Well, this is a welcome change -- now that Frozen Orbs are going to be the new crafting tokens, exchangeable for Frost Lotus and Eternal Fire, among other things, Wryxian announced that they will be greed only in the upcoming patch.

Wryxian

No, you won't be able to exchange Frozen Orbs for Emblems of Frost. Yeah it just takes one person to press Need after everyone's pressed Greed on the Frozen Orbs and you miss out. But the good news is that in patch 3.3.3 this won't be the case anymore -- the roll for Frozen Orbs will be an automatic Greed roll. Rejoice!

source

I wonder whether this is now some sort of flag in their database that they could use for other items. Like Books of Glyph Mastery. Nothing is more annoying than someone ninja looting jerk looting something that everyone gains equal benefit from.

Edit: Ninjas are cool. People who steal from their peers are not. Stop calling them ninjas.

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Patch 3.3.3 brings about small but noteworthy changes to the World of Warcraft. From a faster CoT, to putting those old Frozen Orbs to better use, to changes to the auction house -- there's several things all WoW players need to know. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3.3 will keep you up to date!

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

This is another entry into Alienware's Rise to Power contest. Farinar Presents: Oswald's Amazing Story of EVIL! is the story of a squirrel in Elwynn Forest who is tired of the abuse he receives from passing adventurers. After seeing a campaign poster for the king of Stormwind, the squirrel decides to take steps to defend itself in the future.

This video was hilarious to me, and is the first comedy entry we've seen in the Rise to Power contest. Farinar did some amazing stuff with this video. One moment in particular stuck out to me. When the squirrel lights the fuse on his rocket ship, you'll notice the action is entirely implied by the scene framing. You obviously don't see the squirrel holding the match, just the tip touching the fuse. This kind of clever framing is one of the ways skilled machinimators like Farinar manage to make their videos have so much action, even while working within the limitations of WoW's models.

My only sad moment during the video is when the squirrel becomes a cybernetic killing machine. I was really looking for a Dath Vader moment when it screams, "Noooooooo!" I guess it makes sense that didn't happen, but I still would have giggled like a madman.

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Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

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

Adam, when you get back from vacation, you're going to write the Queue for a week after causing 220+ comments to be written about sea mice. You're on notice!

DarkFinch asked...

Is there any time when Army of the Dead is appropriate in a 5-man instance?

I guess that depends on your definition of "appropriate." If by that, you mean "hilarious," then let me introduce you to a little game called Dragon Roulette.

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Filed under: The Queue

Yes, yes, it's my second Los Lobos reference in as many days, but they're a good band and "That Train Don't Stop Here" is pretty tight. Anyway, Karli sent in this screenshot of her character using the Rituals of the New Moon to give her lupine friend some companionship. I'd be somewhat concerned that when she changes back in two minutes she'll be the other wolf's dinner, but even if it wasn't domesticated, WoW wolves of this particular fur color tend to be under level 10.

Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val'kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

Filed under: Around Azeroth

The Drama Mamas are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. How to handle that sticky situation? Ask the Drama Mamas at DramaMamas@wow.com.

That's it! I've had it. There's a nasty little problem gnawing its way through guilds across Azeroth, and the people who can fix the situation aren't even listening. One simple change would solve probably half of the questions the Drama Mamas receive every week. Even worse, we've covered this matter multiple times before, but certain people (ahem) don't seem to have their listening caps on.

So allow me apologize in advance to our letter-writer this week, because I'm not going to answer his question. (And let me apologize to Robin in advance, too, since she'll be left picking up the actual question.) Instead, I'm going to lay out the underlying situation clearly enough that perhaps a few of the guilty parties will wake up and take notice.

Guild officers: listen up.

Hey Mamas: With my current guild we've been hitting ICC-25 regularly since its release, but I've noticed we've been hitting a wall lately. Sadly, "the wall" isn't Putricide or Blood Queen or any of the bosses, for that matter. The wall is the guild itself. We've cleared all non-gated bosses up to Dreamwalker, but now all of a sudden people seem to have cold feet. Our healers are pretty crummy, except for one or two of them (if they show), which has meant that certain fights have been disproportionately harder than others. Festergut is one those. But our guild's failure on Blood Queen, due to the healers' inability to stay on top of the damage, is now preventing us from moving on to Dreamwalker. The rationale here is that if the Queen is impossible for us to get down, then we shouldn't even "waste" time on Dreamwalker.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Drama Mamas

Meet Sylvanas. She's about ten weeks old, and she awfully likes to gnaw on bones and my slippers. I'm aware that makes me a giant dork. I probably should have thought twice about naming my puppy after Sylvanas, but it's an awful lot of fun to point out things like "Sylvanas snores." My favorite is "Sylvanas has been sleeping with me and my wife all week." I know, I have the sophomoric sense of humor of a twelve year old.

But, really, Sylvie's adorable. However, I couldn't make this post if all I were doing was saying I named my dog after World of Warcraft. No, no, I'm going much further. Instead of telling her to "sit," I'm training her to plant her butt when she's told "Lok'tar." (That's not a very Orc-like use of the phrase, I know, but it's still very endearing.) "Ogar" is her command to "heel."

I'd like to pretend I'll eventually have Sylvia trained to a precision level like any good hunter pet. But for now, I'm just going to be satisfied if I can get her to stop chewing my slippers.

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Each day WoW.com will take you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From Ghostcrawler's latest posts to the lowdown on StarCraft II and Diablo III, we'll keep you informed.

Ghostcrawler was on the quiet side today, but the forums were still ablaze with chatter. StarCraft II fans in particular are in for a fun information dump in the near future.

Table of Contents

• Ghostcrawler
• Other
• StarCraft II / Diablo III / Blizzard News

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Filed under: The Daily Blues

With all the news regarding the WoW Trading Card Game, avid players have been wondering exactly what's going on, where the license is going, and who's going to be producing new cards, if any. While there aren't any answers to these questions specifically, it's heartening to note that Blizzard just added a new Trading Card Game section to the official forums, solely for discussion about the TCG. The card game hasn't been forgotten, and neither have its players.

The question of what the future of the TCG will bring has already been addressed on the forums by Eyonix, who restated Blizzard's earlier announcement that Blizzard and UDE would be parting ways. He also reassured players that Blizzard is committed to supporting the TCG and will be releasing new content in the near future, although there are still no new details as to who is picking up the license.

While this also doesn't really answer any questions, it's good to know that Blizzard is still thinking about the TCG community -- and this gives an ideal place for Blizzard to post any updates regarding the game's production. Hopefully we'll see more news on the future of the TCG soon.

Filed under: News items, WoW TCG

Celestial steeds and more toys aren't the only new things coming in patch 3.3.3! With the new content also comes a variety of new music. Savvy dataminer Leviathonlx dug up several new tracks for the big events going on in the new patch. Accompanying the trolls in Operation Echo Isles will be an epic score tailored to the event, whether the calm before combat, the thick of the battle, or the climax of the fight, the music will get you in the mood for the voodoo.

Also uncovered was a track centered around the Ruby Sanctum. Not to be outdone by the trolls, the Red Dragonflight has made a strong showing with spooky music all their own.

• ZF Big Battle
• ZF Med Battle
• ZF Quiet
• Ruby Sanctum

Blizzard has always made it a point to use mood- and setting-appropriate music in all of their zones, instances and, on a larger scale, games. These cinematic-style tracks are no exception.

Be sure to check back often, as we'll keep you up to date with all news about Patch 3.3.3.

Filed under: News items

World of Warcraft players using a Mac should be pleased to hear that gaming peripherals manufacturer Razer pledged their commitment to supporting the Mac gaming community at the Game Developers Conference. They announced that all upcoming Razer products will come with Mac driver support, including the Razer StarCraft 2 peripheral suite scheduled for release later this year.

Prior to the Razer DeathAdder Mac Edition in 2008, all Razer mice and peripherals only had native Windows support and drivers. While these products would generally work with a Mac through its plug-and-play technology, customizing them was more difficult and in some cases, impossible. In order to configure my Razer Lachesis to make all its buttons usable on my Mac, I had to configure it on a PC and mapped some of the buttons as little used keyboard keys because the Mac wouldn't recognize click-throughs from more than a few mouse buttons.

This situation improved with the release of the Razer Naga, which shipped with native Mac support, although the key-mapping functionality for the Mac came several weeks after the PC version. Currently, newer mice come with basic Mac support, although Razer promises the same functionality and customizability as their PC counterparts through future updates. Razer also promises to release Mac drivers for all existing products, which presumably includes their line of headsets and keyboards. While Mac gamers have always been treated as second class citizens by most peripheral manufacturers, it's encouraging to see a major player pay the community some attention. I mean, the Magic Mouse is awesome and all, but there's nothing like having a real gaming mouse to play WoW.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items