To understand what WoW raids really are and what they have to offer you, here are the basics of these fun areas of the game from WoWWiki:

“Raids (a type of group) are parties of 6 to 40 people, divided into 2 to 8 groups of up to 5 players. The terms “raid” and “raiding” primarily and traditionally refer to PVE raid-specific instances and zones. As party leader, a player can convert their group into a raid group by accessing the “Social” Panel, selecting “Raid”, and choosing “Convert Group to Raid.” From then on, any new players invited to the group will join the raid group (up to a maximum of 40).

While in a raid group, players do not receive credit for completing quest objectives unless the quest calls for a raid. Players also receive an experience reduction for any mob killed while in a raid group. These are to prevent players from creating very large groups in order to complete normal quests or other game content intended for parties of 5 or fewer. This experience reduction is simply that the usual “group XP bonus” is not applied while in a raid group.

In World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, all 25-player raids are also available to complete with 10 players. This is so that more players will get to see end game content. (Even the Lich King encounter will be available as a 10 player raid.)

Starting a raid – The leader of a party can convert the group to a raid by clicking the “Convert to Raid” button in the Group window. At this point it becomes a “group of parties” with up to 8 parties, each with 5 characters. The leader of the raid can drag characters between groups to move them to different parties; typically, this is done to achieve some strategic goal such as distributing shamans and paladins to share totems and auras or warriors with rogues for Battle Shout (note that this is no longer needed in current patch). The leader can promote other characters, which gives them the abilities to invite and kick from the raid and also use the broadcast raid warnings (using the “/rw” command).”

Like I said, these are the basics of WoW raids. But, there are tons of other areas that you need to know when it comes to World of Warcraft raids and raiding in general. If you are interested in raiding and want to find one of the many World of Warcraft guilds that will help you, check the forums for your server and see which raiding guilds are recruiting. Running through WoW raiding instance with your guild is the best way to learn the raids and the instances with those that have already ran them several times over.

Make sure that you check back here on Fantasy-rpg.com for more World of Warcraft raids information, guides, and more to help you become one of the best WoW raiders on your server.

Horde:
The majority of these you will find right outside of Orgrimmar. A few are scattered out through the main cities though.
Agnes Farwithers
Bizzle Quicklift
Blix Fixwidget
Blood Elf Commoner
Bok Dropcertain
Brew Vendor
Brewfest Reveler (various races)
Bron
Cort Gorestein
Driz Tumblequick
Drohn’s Distillery Apprentice
Drohn’s Distillery Barker
Drunken Brewfest Reveler
Forsaken Commoner
Glodrak Huntsniper
Gordok Brew Apprentice
Gordok Brew Barker
Gordok Brew Chief
Ja’ron
Orc Commoner
Ram Master Ray
Ray’ma
Self-Turning and Oscillating Utility Target
Slurpo Fizzykeg
Suntouched Apprentice
Tapper Swindlekeg
Tauren Commoner
T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery Apprentice
T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery Barker
Uta Roughdough
Vol’jin (during keg tapping ceremony)
Many of the Horde goblin NPCs for the Brewfest are wearing dwarf masks. This appears to be an homage to the dwarves’ legendary brewing and drinking abilities.

Alliance:
The majority of these NPC’s are outside of Ironforge, although, just like Horde NPC’s some are scattered out throughout the other major cities.
Anne Summers
Arlen Lochlan
Barleybrew Apprentice
Becan Barleybrew
Belbi Quikswitch (also noteworthy for her suggestive flirting banter)
Boxey Boltspinner
Brew Vendor
Brewfest Reveler (various races)
Brother Cartwright
Daran Thunderbrew
Darna Honeybock
Draenei Commoner
Dwarf Commoner
Flynn Firebrew
Goldark Snipehunter
Gordok Brew Apprentice
Gordok Brew Barker
Gordok Brew Chief
Human Commoner
Ipfelkofer Ironkeg
Ita Thunderbrew
Keiran Donoghue
Larkin Thunderbrew
Maeve Barleybrew
Neill Ramstein
Night Elf Commoner
Pol Amberstill
Self-Turning and Oscillating Utility Target
Thunderbrew Apprentice

Keep in mind that these tips are for both Horde and Alliance players. If you want to know about basic Brewfest information, Alliance Brewfest Quest Information, or Horde Brewfest Quest Information, we have you covered here on Fantasy-rpg.

Racing Ram Tips
Several of the quests involve the racing rams, including the barking runs and the keg delivery. The ram racing event mechanics do not depend on character level.
The rams have 5 speeds, accessed through the [Ram Racing Reins]. Using the reins “encourages” the ram to speed up; encourage it enough times and its speed increases (see the speed table below). It takes a few clicks to go up to the next speed and you have to click on a regular basis to stay in a speed range. Clicking faster than the maintenance rate will speed up the pace, while not clicking for a while will slow down. Binding your reins to a hot key will give you an easier method to more easily and precisely control your use of your reins. The first ram practice quest that teaches you how to achieve the speeds.
If you get into Canter and Gallop speeds, you get a stacking debuff called Ram Fatigue which tracks your ram’s fatigue. If this debuff stacks to 100, your ram becomes exhausted and slows almost to a crawl for 15 seconds. It is essential that you manage your ram’s fatigue, and the two repeatable ram racing events, delivery and barking, provide two different means for doing so.

Calculating Ram Speed
Exhausted: 14% 1/7 -15 after 15 seconds Occurs if you stack the Ram Fatigue debuff beyond 100
Walking: 43% 3/7 -4 every 2 seconds Rams start here and if you do nothing this is how fast they go
Slightly faster than a player walking backwards
Trot: 129% 9/7 -2 every 2 seconds Slower than a regular mount
Canter: 200% 14/7 +1 every second Equal to epic mount speed with no trinkets
Gallop : 286% 20/7 +5 every second
(Faster than Epic with Crusader)

Keg delivery
Ramstein’s Swift Work Ram lasts for a total of 4 minutes. During the keg delivery daily quest, the time limit for the ram is increased by 30 seconds for each keg delivered. However, the buff has a maximum duration of 15 minutes. Even if you deliver the 23rd keg successfully, which increases the duration to 15m30s, you will be dismounted at the 15m mark. If you gallop the whole way, a single keg trip can easily take as little as 40-60 seconds, earning you 2 [Brewfest Prize Tokens], meaning that expert ram riders can stretch out the four-minute keg run to 8-10 minutes, getting 20 Brewfest Prize Tokens or more (down from 50 in the beginning of the event in 2007).

For the keg deliveries, there are apple barrels which, if you ride by closely enough, will remove the Ram Fatigue debuff entirely and allow it to start at zero again. This is very important to maximize token gain from the keg delivery daily quest, it allows you to gallop at full speed throughout the event. (The apple barrels work on any ram, and there are some barrels near the barker quest NPCs, but the barking run does not have barrels along the barking route.)

Players with lag may find that riding past the barrels does not always dispel the debuff. If this happens to you, compensate by ramming the barrels for a half second or so and then slide around them. An alternate method is to make an arching, banana shaped path around the barrel resulting in a longer path through the barrel’s trigger radius without having to actually pause the forward movement of the ram. Jumping in the proximity of the barrel seems to give you a fraction of a second longer for the fatigue dispel to proc. This extra time in proximity to the barrel will reduce the chance that you will miss your reset and exhaust your ram. In the 2007 Brewfest you could stop (by pressing the key that would normally cause you to back up) momentarily, again creating extra time in proximity to the barrel, but this is not possible in the Brewfest 2008.
You should keep tabs on the debuff and watch for the red flash when it dispels, but beware, the red flash is an unreliable indication, check that the debuff reset to zero. If the debuff fails to dispel, it is much more expedient to return to the barrel than to allow the Exhausted Ram to proc. The endpoints can also fail to proc, and it is useful to keep your main bag open so that you can see when you get the keg and when you’ve delivered it. By all means ensure that you delivered the keg, you will not get the extra 30 seconds until you do. If you have to revisit an end point, you will probably also need a trip to an apple barrel.
One very easy way to keep tabs on whether or not you’ve gotten and/or dropped off your keg on any given run is to designate a specific inventory spot where the keg will go, and then set up a macro to use the item in that slot (make sure, however, that the first line of the macro reads “#showtooltip”, without the quotation marks). Drag the macro to a spot in your UI where you can easily see it (if you’ve got an addon like Bartender, which will allow you to make a bar with one single giant button wherever you like, so much the better), then make sure before starting any given race that the slot you’ve picked is the first available slot in your inventory. A very easy way to ensure this is to set your macro to “/use 0 1″, then before every race move whatever item is in the top-left corner of your backpack to a different bag somewhere – your kegs will then go into that slot every time you get them, for the duration of the race. Any time that inventory slot is empty (for example when you don’t have a keg), the button will show as a big red question mark; any time you DO have a keg, it will show up on the button.

The best time of day to do this quest is when the server is least busy, because you will have less problem with events not proccing. Evening is the prime time to avoid, if your schedule allows it.

Optimal path for Alliance:

There are four apple barrels along the route – barrel 1 in the ram pen, barrel 2 at the crossing, barrel 3 at the gnome house (new in 2008); this was moved to across the street in 2009, and barrel 4 in Kharanos behind the keg thrower (moved in 2009 to near the carts on the other side of the street). You should avoid using barrel 4, since barrel 3 is so close to the keg thrower. Just make a quick 180 shortly before you’d ride past the guard (Ironforge Mountaineer), and ride back to barrel 3. Similarly, you should avoid using barrel 1, since barrel 2 is so close to the keg receiver. Just make a quick 180 shortly after you ride into the clearing where the receiver stands. You should use as few barrels as possible; each entails a slight but cumulative delay. There are a few fast routes, but you will have to compromise some guidelines.

Strategy 1 – The first strategy is less risky, but a little slower (14-15 deliveries). Just ride to barrel 3, get the keg, ride back to barrel 3, then ride to barrel 1 at the ram pen (skipping barrel 2 entirely). Rinse and repeat. Uses 3 refreshment barrels.

Strategy 2 – The second strategy is like the first, but reverses the refreshing scheme. Ride to barrel 2, ride toward barrel 4, but approach from the keg thrower’s side. There is a line of barrels stacked near the road, if you ride along either side of that, you are close enough to get a keg. Ride around keg four, or jump and spin over it, and ride back to barrel 2. Ride toward the keg receiver, turn in the clearing before you get to him, and repeat. Uses 3 refreshment barrels.

Strategy 3 – The third route (16-20 deliveries) goes like this: You start by going to barrel 3, get the keg, ride to barrel 3, then ride towards the ram pen in a straight line. Now there are two flags in front of the ram pen: Flag 1 in front of it next to a big tree, and another one next to a smaller tree. When you ride a couple yards past flag 1, you’ll throw your keg. Make a quick turn there, and ride around the big tree towards barrel 2. Your fatigue should be 50-55 when you make that turn. Just to be safe you should stop using your Ram Racing Reins at 45-50 fatigue. You’ll fall back to Canter when your debuff stacks to ~90 (this is where it gets a little risky). Just make sure your debuff resets, then start using the Reins again and Gallop to barrel 3, etc. So this is the path: Barrel 3, pick up the keg, barrel 3, deliver, barrel 2, barrel 3, pick up the keg, barrel 3, deliver, 2->3->pick up->3->deliver->2->3 etc. Uses 3 refreshment barrels, none of which are end point turns.

Strategy 4 – Another route you might want to try is hit both middle barrels in both directions, and skip both end barrels: (start), barrel 2, barrel 3, pick-up (yards in front of the NPC), barrel 3, barrel 2, deliver (yards in front of the NPC), repeat. This is a very fast, yet forgiving route, and you can adjust your pickup and delivery turns as you gain confidence. Uses 4 refreshment barrels, none of which are end point turns. This is slower than the third strategy, but the timing is not as tight, so it is less risky as you are building confidence.

Strategy 5 – It’s possible to use only barrel 3. The path is very simple: Barrel 3, pick up, barrel 3, deliver. You should only try this route if you’re very good at using the jumping trick below (keep the Galloping speed midair while only getting Canter fatigue ticks). You need to use it about 6 times when delivering the keg. It’s the fastest possible route (very close to a straight line), but also the hardest. Tip: Practice with the ram from the barking quest.

Optimal path for Horde:

There are also four apple barrels along the route, which goes along the road toward Razor Hill. Barrel 1 is in the ram pen behind the tent, barrel 2 along the west side of the road (right side when you are starting), north (toward org) of the goblin merchant’ cart and clearing, barrel 3 hidden behind a small hilly outcropping on the east (left side when you are starting out) at the entrance to the canyon, and barrel 4 in the canyon behind and across the road to the east of the keg thrower. The same guidelines and strategies apply with the additional advice that barrel 2 seems particularly conveniently placed. It’s safest to eat from all three barrels, but Barrel 2 is close enough to the keg receiver than you can eat from Barrel 2, toss the keg, and return to Barrel 2 just as your ram’s fatigue hits 90-95. The timing is very close, and players with server lag might not wish to risk the two seconds it could take for your ram to register that an apple barrel is nearby.

General tips:
A tip for quick, easy course changes: Once you get your ram pointed on a clear straight path to an apple barrel or keg pick-up or drop-off point, rotate your camera to face the direction you’ll want to travel after getting there. That way, when you reach your destination, you can press the right mouse button to change your heading instantly and accurately. The rams are always running, but the game still keeps track of whether your character is in run or stand mode. If you are in run mode many peoples’ camera swings to face forward. You can just press your key bound to turn off movement. Your ram will still be running, but your camera will stay in place as if you were standing still.

You can also hold down your left mouse button after rotating the view to remain facing where you’ve turned the camera. While doing this, pressing the right mouse button will instantly change the direction as above.

Another tip to try and maximize your runs involves jumping. If you jump while your ram is Galloping, then in midair you switch to Canter, you can get a few seconds of Gallop speed with the fatigue cost of Canter. So with some good timing you can get 2 to 4 seconds of free Gallop time between the barrel thrower and the apples. Also for those without lag, take note of how soon you can turn around. It’s much sooner than you may think.

Keep your thumb on the space bar to jump, because you will get hung up on scenery items, and jumping will usually release you. If that doesn’t work, try quick turns.

If the Exhausted Ram debuff procs, you are kind of screwed; even if you are at a barrel, with zero fatigue, the debuff will run for its full 15 seconds. Don’t sweat it, just do your best and get the most tokens you can out of the remainder of the run. If the debuff procs and your fatigue is still high, around 85, then trot or canter to the nearest barrel, don’t gallop, then resume the run after you’ve cleared your fatigue.

Seconds count To restate the point, if you can consistently shave seconds off your runs, you will get more tokens. Don’t feel bad if you screw up, it is a learning process, and this run has all kinds of room for improving your technique. If you at least try, you will get some tokens. But the curve of run time vs how many tokens you get takes off asymptotically toward infinity as you approach a 30 second run. So, as your runs get very good, fractions of a second saved can accumulate to several tokens difference.

Barking runs
For the barking runs, there are no apple barrels along the route, and you will have to pace yourself. Gallop becomes counterproductive; you will build up fatigue too rapidly and be forced to go too slow. Mixing canter for speed and trot for fatigue recovery while still moving will allow you to complete the task.
When you complete the quest and are returning to the NPC, both the Alliance and Horde versions will afford you the opportunity to take a downhill shortcut. Take it if you can. Leaving Iron Forge, go down the mountainside toward the Brewfest. If you pick your way, you can have damage under 1%, but expect over 1%. If you jump straight down expect over 50% damage. In Orgrimmar, leaving the Valley of Spirits, fortuitous use of jumping down to rooftops will allow you to take a straighter route out of the city.

The quest objectives are to bark at four locations in the city, but returning to the quest NPC is not a quest objective. This means you only have to return to the NPC to turn in the already completed quest. You can switch to your normal mount, as long as you barked at all four locations while mounted on the ram. (Unconfirmed, but you probably need to have the reins in your possession when you talk to the NPC, so walking back may not be fast enough.)

Other ram tips
The rams work much like any other mount, an performing most actions while mounting will despawn the mount. That means when you are on a ram, and if you are you are on a ram racing quest, stay focused on the ram quest, do not do anything else. Be careful which hot key you press. Your faction’s , next to NPC offers replacement reins. These do not summon a ram, however, they are useful to prep for the non-quest mechanic, when continuing to help out Brewfest.

The rams are actually a spell Rental Racing Ram that lasts for four minutes. You could probably creatively exploit this for your low level character. You might use it to run toward Loch Modan for the delivery quest and to pick up the fight path. If you do this on the initial ram racing quests, rather than the repeatables, you can abandon the quest and get another ram.

(Thanks to WoWWiki for this great Brewfest information.)

[1-80] Brewfest! from Commoners found in every major city. (Only available if you haven’t done Welcome to Brewfest!)
[1-80] Welcome to Brewfest!
[80] Save Brewfest! from Slurpo Fizzykeg, Durotar
[80D Daily] Insult Coren Direbrew
[80] Direbrew’s Dire Brew from [Direbrew's Dire Brew]
[1-80] Chug and Chuck!
[1-80 Daily] This One Time, When I Was Drunk…
[1-80] Now This is Ram Racing… Almost.
[1-80] There and Back Again
“Do you have additional work?” – doesn’t quite follow the quest mechanic, but is the repeatable Racing Ram delivery run. Not a daily, repeatable every 12 (see bugs) hours.
[1-80 Daily] Bark for Drohn’s Distillery! or Bark for T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery!
[1-80] Another Year, Another Souvenir 2009 only
[1-80] Brew of the Month Club from ["Brew of the Month" Club Membership Form]
[1-80] Catch the Wild Wolpertinger! (Back in 2009 for US players only. Rewards a [Wolpertinger's Tankard])
[1-80] Pink Elekks On Parade (Back in 2009 for US players only!)

Continuing to help out Brewfest:
After completing the quest “There and Back Again” by your respective faction, talk to your faction’s . There is an option to help out by delivering more ale from the village to the . This is not a quest that will show up in your quest log, and it won’t count against your daily total. It resets every 12/18 (see bugs) hours, so you can repeat it more than once a day.

The non-quest mechanic gives you a Rental Racing Ram for four minutes, which has a 12/18 hour cooldown. If the Rental Racing Ram buff is dispelled or canceled, and you cannot restore it; you simply have to wait for the reset. If you are shapeshifted, you will be unable to mount the ram, but you will have consumed your attempt, and again you have to wait to get another one. When the mechanic is started, you will be given Ram Racing Reins, however, you can also request them from the neighboring NPC to get a head start.
The non-quest mechanic works the same as the There and Back Again quest, except that for each successful delivery, you are awarded an extra 30 seconds on your Rental Racing Ram buff and 2 .

The maximum number of tokens that can be obtained is debatable. However you can use the following formula to predict how many coins you could win, given your run speed. Remember that each run gives 2 , so for example if you have 6 successful run you will receive 12 . Ignore any remainder on the number of runs – partial runs do not count.

Number of runs = 210 seconds / (run time in seconds – 30 seconds)

In theory, if every run (including the first one where you have to speed up from a stand still) could be completed in 30 seconds or less, you would not actually have 210 runs, but an infinite number of runs. However, to even obtain a 35 second run requires a very skilled and consistent rider who was lucky enough to experience zero lag. In this scenario, it would seem the hypothetical “perfect run” would yield 84 from 42 successful runs. As a point of reference, multiple contributors have reported several runs of 23 rounds, which is just over 39 seconds on average (remembering the first round is slower).

The Dark Iron Dwarves prepare to attack Brewfest:
Every half-hour, a party of Dark Iron Dwarves will crash the party at the main Brewfest camps outside Ironforge and Orgrimmar. Hitting these dwarves with a beer mug will stop them from stealing the free brew. Here’s how you can participate in saving the free brew for the invited guests:

Pick up a complementary sample brew from any one of the square tables. The mugs last 15 minutes, logged in or not. They are handed out from the Brewery Barkers whenever players loot a free sampler from the tables.

Using this item will cause you to quickly drink it and throw the empty mug. Staying in range (roughly 40 yards) of the NPCs that represent each brewery around the area while using a complementary brew sampler will cause them to toss you another sample. If you need to, you can always manually loot another one from the table. Drinking the mugs will get you drunk, especially if you are doing it several times in rapid succession.

If there are Dark Irons around, the mug you throw may hit one of them and knock them out. It is a random chance, and does not appear to depend on character level. This is a somewhat unique battle in WoW where a low level character can contribute as much as a high level character. The mug works even with no Dark Irons around; it will either hit your target or if you have no target it just lands on the ground. Each time you throw the mug, you lose it, but another one will quickly be thrown to you by a barker provided you are somewhere nearby. It is useful to bind the mug to a hot key in order to drink and throw rapidly.

It is not useful to chase the Dark Iron Dwarves. The empty mugs travel quite far, and moving interrupts throwing. In addition, the Dark Iron Dwarves have a brawling move that throws player characters away from them and interrupts throwing mugs, so keeping your distance allows you to attack more often.
On occasion, large silver mugs will be placed on the ground. Walking through one of these mugs will give the player a whirlwind attack buff for several seconds. When one such mug is placed on the ground, a barker will yell out “try some of this super brew”.

During the 2007 Brewfest event, a stacking mark buff was awarded based on knocking out Dark Iron Dwarves, which could then be turned into tickets. For 2008 this is replaced by a daily quest offered by a remaining large cog of the Dark Iron Diggers if you’re able to fight off the attackers and keep at least one of the kegs intact. The large cog has a quest question mark; loot the quest before the cog disappears. Turning the quest in to the practice mugs NPC awards 10 [Brewfest Prize Tokens]. You can assist the defense as often as you want to, but you can only get the quest once per day. If you are part of any additional successful defenses within a day, you will not be able to click on the cog for a quest dialog.

Beating the waves of Dark Iron Dwarves is a group effort, there are too many and the drink and toss rate is too low for any one character to do this by themselves. Your assistance is always welcome by other defenders, but if you are setting aside time to do this for the quest tokens, do it at a time when the server is busy so that you will be part of a heavily defended Brewfest celebration.
You do not have to take part in the defense in order to collect this quest. The cog is available for anyone to loot if the defenders are successful. You do not have to complete the Chug and Chuck! quest first.

Want to know more about Brewfest? Make sure that you check out the Alliance Quest List and information as well as the basic information on Brewfest that you cannot miss out on here on Fantasy-rpg.

[1-80] Brewfest! from Commoners found in every major city. (Only available if you haven’t done Welcome to Brewfest!)
[1-80] Welcome to Brewfest!
[80] Save Brewfest! from Darna Honeybock, Kharanos
[80D Daily] Insult Coren Direbrew
[80] Direbrew’s Dire Brew from [Direbrew's Dire Brew]
[1-80] Chug and Chuck!
[1-80 Daily] This One Time, When I Was Drunk…
[1-80] Now This is Ram Racing… Almost.
[1-80] There and Back Again
“Do you have additional work?” – doesn’t quite follow the quest mechanic, but is the repeatable Racing Ram delivery run. Not a daily, repeatable every 12 hours.
[1-80 Daily] Bark for the Barleybrews! or Bark for the Thunderbrews!
[1-80] Another Year, Another Souvenir 2009 only
[1-80] Brew of the Month Club from ["Brew of the Month" Club Membership Form]
[1-80] Catch the Wild Wolpertinger! (Back in 2009 for US players only! Rewards [Wolpertinger's Tankard])
[1-80] Pink Elekks On Parade (Back in 2009 for US players only!)

Continuing to help out Brewfest:
After completing the quest “There and Back Again” by your respective faction, talk to your faction’s . There is an option to help out by delivering more ale from the village to the . This is not a quest that will show up in your quest log, and it won’t count against your daily total. It resets every 12/18 hours (since it’s bugged), so you can repeat it more than once a day.

The non-quest mechanic gives you a Rental Racing Ram for four minutes, which has a 12/18 hour cooldown. If the Rental Racing Ram buff is dispelled or canceled, and you cannot restore it; you simply have to wait for the reset. If you are shapeshifted, you will be unable to mount the ram, but you will have consumed your attempt, and again you have to wait to get another one. When the mechanic is started, you will be given Ram Racing Reins, however, you can also request them from the neighboring NPC to get a head start.

The non-quest mechanic works the same as the There and Back Again quest, except that for each successful delivery, you are awarded an extra 30 seconds on your Rental Racing Ram buff and 2 .

The maximum number of tokens that can be obtained is debatable. However you can use the following formula to predict how many coins you could win, given your run speed. Remember that each run gives 2 , so for example if you have 6 successful run you will receive 12 . Ignore any remainder on the number of runs – partial runs do not count.

Number of runs = 210 seconds / (run time in seconds – 30 seconds)

In theory, if every run (including the first one where you have to speed up from a stand still) could be completed in 30 seconds or less, you would not actually have 210 runs, but an infinite number of runs. However, to even obtain a 35 second run requires a very skilled and consistent rider who was lucky enough to experience zero lag. In this scenario, it would seem the hypothetical “perfect run” would yield 84 from 42 successful runs. As a point of reference, multiple contributors have reported several runs of 23 rounds, which is just over 39 seconds on average (remembering the first round is slower).

The Dark Iron Dwarves prepare to attack Brewfest:
Every half-hour, a party of Dark Iron Dwarves will crash the party at the main Brewfest camps outside Ironforge and Orgrimmar. Hitting these dwarves with a beer mug will stop them from stealing the free brew. Here’s how you can participate in saving the free brew for the invited guests:

Pick up a complementary sample brew from any one of the square tables. The mugs last 15 minutes, logged in or not. They are handed out from the Brewery Barkers whenever players loot a free sampler from the tables.

Using this item will cause you to quickly drink it and throw the empty mug. Staying in range (roughly 40 yards) of the NPCs that represent each brewery around the area while using a complementary brew sampler will cause them to toss you another sample. If you need to, you can always manually loot another one from the table. Drinking the mugs will get you drunk, especially if you are doing it several times in rapid succession.

If there are Dark Irons around, the mug you throw may hit one of them and knock them out. It is a random chance, and does not appear to depend on character level. This is a somewhat unique battle in WoW where a low level character can contribute as much as a high level character. The mug works even with no Dark Irons around; it will either hit your target or if you have no target it just lands on the ground. Each time you throw the mug, you lose it, but another one will quickly be thrown to you by a barker provided you are somewhere nearby. It is useful to bind the mug to a hot key in order to drink and throw rapidly.

It is not useful to chase the Dark Iron Dwarves. The empty mugs travel quite far, and moving interrupts throwing. In addition, the Dark Iron Dwarves have a brawling move that throws player characters away from them and interrupts throwing mugs, so keeping your distance allows you to attack more often.
On occasion, large silver mugs will be placed on the ground. Walking through one of these mugs will give the player a whirlwind attack buff for several seconds. When one such mug is placed on the ground, a barker will yell out “try some of this super brew”.

During the 2007 Brewfest event, a stacking mark buff was awarded based on knocking out Dark Iron Dwarves, which could then be turned into tickets. For 2008 this is replaced by a daily quest offered by a remaining large cog of the Dark Iron Diggers if you’re able to fight off the attackers and keep at least one of the kegs intact. The large cog has a quest question mark; loot the quest before the cog disappears. Turning the quest in to the practice mugs NPC awards 10 [Brewfest Prize Tokens]. You can assist the defense as often as you want to, but you can only get the quest once per day. If you are part of any additional successful defenses within a day, you will not be able to click on the cog for a quest dialog.

Beating the waves of Dark Iron Dwarves is a group effort, there are too many and the drink and toss rate is too low for any one character to do this by themselves. Your assistance is always welcome by other defenders, but if you are setting aside time to do this for the quest tokens, do it at a time when the server is busy so that you will be part of a heavily defended Brewfest celebration.
You do not have to take part in the defense in order to collect this quest. The cog is available for anyone to loot if the defenders are successful. You do not have to complete the Chug and Chuck! quest first.

For more information on Brewfest, check out the basics of Brewfest here on Fantasy-rpg.

(Thanks to WoWWiki for this great Brewfest Information.)

Brewfest is a holiday loosely based on the Bavarian Oktoberfest. It contains quests and novelty things such as outfits, kegs, and riding rams. In 2008, it began on the 20th of September and continued until October 4th. The main events are just outside of Ironforge and Orgrimmar, although there are also beer gardens set up outside of all the major cities. The only small exception to this is Shattrath; its beer garden is between the Aldor/Scryer elevators, likely so the city’s sanctuary status would continue to be easily maintained. (There are even Teldrassil Pink Elekk to be seen within this area by the inebriated.)

Celebrated by both the Horde and the Alliance, the Brewfest is a time to enjoy the fermented fruits of the harvest: pretzels, cheese, and booze! The competing breweries Thunderbrew, Barleybrew, and the Ogres, all come together outside of all the major cities in a bid to outdo each other with their special ales, meads, and beers. Brave adventurers are invited to sit back, take a pull, and sample the finest wares these brewers have to offer!

Brew and buffs:
Brewfest is about brew, and the brew is good, and is cheap or free. The brews vended by the brewers are both alcoholic (inebriating) and provide a well fed buff, similar to the Rumsey Rums. The brewers have representatives at other cities vending the same brews. A Brewfest Stein is awarded for the completing an easy Souvenir quest (see Quests below) which will allow you to drink a few of these selections for free. There is also food and other inebriating drinks available. The complementary sample brews used to pelt the Dark Iron Dwarves will also get you drunk.
edit Tapping of the Keg

At 6:15 AM and 6:15 PM server time, Gelbin Mekkatorque or Vol’jin gives a short speech and taps the small keg on the stand at the Brewfest grounds. Characters attending this ceremony receive a Brewfest Enthusiast buff granting 10% extra experience for two hours (reportedly only from killing mobs, not from quests, much like rest).

Brewfest mounts:
Since Brewfest 2008, the Brewfest mounts are no longer available for purchase through the token system. Players must now venture to Blackrock Depths and defeat Coren Direbrew, a boss encounter whose method of summoning is similar to the Headless Horseman.
The mount is not a guaranteed drop, but the mounts are not faction-specific![1] Players from either side stand a chance at looting the [Great Brewfest Kodo] or the [Swift Brewfest Ram]
Players who completed the quest to unlock ram mount purchasing in 2007 may still purchase [Brewfest Ram] and [Swift Brewfest Ram] from the Ram Racing Apprentice ( Pol Amberstill or Driz Tumblequick), no trip into Blackrock Depths needed.

Token redemption:
There are several items you can get from redeeming [Brewfest Prize Tokens]. To redeem your tokens, or turn 2007′s [Brewfest Prize Tickets] into tokens, visit
Belbi Quikswitch at the Alliance Brewfest grounds outside Ironforge
Larkin Thunderbrew in the Stonefire Tavern in Ironforge.
Blix Fixwidget at the Horde Brewfest grounds outside Orgrimmar
Ray’ma in the Valley of Spirits in Orgrimmar
Larkin Thunderbrew and Ray’ma remain available for redeeming Brewfest Prize Tokens for some time after Brewfest ends. They will not offer to vend after the Brewfest if you are not carrying Brewfest Prize Tokens.

[Wolpertinger's Tankard] can only be obtained by completing “Catch the Wild Wolpertinger!” and is not available for purchase in 2009, except for players in Europe.
The Brewfest Hops items are like the [Fresh Holly] of the Feast of Winter Veil.
Preserved Brewfest Hops are like the [Preserved Holly] of the Feast of Winter Veil.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the upcoming third expansion for World of Warcraft and was officially announced on August 21, 2009 at BlizzCon 2009. The majority of the expansion content takes place in drastically reforged Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms.

It is to include the playable races of the worgen for the Alliance and the goblins for the Horde. Flying mounts will finally be usable in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. Deathwing has made his return into the ‘real world’ from Deepholm, causing a new Sundering.
Lore

From the official site:
An ancient evil lies dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane.

Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.

Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.

Information Revealed at Blizzcon 2009
The following is a list of highlights from BlizzCon 2009.
Level cap increased to 85.

Zones are destroyed by lava in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. The Barrens has been split into two, and is full of canyons of lava. Wetlands is destroyed, Ashenvale hit as well. The Maelstrom churns.

New race for the Alliance: Worgen

* Classes: death knight, druid, hunter, mage, priest, rogue, warlock and warrior.

New race for the Horde: Goblins

* Classes: death knight, hunter, mage, priest, rogue, shaman, warlock and warrior.

New Race / Class combinations. See the chart below.
New monsters, quests, and zones
Several new dungeons and raids
3 new battlegrounds (including “Battle for Gilneas City” [1]) and a new Wintergrasp-like PvP zone, Tol Barad
Classic zones forever changed by the Cataclysm. The changes will be made available to all players regardless of expansion purchase.
Ability to fly anywhere due to the Azeroth revamp. The blood elf and draenei starting zones will still be instanced.
Guild advancement system, which includes guild leveling, talents, achievements, and accessories.
Revamped character progression via the Paths of the Titans, Archaeology, the new secondary profession, and Ancient glyphs.
Rated battlegrounds, an alternative way to earn arena points
Ragnaros was banished in the Molten Core, but has now returned to burn Nordrassil.
Malfurion Stormrage has returned from the Emerald Dream to help defend Hyjal.
Profession level cap raised to 525 and will be named Illustrious
.
New ability for Jewelcrafters, Engineers, Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers and Tailors called “Reforging”

Stat changes:
* Armor penetration rating is being removed from the game. Some physical DPS specs will be able to gain armor penetration through talent trees and mastery bonuses.
* Attack power is being removed from gear. Death knights, paladins and warriors will still gain 2 attack power per point of strength, and all druids, hunters, shamans and rogues will get 2 attack power per point of agility and no attack power from strength.
* Block value is being removed from the game, blocking will provide percentile damage reduction, which can be increased through talent trees and mastery bonuses.
* Defense is being removed from the game. All tanking specs will get anti-critical hit talents similar to Survival of the Fittest.
* Haste will affect the rate at which energy, rage, focus and runes are gained. Enhancement shamans and retribution paladins will gain talents which allow them to gain similar benefits from haste.
* Mastery is being added. Mastery will provide a bonus based on the talent tree which has the most points in it, such as armor penetration or cooldown reduction.
* MP5 is being removed, all healing specs will rely on spirit for mana regeneration. Holy paladins and restoration shamans may get mana regenerations like Intensity and Meditation, or the 5 second rule may be removed. Spell DPS classes will no longer rely on spirit for mana regeneration, and spirit will no longer be on spell DPS gear.
* Spell power is being removed from items. Characters will gain spell power from intellect much like how they currently gain attack power from agility and strength.

Many passive talents with generic bonuses, such as increased critical strike chance, damage reduction or increased healing are being removed, and each talent tree will provide passive bonuses based on the number of points invested in it.

(*this information was taken with permission from WoWWiki.)

Voydo is a new site that allows you to create an easy to share video download from any site out there that has your favorite World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, or other gaming videos. You simply copy the URL of the video that you want to download, paste it in the box on Voydo, and BAM! You have an instant format that is downloaded onto your computer. Then, you can easily share your favorite videos with anyone you want – or just watch them any time you want.

You can download World of Warcraft videos from places like YouTube, Break.com, Dailymotion.com, Google Videos, Blip.tv, Redtube, and more. It doesn’t really matter where the videos are posted on the web, you can use Voydo to download and save them to your computer.

While Voydo is still in it’s beta phase, it’s super simple to use and you only need Flash Player installed on your computer to use it and you are ready to rock and roll. Want to know more about Voydo or use it to save your favorite World of Warcraft videos on your computer or laptop? Simply check out Convert And Download YouTube Videos and you will be able to instantly use any gaming video you want.

Many good high-level recipes are sold by factions. Faction grinding keeps many crafters busy for several weeks and can often be very expensive if you are not backed by a guild. It is not uncommon for a crafter to start out with two collecting professions (usually Skinning/Mining or Skinning/Herbalism), later learn the first production craft, and in the end learn a second production craft to maximize benefit from the faction.

The most benefit to your character comes from trying to keep your professions leveled up as you progress through the game. High end crafting, including specializations, can be extremely useful and lucrative, especially from patterns that come from end game faction grinding or drop in high level instances (some of which Bind on Pickup. There are also several quests which require crafted items for completion.

You may unlearn a profession and start a new one but this removes the chosen profession. If you were to learn it again, you would have to start leveling it from a skill level of 1 again. You will also forget any recipes you may have acquired in your old profession so they must be reacquired if you take it up again. The new profession you choose to replace it with also starts with a skill level of 1. You can unlearn a profession from your skills tab (the hotkey is k). To do so, click on the appropriate profession, and in the bottom part of the panel is a tiny icon that when moused over will tell you it lets you unlearn your profession. Be sure you really want to unlearn a profession; Blizzard will not undo it if you change your mind!

Primary and Secondary Professions
Professions are divided into two classes: primary and secondary professions. You can only have 2 primary professions at any time, and are not required to take any. You may take up all Secondary professions, but again are not obliged to do so.

Primary Professions
You may train in up to 2 primary professions.

Gathering Primary Professions
Enchanting – Disenchant items for enchanting supplies (via Disenchanting).
Herbalism – Gather herbs from the ground and some dead mobs.
Mining – Obtain ore from mineral veins and smelt it into bars.
Skinning – Skin dead creatures for leather, pelts, and scales.

Crafting Primary Professions
Sometimes referred to as “production” or “building” professions.

Alchemy – Create potions, elixirs, flasks and other alchemical goods. (specialize: Master of Potions, Master of Elixirs, or Master of Transmutation)
Blacksmithing – Create metal goods, such as weapons and armor. (specialize: Armorsmith or Weaponsmith. Further specialization for weaponsmiths: Swordsmith, Axesmith, or Hammersmith)
Enchanting – Add enhancements to items, such as stat boosts and special properties.
Engineering – Create mechanical devices and explosives, such as grenades, explosive sheep, mechanical pets, and many others. (specialize: Goblin or Gnomish Engineering)
Inscription (not yet released) Create inscriptions that modify existing spells and abilities.
Jewelcrafting – Create jewelry such as rings and trinkets, and create gems for items with sockets.
Leatherworking – Create leather goods such as leather armor and armor kits.(specialize: Dragonscale, Elemental, or Tribal Leatherworking)
Tailoring – Create cloth armor and bags. (specialize: Primal Mooncloth, Shadowcloth, or Spellcloth)

Secondary Professions
You may train as many of these secondary professions as you want.

Cooking – Cook food that can also provide temporary buffs.
First aid – Create bandages and poison-cleansing anti-venoms,
Fishing – Gather fish from lakes, rivers and oceans.
Riding – Required to ride a mount.

Raising Skill
As you increase in a skill, more recipes reach a 0% chance to increase the skill (at this point the recipie will appear grey in the profession window). When a recipe turns green, a skill raise seldom occurs. A yellow recipe will raise the skill by roughly 50% of the number of iterations. An orange recipe always raises the skill 1 point (the exception to this rule being Skinning, wherein skinning a corpse which appears orange does not garuantee a skill increase, and often many such corpses must be skinned in order to raise the skill.

The chance of skilling up changes within a color band as well. For example, if a particular item goes from orange to yellow at 240 and from yellow to green at 255, the chance of skilling up will be almost as good as orange from 240-245, middling from 245-250, and barely better than green from 250-255. It is often beneficial to make high yellow items to skill up more cost effectively than orange items, but low yellow items should only be used if inexpensive (or if profitable!).

Proficiency Levels
Professions can be trained to 5 levels of proficiency. Some of the skills, especially gathering and secondary skills, do not have character level requirements for some levels. All require level 5 to get apprentice. All the primary, crafting skills have the level requirements. All the secondary skills have a quest which is given only at or above the level requirement for Artisan.

Reputation
All of the skills have reduced cost to train if you are Honored with the Faction to which the trainer belongs. Since you can generally have at least one reputation at honored by 20th level, selecting where to train will save you 5 . This is also true for all recipes for the building professions.

Bonus to skill
Bonus to skill, be it from racial or item bonuses, has a couple of benefits. Principally the chance to skill up is based off of the characters base skill level – i.e. the skill level before the racial or item bonus. This makes it much easier to level up the skill. The Draenei Jewelcrafting skill bonus of 5, for example, means that a recipe that turned from orange to yellow at 30 for other races would not turn yellow until 35 for a Draenei jewelcrafter.

Racial profession skill bonuses
Certain races receive a profession skill bonus as a racial trait.

Gnome ? +15 Engineering
Tauren ? +15 Herbalism
Draenei ? +5 Jewelcrafting
Blood Elf ? +10 Enchanting

Bonuses from enchants
Certain enchants give profession skill bonuses.

Enchant Gloves – Fishing adds 2 to Fishing skill.
Enchant Gloves – Herbalism adds 2 to Herbalism skill.
Enchant Gloves – Mining adds 2 to Mining skill.
Enchant Gloves – Skinning adds 5 to Skinning skill.
Enchant Gloves – Advanced Mining adds 5 to Mining skill.
Enchant Gloves – Advanced Herbalism adds 5 to Herbalism skill.

Bonuses from equipment
Certain items give profession skill bonuses.

[Finkle's Skinner] adds +10 to Skinning skill.
[Zulian Slicer] adds +10 to Skinning skill.
[Goblin Mining Helmet] adds +5 to Mining skill.
[Herbalist's Gloves] adds +5 to Herbalism skill.

These items can allow you to skin creatures with levels greater than 70, or catch fish in areas that require greater than 375 Fishing skill.

Profession Types
Most professions fall into one of three categories:

Gathering
Users of this profession mostly gather or harvest items from resources throughout the game world to increase their proficiency.

Fishing: Requires a Fishing Pole and a body of water with Fish.
Herbalism: Harvest herbs scattered throughout the world.
Mining: Requires a Mining Pick to mine protruding mineral veins or deposits for minerals, ore and stone. Use a Forge to smelt the ore you find into bars of metal.
Skinning: Requires a Skinning Knife to skin corpses marked as Skinnable for leather, hides and scales.

Crafting
Users of these professions mostly make items from other ingredient items (herbs, bars, meats, etc.) taken from the gathering professions or created by building professions. Blizzard calls these “Production professions”. Most folks in game call them crafting or building.

Alchemy: Combine herbs and other reagents into elixirs, oils, potions and other useful (usually liquid) substances. Most recipes require various types of vials. High Level Alchemists can also transmute essences and metals into other essences and metals.

Blacksmithing: Make metal weapons for all and armor for Mail- and Plate-wearing classes. Also create items from stone to temporarily buff weapons.

Cooking: Cook raw ingredient items and combine them with various spices to produce better Food. Requires a Cooking Fire, oven, flame or similar.

Engineering: Engineer all sorts of useful (and some not so useful) gadgets from mostly metal, minerals and stone.

First Aid: Make cloth into bandages and various aiding items (anti-venoms, etc.).

Jewelcrafting: Craft rings, necklaces, BoP trinkets, jeweled headpieces, and rare/powerful socketed items to be placed in special armor or weapons. The extra ability of Prospecting comes with this craft, which allows you to prospect rare minerals from raw ore that has been mined but not smelted.

Leatherworking: Create all sorts of leather goods (mostly armor) from leather, hides, and various other ingredients. Also produce armor kits usable on pants, boots, gloves, and chest pieces of all armor types. Usually requires various types of thread to make finished items. Leatherworkers can also make very low level cloth capes and, after level 40, sets of mail armor.

Tailoring: Sew all sorts of cloth goods including many types of clothing and most importantly, bags for carrying other items. Also weave raw cloth items (linen, wool, silk, mageweave, etc.) into bolts of that type of cloth. Usually requires various types of thread to make finished items. Mooncloth can only be made by a tailor.

Service
Really the “other” category, but generally covers professions that primarily provide a service over producing equipable items or consumable buffing items.

Enchanting: Extract (disenchant) magical dusts, essences and shards for use to enchant various attributes, powers, and properties to all sorts of equipable items. You can also make wands and oils that can be applied to weapons providing a temporary buff.
Inscription: TBD

All information used with permission from WoWWiki, for more information, please visit:WoWWiki – Professions Overview

wow game time and acct registration code
World of Warcraft Gametime and Account Registration Codes