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Armory going down for Wrath updates
Crygil posted early this morning that the Armory will be going down at 6 a.m. PST / 9 a.m. EST to prepare it for Wrath of the Lich King. The Armory will be down for approximately eight hours.He doesn't go into specifics about what will be updated, but we have some good guesses at what we could see included: Achievement listings Wrath of the Lich King items New reputations Faster character data updates Crygil also mentions that all the character data will be reset. This means that you have to log into your character to repopulate the Armory information on it. This is important if you have seldom played alts yet still refer to the armory data, or if you are currently applying to a guild that requires armory information.We'll have more concrete information on what this update brings after it's complete, sometime around 2 p.m. PST.
Ask WoW Insider: Is PvP gear still worth it?
Here's a good question from our email (it's ask at wow.com, if you've got a question for Ask WoW Insider). It's about PvP gear, and what to do about it in the few weeks left until the Wrath launch. We know now that Honor and marks are not getting wiped for sure, so Treecow wants to know what to do:My question is this, now that Wrath will be out in 6 weeks or so, does it really pay to get the S2 gear? Is it worth getting, even if it's going to be replaced within the first couple levels in Northrend, just to make those couple of levels easier? Or should I keep running quests and dailies? Or is there something else I should be doing that I haven't even thought about?Thanks,Treecow70 Druid on ThrallIf you ask me, dailies are the way to go at this point (and if you haven't gotten your rep up in some factions, dailies should help there, too), simply because gear will get quickly replaced and gold will always be useful. Not to mention that there are battleground dailies to do every day if BGs are what you'd rather play.But on the other hand, I'm mostly a PvE-er, and who knows -- doing the PvP to buy PvP gear could be worth it in the long run. You might even get more gold out of selling items you'd normally be equipping in Wrath. Readers, what do you say to Treecow?Previously on Ask WoW Insider...
Polymorph: Black Cat, Serpent found in Dalaran
I don't know how new this is but it's news to me, and great news to Mages looking for more Polymorphing fun -- reader Alassiel on Uldaman (thanks!) was poking around Dalaran in the beta, and in the Sisters Sorcerous shop, he found a new Polymorph spell, Black Cat, for... wait for it... 2500g. Yes, it'll cost you more than twice a Gigantique bag, but if you're looking for a new Poly spell and don't want to muck around in the waters of ZG, there you go. And apparently Polymorph: Serpent is also occasionally sold by the same character for the same price.Both spells seem to be level 60 spells, strangely enough (Update: Because, I learned in the comments, the highest rank of Polymorph is obtained at level 60), so if your 60 Mage has 5000g just sitting around or has a rich alt willing to pay the price, you could be using them then. WoWWiki also says the prices are rep-related, so if you do a little grinding for the Kirin Tor, you might be able to pick them up for cheaper. And don't forget that this is Wrath -- 2500g is likely only a few days of dailies anyway. Polymorph on!
Oh, what fresh hell is this?
Teech from Cenarion Circle penned a brief note on the forums today about the utter agony of farming Timbermaw Hold reputation at level 70. It seems like a lot of people are revisiting this particular rep grind in the interest of obtaining "The Diplomat" title and Achievement in Wrath, for which you need to be Exalted with Sporereggar, the Timbermaw, and the Mag'har/Kurenai. I'm giving some thought to doing it myself because I've already gotten to exalted with Sporereggar and the Mag'har on my main, but Timbermaw is...something else entirely. As a matter of fact, Timbermaw makes no sense. I can understand getting a Diplomat title for being an Alliance or Horde liasion to the embattled peoples of Outland no matter how bad their sense of tabard design, but someone's going to have to explain to me how committing genocide on behalf of a pissed-off subgroup of bears in loincloths does anything to advance the cause of diplomacy in Azeroth. Why are we so willing to believe the story being peddled by the first furbolg we see in Felwood? For all we know there's nothing wrong with the other furbolg tribes that some micro-lending couldn't cure. And let's face, it, there are other factions in the game for whom both the Alliance and Horde would be much better served by maintaining close diplomatic ties. Take the Consortium, for example. They ask you to lay waste to their colleagues all the time, but at least everyone concerned makes a buck off of it. What do the Timbermaw have to offer but a tunnel that you can fly over? Isn't the national interest of the Horde or Alliance better served by pursuing ties to factions with lots of money or weapons, or at least a massive grudge against things we already hate, rather than involving ourselves in some pointless internecine spat among NPC's whose death animation makes me squirm?Yeah, I might just be mad I have to kill so many of them. I'll grant that the dubious honor of most legendarily awful rep grind of all time still seems to belong to the Wintersaber Trainers (although the Cenarion Circle is also getting a lot of grief in the thread), but at least the Trainers' rep isn't linked to an amusingly ironic new title. Now if you'll pardon me, I have to go slaughter another several dozen bear men in the interests of social justice for...I'm not sure. Other bears who claim it's the right thing to do. But I get something out of it anyhow, and that makes me an ambassadorial hero.
Reputation roundup for new players & new level 70s
Some of the best rewards in WoW can only be achieved if you have the appropriate level of reputation with a specific faction. Whether you're a brand new WoW player or a freshly-minted level 70 dipping your first toe into the endgame, you need to educate yourself about reputation (or "rep" as it's usually called). Fortunately, here at WoW Insider, we have a lot of tools that can help you find your way through the rep maze to the piece of loot you desire.For new playersWoW Rookie: Introduction to ReputationNew players should start with this article to learn what all the terminology means and how rep affects your gameplay. WoW Rookie: Azeroth ReputationsThis article is the next step in understanding rep and how it works for the world of Azeroth. Since you should start worrying about rep long before you hit level 40, this article shows you how to start preparing for getting your first mount -- especially if the one you hunger for is not your toon's racial mount. Breakfast Topic: Reputation grindingHere you can see what your fellow players have to say about what it's like to grind rep after level 60.For new level 70sAsk WoW Insider: Do you optimize your rep grinds?Advice from us and other readers on how to streamline your rep grinds in Outland.Faction frustrations eased in WrathA preview of how rep may change in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.Rep calculatorsHere are a couple of rep calculators we've reviewed. Liquidor's rep calculator WoW Reputation Calculator For extra credit WoW Rookie: Pre-Burning Crusade engame reputationsThis is a good primer on how rep worked prior to the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. Rep grinding in Azeroth after level 60 is not overly relevant now, but you may still be curious as to how it worked.
EVE Online Community Spotlight: a Q&A with Chribba
Trust is a rare commodity in EVE Online. Many players are drawn to the game by the fact that almost any form of deceit, betrayal, and outright treachery is allowed in EVE. Not all players head down this path, of course, but plenty do. This element of risk is what makes the game exciting, but even those who are wary of the online personas of some EVE players may still find themselves getting backstabbed and robbed, or worse. Many in EVE have learned to profit from the misfortunes of others. However, this social environment has created certain opportunities for individuals who are able to establish their credibility over time, and through great effort. Among the most trustworthy in EVE Online is Chribba, a player who's very active in the community and provides a number of services to EVE fans, free of charge. Helped by Chribba's efforts, EVE Online has expanded into a game where players become auteurs, creating videos and sharing their in-game pursuits with others, either for their own glory or their organization's propaganda. Of course, his contributions don't end there, as most everyone in the EVE community knows. Massively recently caught up with Chribba and asked him to share a bit about what he does for the EVE player base, and why he does it.
WoW Rookie: Introduction to Reputation
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know. As a social game, it's fun to make friends in an MMORPG environment. In World of Warcraft, you must also make friends (and sometimes enemies) with members of various faction groups. Reputation (rep) is gained through killing a faction's enemies and completing quests to assist a particular group. Obviously, killing member's of a particular faction reduces rep. For example, killing Bloodsail Pirates increases rep with Booty Bay (Steamwheedle Cartel), while decreasing rep with the Bloodsail Buccaneers. There are many reasons why we may increase or decrease reputations. You may be asked to do so to as a quest objective or to gain particular rewards. By gaining exalted reputation with the major cities you have access to purchase their racial mounts (provided your they may be scaled to your racial model) and their guild tabards. Higher levels of rep also allow discounts on goods and repair services from vendors, and higher prices for selling useless items. For the next couple of weeks, we'll be taking a look at the ins and outs of reputation on WoW Rookie.
Sticking with just one character
We've done a lot of talking about alts here at WoW Insider, and if I had to guess, I'd suspect that most of our readers tend to be what most of us writers are: alt-a-holics, with many, many classes and levels of alts, sometimes even spanning across servers. But not everybody is like us-- some people, like the Nameless One over on LJ, have only one character. And to tell the truth, I kind of envy her a bit.I've known a few people who have only played one character in the game ever, and in my experience, they've done great-- all the money they make goes directly to them, they never have to redo rep runs, all the keys they collect never have to be collected again. If you are an altaholic, think about all the gear you've gotten across the board and all the time you've sunk into other characters-- people with just one toon get to put all that time and effort into just one character, and get to reap the rewards.There is a lesson here, however, even for us altaholics. I've often found that if I really want to level up one of my alts, the switching just can't happen-- I have to choose one character and stick to it. All the money I earn stays with that character, and my only goals while online are for that character alone. And when I focus, and put effort into just one, that's when things actually get done. I, like many players, get bored easily-- if I had only one class ever, I would have had to give up on this game a while ago. But when it comes to earning gear and leveling fast, the best strategy I've found is to sit down, focus in, and play like you have only one character.
A rewarding Tranquilien grind
There's a good little tip on the forums for anyone starting out a Horde alt (maybe to take advantage of the new leveling changes)-- do your 10-20 grind in Tranquilien. As long as you're thorough, you can pretty easily get exalted with Tranquilien (the rep flows freely), and there are some incredible rewards for doing so. Tranquilien Champion's Cloak is the best you can get, and +7 Stamina inside of level 20 is amazing.Just shows how far Blizzard has come in rewarding up and coming players with the items they need to level faster. You've always been able to get rep from other starting areas, and these rewards have been around since Burning Crusade (so this is only news if you're just now starting another alt). But it's cool to look back on all these changes-- increased rep per quest, a new starting area, and better reputation rewards, and see how they all work together to give lowbie characters lots more fun stuff to play with.
In the reputation grinder
Reputation grinding is something of a mixed bag in the World of Warcraft-- some factions have many options for the player who wants to gain rep. Most of the new factions in Burning Crusade have quests, turn-ins, and various instances that all award rep. Others (especially those that existed pre-BC) are more difficult, requiring hours upon hours of grinding away on specific mobs that provide little return, as anyone who's ever gotten exalted with the Wintersaber Trainers will tell you.Not all factions provide rewards that everyone will need-- if you're anything like me (and, I think, most players), you'll pick and choose which factions you want to grind. For at least one person, however, the goal was to hit Exalted with all available factions. Tombom, from Cho'gall, is exalted with 36 different factions (37 if you count switching from Scryer to Aldor), including Darkmoon Faire. I'd be lying if I said that this didn't make me feel bad about neglecting some of my own reputation goals, but it does inspire me - if a Disc / Holy priest can do it, why not me?Congratulations, Tombom!Thanks, Centipede!
Ask WoW Insider: Do you optimize your rep grinds?
It's the end of another week, and you know what that means -- it's time for another edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we post your questions for our readers to answer. This week we have a question from Rylia, who is curious about how many people actually mesh their playstyle around World of Warcraft's reputation system:WoW is my first MMORPG, and really the first computer game I've played for a decade or more -- I used to play things like King's Quest and Hero's Quest and Police Quest. So for me, the natural way to start when I get to a new zone is to fill up on all the quests, and march off to tick them off. Only later do I start thinking about getting my faction reps up. However, basically every guide to faction rep, for every faction, says that to make the most of your efforts, you need to wait to do your quests until you've ground up to honored with instances or turn-in quests.Interesting! Of course we all know the best way to gain reputation with most factions (Outland factions in particular, because each of those has an associated dungeon) is to run through the instances first, because instances will stop providing reputation gain at some point, while quests will give reputation no matter what your current reputation is. But do you really play the best way, or do you look head straight for those exclamation points, like Rylia does?Ask WoW Insider couldn't keep posting without a delicious diet of your questions -- so send 'em in to ask AT wowinsider DOT com! Thanks for reading, and we'll be back next week with another of your questions!
LF rep for cross-racial mount
It has been a while since I worked toward getting a cross-racial mount. I wasn't even really that interested in doing it with my alts until I started leveling my priest in the human lands to group with friends. All of a sudden she was honored with Stormwind and a seed was planted in my brain. I had a picture in my mind of a Draenei on a palomino, and it was a beautiful thing. I didn't really start working on her rep until this week however, and man was I disappointed. Previous to Patch 2.1.0 people were raving about how easy it was to attain exalted reputation with any race in your faction, simply by completing all the Horde or Alliance quests in their starting areas. Eager to begin, I started out for Coldridge Valley, only to find out that I received absolutely no Stormwind reputation for doing quests for the dwarves. It wasn't until I got to Loch Modan that I received even a few points of rep. Even turning in the cloth for the other races affords me no additional faction with Stormwind. Tricky little devs changed it on me. So it's not as simple as I thought, but I think it might still be doable. I played tour guide for an orphan, which got me about 500 rep or so. I am becoming a regular hero to the Night Elves, and soon will move on to questing for my own race (how novel.) But I am not sure I will have enough rep by the time I reach 40 to get my horse. Do you have any tips on how I can get extra rep now that Patch 2.1.0 is in effect? Is anyone out there doing the cross-racial mount thing along with me? Any tips you might have would be great. My priest thanks you.
Where to start with 2.1 content
The 2.1 patch this week introduced enough new quest lines, top-end raid content, flying mounts, and L70 solo & small group content to qualify as its own game. With a three day weekend looming I didn't even know where to begin. So I scoured the web and found the where to go and what to do to get me started. THE BLACK TEMPLE: Already planning to strut around Shattrath in your T6 Raid gear? Don't bank that T5 set too quick. The Black Temple attunement quest is ... epic. And it hasn't even been fully discovered so far. What is known is that you will have to slog through a great deal of the Burning Crusade raid content that comes before it: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshire Cavern, The Eye and The Battle of Mount Hyjal. And many of those raids require extensive attunement quests of their own. If you are still itching to begin, you can dig in with the Tablets of Baa'ri chain out of Shadowmoon Valley to start grinding that Ashtongue Deathsworn rep. NETHERDRAKE EPIC FLYING MOUNT: First, don't confuse this with the Swift Nether Drake top Arena teams are awarded with at the end of every season. That one has a speed increase of 310% and has an armored appearance. This is the normal epic nether drake with a speed increase on par with other epic flying mounts: 280%. What's special about this epic flying mount is that it can be obtained through solo and small group quests. No raid required. What is required is a great deal of dedication.The first steps on your journey is to dig yourself out of Hated reputation with the Netherwing clan and get all the way to Exalted. This is accomplished through solo, 5 man and 3 man daily quests. Head to the south east corner of Shadowmoon Valley and speak to Mordenai in the Netherwing Fields. A complete write up can be found here.
Five must-see quests at 70
When I finally hit 70 on my main, the last thing I wanted to do was more quests. But lately, after a lot of prodding from guildies and a lot of drooling over the thought of a quest reward Netherwing mount, I've gotten back into questing with my main. And after going at it for a week or so now, I've discovered there are some pretty awesome quests to do even after you hit that final ding in Outland. If you're just getting ready to start questing for gold instead of XP, here's five terrific quest chains you can seek out and work through.(And yes, I do realize that most hardcore players will have already found and completed these chains-- if you know of more fun, rewarding, or cool quests to do post-70, feel free to add them in the comments below.)1. The Cipher of Damnation. This is a loooong, long questline that will get you ready to do The Eye, the 25-man raid in Tempest Keep. It starts off with some solo quests in Shadowmoon, and then takes you through all the Heroic instances in TK. Along the way, you'll use boars to dig for tubers, and puke your guts out going through rotten Arrakoa eggs. Lots of fun. It starts in Shadowmoon Valley's Wildhammer Stronghold if you're Alliance, or Shadowmoon Village if you're Horde.2. Entry Into the Citadel. This questline and the next one are key quests-- they'll finish with key rewards that will let you into endgame dungeons. This questline is the making of the Shattered Halls key, necessary to enter the toughest 5 man in Hellfire Citadel (not every group member needs these keys to enter these instances, just one-- unlike the raid instances). So lots of guildies will love you if you finish these quests, and for this questline, you get to kill a Fel Reaver in the process. The Shattered Halls key questline starts from a drop from Smith Gorlunk, on the Northern Terraces outside of the Black Temple in Shadowmoon Valley.
PTR notes: Welcome to Ogri'la
Along with the Skettis Skyguard, there's another new faction to grind for in 2.1: Ogri'la. In my search for the elusive ogres, I was sent down to the Lower City by a quest giver in Shattrath's Terrace of Light; from there, the next step is to zip up to the Ring of Blood in Blade's Edge and talk to an ogre there. (Side note: the journey was hilarious, as epic flying mounts on the PTR are currently bugged to flutter their wings insanely fast when you fly forward.) I didn't follow through after that, because all the "real" quests to gain reputation with the Ogri'la ogres appear to be 5-man, and the thought of pugging with four other random PTRers was a little daunting.Never fear, though, I did go over to Ogri'la to snap the above shot and check out the rewards, which you can see in the picture after the cut (not composited by me; my pic was much worse). The prices of all the gear are in Apexis Crystals and Apexis Shards, which I assume drop from whatever it is you have to kill to get Ogri'la rep. If it's anything like the Sporeggar, getting the required reputation level is much more difficult than getting the turn-in tokens. Oh, and there's a repair vendor there, which is always pleasant. Ogri'la is located in the west of Blade's Edge, between Forge Camp Terror and Forge Camp Wrath.
The long road to 'Exalted'
This week, I hit a new milestone on my main character -- I finally got Exalted with one of Azeroth's factions. By playing far too many games in Alterac Valley, I have somehow managed to convince the Stormpike Guard to like me (and I mean really like me). Anyone familiar with AV will know that you get a lot of reputation per game played, and thus getting to exalted is simply a matter of turning up, but it's still a great milestone for me.Achieving this got me to thinking about other factions I'm working on reputation for. Slowly but surely I'm building up Cenarion Circle, Zandalar Tribe and Brood of Nozdormu faction through raiding, while I'm working on Silverwing Sentinels and League of Arathor by PvPing. On top of that, I'm working towards Stormwind reputation so I can get a horse mount, and I'd love to get Timbermaw Hold and Thorium Brotherhood rep for the recipes they bring.It's all a bit much, really. Reaching Exalted with AV seemed to take long enough, and I'm staring despondently at my 'Neutral' and 'Friendly' bars -- not to mention the one or two 'Revered' bars which seem to stretch on forever. As I'm not a fan of grinding, reaching higher reputation levels with many factions is a case of farming instances equally repetitively -- for now, my tactic is to do these instances and let the rep come to me, rather than vice versa, but it will be many months before I reach higher levels if I continue this trend.
And the Xbox Live grand total is...
We've said it before and we'll say it again: Xbox Live has come a long way since the launch of the 360. Content was few and far between back then. But now, with downloads in the millions, it's evident that gamers are hard pressed not to find something worth downloading or buying on the network.For an interesting perspective on how much content floods Xbox Live now, just take a look at the total cost it would run you to purchase it all! With some of the stuff duplicated the actual total is a bit lower, but even so, $957.38 is still pretty hefty. That's 76,590 points for everyone else.
