WoW.com http://www.wow.com WoW.com http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wow.com/media/feedlogo.gif WoW.com http://www.wow.com prods@weblogsinc.com (Weblogs, Inc. Producers) (Weblogs, Inc. Web Support) en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. View our terms of service here: http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/ Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/ <![CDATA[Tough Love: How to kill the Crown Chemical Co. apothecaries]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/07/tough-love-how-to-kill-the-crown-chemical-co-apothecaries/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/07/tough-love-how-to-kill-the-crown-chemical-co-apothecaries/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/07/tough-love-how-to-kill-the-crown-chemical-co-apothecaries/#comments Update: We've added an overhead video to help you understand how the immunities work. Now, back to your regularly scheduled strategy guide.

Want to do the Love is in the Air holiday bosses? Short version: don't stand in things.

Longer version, you say? Sure, we can do that. First off, while there is a quest chain that leads you to Shadowfang Keep, you do not have to have done any of those quests to engage the evil Crown Chemical Company apothecaries: there's a helpful NPC, Investigator Fezzen Brasstacks who will give you the quest and items necessary for the fight. Like previous holiday bosses, you'll be able to engage the apothecaries once per player so yes, you can chain in alts and keep repeating the fight over and over again. (I believe we killed them roughly eight times before people started getting sleepy.)

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Tough Love: How to kill the Crown Chemical Co. apothecaries originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Apothecary-BaxterApothecary-FryeApothecary-HummelbossesHolidaylove-is-in-the-airlove-is-in-the-air-guidelove-is-in-the-air-wow (Matthew Rossi) Sun, 07 Feb 2010 06:15:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury 101, Page 2]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-fury-101-page-2/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-fury-101-page-2/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-fury-101-page-2/#comments Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury 101, Page 2

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury 101, Page 2 originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury 101]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-fury-101/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-fury-101/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-fury-101/#comments
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is here to hurt things this week. Hurt them, make them bleed, make them die, stand over their corpses and find something else to kill. Hear the warsong hammering in your ears? Let it out. Let it out and show the world your rage. Matthew Rossi knows that sometimes, dead is better.

Last week, we talked about Protection. Protection warriors are the tanks of the warrior class, the guys who stand up there and bang on their shields and bang their shields into things ranging the gamut from large horrible squamous tentacle monsters in Old Kingdom to giant walking bone piles in ICC. And that's fine: somebody has to keep the monsters and bosses of the game focused on a hard target so the rest of us can kill it. It's good to see prot warriors alongside bears, walking corpses and daisy picking fancylads doing the tank job. (I kid you paladins because my heart is black and full of envy.) It's good that there are warrior tanks.

But that's not you, is it? You haven't read this far because you want to tank. If you did, you'd have clicked that link and been on your merry way. You don't want to tank. You don't want to stand up front and keep monsters attention focused like some kind of giant nursery school teacher for the horrors of Azeroth. No, you don't want to tank.

You want to kill things. You want to rip them into bloody gobbets and leave their ruined, looted corpses in your wake. You want to wear two huge weapons crossed on your back and reach up to draw them forth as soon as things get ugly, which can't come soon enough in your opinion. You want to get on up there and rip things heads clean off. You're the kind of person who thinks Grom Hellscream had a good idea but didn't go far enough with it.

Come right this way. Fury is the spec for you.

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury 101 originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> class-helpFuryFury-101guidetalenttalentswarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-talent-guidewow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Tanking hotfixes being implemented]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/tanking-hotfixes-being-implemented/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/tanking-hotfixes-being-implemented/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/05/tanking-hotfixes-being-implemented/#comments A recent hotfix has reduced the health on tanking paladins. Meanwhile, devastate is being hotfixed as well to do 20% more total damage rather than 20% more weapon damage (from 100% to 120% total weapon damage presently). There are also some scattered reports that DK tanks have gotten buffs to their Frost Presence as well, but no confirmation from Blizzard on that yet. Ghostcrawler posted that the change to Paladin health was intentional and that an announcement will be soon, and in the warrior thread said that they can't confirm when the hotfix for devastate will drop.

The culprit for the paladin health reduction seems to be the paladin talent Sacred Duty, although this has, at this time, not been confirmed by Blizzard so far as I can find. As soon as there's an announcement we at WoW.com will of course bring it to you.

Edited to include this link to the official forum post explaining the change. Thanks to ummeiko for the fast catch.

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Tanking hotfixes being implemented originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> breakingDeath-KnightGhostcrawlerHotfixespaladinTankingTanksWarrior (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:08:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Shield spell effectiveness reduced in PvP]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/04/shield-spell-effectiveness-reduced-in-pvp/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/04/shield-spell-effectiveness-reduced-in-pvp/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/04/shield-spell-effectiveness-reduced-in-pvp/#comments After the recent changes to resilience and the reduction of healing in PvP, we now move on to spells that prevent damage entirely. Power Word: Shield and Sacred Shield are also being affected, having their effectiveness in Arenas, Wintergrasp and Battlegrounds reduced by 10%. Bornakk broke the news to the forums, which responded about as you might expect, with people who rely on those mechanics frustrated and those who have to try and kill people using them jubilant. I know, I was shocked too.

I'm kind of on the fence about this change. On the one hand, man, as a warrior I hate beating on a shield in PvP. Hate hate hate. It does seem odd to me that we moved resilience to reduce all incoming damage and then reduced all healing to match, though. It seems somewhat like a complicated way to do nothing at all. As someone who sometimes goes resto on my shaman for PvP, I don't really look forward to having my heals heal for less, especially since it's a penalty that will hit me immediately while farming up honor for PvP gear to get resilience will take me time, time my healing will have been adversely affected throughout. How about you? Happy or unhappy about the latest changes in PvP?

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Shield spell effectiveness reduced in PvP originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ArenaBornakkHealingPower-Word-ShieldPvPResilienceSacred-Shield (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: When the model doesn't match the text]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/04/breakfast-topic-when-the-model-doesnt-match-the-text/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/04/breakfast-topic-when-the-model-doesnt-match-the-text/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/04/breakfast-topic-when-the-model-doesnt-match-the-text/#comments I love gear.

Heck, I'm a warrior. I'm required to love gear. And even more than gear itself I love gear with something cool extra, something like Ash'kandi. Not only is Ash'kandi pretty freaking awesome, not only does it have one of the best models ever (even this far into WoW's life cycle few 2h weapons have even come close to rivaling Ash'kandi's model) but it has neat flavor text that helps establish the weapon's role in the game world. This is Anduin Lothar's sword. This is the sword of the Lion of freaking Azeroth! Possibly the greatest warrior ever to walk the land and here is his sword!

One of the things I love about the new ICC wing opening, in fact, is discovering that flavor text like that is back. Unfortunately, I also discover that sometimes, model and text do not match up so well. We're going to talk about Lich King loot behind the cut, so if you don't want to know don't go any further.

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Breakfast Topic: When the model doesn't match the text originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Flavor-Textgame-discussiongamer-discussionHeroic-LootICCIcecrown-CitadelLich-Kingworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: Intermezzo Part Two - The Alliance Strikes Back]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/03/know-your-lore-intermezzo-part-two-the-alliance-strikes-back/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/03/know-your-lore-intermezzo-part-two-the-alliance-strikes-back/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/03/know-your-lore-intermezzo-part-two-the-alliance-strikes-back/#comments
Welcome once again my friends to the lore that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside Know Your Lore.

Last week, we covered the events after the end of the Second War, when Ner'zhul and Teron Gorefiend led an attack on the Azerothian nations which held artifacts the former elder shaman believed he could use to open new portals on Draenor. These portals would be the salvation of the orcs who were doomed to a slow death as fel corruption slowly consumed the land.

In response to the Horde of Draenor's attacks (led by Gorefiend, Kilrogg Deadeye and Kargath Bladefist) and their theft of artifacts like the Book of Medivh and Eye of Dalaran, King Terenas Menethil ordered Turalyon and Khadgar to lead an expedition beyond the Dark Portal itself to determine what the Horde had planned.

This week, the Alliance Expedition takes the fight to the Horde, and we once again remind you that if you played through these events in WCII, things may have changed in the lore since. Please bear with us as we reconstruct the events surrounding the Alliance Expedition to Draenor. The Sons of Lothar against the Horde of Draenor.

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Know Your Lore: Intermezzo Part Two - The Alliance Strikes Back originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> alliance-expeditionAuchindounBlack-TempleDeathwingDentargDraenorfeaturedgrom-hellscreamguideguide-to-loreguldankilrogg-deadeyelorelore-guidenerzhulOutlandrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideShadowmoon-Valleyteron-gorefiendworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Blizzard announces upcoming premium AH through Armory feature]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/02/02/blizzard-announces-upcoming-premium-ah-through-armory-feature/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/02/blizzard-announces-upcoming-premium-ah-through-armory-feature/ http://www.wow.com/2010/02/02/blizzard-announces-upcoming-premium-ah-through-armory-feature/#comments It's fairly common knowledge that Blizzard has kept updating the Armory with new features and new apps. Now, Bornakk comes forth with news of an app that will be to the armory what a giant Steve Allen pog was to pogs: behold, the ultimate feature! In the glorious future, we'll be able to work our auctions from the Armory itself or apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. Yes, one more step closer to actually living full time in Azeroth. I have my eyes on a nice cottage outside of Elwynn, myself.

In all seriousness, I know a lot of people who would probably club me over the head and hand me over to a cabal of secretive necromancers for this feature. No news yet on exactly how it's going to work, and Bornakk does point out that with the amount of work it will be to develop, you're probably going to have to pay extra for it.
This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don't have an exact release date yet. It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won't release it until it meets the quality standards that we've set for our other features and services.
See the rest of the announcement after the break.

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Blizzard announces upcoming premium AH through Armory feature originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> AHArmoryArmory-AppAuctionAuction-Housebornakkbreakingipad-wowiphoneiphone-wowipod-mmoipod-touch-wowwow-ahwow-auction-housewow-ipadwow-iphone (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Growing Pains: How to approach gearing up your tank]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/31/growing-pains-how-to-approach-gearing-up-your-tank/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/31/growing-pains-how-to-approach-gearing-up-your-tank/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/31/growing-pains-how-to-approach-gearing-up-your-tank/#comments I'm going to assume that if you're still reading this past the title, you're interested in talking about tank gearing for your level 80 and that you've presumably used the Dungeon Finder to level him or her as a tank, but you're certainly not rocking full T9 yet. It's generally accepted that you'll be saving up emblems for that, and of course filling the gaps for rings and trinkets and such as you can. You also may be a DPS player who wants to switch over to tanking but don't have the gear yet.

First off, please, don't pass on tanking gear just because it's blue or dropped in a normal or heroic. Just because it's not iLevel 232+ doesn't mean it's not good. You should be collecting and using upgrades as they drop, even if they won't immediately put you at 35K health. Please remember also that a lot of people ran these instances and heroics back when Wrath first released with 22k or so health: despite what speed obsessed or hyper geared players will tell you, it is indeed possible to tank all the original Wrath heroics in blues.

Take the Nerubian Shield Ring, for example. If this drops and you don't have better, roll need on it. Don't worry that people will lose their shard, don't let people give you grief on gear not being up to some ridiculous standard, just take the ring. It has armor, defense and stamina. If you're there as DPS but you want to build a tank set? Roll need if you don't have better. Just ignore people who give you grief over it, clearly they don't understand how important every possible upgrade is while building a tanking set.

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Growing Pains: How to approach gearing up your tank originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> emblememblem-of-conquestemblem-of-frostemblem-of-heroismemblem-of-triumphemblem-of-valortanktankgearingtanking (Matthew Rossi) Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Scheduled maintenance on US Realms for February 2nd]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/30/scheduled-maintenance-on-us-realms-for-february-2nd/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/30/scheduled-maintenance-on-us-realms-for-february-2nd/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/30/scheduled-maintenance-on-us-realms-for-february-2nd/#comments It looks like there will be realm maintenance for all US realms this February 2nd. Since it seems to be somewhat extended (3 AM PST to 11 AM PST) and we're waiting for the 3.3.2 patch to drop in order to start Arena Season 8, I'm willing to go out on a limb and suppose that there will most likely be the next minor content patch at this time. This will also most likely open the last wing of Icecrown Citadel.

So! Are you excited? I'm excited! Well, also I'm kind of hoping I'm right, but then I'm excited. We'll have the Tuesday Morning Post for you to obsess over while waiting for the realms to come up, not that I compulsively refresh the realm status page or anything myself. No no, not me.

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Scheduled maintenance on US Realms for February 2nd originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Arena-Season-8breakingbreaking-newsPatch-3.3.2realm-maintenanceRealm-Statustuesday-maintenance (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: Fun with jerks]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/30/breakfast-topic-fun-with-jerks/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/30/breakfast-topic-fun-with-jerks/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/30/breakfast-topic-fun-with-jerks/#comments I admit it: I'm a contentious person. Sometimes I deliberately say or do something just because it will irritate people. Usually, I try and use this power for good and I'm hardly pretending to be the most effective person at it even out of people I know, but the other night it worked out rather beautifully. I decided to go DPS a random because I was bored and wanted to play around with DPS ideas I had. Namely, if it was worth dropping some hit and expertise to hit 80% passive ArP which I could just barely do and I wanted to test it in a setting where the hit and exp caps were lower than in a raid where bosses are effectively level 83 since in heroics the highest level you'll face is an 82 boss. So I hit the queue, waited the 35 minutes (it was fairly late and close to server reset) and got a FoS pop.

As soon as we get in the tank says he's never done it before and do we think he should drop the group. We all try to be reassuring, since everyone's had to start somewhere and his gear was certainly good enough for a heroic. Then the first pull began and we quickly learned that he wasn't kidding about having never done it before and that the answer he was actually hoping for was that someone else would tank, because he clearly had no idea what he was doing, period. Furthermore, he was ridiculously hyper-critical of the healer (who didn't seem to be having any significant issues healing the group) and would go on long tirades blaming the healer for not having healed him at all when the healer was clearly dropping heals on everyone in the group including him. Drop to 90% on a trash pull because you ran up the ramp out of LoS? Yell at the healer. Take damage from one of the ghostly skulls and not get healed to full before pulling the giant skeletons? Rant at the healer. Frankly, I have no idea why the guy took it.

Finally, after the last pull before Devourer of Souls, where he deliberately went and chain pulled three of the Spectral Warders despite the healer having said OOM and then blamed the healer for letting him die when he had a 75% healing reduction debuff and the healer was out of mana, I'd basically had enough.

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Breakfast Topic: Fun with jerks originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Dungeon-Findergame-discussiongamer-discussionjerksPassive-ArPworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Phat Loot Phriday: Nevermelting Ice Crystal]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/phat-loot-phriday-nevermelting-ice-crystal/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/phat-loot-phriday-nevermelting-ice-crystal/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/phat-loot-phriday-nevermelting-ice-crystal/#comments In honor of our hard to get trinkets and all the casters who have begged, cajoled, even threatened me to try and get me to tank Heroic PoS this week (look, I can only tank it twice or more in a day if I get it randomly. No, I'm not going to run randoms for six hours on the off chance we'll be queued for H PoS.) here's some caster loot. It's a trinket, so you don't get much of a screenshot I'm afraid, so you get the Wowhead page.

Name: Nevermelting Ice Crystal
Type: Epic Trinket
Attributes: Increases spell power by 111 on equip, on use increases your critical strike rating by [184 * 71564u] for 20 sec. Every time one of your non-periodic spells deals a critical strike, the bonus is reduced by 184 critical strike rating. (3 Min Cooldown)

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Phat Loot Phriday: Nevermelting Ice Crystal originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> fat-lewtfat-lootfeaturedNevermelting-Ice-Crystalworld-of-warcraft-itemsworld-of-warcraft-lootwow-itemwow-itemswow-loot (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Ghostcrawler on DKs: "It is a melee class"]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/ghostcrawler-on-dks-it-is-a-melee-class/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/ghostcrawler-on-dks-it-is-a-melee-class/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/ghostcrawler-on-dks-it-is-a-melee-class/#comments No, it's not just a case of the obvious being stated. In a discussion of DK design in arenas, Dr. Street comments to clarify the intended role of death knights in arena and other factors. He also makes a good point about the forums in general that bears repeating for emphasis.
"We don't intend for these forums to be the primary way the team communicates our vision for the game and upcoming changes to the community. You'll get a little of that on a few select subjects through the forums and sadly that's all you're ever going to get. It's not that we don't care. It's that forums are not a great medium for that kind of mass communication. I wish sometimes you guys could be satisfied with the fact that we used to not communicate at all and now are able to communicate a little."
Moving on to the specific issue at hand in this thread, the discussion is the old shadow/frost spec that turned the death knight into a much more ranged caster, generating runic power quickly and then converting that runic power into Death Coils at range. It wasn't intended for the class. They have no problem with Death Coil itself being a popular attack, as long as the death knight has to put an effort into staying in melee with its attendant disadvantages to do so.
"The DK that runs around and does nothing but Icy Touch or Howling Blast or Death Coil feels like a rogue who forgoes combo points and openers and everything just to spam Fan of Knives and nothing else."
It's interesting to see players managing to find ways to bend the class out of the original design intent and how Blizzard responds to that: specs like shadow/frost or diseaseless blood DPS were adjusted quickly to put the class back to where Blizzard intended it.

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Ghostcrawler on DKs: "It is a melee class" originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Death-Knightdeath-knight-talentsdk-talentsForumsGhostcrawlermeleeRangedShadowFrosttalenttalentswow-dk (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Protection warriors 101, Page 2]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-protection-warriors-101-page/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-protection-warriors-101-page/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-protection-warriors-101-page/#comments Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Protection warriors 101, Page 2

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Protection warriors 101, Page 2 originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Protection warriors 101]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-protection-warriors-101/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-protection-warriors-101/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/29/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-protection-warriors-101/#comments
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is WoW.com's weekly column for warriors. This week, we jump on the bandwagon. Matthew Rossi tends to miss jumping on bandwagons, fall, and hurt himself, followed by a lot of swearing. It's actually somewhat entertaining to watch.

There is, ultimately, only one thing warriors actually do.

We hit things. We don't poison them, we don't electrocute them, we don't burn them or freeze them or hit them with diseases or the Holy Light. We just hit them.We don't turn into anything, we don't stand back and let an animal hit things for us, we just plain hit things. We hit things and get angry, and we get hit and get angry about that, too.

That being said, warriors can specialize in one of two ways to hit things. One is to heft a big two handed weapon (or two of them) and hit things to death. The other is to put on the heaviest armor we can find, strap a car door to our arm, and get things to hit us as hard as they can, and then hit them back.

This week, we look at protection, the "Is that all you got? Is that it? COME ON!" spec.

1. What is protection?

Well, read the above. Now we'll go into more detail. The warrior protection spec is the oldest actively used tanking spec in World of Warcraft. Tanking is the role in a five man, 10 man raid, or 25 man raid (and originally 10, 15, 20 and 40 man raids as well) where one player deliberately attempts to hold a mob or multiple mobs attention so that they do not attack the healers and/or damage dealing players. To do this, tanks need to work on two separate but equally important aspects of play.
  1. They must hold aggro. Aggro (derived from aggression) is the hostile attention of the mob or mobs in question.
  2. They must survive the damage inflicted on them by the mob or mobs long enough to be healed.
  3. No, really, you need to do these two things. Otherwise, you're not tanking, you're just a greasy stain on something's fist and/or other means of killenating.
  4. Yes, I said killenating. What, you're too good for made-up words?

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Protection warriors 101 originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> 101class-101class-helpguidetalenttalentswarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guidewow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-talent-guidewow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: Intermezzo Part One - Return of the Horde]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/27/know-your-lore-intermezzo-part-one-return-of-the-horde/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/27/know-your-lore-intermezzo-part-one-return-of-the-horde/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/27/know-your-lore-intermezzo-part-one-return-of-the-horde/#comments
Welcome once again my friends to the lore that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside Know Your Lore.

This week, we look at the aftermath of the Second War and the years between it and the Third. A lot happened in this intermezzo between the drums of two wars, because in general it seems that Azeroth basically reels from crisis to crisis. I should also point out that in at least one case, a major lore figure dies in one source and yet is said to be alive later in a previous source. If you pay attention to Warcraft lore this will no doubt not surprise you terribly.

At the end of the Second War, the Alliance forces destroyed the Dark Portal in a rather impressive bit of CGI for the time. Generally, it was hoped that Khadgar's little bit of pyrotechnics would end the threat of the Horde forever, as (the theory went) there would be no more reinforcements coming in through the portal. This act effectively broke the back of orcish resistance to the Alliance of Lordaeron's forces, and in so doing ended the war, as even Orgrim Doomhammer found himself captured and chained by the Alliance. Only Kilrogg Deadeye and those few forces directly under his command managed to evade capture and remained free. This would come back to cost the Alliance. However, in the immediate aftermath of the War, the nations of the Alliance found themselves divided on the question of what to do with the orcs, many of whom had sunk into a strange despondent lethargy with their defeat. Should they all be killed? If not, what else could be done with them?

Continue reading Know Your Lore: Intermezzo Part One - Return of the Horde

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Know Your Lore: Intermezzo Part One - Return of the Horde originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Allaince-ExpeditionAlleriaBook-of-MedivhDanath-TrollbaneDentargEye-of-DalaranfeaturedGrom-Hellscreamguideguide-to-loreKhadgarKilrogg-Deadeyekurdran-wildhammerlorelore-guideNerzhulrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideTuralyonworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Pimp My Profile: Derongar, protection warrior]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/27/pimp-my-profile-derongar-protection-warrior/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/27/pimp-my-profile-derongar-protection-warrior/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/27/pimp-my-profile-derongar-protection-warrior/#comments Welcome to Pimp My Profile, the column in which the WoW.com staff turns zeroes into heroes. Don't think you're performing where you should be? Not sure how your class/spec is supposed to be gearing up? E-mail us with your Armory link, and you might be next to receive our help!

I WANT TO RAID GOOD. Please, teach me to raid gooder than I already raid.

-Derongar
While I believe that your gear is pretty solid (at first I was confused by the lower stamina but then I realized you'd logged out in arms spec but tanking gear) there are a few places that can be adjusted.

Continue reading Pimp My Profile: Derongar, protection warrior

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Pimp My Profile: Derongar, protection warrior originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> block-valuecommanding-presencecrueltydeep-woundsgear-guideglyph-of-blockingglyph-of-cleavingglyph-of-shield-wallglyphsguideprotprotectionprotection-warriorshield-slamtauntwarriorwarrior-talents protection-talentsWarrior-talentsProtection-talents (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Stats on updated T10 tank plate revealed]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/stats-on-updated-t10-tank-plate-revealed/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/stats-on-updated-t10-tank-plate-revealed/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/stats-on-updated-t10-tank-plate-revealed/#comments If you like tanking (sure, we all do) you may be interest in this update to yesterday's post about tier 10 tanking gear: the dodge on gloves and defense on chests is being removed and the armor is being increased to bring them in line with the off-set tanking pieces due to the popularity of higher armor in Icecrown Citadel, and we now finally have hard numbers. So far, it looks as if the armor increases are pretty significant (882 armor on iLevel 251 gloves, 1064 armor on iLevel 251 set chestplates) and should make up for the dodge or defense lost, especially as armor has increased in popularity due to the Chill of the Throne debuff in ICC. We're told that the armor increase scales with iLevel so the iLevel 264 and 277 versions will also have proportionate armor increases. This is a patch 3.3.2 change so don't panic if your gear doesn't have the armor yet.

This makes me even more happy that I chose to focus on my tier set over offset pieces to get the four piece bonus as soon as possible. It makes these pieces far more attractive when compared to the high armor offset Cataclysm Chestguard and Gauntlers of the Kraken. (the Sanctified 264 versions should have exactly the same armor). I'd like to have seen a little more armor on the pieces, myself, but it's still pretty solid.

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Stats on updated T10 tank plate revealed originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Armorchill-of-the-thronepatch-3.3.2Tank-platewow-death-knightwow-dkwow-paladinwow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-patch-3.3.2wow-warrior (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:36:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Bornakk on Arena Season 8 delay]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/bornakk-on-arena-season-8-delay/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/bornakk-on-arena-season-8-delay/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/26/bornakk-on-arena-season-8-delay/#comments If you PvP you may have noticed Arena Season 8 has not arrived today as expected. The forums certainly have, and Bornakk made sure to explain the reason. Apparently in order to start the arena season, the minor content patch 3.3.2 is necessary and since it isn't ready yet neither is Season 8. A brief side question about how people are finding the new resilience changes devolves but should't distract us from the main message here. Arena Season 8 has been delayed because patch 3.3.2 is not out yet. That's the sum total of what we know at this time. Please, do not panic, as soon as we know more about when the season will start or patch 3.3.2 will drop, we'll share that information with you.

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Bornakk on Arena Season 8 delay originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> arenaarena-guideArena-Season-8arenasBornakkbreakingguidehow-to-play-battlegroundsPatch-3.3.2wow-arenawow-arena-season-8wow-patch-3.3.2 (Matthew Rossi) Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Ghostcrawler on AoE tanking: "The paladin method...is probably too good"]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/25/ghostcrawler-on-aoe-tanking-the-paladin-method-is-probably-t/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/25/ghostcrawler-on-aoe-tanking-the-paladin-method-is-probably-t/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/25/ghostcrawler-on-aoe-tanking-the-paladin-method-is-probably-t/#comments In a follow up to the thread we discussed recently, Ghostcrawler discusses where the buff to protection warrior DPS will come from (sorry, guys, but it sounds like a buff to Devastate to me, yay for spamming) and a whole lot more. The discussion indicates that while they're interested in single target DPS increases over AoE increases that they don't think tank DPS is that big a factor in boss fights (and to be fair, he's right, it isn't a major factor although the fact that players will overreact to minor factors and stress out their tanks over their DPS, that is) and moves on from there.

The discussion about Devastate (that it's an easy ability to adjust) is fair enough but ignores the even easier solution of simply reducing the defensive stance penalty. To be honest I'd like to hear why there's still a penalty there when abilities like Righteous Fury and Frost Presence suffer none. I find the idea that buffing defensive stance would cause big problems for PvP balance kind of absurd. Battle stance grants 15% ArP and Zerker grants 3% crit, at most people would pop into d stance when focused, like they do now anyway. But we're likely to see buffs to Devastate, so just get used to it. My suggestion? While we're buffing Devastate, also have it queue Heroic Strike for us so that's one less button to spam and I can retire my macro.

Continue reading Ghostcrawler on AoE tanking: "The paladin method...is probably too good"

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Ghostcrawler on AoE tanking: "The paladin method...is probably too good" originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> class-helpdeath-knight-guidedeath-knight-infodeath-knight-talentsdk-guidedk-infodk-talentsdruid-guidedruid-infodruid-talentsfeaturedguideguide-to-death-knightsguide-to-druidsguide-to-paladinsguide-to-palliesguide-to-pallyspaladin-guidepaladin-infopaladin-talentspally-guidepally-infopally-talentspatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowtalenttalentswarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-death-knightwow-dkwow-druidwow-druid-infowow-druidswow-guidewow-new-patchwow-paladinwow-paladin-infowow-paladinswow-pallywow-pally-infowow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-talent-guidewow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Blizzard says no to skipping to the last boss]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/24/blizzard-says-no-to-skipping-to-the-last-boss/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/24/blizzard-says-no-to-skipping-to-the-last-boss/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/24/blizzard-says-no-to-skipping-to-the-last-boss/#comments Poster Sennshi makes a post to the general forums questioning why we have to run the whole dungeon to get the two frost emblems for completing our first random dungeon of the day. Thankfully, Crygil comes in and makes sure it is known that skipping to the end isn't something Blizzard has in mind for heroics. It's kind of sad that it even needed to be said, but at least they've said it.

I have to say, and keep in mind I'm one of the bitter sour curmudgeonly tanks who constantly gripes even when things are going well, but if you can't endure a 20 minute instance run to get 2 frost badges, you need to reconsider running random heroics. Even the longest heroic dungeon is hardly so huge an imposition that you can't get through it without asking for some kind of magical backdoor that summons the boss to you. We've seen changes to dungeons like Oculus to give players an incentive to run them or streamline them, going to some weird Thunderdome of boss summoning would be a step backwards in my opinion.

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Blizzard says no to skipping to the last boss originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Dingeon-FinderEmblem-of-FrostForumspatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-news (Matthew Rossi) Sun, 24 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[You won't get a pony, but prot will get sustained DPS increase]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/24/you-wont-get-a-pony-but-prot-will-get-sustained-dps-increase/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/24/you-wont-get-a-pony-but-prot-will-get-sustained-dps-increase/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/24/you-wont-get-a-pony-but-prot-will-get-sustained-dps-increase/#comments In a forum thread discussing the recent prot warrior block changes and Warbringer nerf and the state of prot warrior DPS (it's basically acknowledged as the lowest DPS among the tanks) Ghostcrawler chimes in that they intend to buff sustained prot DPS while reducing burst in PvP. However, he quickly comes back to point that at this stage in the expansion they don't want to make any sustained mechanical changes and so, don't expect one. The sustained DPS increase will come from buffs to existing abilities.

While I can understand the trepidation from prot warriors at this statement (no one is terribly excited about a buff to Devastate, not even me) it's an unfortunate but valid point he makes here. You really don't have the time to make drastic mechanical changes this far into the cycle. We might like a more drastic solution, but with Cataclysm looming on the horizon you don't really want to see too much tinkering with the base mechanics.

Still, please don't just buff Devastate. Please. I'm begging you here.

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You won't get a pony, but prot will get sustained DPS increase originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> class-helpguidepatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowprot-warriorprot-warrior-dpsprotection-warriortalenttalentswarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-talent-guidewow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Sun, 24 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: In-Jokes]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/23/breakfast-topic-in-jokes/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/23/breakfast-topic-in-jokes/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/23/breakfast-topic-in-jokes/#comments I once told a story in my guild's vent about about a warm spring day where, upon walking home from the local store, I was unfortunate enough to be accosted by a bee. Said bee flew into my beard and tried to sting me but, since I had then not shaved my beard in quite some time, the bee actually found himself trapped in my facial hair. Since I could not see him, I did not think about him again until I got home and looked in the mirror. There he was, flailing about, entangled in the roots of my facial hair.

Unfortunately, I chose to tell this story while tanking Jaraxxus who was, at the time, serious business. Several of the DPS found the tale of my apicidal beard so amusing that they ended up not running to the portal in time and we had two annoying sisters instead of just one. Since then, the tale of my beard has grown in guild to the point that people ask me the block value of said beard, or insist I get my beard enchanted with Armsman.

So I turn to you in an attempt to distract from my own constant humiliation (you wouldn't believe the amount of 'furry warrior' jokes I hear in a raid week) to ask what your WoW in-jokes are.

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Breakfast Topic: In-Jokes originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> game-discussiongamer-discussionworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[How not to aggro your tank with AoE]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/how-not-to-aggro-your-tank-with-aoe/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/how-not-to-aggro-your-tank-with-aoe/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/how-not-to-aggro-your-tank-with-aoe/#comments Reader UnstØppable writes in with a question I thought would benefit others: "Does the Bladestorm aggro problem ever get better? What I mean is, I've seen it countless times, the arms warrior enters the dungeon, the tank lets out a sigh (sometimes it's me), we pull the first group and everything goes fine, until he hits that Bladestorm button. That's when somehow he manages to pull aggro from every mob and their mom and makes both the healer's and the tank's lives hell or usually ends up dying within seconds."

Part of the problem here is that certain classes/specs have no aggro dump or reduction ability and as a result their big DPS moves generate a lot of threat. Arms warriors, most DPS death knights (at least the blood and unholy specs I've used) and retribution paladins have limited aggro reduction at best (pallies at least have Hand of Salvation but that's a band aid at best) and while tanking threat (especially AoE tanking threat) requires ramp up time, it's very easy to hit the Divine Storm, Death and Decay, Pestilence, Whirlwind or Bladestorm buttons. (Enhancement shamans with Spirit Weapons seem to be okay, I rarely pull aggro even when I go nuts with Fire Nova.)

Continue reading How not to aggro your tank with AoE

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How not to aggro your tank with AoE originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> AggroAoEBladestormDeath-And-DecayDivine-StormFire-NovaMaelstrom-Weaponpull-aggroTankingThreatWhirlwind (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Paul Sams: "We will not pull the rug out from under them"]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/paul-sams-we-will-not-pull-the-rug-out-from-under-them/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/paul-sams-we-will-not-pull-the-rug-out-from-under-them/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/paul-sams-we-will-not-pull-the-rug-out-from-under-them/#comments In a fascinating post over at Gamesindustry.biz, Blizzard COO Paul Sams takes great pains to emphasize that Blizzard will ship no game before its time (to rip off an old wine slogan): "We will not pull the rug out from under them and ship it before it's done, so people feel that when they out their heart and soul into a game, they'll be able to deliver the game they envisioned."

This is interesting to me on a couple of levels: the first is the long time between the original idea that World of Warcraft would get an expansion a year and the actual time (more than two) that it took for The Burning Crusade to ship. It seems that over time they must feel they've gotten more proficient at the development process since Wrath of the Lich King and now Cataclysm seem to be getting ready to ship even faster. You can read the excerpt from Sams at gamesindustry.biz (which requires creating a new account) as well as a full interview with Sams and executive producer Rob Pardo.

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Paul Sams: "We will not pull the rug out from under them" originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> cataclysm-gamecataclysm-guidecataclysm-newsexpanionexpansion-threenext-xpacPaul-Samsthird-expansionworld-of-warcraft-cataclysmwow-4.0wow-4.0.2wow-cataclysmwow-expansionwow-guidewow-third-expansion (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks Page 3]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks-page-3/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks-page-3/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks-page-3/#comments Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks Page 3

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks Page 3 originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks Page 2]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks-page-2/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks-page-2/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks-page-2/#comments Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks Page 2

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks Page 2 originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/22/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-plagueworks/#comments
Matthew Rossi, who brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors every week, apologizes for his remarkably unimaginative screenshot skills. But hey, at least this week he's dancing! Just like you all will when you start trying to kill Putricide. This achievement should grant a title in my opinion.

I want Last Word. Yes, I know everyone hates the proc. I look at it and say "remember Heartpierce" and keep on wanting it. (I've actually considered picking up a Heartpierce for tanking heroics with but they didn't buff the rage gen when they buffed the energy and daggers have crappy coefficients for warriors.) I half expect to see that mace get buffed to add 200 str when it procs. If not, not. I still want the great ugly thing, even if I'll probably pick up a rogue offhand axe to use as a threat weapon.

None of this has much to do with what we're here for today, namely clearing out the Plagueworks, hopefully with as few attempts on Putricide as possible so we can save them for Lana'thel over in Crimson Halls. (No bets on what next week will be about.) I'll probably also mention some loot they drop, but don't expect a comprehensive loot list, this is more about the strategy and tactics of killing some really rather disgusting bosses.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Plagueworks originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> class-helpguidepatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowtalenttalentswarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-talent-guidewow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: That little bit extra]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/21/breakfast-topic-that-little-bit-extra/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/21/breakfast-topic-that-little-bit-extra/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/21/breakfast-topic-that-little-bit-extra/#comments Sometimes a boss just seems to get lucky.

You know what I'm talking about: you just see 1% wipe after 1% wipe and you don't know what else you can do to get over the edge. Do you need more DPS? Are the tanks dying? Are the healers going OOM, or people standing in stuff that's killing them? What's the important thing you're doing or not doing to get that last little bit of performance out and kill that big loot sack on legs in front of you? You tweak strats, and then tweak them back, you play with raid comp, you change positioning... sometimes you get that little click and it all falls into place and some times you don't, nothing seems to work. Whether it's a PuG wiping on Garfrost or a raid working on the Blood Queen, things don't always go our way.

So what do you do? Are you the 'stomach it out' type who won't leave until it's dead or someone else pulls the plug? Are you a tinkerer always coming up with new strats and new approaches? Are you the "this is what I read on Wowhead" guy? How do you move past failure to success?

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Breakfast Topic: That little bit extra originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> game-discussiongamer-discussionICCpatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowRaidingworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3world-of-warcraft-topicswow-3.3-changeswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: The Second War]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/20/know-your-lore-the-second-war/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/20/know-your-lore-the-second-war/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/20/know-your-lore-the-second-war/#comments Welcome once again my friends to the lore that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside Know Your Lore.

When last we got together over the nonexistent campfire to share stories of Azeroth and Draenor and the peoples of both, our heroes were either fleeing the destruction of Stormwind or destroying Stormwind, depending on who you think of as the heroes. Once again, the 'canonical' nature of these events has shifted somewhat from the time they were first presented to now, so bear with me if you see any inconsistencies as I attempt to work several disparate accounts together. Also, wow, did a lot happen in the Second War, so please forgive anything I miss or merely allude to from the Alliance and Old Horde KYL's.

We know that following the loss of Stormwind (and by following I mean that they could probably see the buildings burning as they sailed away) the survivors, led by Anduin Lothar, sailed north for Lordaeron and the court of King Terenas Menethil. It was this journey and Lothar's arrival that led Terenas and Lothar to begin the diplomatic work that created the Alliance of Lordaeron. It's important to keep in mind that, at the time, not many people actually knew much about the orcs aside from the survivors of Stormwind. King Llane Wrynn had an adviser who knew a lot about the orcs but that ultimately ended in Stormwind's destruction as we covered last week. Still, Lothar was the one person both connected enough through his descent from the ancient Arathi bloodline and knowledgeable enough about the enemy to command the military of this new Alliance.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: The Second War

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Know Your Lore: The Second War originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> AlezstraszaAnduin-LotharDeathwingDoomhammerfeaturedguideguide-to-loreGuldanKing-Terenas-Menethilknow-your-lorelorelore-guideOrgrim-DoomhammerQuelthalasrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideTerenasTeron-GorefiendTuralyonworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rpingZuljinZuluhed (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Raid/PuG habits should be kept separate]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/18/raid-pug-habits-should-be-kept-separate/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/18/raid-pug-habits-should-be-kept-separate/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/18/raid-pug-habits-should-be-kept-separate/#comments I want my frost badges. At this point, I'm working on completing my T10 set (so close) and waiting for the gates to come down in ICC is so slow and maddening, I basically run the daily random every single day on my three dedicated Alliance side 80's (my Horde toons are again in a neglect cycle, my tauren cries at night when no one can hear) for primordial saronite and of course, that annoying Tier. Then of course the non-set gear that has crazy high armor on it to switch in for specific fights. And of course after that there's DPS gear for offset. So basically, I need a lot of emblems and ICC just doesn't provide enough running it on 10 and 25 weekly. Imagine me as a bitter old man sidling up to the emblem bar and yelling "Hit me!" at this point.

Last night I and a couple of guildmates signed up for a frost run and we ended up with two DPS and popped into Azjol-Nerub. I'd got myself a new fist weapon on my shammy and wanted to punch things in the face. Half way through the run, the healer sent me a tell asking me to inspect the DPS warrior we'd picked up. And yes, he was DPSing in Prot, with all of his talent points in the protection tree, in a mix of tanking and PvP gear. Yes, his DPS was low (I believe the proper phrase would be 'ridiculously low') and yes, he ran and pulled Hadronox instead of letting the person signed up to tank do it, and brought all the adds over as well. I was all set to blow a gasket at him, when I realized that this was a PuG. I'd never see the guy again. I was putting out enough DPS to cover for him, as was the hunter in the group. We burned down Hadronox, I briefly explained to the guy what the adds did, he apologized as this was all still very new to him and it was his first 80.

This led to a brief discussion while we were heading down to kill Anub'arak.

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Raid/PuG habits should be kept separate originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Dungeon-FinderLFGpatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowPuGworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-news (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: The Personal Aesthetic]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/18/breakfast-topic-the-personal-aesthetic/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/18/breakfast-topic-the-personal-aesthetic/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/18/breakfast-topic-the-personal-aesthetic/#comments
Recently, a commenter on a post mentioned that I use a similar screenshot for a lot of my The Care and Feeding of Warriors posts. I looked over it, and he was right: since I race changed to draenei, in fact, quite a few of the screenshots have been silhouetted, facing downwards shots that I often take just because I am playing my character and suddenlt stop and say "wow, that's cool" - I'm not a terribly sophisticated visual thinker (for that, I go to my wife, who has a landscape artist's eyes and a remarkable grasp of light and nuance) but I know what I like.

One of the reasons I like playing draenei and tauren are connected to the classes I like to play: shamans, warriors and DK's are the only classes I've consistently gotten to max rank, and in all of those cases I tend to play large characters. When race change became available I agonized over it (silly as that is) even though I'd always said I'd go draenei because I'd grown so accustomed to the way my human character moved, and watching old avi files of Burning Crusade fights I'd tanked really brought it home to me. In changing my character's race, I've changed his silhouette, I've changed the way he swings a weapon, I've changed the way he looks in every aspect of the game. I don't do that spinning one handed smash when I tank anymore, it's much more of an arching, down-angled slash. My Shield Slam is different.

Granted, I'm okay with that. But it got me thinking about why I choose the races I do and the classes I do.

Continue reading Breakfast Topic: The Personal Aesthetic

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Breakfast Topic: The Personal Aesthetic originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> AetheticAvatarCharactergame-discussiongamer-discussionVirtualworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Destroyer]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/15/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-destroyer/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/15/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-destroyer/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/15/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-destroyer/#comments
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is WoW.com's weekly column for all things angry and clanky. Matthew Rossi writes it, when he's not busy being angry and clanky.

Dev Chat Update: While today's post is about fury, it's worth mentioning that in addition to nerfing Shield Block's contribution to Shield Slam, we will supposedly see a threat buff to the ability. Hopefully it's a scaling, and not a static, threat buff, something that adds X threat for every Y block value or something. They'd also supposedly like to add sustained damage to prot for PvE without PvP burstiness, which would be nice if it happened..

Lately I get plenty of tanking action in raids, to the point where I honestly don't want to do it in PuG's. When musing about it the other day I realized that I'm too used to hard modes and progression when tanking: I demand perfection of myself to such a degree that I get tense and stressed over the smallest error in execution. This is possibly admirable (when not taken too far) in a raid setting on a new boss where strategies are being tested and modified constantly and everything's on the razor's edge between being able to pass the checks inherent to the content.

It's not when you're PuGging Halls of Lightning for a couple of extra Emblems of Frost.

In fact, what can help you get past Rotface is downright madness causing when heading down to Loken. At this point, Loken holds no surprises, and neither does the trash. Being a tanking perfectionist just leads you to tend towards freaking the heck out over stupid crap bored people do, and that's turning the game from fun to a drag for yourself. (It probably does for them, too, but they can look out for themselves.) Lately, I've taken to running the random daily and any 10 mans I PuG on my own as DPS, just to get a break from my own self-imposed desire to try for flawless execution. (I'm not saying I ever accomplish that, by the way, just that I want to.)

And I have to say: fury got good again when I wasn't looking.

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Destroyer originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> class-helpFuryguidepatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowtalenttalentswarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-talent-guidewow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: Should Cataclysm bring back the world boss?]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/15/breakfast-topic-should-cataclysm-bring-back-the-world-boss/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/15/breakfast-topic-should-cataclysm-bring-back-the-world-boss/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/15/breakfast-topic-should-cataclysm-bring-back-the-world-boss/#comments Robin's post about fun with kiting yesterday immediately reminded me about the old days of 40 man raiding. Don't worry, this isn't a nostalgia trip per se... in many ways raiding is better now than it's ever been... but one of the things I enjoyed back in classic WoW were the world bosses. Bosses like Azuregos, the Emerald Dragons and Kazzak (as well as summoned bosses like Maws and Eranikus) added a feeling of competition that simply couldn't be had by being the first to clear a raid. If Blizzard wants to bring the antagonism between Alliance and Horde back to the forefront, well, even on a PvE server back in the day one could watch Horde and Alliance guilds jostle over Azuregos. Heck, we were griefed pretty hard doing the green dragons, especially Emeriss, as Horde players would come running up to die under our tank and become mushrooms.

Burning Crusade had a couple of world raid bosses (a recycled Kazzak and Doomwalker) but for the most part they weren't terribly compelling: the gear they dropped was comparable with Karazhan (eventually it was made BoE to try and drive raiders towards it to harvest them for sales, which happened to some degree but is hardly what you'd call a sign of an exciting time, scavenging bosses for BoE's) and it seems like the practice has fallen out of favor since those days. While there are wandering big elites in Howling Fjord and Zul'Drak, they're either just there with no real rhyme or reason, or they're involved in quests.

So I ask you: would you like to see big world bosses return in Cataclysm? Or do you think they're an artifact of an older time, and we're better off without them?

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Breakfast Topic: Should Cataclysm bring back the world boss? originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Azuregoscataclysm-guidecataclysm-newsDoomwalkerdragons-of-nightmareEmerissexpanionexpansion-threegame-discussiongamer-discussionKazzakLethonMawsnext-xpacTaerarthird-expansionthird-xpacworld-of-warcraft-cataclysmworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-4.0wow-4.0.2wow-cataclysmwow-discussionwow-expansionwow-guidewow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-third-expansionwow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Totem Talk: Fire Nova]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/14/totem-talk-fire-nova/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/14/totem-talk-fire-nova/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/14/totem-talk-fire-nova/#comments Totem Talk is the column for shamans. This week, Matthew Rossi talks about Fire Nova, his absolute favorite new ability in quite some time. Boom!

The hastily cobbled together screenshot above really only gives you a small taste of the awesome that is Fire Nova. The old Fire Nova totem was okay... you'd drop it on big AoE packs if you could do so, but for a lot of shamans, sacrificing their active fire totem to so so was a lot to ask. The genius of Fire Nova, the new ability, is of course that it works with any fire totem you have. You're a restoration shaman with a Frost Resist totem down up close to the melee on Sapphiron? Well, our first question could be "Why are you still running Sapphiron?" but we'll assume it's a weekly raid thing. Anyway, even that Frost Resistance totem can now provide some damage! I'm not saying waste your mana on DPS if it's a tight thing, mind you, I'm just saying that if you found yourself healing a fight you way overgeared you can pop a couple of FN's in there to liven things up.

Yeah, okay, this happened to me. It was boring!

Where Fire Nova has really shined for me, though, is running a modified Enhancement set-up. Now, granted, some of the DPS I'm seeing from this has also come from getting a few upgrades to my gear set, but in tight AoE situations I'm seeing Fire Nova as a solid 2nd on the DPS chart, just behind melee attacks.

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Totem Talk: Fire Nova originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> class-helpfeaturedguideguide-to-shamanspatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowshaman-guideshaman-infoshaman-talentstalenttalentsworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-guidewow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-shamanwow-shaman-infowow-talent-guide (Matthew Rossi) Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Know Your Lore: The First War]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/13/know-your-lore-the-first-war/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/13/know-your-lore-the-first-war/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/13/know-your-lore-the-first-war/#comments
Welcome once again my friends to the lore that never ends, we're so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside Know Your Lore.

In the past two weeks we've talked about the formation of the Old Horde on Draenor, and the resulting rise of the Alliance of Lordaeron to oppose them. Unfortunately we were forced to give the actual events of the wars slightly short shrift in the interest of being done someday. So this week, we cover the First War. (Note: there are spoilers for the original Warcraft game and several books and comic books contained in this post. Be warned if you continue to read it.)

When last we discussed the Old Horde, we mentioned that Gul'dan and his Shadow Council were feeling the strain after having been abandoned on a slowly dying world by Kil'jaeden after having apparently slain the draenei. As the demonic corruption slowly poisoned the land and turned the orcs (even orcs who hadn't partaken of the Blood of Mannoroth) a livid green color, two events occurred to forever change the fate of two worlds. The first was seemingly small: a plague known as the Blood Pox started spreading, forcing the establishment of a quarantine zone in Nagrand in the lands formerly held by the Frostwolf Clan. That clan, however, was no longer able to hold those lands due to the second and more immediately portentous event. Gul'dan was contacted by Medivh, the Guardian of Tirisfal and host to the essence of Sargeras himself, and offered to the dark orc warlock the one thing he truly craved.

Power.

Continue reading Know Your Lore: The First War

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Know Your Lore: The First War originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Anduin-LotharBlack-MorassBlackhandDark-PortalDoomhammerDrakaDurotanfeaturedFrostwolvesGaronaguideguide-to-loreguldanKhadgarKing-Llane-WrynnKingdom-of-Azerothknow-your-lorelorelore-guideMedivhrole-playrole-playing-guiderp-guideShadow-CouncilVarian-Wrynnworld-of-warcraft-lorewow-guidewow-lorewow-role-playingwow-role-playing-guidewow-rpwow-rp-guidewow-rping (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: The all-DPS Group]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/13/breakfast-topic-the-all-dps-group/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/13/breakfast-topic-the-all-dps-group/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/13/breakfast-topic-the-all-dps-group/#comments Oh, you know what I mean. There's five folks in your Dungeon Finder random group. One is signed up as a tank, one is signed up as a healer. Only, the 'tank' is in full DPS plate with nary a shield nor a ghoul in sight (nope, that there's a ret pally/arms warrior, sure enough) or the 'healer' is in full PvP gear and has Flametongue on his healing weapon. You all stand around, waiting for someone to equip gear that would allow them to tank the instance (preferably the tank) but he seems as content to wait it out as everyone else.

Often in these situations I'm unfortunate enough to have decided to DPS on a character that can tank, but luckily (or unluckily as the case may be) yesterday I was on my shaman and so could simply sit back and wait. It was mentioned to the 'tank' that, as the person who had signed up to tank the instance it might behoove him (or possibly her, hard to tell who's behind the keyboard) to slap on a shield and some tanking gear, but only the grim silence of the truly disinterested was our reply. Was he even at the keys? Hard to say. The wait extended to the point where we could safely kick him, and kick him we did. but that's ten minutes or so of my life I'll never get back. (And no, my shaman couldn't tank HHoR, I didn't even try).

Continue reading Breakfast Topic: The all-DPS Group

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Breakfast Topic: The all-DPS Group originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> Breakfast-Topicdungeon-findergame-discussiongamer-discussionLFGpatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowrandom-dungeonworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3world-of-warcraft-topicswow-3.3-changeswow-discussionwow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Prot Warrior nerf details]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/prot-warrior-nerf-details/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/prot-warrior-nerf-details/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/prot-warrior-nerf-details/#comments Protection spec warriors, did you enjoy being able to charge out of roots and snares to get back to the boss fast? Well, thanks to PvP, you won't be able to do that anymore. What else won't you be able to do? Well, if you've been stacking block value in PvE content, first off, I kind of don't get you. Seriously, except for very specific gimmicky fights, why would you stack block value? (I said value, not rating, and I also said gimmicky fights so don't bring up Heroic Anub) But if you have been... perhaps you have a block value set for totally destroying adds or something... then get ready for a Shield Slam nerf. They're 'testing that one internally' which, if you remember how horrible the Rage Normalization changes went in early BC, always works.

Honestly, neither of these are huge gamebreakers. I liked that Warbringer cleared roots and snares for me when I was tanking, and I barely even noticed it in PvP: it was like a free self-cast Hand of Freedom. As for nerfing Shield Slam, well, like I said I don't stack block value so a lower block value cap on the ability wouldn't really affect me. Irritate me? Yes, it will do that. But it isn't a game breaker either. Of course, since as the commenters mentioned yesterday prot PvP warriors don't stack shield block value at all (I know you guys don't read my posts, Blizzard, but if for some reason someone is, look at all that ArP. Look at all that lack of block value. It is ArP that drives the prot PvP damage machine. ArP, not block value. Just thought I'd mention that) then I fail to see any point to the change either.

So there we have it: Warbringer gets changed and Shield Slam might get changed which is like taking a club away from a guy who is shooting people.

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Prot Warrior nerf details originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> ArPbornakkpatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowprot-pvpshield-slamworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-news (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[Breakfast Topic: Who do you want to kill?]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/breakfast-topic-who-do-you-want-to-kill/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/breakfast-topic-who-do-you-want-to-kill/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/09/breakfast-topic-who-do-you-want-to-kill/#comments Let's just cut to the chase: we've had old gods, dragons, fallen semi-demonic elves, troll heroes, and soon the former prince of Lordaeron. Then comes the Cataclysm and we'll be looking to burn down the cthonian Deathwing himself, master of the deep places of the earth. A host of other luminaries will undoubtedly get in our way. Who would you like to see there? Who do you want to kill?

For myself, I'm looking forward to breaking off a piece of Ragnaros on the slopes of Mount Hyjal, but who I really want to kill more than just about anyone is Gul'dan. Yeah, I know he's dead: so what? Do a Caverns of Time: Sargeras' Tomb and show us that Gul'dan actually almost made it out of the tomb, bloodied but unbroken and with the Eye of Sargeras in his possession, and it's up to us future Horde or Alliance players to cut the guy down before he figures out how to use it to become godlike. Because as bad as the Lich King might be, can you imagine Gul'dan with godlike power? The guy stuck his apprentices' souls into jeweled truncheons and created the first DK's just as a means to an end! Gul'dan's conscience is so non existent it makes that whole "I pulled out my own heart so I would have no weaknesses" deal sound like a cringing emo move. Gul'dan never had a heart in the first place to pull out! This was a guy who deliberately sold his entire people into demonic bloodlust because it would make them less likely to ask him questions. So yeah, I want to kill Gul'dan. Make it happen, Chromie. Send me back. I have all sorts of pointy things I'd like to introduce him to.

How about you? Who do you want to kill?

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Breakfast Topic: Who do you want to kill? originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> cataclysm-guidecataclysm-newsexpanionexpansion-threegame-discussiongamer-discussionnext-xpacthird-expansionthird-xpacworld-of-warcraft-cataclysmworld-of-warcraft-discussionworld-of-warcraft-hot-topicsworld-of-warcraft-topicswow-4.0wow-4.0.2wow-cataclysmwow-discussionwow-expansionwow-guidewow-hot-topicswow-issueswow-third-expansionwow-topics (Matthew Rossi) Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST WoW.com <![CDATA[The Care and Feeding of Warriors: I deserved that]]> http://www.wow.com/2010/01/08/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-i-deserved-that/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/08/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-i-deserved-that/ http://www.wow.com/2010/01/08/the-care-and-feeding-of-warriors-i-deserved-that/#comments Every week, Matthew Rossi writes The Care and Feeding of Warriors. Every week, he claws at his feeble brain to come up with a header paragraph, which really is kind of unfair. Warriors shouldn't have to think. Do you have any idea how many blows to the head we take?

So yeah, turns out I should probably have shut up and not told you guys that prot was actually good at PvP. Sorry about that. I'm not going to actually freak out until I see how they plan to balance prot so we're not good at PvP anymore, since I barely even PvP and am far more concerned with prot as a PvE spec, that is to say, tanking with it. If they make a bunch of changes and my threat stays the same and my survivability stays the same and I'm not seeing any major hits to my tanking, then whatever, I'm sure there will be enraged prot warriors still but I won't be one. If, however, I see a 2k threat loss and I'm dying like a chicken trying to tank a bloody heroic, then yeah, I'm gonna be upset.

I'll probably skip 'fevered pet' and move straight into 'enraged mouth breathing' territory. I can think of all sorts of ways to tweak prot in PvP that wouldn't have much of an effect in PvE, and I know the folks at Blizzard are better at class design than I am, so waiting and seeing is the order of the day. That being said I do find it irritating when we get told over and over again that we're fine until suddenly we're not. Just saying, some consistency would be nice.

Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: I deserved that

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: I deserved that originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]]> cataclysm-guidecataclysm-newsclass-helpexpanionexpansion-threeguidenext-xpacpatch-3.3patch-3.3-changespatch-3.3-wowtalenttalentsthird-expansionthird-xpacwarrior-guidewarrior-infoworld-of-warcraft-cataclysmworld-of-warcraft-class-guideworld-of-warcraft-guideworld-of-warcraft-patch-3.3wow-3.3-changeswow-4.0wow-4.0.2wow-cataclysmwow-class-guidewow-class-helpwow-expansionwow-guidewow-new-patchwow-patchwow-patch-3.3wow-patch-newswow-talent-guidewow-third-expansionwow-warriorwow-warrior-info (Matthew Rossi) Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST WoW.com