Hello, Gustava here again. I’m currently testing the PTR ver 3.3 Fall of the Lich King part of the Wrath expansion. I will be previewing user interface in this artice of stuff i’ve seen in the PTR. I will be going over the new  things on the PTR I think the people like to know and other things I find cool.

In Game tips

Remember back when you created your first character and it seemed like everything you do would make that little box with a question mark pop up at the bottom of your screen and demand your attention? Well, Blizzard has decided that their in-game tips are not quite as helpful as they should be. How could new players know that converting their small and innocent party into a raid would stop them from gaining quest credit? Or how would they learn that elite monsters and quests usually require more than one person to overcome? So they pretty much tripled (rough estimation) the number of tips they have – and made them prettier too.

what about fire

Wrath Reputation  Increase (from patch notes)

• Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Each badge costs 1 Emblem of Triumph.
• Gaining reputation with the Ashen Verdict in Icecrown Citadel will grant players access to upgradeable rings from Ormus the Penitent. Players can switch between the type of ring (melee/caster/tank/healer) at any point in the upgrade path for 200g.
• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
  • Argent Crusade
  • Alliance Vanguard
  • Horde Expedition
  • Kirin Tor
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Sons of Hodir
  • Wyrmrest Accord
• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.
• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

The 30% more rep in Heroics is a great move by Blizzard now you can get a lot of rep and emblems to gear your new 80’s faster. We all hate grinding rep for the Sons of Hodir for the 56th time this rep increase will make a lot easier and less like a chore. But the thing I really like is the BoA Shoulder and Head enchant. This simply means that you’re getting Raid-level enchants as soon as you hit 80 (assuming you can afford them) as long as you’ve done it at least once on any of your other 80s. Add to that a new upgradeable ring (like the old violet eye one in BC) will make every trash mob rep in Icerown as rewarding as the trash drops themselves.

New fishing event: Kalu’ak  fishing derby

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. Elder Clearwater is going to hang out in Dalaran for exactly one hour and wait for a Blacktip Shark that you have to catch and return to him. The event starts at 8:00 PM on Wednesday. During the contest all fishing in Northrend is free of trash. 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 of strangle 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. Also winners can win a rare heirloom(BoA) ring or a pair of boots that warps you to Booty Bay every 30 minutes (Yet another hearth-type product).

Emblems in 3.3

Bosses in Naxxramas, Obsidian Sanctum, Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, and all Heroics will drop Emblems of Triumph. Bosses in the Icecrown Citadel 10- and 25-player dungeons will drop the new Emblems of Frost. Choosing the Random Heroic Dungeon option via the Dungeon Finder (new in content update 3.3) and completing whatever dungeon is selected for you, will award you with two Emblems of Frost the first time you do it (this is in place of the daily Heroic dungeon quests which are being replaced with weekly raid dungeon quests).

Continuing to use the Random Heroic Dungeon option within that same day to complete dungeons will award you with two Emblems of Triumph each time in addition to those dropped in the instances. The random option can also select Heroic dungeons to which you may already be saved, so you can technically do every Heroic dungeon more than once in a day by continuing to use this option.

New Weekly Raid Quests(Npc who did heroic daily quests)

New weekly raid quests have been added to the game! These quests will give you a good reason to run the old raid instances for 5 emblems of Frost and 5 emblems of Triumph each week. Here’s the list for the bosses tnat have a weekly quest kill. One is picked each week for the quest.

• The Obsidian Sanctum/Eye of the Eternity-Sartharion and Malygos
• Naxxramas: Anub’rekhan, Noth the Plaguebringer, Instructor Razuvious and Patchwork.
• Ulduar: Flame Leviathan,Ignis the Furnace Master,Razorscale,and XT-002 Deconstructor
• Crusaders’ Coliseum/Trial of the Crusader: Lord Jaraxxus
• Icecrown Citadel: Lord Marrowgar

New Armor Sets in Icecrown Citadel:  Tier 10

The next tier comes out in 3.3 and to earn them is no simple task.

• The first set of T-10 (251)  is bought with Frost emblems costing 405 Emblems for the whole set: 60 frost  emblems each for gloves and shoulders, 95 Frost emblems for head piece, chest plate and leggings.
• The next set is 10.5 Sanctified (263) which you need the first set piece and a Conqueror’s Mark of Sanctification to upgrade the 10 piece into the 10.5Sanctified piece.
• Same goes for 10 Sanctified heroic(271).The gear is in the ardent verdict camp in the raid.

The sets are modeled after Lich Kings troops , the Ashen Verdict and Faction Heroes.

• Warrior – Ymirjar Lord’s – Elder Saurfang/Muradin Bronzebeard(link)
• Death Knight – Scourgelord – Highlord Darion Mograine(Link)
• Paladin – Lightsworn – Highlord Tirion Fordring(link)
• Shamans – Frost Witch -Vrykul(link)
• Hunters – Ahn’Kahar Blood Hunter – Nerubian Cryptlord(link)
• Rogues – Shadowblade -Geist(link)
• Druids – Freya Lasherweave(there none in Scorge or Verdict)(link)
• Mages – Blood Mage -San’layn Blood Princes(link)
• Warlocks – Dark Coven -Lichs(link)
• Priest – Crimson Acolyte’s -Cultist High Priest (link)

__________________________________________________

Well with 3.3 coming out in next week or two Bizzard has pulled all the stops to make it the biggest patch ever.With raids and dungeons for the PvE crowd and a new arena season 8 with Wrathful gear for the PvP crowd. Add to that impoved leveling with quest helper and new in-game tips for those who need to make new toons every day (Alt-a-holics). So whether you do PvE or PvP this patch can provide lots of entertanment for many weeks/months ahead. Wherever you go in the world of Azeroth always remember to Dominate whatever bizzard throws at you.

-Gustava

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Products We Love – Razer Naga, The Ultimate WoW Gaming Mouse

Click Here To Order Yours!

We’re a big fan of nifty peripherals here at DYS, just in case you hadn’t noticed, but every now and then even we get blown away.  Every month or two we test a new product in the market to see if it offers something more for our readers.  In order to get a review at this site, the thing really has to add something to the wow experience for the novice and pro alike.  Not making our cut doesn’t mean it’s a bad product, just that it doesn’t meet our Dominating and demanding flavor.

But every now and again we come across something that actually changes the way we play.  The Sennheiser headphones are great, but won’t really make you a terrific player.  The G13 game pad will – I still use both of them every single time I play.  But the Razer Naga blows away everything we’ve ever reviewed by such a huge margin that it’s a little hard to know where to start saying just how good it really is.

First things first, then.  It’s a standard size mouse (even though the button field looks pretty intimidating in the pic above) with 12 extra keys on the thumb side (for righties anyway).  That is the big difference between the Naga and every other mouse on the planet.  It has the standard left, right, scroll, scroll click, four and five buttons as most gaming mice – but adds twelve more keys for your thumb.  One look and we KNEW we had to give it a spin.

How Does It Feel?

In just ten seconds it was apparent it was the most comfortable mouse ever.  It’s like holding hands with your sweetheart.  The texture is just smooth enough to be soft, just matte enough to be completely slip free.  Not only do your index and middle finger glide into the perfect rest position, but there is a little shelf for your ring finger and a cup for your pinky that actually make it more relaxing to have your hand on your mouse than anywhere else.  You hate to let go of the thing to type.  So in the tactile area the Naga gets a 10+ out of 10.

Cursor Response

The drivers are super easy to install both on Mac and PC.  The interface is clean and offers a degree of movement control that is nothing short of outstanding.  It supports Dpi ranges from 100 to 5600 – which is a range from nearly dead turtle to fighter jet speed.  You can also adjust the acceleration factor and frequency response over broad ranges.  But the really slick part is that you can set it to control the X and Y axis Dpi independently.  That is a real WoW factor.  If you use a wide screen setup it is so nice to have the cursor move faster from left to right than up and down.  Cursor response and setup = 10 of 10

Movement and Function

Most mice have a few little slip pads on the bottom and a big bright lazer or whatever.  This beauty has a slip ring around the entire perimeter of the bottom, which makes it glide like butter.  It even has an extra slip ring that completely surrounds the invisible lazer orifice.  One thing is for certain, if your mousing surface isn’t completely clean, you’ll know it in about half a second. (we also prefer the Lazer exact mat for all our mice, but it’s especially nice with the Naga).  I prefer a free-wheeling mouse, but since very few have that option I can’t deduct too much for the incremental scroll.  The four and five buttons are right up at the very front and absolutely WILL give your a hand cramp if you try to use them very often, but we’ll get to why this makes almost no difference later.  And, finally the button clicks are easy enough to make without much force, but firm enough to avoid lots of accidental clicks – pretty much perfect.  Movement and function = 9 of 10

Extra Juice

Now we get to the good stuff.  Those 12 extra buttons are so good it’s not even fair to rate this thing against other mice.  It turns all those other mice into meece.  There’s everything else – and then there’s the Naga.  I pitched my G3 in a drawer for good and didn’t have a qualm in the world about doing so – and I loved that mouse.  Even apart from the extended functionality, the Naga is just a much better overall mouse, but those extra keys are WAY past incredible.  And then I played with them.

I fully intended to try to use as little hyperbole as possible, but that’s completely impossible in this situation.  Compared to every other mouse I’ve ever used – and I go through mice like a tomcat, the Naga would have no peer, leaving even the G3 completely in the dust.  But those extra buttons make it so different that it becomes completely unfair to all the other mice in the world.  If the G3 (a really good mouse) rated a 45 out of 50, the Naga (even without the buttons) would have raised the bar to 60, and that’s no kidding.  Those 12 new buttons put the bar at 100, and we’ll put the Naga right there 95 out of 100, which means there really isn’t any way to compare apples to apples.  everything else just got pwned.

That extra button pad automatically binds to either the: 1 through = keys on your keyboard or the number pad keys, whichever you prefer.  I already had bar one and two in Bartender assigned to those suckers as it is, so with the flip of a switch I can use my one mouse to toggle 24 keys – it’s so slick you have to use it to believe it.  And then comes Vuhdo – yikes.

Plug this thing into Vuhdo and you are one little macro command away from complete and total healing Domination.  And, in reality, it could almost make the choice between Healbot, Grid/Clique and Vuhdo closer to meaningless than ever before.  We’ll discuss that macro in the next article since it’s so slick and useful for so many other situations, but just know that you probably would never use it nearly as much without the Naga.

You’re Wasting Time Here!

All there is left to say is get one.  Get one right this minute.  Do not pass go, do not argue, just get it and Dominate.  Ask for it for Thanksgiving, your birthday, Christmas and New Years.  Beg, borrow, cheat, lie, steal or work like a fiend until you can get one.  Get up from your chair right now and go to the store – yes, it’s THAT good.  Once you plug this dude in, you’ll find 50 new ways it can improve your WoW life in about 5 minutes.  I am seriously excited about this thing, as if you couldn’t tell, but it really is the single best gaming peripheral I have ever seen.

If you can’t stand it, and we’ve done our job, you can click on the pic at the top of this article (or below) to go directly to Amazon and get one for yourself.  You don’t have to use our link, of course, but honestly, once you use the Naga you’ll never know how you played with anything else.   Go get one, and bring your Domination to a whole new level of pwn.

Order The Razer Naga Now

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Ok, so not everything can be a big bad serious tip.  As a matter of fact, we’re kind of twiddling our thumbs around here waiting for all the tasty changes coming in 3.2.  But in the meantime, we thought a little levity might be in order – at least for one day.

We’re all fans of WoW, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading DYS in the first place.  Most of you know that beyond the game itself we’re also fans to some degree or another of some other WoW fan sites.  We’re not the only game in town by a long shot, and sites like elitistjerks and Wowhead and others do what they do extremely well.

There is another genre which I appreciate, mostly because I can’t do it.  We do what might be described as a rather original take on the WoW podcast with the Domination podcast, but despite a certain amount of ability to do audio broadcasting – video is something we’ll just never do.  It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just outside of our current skill set.

But, almost because I find the process of producing video a little like soloing Naxx, I do appreciate those who obviously have a knack for doing great machinima.  And that’s what this post is about.  We’ve posted a link to one of our all-time favorites – ROFLMAO before.  That one was done by Oxhorn and he’s got a great little collection of funny stuff.

IF you’re an old fart like me you might appreciate an honorable mention like the parody music videos from Nhym such as  Pretty Fly For A Dranei, Just Loot It or Ni Hao.  But Oxhorn and Myndflame have to take the cake in our book.

The first music style video I remember from Oxhorn was The Great Kodo.  Later, you get to Drunken Kodo Riding which is even funnier if you watch ROFLMAO and Inventing Swear Words first.  But my favorite so far has to be the Anti Elf Anthem, which you can watch below.

After Oxhorn, I also like the Illegal Danish stuff from Myndflame.  Illegal Danish Started with the film Super Snacks and then moved on to Escape from Orgrimmar (another all time favorite).  If you watched those you’ll see that Myndflame is really good.  But his latest offering is a parody of the new Starcraft Trailer movie.  You just have to check it out-

You can also watch the Gnome only version here.

Now we’ll get back to working on more ways for you to Dominate so completely people accuse you of uber l337 hax, but laughing for a while never hurt either.

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The Domination Podcast Episode 16

This week on the podcast the fellas cover the rumor mill and the real facts and figures about the upcoming major patch – 3.2.  To read all the patch notes yourself you can use this link.  Transcript of the complete podcast below.

The Domination Podcast Episode 16 Transcript

 

 The Domination Podcast Episode 16 [15:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Profiting From Season 6

Almost 9 months ago before the start of Season 4 we gave you the heads-up for making loads of gold with this article: http://dominateyourserver.com/2008/06/16/season-4-an-unique-opportunity/  And with all of the other excitement surrounding the simply enormous pile of changes in patch 3.1, along with the opening of Ulduar, the new arena season opening seems to have been overlooked to this point.

So consider this your fair warning.  Miss this and it might be another year or so before you get another chance at huge profits.  If you missed Inscription, this is your shot.  If you don’t think you can hit on the Undeath cards, this is your shot.  It’s simply the best opportunity you are going to have to make a load of gold this year.

Now last time we mentioned this we got some flak.  There are some communist-minded fellows out there who don’t want you to make a big profit in the game.  They feel it should be based on fair play.  Well, that’s nonsense.  WoW is a competitive environment from top to bottom with a closed economic system that is extremely sensitive to supply and demand.  Our advice is to take maximum advantage of these once-a-year opportunities when they come and leave redistributing the wealth to the stupid.

Just in case you need to know – when arena seasons open the previous arena gear goes on sale for Honor or marks or some combination of both more than likely.  Beyond that there is a whole new gear set that is made available.  Serious arena junkies have a twinker’s mindset.  They will be slamming only the top end enchants into all that new gear the first second they possibly can.

What that means to the enterprising entrepreneur is that demand for the mats on all those enchants, leatherworking armors and spellthreads goes through the roof overnight.  Whether or not you drive prices up, the prices are going to rise.

But I won’t laugh at the QQ’ers this time – just shrug.  There is no stopping this train folks, so you might as well be driving the engine.  Now is the time to start stocking up on the following items:

• Infinite Dust
• Cosmic Essences
• Dream Shards
• Abyss Crystal
• Arctic Fur
• Eternals

It’s a much shorter list than last time because the stuff from BC is pretty much gone now.  The new enchants are so much better, as well as the other item enhancements it would be odd to see someone using older things – even Mongoose is probably taking a dirt nap.

You’ll also notice I didn’t put Gems in the list.  As usual, I only suggest trading in gems if you have a miner and a Jewelcrafter yourself.  Don’t buy gems for resale.  Deposit costs on those suckers will kill your margin every single time.

Now on the enchanting mats, we’re talking serious profits – think 300%.  There seems to be no stopping the market for DE these days.  It is still showing no sign of hitting bottom.  Prices are strong, and demand is outstripping my supply chain each and every week.  Even Dream Shards, which used to be practically vendor junk are selling well.

Of course, the Abyss Crystal is the grandaddy of them all.  The top enchants use way too many of these, and they are still pretty rare overall.  If you can get your hands on even 20k gold worth, you should double your money.  There is no end to the potential on the Abyss Crystal at patch time.

Arctic Furs are required for all of the decent Leatherworking armors, and prices for those may more than triple.  Already in very low supply and high demand, you can expect to not be able to even come close to having enough to sell no matter what the price.  Prices on Arctic furs could reasonably double.

Eternals will see a spike in price too, but probably not on the level of the other things in the list.  We suggest you buy them through the converter module in AADV for resale.  It’s reasonable to expect a 50% increase on types such as water, fire and air.

Also missing the list is the Frozen Orb. The market for those dudes is so volatile it’s hard to predict.  Supply is just massive and we really doubt you will get much more than a 25% bump.  If you feel comfortable on your server dealing with them, it’s not a bad idea, but don’t expect them to be your main profit winner.

Instead of rehashing strategy with you here you can check out our previous article that will outline the most aggressive stance you can possibly take during the Arena Season 6 mats rush here:

http://dominateyourserver.com/2008/07/10/monster-of-the-auction-house/

Again, it’s probably going to make some people scream at you.  But honestly; who cares?

If you position yourself now with good purchases and a pile of gold (around 10,000) to work with you should be able to build up a big stockpile of the mats above before the patch.  If you do DE a lot now, start posting fewer and fewer enchanting mats each week to slow supply until the patch comes out.  Turn down your settings to around 10% discount or so to purchase for DE much more aggressively and concentrate on the 325-375 DE skill level range in your scans.

You probably sell out of Northrend enchanting mats every week as it is.  When you begin to stopselling them the price is going to tick up a touch anyway.  Then on patch day nail the price hard and set the new benchmark.  You’ll still sell out.

Now, not everyone will turn 5k gold into 20k.  I certainly expect to make around 25,000 profit in the week following the patch, and you can too.  Just keep in mind that every server is different, and you need to already be good at working the AH to maximize your potential.  If you don’t know how to do that yet we suggest you learn pretty fast, or someone else is going to make the gold that could have been yours.  Don’t let it happen to you this time – get educated and go Dominate.

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When you were leveling didn’t you wish you could get your hands on one, just one, really good piece of gear? And when you did … didn’t you wish it would stay good for more then 2 levels ?

Well, Blizz first gave us the Refer a Friend program, but the bonuses end at level 60. Bummer when you still have 20 levels to go.  But they have added a new class of item you might have seen a time or two.  Introducing the new Heirloom Items, also known as “Hand-me-Downs”.

The concept is pretty simple and very innovative. It gives players that have reached the end-game content the ability to make the progression of other characters they create (Alts) faster and smoother while setting them apart from the rest in a visually obvious way.

There are quite a few Heirloom items available for purchase, and as of this writing there are only 2 ways to get them. We will cover both in a bit.

Heirloom Items are BoA (Bind on Account). This means that you can mail them between other characters on your account of the same faction (on the same server). So your 80 Warlock can pick up a set of plate shoulder piece and mail it to your lvl 13 Paladin, or even your level 1 Paladin. Your paladin can level as long as she likes and then pass it off to your level 67 Death Knight, and so on.

Heirloom Items’ stats scale to the level of the character wearing them. That means that the same Item would be worth the same thing to any character no matter their level: BLUE, (SUPERIOR) gear, at every level.

This means that Heirloom items will transform based on the type of gear that the character is capable of wearing. That is to say the same piece of “plate” shoulder gear would be “Mail” to the level 13 Paladin but “Plate” to the level 67 DK.

Blizzard obviously wanted to add something to the game for people interested in trying new classes or who just generally love playing alts. One must also assume that they are listening to their subscribers’ feedback since they are bringing back one of the most popular weapons of the old world. Seriously how much more fun would it be to have your Level 1 Warrior or Paladin wield a Bloodied Arcanite Reaper?  An updated version of an Old World level 60 crafted item, referred to by some, as the “coolest looking weapon ever”. Bear in mind that 2 years ago (Pre-BC), Arcanite was today’s Titansteel.

Heirloom Items come in 2 types: PvP (with Resilience) and PvE.

PvP gear can be picked up when your faction controls Wintergrasp at the cost of a few hundred Stone Keeper’s Shards.

PvE gear can be purchased via Emblems of Heroism (the new Badges of Justice).

As of this writing, the only items available are the two most noticeable items: Weapons and Shoulders along with Trinkets. How many level 10 characters have YOU seen wearing Shoulder slot items or wielding an Arcanite Reaper?

Ok so here it is broken down for you with links:

PvE gear

Weapons:
Ranged (Bow)
Dagger
One-Handed Mace
One-Handed Sword
Staff
Two-Handed weapon (< ---- Bloodied Arcanite Reaper)

Armor:
Cloth Armor
Leather Armor: Melee and Caster versions
Mail Armor:  Melee and Caster versions
Plate Armor (Only one version of PvE Plate armor)

Trinkets:
Melee and Caster versions

PvP Gear:

Weapons:
Ranged (gun)
Dagger
One-Handed Mace
One-Handed Sword
Staff
Two-Handed weapon

Armor:
Cloth Armor
Leather Armor: Melee and Caster version
Mail Armor: Melee and Caster version
Plate Armor: Melee and Caster version

Trinkets:
Alliance and Horde version

You will note that both the PvP and PvE shoulder armor comes with a 10% experience bonus. After a complete field test, both with and without rested experience, we can conclusively state that the experience bonus from the heirloom items AND rested experience bonus DOES STACK! That’s a 20% xp increase folks. If that doesn’t inspire you to roll a new character nothing will.

Proof by the numbers:

Mob xp: w/o Shoulders: 57 With Shoulders: 63 (57*1.1=63)

Mob Rested xp: w/o Shoulders: 114    With Shoulders: 126 (114*1.1=126)

As far as enchanting goes only enchants that have no level requirements are possible. Runeforging and anything else that would make an item Soulbound will not work. Which makes Crusader one of the better enchants that can be placed on a weapon for melee and Spell Power for casters. For the use the weapon is going to get the mats just may be worth acquiring.

So if you always wanted to level another character but felt the grind was just not worth your time, this may be an opportunity to reconsider that. Up to 20% xp bonus and one of the best weapons available sort of changes things a bit. Not to mention that you get to level (and DOMINATE) in Style!

So ask your guild what they need most Tanks or Healers and see if you can fill that gap and make a difference where it counts for your guild/team. Get out there and DOMINATE

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There are so many reasons to love the Ghost Saber I’m not even sure where to start. They are always a little transparent like this, and are one of the more difficult pets to tame. This is especially true for Horde toons on PVP servers. But for the twink Horde Hunter it might actually be much harder than getting your hands on Venomstrike. Personally I don’t think there is a single thing you could take to a lvl 19 battleground that is anywhere near as impressive as a ghost saber – especially for a horde hunter on a PVP server.  They are simply the most difficult thing for a horde hunter to tame or find and still come in under level 20.  However, because they are sometimes very hard to see, I believe it’s worth going after for the fully geared twink Hunter.

There are three issues that make taming this beast tough on horde hunters. Alliance will still use the same methods we talk about here; you just won’t have to run as far.

First, these kitties can only be found in the very far northern reaches of Darkshore. For a level 19 hunter that’s a really long run from the Barrens or Splintertree post through contested and enemy territories. Here is a map of the route you will need to run:

You may want to do this run with some experience left at the very end of level 18 or first thing when you hit 19, since you will get some discovery experience for the trip. Once you pass the grove of the ancients in Darkshore you will want to stay off the road as much as possible, since Alliance have gobs of quests in the area just around Auberdine.

The Second problem with this tame is that these cats come in either level 19 or 20. Not a big issue for the hunter who isn’t twinking, but a potentially serious problem for the level 19 guy. You see, these sabers already know claw 3 and you’re going to need some luck or a few good buffs to survive the tame without your freeze trap – which of course the twink won’t have since you train that one at level 20. This problem just gets worse when you hear what you have to do to get one to spawn.

Which brings us to problem 3: you can only get these to spawn by picking up little cat figurines scattered around the ruins of Mathystra. That doesn’t seem too bad until you get there and discover that the place is absolutely crawling with level 20-23 Naga Warriors and pesky casters. (The level 22 and 23 mobs are rare spawns, but you will find one from time to time).

There are quite a few spawn points for the figurines, but they are a little hard to see since they blend in with the ruins:

When you pick up these figurines, only every once in a while will a ghost saber spawn, and there is about a 50% chance it will be level 19. SO now you can see why you may be in for a long evening. Once you find a figurine and kill the Naga around it, you may have to pick up as many as 10 before a saber will even spawn, and even when that happens it might be level 20 and not 19.

But there’s some relief to all this pain. There are several spawn points on the outer edges of the ruins that generally require you to kill only one Naga to clear enough room to open a figurine. There’s no need to run all the way through the entire ruins looking for the statues. Just stay on the outer edges out of aggro range and you’ll learn to spot them pretty quick. We went there with a higher level toon and there don’t seem to be more than 2 or three of these figurines at one time even though there are more than a dozen potential spawn points. Once a figurine is picked up, it is replaced by another statue spawn in about 2 minutes.

What that means for you is that of the 6 spawn points for the figurines on the outer edges there will almost always be one ready for you to pick up that shouldn’t be a huge problem to get to.

The reason I mention six figurine spawn points is that you may be forced to open quite a few of them before a saber even spawns.  Many people report having to open 20 or more before they ever get a ghost saber to spawn.  This is particularly hectic for twink 19’s worried about dinging from killing naga to get to the statues.  The twink might open 10 statues only to get a level 20 ghost saber spawn!  Since we hunters can only tame beasts at, or below our level that situation will nearly make you scream.

With all that being said, these things are also what make the Ghost Saber such a wicked pet to have for Horde. Even Alliance toons are rarely seen with this guy since he can be such a pain to get. But the taming process isn’t all that bad once you claw your way to the figurines:

Just set your trap (if you have freeze trap, twinks are just going to have to try to survive the ride) and hopefully you catch a nice grey cat –

Start your tame right away, because when he breaks out of the ice he hits very hard with claw 3 – especially if you are level 19 or 20. Level 19 toons will need to have some stamina and life buffs or amazing luck to survive this tame. So get some scrolls and potions to take with you. (A higher level friend is even better) But if you make it you’ll have a nice new see-through cat to fight with.

If you survive the tame you get a splendid new cat that you will most certainly keep all the way through BT and beyond into WotLK.  This is one you just don’t get rid of.

I do need to warn you about a potentially scary quirk with the ghost saber.  Ghost sabers untamed have a despawn timer if they are not killed.  The timer is 5 minutes.  If a non-hunter opens a cat figurine and a ghost saber spawns and kills them or if they just run away the ghost saber disappears after five minutes so you will never a dozen of them running around without having to open your own figurines.

This despawn timer will scare you to death if you tame one of these and don’t know about it ahead of time.  You’ve spent hours opening figurines and dealing with naga – finally a saber spawns and you do the tame.  You’re happy as heck and hoofing it out of darkshore when, with a great big “MEOW!” your saber falls down dead as a hammer right at your feet.

At this point you get cold chills of fury.  It’s like that sensation you feel when a cop pulls you over – especially when you know for a fact you’re getting a ticket.  Skin-crawlies galore.  But you can relax.  It’s perfectly normal for ghost sabers to do this.  All you have to do is call pet and your new kitty will reappear never to suddenly die for no reason ever again.  Now you can go really wreck some folk in the battlegrounds.

These guys are can be a little hard to see in some map zones, which is why they can be killer in WSG, your opponents may not figure out what is slashing their face off until it’s too late. But once you can give this fellow prowl they are nearly impossible to see even for yourself or members of your faction.

On top is the regular, fairly hard to see saber, below – the Saber in prowl mode. You’ll be hard pressed to find another cat this cool.

You will see dozens of horde hunters with Echeyakee, and even though he is a quest spawn – everyone can do the quest with no problem or get help really easily, or find someone doing the quest, blah, blah, blah = pet. But you really have to go out of your way to get a ghost saber. Perhaps the only thing harder to get would be a Teldrassil owl, but even that is just a matter of making a few corpse runs through the Darnassian Guards, the owls are a snap once you get to them.

But the Ghost Saber is truly unique, pretty rare and always looks cool. And now you know the finer points of getting one for your stables!

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How would you like to spend under 6 silver, and make 15, 25, even 50 gold within a few hours later?

If you’ve been getting my email alerts for any length of time, you already know that I love selling things to twinks. Twinks go ga-ga over every last possible point of agility or intellect, and invest tons of gold into their twink characters.

Well, what we have here is the only +agility bow/gun/thrown weapon that a twink 19 rogue can get. Everyone who’s building a 19 twink rogue will simply have to have it, and will be willing to pay lots of gold for those two little points of agility.

There are a number of factors that make this item so special.

• These are only available from a single vendor, who is only friendly to Horde (sorry Alliance guys!)
• They only spawn in the vendor’s inventory occasionally… perhaps once per day
• Another item (nice, but less desirable) frequently spawns in its place

The vendor is question is Eralan, the poison vendor in Tranquillien (in the Ghostlands.) Based on our tests (this is not definitive), it looks like Eralan spawns a special item for sale about every 4 hours. 75% of the time, that special item will be the Sinister Scimitar. The other 25% of the time, she will spawn Throat Piercers.

If she spawns a Sinister Scimitar, then someone will have to buy it. Once it’s been bought, she should spawn a new special item for sale within 4 hours.

As you can see from the auction house info from Allakhazam.com, the average selling price across all servers is over 33 gold, with a median and most frequent selling price of 20 gold.

Make yourself a Blood Elf alt toon, and run him to Tranquillien. Make a habit of logging in and checking Eralan for this item as often as possible, and whenever you find it, email it to your bank alt, and make yourself some easy gold.

And don’t disregard the Sinister Scimitar. It’s not half bad, and still can fetch 5 to 7 gold on the auction house:

The easiest thing to do is to just sell it on the Horde auction house, but if you really want to maximize your gold, you’ll want two accounts (on a PvP server), or an Alliance accomplice to get the item from the Horde side to the Alliance side. Since they are so rare in the Alliance auction house, you’ll want to make sure to spam trade chat to let everyone know that they are available.

Have fun selling twink gear… it’s a techinque we use quite a bit to Dominate Our Server.

-Gavin

34 Comments » ~ ~ Random Post