The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

So I was going to write about Med'an again this week, but with patch 5.4 on the horizon it felt like now was the time to talk about Y'Shaarj, the single most active dead god we've ever seen. In case it needs to be said, yes, there's going to be spoilers and lots of spoilers too. We will be talking about the patch 5.4 storyline, and pretty much everything other patch since Mists of Pandaria debuted.

It has been a presence in Pandaria since before it was Pandaria. The mantid served it - indeed, they still revere its memory. The Sha are a result of it. The Titans destroyed it, yet it will not be destroyed. Ancient and terrible, its seven heads proved immortal, its dread essence exhaled out across the very land, bringing the darkest emotions of the mortal heart into stark existence. It is Y'Shaarj. It is dead. And being dead has proved no hindrance. One of the Old Gods, Y'Shaarj has shaped the land in death, and even now, it threatens to return to life.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore, Mists of Pandaria

Filed under: Blizzard

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Ravyncat1 said:

Tomorrow's queue will be a challenge to write due to a hundred plus comments about cheese.

Yep.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue

Hoping to better empathize with her new Horde brethren, submitter Klarisse of Tauren Brute Squad on Argent Dawn (US-H) purchased a Whole-Body Shrinka' to bring herself down to the level of a goblin. But Klarisse, so used to underwhelming vanity item effects, was surprised to find that the Shrinka' actually made her much smaller than she intended. She hearthed back to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to try to find a healer, but ended up being squashed by Jorunga Stonehoof. So basically, never try to see anything from another person's perspective, or you will end up as a smear below the hoof of a giant bull. Truly a lesson for the ages.

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Filed under: Around Azeroth

Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!

Earlier last week we got our first glimpse of the 5.4 PTR as Wowhead and MMO-Champion mined a massive amount of data from the latest update to the test realms. With new features like virtual realms, proving grounds, and flex raids, it's easy to be overwhelmed. As for myself, the first thing I did was hit Ctrl+F and searched for "Paladin" to see what, if any, changes we were due. Truth be told, I wasn't expecting a whole lot of changes for retribution -- we seem to be in a nice place, comfortably in the middle of the pack for DPS with heaps of utility to boot. Boy, was I mistaken.

Before we get into the discussion, do remember that none of these proposed changes are finalized. The "test realms" aren't named that by chance; the developers want to see how things like this play out on a large scale, larger than their internal testing can accommodate, and sift through player feedback from the community. So while we shouldn't get too worked up over one thing or another on the PTR, it's always beneficial to react to changes, at least in a civilized and logical manner.

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Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It, Mists of Pandaria

Sometimes you just need a WoW break, whether it's a day, a week, a month, or even longer. And though stepping away from your gaming friends can be tough, coming back can be even tougher. Have you missed a patch? Several patches? An entire expansion? The game world around you may have changed, your class may have changed, your friends may have advanced past you, your guild may have disbanded. You may find yourself starting anew, and while sometimes that's just what you need to keep the game fresh, sometimes it's just a hassle you don't want. (Trust me, I'm speaking from experience as someone who took a couple of years off.)

So tell us, have you ever taken a WoW vacation? For how long? And how did you deal with getting back into the game when you returned?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics

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Filed under: Blizzard

Every week, join us as we present you with The WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW Insider to emails from our readers and what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth.

Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wowinsider.com! And don't forget to join us for the live show again next Monday at 8:00 p.m. PDT!

Get the podcast:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.
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[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.

Listen here on the page:

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Filed under: Podcasts, WoW Insider Show

I'm not sure I've ever encountered a comparison of The History of WoW to an on-stage production about cooking meatloaf. So, in terms of that, this video is a new one on me. As soon as you enter that kind of metaphor territory, though, you risk bordering on coming across as bitter and resentful. I think Nervous Orca mostly avoids that issue but I did wonder how long it'd be before the rage came blistering through.

The video is full of decent jokes and good moments. But the jokes do drag on a tiny bit too long, especially with the relatively rough animation. Still, that constructive criticism shouldn't hold Orca back because this is a pretty good video. It could have used a strong final punchline, but the whole thing moved in a good direction.

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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.

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Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

If you're just getting started with WoW -- or even if you aren't -- picking the perfect class to play can be a challenge. But the number of class options doesn't mean you need to close your eyes and see where your cursor lands in order to pick the class you're going to play. With a bit of research, you can make an informed decision on which class best fits how you like to game -- and we're here to help. Today, we're talking about priests, spiritual devotees who unleash the powers of light and shadow to heal or harm.

Priests are unique in their talent specializations: while specializations for most classes mean multiple ways to do damage or fill different class roles, priests are the only class with two healing-focused specializations: holy and discipline. These two specs offer very different ways to heal, which can make priests very versatile healers... if you're into that kind of thing. But even if you aren't, don't count priests out as on offensive class: their shadow specialization gives them access to a powerful arsenal of damage spells, which could make priest the class for you even if you never want to cast a healing spell.

But does that mean you should be playing a priest? Read on and we'll discuss just what priests can do.

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Filed under: Priest, WoW Rookie