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You’ve seen it in trade chat a hundred times or in a whisper from an unfamiliar name, “Greetings, pleased you are to buy our gold. www.wowgoldXXX.com! Cheapest gold in WOW! Purchase Now!” Illegal gold sellers are roundly reviled by WOW players but why? Answering this question requires us to examine the evolution of Gold Selling in WOW.

The older, more primitive form of gold selling came from Gold Farmers. No doubt you’ve heard about the hordes of Chinese peasants stuffed into cramped rooms sitting shoulder to shoulder farming mobs and ore? The basic concept goes as follows: the price of gold fluctuates in relation to the US dollar like any other currency. There are some servers where inflation is high and a lot of gold buys very little. Conversely, there are some servers where inflation is low and a lot of gold buys well…a lot. Chinese (or any other ethnicity) gold farmers actually make their living from farming gold in game and selling it to affluent Western gamers (the money they get from selling gold is comparable to or in many cases, more than, the amount of money they could make working a normal job in their own country). Read more…

Oddly, after our tank talk last Friday night, I was trolling tankadin, and someone had started a thread very similar to the question Hafrot have posed at the round table, “if you could switch classes and retain your current level of gear, which tanking class would you pick?  Why?”  The forum took an odd turn when I saw a response I never anticipated, and it mentioned the hunter tank.

The Hunter Tank

The basic idea of hunter tanking is to use a tenacity pet, preferably one with a tanking cooldown, to tank.  The obvious choice would be a turtle because of shell shield.  The default cooldown on shell shield is one minute, but a BM hunter (I’m guessing this idea would only work with BM tree) with longevity you can bring down the cool to a mere 42 seconds if my math isn’t shoddy.  The idea isn’t really outrageous, though as a lock and someone who enjoys watching vids of ol’ blue tank; the minute the idea become viable, I am sure Blizzard will make efforts to correct such an injustice.  The post on hunter tanking mentioned the need for very specific pieces like the beast-tamers shoulders, and it got the wheels in my head to start spinning a little. Read more…

It’s that time of year again, the weather is getting colder, neighborhood kids are greedily eying the pumpkins on your front porch, and Hallow’s End has come to WOW! That’s right, the Headless Horseman has returned, coughing up epic loots and forcing players to make the long trek to Scarlet Monastery. Although the fight mechanics are the same, the Horseman has been given an additional ten levels and a revisited loot table.

All of the rings are item level 200 with yawn inducing stats (two caster rings and one DPS ring, all with mediocre stats). The real pieces of gear that are going to turn heads are The Horseman’s Horrific Helm and The Horseman’s Baleful Blade. Prepare to hear the Headless Horseman’s maniacal laughter as all the plate wearers on your server spam the Helm’s special ability while running through the streets of Dalaran. The Baleful Blade has decent stats but the real kicker is the ability to walk around with your own Pumpkin Posse (expect to see this ability used extensively in Arenas and BGs across Azeroth).

However, the Headless Horseman isn’t the only feature of Hallow’s End. There are a slew of achievements that award The Hallowed title once completed. Players that are short on gold should consider visiting the myriad inns across the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Outlands to complete the Tricks and Treats of Azeroth Achievement. Each quest yields about 7 gold and gives you the opportunity to get the G.N.E.R.D.S. necessary to complete the achievement G.N.E.R.D. Rage. If you’re anything like me (a bush hiding caster who prefers to stand off in the distance and lay down the hammer) you’ll find this achievement easy to pick up.

Another great way to line your pocket (or conversely, to perform your good deed for the day) is to trick or treat until you get a hallowed wand. This wand is attached to the Masquerade Achievement and most of the transformations are going for 15g a pop! Ultimately, there is no shortage of content for players to experience in Hallow’s End. Whether or not you’re simply gearing up your alts or grinding out the Hallowed Title, make sure you capitalize on the short amount of time Blizzard has allotted for this holiday.

Hosted by Hafrot

with guests…
Representing the Warriors: Veneretio
Representing the Death Knights: cdeagle
Representing the Paladins: Rawr Crew Member – Rhabella

Read more…

I don’t know about all of you, but it seems like the majority of the people playing the game today are not really interested in the lore behind the game.  I know that I was one of those people for the longest time.  I read the quests and picked up some of the lore here and there, but there are always people you play with or in your guild that are the WOW Lore Historians.

I was never one of them, which is sort of funny since I actually have bachelors and masters degrees in History.  The history of the game has never really interested me, until of late.  Recently, I have been getting a little more into the lore and thought I should learn a little more about the game that I love.

To that I discovered a great way to get some of that lore and I decided to tell all of you about it. One of the ways is to get some of the achievements that are available out there.  The Higher Learning achievement has you read some books that are rare spawns in Dalaran.  The books are on the schools of Arcane Magic.  I have managed to get to one of them, but I still have a ways to go to get the set, especially since there are 8 of them. Read more…

This week Stomp and Haf review some of the highlights of the PTR notes thus far. A few of the funnier points of the notes allude to a Warcraft budget crisis that is leaving level 1 toons hungry and thirsty on the mean streets of Azeorth. Stomp is also joined by Brigwyn of The Hunting Lodge and WoW.com to chat a bit more about the wonderful plans coming together at Azeroth United, and we debuted a few of the new “Voice” endorsements being put together to promote our inaugural charity event. Check AzerothUnited.com/hhv to learn how you can help to sponsor this event worth celebrating. Read more…

As we all know, William Shatner is a shaman, and we all, no doubt, are wondering, “how do I hurl bolts of lightning?”  Early in 3.1, one of the shaman complaints surrounding their drop in DPS was the cooldown of lava burst.  Many shadow priests have a similar complaint with their lack of an on demand direct damage ability.  They also have to wait for what can feel like eons between casts of their mind blast.  There is relief on the horizon as 3.3 looks to test the effect of haste on DoTs and HoTs.

The Symphony of Healers

A good raid healing team really is a thing of beauty.  Imagine Beethoven’s 5^th or the Brandenburg Concertos being played but instead of the glorious music, you are watching a screen of green heals bombarding your monitor.  There is a rhythm to healing and syncing up your rhythm with the other members of your healing team is one of the most important aspects of raid healing.  If you druid raid heal like Stomp, you know your role has always been tempo.  You are the underlying carrier of the healing symphony.  It becomes the job of the other healers to drop in their massive heals at a moments notice if you are low on a GCD, and conversely, for you to ease the pain of the tank healers with a HoT or two if you have the time and mana. Read more…

One of the most significant achievements I’ve earned in WOW is the title of Loremaster.  No other experience highlights the sheer volume and variety of content available in the game.  I found myself accepting any and every quest under the sun.  A five minute escort quest across the bleak Tanaris desert to return a lost turtle to his wife?  Why not?  An epic quest chain that takes you from the snow drifts of Winterspring down into the lush jungles of Feralas?  I was game.  Although the experience was frustrating at times, the Loremaster grind was like a walk down memory lane.

The question I received most often during the grind was, “why are you punishing yourself?”  After all, I received no gear upgrades, I spent months of time traveling through obscure zones searching out hidden quests, all the while missing out on a lot of instances and guild raids.  The real reason I did it was to commemorate all of the time I’ve spent in Azeroth and to grab the Achievement before it disappeared in the upcoming expansion.

I decided to go for the achievement on my first character, a human Warlock that I rolled in the Fall of 2006.  Heading back to Outland, I recalled how stunned I was when the Burning Crusade first came out.  Hellfire Peninsula with its crumbling war torn terrain, bellowing Fel Reaver and swirling cosmic skyline were just as epic as I remembered them.  The swampy psychedelic day glow infused Zangarmarsh zone with its reservoir dungeons and Naga infested waters soaked up several fulfilling hours.  Netherstorm, Shadowmoon Valley, and the Blade’s Edge Mountains all flew by and soon enough I was an Outlands Loremaster.

The transition back to the “Old World” (read Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor) was the equivalent of waking up from a pleasant dream to a smack in the face.  My progress slowed to a crawl and the flaws of Blizzard’s early quest design struck home (travel half way across Feralas to complete a quest, turn the quest in and travel back to the EXACT SAME LOCATION to complete the follow up quest).  There were obvious bald patches in content where Blizzard expected players to gain xp by grinding mobs on the way to complete quests instead of earning xp through completing the quests themselves.

I had anticipated this slowdown from reading the experience of other players on Wowhead (it is ESSENTIAL that you do this before starting Loremaster so that you have some idea of what you’re getting yourself into) so resolved to simply enjoy the ride.  Going back to Tanaris, I recalled the first time I discovered Gadgetzan and traveled across the burning desert sands in my early 40’s.  Dropping into Un’Goro Crater, I had a flashback of being caught unawares by the giant dinosaurs that roamed the zone’s brackish waters.  Heading back into Uldaman, I remembered the first time I placed a tentative foot into the Trogg infested instance.

And believe it or not, I had a blast.  Every day I logged on I knew I always had something to do: namely, quest.  I became wrapped up in the storylines of vanilla WoW; I happily dove into forgotten zones, doing a /who to see if I was the only player there and finding a quiet satisfaction with my progress.   From start to finish, I spent somewhere in the ball park of 4 months completing Loremaster.  And it was worth every minute.

- Plectical