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. KingArachnis's Avatar
    Great addition. Those who are screaming and crying for a full list of the raid encounters and class changes should just move on to another game. Its become quite redundant the level of self entitlement by those who are less then versed in being a human being first as opposed to this alternative spoiled persona of a child making demands and spewing out tired rhetoric just to bring the rest of us down. Well worth the resources and I will assume that they will release information about the other content in due time. Keep in mind that most mmo players never even reach max level. By the design philosophy that caters to only hardcore progression raiders, blizzard will continue to lose money. The casuals deserve their content with this in mind as they are the majority of the base that allows the rest to enjoy the endgame content to the fullest.
  1. OriginZero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Notos View Post
    [insert rant about Darkmoon rep being too easy to obtain after the patch]

    I want a new Insane-style title to work on, preferably something that involves months of grinding.
    Darkmoon was never a grindy reputation. It was just an expensive one. The grindy reputaitons are still the goblins, pirates, and ravenholdt (especially now). Of course the elves, but they're gone now. I have my shiny feat of strength, but I still think that freaking rep deserves a title or something else.
  1. McFrotton's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by sTyLnK View Post
    So these artifacts you bring back get you rep? This place pretty much pointless for people that are exalted. haha.
    There is what maybe (watch out made up number) 3-5% of wow playerbase with DMF exalted rep lol so they said screw the 3-5% lets make it fun for the 95% rest
  1. palladiamors's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keadin84 View Post
    Is it me or was that a whole lot of text with not a lot of info? I'm having a hard time getting excited over this as I'm not sure what "this" actually is...
    Heh, that's what I got out of it too. It was a bunch of talk with only a few solid things dropped.
  1. OriginZero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by fylth View Post
    Shame on him for expressing an opinion. Here is mine while we are at it: FUCKING BORING. never bothered with the stupid DMF, never will. and seriously.. we need ANOTHER shitty arena place where everyone gets wasted by pallys and DKs? Only thing I hope is it isn't ridiculously expensive for void storage, because we all know its their cheap excuse to avoid the " we need more bag space " people
    You probably never bothered with Darkmoon Faire because you started after vanilla, and for the most part, it wasn't relevant anymore. The tickets and majority of the items were outdated since BC. It's nice to see them doing something with it in my opinion, but only being one day a month kinda sucks.

    Also, to people saying this is fluff and not content. Ok? So what? You have "content" coming as well with 3 new 5-mans and at least one raid from what they noted.
  1. Tilie's Avatar
    ..yes..Yes...YES......YES!!!!!!!!
  1. OriginZero'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.
    It's funny how many people forget how much content actually went into Cataclysm. You say there are only 5 new zones, but the whole of Azeroth was reworked, and that even includes zone that didn't change that much. They had to actually rebuild all the zones to allow flying mounts to work because otherwise the world would look odd.

    And before you say that you don't care about that, well, a lot of people did. Since BC, people have been asking for flying in Azeroth, and Blizzard kept saying that would take a whole expansion and the whole world would need to be rebuilt. Finally, they do it, and people complain because it's not what they consider "new content". I"m sorry, but Cataclysm has had a lot of content in it, especially when you look at the old world stuff, and if you're not happy with that, I can't help you, man. You'll have to wait until the next expansion.
  1. McFrotton's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by OriginZero View Post
    Darkmoon was never a grindy reputation. It was just an expensive one. The grindy reputaitons are still the goblins, pirates, and ravenholdt (especially now). Of course the elves, but they're gone now. I have my shiny feat of strength, but I still think that freaking rep deserves a title or something else.
    gpirate is not grindy at all
  1. Fallinginreverse's Avatar
    Wow should be some epic pvp goin on in that death matches!
  1. Raxxed's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by keLston View Post
    The question is, do you? Have you even done Rag? I'm 6/7H. What are you? You're praising the 1-60 redo lol, so you must be some rando casual. Rag is pmuch the same except he hits harder. He does a knockback, he summons sons, he even submerges. The difference is, you hit him from the front the entire time. Is the fight harder? Sure. But don't kid yourself if the fight is somehow novel or new.

    And really? Oh man, they redid 1-60 that takes 20 minutes to go through and all the zones are empty and you get idiots in your level 85 group who do 600 dps because hunters use expertise. AWESOME LEVEL 1-60 BRO. YOU DID IT. CONGRATS. With a billion dollars, it only took you 5 and a half years to revamp this content that has been sitting here.

    I hope you could update a god damned quest that tells you to collect 10 bear asses with a billion dollars within 5 years.



    Forcing raid stacking to make an encounter hard doesn't make an encounter new, unique, or exciting. It simply makes it tediously stupid.

    Bulldozing a brickwall using your face is hard too. But doing so is still dumb. Therefore, just because HM Ragnaros is "hard" isn't indicative of anything. It's not skillfully hard. It's tediously hard.

    There's a reason the few 10mans that actually have managed to pull off a HM Rags kill are the ones that have access to a 25+ man bench and can do things like throw down 2 hunters and 2 frost DKs and call it a normal raid setup (one Korean guild with a 10m H Rags kill did this).
    I think i love you.... Likewise with the 6/7H and Rag just makes me lol. Nice scaling of firelands heroics blizzard.
  1. OriginZero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ZenX View Post
    Doing the same time over and over again for long to accomplish something is a grind...



    I only want proper progression through things that are not overly repetitive and is not put there to fill in the place, but rather has story behind, the nice thing with the previous content and the attunements was that you had a nice path of progression where however, hard may it be it felt playing to progress, now its and endless grind to just grind more

    Blizzard: New content, go herp derp while we get your money to develop newer games that our master-corporate will eventually force into being zombie-cows for printing money.

    Don't get me wrong, my complaint is due to what is going on with the game in general, I'm enjoyed the newer leveling zones more than most of current end-game content along with Molten Front when I was doing it the first few times, however, this grind model is just plain wrong, I'd rather complete 30-hard quests on-par with that of what Hunter's had at 60 for their bow-staff-cloak set, than to grind dailies for 30 days...
    I liked attunements; however, a lot of people didn't and complained about it. They can't please everyone, so they try to please the most. I personally think attunement should exist for new content, and then it can be removed when the next tier comes out, so Alts and people who don't like attunements can hit the old content while raiders can move onto the new attunements and raids; however, raiders will cry about the attunements being removed from the old stuff since they had to do it. It's a vicious cycle.
  1. Sammonoske's Avatar
    "and even replicas of long-lost suits of armor that we’re offering for your Transmogrification needs."
    Great, more dailies to do. "Want your old tier back? Well your going to have to work through our recycled content to get it! muhuhahaha!"
  1. AK_47's Avatar
    This is getting worse and worse. Can't they actually offer something fresh , something new ? More and more disappointement.
  1. xf11's Avatar
    gotta wonder where the island is actually located. Pretty neat though, would be cool if the spooky murderous things in the woods had some pve merit, like loot or something
  1. Holy's Avatar
    I didn't think much of it when it was mentioned before, but this preview has really gotten me excited.
  1. Renotarshil's Avatar
    Blizz had me pissed with the current barring of Legendaries for Transmog, but this island will prolly drag me back for a spell. I'm intrigued to see what else is released.
  1. whitestray's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by AK_47 View Post
    This is getting worse and worse. Can't they actually offer something fresh , something new ? More and more disappointement.
    Worse? Better! They are actually adding a lot of new things to this patch that people wanted since Classic WoW (transmogrification?). They also are adding new features into the game such as the new vault system plus three new dungeons and a new raid and they are even polishing up one of peoples favorite in game holidays. You seriously think this is the same thing? It would be if all we got was a new raid, a new daily questing area and maybe a new instance (patch 4.2) but we got more then that and a lot of it might make me resubscribe! Good job Blizz!
  1. Notos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by AK_47 View Post
    This is getting worse and worse. Can't they actually offer something fresh , something new ? More and more disappointement.
    You mean like 3 dungeons and a raid? Oh wait, Deathwing is just a rehash of Warcraft 2 content. I have an idea: go play something else if WoW is so disappointing to you, that will solve both our problems.
  1. Karot's Avatar
    SO PUMPED. It's about time they updated the Darkmoon Faire! Maybe it won't be such a chore to get to exalted anymore. I'm all for less grinds and more fun!
  1. Notos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by OriginZero View Post
    Darkmoon was never a grindy reputation. It was just an expensive one. The grindy reputaitons are still the goblins, pirates, and ravenholdt (especially now). Of course the elves, but they're gone now. I have my shiny feat of strength, but I still think that freaking rep deserves a title or something else.
    DMF can be a grind if you choose to farm the mats for the cards rather than use the AH to make things easier. I was also just complaining that they haven't put any other tough achievements in since the Insane, and if they did, that they should make it very grindy.

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