Welcome to the all-exciting, weekly news recap featuring Panser of TradeChat! In our weekly recap, we'll be tackling the hottest news and whatever other kickin', rad items have come our way throughout the last week. This week's topics include:

• The final phase of Arena Pass 2012 has begun!
• Behold, the Dragon Turtle!
• Reforge on the hoof
• Say goodbye to the daily quest cap
• Transmog into the women of DC
• Them excuses, man

Make sure you subscribe to TradeChat and check back every week for more Weekly Recaps!

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Filed under: News items

When last we left our heroes, they were derailed by Diablo III. Because that certainly hasn't happened to anyone else. Unfortunately, their erstwhile trip to Sanctuary means Miranda remains in captivity.

"Your friends are taking a long time to mount a rescue," the shadowy man said. "I expected them by now."

"This is going to start feeling like filler," Miranda muttered to her raven. "I'm hungry. What've you got to eat?"

The man returned to Miranda's cage, sliding a bowl under the door. "I've made something very good for you. Black Pepper Steak and Shrimp."

"Black Pepper Steak? Really? We're going there? That's how this is going to be?"

"Black Pepper Steak is awfully good, young lady," the man said. "The amount of health and mana you gain from it is mindblowing compared to your feeble, contemporary food."

Miranda chewed slowly. "Wow, yeah, it really is, isn't it? So, why aren't you Pandaren? That seems like the most likely villain to advance the st... range events we've been suffering."

"I'm an old friend," the man answered. He pursed his lips for a moment. "I'm surprised you haven't escaped."

"How do you know I haven't? You could be looking at an illusion right now or a doppleganger. You have no way of knowing."

"Hm. That would explain why no rescue has appeared. If you'll pardon me, I need to check on things."

When the man had left, Miranda used to the chopsticks to continue picking the lock.

Item Notes: Pepper steak, y'all. So good. I've been craving it all week, now.

[Image credit: Stu Spivack]

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Phat Loot Phriday brings you the scoop on some of the most ... interesting ... loot in the World of Warcraft, often viewed through the eyes of the stalwart Throgg and indelible Lolegolas. Suggest items you think we should feature by emailing mikeg@wowinsider.com.

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Filed under: Phat Loot Phriday

So, unlike many among us, I didn't learn about Jonathan Coulton through sheer cultural osmosis. I learned about him through machinima. In fact, my proto-love of JoCo was entirely created through this video... Skullcrusher Mountain.

Not to be too frank about it, but it took me some time to realize that JoCo wasn't entirely a WoW filk artist. I know that seem crazy but my deep love of Spiffworld's work led me astray. And while I now have a more nuanced understanding of JoCo and Spiffworld, I still look back to Skullcrusher Mountain with the sense that the song was written for WoW.

Anecdote aside, this video is still a legend. Over 1.3 million views testify to its glory. Enjoy your stay!

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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

With more people killing Deathwing every single day, an inevitable and troubling question keeps coming up: "What will happen to the dragons now?" They gave up their immortality so that we can begin the Time of Man, and we didn't see any white-sailed ships floating to the horizon to explain their scaly fate. So what happened?

Ineffable genius Myndflame tackled that question, grabbing vocal talent Ember Isolte to take the part of the Lifebinder. You can't miss Myndflame's knack for comedic timing and genius reversal of expectations. Finally, we know what happened The Day After The Cataclysm Ended.

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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

You can hardly load up a WoW site without getting barraged by panda news. That information seems obvious -- after all, we're all sitting around drooling for the new expansion. But if you're the kind of player who prefers staying spoiler-free, then the substantive news about Mists of Pandaria versus the minutiae can seem overwhelming. So let's kick back on our armchair in the clouds and take a good, high-level look at the new expansion.

First things first. Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion to World of Warcraft. We've already had The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. This is the (very, very) basic story so far: In The Burning Crusade, the Horde and Alliance went off to Outland to bring down the machinations of a handful of elves and demons. While they were gone, though, the Lich King rose back up and attacked. Once the Lich King was defeated, a big, bad dragon woke up and wrecked shop on Azeroth. In Mists of Pandaria, the Horde and Alliance have dealt with external threats and are now turning their eyes to one another.

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Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

So, rumor has it that a certain burly warrior has returned to tanking. I'm pretty excited to see my good friend back in the sword and board club, so I couldn't let the event to go by without a little shout-out. Mr. Rossi, this one's for you.

Tanked a Boss is an old machinima. It's like five years old. In internet years, that's like prehistoric times. I think we were all playing WoW on TI-8 calculators back then or something. With that in mind, don't judge this video too harshly. Just kick back, let the off-key singing transport you to a magical realm of threat and mitigation, and welcome Mr. Rossi back to our tanking ways.

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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

Our good friends over at Wowhead found a special treasure included in the latest beta patch. That treasure? Nothing short of the Mists login screen. Veteran players know the login screen design is critically important, since we'll be staring at that sucker for the next two years.

These are still images, so we don't know what the final animations might look like, but these gorgeous screenshots look like a pleasant change from WoW's previous dragons-and-yelling motif on login screens. Take a look at a hypothetical final behind the cut, and let us know what you think in comments.

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Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

Work warning: The song's about ERP. Now, the lyrics are actually fairly tame and the graphics don't show particularly naughty bits, especially when you consider that we're talking about ERP -- but still, it's about ERP.

Night Elf ERP by Sharm and Khayllys tackles that naughty center of WoW's roleplay world: ERP. That's the adult version of roleplay, and I'm not going to explain it much deeper than that. The song manages to avoid being a long homage to Goldshire, though you can't talk about this subject without at least mentioning the inn there.

This video was fantastic. I loved it. It was funny, lighthearted, and gorgeous. It maintains this sense of self-deprecation that takes the bite off its lyrics. Sharm's vocals bring the beauty, and Khallys really put forth some glittering eye candy. My hat's off to you.

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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

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Filed under: News items, Diablo 3

There's a subtle thing in Diablo III that's a welcome relief from PUGs in WoW: you get your own loot. The other person can't even see your loot. While that's a pain in the neck in a coordinated group, it's awesome to avoid troublesome loot ninjas. There may even be a bright, joyous future where loot ninjas are a thing of the past.

Now's the time, therefore, to enjoy that legendary piece of machinima called Ninja Raiders. One of the most famous parody songs WoW has seen, Ninja Raiders is so excellently performed, wondrously animated, and tone-perfectly scripted that it'll get stuck in your brain for a week. Enjoy it now. Won't be too long before the idea of a ninja raider doesn't have much relevance.

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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