I've been trying to help get my roommate's enchanting up and it just seems to be the most expensive profession by far. I've dropped several gold to purchase items so he can get the enchant up. Then when we finally got to 225 I found out the Master Enchanter is in Uldaman, so now we have to go fight 37+ elite mobs just to get to the next level. Now I see why enchanters charge so much for simply pushing a button, they had to do a lot of work to get there. Getting my alchemy up wasn't exactly cheap, but I didn't have to go through anything like that.

It's not just that, but mainly the reason enchanters charge a lot of money is because the enchanting materials are pricey. With other professions, you just sell your green/blue loots. Enchanters don't get any money from green/blues because they blow them up for enchanting. While everyone else is making money from their loot, enchanters have to make that money from selling enchantments that uses materials made from several greens and blues.

Lvl 52 priest here.

I have around 600g plus 10 arcane crystal (~190g) and 20 arcanite bars (~550g). I wanted to save money for my epic when I reached 60 but now I am contemplating purchasing an epic BoE staff like the Glowing Brightwood Staff (+15 STM, +29 INT, +9 Spirit, +15 Nature Resistance) . Trouble is it is around 1,000g on my server. Although there are two currently listed in the AH so hopefully I might be able to persuade a better price from either of the sellers.

Should I purchase this as I doubt I will ever get the epic priest staff (benediction) and this would be a fine endgame weapon (especially with +22 INT enchant)

there are supposed to be better staves that drop in the high end instances. i would say reseach them and try to get them as a drop before getting the Glowing Brightwood Staff.

enchanting is expensive. best way to level it up is with tailoring. there are certain items you can make cheaply with each level of cloth (wool, silk, mageweave, etc) then disenchant. I got my tailoring up to 300 by level 50 but now i'm 53 and only have my enchanting at 265. Best thing to do is farm or buy mageweave and make the headbands then d/e them and use the parts (vision dust or dream dust) to do a lot of the cheap bracers enchants. i think at one time i went to Karanos and bought 5-10 cheapo bracers just to enchant to up my level. it was a lot faster than trying to even give out the enchants as free (which usually only is fast in Goldshire). My wife's paladin has blacksmithing so i could also enchant the bracers she made and she could sell them at teh AH easier.

neiname, there are a few of staffs you can get if you are willing to wait it out til you are level 60. Here are a couple off the top of my head.

Rod of the Ogre Magi
This is a drop from doing a Dire Maul North tribute run. These runs take very little time compared to other instances and can yield up to 5 blue items per run.

Trindlehaven Staff
This drops from Overlord Wyrmthalak in LBRS.


Personally I'd take either of these two and save my cash for something else.

GBS isn't worth it when you can get this for free:

http://www.thottbot.com/?i=19796
This staff is a quest reward so you are guaranteed to get it unlike the others above.

As for enchanting you can just enchant the same thing over and over to skill up.
Also, the expansion will be shown at Blizzcon.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...=1#post4782636

Sadly, a lot of the time there is more money to be made in selling your shards and dust thanthere is in doing the enchantments, unless you have the rare or faction based enchants.

As for priest staffs, you can get a comparable staff to the Glowing Brightwood as a quest reward if you are willing to do a very long quest line.

Argent Crusader

In order to get it, you have to first do 3 quests from a guy in the Eastern Plaguelands, right on the west border, on the east side of the river and north of the road. The last quest is to kill Baron Rivendale in Stratholme.

Another option, which I'm going to use until I get Benediction is:
Lorespinner and Milli's Lexicon
both of which are quest rewards.

JoeBlow are you a horde? If so I'll see if Evil Empire (the guild I;m on) will invite you.

Thx for the advice...

This might be what I target. Trindlehaven Staff

I finally started a new Tauren Hunter on a PvE server, and I am loving playing again. No ganking, no idiot Alliance players (most of them are cool, and even wave or dance at you as you run by), and no worrying about anything except questing and mobs.

I am up to level 31, joined a really fun guild, and got a nice little 2H axe from an instance.

:)

Well sounds like it was a good move for you but you miss out on ganking them back when you gained levels in the future. :)

You know, the ganking is annoying sometimes but Raids and defending cities is sooooo fun. I love when they raid the barrens and i get like 50 honor kills
Altarac valley rocks too... Was in there for 2 hours the other night and got 450 honor kills, now a that was fun

Yea, have to love the raids... Group of 40 people all getting screwed by one guy who kills npc's... 3 dk's? yup.

Now I remember why I don't go on raids.

Here are the notes about uncoming stuff (copy and pasted from a different board):

Since the last World of Warcraft Battle Plan, much has happened in the Warcraft universe. We’ve launched Blackwing Lair, the highest level dungeon in the game, we launched World of Warcraft in China and Singapore with great success, and work continues on adding even more content for our players.

BlizzCon is quickly approaching, and we're preparing the lineup of programs, dev chats, and the concert to be held at our inaugural event. I’m very happy to announce that we'll have the first public showing of the expansion for World of Warcraft at BlizzCon. Attendees will be able to view the work that is going into the project and hear some of the eagerly awaited details. To those of you who won’t be able to make it to the show, please keep an eye out for the game magazines that will be hitting newsstands right around BlizzCon, because some of them will feature in-depth articles on the expansion with plenty of information about how World of Warcraft will be evolving.

For this Battle Plan, we want to take the opportunity to look ahead to what our players can expect in the coming months leading up to BlizzCon and the expansion announcement.

Raid Content
Since day one, our take on World of Warcraft has been that it should be accessible to a wide audience, whether it’s players who crave epic battles; fast and furious action; or casual, social interaction. We already have a wide variety of activities that players can enjoy, and we want to continue building upon content already in the game.

One feature we’re excited about is the addition of mid-sized raid dungeons. While the epic 40-player encounter is challenging and rewarding, we feel that a mid-sized raid can serve as a dynamic and fun departure from 40-player raids as well as the standard 5-player parties. The tactics necessary for a successful mid-sized raid group will feel different from those for a larger raid group, but good organization will still be required, and each member of the group will be an important contributor to its success. This new raid style will also serve as a stepping stone up to 40-player raids for many players.

Two examples of this new smaller-scale style of raid encounter are the upcoming Zul’Gurub [»www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/.. and Ahn’Qiraj content additions. Many of you have already learned about Zul'Gurub from the recent preview we posted and from helping us test this new content on the Public Test Realms. Ahn’Qiraj, which is subdivided into two different encounters, actually takes the small-raid concept a little further. The exterior area is a challenging 20-man raid dungeon, and the interior location presents the next top-tier 40-player raid experience after Blackwing Lair.

Beyond the doors of Ahn’Qiraj, Silithus is being fleshed out as a major quest hub with episodic storylines that extend into its depths and past its borders. Players have frequently requested more small-party and solo content, and we’ve focused our efforts to meet those desires around Silithus. Everyone should definitely check out the new quest and storylines when the Silithus content is released in patch 1.8.

In addition to those new areas, we’ll also be adding some outright terrifying world raid encounters. Along with Azuregos and Lord Kazzak, the names of four green dragons—Ysondre, Lethon, Emeriss, and Taerar—will come to be feared throughout Azeroth.

World Events
We're also working on more dynamic interactions in the game. To this end, we're focused on launching new world events and expanding on some of the ones already available. Currently on the schedule is a Halloween-inspired event for Azeroth. We haven’t given the holiday a title yet, but players will definitely find a number of great things in store. On top of that, we’re adding more diversions to the Darkmoon Faire. Events run the gamut in frequency, from several times a day to once per year, with all levels in between. All in all, this adds up to a ton of dynamic content that players can experience.

PVP
On the PvP side, Arathi Basin [»www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/.. is coming out with our next major content patch, 1.7, bringing the total number of Battlegrounds to three. As players on the Public Test Realms are currently experiencing, Arathi Basin brings the “capture and defend” style of gameplay to World of Warcraft in fierce 15-vs.-15 player combat. The fight to control resources is a central theme in Warcraft, and Arathi Basin pits the Horde against the Alliance in the battle for raw materials to supply their war efforts.

We’re also working to polish several aspects of the first two Battlegrounds. At the top of the list are some major changes to Alterac Valley. We hope players have been enjoying the experience our epic Battleground provides, with its wide variety of goals and tasks. That aspect is something we definitely want to keep in Alterac, but we also want to make it more accessible by lowering the launch requirement from 30 players per side to 20. We also plan to shorten the length of time required to complete a game of Alterac Valley. Some of the changes we’ll be implementing to accomplish this goal are balancing out the terrain, slightly decreasing the landmass, and improving the queue to ensure balanced teams for each game.

Outside of the Battlegrounds, we want to focus on PvP gameplay in general. One common concern has been that lower level players have a difficult time advancing in the PvP Honor System, so we'll be changing some things in regard to the Honor requirements in order to help these players make more progress. Another popular player request has been for us to increase outdoor PvP battles. Prior to the Battlegrounds, the outdoor landscape was fraught with PvP. However, once the Battlegrounds were introduced and NPC dishonorable kills were implemented, outdoor PvP greatly decreased. We want to bring back the hectic action of mass PvP, but with some improvements. One idea on the table is to place a capturable objective in the exterior environment. With something like this, we can encourage outdoor PvP again while centralizing the action to a designated location.

Talent Improvements
We’re currently in the process of improving underused talents for all classes. The goal of the talent reevaluation is to allow all classes to have three viable talent trees to choose from. That is, each class should be able to pick from any tree available and still end up with a character that has desired utility in a specific role. The task is a major undertaking and one we're carrying out with great enthusiasm.

Some classes have already been completed (Warriors, Warlocks, and Hunters in the upcoming content patch), others are currently being worked on (Druids and then Paladins), while still others are yet to come (Shamans, Mages, Priests, and Rogues). Our priority is to address first those classes that have limited choice in talent trees, and move from there. Each class should receive attention to areas where the designers feel talents are lacking, though the scope of the changes will be based on need, with some classes receiving more drastic changes than others.

Web Site
Outside the game, we understand the importance of the Web site as our central medium to communicate information to our players. Our plans revolve around developing more dynamic functionality for WorldofWarcraft.com so that players can find more information about what’s going on in the game automatically. First and foremost is the addition of a PvP Rankings page. With that, players will be able to see PvP Honor performance across all realms. Player profiles is another feature we are looking forward to for the site. Profiles will showcase armor and equipment for each player and allow them to compare notes with players on other realms.

Character-Transfer Service
Another feature of the Web site we'll be implementing is fee-based character transfers. This is a feature that's been very frequently requested and one which we want to provide for players as soon as we can. We'll offer character transfers from one realm to another, as well as allow players to move characters from one account to another. While we want to offer this service as a convenience, we also want to prevent its use for exploitive reasons, so there will be a time restriction to limit the frequency that a character can be moved.

Parting Words
We are very excited about the upcoming content we’re creating for World of Warcraft. The potential for what we can do with the game is endless, and our main challenge is to continue raising the bar for everyone. Speaking of raising the bar, we know that many players are curious about our plans for Hero classes. We want to assure everyone that developing the Hero-class system as a way for top-level players to advance their characters to new heights remains a high priority for us. While we can’t delve into specifics at this time, we do hope to share more info about Hero classes when we see you at BlizzCon.

I want to thank our dedicated players worldwide who have made this game into a global phenomenon, and I invite you to experience the things we have in store. Thanks again, and we’ll see you in Azeroth!

Shane Dabiri
Lead Producer
World of Warcraft Development Team

From a different board? That's stickied on the official WoW Forums :p

Does anyone have a good BattleGrounds mod?
The mod I have (BetterBattleGrounds) will automatically enter you into BG when you are eligible. If you are AFK, it will not send you to BG.

What I want is something that will just emit a continous sound when you eligible to enter even if you are afk.
This way I can hit a key to get out of afk and then enter BG manually.

The offical WoW boards are blocked so i didnt know if it was up there or not.

do the low to mid 30s suck? i got a priest to 32 and stopped playing him, now i got a warrior to 33. Seems like 40 is when it picks up and there are more instances to work on. 30s just have Gnomer which can suck with pick up groups of people who dont know how to work as a group. it also takes forever. Seems like i'm just looking forward to more grinding til the late 30s when i'll start saving money more. Warrior is still a lot of fun and i'm killing tons of bloodscalp trolls to get 30 of the tusks for the warrior whirlwind weapon quest.

my mage is one blue bar from level 53. went around the western plaguelands some last night killing zombies and ghouls and got some Argent Dawn stones. Its pretty cool to think that soon i'll be able to go anywhere in the land without instant death. I still haev to hit up Ugoro Crater to check it out.

I suppose it depends on how you like to do your leveling... I normally only do a particular instance when I'm leveling until I've completed all the quests in it. There are tons of quests to do out in the world, so I don't mind if there aren't any instances to work on. Not all of them are as boring as collecting 30 of something too. :) But low thirties can also do Razorfen Kraul if you need another instance to check out. There's even a quest for it on a corpse at the bottom of the Great Lift.

When you're ready to test this theory, I recommend taking a stroll through the Tainted Scar (Blasted Lands). :)

Anyone knwo what happened?

I can't even log into the WoW site and of course the whole game is down.

I was able to log in and play 3 hours ago. i hope its back up and not lagrific by tonight since i'm supposed to be in a guild maraudon run.

Is there anything in Maraudon that good for mages? like blue items that drop for bosses?

Yes, lots of caster items drop in maraudon.

The princess drops eye of theradras, the croc drops rotgrip mantle, the goblin drops a caster sword, the rock giant drops a nice offhand. I'm sure there's more but those were the ones I always remember looking for as a caster.

i never saw the goblin. I actually lost a roll for the rotgrip mantle. both time killing princess my wife's pally got the loot (hammer and plate pants). All the unwanted blues i get to d/e and the only shards they become are the small brilliant which are only used for a couple enchants (and i cant even do those yet).

Any hordes playing AV?
I'm still trying to find the horde wing commanders to turn in the stormpike stuff.
where are these wing commanders?

The way we did Maraudon was to go kill the giant first, Landslide I believe was his name. Then we go kill the princess, jump down to the croc, then proceed to the goblin. If you fought the croc, there's only 1 way to exit the water. Just follow that path, you'll eventually run into the goblin.

And FYI, small brilliant shards are pretty nice to have. I'm an enchanter myself, and they're used in hp/mana enchants to chest, which is pretty useful. As you hit 60, you tend to do instances that are near lv 60, so you never get to DE blues that turn into small brilliant shards, just large brilliant shards. There is never a shortage of large brilliant shards(LBS), that is why the radiant ones sell for much more as everyone at 60 gets a LBS when they de a blue.

It always saddens me how many people think of Maraudon as the waterfall to the princess. :(

Lord Vyletongue has a good caster belt, and Razorlash has a okay set of caster boots for the level. Both these two and the rare spawn Meshlok have some good rogue gear though.