In Cals last run out with The Hammer the guild managed to achieve the Glory of the Cataclysm Raider Guild achievement by taking on the Throne of the Four Winds and overcoming it on the first night of trying.

Congratulations to all the members of The Hammer, it's a sweet looking mount the Dark Phoenix

Below a picture of all of the members celebrating a rocking performance.

Well there you have it, our first proper run into BoT as a guild and we smashed the place, not so much as a scratch on any of us (ok a hundred or two repair bill - but it was from the trash!!)

None of us had taken down Cho'gall before so we didn't really know what were facing, but after only 3 attempt The Hammer overcame!

Those of you who did not decide to join us - you missed a blast - you really should come and have a go with us some time.  We're not all brilliant (Nightofni is especially crap), but we go and take on any challenge in front of us with a smile on our faces and a 'Come and have a go at The Hammer if you think you're hard enough' attitude.

Sign up next time you see a run - you never know you might even love us more!!

Another great day in the history of The Hammer, and another step closer to the Dark Phoenix.

Great job everyone, thank you for coming along and doing what we do best - Have a bloody good laugh!

7 man Hammer group smashes down Halfeus in another evening of death and glory.....

Ok it wasa bit of a death fest - but we got through to the 2nd boss and had a good go at them getting them to 31%

Please come along to the next run and let's spank our way to the Dark Phoenix.  Check the Raiders Zone on the Forums.

At last The Hammer have managed to get people back interested in going out raiding as a guild rather than just going to Dragon Soul LFR runs.  And I for one can't thank you all enough for coming together and working as a team again, with the great fun mind set that truly sets The Hammer apart from any other gaming community.  We are lucky here to have such a great bunch, and we have finally managed to achieve the first step on the road to the Dark Phoenix - obtained from the Guild Achievement Guild Glory of the Cataclysm Raider.

Once again The Hammer has prevailed, after lots of attempts back towards the end of the summer of 2011 The Hammer has finally killed Nefarian Below are some of the screenshots which have been submitted by the humble few which have helped us take the first step towards the Dark Pheonix mount for all members of The Hammer.

Congratulations one and all, may there be many happy forays in the future.

Cals

And here's a picture of Nefarian's head on a stick in Org :D  Happy days

I'm very proud to say that tonight, on our first venture into Blackwing Descent, we took Magmaw down on the 6th attempt.  In doing so we also managed to get the guild levelled to Level 25.  I'm very proud of you all.

With the advent of the new instances and the need for CC, I found the following useful so you can all know who can provide what CC and equally important Interrupts against all types of mobs.

Hope you find it useful.

Thanks to Threetza for finding this :D

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

As some of you may know I am currently the Guild Leader of The Hammer, a social and friendly guild. We are not raiders, and as I understand it we do not have any intention of becoming a raiding guild.We are a bunch of friends having fun on a game, all trying to explore the content and enjoying it with other like minded people. If I am wrong about this, then something has drastically changed within the guild, and I for one, am not sure it’s for the better.

I started playing WoW back in the days where there was no Burning Crusade or Wrath of The Lich King, I started playing because a friend suggested I took a look, and I liked what I saw, friendly people helping others. Sure you had idiots and ass-hats but I chose not to socialise with them.

I moved over to Lightbringer just over three years ago, and became a member of The Hammer just after it was formed, rising through the ranks because of my helpful and can-do attitude.  Please all read About The Hammer from the link above to get a full run down on The Hammer. I made sure that if some asked something in Guild Chat, I answered, even if it was to say ‘Sorry mate, I’m a little busy at present, but I can help you when I’m finished’, and I wasn’t alone in answering that way...lots of people, almost everyone on would respond. That was how The Hammer used to be. It is no longer that way, and I write this with a heavy heart.

Many members of the guild appear to have lost the core rules that we hold dear. Be polite, be respectful and do not be greedy. It is not polite to ignore people or to not say Hello to people or Goodbye to them when they are leaving, nor is it polite to ignore people when they are asking politely for help. It does not show respect of your fellow guild members when you do not use common courtesy, Please and Thank you, can make all the difference when you are asking for help.  It shows little respect for your fellow guild members to be asking in trade for a run somewhere, like the weekly for example, without asking your guild members if they fancy it too, nor is it respectful to ignore the person asking. Please do not get upset if you do not win a particular piece of loot on a run, it’s a bunch of pixels plain and simple, all it does is add to your Gear Score, and we at The Hammer don’t give a crap about your Gear Score. This is a game, it is supposed to be fun, and it certainly used to be huge amounts of fun here in The Hammer. I would like to see us ALL try and make it back to the ways it used to be. Treating our Guild Members as friends because I, for one, have made many lasting friendships being here in The Hammer, and if you treat people the way you expect to be treated you may too.

I understand there are people who get on with others better than some & I understand there are people who do not understand English so well, that should not impact on your enjoyment of the game with a bunch of like minded sociable people. What I struggle to understand is why people remain in a Guild, when they do not choose to be a part of the social aspect of a Guild. If all you want to do is say Hi and Bye to people – don’t be in a guild, do it in Trade as I see lots of people doing.

If you want to be sociable, friendly, polite and respectful of your Guild Members then hopefully you’ll see that The Hammer is the place you’d like to do it. Wiping on instances and raids, laughing and joking a peoples’ moments of madness, and accepting of the fact that you’ve rolled 200 times on an item, and every time it goes to a someone else. It happens, that’s the joy of the /Roll factor, never knowing what’s going to come up.

If you don’t feel that this is reasonable, or you don’t feel that what I am asking for is fair, then please feel free to leave The Hammer. We are not holding guns to anyone’s heads to remain here - Good bye, good luck and thanks for all the fish. I shall be sad to see some go, but I do not want to hold anyone back from enjoying the game their own way.

Thankyou for taking the time to read this, and please feel free to message Cals via the forums or send an in-game message to one of my characters when you see me online with your comments.

Nightofni

(Online characters Nightofni, Ohmy, Sadtimes, Oppalí, Calslock)

It made me chuckle anyway :D

Guild Flask and Cauldron Hotfixes by Blizzard Entertainment

We've recently implemented a number of hotfixes directly related to guild achievements, flasks, and cauldrons. When first designing the guild achievements, we overestimated the number of flasks that guilds would be able to make by the time they reached guild level 10, and set the number of Cataclysm flasks required for the two related guild achievements to 10,000 (Mix Master) and 25,000 (Better Leveling Through Chemistry). In reality, most guilds have made fewer flasks than we had originally anticipated they would at this point in guild progression, and many players will soon be unlocking a guild perk (Chug-A-Lug) directly related to cauldrons and flasks.

Today, we've applied a few hotfixes to help bring these flask-related achievements in line with what we had originally intended:

We felt it was important to implement these changes as a hotfix rather than waiting for the next content patch, as many guilds will be unlocking the Chug-A-Lug perk this weekend. Please note that while the new values are already in effect, the in-game tooltips will not reflect these changes until the next client patch. If your guild has already reached the new requirement, you'll receive the achievement as soon as someone in your guild creates a new flask.

In addition, we've made a couple other cauldron-related changes:

If you're unfamiliar with guild cauldrons, here's a quick breakdown of how they work:

We appreciate all the feedback we've received so far on the Guild Perk system, and we'll continue to make improvements to ensure it's a fun and rewarding endeavour

And all its dusty little secrets!

Here is a great guide that I found whilst searching around - copied and pasted from mmo-champion.

Archaeology, why?
How to start out
- Your own level
- Your skill level
Dig sites
How uncover stolen – I mean left behind artifacts
Where to level and why
- Horde
- Alliance
- Outlands & Northrend
Economical fragment usage 
Races
Common artifacts
Rare artifacts

Archaeology, why?
At first sight this may seem like a small mini game Blizzard decided to create for those people stuck on playing Bejeweled all day due to lack of content. Well that may be half the reason, but really only half!

Of course archaeology is an incredible time sink with all the flying around the world involved and of course most of the things you find while sticking your head in the sand will be useless junk or vanity items nobody really cares about (except for summoning dancing dwarves every 10 minutes, who wouldn’t want that?). However, alongside the pile of grey and silly blue items you’ll also have a shot at finding some incredibly sought after epic gear! Yes you read it correctly, purple text through digging! 

Now I’ll be the last person to say these items are easily found as they’re anything but that. Even so it should be worth noting that the epic gear pieces you do find will be Bound on Account which means that even if you can’t use that “Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds” your level 21 warrior may very well be able to once he hits 85!

Last but not least, if you don’t want to bother creating artifacts of your own you can still make quite a pretty penny out of leveling archaeology. Every archeology race has its own type of keystone which is used to speed up the creation of an artifact of said race. If you’re not about to solve any artifacts yourself these keystones are sellable as well and crafting archaeologists will be most willing to take them off of your hands!

How to start out
To begin your archaeological career the first thing you’ll have to do is gain the actual skill. For either faction it’s probably easiest to go to your capital’s archaeology trainer and get your apprentice skill trained. You can train every next level of archaeology at the same trainer so you won’t have to bother with flying back and forth between Outlands or Northrend while leveling.

Horde: Orgrimmar – Belloc Brightblade
He’ll be stationed in the same room as Garrosh Hellscream directly to the right of the throne when you’re facing Garrosh (you don’t want to do that for too long).

Alliance: Stormwind – Harrison Jones
Yes the Alliance gets Harrison Jones, lucky bastards. You’ll be able to find mr. Jones in the Stormwind Keep Library on the right side of the room surrounded by 3 beautiful students.

Once you’ve gotten your skill learning process out of the way you’re ready to begin digging! Where you’ll be starting your digging adventure is actually dependant on both your own level and your archaeology skill level and I’ll explain both aspects individually.

Your own level

Depending on what level your character currently is you will only be able to find dig sites in continents of your own level. What does this mean you ask? It means that a level 40 will not be able to find dig sites in Outlands or Northrend, apparently because of your low level you’re blind to them completely. You’ll be glad to know however that your own level doesn’t affect what type of artifact you can or cannot solve, that’s up to the archaeology skill level.

Your skill level

Your archaeology skill level will determine whether or not you can solve a certain race’s artifacts. In example: when your skill level is at 230 you will be unable to solve Draenei or Orcish artifacts as those require you to have a skill of at least 300. Here’s a short list of what you can solve and when for those curious.

- No level requirements – Dwarf, Fossil, Night Elf, Troll (Eastern Kingdom / Kalimdor)
- At least 300 – Draenei, Orc (Outlands)
- At least 400 – Nerubian, Vrykul (Northrend) - should be 375
- At least 525 – Tol’vir (Kalimdor – Uldum) - Should be 450

So as you’ll be below level 300 when you start out you’ll have to start digging around in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms to gain enough skill to start solving in Outlands and run with the slightly cooler archeology gang (still quite dusty).

Dig sites

This is what archaeology is all about, dig sites! Dig sites is what you’ll be looking for constantly while trying to get that last elusive rare or those last few skill points, dig sites are what you’re going to focus all ranting on as they never spawn on the places you want them to spawn, here’s how they work!

When looking at the map (after you’ve trained your archaeology of course, why haven’t you yet!) you’ll notice small shovel icons spread across the map you’re in. These little shovels represent dig sites and you’ll be chasing them around the globe nonstop, I hope you’re excited yet. 
Each time 4 shovels will be around to look for, 4 shovels only so 4 dig sites. Whenever you completely clear one of these dig sites another one will appear in a different spot on the map so you’ll never be out of dig sites. The best part is, dig sites are personal! This means no one will ever be able to steal your dig sites, you won’t have to fight over a node like you do with mining or herbing, you won’t have to fight to the death over that one artifact dig all you have to do is cruise towards your next dig site and start digging, so start digging!

How to uncover stolen – I mean left behind artifacts

Once you’ve found yourself a dig site to shovel away at you’ll need to know where exactly the digging should be done. Fortunately for you Blizzard isn’t going to have you randomly take guesses but you get to use some nifty archaeologist equipment, just like Indiana Jones (only without the hat)!

When you use your survey ability (Spellbook & Abilities (P) --> Professions --> Archaeology Survey) while standing in a dig site you’ll either get incredibly lucky and be at the right spot straight away or you’ll be like everyone else and have to dig around a while before you hit the right spot.
Now after you’ve used survey you’ll find yourself looking at some interesting looking equipment with a light on it. There’s 3 colors you could be looking at:

- Red: Not even close, but keep trying!
- Yellow: Well, you’re getting there.
- Green: Almost there! Almost there!

Now you’ll notice the looking glass is pointing in a certain direction and that’s the direction you’ll want to follow, why? Because the looking glass will always point towards the nearest next fragment dig. Once you’re there just use survey again and you’ll dig up the fragments you were looking for and you can start looking for the next few. Every dig site has 3 fragment spots so after you’ve successfully dug up fragments 3 times you’ll have to move to the next dig site.

Where to level and why

As I explained in the above section you’ll be unable to solve certain race’s artifacts until you hit a certain level of skill in archaeology. Not to worry though as I found that the lower level places (Eastern Kingdom / Kalimdor) are actually easier to level up your skill than the higher level ones.

This is purely from personal experience of course so bare with me if you find it’s not as easy for you and you’d rather level in Outlands or what not, but here is what I found. 
While digging around in Eastern Kingdoms and especially Kalimdor as I’m a Horde player I usually took my time to clear one side of the map of dig sites completely and wait until the other side of the map had 4 shovels before flying all the way over there and dig those out. 

Horde

Why is that useful you ask? Because of teleporting of course! Now this part is mostly for the level 85 players who’ve done some questing about already but it should still be useful for the lower levels as well considering hearthstoning. 

In the north section of Kalimdor there’s Orgrimmar to which I have my hearthstone set and Moonglade for those playing a druid. In the south section of Kalimdor are Uldum and Tanaris. If you’ve quested in Uldum already you’ll find a portal to get to Uldum in Orgrimmar to quickly reduce travel time or for those in possession of a “Signet of the Kirin’tor” it’s possible to teleport to Dalaran and take the Tanaris Desert portal from there to the same effect. 

As a low level of course that’s a little trickier so I would rather suggest Eastern Kingdom over Kalimdor as a Horde if you’re not high level enough to use teleporting. By leveling in the Eastern Kingdom you can make good use of the zeppelin to and fro Undercity and Grom’gol in Stranglethorn Vale to avoid having to fly or walk everywhere constantly. 

Alliance

As an Alliance, sadly enough you’ve been screwed ever so slightly. You don’t have any capitals on the main land of Kalimdor and even though you could always resort to using Darnassus or Exodar you’ll still have to take the boat back to the main land. I suggest you put your hearth stone somewhere in the north of Kalimdor if you’re interested in doing a lot of archaeology research there for a while, or if you’re a druid put your hearthstone in the south of Kalimdor and use your Moonglade portal at will. You’ll still be able to use the “Signet of the Kirin’tor” method to portal to Tanaris of course if you’re at a higher level.

Even though it still isn’t the optimal way I would also suggest Alliance low level characters to level in Eastern Kingdoms rather than Kalimdor. Not specifically because of zeppelins as there aren’t any but because 3 of their capitals are in the Eastern Kingdoms which should at least give you easier flight paths to get around and you’ll have the option to put your hearthstone in the centre or south of the map whichever you prefer. 

Outlands & Northrend

These continents are actually quite tricky as even though Outlands only has 2 races (Draenei and Orc) they require a whopping 45 fragments to complete as opposed to a usual 30 to 35 fragments needed for Kalimdor / Eastern Kingdoms artifacts. 
To make matter worse, Northrend requires 45 fragments as well but they sometimes let you dig up Night Elf or Troll fragments next to the Nerubian and Vrykul fragments and as such dragging out the solving process quite a bit.

I would suggest leveling in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms simply because you get the same amount of dig sites and the same amount of fragments but when making good use of your hearthstone you can get to them a lot quicker. On that same note I’ve noticed how the Kalimdor / Eastern Kingdom dig sites seem to spawn close to each other more often than they do in Outlands or Northrend. And on another, much more important, note you’ll need a lot less fragments to get to a solve in Kalimdor / Eastern Kingdoms which will speed up your initial archaeology leveling by a lot.

Economical fragment usage

As you may have noticed there’s a lot of digging and solving involved in the grand world of archaeology. So what will give me skill? You ask, good question!
There’s 2 ways to gain skill in archaeology and the first one will only work as long as you’re below a skill level of 100. You guessed it, that’s the only way you should be using until you hit 100. By digging up fragments of artifacts you’ll gain a single skill level per dig up until 100. Mind you it’ll get harder to get a skill level out of digging once you get near the 100 mark, in the same way recipes for other professions turn green after a while the “digging up a fragment” recipe will turn green as well which means less chance on a skill up, don’t let it get to you though you’ll need your solves later!

The second way of gaining skill is by solving artifacts from the fragments you’ve found. Every single solve will grant you 5 skill regardless of your current skill, if you’ve solved the artifact before or what type of race you’re solving an artifact of. If you’re lucky enough to find a rare and solve it you’ll even gain 15 skill points now (this wasn’t implemented yet when I hit 525, feel free to weep for me)! Mind you though, rares cost a lot more fragments than a common artifact and as such take some time to solve. 

After you hit 100 skill by just digging you’ll most likely have a ton of fragments to solve artifacts with so you should be able to hit at least 150 skill if not more after solving all of them straight away, to give you something to look forward to after you didn’t get a skill up from a dig yet again.

Races

I’ll give you a bit of explanation on every race you’ll encounter and what environment to expect them in usually.

Dwarf
The Dwarf dig sites will usually be found in the Eastern Kingdoms in places you find either Dwarves or actually in game dig sites as in, the type of dig site that’s part of the landscape (are they ever really?). Their fragments look like a sort of Chinese red vases; very pretty actually they’re my favorite type! Examples of common locations are Burning Steppes ruins, Twilight Highlands Dwarf villages or Uldaman. 

Draenei
The Draenei dig sites will spawn in Outlands in places where the Draenei supposedly “have been” in other words crashed part(s) of their space ship upon or where they’ve left some of their technology. Their fragments will look like small Draenei themed disc using the classic purple and gold color combination. Examples of common locations are Auchindoun, broken villages or Netherstorm.

Fossil
You can find Fossil dig sites in both Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms and out of all the different kinds of dig sites you’ll probably finish the Fossil rares the fastest. The Fossil “race” has no keystones and as such has no use for anyone just trying to make money. Their only 2 rares are a skeleton raptor pet and a skeleton raptor mount which can be found quite fast now that I mention it. After you’ve found those too the dig sites will basically have no use whatsoever. The fragments will look like small stones with a fossilized imprint on them. You’ll find them around bone littered grounds of course or desolate places with no trace of any other race type. Examples of common locations are the coastal side of Swamp of Sorrows, near the river in Hillsbrad Foothills or Un’goro Crater.

Night Elf
These dig sites are usually found in Kalimdor but have a tendency of popping up a lot everywhere for some reason (Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend). They have an incredibly high spawn rate and so while digging in Kalimdor you’ll find yourself with plenty Night Elf fragments very quickly which is convenient if you’re going for something Night Elf specific. You’ll know you’re getting a Night Elf dig site anytime you stumble upon Night Elf themed ruins, which there are plenty of so to speak. The Night Elf fragments will look like a slender brown vase. Examples of common locations are absolutely everywhere in Kalimdor. Seriously though (well I wasn’t kidding), the Feralas ruins / Dire Maul, Sargeron – Desolace or Winterspring. 

Nerubian
The Nerubian dig sites are actually quite a hassle to find, you’ll find more Vrykul, Troll and Night Elf dig sites than you’ll find Nerubian ones. You’ll find Nerubian dig sites near Scourge “settlements” (desolate wastelands crawling with undead and green puddles of slime). Their fragments look like a small golden vase. Examples of common locations are Talramas, Temple City of En’kilah – Borean Tundra and Scourgeholme. 

Orc
These dig sites will be found in Outlands only around the “bad type of orc” settlements. Their fragments look like bland, brown clay pots (I wish I could make it more interesting than that). Examples of common locations are Hellfire Citadel, Zeth’gor and Burning Blade Ruins. 

Tol’vir
This race is the final race you’ll unlock (or so far at least) and they have quite a few epics to uncover. They’ll be found in Uldum – Kalimdor only and yes that’s a very small space to put any shovels in, be afraid. The Tol’vir fragments look like small, elaborately decorated with blue marks. I’d give you examples of where they can be found but it really is just Uldum. 

Troll
You’ll find Troll fragments in Eastern Kingdom most of the time as the continent’s littered with Troll ruins, which is where you’ll find their dig sites. It’s interesting to note that the Troll race only has 1 rare which is “Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds”, it’s also incredibly hard to find. Troll fragments look like Troll tablets, yes exactly like Troll tablets. Examples of common locations are Stranglethorn Vale, The Hinterlands or Arathi Highlands. 

Vrykul
These dig sites are found in Northrend and Northrend only. They’re also the most common find in Northrend as is, they spawn near Vrykul villages which they have a lot of out there (like you hadn’t noticed). Their fragments look like small wooden boxes, yes Vrykul had the best way of preserving ancient artifacts of great power or value, small wooden (rotting) boxes. Examples of common locations are Ymirheim, Utgarde Keep or Jotunheim. 

???
So this is a silly little race. Why? Because it doesn’t exist yet, the icon you’re seeing is simply a placeholder for a future new race. What does this mean? This means we’ll have more digging to do later on, rejoice!

Artifacts
I’ll give you a short list (well, short…) of all the common artifacts you can get from every race (alphabetically ordered for your convenience), how many fragments they cost and whether or not they’re connected to any of the achievements.

Dwarf

Belt Buckle with Anvilmar Crest (34 fragments) 
Bodacious Door Knocker (35 fragments)
Bone Gaming Dice (32 fragments)
Boot Heel with Scrollwork (34 fragments)
Ceramic Funeral Urn (35 fragments)
Dented Shield of Horuz Killcrow (35 fragments) (achievement)
Dwarven Baby Socks (30 fragments)
Golden Chamber Pot (35 fragments)
Ironstar’s Petrified Shield (36 fragments) (achievement)
Mithril Chain of Angerforge (35 fragments) (achievement)
Moltenfist’s Jeweled Goblet (34 fragments) (achievement)
Notched Sword of Tunadil the Redeemer (35 fragments) (achievement)
Pewter Drinking Cup (35 fragments)
Pipe of Franclorn Forgewright (45 fragments)
Scepter of Bronzebeard (45 fragments) (achievement)
Scepter of Chalrga Razorflank (35 fragments) (achievement)
Scorched Staff of Shadow Priest Anund (35 fragments) (achievement)
Silver Kris of Korl (45 fragments) (achievement)
Silver Neck Torc (34 fragments)
Skull Staff of Shadowforge (35 fragments) (achievement)
Spiked Gauntlets of Anvilrage (45 fragments) (achievement)
Stone Gryphon (35 fragments)
Warmaul of Burningeye (45 fragments) (achievement)
Winged Helm of Corehammer (35 fragments) (achievement)
Wooden Whistle (28 fragments)
Word of Empress Zoe (45 fragments)
Worn Hunting Knife (30 fragments)

Draenei

Anklet with Golden Bells (45 fragments)
Baroque Sword Scabbard (46 fragments)
Carved Harp of Exotic Wood (45 fragments)
Dignified Portrait (45 fragments)
Fine Crystal Candelabra (44 fragments)
Plated Elekk Goad (45 fragments)
Scepter of the Nathrezim (46 fragments) (achievement)
Strange Silver Paperweight (46 fragments) 

Fossil

Ancient Shark Jaws (35 fragments)
Beautiful Preserved Fern (25 fragments)
Black Trilobite (31 fragments)
Devilsaur Tooth (35 fragments)
Feathered Raptor Arm (33 fragments)
Imprint of a Kraken Tentacle (45 fragments)
Insect in Amber (35 fragments)
Proto-Drake Skeleton (45 fragments)
Shard of Petrified Wood (30 fragments)
Strange Velvet Worm (35 fragments)
Twisted Ammonite Shell (35 fragments)
Vicious Ancient Fish (35 fragments)

Night Elf

Carcanet of the Hundred Magi (45 fragments)
Chest of Tiny Glass Animals (34 fragments) (achievement)
Cloak Clasp with Antlers (35 fragments) (achievement)
Coin from Eldre’Thalas (35 fragments) 
Cracked Crystal Vial (35 fragments) (achievement)
Delicate Music Box (35 fragments) (achievement)
Hairpin of Silver and Malachite (35 fragments) (achievement)
Highborne Pyxis (30 fragments)
Green Dragon Ring (35 fragments)
Inlaid Ivory Comb (30 fragments)
Kaldorei Amphora (35 fragments)
Necklace with Elune Pendant (30 fragments)
Scandelous Silk Nightgown (30 fragments)
Scepter of Xavius (35 fragments) (achievement)
Shattered Glaive (35 fragments)
Silver Scroll Case (45 fragments) (achievement)
String of Small Pink Pearls (35 fragments)
Umbra Crescent (45 fragments)

Nerubian

Ewer of Jormungar Blood (45 fragments)
Gruesome Heart Box (45 fragments)
Infested Ruby Ring (45 fragments)
Scepter of Nerzar’Azret (45 fragments) (achievement)
Six Clawed Cornice (45 fragments)
Spidery Sundial (45 fragments)
Vizier’s Scrawled Streamer (45 fragments)

Orc

Fiendish Whip (45 fragments)
Fierce Wolf Figurine (45 fragments)
Gray Candle Stud (45 fragments) (achievement)
Maul of Stone Guard Mur’og (45 fragments) (achievement)
Rusted Steak Knife (45 fragments) (achievement)
Scepter of Nekrox Skullcrusher (45 fragments) (achievement)
Skull Drinking Cup (45 fragments)
Tile of Glazed Clay (45 fragments)
Tiny Bronze Scorpion (45 fragments) (achievement)

Tol’vir

Canopic Jar (45 fragments) (achievement)
Castle of Sand (45 fragments)
Cat Statue with Emerald Eyes (45 fragments) (achievement)
Engraved Scimitar Pommel (45 fragments) (achievement)
Sketch of a Desert Palace (45 fragments) (achievement)
Soapstone Scarab Necklace (45 fragments) (achievement)
Tiny Oasis Mosaic (45 fragments) (achievement)

Troll

Atal’ai Scepter (35 fragments) (achievement)
Bracelet of Jade and Coins (35 fragments)
Cinnabar Bijou (35 fragments)
Drakkari Sacrificial Knife (35 fragments)
Eerie Hakkari Idol (35 fragments)
Feathered Gold Earring (34 fragments)
Fetish of Hir’eek (30 fragments)
Fine Bloodscalp Dinnerware (32 fragments)
Gahz’rilla Figurine (35 fragments)
Jade Asp with Ruby Eyes (35 fragments)
Lizard Foot Charm (32 fragments)
Skull-Shaped Planter (35 fragments)
Tooth with Gold Filling (35 fragments)
Zandalari Voodoo Doll (27 fragments)

Vrykul

Scramseax (45 fragments)
Thorned Necklace (45 fragments)
Flint Striker (45 fragments)
Intricate Treasure Chest Key (45 fragments)
Fanged Cloak Pin (45 fragments)

Rare artifacts

Here I’ll explain a little on each rare artifact you can find and to which race it belongs.

Dwarf

Chalice of the Mountain Kings
In addition to the many jewels adorning it, this chalice is virtually covered with runes celebrating an old ascension ceremony for dwarven kings. Drinking from this chalice was certainly a part of it, but the runes go on to describe a 'sword dance' done by female dwarven warriors. This performance, part ritual and part mock battle, apparently evolved from bloody duels fought during less sophisticated times in dwarven history.

This item will spawn 4 female dwarves standing in a circle. The dwarves will start of by bowing towards each other and then proceed to perform their in game dance while occasionally moving around in the circle and ending their “sword dance” by yet another bow.

Clockwork Gnome
Mechagnomes were created by the titans, apparently as servants and caretakers, much like the earthen. This mechagnome was likely damaged because it is no longer focused on its original tasks and seems content to follow you.

This item will teach you how to summon a little clockwork gnome companion with a rather large mustache and angry looking eyebrows, sweet little guy nonetheless.

Staff of the Sorcer-Thane Thaurissan
Sorcerer-Thane Thaurissan was the leader of the Dark Iron dwarves during the War of the Three Hammers. When he lost Ironforge to the Bronzebeard clan, Thaurissan retreated to the Redridge Mountains and founded a city in his name. In a desperate attempt to defeat his enemies, Thaurissan accidentally summoned the demigod Ragnaros, which resulted in the sorceror-thane's immediate death and the formation of the volcanic peak of Blackrock Mountain.

This is the only Dwarven epic equip, a dps caster staff which looks exactly the same as some lower level Outland staffs. Nevertheless this is a very sought after weapon by many caster dps especially those unable to get their hands on raiding gear. 

The Innkeeper’s Daughter
According to legend, Bryher Stonekeeper ran a prosperous tavern near Loch Modan. His daughter, Keelin, travelled far from home, eventually developing the kind of reputation that embarrassed her father. Bryher made a deal with a gnome warlock to keep his daughter close to home. The warlock turned Keelin into a hearthstone, so that she would always return to the inn.

This item will act exactly as any hearthstone would and as such also shares a cool down with your original hearthstone making it essentially useless other than having a different picture on your hearthstone. 

Draenei

Arrival of the Naaru
This crystal seems to be a magical recording device of some sort. The message it plays is in a language you can't entirely decipher, but you gather it is either a recording or a recreation of the first meeting of the eredar and the naaru.

Upon using this item a Naaru will appear and after that 3 Draenei who quickly walk up to the Naaru, bow and disappear again. It’s a very, very short scene so don’t miss it when you play it or you’ll have to wait 3 minutes again, wouldn’t want to miss it right.

The Last Relic of Argus
This crystal seems to be a magical recording device of some sort. The message it plays is in a language you can't entirely decipher, but you gather it is either a recording or a recreation of the first meeting of the eredar and the naaru.

When using this item you’ll get randomly teleported to any of the following locations:

- Golakka Hot Springs – Un’Goro Crater
- Nighthaven – Moonglade
- Dire Maul Arena – Feralas
- Duskwood
- Wetlands
- Wailing Caverns
- Mardenholde Keep (Hearthglen) – Western Plague Lands
- Lost Rigger Cove – Tanaris
- Fuselight-by-the-Sea – Badlands
- Hellfire Peninsula
- Blasted Lands
- Narain Soothfancy’s old hut at Steamwheedle Port
- Stranglethorn Vale

There could be more locations but this is all I currently know of.

Fossil

Fossilized Hatchling
When you finished assembling this tiny skeleton through some eldritch magic, the little critter sprang back to life. He's a pretty good pet. Since he's a skeleton, he doesn't eat much.

This item will teach you how to summon a tiny little skeleton raptor (the drawings in this guide are based on it) following you around like all cute collections of bones do.

Fossilized Raptor
When you finished assembling this skeleton through some eldritch magic, the creature sprang back to life.

This item will teach you how to summon a skeletal raptor mount that moves, sounds and looks exactly like the living types only without all the pesky flesh, skin and other components involved, what a relief!

Night Elf

Bones of Transformation
When the first Well of Eternity imploded, it sank the center of kaldorei culture to the bottom of the sea. To escape certain doom, Queen Azshara made a pact with a greater power, possibly an Old God or an elemental. As a result, a curse descended upon the surviving Highborne, who became twisted, serpent-like creatures now known as the naga.

These nifty bones will transform you into a naga for a short period of time (a very, very short period of time; 20 seconds). You can slither and roar just like a real naga, for all their fans out there! Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have a dance yet.

Druid and Priest Statue Set
It was a tremendous societal change when night elf men were allowed to become priests and the women druids. For thousands of years previously, the two roles had been exclusive to the other gender. This pair of statues commemorates those momentous and tumultuous events.

This item will summon a beam of green light on your current location which lasts for only a few seconds (10 seconds) before disappearing again. Interesting to note that while you’re in shadowform as a priest the beam will turn purple although it will be a thinner beam as well. If you disable shadowform the beam will return to normal. Also noteworthy is that the beam will move with you while active!

Highborne Soul Mirror
Before the Great Sundering, the Highborne were known among the night elves for their arrogance, avarice and outlandish clothing. It was said that nothing was so pleasing to the gaze of the Highborne as themselves. These mirrors were created so that elven ladies could see their colorful garments in three full dimensions, yet the reflection often exaggerated the already depraved visage of the viewer.

When you use this mirror you’ll summon a mirror image of yourself. It’s just going to stand there and stare at you which is actually quite creepy, you don’t want this item!

Kaldorei Wind Chimes
These chimes are composed of a series of richly decorated bronze tubes of varying lengths connected to a strand of bronze designed to appear as a vine. This artifact is magical, and the chimes appear to play music of their own accord, even when there is no wind.

When you use this item you’ll get the message that Holds his/her Wind Chimes to the wind, which is all it does really. 

Queen Azshara’s Dressing Gown
That Azshara was the most beautiful of night elves is practically regarded as fact. Unfortunately, her own eye for beauty seems to have been as limited as that of many of her brethren, at least judging from the garish colors of this gown. 'There has only ever been, only ever will be... one Azshara.'

This is one of the Night Elf rare equips (Cloth spellpower chest piece). Unfortunately this is a level 60 gear piece and as most people already use heirloom equips while leveling an alt it will only really have any use for a first time player who has been leveling archaeology avidly and is a caster around level 60. I know, I’m talking about half the Warcraft playerbase here, right?

Tyrande’s Favorite Doll
Tyrande Whisperwind is the high priestess of Elune, and with her recent marriage, she is no longer sole ruler of the night elves. She grew up in the ancient city of Suramar, far from the first Well of Eternity, not far from the brothers Malfurion and Illidan Stormrage. Tyrande's idyllic childhood proved to be in sharp contrast to the sorrow and conflict that she would endure later in her life.

The second Night Elf rare equip (Caster trinket). With its 321 intellect on equip effect and mana preserving use (Recaptures 20% of all the mana you spend on spells, and stores it within the doll to be released at a later time. Up to a maximum of 4200 mana can be stored.) this is a sought after trinket by many healers even though personally I prefer spirit over the intellect and even the use of this trinket it’s still quite a good starter.

Wisp Amulet
Wisps are nature spirits thought to be dead night elves. They exist in tight connection with their forest homeland and night elves in general, performing such beneficial activities as construction, repair and defense of elven communities. Many wisps sacrificed themselves in order to defeat Archimonde at the end of the Third War, so there are fewer wisps today than there once were.

This item will transform you into a wisp for a short time on use. Unfortunately you can’t do anything while you’re a wisp (much like the Halloween wand effect, only shorter) so this is really just to hover around and look pretty, shortly.

Nerubian

Blessing of the Old God
Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal. Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal. Pwhn'guul i ghawl'fwata ryiu wgah uul'gwan h'iwn guu'lal.

Another transformation item which will transform you into a green version of the well known Ahn’Qiraj bugs also available as mounts inside the instance. I’m sorry, I have no idea how to translate the flavor text but I’m sure it’s something nasty that you really don’t want to know! (It sort of says "pwn" in the first bit doesn't it)

Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron
This small box has many shifting panels, moving hinges and hidden clasps. Yet no matter how you manipulate them, it seems impossible to actually open the box to reveal the contents within. It is also difficult to even try because the dark artifact constantly whispers to you, 'It WAS your fault. It WAS your fault. It WAS your fault. It WAS your fault.'

When using this box one of the following things can be whispered to you:

• At the bottom of the ocean even light must die
• The silent, sleeping, staring houses in the backwoods always dream. It would be merciful to tear them down.
• There is no sharp distinction between the real and the unreal.
• Even death may die.
• There is a little lamb lost in dark woods.
• All places, all things have souls. All souls can be devoured.
• What can change the nature of a man?
• The stars sweep chill currents that make men shiver in the dark.
• You will all be alone in the end.
• Do you dream while you sleep or is it an escape from the horrors of reality?
• Look around. They will all betray you. Flee screaming into the black forest.
• In the land of Ny'alotha there is only sleep.
• In the sleeping city of Ny'alotha walk only mad things.
• Ny'alotha is a city of old, terrible, unnumbered crimes.
• Y'knath k'th'rygg k'yi mrr'ungha gr'mula.
• The void sucks at your soul. It is content to feast slowly.
• The drowned god's heart is black ice.
• It is standing right behind you. Do not move. Do not breathe.
• Have you had the dream again? A black goat with seven eyes that watches from the outside.
• In the sunken city, he lays dreaming.
• Open me! Open me! Open me! Then only will you know peace.
• You resist. You cling to your life as if it actually matters. You will learn.
• The tortured spirits of your ancestors cling to you, screaming in silence. Apparently they are quite numerous.
• The fish know all the secrets. They know the cold. They know the dark.
• The giant rook watches from the dead trees. Nothing breathes beneath his shadow.

Orc

Headdress of the First Shaman
The origin of shamanism among the orcs remains a mystery. As far back as orcish history has been recorded, shaman have been mentioned. This simple headdress seems ancient beyond time. Its creator and original wearer have been lost to history.

The only rare available for the Orcish race and an epic head equip itemized for, what else, shamans (enhancement). Unfortunately level 70 so not worth trying to get for your level 85 shaman.

Tol’vir

Crawling Claw
A legend among the tol'vir tells of a wicked djinn whom the Ramkahen sought to destroy. In an attempt to prevent his own death, the djinn tried to transfer his spirit into the body of a monkey. He was slain right in the middle of the transference, and only a fraction of his essence had moved over - only enough to possess the monkey's paw.

Very simply put a little mummified monkey paw minion (if you’re Roleplaying the Adams family I guess you’re in luck!). 

Pendant of the Scarab Storm
In the reign of Pharaoh Tebhotep a plague of serpents struck the Vir'naal River. Nothing could drive away the reptiles. Then, a second plague appeared, this one of desert scarabs. The scarabs fought the serpents until not a one of either creature was left and peace returned to the land.

This item will summon a “terrible” storm of... Peaceful scarabs. Yes I know, I’m scared as well.

Scepter of Azj’Aqir
The aqir were a race of incredibly evil, expansionistic insects who battled the troll empires for thousands of years. Eventually, the great Azj'Aqir civilization split in half, with Azjol-Nerub in the north, and Ahn'Qiraj in the south. The night elves were able to contain the qiraji for many years until they were awakened again by the Old God C'thun.

This item will teach you how to summon one of the blue bug mounts from Ahn’Qiraj only this time you can use it anywhere anytime (well not inside of course)! 

Scimitar of the Sirocco
This weapon was once a set of scimitars forged by the renowned Ramhaken bronzesmith Irmaat. Each was designed to represent one of the djinn lords of the Four Winds. All four scimitars were thought lost, but if this one could be reconstructed, maybe there is hope for the others.

A level 85 one handed epic sword that is not unique! Yes this means that if you find one on a different archaeologist as well (you cannot find a rare twice on the same character) you could theoretically dual wield this sword! Aren’t you excited. 

Staff of Ammunae
Ammunae is one of the guardians of the Halls of Origination. Like the other constructs within the halls, Ammunae was created to protect the powerful device capable of resetting all life on Azeroth. Each of the keepers has a sphere of influence. Isiset presides over magic; Ammunae, life; Setesh, chaos; and Rajh, the sun.

And epic healer type staff, we could consider this the counter part of Staff of the Sorcer-Thane Thaurissan. 

Ring of the Boy Emperor
Little is known of Emperor Ninjter. His coronation was a time of great celebration among the tol'vir, and a long and prosperous rule was foretold. The emperor died very young, before much of his great destiny could unfold.

An epic caster ring presumably “named” after the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, the youngest known Pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

Troll

Zin’rokh, Destroyer of Worlds
According to your research, this great weapon was one of the many treasures of Hakkar the Soulflayer in Zul'Gurub. Hakkar was defeated years ago, and this sword passed through the hands of many powerful warriors and paladins before apparently becoming sundered. It is remarkable that you have been able to reforge it, but also a little troubling: if the Destroyer of Worlds has returned, perhaps the Soulflayer is not far behind.

Possibly the most sought after epic I’ve come across. It’s a brilliant 2 handed epic sword, very viable for Death Knights and Warriors alike but the drop rate seems to be quite near 0.0001% (but I might be optimistic in my guess here). 

Vrykul

Nifflevar Bearded Axe
Many of the axes forged by the vrykul display an unusual style: the bottom edge of the axe blade extends down below the width of the butt. This style increases cutting area while minimizing weight; it can be used on both weapon and tools. Some dwarven axes show a similar construction.

A level 80 epic one-handed axe. Even though this weapon has quite a decent item level (Ulduar) the stats aren’t magnificent, quite the opposite actually. 


I hope this guide was helpful to you in at least a small way and have fun covering yourself in the digging dust!

- Jinze

Five brave souls entered Halls of Origination for a heroic attempt at being the first all guild HC run, bellow is the edited screen shot from the end, (Russ logged off b4 the pic so he's been skilfully edited back in using state of the art CGI...... ENJOY

The Cataclysm is upon us.  Today at 23:00 GMT The Cataclysm Expansion was launched. This brings about a new age of The Hammer, and age of collaboration and team work.  In order to benefit from the guild perks you will need Guild Reputation.  In order to benefit fully we will need Guild Achievements, Guild Achievements can only be obtained when 80% of a run contains members of The Hammer, in order to achieve this we will need to work together, with the common goal of attaining all the perks by obtaining all the achievements.

We are a fairly cohesive guild.  We work well together, and we do a damn sight better than some of the other guilds out there, sure we make mistakes but we get there in the end and we have a laugh getting there.

Moving forward we ask the following of ALL members, most of which are already at the heart of the guild

1. Be polite to people - saying 'Hello' when you log on, 'Grats' when someone achieves something and 'Bye' when either they or you are leaving takes no time - if you do not, we may believe your account is compromised and you may be demoted.
2. When looking for a group to go and try something, be it PvP, Raids or Instances - Please ask in guild before randomly pugging - if you do not do this, we may come to believe that all you are not interested in helping the guild to level. Otherwise we may think you are just hopping on the back of those members in the guild who do want to share experiences with other guild members - this may lead to demotion within the guild and you may be encouraged to find somewhere more suitable to you
3. When you have been AFK for a while, please scroll up - just to check if anyone's whispered you or asked anything you may be able to help with
4. Monday nights is Weekly Raid nights to complete the Weekly Raid Quests.  If you want to do them with the guild, please keep an eye on the forums within the Raiders Zone section - and remember when on a Guild Raid, always wear your Guild Tabard
5. Please do not be afraid to speak up in Guild Chat, write an article to submit here on this site, or a post on the Forums about your experiences, or how you'd like US to proceed
6. If you sign up - SHOW UP.  Be on time, fully repaired and with the necessary pots and food you'll need throughout the raid.  We'll have a 5 minute break each hour for your people to go and grab a smoke etc. but it is not polite to keep your compatriots waiting around for you.
7. Most importantly we are all here for the FUN - so keep it light hearted and your mind open

The Hammer is a LONG standing guild and together we can make this place better and stronger than it has ever been.

Please keep an eye on the Guild Etiquette section of the Forums as an update to the rules will shortly be posted there regarding the above.

Enjoy the Cataclysm guys, I hope to enjoy it for many years to come.

Your humble Guild Leader

Nightofni

I found this very interesting article on MMO Champion and thought I'd copy paste it for you.

Daetur’s pretentious how-to-better-yourself after learning to play in Wrath post, incoming! Dare ye read it and take its words to heart? Or dare ye troll instead? One will fill me with warm joy and hope for the future, and the other will simply amuse me, so let’s get crackin’!

This is my own comprehensive take on tips and tricks you should get used to before Cataclysm hits, for tanks, dps, and healers. Some of you may very well know these things, even if you have only played during Wrath. However, some of you may have never needed to use or think about them. Everyone has the potential to improve. I have things I need to improve on too, some of which are things I discuss here! I don’t think you suck personally, but I do think that we’ve ALL gotten complacent and rusty with Wrath of the Lich King. Players who started playing in Wrath never got the experience of Classic and BC where we once had to learn many of the lessons that will be invaluable come December 7th. It’s not their fault, but it needs to be addressed.

Daetur’s credentials: Regular WoW player and raider since Classic; Has tanked, healed, melee and ranged dpsed all current content. 11/12 Hardmode experience. Cataclysm Beta tester.

I play a hunter, a death knight dps, a druid tank/dps, a paladin healer/dps, and a shaman healer/dps.

EVERYONE:
1.) Be mindful of your positioning. Do these mobs have a knockback? Will you get thrown into other mobs? Is the tank facing the mob away from the group in case it has a conal or cleave? When trying to dodge that fire on the ground, are you running towards another group of mobs? These are things that you will need to be more mindful of in Cata. Extra pulls can and likely will mean wipes, and any damage that can be avoided will make your healer’s life that much easier, and make their mana last that much longer.

------> 1.a) If you do get aggro, run the offending mob TO your tank, not AWAY from him. Root or snare the mob that is aggroed on to you, and then move TO your tank so that the mob will run closer to them as well. This makes it much easier for your tank to peel the mob off of you, and will get you back into safety quicker.

2.) Communicate with your group. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen these people before in your life. Ask who you should CC. Ask the tank to pop his CDs because you know you have trouble healing this pull. Ask if you have questions about an encounter (please, for god’s sake). Ask for a mana break. Don’t sit there like a deaf mute along for the ride and pray everyone else knows what they’re doing. Much of the Cataclysm content WILL take some organization.

------>2.a.) Take and give constructive criticism. If you wipe, try to figure out what went wrong and fix it without liberal use of “suck,” “noob,” “fail,” “ragequit,” etc. That will not get you any closer to downing the boss or the trash. It will only destroy any cohesion your group had, and angry players tend to perform worse than calm or happy players. Also, if someone else offers you criticism, don’t take it too personally. “Hey, hunter, can you step up the dps?,” is NOT a personal attack. Take responsibility for your actions! I’ve raided ICC hardmodes and played since Classic, and I still screw up. But, I have the balls to say “Sorry guys, bad tab target, completely my fault. I’ll be more careful,” or “Oh man, I just wasn’t paying attention, my bad. I know what the (fire)(acid)(defile) looks like now, I’ll watch more carefully next time.” And you should too! It keeps groups more cohesive, and makes errors clearer to everyone in the party so that no one has to play the blame game. 

3.) Keep your group’s best interests in mind. Pay attention to what is happening to your group members. Is a mob running for your healer or clothies? Root it, slow it, or stun it. Did you get an extra add? Try to help control them- slow, CC, etc.

4.) Be patient! This is all new content, and your group is in leveling gear, not top-tier epics. These fights are not generally easy, and have some new mechanics to learn. If someone in the group needs to have the fight explained to them, don’t complain. If your groups wipes, run back in and try again. I’m sure you had to learn the fight at some point too. If the healer needs to stop for a mana break, don’t keep pulling or get impatient. Trust me, they are working hard to keep your group alive. DON’T expect 15-20 minute runs!

5.) Be observant. Check out new buffs, debuffs, and spell effects. The more you know about what is around you and what mobs can do, the more effective you can be. Mages in particular, watch for TASTY Spellsteal fodder. You’ll be amazed at the buffs you can give yourself and take off of a foe. 

6.) Consumables!! Yes, that’s right! Health potions, mana potions, potions of speed! Well, mostly health and mana. Have them! Use them liberally if you have access to them! Mana potions in particular can give healers the extra mileage they need on a tough fight.
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DAMAGE DEALERS (DPS):

1.) If your target is casting and it can be interrupted, do it! Interrupts- not just for bosses! Interrupting spells being cast by your enemy will often go a long way towards reducing incoming damage. Try to watch casting mobs as you do the dungeon (over and over again, most likely), and try to see what spells are particularly nasty. AoEs are often good candidates for interrupts. This will also save your healer mana!

------> 1.a.) Bind your interrupt/stun/silence to an easy-to-reach key. If you only ever use ONE keybind, this should be it. I typically have mine bound to my scrollwheel or Shift+leftclick so that I can hit it as fast as possible. Your mileage may vary.

------> 1.b.) You can use a ranged interrupt or silence to help your tank gather spaced out caster mobs. The tank will, 9 times out of 10, greatly appreciate this, and it really helps with add control.

2.) A dead DPS does NO dps! Remember, if you recklessly frontload all of your damage and aren’t careful, you can end up pulling off the tank. If you can frontload 12k burst dps, but only live for 4 seconds, that’s only 48k damage. Compare that to the careful dps who pulls 6k sustained and lives through the entire 60-second fight—that’s a whopping 360k overall damage to your 48k! Please be aware that many tanks have to “relearn” the new tanking style of Cataclysm, and most of us have had our AoE threat capabilities nerfed. Please stay on our target, or the marked target.

------>2.a.) This rule also applies to standing in ‘stuff.’ The faster you move out of it, the easier you make your healer’s life. Since mana will be more of an issue for healers in Cataclysm, the more mana you can save your healer, the better your group’s chances of survival.

------>2.b.) Use of defensive cooldowns, even as a dps, can really save your healer a lot of trouble. If you can anticipate incoming damage (un-interruptible AoE, or you got aggro somehow), pop a CD like Barkskin, Icebound Fortitude, etc. Also, with a bit more freedom in speccing in Cata, talents that increase healing done to you or reduce damage that you take can be very good candidates for your spec.

3.) Be patient! Let your healer drink, let your tank mark and set up their pull, and let someone explain the fight if necessary.[/b] Remember, this content will be NEW to nearly everyone from 80-85. It is more difficult that WotLK content, and we will not be in top-end gear. We will be in leveling blues and greens. These fights will take preparation, caution, and learning. Once you know a dungeon by heart, remember that everyone starts somewhere, and that there was a point where you didn’t know the fight. Have patience with the others in your group, and help them learn.

4.) Learn about your classes’ Crowd Control (CC) abilities. Before stepping into a Cataclysm dungeon, please note that some trash packs NEED to be Crowd Controlled (CCed). Familiarize yourself with the CC options available to your class, and the limitations of it. Does it only work on certain mob types? How long does it last? Does it break on damage? Use these abilities liberally to take dangerous mobs out of the fight while you deal with others. This is also a good technique to reduce tank and healer strain, and gives your group a better chance of success. Practice on your own—pull two or three mobs solo, out in the world, and try to keep one CCed the entire time you are killing the other(s).

------>4.a.) Don’t break the sheep! Be careful of cleaves and AoE abilities if there is a CCed mob nearby. Damage often breaks enemies out of CC, and they will then run rampant through your group. One of the WORST things you can do is place a DoT on a CCed target (I’m looking at you, Dks glyphed for increased Pestilence and Blood Boil range—for the record, I am one of you), since it will CONTINUALLY break the CC even if it is reapplied.

5.) Learn to kite! Kiting involves slowing a mob and making it chase you away from or around your group while not hitting you. Mages and hunters in particular are known as great kiters. Death Knights can be quite good at it too, as they have both a taunt and Chains of Ice. This technique can be extremely helpful in situations where there are multiple powerful melee adds that cannot be CCed. If they are too much for your tank to handle together, a dps can often kite one until the other is dead, at which point the tank will take over. Rumor has it that a Heroic boss in a Cata dungeon requires that an add be kited for the ENTIRE fight! Are you up to the challenge? 

6.) Follow marks and kill orders! Focusing fire will be very important in Cata. We won’t be able to just AoE down every pull anymore. Usually, Skull will be first and X will be second. Crowd Control targets may also be marked. As a general rule, HEALER type mobs die first, followed by damaging casters, then melee.

[b[7.) You are more than just “big numbers!”[/b] Simply because your role or spec is “dps” doesn’t mean you can’t throw out a heal, a dispel, or a cleanse, or even pick up a stray add. Did the healer just die? Does your class have some healing spells? Well, you’d BETTER have those on your bar, because it’s time to show what you’re made of. Pick up the healing and save your group! You can do so much more than just damage and occasional CC. Paladins, use Hand of Salvation on a party member that’s getting close to pulling aggro, or even Hand of Protection the mage! Remember, casters can continute to cast while HoPed, but melee can’t continue to use physical strikes. Misdirect or trap that accidental add pull! Throw out a cleanse to someone, innervate the healer if they’re low on mana! You have these great utility spells, but no one expects you to use them Time to prove them wrong and show that there’s a reason you’re like Wolverine. The best at what you do.


================================================== ==========
HEALERS:

1.) Cleanse! Many healers in WotLK are more used to healing through debuffs instead of removing them. With mana being more of an issue in Cata, it will often be more efficient to remove damaging or heal-reducing debuffs as soon as possible, rather than try to heal through all the damage. Which debuffs are more expensive to heal through than cleanse will be something you have to learn on your own, but it will be important to keep cleansing in mind in Cataclysm content!

2.) Conserve your mana! Mana is not going to last you anywhere near as long in Cata as it does now. Learn which heals are the most efficient, and get a feel for how much each one heals for. Knowing which heal to use when will be essential. AoE heal spam will not cut it anymore.

------>2.a.) Part of mana conservation is triage. Triage is deciding the priority of you ‘patients.’ As a general rule, if SOMEONE has to die, it should be the dps first, the tank second, and the healer last. This means, if you have to choose between saving a dps and yourself, save yourself. Between the tank and the healer does get more fuzzy, but remember that it’s possible for dps to burn something down with heals backing them up if the tank does die.

3.) Predict incoming damage. Watch who the mob(s) is(are) targeting. Having an addon that shows who has threat is quite handy here, or just activate this feature in the standard WoW raid/arty interface. If you see an add turn to a dps, you know that that’s the one that will need heals. You shouldn’t be mindlessly spamming everyone in CASE they take damage anymore. You know the tank will be taking damage. But the key to be a great, efficient healer, is to be able to anticipate who ELSE in your group is going to get hurt.

4.) Be ready for anything. Assume the worst. If you are about to start a pull that you have never healed before, it is safer to assume high spike damage than wait and see. Many healers get a nasty surprise when a new type of trash mobs hits like a freight train and they just weren’t ready for that kind of damage.
================================================== ===

TANKS:

1.) Don’t break CC! Pull mobs BACK and away from CCed adds. This will reduce the risk that CC will be broken by your own AoE tanking abilities and dps’ cleaves. It will help you hold threat because you do not need to watch your AoE and cleaves, and it will help your dps for the same reason.

2.) Mark adds! You should know the drill—Skull on the first target to die, X on the second, mark CC targets with Square, Moon, etc. Focusing fire will be more important in Cataclysm. Packs cannot simply be AoEed down across the board. Typically, you’ll want to have your dps target enemy HEALERS first, then damage-dealing casters, and finally, melee.

3.) Be liberal with your shorter cooldown CDs. Mitigating incoming damage will be essential in Cata. It will help conserve your healer’s mana. A particularly good time to hit your shorter defensive cooldowns (anything under 2 minutes) will be close to the start of a pull, when the most adds are alive, unless there is something special about the adds that makes them more dangerous later.

4.) Use your stuns! Stuns are a great way to mitigate incoming damage, don’t forget it! They can also buy you time to get stable threat at the start of a pull, or stop a mob from running after a healer or dps when your taunt isn’t up.

5.) CONTROL your pulls. Pull with restraint. Most tanks in WotLK (myself included) have gotten very, very accustomed to charging into a dungeon, foaming at the mouth, and pulling the first three groups all together. This is NOT going to fly in Cata, guys. You will get you furry/plate-wearing ass kicked. We will need to relearn how to pull with restraint. When you pull a group, range pull and drag them BACK instead of charging right into them. You can also have CCers pull from range and pick up the mobs as they head towards your group. Try not to aggro any extra mobs.

6.) You are NOT the master of the group. Many tanks in WotLK have become rude and overconfident due largely to their short queue times. I can be guilty of this as well. Many have a tendency to treat the other members of their groups with the expectation that whatever THEY says goes, because the group cannon function without them. Please, I beg of you, if you are one of these tanks, remember that you cannot solo this content. You need your group as much as they need you.
================================================== ===============
Wow, are you guys still here, or did you just skip to the end?
If, as I suspect, this was WAY too long and you didn’t care, here’s a brief summary.
Be patient. Be observant. Communicate with your group. Own up to your mistakes. Learn as much about your class as you possibly can, and use all of your tricks. Learn to kite and Crowd Control. Learn to mitigate as much incoming damage as possible, even as a dps. Manage your mana. Think on your toes!

I know there have been plenty of people suffering from the Cog or Gear interaction that causes peoples games to crash in the Headless Horseman encounter at present.  I found this interesting article which appears to be an agreed work around until the situation is resolved by Blizzard, which I thought I'd share with all.

Hey Guys,

There's tons of threads posted and lots of promising solutions. I have one that I've been testing for three days and have not had as much as lag spike when mousing over cogs. This works if you're willing to disable tooltips when you are anywhere a cog icon might show up.

You will need to create two macros, for "turn off tooltips" and "turn on tooltips".

Turn Off Tooltips

Turn On Tooltips

This should get you through until the official fix comes down from Blizzard. Happy hunting!

I hope this works for people.

Good luck

Azeroth is on the eve of a dramatic transformation, and as World of Warcraft changes, sometimes the old must go to make way for the new. Since the world elements that support them will be gone, many aging quests will exist only in the mists of the past.

In particular, there's been some confusion regarding lower-level class specific quests that can no longer be completed. Never fear: class mounts and abilities remain available via class trainers, even though the quests associated with them are no longer available. Also, there are several low and mid-level weapons, trinkets and robes that were once awarded via class specific quests which are no longer available and their associated quests have been removed.

We are looking forward to offering new quests, quest lines and rewards as players level through World of Warcraft: Cataclysm instead. For example, we plan a level 20 dungeon based quest which will offer weapon rewards appropriate to all classes. There will also be a similar level 50 dungeon quest which has a headpiece reward.

Finally, if your Blood Elf paladin missed out on the Blood Knight Tabard, then you should still be able to acquire one via a race specific version of the level 50 dungeon quest. Those of you hoping to pick up a Rhok’delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers might be happy to know that the issues which were preventing the completion of this quest should now be resolved. It’s a good idea to keep in mind that even though this item is related to a level 60 quest line, that only level 80 characters will be eligible to acquire the necessary materials from the Onyxia’s Lair encounter. The good news for level 60 characters is that Nefarian has finally decided to grow some Mature Black Dragon Sinew, so interested players can complete the quest by picking that item up from him in Blackwing Lair.

Just thought I'd make you aware, the Wrathful PvP Gear now only appears to be costing Honor, there is NO Arena Team Rating required (even though the items still show Team Rating on the tooltip)

The Vendors can be found in either Dalaran, Tanaris or Netherstorm.  Probably the easiest to locate is Nargle Lashcord in the Dalaran Sewers.

Almost six months ago we announced that Cataclysm raids were being redesigned to make both raid sizes the same difficulty, drop the same quality of loot, and exist in the same lockout. This evolution in raid philosophy is built on the belief that the size of your raiding group should be a choice based solely on what's more fun and enjoyable for you, and that you should not have to complete the same raiding content twice in a week to maximize your character's progression. These systems are the culmination of a great deal of design and player feedback from the last few years. With the release of the 4.0.1 patch, the new Flexible Raid Lock system will debut in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum.

With the Flexible Raid Lock system, instead of being locked to a specific raid size or raid group, each character will have the opportunity to defeat each raid encounter once a week. You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday. Every raid has a list of encounters associated with the zone. For example, Icecrown Citadel has twelve encounters. After you defeat Lord Marrowgar, you can open up your character's raid information dialog and see the list of encounters in Icecrown Citadel with Marrowgar marked as defeated. You may no longer fight Lord Marrowgar with any raid size or difficulty until the weekly raid reset for your region occurs.

Another key change is that if you join someone else's raid in progress, you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating. So, let's say you have killed the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, and you then join a raid that has defeated the first four encounters, as well as Festergut and Rotface. The dialog that displays upon entering Icecrown Citadel will show that the raid has defeated 6 of 12 encounters. If you help them defeat Professor Putricide, then you would be marked as having defeated not only Professor Putricide for the week, but also Festergut and Rotface. If instead after joining the raid you then proceeded to wipe ten times to Professor Putricide, you could leave the raid with only the first four bosses marked as completed.

To help communicate to players which bosses are dead in the raid leader's raid, there is new functionality to link in chat a list of the encounters the raid has defeated. So before you join a raid, you can see what they've already defeated. If a raid leader advertises in chat that she needs another healer for an 8/12 Icecrown Citadel run, you can see precisely which bosses are still available to fight. If you were only looking for that one item from Queen Lana'thel that never drops for you and this raid already defeated her, you will know not to join that raid.

Let's look at another example of the Flexible Raid Lock system. A guild schedules three nights for 25-player Icecrown Citadel raiding on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, the raid defeats Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Saurfang. On Thursday, five people cancel their raid attendance due to real life emergencies. The raid leader knows that if he cancels Thursday raiding, there's little chance they'll have enough time on Saturday to defeat the other eight bosses in Icecrown Citadel. So he splits the remaining 20 Thursday raiders into two 10-player raids. Each new raid enters Icecrown Citadel and defeats Rotface, Festergut, Blood Council, and Valithria Dreamwalker. The next Saturday with all 25 players online, they reform as a 25-player raid and enter Icecrown Citadel once more. Only Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and The Lich King remain. After a tough fight, the Lich King falls and everybody celebrates. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system the entire raid probably would have missed out on a night of raiding, and likely would not have reached the Lich King.

While players can freely move between raids of different sizes in normal difficulty, there are some additional rules for Heroic difficulty. If a 10- or 25-player raid defeats a boss on Heroic difficulty, then those players may now only raid additional Heroic encounters with that specific raid. If your Heroic 25-player raid defeats the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel on Heroic, then they may not split up into two 10-player raids and continue to fight in Heroic difficulty. You may also not join someone else's raid if they have defeated a Heroic encounter.

But let's say you are a member of a Heroic raid in Icecrown Citadel, and after killing Lord Marrowgar on Heroic you have Internet connection issues that prevent you from raiding for two nights. During those two nights, the rest of the raid kills everything. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system, you would be done with raiding Icecrown Citadel for the week. Ouch. With the Flexible Raid Lock system, you can join someone else's raid as long as they are doing Normal difficulty. This would at least give you the opportunity to earn your Justice Points for the week. If this raid attempted to switch to Heroic difficulty for Icecrown Gunship Battle with you in the raid, the raid leader would receive an error message stating that she cannot change to Heroic, because someone in the raid (i.e., you) is already locked to a different Heroic instance.

All of the new Cataclysm raids will feature the Flexible Raid Lock and Dynamic Difficulty systems, and when the Cataclysm occurs the other Wrath of the Lich King raids will also have these features. It's important to note that this system doesn't affect Heroic dungeons, they will work as they always have. We look forward to feedback for this new system after 4.0.1 is released. As a reminder, Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum are the only two raids that support the Flexible Raid Lock until the Cataclysm occurs.

Patch 4.0.1 Class Mechanics Changes

Patch 4.0.1 will bring about major changes to all World of Warcraft classes, including sweeping talent tree revamps, altered spells, and improved abilities. We wanted to go over some of the more complex changes that are being made. If your class isn't listed here, it does not mean we didn't spend as much time on it -- the class will still receive a broad range of updates to talents, spells, and abilities -- we simply feel that these mechanics merit additional explanation.

Death Knights

Runes

The way in which runes regenerate has been changed. Rather than each rune type (Blood, Frost, Unholy) regenerating simultaneously, they now fill sequentially. For example, if you use two Blood runes, then the first rune will fill up before the second one starts to fill up. You essentially have three sets of runes filling every 10 seconds instead of six individual runes filling every 10 seconds. This allows the death knight rotation to be more forgiving, so that the player can take advantage of things like ability procs or respond to movement. This system makes it a little easier to get back on track without six separate runes now "out of sync" from the standard rotation.

You're a Bloody Tank

The time has come to dedicate a death knight talent tree to tanking, and that is what is in store for the Blood tree. We felt that we could offer a more focused and polished tanking tree rather than having to scatter similar tools throughout the trees. This also allows us to really focus the other trees into more flavorful damage-dealing specializations.

Runic Empowerment

This mechanic allows for runes which were on cooldown to instantly activate, which prevents the rotation from becoming too predictable and boring.

Druids

Eclipse

This is a new mechanic being added for Balance druids. The resource is managed through a new bar near the health and mana bars. As the druid casts Arcane spells, the bar moves towards the sun element until the druid achieves a Solar Eclipse, which buffs Nature damage. The goal is then to cast Nature spells, until the bar moves toward the moon element, which triggers a Lunar Eclipse and buffs Arcane damage. The gameplay becomes trying to quickly move the bar from one end to the other in order to maximize each Eclipse buff.

Hunters

Focus

This is a new resource which has replaced mana. Hunters never felt like they should be casting mana-based spells, and having a resource that lasted for a long time and then was painfully gone didn’t lead to compelling gameplay.

Pets

Hunters can now use Call Pet to choose from among five different pets. They can swap out any of these five pets with other pets they have tamed by visiting a Stable Master. The Stable Master now allows the hunter to store twenty pets total.

Pet families have been updated. Each family can now provide unique buffs to parties or raids, so if a class buff is needed for a raid and that class isn't represented in the group, chances are a hunter can provide a little assistance by calling out a specific pet.

Ammo

Ammo is no more. As a hunter, you're just that good now.

Any quivers or pouches used to store ammo will automatically be converted into a bag of roughly equal value.

Paladins

Holy Power

This is a new resource which works similarly to combo points. Paladins will generally want to build up Holy Power until it shines through with a bright yellow glowing effect. Once Holy Power has been built up, it can be consumed to augment existing abilities. For example, Word of Glory can be used to cast an instant-cast free heal. This gives paladins several options for how to spend their Holy Power, depending on the scenario.

Warlocks

Soul Shards

As items, Soul Shards are going away entirely.

Any shard bags used to store Soul Shards will automatically be converted into a bag of roughly equal value.

Soul Shards are now a new resource for warlocks. Each warlock will have a total of three. These Soul Shards can be expended using a new spell, Soul Burn, which allows the warlock to augment the next spell cast. The augmentation effect will vary depending on which spell is used, and all warlock spells which can be empowered by Soul Burn will have a tooltip listing of the effect it grants. Soul Shards will no longer be necessary for summoning demons or casting any other spell typically used when out of combat.

Warriors

Rage

Rage is being normalized so that its generation is no longer based on damage done by auto-attacks. Each auto-attack will provide a set amount of Rage, with off-hand weapons granting 50% of the rage main-hand weapons do. Haste will allow Rage to generate more rapidly by increasing attack speed. In addition, while taking damage, the amount of Rage generated will now be based on the warrior's health rather than the opponent's level. The essence of this change is to improve the scaling that occurs with warrior gear. With warriors balanced around the top tiers of items, we've found that the class tends to underperform more drastically than others in lower-quality items. These changes should correct that.

This has been taken from blue.mmo-champion.com

In the upcoming 4.0.1 patch, we will be introducing a major overhaul of the current glyph system. This update features a host of changes including the addition of a new glyph tier, the transition of glyphs from consumable items to permanent spells, and a more streamlined user interface.

In its Prime

Glyphs will now be separated into three different tiers: prime, major, and minor.

Prime - Prime glyphs will typically provide direct increases to damage or healing throughput. Examples of prime glyphs include Glyph of Howling Blast, which will cause the death knight ability Howling Blast to infect targets with Frost Fever, and Glyph of Insect Swarm, which increases the damage of druid's Insect Swarm ability by 2%.

Major - Major glyphs will typically augment spells and abilities to offer additional utility. Examples of major glyphs include Glyph of Silencing Shot, which will cause a hunter to instantly gain 1 focus when successfully silencing an enemy's spell cast, and Glyph of Ice Block, which will reset the cooldown on Frost Nova every time a mage uses Ice Block.

Minor - Minor glyphs will typically provide players with additional convenience or cosmetic changes. Examples of minor glyphs include Glyph of Righteousness which will reduce the mana cost of Seal of Righteousness for paladins by 1%, and Glyph of Levitate which will remove the reagent requirement for a priest's Levitate spell.

In total, there will be nine glyph slots: three prime, three major, and three minor. As players level, they will be able to progressively unlock "sets" of these slots in increments of three (one minor slot, one major slot, and one prime slot). The first set of glyph slots will be unlocked at level 25, the second at level 50, and the final at level 75.

*We've included a full list of glyphs available in 4.0.1 below.

Teach a Man to Glyph...

In addition to the glyph tier changes, glyphs will also be transitioning from single-use items to permanent spells that a player can learn. While the item from which a glyph will be taught will still be consumed on use, once a glyph is learned, a player will always have access to it. This functionality will feel very similar to the current mechanic that allows players to learn certain recipes and patterns from item drops.

Despite these changes, activating a glyph will more or less function as it does now. To activate a glyph, players will simply need to select the desired glyph from their list of known glyphs and then click on the appropriate tiered slot.

Dust to Dust

With the transition from single-use items to permanent spells, the process for switching activated glyphs has been slightly altered. Similar to activating a learned glyph, players will need to select the new glyph from their list of known glyphs and then place it on top of the old glyph. While this process will not destroy the old glyph as it does at present, it will require a new reagent , Dust of Disappearance, which can be purchased from Inscription vendors or be crafted by scribes.

As a precaution, the following dialogue will also appear before a glyph is exchanged:

Are you sure you want to inscribe this glyph? The existing glyph will be lost.

Cost: 1 Dust of Disappearance

Players will be given the opportunity to confirm the exchange or cancel out of it. Please note that the old glyph will not be permanently lost; it will simply be deactivated.

Gotta Catch'em All

To complement each of these changes, the glyph UI window has been completely redesigned. All glyphs will now be organised in the glyph panel according to their tier (minor, major, or prime) and, much like how class spells and abilities display in the trainer window, will be sortable by "Already Known," "Unavailable," and "All Glyphs" categories. Players will also be able to search for glyphs using keywords and results will populate under each corresponding collapsible tier.

To access the new glyph UI, players will need to open up the Talent pane (default: N) and then click on the "Glyphs" tab.

Although MMO revealed some details of the conversion process, many have asked how many Justice and Valor Points bosses and daily dungeons will actually award. This list is incomplete, and the values may still change, but it covers the majority of the content MMO have been asked about.

Lich King Heroic dungeon boss -- 16 Justice Points

Lich King daily normal dungeon -- 12 Justice Points

Lich King daily Heroic dungeon -- 23 Justice Points

Lich King raid boss -- 23 Justice Points

Cataclysm Heroic dungeon boss -- 75 Justice Points

Cataclysm daily normal dungeon -- 75 Justice Points

Cataclysm daily Heroic dungeon -- 75 Valor Points

Cataclysm 10-player raid boss -- 75 Valor Points

Cataclysm 25-player raid boss -- 105 Valor Points

It’s important to note that once you outgrow content, by leveling past it by a predetermined amount, you’ll no longer gain points. The ‘outgrown’ level for end-game Wrath of the Lich King content is likely to be level 81. Once you level beyond Lich King content you’ll still be able to enter the dungeons, kill bosses, and see their drops, but they will not award you with points. This same principle applies to all content that provides Justice Points, including content from The Burning Crusade.

Just a quick note that the points listed here aren't final, Blizzard are still trying to balance the numbers. Specifically for Cataclysm drops. It's possible they may still change.

If you haven't got all your heirloom items you may want for all your classes you may want to buy them now before patch 4.0.1 goes live next week.  The reason for this is as follows

On the PTR the current cost of Tier 10-251 gear costs 695/1100 JP, whereas the heirlooms cost 2700/3500 JP.

The cost of heirlooms in 4.0.1 has been intentionally increased above what they currently cost to match the gain of points players will see at level 85. It's recommended that if you want to buy heirlooms you do so now before 4.0.1 is released, or wait until after purchasing Cataclysm, leveling to 85, and running that content for points.

This does not affect the Champion Seal heirlooms - they remain unchanged.

With Cataclysm around the corner I have deliberately refrained from posting anything regarding it, until things are a little less fluid, things are changing all the time with the Blizzard Dev team and they are making compromises all the time in order to get the product to the shops so we can all get our grubby little mitts on it.

One thing I have been looking at wit ha great deal of interest is the Guild Achievements, in particular there is the Exalted Reputations achievement.

All reputations are retroactive. If you have the rep now, it will count in the guild achievement. Also note that the reputations have to be separate. Having Argent Dawn at exalted on 8 members still only counts as one towards the achievement.

Also, don't forget that this achievement requires revered guild faction for any of your reputations to count.

For these guild achievements:

• Diplomacy - Raise 15 reputations to Exalted.
• Ambassadors - Raise 25 reputations to Exalted.
• United Nations - Raise 55 reputations to Exalted.
• Dungeon Diplomat - Earn exalted with the dungeon reputations listed below.
  • Therazane
  • Ramkahen
  • Wildhammer Clan
  • The Earthen Ring
  • Guardians of Hyjal
  • The Wyrmrest Accord
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Argent Crusade
  • Kirin Tor
  • Lower City
  • The Sha'tar
  • Cenarion Expedition
  • Honor Hold
  • Keepers of Time
  • Shattered Sun Offensive
  • Argent Dawn
  • Thorium Brotherhood
• Raid Representation - Earn exalted with the raid reputations listed below.
  • Hydraxian Waterlords
  • Brood of Nozdormu
  • The Violet Eye
  • The Scale of the Sands
  • Ashongue Deathsworn
  • The Ashen Verdict
• Classic Battles - Earn exalted reputation with the classic battlegrounds listed below.
  • The Defilers
  • Warsong Outriders
  • Frostwolf Clan

So if you are a bit bored, and there is not much going on, please do get grinding those reputations, or doing some of the early PvP battles, it will help us all in the long run.

Thanks

Cals

Please note there has been a server address change on the Vent Server.

The details have been updated on The Hammer Ventrilo Server page.

Please do not try to use the old server as it should have been shut down.

This change was necessary due to some people experiencing server lag, where they would hear 10 minutes of conversation all at once.

Thankyou,

Cals

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

As some of you may know I am currently the Guild Leader of The Hammer, a social and friendly guild. We are not raiders, and as I understand it we do not have any intention of becoming a raiding guild. We are a bunch of friends having fun on a game, all trying to explore the content and enjoying it with other like minded people. If I am wrong about this, then something has drastically changed within the guild, and I for one, am not sure it’s for the better.

I started playing WoW back in the days where there was no Burning Crusade or Wrath of The Lich King, I started playing because a friend suggested I took a look, and I liked what I saw, friendly people helping others. Sure you had idiots and ass-hats but I chose not to socialise with them.

I moved over to Lightbringer just over three years ago, and became a member of The Hammer just after it was formed, rising through the ranks because of my helpful and can-do attitude. I made sure that if some asked something in Guild Chat, I answered, even if it was to say ‘Sorry mate, I’m a little busy at present, but I can help you when I’m finished’, and I wasn’t alone in answering that way...lots of people, almost everyone on would respond. That was how The Hammer used to be. It is no longer that way, and I write this with a heavy heart.

Many members of the guild appear to have lost the core rules that we hold dear. Be polite, be respectful and do not be greedy. It is not polite to ignore people or to not say Hello to people or Goodbye to them when they are leaving, nor is it polite to ignore people when they are asking politely for help. It does not show respect of your fellow guild members when you do not use common courtesy, Please and Thank you, can make all the difference when you are asking for help.  It shows little respect for your fellow guild members to be asking in trade for a run somewhere, like the weekly for example, without asking your guild members if they fancy it too, nor is it respectful to ignore the person asking. Please do not get upset if you do not win a particular piece of loot on a run, it’s a bunch of pixels plain and simple, all it does is add to your Gear Score, and we at The Hammer don’t give a crap about your Gear Score. This is a game, it is supposed to be fun, and it certainly used to be huge amounts of fun here in The Hammer. I would like to see us ALL try and make it back to the ways it used to be. Treating our Guild Members as friends because I, for one, have made many lasting friendships being here in The Hammer, and if you treat people the way you expect to be treated you may too.

I understand there are people who get on with others better than some & I understand there are people who do not understand English so well, that should not impact on your enjoyment of the game with a bunch of like minded sociable people. What I struggle to understand is why people remain in a Guild, when they do not choose to be a part of the social aspect of a Guild. If all you want to do is say Hi and Bye to people – don’t be in a guild, do it in Trade as I see lots of people doing.

If you want to be sociable, friendly, polite and respectful of your Guild Members then hopefully you’ll see that The Hammer is the place you’d like to do it. Wiping on instances and raids, laughing and joking a peoples’ moments of madness, and accepting of the fact that you’ve rolled 200 times on an item, and every time it goes to a someone else. It happens, that’s the joy of the /Roll factor, never knowing what’s going to come up.

If you don’t feel that this is reasonable, or you don’t feel that what I am asking for is fair, then please feel free to leave The Hammer. We are not holding guns to anyone’s heads to remain here - Good bye, good luck and thanks for all the fish. I shall be sad to see some go, but I do not want to hold anyone back from enjoying the game their own way.

Thankyou for taking the time to read this, and please feel free to message Cals via the forums or send an in-game message to one of my characters when you see me online with your comments.

Nightofni

(Online characters Nightofni, Ohmy, Sadtimes, Oppalí, Calslock)

About a week ago, Blizzard revealed all the latest updates concerning their gameplan for Cataclysm. Among them were a host of changes to the new guild systems and UI overhaul that were originally announced at BlizzCon 2009.

Guild talents  & Path of the Titans get the axe

Two of the biggest announcements from last week were not new features but the cancellation of previously announced features: Path of the Titans and guild talents. There a lot of people complaining about removing the Path, which is to be expected -- it was considered a key feature of the expansion and a long-awaited means to customize your character beyond talents after glyphs, in the words of Ghostcrawler, "didn't live up to what they could have been." It's a shame they couldn't make the Path work, but I'm hopeful that the revised glyph system will compensate for its loss.

On the other hand, there's not hearing nearly as many complaints about the removal of guild talents. Again, perhaps, this is to be expected. After all, Blizzard's plan is to replace them with unlocked perks that you receive automatically as your guild levels up. In other words, every guild will get every talent. Awesome, right? For guild members, yes. For officers, not as much.

I'm sure many people will disagree with me on this point. Ghostcrawler had this to say:

Ghostcrawler -- Guild Talents

There is a risk (as well as a benefit) inherent to making your guild different from others, and it's not impossible to imagine that spec'ing your guild a certain way could have caused this scenario. In practice, though, I wonder if such a thing would really happen.

What sorts of talents was Blizzard planning such that choosing one over another could actually drive people out of your guild

During BlizzCon, they listed examples such as increased gold drops, removal of reagents for raid-wide buffs, mass summon, mass resurrection, and reduced repair bills. If someone gquits over whether they get more gold per kill instead of foregoing reagents, I'm pretty sure there are additional factors at play.

Yes, if there were talents that gave you 10% more damage and healing in battlegrounds but not in raids, then I could see people moving to another guild if they wanted that extra 10% to apply to their raiding instead. I strongly doubt Blizzard would have implemented such game-breaking talents though.

I wish Ghostcrawler had provided a few examples of talents that might have had a negative impact on your guild, because I just don't see how a realistic "perk" talent choice could make such a big difference that people would actually /gquit.

To date, all such differentiators have been external, by which I mean they are chosen by the officers but they have no actual representation in the game itself. You need to speak to guild members, undergo the interview process or read the guild's policies on its website in order to understand what a guild is all about.

With talents, Blizzard had a means for allowing officers to differentiate their guilds using the game's own interface. For that reason, talents could have been a huge win for officers, but now it looks like we won't get this functionality in WoW. The new recruiting feature in the UI may allow us to choose from one of several labels that describe our guild, which is a small step in the right direction.

Path of the Titans Scrapped

At BlizzCon 2009, we learned of the Path of the Titans, a new alternate advancement system that would see characters allying with various titan cults in order to gain various character bonuses apart from simply leveling up. At the recent Cataclysm press event, Blizzard announced that they'll be completely scrapping the system.

To offset this, they've chosen instead to work on an overhaul of the glyph system, as they noted they didn't quite get it to where they wanted with Wrath.

Here are the basics:

• There will be a new tier of glyphs, currently called "Medium" glyphs, that will provide "fun alterations" to abilities. Major and minor glyphs will act much as they currently do. You'll have 3 of each glyph type at level 85.
• You will no longer have to re-buy glyphs when you respec or rearrange them. Rather, you will will learn each glyph like a skill and be able to swap them at will from a list.
• The list will show all glyphs available to your class, but will only allow you to use the ones you've purchased.

The other issue, of course, is for the Inscription profession. With glyphs becoming one-time learned "abilities," scribes may find their profits down in the dumps as even people who respec often or swap glyphs on a per-fight basis can simply swap at will from their spell books. Still, we may also see a leap in the amount of required reagents for glyphs or some other change to help scribes justify a price leap on their wares, or Blizzard may have just decided that Inscription was just getting a bit too lucrative.

Once again The Hammer is victorious!!!

We are of the Nightfall!!!!

Got him to 90%, we will get him next time!!

Also enjoy Fooki as a UGO!!!!

After much graft Kethaniel finally gets his Chefs Hat!!!

Well it's here, the long awaited patch 3.3.2, where Toravon should now be making an entrance to the game, and we of course can now go kill the Lich King (ho ho ho)

The main changes appear to be in instances,with all the annoying little bits having been changed, like how slow Brann walks, and how long it takes for a new portal to spawn in VH after killing a boss, Raid Assists can now do a Ready Check (At last I hear you cry!), amongst lots of other things.  There is also a new DPS ring available from the Ashen Verdict :)

In an amzing show of derring-do Rinpoche and Duramen decided to 2-man the whole of Molten Core. It was great actually learning the tactics for the bosses and a there were quite a few white knuckle moments! Expect a full guide before too long!

Rinp

After many, many tries (and wipes) we've finally managed to kill Ignis the Furnace Master!

Cheers everyone.

There has been another unfortunate assault on The Hammer's Guild this week, where one of our core members has had her account hacked, and her toons and the guild bank has been violated, by some little toerag.  I've done a bit of reading around this subject in the last couple of days, and it appears as though some people have been caught by the use of key loggers installed by that wonderfully leaky internet browser Internet Explorer.

Please people, keep aware of current internet security threats, DO NOT click on adverts on web sites such as Curse Gaming, do not simply click Yes on a pop-up you are unsure where it has been launched from, and please please please, stop using such a poor browser as Internet Explorer, get something more sensible, and less commonly hijacked like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Ensure your anti-virus (I recommend Panda security or AVG Free) and anti-malware applications (such as Spy-Bot or Malware Bytes) are up to date, and regularly change your account password to something complex using a combination of Upper case, lower case, numbers and other characters to make the hacking of your account a lot more difficult for these unscrupulous b**tards.

Be safe,

Your hard-working forum monkey,

Cals

At long last The Hammer has finally conquered EoE.  No longer shall we, as a guild, fear the big blue chicken.  Well done to all for your efforts and perseverance.

Well guys the classic side of the raids is all done, much blood was spilled and Lil tankd!, eye beams hurt us, bugs flying from every corner the eye can see. And then the last boss was a mighty vagina looking eye thingy.....YER!

Would like to thank everyone who has given there time to the guild happy raids here!, Dragons!, Fire Lords!. Trolls! Bugs! we have done them all!

Thank you! your fav DK Kuole

The Hammer once again takes on a epic challenge and emerges victorious

C'Thun Smackdown!!!!!!

Three intrepid Hammerites waged a war today against the Alliance at Venture Bay lead by the mighty Serraphim. Riding torpedoes into the Alliance ships, with Lilitu and Wyde taking out almost all the sea life on the way, they struck at the very heart of the Alliance.

Tonight The Hammer smashed a crippling blow against the Alliance, storming all the cities without issue.  Tearing up first Stormwind, then after a disastrous attempt on Ironforge we decided to take Darnasus and then Exodar, after which we went back to Ironforge, laying waste to all in our path....after which we decided it would be fun to go back and take Stormwind once more!

It was amazing work from all involved, Great work people, and remember, every time the Alliance see you on your Black War Bears, they will know, The Hammer Struck a Shocking Blow!!

Miracles never cease, Serra actually heals Cals...it's caught on film look!!

SMACK DOWN!!

Once again The Hammer steps out of the shadows to show that they are not just a bunch of slackers who can't play World of Warcraft. This week saw 10 brave members of The Hammer take on the might of the Trial of the Crusader, and win!  This epic battle was undertaken over two evenings in the first week of trying this new content, and once again The Hammer fell upon those who sought to destroy us!