Posts with tag kaluak

Rise and shine, folks! It's a bright and sunny Saturday morning, and there's a Kalu'ak Fishing Derby to be won!

Winning the contest is simple ... in theory. Once the contest starts at 14:00 server time, fish in every pool in Northrend you can find until you get a Blacktip Shark. When you get it, bring it back to Dalaran. There's a lot of luck involved, but the contest is definitely winnable, especially now that it's been out for over two years.

The derby offers some pretty sweet rewards. It's the only place in the game where you can obtain an heirloom ring. (You could opt for boots that increase your fishing skill by 15 instead, but who'd ever choose that instead?)

Do you participate in the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby? Have you already won your Dread Pirate Ring prize? Or is the random nature and high competition level of the contest simply not worth your time?

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The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

They come from the depths of the oceans, bringing with them a mysterious mist that clouds the senses. And when they die, they don't perish so much as dissolve into sand, making one wonder what exactly holds these creatures together. What is it about them that brings the ethereal fog? Are the Kvaldir the bringers of the mist, or are they merely slaves to it, cursed to emerge from the sea only when the mist is present?

Not much is known about the Kvaldir other than their appearance in Wrath of the Lich King and their upcoming appearance in Cataclysm. What we do know is that they are somehow related to the vrykul, and they seem to hold no love for any of the races above the sea. In Cataclysm, it is made absolutely clear that they hold no love for anything below the ocean waters, either. They are the apparent enemy of all they encounter ... but who is it that they serve? What exactly is the motive of the Kvaldir?

WARNING: The following post contains spoilers for the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. If you wish to remain spoiler-free, do not continue.

I am of the opinion that the tuskarr are hiding something sinister, something malevolent and something dangerous. I am of the opinion that the leaders of the Kalu'ak, Elders Ko'nani, Muahit and Atuik, are in fervent service to their patron Loa and harbor (get it?) a dangerous, deep, abiding and protective nature towards the sea. The sea is the most sacred thing to the Kalu'ak people, and they will do anything and make any deal to protect it.

With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and soon, an entire flight of black dragons.

As I said last week, I'm looking for action screenshots of retribution and protection paladins. I've gotten a lot of good shots thus far and am always looking for more (especially you retribution paladins out there, as I got a ton of protection ones). They can be any level between 1 and 80. I'll be using these for header graphics like the one above. Please send those as well as any other comments to my email at gregg@wow.com.

If you've been following the column recently, you've seen the three-part series we did on gearing up a brand new level 80 protection paladin. We're going to take the same approach now to the retribution tree and work our way through the different types of items. First up, we've got craftables and reputation items. We'll be taking a look at stuff you'll be able to grab in dungeons next week and finish up the week after with a run-through of what all you can buy with the badges you got from all of that time in the random dungeon finder.

It's not unusual to see player speculation on what we'll see when Cataclysm arrives, and most of us have our own private wish lists. I'm sure I could come up with my own if I thought about it, but while riding between Kamagua and Moa'ki Harbor last night on the Kalu'ak ferry lazily chatting with people, it occurred to me that one of the things I'd kill to have again is another faction like the Tuskarr.

These guys are, for lack of a better word, awesome. Their emotes are fantastic. They sell an evil penguin pet and a cool fishing item (the Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole) that probably won't be replaced for the duration of the expansion. Their ships are giant turtles traveling along beautiful coastline with a vendor on board (seriously, riding these at night = an endless series of Kodak moments). They get my vote as the faction that immerses you most thoroughly in what they need and what they're doing to survive in an increasingly hostile Azeroth, and I'm wondering if, given Northrend's various difficulties, they might be convinced to seek warmer climes just so we don't have to give them up.

Agonizing rep grinds have plagued the game since classic, but the Tuskarr are such a well-realized bunch that even at exalted I love hanging around their villages. What's your favorite faction, and is there anything about them you'd like to see repeated with future reputation grinds?

News flash! Tired of getting ganked in Stranglethorn Vale for the weekly fishing contest? Well worry no more as our favourite walking walruses, the Kalu'ak, are hosting their own fishing tournament in Northrend every Wednesday when patch 3.3 drops! Some details have been released in the recent 10676 build.

Great! What are the details?

Elder Clearwater is going to hang out in Dalaran for exactly one hour for a Blacktip Shark that you have to catch and return to him. The event starts at 8:00 PM on Wednesday.

If you're looking for a tip though, apparently the elusive Blacktip Shark seems to favour Pygmy Suckerfish. Keep a few handy in your bags when you're going fishing. Don't worry though as even if you don't end up being the champion angler, you'll still receive a reward just for turning the shark in.

On an achievement related note, the Master Angler of Stranglethorn achievement has been changed to Master Angler of Azeroth. Winning the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza or the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby will be enough to meet the requirements for the achievement.

We're not quite sure as to what the prizes are yet, but according to the Warcraft twitter, a new heirloom ring awaits the winner!

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Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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So, death knight. You're through with Outland. You just dinged 68 in Nagrand and want to move on to whiter, snow covered pastures. Maybe those pastures are in Northrend. Maybe those pastures are in Alterac Valley. Either way, let's discuss getting through those final levels and pushing you through to the end game.

I have to say, I still have a pretty soft spot for the Tuskarr. They're sort of minor players in Northrend, overall. You help them kidnap some kids and fight off some vikings, grab a penguin pet and a fishing pole, and you're done, and on to bigger and better things in other zones. They don't even merit art for their females. Still, they're always pretty jovial, they look like big fat and happy dudes, and they got turtle boats. It's difficult not to like them.

One of the things they did is spur me to finally get a character maxed out fishing. I was always sort of planning to, one of these days, seriously, but it took the Tuskarr to push me over the edge, just because they made it so chill and awesome. Ok, so the epic fishing pole probably had something to do with it too, but still.

All right, folks, we've got another sub-achievement needed for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been (and thus the 310% speed Violet Proto-Drake) on our hands here. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that most of the achievements for Children's Week are fairly straightforward, and should be easy (and even fun) to complete. Appropriately enough for a mini-holiday, most of the achievements are simple, amusing, and not too time-consuming. The bad news is that one of the achievements may be a huge headache to get done, and unlike Noblegarden, your character has to be at least 75 in order to get all of the achievements needed for the year-long meta.

Children's Week runs from Friday, May 1st at midnight through Thursday, May 7th at 11:59 PM. Got your kiddo? Let's get cracking.

EDIT: This article's been revised and updated to reflect new information and the hotfixes that have gone live since initial publication. All information herein should be accurate as of 11:30 AM EST Saturday May 2nd.

It's the day after Christmas. A fair portion of our readership is only now getting Wrath of the Lich King installed on their computer, especially after the gift exchanges of the last few days. Over the weeks since Wrath's release, we've had quite a bit of content to ease you through your first steps into Northrend. With this latest wave of people hitting the frozen shores for the first time, it's a good opportunity to look back on a lot of that.

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we continue our examination of the faction gear available for Druids in Wrath and have a serious conversation with our aesthetic conscience regarding the hideous Kirin Tor tabard: "Is the tanking staff we get at Revered worth the humiliation of wearing that purple monstrosity?" The answer, dear readers, is no.

In the first part, we covered Druid gear available with the Tuskarr, the Alliance Vanguard/Horde Expedition, Wyrmrest Accord, Kirin Tor, and Oracles/Frenzyheart. This week, we're going to finish with a look at the Knights of the Ebon Blade, the Argent Crusade, and the Sons of Hodir. You're unlikely to encounter any of these three factions while leveling between 70 and 74, but all three figure prominently in mid to late '70's leveling. Read on for the last three factions, but if you want a quick set of links to each individual faction, here you go:

• Kalu'ak and Horde Expedition/Alliance Vanguard Guide

• Wyrmrest Accord and the Kirin Tor Guide

• The Frenzyhearts and the Oracles Guide

• The Argent Crusade Guide

• The Knights of the Ebon Blade and Sons of Hodir Guide

So. You've breezed past the early 70s. You've checked out the reputation gear for Hunters, and now you're ready to grind. So you've picked up your tabard, and you realize that you still have a question left to answer: Which dungeon should I run? What dungeon has the gear I need to get suited up and ready to run Heroics?

Scattered Shots is here to help. We're going to look at some of the best pre-Heroic drops for Hunters in Wrath, and hopefully give you some idea of what way to go when you look for your next dungeon, or at least what drops to cross your fingers for.

This guide will focus mostly on normal dungeon drops, although where a quest reward, reputation reward, or relatively easy to craft crafted item is a good option for the slot, we'll highlight it as well. By the end of this guide, the Hunter that didn't quite finish their Karazhan runs during Burning Crusade should hopefully have an idea of where to get a good outlay of gear to prepare them for heroics, and eventually for Naxxramas itself.

Good luck on the drops, and good luck winning the rolls over those enhancement shamans!

The only way to increase your faction standing with the Kalu'ak is to complete the numerous tasks at the various quest hubs in the Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, and Howling Fjord. After all those quests are done the only way to further increase your standing is to work on the various daily quests associated with the faction.

But what are some of the goodies you can get when you're exalted?

The hottest item is the Mastercraft Kalu'ak Fishing Pole that has the double whammy of allowing underwater breathing and increasing your fishing skill by 30. It's a must have for any master angler, and will come in handy as you fish off the cold icebergs of Northrend. You can get pole for just over 100 gold when you hit exalted.

Another must have is the pet penguin that you can get when you reach exalted. The little guy is cute and is someone that wants to sit next to you as you use that big purple fishing pole you got.

You can pick up these rewards from quartermasters in either Mora'ki Harbor in Dragonblight or in Kamagua in the Howling Fjord.

Read on after the break and see what you can grab from these fun loving Wilfred Brimley looking folks.

We've completed our first set of Wrath Dailies outlining ways to increase your reputation with the Kalu'ak faction. The three quests that you can do are all available to you when you hit Northrend, and are generally pretty easy to swing through if there's not a lot of other people around.

The best way to complete them all is to begin at one of the starting zones and work your way across Northrend. I usually start off in the Howling Fjord with The Way to His Heart since that's the least heavily farmed, then go Dragonblight for Planning for the Future, and finally end up in the Borean Tundra doing Preparing for the Worst.

The Way to His Heart

In this daily quest you have to mate two squishy sea lions. Have fun, and don't forget that soap you made earlier. And what gets two sea lions to mate better than some yummy gooey raw fish?

Quick! Utaik needs your help! Gather eight of the Kaskala Supplies for him or the families of the Kalu'ak town Unu'pe will starve.

This daily quest is simple yet surprisingly annoying. It's one of those that can quickly get under your skin as more and more people do it. Want to run around pickup objects while ten other people on your server do it at the same time? Then this quest is for you!

Quest Giver: Utaik, Kaskala, Borean Tundra
Reputation: Kalu'ak
Reward: 500 rep & 4.86g at level 80
Minimum Level: 68
Required Chain: None!

Read on after the break for our walkthrough of the quest, complete with a few tricks you can do to get it done quickly and easily.