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WoW Archivist: Launch classes' 9 biggest aggravations, part 2

PallyPower
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold?

Vanilla WoW is properly considered the golden age of this beloved MMO. The evolutionary ideas behind the game were exciting, the art style was fresh, and the world was full of mysteries. Some yearn for a return to that time. But many forget that classes at launch suffered from some truly aggravating designs. Last time on Archivist, we looked at priest racials, hunter mana, warlock shard farming, and shaman weapon skill resets. This week, we review the most aggravating aspects of warriors, mages, druids, rogues, and paladins.

Warriors: The leather conundrum

Let's be fair: warriors, for the most part, had it pretty good in vanilla. Back then, they were the only class that could viably tank and their DPS was better than most hybrids. Rage had its share of problems early on, it's true, but the mechanic worked -- warriors just needed more of it. Stance dancing was annoying to some but the mark of a pro to others. Warriors also had a crippling bug at launch that would register all enemy dodges and parries as misses, preventing skills like Overpower from ever proc'ing. The bug made early leveling painful, but it was solved a few months after launch.

The biggest aggravation for warriors throughout vanilla -- and beyond -- was leather.

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Filed under: WoW Archivist

WoW Insider's guide to the battle pets of 5.3

unborn val'kyr
Patch 5.3 has added a ton of new content to the game, including some additional battle pets for us all to collect. We've compiled a a rundown of them, including where to find them and what they do. Have at y, pet collectors, and happy hunting!

Burning Crusade raid pets
There are a total of ten new battle pets that can be found in Burning Crusade-era raids. And you thought you were done farming the Karazhan opera!

Karazhan
L'il Bad Wolf
The L'il Bad Wolf has a chance to drop from the Big Bad Wolf at the Karazhan opera event. Sadly, the Big Bad Wolf is not a guaranteed boss from the opera, so this pet is likely to be one of the more difficult ones to add to your collection this patch. For the lucky ones who do manage to grab the L'il Bad Wolf, you'll be rewarded with a Humanoid pet possessing Claw, Mangle, Howl, Counterstike, Dodge, and Pounce. While none of those are unique abilities, Mangle is possessed only by two other pets in the game.

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Filed under: News items, Achievements, Mists of Pandaria

The Queue: Breakfast

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) prefers her pancakes with blueberries. On a plate, not in a tub, thanks.

It's 2am, I am not breakfast, but hey a bowl of Golden Grahams sounds really good right about now.

Puntable1 asked:

They said the 5.3 "quests" were an experiment. Do you think the experiment failed or succeeded? I prefer the 5.2 Isle quests. I think killing Commanders will get old really quick.

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Filed under: The Queue

Around Azeroth: A city upon a hill

Around Azeroth A city upon a hill FRIDAY
Submitter Taedran of Guilty as Charged on Silvermoon (US-A) has captured another high-resolution, long-distance zone picture. This one features the doomed goblin homeland of Kezan at sunset. Sure, it's polluted, tacky and filled with tin-roof shacks, but dammit, it was home. Maybe we shouldn't have centered our entire civilization under the shadow of a giant active volcano, and then mined underneath the giant active volcano, and then built a city where we mined and filled it with alchemists and engineers and other explosion-causing professionals. But hindsight is 20/20.

Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm.

Filed under: Around Azeroth

Solo the Chess Event with Tikari's Tricks of the Trade

Oh, you want that pet in Kara The Chess Event SUCKS BUTT here's how to solo it
As an obsessive a big fan of battle pets, I was looking forward to everything patch 5.3 had to offer. Tons of battle pet changes, and the slew of new pets for the Raiding With Leashes II: Attunement Edition all had me especially excited. I zipped through The Eye and Serpentshrine Cavern hunting for the new pets, and emerged victorious with one. Huzzah! But on my way to Karazhan, I realized I'd need to solo the Chess Event to get to Prince Malchezaar, who also drops a pet.

I wiped a few times, but things turned around once I read through an excellent Chess Event soloing guide from WoW blogger Tikari of Tikari's Tricks of the Trade.

Keep in mind that even with a great plan, the Chess Event is still plagued with RNG issues. But knowing what to expect will hopefully keep your rage at bay.

Tikari lays out a simple set of moves -- with diagrams -- and priorities to give your king the best chance of surviving, which is the main goal. The event was nerfed to increase the delay between enemy moves, but keep a few tips in mind.
  • Move your king, and queen if you can, out of the fire immediately. Fire isn't a buff!
  • Attack the enemy king with your queen, using the Rain of Fire/Poison Cloud ability. Be sure to target the enemy king with the queen's main attack.
  • The Clerics seem to heal the enemy king more than I remember, but I kept them distracted with other pieces.
  • Medivh doesn't cheat as quickly as he did before, so you'll have time for about four moves before he does so the first time around. Be sure to at least give your king, ideally your queen as well, space to move. I was able to win in the end by moving backward out of fire, drawing the enemy king into it.
Good luck and be sure to check out Tikari's guide for all the details!

Filed under: Achievements, Raid Guides, Mists of Pandaria

Breakfast Topic: Do you read patch notes?

Breakfast Topic Do you read patch notes
Now, if you've been living in a secluded cave on the shores of Darkmoon Island for a few weeks, it's possible that you might not have heard of patch 5.3. This recent augmentation of the WoW universe hit US servers on Tuesday, and brought with it a bewildering array of changes, several for PvP, along with a ton of class changes, some bigger than others, as well as several new scenarios, and a whole new dynamic environment in the Barrens around Orgrimmar. If you're curious about any of this, you could do worse than checking out WoW Insider's Patch 5.3 coverage.

But the question is, do you really read patch notes? The official patch 5.3 notes appeared the day the patch launched, and as someone who processed them for our post on the matter, I am well aware of the sheer magnitude of this document. So the question stands: do you read patch notes? Personally, I do, to an extent. I will look at the general notes, the PvP notes, as well as the notes for raiding, and any class notes that particularly grab my attention. I won't read the pet battle notes, simply because that's not a part of the game I regularly engage in. And I wonder, therefore, whether, if there's a really exciting patch that makes substantial alterations to pet battles, I am missing it all because I just plain don't read the notes. So how about you? Do you read patch notes? Do you read them selectively? In full? Barely at all? What could Blizzard do with them to better hold your interest?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Deepwind Gorge: Simple strategy guide

Deepwind Gorge Simple strategy guide
Deepwing Gorge is the newest battleground in the game, added in patch 5.3. At this precise point in time, it is not in the Rated Battleground rotation, thanks to some bugs, but it will return fairly soon. Nonetheless, this guide is intended for random groups, not for rated teams, who, with additional organization, will be able to execute more complex and precise strategies.

What are we supposed to be doing?

Good question. There are three mines, the Goblin mine, the Center mine, and the Pandaren mine. I wrote about this in more detail back when this was still on the PTR, but suffice it to say, for now, that the Horde has a slight advantage in getting to the Goblin mine, while the Alliance has a slight advantage in getting to the Pandaren mine. As a result of that, a strategy that seems to work well enough for random groups is to split your team, sending around half to the Center mine, and half to either the Goblin or Pandaren mine, depending on which faction you're playing. You will also need to take a few players, depending on your healer numbers, to get the opposite faction's cart. I've been having success with a warrior and a couple of healers as a cart team, but you will need heals at the Center mine, where most of the fighting will take place.

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Filed under: PvP

Community Blog Topic: What's wrong with WoW?

Elf hands
We've talked a lot recently about what's right with WoW. Whether it's the metacommunity, making with the stabby, lore, friends, etc., World of Warcraft keeps us coming back for more. But at the same time, 1.3 million people have left the game since February of this year. WoW still has the most active accounts over all other MMOs at 8.3 million, but people are leaving. Why do you think that is?

Many people complain about the dailies. There are so many and if you are a completionist, your daily to-do list is overwhelming. Others complain about the people. The perceived preponderance of funsuckers in Azeroth can make you not want to log back in, particularly after an unpleasant experience.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

WoW Moviewatch: Black Angel

While the song is most famous for its presence in Lost Boys, Legs turned it into the soundtrack for Black Angel in 2008. For all that it's full of gothic imagery and moody images, I still love the vision of 3 blood elf angels floating in mid-air. Call me a sucker, but it's still one of my favorite tiny bits of machinima. All that being said, this video is 5 years old. It's just amazing how time flies.
Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.


Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

Hearthstone's Secrets of Stranglethorn Vale

Secrets of Stranglethorn Vale
With all the excitement of patch 5.3, you may have missed this interesting little update from Hearthstone: a preview for one of the game board options, Secrets of Stranglethorn Vale. Not only is the artwork beautiful and appropriately atmospheric, but the description hints at a certain interactivity for the player.

If your opponent is taking a long time deciding their move for the turn, an interactive player board offers something for you to do while you're waiting. The Stranglethorn Vale preview also implies that there are going to be multiple different interactive player boards, all based on various zones and cities in WoW. Now I find myself rather curious to see what other areas Blizzard chooses to include as player board options. I'd love to have Desolace, Ashenvale, and the Plaguelands, personally. What kind of boards would you like to spice up your Hearthstone battles?

Filed under: News items, Hearthstone Insider

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