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March's Brew of the Month: Aromatic Honey Brew
It's brews like the Aromatic Honey Brew that make the whole Brew of the Month membership worth it. Sure, all of the bodily fluid/fume brews are pretty boring, but this month's brew? Beautiful. I can finally fulfill my lifelong dream: Get drunk while on fire and covered in bees. Alternate caption for the image above? I like my ale like I like my women. Covered in bees.I'm sure those of you that haven't tried this month's brew are pretty confused right now. What the hell am I talking about? Well, every Brew of the Month has a proc that goes off now and then when you're chugging down the booze. This month, the proc is a buff called Honey Touched. The sweet, sticky honey in the brew gets all over you, and you attract some friends. Horrible, stingy friends. Friends that put you under a Fear effect for 7 seconds. I think this rivals BigRedPriestess as my favorite Brew of the Month. If I'm gonna get wasted, I might as well do it in style. Mead and bees. Bees are stylish, right?As an extra little note, the fact that there's a new brew out means that it's the beginning of the month. If you're the sort of person that will take all the freebies you can get, you can pick up your free gems from the Consortium in Nagrand. They're Burning Crusade gems, but maybe you'll find some use for them.
From Outland with gems
Dear players,Things are good back here in Nagrand -- though we don't see anyone but Death Knights coming through nowadays, I often think back to a few years ago when I saw so many of you come through leveling up, just as you are now in Northrend. You were so innocent and naive back then -- you really weren't prepared, at level 66 and 67, still not knowing what treachery Illidan might have planned or what treasure the walls of Tempest Keep might hold. Nowadays, the space inside those walls is empty except for the occasional Death Knight group -- my friend Ghabar up in Stormspire says they see even fewer players than we do here.Even the boys in Halaa say things are slow -- while I'm sure it's a relief not to be under attack every other hour, they come down here to Aeris Landing every once in a while just to pass the time and see what's up. I suppose when the Death Knights are gone, that'll be pretty much the end for us. Oh sure, we'll have the occasional newbie come through (I'll always need Crystal Fragments and Obsidian Warbeads, as long as there are suppliers to buy them -- and there are), but things won't be the same. Maybe I'll even get out of the trading business and take up a profession of my own. I hear Inscription can be fun.Oh, and by the way, it's the first of the month, so I've got your monthly gems sitting here. You may not need them up in Northrend, with your Lich King and your dragons and whatever else you've discovered up there (have you found any Ethereals yet?). But they're here, just like the rest of us, waiting for you. Sigh.Yours,Gezhe at Aeris Landing in Nagrand
Ask a Lore Nerd: Yogg-Saron and Warchief Garrosh Hellscream
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition. Wrath of the Lich King is finally here, and with it comes a whole load of new lore and stories to discover. I hope you guys are reading your quest text! I imagine all of these new quests will bring up a lot of new questions as well, and to that I say bring it on. For now, though, let's field some questions from last week.Rosa asked...Personally, I'm tired of Outland and demons and fantasy-tech and I'm glad to see Warcraft going gothic again, buuuut there's one thing that I love about Outland and I'm hoping it's not gone forever. Ethereals are, like, totally awesome, and my favourite unplayable race in WoW. The question I have is, do we see these guys anywhere in Wrath? And if not, do you think that we'll see them ever again?
Get your freebies!
It's a new month, and those lovable little swindlers we call the Consortium are offering up free gems once again. Of course, they don't give away their best stuff to just anyone. The better your reputation, the higher the chance you have of being granted a blue quality gem, although nothing is a guarantee, even at exalted. Head out to Aeris Landing in South Western Nagrand and try your luck. You're guaranteed to come away with something, and you might get more than you'd hoped!Check out our complete list of the bags you get at each reputation level for more information.Didn't get what you needed? Check out our Consumer's Guide to Gems to get the scoop on how to go about choosing and acquiring gems for your gear.
Lichborne: Are the Burning Crusades factions worth it?
Welcome to Lichborne, where Daniel Whitcomb wishes he could be doing Hallow's End achievements for his Death Knight on the live servers, where they count. It's a fact of life. Burning Crusade is about to become obsolete. All those rep grinds, all those exalted purples, all those dungeon keys are just so much pretty little bank space wasters. Sure, gear lasts a little longer into Wrath, but for the most part, we're still going to be leaving it all behind for the new environs of Northrend, while Outland becomes a bump in the road to 80. For Death Knights, this is probably still true. We're going to want to rush to get through Outland so we aren't desperately trying to find groups for Utgarde Keep while everyone else is getting Kel'thuzad on farm mode. But that means we'll have only the bare minimum of faction, no grind, no turn-ins, no purples. On the whole this is probably pretty much OK, since we'll be able to get good gear right out the gate in Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra. But is there still a reason to grind some of the Burning Crusade factions, or even to pay attention to them while leveling up? Let's look at some of the factions you'll probably come across while speeding through Outland and what benefits they can offer the leveling knight.
Get your free gems for October!
We're a little late on the notice this time around (two whole days!), but if you haven't done so yet, get yourself out to Nagrand and pick up your free gems from the Consortium! They're not exactly worth much on most servers now, since people are throwing everything they own on the auction house to get rid of it before Wrath, and thus tanking the prices on everything, but free is free. You might as well pick them up, even if you just use them as skipping stones at the lakefront.If you've never done this before, let me break it down: Once you reach Friendly with the Consortium, Gezhe at Aeris Landing will have some free gems for you at the beginning of each month. As you gain higher levels of reputation, you'll get more gems. Not necessarily better gems, just more of them. Don't know where Aeris Landing is? It's directly north of that freaky diamond mountain spaceship with the Naaru in it, Oshu'gun.%Poll-20506%
Insider Trader: Faction recipes for the rest of you
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Over the past few weeks I've been discussing the factions that hold recipes for the various professions, and how deeply liked you'll have to be to get your grubby hands on them. Almost all of the profession recipes have been covered, from the amazing and profitable acquisitions down to the pointless and boring. Of course, there are still a few straggler recipes out there that are meant for players whose professions are not getting much faction love, and therefore cannot make up an article of their own.This week I'm going to finish up the series by discussing the rest of the faction recipes, the ones for cooking and engineering. Although there are not many, and some are not even very good, the series just would not be complete without them. Formulas for enchanters Designs for jewelcrafters part one, and part two. Plans for blacksmiths. Recipes for alchemists. Patterns for leatherworkers. Patterns for tailors.
Insider Trader: Faction recipes for enchanters
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Last week we took a look at some of the more popular and requested enchants and how to get them for yourself. I also promised that I'd continue the faction recipe series by taking a look at enchanting for this week. So far, I've talked about the following professions and which factions hold appropriate recipes: Designs for jewelcrafters part one, and part two. Plans for blacksmiths. Recipes for alchemists. Patterns for leatherworkers. Patterns for tailors. Here is a complete list of the factions to which any enchanter should "suck up" and how far you'll need to take it: Shattered Sun Offensive, honored. Consortium, revered. Cenarion Expedition, exalted. Thrallmar/Honor Hold, exalted. Keepers of Time, exalted. Lower City, exalted. Sha'tar, exalted. Violet Eye, exalted.
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.
Breakfast Topic: Player race desires
Since the beginning of The Burning Crusade, I've wanted playable Ethereals. I don't care which faction or what classes, I just want to play an Ethereal. Heck, if all you could do with an ethereal character is walk around and emote, I would still roll one. I don't know why I'm so infatuated with them, but I pretty much like most things about them. Their design, their towns, the Consortium's debonaire way of operations.The other Burning Crusade race I want to play is an Arakkoa. Specifically an Arakkoa Priest or Paladin. I don't like the birdmen as much as the blinkymen, but I found myself incredibly intrigued by the few Light-following arakkoa scattered around. I wanted to learn more about them, but there wasn't anymore to learn, unfortunately.Now that I'm in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta, my new fascination is the Vrykul. Aesthetically, they are by far the most awesome race in WoW, and they're steeped in Norse lore which is just awesome. Their women look like they could destroy me with their bare hands, and the men seem like they have enough hair customization options to put a player race to shame. If these became a player race, I would reroll so fast.Do you guys have any races you would just love to see playable? I have a lot of friends that would adore the chance to play a Goblin but I couldn't do that personally. Not a fan of Goblins. Are you after something a little more 'out there' like Nerubians? Are you a fan of a race from another setting that you'd love to be added to WoW?
Go get your free gems for September
It's that time of the month again ladies and gentlemen. It's September 1st, so the Consortium are offering up free gems once more. Most of us probably know how this works by now, but if you don't, we're here to help. If you have any reputation above Neutral with the Consortium and aren't Level Worthless (a joke, I promise), Gezhe at Aeris Landing in southwest Nagrand has free gems for you. You can find him just north of that freaky diamond mountain Oshu'gun. Your freebies depend on how high your reputation is with the Consortium. Friendly gives you a Gem-Stuffed Envelope. The fact that the gems are tucked in an envelope says, "You are worth so little to us that we threw your gems into the nearest, cheapest container without concern for whether or not your gems would come back out intact." Honored gives you an Unmarked Bag of Gems. This says, "We like you enough to give your gems a little more protection, but not enough to let others see that we speak to urchins such as you." Revered gives you a Bulging Sack of Gems. The Consortium knows quite well that most denizens of Azeroth and beyond subscribe to the bigger is better mantra. This enormous, bulging sack is most likely full of the worst possible gems you could ever dream of, but at least there's a lot of them! Exalted will net you a Bag of Premium Gems. Unfortunately, the Ethereals have only just started learning Common, so occasionally they get their word order confused. It should actually be a 'Premium Bag of Gems.' It's a very nice bag. The gems? Not always so great. Hey, at least green quality gems are worth something nowadays! Back in my day, we farmed all of that Consortium reputation simply for the privilege of vendoring those gems! You crazy kids and your useful green jewels. Wait, it's still my day, isn't it? Well then, off to Aeris Landing!
Insider Trader: Faction recipes for leatherworkers
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.After a brief hiatus, Insider Trader is back and ready to take on the faction world. As you progress through Outland as a leatherworker, it will be helpful to know the factions with which you will need to be in high favor. Here's a quick summary: Honored: Ashtongue Deathsworn, Sha'tar, Keepers of Time. Revered: Consortium, Kurenai/Mag'har, Lower City. Exalted: Cenarion Expedition, Honor Hold/Thrallmar, Aldor/Scryers, Violet Eye.
It's Consortium gem day!
Yes folks, it's the first of the month and it is time for your trek to Aeris Landing in western Nagrand. Gezhe will hook you up with a loot bag containing random gems, some of which are quite profitable. Of course, being the swindlers that they are, they don't give out something for nothing.What you get depends partly on chance, and partly on how much they love you. Here's the breakdown: At Friendly, you'll be handed a Gem-Stuffed Envelope. Once Honored, you get upgraded to an Unmarked Bag of Gems. Unmarked bags never contain stolen goods! At Revered, you will be awarded with a Bulging Sack of Gems. This one always reminds me of Santa's Greatfather Winter's bag of goodies. Once Exalted, you'll receive a Bag of Premium Gems. The higher your freebie is on the scale, the more likely it is to contain valuable rare quality gems that will help offset the cost of gemming your gear, or contribute to your epic flying mount fund. Get out there and get your gems!
TransferJet forms a consortium to confuse consumers
As the saying goes, the great thing about standards is that we have so many to choose from. Enter TransferJet, as much as we'd like to ignore it, it won't go away. In fact, today the nascent close (real close, as in 3-cm or less) proximity wireless technology just snowballed itself into a proper consortium which lists a who's who of consumer electronics and camera manufacturers including Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Nikon, Samsung, Kodak, and interestingly enough, Sony Ericsson. Sony will lead the effort to develop the specs, guidelines, and licensing schemes required to interconnect TransferJet-compliant products offering a 375Mbps data transfer rate (560Mbps theoretical) without requiring any complex setup (just touch the devices together). Right, they're looking directly at your NFC and Wibree shortcomings Bluetooth SIG. Full list of TransferJet members after the break.
Neutral Factions: An idea whose time has passed
Neutrality in factions started with the Steamwheedle Cartel and only got worse. It seems that once you get to the level cap, most of the intense rivalry between the factions, at least as expressed in the PvE game, peter off to nothing. Almost every faction accepts both Horde and Alliance fighters. In Burning Crusade, they even share the same capital, and it looks like that will be happening again in WoTLK with Dalaran -- despite that fact that, 50 levels earlier, the Horde utterly devastated Dalaran's holdings in Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad. The general argument for this change is that at higher levels, most people learn to put aside their differences and fight the greater challenges that threaten to wipe both sides out. My problem with that line of reasoning is that up until the end game, what we're trying to wipe out is each other. In the Ghostlands, the Night Elves are involved in extensive operations to attack the Blood Elves. In Ashenvale, the Horde is constantly attacking the Night Elves, including setting up spy posts and killing their animal companions. In the southern Barrens, the Dwarves are willing to wipe out the Tauren to set up their excavations. In Lordaeron, the Forsaken have the stated intent of wiping out the alliance, devastating one settlement and even making a preliminary attack against Southshore.
Insider Trader: Faction recipes for tailors
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.You are a newly minted level 58, and you are about to walk through the Dark Portal for the first time. Once you set foot on the other side, and with a bit of wandering, you will surely begin to realize how many factions there are whose reputation you may or may not need to grind. As a tailor, you will unfortunately not find too many exciting new recipes aside from the threads you will learn to craft from your Scryers or Aldor allegiance. Here is the quick breakdown: Honored with the Consortium Honored with Lower City Revered with Sporeggar Exalted with Scryers or Aldor Honored with the Ashtongue Deathsworn (Black Temple)
Remember your Consortium gems
From: The Consortium Ltd., Outland Branch office, Stormspire, The Netherstorm To: All employees and independent subcontractors of the Consortium on Outland Subject: Monthly Paycheck As it is the first day of the month, the gem payments for all fleshing subcontractors located in Outland have been organized and are available from paymaster Gezhe at Aeris Landing in Nagrand, north of the Oshu'gun digsite. We would like to remind you to pick up your gems as soon as possible, as any unclaimed pay will be declared forfeit and void at the end of the month. We expect another quarter of strong growth based on our investments into Ogre obsidian and biodome technology, and as a result, all exalted and revered subcontractors will receive their usual bonuses in recognition for their continued support of the Consortium. Thank you for all your hard work, and we look forward to another profitable month. Signed,Nexus-Prince Haramad
Tuesday maintenance notice and roundup for June 3rd, 2008
Good Morning, everyone. It's 4:30 PDT on a Tuesday morning, and you know by now that that means maintenance. For now, most of us will be sitting pretty, with only an hour and a half or so of downtime from 5am to 6:30am PDT. 72 servers, however, will be getting the full treatment, and won't be up until at least 11am PDT. You can see a list of those servers in our original announcement post here. Since we're coming up on at least an hour of no WoW, if not more for 72 servers and for those stuck at a job or schooling that doesn't allow sneaking in some game time, I would like to, as customary, suggest that you read about WoW, here on WoW Insider. I have a list of some of our best content from the past week organized for your viewing pleasure coming right up after the break.
Don't forget your gems for June
It's that time of the month again, ladies and gentlemen. It's June 1st, which means the Consortium is offering a round of free gems once again. Just visit Aeris Landing in southern Nagrand and chat with Gezhe to receive your pack of gems. How many you get is dependent on your reputation with the Consortium, but unfortunately, the quality is completely random. If you're having a hard time finding the place, look for the giant diamond mountain Oshu'gun. Aeris Landing is on the road just north of it.Once again my horrible gem luck has gifted me with a bulging sack full of green quality gems, but maybe some of you will have better pickings! Good luck, and may there be no Talasites in your future.
Insider Trader: Cooking, the final stretch
Cooking is a secondary tradeskill that most players should strongly consider learning, and maximizing. The buffs that many of the foods award can be quite helpful, and aside from damage buffs, there are also healing buffs, tank buffs, and food for hunter and warlock pets, among other yummy treats. If you rely on purchasing the foods from the auction house, you'll find your consumables bill soaring upward. You can also make a profit from cooking, especially regarding pet food. Because many players are stubborn and won't learn any of the secondary skills, you can sell your dishes for a hefty price. Still, if you don't fall madly in love with cooking, searching high and low for the latest recipe and farming to your favorite tunes, then you might have some trouble and confusion when trying to reach 375. This week, Insider Trader will take an in-depth look at the easiest path to cooking 375, avoiding fishing altogether. Although they go hand-in-hand, they can be done separately, and many cooks do not want to become fishermen.
