World of Warcraft Gold Guide

When patch 3.1 came out, the Plagued and Black Proto-Drakes, which were rewarded for the normal and heroic tier 7 raid meta-achievements, respectively, were removed from the game. You can still do the achievement, but it doesn’t give you a drake any more. The thinking behind this was that people would be able to come back with Ulduar gear and complete the achievements (relatively) easily, and Blizz wanted the accomplishments of those who had done the achievement pre-Ulduar to stand out. It looks like the Rusted and Ironbound Proto-Drakes are going to receive the same treatment in patch 3.2: they will no longer be attainable. These are the drakes that are rewarded for the Ulduar raid meta-achievements, on normal and heroic. This is interesting because it implies that we’ll get a new tier of gear in patch 3.2. Information about what the expansion of the Argent Tourney is going to bring PvE-wise is still pretty scarce; we know there will be some 5-, 10-, and 25-man content, but we’re not really sure what it’ll be like yet. All we’ve heard so far is “Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic.” Here’s hoping for

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A lot of you have noticed some issues with our RSS feed this afternoon (and a little bit last night) and trust me, we know that you know. Our inbox has been absolutely flooded! So to try and help the confusion (and slow the flood of e-mails), here’s what happened: Our network (us, Joystiq, Massively, Engadget, etc) was hit with a few database problems over the last 24 hours. It’s nothing to worry about, everything is fixed now and should be just fine. In the process of making things fine, our RSS feed was pinged with all sorts of ‘new’ information, causing the duplicates that a lot of you saw. Seven postings of the latest Around Azeroth? WTF? Yeah, sorry about that. We definitely keep an eye on our own RSS feed to make sure everything is going smoothly, so if it isn’t, we’ll know about it pretty quickly. Again, we’re sorry about the spam to you guys using our RSS feed. To those of you that aren’t using our RSS feed… why aren’t you using it!? Google Reader is probably one of the most convenient things ever. You can find out about our various feed offerings over here.

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World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players and fans, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction – and yes, (War)crafts. Share your stuff by tipping us off via our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts). World of WarCrafts has been gathering up tips and news on creative endeavors from players in all sorts of media. For a sun-drenched holiday weekend, though, we couldn’t think of anything better than everyone’s favorite: a Murbean. These cuties come courtesy of Amythys of Sisters of Elune. “I’ve been making these little plush Murlocs for a while now (I call them Murbeans), mostly for my own amusement, but two have gone to friends as well,” Amythys wrote. “Since I photographed them recently for my new guild’s amusement, I wanted to share them here too.” One more shot of the little guys after the fold. Great job on an irresistable trio, Amythys! Check out another interpretation of Murloc plushies in our Claire’s felt Murloc gallery.

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Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. Welcome home to WoW.com. Moving into a new place can be hectic, but we think our new digs at WoW.com are pretty darn comfy. In addition to a fresh face and identity for WoW Insider, we’ve introduced the beta launch of WoW.com Profiles. Show off your characters with a profile on WoW.com. By downloading the WoW.com addon, you can also keep all of your friends up to date on what you’re doing in game, and make blog posts and upload screenshots directly from your game client. Not a big fan of the social media scene? You don’t have to change a thing – WoW.com offers all the old content you know (and hopefully love) so well. “If I’m being honest, when I first saw that the site had changed, I didn’t really ‘feel it,’” commented reader Retropally. “After days of it sinking in, I’m loving it. The new theme is awesome — and really, nothing has changed in the way of the posts that are written …” Join the

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Hot on the heels of the Under Development page for Patch 3.2, we received a few more tidbits of information from Community Manager Zarhym, responding to posts on the official forums. In bold are the players’ questions. The Argent Coliseum: Does this mean a raid and a instance will be in there? Yes, there will be a 5-player version, then a 10/25-player version. The bosses will be different for the two versions. Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic. The new Battleground (Isle of Conquest): So, it’s WG combined with AB? If anything, Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley with a few more twists. Do you really think Ulduar achievements will last a year? Instances become stale after 6 months even with achievements. Yea 3.2 won’t be till later this year and by then Ulduar will have been played to death and people will want something fun and new to do and not some small joke instance since we won’t see Icecrown till April/May next year probably. Would it help if I told you that your presumed timelines are way too inflated? I was expecting most of this information, and I’m glad that my suspicions that the Coliseum would be a

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We’re all still slaving away on WoW.com, finding bugs and filing feedback. To help that process along, we’re going to try a little experiment. I’m going to level a character from level 1 to level 80, and all of it will be documented on my WoW.com profile. The hook is that you guys are going to decide most aspects of this character, such as race, class, and talent spec. Such things will be determined largely via polls right here on the front page of WoW.com, where I’ll be giving weekly updates on my progress along with what I’ve learned about the class and the world and any other observations I might have. If you want a little more detail on the process such as where I’m going, what I’ve done, and any other little notes I make via the Adventurer’s Note feature, you can follow that on my profile. If you don’t dig our profiles portion of the site, hey, no problem. You’ll still get weekly updates right here on the blog until I’m level 80. There are two polls: Race and Class. I will play whichever choices are the most popular. If the chosen race can’t actually be the chosen class, I’m going to go with

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Amidst all of the cost rebalancing for Champion-level rewards in the Argent Tournament, the CMs have indicated that there would soon be new ways to obtain Champion’s Seals. With the advent of patch 3.1.2, it seems Blizzard has started to follow through on that! We received a bunch of tips in the mail over the past day or so, all letting us know that their Champion’s Purses — one of the reward choices for Champion dailies — could randomly contain a whole ‘nother Champion’s Seal. This is a pretty big deal, especially since you have multiple chances per day. Players are reporting the percentage to be somewhere between 25% to 50% per Purse. Not too shabby! This also means that those mounts you want — including the recently-reduced Argent Hippogyph — might be a little more within your reach, and faster at that. We’ll keep you informed of changes sure to be forthcoming, given that the CMs also mentioned that the Hippogryph cost reduction was (in part) due to their desire to add even more rewards in future patches.

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We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. HolyPaladin.net takes a good look at the balance between WoW and life and how to find it. The Rawrcast spoke with Curse’s ckknight on the WoW Matrix controversy, Curse’s premium client, and much more this weekend. Give it a listen! The Hearthstone Tavern has put out the first edition of their brand new World of Warcraft podcast focusing on RP and lore. This week they discuss Arthas: Rise of the Lich King and how it can bolster your own roleplay. The Twisted Nether Blogcast has posted episode number 44, this time with Dezdemone from Will Tank For Healz. Can’t afford to go to BlizzCon? No worries, Spooncraft’s got your backs. Well, the back of one of you. Just one back. They’re running a contest to design a Spooncraft t-shirt, and the lucky Grand Prize winner gets a BlizzCon ticket, a free hotel stay, and $500 towards their airfare. Pretty sweet? Yeah, pretty sweet.

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I’d like to take a minute to address the concerns of one of our readers. Since my return to WoW Insider, I’ve been focusing on sanity, progression, and congruence. Dear WoW Insider: I need help, and I figure between me and that guy in the last Breakfast Topic, I‘d have more than a good chance of you guys having suggestions to my current dilemma. I‘m fairly new to WoW, having started in December 2008, after a long stint on FFXI. I was glad I made the move, and I haven’t looked back. I toyed with a few classes before settling on a blood elf rogue. I zoomed through classic, Burning Crusade and have now made Northrend my home. I hit 80 a couple of months ago, and although many guilds have offered for me to join along the way, I always replied that my brother’s guild was going to take me in as soon as I turned 80. I‘ve been with them on a few heroics and even saw the inside of Sunwell as my first raid ever, although I must confess all that left me feeling a little bit bewildered as I didn’t really know what was happening most of the time. I was constantly asking for help, asking where I should stand and what not. While most of the guild

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Lotonero got his thread locked because he posted it in the wrong forum, but he makes an interesting point: rez sickness costs are higher than ever. Death costs are already pretty high — when you’re dressed in greens and blues it’s not much of a problem, but get yourself down to red on some high-level epics, and see if you don’t wince when you hit up the repair vendor to pay the piper. But rez sickness costs are even worse — they affect durability on all of your items, even those you’re not wearing, and so when a dual-specced healer or tank with two or even three sets of gear goes rez-sick, the amount they have to pay goes through the roof. Now, you might think what I thought: if you’re carrying around that much epic gear, then a) why are you dying, and b) why are you rezzing from a spirit healer? But Wryxian, right before sending Lotonero packing to the suggestions thread, throws in his own two cents: “Maybe not.” Maybe Blizzard might consider it — dual specs wasn’t around when they originally thought up the cost of rez sickness, and maybe since many players are carrying around two sets of gear now, it’s due

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