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For those of us who like to collect stuff in WoW, one of the cooler announcements for patch 3.2 was the inclusion of a whole new set of raptor hatchling pets, dropped around the world by rare and elite raptors. Of course, it was also an announcement of dread for serious collectors who can tell horror stories of killing thousands upon thousands of slimes and dragons for rare pets before. But will it be all as bad as that? WoW fansites have been on the case.

Mania, maven of Hunter pets, has also been looking into the drop rates and drop mobs, and has compiled a handy chart on her blog. Between Mania and the news on Warcraft Pets, it seems we can mostly confirm that the rare raptors (such as, for example, Takk the Leaper) will always drop their pets, while those that drop only off elites have a very rare drop rate more similar to the aforementioned slimes or dragons.

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Filed under: Patches, Items, Tips, Achievements

So I've talked recently about life as an RPer, and how we seem to interact with our characters just a bit differently. Sometimes, whether we like it or not, a certain character and their back story just grab hold and won't let go, and we find ourselves coming back again and again, just to see where the story leads.

Of course, sometimes the character goes just the opposite way, and no matter what you do, your stories fall flat and you don't feel enthusiastic about logging on. It may be because you can't stand the character's personality anymore, it may be because your normal group of friends has hit an RP rut or even taken a break for a while themselves, it may be a variety of other things. Recently, Anna of Too Many Annas wrote a pretty awesome article about how to refresh a flagging RP character using 5 Rs: Relax and Rest, Reintegrate, Refresh the Character, Retcon, and Reroll/Reskin.

What's sort of cool about this list is that you can even apply a lot of the principles to characters in general, even if you're a non-RPer. Anna's covered the RP angle pretty well, so I'll mostly focus on this other angle.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, RP

So we're swimming in news again this week, what with the patch 3.2 PTR well underway (you can check out the latest patch notes right here) and all, but the biggest piece of news for me, remains the faction changes. If nothing else, this should pave the way for me to be able to switch every single one of my characters to the High Elf race once they're finally implemented. Of course, that's not the only race-related news bouncing around this week. It also looks like the Tauren may be looking to make some waves in lore.

But anyhow, we have some nice long maintenance today, so you should have plenty of time to read the above stories and all the awesome news coming out of the PTR while you're at it. Check out a list of some of the highlights of the past 7 days below, and be sure to stick around throughout the day. There's bound to be more patch 3.2 news trickling in.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Odds and ends, News items

Once again, we have maintenance off the port bow. You'd almost think this is a weekly scheduled thing, eh?

This week, though, is one of those special extended maintenance weeks, with servers down from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific. No, despite the extended maintenance, we aren't expecting patch 3.2 yet.

In addition, other servers will be down an extra 2 hours starting at 1 AM Pacific time.

We have the full list of said servers after the break, and it's actually a somewhat long one.

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Filed under: Realm Status, News items

Reader Chad forwarded us this screen shot of a conversation that takes place over on Elder rise in Thunder Bluff between two Tauren on the patch 3.2 PTR. Apparently it actually begins with a new quest by the Dalaran Portals, as pointed out in this thread at Scrolls of Lore, and while the quest leads nowhere, you do get to hear the linked dialogue.

In it, Aponi Brightmane, a wounded warrior who wishes to return the front lines in Northrend, and Tahu Sagewind, a Druid, speak together about the history of Druidism, the moon, and the sun. They speak of Elune, whom they know as Mu'sha, one of the eyes of the the Earth Mother. They mention that it seems strange that if Tauren were the first Druids as their legends claim, that all Hamuul Runetotem teaches is the moon power of the Night Elves. Tahu wonders if Druids themselves, because of this, are out of balance. The idea segues back into the idea of the world out of balance due to the influence of the Scourge, wondering if sitting idle in Thunder Bluff is really a good idea when the Northern front is so bleak, wondering if balance must needs to be returned by action.

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Filed under: Night Elves, Tauren, Druid, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Expansions, Lore, RP, NPCs, Rumors

So patch 3.2 will be bringing some pretty significant changes to PvP Battlegrounds to say the least. Not only will Wintergrasp be morphing into a weird quasi-battleground with queue, but Warsong Gulch is getting a time limit, Eye of the Storm and Arathi's resource goal is being slashed, and we're getting a whole new battleground in the Isle of Conquest. In short, we're going to have some soul searching to do while we decide where to get our non-arena organized PvP fix on.

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Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Breakfast topics, Battlegrounds

We've heard these were coming, and now they're here: heirloom chest pieces. We just grabbed these screenshots hot off the patch 3.2 PTR. These are the level 80 versions, of course, but you can get a feel for what each chest has, statwise. You'll notice that the promised 10% experience gain is there on all the pieces, and that they are slightly bugged right now in that each of them has no armor.

You'll also notice that the names and graphics, which hearken back to old original WoW gear, mostly match up with existing heirloom shoulders, so you'll even be able to get your newbie all color coordinated and whatnot. Of course, a set bonus would have been nice too, but I'm sure we'll all be able to comfort ourselves with that nice big experience gain boost. The chests currently cost 40 Heroism badges and a bit of gold to buy, although that may change before the patch goes live.

Filed under: Patches, Items, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Alts

For most of vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade, my main was a Druid. I healed, I tanked, I DPS, I raided, I PvPed, I did everything with him. He was a great character, I found the class fun (Yes, even before patch 1.8, thank you very much). But somewhere around mid-Burning Crusade, I just plain burnt out on Druids. I don't know if it was just one too many bad raids, if it was just familiarity breeding contempt, or what, but I switched to a Hunter and never looked back.

When Death Knights were announced, I knew that was my new class, and I also knew that my Druid was probably doomed to be level 70 for good. I'd focus on my Death Knight, then my Hunter, then probably my Shaman for heals, followed by my Warlock. My Druid would just languish in Shattrath unless I was really, incredibly bored.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Breakfast topics, Classes, Alts

Yes, it's that time again, the time for the Midsummer Fire Festival. Unfortunately, a series of mishaps, bugs, and a lack of meaningful upgrades from last year's celebration have soured the festival for a lot of people, but there is at least some comfort, as we'll have a few Midsummer's fixes rolled out tonight. The only problem is that it will reset all progress on most half-finished achievements, so if you're in the middle of working on the Midsummer's stuff already, you may find that all your hard work was no more yielding but a dream, so to speak.

Apart from the festival, this week has bought us an information overload on patch 3.2 to say the least. Not that that's a bad thing, per se, but it can be pretty daunting to dig through all this crazy information and get at the meat of the patch. Luckily, we've been breaking it down for you all week. While you wait out the rolling restarts or your work day, you can read all about the patch in nice article-sized chunks here on WoW.com. In addition to the roundup of the past week's news below, you can also always check out our guide to Patch 3.2, which is constantly updated. Keep it bookmarked! Otherwise, read on below.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, News items

Welcome to Lichborne, the Death Knight column, with your host, Daniel Whitcomb.

On my first read-through of the Patch 3.2 Death Knight patch notes, I had to chuckle a bit. If the theme of the Retribution overhauls was making Retribution DPS a bit more complicated, it was definitely very much about the simplification for Death Knights. Simplification is a relative term, of course, given that rune rotations are still in full effect, but there has been some streamlining of techniques and adjustment of cooldowns that will lead many of us to do some tuning up on our rotations. Let's take a deep look at the changes and see what they'll mean for us going forward into Patch 3.2.

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Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Classes, Talents, Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne