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

Note: The above is a video of Friday's stream and not an actual live stream.

Poll results

Robidin the tauren paladin is the winner of what beta character you want me to play next. Therefore, on Wednesday, I will be streaming in Mulgore. But streaming is fun! So Friday night, I played Robinia and Robiness a bit as well. The video is above.

Also, in a very close battle, you chose balance over feral for Prupher, Lisa Poisso's tauren druid.

Schedule

• Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the level 57 tauren druid, will be on Monday at 10 p.m. EDT
• Robin Torres as Robidin the level 1 tauren paladin: Wednesday, 11 p.m. EDT Note: This will be streamed.
• Amy Schley as Patent, the level 24 troll rogue: Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT
• Anne Stickney as Annephora, the level 42 troll warrior, will be on Friday at 1 a.m. EDT (which is Thursday at 11 p.m. Zangarmarsh time)
• Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the level 22 blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT
• Lisa Poisso as Prupher the level 10 tauren druid; Michael Sacco as Shockbroker, the goblin shaman; Christian Belt, as Selfloathius, the level 16 blood elf warlock; Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the level 24 troll shaman; Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, the level 17 troll mage; Michael Gray as Grayfields, the level 17 tauren hunter; and Gregg Reece as Sandwichdoc, the level 16 troll shaman, will be making appearances as they can

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Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in <It came from the Blog>. Guild ranks of "Blog Lurker" or above can invite, so /whisper Robiness or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.

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Filed under: Choose My Adventure

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.

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.

• All Things Azeroth Punch a Dragon! In the Face!
  
• The Instance Deathwang
  
• Rawrcast Topless
• Twisted Nether Blogcast All About the Sects

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Filed under: Weekly Podcast Roundup

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.

Last week, we covered what the new PvE rotation is looking like for MM hunters in Cataclysm, and today we're going to move along to the SV PvE rotation. Currently in Wrath, the MM rotation is more fixed and requires some careful forethought and planning. In Cataclysm, it is more so. In Wrath, the SV rotation is more reactionary, and in Cataclysm, it is that and more so.

Despite the frantic gyrations from being focus-starved to actually having too much focus, the SV rotation is probably the least-changed hunter spec rotation in Cataclysm. We use Cobra Shot instead of Steady Shot, we don't have to worry about reapplying Serpent Sting and instead we get to actually use Arcane Shot from time to time. Join me after the cut and we'll take a look.

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Filed under: Hunter, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

Blood Sport: The column where we grind our enemies into a fine pulp, add sugar, water and love. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Where did that saying even come from? I'd love it if life just randomly gave me lemons. And in that vein, who wouldn't make lemonade with lemons? What other uses do lemons even have? Anyway, let's talk about owning people in 5v5 and stuff.

Listening Music: The xx with "Basic Space." The real talent is the guy playing the buttons.

Drain teams were exceptionally successful in The Burning Crusade, so much so that developers went out of their way to make burst damage, and only burst damage, a successful strategy in Wrath of the Lich King. The problem, of course, was that it went completely overboard, and we were stuck looking at extreme dominance from classes that did best under high-burst-damage conditions.

In season eight, we're seeing a return to some strategies that try to get an enemy's mana to 0 percent before they make a serious attempt to kill anything.

I have a special place in my heart for drain comps. My first No. 1 title came from playing a drain team with fellow gladiators; it was our first time hitting No. 1 together and it was an amazing time. I probably sounded like a little girl when I screamed ridiculously loud as I saw that coveted title attached to my character's name.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

While Mr. Van Allen is getting his waistcoat pressed, Dawn Moore presents her weekly book club Spiritual Guidance, a healing guide for priests. Here you can expect some optimism, some cynicism and absolutely no Regency period clothing.

So, supposedly mana is going to be an issue for healers in Cataclysm. It's the word on the street, ya know? Everyone is talking about how we're not going to be able to spam this or that, and that we'll need to make better decisions with our spell selection. "Triage" is this year's vocabulary word. That old, busted spam style of healing is out, and the new "do damage, get mana" mechanic is supposed to be the new hotness. Of course, we priests are bound to be the superstars* of the next expansion; it's all pretty exciting, don't you think? Well, maybe not everyone feels that way, but that's why we have cake and counseling. Dawn motions to the door behind her.

So, in the short time I've written for WoW.com, I've noticed that the mana question is one that continually comes up. Is mana a problem? Is it not a problem? It seems like there isn't a single satisfactory answer I can give to everyone, but knowing mana might be a hurdle in the future for all of us, I figured now would be a good time to look back and ahead. So, let's talk about mana.

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Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

More realms are undergoing 24-hour maintenance starting just after midnight tonight PDT, and therefore it is time for another server maintenance party. You voted for a PvP theme, so we will be defending the Eastern Plaguelands. I will also be streaming the event on our Justin.tv channel so that those who cannot participate can still watch. Here are the details:

• When: Tuesday, Aug 17, 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. PDT, 8:30 p.m. realm time) to meet and greet. 11 p.m. EDT for the actual event and stream.
• Where: Meet at Light's Hope Chapel on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H)
• How: Ask Robinella or any <It came from the Blog> guild member for an invite to the guild. Ranks of Blog Lurker or above can invite.
• What: We will be attempting to complete Bolstering Our Defenses, following a plan to be discussed in guild chat at the time of the event (in case Alliance spies are reading this).
• Who: Any level Horde character is invited to participate, but you will have more fun at level 58 or higher.

While any level who makes the trek to join us is welcome, I highly recommend making a death knight to participate if you don't have a high-level character already on Zangarmarsh. This is a PvP event, so there will be some Alliance resistance -- and that will be part of the fun. But even if we have awesomely diligent healers, they will not be able to save low-levels from being one-shot. The event starts late enough in the evening tomorrow so that most people will have enough time to make a DK.

More tips and rules are after the break.

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Filed under: Events, PvP, It Came from the Blog

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page.

The symphonic strains of WoW-inspired composer Rehmaar (aka Taylor Goodson) will sound familiar to World of WarCrafts regulars. His atmospheric "Knights of the Valiant Fury Overture," which we featured back in the spring, was written and dedicated to his guild, <Knights of Valiant Fury> of Destromath (US-H). The WoW.com spotlight, combined with a growing stream of visitors and encouragement on his YouTube channel, inspired Goodson to continue composing his guild- and character-inspired pieces -- and it inspired us to come back and take a second look at Goodson's work.

World of WarCrafts: Taylor, tell us a little more about your WoW-themed compositions are heading as a whole. Do you have a goal for the project, or are you simply following your muse?

Taylor Goodson: Definitely just following my muse. I would never try to make money off of these pieces (especially since some of the material isn't completely my own -- for example in "Protectors of Azeroth" I used the theme of Stormwind) as they are always just for fun -- I write them for guildmates and friends typically as a gift for accepting me into the guild or just because I really like the people I meet. I have work that has been published before that I make a little money off of, but these pieces will never fall into that category.

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Filed under: World of WarCrafts, Arts and Crafts

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 from No Starch Press.

Wipes are a fact of life. Everyone wipes. How you deal with these situations can be crucial to your guild's success. Some guilds cultivate an environment based on blame, where everyone's first thought after a wipe is, "Who messed up?" Sometimes, it's easy to figure out who is at fault: Someone with a spore goes the wrong way, or someone gets mind-controlled by the Blood Queen after failing to bite his assignment. When it's not easy to figure out, some guilds use a different strategy for assigning blame. Here is one such case:

I have a real dilemma.

I'm an officer, one of six, in a semi-serious raiding guild. We have 30 core raiders who raid with us, and one of them until recently was one of our druid healers, and the issue surrounding him is my dilemma. A little background information on the guild, since it is relevant, is that we have a strict rule involving loot due to some people in the past who have abused our requirement for Vent in that they wouldn't use it, or they'd log in but leave their headsets off. This caused a lot of problems with wipes and caused the officers, GM and co-GM to agree that a rule would be made that was you must be in Vent and actively listening at all times during a raid in order to be eligible for loot. This is what caused the initial problem.

The player of this druid healer I mentioned before applied to our guild and told us on the application that he is deaf.

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Filed under: Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Filed under: News items, Wrath of the Lich King

The Cataclysm expansion is coming. This is going to be game-changing event. It's actually very exciting. A lot of the old world has gotten stale, and I'm eager to see it refreshed. However, if there's one piece of community lore that I will hate to see rendered not-as-relevant, it's Darrowshire.

Darrowshire is a defining moment both for characters in game and also for the WoW filk community. Darrowshire is one of the best pieces of WoW music out there, and the video that goes with it matches its sorrowful, determined tone perfectly. I don't think the song will lose much power after the reconstruction of Azeroth, but I do hope people can still be exposed to this beautiful piece of art by Cranius.

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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 email at machinima@wow.com.

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Filed under: WoW Moviewatch