Patch 3.3 is going to add something that you’ll all probably love, a new fishing contest. The Northrend Kalu’ak Fishing Derby will be coming in patch 3.3 and is already being tested in the PTR. This competition starts at 8 pm every Wednesday and involves fishing up the elusive Blacktip Shark. Elder Clearwater will be in Dalaran for one hour waiting for everyone’s catch but only the first will receive the grand prize!

The derby winner will receive a a lot of experience or money if at maximum level and 500o reputation points with the Kau’ak. The winner will also get a choice between two nice items, the Dread Pirate Ring or the Boots of the Bay.

Dread Pirate Ring
Binds on Account
Unique-Equipped
Finger
+34 Stamina
Requires level 1 to 80 (80)
Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 53.
Equip: Improves hit rating by 29.
Equip: Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 5%.

Boots of the Bay
Binds When Picked Up
Feet
Requires Fishing (200)
Equip: Increased Fishing +15.
Use: Whisks you away to the finest drinking establishment in Booty Bay. (1 Day Cooldown)

Players who didn’t win the derby but still caught the Blacktip Shark will still get some kind of reward if you turn it in to Elder Clearwater before he leaves. Maybe a smaller amount of experience or gold? Blizzard has also announced that the Achievement “Master Angler of Stranglethorn” will be changed to “Master Angler of Azeroth” and can be gained by winning either the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.

One new fishing contest with cool looking rewards, I think that’s great reason for all you fishing enthusiasts to take part in this. That Heirloom looks especially sweet!

Post from: WOW Obsessed

candy bucket

Visiting the various candy buckets throughout the world can be a lot of hard work, especially if you aren’t a mage who can port around. What could make this even more annoying is that there’s a problem Blizzard is currently experiencing wherein certain candy buckets in Northrend, once looted, are preventing players from looting other candy buckets needed for the Achievements.

Until this problem is fixed, CM Bornakk suggests that players visit the other candy buckets first before doing the ones in Northrend. Happy Trick or Treating!

Post from: WOW Obsessed

Dark Portal

This was the concern for Borex from the Steamwheedle Cartel – US realm, who posted a thread on the official forums. He pointed out that with Deathwing being the current big threat for the Catacylsm expansion, it does seem odd story wise for a character leveling up to see an Azeroth devastated by the Cataclysm to make steps in fighting against the big threat only to take a detour to the Outlands and then Northrend and then go back to Azeroth.

While that does seem strange in terms of the story, there are other problems that I see this Cataclysm will bring. While Azeroth is going to get a revamp, it’s not going to be a total revamp. This means that we’ll see some of the original conflicts. That in itself is going to seem funny for players who care about lore. This means that while players are dealing with the changed Barrens zone or the fact that Azshara will be a changed low level area, you’ll probably still be dealing with the Scarlet Crusade, the undead menace in the Plaguelands and other such old enemies mixed in with the new story affecting the new Azeroth.

It’s going to seem especially odd for the Goblins and the Worgen to suddenly have to deal with an old issue when their entry into their respective factions happened much later unlike the Blood Elves and the Draenei where you could actually say they entered the picture at the same time line as the original game and just continue their story into the Burning Crusade.

CM Bornakk’s explains that for new characters the content from the Outlands and Northrend are things they still have to beat so it’s not just a case of having to go there just to level up. Also it’s too much work to change the Outlands and Northrend to fit the events of the Cataclysm and honestly you really don’t need to since the Cataclysm story doesn’t take us there anyway. So while he has a point, new characters still have to answer the call of defeating the menace that he still hasn’t had a taste of beating, it still feels strange to have to go through a pretty confusing mix of old and new.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

Oracles

Thanks to MMO Champion, we can see what this Children’s Week in Northrend will be like. What I can say is that it’s nothing really great. It’s just like what you’d expect for Children’s week but it’s something new and it has a different flavor so I guess we’re willing to take that. The fact that it’s going to award a pet after completion is reason enough for some people to participate.

Unlike the Children’s Week of Azeroth and Outlands, it seems like it won’t be an Alliance/Horde thing. The orphans that you will be showing around will be either a Curious Oracle Hatchling or a Curious Wolvar Pup, obviously from the Oracles/Frenzyheart rivalry going on in the Sholazar Basin. I’m guessing that the orphan you show around depends on what which faction you’re aligned with but of course I could be wrong. After all if you haven’t aligned yourself with one of the factions yet, what then?

The quest chain to show around the orphan in Northrend starts in the Orphanage area that will be added when patch 3.2 comes out. The quest has you visiting the Winterfin Retreat where King Mrgl-Mrgl is in the Borean Tundra, the Bronze Dragonshrine in Dragonblight, Grizzlemaw in Grizzly Hills, Queen Alexstrasza in Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight, Hemet Nesingwary in Sholazar Basin and then purchasing a paper zeppelin from the Wonderworks in Dalaran. After finishing the chain, you get a pet oracle/wolvar in the mail.

As you can see it’s nothing really that great but it’s pretty much what you’d expect for a Children’s Week celebration.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

children's week achievement

The most obvious is that it’s the first one since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and the Achievements feature came out. This means more fun achievements to do, some of which have something to do with the expansion like killing King Ymiron of Utgarde Pinnacle with your orphan out. The other thing that makes this one special is that it actually overlaps with another still ongoing event, the egg gathering craze of Noblegarden. For those who still haven’t finished everything they need for Noblegarden, better hurry because Children’s Week has more achievements for you.

It’s probably going to feel a bit odd doing the Children’s Week stuff this year though since we’re Northrend folk now and we’ll be going around visiting mostly the old world and the Outlands. It probably would have been cool if the orphans asked to be shown around nice sites in Northrend like the Wyrmrest Temple to meet Alexstrasza the Dragon Queen, Dalaran to meet Rhonin, the Emerald Dragonshrine to see the sleeping Ysera and maybe even the breath taking Ulduar (even just outside it’s already cool looking). But here we are doing the same old stuff as before.

Post from: WOW Obsessed

northrend flasks in the AH

In patch 3.1, flask effects will be lowered from 2 hours to 1 hours. To balance this, flask recipes will be changed to make 2 instead of 1 adding up to essentially the same thing. This is actually a great change if you think about it since it’s going to allow for better flexibility in the usage of flasks. For shorter raids like Obsidian Sanctum, you can just down a flask for the whole run and that’s it. Even for longer runs, this change reduces the chance that you’ll finish with still a long way to go before your flask effect wears off and basically wasting the effect on more trivial purposes. maybe this change could also encourage players to use flasks even in heroics. They’re also increasing the stack size to 20 to allow people to carry more flasks.

All won’t be lost for people who stockpiled flasks. Because they essentially would have been screwed because their flasks only work for half the duration, Blizzard will allow them to exchange any Northrend flask for 2 of the shorter duration ones. So no one really loses anything with this change but everyone gains more flexibility in using flasks!

Post from: WOW Obsessed