DMF Vendors Need More Stuff

I'm currently sitting on almost 1000 Darkmoon Prize Tickets across all my alts. I have 2 Dancing Bears, a Forest Strider and at least 1 of each pet, most alts have the little monkey with the fez because it's a little monkey with a fez! I've even redeemed some tickets for the Replica tier pieces, but it's been months since I've claimed a prize at the Darkmoon Faire. So where's my motivation to keep visiting our wandering band of carnies and merry makers?

Yes, I have a lot of alts, but I'm not hardcore about the Faire at all. At best I hit up the Faire once on half my toons while it's in town mostly for the +5 cooking and fishing quests and to turn my Grisly Trophies in. Those first couple months after the Faire's relaunch I collected and turned in all the dungeon/battleground quest drop artifacts for the achievements on my main. Since then however when I get a Mysterious Grimoire, Captured Insignia, etc... they all get put on the AH. At any given time I have 20+ Soothsayer Runes littering my toons bags. They don't sell for squat so often I just have to type in DELETE to get rid of them. I've learned to NOT click that first raid boss just so I can avoid looting another one of these things.

Last December I wrote about how grand and awesome the DMF redesign was and that's where my issue lays. I still think it's a beautiful and magical zone and even after 6+ months the mini-games are still kinda fun, but in this game it's gear and rewards that drive players to keep chuggin away at same content again and again. And in a relatively short amount of time, even just casually enjoying this content I've realized that there's no reward left to pursue and keep me coming back. Most of the time if I'm at DMF I'm fishing not playing. Love that Darkmoon Firewater! Gear, toys, goodies, etc... drive players to keep playing. I'm sure I'm not in the minority of players here who have exhausted the gifts DMF offers and that kind of seems like a shame.

So for now, I'll still be casually enjoying the Faire, hording up those prize tickets and crossing my fingers that at the very least those heirloom pants that were data-mined so long ago at least end up at the vendor here.

Not a Bullseye...

You sure about that?

The only problem with the new Darkmoon Faire - PvPer's

Every time I've gone to Darkmoon Island since it launched last night I zone into an epeen match between at least 2 dudes and several others that need to chime in. This results in me adding about a half a dozen new names to my ignore list. Thank you Blizz for upping the cap on the ignore list awhile back! While in a capital city I couldn't care less about the idiocy of Trade Chat and my home realm is a lot worse than others I've played on. Medium population, not a lot of capable pvp/raiding guilds, so a lot of people just sitting around bored and lonely and needing attention. We have several Trade Chat stars who've been trolling the /2 for years on a pretty consistent basis. But that's in Org or SW, this is Darkmoon Faire Island.

In a game with War in the title that revolves mostly around a lot and a lot of killing, the new Darkmoon Faire is a warm fresh breath of dare I say, family orientated gameplay. And it's fun! All the classic midway/carnival games are represented, there's daily quests for the Faire that grant rewards like prize tickets for pets/mounts/novelty items and even profession skill up points! There's rare and exotic beasts on exhibit from all around Azeroth and Outlands, tasty treats and drinks to enjoy, a dancing bear, pony and ram rides, a fortune teller who gives a sweet +5% dmg buff, and the fishing around the island is very lucrative. All in all the new Darkmoon Faire is a grand addition to WoW and another wonderful surprise from patch 4.3 (possibly my favorite patch in years). DMF will keep new and old players alike entertained for a very long time to come, either as a small diversion to the usual questing and dungeons or for the lengthy pursuit of one of the new pets and mounts available. It's just too bad this 'other element' is also here thanks to the Deathmatch Pavilion.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Blizzard is putting an effort into 'world pvp' again. As soon as I got to the Deathmatch Pavilion I swapped in my pvp spec/gear and hopped into the fray, finally bowing out after my rez timer hit that 2 minute limit haha. My issue is that I just don't think it should be here. Put it back in Gurubashi and the other world arena's and give them their own separate chat channel once they enter the area so questers, passersby, revelers and the rest of us don't have to listen to them. Then again, its' very possible that these guys will eventually get bored with this arena just like all the others and this will all be a non-issue in the next couple months. We'll see.

The all new Darkmoon Faire is here!!!

My review coming soon, but need to get back to patch up some banners, aid some injured carnies and waste another stack of tokens on that damn canon til I get my bullseye, but so far it's looking pretty good.

Hot Tip:
Stock up on some Elixir of Water Walking and while everyone is busy with the festivities hit the coast and fish in those shipwreck debris pools. They hold the same Sealed Crates commonly found in the waters of Tol Barad which contain random selection of Cata crafting mats in addition to unique DMF items such as Darkmoon Firewater, sure to be a big hit on the AH. Very quick respawns too.