Patch 4.3 Preview - The All New Darkmoon Faire
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up and prepare to be amazed!

It’s incredible! It’s unbelievable! You’ll be dazzled. You’ll be amazed! You aren’t prepared for the Darkmoon Faire, ‘cause it’s like nothing you’ve seen before! Don’t be shy now, don’t be bashful, step right up for a tantalizing glimpse of what we’ve got in store for you when patch 4.3 arrives!

That old thing?

No, no, no, Clem. The Darkmoon Faire isn’t what it used to be and it isn’t where it used to be. The management hasn’t changed but the Faire certainly has. It’s a whole new animal. Tickets? You don’t need those old tickets, just rip ‘em right up, ‘cause we’ve got new tickets! Out with the old, in with the new -- new quests, that is! Things have changed ‘round here: we’ve got an island all to ourselves now, and what an island it is. Mist-shrouded Darkmoon Island is a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. It’s a place of mystery and wonder, and you wouldn’t believe the deals we made to get it… or who we made ‘em with. But never mind that, just follow me right through here and I’ll show you what the Darkmoon Faire is all about.


All new! All spectacular!

Catch a show at the marvelous main stage or witness a dazzling fireworks display. But don’t stare too long or you might miss the stunning spectacles that surround you. Gaze in awe of our magical menagerie, get your fortune told by the amazing Sayge, go on a pony ride, experience the healthful effects of carnival food, and more!

Of course, there’s more to the Darkmoon Faire than just fantastic shows and culinary delights. You can still turn in your Darkmoon Cards, but you wouldn’t just come here for measly ol’ cards when there’s so much more to see, experience, and win. Yes, win! You like dancing bears, right? Everybody likes dancing bears. Even bears like dancing bears. How about a dancing bear… you can ride!

That’s not all! We have adorable companion pets includin’ a fez-wearing monkey, a plethora of profession recipes, toys, balloons, souvenirs, delectable carnival snacks and beverages, heirlooms for the little ones, and even replicas of long-lost suits of armor that we’re offering for your Transmogrification needs. You can also make your mark with new achievements and titles. All it takes to earn these fabulous rewards is a few Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets and a good reputation with the carnies. How do ya get your grubby mitts on some tickets? I’m glad you asked!

Step right up! Try your luck! Everyone’s a winner!

Have we got games? You bet we’ve got games, and they’re so easy to play an orc could do it. Just head on over to the midway, buy some Darkmoon Game Tokens, and get ready to play. Easy to learn, difficult to master, anyone can play and everyone can win. Just lay your tokens down for a chance at winning Darkmoon Prize Tickets playing games like Whack-a-Gnoll, the Tonk Battle Royale, the Cannon, Ring Toss, the Shooting Gallery, and more! Five games are there to test your skills at any one time. The better you play, the easier it is to win a bucket of Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets! Once a month, you’ve got a shot at tickets, and the fun never stops ‘cause you can play as many times as you like. But that’s not the only way to win big!


The Darkmoon Faire Field Guide

It’s your passport to riches, my friend. Y’see, we need a few things -- just some junk, nothing valuable to a big hero like you. We call ‘em Darkmoon Artifacts, and there’s all different kinds to be found all over Azeroth. The Darkmoon Field Guide helps you discover artifacts while you’re explorin’ dungeons, slayin’ monsters, and fightin’ in Battlegrounds. Without a guide, you’d never notice ‘em, and it’ll help keep you focused on the stuff we want. Whether you just reached level 10, or you’ve crushed the biggest baddies in the land, we need somethin’ from nearly everybody. You won’t have to go too far out of your way to get ‘em and each month you’ll get a new opportunity to seek out an Artifact for us. What do you get out of the deal? Don’t you worry, you’ll get your cut. When you bring a Darkmoon Artifact back to us, you’ll get valuable experience (it builds character, you know!), earn a better reputation, and possibly earn precious Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets too!

Oh, did I mention that you can use the Field Guide to get to Darkmoon Island whenever the Darkmoon Faire’s monthly extravaganza is up and running?

So, you want to work in show business?

Maybe you’d like a little peek behind the scenes, eh? Want to see what it takes to run the greatest show on Azeroth? Well, it’s not all sunshine and cotton candy, my friend. There are beasts to heal, food to cook, and buildings to fix. If you’re willing help keep the show going and put your skills to work, you’ll not only impress us, but you can get experience, Darkmoon Prize Tickets, and even polish up your skills -- up to five skill points per profession, per Faire week, if you’re good at what you do!


Darkmoon Deathmatch!

Like any good carnival, the Darkmoon Faire has a shady side. You can leave the skilled labor to the suckers and go for a faster score instead. If you’ve got the minerals, the Darkmoon Deathmatch offers an experience unparalleled since the Gurubashi Arena. Pitmaster Pei has a big old treasure chest just brimming with goodies and Darkmoon Faire Prize Tickets that he’ll drag out into the Darkmoon Deathmatch Pit every three hours or so. Everybody wants it, so if you want a piece of the action you’ll just have to jump in and prove that you’re the toughest one in the Pit.

Oh, the Faire is perfectly safe, Clem. Just don’t wander into the woods.

Now, now, don’t panic. Darkmoon Isle might be a bit spooky, but except for the Deathmatch Pit, the Faire itself is completely safe, I guarantee it. It’s a sanctuary even, and we won’t let anybody’s beef ruin the fun. The shadowy woods surroundin’ the fair are another thing entirely, though. I wouldn’t say that people have disappeared into those woods never to return, but, well… people disappear into those woods never to return. So watch your step , and your back, when you leave the Faire. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!


Mark your calendar

Now that you know how amazing the new Darkmoon Faire is, you won’t want to miss it. Just take a look at your in-game calendar, and the Darkmoon Faire dates will show up there on the first week of every month. Darkmoon Faire barkers and displays will also pop up in every capital city to herald the arrival of the Faire. Silas Darkmoon himself has even started up a mailer to make sure that no one misses out!

Hitch a ride

During the first week of each month, convenient Darkmoon Faire outposts with Darkmoon Portals will appear in Elwynn Forest and Mulgore, offering free rides to Darkmoon Island and the Faire!

Darkmoon Mages in capital cities and on Darkmoon Island will also be around to help you get between the Faire and various capital cities. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so naturally you’re obliged to compensate them for their services.

The all new Darkmoon Faire is coming to Darkmoon Island in patch 4.3. Don’t miss it!
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.3 Preview - The All New Darkmoon Faire started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 472 Comments
  1. Flaks's Avatar
    This has a huge potential for failure but an even bigger potential for success. Its all up to the players and server communities to make this event the best it could be.
  1. Worgoblin's Avatar
    This sounds great! Replicas of older tiers? Yes please! New heirlooms? Me likey!
  1. The Last DJ's Avatar
    They had me at fez-wearing monkey. My monkey wears a fez now. Fezzes are cool.
  1. Shadowswillm's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by jotad4 View Post
    Sweet, finally a proper way to get exalted with it !

    Aint that the truth? :-)
  1. mmocfd8d985519's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keLston View Post
    Because people are looking for actual content, not a daily quest hub with arbitrary gating mechanics to pace how long it takes you to actually get to the end so that it will last until the next expansion since 4.3 is the last content patch until the next expansion.

    If you looked at it expansion by expansion, this is the worst expansion by amount of actual content but each time someone brings it up, some Blizzard apologist quickly comes up with some excuse demanding people to stop being so negative. Why? Did your monthly subscription start costing less? Did Cataclysm expansion cost less than the TBC expansion or WotLK expansion?

    TBC gave us nearly 60 raid bosses, a new "planet", a ton of new dungeons and bosses within, heroics, and love it or hate it gave us arenas and daily BG/honor grinds as a way for PvPers to compete which was also brand new content. WotLK gave us like 45 some raid bosses, a new continent, a handful of new dungeons, and it gave casuals a way to gear up with the Argent Tournament.

    Cataclysm will end up giving us 20? some raid bosses and at least 2 end ones so far have been recycled (Nef and Ragnaros), 7 new dungeons and recycled for us Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines, recycled ZA and ZG and called them "new", gave us like 5 new zones. The content is so lacking, in fact, that Blizzard apologists are so desperate that you're willing to latch on to a side event like the Darkmoon Faire and call it "content"? Oh look it adds a mount ooooh. And some companion pets. Oooooh. So a billion dollar company took a year to add 1 mount and some companion pets? This is what you accept as content now when you are paying the same price? Your bar is so low?

    They're not even bothering trying to put out new content because they decided that after 5 years of saying they didn't want you changing how you looked, they reneged and introduced transmogrification and you said HOORAY. So the "new content" of Cataclysm is you going back to do level 60 raids to get the gear you sold 4 years ago, that way, they don't have to make any new things for you because you're too busy going HEHEHE LETS GET THE OLD STUFF AGAIN THAT I FARMED BEFORE.

    This is why the game is dumbed down. Because Blizzard keeps lowering the bar and instead of getting an outcry, you just nod and lower your expectations below their bar and accept what they gave you. Giving you less and less each year but trying to squeeze out more microtransactions, and you keep paying for extra while accepting less for the same price you've been paying.

    It's absurd. And stupid.

    Content? It's not content. It's laughing at you and you're apologizing for it.
    lol. Because Blizzard base their content on your opinions amirite?

    Theres a reason people like you get overlooked. You whine and whine about everything they give you. If my kids complained about me giving them stuff for Christmas, I'd stop. You know what they'd do? Complain about me stopping. There is no winning with people like yourself. Suck it up or leave
  1. huldu's Avatar
    You'd probably need to grind quite a bit to get the heirlooms. The "new" heirlooms are leggings and a ring.

    The problem is that if you haven't already hit 85 on all classes/select server on your account... what the hell is the point of new heirlooms? You can't transfer them in any useful way to another server and Blizz already pointed out... that ain't happening anytime soon. Just a waste of time. New heirlooms you'd have to delete some existing character to "enjoy". Terrible concept. I don't know about you guys but my server is filled with 85's i have no room for more characters on that server. Add that to a few servers where i have some 80's i haven't played since wotlk... seriously, don't think i am going to bother unless they let us transfer the 'looms. Just sayin'.
  1. Worgoblin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by The Last DJ View Post
    They had me at fez-wearing monkey. My monkey wears a fez now. Fezzes are cool.
    Doctor Who <3
  1. LolToon's Avatar
    HEY BLIZZ.
    The process of dancing bear, as appeared to the crowd to be enchanting and fun-filled, is not the true depiction of real one—the owners of the dancing bears often poach the young cubs of bears while the mother is away, and sometimes the mother is killed to take away the children. It has also been noted that many of the stolen bear cubs die due to neglect of food and proper care, and also from dehydration even before they are sold for training to somebody. Almost all dancing bears are made to suffer a lot of physical pain, as all of them have a hole pierced through their lips, nose, or palate through which a rope or a chain runs. It goes without saying that no anesthetic is used to soften some of the pain involved in it. Moreover, the teeth and claws are often removed to prevent any injury to the person who is supposed to handle the dancing bear during the show. Owners of dancing bears do not make a healthy living, and it is obvious that they can’t provide any facility to the bears—they are treated in most inhuman way and are made into a mean of their income without any feeling, whatsoever! It sounds strange that bears like dancing in order to shrug off suffering, pain, and stress, and sometimes even tiredness! When the ropes and chains are tugged into the fresh holes even before they are healed, constant pain and infection trouble the bears, who learn the dancing quickly in order to relieve their pain.
    GG guys, GG.
  1. Retiarius's Avatar
    New heirlooms....the old sets again, i like!
  1. Coldkil's Avatar
    The funniest thing is that people that are raging are:
    - nowhere near to have completed actual content
    - nowhere near having high rating for PvP side
    - bashing everyone because they play a s****y game
    - bashing Blizzard because of their s****Y game

    You know, Blizzard is making lots and lots of money with this s****y game. I call it successful, since it's one of the primary objectives. I don't know everyone that is playing, but hell, if they like the game, let them play the game.
    Tell the truth. You are just a bunch of trolls who just love to ruin the mood of happy people because you already know you won't be able to experience content. If you don't like the game, quit. No one is stopping you. If you already quitted, but like to follow the news, tell me what's the point in QQing about things you won't even touch.

    It's Blizzard's game, your choice to play it along their rules. Like outraging about everything means really something. Go leave with the other million people...we don't care.

    EDIT: don't remeber the name now, but there is here a rager who claims to be 6/7HM. Good for you, really good tbh. So you dislike everything in cata and then you play it long enough to reach that level of playing. I don't believe your guild raids 1day/week
  1. LolToon's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Coldkil View Post
    It's Blizzard's game, your choice to play it along their rules. Like outraging about everything means really something. Go leave with the other million people...we don't care.
    Maybe because it's the fact that WoW could be so much better than the way it is now. Hell, even Deathwing's encounter, being the LAST PATCH EVER FOR CATA.

    After laughing my ass off at such a piss poor last content patch... I suggested something to my friend;

    You fight Deathwing. After epically long battle, when you wear Deathwing down to 50% hp, he automatically enrages, snarls how the twilight shall not be defeated yada yada, group instantly "wipes", only to "regain consciousness" a bit later with low HP. Some red dragons evidently got there in time and saved you from certain death and hey, a chest, loot!

    Then this allows blizzard to actually work and do more dungeons and another raid/whatever aka Abyssal Maw that alot have been going on and on about.

    Here's where I thought better about my idea and changed some of it.

    Later on, earthquakes and such start happening, random plumes of lava in zones start to crop up, toasting unlucky players, before disappearing [basically just an effect that can kill you, requires no real remodeling of the zones afaik] blah blah blah, you go to fight Deathwing again, this time he's recovered to about 75% hp, but this time you aren't fighting Deathwing, atleast not alone.

    In something better than the Occulus, Ysera, Kalecgos and Alexstrasa are there, no need for tanks, no need for healers. It's just a nuke fight. No piloting, but you think oh that's boring...

    Ever watch Shadow of the Colossus/Play it?

    That is what I imagine. That is the epicness that Wow could aim for.

    Instead, what do we get?

    "Don't stand in the fire".
  1. mmoc46d18d2db1's Avatar
    OMG im tired of reading whiny posts about how blizzard are trying to ruin their own fricking game. Why a company should try to ruin their biggest source of income is just an insane point of view. Im tired of posts about how you hate this game, and it was much better back in the day. If you hate the game, or is tired of it, leave, unsubscribe, sell your account on ebay. Why post on a fansite is outside my understanding. I dont go around posting on Modern Warfare forums about how the game is bad or something, cause i dont play the game. Its a game like most of what we do outside work. So find something you enjoy and have fun. Being a forum-troll is not gonna get you laid, forum-trolls are the lowest form of life. Sorry for whiny post about whiny posts.
  1. Xaarn's Avatar
    Anyone knows if the daily quests will be avalible for level 60/70s? Or is it only for level 85s?
  1. Coldkil's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by LolToon View Post
    Maybe because it's the fact that WoW could be so much better than the way it is now. Hell, even Deathwing's encounter, being the LAST PATCH EVER FOR CATA.
    No, the game is fine from their point of view. Nothing you can do about it apart blowing up their server farms with C4.

    I have opionions about the game too. There are many things i don't like aswell many i like. Just i don't claim to have the "best ideas ever" because they are good in my mind, and not necessarily for everyone. There are now more things that i like compared to the things that i don't. When the proportions will be inverted. I'll just happily quit.

    Another thing: any of the ragers here realize that the WoW engine is extremely outdated? You don't have physics or similar things. You simply cannot have that kind of things in WoW. If it's not good enough for you, quit No other choice my friend.
  1. Skulli's Avatar
    4.3 looks to me like all the merged content, that was supposed to be in previou patches or in a non existant abyssal maw patch etc.

    And about DMF, i never really liked it and used it so i dont mind if they "buff" it.
  1. mmocf06effc4be's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by LolToon View Post
    HEY BLIZZ. GG guys, GG.
    Yes. Cuz virtual dancing bears in a fantasy game is just the same as dancng bears irl, amirite? Druids have been able to dance forever aswell in their bearform. Did you complain about that too years ago?
  1. mmoc59625055a0's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keLston View Post
    Because people are looking for actual content, not a daily quest hub with arbitrary gating mechanics to pace how long it takes you to actually get to the end so that it will last until the next expansion since 4.3 is the last content patch until the next expansion.

    If you looked at it expansion by expansion, this is the worst expansion by amount of actual content but each time someone brings it up, some Blizzard apologist quickly comes up with some excuse demanding people to stop being so negative. Why? Did your monthly subscription start costing less? Did Cataclysm expansion cost less than the TBC expansion or WotLK expansion?

    TBC gave us nearly 60 raid bosses, a new "planet", a ton of new dungeons and bosses within, heroics, and love it or hate it gave us arenas and daily BG/honor grinds as a way for PvPers to compete which was also brand new content. WotLK gave us like 45 some raid bosses, a new continent, a handful of new dungeons, and it gave casuals a way to gear up with the Argent Tournament.

    Cataclysm will end up giving us 20? some raid bosses and at least 2 end ones so far have been recycled (Nef and Ragnaros), 7 new dungeons and recycled for us Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines, recycled ZA and ZG and called them "new", gave us like 5 new zones. The content is so lacking, in fact, that Blizzard apologists are so desperate that you're willing to latch on to a side event like the Darkmoon Faire and call it "content"? Oh look it adds a mount ooooh. And some companion pets. Oooooh. So a billion dollar company took a year to add 1 mount and some companion pets? This is what you accept as content now when you are paying the same price? Your bar is so low?

    They're not even bothering trying to put out new content because they decided that after 5 years of saying they didn't want you changing how you looked, they reneged and introduced transmogrification and you said HOORAY. So the "new content" of Cataclysm is you going back to do level 60 raids to get the gear you sold 4 years ago, that way, they don't have to make any new things for you because you're too busy going HEHEHE LETS GET THE OLD STUFF AGAIN THAT I FARMED BEFORE.

    This is why the game is dumbed down. Because Blizzard keeps lowering the bar and instead of getting an outcry, you just nod and lower your expectations below their bar and accept what they gave you. Giving you less and less each year but trying to squeeze out more microtransactions, and you keep paying for extra while accepting less for the same price you've been paying.

    It's absurd. And stupid.

    Content? It's not content. It's laughing at you and you're apologizing for it.


    You counting ONLY endgame raid content and counting number of bosses, not the level of difficulty and amount of time it take it to loot it's corpse.

    You don't matter, that 15 bosses of Naxxramas at the beginning of Wrath was so much faceroll, that it could be cleared in the first two weeks of playing lvl 80 even for a noob.
    And you don't care, that 4 bosses from VoA are even more faceroll than Naxx was. And for you, ToC, as a 5 man raid, was equal to BwD, or even more, because Nefarian was also boss in Vanilla. You don't care, that these was two extremely different battles?
    WotLK provided us, like, 4 oneboss raids (if we count VoA - after presenting another giant there, nobody care about previous one), which were as easy to down, as possible.

    That's about raid content, which is in my opinion - better in Cataclysm.

    But we forgot about another part of Cataclysm content - leveling in Azeroth! If we try to count leveling areas in wotlk, we will have one modified part of existing area (Eastern Plaguelands), and 8 and half (crystalsong forest) areas in Northrend. Oh, I forgot - and one battle zone, Wintergrasp.
    Cataclysm completely rehashed (with changing of geography, quest chains, npc's, flight paths, lore, and sometimes - contested zones changed into horde or alliance) content of almost ALL (Almost - except TBC starting zones and Sillithus) Azeroth zones, added starting zones for new races, and 5 high level zones (one of them is like subcontinent, Vashjir split into 3 parts). It is 20 Kalimdor zones, 24 Eastern Kingdom Zones, Vashjir, Kezan and Lost Isles. And Tol Barad.

    48 new zones with quest chains vs 8 and half? Damn, Wotlk was small!
  1. Buu's Avatar
    Darkmoon tabards Plz? Seriously, that tabard is awesome, and I'll be sad if they do not include a tabard you can buy at exalted.

    But we forgot about another part of Cataclysm content - leveling in Azeroth! If we try to count leveling areas in wotlk, we will have one modified part of existing area (Eastern Plaguelands), and 8 and half (crystalsong forest) areas in Northrend. Oh, I forgot - and one battle zone, Wintergrasp.
    Cataclysm completely rehashed (with changing of geography, quest chains, npc's, flight paths, lore, and sometimes - contested zones changed into horde or alliance) content of almost ALL (Almost - except TBC starting zones and Sillithus) Azeroth zones, added starting zones for new races, and 5 high level zones (one of them is like subcontinent, Vashjir split into 3 parts). It is 20 Kalimdor zones, 24 Eastern Kingdom Zones, Vashjir, Kezan and Lost Isles. And Tol Barad.
    People seem and actually ARE disappointed with Cataclysm, because 80~85 look and feel rushed, with lack of content. And I agree with that.
    But they also forget that other side which was 1~60 totally redone, which in my opinion was a HUGE, HUGE success.
    Let's hope Pandaren to make up for this high level disappointment.
  1. Fatpob's Avatar
    Most people who post negativity is because they actually like the game but are bitterly dissapointed in the direction of WoW since TBC - yet still have poured money into WotLK and Cata in the hope it will capitalise on TBC.Cata looked promising at the start for this, harder dungeons and bosses (initially at least) but the content hasn't quite matched TBC. I think we all know a lot of work went into remaking the world, and the new questing, but for those that have played since vanilla it wasn't new or fresh enough, and for those that Raid it just hasn't been anywhere near enough.My take is that I like WoW, and I like the new raids in Cata - but the content has been slow in coming. The Heroic dungeons are defunct for most players, the Troll dungeons are so dull now - there is only so many time you can do the same dungeons.The Nerfs have made the meaningful content of the past less meaningful to insignificant for me, and the daily grind that has been introduced is just a repetitive dull time sink that just makes me log off or play the pvp minigame.For some players this is just what they want - and Blizzard knows this hence more daily grinds (such as DMF). I think everyone wants either a huge amout of content that can be worked through, or smaller content served much speedier. With regards Raids and number of bosses - I feel there needs to either be bigger raids - or more raid dungeons of the same tier to at least give a semblance of choice. Look at TBC:T4: Kara (10), Mag (25) - yer 1 boss I know, and Gruul (25) - yer another 1 bossT5: SSc (25) and TK (25) and ZA (10) T6: MH (25), BT (25) and SP(25)where as the wrath and cata models are going for 1 raid per tier which seems a bit poor in comparison.
  1. mmoceb97de4aa0's Avatar
    The raiders get a Deathwing raid, the dungeoneers get 3 new 5 mans, how dare they they also cater to those of us that like dailies! =P

Site Navigation