Red Thunder Clan

One thing that I cannot find as far as confirmation is if the menagerie will be a fixed plot, like the mines and garden. I hope it will be a 'choice' and have other options if players do not want it there.

And to prepare people a bit for Live dungeon runs in WoD:

Learn what Dispels and Interrupts you have at your disposal and learn how to fire them off in a timely fashion...even on mobs you may not be focusing on at the time.

More than any other expansion, and in heroic dungeons particularly, these abilities are going to pretty much be a requirement.  CC will also be important in heroic dungeons, but I'd argue that even that is to some degree less important than dispels/interrupts.  There are a lot of buffs and abilities that trash mobs in these dungeons throw out there that you're going to want to avoid whenever possible.

Regular dungeons will probably be a faceroll fairly quickly, but even there you'll want to be practicing "good dungeoneering" if only to hurry things along.

With regards to the other content...I don't want to spoil most of it.  Even after having spent several months in the beta I'm greatly looking forward to release.  The possibility of us not being able to fly is still a major downer to me, because even with their "quality of life" travel improvements it's a pain to navigate the zones when where you need to get to and where the FP/etc. drops you off are any distance apart.  But I'm having enough fun otherwise to overlook it for now--though I suspect the arguments over it WILL come to a head once 6.1 is on the way.

For some classes you'll have to spend a lot of time relearning how to play, because a lot of abilities and skills were taken away and--for the most part--baked into passives or other abilities.  I can say as a BM Hunter that I had little problem at all adapting and I've heard many other classes had little to worry about, so it probably won't be such a huge deal.  Just be aware of the changes and adjust your macros accordingly. :D

For those who have gotten into beta.....................gratz, first and foremost.

A couple of things that you might not have noticed when going to the new content:

There is a 'large' tauren npc in the Valley of Strength, in Ogrimmar. He sells gear enchantments and even 5 pieces of 680 raid heroic items, to try out.
Yes, these items are level 100 required, but can make your playing easier.

The same npc also sells only a few of the gear enchantments for free. Just go and pick them up.


-side note: You can actually buy this npc's items and sell them right back to him and MAKE gold. Yes, yes. It's a bug exploit, but in beta, all is fair.
                It will be fixed in live mode, but it's not like you'll be able to keep the gold once WoD goes live, so.......................exploit away!

-p.s. You also have the new horde trike in your mount inventory, so try it out

I totally agree on the part of getting in later, rather than sooner, would be best.

Lord knows I learned my lesson the hard way with STO's release. I was so disgusted with the play, bugs, dead-ends, that I quit and never looked back.
If I had waited a few months, with all of their changes, I 'might' still be playing it.............but alas, it was not meant to be.
At least with beta, I don't spent a dime, and if it gets too horrible, I'll jut put it aside until the next patch, try it for a day, and go from there.

Good luck, though I have to say:  The later you get in, the better.

I started on day one and it is a bear just trying to do the simplest things.  Naturally this is what beta is all about, but this early on I'm lucky if I even stay connected longer than 10 minutes at a time.  This is just my personal experience from the introductory quest line and about 3/4 of the first zone in about a 48 hour period.  I fully expect everything to go through several revisions in the next couple of months, and I'm already looking forward to being able to complete the quest lines without bugs, disconnects, server lag, NYI content and such cropping up every 5 minutes.

The introductory quest line is neat, though it was very barebones and still needs to be fleshed out with voice acting, cinematics and, in some areas, textures.  Upon completion, we were all dumped back into Orgrimmar because the transition to the next zone wasn't complete yet.  That was rather funny.

We're directed to a mini-Dark portal in Org to continue the quest line for the time being, and that essentially leads up to you creating your first Garrison.  I'm still not entirely sure about everything concerning them because, naturally, a LOT of stuff is still NYI in the beta (lots of dead-end quest lines, PH loot/NPCs, etc.), but I think I like the direction that's going in.

As far as the "Savagery" of Draenor...I'm not feeling it much.  Granted this could be because I'm in ilvl 550+ gear and combat hasn't been tuned completely yet, but I don't feel as if my life is in danger much...yet.  This is still pretty much the opening zone.  Oh, speaking of combat, as a BM Hunter I don't feel that the ability prune has crippled me much.  I DO miss having Serpent Sting on my rotation (that goes to Survival Hunters only now, I think), and I have to make a tough choice now on one of my talents, but overall they did a nice job of turning abilities into passives or baking them into other abilities.  I don't feel like I'm needing to adapt too much yet.  I can't yet speak for other classes, though I haven't heard much whining in-game from others on that subject.

Not being able to fly for a while will, in my opinion, be a major pain in the ass.  I don't notice it so much while leveling (much like previous expansions), but I can already tell that relying on the existing flight points and shanks mare will be pretty galling.  HOPEFULLY they don't decide to keep flying out of the expansion altogether (they haven't definitively said one way or the other yet), but waiting until the first major patch after release is going to be a ball-ache, I think.  Again, this is all based on very early beta, so perhaps more FP's and other modes of transportation will be put in between now and release, but as I see it currently it's a bit frustrating.

The storyline quests thus far have been pretty decent, and if you're a fan of the Lore then you'll be treated, no doubt.  Again, it's all going to need a LOT of polish before it's ready for consumption, but I can see the shape of it under the rough exterior and it seems pretty fun.

Just entered in on the Wowhead website.

2000 keys over the next six weeks.

It's starting today...and I'm in!  Of course this time around I suspect they're going to give it to just about everyone who's still a paying customer...

I'll be able to get a week in before I'm on vacation for a week, but I expect the beta will be going on all Summer long anyway.  I guess I'll finally get to see first hand just how all of that ability pruning has affected my class, since that's been my sole major worry thus far.  Hopefully most of the stuff I really liked has just been baked into other abilities instead of outright removed.  *sigh*

No, Zan.  In WoD you'll be replacing the cloaks with green gear just like everything else.  Blizz have said they have no plans to continue that storyline in Warlords.

You can safely skip it on your alts.

If you have the legendary cloak on one of your toons, is there any reason to go for it on your alts *IF* the only reason the other level 90s exist
is solely for the purpose of trade skills?

For those who have kept up with the future announcements, starting June 30th, there will be a buff to bump Black Prince rep gains as well as
raid drops for the quest line.

Does anyone know if having the cloaks have any REAL significance in the WoD expansion? (like them being a pre-requisite for another storyline)

Due to the cluttered nature of our guild bank, we will be making a purge of older. unwanted, and unused items.........we'll be making <a lot> of room for the WoD content, when it is released.
Anything needed, before the release date, speak up now. Either leave a message on the board, or send an in-game message to any officer or champion.

#Cleanupyourroom
#Who-reads-this-stuff-anyway

ps. had to put in the dashes in that last one  or it would read TOTALLY wrong.