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They have finally opened Old Ironforge in Patch 4.1. To be honest I was a little disappointed after checking it out. After hearing about it for years, and the ban if you were caught there, I guess I just expected it to be larger with buildings you could go inside of and check out. I expected there to be more.

It is kind of cool to see where the Dwarves lived before they made Ironforge but there is so little there and what is there you can’t go inside of. Aside from a few walkways and a couple tunnels there is not much else.

Here are some pictures from down there starting with the entrance located in the King’s room in Ironforge.


Posted on A World of Warcraft Blog 4/26/11

I got Shadowfang Keep as my random daily heroic again today on Wranngar.

I got lucky and got another great group again today. We burned right through the place taking out all bosses on the way. There were two deaths this time, both the same person, an undergeared Shadow Priest. That was not the Healers fault though, the Priest had low health and a noticeable lack of experience. SFK is one of the dungeons that on normal is really low level and then level 85 on heroic so that happens from time to time. I know it has changed dramatically since I did it on normal when my toons were low level. They changed some of the low level dungeons around for cataclysm and then made a strictly heroic version for 85′s.

The first death was at the first boss, Baron Ashbury, which is understandable. The first boss does a move called asphyxiate that brings you down to literally around 1 HP so it is easy to lose someone there or even wipe. He has a few other moves but most of them are interruptable.

The Tank on this run didn’t pull the large mobs from outside to the inside so we could fight them, we fought them outside in the courtyard which is unusual. The problem you can have doing that is someone getting feared into other mobs but we got through it without that happening.

We made our way into the kitchen/dining area, took out the trash, and killed the second boss, Baron Silverlaine. That has always seemed like an easy fight to me on heroic.

The next boss in the lineup is Commander Springvale. He can be pretty tough as he has a few moves that deal up some good damage. He main attacks are Word of Shame, Malefic Strike, Desecration and Shield of the Perfidious. A lot of groups will skip this boss or wipe on him a couple times and skip him but the last couple groups I have been in have taken him down without a problem. This was the second and last death for the Shadow Priest.

Next was Lord Walden. He has a couple of toxic attacks that can deal out a lot of damage. There are a couple simple rules to remember for his toxic attacks. Green keep moving, Red don’t move. Pretty simple. We had no problem with this boss. This is where I topped 15k dps yesterday, today I did 14.8k, not bad but not 15k either lol.

The last boss in this dungeon is Lord Godfrey. This is a boss that a group is either going to be able to work together on and get down fast or wipe on a few times and get him down eventually if the group doesn’t fall apart. It takes some coordination and quick wits to get through this boss.

Lord Godfrey has a few attacks starting with Pistol Barrage. That is when he will fire a pistol barrage which fires out in a cone from the boss inflicting 27000 shadow damage a second to anyone inside the cone and lasts for six seconds.

His next attack is Summon Bloodthirsty Ghouls which will summon six ghouls over three seconds.

Probably his most lethal attack is Cursed Bullets which is a curse he will put on a target. This can be interrupted but has a one second cast time. This curse lasts 15 seconds with the damage increasing over time. The last five ticks of this curse will hit you for 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k and 50k damage, that’s 150k damage over five seconds. This curse needs to be dispelled as soon as possible. Today we had a Paladin Healer who can not remove curses so I had to decurse on that one. If you are going to remove this curse you will have to have a Druid or Shaman in the group. Mages might be able to remove curses too, I’m not sure.

His last attack is Mortal Wound that he will put on the tank. This attack causes 1500 damage per second and reduces healing received by 10% for eight seconds, this is stackable.

We got him down pretty quick and easy getting me my 70 Valor Points and the Chaos Orb. It was a pretty easy win for the orb today, I was the only one who could roll on it. I found out after I left the dungeon and went to sell my loot that I had won just about every roll in there including the two items the last boss dropped plus the Chaos Orb. A lucky day for me.
Originally posted on A World of Warcraft Blog – 4/19/11
Finally got my copy of WoW Cataclysm expansion box set… woot! Here some pics to share with all of you.

Here’s looking forward to a brand new world tomorrow and sleepless nights for months to come.. lol!
A special THANKS to the peeps over at OffGamers.com for a speedy delivery and impeccable service.  /bow &  /respect
Getting to Mount Hyjal
1. Find the Warchief’s Command Board. Click on it and take the quest Warchief’s Command: Mount Hyjal.
2. Find Cenarion Emissary Blackhoof in the Tauren District of Orgrimmar. Speak to him to be teleported to Moonglade.
3. Speak to Emissary Windsong. Turn in Warchief’s Command: Mount Hyjal and get the quest As Hyjal Burns.
4. Go over to Aronus, the green dragon hovering right next to where you are at and hop on. You will go through a scripted flyby of Mt Hyjal, and land under the World Tree.
Nordrassil – The World Tree
1. Enter the building in front of you and speak to Ysera to turn in As Hyjal Burns. Accept Protect the World Tree.
2. Speak to Sebelia right next to the door to set your hearthstone here.
3. Exit the building. Directly in front of you, accept The Earth Rises from Anren Shadowseeker. Also get Inciting the Elements from Tholo Whitehoof.
4. Head northeast up the road. Kill any Scalding Rock Elementls nearby. While doing that, collect 4 Juniper Berries from the small bushes in the area.
5. Find one of the Faerie Dragons in the same area as the elementals. Use one of the Juniper Berries you collected on the Faerie Dragon and it will lead you to a Twilight Inciter, who will attack you. Repeat this 3 more times to complete Inciting the Elements. Also continue to kill Scalding Rock Elementls until you complete The Earth Rises.
6. Return to Anren Shadowseeker and turn in The Earth Rises.
7. Turn in Inciting the Elements at Tholo Whitehoof right next to you. Accept the follow up Flames From Above. You will receive Tholo’s Horn.
8. From the two NPCs, follow the road west to Fayran Elthas. Get the Flight Point.
9. Go to the Twilight Encampment northwest of the flight point. Use Tholo’s Horn in the center of the encampment to complete Flames From Above.
Go back to Tholo Whitehoof and turn it in.
The Verdant Thicket

1. Get on your flying mount and fly southwest until you meet up with the road. If you prefer to use a ground mount, follow the road that heads east and curves around the Well of Eternity. Continue to follow this road to (?,?). Malfurion Stormrage and Windspeaker Tamila should be standing in a small shrine. Speak to Malfurion to turn in Protect the World Tree.
2. Get War on the Twilight’s Hammer from Malfurion Stormrage.
3. Get both quest and The Flameseer’s Staff from Windseeker Tamila .
4. Kill 4 Twilight Flamecallers and 10 Twilight Vanquishers for War on the Twilight’s Hammer in the area just north. While doing this, pick up 8 Charred Staff Fragments for The Flameseer’s Staff. Stay away from The Circle of Cinders for now.
5. Return to Malfurion Stormrage and turn in The Flameseer’s Staff and War on the Twilight’s Hammer. Accept the followup quest Flamebreaker.
6. Use the Flameseer’s Staff on the Blazebound Elementals in the charred areas around The Verdant Thicket. This will break up the elementals into 8-10 smaller elementals. Kill these Unbound Flame Spirits.
Repeat until Flamebreaker is complete. Return to Malfurion Stormrage to turn in the quest.
7. Accept The Return of Baron Geddon.
8. Go The Circle of Cinders, where you will find Baron Geddon. You need to use the Flameseer’s Staff on him. Every 10 seconds or so, he will begin to channel an AOE fire effect that will hurt you badly, forcing you to move away. When the fire dies down, run back in and use the staff again. Do this until The Return of Baron Geddon is complete.
As soon as the quest is complete, Baron Geddon will cast Living Bomb on you. After about 10 seconds, you will blow up, causing you to fly into the air (you will take some falling damage) and dealing damage to anyone around you. So get away from everyone until it goes off.
Mount up and return to Malfurion. Turn in The Return of Baron Geddon.
9. From WIndspeaker Tamila, accept Emerald Allies
10. Find Alysra at the Ruins of Lar’donir. Turn in Emerald Allies. Accept The Captured Scout.
11. Scout Larandia is located in a cage in the back of the Twilight Command Post. Speak to her to turn in The Captured Scout. Accept Twilight Captivity.
12. Find and kill a Twilight Overseer. They are the two-headed ogres inside the Twilight Command Post. Loot the key off of him to complete Twilight Captivity.
13. Return to Scout Larandia.
14. Turn in Twilight Captivity. Accept Return to Alysra
15. Do what the quest says and return to Alysra. Turn in Return to Alysra and accept A Prisoner of Interest.
16. Go to the Hyjal Barrow Dens northeast of the crater. Travel all the way to the bottom of the barrow dens, until you reach Captain Saynna Stormrunner. Turn in RA Prisoner of Interest.
17. Once you accept the follow up, Through the Dream, you will be moved into a separate phase. Fight your way out of the barrow dens. You will get the quest complete message when you reach the top.
18. Alysra should be right in front of you. Turn in Through the Dream and accept Return to Nordrassil.
Mount up and fly back to Ysera in the building under the World Tree.
Shrine of Goldrinn

1. Turn in Return to Nordrassil to Ysera. Accept The Return of the Ancients.
2. Mount up and fly to the road on the far side of The Verdant Thicket. You will see a small camp up on a ridge to the right of the road. Turn in The Return of the Ancients to Oomla Whitehorn. Accept Harrying the Hunters.
3. In the same camp, accept both quests from Jadi Falaryn – End of the Supply Line and In the Rear With the Gear.
4. Along the road just below the camp, kill 6 Twilight Hunters and 4 Twilight Proveditors. The hunters are the trolls off to each side of the road. The proveditors are the ogres with slaves following them.
5. There are Twilight Slavedrivers walking with the proveditors. When you kill them, the slaves following them will drop the packs they are carrying. Loot these packs to get Twilight Supplies. Keep killing slavedrivers and picking up packs until you complete In the Rear With the Gear.
6. Return to the camp and turn in Harrying the Hunters, End of the Suplly Line, and In the Rear With the Gear. Get the quest The Voice of Lo’Gosh.
7. Follow the road west until it branches. Take the fork to the right, down to a valley. If you are following the road down, continue straight, past the wolf statue, to get to Takrik Ragehowl. He is in a cage at the edge of the small pond. Turn in The Voice of Lo’Gosh and accept the follow up Howling Mad.
8. Kill Lycanthoth Vandals and loot 6 Polluted Incense from their corpses.
9. Return to Takrik Ragehowl and turn in Howling Mad. Accept the follow up Lycanthoth the Corruptor.
10. Go to the Maw of Lycanthoth in the southeast corner of the valley.
11. Use Lycanthoth’s Incense near the altar inside the cave. This will summon Lycanthoth. Kill him to complete Lycanthoth the Corruptor. The Spirit of Lo’Gosh will appear.
12. Turn in Lycanthoth the Corruptor. You will automatically hop on his back and ride around as he cleans out the shrine. When he is finished and you have hopped off, speak to him and accept the follow up The Shrine Reclaimed.
13. You’ll be in a new phase. Go to the shrine in the north area of the valley. Takrik Ragehowl has been released from his cage. Go to him and turn in The Shrine Reclaimed. Accept the quest Cleaning House.
14. In the same camp, from Rio Duran accept From the Mouth of Madness.
15. Find Royce Duskwhisper, who wanders around the camp, to get the quest The Eye of Twilight.
16. Gather 1 Bitterblossom from the plants around the edge of the pond.
17. Kill 8 Hovel Brutes for Cleaning House while completing the next steps.
18. The rest of the quests you just picked up are all done in the Twilight Hammer camp in the southwest area of the valley. Search around the base of the rock formations there to find a Stonebloom
19. Go to the brazier pictured below. Collect a Darkflame Ember from it.
20. Click on the cauldron just south of the brazier to turn in From the Mouth of Madness. Accept the followup quest Free Your Mind, the Rest Follows.
21. Turn in The Eye of Twilight at the orb outside the cave entrance. Take the followup Mastering Puppets.
22. Enter the cave. As you go through the cave, talk to 8 of the Twilight Servitors and select the dialog option available to complete Free Your Mind, the Rest Follows.
23. Stay to the left from the entrance to reach Kristoff Manheim. He’ll be hanging from a meat hook in the back of the cave. Accept his quest, Gar’gol’s Gotta Go.
24. Continue through the cave, hugging the wall on your left, until you reach a pedestal with a book on it. Turn in Mastering Puppets. Note the large stone In front of you.
25. Accept the quest from the book, Elementary!. This quest requires you to activate the four orb floating near the pedestal in a particular order. The correct order is as follows.
Crucible of Fire
Crucible of Earth
Crucible of Air
Crucible of Water
Be prepared to fight as soon as you click on the Crucible of Water. A Twilight Hammer cultist named The Manipulator will come out of the portal and attack. Kill him, then turn in the quest at the podium. Accept the followup Return to Duskwhisper. You will get a very useful 10 minute buff that will cause all of the ogres in the hovel to no longer be hostile unless you attack them.
26. Continue hugging the left wall until you reach the center of the cave. You will see Gar’gol, a large blue skinned ogre, sitting on a small rise. Loot a key from the chest on the rise where he is sitting to complete Gar’gol’s Gotta Go. Because of the buff you received, you should not have to kill him.
27. Head back to Kristoff Manheim to turn in Gar’gol’s Gotta Go. Accept Get Me Outta Here! and escort Kristoff out of the cave.
28. Once you get the quest complete message, head back to the Shrine and turn in all of your quests.
29. From Takrik Ragehowl accept Sweeping the Shelf and Lightning in a Bottle.
30. Follow the road west out of the valley, to Lightning Ledge. Kill 8 Twilight Stormcallers and 5 Howling Riftdwellers for Sweeping the Shelf.
31. Loot a Charged Condenser Jar from the lightning rods scattered around the area.
32. Use the Totem of Lo’Gosh to summon the wolf spirit. Turn in Lightning in a Bottle and accept Into the Maw!.
33. Finish killing everything Sweeping the Shelf.
34. Enter the portal in the center if the Twilight Cultists camp. You will be teleported to the Firelands Forgeworks.
35. Turn in Into the Maw!.
36. Pick up Forged of Shadow and Flame,Crushing the Cores and Rage of the Wolf Ancient.
37. Break 10 Twilight Arms Crates while completing the next step.
38. Kill 12 Dark Iron Laborers and 8 Searing Guardians. Be sure to loot the Smoldering Cores from the Guardians you kill.
39. Find a Twilight Anvil, which is usually around the edges of the cavern, and use the Smoldering Cores while standing next to it. Repeat 8 times to complete Crushing the Cores.
40. Return to the NPCs at the front of the cavern to turn in Forged of Shadow and Flame, Crushing the Cores, and Rage of the Wolf Ancient.
41. Accept Cindermaul, the Portal Master from Jordan Olafson.
42. Head west back to the center of the cavern. From the center, follow the path down to the right. In the first cavern to the left, you will find Cindermaul. Kill him, then loot the chest he leaves behind to complete Cindermaul, the Portal Master.
43. Go back to the front and turn in the quest. Pick up Forgemaster Pyrendius.
44. Forgemaster Pyrendius is a level 80 elite. He has 154k health, so don’t try to fight him directly. He is standing in a circle of runes. To kill him, make sure you hit him at elast onec, then drag Pyrendius to one of those runes, click on it to activate the rune, then position Pyrendius so that he is standing on the rune. Repeat that, moving from rune to rune, until he dies.
45. Return to Jordan Olafson and turn in Forgemaster Pyrendius. Get Return from the Firelands.
46. Enter the portal behind you. This will return you the Shrine of Goldrinn. Fly back to the camp, to Ian Duran, and turn in both of the quests you have, Return from the Firelands and Sweeping the Shelf.
47. Yserra will appear in front of you. Accept in Aviana’s Legacy from her. Also accept The Fires of Mt. Hyjal from Rio Duran.
Shrine of Aviana

1. Mount up and fly Northeast to the Shrine of Aviana.
2. Stop at Dinorae Swiftfeather to get the flight point.
3. Enter the first floor of the building at the base of the tree. Head all the way to the back of the shrine to find Choluna.
4. Turn in Wings Over Mount Hyjal and accept An Offering for Aviana.
5. On the way out, speak with Thisalee Crow, who is sitting on a brazier by the entrance. Pick up both her quests, The Wormwing Problem and Scrambling for Eggs.
6. Go to the small circle of stones just outside the shrine. Use the Sacred Nectar while standing near the basin in the center of the stone circle. The Spirit of Aviana will appear. Turn in An Offering for Aviana and accept A Plea From Beyond.
7. While completing the next step, collect 8 Stolen Hyjal Eggs. They can be found around the base of the trees in the area west of the shrine.
8. Kill Wormwing Screechers and Wonrmwing Swifttalons until you complete The Wormwing Problem.
9. Return to the Shrine. At Thisalee Crow turn in The Wormwing Problem and Scrambling for Eggs. Accept A Bird in Hand.
10. In the back of the shrine, turn in A Plea From Beyond to Choluna. Accept A Prayer and a Wing.
11. Find the signal fire just west of the shrine. Use it to summon Marion Wormwing. Fight her until Thisalee Crow sneaks up behind her and captures her.
12. Once she is captured, talk to Marion Wormwing. Go through the dialogue options until you get the quest complete message for A Bird in Hand. The difference choices have no effect that I have found.
13. Get on your flying mount and fly up to the top of the ridge to the north. You will see several nests. Land in one and use the Enormous Bird Call to summon Blaithe. Kill him and loot the Ancient Feather from his corpse.
14. Return to the Shrine. Turn in A Bird in Hand to Thisalee Crow.
15. Go back to Choluna and turn in A Prayer and a Wing.
16. Go up the ramp at the front of the Shrine, and follow it up to the third tier. Pick up Fact-Finding Mission from Skylord Omnuron. We will be doing this quest later.
17. Mount up and head west, past the Shrine of Goldrinn and the Twilight Cultists camp. Follow the road until you reach the Grove of Aessina.
Grove of Aessina

1. Inside the Grove, get the quests Save the Wee Animals from Mylune and If You’re Not Against Us… from Matoclaw.
2. Get the flight path from Elizil Wintermoth.
3. Leave the shrine and go slightly east up the road to a small tower. Find Tyrus Blackhorn at the base of the tower.
4. Speak to him, and go through the different conversation options to complete If You’re Not Against Us….
5. Turn in the quest to Blackhorn and accept Seeds of Their Demise.
6. Kill Wailing Weeds in the area directly surrounding the tower until you get 8 Bileberry.
7. Return to Blackhorn and turn in Seeds of Their Demise. Accept A New Master.
8. Follow the road west to Laina Nightsky. Turn in The Fires of Mt. Hyjal. Accept Fighting Fire With…Anything and Disrupting the Rituals.
9. While completing the next steps, collect Panicked Bunnies and Terrified Squirrels until you complete Save the Wee Animals. Also, kill any Raging Firestorms and Twilight Inferno Lords you see.
10. Use the Bottled Bileberry Brew on one of the Twilight Inferno Lords you have killed to complete A New Master. Accept the follow up The Name Never Spoken.
11. Find the three firestones.
The Northern Firestone is located at (?,?)
The Central Firestone is located at (?,?)
The Southern Firestone is located at (?,?)
12. Finish killing Raging Firestorms and Twilight Inferno Lords until you have completed Fighting Fire With…Anything and Disrupting the Rituals. Also finish catching animals for Save the Wee Animals.
13. Return to Laina Nightsky and turn in Fighting Fire With…Anything and Disrupting the Rituals.
14. Inside the Grove, turn in Save the Wee Animals at Mylune. Accept Oh, Deer!.
15. Go back to Blackhorn’s tower. Speak to Tyrus Blackhorn to turn in The Name Never Spoken.
16. Accept Black Heart of Flame.
17. Head back to the burning forest.
18. Clear an area of enemies, then use the Charred Branch to summon Thol’embar. Kill him and loot his heart to complete Black Heart of Flame.
19. Find 3 Injured Fawns. When you click on them, they will begin to follow you. Try to avoid combat if at all possible, as the Injured Fawns can be killed. Once you have 3 following you, return to Mylune to complete Oh, Deer!. Turn it in.
20. Return to Tyrus Blackhorn and turn in Black Heart of Flame.
21. Go to Laina Nightsky, just outside the Grove. Get the quest Last Stand at Whistling Grove.
22. Follow the ridge of mountains on your right, into the burning forest. They will curve around and lead you to the Whistling Grove. On the map above, it is the green area north of the burning forest.
23. Speak to Keeper Taldros to turn in Last Stand at Whistling Grove. Accept The Bears Up There.
24. Find one of the trees nearby that has small ladders around its base. Click on one of the ladders to climb into the tree. In the tree, Click on one of the bear cubs you are near to grab it. Then use the vehicle controls on your action bar to climb to the top of the tree.
Once you are at the top of the tree, you will get a new control: Chuck-a-Bear. Aim for the trampoline in front of Keeper Taldros and toss the bear cub onto it. Then climb to a lower part of the tree to get another bear cub. Repeat 6 times to complete The Bears Up There.
25. Turn in the quest to Keeper Taldros. Accept Smashing Through Ashes.
26. Head south through the burning forest until you meet up with the road. Follow the road south, making sure to kill 8 Charbringers along the way. Continue following the road until you reach the Sanctuary of Malorne.
Sanctuary of Malorne

1. At Arch Druid Hamuul Runetotem turn in Smashing Through Ashes. Accept Durable Seeds. Also accept Fresh Bait.
2. Get Firebreak from Rayne Feathersongwho is standing right behind Hamuul.
As you complete the next steps, watch out for Nemesis, a level 80 Elite giant turtle who patrols all over The Flamewake.
3. Go north into The Flamewake, killing Core Hounds along the way until you have 4 Core Houndr Entrails for Fresh Bait.
4. Look for small piles of dirt on the ground. Click on them to get a Hyjal Seedling. Continue to do this until you have 10 seedlings.
5. Kill 10 Lava Surgers for Firebreak.
6. Return to the Sanctuary of Malorne and turn in all your quests. Accept Hell’s Shells from Hamuul and Prepping the Soil from Rayne.
7. Get on your flying mount and fly around The Flamewake until you find Nemesis. Land a safe distance away and place the Heap of Core Hound Innards on the ground so that Nemesis walks near them. Once Nemesis gets in range of the Innards, he will begin to eat them, allowing you to run up to him and collect the shell fragment by clicking on him. As soon as you have the fragment, quickly get on your mount to get away before he attacks you..
8. Head to a small area in the south part of The Flamewake, almost directly east of the Sanctuary of Malorne. You will be in front of a cave entrance. Find the Flameward at (?,?). Clear the area of any enemies that might attack you then right-click on the Flameward to activate it. Defend the Flameward from anything that comes out to attack it. After about a minute, the Flameward will be fully activated, which will kill any remaining enemies around it.
9. Enter the cave south of the Flameward. Go through the tunnel to find Thisalee Crow. Turn in Fact-Finding Mission. Accept Sethria’s Brood and A Gap in Their Armor.
10. Follow the path south kill 12 of the Twilight Dragonkin. Avoid the Twilight Juggernauts for now.
While doing that, collect 8 8 Twilight Armor Plates.
11. In the center of the camp, you will find a pedestal with a book on it. Click on the book and accept the quest The Codex of Shadows.
12. Finish killing dragonkin for Sethria’s Brood and collecting armor plates for and A Gap in Their Armor.
13. Return to Thisalee Crow and turn in Sthria’s Brood, The Codex of Shadows and and A Gap in Their Armor.
14. Accept Egg Hunt and Disassembly.
15. Back into the camp. Find a Twilight Juggernaut. Use Thisalee’s Shiv on him to break his armor, then kill him. You can use the Shiv multiple times to further decrease his armor. Repeat this two more times.
16. Find one of the Shadow Cloak Generators.
Click on it to deactivate it. Keep doing this until you find Aviana’s egg. Once you find the egg, you must defend it until the druids come to collect it. So just kill anything that comes after the egg until you get the quest complete message for Egg Hunt.
17. Return to Thisalee and turn in Egg Hunt and Disassembly. Accept Sethria’s Demise.
18. Get on your flying mount and fly far to the south (?,?), where you will find Sethria. Attack her until she changes into her dragon form. When she does, use Thisalee’s Signal Rocket to summon the Druids of the Talon to help you defeat her. She will occasionally place a shadow fissure on the ground around. Move out of it as soon as you see it to avoid massive damage.
Once she has died, return to Thisalee Crow to turn in Sethria’s Demise.
19. Accept Return to the Shrine.
20. Fly back to the Shrine of Malorne and turn in Prepping the Soil and Hell’s Shells. Accept Tortolla Speaks.
21. Fly to Torolla, who is chained on the far side of the lake at (?,?). Turn in Tortolla Speaks.
22. Accept Breaking the Bonds and Children of Tortolla.
23. Jump into the lake and swim down. Kill the Deep Corruptors to rescue the eggs they are near. Do this 6 times to complete Children of Tortolla.
24. Go back to Tortolla. Use the giant rod to your left to break the chain holding Tortola and summon a Twilight Dominator. Kill him, then repeat on the other rod to the right to complete Breaking the Bonds.
25. Speak to Tortolla and turn in both quests.
26. Accept An Ancient Awakens. Fly back to the Sanctuary of Malorne.
27. Turn in An Ancient Awakens.
28. Fly back to the Shrine of Aviana. Find Choluna in the back. Turn in Return to the Shrine. Accept An Ancient Reborn.
29. Go up the ramp to your right, into a small room where you will find Aviana’s Egg. Use the Herald’s Incense near the egg to resurrect Aviana.
30. Turn in An Ancient Reborn to Aviana. Accept The Hatchery Must Burn.
31. Ysera will appear next to Aviana. Accept The Last Living Lorekeeper.
32. Fly back down into The Flamewake. Enter the large portal in the center to be teleported to the Firelands Hatchery.
33. Turn in The Hatchery Must Burn to Farden Talonshrike. Accept Flight in the Firelands.
34. Loot a Twilight Firelance from one of the weapon ranks behind Farden. Equip it and jump on one of the Aviana’s Guardians nearby.
Flight does not work the normal way on these mounts. You must use the Flap ability to make them move forward AND stay in the air. You will move forward and gain altitude the more you use the ability.
Fly to one of the flags on any the ledges in the cavern, then fly back to complete the quest.
35. Turn in Flight in the Firelands. Accept Wave One.
36. Using the same controls, fly into the center of the cavern. You will see many Twilight Buzzards flying around. “Kill” them by running onto the buzzards with your mount. Do this 10 times to complete Wave One.
37. Fly back up to the ledge with Farden Talonshrike. Turn in the quest and accept the follow up Wave Two.
This quest is exactly the same as the last one, except now there are flaming boulders falling from the sky that you must dodge. If your mount gets killed, there are replacement mounts at the bottom of the cavern.
Once you have killed 10 Twilight Lancers, fly back up to Farden’s ledge.
39. Turn in Wave Two. Accept Egg Wave.
This quest is much easier. Still using the same controls, fly over to the ledges around the room and run over the eggs that are on them. Return to Farden once you have smashed 40 eggs.
40. Turn in Egg Wave. Accept Return to Aviana. Make sure to re-equip your weapon. Use the portal across the bride to the east to teleport back to The Flamewake.
41. Find Nordu on a rise just north of the Sanctuary of Malorne. Turn in The Last Living Lorekeeper.
42. Accept Firefight.
43. Kill 5 Firey Tormentors nearby. Return to Nordu when you are finished.
44. Turn in Firefight. Accept Aessina’s Miracle.
45. Return to Aviana at the Shrine of Aviana.
46. Turn in Return to Aviana.
47. Fly back to the Grove of Aessina. Speak to Arch Druid Hamuul to turn in Aessina’s Miracle.
48. When the event finishes, accept Tortolla’s Revenge from Arch Druid Hamuul.
49. Follow the road through the newly restored forest until you reach Tortolla. Turn in Tortolla’s Revenge.
The Scorched Plain

1. Accept The Hammer and the Key from Tortolla. From Niden, a nightelf sitting on the ground next to Tortolla, accept Breakthrough and Lost Wardens.
2. Follow the road east into The Scorched Plain.
3. While completing the next steps, find and speak to 8 Lost Wardens to complete Lost Wardens.
4. Kill 10 Twilight Scorchlords
5.Continue to follow the road east until you reach a building with nightelves fighting around it. Go inside to find Captain Irontree.
6. Turn in Lost Wardens and Breakthrough. Accept Pressing the Advantage.
7. Speak to Logram up the ramp behind Captain Irontree. Accept Hyjal Recycling Program.
8. While completing the next step, collect 15 Warden’s Arrows.
9. Kill 4 Twilight Field Captains. Be sure to loot a Glyph of Opening off one of them to complete The Hammer and the Key.
10. Return to Tortolla. Turn in The Hammer and the Key. Accept The Third Flamegate (even though it is the fourth one we are going in).
11. Fly back to Captain Irontree. Turn in Pressing the Advantage. At Logram, turn in Hyjal Recycling Program.
12. Go farther down the road, to the east, until you reach another flamegate. Enter it to be teleported to The Crucible of Flame.
13. Speak to Garunda Mountainpeak. Turn in The Third Flamegate. Accept The Time for Mercy has Passed and The Strength of Tortolla.
14. Make your way through the cavern, killing Molten Tormentors and Shadowflame Masters along the way, until you find a Nemesis Crystal. Move the Cild of Tortolla following you close to the crystal and he will automatically examine it.
Make sure you have killed 10 Molten Tormentors and 4 Shadowflame Masters before moving to the next step.
15. Return to the front of the cavern, and turn in The Time for Mercy has Passed and The Strength of Tortolla. Accept Finish Nemesis.
16. Time to fight the giant turtle we have been dodging all this time. Go all the way to the end of the cave, where you will find Nemesis. Attack him until you get the message “Nemesis is about to erupt!” When you see that, use the Totem of Tortolla to place a shield around yourself, protecting you from damage but also preventing any movement or attacks by you. Nemesis will erupt in flames, damaging himself and everything around him. Repeat this sequence of attacking and shielding until Nemesis is dead.
17. Return to Garunda Mountainpeak at the front of the cavern to turn in Finish Nemesis.
18. Accept Tortolla’s Triumph. Use the portal nearby to teleport back to The Scorched Plain.
19. Follow the road, heading west, all the way back to Tortolla.
20. Turn in Tortolla’s Triumph. Accept The Ancients are With Us.
21. Return to Ysera in the building under The World Tree.
22. Turn in The Ancients are With Us. Accept Commander Jarod Shadowsong.
Darkwhisper Gorge

1. Fly south and down from The World Tree, until you are back at the third flamegate. From there, follow the road east to a tunnel. At the end of the tunnel you will find Elementalist Ortell.
2. Turn in Jarod Shadowsong and accept Signed in Blood.
3. Follow the road out of the cave until you reach a small group of Twilight Recruits. Speak to one of the recruits to get him to follow you.
4. Lead him out of sight of the rest of the group and use the Blackjack on the recruit. This will kill him. Loot the Twilight Recruitment Papers.
5. Return to Elementalist Ortell and turn in Signed in Blood. Accept Your New Identity. Congratulations, you are now a member of the Twilight’s Hammer cult!
6. Head east down the road until it splits off to the north and south. There will be a small path continuing east. Follow it to a tent where you will find Condenna the Pitiless.
7. Speak to her to turn in Your New Identity. Accept Trial by Fire and In Bloom.
8. Right next to Conenna, speak to Instructor Cargall to get the quest Waste of Flesh.
During the next steps, watch out for a giant core hound named Smolderos the Carbonizer, a level 82 Elite that patrols through the area.
9. Enter the Twilight Gauntlet just to the east. In this area, you need to kill 8 Twilight Instructors, which are the fire elementals wandering around.
10. While doing this, you also need to collect 5 Flame Blossoms
11. Find an Immolated Supplicant that are running around covered in fire. Use the Frostgale Crystal on them to put out the flames.
12. Once all three quests are complete, return to Condeena the Pitiless and Instructor Cargall. Turn in all of the quests.
13. Accept the quest Twilight Training.
14. Head east to The Forge of Supplication. Find Instructor Mylva at the back of the camp.
15. Turn in Twilight Training. Accept Physical Training: Forced Labor.
16. Closer to the front of the camp, slightly to the east, find Instructor Devoran. Speak to him to accept the quest Walking the Dog.
17. Finally, go to the Outhouse Hideout on the west side of the camp. Elementalist Ortell is hiding inside. Click on the outhouse to get the quest Gather the Intelligence.
18. Search the camp until you find the Twilight Communique. It can be just about anywhere in the camp so just keep looking around until you find it. Try to grab it when none of the Twilight Guards are close by. If they see you take the communiqué they will attack.
19. Leave the camp. Head northeast, toward the other camp, Doom’s Vigil. On the way, kill Spinescale Basilisks until you have 5 Charred Basilisk Meat and use the Twilight Pick on 5 Darkwhisper Lodestones.
20. Find the Hyjal Battleplans somewhere in the Doom’s Vigil camp. Again, try to make sure no Twilight Guards are nearby, otherwise you will be attacked.
21. Once you have found the battleplans, head back toward The Forge of Supplication. Be sure to finish getting the 5 Charred Basilisk Meat and breaking 5 lodestones on the way, if you have not already done so.
22. Once back in the camp, use the Firey Leash to summon the Spawn of Smolderos. Feed him the 5 Charred Basilisk Meat you collected to complete Walking the Dog.
23. Go back to Instructor Devoran and turn in Walking the Dog. Accept A Champion’s Collar.
24. Next, go back to the Outhouse Hideout and turn in Gather the Intelligence. Accept Seeds of Discord.
25. Finally, go back to Instructor Mylva to turn in Physical Training: Forced Labor.
Before you accept the follow up, let me explain what you will have to do. As soon as you accept the quest, Mylva will summon a Blazing Trainer. You need to run away from the trainer for 1 minute without leaving the camp. He does not move very fast, but if he catches you he can hit moderately hard. So be ready to start running when you accept the quest.
26. Accept Agility Training: Run Like Hell!. When you have completed the quest, return to Instructor Mylva and turn it in.
27. Accept Mental Training: Speaking the Truth to Power.
28. Use the Orb of Ascension. You will be asked 10 yes/no questions. The questions are simple and the answers are VERY obvious. Your action bar will be replaced with 3 abilities: Yes, No, and Dismiss Orb of Ascension. Use these to answer the questions within three seconds. If you answer a question wrong or fail to answer in time, you will take damage. Dismiss the Orb once you get the quest completed message.
29. Turn in Mental Training: Speaking the Truth to Power. Accept Spiritual Training: Mercy is for the Weak.
30. Go back to Doom’s Vigil. To your left as you enter the camp, you will see a group of Failed Supplicants. At the back of the group, talk to Maurice and accept the quest The Defector.
31. Kill 5 Failed Supplicants to complete Spiritual Training: Mercy is for the Weak.
32. Leave the camp and follow the road when it turns north. You will find the Spinescale Matriarch at (?,?). Kill her and loot the Spiked Basilisk Hide for A Champion’s Collar.
33. Return to Instructor Devoran at The Forge of Supplication. Turn in A Champion’s Collar. Accept Grudge Match.
34. Leave the camp and go to the Seat of the Chosen. Go to the first building on your left as you enter the camp.
35. Speak to Gromm’ko to challenge him to a match. Once your core hound pup kills his raptor, Gromm’ko will attack you. Kill him to complete Grudge Match.
36. Go to the Ogre Outhouse on the right side of the large building. Use the Ogre Disguise near the outhouse to transform into an ogre. Enter the large building.
37. Speak to Karr’gonn to get him to leave the room. As soon as he is outside, kill High Cultist Azennios.
38. Head back to The Forge of Supplication. Turn in Grudge Match to Instructor Devoran.
39. At the Outhouse Hideout, turn in Seeds of Discord and The Defector.
40. Go to Instructor Mylva and turn in Spiritual Training: Mercy is for the Weak.
41. Accept The Greater of Two Evils and Twilight Territory.
42. Mount up and head east, past the Gates of Sothann, to about (?,?).
43. Kill 10 Horrorgurds while making your way back toward (?,?), where you will find Garnoth, Fist of the Legion
44. Use the Talisman of Flame Ascendancy and use the abilities you now have to kill Garnoth. Start off the fight by using Flame Shield to protect yourself, the use Ascendant Strike 3 times to attack Garnoth. Repeat this rotation until he is dead.
45. Finish killing Horrorgurds for Twilight Territory.
46. Return to the The Forge of Supplication. Speak to Instructor Mylva and turn in The Greater of Two Evils and Twilight Territory.
47. A new quest has opened up at the Outhouse Hideout behind you. Accept Speech Writing for Dummies.
48. Search around the roads leading to the Seat of the Chosen until you find Okrog. Kill him, then fly back to the Outhouse Hideout.
49. Turn in Speech Writing for Dummies and accept Head of the Class.
50. Turn in Head of the Class at Instructor Mylva. Accept Graduation Speech.
51. Fly over to Doom’s Vigil. You will find a podium all the way at the back of the camp. Click on it to start the event.
During this event, you will have to use 3 abilities depending on the crowd’s mood. These abilities are: Inspire, Incite, and Pander.
The members of the crowd will say different things depending on their mood. Wait until a random crowd member says something, then use the abilities as follows.
Use Inspire if the crowd says…
Yea… I don’t know about this.
I’m not quite convinced.
yawn
Meh.
Use Incite if the crowd says
Kill!!!
Kill them all!
Blood!
Raaahhh!!!!
Death!
Crush!
Use Pander if the crowd says
It’s like… it’s like the void just touched my mind.
The end is nigh! The end is a new beginning!
Immalanath, yasoth nalarub!!!
I hear the voices!
Once you have made the correct choice 10 times, the crowd will riot, allowing you to rescue Jarod Shadowsong. Speak to him to turn in Graduation Speech. Accept Twilight Riot.
The Throne of Flame

1. Mount up and fly past the Gates of Sothann, to the island in the middle of the lake. Speak to the green dragon Althera to get the flight point.
2. Speak to Commander Jarod Shadowsong to turn in Twilight Riot. Accept Slash and Burn.
3. Get on one of the Emerald Drakes nearby. Fly east back into Darkwhisper Gorge. Use the Acid Blast ability on any ground units you see until you have killed 40 Twilight’s Hammer units, and the Aerial Swipe ability on 5 of the Twilight Stormwakers, the twilight dragons flying around.
4. Fly back to the Gates of Sothann. Talk to Commander Jarod Shadowsong and turn in Slash and Burn.
5. Accept Might of the Firelord from Jarod Shadowsong and Secrets of the Flame from Cenarius.
6. Speak to the green dragon Althera to get the flight point.
7. Fly west to Ascendant’s Circle. Kill 4 Flame Ascendants and 5 Twilight Subjugators.
8. You should have looted a Pure Twilight Egg from one of the Twilight Subjugators you killed. If you do not have it yet, keep killing Twilight Subjugators until you get it. Click on it to accept the quest The Twilight Egg.
Until I can get coordinates for the three items, the best I can tell you is look all over the camp. They are not terribly hard to find. I’ll add the coodinates as soon as I can.
9. Go to (?,?) and get The Burning Litanies.
10. Go to (?,?) and get the Tome of Flame.
11. Go to (?,?) and get the Ascendant’s Codex.
12. Fly back to the Gates of Sothann.
13. Turn in Might of the Firelord at Jarod Shadowsong. Accept The Sanctum of the Prophets
14. Turn in Secrets of the Flame to Cenarius. Accept The Gatekeeper.
15. Turn in The Twilight Egg to Aronus. Accept Brood of Evil.
16. Fly back to Ascendant’s Circle. Kill a Young Twilight Drake and loot his skull for Brood of Evil.
17. Fly to the camp north of Ascendant’s Circle. Kill everything you need for The Sanctum of the Prophets.
18. Find Azralon the Gatekeeper in the northwest end of the camp. Make sure you are at full health/mana. Attack him and immediately use the Horn of Cenarius to summon Goldrinn and a group of druids to help you kill him.
19. Once he is dear, click the “Quest Complete” notification to turn in The Gatekeeper. Accept The Firelord.
20. Return to Aronus and turn in Brood of Evil. Accept Death to the Broodmother. Also turn in The Sanctum of the Prophets and accept Magma Monarch.
21. Fly to the matriarch’s feeding ground just southwest of Ascendant’s Circle.
22. Use the Young Twilight Drake Skull to summon Desperiona. Kill her to complete Death to the Broodmother. Aronus and Aviana come to help so don’t panic when she appears.
23. Fly to the charred area southwest of Sulferon Spire. Find King Moltron. Land near him and use the Drums of the Turtle God to summon Tortolla. Kill King Moltron to complete Magma Monarch.
Note: The next quest is, as of this writing, severely over-tuned, to the point that a 5-man group would have difficulty completing it even though it is not a group quest. I was able to get it done with a lot of help, but it should be adjusted by the time Cataclysm goes live. If not I will adjust the description of the quest to indicate that you need a group.
24. It’s finally time to fight Ragnaros. Fly to the flamegate just past where you fought Azralon. Enter the portal and speak to Cenarius to start the battle. Malfurion Stormrage and Arch Druid Hamuul some to help out as well.
Once the battle starts, Cenarius will hold threat on Ragnaros, while Hamuul and Malfurion cast spells on him that cause Ragnaros to take 2000% increased magic and physical damage.
Every 30 secods or so, Ragnaros will submerge and summon a flame wave. Once the flame wave passes, Ragnaros will summon adds that attack Malfurion and Hamuul. Alternate between keeping the adds clear and DPS’ing Ragnaros until he dies.
Once he is finished off, go back through the portal to be teleported back to the Throne of Flame.
25. Fly back to the Gates of Sothann and turn in Death to the Broodmother, Magma Monarch and The Firelord . ]. Accept The Battle is Won, The War Goes On.
26. Take the flightpath to Orgrimmar

A cool video showing and explaining how to fly over any parts of Azeroth as of patch 4.01

Take note that it’s a lot of trial and error especially in knowing where to go and not to go. It seems you will get dismounted from various spot within Orgrimmar for example.

Enjoy!

WoW Rookie: Understanding item levels and gear decisions Skip to Content

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WoW Rookie: Understanding item levels and gear decisionsby Michael Gray Sep 1st 2011 at 9:00AM

New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it’s about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones.

Last week, I talked about a handful of tips intended to be helpful to folks leveling up and getting started in the game. These aren’t tips really suited for folks who rock out with advanced tools, nuanced spreadsheets, and extensive experience. I was aiming at people who largely play the game in-game and rarely visit outside websites. (Yes, I know, it’s not like WoW Insider is piped into the Dungeon Journal, but we’re trying.)

One of my tips was that item level counts. Rightly so, commenters pointed out the huge gaping flaws in the statement. A lot more goes into your gear choices than just item level or even quality color. And while my advice is true, going simply by item level is so simplistic as to almost be misleading. So let’s talk a tad more about why I say item level counts and how you can use that as a rough guide to making basic gear choices.

Caveat reador: if you’re at the point you’re deciding between two endgame items at 378 item level, you’ve left the realm of simply going by item level. Even some 359 items trump 378. But at the point you’re rocking endgame raids, you’ve probably got a grip on looking up your character stats.

All about item level

Item levels weren’t always visible in game. They were this odd, Force-like presence that bound itemization together. You could only view the item level of gear using a mod or third-party web site. This is because item levels were essentially a back-end function, a way of letting the designers know how many stats an item could have.

Rarity played a role also, of course. Blue, green, purple, or that weird legendary color could assign additional itemization points to a piece of gear. Because this itemization system was obfuscated, players spent ages deciphering and breaking down how pieces of gear compared to one another.

The last thing you should know is that primary stats like strength and stamina weren’t always the same for gear of the same item level. Stats were all over the board, and the whole mess could be pretty confusing.

Now in Cataclysm, things are more straightforward. Gear of the same type — meaning plate, leather, and so on — have the same primary stat allocation. The means if you see a piece of plate with intelligence and stamina, it will have the same amount of intelligence and stamina as any other plate drop with the same stats.

In general, most classes and most specs care about their primary stats more than any other stat. These stats are strength, intelligence, agility, stamina, and spirit. There are exceptions here and there, but what it boils down to is if this is the right stat and the right type of gear, then you want the highest item level.

PVP gear doesn’t count

This is where things get super-ugly, unfortunately. In the same way that you have your gear has primary stats, your gear has secondary stats. These includes stats like mastery, haste, dodge, and so on. These secondary stats are where your gear choices come from. Do you want more haste or more hit rating? That’s what makes gear interesting, trying to decide between these secondary stats.

PVP gear has a secondary stat called resilience. It is very important in PVP because it mitigates the damage you take from other players. However, resilience is very expensive in terms of itemization, and it does absolutely nothing whatsoever in PVE.

Therefore, PVP gear is almost never as good as PVE gear, outside of huge ilevel differences. Maybe you’ll get more bang out of your ilevel 378 PVP piece than an ilevel 328 piece, but it’s still not likely.

So if you’re questioning whether to wear a PVP piece for PVE purposes, chance are you should just avoid it.

Stick with the stuff your class likes

The next point in working with item level is that you need to stick with the gear and primary stats your class and spec like. It should go without saying that strength won’t do a priest any good, but let’s just say it to be sure.

Secondary stats make a huge difference in your performance, obviously. But for the purpose of this column, let’s stick with the primaries. Hit up your local class columnist for more refined secondary stat explanations as appropriate.

Here are the basics of who uses which gear:Paladin, death knight, and warrior tanks and DPS Strength platePaladin healers Intelligence plateCloth casters Cloth gearEnhancement shaman and hunters Agility mailRestoration and elemental shaman Intelligence mailFeral druids and rogues Agility leatherRestoration and balance druid Intelligence leatherIn general, stick with the highest item level gear with that primary stat. But to take your game to the next level, start looking up those secondary stats.
Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from how to control your character and camera angles when you’re just starting out, to learning how to tank, getting up to speed for heroics and even how to win Tol Barad.
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WoW Rookie: So you know nothing about raiding Skip to Content

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WoW Rookie: So you know nothing about raidingby Michael Gray Oct 21st 2011 at 9:00AM

New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it’s about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones.

We talked last week about what WoW is like for someone who’s never touched the game. The subject can be surprisingly confusing, after all. Think about the complexity of questing, grouping, PVP, playing with other people, and all the whizzbangs and whirligigs that go into making WoW so darn special. There’s a lot to talk about, and it can be tough to compress all that information into a few sound bites.

But say you do that. You manage to convey the infinite complexity of WoW to someone who’s never seen a Draenei before now. Then you want to take the conversation to the next level, so that you can explain the idea of raiding. Giving a good and accurate impression of raiding isn’t much easier than just talking about WoW; after all, raiding doesn’t have any real counterparts outside of the MMO genre. How do you explain the notion to a layman?

Nine or 24 of your closest friends

We might as well start the explanation with head count. While you can play WoW and feel relatively fulfuilled by doing everything all by your lonesome, the average WoW player is really a social critter.

As we level up, most of us group with four other players and go do dungeons together. The dynamic is much different than playing by yourself. Three people focus on killing the boss, while one person heals and one person absorbs all the damage. (That’s the DPS, healer and tank roles, by the way.)

Once you’re at maximum level, you have the natural inclination to fight bigger, badder bosses. The way Blizzard conveys a sense of epic proportion to these final non-player characters is to require more than a mere five players to kill them; you need 10 or 25.

Since these bosses are fundamentally different from the casual 5-man groups to which you’re accustomed, we refer to them as a raid bosses. You can fight raid bosses in a 10-man group or a 25-man group, depending on the size of the raid you’re attempting.

How raid bosses are different

Raid bosses are more difficult to kill than any other creature in the game, even above and beyond the fact that you need more people to kill them. These bosses have a whole string of special attacks and freaky requirements. For that matter, just having 10 or 25 people to kill them isn’t enough; usually, those raid members must all be in superior gear than that of your average dungeon runner.

The additional complexity and resulting coordination required lead to raid groups must be highly organized (well, highly organized compared to your average random dungeon group). You tend to have a raid leader, at the very least; this is the person responsible for getting all of the members together. Raid leaders tend to be responsible for explaining strategy, calling the shots, and getting everyone to perform as well as possible.

Superior rewards

Of course, if you’re going to all this trouble to kill an epic big, bad boss, then the reward had better be above average. Therefore, you get two raid rewards for completing contemporary raids.

First, the bosses drop raid loot. While epic items are all throughout the game, only the contemporary raid bosses will drop the best items. If you want to kit out your character in the best gear, you’ll have to kill those bosses.

Second, you’ll get valor points. While you gain limited amounts of valor points from completing random dungeons, the lion’s share of your weekly valor points come from raiding. You get to spend the points, therefore, on some pretty darn sweet gear.

As an added bonus, some tiers of raiding include a reputation gain. When you kill mobs and bosses inside a raid instance, your reputation with an associated faction will slowly grow. This is a good way to make sure that raiders see some gear improvements, even if they’re struggling to kill bosses.

Permutations

Of course, there are a few permutations involved in standard raiding. There are three modes of raiding in the upcoming patch: random raiding, normal raiding, and heroic raiding. The normal difficulty is your baseline level of the raid. If you join the raid through a random group, the difficulty is turned down slightly to account for its being a previously uncoordinated group.

Heroic modes are especially difficult; the bosses do more damage, gain new attacks, and generally require an even higher level of player skill to overcome. For this reason, heroic modes drop even better gear than counterpart raids.

Is it worth it?

Of course, you have to ask yourself if raiding is worth it. People spend half a dozen to dozens of hours every week raiding. This is a question that can only be answered on a personal level. Some people enjoy the difficulty and challenge of raiding; other folks find it a time sink.

The best way to figure out if you think raiding is worth it is to jump in and give it a try yourself. Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from how to control your character and camera angles when you’re just starting out, to learning how to tank, getting up to speed for heroics and even how to win Tol Barad.
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WoW Rookie: How to gear up for Raid Finder Skip to Content

WoW Insider has the latest on the WoW: Cataclysm expansion!SubscribeTwitter AOL MAILWoW   Class Death Knight Lichborne Druid Shifting Perspectives Hunter Scattered Shots Mage Arcane Brilliance Monk Paladin The Light and How to Swing It Priest Spiritual Guidance Rogue Encrypted Text Shaman Totem Talk Warlock Blood Pact Warrior The Care and Feeding of Warriors Guides Blizzard Who’s Who Cataclysm Guide Leveling Guides Lore Guide New Player Guide World of Warcraft Resources Raiding Ready Check Raid Rx Addons Addon Spotlight Reader UI of the Week Addons 101 Lore All the World’s a Stage Around Azeroth Know Your Lore Sunday Morning Funnies WoW Insider’s Weekly Comic PvP Blood Sport The Art of War(craft) Daily Features Breakfast Topics The Daily Quest The Queue WoW Moviewatch Weekly Features
15 Minutes of Fame Drama Mamas Guest Posts Gold Capped Officers’ Quarters Phat Loot Phriday The Classifieds The Lawbringer The Overachiever Weekly Podcast Roundup World of Warcrafts WoW Insider Show WoW Rookie WRUP Guild It Came from the Blog Choose My Adventure About Us | Contact Us Patch 4.3 official patch notes
Patch 4.3 dungeon guides
The latest Mists of Pandaria news
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WoW Rookie: How to gear up for Raid Finderby Michael Gray Dec 8th 2011 at 8:00PM

The Raid Finder’s been out for a week now, leading hundreds (perhaps thousands, millions?) of players to finally get their own, personal bite-sized piece of endgame content. This week, Raid Finder groups are now able to lay low Deathwing himself. It’s a very exciting time.

Of course, for players who are just coming back to the game, gearing up alts, or just now considering the idea that they can finally take part in a raid, there’s a single obstacle that must be overcome. In order to take part in a Raid Finder group, you must have achieved an item level of 372.

That number isn’t terrible. It’s somewhere just shy of Firelands gear, though it’s well above the drops you’d get from Blackwing Descent and such. The number is high enough that just randomly doing all the things won’t get you there; someone who’s hit item level 372 presumably has some idea of what the hell they’re doing.

Let’s get this out of the way: PvP gear is bad, mmkay?

Every time we talk about gear and gear strategies, we have to tackle the looming spectre of PvP gear. There are two sides to this discussion. The first side talks about feral druids and death knights who go into random groups and pull 7k DPS. (That’s bad.) The other side points out that for some classes, in some slots, the raw stats (like, strength or agility) is so much higher on PvP gear that the gear is viable.

The crux of the issue is resilience. PvP gear has a stat called resilience that reduces the amount of damage you take from other players. That’s indispensable in PvP, where burst damage will blow you up faster than you can sneeze. (Even with resilience, a rogue and mage will make short work of your health bar.)

On the other hand, it’s relatively easy and fast to get some high-level PvP gear. Queue Battlegrounds and Tol Barad until you’re blue in the face. Pick up season-current gear — and voilà, good item level. (PvP gear is a little generous with item levels compared to PvE gear, because resilience is so expensive.)

So, yeah. You can shortcut into Raid Finder with PvP gear. But that’s gaming the system and will tend to be a drag to the rest of your raid.

The new heroic dungeons

One of the quickest ways to get your item level higher is to do heroic dungeons. Sure, you get valor points (we’ll talk about those in a second), but the big deal is that you can run them over and over. If you’re in a rush to charge into the Raid Finder, kill Deathwing, and call the expansion over, then heroic dungeons are the way to go.

The new heroic dungeons drop item level 378 gear. You’ll notice that’s slightly higher than the 372 requirement; this gear won’t make Raid Finder easy, irrelevant content, but it does mean you’ll be perfectly capable of performing your task (well, at least as far as your gear is concerned).

This is the same item level of Firelands gear, though there were a few perks to actually raiding Firelands that resulted in slightly better stuff. At the end of the day, if your kit is made up of all 378 gear, then you’ll be just fine in Dragon Soul.

Since this stuff is the equivalent of Firelands gear, the obvious questions becomes, “Should I just do Firelands?” Well, maybe for the experience and the joy of killing Ragnaros — but that’s all. A single raid lock or three won’t do anything to make sure you’re Raid-Finder-ready compared to an equivalent amount of time in heroic dungeons.

Valor points can make it happen

Valor points can get you to the magic number, but it’s going to take a while. Current valor point gear carries an item level of 397. A few pieces of valor point gear will rocket you above the Raid Finder requirement very quickly.

Of course, there’s a problem. You can only accrue 1,000 valor points each week. You’re not going to see a new valor point piece every week, sometimes not even every other week. Relying on valor points to get you above 372 will take a while due to valor point gating.

Hit the Auction House

Patch 4.3 also brought new professions gear. Crafters can make these item level 397 pieces and sell them on the Auction House (or, you know, just wear them). Right now, the gear is incredibly expensive on the Auction House.

Take a look on your server’s AH and see if you feel like the gear is reasonably priced. This is a personal decision. When you consider that heroic gear is perfectly viable for Raid Finder, spending the thousands and thousands of gold on crafter gear feels like a waste of money. (Time is money, friend.) Buying the gear is the best option if you have gobs of extra gold collecting dust or if you just don’t have the time to run heroics.

Bottom line: Do heroics, buy if you can

The swiftest way to get into Raid Finder is to simply keep running those heroic dungeons. Give yourself a little boost when you’ve managed to collect enough valor points or if you have the cash to spend in the Auction House. Really, though, just run those new heroic dungeons. That’s why they’re there. Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from how to control your character and camera angles when you’re just starting out, to learning how to tank, getting up to speed for heroics and even how to win Tol Barad.
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Filed under: WoW Rookie

PermalinkComments (35)Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)vote up vote downReport3 heartsomedon666omedon666 Dec 8th 2011 8:32PMHonestly, I love LFR, and I’ve never run a Zandalari, and the release tier heroics I’ve run can be counted on one hand, and so with this in mind, the best advice I can give (and have given to guildies) to people wanting to gear for the raid finder virtually stress free has been:

1) Grind the hell out of 85 normals, the first 7 in a week are, hands down, the most “effortconomical” income of JPs, which are at their peak of usefulness for this expansion. JPs now, between last season’s 365′s and this season’s 378′s can easily get you over the hump to 353, which leads to step 2, which mirrors the guide above.

2) Hour of twilight heroics. Quests, drops, this is the fast track, right here. This is also the most effortconomical route to VP cap ever, since HoT heroics are starting back on the road to “reasonable 5-mans” once more.

3) This might leave you without a weapon, which I recommend you fill with something crafted from the molten front, whether you make it, a friend makes it, you buy it off the AH, or make a deal with a crafter (the old fashioned way) to bring them components for them to craft an item for you.

You’ll notice I left out release tier heroics and zandalari heroics. This is because they are part of the “overly integral” paradigm that was the mistake of 4.0-4.2. Blizzard has admitted their wrongness in this design, so heed that, and skip these unless you’re really, really impatient. If you dip into this content, I recommend queueing specifically for dungeons you like, with mechanics that are PUG friendly. (ie: NOT deadmines)

This is my effortconmical advice, for those not wanting to subject themselves to unnecessary stress, and would rather keep their batteries “Fresh” for the raid finder. You’ll need it ;)

 

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