Things To Do Before Cataclysm Hits

Good News Everyone! As Professor Putricide would say…

This week it was announced that Patch 4.01 has been put on the PTR and with that means the last patch pre Cataclysm. What does that mean? Probably a pre 2011 Cataclysm release date (yay). Boubouille over at MMO-Champion has given his guesstimate of Nov 2nd (which is a month earlier than my 1st week of Dec) but either way, still in 2010 and most likely welcome news to everyone. With that being said, many changes are happening on both the PTR and Beta so its time to sit down and figure out what your bucket list should be for the remainder of WOTLK. Many of the items below are things geared towards those who care about achievements but there are also a few things that non achievement whores would be interested in.

Farm 310% mounts for alts

Come Cataclysm 310% flying can be purchased for the paltry fee of 5000 gold. Not too expensive but if you have spare time, you can go out and farm yourself some drakes from Ulduar or ICC which will save you 5000 gold down the line. ICC may be a stretch for some alts but Uld 10 is extremely simple even for the turdiest of alts. This probably comes down to a classic time vs money argument. If you only have a few alts then maybe its worth it to just buy the flying skill come Cata. Or if you’re one that has one of each class than 9 * 5000g = 45,000g may be a bit much and spending a few hrs in Ulduar may be a good investment.

Exalted with Zandalar Tribe

It’s already been announced that Zul’Gurub will be removed by Cataclysm so with that being said, if you want to get exalted with Zandalar Tribe, better get cracking now. WoWWiki identifies a full ZG run as giving 2500-3000 rep with all bosses giving a total of 800 rep. Throughout the instance coins (3 for 25 rep) and bijous (75 rep) will drop which also give rep so its not such a bad rep grind. ZG is on a 3 day timer.

Exalted with Cenarion Circle

Similar to Zul’Gurub, Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (or more well known as AQ20) will be removed as well to be replaced as a 10 man Cataclysm instance. How this will affect Cenarion Circle reputation is unknown but seeing as both AQ20 and AQ40 grant CC rep it is probably safe to say that some new sort of reputation will be introduced instead come Cata. So while you can get CC exalted outside of AQ20, it still is the easiest way to solo grind that rep without having to require help from others. If you have time, its worth doing now. Again, similar to ZG, this is on a 3 day timer.

Farm Rare Mounts

As mentioned above, Zul’Gurub is being removed and with it, means the Swift Zulian Tiger and Swift Razzashi Raptor will be gone. These are definitely fantastic mounts you want to have and hopefully everyone out there that has been or is working on these will get one before its too late. If you haven’t started yet and you want some thoughts on how to do it, check out my Pimp Your Druid series for articles on how to solo both.

The next step up from farming ZG mounts is farming WOTLK raid mounts in Mimiron Head/Invincible. If you’re fortunate enough to be in a guild that can down HLK25 then best of luck to you in obtaining the mount. If you’re not in one of those premier guilds then maybe YS0 is the more reasonable goal. For those of you who are farming Mimiron Heads (like us!) keep pushing and farming. Blizzard has already stated that they did not know if they would remove the 100% drop rate come 4.01 but it would be likely that it would happen come Cataclysm. So if you’re counting, using Boubouille’s date of Nov 2nd that leave us with 8 weeks (or 12 if you use my early Dec date). We’re up to a total of 7 so far, all we can do is hope that everyone that has worked hard in farming will get one.

Loremaster

The Old World is getting a complete revamp and with that means completely new quests. No one is completely sure exactly what will happen to the Loremaster achievement but most think (and me as well) that it will turn into a Feat of Strength with a new Cataclysm Loremaster being put in its place. If you’re an achievement nerd, then you’ll want to get working on this one as soon as possible as this is a huge timesink and does take a lot of effort. Everyquest is a great addon to help identify what quests are left in each zone so you know what areas to hit up.

Obtain Quest Related Items

Same reasoning as above where old quest and questlines rae disappearing, its best to get some of those fun flavour items that exist now before its too late. Specifically of interest, there is Dartol’s Rod of Transformation from a questline in Ashenvale and also the Sprite Darter Pet from a questline in Feralas. Also, there is the Green Hills of Stranglethorn questline which gives an achievement, no idea how that will be affected but hell might as well do that one too.

The list above is only things that I know for sure will change in somewhat shape or form that will prevent you from being able to obtain said item/achievement come Cataclysm. There are also a tonne of other items that exist in vanilla content that will still exist in Cataclysm but in a different format. No word as to whether these items will still exist. Just to name a few things, Deathcharger’s Rein, Sawbone’s Shirt, Master Builder’s Shirt or the pets from LBRS.

Operation: Gnomeregan

The world event for the gnomes and trolls is out so make sure you take advantage and get your Gnomeregan Pride and as well as your Feat of Strength. The transformation item is pretty cool in that it lasts for 30 mins (4 hr cooldown) which is a lot longer than most. Naturally still does not persist in forms. Remember this is a limited time engagement so make sure you get it as soon as possible. The alliance version has an extreme tendency to bug out so don’t expect to get it on your first try. It took me 6 tries before I decided to do it at an odd hour of the day without others around to bug the event.

I’m sure there are many more things to consider but these are the things I can think of, whats on your bucket list?