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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Darkmoon Faire begins!
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 4th 2011 at 8:00AM
If you weren't able to check out the Faire on the PTR and you're utterly lost as to what to do there, no worries. Our test realm coverage may help you out a little.
The one question everybody seems to be asking but nobody thought to answer is: How the heck do you get to the Darkmoon Island? Do you fly there? Is there a boat? No, neither of those things. It's much easier than that. The former carnival grounds in Elwynn Forest (just south of Goldshire) or Mulgore (just west of Thunder Bluff) will get you there. Go to one of those two areas, find the great big portal to Darkmoon Island, and you're on your way. Going through the portal will even earn you what is possibly one of the easiest achievements in the entire game: Come One, Come All!
Players that enjoy collecting purely cosmetic items like mounts, pets and transmogrification outfits are going to be making some of the most difficult World of Warcraft decisions they've made in a very long time thanks to the Darkmoon Faire. The Faire offers many things, but they all cost precious Darkmoon Prize Tickets -- tickets which are in extremely limited supply. If you're chasing a pricey mount, you may not be able to get anything else this month!
What are all of you planning to pick up first with your tickets? Personally, I'm going for the pets. I've never been either a pet collector or a mount collector, so I have a very low number of both. Pet Battles in Mists of Pandaria caught my interest, however, so I need to start building up my stable of pocket monsters before the expansion rolls around. Mounts are still pretty low on my list of priorities, so I may even go after heirlooms and replica gearsets before I ever look at that Darkmoon Dancing Bear.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
babywhiz Dec 4th 2011 11:31AM
I was traveling around looking, when I found that one. I cracked up laughing. One thing that boggled me tho, what in the heck were those sparkly dots on the ground that slowly moved around, and made like a rainbow if you followed them? I followed them for like 15 min, and nothing happened.
Shinae Dec 4th 2011 12:14PM
While I was able to get the Darkmoon journal from the lead-up quest on new toons, toons that I had already done the one DMF intro-quest did not have the new one available. So I was also perplexed by how to get a journal in that case. I also found I could get one from the information NPC (a female Forsaken). I agree that we shouldn't have to hunt for it.
@babywhiz
http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/11/08/patch-4-3-ptr-the-real-ghosts-of-darkmoon-faire-island/
zweitblom Dec 4th 2011 2:46PM
"As for buying simple flour, Alliance players need not travel back to Stormwind. A generically labeled trades good vendor located at the cart by the side of the road in Goldshire sells what you need. "
Uhm, it actually says so in the quest text...
Evil Midnight Lurker Dec 5th 2011 5:20AM
Babywhiz: those sparkles mark the locations of ghosts, who have things to say if you're dead. Creepy things. (Talk to them repeatedly, they have random lists.)
ravyynn Dec 4th 2011 11:20AM
I seem to remember that on PTR we were getting far more tickets for the dailies and quests, something like 5 per daily so 25 tickets per day. I Did the dailies last night for 1 ticket each? That seems very unreasonable to me. With only 5 dailies ( I think) that's only 5 tickets a day? At that rate it will take months to get enough tickets just for a pet. It was late and I was tired...someone help me out here...did they really change it that much?
Dementron Dec 4th 2011 6:12PM
There are also the once-weekly profession quests that add up to about 20 tickets if you do all five (they require at least 75 skill). You can get another 10 for killing 250 enemies (must land the killing blow), and some more from random drops while you have the faire guide in your inventory: 3 for pvp (5 ea), 5 for dungeons (10 ea) and one or two from raiding (10 ea plus money). The drop quests are not repeatable, but they probably reset each month. So you might be able to get a pet the first month if you really work at it, or a mount sometime in the second month.
Dementron Dec 4th 2011 6:32PM
Correcting myself, you get 20 tickets if you do all SIX profession quests. Two main profs, plus Cooking, First Aid, Fishing and Archy
Artificial Dec 4th 2011 11:22AM
Uffda... looking at the Darkmoon Dancing Bear really highlights just how old this game is. This is the kind of graphics at laughed at in 2004 as being from a previous era.
Shrikesnest Dec 4th 2011 8:23PM
This is exactly why Ninjabread Man is so much better than Nethack, why Chaos Legion is a better game than Minecraft, and why spending your weekend staring at shiny lights is so much more engaging than a game of Dungeons and Dragons with your friends. Who cares how much fun something is if it's not ten to twelve percent prettier than whatever came out two years ago?
Ice Dec 4th 2011 11:33AM
Before you enter
Remember to bring:
-5 simple flour for cooking quest
-Your favorite fishing pole for fishing quest (theres vendor for normal stuff)
-15 fossil fragments for arch quest.
-Proper Cologne to wear, no one likes smelly taurens stuffed next to you on the minigames.
And remember to bring profession stuff with you for rest of the profession-quests, you can find them wowhead...for example tailors need red dye, blue dye and coarse thread. Enchanters need nothing.. etc.
Ice Dec 4th 2011 11:34AM
Also there should be teleporting elf on ogrimmar flightpoint area that teleports you to TB for 30 silver. This took forever to find info about and shes not even marked anywhere..
Noyou Dec 4th 2011 11:44AM
I only did the JC and the Eng. quests. and didn't need anything. For Alliance, was no big deal to ride to the portal and hit up the trade vendor, get the flour and portal back. For those who haven't gone or found the portals back to the city, they are at the southern end of the fair at the end of the dock.
lionessa93 Dec 4th 2011 11:34AM
The Horde on Moon Guard already had a naked dance party after we discovered a pair of naked Night Elves doing questionable things behind the injured carnie tent.
Despite that, I am enjoying it! Very exciting to do something new, as always, but I don't think I'll lose interest in it. Love it!
ravyncat Dec 4th 2011 1:26PM
Hahahahaha XD
So it is like a real fair! >.>;;
pityu100 Dec 4th 2011 11:50AM
This event is permanent, or last for one week a month?
Ice Dec 4th 2011 12:04PM
Most likely week or few days on "every months first weekend" iirc.
Noyou Dec 4th 2011 12:06PM
One week a month. Permanent. Until they change it. Which, likely won't happen for a long long time.
G01851 Dec 4th 2011 2:17PM
it's always on your calendar
kristelledecker Dec 4th 2011 12:29PM
Remember to buy 5 simple flour, blue dye, red dye, and course thread BEFORE going to the darkmoon faire. It will save you time while there.
anne Dec 4th 2011 12:33PM
I have 65 tickets from previous darkmoon faires in my bank. They are not grayed out but vendors don't recognize them. The new ones appear in currency. Is there a way to convert the old tickets to the new currency?