How to Handle Ninjas

WOW Insider's morning Breakfast Topic is how to control ninjas, especially with the upcoming random PUG system which will enable ninjas to steal from many realms, not just their own.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/31/breakfast-topic-the-ninja-problem/

Some guild leaders are trying to cut back on the problem by publicizing the ninjas they know about on this site.
http://www.warcraftninjas.com/site/

Personally, I'd like to see Blizzard be more proactive about this problem.

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Addons for the Tanking Warrior

Tank Like a Girl has written a long article about the addons she uses in her UI.  Many of them are useful for any class.
http://www.tanklikeagirl.com/2009/10/27/addon-corner-tekkub-attack

You may want to browsh Tekkub's addon site, in case some of his work (which Tank Like a Girl raves about) fills a need.
http://tekkub.net/

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Shadow Priest Stats Summary (Patch 3.2.2)

Our favorite zombie lover has posted a complete list of shadow priest stats on the Eviscerate.net blog including spell rotation, tree, glyphs, etc.
http://eviscerated.net/?p=211

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Disenchantment Addons

I've been looking for addons that aid in disenchanting.  First up is Fizzwidget Disenchant Predictor.  This is what the creator says about this addon:

"My latest invention will help you make sure you always disenchant the right stuff to get the shards, dusts, or essences you need. Simply point it at any such reagent -- or even the reagent requirements listed in your formula book -- and you'll see an instant readout showing what types of items it can be disenchanted from. No more guesswork!*

* Due to fluctuations in the astral plane, disenchanting an item of merely 'uncommon' quality will still produce variable results. No one can predict for certain whether you'll get a pile of dust, an essence, or a shard, but thanks to my invention you'll at least know what variety of dust, kind and potency of essence, or luster and size of shard can be produced."

http://fin.instinct.org/wowmods/addon/773:fizzwidget-disenchant-predictor

Need to speed up your mass disenchanting?  Try Panda.  The second link talks about how Tank Like a Girl uses this addon.
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info8633

http://www.tanklikeagirl.com/2009/10/27/addon-corner-tekkub-attack

Enchantrix is an addon that is now part of the Auctioneer version 5.6 addon suite.  I don't know if you can download just Enchantrix which is supposed to track disenchantments and reagents.  The second link talks about how it works, but note that this is older information.
http://enchantrix.org/?p=dload

http://www.makewowgold.com/enchantrix-addon/

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Blizzard Files Lawsuit...

...against a private server.  WOW Insider has the details.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/29/blizzard-files-lawsuit-against-private-server/

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Vanilla WOW Lore

Here's a brief summary of the lore behind the original World of Warcraft, often called Vanilla Wow.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/29/the-queue-the-story-of-vanilla-wow/#continued

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A Rogue Compares Daggers

The rogue Slice and Dice has done extensive testing on the in-game dummy to see what weapon speed is needed for each hand for PvE play.
http://samueltempus.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/dagger-conundrum/

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Trial of the Crusader and Onyxia's Lair Tips and Guides

Need help getting through Trial of the Crusader?  Stoneybaby tells you where to position yourself in Icehowl.
http://bighitbox.com/index.php/2009/10/small-points-an-icehowl-survival-guide/

The zombie lover at Eviscerate.net has written a complete guide to Onyxia's Lair.
http://eviscerated.net/?p=120

Good help is hard to find, so we thank those who take the time to post tips and guides for the rest of us.

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Changes to SteelSeries WOW Mouse

The WOW mouse from SteelSeries has received an upgrade to its software so that you can bind buttons without leaving the game.  This apparently makes it compliant with Blizzard's end-user requirements which brought SteelSeries and Blizzard a lot of ridicule as Blizzard had marketing arrangements with a product that broke its end-user policies.  Details here:
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/29/steelseries-wow-mouse-gets-new-functionality/

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Guildwatch Halloweenies

It's Thursday and the Guildwatch column is here, complete with guilds dissolving before our eyes, two guilds in an 8 page forum shouting match (You suck.  No, YOU suck! Etc.), and the GM of Endgame on the Boulderfist realm using faction and server transfers to vanish with the guild bank.  This would be old news except he posted a brief sad movie about the whole experience in the second link below. What's next?  Guildwatch the Movie?!
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/28/guildwatch-more-common-than-you-think/

http://www.boulderfistendgame.com/

This last tidbit is so good I'm quoting Guildwatch's author in full:

"This one's almost scary -- a few months ago, Humble on Crushridge stole Archon's raid ID, and locked them out for two days by camping 25 characters in Ulduar so they couldn't progress. A little while after that, a shaman named Marvingaye applied to Humble and got accepted as a raider. On the week that Trial of the Crusader's hard mode was released, Marvingaye revealed his true self as a sleeper agent for Archon: he went back to Ulduar and ToC after a raid, began the Algalon timer, activated the keepers, and extended the lockout. Then he went to ToC, both 10- and 25-man, and used all of their wipes up (remember, this is the first week it was open, where all of the server firsts were up for grabs). Very epic. Moral of the story: don't ever, ever cross Archon on Crushridge. They know how to get their revenge, and they're patient enough to wait on it."

Finally, there is lots of raiding and recruiting, just not on the Solo MMO Player's realm.  Happy Halloween!

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Enchanting Leveling Guide

How to raise your enchanting levels to 450.
http://eviscerated.net/?p=169

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Using SimCraft for Moonkins UPDATED

Graylo of Gray Matter has written a long article about using SimCraft to model DPS and spell rotations in his moonkin.  Note that this system is used for most of the classes in WOW and that Graylo's tips are only good for those using Windows.  He does give links that will help you if you don't fall into those categories.
http://graymatterwow.blogspot.com/2009/10/moonkin-tools-simcraft.html

UPDATE: WOW Insider describes how to use SimCraft (or SimulationCraft) here.
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/01/blood-pact-using-simulationcraft-for-gear-selection/

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Looking Back at the Zombie Invasion

Achtung Panzercow looks back at the zombie invasion that led up to the release of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, talking about what was bad and what was good about this event.
http://panzercow.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/the-zombiepocalypse-one-year-on/

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Leveling Builds for the New Hunter

For the new hunter to use in leveling.
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/10/28/hunter-talents-for-leveling/

Level 10-20 (armor, weapons and a guide to best stats)
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/10/30/hunter-gear-for-leveling-10-20/

Level 21-30 gear.
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/10/31/hunter-gear-for-leveling-21-30/

Levels 31-40
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/11/04/hunter-gear-for-leveling-31-40/

Levels 41-50
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/11/18/hunter-gear-for-leveling-41-50/

Levels 51-60
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/11/23/hunter-gear-for-leveling-51-60/

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Macros for Death Knights

WOW Insider's DK column recommends macros for the high level Death Knight at the end of the game.  The listed macros are to increase DPS, help you tank or in PvP.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/27/lichborne-elementary-death-knight-macros/

Blood Death Knight macros
http://thebearflank.blogspot.com/2009/11/death-knight-macros-blood.html

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Tankadin UI Guide

Part one of an extensive guide to setting up a tankadin-specific UI.
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-tankadin-ui-guide-part-i.html

Part two
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-tankadin-ui-guide-part-2.html

Part three
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-tankadin-ui-guide-part-3.html

Part four (addons)
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-tankadin-ui-guide-part-4.html

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Tips for a Successful PUG

Things to keep in mind when setting up a Pick Up Group (PUG).
http://krasuskronicles.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/grinding-my-lfg-rep/

Thanks to Dreambound for pointing this out.
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Glyphs for Retribution Paladins

Recommended glyphs for the retribution pally.
http://bighitbox.com/index.php/2009/10/retribution-paladin-glyphs/

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Gearscore and Why We Love/Hate It (Addons)

Cold Comfort takes a critical look at Gearscore and how it supports the Great Gear Myth.  He points out the variety of gear scores various sites and addons give for the same toon, explains just what Gearscore counts and what it ignores, explains how to game Gearscore, and talks about why Blizzard probably won't ban its use.  This article has links to Gearscore and Gearscore Lite download sites and explains the difference.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/great-gearscore-debate-09/

Here is part two from Cold Comfort, which looks at the addon Experience which shows character stats, including how many times someone has killed a boss.  He advocates using "experience" as a measure of how much of the game someone has gone through instead of looking at gear, which can come to a player who has not done much in-game through various routes.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/inexperience-weakness/

If you are feeling particularly silly, you might be interested in Namescore, which rates character names as to legibility, appropriateness and asthetics.
http://www.nostockui.com/2009/10/forget-gearscore-try-namescore/

Dreambound feels pretty much the same way about PUGs as Cold Comfort.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-pug-raids-and-gear.html

And yes, I know I've just posted four blog entries about addons.  It seems folks talk about the same topic simultaneously.  Must be something in the Internet....

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Advanced Trade Skill Window (Addons)

WOW Insider takes a look at Advanced Trade Skill Window. This addon helps you efficiently craft items in your professions. Details here.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/25/addon-spotlight-advanced-trade-skill-window-2/

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Moving from Fubar to Data Broker (Addons)

No Stock UI explains in detail how to move from Fubar (which is apparently no longer being supported) to Data Broker which is the replacement.
http://www.nostockui.com/2009/10/migrating-to-databroker-from-fubar/

UPDATE:  WOW Insider profiles many other broker addons here.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/08/addon-spotlight-more-broker-addons/

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Healbot Updated and Patched (Addons)

If you are having trouble with Healbot lately, it is probably due to the major update and patch during this last week.  Details here.
http://healbot.alturl.com/

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Death Knight Specs: Dreadplate Blood Hybrid

Pwnwear examines the Dreadplate Blood Hybrid spec for death knights which is 21/41/5 and decides it is too low in thread.  You can look at the simulation he used and the details of the spec here.
http://pwnwear.com/2009/10/25/dreadplate-blood-hybrid-spec-no-threat/

UPDATE:  WOW Insider does a column on Blood Death Knights.  Definitely post-Patch 3.2 information.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/02/lichborne-blood-blood/#continued

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Best Raid in the World (Karazhan)

Pike thinks Karazhan is the best raid ever and explains why here.
http://www.aspectofthehare.net/2009/10/this-is-the-greatest-and-best-raid-in-the-world-tribute.html

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Memory Like An Elephant

This must be BBB week.   He's on a roll, this time with a blog entry that is tangentally about Elephant, an addon that captures Trade chat.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/10/24/a-little-confirmation-for-blizzblade/

As far as I know, there isn't an addon that removes idiots from the game.  sigh

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Big Bear Butt Solos Chillmaw (Video)

Watch BBB solo Chillmaw which is a Level 82 Elite frost wyrm in one of the Argent Tournament daily quests.

http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/10/23/bear-bite-video-soloing-chillmaw/

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BIG BEAR BUTT'S TIPS FOR NEW BEAR TANKS

BBB addresses the perception that bears can't tank and gives excellent advice for raiding bears.  This is a Must Read for tanking bears.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/10/23/advice-on-being-less-squishy/

About bear consumables
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/12/26/patch-3-3-bear-gear-consumables/

Bear mechanics for beginners
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/12/26/intro-to-the-basics-of-bear-mechanics/

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Resto Druids' Primer

Pike has written a basic primer for playing as a restoration druid.  She covers spells, specs, and glyphs and talks about what is important for various situations.
http://www.aspectofthehare.net/2009/10/tree-hugger-pikes-basic-primer-for-resto-druids.html

The new resto druid columnist at WOW Insider has written a long guide for restos.
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/shifting-perspectives-restoration-101/

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Tracking WOW Internet Traffic

WOW Insider writes about information a company that tracks Internet traffic levels has on gaming traffic.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/22/world-of-warcraft-in-the-nets-traffic-patterns/

This is an article from the company mentioned above about European versus United States Internet traffic.
http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2009/08/what-europeans-do-at-night/

Here is part one of the following article that breaks down what U.S. Internet traffic is doing.
http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2009/08/the-internet-after-dark/

Part two.
http://asert.arbornetworks.com/2009/08/the-internet-after-dark-part-ii/

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Testing Your DPS on a Dummy UPDATED

Note: this is not about testing DPS on the dummies who like to sit on a mailbox.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/22/wow-rookie-whats-my-dps/

UPDATE:  Things to consider when testing.
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2010/10/some-comments-on-testing/

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Warriors and Cooldowns

A discussion of warriors and how they use cooldowns.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-cooldowns/

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Increased Threat for Paladin Tanks

Righteous Defense discusses how to increase your threat generation in five steps.  Some are obvious (use the right rotation) and some are more subtle.  Thanks to WOW Insider for pointing this out.

http://rhida.ch/2009/10/21/5-ways-to-boost-your-threat/


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Guildwatch (The Political Version)

Last week we had Guildwatch, the legal edition.  This week it's politics.  Right out of the box someone complains about the prices a seller is asking on the Auction House and saying that the naughty seller is "clearly an Obama voter."
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/21/guildwatch-enjoy-the-soviet-union/

Feel free to explain that one to me.

A raider snuck in a second loot roll, got caught, claimed someone else was playing their toon briefly, showed up in the forums claiming it was the loot master's fault, and then showed up in the forms again under a fake name also claiming this all was someone else's fault.  Actually, this does sound like the behavior of most politicians when caught with their hand in the cookie jar, doesn't it?

Of course there's the usual recruiting and downing of instances, but not on the Solo MMO Player's realm.  Wonder what profession is up next week?  Tantrums from chef raiders who made the perfect buff food and no one appreciated it?

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Velief's Keybinding Setup Explained

If you ever wanted to set up keybinding, you may be interested in Velief's scheme.  (He plays as a warlock, by the way, but this doesn't mean his setup won't work for other classes.)
http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/my-keybindings/

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Pixelated Executioner Examines WOW's Slow Death Spiral

PE talks about how WOW has changed and how it is slowly, very slowly, changing and perhaps fading a bit.  Or has the gaming world changed around it, making players expect more/less?
http://pixelatedexecutioner.blogspot.com/2009/10/long-slow-spiral.html

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Why Do Druids Not Play as Bears?

WOW Insider talks about the perception that many feral druids don't play in the bear form and the complaints folks have playing about as a bear.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/21/shifting-perspectives-the-disappearance-of-the-bear/

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Blizzard Warns Against Buying Gold

WOW Insider points out Blizzard has revamped their website's page warning against buying gold.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/21/blizzard-warns-against-buying-gold/

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WOW Lore

If you are interesting in the background story behind WOW, you can visit Blizzard's History of Warcraft pages.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/index.html#a

WOW Insider has posted an article about Cataclysm's starting zone lore.  If you want to be surprised when the Cataclysm expansion pack comes out, don't go here.
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/27/cataclysm-starting-zone-lore-and-other-new-details-revealed/#continued

There is more information, including role play sites, in the links here.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Lore_links

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Rogues' Weapon Swapping Increases DPS

Zaltu over at Big Hit Box has written an article about how rogues can swap weapons to increase their DPS.  This sounds like something that needs good timing and a lot of practice but if you are a rogue, you'll want to at least read the article.
http://bighitbox.com/index.php/2009/10/weapon-swapping/

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More About Grid

Grid is a complicated addon that folks use for healing and other things. WOW Insider has compiled a list of links to help you get it up and running.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/19/the-daily-quest-grid-healing-addon-guides-and-resources/

If you want something simplier that is built to heal and buff/debuff, search the blog entries using "Healbot."

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Druid Guide (post-Call of the Crusade)

WOW Insider has posted a very long but up to date guide to playing as a druid.  All the parts are listed in order below.

Why a druid?
http://www.wow.com/2009/07/09/shifting-perspectives-why-or-why-not-to-play-a-druid/

Levels 1-9
http://www.wow.com/2009/07/21/shifting-perspectives-getting-started-and-leveling-1-9/

Levels 10-20 and How to Spec
http://www.wow.com/2009/08/06/shifting-perspectives-leveling-10-20-and-how-to-spec/

Levels 21-30
http://www.wow.com/2009/08/18/shifting-perspectives-leveling-21-30/

Levels 31-40 (with Info on PvP servers)
http://www.wow.com/2009/08/25/shifting-perspectives-leveling-31-40-and-notes-on-pvp-servers/

Levels 41-50
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/03/shifting-perspectives-leveling-41-50/

Levels 51-60
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/08/shifting-perspectives-leveling-51-60/

Levels 61-70
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/15/shifting-perspectives-leveling-61-70/

Levels 71-80
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/30/shifting-perspectives-leveling-71-80/

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Say What You Want (Addon)

WOW Insider features ThatJustHappened, an addon that allows your character to say something when certain conditions are met.  WOW Insider says combining a speech with a skill can be tricky and that this addon is well suited for creating just the right words for a situation.  More here, including a critique of what this addon does well and poorly.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/18/addon-spotlight-thatjusthappened/

Don't forget to check out Dreambound's speeches created in Lunar Sphere whenever he resurrects a player if ThatJustHappened isn't quite what you wanted.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/04/resurrection-speeches.html

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New Combat Raid Analysis Website

Burrich added a comment to the September 29 posting on the combat raid analysis addon called World of Logs describing his new website that will parse raid logs for information to help you improve your raiding.  It is in beta form and looks like the site needs data to help get itself up and running.  I haven't found any more information than what Burrich says below.  Sorry.
http://www.mmostories.com/

Here's what Burrich said in his comment:
"Hello,
We have recently launched a new log analysis tool in beta http://www.mmostories.com, it is free and without time or storage limit

Our value is that we store every single data in our database (no only the full logs), so we can calculate everything (It is a matter of time it takes the server to calculate, some things are really challenging).

Here you have some examples:

http://www.mmostories.com/session-154.php

http://www.mmostories.com/session-131.php

We are trying to create a big database where everybody may consult, for example, the avg. hps of druids in thorim in hardmode, or including the time in 5SR, or crit% avg... (we are releasing the comparison tool -as we call it- in some weeks). But honestly we need to have enough data to offer reliable data, and community feedback to refine the tool.

Here you can see another example where you can find some compare examples in the drop down menu called "COMPARE your data with"

http://www.mmostories.com/detail.php?id_actor=2&id_session=154&splitId=4

Plz, offer your feedback via email, or in the forums
Yeah you will find some bugs, but it's beta ;D"





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The PUG Guide to Vault of Archavon: Emalon

Dreambound has written a guide to running Emalon for pick up groups to use.  He claims this is the hardest instance for PUGs to handle since DPS has to switch targets.  Details  of his strategy here.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/10/puggers-guide-to-voa25-emalon.html

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WOW Professions Website (and Bonuses Discussed)

Help in the professions from a site that keeps things up to date.  It includes information about the new profession, archaeology.
http://www.wow-professions.com/

The best bonuses professions give are discussed here.
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/professions/profession_bonuses

Nice discussion of the gathering professions from March 2010.
http://psynister.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/gathering-professions-benefits/

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Off Tanks Discussion

A discussion of acting as an off-tank.  The writer is a Death Knight but this information is general enough to help other classes.
http://pwnwear.com/2009/09/24/dps-dks-what-happens-when-your-raid-needs-another-tank/

More off-tank information.
http://pwnwear.com/2009/10/14/offtank-fights-and-you-your-role-as-ot/

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Euripedes Does PvP

Euripedes is having some trouble in PvP.  He's looking for a little help for his dual specced holy/raiding retribution paladin, but I think if you play a rogue, he might not want your advice....
http://criticalqq.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/how-i-spent-my-evening/

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WOW Insider Reviews Razer's New Naga Mouse

WOW Insider reviews Razer's newest mouse (the Naga) which is aimed squarely at WOW players in the link below.  Note that the Naga mouse is for right handed players only, isn't wireless and works with both PCs and Macs.  Also note that this is a multi-page review.  Don't overlook the subtle links to following pages at the bottom of the page.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/16/gearing-up-for-wow-the-razer-naga/

WOWHead also reviews the Naga mouse (as well as Razer's new mousepad) here.  This is a brief review but it has good information about the video tutorial to help you get started and how to use the little stickers called trainers that come with the mouse.
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=122142

The YouTube video is here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIBhd-_2rdo

WOWHead is giving Naga mice away in a contest for folks with a WOWHead account who are logged into that account during the drawing.  More information here--
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=126619

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The Greatest Twink Video Ever

Fony strikes again.  (He did the Aion video review.)  Apparently there are four of these videos.  I can't say they are the greatest ever but I thought this one pretty funny.
http://www.youtube.com/user/wowfony#p/u/18/jJnBQswfAxg

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Parry and Dodge

How parry and dodge work in boss fights with a macro that helps you stack these.
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-parried-query.html

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Armory Data Mining Looks at Race and Class

The Armory Data Mining Site looks at the race and class distribution in WOW.  Bottom line:  No one likes trolls, especially troll warriors. Dwarf rogues aren't too popular, either.
http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/ebony-and-ivory/

UPDATE:  A guest stats person looks at the feral druids using modern statistical techniques to decide how many current players (probably just Level 80s) are bears and how many are cats.
http://armorydatamine.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/druid-cats-and-bears-again/

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Pets in the Mailbox UPDATED

People who previously turned their WOW accounts into Battle.net accounts started receiving their penguin pets in their in-game mailboxes last night.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/15/mr-chilly-is-in-the-mail-on-battle-net-accounts/

This week folks who viewed BlizzCon via DirecTv pay per view in the U.S. started to get little plastic cards via snail mail with their Grunty the Space Merloc pet code.  Log into the website they give you, log into Battle.net, enter the 25 digit code on the back of the card and then Blizzard emails you your Grunty in the in-game email system.

Each character you have gets one of these pets.  As far as we can tell, they are bind on equip so these won't show up on eBay unless someone didn't use their plastic Grunty card code when it arrived in the mail.

UPDATE:  Some folks are not happy they have to switch to Battle.net but a lot of folks are unhappy their penguin pet looks pretty much like the brown blob you see out of the corner of your eye when a mouse runs across the room.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/18/1-local-the-battle-over-battle-net/

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Guildwatch: The Legal Edition

This week's Guildwatch comments on the widespread threats to sue seen in the game by begging anyone who actually sees legal repercussions during a game to let WOW Insider know immediately.  Since Blizzard allows many things in WOW that get you into big trouble in real life, I'd like to second that motion.  Blizzard will clean up the chat line in 30 seconds flat if a lawsuit threatens their profits.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/14/guildwatch-my-laywer-is-processing-a-subpoena/

Drama:  The co-GM of Xenocide emptied the guild bank, promoted a former officer, kicked a bunch of people out of Xenocide, then just disbanded the whole guild.  File this under "Four Ways to Destroy a Guild."  Didn't work, though.  The guild is reforming as Placeholder and is recruiting on the Kalecgos server.

Frostmourne has had accusations of raid ID theft flying recently but the two guilds accused of stealing say that it was a multiple guild raid.  Guildwatch points out that the flame war is so intense, an outsider has no way of figuring out what really happened.  Short of a lawsuit, probably.

In more legal news, two ninjas left their Alliance guild and headed to the Horde side for more thievery.  Unfortunately for them, their new guild understood exactly who they were and what was planned and decided to wait to /gkick them in the most spectacular fashion possible.  Our ninjas picked a fight with someone who immediately tossed them out on their ear when s/he was promoted to an officer, then the ninjas threatened to contact a "laywer" for "processing a subpoena."  (I'd take the ninjas more seriously if their threats were spelled correctly.)  The whole thing is available as an angry rant on Vent which you can listen to by finding the link in the URL above.

By the way, if you go /afk while raiding with Till Death on Auchindoun, you are going to be sorry.  The Not Safe For Work video link is below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18cXnEOr3bw

In non-legal news, there is a lot of recruiting and downing of instances going on, just not on the Solo MMO Player's realm.

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The Gear Myth and Guild Bigotry

Today's Opinion Corner features the Pixelated Executioner's profanity-laced explanation of the Great Gear Myth, i.e., folks who have great gear always know how to play.  Don't pass up someone whose gear looks like it came from the Salvation Army for a raid, particularly if they are a solo player.  Believe me, someone who doesn't have great gear handed to them knows how to play their character.
http://pixelatedexecutioner.blogspot.com/2009/10/gear-score-bite-me.html

It's always puzzled me why Blizzard lets WOW players get away with stuff that gets you into big trouble or tossed in jail in real life--hazing, killing NPCs, camping dead bodies, theft, racism, homophobic behavior, sexism, harassment, stalking, religious intolerance, and threats.  Since it exists, the smart guild leader needs to have strategies to cope, and Cold Comfort discusses how to handle bigotry in a guild.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/bigotry-ranks/

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WOW Insider's Guide to Rogues

WOW Insider has started a guide to playing a rogue.  Here's the introduction (character creation).  I'll update this blog entry as more rogue articles are published.

http://www.wow.com/2009/10/14/encrypted-text-leveling-a-new-rogue-character-creation/#continued

Levels 1-10
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/21/encrypted-text-leveling-a-rogue-level-1-10/

Levels 11-50
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/28/encrypted-text-leveling-a-rogue-level-11-50/

Levels 51-70
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/05/encrypted-text-leveling-a-rogue-level-51-70/

Armor penetration and the crit cap are explained here.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/11/encrypted-text-armor-penetration-and-the-crit-cap-demystified/

Levels 71-80
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/18/encrypted-text-leveling-a-rogue-level-71-80/

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Lifebloom for Today's Resto Druids

Oestrus talks about Lifebloom and how important this nerfed spell still is to raiding restoration druids during Patch 3.2.
http://divineaegis.haecceity.nu/2009/10/15/to-bloom-or-not-to-bloom/

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The Hunter's Jump Shot Kite

Pike has posted a video on how hunters, even low level ones who don't have a pet yet, can use three instant cast shots (concussive shot, arcane shot,  and serpent sting) an acrobatic move to evade/kill mobs.
http://www.aspectofthehare.net/2009/10/oldschool-pike-the-jumpshot-movie.html

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Addons Galore for Warlocks and Gold UPDATED

This week the Blog-o-Sphere decided to post about addons for various classes or specific tasks.  Below are the best postings (there are others that were repetitive or not that helpful I haven't mentioned) for you to browse.

The Greedy Goblin writes about an addon called Tooltip Wealth that allows you to see what cash a character has in the bank.
http://greedygoblin.blogspot.com/2009/10/money-survey.html

If you are a warlock, you'll want to read about the addons Velif finds helpful such as DoTimer, ForteXorcist, and TellMeWhen.
http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/warlock-addons/

UPDATE:  Aaron recommends MoneyFu for tracking cash (with some reservations, read the Comment) and Veliaf has updated his warlock blog with these.
http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/my-addons-a-l/

http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/my-addons-o-z/

UPDATE #2:  Veliaf has added information about the UI he uses to play his warlock.
http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/my-ui/

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Discipline Priest Stats Discussion

If you are a new disc priest, this discussion of stats and how your class should apply them might be useful.
http://divineaegis.haecceity.nu/2009/10/13/l2discipline-stat/

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Death Knight Improvements for Raiding

http://www.isheepthings.com/blog/brushing-up-your-raiding-resume/


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Level 80 Hunter's Guide to PvP Gear

http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/10/13/a-hunters-guide-to-pvp-gear-at-80/

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Raiding/Healing Tips for 25 Man Groups

This week I've found healing tips for the Northrend Beasts Encounter (heroic)
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/12/raid-rx-healing-heroic-northrend-beasts/#continued 

and a detailed strategy (with diagrams) of how to attack Mim in Ulduar.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/10/u10-firefighter.html

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The State of MMOs

Thanks to Of Teeth and Claws I discovered this article about the current state of MMOs.  Whether you agree or not, it is an excellent attempt to analyze the state of massively multiplayer PC games today.
http://www.psychochild.org/?p=810

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EpicAdvice.com Talks Resto Druid Spells for Raiding

I've been playing around with EpicAdvice.com, the site where you can post WOW questions or answer them for reputation, and found this interesting discussion on what spell power is good for Resto Druids Who Raid.
http://epicadvice.com/questions/323/what-spellpower-should-a-resto-druid-have-before-raiding

Sort of like the Ladies Who Lunch, right?  LOL

The discussion rapidly turns into what spells are good for resto druid raiders but the information is useful for the trees among us.

At any rate, when you are stumped EpicAdvice.com is a good place to look besides the WOW forums, blogs of prominent players of your class. or websites dedicated to that topic. Of course you can always search here. I try and collect every useful bit of information I stumble across.  Therefore, EpicAdvice has been added to the useful websites links in the right hand column.

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Mandatory Battle.net on 11/11/09 (with Penguins)

MMO Champion has discovered Blizzard is going to require everyone playing WOW to set up a Battle.net account by November 11, 2009.  Blizzard will send all those who have an account set up by then a penguin pet via the in-game mail.  whoopee

Here is what WOW Head says about the switch.
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=125397

I strongly advise anyone making the switch to set up a dummy email account to use as your login user name for Battle.net.  It might be a hassle but your real email will be more secure.  Anyone hacking Blizzard's Battle.net will have all the email address logins to play with, you know.  You might be interested in reading WOW Head's take on Blizzard security.
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=101004

UPDATE:  Tobold explains better than I did the issues you face with security if you use a real email address as your user name/login for Battle.net.
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2009/10/blizzard-sabotages-wow-account-security.html

UPDATE #2:  Here is what WOW Insider says about Battle.net which it doesn't think is a security issue.  I'm old and cynical and I don't agree, but that doesn't mean I am right.  (Just really cute.)
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/15/the-pros-and-cons-of-battle-net/

UPDATE #3:  Cold Comfort analyses the criticisms of the switch and gives good account security information.  It looks as if he is going to discuss how this impacts guilds from a GM perspection in Part 2.  I'll update this when the second entry is available.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/battlenet-nerdrage-one/

Here's the update from Cold Comfort.  It discusses responding to "nerd rage" comments on forums in general and the Battle.net controversy in particular.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/nerdrage-deal/

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EpicAdvice.com Answers WOW Questions

EpicAdvice.com allows you to post WOW questions (or answers if you know them) when you can't find answers here.  Here is information about the site.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/08/epicadvice-com-lets-you-ask-and-answer-warcraft-questions/

It's up and running but already hard to navigate.  I suggest you click on the All Tags section in the right hand column, then choose the right combo of tags to search on.  Sadly, the tags are listed by most used instead of alphabetically, so you may have to hunt a bit on several pages to know what keywords to use to frame the search for questions already asked.  Of course you can ask a question yourself but over time it is likely your question has already been asked.  By the way, you can change the number of questions viewed per page at the bottom of the page. I'd make it 50 per page just for speed of scanning questions.
http://epicadvice.com/

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Disenchanting As a Loot Roll Option in Patch 3.3

It looks like disenchanting will be an option when Patch 3.3 rolls around.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/07/patch-3-3-ptr-disenchant-as-a-loot-option/

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Guildwatch: The Movie

This week the column has a nice video of the revamped Onyxia instance to view, as well as guild breakup and guild transfer drama.  Nothing really special, though you would think a guild with the reputation for stealing everything in sight would realize that they have a rep and not bother transferring here, there and everywhere.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/07/guildwatch-redemption/

Of course there is the usual downing of instances and recruiting, but not on the Solo MMO Player's realm.

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Guide to RAWR

Curious about RAWR?  This site has a quick guide to how it works.
http://runeforgegossip.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/a-quick-and-dirty-guide-to-rawr/

Graymatter has written an article about the plus and minuses of using RAWR.  I always like to know the bad points about anything, so this was helpful to me.
http://graymatterwow.blogspot.com/2009/10/moonkin-tools-rawr.html

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Mr. Robot (Simulator for Death Knights)

WOW Insider has a profile of the web browser simulation program called Mr. Robot here.  Right now it is just for Death Knights but supposedly will be expanded to include other classes eventually.
http://www.wow.com/2009/10/07/ask-mr-robot/#continued

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Shaman Healing 101

Detailed guide to healing as a shaman.
http://www.nerfthisdruid.com/2009/06/shaman-healing-101.html

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Healing 10 Man Versus Healing 25 Man Raids

Part One talks about the basics of healing 10 man raids and
http://www.casualwow.com/blog/2009/03/healing-10s-vs-25s-part-one-the-basics/

Part Two talks about the larger 25 man raids.  Note that these articles are dated April 2009.
http://www.casualwow.com/blog/2009/04/healing-10s-vs-25s-part-two-adaptive-healing/

Note that this is general information for all healing classes.


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Mid Level Resto Druid Issues

Rolling Hots talks about the proper gear and spells for a mid-level resto druid.
http://www.rollinghots.com/2009/06/05/tree-mail-gear-for-mid-level-restos/

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Resto4Life Resources for Resto Druids

Even if Phaelia is no longer blogging as she has a baby to play with these days, you can still refer to her resources page.  Some things are out of date but her posting about the Belkin Nostromo N52 TE may still interest you since she talks about programming multiple characters to this keypad.  She is still "the" resto druid resource, after all.

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How to Raid Despite Lag

Euripedes talks about lag and how to raid despite it.
http://criticalqq.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/the-lies-of-lag/

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Resto Druid Spell Rotations

I've started researching spell rotations for restoration druids.  Keeva has the most up-to-date (September 2009) posting about spell rotations and what resto druids need to keep in mind.
http://www.treebound.net/blog/spell-rotation/

I also found this brief spell rotation information from June 2009.
http://judithdormans.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/wow-life-a-quick-guide-to-resto-druids/

I've also found detailed discussions from October 2008,
http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2008/10/03/is-lifebloom-obsolete-another-look-at-resto-druids-in-30/

from September 2007
http://druidgm.blogspot.com/2007/09/resto-druids-in-nutshell.html

and an undated posting from the Druid Wiki about end game resto druids.
http://druid.wikispaces.com/Resto_Endgame_Healing

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Making Old Raids Relevant In a Gear-Obsessed World

Cold Comfort enjoys raiding older content in WOW but has noticed that most folks are in it for the gear, not the fun or challenge, and wonders how the game's older content can be made profitable for the bulk of players who are obsessed with rewards.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/2009/10/if-you-cant-make-old-content-relevant-at-least-make-it-profitable/

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How Many WOW Players?

WOW Insider reminded me of the Warcraft Realms website and its wealth of stats on the European and US realms.  If the stats are roughly accurate, there are over 3.7 million WOW players in those two areas.
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/realmstats.php?sort=server

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Introduction to Lunar Sphere

Thanks to Kae at Dreambound, I have an explanation of how the addon LunarSphere works.  Kae calls LS a "sphere action bar mod" that is less class specific than other such action bar mods, and goes into detail about how to set it up, with explanations of how to customize it to do things like pick random speeches for situations like resurrections.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/03/lunarsphere.html

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Resurrection Speeches From Dreambound

Kae at Dreambound has written a series of speeches, one of which randomly generates whenever Kae resurrects someone.  There is a link to how this is set up as well as the list of speeches at this page.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/04/resurrection-speeches.html

Now, go forth and heal someone--and make them laugh!

UPDATE:  New speeches from Kae
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2010/03/res-macros-p2-revenge-of-res-macros.html

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Druid Hurricane Bug and a Macro Around It

Dreambound is running into a bug when s/he casts hurricane as a shapeshifter.   Here are details plus several macros that should get a player around the bug.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/10/hurricane-shifting.html

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Guilds and Raiding

For some reason everyone is talking guilds and raiding this week. Here are a series of links on the topic.

Dreambound is doing a survey of personality types and how they function in guilds and raiding based on the Myers-Briggs personality profiles.  The survey is in the entry dated August 21, 2009 and the results are spread out over more recent postings.
http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/

World of Matticus talks about what they call the "team sport" of raiding and how to keep morale high during raids.
http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2009/09/23/raiding-its-a-team-sport/

WTF Spaghetti talks about the types of guilds (social, casual raiding, raiding) there are and how to get into the guild that's right for you.
http://wtfspaghetti.blogspot.com/2009/10/fridays-food-for-thought-guild-types.html

Finally, Cold Comfort writes about how to turn poor raiding players into better raiders from the perspective of a guild leader.
http://blog.cold-comfort.org/2009/10/turning-bads-into-goods/

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Crafting: A Spreadsheet

Velief is dabbling in making and selling glyphs, so he wanted a spreadsheet to track profits.  He made his own, then discovered a detailed crafting spreadsheet that can be downloaded at a site he links to.  I didn't link directly to the spreadsheet site as I am a bit suspicious of what else you might download there.   If you are interested, be careful.
http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/sarainys-crafting-spreadsheet/

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Guide to Role Playing as a Hunter

Hunter's Mark has written a detailed article about role-playing as a hunter, including addons and roleplay forum and information sites that will help you craft a backstory and play style.
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/10/02/so-you-want-to-role-play-a-hunter/

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Guildwatch Today

The usual drama, theft and guild breakups are happening at Guildwatch this week, plus raiding and guild recruiting (except not on Solo MMO Player's realm).
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/30/guildwatch-have-a-nice-day-baddie/

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