Stew's Misadventures - Gnome With Style

This week I thought I''d try to cover some information on Tailoring since that is what I do for a primary profession. I used to be a tailor and an engineer when I first started beta, but I dropped engineering for enchanting pretty quickly after I got going. Unfortunately I haven''t had much time to do anything with the enchanting but it seemed a better fit for a tailor. Tailoring has been a lot of fun and pretty profitable. At this point I''m at a 365-skill level out of a possible 375. One of the first useful patterns I was able to get was for Netherweave bags, which is a 16 slot bag and fairly easy to make. Netherweave is the next commonplace cloth that drops from humanoids after Runecloth. It takes six pieces of cloth to make a single Netherweave bolt, so you burn through Netherweave very fast. Once you hit a 325-skill, you get bolt of imbued Netherweave, which is 3 netherweave bolts and 2 Arcane Dusts (Arcane Dust is one of the new enchanting items). From there the next big thing you pickup as a tailor is the Imbued Netherweave bag, which is an 18-slot bag requiring a 340-skill. To make the bag it requires four of the Imbued Netherweave bolts, two netherweb spider silks and a Greater Planar Essence. Obviously these have been very popular among those playing beta and they are a lot easier to make than those overly expensive 18-slot Bottomless Bags. From here on out, the skill points are a lot harder to come by. Once you get to 350-skill, three new specialized lines up to you: Spellcloth, Shadowcloth and Primal Mooncloth. As you would expect, the quest line to specialize begins at the trainer and ships you off to the city of Shattrath. Depending on which specialization you are interested in, you pick a different branch in the quest. Once completed you are now specialized for the particular cloth. Specialization in a particular cloth gives you a second piece for no addition materials. You are still able to make the other two types of cloth but you will only receive one piece each time. At this point there are only a handful of recipes for each specialization and can only be learned if you specialized for that cloth, but each specialization has a generic item that all Tailors can make and use. For Shadowcloth specialists, there is the Ebon Shadowbag, which is a 28-slot shard bag for Warlocks. For Spellcloth specialists, it''s the Spellfire bag, a 28-slot enchanting bag, and Primal Mooncloth, it''s the Primal Mooncloth bag, a 20-slot backpack. There are two blue (rare) patterns, Imbued Netherweave Tunic and Imbued Netherweave Robe, for a tailor with 350-skill that can only be bought in Shadowmoon Valley by someone with positive faction with the Scyers. Being that I''m aligned with the opposing Aldor faction, I had to have a friend go in and obtain those patterns for me. Good thing they aren''t soulbound!

[ Caverns of Time ]
Since last week I did get a chance to venture into the Caverns of Time with some friends. This whole area is very surreal. The first instance Durnholde covers the whole area of Southshore and Tarren Mill. The actual quest boils down to one giant escort quest where you help Thrall escape capture. Unfortunately for us, the end boss was severely bugged after our first wipe. We were trying to figure out what to do but he kept going into evade-mode at 1%. We didn''t get a chance to finish the line and I haven''t had a chance to go back. I did however spend some time roaming around the zone afterward and everyone must especially visit Southshore. It''s like a who''s who convention of all the major players from the history of Azeroth. It''s definitely worth your time to walk through the town after your done with the quests and bosses. I tried to convience Kel''Thuzad to spare us the whole Naxxramas ordeal and give me the uber loots, but he just walked right past me.
As for general questing, I''m started the week in Terokkar Forest. This area is like two zones combined together. The forest itself is one zone and then The Bone Wastes, home to the Auchindoun instances, which reminds me of the Obsidian Planes from Asheron''s Call. There are a few quests that start in Shattrath City, but most of the quests for the Alliance come from Allerian Stronghold on the border between The Bone Wastes and the actual forest. Up until now, I''ve only had one chance to do an instance in Auchindoun, which was the Auchenai Crypts. Killing mobs in this instance gives you faction for the inhabitants of the lower city of Shattrath. Once finished with Terokkar Forest, I headed west to the rolling plains of Nagrand. I should have some information on this area in next week''s issue.
I finally broke down and tried one of the other talent trees. I went with a full Affliction build to see what it was like. I was pleasantly surprised and I''ll even go so far as to say I was impressed. There seemed to be much more downtime in between fights. I did a few instances with this set up and it just fit very well with my particular playstyle. I won''t dwell on the individual talents to much since I''m not really an expert yet but the new talent trees have been added to the live servers so you can already check them out! However I''ll keep you posted on the rest of the new spells I get between 65 and 70, to see how well the stack up against other options and classes. Have a Happy Holiday and see you next year!