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Reminder: It came from the Blog server maintenance party tonight
Is your server down today? Join us tonight for the Server Maintenance Party! We will be stealing the fires in the Alliance capitals for Midsummer Fire Festival. This will be an all-levels event, so don't worry if you don't have a character already in <It came from the Blog>. Here are the particulars: When: Tuesday, June 29 at 10:15 p.m. EDT (7:15 p.m. PDT, 8:15 p.m. realm time) Where: Meet at Splintertree Post in Ashenvale on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) Who: Your highest Horde character, even if that means level 1 What: Hopefully, a Thief's Reward hat for all How: Ask Robinator or any <It came from the Blog> guildie to join the guild; ranks of Lurker or higher can invite. Get to Splintertree Post by 10:15 p.m. so you will be ready to leave right at 10:30 p.m. Summons are for sissies, so log on early to make sure you're there on time. Expect to die many deaths. Expect to not be rezzed. Expect to pick up your bod and catch up. Expect to have to run a lot. Expect it all to be fun anyway. If you are unable to make it, but would like to watch it streaming and listen to me be chatty, we've embedded the stream along with the chat after the break. If you will be joining us, there are also tips after the break and you may want to listen to at least the audio stream.
Breakfast Topic: How are you spending the last few days of the Midsummer Fire Festival?
The Midsummer Fire Festival officially ends on July 5th, just a few scant days away. That means no more Lord Ahune, no more chances to get the Deathfrost enchant, no more desecration, no more turning into a crab, no more Torch Tossing... Yeah, I'm a little bummed too. Still, we have a couple days left to make the best of it. Of course, the question is -- what exactly do we do with it? Myself, I'm torn. My enchanter still needs the Deathfrost enchant, so I may want to get a group together and go slay Ahune a few more times. Then again, I still haven't gotten some of the Midsummer loot on a couple of my 70s, so maybe I want to make a push to get the last few blossoms for those. But I'm also thinking that it would be nice to get my shaman to level 30 before Patch 2.4.3, and thus I'm tempted to just go out and slog through the last few levels with her, bolstered by the all the various Fire Festival buffs and the Ribbon Dance buff. I'll have to think about it some more, but in the meantime, do you have a plan for these last few days of the Midsummer Fire Festival? %Gallery-25803% The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
WoW, Casually: A casual Midsummer
Each week or so, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.If you haven't bought into the whole Midsummer hype yet, allow me to try to convince you. This year's Midsummer Fire Festival is possibly the most casual-friendly WoW event. Still you may ask, to paraphrase a guildie, "What's so great except for a useless pet?" This holiday is not about the loot.Sure, I got myself a Brazier of Dancing Flames, but I had the blossoms burning a hole in my pocket anyway, so why not? Midsummer is really about every other reason we play the game: progressing our characters, seeing the world, supporting our faction and, most importantly, fun.
Midsummer fire festival sparks world PvP
When I read through the forums, I see numerous threads lamenting over the lack of world PvP. The Burning Crusade added a handful of PvP objectives that often go unnoticed and the towers in the Eastern Plaguelands seem pretty lonely since everyone moved on to Outland. Since the beginning of the Midsummer Fire Festival I've seen at least a temporary resurgence in actual PvP. Of course the ganking is still going on, but I've seen many more fair fights.The way it works is you try to keep your own fires burning while putting the flames of your opponents out. I've seen numerous mini raids on major cities and massive skirmishes near the small-town fires. Like many players, I've got to give props to Blizzard for adding this mechanic to the festival. The buffs are pretty awesome too. I've enjoyed this celebration more than any WoW holiday in the past. Have you been joining in the desecrating fun? Remember to check out the "It Came From the Blog" event this Sunday, June 29 at 7Pm Eastern.
Midsummer Festival Quest - Shards of Ahune
We love to give here at WoW Insider. We're just givers. We provided a guide to the Midsummer Fire Festival, including a level guide, instructions on how to steal the opposite faction's fire, a walkthrough and a loot table for conquering Lord Ahune, and a guide to most of the other festival quests. Now we present a quick guide to getting your very own Tabard of Summer by completing the Shards of Ahune quest.After you've taken down Lord Ahune in the Slave Pens, loot the Ice Chest he drops. If you get an item called Shards of Alune, you can right-click it to start the quest. Um, then the rest is ever so tough. You just trot yourself over to Luma Skymother, a female Tauren in the Slave Pens and complete the quest with her. She'll give you 20 Burning Blossoms and your choice of tabards -- either with Flames or Skies. Note that you need to be at least Level 66 to obtain and complete this quest.That's all there is to it! Well, except for making it through the Slave Pens alive and defeating Lord Ahune and some junk. But hey, who knows, maybe when you get yours, it will show this elusive mystery tooltip when you inspect it. A prize inside, just like Cracker Jacks!
Midsummer Fun: The Midsummer Merchant
So by now, you've done some of the Midsummer quests, desecrated a few flames, and you have a bunch of Burning Blossoms burning a hole in your pocket. The question now is: What are you going to do with all of those? Sure, you can throw them in the nearest Festival Bonfire for the sweet buffs, but you can also spend them at the Midsummer Merchants and Midsummer Suppliers located next to every Capital City's fire. After the break, we'll look at exactly what you can buy and what they do.
Around Azeroth: Summerfest, and the living is easy
Well, except for those torch quests, which seem to be tripping a lot of people up. Like any good summertime tourist, Stryper of <Destruction> on Moonrunner always brings his camera with him. This time, he's caught a Festival Scorchling outside of Booty Bay as he begins to change form into Ragnaros. Unfortunately, in the rigidly class-based society of WoW villains, the Scorchling has no hope of advancing his station in life. And Ragnaros has got to be super-powerful by now -- after all, how long has it been since any adventurers have killed him?Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. And please, no sunsets or terrible-looking Mike Myers movies. What is this, 1997?%Gallery-1816%
Breakfast Topic: The Midsummer Fire Festival so far
So by now, hopefully a lot of you have had time to check out some of the new stuff that's shown up at the Midsummer Fire Festival this year. With the help of our walkthroughs, it's a piece of cake to get right into the thick of things. My impressions so far have been pretty favorable. I very much enjoyed being a crab (and asking everybody for "maybe little pinch"), and while it took me a while to master Torch Catching (It became easier once I turned spell effects up to high so I could see the shadow of the torch on the ground), I've gotten pretty good at that already. If there's one thing I'd complain about a little, it's probably the fact everything seems a bit expensive. With 3 level 70s and a couple level 60+ types who might like Braziers, Robes, and Sandals, it'll be a bit of a pain to get all the stuff for them, and it should take quite a few hours to desecrate or honor enough fires for all that. Still, at least you get good gold for all that desecrating, so it's not a complete waste. How's your experience been so far? Is Torch Catching a challenge? Are you a thief yet? What about Lord Ahune, have you seen him fall yet? Share your experiences in the comments. Keep watching WoW Insider while you're at it. We're hard at work writing more guides that will tell you everything you need to know about Lord Ahune and the rest of the Midsummer Fire Festival, and they should appear on the site today and tomorrow. The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Midsummer Fun: Incense for the Summer Scorchlings
Incense for the Summer Scorchlings' Horde equivalent is Incense for the Festival Scorchlings. I arbitrarily decided Summer sounds better than Festival, so that is what I've used as this guide's title.This quest is about as straightforward as quests can get. The first step is to head over to a capital city that belongs to your faction, and find the Festival Talespinner (Horde) or the Festival Loremaster (Alliance). You are informed that there are emissaries of the elemental plane, spirits of fire, near each of the bonfires around the world. If you wish, you can take some Summer Incense to one of these emissaries to honor them.There are bonfires in just about every zone in Azeroth, including the newbie zones near whichever capital you've found yourself in. However, before you run out and finish this quest there, you might want to pick up your other Midsummer quests first and plot a more efficient route. You can probably hit a bonfire while you're passing through another zone for a separate quest. In this case, your best choice may be to do it in Ashenvale while completing Unusual Activity. Be careful on PvP servers, as many of these bonfires will be a warzone since there are prizes to be gained for desecrating the other faction's flames.Once you've spoken to the Scorchling and given him your incense, you'll be treated to a fun little scene and, of course, your reward: A single Burning Blossom.
Midsummer Fun: Torch Catching
Torch Catching is the quest that becomes available to you once you've completed Torch Tossing. You can get it in the same place as the quest that came before it, in any capital city of your faction. This quest can seem really hard at first, but there's a trick to it. You should try the quest on your own at least once before reading the trick and see if you can figure it out yourself.After mastering the art of Torch Tossing, the Master Fire Eater has a new challenge for you: Catch Torches! He supplies you with some Unlit Torches to use in your attempts to master this skill. These torches can only be lit with the bonfires in the capital cities, so don't stray too far from the capitals before you attempt this quest. Near the bonfire, right click on your torches (or push your hotkey if you chose to hotkey them, which is unnecessary for this one) and you will light one, and throw it high into the air. Your goal is to catch the torch when it comes back down. If you catch it, it will be tossed back into the air immediately, so be ready to catch it again! It doesn't go straight up and down, so be ready to move around a lot. Your goal for this quest is to catch it four times in a row without missing. If you miss it, prepare to face the Flames of Shame! Also, the flames of holy-crap-I'm-on-fire. If you miss just one, you'll need to start over from the beginning until you get all four.Completing this quest rewards you with five Juggling Torches and five Burning Blossoms. Additionally, completing this quest will open up Daily versions of Torch Tossing and Torch Catching, appropriately named More Torch Tossing and More Torch Catching. The only differences between the original versions and the daily versions is their requirements are more difficult. Hit 20 braziers instead of 8 for the former, and catch 10 torches rather than 4 for the latter.Now, do you wanna know the trick to completing this quest? Don't try to look up at your torch to follow it. Zoom your camera out and look down at the ground. Follow your torch's shadow, and try to stay a step or two ahead of it. This works best when there aren't a few dozen other people trying to do the quest at the same time. If one city is too crowded, hearth back to Shattrath and try somewhere else. Ironforge and Orgrimmar are likely to be packed full, so try Silvermoon City or Exodar instead.
Midsummer Fun: Unusual Activity
Not all is fun and games at the Midsummer Fire Festival this year. A number of concerned members of the Earthen Ring are looking to the Horde and the Alliance to look into some suspicious activity. It seems that the Twilight's Hammer have moved into a new location in the Zoram Strand of Ashenvale, and considering the Festival's origin lies with the Old Gods, the very beings the Hammer serves... well, it's worth looking into, isn't it?The first step of the quest is very basic. Go to the Zoram Strand, stab members of the cult until they drop something noteworthy. It seems to have a rather high droprate, so don't worry too much. Once you've read the note (and I'll trust you read it so you don't need to reread it here) dig in your bags for the Totemic Beacon you were supplied with, and put it to good use. The neighborhood puppy will run up to have a chat, he'll hand over some Burning Blossoms and we move on to the next step.In my opinion, this next step is one of the coolest things we've seen in a quest recently. Not only do you get an awesome disguise, but you're also in for a pretty sweet resolution to a loose storyline in The Burning Crusade. Before we get ahead of ourselves, head north. You don't need to use that Orb of the Crawler you were just give yet, but you can. If you're a high enough level to have a mount, you can ride toward the northern camp much faster and use the orb when you're there. However, you only get this thing for so long, so I crabbed it up the whole way up the shoreline.The camp you're looking for is at the very edge of the northern beach, where the Strand bends toward the ocean. By the time you see it, you'll nearly be in Darkshore. Refresh the duration on your crab disguise, and approach Ice Caller Briatha and the Naga up ahead. Yes, you saw that right. Naga! Naga Heretics at that. What's the significance of that, you ask? If you have a level 70, you probably understand the conversation between the Naga and the Cultist pretty well. This is the conclusion of Skar'this the Heretic's story, and we finally learn his purpose. They're preparing to summon Ahune the Frost Lord, servant of Neptulon, in the Coilfang Reservoir. From there, they'll usher him into Azeroth to battle Ragnaros and bring about an elemental apocalypse. I thought we killed Ragnaros a few years ago, but hey, what do I know?After returning to your capital city of choice and talking to the Earth Ring Elder, two new opportunities open up for you. The first is a quest called Striking Back. Wowhead lists multiple versions of this quest for various level ranges, but I've so far only been able to access the level 67+ version. All of them look roughly the same, so the strategy I am about to supply you with probably applies to them all.Travel to your destination. In our case, it's Hellfire Peninsula. When you're looking at the Dark Portal, the Twilight's Hammer camp is directly to the left, behind the Legion forces. Walk up to one of the bright blue obelisks, click, and summon one of Ahune's minions. The strategy is thusly: HIt it until it dies, then turn in your quest. It is very, very weak for a giant elemental. This becomes a Daily Quest once you've completed it the first time, and the reward is 10 Burning Blossoms and 7 gold, 83 silver.Your other newly available quest, Ahune, the Frost Lord, is fairly straightforward as to what you need to do until you meet Ahune himself. Go to the Slave Pens, talk to who you need to talk to, and follow the instructions. The strategy for Lord Ahune is quite a bit more involved than that of his underlings. Unfortunately, that will have to wait until another time. Until then, goodbye and good luck!
Midsummer Fun: Torch Tossing
If you've been in Shattrath or one of your faction's capital cities, you've likely been directed to the Master Fire Eater by one NPC or another to learn something from him. When you meet the fellow, he decides you need some practice and a bit of a test before you become a Master Juggler yourself!Torch Tossing is his first test out of two. It is far, far easier than the one that follows it, so don't get cocky if you dominate this one! If you look around the area where you find this quest, you will probably see a set of braziers forming a W shape. These will be your targets. Your ammunition will be a set of Practice Torches. Keep in mind that as soon as you accept the quest, your timer will begin. Before you accept, try to get your camera and yourself pointed in the right direction, and stay near the bonfire or you won't be able to toss your torches.A Hunter's Mark-esque arrow will appear above one brazier at a time. That's the brazier that you should be aiming for, and every few seconds this mark will move to a new one. Use your torches, target that brazier with the targeting circle, and throw! The targeting circle is small and might take some getting used to, so don't worry if you fail the first (or even the second) time. Another really good tip is to hotkey these torches; place them on your action bar. Being able to push 2 and target the brazier is much easier than clicking on the torches each time. It'll save you precious seconds needed to complete this quest in the allotted time frame.You only need to hit 8 braziers, so if you've hit a good rhythm, you've probably sealed a safe victory. The reward for your excellent tossing ability is five Burning Blossoms and access to your next test.
Midsummer Fun: A Thief's Reward
While not the fastest way to earn Burning Blossoms, stealing the opposing faction's flames is the most fun way to do it, I think. How do you steal the enemy's flame, you ask? Easy! Run into the heart of their capital city and click on their bonfire. Okay, maybe that isn't very easy, but knowing where you should be going makes it less difficult, at least.To acquire to flames, simply run up to the bonfire and click on it like you would a chest or similar item. Once the casting bar has completed, the fire will be placed in your inventory automatically. Right click on that item to begin a quest, one quest for each fire. Unfortunately, these quests require level 50 to begin.Alliance Flames Exodar - The Exodar Flame is one of the more hidden simply due to the town's layout, but you'll run into the least amount of player resistance here. You'll find the Flame of Exodar in the back of The Crystal Hall, the northmost wing of the city's three wings. Darnassus - You will run into a little more Alliance opposition here than in Exodar, since Alliance players generally pass through here to begin the Unusual Activity chain. Luckily, you don't even need to enter Darnassus itself to reach the flame. It is in Rut'Theran Village, a few steps away from the dock to/from Auberdine. Ironforge - This is where you'll see the most Alliance interference, most likely. The flame is in the Hall of Explorers, far in the back of the city. If you want to avoid going through the front door and getting slammed by all of the players auctioning and banking at the front of the city, I recommend doing the Stormwind flame first and using the Deeprun Tram since it will take you pretty close to the Hall of Explorers. If Stormwind is highly populated on your server, you may want to do it the other way around. Stormwind - This city has become fairly popular since The Burning Crusade, so this might challenge you more than Ironforge depending on your server. The Stormwind flame is just next to the Stockade. If you don't know where the Stockade is, go west from the Trade District and across the first bridge you see. If you look north along the Canals, you'll see the Stockade Meeting Stone. Run towards that, and the flame will be on your left. If you need to make a quick getaway or drop some heat from guard aggro, pop in there for a minute or two and people will forget all about you. Horde Flames Silvermoon City - If you play on an RP server, you'll probably run into a fair amount of opposition in this city. If you play on a PvP server, you'll probably skirt by without much issue. The Silvermoon flame is right on the edge of the Court of the Sun, just after you exit Murder Row. Murder Row has a distinct lack of guards, so if you need to drop some aggro, flailing wildly in this section is a good way to make the guards give up and go away. Oh, and if you play a gnome, you can hide from players under the lilypads in the fountain. I'm serious. It works. Undercity - This is one of the more populated cities, but that's balanced out by the fact that it has the most exposed flame of them all. Ride straight in the front door, enter the courtyard, and it's on your left. Easy enough. Orgrimmar - The flame is pretty close to Thrall's chambers in the Vallery of Wisdom, just a few steps away from the corpse of Mannoroth. There will be a lot of player interference in this area, but you can dodge and/or leash most of the guards if you enter the city from the side entrance and sneak along the back of the city. If you need to make a quick escape, dip down into the Cleft of Shadow and spend a few minutes inside Ragefire Chasm, just as Horde players can do with the Stockade. Thunder Bluff - Your mileage may vary as far as the opposition you run into. I got in and out pretty clean, but this city's population varies wildly per server. The flame can be found on The Spirit Rise. The easiest route is to simply take the elevator up, ride straight to the bridge across, and then go straight for the flame. The guards from the main area of the city will leash on the bridge, and you likely won't pull more than one or two guards on your way to the flame. What does stealing these flames get you? Well, each of them gives a guaranteed 25 Burning Blossoms, for a total of 100 if you gather all four flames. In addition, each of them allows you to pick one of the following: 5 Elderberry Pies, 5 Midsummer Sausages, 5 Fire-toasted Buns, 5 Toasted Smorcs, 10 Fiery Festival Brew, or 10 Handfuls of Summer Petals. Level 70s also receive 9 gold, 10 silver per quest. If all you want from the festival are those minor goodies, completing these can actually save you a fair amount of Blossoms. If you're after things like the dress or the vanity pet, it's not as good of a deal on the currency front.So, what happens if you turn in all four of the flames? Well, I'm glad you asked! That is where the quest A Thief's Reward comes in. You turn the flames in at any of your own capital cities, and those same people will over this to you when they've gotten all four. 5 gold, 10 silver, and the Crown of the Fire Festival is your prize for all of your hard work. Blizzard really enjoys making hats hard to get, don't they?
Midsummer Fire Festival quest guides
As I am sure you all know by now, whether it be through WoW Insider or logging into the game and seeing it firsthand, the Midsummer Fire Festival went live this morning (June 21st) and will remain so until July 4th. The holiday has received a full revamp since last year, and has quite a few new rewards and quests. Some of those rewards have pretty hefty prices attached to them in the form of Burning Blossoms, and are a little intimidating. I sat down early this morning to figure out how many Blossoms I needed for what I wanted on just my main, and the total came to just slightly over 1,100. Ouch! Surprisingly, it isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. A simple tour of Azeroth can net you hundreds of Blossoms, and the Festival offers many other options, too. If you're looking for a little help or guidance in your quest for holiday treats, WoW Insider is here for you! Click the links below to hop over to our Midsummer Fire Festival quest guides. Where to begin - Just starting your Midsummer adventures? Find out where the quests are to be found! A Thief's Reward - Sneak into enemy territory, be handsomely rewarded. Desecrating the Flames - Sneak near enemy territory, be handsomely rewarded. Includes a list of all of the fires in Azeroth and Outland. Incense for the Summer Scorchlings - Take a moment out of your day to honor the spirits of summer. Torch Tossing - Your first step toward becoming a master fire juggler! Torch Catching - Your second and final step toward becoming a master fire juggler. Unusual Activity - The Twilight's Hammer is up to something, but what? Epic revelations (and loot) await you! Bonfire buffs - Honoring the flames before you go out to level or grind can bring some pretty nice rewards. Ribbon dancing - Not level 70 yet? Find out how engaging in a bit of Midsummer revelry can change that for you. The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
Midsummer Fun: Desecrating the Flames
The quickest, easiest way to make gold and Burning Blossoms in the Midsummer Fire Festival is to tour the worlds, stopping at each of the flames and bonfires, both Horde and Alliance. There are many of these locations, both on Azeroth and Draenor. Honoring a flame of the same faction nets you 5 gold, 95 silver, and 5 Burning Blossoms. Desecrating and extinguishing the opposing faction's bonfires earns you 11 gold, 99 silver, and 10 Burning Blossoms.Be warned, desecrating a bonfire flags you for PvP, if you are not on a PvP server. Both on PvP and PvE realms, expect many of these sites to turn into warzones. You can expect the worst of this action to be near the neutral Goblin towns such as Booty Bay and Gadgetzan. The flames are practically right next to eachother, so battles for dominance are inevitable.Scouring the entirety of Azeroth and Outland for these flames can be a bit of a task, so we did it for you! A list of all of the bonfire locations are below, with the settlement they are closest to listed. They are all more or less in the direct vicinity of the Horde, Alliance, or Neutral town mentioned.The easiest way to complete this is to start at one end of the continent, either far north or far south, and work your way up/down zone by zone. While you're doing this, you can also pop into the various opposing enemy cities to begin A Thief's Reward.Horde Fires Stonebreaker Hold, Terokkar Forest Shadowmoon Village, Shadowmoon Valley Garadar, Nagrand Zabra'jin, Zangarmarsh Thunderlord Stronghold, Blade's Edge Mountains Thrallmar, Hellfire Peninsula Stonard, Swamp of Sorrows Flame Crest, Burning Steppes Kargath, Badlands Hammerfall, Arathi Highlands Tarren Mill, Hillsbrad Revantusk Village, Hinterlands Sepulcher, Silverpine Forest Brill, Tirisfal Glades Tranquillien, Ghostlands Falconwing Square, Eversong Woods Razor Hill, Durotar The Crossroads, The Barrens Sun Rock Retreat, Stonetalon Mountains Shadowprey Village, Desolace Splintertree Outpost, Ashenvale Brackenwall Village, Dustwallow Marsh Bloodhoof Village, Mulgore Freewind Post, Thousand Needles Camp Mojache, Feralas Alliance Fires Allerian Stronghold, Terokkar Forest Wildhammer Stronghold, Shadowmoon Valley Telaar, Nagrand Telredor, Zangarmarsh Sylvanaar, Blade's Edge Mountains Honor Hold, Hellfire Peninsula Nethergarde Keep, Blasted Lands Darkshire, Duskwood Sentinel Hill, Westfall Goldshire, Elwynn Forest Lakeshire, Redridge Morgan's Vigil, Burning Steppes Thelsamar, Loch Modan Kharanos, Dun Morogh Menethil Harbor, Wetlands Refuge Pointe, Arathi Highlands Southshore, Hillsbrad Aerie Peak, Hinterlands Chillwind Camp, West Plaguelands Nijel's Point, Desolace Astranaar, Ashenvale Auberdine, Darkshore Dolanaar, Teldrassil Azure Watch, Azuremyst Blood Watch, Bloodmyst Theramore Isle, Dustwallow Marsh Feathermoon Stronghold, Feralas Neutral Towns with Alliance and Horde Fires Area 52, Netherstorm Everlook, Winterspring Booty Bay, Stranglethorn Vale Cenarion Hold, Silithus Gadgetzan, Tanaris In addition to the material bonus that comes with desecrating the opposing faction's flames, don't forget that you have good reason to keep your own faction's flames burning! Keeping that flame alive provides a really nice buff that you ought to take advantage of, or at least help your fellow member of the Horde/Alliance by preserving that buff for them. Is it worth fighting tooth and nail for? That's up to you to decide!Update: Reader Elory has made a checklist using this information and some additional information provided by our other readers. It's formatted for easy printing, and you can check off the ones you've already done as you go. Thanks, Elory!
Midsummer Fun: Ribbon dancing
We've already covered the buffs you can get from the bonfires scattered around Azeroth during the Midsummer Fire Festival, but how about trying a little pole dancing too before you head out? You may remember the Ribbon Poles from past years' Midsummer Fire Festivals. They're still there, and you can still "dance" at them by right clicking on the pole. However, instead of the +30 fire resistance buff of previous years, you'll get a new Ribbon Dance buff that will give you an extra 10% experience bonus from killing monsters. It starts at only a 3 minute duration, but if you dance longer, the duration of the buff will gradually rise to 60 minutes. If you're under level 70, it's well worth the trouble, especially if you combine it with the new buffs from the bonfires. The bonfire buffs will help you kill mobs faster, and the Ribbon Dance buff will get you more experience for each kill. Like I said before, I'm suddenly not sure if I should be saving up Burning Blossoms to buy new treats with my level 70s, or just using all these amazing buffs to level my alts. I may just have to set aside enough time to do both.
Midsummer Fun: The bonfire buffs
When headed out to level, farm, or grind during the Midsummer Fire Festival this year, be sure to head to the zone's bonfire for your side (there's one outside of almost every Horde or Alliance settlement) and throw in a blossom. You'll be glad you did, no matter what your level. You'll get one buff right off the bat: The Fire Festival Fury buff. This 60 minute buff will not only give you a straight 3% to your critical strike chance, but you'll also get a damage shield that will do fire damage equal to your level to all who attack you. That's right, Thorns, eat your heart out. But what's even better is that it doesn't stop there.
