The Care and Feeding of Warriors

The Care and Feeding of Warriors is about warriors, those lovable, squeezable, strokable bundles of pure joy who seethe with a burning inner fire, a rage that can only be quenched in blood. Matthew Rossi tries quenching it in delicious caffeinated beverages. You'd be surprised how often that works.

Amazingly, this week I'm not going to talk about Cataclysm. Back during the 101 guides, I promised to go over glyphs, gems and enchants for the various specs. While a lot is in flux, we're still playing Wrath of the Lich King and not Cataclysm right now, so it's fair that I should finally get off of my duff and talk about these things. This week, we'll loot at gemming, enchanting and glyphing for the protection warrior.

One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of these options come down to your own personal gear level and what you're actually doing in game. Tanking heroic Saurfang-25 takes entirely different skills, gear and glyphs than tanking Halls of Reflection, which takes a different setup than tanking Nexus as a fresh early 70s warrior. We'll cover a variety of glyphs of use to a warrior seeking max survivability, AoE threat, or even special case uses and discuss gems and enchants, as well.

Glyphs

Major glyphs that are most useful as part of a threat glyph set include the Glyph of Blocking, Glyph of Cleaving, Glyph of Devastate, Glyph of Sunder Armor and Glyph of Vigilance. Frankly, the Glyph of Blocking is really only good if your gear is fairly low on block value when using it as a threat glyph, since the changes to block value and Shield Slam. Blocking works as a decent threat glyph when your block value is 1,500 or lower, but above that I wouldn't use it for threat. (It's still useful for mitigation, but in the end, there are probably better choices for you there, too.) Cleaving and Sunder Armor are pure "multi-mob threat" glyphs, and both are fairly solid for that, especially if combined with the Glyph of Devastate so that not only will your Devastate stack two sunders on a target at once, it will also apply sunder to a second target. It does not appear to stack two sunders on two targets, however. As a result, you might prefer Cleaving/Devastate/Vigilance for your threat glyphs.

Glyphed Devastate is a really solid threat generator right now, with Devastate having had its damage output increased recently.

Now, if you end up low on rage for whatever reason while tanking, and only if this is the case, then the Glyph of Revenge and Glyph of Heroic Strike are useful. Frankly, I'm not tanking on a warrior in a situation where I feel like I need the rage, but when I first started tanking and my gear was a lot worse, then this combination of glyphs had absolutely beautiful synergy. Revenge will give you a free HS, and then HS can end up actually giving you rage instead of costing it. But once you're tanking any raid content, these two glyphs will be definitively outperformed by Vigilance/Devastate. Likewise, if your hit is very low (like mine was when TotC/GC was the highest level raid in the game), then the Glyph of Taunt is very useful for fights where taunt-switching is essential. As tanking gear escalates in hit rating (I actually have to work to be below 263 hit rating, for instance), this glyph goes from essential to completely worthless. At 263 hit rating or above, I'd never use it.

The Glyph of Shockwave is very useful if you know you'll be doing a great deal of AoE tanking, possibly alongside Resonating Power and the minor Glyph of Thunder Clap. I personally like either Shockwave/Cleaving/Sunder or Cleaving/Sunder/Devastate for my threat setup, but I don't end up tanking a lot of heroics (and even if I do, I'm not at the gear level those instances were designed for).

For tanking cooldowns (very useful for raid tanking), I find Last Stand and Shield Wall to be very hard to do without if I expect to be taking serious amounts of damage. Tanking heroic Saurfang, for instance, I was very very glad to have a cooldown available every minute. (This is possible since Last Stand glyphed is two minutes, and Shield Wall with Improved Disciplines glyphed is two minutes, so you can use LS and SW once a minute interchangably. Combined with trinkets, you can effectively have Super Last Stand and Super Shield Wall by timing a trinket to use at the same time.)

Minor glyphs that you want to consider as a prot warrior including Thunder Clap (mentioned above), Bloodrage, Charge and Command. I'm personally running Charge, Thunder Clap and Command right now. (Four-piece tier 10 bonus makes the Bloodrage glyph useless, since it not only duplicates the effect but also gives you another tanking cooldown. But if you don't have that yet, Bloodrage is a very useful glyph.) Frankly, with fury warriors in the raid, Battle and Command feel like a little of a waste -- but I'm not really using Mocking Blow enough to want that glyph, either. For someone primarily tanking fives (where you might well be the only warrior), either shout glyph could be a fine choice.

Gems

Gems are actually fairly simple. You gem stamina, with dodge, parry and defense gems used only if you need them to reach targets or to hit set bonuses if you particularly like the bonus on a piece. For instance, if you have a piece of armor with a red socket and a blue socket and a 9 stamina bonus for matching, you can pop in a dodge/stamina gem and only lose 6 stamina compared to using two +30 stamina Solid Majestic Zircons. If you are a JC, you will obviously have access to gems with higher stats, but non-JCs will be confined to the universal epic gems.

Likewise, hit and expertise gems will mostly be used only if you're very low on those stats. You want to at least be fairly sure a taunt will always land, and you want to at least push dodges off of the attack table. If you're at 263 hit rating and 26 expertise, you don't need to gem for either and should either gem for pure stamina or avoidance/mitigation stats if you very much want to hit a set bonus. Frankly, if there were an armor/stamina gem (and yes, technically agi/stam does that), I'd recommend gemming that. I personally prefer agi/stam over dodge or parry/stam, but that's very much a personal choice and at this point, I don't really even do that very often, as my set bonuses are usually not worth it.

So I'd recommend looking at your gear. What are you deficient in? Are you able to be critically hit in the heroics or raids you're running? Gem for defense. Are you woefully low on hit or expertise? Gem for those. Otherwise, stamina is probably your safest bet.

For a meta gem, I almost always use the Austere Earthsiege Diamond, as armor is just that attractive as a stat now. If you're hurting on defense, the Eternal Earthsiege Diamond is a possibility. (It's also useful in gimmick unhittable sets, but so far, thankfully, ICC hasn't really had a fight that relied on one of those.)

Enchants

Enchants aren't just enchants, technically speaking. Leatherworking makes leg armor kits that work as an enchant, and there are shoulder and head enchants sold by various factions. Inscriptionists have access to superior enchants, and if you are a scribe you should be looking at those for your tank. You can only use them on the character with the profession, but they're worth it if you have it. Otherwise, the Sons of Hodir sell the primary tanking shoulder enchant. However, if you feel like you'd rather have stamina over dodge and defense, this level 70 shoulder enchant is still quite good. The Greater Inscription of the Gladiator is a PvP enchant, but 30 stamina is basically a free epic stamina gem at level 80, so if you feel like you would rather have the health than the dodge and defense, it's one to keep in mind.

The standard head enchant, the Arcanum of the Stalwart Protector, actually adds more health than the various PvP enchants, so it's generally superior even without taking the defense on it into account. (Since defense reduces chance to be crit and hit and adds to all forms of avoidance/mitigation, it's almost universally considered superior to resilience for PvE tanking). The Frosthide Leg Armor adds pure stamina and agility (armor and dodge) for a tank's leg slot.

Since most prot warriors take Deep Wounds for threat, Blood Draining is actually a fairly attractive weapon enchant for a tanking warrior. Other options (if you happen to be specced so that your bleed damage is minimal) include Superior Potency and Accuracy. I generally find Blood Draining more useful overall, as it is basically a free smart health potion that can go off more than once during a fight. Even if you spec out of Deep Wounds, Blood Draining is still useful; while it can stack from bleeds, it also stacks from your melee attacks striking an enemy.

For a boot enchant, you can either go with the solid workhorse of pure stamina or get stamina and movement speed, which in today's Aaah ahhagh OMFG the floor is spewing forth death and there's a giant monster about to charge into me which will make him grow 100 times larger and instantly kill half the raid game is pretty attractive. The loss of 7 stamina in return for the ability to move faster when needed is a pretty solid trade for a tank. Meanwhile, for a glove enchant I recommend Armsman, because while attack power or expertise enchants provide static benefits, Armsman scales as your gear and threat improves. For a cape enchant, there's nothing tremendously compelling: you'll go with either 22 agility or Titanweave.

Hunter analysisby

After days of watching other classes cheer and complain over their Cataclysm class previews, we finally got a chance for a look into what Blizzard has planned for us with the hunter class previews. Like a good first date, it leaves us excited and intrigued with the possibilities, but mostly it leaves us wanting more!
Let's roll up our sleeves and both take a deeper look at what these changes mean for the best-looking class in WoW and just how much more we hope to see on our second date.
Before we get started though, we have to be sure to keep our reactions in context. Everything is getting rebalanced in Cataclysm, every number for every class and every stat. We cannot look at these changes through our Wrath experience. Since we do not yet know how the numbers will play out with every class and spec being rebalanced, we cannot say whether our damage will go up or down compared to other classes or specs. We just have no idea, so we can only look at these changes with the assumption that our DPS will be equivalent to any other class in most situations.
We'll also be using the Frostheim rating system to evaluate each of the changes, ranging from FAIL to Awesomesauce.
New Abilities: Meh
Our new abilities seem more targeted at filling the quality of life or "neat!" roles rather than filling in gaps in the class. Cobra Shot is certainly interesting for PvP, but in PvE where boss armor is normalized, hunters will just figure out which shot does more damage (Steady or Cobra) and only ever use that shot. As an aside, Cobra Shot shares a cooldown with Steady Shot ... which doesn't have a cooldown. We can be pretty sure that they aren't adding a cooldown to steady and this is just Blizzard mis-speaking.
The trap launcher, something we've heard about before, is a big hit in the "neat" category. Flinging any trap of our choosing, and off of the global cooldown, is sweet and has a lot of situational uses. However, it doesn't have much in the way regular uses in most of our boss fights. Question on this ability: the cooldown is one minute, longer than our trap cooldown -- that's fine and makes sense. But if I "launch" a trap and 50 seconds later I drop a trap normally ... in 10 seconds, my trap-launching cooldown is free, but my trap is on cooldown. Can I still launch? (I know, I know, probably not, but I can dream).
Camouflage is another ability that we've heard about in the distant past and is another neatish ability with a lot of PvP uses. In fact, with the new Careful Aim that BM is getting, you can almost see the old "Shadowmeld / 3 sec Aimed Shot opener" from vanilla strat coming back (except, you know, you won't be invisible or stealthed). I dig Camouflage and I can totally see lots of neat little uses for it -- just like I have lots of neat little uses for my Nitro Boosts -- but again, it's not really changing our PvE play significantly. After all, if anything is attacking us in PvE, we've done something horribly wrong.
So while I have no problems with our new abilities -- there's nothing bad about them, they're all good -- I just can't get really excited about it since their PvE impact is so minimal. I would be more interested if they found a way to make Cobra Shot something that we actually made decisions about in PvE, but I'm pretty convinced that we'll always use one or the other (and BM will always just use Cobra). On the other hand, if you PvP, Cobra Shot and Camouflage are going to be excellent new tools for the toolbox and give you more depth of strategy!
Focus: Too soon to tell
I appreciate that they gave us a bit more specifics on how focus will work; however, we really aren't going to be able to tell anything until we get in there and start pressing buttons to get a feel for it. On the surface it looks painful -- 12 focus/second while casting our filler, 45 focus for our cheapest DPS shot. It sounds like a minimum of four Steady Shots for every one any other shot -- at a minimum.
But that's just the surface.
We have to keep in mind there's a lot of other things adjusting our focus regen. MM will be able to reduce the focus cost of shots with efficiency (and hopefully they make that talent worthwhile), SV will have big focus regen with their crits, and BM ... well, so far, no evidence that they won't just prefer to spam Steady Shot (Cobra Strike now) most of the time still. Also keep in mind that all hunters will increase their rate of focus regeneration with the newly awesome haste stat.
I predict that once we have some decent gear, focus is going to be just fine for us. The big difference is our rotations will be more interwoven. Right now, we just unload everything up front and then sit around and Steady Shot until something is free. In Cataclysm, I suspect it will be only one or two big shots, followed by a couple of Steady Shots, etc. Hopefully we'll be using the same number of Steady Shots -- just they won't be all clumped together. I suspect this is the design goal, personally.
I do hope that they don't accidentally balance things so that the new Viper Sting ends up being a must-have for the bonus focus regen. I hope it's still a niche role sting, with Serpent Sting remaining our go-to sting. I'm picturing Viper Sting something that you use when Volleying trash, for example, to keep the focus you need for rolling Volleys. Of course there's also always the strategy of putting Viper Sting on the add while you're DPSing away on the boss. I wouldn't be surprised to see in PvP that you almost always want Viper Sting up for the constant stream of focus.
I do have to say that I'm incredibly disappointed to see that they put a 30 focus cost on Disengage. This is a completely reactionary ability that we use to get out of oh pants situations. And keep in mind, the majority of the time you need to disengage, you're in (or about to be in) melee, so you won't have Steady Shot to boost your focus regen. It's very easy to see situations like, "OMG the warrior/rogue/other godless melee class just closed one me and snared me ... I guess I'll hang around for five seconds until I can jump away. Oh, never mind. I'm dead." We also use Disengage a lot in PvE, and similarly unless we're leaving a 30-focus cushion at all times, we just usually won't have the focus when we need it. Unlike most shots, waiting a couple seconds for the focus we need is not an option when we need to press the Disengage button. When you need it, you need it this instant. I very much hope they remove the focus cost from this.
Ammo: FAIL
Don't get me wrong here: Just flat removing ammo is a quality of life improvement. We no longer have to suffer as the only class in the game that has to pay gold for every attack we make (in addition to our durability hit). But ... there were so many possibilities here. So many incredibly cool things that they could have done with ammo.
I do wish Blizz had taken the opportunity to make ammo a defining hunter slot rather than just, well, nothing at all. I know I'm not alone on this one.
Pets: Awesomesauce
Hunters will effectively get more pet stable slots, while getting fewer that they actually "carry around" with them. We don't know the exact number yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see our total number of pet storage slots going up to around 10. This is good news for hunters who like to collect pets, especially the rare spirit beasts, and falls into the quality of life category.
The real awesome change comes in their goal of making more pet abilities provide redundancy in various raid buffs and debuffs. This is a brilliant way of encouraging pet variety and something that we've talked about on the Hunting Party Podcast a couple of times before. The idea here is that pets will all have about the same DPS gain; however, if you're missing the bleed debuff, the minor armor debuff, or what have you, you can be the hero of the raid by filling in whatever is needed with your pet slot. And best of all, you (hopefully) won't be gimping your own personal DPS to do so. Though just to be clear here, even if it was a personal gimp, we'd be happy to do it anyway for the good of the raid.
Most awesome new pet that we won't be seeing in Cataclysm: "Mechanical Destroyer" providing the Heroism buff.
Stings affected by crit and haste: Awesomesauce
Really, what's not to love here? Other than perhaps wanting it now so I can retire my tier 9 set.
Hunter mastery bonuses: Too soon to tell
I have no complaints at all about our mastery bonuses, and I think some of them look pretty cool. However, we just don't have enough data to really be able to evaluate them. I will say that I think the mastery system in general is fantastic and I love the idea of taking a lot of the boring must-have passive boosts out of our talent trees.
BM gets haste and pet damage. The pet damage is exactly what everyone predicted, and the haste fits one of the themes of the tree, and will also increase their focus regen ... though they may be the tree that needs the focus regen the least.
MM gets armor pen and double shot. Keep in mind that while armor penetration is being removed as a stat in Cataclysm, the mechanic will still be in the game. Just like in vanilla, we didn't have an ArP stat, but warriors still had Sunder Armor to put on their target, so too in Cataclysm. This armor pen bonus is almost certainly going to make MM hunters prefer Steady Shot over Cobra Shot as their filler shot. Right now the information on double shot is really vague. It sounds pretty similar to the current MM talent, Wild Quiver.
SV gets ranged crit damage and elemental damage. The ranged crit damage just means that when you crit, your crits are bigger, and this fits in nicely with SV's current role as having the highest short-term burst DPS. The elemental damage is a little more vague and we can expect to see a clarification on this soon. Does that mean that those abilities will do damage of all schools? Will they do more damage than normal, or just be harder to resist? It's not very clear right now what this mastery bonus means.
The Cataclysm hunter: Awesomesauce
Hunters are a ranged physical DPS class with the largest variety and strongest pets in the game. We are also the greatest and best-looking class in the game. Neither of those will be changing in Cataclysm. Looking at the mastery bonuses and other changes, it's looking right now like the hunter trees might be defined something like this:
Beast Mastery Big on pet damage with the pet likely making up about 30% of combined DPS. BM will be the machine gun tree with the fastest rate of fire. It still looks like they'll be content to hang out and spam their Cobra Shot button most of the time. A lot of Cataclysm changes also push BM into a stronger and stronger PvP role, especially in arenas where the new tools in the hunter toolbox come in particularly handy. Marksman The physical damage tree, getting far more damage from physical damage than any other hunter spec. MM are likely to also be the focus-starved tree unless the Efficiency talent is really, really buffed up. MM has less to be excited about in the announced changes than any other tree, which is perhaps fitting since they're currently the unquestioned top DPS spec. Survival The magical damage tree, getting more damage than ever from magical attacks. Survival is more and more the hunter-mage and looks to also enjoy the most passive focus regen. Survival will likely continue to have the biggest short-term burst damage potential and will love critting more than ever. Since we are unlikely to ever have crit rates as high as we do in Wrath again, crit is going to be an increasingly attractive stat for SV.

Recap and personalized leveling advice

Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, and Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Thursday, 11 p.m. to midnight EDT Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter: Thursday, 8:30-10 p.m. EDT Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, will be making appearances as he can. After the break, our intrepid adventurers will relate their experiences from last week, and we'll get personalized leveling advice from our class experts.
Week 1 recapsElizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman
The first eight levels were easy enough, though that could have just been the fact that we ran around Mulgore and Eversong in a large group, laying complete waste to all before us. I think I'll have to try to stick to leveling with Robin, because having a pet mage certainly does seem to come in handy. But after eight levels I'm still no clearer on how to play a shaman -- but I'm sure it will come to me eventually. Lightning, Lightning, Shock, Lightning, Lightning, Shock. Repeat until dead, right? Right -- or at least it's worked so far. But it's my understanding that enhancement shamans don't actually play like that, so I may need to rethink my strategy. And grab a melee weapon. (Or at least I'm guessing that a staff won't quite cut it in the long term if I go the enhancement route.)
Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter
My first eight levels have not been difficult. Well, the leveling hasn't been difficult -- the long run across the Barrens was plenty difficult. I think I more or less spent the whole time as a ghost. I'm not quite sure why I didn't take the zeppelin. I think someone suggested running, and I did my very best lemming impression and did so. I think I'll claim I wanted the authentic Barrens ghost-run experience.
Once we hit Silvermoon, time flew and I'm now sitting at the awkward age of 8. In a few levels, I'll be off to pick up the first pet for Grayfields, so I'm excited to see what the readers have chosen.
Robin Torres (me!) as Robinemia, the undead mage
As we were asked to visit the blood elf lands for our earliest adventures, I first traveled to Sunstrider Isle. But no one would speak to me there. I think their isolationist policies are shortsighted and don't represent the outlook of the current administration. I won't get into politics here, though. So we decided to go with the second choice and traveled to Camp Narache. The taskgivers there, even though not exactly friendly to my kind, were happy to send us on errands and reward us for our troubles.
Not that we had many troubles. There were many of you there (40?) to help us as well as compete with us. It was likened to "launch day" by one of you. I very much enjoyed questing with Faience, particularly since I can be completely reckless with my health as long as she is nearby. After we helped the tauren get rid of those nasty boar people, we were of sufficient experience to go back to blood elf lands and run their errands. I wore my apprentice robes, as I had yet to acquire anything more fashionable.
The authorities at Falconwing Square, it seems, do not carry on the Sunstrider Isle isolationist policy. I think it is because they have such a problem with the addicts and wayward guardians that they are willing to accept help from almost anyone. We carried out their assassinations for a while, until we qualified for our level 8 training. They also gave me the pretty new dress I am currently wearing, though I really should be wearing my Red Linen Robe. Not only does the color of fresh blood suit me better, it makes me feel more intelligent. I may have to rethink my wardrobe choices. I'll get back to you on that next week.
Personalized leveling advice for Week 2We asked for a paragraph from our respective class experts to help us level.
Advice for Faience from Rich Maloy, Totem Talk
For the first 20 levels you are going to feel more like an elemental shaman than an enhancement shaman. Pull with Lightning Bolt, apply Flame Shock and start meleeing down your target, and hit Earth Shock when the shocks come off cooldown -- all shocks share a cooldown. If the mob tries to run and get his friend, use Frost Shock to slow him down. You could probably kill faster with more LBs than melee, but you are leveling enhancement, right? Melee away! For glyphs, reader Tom had the winning suggestion of using Glyph of Stoneclaw Totem to protect yourself and your totems. I would also suggest Glyph of Ghost Wolf for the minor glyph. 0/11/0 will be the spec of choice.
Advice for Robinemia from Christian Belt, Arcane Brilliance
Open with a Frostbolt. Then cast more Frostbolts. Close with a Frostbolt. The end.

Enhancement shaman

Enhancement shaman have been having a hard time keeping up with the top DPS classes in Icecrown Citadel, and Blizzard has apparently taken notice. Ghostcrawler popped over to the official forums today with a note on a new buff for the enhancement tree:
Ghostcrawler: Upcoming Enhancement buffWe agree with some of the recent discussion about Enhancement dps. We are going to hotfix a change to the Flurry talent to increase it from 25% to 30% attack speed with 5 ranks.
We also agree that Enhancement may have survivability problems and understand that players don't necessarily feel they can afford the bonus Stamina from the Toughness talent, at least in PvE. We don't have an immediate change to deploy here, but it's something we'd like to fix and a candidate for future patches.
Good news for enhancers everywhere. Hopefully the upcoming Cataclysm class changes preview will hold a lot more of it for you guys, and all types of shaman, for that matter.

Leveling in the pre-Cataclysm era

New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. See all our collected tips, tricks .
Make hay while the sun shines. In fact, if you're leveling a character pre-Cataclysm, you might want to consider making that hay on one of the farms in Westfall. Westfall is slated for a "moderate" overhaul in the upcoming expansion, so the Harvest Reapers you see today might be something entirely different come Cataclysm. Maybe the farms will be gone entirely. Who knows? Whatever ends up coming our way, it's time to stop and smell the flowers (or in this case, the sweet scent of hay). Whether or not you choose to purchase Cataclysm, zones like Westfall will be forever changed when the expansion hits.

My significant DPSer and I are currently leveling a set of Alliance characters (our original faction, but one we haven't played much in several years) specifically in order to revisit content that Cataclysm will sweep away. We're not the only ones with that idea. Still, it's not all nostalgia. The desire to soak up all that WoW has to offer rings just as true for new players who are leveling their first characters. We'll show you how to embrace it all while you still can.
Our suggestions for new players who'd like to experience as much of WoW's original content as possible before Cataclysm changes the face of Azeroth:
Quest in zones that Cataclysm will be changing.
Deploy some alts. If you're pushing forward toward Icecrown Citadel, we understand. It's pretty cool stuff. But if soaking up lore and exploring new territories is more your style, now's a good time to slow down and make enough alts (both factions!) to see all the sights before they're gone. Leveling goes so fast these days that you'll level past many zones and instances while you're busy in other areas. It might take several characters (or a willingness to work through grey quests) to see everything that will be changing.
Get a handle on the game's lore. The World of Warcraft is a living, breathing world. If you understand what's already gone on, you'll be in a much better position to keep up with the context of changes Cataclysm will bring.
Retro raiding (going back to see old level 60 and level 70 raiding content once you're level 80) and classic raiding (raiding the level 60 and 70 content when you're at the appropriate level) are both great ways to see what used to be considered endgame content. Looking for a group? Send The Classifieds your Armory link and a line or two about what you're looking for; We'll take retro raiding and classic raiding guild recruitment notices this week, as well.
The gang playing along with WoW.com's Choose My Adventure series is specifically targeting content that will be changing come Cataclysm. The project's moving along on US Zangarmarsh-H as part of.

Eyonix leaving Blizzard

It's sad news for the World of Warcraft community today as longtime Blizzard community manager Eyonix has announced that he's leaving the company. He announced his departure in a simple and direct post on the official forums:
"For nearly six years, we've shared our thoughts with one and other, we've laughed, we've argued, and we've cried -- the crying part was just me wasn't it? Those times, I'm afraid must come to an end as I've made the decision to explore opportunities outside of Blizzard.
It has very honestly been a huge pleasure, and I thank you all for allowing 'Eyonix' to always remain a very fond memory as I move on."My perspective might be a little different than some readers' due to my employment history, but I've always felt for the plight of the community manager, especially at Blizzard. Become emotionally detached, they say you're not passionate. Become emotionally invested, they say you take it too personally. Eyonix has generally managed to strike that particular balance -- no mean feat for a community manager, especially one for a community so inherently unmanageable. He was one of the good guys.
We'll likely never know what caused his departure, especially given that there was definitely no horrible public meltdown accompanying this particular exit, but I hope that the move is a positive and fortuitous one for him. Even when I might've disagreed with the Community team at large, I always supported Eyonix.
Godspeed, little whelp.

The WoW Launcher

A post in the official forums today, later confirmed by a blue, points to hackers attempting to take advantage of a new avenue to attack the user -- the World of Warcraft Launcher.
As you can see from the screenshot above (large version here) the real launcher apparently is replaced with a fake launcherthat sends the user to a web site that pretends to be official, asking for subscription information (including answers to secret questions and the original CD-Key) in what is meant to appear as the means to restore a supposedly suspended account. One of the telltale signs that this isn't legit, besides the very invasive information requested, is the version number in the upper left corner of the screen. We're way past patch 3.1.1 -- however not everyone might know this.
Ancilorn posts confirming that this is not genuine (reiterating that they will never ask for your password in such a manner, and also requesting that such things be sent directly to Blizzard if they happen to you). Goes to show that as security is increased, those looking to breach it become more desperate.

Dyskograf, Mutilate rogue

Welcome to Pimp My Profile, the column in which the WoW.com staff turns zeroes into heroes. Don't think you're performing where you should be? Not sure how your class/spec is supposed to be gearing up? E-mail us with your Armory link, and you might be next to receive our help!I am using the only viable (at the moment) Mutilate-Envenom spamming build. I throw HfB every time it goes off, pooling my energy a little, just to make sure I'll get two Mutilates in one Envenom buff. And yes, SnD is there all fight long. The problem is, the highest one i've ever got from it was 4k DPS only. As I find these numbers very poor - I make a place for your tweakin advices!- DyskografDyskograf, it's your lucky day, because WoW.com is going to Pimp Your Profile! While I won't be able to put a mount on your mount so you can ride while you ride, I will be able to give you some character planning tips that will have you moving towards the top of the DPS charts in no time flat!

Raiders rejoice

Raiders rejoice (or despair depending on how you feel about it)! The Icecrown raid wide buff has been increased by an additional 5% to 10%. Anyway, if your raid has been on the brink of taking down some bosses but could not muster enough firepower, then the improved Strength of Wrynn or Hellscream's Warsong could be that extra push you need!

For more information and resources, check out WoW.com's Icecrown Citadel raid strategy and information page!

Easy WoW Gold Tips

There are many different ways that you can easily make the gold you need to survive day to day in WoW, and these ways can also help to make your toon quite rich. So, here are several ways that you can easily make the gold you need.

Farming

Farming is not for everyone and it can vary with different classes. Successful farmers make between 80-200g during a farming session. But, there are a few things that you should remember when you are farming that can help you be successful at it.


Make sure you know what to farm. This means that you should know what you have the ability to farm and what sells well on your server.

Where to farm for specific items that are worth a lot of gold each. If you aren't sure about something, Thottbot it.

Make sure that you are prepared to stay a while in one area and that you have enough food and water to keep up. Keeping focused while you are farming for a particular item will ensure that you get it when it drops. If you can stay focused, you will make more money.

“Playing” the AH

The idea behind playing the AH is to buy low and sell high. Instead of spending an hour or more on dailies or farming, you can spend an hour or so combing through the AH for things that are on there way cheap that you can buy and then sell higher. But, you need to have a good, updated addon and a feel for what sells and what doesn't on your server. You will also need to look through the AH every day to know what things are going for. Here are some universal tips that every player should go by:

Don't waste your time with buying something that will only sell for a gold more than it's listed. This will cut your profit way back and waste your time.

Always check the prices on primals, shards, void crystals, gems, and so on to make sure that you are familiar with the prices. These always sell well when you can buy them cheap enough.

Keep an eye on prices on blues and epics, Darkmoon Faire cards, and other special items. You can usually make a good profit on these things when someone really underprices them.

You always want to undercut people when you list stuff. But, be smart about this.

Professions

There are some professions that are much better than others when it comes to gold making. Jewelcrafting is one of them. But, every server is different, so look through the AH to see what is selling and what is not. Then you want to be able to level your profession until you can get a specialization and that is where the real gold comes in. For example, jewelers should get a couple of good cuts for certain gems, like noble topaz or living ruby. Make sure that you have all the patterns, recipes, or plans that you possibly can that will allow you to make specialty items that will sell well on the AH.

Other Easy Gold Makers

Of course, there are other ways of making gold in WoW than the AH, professions, and farming. Normally, these are with dailies. These are great if you want a steady income of gold without much effort. They are really boring so be prepared for that. Most of the rewards from dailies will yeild 100-1000g per item, depending on the daily that you are doing.

Of course, you can always loot everything to sell it. Make sure that you never vendor any type of cloth, light feathers, or Marks of Sar'geras. You will make a ton of gold just putting them on the AH.

Be sure to bookmark this page and check out the other guides to make HUGE amounts of gold in this game.

Glyph Guide for Paladins

Since the launch of the glyph system, we've had a whole host of new glyphs to evaluate. Combine the volume of glyphs available with the changes to our lovable Paladins means that glyphs have been a moving target. Now we have a glyph by glyph evaluation as well as a spec-specific list to help you make educated choices for your glyphing. Major glyphs can truly help you increase your character's abilites:

Major glyphs actually have a purpose and some are quite powerful. Most of them are specific to a certain ability or spell which means the glyphs only provide a benefit if you use those abilities (or learn to!). Many of the descriptions will include the term “If you use this spell, then get this glyph.” Whether or not you find the glyphs a good reason to change your current rotations will be up to you. You have to remember that your glyph selection is only as good as your guild’s Inscription skills, and the auction house. If glyphs are scarce or too expensive, look through the list for alternatives.

Dual spec for the Hunter

With the release of patch 3.1 Blizzard presented the Dual Spec feature which had most players of hybrid classes in an frenzy of excitement. Being able to swap from spec to spec depending on the needs of the raid at any given time was something most hybrid classes have dreamed of since time unknown.

Although strapped with a hefty price tag of 1000 gold, this feature is well worth the price for any class with the need to switch between healing and tanking, tanking and DPS or healing and DPS. But what about Hunters, or any other pure DPS class for that matter? Can you get any use out of it besides a lame achievement that costs you 1000G?

There are no real easy answers to these questions. While Dual Spec for the Hunter is not worthless, neither is it so useful you should rush out and drop 1000 gold without significant thought into the matter. As there are no black and white answers to Dual Specing your hunter you must consider long and hard what type of player you are and if having the option of two specs will be worth the cost.

The most obvious use of Dual Spec would be your choice of a PvE Raiding Spec coupled with a PvP spec. Since most PvE raiding hunters are currently some form of Survival (usually 0/15/56 or some small variation of this), this means if you prefer to PvP with any other spec whether it be Beastmaster or Marksman you will be dropping a significant amount of gold each time you want to PvP or be forced to PvP in a spec that you are not fully comfortable with. If you PvP daily, or even just on the weekends, Dual Spec should be something you seriously consider purchasing. You will find that in the end it will pay for itself and save you a fair amount of time that would otherwise be wasted flying to a trainer then choosing your talent points over and over again.

More than a few Hunters (including myself) use our toons to farm the gold and resources needed to fund our raiding addiction. Besides, who doesn’t want to head into Onyxia’s Lair with a healer friend and dish out some sweet vengeance for all those times she deep breathed, wiped the raid, and you and your entire raid spent the next 5 minutes walking halfway across the zone to get your bodies back? Yeah, I know you know what I’m talking about. Farming herbs, ore, leather, cloth, or hulking irritated dragons you may find that aside from your normal raiding or PvP spec you will be in need of a more soloing friendly spec. Beastmastery as a whole tends to be the best soloing spec as it gives your pet more stamina and allows for it to be able to hold mobs off you more efficiently while you pew pew them mercilessly. It also allows you the option to have exotic pets which are just…cool. So, if you have no other toons to do the farming for you, enjoying hearing your Devilsaur stomp around, or if your hunter is just your farming toon of choice, having a Beastmastery spec and a PvE (or PvP) spec in backup as your Dual spec would be a very wise idea indeed.

If you like to constantly try out the newest specs, or if the lure of coming up with some wild ones of your own calls to you, the final Dual Spec option I will touch on in this article will be ideal for you. A combination of a PvE Raiding Spec (or PvP depending on your preference) with any spec you would like to try out will allow you the flexibility to try out any new specs you can possibly find, or come up with on your own. Since respecing only clears the spec you are currently on, you can respec from your current trail spec, to that spec that Rexxar demanded you try out in the dream you had last night, while still holding onto your tried and true spec as back up. Just in case your trail spec happens to turn out to be a failure of epic proportions.

I won’t pretend that I have touched upon all the possible combinations for Hunter Dual Specs in this article as I’m sure the possibilities are close to endless. However, this should be a solid starting point for any Hunter curious if the 1000 gold for Dual Spec will be worthwhile for them. Dual Specing for Hunters is a choice we all must each make as individual players with varying play styles. Sit back, and ask yourself if a second spec is something you would use, and enjoy. If the answer is no, the 1000 gold is certainly not worth the price of just an achievement unless you are rolling in gold. However if the answer is yes, collect your gold and make the plunge. You won’t regret it.

Mage FAQ

Need to know the basics or figure out some tough questions for the Mage class in World of Warcraft? Well now you can with our new Mage FAQ. We've got many of the common (and some uncommon) questions new and seasoned Mages ask all the time. Abbrevations? PoM? TTW? FFB? All these things confuse you? Well no more! Come on down and check out our new Mage FAQ to brush up on some arcane knowledge about the Mage.

You should choose a Mage because you want to focus on ranged magical DPS and nothing else. Mages only have one pet which is a temporary one. They don’t have any complicated spells, any diseases, nor do they have the ability to heal and do damage. They focus on one thing - pure damage. If you want to rise to the top of the DPS meters with just that singular focus then the Mage is for you.

Professions for the Hunter

A booming voice resonates in your ears, and a dazzling landscape appears before your eyes. As you zoom across the world, the voice tells you of your race’s noble history, and you vaguely wonder where it could be coming from, but the thought only lasts an instant as the images, and the voice fade. Standing and peering around yourself you see others milling about, and you realize that it is time to start your adventure.

You may be wondering at this point if you are in some fantastic dream, if you had just a little bit too much fun last night, or if someone slipped something into your food at lunch today. Don’t panic, you are perfectly sane, you are just paying witness to the opening scenes that every player experiences after creating a new character in World of Warcraft.

After braving the first few challenges sent your way, by rather lazy NPCs, if I may say so, you are ordered to visit a major city, the first one your toon has ever seen. Whether it be Darnassas, Ironforge, Thunder Bluff, or Silvermoon; each city is unique and impressive in it’s own way. When the initial awe wears off, you make your way across the city to where the profession trainers reside and you realize you are about to make the first big choice in your WoW career, picking your two primary professions.

While you can change your professions later on down the line with a little hard work, getting it right the first time will save you a lot of money and headaches. This guide hopes to help you with that by offering a quick reference to what the bonuses of each primary profession are and to allow you to easily choose the professions that bests suits your hunter needs.

Druid Theorycrafting Compendium

The World of Warcraft has ushered in a ton of new players to the MMO world and many of them it seems have way too much time on their hands. The introduction of wide scale "Theorycrafting" or in laymans terms "The neverending slicing of the gnats ass into the thinnest layer possible" has shed new light on gameplay mechanics and the numbers behind the pretty spell graphics. Does this level of obsessive disection of the game leave you scratching your head? Join Medawky this week as he lays out a plan to make sense of all the making sense. This is the first of a multi-part series that will distill the essense of the debates, theories and number crunching once and for all (or at least until the next patch).

At their base element all video games are purely numbers, and nowhere is it more evident than in MMO games. World of Warcraft by nature of its broad appeal coupled with its fast paced combat system has spawned a whole subset of gamers, the theorycrafters.

Surviving Blizzcon

Are you heading out to Blizzard's Blizzcon convention this year that celebrates everything Blizzard, including World of Warcraft? Stuck without a ticket and wondering how to get the pet in a legal way? Well, David "Xerin" Piner comes in with tips on surviving the convention if you're one of the thousands who were able to catch tickets to this must attend event. If you're not then never fear. There are some tips on the right direction to catching the event's fun without leaving your couch and get the cool new exclusive con pet at the same time.

The nearest airport is John Wayne International, a little known major airport in California that serves Orange County. It’s very close to Anaheim and is small enough that getting in and out isn’t a big problem. If you haven’t gotten a ticket yet then explore using John Wayne over LAX. There is also LGB (Long Beach) which is another airport nearby, but it’s very small.

Surviving Blizzcon

Are you heading out to Blizzard's Blizzcon convention this year that celebrates everything Blizzard, including World of Warcraft? Stuck without a ticket and wondering how to get the pet in a legal way? Well, David "Xerin" Piner comes in with tips on surviving the convention if you're one of the thousands who were able to catch tickets to this must attend event. If you're not then never fear. There are some tips on the right direction to catching the event's fun without leaving your couch and get the cool new exclusive con pet at the same time.

The nearest airport is John Wayne International, a little known major airport in California that serves Orange County. It’s very close to Anaheim and is small enough that getting in and out isn’t a big problem. If you haven’t gotten a ticket yet then explore using John Wayne over LAX. There is also LGB (Long Beach) which is another airport nearby, but it’s very small.

The Evolution of Raiding 4

I can personally attest to being in both camps during my WoW career. For most of The Burning Crusade and the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King, I was in a middle of the road guild that cleared most of the encounters in the game at an average or below average pace. I had no complaints in TBC, but when WoTLK came out and we started raiding, we had lost a few key members, and our 25 man raiding team proved to be subpar. I am personally glad for the 10 man 25 man model that Blizzard employs now, because while our 10 man group, which was made up of some of the better players in the guild, blew through content, our 25 man group was sorely lacking. Sadly, even with the super easy raids, our 25 man group never even managed to kill Kel'Thuzad before our main tank/raid leader quit either out of frustration or burnout. After a while, I jumped the sinking ship that was my guild to one of the best guilds on the server. The difference was like night and day. We blew through Naxxramas without trouble, Malygos was only a slight bother, and the only true challenge came in the form of Sartharion with the 3 drakes in tow. But he too, eventually fell to our blades and spells, and we also got server fifth for the Twilight Zone achievement.
After experiencing what it was like to raid in a guild that was more than decent, I could definitely sympathize with the more hardcore guilds. However, I also can't forget the guild that I was with for a large part of my raiding career. As hard of a time as we had Naxxramas, I doubt that we were the only guild in the world who found it to be a bit of a challenge. It is was a wise move on Blizzard's part to account for those who find their raiding content more than a bit challenging, while keeping the option for a bit more challenging experience available for those who want it. In the ever changing landscape that is World of Warcraft raiding, our next foe will be the Lich King himself, the most recognizable figure in the Warcraft franchise. With such a prominent figure being the next one to go down, Blizzard has to promise both an epic and accessible experience. Perhaps they will finally find a raiding format in patch 3.3 that will make everyone happy and that they can stick with for the rest of the game's life. Only time, or maybe the Public Test Realm, will tell.

The Evolution of Raiding 3

What was Blizzard to do? Well, the answer to their dilemma came in the form of hard modes. Other games have them right? You see it in your shooters, platformers, and many other genres, so why not MMORPGs? Blizzard's first foray into the world of MMO hard modes was Sartharion. He has four levels of difficulty. Besides him, there are three mini-bosses in his volcanic domain: Vesperon, Shadron, and Tenebron. You can choose to kill one, two or all three of the mini-bosses before attacking the big dragon himself, or you can clear the trash mobs and attack him with the full force of the three other dragons to contend with. It seemed that Blizzard had found the perfect compromise.
However, with a player base as large as World of Warcraft's, Blizzard can never seem to please everybody. With the next content patch of the expansion came Ulduar, and Blizzard threw in enough hard modes to make any hardcore raider jump for joy. However, people complained about how they were implemented. Some said that Blizzard should have released easy modes first, and then enabled hard modes once the easy modes were cleared for progression purposes. Some said it should have been the other way around. Then with Trial of the Champions, Blizzard used a staggered release system for the five bosses in the instance, and then they enabled hard modes for all bosses with a 50 attempt limit per week. The fewer attempts a guild uses to clear the bosses, the better the loot. However, people still weren't happy with the attempt limit, and criticism abounded once again.

The Evolution of Raiding 2

So at first, after the most hardcore of the hardcore had downed bosses or after a boss proved nearly invincible, Blizzard would respond with nerfs that lowered the skill level needed to down bosses; however, they remained a formidable challenge for most, and the attunements were still there, as daunting as ever before, to the general gaming populace. Then, shortly after the release of the BlackTemple content patch, Blizzard removed the need for attunements altogether. With the advent of the Sunwell Plateau, Blizzard utilized daily quests to open the gate of the instance. The more people on your server that did the daily quests that were made available on the Isle of Quel'Danas, the quicker the gates were opened, which was a great compromise. However, what awaited you on the other side of that instance portal was perhaps the most diabolically difficult raid that Blizzard has created to date, garnering praise from those who could overcome its challenges and scorn from those who could not get past the first pack of trash mobs, who seemed to be as difficult to overcome as Kael'Thas and his lackeys at the end of Tempest Keep - which we all know was merely a setback for the great leader of the Blood Elves.
Then there was the patch, Echoes of Doom and the 20% health and damage nerf to all Burning Crusade raid bosses in addition the massive buffs to player damage and healing in the pre-expansion patch that, in hindsight, almost seemed to presage the easy mode raid dungeons that the expansion pack would bring upon release. Players jumped at the opportunity to faceroll through every instance in the Burning Crusade, and, when Wrath of the Lich King was launched, all the raid bosses then available in the expansion pack were cleared within three days of release. So previous raids were too hard, and the new raids were too easy.

The Evolution of Raiding 1

No matter what you think about World of Warcraft, few can deny that it is an immersive MMO experience that manages to cover the many aspects of the genre with a level of polish that one would be hard pressed to find elsewhere in one package. Whether you are into PVE, PVP, or RP, you can find it all in WoW at a level that few games are capable of reaching (although, some RPers would adamantly argue that the lack of a housing system is one of the great pitfalls of the game that is yet to be rectified). However, my favorite aspect of the game is PVE; and, further still, raiding. There is nothing like getting together with 9 or 24 guildies - or maybe even a PUG if you are desperate or not willing to be tied down - and downing the great, big baddies that the game has to offer.
As someone who started playing the game during the second expansion, The Burning Crusade, I have only seen some of the evolutionary process that WoW has gone through over the years. However, the one thing that has remained a constant in all my time with the game is the hardcore versus casual raiding debate. This topic has sparked many a flame war in the WoW forums. Casuals believe that they should be able to experience the content that the more hardcore players do because it is part of the game that they are paying for - even if they lack the skill and/or time to commit that the more hardcore players do - and understandably so. During the Burning Crusade, there were long atunement quest chains, nigh insurmountable gear checks, and *gasp* skill - yes, skill - barriers that prevented them from doing so.

Updated PVP Tactics for the Paladin

There are many guides helping to understand the benefits of being a Paladin, but today's PvP guide is designed to walk those new to PvP as a Paladin from the safety of the shallow end (Arenas) to the true deep end of PvP (mono y mono). The time has come to take on other classes in a head to head competition. Maybe you want to prepare for the next Arena season, maybe you've leveled a Paladin Alt and need some insight, well this guide is for you:

One on one PvP is decided almost always by the player who gets the drop on the other player. Not necessarily the first hit, but the character that is able to set up first and prime a few moves will typically win the day. What this means is that you must always keep your “Head on a swivel” as my football coach used to say. Do not get caught with blinders on, someone invariably has you in their sights and you’ll be in spirit form faster than you can say “I hate rogues.”

Freya Strategy

In the World of Warcraft, Ulduar is the current end game raiding instance, and one of the bosses that must be defeated to progress is Freya, a giant female titan found in the Conservatory of Life. She is surrounded by nature based adds that need to be defeated before you can fight her. She is also surrounded by three mini-bosses in the form of Ancients. These can be cleared before engaging Freya (easy mode) or left alive and dealt with at the same time as she is, which engages hard mode. This guide provides all the basic strategies you need to be aware of to defeat this boss in Ulduar.

Wave Type 1 – Detonating Lashers – The first type of additional creatures you can get are Detonating Lashers which spawn in packs of 10. These small plant type creatures have no threat table and run randomly from player to player. Anytime one dies, they explode causing roughly 8,000 damage to everyone within 10 yards around them. 2 stacks of Freya’s Attuned to Nature buff are removed for each lasher that dies.

Updated Selecting Talents for the Priest

As you level a character through World of Warcraft you must distribute points that you earn every level. Where you put your points as a Priest can be very important to get the most out of your spec whether you are choosing to be a Shadow, Holy or Discipline Priest. Yadiera has updated Mattlow's guide to Selecting Talents for the Priest giving it a different look and current information on important talents that are gained from each of the different Priest Specs.

As you put points in any school, it can greatly change your characters potential and play style. So let’s take a closer look at each school and spec, and a few of the Talents that make the build stand out, and you will see how the Priest can truly be played 3 very different and distinct ways.

Hodir Strategy Guide

Ulduar is the current end game raid instance in the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. As players work their way through the raid they come to the Halls of Winter and find Hodir. Hodir is a giant Titan that once resided in the Temple of Winter. Players may be familiar with him already from the various references to him in the game, specifically in the long quest chain for the Sons of Hodir in the Storm Peaks. In Ulduar players are able to engage and fight Hodir, but the encounter ends just before he dies.

Frozen Blows – This is a buff that Thorim casts on himself that lasts 20 seconds. While buffed he does AoE damage to everyone in the room at the raid of about 4,000 damage (3,000 in 10 player raids) every 2 seconds. Also, while buffed his melee damage drops by roughly 75% but he gains about 35,000 frost damage to all his physical attacks.

Arena Guide for the Priest

In Player vs. Player combat you have several different ways to play against other players in World of Warcraft. You can duel another player, you can go to the battlegrounds or you can join an Arena team. All these are completely different from each other and Yadiera talks about how a Healing Priest can play their role in an Arena and tips to surviving.

Playing a Priest in any Player vs Player environment is extremely challenging, especially for the healing specs of the Priest (Discipline and Holy). You are far more vulnerable than a Druid, Paladin or Shaman as a cloth wearer. Unlike the battlegrounds, you wouldn’t want to step into the Arena for the first time without any PvP gear at all.

Northrend Beasts Strategy

With the 3.2 patch to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard has opened up yet another raid instance for players. The first encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid is a three phase event where players need to defeat four different beasts of Northrend. The beasts come out as three separate waves; the first is the magnataur Gormok the Impaler, then the pair of Jormungars Acidmaw and Dreadscale, and finally the Yeti Icehowl. Our very own Byron "Messiah" Mudry brings you a guide that covers all you need to know to defeat the Beasts.
When Gormak enters the room, two tanks need to grab his attention and hold him by the door into the coliseum. All ranged DPS and healers need to stand in the center of the coliseum so that they are out of range of the stomp effect.
The first important thing that needs to happen in this part of the beast encounter is that tanks need to trade threat by taunting off of each other every 25 seconds. Once the current tank has 2 stacks of the bleed debuff they need to call out for the next tank to taunt. Done properly the tanks can trade back and forth and only ever have two bleed debuffs.

Northrend Beasts Strategy

With the 3.2 patch to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Blizzard has opened up yet another raid instance for players. The first encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid is a three phase event where players need to defeat four different beasts of Northrend. The beasts come out as three separate waves; the first is the magnataur Gormok the Impaler, then the pair of Jormungars Acidmaw and Dreadscale, and finally the Yeti Icehowl. Our very own Byron "Messiah" Mudry brings you a guide that covers all you need to know to defeat the Beasts.
When Gormak enters the room, two tanks need to grab his attention and hold him by the door into the coliseum. All ranged DPS and healers need to stand in the center of the coliseum so that they are out of range of the stomp effect.
The first important thing that needs to happen in this part of the beast encounter is that tanks need to trade threat by taunting off of each other every 25 seconds. Once the current tank has 2 stacks of the bleed debuff they need to call out for the next tank to taunt. Done properly the tanks can trade back and forth and only ever have two bleed debuffs.

New Loot and Emblems Demystified

The Call of the Crusade has upped the bar yet again on the loot players can garner in the latest update to World of Warcraft. There are now more ways to get the better loot through the gathering of emblems or running the new instances. The question really becomes, which loot is better? In our never ending quest for the quickest path to the best loot, today we provide a guide to better see the loot progression from heroic instances to emblems and the current end-game.

In an attempt to simplify our lives, Blizzard has created even more confusion than solved with the new currencies; Emblems of Conquest and Emblems of Triumph. Grasping this new Emblem system isn’t so confusing, but when they are launched in conjunction with new dungeons with varying degrees of loot rewards, the whole thing is a mess. To help simplify the process, we’ve created a handy guide to allow players a cheat sheet to understanding the loot levels and rewards. This is handy when trying to determine if a 5-Man Trial of the Crusader run will net you any upgrades.

Vanity Pet Collecting

They're those cute and adorable creatures that follow your World of Warcraft character wherever they go. There are achievements that require you to collect a lot of these little guys, 50 and 75 of them. Not to mention more new pets that came with the 3.2 patch. Raptor Hatchlings!
Here Yadiera has gathered an almost complete list of all the World of Warcraft pets that are available in game for Alliance or Horde. Pets obtained through a Quest or with high Reputation. Even all the pets dropped by specific mobs or bosses and seasonal pets. Listing costs, drop rate, who to get it from and how you get it.

There are over 100 vanity pets available in World of Warcraft, without the special promotional pets, or trading card pets. Collecting 50 - 75 of these pets can be a challenge as most of these pets are rare drops from specific mobs throughout Azeroth, only available to get during one of the WoW Seasons, or requires high reputation with a specific faction.

Druid Theorycrafting Series

To begin our in depth look at Druid theorycraft, we will start with the spec that is both nearest and dearest to my heart, and also the least “complex” of the three - restoration. Join us as we take the mystery out of the complex theorems and formulas to get to the root numbers that matter to the everyday player the most.

Theorycrafting actually began with StarCraft and was transitioned to WoW with the advent of the game. WoW theorycrafting gained its popularity and notoriety around the time The Burning Crusade expansion launched. The main focus of Theorycrafting was initially maximizing DPS and minimizing downtime, also known as Min/Maxing. It has spread to all aspects of WoW and created many heated debates between crafters and players alike. Too many times theorycraft becomes a mish mash of information overload and conflicting ideas.

New Paladin Gear in Call of the Crusade

The latest content patch for World of Warcraft, the Call of the Crusade, has brought more than 200 choices in gear for Paladins, and that is just the Plate armor! With so many options, where can you turn? Look no further friends. Today you are in luck as Medeor breaks down the best gear available for both fresh level 80s to those wanting to be "raid-ready."

Patch 3.2 has come and gone (heck, some people are already testing patch 3.2.2!), but we’re just now getting through all of the new loot available. Just to put it into perspective, there are 41 new Plate chest pieces. That is a whopping big number. Of course the gear includes new Heirlooms, crafted (blacksmithing gear got a big upgrade), PvP rewards, dungeon loot and emblem rewards. In reality though, the PvP rewards are available to a very select set of arena runners, so we’re going to focus on the gear that takes us to the next step.

New Paladin Gear in Call of the Crusade

The latest content patch for World of Warcraft, the Call of the Crusade, has brought more than 200 choices in gear for Paladins, and that is just the Plate armor! With so many options, where can you turn? Look no further friends. Today you are in luck as Medeor breaks down the best gear available for both fresh level 80s to those wanting to be "raid-ready."

Patch 3.2 has come and gone (heck, some people are already testing patch 3.2.2!), but we’re just now getting through all of the new loot available. Just to put it into perspective, there are 41 new Plate chest pieces. That is a whopping big number. Of course the gear includes new Heirlooms, crafted (blacksmithing gear got a big upgrade), PvP rewards, dungeon loot and emblem rewards. In reality though, the PvP rewards are available to a very select set of arena runners, so we’re going to focus on the gear that takes us to the next step.

Lord Jaraxxus Strategy

With the 3.2 patch to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard opened up another raid instance for players. The second encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid starts off when a lowly Gnome Warlock comes out to summon a felguard for your group to fight. Something, however, goes horribly wrong, as it usually does when a Gnome is involved, and mayhem ensues. Instead of a felguard, a demon lord is summoned. Your raid must therefore defeat the fearsome Lord Jaraxxus to move on in the Coliseum. Byron "Messiah" Mudry walks you through the basics of the fight in this strategy guide.

Incinerate Flesh – Jaraxxus targets a random player for this spell. It absorbs the next 60,000 healing (30,000 in 10 player raids) done to the player and lowers the damage they cause by 50% for the next 12 seconds. If it is not removed in that time by over healing the absorbed amount then the player will suffer the Burning Inferno effect.

Glory of the Hero Achievement Guide

Achievements are a fun and interesting addition to World of Warcraft. There are a variety of achievements that players can aim to achieve, Glory of Hero is one of these. With 2 patches and gear upgrades, getting these achievements have gotten easier. Most of these can still be difficult if you do not know how to do them. Yadiera is working towards writing a complete guide of all the different instances and achievements and what you must to in order to gain the achievement.

Glory of the Hero consists of 39 achievements in 12 different Heroic Instances. What is the reward for completing all of these achievements? A Red-Proto Drake. Aside from achievements gained during raids, Glory of the Hero is a difficult achievement to accomplish, because there are so many achievements you must earn and in more than a handful of instances.

Blacksmithing Guide Updated

David "Xerin" Piner has given our blacksmithing guide for World of Warcraft a fresh coat of polish. Our blacksmithing guide has been reworked from the ground up to provide you with all of the information you desire in an easy to read format. Do you seek to wield a hammer against the mighty anvil and create weapons and armor and bust sockets into gear? Already do? Well come to our blacksmithing guide that's got a little bit or a lot of something for everyone!

The items that sell best right now are the Titansteel tanking set (needed by new tanks to get defense capped), Eternal Belt Buckles, and the BoE gear created by the Ulduar recipes. Titanium Plating can also sell fairly well.

Gold Farming in Wrath of the Lich King

Everyone needs or wants gold in World of Warcraft. It's only natural to want to be wealthy and be able to afford all of the cool mounts and shiny 8,500 gold rings. Getting the gold is the hard part, but with David "Xerin" Piner's latest gold farming guide you can't say that any more. Xerin gives a realistic approach to farming gold and some neat tricks to make it easier. You don't even need to pay a single dime for this cool information. So come over and find out how to fill your pockets full of gold to get all of the cool items and gear you want.

Gold itself comes from non-playable characters. Every PC in WoW is a sort of for-hire hero vigilante with a fistful of letters of marque that allow them to slay every evil-doer out there. These NPCs contain copper, silver, gold, and/or items that can traded to vendors which stack up gold. Quests (repeatable or not) also offer a secondary method for gold to enter the system. This gold is then moved either back into the game into meatsinks (such as mounts, reagents, vanity items, repairs, etc.) or moved through the auction house in exchange for goods.

Trial of the Crusader - Twin Valkyr Strategy

Patch 3.2 patch to the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, brought us the raid instance located in the Argent Crusades Coliseum. The fourth encounter in the Trial of the Crusader raid is a fun and challenging one against the Twin Valkyr Fjola Lightbase and Edyis Darkbane. The two appear in opposite white and black angelic forms. While they are two separate entities they share a single health pool and when you defeat one the other goes down as well.
The fight against the Twin Valkyrs is a very fun, strategy filled fight, especially after the chaotic hell that is the Faction Champions fight. The fight is almost entirely about strategy, raid placement, and maneuvering, and once a raid figures it out is fairly simple.
Before starting the fight, the raid needs to be split into two groups, each of roughly even strength with a tank, healers and DPS. They then need to form up on each side of the room, left or right.

Blacksmithing and Enchanting Gold-Making Tip

If you are stuck with Blacksmithing and Enchanting, you probably don’t have much luck making gold, and you should go level two gathering professions.
That being said, I know of one guy who makes a little with the following strategy.
Buy:
1x [Eternal Earth] 5-8g
1x [Eternal Water] 4-6g
1x [Eternal Shadow] 4-6g
4x [Saronite Bar] 1.5-2g (total 6-8g)
= [Eternal Belt Buckle]
you buy mats for 19-28g and the buckle sells for a minimum of 50g going up to 100g on weekends.
Thats up to 81g (-auction fee) profit per buckle.
Here′s another one, buy:
7x [Saronite Bar] 1.5-2g (total 10.5-14g)
2x [Crystallized Air] 0.5g (total 1g)
= [Deadly Saronite Dirk]
disenchanting this gets you 1x [Dream Shard]
you invest like 11.5-15g and the [Dream Shard] goes for like 19-29g on my server
So, typically Blacksmithing and Enchanting are horrible for gold-making, but this tip might at least help you make a little with it.

Skinning Guide Updated

Skinning in World of Warcraft is a fine profession for those seeking to obtain leather for various goods out there or perhaps just gold. David "Xerin" Piner has gone through and revamped our...Skinning in World of Warcraft is a fine profession for those seeking to obtain leather for various goods out there or perhaps just gold. David "Xerin" Piner has gone through and revamped our skinning guide to bring you the latest and freshest information from where Arctic Furs come from to just how you skin a beast. Those of you thinking of becoming a skinner or seasoned skinners in need of advice should head on over and see what skinning is all about. We even have some awesome advice on where the easiest places to farm is.

There isn’t any talk of endlessly grinding recipes or finding any dandelions here. Skilling is real simple. You can skin anything that’s skinnable to your level. You figure this out by taking its level and multiplying it by 5. So a level 20 enemy will need 100 skinning to be skinnable. A level 80 enemy will need 400 skinning in order to rip its hide off.

Gold Guide Review

This site provides a lot of free tips on making gold in World of Warcraft.
But for some people this isn’t enough information. I work a full-time job, and play WoW in my spare time…and I focus most of my WoW playing on learning gold-making techniques.
But honestly there are some folks out there who do this for a living, and they create some really fantastic guides. They spend WAY more time on it than I do. (I like to think of it as the fact that I have a life!)
Anyway, for a while I’ve provided links to most of the major gold guides out there. Some are better than others, but they all provide mostly the same information in the gold-guide itself. (Several include other bonuses, like leveling guides, etc.)
But there’s one that members of MakeWoWGold (folks that subscribe to the newsletter) actually provide feedback to me about. It’s the one by Luke Brown, “Gold Secrets“.
I’m not sure why they seem to like that one more than the rest, but Luke does seem to add a bunch of bonuses that no one else has, including a forum with folks sharing tips with each other. And his product is guaranteed, which is really cool.
So, if you want to learn a ton about making gold, keep browsing this website. If you want a separate guide with all kinds of printouts and bonuses, check out the Gold Secrets Guide. Like I said, it’s the only one that I have heard great things about (even though it’s not mine!).