Episode 18: “Darkmoon Faire”

Come on down!

Click for the audio segment:

Who doesn’t love getting ripped off by overpriced booze, rigged carnival games, and trying to figure out which eye on that carny is a fake one, and if he’s staring at you or not, and if so, what are his intentions…

Anyway, the faire has been revamped and given it’s own island, but it’s a far cry from Coney Island…wait, no, they’re pretty similar on second thought.

The faire is a great way to add to your collection of mounts, pets, companions, achievements, and even a new way to obtain heirloom gear to quickly level your alts. You can earn tickets that are redeemable at a myriad of vendors on the island.

Now, the faire only comes around for one week every month, and there is a limit to how many tickets you can earn in a week. According to a blue post by Bashiok, you can earn a maximum of 135 tickets. Not bad, it’s good enough to earn three pets, or a mount and a pet, or 4 pieces of cosmetic armor, or an heirloom armor item and weapon. But if you want a full set of faire transmogrification gear, it will take you 4 weeks, or 4 faires or 4 months to complete a full set. The good news is that the replica armor and heirlooms are bind on equip, so you can have multiple 85s working on seperate pieces all at the same time.

How to Efficiently Spend Your Valor Points

Like my boots? Oh right, I'm a tauren.

Audio

So you’ve been stacking your valor points and you can’t quite decide on what item to buy next. Is it the tier gloves, oh but wait, you don’t yet want to break your Tier 11 4 piece bonus. Or how about that trinket? But, it’s only 13 item levels above your current one.

If you’re having trouble prioritizing your loot, try and break it down into compartments and follow some general guidelines to make your purchases more efficient while having the best upgrade possible.

An easy first cut is to look at which item gives the biggest boost to your most important stat (strength, intellect, agility). If it’s close, look at your secondary stat increase. You can also go with the gear with the largest item level increase.

If you want a brainless approach, using a gear optimizer such as askmrrobot.com allows you to review how good each upgrade is in terms of a relative weighted point system. If the trinket boosts your points by 75, but the ring only by 30, well, go with the trinket. It also considers breaking and making tier set bonuses and procs.

Finally, in most cases, I would recommend leaving the tier 12 hands and legs for your last valor purchases if you do baradin hold every week, as these items drop off Occu’thar. It’s happened to all of us, you have just purchased the tier gloves, and they drop 2 days later.

And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.

Sihx

You’ve Lost That Loving Feelin’

Audio

I know work or school is draining, your kids and spouse are barking behind you every day, and you just dropped that delicious chocolate cake you were looking forward to munching, icing side down of course. So, after you put the kids to bed and turn on some horrible reality TV show for your wife, it’s time to…power UP that computer, plug IN that headset, and LOG ON for a little WoW time, one on one baby, oh yeah!

…but wait, it’s not there for you, you don’t feel it, the chemistry is…is…dare I say it…gone?

If you’re a little burned out, or just not feeling it when you log on, maybe you’re in a rut and need a change of scenery in Azeroth.

Change it up, stop doing those mind-numbing dailies and try some random PVP, perhaps experiment tanking with that alt that’s been collecting dust. Roll an alt with the other faction, dual box, tinker with addons, try to make some money in the auction house, work on a pet or mount collection, role play, anything that you don’t normally do in game brings about a fresh perspective and new challenges in this virtual world, which will just keep you coming back for more.

But, if none of this does it for you…well my friend, it’s time to take a break and find another hobby, because if you don’t enjoy your hobby, it’s work.

And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.

You can hear this segment from the stream above, or listen to “The Instance: #243: Do The Humans First ” on iTunes or at http://www.theinstance.net/

Sihx

Best PVE Gear for Toons that Don’t Raid

You can still have chocolate cake if you don't raid!

Audio

So, you’re level 85 and can’t raid, or you want to gear up an alt. you may not get the best gear in the game, but you can do pretty well without ever killing a boss in the Firelands, Here’s a quick guide on the best PVE gear you can get without raiding.

First, grab your 365 cloak from the Elemental Bonds quests, open to all level 85s. Next, head for the Molten Front. Upon completing all of the quests, most classes can get 365 gear for their neck, hands, wrist, waist, feet, rings, trinkets and relics, and blacksmithing patterns for weapons.

For level 378 gear, do your daily random heroics, as valor points can get you your neck, wrist, ring, relics, and your tier 12 chest, hands and legs. Don’t forget your weekly Occu’thar kill in Baradin hold for a chance at a 378 PVE piece or PVP 384 piece to drop.

Try and join a PUG to kill Firelands trash, and you can not only grind up rep with the Avegners of Hyjal to get a 378 cloak and belt, but you may also get lucky with a neck, wrist, waist, ring, or weapon drop.

If you’re rich, hit up the auction house for BoE 378s. Ask guildies if they have any 378 hand or boot patterns they’d be willing to craft for you…but make sure you pay them well.

In a nutshell, you can get item level 365 or 378 PVE gear for every slot except for your head and shoulders. If you have less than 359 gear here, just spend honor points for 371 PVP gear, which will be better in most cases.

You can find a more detailed spreadsheet of your options here.

And remember, it’s hard to balance the pew pew with the poo poo.

-Sihx

@epicdiapers

Midsummer Fire Festival – An Alt’s Dream

Well, we’re about halfway through the WoW holiday, Midsummer Fire Festival, and it’s proven to be a very good holiday to level up and possibly equip your alts. Let’s take a peek on what you can do to add some quick XP, gold, and epic items to your alts armory.

Festival Dailies

First of all, log into all of your alts every day during the holiday and take advantage of some quick xp. You can start in any capital city, just find where the holiday NPCs are hanging around a big campfire. After the first introductory quests, there are two repeatable dailies, “Torch Tossing” and “Torch Catching.” These are fairly easy quests, unless you are a keyboard turner. Google techniques if you are having difficulties. Immediately upon completion of these quests, the daily quests will open up: “More Torch Tossing,” and “More Torch Catching.” They are the same quests except they require more braziers hit and more consecutive torches caught. These two quests can be completed every day for the duration of the holiday. My 78 mage is getting around 25k for each quest, while my 69 druid around 13k per.

There are more dailies that you can unlock, but they require some quest chains that require signficant time. Many people are reporting good gold and xp returns for desecration and honoring of fires. I personally do not have time to drag my alts all around Azeroth, Outland and Northrend, and by the xp/hr reports I’m seeing, I believe it’s more efficient to just run random dungeons and/or use James’ leveling guides. However, if you need exploration xp, are bored, want the holiday achievement, or just want something new to do, by all means, go hit up all the fires.

Lord Ahune

Level 78 alts can use the random dungeon finder to slay Lord Ahune. My 78 mage is loving this daily exercise. Not only is it a bit of nice xp, but I get two frost emblems and a satchel of chilled goods that has the chance of dropping the holiday pet and a nice 2H caster staff. The chest also can drop several varieties of cloak. I already have both caster cloaks. All items are ilevel 232, and once that wretched staff drops for me, that’s two nice pieces that I can immediately equip upon dinging 80! The queue for dps has yet to exceed 5 minutes for me.

Hitting these daily quests takes minutes and will reap nice rewards! Don’t forget to be wearing your xp-boosting heirloom gear, and if you will be out questing and killing mobs, don’t forget to dance on the ribbon pole to obtain that nifty 10% xp bonus! There are valuable buffs that you can obtain as well.