DroppedAtBirth's starred items

Filed under: Horde, Items, Expansions

Adventures in Beta returns from a long, WoWless holiday break to a finally playable 60 character! And boy, do we have a doozy of a horribly bugged beta item for you!

After only a few hours in the starting area, I began to notice a bunch of corpses of high level "Vengeful Unyielding Knights" hanging around the Thrallmar environment. This was slightly worrisome. Were we going to fight level 87s? How vengeful, exactly, were these guys? Really vengeful?

Luckily, a quick trip to the WoW Beta General forums solved my questions. The unyielding knights spawn off two Horde-only quest rewards, the Blade of the Unyielding and the Rod of the Unyielding. Like many other items, these weapons have a chance to proc and create some knights as guardians. Unlike many other weapons, the proc can happen off of anything (mounting, creating items, casting spells) and the guardians are set to the item level, 87, instead of the player's level.

I was interested in reproducing this effect, so I went out and did the quest for it myself. I looted a book off of the ghosts of some Alliance knights and then helped them summon an old enemy so they could get revenge on the person who killed them. It was a pretty cool quest, and I received both the Blade of the Unyielding and a round of applause from the dead Alliance. I equipped the sword and went out grinding. The knights didn't live long and I couldn't control them, but they killed things ridiculously quickly and the proc was near-constant. I doubt the bugged items will make it into live, but if it does ... hoo boy, alliance on PVP servers better learn to recognize it fast!

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Since my first attempt in 1996, I have compiled many top-10 lists of the biggest mistakes in Web design. See links to all these lists at the bottom of this article. This article presents the highlights: the very worst mistakes of Web design.

The latest patch notes from the beta test... Druids Using the /sit, /sleep, lie commands or going afk will no longer freeze a Druid while...

I thought this was a good one to get out, as I have seen many people wonder about this. Have a listen to what Nethaera from Blizzard had to say about...

Success in social situations needn't rely on speaking. Here's how you can improve your social skills without saying a word.

Filed under: Druid, Rogue, Blizzard, Economy, Expansions, Raiding

Even though we all got free talent respecs with the release of the 2.0.1 patch, some players were still hoping for another free respec with the release of the expansion-- quite a few players (myself included) are currently using raiding or PVP specs, and planning to change back over to PVE or solo specs when the expansion hits (to make their way up to 70), and were hoping for a free respec to do that with.

Neth the Snowwoman put the kibosh on that idea today, though. There will only be free respecs, she says, for the classes with "significant changes implemented"-- right now, that means only Rogues and Druids will have all their talent points refunded for free come the Burning Crusade. Warriors waste no time (2 posts!) in QQing that that means their class isn't changing, but the bigger concern is just the gold. I bought another respec after my free one on my Shaman just to try out the new talents, and if I don't get a free respec with the expansion, I'll definitely be buying another one at 61, and one more at 70. The cash adds up after a while.

A few players suggest resetting the costs on respecs at the very least. But come on, I'm paying $40 real life (actually $60, for the CE). The least Blizz could do is give me a break on spending money in the game.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Walkthroughs, Quests, Expansions, Raiding

Without getting too much into the lore, you may recall Mount Hyjal as being a pretty pivotal place in the history of Azeroth. It was there that the Battle of Mount Hyjal was fought at the end of Warcraft III, and the destiny of the night elves was forever changed.

We've known for awhile now that the Burning Crusade will let us access some moments in Azeroth's past, including Hillsbrad, the Dark Portal, and Hyjal. What we weren't really aware of until now, is the apparent gargantuan effort it's going to take individuals to get ready for and attuned to the Battle of Mount Hyjal.

Blizzplanet has a rundown on what you'll need to do in order to be admitted to the Caverns of Time for this epic event. Keep in mind that there will be some spoilers in there, but I believe it's worth the read just to get a grip on what Blizzard has in mind for us to get ready.

This is not like getting attuned for Onyxia or BWL. In fact, this seems like it's a bigger deal than the AQ40 event was, on top of which every single person in your 25-man raid group has to have completed all the steps.

Personally, I think this is pretty cool. Instead of slugging through raid after raid, you get a big build-up to that raid. No more walking into a giant event without some idea of what lead up to it. I think this shows that the Blizzard developers are thinking about the world they're creating, and the lore behind it. This can only be good for the continued success of the game, and I'm sure it works as a nice timesink for the beancounters, too.

What do you think of lengthy prerequisites and jaunts around the world before being let in to a big raid event? Does this encourage you or discourage you from pursuing quest chains and following the lore?

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Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Gnomes, Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Blood Elves, Features

I play a Shaman as my main, and I've said it more than once to my guild already: as much as I can, I will outright refuse to group with Paladins in the Burning Crusade. I don't care if they are on our side, if they do bring that sweet, sweet Judgement of Wisdom, and if they are really corrupting the light-- a Pally is a Pally. They're my sworn enemy, and that means they have to die (as soon as that shield fades, anyway).

And I'm not alone-- Jingle refuses Blood Elves in general on behalf of the entire Horde. And interfaction discrimination doesn't have to wait until the Burning Crusade-- Julious points out that Gnomes seem to get no respect at all, even from Alliance. Hey, I respect Gnomes plenty. I respect them at dinnertime with a fine Durotar wine, usually after they've been grilled or charbroiled.

So where do you land on all of this? Can't stand the sight of some of your supposed allies (I'll just assume you already hate the other faction), or do you think we should all just get along?

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Filed under: Features

We're starting a new feature this week here at WoW Insider that we've stolen reverently borrowed from our sister site, Engadget. The idea behind Ask WoW Insider is to tap into the collective intelligence of you, dear readers, in order to to provide assistance and knowledge to your fellow World of Warcraft addicts fans. What question about WoW do you want answered by the wisdom of crowds -- What's the best bar mod? What's the best build for leveling a mage? What are some great pieces of armor to score for a level 45 rogue? Send us your burning questions to: ask AT wowinsider.com and each Friday we'll pick one to publish (along with credit to you, of course!). Then your peers will have at it in the comments with their best answers to the week's question.

So -- what do you want to know? Send us your questions at ask AT wowinsider.com!

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