chests
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Guide to every chest on the Timeless Isle
Among the rares and elites and world PvP and cute quests involving Blizzard community managers, the Timeless Isle is littered with chests. And, opening these chests is one of the easiest ways to rack up a collection of Timeless Coins, tokens, burdens and other loot. In order to make this easier for every one, Simca over on the MMO-Champion forums has put together a truly excellent guide to navigating your way through the island's chests in the most efficient way possible. Simca's first step is to split the chests into ranks according to their loot, so a higher number denotes better loot. This applies to both the number of coins found inside them and the likelihood of finding tokens, or indeed the number of tokens you're likely to find. It will come as no surprise that the higher numbered chests are often in areas filled with mobs that aren't easy to bypass or kill -- you have to work for it! Simca also includes weekly chests, symbolized by the Ws on the map. But that's not all, a map is useful, but Simca's guide offers far more. Simca has created a set of Tom-Tom macros for each level of chest. These will navigate you from chest to chest, so you won't even need to open a map! Simply install TomTom, and follow Simca's instructions, and you'll be reaping the rewards in no time.
Recent hotfixes: goodbye, BC dungeon chests
Although it's no longer the first week after patch 3.1, when Ulduar nerfs and other hotfixes were coming almost as fast as we could post them, Blizzard is still fixing up the details here and there. Over the past week, a few hotfixes have gone in. Fortunately, as they have been doing recently, Blizzard has posted a nice list of what those changes are. It's nothing too earth-shattering, as far as I can make out. Some creatures associated with the Yogg Saron fight should load faster. A few items have had their stats buffed (Earthshaper, Valorous Siegebreaker Shoulderplates, and Conqueror's Siegebreaker Shoulderplates), while Leviathan's Coil had its armor cut roughly in half. Clever DKs can no longer cut their RP costs with items meant to cut mana costs, and a bug involving Leviathan MK II's Self Repair on Mimiron was fixed. Most recently, along with warrior buff shouts being made free again (as they should be) during preparation in arenas, Blizzard has seen the need to remove all non-boss chests in BC dungeons. They say this is "to resolve an exploit;" I assume it has something to do with people being able to farm chests too easily. It is disappointing when fixes like this happen. On the one hand, it's "only" BC content, and chests aren't going to make or break a dungeon. On the other hand, those dungeons are deserted and useless enough as it is, and Blizzard keeps telling us they think there is still entertainment value in the old zones. Hopefully they get the chests fixed up eventually,
The Queue: Finding treasure where there's no treasure to be found
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.Another day, another Queue. Forgive the awful quality of the screenshot above, I tried to show off Malygos' righteous beard but the guy doesn't sit still, even if you ask him nicely. He's a crabby son of a lich sometimes. Well, let's forget about him and dig into today's questions. As always, if you have a question for The Queue, leave it in the comments section below and we'll get to it in a future edition. Magebleck asked... As a mage, my main weapon is almost always a Staff with some good stats to it. Since Wrath of the Lich King has come out I have read several places that there are now some really well speced staffs that are "Bind to Account", such as the Dignified Headmaster's Charge and the Grand Staff of Jordan. I understand that their stats scale with level, but how does one go about aquiering these new "BtA" items?
Final Fantasy XI December update preview
December is getting closer and with it comes the Final Fantasy XI December version update. Square Enix has posted a preview of some of the changes coming, most of which are aimed at improving player quality of life. Chariot, Empress and Emperor Bands will now have new recharge NPCs in locations that have recently become more traveled by players. Also, teleportation to Aht Urhgan Whitegate will be available via the Salaheem's Sentinels representative NPC in Upper Jeuno, which is something that's previously only been made available in the three nations' capitols. Finally, the December version update will cut down the respawn time for coffers and chests for those searching for artifacts and maps.Essentially all of these changes are aimed at making players' lives easier and generally less frustrating. This seems to have been the recent trend for Final Fantasy XI, which has long-since been known as one of the most unforgiving MMOs around in terms of difficulty. So, we're happy to see these sorts of changes coming from the dev team.
Encrypted Text: Lockpicking 101
One of the things that I seem to be asked most often from many different up-and-coming Rogues is for basic information and tips on lockpicking. Now while I'll admit, I haven't ever personally run the Alliance version of the lockpicking quest, there is some common information between the different factions that will prove useful to Rogues of all flavors. In this week's edition, I'll be going over some lockpicking basics. For those of you who are higher up, I'll also include a special tip to make some extra cash just before you need to buy your epic land mount and head into Outland. (Or for those of you who like to farm old content for cash and prizes, but may not have known about this.)When it comes to learning the fine art of pilfering goodies from locked boxes, there is only the basic quest that will teach you the skill. Unlike other "gathering" type skills that you can pick up in game, there are no higher lockpicking trainers that you check in with to learn more down the road. Instead, you will gain 5 points of potential ability towards your lockpicking skill per every level that you gain. Both Alliance and Horde get their lockpicking quests at level 16, with a pile of Lockpicking points already available for the growing Rogue to skill up on. (Your maximum lockpicking skill can be figured by multiplying your Current Level by 5.)
Paying it forward in PUGs
How much, asks Tobold, do you owe a pickup group? He uses the example of Seaforium charges on locked chests-- they can "cost" up to 5g in mats, so is that too much for the engineer to contribute to a group of people he basically doesn't know? Potions are the other big question, but I'd expand it to include everything you bring to a pickup group: just how many times do you need to wipe in a pickup group before you're free to ditch them and move on?I happen to be pretty much like Tobold. I'm not rich in the game or anything, but the money doesn't mean much to me (this is, after all, a videogame), so I'm more than willing to pass out potions at bosses, or stick with a PUG until my gear is red. I guess there are some things I wouldn't spend on a pickup group-- repair bots are just too expensive to use among people you don't know, and while I'm often willing to give lower level enchants away, the higher level enchants I usually save until there's a guildie around that I know can and will use it.Tobold says, rightly, that groups are "worth" much less in WoW than earlier MMOs-- because you literally can solo all the way to 70, a lot of bad groups can be avoided, whereas in older games, you had to suffer through a lot of bad groups just to level, because there was no other way. But of course it is still just a game-- a good social experience is worth way more than a potion or two, and you never know if the Warrior you give an Onslaught Elixir to today might end up being your main tank tomorrow.
