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The OverAchiever: Mountain o' Mounts in Northrend
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we continue the Mountain o' Mounts grind in Northrend. Bad news, folks: Once you've made your way through your own faction's basic ground mounts and the array of options available in Outland, you've largely exhausted the supply of factions that will offer you tons of mounts just because they like you. The closest you'll get is the Argent Tournament, which offers lots of mounts but a relatively long grind for most of them, even if you're already exalted with your home factions. Past this point, count on doing reputation grinds for only a few mounts at most. However, the bite doesn't feel as bad in Northrend, in no small part because Dalaran and Argent Tournament quartermasters will sell you Commendation badges for the Argent Crusade, Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, Sons of Hodir, and Wyrmrest Accord in return for 16 justice points. Each badge gives you 520 reputation, and it's a great way to bleed off extra JPs you're sitting on, if spending lots of time in Northrend isn't on your to-do list. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts and Mountain O' Mounts in Outland
The Light and How to Swing It: Gearing a new level 80 ret paladin
With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and soon, an entire flight of black dragons. As I said last week, I'm looking for action screenshots of retribution and protection paladins. I've gotten a lot of good shots thus far and am always looking for more (especially you retribution paladins out there, as I got a ton of protection ones). They can be any level between 1 and 80. I'll be using these for header graphics like the one above. Please send those as well as any other comments to my email at gregg@wow.com. If you've been following the column recently, you've seen the three-part series we did on gearing up a brand new level 80 protection paladin. We're going to take the same approach now to the retribution tree and work our way through the different types of items. First up, we've got craftables and reputation items. We'll be taking a look at stuff you'll be able to grab in dungeons next week and finish up the week after with a run-through of what all you can buy with the badges you got from all of that time in the random dungeon finder.
The Queue: Shoo map, don't bother me
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today's introduction video is something... special. Since people got a kick out of what I liked to call the Worst Video Ever, I figured I'd let you all see another misadventure is moviemaking from Sunday morning. One of my early attempts at recording the Love is in the Air boss went poorly, to say the least. Alternate title to the above video: When Addons Attack Jaena Vashj asked... "I was leveling my death knight in Dragonblight the other day and notice Ysera in the Emerald Dragonshrine. Didn't think much of her till I got closer and I noticed she was on top on this statue of a figure, what is this thing and why is it so special to Ysera?"
Patch 3.2.2: Timear Foresees Sons of Hodir reputation in your future!
A new build hit the Patch 3.2.2 PTR very recently, revealing a very convenient little detail: The dungeon daily quest now gives you the option of choosing and Sons of Hodir Commendation Badge, in addition to the ones that have been there all along for the Kirin Tor, the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade and Wyrmrest Accord.I've already completed the Sons of Hodir rep grind on my main, so this isn't particularly helpful there. However, I'm going to love it on my alts. I shined enough spears or whatever to last me a lifetime, and any way to avoid it that doesn't involve buying thousands of Relics of Ulduar is fine by me. I'm glad to see these quests get a little bit of love too, because I've been throwing away all sorts of commendations for the last few months simply because I'm already exalted with everything. Yes, even on my alt. It's really not hard if you remember to wear your tabard! Throwing away all of those commendations felt a little like flushing time down the toilet, so hopefully this will alleviate that a little and make it so the Emblem of Conquest isn't the only draw these quests have anymore.
The Queue: There is a Cow Level
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.There is no cow level.Repeat that three times.But if I was designing WoW I'd make sure there'd be some kind of cow level. After all who doesn't want to slaughter some bovines from hell?Osul asked..."What's a good reputation to grind for a newly 80 Ret Paladin?"
Ready Check: Hodir
Ready Check is a twice-a-week column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. Today, we step back a little and look at endgame in the context of sports.Let's recap Ulduar so far, shall we?You've wrecked the Flame Leviathan. With a touch of kindness in your heart, you euthanized Razorscale. In a moment of vengeance, you laid some justice down on Ignis the Furnace Master. Guffawing in humor at his odd voice, you looted Deconstructor. Then it came time to "bridge your experience" by beating up Kologarn. The Assembly of Iron proved to be no difficulty for your incredible raiding prowess. Even Auriaya and her small legion of adds gave you little pause. Now, however, you're on to the big leagues. It's time for you to showdown against the Keepers of Ulduar. Immediatley after defeating Auriaya, you get to fight none other than Hodir himself.
Insider Trader: Your guide to profession-specific buffs
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.The World of Warcraft's second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, changed the way that we players, as tradespeople, view professions and altered the reasoning behind our choices to pursue them. The driving factor behind this change was Blizzard's commitment to make each profession seem beneficial and dare I say, fun, to any player, regardless of class. While we did see some changes in this direction in The Burning Crusade, such as an Enchanter's singular ability to enchant his/her own rings, this new vision for trades really hit its stride in Wrath. To accomplish this, Blizzard shifted focus away from bind on pick-up gear and added self-buffs and self-enchants, as well as some other incentives, to give players more choice. It used to be, for example, that PvP characters would take Engineering. Leather and 40+ mail-wearers would take Skinning to feed their Leatherworking. Tailors would take Enchanting because it allowed them to recoup some of the costs of crafting gear, and so on. In essence, we could choose between fun, PvP, gold-making, and the best gear. Now, we can purchase gear from the gear-crafters, and be free to pursue something else, should we wish. Today, Insider Trader is going to break down the incentives offered by each profession to help you choose what is right for you. Rather than focusing on fun items, I will be addressing stat bonuses.The purpose of this guide is not to tell you what you need to take in order to be the best raider, or make the most money, or have an edge in PvP, but rather to gather the information to one place and present it for your consideration. Don't forget to read through the comments section at the end of this article, as there are sure to be tips and stories from our readers!
Breakfast Topic: How far into the content are you?
I hit level 80 after only finishing a handful of quest zones in Northrend. Since then I've been running Heroics and dabbling in Naxx raiding. But this week I decided to go back to solo questing for a bit and started the much-loved Sons of Hodir introductory quest line. Now, I see what everyone is talking about. It's a quest chain not to be missed.While I was questing away in Icecrown, I had some guildies running Ulduar 25, others running Outland 5-mans, a few in Battlegrounds and a low level alt or two stuck in the old world. And this got me thinking, just how far are you, gentle readers, into WoW? Are you slow and steady, experiencing all it has to offer? Or are you downing Freya on your 6th level 80? Cast your vote below.%Poll-29857%Clearly I can't cover every option in this simple poll, so if one of these choices doesn't explain your situation adequately, cast your vote by leaving a comment below.
The Queue: Cats rule, dogs drool
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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Today's edition of The Queue will be pretty short and sweet. Many of the questions that were asked yesterday have since been answered in other places around the site, so I just went ahead and skimmed over those ones to answer what hasn't been addressed already. Ready? Set? Let's go!Becky asked..."I may be wrong but it seems to me of all the in-game non-combat pets, there are no dogs but plenty of cats. What's with the lack of dogs? My mage wants a puppy."
Time is Money: Farming in Storm Peaks
Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply).Today we'll be discussing some of the choice farming locations in the province of Storm Peaks. There are three areas in particular that I will point out, as well as some good gathering tips and information on where you can locate rare mobs. Don't forget to check the comments section, as I'm sure it will be full of sweet spots and mob-hunting information!
Ask a Lore Nerd: It's the end of the world as we know it
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.Good morning, everyone! My apologies for missing last week's Ask a Lore Nerd, I am apparently very, very bad at time management and I lost track of things while trying to finish furnishing my apartment. We're back in action this week though, so it's all good!Before we get started, I also wanted to remind people that Tokyopop is letting us read Warcraft: Legends for free until the 17th. I know Daniel mentioned it already this morning, but seeing as this is the lore column of the day, I just wanted to mention it again. Just imagine me as the hammer trying to drive this nail into your head. You can read it for free. And now we get the show on the road!naixdra asked...Why do the Orcs call Draenor, Draenor? Didn't the Draenei show up out of nowhere and call it that, so why would the native Orcs adopt the name given to it by outsiders (and still refer to it after their attempted annihilation of said outsiders)?
The Queue: Legendaries are for suckers
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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.What? Me lace a post title with jealousy? I would never do that! Never ever! Okay, okay, maybe there's some jealousy there. Can you blame me? Screw purps, I want me some orange. Orange is where it's at, cat.erogroth asked...I have a question about legendary items. Do we know what Legendary items are planned for WotLK? Are there currently any in the game? If not what are planned for the future or can we speculate? It sounds like Ashbringer will not be a item that a player will be able to get. Is that true? Also, what about upgrade quest for old world legendary items. It seems like so much work went into getting them (Thunderfury anyone?) that it seems a shame that they are worthless.
The Queue: Patch 3.0.8 is here!
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.Good news, everyone! We have a guest star today on The Queue! Yes, that's right, a very special guest! Well, sort of. I guess she's not that special after all, but our resident Feral Druid guru chimed in to answer a Bear question yesterday, and she answered it better than I ever could. Our first question of the day is hers to handle, then it's back to me. Because you all love me, right?thon asked...I've had a lot of heated debate on the current def cap of Druid Bear Tanks. Is there one if specced into Survival of the Fittest? Is it lower than a normal tank class? I'd love to be able to tell them for certain to pipe down!
When questing is the reward
I've never been a big fan of quests. I've always done them as a means to an end, whether to level up or to earn a bit of Gold. My questing rate dropped considerably once I hit Level 80, with the only quests I did consisting mostly of Wintergrasp dailies and about a week's worth of Ebon Blade dailies in Icecrown to raise my reputation. But the truth is, quests in Wrath of the Lich King have been downright phenomenal. They are well-designed, fun to do, and -- if you actually stop to read the quest text (something I'm often guilty of skipping) -- wonderfully written and filled with story.I finally got off my lazy butt to do the long Sons of Hodir quest chain, a "necessary evil" to raise reputation with what Alex has dubbed one of the most important factions in Wrath. There was little urgency for me to do the chain, considering I was satisfied with the Wintergrasp shoulder enchants even though they wasted points on Resilience. On the other hand, it became increasingly frustrating for me not to be able to assist my wife whenever her character (often) became the target of merciless gankage. You see, like many parts of Northrend, the Storm Peaks zones where you do Sons of Hodir quests are phased. I simply wanted to get to the point where we would be in the same phased stage, so using Alex's handy guide to the Sons of Hodir quest chain, I set off on what was a surprisingly good and fun adventure.
Relics of Ulduar to stay soulbound?
A poster in the general forums today outlined his, and many others, money making strategy they'll do when patch 3.0.8 goes live: Save up bank-tabs-full of Relics of Ulduar Sell Relics of Ulduar when they are no longer soulbound in patch 3.0.8 This is a solid scheme, it seemed, to make a metric ton of gold. In 3.0.8 Relics will be able to be turned in for Sons of Hodir reputation. Everyone and their mother are going to want them.However a response by Bornakk, a Blizzard Community Manager, reads "Is there a problem? Yes sir, the data on the relics is inaccurate. While things can still change, they may remain souldbound."So in the typical Blizzard fashion of not confirming anything outright, they have more or less strongly hinted that relics will remain soulbound in 3.0.8. So much for the money making scheme.
Know Your Lore: The Sons of Hodir
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Alex Ziebart brings you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm. Have suggestions for future KYL topics? Leave a comment below! This week, the role of Alex Ziebart will be played by Matthew Rossi.Hi. You may remember me from not finishing the KYL on Thrall. Well, since this week our Alex Ziebart has to take a small breather, I'm filling in for him as part of our "Hey, I finished that post you didn't so you owe me, and also the pictures are back from the developer and I'd hate to have to post them to the website" arrangement. Alex informed me as he handed over the package in that park, just before my trained snipers totally failed me, that this week would be discussing the Sons of Hodir from a lore perspective. Since until such time as Agent Deathwolf tracks him down and retrieves the microfilm I have no choice, that will be the topic of today's post.Since I happen to be exalted twice with these guys, it seems a fair enough question to ask who they are and where they come from. So far, we have fragments of the story, but not the whole picture as yet. If it even needs to be said at this late point, I will be dropping spoilers for Storm Peaks quests like they were remarkably heavy antiques that you asked me to help you move into your new apartment on the 17th floor and I wanted to make sure you never asked again.
Lichborne: Things to do in Azeroth when you're dead and level 80
Welcome to Lichborne, the Death Knight column. Yes, that is yours truly in the above picture, and yes, fellow Alliance Death Knights, you can be jealous.So here you are, a new level 80 Death Knight. You've made your triumphant return to Ebon Hold to train your level 80 skills and hearthed back to Dalaran, and now you're hanging out in front of the bank on your favorite mount. And you have no idea what to do next. No worries, here's a list of goals that should answer that eternal question (eternal in this case being the time to the next expansion), "I'm level 80. Now What?"
Going to Northrend for the holidays
It's the day after Christmas. A fair portion of our readership is only now getting Wrath of the Lich King installed on their computer, especially after the gift exchanges of the last few days. Over the weeks since Wrath's release, we've had quite a bit of content to ease you through your first steps into Northrend. With this latest wave of people hitting the frozen shores for the first time, it's a good opportunity to look back on a lot of that.
WoW Insider Show Episode 69: Azeroth's Next Top Models
This week on the podcast we welcomed back BRK to talk about some things that didn't involve Hunters, including (but not limited to) Winter's Veil and how to take down heroic Loken, and Amanda Dean also joined us to talk about why she's Scrooge-y on the Winter's Veil stuff (I am too, though I am excited about the presents we're going to get on Thursday) and why people may or may not be civil when PuGging. And we talked about the Sons of Hodir quest chain, answered some questions from the email, and just had a great time talking about World of Warcraft.It was a nice, relaxed show, and hopefully you'll enjoy it -- you can listen below, or use one of the myriad ways that we have to listen, including subscribing to the show in iTunes (and reviewing us if you do head over there -- some of the reviews on our listing are a little old).We'll be back next weekend after the holiday, and if you are handy with a mic and a computer, we've got a little favor to ask after the break -- check it out if you want to try to get your voice on our show.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Breakfast Topic: Patch 3.0.8 excitement
Last week brought us a lot of news on patch 3.0.8, and with no sign of it hitting live realms particularly soon, we're bound to see a lot more. It's not a full blown content patch, so no new dungeons or raids, nothing of that sort. That doesn't mean it's not packed full of cool stuff, though.What are all of you looking forward to the most? There aren't a whole load of major class changes for my personal favorite class, Priests, but the one change there is for Shadow excites me a whole lot more than it really should. Glyph of Mind Flay will just cause the spell to slow the target a little less, rather than removing it entirely. Small change, but it will make life as a Shadow Priest so much easier. When dual specs roll around, I can just have a Healing set and a Shadow set of glyphs rather than a raid set, a soloing set, and a healing set.
