Category Archives: Game Info

Game Info

Sneaky Gear Buffs in 2.4

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With thanks to Big Bear Butt for pointing this out: WoWhead has a nice list of items that have been changed in patch 2.4. There’s been so much attention on all the new content in 2.4 that this hasn’t got much mention yet.

Well, check this out, happy healadins:

[Libram of Mending]
Old version: Your Holy Light spell grants 22 mana per 5 sec. for 10 sec.
New version: Your Holy Light spell grants 22 mana per 5 sec. for 30 sec.

For 20 Badges of Justice, you can permanently up your mp5 by 22, just by casting a Holy Light – downranked or otherwise – every 30 seconds. I found my Libram of Mending useful enough before this change; after 2.4 it’s just going to be magic. I heartily endorse this event or product.

(A note on how to use it: you can switch relics in combat, so I start casting my Holy Light spell and then equip this libram while the HL is casting – equipping an item will trigger the GCD, but your Holy Light cast time is longer than 1.5 seconds so it ‘absorbs’ the GCD. Then I cast the next spell and flip back to my previous libram while that next spell is casting.

I do this with a fairly clunky macro, but you can do it just by putting the librams into actionbar slots if you prefer. I recommend swapping between this and a [Libram of Souls Redeemed] if you’re healing a target buffed with Blessing of Light, or a libram that boosts Flash of Light or Holy Light if not.)

And wow, all of a sudden the Libram from Lurker Below becomes awesome:

[Libram of Absolute Truth]
Old version: Reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 27.
New version: Reduces the mana cost of Holy Light by 84.

I need to check some WWS parses to confirm, but my rough estimation tells me I probably cast about 8 Holy Lights per minute. This would be a mana saving of 672 mana per minute, or an equivalent of 56 mp5 that I wouldn’t need to have.

Wow. This thing’s going up to the top of my wishlist, that’s fer shure. Switch between that and the [Libram of Mending], and that’s a really nice boost to mp5 come 2.4.

Now all I need is the Libram. C’mooooon Lurker…

Game Info

The Plot Thickens

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On the PTR right now, M’uru the Naaru is missing from Silvermoon City, and Lady Liadrin – the leader of the blood elf paladins – has gone on an important errand. And now I see where she went. This conversation is currently playing in Shattrath every now and then:

General Tiras’Alan: Why do you suffer the presence of this despicable Lady Liadrin? She and her followers distort the Light and make a mockery of all we stand for!
A’dal: Patience, general. The Light embraces all who enter Shattrath in good faith.
A’dal: You are welcome in Shattrath, Lady Liadrin. We have long awaited your arrival.
Lady Liadrin: Thankyou for allowing me to speak, A’dal. I know many of your followers despise me and my knights for our treatment of M’uru.
Liadrin: When he was given to us by ‘Prince’ Kael’thas, we believed his power would help us lead our people into a new age.
Liadrin: I’ve come to realize our path was a false one. We were betrayed by the man we called our prince. In his lust for power, he sent the felblood to attack us, and spirit M’uru away to the Sunwell.
A’dal: Both our peoples have suffered greatly at the hands of Kael’thas and his agents, Lady Liadrin. Your people were not the authors of their own fate, but they will die if they do not change.
A’dal: M’uru accepted his role in this long ago, knowing full well what would happen to him. Will you accept your own?
Liadrin: I… I don’t understand. You– and M’uru– knew all along that this would occur?
A’dal: It wasn’t I who foretold it, but Velen of the Draenei:
A’dal: ‘Silvery moon, washed in blood,’
A’dal: ‘Led astray into the night, armed with sword of broken Light.’
A’dal: ‘Broken, then betrayed by one, standing there bestride the sun.’
A’dal: ‘At darkest hour, redemption comes, in knightly lady sworn to blood.’
Liadrin: I see it clearly now. I renounce my loyalties to House Sunstrider and its false prince.
Liadrin: I pledge the blades of my Blood Knights to the defeat of Kil’jaeden and the restoration of Silvermoon.
Liadrin: We will fight beside you, A’dal.
A’dal: The Shattered Sun Offensive will surely benefit from the addition of your knights, Lady Liadrin.
A’dal: The battle for the Sunwell is but the first step on your new path, Lady Liadrin. Shattrath is open to you and all who follow you.

This is really interesting, not just for the lore aspects of the conversation, but the changes in the metaplot it represents. I don’t think the game world has ever changed so much in WoW; content has often been added (the Cenarion hub fighting against the Silithids; the Argent Dawn quest hub fighting against Naxxramas, etc) but this change is much more of an alteration to existing content that we’ve seen before.

I’m really enjoying the plotline of 2.4: the Shattered Sun Offensive draws together previously-warring people – the draenei and blood elves – and acknowledges that they have common enemies in the Burning Legion and in Kael’thas. It’s unusual to have a significant chunk of new content that opens for a short time and then closes – the AQ40 and Naxxramas openings are the only past events that qualify, and the amount of closed content was relatively limited. This time around there are plenty of dailies that are only available while your server is working through the reclamation of the Isle of Quel’danas, and each phase of target-specific dailies closes and becomes unavailable once that target has been achieved. It’s a new step for WoW, and I have to say I like it. The world feels a lot more interesting and dynamic this way.

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2.4: Sunwell Dailies stage 2: the Sanctum

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See my complete guide to the Sunwell dailies here.

So, once your realm has collectively done enough of the first Quel’Danas dailies to retake the Sun’s Reach Sanctum, it becomes a ‘friendly’ building with SSO NPCs inside, and you can go there to find two new daily quests. These are quests that contribute to opening up the Sun’s Reach Armory.

The Bombing Run
This quest is called Distraction at the Dead Scar. You speak to Ayren Cloudbreaker (the flightmaster at your original landing-point), and he sends you off on a bombing run – you fly through the village, down the eastern side of the Isle, then you do a couple of circuits of the Dead Scar, then back up the other side to home base again. The part at the Dead Scar is the relevant bit; you’re given Arcane Charges, and you have to use those to kill demons in the Dead Scar: 2 Pit Overlords (big green guys with tails, like Magtheridon), 3 Eredar Sorcerors and 10 Wrath Enforcers. It’s just like the original bombing dailies in Hellfire Peninsula, really; you fly on an auto-controlled dragonhawk rather than your own mount.

The quest tells you that some demons require more than one hit with the charge, and it’s not kidding. Hitting a pit lord a couple of times, only to have someone else finish him and get the credit is a pain in the ass; depending on crowding, it may take several runs to get the quest completed. (It took me 4, but then the PTR’s packed out.)

Reward is 9g and 150 rep.

The Battle for Sun’s Reach Armory
I haven’t done this one, but it asks you to slay demons in Dawning Square and the Sun’s Reach Armory until the Emissary of Hate appears, kill him, and use the provided Shattered Sun Banner to impale the corpse.

Reward is 10g and presumably 150 rep.

Intercepting the Mana Cells
This quest comes during stage 2, and provides progress towards opening a portal from Quel’Danas to Shattrath. The original quest comes from an NPC in the Sanctum, but the daily questgiver is in the Terrace of Light in Shattrath. He asks you to go to Blade’s Edge and gather 10 Smuggled Mana Cells from the ethereals at Bashir’s Landing – but the mana cells are hidden out of phase. You have to kill ethereals to get phase devices to see the mana cells, defeat the phase wyrms guarding the mana cells, and gather 10 cells. Bring them back to Shattrath, and you’re doing your part to get the portal open.

Reward is 10g, a Shattered Sun Supplies package and presumably 150 or 250 rep.

Game Info

One (More) Good Reason to Play the Lunar Festival

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So, tonight I noticed one more good reason to go and collect at least some of these coins.

Festival Dumplings.

You can get 8 dumplings for one Coin of Ancestry from Valadar Starsong in Nighthaven (53,35 in Moonglade). They stack to 20, so 5 coins will get you 2 stacks.

Now, look at the effect. 4% of your mana returned every second for 25 seconds. Drink for the entire 25 seconds, and that’s a guaranteed mana bar refill. Compare that with Conjured Manna Biscuits, which would only give you 100% mana return in 25 seconds if you had 6,000 mana or less. For someone like me, with a 12K mana pool, I’m getting mana back twice as fast as I am with mage bickies.

(And, of course, all of the above applies to people who are after the health regen rather than the mana regen, too.)

Obviously, the big downside is that they’re soulbound – but if your bank isn’t full to the brim already, why not go and spend a coin or 50 and stock up on some of these bickies? They’re incredibly useful for farming, soloing, or even instancing when you don’t have a mage in the group – and they’re one of those quest rewards that people just look right past, time and again. I know I’ll be buying as many as I can fit in my bag, and nibbling happily on dumplings for weeks to come.

Game Info

A guide to “Love Is In The Air”

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A friend asked me for a guide to the quests involved in the Love Is In The Air festival, which has just started and runs until February 15th.

However, I don’t need to provide one! MK of A Dwarf Priest has written an excellent guide, which you can find here. Thumbs up, go read it.

(Oh, in case you’re interested, the Love Is In The Air quests in each city do not give any reputation. I checked them all.)

Game Info

2.4: Fishing Daily – the World’s Biggest Mudfish

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Today’s daily fishing quest on the PTR:

The One That Got Away

“Figluster’s mudfish is a surprisingly quick bottom feeder found in the waters of Nagrand. They grow their entire lives and are well known as fighters.

Years ago, I caught what I’m certain was the world’s biggest mudfish… until it snapped my line and escaped.

A fisherman of your caliber doesn’t need to be told what to do– your destiny awaits in the lakes of Nagrand.”

The quest asks you to catch “the World’s Biggest Mudfish” and bring it to Old Man Barlo. No details yet on what that actually involves, as the PTR went down for maintenance before I could give it a whirl. I’ll update this post when I know more.

The reward is a Bag of Fishing Treasures.

Edit: Okay, this one’s relatively simple. Just go to Nagrand and fish until you get the quest drop. It took me 25 casts in various lakes; according to /1 chat, Sunspring Lake gives the best results. I caught it first try as soon as I got to Sunspring Lake.

Game Info

2.4: More PvP Dailies

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I forgot to look into the selection of dailies for world PvP. Here’s what I’ve found so far: (note: all are Alliance quests; I assume there are Horde equivalents)

Terokkar Forest
Exorcist Sullivan in Allerian Stronghold (on the edge near the Bone Wastes) gives a quest to help take a tower in the Bone Wastes. Reward is 12g and 209 honor.

Nagrand
Lakoor in Telaar (in the SE of town, look for the blue !) gives a quest to defeat 10 enemy players in Halaa. Reward is 12g and 209 honor.

Game Info

2.4: Two More Sunwell Dailies

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Two more Sunwell dailies! See my complete guide to the Sunwell dailies here.

First up, you have to complete the Missing Magistrix quest, where you search fruitlessly around Quel’Danas until you finally find the teleporter you need in a hidden corner. Use the scroll at the teleporter and you’ll be teleported to the Throne of Kil’Jaeden in Hellfire Peninsula, where you complete Missing Magistrix and she gives you two more dailies to do. (Oh, and there’s no portal back to Quel’Danas from there, so plan your questing carefully.)

The two new dailies are both completed at the Throne of Kil’Jaeden; be careful not to agro Kazzak if he’s up.

Blood for Blood
Kill 4 Wrath Heralds for their blood, which seems to be a 100% droprate, and this blood empowers the quest item you were given, the Fel Siphon. You use the Siphon on elite Felblood Initiates to turn them into Emaciated Felbloods, who you then kill. 4 Emaciated Felblood kills, and you’re done. This quest gives 5 Marks of Sargeras or Sunfury Signets, plus 12g, plus 250 SSO rep. The big problem is that the Felblood Initiates are few and far between (unless Blizzard tweaks the spawn rate) so you will be waiting a long time for your four kills unless people on your server are smart about grouping up.

Blast the Gateway
You’re given a Sizzling Ember quest item, which you use to summon a Living Flare minion that follows you around. Kill Incandescent Fel Sparks (fel fire elementals, basically) to empower your Living Flare; once your flare becomes an Unstable Living Flare (about 6 Spark kills, i think), run it back to the teleporter to blow it up. This quest gives 10g, a Shattered Sun Supplies package, and 250 SSO rep. The trick to this quest is: your flare can be empowered by being near any Incandescent Fel Spark when it dies, regardless of whether it’s tagged by you or someone else. I suspect that grouping would make this quest trivial; otherwise, try and stay near other people when you’re all killing your own Sparks, even if you’re not grouped, and you’ll still get the shared benefit.

Game Info

2.4: New Daily Quests (Fishing, Sunwell, PvP)

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So, let’s kick off some of the shiny new content in 2.4 with a quick guide to the new daily quests. See my complete guide to the Sunwell dailies here.

The Patch 2.4 Disclaimer: Until 2.4 goes live, any of this is subject to change while on the PTR. I will provide updates if I know of any changes, but I don’t guarantee I’ll catch it all.

Patch 2.4 is bringing a number of new daily quests, in a few different categories. Also worth noting is the fact that the per-day limit for repeatable daily quests is being raised to 25.

Fishing Daily

These quests are given by Old Man Barlo (<Master of Fishing>) at Silmyr Lake in Terokkar Forest – just to the east of Shattrath. I don’t know for sure yet, but I suspect he’s likely to provide a different fishing quest each day, like The Rokk does for cooking.

Note that the fishing quest may have a skill level pre-requisite, and the fish you need to catch for it may also have a minimum skill required to fish them up. I have 375 fishing skill, so I can’t tell until my non-fishing mage alt transfers to the PTR successfully.

Today’s quest on the PTR:

Shrimpin’ Ain’t Easy

“There’s a lot of big fish in the Zangarmarsh lakes. Ever wonder what they eat?

Shrimp. Giant freshwater shrimp. The Rokk tells me the dishes you can make with shrimp are nearly endless.

But shrimp are too small to catch with a fishing line. So here’s the trick: cut open the bloated barbed gill trout and you’ll find a shrimp or two if you’re lucky.”

The quest requires 10 Giant Freshwater Shrimp. To get them, fish up Bloated Barbed Gill Trout from the lakes in Zangarmarsh; they’re a soulbound ‘openable’ fish with a 2 hour duration. Once opened, they contain 1-2 Giant Freshwater Shrimp (which do not have a duration) and a bit of grey vendor trash.)

The reward is a Bag of Fishing Treasures. Here’s what was in mine:

Here’s the recipe the bag included:

And the Sharpened Fish Hooks are a new lure with the same effect as Aquadynamic Fish Attractors.

PvP Daily

This new daily is called For Great Honor on Horde side and Concerted Efforts on Alliance side, and it’s given by the same NPC who gives the existing daily battleground quest. (For the Alliance, that’s the Alliance Brigadier-Generals around the place.)

Concerted Efforts/For Great Honor
Bring 1 of each battleground’s Mark of Honor (AV, AB, WSG and EotS) to the questgiver. The reward: 12g and 314 honor. Now there’s a PvP daily worth doing.

Edit: I stand corrected! This isn’t a daily, it’s just a repeatable quest. Get 100 of each mark before the patch and you can turn them all in on patch day for 31,400 honor and a lovely case of carpal tunnel.

Sunwell Dailies

Now we get down to the real meat-and-drink of the new 2.4 content: the daily quests for the Shattered Sun Offensive. This new faction is working against the Burning Legion to try and keep the Sunwell safe, and is being run by the Aldor and Scryers working together.

I’ll provide a more comprehensive guide to the SSO dailies once I’ve got further with the content, but in the meantime I’ll just discuss the dailies as I encounter new ones.

To begin with, you start at Neutral with the Shattered Sun Offensive. There are three or four daily quests open to you. To kick it all off, though, you’ll want to get the starter quest (“Enter, the Deceiver…”) from the questgiver near A’dal in Shattrath, and head to the Isle of Quel’Danas. You’ll automatically know the flightpath once you hit a flight master in the Eastern Kingdoms; Quel’Danas is connected by flightpath to Zul’Aman (and apparently also to Silvermoon, for the Horde).

The following are the SSO dailies. There are also some standard non-repeatable SSO quests, but this is a guide to the daily quests, not a guide to SSO rep, so. :)

The Sanctum Wards
This quest is given by Theris Dawnhearth at the staging area on Quel’Danas. To complete it, kill Wretched Fiends and Wretched Devourers and gather 4 Mana Remnants from their corpses, then use (right-click) the Mana Remnants on a sanctum ward (the big red floating crystals with Wretched mobs around them).
Reward: 9g and 150 SSO rep.

Erratic Behavior
This quest is given by Vindicator Xayann at the staging area on Quel’Danas. She gives you a stack of modified golem control cores. Find and kill 3 Erratic Sentries; use the modified cores on each sentry’s corpse to reanimate it as a Converted Sentry that follows you round. Then run your three Converted Sentries to the Sun’s Reach Sanctum, and wait there until their new programming takes effect.
Reward: 9g and 150 SSO rep.

Sunfury Attack Plans
This quest is given by Lord Torvos in Shattrath in the NE quadrant of the inner ring, nearish the flight point. The quest asks you to go to Netherstorm and get the Sunfury Attack Plans off blood elves there. Any Sunfury blood elf in Netherstorm has a chance to drop these plans; I picked mine up on my third kill near Manaforge B’naar.

The quest gives you 10g, “Shattered Sun Supplies” (which is a package with some random selection of contents; mine had a BoE green plate chestpiece in it) and 250 Shattered Sun rep.

The Multi-Whatever Something-or-Other Survey
This quest is given by Harbinger Haronem in the inner ring in Shattrath. He gives you a pair of Multiphase Spectrographic Goggles and sends you to the Spirit Fields around Oshu’gun in Nagrand. (They’re the area saround Oshu’gun, with the large symbols on the ground.)

The goggles let you detect “red Multiphase Disturbances” passively, and have a Use effect to take a Multiphase disturbance reading. The detection effect only works in Nagrand, so don’t put the goggles on until you’re in Nagrand or you won’t get the detection buff at all (and will get very confused flying around looking for red things you can’t see).

Red Multiphase Disturbance

With the goggles on you’ll see the red glowy light patches; just get near one, right-click your goggles (it will dismount you, so don’t be too high up), and repeat six times with new red patches. (A reading will disperse any given Disturbance, but others in your group may also get credit for it.) Then return to Haronem for 250 rep, 10g and a “Shattered Sun Supplies” parcel.

Gaining the Advantage
This is a gathering quest that requires you to have herbalism, mining or skinning. WoWWiki has details here, and says it gives 16g, 250 SSO rep and 2 Major Rejuvenation potions. I can’t confirm, as I’m an Alchemist/Jewelcrafter.