In the World of Warcraft, there are heroes -- that's us, supposedly -- and then there are the bit players. These are the vendors, the quest givers, or even the random mobs or raid bosses who are really only there for us, the heroes, to kill and loot. We don't pay them too much attention. In fact, there are very few NPCs whose names we remember. Do any of you Horde players know who Kaja is? I'm willing to bet very few can answer the question but at the same time I can assure you you've visited her more than a few times -- she's the Guns & Ammunition merchant in the hut beside the Auction House in Orgrimmar, and every Hordie has gone to her for repairs.
Who doesn't know Griftah and his dubious wares? How about Haris Pilton in the tavern in Shattrath? Some NPCs are more famous than others, of course... l mean, there's Thrall. Let this breakfast topic be an homage to our silent (and sometimes not so silent -- that Cro Threadstrong is always yelling!) friends who make our experience in the World of Warcraft more interesting. Who's your favorite NPC? For the sake of discussion, let's try leaving out the dungeon bosses. Those guys get too much press, anyway. Is there an NPC that's memorable to you in some way? I always like queueing from Yula the Fair because she's just so goshdarned purty. Then there's Lady Liadrin, whom we all know is destined for big things (I like my girls all Blood Knight-y). Any NPC out there stand out for you in some way? Their name, their scripted actions, or even the way they look. Who do you think deserves the best supporting character award?
Our guild alliance's resident science and technology geek (and I mean that in a good way) linked us a somewhat confusing article yesterday. Apparently, scientists have figured out a way to store and retrieve empty space. Of course, a question naturally comes to mind upon hearing about this: How soon until I can buy my own bag of holding?
But seriously, while I tend to be a bit of a pack rat in real life, I'm an even bigger pack rat in WoW. I still keep gear and quest rewards from 50 levels ago because they look cool. In addition, I play a Hunter (with a quiver), a Warlock (with a shard bag) and a Druid (with Cat Form, Bear Form, and healing gear on me at all times). As a result, I'm always on the lookout for ways to increase my bag space so I can fit in a little bit of loot once I'm stocked up on gear, consumables, reagents, and all the rest.
Luckily, I've found that upgrading your bag space doesn't have to break the bank or send you after waves of elite mobs that require 25-40 people to take down, and I'll share a few upgrading tips after the break.
Since the very dawn of sentience, since the first daring Gnome looked skyward and said "Hey what's up there," since the first drink addled Goblin fell back near-insensate and said that those birds weren't so great, anyone could fly if they had a mind to, before falling into a Dark Iron Ale-induced coma, it has been our dream.
Since the first parachute cloak failed to deploy (Engineer 2nd Class Amplebottom regrets packing her bloomers in that pack, and points out respectfully that the quantity of cloth involved did slow Engineer 1st Class Plummetorque's descent somewhat), we have held out hope.
Since the first Engineer took flight in Outland, we have dreamed, demanded, planned, protested, and raised our voices (amplified or otherwise) as one, crying out to the great Engineers, the Blue Gears of the World, for succor. Let us, we have cried out, slip off at last the line and mooring, the chain and the anchor. Let us, we called from Shattrath and Stormspire alike, cast off into the air, in machines we have made ourselves, and trusting only our craft and our skill, reach out to touch the skies themselves!
Ahem.
Many of us, however, died in the process. Turns out our craft and our skill are not always the most trustworthy of companions, much less copilots, much less sole source of support between our posteriors and the unforgiving, unresilient ground below. However, after much research on both flight and gravitational acceleration, Engineers have at their disposal two crafts for aerial flight. Herein we discuss the components required for each model of the Engineers' Flying Machines, and possible advantages therefrom derived.
While there's definitely been quite a few changes around Shattrath in 2.4, one thing that stayed the same was good old Griftah. It looked like he might be back to stay, the saga of his betrayal and exile over with his triumphant return to Shattrath, complete with a legitimate piece of merchandise to sell. Which was, in a way, a bit disappointing. After so many patches, seeing what Griftah got up to next was almost a tradition.
Luckily, it looks like we may not quite be done yet. Peacekeeper Jadaar has been standing in the World's End Tavern arguing with Investigator Asric for quite some time now, but if you talk to him, he still acts like he's standing outside Griftah's tent. World Event Designer Kisiranianswered someone's question on this by saying it's been on her list and she's getting to it. Certainly, this could mean she just plans to update his speech to explain that the investigation failed and Griftah is back, but then again, it could mean we'll see more of this epic storyline. He may not have ended up being the real Zul'jin, but maybe he's still got a few more tricks up his sleeve. I'm thinking that at the least he'll start selling "genuine artifacts from the first Northrend expeditions" soon. Maybe "Defeat of Illidan Commemorative Coins."
It's definitely a storyline I'd love to see evolve some more. Even if he's not exactly M'uru, Griftah's earned enough of a place in Warcraft lore that he can't just sit comfortably in Lower City pushing trinkets.
Happy patch day! Yes, it's time for patch 2.3 today, and boy do we at WoW Insider have a lot of information for you about today's patch.
If you want the whole thing in one big chunk, you can always check out our patch 2.3 tag page, featuring every post that's been tagged with patch 2.3 ever.
And this is just scratching the surface -- use the search box at the top to find anything else you'd like to know about 2.3 -- we covered it all, from the season 1 arena item prices to how Elemental Shamans got buffed to what casuals can do for fun in 2.3 to the changes to Aimed Shot. There is just a ton of stuff changing in our favorite game today, and if you're wondering about it, odds are we wrote a post about it. 2.3 is here!
I've already said a few times that I'd love to see Blizzard's population figures, but a query (from an MVP, strangely enough) brings up another set of figures that I wouldn't mind a look at: NPC vendor sales numbers. Crepe wants to know how many items Griftah has sold (and how many hula dolls he sells post 2.3), but unfortunately, Nethaera deflects the question and leaves us with nothing. Additionally, I'd like to know how many heroic badgesG'eras is going through on any given night-- maybe the fact that he's not selling many of his Heroic items is the reason why Blizzard is going to start dropping Badges in both Karazhan and Zul'Aman next week.
Blizzard has given us peeks at a few numbers behind the game, but they haven't updated that page since it went up (and with all the exceptions on those lists, it's not much help anyway). There is a whole new world of statistics to be had in Outland, and it'd be nice for Blizzard to let us at just a few of the most interesting ones.
Look at the screenshot. It's like Christmas came early courtesy of Patch 2.3. Seriously, that is one of the coolest flying mounts in the game. And if that's not good enough for you, click here to see an animated gif of it in action. This mechanical wonder can all be yours if you have the skill.
MMO-Champion was able to get a scrounge up the recipe for the two Engineering Flying Machine schematics:
Engineering: Flying Machine Reagents:
Adamantite Frame (2)
Fel Iron Bar (30)
Handful of Fel Iron Bolts (8)
Star Wood (8)
Fel Iron Toolbox
Elemental Seaforium Charge (4)
BoP, Req Level 70, Engineering 350+ to make and at least Expert riding skill to use.
I'm not a Grandmaster Engineer myself, but these components don't look too difficult to gather. The only sticking point I see is the Elemental Seaforium Charge comes from a recipe that requires Revered faction with the Consortium to purchase. But the Charges aren't BoP so you can always buy them from another Engineer.
Blizzard is apparently captivated by Griftah, the snake-oil sales Troll in Shattrath, because they've changed him yet again in 2.3. He's back inside the city, so apparently that investigation the Peacekeeper was doing dug up nothing. And he's gotten a bigger role in the game than ever-- not only does he now have a quest for you to do (that leads into Zul'Aman), but apparently one of the ingredients for the Engineering mount, a hula doll (don't ask), is sold by him for a whopping 100g.
I like Griftah, and I'm glad that he's back-- that jerk Scryer going through his things was none too kind to the shifty Troll while he was gone. And my guess is that Griftah isn't done being vindicated-- I think it would be really funny if, in an upcoming patch, Blizzard changed that old 30g necklace Griftah sold to have a really cool proc or effect put on it, sort of a reward for those who've stood by Griftah the whole time.
On the other hand, I hope this "guinea pig" of progressive content is really helping Blizzard learn how to do it-- seems a little strange to waste updates like this on just one Troll when we could be seeing real progressive content elsewhere in the game. Still, every little step counts-- it's just another update in the whole saga of Griftah the Troll.
Griftah has now been exiled to the outskirts of Shattrath in Patch 2.2.
Players complained loudly on the forums after realizing they paid over 30 gold for an amulet that allowed them to resurrect when they died and were not mollified when informed that they should have shown a bit more caution before buying items from a character named after another word for con artist. Everyone (including me) assumed that Griftah was being exiled from Shattrath because of these complaints.
It's a shame you're unwilling to believe what is, in essence, the truth -- that Griftah has been a small foray in progressive content as we gauge certain things.
Anyone who has spent any time tradeskilling in Shattrath has probably run across the Troll merchant, Griftah. Since Burning Crusade came out, Griftah has called a spot near the mana loom in Lower City his home. He has hawked many fun and dubious items like [Soap on a Rope] and [Infallible Tikbalang Ward]. (I must say, my banking alt has been blessedly Tikbalang free!) Griftah loved to talk to anyone and everyone who came anywhere near him and suggest various of his charms that he thought you should purchase -- for a price.
However, some people took Griftah seriously, and thought that the white items he was selling were indeed able to do special things like give you free Rezzes much like the old Darkmoon Faire Twisting Nether card would as opposed to reading the lines carefully. (like, how it would Resurrect you if you were already next to your corpse in ghost form.) This led to angry forum threads, and people who were screaming about being grifted by Griftah because, surprise -- the white items didn't actually do anything mystical...
ZeusJones sends along this movie he made, in support of his new organization seeking to protect the apparently innocuous wildlife around Azeroth. How many innocent lives have you mindlessly snuffed? Please, stop the slaughter.
Now, I'm all for Zeus' little campaign (and he's even got a blog up and running for it), but I want to warn him: those animals might not be as harmless as they seem. True story: I was in Heroic Underbog this weekend, and a frog hopped by while we were waiting for mana. I clicked on him, and Frost Shocked him out of his little froggy existence, as I usually do whenever we see critters around.
And I kid you not-- I was very surprised to see a little red 1 roll up my scrolling combat text. I checked the combat window, and sure enough: "Frog hits you for 1." Completely true. I don't know how he did it (it was an instant spell! he's a critter!), but that frog tried to take a bite out of me. Maybe I should have bought Griftah's amulet.
An ordinary person, upon seeing a guy named "Griftah" selling "Amazing Amulets" in the Lower City of Shattrathfor very high prices, may think twice before buying the amulets. But Gazzle is no ordinary gnome. He spent 25 gold on the "Polished Pendant of Edible Energy" -- whose tooltip states "Focusing one's metabolism, this pendant allows the wearer to draw great energy from ordinary food and drink -- even heal wounds!" Upon equipping it and conjuring up some food and water, he discovered that he wasn't regening health and mana any faster. Disillusioned, he posted a "Shame on you, Blizzard" message on the WoW General forums and went off to try ... the other amulet he purchased.
A round of mocking follows in which a ton of people point out that the amulet does exactly what the tooltip says it does, and it's not the amulet's fault if the health and mana would regenerate anyway. It's kind of like purchasing a "Talisman of Protection from Crocodile Attacks" if you live in Minnesota -- hey, it must be working, because I haven't been attacked by crocodiles! Along those lines, Griftah also sells an "Infallible Tikbalang Ward," which protects you from Tikbalang attacks.
I agree with Tseric -- let the buyer beware on these items. Or, as another poster states, "I prefer to think of it as a stupid tax."
A Talisman of True Treasure Tracking, which allows you to get loot from mobs, for 35g.
A Compassionate Critter's Friend, which keeps you from being attacked by the bunnies, cats, and other vicious Level 1 critters roaming the world, for 20g.
A Stone of Stupendous Springing Strides, which lets you jump, for 35g.
A Marvelous Madstone of Immortality, which lets you rez after running back to your corpse, for 40g.
A Charm of Potent and Powerful Passions, which says it will let you win your heart's desire, for 30g.
A Shark's Tooth of Bona Fide Fluidic Mobility, which allows you to swim, for 15g.
And finally, Soap on a Rope, which is pretty much just soap on a rope, for the bargain price of 1g.
I sort of want to get the Soap on a Rope for my guildmates. Maybe after I get a flying mount. Have you bought any of these items, or laughed at a guildmate who got swindled?
Moves are on in a big way right now, and there's a piece of good news about that. Now you can play your character while it's in queue to be moved; it won't be moved until you log out. From Nethaera:
We are changing the way we process our free character moves and paid character transfers. Players will now be able to queue into the system for the destination realm they wish and continue to play that character until the specified period of time the move will occur. Characters will only be moved after they are logged out of the game. Moves will occur each day from 12:01 AM PST until 2:00 PM PST.
We all probably figured this, but Griftah, vendor of "Amazing Amulets" in Shattrath's Lower City, almost certainly sells nothing that actually works. If the vendor's name name doesn't tip you off, how about this post by Eyonix:
He's a very sneaky vendor. Buyer beware! Although they are pretty fun little items to have from an RP standpoint.
Lastly, Tseric comments on the Frostbolt XI vs XII issue (in a nutshell, XI costs less mana and does more damage than XII):
Rank 11 Frostbolt is a book drop. Rank 12, like most other ranks, is available from a trainer. The players this would impact the most are people who've gotten the book, which then don't really need the trainable 'upgrade' at that moment. Those without the book drop are moving along the graded increase of frostbolt's power.
Consider Rank 11 a vestigal growth, like an appendix or ear muscles. ;)
In the World of Warcraft, there are heroes -- that's us, supposedly -- and then there are the bit players. These are the vendors, the quest givers, or even the random mobs or raid bosses who are really only there for us, the heroes, to kill and loot. We don't pay them too much attention. In fact, there are very few NPCs whose names we remember. Do any of you Horde players know who Kaja is? I'm willing to bet very few can answer the question but at the same time I can assure you you've visited her more than a few times -- she's the Guns & Ammunition merchant in the hut beside the Auction House in Orgrimmar, and every Hordie has gone to her for repairs.
Our guild alliance's resident science and technology geek (and I mean that in a good way) linked us a somewhat confusing article yesterday. Apparently, scientists have figured out a way to 
I've already 
EDIT: 
![[Griftah, now located in... well, on whatever path you happen to catch him on. :( ]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/07/griftah.jpg)
An ordinary person, upon seeing a guy named "
Moves are on in a big way right now, and there's a piece of good news about that. Now you can play your character while it's in queue to be moved; it won't be moved until you log out. 
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