Raven Hill Raiders

I have no hard data, but my guess is that guild hopping has greatly decreased since the advent of guild reputation and perks. If you're going to leave a max-level guild that you are at least friendly with, you usually have a really good reason. In fact, I think many people stay in guilds far too long just because of the time investment in gathering reputation.

But guild levels haven't always been around, and many people who played before Cataclysm guild hopped. I've never been one for bopping from guild to guild. I like to get comfy in a guild and stick with it. Taking time to properly choose your guild helps, but sometimes guilds devolve into places you don't want to be. I've been rather lucky. Of course, the WoW Insider family of guilds is my main home, and it's a rather wonderful place to be.
Continue reading Breakfast Topic: How and why did you leave your previous guild?
Filed under: Guilds, Breakfast Topics
Breakfast Topic: How and why did you leave your previous guild? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...

Join us every weekday evening as Today in WoW runs down all the WoW news that you could possibly want. From comments from Blizzard's blues to the latest datamining info -- we've got you covered.

Zarhym's judge-ness been taken up to the Dredd degree.

Don't forget to check out The Daily Quest and our Weekly Podcast Roundup to find out what else is going on in the WoW community. And if you have a news tip, feel free to drop us a line and let us know.

• Blue posts
• WoW news from other sites
• News and features from WoW Insider
• Links from around the web

Continue reading Blue Posts: Account-wide achievements to work with non-MoP achievements, "Ask A CDev" soon
Filed under: Today in WoW
Blue Posts: Account-wide achievements to work with non-MoP achievements, "Ask A CDev" soon originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...

Patch 4.3.2 Hotfixes - February 7
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker
/ Official Forums
)
Dungeons and Raids
Dragon Soul

• After the instance is cleared, Crimson Lifebinder now resurrects the non-player characters at Wyrmrest Temple, and they are fully functional.
• Ultraxion
  • The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.

Events
Love is in the Air

• Players are now able to receive Lovely Charms while on the quest "Test Your Strength", when the player's inventory has both the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide and Lovely Charm Collector's Kit.
• Players now have the chance to receive both the Lovely Charm and Grisly Trophy from a single kill.

Lunar Festival

• Elder Dawnstrider now spawns farther away from nearby Flame Crest mobs.

Items

• Maw of the Dragonlord should now have its effect triggered by healing from Holy Word: Sanctuary.
• Windward Heart should now have its effect triggered properly by Healing Rain.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Account Wide Achievements
While we’re still working out many of the details regarding account-wide achievement functionality, I want to clarify that we plan for the system to apply to all achievements -- not just those added in Mists of Pandaria. It’s intended to be an overall change to the current achievement system.

Our goal is to make it so that you feel like you only have to get an achievement once. We think the time and effort you put into achievements should be evident regardless of which character you’re playing. The update will be implemented at the Battle.net level and, as such, would apply to all of the attached World of Warcraft licenses on the account. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Account Wide Achievements
I want everyone to be a bit cautious about their expectations as of yet. We still have a lot of details to work out in regard to how this will all work. Once we have more specific information to share on it, we'll let you all know. I don't want anyone to get too far ahead on things until we can share more and explain any possible "ifs", "ands", and "buts" with you all should there be any put in place. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Please Welcome Nyorloth!
In a break from tradition, I am not a member of the Community team; long have I gestated within the Story Development division of the Publishing Team, itself a division of Creative Development. My purposes here are myriad, but to mention a few:

• Increase the transparency of how we develop stories within our games and ancillary fiction.
• Encourage more constructive discussions of the lore, so that we may better understand your likes/dislikes in order to shape our future projects.
• To serve as a scapegoat for when something happens in the lore that you don’t like.

My eye has glimpsed the forming of an Ask CDev on the horizon... perhaps, even, Soon™! You would all do well to gather your questions now, in preparation for this momentous event. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blizzard Art Update
Blizzard added seven pieces to the Wrath of the Lich King art gallery. These pieces offer an inside look at the creative process behind building the Warcraft universe.


Curse Weekly Roundup
Pico is back to tell us about the things you might have missed in SWTOR, WOW, Soul Calibur V and Minecraft news recently.


Continue reading...

A fresh round of hotfixes landed tonight, including a pair that will relieve the pain of many achievement hunters and event celebrants this week. The following fixes are included in this round:

• Players are now able to receive Lovely Charms while on the quest "Test Your Strength", when the player's inventory has both the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide and Lovely Charm Collector's Kit.
• Players now have the chance to receive both the Lovely Charm and Grisly Trophy from a single kill.

Hit the break for the full list of tonight's hotfixes, including an Ultraxion trash nerf.
Continue reading Patch 4.3 hotfixes for Feb. 7, 2012
Filed under: Hotfixes
Patch 4.3 hotfixes for Feb. 7, 2012 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...

Dungeons and Raids Dragon Soul After the instance is cleared, Crimson Lifebinder now resurrects the non-player characters at Wyrmrest ...

Continue reading »

It wasn’t long ago since we first announced an approaching milestone. This awe-inspiring event -- sure to leave the planet standing still, its people in awe of the greatness -- is upon us. You may now collect your refreshing fountain drinks at ampm convenience stores in remarkable, limited-edition creations forged for just this purpose. Kil’jaeden, Illidan, the Lich King, and Deathwing have been memorialized on what are now the only drinking cups that have ever mattered. They will only wait so long for you to realize the growing thirst within you. They will not tolerate your failure to locate your nearest ampm.

Get your epic World of Warcraft cup today and become a part of history. Just don’t forget that, in this case, even history needs a straw.

No matter how much we may love playing with our guilds and friends, sometimes we just want to take some time off and play in single-player mode. However, with the pervasiveness of the RealID system, is it truly feasible to go off the grid to do this? Syl over at Raging Monkeys attempts to tackle this very problem, arguing enthusiastically that we should be allowed this option, that it would not only be convenient but also would benefit those relationships we have built both in-game and out.

Personally, I'm a bit torn on the issue. On the one hand, I can identify with this situation, as I have been there many times before. My own friends would always want to level alts together, but our goals for those characters never quite lined up. I'd find myself creating secret alts on another faction, sometimes on another server -- not only to experience more of the story and lore than I had before, but to just be alone. Of course, this was all before the RealID system was implemented, because after its debut, I was not able to start a new draenei paladin or blood elf rogue without being flooded with questions and, admittedly, a little guilt.

On the other hand, there is a very simple solution to all of this: Put your foot down. If someone asks why you're on Area 52 rolling a worgen warlock (or why you're even rolling a warlock in the first place, yuck), I think we all can agree that the best solution would be to honestly and delicately state that you need some time off, away from all of your in-game obligations -- including those inquiring minds. But is confronting your pursuers really that easy? For some, this type of thing comes naturally, and I for one am extremely envious of these people. For others, confrontation of this sort is not something we want to deal with, and the option to hide from RealID becomes a safe, albeit passive-aggressive, option.

What do you think? Is this a feature that Blizzard should be working on, or should these players find other means of enjoying the game in solitary peace?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard
Should there be a hide option for RealID? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, there is a cow level.

In November 2010, before Cataclysm hit, I wrote a series of articles on why (or why not) to play a particular druidic race for theorycrafting, lore, and roleplay purposes. These articles turned out to be a really big hit with readers, and you can find them here:

• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a night elf druid
• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a tauren druid
• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a worgen druid
• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a troll druid

This week, we're going to revisit the tauren, who are in a truly unique position among the druids. They don't represent the class' old guard (exclusively night elves), but neither are they truly among the new.
Continue reading Tauren druids at the end of Cataclysm
Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives
Tauren druids at the end of Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...

Break the Trees is a beautiful, cohesive music video; we don't see as many of these as we once did. Sharm provides the vocals, while the animation is created by Khayllys. The video is fairly short, only clocking in a little over two minutes.

My only real criticism of this music video is that the blur and glow effect felt a little overdone. Don't get me wrong -- the whole thing was lovely. But there's only so much blur and glow a man can take before his head starts hurting.

Even with that critique in place, though, I still enjoyed Break the Trees and fervently hope to see more like it in the future.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Filed under: WoW Moviewatch
WoW Moviewatch: Break the Trees originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. And be sure to catch the return of Basil and Fox's podcast, Call to Auction!

There's no question that time is a very powerful influencer of prices. Most typically, time affects prices via inflation, the natural and inevitable tendency of things today to cost more than things cost yesterday. But that's far from the only way that time affects prices. A Love Is In the Air holiday pet is likely going to be less expensive to buy now than if you wait nine months from now. The cost of i397 BoE gear is going to continue to decay right up to the launch of the next expansion.

It's not a phenomenon unique to the game, of course. Those Super Bowl cakes are going to be a lot cheaper at the supermarket today than they were on Saturday. And if you can wait until January to shop for your winter clothes, you're going to get a far better deal than if you do it in October. A lot of prices are cyclical.

But how do those cycles work in the game? If you're a buyer of mats, when should you head to the Auction House to grab what you need? If you're a seller of ore, should just skip listing it certain days to maximize your profits? Let's see what the data say.
Continue reading What days should you buy or sell on the Auction House?
Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped
What days should you buy or sell on the Auction House? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading...