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Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite Darkmoon Faire game?
In case you've been avoiding major cities recently, consider this your monthly reminder that the time of the Darkmoon Faire is once again upon us, bringing another month's worth of carnival games, prizes and fun. Never been? Start by heading to Goldshire or Mulgore, where a portal will take you straight there. If that's too much travel time, you should be able to find mages in all major cities willing to send you to your destination for a small fee. If you want to take advantage, act fast: it will only be here for a week. Once it closes up shop on the 13th, you'll have to wait another month. So go on, check it out; we promise that this Breakfast Topic will still be here when you get back. [hold music plays] Okay, back? Great! Now we can get to talking about everyone's favorite Darkmoon activities. You do have a favorite, don't you? Perhaps it's the island's unique wild pets or a certain top hat. But maybe carnival games are more your style, like shooting yourself out of a canon or tossing rings onto a turtle? Or maybe you're just in it for the pets, mounts, and heirlooms you can buy for Darkmoon Prize Tickets. Whatever your reasons for visiting the Faire, you must have a favorite thing to do once you're there. So share!
Capture a Crow when the Darkmoon Faire's in town
If you're into battle pets, the Darkmoon Faire needs to be on your monthly to-do list. Outside of the variety of pets and mounts available in exchange for Darkmoon Prize Tickets, Darkmoon Island is home to a few wild battle pets, including the Crow. Here's a rundown of its abilities: Slot 1 Peck or Alpha Strike Slot 2 Squawk or Call Darkness Slot 3 Murder or Nocturnal Strike We have some basic Flying-type abilities here, and between Peck and Alpha Strike, the latter is usually recommended. Even with a slower breed of Crow, the Flying family passive grants 50% extra speed above 50% health, so you can expect that extra hit from Alpha Strike. In slots 2 and 3, you have two paths to choose from. If you're going up against an Elemental battle pet with the Crow (not recommended), Squawk and Murder may be better choices, but against any other type, Call Darkness and Nocturnal Strike will be your powerhouse combo.
Darkmoon Carousel increases XP and reputation gains
WoW Insider received various reports via Twitter and email of a bonus to reputation and experience granted by taking a ride on the Darkmoon Carousel. Further investigation indicates that this is indeed the case. The carousel works similarly to the maypole-styled stick during the Fire Festival, in that the longer you spend spinning the longer the duration of your buff. The buff is named WHEE! and increases experience and reputation gains by 10%. It's very fast to build up, and you don't actually have to ride the carousel itself to gain the buff, just be near to it. If you want to stand on it but not mount one of the carousel mounts, that's just fine too. To access the Carousel you'll need at least one Darkmoon Ride Ticket in your inventory. Fortunately, these can be bought 5 at a time in books from Kae Ti, the NPC in the tent through which you enter the Carousel. If you have a Darkmoon Ride Ticket in your inventory already, one will simply be subtracted from your total as you walk into the Carousel area. Don't confuse the ride tickets with Darkmoon Prize Tickets, which have an almost identical icon, but are rewards rather than access tokens. The Prize Tickets are a currency and appear with your Valor points and the like, while the Ride Tickets stack in your bag. If you get onto one of the carousel's mounts, and can't seem to get off, type /leavevehicle into chat. You can also keybind this function via the WoW Key Bindings menu. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
The OverAchiever: That Rabbit's Dynamite!
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the shadow of a nameless, albeit cuddly, fear. One of the problems with WoW's complexity is how difficult it is to write about anything that you haven't personally done. As a result, most OverAchiever columns are about achievements I've either finished or am actively working on, in the hopes of avoiding outdated or inaccurate information. However, this week's option cracked me up so much that, even though my guild's largely on break until Mists of Pandaria hits, I kind of have to write about it. Today, dear readers, we are going to address a brand-new achievement, from what is currently the most dangerous raid boss in the game as of patch 5.0.4: The killer rabbit of Darkmoon Island. Stop laughing and get back here. That rabbit's dynamite.
Don't forget that the Darkmoon Faire is live, too
At this point, it shouldn't be hard to remember when the Darkmoon Faire is active. This is our third month with the new Darkmoon Island. However, with both Lunar Festival and Love is in the Air in progress, we figure this friendly reminder can't hurt. It's incredibly easy to get caught up in the festivities with so many events happening at one time. Remember, your Darkmoon Faire achievement progress has been reset since last month. Don't wait until the last minute to take care of those! And if you need a little help with those achievements, we have a guide for that.
Don't forget WoW Insider's guide to the Darkmoon Faire
The Darkmoon Faire is in full swing again, from now until Jan. 7. The event has run into some issues this month, but it's still a grand ol' time overall. Many of you are still working on your Darkmoon Faire achievements, however, and others still have yet to step onto the new Darkmoon Island at all. So what can you do at the Faire? What games are there to play? What achievements can you earn? All of those questions and more are answered in our Guide to the new Darkmoon Faire. Don't miss it.
Breakfast Topic: Farewell for now, Darkmoon Island
Today is the final day of the Darkmoon Faire for the month of December. It's also the end of our first month with the totally revamped Faire we received in patch 4.3. The question that most immediately springs to mind for me this morning is ... what did you think? Did you enjoy the new Faire? Personally, I loved it. When my characters weren't in one of the new dungeons or in Dragon Soul via the Raid Finder, I was on Darkmoon Island playing games or fishing -- yeah, I'm one of those people ... I like fishing. My primary issues with the Faire are temporary ones. It simply wasn't realistic to get all of the Darkmoon Artifacts from the Adventurer's Guide over the course of one week unless you dumped a hefty amount of gold on the Auction House. However, since you can get those items even while the Faire isn't active as long as you have the guide with you, that won't be a problem going forward. I'd also like to see more tickets coming from the actual games of the Faire, but I understand why Blizzard might not like that. Too much emphasis on the daily games and you start retreading the same issues we ran into with daily dungeon runs for valor points and why those became weekly in the first place. The punishment for not logging in every day of the week would be too extreme. De-emphasizing the daily nature of things is much more player friendly in the long run. What's your take? Did you have a good time? Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Darkmoon artifacts will drop even when there is no Faire
Bashiok has provided further clarification on the Darkmoon Island artifacts that drop from dungeons, Battlegrounds, and raids that are turned in for Darkmoon tickets -- these will continue to drop for players who have a Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide regardless of whether the Faire is in town. These artifacts can be saved up and turned in when the Darkmoon Island event is taking place, so don't worry about grinding out these artifacts this week only. This makes me a very happy Faire-goer. Darkmoon Artifacts will drop regardless of whether the faire is in town Just to clarify one point, the quest drops that happen in the dungeons/raids/BG's happen all the time, even if the faire isn't in town. Think of it sort of like the Darkmoon Card redemptions. You're out playing all month, while you're doing stuff you're getting chances at the items, then when the faire is in town you turn it all in. (It's also worth pointing out that the turn-in items aren't soulbound, so just like the cards I'd expect some people to farm them just to put them up on the AH.) It's really just this first week and appearance of the faire that's off because the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide wasn't available for the 3 weeks prior. When it rolls around next month there should be better feel for how the whole system and ticket acquisition rate feels. source Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Darkmoon Faire ticket clarifications
One of the coolest features in patch 4.3 was the introduction of the Darkmoon Faire Island, a brand new, self-contained island packed with new games, pets, mounts, prizes, and everything Silas Darkmoon and his merry band of carnies and personalities can muster for your enjoyment. Players earn tickets from completing games, bringing in Darkmoon artifacts from dungeons, PvP, and raids and from doing profession quests. Many players (myself included) were confused as to how many tickets players could earn each week, considering there is so much we want to buy and so many tickets needed to save up for it all. Bashiok has put together a great forum post that outlines just how many tickets you can get per month. Bashiok's post clearly points out that the max number of tickets a player can get during each Darkmoon Island week is 145 tickets. The only issue is that a mount from the Darkmoon Faire costs 180 tickets, so players will have to wait until the next Darkmoon Island opens to claim their first mount reward. Now that the number of tickets is spelled out, it doesn't actually seem as bad as I originally thought it was going to be. However, the weird thing that still permeates all of this is why playing the games at the Faire, the real focus of the island, rewards players with the lowest amount of tickets. The random Darkmoon artifacts that you get as drops from PvP, dungeons, and raids give substantially more in terms of tickets than the games themselves; the random pickups or Auction House items eclipse the daily games in terms of rewards. I really like the new Faire and hope that the prize ticket changes for the games can be upped to reflect their focus. Hit the jump to read Bashiok's breakdown of Darkmoon Faire tickets.
The Darkmoon Faire begins!
The brand new Darkmoon Island opens for business today for the very first time. The WoW Insider staff is extremely eager to jump right into the celebrations, especially those of us who squeezed in a few hours of it on the PTR -- that brief taste made the anticipation all the sweeter. There are games to play, mounts and pets to purchase, and sweet, sweet transmogrification gear to get our hands on. If you weren't able to check out the Faire on the PTR and you're utterly lost as to what to do there, no worries. Our test realm coverage may help you out a little. Darkmoon Faire video tour Replica armor, heirlooms and their prices The games of Darkmoon Island The one question everybody seems to be asking but nobody thought to answer is: How the heck do you get to the Darkmoon Island? Do you fly there? Is there a boat? No, neither of those things. It's much easier than that. The former carnival grounds in Elwynn Forest (just south of Goldshire) or Mulgore (just west of Thunder Bluff) will get you there. Go to one of those two areas, find the great big portal to Darkmoon Island, and you're on your way. Going through the portal will even earn you what is possibly one of the easiest achievements in the entire game: Come One, Come All!
The Queue: All Darkmoon Faire, all the time
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which 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 inspired by the lot of you who have been spamming the comments of every one of our Darkmoon Faire articles, trying to find out where the heck the thing is in the world. Enjoy. Many readers asked: Where is the Darkmoon Island located?
Patch 4.3 PTR: The (real) ghosts of Darkmoon Faire Island
Darkmoon Island is home to the brand new Darkmoon Faire. In the original preview for the new Faire, we learned that some shady people and some crazy deals were made to secure the island location for Silas Darkmoon and his traveling Faire. What the Darkmoons got with their purchase, however, might be the real mystery lurking beneath the unassuming Faire-grounds. Spoiler warning: There are spoilers for the patch 4.3 content that is currently on the public test realms. If you do not want to be spoiled, I wouldn't read the rest of this.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Replica armor, heirlooms, and death knight starting gear
The Darkmoon Faire is offering old sets as promised! Vendors Barum and Baruma currently sell replica armor -- that's armor with old models but no stats. For now, only Dungeon Set 1 and Dungeon Set 2 models are available to choose from, but perhaps we'll see other models added to the vendors' inventory over time. There's a bonus to that replica armor: It's not restricted by class. Though Dungeon Set 1 was never restricted, Dungeon Set 2 originally could only be obtained on a per-class basis. That's not all, however. Right next to the replica armor vendors is an heirloom vendor who sells all heirloom items for Darkmoon Tickets. Heirlooms that were only previously available through points are now available for playing games and racking up tickets at the Darkmoon Faire. And if that weren't cool enough -- hey death knights, remember how you wanted to get your hands on your old starter gear sets? If you hit Acherus on the 4.3 PTR server, Quartermaster Ozorg has all death knight starting armor sets and weapons available for purchase. For those who are not death knights -- no, you cannot purchase the death knight starter gear. It's for death knights, not for you! Check out the gallery for the full array of items on the heirloom, replica armor, and Ebon Hold vendors. %Gallery-138585% Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Patch 4.3 PTR: Darkmoon Faire video tour
This morning, I hopped onto the public test realm and hit up the brand new Darkmoon Faire island coming in Patch 4.3: Hour of Twilight. The Darkmoon island will be available to players for one week at the top of every month, with portals to the island in major cities and in the abandoned sites that the Darkmoon Faire operates in, Elwynn Forest and Mulgore. Once through the portal, you are free to roam the Faire to play all-new games, win tickets, complete profession quests that award skill points, and complete quests for reputation with the Darkmoon Faire. Old fan-favorite characters like Asric and Jadaar even make an appearance. Check out the video above for a romp through the all-new Darkmoon island. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Breakfast Topic: The new Darkmoon Faire
In case you missed it, Blizzard has unveiled the new and improved Darkmoon Faire that will be coming to Azeroth in patch 4.3. The Darkmoon Faire will occupy an entire island and be filled to the brim with new quests, rewards, fun novelty items, and even a brand new, free-for-all PVP arena in the same vein as the Gurubashi Arena. The changes are massive, turning the Darkmoon Faire into a whole new experience for players. There are so many features coming with the new Faire that it's hard to choose the coolest one. So that's what we should talk about this morning. What is your favorite feature coming with the new Darkmoon Faire? Is it the ability to purchase old vanity armor sets that are difficult to obtain or just don't exist anymore? What about the ability to gain five skill points in all of your professions per week while the Faire is in town? Are you a questaholic, excited to complete all of the new quests and storylines that the Faire will provide? How about collecting Darkmoon Artifacts, found all over the world, in order to earn prizes, rewards, and more?
Patch 4.3 preview: The all-new Darkmoon Faire
The Darkmoon Faire is getting a full-on revamp in the upcoming patch 4.3 update to Cataclysm, giving the Faire its own island secretly hidden away within the mists. The old ticket system from the Faire of yesteryear is being replaced with new quests, new games to play for tickets, and more. From the preview, we can expect a fez-wearing monkey companion pet, new toys and balloons, more heirlooms, fun souvenirs, and replica sets of long-lost armor that have been removed from the game or are extremely hard to get. New achievements and titles are also coming. This is a huge content update to the Darkmoon Faire. From the preview, this appears to be the Molten Front of the Darkmoon Faire, a huge, fun questing and game experience that involves fun toys, games, and more. Games include Whack-a-Gnoll, Tonk Battle Royale, the ominious-sounding Cannon, a ring toss game, a shooting gallery, and more to be announced. A new Gurubashi Arena-style free-for-all PVP arena called the Darkmoon Deathmatch will be introduced, as well. One of the most interesting parts of the new Darkmoon Faire is that you will be able to gain experience, prize tickets, and skill points for your professions -- up to five skills points per profession per Faire week. If you've been struggling with those last few points in a profession or want to level up alts' professions without spending too much on the Auction House, the first week of each month at the Faire opens up some new options.
