Monday, December 31, 2012

Rares of Kun-Lai Summit

Totally didn't forget about these guides...
The rares here have some interesting items, the one that is camped most often is Hozen Peace Pipe. Forager's Gloves might interest you if you have dual gathering professions.


Thursday, December 27, 2012

Silvershard Mines Guide



Lately I've been doing some battle grounds, I thought I'd explain Silvershard Mines today, gauging from the amount of losses I've had, I think a lot of people still don't understand how it plays out(or maybe I'm bad). If you have a better tactics to win, please let me know.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

How Effective is the Double Rep Buff?

I recently leveled my warrior to 90, this is the first one I've leveled since the double rep buff went into place. Without doing any dailies, I was able to reach revered with the Klaaxi from finishing their zone quests. I'm about 5000/12000 into Shado-Pan rep, and I still have Tai Ho's Investigation chain to complete. If you were holding off on leveling alts because of dailies, reaching revered on one character will definitely help with the daily grind.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Seeds of Fear Rep Quest Change

Before 5.1 I had 18 Dread Ambers Shards in my bag, waiting to collect 4 more to turn it in for Klaxxi Rep. After the patch the requirement has changed from 25 to 5 Dread Ambers Shards for the quest Seeds of Fear. So it is now possible to grind these out for rep, 250 per turn in before the double rep at revered. If you really want that Reins of the Amber Scorpion, or that epic ring from Shadow of the Empire, you can grind some rep.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Wrapping Paper

 Yesterday I crafted 8 jeweled panthers as xmas presents for friends. One way to add some flavor to  gifts is to box it using wrapping paper. You can find the festive ones in any major city, they can't be used on soulbound, unique or stackable items. So you're kind of limited to what you can gift; pets, mounts and boe weapons and armor are always nice though. Get creative, can you think of anything else to put in the box?

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Raiding with Leashes Guide Part 1 Blackwing Lair

Part 2 Naxxaramas Part 3 Molten Core

Patch 5.1 introduced new battle pets into the game, a series of pets now drop from doing old raid instances(Blackwing Lair, Naxxaramas, Molten Core and Ahn'Qiraj). Collecting all of the pets from these raids rewards you with the Raiding with Leashes achievement and your very own Mr. Bigglesworth. Each pet has a fair chance to drop and they can all be soloed.
Today I'll go over Blackwing Lair and cover the bosses that might still be difficult at 90.


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Ancient Teleport: Dalaran

Mages, are you looking for a new way to kill your friends? Do you need a short cut to the yeti to do your Feast of Winter Veil daily?

If you answered yes to either of those, I'm going to show you where to learn a new teleport and portal spell.

Edit: The spell can only be learned at 90, thanks fringetastic for letting me know.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Enigma Seeds are the Best Seeds

I recently started planting Enigma Seeds on my farm instead of Songbell Seeds. The results are pretty fantastic. After patch 5.1, the rate at which golden lotus spawns from these seeds have been increased dramatically. On average I see 4-5 Golden Lotus in a plot of 16, today I got pretty lucky with 10. The patch also decreased the exchange rate of Spirit of Harmony(produced by Songbell Seeds) to Golden Lotus from 3 to 2. So unless you're using Spirits of Harmony to craft something, it is way more profitable to use Enigma Seeds, you can transmute gems with Golden Lotus, make flasks or just sell them on the auction house.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Use Elder Charms on LFR Bosses You're Saved To

You completed your Crystalized Terror this week but sha-touched weapons just won't drop for you? If you have extra Elder Charms, you can use your bonus rolls even if you've already completed the LFR for the week. Of course that means sitting through a 10+ minute queue for only a chance at loot, but the option's there if you want to do it, you masochist.

Monopoly: World of Warcraft Collector's Edition is 13.99 on Amazon today.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Silkworm Cocoon

The tailoring 24 hour cooldown for making imperial silk received a change in patch 5.1. Instead of creating one piece of imperial silk, you now receive a silkworm cocoon. Opening this always gets you an imperial silk, and also a chance at an imperial silkworm or an Imperial Moth. These pets can be traded so look for them on the auction house if you don't have a tailor.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Sun-Lute of the Phoenix King

Lately I've been checking the Black Market Auction House waiting for this item to pop up. Starting bid is 70k, it is one of the few items that can only be obtained via the BMAH. The other one I can think of is Flintlocke's Blasthammer. At item level 483 (not upgradeable) and useable by lvl 85s, it is the most powerful weapon you can get for your leveling plate character. My 87 warrior's running around with a fully upgraded Spear of Xuen right now, but this would be even nicer. I hope to see more of these BMAH only items in the future.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Go get your Black Drake Mount

If you haven't done so already, go do Obsidian Sanctum on 10 man and leave all three of the drakes up. With Patch 5.1 you can enter old raid instances without having to form a raid. Saratharion should be soloable by most classes at 90. He always drops a 22 slot bag, and with 3 drakes up he'll drop Reins of the Black Drake. If you're really feeling adventurous, grab 1-3 more ppl and try the 25 man version. He drops Reins of the Twilight Drake.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Cooldowns Over 5 Minutes Reset After Each Raid Boss

Here's something I just found out, if you kill a boss in a raid, your 5 minute or longer cooldowns will be reset. I believe it also works if you wipe, but will have to test it to see. According to the patch notes, the cooldown also resets between attempts in Challenge Mode.

Monday, December 10, 2012

How to Revive Pets You Want to Capture

You finally found that rare minfernal you've been camping for 4 weeks, and then your pet goes and one shots it. Don't flip your desk yet, there's a way to salvage this.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Queue for Wintergrasp and Tol Barad


Another new feature of 5.1, you can now queue for these old world PvP battle grounds via the PvP menu.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Sigil of Power, Sigil of Wisdom

If you've done any sort of LFR, you've probably received more bags of gold than you'd like. If you're really lucky, you get loot, and on occasion you might receive a Sigil of Power from Mogu'shan Vaults or a Sigil of Wisdom from Heart of Fear or Terrace of Endless Spring.You have a small chance of winning one of these every time you down a boss in LFR, it also has a chance to drop in a normal raid, when this occurs everyone will be able to loot it.


Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Double your alt Druid/Monk/Ret/War/Dk's leveling dps with archaeology update



I wrote about Spear of Xuen in October, you can now upgrade it. After it's upgraded it becomes ilvl 471, it can still be used by level 85 characters and retains it's BOA property.


Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Black Market Auction House Location


 This is a bit late, but for those of you that are wondering, the Black Market Auction House is located at 64, 76 or The Veiled Stair.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Rares of Krasarang Wild Update

Patch 5.1 Added six new rares to Krasarang Wild, depending on your faction, you'll only be able to kill three of them. They each have a small chance to drop a Blood-Soaked Invitation which gets you into Brawler's Guild, as well as an Honorable Commendation that increases your honor by 250 (benefits from Battle Standard of Coordination).



Killing all three rares also gets you the achievement I'm In Your Base, Killing Your Dudes. They respawn every 30-60 minutes. Oh, and they also flag you so be careful. They don't flag you, thanks fringetastic for pointing that out.


Friday, November 30, 2012

Queue All the Things



If you're doing the item upgrade grind and don't feel like doing dailies, it's a good idea to queue for Scenarios, Dungeon Finder and Raid Finder all at once. I mentioned yesterday that Scenarios now have a chance to drop epics. Once a queue pops your other queues will be paused, as soon as you finish whichever thing you were doing (most likely a scenario), you'll be placed at the front of the line for your other queues, so you pretty much get into a Dungeon or Raid after your scenario immediately. It works for PVP too, but your queues will drop if you get into Wintergrasp or Tol Barad.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Scenarios Are Pretty Good For Gearing Now

Another 5.1 post, doing a random scenario rewards you with Greater Cache of Treasures. Just like before, you have a chance to find lvl 463 rares, but now there's a chance that it can reward you with 463 weapons as well as ilvl 476 epics. I've only seen the cloak drop from the cache but it looks like these randomized epic items can be for every slot, minus trinkets.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Where to Upgrade Your Gear



Earlier this month I said you should hang on to your Honor/Justice gear and stockpile your Honor/Justice/Conquest/Valor points, if you did that, your hoarder ways are about to pay off. Patch 5.1 introduces a system to upgrade your gear. Any item over ilvl 458 (with the exception of the Patch 5.1 rep obtained gear) can be upgraded up 8 item levels for 1500 justice/honor points (if blue) or two increments of 750 Conquest/Valor points (if epic). And yes, you can upgrade your DMC trinkets.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Grand Commendation of the Revered

Patch 5.1 arrives today, lots of exciting new features are coming. As someone who has a few 90s now and hates doing dailies, I'm excited about the Grand Commendations that each of the MoP factions are offering. Once you hit revered with each faction, you get the option to purchase this item. For example, buying Grand Commendation of the Golden Lotus will give you 100% more reputation gain with Golden Lotus across all characters.

Full list of commendations here.


Yeah, you still need to have a character that's revered with each faction to get this rep buff, but now you only have to grind half the dailies you did on your first character to unlock valor items!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Banquet Cheat Sheet

Eat all the foods


Can't figure out if you should dig into that hot steamer or chow down on the grill when presented with multiple banquets? Here's a quick fact sheet, always eat the banquet that corresponds with your primary stat if it's present, it adds an additional 25 to that stat.


Friday, November 23, 2012

The Weekly Sha Check Macro

Sometimes the days bleed into each other and I forget if I did Sha of Anger, if this has 
happened to you, make this macro:
/run local z,t,s={[32099]='Sha of Anger this week.'},GetQuestsCompleted();for c,v in pairs(z) do if t[c] then s='' else s=' not' end print('You have'..s,'done',v) end
Whenever you kill Sha of Anger for the week, a hidden quest is completed, this is how 
the game determines if you get a chance at loot. Saw this in comments on Wowhead. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Where to Exchange Your Tier 14 Tokens

Have you received a token from Nightmare of Shek'zeer or Terrace of Endless Spring yet? Commander Oxheart is who you need to speak with to trade in your tokens for tier gear. Located at the back of Niuzao Temple (37, 64), you might recognize her as the valor vendor.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Now is a Good Time to Grind Some Rep

Starting yesterday, running until December 4th, if you log on you will receive a Celebration Package in your mail in honor of WoW's 8th anniversary.

Pilgrim's Bounty event is also running until November 25th, eating 5 servings of each type of food at the Bountiful Tables outside your major city will give you The Spirit of Sharing.

This stacks up to 18% more rep per kill, and 10% more rep per quest turn in.

In MoP most of the factions rep grinds involve dailies, but you can use this to advance your Black Prince Rep to Honored. Or farm rep in dungeons for your Pandaren faction with a tabard.

So you can use these rep buffs for some old expansion stuff like grind for The Insane title.

If you're after The Beloved title, use these buffs while they last.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Get Your Cooking to 525 with Minimal Effort



If you're not cooking MoP level food, you could be very easily by paying a visit to Sungshin Ironpaw at Halfhill Market in Valley of the Four Winds. This NPC will train you to cook from 1-525 and sell you most of the ingredients you will need to get there. The only ingredients you need to bring are 42 Golden Carps and 2 Wildfowl Breasts.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Lost and Found - Jade Forest


One of the new achievements in MoP is Lost and Found, they're basically rarespawns that are items you pick up. The weapons are all bind on account, so you can give those to your alts while you level. There are some neat items such as the Ancient Pandaren Mining Pick that grant you a bonus to mining. Find 20 different ones and get "the Relic Hunter" title.They're pretty hard to spot, so keep your eyes open and your camera zoomed in. Today I'll cover the items found in Jade Forest. Coords and waypoint macro after the break.


Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Terrace of Endless Spring Entrance

Terrace of Endless Spring is the last raid instance to come out with the MoP release. The entrance is located in The Veiled Stair area.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Guide to Rares of the Krasarang Wild



Compared to the rares found in the Valley of Four Winds, there's nothing really exciting here. Unless you're an enchanter looking to get a few more Sha Crystals, putting the notable items on the auction house might net you a few hundred golds.

Friday, November 9, 2012

How to Activate Challenge Mode



If yesterday's post about how to access at the challenge mode scoreboard got your blood pumping to do some Challenge Modes, today I'll explain how to enable it.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

How to Access the Challenge Mode Scoreboard

Blizzard added a leaderboard for challenge modes where you can see the top scores on your realm.

To get to it, first get to your Dungeon Finder, the default button is I.


Click on the Challenge mode tab.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Monday, November 5, 2012

Heart of Fear LFR Guide Part 1 - The Dread Approach

Crop Check Macro

If you're like me, you've probably come back to harvest your crops only to find that one of them hasn't grown because you forgot to tend it (It's usually the runty ones). Below''s a simple macro so you never forget.

/tar alluring
/tar bursting
/tar infested
/tar parched
/tar plump
/tar ripe
/tar runty
/tar smothered
/tar tangled
/tar wiggling
/tar wild
/script if (charm == nil) or (charm < 0) then charm=9; end; charm=charm-1; SetRaidTarget("target", charm)

Just push this once you're done planting and tending, if any crops need attention it'll mark it for you.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Don't Toss Out Your Honor/Justice/Valor/Conquest Gear

Some of you might have outgrown your honor/justice/valor gear by now, patch 5.1 will bring an update to allow you to upgrade your purchased gear by 8 item levels for 1500 points of the corresponding currency.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Stuck in Combat during Kunzen Dailies? Here's Why.

If you're doing Tiller or cooking dailies in the Kunzen village area in the Valley of Four Winds, you might have found yourself stuck in combat. Even exiting the game will not take you out of combat. If this has happened to you, you probably hit a stolen brew keg with an aoe attack. Make sure you destroy the keg, it'll take you out of combat.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Best Place for Your Bank Alt (Horde)

The Tauren area in the Valley of Wisdom in Orgrimmar gives you easy access to a mailbox, an auctioneer and a bank all within a short distance, you don't even have to dismount!
 

Monday, October 29, 2012

Heart of Fear Raid Location



Heart of Fear normal mode is released today. The coordinates for the entrance are 85, 13 in the Dread Wastes.

Map after the break.

Mogu'shan Vault Entrance

The entrance to Mogu'shan Vault is located in the northeast of Kun-lai Summit in Mogu'shan Terrace. The coordinates are 59, 39.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Quicker Way to Get Your Mail

This is an old tip, if you have more than 50 items in your mail box, or you bought something on the auction house, usually you have to wait 1 minute after you empty the mailbox for the next batch to show up. Type /reload to reload your ui and have it show up instantly.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Glory of the Pandaria Hero Part 1

As always, finishing the dungeon achievements in MoP will reward you with a mount.

Today's post covers achievements in Scarlet Hall, Scarlet Monastery and Scholomance. As always I'll try to keep these brief.





Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Guide to Rares of the Valley of Four Winds



Continuing from the last set of rares, you'll find that the items dropped by these rares are much more interesting. As always, drops are not guaranteed. Note that most of these drops have the restriction of only being usable in outdoor Pandaria, so you will not be able to use them in Battlegrounds, Arenas and Raids. The one item that has a lot of potential to be awesome is Crystal of Insanity, which is a free reusable flask that provides 500 to each stat, it is less than the 1000 stat flasks available, however a healer could benefit from this as it would provide 500 to int and spirit. Click in to find out what each rare drops.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Hidden Klaxxi Dailies



Looking for an extra boost to your Klaxxi rep? Depending on where the dailies are located for each day, you can do one of these three hidden dailies. They all involve killing a champion mob that drop a quest item you can turn in.

Kypa'rak's Core - If the dailies active today are near the Briny Muck, look for Kypa'rak around 33, 58. He is a giant ringworm that drops Massive Kyparite Core.

The Warlord's Ashes - If the dailies are active in the Terrace of Gurthan, look for a broken Mogu statute at 66, 31. You'll know you're there if you see a green and a red rune in front of him. /Lay in the green rune and /kneel in the red rune (works better with 2 people but you can do it with one if you're fast) and he'll spawn. Kill him for Ashes of Warlord Gurthan.

The Matriarch's Maw - If your dailies are near the Clutches of Shek'zeer (41, 3) look for Karanosh, she is a giant bug type. Killing her yields Enormous Kunchong Mandibles.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Blood Spirits and How to Get Them

Wow Blood Spirit

Have you been to the Black Market Auction House or done any raiding yet? If you have, chances are you've seen recipes that craft ilvl 496 items. For those that are keeping track, 496 level items drop from Terrace of Endless Spring and Heart of Fear. These recipes all require a reagent called Blood Spirit. Blood Spirit is the Mists of Pandaria raid crafting item, much like Living Ember from Fire Lands, unlike the previous reagents that have a chance to drop from each boss, you get these by disenchanting raid epics. In this post from the official WoW blog, it's mentioned that they are obtained by disenchanting raid weapons, however, they also have a chance to drop when you disenchant any raid level epic, including LFR armor. You can find a list of items that use blood spirits here.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Double your alt Druid/Monk/Ret/War/Dk's leveling dps with archaeology

If you're leveling an alt that can use polearms you should go do some archaeology first on your main. One of the new artifacts in Pandaria is the Spear of Xuen. This is already a good entry level lfr/raid weapon, but notice that it is bind on account and useable at level 85. When compared to an 85 equip like Kiril, Fury of the Beasts (lfr version in this example for ease to obtain), you see that the damage per second stat is nearly doubled. You will hit like a truck with this spear, a bit unbalanced for battlegrounds (Alterac Valley call to arms this weekend, you gain 6-11% of your Xp bar per win), so enjoy it while it lasts.

I recommend this agility weapon even for plate dps because most melee attacks do a % of weapon damage (crusader strike, mortal strike, obliterate). It really doesn't matter that agility is only good for a slight dodge and crit increase, the weapon damage upgrade over say Gurthalak, Voice of the Deeps more than justifies using it. You could use this at 90 just to get started on heroics but I would ditch it as soon as a comparable strength weapon drops.

This took me a few solves to get, it popped up right when I hit 600 skill level. It is a 180 Pandaria Archaeology Fragment rare solve, so try to focus on pandaren dig sites, most of the sites in Jade Forest yield Pandaria Archaeology Fragment Consider using Lorewalker's Map to reset dig sites if none are available in Jade Forest. Depending on your luck you may see it a lot earlier or later than me.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Notes about Hallow's End

Hallow's End started yesterday and runs through October 31st. You can queue from the LFD menu.

The Headless Horseman drops 4 rings:
Wicked Witch's Signet
Band of the Petrified Pumpkin 
Seal of Ghoulish Glee 
The Horseman's Ring

There is no tank ring, plate dps, don't be surprised if the tank rolls against you.

The Horseman does not drop The Horseman's Sinister Slicer and The Horseman's Horrific Hood. They have a chance to show up in the Loot-filled Pumpkin. This is obtained on the first kill everyday.

If you're working on The Black Prince rep or leveling up, consider picking up Unburdened or Grim Visage buff for 10% more rep and exp per kill.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Casters, reforge to expertise for more spell hit

If you need a bit more spell hit to cap (1537 rating or 15%), and your equipment already has hit rating, consider reforging into expertise. Traditionally expertise has always been a stat for melee to take dodge and parry off the hit table, but with patch 5.0.4 the stat now has some uses for casters. You can really optimize your gear by reforging for expertise on pieces that have hit rating and a secondary stat that's not very valuable to your spec. For example, a demo lock could reforge haste into expertise on a piece like the Sandals of the Shadow and get more hit rating out of it.

The reason why expertise is being converted to spell hit is to help some melee classes that cast spells (lightning bolt, exorcism, consecration) reach their spell hit cap without having to add more hit rating. For casters, it's more hit rating in exchange for a weak stat you normally wouldn't stack anyways.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Perfect Cut Uncommon Gems vs Rare Gems

Yes, they give the exact same amount of stats, so make sure you search for both and buy whichever one is cheaper. Perfect cut gems have a chance (10-15%) to be produced by any uncommon type cuts a jewelcrafter makes.

An example:

Perfect Quick Sunstone vs Quick Sun's Radiance

Friday, October 12, 2012

Guide to Rares of Jade Forest

Rare mobs in Mists of Pandaria work a little different from previous expansions. These mobs spawn much more often, usually one to two hours after they are killed. When killed they will drop a piece of bind on pick up rare armor, a chance to drop a Small Bag of Goods containing gathering goods, and each rare has a special item; think vanity, epic or trinket. Killing all 56 rares will grant you the achievement Glorious! This post will cover the rares found in the Jade Forest, there are a total of 8 rares here. All rares of the same type have the same attack patterns.




Krax'ik 39, 62
Notable item: Needlefang Throatripper
Type: Mantid.
He is stealthed so you have to get close to see him. Stun or get behind him when he casts Blade Flurry, avoid tornadoes, when he casts Windsong you can not outrun him, stun him or use defensive cooldowns.

Kor'nas Nightsavage 44, 71
Notable item: Darkstaff of Annihilation
Type: Mogu Sorcerer.
Interrupt Shadow Bolt, Move out of Void Clouds.

Aethis 33, 50
Notable item: Pool-Stirrer
Type: Jinyu.
Interrupt torrent, run out of rain dance.

Mister Ferocious 42, 38
Notable item: Ook-Breaker Mace
Type: Hozen.
Run away from bananarang. Stun him when he starts going bananas or run away. Kill him before your toss filth debuff gets too high, can be blocked or bubbled off.

Ferdinand 53, 45
Notable item: Ook-Breaker Mace
Type: Yaungol
Run out when he casts Yaungol Stomp. Kite him during bellowing rage. Stay within 20 yards of him to avoid rushing charge.

Urobi the Walker 57, 71
Notable item: Pathwalker Greatstaff
Type: Pandaren
Run out of spinning crane kick. Interrupt Healing Mists. Stay within 15 yards to avoid Chi Burst.

Sarnak 64 74
Notable item: Fishsticker Crossbow (BOE)
Type: Saurok
He is in a cave at sea level. Stay within 20 yards to avoid being pulled in with Grappling Hook. Every now and then he'll Vanish and ambush you for some damage, use your damage reduction cooldowns when he does this. He'll also bleed you with Vicious Rend.

Morgrinn Crackfang 42, 17
Notable item: Fangcracker Battlemace
Type: Mogu Warrior
Get out of the way when he casts Devastating Arc. Cleave down the add when he uses Summon Quilen. Dispel Titanic Strength1 enrage or kill him before it gets to be too much.

BONUS:

Martar the Not-So-Smart 55, 30
Notable item: Martar's Magnifying Glass
While he's not considered a silver dragon portrait rare, he has a chance to drop an interesting trinket.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mists of Pandaria Preraid Leather Gear - Intelligence



Head:
Amulet:
Shoulder:
Cloaks:
Chest:
Wrist:
Hand:
 Waist:
Legs:
Boots: 
Ring:
Trinkets: