Posts with tag hearthstone

New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.

Looky, Mom, we're all original: we didn't call this post "Home is where the hearth is" (but only because that title was already taken). And speaking of being trite, hearthstones may seem like a rather mundane matter -- not exactly high-value gaming strategy, eh? -- yet seasoned players manage to accumulate a little hearthing savvy that makes life in Azeroth (and the Outland and Northrend) a little more convenient.

Hearthstones link you to an inn in a location of your choosing, allowing you to transport ("hearth") back there once every 30 minutes. Prior to Patch 3.1, when you could only use your hearthstone once per hour, choosing where to bind and how to most efficiently order your errands and quests called for more than an insignificant amount of thought. The lower cooldown time today makes planning simpler, but there are still a few points worth knowing to help tune up your efficiency and dial down your travel time.

Lotonero got his thread locked because he posted it in the wrong forum, but he makes an interesting point: rez sickness costs are higher than ever. Death costs are already pretty high -- when you're dressed in greens and blues it's not much of a problem, but get yourself down to red on some high-level epics, and see if you don't wince when you hit up the repair vendor to pay the piper. But rez sickness costs are even worse -- they affect durability on all of your items, even those you're not wearing, and so when a dual-specced healer or tank with two or even three sets of gear goes rez-sick, the amount they have to pay goes through the roof.

Now, you might think what I thought: if you're carrying around that much epic gear, then a) why are you dying, and b) why are you rezzing from a spirit healer? But Wryxian, right before sending Lotonero packing to the suggestions thread, throws in his own two cents: "Maybe not." Maybe Blizzard might consider it -- dual specs wasn't around when they originally thought up the cost of rez sickness, and maybe since many players are carrying around two sets of gear now, it's due for another look. I didn't think the Hearthstone cooldown needed a nerf either, but we got that anyway.

So maybe it's something for Blizzard to think about. My guess is that most players will not think it's worth the change -- gold is flowing so freely nowadays and the death penalty is so cheap (back in the EQ days, we used to lose XP or even levels) that it's not a big deal, especially when you choose to go rez sick. But it's true that this is one of the game's oldest mechanics, so maybe it's time to take a critical look.

You've probably heard, by now, the reason why there are no auction houses (or class trainers) in Dalaran or Shattrath. Blizzard doesn't want the old world towns (like Ironforge and Orgrimmar) to become ghost towns. Ghost towns like, for example, Shattrath -- have you been there lately? But as Gnomeaggedon pointed out last week, there's another option: neutral Auction houses.

We haven't talked about the Neutral Auction houses in the game for a long time -- they exist only in Winterspring, Booty Bay, and Tanaris, and pretty much have only served the purpose of trading items back and forth between the two factions (or scamming between them). But Gnomeaggedon has a new idea: why not reintroduce them to the newer cities, and create another option for people rather than having to go all the way back to the old world (and waste a hearthstone cooldown)? Not only would you bring people back to the Neutral Auction houses (they really are empty right now), but you'd bring the auction house back to the people, at a slightly higher cost.

I like it, and so does Mend Pet, though she sees a few issues: even with the higher cost, you might still get people forgetting about the normal Auction houses and then you've just switched where the problem is (not to mention that people leveling wouldn't see anyone in the big cities when they went). And Dalaran is laggy and crowded as it is -- creating another mess of characters won't help. And finally, this is a solution without a real problem: we're getting the Hearthstone cooldown lowered anyway, so it's not that big deal to go back home occasionally (or just use a bank alt). Still, the Neutral houses are just sort of sitting there. Giving us more access to them might be worth it.

Patch 3.1 will be changing how we all get around. Travel is usually a bit of a touchy subject, but there are some huge improvements on the way.

If you love Kirin'Tor bling, you'll be happy to note that their transportation rings are getting an upgrade. Should you purchase one, you get a free teleport to Dalaran once every hour.

The Hearthstone that you've carried with you since you day one, unless you deleted it and had to bribe an Innkeeper for a new one, is changing radically. The cooldown is being reduced from one hour to half an hour. This was done partially to appease the whining over nerf to ghetto hearthing.

Ghetto Hearthing is/was the process of dropping your group while in a dungeon and waiting one minute for a free hearth, provided your hearthstone was on a cooldown. In 3.1, you will no longer be able to do this. Fortunately, you can still use the method to get yourself out of a dungeon.

Ghetto hearthing will be less of a hearth and more of a shifting of your virtual person to the nearest graveyard, alive and well. This will stop people from doing things like entering Ragefire Chasm while grouped, dropping, and getting a free hearth.

Players complain that dual specs are available only at the highest level, and Blizzard drops them down to level 40 (and removes the reagent, to boot). Engineers complain they don't have a self-buff, and they get one. Hunters are finally getting that last bag back. Even after the Love is in the Air holiday ends, Blizzard decided to nerf the achievement so everyone can get it anyway. And when ghetto hearthing, a much-loved exploit, is removed from the game, Blizzard decides to nerf, of all things, the hearthstone cooldown. Is it just us, or is Blizzard doing a lot of spelunking lately?

Not that it bothers us -- most of those changes are welcome. The good thing about Blizzard caving is that at least it'll make somebody happy. But on the other hand (just to play devil's advocate here), this game is great because the devs made it, not because the players did. If Blizzard caves in every time players throw a fit on the forums, won't that hurt the game?

It's not happening, says Zarhym. He says the Hearthstone change, as well as presumably all of the other changes above, came about not because of constant pestering of the devs, but because they sat down and made the decision that it was right for the game. He doesn't say they never cave (we can probably all agree that the dual spec at 40 change likely came about from player feedback, even if it was very insightful feedback), but Zarhym says the devs won't move on stands they believe in. Given that patch 3.1 is like an early tax return with all of the bonuses we're getting back, we wonder what exactly those are.

---

Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.

Alright, so they killed ghetto hearthing. Blizzard never intended the instance boot system to be used as means to travel back to one's home city while Hearthstones were on cooldown, so they're setting things right in Patch 3.1 by making it port players to the nearest graveyard, instead. Naturally, this sparked outrage amongst the instance-abusing community and some players demanded Blizzard to make up for the loss of one of the most frequently used means of travel.

Eyonix was quick to shut down these arguments in a long thread but eventually capitulated to the will of the masses, announcing that Hearthstones would be usable every 30 minutes when Patch 3.1 goes live. Eyonix still doesn't quite understand what the fuss is all about, though, and points to mage portals, Dalaran portals, and good old mount riding as acceptable means of getting from point A to point B. He even dismisses the complaints as QQ at one point. That said, it looks like some QQ has won the day for now. Enjoy your 30 minute hearthstones, everyone.

---

Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

Facebookers love apps. Oh sure, there are those who are somewhat less than thrilled, but most enthusiastic users of Facebook love to hook up goodies like Top Friends and Super Poke. So when we got wind of several Facebook apps for WoW players that are building their own followings, we decided to track down their creators. Last week, we interviewed WoW player and I Play WoW creator Nick Gerakines; this week, we take a whole different spin on the topic with Chris Nolan of Hearthstone.

Just as Korale/Nick Gerakines and his wife Carolyn are the team behind I Play WoW, Tego (aka Chris Nolan) and his wife Jen have teamed up to bring Facebooking WoW fans the Hearthstone app. We visited with Tego to find out where he and his family keep their own hearthstone, and why.

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

When 15 Minutes of Fame first heard from Nick Gerakines (Korale of Medivh-US), he was a WoW-playing Yahoo employee tipping us off to his company's proliferation of employee-centric WoW guilds. Today, he's moved on from Yahoo, wriggling deeper into gaming with two new projects: a spot at Electronic Arts (EA) working on Rupture.com, a social networking site for gamers of all stripes; and I Play WoW, a Facebook application for WoW players.

Intrigued by the comments to our recent news post about I Play WoW, we decided to track down its creator. While we were at it, we looked up the creators of Hearthstone, another popular WoW app for Facebook. What we discovered: two very different approaches to the idea of social networking among WoW players, from two very different creators. This week, we talk to Nick Gerakines about I Play WoW; come back next week for our visit with Chris Nolan of Hearthstone.

Last week, when we reported on the Facebook I Play WoW app reaching a full 100,000 users, a lot of commenters mentioned another app over there, Hearthstone, that's got a good reputation from the people who use it. I checked it out, and indeed, it's an excellent alternative (or addition -- there's nothing keeping you from using both) to let you show your WoW characters off on Facebook.

Just like I Play WoW, Hearthstone pulls your character information directly from the Armory, and displays it in a number of ways around Facebook, including, if you so choose, on your profile pages or on your wall. A few of our commenters said they liked Hearthstone's display better, but I didn't see any major differences there -- they both display your character, class, level, and server, and both will click through to pages where you can see more stats and discuss the character with others. Hearthstone will also let you change your character's image to a custom choice and enter a bio, though I Play WoW has some customization options as well. Hearthstone has an "equipment history," so even if you shard those epics you can still brag about having them. And finally,Hearthstone will let you play with the characters right on Facebook, and you can /salute or /duel the characters of your friends.

Overall, they're both worth checking out if you want to show off some of your World of Warcraft progress on Facebook. Obviously, I Play WoW is bigger, but as our commenters pointed out, Hearthstone has some excellent features as well.

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

This week's edition of Insider Trader will stand as an introduction to becoming a scribe. After covering some of the basic information you will need to know, I will walk you through the leveling process until you reach the 100th skill point.

I will also discuss Minor Inscription Research and glyphs in detail, ensuring that you can make informed choices when choosing how to level your inscription. In the coming weeks, I will continue with the guide until the new maximum, 450.

Hop on through the break to learn how to boost your scribe's levels quickly and cost-effectively.

I've been playing WoW, and writing for WoW Insider, for quite a while now. So it came as something of a surprise to me to learn that I could hearth, after a fashion, when my hearthstone was on cooldown. You see, on a post of mine a couple of weeks ago, someone introduced me to the concept of "ghetto hearthing": get in a group with any random person, zone into an instance, and drop group. 60 seconds or so later, you're automatically teleported back to your hearth point.

The beauty of this is that Stormwind and Orgrimmar both have instances in them, so it provides very easy travel from those cities back to Outland, for those trips to respec or check the AH. Anyway, when I finally understood that I could hearth back from Stormwind any time just by popping into the Stockade, I felt like a big noob for having waited out all those cooldowns for the past year or two.

Have you had any big noob moments recently?

Be warned, ladies and gentlemen: There are a couple of minor spoilers for Wrath of the Lich King in this week's Ask a Lore Nerd. I don't think they're very substantial ones personally, but the choice is yours whether you want to continue reading or not.

Soirgriffe asks...

What tribe, if any, did the dire trolls come from and if not a tribe, where in general?

Just how dire trolls come to be is largely an unknown, but they don't seem to be an independent race. They're just bigger, stronger versions of a troll. All of the tribes seem to have dire trolls.

There are a couple of quests in Wrath of the Lich King that might suggest dire trolls are regular trolls who have been 'empowered' but to avoid spoiling too much, what goes on in those quests is pretty different from seeing Jin'rokh the Breaker hanging out with the Zandalari. So all that we really know is there is no racial distinction between Dire Trolls and Regular Trolls of the same tribe. One is just much, much bigger and stronger for some reason.

Here's a brand new find fresh from the Kirin Tor capital of Dalaran on the Wrath Beta servers. We've been wondering for a while what type of money sinks Blizzard might implement in wrath, and we've found one, to the tune of 8000 gold coins: A set of melee and caster rings that not only deliver some pretty sweet stats, but also have a free teleport to Dalaran on use to the tune of an hour cooldown.

The rings are sold by Tiffany Cartier, the Jewelcrafting supply vendor in Dalaran, who hangs out next to the jewelcrafting trainer. They come in both melee and caster versions, and seem to have pretty solid stats. Still, the main draw is the teleport, and it seems very likely that it will be on a separate cooldown from the Hearthstone. That means that for a paltry sum, you too can feel somewhat like a Mage once an hour.

It's also worth noting that Tiffany herself is on the Kirin Tor faction. That means that if you care to do a bit of grinding before you spend your dough, you'll be able to haggle the price down to 6400 gold -- still far above the price of Burning Crusade's major money sink.

This is certainly a useful and clever way for Blizzard to siphon money out of the economy once we all hit 80 and start doing all our Argent Crusade dailies, and it makes me sort of glad I didn't blow all my money on the Gigantique bag craze. Of course, now I need to figure out where I'm going to find the gold to buy one for all my alts.

Thanks to Kurai for the tip, and Alex for heading to Dalaran for screenshots.

What's going on WoW Insider reader night crew? Don't tell the morning crew we told you this, but we know you're good people (some might say even better than the early risers are). You're willing to come and read the site late into the night, and for that, we'd like to make sure you don't miss our Manaprincess contest, going on right now. You could win a Manaprincess gift pack, complete with these Hearthstone charms as well as a set of Health and Mana potion pendants, from Manaprincess and WoW Insider.

To enter, you've got leave a comment on our contest post (not this post, that post), and that's it. Please only comment once, and do it before Friday night at midnight, when we'll randomly pick a winner to give the gift pack to. Once more, to enter you must comment on the contest post (commenting on this post will give you nothing at all but the satisfaction of having left your mark on this page).

You're some of our favorite readers, late night crew, so we wanted to make sure you got a chance to enter, too. Just don't tell the morning crew we did -- oh, hi there, morning crew! Didn't realize you all were coming in so early this morning!