tabards
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The bag space problem
World of Warcraft is approaching its 9th anniversary. For those of us who have played it for many years (and even newer players who enjoy collecting), bag space has become quite the inconvenience in our daily WoW playing lives. Transmogrification introduced the problem in Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria took it to a whole new level with toy and vanity items. Just look at my bank, void storage, and bags in the above picture. Keeping that many free slots took a concerted effort on my part. Bigger bags will only delay the issue, and seriously how much bigger can they get before we can't fit them on our screen with addons such as Bagnon? We need new solutions to the problem beyond bigger bags. If my current 432 slots cannot hold everything I want, I doubt adding an extra 100 slots is going to fix anything after another expansion of collecting.
Officers' Quarters: Revisiting my Mists wish list
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. In January 2012, I wrote up a wish list of improvements to the guild experience that I wanted in Mists of Pandaria. We're at the point now in the expansion's life cycle where all major features have been revealed. The next big additions to WoW will come in patch 6.0. So let's look back at what we got in Mists and what we're still waiting for. Wish 1: Treat legendary items as guild rewards, not player rewards. Status: Granted, in a way In my original list, I wrote about the drama that legendaries created in guilds and wished for a way to reduce that drama. I suggested that a legendary item should be bound to the guild that helped a player to earn it, rather than the player. Instead, Blizzard took legendaries in a direction that no one expected: they created a quest line that anyone could complete. In doing so, they took away the drama factor. They released officers from the burden of deciding who would receive a legendary and who wouldn't. For most guilds, this has been a welcome change.
Yes, Tabard storage is still in development
We've definitely touched on the subject of Tabards before. They're like the Tribbles of WoW, overcrowding our bags and multiplying with every expansion like there's no tomorrow. A massive Tabard collection is quite the feat, but let's face it, wouldn't you like to use the thirty-something bag spaces for other items? We see questions revolving around these little inventory invaders almost every day: Will Blizzard give us some way to store our Tabards? Well, Ghostcrawler has something to say about it: @kurodakari It's in the plan, just not something you'll see for 5.2. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) February 2, 2013 Let's be real, some kind of Tabard storage has been in the plan for a while now ... at least two years. Of course, there are a ton of potential solutions to this problem, and none of them should be a rush job -- a Tabard bag? An interface similar to the mount list? Most players would probably prefer a UI solution instead of yet another bag to manage, so let's cross our fingers. How do you think Blizzard should solve this?
Pandaria faction tabards don't grant reputation
Breaking from the pattern set by Wrath and followed up in Cataclysm, this latest beta patch confirms that tabards for factions based in Pandaria will not grant reputation for wearing them in dungeons. Instead, we'll be going back to the vanilla-style model where tabards are one of the rewards for hitting exalted level with a faction. I'm assuming that this is part of Blizzard's plan to make factions mean something instead of just feeling like an obligatory grind, as stated at the MoP press event in March. While I appreciated the convenience of the rep-granting tabards, I appreciated them because without them, getting rep for those factions was a bit of a nightmare. If the way the system works now lets me gain rep at a reasonable pace without these tabards, hey, I'm all for bragging rights tabards instead. The MoP factions that will be affected by this (read: all of them) are: The Klaxxi The August Celestials The Golden Lotus The Lorewalkers The Order of the Cloud Serpent The Shado-Pan The Tillers The Anglers The Brewmasters It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Addon Spotlight: Never miss reputation with Auto Tabard
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week: Shackleford. It's Addon Spotlight time, ladies and gentlemen. As I sit here at death's door from the terrible PAX pox with which I have so unceremoniously been bestowed, I try to eek out words and phrases, maybe a quip or two, before death's cold embrace takes me. I feel as though my short time on this earth and in this existence was worth it, however, because I got to tell you about Auto Tabard.
The trouble with tabards
Blizzard has recently been on a commenting spree on the topic of tabards. For a while now, Blizzard has been thinking up ways to solve the tabard dilemma -- the game features tons of awesome tabards with really cool designs, some of which even have an on-use effect, but no way to economically store these items. Players are forced to clear out large swaths of inventory space in order to keep all of their tabards, and Blizzard has even introduced tabard vendors that sell earned tabards so these cool clothing items won't be lost forever by players. Hit the jump for the posts as well as my own little thoughts.
The Queue: Something about tabards
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley will be your host today. Tabards tabards tabards tabards ... Roguesan asked: I've been doing the dailies in Tol Barad for a couple of weeks now; I reckon that spectral horse will match my mage's (eventual) tier 11 quite nicely, and hopefully by the time I manage to claw my way exalted with Baradin's Wardens, it will coincide with having managed to slap together a gear set. My problem is this: Having been randomly browsing through the achievements list last night looking for a handful that could be worked on during the course of my day-to-day stuff, I found the one for completing 100 dailies in Tol Barad -- with the counter set at 0/100. What gives?
City tabards giving reputation in latest beta build
As of the recent beta build (13189) that went live earlier this evening, city tabards sold by racial factions (e.g., Thunder Bluff, Stormwind, Gnomeregan, Undercity) are now awarding reputation in dungeons. With the obvious exception of those offered by Gilneas and the Bilgewater Cartel, these tabards aren't technically new to the game -- you can get them at the Argent Tournament on the live servers right now if you want -- but the reputation gains are definitely a new perk. While you can still get the tabards from Argent Tournament vendors on the beta, each major city also has a faction quartermaster (usually close to the city's flight master and introduced in beta build 13066 in late September, I think) selling both the tabard and a set of level 40 cloaks. The tabards are available at friendly for 8 silver (even at the Tournament -- they no longer require Champion's Seals), but you can't get the cloaks without being exalted. Still, grinding reputation for one of your faction's races should be considerably easier in Cataclysm -- all you'll have to do is get to friendly, buy a tabard and run dungeons as you normally would. This is a great addition to the game. Not only will you have access to cool tabards even at a low level, but it should make getting other races' mounts and faction discounts much easier as well.
The Queue: Pop
Welcome back to The Queue, our daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Speaking of pop, Bejeweled 2 is free on PopCap.com today until 10 p.m. PST! Go get it! Liam asked: What is the difference between major and prime glyphs? I thought a tier of glyphs was supposed to be more fun and cosmetic now, but they seem the same to me, just changes to our spells. Prime glyphs are no-brainer DPS/effectiveness increases. Major glyphs offer new utility or changes in your rotation that are hard to "math out." Minor glyphs give fun or cosmetic changes.
Possible changes to tabards, backpacks, and banks
In the recent Blizzard developer chat there were several questions pertaining to player storage. They spoke about the issue with storing tabards from all of your various factions, the default backpack falling behind other bags, and being able to access the bank slots of your alts without the need to use the mail. All three of these are long standing issues that have usually been avoided when direct questions came up, usually invoking the safe and often used "we'll see" remark. I would love to be able to replace my backpack with a Glacial Bag and gain six storage slots or clear out the bank space I'm using to store specialty tabards. Let's take a look at their responses after the break.
The OverAchiever: Twenty-five tabards
Twenty-Five Tabards is one of the cooler achievements to do -- not only does it reward a pretty neat-looking tabard in the end, but having the reputations necessary to pull it off (unless you're cheesing it with a lot of TCG tabards) is going to help you a lot while going for The Exalted. The first thing I'd like to point out is that you don't need to do what I did while getting pictures for this article and run around like a headless chicken collecting tabards from all corners of the world. The easiest way to re-collect any tabards you've previously owned is by visiting Elizabeth Ross in Dalaran or a tabard vendor in any major city. I do need to mention that they sell tabards for the currency each faction uses (e.g. you still have to pay 10 Glowcaps to purchase a Sporeggar tabard from them) so if you don't have the currency on you at the time, you'll still be making a field trip to collect it. For this guide I'm assuming that you do not necessarily have access to now-unobtainable tabards like Competitor's Tabard or Tabard of the Protector, so if you do have pieces like this sitting around your bank, you're just that much closer to the achievement. As mentioned previously, you can fudge Twenty-Five Tabards by getting TCG tabards like Tabard of Nature or Tabard of Frost, but I'm also assuming you don't have access to any of these. This achievement is very much doable with a little hard work and a pinch of luck, so let's get rolling.
The Queue: There's more than one way to skin a worgen
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's (almost) daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today.So my thought process Monday morning goes like this. Kubien asks a question about skining worgens. My cat is next to me vying for my attention, and after headbutting me for a few minutes decides to pounce on my arm. Luckily I'm a fatty so all is good and he just bounces off harmlessly to the floor, but it makes me think for a minute about punishing him. Then I remember the old saying, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."And from cat, to lolcat, to lolwowcats.I'm sorry Warcraft community, I really am. But what's done is done. Let's just move on and go have some tea and crumpets.Kubien asked..."While killing Worgen in Silverpine Forest the other day, it occurred to me I can skin them. When Alliance play Worgen, can I skin them? Please!"
New details on the Argent Tournament update in Patch 3.2
Patch 3.2 is currently in development, and not yet on the PTRs. We've been told that it will focus on expanding the Argent Tournament that was introduced in patch 3.1, and we've also learned that it will feature new Druid form art and a new battleground, Isle of Conquest. Today Blizzard posted a preview of some of the Argent Tournament updates, and it looks pretty cool. There are going to be two new Tourney-related quest hubs in Icecrown: a Cult of the Damned camp overlooking the Tourney, and a Vrykul outpost on an island to the north. The Black Knight will also be returning; I guess it was only a flesh wound after all. There are also going to be new dailies and new rewards for players exalted with the Silver Covenant/Sunreavers, as appropriate. Silver Covenant and Sunreaver tabards, their ground and flying mounts, and a Shimmering Wyrmling pet are all mentioned. Furthermore, those who have earned the Crusader title will get some more dailies, and some exciting rewards, including new heirlooms (!), a banner, a tabard that ports you to the tourney, a squire with a mount, and a Paladin-only charger mount. New heirlooms, you say? Nice, but I wish they weren't at the end of five tedious rep grinds. Oh well, time to get to work, I suppose. Update: Blizz have edited the page to say the new squire will cost 150 Champion Seals to upgrade, will be summonable for 3 minutes every 8 hours, and will perform one of thee services: mail, bank, or vendor. Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
The Queue: Clam stacking sea mounts
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. Good afternoon all. I want to give a shout out to everyone in Fargo, North Dakota who is dealing with the flood that's going on, in particular everyone who is busy sandbagging. It's big, bad, and full of water. But on the plus side there are now ducks outside of my apartment, and I live two and a half miles from the Red River. But ducks are cool. It's made me want to go fire up Duck Hunt. I may be pawning off The Queue this week to Alex, depending on how bad things get in my area. He's anxious to talk about Mountain Dew I hear.Palatel asked..."Any idea on how the leader of a Battleground is determined?"
Argent Tournament rewards found
MMO Champion has posted some of what are believed to be rewards from the Argent Dawn Tournament coming to the servers, and they are pretty awesome. All of the rewards will apparently be purchased with a new currency called Champion's Seals, and those will be earned from doing dailies, some instanced activity (likely a type of mounted combat -- think PvP-esque, but against mobs), and all of the other various tasks the Argent Dawn is lining up for us. The Tournament itself will appear in 3.1 (and Alex has already posted a great gallery of what it looks like on the PTR), but other activities won't appear until a later content patch.There are epic weapons for everyone (right now priced at 25 seals, though that may change -- the weapons seem to be a little higher 5-man Heroic level), as well as blue boots, belts, gloves, and neckpieces for most classes and specs (all just 10 seals -- about equivalent to the Revered options the endgame reputations). Additionally, you can get tabards for each faction city (at 50 seals, that seems expensive, but they could have a special proc or ability granted with them), you can buy specially colored faction mounts for 100 seals, and at the top of the heap is an Argent Hippogryph for a whopping 250 seals. Seals, it seems, will also be able to be exchanged for reputation commendations, so if you just want to rep up with a certain old faction rep, you can do that, too.Pretty enticing. We have yet to see how exactly seals will be earned or how easy they'll be to come by, but it seems like Blizzard is planning to make this a catch-all option for endgame in terms of picking up rep, mounts, or gear. Just like the champion tabards let us choose just how we could earn rep for the endgame factions, the Argent Tournament appears to be a chance for folks at level 80 to pick up whatever rep or options they like by doing whatever the Tourney offers.
Tabard storage solution incoming
So Blizzard's slowly but surely been expanding our storage system via extra bank slots, a keychain, and most recently, a new UI for mounts and vanity pets. It's become a lot easier to be a collector because of this, but as I have pointed out before, one major space problem remains: Tabards. Between Burning Crusade tabards, Wrath Reputation tabards, holiday tabards, world event tabards, TCG tabards, and achievement tabards, there's not enough room, either in your inventory or in your bank. Sure, you can sell off the tabards and rebuy them later, but that's sort of a pain.Luckily, there's finally signs that Blizzard means to bring us relief. Eyonix mentioned this morning that they've begun to look at possible ways to relieve the tabard space conundrum. It looks like the concept is still in the early stages, and Eyonix specifically said they have no ETA, but it may be coming, which is good news enough. I'm still advocating for a simple drop-down menu of tabards similar to the title dropdown on the character screen, or maybe a way to select a faction from the reputation screen to be your tabard of choice. But however they do it, I'm looking forward to it. I enjoy flying various colors at various times for RP or fun reasons, so being able to switch swiftly should both make this easier and championing on the fly easier. Here's hoping we get an ETA soon, and that it's sooner rather than later.
Wrath 101: Getting your dungeon reputation tabards
Reader Paul K. sent us a query today about how to go about getting each of the champion dungeon tabards available at level 80, and since I'm about to hit level 80 (hopefully will be doing it tonight), I figured I'd do the work so the rest of you don't have to. Wearing these tabards will give you faction reputation for whatever tabard you're wearing in the endgame 5mans, so instead of running Steam Vaults over and over and over for Cenarion Expedition rep (oh man am I tired of that grind), you can just put on one of these, and then run whatever instances you want.There are currently four factions that you can champion in the game, and all of the tabards for each are available at Friendly. So you'll need at least friendly with all of the factions -- Wyrmrest Accord, Knights of the Ebon Blade, Kirin Tor, and the Argent Crusade -- before you go around to pick them all up. Getting there isn't hard at all -- if you've leveled by questing, you should have built up the necessary reputation (the one exception in my case is the Knights of the Ebon Blade -- I'm neutral right now, but I haven't really done any questing in Icecrown yet at all).After the jump, a list of where you need to go to get each tabard.
Breakfast Topic: Gaining Reputation
No more collecting huge stacks of Unidentified Plant Parts or Arrakoa Feathers. No more running Hellfire Ramparts half a dozen times before starting in on quests. In Northrend, it seems like there's two basic ways to get reputation with a faction: Either you do quests, or you grab the proper tabard and run a level 80 dungeon. For the most part, I do like the latter option. It's nice not to feel like I have to jump through hoops to maximize my reputation gain. Still, being able to pre-gather stuff is sometimes pretty cool too, and part of me sort of wishes they had kept some of that in, maybe in that way I've talked about before where you can have around 12k max of your reputation be gathered items, but that they can be turned in at any point in the grind, if only to keep options open. How are you liking the new reputation system?
The Queue: Ebonweave and heirloom longevity
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.Welcome to today's edition of The Queue, in which we don't have any witty or necessary preamble, so we're going to skip straight to the questions.Aigarius asked...Is it possible to craft Ebonweave without cold weather flying?
Ask a Beta Tester: Dalaran coins, environment effects, and AoE tanking
I ran into two common questions last night on the Dalaran coin post, so I thought I'd start off by answering those here. I apologize if we haven't yet gotten to everyone's questions; most of them, like Gurluas' question concerning The Missing Diplomat and the high elves in Northrend, we're just not 100% sure of the answer to yet, but I'll keep trying. Keyra asks...Just curious...the gold coins all have "Use: Throw this coin back into the Dalaran fountain", yet I've seen people commenting (as well as the author) that they'll carry the coin in their packs. What happens when/if you throw the coin back in?When you toss a gold coin back into the fountain, you gain the "Lucky" buff for 2 minutes, increasing your chance to fish up any and all coins from the fountain (rather than fishing hooks or goldfish). You don't have to toss them back in if you don't want to, in which case they'll just occupy a bag slot like anything else, or you can sell them to a vendor (not for much). But most people throw the coin/s back in because fishing the coin up is enough to give you the Achievement for getting it. Particular coins would be carried solely for personal or sentimental reasons, i.e. I can definitely appreciate the irony and RP value of grimly hunting Arthas down like a dog while carrying a symbol of Sylvanas' wasted hopes.Rexigar asks...Question though, do we have to keep the coins for the achievement or does it count when we throw it back in?It counts as of the moment you've fished it up. No matter what you do with it afterwards, the Achievement's yours. The same mechanic is true of everything else; once the game "knows" you've done something and an Achievement's gained, nothing can take it away.
