Shadowlands F2P Baseline Guide

Asylum

Asylum

for the Insane
INTRODUCTION

Shadowlands is perhaps the most historic expansion to an MMORPG we have ever seen. The sheer scale of the leveling system changes is only rivaled by overhaul projects for other MMOs. So, with that said...

@Chops & I are aiming to cover the absolute essential "Quality of Life" basics for Free2Play characters in this new environment. There are A LOT of new things available to those playing without a subscription, and we would like to leave as much of that open to discovery on your own. We would, in stead, like to start you down a path that makes all the exploration a lot less painful than what most F2Ps are used to. Topics such as Bank & Bag Space, Garrisons, Mini-Events, Specific Must-Have Drops will be covered, and by the end of the guide we will explore the two most important topics for F2Ps: Goldcap & Profession Rotations.

Athough the original goal was F2Ps, I realize that due to the lines being blurred between F2P & Vet, this guide also applies to returning Veteran players who remain unsubbed.

This is a [Work in Progress], so give me a few days to iron everything out.​

JUMP-TO SECTION:
1. Starting out
2. Garrison Setup
3. Must-Have Gear/Equipment
4. Professions Grind
 
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STARTING OUT

A: EXILE’S REACH
The new starting zone for all (non Hero Class) players. It’s a fresh introduction to Azeroth for new characters made after The Squish. Not much to cover other than you get a new Transmog set from quests for all slots except the boots (those are a random BoE drop from any mob in the zone, so be sure to stick around for some mob-farming after you finish the storyline). There is also a Tabard to pick up; however, it’s white-quality, so not able to Transmog to other toons.​
B: BAG SPACE
F2P players’ goldcap (more on this topic later) has been raised from 10g to 1,000g. This opens up a much larger storage capacity than previously allowed in the form of all Bank Bag slots, Reagent Bank, & Void Storage. The road to filling every inventory & bank slot with maxed out bags is a long one, but this is a small section of three large-sized bags that can be obtained with minimal effort.​
You will need a total of 311g 10s to unlock all storage space:​
  • 111g 10s for the 7 Bank Slots
  • 100g for Reagent Bank
  • 100g for Void Storage
(Reputation Discounts do not apply)​
 
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GARRISON SETUP

C: GARRISON BUILDINGS:
One of the more expansive new features open to F2Ps is the Warlords of Draenor Garrisons. You can collect Followers from all around the continent & send them on missions. Most missions reward Garrison Resources & Follower Experience, but sometimes you will have Rare Missions pop up with more lucrative rewards.

You can drop the Draenor Introduction quest, and walk through the portal in the Blasted Lands to skip a large annoying portion of WoD. The quest to start your garrison is not locked behind the Introduction Campaign, and you can pick it up as soon as you find the NPC:

Ally: https://www.wowhead.com/quest=34582/finding-a-foothold#guides
Horde: https://www.wowhead.com/quest=33815/a-song-of-frost-and-fire

After unlocking, you will be lead through a series of quests to get familiar with the functionality of your Garrison. Follow through, and upgrade the Main Hall to level 2 ASAP, this unlocks more plots.

Keep in mind: as level 20s we're only able to reach level 2 garrison, so that limits its available features for us, a lot of fun content to explore, regardless.

However, the main reason Garrisons are important: Profession Buildings!

These building allow you to dip into a minor function of a profession that you do not have. Gathering Buildings have their own designated plots: Fishing, Herbalism & Mining, but Herb Garden is gated behind level 30 (an oversight for sure). However, being limited to a Tier 2 Garrison at level 20, means you can only place two (2) Production Buildings & two (2) Misc. Buildings (more on these later).

The ones relevant to Professions are:​

Gathering: (Designated Plots)​
Miscellaneous: (Medium Plots)​
Production: (Small Plots)​
Benefits:
 
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MUST-HAVE EQUIPMENT

D: ARTIFACTS
**DISCLAIMER**
YOU WILL HAVE TO COMPLETE LEGION'S BROKEN SHORE CAMPAIGN TO UNLOCK NEW DALARAN. (Skippable on subsequent toons)​
Artifacts are no longer your weapon of choice. They scale like heirlooms, so unless you're just really hard up for mastery (you arent) they arent a good choice anymore.

E: DUNGEON DROPS/QUESTS (Socketed Equipment)
**DISCLAIMER**
AS A F2P YOU HAVE TO PHYSICALLY WALK TO DUNGEONS OR PARTY WITH A SUBBED ACCOUNT WHO CAN CHROMIE-TIME QUEUE!
Here's a thread for Connecting with your fellow freeloaders:
https://xpoff.com/threads/f2p-b-net-tags.75096/
​
F: MINI-EVENTS (Unique-Equipped Gems)
 
PROFESSIONS GRIND

G: GOLDCAP

Capping off at 1,000g is an important part of rotating professions, especially if you ever revisit a Legion Crafting Profession; those require you buy a 1000g item to relearn the skill, because Legion Trainers are assholes. You will also be hitting the goldcap multiple times in order to maximize your materials acquisition (mainly for Enchanting, more on this later). There are a few ways to earn gold:​

  • One-time options for “Vendor Trash Treasure” pick-ups in Pandaria & Draenor
  • Face-melting mob grinds for “Vendor Trash Treasure” at never-ending/fast spawn points. Fallhaven pigs make a solid choice here, dropping both high value vendor trash as well as doubling as an ilvl 28 socket gear grind.
  • Traditional Questing/Dailies Rotations
This is also useful for when you are done with professions and want to explore and buy up a bunch of new goodies around Azeroth.​


H: PROFESSION ROTATION

1. Tailoring/Enchanting (Enchant Scrolls, Bags & Bandages)
You want to take Enchanting first, because it will allow you to disenchant all the epic Legion drops you don't need, and build up your enchanting material pool faster (especially the much needed https://www.wowhead.com/item=124442/chaos-crystals). This also keeps your inventory clean. The main goal here is Hidden Satyr.
You can find a comprehensive LIST OF ENCHANTS HERE. Big shoutout to @Swoops for putting that together! Your enchants will scale to level 29 number values in BGs.

Some of the more popular enchants are listed below, for your reference:​
2. Skinning/Leatherworking (quick dip into LW for leg armor & maybe skinning for mats needed by other professions)
You want to have all your pants by this point to apply the leg armor. If you don't you can always revisit Pandaria LW once you do have your best pants.​
3. Herbalism/Mining - The general grind for Ore & The targeted grind for an Alchemy Kit
59 x Peacebloom
59 x Silverleaf
90 x Briarthorn (get 115-120)
20 x Mageroyal (get 25-30)
30 x Bruiseweed (get 40-45)
45 x Stranglekelp (get 60-65)
20 x Liferoot (get 25-30)
30 x Kingsblood (get 40-45)
30 x Goldthorn (get 40-45)
10 x Wild Steelbloom (get 15-20)
25 x Sungrass (get 30-35)
35 x Khadgar's Whisker (get 50-55)
10 x Blindweed (get 15-20)
40 x Gromsblood (get 55-60)
40 x Sorrowmoss (get 55-60)
15 x Dreamfoil (get 20-25)
28 x Golden Sansam (get 35-40)
21 x Mountain Silversage (get 30-35)
17 x Icecap (get 20-25)
7 x Ghost Mushroom
You will probably want to be safe and top off those stacks with an extra 20-30%.
Suggested "super-safe" amounts are (listed in parentheses).

**Here's a GREAT GUIDE from WoW-Professions on Alchemy (for reference).

​
4. Mining/Jewelcrafting - A thorough and comprehensive JC can be found here
*This section was about Talasites. They've been nerfed. Need to re-write for WOTLK Gems. Until this, here's a video from Chops about how to get gems.

​
5. Mining/Alchemy (Trasmutations for JC materials, Alchemy Flask) – [Work in Progress]
6. Mining/Jewelcrafting (Finish out your Gems collection) – [Work in Progress]
** For a more in-depth dive into F2P Jewelcrafting, check out @Gobolord's F2P JC Guide.
​
7. Mining/Engineering - get your Goggles, Cogwheels, Tinkes & Trinkets
Cogwheels:

Sold by https://www.wowhead.com/npc=5519/billibub-cogspinner & https://www.wowhead.com/npc=3413/sovik (vedors in other Capital Cities sell them as well)
You will need to diversify what you craft while leveling Cataclysm Engineering in order to have the odd items needed to purchase the Cogwheels.
(One of them requires https://www.wowhead.com/item=60858/goblin-barbecue, so do your cooking dailies to learn the https://www.wowhead.com/item=62654/lavascale-fillet recipe required to cook one of the ingredients for the Goblin BBQ, fishing up https://www.wowhead.com/item=53068/lavascale-catfish is another story)

Tinkers:​
** For a more in-depth dive into F2P Engineering, check out @Gobolord's F2P Engi Guide.
​
8. Engineering/Alchemy (pick Alchemy up for Flask)
(only need 1 skill to use it, so you can drop & relearn after the flask is made)​
 
CONCLUSION
Again, this is a [Work in Progress] by a stoner & a drunk, so we're bound to miss some shit. let me know if you got something, and i'll explore it.

Otherwise: GL HF, GG WP, RE.
 
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I do wanna mention with the garrison part, after you complete Talador and Gorgrond you'll get: https://www.wowhead.com/item=116395/comprehensive-outpost-construction-guide and https://www.wowhead.com/item=116394/outpost-building-assembly-notes

which you can turn into https://www.wowhead.com/npc=85849/kinkade-jakobs alliance and https://www.wowhead.com/npc=85840/torgg-flexington horde for medium and large building blueprints.

just a warning thou, you only have one shot per character once you trade... make it count.
 
Really really nice guide! Good initiative from both of you! I would like to add to the profession section that you really should get the gnomish ultimate army knife from 25 primal spirits (trade those against 5 gearspring parts at your garrison). A QoL needed for leveling the engineering profession (and probably others as well?).

Great work once again!

// 3:16
 
3:16 said:
Really really nice guide! Good initiative from both of you! I would like to add to the profession section that you really should get the gnomish ultimate army knife from 25 primal spirits (trade those against 5 gearspring parts at your garrison). A QoL needed for leveling the engineering profession (and probably others as well?).

Great work once again!

// 3:16
Click to expand...
you don't have to waste the primal spirit. the intro quest for the engineering works awards 5 gearsprings.
 
Andre said:
PROFESSIONS GRIND

1. GOLDCAP

Capping off at 1,000g is an important part of rotating professions. You will be hitting the goldcap multiple times in order to maximize your materials acquisition (mainly for Enchanting, more on this later). There are a few ways to earn gold:

  • One-time options for “Vendor Trash Treasure” pick-ups in Pandaria & Draenor
  • Face-melting mob grinds for “Vendor Trash Treasure” at never-ending spawn points
  • Traditional Questing/Dailies Rotations
This is also useful for when you are done with professions and want to explore and buy up a bunch of new goodies around Azeroth.


2. PROFESSION ROTATION

1. Tailoring/Enchanting (Enchant Scrolls, Bags & Bandages)
  • Neck = Hidden Satyr
  • Shoulders = Zookeeper
  • Back = Minor Power/PvP Power
  • Chest = Super Stats/Glorious Stats
  • Wrists = Major Stamina
  • Hands = Attack Power*/Spell Power*
  • Feet = Minor Speed/Blurred Speed/Boar's Speed/Tuskarr's Vitality
  • Fingers = Accord of...
2. Skinning/Leatherworking (quick dip into for leg armor, only requires Pandaria LW of 1
  • Legs = Draconic/Heavy/Primal Leg Reinforcements
3. Mining/Herbalism (The Grind) – [WiP]

4. Mining/Jewelcrafting (Stock up on JC materials)

5. Mining/Alchemy (Trasmutations for JC materials, Alchemy Flask) – [WiP]

6. Mining/Jewelcrafting (Finish out your Gems collection) – [WiP]

7. Mining/Engineering (get your Goggles & Trinkets & Tinkers) – [WiP]

8. Engineering/... (pick Alchemy for Flask or Tailoring for Nets) – [WiP]
Click to expand...

It's also important to note that a few of the MoP Treasures that previously granted 100g now only grant 10-15g. I would say two of the better gold-making options would be to hunt for daily BFA treasure chests (kinda painful) or farm Legion Trash at locations like these (
) Even with bots there, you can tag the mobs and get some loot, I would say in the 5 minutes or so I was there, I could easily rack up to a few hundred g
 
Dragpz said:
It's also important to note that a few of the MoP Treasures that previously granted 100g now only grant 10-15g. I would say two of the better gold-making options would be to hunt for daily BFA treasure chests (kinda painful) or farm Legion Trash at locations like these (
) Even with bots there, you can tag the mobs and get some loot, I would say in the 5 minutes or so I was there, I could easily rack up to a few hundred g
Click to expand...
thank you! i will explore this option and include it when i am familiar with it.
 
You’re a star @Andre ;)
I’m still working through the whole Garrison thing myself. One thing I have noticed is the Herb Garden is gated behind a lvl 30ish quest, so at 20 it’s ‘no herbs for us!’
Sux hard because it makes it difficult to level Alch without having Herbalism.
I’m figuring a work around will be to eventually set up a Trading Post and use resources for herbs. Slow going but I’m stubborn and don’t wanna drop Alchemy :p
But good work on this guide. I will be paying close attention!
 
You all rock, thank you so much. I was breaking my brain trying to figure out a good rotation.
 
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