The Queue: Name that companion pet.

Posted on October 22, 2011 by WoW Insider

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Josh Myers will be your host today.

As one of the youngest writers on the WoW Insider staff, I was of an acceptable age for Pokémon playing when Pikachu first sailed the ocean blue and Pokémon Red landed in my Game Boy Pocket. It was Christmas Day, 1998. I hadn't quite learned that electronics required battery power to operate at that point, and losing my Charizard because I didn't save once in an eight hour pocket monster marathon would be my most crushing video game defeat until our first 20k HP wipe on Professor Putricide 12 years later.

As you might expect from someone whose first video game glory days involved beating the Elite Four with a Mewtwo and thinking he was the best Pokémon master in the world, I'm a little psyched for companion battling. And by a little excited, I almost forgot to be excited about the rest of the awesome stuff coming in the freshly announced Mists of Pandaria, including the Pandaren themselves.

While I'm now allowing myself to be excited for monks, PVE scenarios, and the entire talent tree overhaul, I can't help alt-tabbing out of our blogging platform to decide which of my companion pets I'm going to level up first. Will it be my shiny new Murkablo, my staple Fossilized Hatchling, or am I going to go Black Kingsnake, just because no one else will? Maybe I'll even name him Onyx.

Continue reading The Queue: Name that companion pet.

Filed under: BlizzCon, The Queue, Mists of Pandaria

The Queue: Name that companion pet. originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:00:00 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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Blizzard reveals mage tier 13 raid gear

Posted on September 15, 2011 by WoW Insider

Blizzard has been on a spree of patch 4.3 raid information recently, first showcasing the new warrior tier 13 Colossal Dragonplate Deathwing-inspired armor as well as the warlock tier 13 General Vezax/Faceless Ones-inspired set called the Faceless Shroud. Druids and shaman also got to see their new gear. Mages are next up for a tier 13 sneak peek as well as a retrospective on the previous tier sets to showcase all the past mage regalia for transmogrification when the patch hits.

This new set, Timelord Regalia, looks absolutely awesome, with crazy explorer goggles and a nice color scheme. Mage tier sets have always been pretty cool, in my opinion, but this takes the cake. I love the goggles. Cataclysm armor design has been top-notch throughout, and this final raid's epic sets really bring home the weight of our actions at the end of the expansion.

Gallery: Mage Tier 13 and gear retrospective

Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

Filed under: Mage, Blizzard, Cataclysm

Blizzard reveals mage tier 13 raid gear originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reader UI of the Week: I am Jack’s multi-purpose

Posted on September 14, 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.

Greetings, Reader UI of the Week fans. Everyone seems to have some sort of food poisoning or stomach problems this week, and I have no idea what is up with that. We have a national stomach epidemic here in the United States. Here's something that won't upset your delicate bodily balance; Jack's smooth and slick user interface setup, centered around grouping, dungeons, and questing.

While I am a raider at heart, my recent obsession has been with players and nonraiding UIs. Not that I think that there is anything wrong with a raiding UI, but as someone who primarily lives in raiding content, it is interesting to look and see what 5-man-focused UIs are built around. With the coming of the Raid Finder in patch 4.3 as an introductory raiding system, more and more players are going to have to adapt their 5-man UI setups to a raiding environment if they want to succeed in taking down the big bosses of the raiding world. Jack's UI is a competent setup that can make the change and stands up on its own two legs.

Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: I am Jack's multi-purpose

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

Reader UI of the Week: I am Jack's multi-purpose originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 13 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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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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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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Patch 4.2 Preview: Tier 12 armor sets

Posted on April 29, 2011 by WoW Insider

Blizzard has been on an information release kick this week for Rage of the Firelands, the next content patch for Cataclysm. World of Warcraft has been known, for better or for worse, by its armor design choices. Some of the armor sets in WoW actually have transcended the game itself, becoming part of a healthy nostalgia for players old and new.

Firelands is not going to have any shortage of cool raid gear. The tier 12 armor preview has just been released and contains images of the paladin, mage, rogue, hunter, death knight and priest sets. Warlocks, warriors, shaman, and druids are currently absent, though we can bet druids will also have a fire motif, considering Fandral Staghelm's role in the Firelands raid.

Gallery: Patch 4.2 Preview: Tier 12