World of Warcraft

Project Lore: Five dudes. Four cameras. One World of Warcraft.
Love is in the Air 2010: Here We Go Again

iTZKooPA

8 Feb 2010 | 11:11 am

Roses are red, violets are blue, why are you purple? It’s that time of the year again, the week stretch where 80% of the WoW population tries to woo the other 20% with virtual candies, roses, affection, boss runs and poetry. Oh, the poetry. Love is in the Air started over the weekend, and I’ve already managed to grab one of the achievements. Being the digital scrooge that I am I only actually care about two things Love is in the Air has to offer, Peddlefeet and Toxic Wasteling. This year Peddlefeet is far easier to obtain. Blizzard realized how god-awful-annoying it is to…
Project Lore Audio Podcast 2: Dave Edition

Heartbourne

8 Feb 2010 | 6:11 am

In our second edition of the currently unnamed experimental Project Lore audio podcast, Pixiestixy, Itzkoopa, and Amatera discussed a range of topics, such as the Ensidia ban, world first Arthas kill, auction house anywhere, and other WoW and MMO topics. Grab the mp3 Subscribe with RSS Share
Make This Addon: Tricks of the Trade

Heartbourne

7 Feb 2010 | 9:41 pm

Like most rogues, I use Tricks of the Trade (referred to as ToT, TotT, or Tricks) a lot. Its a rogue ability that has gained a newfound popularity with the great 2 piece tier 10 bonus from Shadowblade Armor. Tricks of the Trade is cast on a friendly player in your party or raid who is within 20 yards. After it is cast, the rogue gains the Tricks of the Trade buff, lasting for 30 seconds. Once the rogue attacks something, the buff is removed, and a buff is applied to your target that lasts for 6 seconds (10 seconds glyphed). This buff causes all threat caused by the rogue to be applied to the…
Quick Thoughts On The Dungeon Finder

iTZKooPA

5 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pm

Surprisingly, I haven't had many problems with ninjas. Patch 3.3’s addition of the Dungeon Finder has been nothing short of a game changer. There’s been no single feature added to World of Warcraft in its illustrious five year run that has changed the daily lives of so many players. People are using the tool to gear alts for raiding that would have never of been geared before, creating new characters to experience the early dungeons, reaping achievement after achievement from dungeons that were rarely seen before and soaking in, dissecting and analyzing dungeon…
Protip 7.2: Koralon the Flame Watcher

Heartbourne

5 Feb 2010 | 10:07 am

Protip is short video series with various tips and guides. Leave a comment to let me know what you want to see in future segments. Follow @Heartbourne or subscribe in iTunes for notifications of new videos! Picking up the tier 9 VoA boss on our way out, today’s Protip features Koralon the Flame Watcher. For high quality videos, subscribe in iTunes. If you are interested in the other VoA bosses, check out Dorkins and Juggy do Emalon the Storm Watcher and Archavon the Stone Watcher. Share

WoW.com
Resto shaman and auction house columnist chosen

9 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

Putting a call out for a pure resto shaman columnist brought out the best in applicants and this time we came out with a clear winner. We know him as Joe Perez, but you may know him as Lodur, the resto shaman columnist at World of Matticus. He will be joining Michael Sacco and Rich Maloy on Totem Talk in the next week or two when we get him contracted and set up. When Euripides of OutDPS wasn't chosen as our hunter columnist, he came back with a proposal to write a weekly column about the auction house. We liked what we saw and asked him to join us. In addition to writing for one of the…
Maintenance extended [Updated]

9 Feb 2010 | 11:45 am

Maintenance has been extended until "approximately" 2:59pm EST. In the official post on the forums, Blizzard recommends looking into your account security and making sure that everything is up to date. I agree and to that end, I'll also link you to the WoW Rookie account security roundup. We'll update this post with any changes to the realm status. Update 3:26pm: Maintenance has been extended to 4pm EST.Filed under: Realm StatusMaintenance extended [Updated] originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email…
MMO Roundup: Last week on Massively

9 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all those other shiny MMOs! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. Tips for a WoW player in EverQuest II Greetings and fair travels to you, adventurers. Once again it is I, Seccia Ravenloft, here to present this week's look into the world of Norrath. Now, from what these humans on this spiderweb site tell me, some of you are more familiar with other worlds than you are with Norrath. Blasphemy, I say! This week, I…
WoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue!

9 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic -- Byron the Tauren Rogue! From the deepest depths of a child's mind, we have Byron's first invention - the Cookie-Getting Bird. He knows that there would probably be more gears and stuff, but those are really hard to draw...or so he says. Check out the full version right here, and tune in next Tuesday morning for a new page! You can also check out all the previous pages in the gallery below. Gallery: Byron The Tauren RogueFiled under: WoW.com's Weekly ComicWoW.com's Weekly Comic: Byron, the Tauren Rogue! originally appeared on WoW.com on…
WoW Moviewatch: Nerf You

9 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

Nyhm originally released Nerf You in December 2009. This video is a proud continuation of his work through the years. However, I feel like Nyhm's really nailed down a particular dynamic in the lifestyle of playing WoW. Getting nerfed sucks, there's no doubt about it. But for every person who feels like the nerf hammer hit them especially hard, there's probably a few who realize that it was probably for a good reason. I especially think Nyhm's vocal skills are on display in this video. It not only has a pretty catchy tune, but he really gets to show off his ability to use verse and intonation…

TankingTips.com
Reactions to Patch 3.3.2

Veneretio

3 Feb 2010 | 2:58 pm

Changes in this patch for us: Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same. Devastate: This ability now deals 120% of weapon damage, up from 100% of weapon damage. Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value for this ability now diminishes faster and diminishes starting at a lower block value. The difference should be negligible for players in high-end tanking armor. In addition, the threat caused by Shield Slam has been increased by 30%. Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept…
The New T10 Gloves and Chest

Veneretio

26 Jan 2010 | 4:41 pm

Unexpectedly, the Blizzard team has decided to let us in on the little secret of how things will be changing Tier-wise in the next minor patch. Gloves Breakdown (Old) Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards 1579 Armor +81 Strength +148 Stamina Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina Equip: Increases defense rating by 71. Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 63. Equip: Improves hit rating by 54. (New) Ymirjar Lord’s Handguards 2461 Armor +81 Strength +148 Stamina Yellow Socket Socket Bonus: +6 Stamina Equip: Increases defense rating by 71. Equip: Improves hit rating by 54. Change +882 Armor - 63…
Warning: 25 man raiders should save Emblems of Frost

Veneretio

25 Jan 2010 | 7:31 pm

The gang at Blizzard HQ had this to say recently regarding the Tier 10 tanking sets: We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they’re provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces. Similar items crafted or…
Handling the Fast pace of the LFG Tool

Veneretio

22 Jan 2010 | 2:59 pm

I have a theory. Tanks are creatures of habit. We do our tank thing at our tank pace. So, the LFG Tool throwing us into a million different types of pugs on a regular basis has come to something of a rude awakening to those of us that like to smell the roses while tanking. The Need for Speed Whether or not you should have to pull fast is a topic for another day. What we’ll look at today is how to pull fast. What makes those of us that can pull at a fast pace able to and what we’re doing different to stay comfortable while completing instances at pug friendly paces. 1. Don’t…
The World of Weapons

Veneretio

14 Jan 2010 | 12:31 am

Entering Icecrown, we’ve got a number of interesting weapons to choose from and if you’ve kept up with the content, I think you’ll be hard pressed to not have something usable. The larger question though isn’t what is usable, but instead what’s desirable. What didn’t drop for me that should have. Is anything worth still running pre-Icecrown instances for? You bet. Let’s begin. Heroics Red Sword of Courage Upon launch this was the must have weapon that you ran Utgarde Pinnacle for over and over again for and if you’ve just hit 80, it’s…

pwnwear
Parry-haste doesn’t seem to exist in ICC

Gravity

8 Feb 2010 | 5:14 pm

1. A clever nerd wrote an addon which checks if the boss you’re fighting has been parry-hasted.2. Another clever geek wrote a script which parses logs to determine if parry-haste was seen.3. Combined conclusion so far is that the only boss in Icecrown with parry-haste turned on is Deathwhisper, and possibly Saurfang.Read the thread discussing it and download the addon from links within. If you’ve got matlab you can also get the code to parse your own logs. (Nerds ftw).Data so far suggests that Icecrown raid bosses have parry-haste turned off. It is not conclusive yet.4. We…
Enjoying your tanking

Gravity

8 Feb 2010 | 3:26 pm

Sure, Unholy’s fairly weak for tanking, but does it matter?The usual argument I hear, a flawed one at that, is “you pay your $15, you choose your spec”. That is true in a solo game. In a raid, no, you should pick a good spec that works, or you impact the other 9 or 24 people’s ability to progress. If you want to pick a useless spec, go play solo.That said, Unholy tank is not useless. It isn’t a fail-tank spec. It is not as good as Blood or Frost, but it is good enough for many raiders outside hard-modes. (I still wouldn’t use it.)However Vigan and CSPenn…
Bone shield has 2s cooldown

Gravity

7 Feb 2010 | 9:52 pm

A writer on EJ did enough tests to confirm the length of [Bone Shield] internal cooldown, for each charge to be used up: 2 seconds. It might be slightly lower than that, in fact, but its certainly no longer. He got 40 mobs to attack him and looked at the time between bone shield activation and it fading.Bone shield is not 2.5 or 3 seconds, as often quoted around the internet. It’s a measly 2 seconds, maybe slightly less. Since the first charge is used up at time zero, the last is used up 3 charges later, at six seconds.So in Icecrown with fast boss attack speeds versus four bone shield…
Mumble and murmur: voice comms

Gravity

6 Feb 2010 | 4:11 pm

Blood Legion, on their Lich King kill announcement, said:We’d like to mention that this kill wouldn’t have been possible without the near-zero latency voice chat of a newly-discovered Ventrillo alternative that we just started using, called Mumble. We encourage players to try out this new software!That’s a very high accolade. It’s not an off-hand comment.I hadn’t even heard of Mumble. It’s an open source, very low latency voice comms system. Here’s their home page. It’s been around for years, apparently, and there are commercial host…
Stupid people don’t even realise it

Gravity

6 Feb 2010 | 1:12 pm

The Dunning-Kruger effect. This is a remarkable theoretical and proven phenomena.I didn’t know they’d proven it:is a cognitive bias in which people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.Meanwhile, people with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence.Basically, people are so stupid they don’t even realise they’re stupid.Read a lot more here, where I came across it.I don’t think I need to say a lot more, it’s got sooo many implications and is…

Gitr Knows WoW
Grimr Is on a Roll – 78, Baby!

Gitr

28 Jan 2010 | 6:28 pm

I’ve been spending all of my time on WoW playing Grimr, my original toon who was stuck at 35 forever and a day after I started the world-famous Gitr and began my alt-aholic spin into burnout. He got Cold Weather Flying before hitting the Sholazar Basin and has been flying (literally) through quests. He’s making his way through the Basin in rapid-fire mode using Kopp’s Alliance Guide and has a beautiful stealthing cat from Zul’Drak by his side. It’s time to buy a new stable and get a Rok from the northern area of Sholazar Basin and also add Pitch to his stables.
Patch 3.3 – and I’m In!

Gitr

8 Dec 2009 | 10:31 am

Patch 3.3 went live on the public servers today and things are up and running on Galakrond, at least. Time to go check out these goodies: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/ World of Warcraft Client Patch 3.3.0: Fall of the Lich King Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls Looming over the stark wastes of Northrend, Icecrown Citadel awaits those who would see the Lich King and his Scourge brought low and the threat they pose wiped from the face of Azeroth. The heroes who venture within will face some of the greatest horrors yet seen. But before you burst into the front gate of the citadel,…
Back to Playing Again

Gitr

7 Dec 2009 | 8:11 pm

Hey, gang! I know I’ve been out of commission for quite a while now, but I sort of had to grab life by the horns after starting my business and decide whether it was better to play after my wife went to bed or try to continue building the business/making money. Keeping our heads above water won, and taking 17 hours at the University of South Florida took up the rest of my time. But…. it’s Christmas break for 5 weeks!! I’ve been playing Grimr this week and he hit 71 just a few minutes ago. I really can’t wait to see what kind of damage he will do as a newly-minted…
What Are You Doing Until the Expansion?

Gitr

2 Sep 2009 | 8:06 pm

I’m taking a hiatus to finish college (2 full-time semesters to go) but keep seeing news about the upcoming patch that makes me want to return to hoard gold for the next expansion. I’m not sure how well my Alliance toons can hoard, not being Horde, but I do have one epic flying mount. I’m certainly looking forward to the revamped original zones and some of the class changes have me pretty interested in getting a 30-day game card just for kicks. I’d just better not do it anywhere near finals.
It’s Been a Long Time Coming

Gitr

2 Apr 2009 | 5:18 am

Wow, I haven’t posted a darn thing about WotLK since it came out, and I have a Naxx-raiding toon! It’s time to get back into the game – the game of posting about my playing again and bring you up to speed on everything since November. Personal stuff first, for those of you who actually know me or of me over the years. In September I left my military contractor company to work from home for a company who produces WordPress premium themes as their Customer Support Manager. It was a great gig… until they up and kicked me to the curb in the first week of February, stating…

World of Matticus
It Came From The P.U.G.!:Voted Off The Island

Lodur

5 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

For those who might not know yet, my gluttony for abuse knows no bounds. As a result I find myself in a rather large number of P.U.G. groups. At the end of the day I bring you, my readers, the stories of my travels in the random grouping of Azerothian adventure! This week I bring you a story of a monumental event. Something so earth shattering that babies cried, women ushered their children home and men cowered before it’s terror inducing visage! You may need to sit down for this… ready? Lodur was vote kicked from a heroic group! Now I’m sure there are some questions about…
Are Easier Heroics Better in the Long Run?

Thespius

4 Feb 2010 | 10:39 am

Image Courtesy of Geico Insurance The patch 3.3.2 includes a few amendments to Heroic Dungeons and how they’re played. Entire packs of mobs are being deleted. Bosses abilities are being shortened or being made less frequent. Fight mechanics are being made easier. In essence, Blizzard is giving us more opportunities to blow through these dungeons with little to no effort. I’m an educator at heart. Seeing as though my life “endgame” is to be at the front of a classroom, it’s important to me that people learn the skills necessary to go through life. How…
Why Slacking Helps You Raid

Mimetir

2 Feb 2010 | 2:10 pm

I confess. My raiders and I have been bashing our heads against a brick wall for a couple of weeks. Our heads have been filled by the red mist ‘o wrath. We’d got the first wing of Icecrown Citadel on farm but our next focus, Rotface, ‘brokseded’ us time and again. The brick wall suddenly came down on Sunday night. We had an experimental snipe at the Princes and then marched into the Plagueworks to slaughter Festergut and have a positive pop at Rotface. So what happened to stop us seeing red? Change. What change has that effect, I hear you cry? Did we change players? Did we somehow…
Auction House Functionality on the Armory? Yes Please!

Matticus

2 Feb 2010 | 11:43 am

Have you guys seen this yet? Bornakk just gave an update on Auction House integration with the Armory website. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch. Now if I’m reading that right, it means I don’t have to log into the game to purchase stuff off the auction house. And thank goodness for that. I don’t think I’m the only one for this, but there are some days where I’ll forget to purchase stuff like herbs or flask related…
Zath is Holding Another Contest

Matticus

2 Feb 2010 | 2:52 am

Zath, a blog for hi-tech gadgets is holding another WoW competition and he’s giving away some good stuff. Its really easy to enter. All you have to do is follow the guy on twitter, be a fan of him on facebook, leave a comment on his competition blog post, or simply do what I did and just blog about it. Anyway, here’s what he’s offering up for prizes: 1 x World of Warcraft Mouse 1 x World of Warcraft Keyboard 1 x SteelSeries QcK WoW: Lich King Limited Edition Mouse Mat 1 x SteelSeries 5C WoW: Frost Wyrm Limited Edition Mouse Mat 1 x WoW Comic (Hard-Cover) 1 x WoW: Arthas: Rise of the…

Gray Matter
Why Eclipse is Broken: Wow.com Guest Post

4 Feb 2010 | 9:33 pm

While I was not chosen to be the permanent Druid columnist for WoW.com I was asked to be one of the first bloggers to right a guest post for them. When I was asked for some ideas, I knew right away what I wanted to post about: Why Eclipse is Broken.I've been seeing a lot of posts lately about what everyone thinks is wrong with Eclipse. A vast majority of those posts basically boil down to "I don't like Eclipse because it doesn't proc when I want it to. (aka - it is to random). Well I disagree. The post I wrote for WoW.com goes over why I disagree and takes a look at what I consider to be the…
Moonkin Healing for Valithria

2 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

EDIT: I originally thought this was a great idea for a post. Now I am not so sure. Hamlet made some good points in the comments that make me think this might be pointless. Healing while on the move could be helpful, but the shifting in and out of Moonkin form could kill your mana. I'm leaving the guide up, but realize it is speculative and may not be helpful in the encounter.With the new wing of ICC opening today, we have a couple new fights to try out, and one of them is completely different then anything we've ever seen before. On the surface the Valithria Dreamwalker fight seems like a…
Moonfire, Scaling, and ICC Raiding

30 Jan 2010 | 10:39 am

In the Moonkin Basics post I did last week I said "there is some discussion that Moonfire does not scale well at the very top levels of gear." In this post I want to take a closer look at that statement, and see if there is a need to change the Moonkin rotation when you complete yourThe Hypothesis:The Hypothesis is this. Moonfire does not scale as well as Starfire or Wrath, and that the DPET (Damage per Execute Time) of an unextended Moonfire is less then that of an Eclipsed Starfire or Wrath. Therefore, Moonfire should not be cast while Eclipse is active if you cannot guarantee Moonfire will…
4T10 is Bugged

25 Jan 2010 | 3:37 pm

You may have heard a small rumble of Moonkin panic this morning when we heard that Languish, the 4T10 proc, as doing significantly less damage then all theorycrafters expected. All of the theorycrafting has assumed that Languish will operate similarly to Ignite and that the DoT will continue to roll if a second crit happens before the DoT had a chance to tick. The fear was that Languish did not act like ignite that additional procs of the DoT would just eat itself. Thankfully that is not the case.After looking at some log reports, posters on the EJ forums realized that Languish is working…
Moonkin Basics: Spells and Rotations

23 Jan 2010 | 12:42 pm

The notion of a spell rotation is a bit out dated. Back in TBC a lot of classes had very standard rotations where you cast this spell then that spell, followed by another spell, then you start over. Moonkins had the tried and true MF, SF*4 or MF, IS, SF*4.Those days are long gone. Now spell rotations are better described as spell priority lists where you have to make quick choices based upon the buffs and cooldowns currently available. Therefore, it is very important to understand how each of your spells work so that you can make the correct choices.ABC: Always Be CastingThis is a…

Kinless Chronicles
Something new under the sun…

Kinless

7 Feb 2010 | 6:43 pm

At least under the sewer grates. The wife and I got our town outfits on and took a ride on the love boat. I’m impressed by how much new they added to this yearly event. And a new way of showing your affection for your leaders. A new boss fight, aka “DPS looking for summons, you must have summons.” And I picked up the picnic basket. However, this boat ride through the Undercity tops it. You can’t do much. You can’t /kiss for example. And if you /dance, you’re going to come to pieces. And I love how the love boats here are modeled on Greek…
Fell out of our chair laughing

Kinless

5 Feb 2010 | 8:02 pm

Demetri Martin is back with a new season on Comedy Central. Last night’s “Bruce the Funny Dog” skit had us howling. It’s dumb, the mustache is dumb, it’s all meant to be dumb, and absolutely hilarious. “Soccer Clown King?” Lol. Comic genius. P.S. It’s the same kind of humor as when I use my “Jenkins” title sometimes in an instance when it’s going particularly poorly (I expect to die) or we’re doing particularly well (“Let’s do this!”).
Don’t waste our time.

Kinless

5 Feb 2010 | 9:46 am

So, there I was. I’d queued my Paladin as Damage. I don’t queue for “Tank or Damage” since it’s absurd. The Tank role is so rare, and the Damage role so common, “Tank or Damage” means “Tank.” Actually, two stories of my instance runs last night, both I’d queued as Damage, both I’d waited the requisite 15 minutes for. First instance was Violet Hold. Death Knight tanking. It went fine. There were no problems. Each portal handily cleared. There were no issues. We were actually talking. So we get the boss…
Life of a Vendor

Kinless

3 Feb 2010 | 6:52 pm

I saw this over on WoW.com. Life of a Vendor by Galenmereth. Set to I don’t know by Lisa Hannigan. I don’t think it got the coverage it deserved since it’s now back on page 4 or 5 now. The music is excellent, and the video very memorable. Here it is again, if anything for my own enjoyment.
Tanking with phasers. What? Set to “Block?”

Kinless

2 Feb 2010 | 8:20 am

Over on Massively, STO for WoW Players, I find this gem. Itemization and Class Balance Right now the itemization looks okay. We haven’t seen much of the endgame, so we don’t know how well things are going to compare against one another – but at the lower levels it looks to be promising. Tanks behave like tanks, DPS behaves like DPS, and the support roles behave like they should. Huh? Blink blink. Tanks behave like tanks? DPS like DPS? Support like they should? I suppose that’s Healers? Are they kidding? Is that the best game paradigm they could come up with…

Progressive WoW
Rogues, my only weakness

4 Feb 2010 | 9:56 am

As you may or may not know, my very first character was a rogue. He was the first to reach level 60 in vanilla WoW, and I even started doing some instances before the first expansion was released, then I pretty much gave up on him to play a druid and priest, and eventually others.The thing about rogues that I have trouble with is their lack of healing, especially with their low armor value and the fact that they are pretty much melee only. This results in fairly slow leveling in comparison with most other classes, who tend to either have a healing spell they can use, or stick to attacking…
80s Madness

27 Jan 2010 | 12:57 pm

A couple weeks ago I went on a binge and leveled up my shaman all the way to 80. It seems to get faster and faster with each successive character, but I'm not planning on doing too much leveling in the near future. Surprised? I was too, but I have other things to focus on.First off, I have no idea what I want to do with Keldreth, my hunter. At first I was going to use her to farm Heroic Underbog in an attempt to become exalted with Cenarion Expedition and buy the hipporgryph mount. Only problem is her gear isn't good enough to for her to be able to solo the instance, so there goes that idea.
Bigger and Better

5 Jan 2010 | 7:22 am

Well it finally happened, I got a new computer, and for the first time in my life it's a Mac. Actually it's a little overwhelming. The screen is huge, it runs super smooth, and even though it's a Mac, I can still run Windows on it as well if I want, so I can still load up any of my old games if I want.A new computer with a huge screen also means WoW looks amazing. I can bump up all the video settings with no lag whatsoever, and I'm pretty sure I don't have to worry about any graphics card conflicts or anything like that while I'm in the middle of a game.On to the progress update. I have been…
Classic!

10 Dec 2009 | 8:52 am

That's right everybody, Blackbare is now a Classic Dungeonmaster!Alright, maybe for a level 80 it isn't the most difficult task to complete, but before going for the achievement I had only been to maybe half of the instances the original game had to offer, but now I have seen them all, and I think I can understand why people are so drawn to it.My first character I got to level 60 was my rogue, and this was before the first expansion, so I had a chance to run a few of the end game instances. My experience with it wasn't too great. Being a rogue it was very difficult to find a group, as there…
Retro WoW

7 Dec 2009 | 2:34 pm

So in the process of going for the Classic Dungeon Master achievement, I also joined my guild and a few others for a run of Blackwing Lair. It was quite the experience, and now I know that I would have never been able to raid in vanilla WoW.The group itself wasn't bad. We had some well geared people who knew the instance, and the rest were just along for the ride. The first hickup we had was attunement. Sure you don't have to be attuned anymore, but without it you have to run through UBRS to get in. We decided to just become attuned.Well we eventually did it, but only after I got stuck along…

The Hunter's Mark
Hard Mode Hunter Loot from Icecrown Citadel

Lassirra

9 Feb 2010 | 8:30 am

In our last article we talked about Hunter loot from Icecrown Citadel, but there was a gaping hole in the coverage, wasn’t there? What about Hard Mode loot, you ask. Part of the reason I separated the two articles was to keep things brief and focused, the other reason was because Hard Mode ICC hasn’t been cleared yet and it’s possible–nay, probable–that the loot tables are incomplete and will be updated with new information soon. In which case, I didn’t want to have an article up that was partly accurate and partly not. (Also, a lot of the hard mode loot is…
Update: Hunter Loot From Icecrown Citadel Raids

Lassirra

8 Feb 2010 | 11:09 am

The last time we visited this topic, not much was known about the loot tables for later bosses found in Icecrown Citadel as most of the content was not yet open on live servers. However, now that the final wing of the Citadel has been released (and, in fact, defeated) we have a bit more information available to us regarding available loot. So today we’ll revisit the topic of loot found in Icecrown raids with the new information available to us. 10-Man (Normal) The Lower Spire Linked Scourge Vertebrae – Lord Marrowgar Bone Warden’s Splitter – Lord Marrowgar Njordnar…
Weekly Guest Posts

Lassirra

6 Feb 2010 | 7:00 am

As part of our new focus on community-building and communication with our visitors, we’d like to open the floor to all of you with a new weekly guest post program. Whether you’re an experienced author or just some Hunter with an axe to grind or a story to tell, we’d like to hear from you and share what you have to say with the rest of the community. There’s a lot to be gained in the way of insight from reading about how others play and experience the game and we think our visitors have a wide range of experience and expertise to offer. Don’t sell yourself short!
Spending Your Pet Talent Points

Lassirra

5 Feb 2010 | 6:55 am

In a recent post, we talked about possibilities for spending your first talent points and provided some suggestions for talent builds to use as you level. Of course, that begs the question: what about pet talents? What should we do with those as we level? Unlike our own talents and builds, pets are pretty straight-forward and often the build your pet uses while you level isn’t very different from the build it will be using at the level cap. The reason for that is that, rather than three talent trees for each pet, we have three different types of pets that each have their own special…
Ensidia Banned for Lich King Exploit Kill

Lassirra

4 Feb 2010 | 6:36 am

For those who may not have heard the news yet, Ensidia got the world first Lich King kill for the 25-man version. (Blood Legion got the world first 10-man kill.) While the fact that Icecrown Citadel has already been cleared in it’s entirety within two days of the last wing being made available is somewhat suspect in terms of how that reflects on the quality and complexity of the encounters therein, what’s particularly noteworthy in this case is that directly following their world first, Ensidia received a temporary 72-Hour ban from the game as a result of their kill. The reason…

Blessing of Kings
Limits in Normal Icecrown Citadel Removed

Rohan

8 Feb 2010 | 11:20 pm

Daelo, on the WoW Forums:After each region's maintenance this week, raids will no longer lose attempts on wipes in Normal mode for Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. There will still be limited attempts in Heroic mode. We will continue to monitor developments in Icecrown Citadel in the future, especially since the Heroic difficulty has been unlocked by a significant number of raids.There is a saying that generals are always trying to fight the last war. In a sense, so is Blizzard. The big problem in Trial of the Crusader was that the gap between normal…
The Third Dimension

Rohan

7 Feb 2010 | 10:58 pm

Valithria Dreamwalker has really driven home a point for me: I am not fond of having to maneuver in 3 dimensions.Oculus, Malygos P3, and Valithria have all had portions where you could move in all three dimensions. And I haven't really enjoyed those portions. It's not the vehicle aspect either. I like Flame Leviathian, and I don't mind jousting. Plus, in Dreamwalker you fly with your normal character.Part of it is because I don't think I am very good at 3D movement. I always seem to move too far up or down unintentionally.3D fights add a extra level of complexity that I am not sure makes an…
Top WoW Videos - #2 - Here Without You

Rohan

6 Feb 2010 | 9:16 pm

The #2 video on my countdown is Here Without You by Dimoroc.This video is one of the oldest WoW music videos. I think it might have been first one I saw.It's a great storyline, which fits the song perfectly. The video also embodies the Forsaken extremely well. While some of techniques--notably the fight between Redsword and Dimoroc--are less advanced than videos today, a lot of the other effects match anything produced recently. Especially the cuts and fades, and the flashback sequence.I love this video. It is simple and not especially flashy, but it just works.Top Video List (so far):Here…
Ensidiagate

Rohan

5 Feb 2010 | 11:22 pm

So Ensidia claimed the world-first kill of Arthas, but were then hit with a 72-hour ban and had their kill and titles revoked.I admit that, like Tobold and Larisa, when I first heard the story I was a bit sympathetic to Ensidia. Their story was that a rogue using Saronite Bombs as part of his regular rotation happened to make part of the encounter easier.However, now I think it's likely that the ban was completely deserved. Apparently, what happened was something like:The Lich King destroys part of the platform during the fight.Valkyrs come and snatch raid members. They have to be DPSed down…
Star Trek Online: Ground Combat, Skill Points

Rohan

4 Feb 2010 | 9:03 pm

The other half of Star Trek Online is ground combat. In true Star Trek fashion, anytime you need to beam down into a hostile situation, rather than sending Marines, you send the bridge crew.You beam down with your officers, creating a party of 5. If you are with other players, you have less NPCs and more real players. The NPCs are pretty good. Kind of honestly, they seem to do a better job than I do, so I let them do their thing. I'm still not sure what the Science Officer is doing with tachyons in the middle of the fight, but I'll assume it's something useful.Combat is pretty much…

Mystic Chicanery
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-02-07

Nibuca

7 Feb 2010 | 5:15 pm

Orb is the new chest boss. Srsly..this one click at a time thingy is for the birds. # I use http://Raider101.com as a place to keep my "Affliction cheatsheet". I wish more bloggers would do the same. It's a great resource. # New MC Post: Addon: Ventrilo http://chicanery.fibergeek.com/2010/02/01/addonventrilo/ # Happy Groundhog Day!! For your edification: http://bit.ly/agjDGk # Raider101 is only as good as the authors make it. Contribute&help RT @TwistedNether Resource Site Spotlight: Raider101 http://bit.ly/ch6TKU # New MC post: Idle Speculation: Seed Spamming…
Stoned

Nibuca

4 Feb 2010 | 12:48 pm

Psynister asked about cooldowns on Soulstones on twitter. Once upon a time I used Necrosis. Then it became a huge resource suck and I had to find another way to manage all the fiddly warlock things. I finally settled on using a lot of macros. I use ALOT of macros.. and they’re constantly changing as I improve them.. or change how I want to use them. Here’s the stone macros I’m using currently. For Soulstone I have a button on my UI which maps to the following macro: Soulstone: #showtooltip /use [nomod,button:1] Demonic Soulstone /cast [mod][button:2]Create Soulstone /opt…
Idle Speculation: Seed Spamming

Nibuca

3 Feb 2010 | 10:31 am

No answers here.. this is totally a wondering.. more of a reminder to me that I need to experiment with this to find out the “real” answer… BUT: If we’re pulling a big pack of mobs (ie, the groups in the ICC Lower spire) and I’m going to be spamming seed.. which method is better: A) Tab, seed, tab, seed, tab, seed B) Seed, seed, seed, seed, seed, seed, C) Select high health target, Curse of the Elements, Haunt, Seed spam until 1.5 seconds before Haunt expires then refresh haunt and go back to spamming seed. In a 10- or 25-man raid if I spam seed on a single…
Addon:Ventrilo

Nibuca

1 Feb 2010 | 12:54 pm

Technically Ventrilo isn’t an addon. It’s an external program you can use in conjunction with World of Warcraft. From Wikipedia – Ventrilo: Ventrilo is a proprietary VoIP program which allows users to talk to each other, similar to a telephone conference call, but the conference call is made via VoIP. A microphone and speakers, or a headset, must be connected to each person’s computer to use the program. For the most part you setup your Ventrilo client software, connect to a Ventrilo server and it just works. In some cases you’ll need to fiddle some of your…
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-01-31

Nibuca

31 Jan 2010 | 5:15 pm

New MC Post: "Addon: PallyPower" http://bit.ly/6JMMgt #warcraft #pallypower # Bad attitude/anxiety attributed to work perf reviews. Please forgive me(and for God's sake, stop poking me. I won't be held accountable) # Bear tanks: What are you doing to stay relevant in ICC? We're finding our bears to be v. squishy & we're looking for options. # Bear Tanks: Hmmm based on responses it's possible our bears are undergeared (and therefore squishy). # "Man caught at airport with 44 lizards in pants" http://bit.ly/cxAHgn (Because you can't make this shit…

Kill Ten Rats
Skirmish Density

Ravious

9 Feb 2010 | 12:43 pm

I have been going through stages of my feelings for Lord of the Rings Online’s skirmish system. First, I thought it could completely redefine my MMO game time. After playing them and playing them, I experienced a burnout that I thought would not come from the fun little bites of play. Finally, I think I have found a good middle ground. Zubon is right, in part. Onion Headline Syndrome can definitely be experienced by attributing skirmishes to what they are not. They are not the game. They are a super-dense Lord of the Rings Online experience. In a vanilla MMO where combat…
LOTRO Defragger

Ravious

9 Feb 2010 | 9:47 am

Unscientifically, Lord of the Rings Online takes the longest to load on my system of any MMO. It seems I am not alone. One big problem is the fragmentation of the internal file system. Turbine just released a beta internal defragger for Lord of the Rings Online. Read all the warnings and problems to be safe, but apart from using SSD or a large USB drive to load the MMO, this should help speed things up. –Ravious
Onion Headline Syndrome

Zubon

8 Feb 2010 | 10:02 pm

I like The Onion, but I rarely find myself reading much of it because the full text rarely improves on the headlines. You might need to read the first paragraph to see where they are taking the joke, but stringing it out for 1000 words does not add much to the first 5 seconds. (I might take this as an object lesson, but look at me go, still typing.) Syp finds the same problem with Star Trek Online, I said the same thing about LotRO skirmishes, and many of us have said the same about Borderlands and Torchlight: it is great at first, but there is not all that much improvement or variation over…
It’s Not FOR You

Zubon

7 Feb 2010 | 6:00 pm

I played Mario Kart Wii today, and I spent more time kvetching about level design than actually playing. I like games that are not afraid to be cute in the North American market, but too many take the “it’s a kids game” excuse to skimp on things like balance or reasonable level design. Many fall prey to two problems at once. First, the learning curve is shallow and short, quite often with great randomness, so there is little difference between being experienced and playing for the first time. Second, the differences that do exist are completely game-breaking, including…
Looking For Group Expo

Ethic

5 Feb 2010 | 6:45 am

Looks like a new Expo will be held in Minneapolis later this year for MMO Fans. I plan to be there. Here are some of the details of the Looking For Group Expo: June 25 – 27, 2010 Minneapolis, Minnesota LFGX is a three-day exhibition for massively multiplayer online games, virtual worlds, tabletop, RPG card games and comics. LFGX is a personalized fan event for the MMO gamer dealing with any related to the games you love to play. LFGX is a community of gamers coming together to preview upcoming games and expansions, connect with people from your guilds and clans, participate in developer…

Mark of the Wild
The Fourth Time is Just as Sweet

5 Feb 2010 | 12:09 pm

DING!!!My Prot Warrior, Thomlan, has finally reached the level cap. It has been a very long and crazy journey, but he has become my fourth level 80 character.He started out as a possible Arena toon in the BC era. He finally hit 70 a few weeks before Wrath of the Lich King was launched. Once my Druid hit 80, this was the next character I wanted to level. In early 2009, I walked away from WoW, and my Warrior sat at level 75.When I returned to WoW, I leveled my Mage and my Shaman to 80 before looking at the Warrior again. I slowly picked up a level here and a level there, until I made a final…
Priestly Adventures

25 Jan 2010 | 12:34 pm

With no guild to keep me focused, I have devoted more time to my Priest. That means hitting the low level Dungeons via the LFD Tool. This has become my primary means of gaining XP.The quality of random groups is unpredictable at the lower levels. Some tanks are great, but even some of the good ones can push groups beyond their limit. Many tanks are either just adequate or borderline terrible, but I can usually keep people alive. DPS can be awesome, but some players are without a clue. I realize that new people start playing WoW everyday, but I still get surprised by some player's total lack…
Unguilded Again

19 Jan 2010 | 4:35 pm

So I guess my Guild disbanded. I got home from work last night, and I saw that I was no longer in a guild. I checked the guild website, and there was a message saying that the officers had moved on to a new guild. There was an invitation to talk to an officer about the new guild, but they did not give the new one's name.I was surprised, but I was not shocked. My guild had been struggling with filling raid spots, and it was obvious that the guild leaders were frustrated with the membership. From my limited point of view, they had placed very lofty expectations on the members. They were focused…
Relearning Healing: My Process

18 Jan 2010 | 11:20 am

I was cautious and deliberate when retraining myself as a healer. The first step was to start healing with a very large margin of error. Then I wanted gradually to raise the level of difficulty to start challenging my skills. Finally, I would trust my ability and throw myself into the fray so to speak. Some players like to just dive into the deep end straight away, but I tend to test the water in the kiddie pool before making a commitment. To give myself a large margin of error, I started healing Normal Dungeons. I had a decent collection of i200 epics from running Naxx10, so I only had a few…
Relearning Healing: My Backstory

16 Jan 2010 | 4:15 pm

Back in Vanilla WoW, my Druid was a healer. I leveled as Restoration from 40 until 60, which was a long and tedious process. I healed Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, Zul'Gurub, and the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj. I remember when Innervate was a 31 point talent, and I remember how to abuse the 5 second rule. I know what it is like to play a Druid and actually be able to see your gear. For the Burning Crusade, I switched my Druid over to Feral, but I leveled a Shaman to 70. That character was a chain healing machine, and I healed Karazhan until my eyes practically bled. In the pre-WotLK nerfing of raid…

Tank like a girl
Another month, another patch

Kadomi

2 Feb 2010 | 5:35 am

Patch 3.3.2 is rolled out on the US realms today, and the EU realms tomorrow. Normally I don’t post about patches much, because there’s tons of sites out there who cover it better than I could, but as there are a couple protection warrior changes coming to us, I need to evaluate how this will impact my playstyle. Concussion Blow: The damage done by this ability has been reduced by 50%, but its threat generation will remain approximately the same. Devastate: This ability now deals 120% of weapon damage, up from 100% of weapon damage. Shield Slam: The damage scaling from block value…
Storming the Citadel

Kadomi

25 Jan 2010 | 10:17 am

-This weekend, my guild had its first ever Icecrown Citadel raid. We’ve never been at the cutting edge of progression and this is like the closest we’ve ever been timeline-wise to starting progression fights. It’s pretty cool. It’s one of the things that I love about WotLK. It truly has made raiding accessible to everyone. We have been able to visit all raid content in the game so far, this would have been inconceivable in previous incarnations of WoW. Kudos! Now, this first ICC-10 raid was a really different raid for me. It was the first raid I wasn’t going in…
Addon Corner – Tidy Plates: Threat

Kadomi

7 Jan 2010 | 12:24 am

There aren’t really a multitude of addons out there that are specifically written to assist tanks. Today’s reviewed addons however are most helpful if you are a tank. I have been using them extensively for a month or two, and I fully endorse them. Originally I had wanted to make a companion video, but that’ll have to wait for another time. Step 1: to use this, you need to run with name plates turned on. Press ‘V’ and enjoy seeing nameplates over the head of all neutral and hostile mobs. Step 2: Install Tidy Plates, which is basically an addon to skin the default…
Trying to be of /assistance

Kadomi

5 Jan 2010 | 3:05 am

I know that not all of my readers are predominantly tanks. Maybe some of you DPS will read this, or even healers (because it applies to some of you too). Read ‘Do not spank the tank‘ over in the WoW European forums. Credit for discovering this gem goes to Heartbourne over at Project Lore. When you start running an instance, set your tank as /focus. If you are melee DPS, create a macro to assist the tank. It will start auto-attacking the current target of your focus, which should be the tank: #showtooltip Attack /target [target=focustarget, harm, nodead] /startattack If you are…
Survival tips for fresh 80s tanks

Kadomi

24 Dec 2009 | 3:54 am

So now you’re a fresh 80, ready to jump into heroic content to get all the things from my shopping list. First, the good thing: as tank you’ll get groups just about the moment you queue up. We’re still the least played role, even less so than healers, so groups will be all over you. The bad thing: no one is under as much scrutiny as the tank. There will be times that you join a group and people will start bitching about your health pool, your blue gear, the speed of your pulls. Here’s Kadomi’s survival tips for fresh tanks using LFD: take a deep breath if people…

Phantomella's Place
Scam alert

6 Feb 2010 | 1:23 pm

Just received an email purporting to be from Blizz (but actually from bert_rubberducky@h**m**l.com) [munged by me] saying:An investigation of your World of Warcraft account has found strong evidence that the account in question is being sold or traded. As you may not be aware of, this conflicts with Blizzard's EULA under section 4 Paragraph B which can be found here: WoW -> Legal -> End User License Agreement and Section 8 of the Terms of Use found here: WoW -> Legal -> Terms of Use The investigation will be continued by Blizzard administration to determine the action to be taken against your…
5 Feb 2010 | 2:18 pm

5 Feb 2010 | 2:18 pm

Gratz this week (so far) to Gothfan, Phantodreya and Phantovesta who have hit 43 :) Apologies for forgetting this month's wallpaper - here it is :) (Also on the wallpaper page)Happy Love Is In The Air from the Phanto GirlsFebruary 2010
28 Jan 2010 | 12:15 am

28 Jan 2010 | 12:15 am

Gratz to Phantodreya who hit 42 earlier this morning [by sitting on mobs! -GF][Hey! -'dreya][mfmblmf -GF]
Can I just say...

27 Jan 2010 | 11:06 am

Look, Blizzard, I'm a balance-specced druid, and love the fact that Moonkin form boosts my armour and spell crit %age, makes me immune to polymorphs and lets me whack things with my staff, but why, oh why, oh why, does it have to make my bum look so big! *WAIL* Plus, poor little Chilly's scared out of his penguin wits thinking I might be about to sit down and squash him!Anyway, over on Shadowsong, my distant relative - and Phantomella look-alike - death knight Phantomortis hit 68 over the weekend and is now in Northrend. Grats to her :)Back on Runetotem, my priestess sister Phantovesta got…
Leaderboard ==>

22 Jan 2010 | 10:09 am

I've replaced the contributors list with a family leaderboard to keep track of our levels; Downhere's in italics as she isn't levelling any more, but still has a well-earned level of her own :) You can still click on each name for their profile. Oh, and gratz this week to Phantovesta, who dinged 42, and Gothfan who learned how to do the Fiery Weapon enchant (shaman Phantojinn immediately took advantage of it <G>)

Stropp's World
Idiots!

Stropp

21 Jan 2010 | 8:17 pm

Regular readers will know that I periodically rant against stupid censorship laws, being a strong believer that people not only have a right to make up their own minds about what they read, watch, or play, but that they are generally capable of making those decisions being adults. Still, sometimes one must wonder. One of the big gaming issues in Oz at the moment is the undemocratic blocking of an R rating for games by the South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson. I’ve made a few comments about that on this blog, but that’s not what I want to rail at now. Apparently, some…
That Crazy Little Thing Called Life

Stropp

21 Jan 2010 | 3:29 am

You might have noticed that I haven’t posted all that much lately. My contract concluded at the end of November last year, and a few weeks earlier I was thinking that I’d have a ton of time to make regular updates. I’d even made a bit of a resolution to myself to try and get a post out each day. But as they say, the best laid plans of mice. On the Friday, the week before the contract ended I recieved a call from a friend whom I’d worked with a few years prior and with whom I’d hadn’t seen for a couple of years. He, and a couple of partners, had formed a…
Jean-Luc Picard Is A Big Wuss

Stropp

19 Jan 2010 | 4:53 pm

I’ve been meaning to write this article for a while now, but life decided to come by and slap me silly. (More on that shortly.) Anyhoo. Star Trek Online. Oh, and please note this is not a review, I have spent in no way enough time in the beta to work up a review. This is simply an impressions and thoughts piece. It sounds like the dream IP for a MMORPG developer. A huge pre-existing and completely obsessed with anything Star Trek fan base. An IP that is all about exploration, seeking out new life, and boldly going where no one has gone before. The TV series, all of them, have drama,…
2010 Prognostications

Stropp

24 Dec 2009 | 11:19 pm

It’s kind of an expected activity for bloggers these days. At the end of each year, we make a bunch of predictions for the coming year and review the ones we made last year. But since I didn’t actually make any predictions last year, there’s only one thing to do. Make some predictions for the coming year, 2010. I did consider writing my predictions in some form of abstract poetry like our friend Nostradamus (pictured right.) After all, anything written in an abstract and obtuse manner can be interpreted as 100 percent correct after the fact. But really, where’s the fun…
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright

Stropp

22 Dec 2009 | 6:03 am

I recently tried out the two week free return visit of Age of Conan and decided against resubscribing despite a renewed sense of fun playing the Barbarian class and a huge improvement in the game that has occurred since release. That decision hasn’t changed, but dang! The new mounts that are to be released with the Rise of the Godslayer expansion are something to behold! Age of Conan always has been one of the more graphically gorgeous games around, and Funcom keep upping the ante with content like this. Giving players a tiger to ride around on is awesome (and fairly tempting I might…

Honor's Code
Congratulations Saints

Honors Code

8 Feb 2010 | 6:55 am

You might have heard a football game was played last night. Congratulations to the Saints and their fans. I hope one day my Panthers allow me to feel how all Saints fans must feel this morning.The leader of the Saints is Drew Bress, a quarterback has been told his whole life he's too short to play the position. He was dumped by his old team and signed with the Saints four years ago. This interview with Drew Brees may give some insight into the character of the man who led his team to winning the Super Bowl.
PS: Paladin Tanks Nerfed In Hot Fix

Honors Code

5 Feb 2010 | 11:47 am

I put my thoughts in an article on Paladin Schmaladin. Here's the net-net.In the end, I don't think this will have much effect on us. Some of us won't have 40k unbuffed HP anymore, but that's more an 'epeen' thing than anything else. Paladins have tanked successfully with the deck stacked far more against us than it is now, even with this small nerf. Generally, Tanks have not been the bottleneck to any of the fights so far. Maybe that will change in hard modes, but raids are wiping more to execution and learning errors, than class mechanics.For me personally, Boston (my co-Tank) seems to…
10 Man World Firsts

Honors Code

4 Feb 2010 | 1:52 pm

I'm a bit baffled by the thread on the Official Forums where 10 man Raiders are complaining that the first Arthas 10 man kill was done by 25 man raiders. When you decide to be a 10 man raider, what you are basically saying is that you don't care about World or Server firsts. That's just part of joining the 10 man scene. Although I'm sure a 10 man strict guild has gotten a server first here or there, 25 man raiders have a built in advantage with their higher iLevel gear. It is far more likely a 25 man guild will get a server first on 10 man than a 10 man guild. We should also remember that…
Prot using Seal of Command

Honors Code

2 Feb 2010 | 1:52 pm

Ghostcrawler has posted on the Official Forums again about Paladin AE threat.I don't think it's Consecrate, actually. It was definitely Consecrate in Burning Crusade. I think it's HoR and possibly SoC.Again the masses have locked into Consecreate as the issue. I think that's because its the most visible spell in our arsenal. It's what non-Paladins see. Ghostcrawler is right that Consecrate isn't the issue.I disagree that Hammer of the Righteous (HotR) is part of the problem. HotR is basically Paladin's version of the Warrior's cleave. Warriors have the option to use Talent points to increase…
Mini Post for Mini Patch

Honors Code

2 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am

Patch 3.2.2 is finally here. This will open up the next area of Ice Crown Citadel, which is the 'Frost' wing. Here we will face off with one of the most unique raid encounters yet seen Valithria Dreamwalker.If you aren't familiar, this is a Boss where you have to heal her to full before your raid is overwhelmed with Adds. I'm going to see if I can talk Blueshield (our 3rd tank) into tanking so I can break out the Holy set for this fight. Bombing away with Holy Lights should be a big help to my raid. I can hit 18k Holy Light crit in Prot Spec/Holy Gear. I can't imagine what that'll be when I'm…

2 and 2 half-paws.
Circle of healers meme thing.

8 Feb 2010 | 10:19 am

In response to: Miss Medicina1. Reread your original answers to the questions. With the benefit of hindsight, score your own work in terms of its cringeworthiness.I would say wow… it was funny but you can see that I didn’t really know what I was doing as a healer. Now I still don’t know but I have a much better idea. 2. Has your class's healing improved in the area you identified as its weakest?I didn’t pick an area due to lack of knowledge. I really wish we had a remove disease and I would love a mass-abolish poison or a mass-remove curse. Clicking on everyone for that is a pain.3.
Garden Shadows

8 Feb 2010 | 10:02 am

I was lucky yesterday.My job at Fuiaske Corporation Regional Headquarters is simple.I am a door guard; I check ID’s of visitors entering the grounds and cheerfully greet regular workers and VIP’s.My booth is located in the front gardens, halfway between the actual building entrance and the garden entrance.The landscaping there is amazing; it looks wide open but realistically you –have- to come through my little gate.To enter any other way would require a lot of climbing or a LOT of brute force. So I stand at my little booth and I interface.I was hired as much for my smile as for my…
LeetRaider

6 Feb 2010 | 5:28 am

So guess who hit 80 and NEVER remembered to train?Yep, that would be me.Just found that out last night when I participated in my first ever 10-man in Wrath. Talk about embarrassing. But I think the raid went well. I seem to remember Karazhan taking a long time to get through and now it feels like we go in, can take on almost the entire thing at once, and still survive. In fact when we wiped (on Kael'Thas, I think Naxx) it took me by surprise because I had been lulled into thinking we were invincible. And promptly after wiping meself, bro-in-law 1 and bro-in-law 2 stood too close together…
Healing thoughts:

5 Feb 2010 | 4:28 pm

I respecced my resto druid this week. I had somehow missed Nature's splendor. Also I had 5/5 in Naturalist and 2/2 in Improved Tranquility.Now I -like- improved tranquility and taking the 2 points from there is something I"m only trying. I have used the spell to save parties many times and 0 threat from doing so is a nice thing for a pugging healer.5/5 naturalist, however was a complete waste. The only time I -ever- use healing touch is in combination with Nature's Swiftness so reducing its cast time is a waste of 5 talents. These talents were used instead to help me reach Nature's Splendor…
The munchkins

4 Feb 2010 | 3:54 pm

Orclette climbs a tree.Orclette's Boat and Dock.Mini-Orc in a tree.MMMMM this tree looks yummy.Orclette being sisterly.Orclette on a walk.

Misery - a shadow priest blog
The doughnut debate

Merlot

4 Feb 2010 | 4:50 am

It's a cake, right? These people who say it's a pastry are clearly crazy people. Bread supporters? Two slices short of a picnic. Here at Misery blog, we call em like we see em. Doughnuts are cakes, dammit.
Great minds think alike

Merlot

3 Feb 2010 | 4:19 am

Who was it said there are no original thoughts left? Whoever it was, he probably wasn't the first. Apparently my last post, which I've been chewing over for weeks, skirts rather close to a post on World of Warcraft Philosophized from last week. I wouldn't even have noticed if wow.com hadn't picked it up. So clearly I'm not the only one with reservations about the emblem system. I suppose my next post's already been written too. I have an idea for an instance, where you're trying to escape from the Lich King but he's walking really slowly...
On heroic difficulty

Merlot

2 Feb 2010 | 4:30 am

We are used to a linear end-game progression route that starts with heroics and steps through each raiding tier in turn. This is essentially what happened at the start of the expansion, although Naxx proved to be such a low starting point that many people skipped heroics and dove straight in to raiding. Subsequent patches raised the level of badges dropped by heroic bosses and consequently the level of gear available through heroic grinding. In essence, heroics become a shortcut for bypassing the conventional route of progression and spring-boarding straight to the current tier of raid…
The shadow priest playlist

Merlot

29 Jan 2010 | 6:54 am

I need your help with a project please. Do you ever wonder what songs would be on the soundtrack to your life? I'd like to think mine would be full of self-consciously stylish era-defining tracks like Smooth Criminal and Unfinished Sympathy but have a niggling fear it would be full of Steps and Bananarama. Such is my life. Anyway, I was daydreaming to the Jason Bourne soundtracks the other day (they make me feel like an invincible secret agent, EVERYONE should try them after a shitty day at work), when I wondered what Merlot's soundtrack would be — or indeed, any shadow priest's. So I'm on…
The Goldilocks guild

Merlot

21 Jan 2010 | 4:38 am

I've been shopping around for guilds ever since my last one imploded. I've got a bit of a Goldilocks complex — it can't be too big or too small, it can't be too hardcore or too casual, it's got to be just right. Which basically means the guild I'm after doesn't exist. They either don't need a shadow priest, raid too early, raid too late or too often, are too good for me, or not good enough, they're a bunch of jerks or too disorganised, or just don't have the numbers or skill to make a go of it. The problem is compounded by the situation on my server, which seems to be haemorrhaging good…

Tobold's MMORPG Blog
Rewards vs. Gameplay

Tobold

9 Feb 2010 | 2:00 am

One thing the World of Warcraft patch 3.3 did for me, was to make clear a fundamental conflict inherent to the design of MMORPGs, between rewards and gameplay. Any MMORPG has, among others, two major factors that motivate people to keep playing. One is the gameplay itself, which ideally should be interesting and challenging. The other big factor is the rewards you get for playing, which come in the form of experience points, skill gains, or gear; anything in general that makes your character more powerful.The conflict between the two is caused by a third factor, the incredible amount of time…
Immersion is in the eye of the beholder

Tobold

7 Feb 2010 | 11:32 pm

Wolfshead is worried that the immersion of World of Warcraft is eroding. Apparently he used to be immersed in WoW, and now, thanks to additions like Mr. T and the Dungeon Finder, he is not any more. Immersion is a very personal thing, but I find it a bit strange to draw the line right there. At what point was World of Warcraft so realistic that you could suspend your disbelief and immerse yourself in the fantasy world?The latest WoW patch added the last wing of Icecrown Citadel to the game, and now it is possible for the first time to bring a long series of events to a conclusion by battling…
Some short answers

Tobold

7 Feb 2010 | 9:54 pm

Several of the questions in yesterday's open Sunday thread were too short to write a long essay on, so I'm grouping the questions and my answers to them here:What do you think the prospects are on a Second Life type game being used as more of a pure social networking tool... ie Facebook Online or something. I think the big question here is what the users are supposed to be doing all day in that virtual world. If it's just chatting, then a browser-based social networking site like Facebook is probably doing the job just fine. To justify a virtual world, something has to be happening in that…
Open Sunday Thread

Tobold

6 Feb 2010 | 10:01 pm

This thread is for you to ask questions or suggest themes for future blog posts.Tobold's MMORPG Blog
Thought for the day: Polish

Tobold

6 Feb 2010 | 12:26 am

I just started playing Allods Online, which by an extreme stretch of semantics is still in closed beta, but that closed beta is now open to everyone. And I wonder: How it is that Allods Online, a Free2Play game in beta, is already more polished than some other games I know which you need to pay $15 a month for to play?Tobold's MMORPG Blog

Aspect of the Hare
Instancing Tips For New Hunters

Pike

8 Feb 2010 | 7:05 am

Since my last “Advice for New Hunters” post seemed to go over so well, I figured I’d make one specifically geared toward instancing. Now I made one of these a while back, but it was a.) during Burning Crusade and b.) Aimed more toward 70s/heroics. So, here’s one mostly directed for newer hunters! See, in doing my random instancing I’ve seen a lot of things like hunters randomly using traps at strange places or complaining about why they aren’t higher on Recount (because, you know, Scarlet Monastery is serious business). So, here are some tips to make your…
Pork n’ Beans – Video Edition

Pike

5 Feb 2010 | 5:37 am

So I took my post from a few weeks back, tossed it into a video editor and added the music. Just in case anyone’s interested ^_^ (I call this “Things I’m Doing With my Film Degree, Part Two.” “Part One” was the Bunny Movie.)
Hey Hey We’re the… Pike-ees?

Pike

4 Feb 2010 | 6:03 am

I thought alts were only true in others’ blogs Meant for someone else but not for me Quests were out to get me– that’s the way it seemed Low-levels haunted all my dreams Then I saw LFG Now I’m a believer There’s not a trace of doubt in my mind L-F-G Better believe it I couldn’t leave it if I tried I thought alts were more or less a given thing Seems the more I made, the less I played What’s the use in trying– I’d get stuck again Leveled like a snail in the rain Then I saw LFG Now I’m a believer There’s not a trace of doubt in…
I Suck at Professions

Pike

1 Feb 2010 | 7:30 am

My department manager at work– who is in my guild– is really awesome at professions. He has pretty much every profession ever spread across his alts, he sends billions of stacks of raw materials to a central bank so they can all share them, and he’ll have something leveled to 300 by the time his toon is level 22. Seriously. He just rocks those professions. Me… not so much. Now, I DO have a love affair with herbalism/alchemy. I love it. I love having buffed and long-lasting potions/flasks (though I miss when flasks lasted four hours /pout), I know herbs like the back of…
I Don’t Mean to Rant, But…

Pike

30 Jan 2010 | 6:57 am

Dear level 36 hunter in Scarlet Monastery, No matter how many times you insist that I’m wrong and that your addon is right, Strength is still not for you. Love, Pike. (It is possible that I am beating a dead horse here, but when every one of the last three or four hunters my warlock has PuG’d with have been hunters rolling on Strength gear, it needs to be repeated. I would, however, like to congratulate any low-level or newer hunters reading this. Because if you are reading this, it means you are willing to do research about your class, and I /salute you.)

WoW Vault - The Ultimate Resource
The Occasional Facebook Recap

8 Feb 2010 | 2:33 pm

Recently, Blizzard setup a Facebook account, and overnight, thousands and thousands of players clicked the "be a fan" button. For Facebook...
Released When Ready?

8 Feb 2010 | 10:03 am

For many, many years Blizzard Entertainment has been widely known to push back release dates again and again. Always they have held to the policy of...
Dispelling and more on Itemization in Cataclysm

7 Feb 2010 | 7:16 pm

Ghostcrawler on DispellingWe'll talk more about the Cataclysm dispel design when we get a little closer. Overall the philosophy is that a dispel...
Fool For Love Guide Updates!

7 Feb 2010 | 3:53 am

Love is in the Air and with it comes an entire revamp of the ingame Holiday. No more frustrating drop chances or broken hearts needing mending. Now...
Still More In Game Fixes 2/5

6 Feb 2010 | 2:51 pm

From BornakkListed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm...

World of Warcast: A World of Warcraft Podcast
Episode 97, Jan 18, 2010

18 Jan 2010 | 4:47 pm

Our week in WoW. Man arrested for selling WoW toons and not giving up the accounts. Cataclysm friends and family out Tremors in Theramore? WoW Magazine quick review Alachia's Occulus runthrough Alachia's Hilt hell story PFQ: How do you play WoW?
Episode 96, Jan 3, 2010

3 Jan 2010 | 7:18 pm

"You'll shoot your eye out!" Taiwanese man "finishes" WoW Alliance/Horde mosaic Looking ahead at Final Fantasy XIV Responses about homogenization and balance Is WoW becoming too much like a console game? How do you play your class? Mod of the cast: Pet Leash Podcast featured question Photowalk
Episode 95, Dec. 1, 2009

1 Dec 2009 | 6:15 pm

WoW's 5th anniversary Pilgrim's Bounty This Week in WoW - Raiding mentality Mod of the Cast - Kennel Podcast Featured Question Latest photowalk
Episode 94, Nov. 19, 2009

10 Nov 2009 | 5:58 pm

Azerothunited.com Alachia vs. the RNG Boss Blizzard sells vanity pets Patch 3.3 WoW banned in China Printwarcraft.com is live Twitter podcast list This week in WoW This week's PFQ
Episode 93, Nov. 2, 2009

2 Nov 2009 | 5:09 pm

Where has Starman gone? Trial of the Crusader's gear discrepency Flickr group Warcraft and Windows 7 WoW's astounding numbers Flickr daily challenge Warcast on Google Wave This week's PFQ

I Sheep Things...
Communing with the Elders

Rhii

4 Feb 2010 | 7:12 pm

Communing with the Elders is a post from: Aurdon's Mage Blog I’m not so much of a young’un that I live with my parents anymore, but around Christmas time I found myself staying there for two weeks, and trying to explain my WoW habits to them. My parents’s generation (My mother is late 40s, my father early 50s) doesn’t, on the whole, understand video games very well. That’s not to say there aren’t a few who get it, and a few more who are wholeheartedly accepting, but my parents are not among them. I’ve been a WoW-playing machine for several years now,…
Motivation Slipping…

Rhii

2 Feb 2010 | 2:15 pm

Motivation Slipping… is a post from: Aurdon's Mage Blog Lately all the drama, work, and effort of running this stupid guild have made it so logging on is something I have to force myself to do. I like raiding, when I’m actually in the raid, I’m invariably having fun. It’s all the hoops I have to jump through just to get there that are making me wish I was anywhere else. I don’t like having to threaten, beg, and cry twice a week before I can get to have fun. I don’t like being blamed or having to blame others for late starts. The long and short is, I’m…
Pulling in 5…4…3…

Aurdon

29 Jan 2010 | 8:09 pm

Pulling in 5…4…3… is a post from: Aurdon's Mage Blog Communication is important. If you want to succeed in the grouping aspect of this game, you need to plan. This is why Leeroy Jenkins became such an internet phenomenon. The skit (I say skit because yes, they did plan all this) involved Leeroy running in carelessly without reguard to any planning or “strategory” and was met with hopeless failure. Many people play with vent to make their plans and engage their mobs but not all quick pickup groups have that option. This is why having some helpful timed wow macros…
Intense debate swallowed some comments

Aurdon

29 Jan 2010 | 1:00 pm

Intense debate swallowed some comments is a post from: Aurdon's Mage Blog For the 3rd time, I realized that after upgrading my comment plugin (intense debate) it never reactivated and thus the comments left while it was deactivated are now out of sync. I’m updating those now and all should return. Should they not…I’mma get a hammer.
Guild Loyalty: Is it Expecting Too Much?

Rhii

25 Jan 2010 | 3:23 pm

Guild Loyalty: Is it Expecting Too Much? is a post from: Aurdon's Mage Blog The other night, a guildie of mine accepted an invite to tank a PuG TOC25. He was one of the first invitees to the PuG group, and was clear with the raid leader that his tank spec was his only spec, he did not have a dps spec or gear. Somehow the group filled up with too many tanks and the raid leader asked him to switch to his dps spec, at which point my guildie explained (again) that he didn’t have a dps spec, that he’d signed up as tank, and that he specified when invited that he could only tank, as he…

Too Many Annas
Random thoughts on a Tuesday morning

Anna

9 Feb 2010 | 10:39 am

It’s Tuesday, and I can’t seem to get my thoughts together enough to craft an actual, coherent blog post. So instead, you get random snippets! I’m not sure what the deal is, but our towns have had a huge influx of OOC/stupid yelling in the last week, usually of the “OMG I WUV U SO MUCHES WUBBIES!” type (or similar dreck). I’m ignoring 5-10 characters per day on average. It’s worst in Stormwind. Yesterday saw Annie with 5 new pieces of gear (crafted and dropped), Aely!priest with two, and Aely with 3 (all for DPS). Purchasing gems for 10 pieces of…
Because a picture is worth 80 levels

Anna

8 Feb 2010 | 9:23 am

***Thanks for reading this post from Too Many Annas. May the Loot-Fu be with you***Because a picture is worth 80 levels
Anna’s In-Combat UI

Anna

6 Feb 2010 | 12:22 am

Newly updated screenshot here. This was taken in a 25 man Turavon kill before our raid on Friday evening. It doesn’t really get any crazier than this, unless it’s AOE funtime and there are a ton of ground-effect graphics around (like Putricide). Addons used (primarily): ShadowedUF Grid Dotimer Quartz Mik Scrolling Battle Text Fortress/LibDataBroker/Assorted Plugins Sexymap Dominos Satrina Buff Frames Omen/oRA2/BigBrother/Bigwigs Boss Mods Pallypower Prat QuestGuru ArkInventory Gatherer/GatherMate/Wowhead Database There are probably a few others that I’ve forgotten, or that…
Elixir of Life

Anna

5 Feb 2010 | 7:21 am

Icecrown, Argent Crusade Camp, 5:00 am Fifteen years in the service, and mornings still came early. Even though she was used to it – had done it every day even – her body still resisted in the mornings, especially cold ones. Both Aely’s knees cracked as she shuffled into her quilted gambeson and pants. Pulling on her cloak and a pair of heavy, fur-lined boots she stepped out quickly to get a bucket of water. Back in her tent, she lit a single-burner stove and dug out a well-used, blue-speckled pot. She cracked open the seal on a metal tin and inhaled deeply, a rich, dark…
Healing your first instance (or Heroic!)

Anna

4 Feb 2010 | 2:31 pm

As most of you know, I recently “revived” my very neglected 80 Troll Priest and turned her into an Aely dual-class priest Alliance side. This put me with a fresh level 80 discipline priest, a class I’ve not actively healed with since Karazhan. Needless to say I was both rusty and horrendously geared in a smattering of level 70 epics, quest blues/greens, a few BoE pieces from the auction house, and even some *wince* BoE greens of the sorceror. Even with that, I was pretty sure I could heal a level 78-80 dungeon without too much hassle. So I decided to start running some…

Armaggedon's coming
Natural Gatekeepers

gnomeaggedon

8 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Do you miss natural gatekeepers? I know I do. Of course at this point, you have no idea what I’m talking about. This thought occurred to me while I was chatting to SlikRX/Balthazario, who has become a regular, like a real guildy, in Armaggedon’s Coming. How regular? He brought his wife as well! Anyway, I was chatting to Balth while I was running VoA. The raid leader clearly stated from the outset that it was a whole clear. Toravon – Slushy Koralon – Toast Emalon – Raidbreaker That was when I discovered that the raid I had joined, the one committed to clearing VoA…
Grow Up Australia!

gnomeaggedon

5 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Australia is a bit weird in some ways. For instance, we rant about our right to freedom of speech, but in reality we have no legislated right to freedom of speech. Usually people find this out the hard way. We take a hard line on government censorship… China you bastards… Your net censorship is piss-weak in comparison to the incoming Australian net censorship! Internet censorship plan gets the green light Internet uprising overturns Australian censorship law Web filters to censor video games Likewise we don’t mess about rating video games. Good hunh. No R rating means a 5…
The Next Hero Class Is….

gnomeaggedon

4 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

The one you are playing right now! Yes, I admit it, I was out of my brain on THL yesterday at work… (just quietly, between you and me… I never really liked (past tense) The Hunting Lodge, didn’t think it would last more than a month… proof positive that Gnomes Gnow Gnothing!) I sure as hell hope work don’t start podcast testing, cause I would fail every test… I am constantly high on podcasts (If I can’t read ‘em, I might as well plug into ‘em) So the purveyors of all things illicit (errr Hunter topics + more) were talking about what is…
Why “the Patient” title is a good thing

gnomeaggedon

3 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

Gnomeaggedon is “of Gnomeregan” Squidly is “THE Patient”. I’m not patient There is nothing patient about Gnomeaggedon beyond a title tucked away in the character screen. Sure he’s prepared to wait for his Frostfire Bolt to launch, but not his Pyroblast unless it’s instant. LFD, sure I’ll wait the 15 minutes, but I’m not sitting idle. Loremaster, dailies, screenshots, there is always something to fill the time. I think that’s one of the reasons Gnomeaggedon is loving battlegrounds again. Short casts, instant casts, quick deaths.
What’s bloody new!

gnomeaggedon

2 Feb 2010 | 2:42 am

Nymesis writes: Seen the 3.3.2 patch notes yet? Check these out for the inner WARlock in you….lol. Keep up the awesome posts man. Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator) Affliction •Shadow Embrace: Now stacks 3 times (Up from 2) Healing reduction effect reduced to 2/4/8/10% (Down from 3/6/9/12/15%) Demonology •Demonic Pact: This talent now increases your spell damage by 2/4/6/8/10% (Up from 1/2/3/4/5%). The buff effect to the party or raid members is unchanged. Destruction •Conflagrate: Periodic Spell damage increased to 40% (Up from 20%) •Empowered Imp: Damage done by imp…

The Pink Pigtail Inn
Come rain! Come thunderstorms! Come blizzard!

8 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

Have you felt the earthquakes recently? They remind me of the days when I was struggling in Hellfire Peninsula, spending 75 percent of my online existence as a ghost. Every time I managed to get out of the way from the boars who ate me alive, I could count on that a fel reaver would stomp me into a pathetic pool of blood. The world trembled, and so did I, out of fear. (Actually I don’t think I’ve ever been as close to giving up and quitting the game as I was for a while there).Now the world is shivering again, and even though we don’t see any direct consequences from it yet, it makes me…
It came from the bar: Roleplaying or Role Playing?

7 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

This is yet another guest post written by Holly from Feathermoon (US). As opposed to the innkeeper, who is a closet wanna-be-one-day role player, Holly does it for real.The Difference Between Roleplaying and Role playingWhat can a simple space mean in the world of roleplaying, at least to a silly little Holly bear? To me it means how serious you are about getting into the role, and what rules you're willing or enjoy breaking. Does your character fit into the world designed, game or not? Do you use out of character knowledge? Is the roleplay dramatic, comedic? Did you stick to the genre, or do…
Should we feel sorry for Ensidia?

4 Feb 2010 | 6:44 am

It’s only February, but we have already a good candidate for the Pink Pigtail Inn award Guild drama of the year of 2010.In less than 24 hours Ensidia didn’t just get the world first kill of the Lich King, they also got their achievement removed and a 72 hour ban, since it was judged to be the result of an exploit.One of their prominent members, Muqq, wrote a rather agitated blog post about it.When I first saw the title, “I just got banned and I liked it”, I actually assumed that he took the whole thing as a gentleman. Maybe this would be a humble confession, where he made clear that…
AH Access Offline: Slightly Worried – But Not Freaking Out

3 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

I’ve been pondering a bit upon the news about Blizzards work on giving us access to AH when we're offline - provided that we pay for it.What do I think about it? Is this yet another step on the slippery slope that started with the introduction of the pets for sale? Are my pigtails vibrating and sparkling with electrical charges, am I ready to punch someone because this is the end of WoW? Am I working up myself to a TotalBiscuit state of mind, exploding in an aoe-wave of utter contempt at the current development of the game?After debating a bit with myself, I've come to the conclusion that…
The Tank Who Apologized

2 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm

It was my 26th run in Oculus. I had stolen myself some 20 minutes of game time in one of our offnights and my mission was clear: to grab those two frost emblems as soon as possible, taking me one tiny step further towards my tier set."I wonder who's going to tank this group?", I thought to myself as we buffed up and my eyes quickly hovered over the player pictures.There's supposed to be a smallish icon over every portrait telling us, but for some reason my UI eats the symbol for everyone but me, so I have to figure it out for myself. Normally I can at least distinguish the tank through the…

Leafshine: Lust for Flower
Best. Druid Blog Name. Evah.

Adam

8 Feb 2010 | 9:49 am

An e-mail arrives from one Avoran, tell me about a new blog: DiscoDruid:Now, let's be honest, the name is a fib. The blog is actually mostly about levelling a spacegoat priest through the eyes of a long-term tree. But it's a fun read, and I suggest you check it out.
Charmed, I'm Sure

Adam

8 Feb 2010 | 4:42 am

It's been a while. hasn't it? It's not that I'm not playing WoW - I am. Quite a bit, in fact (as the above shot and the Achievement list to the right suggest). It's just that I'm having fun, without it actually triggering any thought-processes that I actually want to share very much.I was down the pub on Saturday with a bunch of friends and guild-mates and we were batting this around a little. What's happened, in effect, that everyone who wanted to make the guild more serious about raiding has left in one way or another, to other games, to other guilds, to other servers. And we're back where…
Back in Business

Adam

19 Jan 2010 | 7:01 am

Wow, this post has lain in draft state for over a week now. My focus really hasn't been here, has it?To be honest, my focus hasn't really been on WoW for the last few weeks. My wife's going away for a holiday with her Mum in the next few weeks, and there will be plenty of time for me to be WoWing then. In the meantime, I've been either working or spending time with her.Oh, there's been a little bit of raiding - our Monday night raids seem to be back in full swing. We had a nasty moment when all the newcomers to the guild quit en masse to go create their own guild, and it looked might we…
Stop Me If You've Heard This One…

Adam

30 Dec 2009 | 1:44 pm

My secret santa gift post for Stop of The Stoppable Force is up on his blog.'tis the season to be silly…
A Message To You All…

Adam

25 Dec 2009 | 7:24 am

Zug Gaming
Community Spotlight – WoW Contender

In this week’s community spotlight I’d like to shine the light on one of the newest WoW pvp resource sites, WoWContender.com. WoW Contender’s primary goal is to develop a duel ranking system, to showcase the very best duelists on each server. In addition, they provide quality strategy guides and other resources. I could tell you all about [...]
Blood-Queen Lana’thel Boss Fight Strategy Guide

Looking for other Icecrown Citadel boss fight strategy guides? Check out our full instance guide here… Icecrown Citadel Boss Fight Strategy Guides Blood-Queen Lana’thel: 14,200,000 (normal) – 59,400,000 (heroic) It is vital that every single DPS raid member be putting out the highest possible DPS. You simply won’t be able to defeat her if your DPS isn’t [...]
Blood Prince Council Boss Fight Strategy Guide

Looking for other Icecrown Citadel boss fight strategy guides? Check out our full instance guide here… Icecrown Citadel Boss Fight Strategy Guides Blood Prince Council Hit Points: 5,620,000 (normal) – 22,500,000 (heroic) The Blood Prince council consists of three princes who all share the same health pool. Only one becomes active at a time, starting with Prince [...]
Professor Putricide Boss Fight Strategy Guide

Looking for other Icecrown Citadel boss fight strategy guides? Check out our full instance guide here… Icecrown Citadel Boss Fight Strategy Guides Professor Putricide is the third and final boss in the Plagueworks area of Icecrown Citadel. He is the father of Rotface and Festergut and needless to say, he’s not happy when you kill his [...]
Rotface Boss Fight Strategy Guide Tactics

Looking for other Icecrown Citadel boss fight strategy guides? Check out our full instance guide here… Icecrown Citadel Boss Fight Strategy Guides Rotface is Festergut’s brother, and the battle against him is simply a case of managing your oozes. That’s right, Rotface comes with two different size oozes, and you’ve got to manage them while you’re [...]

Warcraft Econ
Auction House iPhone Application

Warcraftecon

7 Feb 2010 | 8:35 am

Auction House iPhone Application We’ll let everyone know if and when we get to the point of adding this application to more devices. We’re currently focused on getting the functionality working properly for this device at this time. (Source) Auction House and Armory Integration Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we’ve been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they’re not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players…
Market Watch – 02/01/2010

Warcraftecon

2 Feb 2010 | 8:35 am

Our new column Market Watch focuses on the latest and most informational news from our forums. So lets dive in and see what current gold making tactics our tycoons are engaged in… Best selling gems and highest profit gems by: Kumíko – Our gold capped and millionaire player lists his best selling gems on the market today, it is definitely worth a look if you are a Jewelcrafter with access to some of these recipes. Prospecting/Jewelcrafting/Disenchanting spreadsheet by: Delcitina – Our resident spreadsheet creator has updated the prospecting spreadsheet for 3.3. Get your copy…
Hall of Fame: Kumiko of Malygos-EU (1 Million Gold Achieved)

Warcraftecon

31 Jan 2010 | 8:35 am

The Warcraft Econ Hall of Fame is a column featuring the few elite players that have hit the World of Warcraft gold cap of 214,748 gold 36 silver 46 copper. We have with us, Kumiko of Malygos-EU, who will be sharing their stories with us today. He has reached 1,000,000 gold, well above the gold cap. Please tell us a little about yourself and your gaming experience. Hello. My name is Boris. I play my feral kitty Kumíko in the raiding guild on the german EU server Malygos. I started WoW right at release day and experienced vanilla wow with my human priestress Nem, who is still well known on…
Fishing: How Profitable Is It? Part II

Warcraftecon

31 Jan 2010 | 8:35 am

Back in January of 2009, we wrote about how profitable fishing was shortly after the release of Wotlk. Our numbers came out to be about 300g per hour. We decided to do this test again after noticing some increased prices of fish on our server. Our new numbers now are almost 500g/hr! Not bad for fishing in Wintergrasp without having to move an inch. The Experiment For this test we wanted to maximize the fish caught in the smallest amount of time, so fishing in Wintergrasp was a good choice. After fishing for about an hour, 217 total fish were caught among other things. Below are the results.
New URL for Warcraft Econ Social Network Site

Warcraftecon

27 Jan 2010 | 10:21 pm

Social Network: http://www.warcraftecon.socialgo.com Forums: http://www.warcraftecon.com/forums This will fix almost all the problems some users are still having.

Less QQ More PewPew
Lady Deathwhisper

blogqqpewpew@gmail.com (Drotara)

4 Feb 2010 | 10:12 pm

I know Lady Deathwhisper isn’t exactly new content, but I figure some people haven’t had a chance to tackle her yet. I didn’t have time to narrate this one however. I have been working an awful lot, cutting into my WoW time. But what can you do right? Well, enjoy the video if its new to you. Comments, thoughts, etc. Post ‘em!
Festergut

blogqqpewpew@gmail.com (Drotara)

30 Jan 2010 | 11:56 pm

Sorry about how long it took to get this up. I think the quality turned out nice. As always, leave any questions, comments, or suggestions down in the comments!
Have fun storming the castle!

blogqqpewpew@gmail.com (Drotara)

26 Jan 2010 | 5:48 pm

“Think it’ll work?” “It’ll take a miracle.” I finally found a competent 25-man ICC PUG last night. But at the same time, it probably wasn’t fair to call it a PUG. Not when it was with 15 members from Team Ice. Don’t let that rank fool you either. They are generally regarded as the second best raiding guild on our server, and considering how good our server is, that’s really good. We cleared both Festergut and Rotface and took 2 attempts at the Blood Princes before calling it a night, with our best wipe at 13%. I am Less than 4,000…
A New Resolve

blogqqpewpew@gmail.com (Drotara)

19 Jan 2010 | 12:30 am

The site has been neglected. And I feel bad about it. I am playing WoW as much as I have before yet I haven’t made a post in . . . . too long. So my new belated New year’s Resolution for my site is to get my posting frequency back to at least a few times a week. There is new content, new gear, new Arena seasons and plenty of other exciting stuff to cover. I am going to make sure that QQ gets back into the swing of things. So to start off, let’s get reacquainted. I am currently not in a raiding guild. But that hasn’t stopped me from picking up some new loot. Not in…
The Holiday Season In-Game

blogqqpewpew@gmail.com (Drotara)

20 Dec 2009 | 2:03 pm

There is at least one other blogger out there who doesn’t seem to embrace the spirit of the season. Which is, of course, fine. Everyone can choose to celebrate how they wish. If you are a reader of WoW blogs, you can probably guess which one is against giving gifts. None other Mr. Greedy Goblin. He is a firm believer of “if its lootable, sell it.” Of course it’s more complicated than that but you get the idea. But for this situation, it was this post that I read that prompted my response. I love giving gifts. In-game and out-of-game, as I imagine a lot of you do. On my…

The Troll Hunter
Spoilers and 3.3.2 Patch Notes

Greetins Mon' on dis very long 8 hour patch day! Below joo be finding da' patch notes from the extended maintenance period today, and a couple of Lich King spoilers. But beware mon, don't joo be watching unless joo really wants to know what happens in de' end to The Lich King! ...
Achievements? I got da Achievements Mon!

Greetins' Mon! How all joo's be doing dis' fine week? Joo be's enjoying da new raiding system and all dat fancy new gear dat joo can be a getting? Dis Troll Hunter be lovin' it mon and be styling now in all his t-9 and t-10 gear. Dem groups for ...
New Year & New Raid Objectives

Greetins' Mon, and a Happy New Year to joos! I hope that all your holiday celebrations went well and that you got the epic tier 10 gear that you asked the Great-Father for. What did the Troll Hunter get? Well I asked for Shakira again, but as usual she was too ...
A Very Merry Christmas to Everyone!

To Everyone: Here's Wishing You and Your Family A Very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Years! May all your future drops be Epic ones! Happy Trollydays from, The Troll Hunter and his little trollette huntress.

DeeKow
Affordable, Classic Bedrooms Can Be Yours Today

admin

9 Feb 2010 | 5:13 am

When you are ready to update your home make sure that you go with the company that offers the best in creating beautiful bedrooms. Regardless of the size or layout of your bedrooms, our designers can create custom bedroom get-aways that you will love coming home to. Adding fitted, custom bedrooms are classy, high-quality and affordable. You can give an elegant finish to a master bedroom, kids rooms, nursery or guest rooms that turns any space into an efficient, dynamic bedroom. We start by bringing the designer to you, via our mobile design services. Our design team will create your beautiful…
Roommate Relocation Resources Takes the Guesswork Out of Finding a Roommate

admin

9 Feb 2010 | 3:13 am

It is no easy thing to move to a new location. You have so many things to consider, such as what area of the new city should you live in, how far is it from school or work, how is the neighborhood and so on. The last thing that you want to think about is the money involved, but you have no choice. The high cost of moving and living has caused many people to seek out a roommate to help share the expenses. However, without the help of roommate relocation resources, you may find this to be a challenge. Using roommate relocation resources helps you to find possible roommates in one location. In…
My Brick is Cracked and Flaking

admin

8 Feb 2010 | 5:19 am

Brick, especially older brick or brick that has never been treated with water repellent has a tendency to crack or flake off as a result of freeze thaw damage and general wear and tear. Although preventative maintenance can be performed routinely over the years to preserve the life of your masonry, cracks will occur despite the most thorough preventative measures. Things may appear perfectly fine one season, and the very next you may begin to see pieces of brick cracking off of your chimney and landing on the roof or the ground surrounding the chimney. This is what is known as spalling, and…
Renting a Home in Linlithgow

admin

8 Feb 2010 | 3:10 am

Rental websites can be very helpful whether you are looking for houses to rent linlithgow or you have a property you would like to rent. These websites not only offer tenant services and landlord services, they also assist you in finding a letting agent if necessary. No more jumping from website to website in order to find something that meets your needs. One website can do it all. This is helpful if you are finishing up school, taking a job promotion or moving a family. When your time is limited, a rental website gives you the most bang for the buck. Landlords who have houses to rent…
Muck Boots Offer Fantastic Reliable Performance In Diverse Conditions

admin

6 Feb 2010 | 5:11 am

Obviously in winter and in the cold weather, when choosing a boot for navigating snowy and wet conditions, of primary importance is that of keeping the feet both warm and dry. These characteristics are not usually both found within the same footwear. Unless of course you are talking about Muck Boots, which are famous for keeping your feet wonderfully warm, and yet dry at the same time. Your feet will not get cold from sweating, since these boots feature a shell of insulation that is constructed so the fibers insulate the area between the liner and rubber, allowing your feet to breathe,…

Me and My Ghoul
In Which Galo Says Things Better Than I Could

Grimtorn

8 Feb 2010 | 5:43 pm

I won’t even bother to try to add my own thoughts to this, I’ll simply link you to his post. Ardent Defender on Blogspot. Post from: Me and My GhoulIn Which Galo Says Things Better Than I Could No related posts.
In Which Grim No Longer Plugs Addons

Grimtorn

31 Jan 2010 | 1:53 pm

This could be long winded, it could be brief, but the message would still be the same regardless… I will no longer be actively encouraging the usage of *any* addons that analyze specs and make assessments on the capabilities of the player therein. Theorycrafting is all well and good, but it doesn’t always accurately reflect how someone *really* plays. Post from: Me and My GhoulIn Which Grim No Longer Plugs Addons Related posts:Grim at 75
LFG, One Month Later

Grimtorn

19 Jan 2010 | 7:45 am

I know this is a topic that’s been covered (and covered, and covered some more) by those more prolific then me…I figured I’d still try and exp and upon my thoughts on the LFG system, now that I’ve been using it near constantly for the last month while I try to collect Primordial Saronite. I know that I still owe readers (are there any of you really left?) that promised “gearing to raid tank” guide, but it’s still in progress. I’ve read various different opinions on how to deal with strangers in these LFG groups, and while most groups do their…
Gearing to Raid: DPS

Grimtorn

26 Dec 2009 | 11:48 am

Be prepared…this is an all-in-one for DPS and it’s a doozy. It reflects the changes through patch 3.3, including the 4 new dungeons added since I last made gear lists. There’ll be another post for the tanky types, and it’ll be laid out similiar to this one. Due to the extreme length of these posts, I will be using cuts, so I apologize to anyone trying to read this on a feeder – you’ll have to get the whole thing on the site. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and stay awhile. Patch 3.3 completely revolutionized the way that gear was acquired. With the LFG tool…
Happy Blogaversary to Me

Grimtorn

24 Dec 2009 | 8:26 pm

Though I’m technically a day late, the sentiment is still the same. One year ago, just before Christmas, I embarked on a journey to carve out my own little place on the web, a spot where Unholy DKs could congregate and discuss tactics, gear, and everything else that entails our ghoulful lifestyles… My very first post can be found here…and it only went downhill from there. I kid, I kid. But thank you to all who visited, who continued to visit, and who visit in the future. I’m working on new gear posts, and they’ll be 2 BIG all-in-one posts (one for DPS, one for…

Spooncraft
City of Heroes: Issue 17 – Dark Mirror

J.A. Laraque

9 Feb 2010 | 9:05 am

The long running superhero MMO has announced its latest content update. Issue 17, Dark Mirror which will bring fans a long awaited graphics overhaul. This April players will be able to experience the new graphical updates that will be going into COH’s third expansion titled, “Going Rogue”. In addition players will get access to [...]
So I got Bioshock 2…

Spooner

9 Feb 2010 | 9:01 am

Not just Bioshock 2, but the Bioshock 2 Collector’s Edition! I’m framing the lithographs and putting them up on the wall next to my massive Blizzcon 09′ print and the record I am actually gifting to a very good friend of mine who happens to collect vinyl records and is a fanatic in his own [...]
How To: Fool for Love 2010 Acheivements

Spooner

8 Feb 2010 | 10:10 am

Blizzard has made the event essentially, idiot proof. So obviously I had a hard time with it but through my many epic failures I’ve learned a few things of which I will now pass on to you my little zygotes. You can get everything you need with Love Tokens. It’s the new currency for the event. [...]
Warhammer 40k MMO at E3

J.A. Laraque

8 Feb 2010 | 6:34 am

If you ever needed yet another reason to make it out to E3 this year here it is. THQ announced that there will be a “full unveil” of their upcoming MMO based on the Warhammer 40k universe. Up until now we have only seen a few concept art shots, but at the Electronic Entertainment Expo [...]
One Million accounts…for Star Trek Online

J.A. Laraque

5 Feb 2010 | 8:51 am

It’s time to break out the champagne glasses! Atari has announced that STO now has over one million registered accounts. Now while that is a number that should bring a smile to any marketers face it does not mean the future is certain or bright for that matter. As your girlfriend told you on your promo [...]

Huntsman's Lodge
Hunter Basics: Explosive Shot

Garwulf

8 Feb 2010 | 4:16 pm

Explosive Shot is the signature ability of the survival tree. However, I often find that many hunters are unaware of how and when to properly use it, especially in the event of a Lock and Load proc. Until Kill Shot becomes available (once the kill target is at or below 20% health), Explosive Shot is the number one priority shot. In other words, its cast should not be delayed for anything. Many players have the wrong impression, thinking that Black Arrow and/or Serpent Sting should be applied first in order to further buff the shot. This is incorrect. Delaying Explosive Shot for any shot…
New epic loot dispenser in VoA

Garwulf

3 Feb 2010 | 7:45 pm

Meet the latest Vault of Archavon loot Piñata, Toravon the Ice Watcher. If you beat on him long enough he’ll drop some ilvl264+ gear, and maybe even an epic mount. Unlike the other 3 bosses in VoA, Toravon only drops 3 pieces of epic loot, but who can complain..? If you haven’t yet attempted this boss, I suggest you do so. Difficulty wise, he’s maybe a tad bit harder than Koralon and easily PuG’able. The fight is really simple for the most part. As a hunter, your job is to DPS Toravon until the adds spawn, kill the adds, then resume DPS on Toravon. Rinse and repeat…
Deathbringer’s Will

Solaryn

3 Feb 2010 | 3:07 pm

Greetings again all you intrepid hunters. With your permission I’ll be sidestepping my usual exotic hunter tanking topics to discuss the much more mainstream subject of hunter DPS. The focus of today’s journey is a little toy I managed to snag a couple weeks ago, the trinket, Deathbringer’s Will. For those of you in the know, this drops from Deathbringer Saurfang in Icecrown Citadel. It adds 155 to armor penetration and causes your attacks to have a chance to “awaken the powers of the races of Northrend”. For a hunter this means one of three different effects:…
Back on task

Garwulf

3 Feb 2010 | 2:33 pm

My 3 week absence from posting is officially over. I didn’t intend to drop the things like that, but well… s**t happens. I got behind in all facets of life and work earlier last month, which was then exacerbated by the website troubles I’d experienced. After putting WoW on hold for about a week, I came back to playing a bit, but not blogging about it. Sorry folks. At any rate, I’m starting to get things sorted out and even started attending raids again as of last week. New posts forthcoming… One thing about taking time off, is there’s always a lot to talk…
So… Why didn’t I get a raid invite?

Lehyton

20 Jan 2010 | 5:35 pm

As a raid leader, part of my job is to choose who comes on a raid and who sits in Dalaran waiting in the random heroic PuG queue. At first glance, this sounds like a glamorous job that everyone should aspire to in the game of WoW. I almost always get to go on the raid. I can choose who comes and who stays. I have control. What’s not to like? Certainly, there were times in my pre-raid-leader life that these thoughts occurred to me. “I’m an awesome DPS hunter – no doubt they’ll bring me along.” …sometimes followed by… “Left out..? WHY?!? STELLLLAAAAA!!!” …and perhaps even…

Sideshow & Syrana
Close On The Trail (RP)

Syrana

9 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

(Part 45) For the entire listing of this series, please go here. Reaching the hallway leading away from the Royal Quarter, Aerissa clutched the song book close to her chest. With her other hand, she grasped her dress and raised the hemline. She increased her pace until she was at a very brisk walk. Aerissa chewed at her bottom lip, her cheeks and neck blotchy with redness. I thought she’d be happy… instead I brought her more pain and misery. How awful! She decided it was time to head back to Silvermoon City and then return to Tranquillien as quickly as possible. After…
Ask And Ye Shall Receive…

Syrana

8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

…an answer, more than likely. I’ve heard that bloggers are narcissistic. At least, that’s what I heard at a work training (seriously, what the hell?) a couple months ago. I suppose there’s a certain level of truth to this. I mean, I do like to babble on and have people read/listen to me babble and comment on my babble. So, I finally thought I’d set up this formspring question thing-a-ma-jig. Consider it like your own private interview with moi.. ‘cept everyone can see the question and answer. Hey, at least you can anonymously ask something. Now,…
Who Do You Think You Are?

Sideshow

8 Feb 2010 | 4:26 am

As you know from other posts and podcasts, I do enjoy genealogy and the research that goes into unraveling my family tree. Last year, I came across a show on BBC Television in the UK called Who Do You Think You Are? I was able to watch most of the last (seventh) season and scattered other episodes from different seasons in the English and Australian versions via YouTube and other methods. (Since it’s only on British television and the DVDs are only Europe and UK region-coded, so I can’t watch them easily.) I have yet to watch an episode didn’t completely captivate me. Maybe…
Screenshot Sunday: Call The Exterminator!

Syrana

7 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

Just as creepy in pixels.
Sideshow’s Songs of the Week

Sideshow

6 Feb 2010 | 6:38 pm

I thought I’d start a new franchise here on the site. You know, cuz Syrana has stolen all of the good weekly memes. I enjoy music, as most of you know, so I thought I’d post a song everyday during the week using my Blip.fm station and tweet it at the same time (if you wanted to follow at home.) Every week, I’d recap my choices and write a little blurb about them. Hopefully, it’s a good chance to hear some new music (or old music) and get my take on it. I do tend to lean towards Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, so most songs will probably be in that general area, but I will…

Sheep Blink Invis
More cowbell

Eury

14 Jan 2010 | 8:14 pm

I’m taking a quick break in the midst of my packing to slide in my post for the day. I’ve realized a few things in the last 6 hours. The first is that while I have some draft posts sitting in the wings waiting for their 15 seconds of fame, they are far from being what [...]Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. (Digital Fingerprint: 8a2c25a725d1897162538f78263dc673 (74.125.158.81) )
The PUGs who rocked

Eury

13 Jan 2010 | 6:59 pm

Leave it to a mage . . . to be a perfect pug! Okay is there really such thing as a perfect pug? Eh, probably not. I mean, there is a reason our Perky Pugs run around and then drags their asses on the ground – you’ve never noticed? Watch your pug the next time you [...]Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. (Digital Fingerprint: 8a2c25a725d1897162538f78263dc673 (74.125.158.81) )
Dungeon Finder Weekly

Eury

12 Jan 2010 | 1:45 pm

This week’s weekly dungeon finder fail will not be read here. Why? Because there is no more epic of a fail group than that which Krizzlybear unfortunately endured. This is one of the most entertaining reads though you can’t help but cringe for Krizz throughout. If you aren’t normally in the habit of reading comments [...]Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. (Digital Fingerprint: 8a2c25a725d1897162538f78263dc673 (74.125.158.81) )
A response

Eury

11 Jan 2010 | 4:24 pm

In light of the rather lengthy response I posted to a comment, I am going to keep this post short and sweet. 1. Each guild is managed and run differently. Even within guilds, there are different styles of management that exist between raid leaders. While general rules stay the same, the attitude and atmosphere may certainly be [...]Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. (Digital Fingerprint: 8a2c25a725d1897162538f78263dc673 (74.125.158.81) )
Something Light

Eury

10 Jan 2010 | 8:57 pm

Just a quick one for today. I’ve held on to this for a little while, trying to think of who I could get to put the vocals down because it certainly will not be me. Here’s the original and if you feel so inclined to karaoke here’s a vocal/lyric free version. Enjoy! Party in the World [...]Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. (Digital Fingerprint: 8a2c25a725d1897162538f78263dc673 (74.125.158.81) )

I am a Paladin
Lich King Weapons

HP

8 Feb 2010 | 9:31 am

Woot! According to MMOChampions, Arthas crit/mp5 mace becoming crit/haste, which is a BIG improvement imo!What's up with Blizz letting the Koreans have the scoop? I want their forum moderators... =TI'm assuming this change will happen to all the crit/mp5 maces form 10/25 normal and hard.I'm guessing they wanted to avoid another Turning Tide debacle, where holy paladins' BIS was the BIS of mages and locks.
Stalking Feeds

HP

6 Feb 2010 | 8:04 pm

Been so obsessed with Armory and WoW-heroes recently =XHere's a screenshot of mineIt's so addicting with the new activity feed! Satisfying my stalker urges.You have people you like to keep tabs on?
Commenting Courtesy

HP

30 Jan 2010 | 5:04 pm

Hi all!Though I am a very inconsistent blogger, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my 5 man healing post was very well received and linked on WoW Insider to boot!I figured it out when I came on my website one day to see 10 new comments on the post when I'm lucky to get 1 or 2 on a post. One of these comments came from an infamous blogger.Said blogger's comment consisted of only an url linking to their version of a 5 man healing guide. I can appreciate people having their own guides but why can't it come with a little comment such as "oh, I covered this and that in my guide that you…
Healing 5 mans as a Holy Paladin

HP

25 Jan 2010 | 5:28 am

I think that playing a holy paladin for as long as I have, I take for granted how new holy paladins have to deal with 5 man dungeons. If I think back on it, when I was first leveling to 80 and trying to heal dungeons with 16k mana and 1500 SP, it was difficult to say the least.For a freshly dinged 80 paladin, it's even harder to heal heroics especially since you are more vulnerable to any fail/noob players in the group. Yet, what can you do? With patch 3.3, heroics are a necessity to grind for Emblem of Triumph so you can buy the gear you need to be able to get a start on raiding.I'm assuming…
Ferraro Revealed!

HP

21 Jan 2010 | 10:33 am

Many of you probably know of Ferraro, author of blog Paladin Schmaladin. There was a lot of drama surrounding that site as it became known that Ferraro had been posting pics of another person without permission and passing it off as themselves. Then when confronted about it, Ferraro admitted to the farce and then further revealed that she/he was the 7th in a long line of Ferraro's ala the Dread Pirate Roberts in the Princess Bride (book/movie), which is also debated if that is true. This is a rough summary and I'm sure I missed many details of the whole debacle.The Ferraro facade,…

Nihilum
Blue Posts, Car

6 Feb 2010 | 10:11 am

HordemobileBlue Posts25 Saurfang OUT OF CONTROL - BUGGEDAbsorbs such as Power Word: Shield no longer prevent Blood Power from being gained when damage is dealt by Saurfang. Casting Power Word: Shield is not a bad thing to do as the ability will absorb the damage dealt. This was an intentional 3.3.2 change. We also removed the ability to knockback the Blood Beasts off the platform and the removed of Blood Power gain from Mark of the Fallen Champion damage. We unfortunately missed getting these changes into the patch notes. Hp stealth nerf or bug?Apologies again that we were not able to…
Blue Posts, Lich King 25 Normal Down

3 Feb 2010 | 5:12 pm

Ensidia managed to down The Lich King encounter in 25 man Normal, congratulations to them.Disabling Saronite BombsWe just made a hotfix that disables the siege damage dealt by Saronite Bombs and the Global Thermal Sapper Charge. The siege damage of the bombs was causing the Frozen Throne platform to rebuild, which greatly decreases the difficulty of the encounter.We'll reenable the siege damage in a later update when the issue with the Frozen Throne is fixed. Blue Posts25 Saurfang OUT OF CONTROL - BUGGEDWe did make some changes to the fight to make the "Just let people with Marks die"…
Lich King Steam/Loot Table

2 Feb 2010 | 2:51 pm

Loot10 Man Loot25 Man Loot
Blue Posts

2 Feb 2010 | 12:44 pm

Putricide & BQL Top 100 kills- tanks by specThis is a cool thread.I hesitated jumping into it for a long time, because I didn't want the participants to just start talking to me instead of trying to interpret the data that the OP (and others) worked hard to generate. Hopefully that won't happen. (And if it does, you'll know why I don't jump into the next cool discussion to come along.)I wouldn't worry too much about sample sizes and the like. Yes, sample size is important, but it's too easy to just dismiss data as needing a larger sample size. Part of the science of statistics is trying to…
Fall of the Lich King

1 Feb 2010 | 2:23 pm

Class ChangesDruid ChangesBalanceEarth and Moon - Also increases your spell damage by 2/4/6%. Up from 1/2/3%.Warlock Changes AfflictionShadow Embrace - Your Shadow Bolt and Haunt spells apply the Shadow Embrace effect, increasing all shadow periodic damage dealt to the target by you by 5%, and reduces all periodic healing done to the target by 10%. Lasts for 12 sec. Stacks up to 3 times. Up from 2 stacks. Down from 15% healing debuff.Everlasting Affliction - Your Corruption and Unstable Affliction spells gain an additional 5% of your bonus spell damage, and your Drain Life, Drain Soul, Shadow…

MMOcker.com
What kind of MMO do YOU want? Poll (Choose 4)

Lumio

26 Jan 2010 | 1:02 am

The future of the MMO industry is still in a state of flux. No one, not even the players, are sure what they want. So today let’s ask ourselves what are 4 things that we are looking for in our next MMO? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Top 5 Articles of the Year!

Lumio

19 Dec 2009 | 5:08 pm

Its been a great year and here are the top 5 articles on MMOcker this year. We wrote ‘em and you loved ‘em. So grab a gingerbread man and a glass of milk and settled down next to the yule log and read these 5 great articles and share them with your friends. Enjoy and Merry Christmas! 1. 10 Funny MMORPG Pick Up Lines 2. 5 Things I Learned from Playing MMO’s 3. Why the Next Generation of MMO’s Will Fail 4. Kanye Disrespects Aion [IMG] 5. My Dream MMO
Play Games! Why Gaming is good for you.

Lumio

11 Dec 2009 | 9:04 pm

So after having just purchased a PlayStation 3 I had to buckle down and write a paper for my English class. Since I couldn’t get playing the stupid thing off of my mind, I decided to write about gaming. Here I argue why gaming is good for you and is the best form of entertainment out there. Enjoy! Jonathan Shariat 12/11/09 English Play Games “Just five more minutes!” A common cry from kids as they are pried off their gaming systems. Parents, as well as most of the general public, look down on gaming as a waste of time. Gaming has gotten a bad rap from boys who spend too much…
/random: Red Shirts

Lumio

18 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

The New Star Trek MMO may have some risky character customization options… Enjoy!
Magik Shoppe Halloween

Rygar

29 Oct 2009 | 12:30 pm

Happy Halloween from Magik Shoppe and everyone at MMOcker.com! (click to enlarge)

We Fly Spitfires - MMORPG Blog
How To Be Romantic: Celebrate Valentines Day In A MMORPG

Gordon

8 Feb 2010 | 2:07 pm

Dearest wife, My love for you is like an eternal well that spouts sparkly pink champagne love drops. I pondered many ways in which to show my deepest affection for you and pondered even further the ways we could celebrate our loving relationship together. A romantic candlelit dinner for two, mayhaps? Nay, too cliché. 24 red roses delivered to your bedside by a naked me? Non, too contrived. Some shiny silver jewellery perhaps? Niet, I know how you just deplore material things like diamonds and platinum. But alas, fret not my dear, for I have foundest the perfect way for me to convey my…
Tanking In PvP

Gordon

7 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

Although I’ve dabbled with PvP in many MMORPGS, the only game that I truly gripped me with it was Everquest 2. I played for several years on first Darathar and then Nagafen and I stand by my opinion that SOE managed to create one of the best PvP experiences available. Aside from creating a fair yet competitive environment that offered me the sort of mildly sanitised and strategic PvP I was looking for, SOE did something exceptionally clever - they made proper tanking part of PvP gameplay. You can run but you can't hide Being a tank is about being the meat shield of the group and…
WoW Armory Facebook App - Why?

Gordon

5 Feb 2010 | 1:23 pm

Whilst waiting for the World of Warcraft patch 3.3 to download a few days ago, I decided to try out the Armory Facebook app seeing as Blizzard were pushing it through the game loader. The installation was, as you would expect, quick and painless and within a couple of minutes I had hooked up Facebook account with my Battle.net account WoW Armory feed. My WoW account is now ubiquitous. Awwwsommmeeeee (!). Yep, that was sarcasm. Behold, my glory! (As if you care.) As the title of this post probably gives away, I’m kinda baffled by this Facebook application. I mean, I can see…
Where’s My Box?

Gordon

4 Feb 2010 | 1:48 pm

Just to clarify, I’m referring to physical game boxes and packaging in the title here not an actual cricket box. Interesting fact: I once held a used cricket box over my face when I was a child in an attempt to impersonate Darth Vader. I didn’t know what it was for at the time. This is not the box you're looking for Anyway, I am of course referring to Global Agenda and it’s release only digitally via Steam or a special limited edition boxed version on Amazon US. Some people ask what’s the fuss and initially I was inclined to agree but after realising that I still haven’t…
The Death Of Multicultural Gaming

Gordon

3 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

Regular readers will know that I have a bit of a man crush on Brian “Psychochild” Green and with just cause. He’s got a fantastic blog, writes excellent articles and his little finger knows more about the MMORPG industry than my entire brain does (and I have a big brain). Yesterday he wrote an interesting article about the cultural differences in gaming and invited all our responses. Being a topic close to my heart not only did I leave a hefty comment but decided to expand upon it in a blog post of my own. Multicultural gaming will be extinct by 2032 Being a Brit, I’ve…

HoTs & DoTs
There’s No Such Thing as an Exploit

Cassandri

7 Feb 2010 | 7:59 pm

Ensidia's world first kill of the Lich King (25) was declared invalid It seems that so many of the extremely difficult boss kills this expansion are being declared as invalid or unfair by Blizzard. Because the guilds in question discovered something that turned the encounter in their favor and used it. Exodus’s world first Alone in the Darkness was considered to be an exploit because the guild discovered they could seriously confuse the spawned Guardians in the final phase by a Holy Paladin messing around with brain portals and threat. A lecturer once told me the following story:…
But I Can’t Use a Sword?

Cassandri

2 Feb 2010 | 11:23 pm

Staff, Dagger and Mace. In case you missed it: none of them are swords. In Naxxramas I fought a political war to gain the right to bid DKP for the Shadow Priest best-in-slot weapon. In Ulduar, I lugged around a Guiding Star, a mace which other Shadow Priests at the time were forbidden to roll on. For Trial of the Crusader I had the opportunity to get my hands on a dagger for a change and not just any dagger, my first weapon in Wrath of the Lich King intended for damage dealers. What do the Torch of Holy Fire and Guiding Star have in common? Mp5. Mp5 has no damage-increasing value to a Shadow…
Leveling in Pairs

Cassandri

31 Jan 2010 | 11:32 pm

Jumping ahead while Pixii (Lathere) is falling behind Caesandra (my Mage) and Pixii (Lathere’s Warlock) are actually the first two characters we’ve tried to level together. I started playing World of Warcraft about one month or two after Lathere and her boyfriend started and not only could I not close the level gap – I was always about 10 levels and two zones behind – I didn’t feel any need to. I think I can confidently say that I leveled all on my own the first time. I started the Shaman, Xata, because my brother also wanted to roll a Shaman. We had a terrible…
Improving the Quality of Conversation

Cassandri

29 Jan 2010 | 7:35 am

When the silence gets to you... I once wrote that one of The 15 things You Should Know About the Dungeon Finder was the less said, the more successful the run will be Little did I know that would turn out to be the norm, not the exception. I hate that people are too afraid or too lazy to speak up and chat during instance runs these days. I hate that people only talk when something has gone wrong, someone has died, or someone is doing something seriously wrong. When you run the same dungeons over and over again for a year (and counting) the only things that differentiates one run from the next…
Absolute Power

Cassandri

26 Jan 2010 | 7:27 pm

Would you jump? My queues are quick, but they're not that quick! In this modern age of Dungeon Finder, Dungeon Finder, Dungeon Finder I can tell you who holds all the power: Tanks. I know we talk about instant (insta) queues. I’ve seen tanks prostituting themselves and their skip-the-queue in Trade chat for the price of 50g. I’ve heard all about “Tank Roulette”: a game in which the tank stands at the edge of Krasus’s Landing, queues using the Dungeon Finder as a Tank, jumps off the edge and either: (a) ends up safely in a dungeon before they die a horrible…

WoWGrrl's World
Do You Feel Guilty Ditching An LFG PUG?

Valdesta

7 Feb 2010 | 11:06 am

With the upgrade of the Dungeon Tool for regular 5-player instances, increasing the pool of potential PUGmates you'll be assigned to because of the cross-realm battlegroups being included, I'd love to hear from everyone else your opinion about ditching PUG parties with little or no warning. Fact: PUG Ditchers Used To Be More Annoying Than They Are Today Not to say that I think people should feel free to ditch groups they got into and have progressed part way through the instance with, but I definitely think with the cross-realm LFG, there's a lot more flexibility than there used to be. It…
I WILL Be A Love Fool This Year!

Valdesta

6 Feb 2010 | 7:33 am

Last year I was a complete dummy and didn't complete the Love Is In The Air quest series from the Valentine's event that is required to get "the Love Fool" title. Wanna know why? Cuz I'm a dummy. I already said that! Keep up! :) It Always Helps To Read Shrimproll's Achievement Screen Each one of the Seasonal Events has a title that your various characters can get. Most require you to be level-capped, or nearly so, unless you have a handful of good friends to turn to who can get you through some of the components that strangers will snub you for. Things like the Coren Direbrew event in…
What’s With All The Healer Ninjas??!!

Valdesta

5 Feb 2010 | 11:06 am

So, I don't know if you've experienced this or not since the new Dungeon Tool came in... But man, what's with all the Healer Ninjas in the leveling dungeons??!! Playing With Friends? Playing With Strangers. Personally, I love the challenge of PUGs with complete and utter strangers. Druid Tanking In Wailing Caverns Ever since BC came out, and the first rendition of the LFG tool, I've gained a huge amount of playing skill just by playing with strangers instead of friends. In fact, for a while there were social friends I wouldn't invite into dungeons to fill final slots in parties, because I…
Rockin’ It Out In Blackrock Depths

Valdesta

26 Jan 2010 | 8:35 am

My LFG Levelers aren't to the Blackrock Depths level yet, and won't be for quite a while, but that doesn't mean I can't still enjoy the dungeon once in a while. Specifically, on my Horde-side, well-established set of toons, a couple of them have Direbrew's Remote. And the Remote, other than being a rare daily boss drop during the Brewfest celebration which was difficult to get in the first place, has a couple of neat features that can be enjoyed year round. Tauren Chieftains in Blackrock Depths Dusting Off The Remote For the heck of it I hopped onto my Troll Mage and activated the Remote I…
Lucking Across Lil Timmy, Boy With Kittens

Valdesta

24 Jan 2010 | 8:10 am

I admit it. I've crossed the line. After years of being Horde-dominated and only having dabbled half-heartedly in any Alliance faction toons, I've finally set myself up an official, lasting, Alliance family. One that is getting proper attention to be called a family and not just a stray spore that landed, germinated, and then was put into forever-stasis. Lil Timmy The Boy With Kittens ZOMG, It's Lil Timmy! One of my lowbie Alliance toons was running around in Stormwind, working on her Tailoring jive with cheap mats I had gathered recently, and lo and behold, she ran into the legendary Lil…

Sushi-Cookie
Love is in the air!

Lekana

8 Feb 2010 | 12:57 pm

Lovely holiday! Hearts over everyones head as you ride your turtle through Orgimmar. Ok maybe I just do that, mocking people on my turtle. THIS YEAR they added two new acheivements and give you a little taste for some goblin love. You can see a few of the goblin models when you turn into them but you can stop to dance or any of that jazz cause it just keeps you trucking along with an auto run. It still felt pretty cool to be a tiny goblin which makes me even more excited for the next expansion. I was pretty I think! The pretty much added in a boss like with brewfest but this time it’s…
From Healer to DPS

Sushicookie

8 Feb 2010 | 9:28 am

It’s hard to stop caring about everyone else in your raid. I’ll be the first to assist on killing a blood beast when it’s asked on vent. Even if I’m having to run across the room. I’m trying to break myself of it. No, it’s not productive for the DPS to be running around the room and not well, DPSing. So, in 10-mans where I am not chasing things around, I’m #1, sometimes I’m #2 if the hunter isn’t shooting random shit here and there. However, friends still calling me the scrubby rogue, or the shitty rogue. They are teasing, but seriously-…
Rogue’n it up

Sushicookie

6 Feb 2010 | 6:08 am

So, how am I doing as a rogue? Pretty damn good- I’d like to think. I’ve learned I must dual spec. First I tried combat, but really- I hate dealing with my spreadsheet and if I have enough armor pen. One piece of gear change and it will tell me to gem AP. Umm… No. I spent 500g on the Arm Pen gems in only HALF of my gear, I’m not changing it all out again then back next week. So I went Mutilation. Let me tell you- bigger numbers with mutilate. I still had to regem all my stuff, but at least this way one piece of gear and my gems wont effect my dps that much. So back to…
Ridiculous loot dumpstering.

Sushicookie

3 Feb 2010 | 12:06 am

So I went into 25 ICC for the first time in two weeks. :) ON MY ROGUE! So I got stuff! LOTS OF STUFF. OMG it was ridiculous. I’m the only rogue- so, leather is mines. lol. Cultists Bloodsoaked Spaulders Ikfirus’s Sack of Wonder Toskk’s Maximized Wristguards Frostbitten Fur Boots Rib Spreader and I got my badge trinket: Herkuml War Token. Also tonight on 25, Saurfang was stuck on Heroic. Apparently we were one of the few to get past him tonight. lol. Too bad he didnt drop heroic loot!
Getting there! :D

Sushicookie

1 Feb 2010 | 10:15 am

I got to go to 10-man ICC last night. Yes, even with my green trinket and blue boots. lol. I went with my normal run’s alts. We wiped on rotface a lot, but we got festergut down! And I got the Gutbuster! No more untz untzin with my axes. :\ Also! I was pleasantly surprised that I was In the top three DPS slots on attempts. Sometimes #1, sometimes #3. And that’s against a mage and another rogue. :D Oh man, I cannot wait till I have more gear. I totally loved it. Not having to watch people’s hp. Just getting to wail on a boss. Well on Saurfang I had to help the lock down the…