Patch 2.4: Instance

The breaking news:

- The Sunwell Isle is now available for play. This area includes a new quest hub and 5-player and 25-player instances.
New instances are always exciting. My friend has tried out in the 5-man Magister's Terrace and it wasn't that hard, except for last boss aka Prince Kael'thas.

Other breaking news:

- Free entry to Mount Hyjal and Black Temple.
- Players can fight Lady Vashj and Prince Kael'thas now.
- A new title "Hand of A'dal" will be given to players who have completed the attunement quests for MH and BT.
This is a nerf on the raiding and it will encourage more causal raiding. It will help a lot of SSC/TK guilds to move on to MH and BT. Since majority of WoW subscribers are not hardcore raiders, this will probably keep many players happy and so are Blizzards' accountants.

Now the quests are just for the faction ring and/or the title.

I'm not excited of the above changes but these two are my favorites:

- Added Shattrath Flask of Pure Death and Shattrath Flask of Blinding Light to the reputation flask vendors in Shattrath.
Nice nice nice, but why does it take so long time for the alchemist in Shattrah to discover the recipe of these two flasks?

- Gems obtained through Heroic difficulty instances are no longer Unique-equipped.
This one I love. I no longer need to let the gem take a bag slot and wait for an upgrade to socket it. ^o^

- All 25- player raid bosses that drop set tokens will now drop an additional token!
So instead of 2x Hero, it will drop 3x Hero? I'm just kidding. It would be even better if they set it to drop one of each every time. The randomness of the game sometimes are just too buggy.

- Badges of Justice have been added to all raid bosses who did not previously have them!
Sweet, this can be a good motivation for farm raids. I can't wait for new badges reward items.

- Loot dropped by Doomlord Kazzak and Doomwalker has been changed to Bind on Equip.
I guess these items will be very expensive on AH, if I would be lucky enough to spot them on AH.

- Nether Vortex are no longer Bind on Pickup and can now be purchased from G’eras for 15 Badges of Justice!
- Primal Nether are no longer Bind on Pickup!
15 badges for vortex and 10 badges for nether, this will make it easier to let people get the BoE crafted gear. They only need to find a crafter. Will we see vortexs or nethers on AH? I think so, and I guess Primal Nether will cost around 80g, similar to what crafters are usually charging now. Since Nether Vortex costs 0.5 times more badges than nether, I guess it would be around 120g each.

Public Test Realm for patch 2.4

Last week, I have been trying to copy my character to the public test realm (PTR). However the queue was long and full. Early on a morning, I finally managed to copy my characters to the PTR.

When I have downloaded and installed another patch update, it showed "Invalid Username or Password". I was using the same password for character copy and the password worked on live realm. Here's the explanation from Vaneras.

You may not be able to get onto the PTR if you have changed your password in the last 3 weeks. You can try to use an old password but there's no guarantee this will work.

It seems that I have bad luck. I changed my password few weeks ago and I cannot remember my old password. I change my password regularly in order to increase secruity. And part of the secruity is to protect or destroy any trace of your password. Now I can't login to PTR, because I am too cautious. It is just strange and bad luck. But I guess many other people are having the same problem. >:(

Nevertheless, my friend had his characters copied and been to Magister's Terrace a few times. Oh, I'm jealous but at least I could see it on his computer, or maybe even play his character a bit. ^^

I've moved.

I've moved Aethel through paid character transfer. The move was smoother than I thought.
The whole process took less than an hour, which some friends warned it could take a few days. The approval process was estimated to take an hour but it actually took 5 min.
It raises my awareness as it is so easy and fast one can lose characters if the account was hecked.

I left an RP-PvP realm (Defias Brotherhood) to a PvP realm (Ravencrest).

Patch 2.4: The funky news

- Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up.
>> Skettis visitors, watch out!
- Female Draenei can no longer become stuck under a root in the tunnels leading to Blackfathom Deeps, Ashenvale.
>> Is that a horn problem?
- Saber/Tiger Mounts will now make footprints when walking backwards in snow.
>> I never noticed that, I'm probably quite blind or never walk backwards in AV.
- The Ratchet bank now has access to the Guild Vault.
>> Goblin-ran bank, they are just as reliable as their invention. Let's check Booty Bay.
- A mailbox has been added to the inn in Darnassus.
>> I hope this will increase the visitor count of the inn in Darnassus, though I doubt.
- There is no longer an area in Serpentine Cavern where using Field Repair Bot 74A will cause it to fall through the ground.
>> Is that like the little hole to reach the "smiley foundation" of Karazhan?

Lunar New Years 2008

Happy Lunar New Year!
Lunar Festival is good time to collect reputation as well as the fancy items.
I have missed to get the crafting recipes last year, but this year I got all BoE recipes.

Now my engineer alt can learn to make Firework Launcher and Cluster Launcher and my tailoring friend (who didn't bother about those coins) can make the festival dress and festival suits. One can probably make a fortune with these BoE recipes a few months after the festival.

Also my shaman got a Festive Pink Dress, my paladin a Festive Black Pant Suit and my engineer warlock a Festive Blue Pant Suit. ^o^

Wowwiki has a walkthrough for how to visit all 50 Elders for horde and alliance. I didn't need so many coins, so I shortened it 20 and respective 10 coins.

My 20-Elder path:
Stormwind - The Park [21, 54]
Elwynn Forest - In Goldshire, behind blacksmith: [39, 63]
Westfall - Atop the Sentinel Hill tower: [56, 47]
> Fly gryphon to Nethergarde Keep (via Sentinel Hill)
Blasted Lands - Just North of the Dark Portal: [57, 54]
> Fly (via Nethergarde) or ride to Rebel Camp
Stranglethorn Vale - Outside Zul'Gurub zone-in: [53, 18]
Stranglethorn Vale - Above the bank in Booty Bay: [26, 76]
> Take the boat to Ratchet
The Barrens - In Ratchet, behind the bank: [62, 36]
The Barrens - Crossroads: [51, 30]
The Barrens - Camp Taurajo: [45, 57]
Mulgore - North end of Bloodhoof Village by bridge: [48, 53]
Thousand Needles - In Freewind Post: [45, 50]
Thousand Needles - In Shimmering Flats by Mirage Raceway: [79, 77]
Tanaris - In Gadgetzan: [51, 27]
Tanaris - Outside Uldum, far south Tanaris: [36, 80]
Un'goro Crater - By Slithering Scar, above ground: [50, 76]
Silithus - In Cenarion Hold: [50, 36]
> Hearth back to Shattrath and take the portal to Darnassuss.
Darnassus - in Cenarion Enclave: [33, 14]
Darkshore, Auberdine - East of the Hippogryph Master: [35, 48]
Ashenvale, Astranaar - in the gazebo near the hippogryph: [35, 49]
Felwood - North of Jaedenar: [37, 53]
> Teleport to Moonglade (Druid)

My 10-coin path:
Ironforge - Mystic Ward
Dun Morogh - In Kharanos by the inn: [46, 51]
Loch Modan - In Thelsamar: [33, 46]
> Fly to Stormwind
Stormwind - The Park [21, 54]
Elwynn Forest - In Goldshire, behind blacksmith: [39, 63]
Westfall - Atop the Sentinel Hill tower: [56, 47]
> Hearth back to Shattrath and take the portal to Darnassuss.
Darnassus - in Cenarion Enclave: [33, 14]
Darkshore, Auberdine - East of the Hippogryph Master: [35, 48]
Ashenvale, Astranaar - in the gazebo near the hippogryph: [35, 49]
Winterspring - In Everlook: [61, 37]
> Fly to Moonglade