Filed under: Quests

Reader Jesta sent us a note about his new website. He's a big fan of Stack Overflow, which is a big Q&A/advice site for programmers -- you show up, ask your question, and then other folks who might or might not be working on the same problem post their answers, in moderated and organized threads for everyone to read. Jesta decided this same type of thing could work for our little game, so he put together EpicAdvice.com -- the idea is that you go there, leave a question about anything in the game, and then wait for your answer from other people browsing the site.

Stack Overflow actually has a little "badge" system where answerers can earn reputation points for answering questions correctly, and Jesta says that they're working on doing something similar for Epic Advice (though they'll probably have Achievements, as that's more Warcraft-y). But as of this writing, the site definitely needs more questions and answers, so if there's something bugging you about WoW (that our own Queue hasn't answered yet), or you consider yourself an expert and want to clear some things up, head over and give the site a look.

If you haven't quite finished your Brewfest activities, today is the last day. Not only will you not be able to earn (and spend) tokens after today, but there are a few Achievements that can only be earned during the event.

For example, even though you don't have to be wearing or drinking anything Brewfesty, you can only get the Drunken Stupor Achievement during the holiday. So go get virtually smashed and jump off a virtual bridge today, if you haven't already.

Many of you will not be able to get Brewmaster before midnight if you haven't been diligent with your daily token earning. I highly recommend, however, that you get as much done as you can this year so you have less to do next time around. Check out our Brewfest Guide for any Achievements you might have missed.

Warning: Tokens will not carry over into next year, so spend what you have today.

Good luck ...hic!

News is, of course, flooding out of the Public Test Realm as the usual suspects dive into the newly released test patch and datamine every bit of data they can. And this little nugget has appeared over on MMO Champion: apparently patch 3.3 will bring quests very much like the dungeon and heroic dailies (though it's probably a good assumption these will have weekly intermittence), but for 10 and 25-man raids. The full list of quests is after the break, but it's the old "XXXXX must die!" with the always insightful Archmage Timear determining that, for the good of the cosmos, some raid boss must be vanquished yet again.

At this point in the PTR, we're told that the quests reward 10 Emblems of Frost (which again hints that they'll be broken up over weekly periods rather than daily periods, as 10 Emblems a day is a heck of a lot of emblems). But of course that can all change before the actual patch goes live. Just know that if these quests go in, a) your raid will probably be heading back to farmed content at least once per week, and b) at least you'll be getting a nice reward from the run.

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

Patch 3.2 introduced PvP leveling and even though Patch 3.2.2 made Alterac Valley a bit less lucrative experience-wise, the Battlegrounds are still a really great way for those of us with limited playtime to squeeze some leveling time in. Before we go any farther, however, let me just say that PvP leveling is only for those who actually enjoy Battlegrounds. If you think BGs are a chore, then leveling in them will be a chore. Really, you should only be playing WoW if it's fun, so just skip this column if Battlegrounds aren't for you and we'll see you next time.

Ok, so if you are still reading, you enjoy BGs. On the flip side of the coin, if this is your main character on this realm, then I can't recommend PvP-only leveling unless you only want to PvP on this character. You will miss out on a lot of cash and gear if you skip questing entirely. Of course, if you have a sugar daddy main to feed you gold and heirlooms and are done questing before Cataclysm, you are already hanging out in BGs all day. Or you are playing Aion or Champions Online.

I was interested to find out via our very own Mike Schramm the Fleshcrafter that Blizzard has a YouTube channel now. The main reason I was interested? Because I can watch the Wrathgate cinematic several times a day and not get tired of it. It's simply one of the things I enjoyed most about Wrath of the Lich King, a potent, powerful and personally experienced series of soloable quests that leads to an awesome rampage through Undercity that creates more tension and drama than it solves. No matter what toon, I've made sure to go through this complete quest chain as soon as I can, as both Horde and Alliance get to see some fantastic lore goodness and interact as near equals with the big figures of their respective factions.

Who gets to escort Jaina to her meeting with Thrall? You do. Think of it this way: remember in WCIII when Rexxar and Thrall met up with Jaina? This time, it was you and Thrall. It really did an amazing job of injecting immediate, powerful connection between your character and the great figures of the factions, as well as bringing the war against the Lich King (and the presence of other forces seeking to take advantage of it, ala Putress and Varimathras) back home to the cities of old Azeroth. Who can forget seeing Orgrimmar crowded with refugees?

Moreover, watching the Alliance soldiers rally around Bolvar and the Horde come sweeping in under Saurfang the Younger always gives me a bit of a nostalgic feeling. This was the culmination of the 'This threat's so big we have to work together' mindset that saw us form the Might of Kalimdor under Saurfang, that united us against Kil'Jaeden at the Sunwell. This was the last, best hope for peace and unity. Had Bolvar and Saurfang not fallen, had the Forsaken not been split by civil war, if a unified front persisted against Arthas at this critical moment who knows? We might well be looking at the first steps of real detente between the factions, perhaps even a pan-Azerothian league of states and powers that includes all of the Horde and Alliance races as Putress strangles it aborning.

They don't happen often, but when they happen, you remember them forever. My wife successfully taming Loque'nahk. The forging of my Quel'Serrar. Our first complete clear of Ahn'Qiraj. Even just sitting on my mount as the sun rose on Menethil Island and realizing I'd spent nearly an entire night with my then-girlfriend chatting in-between bouts of killing various and sundry things. Those little moments that make up the memories that keep people playing. One of the ones I've enjoyed the most in game, oddly enough, is a small set of linked quests available in the Dragonblight where you end up doing the same quest effectively twice, once as a mid 70's character getting help from your future self, and again as your level 80 incarnation going back in time to provide that help. I don't know exactly why but it's one of my favorite aspects of the game and one I've made sure to do over and over again.

Of course, they're not all good. One of my good in game friends delights in telling the story of the night my wife was patiently waiting for Lupos, a rare spawn worg from Duskwood, as she wished to tame said beastie for a pet. Lo and behold, as soon as she took a break for her biological means I linked a green drop in guild. As you can imagine, going on four years later I still hear about this from her when tempers are short. I've often wished Chromie would let me go back and stop that one, but so far no dice.

So now dear readers I ask you for your moments, be they great, terrible, or greatly terrible (or terribly great, even).

Welcome to the latest Arcane Brilliance, the weekly Mage column that believes there's no such thing as a wrong time to turn something into a sheep. Unless it was already a sheep to begin with. Then it would probably have been better to turn it into a pig or a rabbit or something. Or maybe just hit it with a Pyroblast. Mmmm. Lamb chops. What were we talking about again?

If you missed last week, here's a link to click on so you can catch up. If you can't be bothered to read the first part of this column, let me summarize the idea here: we're discussing ways to get your Mage all decked out in epic, raid-worthy gear without ever actually entering a raid instance. Now, more than ever before, we have so many options for obtaining raid-quality gear that actually raiding for it seems almost...old-fashioned.

Last week we talked about 5-mans in both their normal and heroic varieties, focusing on Trial of the Champion, because duh. But maybe you don't want to do 5-mans. Maybe your guildies aren't on, and maybe you hate pugs. Maybe you are a Mage, and because there are eighty-four DPSers looking for group for every one tank or healer, you threw your hands up after an hour of trying to get a group and went off to do dailies.

Well good news, everyone! Doing those dailies can get you epics too! Yes, it is entirely possible--even if you happen to be the guy on your server who ninjas gear in pugs and sucks at everything to the point that nobody invites you to groups anymore--to fill just every slot of your gear with sparkly purples without doing any instances of any kind. Isn't that wonderful? It tends to take a bit longer, overall, but these alternative methods for obtaining gear can be perfect for those of us who simply don't have a lot of time to commit to a group. Simply log in, craft an epic cloak, do a daily quest or two, blast out a couple Arena matches, and then repeat for a few weeks, and eventually you'll have epics too. Anyway, nice talking to you, see you next week! Wait...what's that? You want details? Oh fine. Clicky clicky.

The interesting thing about World of Warcraft for me is that it can create such feelings of loyalty, solidarity, faction pride, and sometimes, raw, visceral, demonic hatred welling up from within. As an example, as an old school warrior player, I despise the Cyclonian with every fiber of my being. Mind you, I loved the quest chain, it felt epic and I kept the sword forever and a day (might even still have it somewhere in that mess of a bank) but the mob? Hate hate hate hate hate hate hate. I still stop whatever I'm doing and ride down to see if any warriors are trying to solo him whenever I'm anywhere near Southshore or Chillwind Point. And if they are, they suddenly find themselves assisted by a level 80 warrior who wishes nothing more on earth than to kill that windbag!

Seriously, kudos to Blizzard, you managed to make me hate a mass of pixels more than some people I've had reason to dislike over the years. If sentient whirlwinds ever manifest and begin speaking to us, they'd best do so very far away from me.

So this fine morning I ask you: what do you hate?

Another requested item this week, and I believe it's our first from the Trial of the Crusader raids.

Name: Dirk of the Night Watch (Wowhead, Buffed, Thottbot)
Type: Epic One-hand Dagger
Damage/Speed: 200-301 / 1.40 (178.9 DPS)
Attributes:

• +52 Agility, +52 Stamina
• 1737 Feral attack power, for you feral types

A new build hit the Patch 3.2.2 PTR very recently, revealing a very convenient little detail: The dungeon daily quest now gives you the option of choosing and Sons of Hodir Commendation Badge, in addition to the ones that have been there all along for the Kirin Tor, the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade and Wyrmrest Accord.

I've already completed the Sons of Hodir rep grind on my main, so this isn't particularly helpful there. However, I'm going to love it on my alts. I shined enough spears or whatever to last me a lifetime, and any way to avoid it that doesn't involve buying thousands of Relics of Ulduar is fine by me. I'm glad to see these quests get a little bit of love too, because I've been throwing away all sorts of commendations for the last few months simply because I'm already exalted with everything. Yes, even on my alt. It's really not hard if you remember to wear your tabard! Throwing away all of those commendations felt a little like flushing time down the toilet, so hopefully this will alleviate that a little and make it so the Emblem of Conquest isn't the only draw these quests have anymore.

All the World's a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

As you know, the Cataclysm is going to bring major changes to the whole world of Azeroth. There will only be 5 new zones for leveling above 80 and one new zone for each new race -- the rest of the work they're doing involves changing the old zones, bringing them up to the standards of zones in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, adding new quests that are more appropriate to the current timeline, and completely rebuilding the areas that just didn't work so well.

You are also probably aware that this is a much-needed improvement. The 1 - 60 leveling process (except for the draenei or blood elf starting areas) has long been fraught with serious flaws. Going through it the first time wasn't so bad, since exploring everything felt so new, but doing it the third and fourth times meant sheer boredom. I remember many times going to a zone, completing many or all of the quests there, and leaving without ever feeling as though I had really "been" there. Except for a few real gems, quests mostly involved spending a lot of time running long distances in order to kill more nameless bad guys -- they felt more like pest control than adventure. Just being there seemed to remove me from the story of Azeroth, and dump me in some other world where there was nothing important happening. Vast stretches of land on the Azeroth map meant absolutely nothing to me as a roleplayer: no character, no story, no meaning.

We've got a special treat for you on this week's podcast: it's actually two episodes in one. Since we were all at BlizzCon this past weekend, we went ahead and recorded a podcast both nights of the con -- after the show, tired as we were, we trudged back to the hotel and recorded some audio reflecting on what we'd seen earlier in the day. Obviously, this is our very first of the first impressions -- some of the things we talked about Friday night were clarified on Saturday, and since we didn't have much time here, we obviously hit on only the biggest highlights. But we did get in some good discussion about Cataclysm and what we've been told so far, Icecrown and what the devs mentioned, and of course the convention itself and what we all saw on the floor.

It was actually a lot of fun to sit down and do the show with us all in the same room -- of course it's not usually possible, given that we're all in different places around the country (and world), but it was definitely an interesting thing to try while we were all at the con. And while we're talking about the con, a huge thank you to everyone who came up to us and said how much they loved the podcast -- we really, really appreciate hearing stuff like that. Of course, as you can probably hear, the podcast is a ton of fun to do anyway, but it's great to hear you guys are having as much fun as we are.

Next week, we should be back to normal -- we'll be live on the air at 3:30pm Saturday with Turpster, our usual rotating panel of WoW.com folks, and maybe even some special guests. Thanks for listening, see you then.

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Special edition of Phat Loot Phriday this week, on a Phursday! Why? Because tomorrow is gonna be full of fun in the California sun.

We did Quel'serrar a while back, so with Onyxia headed back to the game, we'll look at the other piece of gear that involved the black dragon we love to hate.

Name: Onxyia Scale Cloak (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDB)
Type: Cloak
Armor: 43
Abilties:

• +7 Stamina, +16 Fire resistance. Ah, the days of level 60, they seem so far gone now. Compare this to a prime tanking cloak nowadays, and take a look at just how far we've come.
• On equip, protects the wearer from being fully engulfed by something called Shadow Flame. What is Shadow Flame, you ask? Here's where this item really gets interesting: sit back and enjoy a tale of old level 60 raiding.
• Shadow Flame is actually an ability used by Nefarian, Onyxia's brother, and a few other bosses in Blackwing Lair. He casts a huge unblockable AoE during his fight -- unblockable, that is, unless you're wearing one of these cloaks (although since then, Ice Block and Divine Shield will both stop it).