This is unsurprising. The biggest, baddest, nastiest dragon to ever walk the face of Azeroth is going to be making a comeback some time in the near future (they’re beta testing! of course it’s coming soon!), so it should come as no surprise that the other dragons are going to get involved. After all, Deathwing’s kids are the notorious Twilight dragons, and no one seems to get along with them terribly well. Not that I can blame them, but something tells me that Daddy isn’t too pleased about his tots getting picked on by just about everyone. Nothing peeves a paranoid schizophrenic (read his bio and tell me you’d give a different diagnosis) like finding out his persecution complex is somewhat merited. Granted, he did bring it on himself, but he’ll never see it that way. Guess corrupted aspects of nature can be a little stubborn about those things.

Anyway, Cataclysm promises a lot. All of our favorite newbie haunts are getting a Mad Max makeover whether we like it or not (or buy the expansion for that matter), and things are only going to get worse from there.

Of course, this also means an increase in our level cap. Something for the current 80 crowd to aspire to is always nice so they leave people below them alone. Also, there will be the ususal gobs of new gear. Unfortunately, Blizzard hasn’t said much about that. They’re keeping quiet enough for me to start to wonder if I should buy gold now so I have it stockpiled, or buy gold after the release so that I know what I’m going to need.

I guess we’ll find out more at Blizzcon. I just know they’re testing and they keep dropping little tidbits that make me all the more impatient to see the finished product.

Thankfully, that should be out before year’s end. I just can’t imagine the amount of trouble they’re going to have with their servers when they try to dump the new code on it. Hopefully it goes smoothly, but you never know.

Then again this is Blizzard. I’m not too worried.

Rather than just rest for a while and test Cataclysm in secret, they keep the content coming. This time around it’s a new raid that involves every fantasy nerds favorite beasty: dragons.

For you lore freaks out there, the premise is interesting enough. Ten millenia ago the dragonflights all joined together to form the Wyrmrest Accord. The basic idea was to pool their resources to fight off the Scourge before it could use the old divide and conquer routine. This seems to have worked for the most part since the Accord, led by the red dragonflight. They held the Scourge out of Azeroth for everything they were worth.

Over time a little strife entered into the dysfunctional dragon family. The reds were still warring with the blues when they found out that the blacks were harboring some twilight dragon eggs. This being a serious no-no, the reds were uncertain how to respond. They didn’t have the resources to challenge them outright, so in the end they got some mortals to do their dirty work. By letting the info about the eggs slip to the right persons, a band of heroes was dispatched to destroy the eggs and end the threat. The plan succeeded, but the blacks were more than a little perturbed by the death of their leader and the fact that the whole incident was swept under the rug.

Now the Ruby Sanctum, home of the reds and location of a clutch of red eggs, is apparently completely empty. They haven’t been returning their calls, the guards are AWOL, and no one knows just what could have happened. Most fear the blacks have come back for their revenge, but any overt attack would have triggered all sorts of alarms. No one knows for sure just what has happened, but we get to find out.

Of course, looting rights are implied. This sounds like it’s going to be a doozy of a raid, so you’ll really want to buy gold so that you’re ready for it. It promises to be a good time.

Partly I was waiting for prices to come down. As we all saw during the worst of the update-o-rama, prices started to soar. Now, they’re down to a much more managable level. Toonstorm is carrying 1000 gold for only $5.62, and that’s what I’m going to pick up today.

I don’t really need the gold, but I figured I’d best get some sort of review posted here or I might lose my “official” status.

As before, I hopped on and placed an order for 1000. I’m not sure what I’ll use it for, but it sure doesn’t hurt to have it. Today, I’m feeling like testing them a little and so I’m going to give them my cell number and see if there’s any problem with them getting through.

About 5 minutes later I get the call I’ve been waiting for. The rep verifies plenty of info with me, so in the end I’m sure that he’s sure I am who I say I am. Never can be too careful these days. I recently heard of someone who’s account was hacked and they had everything of value stolen. It was unpleasant, to say the least.

Anyway, I voiced some concerns to the rep about delivery time since there had been such a run not long ago. He took a few seconds to check things out, and told me there was nothing to be worried about. An order of my size would only take about 20 minutes to arrive. From there I asked him about larger orders, just to see if they’re having trouble with the big ones. He said that they’ve been taking 24 hours, max. Not bad considering everything.

So I got off the line with him and jumped into WoW to start the waiting. I’d spent about 10 minutes with the rep, so that left me with ten minutes to hang out. Five minutes later I’m getting the tell I’ve been waiting for and busting over to SW to pick up my goods. One smooth hand-off later and I’m 1000 gold richer. Not bad at all for just coming out of a whirlwind couple of months.

The reason this is such a big deal is the prizes that are available. Sure, there’s the chance to show your l33t skills in crushing everyone out there in 3v3 battles and all. But, really, with $15,000 up for grabs in the regional tourney and $75,000 for the global, there’s money to be made here. Those prizes would cover your WoW subscription for a rather long time. Or, if you wanted to buy gold, it’d make sure you have the funds to do so for…well… ever really. I can’t imagine being able to blow that much on it.

For those of you unfamiliar with the format, you get a level 80 character (not one of your own, a toon they give you at the time) and you can pimp it out as much as you want. This includes infinite gold and access to shops that sell everything you could possibly want. Epic level gear from WotLK, Honor trinkets, training, you name it, it’s up for sale. Then you and two others take on other teams to try and take the top spot. And did I mention the HUGE cash prizes? Yeah, I’m stoked about that.

Anyway, the good news about all of this is that it’s giving time for the gold market to settle down. With all of the new stuff lately, we’d seen a lot of price changes as supply dried up. Patches and additions mean more people are going to buy gold. This drives supply down, which can lead to increased prices. Unfortunately, this has only gotten worse in the last few weeks.

Prices are up everywhere. The best I’ve found so far is at Toonstorm. They’re only up to 10.11 per 1000 gold at the moment, which is keeping it a little below where the others are. They haven’t had to sacrifice delivery speed, however, so you can still get it at the express rate they usually offer.

i’m really hoping that Blizzard slows down for a little bit right now. That’ll allow prices to come down as the companies restock. You may want to get some now, though, in case it just goes up further.

That’s the thing about writing blogs like this in your spare time. You have to try to stay on top of all of the news, and when it keeps coming like that it’s hard to keep up. Not that I’m complaining mind you. The new content is a blast (for those of you at 80), and even if you can’t play it yet, it’ll keep you busy until Cataclysm drops.

Something that occurs to me is that not everyone is as familiar with the whole gold buying process as others. I’ve been at it a long time, and have managed to cultivate my favorite sites to buy gold from.

Now, I’m all about newbies doing what they can to get ahead a little. I did it (and later wished I’d done it sooner), and have no problem with them trying to move up without wasting endless amounts of time grinding away. It’s just not worth it, especially when you factor in the amount you’re paying in monthly fees.

My only fear is that these newcomers don’t play safe all the time. I want to share some advice with them today to help keep the rest of us out of hot water.

First and foremost, please don’t talk about buying gold in open chat. I’ve said this a few times before, but it really warrants repeating. For those of you who haven’t been let down by the current educational system and actually had to read 1984, Big Brother is watching at all times. Blizzard has people they pay to sit and monitor chat and game usage to weed out people who are breaking (or at least bending) the rules. This includes spammers, flamers, modders (which doesn’t happen too often), and farmers. If they catch you, or someone turns you in, that’s usually it for you.

Another thing to keep in mind is moderation. It’s awesome that you can get tons and tons of gold for just a little cash investment, but seeing a level 12 with 50G in their pockets raises eyebrows. Make small buys that are in accordance with your level. If you buy gold at the right places, the prices are low enough that it won’t make a huge difference.

There are tons more tips, but I’m going to sign off for now and share them later.

Here’s what’s new:

First and foremost, they’ve dropped a new patch for our playing enjoyment. 3.3.3 is live and ready to go! The biggest change this has made is for PvP. Now you have the option to queue for a random battleground instead of having to pick one and wait in line for it. This should speed things up for those of us who aren’t so picky about what background we’re working with when we’re slinging carnage. Also, they’ve doubled the Honor award for all Honorable Kills performed in the Battlegrounds. The exp they give you stays the same, but the extra honor won’t hurt anything.

There have been some other minor tweaks and such, but nothing major. Buff ranges on some spells have been increased to 100 yards instead of the usual 45 and there are a few tweaks to some glyphs for most classes.

Another huge bit of news is that the time and place of the next BlizzCon has been officially set! You’ll be able to attend or at least read the news about it on October 22 and 23. And it will be returning to the Anaheim Convention Center this year! Hooray! Hope to see you there.

Of course, this is going to start the usual round of speculations about what’s going to be announced at BlizzCon this year. I know I’m hoping for more details on Cataclysm, but I’ll be happy with whatever they decide to give us. Some more details on Diablo III would be perfectly welcome as well.

With all of this in mind, I’m really of the opinion that now would be a great time to buy gold. You’ll really want to stock up on gear so that you’re ready for the increase in players we’ll see in PvP. That extra honor will be a definite draw. Plus, you just know that another patch will come before too long, and who knows what that will carry.

So get out there and buy gold like there’s no tomorrow!

I know I’m a little behind the times posting on this, but I’ve been too busy trying to get myself leveled up so I can start making Icecrown runs. 3.3.2 went live a while ago and it’s been keeping everyone out there really busy. For those who have already hit 80, congrats. You are getting the best deal of all of us. For those of us still working on it, we have a long haul ahead of us.

I’m 78 currently, so I’m getting closer. It’s just a matter of time and decent gear/skills. As usual I’ve made my job a little easier by buying wow gold lately. I was really worried that the prices might spike really heavily with the new patch. There’s usually some sort of rise around the time of a patch, as well as a bunch of scammers showing up to make our lives miserable. I know I’ve mentioned that some time in the past, but it holds true, and it’s never a bad idea to warn everybody out there about the dangers.

I’m always one for sticking with the companies and sites I know work. I don’t mind experimenting a bit when the market is nice and stable, but with all of the changes I’m hunkering down with my old standbys. The last batch of buys I did were all at Toonstorm. They’ve always treated me well, and have the best security I could hope for. Plus, their prices didn’t fluxuate anything at all like everyone else’s. 2000 gold is still under $15, which makes good sense in my mind. Not to mention that they have the fastest delivery I’ve ever seen. If it were much faster, it’d make the GMs jumpy.

Speaking of the GMs, that’s another reason to be careful about who you spend your money on right now. Whenever a new patch drops, moderators go on full alert. Usually, they’re a little less uptight (scanning chat and play for suspicious behavior gets old and they start to relax after a while), but when the big dogs drop new content they have to make sure that everything runs smoothly. That means buying from new companies can be a serious hazard to your account if they don’t have the same security standards that the tried-and-true sites do.

A friend of mine was talking with me earlier this week and was starting to get really frustrated with how hard it was to get decent amounts of gold in wow lately. He’s a level 75 pally, but his gear is a little… weak to say the least.

Now granted, he’s an on-again, off-again player. Never been as hardcore about it as I am, but really enjoys it when he does play. But his infrequent runs and raids just don’t net him the drops he needs to make a real DPS monster like he wants to be. And the main thing that’s been holding him back is gold, or the lack thereof.

So, naturally, I suggested he buy some. He’s well-off, and I think he’ll play more and be happier about it if he just gets his gear up to snuff. He thought about it, and decided to go along with the idea. I tagged along for the ride so as to post a review here when we were done.

We started shopping around and stopped on a site that had some screaming deals. But before he bought, he took my advise and googled the site to see just what came up. What we found was pretty shocking. Dozens of posts about scams, all directed at this one site. I’d post the name, but as of yesterday, they no longer exist so there’s no point. That’s right, they dropped off the interwebs entirely. We felt really lucky.

So, instead, we decided to hit up Toonstorm to see what they had running. Prices are about the same as the last time I posted (about $8 for 1000 gold), but there was some awesome news on the front page. It turns out, Toonstorm is donating 5% of every purchase to a Haiti disaster relief fund. They’re trying to raise $7,000, which may not seem like much, but considering the size of the niche we’re talking about, that’s pretty impressive.

That sold him in the end (he always did love to give to a good cause). So, he placed the order and hopped into live chat to track it. The rep there told us that the gold would be ready in about 20 minutes, so we chilled for a bit. About 15 minutes later he logged in and got a tell to meet in SW. From there, the money was handed over and all was well. So, in the end, he was happy to buy wow gold, and felt good about doing so at Toonstorm.com.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I know I did! The new patch has been absolutely killer for me.

But the new patch got me thinking: what with all of the new content and free trials available, people are probably flocking to WoW like moths to a flame at this point. All of these newbies running around are bound to clutter things up a little bit, but it’s safe to assume there will be some of them out there who feel like we do and want to save a little time by buying some wow gold instead of farming it. With that in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at some simply tips for buying gold.

Do use review sites (like this one) to help weed out the bad locations. There are lots of them, and if you can find a good one, they will help you make a decision.

Don’t use any place that requires payment via Moneygram or Western Union. These are almost always scams that will disappear with your money just as soon as you get it. Stick to a place you know and trust. One I’ve come to know really well over the years is Toonstorm.com. They have a rock solid reputation and don’t mess around with your money.

Do look for a money-back guarantee. Any place worth spending your money at is going to have one of these. It’s their way of protecting us against the possibility that our order gets botched somehow. One place I know and trust (Toonstorm.com) has one of these and they’ve never let me down.

Do exercise common sense. If it looks too good to be true… well, you get the idea. A lot of outfits make some pretty outrageous claims about pricing or delivery times. When they start doing this without any sort of reviews or logic to back it up, it means they’re cutting corners. This can be really dangerous for you as the customer, because they aren’t concerned about what might happen to you if they mess up.

Don’t make a big deal out of what you’re doing. Talking in open chat about buying gold is the quickest way I can think of to get your account banned. If the GM doesn’t catch you, another player might have an issue with what you’re doing and decide to turn you in. It’s like Edward Norton said, the first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about fight club.

Until next time, keep it real!

Sorry I’ve been away for a while.  The summer months were keeping me busy outside, so I didn’t get much of a chance to play wow or check prices.  Winter has well and truly set in, though, so I’m keeping warm cuddled up to my computer.  And to think the Lich King likes this kind of weather!

Well, the 3.3.0 patch dropped yesterday, and it brought some great things with it!  New raids, new instances, and the chance to take on the Lich King himself!  Talk about a major update!

Unfortunately, with my absence it seems I’ve fallen behind the times in terms of gear.  I’ve been looking at all of the stuff that’s come available since I last updated and I’ve come to a realization:  it’s going to be summer again before I come up with enough gold to decently outfit my druid again!  I just can’t spend that much time mining and auctioning!  I’m looking to hit level 80 and tackle the big guy ASAP! 

So, it looks like I’m going to be searching for somewhere to buy wow gold to speed things along a little bit.  A basic search shows that more and more places have cropped up over the last few months.  Prices are really good right now just about everywhere, so it’s a matter of what sort of service they deliver.  Several of the places I’ve found have some really long delivery times, which doesn’t suit my needs in the least.  I think it’s time I hit up tried and true Toonstorm.com.  I’ve mentioned them here before, and their delivery times have always been fantastic, so I think they’ll get my business again. 

I think I’ll order 5000 gold this time around.  That should be enough to help with reoutfitting my Tauren and picking up any new shiny toys that have come with the patch.  The price is really reasonable, and the delivery is backed by the same guarantee that I already like.

Well, after placing the order I got a confirmation call and they told me to check for the gold in about 20 minutes.  I’m not particularly patient, so I logged in about 10 minutes later.  I had just started taking in some of the new graphics update from the patch when I got a tell!  From start to finish, I’d say it took about 20 minutes to get all the gold I needed.  Once again, Toonstorm has proven to be a great place to get some great deals on wow gold.