Posts with tag featured

Arcane Brilliance: Familiars, porcupines and Frostbolt healing, oh my!

by Christian Belt May 26th 2012 at 2:00PM

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we'll be discussing a few of the more recent additions and tweaks to our class on the Mists of Pandaria beta. Some of them are awesome. Some of them are silly. And some of them are porcupines.

You see that thing up there in the picture? That tiny little legless flaming elemental from vanilla WoW? That's one of our three new familiars. That's right: familiars.

I've actively campaigned for mage familiars in the past, even as far back as this crusty old post from 2008, in which I also wished for more portals, a Blink spell that actually worked, and a rumored new ability called Mirror Image, which I believed would prove to be a combination of a bacon double cheeseburger, the second coming of Christ, and a double rainbow out of a leprechaun's butt. So young! So naive.

I always imagined my mage running around with a tiny furry minion, maybe mouse with glowing eyes, or an ominous crow, possibly animated by Don Bluth, that would do my bidding and tell me which cottage in the forest Princess Aurora was hiding in. I imagined a wizardly pet that would be always by my mage's side, part of the persona, perhaps conferring a passive buff or something.

Well that isn't quite what we're getting here.

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance, Mists of Pandaria

The Queue: The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Commemorative Shaving Mug

by Mathew McCurley May 26th 2012 at 12:00PM

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today.

If you know me a tiny bit or follow my Twitter, you know that I'm sort of a nerd when it comes to shaving. Not content with the Mach 3 quad-blade whatever and desperate to save cash, I decided to search for something better. Like most young men of the internet age, I found mantic59 by way of a forum post or somesuch that lauded the benefits of traditional wet shaving and fragrant lathering, and my life changed forever. If you're interested, start here, and watch them all.

Anyway, I've never considered myself a true shaving fan because the visceral reaction to my fandom was never profound. It was fun for me, sure, but the outward expression of the thing was just not there yet and it was my personal experience. However, when I saw Truefitt and Hill showing off their Jubilee Commemorative Shaving Mug for the Queen of England's Diamond Jubilee in 2012, I wanted it. I want it bad, and I'll do anything to get it. Then it hit me; I'm sure excited about a shaving mug. Could be a whole lot worse.

So, men, I implore you. If you shave, shave like a man. I can give you no better, no more sagely, and no more important advice. You'll be better for it.

Questions?

ancientn00b asked:

What happens if we enter a cross realm zone and someone is there with the same name? Will it be like in dungeons where their realm name is after their name? Also will we be able to join with them in a party to quest together?

Filed under: The Queue

Around Azeroth Beta Edition: Mediocre meditation

by Elizabeth Wachowski May 26th 2012 at 10:00AM

With the release of new monk glyphs onto the Mists of Pandaria beta servers, submitter Saphixeron of Yingyang Eagles on Argent Dawn (EU-A) took the opportunity to test out the Glyph of Zen Flight. Here he is, flying through the air on a cloud of ... what? Come on. You know you're thinking it. Just say it. Panda farts.

Gallery: Around Azeroth 3

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

WoW Moviewatch: Skullcrusher Mountain

by Michael Gray May 25th 2012 at 6:00PM

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!

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

Enter to win a Collector's Edition World of Warcraft Monopoly set

by Alex Ziebart May 25th 2012 at 5:00PM

Earlier this week, we discovered an unexpected package on our doorstep: a World of Warcraft "Collector's Edition" Monopoly set straight from Irvine, California. We've been following the progress of this product since its premature leak back in February, through the community voting process to choose the play pieces, and the reveal of whose faces will grace the big bills. Very rarely do we get to watch the development process of a licensed product so closely, so it's a pleasure to now hold the actual product in our hands.

Of course, the best way to celebrate getting our hands on the product is to immediately give it to someone else. That's exactly what we're going to do to bring the month of May to a close. We're going to follow in our big brother Joystiq's footsteps on this one -- to enter, answer a simple question in the comments below: given the opportunity, where in the world of Warcraft would you buy real estate?

Rules and conditions for this giveaway are listed after the break.

Gallery: Monopoly 'World of Warcraft Collector's Edition' Set

Filed under: Contests

Mists of Pandaria Arena Pass Realm: PvP Sandbox?

by Olivia Grace May 25th 2012 at 2:00PM

If you're signed up to the 2012 Arena Pass realm, chances are you're fairly into your PvP. I can imagine that you, like me, are daydreaming about the changes to your favourite class in Mists of Pandaria, and wondering what you'll be playing when the Pandas come to town. Maybe you're thinking of switching your main PvP character to something different, or, like me, wondering whether a pandaren will actually be the best race for your preferred class.

Wouldn't it be great if there was some way you could have a go with a max-level, fully geared character shortly after the start of Mists before you had to make such a big decision? Guess what? If you signed up for the 2012 Arena Pass realm, it's likely that you can!

Blizz Blue Nakatoir posted the following a few weeks back, in a dark corner of the EU forums:

Nakatoir

Sorry to come back to this so late. But I just wanted to let you know that we plan to have the level 90 realm up as soon as possible after the release of Mists of Pandaria, it may even be accessible within weeks after the release but this is not guaranteed.

"What does this mean for me?" you might ask, well this means that you may be able to access the Mists Arena Pass realm and get the epic PvP gear long before it is possible to have close to the same level of gear on the live realms. So you may be able to have access to the best PvP gear on the Arena Pass realm before most people will even have any on the live realms. :O

source

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited about this!

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

Filed under: PvP, Mists of Pandaria

Raid Rx: Recap of recent healing changes

by Matt Low May 25th 2012 at 1:00PM

Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast.

There's been some large changes to healing for some of the classes in recent builds. This week, we'll recap and go through the classes to see what's new. You might be interested to know that at level 89, my priest has 250k mana. Who wants to wager that 300k mana is the maximum cap at level 90? Remember with the new intellect and mana system coming in with the expansion, intellect stats no longer raise the mana pool anymore. Your mana regeneration is governed strictly by your spirit levels.

Priest

Lightwell receives a few tweaks to the healing numbers. More importantly, it now has a glyph that completely changes the functionality of the spell. Glyph of Lightspring turns Lightwell into an automatic healing ability with a catch. Lightwell will only heal players with health lower than 50%. It will only perform the check once every 5 seconds. That is a fair compromise to me. I've never been truly satisfied with Lightwell since my experience has shown me that most players never click on it when it really matters. At least this glyph helps remove control from them and I gain the knowledge of my Lightwell kicking in when it'll be needed.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raid Rx (Raid Healing), Mists of Pandaria

The Lawbringer: Diablo sells lots, Blizzard dodges another bullet

by Mathew McCurley May 25th 2012 at 12:00PM

Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks.

Blizzard has been off to a pretty good start with Diablo III, selling who-cares-at-this-point millions of copies of the game people have been waiting over a decade to get their hands on. The craziest part about the whole thing is that it lived up to the hype -- a new Diablo game that felt like a Diablo game. Good for you, Blizzard! That's not what today's Lawbringer is about, no sir or ma'am. I've got a few topics I'd like to ramble on about today.

You know those days in high school when the teacher was inbetween lesson plans and they just sort of rambled to you for that one day that they had set aside in case Federico didn't understand the "green light" symbolism in The Great Gatsby? That story happened, but I changed the names to make it more funny to the people who get the joke. Great way to start off this edition, right? Make the most inside-baseball column on WoW Insider get a little more in-jokey. Mat, you sure know how to hook 'em.

No, wait, stay. I've got lots to say about Diablo III, the potential issues with the real money auction house, and my own thoughts on the cross-realm compromise and dodging the dreaded "merge." I think you'll have plenty to say in the comments after today's topics -- they are some of my favorites.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Lawbringer

The Queue: Bloody Mary

by Michael Sacco May 25th 2012 at 11:00AM

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

One of my favorite songs this year, from the new Silversun Pickups album. I adore it. You might, too!

JaredLorenz asked:

How will cross-realm zones in MoP affect herbing and mining nodes? Will these nodes still spawn realm specific? Also, will the zones always be cross-realm, or only when sparsely populated?

Yes, you'll share the same nodes. The devs said they'd keep an eye on that to make sure it wasn't affecting gameplay in any drastic way. And yes, realm-sharing is based on population and also won't happen in current-expansion content.

Filed under: The Queue

Around Azeroth Beta Edition: The great migration

by Elizabeth Wachowski May 25th 2012 at 10:00AM

The swallows of Capistrano are for amateurs and tourists. In the late spring, real thrill-seekers descend upon Shan'ze Dao in Townlong Steppes to watch the dragons of Pandaria return to their ancestral homelands, led by the dragon god Hei Feng. The migration is beautiful and only has a 60% fatality rate among spectators when it's raining outside. (Thanks to beta tester Antillesw of Knights of Honor on Stormwind [US-A] for the screenshot!)

Gallery: Around Azeroth 3

Filed under: Around Azeroth

Drama Mamas: When marital troubles are played out in guild

by Robin Torres May 25th 2012 at 9:00AM

Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm.

The above video has nothing to do with this week's letter. Deal.

Hello Ladies,

I am a member of a fairly old casual raiding guild. Coming into Cataclysm, our GM/RL left for a hard core guild and leadership was transferred to other officers. There were some hard feelings and it was a very rough patch but we persevered for the most part. We were even able to recruit as our new raid lead, a returning raid team member who had quit playing WOW for personal reasons.

Unfortunately, those personal reasons involved his wife having multiple affairs, some via Wow. Worse, he told quite a few guildies about it when he left. Even more worse, she was a guild member also and as she has communicated, he "allowed" her to come back.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Drama Mamas

Breakfast Topic: What's the best excuse you've ever heard?

by Anne Stickney May 25th 2012 at 8:00AM

Once upon a time when my guild was raiding Icecrown Citadel back in Wrath, we had a few players who were notorious at making excuses for sudden AFK's or calling off. It wasn't the first time I'd heard of this however -- previous guilds had members that also used any excuse in the book to take a break. One raider in an earlier guild I was in was notorious for screwing up achievements for the guild. After wiping our raid for the umpteenth time in the middle of an extremely difficult achievement, he promptly typed into raid chat that he had to go next door and deliver his neighbor's baby.

Now you would think this was ridiculous enough on its own, but he then made a long, detailed, thought-out post on the guild forums about how he was fine and so was the neighbor and she had a little boy and he was just beautiful ... he waxed on and on and on. Someone asked him to post a picture of the child, at which point he promptly made some excuse about scheduling and quietly left the guild. For the next few months, anyone going AFK would blurt "AFK-having-baby" in vent as fast as they could and crack everyone up.

Players all have their own reasons for going AFK, or even calling off to a raid. But sometimes the excuses are just that -- excuses. And that's where the Warcraft player base seems to shine in creativity. Assisting with childbirth has to be the one of the toppers on my list, right up there with the guild member that went AFK to answer the door with a gun (I ... never really did find out the details on that one, but I don't think I really wanted to know), and "The pool is on fire." So let's hear it guys -- what are the best excuses you've ever heard for calling off or sudden AFK's?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

WoW Moviewatch: The Day After the Cataclysm Ended

by Michael Gray May 24th 2012 at 6:15PM

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.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

The OverAchiever: Are pet achievements disappearing in Mists of Pandaria?

by Allison Robert May 24th 2012 at 5:00PM

Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, it's myth-explodin' time.

Last week in the comment thread for OverAchiever: Achievements to do before it's too late, there were a few notes from readers who were worried that noncombat pet achievements were going to disappear in Mists of Pandaria. This shocked me, because I could have sworn I saw pet achievements flash across the screen during the spam I always get when I copy my main to a beta or PTR, and I hadn't been aware that these achievements were actually missing from the General category. I was also sure there would have been some pretty high-profile news about it if developers were planning to axe them. Especially with the introduction of Pet Battles, it seemed like a very strange time for Blizzard to get rid of related achievements.

Then again, these are also the people who put the Aldor Rise elevator and Warsong Gulch rep in the game, so we already know they're capable of real cruelty.

OverAchiever's pretty much pointless if I don't use it to investigate stuff that I could have warned readers about well in advance, and pets are serious business. So, another character copy onto the beta later, I have an answer for you about what's going on.

Filed under: Achievements, The Overachiever

What is Mists of Pandaria?

by Michael Gray May 24th 2012 at 4:00PM

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.

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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