Tuesday Morning Post: Faire enough edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Nov 8th 2011 at 5:00AM
- Need a tour? We've got a video tour.
- There are new replica gear sets and new ways to buy heirlooms.
- There are new pets and mounts ready to bolster your collection.
There was also some interesting news from GuildOx. They sent us a list of the most popular WoW character names by both race and class. As a lapsed RPer, you will excuse me if I trudge off to this corner and cry. I swear, my panda shaman will not have a "bear" or a "shock" anywhere in its name, with God as my witness. ... Then again, Bearshock is pretty catchy ...
Scheduled maintenance today is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you'll have plenty of time to catch up on all the news from the past week. There's a lot of it, from supporting the squish to Guardian Cub price wars, and we have it all for you after the break.
Hot news and features
- Ghostcrawler talks about possible solutions to item inflation. Do you support the squish, or are you mad for mega damage?
- The Guardian Cub can be purchased from the online Blizzard Pet Store.
- Anne has five reasons we love classic World of Warcraft.
- Rossi offers some thoughts on balancing with the new monk class.
- Miss the tier 13 sets? We have a gallery of every tier 13 class set.
- The WoW annual pass is now available in more countries.
- If you're after some extra BlizzCon loot, the post-BlizzCon store sale starts Nov. 11.
- World of Wardrobe digs up more plate tier look-alike gear.
- Holiday pets will no longer be BOP in patch 4.3. Join me in lamenting, fellow squashling destroyers.
- Patch 4.3 is now on the background downloader.
- Totem Talk prepares you for patch 4.3 restoration raiding.
- Shifting Perspectives looks at how the Eclipse system will need to change in patch 5.0. We also look for feral talents in patch 5.0.
- Encrypted Text talks about rogue news from the BlizzCon 2011 Q&A panels.
- The Light And How To Swing It tanks the first few heroic Firelands bosses.
- Lichborne solos some old content.
- Spiritual Guidance helps you grab Tarecgosa's Rest as a shadow priest.
- Raid Rx wants you to quit worrying about healing.
- Scattered Shots shows you how to scatter-trap.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors enumerates some of the best stuff about warriors.
- Arcane Brilliance has some Dungeon Finder adventures.
- How is a destruction warlock different from a fire mage? Blood Pact will tell you.
- AddOn Spotlight looks at some of our commenters' favorite addons.
- Gold Capped deals with AH stalkers and reflects on what we didn't learn at BlizzCon.
- Alchemy specializations are getting some new quests in patch 4.3.
- WoW Rookie looks for a good character name.
- Ready Check looks at raid accessibility.
- I don't always link the WoW Insider Show, but when I do, it's because it has the most awesome header image ever.
- Know Your Lore is in a tinfoil hat mood. We have theories about Neptulon and the true nature of Azeroth.
- About the Bloggers talks to our resident cartoonist Kelly Aarons.
- 15 Minutes of Fame talks to a legally blind raid healer with hearing loss.
- We talk to an awesome Vanessa Van Cleef cosplayer.
- Can the makers of Pokemon really sue Blizzard over the Pet Battle system? The Lawbringer looks at the issue.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Priestilla Nov 8th 2011 6:12AM
I just wish I could use Davidbearadine without losing any letters, but alas, the letter limiter willg et me.
kevin! Nov 8th 2011 6:18AM
Rep for whacking gnolls? Insane title, you just got even more delicious!
restodr00d Nov 8th 2011 7:27AM
DMF (b^.^)b
Philster043 Nov 8th 2011 7:35AM
"Holiday pets will no longer be BOP in patch 4.3. Join me in lamenting, fellow squashling destroyers."
D E L E T E
TaurenDruid Nov 8th 2011 8:52AM
I'm not sure why that even matters, they handed them out like candy this year (pardon the pun). It went from being a ridiculously low drop rate to be annoyingly high. Too bad the same can't be said about the mount, I don't know a single person who got it this year.
Philster043 Nov 8th 2011 5:58PM
Might have been an interesting source of revenue the rest of the year but yes, anybody not too impatient would have gotten it eventually enough (unless they lowered the drop rate next year... d'oh!)
Juzelle Nov 8th 2011 7:56AM
I was holding out vague hope for pandaran deathknights so I could be "Bearlyalive"
Couvs Nov 8th 2011 8:52AM
yikes, 3am extended maintenance? are we getting 4.3 already?
TaurenDruid Nov 8th 2011 8:55AM
Someone said we were this morning, and it did indeed finish downloading a 15GB patch for me this morning. That said I'm very skeptical, there is still new stuff being added to the PTR so I have my doubts it is ready so soon. Extended maintenance does usually indicate a patch though, who knows. I just hope it doesn't take until dark this time around.
Noyou Nov 8th 2011 10:01AM
I was thinking the same thing. Either today or next Tuesday. We haven't had maintenance for a while now...It could be a pre patch ramp up?
Couvs Nov 8th 2011 10:03AM
I'm a little torn on how I feel about it if it IS the patch already. I'd still like a little more time in Firelands, however I'm also anxious to get started on my Fangs of the Father quest line.
hicks Nov 8th 2011 10:09AM
The only reason I'd expect it to hit today is because DMF is running right now, if they released it after this week we'd have to wait three or four weeks to see it.
Amanda A. Nov 8th 2011 10:42AM
They usually have a RC build before taking down the PTR and announce the end of the PvP season before they release a patch. None of this has happened. So this isn't 4.3.
Couvs Nov 8th 2011 10:45AM
yeah when you put it that way it does sound more like they're catching up on the last two weeks that didn't have regular maintenance.
Noyou Nov 8th 2011 9:59AM
"The Darkmoon Faire's so amazing, the other four weeks of the month are going to be sort of sad."
Is this some Daylight savings thing? I remember most months to be 4 weeks long...
Shinae Nov 8th 2011 10:50AM
I wondered that too. But if you consider that a month with 31 days is 4.5 weeks, subtracting a week leaves you with 3.5 weeks, which can be rounded up to 4 weeks for simplicity's sake, and that's how long it's going to feel between Faires anyway. ;)
(Of course, Daylight Savings is only a matter of an hour, so that has nothing to do with it.)
Amaxe Nov 8th 2011 11:27AM
Well, I'm reminded of this anecdote I read somewhere:
"When told the reason for daylight savings time the Old Indian said, "Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.""
Amaxe Nov 8th 2011 11:23AM
Question for those on the PTR:
When I see the prices of heirlooms and replicas in terms of DMF tickets, I was wondering how much of a grind of dailies it will be to get them. How many tickets a day does one get assuming one hits all the dailies?
(Basically, how many days grind is necessary to get what you need?)
Noyou Nov 8th 2011 11:49AM
In one of the writeups yesterday a commenter said 280 tokens can be obtained in a week. The Heirlooms were 110/140 and the replica armor was 55/70, if my memory serves me correct. Whether or not that goes live is a different story. They might have made more tokens available for testing purposes.
Daniel Whitcomb Nov 8th 2011 11:51AM
If you do all Dailies and all once-per-faire quests, you'll get between 180-200 tickets, as I recall. So you can grind one or two pieces each Faire, depending on what exactly you want.