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Episode #13 - I Gotta Go Farm What?!?

The Darkmoon Podcast — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:56:09 GMT

EPISODE #13 - FARMING OLD WORLD MATS FOR EPIC ITEMS?

Well, we posted the video of the Ustream braodcast over on the site, but here is the edited version of the podcast. Mayor was late, as usual, for our podcast, so I started without him and ended up doing a full show myself. I'll post that one tomorrow or Thursday most likely. This particular show was about the more interesting topics of guild premium services offered by Blizzard and the fact that there is some code in the PTR that suggests guild leaders who are absent for a period of time my be replaced by the second on command by a simple press of a button.

     We also cover a water cooler chat about development of a crafting system where we infuse more older, lower level mats into some of the crafted epic items. Personally, we would like to see more of a detail oriented system where we need to collect 8-10 different types of materials, including some gems, old ores like gold and truesiler, to add an element of detail into more items. We used to see a large variety of materials needed in the level 60 patterns prior to the expansions.
     Why not bring all the mats together and make it necessary to farm old world mats? I was our belief that this would bring teh inflation rate of some of those items down and make them more accessible to all players. Currently, there are times were there are no low level mats on the auction house. Any mats that do show up are so inflated that no one playing a main toon at-level is able to purchase the items.
     I know I personally found mithril stacks going for more that obsidium ore for almost two weeks. What level 50 main toon has 100 gold to spend on a stack of mithril just to try and craft something to level up their blacksmithing?

    We posted this question up on the WoW forums, so go check out everyone's comments...and add your own while you are at it. We'll read them next week. You can find the link to the thread More Old World Mats in New Patterns?

CONTESTS - We are running a contest during the month of November. Be sure to check out our podcast page over at iTunes this month. Please leave a comment between November 1st and November 30th.   We'll be reading the comments on the shows all month, plus, we will be randomly selecting a comment to receive a great prize from us here at the podcast.

     - Also, please send us any Halloween pics of your Blizzard related costumes. We'll be taking pics over the next few weeks as well to see what you all dressed up for on Halloween. WoW costumes are expected, but we are interested in any costumes from the Blizzard franchise or those that would fit into one of the franchises. Email your pics to darkmoonpodcast@gmail.com

Episode #12 - Part 1 of our Blizzcon Review

The Darkmoon Podcast — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:42:46 GMT

EPISODE #12 - Blizzcon Review, Part 1

It seems a bit dated by now, considering I've been working the last three days and never got the opportunity to get this posted earlier in the week. This was actually a portion of our Ustream feed, which we put out there Saturday afternoon. We would have recorded the video and just reposted it, but we somehow managed to not set it to record when we started. Well....at least we saved the audio!

For those that missed some of our posts Friday and Saturday on the various other sites we were keeping current, we've posted a few pictures of our setup for Blizzcon. We managed to have a great turnout Saturday. We had about half a dozen people here later in the afternoon watching the event with us downstairs, plus another half dozen or so upstairs as well since we had so many here at the house at one time.

Jeremy and I gave a tour of the place, along with a rundown of all our food on the spread we had. Everything turned out really great...wish a few others were able to make it over the weekend, but unfortunately, they had other plans they could not change. Just want to thank all those who did come...friends, neighbors, and area gamers alike. Hope you all had a good time.

We'll have a weekend wrapup of this week's events in the game, plus day 2 of Blizzcon Saturday most likely...possibly Sunday afternoon. If that is the case, we'll definitely be doing a Ustream broadcast again, so keep an eye out on our posts here and on Twitter. I'll try to gather up as many people as I can Sunday afternoon and we can do a show after we recover from the Halloween parties everyone will be having Saturday night!

Day 1 of Blizzcon was packed full of goodness!

The Darkmoon Podcast — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 03:30:55 GMT

Day 1 of Blizzcon ends....only a few hours til it fires back up!

     Wow, did we get a boatload of info on Blizzard and all the games, expansions, and everything else they are planning to pump out in the next 12 months or so!   I managed to catch a majority of the days events, but I had to skip a few things since I still had a major display of Arthas to finish and the wife took the day off to run around the house and find things for me to do. I am debating, as I write this quick blog, to stay up late tonight and watch the stuff I missed.
     Well, since I have an early day tomorrow with our own party here, I'll probably only watch about an hour's worth of archived footage before calling it a night. I'll have most of the morning to catch up, and we'll be doing a few Ustream live casts tomorrow anyway, so I'm sure I'll be up to speed by then.

     I did want to say that the new expansion for WoW leaves me on the fence a little. As the day wore on, more of the things that were announced started to grow on me. I missed half of the class/talents piece, so I need to go back and watch that again, but for the most part, it seems like they are really going to streamline the game alot. The Pandaria thing still has me wondering though.

     Oh well, just we'll have to wait and see, I guess. All you people who wanted to commit to a one year contract playing WoW, at least you get Diablo III for free....and a new mount.....and a beta key for Mists of Pandaria. I know I'm going to end up buying the collector's set of Diablo, even though I haven't even played any of the game before, so the free thing doesn't matter to me that much. The beta was the selling point for me. We'll talk about it more tomorrow on our podcast, though.

     Before I sign off, I just wanted to post a pic of the Arthas display I finished tonight after the costume contest. This thing took me a while to get just right...and I'll probably tweak it a bit before everyone arrives tomorrow afternoon for all the fun, but I'm pretty proud of the end result and wanted to show it off a bit. I have to fire up the glowing eyes tomorrow for some better pics (wife's car was in the way to get good ones tonight, anyway!)
     If you get the chance, post a comment about it over at the Facebook page for the Darkmoon Podcast. You never know, I might just got through all the comments and chose a random person to give a non-combat pet from the Blizzard store away to....I gotta have at least 10 comments on the pic I posted tonight. I'll pick a winner Monday morning if I get alot of comments. I still have 4 pets to give away, so I'm looking for some good contests and promotions to give them away for!

It's a Blizzcon Weekend....

The Darkmoon Podcast — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:05:05 GMT

     We'll be doing some last minute prep at our place before Blizzcon starts tomorrow. Plans are to do a little live streaming on Ustream during the day. We will be hosting a half hour show at 10:00am there showing how we are preparing for the event. I'll be chatting about what I am expecting this weekend from Blizzcon while I put together my Lich King costume for display Saturday.
     We'll be posting our tweets throughout the day if you want to follow us on Twitter, also. @DarkmoonPodcast is where you can find us over there.

     We've managed to look over the schedule of events and I, personally, am going to be catching the opening ceremony, then the Lore Zone for WoW at noon. I'm eager to see exactly what will be revealed to us during the World of Warcraft Preview at 12:30.

      Right now, we are planning on doing a lot of recording for the podcast, which will most likely be up Monday. Check us out throughout the weekend on Ustream at the following times for updates and our impressions of the event:

Friday

10:00-10:30am Find us on the DarkmoonPodcast channel on Ustream when
       I chat about what I am looking to get out of Blizzcon and my prep for our party
       Saturday.

Saturday

10:00-10:30am I'll do a recap of everything I saw on Friday and, I'm not sure
       who all will be around that early, but we may have a few guests.

2:00-2:30pm Jeremy will be joining us for a bit...Let's face it, if he's around,
        we'll be online for more than 30 minutes! If you heard our podcasts in
        the past, you know how he likes to go on and on....

Additional streaming may happen throughout the day as we have more guests stop in. We'll have to give you all a tour of our version of Blizzcon here in PIttsburgh, so keep up to date with anything else we do by following our Twitter feed!

Episode #11 - Hallow's End 2011

The Darkmoon Podcast — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:26:53 GMT

     THE DARKMOON PODCAST - EPISODE #11

              HALLOW'S END

     Darkness has fallen across the land once again this season. Hallow's End has begun again in Azeroth. This year, we have quite a few changes from what we are used to with this particular world event. No more running around trying to get random masks from pumpkin baskets in all the inns....don't get me wrong, you still have to go visit them all if you want a few of the acheivements and a bunch of candy currency.
     We now have a daily quest hub outside of Stormwind or Undercity from which to collect tricky treats, which will be used as currency now to purchase just about any item you need for Hallow's End achievements and other events. I was up very early this morning and took a shot at the new quest chain that yields a nice new companion pet. They dailies are easy to do and are not that hard to do. I think I spent about 30 minutes running around doing all the quests and taking out the Headless Horseman when things kicked off this morning on my server.
     I was going to write complete review on all the events, quests, acheivements and gear, but Wowhead has a great breakdown of everything already, so you should really go check out their
Hallow's End page.



     Things you should know: The Headleass Horseman is dropping i365 rings, so you can go gear up if you still need to do so. His daily quest will yield you about 20gold and a chance at a nice 1H sword, a new helmet, some goodies, and possibly a nice mount.

     Tricky treats are the currency of the land, so be sure to do all your dailies and make a round for all the pumpkin baskets located at the inns. There is a new companion pet available for purchase, as well as the sinister squashling, so if you need the pets, start stocking up on candy.

     Hallow's End only lasts about 10 days, so if you want to buy everything you can at the vendors, you need to get as many treats as you can. I would save them up till you can purchase what you want.

     There is a new achievement for visiting all the Cataclysm baskets, so if you are a completionist, go to the new zones first...you probably already have the ones in old Azeroth finished!

Episode #10 - Mods, Money & More...Limited Recipe Vendors

The Darkmoon Podcast — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:58:49 GMT

     DARKMOON PODCAST EPISODE #10

   MODS, MONEY, & MORE - RecipeProfit for GatherMate2

     Well, we missed an episode last week with all the running around I was doing. This week I am sure we'll make up for it since so much seems to be dropping in the next few days. I wanted to get this episode out last week before things went too crazy, but just didn't have the time with everything going on.

     This week, we have a bunch of stuff to keep us really busy, so this is just a quick podcast to bring you up to speed on some of the events, ingame and out, that we'll be experiencing in the next seven days. I also have been playing around with a new addon, so I wanted to make a quick mention of it for all of those out there looking for a quick way to make some gold on the auction house. Let's hit all of our topics right on down the line:

MODS & MONEY -

     I'm actually going to cover both topics since the addon I was working with helps you find all those limited supply recipes and patterns sold by vendors throughout Azeroth. What better way to make a few gold than to drop in on one of the vendors and grab up some of those items you can't always find.
     The addon is called RecipeProfit for GatherMate. If you are using GatherMate2 for your farming needs, this is a great supplemental addon that works in conjuction with it to pin the vendors who have these 'specialty' recipes and patterns. If you don't have GatherMate, you may want to consider using it, since, not only is it a nice way to map out all of the spawn points for ore, herbs, treasure chests, fishing nodes and more, if you use this addon, it will also show you where to find vendors with some great items.

     A small pin is placed in your mini map to designate the location of the vendors. When you mouse over the pin, it will tell you the name of the vendor, as well as what specialty recipes they sell. These special recipes are only those in limited supply. Many of them fetch a nice return on the auction house, so if you are flying by, it might be worth it to see if the vendor has them in stock.
     The addon will also light up the items when you interact with the vendor to help you figure out how many you might already have in your inventory. You might not want to overstock yourself, so it can help you keep track.
     I think it is definitely worth checking out. You can read more about it at Curse.com and you can find the page for the addon right here.

     There is alot going on for our "More" section this week. First off, there is Blizzard's annual pumpkin carving contest. There are some great winners in the past few years and even if you don't participate, it's definitely worth checking out. See some great entries on the Blizzard page.
     Blizzard's charity auction to benefit St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital began Monday. Go see the retired server blades that they have put up for auction.
     Hallow's End begins tomorrow on the servers. We'll be posting a new podcast later tomorrow once we check out the new stuff in the game this year (if there is any) and giving you the rundown on all the quests, events, acheivements, and more!
     Blizzcon is coming this weekend. Be sure to check out the two day event with a virtual ticket if you weren't one of the lucky few to actually get a ticket (and could afford) and go to Aneheim. For all of those who aren't going, the virtual ticket is an awesome alternative. I spent the weekend watching last year's event and it was really worth it.
     For those in the Pittsburgh area, we are having our own little party for Blizzcon. Join us Saturday from 11am all the way through the day to the end of the closing ceremonies for some great food, an opportunity to watch Blizzcon with our virutal feed, and hang out with some other gamers. We are in the process of turning the house into a small convention center, setting up all our Blizzard merchandise. We've even grabbed a few mannequins and suited them up in the old costumes we've created for past expansion parties. We'll have a life-sized worgen and also the Lich King suited up and on display! It's all free, so if you are in the area, come hang out with us for the day. Email us at darkmoonpodcast@gmail.com for all the info.

See you tomorrow for Hallow's End!!!

It's a busy week for us....

The Darkmoon Podcast — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 01:57:32 GMT

     Well, this past week was pretty busy. As a matter of fact, I ended up logging in a little over 60 hours for work, so I missed out on posting a podcast. This week is a big week for Blizzard with Blizzcon starting on Friday, plus we have Hallow's End starting in WoW on Tuesday. We have our own little party planned for the weekend here in Pittsburgh, hosting a little Blizzcon party, complete with a bigscreen with the main WoW feeds playing all day and the basement decked out in Blizzard merchandise that I have here at the house, plus a few other goodies, including a few mannequins decked out in the old costumes I created in the past few years for some events and Halloween.

     Tomorrow, I'll be posting episode #10, which is another Mods, Money & More show, featuring a new mod I found that helps track some of the limited supply recipes throughout Azeroth. It blends into the 'money' portion of the show this episode, then for our "more," I managed to chat with my son during a recent car ride back home from Pittsburgh about the different types of WoW players. We talked about our observations about all the different players in the game and all the different things you can do in the game. There isn't enough time in the day to do all of it, but there are some who try to hit a bit of it all: Role players, lore hounds, completionists, solo pve players, raiders, pvp fanatics, auction house bandits, and more.
     Tuesday, I'll post the Hallow's End podcast, covering all of the events associated with the world event ingame, including the gear that is dropping from the Headless Horsemen, if we happen to get some near gear like we did with Coren Direbrew last month with Brewfest.
     Friday, I'm planning on watching most of Blizzcon here at the house and I will most likely be broadcasting a live stream during the show. I'll be posting more about that this week, so be sure to check out the shows and our posts on the website!

     Chat with you Monday!

Episode #9 - Mods, Money and More

The Darkmoon Podcast — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:20:57 GMT

DARKMOON PODCAST EPISODE #9 - MODS, MONEY & MORE

     Hot off the heels of Mayor's last episode, we bring him right back in for a followup show, although he didn't have as much to say, as he was nose-to-screen catching up on Brewfest dailies and transmutes as we recorded the second show the other night!

     As we recorded the show, we wanted to feature Skada as our addon of the week, which was brought to our attention from a good friend, Everolas, of Stormwind Guards. This particular addon is a big easier on your computer than Recount, but it still does the same things for you. Some people experienced problems with memory and the addon seemed to slow things down a bit at times. I've heard of connection issues related to the addon as well, though I never really experienced anything that I attributed to it.
     This particular addon is easily found through Curse.com online or downloadable through the Curse client.

Much cleaner in appearance to Recount, it may end up being your addon of choice for damage and heal documentation if you decide to try it out.

    Now, onto a little AH speculation. With Brewfest drawing to a close Tuesday, there will be no more Tremendous Tankards o' Terror finding their ways into the bags of players venturing into Blackrocks Depths until next September. These little treasures were some nice finds in those Keg Shaped Treasure Chests, but they quickly were flooding the market and the bottom fell out of the price. I know on Gnomer, these were going for 15k gold the first day but soon dropped to about 1500 being the average price on the AH. Many were seen at about 20% of market, hovering around 300 gold.
     I personally have been picking up any that manage to fall below 350 gold. Here's my thinking: Since these are some really nice i365 weapons that won't be around for quite sometime, other than those sitting in your bags, people still leveling up over the next couple of months will still want an easy way to gear up those weapons as quickly as possible. These maces will be one of the best weapons in slot, with the exception of the rare drops we'll find in the final raid. I know that those particular items will be selling for 10k gold or more, so the tankards are a great choice for those who don't want to unload a boatload of cash on a weapon like that.
     The tankards, come December, once 4.3 hits and everyone gears up for raiding, will slowly come back up in demand and you will gradually see an increase in price on them again. I anticipate them going for 1500 to 2000 gold easily in just a few weeks here, so I'm picking up as many as I can and planning on turning a 1500 gold profit on each one that I sell.

Finally, for a little "World" News, 4.3 has hit the PTR's and more info is coming out on what we can expect to see once it goes live. Transmuting of Epic gems will be possible, so stock up on those rare gems, some herbs, and some volatiles to get ready. Jewelcrafters, you may want to start saving up some tokens....you might have a few patterns to buy soon.
Blizzcon 2011 is right around the corner. Only three weeks and the two day event will commence this year. We've learned that The Foo Fighters will be closing out this years event.

With Blizzcon coming, and the Virtual Tickets available, we have been planning an event here in the Pittsburgh area for those close by to come and enjoy some of the show, along with some food and the chance to meet and chat in person about the game. If anyone is from the Pittsburgh area and would be interested in joining up with us on Saturday, October 22nd, we'll be hosting a party in Greensburg, PA all day. Just email us at darkmoonpodcast@gmail.com and let us know who you are, where you are from and we'll be sure to get you some info on the event.
We plan on having the virtual feeds on the big screen television, great food, podcast recording, games, trivia, and some great WoW collectibles on display, including a few costumes build by our crew in the past, Frostmourne, and more...

For all the alliance guilds in the SCA, don't forget about our Halloween Spooktacular, which will be held later on in October. Join us ingame down in Darkshire, Duskwood on October 21st, where we will be having costume contests, trivia, and many more events. Be sure to log into vent, where Everolas from Stormwind Guards will be piping in some creepy holiday music.
If you can't log in, at least jump on the computer and check out the guild sites, where Everolas will be posting a spooky holiday themed movie to watch!

Episode #8 - The Mayor Has Returned!

The Darkmoon Podcast — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:05:13 GMT

     DARKMOON PODCAST EPISODE #8 - The Mayor and his Social Commentary*


*The opinions expressed by Darkmayor in this episode may not be those of the staff of Darkmoon Podcast and its affiliates, including Sixburgh Studios!

    For everyone used to listening to our shows in the past, you know what kind of a guy Mayorgeneral is, and for those who have yet to meet him....well, we apologize for this show! Jeremy is back and is his usual opinionated self. We thought he would be a great guest on this show as we touched on the social aspects of the game that we have experienced so far playing WoW.

    I wanted to discuss the subject on a show, only because it was one that came up recently with he and I while we were talking with some friends over coffee one evening. He and I mentioned WoW in passing during the convesation, never thinking that our friends would be players as well. It turns out, they are and have a few level 85s on another server.
    We've had this discussion around people before in the past and they all look at us both and think that neither one of us would ever be thought of as a WoW player. It got me thinking that you really don't know who it is on the other side of the screen that you are interacting with. While there are some cautionary warnings to go with that kind of statement, there are so many more positive things that come from chatting and interacting with some strangers through the game.
    We've been fortunate enough to meet dozens of people from all aspects of life, from just about everywhere on the globe, and ranging from any age from 8 to 80...literally. We've played with small kids (some of which can play the game better than a few of us here) and we've even had long talks with a few people in their 60's, so it really is a game that spans all demographics. One of my guildmates that I chatted with daily for quite a long time was a high school dropout in his 20's who was working hard now to get back to school and earn a diploma. He looked like a gangmember from California, but I never saw that until after I developed a great gaming relationship first. If I had seen him before, I bet I would never have given him the time of day on the street.
    My point here is that the game strips away stereotypes that we have because we don't see people as anything other than gamers and it keeps us from making those snap judgements on people many times.

    Helioes and I had a similar conversation a few weeks ago during our morning chats online as well and when the topic came up again, it made me think about it more. I figured a brief chat on the podcast may be in order.
    Jeremy and I talk more about the simple topic of people you just are surprised that play WoW, but it could go alot deeper. We also discussed the fact that once you start chatting with some of these people ingame, you are surprised to find that, despite it being an MMORPG with players all over the world, a few of them are right in your backyard.
    We met quite a few this year who were playing on Gnomeregan that lived within 45 miles or so of us. Given our occasional trips to the coffee shops to play together, it added a nice aspect to the game where we could interact personally with the people we were ingame with all day.


   We've played with truck drivers, police officers, high school kids, high school dropouts, moms, dads, grandparents, army recruiters, college seniors, metal welding females dressed to the nines in goth gear, fruit vendors, farmers, postal employees, helicopter mechanics and more....None of us would probably be the friends we are today without this game. Not saying the game is essential to making friends, but you definitely make friends with people you otherwise wouldn't in the real world...

Episode #7 - Brewfest 2011

The Darkmoon Podcast — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:56:04 GMT

   DARKMOON PODCAST EPISODE #7 - BREWFEST

     I spent the last two days trying to record this show and between work and the wife sending me on a number of errands, I was a bit slow to have it posted. I'm actually surprised I managed to get it up tonight. It was my plan to post it last night, but I found after recording the majority of it that a few things had changed and there were a few bugs, which prompted Blizz to restart the servers twice already since the maintainence Tuesday morning.



     For the most part, the event this year is the same. We have the same quests to do, with a new one, allowing us to get a new brewest stein, THE OVERFLOWING PURPLE BREWFEST STEIN. The is no Feat of Strength for collecting a yearly stein, unfortunately. I was hoping this actually was making a comeback this year.

     For those seeking to venture into Blackrock Depths and put an end to Coren Direbrew this year, you will be glad to know that he is dropping some great i365 trinkets in there, so if you are leveling up still, be sure to get to at least 84 so you can snag these great items and have a headstart gearing up at 85!
     In addition to his new ilevel trinkets, his Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest will yield you 26 Justice Points, plus the chance to get a couple of rare mounts, and, The Tremendous Tankard O' Terror.


     I noticed that there was a bug earlier this week, in that, if you happen to do all your regular and daily quests then que for Coren Direbrew, once you loot the Dire Brew keg from him and return to the festival grounds, all the regular quests reset and will allow you to do them all over again. I managed to do all the quests twice Wednesday before another server restart. I managed to pull in an extra 110 tickets today on each toon, which will make getting the prizes a little easier.

     The acheivements and the quests are all pretty easy to complete. The quests can be knocked out in about 30 minutes...less if you are a mage or have one who can port you around to the other cities to complete a quest or two. Other than doing the dailies in order collect as many tokens as possible. You will need at least 550 prize tokens in order to get the Brew of the Month Achievement and the Disturbing the Peace Achievement. I haven't tested it this year, but you used to be able to purchase the clothing for 350 tokens, run to Dalaran, dance, then return the items for a full refund and then buy the Brew of the Month membership. Not sure if it works, but let me know if you heard anything.

Like us on Facebook....Win a pet!

The Darkmoon Podcast — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:55:18 GMT

I mentioned in the last show that we managed to get a few pets from Blizzard as a result of them quitting their magazine. We wanted to get everyone to jump over to Facebook and like our Fan Page. We'll be watching for new people who join and leave a comment between now and October 1st. At that time, we'll pick a winner from all the comments left on the page. We'll let the winner have first pick of whichever pet they want. Right now, we have six pets to choose from. We'll send you a code to redeem for your pet!

Stop over and check us out there. Next month, we'll be picking a winner from comments on iTunes, so keep an eye out for that one, too!

Episode #6 - Pirates' Day & Some 'World' News

The Darkmoon Podcast — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:46:26 GMT

     DARKMOON PODCAST EPISODE #6 - PIRATES' DAY

     Well, we finally got word about some of the 4.3 content we've been speculating about...Epic Gems. They won't be coming out of any ore, and they sound as if they won't be crafted by jewelcrafters. From what we were told this week by Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, it turns out that we'll get them in a similar manner as those found in BC:

            The way we're hoping to set it up, and we kind of have this working but
            things could change before we go live, is when you kill a boss on normal
            or heroic mode, each player gets a geode, and when they open the geode
            there's a chance they may find an epic gem inside. If not, it'll have blue
            gems or something like that. We really want it to feel like an individual
            reward, and not something that the raid leader gets to have fun in deciding
            who gets the gems, or they all go to the guild bank or something. We really
            want it to feel like an individual reward.

            They'll be somewhat rare. It may take the entire content cycle before
            someone has replaced every red gem they have, but they won't be so rare
            that you won't see them.

     I didn't mention it during the show itself, but Ghostcrawler also mentioned a new legendary weapon coming for rogues. Legendary daggers will ultimately make an appearance in the game here shortly. It sounds like many of the rogue mechanics will play an important role in the questline to obtain the daggers.

     In addition to the gems and daggers, we got news about the new dungeons and the new raid leading up to the fight with Deathwing.  The dungeons will play an important role in building the story up to the final raid content, much like what we saw in the ICC dungeons and raids.

     Finally, for those who were subscribers to the WoW Magazine, it has been announced that Blizzard is cancelling the magazine after this next issue. After five issues, it seems that they just haven't gotten the grasp on the magazine.  Has Blizzard bitten off too much with the games, magazines, trading card games, and the like? We'll see how things go with the rest of the ventures they have taken on.
     One bonus for those subscribers, in lieu of getting a refund for the balance of your subscription, you can have the option of taking 6 of the non-combat pets available in the Blizzard store.  I took the pets and already have six codes waiting for me.  Since I have most of the pets already, we'll be using most of them as prizes for the podcast.

     Our first pet will be given away October 1st. Winner will have their pick of the 6 pets. All you have to do is go to our Facebook page for The Darkmoon Podcast and like our page, then leave a comment about the show. We'll pick a winner and send you the code of your choice for:

        - The Pandaren Monk
        - Lil' K.T.
        - Lil' XT
        - Lil' Ragnaros
        - Moonkin Hatchling
        - Cenarion Hatchling

     Be sure to visit our fan page and leave a comment to be entered into the contest!

Darkmoon Podcast Episode #5 - The WoW Morning Show with Helioes

The Darkmoon Podcast — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:28:38 GMT

THE DARKMOON PODCAST
EPISODE #5 - THE WOW MORNING SHOW WITH HELIOES


     We've heard my podcasts with the gruff voice of Mayorgeneral, and you've heard Georgewow and his deep tones on this show, as well as The Mana Cooler. Listening to all the other podcasts out there, I thought that you all might enjoy the lovely tones of a female guest a little more often, so after chatting with our good friend Helioes, I realized she would be a great regular on the show. (No, that isn't her up there, but we'll use any gimmick to get more listeners!)

     I've been logging in a few hours every morning this past week and have been hanging out in our vent channel a little more than usual. Helioes, one of our officers in Acta, has been doing the same as of late. We have been chatting quite a bit during our mornings and we had quite a few really good conversations that I wished that I had recorded.
     I finally just started firing up the audio recorder and letting it run in case we got into another good discussion. (Of course, I didn't have it running today when we were chatting, but at least I got some stuff earlier this week!)

     Most of this particular show was recorded a few days ago when we were discussing a few of our more recent adventures into the Firelands. I, myself, have only tried to take on Shannox once, but Helioes and a few of the others have had some more opportunities. She discussed her most recent shot at the boss in there, along with her impressions of the fight now that a few weeks have passed and people are more experienced with the encounter.

We briefly touched on the subject of non-combat pets as she was browsing the auction house and I made my way back up to the Argent Tournament to work on more badges in order to get the last Alliance pet I needed, as well as all the mounts sold up there.

She and I also talked about some of the options we had chosing professions for our alt characters. For those looking to sell crafted items on the auction house, or use the items for our own toons, there was question about what professions to take and if support professions, like gathering professions on certain toons was the best bet. If you aren't worried about the crafting of items, I suggest spending all your profession slots on gathering professions. The mats always sell on the auction house and, if you are out there questing, you might as well be able to gather up leather, ore, and herbs if you happen to come across them.

Episode #4 Raid Warning-BWD

The Darkmoon Podcast — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:24:17 GMT

     DARKMOON PODCAST - EPISODE 4        RAID WARNING - BWD

     I'm finally getting some time to incorporate some raiding in with my gameplay. I was trying to finish ICC last week, but my weekend was so hectic, I missed out. Other than some trash in BoT and about 4 hours in Firelands so far this expansion, I haven't done much raiding. I guess when I think about it, we did do a few runs in Baradin Hold, but if you have a good group and control at the right time, you can really do that all in 15-20 minutes, so it doesn't require a large block of time dedicated to it.

     This week, I'm finally going to head into Blackwing Descent to experience some of the content there...that is, if the kids don't turn the house into some battleground tonight and I'm needed to bring order back to things.

     I took some time to see what the first three bosses had in store for raiders there in BWD. There was plenty of help and reference materials out there at my disposal, so I was pretty sure after watching a few videos and reading a few posts that I wouldn't do too badly. Now, it's up to the rest of the raiders who haven't experienced any content yet to do their homework, too. I hoped to put together a short podcast explaining the fights and create a few links to the best info I could find out there so you didn't have to go searching all over the place to find it all.

     What I found was that, as always, Tankspot had some great tutorial videos documenting the encounters, as well as breaking down all the special abilities of the bosses. If you take the time to watch these and maybe take a few notes, you should be pretty well prepared for your descent.
     The mobs in the first part of the raid seemed rather easy as well. I managed to find some info and I've posted links to everything you should take a look at prior to heading in.


Tankspot - Check out the videos for BWD.
                   Magmaw Encounter
                   Omnitron Defense System
                   Maloriak

WoWInsider has a great guide for the encounters that you can find here. I didn't look at there's at all, since I was pressed for time this week, but most of their info is pretty detailed and very helpful.

WoWWiki has some good info on the raid here, but I didn't review it all on their site, either.

Darkmoon Podcast #3 - The Official WoW Magazine

The Darkmoon Podcast — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:41:45 GMT

     Well, I finally finished browsing the latest WoW magazine and, unfortunately, I was a bit dissappointed again this issue. I've voiced my opinions on these magazines in the past on Warcraft Trade Chat, but I was hoping that after one year, Blizz would have things down a little better.
     Last year, with the premiere issues of the magazine, we were promised a quarterly magazine packed full of content, without any ads or filler. I'm still waiting to see a magazine that is released quarterly. At least the quality of the magazine is top notch. There is no filler and no ads. The quality is much like a coffee table book rather than a magazine with some great artwork inside and out.
     My problem is with the articles, unfortunately. Now, granted, there are quite a few of them that are quite interesting. However, there are also quite a few that are not current to events in the game. To me, it seems that these articles may be written while the themes may be current, but once everything goes to print and these magazines get sent to the subscribers, they tend to be dated.
     Take, for example, this issue. We have a great article about the Firelands and the daily quests you will need to work on in order to establish the Molten Front. Now, I got this magazine about a month ago, but even at that time, I was halfway through these quests and this info was dated and stale. I knew what was going on, I could see the progress being made, and I really didn't need a magazine to fill me in on all the great things happening in Hyjal....



     There were a few articles that I didn't care for, but, to be fair, there have been quite a few really great articles in the past, as well as in this issue.
     We get a great article about tanking in WoW this issue. Blizzard tracked down a few of the best tanks in the game to get their views on the best addons and setup of the UI.
      Reading about how to create and use macros was pretty informative this issue as well. It really offset the rather flat pieces on how to run a dungeon to get gear at level 85, and that questing in the Twilight Highlands will give you the best overall gear rewards for questing.
     I also enjoyed the article about Chip-Norris, a special Chipped Timber Axe owned by one palidan over on Dalaran-US.   If you want to hear that story, you will have to go get your own magazine.


                                                           Chipped Timber Axe
                                                       Main Hand                    Axe
                                                       85-160 Dmg       Speed 1.90
                                                     (64.5 damage per second)
                                                       Durability 75 / 75
                                                       Requires Level 74
                                                       Item Level 125
                                                       Berserking

     Will I renew my subscription for a third year? I guess we'll have to wait and see if I get four issues this year or not before I consider it. So far, I have to say that this year may be my last for the WoW magazine unless I see more material current when the magazine is actually on my doorstep.

Darkmoon Podcast - Episode #2 Mods, Money & More

The Darkmoon Podcast — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:06:29 GMT

     I was able to talk my good friend George for a while this week and we went over some of the trends hitting the auction house lately, including the jewelcrafting speculation on epic gems, the 4.3 announcement of Transmogrification and the search for unique looking BoE items on the AH, plus some of the new changes to the mobile auciton house app. George and I went over a few weapons we thought might be good investments for those looking to make a few extra gold flipping weapons once 4.3 hits.

     TRANSMOGRIFICATION

     As far as this new ability in WoW coming in 4.3, this will allow you to change your current equipment to look like a similar piece preivously equipped by your toon. Don't like your current gun and wished you could still fire off a few rounds from that nasty looking beast you picked up in Blackwing Lair way back in the day? Well, with Transmogrification, you can change the look of your weapon without losing the great stats.
     Only drawback to this system is that you must have the item you wish your piece of armor or weapon to look like. You can't just pick something out of the air. Items must also be of similar construction, too. No swords looking like daggers and no plate armor looking like a piece of cloth.
     Not a big deal with the restrictions, but definitely something worth looking forward to!

Read more in the official post from Blizzard here.

     MOBILE AUCTION HOUSE

     Some new tweaks to the mobile auction house are making those that pay the extra couple of bucks a month a bit more savvy when it comes to auction house posting. One of the abilities in the latest update allows for automatic undercutting. You simply set your base buyout price and you are set. This just updated this past week and I have yet to mess with it, but George over there at The Mana Cooler has had the opportunity to try it and finds it a real advantage.
     Actually, for those really into gold making on the auction house, this is a must and it's worth the extra few bucks. It can save you so much time running from mailbox to auction house to retreive items. You have the ability to post anything that is in your bags, your mail, or your bank without having to run back and forth. If you know your prices, it's the easiest was to post. You can also post multiple stacks with a simple click.
     Aggregated buyout search results combines similarly priced items, making it easier to browse listings.
     Updated guild interfaces make searching for your guild achieves and events so much simpler.

     KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

All you auction house junkies out there, we talked about a bunch of weapons you might get a good deal on if you search the auction house. These low level BoE's have a unique look, so there will be a desire for some of them once the 4.3 patch hits. Search the AH now and get a good deal!





UPCOMING SHOWS:

- We'll be talking to the Dragons Templar guild on Gnomeregan
- I'll peruse the pages of the latest World of Warcraft Magazine
- Raid Warning - A breakdown of some of the boss fights in Blackwing Descent

The Darkmoon Podcast - Guild Recruitment

The Darkmoon Podcast — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 03:18:57 GMT

     Episode #1 - Guild Recruitment with Vettel

     Greetings on and all! Welcome to the newest podcast we've put together for the World of Warcraft. For those who have been keeping up with us in the past, we put on quite a few shows over the last two years recording with Warcraft Trade Chat. Now that we've streamlined the program and with all the new changes to the game lately, we decided to launch the show under a new title - The Darkmoon Podcast.
     Seems pretty appropriate, considering all the changes to the game and the fact that The Darkmoon Faire is being revamped (finally) in patch 4.3. With the news about the Faire and the fact that it will be the first week of each month, I'm curious to see if the patch hits this week. If it does, I'd spend Monday stocking up on supplies if you are an auction house junky!

     Today's episode features a chat with a member of a guild we've played along side for over a year and a half now. Vettel, a recruiting officer with Stormwind Guards, spend some time with me this past week to discuss the changes to guilds and guild leveling, and his methods to recruit new members into his guild. They have come up with some unique idea and use a large number of resources in and out of the game. We've managed to put a list of them together to help those out looking to make their recruiting a little bit easier and a bit more professional.

Addons:

Nutty Recruit is an addon Vettel mentioned that will make spamming Trade Chat a little more manageable. It is an auto recruitment addon that will post a message for you based on a time you set for it to post. Set you message and let it do the rest...

The Blizzard Forums have a page specifically for guild recruitment. There are people that look through these so be sure to use them. They are a great resource. I know we picked up some great members through the forums.

Elitist Jerks has a forum to post LFGuild and guild recruitment. Looks like they charge a fee to use their forums unless you are a premium member of the site, so check them out before you go to use them.

HOW TO FIND US:

Looking to check out our guilds? You can find many of the guilds we have allied with at our group site.

The Stone Cairn Accord Site contains all the general information about the events, members and news for all the guilds. It also has a link to each guild of the Accord, including all of the following;

Acta Sanctorum is our Level 25 guild. We are a social guild currently recruiting tanks and healers to add to our raid team. You can get an invite to the guild from any member, but we do have soem rules we ask all members to follow in order to keep it a clean, family friendly guild.

Brave Hearts is one of our allied guilds that is relatively new to the group. ""Brave Hearts a friendly social guild for all to actively have fun playing WoW in a "positive" and "supportive" energy space, while becoming a better player every day."

Dragons Templar is another guild we have been playing with for a while. According to their lore, their guild leaders are members of the Red Dragon Aspect who have been charged with protecting the Aspects from harm. A Level 21 guild, they are working to develop their own regular raid team as well.

The Midnight Crusaders is a Level 25 guild looking to expand in all aspects of the game, particularly in the building of their own raid team. Their website is underconstruction as they are relatively new to the alliance adn we've had a number of people working with them to help them develop as a guild.

Relic Raiders of Azeroth is a Level 25 guild and has been heavily recruiting for progressive raiding. They were charged with setting up regular raids for the allied guilds lately. Check ingame or on their website to see what their latest status is.

Shadow Keepers is looking to expand in just about every aspect of guild progression. Looking for all members and levels to create a fun, social guild capable of participating in any aspect of the game.

Stormwind Guards - Last on the list, but certainly not least is the Stormwind Guards. Everolas has created quite the lore-filled guild there. They have a Level 25 guild and are active in just about every aspect of the game, including raiding and social events for its members.

Music for the show provided by Insert Coin to Continue.

Get Ready for the New Darkmoon Podcast...

The Darkmoon Podcast — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:52:12 GMT

For all those who have been following us over at Warcraft Trade Chat podcast, get ready for the newest show to start - The Darkmoon Podcast!

We will be revising our format and streamlining a few items in order to bring you all your favorite information on the World of Warcraft!

Stay tuned and we'll be posting the newest shows next week, starting on August 29th!

Welcome

The Darkmoon Podcast — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:45:51 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.