Silence!

Something we may not always think about what our spells and abilities actually do in the setting of the game. Sure, for us, the tooltip tells us the basic information and we go on from there, but what are we actually doing? How does Arcane Shot work? Does the hunter just have a special magic arrow they shoot me with? Do they somehow wave the arrow around and it becomes magic, say a few words in Darnassian or Troll or whatever? Some abilities are pretty obviously spells, like almost everything a mage does, but for other classes the border between magic and skill can get pretty blurry... moves like Cloak of Shadows really beggar the imagination to explain in a non magical way.

A recent discussion on the forums about Thunder Clap and its being suppressed by silence effects (it always has, or at least has for so long that I've just accepted it) brings out Ghostcrawler to explain the reasoning. Quite frankly, it's a pretty reasonable explanation: if you're silenced, no one can hear the Thunder Clap going off, and thus, it doesn't do anything.

It's not due to the ability being magical or not, silences prevent spell casting by preventing the spells themselves from being uttered, they're not a dispel, so it makes sense in game that silences also prevent any other ability that needs to be heard from working. I know from tanking Raging Spirits on top of ICC that I also can't taunt when silenced, which makes sense. I can yell all the insulting words I want at the ghost, but he can't hear them. I'm honestly not sure if I can Shockwave in this situation (we have very fast dispellers) but some sources I've checked indicate that yes, Shockwave is also prevented by silence. (I really don't get silenced all that much. I'll run some tests later today.)

I find it very interesting to see the complexities of how abilities and conditions interact in game, and how abilities are changed by in-game world logic. One class obviously uses the Holy Light, while another is just getting by on brute force: the in game distinction creates new complexities.

The Lawbringer: Kids and Contracts

Welcome to The Lawbringer, WoW.com's weekly visit to the intersection of law and the World of Warcraft. I am a third year law student acting as your crossing guard and trying not to get run over myself.

For this week, we'll turn to my mailbag:


I've turned 18 and am on an account my father WAS paying for. Is there any way without having the Ban Hammer brought down on me for me to have exclusive rights to the account? Because I'm pretty sure my father does not play and never really has. Thanks- Tom
Tom's situation is not that unusual, but before we get into his question, I feel the need to reiterate something: I am not a lawyer. While I do appreciate the fact that I'm likely the closest thing to a lawyer that many of y'all feel comfortable contacting, I can't help you with real legal problems. That's a little no-no known as practicing law without a license; doing so could make me ineligible for the bar exam. And let me tell you, I do not want to end up with a loan bill bigger than my parents' mortgage without the piece of paper necessary to pay that debt off. I can tell you what the EULA and TOU says, what the current law is, what policies Blizzard has in place, but I can't tell you what you should do.

(I also feel compelled to note that I am female. For those wishing to accuse me of blind loyalty to Blizzard: if I were a fanboy, the byline would read Gregory Rummel.)

So let's look at Tom's dilemma: he's been sharing his account with his dad, but no longer wants to do so now that he's an adult. Well, first thing to do is look at the EULA/TOU. Account sharing is strictly forbidden under the Terms of Use:
You may not share the Account or the Login Information with anyone other than as expressly set forth herein.
You are not allowed to share your account with your siblings, your spouse, your best friend, or your roommate. Why not? Well, beyond the fact it means you can't play together, it leaves your account open to hacking. Preach it, Brother Waco! Now, note that you can share your information with someone "expressly set forth herein" (translation: someone actually mentioned in the document). If you scour the page, you will find that person in the section called "Eligibility."
3. You represent that you are an adult in your country of residence. You agree to these Terms of Use on behalf of yourself and, at your discretion, for one (1) minor child for whom you are a parent or guardian and whom you have authorized to use the account you create on the Service.
So there is one person with whom an adult can share their account information -- one authorized minor child. Now why might Blizzard have this rule? Why not just have the child form an account and agree on their own behalf?

Think back, all those many weeks ago, to the column on requirements for a contract. Remember that to enter a contract, you generally have to be a legal adult. What's so important about being a legal adult? For the answer, scroll up and watch Huey, Dewey, and Louie weasel their way out of the contracts that would bankrupt Uncle Scrooge's company. Under common law, "infants" -- persons under 18 -- may rescind contracts to which they have agreed at any time. (Statutory law has eroded this privilege somewhat for personal services.) So yes, you can tell your mom that you were actually learning good contract law watching the Disney Afternoon.

Now, given that adults can terminate their contract with Blizzard at any time, it may seem strange to worry about minors rescinding their contracts at any time. It should be noted, though, that termination and rescission are not the same thing. When an adult terminates his contract, he simply stops paying for services. A rescission requires the parties be placed back in the same position they were in before the contract. Thus, the minor would return the software and Blizzard would be forced to refund the sales and possibly the fees. Like I mentioned before, nonrefundable services can't always be rescinded by a minor. Rather than deal with all this, Blizzard just requires that only adults may agree to the terms, and allow parents to share their account with their minor children.

So having established that sharing an account with a minor child is okay, we'll move to the second part of Tom's question. How can a new adult get control of the account owned by their parents? Fortunately for Tom, this is spring break, so I had the time to spend an hour and twenty minutes on hold with Blizzard to ask them about this. (Thankfully the on-hold music is actually decent.)

First, the teenager (We'll call him Mark) has to create a Battle.net account. Then Mark and his mom "Barb" have to call Blizzard to delink the WoW account from Barb's Battle.net account and connect it to Mark's Battle.net account. This has to be done over the phone, and both Mark and Barb must be available and agree to the change. No further paperwork is needed. Now, this is for when mom and son are just transferring ownership. If Barb likes playing her characters and she and Mark want to split the account, they have to use the paid character transfer system to let Mark have his characters and Barb have hers.

Well, I hope this has been a little bit of useful information. Stay tuned for next week, when we explore another intersection of law and Warcraft.

Heroic Nexus Boss Guide

Grand Magus TelestraThe Nexus has an open ended feel that allows adventurers to travel multiple paths to kill bosses in almost any order they prefer. Grand Magus Telestra is typically the second boss killed and is the holder of the achievement – Split Personality. This achievement is fairly easy to accomplish now as most players outgear this zone and will have more than enough DPS to burn the adds down together. There are two fairly simple methods to this depending on your group make up, if you have mostly AoE damage dealers simply use voice chat to monitor total damage and round them up to burn them down evenly.
AnomalusAn arcane elemental, Anomalus is the second boss in Heroic Nexus that we will take a look at. This is a two stage fight with the boss having a normal and invulnerable phase that cycle at 75, 50 and 25%. The achievement that he gives is known as “Chaos Theory” and is obtained by not killing any of the Chaotic Rifts that spawn during his invulnerable phase. The most popular and preferred method to achieve this is kite the mob around to the various platforms in the area, this is a more time consuming method but the most foolproof, just remember to clear the area completely before attempting! The kiting method allows you to control the damage taken by the rifts during his normal phase, however you will need a strong healer no matter which method you chose as the rifts gain unlimited range at the 25% intervals. If you have a mage you can apply dampen magic to the group and make the fight almost trivial for a moderately well geared healer. If you chose not to attempt the achievement you simply burn down the rifts during the invulnerable phase for an easy kill.
Ormorok the Tree-ShaperThe next boss in our look at the Nexus is Ormorok the Tree Shaper, a rather large and nasty elemental that inhabits a semi wooded area of the instance. Ormorok offers no achievements, but does need to be killed to allow Keristrasza to be activated so you cannot skip him. This boss can be the most straight forward tank and spank fight instance if all party members group up directly underneath him for the duration of the fight. He has several special abilities to contend with, but most only come in to play if the group is spread out. Ormorok summons small adds that root players in place if not dealt with quickly, these little guys have next to no hit points so you can AoE them or single target them down rather easily. Their root ability itself isn’t much of a bother until you add to it his second ability, Crystal Spikes, a ground based damage that can be avoided easily provided you aren’t rooted to the ground. He hits plate fairly hard and has an extra ability that enhances this damage so both the tank and the healer need to be mindful of spike damage.
Commander Kolurg or Commander StoutbeardThese optional bosses are only available on Heroic mode, offer no achievements and are completely optional as they do not have any bearing on freeing the end boss. Both of these bosses are found in the hallway leading from The Librarium back into The Axis of Alignment area of the zone. Kolurg is the alliance version and Stoutbeard is the horde version of essentially the same fight. This boss starts out frozen in place so you have ample preparation time. The boss will come with two cleric adds that have Shadow Word: Death and heals in their arsenals, burn the adds down before concentrating on the boss. The boss itself will whirlwind and fear so keep him pulled far away from any other NPCs to avoid adds, all players but the tank should avoid the whirlwind at all costs.
Keristrasza The final boss in the zone, Keristrasza can only be engaged once the other three primary bosses have been defeated. The dragon starts the fight inside a frozen tomb and is released by player activation of three orbs around the room. Keristrasza offers a Heroic achievement – “Intense Cold”, which is gained by not allowing the bosses stacking debuff of the same name to get higher than two stacks. This is an INDIVIDUAL achievement so you can complete it even if other members of your group fail. There are various class compositions that make this a much easier fight but the basic premise is to jump as often as possible to not allow Intense Cold to stack and to have some means to break out of her second ability, Crystal Chains. The chains will lock you in place for 10 seconds and effects all players in the Heroic version, the best bet is to have your PvP trinket to break out of the first ,use a free action potion to break out of the second and have high enough DPS not to have to worry about a third cast. Druids, Mages and Paladins can use their typical special abilities of shapeshift, blink and bubble respectively while shamans can drop a grounding totem to eat the effect. The chains are dispellable, so a mass dispel priest is optimal here, but any dispell class is a plus to have. In addition to the two abilities that pertain to the achievement the boss also has a tail swipe, a frontal cone spell and enrages at 30%.

Kirin Tor Reputation Guide

The Kirin Tor eventually became the ruling body of the small yet grand city of Dalaran. Their headquarters being the Violet Citadel, which contained many libraries, research chambers, classrooms, and bedrooms. The ruling council of six met in a room with no visible walls, the Chamber of Air. But even the Kirin Tor eventually found themselves unable to stop Prince Arthas in his advance on Lordaeron.
Arthas gained the spell book of Medivh and Kel’Thuzad used it to summon Archimonde who then destroyed Dalaran. Since Kel’Thuzad was once a part of the Kirin Tor many felt the destruction was deserved and punishment for Kel’Thuzad’s crimes. The Kirin Tor however refused to leave their home and they returned to the ruins. Once they had reclaimed the city they erected a giant purple dome around the city that would destroy anyone so bold as to touch it.
Led by Malygos, the blue dragonflight has recently declared war on all mortal magic users and in response the mages of Dalaran have levitated the city high above Northrend. Dalaran today floats above the Crystalsong Forest as a neutral haven for both Horde and Alliance in direct defiance to the blue dragonflight as well as the forces of the Lich King.
Daily QuestsThe Kirin Tor do not have daily quests available like the other factions in Wrath of the Lich King as Kirin Tor reputation can only be gained by completing Dungeon and Heroic Dungeon dailies, and Dalaran profession (cooking, jewel crafting, and fishing) dailies. This can make the reputation grind harder or easier depending on how many daily Dungeons you wish to do and how many of these professions you are involved in.
FishingAll the fishing dailies can be obtained from Marcia Chase in the Eventide located in Dalaran. Fishing dailies can be completed by any fishing skill (although higher skill makes things much quicker) and are available at level 70. All Fishing dailies award 250 reputation with the Kirin Tor.
Normal Daily DungeonThese quests can be picked up from Archmage Timear near the Violet Citadel. Starting at level 78 these quests can be obtained by both Horde and Alliance and will send you to one of various instances throughout Northrend. The quests will vary day to day. Each Normal Daily Dungeon quests requires you to enter an instance and kill a certain number of specific mobs that can be found there. Upon completion of the quest not only will you receive an Emblem of Conquest, but also will have your choice of Commendation Badges. Each Commendation Badge gives 250 reputation to a specific faction. Choose the Kirin Tor Commendation Badge and use it and you will gain an instant 250 reputation with the Kirin Tor.
The easiest way to gain reputation with the Kirin Tor is to complete the quests (and possible daily quests) available and purchase the Tabard of the Kirin Tor once you have reached Friendly. While wearing the Tabard of the Kirin Tor in any level 80 Dungeon, Kirin Tor reputation is rewarded for each kill. Reputation can be gained like this all the way through exalted.
The Tabard of the Kirin Tor can be purchased from the Archmage Alvareaux the Kirin Tor Quartermaster located near the Violet Citadel in Dalaran. Most classes will start at neutral with the Kirin Tor and will have to do some questing to purchase this item, however mages begin at Friendly and could in theory purchase the tabard at level 1.
Kirin Tor RewardsThe Kirin Tor (once enough reputation is gained) offer many decent rewards for almost everyone including a fire resist stamina head slot enchant and a spell power critical strike head slot enchant. All can be purchased from Archmage Alvareaux in Dalaran.

Vault of Archavon Guide

The other thing that makes VOA different from other raids is the loot that is available there. Each boss can drop PvP or PvE gear of varying quality, for any class or spec in the game. This makes loot quite random, as a piece of gear may drop for a spec or class that is not present, or all PVP gear could drop, or all PVE gear could drop. The randomness to the loot frustrates many players. It also means that groups should attempt to bring as many different classes and specs as possible so that most loot can be used.
The raid currently contains three bosses, but has expanded from one on initial release. Currently in ascending order of difficulty the bosses are: Archavon the Stone Watcher, Emalon the Storm Watcher, and Koralon the Flame Watcher. While we will describe the fights and strategies in this order, realize that most groups will start with the hardest boss first. That way if they fail to down him, they are not saved to a failed group and can instead look for a better group of raiders. If you are raiding with your guild, then this is not an issue and you can do the bosses in any order.
Archavon the Stone WatcherArchavon is a pretty simple fight that is a DPS race due to his 5 minute enrage timer. While he has a few abilities that need to be dealt with, nothing is overly complicated. He does, however, require two tanks due to his abilities.
Archavon’s Abilities
ArchavonRock Spikes – Roughly every 30 seconds Archavon will launch a barrage of rock spikes at a random player. They can not be avoided and cause damage to the player and anyone nearby.
Crushing Leap – Roughly every 30 seconds Archavon will leap at a random player and knock them back. He will then cast a choking cloud and then return to the tank.
Choking Cloud – The choking cloud is an AOE damage effect that stays in place for roughly 20 seconds before dissipating. While active anyone in it or moving through it will suffer damage every second.
Lunge – This is the ability that takes the current main tank out of combat and is preceded by the emote “Archavon the Stone Watcher lunges for ”. He will grab that player and hold them for 8 seconds and inflict damage to them during that time, then throw them across the room.
Archavon Fight StrategyThe fight starts with both tanks engaging Archavon and fighting for threat to ensure both are ahead of all other players. Ranged DPS and healers need to spread out around the room to minimize the damage taken from Archavon’s AOE abilities. While you should have some distance between everyone, you also want to be close together so that everyone can be healed and players are not running all over. Once everyone is in place DPS can lay into Archavon.
When rock spikes are shot at a ranged player if no one else is near simply stand in place and take the hits. If someone is near, move away from them. If someone in melee is targeted, the tank should move the boss away, while the targeted player moves away in an opposite direction. In general though, you want as few people moving as possible.
When Archavon leaps at a player and places a choking cloud, everyone simply needs to move out of the cloud area and wait for Archavon to return to the tank. The distance and time that it takes Archavon to return is based on how far players are standing apart. This means that while you should not group up, you should also not stand 30+ yards away from each other.
When Archavon lunges at a tank and removes them from the fight, the other tank simply picks up tanking duty. When the first tank is release they can either become the off tank waiting to resume tanking the next time Archavon lunges or if they are geared significantly better, taunt off the other tank and resume being the main tank.
That’s all there is to the fight. Keep in mind that you need to have enough DPS to down him quickly as you only have 5 minutes before he enrages and starts one-shotting players. You do not need a huge amount of DPS though since he only has 2.3 million health in 10 player raids and 10 million in 25 player raids. If all DPS players are above 2,000 DPS each you will have more than enough to beat the enrage timer.
Emalon the Storm WatcherEmalon the Storm Watcher is a boss in VOA that is accompanied by a group of four guards called Tempest Minions. These guards respawn whenever they are killed, therefore DPS should not be wasted on them other than when required. Instead they are simply held by the off-tank. Emalon himself has a few abilities that need to be watched for, while the guards’ main ability is to explode when overcharged.
Emalon’s AbilitesChain Lightning – This spell hits the target and then bounces to additional nearby targets increasing the damage it causes to each subsequent target.
Lightning Nova – This is an AOE damage attack that Emalon casts roughly every 20 seconds. It hits everyone nearby for a large amount of damage, and will wipe most non-tank players. The damage it causes is maximized if you are within 20 yards of Emalon. Lightning Nova has a long cast time though, so melee DPS has a plenty of time to get away.
Overcharge – Emalon casts this ability on one of the Tempest Minions 45 seconds after the last overcharge ended. It applies a stacking buff to one of the minions that grants 20% extra damage caused and grows the minion to roughly double the size. A new stack of the buff is granted every 2 seconds, and when the stack hits 10 the minion will explode causing significant damage and most likely wiping the raid.
Emalon Fight Strategy
EmalonThis fight requires two tanks each with their own healer(s), or healers alternating tanks from a central position. The fight is started by the off-tank engaging the adds and Emalon to establish aggro and then moving to one side of the room. The main tank then pulls Emalon off of the off-tank and drags him to the opposite side of the room. Normally the off-tank goes left of the door and the main tank goes right, however either side, or front and back work just as well.
Once the tanks are in position, ranged and healers setup more than 20 yards away from Emalon and in range of both him and the minions. They also need to spread out as much as possible so that any chain lightnings that are cast at the group do not bounce through too many targets. Melee DPS then starts in on Emalon.
When lightning nova is cast all melee needs to run at least 20 yards away from Emalon before he finishes the cast. Once nova goes off they can run back in to DPS.
When overcharge is cast, one of the minions will be healed to full health and grow in size to roughly twice as large. All DPS must immediately switch to this minion and kill it within 20 seconds. If it lasts longer than that it will explode, wiping the raid. Since overcharge is on a 45 second timer you can start moving to the minions before they actually get overcharged, that way you can start DPS faster. Once the minion dies, DPS goes back to Emalon. A new minion will spawn by Emalon and the off-tank needs to pick him up and drag him back to the add location.
AbilitesBurning Fury – This is a stacking buff that Koralon applies to himself every 20 seconds after he is engaged. For each stack on him he causes an extra 5% damage.
Burning Breath – When cast Koralon spins around breathing on everyone in the raid, causing significant fire damage each second for three seconds.
Flaming Cinder – Koralon targets a random player and hits them and anyone near them (roughly 5 yards) for fire damage. The attack also leaves a pool of fire on the ground that will burn for roughly 20 seconds. Anyone in or moving through the fire will suffer damage.
Meteor Fists – When cast, Koralon does an addition 100% damage in fire damage in addition to his normal melee attack. This damage is split with another target in his front ark. The buff lasts for 15 seconds.
Strategy
KoralonThe fight requires two tanks to be present, although the off-tank can focus more on damage than threat. Determine which way Koralon will be moved during the fight and let everyone else in the raid know before engaging. Normally he is dragged counter-clockwise around the room. Both tanks move in and engage Koralon and get him into position just outside of the glass octagon on the floor. An ideal distance is 5-10 yards away from the octagon so that players can clearly see the fire pools that are dropped. Once engaged the tanks stay stacked on top of each other for the duration of the fight.

The Violet Hold Guide

Inside the Violet HoldOnce inside the Hold you will see the Kirin Tor guards bravely fighting against the blue dragonflight invaders. To activate the instance you will need to speak with Lieutenant Sinclari. The Lieutenant will call for his guards to fall back and your group will be left alone to defend the Hold.
Similar to Black Morass there will be a total of 18 portals opening one after another. These portals will either spawn a Portal Guardian which will spawn continuous non-elite adds or a squad of elite dragon kin which spawn no adds. Your group’s mission will be to kill theses spawns quickly so that your group is not overrun as more portals open, and to keep the spawns off the door so that they don’t break through. On the 6th and 12th portal an unattackable dragon will spawn. The dragon will then proceed to randomly open one of the prison cells located within the Hold releasing a boss. After you defeat the boss you will have a small break so drink up! If at any time you feel overwhelmed by the spawning mobs, there are 5 switches located on the walls throughout the room that will do damage to all mobs currently up.
Bosses and Achievements
Lockdown!This achievement cannot be placed with any one boss as it requires you to kill all of the bosses inside the instance with the exception of Cyanigosa. This achievement is based mostly on luck as the bosses spawned in the instance are random. If you can clear the Violet Hold with no problems, then it just becomes a waiting game. Keep running The Violet Hold every chance you get and eventually (probably when you least expect it) you will finally have killed all the bosses and gain this achievement. A brief description of the boss fights, and other achievements that go along with them are below.
ErekemAn arakkoa type boss, Erekem will spawn from the left side with 2 guards that cannot be crowd controlled. All DPS should be on the boss, ignoring the adds. If the adds are killed first he will apply the Stromstrike debuff which will do tons of damage to your tank. The boss will throw Lightning Bolts from time to time, has a Windfury attack, a quick casting Chain Heal, and can Bloodlust.. All of Erekem’s spells are interruptible. Overall a very simple tank and spank.
MoraggA giant floating eye located on the right side of the Hold. Will cast Ray of Suffering (DoT that inflicts 8% of the target’s total health every second for 5 seconds), Ray of Pain (shadow damage to a target and reduces healing received), Optic Link (channeled beam that does damage over time), and Corrosive Saliva (stacking debuff that reduces the targets armor). This boss encounter is mostly a tank and spank, with the majority of the damage going out going to the tank. It should be noticed both the Ray of Pain and Ray of Suffering can be reflected back on the boss by a warrior, making the fight faster and easier.
IchoronA water revenant located near the center of the instance, in the only cell with water in it. Ichoron will come out with a protective bubble with about 35 charges on it that needs to be removed. Each attack that hits it will remove one charge from the shield. Once removed Ichoron will collapse and a few water elementals will spawn. The boss will become active once again when all of these have been slain, or if one of the elementals reach him. If an elemental reaches him, it will restore some of his health so they should be killed quickly. Keep in mind the elementals do AoE damage when killed, so rounding them up and killing them is not a good idea. For an easy kill simply use the levers around the room when the adds are spawned. The resulting damage should wipe out the adds and save your group the AoE damage. Rinse and repeat a few times until Ichoron reaches 25% at which time he will stop summoning adds, but will enrage.
Dehydration This achievement requires you to defeat Ichoron without allowing any Ichor Globules to merge. To make this achievement easy assign someone to click one of the levers around the room each time the adds spawn. The result should be the adds are killed instantly before they even have a chance to move closer to Ichoron. Keep an eye out just in case any manage to escape. Do this until Ichoron is dead and this achievement will be yours.
XevozzAn ethereal, and probably one of the toughest mini-bosses in the instance. Xevozz has three man abilities: Arcane Barrage Volley which shoots arcane blasts at nearby players, Arcane Buffet which will increase his damage, and he will also summon Ethereal Spheres. The handling of the Spheres will make or break this fight for you.
Throughout the fight Xevozz will summon Spheres, while Xevozz himself does not do much damage if you allow him to get close the Spheres he will feed off them and gain an extra damage boost. If Xevozz is in line of sight of the Spheres for any length of time, he will teleport your entire group right on top of one of theses Spheres. Since the Spheres themselves have an damage aura this should be avoided. The first Spheres should be spawned at the bottom of the instance, so move the boss (making use of the rubble) to the top walkway. Kite him slowly with healers and DPS following along. If all goes well, continue to make circles like this until the boss is dead.
LavanthorA giant core hound located on the bottom right of the room, Lavanthor proves to be a very easy fight compared to most. A basic tank and spank, simply face Lavanthor away from the raid and have your DPS go to town. The tank can try to step away to avoid Lava Burn, but since the rest of the group should be taking almost no damage the healer should have no trouble healing through it.
A Void DanceThis achievement requires you to kill Zuramat without killing any void sentries. Probably one of the more exciting DPS race encounters in WoTLK 5-man, your group will have to push their limits to defeat the boss before the damage becomes overwhelming. To make this easier bring a class that can dispell/purge Shroud of Darkness, making the healing less intense for your healer. If you are lucky enough to have a DK tank have him place an Anti Magic Zone for your group to stand in. Otherwise cross your fingers and DPS, DPS, DPS.
CyanigosaThe final boss in the Violet Hold, Cyanigosa will spawn after the final portal without a pause, so mana users should try to conserve during the last few portals. Cyanigosa is a typical dragon, don’t’ stand behind her (Tail Sweep), or in front of her (Uncontrollable Energy). Cyanigosa will also cast Blizzard on a selected area, move quickly out of this to avoid taking additional damage. Cyanigosa will cast Arcane Vacuum throughout the fight, which pulls your entire group to her. Return quickly to your original positions to avoid the Tail Sweep and Uncontrollable Energy. This effect also causes an aggro wipe so allow the tank to regain threat before continuing DPS. Overall Cyanigosa ends up being a pretty simple tank and spank with a few twists.
Cyanigosa related Achievements:

DefenselessThis achievement asks you to defeat Cyanigosa without using and Defense Control Crystals while keeping the Prison Seal Integrity at 100%. This achievement is rather straight forward, do not allow anyone to click on the levers throughout the room, this will take away your crutch and make things harder for those who struggle with some of the bosses and portal packs, but can easily be done. The only real difficulty is keeping portal packs who spawn 3-4 adds from reaching the Prison Seal. Have a good tank who does quick pick ups and slow them when needed and this achievement will be yours.

The Violet Hold & Heroic: The Violet HoldThese achievements simply ask you to defeat Cyanigosa on heroic and normal difficulties. Get a group together and fight your way to the end of the instance, wipe out Cyanigosa and these achievements are in the bag.

Guild Hopping Guide

Someone beat WoW. Yes, that’s right, on a Taiwanese server they have every single achievement in the game except BB King which was recently added to the game. That means it is possible to do everything in WoW and reach a point where the only thing left is to min/max gear and farm gold. Until you hit the gold cap, that is.
Of course, WoW is a big winner in that you can alt. Yes, that’s right, alt, and then all of a sudden all of those things you’ve done are now uncompleted and the cycle continues.
There is no news this week, other than a sparse telling or two. There were some server outages, the fifth year anniversary which we’ll talk about in the weekly musing, and the Pilgrim’s Bounty event. Oh and Mohawks.
Did you have fun with Pilgrim’s Bounty? My adventures led me city to city as a level 58 trying to sit in each seat, taking turns running myself and someone else through the instance wherein someone released when they died at the Talon King. If I was an angry person I would have went into their room and deleted WoW for something like that, because that instance is still painful 10 levels later.
Here is my review of the holiday. I find it to be a 7 on the scale of “the most fun you’ve ever had” sitting at 10 and “reading WoW erotica in front of a large crowd” at 1. Well, that’s a weird scale, but I found it to be the most rewarding for instant gratification. You instantly gain 320 cooking within no time, even if you don’t want the meta, and that itself means the most to me. Any holiday event where you get this instant sense of character development is really good.
However, there is always an issue. I’ll use the recent Halloween event as a comparison. The Halloween holiday requires persistence, yes, and requires travel. It’s time consuming, but in no way painful. You log in during your spare time and collect your goody bag. Within no time you’re loaded up with the items and call it a day. With Pilgrim’s Bounty, it’s a difficult and arduous journey through the world, sitting on tables and spamming buttons, and involves Darnassus which you’ve already heard my complaints about.
I relate this achievement to something between Brewfest and Halloween. It’s got a very high practical use to it, like Halloween, with free buff food and immediate cooking skill but it also has that high annoyance factor. Finding rogues is the hardest thing to possibly do when they’re either already turkeys or just not around. The trips to the enemy cities are annoying and some cities like Darnassus are impossible to get through to get to the tables for everyone but stealthers. I’m sure many will read it as whining, but I aim to have fun in my games. I don’t aim to hike it through an enemy city to sit on a stable or run the bird man instance again.
In other news, the Guild’s 3rd season ended with Codex going mental. Surprise.
I always join a guild made between me and my friends, but I went and did some research for this one. Here are my findings, published here in theoverpull.
Reality is subjective and in World of Warcraft we can often lose ourselves to thinking the game holds a static meaning. Sure, we all assume that raiding and purps are the endgame and that PvP is its own entire little minigame within WoW, but we would be wrong to assume that it was the end of the possibilities. There is a lot more life and depth in the game than the static world we often attempt to dictate that WoW has.
EVE Online has no real story nor does it have any instances or dungeons in the traditional sense. It doesn’t have an Arthas in space chilling in his house waiting on you to stop having a tournament and to come to him and fight. It just has space, spaceships, and the freedom to let players dictate their own game. WoW, on the other hand, does have Arthas, it does have a story, and it does have breadcrumbs leading to a life of arenas or raiding as your de facto “endgame” with farming (gold, achievements, whatever) as a secondary goal. Writers like me often wax poetic about how this is what makes WoW good (or to some bad) and is what keeps players going.
However, let me ask you a question. What if you were not in your guild right now that’s capable of raiding, even if it was Naxxramas? What if you were incapable of setting up a winning arena team? What if you were a step below a casual? Stuck in a world where even the welfare purps were overpowered. What if you were that guy, you know, the one you constantly gank with ease in the battlegrounds or just one of the filler people in Orgrimmar that no one knows?
They’re like ghosts and the world is full of them. You see their guild tag, but have no clue what the guild is. You see their gear and it’s a mix of blues and epics, epics you probably never even heard of. You see their achievements, they were 80 half a year ago, but there they stand a complete enigma. They’ve made no progress in the world. It’s as if they’re NPCs filling the world up to give it a sense of mass.
The truth is though, that these people play an entirely different game. They don’t play the game that you and I play. They don’t play World of Warcraft: Gear is Cool. They play a game where egos are set to fight, people are at war, and any second now they could lose everything. It’s not the story missions I’m referring to, they play a social game.
The rabbit hole starts eerily with those screams and shouts in the Barrens. You know the ones. They offer tabards and guild bank slots to any and all that would join. On the surface, I’m sure the majority of us ignore them and scuff them away as a joke. As a guild full of lowbies all aiming to take the first ginvite they get and leave around level 40 (assuming they don’t quit) when they make friends in Scarlet Monastery who invite them to their guild. In some cases it’s true, but sometimes it’s far from it.
I joined one of these guilds on a Priest I was leveling because the guy sounded genuinely desperate for friends and a guild tag would stop the invites. However, after joining, I soon found a world that exists separately from our own. A world filled with intrigue, mystery, and war.
I was soon to find out that these guilds are like jobs at mega department stores. The guild leader is the store manager, his officers are the department managers, level 80s are the full time workers, and the lower levels are the part time workers. Make anyone above you mad and you’re out. Fail to do your job within the guild and you’re out. Work hard and you’ll be rewarded – with little to no compensation and a job that feels like it’ll never be done.
The guild leader was a charismatic guy. He talked, a lot, and had a good head on his shoulders when it came to recruitment. After all, he recruited me of all people. The guild ranks were well established, and like I said they were the focal point to your work within the guild. You start at the bottom and if you do a good enough job you can get to the higher ranks. Higher ranks mean more bank access, more grepairs, and more trust.
Within a short period of time within the guild I was made aware of a war when someone screamed “those mafia guys are camping me!” in guild chat enough times that I was dizzy with the text movement. The guild leader ordered everyone to come to the barrens immediately. Curious to what the spectacle was about I made my way to the barrens from Orgrimmar. There, I saw it, their rival guild circling the defenseless noob on their mounts.
I stood and watched, then pondered what the problem was. They weren’t Alliance. They weren’t enemy creatures. They were just players on our side circling around this guy. However, to these guys, these people were the enemy. I was quick to find out that they were at war with this guild and this guild was at war with them. They had a few allied guilds to their cause, but this was personal. This lowbie was one of the officer’s alts and he was fuming.
Within no time, members of this guild went to action. They dispatched someone to Org to begin trade spamming that “The Mafia” (that’s not their name, but we’ll call ‘em that) were ninjas. That explains a lot of the ninja spam you can read in /trade these days. Then, they quickly began flinging insults back and forth like children, as if they were engaged in a turf war. Almost, as if, they were roleplaying.
Roleplaying they were, in a non-descript way. They weren’t taking on the role of anyone but themselves and there was no fictional story about it, but they were enacting a story. A story that was weaving right in front of my eyes. Before long, The Mafia was outnumbered, thanks to the guild leader’s latest efforts in recruitment, and ran away with their tails between their legs. In victory, the guild leader congratulated many of the members, many of whom received promotions. People were ecstatic, even the level 80s.
Now, much like a department store, the turnover rate was obscene. Promotions were required to keep the members happy. They worked hard, helping the guild master, running lowbies through instances, and more to achieve a higher rank. In reality, the rank means nothing. You don’t get anything tangible from it, except for a new note next to your name in the guild list. Yet, these players still strived to get it.
As a matter of a fact, not many things mattered to the players in the guild other than their guild rank. Gear didn’t matter and having it wasn’t a reason for a guild rank increase. After all, they’re not in a PvP war and an 80 can run alts though instances in greens and blues. Gold doesn’t matter either, unless it’s being poured into the guild bank which is perpetually in need of funds for repairs and more bank slots.
It’s as if the players get stuck, progression wise, and resort to creating their own new endgame. One where they’re at war with rival guilds and their worth is dictated not by gear score or arena points, but by their rank within the largest and most powerful guild. Like I said, reality is subjective and it’s all based on your perspective. To these players Arthas might as well not exist nor Yogg-saron.
In the end, the guild like many of these guilds, collapsed. The story being told ended as no one logged on and everyone fled to another guild to repeat the same begging for promotions and seeking more bank tabs that have nothing in them. In the end, I remain in the guild, a few people log on (even 80s) who I assume are too lazy to find another one. I sit there and think of all of the excitement and action that went on for one short week before the store closed shop and the employees went to the next place that’d hire them with no questions asked.

Healadin Newest Guide

Talents and Glyphs As a healadin, you will be spending the majority of your talent points in the Holy tree. You need to do this to gain some serious healing ability, including the level 31 talent Holy Shock. This little gem gives you your only instant healing spell. It comes at a high mana price but can give you enough time if used correctly to get a big heal off right after it, instead of chain casting smaller heals.
Probably the most important talent is the 51 point talent Beacon of Light, which turns the target into a beacon for all healing that the Paladin does within 60 yards of him. This means that any time you heal anyone you heal within 60 yards of the beacon, the beacon also receives the full effect of the heal. This provides you with a solid multi-target heal, especially when the beaconed target is the tank.
There are several other critical talents in the Holy tree for a Healadin such as Spiritual Focus (70% chance to not lose casting time when hit), Illumination (critical heals return 30% of the base mana cost of the spell), and Divine Favor (next heal is a critical one, 2 minute cool down). There are also many others that are important, such as increased intelligence, increased critical chance on holy spells, and a reduction to cast time, but the first 3 are your core.
This is the Healadin Build I use when speccing Holy - Healadin Build. It has proven itself over and over again in the level 80 instances and raids. It dips into the protection tree to pick up even more healing power with Divinity (+5% healing) and a situationally awesome ability called Divine Sacrifice. Divine Sacrifice allows you to absorb some of the damage incoming to the group and transfer it to you.
While there are a number of decent Glyphs for a Holy Paladin the ones I suggest are based on raid usefulness. Therefore the greater glyphs I believe you should use are:
Glyph of Seal of Wisdom - Reduces all of your healing spells' mana cost by 5%. This is a can not go without glyph as it allows you to cast more heals over time. 5% may not sound like a lot, but it sure adds up.
Glyph of Beacon of Light - Increases Beacon of Light's duration by 30 seconds to 90 seconds. Having to cast this spell less often means less chance that it will not be up when you need it.
Glyph of Holy Shock - Reduces cooldown by 1 second. This may not sound like a whole ton but it takes it from 6 to 5 seconds, which can make a a big difference on certain fights when you need it.
Stats and Gear
Paladin HealerPaladins make solid healers that can take a lot of incoming damage as well due to their heavy armour.
Mana Efficiency Now that you know the order you should heal, how to you make sure you have mana for everything? Which heals should you use when and why?
Holy Shock - This is your only instant heal, but it is very mana inefficient and has a 6 second cool down. Because of the low amount that it heals, its high mana cost and its cooldown you should only use it as a last resort to save someone, even then it probably won't be enough. It is also the only heal you can cast while moving, so any time you need to move or readjust in a fight it is a good time to throw one of these at the tank.
Flash of Light - At a 1.5 second cast time this is a fairly fast spell but does not heal much. It is a very mana efficient spell but because it is a small heal it is not always usable. It will still probably be your first choice as a healing spell unless you are being out damaged.
Holy Light - This is a long cast time heal at 2.5 seconds that heals lots of health. It is slightly less efficient than Flash of Light but heals for a lot more. This is the spell you will be using to heal your tank when bosses are out damaging your Flash of Light heals or to catch up on heals so that you can revert to Flash of Light.
Beacon of Light - This ability effectively doubles your healing since it will heal the beaconed target for the same amount cast at any friendly target within 60 yards. This makes healing a group much easier since you can Beacon the tank and heal the group. Even over heal is transferred to the tank so you can heal a fully healed group member and still heal the tank.
Sacred Shield - This is a damage prevention ability rather than a healing ability. It does, however, allow you to heal slightly less and provides a boost to healing when needed. When cast on a target it places a 30 second buff that will spawn another buff once they are hit. The second buff lasts up to 6 seconds and absorbs some incoming damage and then expires. While it is active though you gain a 50% crit rate boost to your FoL spells.
Divine Plea - While this is another spell that is not a healing spell it does give back a huge amount of mana, and therefore should be mixed in anytime you are down to between 30 and 50% mana. Do not wait until you are out of mana to use it as you then have to wait for it's cooldown to expire to use it again.
The above is just a base look at healing efficiency though. There are many factors that change and enhance your healing, for example Flash of Light only benefits from 112% of your Spell Power while Holy Light gets 188% of it. The HOT portion of Flash of Light also increases its effectiveness even more, as does its synergy with Sacred Shield. Use of Divine favor and Illumination increase the effectiveness of all of your heals as does the use of proper glyphs. Even when everything is added up though FoL is more mana efficient than Holy Light, but will need to be mixed with Holy Light to keep up on big damage MOBs.
Healing RotationsThere are of course a huge number of variables when healing, so there is no one specific rotation. Who and what you heal is largely based on your assignment in a raid, or healing priority in a group, or on just who is taking damage and why. After reading the Healing Priority section above you likely have a very good idea of who to heal and why.
There are several things to keep in mind while healing though as follows:
Keep your Beacon of Light and Sacred Shield up on the Tank unless someone else is likely to be taking more damage - for example the off-tank in certain fights. Cast a Flash of Light on the tank every 14 seconds to keep the HOT portion of it active. Heal other players the rest of the time to effectively double the amount you are healing due to Beacon of Light . Heal using Flash of Light as much as possible, however watch for stronger incoming damage and use Holy Light if needed. ConsumablesWhile items and gear are required for any raid, obviously, you also really should bring along all the consumables that will help you maximize your healing ability. The ones that every Healadin should bring to a group or raid are:
Flask of Frost Wyrm - Increases your spell power by 125 for an hour. This is the best flask you can get as a Holy Paladin. Flask of Pure Mojo - Increases your mana regeneration by 45 MP5. This is a decent flask, but not as good as Frost Wyrm, since 45 MP5 is not that significant a number at max level. Firecracker Salmon - Increases your mana regen by 45 MP5 and stamina by 40. Imperial Manta Steak - Increases your haste by 40 and stamina by 40. Runic Mana and Healing potions - Bring a stack of each just in case. MacrosThere are several very common macros that every Healadin should use (assuming they haven't started already) to simplify their life. The most common are:
Divine Favor / Holy Shock Macro
This macro allows you to cast Divine Favor and then Holy Shock right after critical hits. This will allow your next Flash of Light to be an instant cast as well. This combination puts out a lot of healing really quickly.
provide almost 2000 extra mana to work with which is huge. Intellect also provides significant boosts to MP5, Spell Power, and Spell Crit. They are not as much as simply focusing on those stats obviously, but significant enough to mention.
Spell Crit and Haste are next in usefulness as a Holy Paladin. Spell Crit is huge since when you do crit your heal will hit for 50% more than normal and through talents return 30% of the base cost of the healing spell used. The extra health healed allows you to potentially cast fewer heals to do the job, and the mana returned allows you to cast more heals before you run out of mana. Spell Crit scales amazingly well as you gear up, vastly expanding your effective mana pool. Haste is important as most of a Holy Paladin's spells have long cast times. Haste allows you to cast these spells quicker, however they heal for the same amount and use the same amount of mana. This means that the more you stack haste the more you can heal per second, but you will run out of mana sooner.
The last useful stat is MP5, and it's usefulness depends greatly on your style. Many Holy Paladins prefer to simply focus on crit rating to generate mana back through it, however you should get at least a little MP5 so that if you do ever run out of mana you have a way to generate some back.You should get enough of this while focusing on the other stats simply because a lot of gear will come with it.

Halls of Reflection Tips

The Halls of Reflection is the third of the three new instances that make up the Frozen Halls in Icecrown Citadel. The Halls were added in patch 3.3 which added all of the Icecrown Citadel content to the game. You can only enter the Halls of Reflection once you have completed the other two instances: The Forge of Souls and The Pit of Saron. This is so that you see and follow the whole storyline involved with finding the Lich King himself.
AbilitiesDefiling Horror – Falric yells out occasionally during the fight causing players to run in horror. It also deals shadow damage to all players for 4 seconds that will take most players to below half health.
Hopelessness – This is a stacking debuff that Falric places on players that reduces the damage and healing dealt by 20% (25% on heroic). It will stack up to three times on players as sort of a soft enrage.
Impending Despair – This attack hits a random part member and stuns them for several seconds.
Quivering Strike – This strike deals damage and lowers the target’s dodge by 20% for 5 seconds.
StrategyThe fight is fairly simple, with the only real complication being the fear and soft enrage. As time goes by his fear and DOT will be harder and harder to heal through after due to his debuff. After a fear players that can prevent damage or heal some of the damage against themselves should, especially once hopelessness starts to stack to higher numbers.
MarwynMarwyn is the second boss, and is encountered after fighting 4 waves once you have defeated Falric. He is in essence the final wave of the gauntlet.
Abilities
Well of Corruption – Marwyn summons areas called Wells of Corruption into the fight. If players stand in them they will be afflicted by the corrupted abilities below.
Corrupted Flesh – This is a debuff applied to players that reduces their maximum health by 25% (50% on heroic) for 10 seconds.
Corrupted Touch – This is a debuff applied to players that increases the shadow damage you take by 30% (75% in heroic).
Obliterate– Just like a Death Knight’s ability this is a heavy damage attack.
Shared Suffering – This is an interesting DOT that is applied to random players in the group. It inflicts a large amount of damage over 12 seconds to that player. It can be dispelled, however if it does, the remaining damage that the DOT would have done is instantly divided among the whole party.
StrategyThis fight a very easy fight for most groups, the challenge is getting through the waves of enemies to get to him. Simply tank him and move him away from wells. If a Shared Suffering is cast on a player and everyone is at full health, go ahead and dispel it. If players are low then let it tick on the player and just heal them through it.
Kill Marwyn and make your way down the hall to encounter the Lich King.
The Lich King
Once you have defeated both bosses the door opens up to allow you to follow on to find Arthas. Once there you find that he is too strong and you must flee up the escape tunnel which forms the final fight in the instance. This is another gauntlet type event where you must defeat several waves of undead as your faction champion clears the way up the tunnel allowing you to escape to safety.
AbilitiesRemorseless Winter – This is a debuff on the Lich King that slows him down significantly. It also causes a swirling storm around him that does frost damage to anyone that comes within 10 yards.
Frostmourne – Arthas wields his deadly blade Frostmourne and will use it to unleash a furious attack hitting everyone for enough shadow damage to turn the mightiest tank to ash. He only uses this attack if you are too slow and allow him to reach you.
Strategy
This fight is a running gauntlet that requires you to stay ahead of the Lich King’s steady advance. As you flee up the escape tunnel he will cast Ice Walls in your way and send waves of undead after you.
The undead are nothing you have not seen or dealt with before in the expansion, so just tank them and kill them. Once the undead have been defeated Jaina or Sylvanas will destroy the ice wall and you can continue to move on until another is summoned to block your path.
This continues all the way up to a terrace on the side of the mountain. The Lich King has cornered you. Just as he is about to attack, an air ship comes to your rescue and seals the tunnel.

Worst Class in WoW Analysis

WarlocksCongratulations! You are probably one of the least sucky classes out there. Very little seems to be wrong with your class and for the most part most Warlocks seem to be rather competent. Too bad you won’t be topping the damage meters in a raid. To help make up for this, don’t forget your bag full of Soul Shards to be the raid’s own personal taxi service, that’s half of the reason they bring you along. Oh, and keep life tapping while you’re already low health and taking massive damage, because that’s totally the smart thing to do.
MagesWimpy glass cannons covered in cloth that want to be Warlocks. You are usually dead, or begging for Vigilance because apparently you have some serious aggro management issues. Healers and Tanks hate your Mirror Images, they can’t just fade out, or poof in a bubble of smoke. That would be too easy, so instead they sound exactly like a real mage dying, making the Healers and Tanks have a small heart attack each time. GG. But we all know the real reason Mages are brought to raids. Two words; Strudel and Portals. There is a reason you never hear “Oh we don’t have a mage in the raid for their amazing DPS!”, instead you hear “Crap we don’t have any water!”.
P.S. stop sheeping Druids, it’s just silly.
PriestsShadows Priests are always on the short end of the stick damage wise, never quite on the same level as Warlocks and Mages. To make up for this Blizzard has made them walking, talking Healing Stream/Mana Spring totems with more health. I think this is probably why Shadow Priests feel the need to occasionally off themselves with some well placed Shadow Word: Deaths. Who can blame them?
Disc Priests spend all their time in a shielding frenzy, while Holy Priests relish in their Circle of Healing. Making it a smart heal was probably Blizzard’s way of making up for their lackluster tank healing. Squishy and soft healing Priests of either type enjoy making the other cloth wearing casters cry by rolling on any Crit and Spellpower gear that drops. But really I do feel bad for them; it must suck to be perpetually stuck in a dress.
ShamanOne of the number one causes of accidental death in a raid situation: A Shaman forgot to recall his totems. Elemental and Enhancement Shamans would be excellent additions to any raid, bring decent DPS, and excellent buffs. Too bad you can’t do either when you are dead. Chain Heal, Chain Heal, Chain Heal pretty much sums up the life of a healing Shaman. I’m not even sure if they really have any other spells. Simply bind all your keys on the keyboard to Chain Heal and you can top the healing meters.
DruidTree form is ugly with a capital U. Regrowth, Rejuvenation, and Lifebloom then watch your HoT’s tick down. The game should be equipped with an alarm clock because that is nothing short of a snooze fest. Not to mention that Resto Druids are near impossible to kill. A mobile target with powerful heals that is immune to almost all crowd control, I call hacks.
Moonkin’s are almost as ugly as the trees and they can’t seem to detach themselves from their tree brethren as they insist upon calling upon three treants that run around and generally annoy mobs and players alike. Not to mention the Moonkin dance can effectively distract anyone in viewing distance. It’s like watching a train wreck, you just can’ t look away.
Cat Druids are nothing more than Rogues with renamed abilities in kitten costumes. At least they finally made the kitten costumes cooler. Bear Druids, face it: Warriors and Death Knights have more avoidance abilities than you, you are basically just a giant meat shield the raid is using to distract the boss while they kill him. Sure you hold aggro well, but if someone started jiggling a giant bear butt in front of me, I would be a little upset as well.
WarriorsDeath Knights are better tanks than you, and they do it without shields. You don’t have to face pull everything, you are allowed to equip a ranged weapon for a reason. Also, since you have a ranged weapon you should probably make sure you have the proper ammo for it, just because it isn’t your primary weapon doesn’t mean you shouldn’t carry it. DPS Warriors, you would be excellent DPS if you could manage to stay alive for 3.2 seconds. Running in and casting Bladestorm is probably not such a good idea. I do commend you though, as it takes a certain level of skill to die that quickly.
HunterHunters, you have Misdirect and Feign Death for a reason. Use them! And be sure to bring along enough ammunition for the raid, not being able to use your primary weapon is never a good thing. Melee damage is not an appropriate form of damage for a Hunter, go back, and roll a Rogue or other such melee class if it appeals to you. Letting your pet on aggressive might seem like a good idea, but trust me, unless your intent is to kill off the entire raid, it‘s not. While Huntards are really few and far between they have sufficiently given your class a permanent bad name.
RoguesProbably one of the most replaceable classes. Other melee classes can do more damage than you, and bring more or the same utility to the raid. Hunters are plotting ways to kill you because you steal their gear and with the introduction of Tricks of the Trade you are even further intruding into their niche. Never fear though, if things get tough you can always stealth and watch as the rest of your raid bites the dust.
Death KnightsBlizzard wasn’t going to favor their new hero class right? Wrong! With a brand new buff in the new patch under their belts Death Knights are probably one of the most OP classes currently in game. Death Knight tanks are amazing, and so are their DPSing counterparts. One of my Death Knight friends summed it up nicely when he said “I play by binding half my spells to one side of the keyboard and half to the other side, then I proceed to face roll until I win.”
PaladinsOh look it’s Captain America casting shield attack! No wait, it’s just a tanking Paladin. Everyone hates you because you can tank and do it well and you know they are jealous of the flashy way you pull. Healing Paladins have huge heals that make them amazing tank healers, never mind that any other healing class is better suited for raid healing, at least no one is competing for your gear. Ret Paladins push out tons of damage and can quickly kill any player that stands in their way. Hammer of Justice, Bubble, and Avenging Wrath all make every player you face off against want to /head desk. Overall a great class to play, as long as you don’t mind being dressed like a Power Ranger.

Ice Crown Citadel Lower Spire Guide

Lord MorrowgarThe first boss you encounter is the Citadel is Lord Morrowgar. You will find him guarding the base of the ice spire that leads up to the Frozen Throne. He is a very cool looking multi-headed undead construct with wings and a gigantic axe. He is apparently made from the bones of the Lich King’s defeated enemies, and if that is true you had better be careful or you may be seeing this fight from the other side when your bones join him.
In phase one the tanks need to establish control over Lord Morrowar and face him away from the raid. Once that is done the tanks need to stack in front of him as one of his primary attacks does double normal damage, but is divided against up to three targets in his front arc.
DPS and Healers spread out around his back arc. Throughout the fight Lord Morrowgar will target players randomly for two special abilities. He can pick you to be flamed, in which case a line of fire extends from him to you hitting anyone silly or slow enough to stand in it, as it remains in play for several seconds. The other ability is to spike a random player with a bone. The spike impales the player to the ground and does roughly 10% damage every tick until it has been killed. DPS must switch to and kill the spikes as quickly as possible.
Every 30 seconds or so Lord Morrowgar enters phase two. In this phase he clears his agro table and whirls around the room at random targets inflicting heavy damage and placing bleed debuffs on them. He also leaves trails of fire on the ground as he whirls around the room. After about 20 seconds he will stop and re-enter phase one. This is the dangerous part of the fight, since he will be someplace random in the room and the tank will have no threat. To make it even worse he is immune to taunts so everyone needs to be careful.
Upon entering the Lower Spire, you will encounter the Argent Vanguard fighting the Scourge attempting to establish a foothold in the Citadel. This is their beachhead so to speak, and when you enter the Citadel this is where you can find their quartermaster and each of the class vendors for items. You can also find a repair point here at the blacksmith, and since you use a teleportation system inside the Citadel (much like in Ulduar) you should not need repair bots in the raid.
Lord MorrowgarThe first boss you encounter is the Citadel is Lord Morrowgar. You will find him guarding the base of the ice spire that leads up to the Frozen Throne. He is a very cool looking multi-headed undead construct with wings and a gigantic axe. He is apparently made from the bones of the Lich King’s defeated enemies, and if that is true you had better be careful or you may be seeing this fight from the other side when your bones join him.
The fight has two phases that it alternates back and forth between. The two phases could be called “the tank and DPS phase” and the run away from the “whirling axe of death phase”, but we’ll just call them phase one and two.
DPS and Healers spread out around his back arc. Throughout the fight Lord Morrowgar will target players randomly for two special abilities. He can pick you to be flamed, in which case a line of fire extends from him to you hitting anyone silly or slow enough to stand in it, as it remains in play for several seconds. The other ability is to spike a random player with a bone. The spike impales the player to the ground and does roughly 10% damage every tick until it has been killed. DPS must switch to and kill the spikes as quickly as possible.
Every 30 seconds or so Lord Morrowgar enters phase two. In this phase he clears his agro table and whirls around the room at random targets inflicting heavy damage and placing bleed debuffs on them. He also leaves trails of fire on the ground as he whirls around the room. After about 20 seconds he will stop and re-enter phase one. This is the dangerous part of the fight, since he will be someplace random in the room and the tank will have no threat. To make it even worse he is immune to taunts so everyone needs to be careful.
Lady DeathwhisperLady Deathwhisper is an undead lich that is in charge of the Cult of the Damned. She is found just after Lord Morrowgar and is a fight that requires groups to be split up to deal with different aspects. The fight is made up of two distinct phases.
In the first phase Lady Deathwhisper is protected by a mana shield that must be burned through before you can enter phase 2. This means that several DPS need to be assigned to burn it down. While she is protected by the shield though, she will summon in guards from the alcoves along both sides of the room. This is where the rest of the raid waits and picks up the adds as soon as they enter the fight.
The adds that enter the fight are either Adherents or Fanatics. Adherents are casters that do AOE damage, while Fanatics are melee based that have nasty frontal cleaves. Both will occasionally become empowered by Lady Deathwhisper, and when they do they gain even more power to their attacks, and need to be killed as soon as possible.Once the adds get to very low health they will start to cast Dark Martyrdom. If they succeed they die in an AOE blaze of glory. In addition, if they succeed Lady Deathwhisper will bring them back to life as reanimated versions of themselves. These reanimated versions can only be harmed by damage opposite to what they cause. Meaning the casters can only be harmed by physical damage and the melee only by magic.
Lastly spirits will spawn around the room that can not be tanked or damaged, instead they do damage to anyone close to them. So if you get threat from one, that player must kite them around until they disappear.
The whole fight must be finished within 10 minutes or Lady Deathwhisper will enrage and wipe the group. Overall it is not a difficult encounter, the hardest part is figuring out the balance of DPS to put on adds and the shield. If you survive the adds, the second phase is a breeze.
Icecrown Gunship Battle This is the third encounter in the raid, and while there is a boss on the enemy ship, there is no real reason to kill him to win the encounter. Once you all reach the airship everyone needs to talk to the goblin onboard handing out the wickedly cool rocket vests. Once you get them you need to equip them in your shirt slot and add them to your toolbar for quick use. Allow everyone to get used to jumping around with them before anyone talks to the captain. If you are anything like our raid, 20 minutes will pass as players jump all over the ship, slap them into shape and get on with the fight.
The encounter needs the raid split up into three different sub-groups: gunners, boarders, and defenders. The boarding party and defenders each need tanks and healers. Boarders should mainly be melee, while defenders should be ranged. The gunners are usually pulled from your lowest DPS in the group regardless of type.
The defenders need to deal with all the boarding enemies. While doing this they should try to minimize incoming damage by avoiding the rockets that will be landing on your ship. In addition any time all the boarders are dead, you can focus on the enemies still on the opponent’s ship.
The gunners are what will really win or lose the battle for you. The whole fight revolves around who does more damage to the enemy airship. Can they knock you out of the sky before you do? A gunner’s role is fairly simple, press 1 to fire a normal shot, press 2 to fire a better shot as soon as you are almost to 100 heat in your cannon. Don’t let it get to 100 though or you will overheat and lose time waiting for it to cool down. Any time your cannon is iced, help either the defenders or the attackers until the mage that is freezing your cannon is dead and then return to it as quickly as possible.
Deathbringer Saurfang This is the last boss encounter in the Lower Spire and probably the most difficult as well. Death Bringer Saurfang is a Death Knight that has been super charged by the Lich King. In addition to his formidable abilities you will also need to fight and destroy a constant stream of Blood Beasts that he summons.
The main issue that needs to be contented with in this fight is Saurfang’s Mark of the Fallen Champion ability. The Mark is placed on a random player and inflicts significant amounts of damage over time. The marks stays up for the remainder of the fight, persisting through death, and if the player is allowed to die, Saurfange heals for 5% of his health. He can only use this ability once he has amassed 100 blood power though. Controlling the amount of blood power he gets and how fast is how you control the fight. Once several Marks get placed on players it will become impossible for the healers to keep up.
Saurfang gains blood power from many of his abilities including blood boil which is cast on players. It does a small amount of damage that can be healed through, however, each tick of damage grants a blood point to Saurfang. In addition he will cast a nova effect on random players that hits that player and anyone else close by. Anyone hit takes damage and grants Saurfang blood power. To prevent and minimize this, players need to spread out as much as possible, as any player it effects grants him blood power.

Stat Simplification Analysis

Since the announcement last year at Blizzcon that several stats would disappear in Cataclysm, players have been asking questions. As it is right now gear is fairly linear (by gear level) but does manage to have several "side grades" that allow players that understand the math behind the stats to fiddle with gear and get more out of it that other players that do not understand the mechanics.
These players are quite concerned that the simplification system will make gear always a direct replacement if it is a higher item level, making replacement uninteresting and not requiring any knowledge or though process. Blizzard had this to say in the forums about it.
"Interesting" stats
I think you're approaching it as a player, in which your goal is to improve your character as much as you can as fast as you can. From that viewpoint, any piece of loot that isn't an unambiguous upgrade just gets in your way. But think for a moment about the over-arcing design of loot in the game and the role it fills. Deciding what is an upgrade is part of the challenge in the same way figuring out to beat the boss is part of the challenge. The hit stat represents a gearing challenge because you can't just assume any loot from Icecrown is an automatic upgrade. It may be a huge upgrade. It may be a sidegrade. It may be a slight upgrade, but only if you swap around a couple of other pieces, consider regemming, etc.
In short, you have to game it.
Put another way, even if there is a "best in slot" list for every spec, the order in which you get those pieces is significant, and makes you have to think and solve problems. That's why I call hit "interesting." Spellpower, while quite desirable, is not interesting in that more is always better to the extent that we can't even offer variation on it from one piece to the next any longer. The rating-based stats, especially those with caps as low as hit, cause you have to solve the puzzle in order to wear them. There aren't a lot of huge decisions you make in WoW, beyond perhaps your class and maybe your guild. But there are a lot of little decisions that when taken together make the game fairly compelling.
Too often players approach gear design as "I would never wear that piece, therefore it's a badly designed piece." But consider for a moment that badge vendor +hit trinket again. It might not be attractive to you personally assuming you're hit capped in your current gear. Your conclusion might be that the trinket was itemized wrong. But that might not be the conclusion of say a Resto druid who decides to try Balance and now has a huge hit deficit to overcome. Regemming or farming old content is one way to do it, but relatively slow and / or painful. Getting a shiny new trinket off a vendor (i.e. isn't even subject to the whims of boss loot RNG) with a whole bucket of +hit on it starts to look pretty attractive. Just because the piece isn't for you doesn't mean it isn't filling a gap in the fabric of the game.

No More Defence for Warcraft Tanks

When Cataclysm launches sometime next year, there will be a big change to the stat system for all players. Maybe none bigger than to tanks though as Defense will be dropped and instead given through your talent choices. No more juggling to hit those last few points, or maximize health while lower defense back down to the soft cap. Ghostcrawler explained it in the forums:
Re: No hit juggling if no Defense JugglingThe reason we want to do away with defense isn't because it is a "cappable" stat. Hit is interesting in that you need a certain amount but no more and have to make gear choices accordingly rather than just gemming and enchanting your best stat everywhere and using the highest item level piece that drops without other considerations.
There are several reasons to get rid of defense:
1) It's a confusing stat with its "cap" that isn't really a cap.2) It contributes to avoidance inflation.3) It's not of the same value for all 4 tank classes.4) If you have a bunch of dps that can't hit, you'll probably just progress more slowly. If you have a tank that can be crit there's a chance you can't progress at all.5) It contributes to tank scarcity. Ideally an Arms warrior should be able to go Defensive Stance and grab a shield to tank a 5-player dungeon (though not a raid). When every dps warrior (though the same is true of all tank classes) needs a full set of tank gear to tank even easy heroic content, it's harder to fill your Dungeon Finder groups.
GhostcrawlerLead Systems Designer

Ashen Verdict Reputation Guide

The Ashen Verdict was forged out of an alliance between the formidable Argent Crusade, led by Highlord Tirion Fordring, and the Knights of the Ebon Blade, led by Highlord Darion Mograine. Reminiscent of the Shattered Sun Offensive these two different organizations have come together for a common purpose, to lead the final assault against the Scourge in Icecrown Citadel and bring about the fall of the Lich King.
Reputation
With limited quests available from this faction, your main source of reputation gain is going to be inside the Citadel itself. Inside you will be granted reputation each time you manage to bring down a monster. The reputation you receive will depend on what type of mob you kill. Most normal mobs will grant you 15 reputation, however harder elites, and named mobs will grant you more. Bosses inside Icecrown Citadel will grant you 250 reputation.
There are however a few quests that you can and should do as soon as Icecrown is fully opened. The Ashen Verdict, having learned to bend Primordial Saronite to their will, have set their smiths on an epic task; to repurpose Arthas’s former weapon Light’s Vengeance (discarded once he claimed Frostmourne) to forge a new weapon called Shadowmourne.
The Sacred and the CorruptPlace Light's Vengeance, 25 Primordial Saronite, Rotface's Acidic Blood, and Festergut's Acidic Blood in Highlord Mograine's runeforge in Icecrown Citadel. (Rotface’s Acidic Blood and Festergut’s Acid may only be obtained in 25 player difficulty)
Shadow’s EdgeGain Shadow’s Edge (2H Axe) after gathering all the materials from The Sacred and the Corrupt.
A Feast of SoulsHighlord Darion Mograine wants you to use Shadow's Edge to slay 1000 of the Lich King's minions in Icecrown Citadel. Souls can be obtained in 10 or 25 person difficulty.
Unholy InfusionHighlord Darion Mograine wants you to infuse Shadow's Edge with Unholy power and slay Professor Putricide.This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
Blood InfusionHighlord Darion Mograine wants you to infuse Shadow's Edge with blood and defeat Queen Lana'thel.This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
Frost InfusionHighlord Darion Mograine has instructed you to slay Sindragosa after subjecting yourself to 4 of her breath attacks while wielding Shadow's Edge.This quest may only be completed in 25 person difficulty of Icecrown Citadel.
The Splintered ThroneHighlord Darion Mograine asks you to collect 60 Shadowfrost Shards. Shadowfrost Shards may only be obtained in the 25 person difficulty setting.
Shadowmourne…Highlord Darion Mograine asks you to bring him Shadow's Edge.
The Lich King’s Last StandHighlord Darion Mograine in Icecrown Citadel bids you to kill the Lich King.

Putting the MO in MMOG

The big news this week is apparently account security. Several sites have been going off the hinges lately about account security and it seems that the gold sellers are getting desperate. Keyloggers, phishing emails, scams, mystery hacks, etc. are in full force around the Internet. Queues for character restoration have reached the “weeks” point. WoW.com reports that it has “inside sources” that say Blizzard may soon require authenticators!
I’m fired up this week and my soul is burning with excitement because there is finally something to talk about. The account security issues are apparently SO BAD that people are given the option of forgoing their restoration for a care package with 2,500 gold, 10 Emblems of Frost, and 10 Emblems of Triumph for each day they’ve waited. Woah! Wait a second, that’s kind of lame eh? I’d need over 200 Emblems of Triumph to fix my character’s gear to where it’s at now and almost 100 Emblems of Frost! I have over 30,000 gold too. I better not get hacked any time soon huh?
Well, knock on wood, I won’t. Because I’m web savvy enough to know basic Internet protocols. Let’s review them real quick dear readers of The Fabulous Overpull of Awesomesauce.
Antivirus software is a must, no matter if it ruins your FPS, uses popups or even schedules downloads for itself. You need some kind of security software running. You can pick these up at your local mega-mart or electronics store. There are free versions out there such as AVG, but you sometimes get what you pay for. Make sure it’s scheduled to scan often and that it can cover spyware too. Windows Update is a good thing, so turn it on and make sure it’s updating. Information on this is in Windows’ help files OR in the Mac help files (and the options are in both of their control panels). Never give your password to anyone, use a good strong password, and use different passwords for each and every website. Adding a “1” or “a” or anything to the end on a new site isn’t good enough, the bad people know those tricks. Do not share accounts. Do not use any third party services. There are more, but really be smart and you’ll be fine. I’ve yet to know a single person who was smart about ‘net security that has ever been hacked. Some people have made arguments that it “happened out of nowhere”, but I imagine that fat stack of gold they mysteriously had “happened out of nowhere” too.
Lastly I want all of my readers to know something. This isn’t new. The care bags are, the rumors of people exploiting Blizzard customer service are kinda new, and the paranoia launched by a bunch of sites is new but this problem isn’t. Don’t fall into some kind of mass paranoia and buy into a ton of extra security software and pay certain electronic stores to “secure” your computer for several hundred bucks. Just be smart about it.
If you’re really paranoid get the authenticator. It’ll help keep your account safe. If you somehow do get hacked, which I find unlikely still, do not take their care package unless it is somehow better than what your level 80 had before which is unlikely. Sure you can farm up all your stuff again, but come on!
So next time you login ask yourself if you’re being social enough. Instead of PuGing it up solo try grouping up with others from your guild. Instead of farming achievements by yourself seek out others to join you. Try out raiding if you’ve never done it, even if you’re going to fail. Do things with others! Don’t just wallow in the loneliness that is yourself. It helps make the game A LOT more enjoyable, even if it’s awkward at first.
One last thing, if you really do have fun playing solo and you honestly are having a blast, then by all means continue. I just don’t see a lot of people being capable of keeping to themselves all the time in an online game that’s made for being social.
That’s the Overpull this week. Stay tuned next week for more awesome news, funny stories, lore, and questions rolled together in your ultimate WoW newsletter.

A Look at the Chen Stormstout Deluxe Figure

Pandarens are renowned in the WarCraft universe for their silly designs, brewing skills, and tenacity in battle. There are two major Pandarens in the canon WarCraft lore. The first is the well known Mojo Stormstout who catalogued all of the living creatures in both Azeroth and Outland along with providing battle strategies to the Scourge, the Alliance, and the Horde. The other Pandaren is known as Chen Stormstout who was a playable hero in WarCraft III’s bonus campaign and the current representative of the Pandarens in Blizzard’s collectable market. We’ve been lucky enough to get our hands on one of the limited edition figures of Chen Stormstout and have a full review of this fine figure.
Chen returns in World of Warcraft as the focus of the quest “Chen’s Empty Keg.” After finding one of Chen’s kegs you can speak with Brewmaster Drohn who will allow you to get some of the raw materials to remake Chen’s Thunderbrew. Chen also sends the mail containing the Pandaren Monk after it has been purchased, which is part of his now infamous role as the Pandaren representative in various collectables.
Chen has been featured in the collectable card game and has now also moved into their line of figures. Those that have attended BlizzCon or know friends with these figures know that Blizzard doesn’t play around when it comes to their collectable figure line. Not only are the figures reasonably priced but the attention to detail is astonishing. For example, looking at Chen’s teeth I can see each single one with each of them sized differently and colored in a way that makes them look almost lifelike.
Chen’s flowing hair, the tuft of fur that blows out of his Taoist-esq outfit, to the mud around his sandals are all delicately crafted. The shield around his back was the most surprising piece of attire. It boasts exceptional quality even if it’s one of the pieces you do not often see. His lower belt is also of interest. It carries some of the supplies you gathered in the game to make his Thunderbrew which is a nice touch for the fans that know a bit of his background.
I do have complaints about this figure, though, even given its quality. The feet are not particularly flat in order to give an anatomically correct stance and the figure suffers balance issues due to that. The wooden staff is difficult to properly assemble and align in his hands. There looks to be some green plastic bracelets that he wears that I feel don’t fit with the rest of the figure.
Additionally, he is very wide and will take up a lot of shelf space. When they say this is big they mean it. You get a very large figure that measures a good 9” tall and if you count the staff almost a foot wide (the base figure is only about 8~” or so). This is only a problem if you consider shelf space at a premium. The box, for the collectors that don’t want to ruin any future value, is quite big too.
These problems are all soothed away once you realize this fantastic collectable is only $49.99. For its size and its price you can be quite forgiving on any minor details. The entire line of collectables featuring Gnoll Warlords, Lady Vashj, and more lore characters all carry the similar quality and vary in prices, even for the budget minded collectors. One of my favorites is Human Priestess: Sister Benedron which comes in at $16.99 and is roughly 7” tall.
If you were to ask me if you should pick up this collectable I would say yes, but only if you’re a collector of figures or wanted something that’s WoW related but doesn’t instantly scream “WARCRAFT”. I would say a huge benefit to this figure is that it’s easy to place on a shelf without drawing too much nerdy attention. Many people like pandas or Japanese/Chinese styled things and this fits right in.

Warrior Combat Basics Guide

Damage Dealing RotationsWhile in combat as a DPS warrior you have several different rotations that you can use. The first choice comes based on your talent build, as Fury and Arms lead to some different attack possibilities. Next, the rotation you use will depend on the situation, is it a single target or a group of targets.
Lets start by looking at a Fury warrior's single target rotation. It will be something like Bloodthirst, Whirlwind, Slam, and then Heroic Strike. Once the target is below 20% health you can replace slam with Execute for even more damage.
Arms has a much more complicated and busy rotation with more abilities to use. However the attacks are more of a priority list than an exact sequence. If an earlier one in the list is off cooldown then it should be used first.
The rotation is to start with Rend and refresh it whenever nessessary. Once it is up use Mortal Strike and Slam as part of your regular rotation. Also use Execute, Overpower, and Bladestorm whenever they are either available of off cooldown.
When you are fighting large groups of enemies you can use Whirlwind, Sweeping Strikes (if you are fury), Cleave, and Bladestorm. Remeber to be careful in a group though as you will be hitting and causing threat against multiple enemies not just the tank's main target.
Tanking RotationAs a Warrior tank you are able to take quite a beating. With all that heavy plate armour, a shield, and your various skills and abilities you can last a while against anything. Even though you can last though, your party members can't. If they draw aggro from you they will most likely be killed in just a few hits. That makes your tanking rotation extremely important. You want to be able to generate as much threat as you possibly can as quickly as you can.
Against a single target the best threat rotation you can use is Shield Slam, Revenege, Concusion Blow, Shockwave, Devestate, while using Heroic Strike whenever it becomes active. Don't forget that you also need to keep Sunder Armor stacked on the target.
Against multiple targets all at once you want to make sure you mix in more shockwaves and cleaves to establish aggro on more targets. Also, you should make sure that you switch targets often to ensure you have threat on all of them.
Also something to consider while tanking is your cooldown abilities. They become a kind of management game. You want to use them, but want to make sure you have them available for when you need them. This takes some practice, but you will establish a feel for it over time.
Solo PlayWhen playing the game solo, you really only have 2 options. Both involve playing the game as DPS, so they are either going fury or arms. Both are viable for leveling as you cause a significant amount of damage. While you could level as Protection to help learn the abilities and be ready to tank once you start visiting instances, the damage you can cause is severly limited and leveling will take much longer.
For complete information on the best way to level and solo play check out our Warrior Leveling guide, it provides all the details.
Mixing it up in PvPIf PvP is your thing and you are out to cause as much havok as possible, then your best bet is to check out the PvP Warrior Primer Guide. It covers all the basics that you will want to know about as a Warrior attempting to PvP in either battlegrounds or arenas.
Playing a Warrior in a Group Your role in a group as a Warrior really depends on what talent build you are. As an Arms or Fury warrior you role is to cause as much damage as possible while not drawing threat. That's isn't always a simple task given the amount of damage that you can cause. As a Tank in a group your role is to keep all of the enemies so pissed off at you that they ignore all of the other party memebers. While it sounds easy, it isn't and takes a lot of practice.
Knowing When to Switch RolesThis is another very often overlooked skill that truly separates the good players from the rest. Many normal players get focused just on what they are doing and lose track of what else is going on. As a multi-purpose class you can not afford to do that, if you want to be great as a group PvE player. There are times you need to be able to switch from what you are doing to do something else.
Recognizing the times that you should switch roles and acting on them takes practice and can make all the difference in a group.This mainly applies to DPS warriors, but can apply to Tanks in raids when you get to a fight that only needs a single tank and your raid has more than one. This occurs many times in small groups when you join as a DPS player. Your tank goes down halfway through a big fight and the group is facing a wipe. You can quickly switch into defensive stance and keep the enemies on you instead of the healer or caster and try to save the group. It will not always work, but if done correctly can save your group from a wipe more times than you would think.
For longer changes it may mean carrying gear for different purposes and being skilled at using it. For instance many Warrior tanks carry full DPS sets for raids, so that when they are at a fight that requires less tanks than they have in the group they can switch gear and help out by causing damage. For these longer term switches you should have a secondary talent build ready to go.
Charging and InterceptingThese two abilities are so important, and useful in almost any situation that they get thier own section. They can be useful in PvP and PvE, no matter if you are tanking or DPSing.
Charge allows you to charge into a new opponent while out of combat from up to 25 yards away and stuns them for a short time. In addition it generates rage so that you can start attacking with other abilities shortly after. Intercept is like charge but causes a slightly longer stun and can be used while in combat. Without talents Charge can only be used in battle stance while intercept can only be used in berserker stance. However since you can switch between stances just before you use them it just takes practice.

WoW Instant Messenger is Coming

Never miss a whisper again.Missing whispers was something that I feared was an unsolvable problem for most of my WoW career. Being an officer in most of the guilds I have ever been a part of meant that not only was I missing whispers from my friends, but also whispers from potential recruits. I missed tells during the day as I left my game up while I took frequent AFKs to deal with real life. Then at night I missed tells during raids as I engaged in epic battles against raid bosses with my guild.
Wow Instant Messenger (WIM)
Type: Chat and CommunicationAuthor: Pazza (Project Manager), Sylvanaar, 01satkinsPatch Reviewed At: 3.3Version Reviewed At: 3.2.2Homepage: Click Here
WIM (WoW Instant Messenger) is a small easy to install mod developed to better manage your whispers by giving them a classic instant messenger interface (think AIM, Yahoo, or MSN). To install this mod simply download it from your favorite mod site (or the WIM homepage) and plop it in your Interface folder. WIM is one of those mods that you can use from the get go, with very little work needed on your part.
Once installed WIM will attach a small chat bubble looking icon to your mini map or will also appear on Fubar if you have it installed. WIM will automatically begin intercepting your whispers and they will no longer appear in your chat log. Instead your whispers will now pop up on your screen in the form of individual chat boxes. WIM does come with an in- game tutorial that is automatically turned on upon install which can be very helpful for new users.
A noise will be played each time a whisper is received and if you close the chat box it will minimize and can be accessed again by clicking on the chat bubble on your mini map. Every conversation you have will be stored here until it is closed (do this by clicking the x while the conversation is minimized), or until you log off.
WIM also provides a history function which is turned on by default. When active this ability will save any conversations you have, even if you log off. This is useful if you accidentally close conversations, get logged out due to AFK, or simply would like to refer back to conversations later. You can even export your history directly from the WIM History Viewer by changing the view mode to either raw text or HTML. From that window you can then copy your history and paste it pretty much anywhere you want.
WIM also allows for the use of emoticons. While not an overly useful function I thought it was rather nice to see an actual smiley face instead of just : ) . A full list of emoticons is not currently available, and as such you will have to play around to discover them. There are plans to implement an additional drop down menu to WIM that will allow you to see all the emoticons available and access them from there.
I found that I personally didn’t like the way my WIM looked freshly installed, so I busied myself with the task of discovering how to personalize the mod. This part made me a little nervous since there are plenty of mods out there that are fairly difficult to customize. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the WIM options menu, as it was straight forward, easy to use, and well laid out.
Once you have the menu open (/WIM) you will be able to customize WIM in almost every way imaginable. The size and scale of the windows can be changed with a simple movement of a slider. You can also choose from various skins to make the color of your window more appealing. WIM provides you with four choices of fonts, allows you to change the size of the font, and will allow you to make those fonts any color of the rainbow.
You are also able to dictate how you want your whispers to look, and how you want them grouped once they are minimized. And for those worried about messages popping up in the middle of your screen during an important boss fight, or during some intense PvP, worry no more. WIM has an option that will hide your windows once you enter combat, the windows will then be redisplayed once combat is ended. You can even choose to delay this action if you are in the process of typing a message.
The Whispers menu allows you to turn on and off and manage your history. You can also manage the sounds WIM plays here, and choose if you would like more chats (Guild, Officer, Raid, etc) to be managed by WIM. I personally only use WIM for my whispers, all other chats I rely on my chat log for.
The Chat menu is the final menu available. Here you can turn on WIM-2-WIM which allows users with WIM to interact in ways that normal whispering cannot (for example the use of emoticons). There is also a privacy menu here that will allow you to decide what data you would like to be shared. WIM can let others know when you are typing, your location, and even your talent spec if you so choose.
After using WIM for an extended period of time, I will admit that I am in love with it. The mod itself does everything I wanted it to do and the developers have continuously found ways to improve upon the mod. I cannot imagine being forced to go back to using my normal chat log for my whispers. I love knowing that I will never again miss a conversation.
Overall I have nothing negative to say about the mod. It does what it is supposed to do, is easy to use, easy to configure, and appears to be useable with most other add ons. It truly made my WoW experience better. The only downfall I can possibly see would be letting your history build up, this may slow down your game slightly. However WIM does offer a feature that will only allow so many messages saved per person, and another that automatically deletes your history, so I can’t see this becoming a real problem. This mod without a doubt earns Mem’s seal of approval.