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Scattered Shots: Pet tanking


Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week, Frostheim uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven Stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Got hunter questions? Feel free to email Frostheim.

As hunters, we spend a lot of our down time engaged in awesomeness. On long weekends, we strip down and roll around in awesomesauce; we drink it and bathe in it it and steep ourselves in the awesome until we reek of it, until we radiate awesome so strongly that it even starts to rub off on those around us. Pet tanking is yet another example of this principle in action.

Grandpappy Frostheim always used to say, "If you want a job done right, do it yourself. But if you're getting a good drunk on and good enough is good enough, send your pet to do it."

With the right pet, the right talents, a bit of gear and a pinch of forethought, our pets can make surprisingly formidable tanks. Our pets can easily tank, for example, any dungeon and any heroic in the game. We can even tank raid bosses. And I'm not talking about just the easy stuff in Naxx, either. We can tank a goodly number of ICC bosses including, as you can see in the video above, Sindragosa (and we don't even need another tank to help out in Sindragosa phase 3, either). So join me after the cut and learn how!

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Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

Blood Sport: 3v3 archetypes and why they are successful



Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column.

Listening music: I asked you to provide me with some awesome music for this week's article, and you didn't let me down. The Flaming Lips with "A Spoonful Weighs a Ton" is our listening music for today.

Last week: We talked about arena PvP in Wrath of the Lich King and some egregious errors with MMR and starting arena teams at 0 -- there are some upsides in there, too.

This week: While many different types of teams rise to the front page of arena ladders, it seems like only 10 or so compositions are really successful. And those 10 usually (if not always) fall into one of four archetypes.

According to the SK-100, elemental shaman + affliction warlock + restoration druid seems to be occupying a fair share of top spots all around the globe. Why is a composition like this one more successful than hunter + rogue + warrior? Err, OK, maybe that's a bad example to pick.

Classes work very well with certain other classes. Affliction warlocks and restoration druids complement each other for hundreds of reasons. Affliction warlocks and retribution paladins? Ehh, maybe not so much. So what makes a good team composition and why are certain strategies more successful than others? Read on, my friend.

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Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

Weekly Podcast Roundup: June 21 through June 27, 2010


Every Monday evening, WoW.com brings you a long list of WoW podcasts that were published the week (and weekend) before. If you don't see your favorite podcast listed, just let us know in the comments. Be sure to leave a link to it, and we'll pick it up next week.

Hello, fellow listeners! This week's list is a little short -- it looks like there weren't a lot of updates over the week. This is, however, a perfect time to give a shout-out to the podcast community at large! Got a podcast you love to listen to? Do you run a WoW-related podcast? Leave a link in the comments, and I'll add it to the list. Podcast postings are checked on a weekly basis, and the podcast list is posted every Monday.

All podcasts and content belong to their owners. WoW.com is not responsible for what you hear, and some of the content may not be safe for work.

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Filed under: Weekly Podcast Roundup

Inspect request throttling explained

If you haven't already heard among the throngs of vuvuzela-esque cries of "Gearscore is dead," Blizzard has decided to add a throttling time limitation to inspect requests that some addons use to quickly check to see what a character has equipped and what class that character is. The most notorious addons that use these inspection requests are "mouseover" addons that pull data about a character into a tooltip and Gearscore.

There have been a lot of misconceptions about Blizzard's change, so it would be beneficial to clear those misconceptions up.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Add-Ons

The Queue: Different

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. Michael Gray will be your action news host today.

Today's Queue is inspired by things that are different. That is to say, we'll be looking at instances in WoW where one of these things are not like the other.

Kitteh asked:

"Why do professions not level up at the same rate as weapon skills? I mean, weapon skills go up 5 at a time per level, up to a cap of 400 at level 80. But, once we reach master professions, we have to level 7.5 skills up at a time if we want to reach the cap of 450."

There's history to how the two skills got to be how they are, in terms of changes with patches and expansions. But that's kind of a sidestep to the question. What you asked is "Why do professions not work the same way as combat skills?"

The answer is that they're different systems. Combat skills function as a variable inside an equation and become meaningful when functioning inside that equation compared to your opponent's combat skill. By comparison, profession skills directly represent how advanced your character has become in a craft, and what recipes you can know.

The best answer here is "Professions and combat skills level differently because they represent much different aspects of the game."

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Filed under: The Queue

World of WarCrafts: How to make your own WoW-inspired crafts

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

The pre-expansion lull is the perfect time to pour your enthusiasm for the World of Warcraft into more creative outlets. Your stable of characters may be perfectly outfitted to face the coming Cataclysm -- but what about the person behind the keyboard? Is the entrance to your lair clearly marked? Are your earrings up to snuff? Would Thrall approve of the place you lay your head at night? Check out our how-to gallery of do-it-yourself WoW crafts below; just follow the blue text links under each photo to find simple instructions for making your own version of each craft.



World of WarCrafts is always looking for more how-to's on WoW-themed arts and crafts of every stripe. Send photos, descriptions and instructions of your not-for-profit creations to lisa@wow.com.

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by emailing lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.


Filed under: World of WarCrafts, Arts and Crafts

Choose My Adventure: I still have lessons to learn

Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H).

The schedule for this week will be:
  • Anne Stickney as Annephora, the troll warrior, will be on Tuesday at 1 a.m. EDT (which is Monday at 11 p.m. Zangarmarsh time)
  • Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue: Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT
  • Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT
  • Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage; Michael Sacco as Sahko, the orc warlock; Christian Belt, as Selfloathius, the blood elf warlock; Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman; Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, the troll mage; Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter; Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid; and Gregg Reece as Sandwichdoc, the shaman, will be making appearances as they can
OK. I was a bit wrong on Friday. I learned a lesson, but not the only lesson. Obviously. I put STV on the poll of questing areas for level 40+, even though you had already chosen that zone for level 30+. I was just trying to be thorough. Bad move. So we're going with the second choice of Badlands. You also chose the holiday festivities and a shaman for Gregg. Mr. Reece will be introducing Sandwichdoc to us shortly.

Don't forget: Tuesday night, we are having our Server Maintenance Party. Guaranteed fun, flame and death -- if you're into that kind of thing.



If you want to join in on the fun of Choose My Adventure, please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, which can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.

Filed under: It Came from the Blog, Choose My Adventure

It came from the Blog: Server maintenance party

So your server will be down for a whole day (and probably then some) this Tuesday? Zangarmarsh (US-PvE) isn't. No, we're not taunting you. We're inviting you to join us for a server maintenance party. Our activity Tuesday night will be the stealing of fires in the Alliance capitals, to continue our Midsummer Fire Festival themed events.

This will be an all-levels event. So go ahead and create a level 1 to join us, if you don't already have a Horde character on Zangarmarsh. If you do, please bring your highest level character to make this go more smoothly. Here are the particulars:
  • When: Tuesday, June 29 at 10:15 p.m. EDT (7:15 p.m. PDT, 8:15 p.m. realm time)
  • Where: Meet at Splintertree Post in Ashenvale on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H)
  • Who: Your highest Horde character, even if that means level 1
  • What: Hopefully, a Thief's Reward hat for all
  • How: Ask Robinator or any <It came from the Blog> guildie to join the guild; ranks of Lurker or higher can invite.
We will be gathering at Splintertree Post at 10:15 p.m., but will be leaving right at 10:30 p.m. Summons are for sissies, so log on early to make sure you're there on time. There will be deaths -- many, many deaths. In the interest of time and everyone's fun, just grab your bod and catch up.

More details and some suggestions are after the break.

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Filed under: Events, It Came from the Blog

Officers' Quarters: Guild reputation in Cataclysm

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available this spring from No Starch Press.

Two weeks ago, Blizzard revealed all the latest updates concerning their game plan for Cataclysm. Among them were a host of changes to the new guild systems and a guild UI overhaul, which were originally announced at BlizzCon 2009. Last week, I discussed Blizzard's decision to axe guild talent trees in favor of automatic perks at each level. Most of you disagreed with me on the issue, and I wasn't surprised. Most people would rather have all the perks, and I understand that. I still believe that offering guilds a way to define themselves using in-game elements would be incredibly useful, but we'll have to keep waiting for that.

Moving on to another part of Blizzard's plan for guilds, I'd like to talk about guild reputation and where I'd like to see Blizzard go with it.

No more guild currency

Part of the announcement in mid-June was that guild currency as an idea has been scrapped. Instead, players will be able to purchase rewards with gold. I don't think anyone is mourning the loss of yet another type of currency.

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Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

WoW Moviewatch: WarLock

The video's by Quixotica, the song's by Sharm. That's one hell of a team up, and WarLock shows the success of that union. It's obviously a parody of Tik Tok by Kesha, that much-mocked "sing talk" song about blowing up speakers and such. Someone remind me to send those two a "love note" for getting that song stuck in my head. I'm going to have Tik Tok repeating in my noggin for days.

Which is ironic, because Sharm blows the original song out of the water. While I acknowledge Kesha's vocal style as being iconic, I much prefer Sharm's tendency to sing her songs. (I'm a traditionalist.) Not only does Sharm pay sufficient homage to the original song, but she manages to lace it with actual singing talent. Quixotica's beautiful video work is fun and engaging as always.

The lyrics could have maybe used a little more polish, but WarLock is a strong parody. It's definitely going to be one of my favorites, as great parodies have been a little lacking lately.

Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.


Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

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