Tuesday Morning Post: Choosing sides edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jul 12th 2011 at 4:00AM
Whichever choice you made, right now you have no choice but to wait out the usual Tuesday downtime. This week, it's from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. PDT. While you wait, you can catch up on all the news from the past few days, including guides to some of the new patch 4.2 Firelands and Tol Barad bosses. Check it all out after the break.
Hot news and features
- Check out the latest patch 4.2 hotfixes for July 6 and July 8.
- The official WoW Armory will now show you your mount and pet collections.
- We'll help you take down Occu'thar, the new Tol Barad boss.
- Blizzard's apologized for that little mishap with Season 10 PVP gear. In fact, the company's so sorry, it's planning to offer compensation.
- Having trouble finding spirit cloth in Firelands? There's a reason for that.
- WoW Archivist tackles patch 1.5.
- If you have a Windows 7 phone, you can now grab a mobile authenticator for it.
- Totem Talk has healing advice for Firelands bosses Beth'tilac and Rhyolith.
- The Light And How To Swing It makes sense of holy PVP in patch 4.2. If you're a tanking paladin, we also have a guide for on spending your valor points wisely. We also discuss the mastery of mastery healing.
- Lichborne spills the beans on how to kill a death knight. Also, there are ponies.
- Shifting Perspectives helps you figure out how to gear for haste on your restoration druid. We also have a guide to balance druid Firelands gear.
- Encrypted Text offers a rogue's gear guide for patch 4.2.
- Spiritual Guidance has a shadow priest gearing guide for patch 4.2.
- Scattered Shots takes a stab at improving the hunter pet talent trees.
- Arcane Brilliance offers a beginning mage guide.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors has a Firelands reputation reward guide.
- Blood Pact helps you spend your valor points wisely as a warlock.
- Ready Check helps you take out Shannox, the first Firelands boss. Raid Rx also has a seperate guide to healing the Shannox encounter.
- Blood Sport continues helping you learn from your betters in arena PVP.
- The OverAchiever offers a quick guide to the Dalaran fountain fishing achievements.
- Addon Spotlight helps you get the most out of Blizzard's built-in raid profiles UI.
- Gold Capped offers strategies for generating Celestial Essences and making money while leveling.
- WoW Rookie explains the ins and outs of Darkmoon cards.
- Check out the latest installment of the Safe Passage webcomic. You can also check out an interview with the author in the latest installment of World of WarCrafts.
- About the Bloggers continues with a look at our resident lore expert, Anne Stickney.
- Know Your Lore takes a look at the tauren and offers some more crazy Old God theories.
- What does bill S. 978 mean for the WoW community? The Lawbringer explains.
- All The World's A Stage discusses plot hooks for night elf roleplayers.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Slaytanic Jul 12th 2011 4:08AM
Or do like I did, do Shadow on your main, and Druids of the Talon on an alt, so I can see both. :)
Apparantly there is a bug with Druids, on the first quest there is a mob that you are supposed to follow through the Furnace but he never shows up. I did it anyway ( sneak along the far left side. Although there is still fire, its enough to get through and heal yourself on the other side.) once you get apst the fire, kill the add at the end, and you get credit!
Straz Jul 12th 2011 8:31AM
I have to admit, I was not looking forward to another daily grind. Thankfully, they made the grind a lot more bearable by adding in the "build your own beachhead" aspect backed by some interesting story. And mechanically, the quests themselves are involved enough to not seem mindless, but not so overwhelming to where it's going to take you an hour to get them done.
Philster043 Jul 12th 2011 4:19AM
Dang, Tuesday maintenance was early this time. Oh, well.
Almost to 100 tree tokens. The Shadow Wardens will probably be my first group, as well.
Fletcher Jul 12th 2011 4:40AM
I picked the Herbninjas of the Talon on my DK (who, thanks to different update times, is a day or two ahead of my Alliance characters on a different server). Largely because I wanted to save the Shadow Wardens for my rogue (since she's my stand-in for an actual proper Warden hero class).
I'll have enough tree tokens tomorrow to unlock the Wardens, and I can't wait. The guilty shall suffer!
Anteia Jul 12th 2011 4:44AM
I was going to do Shadow Wardens on both of my mains, but then realized how I needed -something- to be different between their lengthy set of dailies each day or I was going to go insane. So my warrior, oddly enough, went Druids and my Druid went Shadow Wardens. I just love that I can now fall off the rocks at Fireplume and not die :D
I did think it was a nice touch with the Druids of the Talon being wounded and you treating them and them commenting about how it's practically suicidal to fly in the area. It at least makes me feel better about my own Druid not being allowed to turn bird.
Fletcher Jul 12th 2011 4:57AM
Speaking of the DotT, does anyone know WTF is *with* Azeroth's Best Buddies, Super Friends Tholo & Anren? Are they just randomly bizarrely codependent for no reason, or are they a pop culture reference I don't get?
My working theory is that they're lovers trying to escape the notice of the Cenarion Circle's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy by overemphasising that they're "just good friends" to a ridiculous degree. But I could be wrong.
Ambross Jul 12th 2011 5:48AM
Stiff competition with the Belf and Dwarf (Legolas and Gimli complex) besties in the Eastern Plaugelands.
I believe they show up for the new dailies and interact then as well.
Still, Tholo and Anren made me smile. That sort of friendship is really excised from games and society as it implies 'gayness,' which is still a touchy subject with mass media and censors alike. Platonic, same sex close friendship is a very nice thing to see again in a game.
The Lesser Evil Jul 12th 2011 7:02AM
Oddly enough, I have no problem falling off the rocks around Fireplume and dying. Or just falling off Fireplume in general and dying. I guess I've found my calling in life!
At least every few minutes I can cast Spiritwalking, then use Ancestral Recall to hearth before I die to the void.
Anteia Jul 12th 2011 2:13PM
::laughs:: First time I saw them, I even asked in general "Uhm. Are we getting a reference to Hyjalback mountain with these two?" And several others replied they wondered the same thing. And it's just been emphasized more and more in the dailies. I think it's pretty adorable myself, regardless of whether they are just good friends or if they are lovers. Though, you know, if it was a male and female, most people would be going "Of course they're lovers." purely from the words Anren uses during the quest to get out of the Molten Flow. His yell about "I'm coming back for you, Tholo!". If a male shouted that and the other participant was female, there'd be very little doubt in most minds that they had something going on. Whether those two do or not, their loyalty and determination to be near each other is cuddle-worthy. They make me smile.
Eddy Jul 12th 2011 4:46PM
I think Tholo and Anren are, "Sorry, we got bored of writing Asric and Jadaar, so here, have some more bromance, without a side of banter."
Saeadame Jul 12th 2011 6:46AM
Picked Druids, if only because I'm a Druid and I wanted the continuity. If I ever do these dailies on any of my other 85's, I'll probably pick Wardens just to break up the monotony (although really, doing the quest to heal the wounded druids is probably 10x harder on a character without instant cast healing spells... I just go around spamming lifebloom on every dead-looking thing I can target and BAM 8/8... guess it makes up for having to do the rest of the dailies as resto due to my lack of dps spec).
exogenesis. Jul 12th 2011 7:07AM
I chose the Druids so I could get the achievement for the bombing run - and immediately regretted it. On the first day, I had to abandon two quests that I simply could not do without feeling the need to shout at my computer screen ... NOT something I wanted to do before a long day at work.
Thermal vents and hatchlings? No, thank you.
MusedMoose Jul 12th 2011 8:18AM
The hatchling quest is much, much easier if you head to the top of the volcano. There's a lava pit there with eggs around it, and if you wait a bit, hatchlings will spawn. You can just pick them up instead of messing around with the thermals.
Ez Jul 12th 2011 7:12AM
I did Shadow on my main. Druids is broken, as i found out when i started it for my 2nd last nite. Hopefully they will fix it today so we don't have to wrangle that cliff to get to the boss! lol
furrama Jul 12th 2011 2:57PM
It was broken for me on day two, but I found out a day later that you can still go around the fire and kill the guy on top of the cave and get quest credit, even though you didn't protect the druid or anything, (who doesn't want to spawn, I guess he's getting his talons done).
Yeah, hopefully they get it fixed, but I still missed a day because of it.
Eddy Jul 12th 2011 6:39PM
Actually, it was easier for me to do when it was broken- I had trouble keeping up with all the mob spawns, but sneaking around the side was more painless.
Branalia Jul 12th 2011 7:26AM
The druids of the talon are the correct choice to get first if you intend to get all the achievements as fast as possible. You need to do the bombing run quest once a week to bomb each of the firelords in the raid area to get an achievement... and they change weekly. If you did the Wardens first, you missed this week's firelord and will be a week behind everyone that picked the druids.
Skarn Jul 12th 2011 12:29PM
Not a big deal for me. Neither one will help me get the Hippogriff of Fire faster. Going with the Druids first speeds up getting a title that I'm not likely to wear. (I prefer Starcaller Skarn or Skarn the Seeker. Love the titles, plus alliteration!) The Wardens are pretty cool and I too have missed that vicious aspect that the Night Elves had in WC3.
In a few days when I have 150 tokens and open the Druids, I'll probably do their quests exclusively until I have all the achievements. By that point I'll have seen all the quests the Wardens have to offer. I will miss "Enduring the Heat" though. It's pretty hilarious to see how terribly some people fail at it. Also a bit sad....
GhostWhoWalks Jul 12th 2011 7:44AM
I went with the Wardens, no contest. Badass ninja ladies or feathers? The choice was clear.
themightysven Jul 12th 2011 8:14AM
I stopped at 81 marks to give the zone some time air out (of 500 people going after the same quest spawns as me) and to finish leveling my Priest (currently level 83) I figure I'll do Wardens on my rogue and mage, druids on priest and dk.
Having a zone that mimics the start of an expansion but stretched out over the course of a month leaves me with perma-raised eyebrow when ever I'm in there