World of Warcraft - Articles - Zimbio

Wrath of the Lich King: First Impressions

Sun, 17 Nov 2008 21:09:01 GMT

posted by matticus

While some of us (ahem, Matticus) are already level 80, most WoW players are still in the thick of the leveling process.

I thought it might be interesting to share some of my impressions so far with all of you, and of course to invite everyone to add their own thoughts and ideas.

Here’s what’s been going through my mind so far.

1. The art is amazing! Everything feels sharper, more rich, more detailed than previous versions of the game.

2. I love the shadows. The world has a depth that it never did before.

3. I really appreciate quests where I don’t have to kill 6 of this mob and 8 of the other. The more inventive, the better.

4. I still don’t like robot-themed areas. Fizzcrank airstrip gets a big thumbs down.

5. I’m enjoying all of the prehistoric-ish animals and humanoids. It makes me wonder if the designers read Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear while they were working on the storyline for the Vykrul. If not, it occurs to me that they would probably like it.

6. I really miss flight form.

7. I’m not a fan of land mounts that jiggle too much–they make me dizzy. That means you, Amani War Bear and Black War Elekk. Either I’ve got to take Dramamine or I’m sticking with the Talbuk.

8. I can’t believe I got to ride on a mammoth for a quest. It was a shame that it was even more wiggly than the War Bear! At least I know not to save my money for the Grand Caravan Mammoth now.

9. I can’t believe I have more gold now than when I installed the x-pac.

10. I never thought I would say this, but I love being a laser chicken, if only for a little while. Go Go Hurricane!

***SECURITY FOOTER*** :: Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus!

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
- Wayne Gretzky

Wrath of the Lich King: First Impressions

10 Tips for Extreme Leveling to 80 (without denting your wallet)

Sun, 17 Nov 2008 17:05:06 GMT

posted by matticus

I hit level 80 last night around 8:45 PM. Most of the player curve is around the 74-75 area so I’m considered “ahead” of the curve. Although I could credit my leveling speed to my “Asian racial (25% extra stamina when really focused on a goal, cooldown: once every 365 days)”, there’s a few things to keep in mind if you really want to get to 80 as fast as possible.

Note, you’ll miss out on a lot of the lore and the story. But I’m proceeding on the assumption that it is not a primary concern.

Accept all quests in the area without reading the backstory. 4 out of 5 times, the quest involves you killing something or picking something up. Read what you have to do, and go do it. You don’t need to know about the circumstances behind the objective.
On quests where you need to pick up items off the ground, keep looking for others. It takes a few seconds to loot one anyway. Use the time to spot.
Forget professions. Worry about them when you’re 80.
Train at every 2nd level. Unless there is a specific spell that you feel you really need, it takes a lot of effort to fly down to the port and boat or zepp back to your capital cities.
Keep the autorun handy. Read up on WoWhead or your favourite leveling guide to find out what you need to dow hen you get to your destination.
Chunking. Just like how I sometimes write my posts in massive chunks or blocks, do all the quests in an area. I’ll usually do 7 or 8 quests at a time per hub and do a gigantic turn in.
Know your damage rotations. Find out the fastest way to kill things even if it means being inefficient. You’re trading efficiency for speed. Find out what the “execute” range is. A typical Smite and Shadow Word:Death will kill any mob with around 3000 health remaining. Holy Nova will clean it up.
Blow your cooldowns. You’re not fighting a raidboss. Everytime Heroism is up and you have to level an entire camp of Gnolls, do it. If Power Infusion is available and you get to blow up Murlocs, use it. Maximize the useage. If it involves you killing 60 Rhinos for Nessingwary, it’s a green light to pop trinkets and just nuke the place.
Consumables. Chances are, you still have still have some Mana Potions and food or flasks left. Use them as you’re leveling. They’ll provide a slight edge.
Know how much resource it takes you to kill a mob. For example, I know it takes me ~3000 mana to bring a whelp down to its knees. For most mobs, its around 3000 – 3500 mana. If I can squeeze off one more kill before drinking, I’ll do it.

What other tips would you suggest for players that want to level fast?

***SECURITY FOOTER*** :: Thanks for reading a post from World of Matticus!

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take."
- Wayne Gretzky

10 Tips for Extreme Leveling to 80 (without denting your wallet)

World of Warcraft Gold - What Are the Best Ways to Make WoW Gold?

Sun, 17 Nov 2008 06:41:00 GMT

posted by smithsj1

World of Warcraft Gold - What Are the Best Ways to Make WoW Gold?
By Pam Phipps

How do you go about making World Of Warcraft gold when you start the game with no WoW gold at all? Fortunately Blizzard has made making gold in World Of Warcraft pretty easy from the early levels. The key is being able to take the gold you make at low levels and turn it into large amounts of money.

Any decent WoW gold guide will always tell you to avoid spending on items that are not really needed at low levels. Save the World Of Warcraft gold you make in the first 20 or so levels in order to use that to really be able to make a ton of WoW gold.

Saving up just a couple of WoW gold can allow any player to start to build a fortune and be able to buy all your mounts, training and nay gear you would ever want. How do we do this?

There are many strategies detailed in the top World Of Warcraft gold guide books that a player can implement easy without wasting a ton of game play. This is important because we all have limited playing time. I will give you one example using one of the toons I play.

I have a level 70 priest that is a tailor and I have the ability to make Mystic Spellthread. On my server this spellthread sell for between 80-90g each. The mats required are primal mana that I buy in the auction house for 10g each. I need 5 of them so my cost is 50g plus 40 silver for one rune thread. Every day I log on and go straight to the auction house, buy 10 primal mana for 100g and 2 rune thread for 80 silver. I have just spent 100g and 80 silver.

I make my 2 Mystic Spellthread an place it for sale for 80g each. By the next day without fail these 2 spellthread have sold and I make 160g. That is a profit of 60g a day and it takes me all of 2 minutes to complete the whole process. This is just one technique I learned from a good World Of Warcraft gold guide. These guide books show you how to use techniques like the one above as well as grinding / farming mats, questing, raiding and many other techniques to make WoW gold from even the lowest levels.

Considering that a very good WoW gold guide costs about the same as a single purchase of gold from a gold selling site it is a pretty smart investment. not to mention that those that buy WoW gold also risk having their account banned by Blizzard or simply being ripped of by a gold seller. If you buy WoW gold and the company does not deliver there is really no one you can complain to for help. There are no laws regulating these companies and you certainly cannot report them to Blizzard.

Anyone can begin making World Of Warcraft gold very easy and a guide for making WoW gold is a really good place to get constantly updated information on the game.

Interested in learning how to make World Of Warcraft gold at even the lowest levels and always have the WoW gold to get the things you want and need? Visit

http://www.DontBuyWoWGold.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pam_Phipps

Some Notes on Northrend

Sun, 17 Nov 2008 06:00:20 GMT

posted by frank13

I’ve taken the liberty (and some time from leveling) of composing a list of things of note I’ve discovered in my 4 levels in Northrend. Some of them fun, others obnoxious, and some downright amazing.

This me being a badass in Northrend.

The Bad

TOO MANY PEOPLE IN NORTHREND - This leads to absurd mob-camping, ganking, competition. This is especially bad for Warlocks whose DoTs don’t tag mobs when they hit. We know this sucks, so do other people.
Lack of Resources - By resources, I mean cloth, ore, and herbs. I’ve literally crossed 1 herb in my leveling and 2 nodes. Again, there are too many damn people.
Lag - If you’re on a high-population server like me (Magtheridon. I’m getting off this hellhole when my transfer is up), there is lag and it is massive, particularly in the starting zones.
Queues - I’ve never had queues before in my life. It seems that the expansion compels 11,000+ players to log onto Magtheridon. Please kill me.
No flying mounts until 77 - This is really killing me. Questing will be loads easier once I can fly.
Jackasses - With tons of people walking around Northrend with their thumbs in their asses, the occasional jackass will come your way. You know who the guy is: the guy who spams his guild recruitment macro, the guy who asks where quest objectives are, the guy who won’t group with you just for a single mob although they’re not grouped, the guy who constantly nags you to do quests with him…and so on.

The Good

Quests - There is nothing I hate more than leveling. However, Northbound has put a nice spin on that. A lot of work has been put into Northrend’s quests. With the addition of phasing zones, vehicles, and cinematics, questing is downright fun (providing there isn’t a mass of other players). In addition, quests are shorter; that is, drop rates are good and/or quest items are close by each other. Also, get Quest Helper.
PvP - If you’re on a PvP server like me, there are enemies everywhere. Sometimes they’re on the same quest as you. It’s always fun to mess up their leveling by killing them, killing their quest mobs, or Fearing them off of quest objectives. However, you need to be careful, as they seem to travel in packs, which you should not bother with at all. Generally, people leave you alone, as there is a silent peace agreement between factions. As a warning, check players’ levels before you attack them. I made the mistake of killing a level 79 Paladin who was killing my quest mob. I didn’t know he was 79 until he ressed and kicked my ass for an hour or so. He had a flying mount too. I couldn’t outrun him in Dragonblight. He went on to be our realm’s first 80, by the way.
Zones - The zones in Northrend are downright beautiful. You can tell that a lot of attention was paid to the nuances, and the result is amazing. I’m honestly very impressed with Blizzard’s art team. Well done.

Tips

Starting Zones - If you’re Alliance, don’t go to Borean Tundra. It’s a mess there. Everyone went there. Hit up the Howling Fjord. If you’re Horde, go to Borean Tundra. The downside to going to what has effectively become the opposing faction’s starting point is that there are a ton of players of the opposite faction. However, there are faction specific quests that you won’t be bothered while doing.
Mounts - For the quests in which you ride dragons, mount before you get on the dragon. Sometimes, you’ll be mounted on the dragon while mounted on your mount. The result is hilarious.
Wrathgate - Do it. Best quest in the game. Spoilers here.
“Future You” Quest - In Dragonblight, you’ll encounter a quest in which you have to place an hourglass that you and your future self have to defend. Before you place the hourglass, take off your gear. Your future you will spawn naked. It’s hilarious to watch him fight dragons.
Quest Content - Make sure you read through some of your quests and NPCs’ dialogue. Some nice, well placed gems are hidden there. Worth your time if you’re a lore-fanatic or have a sense of humor.
Move Quickly - Luckily I’ve prepared ahead of time for Wotlk. All of my work is done ahead of time, so I’ve been steamrolling my way to 80. Granted, I’m not the fastest, but I am moving along nicely without physically draining myself. If you move fast enough, you beat out the 10,999 players to zones, and you can level peacefully.

Ultimately, I’m very pleased with Northrend. Blizzard has really outdone itself this time. Classes aside, I’m in love with the expansion.

Now, I’m back to leveling. I can’t wait for my next 6 levels.

Post from: Yet Another Warlock Nerf.

Some Notes on Northrend

WoW Wrath of the Lich King - Death Knight Walkthrough Part 2

Mon, 18 Nov 2008 07:08:00 GMT

posted by smithsj1

*WARNING! Contains Spoilers! If you want to find out what happens for yourself I suggest leaving immediately. You have been warned.*

Here I will be showing people a small walkthrough of the Starter Area for the Death Knight for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

We're back with Part 2 showing the 'Recon' Mission as well as getting your Mount!