I run a keyfarm character each week to get the key that drops when the first My Story chapter is complete. I make the same character (human ranger), give it the same name (Keyfarm Guy/Gal), play through Chapter 1 to collect the key and then delete the character. Every week. That’s 52 keys a year for spending a bit of time each week leveling a temporary character. For me it’s fun to see how efficient I can be each week, where I can vary things, how fast I can kill stuff.

To help clarify my thinking and improve my efficiency I’m working through this mini guide. I’ve included tips for keeping the keyfarm from being the same grind each week while still having it be fast and efficient.

One of the keys to fast keyfarming is skipping all dialog and killing lots of stuff really fast. Getting the right gear is key. There’s a complete set of purchase/make/acquire lists at the bottom of the post. Getting the equipment purchased and set up is a one-time effort. All the equipment will be account bound on use so you can use the same gear each time you keyfarm.

You’re going to store all this stuff between keyfarm runs so plan for that. You’ll need 11 inventory slots for the level zero gear (chest, gloves, legs, boots, 2 axes, utility buff, food buff, 2 bags, backpack). You’ll need 11 or 12 more slots for the level 10 gear (mask, chest, gloves, legs, boots, 2 axes, shortbow-optional, 2 trinkets, 2 rings). You can do without the level 10 shortbow if you want to save a tiny bit of coin and the space to store it. It really isn’t necessary and I usually don’t use it anyway. The axe strikes do more damage and bounce up to five times. Most things are dead before they can get close enough to touch me.

Buffs are key to a fast keyfarm run. They give an experience increase which speeds the process. Use any half-hour XP buff tokens you have but don’t waste a 2 hour XP buff on what will be less than a 45 minute run. Use a guild XP banner (purchased using Guild Commendations) and a guild XP buff (available from your Guild’s bartender) in addition to the food and utility buffs from your purchases.

With the latest game patch the repair anvil now gives an armor enhancement and vitality boost so don’t hesitate to use the repair anvil in your guild hall before you get heavily into the story line.

When setting up your character, select the human race and the ranger class. The human race has the fastest keyfarm run. The ranger has the best starting utility. You’re going to delete this character so sex and appearance make no difference. The character choices are going to make little to no difference and not knowing what the algorythm picked for all the fussy bits will add interest to your keyfarm run.

Create a new character, choose a sex (if you must), pick ranger and hit “skip to end”. Name your character and you’re done. Skip any dialog you can.

Here is the one snag that can be an issue. You must be able to access your bank before you start your keyfarm run. Access to the guild hall with a scribe station (bank access) is restricted until the first episode of the story is complete. To circumvent this you have a few options. You can purchase a bank golem which lasts two weeks. That may seem like a silly purchase but every time you create a new character it gets access to the golem. Open the email, take the golem, use it for the duration of your run and delete it.

Alternately you can use a temporary or permanent Bank Access Express.

You can also clear out shared inventory slots and put everything your keyfarm character needs in those spots. While tiresome, it’s still a viable option if you have enough shared inventory slots.

If none of those options are available to you slog through the first episode with the provided equipment, then go to your Guild Hall and use the Scribe Station to access your bank.

For the initial grab you need to retrieve the Tomes of Experience, Tomes of Mentorship and/or XP tokens you plan to use, a Guild XP banner (buff lasts 1 hour), invisible bag, 18-20 slot bag, level 0 gear (2 axes, coat, gloves, leggings, boots, backpack), food and utility buffs (food only lasts 15 minutes – you’ll need 4 Grilled Steaks and 2 Rough Sharpening Stones for each keyfarm run).

Equip the bags, coat, gloves, leggings and boots. Equip the axe with the Minor Sigil of Force.

Put the remaining axe and your food in your invisible bag. Put the equipment you just took off (the stuff your character was created with) in your backpack. Plant the Guild XP banner and collect the buff. Use your food and utility buff and start killing stuff.

Strategy:

• Don’t replace ANY of your equipment. Don’t even look at the stuff that drops. Salvage or sell it. It doesn’t have runes and though tempting, doing anything but salvaging or selling will just waste your time. Do not replace any of your account bound stuff. Leave it equipped until you replace it at level 10.
• Spam your number 1 axe skill at anything enemy. If you’ve equipped the recommended equipment most targets will go down in one or two hits. Your number 1 axe skill bounces five times and does impressive damage. You’ll do more damage striking a target in a group or when there is another target close enough to be struck by the bounces. The more stuff you kill the faster you’ll level. The faster you level the sooner you’ll be done.
• As soon as you’re done with the first episode go to your guild hall and get the tavern buff. It’s another 10% XP on top of the buffs you have from food, utility and banner. If you haven’t grabbed the repair anvil buff yet, get that now.
• Watch your food buff. It’s only good for 15 minutes. When it runs out and isn’t replaced your down 10% XP.
• Watch your utility buff. It’s good for 30 minutes. When it runs out and isn’t replaced your down 10% XP.
• When you reach Level 6 equip your off hand axe.
• Expect the first few times through the keyfarm process to be a learning experience. You’ve got to learn where to go and who to interact with for each story arc. Once you are acquainted with all the story arcs your keyfarm will go really quickly.
• Use Tomes and XP tokens judiciously. Don’t overshoot Level 10. It’s a waste of Tomes/tokens.
• If you don’t have or don’t want to use Tomes or tokens your fastest leveling is to keep all your buffs up and complete hearts.

When you reach level 10:

• Go to the bank and replace all your Level 0 gear with your Level 10 gear
• If you get the Faren story arc make sure you do the Zamon’s House fork. The other is long, tiresome and not worth the effort.
• When you get to Level 11 train the Signet of the Hunt and ignore everything else. You’ll be done with the keyfarm before you get to a high enough level to use more than a single talent. Passive Signet of the Hunt is going to give you extra speed. Active it will prevent your target from blocking your strikes. Win win. If you end up in the cell block with Serpetine you can use it to prevent the soldiers from blocking your strikes.

When you’re done:

• Consume the karma token in your bag.
• Salvage/sell everything that can be salvaged or sold.
• Deposit anything that can be deposited
• Salvage everything that can be salvaged.
• Sell everything that can be sold.
• Destroy anything that can’t be salvaged or sold
• Once your bags are as cleaned out as you can make them, take off everything you’ve equipped. EVERYTHING
• Deposit your gear in your bank. Try to keep it grouped together so it will be easy to find the next time you keyfarm.
• Unequip your extra bags and put them in the bank. If you forget to do this and delete your character they are gone and will have to be replaced.
• Double check that all equipment has been unequipped and stored, anything that can be salvaged has been salvaged, anything that can be sold has been sold
• Delete your character. That’s it, you’re done!

Enjoy your keyfarm. It shouldn’t be a grind so don’t make it one. Embrace the variety in the various story arcs and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

From the Trading Post purchase:

• 4 Minor Rune of Speed
• 4 Minor Rune of Air
• 1 Minor Rune of Divinity
• 2 Minor Sigil of Force
• 2 Minor Sigil of Accuracy
• Level 0 Mighty Rawhide Vest (add purchased Minor Rune of Air)
• Level 0 Mighty Rawhide Bracers (add purchased Minor Rune of Air)
• Level 0 Mighty Rawhide Leggings (add purchased Minor Rune of Speed)
• Level 0 Mighty Rawhide Boots (add purchased Minor Rune of Speed)
• 2 Level 0 Mighty Axes (add one Minor Sigil of Power, one Minor Sigil of Accuracy)
• Level 10 Mighty Rawhide Mask (add purchased Minor Rune of Divinity)
• Level 10 Mighty Rawhide Vest (add purchased Minor Rune of Air)
• Level 10 Mighty Rawhide Bracers (add purchased Minor Rune of Air)
• Level 10 Mighty Rawhide Leggings (add purchased Minor Rune of Speed)
• Level 10 Mighty Rawhide Boots (add purchased Minor Rune of Speed)
• 2 Level 10 Mighty Axes (add one Minor Sigil of Power, one Minor Sigil of Accuracy)
• small stack of Grilled Steak
• small stack of Rough Sharpening Stones
• OPTIONAL Level 10 Mighty Shortbow (purchase 1 additiona Minor Sigil of Power and 1 additional Minor Sigil of Accuracy for this weapon)

Make or buy:

• 12 or 15 slot invisible bag
• 18 or 20 slot bag
• 2 Garnet Copper Studs
• 2 Garnet Copper Rings

Make:

• Level 0 backpack with a garnet pebble inserted in the expansion slot

Not to confuse things any further but there is an additional option you should be aware of. Each character’s birthday produces a level 20 boost token that can only be used to level your keyfarm character. Use it, equip the level 10 gear and work through the story line. It’s a simpler and faster way to go but the supply of the tokens is finite.

In Draenor there are two things that matter, how closely your stats match your spec’s needs and how well you’re buffed.  Good stat distribution and full coverage on buffs and it’s easy to rock Draenor.  Ignore one or the other and you are going to struggle even if your rotation rocks.

For sorting my armor/enchants/gems I use AskMrRobot.  It’s an addon and a website and to use it at its fullest you have to subscribe.  The amount in minuscule for the benefit it offers, though it is confusing as the layout/operation is a bit awkward.  Nothing else does the same job so I suck it up and pay.

Because stat distribution is so important and so specific to each spec, I don’t try and figure out what to equip and what enchants to apply on my own.  With many specs at level 100 I choose to not to spend time sorting out which item in my bag matched with which other items on my toon or in my bag is going to give me the right combo of stats with which enchants . . .  I want to spend my time playing, not wracking my brain.  I LOVE AMR. I can mindlessly equip what it says, enchant what it says and not worry about whether it’s right. It frees me up for the fun stuff.  And if you’re running without Draenor enchants on neck, cloak and rings you’re taking a big hit in dps.  If you’re having trouble staying alive you might want to consider getting your gear enchanted.  If your gear isn’t 695 or better, use Breath of enchants and Mark of the Shattered Hand (weapons) and save your gold for the big enchants when you get better gear.

Buffs . . . Oralius’ Whispering Crystal or stat flask is a must.  Stat flasks give bigger stat buffs, last an hour and persist through death but they’re expensive.  A 100/125 stat food buff is a must. Savage Feast is great because it’s one size fits all.  It gives you 100 of your most useful stat. Tent buff is a huge plus (10% bump all stats) and if your armor score is less than healthy it’s a must.  The rune buff is also a big plus.  Every buff makes you stronger, healthier and increases your dps.

Wear the most appropriate gear you can, make sure it’s enchanted and get those buffs onboard and you’ll rock Draenor.

Garrisons are confusing. There is so much stuff going on it’s hard to know what to do.  There are lots of good garrison building guides but I’m going to try and offer you something different, advice on what order to build and why.

While you are leveling your way through Draenor, in addition to your professional building(s), you need a/an . . .

Inn (don’t waste resources upgrading it).  As soon as you have a medium sized plot available build an inn to get the on-steroids version of the Crystal of Insanity we all got from the cave on Timeless Isle.  The quest you’re after is offered by Oralius, the dwarf standing at the bar – check daily until he’s there and you can grab the quest.  You don’t have to run it the day you grab it, you don’t have to wait for Oralius to show up inside the inn to turn it in.  He’s behind the inn once the quest is done.  You DO have to have the inn to turn it in.  You won’t be able to use someone else’s.   Don’t bother picking up any of the other quests (most are for heroic dungeons) unless you’re going to be running the dungeons or you will clog your quest log.

Trading Post.  A level 3 trading post gives you a 20% boost to rep earned.  To get flight in Draenor, to get the Empowered Augment Rune, to get the 15% flight speed boost in Tanaan, to get the Arakkoa Outcast rep that lets you purchase the Arakkoa Trade Agreement, to get wingman with your bodyguard . . .  you have to gain rep.  As a plus you get the ability to sell excess garrison resources for crafting and cooking mats and trade in mats for garrison resources (daily quest).

Storehouse. Build a level three storehouse IF you don’t plan to play your toon every day.  A level three storehouse boosts the number of available work orders up to 36 (dependent on the level of the barn or professional building).  You can fill all your buildings (assuming they’re level three) and five days later come back to the last work orders just finishing up.

Barn.  If you don’t have a level 3 barn on another toon, start your barn as soon as you can and keep it working.  You have to gain the Master Trapper achievement to open up the level three barn to trap Nagrand elites for crafting mats, feasts and the savage blood needed for crafted upgrades to 685 (675 for weapons and offhands).  The first three upgrades requires 15 savage blood, 15 of one of the sorcerous mats and 70 of the profession mats (burnished leather, war paint, alchemical catalyst, etc.) so it’s of value to get the barn in quickly and start building your stores of mats.  The final two crafted upgrades require 175 and 350 of the professional mats.  It’s good to get started early.

Bunker.  One of the goals with your garrison is to get your slate of followers filled as soon as you can (cap of 20 for a level two barracks, 25 for a level three) and get them leveled and geared to 675 so they can go out on the missions that will get you good gear and gold.  To do that you need the bunker.  The plus here is a free Seal of Inevitable Fate each week.  Two more notes regarding your followers.  First, Garrison Commander (addon) has a wonderful interface that lets you prioritize your mission rewards, set the level of risk you’re willing to take and make mission assignment and mission completion a single button click.  As your followers level you can shuffle the reward priority (yes, I want those special rewards that sell for big gold on the auction house!) and turn off certain types of missions (no, I don’t need any more follower armor tokens).  In addition it works great with the FollowerGearOptimizer addon (assigns armor tokens to followers based on their value to currently available missions).  Second, while you’re pushing your followers to get them to 100, send them out on missions with as little as zero chance of success.  Each mission has a base xp they will get whether the mission succeeds or fails.  The goal is to level your followers as quickly as possible.  If the mission’s sure to fail but the follower will get xp, kick ’em in the butt and send ’em out.  DO NOT do this with your naval fleet.  Followers fail but return smarter.  Ships sink.

Where you go with your buildings after you’ve got all your crafted items upgraded, stacks of savage feasts and crafting mats is totally up to you.  This is intended to give you some guidelines on what to do while you’re working your way to that point.

There’s a lot going on in Tanaan Jungle.  Consider this an addendum to my Draenor Noobs post.

There is a weekly boss you should kill without fail every week.  Kazzak drops 705-711 gear suitable for your spec.  Specifically he drops bracers, neck, cloak and trinket.  He also (without fail) drops felblight.  Felblight is a must for upgrading crafted equipment.  Look closely at the equipment you get off Kaz.  Sometimes it will have a prismatic socket.  Sometimes it will have extra stats like avoidance or leach.  All Kaz drops are not equal so take the time to look carefully.  For Kaz you have a bonus roll available to you.  It can be purchased from the Arakkoa vendor next to the AH in Stormshield for alliance and behind the portal/transmog building in Warspear.  The four quests (gold, apexis, garrison resources, honor) give you the opportunity to trade for a Seal of Inevitable Fate.  Here’s one final tip on this.  If you forget to grab your bonus roll seal, don’t leave group.  Hearth back to Lion’s Watch (if this stone is on cooldown hearth back to your garrison) and step through the portal to Ashran.  Buy the seal and step back through the portal to Lion’s Watch and the bonus roll will pop . . . assuming your group is still active.

Gathering in Tanaan has the chance to drop felblight.  Some days I get lots, some days I get none but if I’m going to do any gathering I try and do it in Tanaan.

If your gear score going into Tanaan is low (below 640 though 660 is a more comfortable ilvl for easily running Tanaan solo), ask someone with flight if they will fly you around to collect treasure and kill bosses.  All treasure chests and fractured apexis bundles have a chance to drop baleful armor tokens which can pop equipment (armor, tokens, jewelry, weapons) that ranges from 650 to 685 in varying degrees of suitability for your spec.

Empowered Apexis Fragments (the upgrade token for items created by the baleful armor tokens) will upgrade your gear to 695.  They are battle.net account bound.  If you start a new toon in Tanaan you can send those upgrade tokens across realm/faction to your noob, so continue to collect apexis crystals even if you don’t think you need them.

There are a couple one-time treasures available in Tanaan.  They appear on the map if you’re using Handinotes:Draenor.  All the other chests and fragments respawn so watch for them as you work your way around Tanaan.

If you chose the artillery tower in Talador, that’s your best option for your garrison ability in Tanaan.  It’s perfect for blasting the adds called by Varyx in Kranak and Riloth in Fel Forge.  Artillery makes these two bosses easy to solo at ilvl 660 assuming you keep your toon properly enchanted and have your buffs up with bodyguard in tow.  If you selected the tank option from Nagrand as your garrison ability . . . well, <wince>.

Fel wolves count as demon and as teeth.  If you have demons and all the fel wolves at the approach to the Throne are up, you can finish your demon quest in about 4 minutes.  If you have teeth, that batch of wolves and all the pigs (including the little ones) near those wolves (one end has Steelsnout) will nearly finish your teeth quest.  Goreclaw’s cave is also a good source.  Swoop through, gather them up and drop one bomb.  That batch is good for between 1/2 and 1/3 of the teeth needed.  There’s another batch of fel wolves up by Sha’naar where Ceraxas spawns.  When you kill Ceraxas the first time a fel pup will spawn near the edge of the cliff.  The quest gives you a spike collar which produces a pet.  You get one of those but collect the collar for each toon as it’s worth a nice chunk of gold.

All the bosses in Tanaan (not Kaz) can be killed daily.  They will drop 655 or better gear each day.  Doing a sweep through Tanaan and killing every boss that pops is an excellent way to gain gold or enchanting mats, whichever you need most.

Fel sludge (the green rivers and pools of stuff in Tanaan) give you a buff/debuff.  Ten stacks will kill you.  Nine stacks gives you a nice dps boost.

Leatherworking hut followers can make tents which give an hour-long 10% stats boost.  These are b.net account bound and can be sent cross realm/server.  You can benefit from anyone’s tent.  This may be faction dependent but can’t tell you for certain.  If you have a tent buff that’s nearly out and want to rebuff, you will have to click the buff off before entering the tent.  You will have to enter the tent unmounted.  If the buff doesn’t pop in ten seconds, exit, check to make sure you don’t already have a tent buff running and reenter.

Outside your garrison (alliance) or by the bonfire at the pet area (horde) is a vendor that will sell you a recipe for 125 stat (more for stamina) food that uses fish.  You can be a level one cook and still use the recipe.  Stacks of the base fish (crescent saberfish) is usually available at the AH in reasonably sized stacks.

Fishing in Tanaan fel sludge pools will produce a fish that, when consumed, gives you a damage buff.  Fishing them can also produce felblight.  This fish is a great one to use if you don’t have food (savage feast, the chili that drops off the mission table or cooked food suitable to your spec).

If you sit down to eat and can’t get the food buff, you have a buff in place that is better than the food you’re trying to eat.  If you have an about to expire 125 food buff sitting down to eat a savage feast (100 stat food buff) will do nothing.  Click off the better buff and try again.

It is not necessary, when starting a toon in Tanaan, to complete the Iron Front objective area. Talk to Murad, turn in the quest from Yrel, pick up the flight point/scouts quest and skip completing the Iron Front.  This will speed your setup for Tanaan and leaves the area available for the two objective areas quest you’ll pick up after finishing the mission table.

Have you ever queued and waited . . . and waited . . . for a healer?  Have you ever stopped to wonder why?  I can share a few reasons with you.  I’m sure this isn’t a complete list.  If you are a healer some of these will resonate, I am sure.

If you’re a tank, have you ever considered how much more difficult you make the healer’s job if you:

• don’t turn the mob away and the healer and all the dps gets blasted as a result
• take off to the next mob so fast the healer can’t get you back up to full health
• take off so fast to the next mob the healer doesn’t have time to loot
• take off so fast to the next mob the healer doesn’t have time to buff you for the next fight?
• pull too large a mob for the healer to heal through?
• fail to hold aggro so the healer gets attacked?

Sadly, it’s not unusual for a healer to experience each of those IN A SINGLE DUNGEON.  The tank happily bounces along singing “ME, ME, ME, ME” and the healer fights to hold the pack together and keep them healed.  Many tanks are so self-centered they’re rushing forward with no clue or care that they’ve left live mob behind which holds up the dps AND the healer.

Can you tell I’ve had a bad day healing dungeons?  Some of those pricks were so bad they ended up on my ignore list.  If they’re that bad, I don’t need to know them.  I think I’ll fix myself a drink and listen to some soothing music.