Plan of Attack

Now that my warlock has maxed out level, and flying skill, I'm taking on Archaeology. There are some cool rewards to be had, one that I want on 2 characters, and a couple I've still never found but that I want, and I'm curious if I can go about it in a smarter way the second time around.

My first stop was to check out the Wiki on Archaeology. They list all the artifacts you can discover, and the skill level that you need to have before you can start to work on them. Here is a better looking list of the rewards you can find from Archaeology from Wowpedia. The skill level required looks to be more accurate, so I'd go by that one. This is important, because I had read that you have a greater chance to discover a rare before you've completed all the common artifacts for that particular race. I have no proof that this is true, but it certainly seems like it when I look at the rares I've managed to complete on my rogue, and the ones that I have yet to see.

The fallacy in that article was that there is a system in place that keeps you from getting a duplicate common until you have solved all the available commons. If it was ever true, it does not appear to be true any longer. I gathered fragments without solving any artifacts until my skill was at 50. This is the highest you can go just from gathering.

Since my main interests are an elven trinket that the wiki thinks can be found with 225 skill (I suspect it's actually 450, many of their skill requirements are listed incorrectly), as well as a dwarf staff and troll sword that can only be found with 450 skill, I had intended to skill up as much as possible without solving artifacts from those races. The problem is that until you reach a skill of 300 you only have 4 races you can solve from. Which means trying to maximize the amount of solves done within the fossil group (the only one I don't care about) without wasting too many gathered artifact pieces along the way to 300.

I kept track of my solves of Fossils as I went along, which is why I know some of the Wiki information is currently wrong. You get 5 skill points with each common solve, I listed my resulting skill level after each solve.

1. Shard of Wood - 55
2. Black Trilobite - 60
3. Beautiful Preserved Fern - 65
4. Beautiful Preserved Fern - 70
5. Shard of Petrified Wood - 75
6. Twisted Ammonite Shell - 80
7. Strange Velvet Worm - still in progress

You can see that I've already had several duplicates. I suppose it's possible that they have changed which commons are available for a certain skill level, but it seems unlikely that you would only have 3 available in the level 50-75 bracket.

I'm still going to try and save as many of my Troll, Elf, and Dwarf fragments as I can until my skill level is higher, if for no other reason than to have them available once I am done with Outlands. I am not going to let them go over the 200 mark though. I'm only at a skill level of 80 and I have about 140 each of those three races. If I get up to 190 fragments I'll be doing a solve to clear some breathing room.

Oh, and one more thing, getting multiple keystones from Bountiful Bags proccing is a beautiful thing. I'm not sure that there is a best way to go about Archaeology, but I'm giving it my best shot. What tips or tricks have you found useful as you level Archaeology? Are you crazy enough to do it on more than one toon?