition due to inflation)

7. Take note of in-game time by using the /played command. Also take note of how long it takes you in real life. All else equal, 25k made in 15 days is much more impressive than 25k made in a month.


Like last time, I will provide hourly updates with my methods. Of special note this time through: I haven't had an active WoW account in about 8 months, so I'm completely out of touch with the economy at the moment. I intend to take the same basic strategy as I used in the Alpha Competition, however, not having a good feel for the economy at this freeze-frame of time is going to slow me down compared with someone who has been playing the market recently. Auctioneer is definitely a tool that will help me catch up, but you still need the knowledge along with the tools to really push the limits of gold-making.

For anyone looking to take on the challenge, good luck!

Go to Hour 1 of the Beta Competition