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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Who knew?
by Sandra McIlveen 
Apr 22nd 2010 at 8:00AM
Did you know that there is a secret room in Dalaran that you can access only if you complete the achievement Higher Learning? I just found out about it myself. And while this piece of information is practically useless, it made me think ... What other things don't I know about? And then I started remembering all the times when I learned something so basic about the game that I said to myself, "How could I not have known that?"
There was the time before The Burning Crusade was released when I was happily making my mooncloth every four days and traveling to Darnassus or Darkshore to do so, when a guildie informed me that there was a moonwell in Stormwind. "Doh!" Then there was the time that I was grouped with a friend, happily traipsing around Eastern Plaguelands (so yes, I was almost level 60), and I would stop running every time I had to respond to an in-game whisper. My friend asked me what I was doing, and I explained that I had to stop running to type a response. He then informed me that I could use the mouse to auto-run and keep my hands free to type. "Doh!" More recently, I was in Dalaran exchanging Emblems of Triumph for Emblems of Conquest for Emblems of Valor for Emblems of Heroism ... (big gulp of air) ... in order to purchase Reins of the Wooly Mammoth. I needed 200 Emblems of Heroism, and I was exchanging all of my emblems one at a time. My guild was waiting for me to do a raid and asked what was taking so long. So I told them. And then they told me I could simply shift-right click on an emblem and pick the amount I wanted to exchange. "Doh!"
Why didn't I know these simple things? How could I have been playing this game for five years and not know these things? I used to laugh when I saw the tips on the loading screen. The one that informs the player that she can eat and drink at the same time always elicits a mental response from me that goes something like, "Who the heck doesn't know that? What a dumb tip." But recently I have begun to realize that there are many people just like me who let the simplest nuances of the game escape them for some reason or another.
So what things are you embarrassed to admit that you didn't know until you were well entrenched in the game? Don't worry, we'll never tell (wink, wink).
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 14 of 14)
Poost Apr 23rd 2010 11:33AM
Back in BC, when leveling herbalism for the first time, I made it to 300 skill before I realized that there was a Find Herbs ability for your minimap.
Matthew Apr 24th 2010 7:27PM
WoW! You have an eagle eye!
neminem Apr 23rd 2010 9:53PM
I will admit... it took me a couple months to realize that you could add additional bars to put abilities in. And then a couple months more to realize that you could also bind them to keys. I spent far too long trying to figure out how to put everything important into just twelve bindings... rogues have a lot of abilities, too. *facepalm*
Jillas Apr 24th 2010 9:05PM
It took me a while to find this out, but apparently when you shift click and give yourself carpel tunnel trying to convert 800 emblems, you can instead type in the amount you want. I figured it out one day while converting emblems and wishing blizzard had been thoughtful enough to let us type in the amount we wanted - and for no particular reason, typed the number I wanted and there it was. There's no cursor or anything, so I suppose most people just don't think they can type it out.
Wix Aug 12th 2010 11:46PM
I didn't know that the spirit healer will rez you nearest to where you die. I was going after a pet, thinking I could skip some of the tougher zones by rezzing at a spirit healer in the zone I wanted. So I ghosted about for nearly an hour, went to the spirit healer, rezzed...and found myself back where I started. AUGH!
Richard Aug 17th 2010 11:21AM
@Wix
Actually, you were right.
The technique is called "ghost running." The only thing you need to remember is to log out before rezzing.
You're chained to the spirit healer closest to your corpse, until you log out.
So, for example, if you wanted to have an Alliance alt toon in Booty Bay to check the neutral AH for pets/recipes not available to your faction, you make a human, run out of the starting zone, and get killed. DON'T rez at the spirit healer in Elwynn, just either run in ghost form south thru Duskwood and Stranglethorn Vale, or detour west to Westfall, then run directly south over the water to the Booty Bay harbor. Check your map so that you don't run over water that fatigues you, and in about 5 or so minutes, you'll be down by BB. Run to the entrance, and there's a Spirit Healer right outside. LOG OUT!
Log back in, and voila, you're there without having to corpse hop your way down, a process which could take hours.
This is also great for low level toons getting the Winterspring flight point when you pick up the Moonglade flight point during the Lunar Festival.