basic-campfire
Latest
World of Warcraft reveals the next Warchief of the Horde
If you have even a peripheral interest in World of Warcraft, you've caught wind of the fact that Garrosh Hellscream has not been a very good leader of the Horde. He's managed it so badly that he's the final boss of the expansion for both factions, which is not the sign of a capable leader. And his ultimate defeat means it's time for a new Warchief to step forward... a leader named... Basic campfire? You didn't think we were going to spoil this right here on the front page, did you? If you're still playing the game and want to see the end on your own, that's fine. If you would rather just find out the answer now, though, you can find the answer buried within our sister site WoW Insider's considerate-of-spoiler-warnings post right over here. (It's actually a Sickly Gazelle riding on a Spectral Tiger mount, but that's just a placeholder model.)
WoW Archivist: Many memes, handle it
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Last week, Archivist celebrated the Ulduar raid, including Thorim's famous IN THE MOUNTAINS speech -- one of Wrath's most memorable memes. In its eight years, World of Warcraft and its players have spawned dozens of memes. Today, Archivist remembers some of the best and most enduring. If you've ever wondered where some of these memes come from, read on! The earliest memes WoW memes began almost instantly after the game's release. One of the first was Mankrik's wife. For an early Horde quest in the Barrens, the orc Mankrik sent you to locate her. His directions were rather vague, so many players had trouble locating her. It didn't help that she wasn't an upright and alive NPC, but rather a dead body laying on the ground -- killed by marauding quilboars. Confused players asked where they could find her in the zone's chat. Many, many players. Because the massive zone spanned 15 levels, everyone leveling through it saw that same question asked over and over again. It got to the point where people would ask just to troll the chat channel. The quest is no longer in the game, but players can now visit her grave near Grol'dom Farm. Trolling Barrens chat became something of a hobby for early players. Many in the Horde didn't know about the other leveling zones across the ocean. Some who did ran up against the ongoing Tarren Mill/Southshore lagfest wars and took the first boat back to Kalimdor. The combination of a captive audience and a high saturation of new players made the Barrens the perfect zone to troll. In time, Barrens chat became its own meme, even inspiring T shirts.
Patch 5.1: Treant Form now combustible
Apparently, we haven't seen the last of self-immolating lumber. Back in Firelands, the Moonkin 2-piece bonus allowed you to summon Burning Treants to attack your foes. Blizzard wasn't content with that, however, and took the next step: As of patch 5.1, treant form can now catch on fire. Yes, fire. As discovered by Sunfyre of Sunfyre's Nest, simply activate Treant Form and gain the Cozy Fire buff from a basic campfire to see the theatrics. Have fun igniting your druids! (Sadly, paladins remain incombustible.) And, above all else, remember this: we didn't start the fire. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
The Daily Quest: Feeling safe and warm
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. For many realms, Ruby Sanctum is up and running, and Halion's being smacked around by countless guilds (check out our Halion guide to learn how your guild can smack him around, too). With Ruby Sanctum as the last raid before the release of Cataclysm, players are still looking forward to the Cataclysm beta. With the beta now up and running, players are subject to piles of false email and announcements from people trying to steal valuable account information. With all these scammers trying to worm their way into player's accounts, how about we take a visit to that ever-pertinent blogging topic, account security? Letters from Birdfall has some wise words about security programs and what you can do to avoid the dangers of keylogging. Slice and Dice talks about safeguarding your guild bank. Flame Shock talks about phishing emails, what to look for and how not to write them. Now that we're feeling a little more secure, let's visit Oddcraft and get warm and cozy with a statement from A Basic Campfire.
Breakfast topic: Stat and system changes for Basic Campfire
Recently, Blizzard has been supplying us with a lot of information for their plans in Cataclysm. So far we've learned about changes to the stat systems, as well as talent trees. Everything announced so far will be incredibly far reaching, and affect many aspects of the game, including some that have been hanging around since vanilla. In an effort to keep our loyal readers informed, WoW.com has been doing its best to cover every inch of blue text we find. It came to our attention that we had overlooked one important change when we discussed the effects of stat and system changes in Cataclysm the other week. So, without further ado, this morning I will be explaining how the ability Basic Campfire is affected by the upcoming expansion.
Breakfast Topic: The future of the Horde
One of the things that's continually surprised me since news broke on the likely changes to the Horde's leadership is how many otherwise die-hard Horde players have considered going Alliance. Yeah, yeah, most of it's probably idle threats anyway, but the real issue is one that's simmered for the length of Wrath's storyline. Lots of traditional Horde players are happy to fight under Thrall. Lots of traditional Horde players are...not so happy to fight under someone else. The issue seems to be the growing rift between players and Horde leadership in Northrend, and the degree to which many of us can't identify with the sub-faction that eventually hijacks the Horde storyline. I burned Saurfang's letter as he asked. I nodded alongside Golluk Rockfist as he told Horde players, "You are leaving to the Ruby Dragonshrine. This is not a request." I sat with Thrall in his darkest moments in the Undercity throne room, when he realized that everything was lost. By contrast, I /facepalmed my way through Icecrown. Spoiler material past the break.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2.2 madness
The shining feature of patch 3.2.2 will be Onyxia's return, and of course, the already infamous Ony mount, but there are some profession changes coming too. As always, they can be found in the latest patch notes, although you'll have to scroll past the Brood Mother to find them. This week's Insider Trader will analyze these changes and tell you what they mean for you.
Simple Wood no longer needed to make campfires
This is quite possibly the most game altering change Blizzard has implemented in WoW thus far: Building a Basic Campfire no longer needs Simple Wood, only Flint and Tinder or a Gnomish Army Knife. This is right up there with stackable clams! Personally, my mind is blown.Okay, let's be serious, this is actually a fairly decent (and convenient) change. Is it absolutely needed? No, not at all, but how many of us carried around Simple Wood and Flint and Tinder at all times? Who took those things to raids with them? Very few people, if anybody at all. And I can recall tons of times that people have rushed to a raid just after getting home from work and had forgotten to cook up their consumables. These fires would've been legitimately useful right then, but the small annoyance of carrying stacks of Wood around made it pretty unlikely that anybody had them. Nowadays, I think just about everyone carries a Gnomish Army Knife (and they should if they don't), so this is actually very convenient! You don't need to carry anything extra at all.
All fires are not the same
I've noticed lately while running around and doing my daily cooking quest that some flames are not the same as others. This seems rather silly to me. After all, a flame is a flame, right?For those of you that don't cook in WoW, I'll fill you in. You need to find a cooking fire every time you want to cook something. Everyone has the ability to make a simple fire, but this requires reagents, and is not something that people normally waste space on. So instead of making your own fire, you can find a premade fire, stove, kettle, etc... and cook your food there. These heat sources are spread out all over major cities and out in the wild.But, there are oddities. For example, take these two kettles - which are the exact same model.
