Good luck, and happy gaming!

You’re the best! The be-hest! Nothin’s ever gonna get ya down!

There are plenty of ways to get your pets to 25, but here’s the way I ended up doing it quickly while knocking out a ton of achievements. It took me two days starting with three level one pets (and two level 20 pets in my roster), and my priorities were:

• Level three pets to 25
• Capture a pet in every area ([Continental Tamer] and sub-achievement)
• Beat the battle masters in every area ([Taming Azeroth] and sub-achievements)
• Knock out as many of the pets as possible for the [World Safari] achievements

My Team

One of the great things about pet battles is that you truly can build whatever team you want. Three mechanical dragons? Fine. A ghost, a broom, and a sentient turnip? Knock yourself out. There are plenty of places to go to debate what the ideal 3-pet rotation is, but this is not that place. We do so much min-maxing for raids and even just dungeons that I personally relished the chance to simply go with my favorite pets and leave it at that. I even ended up leveling an [Enchanted Broom], just because it has the finest attack illustrations in the game.

Mechanical Squirrel: Jakhini
Core Hound Pup: Tank
Snake: Cenarihiss

Leveling To 25

First, I purchased two level-20 battle pets on the Drenden auction house and went in search of a level 15-16 pet area (Note: You’ll need to have leveled at least one pet to level 20 the hard way before you can purchase a level 20 pet on the AH). Un’Goro Crater is a good choice, but I went with Burning Steppes because flying through treetops makes me insane.

1. Equip your pet-to-be-leveled in the first slot of your pet journal
2. Equip your two purchased level-20 pets in the next two slots
3. Challenge a level 15-16 world pet to a battle
4. Hit the world pet once with your level 1 pet, then swap it out with one of your bigger pets
5. Kill the challenger.
6. Repeat (4 to 5 battles, in my experience) until your desired pet is level 7, then do the same with any other level 1 pets you want to bring onto your team before you…
7. Move to a level 20-21 pet area and repeat the above process until your desired pet(s) are level 15. It only took me about an hour to level all three of my desired pets to level 15.

Continental Tamer Achievement & Taming Azeroth Achievement

Once I had my desired team of level 15 pets, I went back to Orgrimmar (Stormwind for Alliance) and picked up the quest series to defeat Kalimdor Trainers and Eastern Kingdoms Trainers.

I chose at random to start in Kalimdor, and worked my way from north to south. I went to each zone and flew around until I saw a pet that was unique to that zone – I personally used the simple and useful PetBattleArena.com to find unique pets, though there are lots of resources, including the profoundly weighty WoWhead Pet Map- then flew down to battle it.

If the creature I was fighting was green or blue, I captured it. If not, I killed it quickly and moved on. This was just my own personal desire not to fill up my pet journal with grey or white creatures, or with more than one of the same creature. However, my OCDness tripped me up a few times; for example, I fought a white Tiny Bog Monster in the Wetlands and killed it, thinking I could do better- then, of course, spent an hour looking in vain for another spawn.

When I came to a zone with a Master Pet Battler, I fought them until I won. In Winterspring, I wasn’t able to defeat the Master Pet Battler and so walked around close to the battler picking fights with world pets until all of my team was level 17. I had to do the same thing in Terrokar with the Shattarath pet battler (curse you, aquatic pet team!), and then again in Dragonblight. However, it only took about 20 minutes to level my whole team each time, and was fun, to boot!

After moving through all of Kalimdor, I went through Eastern Kingdoms- north to south again- and then flew back to Orgrimmar to pick up the Outlands Tamer quests. Capturing a pet and winning a pet battle was much faster in Outlands and Northrend, though by Northrend you’re really starting to feel the complexity of your team choices. In Northrend, I actually leveled a fourth pet (my boss broom, yo) to make the battles a little easier.

World Safari Achievement

Certain pets, like the Snowy Owl (Winterspring) and Qiraj Guardians (Silithus), only spawn at different times of year (the owl in the winter and guardians in the summer), so I knew I wasn’t going to get all of my World Safari achievement accomplished in a few days.

However, if you use PetBattleArena.com, or whatever resource you like the best, to pick up rare pets as you move through each zone for the Continental Tamer meta-achievement, you’ll make a huge dent in your Safari achievement list (and we all know filling in the blanks of an achievement is a lot less daunting than starting from step one)!

Happy hunting, battlers!

Enjoy!

We had a fantastic turnout, with each swapper sending a gift to their secret recipient by (or thereabouts) December 15th. Some of the swappers revealed themselves with the sent gifts, and some recipients are finding out now in this post just who is their very secretive Secret Santa.

You can browse the many tweets about the swap by checking out the #WoWSecretSanta tag on Twitter, and see pictures from some of our happy recipients below.

Thank you all for your wonderful enthusiasm and participation, and very happy holidays to the whole community!

America
[Sender] > [Recipient]

@aerix88 > @somnar
@anafielle > @srsbusiness_et
@_anea > @ggelaina
@arioch_arcanist > @revngeek
@asherrylie > @storminights
@battlechicken > @arioch_arcanist
@discopriest  > @rezznul
@draccusdruid > @medros
@dragoska70 > @_elfindale
@druidis4fite > @_anea
@duskhawk > @niquisition
@_elfindale > @kissmyalas
@emberdione > @grimmtooth
@ggelaina > @itslilpeanut
@grimmtooth > @walkstweets
@hasteur > @screwslewsewow
@itanyablade > @justanna
@itslilpeanut > @zerena_hoofs
@justanna > @ravnsdaughter
@kissmyalas > @mominatrix75
@laurenmrathbone > @draccusdruid
@lodurzj > @probablyaero
@mainfloortank > @druidis4fite
@medros > @hasteur
@mominatrix75 > @nymphymage
@niquisition > @verdthandi
@nymphymage > @mainfloortank
@nyxy > @quorrra
@obsidian_dragon > @emberdione
@orkchop > @supapriest
@pickbulbasaur > @anafielle
@piratenami > @duskhawk
@probablyaero > @nyxy
@quorrra > @zindiyaa
@relysh > @stoppableforce
@revngeek > @pickbulbasaur
@rezznul > @discopriest
@screwlewsewow > @orkchop
@soetzufit > @laurenmrathbone
@somnar > @obsidian_dragon
@srsbusiness_et > @vitaemachina
@stoppableforce > @lodurzj
@storminights > @asherrylie
@supapriest > @trocarrogue
@tartdarling > @soetzufit
@trocarrogue > @battlechicken
@verdthandi > @piratenami
@vitaemachina > @aerix88
@walkstweets > @dragoska70
@zerena_hoofs > @relysh
@zindiyaa > @itanyablade

Canada
[Sender] > [Recipient]

@arlymedia > @elyrayldin
@curlywench > @_vidyala
@frosted_miika > @curlywench
@elyrayldin > @mythraidates
@_luthvian > @arlymedia
@mythraidates > @frosted_miika
@ravnsdaughter > @tartdarling
@_vidyala > @_luthvian

Europe
[Sender] > [Recipient]

@alternativechat > @dwisms
@dwisms > @wabbage
@wabbage > @alternativechat

Australia
[Sender] > [Recipient]

@_angelya > @cymre
@cymre > @glowbie
@glowbie > @nerisanda
@nerisanda > @noadikins
@noadikins > @_angelya

Digital
[Sender] > [Recipient]

@_anea > @kateplayswow
@applecidermage > @_anea
@dsatt57 / @wowinthedetails > @ohitsquel
@kateplayswow > @dsatt57
@mursejames > @traewick
@mspecht > @msherretz
@nonsquishy > @nyxy
@nyxy > @probablyaero
@ohitsquel > @applecidermage
@probablyaero > @nonsquishy
@screwslewsewow > @mspecht
@storminights > @vikirnoff
@spiderkav > @storminights
@traewick > @mursejames
@vikirnoff > @spiderkav
@msherretz > @screwslewsewow

You look it up on the internets, but the sites you find are dedicated to the hardcore millionaires. You’re not interested in conquering the gem market or making millions, you just want to fund your altoholism- and maybe have a bit left over to drop a dime on pure luxury goods (there’s no shame in getting that mammoth two xpacs late).

With me so far? Let’s get started. You’ll need:

• A dedicated banker alt
• At least 20 gold in his or her possession
• Four of the largest bags you can get your grubby mitts on
• The Auctioneer add-on
• The LilSparky’s Workshop add-on
• 15 minutes every two days

BEGIN

1. Roll your banker alt. Make him or her look as sexy as humanly possible, and consider his or her starting outfit when choosing their class. If you require a sexier shirt or pants, force a friend to roll an alt and make them send you their low-level clothing.
   

   You have to look like a million bucks to make a million bucks.

2. Send your banker four bags and at least 20 gold. Move your banker to the main city that best matches his or her hair. Auctions houses are located in [Horde] Thunder Bluff, Undercity, Silvermoon, and Orgrimmar / [Alliance] Darnassus, Ironforge, the Exodar, and Stormwind.
3. Load the Auctioneer and Lil’ Sparky add-ons.

USING AUCTIONEER

Auctioneer is the only add-on I use for the Auction House, and I only use it to keep track of prices. It has a lot of complex functions that I just can’t be assed to figure out, and since this guide is for my fellow idiots, let’s assume you, too, cannot be assed.

1. Perform a Get All Scan. Speak to an Auctioneer in any major city and go to the top of the Auction House window. You’ll have a single triangle button, a couple of greyed-out pause and stop buttons, and a blue double triangle button. Click the double triangle button (you’ll have to click it again after a warning pops up).
   

   Perform a ‘Get All Scan’ by clicking on the double triangle button

2. Post Using the ‘Post’ Tab. With Auctioneer installed, you have additional tabs along the bottom of the Auction House window. Click on the one labeled ‘Post’ and drag your items into the square posting window. Auctioneer will automatically price the auction to either undercut the existing competition by 5%, or will suggest a price based on previous Auction House scans. Just double-check to make sure the price isn’t zero, which happens if Auctioneer doesn’t have enough information (this usually only happens when you start using Auctioneer, since it hasn’t scanned the AH often enough to make an educated guess. It happens less as you scan more).
   

   Moments after this screenshot was taken, ‘Pwnerss’ was viciously undercut in the Netherweave market.

TEN TIPS FOR MAKING GOLD ON THE AUCTION HOUSE

1. Sell Gear: Sell all greens and blues you come across in your travels. After every hour or so of questing, find a mailbox and just ship it all to your banker. Don’t bother using it to upgrade yourself- you’ll get better stuff as quest rewards- and don’t waste your time disenchanting it, unless the market for enchanting materials on your server is truly mind-blowing.
2. Sell Crafting Materials: Leveling your professions is a great way to lose money, as any Engineer can tell you. Selling craftable items is a good way to make money back.
   - If you don’t already have a DK on your server, roll one and give them two gathering professions. Check the AH on your server to see if herbs, ore, enchanting materials, or leather sell for the most money. (And do me a favor and think of Enchanting as a gathering profession.)
   - Look up the prices for second-tier craftable materials to see if they sell better: bolts of cloth instead of cloth scraps, ink instead of herbs, prospected gems instead of ore, and the like.
3. Sell Vendor Items: Distant vendors frequently sell rare recipes, particularly for cooking. People will often pay top dollar to pick up a cooking recipe if it means they don’t have to schlep all the way out to Blade’s Edge Mountains. Whenever you play in a new area, check to see if there are any rare recipes.
   List of Cooking Recipes
4. Perform a Get-All Scan every two days. Before re-posting your auctions, do another Get-All scan of the AH to keep the listed prices current.
5. Use the Lil’ Sparky Add-on. Lil’ Sparky uses auction house data culled from Auctioneer to put an auction price in your crafting tabs, to the right of the name of the item. When leveling up your professions, choose the items with the highest resale price. Crafted items don’t sell well as a rule, but at least you can minimize your loss.
6. Wait For It: If the bottom suddenly drops out of a market that’s been selling very well- bolts of Netherweave, say, drop from 150G a stack to 5G a stack- just put all your Netherweave in your bank and wait. Really. Just wait. If a strong market drops precipitously, chances are good that once a group of people finish leveling that area, prices will rebound to your previous arm-and-a-leg rates.
7. Time Your Posting: Always post all of your auctions for 48 hours. Post them all at once, so that they expire in one big group- it’s more time efficient to post everything together. Don’t get too hung up about timing your posts to coincide with raid times and weekend ups and downs, but do put off re-posting all of your auctions until after the server reset on Tuesday morning, especially if there is a patch scheduled. While the server is down, your auctions are still counting down their 48 hour timers, so you may as well wait until the server comes back up to post.
8. Post In Reasonable Quantities. Posting one Blindweed herb fifty times is not only obnoxious for buyers, it’s obnoxious for you. Picking up those unsold Blindweeds from your mailbox one by one is not an efficient use of your time. For posting items that stack, post in stacks of 20 or in stacks of 5- or even better, both.
9. Learn To Love Low-Level Mats. Nothing seems to sell as reliably as the low-level mats needed to level professions. Price them very high if there are no competitors.
10. Craft At Max Level. While crafting materials sell most reliably, high-level crafted items sell for the highest price (not including great, rare BoE drops, but you can’t control that). Having at least one main character at max level who can crank out raid-quality gems or gear or enchantments will provide you with a nice nest egg.

ADVANCED TRAINING

1. Start a guild on your banker. Advertise in the Trade or General channels that you are willing to pay for guild signatures- the going rate on my servers is about 50 gold per signature- or ask your Battletag friends to help you out. Guild masters are located near guild tabard vendors in all capital cities.
2. Kick everyone out of the guild.
3. Open a guild bank. Click on the guild bank next to the regular bank location, and a dialogue will pop up to purchase a guild bank. The guild bank costs 100 gold, and guild banks tabs cost 250 gold, 500G, 1000G, 2500G, 5000G, 10000G, and 20000G, respectively. Fill it with raw materials for crafting or overflows that your bags cannot contain.
4. Get the Mobile Auction House app. The Mobile AH is free to use these days, and is a great way to relist your auctions on the fly. Be warned that the items in your guild bank will not show up in the Mobile AH, though things from your bags, mail, and personal bank will.
5. Have a Nemesis. On Drenden, my nemesis is an unknown entity named ‘Groosome’. I hate Groosome. I assume Groosome hates me. We compete in a highly specialized market,  undercutting each other by a few copper at a time, neither of us giving more than an inch. Personal feuds and vendettas fuel the fire of the money making game, keep you coming back for more and make the whole process infinitely more amusing. Pay attention to the names you see regularly and consider making a nemesis of your own.

Have an Auction House tip? Leave it in the comments. Enjoy your own Auction House adventures. May fortune smile upon you!

Edit: Several people have mentioned the Postal add-on, which I do use myself- I didn’t include it in the original post because I figured auction house millionaires who are only just starting out on their road to riches wouldn’t have that many items for sale.

That said, Postal is an absolutely invaluable auction house add-on which empties your mailbox in one click. One click, I say! So if you’re serious about your financial endeavors, you can pick it up over on Curse.

Introduction to Moving Wallpapers
Moving Wallpaper Pack #1: Warcraft and Skyrim
Moving Wallpaper Pack #2: Reader Requests, World of Warcraft
Moving Wallpaper Pack #3: Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft coming soon!
Moving Wallpaper Pack #4: City Collection, World of Warcraft coming soon!

While working on the last set of wallpapers for the Moving Wallpaper series, I asked readers to send in their own favorite locations or screenshots to be turned into animated desktop backgrounds. Thanks to everyone who sent one in!

To run, download DreamScene Video Wallpaper (PC) or VLC Media Player (Mac)- more technical info below.

World of Warcraft Moving Wallpapers:
Download complete Pack #2: Reader Requests, Warcraft (.rar file)

Moving Wallpaper: Nagrand, Daytime

Download Nagrand Sky - submitted by @Llanion
(twilight version coming soon)

Moving Wallpaper: Elwynn Forest, Hidden Camp

Download Elwynn Forest, Hidden Camp – submitted by K. B.

Moving Wallpaper: Stranglethorn Coast Waterfall

Download Stranglethorn Coast Waterfall – submitted by Reefman

Moving Wallpaper: Tirisfal Glades Windmills

Download Tirisfal Glad Windmills – submitted by @EmberDione

Moving Wallpaper: Deepholm World Pillar

Download Deepholm World Pillar – submitted by @wingtipswaltz

Moving Wallpaper: Terrokar / Zangarmarsh Border

Download Terokkar/ Zangarmarsh Border – submitted by @Soetzufit

Moving Wallpaper: Dalaran Landing Pad

Download Dalaran Landing Pad – submitted by @Mementh

Moving Wallpaper: Zangarmarsh in the Rain

Download Zangarmarsh in the Rain – submitted by @DiscoPriest

Installation

PC: Download DreamScene Video Player [Download.com]

Mac: Download VLC Media Player [VLC Website]

• Options > Show All > Set As Wallpaper
• Video Settings > DirectX Output

Thank You

Big thanks to Safe Shark for the file hosting.

Huge thanks to intrepid beta testers and technical wizards Rezznul (he’s a Mac) & GayGeekDad (and he’s a PC).

As always, if you’re experiencing technical difficulty or know of a better way to run these backgrounds (especially for Mac users), drop me a line at disciplinaryaction@yahoo.com . We’re working hard to make them perfect for everyone.

Introduction to Moving Wallpapers
Moving Wallpaper Pack #1: Warcraft and Skyrim
Moving Wallpaper Pack #2: Reader Requests, World of Warcraft
Moving Wallpaper Pack #3: Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft coming soon!
Moving Wallpaper Pack #4: City Collection, World of Warcraft coming soon!

This moving wallpaper pack includes 13 animated backgrounds from Skyrim and the World of Warcraft.

To run, download DreamScene Video Wallpaper (PC) or VLC Media Player (Mac)- more technical info below.

World of Warcraft Moving Wallpapers:
Download Complete Pack #1: Warcraft (.rar file)

Warcraft: Orgrimmar Waterfall

Download Orgrimmar Waterfall Moving Wallpaper

Warcraft: Stormwind Entry

Download Stormwind Entry Moving Wallpaper

Warcraft: Darkshore Hurricane

Download Darkshore Hurricane Moving Wallpaper

Warcraft: Thunder Bluff Windmills

Download Thunder Bluff Windmills Moving Wallpaper

Warcraft: Starfall Village

Download Starfall Village Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim Moving Wallpapers:
Download Complete Pack #1: Skyrim (.rar file)

Skyrim: Starry Night with Hut

 Download Starry Night With Hut Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Hazy Woods with Clouds

Download Hazy Woods with Clouds Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Whiterun Blacksmith in the Rain

Download Whiterun Blacksmith in the Rain Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Markarth Marketplace Waterfall

Download Markarth Marketplace Waterfall Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Markarth River

Download Markarth River Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Cliffs at Day

Download Cliffs at Day Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Cliffs at Night

Download Cliffs at Night Moving Wallpaper

Skyrim: Old Mill

Download Old Mill Moving Wallpaper

Installation

PC: Download DreamScene Video Player [Download.com]

Mac: Download VLC Media Player [VLC Website]

• Options > Show All > Set As Wallpaper
• Video Settings > DirectX Output

Thank You

Big thanks to Safe Shark for the file hosting.

Huge thanks to intrepid beta testers and technical wizards Rezznul (he’s a Mac) & GayGeekDad (and he’s a PC).

As always, if you’re experiencing technical difficulty or know of a better way to run these backgrounds (especially for Mac users), drop me a line at disciplinaryaction@yahoo.com . We’re working hard to make them perfect for everyone.

We’ve been hard at work with our beta testers (special thanks to @Rezznul) to specialize the gamer animated desktop wallpapers for a wide variety of desktop computers.

While we’re working on perfecting the technical side of the experience, I thought it would be fun to open the process up to the community, getting your feedback for the next set of wallpapers.

Just email disciplinaryaction@yahoo.comwith a screenshot from World of Warcraft, Skyrim, or Star Wars: The Old Republic that you think would make a good moving desktop background. We’ll take a look at all the submissions at noon on Sunday, July 1, and turn one (or possibly several) into animated wallpapers.

Good luck!

I found the most beautiful Skyrim wallpaper from Dead End Thrills and put it on my Mac. It was great; I could almost see the trees blowing in the breeze, or maybe the occasional dragon hurtling past a distant mountain top.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, if you could have a desktop wallpaper that did move a little- not just annoying fish flying past, but maybe the slow sunrise over Mulgore in World of Warcraft, a wintery day outside Solitude in Skyrim, a Tython waterfall in Star Wars: The Old Republic? A wallpaper with just the tiniest bit of movement would make a computer monitor seem so much less like a computer and so much more like a window.

To run, download DreamScene Video Wallpaper (PC) or VLC Media Player (Mac)- more technical info below.

Moving Wallpaper: World of Warcraft – Grizzly Hills

Still image from the Grizzly Hills moving desktop wallpaper

Download WoW Desktop Wallpaper #1: Grizzly Hills

Installation

PC: Download DreamScene Video Player [Download.com]

Mac: Download VLC Media Player [VLC Website]

• Options > Show All > Set As Wallpaper
• Video Settings > DirectX Output

Thank You

Big thanks to Safe Shark for the file hosting.

Huge thanks to intrepid beta testers and technical wizards Rezznul (he’s a Mac) & GayGeekDad(and he’s a PC).

As always, if you’re experiencing technical difficulty or know of a better way to run these backgrounds (especially for Mac users), drop me a line at disciplinaryaction@yahoo.com . We’re working hard to make them perfect for everyone.

If you have any suggestions on how to make the wallpaper playback better, please leave them in the comments or email me at disciplinaryaction@yahoo.com