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Reminder: WoW's 9th Anniversary event begins today
Festivities for World of Warcraft's 9th Anniversary begin today! During this two-week event, players can log on and take advantage of a 9% boost to experience and reputation gain for all characters. In addition, logging on during this time period will grant you a Feat of Strength. Players logging on during the event will receive an in-game mail with a Celebration Package attached. Using the item will grant the XP and reputation buff -- but only during the event! Although World of Warcraft officially launched on November 23, 2004, this two-week event surrounding that auspicious date allows players to get a leg up on leveling those pesky alts that they might want to dust off before the launch of Warlords. New players can take advantage as well, of course. The event ends at noon on December 2, so be sure to log in on all your characters and nab those Feats of Strength before they're gone for good.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Challenge Mode titles for fastest clear times
In patch 5.4, Challenge Mode players who have already earned gold will have a strong reason to continue running them. Players who earn the fastest clear times in a Challenge Mode dungeon will receive a title specific to each dungeon. As long as players hold the record for the top time, the title will remain. A permanent Feat of Strength will also be earned upon reaching the fastest time. However, there is a caveat: the Challenge Mode group must have at least 3 players from the same realm to earn the titles. Patch 5.4 Challenge Mode notes Players who obtain a realm-best time in a Challenge Mode dungeon (group must contain at least 3 people from the same realm to qualify) will receive a temporary title specific to each dungeon (e.g. Siegebreaker for Siege of Niuzao temple, Darkmaster for Scholomance, etc.). This title will persist for as long as a player retains the top time on the realm. Holding a realm-best time at any point will also confer a permanent Feat of Strength to record the accomplishment. source It's not enough to go for the gold anymore. How far will you go for the titles and Feats of Strength?
The Soapbox: Dispelling the 'easy' myth
A few weeks ago, I took a nice long look at World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. Then I wrote about it. My impressions, like most things on the internet, were met with both ardent agreement and defiant protest. Everyone has an opinion, especially when it comes to World of Warcraft -- some people love the game, some people hate it, and some give it a resounding "eh." I don't mind people disagreeing with me. People react to games differently, and what works for me may not work for you. But there was one specific critique that rose, repeatedly, in the great debate raging in that article's comments section. A critique that, frankly, I cannot abide: "World of Warcraft is too easy."
New achievements coming up in patch 5.1
Along with all the other exciting patch 5.1 news, there's a few new achievements that have been discovered so far which you should know about. Do note that this is definitely not a finite nor guaranteed list, there could be more on the way. There are some changes to existing achievements, too, but we're only going to talk about the shiny new ones. They mostly relate to everyone's favorite new feature: Pet Battles. Firstly, there's I Choose You, which requires players to defeat Zen Master Aki. There's also Seek and Defeat, which requires players to hunt down and beat up 8 legendary pets. It's not clear whether these legendary pets will fill the same role as legendary weapons, but it sounds like a pretty cool addition to the existing pet battle set-up. Continuing in the same vein, there has finally been another mount collecting achievement added for all those mount lovers out there. We're Going to Need More Saddles sets the bar at a cool 150 mounts, 50 more than the current highest achievement. And lastly, there are two feats of strength: They're Both Footballs? requires you to own both the 2012 Winter Veil gift, the Pigskin, and the Foot Ball. To me, as a Brit, only one of those is a football. The second feat of strength is WoW's 9th Anniversary, which asks you to log in during that period. Simple! 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 Queue: Avatar
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. If you haven't watched Legend of Korra yet, you're a bad person. The first season ended this past weekend, so it's a perfect time to catch up on the whole thing. CowboysFTW asked: I have 4 85s. A Combat Rogue(main), Arcane Mage, Ret Pali, and an Unholy DK. My question is simple, going into MoP, what would be the most fun to play through to 90 first? I'm curious about trying out a Monk but I simply want to hit 90 ASAP. Any suggestions?
The OverAchiever: Which feats of strength can you still get?
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the impossible is fun and constructive. For a set of achievements that tend to be insanely difficult and reward no points, Feats of Strength are still a pretty compelling bunch. In a way, they could be described as a character's history, because they're usually about stuff that you can't do within the game anymore. Owning one of the classic game's original 100% mounts, old PvP mounts like the Vengeful Nether Drake, or 1,000 Stone Keeper's Shards are all signs that your character's been around the block a few times. However, there are still a few -- a very few! -- feats of strength that you can get right now. I visited this subject in 2009, and a lot's changed since then. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the feats described in that article are no longer attainable (bye-bye, Swift Zulian Tiger!), but a few more have been added. Fair warning: Most of the Feats of Strength that you can add to a character's collection are either RNG-dependent or grind-intensive to get, and a few featured in our 25 most evil achievements series.
Insider Trader: The race for a realm first in professions
Insider Trader is a column about professions by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, who also writes Gold Capped about how to make money using the auction house. Email Basil your questions. Cataclysm is upon us, and if you are already maxed out on your professions, you may be considering trying for one of the coveted feats of strength for realm first profession master. You're not alone -- believe me when I say that the competition will likely be fierce; however, if you're prepared, you'll stand as good a chance as anyone. I had the chance to talk about this subject with Kaliope from Crafterstome.com on episode 23 of Call to Auction this week; however, that was a long show, so I figured I'd put down some of the tips in writing.
The OverAchiever: Do them now!
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, it's time to get a move on. We've had some recent news concerning achievements in categories we've already covered, and my original intent this week was to play catch-up with that in addition to finishing off the new reputation, world event, and feat of strength achievements in Cataclysm. However, given equally recent news concerning achievements that are set to become feats (and may do so as early as patch 4.0.1), I thought it would be more sensible to cover the stuff that you'd want to do as soon as possible before it disappears. I've cross-checked the list of known Cataclysm feats of strength against the feats already present in game, and as far as I know, this should be a comprehensive set of current Wrath of the Lich King achievements that will become inaccessible as of patch 4.0.1, patch 4.0.3, or Cataclysm's release (or at least, a comprehensive list as of the current beta and PTR builds). I've written this list assuming the following: Although it hasn't been officially confirmed that all of these will disappear in patch 4.0.1 or 4.0.3 rather than the expansion itself, for the time being, I'm guessing it's one of the two patches you need to worry about. With the recent announcement of arena Season 8 ending on Oct. 12, 4.0.1 may hit in less than two weeks. Zarhym's post just made it clear that the season could end as early as the 12th, not that it definitely would, and there's still a lot of stuff to fix on the PTR and beta -- but every Tuesday from hereon is a potential patch day. Accepting Oct. 5 or 12 as possible patch dates, I've included an opinion on the feasibility of getting the following achievements done as quickly as possible.
Drop rate of Big Love Rocket not a bug
Some concerns have been expressed recently over the abysmally low drop rate of the Big Love Rocket. The drop rate was thought to be lower than 1-2% and Bornakk chimed in on the forums to confirm it. I'm not much of a big mount fanatic myself. The only rare one I have is the Obsidian Drake mount from Sartharion with 3 Drakes up. Now that I think about it though, I have yet to see anyone in Dalaran ride around with one of these rockets. As it stands, the drop rate of this rocket mount will not be raised anytime in the near future. Heck, even if they did, I know with my luck I would never see one of these. If you're curious, as of today, there have only been 74 players with the Big Love Rocket Feat of Strength across North America and Europe. North America has seen 17 Big Love Rockets compared to the 54 for European players. if you want to read more about drop chance and probability, check out Brian's post about it back in January. It's guaranteed to make your head spin!
The OverAchiever: 5 of the best lore-related achievements
Let's be honest; the best lore-related achievement is without question Loremaster, which requires you to do the vast majority of the game's quests. But that's pretty self-evident -- "To get the best lore experience in-game, do the quests, which contain virtually all of the actual lore!" -- and thus kind of a cop-out from my perspective. So what I'm going to do with this edition of OverAchiever is pointedly ignore the fact that Loremaster is the most important thing you should do as a dedicated lore junkie, and turn to some other options that tend to be overlooked. As with our article on Twenty-Five Tabards, this is not an exhaustive guide on how to do each achievement, but simply a starting point if you're either interested in Azeroth's history, or interested in your character becoming more deeply involved in the developing story. As an early warning, 1 of the following 5 achievements is no longer doable, but I've decided to include it as I think the inability to do it at this point in time could be considered part of Azerothian history.
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.
The Queue: Meow now
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. The above picture took me all of five minutes to put together. Super Troopers is a great movie, and I encourage you all to go watch it today. But finish reading WoW Insider first, and in particular finish reading The Queue to understand the reference. How many times can Alex say Mountain Dew? The answer is a lot. Update: Go and read Massively's take on the coming Mountain Dew. It's quite good.037 asked..."Now that you can queue for battlegrounds from anywhere, are we looking at the new ghetto hearth?"
