Spiritual Guidance: So you wanna play a priest, part 2

The word priest is derived from the Greek work presbyteros, meaning "elder." While Dawn Moore is neither Greek nor an elder, she has 300 days played between her various priests (two-thirds of which was probably spent AFK) and will do her best to relay the information learned in those days each week in Spiritual Guidance.

This week instead of one of my typical, eloquent (ha!) introductions, I am going to tell you a story. A story about a machine. The machine was an ancient treasure, crafted by the titans and unearthed by a young priestess. The machine was very powerful and was said to hold the answers to all questions, even the ultimate ones. The priestess honored this machine with her life and wished only to do good with it.

One day, while traversing the icy northern valleys of the Storm Peaks, the priestess crossed paths with a leopard. A snow leopard. The priestess slowly took guard, not wishing to agitate the beast. It seemed to be of no matter, however, as the beast was furious with hunger, and it leapt at her without hesitation. The priestess scrambled to her right, calling up a protective shield as the leopard came at her. It seemed she would have to do combat; she began to recite the words to a holy prayer aloud. Unfortunately, before she could finish her prayer, the beast broke her barrier and tackled her to the ground. As she fell, she panicked, thinking of the machine tucked carefully in her satchel. The sound of metal crunching and contorting split through the sounds of the leopard's growls. Or maybe it was just the sound of the priestess' heart? Whatever it was, the priestess screeched in anger, frightening the animal off of her as she called forth the shadows. A protodrake later dined on the leopard's broken corpse.

The priestess hurried to Mimiron, master tinkerer and watcher of the titans. She begged him to repair the machine but he shook his head sadly. The machine was ruined, and only the absent titans themselves could restore it. The priestess lowered her head solemnly.

Don't understand what that story is about? Don't worry about it. It's time for the second installment of my holy and discipline healing guide. Let's get started.

All the World's a Stage: What's a good story?

You hear that a lot. "It was a good story." It's usually in conjunction with screwing someone over. It's like the period at the end of a sentence that really, really sucked, but it's totally okay because "it was a good story." And while it might sound like I'm being a little sarcastic, isn't it the whole point of roleplaying? We're trying to create and share good stories. The problem is, it's all relative. It's up to your personal tastes and styles to determine what's a good story, and what's not. But, let's frame this up a bit more, to make sure we're all on the same page.

Let's say you're playing with a moderated troupe. They're rare nowadays, but I do see them from time to time. A moderated troupe is when you trust one or more players to be Gamemasters, basically guiding the story along, portraying NPCs, and helping to decide what happens in the game. In the old pen-and-paper days, this person would have been called a game master.

During the course of your gnome's busy career, he found himself forced to help an undead warrior cross a river. Nothing big or fancy, but it was still something the gnome had to do. (I don't know how this situation could come about, but stay with me here.) Later, the gnome finds himself summoned before Varian Wrynn. Of course, the new king of Stormwind has more than a little angst about the horde, and decides your gnome should be executed. Is that a good story? Let's set up some criteria to determine it.

World of Warcraft Tap Chat now available

The World of Warcraft Tap Chat, or The Gaming Peripheral Formerly Known As Voice Tap, is now available. Essentially, it's a hotkey for your foot -- or some other appendage other than your fingers. Designed primarily as a push-to-talk button to pair with the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft headset to allow players to devote their hands to the game, this USB device can just as easily be assigned a macro or as a hotkey. This means players can actually assign the Tap Chat to an ability like Hammer of Justice, to add a realistic feeling of crushing your opponents underfoot.

Players willing to spring $29.99 for the edge of one additional button -- notably a non-hand-activated one -- can head over to the Creative or Blizzard online stores, where the World of Warcraft Tap Chat is exclusively available. Although sold out at the Blizzard store as of this writing (barely a week after it was made available), players who manage to get their hands (or foot) on the product also get exclusive World of Warcraft logo lenses that can be used to customize their matching World of Warcraft headset.

Cataclysm screenshot of the day

The latest Cataclysm screenshot from Blizzard is shown above, featuring another look at Hyjal. Are those marigolds? Do we have any botanists in the house?

If you've missed any of the previous Cataclysm screenshots of the day or you want to see a high-res version of today's screenshot, check out the gallery below.

Call for submissions: The pause that refreshes

What are the absolute best opportunities during a WoW session for grabbing a quick break? Whether you're desperate for a bio break, need to make a brief phone call or simply need a moment to stretch and get a drink, when is the right moment to go AFK when solo, grouped or in a raid? What if you're a raid or event leader -- how do you build in the pause that refreshes?

We're looking for the Top 10 chances to take a break while playing WoW. Submissions should be between 500 and 1,000 words. Artwork is not mandatory, but any you choose to include must be your own work or from creative commons. We will not accept articles submitted under player names or pen names; please use your real name and email. We'll only be accepting the very best article.

Ready to submit? Read up about our guest post program, then sign up for Seed and submit your article here. (You can't see the article page unless you have a Seed account.) Unfortunately, the Seed program currently only allows us to accept submissions from individuals living in the United States; we hope to be able to accept international submissions in the future. We'll accept submissions for this assignment until 11:59 p.m. EST on Thurs., July 1. Good luck and good writing!

The Queue: Patching syndrome

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.

I'm submitting a new disease to the books. It's called "Patching Syndrome." It's where people think something has changed because of the patch even though it hasn't.

That hair style you just discovered last night? It's always been there. Patch 3.3.5 had nothing to do with it.

Pwnzoar asked ...

"Originally, back before Burning Crusade, I remember them announcing that there were going to be racial flying mounts, similar to how we have racial ground mounts. Coupled with that, I remember pictures of an undead dragon that was going to be the Undead flying mount, and it looked epic. Why did they decide to switch that out and go with flying mounts for faction?"

Choose My Adventure: Letters home

Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H).

Here is the schedule for the rest of the week. Robinemia will do a little bit more nekkid mailbox dancing tonight but is then going to play with fire. So meet at the Orgrimmar bank if you want to join me.

Robin Torres as Robinemia, the undead mage: Wednesday, 11 p.m. EDT
Amy Schley as Patent, the troll rogue: Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT
Fox Van Allen as Foxlight, the blood elf paladin: Friday, 8 p.m. EDT
Michael Sacco as Sahko, the orc warlock, Christian Belt, as Selfloathius, the blood elf warlock, Elizabeth Harper as Faience, the troll shaman, Matthew Rossi as Andrenorton, the troll mage, Michael Gray as Grayfields, the tauren hunter, Adam Holisky as Adammentat, the tauren druid, and Gregg Reece as Yakkowakko, the orc warlock, will be making appearances as they can
Turn the page for a couple of letters home.