by Allison Robert

Around the feast areas, at least on my own server, I’ve seen the same questions keep popping up about the new holiday, Pilgrim’s Bounty. I thought it might be helpful to try answering them here. By necessity, these are a little general.

Help! Where do I go to get started?

Go to any of your faction’s major cities and find the feasting area. For Alliance, head to Stormwind, Ironforge, or Darnassus: for Horde, head to Orgrimmar, Undercity, or Thunder Bluff. While you can start the holiday in either the Exodar or Silvermoon, it’s a little faster to start in any of the “classic” cities because you don’t pick up any quests in their BC counterparts.

Where are the feasting areas located?

Alliance

Ironforge: directly outside the main gates to the city.
Stormwind: directly outside the main gates to the city.
The Exodar: directly outside the main entrance to the city.
Darnassus: in the small courtyard directly west of the city gates (where the training dummies are located).

On PvE servers, Horde players will not get flagged visiting the tables at Ironforge and Stormwind for Pilgrim’s Peril. You will get flagged at the Darnassus and Exodar tables.

Horde

Orgrimmar: directly outside the main entrance to the city.
Thunder Bluff: directly below the western elevators.
Silvermoon: across the road from the main entrance to the city.
Undercity: above the city in the ruins of Lordaeron courtyard.

On PvE servers, Alliance players will not get flagged visiting the tables at Silvermoon or Orgrimmar for Pilgrim’s Peril. You will get flagged visiting the tables at Thunder Bluff and Undercity.

Where do I get the recipes I need to cook?

Any Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor in any city will sell you the Bountiful Cookbook, a collection that contains all 5 Pilgrim’s Bounty recipes you’ll need.

What Cooking skill do I need?

In order to cook all 5 recipes you will need to have at least 330 Cooking.

Where do I get all the ingredients for these recipes?

All of the ingredients you’ll need (with the exception of the Wild Turkey) are sold by Pilgrim’s Bounty vendors located in the feast areas of each city.

Sweet potatoes = Darnassus (Alliance) or Thunder Bluff (Horde)
Cranberries = Ironforge (Alliance) or Orgrimmar (Horde)
Pumpkins = Stormwind (Alliance) or Undercity (Horde)
Wild Turkey = Elwynn Forest or Tirisfal Glades, a 100% drop from the Wild Turkey mobs that spawn during the holiday.
Spice Bread ingredients = any Pilgrim’s Bounty or regular Cooking vendor
Honey = any Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor
Autumnal Herbs = any Pilgrim’s Bounty vendor

The daily quests and the non-daily questline will take you to all of these cities anyway, so you don’t need to worry about making a special trip.
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by Allison Robert

As an FYI, Pilgrim’s Bounty is not part of the yearlong meta What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been, so if you fall short on any of the achievements below, you’re not running the risk of having to wait another year for a crack at a violet protodrake. However, you will miss out on the Pilgrim title and plump turkey pet that are rewards for completing the Pilgrim meta.

Let’s get started!

“FOOD FIGHT!” (Alliance) and “FOOD FIGHT!” (Horde)

This is a pretty simple achievement. The Bountiful Tables located around each capital’s feasting area (all of them are very large and easy to spot) are actually vehicles. Each of the 5 chairs at the tables is dedicated to one of the specific dishes (mouse over them and you’ll see them named “The Stuffing Chair” or “The Turkey Chair”), but for this achievement you don’t need any particular food. Take a seat, target a fellow player at the table, and use the first option (to “pass” a dish), and rather than passing the dish you’ll smack them over the head with it and get your achievement.

Sharing is Caring (Alliance) and Sharing is Caring (Horde)

As with “FOOD FIGHT!”, this is an achievement done while seated at a Bountiful Table. When you sit down at, say, the Stuffing Chair, the first option that pops up on the vehicle UI is passing the stuffing. Take a seat at each of the 5 chairs at a table, pass each dish, and voila — achievement.

Now We’re Cookin’ (Alliance) and Now We’re Cookin’ (Horde)

This requires you to cook 5 different (and new) holiday recipes, but in order to do all 5, you will need to have at least 330 Cooking. If you don’t have that, some power-leveling is in order before the end of the week. You have an additional reason to get to 330 Cooking as quickly as possible — you’ll need all five of these food items as turn-ins (in quantities of 20) for the holiday’s daily quests. While the dailies don’t require you to have cooked the food items yourself, not having to depend on someone else will obviously make this easier and faster.

First things first. You can get the recipes you’ll need from a single book sold by all Pilgrim’s Bounty vendors. The book is called the Bountiful Cookbook and requires only 1 Cooking in order to use. Right-click it once it’s in your inventory, and it’ll give you all 5 recipes you need.

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by Christian Belt

Level 59

I’m assuming for the purposes of this guide that you’ve taken the advice given in last week’s installment and high-tailed it for Hellfire Peninsula the moment you dinged level 58. This is not to say that you can’t have a great deal of fun spending a few more levels in the lore-rich end-zones of the old world–in fact It’s entirely possible to stay in Azeroth well into the early sixties. This option is undoubtedly attractive to completionists, as you can see everything vanilla WoW has to offer and gain a few more levels before moving on to the first expansion content. But for the sake of efficiency, moving on to Outland at the first opportunity is simply the way to go.

As you explore Hellfire Peninsula, you’ll find that the mobs take longer to kill, but grant far more experience and drop far better loot than their old-world counterparts at the same level. You’ll also discover that the questing is so much better organized it’s ridiculous. Travel time is reduced, you’ll be doing several quests at once in the same area, and you’ll often find additional quest-givers hanging out in the areas you’re questing in, just itching to give you more experience points, loot, and gold for doing what you were already going to be doing anyway. Plus, the quests all reward you with a whole lot more experience points than any quests in the old world will. When talking about leveling, it’s difficult to advise anything other than heading to Outland as soon as humanly possible.

Unless you’ve done some crazy vanilla WoW raiding before you come here, you’ll find that absolutely every cloth quest reward is a massive upgrade over whatever you were wearing before in that slot. For instance, here’s a reward from one of the very first quests you’re handed upon entering Hellfire: The Staff of Twin Worlds. Now compare it to a staff rewarded from an Eastern Plaguelands quest of similar level: Sarah’s Guide. That’s not even in the same ballpark, right?

So spend your first two levels in Outland questing, upgrading as much of your equipment as possible, and gradually morphing into the confused mage/pimp/Hannah Montana back-up dancer featured in Andre’s screenshot. Because while this loot has awesome stats, it also tends to look like a steaming puddle of vomit. I’m not saying, I’m just saying.

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For over a year now I have tried to streamline the process of earning the most amount of gold in the smallest amount of time. Since achievements came out, I have maintained over 3300 gold acquired per day. I have tried selling anything and everything — today I sell epic gems almost exclusively. I usually only list auctions on Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays so that I don’t run into gem supply issues, and because most people who need gems, need them on those two days primarily. I make as much as I do because I have a lot of cuts that few others have, I know what people desperately needing gems will pay, and I undercut my competition at key points.

I use the following addons to help me speed up what I want to do:

Mailget :
MailGet – Addons – Curse

OneClickBuyout :
OneClickBuyOut – Addons – Curse

Auctionator :
Auctionator – Addons – Curse

There are many addons that do similar things, while most of them are also suitable, I prefer to use these. Mailget allows you to clean out your mailbox in 1 click, faster than you would personally be able to take the items out individually. OneClickBuyout eliminates confirmation “ok” screens and automatically buys an auction by right clicking while holding shift. Auctionator is similar to other general auction house mods, but its best feature is that you are able to scan all your auctions to see if they have been undercut, and you can easily go back and cancel those auctions.

On a day that I have decided to post auctions, I first clean out my mailbox of previous items that have not sold, quickly list them by right click + alt (Auctionator feature), then proceed to check the auction house for gems that I have sold the previous session and no longer have. Some gems I wont try to cut and sell again because their price is too low, and if its too too low I just buy the item out to keep prices high. I also purchase raw gems while I do this check, mostly by bidding on auctions that have a low bid with a high buyout. Once I have checked all the gems, I list the newly cut ones and then take a break for a few minutes. Usually the entire process to this point has taken around 15 minutes for around 200 auctions.

I return after a few minutes and scan my auctions for undercuts using the Auctionator tool. Once it finishes I cancel those auctions which have been undercut by competitors and re-list them. I only list auctions for 12 hours duration because gem deposit is quite high and I expect to do this canceling process for many gems. On Tuesdays, I always do a second scan for undercuts right before I have to head out to raid. When I finish my raid late at night, I just collect tens of thousands of gold from my mailbox. That’s really all there is to it.

A long time ago when I was really motivated to make as much gold as possible, I would scan for undercuts whenever I had the chance. The more I did that, the more gold I would make, because I would create a monopoly where people will have to buy my item, because its always the cheapest. Your competition only determines the price of the item, and because I have diversified in many different items (or gems I suppose), I can just choose not to sell a particular that doesn’t have a high enough price.

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by Michael Gray

With the battle against the Lich King looming closer and closer on the horizon, the crafty craftperson is already getting ready to pepper the local auction house with crafted items. Guilds will need to slap on crafted items to quickly round out behind-the-gear-curve raid members, and the auction house will be the first place they turn to do that. The gear you build and prepare now will be quickly sold when it’s time to fight Arthas.

More importantly, though, raiders are going to see a whole new tier of gear. That means the items they use to buff their gear is going to need replacing, and the prescient craftperson is going to be ready to meet that need.

This conjecture, of course, leads us to question what items we should be preparing for Icecrown Citadel. What items will be of any use to a raider? What will they be willing to cough up good cash to purchase? Which items will be meaningful, and not simply fodder for immediate replacement?

Take a look behind the cut to see what we think will be good stuff to sell when the new raid is released.

Alchemy

Alchemists continue to exploit the market on two particular items — potions and flasks. None of the stuff that you’re selling now is going to spontaneously become useless. It’s not like tanks are suddenly going to spurn the quick health boost of a Runic Healing Potion.

So, what are the items to be ready to put up on the Auction House? The Flask of Endless Rage will still be a go-to item for physical damage raiders, while the Flask of the Frost Wyrm is the spell-caster’s counterpart.

Just as important, though, is that you should expect Jewelcrafters to be eager for epic gems. They’re going to keep filling and refilling gem sockets for raiders. And while they can score a raw gem for ten thousand honor a pop, it’s going to be difficult for them to keep up with the demand that way. Your gem transmutes will be useful and profitable quickly.

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for starters, all this information is about level 80 PvP, as a rogue.

Talent Build: Mutilate/Prep 41/5/25

Stats:
AP: This is your highest priority, you want burst.
Crit: This goes along with AP, not as important but take it where you can.
Hit: Try and be close-ish to the PvP hit cap, which is 5%.
Expertise and Haste: Don’t worry about it, doesn’t hurt though.
Armor Penetration: Nicer than Exp/Haste, but still don’t focus on it.
Resil: Resilience is a tricky balance. You want to have enough you won’t be bursted down in a few GCDs, but it shouldn’t be needed to get a lot. Try and be in the range of 400-500. A bit more or less will probably be ok, but if you have less you may have to play more defensively.

Gear:
You want a balance of PvE and PvP gear. Enough PvP to be in the ideal resil area, and enough PvE to be able to burst people down. This really depends on how far progressed you are in both, so just go for as much AP and crit as you can within the resil range.
Always gem offensively:
Red/Prismatic(eternal belt buckle) sockets – +AP
Blue sockets – +Stam/AP
Yellow sockets – +Crit/AP
(AP, attack power, is your friend!)
Misc. Gear:
There’s a few pieces that aren’t too hard to get you should aim for.
Titan-Forged Rune of Determination – Replace your “regular” PvP trinket with this, easy to get.
Darkmoon Card: Death – Your other trinket, can cost a bit (usually 800-1200, depending on your realm) but trust me, it’s worth it. High proc rate, 45s internal cooldown. So it’s pretty much +2k damage to your opener.
Direbrew’s Shanker 2.0 – Not absolutely needed, but since it’s brewfest you shouldn’t have too hard a time getting one. I use this along with Sinister Revenge and it’s 2.0 speed is really outstanding, more damage from your mutilate, even though it’s lower DPS.
Enchants:
If you are an engineer, congratulations! It’s about to pay off. Rocket gloves are amazing, use them for that extra bit of burst. The nitro boots are the best foot enchant as well.
If you aren’t, don’t worry.
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I’m aware that this location for Crystallized Fires had been found previously and posted somewhere (what hasn’t?) but what I wanted to share with you is something I had to test and find out for myself.

Go to Frostfloe Deep in Storm Peaks. I shouldn’t have to draw you a diagram showing you where this is. This cave is north of Camp Tunka’lo and has Wailing Wind wisp mobs inside.

-No set respawn timer- The cave and mobs are for a Horde questline. The faster you can kill them, the faster they respawn somewhere else in the cave. I brought a boomkin friend to this cave and had him kill stuff in the back section. He kills one, another respawns next to me etc. We could barely keep up and at one time almost died to the respawns.

TLDR== Picture the Gothik fight in Naxx. The faster you kill live-side, the faster they spawn on dead-side. Same thing as Frostfloe Deep.

Have Fun solo or with a friend.

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This is a guide to get the new legendary Shadowmourne from the new 25 man raid instance Icecrown Citadel.

Link to Shadowmourne Model/Stats: http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/3950/shadowmourne.jpg

The quest to attain Shadowmourne starts with Darion Mograine. The quest is The Sacred and the Corrupt – Quest – World of Warcraft . To start this quest you must first be friendly with the new Icecrown Citadel faction, the Ashen Verdict. You get Ashen Virdict rep from quests, trash kills, and boss kills in ICC and the three 5 man dungeons. All quests from here on must be done in 25 man ICC.

To complete this quest you must:

Gain twenty-five Primordial Saronite – Item – World of Warcraft Which is the new Crusader Orb of 3.3, it can drop off bosses in ICC, or bought with Emblems of Frost, the Emblem of Triumph of ICC. Your best bet is to purchase these from people and buy them yourself with alts by doing ICC 25/10 and the Randomly daily dungeon and the new weekly raid quest to gain Emblems of Frost.

Next you get the quest item Light’s Vengeance – Item – World of Warcraft Which is found in Frostmourne Cavern in Dragonblight.

Next up you must gain quest items off two bosses in ICC Festergut’s Acidic Blood – Item – World of Warcraft and Rotface’s Acidic Blood – Item – World of Warcraft . Blizzard has stated that the wing of ICC which these bosses are found in will open a couple weeks after 3.3 is released (link to that post here: World of Warcraft – English (NA) Forums -> Icecrown Citadel Raid Access Progression )

After you attain all these items, you go back to Darion Mograine and turn them in, and you will be rewarded with Shadow’s Edge http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7839/shadowsedge.jpg

Once you have Shadow’s Edge the real fun begins!

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by Eddie Carrington

If you’ve played a hunter for any length of time, you’ve heard the mantra that hunters should always, “Stack Hit until capped. Then stack Agility, followed by either Critical Strike or Armor Penetration.” That’s solid advice, but the choices presented really depend on you being Marksmanship or Survival.

Unfortunately, we tend not to explain why or how they help your spec of choice. And forget it if you’re a Beast Master, you might never learn how to improve your pet’s performance to help increase your own raid performance. (Okay, I’ll admit to having a bit of a bias for letting people raid the spec of their choice instead of whatever is today’s maximum dps darling.)

Anyways, let’s take a look at what we call hunter stats and how they impact your hunter.

Hit Rating

Hit rating is probably the single most important stat you need to track as a hunter. So important it’s even one of the few stats that Ghostcrawler has opened up and said hunters would need to stack even in Cataclysm.

You can check WoWWiki and it’ll give a long explanation on how Hit is defined as the percentage chance you will miss a target. I don’t know about you, but talking about reducing your chance of missing as a definition of hit is a bit confusing. So let’s make it a bit simpler.

With each percentage of Hit you achieve, the better the chance you’ll hit your target. Simply put, you can’t hurt it if you can’t hit it. So you stack Hit to make sure you hit the raid bosses.

Also, keep in mind that Hit impacts your pet also. Based on the patch notes of 3.2.0, your pet receives 100% of your hit. Meaning, every 1% below Hit cap the hunter is your pet will be 1% under cap also. So if you’re at 8% Hit, you’re pet will be capped and can’t miss.

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