From the official forums:

Let’s not everybody get too excited here. Yes, they’re planning on letting us switch factions. No, we have no damn idea how it’s going to work. Maybe we’ll be able to pay a one-time fee and redesign our characters from the ground up, only on the other side. Maybe we’ll have to get sponsorship from someone on the other side, guild-charter style. Maybe it’ll be race roulette (thanks to Anea), where you can switch factions but everything is randomized. We don’t know.

I’m aware that fandom rule #1 is “If a situation is ever unclear, assume whatever it would take to drive you into a blind rage.” Please resist that urge. This probably won’t be out until WOW 4.0 at the earliest, so be patient and rational, and withhold judgment until you actually know what’s going on. Okay?

Most of World of Warcraft’s stacking buffs are multiplicative. If you have one buff that increases an attribute by 10%, and another that increases that attribute by 15%, and those buffs stack, the final attribute A will be A * 1.1 * 1.15, or A * 1.265 (a total 26.5% increase).

However, the Ribbon Dance buff, which increases XP gained from killing monsters by 10%, and heirloom shoulders, which increase XP gained from killing monsters and completing quests by 10%, are additive. Instead of XP * 1.1 * 1.1, they grant XP + (XP * 0.1) + (XP * 0.1).

Fortunately, this costs you a very small amount of mob-kill XP – the final number is XP * 1.2 instead of XP * 1.21 – but it’s worth noting if the XP isn’t quite racking up like you thought it would.

As I’m sure we all know at this point, torch juggling in WOW can be a pain in the ass. There are two components to it this year: the Torch Catching quest and the Torch Juggler achievement. Torch Juggler is largely dependent on your lag and finger speed for success; the faster your speed and the lower your lag, the more likely you are to get 40 torches in 15 seconds. (That’s a little faster than 3 torches per second.) Torch Catching makes you run all over the walkways near your chosen city’s bonfire, chasing shadows – and if you’re even a little off, the torch falls and you have to start over. It’s the real pain in the ass.

Fortunately, there are tricks to each.

Torch Juggler

Getting the Torch Juggler is a matter of clicking as fast as you can, in an area where you can avoid having lots of objects rendered on your screen. The best area that I’ve found for this (thanks to an Aetherial Circle guildmate for this tip) is the plaza commemorating Archmage Antonidas just to the northwest of the “Horde” bank, marked with a red star on the map to your right. Stand there, with your back to the bank, and your visual lag should be significantly reduced.

Once you’re in a good position, assign your Juggling Torch to one of your hotkeys (1,2,3…0,-,= in the default interface). It is almost impossible to get this achievement by right-clicking the torch’s icon to activate it. If you absolutely must click the icon instead of using hotkeys, the rest of this section will do you no good. Press the hotkey to activate the juggling torch; a green circle will appear under your cursor. Place the circle directly under your character and prepare to click like the wind. What you need to do is alternate between pressing the hotkey and clicking the mouse (without moving the mouse cursor at all) as fast as you possibly can; ideally you’ll be using one hand on the hotkey and the other on the mouse. The torches do not have a cooldown, and you need to get as many clicks into each second as you can, so speed is absolutely of the essence.

One thing to keep in mind: although you have to catch 40 torches, catching a torch replenishes your stock, so you actually only need about 10 torches to complete the achievement.

Torch Catching

Torch Catching is one quest where it pays to be sneaky. See, the trick to completing this quest with a minimum of effort is that you can catch the torches that other characters throw. Apparently, the quest is set up so that if you click on a torch to toss it, if that torch falls to the ground, your count resets. However, any torch that you catch counts toward the quest – and if you didn’t throw the torch initially, it doesn’t count against you if it lands on the ground after you’ve tossed it.

Let me illustrate: You right-click a torch to toss it, and catch it three times. Then the torch lands on me; I catch your torch and automatically toss it again. The torch hits the ground. Since you were the one who initially threw the torch, your count is reset to 0 when the torch hits the ground. However, my count stays at 1 torch in a row caught. If this happens again – you throw the torch, I catch it and re-toss it, it hits the ground – my count increases to 2 in a row.

You can see where I’m going with this, I think.

If you want to be sneaky about Torch Catching and not have to run around the city chasing torches, simply come to your chosen city when there are bunches of people there, get on your mount (you have a larger surface area, so you’re more likely to catch torches that land near you), stand near the bonfire, and go make a sandwich. Your character will accumulate torches on her own, and you won’t have to lift a finger.

his weekend I spent Sunday getting Theande all of the Midsummer Flame Festival achievements (and the Flame Warden title); it’s a pleasant change from my usual MO of getting everything done on the last day of a given holiday. Now I can relax and enjoy the rest of the two-week Festival.

If you’re still working on your Festival achievements, check out Wowhead’s Midsummer Flame Festival Guide. (NB: I didn’t use the guide, but Holly is, and she swears by it.)

I liked the original system of granting mounts at level 40, and although reducing the level requirement to 30 made gameplay sense, from a story perspective it wasn’t particularly meaningful. Level 20, though, not only makes sense from a gameplay perspective, it also carries a lot of weight in the storyline. At level 20, if you’ve been proceeding as planned through the quest lines:

• Humans have scattered the Defias Brotherhood and defeated Edwin VanCleef, and in recognition of this, Stormwind has instructed Randal and Katie Hunter to allow them access to one of their prize rounceys.
• Dwarves and gnomes have defused a plot by the Dark Iron Dwarves to destroy the Stonewrought Dam and flood the Wetlands. King Magni Bronzebeard rewards his loyal defenders with a fine war ram from the stables kept at Amberstill Ranch.
• Night elves have defended the port town of Auberdine from invasions on two fronts – naga to the north, and demons and undead to the east and south – and the Cenarion Circle has extended these fierce kal’dorei the privilege of riding the druids’ saber cats.
• Draenei have fought off the blood elves who stowed away aboard the Exodar and have slain Sironas, the Eredar who attempted to create Sun Gates between Bloodmyst and Outland. In thanks, the Prophet Velen allows the heroic Draenei to take an elekk from the Exodar‘s already-limited menagerie.
• Orcs, trolls, and Tauren have cleansed the Wailing Caverns of the Druids of the Fang, driven out invading humans at Northwatch Hold and dwarves at Ba’el Modan, foiled the efforts of the Venture Company, forced the tenacious quillboar and centaur out, and staved off an invasion by the Silithid. Thunder Bluff, Orgrimmar, and Sen’Jin Village each recognize the Horde irregulars’ efforts with kodo, worgs, and raptors from their stables.
• Forsaken have defended the Sepulcher from the Kirin Tor and Arugal’s worgen. The Dark Lady Sylvanas rewards her servants with undead chargers, necromantic steeds that are an additional insult to the defeated Kirin Tor.
• Blood elves have cleansed the Ghostlands of the undead and nerubians left behind from Arthas’s attack on the Sunwell. Regent Lor’themar Theron has rewarded these staunch sin’dorei by ordering the Farstriders to allow them to ride the hawkstriders normally reserved for the finest rangers.

Reposted from this post on my other blog, from July 31, 2007 – but still applicable!

Yesterday’s Forum Post of the Day on WoW Insider was BlizzCon etiquette tips. I was bored, so I wrote up a few to add to the list (the forum thread, sadly, degenerated pretty quickly into “omg dwafr girls r uggoz”):

• Don’t attempt to bribe Blizzard employees with in-game cash. For some reason, it never works.
• When announcing that you’ve found an extraordinary item, or that you would like to purchase one, remember to begin with “slash two”. Otherwise, you’ll just confuse the people around you.
• Blizzcon has a clipping bug that prevents you from walking through other players as you can in the normal game. The staff ask that you not exploit this bug by blocking doorways, corridors, or other commonly-used thoroughfares.
• It is considered rude to kill the Critters that you may see around and outside Blizzcon, and doing so may be grounds for a permanent ban.
• Dueling is not permitted within Blizzcon. Although there are no mechanics that prevent it, doing so may be grounds for a permanent ban.
• Although the people who sell food, drinks, equipment and goods at Blizzcon are technically vendors, they generally will not buy what you have in your backpack or in other containers. Also, you may discover that there are no vendors in Blizzcon who can repair damaged equipment. This is a known issue, and should not be reported to Blizzcon staff.
• Like Shattrath City, Blizzcon is neutral territory. You will find that you are unable to flag for PVP. This is normal, and should not be reported to Blizzcon staff.
• While mounts are convenient in Azeroth and Outlands, they are discouraged in Blizzcon. An issue with the clipping bug mentioned above causes mounts used in Blizzcon to deal damage to other players on impact, and staff may see this as an attempt to circumvent the rules against dueling and PVP combat. In addition, Blizzcon maintenance has requested that live mounts be restricted from entering entirely, due to certain debuffs that they impose on the carpeting.
• Use spells such as Slow Fall and Levitate to go from one level of Blizzcon to another at your own risk, as players report that these spells have been unreliable at best in past Blizzcons.
• No matter what anyone tells you, Nethaera and Drysc are not raid bosses. They do have loot tables, but accessing them is forbidden and will result in a permanent ban.
• Although the ATM does offer convenient access to the bank, you are discouraged from attempting to fit items larger than an envelope through the Deposit slot.
• Although there are gardens and stones immediately outside of Blizzcon, using them to improve gathering tradeskills is discouraged and may result in being banned.
• It is likely that part of the gift bag given to Blizzcon attendees will be an in-game pet. It is expected that you will be excited about this, but this does not give you an excuse to display your “personal pet” to other players without their permission. If you do so in public, you should be aware that other players may tease you about your “pet” and your taste in bringing it out in public.
• “Oh, sorry, clipping bug” is not an excuse. You know who you are.

Do you have any to add?