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Arcane Brilliance: What to do with your level 90 mage
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we've hit level 90. We've stood up, stretched, rubbed the mucus out of our eyes, apologized to our wives, kids, pets, plants, and anyone else we have been neglecting, and gone outside to remember what outside looks like. Then we've promptly gone back inside because outside is way more attractive in Pandaria. So what now? You're a level 90 mage. Worn and scarred from your battle with Deathwing, you wandered into this new continent, leaning heavily upon your staff, beaten but not bowed. The beauty you found here inspired you; dense bamboo forests shrouded in mystery, jade mountains capped with white, ornate temples steeped in ancient wisdom. You felt the call of the unexplored sink its hooks into your weary flesh, fill you with renewed purpose, prod your aching bones forward into new adventure and fresh conflict. And now you find yourself invigorated with new power. You've gained experience and wisdom, learned new spells and ancient magic--all things you thought impossible only weeks ago. But now that you've reached the peak of your wizardry once more, the 90th level, still you crave more. You wish to increase your power, obtain rare and deadly weaponry, and yes, murder more warlocks. Seriously, screw those guys.
Totem Talk: Pre-raid gearing tips for elemental shaman
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Get some Fulmination with your Lightning Bolts! Sort the shocks from the flames with Totem Talk: Elemental, brought to you by Sarah Nichol, otherwise known as Pewter from The 'mental Shaman and the Obscurecast podcast and founding member of TotemSpot. This holiday period has been a mixed one for me. Power-leveling my shaman's inscription was a rousing success, and I put it down to all the mince pies consumed at the time. A delectable roast turkey lunch was followed by opening my Winter's Veil presents. There was snow on the ground, there was an open fire in the hearth. There was a Queen's Speech that should have inspired me to yammer on about how important team spirit and cooperation are to the shaman class. Instead, I borrowed my mother's laptop to have a poke at pre-raid gear. Then I went to put the laptop away and, after a week of moving house, managed to do something rather nasty to my back. Ouch. Not to worry, there's nothing like a bit of Cataclysm to take your mind off the pain. In Cataclysm, the process of gearing is much more intuitive than ever before. We no longer have to nab cloth or leather items to fill in the holes in our gearing. Look for as much intellect as possible, spirit or hit as appropriate, and then lean slightly toward all the haste gear you can find, filling in as necessary with mastery items. Don't worry about crit; it happens. Blizzard has done a good job of allowing players to obtain decent gear through a variety of avenues, and as a result, a lot of the RNG has been removed from the gearing process. I did not make this to be a best-in-slot list, as I prefer to look at items available in terms of practicalities. Finally, you'll note an absence of PvP items from this list. There is a lovely amount of intellect on PvP gear, so in the short term, it can be worth using some PvP items. However, resilience represents a lot of wasted item budget and is not the best choice in the long term.
Cataclysm rewards low-level faction loyalty with cloaks, bags
While stomping around your home city in Cataclysm, you might notice a new quartermaster NPC hanging around the travel area. He or she stocks a total of five items (at least so far), shown above: a high-resolution city tabard that requires friendly standing with that city; a reasonably-priced 16-slot bag (unique) requiring revered standing to purchase; and level 35 blue cloaks (also in gorgeous high resolution) in caster, agility and strength varieties, requiring exalted standing. What's interesting about the required reputation on these items is how they relate to the leveling process. If you choose to stay on your "main" continent -- Kalimdor for night elves, for example, or Eastern Kingdoms for Forsaken -- then your reputation will hit the proper level just as these items become useful. The tabard can be picked up at any time, since almost every race starts at friendly standing with its faction's cities. The bag, on the other hand, shows up at a point in the leveling process when a new player (or fresh reroll on a new server/faction) is going to start wishing he had another big bag like the backpack. And the cloaks are available at level 35 -- a level at which, on my worgen fire mage, I had just hit exalted with Darnassus and was very close to hitting exalted with Stormwind. So on top of a cloak tailored to my spec, I also had two 16-slot bags available -- which for a new player is like winning the lottery. This is a great way to educate new players on how WoW's reputation system works, and it provides some neat rewards to boot. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Lichborne: Reputation rewards for Death Knights in Wrath of the Lich King
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW Insider's weekly column on the Death Knight, written and named by a guy who actually doesn't have that talent. How does this keep happening, seriously? So by now, I'm sure a lot of Death Knights are, like yours truly, getting into the level 80 home stretch and trying to figure out which of the Wrath factions to grind first. If you've already read our Wrath 101 guides to reputation and to the Oracle and Frenzyheart tribes, you're off to a good start. In this week's Lichborne, we'll take it a step further by looking at the purchasable rewards for each faction with the eye of a Death Knight. As with our previous gear guide, I'm operating on the assumptions that haste and armor penetration are less desirable for Death Knights and that expertise is primarily for Death Knight tanks.
Breakfast Topic: Is the ring worth it?
The spiffy Dalaran rings:Band of the Kirin TorSignet of the Kirin TorAre they worth it?When I hit 80 it was the first thing I picked up. The powerful ability to teleport myself to a major city is, in my opinion, invaluable as I conquer the end game of Wrath of the Lich King. But after I right clicked to buy the 8,000g ring, I paused.I felt a small twinge on the back of my head.Was that the tingling of buyer's remorse? Did I just buy the Sega Dreamcast of rings?Will my ring fade away to soon be vendored? No ring to control them all, and no ring to in the darkness bind them?
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.
2.4 PvP sets: Gold and rep requirements
There's a lot to get excited about in patch 2.4, without a doubt. A lot of raiders will be looking to the Sunwell to provide new content and those addicted to daily quests will certainly find a lot to do as well. I'll certainly appreciate these things, but there was one new item that piqued my interest as an altaholic: the new blue PvP sets available from reputation vendors. While a lot of players will likely overlook or outright dismiss these new sets, they are a godsend to someone, like me, that has a ton of high-level alts. While these sets are clearly geared towards PvP, they'll definitely help fill out some of my alts' PvE sets. Additionally, they'll make good starting sets for anyone that wants to get more involved in the arena or battlegrounds.
