Scattered Shots: Scatter-trapping with grace and ease

Posted on November 5, 2011 by WoW Insider

Frostheim appears to be decimated, unable to write this week, over the loss of the most recent raiding gun from the patch 4.3 PTR files. As someone who PVPs to get my first raiding weapon of most patches, I can choose whichever ranged death-dealing machine I want. Of course, as a Worgen (not to mention someone who is generally the butt of many of Frostheim's jokes on our podcast), I usually choose a crossbow after buying, returning and screenshotting the gun.

Today, Scattered Shots will be all about a very basic hunter PVP survival skill: scatter-trapping. All hunters of all specs can scatter-trap, and whether you're being ganked doing dailies, trying to win Baradin Hold, or doing competitive Arena, it's one of those skills that can really set you apart.

Traps on their own are only useful for people you can force to cross through them. Mostly, this means melee, although you can sometimes force a ranged player to cross a trap if you're humping a pillar properly. What do we do when we want to freeze someone who isn't chasing us, though? Freezing Trap is really our most effective crowd control ability. We'll often want it to be used on someone that matters like a healer. Unfortunately, short of stepping up to a healer and dropping a trap on them, there's no way to force them to cross our path.

Continue reading Scattered Shots: Scatter-trapping with grace and ease

Filed under: Hunter, PvP, (Hunter) Scattered Shots

Scattered Shots: Scatter-trapping with grace and ease originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

Posted on October 22, 2011 by WoW Insider

If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways.

Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches.

Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging.

There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.

Continue reading BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, BlizzCon

BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

Posted on October 22, 2011 by WoW Insider

Continue reading BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, BlizzCon

BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS?

Posted on September 3, 2011 by WoW Insider

Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought-out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable, I thought, "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" And so here we are.

The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the holy trinity of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relies on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner), and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom.

Furthermore, of the game's 10 classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock, and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class), because they simply cannot do so -- at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do?

Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.

Continue reading Is it time to kill pure DPS?

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight

Is it time to kill pure DPS? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS?

Posted on September 3, 2011 by WoW Insider

Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable I thought "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" and so here we are.

The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the 'holy trinity' of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relys on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes, and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner) and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom.

Furthermore, of the game's ten classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class) because they simply cannot do so, at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do?

Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.

Continue reading Is it time to kill pure DPS?

Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Death Knight

Is it time to kill pure DPS? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Meet the Bloggers: Basil "Euripides" Berntsen

Posted on July 20, 2011 by WoW Insider

About the Bloggers introduces you to the people behind WoW Insider. You can find articles on more WI staffers in earlier About the Bloggers entries.

What do you do for WoW Insider?

I write Gold Capped. I used to write Time is Money and Insider Trader as well, but then I decided to stop trying to categorize my thoughts and simply dump them all into Gold Capped and let my editors sort it out.

What's your main?

I have exactly one level 85 character: my hunter. I raid and PVP with him, as well as use him for my alchemy and blacksmithing businesses. I will continue to have one max-level character until all the jewelcrafting dailies my JC mule does dings him 85 without having set foot outside Stormwind.

I have way too much on my plate to actually take care of my alts. For one, I hate leveling. Once you've seen it once, doing it again doesn't have enough reward to justify the time. Secondly, if I had more playtime to use, I'd use it to do more of what I already do. I could be doing 10-man extensions of my 25-man raid if I had another raid night per week, or I could do more than a rated BG now and then. Starting a second gear grind with another character isn't something that's on my radar.

Continue reading Meet the Bloggers: Basil "Euripides" Berntsen

Filed under: About the Bloggers

Meet the Bloggers: Basil "Euripides" Berntsen originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: Back to basics with Kahle

Posted on July 5, 2011 by WoW Insider

Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

Firelands, Firelands, Firelands. Oh, Firelands. My new love. I've made a few updates to my own UI based on some of the new Firelands boss encounters, most notably Rhyolith. Have you made any changes to your user interface based on the new content?

This week, we've got a user interface from Kahle that is eerily reminiscent of my own UI. I would like to think that my own user interface has inspired thousands, giving many people the hope and the drive to create beautiful and functional UIs of their own. My inspirational columns, combined with my astute reporting, have made someone's game play experience better, which makes me feel awesome and a little weird at the same time. Seriously, I have way too much fun getting to do what I do.

So, on to the UI. Kahle is a hunter (pitchforks down, please) who values plenty of space open on the screen and keeping the in-combat, hunter-specific addon elements close to the character. He uses a bottom bar approach with interesting uses of the minimap for gathering. I think you'll enjoy it.

Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: Back to basics with Kahle

Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week

Reader UI of the Week: Back to basics with Kahle originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

Posted on June 13, 2011 by WoW Insider

Blizzard has updated the community site tier 12 armor preview with the final 2 armor sets -- warrior and druid. Patch 4.2 is coming soon, as players prepare for the invasion into the Firelands to confront Ragnaros for the (potentially) last time. Each armor set for this raid tier has its looks originating from something in the Firelands, going for the instance motif over the class motif.

Warriors will dress themselves in the Molten Giant Battleplate, made in the image of the new molten giant model. You may remember molten giants and molten destroyers from the Molten Core. They also wander fields of lava in the Firelands, ready to lumber over to unsuspecting players.

Druids will be donning the Obsidian Arborweave sets, based on what appears to be the tree that Malfurion and the Avengers of Hyjal are growing in the Firelands as the foward base against Ragnaros. Maybe, as a restoration druid, you were upset that Tree of Life was not a permanent form anymore. Well, now you get to dress up like a tree. Compromise. Hit the jump for a pic of the druid set.

By the way, Obsidian Arborweave is the most "Blizzard" name for anything I have ever seen. I hope that guy got a raise.

Continue reading Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

Filed under: Druid, Warrior, Cataclysm

Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

Posted on June 13, 2011 by WoW Insider

Continue reading Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid

Filed under: Druid, Warrior, Cataclysm

Official tier 12 armor set preview updated with warrior and druid originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: Hunting and scaling with Elleyna

Posted on June 7, 2011 by WoW Insider

Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you'd like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you're using to readerui@wowinsider.com.

Welcome to Reader UI of the Week, WoW Insider's weekly sojourn into other people's lives by looking through their eyes. I am always looking for more submissions from players, so keep sending those screenshots and emails and you could see your setup on the site. Plus, you get to bask in the wonderful advice of our awesome community in the comments, which is what this is all really about, isn't it? Send those user interfaces to readerui@wowinsider.com today!

This week, we've got a nice, solid hunter UI from Elleyna, who admits to a cluttered bottom screen but keeps the pieces working cleanly. I think that the community can learn a lot from this UI, mostly because I want to promote that lived-in look that is so popular these days with user interfaces and jeans. There is no shame in not being perfect, because the beauty of customizable user interfaces is that they are customizable to our liking. Settling into a UI is uniquely you.

Gallery: Reader UI of the Week gallery