BBB's Looking for Group Adventure

Big Bear Butt Blogger has done a faction change and is now a Blood Elf Paladin instead of a Dwarf Paladin.  So what does he do?  He goes Looking for Group (LFG).  What happens next may foretell what the new LFG across realm experience will be like.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/11/17/tales-from-the-lfg-tavern/

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Gold, Leveling and Drama

You may not have noticed this week's heavy drama playing out over several prominent blogs about guides to making gold and for leveling.  Honor's Code summarizes the issues well here.  It's a good read if you are sitting around waiting for Guildwatch's next episode.  It also brings up some questions about ethics.
http://honorscode.blogspot.com/2009/11/gold-and-leveling-guides.html

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

RAWR Interview: DK Tanks Lead Developer

Here's an interview with the contributing developer for Death Knight tank information at RAWR.  He talks about what RAWR does poorly for DKs and what it does well.  Shazear also talks about what he'd like to do in the future.  If you have a DK and use RAWR, you'll want to read this.
http://pwnwear.com/2009/11/17/rawr-tankdk-guest-post-from-the-lead-developer/

Not everyone thinks the RAWR simulations provide good in-game data since the numbers used are squishy.  Such sims also seem to feed the Great Gear Myth, but as long as you know what you are getting, this can be a useful tool.

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Effective Health Formula (Tanks and Tenacity Pets)

Big Red Rhino has posted an article about the Effective Health formula, used by tanks to choose gear.  He uses this formula to calculate how much damage his tenacity pet can take.  To quote the Rhino himself-- "Simply put, it’s a mathematical calculation of HP and armor that calculates how much raw damage the tank can take before dying."
http://bigredrhino.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/effective-health/

Tanks and tenacity pet owners alike may be interested in this.

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Thoughts on WOW Challenges

Spinksville has written an essay about challenges in WOW, how players research instances before they run them, and rate themselves "good players" if they have great reflexes, not if they run instances with less-than-perfect gear.
http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/thought-of-the-day-how-we-define-challenge/

The Solo MMO Player has been wondering why more folks don't run instances blind, or at least come up with new strategies than the ones that have worked in the past.  If you look at the game this way, there are many many things still to do, no matter how long you have played.

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Guide to Leveling a Healer Druid (Solo)

Restokin has a guest posting by a solo healing druid who realized there isn't a lot of help for druid healers who are not Level 80 yet.  So he's written one with eight tips and a rotation.
http://www.restokin.com/2009/11/leveling-healing-guest-post-by-verdantazia-of-silverhand/

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Dedicated WOW Search Engine in Beta

WOW Insider reports the dedicated WOW search engine called Mrgl-Mrgl (named after a murloc NPC) is now in beta form.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/15/dedicated-wow-search-engine-now-in-beta/

The search engine is currently down but here's the URL.  WOW Insider thinks it looks at WOW forums, news sites, and YouTube videos only.  Of course by the time it is out of beta, it may be totally different and more targeted at WOW in its searches than Google and Bing.
http://www.mrgl-mrgl.com/

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

Alterac Valley Overview

http://www.wowwiki.com/Alterac_Valley

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All About Arena (with Beginner's Guide)

Here is what Blizzard says about Arena.  There are maps of the various arenas here with links to detailed walkthroughs.  Note that you can do practice arena matches before you hit level 80 but you can't join a team until then.  It also tells you where to buy team charters and what they cost, depending on whether you are playing 2x2 or whatever.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/arena/index.xml

Ten Ton Hammer has just posted (October 2009) an arena guide.  It's not finished yet but it has up-to-date information.
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/26536

WOW Insider is doing a beginner's guide to arena also.  Here's part one.
http://www.wow.com/2009/12/14/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-ii/#continued

Part two.
http://www.wow.com/2009/12/14/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-ii/

Part three.
http://www.wow.com/2009/12/21/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-iii/

Part four (healing)
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/01/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-iv/

Part five (dealing damage)
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/04/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-v/

Part six (arena terms and abbreviations)
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/01/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-vi/

Part seven (tips)
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/11/blood-sport-beginners-guide-to-arena-part-vii/

WOW Insider is now looking at things like rage, focus and energy in Arena (part one).
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/20/blood-sport-resource-mechanics-in-arena-part-i/

The death knight rune system (part two)
http://www.wow.com/2010/01/25/blood-sport-resource-mechanics-in-arena-part-2/

The ultimate Arena website is Arena Junkies'.  It has macros, strategies, rankings, etc.
http://www.arenajunkies.com/

Skill Capped also offers free PvP videos and class guides.  Most of the videos are without commentary but they have posted some of their most popular videos with commentary to entice folks to subscribe.
http://www.skill-capped.com/

This is a guide to improving your arena gear.  It is dated January 2009.
http://www.wowconfidential.com/2009/01/06/fastest-way-to-gear-up-for-pvp-get-the-best-pvp-gear/

The Arena rating system basics are explained here.
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/16/the-colosseum-a-basic-guide-to-the-arena-rating-system/

By the way, Blizzard's lead developer thinks arenas were a mistake.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/13/blizzard-arenas-were-a-mistake/

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WOW in Space UPDATED

A bit about an upcoming space-themed MMO called Allods Online.  There is a link to a video.
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2009/11/wow-in-space.html

UPDATE:  Massively has done a preview with a video of their own game play.
http://www.massively.com/2009/11/13/first-impressions-allods-online/

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