Warlocks: A History

WOW lore about the warlocks.

http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/warlocks-a-brief-history/

Vel continues a bit more warlock history here.

http://veliaf.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/the-warlocks-of-wow/

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New WOW Branded Headset UPDATED WITH REVIEW

It comes out in November.

http://www.wow.com/2009/08/18/creative-unveils-world-of-warcraft-headset/

UPDATE: WOW Insider writes a review of these which they saw at BlizzCon 2009. They are pretty but we all know handsome is as handsome does. Note that a foot pedal that activates Vent is mentioned here although it doesn't say if this is for all version of the headsets or just the high end ones.

http://www.wow.com/2009/08/25/blizzcon-2009-hands-on-with-creatives-world-of-warcraft-headse/

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Matticus Explains Keybindings

No Stock UI looks at keybinding addons and how they unclutter your UI. Each of the four addons he discusses have a brief review and a link to the download location.

http://www.nostockui.com/2009/08/keybinding-a-cluttered-uis-best-friend/

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Basics on the WOW Trading Card Game

Here is the website for the WOW Trading Card Game (TCG for short). Note the How to Play link and the How to Play video on the left side of the page.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WoW/en/

Here is the FAQ page.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/WoW/en/products/FAQ/default.aspx

Here is how to redeem loot cards. The important thing to remember is that these seem to be region-locked so that you can't redeem an item for another region. And you can only enter the loot card code once so once you use it, it is gone. In some instances you redeem the code and then go to a vendor to buy the item.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/en/products/loot/default.aspx

Trading card mounts no long bind on pickup.

http://www.wow.com/2009/07/26/trading-card-mounts-no-longer-bop/

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Latency Help From Pwnwear and Lowerping

Pwnwear has posted about a service that is supposed to help with latency issues. Note that he does not say he's used this, so be careful.

http://pwnwear.com/2009/08/17/improving-latency-lowerping/

Here are Pwnwear's tips for reducing lag. Again, I don't know how helpful or accurate these tricks are but if you have terrible trouble, I'm sure you will want to consider some of this.

http://pwnwear.com/2009/06/11/improving-fps-and-latency/

Lowerping does have a free trial offer. Here's their website.

http://www.lowerping.com/

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WOW Cataclysm Leak and New Race/Class Combos Speculation

MMO Champion is researching what the next expansion pack for WOW (named Cataclysm) will be like. There are lore spoilers in this information so don't look if you don't want to know. I've posted the summary at WOW Insider but for the most information follow the link to the MMO Champion website. Most of this will be released publicly at BlizzCon apparently.

http://www.wow.com/2009/08/14/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-leaked-by-mmo-champion/#continued

The possible new race and class combinations are discussed here. I can't say all this speculation on the next expansion pack or upcoming patch interests me terribly but here is the information for those who want to know.

http://www.wow.com/2009/08/14/new-race-class-combinations-datamined/#continued

Big Bear Butt has written an interesting reaction to the Cataclysm changes.

http://thebigbearbutt.com/2009/08/14/speculation-on-cataclysm/

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All About Raid Icons

Also courtesy of Keeva at Tree Bark Jacket, here is an explanation of raid icons.

http://dreambound-druid.blogspot.com/2009/08/raid-icons.html

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Guildwatch Wednesday (Breaking Up In Style)

The Behavior Your Mother Would Be Ashamed Of Award goes this week to the GM of Dreamcatchers who went to a party, ranted about his guildmates' pathetic raiding skills for almost 9 profane minutes, then posted the video on YouTube. Not surprisingly, the guild broke up almost immediately.
http://www.wow.com/2009/08/12/guildwatch-loot-reservations-required/

I'll quote Mike Schramm here (he writes Guildwatch for WOW Insider) about the runner up for this award-- "Jundivyn, GM of Nerfed at Birth on Terenas, was apparently so unhappy that his childhood friend and roomate /gquit the guild that he apparently not only kicked him out of the apartment they shared, but he also allegedly tossed his stuff in the rain. Nice. Lots of other fun stories pop up about Jundivyn in that thread as well, from his child care advice ("your the adault, you can tell him to get in bed and thats what he has to do, no matter how bad he screams thats all he can do realy.") to using another guildie as a bargaining chip to keep a third guildie from leaving the guild (we're not sure how that worked either -- "you stay or I /gkick him"?). What a guild leader."

And what a speller!

Another contestant for this award was the guild leader of Absolution on Dragonblight who became discouraged at the lack of raiding enthusiasm among the membership and quit. How did he qualify for award consideration? He took the guild bank's contents with him when he left.

As always the Guildwatch column has news of raiding and recruiting, none of which is happening on the Solo MMO Player's realm.

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WOW's Early History

Eurogamer has written a two-part article, full of tidbits about how the game developed and with interviews of Blizzard staff. I'll update this blog entry as Eurogamer releases more parts.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-making-of-world-of-warcraft-article

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-making-of-world-of-warcraft-article_3

IGN has come out with a history of Warcraft also.

http://uk.retro.ign.com/articles/101/1014622p1.html

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Mount Information Summary

If you need mount information or want to keep track of the mounts you own and/or the ones you want, the best place to start is Warcraft Mounts. If you set up an account with the site, you can "list up to 3 characters per a screen name and start keeping track of which mounts you have and which mounts you want to have. You can also ignore the mounts you don't want or can't get." I'm quoting WOW Insider's Daniel Whitcomb who wrote about this new ability this week. Look carefully at the tabs at the top of the page under the header title to navigate the site. The "Browse" section organizes mounts by type and there is a link to a mount gallery. The "Resources" tab has links to mount information you might need.
http://www.warcraftmounts.com/index.php

Interested in getting the sea turtle mount? Here's help. Note the link to a more detailed article about getting the sea turtle inside this article.
http://wowalone.blogspot.com/2009/04/woot-sea-turtle.html

If you are a warlock, you might want to read what the Warlock Wiki has to say about mount quests. Note that the Solo MMO Player has found this site somewhat behind the times.
http://warlock.wikispaces.com/Mounts

Once you have a mount, you might want to use the macro Zurum wrote to allow you to actually get on your mount. There is a macro for flying mounts and one for ground mounts.
http://www.brigwyn.com/2009/04/25/macro-3a-automatic-mount-macro-perfected/

By the way, WOW Europe claims to be developing a way of customizing your mount.
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/mount-p1mpage.html

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