Posts with tag mists-of-pandaria

So, last time on 5 Things You Need to Know, we took you on a rollicking, barrel-rolling, beer-spewing adventure through the Stormstout Brewery. Many laughs were had at the adorable kitty-esque bosses, many a hammer was clicked, fruit and vegetables were hurled, and much drunken japery was had by all.

If the Stormstout Brewery was the chirpy cheerleader, then the Temple of the Jade Serpent is the emo sister, the one with the funky hair and the slightly offbeat jewelery. This is the Daria to Stormstout's Quinn. (Am I showing my age by referencing retro MTV cartoons? You bet I am!)

So just like last time, this is definitely not a full, step-by-step guide (but of course, we already did one of those for you). This is a set of simple facts that will arm you with just enough knowledge to tackle this second dungeon with the panache we expect of our dashing, well-read audience.

Let's get on with it!

1. You can go either right or left at the start. You start in a room with some quest givers, and in beta, the eminent Flaskataur, Esq. fulfills all your needs for glyphs and Tomes of the Clear Mind-- and frankly, your needs for tauren in adorable hats. From there, you have two corridors leading to the first two bosses through some trash. You can go either way. After killing whichever boss you kill second, you will be guided via a ramp to the next stage of the dungeon. I reckon right is easier than left. You may disagree. After you've killed whichever side you start with, you'll need to go back from whence you came and do the other one.

Deep in the heart of Kun-Lai Summit, at The Grummle Bazaar, lies a vendor named Uncle Bigpocket who, at some point, will sell the Grand Expedition Yak, this expansion's version of the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth. It's a beautiful beast, but what caught my attention were the vendors on the side of it. One of them is named Cousin Slowhands, a NPC who seems like he probably sells water and food and the like. The second vendor, on the other hand, is named Mystic Birdhat, Arcane Reforger.

Many players have posted on the forums (we've even floated the idea), pleading for some type of portable reforging tool. Well, it seems Blizzard was listening! While the price for the mount would appear to be about 60,000 gold, the possibility of account-wide mounts makes this purchase worthwhile. Hopefully, someone in your raid or dungeon group has some deep pockets!

[Thanks to Runek for the heads up!]

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

Are you ready for Pandaria? I don't think I can really repeat it enough: Pandaria is beautiful. The locations are gorgeous, and the amount of detail that went into simple things like leaves and trees is just phenomenal. Even if I don't have any quests to complete, simply running around and soaking in all of the scenery while snapping as many screenshots as possible is a lot of fun, particularly since there are hidden shrines with bits of lore all over the place now!

Since last week's jaunt into the wilds of Pandaria seemed to go over well, I decided to point out a few more places that are suitable for roleplay. Only this time, we're going to take a look at some really large areas where guilds or groups could hang out or large events could take place. Group events can be a lot of fun, even if they're a little harder to coordinate. Having the perfect backdrop for an event makes it even more fun -- and Pandaria is full of perfect backdrops.

The Stormstout Brewery is one of the two instances you'll be running once you start on dungeons in Mists. It's available at 85 and is probably the easiest of the ones currently available in the beta. So it's a great place to start out your journey to 90!

Being lovely, helpful people, we here at WoW Insider thought we would put together a short and sweet set of tips to aid you in your attempts to cleanse the Stormstout Brewery of its pollution. This isn't intended as a full guide (although of course we have furnished you with one of those in the past) but more as a helping hand for those who don't want a step-by-step walkthrough.

So what does the brave adventurer need to know?

1. Watch your debuffs! There are a lot of debuffs flying around in the Stormstout Brewery, there really are. My favourite debuff is Bloat, which makes you shoot beer out of your ears. If you're a melee player or a ranged player who likes to cuddle up to other ranged players, you'll need to check if your healer's able to keep up with the damage you're no doubt inflicting on your teammates. If not, you should probably take your beery ears elsewhere.

One of the most common complaints surrounding Cataclysm is the extremely linear nature of questing, both in the 1-to-60 experience and from 80 to 85. For levels 1 to 60, this linear nature almost works for me, largely because presumably new players heading through this content would like to do so as efficiently as possible. With a multitude of zones to choose from, the replay experience with Cataclysm isn't too bad -- particularly because it's really not that hard to level from 1 to 60 at the moment. And that's especially nice for new players trying to get the hang of the game.

However, when you hit level 80, there is one distinct path to follow to level 85, and each zone in that path has been carefully laid out. Quests are divided into hubs, and each hub must be completed in order to move on to the next. If you're taking an alt through these areas, you must replay through the same set of hubs and the same set of quests. If you're replaying several alts, this gets incredibly tiresome incredibly quickly.

Thankfully, we're about to say goodbye to that leveling model. Let's look at Mists, shall we? No spoilers, I promise!