Hallows End 2018 Daily Tricky Treat Rotation

So, with Hallows End upon is and Ancient Heirloom Armor Casing, Timeworn Heirloom Armor Casing and Weathered Heirloom Armor Casing up for grabs at 250-450 Tricky Treats you have a lot of running around and a lot of daily quests to be doing.

If, like me, you have ten thousand alts and you want them all to experience the joys of a trip to the dentist with rotten teeth than you had better get your daily routine stream-lined. Luckily for you I have done it here.

Check out the 'Hag'. I don't know about you but I'd give her one, or two, or three!

Notes for low levels
If you don't have the garrison or it's not high enough level, then skip it and hearth to Dalaran after the dungeon instead, if you have not got Dalaran yet then you will not be able to get to the Wicked Witch and you could run to Undercity from Andhoral but I don't think it's worth the time and effort.

Pick up the heirloom toys to grab a basic set of flighpoints: To Modernize the Provisioning of Azeroth and Surviving Kalimdor.

Pre-requisites for Dailies

• Hearthstone set to Bradensbrook in Valsharah.
• Dalaran Hearthstone.
• Garrison Hearthstone.
• Stormwind Hearthstone Cloak.

One offs.

• Make sure you pick up the nougat quest before running around the inns.
• Whilst in New Dalaran grab “Beware of the Crooked Tree” from Duroc Ironjaw next to the candy bucket in the Legerdemain lounge, also grab the candy bucket!
• Grab the candy bucket from your faction Inn in Dalaran.
• You’ll probably need to fly to Bradensbrook the first time to set you Hearthstone there. (Don’t worry about Boralus, you can get back there from the Stormwind Portal Room).
• Then hand in the Crooked Tree quest before doing the daily.

Dailies

1. Start off at Goldshire Inn
2. Collect “Stop the Fires!” or “Let the Fires Come!” quests.  If it’s not available because the Pumpkin quest is active, wait for it to despawn then /reload.
3. Put out the fires, starting with the Forge chimney and working anti-clockwise.
4. If the horseman is currently being fought on the ground grabbing the Let the Fires Come quest may auto-complete.
5. Head to the Gates of Stormwind
6. Collect all quests
7. Talk to Gertrude Fenlow to go to the Undercity
8. Once you’ve started flying queue for the Headless Horseman
9. Continue with Bombing Undercity
10. If the Headless Horseman queue pops wait until the last possible second before clicking Enter Dungeon (You will NOT enter dungeon yet).
11. Say in /i or /p “Just waiting to dismount from the undercity broom”
12. Finish the bombing and click the Return button.
13. As soon as you dismount, click on group finder icon and select “Teleport to Dungeon”
14. Moan in /i or /p about how long it took to dismount from the broom whilst lol-rolling the HH
15. When the Headless Horseman dies use your GARRISON Hearthstone.
16. (If the dungeon hasn’t popped yet start clearing up the stink bombs in Stormwind until lit it pops, then carry out the step above).    
17. Collect the four Garrison quests and fly to Socrethar’s Rest.
18. Lol-roll the quests and fly back to your garrison and hand them in
19. Hearthstone to Bradensbrook.
20. Fly North west to the Hag of the Crooked Tree at 35,56 and accept the quest.
21. Click on the Crooked Tree Cauldron to accept her curse and enter the weird realm and go kill the witch Aria Sorrowheart.
22. Remember to interrupt Aria’s Scream
23. Loot one of the sisters hats (hopefully)
24. Hearthstone to Dalaran, enter the Chamber of the Guardians and use the portal. Go all the way to the bottom and select the middle portal on the right (Dalaran Center).
25. As soon as you spawn use your Magic Broom or fall to the ground and use you normal mount
26. Head North to Undercity
27. Land just before and to the left of the Wickerman and stand at the near end of the bridge
28. Use your dousing agent
29. Ensure quest complete pops then use your Stormwind cloak to return to Stormwind.
30. Leave the Stormwind portal room and do/finish the Clean Up Stormwind quest as you head back to the gates.
31. Click the fire to the left of the gates then head over the road and hand all the quests in.
32. Head back to the Goldshire Inn and log out until tomorrow.

New For Hallows End 2018

headless-horsemans-hearthstone

WTFinWoW - 7

WTFinWoW - 6

Now Darkshore totally Back to Normal

Looks like that nigh elf vanguard has now gone from Lor'Danel.

Guess they've gone to hold Tyrande's hand in Storwind.

Another Alt Beats Marcus to 111

I started off today playing Ballsax the Demon Hunter. I really am doing my usual prevarication when it comes to levelling my main!!

I didn't even start him off in Kul Tiras, like yesterday I took him back to Legion to clear out alll his bags and quest log.

By 13:33 I had finished up Azshuna and 20 minutes later done the Azshara dungeon quest knocked off.

I then pop back onto Burn to do some more mining and questing in Stormsong and get his second piece of Azerite Armour.

Marcus is really getting behind!

Oops - 2 Levels Ahead of Marcus

Not learning my lesson about my main being behind the levelling of one of my own alts I continued with Burnsprocket.

First of all I took him back to Legion and either dumped pointless quests or completed certain quest lines to clear up his quest log and empty stuff from his bags.

By 15:00 he just about finished up in Legion and managed to clock up the 2000 quest achievement.

Next he moved back to Stormsong Valley and mined a load more ore.

Before I knew it he was level 112 and got the 'Got My Mind on my Money' achievement.

Burnsprocket Does Freehold

Not happy with the mage dinging 111 before Marcus I sent him into a dungeon too. He whizzed through Freehold.

He didn't managed to catch the oiled up pig but he still managed to finish up with some upgrades and a shiny achi!

Oh and he finished at leet o'clock!

Another Logic Screw Up

I was still on my mage doing some mining and the local quests when I did the Bombs Away quest. This has you collect 8 bobs from round and about and then plant the, 4 at a time, to blow up horde demolishers.

Well, I think they changed this quest half way through development and then forgot to update the quest text appropriately.

I reckon, the originally intended for you to bring the bobs back and then go off on another quest to plant them, but then put it all into one quest. Why?

You'll see in this completion text that the bombs look particularly nasty? What? I've already used them to bob the demolishers!

1000 Free Wakening Essence

So a lot of the levelling guides suggest you go to the mythic chest to grab you free 1000 Wakening Essence and buy another legendary.

Well, you can't. That was purely for the week that there was a screw up with the Mythic chests and it was compensation.

Oops - It Wasn't My Main to Ding 111 First. Subtite: Insightful Rubelite XP Gem

So, having started off well with Marcus and getting 8 bars in 1.5 hours last night I hopped on this morning and re-evaluated the levelling options.

One of which was the Insightful Rubelite gem. I checked on the Auction House and they were going for 2,500 gold - WOWZERS!

So rather than continue levelling I thought I'd get one of my mining alts out of the blocks and grab some ore and send it back to Marcus or my other JC to prospect.

So, off went Burnsprocket the mage into Stormsong and before I knew it he'd hit level 111 ... before Marcus!!

While I was doing so I also noticed an Azerite Power Progress bar, I don't know whether that is with the stock UI or a dominos thing, but vaguely useful.

There was talk abound that the Insightful Rubelite was unique equipped but only per item, so if you had to items with gem slots you could equip 2 gems for double bonus. That might have been the case in Beta,  but it's not now. You can only have one equipped anywhere.

While prospecting all the ore I got the following:

40 Storm Silver Ore :
1 x Kubeline
4 x Kyante
3 x Goldern Beryl
1 x Solstone
2 x Viridium
1 x Owlseye (RARE)

65 Monelite Ore :
8 x Kubeline
1 x Goldern Beryl
3 x Viridium
2 x Solstone
2 x Kyanite
2 x Rubelite - YAY finally
1 x Laribole (RARE)
1 x Royal Quartz (RARE)
1 x Kraken's Eye (EPIC)

Oops 5 Platinum Ore gave 2 Viridium, I don't know yet whether it's a good idea to prospect platinum. Answers on a postcard!

Disenchant or Scrap? And Can you Scrap Legion Gear

So, I've been wondering what is best to do with all the green gear you get. Scrap it or DE it?

Well, after much research, it looks like the best option is to scrap all your soulbond stuff and mail all the BoE stuff to your enchanter.

The reasoning being that enchanting materials are going to go through the roof as they'll be rarer as people just scrap everything.

Legion and below gear: you CANNOT scrap - send to your enchanter.

Never going to have a gear profession? Vendor them!

BeefAss - 24 Hours In - First Impressions plus Battle for Azeroth Levelling Tips.

After 24 hours of BeefAss I got my main, Marcusmaximi, 11 bars into level 110 and left him sat with the castaways who got shipwrecked by the Sirens.

The first logic f**k up I encountered was here. They were stranded, they talk about beig stuck, yet they have a flight path!!

I did my first dungeon on Marcus and found that a 100% pure healer has a lot of downtime and no mana sink. Add to that a holy paladin seems to be geared towards doing some damage.

This really is the closest I've seen pallies being to real hybrid healer/damage dealers since vanilla!

I then went off on a tangent and put as any more alts through Darkshore and got them ready for Kul Tiras before looking into Insightful Rubelites as a levelling aid.

At the time I looked they were up on the Auction house for a minimum of 2,500g so I decided to get a mining character out there to get some ore!

But not before looking into other levelling tips, here is my top 5 list:

1 - Insightful Ruby - Only get 1 - See next post
2 - Guild Banner - XP boost every 10 mins
3 - War Mode - turn on war mode in Stormwind. Turn off before going to Zandalar.
4 - Azeroth Autopilot - everyone raves about this addon. Review coming soon.
5 - Empty bags and rotate alts who have rested XP (that's 6, but two little ones!)

So back to the game I went, I took the mage up to Stormsong, as I didn't want to repeat the same content Marcusmaxi had already done.

He started mining and getting some quests done then bumped into some rude people!

There are some new additions to model stances. NPCs dont just have one look and walk back and forth or just stand there.

The water effects are cool as well, even with just level 5 graphics the water looks cool I can't remember if it was like that before though!

What most impressed me though was the lack of restarts and NO login queues even on Argent Dawn which is a FULL server!

Back to mining...

Didn't I Just Kill You?

As I will go into tomorrow, I left Marcus down near Freehold fighting off Sirens and logged onto Burnsprocket to do some mining because Insightful Rubelites were selling for 2500 each.

One of the first quests in Stormsong is Archived Knowledge where you need to kill Lieutenant Wade.

Then you walk back upstairs out of the basement straight into Lieutenant Wade! DOH!

Darkshore World Quests Finshed

Well, it wasn't a bug, the world quests were still running. But now they have expired and Darkshore has moved onto the next stage. The Elves have taken the beachhead and cleared out Lor'Danel.

I'll check back later to see if there is any further progress.

Update on Collectors Edition Update to Standard Account

So, as I updated in my previous post, I didn't truly believe the first GM and put in several more tickets to get an honest to god definite answer which I could screenshot as evidence if it went wrong and I lost £39.99 when applying my Collectors edition key.

TL;DR

1. I didn't get a definitive answer to my original question. Grrrrr!

2. I lost $39.99 when I applied the collectors edition key.Grrr Grrr!

3. I put in a web chat ticket and got a SE key once the GM had checked I used both on the same account. Hurrah!

4. Well the original GM was wrong on two counts. I got a bonus. But as I'm a litte bit paranoid (possibly due to the use of some herbs with dubious legality issues whilst I was at Uni :O) I'm not going to explicitly state here. Needless to say it was an unintended bonus and it's a definite win for me. I guess it's compensation for the emotional turmoil this put me through! Hurrah! Hurrah!

Anyway, so I'm in no rush on launch day to go pick up my collectors edition as I already had the pre-purchase and was 8 whole bars into level 110!

I logged onto Marcus and did a dungeon run. I registered as holy so only had to wait 7 mins.

When that was over I realised that the Darkshore WQs were still active so got as many of my alts through them and the intro quests before they either a) expired or b) Bliztards realised they'd forgotten to turn them off.

Then I logged onto the mage and got him over to Kul Tiras and did a bit of mining before finally heading out to taking one of the kids' friends to the train station and pick up my collectors edition.

The drive home was filled with trepidation. Would the pre-purchase key or price be refunded. If not then the eldest lad wasn't going to be playing BeefAss anytime soon.

I arrive home and rip open the packaging and apply the code; and my Blizzard Balance ...

... did NOT go up. ARGGG!!!

So I refresh the screen, nowt.

Log out and back in again. NADA.

I try and apply the original pre-purchase key to the second account, Nope: Key already used!!

Nothing for it I guess but to raise a ticket. On Release Day. Like I'm going to get a response anytime soon!

Which channel do I want to use: Phone (long wait). Web Ticket (longer wait). Hang on, what's this? Web Chat - 8 minute wait! I'll give that a poop then.

So after around 8 minutes Velranus the GM pops on and says he's just going to aquaint himself with the ticket and after about 10 minutes (enough time for a fag and boil the kettle for a coffee?) he's back.

He explains, as you can see above, that the balance would only be applied to digital version bought

 through the Blizzard Store(TM).

Well, I gathered that from the poorly worded blog post Blizztards put a out about it and prompted me to keep on asking about this to get a definitive answer. They couldn't credit the amount spent with a third party store ... BUT they could replace the Standard Edition key that I overwrote... [LONG SIGH OF RELIEF]

So after a little more banter I ask my usual question about GM Island. No joy this time either :D

How to Hand in The Guidance of Our Shan'do after BfA Launch

TL;DR -Skip to the bottom to find out how to hand the quest in.

So, as the lead up to expansion launch I was frantically finishing up all the World Quests and pre-launch quests on all my alts. I got most of the way through but there were a few characters that I hadn't finished. I was on my hunter and all the mobs disappeared at around 00:20 server time. I was dual boxing and the same happened to my lock. Still had the hunter, shaman and warrior on account #1 to do and all characters on account #2 :(

So, I gave it up as a loss and moved onto Marcusmaxmi to begin BeefAss.

Then I was watching levelling tips on you tube as I'm levelling Marcusmaximi and I see about the XP gem Insightful Rubelite. So I hop onto the Shammy to go mining and she's in Darkshore and all the World Quests are still active.

Not only that, she's at the same stage of the quests as the Hunter was when the mobs and quests disappeared, and the two named mobs are up, and people are still questing in the area.

I complete all the quests and get as far as the Malfurion backstab cut scene. I go AFK while that pans out and when I come back the Hippogryph is not there and all the WQs are gone. I fly out of the immediate area thinking Zidormi can reset it, but no. But then everything re-appears. I fly back to the cutscene area and the Hippogryph is flying back to the mound.

So I jump on the bird, start flying to Darnassus, but then get ported back to Lor'Danel. Damm, I think, I can't finish the chain.

So I try and fly to Darnassus but you get halfway there and there is an invisible wall. Double Damn!

I'm asking in general, I'm searching wowhead, and no solutions. Then someone suggests talking to Zidormi so you can get to Rutheran Village.

OK, I'll try that, but I'm thinking that Darnassus will also be in the pre-burning version and Gina Greymane (or whatever her name is) wont be there to hand the quest in to...

TL;DR: The Solution

Talk to Zidormi at 48.10 25.69 to reset Darkshore to pre-burning. Go to Lor'Danel flight path and get the flight to Rutheran Village. When you're nearly there the sky goes dark and Teldrassil starts burning then you get the message "You cannot abandon your duty, return to Darnassus" and you get ported into the burning version of Darnassus. Now you can hand the quest in and finish the chain.

1st Dungeon

At half past nine on the first morning of the expansion I queued for my first dungeon: Freehold.

I had got up to 8 bars of level 110 in 1.5 hours last night.

I went in, I caught a greasy pig and I came out 15 minutes later, after  killing Harlan in exactly 1 minute, with the dungeon achievement, 3 bars of XP and an Azerite headpiece.

Guess what starter Azerite armour I picked?

Yep; the headpiece!

I am now the proud owner of two Azerite headpieces!

BeefAss Launch Night

So, I got home early from work to get the last of my characters through the Darkshore world quests and storyline before the 23:00 release time for BfA.

As can be seen in my next post, I didn't quite make it, but Marcusmaximi and several others were all through the WQs and pre-quests and sat at 42,44 in Silithus.

I was there because I popped into Beta and created a new character and that seemed to be where the first quest would pop up with Brann. And the popular opinion was that the quest would be pushed to your quest log wherever you were.

It was already very busy there at about 20:00 sever time so I guess I was right; I was!

The plan was also to stay online in case there were queues to get on nearer the time.

By the time I had finished up in Darkshore it was 23:20 and I logged onto Marcus and re-did the quests (just re-done on Beta :P) and headed over to Kul Tiras.

Again, I'd done all the initial stuff on Beta a month or so ago,  but played through the intro quests anyway in case anything had changed. Nothing had that I could tell.

I seem to recall when playing either the WoD or Legion alpha/early beta that the final offering was much different.

So roll on 01:00 and I had dutifully done all the intro quests and familiarised myself with Boralus and headed down into Tiragarde Sound - I keep wanting to call it Tirisgrde ???

I've just been shipwrecked by Sirens and am questing near Freehold. I'm now 8 bars into level 110 after about 1.5 hours. Apparently there were already level 114/115s running around - Must be using the addon Azeroth Autopilot which I've just heard about.

Unlocked Void Elf

With less than 36 hours to go I managed to unlock the Void Elf.

I must admit, the quest line seemed to be much easier than the Lightforged Dranei.

Warrior At Level 110!

I'm cutting this fine, but now the warrior is at level 110! I logged on and the invasion was going on so I knocked that one on the head and I was only half a level from level cap so I thought I'd do a dungeon.

As I'm a warrior I signed up as tank and got an invite immediately. I dropped into Halls of Valor and started tanking ... as Fury - DOH!

A quick respec later and the dungeon was done! The first time for me as a warrior!

After I dropped out of that and mined a few more nodes I realised I was only 3 bars away from

dinging 110 so popped into LFG again and straight into Eye of Azshara. A quick loop here and heading over to the last boss and I hadn't dinged, but I was only about a 1/4 of a bar away.

I realised then that I would ding when the final boss dropped. I announced this in /p and /g and into the fight we went. Within seconds the fight was over and DING!!!!!!!!

My 7th level 110 on that account to go with my 3 on my lads account!

The only level 110's I don't have are a Monk (104) and a druid (about level 60 on my third in-active account!)

Stranded Riverboat

So, I'm levelling the horde shaman and I've just got my riverboat. Update: The mobile internet in Norfolk has now dropped from good 4G to intermittent laggy as hell 3G. Pretty Sure the Riverboat isn't supposed to go all the way to the top of the cliffs and into the pirate compound!

In other news, the River Boat has it's own level??

WTFinWoW - 4

A return to the Where The F in WoW series.

Answers on a postcard ...

Finishing WoW - Knocking Off Some Mythic Raids

Still on me hollygogs in Norfolk (We're talking East Anglia here, not Virginia!) and I managed to get myself into a Mythic Emerald Nightmare raid.

I've still got all three difficulties of Cenarius to do. I'm 3/4 on normal, 2/4 on Heroic and 0/4 on Mythic (as I've never finished it0

So first off I nipped into a normal run and got that complete. That was easy. Then I popped into Heroic and got up to 3/4 in there. Then I found a Mythic Group. Woah, they're as rare as rocking horse shit!

But get in I did. There was a little confusion to start with as the wanted a healer. I was DPS. I got accepted in and started changing spec and then got kicked.

I whispered the rogue leader and asked why I got kicked, he said that I was invited as healer then changed to DPS when I joined. I said I was already DPS and I was respeccing healer when he kicked me, but he didn't reply.

I was messaging him, getting more and more irate and watching the group fill up and he was just not replying.

Then I noticed they were at 1/3/15 - They were obviously looking for a final tank, so I joined LFG again as tank and got invited.

I don't think the idiot rogue RL called Tepeinick even realised I was the same person.

I joined at Il'gynoth and without even knowing the tactics we one-shot it in 2 minutes 26 seconds.

I was at this point getting increasingly rude about the RL and he wasn't biting. Then we one-shot Cenarius in 50 seconds, which was why I was there, and I was tempted to leave, but that wouldn't be fair on the rest of the raid so I stayed and we one shot Xavius in 1 minute 33.

Wow - What to do After End Game aka Where is Stormwid Embassy Again?

So, I'm on holiday, and amazingly my mobile internet is giving me 4G in the darkest depths of North Norfolk.

So, what do I do? I log into WoW and carry on finishing the game. The current target is getting the new races before launch, otherwise what would be the point of buying the pre-release (apart from playing at 23:00 UK time on Monday 13th, with Game inevitably failing to do a midnight opening!)

Right, that means doing just a few more world quests and invasions on Argus and ... BANG!! Get In There! Now off to Stormwind Embassy, now where is it? After a little bit of researching I open up the Stormwind map and see it right there in print - DOH! Yeah, the embassy is marked on the map, front and centre on the Northern edge.

So, quite some time later, I finish the new quest chain and am rewarded with ...

Can't be bothered to do Void Elves, I'll leave that for another day.

Improving on History - WoW Game Over

... and I did it, at least the balance of power questline and the achievement! Finished the day before going on holiday. Now, what next

Time for Finish World of Warcraft (At Least for this Expansion!)

Well, there're 12 days to go until the next expansion so I decided I'd best get round to clearing my main's quest log and finish the quests for this expansion as well as maybe seeing the time limited stuff on my horde character.

Now, seeing the stuff on horde might be a little difficult, as my highest horde character is level 40 ( Marcusmaximi the shaman) and I am not eligible to create a Demon Hunter on any realms either because my lad has created Alliance DMs or I don't have any level 70s!

So, back to finishing the expansion. All I really have left to do, apart from various raid quests, is to finish off the Nighthold quests with Guldan and Night shards for Balance of Power.

Also, I want to get Porkpie the warrior up to level 110, she is currently around 104 and one of the Hong Kong Phooey twins up to level 100. HongKon and GPhooey are both monks on two different accounts. Mine is HongKon and my lads is GPhooey.

I used my two legion level 100 boosts last week to bring them up from 40 to 100. I should have used it on Marcusmaximi the Tauren Shaman, but hey ho.

So, lots of legion invasions and I should easily do it. Trouble is I'm on holiday this Saturday for a week, and although I'll be able to take my laptop, the mobile internet signal I'll need to play is a bit hit and miss. So not actually that long at all!

...Oh ... And I Got a Pet Achievement!

This Weeks Additions to War of the Thorns

When you log in after maintenance you'll get another feeder quest to take you back to Malfurion at Lor'Danel: A threat from the North.

When you get there you'll see that the horde are getting closer. Hand this in for some gold. Always a winner!

Then pick up rescue effort to rescue 8 citizens for 20 gold and Defending Lor'dael to take out 15 of the horde forces then head over to Captain Delaryn Summermoon and pick up Action This Day which required you to take out two named horde mobs. That is if you can keep up with her as she runs all over the place engaging the horde!

She is also the hand in for all three of these quests.

Go and take these two out first, as they count towards the 15.

Then return and free the citizens and kill any horde that get n your way, you should now be good to hand all 3 quests in.

You'll get 19g 40s for each quest and the you'll get The Guidance of Our Shan'do to go report back to Malfurion.

He is to the south west, get there, watch the pseudo cut scene and then take the Hippogryph. Watch THE cut scene then hand in the quest for another 20g and pick up A Flicker of Hope.

Go and do what you need to do here and then when your lungs fills with smoke that quest will be removed from your quest log and you'll auto-accept From the Ashes... I've never seen that happen before!

So, hand this in to Anduin and get your new epic mount - happy, happy mount collector!

Next Stage of BeefAss War of the Thorns Campaign

So, with the Tuesday reset, oops there I go again with my Vanilla terminology; I meant Tuesday Maintenance, comes the next stage of pre-expansion quests, the War of the Thorns campaign.

According to Wowhead:

The War of the Thorns is the pre-patch event which will start on July 24th and last until August 14th, the launch day of Battle for Azeroth. Part one of the Horde and Alliance questlines start on July 24th, and part two is speculated to start on July 31st. Up until the launch of Battle for Azeroth, the Horde and alliance will go through a series of quests to try and gain control Teldrassil.

I have a feeling we'll see Teldrassil burn tomorrow. We may even be able to get Smoldering Reins of the Teldrassil Hippogryph. I'll update tomorrow when I've played through it.

Don't forget to get all you alts moving as well, once you have completed the initial quests on one character your faction leader should give you the option to skip straight to the world quests, happy happy altoholic!

Rogue - Coins of Air Not Dropping

If like me you popped onto your Rogue, who you haven't played for a while, and noticed you had a quest to collect 10,000 coins of air, proceeded to pick pocket loads of mobs and get 0 coins of air; then you may be confused.

I was.

The quest text didn't help and even wowhead wasn't that great.

I eventauly found out that you need to have in your bags (the bank just won't do) Shining Lamp of Alabas.

Oh, and don't have two apparently, having two stops the coins dropping too.

Pre-Patch Events - What Not to Miss Before BfA Launches

In case you didn't know there is the usual time limited event in the lead up to the release of BeefAss.

You really want to do this because once you finish the initial questline, which takes you from Ashenvale up to Darkshore and then Rutheran Village you open up Darkshore World Quests which reward gear upgrades to start you on your way in BeefAss.

And, this questline will only be around until launch day, so get your skates on, accept the teaser quest you should have got when logged in and get world questing.

Also, as the weeks go by more content will open up.

Oh, and spoiler, Darnassus gets torched!

I Hereby Name the New Expansion BeefAss

Yep, you heard it here first. I've copyrighted it. BfA =  BeefAss

How to Open Long-Lost Augari Treasure

Now, I know this is very late in the expansion, what with BeefAss about to drop (I'm copyrighting that by the way) but some people may still be trolling around Kokrun grabbing treasures.

Many times I have arrived at a treasure chest only to be told its locked and you need to be blessed by some Croatian Demigod or something to be able to open it. Grrr! The actual message being: "Will only open to one welding the power that echoes that of the Augari." (spelling mistakes included).

Now, the last time I researched it I didn't really understand what it was telling me, so I didn't bother looking any deeper into it, but now, after a little research on Wowhead, I get it.

You need to unlock the Matrix core and its 3 additional abilities.

There are several chests dotted around Argus that need one of the abilities to either reach or to open.

This one requires you to have the Shroud active, so head down to the Matrix Core at the bottom centre of the Vindicar and select Shroud of Arcane Echoes.

Other chests require you to use the Lightforged Warframe to smash through things or the Light's Judgement to blow things up.

There is a good run down of what you need for each one under the spoiler button in the comments of this Wowhead page.

Grid is Dead, Long Live Grid

If you use Grid as part of your healing set up you will have noticed that the latest version on Curse is 7.3.5

But luckily it looks like the addon author Attict has simply been unable to update the project on Curse.

You can get the addon from github and then follow his instructions below:

I have created a set of fixes for patch 8.0.
Since I cannot get access to publishing these changes, you will have to download the updates from here: https://github.com/Attict/Grid-Full

Once you have downloaded the files, you will need to rename the directory to "Grid" and place it inside of your "World of Warcraft/Interface/AddOns" folder.

A Monk For All Races?

So, since when did non-Pandarans get to be Monks?

Confusing Quest - How to Complete The Mark

This had me confused for a bit, then I turned to wowhead. In case you got here first this is what you need to do.

Look for the glowy blue circle on your mini map - it's east and inside.

Head to the yellow dais.

Click on Eyir to target her.

/kneel

Hurrah, return to the quest giver and hand in.

RIP World Quest Group Finder

It's been suggested before that World Quest Group Finder was dead time after time when Blizztards changed the way it interfaced with the game.

Now it looks like it is going to be gone for good as the two latest changes with patch 8.0 make it un-workable. The main one being that addons can't write to the Group Finder.

Well that's fucked!

Last Few Hours to Complete Mage Tower before Pre-Patch July 18th

Yes, that's right folks in just a few hours (Wednesday) the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch (8.0) drops and with that the Mage Tower challenge will not be completeable. Check out Wowhead's guide to complete it quickly.

Not only that but many other things are going.

The Power in Our Hands - no, REALLY!

Wow, once you've done the final quest the commenters on wowhead weren't wrong.

The artifact power on mine is still spinning ever upwards and I'm on level 132.

The added bonus is that this applies to all your artifacts, so any artifact power item you now acquire is worthless, well ... except you can sell them for sh*t tons of gold!!!

Pre Purchase BfA Then Buy Collectors Edition

UPDATE: I didn't trust the original GM, I put in several more tickets for confirmation. NONE of them could definitively say that it would work!

UPDATE 2: See my new post on the 14th August - They were WRONG. It DIDN'T work. I had to put in a ticket to support to get a new key.

It has apparently been a thing for the last couple of expansions that you can pre-purchase a digital version of the upcoming expansion and get all the goodies that come with it.

Then if you want to upgrade to the Collectors edition on release day you can do so and release the original pre-purchase key and use it on another account or sell it.

A bit clunky, but it allowed you to effectively pre-purchase a collectors edition.

After speaking to a GM last night (screenshots to follow) it appears the process has been streamlined! I don't know if they changed it for more recent expansions but for this expansion this is what you  can do.

1. But a pre-purchase edition, either a physical box or a digital download.
2. Apply all the pre-purchase goodness to your account.
3. On release day, go out and purchase your shiny Collectors edition box.

In your battle.net account you should be able to upgrade your pre-purchased version with the CD Key of the Collectors edition.

This will no longer release the old key but instead upgrade your account and refund the cost of the pre-purchase to your Battle.net account, which you can then use to purchase a digital download for your second account or whatever you want.

Now, don't take my word for it, or blame me if this is not so (If it's not then I'm going to be might p1ssed off!), below is my entire conversation with the GM.

Note:

a) When upgrading to the Collectors edition you don't get an additional level 110 boost, instead you get the refund.

b) The GMs still won't give you  a free ride to GM Island! Gits!

The Power in Our Hands - Where to go

If, like me, you accepted this quest on the flying boat above Silithus and then wondered what part of the sword you had to go to to click on or do whatever ...

... and then flew around ages looking ...

... and read the quest text as do that and then come back and speak to Magni ...

... just speak to Magni, watch cut scene, done.

How to Portal to Wailing Caverns

As usual, I have been a bit dense. I did the initial pet quest from Muyani to get the pet battle stone and the Wailing Caverns teleport, but then I couldn't find a spell in my spell book or an item in my bags. Hurrph!

Turns out the teleport is from Manapoof in the Dalaran Menagerie!

So, how many blossoms can you  actually get.

Well if you take the teaser quest that's 1.

Then take the speak to a scorchling outside the city quest, that's another. They're ramping up now!

Then 10 Blossoms for the twilight cult questline.

If you do the initial Athune quest (only once ever per character) that's 20 blossoms.

Then do your dailies every day:
10 for striking back
12ish Frost Lord Athune
5 For Tossing
5 For Catching

That's at least 512 blossoms over the course of the holiday

Then there is the running all over the place honouring and desecrating fires:

Capital Cities 100
Kalimdor 225
Eastern Kingdoms 235
Cataclysm Zones(outside the above) 30!
Outland (via portal in Stormwind) 105
Northrend 120
Pandaria 105
Draenor 75
Broken Isles 75

That's a whopping 1,582 blossom - enough for 2 pieces of level 110 heirloom upgrades per character!!!

Midsummer Dailies

Don't forget to do you dailies as well, the bring in a lot of blossoms. I m already behind the curve :(

Frost Lord Athune brings in about 12 blossoms per bag

Striking back is 10 Blossoms and there is a handy portal in the mage tower in Stormwind, another reason to make Stormwind your base of operations for the event.

Torch tossing is easy sauce for 5 blossoms

Torch catching, as ever, is a pain in the arse if you have the slightest lag or get unlucky with a curve ball on the 9th catch.  If you have problems try turning off all your addons, dialing your graphic settings down and going to Exodar or Darnassus. A bit more work for another 5 Blossoms.

That's about 30 blossoms per day which equates to a whopping 450 blossoms just for doing the dailies. That's 3/4 of a level 110 heirloom upgrade as it is!

Optimum Route For All the Midsummer Bonfires for 2018 ( plus Tom Tom Macro)

There's been a few minor changes over the years so my previous guides may or not be good. Search for midsummer and you'll get all the posts.

This year I've decided to aggregate all my fire location posts into 1 and compile all the tomtom macros together.

So to start off with here are all the previous posts so you don't have to go looking for them:

Tossing off in the Midsummer
Midsummer Madness

Midsummer Madness II
Lord Athune
Midsummer Festival Achievement Guide
Cataclysm Midsummer Bonfires
2011 - Cataclysm Midsummer Fires Guide
Great XP From Midsummer
XP From Midsummer Fires
Can You Complete Midsummer fire Festival Below Level 90?
2015 Midsummer Bonfires TomTom Macros

To get nice big macros you are probably best off using the macro toolkit addon.

Or even better don't load up these macros, install CandyBuckets addon and just follow my suggested order. If you feel there is a better order please let me know and I'l ltry it out on one of my alts.

Now, why would you want to do this, especially if you already have the achievement? For the Burning Blossom of course, and what do Blossoms make? Prizes!!! Those prizes being:

Ancient Heirloom Armor Casing 

Timeworn Heirloom Armor Casing 

Weathered Heirloom Armor Casing

Lots of lovely heirloom upgrades!!! So get all your alts out there desecrating fires. Then do the Lord Athune and Tossing and Catching dailies. The torch dailies give 5 blossoms each and the Satchel of Frozen Goods also contains some blossoms usually.

Oh, and if you're not level capped then don't forget to dance round a ribbon pole to get a 1 hour experience buff!

Eastern Kingdom
/way Dun Morogh 53.82 45.26 Kharanos
/way Wetlands 13.49 47.12 Menethil Harbor
/way Arathi Highlands 44.31 46.00 Refuge Pointe
/way Arathi Highlands 69.07 42.78 Hammerfall
/way The Hinterlands 76.76 74.56 Revantusk Village
/way The Hinterlands 14.34 50.11 Aerie Peak
/way Hillsbrad Foothills:Eastern Kingdoms 54.50 49.88 Tarren Mill
/way Silverpine Forest 49.60 38.55 The Sepulcher
/way Tirisfal Glades 62.30 66.87 Undercity
/way Tirisfal Glades 57.00 51.71 Brill
/way Western Plaguelands 29.10 56.50 The Bulwark
/way Western Plaguelands 43.45 82.35 Chillwind Camp
/way Ghostlands 47.01 26.05 Tranquillien
/way Eversong Woods 46.36 50.38 North Sanctum
/way Silvermoon 69.16 42.69 Silvermoon
Heath to Dullaran and Portal to Stormwind
/way Elwynn Forest 43 65 Goldshire
/way Westfall 45 62 Moonbrook
/way Northern Stranglethorn 40 51 Grom'gol Base Camp
/way Northern Stranglethorn 51 63 Fort Livingston
/way The Cape of Stranglethorn 50 70 East of Booty Bay
/way The Cape of Stranglethorn 50 70 East of Booty Bay
/way Duskwood 73.67 54.77 Darkshire
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(19,0,0.4821,0.0726,{title="Zidormi - Switch to the Past"})
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(19,0,0.46,0.14,{title="Dreadmaul Hold"})
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(19,0,0.5523,0.1496,{title="Nethergarde Keep"})

Pop through the dark portal to Draenor

Draenor
/way Shadowmoon Valley 42.6 36.0 Embaari Village
/way Spires of Arak 48.0 44.7 Veil Terokk
/way Talador 43.5 71.8 Retribution Point
/way Nagrand 80.7 47.6 Ring of Trials
/way Frostfire Ridge 72 65 Grom'gar
/way Gorgrond 43.9 93.8 Bastion Rise

Head back to dark portal and head back to Azeroth

Eastern Kingdoms cont...
/way Swamp of Sorrows 70.24 15.74 Alliance Bogpaddle
/way Swamp of Sorrows 76.75 14.22 Horde Bogpaddle
/way Redridge Mountains 24.84 53.40 Lakeshire
/way Burning Steppes 68.37 60.69 Morgan's Vigil
/way Burning Steppes 51.51 29.22 Flame Crest
/way Badlands 19.04 56.17 Dragon's Mouth
/way Badlands 24.02 37.26 New Kargath
/way Loch Modan 32.52 40.97 Thelsamar
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(700,0,0.5321,0.463,{title="Bloodgulch"})
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(700,0,0.4724,0.2903,{title="Thundermar"})

Heath to Dullaran and Portal to Wyrmrest Temple from the Chamber of the Guardian at 31.68 81.90
OR if you have one use Argent Crusader's tabard
OR if you've done the Sholazar Basin waygate quest then take the gate from Northern Un'Goro later

Northrend
/way Howling Fjord 57.76 16.11 Fort Wildervar
/way Howling Fjord 48.45 13.38 Camp Winterhoof
/way Grizzly Hills 33.91 60.45 Amberpine Lodge
/way Grizzly Hills 19.07 61.46 Conquest Hold
/way Zul'Drak 43.25 71.37 The Argent Stand
/way Zul'Drak 40.38 61.28 The Argent Stand
/way The Storm Peaks 41.44 86.70 K3
/way The Storm Peaks 40.33 85.60 K3
/way Crystalsong Forest 80.31 52.91 Sunreaver's Command
/way Crystalsong Forest 78.16 74.90 Windrunner's Overlook
/way Dragonblight 75.29 43.80 Wintergarde Keep
/way Dragonblight 38.51 48.18 Agmar's Hammer
/way Borean Tundra 55.10 19.92 Fizzcrank Airstrip
/way Borean Tundra 51.07 11.77 Bor'gorok Outpost
/way Sholazar Basin 48.11 66.32 River's Heart - Alliance
/way Sholazar Basin 47.26 61.38 River's Heart - Horde

Head to Dalaran, portal to SW, portal to Hellfire

Outland
/way Hellfire Peninsula 62.18 58.34 Honor Hold
/way Hellfire Peninsula 57.18 41.81 Thrallmar
/way Netherstorm 32.26 68.29 Area 52
/way Netherstorm 31.22 62.67 Area 52
/way Blade's Edge Mountains 49.97 59.03 Thunderlord Stronghold
/way Blade's Edge Mountains 41.58 65.91 Sylvanaar
/way Zangarmarsh 35.6 51.78 Zabra'Jin
/way Zangarmarsh 68.79 51.97 Telredor
/way Nagrand:Outland 51.05 33.93 Garadar
/way Nagrand:Outland 49.64 69.43 Telaar
/way Terokkar Forest 51.92 43.24 Stonebreaker Hold
/way Terokkar Forest 54.06 55.48 Allerian Stronghold
/way Shadowmoon Valley:Outland 33.53 30.28 Shadowmoon Village
/way Shadowmoon Valley:Outland 39.65 54.63 Wildhammer Stronghold

Hearth to Dalaran, portal to Stormwind then the portal to Deepholm

/way Deepholm 49.00 51.00 Deepholm

Take the Portal to Vashj'ir

/way Shimmering Expanse 49.00 42.00

Pandaria
/way The Jade Forest:Pandaria 47.2 47.2 Dawn's Blossom
/way Kun-Lai Summit 71.1 90.9 Binan Village
/way Vale of Eternal Blossoms 77.8 33.9 Mogu'shan Palace (both bonfires)
/way Townlong Steppes 71.5 56.3 Longying Outpost
/way Dread Wastes 56.1 69.5 Soggy's Gamble
/way Valley of the Four Winds 51.8 51.4 Halfhill
/way Krasarang Wilds 74.0 9.49 Zhu's Watch

Use Dalaran Hearth

Broken Isles
/way Suramar  30.4 45.4 Path by Meredil
/way Suramar 23.0 58.4 Bridge by Azsuna
/way Azsuna 48.3 29.7 Azurewing Repose
/way Val'sharah 44.9 57.9 Howling Dale
/way Highmountain 55.5 84.5 Ironhorn Enclave
/way Stormheim 32.5 42.2 Road to Highmountain
Get back to Dalaran and take portal to Darnassus

Kalimdor
/way Teldrassil 54.8 52.7 Dolanaar
/way Steal Darnassus Flame
/way Azuremyst Isle 44.5 52.5 West of Azure Watch
/way Bloodmyst Isle 55.9 68.0 South of Blood Watch 
/way Darkshore 48.7 22.6 South West of Lor'danel
/way Stonetalon Mountains 49.3 51.3 Mirkfallon Lake
/way Stonetalon Mountains 53.0 62.3 Entrance to Sun Rock Retreat
/way Desolace 66.2 17.1 South of Nijel's Point
/way Desolace 26.1 77.3 South of Shadowprey Village
/way Feralas 46.8 43.8 West of Fethermoon Stronghold
/way Feralas 72.5 47.6 West of Camp Mojache 
/way Silithus 60.3 33.5 East of Cenrion Hold
/way Silithus 50.8 41.7 South West of Cenarion Hold
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(720,0,0.535,0.319,{title="North West of Ramkahen"})
/run TomTom:AddMFWaypoint(720,0,0.529,0.346,{title="West of Ramkahen"})
/way Un'Goro 60.0 63.2 Marshal's Refuge
/way Un'Goro 56.4 66.0 Marshal's Refuge
/way Tanaris 52.7 30.1 East of Gadgetzan
/way Tanaris 49.8 28.1 West of Gadgetzan
/way Dustwallow Marsh 61.8 40.6 North of Theramore
/way Dustwallow Marsh 33.2 30.8 West of Brackenwall Village
/way Soutern Barrens 48.3 72.2 South of Fort Triumph
/way Soutern Barrens 40.7 67.3 North West of Desolation Hold
/way Mulgore 51.9 59.4 East of Bloodhoof Village
/way Steal the Flame of Thunder Bluff (Spirit Rise)
/way The Barrens 49.8 54.3  North of Crossroads
/way Ashenvale 51.6 66.6 Silverwind Refuge
/way Ashenvale 86.9 41.8 Forest Song
/way Durotar 52.0 47.2 South of Razor Hill
/way Flame of Orgrimmar 45.9 37.1 Valley of Wisdom
/way Azhsara 60.5 53.5 Bilgewater Harbour South Terrace
/way Mount Hyjal 62.8 22.7 Nordrassil
/way Winterspring 61.2 47.5 Everlook by Alliance FP
/way Winterspring 58.2 47.3  Everlook by Horde FP