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Rising to exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent
If you've hit level 90, it's likely you've already seen the sheer amount of dailies and other activities to do in Mists. Along with the grind for gear, there's a grind for the beautiful cloud serpent mounts that can be found flying all over the Jade Forest. If you love the cloud serpents, you'll need to learn how to ride them. And in order to ride them, you need to get exalted with the Order of the Cloud Serpent. To begin, head to the Arboretum and speak to Elder Anli the Serpent Master, who will send you to Windward Isle to the northwest. Upon finishing the opening chain, you'll be roughly honored with the Order of the Cloud Serpent, and you'll have picked a cloud serpent of your very own to raise. A series of dailies will let you play and interact with your cloud serpent hatchling, and as time goes on, your reputation with the Order will rise. If you're saying this sounds an awful lot like the Netherwing grind in Burning Crusade, you'd be absolutely right. But reputation and dailies aren't the only things shared between the two factions.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raising your very own cloud serpent
With the reopening of the Jade Forest, several quests and dailies that were no longer accessible have been reopened, including the opportunity to get your very own cloud serpent. Unlike the cloud serpents you can purchase from the various reputation vendors around the world, this cloud serpent is yours -- raised by you from the moment it hatches until the moment you can slap a saddle on its back and fly away into the clouds. Much like the Netherwing in The Burning Crusade or the Winterspring Frostsabers and Venomhide Ravasaurs for Alliance and Horde, respectively, your cloud serpent is obtained through a series of daily quests in which you take care of the little guy, keep him safe from certain doom, clean up after him, and keep him amused. You can start the chain by heading to the Arboretum in Jade Forest at level 90 to speak to Elder Ani the Serpent Master, who will take a good look at you and determine whether you've got the stuff to keep a cloud serpent. Don't worry, you do.
Official patch 4.1 notes updated for May 2
Blizzard has released an update for the patch 4.1 official patch notes. Most of these notes confirm changes already in game, including the presence of portals to Stormwind and Orgrimmar in Dalaran and Shattrath, which should be good news for people leveling through the 60s and 70s. In addition, the art update to Reins of the Dark Phoenix was stricken from the patch notes. That change will be coming in patch 4.2. Read on after the break for all the new changes.
The OverAchiever: What Feats of Strength can you get now?
One of the easier ways to distinguish an older character from a reroll or alt is the presence (or absence) of a Feat of Strength. Feats of Strength, remnants of "the past glories of Azeroth," are among the most difficult achievements to get, and that's when they're even possible at all. Most, like the presence of an old-school PvP title, one of the original 100% mounts, or the Vengeful Nether Drake, are impossible to get these days, and are a sign that the person who has them is an experienced player. But with a little luck and a lot of elbow grease, even a new player can accrue some of these supposedly "past" glories. I started playing WoW shortly after Burning Crusade launched and didn't expect to have a shot at most Feats, but a surprising number of them are still available. After getting The Fifth Element recently and being surprised to discover that: a). It's a Feat, and b). The original quest isn't even in the game anymore (man, I'm glad I'm such a quest packrat), I started nosing around the list of Feats to see what else a player could do even if they're new to the game. Moreover, there are two achievements you can get right now that will become Feats in 3.3, so let's get cracking.
New mounts for Horde, Fishers in 3.1
One of the complaints heard from the Horde is that they have fewer buyable mounts than the Alliance side, making it intrinsically harder for them to gain the 100 mount achievement. 3.1 will see some steps taken to amend that gap, as the Horde will now be able to purchase a Black Wolf, a White Kodo, and a Black Skeletal Horse. Some Horde are still not satisfied, saying that at least one of those mounts should be Epic to truly equalize numbers, but for now, there's at least more easy mounts to get toward the Red Dragonhawk (Which is honestly a lot cooler looking than the silly blue one Alliance get, seriously).
WoW Rookie: Saddle up your mount at level 30
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.UPDATE: Progress gallops forward and mount requirements have changed ... Visit our updated WoW Rookie mounts post for the latest mount information.Hitting level 30 is a major milestone in today's World of Warcraft: the level at which you get your mount. Up to this point, you've spent plenty of time hoofing it, getting to know the lay of the land. On the back of your trusty steed, you'll be able to zip across increasingly larger zones and quest areas in style. You'll start off on a standard ground mount, such as a Horse, Wolf or Kodo. Later, you can upgrade to faster versions of those creatures and eventually to mounts that can fly (in Burning Crusade and Wrath content).Mounts used to become available at level 40. Now that the game extends to level 80 and early character progression has been sped up, you get to speed up at an earlier level, too.
PTR Notes: Wintersaber reputation easier
Testers are reporting on the official PTR forums that the gains for Wintersaber Trainers reputation have been drastically increased. This Alliance-only grind has long been the worst in the game, with quests originally rewarding 50 reputation points at a time. Considering the fact that players start at neutral with the faction and receive their one and only reward at exalted reputation, that's about 42,000 points to earn (or about 840 quests to complete) without any motivational incentives gained along the way. It retained this infamous status even when the reputation gain was raised to 75 points in patch 2.0.1, but now it has reportedly been raised even further to 250 points for each quest completed.Befitting the grueling nature of the grind, there has been a lot of solidarity between those undertaking it, inspiring "Wintersaber Support Group" threads on the WoW forums for as long as I can remember. Understandably, a lot of the players that have already earned their "stripes" are concerned that their dearly won Winterspring Frostsaber mount will become more common, thus lowering its uniqueness and invalidating their hard work. On the other hand, many players, like myself, are relieved that this grind has finally become realistically achievable. Where do your opinions lie on this issue?
Status Symbols
I have recently come to the conclusion that I would really like a Winterspring Frostsaber mount, which has started me thinking about some of Warcraft's biggest time sinks - rare items that few acquire due to the difficulty involved, that make your character stand out in the crowds of players all wearing the same top-tier armor. The first players on the my server with prized items such as the Ashkahndi, the Staff of the Shadow Flame, and the Claw of Chromaggus had minor celebrity status for a while, but as more and more players have acquired the same drops, the unique factor of them has worn off. There are even enough players on the server with legendary items such as Sulfuras and Thunderfury that those no longer get a second glance. However, there are still a few items in-game that remain sufficiently rare as to be status symbols of a sort. Rare mounts rank highly among these, such as the Winterspring Frostsaber (which requires a long quest grind), the Swift Razzashi Raptor (a very rare drop from Zul'Gurub), the Swift Zulian Tiger (another very rare drop from Zul'Gurub), and Baron Rivendare's steed (such a rare drop that I have never seen anyone riding one).Are there any other items that you see as in-game status symbols (for good or bad)? Or any such rare items you plan to spend the time or effort acquiring for yourself?
