Greetings fellow travelers of time and space! Welcome to the first official posting of Barrens Chat, a soon to be weekly implement of random craziness. Although I know I'm not the first comic strip, and likely I wont be the last to grace these glorious virtual pages, I invite you to take a romp with me, Megan, as I drag forth those silly comments people make that they hope no one noticed, and glorify them with fancy colors, and ever-changing art.
I will point out that although all of this is will all be incredibly funny to everyone who reads it, including me; it may end up being a "you had to be there" moment. In that case, come back next week! I'm sure it'll be funnier then. No really, it will.
Children's Week is one of my favorite events of the year. You can get a couple of pets, some reputation and cash and, in the Shattrath City version, there be dragons. Dragons are cool.
I have chronicled my questing in this year's Shattrath City Children's Week event for the Horde in a gallery walkthrough. It's an interesting story and a nice tour of some fun spots in Outland and Azeroth, but if you also want to know the hard numbers for completing the entire quest chain, here they are:
Cash: At level 70, the cash total was 45 gold and 54 silver.
Reputation: Your Lower City Reputation increases by a total of 1760.
The cake madness continues! Ackman from the Burning Legion got married recently and his (oh-so-supportive) wife agreed to a cake design of his choosing. His idea? A Horde crest identical to the one designed by Samwise. The cake looks absolutely awesome, if not necessarily delectable (are those real or fondant feathers?). Ackman attests to its edibility, though, as he describes the cake as chocolate fudge with mint frosting and fondant, highlighted with silver leafing. That certainly makes me hungry like an orc!
To recap this cake battle, a couple of cakes that resemble the Alliance crest put the Alliance at two, while an Orc shield and one of Orgrimmar give the Hordies a score of three along with the cake pictured above. So, are any creative bakers up to the challenge of making another Alliance-themed cake? Maybe one of Stormwind or -- even more challenging, the Exodar! If you send it to the WoW Insider offices, we'll generously put the score up by two. I'm We're greedy for cake. Check out the link for another pic.
Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers. What do you do for WoW Insider?
I write the weekly Officers' Quarters column and . . . that's about it! Officers' Quarters is an advice column for guild leaders and occasionally for their members, too. Guilds are the driving force behind all MMOs and Warcraft is no exception. No game can survive without great guilds, and it is my goal to help people create and sustain great guilds. What gives me the authority? I've been running the same guild since January of 2005 -- it's one of the oldest surviving guilds in Warcraft. I have not announced what guild I lead. Maybe someday I will, but not today.
Is my guild exceptional? In its longevity and the quality of its members, it is absolutely exceptional in my opinion. But we also struggle with many of the problems faced by casual raiding guilds: recruitment, drama, progression, and everything else. The hallmark of effective guild leadership isn't running a guild that is completely free of problems -- it's how you weather the hardships and learn from your mistakes.
It's back! Perhaps of all the new daily quests that have arrived with the goodness-filled Patch 2.4, arguably the most confusing and mysterious one is the repeatable quest called For Great Honor for the Horde and Concerted Efforts for the Alliance. It is a dinosaur quest from the days of the old Honor system but made its stealthy return last Tuesday with a few tweaks. It was so stealthy that it didn't even make it into the official patch notes. It is also not searchable in wowhead through filters (e.g. added in Patch 2.4, PvP, etc.) or by name (e.g. "For Great Honor"). The references to the quest in thottbot or allakhazam both refer to the old repeatable quest albeit the quest description themselves have been updated to include the new requirement -- an additional Mark of Honor from Eye of the Storm.
Unlike the old quest, the new and improved For Great Honor -- which probably has the same ID tag (confusing poor old wowhead) as the original quest -- does not give any reputation for old world Battlegrounds. Players grinding Battlegrounds rep for the Conqueror or Justicar titles are flat of luck and must do it the hard way aside from being crazy for trying (yeah, okay, I'm one of those people). The very first time players complete the quest, it awards 11g 99s and 314 Honor points at Level 70. Subsequent turn-ins will only award the 314 Honor.
Because of the removal of diminishing returns to Honorable Kills, Honor points are available for use immediately, making this quest the most efficient way to earn additional Honor. Because it is repeatable and not a daily quest, players with stacks of 100 Marks of Honor from all Battlegrounds can accrue 31,400 Honor points right away. Of course, it is possible to earn more Honor from more turn-ins. Winning in all four Battlegrounds, for example, can give an additional 942 Honor from Mark of Honor turn-ins. For the many players who have full unusable stacks of these items, it's an excellent way to free up space and gain Honor points at the same time. Needless to say... make sure to save some Marks for those welfare epics! On a final note, try to complete this quest in the less populated cities such as the Exodar or Thunder Bluff, specially if you're turning in a whopping 100 times. Less populated cities will have less lag and less chances of players zoning in from Arenas or Battlegrounds to get in the clickable way of your turn-ins.
Just in case the original $5k was too much for you on that Dell Warcraft laptop deal, Dell has apparently dropped the price to a still pretty high $4k, or $3999. That's still more than our questionable pricing out of the laptop and all of the goodies that come with it, but then again, it is a sweet gaming-spec, Warcraft branded laptop -- can you really put a price on a paradise like that?
And yes, it still does come with all the old stuff, including Alliance or Horde branding, all the Warcraft software, and a bunch of other goodies including those beta keys that we still have no idea are for. Where Dell found $1000 to cut out of that deal we can't figure either, unless... you don't think they were just topping more than a cool grand of straight profit on this deal, were they? Sneaky moneymaking bastards!
Update: Apparently we now know where they got $1000 out of the deal -- it doesn't come with all the extras any more. According to reader DevilStick, who chatted with a Dell sales rep, all it comes with is the mousepad and possibly a laptop bag. So the novels, the beta keys, and all of the books and other goodies were limited time only.
Update II: Dell themselves have contacted us with the news that the sales rep DevilStick chatted with was wrong: even at the lower price, it still does come with all the goodies. So if $5k was too much, but $4k is worth it to you to have "the ultimate Warcraft laptop," order away.
One of the little things that snuck by in the 2.4 patch notes is the ability to inspect players across factions. Horde can look at Alliance folk's gear, and Alliance can look at Horde people's gear. They can only do this when no one is flagged for PvP, however.
This is a really neat feature. My friends and I often times play "guess the gear" on the Horde toons we pass during our PvE adventures. We solve our arguments by looking them up in the armory, but now we'll just be able to right click on the Horde character's portrait and choose "Inspect." Pretty nifty.
Now... the real question becomes, where could this lead? For a long time players have been wondering if one day we'll be able to group across factions. Blizzard has obviously been leaning towards cross faction interaction and friendly support for a while now. We had the AQ gates opening, the recent goings on in the Isle of Quel'Danas, and lots of quests where you have to help out a member of the opposing faction.
Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.
First of all, the above is not a recent picture. I just thought it was important for you to know that I'm the type of person who fondles larger than life, mostly naked, movie theater props hanging out in the back of pickup trucks. On to the questions...
What do you do for WoW Insider? I write WoW, Casually, a column for casual players which is supposed to be weekly and will be again. No, really. I used to write Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW, but that is now Gamer Interrupted over on Massively. I also started Totem Talk, the Shaman column. Not that I play a Shaman, but I used to interview players who do. I was very happy that our very capable Matthew Rossi took it over after all of my interviewees stopped wanting to be interviewed. And I go through random blogging bursts which I am always hoping will become more of a regular thing.
What's your main right now? No matter what alt I play around with, and I fall in love with a new class once a month, I always return to my level 70 Tauren Druid, Freja. She resides on Daggerspine and is sometimes a Boomkin but is usually Resto. I just feel more comfortable healing. I started playing a Night Elf Druid on multiple servers before following the Spousal Unit to Daggerspine and the Horde. I do believe droods are the most versatile and fun class in the game by far, though I'm rather enamored with my Draenei Mage's DPS output. And the Blood Elf Warlock is fun, too. Of course my level 19 Troll Warrior is a blast in WSG. I'd better move on to the next question or we'll be here all day.
Great news for compulsive /inspect-ors from the new patch -- Hortus confirms that in neutral areas and out of combat, players will be able to do a little cross-faction inspecting. No more will you have to wonder what kind of helmet that dirty Human Warrior is wearing around Shattrath -- you'll be able to pull them right up and check out all of their gear.
The sky, as you may have noticed, didn't fall when Inspect changed back in patch 2.3 to let anyone see anyone else's gear and talents, and it won't fall again when this change is introduced (trust me). It is interesting to consider how much the Armory has changed the game, though -- odds are that if you'd suggested that we should be able to check the other faction's gear and talents to a developer at the launch of vanilla WoW, they'd have said that, like limiting cross-faction communication, it wasn't right for the feel of the game they wanted to make.
But now that the Armory is up and showing off everyone's secret gear of shame, there's no reason to hide it any more in the game either.
It's an interesting moment, the one that mikkeneko talks about over on WoW LJ. It's the one where you first enter a battleground, or an Arena, or just head out into the world, attack someone of the opposite faction and win, and first realize that yes, you can PvP.
I come, like many more experienced gamers, from a Counterstrike background (and a Doom and Quake background before that), so I've almost always known the thrill of taking on other humans at their own computers. But this moment happened for me before I ever played WoW -- back in the days of Dark Age of Camelot, I entered a battleground, saw nameless player opponents in front of me flagged red, actually killed one, and realized that yes, I could actually do this. Our own Dan O'Halloran just recently had this experience in WoW, I believe -- he told us on the podcast a little while back that he'd never played PvP, and a week or so later, he told me he'd tried out a battleground and learned it was actually a lot of fun.
PvP isn't hard -- you mostly play the character as you play it in PvE, and as fast as high-end Arena matches can get, battlegrounds especially are simple enough for even casual players to enter and at least partly influence the battle. I don't remember what's so scary about PvP but I do remember it being scary way back when. If you haven't played PvP yet, though, you're missing out -- jump into a battleground, throw some spells or swords around, and you'll find that you too can PvP.
The Tournament Test Realm outside of the Orc starting area.
We've been covering the Tournament Test Realm (TTR) lately, especially the stress test tomorrow between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. PST. It's going to be a lot of fun I'm sure – assuming the server can stay up.
And the best part about it all?
WoW Insider will be there in force! The TTR team from WoW Insider will include folks like myself, Amanda Dean, Amanda Miller, Alex Ziebart, and other writers. We'll be there trying to be king of the hill during the arena tests. Our team name is "WoW Insider" (creative, huh?) and we'll be fighting FOR the Horde.
So grab your sword and fight us Horde! Come on over and join the fun - and if you happen to hit us in battle, don't forget to take a screen shot of us standing victoriously over your dead bodies! ;-)
So I was out working on heroic Steam Vaults with some friends last night. Like usual Hydromancer Thespia was being a pain, and we wiped a couple of times. On one of the death walks back, fellow guildie Agate and I meet up with another group of ghosts running over to Coilfang Reservoir. Nothing new there.
Except Agate noticed a couple of guys running behind him. After a bit of moving around he confirmed that they were in fact on auto-follow.
"Hahaha, look at this, these two guys are following me. Should I have some fun?" he asks over vent.
Poster Tamerland from The Scryers posted an interesting nugget to consider over at the Paladin forums today, stating unequivocally that the Alliance will be getting the Blood Elf-only Seal of Blood in Patch 2.4. Conversely, the Horde should be receiving Seal of Vengeance. What's the big deal, you ask? Well, Alliance Retribution Paladins have been crying for Seal of Blood because it has, with numerous calculations, proven to be the superior PvE DPS Seal. In light of the removal of spell damage in Retribution gear and the focus on Strength (and consequently Attack Power), this has become less of a debate and more of a simple fact. Furthermore, Seal of Blood inflicts damage on the Paladin, which is absolutely great as this is incredibly synergistic with Spiritual Attunement, allowing Ret Pallies to regenerate mana as they're healed. While Seal of Vengeance has been argued to be an excellent tanking seal, Horde Paladin tanks have coasted along fine with Seal of Righteousness.
Up until now, Alliance Retribution Paladins have had to balance spell damage along with other stats to optimize Seal of Command while Horde Ret Pallies happily picked up, um... *cough* Warrior gear. If the changes in 2.4 push through, the removal of spell damage severely gimps Seal of Command for PvE and consequently, raiding Alliance Retribution Paladins (yes, such things exist, believe it or not). Tamerland says that the writing is on the wall, and from the lore-shaking changes glimpsed on the PTR, his claims don't seem too far off. The chained up Naaru in the Blood Knights' basement is gone, and the lovely Lady Liadrin (I had to editorialize that. We swore these blood oaths, you know.) comes to Shattrath City to pledge allegiance to A'dal, who welcomes the Light-stealing, Naaru-shackling, demon-blood using Blood Knight matriarch in a totally WWJD moment. The stage really does seem set for such a change, and it wouldn't be the first time that Blizzard has shaken things up in order to balance things out. Paladins were formerly an Alliance-only class once upon a time, after all. Personally, I'm stoked at the possibility. I'm not too thrilled about the Alliance getting Seal of Blood ("my... precious..."), but if it does happen, it means Blizzard is actually listening to its community -- even if they don't say anything most of the time.
The Lunar Festival is in full swing, and every once in a while Omen is no where to be found. I talked about killing him earlier in the week, but there is another strategy that's been popping up. Have you ever wondered what it's like to kite something across half a continent? Well, now's your chance!
I've tried this with a few friends, and the trick is to keep Omen moving along with as many movement-impairing effects up on him as possible. We had a mage there slinging Frostbolts at him, a shaman shocking him with Frost Shock, and of course a hunter laying down his Concussive Shots and Frost Traps. I was there on my warrior issuing the occasional Taunt just in case one of the DPS made a mistake and got too close (this was never a problem).
David Bowers wrote an excellent, thoroughly analyzed article about the map imbalance in Alterac Valley. His point is relatively simple: under the new Reinforcement mechanics, the map favors the Horde. He posits that, should the Horde play their best game, the Alliance will not be able to win in Alterac Valley. In fact, according to reports, Alliance in some Battlegroups have boycotted AV altogether. When I first read David's article -- a great read I highly recommend to anyone, by the way -- my initial response was a slight befuddlement. You see, in my Battlegroup, the Alliance win their fair share of Alterac Valley.
In fact, if we go over to Warcraft Realms, we'll see that the Alliance win quite a good number of AV games, too. Furthermore, in some Battlegroups, they completely dominate Alterac Valley. Maybe the Horde of those Battlegroups should read David's article. In it, David outlines how the new Reinforcement mechanic favors the Horde because the map design allows Horde players to reach Stonehearth Bunker, a key objective that awards +63 Honor when burned and eliminates 75 Reinforcements, before the Alliance can reach Iceblood Tower. The new Reinforcement mechanic also makes Iceblood Graveyard a critical defensive bastion that, if defended fully, supposedly prevents the Alliance from getting any Honor from Alterac Valley.
It's back! Perhaps of all the new daily quests that have arrived with the goodness-filled 
One of the little things that snuck by in the 2.4 
Great news for compulsive /inspect-ors from the new patch -- Hortus confirms that in neutral areas and out of combat, players will be able to do 
It's an interesting moment, 
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