WoW server maintenance for 29th September

While we were given ample notice regarding last week's server maintenance, this week we weren't so lucky. We were only informed earlier today of tomorrow's maintenance, which will start at 5:00 am PDT and last until 11:00 am PDT. If you're not sure what time that is in your particular time zone, that's what the World Clock is for, you ninnies.

As usual, WoW.com will be here all morning and afternoon to keep you busy while you slack off at work during your WoW-less lunch break. Or, if Valve is a benevolent sort and lets us get our grubby, pallid hands on it early, you could just play Left 4 Dead's new map while the servers are down. That's what I'll be doing the whole time.

wow.com

Riding Skill Fee Signifigantly reduced in 3.2.2a

It's not often that WoW players figure out a major patch change before a developer, but that seems to be exactly the case according to a post on the official Blizzard forums last night [via WoW.com]. Around the same time, Blizzard forum rep "Mumper" confirmed that the Expert Riding Skill has been reduced to a measly 225 gold in patch 3.2.2a, down from the previous 600 gold in patch 3.2.0. "We also changed the faction discounts for the riding skill vendors in Honor Hold and Thrallmar to use Stormwind and Orgrimmar faction," Mumper said in the post.

The new cost of 225 gold is a further reduction from an original price of 800 gold, making it easier than ever for players to get their first flying mount. There's no word yet whether or not the cost of other riding skills will be further be reduced from their current prices, but if the current trend continues, we might not be surprised to see dirt-cheap epic flying by the time Cataclysm launches. Mumper's full post can be found after the jump.

Re: Did they lower Riding Skill costs again?? 09/25/2009 05:57:11 PM PDT

quote reply
You guys are correct, we reduced the expert riding skill price in 3.2.2 to 225g. We also changed the faction discounts for the riding skill vendors in Honor Hold and Thrallmar to use Stormwind and Orgrimmar faction.

There are a couple reasons we made this change. First off, we wanted expert riding to be available to more people at level 60. 600g just did not seem like a reasonable expectation for most level 60 players to have when they roll into Hellfire Peninsula. Especially after purchasing your level 60 skills. The second change, regarding the factions just made a lot more sense this way since you will not have any Thrallmar or Honor Hold faction when you enter Hellfire.

Finally, I want to apologize for this change not making the patch notes. We strive to get every change we make into the notes but this one somehow slipped by. Once again, my apologies on that, but hopefully the lower price will help make up for it. ;)

Allakasham.com

WoW Noob Hints and Tips

This guide will give you a very basic run down of 7 of the most important WoW tips you can learn for a new player. It will help you get a lot more out of your play time.

#1. Make sure you autoloot everything you see as the grey items which look like they won't benefit you but you can always sell to make some gold by selling them to the vendor. An easy way to autoloot everything is to go into your WoW settings and check the box that says "Turn on autoloot". That way you can just right click and it will automatically pick up everything at once.

#2. Whenever you are in a new town or area pick up all the quests that you possibly can and do them all at once instead of trying to do them one at a time. This will help you out so much and will make leveling a lot faster.

#3. Get used to doing instances. By the time you hit 70 you will want to already be good at getting groups together for all the 5 man instances. Best time to start on your grouping skills is ASAP. Lowbie instances can be fun and give you some practice that you would need.

#4. Know your class. This may seem like an easy one but more often than not it really isn't. You will want to take the time to research and understand your class completely by the time you hit level 70. This is especially true on a PvP server.

#5. Make friends in-game as soon as possible. It is always more fun to do group stuff with friends and then you won't have to worry about people ninja looting items from bosses in instances. This can be dangerous to some as well since it makes you want to play more often and can sometimes lead to World of Warcraft addiction.

#6. Get two gathering professions at the beginning. That way you can sell items such as copper ore, etc. and make tons of gold that will help you along the way through your leveling and so you will always have enough gold to learn new spells/abilities as well as your mount.

#7. Get famaliar with WoW addons and macros. These will ultimately help save you tons of time and with doing repetative tasks. Also when you hit level 70 you will have to have some macros for raiding. It just makes great sense to use them and know how to use them ASAP.

There are tons more WoW tips that are not included in this guide so make sure you check out all the other guides that are listed on this site for the most World of Warcraft hints and tips you can find.

Be sure to bookmark this page so you won't lose track of all the guides listed on this site.

The Brewfest 2009 wow guide to achievements

Officially-sanctioned drunkenness ahoy! The Brewfest boss Coren Direbrew has been updated for level 80 players and we'll see the return of the wolpertinger quest, but apart from that, the beloved holiday is back in all its judgment-impairing glory. Read on for a complete guide to the Brewfest achievements and getting the Brewmaster title. As with most of Azeroth's holidays, successful completion of the holiday meta is required for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, and many players will be getting their violet proto-drakes immediately after completing Brewfest 2009.

Myself? All that stands between me and my giant purple drake is School of Hard Knocks. I didn't think I could hate anything in the game as much as I hated the old Tauren cat form, but I may possibly have been incorrect.

Oh well. Two days into the holiday and my main will be too sloshed to care.

Brew of the Month

Its former incarnation involved drinking each of the 12 brews mailed to your character over the course of the year, but after much hue and cry, was changed to its significantly more forgiving current form. I would just like to state for the record that around this time last year I wrote a thoroughly detailed and explicit article on why you needed to join the freaking club early in order to get the meta-achievement, but apparently not everyone was paying attention. Honestly, people.

Joining the Brew of the Month Club will run you 200 Brewfest tokens for the membership form and a trip to Orgrimmar or Ironforge to turn the membership in to Ray'ma or Larkin Thunderbrew respectively. Turn it in, and you're all set.

The Brewfest Diet

One of the less time-consuming (but more filling) achievements, The Brewfest Diet simply requires you to purchase and eat 8 specific foodstuffs sold by Brewfest vendors, all of whom will be located in the central festival area. None of the items sold are very expensive, and all together they'll cost you 20 silver and 68 copper.

Dried Sausages, Savory Sausages, Spicy Smoked Sausages, Pickled Sausages, Succulent Sausages, and the Golden Link are all sold by the Brewfest sausage vendors Keiran Donoghue (Alliance) and Bron (Horde).

The Essential Brewfest Pretzel is sold by Arlen Lochlan (Alliance) and Uta Roughdough (Horde).

Spiced Onion Cheese (bleh) is sold by Anne Summers (Alliance) and Agnes Farwithers (Horde).

Not provided: cardiologist.

Direbrewfest

Killing Coren Direbrew at least once during Brewfest's roughly two-week duration is generally pretty easy, and you should find plenty of groups on the lookout for potential summoners, as each character can only summon him once. If you've never done the Coren fight before, here's a rundown, with more information available on his Wowwiki page.

Disturbing the Peace

The only difficult part of this achievement will be getting the tickets necessary to purchase three pieces of Brewfest clothing. You'll need to buy the following:

* Brewfest Dress or Regalia: 200 tokens
* Brewfest Boots or Slippers: 100 tokens
* Brewfest Hat (one of four -- blue, brown, green, or purple): 50 tokens

All are available from Brewfest token redeemers located in the central festival area (Belbi Quikswitch for the Alliance and Blix Fixwidget for the Horde). After you buy them, hearth or port to Dalaran, get yourself farshsnickert (the type of booze you drink doesn't matter as long as you get "completely smashed"), and /dance.

Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?

In 2007 the wolpertinger pet was available after a short and funny quest; in 2008 they could be purchased for 50 silver from the token redeemer NPC's. It turns out Blizzard found a bug with the wolpertinger and pink elekk quests that they weren't able to fix in time for Brewfest 2008 to go live, hence the speed of obtaining one last year. Anyway, this year the quest will be back in the game, and it's called Catch the Wild Wolpertinger. Unfortunately, I can't find a link to the Horde version, but it's the exact same quest, just given by (if I remember correctly) a goblin NPC in the central festival area.

Down With The Dark Iron

This is a really fun achievement, but one that's only possible if you've got enough people around to help defend the Brewfest camp (it's not a job that only a few people can accomplish on their own). For that reason, I'd advise doing it during server high times when lots of people are around. Every half-hour like clockwork, Dark Iron dwarves will attack both the Alliance and Horde Brewfest areas. If a sufficient number of people help defend the camp, the Dark Iron dwarves are driven off and leave a large cog in their wake that gives the daily quest This One Time, When I was Drunk. Turn this in, and that's the achievement. Incidentally, the quest also rewards 10 Brewfest tokens, so it's quite helpful while you're saving toward Brewfest clothing and/or the Brew of the Month club membership.

So how does one help defend? On tables around the central festival area you'll find Complimentary Brewfest Samplers. Pick one of these up and put it on one of your hotkeys. When the Dark Irons attack, keep tab-targeting through them while spamming the hotkey. The mug instantly refills itself so you'll keep drinking and tossing, drinking and tossing. The end result is that the Dark Irons will get smashed at the same time you are, and if enough people are defending alongside you, your faction's kegs will be saved and the daily quest item will appear on the ground as soon as the Dark Irons are driven off.

Drunken Stupor

Paladins, Rogues, Druids, and Mages won't have any more difficulty with this than they had with Going Down? due to immunity effects/less fall damage taken, but it's easy to do this if you know where to go (or if you just bribe a Paladin into DI'ing you on your way down some random horrifying cliff). Get "completely smashed" -- as with Disturbing the Peace, the type of liquor you use doesn't matter -- and head for Shattrath. The commenter Kurasu nailed the exact place I got Going Down? on my Druid -- jump (don't step) off the bridge at this location. The distance to the ground from the bridge is slightly less than 65 yards (which is why you've gotta jump), and you'll get the achievement without dying. For added fun, bring a heavy frostweave bandage with you, and you can get Ultimate Triage directly afterwards if you don't have it already.

Have Keg, Will Travel

This achievement is no longer dependent on having bought a Brewfest mount in 2007 or gotten lucky with the drop rate in 2008 -- if you don't yet have a Brewfest mount and can't coax Coren Direbrew into dropping one for you, just buy some Fresh Brewfest Hops from the token redeemer for the measly sum of 2 tokens, pull out whatever mount you like, and /use the Hops. You can also buy the reusable Preserved Brewfest Hops for 20 tokens, but even the non-reusable version will get you the achievement.

Strange Brew

As if you didn't have enough excuses to get all drunk and silly during this holiday? The Horde and the Alliance versions are slightly different as each faction has different competing breweries, but it's still fairly straightforward:

ALLIANCE

* Barleybrew Clear, Barleybrew Light, and Barleybrew Dark are all sold by the Barleybrew Apprentice.
* Gordok Grog, Ogre Mead, and Mudder's Milk (score! Firefly reference!) are all sold by the Gordok Brew Apprentice.
* Thunder 45, Thunderbrew Ale, and Thunderbrew Stout are all sold by the Thunderbrew Apprentice.

HORDE

* Brewdoo Magic, Jungle River Water, and Stout Shrunken Head are all sold by T'chali's Voodoo Brewery Apprentice.
* Gordok Grog, Ogre Mead, and Mudder's Milk are all sold by the Gordok Brew Apprentice.
* Long Stride Brew, Path of Brew, and Small Step Brew are all sold by Drohn's Distillery Apprentice.

That should take care of your Brewfest achievements, but as always, we'll keep an eye on the holiday to see if anything new pops up. If so, this post will be updated and the change noted on the front page.


from wow.com

Day 2! I suppose it's time to go give an instance a try!

Day 2!

My specc
I'm one of those wow players that like to read, I love trolling through websites, forums and the armoury looking at people's ideas on what talents are useful. I also like Gimmicky talents, I suppose that aspect of me best shows in that I’m an engineer, so with that in mind my specc never looks like it's come straight out of elitestjerks.com, maximum efficiency isn't my thing, plus I do get a kick out of scaring the Pug’s with 12 points in the healing tree as a protty.
Anyway this is what I came up with. http://tinyurl.com/protspecc
Plenty of toys to use in "oh crap we're all going to die" moments while maximising my defence's and threat.

So I have the skills, now all I need is the gear.
Ok so I have next to nothing, there's a rather awesome looking shield I manage
Jonathan Smith: I managed to pick up from Culling of Stratholme and a few bits of tanking blue's I decided to keep just in case I was bored enough to do what I'm doing now. I needed more, allot more.
I'm lucky enough to be quite the grinder, my second profession (engineering being my primary) is blacksmithing and I own a host of alts that work tirelessly bringing in ore and materials to the forges. I crafted my own basic gear, just blue's no epics. With the latest patch release and the ease of which gear is attainable I just can't bring myself to spend hundreds of gold on something I'll probably upgrade in a day or two.

So there we are, I'm tooled as they say. I have my specc and although I may look like a reject from "The hottest transvestite in Las Vegas’ 2009 semi finals", I have my gear. I suppose it's time to go give an instance a try!

Casual Protection specced Paladin!

I'm a long time World of Warcraft player and ever since this wonderfully addictive game came out i have been resigned to being a healer. While I consider myself good at this role I must say that as of now, half way through the latest expansion Wrath of the Lichking, almost five years since I first clicked my Holy light button I've grown tired and weary of my duties.

But for no more!

Today marks the first chapter in a new book on Macatamy, Casual Protection specced Paladin! follow me?

Section 8 Game info and reviews

Section 8 is not a new kind of game at all, but it does look fantastic and play equally as well. luckily, it’s a multiplayer online game, which means you can play with other people in real time and there are two teams, the blue one and red one, which try to finish each otheroff of course.

You can also play Section 8 in a single player mode, called Corde’s Store, which is also pretty interesting, looking a bit like Unreal Tournament III. Though Section 8 has been especially design for multiplayer gameplay, so you shouldn’t buy it just for the single player mode.

The game is a combination between Unreal Tournament and Battlefield, because it features a pretty high-speed action, but you also need tactics. Fortunately, if there aren’t enough players to play with or you want to balance the game a bit, there’s an option of adding both of specific skills.

Like in many other similar games, when you die, you simply respawn and in this case it happens very fast. Though the best part is that you don’t just appear on the battlefield, but land from the sky and have some control on your landing. You can land wherever you want, but you shouldn’t try to do it in the enemy base, because of the anti-air turrets. See below for decent prices on the game for both the xbox 360 and the pc versions.