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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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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Blizzard Speaks: "Arenas are a mistake"

The website Warcry.com just published an interview with Blizzard's VP of game design.  WOW Insider summarizes it here.  The VP thinks arenas were a mistake, talks about the total number of WOW subscribers, their greatest successes and who they think their audience is.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/13/blizzard-arenas-were-a-mistake/

The original interview is published here.
http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/interviews/6773-Five-Years-of-Warcraft-Speaking-With-Blizzards-Rob-Pardo

By the way, Blizzard has released an interview from 2008, the video of which is embedded below.  It's mostly about the Wrath of the Lich King release.
http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=130459

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Tips to Reduce Lag

WOW Insider mentions tips to reduce lag and links to forum postings with further information.
http://www.wow.com/2009/11/13/fixing-raiding-lag/

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Bag Management

One of the things that causes a lot of trouble in any MMO is inventory management.  In WOW, this means managing the bags that you use to carry items.  If you are new to the game, you'll want to look at this WOW Insider column about bag management.
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/23/wow-rookie-bag-it/2

If you are a more advanced player, NoobDing may have tips that will help you.
http://noobding.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-bigger-bags-wont-solve-your-problem.html

Spellchecker has an article about bags that repeat much of the above but that also mentions the addon GarbageFu which he recommends for inventory management.
http://myguildhome.com/WTBSpellchecker/?p=630

UPDATE:  WOW Insider reviews several bag management addons.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/04/addon-spotlight-battle-of-the-bags/

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Hunter Trinkets

All about trinkets for hunters (Patch 3.3).
http://www.wow.com/2010/02/22/scattered-shots-hunter-trinkets/

The Hunters Mark lists all the non-faction-specific trinkets available to hunters in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.  There's a brief explanation of the trinket and where to get it, too.
http://www.thehuntersmark.net/2009/11/13/hunter-trinkets-in-wrath/

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