It's my understanding that the raid bosses drop only a handful of items, which are normally distributed via the master loot system. Somebody killed Onyxia the other day, and I think she dropped an Axe and a priest-only helm (both with crazy stats).

Once you're high level can you go and do instances that are 20 levels below you yourself? Or can you help out guildmates who are at the right level for the instance?
Example: Could my level 40 brother in law help my wife (lvl21) and i (lvl18) thourgh the deadmines? Kind of a weak way for us to do it, though, since he'd have an easy time killing level 20 elites.

Sure, you can have a high-level person help you on any quest. You'll take a big hit on XP gained from killing mobs however.

Yes you can. I finally went and did VC solo in the late 30's sometime after several unsuccessful attempts earlier (solo, and with a group). It still took a long time and I could've died if I'd gone too fast. I knew a 40 guy who did it with a 20, and the 40 did die a few times (not surprising, I find I'm a lot more likely to die with someone much lower than if I'm by myself).

I think I got about 85 experience total for doing the quest (none from killing), and maybe a couple of gold from selling stuff. So it wasn't really worth it, but I hated to just leave it undone after all the time I'd spent in there.

Anyone can do the instances, and the only downside is that you will not get that much xp. Granted I never understood the desire for rushing in Diablo 2, and I understand it even less here. What's the fun in following behind a one man killing machine? May as well call that game "pushing the W key". A level 54 was escorting a level 2X guy through an area I was trying to solo last night, with the 2X guy doing nothing, and me having to stick around waiting for the respawn to occur... :(

Yeah, i'll probably just wait and try to get a group of 20s to get VC. I'm dying to see what the dungeon is like, though.

Anyone heard anything about the possibility of Deathwing being in the game somewhere?A guildmate said he heard a rumor about that.

you could always go "Poke your head in" and take a look around. I've done that a few times out of curiousity.

I'll poke my head in and get jumped by 6 mobs and die. Then i'll ghost back to my corpse and have the game lag and when it unlags i have 6 mobs on my again and i die again. This happened to me at the path to the gnomerian instance.
I also had the good idea of checking out the wrecked ship of the westfall coast. my wife and i took out the murloc on top and then i said "there must be treasure down here" and jumped into the water filled hull only to be attacked by about 6 murlocs who were all underwater. we couldnt see them and kept ending up clicking on dead ones instead of the ones attacking (its always fun to have the loot pane pop up when you're getting beat). my wife wasnt happy

While the fact that there are sunken ships to explore sounds and looks really cool, after the hell that was Deep Ocean, Vast Sea, I think I'll stay away from shipwrecks for awhile. :) At least until they patch it so murlocs can't sense you through the hull, and then swim through the hull to get to you...

This might be obvious, but are you swimming underwater? It took me awhile to figure out how to swim under water using both mouse buttons.

I didnt know how to swim under water til just now. THanks!
You cant fight while underwater, though, can you?

Sure. You can even shoot bows and arrows underwater. I haven't tried it, but I'm reasonably sure guns would work as well (go figure that out).

Mage question: Do you ever use Dampen or Amplify Magic? I guess i could see amplify being useful if you're in a party with a healer and want the tank to be healed faster (and you were not fighting magic using mobs). Dampen magic would be good on a tank if your party was fighting magic using mobs.
Anyone use these?

Yes, with everything you can fight on land with (confirmation on guns). My lion even has a neat little swim animation and can fight underwater too.

For something funny, try bringing out an atmospheric pet underwater. My parrot looks pretty darn funny flying under there.

I'm level 27 on my Human Mage and have used both those spells on only a couple occasions. Dampen Magic has been useful when soloing caster mobs..I'm not concerned with healing since I'm solo and it absorbs some of the blow from their bolts, dd's. Amplify magic came in handy once...was doing the instance in the Stockades, in Stormwind, and the mobs in there aren't casters so I would keep Amplify magic up on the group members so the Healer's spells would heal for more. Both spells have their benefits in unique situations.

Thanks, Setzer. I just want to make sure i wasnt missing some thing with these spells. I'm about a forth of the way to level 20 (from level 19). It looks like i'm going to need to get about 2 gold for all the level 20 spells i'll be able to get.
I helped my wife out with a paladin mission yesterday. it was helping some lady defend her farm (south of the Deadmines). The mobs came in 3 or 4 waves each time with an extra add. We barely survived. I kept drawing aggro because i'd use area or proximity spells. Is there anyway for a mage to heal another party member? Are there healing scolls? I only had potions which i could only use on myself. If we both had first-aid could i bandage up a person who was fighting?

I've played up to lvl 55 and have not run into any healing scrolls.
you can bandage another person, even in battle.
but if the person takes damage while u are bandaging him, the benefits of the bandage stops.
I use bandages on myself sometimes in battle when the mobs are hitting my pet and no one is attacking me.

does anybody know if you can remove yourself from a guild or can only guild officers remove you?
what i want to do is join a guild and if i don't like it the guild ,quit without the hassle of asking someone to remove me.

/gquit

what happens if you quit the guild and there is no longer the minimum amount of members for the guild?
would the guild automatically disband?

nope. they just have less than 10 people.

So how is everyone progressing so far? I just hit level 53 with my rogue last night, getting her prepped for a run thru Maraudon. I made a paladin (level 21) as well which has taken time away from my rogue. I also have a horde warlock at level 5 but haven't played him in about a week.

I got to level 20 last night with my mage. I have to borrow about 50 silver to buy the rest of my spells for this level; you get so many. Will try to get a group together to do the deadmines tonight. should have three of us so far (one level 20(me) and 2 level 22s (paladin and hunter)), hopefully will find another couple 20 somethings.

i just hit 45 as a night elf hunter. some of the PvP stuff has been taking up my time as well as helping guild members.

i figure after i hit 60, i will learn fishing, cooking. and then also try a few other types of characters.

I just made 55 last night with my NE hunter.
Just 5 more to go!
trying to do the dragon leatherworking quest now which is taking forever.