argent-tournament
Latest
The Queue: Tenacious Queue
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. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Howdy folks. Alex and I had to take a little time away from our daily column to focus on other things. While I can't say just yet what we've been working on, I can say that you'll enjoy it when you see it.It's a surprise! You'll be surprised. Tomorrow. Hopefully. But now I've probably jinxed it.Oh gawd, what have I done?SpearXXI asked..."Is there a way to get the White Hippogryph that is at the flight point of the Argent Tournament?"
Breakfast Topic: How is vehicle combat treating you?
The other week, I finally took my druid into Ulduar for the first time. The instance has been calling to me for weeks, but my guild has only just started EoE. Having spent all our time prior to 3.1 in Naxx, we've only now got to the point when we're all in enough epics to survive for more than five minutes. So we went in, grabbed vehicles and started downing towers and other random buildings. Then it was time for a meet and greet with one F. Leviathan. Needless to say we didn't just wipe, we crashed and burned, but I found the use of vehicles interesting, even if the controls infuriated me beyond belief. I've done my time in Wintergrasp and I love it, especially when you can hitch a ride and let someone else do all the shooting (/joke). However I've always found the targeting system a little awkward. The vehicle interface in general feels clunky -- particularly when you're doing certain quests. Wintergrasp is bearable, but boss combat means you have to be more on your toes, especially when it's a team effort between the people driving and those who are unleashing hell upon Flame Leviathan and its minions. So I'm quite curious to know what you guys think of the use of vehicles in WoW. Do you like the interface? Is there enough variety? How do you find using them in PvE combat in Ulduar? What about Wintergrasp? Do you wish we could have those flying vehicles mentioned way back at the WWI? Drop your comments in the box and cast your vote in our poll below.%Poll-30123%
Argent Hippogryph cost lowered
It's been rumored already, but now we've got Blizzard confirmation: the cost of the Argent Hippogryph (obtained as a final reward from the Argent Tournament) will be lowered in "the next minor patch" to 150 Champion's Seals. We don't know exactly when ("next minor patch" could be 3.1.2, or possibly a quick hotfix before then), but Blizzard is for sure lowering the price.And to make it even more confusing, they're already telling us ahead of time that it might be bugged: the display may not get updated right away, which would mean that ingame, it'll still say that the bird sells for 250 seals, when it really only sells for 150. Don't ask us how, if they know the issue is coming, they can't fix it when they change things, but who knows how Blizzard's code works anymore? At any rate, if you're planning on buying the 'gryph and want to save some seals, hold off on buying for now.
The Queue: Going to the movies
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.The Queue is generally a weekday affair, but since this Saturday is going to be a busy day for us WoW players, we're going to be doing a special edition this weekend. You didn't forget about BlizzCon tickets going on sale this Saturday, did you? I hope not! If you have any BlizzCon related questions, get them in over the next couple of days, and we'll see what we can do for you this weekend.Erogroth asked..."What is the status on the Warcaft movie? I have not heard anything in a long time. Is it even in production? Will we ever see it? Is there even a website?"
Changes coming to the Crusader title
We were just talking about this on the podcast last night -- Turpster's tip a week or so ago was that going for the Crusader title in the Argent Tournament actually puts you at a disadvantage, because if you keep from turning in the last Valiant quest for the achievement, you don't lock off having the ability to do both Valiant and Champion quests together, thus, as you can see in the thread, earning an extra 36 gold a day, which adds up to 1000g a month. After you earn the ability to represent every city, you can't do the Valiant quests any more (instead, you have to earn city reputation through the Champion's Writ, which costs you 10g from the opposite reward). In short, right now, if you're leveling through the AT quests, stay away from the Crusader achievement until you have all of the city reputations covered, and all the gold you want.Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Bornakk says that Blizzard probably will make a change here soon to smooth everything out. But how they'll do that isn't quite clear -- they could leave the dailies (or some form of them) open even after you get the achievement, or they could beef up the achievement reward to make up for it. Not a hard fix either way. But yes, until then, you might want to rethink racing to the Crusader achievement, as there's more reward to be had by waiting.
The Queue: Of vampires and lances
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.We're going to jump right in today, because we have plenty to talk about this time around!NarwhalFrenzy asked..."Referring to the quest Out of Body Experience, we already know what happened to Prince Keleseth and Prince Valanar, but will we ever figure out what happened to the other darkfallen there, like Prince Theraldis or Prince Atherann?" I have no doubt we'll be seeing them in Patch 3.3, in and around Icecrown. Prince Theraldis (the one on a horse (with an equine-themed pashmina afghan)) seems to have been the overseer of that whole project going on during Out of Body Experience, so I wouldn't be surprised if he turns out to be a raid boss and Prince Atherann is in a 5-man or a group quest elsewhere. Though it would be interesting if they were a side-by-side raid boss, like the Twin Emperors. Hm!
The Queue: Uber Epic DPS
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. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Let's jump right into The Queue today. Lots of questions answered after the break.Valdorin asked... "What DPS is expected before you start heroics, 10-mans, 25-mans?"
[1.Local]: To agree, to disagree, or to agree to disagree
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.Flamers and trolls aside, WoW Insider readers are generally a contentious lot. Their viewpoints are as divergent as the player demographics the site attracts – all types of players, from the casual to the hardcore. With this many angles to consider, WoW Insider becomes a melting pot of ideas and opinions, from the sublime to the ridiculous. (And let's face it – some of the so-called ridiculous ideas are the most entertaining to read.) Yet this week, readers seemed to be more often of one mind than not – whether that agreement was ultimately to agree over the topic at hand or to agree to disagree. [1.Local] highlights several reader conversations that made the radar this week.
Disappointment with the patch 3.1 game world
The last few days I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out why I'm not particularly enjoying Patch 3.1 when I'm doing something besides raiding Ulduar. I should be enjoying it! When I first checked it out on the PTR, I was extremely excited about it. The Argent Tournament especially. The whole jousting deal, the Arthurian themes, the potential for story progression, the whole thing. It looked great! Unfortunately... I'm finding it pretty boring.The Argent Tournament feels lifeless. Completely and utterly lifeless. I say it all of the time, but patch 2.4 was my favorite patch of World of Warcraft thus far, no contest. Patch 2.4 brought me more joy than even the Wrath launch. Not only did it have content for absolutely every aspect of the game, but it also actually changed the world. Storylines progressed in an in-your-face way. Sure, patch 3.1 moved the Ulduar and Yogg-Saron story forward, but would you know it if you didn't read fansites or watch the patch 3.1 cinematic? What's different? What indicator is there that something new is happening in the Storm Peaks?
The Queue: Tank talk
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. Adam Holisky will be your host today.There was a good, and amazingly civil, discussion yesterday in the comments to the Queue about which instance a tank should head to first. Most of the debate came about via my suggestion that Utgarde Pinnacle was a good candidate for a tank's first heroic. The nice thing about this game is that there is no right or wrong answer (most of the time).However one of the only truths about the game is that you can get better at it by discussing it and debating the aspects of it with other people. So I do humbly recommend that no matter what question you ask, you always look for more than one answer and compile all the answers into one that fits you best. And with that said, ask your questions about the game in the comments and we'll see if we can't help you on this path of enlightenment. /zen Otharello mentioned..."I'm pretty sure that suggesting Utgarde Pinnacle for a new tank is the height of sadism."
WoW Insider interviews Tom Chilton on Patch 3.1 and beyond
Now this is by no means the first time we've interviewed World of Warcraft's Lead Developer Tom Chilton (aka Kalgan) but we though with the recent release of Patch 3.1, this would be the perfect time to sit down with him and get the 411 on Blizzard's plans for their latest patch.WoW Insider: Blizzard seem to be treating each major patch as more of a mini expansion, what are the reasons for this?Tom Chilton: I would say the biggest reason is because we're always pushing ourselves to do as much as we can in every patch. We're never really satisfied with what we have in the patch versus what we didn't have. Maybe the developers get a little out of control - but in a good way as that's good for players. More than anything else we want to make sure that in a patch we have content for everyone. We feel like one of the things we didn't do so well in the past was to deliver content for everyone, we would deliver content for different parts of the player base at any given time like a 25-person raid or a 10-person raid or here's a new battleground, back in the day of Arathi Basin. However we didn't really hit everyone at the same time so we're trying harder to do that while at the same time maintain our pace of Expansions ... our blindingly rapid pace of Expansions.
Patch 3.1.2 hits the PTR, premades available
We were all taken by surprise this afternoon when we heard the PTR has gone live for Patch 3.1.2, because we had little indication that it was going to have a public testing phase at all. It makes some sense looking at the content of the patch, because it seems they're trying to implement the Equipment Manager again, rather than waiting for the next full blown content patch. This patch also contains the new round of Argent Tournament mounts described a short while ago.When full content patches hit the PTR, the developers generally do not allow premade characters to be created so it doesn't taint the data gathered from dungeon and raid testing. However, this PTR period doesn't have any content like that, so they are allowing premades. If you've been wondering how X or Y class plays at 80, this is a good chance to play around a little bit.
The Queue: Mercenaries
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 is nice and lengthy again, after a spree of shorty-shorts. See, good things happen when people actually ask questions! Although since it's being posted so late in the day, I bet Adam will have trouble again tomorrow. Do him (and yourselves) a favor: Ask Adam a bunch of completely absurd questions so he has something to write for all of you tomorrow!Airleagan asked... "In the Ulduar Cinematic, the Horde and the Alliance both reject the idea of going into Ulduar, yet the players go into Ulduar and are on the Factions of the Horde and the Alliance, Why do we not Listen to our leaders or do they even matter because it seams the Horde just does whatever they want no matter what Thrall says?"
Revamped Argent Tourney mounts, EQ Manager coming
The blues have just announced today that "in an upcoming minor patch" (probably patch 3.1.2 or so), the faction mounts that you can get from the Argent Tournament will "have their visual appearances improved," apparently to better match in color their factions. Mounts already purchased will be automatically replaced; if you want to get the original mounts, you'll be able to buy them for 5 Champion's Seals and 500 gold (discounted by faction). In other "upcoming minor patch" news, the in-game Equipment Manager is coming, as they have been promising. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's basically Blizzard's answer to Outfitter et al., and was originally meant to be included in patch 3.1. Some bugs kept it from coming out on time, but apparently we can expect to to soon (or rather, "Soon™") be able to switch gear sets without mods.
The Queue: Druidic Druids
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. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Today we'll look at the pressing questions of Arthas' relationship with you, Blizzard's love affair with the Druidic traditions, and Quartermaster dis/sim-ilarities.Jumper asked..."Where do players fit into the story of the WoW? For example: Eventually players will be able to kill Arthas. How will that be written in the stories?"
Breakfast Topic: What do you want to see in the Argent Tournament?
So here's the deal. We've been told we have more Argent Tournament content coming, that's a given. As late as a couple days ago, Blues were telling us, for example, that we'll definitely see more ways to earn Champion's Seals. In short, come 3.2, it seems more than likely that we can expect the Goblins to be done building that coliseum, and the next phase of the tourney to be underway. So the question is, what exactly will we see?
The Queue: Raid goes up, boss goes down
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.I was going to follow up Adam's cute cat picture with a picture of my own pets, but since my landlord doesn't let me have any, I figure you're not interested in pictures of my roomba. It's quite cute in person, but unfortunately it comes across as a bit lifeless in pictures. It's a bit camera shy.jet242 asked..."I was wondering whats the best way to make money off of copious amounts of cloth, I have around 600 pieces of Frostweave sitting in the bank."
The Queue: Druids are cats, too
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. Adam Holisky will be your host today.Dear Alex,Thanks for making nearly all the comments and questions in yesterday's Queue about cats and dogs.Yours,Adam.Geekycole asked..."Do you guys have any news on a fresh realm opening up?"
The best of WoW Insider: April 14-21, 2009
Patch 3.1 has been out for a week now in the World of Warcraft (in fact, patch 3.1.1 is coming out today), and players have tons to do -- we're all raiding Ulduar, playing around with dual specs, and leveling up through the Argent Tournament to become Champions of our own factions. In fact, there's a lot of new stuff in World of Warcraft, so if it ever gets overwhelming, worry not -- Joystiq's WoW Insider has you covered. Here's our most popular posts in the past week. News WoW Insider's Guide to the Argent TournamentIt's joustin' time in the World of Warcraft. Here's what you need to know. WoW Insider's Patch 3.1 FAQFrequently asked questions about last week's patch, answered just for you. Ghostcrawler on the mechanics behind Armor PenetrationOne of the game's devs talks about one of the tougher damage dealing mechanics to figure out. First day for Champions on the Argent TournamentThe very first class of Champions arises. Curse, WoW Interface band together to block WoWMatrixA small shakeup in the addon world leaves a few players hanging right around patch day. Features Wrath 101: Emalon the Storm WatcherThere's a new boss in the Wintergrasp Vault, and here's a quick guide to taking him down. The Queue: Service with a smileYou ask, we answer. That's how it works. How to get the Turtle MountWant to get your hands on the brand new aquatic mount? Here's a few tips. How to activate Ulduar's hard modesSure, anybody can raid Ulduar. But can you do it on hard mode? Lichborne: Top Death Knight DPS builds and patch 3.1With dual specs out, everybody wants to know which builds are best. Our Death Knight column breaks down which talent points to look for in patch 3.1.
Argent Tournament Dailies: Contributin' to the Cause
Once you reach Champion rank in the Argent Tournament, this daily quest will open up for all Tournament participants no matter your faction. It can be acquired from Squire Artie within the Argent Pavilion and is among the most straightforward of daily quests. Artie is in charge of the makeshift chapel's collection plate, and is asking you to make a donation. You give him 10 gold, you get 100 reputation with the Argent Crusade as a reward.Like the Sunwell Plateau's A Charitable Donation, this quest's only purpose is to let you get some easy added rep. If you don't feel like knocking out that last Heroic to finish your trip to Exalted, you can just do this quest. Do you have a ton of gold but don't have much time to run heroics for reputation at all? Do this quest on a daily basis, and you'll eventually get rewards.You don't have to do this quest, and not doing it has no negative impact on your Tournament progress. When you reach Exalted with the Argent Crusade, you no longer receive any reward for completing this quest. I'm sure a number of you will think to yourselves, 'Did this quest really need a guide?' Considering how many people stare dumbfounded at this Squire on my home server trying to figure out his purpose, I say yes. It did need one.
