Don’t Panic! I’m still alive! Well there has been lack of activity here lately, and you all know why. Wrath of the Lich King was released last week, and like many players out there, I’ve disappeared. I’ve been devoting all my free time running around Northrend doing quests, killing mobs, and killing Horde. Fun times.

I’ve been taking my time, and enjoying my travels through Northrend. I am in no rush to get to level 80. I took my time leveling in the Burning Crusade expansion, and I will do the same with this one. I am currently only level 72, and half way to 73.

Though I have been neglecting the site, I have still been taking screenshots of my adventures, and thinking of things to write about. Then my short attention span kicks in, and I have to do more runs of the Nexus, or kill x more amounts of mobs. I gave myself the first week for just playing. Now that that is over, you can be expecting more stuff coming from me on the site.

At first, I had an post ready that was titled, “Mages can get to Dalaran at 71, Lesser Classes at 74″, but a quick Google search revealed that not only did Euripedes of CriticalQQ steal my post, but he time traveled and posted it 5 days ago! Damn you and your Flux Capacitor! I’ll get you next time!

Second idea that popped in my mind was an AoE Grinding Guide. I’ve wanted to do this a couple of months now, way before Wrath of the Lich King was even mentioned. I just never gotten around to writing one up. Maybe just a Northrend AoE guide? Krizzlybear has already made an great guide for players who are looking to AoE grind their way up to 80. So be sure to check that out!

Well now I’m all out of ideas, but I’m sure a couple will pop-up for me.

Another huge convenience for us is the ability teleport to any major city, making us able to travel pretty much anywhere in Azeroth or Outlands fairly quickly. All while not having to rely on the cooldown of your Hearthstone.

I met a few level 70 Mages who have their home point set at Shattrath City. Why?! You are a Mage, you can just teleport there! Don’t be cheap, you can make better use of your Hearthstone. Also note that some of these tips can be applied to other classes if you have a Mage buddy handy.

Tip # 1: Set your Home Point Where you are Questing

At level 20, we learn the ability to teleport to three of our faction’s major cities. For Alliance, you can teleport to Stormwind, Ironforge, and Exodar. For Horde, you can teleport to Undercity, Ogrimmar, and Silvermoon. At level 30, Darnasus or Thunder Bluff is available. At 35, Theramore and Stonard is available. At 60, you can learn to Shattrath.

That means you can set your home point to whatever area you are questing and leveling up at. Questing in Stranglethorn Vale? Set your Hearthstone there, and quest away. Did you level up or run out of inventory space or need to log off? Teleport to your city of choice, visit the mage trainer, bank, or log off. You can just use your Hearthstone to go back and resume what you were doing without having to take any flight or boats.

Tip #2: Set your Home Point to Where you are Farming

Okay, now that you are 70, you won’t be questing much anymore. But there will be times where you will be farming mats. It might be for mats you need to get crafted or for enchanting mats. Or it could be for farming for a specific drop or for rep.

Need 10 x [Primal Mana] to make your [Runic Spellthread]? Set your home point at Area 52, you will be going there a lot. Farming for Baron’s Mount? Set your home point to Light Hope’s Chapel and good luck to you. Repping up with the Wintersaber Trainers? Set your home point to Winterspring. You get the idea.

Tip #3: Set your Home Point to Where your Guild Progression is

This will make getting to the instance a lot quicker, and summonings at the Summoning Stone will start earlier. This will save you time, and save the Guild time of getting to the instance.

Is your Guild working on bosses in Tempest Keep: The Eye? Area 52 is your new home. Working on Black Temple? Set your home to the Aldor or Scryer base depending on which side you picked. Working on Mount Hyjal and you’re not Revered yet? Gadgetzan it is.

Tip #4: Set your Home Point to a Hard to Reach Area

If you don’t need your Hearthstone for farming or questing, then place it in an area where it will take the longest to get to.

For Azeroth, you have major cities spread throughout where it gets pretty easy to head to any zone in a fairly quick manner. There are still zones which are still far because they need the use of boats to reach. For Alliance, you can set your home point to Winterspring, and for Horde, you can set your home point to Stranglethorn Vale. With those points set, you can pretty much get to any zone in Azeroth with ease.

For Outland, with Shattrath as the center of the continent, you can just teleport to Shattrath and fly to any zone. Again, there are zones that are still pretty far. Netherstorm is the furthest, with Shadowmoon Valley as a close second. Set your home point to one of those zone depending on which zone you visit more often.

Tip #5: Other Means of Transportation

There are other items or ways that will help you travel around in the World of Warcraft. It could be from a profession, from rep, or even from accomplish objectives.

If you are an Engineer, you can transport yourself to any of the Goblin or Gnomish establishments throughout the World of Warcraft (depending on which side you pick). Use this with conjunction with your teleports and Hearthstone to your advantage.

Are you Revered with Keepers of Time? Then you can talk to Zephyr, an NPC located in the World’s End Tavern in Shattrath, and she can port you to the entrance of the Caverns of Time. Perfect for doing any CoT instances. (fixed – thanks Blithlyle!)

Your Guild manage to kill Illidan Stormrage? Then you should have your [Blessed Medallion of Karabor]. It teleports you to the doorsteps of Black Temple. Great for whenever you need to do anything in Shadowmoon Valley.

Still have your [Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian]? Make good use of the shortcut to Karazhan.

Tip #6: Know your Shortcuts

Just knowing the quickest routes to take to get to a zone is good. Know which city to leave from, and which Flight Path to take. Just ask if you are not sure. Many people take different ways to get from one area to the next.

Did you know that there is a Flight Path from Skettis to and from Ogri’la? Makes doing dailies a bit faster knowing that doesn’t it?

If you are Alliance, what is the fastest way to get to Zul’Aman? If you answered taking the Flight Path directly from Ironforge, then you are wrong! The correct answer is take the Isle of Quel’Danas portal from Shattrath, and then take the Flight Path from the Isle to Zul’Aman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hope this helps you get around the World of Warcraft easier. I am sure there are more tips and shortcuts out there that I can’t think of at the moment. If you have one, feel free to let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

If you have been keeping up with all the upcoming changes in the next patch 2.4.2, then this will probably be old news for you. For everyone else, we Mages are getting a new Teleport and Portal spells! There is also a new PvP Trinket with upgraded Resilience stats on it.

New Mage Portal:

For Horde Mages you uhh… I dunno, make your way to Stonard, track your Class Trainer and find the Portal Trainer. Should be something like that You now have quick access to Sunken Temple and the Dark Portal.

For Alliance Mages, you can learn how to Teleport and open Portal to Theramore Isle. Hop on the griffin from Ironforge to Wetlands, take the boat to Theramore, change your mini-map tracking to find Class Trainers, and follow the ping on your map. You will find Ysuria the Portal Trainer at the bottom of the tower where Jaina resides. You now have quick access to Onyxia’s Lair, and are a quick flight path away from Gadgetzan. You can also teleport here to visit everyone’s favorite Mage Hero: Lady Jaina Proundmore.

New PvP Trinket:

The new PvP trinkets would be available where you would normally purchase your PvP gear with Honor Points. Right now on the current PTR build, it is using the same name as the 2 Min PvP trinket, and doesn’t show the cost for the new trinket. The only difference is that instead of 20 Resilience rating, the new trinket has 45 Resilience rating.

In Other News:

Kalecgos and Brutallus down, and we got nothing but Protector and Defender Tokens, and no Caster drops. Felmyst dies and we get [Boots of the Forgotten Vanquisher] x 2 (one of our Mages got one), and a [Grand Magister's Staff of Torrents] again (gave to another Warlock)!

Now that all the Caster DPS in the raid have good weapons, I shall start bidding on this yummy staff for my haste set the next time it drops. If it never drops again, I am happy with my Archi-blade.

We made a few attempts on the Eradar Twins. We got one of the Twins down to 72% before she killed our Warlock Tank and proceeded to nuke the crap out of the entire raid. More on this at a later time