Chronological novel, short story and comic guide updates

If you've wanted to get caught up on the Warcraft print material, but didn't know where to start, we have a guide for you -- and it's been caught up to date. WoW Insider's Chronological Guide covers all novels, comics, manga and short stories, but presents them not in publication order, but in the order they appear in the Warcraft timeline -- which means you can start from the beginning of Azeroth's history and read your way through the years.

For reference purposes, the print material has been grouped with the game and expansion in which it takes place, making it even easier to get caught up. All works that take place over multiple points in the timeline have been listed with multiple entries and notated with mention of where they appear. At the moment, we're all caught up through Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde and the latest WoW short story, The Blank Scroll. Whether you're wondering when that book you just read actually took place, or you're just wanting to get a start on Azeroth's lore, the chronological guide will help you out.

Tags: chronological-guide, faction-short-stories, featured, guide, guide-to-lore, leader-short-story, lore, lore-guide, short-stories, warcraft-comics, warcraft-lore, warcraft-manga, warcraft-novels, warcraft-timeline, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore

Filed under: Blizzard, Lore, Comics

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Rookie Guide updated with the latest how-tos for the newbie in your life

Whether you're a new player yourself or you have friends who are just starting to get in the game, our Rookie Guide is the place to find all of WoW Insider's new player coverage in one easy-to-bookmark place. New additions to the guide include a section on gear, items, and professions as well as a section on new player class guides, to help the WoW newbie in your life find the right class to play.

Looking for something we haven't covered in the guide yet? Drop us a note and we'll look into covering it for a future WoW Rookie! Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank. Tags: featured, guide, how-to-play-wow, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, rookie-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

Filed under: WoW Rookie

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The Drama Mamas guide to communicating with others

The heart of a rich, long-lasting MMO isn't actually the gameplay itself. No, the heart of an MMO is its community. World of Warcraft wouldn't be World of Warcraft without the crazy quilt of personalities –- guildmates, real-life friends, family members, acquaintances met in game, passing strangers in public chat channels -– that keep Azeroth breathing and bright.

Successful participation in this community depends upon one single thing: communication. What's the expected behavior in a public chat channel? Is that different in guild chat? Are you so curt with other players you seem unwilling to cooperate during group events? Can you efficiently and effectively coordinate a group or raid encounter? Much of MMO socializing comes down to simple good manners, but new players can find themselves stumped by gaming lingo or stymied by unspoken social expectations and commonly understood conventions of group behavior.

Need a refresher course? Let's talk.
Chat channel basics

Before we can help you with what to say and how to say it, you need to know how chat channels work and what they're for. Trust us, there's no quicker way to earning the title of "That Guy" than chumping it up in the wrong chat channel (or chumping it up in chat, in general). Get the basics straight first! Speak like a human

Our first advice is quite the blast from the past, pulled from a post from the prehistoric era of WoW Insider in 2006. The issue: Speaking in real English like people normally speak.

Look at the difference in the impression made between these two whispers:

[Leetganker] whispers: plz, plz plz join our gruop. need healz for wc. plzzzzzzzzzz

OR

[Sindy] whispers: Heya! I was wondering if you felt like hitting WC tonight. We have a group all set, we just need a healer. We could even summon!

"I would never join a party with someone who talks like that," writes original poster David Nelson about that first ugly little example. "It gives the impression of being an immature moron, and whether Leetganker is an immature moron or not, I'll never know, as I am not grouping with the guy."

On the other hand, he observes, Sindy comes off sounding friendly and reliable. She starts off with a greeting and then moves to a clear invitation letting me know what's in it for the player. "No typos, decent grammar and she comes off like someone who won't be an idiot once we get into the instance," Nelson adds.

Bottom line: Typing to other players in WoW is not the equivalent of texting your best buddy. "When talking in the general channels," he observes, "it is even more important not to make a spectacle of yourself."

Here's what you need to know to avoid that trap: If you don't have anything interesting to add to the conversation in general chat, don't say anything at all. Chuck Norris jokes, any references to religion or politics and flaming a guy who stole your chest in a level 10 zone do not count as something interesting.Be friendly when you are asking someone a question. A simple "hello" is usually appreciated.Never, ever, never, ever use leet speak. While some people don't care, others hate it with a passion.Speak like a gamer

The language of gaming Gaming and WoW lingo evolves over time and varies from realm to realm, but that doesn't mean it has to remain an incomprehensible wall you can't see past. To the rescue: an encyclopedic assortment of lists of WoW, gaming and internet abbreviations, acronyms and lingo that steers you back into comprehensible territory. We've arranged our resources from the most basic to the most complete so you can choose how far you're ready to delve into the world of gamespeak.

The language of raiding We have a must-read guide to basic raid terminology and concepts, too.

The languages you don't speak What happens when you group up with a player with whom you share not a word of commonly understood language? You could try to pantomime your way through the encounter –- and we have advice on that, immediately below –- or you could turn to our guide to essential WoW terminology in other languages. Need to remind your Croatian DPS-mate to let the tank pull? We show you how.

No language at all What happens when you arrive at a quest spawn or other objective and need help, but the only other player around is from the opposite faction? By using the right emotes, there's a good chance you can make your intentions completely clear even without being able to chat with your "enemy." Whether you come in peace or are seeking a more personal connection with the object of your destructive affections, standard emotes help you make the statement. ... /moon ... /grin When it's just not working

When your chat box is scrolling with trolling through no fault of your own, yet you don't want to leave the channel altogether, it's time to take action -– the right action. The first rule of handling trolling and profanity is to avoid countertrolling; you don't want to become part of the problem for everyone else forced to listen to your well-intentioned take-down of the chat offender. We'll show you what you should be doing instead.

If things get personal, cut the communication connection and move on with your game. You have options for protecting yourself against in-game harassment. Know them, and use them! Dodge the drama and become the player everyone wants in their group with advice from the Drama Mamas No-Drama Guide. Got a question? Email the mamas at robin@wowinsider.com. Tags: advice, chat, chat-channels, communication, drama, featured, guild-advice, guild-drama, playing-wow, warcraft-advice, wow-advice, wow-drama, wow-drama-guide, wow-player-guide, wow-q-and-a

Filed under: Drama Mamas

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So What Does a Guide Need?

If I write a guide about whatever what does that guide need to include? Especially if such a guide isn’t easily found?

So, for example, with a PvE or PvP guide, appropriate to any given spec, I might include…

talents & glyphsstat prioritiesrotationsgems and enchants and consumablesracial notesprofession comments

What needs to be added, in your view? What would you be looking for, in addition to the above?

What other sort of guides wold you want to see and what should be included in them?

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Guide to the Midsummer Fire Festival 2013

The Midsummer Fire Festival will run from Friday, June 21 to Friday, July 5 this year. As always, check your ingame calendar to determine the exact start and stop times for your server. While there aren't actually a lot of achievements associated with the Festival (the meta consists of only six), three of them require serious travel time, and one also requires a set of dangerous trips to enemy capitals. For the trouble, Alliance players are awarded the Flame Warden title, and Horde players Flame Keeper.
If you're starting from scratch, this is definitely one of the more work-intensive holidays necessary for the completion of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. However, even a fresh character can afford to get all the rewards from holiday vendors if you're diligent about hitting all the holiday's fires, quests, and dailies.

The basics of the holiday involve "honoring" or "desecrating" a series of fires across Azeroth and Outland. For convenience, we've listed all of the fires on each continent in a specific direction so you can reach them as efficiently as possible. This year, Blizzard has updated the holiday boss' loot list with ilevel 480 cloaks and weapons and added a set of fires to Pandaria, but there aren't that many; you'll only have an additional 7 fires to honor and one to desecrate on the continent.
Ice the Frost Lord

Lord Ahune has historically been a pretty easy fight, and there's no indication that Ice the Frost Lord has changed substantially. As with other holiday bosses, you should queue for him through the Dungeon Finder, and most groups form fairly quickly. Your first kill each day will net you a Satchel of Chilled Goods with a chance to drop a noncombat pet, an enchanting recipe, and/or the famous Frostscythe. Otherwise, Ahune's loot table will include one from a number of ilevel 480 cloaks.

From earlier datamining of the patch 5.2 PTR, we're reasonably certain that this is Ahune's 2013 loot list:

We haven't seen any signs that the Ahune fight has changed. You can read our strategy guide if you're unfamiliar with him, but the encounter pretty much boils down to "Avoid bad stuff on the ground and don't let adds kill your healer." The quest chain that leads to slaying him starts with Earthen Ring Elders located around city fires everywhere. You need to be at least level 65 to get the follow-up quest to head to Outland, but you have to be at least level 89 to queue for Ahune. Ahune will drop an item (group loot) that starts Shards of Ahune, rewarding you with your choice of tabards (the blue Tabard of Summer Skies or the reddish Tabard of Summer Flames) and 20 Burning Blossoms. The Fires of Azeroth

This is where the real work of the holiday begins. The Fires of Azeroth (Alliance and Horde versions) encompasses each faction's Flame Keeper of the Eastern Kingdoms, Flame Keeper of Kalimdor, Flame Keeper of Outland, Flame Keeper of Northrend, and Flame Keeper of Cataclysm achievements. It requires a lot of travel time, but it's very easy for any character with a full set of flight paths (or a great opportunity for someone without the flight paths to get them).

Failing that, any character with a flying mount will find the achievements in classic Azeroth substantially easier than they've been in the past. Festival areas are always a short walk from the local flight path with a big, obvious tent and several holiday NPCs located around them. For all new players, all you need to do is talk to the Festival NPC (they'll always appear with an exclamation point over their head) to honor a fire, or right-click a fire to desecrate it. You'll also get gold and/or experience -- about 8 gold for honoring a fire at the level cap, or 16 gold for desecrating one.

The sites for honoring flames aren't usually the same for the Alliance and the Horde, but I've included them next to each other for your convenience. In years past, the fires have been occasionally bugged for characters who had honored/desecrated them the previous year, but Blizzard's pretty fast with the hotfixes.

I've organized the coordinates down the page assuming you're doing both the honoring and desecration achievements at once (and you should, or you'll have to do that long trek twice!), so you can just hit everything on a zone-by-zone basis.

Desecration of the Alliance or Desecration of the Horde

See all those fires I've listed below that don't belong to your faction? You need to visit them, too, for either Desecration of the Alliance (if you're Horde) or Desecration of the Horde (if you're Alliance). Again, this is a lot of legwork, but for most zones, you should be able to honor your faction's fire and desecrate the opposing faction's fairly quickly, then simply move on the next zone.

Please note that even on a PvE server you will get flagged by desecrating the other factions' fires. If you're not fond of world PvP, you'll want to try this during a slow period (or, better yet, with a group). That said, if my experience is any indication, enemy players will usually leave you alone in the smaller towns and villages because they're too busy getting their own achievements. Enjoy it while it lasts, because you're going to find yourself in considerably more dangerous territory shortly.

Ready? Let's get this show on the road.

Flame Warden of the Eastern Kingdoms (Alliance) and Flame Keeper of the Eastern Kingdoms (Horde) Eversong Woods Falconwing Square at 46,50 (Horde)Ghostlands Tranquillien at 46,26 (Horde)Western Plaguelands Chillwind Camp at 43,82 (Alliance)Tirisfal Glades Brill at 57,51 (Horde)Silverpine Forest The Sepulcher at 49,38 (Horde)Hillsbrad Foothills Tarren Mill at 54,49 (Horde)The Hinterlands Aerie Peak at 14,49 (Alliance) and Revantusk Village at 76,74 (Horde)Arathi Highlands Refuge Point at 44,46 (Alliance) and Hammerfall at 69,42 (Horde)Wetlands Menethil Harbor at 13,47 (Alliance)Twilight Highlands Thundermar at 47,28 (Alliance) and Bloodgulch at 53,46 (Horde) (Fires of Cataclysm)Dun Morogh Kharanos at 53,44 (Alliance)Loch Modan Thelsamar at 32,40 (Alliance)Badlands New Kargath at 23,37 (Horde)Burning Steppes Morgan's Vigil at 68,59 (Alliance) and Flaming Crest at 51,29 (Horde)Redridge Mountains Lakeshire at 24,53 (Alliance)Elwynn Forest Goldshire at 43,62 (Alliance)Westfall Northeast of Moonbrook at 45,62 (Alliance)Duskwood Darkshire at 73,55 (Alliance)Northern Stranglethorn Fort Livingston at 51,63 (Alliance) and Grom'gol Base Camp at 40,51 (Horde)Stranglethorn Vale Both Alliance and Horde fires are northeast of Booty Bay at 51,67 (Alliance) and 50,70 (Horde)Swamp of Sorrows Bogpaddle at 70,14 (Alliance) and Bogpaddle at 76,14 (Horde)Blasted Lands Nethergarde Keep at 55,15 (Alliance) and Dreadmaul Hold at 46,14 (Horde)Flame Warden of Kalimdor (Alliance) and Flame Keeper of Kalimdor (Horde) Teldrassil Dolanaar at 54,52 (Alliance)Azuremyst Isle Azure Watch at 44,52 (Alliance)Bloodmyst Isle Blood Watch at 55,68 (Alliance)Winterspring Everlook at 61,47 (Alliance) and 58,47 (Horde)Mount Hyjal Nordrassil at 62,22 (neutral) (Fires of Cataclysm achievement)Darkshore Lor'Danel at 48,22 (Alliance)Ashenvale Forest Song at 86,41 (Alliance) and Silverwing Refuge at 51,66 (Horde)Stonetalon Mountains Mirkfallon Post at 49,50 (Alliance) and Sun Rock Retreat at 52,62 (Horde)Northern Barrens Crossroads at 49,54 (Horde)Durotar Razor Hill at 52,47 (Horde)Southern Barrens Fort Triumph at 48,72 (Alliance) and Desolation Hold at 40,67 (Horde)Mulgore Bloodhoof Village at 51,59 (Horde)Dustwallow Marsh Northwest of Theramore at 61,40 (Alliance) and Brackenwall Village at 33,30 (Horde)Desolace Nijel's Point at 65,17 (Alliance) and Shadowprey Village at 26,77 (Horde)Feralas Feathermoon Stronghold at 46,43 (Alliance) and Camp Mojache at 72,47 (Horde)Tanaris Gadgetzan at 52,30 (Alliance) and Gadgetzan at 49,28 (Horde)Un'Goro Marshal's Stand at 59,62 (Alliance) and Marshal's Stand at 56,66 (Horde)Silithus Cenarion Hold at 60,33 (Alliance) and 50,41 (Horde)Uldum Ramkahen at 53,31 (Alliance) and Ramkahen at 53,34 (Horde) (Fires of Cataclysm)Flame Warden of Outland (Alliance) and Flame Keeper of Outland (Horde)

There are seven Alliance and seven Horde fires in Outland. Blade's Edge Mountains Sylvanaar at 41,65 (Alliance) and Thunderlord Stronghold at 50,58 (Horde)Hellfire Peninsula Honor Hold at 62,58 (Alliance) and Thrallmar at 57,42 (Horde)Nagrand Telaar at 50,70 (Alliance) and Garadar at 51,34 (Horde)Netherstorm Area 52 at 31,62 (Alliance) and 32,68 (Horde)Shadowmoon Valley Wildhammer Stronghold at 40,54 (Alliance) and Shadowmoon Village at 33,31 (Horde)Terokkar Forest Allerian Stronghold at 54,56 (Alliance) and Stonebreaker Hold at 52,43 (Horde)Zangarmarsh Telredor at 69,52 (Alliance) and Zabra'jin at 36,52 (Horde)Flame Warden of Northrend (Alliance) and Flame Keeper of Northrend (Horde)

There are eight Alliance and eight Horde fires in Northrend. Howling Fjord Fort Wildevar at 58,16 (Alliance) and Camp Winterhoof at 48,13 (Horde)Grizzly Hills Amberpine Lodge at 34,61 (Alliance) and Conquest Hold at 19,61 (Horde)Zul'drak The Argent Stand at 41,61 (Alliance) and the Argent Stand at 43,71 (Horde)Storm Peaks K3 at 41,87 (Alliance) and K3 at 40,85 (Horde)Crystalsong Forest Windrunner's Overlook at 77,74 (Alliance) and Sunreaver's Command at 80,52 (Horde)Dragonblight Wintergarde Keep at 75,43 (Alliance) and Agmar's Hammer at 39,48 (Horde)Borean Tundra Fizzcrank Airstrip at 55,20 (Alliance) and Bor'gorok Outpost at 51,11 (Horde)Sholazar Basin River's Heart at 47,66 (Alliance) and River's Heart at 47,62 (Horde)Flame Warden of Cataclysm (Alliance) and Flame Keeper of Cataclysm (Horde)

I've listed the Mount Hyjal, Uldum, and Twilight Highlands fires above for the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor runs, but just in case you've only got the Cataclysm achievement to complete, I've also listed them separately here.

The Uldum and Twilight Highlands fires are faction-specific. The Deepholm, Vashj'ir, and Mount Hyjal fires are neutral. Mount Hyjal Nordrassil at 62,22 (neutral)Vashj'ir Silver Tide Hollow at 49,42 (neutral)Deepholm Temple of Earth at 49,51 (neutral)Uldum Ramkahen at 53,31 (Alliance) and Ramkahen at 53,34 (Horde)Twilight Highlands Thundermar at 47,28 (Alliance) and Bloodgulch at 53,46 (Horde)
Flame Warden of Pandaria (Alliance) and Flame Keeper of Pandaria (Horde)

We don't know where these fires are located yet, but I'm leaving a list here as a placeholder for when the holiday goes live. Once the Fire Festival is active on my server, I'll update this with a set of coordinates. However, it's a safe bet that the Vale of Eternal Blossoms fires will be located just outside each faction's shrine in that zone.

I've listed these in roughly clockwise order because a north-to-south path doesn't make much sense in Pandaria. Jade ForestValley of the Four WindsKrasarang WildsDread WastesTownlong SteppesKun-Lai SummitVale of Eternal BlossomsKing of the Fire Festival

King of the Fire Festival is awarded for stealing the flames from four enemy capitals and completing a turn-in quest for all four. When you right-click the enemy capitals' fires, a small flame appears in your pack as a quest to turn in at a Festival Loremaster (located around major city fires everywhere). Grab all four flames (Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon, and Undercity if you're Alliance; Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, and the Exodar if you're Horde), and you'll get a final quest called A Thief's Reward that, once completed, will give you the King of the Fire Festival achievement.

Stealing enemy fires is a lot easier with flying mounts in Azeroth, but let's face it -- there's nothing easy or risk-free about getting into an enemy capital, regardless. In 2013, you have the additional wrinkle of cross-realm zones in the Exodar, Darnassus, Ironforge, Undercity, Silvermoon, and Thunder Bluff. (I have my bank alt in Thunder Bluff and have been surprised by how many players CRZ typically adds to the central business district.) On low-population servers, you may well encounter more players in CRZ cities than you do in the faction flagships of Stormwind and Orgrimmar, which might make King of the Fire Festival much harder than it's been in recent years. Either way, try not to do this at peak play times if you're on your own.

Alliance Orgrimmar has historically been the most difficult, particularly for those without access to a flying mount.

Stealing Thunder Bluff's Flame The Thunder Bluff flame is located on Spirit Rise (the northwestern bluff) at 20,26. If you don't have a flying mount, the city can be a nuisance because the bridge system has a tendency to confuse players. If you have Slow Fall/Levitate, a parachute cloak, or a lucky Noggenfogger slow fall effect, you can also jump off the mesas after getting the flame and evade any guards or players chasing you.

Stealing Orgrimmar's Flame The Orgrimmar flame is located at 46,36 in the Valley of Wisdom (well, technically above it) on the northern edge of the city. (It's quite close to the circle of portals to Cataclysm zones.) Historically, this has been the most difficult of the Horde fires to capture, because Orgrimmar is the most crowded Horde city and the fire's located pretty far in. For Alliance players without access to a flying mount, it's easiest to enter the city from the little-used western gates, but this still means navigating your way through a huge pack of NPCs in the troll district while having to run by the fairly crowded zeppelin-and-flight-master area. Still, it's better than entering through the city's main gates, which will toss you into the middle of any players loitering around the main auction house and bank. You can also try the northern gates (coming from Azshara), which is usually deserted until it reaches another giant pack of players loitering around the northern Auction House and bank. Sorry, folks -- there are really no good options here. Try to do Orgrimmar during a slow period.

Stealing Undercity's Flame The Undercity flame is the easiest of the four Horde fires to steal and is located in the Ruins of Lordaeron courtyard at 68,9. You don't actually have to enter the city, although you will get PvP flagged because the Ruins are Horde territory.

Stealing Silvermoon's Flame The Silvermoon fire is located at 69,39 in the Court of the Sun at 69,43.

Horde Darnassus and the Exodar are easy: Stormwind and Ironforge are not.

Stealing Darnassus's Flame Darnassus used to be a freebie with the fire located in Rut'theran Village. Now you're going to have to head to 63,47 below the Warriors' Terrace on the eastern side of the city. You can skip the zoning process by flying straight up the trunk of Teldrassil (although it takes a while), but you're going to have to brave a city full of guards if you don't have a flying mount. Either way, don't forget to pick up the flame in Dolanaar for Flame Keeper of Kalimdor. When you're done with both fires, catch the boat from Rut'theran to Azuremyst for the Exodar and Azuremyst/Bloodmyst Isles fires.

Stealing the Exodar's Flame The Exodar's flame is located in the Crystal Hall at 41,25. Unfortunately, the fire is pretty far into the city. When you get off the boat, take the side entrance into the Exodar (located to your left off the road) in order to avoid as many players as possible. While you're on the draenei islands, desecrate the flames at Azure Watch and Blood Watch. Afterwards, head back to Rut'theran and transfer to the boat heading to Stormwind.

Stealing Stormwind's Flame The Stormwind flame is located at 50,72 around the entrance to the Stormwind Stockades. If you're coming from the docks, you should be able to avoid the more highly trafficked portions of the city, but the odds of running into some high-level players are still pretty high. If you get mobbed, try to zone into the Stockades and wait a few minutes. Afterwards, mount up, ride for the Deeprun Tram if you don't have a flying mount (just get the hell out of Stormwind if you do), and head to Ironforge.

Stealing Ironforge's Flame The Ironforge flame is located at 64,24 in the Hall of Explorers. You can get to it relatively fast if you're coming off the tram (head out, hang a right, steal the fire, then sprint back to the tram). Bear in mind that while the tram is neutral territory (and on a PvE server, your flag will drop there after five minutes), anyone who decides to make your life difficult can and probably will follow you back there.

Got all four flames? Head back to a Festival Loremaster, turn them in, and enjoy your achievement. Use the quest money to help repair the beating your gear probably took.

Burning Hot Pole Dance

Burning Hot Pole Dance sounds simple, right? Well, it would be, but buying these threads is going to run you 400 Burning Blossoms if you're starting the holiday from scratch.

Do yourself a favor and get the Fires of Azeroth, Desecration, and King of the Fire Festival achievements done first. These, the Festival dailies (easily doable with the NPCs located around any capital city fire), and the Blossoms you'll get once a day for killing Lord Ahune will give you a ton of Burning Blossoms, way more than you'll need. Actually, doing the fires from the old world alone should be enough, if I recall correctly. Blossoms are the currency needed for purchasing items from Midsummer vendors, including the three clothing items required.

The three items you need for the set are:

Why the shoes cost so much compared to the much flashier chest and shoulder pieces, I can't say, but the full set will run you 400 blossoms. This is easily doable if you've completed the achievements referenced above, but it will mean that if you're still interested in purchasing the Captured Flame pet or the Brazier of Dancing Flames, you're going to have to put some work into the torch-juggling dailies and complete the Northrend fires.

Whatever you buy from the vendor, you're not going to get those Blossoms back, so be careful. If you do all the achievements and keep at the dailies and Ahune kills, it is possible to get all the vanity items off the Festival vendors. Just keep in mind that it's an awful lot of work.

Once you've got the duds, simply wear them, right-click the nearest pole, and and stay there for at least 60 seconds. Congratulations -- you've got your achievement!

Torch Juggler

For people with crappy computers, Torch Juggler used to be a real nightmare due to the giant circus of players and mounts occupying Dalaran during Wrath of the Lich King. These days, even with CRZ it's not likely to be a big deal. On the chance that it is, just park your toon on one of the floating rocks immediately outside Dalaran, and you should avoid other players.

What you'll need to do is purchase around 20 to 25 Juggling Torches from Midsummer vendors, then hotkey them somewhere convenient. Using a torch will allow you to target a specific area where you want it to land. Target it at your feet, then spam the hell out of your torch hotkey. This will automatically force each torch to come down where you're already standing, so you can instantly juggle it back. Use of the torches doesn't trigger the global cooldown, so as long as your latency and framerates are cooperating, you should be able to juggle 40 torches easily within the space of 15 seconds. Tags: 2013-midsummer-fire-festival, achievement-guide, achievements, achievements-guide, featured, guide, guide-to-midsummer-festival-achievements, guide-to-midsummer-fire-festival, guide-to-midsummer-fire-festival-achievements, how-to-do-midsummer-fire-festival, midsummer-fire-festival, midsummer-fire-festival-2013, midsummer-fire-festival-achievements, midsummer-fire-festival-quests, midsummer-fire-festival-wow, world-of-warcraft-achievement-points, world-of-warcraft-achievements, wow-achievement, wow-achievement-guide, wow-achievement-points, wow-achievements, wow-guide, wow-points

Filed under: Achievements, The Overachiever

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A beginner's guide to WoW's secondary professions

We've talked about WoW's crafting and gathering professions which only leaves the game's four secondary professions left to discuss. Unlike primary professions, you can take as many secondary professions as you want, so there are no hard choices here: if it's interesting to you, take it, and if not, ignore it.

So just what are these secondary professions? Cooking, fishing, first aid, and archaeology. And, we know, these might sound a bit on the dull side -- do you really want to spend your video game time cooking? But whatever you do, don't write secondary professions off as optional or unimportant, because they can definitely come in handy for players of all types.

So let's take a look at the secondary professions and just what they can do for you.

Cooking What does it do? A cook can prepare different types of food which will restore health and provide a variety of "Well Fed" buffs when eaten.Do I need any gear? You'll need ingredients for each recipe (meat and fish are common), which can be found by killing beasts, fishing, or from vendors. You will also need a cooking fire to prepare meals over, which you can find in many places (like inns) or you start one yourself, wherever you are.Do I get any extras? Besides easy access to the food you prepare, Azerothian chefs also have access to daily cooking quests. And, yes, we know how tedious daily quests can be, but the cooking quests found in all capitol cities are quick and easy to do. Completing your daily gives a good bit of experience, cooking skillups, reputation for the city you're doing them in, and award tokens that can be used to purchase cooking items like recipes and the fashionable Chef's Hat.Why take cooking? Food buffs are convenient to have and the dailies are an easy source of experience and reputation.
Fishing What does it do? Allows you to fish from any body of water you may come across, collecting fish (which you can cook or sell) as well as the occasional chest, message in a bottle, or old boot.Do I need any gear? You'll need a fishing pole and a nearby pond, lake, or ocean to fish in.Do I get any extras? Besides easy access to fish (which can be convenient for the Azerothian chef), fishers also have their own daily quests which, like with cooking, can be found in the capitol cities and provide experience, reputation, and skillups. Additionally, there are weekly fishing competitions -- the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza -- for you to compete in for a chance at more rewards.Why take fishing? If you're trying to level cooking, fishing can be a convenient companion profession to give you materials: and you may also find some cooking recipes with useful buffs require fish to prepare. And some people find fishing a relaxing break from the leveling grind.
First Aid What does it do? Allows you to create bandages and anti-venoms which can heal you. For those looking to heal themselves, bear in mind that using bandages is similar to channeling a spell: it heals in small bits over a period of time, so it can be interrupted, especially if you're in combat. Still, bandages are a nice health boost.Do I need any gear? Different types of cloth are needed to craft bandages while anti-venoms require venom.Do I get any extras? Just the easy access to bandages whenever you need them.Why take first aid? True confession time: we said earlier in this article that you could take any secondary profession that interested you and ignore the rest, but we lied. Everyone should take first aid. Everyone. It's easy to train up and it provides you with access to healing whenever you need it without using a potion or a healing spell. Yes, even healers should take this because it gives them an easy option for mana-free healing. You may not always, or even often, need them, but they're handy to have in an emergency... and like we said, it's very easy to train.
Archaeology (Cataclysm required) What does it do? Archaeologists hunt for fragments of ancient artifacts to further their studies of the history of Azeroth. Visit archaeological sites throughout the game and survey them to gather archaeology fragments and assemble them to learn lore and collect unique items. Unlike other professions, you must be level 20 to train in archaeology.Do I need any gear? Only the artifacts you collect using archaeology.Do I get any extras? Archaeology is the only way to find a variety of unique items, like the Fossilized Raptor mount or Clockwork Gnome companion as well as a range of epic-quality gear.Why take archaeology? Archaeology can be frustrating to level, as it requires the collecting of artifacts all over the game world, but it can be a nice change of pace from the standard game... if that's what you're looking for. It also grants some experience as you go, which we certainly can't complain about. And finally, archaeology is the only way to get a number of unique items... so if you want them, the profession is a must.
Now: good luck and happy professioning! Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank. Tags: archaeology, cooking, featured, first-aid, fishing, guide, how-to-play-wow, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, professions, rookie-guide, secondary-professions, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-professions, wow-secondary-professions, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

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A beginner's guide to WoW's crafting professions

We've talked about WoW's gathering professions, but now that you know gathering, it's time to talk about what to do with the materials you've gathered: craft. World of Warcraft has eight different crafting professions -- alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, leatherworking, tailoring, jewelcrafting, and inscription -- which means that a wannabe crafter has plenty of options. So follow along as we walk you through your WoW crafting choices.

Alchemy What does it do? Allows you to create a variety of potions, elixirs, and flasks, as well as transmuting certain items into other items. Most of an alchemist's skills involve providing buffs for anyone using their brews: potions provide an immediate benefit (like restoring your health), elixirs provide buffs for an extended period of time, and flasks provide buffs that last through death.Do I need any gear? Crafting potions will require herbs and different types of vials.Do I get any extras? Alchemists have access to the passive ability Mixology, which doubles the duration and increases the effect of flasks and elixirs they use. High level alchemists have access to a number of useful trinkets and, if they also study Archaeology, can learn to transform into a Sandstone Drake.Why take alchemy? It's definitely useful to be able to make your own potions: you'll find you're never lacking for them. And paired with herbalism to gather herbs, you'll be entirely self-sufficient. However, you might also take alchemy purely out of interest in high-level trinkets or the Sandstone Drake.

Blacksmithing What does it do? Blacksmiths turn metals into weapons as well as mail and plate armor. Blacksmiths can add sockets to their own bracers and gloves as well as craft an Eternal Belt Buckle which adds a socket slot to any belt. Blacksmithing is best paired with mining.Do I need any gear? You need to be near a forge to craft things and your crafting recipes can require a variety of materials beyond stone and ore.Do I get any extras? Beyond what they can craft, blacksmiths can add sockets to their own -- and only their own -- bracers and gloves.Why take blacksmithing? If you're a plate-wearing class, blacksmithing can help you create your own armor as you advance through the game -- including some decent gear that will give you a good start towards raiding. But if you don't wear plate armor, the benefits are few.Enchanting What does it do? Allows you to imbue armor and weapons with magical properties that increase their stats or provide other bonuses. Enchanters can also disenchant items, which turns them into magical components which can be used to create other items. Enchanting doesn't need any particular gathering profession, but many pair it with tailoring and disenchant the goods they craft.Do I need any gear? You'll need a Runed Copper Rod -- which you can craft yourself -- to enchant items and then you'll need various supplies for various enchants.Do I get any extras? In addition to the benefit of always having your own gear enchanted -- trust us, it will happen as you're training -- enchanters can enchant their own rings.Why take enchanting? Enchanting can be a frustrating profession to level, as you have to destroy magical items to gather materials to train. However, at high levels both enchanting and disenchanting can be very much in demand, as players look for enchanters to enchant their own gear or disenchant their unneeded items. Additionally, disenchanted items can be very valuable on the auction house for making cash.
Engineering What does it do? Engineering is hands-down the most entertaining profession in the game. It's not always useful, but it's always fun. Engineers can craft a variety of oddball devices that range from the Loot-A-Rang to the Mechano-Hog. Since nearly all of an engineer's gadgets require engineering to use, if any of these things sound like fun, you'll have to level up the profession. Engineering pairs best with mining.Do I need any gear? The Arclight Spanner, which engineers can craft, is an oft-needed tool. Higher level engineers may wish to upgrade to the Gnomish Army Knife. In addition, different crafts will require different materials.Do I get any extras? Only the very nifty items they can craft, which includes some nice epic-quality gear like engineering goggles.Why take engineering? If you prefer fun over practical, engineering is the profession for you. If you prefer practical over fun... it probably isn't. However, any player may find some engineering gadgets that they just can't live without.
Leatherworking What does it do? Allows you to craft leather and mail armor out of animal skins. It pairs nicely with skinning.Do I need any gear? You'll need thread and leather to make most of your wares, but different crafting recipes will have different material requirements.Do I get any extras? In addition to the gear you craft, which can be very handy for a leather or mail wearer leveling up, leatherworkers can improve their bracers with fur lining and improve their leg armor with armor kits, both of which provide very nice buffs.Why take leatherworking? If you wear leather or mail armor, then leatherworking will be a useful way to create your own gear as you level up. Some of the gear will give you a good start on doing dungeons and raids at higher levels.Tailoring What does it do? Creates cloth armor as well as bags, magic carpets, and other cloth items.Do I need any gear? Only cloth, thread, and any other materials needed for individual crafting recipes.Do I get any extras? In addition to crafted gear -- some of which is very nice -- tailors can embroider their own cloaks with handy buffs as well as create spellthreads for their own use.Why take tailoring? If you're a cloth-wearer, this is a very decent profession to help gear yourself up as you advance. And since it requires no particular companion profession, you could take it with a gathering profession to make some extra cash.
Jewelcrafting (Burning Crusade required) What does it do? Jewelcrafters cut gems into jewels that can be socketed into gear. Additionally, they can create rings, necklaces, trinkets, and even a few weapons. Jewelcrafting pairs best with mining.Do I need any gear? You'll need a Jeweler's Kit, sold by trade supply and general goods vendors, as well as gems and other materials to craft with.Do I get any extras? Jewlcrafters can create trinkets only they can use as well as cut special gems for themselves. High level jewelcrafters with the patience to gather a long list of materials can also craft the Jeweled Onyx Panther and other mounts.Why take jewelcrafting? Cut gems are useful to socket your own gear but can also be worth selling to others or giving to friends or guildmates. Additionally, the trinkets and gems can be a nice buff.
Inscription (Wrath of the Lich King required) What does it do? Scribes turn herbs into inks which are used to craft scrolls, glyphs, Darkmoon cards, and epic items like Inscribed Red Fan. Inscription is best paired with herbalism.Do I need any gear? You'll need a Virtuoso Inking Set as well as different types of parchment to make different items.Do I get any extras? In addition to the items they craft, scribes can create inscriptions which are used to enchant their own shoulder armor.Why take inscription? Making glyphs for yourself, your friends, and your guildmates can be a very handy skill to have -- and profitable, too, if you take the time to hunt down popular recipes.
Hopefully we've given you a good starting point: happy crafting! Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank. Tags: alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, featured, guide, how-to-play-wow, inscription, jewelcrafting, leatherworking, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, rookie-guide, tailoring, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

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The Drama Mamas guide to coping with trolling and profanity

It's the last straw: After a long day toiling in the salt mines, you come home to settle in for some stress-relieving World of Warcraft, only to find yourself transported back to The Barrens –- not only the latest patch's Battlefield Barrens, but the trollish Barrens-style general chat you've come to loathe. Your chat box is scrolling ceaselessly with "Douchebag this!" and "$%^& that!" and you can see that any hope of a restful evening is slipping inexorably beyond your reach.

What's a poor profanity-pelted player to do?
No countertrolling

Stop! The first action you simply must take when confronted with annoying profanity in game is to take your hands off the keyboard and resist the temptation to countertroll. You can't fix other players' behavior. Nothing you can say in the channel of a public video game is going to cause anyone to make a permanent change to their behavior. Neither can you beat trolls at their own game; just like you, they'll log off secure in the knowledge that they're smarter and wittier than you are, no matter how many other players end up laughing at (or along with) either of you.

The fact is, as soon as you take it upon yourself to police chat channels, you become part of the problem. Your schoolmarmish lectures or attempts to teach that so-and-so a lesson are as much an inappropriate nuisance to other players as the boorish behavior of the original offender. It also cements your reputation as a troll in your own right -- after all, every time there's BS in chat, your name is attached. When it comes to trolling and profanity, remember this: When you try to beat 'em, you actually join 'em.

Wrong place at the wrong time

If you find yourself staring down the barrel of $%^& on a regular basis, you might be setting yourself up by being at the wrong place at what turns out to be the very wrong time. Have you changed the time of day that you play? As Drama Mama Robin observes, battlegrounds during school hours are normally a much more cooperative, mature experience than battlegrounds on a Friday night. "I recommend experimenting with different periods in your time zone to see which ones have players who tend to communicate instead of castigate," she suggests.

The problem could also lie with the company you keep. Perhaps you're in the wrong guild. That's not to say all leveling guilds or unfocused social groups are evil nests of profanity-laced filth, but collectives of random players tend to contain more chaff along with the wheat. Sure, you're in no way responsible for making these players behave inappropriately, but you very much are responsible for choosing the company you keep. If you consistently find yourself aghast at what goes on in guild chat, quit throwing up your hands and crying "Woe is me!" Wake up, smell the coffee, and move on.

Blizzard's four-point plan for profanity

So what can you do to steer clear of depressing levels of trolling and profanity? Let's review Blizzard's four-point plan for inappropriate language. Use your ignore list. Remember, your goal isn't to fix trolls or beat them at their own game; all you need to do is get them out of your hair. Placing them on ignore does exactly that. WoW offers a relatively small ignore list. If you run out of room on your list, you may find you need to remove some players from your list or install an addon that allows you to ignore more players (and remember later why they're on the list).Use the mature language filter. You might find its nonsense words and symbols more annoying than the actual profanity. The real benefit, I've found, is that it neuters bad language enough that my emotions don't engage and I feel less tempted to countertroll or reply in rage.Manage your chat channels. If the chat in a particular channel proves too distracting or over the top, it might be simplest to simply leave that channel. Type /leave X (with X being the number of the channel you want to leave). Many players keep trade chat turned off and leave general chat on a frequent basis as well. You can even leave battleground chat when players are being overly critical or abusive; with that sort of nonsense cluttering up the channel, you won't be able to effectively coordinate strategy anyway, so you may as well give yourself the peace you need to focus on your own plan of attack.Report bad language. Use the right-click function to report bad language; Blizzard's support staff will not accept harassment reports filed under the Open a Ticket menu in game. Right-click the player's name on the chat line where the harassment, then click Language. "A contextual report will be created for us to review," Blizzard notes. "While no response to the report will be possible, rest assured that we will investigate and take appropriate action to address the issue." Ignore the player if you need to and move on with your game.
If the situation escalates and things become personal, remember that additional tools are available for your protection. Read the Drama Mamas guide to handling in-game harassment. Be the change you wish to see

In closing, Robin and I would like to remind you that you don't have to accept profanity, trolling, and other bad behavior as simply "the way things are now." As one of the players who make up the World of Warcraft community, you are a part of setting its tone and expectations. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

Our thoughts:

Here's where your consistent, reasonable, mature reactions come into play. Your reactions and attitudes are every bit as influential to the tone of our online community as those of the hatemongers. Every time you respond to inappropriate speech with restraint (don't give these people the negative feedback they crave) while taking steps to curb their ability to act out inappropriately, you help counteract the effect they have on others and spread an attitude of empowerment and respect among other players.

Profanity and inappropriate topics aren't the only speech that's contagious; your reactions can be equally powerful in creating the online world you want to live and play in.

Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with advice from the Drama Mamas guide to preventing multiplayer drama. Got a question? Email the mamas at robin@wowinsider.com. Tags: advice, drama, featured, guild-advice, guild-drama, inappropriate-language, playing-wow, profanity, report, trolling, warcraft-advice, wow-advice, wow-drama, wow-drama-guide, wow-player-guide, wow-q-and-a

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A beginner's guide to WoW's gathering professions

As soon as your character hits level 5, it's time to pick up a profession -- or two or three! Each character you have can take two primary professions -- herbalism, mining, skinning, alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, leatherworking, tailoring, jewelcrafting, or inscription -- as well as however many secondary professions -- cooking, fishing, first aid, and archaeology -- they want. Primary professions are typically categorized as "gathering" professions -- herbalism, mining, and skinning -- that allow you to collect materials and "crafting" professions -- alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, leather working, tailoring, jewel crafting, and inscription -- that allow you to create items.

When choosing a primary profession, it's good to pick two that work well together: say, a crafting skill that uses the items you collect with a gathering skill. This means herbalism is typically paired with alchemy or inscription; mining is typically paired with blacksmithing, jewelcrafting, or engineering; skinning is usually paired with leatherworking; and enchanting and tailoring can be paired with anything (though often players will pair them together and use goods created by tailoring to level their enchanting). But if you aren't terribly interested in crafting or just want to give your character a leg up with money-making, you could pick up a pair of gathering professions and take whatever you gather while you're leveling to sell to crafters on the auction house. As to secondary professions, since you're not limited on the number you can take, you can really grab as many as interest you.

Not sure where to start with all these choices? We'll walk you through it.

Whatever profession you take, you'll start with a skill level of 1, which you increase up to 600 as you level up and use the skill. Apprentice skill (which you can train at level 5) covers skill levels 1-75, journeyman (level 10) covers skill levels up to 150, expert (level 20) covers skill levels up to 225, artisan (level 35) covers skill levels up to 300, master (level 50) covers skill levels up to 375, grand master (level 65) covers skill levels up to 450, illustrious (level 75) covers skill levels up to 525, and zen master (level 80) covers skill levels up to 600. To train in each skill level, you need to be both the right character level and have a certain amount of skill. Further, to harvest higher level materials or craft higher level items, you'll need a higher skill level -- in short, this means you'll probably want to work on advancing your professions while you level up.

But just which professions should you choose? There are good reasons to pick all of them, which can make picking the right profession for your new character a challenge. Today we're going to walk you through WoW's professions, explaining what they do and why you might want to take them. There's a lot of ground to cover, so today we'll start by talking the game's three gathering professions: herbalism, mining, and skinning.

Herbalism What does it do? Allows you to pick herbs, which are primarily used for alchemy and inscription. In addition to being able to harvest herbs from the ground, you'll encounter the occasional plant-based monster that you can gather herbs from.Do I need any gear? Though nothing is required, carrying the Herbalist's Spade in your inventory gives +10 to your herbalism skill. There are also bags specifically to carry herbs if you find your inventory swamped with herbs.Do I get any extras? Herbalists have access to the spell Lifeblood, an instant-cast self-heal that temporarily boosts your haste rating. It's very useful at low levels and still provides a small boost at higher levels.Why take herbalism? If you want to do Alchemy or Inscription, Herbalism is highly recommended so you can pick your own herbs instead of having to buy them on the auction house. But if you want to make money, Herbalism by itself is a good option, too -- just take your herbs to the auction house to sell.

Mining What does it do? Allows you to mine for ore and gems, which are used for blacksmithing, engineering, and jewelcrafting. In addition to being able to mine ore nodes, you'll encounter the occasional earth-based monster that you can mine for ore after death.Do I need any gear? Though you don't need any special tools to mine, carrying a Mining Pick in your bag will give you +10 to mining skill. If you carry lots of ore or gems, you may also want to invest in a mining bag.Do I get any extras? Miners have access to the passive ability Toughness, which gives a bonus to stamina. It's a decent buff for any player, though tanks will certainly be appreciative of the extra health. If you want to pick up blacksmithing, engineering, or jewelcrafting, mining is highly recommended as a companion profession. However, just like herbalism, mining is good on its own as a money-maker, too.Why take mining? Mining is a must if you plan to pick up blacksmithing, engineering, or jewelcrafting -- but by the same token, it's a great money-maker by itself. Because the materials gathered by mining are used in more professions than any other, they're typically in high demand on the auction house: with some savvy trading skills, your character could make a bundle.

Skinning What does it do? Allows you to skin animals for leather, which is primarily used for latherworking. Unlike herbalism and mining, in which goods you're collecting are found in nodes scattered around the world, skinning requires you to kill an animal in order to skin it. You can, however, skin animals others have killed so long as they've looted the corpse first.Do I need any gear? Like the rest, you don't need anything, but you can pick up a Skinning Knife to give you a +10 skill boost. And, again, if you find yourself hauling around lots of leather, you may also want to investDo I get any extras? Skinners also have access to the passive ability Master of Anatomy, gives a bonus to your critical strike rating.Why take skinning? If you pick up leatherworking, you'll probably want to pick up skinning to supply your own leather. But, just like the other gathering professions we've covered, skinning is also great on its own as a money-maker: on most servers, leather of all levels sells well.Hopefully this helps you to get started with professions: check back soon for crafting professions and secondary professions! Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank. Tags: featured, guide, herbalism, how-to-play-wow, mining, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, professions, rookie-guide, skinning, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-professions, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

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Deepwind Gorge: Simple strategy guide

Deepwing Gorge is the newest battleground in the game, added in patch 5.3. At this precise point in time, it is not in the Rated Battleground rotation, thanks to some bugs, but it will return fairly soon. Nonetheless, this guide is intended for random groups, not for rated teams, who, with additional organization, will be able to execute more complex and precise strategies.

What are we supposed to be doing?

Good question. There are three mines, the Goblin mine, the Center mine, and the Pandaren mine. I wrote about this in more detail back when this was still on the PTR, but suffice it to say, for now, that the Horde has a slight advantage in getting to the Goblin mine, while the Alliance has a slight advantage in getting to the Pandaren mine. As a result of that, a strategy that seems to work well enough for random groups is to split your team, sending around half to the Center mine, and half to either the Goblin or Pandaren mine, depending on which faction you're playing. You will also need to take a few players, depending on your healer numbers, to get the opposite faction's cart. I've been having success with a warrior and a couple of healers as a cart team, but you will need heals at the Center mine, where most of the fighting will take place.

It might just be because this battleground is new right now, and players don't know exactly what's going on yet, but so far, the best time to capture the cart has been early on. For maximum effect, you'll need to wait until the other side has some points, as capturing the cart steals "gold" or points from the opposition, as well as adding to your own total. Naturally, therefore, you will want to prevent the other side capturing your cart.

So, in summary, in order of priority: Hold bases, two is plenty.Prevent the enemy from capturing your cart.Capture the enemy cart.
Carts and their capture

We've all seen bases before, this is nothing new, but the carts are a little different. They behave like the orbs in Temple of Kotmogu, they are picked up with a cogwheel click, and will follow you around behind you on a chain, even if you're a sheep or a frog. There is nothing an enemy player can do to remove the cart from you, apart from killing you. Once the cart is dropped, it works like the flag in Warsong Gulch -- it can be picked up by the opposing team again, or returned to its base by you.

As far as capturing the cart goes, you need to run it all the way across the map to your base. Yes, that's right, past the line of three mines, all the way back home. Once the player carrying the cart gets to the cart spawn point in their own base, the cart will capture. The cart itself doesn't need to get there. What's more, it does not work like the flags in Warsong, where if the other faction has your cart you can't capture theirs.

OK, anything else to bear in mind?

First up, don't defend your cart inside your faction's base. The cart run is so long that you should be able to stop the cart carrier in the middle area of the map long before they're able to capture it. Secondly, if the game is looking close, capturing the opposition's cart will pull their point total down by 200 points. This could well give you the advantage you need to win the game.

When running the cart, it is a good idea to take it through bases you hold, preferably the side bases, so Goblin or Pandaren. Failing that, if they are in conflict, a great way to run the cart is down the outside wall of the center area. Do you want to capture flags, invade cities, attack towers, and dominate the enemy for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with secrets of Battlegrounds and Arena, prepping you with proven addons and keybindings that win! Send questions or comments to olivia@wowinsider.com. Tags: arena, arena-guide, arena-strats, arena-tips, arenas, deepwind-gorge, featured, guide, how-to-play-battlegrounds, how-to-pvp, patch-5.3, patch-5.3-pvp, pvp-guide, wow-arena, wow-arena-guide, wow-guide

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Jewelcrafting gold guide

As with every expansion gold making is great in the first couple of weeks. Jewelcrafting, as one of my favorite professions, takes a special place in my gold making guide. You might know most of the stuff in my short jewelcrafting gold guide, but, in my experience, reading someone’s gold making strategy every once in a while is good.

In the early days of an expansion prospecting give you great… well prospects in earning gold. You don’t need to level up all the way to 600 in order to sell jewelcrafting produce. There is a simple sequence that, if followed daily, will make you rich with wow gold.

1. Buy a lot of Ghost Iron Ore

2. Prospect the ore and collect the gems.

3.  Cut some of the gems or sell them raw if the AH price is high.

4. Use the green gems to make green jewelry for disenchanting.

5. Cut the blue-quality gems. I’ve noticed that the price of the blue gems is outrageously high in the first couple of weeks and then drops suddenly. The only type of gem that keeps its price is the red blue-quality gem. Everyone needs them because they provide the base stat for each class.

6. Make use of the Facets of research.

7. Craft vanity pets.

While following the steps above you will not only make gold but also level up your jewelcrafting skill. Once leveled your jewelcrafting profession will open the opportunities of selling BoE pets – great vanity companions such as the Sapphire Cub. These will be greatly overpriced in the first days. Be sure to bargain a deal for the recipe if possible.

Do not focus on meta gems. I can tell you this from my personal experience – these gems sell rarely and there is always someone ahead of you on the AH list.

Once you have collected some cash you should focus on creating a Jeweled Onyx Panther – this mount looks awesome and deserves its investment.

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Where Are They Now? 2012 personalities, including the blind player and his 'guide dog'

At last, our look back at five years of WoW personality interviews rolls around to the duo everyone's been asking about: Hexu and Davidian, the British soldier blinded in Iraq and his redoubtable "guide dog" guildmate who steered him through full participation in current raid content. Their story exploded across the internet after we interviewed Davidian here on WoW Insider, and Blizzard recognized the dynamic duo with in-game helms with flavor text alluding to their inspiring bond of friendship.

Hexu and Davidian are both still playing World of Warcraft -- but the duo is together no more. As of the new year, the ever-energetic Hexu has been raiding on a new rogue, Dirtypawz, in Unqualified on Stormrage (EU). "I know!" he replies to my unspoken exclamation of surprise and sadness. "It was just that people were only raid logging, and it got boring -- but it was all amicable and cool. I still speak to people in Die Safe. I just wanted to do more than raid three nights a week." Hexu/Dirtypawz says a "very nice bloke" named Vatic is serving as his current raiding "guide dog" helper. "The people in the guild are all nice people," he adds, "and there [are] always things going on."

We'll visit with Hexu/Dirtypawz next month about how he's settling in and dig into his tips for the many sight-disabled players who've written to us during the past year trying to reach him for advice.

Meanwhile, Davidian reports that the year since we interviewed him has been packed with recognition and encouragement. "The publicity was just unreal," he says. "Even to this day, I get people coming to our server just to say how much the story inspired them and restored there faith in the gaming community. The biggest thing of all, though, was the fact that it made its way to Blizzard, and myself and Ben got signed copies of the collectors edition of Cataclysm signed by at least 50 members of the Blizzard team, and [we] received in-game pets also. Then to top it off, having in-game items with our names on them was just outstanding -- I mean, to be immortal in a game that we love to play is just, well words couldn't possibly describe it."

All good people connecting to play a game that's close to our hearts ... Keep reading for more updates about people who love World of Warcraft, from our interviews during 2012.

Click the bold, linked introductory text of each paragraph to read the original interview with these WoW personalities.

Booming support for autism research Support from WoW players helped nudge an autism research project from well-known druid blogger Lissanna (aka autism researcher Dr. Elisabeth Whyte) over $5,000. "We will be working hard at getting this project moving next semester," she notes. "I am currently working hard at writing grants to fund the project long-term. I am always truly amazed by the generosity and awesomeness of the WoW community." Follow Lissanna at Restokin and the Team Waffle podcast.

Sequel in the works We liked what Rachel Gold, author of a YA novel about a WoW-playing transgender teen, had to say so much that we invited her back to talk about transgender issues as a guest Drama Mama. She did a fantastic job, and we can't wait to read more from her, including the upcoming sequel to Being Emily. Rachel's also just signed a deal for a romantic paranormal/urban fantasy novel to come out in 2013, featuring demons (some of them, good guys) and witches fighting for power in modern San Francisco.

Putting the "war" in Warcraft The battle between the Horde and the Alliance continues on the shoulders of world PvP advocate Gug. "Gug has been busy," reports the indefatigable orc, "assassinating the Alliance leaders, camping Stormwind, fighting in the Krasarang Wilds, slaughtering Alliance on all levels... But the real focus I'm ashamed to admit has been Pet Battles. Still convinced these addictive things were secretly created to keep Gug's axe from hewing Alliance skulls. Singing Cricket, Gug is coming for you!" Find Gug at Horde Strike Force.

WoW Insider's published authors WoW Insider's published authors keep turning out interesting reads. Scott Andrews is doing heroic raiding with his guild on his feral druid and working on an update of The Guild Leader's Handbook, as well as working on a science fiction novel and co-leading two sci-fi/fantasy workshops in the Philadelphia area. Matt Rossi has switched back to a DPS orc in game; outside the game, he's putting together a third collection for publication and pounding away at three novels in progress. Find Matt at Once I Noticed I Was On Fire I Decided to Relax and Enjoy the Fall, and check out Bottled Demon for a cool read.

Update on the updater Predictable, Wowhead's Perculia has stayed busy making updates on patch 5.1 and now patch 5.2 content. "Our biggest feature was integrating Item Upgrades into the site, including the popular Item Comparison tool," she says, "and I'm particularly proud of our Brawler's Guild and 5.1 Battle Pet guides." Follow Perculia on Twitter at @perculia.

How to Priest Veiled of HowToPriest.com has moved to a new guild with a lighter raiding schedule. "Running HowToPriest.com is time consuming," she explains, "and the three-day schedule in my new guild accommodates that nicely. ... Currently we are working on a donor rank for the site that will have a few perks. February will be our two-year anniversary, as well, so we are going to be doing some giveaways for that." Find Veiled at HowToPriest.com and @HowToPriest on Twitter.

Punting it back Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe? "Currently rabble-rousing and ruffling feathers everywhere," writes the outspoken social advocate. Find Chris at @ChrisWarcraft.

The newlyweds After marrying in a WoW-themed wedding during 2012, WoW player Amanda has parted ways with her new husband -- but only in game. "My husband is now playing Eve since he wasn't enjoying the expansion," she explains. "He is busy being a pirate and blowing up stuff in space and I am busy being overwhelmed with how much there is to do in Mists." But guess what else they've been up to? "A few days after your article was posted about our wedding," she writes, "we found out that I am pregnant with our first. We will be welcoming our new little addition in the beginning of May. So our gears are changing to prepare and get ready for the new addition to our family." Find Amanda at Deviant Art.

Queuing up Blizzard's new, firmer stance on premade battleground groups has pushed changes on premade team organizers like Rathamus. "The Rath Strat AV's (and all 40-man BG premades) have been a little more difficult to assemble due to the removal of some of the automation that made it easier to queue larger groups, and I seldom run them unless there is interest," he reports. "I have been very busy maintaining the World of Warcraft Public Vent server, which is nearing its sixth year online supporting raiders, PUGs, arena teams, [and] premades [for both] Horde and Alliance. I have also joined forces with Tiny, who created the mesh networking premade/LFM addon called oQueue, which is taking the premade community by storm and helping to create, organize, support, and maintain its communications needs."

MVP Alona MVP Alona is pushing her way through pet battle achievements, still helping others get into the game she loves. Find her at Corgi Island.

Home's where the boom is Pathosìs of realm-hopping (and now happily settled) Bless the Martyr has switched mains to a resto/boomkin druid. "Bless the Martyr is plugging away at heroic bosses," she reports, "and we're actually doing considerably well given half our raiders being in the Northeast when Sandy hit. Thankfully they were all okay."

Keeping his feet on the ground Gilran and his all-dwarf guild are continuing their explorations in Pandaria. "I am mostly roleplaying with some PvP now and then," he notes. "I have lost my interest in raiding in the early Cataclysm; never got back to it ever since. As for PvP, I mostly do the WPvP rather than battlegrounds and arenas."

All dressed up The amazing WoW dress collection of Asukachan (now Asuka) is going strong. "Pandaria is offering a lot of exotic Asian designs, which I am eager to get my troll paws on," he writes. "So far, I've added five new dresses to the collection." Asuka will also be emceeing the grand finals of the University Star League Starcraft Tournament in Sweden.

No stress Although Cantafrond has moved on from Swords for Everyone, the guild for players with social anxieties, he say the guild is still active and recruiting. "In game, I've been responsible for a horrifying number of (usually) accidental deaths as I level my disc priest to 90," he writes. "Outside of WoW, I'm in the process of starting up a blog to discuss and explore the social aspects of online gaming and interaction, specifically in the realm of MMOs. We'll also be touching on other issues like mental health and social anxiety and their relation to video games and gaming in general." Find him on Twitter at @cantafrond.

Booking it Aussie librarian Ellen Forsyth hasn't been playing WoW lately because she's been in Timor Leste for three months, where she says the internet connection isn't fast enough for online games. "It is not fast enough for quite a few other things as well," she notes wryly, "but it works well for email, which is great. I am looking forward to playing WoW again." In-game talks for librarians will begin later this spring with "some exciting people who are doing research in WoW." Find Ellen on Twitter at @EllenForsyth.

Anytime, anywhere Anytime Anywhere Messenger Service has been busy since Mists opened. "We've gotten new recruits, been threatened with arrest for interfering with the war and [are] busy exploring Pandaria," says GM Derscha Kettlebomb. "We've moved to a new headquarters in Booty Bay." The holiday season was especially busy, as AAMS sponsored a cross-faction Secret Santa program for the realm. Find the cross-faction messengers at AAMS.

Inside The Insiders WoW Insider's meet-and-greet guild, The Insiders on Zangarmarsh (US-Horde), run weekly fun runs of previous raid tiers plus LFRs for Mists raids. "We are also planning to start normal mode MoP raiding after the holidays," announces Kijani. "We still have an open door policy, so if anyone wishes to join The Insiders, all they need to do is ask. The same goes for raiding with us; the only thing that will prevent us from taking someone to a raid is game limitations -- if you can get in the door, you can come play." The Insiders runs guild dungeon groups throughout the week plus guild LFRs on Saturday for anyone who's interested in getting gear and learning fights without "funsuckers." Find Kijani on Twitter at @edgesumariajr.

Over the edge Charitable high-rise rapeller McChoppy is still finding time for WoW while graduating from college, starting a job search, continuing to work on a children's book about a particularly pompous moose, spending time with his daughter and baby boy -- and signing up to go Over the Edge again in June 2013. "Time for another falling achievement!" he exclaims.

The biggest "little" guild "After your article broke, gnomes from all over the World of Warcraft traveled to Wyrmrest Accord to join our ranks," reports the all-gnome Gnomeregan Forever's GM Forbidra. "In fact, we received another surge of applicants this week after Crithto posted a nice compliment in one of our threads. We are now over 250 gnomes strong and thriving!" For Gnomeregan!

Hodor! "I've been playing WoW a decent amount since MoP," reported Game of Thrones actor Kristian Nairn before the holidays. "I'm very extremely impressed with the expansion so far, although I have yet to get into the daily grind. Still as the stage of leveling my toon and QQing when I get to 90 in BGs because I have no gear, then leveling something else. Having been to and met a lot of the people behind the game when I made it to Blizzard last year (shout-out to Crithto <3). Saw some amazing things, and it made me very excited for the future of the game, meeting such talented and passionate people." Kristian wrapped filming for Season 3 of Game of Thrones last year; look for him soon in an episode of BBC America's Ripper Street.

Brain power North Carolina State University's Dr. Jason Allaire is currently using StarCraft 2 to develop maps that are designed to assess and improve cognitive functioning in people of all ages. "We are also developing a new measure that is designed to assess MMO, FPS, and RTS knowledge," he says. Check out Dr. Allaire's research at Gains Through Gaming.

Still leveling "After 15 Minutes of Fame, we got a hell lot of new players joining our guild, trying to find what they couldn't before!" wrote Colosia, GM of The Leveling Agony of Xavius (EU-Horde). "We deeply appreciate each of them and we hope we have them for a long, long time. And we even started raiding! We thought why let people that love us leave us for raiding when we can just expand our activities and start doing it? We have stable group, full guild of happy faces and social chats so much that you can't read them all!" The guild also created a sister guild in Guild Wars 2. Join the fun on Facebook or at The Leveling Agony.

A beastly guild The all-druid guild Druids of the Beast is pushing into Mogu'Shan Vaults on beast power to push for the timed challenge modes, reports the guild's Monsterbaby. "[They] have proven to be very tricky, being only druids, due to the limitations of buffs and cooldowns," she notes. "Overall, we find the expansion very nice for druids, with the new extended talent trees and abilities and balanced damage, despite [missing] out a lot without other class buffs."

A sweet whiff of yesterday Nostalgia-minded movie-makers Order of Watchers are more active than ever, reports the guild's Larenon. "Our raid and PvP group is also making nice progress in our own pace, so I can say all is well here, and Mists of Pandaria is the best thing that has happened to WoW in a long time," he says. "As for new guild movies, we are not making a big one right now, but around Christmas, there just might be a short movie, which we shot during our seventh birthday this August." Keep your eyes on the guild's website at Order of Watchers.

The craft of crafting Master craftsman Daen of Daen's Crafting Emporium is not only still providing some of the best crafting service in Azeroth, but he says he fully intends to keep running the emporium until the game itself ends -- "just so everyone knows." Find out what Daen can craft for you at Daen's Crafting Emporium.

Working IRL After being featured here, Sevrin's movie on WoW addiction, IRL, managed to reach more than 1 million viewers worldwide and earning him recognition at film festivals and on TV, radio, and websites. "Also I have since graduated from university (with quite a good degree)," he adds, "which is in stark contrast to my WoW-playing days, where I was almost thrown out of university! I play very casually now and log on occasionally, as I am busy working on more films (also some WoW machinima stuff for the future)." Find him on YouTube (IRL), at AnthonyRosner.com, and on Twitter at @antronoid.

70-year-old raid GM keeps pushing 25s 70-year-old raider and GM Marthazon has stayed busy with ongoing recruiting for Spartans, now one of only about three guilds on her realm still focused on 25-man raids. She was floored by the international media attention after our interview. "The publicity was amazing from your article -- you have a very large following," she writes. "I heard from so many players -- and it was wonderful to find that being older and playing WoW is not as rare as might be thought. One of the more amusing things to have come from the publicity was a phone interview with a Chinese newspaper. The reporter spoke some English, while my Chinese was limited to weh (I'm hoping the meaning was "hello"). We talked as best we could."

A stealthy success It's been an up and down year for the all-rogue RP/PvP guild Vile Thorn of Defias Brotherhood (EU). "We did suffer from the pre-MoP lull when activity on the server and in RP circles died," says GM Arli. "Unfortunately, the current state of rogues in PvP means many of our members get to 90 and then take a break out of pure frustration. We are RP/PvP, but without the PvP, we lose half of what makes us Vile Thorn. So we are concentrating a bit more on the roleplay side of things and still sticking to our weekly IC guild meet and RP-themed event." Rogues interested in the group should stop by Vile Thorn.

Volunteering in-game and out The charity-focused members of The Bearers of Light on Moon Guard (US-Alliance) celebrated their fifth anniversary in April with a realm-wide party. During their Random Acts of Kindness Month, they promoted daily in-game generosity along with real-world service such as volunteering in soup kitchens and community fundraisers. They capped the month with an adoption and donation to Heifer International, an organization that provides farm animals to families in parts of the world that need them. Find the good-hearted guildies at The Bearers of Light.

Five years of WoW personalities

Where are they now? Catch up with five years' worth of the people we've interviewed in 15 Minutes of Fame.

Where Are They Now? 2008-2009
Where Are They Now? 2010-2011
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com. Tags: all-druid, all-druid-guild, all-dwarf, all-gnome-guild, all-gnomes, all-rogue, all-rogue-guild, alona, anytime-anywhere-messenger-service, asuka, autism, being-emily, bless-the-martyr, blind, chris-kluwe, cross-faction-trading, daen, daens-crafting-emporium, davidian, dirtypawz, dress-collection, ellen-forsyth, facebookfeed, featured, gilran, gug, guide-dog, guide-dog-player, hexu, hodor, how-to-priest, howtopriest, howtopriest.com, IRL, irl-movie, jason-allaire, kijani, kristian-nairn, librarian, librarians, lissanna, marthazon, matt-rossi, mcchoppy, order-of-watchers, over-the-edge, pathosis, perculia, premades, rachel-gold, raiding-granny, rathamus, research, restokin, scott-andrews, sevrin, social-anxiety, swords-for-everyone, the-insiders, the-leveling-agony, transgender, volunteering, wedding, world-of-warcraft-interviews, world-pvp, wow-community, wow-interviews, wow-people, wow-personalities, wow-themed, wow-wedding

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