I still hate that fight. You burn through him so fast, he spends 99% of it underground, and there’s no good spot to pop trinks or CDs, 'cause as soon as you do, there won’t be anything to hit. So tedious.
This is the #1 reason I don’t have one yet. I’ve sworn not to buy an Authenticator until you can tie more than one to a single account. That way, I can have one attached to my desk and one on my keys.
Woohoo! You’re in the home stretch now!
You may have mentioned. Once or twice. 
I don’t think having more than one authenticator tied to an account would work very well. For one thing, they’d need to add yet another field to enter the serial number of the unit you’re using before you enter the number it generates …
I mean, all the authenticator does is generate a 6-digit number. It’s not physically hooked into your computer, and it isn’t broadcasting any kind of verification signal. I was actually kind of puzzled about how it works, since with six digits you only have 1 million possible numbers, and at first I didn’t see what’s to stop somebody from just entering a random 6-digit number in the Authenticator field on the login screen. My wild-ass guess is that there is some kind of algorithm, based on the very first number it generates after you’ve associated it with your account, that determines the sequence of “random” numbers that follow. Then the login server compares the number you enter with the number that specific authenticator generated last time, and determines if that’s the correct number. Using more than one authenticator would break the pattern. And who knows, the algorithm might be based on the authenticator’s serial number.
That’s just, as I said, a wild-ass guess, since I’m obviously not privy to the actual workings.
Hadn’t played my Pally in a while (3 weeks or so I think), and it was a bit unnerving being that close up to the action after spending most of my time ranged dpsing; I spent most of the time pretty blindly flailing away at my keyboard, I’m afraid. Though I did mostly stay on skull when you marked it.
There was a (very mildly) successful attempt at bypassing an authenticator not too long ago, and some more information came out about how they work. The 6-digit number is derived from a combination of the authenticator’s serial number, which is registered with Blizzard, and the time the button is pressed. The code is only good for 30 seconds after the button is pressed, after which you have to generate a new one. So you throw the 6-digit code to Blizzard, who looks at the serial number on file and runs the algorithm to see if the 6-digit code could have been generated in the last 30 seconds (or it derives the timestamp from the serial and code, not sure exactly how).
So two authenticators on one account is actually not all that infeasible, as Blizzard would just have to check both serials. I forget the exact reason they won’t allow it, but I believe it’s simply for security reasons, though; if you have two, it’s much easier to lose one than if you have just one.
I have a hook inside my desk’s cabinet. It was originally intended to hang my headset, but my current headset is too bulky for it. It does, however, make a fantastic place to keep my authenticator. I never take it off the hook, I just hit the button and read it from there.
Dailies, dailies, dailies … time to stop doing some of the Icecrown dailies on my main (Eilyssana, my human paladin on Lightbringer), I think.
With two level 80 toons (the other being Keliraeda on Cairne), another almost there at 74, and one more close behind at 68, I’m going to find myself with no time to do anything but dailies if I don’t weed some of them out. I’m at the point where there’s not much reason, aside from the gold, to keep doing most of them on my main.
Farming Champion’s Seals … My draenei warrior is already wearing the heirloom shoulders, and at lvl 74 it would be kind of a waste at this point to get her the heirloom chest as well. My lvl 68 draenei mage is wearing both the heirloom robe and shoulders, and she can pass those down if someday I decide I want to resume leveling my nelf priest and/or human warlock. I’ve tricked out my lvl 22 dwarf hunter with heirloom chest and shoulders, and my lvl 32 draenei shaman has the chest. There are no Champion’s Seal-purchasable gear upgrades left for my paladin, so the only things left to spend them on, really, are just vanity items like pets (I’ve already earned the skunk), mounts I’ll never use (I’ve already earned the Albino Drake), tabards, banners, etc.
She’s already Exalted with every Northrend faction except The Frenzyheart (they have nothing I want) and the Ashen Verdict, so she’s not earning any rep from dailies.
So the gold is the only reason to keep doing them, and I’ve decided that 13g 23s is no longer enough compensation for the tedium of some of these. So here’s what I’ve quit doing so far, in the order I’ve dropped them:
• The Ebon Blade dailies at Onslaught Harbor: I never really liked those ones anyway. The tedium of killing guards long after I’ve already used the potion to turn 10 of them into ghouls because I still need keys to open the chests, which may or may not contain the quest items I need. If lots of keys drop, the chests don’t spawn. If lots of chests spawn, nobody has keys. And luring the gryphon riders to me and melee-ing them to death is faster and more entertaining than using that skeleton gryphon to shoot them down (and fortunately you still get kill credit for killing them that way).
• Slaves to Saronite: Oh yes, I just loves me some quest that depends entirely on a random number generator to complete. The other day in General I posted: “LFG to pimp-slap the Blizzard devs who came up with Slaves to Saronite”. I got multiple requests for invites.
• That’s Abominable!: Amusing for while, but quickly became pure tedium. Takes too damned long to asplode everything.
• The Solution Solution: Not too bad, but it’s in the same little area as That’s Abominable, and it’s gotten annoying because, while the Piles of Bones and Abandoned Armor seem to be scattered all over the place, the Abandoned Helms always seem to spawn in a little cluster at a random location and I’m getting tired of hunting for them.
• Capture More Dispatches: The trick here is to shoot down the flying riders and hope their corpses don’t land right in the middle of a pack of Converted Heroes. Yeah, the Heroes aren’t hard to kill, but they’re tedious and time-consuming and killing them provides no benefit to this toon.
I’ve never even bothered with the PvP daily that wants me to kill 15 Horde players in Icecrown. On a PvE server, what are the chances that I’m going to encounter 15 PvP-flagged enemy Player Characters? I’ve encountered exactly one outside of the Argent Tournament grounds in all the time I’ve spent in Icecrown.
Time to use my game time more productively, running random Heroics and BGs, I think.
I think I saw something about that - like the hacker had to capture the authenticator number with a keylogger as soon as it was entered, and then immediately use it themself. And even if successful, it was only good one time
Mine sits on the base of my iMac, where I also keep my pocketknife and fingernail clippers. I’ve never misplaced the knife and clippers since they’ve been there, so I figure the authenticator is safe there as well 
I know. 
We use them at work for anyone who has laptops (including me). It would be trivial, AFAIK, for them to match a given code against two (or more) registered Authenticators instead of one. My guess is that the reason they won’t do it is that it will allow people to continue to share accounts. Right now, the only way someone with an Authenticator could allow someone else to log into their account would be for that person to (a) physically have the Authenticator or (b) have the current Authenticator code read to them as they log in.
Bingo. That’s exactly it.
And my 2 accounts have been hacked, and to rub in the torment, they installed authenticators on them … all thanks to my roomie clicking OK on the fucking vista malwares malware:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
I figure Monday will be the day I spend hours trying to recapture my damned accounts.
That sucks! Sorry Aruvqan.
Uh, has anyone checked the BDL guild vault?
Unfortunately my characters did hit the vault … but they have been demoted to no access now. May the asshats have their groins infested by the fleas of a thousand camels =(
Luckily none of my characters on other servers are in guilds, but I can pretty much guarentee that my 80s are all stripped out and being whored out for gold now:(
You’ve already contacted Blizzard, I assume.
I’ve heard rumors that some GMs offer you a starter package instead of your gear back. Hold out for your gear. And then get your own authenticators, of course.
Nope, I will do it tomorrow when I have the hours to stay on hold and deal with it …
Woo, relatively productive day today.
PvP: Alterac Valley Victory, Isle of Conquest Victory, plus three BG losses, but accumulated enough Honor Points to get myself some of these: Furious Gladiator’s Scaled Legguards. Wasn’t really sure how to ideally gem them for PvP, but I put in a +10STR, +10 Resilience orange gem in the Red socket, and a +30STA blue gem in the blue socket, and also slapped on some Icescale Leg Armor for +75AP and +22 Crit.
Also, afterwards, I was in SW and somebody started hollering about a couple Hordies in the Dwarven District, so I helped him take 'em out 
Heroics!
Looking For More
Heroic: Drak’tharon Keep
Oh Novos!
Consumption Junction
I was getting kind of annoyed with the tank (human DK), though. She repeatedly engaged a group of mobs, stopped and whaled on them, and then right about the time I’d run in and drop my Consecrate, she’d run off to the next group of mobs, dragging the first group along with her and off of my Consecrate, and I’d have to chase after her but be unable to drop a fresh Consecrate under the now-twice-as-big group because it was still on cooldown. This resulted in one total wipe on trash :mad:
Question for those who know the Tournament better than I do…
I’m still in the Valiant stage for my first faction (Org), and it’s never occurred to me to try this until now (when I can’t because I’m at work)…can you earn Valiant’s Marks if you don’t currently have the Grand Melee quest? F’rinstance, could I have been practicing jousting after I hand in my three for Grand Melee for the day, and still earn them when I defeat another valiant, or do I have to have the daily accepted and unfulfilled in my quest log?
I doubt you could collect them without the quest, jayjay, but that’s a good question. I never tried it.
Okay…if no one answers before then, I’ll give it a try this evening. I’m 3 badges or whatever away from the 25 hand-in, so I’ll do Grand Melee first, hand them in, then see if I can get more.
What happens, btw, when you hand in your 25 valiant’s badges? Is there a new layer of dailies from that faction, or are you just validated to start collecting champion’s badges from the big arena for that faction? When do you get the chance to do Valiant dailies for a different faction?
Recently, I’ve been thinking of coming back to WoW. I last played during the BC expansion, and reading this thread it looks like there have been many quality of life improvements (automated dungeon queues?), that plus the general level of enjoyment here have piqued my interest.
I do have a couple of questions, if people are willing to help:
Are there any current deals for renewing lapsed accounts (free time to a friend, etc.)?
The SD guild is on Cairne? Is it open to infrequent posters :)?
What are the typical wait-times for dungeon queuing? How long are average dungeon runs now? (My typical playtime increment is on the order of an hour)
Any other significant changes I should be excited by/aware of?
Nah, that almost certainly won’t work. It’s like other “lootable” quest items - they only drop if you have the quest, AFAIK.
Welcome back (potentially)! I can answer a few of these.
Yes. And yes. There are a few that basically never post here.
Tanks = instant queue. Healer = 5 mins at most. DPS = up to 20-30 minutes. The dungeons take maybe 20 minutes, max. My fastest was a 4 minutes AN run… also did an 8 minute UK once or twice.
The biggest change, as far as I can tell (never played BC or before) is that all of the end-game stuff is way more accessible, and immediately so. You can level to 80, run heroics for a week or two, and go directly to the last raid (Icecrown Citadel). No more attunements, no more gearing up in “old” content. Raids are also broken down into normal and heroic modes so even casual players can realistically hope to kill every raid boss in the game on normal mode.
Also, achievements give solo and non-raiding players plenty to do.
I can answer this from the level 80 perspective, at least on my server.
DPS: 10-15 minutes
Healer: 1-5 minutes
Tank: Instant
Seriously. I prefer playing my druid in boomkin form when I do randoms, rather than as a tank, which I’ll do in random dungeons with all-guild teams. (Yes, you can take a completely pre-made group through random dungeons and still get the bonus emblems.) Sometimes I’ll hit the option to enter the queue for a random group right after I’ve queued with the guild, and be shocked to see the “dungeon ready!” screen pop up right away. Then I’ll realize I accidentally queued as a tank and hit no.
Most Northrend dungeons can be whipped through in way under an hour by a well-geared group of 80s. I went through Gundrak with one group where we ran into the problem that we couldn’t kick the (obnoxious) tank right before the last boss because 15 minutes hadn’t elapsed yet. That being said, I think too many tanks/groups expect super-fast runs even if they aren’t up to actually doing that, and blame the healer for “sucking”, etc.