by Messiah @ tentonhammer

The Forge of Souls is the first instance in the group of three that make up the Frozen Halls in Icecrown Citadel.  It was added in the 3.3 patch that added all of the Icecrown Citadel content to the game.  Until it has been completed you will not be able to enter the other instances that make up the Frozen Halls.  This is so that you can see and follow the storyline involved in the three instances as it evolves.

The Forge of Souls is a relatively straight forward instance that has a single path through it and two bosses.  The bosses are anything but simple for a five man instance though, as Blizzard puts you through some challenge to make your way through, especially on Heroic Mode.

When you enter the instance Jaina Proudmoore (Alliance) or Sylvanas Windrunner (Horde) will meet you and direct you through the instance.  If it is your first time in the instance she will give you the quest “Echoes of Tortured Souls”.  The objective of the quest is to simply kill both bosses located in the instance.

Your first objective is to reach Bronjahm, found in the center of the instance across a set of walkways.

Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls

The first boss that you come to is Bronjahm, the Godfather of Souls.  The fight is a two phase fight, a first phase that involves kiting specific adds and a second phase that starts once he has been dropped to 30% health. 

Abilities

Corrupt Soul – (Phase 1 only) This spell targets a random player and places a 4 second debuff on them.  Once the debuff expires it pulls a Corrupted Soul Fragment out of the player.  The Corrupted Soul Fragment does not have much health and should be killed quickly.  If it reaches Bronjahm then he will be healed for a significant amount of health.

Magic’s Bane – (Phase 1) This attack hits players in his front arc for both physical and magical damage.  The more mana you have the more magic damage it does to you.  Therefore, mana-based classes should be careful to not be too close to his front.

Shadow Bolt – Anytime the tank is not in melee range of Bronjahm he will hurl Shadow Bolts at whoever has the most threat.

Teleport – (Phase 2) At 30% health left Bronjahm teleports to the middle of the room and casts Soul Storm.

Soul Storm – (Phase 2)  This is a magical storm that fills the outside of the room.  Anyone caught in it takes significant damage and is slowed by 50%.

Fear – (Phase 2) Throughout phase two Bronjahm will fear players out of the center and through the Soul Storm.

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Due to the fact that Mining is a gathering skill, which feeds other professions materials for recipes (Blacksmithing, Engineering &Jewelcrafting), nearly all gathered material can provide a profit. There are some minerals which have a higher demand than others, therefore providing a speedy and consistent profit. Though, a higher demand often means more competition. Hopefully, this guide will help you determine which minerals to gather and sell based on time restrictions and possible profitability.

Northrend Minerals

All Northrend Minerals can help you profit, though it takes strategic Auction House placement as well as patience to profit this way. You should take advantage of using a 280%+ flying mount when farming in Northrend. If you do not have a flying mount, it is highly recommended that once you start bringing in a profit, you make your first purchase that of Artisan Riding and Cold Weather Flying (will cost you up to 6000g if you have Expert Riding). Having the ability to fly increases your profitability, making all gathering 280% quicker. 

Timing Your Gathering

Farming throughout Northrend will be difficult when done at peak server times, this is when the highest population is active and a higher number of players are collecting minerals. Ideally, you will want to gather herbs during off-peak times: 2am to 2pm server time, during weekdays; weekends are the worst times to farm due to a more active population (weekend players, those not working or at school).

Profitable Product

Titanium Ore - Is Northrend’s most profitable mineral. Highly sought by Jewelcrafters trying to obtain Epic Gems through Prospecting. Also high in demand smelted in to Titanium Bars, Titanium Bars are used to make Titansteel Bars, which are used in all high-end dropped  recipes (Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader).

Saronite Ore - Whether smelted or raw, Saronite is the prime ingredient used for leveling Blacksmithing,Engineering and Jewelcrafting in Wrath of the Lich King. Jewelcrafters require the Ore, which will be prospected for gems. Engineers and Blacksmiths will require the Ore smelted in to Bars.

Cobalt Ore - While the bars are used to craft various Engineering parts, Cobalt is the mineral with the least demand. The one plus side, is that it requires only a single piece of ore to make a bar, instead of two ore like other Northrend minerals. Selling this Ore in its smelted form will fetch the greatest profit.

Auction Placement

Timing is everything when you are trying to make maximum profit. When it comes to raw goods such as ore/bars, you want to make sure you catch people when they are leveing their professions. Most minerals that will be bought are likely to be used for leveling professions, therefore people usually stock up in the evenings during the week and on weekends. Be sure to place your auctions between 2pm and 9pm server time, Tuesday through Friday. It is also a good idea to place them for the minimum duration available (12 hours), so that you can update the pricing if you so happen to gain any competition in that time. Weekends are great times to profit due to the increase in active population, but you will have more competition, so place your auctions with caution. 

Almost always, it is very difficult to gain a maximum profit on Sundays. Weekend players have gathered minerals and placed them by this day, there will be a mass amount of minerals, and many people will be undercutting, avoid placing auctions on Sundays.

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by Xerin @ tentonhammer

When gearing up your Mage in World of Warcraft you’re going to want focus on just one thing, damage. You’re going to want to smoke your enemies with your arcane wrath as fast as you can snap your fingers or do that funny looking casting animation. I seriously would think that it’d be awesome if Mages could cast spells while snapping, but I’m digressing from the topic.

Everything you need to pick up for a Mage should contain Spell Power, Critical Strike Rating, Hit Rating, and to some extent Haste. The most important thing when you’re gearing up for raiding is to focus on your hit rating. Hit rating, until the cap, is the biggest DPS boost you can have because it removes the chance to hit. When you have a lengthy cast time and miss then you lose A TON of DPS.

When you go to pick up gems and enchants be sure to look in your purse. You do not have to use epic quality gems which often sell for 200gold or more on items that aren’t truly epic quality.

Leveling Up

While leveling up you’re going to want to focus on snagging gear with Intellect. Towards TBC when gear starts branching off between healing (spirit and haste) and damage (intellect and hit) you’ll want to go for damage. Both sets have critical strike rating and for the most part neither bit of gear is bad unless you’re running random dungeons and taking the healing specific gear from the healer.

If you get any pieces of gear with gem slots then feel free to add in the superior quality Spell Power gems into them to make them beefier than ever.

The caster heirlooms are by default the best ones. Dreadmist Mantle, Dreadmist Robe, Headmaster’s Charge, and the Discerning Eye of the Beast are the ones you’ll want as a Mage, if you have a level 80 and a lot of time to farm ‘em up.

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by Messiah @ tentonhammer

The Pit of Saron is the second of three instances that make up the Frozen Halls in Icecrown Citadel.  It was added in patch 3.3 which added all of the Icecrown Citadel content to the game.  Until it has been completed you will not be able to enter the third and final instance of the Frozen Halls called the Halls of Reflection.  This is so that you can see and follow the storyline involved in the three instances as it evolves.

The Pit of Saron is a very story line heavy instance that walks you through finding out where the Lich King is in the Citadel.  When you enter you face the Scourgelord Tyrannus right away, however, he leaves the area as soon as you engage his minions. 

Jaina Proudmoore (if you are Alliance) or Sylvanas Windrunner (if you are Horde) meet you at this point and ask you to rescue the prisoners held in the mine and defeat the Forgemaster of the Pit.  There are three bosses that inhabit the instance and each must be defeated to complete the storyline.

Once Tyrannus flys away you should make your way along the right path of the pit freeing prisoners along the way.  If you follow the right edge you will come to Forgemaster Garfrost who will be your first big fight in the instance.

Forgemaster Garfrost

The first boss that you come to is The Forgemaster Garfrost who is a Giant that walks around carrying a load of Saronite on his back.  The fight has three different phases as he makes his way from forge to forge.  It can also be fairly healing intensive due to the AOE damage inflicted, especially if DPS is light and the fight drags on. 

Abilities

Permafrost – This is a stacking debuff that does two things: it inflicts a small amount of damage per tick and increases frost damage taken.  While the damage starts off small it ramps up fairly quickly due to the stacking increase to frost damage taken. 

Thundering Stomp – This is an AOE stun to everything in the area.  He does this when he leaps to one of his two anvils.  He does this at 2/3 and 1/3 health remaining.

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There are limited profiting possibilities with the Leatherworking profession, as there are limited items that have a wide range of use.

By far the most profitable recipes are the Leg Armors, but they aren’t the only recipes which can help a Leatherworker profit, there are also Bags and Leather recipes which can be crafted. Fresh to the Leatherworking profiting scene are the new sets of Drums, adding extra profitability from this profession.

Leg Armors

Leg Armors have been high in demand since they were buffed in The Burning Crusade Expansion. All physical dps and tanks will want to have one attached to their pants. There are currently five seperate Leg Armors which are popular. Of course, those of the highest quality and wide consumer base will sell for more gold, more frequently: Icecale Leg Armor – used by all physical dps, this is by far the most popular Leg Armor currently, if you choose to sell these, it will be a quick profit, especially if you time your auction placement just before raid times (Tuesday-Saturday 3pm-12am server time). Frosthide Leg Armor andEarthern Leg Armor, sought by tanks and those who PVP, will sell a little less frequently, but if you place your auctions in a timely manner, you will have no trouble making a very decent profit. Ideally, since Arena Points are awarded on Tuesdays, you will want to make this your prime selling day.

While the Epic Leg Armors may stand out as a quick and easy profit, the Rare Leg Armors have just as high of a demand as the Epic. Costing far less material to make, Jormungar Leg Armor and Nerubian Leg Armor are a very easy, and often quick, gold-making source. People with characters at 70-79 will be eager to increase their character’s potential, while those who would prefer to not spend as much on an item enhancement may opt for these over the Epic Armors. Whichever the reasoning, these Leg Armors are cheap to make and provide a great return.

Drums

At first glance, you wouldn’t expect Drums to be a high profit item. Their history within the Leatherworking profession had proven they were very powerful within groups and raids, but required the Leatherworker to have a certain skill to activate the buffs they provided, resulting in a lower demand.

For Patch 3.2.2, Drums were re-introduced and re-invented. Instead of providing a limited duration raid-wide buff, Drums were added to fill in the gaps of groups and raids lacking class-specific buffs. Requiring 450 skill in Leatherworking to learn from a Grand Master Trainer, but not requiring a minimum Leatherworking skill to use, as well as tradable, Drums of Forgotten Kings and Drums of the Wild are usable in numerous circumstances; proving that they have a high demand and value. While these drums do not compare to the buffs provided by Paladin (Greater Blessing of Kings) and Druids (Mark of the Wild> Improved Mark of the Wild – Talented), they offer a great supplement if you so happen to lack these classes in your group or raid make-up.

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by Messiah @tentonhammer

The Halls of Reflection is the third of the three new instances that make up the Frozen Halls in Icecrown Citadel.  The Halls were added in patch 3.3 which added all of the Icecrown Citadel content to the game.  You can only enter the Halls of Reflection once you have completed the other two instances: The Forge of Souls and The Pit of Saron.  This is so that you see and follow the whole storyline involved with finding the Lich King himself.

When you enter the Halls of Reflection you get to see a conversation between the spirits and Jaina Proudmoore (if you are Alliance) or Sylvanas Windrunner (if you are Horde), before the Lich King comes out to confront them.  Your faction’s champion chases after Arthas leaving you to deal with a gauntlet type event while fighting two bosses.

Falric

The first boss that you have to fight is Falric, one of Arthas’ old captains.  Before Falric activates and enters the fight you need to defeat four waves in the gauntlet.  The gauntlet consists of several different enemies.  The priority needs to be the Priests which heal, and the mages and riflemen who attack from range.  The others can easily be tanked.

To deal with controlling the enemies as they come in, you can fight in the hallway or behind one of the bosses.  This ensures that the enemies can not see the whole group and funnel into a choke point where the tank can pick them up.

Abilities

Defiling Horror – Falric yells out occasionally during the fight causing players to run in horror.  It also deals shadow damage to all players for 4 seconds that will take most players to below half health.

Hopelessness – This is a stacking debuff that Falric places on players that reduces the damage and healing dealt by 20% (25% on heroic).  It will stack up to three times on players as sort of a soft enrage.

Impending Despair – This attack hits a random part member and stuns them for several seconds.

Quivering Strike – This strike deals damage and lowers the target’s dodge by 20% for 5 seconds.<

Strategy

The fight is fairly simple, with the only real complication being the fear and soft enrage.  As time goes by his fear and DOT will be harder and harder to heal through after due to his debuff.  After a fear players that can prevent damage or heal some of the damage against themselves should, especially once hopelessness starts to stack to higher numbers.

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Jewelcrafting is often regarded as the most profitable profession, it produces many of the items which are high in demand. Jewelcrafting is widely known as a Gem Cutting profession, and while you can make quite a profit from simply cutting Gems, there are more options available to a Jewelcrafter wishing to maximize their income. The Prospecting ability can help a Jewelcrafter obtain Gems to cut, but there is also a demand for uncut gems.
Other profiting options can include Crafting Jewelry and most importantly the Jewelcrafting Daily.

Gem Cutting

There are various types and qualities of Gems, all have profiting potential, though some yield a much larger margin than others.

To reach your maximum profit potential, you will also want to sell Uncut Gems.

Epic Gems

Epic Gems are the greatest quality gem currently available, so it is no surprise they are high in demand. There are various gem cuts which can be bought with Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens earned through the Jewelcrafting Daily, it can be fairly overwhelming trying to decide which gem cut recipes are best to buy, which would sell best. Which you choose to buy will depend on the supply of Gems you have, as well as the market for that type on your server.

Raw Epic Gems can be obtained numerous ways: Prospecting Titanium Ore; bought with Emblem of Heroism (20 badges for primary colors: Red, Blue, Yellow; 10 badges for secondary colors: Orange, Purple, Green); bought with honor, 10k honor per gem (you can also gain extra honor buying Wintergrasp Commendations with 30x Stone Keeper’s Shards); you can have an Alchemist Transmute gems for you; also, Epic Gems can be found in Icy Prism, though the drop rate is not so great.

Now that you have a source of gems, what exactly do you focus on trying to sell? Which you sell will depend on your server and the current gem market. This is a listing of the more popular cuts of Epic Gems:

Red: Bold Cardinal Ruby / Delicate Cardinal Ruby / Fractured Cardinal Ruby / Runed Cardinal Ruby

Yellow: Brilliant King’s Amber / Quick King’s Amber / Smooth King’s Amber / Thick King’s Amber

Blue: Lustrous Majestic Zircon / Solid Majestic Zircon / Sparkling Majestic Zircon / Stormy Majestic Zircon

Orange: Accurate Ametrine / Deadly Ametrine / Etched Ametrine / Glinting Ametrine / Luminous Ametrine /Potent Ametrine / Reckless Ametrine / Stalwart Ametrine / Veiled Ametrine / Wicked Ametrine

Purple: Defender’s Dreadstone / Glowing Dreadstone / Puissant Dreadstone / Purified Dreadstone / Royal Dreadstone / Shifting Dreadstone / Sovereign Dreadstone

Green: Dazzling Eye of Zul / Enduring Eye of Zul / Jagged Eye of Zul / Seer’s Eye of Zul

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by Messiah @ tentonhammer

This section of the Death Knight guide is all about the gear you use and the improvements that you can apply to it.  You spend a lot of time leveling, questing, and raiding to earn your gear, but what is it that really makes a piece any good?  Which stats are good for which type of Death Knight?  Better yet, what can you do to make that gear even better?

We start this guide by looking at the basic and advanced stats that you will require as a Death Knight as both a DPS and Tanking character.  Since gear lists change all the time depending on your level or the current raid content you are working on, it is far more important to have a good understanding of the stats you are looking for rather than the pieces at that level or in that raid.

As a Death Knight, unlike most other classes, you can choose your role regardless of which talent tree you wish to focus on.  This means that unlike a Paladin tank that must spend most if his talent points on the Protection tree, as a Death Knight you can choose to tank with the majority of your points in any of your three talent trees.  The same holds true for DPS.  Each tree offers enough to make you viable as either DPS or Tank.

Basic Stats

Lets Start out by looking at the basic stats and see which is best for each type of Death Knight.  Remember though that these are only your basic stats – Strength, Stamina, Intellect, Agility, and Spirit, not your advanced stats.  The next section will cover your advanced stats and they are at least as important as the basics, if not more so.

DPS – As a DPS Death Knight your main goal is to get as much Strength as possible since it allows you to cause the most damage. Beyond the stats that come on the gear that bring you the most Strength, don’t even worry about other stats.

Tank – As a Tanking Death Knight your main stat will be Stamina to increase your health pool.   Strength is also a solid stat since it will up your damage output and therefore your threat, but it is a distant second from Stamina.
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There are a few key ways a Scribe can profit with their profession, though they will need a steady supply of herbs from the Auction House or a Herbalist. The primary purpose for a Scribe is to supply characters with class-specific Glyphs, though sometimes people will buy the materials to have a glyph crafted on their own. In addition to Glyphs, a Scribe can find profit in Selling Inscription Reagents, Crafting Vellums as well as Books.

Glyphs

Crafting and selling glyphs can become tedious to sell over time, but for those who are persistent, selling glyphs can provide a decent income source. Depending on your source of herbs, whether it is from a Herbalist or the Auction House. You will always end up with a greater profit if you farm the herbs yourself, you won’t need to spend gold to make gold, but you will be spending more time if you do choose to farm your own herbs.

Selling Inscription Reagents

There are always people who will buy the reagents for items to have it made themselves, Inscription Inks are no different. There may not always be the type of glyph a person may need on the Auction House, or said glyph may be too expensive. There are a few Inks which are more popular and used in more recipes than others: Ink of the Sea, Ethereal Ink, Shimmering Ink, Celestial Ink, Jadefire Ink, and Lion’s Ink. The Uncommon quality Inks are difficult to sell for the most part, though when the Darkmoon Faire is in town, they can be a popular reagent for those trying to obtain their Trinkets or Exalted with the Darkmoon Faire (required for the Insane in the Membrane achievement). Other than when the Faire is in town, it will be difficult to sell Uncommon Inks, with the exception of Snowfall Ink, which is used to craft Off-Hand weapon, Darkmoon Card of the North and used in Northrend Inscription Research.

Vellums

By far the most profitable items that a Scribe can craft are Vellums. Armor and Weapon Vellums allow an Enchanter to store their enchants, to be traded or sold on the Auction House. Selling Enchants through the use of Vellums has become very popular and convenient for both the Enchanter and the consumer. Enchanters need a supply of Vellums from a Scribe, and thats where you come in.

Both types of Vellums are fairly popular, though Weapon Vellums do tend to sell for more (dependant on server). There are three ranks of Vellums: the first rank allows you to store an Enchant that requires a level of 35 or lower; the second rank of Vellums allow you to store Enchants that require a level of 36-70; and the third rank of Vellums allow you to store Enchants that require a level of 60-80. These Vellums will hold their Enchant until it is cast on a target item, then the Vellum is consumed. Obviously, the third rank of Vellums are most popular with the majority of players being 60+, they are likely to sell quicker than the other ranks.

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