24 Hour Maintenance Announced for August 17

Some realms will be down for 24 hours at least next Tuesday; others will hve regular maintenance downtime.  The list is here-
http://www.wow.com/2010/08/14/24-hour-maintenance-announced-for-more-realms/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Blizzard Wins $88 Million Lawsuit

...against a company that set up a private server for WOW and had some sort of micro transactions marketplace.  This is considered copyright infringement.
http://www.wow.com/2010/08/14/private-server-company-forced-to-pay-blizzard-88-million/

Commentary:
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2010/08/assessing-damage-from-pirates.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

How to Heal Tanks as a Holy Paladin

Various types of tanks need various types of healing.  WOW Insider looks at this from the perspective of holy paladins.
http://www.wow.com/2010/08/15/the-light-and-how-to-swing-it-how-to-heal-different-tanks/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Cataclysm Beta Notes (Flying Mounts, Clients, Hunter Solo Runs)

I've been mostly ignoring Cataclysm beta information since it is all in flux. Who knows what will actually make it into the next expansion?  This is a reference site, after all, and linking to information that may or may not end up in an expansion that isn't even dated yet seems useless to me.  However, I have found a few articles I do want to mention because they are useful for beta players or have special relevance to solo players.

WOWHead has posted how to use their client to gather beta information for their database.  If you are in the beta, consider downloading their client to add to the Cataclysm database.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=163527

It looks like buying a faster flying mount will be quite expensive in Cataclysm, especially for players with a good number of characters they play.  Looks like players should start accumulating gold now.
http://wowalone.blogspot.com/2010/08/100000-gold-for-flying.html

Cold Weather Flying changes in Cataclysm.  Now you can buy it at Level 68 for less than in Patch 3.3.5.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/20/cataclysm-beta-cold-weather-flying-at-68/

The Warcraft Hunters Union has posted two articles about soloing Cataclysm, first as a Beast Master hunter--
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2010/08/cataclysm-beta-hunter-soloing-as-bm/

and secondly as a marksman hunter.
http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2010/08/cataclysm-beta-hunter-preview-soloing-as-mm/

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Feral Druids' Less Used Abilities

Ideas on how to use things most feral druids ignore with sample macros.
http://thebearflank.blogspot.com/2010/08/infrequently-used-abilities.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

How Loot Council Works UPDATED

A discussion of Loot Council and how setting up a group to distribute loot works.  It's a system with a lot of potential for abuse, so beware of joining a guild with this system in place without knowing how it works there.
http://www.worldofmatticus.com/2010/08/11/behind-the-scenes-loot-council/

Why Blacksen likes it.
http://blacksen.com/?p=542

UPDATE:  Matticus likes Loot Council Lite.
http://www.nostockui.com/2010/10/loot-council-lite/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Running WOW On Linux

The Pot plans a series about running WOW on Linux.  As always, I will update this article as more things are published.
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/08/running-world-of-warcraft-under-linux-prologue/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Account Hacking Discussion

Tobold mentions the huge number of spamming/phishing emails he gets at his WOW account login/email address and states his opinion that most accounts are hacked by folks being phished or having their password guessed.  As usual, the Comments section is very interesting.
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2010/08/wow-account-hacking.html

One of the sites mentioned in the Comments led me to this discussion of how to choose a strong password that "dictionary hacks" can't break.  I'm going to add the Securing WOW blog to the list of favorite links as it is full of helpful information for the security-conscious.
http://securingwow.blogspot.com/2010/05/suffer-mortals-as-your-pathetic.html

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com