Tuesday Morning Post: Darkmoon's back edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Dec 6th 2011 at 7:00AM
If you're still trying to get a grip on the wide, wide world of patch 4.3, be sure to check out our patch 4.3 guide. I've also put a pretty awesome fan-modified version of the patch 4.3 trailer above for your amusement. If you're in the midst of pugging those new dungeons, you'll also definitely want to check out our 5-second guides to each of the new bosses. They're perfect for pasting into chat just to make sure the other newbs in your group know what's up. We also have a 5-second guide for the bosses of Dragon Soul's Raid Finder version.
Scheduled maintenance today is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you should have time to read up. Check out our usual roundup after the break.
Hot news and features
- Check out the latest 4.3 hotfixes for Dec. 2.
- Check out our gallery of screenshots from the beautiful new patch 4.3 5-man instances.
- If you're running the instances, take along our 5-second guides to each boss fight. We also have a 5-second guide to the new Raid Finder version of the Dragon Soul bosses.
- Interested in the Raid Finder? Blizzard has an official Raid Finder Q&A.
- The Dragon Soul raid has multiple (spoiler-filled) cinematics, and we have them for your viewing pleasure. We also have the big ending cinematic.
- Check out this complete list of the new patch 4.3 pets, mounts and collectibles.
- World of Wardrobe grabs transmogrification stuff from Sunwell Plateau.
- Real ID friends can now run cross-realm Battlegrounds together.
- Blizzard's posted a new short story called Charge of the Aspects.
- Fishing is now quicker to level in patch 4.3.
- Transmog Fashion is a new Tumblr that uses the WoW API to grab random transmogrification sets from the armory.
- Encrypted Text has a guide to getting the new rogue legendary.
- Spiritual Guidance looks at healing priests in patch 4.3. We also have a look at new patch 4.3 shadow priest gear.
- Totem Talk browses the new Pandaria talent calculator for restoration shaman. We also take a look at patch 4.3 changes for enhancement shaman.
- Blood Pact looks at the new patch 4.3 dungeon gear for warlocks.
- Scattered Shots takes a look at more patch 4.3 hunter changes.
- Raid Rx helps you heal the first couple of bosses in the Dragon Soul raid.
- The Light And How To Swing It has three tips for tankadins. We also have a guide to patch 4.3 holy paladin gear.
- Shifting Perspectives has a patch 4.3 gear list for balance druids. We also have a patch 4.3 feral cheat sheet for you.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses the design philosophy of the new Pandaria warrior talents.
- Arcane Brilliance continues looking at Pandaria mage talents.
- Blood Pact has first impressions of raiding for warlocks in patch 4.3.
- Want to take down Morchok? We have a guide to help you.
- Addon Spotlight helps you iron out some of those patch 4.3 addon issues.
- WoW Rookie has tips for success in the Raid Finder.
- Gold Capped discusses profiting off the new valor BoEs and craftables in patch 4.3 and looks at the future of Chaos Orbs.
- Ready Check looks at the possible return of raid stacking.
- Know Your Lore looks at the beginning of the upcoming Horde-Alliance war and the possible ramifications of the Cataclysm end cinematic.
- Rossi thinks Blizzard missed the boat on 20-man raiding.
- The Lawbringer answers emails about stolen guild charters and yearly subscriptions.
- Blizzard CM Bashiok takes you through a day in his life.
- Check out our review of the SteelSeries WoW MMO Edition legendary gaming mouse.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
egburr Dec 6th 2011 7:16AM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but with the current cost of items, it will not be possible to buy even one of the new pets or one piece of replica gear by the end of this first week of the darkmoon fair. To get a full set of the replica gear will be, at minimum, a full year's endeavor, and that's only if you're not a pet/mount collector. Is there any hint that Blizzard is considering reducing the prices of all these items?
I understand wanting to make us work for it. Don't even start on the "instant gratification". But, incremental rewards along the way would be nice. Being able to purchase one item per fair week isn't too unreasonable to ask for, is it?
Murdertime Dec 6th 2011 7:49AM
I think they want it to last a bit longer than that being the main impetus for drawing it out.
Besides, there's lots of other rewards you can buy with your tickets. Like balloons and riding tigers and rubber swords and other such fripperies.
chris111803 Dec 6th 2011 8:15AM
I read somewhere it'll take 3 years to get everything!
Scuac Dec 6th 2011 8:32AM
Well, since many things in DMF are BoE, you could grind for different things on alts and cut the time dramatically.
Saikoujin Dec 6th 2011 8:43AM
Keep in mind that the DMF is patch-neutral, despite it being introduced with patch 4.3 content. It's meant to be a fun attraction once a month (as the DMF has always been) and not meant to be finished in any specific time frame. If's true that the pets and mounts will take a very long time to acquire. In that regard it looks like the Argent Tournament has met its match. But if you're looking to get heirlooms, etc, JP and farming is a much faster way.
Persephanie Dec 6th 2011 8:52AM
On PTR it was 5 ticket per daily which was much better and easier. I had a pet in 2-3 days and i dint have to worry about conserving my tickets. Now its ridiculous! They really do need to switch it back to 3-5 tickets for dailies.
Schadenfreude Dec 6th 2011 10:24AM
Yeah, I'm a little dismayed by how long I'll have to work to get anything. The blue quest drops seem to be especially troublesome.
Avi Dec 6th 2011 10:28AM
I have 90 tickets right now, which is enough for a pet. And you can get 150 tickets per faire week... But it does requires turning in a lot of Darkmoon artifacts, which drop from dungeons, battlegrounds, and raids (as long as you have the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide).
Luckily, you can farm low-level dungeons for 4 of the artifacts to turn in (just look up the achievement "Darkmoon Dungeoneer" on Wowhead for a list of drops.)
egburr Dec 6th 2011 1:57PM
So far, I've run through 8 dungeons and have yet to see an artifact even drop to be rolled on. And yes, I do have the darkmoon book. Of course, my character's RNG setting is "very low", as I tend to have pretty poor luck on anything that is purely RNG based. I'm already at 400 casts trying to get the sea pony, while others in my guild have found it in 5-10 casts.
I am currently at 40 tickets. 25 for the profession one-time quests, and 15 for 3 days of dailies. I'll get 20 more for 4 more days of dailies, for a total of 60. I'll be surprised if I even see an artifact, even more if I actually win the roll for it.
Yes, it is theoretically possible to get all 9 artifacts to turn in, but the chances of that are absurdly low unless you have a RNG-friendly character.
Assuming that the profession quests are repeatable each month, I can buy 2/3 of a pet each month, so 9 months to get all 6 pets, then another 6 months for the 2 mounts. I had a replica gear set picked out for transmog, but that has now been pushed out to 15 months before I can even start working on that, and then it will be at best a new piece every 2 months.
This makes me look back with fondness at the Argent Tourney grind, earning 10-12 tokens a day, every day, and buying a new item every 1-3 weeks.
Draev Dec 6th 2011 10:13AM
Even digital carnies rip you off!
dmberreth Dec 6th 2011 12:06PM
Blizzard needs to grab the person who redid that trailer and hire them onto their "common sense" team. That was INFINITELY better than the official release, and it just had added voices.