Don’t forget WoW Insider’s guide to the Darkmoon Faire

Posted on January 3, 2012 by WoW Insider

The Darkmoon Faire is in full swing again, from now until Jan. 7. The event has run into some issues this month, but it's still a grand ol' time overall. Many of you are still working on your Darkmoon Faire achievements, however, and others still have yet to step onto the new Darkmoon Island at all.

So what can you do at the Faire? What games are there to play? What achievements can you earn? All of those questions and more are answered in our Guide to the new Darkmoon Faire. Don't miss it.

Filed under: Events

Don't forget WoW Insider's guide to the Darkmoon Faire originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Queue: Happy New Year

Posted on January 1, 2012 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. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

A big thank-you to all of our readers and friends for your love and support in 2011. Happy new year, and may 2012 bring you great joy and Asian-themed epics!

Jack Spicer asked:

When you send emails to users, like for example to say that they've won a 12 days of Christmas prize, what address would the email come from? I want to make sure that I'm not blocking your email communications.

The winners of our Winter Veil giveaways will most likely be contacted either from alexziebart at gmail dot com or alex at wowinsider dot com.

Continue reading The Queue: Happy New Year

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The Queue: Happy New Year originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Totem Talk: 2011 in review for elemental shaman

Posted on January 1, 2012 by WoW Insider

Magmaw, the first boss of Blackwing Descent

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. Josh Myers once only tackled the hard questions about enhancement but has recently expanded his sphere of responsibility to all shaman DPS specs. (And no, two-handed enhancement is still never coming back.)

It's hard for me to believe that Cataclysm has only been out for slightly over one year, especially given how we're already on the last raid of the expansion. It's been a turbulent year for the shaman class, and elemental as a spec is no exception. Between legendaries, highly fluctuating DPS, and more tweaks to AoE then I care to count, elemental has had more than its fair share of ups and downs this year.

Tier 11: The lows

Elemental was not a strong DPS class in the first tier of Cataclysm raiding. Fights like heroic Halfus, Maloriak, and Sinestra brought our lack of competitive AoE damage into the limelight, while Cho'gall, Conclave of Wind, and Ascendant Council all highlighted how elemental's mobile DPS was terribly low. With Unleash Elements and shocks being our only mobile cast -- not to mention low levels of haste that left us with terribly slow Lightning Bolt casts -- and we really struggled to pump out respectable numbers on any fight that wasn't Patchwerk-esque.

Continue reading Totem Talk: 2011 in review for elemental shaman

Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, (Shaman) Totem Talk, Cataclysm

Totem Talk: 2011 in review for elemental shaman originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Queue: Big bugs

Posted on December 31, 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. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

No, not...not that kind of bug. The other kind.

Rhuarc asked:

Quick question for readers and writers of the Queue... What's your favorite (harmless/non-game-breaking) bug in game? I'm talking about the silly little bugs that have no effect at all on the game itself, but manage to elicit a chuckle or even a full on "lol" from you when they happen?

Honestly, my favorite bug isn't recent at all, and I'm not even sure it exists anymore. It's from launch-era WoW, and it went a little something like this: if you jammed on your strafe keys, moving back and forth mostly in place, you could get your character to stay in one frame of their strafing animation while you moved, and it persisted until you jumped. You could slide around the room like you were ice skating. It was fun. I think it was client-side only, so nearby adventurers couldn't see it, but I could, and it was fun.

My second-favorite bug is easily, easily the Booty Bay Death Grip Wormhole.

Continue reading The Queue: Big bugs

Filed under: The Queue

The Queue: Big bugs originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Queue: Big bugs

Posted on December 31, 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. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

No, not ... not that kind of bug. The other kind.

Rhuarc asked:

Quick question for readers and writers of the Queue... What's your favorite (harmless/non-game-breaking) bug in game? I'm talking about the silly little bugs that have no effect at all on the game itself, but manage to elicit a chuckle or even a full on "lol" from you when they happen?

Honestly, my favorite bug isn't recent at all, and I'm not even sure it exists anymore. It's from launch-era WoW, and it went a little something like this: If you jammed on your strafe keys, moving back and forth mostly in place, you could get your character to stay in one frame of their strafing animation while you moved, and it persisted until you jumped. You could slide around the room like you were ice skating. It was fun. I think it was client-side only, so nearby adventurers couldn't see it, but I could, and it was fun.

My second-favorite bug is easily, easily the Booty Bay Death Grip Wormhole.

Continue reading The Queue: Big bugs

Filed under: The Queue

The Queue: Big bugs originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Big stakes and the end of an expansion

Posted on December 28, 2011 by WoW Insider

Guys, I don't know if you know this, but we have just pried the elementium plates off of the back of a dragon so big 25 people can stand on him. After that, we killed the mutant kaiju version of him, who was so big his head alone was bigger than us and four other giant dragons.

I'm sorry, but you have to be 50 kinds of jaded to not enjoy this. One of the things I've really enjoyed about patch 4.3 and the Dragon Soul raid is how it unabashedly throws massive, crazy, world-ending doomsday events at you. Between fending off not one but two faceless ones from within bloated abominations, balking an ancient earth elemental giant at the base of Wyrmrest Temple, and defeating Ultraxion and then taking on Deathwing himself, the fights feel enormous. The stakes are huge, and while the supposed saviors of Azeroth spend a lot of time thinking really hard at a McGuffin, we step the heck up.

Whether you are hitting it via Raid Finder, attending your weekly 10-man hardcore raid, or participating as a member of a casual 25-man raid alliance (or anything in between), in terms of pure aesthetics, Dragon Soul is a very satisfying raid in terms of pure scope and sweep.

Continue reading Big stakes and the end of an expansion

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm

Big stakes and the end of an expansion originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Queue: Post-Winter Veil recovery

Posted on December 26, 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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Today's edition of The Queue is going to be another short one. Right on the heels of the holiday, there weren't a whole lot of questions to work with. But that means all of you will ask plenty of wonderful questions today so we can get back on track tomorrow, right? Right!

beruchan13 asked:

don't you think there's just too many red gem slots in the new tier of gear? I understand red slots make gear feel more powerful, but red slots are also for almost every class, with maybe the exception of tanks, the most boring slot since there's no choice to be made, your primary stat goes there, period. With so many red slots it starts to feel like a gold sink rather than an upgrade, as well as driving the price of red gems up the roof.

Continue reading The Queue: Post-Winter Veil recovery

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The Queue: Post-Winter Veil recovery originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Queue: Happy Winter Veil!

Posted on December 25, 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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Merry Christmas, everyone. It's very quiet in the proverbial WoW Insider offices today. I'm the only soul around, and the only sound in the air is the clickety-clack of my keyboard. That may seem a little depressing, but it isn't -- everybody is off enjoying themselves and grabbing some much-deserved rest and relaxation. It's a good thing.

Today's edition of The Queue is a bit short due to the holiday, but I'm sure you'll all forgive me, right?

Resurect asked:

With the events of the dragon soul, its safe to say that lorewise caverns of time is just a lair of bronze dragons now ? This means we will never see another time traveling dungeon again ?
Also Nozdurmu will now just grow old to be a nice guy without the risk of go "infinite" crazy ?

Continue reading The Queue: Happy Winter Veil!

Filed under: The Queue

The Queue: Happy Winter Veil! originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Totem Talk: Leveling a shaman in the Cataclysm era

Posted on December 25, 2011 by WoW Insider

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. This week, Josh Myers, the dean of DPS shaman, and Joe Perez, the Robespierre of restoration, do a Dragonball-Z style fusion dance and combine their class knowledge to bring you a concise shaman leveling guide.

So, young padawan, you want to play a shaman. You're following in the footsteps of some of the greatest characters in World of Warcraft lore -- Nobundo Farseer, Thrall, and yours truly. Just know that you have the full support of myself and Mr. Joe Perez, and we'll only judge you a very small amount for not choosing shaman sooner.

The shaman class has three distinct specs that each fulfill very different roles. Enhancement, which we'll talk about first, is a melee DPS class, which means standing very close to bosses and whacking them repeatedly with blades or maces imbued with flame and wind. Elemental is a ranged caster DPS class, preferring to stand at a safe distance while hurling balls of lava and electrocuting enemies. Restoration, the last spec we'll talk about, is a healing spec, revitalizing friends by creating super-soothing puddles for them to stand in. Seriously.

Continue reading Totem Talk: Leveling a shaman in the Cataclysm era

Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk, Cataclysm

Totem Talk: Leveling a shaman in the Cataclysm era originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 24 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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