Striker News

The Golden King Guild Mount

As we count down the final hours until Cataclysm, I thought it worth mentioning one of the new features of the expansion, Guild Faction Rewards.  The highest level reward is a spiffy guild lion mount that will display our guild tabard as you race through Azeroth.  The Reigns of the Golden King is the reward for a level 25 guild.

How do we get to be a level 25 guild?  Well, it’s by doing what we’ve always done pretty well, working together.  The guild gains level points by questing, grouping and raiding together.  So if there’s guildies around while you are levelling, why not group up and make it faster and gain points for the guild?

With all the achievement hounds in this guild, we should get to 25 in no time, but even at level 2 there start to be some nice perks, and what’s even nicer is once we unlock the items, the whole guild can benefit as long as they have enough faction with the guild.  You gain faction with the guild, the same way we gain guild levels, by working together with other guild mates on quests and dungeons.

There’s a decent guide on WoWHead and you’ll be able to see your achievements in the guild pane in game once Cataclysm is live. So next time you see a guild mate wandering alone, offer to keep them company and before you know it, we’ll all be roaring across the lands of Azeroth on lions!

So, according to reliable sources, we’re about 2 months away from Cataclysm, and if history tells us anything, we’re only about 2 weeks away from Patch 4.0.1 which will bring all the new UI and class changes.  I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time on the Public Test Realm and seen the hunter and shaman changes first-hand.  Personally, I’m really excited about the new class balance and while I feel like I have to learn to play a hunter all over again, I think the hunter is finally what a hunter should always have been.  Pets are an integral part of the hunter damage for all the talent specs, and a bow/gun is now not something with limited resources depending on ammo.

The other big change is the switch from Emblems to a point system, and that leads me to the real point of my discussion.  What do we do while we wait?  From what I’ve seen on the PTR the Justice points (what Frost and Triumph emblems get converted to) are insufficient to buy higher level gear.  So, if you want Frost gear, buy it ASAP before the patch, because the Justice Points you end up with will NOT be enough to buy the gear post-patch (unless they make a radical change).  So for me, at least, doing random heroics and weekly raid quests are pointless.  With the expansion so close, buying new gear is pretty pointless anyway.

I’d still very much like to complete Icecrown Citadel prior to Cataclysm, but due to some schedule changes from some of our key players, the Sunday/Monday schedule doesn’t work.  I’m proposing we move to a Sunday / Friday Icecrown raid and skip the weekly altogether.  We can try extending lockouts, and sticking to just Sunday, if that’s what you’d rather do.

I guess the question is…what do you want to do with the last 2 months while we wait for shiny newness?