Rich Maloy, master of the turn-around-Frost-Shock, nerd-rager of the Big Crits (week 7 coming next week), and blogger of the enhancement variety prides himself on keeping the pressure on the boss at all times. He encourages you to work on your turn-around jump shot this week.

I love being melee. I love being up in the middle of the fray right on the boss' heel, breathing in the fumes of battle and mashing my abilities as fast as global cooldowns will allow. But the cost of being in the heart of the action are cleaves. And whirlwinds. And tail swipes, dragon breaths, shock vortexes, running around the room chasing ads, and oh yeah, dodging cleaves. Did I mention whirlwinds yet?

Granted, there's not as much hate on melee in Wrath as there was in The Burning Crusade, but our DPS is still limited by time on target. We are after all, melee. Yet the great thing about enhance is when we're not in melee range, we can still lob some spells and drop some fire bombs all while running around dodging those whirlwinds.

It was Sindragosa's Permeating Chill that first got me thinking about maximizing my damage output while I'm not doing melee attacks. Also, her Blistering Cold got me wondering about ways to keep damage on boss even while running in the complete opposite direction. What follows are some of my simple strategies for maximizing time on target and keeping the damage pumping even while running around.

Read more →

Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk

Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW.com staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game -- and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too!

There's been a hot-topic issue or two this week, and for today's WRUP we're going to skip the drama and ask everyone a simple question that has no wrong answers:



Answers from the team -- and what they're playing this weekend -- after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: WoW.com Business

I'm stepping away from the beta for the weekend to focus on some regular screenshots. Sparcle of <Myth Guard> on Farstriders (US-A) took this picture during a Midsummer Fire Festival mishap. "An errant firework started a grass fire in Goldshire," she wrote. "Luckily, Flame Warden Arugadh was at hand to direct the water bucket brigade and disaster was averted."

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

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

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com.

I am leveling what will hopefully be my sixth level 80. It is my ninth character slot on my main server, leaving one spot for a worgen druid. I really like leveling. The term "altoholic" has been thrown around -- but once they get to 80, I stop caring about them. It's the leveling process that I really enjoy. It seems leveling gets better and better each time I attempt it. I light up every time I get level achievements, and I love that feeling of getting a mount for the first time.

For this alt, I have decided to level like it's my first toon with some semi old-school restrictions. My current alt is a 27 dwarf paladin, and I cannot use the dungeon finder nor run with heirlooms. I didn't give my alt gold or bags. I am not buying or training for riding skill until level 40 and epic at 60. I am trying to stay in the natural quest progression (I did run to Elwynn Forest to kill Hogger, but I didn't take the quests) provided by the game. This is incredibly hard. At 27, I have exhausted every possible quest in Wetlands at my level, and none of the quests have sent me on to another zone.

Read more →

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

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

Hey we're back. It's like Ghostbusters 2, without the pink goo.

Table of Contents

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

Read more →

Filed under: The Daily Blues

"Little elf," Throgg asked. "What do you think of these?" Throgg held his massive forearms aloft, showing them off to his diminuitive companion.

"Wow," Lolegolas said. His face lit up in an eager smile. "Those are awesome. What are they?"

"They are," Throgg said with a steady cadence, "The Best. Bracers. Ever."

"I can believe it!" Lolegolas replied. He shuffled his shoulder so that a flowing cascade of hair rippled over his shoulder like homespun gold. "What are they called?"

"The Best. Bracers. Ever."

"But ... the name, Throgg." Lolegolas's face grew a little dark as he frowned. "I need the name. Otherwise, I'll never be able to look them up on a reputable website like WoW.com, and find out how to get them for my-elf."

"They are the Best. Bracers. Ever. Me not know how to tell you no more than that! Best. Bracers. Ever. come from Cataclysm!"

"You make my head hurt, you know that, right?" Lolegolas asked.

"That would make that the Best. Headache. Ever!"

Name Best. Bracers. Ever.
Type Bracers
Armor 20
Attributes

• 1 Stamina

How to get it It's a quest item in Cataclysm. You must involve yourself with the Biggest Egg Ever.
How to get rid of it It sells for 34 copper. Not sure on the disenchants yet.

Filed under: Phat Loot Phriday

The internet can breathe again. Earlier today Blizzard announced that they will not be requiring real names to post on the official Blizzard forums, and the blogosphere in response breathed a huge sigh of relief. Here's a whole mess of thank-you's and other notes regarding the decision from various bloggers:

• The Pink Pigtail Inn asks if the wounds can be healed.
• Empowered Fire is pretty giddy about the results.
• Achtung Panzercow says "Yub Yub." That's Ewok for "We won."
• Geek Girl Diva has a short and sweet note to Blizzard.
• Lorehound asks what we learned from all of this.
• Warcraftic discusses the Warcraft community and communication.
• Mana Obscura gives us their thoughts on the power of the fans.
• HuskyStarcraft recorded a video response to the notice about the decision.
• Can we go back to just killing internet dragons now? I think so.

Filed under: The Daily Quest

The WoW.com crew has been hard at work on full walkthroughs of the worgen and goblin starting experiences in the Cataclysm beta, and in the process we've built up a few videos that we simply don't want to sit on any longer. You'll see these videos in our guides as planned, so consider this a sneak preview. Obviously almost every single one of these videos is heavy with Cataclysm spoilers. Don't want to be spoiled? Don't watch.

Embedded above is the quest The Great Bank Heist. You can head over to our YouTube channel (or click the links below) to see:

Worgen Starting Zone

• Meet Lord Darius Crowley
• Sacrifices
• Fun With Placeholders
• You Can't Take 'Em Alone
• Tunnel Rats
• Transformation Animation

Goblin Starting Zone

• Hot Roddin'
• The Great Bank Heist (embedded above)
• Monkey Business
• And more to come!

We've already said it a few times since the beta started, but we do strongly recommend subscribing to our YouTube channel. While most of the videos that are uploaded there will find their way here eventually, subscribing is a good way to get a sneak peek at upcoming features ... and catch the few videos that don't make it to our front page.

Filed under: Cataclysm

Every Friday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting balance druids and those who group with them. This week we are getting into the Cataclysm spirit and taking a good look at the biggest change that balance druids have been expecting for a long time coming. That's right, we're talking Eclipse.

Well, this has certain been a major week for Cataclysm news, if I do say so myself. If you happen to have been living under a rock the past couple of days or just read the only important article the gets sent out every week, then you should know that talents are taking a major change here in the next couple of weeks. That's right, the talent trees are getting cut down to 31 points, while players will only be getting talent points approximately every other level instead of every level as they do now. It's a major change, one that's going to impact the way every class in the game picks talents -- but honestly, for balance druids, I really don't think that it makes much of a difference.

Allow me a moment to clarify. The balance tree, at the moment, is already fairly heavy with talents that you are going to end up taking no matter how you wanted to choose to spec (mostly because there simply isn't much else to take). This lack of choice for balance druids has been something that I've been commenting on rather frequently the past few weeks, along with several other balance druids. It's mostly due to a disconnect between what Blizzard believes is an optional talent and what the players see as optional. The new talent system isn't something that I want to focus on, however, as there still needs to be more information released before we can really get down into it. What I would really like to talk about is our primary mastery, Eclipse.

Eclipse has been the single most fickle talent that balance druids have dealt with all throughout Wrath, and it came as no surprise to the community when Blizzard announced that they would be making some very big changes to it. After all, the core of Eclipse has been broken for quite some time -- we've managed with what we had to, but it hasn't been a very pretty sight. Still, for those who have been following along or those who are in beta, you may have noticed that the new Eclipse really isn't all that new at all. This is problematic and really the focus of what I'd like to discuss today.

Read more →

Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

• The Dragonmaw orcs have a presence in the Highlands, and "their knowledge of dragons and warfare is of unquestionable importance, especially amidst the chaos of the Cataclysm." This explains a little of why they would join up with the Horde, though I'm still wondering how Alexstrasza feels about the whole situation.
• The Wildhammer dwarves also make an appearance here, and have begun to consider allying with Stormwind and Ironforge "thanks to the entreaties of their cousins, the Bronzebeard clan."
• It looks like the red dragonflight's days of haunting Grim Batol and the surrounding areas are numbered -- the black dragonflight are taking over.
• The Twilight's Hammer cult has relocated here due to the presence of an Old God.

For more information, highlights and screenshots, check out the post on the official Cataclysm website.

Filed under: Cataclysm