With MOP the powers that be are shrinking the difficulty of leveling new professions.   With the changes in Blacksmithing,  old world materials were no longer needed to obtain maximum level.  I would expect the same to occur over all of the professions at some point in the future.

Patch 5.3 also introduces this same change to the mining profession.  No longer will it be necessary to go to old world areas to level mining.   This is a great idea for players who want to change from a crafting profession to a gathering profession.   The caveat with this is that most players already carry a farming character on their roster.   And having two maximum level farming characters tends to be inefficient.

If you looked at this change in the mining profession casually it would almost be assumed that this would drive the cost of ore down.  The idea being everyone grabbing their favorite toon,  changing their profession to mining and picking the world apart.   Again the odds of this are slim because only a few do not carry a mining character already.  With little or no additional ore being placed in the Auction House,  prices won't raise or lower that much.

But for players that don't already have a miner on their roster,  this is a great opportunity to get one into the action.   Where I'm not a huge fan of farming for materials,  there is a benefit of taking the time and farming both minerals and skins.   Combine this with a Potion of Luck it's not unheard of to rack up 250-500g per hour for just the cost of your time.

Mists of pandaria miners are important in the game. They provide resources that no other character can provide. So it is better to include them in your game and see what they can do to you.

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This world of warcraft patch 5.0.4 notes will give the everything you need regarding the patch. So let us see the changes and differences from this patch with the others.

General

• Account-wide Achievements, pets, and mounts
  • In Patch 5.0.4 and beyond, the majority of your character’s Achievements, pets, and mounts will be shared with your other characters.
  • Please read: Bringing Achievements to the Account Level, by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street
• World Event: Attack on Theramore Isle
  • Warchief Garrosh, obsessed with assuring the Horde’s supremacy over Kalimdor, launches an all-out attack against Jaina’s island home of Theramore. Though valiant Alliance defenders rush to repel the sudden onslaught, they’ll soon find themselves unprepared for the terrible scope of Garrosh’s true plans…
  • This Scenario will become available in the weeks leading up to the launch of Mists of Pandaria on September 25.
• AOE Looting
  • Area of effect looting comes to World of Warcraft with this patch. After killing a group of enemies in close proximity, when you loot one of their corpses, the loot window will include items from all of the nearby corpses for which you have loot rights.
• BattleTag support in World of Warcraft
  • Players who have enabled their BattleTag will now be able to:
    • See BattleTag friends in your friends list.
    • Add and remove BattleTag friends.
    • Send BattleTag invites to other players via right-click.
• Cross-Realm Zones
  • In some zones, players are now able to form a group with other players from a select pool of realms.
  • When a player is in a zone that is set as a “cross-realm zone”, in addition to seeing other players from their native realm, they’ll also seamlessly see (and be able to play with) players from other realms.
  • Players will always be able to group and quest as they normally would with players from their native realm.
  • This functionality will be enabled for a limited number of realms at first, and will be granted to additional realms as we near the release of Mists of Pandaria.

World of warcraft patch 5.0.4 has provided interesting changes and notes to the game. Let's see how it plays out.

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Is it really true that WoW subscribers are now frop to 14%? Well, this is something to talk about. What do you think are the main reasons for this?

It’s the big – nay, huge – news of the month in the MMO blogosphere: according to publishers Activision, World of Warcraft has dropped 14% of its subscribers, 1,300,000 people, since the fourth quarter of 2012.

That’s massive.

As always, the blogosphere rallies round with some really fascinating insights:

• Saxsy posts some really brilliant analysis of not just the announcement but the accounting figures behind it, saying amongst other things that she doesn’t believe there will be another WoW expansion – and part 2 here – “Whatever one thinks of Mists of Pandaria artistically, the financials show the grim truth that it failed to spark significant revenue increases.”
• Azuriel believes that the fascinating point in all this is just how cautious and conservative Activison are – “Activision-Blizzard might join the ranks of EA as a big-budget publisher who only produces one title that I am remotely interested in, with all the “risky” indie ventures soaking up the money I leave on the table.”
• Mhogrim contrasts WoW’s remarkable longevity with the lifecycle of other games – ” 90 days to 6 months; Players have gotten pretty comfortable but the new shinies aren’t as shiny anymore. Progression raids have been fullfilled, pvp brackets have been maxed and…what is there to do again?”
• The Grumpy Elf writes an epic post outlining his vision of how Blizzard could stem the tide – “Lets face it, the game is not casual friendly for the 80%. The people that do not seek out information on their own. Would they know that the AC quartermaster is under the main city? Or even where to do the AC dailies if they never stumbled across the person offering the lead in quest? “
• Goetia muses on what keeps her playing WoW these days and whether it will continue to be enough – ” I just hope that someone smarter than me (and smarter than the current dev team) figures out how to put a new shine on the endgame.”
• Typhoon Andrew injects a note of “is this really big news?” – “What can we as current WoW players do? Not much. Keep having fun and playing. Just because something is less exciting for most people has never been a reason I’ll like it.”
• And Zellviren offers a well-thought-out and balanced theory as to what might have gone wrong: lack of progression options for casual players, hardcore-only Normal raids and the death of alt-focused playstyles – “Here’s a tip: casual players want to develop their characters, too. At this point in 5.2, you have a single way of doing that. LFR.”

​Whether or not this is true is something that we should all be aware of especially if we are WoW fanatics. To know the reasons as to why this is happening is something that the developers should be wary.

​More at WoW drops 14% of subscribers – Blogger Reactions

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WoW Drops 14% Subscribers – Is This True?

Mists of Pandaria is filled with exciting quests and characters. The path of the last emperor is one of them. Let us see how it differs from the other quests.

In 5.3, players who have completed the Battlefield: Barrens step in the Barrens can head back to Pandaria, learn about the continent more with an old scholar, and get rewarded with some ilvl 502 boots!

The Old Seer: Locate Seer Hao Pham Roo on the slopes of Mount Neverest in Kun-Lai Summit.

• Hellscream is using Pandaria's secrets to wage war against the world - and even his own people. Is this really what the last pandaren emperor had in mind when he cloaked the continent in mists? And why did the mists suddenly disappear? I must have answers! In my travels, I met an old scholar, an expert on the last emperor. Please, seek out Seer Hao Pham Roo. Last we spoke, he was planning to retrace the emperor's steps by scaling Mount Neverest... but he was far too old to attempt such a climb.

Path of the Last Emperor: Attach the climbing rope to each Rope Anchor along the path to help Seer Hao Pham Roo reach Seeker's Point.

• In his time of uncertainty, the last emperor walked a lonely path up this mountain, until he had at last found his answers. I am here to walk the same path, and it seems you have questions of your own to be answered. Perhaps you will join me, and we can both be satisfied? Oh, but I am getting old, and this blizzard is proving too much for my bones. Could you climb ahead and anchor this rope? I can hoist myself along from there. Together we shall walk the path of the last emperor.

In assisting Seer Hao Pham Roo, you learn a lot of interesting things about the history of Pandaria. 

It is amazing to know that you can challenge yourself by going through one of the epic battles and quests of Mists of Pandaria. The path of the  last emperor may even bring you to the edge.

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Warriors are one of the most exciting and interesting characters in Mists of Pandaria. Find out what makes these characters exciting.  

Now, conventional wisdom would tell you that fury is king of warrior DPS, and I’m not exactlyarguing with that wisdom. Arms is certainly lower in PvE than I would like, but it’s got its respectable moments, and it’s a lot easier to gear for. To be fair, for my gear level I’m doing fairly well with arms – with the proper talents it’s fairly beastly for certain heavy add fights, and if you get a nice addon like SlamAndAwe you can track your Taste for Blood procs and take care of the single most annoying aspect of the spec. I tend to prefer Bladestorm for trash and Dragon Roar for bosses, and I’m still using Bloodbath due to its being up every minute, which is just to my personal tastes.

Raiding arms means playing with a lot more predictability than fury. The only random proc ability is Sudden Death, while pretty much everything else is almost metronomic in its precision. CS to open, MS then Overpower, CS when SD lights up and otherwise Slam unless your rage bar is totally full even with Slams or if you stack TfB to 3 or higher, then try and time a Colossus Smash to be followed by a three-stack Heroic Strike. If TfB is going to fall off if you don’t use it now, and it’s below 3, let it. Not very hard to use.

You still want hit and expertise around 7.5% but the real stats to stack are Crit and then Mastery. Just raiding normal modes and running LFR you’ll eventually see your gear climb significantly and with it, you’ll be at roughly 23% crit and 43% mastery (that’s non-heroic Best In Slot gear) and with those you’ll see a signficant jump in PDS output. It’s not going to match up with fury’s scaling, but it’s still very noticeable – arms warriors are just as gear dependent as fury, or very close to it. I’m sad to report that yet again, haste is an absolute dump stat for us, but at least that makes it easier to pick our stats we want on gear. That being said, it’s not always easy to find gear with those stats on it. I’m suffering right now from all the haste on my gear, since that’s what’s been dropping.

I recommend Dragon Roar as the only real choice for a single target DPS build, of course, but I’m not sure my bias towards Bloodbath is the right one. Icy Veins agrees with me (but points out that the difference is extremely small) so it comes down to whether you want a button you push every minute or every three minutes. This is my current spec I use for arms with glyphs included. You could argue for the glyph of Colossus Smash instead of Sweeping Strikes, but I like the extra rage on trash pulls. I like Blitz for fights like Will of the Emperor or Tsulong where I’m often charging into adds that start off fairly close to one another.

This WoW warrior guide can truly help those who are in dire in need of some tips and guidelines regarding this character. See how this guide fits to your gameplay.

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Players continue into the Mists of Pandaria,  leveling up alternates and getting them placed in whichever skill they choose them to have.  Whether they are raiding toons,  support professions or just so they can do a couple of pet battles for the fun of it.   Each has to be geared accordingly.   With each patch Blizzard makes the gear more and easier to obtain.  At level 90 with a few Valor Tokens a player can drift their toon over to the Isle of Thunder and get themselves a Epic Lvl Belt and Neckpiece.   With the new patch just a few weeks away another area becomes open and the more epic gear will be handed to those that help with the storyline of Garroshs' fall from the throne.

Where free gear does effect the high end players need to purchase certain items,  this doesn't eliminate them as possible sales.  Where belts and neck pieces are given out like Chiclets,  weapons and bracers and other gear areas are sorely lacking.   Players still choose many times to purchase items for their alternate toons instead of grinding out reputation for the more powerful items.

So where each patch introduces more freebies,  keep to your plan and look for the kinks in the free loot web.  Don't forget also your ability to flip/produce the enchants that will be in demand as well.  The more free gear that is bought out,  the more need to enhance that gear with new power and shiny gloss.

Free Items can adjust your plan of attack when it comes to making gold.  But it shouldn't knock you off your game plan.  Smart gold goblins know that when one door closes,  you just kick it open again.

It is good to kjnow that there are free gears in the market in Mists of Pandaria.Whether it affects you or not as a WoW player, you can never truly determine unless you are in the game. 

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Does Free Gear Affect the Mists of Pandaria Market?

Blizzard has done an excellent job with each patch of Mists of Pandaria to add weapons and items to be crafted by Blacksmiths,  Tailors and Leatherworkers.  Unfortunately Engineer crafted items have been slower to be delivered and the Inscription profession has been almost completely ignored for addition items.

One of the best ways to keep players excited about professions is to add new items for them to craft,  both for personal use as well as sales.   We all know that my gold goblin mind revolves mostly around what can be sold for a profit.  In this case I expect the new Engineering Pet to be in demand.

We can only speculate on what will be required to craft this soon to be popular pet.   If the powers that be stay on track with previous crafted items we can speculate on what will be needed.

Trillium Bar (my guess would be 4-6)
Spirit of Harmony (Probably 1,  maybe at most 2)
Exotic Leather (4)

Of course I do not have a magic 8 ball to tell exactly what might be needed.  At some point the PTR will have this pet and we will know the exact amount that will be required.  But giving a decent heads up on what might be possible can help with being prepared.  As with many pets,  crafting and selling these will have a very short peak life.  

Once a player has one (or even two) of these for their personal collection the demand will take a serious drop.   That first 2-3 weeks will become very important for sales opportunities and being ready.

It is truly exciting to play World of Warcraft and its various expansions. You get to use the skills and talents of its various characters. 

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Aesthetically, I enjoy the warrior class quite a bit. But that aesthetic comes in the form of plate armor and is hardly unique to the class – death knights and paladins can wear almost all of the same gear as we can, especially now that transmogrification exists. The fact is, as much as I hate to admit it, Ghostcrawler is right and warriors don't look all that interesting when we attack. The question becomes, why does that matter? And the answer is, it matters for the overall health of the class and its representation.

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Are WoW Warriors boring?

Apparently, Blizzard has quite the love affair with setting druids on fire. Responding to a player's lament about Fandral's Flamescythe, Crithto noted that an item was created in 5.2 to allows Druids to gain the firecat appearance without needing the old weapon.

Of course, he didn't give any hints, simply saying “They're difficult to find…” A massive search of the Firelands ensued, and the items, Burning Seeds, were discovered near Majordomo Staghelm. Only lootable by druids, each seed allows for 60 minutes of the flame kitty form, which persists through shapeshifting and death.

You will need some friends to help you clear up through Baleroc, but after that, you can extend the raid as many times as you need to stockpile more seeds.

As for me, I'm curious as to what form will be next on the self-immolation list. We can already ignite treants and cats…how about some roast turkey? Pilgrim's Bounty isn't too far away!

So there's a fiery cat, I wonder what next will they think of. Snakes. Phoenix. Who knows?

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You got to see the downloading screen once again starting to pick up background data for the new Patch 5.3.  Usually this means lots of speculation on when will it drop,  what should I do and at what point do I get to panic.

The quick answer is who knows,  the same thing you're doing now and only in view of a camera for your future youtube.com fame.   Mists of Pandaria developers have been pretty good at getting new content out quickly to balance between repetitiveness of previous expansion patches and not enough time to enjoy that new fresh smell that you get when new goodies arrive.

In this case it does bring to a question just what needs to change in your daily and weekly strategy as far as lower level gear.  The Isle of Thunder was very much a catch up hub on raiding gear.   The ease of obtaining reputation and higher level gear through crafting,  grinding out the reputation to reward and Looking For Raids that were put on a farm very quickly caused low level gear to not be as desired.   Sure players would pick up items to fill in spots in their ilvl gear.  But greens took a serious hit unless they had an extra special look to them,  or were cheap enough to Disenchant for materials.

This is a good time to start to dissect the PTR patch notes for investments and items that you expect to be in demand in the near future.   And to start to do a slow burn on holding materials for enchants and armor patches when they become in demand after Patch 5.3 drops.

Well, I guess the waiting game begins. Who knows weeks from now this site will be posting more aobut WoW Patch 5.3? And, that will be pretty exciting, don't you think so?

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