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The OverAchiever: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain o' Mounts
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we contribute to Azeroth's obesity epidemic by refusing to walk. Mounts: They get your ass from point A to point B, and if you're lucky, they'll do it as stylishly as possible. They're the most immediately visible status symbol in WoW and often give you a one-glance note on the kind of player at whom you're looking. People astride Invincible can be counted upon to be hardcore raiders from the Wrath of the Lich King era, someone riding a Violet Proto-Drake is never new to the game, and players rocking a White Stallion are seriously old school. Players who have been around for any length of time almost inevitably accrue a stable's worth of beasties to cart them around, but some folks go the extra mile for the Leading the Cavalry and Mountain o' Mounts achievements. In Cataclysm, these are a lot easier than they once were, although you should still be prepared to dump a ton of gold and time into them no matter what. Fortunately, the first part of the Mountain o' Mounts trek should also net you The Ambassador achievement and title.
Is Leading the Cavalry possible?
I mentioned the Leading the Cavalry achievement earlier, the achievement that requires 75 mounts to... well, achieve. The big question is, is that actually possible? Let's find out!Let's use a Forsaken for our example, since they have no factors working against them like racial boundries on mounts. Keep in mind that some races will have a harder time, like Tauren can't use two of the five Horde mounts, and Gnomes don't allow anybody but Gnomes and Dwarves to use mechachickens.The Horde has Peacocks, Raptors, Wolves, Skeletal Horses, and Kodo. From a glance at Wowhead, there seems to be...
Patch 2.4: The unofficial patch notes
Yesterday, we sent out a call for unofficial changes, and you guys responded with plenty. The official patch notes were posted earlier this week, but here are the unofficial patch notes for patch 2.4 we've found so far. Raid reset timers are showing the wrong times. (known bug) Various weapons are showing up as the wrong sizes. (known bug) A number of AV changes were made, some of them documented, some not. We've confirmed that yes, the Chocobo squawk (press spacebar when standing still on the Blood Elf racial mount) is new to the game. Sound effect for Power World: Shield has changed in volume (thanks, Matt), as have some other sounds in the game Netherstorm mobs have had their health tuned down, and frostbolts seem to go faster (thanks, Nick) Blizzard has adjusted things so that the walljumping exploit is no longer valid in many places (thanks, Jacob) Motes of Water drop rate seems to be nerfed (thanks, Tancred) More after the jump.
Magister's Terrace round-up
If you're like me, you'll be running the brand-new 5-man dungeon of 2.4, Magister's Terrace, as soon as you can. How can you not love a 5-man with four bosses borrowing elements from 25-man raids, a cutscene, and a guaranteed epic even on normal? If you're looking for more information on what to expect, here's a round-up of WoW Insider's coverage to date and our Magister's Terrace gallery.Follow the cut for a host of helpful articles on bosses, drops, videos, and scenery!
Top 7 reasons I am looking forward to 2.4
So with patch 2.4 coming on us soon, I was thinking about it, and I have to say that I can't remember the last time I was filled with this much anticipation over a patch. Aside from 1.8, which made Feral Druids viable, this might be my favorite patch. But why do I love it? Why can't I wait until the servers come up on patch day and we're allowed in? Let me count the ways! Here's 7 relatively simple reasons that I am watching my computer like a hawk, waiting for 2.4 to make it live.
Swift White Hawkstrider debuts in Patch 2.4
The good news just keeps on coming as Patch 2.4 is shaping up to be one incredibly sweet patch. Following the news of what might just be the coolest non-combat pet -- aside from the Pet Bombling, imho -- the Phoenix Hatchling, it appears that Kael'thas drops even more amazing stuff like the new Swift White Chocobo Hawkstrider. The model for the Swift White Hawkstrider has been in the files for quite some time now, and former speculation was that it was the PvP reward mount similar to Red Skeletal Warhorses or Black War Kodos. However, according to MMO Champion -- which has been on a massive roll uncovering the sweet loot hidden in Patch 2.4 -- the mount drops off Kael'thas in Heroic Magister's Terrace.The new patch is shaping up to be very casual-friendly, as the vanity items such as the phoenix pet and this bragging-rights mount both drop from the 5-man instance (albeit in different modes), something that all players can reasonably aspire towards. Mount aficionados can now add this to their wish list along with (if they don't already have it) Zul'Aman's Amani War Bear or the Druid epic quest boss bonus drop Reins of the Raven Lord. The bad news is that these Hawkstriders can't support the heft of Tauren or Draenei, so players dreaming of cows on chickens will have to keep on dreaming.
Riding Crop stacking and the mount speed limit
Leatherworkers who've hit 350 have been doing some brisk business making and selling the Riding Crop, a new trinket that increases mount speed by a whopping 10%. The previous +mount speed items combined (Mithril Spurs, made by Blacksmiths and attached to boots, the Carrot trinket from a ZF quest, and a glove enchant), added up to only 9%, and some players were excited that with the crop included, they'd see a full 19% speed bonus.Not so, says Drysc. By decree of the devs, the biggest mount speed bonus items can grant will be 10%, which means the Riding Crop does not stack with any other items (keep that in mind before you spend a ton of gold on it). It's meant, says Drysc, as a space and time saver more than anything else-- don't carry around three items when you can carry around one.Of course, as alert players point out, there are class speed buffs that will stack with Riding Crop-- Crusader Aura is one for Pallies, and I'm sure commenters to this post could come up with more (I thought that Aspect of the Pack would, except that AotP doesn't stack with mounts at all, so of course it doesn't stack with the Riding Crop). There are probably even those among you who wonder why any more than a 10% buff even matters for getting from place to place, but for some players (especially those in battlegrounds), every second spent on a mount counts.
Secrets of the Burning Crusade minisite
Blizzard has posted a brand new Burning Crusade mini site, and it's pretty spiffy. After a quick intro (how can I have missed that the Blood Elf mount is now called the "Hawkstrider"? What was wrong with the other name, Co-- ohhh, I see.), the music starts and you can enter the lush world of... a flash website.There's not much news in it, if you've been paying attention to BC previews at all. It runs you quickly through all the new content-- flying mounts, the new jewelcrafting profession, the new races, Arena PVP, and the new world of Outland, and even has a few good writeups of the different dungeons and factions you'll see in Outland. Overall, nothing really new, but there's good music throughout, and it's easy to check out. If you're already excited for BC (and how could you not be?), this will only add to the trembling in expectation.Oh, almost forgot-- there's a secret minigame hidden among all the content. Poke around, if you like-- Blizzard has hidden some secret clicks in there that allow you to eventually access top secret content. It's not hard to figure out, but if you really don't want to bother with it, we'll even provide you with a walkthrough after the jump.
Exalted with Exodar?
Everyone's trying to get a jump-start on preparing for the Burning Crusade, whether it's by getting new PVP gear, finding a leveling guild or gathering all your jewelcrafting mats. Some people take the phrase "getting a jump-start" a bit farther than others, though -- like the members of the Exalted with Exodar Club. Yes, these brave souls have gotten exalted with the Draenei faction so they can get the Draenei elekk mounts as soon as Burning Crusade hits. And since you can't get Exodar faction by doing runecloth turn-ins, they did it the hard way, by grinding turn-ins in AV that raised their rep with all Alliance cities. Warla, a warlock from the Dragonmaw server, got Exodar as her twentieth exalted faction. Holy magoley, Batman! I can't even imagine the /played it takes to get that. There are a couple Horde who have posted about being exalted with Silvermoon City, but not nearly as many as on Alliance. Maybe the Horde are all busy PVPing, or the hawkstriders are just uglier than the elekks, or (my theory) the Horde generally can't win at AV enough to do this. Whether you consider getting exalted with the new factions on live to be genius or crazy, you've got to admit it's an interesting way to pass the time until the expansion.
