Axes, maces, lightning, Windfury and wolves. It can mean only one thing: enhancement. Rich Maloy lives it and loves it. His main spec is enhance. His off-spec is enhance. He blogs about the life and times of enhance, and leads the guild Big Crits (Week 13 now live!)as the enhancement shaman Stoneybaby.
It's been a few weeks since my last beta post. I feel like I'm back in grammar school at good ol' St. Louise de Marillac, "forgive me readers, it's been four weeks since my last beta post. Since then I've been mean to my guild, and I tried to kill my own priest." In game priest, in game! I can't wait to read the letters to the editor about that slip up. Oh well, at least I didn't use the word "casual."
Moving right along to important topics that everyone cares about: beta changes for enhancement shamans! Well, I suppose "everyone" excludes people that are not interested in beta spoilers. Great, two paragraphs in and I've already offended Catholics, priests, and people not interested in beta spoilers. Look on the bright side: at least I didn't use an offensive font this week!
If you are interested in the latest beta changes as they relate to enhancement shamans then please read on. Please note that beyond this point, this post will not further offend your good, wholesome middle Azerothian sensibilities.
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column in which the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky, senior editor at WoW.com and webmaster of a new quick and dirty MMO news site, will be your host today.
Forget Saturdays. According to my cat today is the day that I spend playing with him and ignoring everything else. He has therefore commanded me to post the internet lolcat meme of caturday.
Jeff asked:
"Has there been any talk about updating the old racials to put them more in line with the Goblin / Worgen ones?"
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW.com staff and ask them, "What are youplaying this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game -- and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!
In addition to the usual fare of talking about what we're all doing this weekend, we asked the team how they felt about Zul'Gurub being removed as a raid instance in Cataclysm. Are they angry? Pleased? Completely apathetic? What about your, dear readers?
Alex Ziebart (@alexziebart): Not much of a break for me this weekend. My pen and paper crew is getting together this weekend because Labor Day killed our usual weekend plans. Beyond that, I'm going to be populating a couple of new blogs that I'm working on with content. Weekends? Holidays? Pish posh. As for Zul'Gurub ... well, I'm not happy that it's going away. I'm also not unhappy. I didn't exactly go in there very much, but I will miss it. It was one of my favorite raids at 60. Jin'do and Hakkar were awesome fights.
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey): Nada going on playwise -- I'll be in Vegas all weekend! As for ZG being removed, I am not worried. I am not worried. I amnotworriedohgodmustspendeverylockoutperiodfarmingfortigerpleasedon'ttakeitawaaaaaay
Amy Schley (@wowlawbringer): I'll be hitting the local farmer's market with the family and then working on Ulduar achievements with my server's guild alliance. I'll miss ZG, but not enough to go hogwild on farming it for the next few months.
It's time again for Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column known for its special five-alarm chili recipe. It's a delicate blend of three different conjured beans, spiced up with Fireballs, Scorches, and slow-cooked over a smoldering Flamestrike, loaded with lamb, bacon, and the occasional roasted monkey, glazed with a dusting of Frostfire, then lit aflame with a Pyroblast. And the secret ingredient? Warlock tears.
If there's one thing mages have been known for during the course of this fine game we all play, it's mass murder. We have at our disposal a wide array of spells that wreak havoc over a large area, perhaps more so than any other class. When it comes to killing things in large numbers, mages are remarkably adept. It's a role we embrace wholeheartedly.
AoE has evolved quite since the inception of the game. In vanilla WoW, AoE was a great way to get yourself killed in an instance, a method of attack that was mostly limited to solo farming and certain trash pulls. These days, with the ability tanks have to hold multiple mobs with relative ease, AoE has morphed into the go-to way to deal with multiple-mob pulls of all shapes and sizes. Crowd control has gone the way of Wand Specialization; it simply isn't required in most situations in Wrath.
Cataclysm is bringing with it some fairly sweeping changes to the way we utilize our AoE repertoire. The developers have stated their intention to return us to a time when we actually had to worry about things like crowd control and pull-sizes, and though we're not reverting completely, pulls on the beta certainly feel more like vanilla or Burning Crusade pulls than anything we saw in Wrath. Join me after the break and we'll go over how our AoE spells will work in this coming era.
Each day, WoW.com takes you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From the latest posts from Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) to the lowdown on StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, we'll keep you informed.
In which a weekend post of The Daily Blues is put forth.
In a secret basketball shrine deep beneath Cameron Indoor Stadium, Mike Krzyzewski uses his laser beam to turn another leper gnome into a forward for the Duke Blue Devils. Sadly, the gamma radiation wears off before any of the experimental subjects can obtain success in the NBA. (This screenshot brought to you by Aelyras of Bloodhoof and my own semi-irrational hatred of Duke basketball.)
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wow.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include "Azeroth" in the subject line so your email doesn't get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.
If you've been on the internet in any capacity for a few years, you are familiar with the Penny Arcade theory (NSFW language). I've just come through a couple weeks of this with my guild. It resulted in one person's being kicked and another leaving. Briefly, the kicked person tried to sell tracking the Time-Lost Proto Drake for 5k gold. A person on the server paid 2,500g up front and was led on a wild goose chase, after which the ex-guild member phased, hearthed and put the "pigeon" on ignore. When an officer and I confronted the perpetrator, the lies grew ever more convoluted. I kicked him and repaid, from guild funds, the money stolen. The person who quit behaved in a manner that wasn't appropriate. I called him out on it.
These incidents have me thinking: Does it matter how you behave in a fake world? Realistically, I'm probably never going to meet 95 percent of the people on my server. In our guild Code of Conduct, I state right at the beginning, "We do not tolerate malicious, hurtful behavior or speech in guild chat, party chat, WoW chat or on Vent. This is grounds for dismissal. Honor and respect each other and other guilds. When you join this guild, you represent us wherever you go. Respect others as you expect to be respected. Your integrity and actions directly reflect onto this guild. Inappropriate conduct with other guild members and the Llane community at large is not permitted and is grounds for dismissal."
I am adamant about this. I feel that if you want to be treated with respect, taken seriously, invited to raids and not called out on the server forum, you must respect others. I've worked very hard to create a guild that is respected. When people think about us, they know we're here for the fun of the game. We don't take ourselves seriously, and we treat you fairly and with respect. Am I way off base here? Again, does it matter? How do you think your server views you and your guild? Do you care?
Blizzard's been hard at work adjusting a lot of WoW's game systems for Cataclysm, and one of the biggest changes in the pipeline is the overhaul of the inscription profession. You may remember the Path of the Titans alternate advancement system was axed in favor of making inscription, well, better. On top of other changes and a new UI, part of this task is adding a new tier of glyphs -- called prime glyphs -- on top of the already-existing tiers of major and minor.
Ghostcrawler recently had this to say about the new glyph system:
Ghostcrawler
Prime glyphs aren't going to be exciting in a "change up your rotation" style. We want primes to be unambiguous dps (etc.) increases so we figured they might as well be easy to understand rather than something so convoluted that everyone would just go to a fansite to see which 3 to pick.
The majors are more interesting, because they are either not dps increases at all, or dps increases in ways that are tricky to math out. We think players will debate and geek out more about which majors to use, and with the new glyph design, swapping them out once in awhile isn't very painful.
Several classes have had their glyphs worked on and updated as of this beta patch, but only rogues and shaman glyph passes appear to be "done," so we've listed glyphs for those two after the break.
Every Friday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting balance druids and those who group with them. This week, we are exploring two of the four wings in Heroic ICC. Be prepared to face some of the most challenging content the game has to offer, folks -- it only gets real from here on out.
I know, I know: No one cares about ICC any more ... Everything is all about Cataclysm ... So why bother talking about it? That's far from the truth, though. ICC still matters to many people. However, if you happen to be of the more pragmatic sort, then hear me out for a little bit. Most of the server-first and world-first kills may have already been claimed, but there is always loot to be had, gear that can be helpful for either soloing things now or leveling in the expansion. Beyond simple gear, heroic ICC is simply fun. People have argued that hard modes aren't quite the same as a truly difficult raid encounter because they are the same as the standard encounters -- perhaps true to a point, but heroic modes are really fun when they are done correctly. Heroic Putricide feels like a completely different encounter when done on heroic mode and is extremely fun.
Perhaps this issue is a little bit late in coming, and for that I apologize -- but it's better late than never, aye? To start with, the first order of business is to ensure that your guild is prepared to go against heroic encounters. The ICC buff can be very intoxicating to some players, and it may make you feel more prepared than you really are for these encounters. Perhaps, in some cases, you are, and perhaps in others, you are not. Not all heroic encounters are created equal; some are far more difficult than others. Since this issue will deal with the opening Lower Spire and the Blood wing, the three encounters you'd want to start with would be Marrowgar, Gunship and Blood Princes; Deathwhisper, Saurfang and Blood Queen Lana'thel would be the three more difficult encounters in these two sectors.
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column in which the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Saccowill be your host today.
/cast Conjure Bone
/cast Conjure Bone
/cast Conjure Bone
/cast Conjure Bone
Bui asked:
With the level cap having gone up to 85 now and I'm guessing plenty of beta testers have reached it whats the gear looking like from the quests and other sources ? I mean is it apparent that all the ICC stuff you got will be put to shame by the new greens? I know you've said that most of your gear will be getting replaced by around 83 but how vast is the gap between ICC and like an 85 green?
Uldum and Twilight Highlands aren't itemized yet, so we don't know. My ICC gear (non-heroic) was replaced handily by stuff in Deepholm and Hyjal before it; if not due to pure power differences, than because of mastery and much-needed stamina against the hard-hitting Cataclysm mobs.
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.
Early in August, <Hero Squad> of Bleeding Hollow (US-H) started a screenshot scavenger Hunt to distribute the five vanity items that are awarded when a Shadowmourne is created. The Shadowmourne chestcontainsfiveprettysweetitems. (Well, OK, maybe making a portal to Dalaran isn't exactly the games greatest reward.) A chance at any of these items would have most players bending over backwards, and our raiders are no different.
A few months back, the officers sat down to figure out what to do with these items. We knew that we wanted to do something fun and memorable to hand out the first items. We brainstormed about 10 different types of games but eventually decided on a screenshot scavenger hunt.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is about warriors, who hurl themselves into the fray, the very teeth of danger, armed with nothing more than the biggest weapons and armored with the absolutely heaviest armor we can find. Hey, we're not stupid -- we're just crazy.
Having spent the last few weeks more or less avoiding talking about Cataclysm, I'm now going to dive back into the discussion of our "soon" to come expansion. While the most recent beta push didn't do much at all to our talents from previous beta builds, we did see some significant changes as the new glyph system was implemented. We also got actual plate models for a lot of green and blue quest drops so that my warrior now looks like he's wearing a classic Roman-style gladiator helmet and chest in the screenshot above. At this point, there's a lot to talk about in terms of how things are shaking out.
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.
Friends are going to fight or at least disagree every once in a while. This really should be a private issue and not one that should spill over into a shared guild ... in a perfect world. What actually happens is drama -- awkward drama that affects the innocent bystanders and fellow guildies. At least that's what happened in this week's email.
Dear Drama Mamas,
I'd been playing in a guild with a couple of RL friends of mine and their friends/relatives. It was a nice, relaxed, casual environment to do some dungeons and 10-mans, and I very much enjoyed it. However, there had always been some sort of drama happening -- the worst of which was last month when, just before a raid, I whispered one of those RL friends of mine with some advice for the fights we were about to do. He was playing a new 80 and he hadn't done a raid in that role before. He immediately logs off, then logs back on a second later and says in raid chat, "DOES ANYONE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ME!!! OTHER THAN [my name]!!!" We managed to get it sorted out, with appropriate apologies made from both sides, and continued with the raid.
The latest patch to the Cataclysmbeta has finally added in the revamped glyph UI, sporting the newly implemented Prime Glyphs, a selection window and awesome new convenience features. The new interface has a search box for quickly finding glyphs, expanding categories of prime, major and minor glyphs, and it even shows you what glyphs you have not yet learned.
Personally, I think that the new glyph interface is one of the coolest Cataclysm revamps. The old system of glyphs was an awesome first step, but it has been refined and polished in ways we never could have expected. Check out the gallery of shots below to see what the glyph UI looks like while empty, sporting some glyphs and using the search feature.
"Captain Taylor, he gained the day," the tall orc intoned. The behemoth's voice caught in his throat as he groaned out the last word.
"Walk him along," Lolegolas said with a sorrowful voice. "Throgg, carry him along. Captain Taylor gained us this day."
The orc hefted the captain's favorite weapon. Captain Taylor's Chopper was a simple board from the deck of his ship with a deck nail driven through it. "We'll carry him to his burying ground where it's stormy. And I will lower him to his rest with my own two hands."
The pair reached the shallow grave and bent at the waist to lower the coffin with due solemnity. "Captain Taylor, he's gone where the stormy winds won't blow. Lower him down, Throgg."
As the two finished the burial, Throgg hefted the axe in a fist like a ham. "On every inch, I will carve his name. And we will reckon him, reckon it along."
The blonde elf threw an arm around his big friend as the two slowly walked away.
Phat Loot Phriday brings you the scoop on some of the most ... interesting ... loot in the World of Warcraft, often viewed through the eyes of the stalwart Throgg and indelible Lolegolas. Suggest items you think we should feature by emailing gray@wow.com.
Some of us live by a code. This weekend, you must remember the code. Live by the code. What code? What other code could we possibly be talking about? We're talking about Da Moonkin Code!
Voodooray's Da Moonkin Code is one of my favorite videos about the druid class. Sure, I know they have a feral and a resto spec. I've heard you can turn into a tree. But when you have the options of rocking out with your beak out, how could you not reach for some of that sweet, sweet boomkin loving? Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.
We're having a great time sharing the voices of our readers on the site -- and readers seem to be thoroughly enjoying both writing and reading our regular guest posts, from articles such as Long exposure WoWtography and Northrend truckers: A tale of WoW OTR to the countless Breakfast Topics that help us blink our way through bleary mornings over a cup of steaming coffee.
This week, we're continuing the tradition with a new call for submissions about alts. Have you recently rerolled on a new-to-you class? Show us the other side of life as part of our "Confessions of a Noob: Class X" series, written especially by experienced players who are leveling a new class for the first time. Show us what you're learning about your new class. What has surprised you? Is there something about your class that you're having one dickens of a time remembering? How is your role in groups different? Have you gained a new appreciation for your new class -- or others?
We're not looking for narratives telling the story of what your character did while leveling. Instead, we're looking for opinions, comparisons and observations about the process of playing a class that may be very different from the one you're most used to. What are the facets of your new class that make playing this new character a compelling, enjoyable experience? Your title should clearly reflect the class of your new alt (for example, "Confessions of a Noob: Paladin"). Don't forget to provide perspective by explaining what class and spec you're most used to playing.
Despite two straight days of killing orcs, Marston of Moonrunner was not able to raise enough money to pay for a face transplant. So Marston had to settle for a discount Halloween mask of Venom from Spider-Man. It's probably for the best -- do you really want a face transplant performed in a barber shop?
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wow.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include "Azeroth" in the subject line so your email doesn't get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.
Each day, WoW.com takes you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From the latest posts from Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) to the lowdown on StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, we'll keep you informed.
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.
As I walk into the room, I take a look around and I feel out of place. Here I am, standing there with my weapon dripping what looks to be blood and my shoulders trying to bite people who walk by me, while the others in the room are calmly cutting Crystalsong carrots and tenderizing rhino meat. I slide into my cooking set, and I feel much more welcome and much less imposing. With my Salma's Oven Mitts, Cookie's Tenderizer and my spiffy Chef's Hat, I feel like I can step up alongside Katherine Lee and cook to my heart's content.
When the time calls, what equipment sets do you put on? When you go to Ironforge, do you slap on your Blue Brewfest Hat and chug until you pass out? Are you the type to put down a D.I.S.C.O. ball, equip some Blue Suede Shoes and act like you are John Travolta? Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions, and be sure to sign up for Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.
Who likes contests? Everyone likes contests -- heck, it's a chance at free goodies. Even if you don't win, you aren't really out anything. Here are some pointers to various WoW-related contests that are currently running here and there:
Attending BlizzCon in the flesh? You can get free passes to the pre-screening of The Raid, a Blue Loon film about the world of raiding and what it means to be a raider. There are a whole slew of people in the WoW community giving away passes to this event; you can check the full list of giveaway sites on The Raid's official site.
Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment, and you may see it here tomorrow! Be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites.
Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. This week, holy crap! There's a bear.
Have I got awesome news for you, dear Addon Spotlight readers. Today, I've enlisted the help of a good friend of mine to come and discuss some miscellaneous management addons that are designed to take all that information and parse it into something useful. I would like to introduce everyone to Mongor the bear accountant. Mongor is a bear that is also an accountant, and he's my good friend. It's time to get your life managed.
Zach enjoys PvP in all its forms, thus celebrating when some form of PvP was introduced to the Facebook game Pirates Ahoy!
Let's continue from last week's handy guide which was titled intentionally to play on the various meanings of "good." This week, we'll go through a few pointers at how to win at everything. Or, at the very least, to put up a decent fight and not go down in a terribly embarrassing fashion. That's all one can really ask for -- that one puts up a fight. Note that in most cases, the victor won't care because a win is a win, especially in PvP. There are no moral victories in PvP, but there are educational defeats. If you're going to lose, at the very least learn from it, right?
The first rule to winning is to think you can win. If you don't give yourself a chance to win by thinking you're outmatched, then unless your opponent is a total buffoon, she's already won. Don't worry too much about class or your level differential. You must go into the battle thinking you can win or, if you're a healer, at least survive indefinitely. It doesn't matter if you can actually win or not, especially when you're clearly outmatched, such as when you're many levels below your opponent. In such cases, your opponents already expect to win, so if you surprise them with some resistance or maybe even bring them dangerously low, then you will have put some doubt into their heads. As I mentioned last week, most griefers don't actually look for a challenge. So there, the most important rule: Believe you can win.
Every week, Raid Rxwill help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand pooh-bah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a WoW blog for all things UI-, macro- and addon-related. If you're looking for more healing advice, check out the Plus Heal community.
Stop me if you've heard this one. You're taking on some dragon. Some really powerful spell is about to hit you and the rest of the raid. You don't have any cooldowns to use because you had to pop them earlier. The tank who is busy yelling obscenities at said dragon just took a massive fireball to the face and is down in the red. You know for a fact that the next blow is going to be lethal and you have maybe 2 seconds to react.
If you move, you may well have condemned your tank to death. If you stay and heal, you'll end up taking some damage which could be lethal.
Normally, this isn't that big of a deal, but we're in an age where we have so many informative addons that tell us which attacks successfully hit a player and when it happened. What's worse is that this data means the difference between staying and getting cut from a raid (or a guild).
This is a topic of one of the emails that I received from a healing shaman.
So what is a healer to do? Is he wrong for making the decision to take avoidable damage to keep the raid or the tank alive? Is he better off just taking the damage so that he doesn't look bad? Either way, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. Lots of players don't understand that these are some of the decisions that have to be made.
Welcome to the Lawbringer, Wow.com's weekly guide to the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I'm Amy Schley, a new law school graduate and your tour guide through the rabbit hole of contracts, copyrights and other craziness.
Greetings again! We're on part three of an examination of the various legal documents to which we must consent in order to play our beloved World of Warcraft. Parts one and two examined the End User License Agreement; this segment will look at the Terms of Use ("TOU").
The first thing you'll notice as you examine the TOU is that it is quite similar to the EULA. This is by design -- while one of the EULA's provisions is to agree to the Terms of Use, the repetition increases the likelihood we'll actually read it. There are quite a few differences, including the code of conduct and the naming policy.
As you've probably already read, players will be able to purchase 310 percent flying speed from trainers in Cataclysm. While this is good news for people who hate raiding, think arena was shat into existence by the most sociopathic among the development team, or spent School of Hard Knocks trying to drown themselves in the nearest body of water, the bad news is that buying your way to super-fast flying will run you a cool 5,000 gold.
Outrageous, says this dyed-in-the-wool cheapskate. For anyone else who'd rather die than part with a centavo of hard-earned gold, the good news is that having even a single 310 percent flyer in your stable is enough to get you the skill free. Fortunately, there's plenty of time to snag yourself one of these coveted mounts before Cataclysm hits, and just as fortunately, each mount is the reward (or subject) of an achievement.
Strategy guides for obtaining each of the remaining 310 percent mounts is definitely beyond the scope of this article (although I'll probably devote an edition of OverAchiever to nabbing the Rusted Proto-Drake, above) but we can take a visual tour of the fast flyers that any hard-working player can still get in Wrath of the Lich King.
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in theWoW Rookie Guide.
We've told you how to get ready for your first raid -- and now, we're going to help you actually get your hands dirty, in a new series for beginning raiders in Ready Check. We fired things up last week with Raiding 101; look for additional installments in future weeks (including today!).
Beta access being what it is (up and down -- and when it counts most for deadlines, the latter), we were unable to complete the Horde companion piece to last week's Alliance newbie zone revamps in Cataclysm. We're still working on that for you ... In the meantime, since we've got you revved up for Cataclysm news, we'll round up more rookie-centric details found scattered across the site over the past month.
Spoiler No. 1:Cataclysm spoilers ahead; proceed at your own risk.
Spoiler No. 2: This week's content has been posted previously, elsewhere at WoW.com. If you're an assiduous reader, this week's content will not be new news for you.
Every week, we present you with the WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion, covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW.com, to emails from our readers, to what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth.
Along with your hosts, WoW.com Senior Editor Michael Sacco and Contributing Editors Matthew Rossi and Mat McCurley, we also feature rotating guest hosts, whether regular WoW.com contributors or personalities from other sites.
Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wow.com!
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Warning: This episode has a lot of Cataclysm spoilers. Don't listen if you don't want to be spoiled!
A question that I'm getting asked with increasing frequency these days is: "I've done everything there is to do in Wrath, Cataclysm doesn't even have a release date, and I'm bored! I'm sick of ICC and I'm not in the beta. What can I do to enjoy WoW?"
The end-of-expansion doldrums are hitting us all, and they've teamed up with summer in a flanking maneuver sure to leave almost every raid sign-up sheet a sad and empty thing. As the expansion winds down, we're left in a limbo-land. It's not yet close enough to Cataclysm to start preparing ourselves for the new expansion, but we've already conquered all the challenges of the old expansion.
If you're looking to breathe new joy and excitement into your WoW time, I've got a solution that just might work for you. Set your uber-geared badass Kingslayer away for a moment. You've done everything there is to do with your hunter for now. Instead, take a look at the class with fresh eyes, with a horde of bearded friends at your side, and learn what epic really means by rolling a new level 1 hunter!
Some days are better than others. Other days are worse. Some days, you just want a palate cleansing. I'm in that kind of mood today. That makes today a great day to look back and revisit Yume's musical video, Polystyrene Dream.
The ethereal view still appeals to me, with the various and surreal imagery and wonderfully cadenced music. But then the jarring behavior of the characters is still just a little odd. Probably, no one knows what's really going on except Yume, but I still enjoy the trip into absurdity. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at machinima@wow.com.
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column in which the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky, senior editor at WoW.com and webmaster of a new quick and dirty MMO news site, will be your host today.
The above image is what the new Cataclysm launcher looks like. It's shown in mid-patch, with enough data downloaded that I can play the game at least respectably. It really looks quite slick, and I love the additions of the amounts that need to be downloaded.
Lagothan asked:
"Soooo, any predictions on the release date for Cataclysm? Please don't say 'soon' or I will be a sad panda."
The goblin engineers run a pretty competent zeppelin service, with only the occasional incident of dropping everyone through the floor of the ship to their watery graves. And I've never seen a gnomish mechanostrider waiting for a tow truck on the side of the road. But something about this new engineering mount has me worried. Maybe it's the fact that it looks like it was built from whatever washed up on the beach in Tanaris. Maybe it's the loose rockets right next to the open flame. Or maybe it's the large death toll attributed to goblin engineering projects. Thanks, but I think I'll stick to the ground for now. (Thanks to Klangkor of <Game Over> on Greymane [US-H] for the screenshot.)
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wow.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include "Azeroth" in the subject line so your email doesn't get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.
Each day, WoW.com takes you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From the latest posts from Ghostcrawler (lead systems designer) to the lowdown on StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, we'll keep you informed.
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.
I want to share with you all a story. Once upon a time, there was a WoW noob who was known as Donaldserrot the human warrior. I'm pretty sure the only thing he did right was Brewfest. But he had fun, at least until he either grouped up with other players (who made fun of his gear) or went to the Outland (where the mobs showed him how bad his gear was).
It was at this time that Donald reached the end. There wasn't much more he could do as he was, and he didn't have the desire to fix things, so he retired. At that time, a new WoW nooblet showed up. Donhorn was different and decided to try to learn more about not just his druidic class but also his tauren history. He knew of the trials Donaldserrot had gone through and knew that in order to go the distance, he'd need to train.
The Classifieds brings you weekly news from around the WoW community, including the famous Random Acts of Uberness shout-outs to players who make WoW memorable.
One of the best things about WoW is the friendships you make along the way. It looks like this group has done plenty of that. Long, awkward silences between new acquaintances? Not this gang.
We celebrated our fifth anniversary yesterday with a "Cattle Run" -- a bunch of level 1 taurens doing the run from Mulgore to Thrall (made more interesting since half the guildies there are very much pro-Alliance and didn't know exactly where to find him!). Naturally, we had to do this on a different realm due to the number of altoholics we have. There were a few hiccups on the way ... (by "hiccups," read grizzly deaths), but there was much laughter on Vent and prizes for the winners!
In recognition of this rather superb achievement, we also had the first ever guild meeting last weekend. "Wisfest" took place in York -- and had a weekend where real life was a parody of WoW. An ancient walled city with dungeons and ghost tours! Naturally, we had to sample some of the local ales. Fifteen of us turned up to meet and gel our online friendships into something more. I'm very appreciative of all those that came -- in particular Stony, who travelled all the way from Belgium. We had an absolute blast!
Needless to say, Wisfest 2011 is already in the calendar for next year.
With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and soon, an entire flight of black dragons. Please send screenshots as well as any comments to my email at gregg@wow.com.
Before we get on to business, I need another batch of screenshots for headers if anyone feels like tossing a couple my way.
A lot of abilities have been either renamed, revamped or removed in the Cataclysm beta. This is part of a consolidation process to remove a lot of buttons off of our bars. Other abilities were changed to remove durability and healing from retribution.
However, in the interest of explaining where things went, I decided it might be best to make a list of our lost and renamed abilities, for those of you who haven't been able to keep up with all of the changes.
Gold Capped (from Basil "Euripides" Berntsen) is the column that will teach you how to brutalize your auction house competition and teach them the meaning of the term "opportunity cost."
OK, last week I claimed that I'd eventually make it through my emails. I now realize that taunting you guys is probably a bad idea, because this week's inbox made it clear that I'll never dig myself out of the Sisyphean pile of emails I've accumulated. I assume that the winding down of this expansion has everyone trying to prepare themselves for the next expansion by hoarding gold, the only thing that will still be really valuable after the gear reset we have in store for us.
Snowmane writes:
I have around 1,100g, and though it fluctuates up to 2,000 at some points, recently, I'm at a low. I am a 450 alchemist and a 250 jewelcrafter, though that's on hold due to lack of funds to buy things to level with. I've looked at different ways of making money with my profession, but none seem to work. I just don't understand how people can make all this gold and easily equip themselves with things needed for raiding, when I can barely afford gemming and enchanting new piece of gear.
Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we discuss some of the awesome rogue items that help define our class' image.
I remember the first time I was ever kicked from a guild. At the time, my main character was my very first rogue, who was a new level 60. I browsed around the realm forums for any guilds recruiting and found one that seemed to fit my schedule. I started raiding with them, and everything seemed to be going great. Well, it was going great, until I decided to argue with a hunter about weapons. The raid had a Core Hound Tooth drop for them in Molten Core, and a hunter had used his DKP to win the item. I saw him walking around Ironforge with it the next day.
I argued with him that a rogue should've had first priority for it, since it's one of our main weapons. His stance was that any weapon a hunter could use was a "hunter weapon," or else Blizzard would've made it so that they couldn't use it. His other weapon was an Azuresong Mageblade that he claimed boosted his Serpent Sting and Arcane Shot damage. It turns out he was a high-ranking officer of the guild, and our spat was grounds for a /gkick. Luckily for us, there are a few items in game that rogues can take claim of. These items were designed specifically with us in mind and have become instantly recognizable symbols of our class to everyone.
Blizzard has just announced via its Warcraft Twitter account and the forums that the Customer Support team now has its own Twitter. The full text of the forum announcement is below:
Auryk
You can now follow all Blizzard Entertainment Customer Support news and updates on Twitter. Just head over to @BlizzardCS, (http://twitter.com/BlizzardCS) for the latest Support related news, events and more. We will be providing constant updates during Tuesday's maintenance and service outages. Additionally, you will be able to view updates to our Queue Times for Game Master interactions, account investigations and escalated tickets alike.
No word if the intermittent outages of the authentication system that were recently being experienced will be reported on this new Twitter account, but I think this is a step in the right direction for further increasing the communication from Blizzard to its customer base.
Note: The video above and the stories on the next page contain Cataclysm spoilers. You have been warned.
Above is the video of last Wednesday's stream, in case you missed it. Turn the page for recaps from Prupher, Robinka and Peenk, as well as the latest about the level 60 raids.
Schedule
[Update: Due to a headache, I am rescheduling tonight's stream for Friday night. Sorry for the inconvenience.]Robin Torres as Robinemia, the Forsaken huntress: Wednesday Friday, 11 p.m. EDT Note: This will be streamed.
Amy Schley as Patent, the level 28 troll rogue: Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT
Adventurers who play when they can
Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the level 25 blood elf paladin
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