The materials for the elixir are fairly irritating to farm in quantity, and I find myself in a lot of areas I never even leveled extensively in when I was raising my Druid main. Desolace? Paid it a visit to get some fishing done. Blasted Lands? Uh...passed through it on my way to Outland. Maraudon? Did I do that? I want to say I did, but was brought up short at learning of the existence of a scepter that allows you to bypass two-thirds of the instance. I know for sure I've never set foot in Dire Maul North, much less a Tribute Run, I'd never seen the live side of Stratholme, and I hadn't so much as clapped eyes on the Emperor in Blackrock Depths.

I don't know why this is so fascinating, but it really is. Tulvar posted this on the forums-- it's him using the Rocket Boots Xtreme (and the Filled Festive Mug from New Year's Eve, which grants multi-use slowfall) to fly from the top of Netherstorm all the way across the abyss to the tip of Hellfire Peninsula. And he survives, which is what surprised me most of all-- I would have thought that a fall like that would kill a man (err, a troll), but I guess he nabbed a Mug just in time.

Xtreme sports, Outland style. Which makes me wonder: what's the highest point in Azeroth and Outland? Surely it's Blackrock Mountain, right? The top of Ironforge Mountain? Or Mount Hyjal? If it didn't exist officially only the Caverns of Time at this point, that is. And surely Molten Core is the lowest point in the land, but what's the lowest non-instanced point? Un'goro?

[Thanks, Jacckk!]

Elizabeth talked about karma in that fun little guild drama story last week, but karma is even better when it comes not from other players, but from the game itself. Case in point: the_pr0letariat on WoW LJ got laughed at by a Hordie while almost dying to a Hellfire boar, so it made things doubly sweet when a Fel Reaver stomped by a few minutes later and sent the Horde on a corpse run.

Likewise, I was almost ganked a long while back while grinding on my rogue in front of Blackrock Mountain-- a gnome rogue tried to take me out while I was fighting with a Lava Spider, but I'd recently pickpocketed a few potions, so I kept the fight going for a little while, long enough to swing the gnome around near the Dark Iron mobs there. Just as he was about to finish me off, three Dark Iron mobs latched onto him, I vanished, and I got to /laugh at him as they beat him down.

Have you seen karma come around in the game? Or maybe it's come around on you...

Reader Zhun of Defias Brotherhood sends in this shot showing us the interior of Blackrock Mountain, home of some of Azeroth's favorite dungeons: Blackrock Depths, Blackrock Spire, and Blackwing Lair. And you can't say that you weren't at least a little impressed when you walked into this area for the first time -- with the pool of lava below and the dragon circling ominously overhead, the impression isn't really one of safety...

Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.

See more of your pics from Around Azeroth.

Realms in World of Warcraft are supposed to be like different, although identical, worlds. You choose one and live under its rules, and if you want to live in a different world, you have to put in a lot of work to get there. But quick glance at the WoW Realm Forums shows that each server might better be described as its own little high school.

Realms have nicknames, whether they be good ("TichOWNdrius") or bad ("Argent Down," "Lagging Skull.") They have celebrities both famous for their exploits (Death and Taxes on Korgath, Sebudai on Doomhammer) or infamous for screwing up (Overrated on Black Dragonflight, Avatar on many servers but originally Warsong.) They have private dramas and screrenshots that will be funny only to residents of that realm.

Servers are known for different things: Argent Dawn has good roleplaying (and entertaining Goldshire cyber stories), Mal'Ganis has innovative world PvP, and Black Dragonflight and Korgath have some top raiding guilds. Some servers have rivalries -- Arthas and Mal'Ganis have been sniping at each other about server population since transfers opened up, denizens of Blackrock regularly invade RP servers when Blackrock itself goes down, and informal competitions develop within battlegroups. And a couple servers even have official mottoes. The two I can remember right now is "Tichondrius is not for you" and "Mal'Ganis KICKS!"

My server, Magtheridon, was released shortly after launch. Our only celebrity is Xzin, we don't have any earth-shattering guilds, and we're not the best at PvP. People talk a lot about the "Magtheridon way," which as far as I can tell involves Alliance outnumbering Horde and liberal use of the server's unofficial motto, which is three words long, begins with "go" and ends with "yourself." Still, it's a nice place in spite of the lag, and I wouldn't want to transfer anywhere else.

What's the culture of your server? Is it populated or quiet, dramalicious or kind, vicious to outsiders or welcoming to new players?

My priest has been, for some time now, looking for a pattern for the Truefaith Vestments - the epic crafted priest robes. While I would occasionally see a Robe of the Archmage or a Robe of the Void pattern, I've not seen any of my own. However, over the past couple of weeks, I've seen more and more Robe of the Archmage patterns - as seen above. The cost has dropped dramatically, as well - what once sold for a hundred gold and up is now, as you see, more often selling for 30 to 40, when they sell at all.

This has started to puzzle me, as the pattern drops off of Pyromancers in lower Blackrock Spire, of which there are few, and difficult to get to. I've gone with a number of groups that refuses to attempt the pull with the Pyromancers, simply because it's large and difficult. So where then, do these patterns come from? Several commenters on Thottbot claim that you can solo your way to the right area with the use of stealth or invisibility potions, and one poster goes into some detail about two rogues taking the group down with timely use of sap, vanish, and evasion.

But even if the pattern can be acquired with the efforts of one or two players, this doesn't explain the sudden appearance of so many in the marketplace. It's possible that the drop rate has been increased, but it seems unlikely that the drop rate of one of the epic robe patterns would go up while the other two remain the same. In my past experience with the game, a sudden flood of rare items on the market has been an indication of a new farming technique or hack, allowing farmers to now easily acquire something that was usually difficult. (For an example of similar circumstances in the past, see this old Dire Maul hack.) However, at present, there's no evidence one way or the other - so this remains simply an oddity...