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Wrath Dailies: Aces High!
For our Wrath Dailies series thus far, we've been trying to do them in groups. For example, we did the Kalu'ak dailies first, and now Adam is going through the Cooking dailies. I've decided to jump out of order for this one, because it's actually somewhat important beyond just another daily quest. This quest is actually training for Phase 3 of the Malygos encounter, in which you do battle with the Aspect of Magic from the back of a red drake. You pick up Aces High! from Corastrasza on the Band of Transmutation, one of the floating platforms around The Nexus. If you've never done it before, head down to the Transitus Shield, there's a quest that will tell you exactly where to go. Practicing with this quest will make the fight much, much easier when you fight Malygos one day, because the abilities the Drake has in this quest are the exact same as the ones in that fight.
Insider Trader: Highlights of Wrath crafting, Tailoring edition
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Wrath of the Lich King has changed many things about the professions we all know and sometimes love. Last week, Insider Trader looked at the highlights of the Leatherworking and Blacksmithing professions, showing you what's new, how to plan out your leveling, and what you can look forward to at what points. This week, Tailoring is up for discussion. There are faction recipes and dropped recipes, as well as highlights from your trainer that you won't want to miss. Here is a quick summary: New and improved exclusive spellthreads for enchanting your pants. A 20-slot bag and a 22-slot bag. A slow flying carpet mount as well as an epic one. Specialty cloth for epic gear. Frost resistance gear. An 8-piece PvP pseudo-set. Exclusive cloak enchants. Special threads that you can sell for a profit. Soul shard and enchanting bags with 32 slots.
Shifting Perspectives: Faction gear for Druids, part II - Argent Crusade
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we continue our examination of the faction gear available for Druids in Wrath and have a serious conversation with our aesthetic conscience regarding the hideous Kirin Tor tabard: "Is the tanking staff we get at Revered worth the humiliation of wearing that purple monstrosity?" The answer, dear readers, is no.In the first part, we covered Druid gear available with the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. This week, we're going to finish with a look at the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and the Sons of Hodir. You're unlikely to encounter any of these three factions while leveling between 70 and 74, but all three figure prominently in mid to late '70's leveling. Read on for the last three factions, but if you want a quick set of links to each individual faction, here you go: Kalu'ak and Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard Guide Wyrmrest Accord and the Kirin Tor Guide The Frenzyhearts and the Oracles Guide The Argent Crusade Guide The Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir Guide
Shifting Perspectives: Faction gear from the Wyrmrest Accord and Kirin Tor
WYRMREST ACCORD: This is another faction with which you can start building rep relatively early, although it'll be slower going than it will be for the Tuskarr. Be sure to get through the early-70's quest chain to access the daily Defending Wyrmrest Temple. Cloak of Peaceful Resolutions -- Honored, Level 78: Not a half-bad tanking cloak and fairly easy to get at Honored, although in a pinch you can probably afford to keep using a pre-Wrath tanking cloak all the way to 80. At 80 you can and should get Durable Nerubhide Cape crafted if you plan on doing any amount of tanking at all. Slap the +22 agility enchant on that puppy and you're good for anything. Ancestral Sinew Wristguards -- Revered, Level 80: These are one of the best bracers pre-heroics for Restoration with none of that +crit or +haste malarkey to gum the works. Excellent +spellpower in addition to solid stats elsewhere. Arcanum of Blissful Mending -- Revered, Level 80: The Wrath equivalent of the Arcanum of Renewal from Thrallmar/Honor Hold. Restoration Druids will want this as quickly as possible; moonkin may consider it if they've been having mana issues, but most of the time you're going to want the Kirin Tor enchant. Gavel of the Brewing Storm -- Revered, Level 78: This is a useful moonkin mace packing +crit and +haste, but it bothers me a bit. Like most of the other potential moonkin pieces available with reputation from this or any other faction, it lacks +hit -- and your primary concern as you level toward 80 is going to be getting (or staying) hit-capped. If you're dependent on faction gear at 80 as you get ready to raid or do heroics, keep this in mind. If for no other reason than that, the Kirin Tor dagger is better (read on). Dragonfriend Bracers -- Exalted, Level 80: Excellent bracers. The relatively small amount of stamina on them in addition to the presence of +crit prejudices them toward use for cat DPS. In terms of raw damage output, they're even better than the Hateful Gladiator's Armwraps of Triumph. Sandals of Crimson Fury -- Exalted, Level 80: Cloth, but pretty good moonkin boots with decent +spellpower, +haste, a blue socket, but once again 0 +hit. KIRIN TOR: This is almost inarguably one of the best faction reps to grind as a Druid, so it pays to choke down your nausea at the sight of that hideous tabard at 80. You can start building reputation with the Kirin Tor fairly early if you start leveling in Borean Tundra and do the questlines offered by the NPC's on the Amber Ledge. As you might expect from a faction being run by a lot of clothies, most of the potential gear here is particularly useful for casters, but weirdly enough there's also a feral staff and excellent legs available at Revered. Helm of the Majestic Stag -- Honored, Level 78: With the total absence of spirit but 21 mp5, this really seems like more of a Restoration Shaman piece, but it's certainly usable. Welcome to the only leather helm graphic you will see on any decent piece for the next five million years, by the way. Shroud of Dedicated Research -- Honored, Level 78: Decent stats for moonkin, less so for Resto. There are better cloaks out there, but this one will tide you over until heroics or the Ebon Blade cloak. Flameheart Spell Scalpel -- Revered, Level 80: Look, Ma! It's +hit! One of the best pre-raid moonkin weapons with solid +spellpower, +hit, and +crit. If you can't get the mats for a Titansteel Guardian for love or money (or if you're not hit-capped using it), this is the weapon worth grinding rep for. Arcanum of Burning Mysteries -- Revered, Level 80: The Wrath equivalent of the Sha'tar's Arcanum of Power, although the level 80 versions eschews +hit in favor of +crit. Bah. Get it anyway. Mind-Expanding Leggings -- Revered, Level 80: This is an amazingly good piece for tanking, and it's going to be the piece you want over the Azure Strappy Pants from the Frenzyhearts if you're doing the usual bounce around the factions in Sholazar Basin, or if you spend more time as a bear than a cat. These are arguably the best pre-raid bear legs outside of heroics and arena. Stave of Shrouded Mysteries -- Revered, Level 80: What a bunch of mages are doing with a feral staff is utterly beyond me, but their confusion is our gain. Right now it's inferior by several light years to the Enraged Feral Staff from heroic Utgarde Keep as a tanking piece, but the armor on both pieces is going Splitsville pretty soon. When that happens, the distance between the two with respect to tanking quality is going to shrink quite a bit. The Enraged staff is still going to retain a clear advantage for tanking in the form of both threat production and dodge (the mass of agility on it converts to 1.87% dodge in contrast to the Stave's 1.42% dodge), and I still cannot for the life of me understand itemizing Strength on a feral piece in lieu of Agility (seriously? What gives?), but without the enormous armor difference, the weapons are a lot closer to each other than they would otherwise have been. Robes of Crackling Flame -- Exalted, Level 80: Prejudiced toward healers with a meaty chunk of its stat allocation given to mp5, but Restoration still gets less use out of +haste than other healers (Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Wild Growth all being instant cast and still a huge portion, if not an outright majority, of our healing done). Usable? Certainly. Are you doomed to most of your best pieces pre-raid being cloth? Just as certainly. Ghostflicker Waistband -- Exalted, Level 80: Very good Balance belt and it includes a blue socket, but (again) it's primarily useful only if you're otherwise hit-capped. Next: Frenzyheart and the Oracles.
Shifting Perspectives: Faction gear for Druids, part I
Every Tuesday/Wednesday/some day that ends in -y, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we take a look at faction rewards available to Druids in "Wrath of the Lich King" and wonder if that Mysterious Egg of ours -- the only faction reward we could truly be said to care about -- is ever going to hatch.Like most of you, I'm still running a lot of dungeons and getting acquainted with the array of drops available on both normal and heroic mode, and I'm not anywhere near as familiar with the Northrend 5-man drops as I am with Outland's after tanking them all eleventy-billion times. For the moment, my ability to compare all of the reputation gear available from Wrath factions with potential dungeon drops is fairly small and mostly confined to feral equipment, so I apologize. What I can say is that I've noticed a fairly clear trend favoring Balance if you're planning on getting a lot of your gear at 80 from faction reputations (although if you go that route there's a sizable pitfall in the form of a serious lack of +hit on most pieces). Feral is a little more hit-or-miss. Restoration seems to have the hardest time getting its best pre-raid or heroic pieces from rep grinds, and I'm not going to lie; get used to most of your best pieces being cloth.With what are essentially four different specs to cover for all the new factions available in Wrath, this got a bit long. So this week we'll discuss the rep grinds that become accessible a little earlier in the trek to 80 -- namely, the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. Next week we'll cover the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and Sons of Hodir, as you're not likely to see these guys as early as you'll see the others. Indeed, before a quest line that phases the lady into existence, you won't see the Knights of the Ebon Blade quartermaster at all.EDIT: Now that the faction guides are finished, here's a set of quick links in case you're looking for information on one faction in particular: Kalu'ak and Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard Guide Wyrmrest Accord and the Kirin Tor Guide The Frenzyhearts and the Oracles Guide The Argent Crusade Guide The Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir Guide
Lichborne: Reputation rewards for Death Knights in Wrath of the Lich King
Welcome to Lichborne, WoW Insider's weekly column on the Death Knight, written and named by a guy who actually doesn't have that talent. How does this keep happening, seriously? So by now, I'm sure a lot of Death Knights are, like yours truly, getting into the level 80 home stretch and trying to figure out which of the Wrath factions to grind first. If you've already read our Wrath 101 guides to reputation and to the Oracle and Frenzyheart tribes, you're off to a good start. In this week's Lichborne, we'll take it a step further by looking at the purchasable rewards for each faction with the eye of a Death Knight. As with our previous gear guide, I'm operating on the assumptions that haste and armor penetration are less desirable for Death Knights and that expertise is primarily for Death Knight tanks.
The Queue: Can't get enough sockets
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.Just a few questions today, because slow weekends are slow. Who wants to ask questions when you can be playing? Certainly not me. I will still answer questions, however. Let's jump right in with ender's question... What, in your own opinion, is the easiest faction to start to grind on for rep as a new level 80? I know there is the "championing" but with dailies etc, what seems to be the easiest?
Breakfast Topic: What's your first level 80 goal?
For some people, the game changes a lot at level 80. A whole lot of new opportunities open up. New reputations to work on, new instances to check out, new raids to explore and beat, items to chase that you know you won't replace in a day or two. For others, it doesn't really change anything. You pick up your new level 80 spells and abilities and you go right back where you left off, questing in some zone.Personally, I'm more like that first type. I quest hard until top level, then take a break from it while I work on other things. I quested through Storm Peaks in the Wrath beta, but I haven't done it on live yet. I hit level 80 in Icecrown and haven't done much questing since then, I've mostly been running raids and heroics, finally replacing my level 70 gear. My first goal, though? I wanted the Reins of the Red Drake.
Scattered Shots: Reputation rewards for Hunters in Wrath of the Lich King
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! You didn't think Scattered Shots was taking the day off, did you? Hopefully, there's enough of you who aren't completely zonked out on turkey, ham, or beef to read this.So by now, I figure most of you are well on your way to 80, and are probably starting to ask yourself: Which reputation should I grind first? There's tons of ways to choose, be it roleplaying who your character would align themselves with or choosing the one that's easiest to grind. One of the most popular and most effective though, is pretty simple: Asking yourself which one has the best loot. Today's Scattered Shots will center around that last one. If you're still not sure how to grind reputation in Northrend, or forgot where the quartermasters are, be sure to check out our Wrath 101 post on reputations, as well as our post on the Wolvar and Oracles of Sholozar Basin. Once you've done that, or if you remember the basics, read on!
Encrypted Text: Wrath reputation rewards for Rogues
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we'll be talking reputation gear available in NorthrendRogues are like butterflies. We soar between currents of air, our paths seemingly chaotic. We serve no master, no blood oaths to demons or fear of a higher power. We simply float our way through the world, focusing on preservation of self as the highest goal. Our path is truly our own.Rogues are also like Joe The Plumber. We've got bills to pay, mats to farm, and drops to grind. While driving around Azeroth in your parent's Traveler's Tundra Mammoth with your disappearing act may seem attractive, life in WoW isn't that easy for a Rogue. In order to keep up with content, we're in constant need of new leather gear to keep us at the top of our game. We've got our dues to pay, and one word describes how "The Man" requires us to fulfill these obligations: Reputation. Read on to explore exactly what juicy pieces of rep gear await in Northrend.
The Queue: Quest rewards
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.As usual, we'll start right off with answering your questions. If you have a question you want answered in a future edition of The Queue, just leave your question in the comments section below and we'll try to get to you next time!JamieG asked...What is the minimum required enchanting skill to disenchant epics from Naxxramas? It's unlikely that we will need to for a while, but it would be handy to know!
Arcane Brilliance: Wrath reputation rewards for Mages, part 1
Each Saturday, Arcane Brilliance conjures forth a column all about Mages. You may well wonder: what does Arcane Brilliance do the rest of the week? The answer--up until a couple of weeks ago--was travel through time, righting the wrongs of the past. It was all very heroic, lent itself handily to an episodic format, and Dean Stockwell was prominently involved. Then Wrath happened. Now? Well, now Arcane Brilliance pretty much just hangs around in , ganking Death Knight noobs. Trust us, it's just as heroic, in its own way.I trust we, as a nation of Mages, are all happily churning our way through the new content, gazing about us in wonder and amazement at the majesty of Northrend, and then nuking the crap out of that majesty. I know I am. Just about everything about the Wrath experience has been positive for me so far. The visuals are incredible, the quests are fun and rich with lore, and the music is phenomenal. I could (and have) spend hours just wandering about Dalaran, taking in the ambiance, feeling all kinds of magey. Seriously, Blizzard, I'm starting a slow-clap right now, and it's all for you.One thing you've likely noticed as you've quested your way north is that almost everything you do seems to grant you reputation with some new faction or another. If you're anything like me, your first questions were probably "where might I find the quartermasters for these factions," and "what do they sell that is made of cloth and dripping with spellpower?" For a nice overall guide to the basics of these new factions, I'd urge you to check out our own Alex Ziebart's Wrath 101 posts about the subject. They can be found here and here. After the jump, we'll be focusing on the rewards these new factions offer that are specifically valuable to Mages.
Wrath 101: Factions and reputation
Reputation in Wrath of the Lich King works a lot like it did in The Burning Crusade, except refined. Most of your reputation will come from dungeon runs and questing, and not grinding mobs off in some random corner of the world. At the same time, they've thrown in some 'extra' hooks to some of the reputations that make it pretty different from what it used to be, for better or for worse. That's what we'll be digging into here.FactionsThe Horde and the Alliance each get a set of factions: The Horde Expedition and the Alliance Vanguard. These are a bit unusual, because those two primary factions have four other secondary factions. For the most part, those secondary factions don't have any rewards of their own. As you gain reputation with the sub-factions, your overall Horde Expedition or Alliance Vanguard reputation goes up, and that determines your rewards. Why did they do it that way? I don't know, but they did!
The Queue: Reputation, daily quests, and performance in Dalaran
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.Daily quests and reputation has been a really hot topic lately, not only in The Queue but across WoW in general. Some of our questions today will focus on that, but I'd also like to let you guys know that WoW Insider will overall have more information on those things coming really, really soon. Keep an eye on the site today and in the coming days for all of that good stuff.Alright, let's gets started with my2cents' question... Where, if anywhere, is the quartermaster for Valiance Expedition? I'm almost revered and I'm curious to see if there are any rewards available.
Ask a Lore Nerd: What's coming our way?
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week Alex Ziebart answers your quests about the lore in the World of Warcraft. If you have any questions, no matter how big or small they might be, ask them in the comments section below and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.On this very special edition of Ask a Lore Nerd, we're going to look into the future, at what's to come in Wrath of the Lich King. There's a lot on the horizon, and a lot of questions about what's to come. We're going to try to be light on spoilers, but give some idea of what's going down.Yeah yeah, so there's a Troll zone, we learn the origins of Humanity, we meet some Tauren relatives, there's some junk about Dwarven royalty and all of that crap. Who cares? What about the Gnomes? Where's the Gnome lore!?
Ask a Beta Tester: Zul'Drak and more
Welcome to yet another edition of Ask a Beta Tester. We're coming to you a little later in the day than we usually do, but I think getting the site's redesign up was worth it! It's sparkly, isn't it? We only have a little under a week of Ask a Beta Tester left, so let's make the best of the time we have and get started!Nick S asked... Is there any lore for the Trolls? I've seen very, very little that's not negative. Where's the Troll lovin'?!? Unfortunately, I'm primarily Alliance and didn't see much from the Horde beyond the first couple of zones, so I'm not really sure about the Darkspear. Zul'Drak has a whole load of Troll content, though. It's an entire Troll zone centered on the last Troll Empire, the Drakkari. There's also the return of the Zandalar Trolls, who are much more friendly. You might have met them back when Zul'Gurub was run frequently. They're there to document the fall of the Drakkari and prevent them from doing something really, really bad.
Ask a Beta Tester: A closer look at the starting zones and other things
There's only about a week left of Ask a Beta Tester, so get your questions in while you still can! You can be special like Radiophonic and get your name all bold-like up here! I guess we could actually answer the questions, too... So I'm hearing that there are tons of quests in all areas, has the allowable number of quests in your quest log expanded or should we all start getting those last 10 or so completed?The number of quests you can have in your log is still limited to 25. If you stick to one zone at a time, it's very highly unlikely you'll ever have more than 15-20 quests in your log at once. If you're anything like I am though, curiosity will probably get the best of you and you'll end up questing in 2-3 different places at once and you'll need that space in your quest log.You might want to finish up the quests you have now, or when Wrath comes around you can scribble down where you got them, abandon them and go back later.
Ask a Beta Tester: Championing clarification, raiding, and more
Quite a few people wanted some clarification on the Championing system mentioned in previous editions of Ask a Beta Tester, so I'll try to do just that: The Championing system is not retroactive, and by that I mean old factions are not included in it. You can't use this to grind Orgrimmar or Honor Hold or whatever in level 80 dungeons. It only applies to Wrath reputations, and so far, not even all of those. It only counts towards the 'big four' of Northrend as far as I can see. Those reputations are: The Kirin Tor, The Argent Crusade, The Knights of the Ebon Blade, and the Wyrmrest Accord. You should be able to get really, really high reputation with the Valiance Expedition/Warsong Offensive just through questing, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a Tabard for them soon, too. The little people like the Kalu'ak are, so far, not included in this system.Read on for more answers to your questions!
