Patch 3.3 has finally arrived!

It has been some time coming, but we are on the road to wrapping up the Lich King expansion. While there are still some major bugs to be worked through, it is a major step forward.

One of the highlights of patch 3.3 is the new dungeon finder system. Most people will know the old eye on the task bar that managed the “Looking for Group” feature. The old system used to put you in a special chat channel and listed what you wanted to be, but getting the group together was largely up to you. The new dungeon finder system that has replaced it in patch 3.3 will put together the group for you. As an added bonus, it will use players from all active realms.

Why do I want a group from all realms? Well, the more players you sort from, the better your odds will be of finding other players.

What about travel time? Glad you asked. There is no travel time for any instance through the dungeon finder. The mini map located in the upper right has a matching green eye when you are in queue. The eye teleports you to the instance when your group is ready, and afterward it sends you back to where you originally left from.

The first dungeon you run per day awards a special gift. The lower level dungeons provide a bag of useful items, and higher level dungeons give emblems you can use to buy gear gear.

For my gameplay money, the dungeon finder was the best addition WoW has had since the auction house.

Great gaming!

The First "10" Levels

The first 10 levels of World of Warcraft are just like a child’s bike with training wheels. You want to play with the big boys, but you have to learn how to balance. Here are some quick and dirty tricks for survival.

Loot everything – I know this seems simple, but you would be surprised how many times I come across corpses to skin that are locked out because they were never looted. Looting a corpse is the primary source of money during early levels.

Sign a guild charter – Guilds are an essential part of the game as you level and work together for raids. Guilds are often used by players as an extra private bank. Yes, some people need that much storage. Collect the money upfront and sign a charter. The going price varies from server to server, but on average ranges from 5-10 gold. The nice thing about this is after the guild is formed you can leave and do it all over again. When you are ready to leave a guild, use the command /gquit.

Bags are great – After you earn some extra gold look for a nice set of bags. They can be bought from various merchants cheaply. It will make your job of looting much easier. The more you can store, the more you can bring back.
Skills – At every even level you have access to visit a trainer and learn new skills. These will greatly speed the process of leveling. Make sure you visit them each time it becomes available.

Professions – I am sure at this point you are not sure what you want to do just yet, but in the meantime I would take two gathering professions. Choose skinning and either mining or herbalism. But instead of vendoring these items, save them for the auction house. They will bring in much more money that way.

Auction house – Try to stay away from the auction house at this level, for two reasons. The first reason is that it is time consuming to learn, and the second is if you don’t know what you are doing you can actually lose money. I know I just told you to use the auction house for your vendored items. I do want you to do that, but make sure you are getting a good value for what you are selling. The best tool for that is an add-on called “Auctioneer.”
I hope to see you back as we get more in-depth.

If there is anything you feel should be given a priority over something else, please drop us a note in the comments, and we will consider moving that item along ahead of other topics. See ya back soon.