Racials - Wrapup

Well, I'm not going into the Horde side racial abilities much at all. The purpose of the racial talents preview was to attempt to divine what Worgen and Goblins (if they were the new races) would have for racial abilities.

I've been to Blizzcon since I started the article.

So here they are:

Goblin Racial Abilities:

• +15 to Alchemy skills. Plus mana and health potions have a larger effect.
• Rocket Belt (barrage) shoots rockets and does damage
• Rocket Belt (charge) propels the goblin forward (these two share a cooldown)
• Best possible gold discounts from vendors regardless of reputation.

Worgen Racial Abilities:

• Speed Boost for the Worgen, much like a rogue's sprint or cat form prowl.
• +15 to Skinning skill. Plus the ability to skin faster
• 15% reduced duration of poisons and curses used against the Worgen
• 1% increased damage from all attacks

As everything announced about Cataclysm, these are subject to change. They also seem pretty darn good compared to some of the other races' abilities. In fact, it was mentioned that some other existing racial abilities might also get some revamping.

It seems like +15 is the new chosen "magic" number for skill increases, so I wouldn't be surprised to see any race that has intrinsic skill bonuses (i.e. Gnomes & Engineering, Draenei & Jewelcrafting, Blood Elves & Enchanting, Tauren & Herbalism) get their bonus buffed to 15 as well as add some other small effect like both the Worgen & the Goblins have.

All in all, quite an exciting development on the crafting front.

The Daily Grind - Jewelcrafting

There are several methods that Blizzard has adopted for crafter-types to learn the higher level recipes. For some you just buy them, for some you trade items associated with the trade (leather or shards) for the recipes, and for some you do daily quests.

Daily profession quests were introduced way back in Burning Crusade (cooking first and then fishing) so it is not a new concept. But what I'm going to talk a little about today is the daily quests associated with Jewelcrafting.

Before I go into the specifics, I'm going to take a small moment and whine. I hate these quests. I'm almost never planning to go to the sorts of places that the required items will drop and I'm forced to go out of my way to finish a daily quest. It's also not the sort of thing I can think about on the bus ride home, like "Hey. Maybe I'll do Skettis & Ogri'la today instead of the Island." Instead, I can go pick up the quest and the quest giver can tell ME where to go. I usually try to minimize travel times from Dalaran (Sholazar is over 6 minutes by air) so that I can get back to what I want to do.

At least, in general, the drop rates on the daily quest items isn't too bad. The thing I really object to is that recipes run from 2 tokens to 6 tokens in price. Assuming you only miss one day a week ever, you're only going to be learning between 1 and 3 recipes a week. And they are almost always yellow recipes at best. Sometimes they're even green or grey!

So here are the quests:

Blood Jade Amulet: This requires a Dark Jade and a Bloodstone from your stash and a drop from Vrykul all over Northrend. Since my jewelcrafter is level 80, I tend to head out to Storm Peaks for the Sons of Hodir rep anyway and you can't swing a dead cat around on a string without running into some Vrykul out there. Howling Fjord is also rife with Vrykul as well as southwest Grizzly Hills. Icecrown also has several Vrykul towns. My good friend over at You Wake It, has told me that there are no less than 4 static JC pattern drops in Storm Peaks so that might be the place to hit for this.

Bright Armor Relic: This requires a Bloodstone and a Huge Citrine from your stash and a drop from Elementals all over Northrend. There are elementals (both ice/earth and fire) in the vicinity of Dun Niffelem in the Storm Peaks that will drop this piece. My other favorite place is the volcano in Sholazar Basin (since the Saronite is plentiful in that zone.) There are also a whole slew of lower level elementals in Borean Tundra on the border with Sholazar if you're in that zone for some reason.

Glowing Ivory Figurine: This one needs a Shadow Crystal and a Chalcedony from your stash as well as a drop from a Shoveltusk from Northrend. The shoveltusk are pretty much restricted to Howling Fjord or the eastern side of Grizzly Hills. It seems like this one is just going to force you to a much too low zone to complete.

Intricate Bone Figurine: This one requires a Chalcedony, a Dark Jade and a proto-dragon bone. The bone comes from Proto-Dragons all over Northrend. There is a burning glade in both Howling Fjord and Sholazar Basin. In addition to these, you'll find these buggers in Storm Peaks, but at a much higher level.

Shifting Sun Curio: Yet another two gems required from you (this time a Sun Crystal and a Shadow Crystal) and a drop from Scourge. Now, if I have to tell you where to find Scourge then you've not actually played the expansion. They're everywhere. There are crash landed ziggurats in Zul'Drak and Borean Tundra. There are whole camps of them in Howling Fjord. They're attacking various dragon shrines in Dragonblight, not to mention menacing a town just below Naxxramas. They've invaded a mine in Grizzly Hills. They are snowboarding down an avalanche into Sholazar. And Ice Crown is just chock full of them. Finding Scourge shouldn't be a problem.

Wicked Sun Brooch: The last of the six quests requires a Huge Citrine, a Sun Crystal and a drop from Iron Dwarfs. These will come from Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills or Storm Peaks. I like the gully in Grizzly Hills, especially now that I can strafe them on flying mount.

And that's it for the daily quest. The final one I have to mention comes from a pretty rare drop from about any mob level 77 or higher. The item, a damaged necklace, isn't soulbound and may be traded or sold. It requires you turn that in, with a Chalcedony for a free JC Token.

Dalaran is the New Pink

Okay, bad pun in the title. But I've finally made it to Dalaran and thought I'd share ways in.

The One That Doesn't Work

There's a floaty run in the Crystal Song forest. Clicking on it (it gives you the gear icon) takes you up to Dalaran. Except, this won't work unless and until you've used the rune that's already inside Dalaran.

The Easy One

Just level. Once you hit 74, a Kirin Tor mage in one of the quest towns will have a quest open to you. You'll get an easy port to the city with a quest to activate the run inside so you'll be able to head up from Crystal Song Forest (see above).

The Cheaty Way

If you have someone in your guild (or friend's list) that is already in Dalaran, have them invite you to a party and queue for a battleground. Once you're in, /afk from the BG. *bam* You're in Dalaran.

So, now that you're here, what can you do. Well, just about everything. There are at least two inns (one for each faction) with portals to all the old cities including Shattrath. Additionally, there are portals to all five of the battlegrounds (including the new Strand of the Ancients). There are also profession trainers for every profession. There are places to fish (try the fountain), places to buy new mounts, places to trade in the "new" badges of justice for gear. And there are profession dailies. Oh Lord are there. My hunter is trying to do both the cooking and jewelcrafting daily each day. The really nice thing about these (over the ones for fishing and cooking in and around Shattrath) are that the rewards are non-random. You get a token (it appears on your currency tab of the character sheet). Once you have saved enough tokens you can buy exactly the recipe you want. In time, I suspect, I'll get them all. But it's going to be very nice to be able to cook the food my hunter wants to eat for dungeons instead of relying on my guild. Same with the gems--I can buy the Agility/Haste/Attack Power gems first and fill in the holes later on.

I've only two characters who've made it to Shattrath so I'm not sure how recipes are acquired for other professions. It appears that cooking and jewelcrafting work as above. Enchanting seems to allow you to trade enchanting materials (shards) for recipes. And tailoring looks like you just buy stuff the old fashioned way. I cannot speak for engineering, leatherworking, blacksmithing or inscription yet. But I do know the Heavy Frostweave Bandage is a drop from instances.

Back to the leveling, I guess. Have fun out there.

Crafting Etiquette

I've heard lots of folks say "I'm not paying anyone to just push a button" in reference crafting. This attitude is just wrong.

Before you accuse someone of gouging you on a button push, consider this. Training of a skill costs money in terms of both initial outlay, incremental upgrades (journeyman, apprentice, artisan, etc.), trainer patterns, and patterns purchased at the auction house. Additionally, the vast majority of crafting professions have vast wastelands where a crafter is only making an item for the points. The resulting item is not useful at all. Each of those "point grind" items has a real cost in materials to make it. If each item were purchased, any crafting profession costs easily 1000 gold to level to 375. And honestly, I think the total for most professions is closer to 2k.

"But, they can pick their own mats up" I hear you decry. Yes, if an alchemist is also an herbalist, herbs can be collected as you level. But, the odds are that you're not going to have every herb available when you need to do that points grind and get the skill ranked up. Some of them will be purchased. And even if they aren't purchased outright, there is a cost (in time) associated with veering off the leveling path to "just get this Steelbloom" or "nab a point from this tin vein." These are microscopic time transactions. Keep in mind some MMO models actually fund themselves through microscopic monetary transactions.

I love crafting. It's a part of the game that I enjoy immensely. I get a sense of accomplishment from reaching crafting goals. I also like being able to make the things that my friends and guildmates need. I have never leveled a character who was not a crafter. But I don't like people I don't know assuming that because I can cut a Solid Star of Elune (which takes getting jewelcrafting to at least 350 and getting the pattern at somewhere between 700 and 1200 gold on my server) that I should just cut them for anyone who can ask. And if I do cut one for someone I don't know, I sort of expect to be tipped.

So, when you're finding a crafter for something you need made, here's what you should keep in mind.

1. Always offer a tip (even to guildies). I never take money from guildies for "pushing a button" and even give away cooldowns.
2. If you're supplying the materials, supply ALL the materials. Yes, this includes the thread, flux, vials and what not. You'd be surprised how much I've spent making things for friends who've "forgotten" to send the vials. If you aren't supplying the vendor bought materials like this, your tip should be sufficient to cover that cost as well.
3. If you're expecting the crafter to supply a material because they can also collect it, you should increase your tip.
4. If you can't be bothered to travel to the crafter (because you're hearthstone is on cooldown or you're just that lazy) your tip should cover the opportunity cost for the crafter. If they have to burn a cooldown on their hearthstone, you should be paying big time.
5. If they are crafting something for you that is quite rare (think under a 2% static droprate) you should increase your tip even further.
6. If you're supplying NO materials to the crafter, I think it'd be fair to pay AH prices. And then adjust upward if they're traveling to you.
   

Considering those criteria, I wouldn't think it was out of the ordinary to expect 20G on a gem cut or enchant if I had to travel to you to perform it. If it's something like the enchant that drops off of Ahune, I'd expect to pay 5 times that.

So remember. It's not just a button push. They spent their real gold and time to level up to 375. IF you think you're entitled to reaping the fruits of their labor freely, perhaps you should have leveled that skill on YOUR character.

Enchanting Recipes by Faction

I keep track about where my traffic is coming from. You'd be surprised at the number of searches that got folks to my page based on my enchanting drop recipe article last week. In the interest of providing further information I've compiled some rep based recipes, the rep level needed and what you can get.

I hope this helps.

Honor Hold/Thrallmar
This reputation will come from completing quests in Hellfire Peninsula and running Hellfire Citadel dungeons. Above Honored, you'll either need to run Shattered Halls or the Heroic versions of Ramparts or Blood Furnace.

• Enchant Bracer - Superior Healing (at friendly)
• Enchant Cloak - Subtlety (at exalted)

Cenarion Expedition
This reputation comes from all over the Outland. If you only perform the repeatable Unidentified Plant Parts quests until Honored, you'll definitely have a head start. There are quests in Zangarmarsh, Terrokar and Blade's Edge. Slave Pens and Underbog will also give rep until honored (above that they must be heroic). Steamvaults will give rep in either heroic or normal.

• Enchant Gloves - Spellstrike (at revered)
• Enchant Cloak - Stealth (at exalted)

Lower City
This reputation will come from a few quests in Shattrath city, at the caravan in the Bone Wastes and from Auchindoun dungeons Auchenai Crypts (until honored, then must be heroic), Setthek Halls and Shadow Labyrinth. There is also a repeatable Arakkoa Feather turn in (30 at a time) until honored.

• Enchant Ring - Stats (at honored)
• Enchant Cloak - Dodge (at exalted)

The Consortium
This reputation comes from up to four repeatable quests (ivory tusks, Oshugun fragments, obsidian war beads and Zaxxis insignias), quests in Nagrand (a few), quests in Netherstorm (Area 52, Stormspire and Ethereum Staging Grounds), Mana Tombs (until honored) or Mana Tombs heroic.

• Enchant Cloak - Spell Penetration (at friendly)
• Enchant Weapon - Striking (at honored)
• Enchant Ring - Weapon Might (at revered)

The Sha'Tar
This reputation comes from a few quests in Terrokar (western edge of Bone Wastes), sympathetic reputation from Aldor or Scryers, or running any of the Tempest Keep dungeons (Botanica, Mechanar or Arcatraz).

• Enchant Gloves - Major Healing (at friendly)
• Enchant Ring - Healing Power (at revered)
• Enchant Weapon - Major Healing (at revered)
• Enchant Gloves - Threat (at exalted)

The Violet Eye
This reputation comes from Karazhan quests and killing mobs inside Karazhan.

• Enchant Weapon - Greater Agility (at exalted)

The Keepers of Time
This reputation comes from the few quests in the Caverns of Time in Tanaris or running Old Hillsbrad and Black Morass.

• Enchant Gloves - Major Spellpower (at honored)
• Enchant Ring - Spellpower (at honored)
  
• Enchant Gloves - Superior Agility (at exalted)

Shattered Sun Offensive
This reputation comes from the hundreds of daily quests introduced with 2.4. Running Magister's Terrace at either normal or heroic also gives reputation.

• Enchant Chest - Defense (at honored)
• Voidshatter (at honored)

This should give you some idea which reputation is most important for you to grind. If you're lucky the enchanting drop you're farming is also giving you the reputation you need!

Enchanting Drop Recipes

In the interest of continuing the thread from last week about where to find the bind-on-pickup recipes for a trade, I present where to find the enchanting recipes. These are all bind-on-pickup, and sadly, a larger percentage of these seem to come from instances (and raids). Gathering up the missing recipes is not necessarily an activity that a solo player can undertake.

Non-Instance BOP Drops

Netherstorm
Netherstorm is home to three enchanting drops, all from specific mobs.

• Enchant Bracer - Major Defense: This drops from the Ethereum Jailers and Ethereum Nullifiers. These mobs are located in the vicinity of Manaforge Ultris.
• Enchant Cloak - Greater Shadow Resistance: This drops from Voidshriekers also around Manaforge Ultris
• Enchant Weapon - Major Intellect: The Sunfury Researchers control the market on this enchant. They are around one of the manaforges (I think Coruu).

Blade's Edge Mountain
Blade's Edge has a pair of enchanting recipes. Be aware, that for one of these you'll need to be 70 and have a flying mount.

• Enchant Bracer - Spellpower: This drops from the Bloodmaul Geomancers in the Southern part of the zone. If you are already attuned for Ogri'la quests, these mobs will be yellow to you and you'll need to clear less trash.
• Enchant Weapon - Major Spellpower: The Bash'ir Spell Thieves have this recipe. They are in the same area as the stolen mana battery daily, so it may be worth grinding on them at the same time as the battery quest.

Shadow Moon Valley
Shadow Moon only has the Enchant Cloak - Greater Arcane Resistance from the Eclipsion Archmages.

Instances

• Mana Tombs - Etheral Priests drop Enchant Boots - Fortitude.
• Auchenai Crypts - Raging Skeletons drop Enchant Boots - Dexterity.
• Steamvaults - Coilfang Oracles drop Enchant Bracers - Fortitude
• Shattered Halls - Shattered Halls Centurions (there are only 4) drop Enchant 2H Weapon - Savagery
• Arcatraz - Eredar Deathbrings (again, only a few of these mobs) drop Enchant 2H Weapon - Major Agility
• Magister's Terrace - Delrissa (the third boss) drops Enchant Cloak - Steelweave
• Karazhan - Wow FOUR enchanting recipes. Here they are (most from bosses):

1. Phantom Stagehand - Enchant Boots - Surefooted
2. Terrestrian Illhoof - Enchant Weapon - Soulfrost
3. Shade of Aran - Enchant Weapon - Sunfire
4. Moroes - Enchant Weapon - Mongoose

So, that's that. I've not mentioned the BOE world drops, I think this is quite enough of a list for now. Good luck in your farming

Interlude - Now that you've dinged

BBB wrote today about how Mrs. BBB dinged 70 and feels there's nothing left to do solo anymore. Just to give a little insight into what I have done since dinging...

• Grind Consortium Reputation. You can choose to either kill ogres in Nagrand for their war beads which the Consortium guys are happy to take or kill the Ethereal dudes just south of Area 52 in Netherstorm.
• Finish quests. If the ding actually occurred last week, there is probably a whole zone's worth of quests to see to. Many of them will be solo-able. There's good money there until you hit the group quests.
• Grind Scryer (or Aldor) Reputation. There are just a ton of mobs that will drop the Signets or Marks you need not to mention Arcane Tomes and Fel Armaments.
• Work on Tradeskills. Don't forget also your secondaries like cooking, fishing and first aid.
• Primals, Primals, Primals. There's a good market and many will be needed for crafting and enchanting.
• Grind recipes. There are a number of BOP recipes for a number of trades that drop from specific mobs in the wild. Find out where they are and begin committing genocide until they drop what you need.
• Since Mrs. BBB is a rogue, grind lockpicking up until 350 (if it's not already there)

That's just a short list. Hope some of it helped

Buff that Weapon!

I think we're all pretty well aware of weapon enchants. The stuff you pay someone to do and put your weapon in the "Do Not Trade" portion of a trade window. They add a permanent (until overwritten) effect to your weapon. What we all sometimes overlook is other weapon buffs that can be applied.

First off, the folks most familiar with the sorts of weapon buffs I'm speaking of are rogues. Ever since level 20 (or was it 22?) rogues have been able to apply poison to their weapons. And lord do those poisons come in a wide variety of types - instant, deadly, anesthetic, crippling, mind numbing, and wound. All for different purposes.

Shamans are also quite familiar with weapon buffs in the form of spells (and eventually totems). Each shaman weapon buff also does a wide variety of things.

But that's not all. No way.

Next we get into weapon buffs produced by various tradeskills.

• Alchemy produces some oils that go on weapons, like [Frost Oil], [Oil of Immolation], or [Shadow Oil].
  
• Enchanting can make both Mana Oils (for mana regeneration) and Wizard Oil (for spell damage). The earliest versions of these oils are available at under 100 enchanting.
  
• Blacksmiths make both weight stones (for blunt weapons) and sharpening stones (for edged weapons).

Now, if you're not one of these professions, it's not a big deal if you're not leveling with these things on your weapons, I'm not going to come hunt you down. But there's no reason to NOT use them if you do have the skills. Especially since weapon buffs like this persist through death. However, if you're doing raids or are an appropriate level twink, you really need to have this stuff on your weapon. I mean, you need every bit of oomph you can pump out, right?

Rogues, at least, may want to consider swapping out poisons for stones in the event you're fighting a lot of nature based enemies or a lot of elementals. Many nature based mobs are immune to poisons, and I think every elemental is. So, when you're heading to Dire Maul or Zul'Gurub, consider stocking up on stones instead.

Tradeskills

I like trades. There's just no getting around it. If I were starting a new character, I'd answer firstly what race and class I wanted to play. But shortly after that, I'd turn my eye to what the new guy's trade skills should be.

For me, at least, I turn an eye towards what I think this character's end-game goal will be. Do damage? Tank? Heal? Sometimes this all backfires on me, and I end up totally re-doing a trade from 1.

For instance, on my priest. I chose alchemy and herbalism. This priest was destined to be a healer (in fact at the time, I'm not sure Shadow was viable end-game) and I knew he'd need buffs from elixirs and lots of potions. Being able to transmute the arcanite for my blacksmith was also a bonus. Since I didn't have another source or herbs, I chose herbalism as his secondary. When Burning Crusade came out, I didn't change his trades. With further examination of the Primal Mooncloth pieces, I had no real choice but to respec him to tailoring (dropping herbs). But I've discussed all this before. I guess, in short, my step one is look at what BOP items can be made that match the perceived role for this guy.

Secondly, I look at racials. For the race I've chosen, is there something that is just too good to pass up (engineering for gnomes, for instance). That's how my gnome warlock wound up being an engineer.

Third, I look at what other skills or class abilities form a nice complement. Rogues always have vials around for poisons, so alchemy seems like a viable choice.

Now we get to secondaries. Is there any reason to not have cooking and first aid? I think not. You're going to pick up TONS of cloth on your level up process. More probably than you can use even if you're a tailor. Make bandages. Do it. You won't regret it. And there are several cooking quests (at least on alliance side) that fit in nicely with the normal grind up. And having a food buff is soooooooooo good.

I rarely level fishing. That skill is probably at most 75 on most of my characters. Only one guy has nudged it all the way up. And the memory of the pain of that grind is still so fresh, that I cannot convince myself to do otherwise.

So, here's where I'd probably put skills if I were making toons today:

• DRUID - Probably skinning, leatherworking. Make nice equipment end-game.
• HUNTER - Mining. Either Engineering (make your own ammo) or Blacksmithing (make your own armor)
• MAGE - Tailoring. Second choice could be any gathering skill or enchanting. I'd likely go enchanting.
• PALADIN - Mining. Blacksmithing. Speciality for BS chosen based on role.
• PRIEST - Tailoring. Second choice could be any gathering skill or enchanting. I'd likely go enchanting.
• ROGUE - Either Skinning/Leatherworking or Herbalism/Alchemy.
• SHAMAN - No honest clue. Currently my baby shaman is Mining/Skinning.
• WARLOCK - Taloring. Second choice could be any gathering skill or enchanting. I'd likely go enchanting.
• WARRIOR - Mining. Probably blacksmithing. The speciality for BS would be based on the end-game role.

Several people that I know end up doing two gathering skills. This is great for money making. However, if you're ever going back to pick up a creation rather than a gathering skill, I strongly recommend that you look at a 1-375 guide at the start and "save" all the materials you'll need to make a quick run in the bank. It will make it much less painful than actually going back and collecting all the materials.

Please remember, what I've listed are just the choices *I* would make. Please don't feel that these are the only viable choices. Trade skills really are all up to what you want to do.

1878 Healing

I made the final piece of my primal mooncloth set last night. Now, only buffed by myself, my healing is at 1878. Raid buffed with Blessing of Kings and Gift of the Wild, it would be higher. Probably much higher. Maybe approaching 2,000.

As my healing has continued to go up, I've made small adjustments to my raid consumables. When I was an itty-bitty healer just starting out in Karazhan, my healing was somewhere around 1150. Yes, I know that's probably low, gimme a break. At that time I was squeezing every drop of +heal out of consumables that I could. I ate Golden Fishsticks like they were candy; I washed them down with huge quaffs of Elixir of Healing Power. It was before the great alchemy nerf of 2007, so I was actually drinking a lot of elixirs. Sort of like some 21-year old co-ed at a fraternity mixer.

As my healing began to grow on gear alone, I've begun to swap my consumables. I've been trying to do the Ego thing and get more into mana regeneration. I've gone to Blackened Sporefish as my food. And Elixir of Mastery and Draenic Wisdom. Self buffed, I'm at around 378 mana regen--without potions mind you.

I guess the point of the post is three-fold:

1. To brag about my final set of primal mooncloth
2. To discuss how your consumables needs change as your gear does
3. To post on a Sunday in November for NaBloPoMo

Seven Potions

This is one for the alchemists out there. Once you're in the Outlands and leveling alchemy past 300, there are exactly seven alchemy recipes that are Bind on Equip (i.e. sell-able or purchasable at Auction House) that are world drops. So, getting one (let alone ALL) of these things is pretty much incredibly lucky or very costy.

So, here are the seven.

[Insane Strength Potion] - Increases strength by 120 and decreases defense by 75 for 15 seconds.
[Elixir of the Searching Eye] - Increases stealth detection for 10 minutes.
[Haste Potion] - Increase haste rating by 400 for 15 seconds.
[Destruction Potion] - Increases Spell critical chance by 2% and spell damage by 120 for 15 seconds.
[Heroic Potion]- Increases strength by 70 and health by 700 for 15 seconds.
[Elixir of Major Mageblood]- Gives you 16 mana regeneration every five seconds (Guardian Elixir).
[Elixir of Empowerment] - Decrease magical resistance of your spell targets by 30 for 60 minutes (Guardian Elixir).

Of these, my alchemist has found ONE. The Empowerment one. Boy do I feel lucky

Getting Ready for End Game

One of my co-workers asked me to write something about "what you do between 60 and the end game." He went on to say "I've got the leveling game down, but I'm not sure what lies ahead of me."

And he does have the leveling part down. At least up to mid forties. He's got (at most recent count) 24 alts of various levels. He has also never played old-world end-game. His newbie druid was merely level 20 when Burning Crusade came out. He never had to worry about attunements for Molten Core, Onyxia, Blackwing Lair & Naxxramas. He never spent too much money on raid consumables. He never spent weeks learning a particular encounter. He is a raid noob.

So, let me answer his questions the best I can. There are a couple things that would-be raiders need to keep in mind. There are also a couple of questions you should already have answered.

Questions:

1. What is my end-game spec? Will I heal or DPS or tank?
2. What are the five most important stats for my end game build? Can I order these hierarchically?
3. Am I ready to be away from the "Old World" cities for long stretches? Can I avoid going to the auction house, bank, trainers in the Old World? Do I have an alt that can perform these duties for me?
4. Have I done some research about what gear I'd like to pick up from various quests, instances, mobs? Someone wrote an awesome guide to having a wish list on their blog and dummy me, I can't find the post. But its out there.
   

Having answered these questions, it's time to take the plunge into Outland Questing. The thing that is most different, and hardest to understand for a player coming from Azeroth is how important reputation is. Reputation rewards offer recipes, enchants, and gear that are the best pre-raid (and sometimes early raid) choices. At least five of those factions also offer heroic versions of their dungeons. For most of the factions there is an early quest that turns into a repeatable quest. As I mentioned when writing about the Cenarion dudes it's important to do those quests at the exclusion of others from the same faction, until you stop getting reputation for the repeatable one. Some of the factions are more optional, clearly benefiting some class or tradeskill over others. Here's a quick list of factions and the items they accept:

• Cenarion Expedition - Unidentified Plant Parts
• Sporeggar - Bog Lord Tendrils, Fertile Spores
• Lower City - Arakkoa Feathers
• Kurenai/Mag'har - Ogre Warbeads
• Consortium - Elekk Tusks, Oshu'gun Crystal Fragment, Ogre Warbeads, Zaxxis Badge, Ethereum Prison Keys
• Scryers - Firewing Signets, Sunfire Signets, Arcane Tomes
• Aldors - Mark of Kil'jaeden, Mark of Sargeras, Fel Armament
• Sha'Tar - Either of the Aldor or Scryer turnins

The next thing to consider is your crafting professions. Everyone should have first aid. And cooking. And probably *ugh* fishing. I'd take the time before heading to Outlands to level cooking and first aid to 300 minimum. Cooking finally makes real sense post 300 giving some of the best food buffs to date.

If you've got a gathering skill, please be 300 skill in it before coming to Outland. That way you can level it as you level from 60-70.

That said, get out there and level. The quests in Outlands are located in a few quest hubs for the most part. Get a bunch, group them as best you can and get out there and do them. Keep an eye out for dungeon quests and do them level appropriate. A nice change from the "Old World" is that most dungeon quests are picked up right outside the dungeon. And there's usually only 2 or 3 for a particular instance.

Here's my guidance on when you can do certain dungeons.

• Hellfire Ramparts & Blood Furnace - 58-60
• Slavepens & Underbog - 61-63
• Auchenai Crypts - 64-66
• Mana Tombs - 66-67
• Old Hillsbrad/Durnholde - 67-68
• Setthek Halls - 68-70
• Shadow Labyrinth - 70
• Shattered Halls - 70
• Steamvaults - 70
• Black Morass - 70
• Mechanar, Botanica, Arcatraz - 70

Another thought. When you hit 68, PLEASE go to Karazhan in Deadwind Pass (by Darkshore/Swamp of Sorrows) and do the pre-requisite quests for Karazhan attunement. You'll very quickly get to collecting key fragments from Shadow Labyrinth, Steamvaults & Arcatraz. If you have the quests the first time you go in there, you'll be better off.

During the 60-70 grind you should be saving money for mounts. If you already have your epic ground mount, you're that much ahead. If not, you'll need to buy that. But at 70, you need to have the 900 gold for flying mount & training. All of the Tempest Keep Instances (Mechanar, Botanica, Arcatraz) are locked out unless you can fly up to them. Summoning doesn't work. Which effectively puts a cap on your progress until you can get the mount. See my articles on mounts for more information

And eat first...

While I was leveling all of my characters took up cooking. The tiny buff it gave (although at level 5, +4 Stamina/+4 Spirit is not "small") made that grind a little easier. And I'm so glad I did. Because now I have access to some of the most required buffs for heroics/raids. I've recapped the various buffs you can get from foods and who I think might benefit. (Note: These are only the Outland recipes because that's where I am. A list of lower level food could be ascertained by visiting any of the big data sites or Kaliope's Crafting Blog.)

• Hunters/Melee DPS:

1. Ravager Dog (+40 Attack Power, +20 Spirit)
2. Grilled Mudfish, Warp Burger (+20 Agility, +20 Spirit)

• Casters:

1. Blackened Sporefish (8 mana/5 seconds, +20 Spirit)
2. Poached Bluefish, Blackened Basilisk (+23 spell damage, +23 Spirit)
3. Crunchy Serpent (+23 spell damage, +20 Spirit)
   

• Healers:

1. Blackened Sporefish (8 mana/5 seconds, +20 Spirit)
2. Golden Fishsticks (+44 Healing, +20 Spirit)

• Tanks (Warriors - Paladins might like caster food and druids think about melee food)
  

1. Roasted Clefthoof (+20 Strength, +20 Spirit)
   

• Anyone:

1. Buzzard Bites, Clambar, Feltail Delight, Talbuk Steak (+20 Stamina, +20 Spirit)
2. Spicy Crawdad, Fisherman's Feast (+30 Stamina, +20 Spirit)

If you leveled fishing and cooking these buffs take nothing but a few minutes to get. If you stick to the non-fishing variety there's also something for everyone. Heck, get a fellow guild member to cook for you if necessary. It's polite to provide them with the raw materials though if you're asking them to cook, for instance, in the entry hall of Karazhan too. Most of the above recipes don't require any materials other than the meat/fish.

Most of the ingredients are completely easy to figure out, but if you need to check out Kaliope's Crafter's Tome if you need to know for sure what the ingredients are.

Pulling Weeds and Hemming

For anyone following, on Friday, my warlock who had previously dropped mining was up to 117 herbalism and the priest had begun to accumulate cloth in preparations for starting the sewing.

By Saturday evening, Bremette the warlock was at 325 herbalism. I chose to stop her here because that's the first time she could pick Terocone. And the big herbs I use on a regular basis in alchemy only go up to Terocone. Sure I use Netherbloom, Nightmare Vine and Mana Thistle, but not as much as the triumvirate of Felweed, Dreaming Glory, and Terocone. So I just stopped.

Enter Bremm the priest. On his way through Stormwind City he was unlearning his herbalism. After a quick trip to the mailbox to pick up stockpiled linen and wool, he was off to train. And away we go. Boy do those points fly by when you're getting a point for every stinking bolt of linen you make. Unfortunately, it really starts slowing down fast. And Blizzard...why oh why do you make us run out of the newbie tailoring area, up the hill, around the corner and into another shop? I bet I looked around for 3 minutes before I finally went back and actually read what the NPC said. Anyway training-sewing-training-sewing.

*BAM*

I ran out of silk.

Quick run through Scarlet Monastery for guildies with me getting all the cloth and I'm back in business.

*BAM*

I ran out of runecloth.

Quick run through Scholomance for guildies with me getting all the cloth and I'm back in business.

*BAM* - Wait, no sound effects this round. By this time, the call had gone out that I was doing this and the donations started rolling in. I got netherweave from just about EVERYONE. Big donations were Baby, Larilex, Nightchills, and (god love him) Werenal.

Recap: I'm at 362 Tailoring and waiting on getting some netherweb spider silk and the lock's herbalism has hit 350. Not a bad weekends work.

Three miners walk into a bar...

So I finally decided that my current crop of maximum level characters had silly tradeskills:

• Bremm (70 Priest) 375 Herbalism/375 Alchemy
• Bremette (70 Warlock) 375 Mining/370ish Engineering
• Brehm (70 Warrior) 375 Mining/350ish Blacksmithing
• Bremagorn (70 Hunter) 375 Mining/375 Jewelcrafting

Q: What's wrong with this picture?
A: My holy priest doesn't have tailoring and can't wear the "best" healing gear

Seriously.

The easiest solution, of course, is to drop one of my priest's skills and level tailoring. So that's what I did. But since I'm specced for elixirs and have discovered a handful of alchemy recipes I didn't want to give that up. Must be I'm dropping herbalism.

But, how am I going to make potions when I don't have any raw materials? Buy them at the AH? You jest. So I need to drop herbalism on my priest and pick up tailoring. Additionally, I'm dropping mining from one of my THREE (yeah. wow) miners and pick up herbalism. Then the herbalist can feed the alchemist. The two miners can supply for all three crafts requiring metal, and the priest can get busy sewing.

So far, I've dropped mining on the lock and started herbalism. Weed pulling commenced in Elwynn forest (sorry lowbies if a gnome warlock on a dreadsteed zoomed by and ninjaed all your herbs) and she's at 117 herbalism. I'm hoping to have her up to 375 by the end of the weekend when I can drop my herbalism on the priest and start the slow craft of sewing.

I looked at a guide for tailoring. This is going to take a LOT of cloth. Good thing I'm planning to run guildies through low instances for the moderate price of "all your cloth are belong to me."

Hope it works.