Storm-Peaks
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Know Your Lore: Lore summed up part 4 - Wrath of the Lich King continued
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Last week's coverage of the lore of Wrath of the Lich King got to the thematic middle point of the expansion - the Wrathgate event. It changed the nature of Horde/Alliance relations, breaking any possibility for faction cooperation. It also capped off the Dragonblight storyline - Horde players had to deal with the realization that the very plague used on Horde troops by Putress was created by their efforts questing in the zone, while Alliance players saw the loss of one of the more beloved lore figures on their side, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon. (The last name Fordragon means "He who cleaves on Dragons' in old Arathi. Okay, no it doesn't. But Bolvar absolutely did that.) Combined with the way Bolvar's previous encounters with players had been worked into the quests, it was a gut punch to lose him. It was far from the end of the story, however. We had miles to go before we reached the foot of Icecrown Citadel. I mentioned, briefly, the Arugal storyline in the Grizzly Hills, but there was also the story of the Furbolg in the region - a story that touched upon earlier zones such as the Howling Fjord and the Whisper Gulch. These stories would be shown to be of vast importance, and connected to that of an entity named Loken, who was directing the plunder of ancient Titan sites across Northrend by a force of strange Iron Dwarves. The story of Loken would, in a way, eclipse that of Arthas Menethil without displacing him - for while the Lich King was a clear and present danger and the reason the Alliance and Horde had come to Northend, Loken would prove to endanger Azeroth far more directly. If the Lich King succeeded, the Scourge would rule a world dominated by the undead. If Loken had his way, there would be no Azeroth at all. The machinations of these two forces both involved a strange material called Saronite - the Scourge forces seemed determined to mine this unusual metal from specific dark corners of the land beneath Northrend's surface. Whisper Gulch, too, teemed with it. But what was Saronite, and why did the Scourge seemingly loathe and fear the name Yogg-Saron while still using the stuff?
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
Know Your Lore: The lore reveals of Wrath, Part One
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. The Warcraft setting is interesting in many ways, from the recent events like the First through Third Wars to the murky depths of the past where Titans and Old Gods contended for the future of the world known to us as Azeroth. As we approach the end of Wrath of the Lich King's expansion life cycle, we can look back on quite a few quest lines and zone reveals that shed some light on Azeroth's dim, murky recesses of history. Sometimes they enlightened us. Sometimes they actually raised further questions. Either way, they were part of the unfolding lore of the Warcraft setting. What I'm going to do this week is go over some of my favorite moments, so to speak, of Wrath of the Lich King. Some of them were small puzzle pieces, others huge reveals. In many ways, there were several interconnected moments that started with small quests in Howling Fjord and/or Borean Tundra and eventually played out over all of Northrend. Amazingly, some of my favorites ended up having very little to do with the Lich King himself. Indeed, in the end, the secrets of vrykul, iron dwarves and ultimately the Storm Peaks nearly stole this whole expansion for me.
Time is Money: Saronite
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). Saronite translates into easy WoW gold, and can be farmed in massive quantities in Sholazar Basin, Icecrown and Storm Peaks. Wintergrasp is also a great place to farm it, despite being ground-bound.MinersSacred Duty, a prot pally blog, recently posted an excellent example of a simple yet effective saronite farming route in Icecrown. If you cannot fly yet, I highly recommend Sholazar Basin. Follow the rivers, run around the pillars, and circle the province perimeter. In fact, pretty much anywhere you go, you will find saronite, and the mobs are mid-seventies, unlike the heavy hitters in Icecrown. As for Storm Peaks, make sure to fly up where you would think you have no business being. Giant cliff walls that stretch for miles and random peaks may be boring, but they do contain nodes. An hour could easily grant you a few hundred ore. Before you smelt it, check your AH prices for ore versus bars. Because two ore go into a bar, you will want to smelt your ore into bars to sell if one ore is worth less than half of one bar. Otherwise, sell the ore! Jewelcrafters will buy it up for prospecting.
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!
When AFK attacks redux
Matthew Rossi's triumphant tale about his wife's taming of the elusive Loque'nahak, otherwise known as the Death Star pet, reminded me of a similar scenario that happened with a guildie. This time, it was nowhere near as peaceful, nowhere near as innocent, but every bit as triumphant. See, my guildie, a Shadow Priest, had been looking for the Time-Lost Proto Drake in the Storm Peaks for almost a month. Every day, he'd log on and spend a few hours circling the rare mob's known path hoping to get the Reins of the Time-Lost Proto Drake. As the mob is guaranteed to drop the mount, he wasn't the only one on the hunt. One day, though, he got lucky and finally spotted the fantastic creature... except that it was already tagged by a Gnome Death Knight. Instinctively, he did what any red-blooded member of the Horde would do. He Mind Controlled the Gnome, used him to tank the drake, and when the drake was low on life, tossed the Death Knight off the edge of a cliff. One Shadow Word: Death and a hearthstone later, the priest was in Krasus' Landing sitting atop his pretty green drake.
Farming Chilled Meat and Borean Leather in Northrend
We've already posted about just how useful Chilled Meats are -- they're a staple of the cooking dailies, so chefs and anyone else trying to earn Dalaran cooking awards are after plenty of them. And reader ScytheNoire sent us a good tip on how to pick up not only a ton of Chilled Meats, but stock up on Borean Leather if you're a skinner, too: lowering the Reef Bull population on Scalawag Point, just off the coast of Howling Fjord. Because those guys are needed for the daily quest, the respawn rate is great on them, and within a half hour, says ScytheNoire, he picked up a couple stacks of Chilled Meat and the same of Borean Leather (with a few Arctic Furs in there as well). Just stay away from the folks trying to do their dailies and you can rack up a nice bunch of animal products.As many players will tell you, Sholazar Basin is another great place to get both Chilled Meat and Leather, given that most of the zone is beasts (thanks to the Nesingwary quests around there). I've found that the best place over there is the Hardknuckle Foragers and Chargers near the Frenzyheart Tribe's camp -- the Foragers are neutral and go down fast, and will give Chilled Meat and Leather at a high rate, close to one per kill each.For leather, obviously the Jormungar Cave in Storm Peaks is another good place to pick up skins, not only from the worms, which will also give you scales, but from the worgs they kill as well. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found any mobs that will consistently drop more than one leather (the Black Morass was such a goldmine for Knothide), so it's slow going no matter where you are, but there are a few good spots to hit up if, like me, you're getting Leatherworking and Cooking up to speed.
Things that don't annoy me
About half a year ago I wrote the article "Things that annoy me." However, I'm in a good mood tonight:1. The music in Storm Peaks and Howling Fjord, particularly the choral portion of the former. Spooky and haunting and ethereally on edge, like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had just glimpsed a large angry dinosaur through the window.2. The leather boots available at exalted with the Argent Crusade. Yes, the stats are great, but it's how they look on Tauren that really vaults them into the realm of unbridled win. For all I know, the graphic on female Tauren is a serious bug that programmers are working frantically to correct, but I think that boots on a cow look awesome.3. Dalaran when it's not crawling with people.4. Which is to say never.5. Pretty much everything that High Overlord Saurfang says, does, thinks, or writes for the entirety of the Horde's Wrath storyline.
The value of questing after level 80
I'm always amazed when people hit 80 and then start wondering how to make gold. Sure, there are all kinds of money tricks floating around (playing the AH is always fun, and everyone has their own tips they've picked up), but quite frankly, the easiest and most reliable way to pick up a ton of money at level 80 is just to do what you've been doing: go quest. Blizzard has made it so that there's no way you've hit all the quests in Northrend when you've reached the highest level, so odds are that you've got at least one (if not two or three) untouched zones of quests to do. And as folks have discovered on the forums, there's a ton of money to be made there.Given that after level 80, experience turns into gold, the return on time invested with leftover questing is awesome. You can pick up over three thousand gold easily just by clearing out the zones you haven't hit hard, and by vendoring off the quest rewards that you get for completing the quests, you can pick up even more. Sure, some folks will have AH schemes that will bring in more money, but Blizzard has done their darndest to make sure there's money in them there questgivers, so if you're slouching around at 80 wondering what to do, go finish up your quests.And of course if you really have finished up all of the quests in the game (and seen all the amazing storylines and character development that go along with doing so), then there's always daily quests to work on. While they won't pay out quite as much as one-time quests, when you break down the time you invest versus the gold you get out of it, they're often the best way to cash in your playtime as well.
Illusionary Tactics: The Hyldnir
Yes, I know this column has been gone a while. Sorry about that. Or wait, actually - it wasn't gone, it was just undercover! That's it! You didn't really think Encrypted Text was just talking about rogues this whole time, did you? Wake up, sheeple! Wrath of the Lich King has been upon us for some time, and with it came zone after zone of prolific questing and fascinating scenery. I'd like to spend the next few weeks talking about some of my favorite quests and items that provide disguises or change your appearance in WotLK. Obviously, there will be spoilers in some of these posts for those of you that haven't done all the quests in Northrend yet; I'll put all such behind a cut, so don't click on if you don't want to know about the content. Let's start out with the Hyldnir of Storm Peaks.
Arcane Brilliance: Leveling your Mage, 70-80
Each week, Arcane Brilliance invites Mages everywhere over for brunch. We serve muffins, sweet rolls, croissants, and enough mountain spring water to wash it all down. Then, for dessert, Arcane Brilliance conjures strudel for everyone, because who doesn't like strudel? If you raised your hand, you, sir or madame, are a dirty, dirty liar. Everybody likes strudel.About a billion years ago, when Warlocks still ruled the world, back in those dark days before Arcane Barrage, spellpower, and elementalist specs--in that bygone era before Death Knights appeared in Azeroth, bringing with them their ridiculous magic resistances and eighty-seven different ways to silence or interrupt--Arcane Brilliance brought you a series of Mage leveling guides. In those days, we didn't have any of this crazy "rock music" you kids listen to now, and when we fought Illidan, we had to chain pot. We walked naked twelve miles to school through nineteen feet of snow while fending off wolves and dinosaurs with our bookbags, and we liked it. Things are different now. Nowadays, when you hit level 70, your experience bar doesn't vanish, never to return. We have ten new levels and an entire new continent to adventure our way through, new talent points to spend, new gear to pick up, and several fresh and exciting ways to barbecue zombies. It's an exciting time to be a Mage, and Arcane Brilliance is here to open a portal to level 80 for you.If your Mage is at some other point along the leveling continuum, you can find the previous leveling guides here, here, here, and here. You can find the new one by clicking the words "read more" directly following this period.
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.
Wrath 101: Flight paths in Storm Peaks
Welcome back, flight path fans! Storm Peaks is the penultimate zone in Northrend, and a welcome return to navigational complexity. As I mentioned in my last post on Sholazar, it is also my favorite zone in Northrend; I really enjoy all the Titan stuff as well as the background on the dwarves we get in the Alliance quests. The Sons of Hodir have the dubious honor of being probably the most difficult essential faction to rep up with, but that's going to get much easier in 3.0.8 when Relics of Ulduar become a rep turn-in. Anyway, I'd better get on with the FPs; there are quite a few of them. Neutral K3 (41,83), run by the goblins, is the entry point to Storm Peaks (and a pun off a famous mountain). I only wish we could ride on rockets all the time out of this one. Dun Niffelem (63,61) is a heavily phased Frost Giant town, headquarters of the Sons of Hodir. You will not be able to go here without being attacked before doing some significant questing (but don't worry, they're very enjoyable quests). Bouldercrag Refuge, in the northwest of the zone, has a flight master at 31,36. There's also a small cluster of NPCs up near the Ulduar instances, including a flight master (45,28), a repairer, and a reagent vendor. This is very handy for those Halls of Stone and Halls of Lightning runs (both of which are pretty nasty on heroic, in my opinion, especially the Tribunal and Loken). It will become even more essential in patch 3.1, when the Ulduar raid is due to be added.
The best of WoW Insider: December 2-9, 2008
Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider celebrated our third anniversary this week, just after the game we play celebrated its fourth. So it was a week of looking both back and forward, as we checked out our top 10 most popular stories of all time, and covered all of the latest and greatest secrets in Northrend and the new expansion. From polar bears to proto drakes, here's to many more years of both World of Warcraft and WoW Insider. News Loken the most dangerous mob in the gameA look at the game's stats pages shows we've got a new player-killer in town. Storm Peaks daily quests reward a polar bear mountDo your dailies, get a mount. Blizzard legal targets private serversBlizzard lays the smack down on anyone running an unauthorized server. Ghostcrawler's thoughts on Death KnightsA dev tells us what he thinks of Death Knights and where they're at. Seeking the Time-Lost Proto DrakeHere's a practically free mount, a 100% drop from a soloable mob. The catch? Good luck finding it. Features WoW Insider's top ten stories of all timeOn our third anniversary, we take a look back at some of the biggest stories we've posted so far. Wrath 101: The sons of HodirAn endgame reputation grind that's "God of War meets WoW." The Queue: Trinkets, sigils, and death by OrcsOur Q&A column has instant insight every day on what players want to know about most. WoW, Casually: 7 reasons to make a Death KnightSeven reasons for casual players to try out the newest class in the game. Know Your Lore: DalaranHere's a look at the history of the game's new Northrend hub, and these are some historic streets we're walking.
Wrath 101: Farming for Eternals
So you're level 80. What now? Raiding? PvP? Hah, no, not really. It's time to start farming mats for... everything! When you're off farming, Eternals (the Wrath equivalent of Primals) are probably on the top of your list. We've had a lot of people asking us what the best places for Eternal farming are, so we're here with the answer.Below is a quick guide to the best spots for every type of Elemental Eternal in Wrath of the Lich King, and it's assumed that you have Cold Weather Flying when you're out farming. Most of the best farming spots aren't exactly tuned for players lower than level 77, and you can't get to the really awesome spots at all. So hold off on your farming until you're 80, or near 80. It will make your life easier.
BigRedKitty: Proto-Drake fever
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary. We've never been this lucky, so of course we had to share it with you. Once you watch the movie and want to learn more about the mounts we discuss, click on through and we'll spill the beans.
Storm Peaks daily quests reward a polar bear mount
The other day, we talked about the Sons of Hodir and how to start gaining reputation with them. Rep gains are great and all, but there's actually another bonus you can start working on thanks to this quest chain: A Polar Bear mount! At one point during the Sons of Hodir chain, you're turned into one of the Hyldnir, the frost vrykul ladies that populate the Storm Peaks. While only a few of their quests are essential to moving the story ahead, they have other one-shot quests you have available if you so choose.Completing these quests opens up a daily quest you can do when you return to Brunnhildar Village, though you don't get to do all of them every day. It seems only one or two of them are available per day, and which ones you get is random, like the Cooking daily quests. If they don't seem to be offering you a quest at all one day, you probably haven't unlocked the one that happens to be that day's quest. The following are the four quests you need to do first:
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?
The Queue: Reputation, daily quests, and performance in Dalaran
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.Daily quests and reputation has been a really hot topic lately, not only in The Queue but across WoW in general. Some of our questions today will focus on that, but I'd also like to let you guys know that WoW Insider will overall have more information on those things coming really, really soon. Keep an eye on the site today and in the coming days for all of that good stuff.Alright, let's gets started with my2cents' question... Where, if anywhere, is the quartermaster for Valiance Expedition? I'm almost revered and I'm curious to see if there are any rewards available.
Ask A Beta Tester: AABT's greatest hits, part 2
On to part 2! This series of questions spans August and early September, and we'll keep moving forward this week.Hoops asked.... How much gold roughly would you get from questing 70-77 (until you unlock the flying mount)? I was wondering if it would it be worth farming money beforehand or would the money from questing be enough. Elizabeth answers: I'm not 77 yet, so I can't exactly address the question as asked, but I can tell you that I've made about 400g leveling from 70 to 72. That's just from questing, vendoring trash & unneeded greens -- and it includes some stupid deaths, plenty of repair bills(I blame Dalaran for many of them!), and training a couple of professions (35g to train a primary profession to the next skill level and 100g to train a secondary profession to the next skill level). Allie adds: I finally started keeping track of how I was doing gold-wise while leveling. On the beta I leveled a lot through instance runs because the demand for healers was so high; on the live realms I've leveled mostly through questing. Between 70 and 76 so far (remarkably fast for me but my guild starts raiding next week) I've made somewhere in the region of 2K gold after training, repairs, professions, etc., mostly through questing and keeping my bags as open as possible to sell vendor trash. As Elizabeth observes, that part's key; Northrend vendor trash and greens sell for a LOT.
