[hide][/hide]
Hidden in a stack of crates below Grommash Hold, just to the left of [hide]Urtharo[/hide] the weapon merchant, right behind an open crate full of axes, stands this isolated Human torso. No, really, go check it out yourself! «He doesn’t seem too happy since he seems to have lost half his body and his pants,» writes submitter [hide]Foxstrife[/hide] of Maiev (US-H). «Probably shouldn’t look in those crates …»

Gallery: [hide]Around Azeroth 3[/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide][hide][/hide]

Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to [hide]aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com[/hide]. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Please include «Azeroth» in the subject line so your email doesn’t get marked as spam, and include your name, guild and server if you want to be credited.
Filed under: [hide]Around Azeroth[/hide][hide]Around Azeroth: Where to hide the body[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

[hide]Continue reading The Queue: Cats and Dogs[/hide]Filed under: [hide]The Queue[/hide][hide]The Queue: Cats and Dogs[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

In a [hide]recent post[/hide] on the forums, Bashiok responded to the idea that [hide]1.35% of all WoW players have completed normal Firelands[/hide] and what that does or does not mean for the recent changes implemented to the raid instance. It’s a very interesting and information-filled post that I think deserves a thorough examination, as it reveals elements of Blizzard’s current design philosophy and how and why it chooses to alter raids from their initial difficulty levels.

I intend to go over the entire post carefully, but here are some highlights to ponder up front:

The 1.35% number is just plain wrong. Blizzard has its own numbers that it’s not going to share, but the 1.35% is probably as accurate as could be expected without access to Blizzard’s internal data gathering.

Blizzard’s design intent is to make content for all of the playerbase. «It’s both a blessing and a curse that the WoW player base is as large and diverse as it is.»

Players raid for many different reasons, some challenge, others loot, and others just to see the content. Some players are happy if they just see a boss once, while others enjoy weekly clearing.

The idea of being willing to wipe a hundred or more times to clear a boss, a staple of the raider mentality for years, is not appealing to most players.

OK, so now that we’ve picked out a few highlights, let’s go over the entire post and really consider the implications of designing for as many players as possible.[hide]Continue reading «There are no simple solutions» — Design diversity in WoW[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide], [hide]News items[/hide], [hide]Lore[/hide], [hide]Hotfixes[/hide][hide]«There are no simple solutions» — Design diversity in WoW[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

Every week, WoW Insider brings you [hide]Arcane Brilliance[/hide] for [hide]arcane[/hide], [hide]fire[/hide] and [hide]frost[/hide] mages. This week we come bearing information from the patch 4.3 PTR. Many warlocks died to bring you this information. Well, many warlocks died; bringing you this information had very little to do with that.

Coming soon.

Those words have mocked me for what feels like forever but in reality was only a couple weeks. When [hide]the initial patch notes[/hide] were released for the [hide]patch 4.3[/hide] PTR, other classes got changes. Other classes had new things to discuss, new topics to broach on the official forums and then engage in rational, polite discourse about. But not mages. Under our section of the patch notes, we got those two hateful words, Blizzard’s dubious trademark phrase.

Coming soon.

But no more! We can cease our waiting, our trembling, anxious vigil. For the latest build of the PTR has delivered to us a handful of discussion-worthy changes. Let’s all release our collective bated breath and move forward as a class. Because, my fellow mages: Soon, apparently, is now.[hide]Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: News and notes from the patch 4.3 PTR[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Mage[/hide], [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide], [hide](Mage) Arcane Brilliance[/hide][hide]Arcane Brilliance: News and notes from the patch 4.3 PTR[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide] | Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

Every week, WoW Insider brings you [hide]The Care and Feeding of Warriors[/hide], the column dedicated to [hide]arms[/hide], [hide]fury[/hide] and [hide]protection warriors[/hide]. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

I admit I was hoping there would be more changes to warriors to talk about by now. At least so far, the [hide]patch 4.3 PTR[/hide] has been fairly quiet on the warrior front. Sure, fury got a nerf, and a fairly large one. Fury’s been the melee spec that’s actually done good damage this raid tier, so I knew the writing was on the wall for it. What I didn’t expect was the [hide]particular blend of buff and nerf[/hide] that the spec has seen. Meanwhile, arms and protection have not changed at all, and this far into the PTR, I find that kind of baffling.

Nerfing [hide]Dual-Wield Specialization[/hide] to remove the 5% physical damage bonus — that, I understand. It’s an easy Band-Aid to rip off of the spec to flat-out reduce all damage done, and with all physical attack power buffs adding 20% instead of 10% melee AP in 4.3, it’s likely we won’t really even feel it. What that change does is lower fury’s base so that it doesn’t scale better than every other melee once the AP changes are in. No, I’m not surprised at all by that, and I wouldn’t be surprised if [hide]Precision[/hide] gets a nerf as well to reduce our white damage slightly. While I absolutely do not agree with these changes, believe them justified in any way, or support them, I at least understand them.[hide]Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Patch 4.3 and its implications[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Warrior[/hide], [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide], [hide]Raiding[/hide], [hide]Cataclysm[/hide][hide]The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Patch 4.3 and its implications[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for [hide]elemental[/hide], [hide]enhancement[/hide], and [hide]restoration[/hide] shaman. [hide]Josh Myers[/hide] once only tackled the hard questions about enhancement but has recently expanded his sphere of responsibility to all shaman DPS specs. (And no, two-handed enhancement is still never coming back.)

As I sit writing this, there’s a huge storm raging outside my house. Thunderstorm’s customary 45-second cooldown isn’t in effect, and there’s so much lightning flashing it’s sort of like [hide]Pikachus[/hide] are having a Pokemon battle in the sky. Oh, and there’s rain, too. Not the nice, healing kind that you like to stand in, either. I’m thinking this storm might be the response of elemental shaman everywhere to today’s latest 4.3 changes, when this gem was found on the PTR. (Please note: This isn’t reflected in Blizzard’s official patch notes yet, but the change is up on test realms.)

Yeah, that happened. We kind of had a feeling it would, since the T12 set bonus is so ridiculously good — like, it’s so good that if it were a cake or any other form of dessert, it would give you diabetes just from looking at it. My [hide]earliest estimates[/hide] of the set bonus said it was something like a 3,000 DPS increase. By BIS heroic gear, it’s more like a 6,000 DPS increase from a single set bonus. For gear balance issues, that bonus was too good. Blizzard generally intends set bonuses to be within the ballpark of 5% DPS increases. This was more like 15% to 20%.[hide]Continue reading Totem Talk: Elemental tier 12 nerfed on the PTR[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Shaman[/hide], [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide], [hide]Raiding[/hide], [hide](Shaman) Totem Talk[/hide], [hide]Cataclysm[/hide][hide]Totem Talk: Elemental tier 12 nerfed on the PTR[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

Опубликован рассказ Дэниэла Эри «[hide]Кровь отцов наших[/hide]» о правителе Штормграда Вариане Ринне, [hide]сообщает[/hide] официальный сайт MMORPG World of Warcraft от компании Blizzard Entertainment. В нем рассказывается о том, что во времена правления династии Риннов под их правлением люди каждый раз восставали из пепла невзгод. В то же время всем короли рода Риннов умирали молодыми, причем несправедливо и жестоко.

«Выйдя в коридор, Вариан обратил внимание, что на обычных местах не было стражей. Неужели все заняты подготовкой ко Дню памяти? Или случилось что-то страшное?

Вариан осторожно пробрался в неосвещенный коридор и вошел в просторный тронный зал Крепости Штормграда. Король знал тут все до последнего камня, но сейчас помещение с высокими стенами казалось иным — больше, темнее и совсем пустым. С потолка свешивались знамена. На каждом из ярких полотнищ была вышита золотом львиная голова — герб, выражавший гордость и силу великой нации Штормграда.

Из темноты до Вариана донесся приглушенный крик, а затем звуки ударов. Он опустил взгляд и увидел кровавый след, тянущийся к центру зала. Там он едва мог различить две фигуры, яростно бившихся друг с другом. Глаза Вариана привыкли к темноте, и он разглядел израненного, окровавленного мужчину на коленях, над которым возвышался массивный женский силуэт».

([hide]Читать далее..[/hide].)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you [hide]The Light and How to Swing It[/hide] for [hide]holy[/hide], [hide]protection[/hide] and [hide]retribution[/hide] paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 24 other people, obsessing over his hair (a Blood Elf racial!), and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog [hide]Righteous Defense[/hide].

Last week, I touched on how to [hide]evaluate your tanking performance via logs[/hide]. One of the major points of that column was to check out your efficiency with [hide]Crusader Strike[/hide], also known as the heartbeat of the protection paladin rotation. One of the best ways to improve yourself in that aspect of tanking (along with a host of other aspects) is through the generous use of keybinding.

It’s an age-old debate — clickers vs. keybinders — but in the end, keybinding is probably the most momentous step you can take to bring your A-game to a boss fight. Adopting this tecnique will pay major dividends to your rotational efficiency, survivability, and response times.[hide]Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Keybinding to streamline your tanking[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Paladin[/hide], [hide](Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It[/hide][hide]The Light and How to Swing It: Keybinding to streamline your tanking[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

Every week, [hide]Raid Rx[/hide] will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is [hide]Matt Low[/hide], the grand poohbah of [hide]World of Matticus[/hide] and a founder of [hide]Plus Heal[/hide], a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the [hide]Matticast[/hide].

We are one week away from [hide]BlizzCon[/hide]! I cannot wait! While most of the healing changes have already been outlined for 4.3, I’m sure there are a few things that you wish would be different. I have a list compiled myself of things that would be interesting to have or revert back to. However, you and I both know these are things that will never happen. But who cares? It’s fun to think about the possibilities, at least. I’m sure there’ll be other exciting announcements next week. Maybe we’ll see some new healing reveals that Blizzard’s planning for the next expansion.[hide]Continue reading Raid Rx: Raid healing wish list for BlizzCon[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Raid Rx (Raid Healing)[/hide][hide]Raid Rx: Raid healing wish list for BlizzCon[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

Testing has begun for [hide]Dragon Soul[/hide], the raid instance coming with [hide]patch 4.3[/hide] that culminates in the Deathwing encounter. Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer, aka Daelo, posted a schedule today for upcoming raid testing phases for Morchok and Yor’sahj the Unsleeping, two of the pre-Deathwing bosses. Testing starts … today, actually. Like, really soon.

Looks like it’s really happening. It’s time to slay the dragon.

Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with [hide]patch 4.3[/hide]. Review the [hide]official patch notes[/hide], and then dig into what’s ahead: new [hide]item storage options[/hide], [hide]cross-realm raiding[/hide], [hide]cosmetic armor skinning[/hide] and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing — from [hide]astride his back[/hide]!
[hide]Patch 4.3 PTR: Dragon Soul raid now available for testing[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]