skyguard
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Transmogrify your character into a dark ranger, take 1
Sylvanas' dark rangers first popped up in WoW during Wrath of the Lich King. These ladies aren't quite hunter, and they aren't quite rogue -- they're a mix somewhere in between. The first models we were shown were over in Howling Fjord, where a group of dark rangers handed out quests to leveling Horde members. These rangers are in leather gear suitable for a rogue -- and it's easy enough to obtain their look. Since rogues are losing their ranged slot in Mists, this is a limited time opportunity to snag the look of a dark ranger, bow and all. Of course as with most NPCs, there will be bits and pieces of the look that you simply cannot obtain. Obviously the dead, pale skin and glowing red eyes are right out, and unfortunately, the boots are out as well; the one look-alike that existed for those boots was available in the original 40-man version of Naxxramas, and it was removed from the game when Naxxramas was moved. The hood is also an NPC-only model, but fear not! There's another hood that is just as suitable, in a place most players have long forgotten about.
Breakfast Topic: How do you respond when grinding goes competitive?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I recently finished my Shatar Skyguard reputation grind. I'd previously done my share of rep grinding, including repeatedly decimating the populations of Felwood Timbermaw and Nagrand ogres, but I was, um, not prepared for Skettis. We tend to be a friendly group on my server, and my previous experience rep grinding involved everyone giving each other a respectful distance, taking turns and sharing a friendly wave here or there. It is quite a bit different in the cutthroat world of the Skethyl Mountains, where more than once I detected stealthed Alliance lying in wait trying to grab my summoned mobs. When it came to summoning Terokk, I quickly learned to save that for early mornings and to scope the area beforehand just to be safe from Allies, but quite regularly, someone of either faction would swoop down into a camp where I was merrily grinding away and kill the very next mob in my sights, regardless of the fact that the next camp over was completely unoccupied. I had no idea Skyguard Rep was such serious business! I eventually finished my grind and earned my Purple Riding Nether Ray and matching Nether Ray Fry, but I am still surprised by the experience. Ever enter into a WoW endeavor to find it unexpectedly competitive? Did you stick with it, or did you decide it was more trouble than it was worth?
Breakfast Topic: Non-utilized utility items
So among my full to bursting bags on all of my characters, one thing the high level ones pretty much all have is the Skyguard Drape (or the caster equivalent thereof). Even my Death Knight has enough skyguard reputation to have one. I figure if I ever I have some need to fall from a great height, I can just strap it on real quick and jump, and it will always be there just in case the opportune moment arrives. But here's the problem: I have never needed to use it. Not even once.
Ask a Beta Tester: Leveling, the Taunka, and mounts
All of us here at WoW Insider are staggering around somewhat zombie-like in the wake of BlizzCon with the patch (probably) coming tomorrow and the amount of information we're hoping to get out in the next 24 hours. So in all truth I don't know whether the answers to today's questions are completely factual or just stuff that started swimming in front of my eyes at 1:00 this morning. Arthas is actually a girl underneath all that armor, just like Samus Aran. The zone music to Icecrown is "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who. The Hateful Gladiator cloth belt is a pink tutu. Flying bunnies will be available in the next expan-(Sound of a short scuffle in the background, followed by a whip crack)Thank you, Dan, a little perspective is always useful in these difficult times.Jason asks...Will Northrend be accessible at 68 like Outland was accessible at 58? Or do I need to be a solid 70 to quest and instance in Northrend?Technically, Northrend will be accessible to anyone with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion installed; you can hop a boat or zeppelin on any character of any level. There's no "You must be THIS HIGH to cross through the portal to Outland" restriction, but you won't be able to pick up any of the quests available in Northrend until level 68. Could you grind your way to 68 in Northrend from the mid-60's? Maybe, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Exalted means goodbye
There are a lot of reputations to grind in World of Warcraft. In fact, one of the ways the game has become more accessible to players with time constraints is by the introduction of daily quests as means to gain reputation, and eventually gear and other rewards (flying mounts, various recipes, other items) from faction vendors. As an example, last night I finally reached exalted with Shattered Sun Offensive on my third character to do so, my tauren warrior. I saw the green flash of light as I turned in Blood for Blood, headed back to the Isle of Quel'Danas and stocked up on the various exalted goodies I'd been slavering for, the tanking and melee DPS necks, the shield, and the Alchemist Stone patterns in both tank and DPS flavors. And then, as has been the case for my previous two characters to hit exalted (my human warrior and draenei shaman) I got the heck off of that island with my shiny new tabard and ran around in battlegrounds shuddering with relief. All these factions are very useful for gearing up my growing army of alts, and I am aware that it helps cut down the time I would otherwise have to spend hoping for a random drop from an instance. So why the feeling of glorious freedom and the heated flight to the hills the second I hit exalted?
The Outland daily circle
With Phase 4 upon us, The options for dailies are pretty much long and endless. Of course, with a daily limit of 25 dailies, you can end up doing most of them anyways, and while certainly don't try to spring for 25 dailies every day, I still do my fair share of dailies. About once or twice a week, I do what I have come to call my Outland Circle. All three of my characters have all the daily hubs unlocked, so between Ogri'la, the Skyguard, the Netherwing, and the Shattered Sun Offensive, I can get a lot done.
Reigniting the flame and rediscovering the joy of Warcraft
I think my favorite part about a new patch is that it always seems to inject new life into WoW. Don't get me wrong, I love WoW all the time. I think it's a great game. But there's something about a new patch that always seems to invigorate me. There's new stuff to do, maybe a new twist or two to one of the classes I play, or at least to one of the classes I play against. What's even more interesting to me is that it sometimes makes even the old stuff feel brand new.
WoW, Casually: December 7 - 13 activities and making cash
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.This week I want to talk about how and why we should be making some in-game cash, but first let's get the schedule out of the way.Darkmoon Faire: It's still going on in Elwynn Forest, just south of Goldshire. This weekend is your last chance to turn your stuff in, redeem tickets or just get shot out of a cannon.Arathi Basin: The Call to Arms is for Arathi Basin this weekend, meaning shorter queues for getting bonus honor and your AB marks. If you are Alliance, this forum post is great for all BG strategy . If you are Horde, like me, well then you can wait until Zach posts his Arathi Basin strategy or just go back and read my brief summary.Battlegrounds: If you are trying to get a complete set of the Season 1 gear (and if not, why aren't you?), you should be doing a little bit of Battlegrounds a day. I try to do the BG Daily quests every day, not so much for the honor, but to force myself to get the marks from the different BGs. The fact is that I am a huge AV fan which means I have the marks for hats and gloves and that's it. Do as I say, not as I do and stuff.
Where are all the titles?
Franco on Aman'thul has a request that I wholeheartedly agree with: Bring back a way to earn the old PvP ranks and titles.In fact, I think Blizzard has dropped the ball on titles completely. While they promised us lots of new mounts and tabards and have more or less delivered on those, where are the titles? That seems like the easiest thing to implement, and yet the only new titles I can think of are from PvP (doesn't the Skyguard confer a title as well, or am I imaging that?).So why doesn't Blizzard get creative with titles? Every faction should have a title that goes with it, and conquering raid instances should grant titles as well ("Gruul the Dragonkiller Killer"). I'd even like to see titles for less than heroic events-- falling to your death a certain number of times should grant you a title ("Heir of Icarus"?), or even deserting a battleground a certain number of times. There are tons and tons of fun titles that Blizzard could give out, and it would add a whole new and easily implemented element to the game. There's no reason to force titles on anyone, but the way things are implemented now, people can choose to carry around any title they want (or none at all). Why didn't Blizzard go crazy with putting a ton of creative titles into the game?As far as I'm concerned, Blizzard just plain dropped the ball here. Sure, maybe they're a little leery about bringing the old PvP ranks back so soon, but they put that title system into the game for a reason, Drysc-- use it!
Your daily dose of questing
It's been a while since the daily quests were introduced with patch 2.1 on the live servers now, and most players have had time to at least give them a try. So what do you think?Personally, I really like them-- it gives me a chance when I log in to spend just a few minutes picking up a nice, guaranteed chunk of gold and rep. When we first heard about them, hardcore players were unhappy that they'd be forced to follow a daily schedule, but ten daily quests seems like a lot to do a day anyway (especially when you consider everything else there is to do in-game), and most hardcore players have probably finished all the daily quest rep grinds anyway-- I know a few of my guildies already have all the mounts and rewards available.Have you not touched the daily quests yet, or do you do them every day? And which ones are you all working on-- I've liked the Fires over Skettis eggsplosion quest (and I get better at dodging those dumb birds every day that I do it), but I'm looking forward to staring up the Netherwing herbalist quest next. How are daily quests working out for you?
Beware of supertwink
We've had people try to get exalted with every faction. We've had people try to get every pet in the game. We've even had people who want to five-box every class to 70. But today, I think we may have met the person who has put the most time and effort into non-endgame WOW -- Dirtybishop. Dirtybishop is a level 19 human twink on the Blackrock realm. At first glance, his profile looks pretty normal. Engineering goggles, WSG rep rewards, Meadow Rings of Eluding, ridiculously high-end leg armor and enchants. It's well-known that low-level rogues can get amazingly high dodge chance by stacking agility, so he's got a lot of agi enchants. But ... wait, what's that in the trinket slot? Brooch of the Immortal King? Skyguard Silver Cross? Yes, this 19 twink is exalted with Sha'tari Skyguard. I don't know how he did it, although the prevailing guess is that he was summoned to Skettis and stood out of range of the experience and in range of the reputation gains. One of his guildmates said it took their mains four and a half weeks to farm Bishop the trinkte. I have no comprehension of the amount of effort this person has put in just to do WSG over and over and over again -- nevertheless, you sort of have to admire that single-mindedness. Plus, if he ever decides to level, he'll have a nice flying mount waiting for him.
What you need to know about daily quests
I'm a man of many distractions. Between a full time career, a growing family and a new writing gig at WoWInsider, I don't have as much time as I used to when it comes to my video games. When I do log on to WoW, I often look for objectives I can complete in a short amount of time, but still give me some sense of progress. Enter my new obsession: daily quests.New factions were introduced with the The Black Temple 2.1 Patch and with it came the specter of the dreaded rep grind. But this time Blizzard has added quests that reward players with hefty reputation gains in exchange for limiting their completion to once a day. Since these appeal to me greatly, I did some digging around and found a few helpful facts that may aid you in your Outland adventures. Daily quests count against your total quest count in your quest log You can have a maximum of 10 daily quests in your log at any given time The timer on redoing a daily quest is not reset every 24 hours from when you complete it, but at 2am PST Many daily quests that work in one reputation level (i.e. Neutral) continue to work in when you've achieved higher rep levels Currently you must be L70 to get these quests so they give no experience The biggest change here from previous rep grinds is being able to do lower level rep grinds while at a higher rep level. Other than that, dive in. You can try out daily quests with the Sha'tari Skyguards, Ogri'la and Netherwing factions. For a starter guide on these quest chains, check out our "Where to start with 2.1 content."
Where to start with 2.1 content
The 2.1 patch this week introduced enough new quest lines, top-end raid content, flying mounts, and L70 solo & small group content to qualify as its own game. With a three day weekend looming I didn't even know where to begin. So I scoured the web and found the where to go and what to do to get me started. THE BLACK TEMPLE: Already planning to strut around Shattrath in your T6 Raid gear? Don't bank that T5 set too quick. The Black Temple attunement quest is ... epic. And it hasn't even been fully discovered so far. What is known is that you will have to slog through a great deal of the Burning Crusade raid content that comes before it: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshire Cavern, The Eye and The Battle of Mount Hyjal. And many of those raids require extensive attunement quests of their own. If you are still itching to begin, you can dig in with the Tablets of Baa'ri chain out of Shadowmoon Valley to start grinding that Ashtongue Deathsworn rep. NETHERDRAKE EPIC FLYING MOUNT: First, don't confuse this with the Swift Nether Drake top Arena teams are awarded with at the end of every season. That one has a speed increase of 310% and has an armored appearance. This is the normal epic nether drake with a speed increase on par with other epic flying mounts: 280%. What's special about this epic flying mount is that it can be obtained through solo and small group quests. No raid required. What is required is a great deal of dedication.The first steps on your journey is to dig yourself out of Hated reputation with the Netherwing clan and get all the way to Exalted. This is accomplished through solo, 5 man and 3 man daily quests. Head to the south east corner of Shadowmoon Valley and speak to Mordenai in the Netherwing Fields. A complete write up can be found here.
Skyguard defense laser protects humans, kills missiles
Always one to ensure that our soldiers are equipped with the latest and greatest killing tools battlefield technology, military contractor Northrop Grumman has just unveiled a mobile defense system that creates a virtual bubble of protection against flying artillery over anything located within a five kilometer radius. Based on the Tactical High Energy Laser testbed that's been in development since 1996, the so-called Skyguard system employs target-acquisition radar and a deuterium fluoride laser to detect and shoot down a variety of airborne projectiles, including rockets, mortars, and short-range munitions. Northrop is promoting the weapon as a way for countries to defend deployed troops or critical infrastructure such as airports, and not surprisingly, Israel was one of the first foreign nations given a product pitch. Initially the system is said to cost between $150 and $200 million per installation, though mass adoption could see prices plummet to less than $30 million- and someday it may even be affordable enough to install at your very own house, providing the neighborhood kids with some not-so-subtle encouragement to keep their baseballs and frisbees out of your damn yard.[Via Gizmag and Laser Focus World]
