To be honest, apart from the whirlwind of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub queues in the first week, the impact of 4.1 in my Azerothian life has been minimal. Debate was rife in the first weeks in guild about the real impact of 4.1 on the raiding community, where I have opted for "minimal- those in guilds will always progress exponentially compared to those flying solo" and other have taken the "PUGs are going to walk through content now" stance. However I am sure if I wasn't so opinionated, the truth lies somewhere in between myself and example guildie A.

Sure 4.1 has given us 353 gear, but it still doesn't patch idiocy or laziness amongst the PUG community. I am on a huge server and I haven't seen an explosion of /2 LFM Chog'all killl only! If this patch was so significant, like the introduction of dual spec or raid wide buffs in ICC, I am sure we would be feeling the ramifications of it right this instant- but we aren't.

What are we feeling? What are we seeing? We moved from an average 346 iLvl to 353- step back heroic modes, Azeroth and all its nubs are coming for you. Blacksmitharians crafted goods now come with a gem socket- stam stackers have been overjoyed with the opportunity to increase their e-peen. Warlocks and Death Knights can now battle res and classes should also be renamed accordingly: Necromancers and Lord Commander Battle Zombie.

It really has been the Incinerate of patches- its just a filler before we get to see new raid content. With the passing of 4.1 from PTR to Live comes 4.2 on the PTR. Looking ahead into the not so distant future, I get a sense of burning, fire, possibly a land of some sort- FIRELANDS! Check out the Firelands raid preview video posted by Blizzard Entertainment.

Maths and I decided we needed a much needed divorce after a whirlwind romance when I was 17. Sure playing WoW means a little bit of number crunching, but that doesn't mean you have to write pages of formulas to know that the square peg doesn't fit in the round hole.


General
Role: Damage, CC and AOE damage.
CCing demons and elementals has always been a warlocks' job, but with the introduction of Glyph of Fear, we have a root effect as well.
Pet: Felguard on AoE, Succubus on single target. However, always consider the fight. Felguard will be having a damage boost post nerf soon.

Spec
Currently what I am using is 0/31/10
Optional talents: Aura of Foreboding, Demonic Empowerment, Master Summoner.

Glyphs
Prime: Incinerate, Lash of Pain (if using Succubus), Immolate and Metamorphosis.
Major: Shadowbolt, Fear and Life Tap.
Replace Glyph of Life Tap when your haste is so high that reducing its GCD is pointless.
Minor: I prefer Enslave Demon (for faster CC, just in case I ever need it), Ritual of Souls and Unending Breath. Choose whatever floats your boat, they won't effect your DPS.

Stats

1. Intellect
2. Hit
3. Haste
4. Mastery
5. Crit

Be as close as you can to the hit cap (17%) from reforging and gearing only. See Hit isn't King Anymore in the suggested reading section about the development of hit across WoW. It has been noted that once a player reaches a higher iLVL (372- Tier 1 heroic raid gear) that mastery and haste will swap places on the priority list. Changes in patch 4.0.6 have increased the mastery priority for demonology warlocks.

Spells

• Curse of Elements/Curse of Weakness
• Metamorphosis
• [Felguard] Demon Soul
• Hand of Guldan
• Bane of Doom
• Immolate
• Corruption
• [Molten Core] Incinerate
• [Decimation] Soul Fire
• Shadowbolt
• Shadowburn
• Hellfire
• [Demon] Felstorm
• [Demon] Axe Toss
• Life Tap

NB: This is not a priority list, in terms of what is the highest value. I have compiled this list about important things you should be thinking about, also considered the order in which working new items (especially if you are new to Demo) like Felstorm, into the 'rotation'. Demonology does not have a rotation, it is a priority based casting system. Soulfired have worked a very nice flow chart together to explain how to work a priority system.

Gems
Blue slots: Veiled Demonseye until around the hit cap. Again, see Suggested Reading. Then use Brilliant Inferno Ruby.
Red slots: Brilliant Inferno Ruby
Yellow slots: Reckless Ember Topaz
Meta slot: Burning Shadowspirit Diamond

Enchants
Enchant for haste. Enchant for intellect. Enchant your feet with minor speed increases (Earthen Vitality / Lavawalker) if you need to move faster. If you are not a tailor, enchant your cloak with intellect. For all our sakes, please enchant your pants with Intellect and Stamina, not Spirit.

If gold is an issue, there are many cheaper enchants that are very good choices for your gear. For example, the difference between +50 and +65 is necessary in hardcore, progression raiding. Instead of spending your gold on several expensive enchants, pool your gold together for 1 expensive enchant: your weapon!

Hurricane is the enchant of choice for blue items, but Power Torrent is by far a superior enchant. We can see by our stat priority list, that we crave intellect as our biggest DPS gain. I know however, that many people will still see this haste proc as a greater benefit. Let's consider the two and add in a little logic (and I know this is very over simplified, but here me out)...


Thank you.

Tips and Tricks

• Use your Hellfire when your moving and Fel Flame to refresh your Immolate.
• Time your Demon Soul and Metamorphosis to be used together.
• Even better! Time your Meta and your Demon Soul during Bloodlust/Heroism.
• Don't forget you use Shadowburn (its got a DoT effect) during ad phases on bosses as well as during Metamorphosis.
• Remember that Shadowbolt gives a 5% bonus to critically hit so its good to get that debuff up ASAP if no other class gives it. Also, don't tunnel vision and forget to keep the effect up during Decimation.
• If you have more than 1 warlock in your group, don't double up on the same curse! Remember you have Curse of Weakness to use as well.
• Molten Core is awesome. If your Decimation and Molten Core proc concurrently, Incinerate instead of Soul Fire until Molten Core fades.
• Just because you know these things, doesn't mean you always do them. You can practice your heart out on a dummy, but in my opinion, you are better off jumping into heroics and dungeons to practice. PVE is about doing your thing to complete a task whilst reacting to the environment- standing still hitting a dummy isn't going to help you.
• Take constructive criticism and bring it to your next raid. Think about why that boss was difficult and what you can do to make it go more smoothly. Anywhere from talking less jibber on vent to remembering to bring consumables or Shadowburn the ads. If you need to, write it down. Husky from Husky Starcraft gave me a good idea once: he sticks post it notes around his monitor about different strats.

About Addons
I've harped on about the usefulness of addons before. The other day I was having a conversation with an old warlock buddy of mine about to addon or not to addon. He is a fabulous hardcore player and he barely has a single addon.

The idea behind addons is to give you information about whats going on. Addons are useless if you don't look at them or focusing on them takes attention away from what you should be doing. So before you rush out and grab some elite addon pack, think about what information you find hard to keep track of. Is it DoTs? Get a timer. Is it procs and buffs? Try something like PowerAuras. Do you forget to re-Soul Stone people? Get a cooldown reminder. You get the idea.

Suggested Reading & TL;DR
Demon Within Guide by Jmickey @ EJ
Why hit isnt king anymore by Gherkin @ MMO Champion
Soulfired blog and guide http://soulfired.wordpress.com/

Blizzard are showing their age at the mo, with a recent announcement of their 20th Anniversary minisite. An array of media is set to launch across the site soon, the minisite hosting just teasers of what is to come in the future. Check it out at http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/b20/ and keep a track of the celebrations.

In MPV news... incoming warlock PVE guides, community media and a refresher course on how to not fail in Cataclysm. Other than that, continuing (and delayed) work continues on the relaunch of Magic Pixel Virus.

Dear Blizzard,
Stop hiring Richard A. Knaak to write your books. In his absence, just employ Christie Golden.
Sincerely, Xan.

I could almost leave this review right there, but there is much more to talk about with The Shattering by Christie Golden than just bagging out Knaak. I expect that there are quite a few die-hard Warcraft and WoW fans out there who love all the books and then there are the fans who haven't read any.

The Shattering is the prelude to Cataclysm, as the cover so aptly tells us. It gives a lot more depth and insight into our beloved NPCs than whispers and rumors across Azeroth. If you haven't read the book yet, I suggest you do and get your guildies to read it too. It is the best book in the WoW franchise that I have read so far. The writing style almost reminds me that you may be part of the story in a quest in some way. You can see the characters in your minds eye, nothing is lost in translation between what you expect from an ingame lore experience to the book. This could almost be a series of ingame cinematics.

I feel that the Horde story in the book plays out more strongly than the Alliance tale. The characters involved in the Horde story like Thrall, Garrosh, Hamuul Runetotem, Drek and Cairne have a great deal of purpose and intent behind their adventure. We begin to understand that Thrall's double life as both shaman and warchief is the catalyst for much of the changes that we see ingame, whether it is his past influence upon Garrosh or the juxtaposed shamanistic-warchief conflict with Cairne, a reflection of the internal struggle Thrall faces. However, this could be due to the fact that I play Horde and interact with this story more greatly, but I am not entirely convinced.

The characters in the Alliance story seem to lack the same depth and attention. Anduin's experience in Ironforge feels like it develops into one of more meaning than the story tells. His gift from Magni, the magically appearing tablets and his political accuity seem to appear out of nowhere. I feel that if there was a more profound experience that had lead to Anduin's development in the book, the Alliance story would feel more complete. Jaina just seems to cry a bit to much over Anduin, without a feeling of real need or desperation for his safety.

The Twilight Hammer make a brief appearance in the story, and the impact of their actions far outweigh the weight given in the story. This feels like you have played the Elemental and Cultist invasion story in Ogrimmar a few patches ago, but more attention could have been given into their intentions, maybe even with a cliffhanger feel to rope you into the Cataclysm expansion.

What I have really enjoyed since the release of 4.0.3a is that the aftermath of the shattering itself and what happens in the book is clearly noticeable in game. This is particularly true of Ashenvale and the landgrab conflict between the Orcs and the Night Elves. I am currently questing through here on my Troll druid and feel totally absorbed in the story. I've been trying to spot more of these influences throughout the game, and there are quite a few- no spoilers! One of the things I wish they did however, is when you speak to Baine in Thunderbluff, that his NPC flavour text gave us more of a hint into his recent history and emotions.

Overall the book is rather enjoyable. Just the right amount of flaw in the Horde, a tad too much righteousness from the Alliance and a smothering of elemental aggitation across Azeroth and we have a fine backstory to what we experience in game and the coming impacts of this story in Cataclysm.

Rating: Awesome-o-powah

The Shattering by Christie Golden is available to buy from bookstores and on the Battle.net store website.

Magic Pixel Virus is taking some time out to update (I've also been on work experience for my university degree), refresh and be something a little bit different at the launch of Cataclysm. I'll be teaming up with my good druid friend Erik to bring more posts, more variety and some humor along the way. Erik got me into WoW over 3 years ago, is a database of expertise and is also a wonderful illustrator to boot! I'll be continuing with guides throughout Cataclysm and due to the spread workload, will be able to cover a greater variety of topics including professions, PVP and questing.

We will be launching under a new name in the near future, stay tuned! That doesn't mean that I don't have a few posts to consider before then!

Also, if you have been living under a rock for the past week, The Shattering Patch has been live. New class and race combinations, environmental and questing changes are all around. To fully experience some of these changes on the Horde side, check out the Troll story at Echo Isles and Sen'Jin, where the quests lead you into changes throughout Kalimdor.

The Shattering (Patch 4.0.3a) Hits Azeroth: It's The End of the World as We Know It on Wowhead.

Don't forget that there are only 8 days left until Cataclysm launches. Hopefully you have already pre-ordered the Collector's Edition. Alternatively you can download Cataclysm from Battle.net so its ready to play as soon as the servers are live.

Aside from the earthquakes that have been rocking Azeroth since the release of 4.0.1 on October 13th, much more is going on about town than meets the eye. Say hello to the infiltration of the Twilight Hammer into the hearts and minds of fellow Azerothians.

In the lead up to Cataclysm, many events are scheduled to occur to progress the story from WOTLK into Cataclysm. Pay special attention to the stories being told to get in the mood for the expansion. In particular, when completing the quest The Situation So Far by questgiver Earthmender Norsala, stick around and watch the exchange between Thrall, Garrosh Hellscream, Eitrigg and Vol'jin.

This is a RP event and series of quest chains that is available in Stormwind and Orgrimmar (started by Blood Guard Torek) for a limited time. I love RPs! Whats even better about this one is you get to dress up for the whole event.

Don't forget to pick up your robes (featured left) from a Doomsayer or wooden box in The Drag next to the Doomsayers in the quest Infiltrating the Cult. This quest will take you out to Jaggedswine Farm where the Twilight Hammer have been squatting, plotting and leading their infiltration of Orgrimmar. I must say, I felt one of those raving madwomen screaming about Armageddon at one point, the resemblence was remarkable. You also get to see Cho'gall, leader of the Twilight Hammer.

Reading up on some lore, Cho'gall was trained by Gul'dan as one of the first ogre magi and Gul'dan "was responsible for raising the gigantic fel volcano known as the Hand of Gul'dan after severing the orcs ties to the elemental spirits of Draenor" . The quest chain in Burning Crusade also revolving around and named The Hand of Gul'dan involved the Earthen Ring too. I'm thinking that the warlock spell Hand of Gul'dan has more than meets the eye in Cataclysm.

The whole quest chain takes around 30 minutes to complete and it earns you a nice stack of gold along the way. Unlike with previous pre-Cataclysm events (no longer available) such as Operation Gnomeregan and Echo Isles and Zalazane's Fall, the Twilight Hammer quest chain doesn't give a reward at the end... Well except for awaiting the next part of the event chain later on down the track.

If your feeling a bit nostalgic after all of this questing, get your Twilight Trappings on or pick up the 3 piece set from AH.

For a list of Alliance quests for the Twilight Hammer, check out the Wowhead event guide.

Hello. My name is Xan. I am a Blizzard fan and this was my first BlizzCon.

As much as I loved BlizzCon and love Blizzard, I have this overwhelming sense that I was actually watching CultCon or BlizzCult. To this I mean the never ending stream of Blizzard publicity, plugs and dedicated consumers of Blizzard products. Sure Metzen's opening ceremony presentation paid much homage to other geek-cult references and we were all assured that BlizzCon is 'as much as it is a good publicity machine, this is really about the fans' I can't ignore the PR side of things. The trailer for BlizzCon made me fully aware of what I was getting myself into, but I didn't realise until I actually experienced it.

The virtual ticket provided you with 50 hours of content streamed or on demand, quite obviously much more Blizzard enterprising in your face than if you actually attended. I watched it all. I think that the Blizzard brand is indeed, quite large and has a huge following, so a convention is a great way to bring fans together. However, we were always being reinforced with comments like "for the fans", "I don't mean to plug this other BlizzCon product, but..." and reinforcment of positive, emotive words throughout presentations to increase belief and desire for the product.

At the end of the day, these people love the fans because they pay Blizzard money and I highly doubt a business such as this would stick around if there was no money to be had. Sure the fans and the community are a wonderful adjunct to this endevour, but ultimately there was certainly a big ad running throughout the show. I know BlizzCon is not alone in its having the monopoly of its own convention or something similar (think QuakeCon), but with other games events you have competition and variety. It really does show how large of an influence Blizzard has.

But do I think this makes Blizzard a big evil company? No. I am still happy to pay for Blizzard products and I think they are deserving of the community's support. They not only listen to their consumers, but they also respond and engage on a meaningful level with us: we feel a part of it. Whether we acknowledge that the part we play has a more capitalist meaning to it or not, we are rewarded because we play the role of the fan-boy or girl.

On the other hand, maybe the mere realisation that I am a part of this 'cult' diminishes the meaning of all this entirely...

The above section turned out to be quite longer than first planned. So onto the fun stuff!

TOP 5 MOMENTS OF BLIZZCON 2010

1. Costume and dance competition
   How could anybody not enjoy this? The female Monk from Diablo 3 looked spectacular, but also honorable mentions for the first Spirit Healer and Illidan Stormrage in 2nd place. Also worth mentioning here are people's willingness to risk life and limb in pseudo-Draenei legs and extreme dance moves. Blizzard's hold on fans = 1, free will = 0. Just to point out my willingness to submit myself to Blizzard fandom, I handmade and cosplayed as my warlock to Supanova, earlier this year. I even have a Quel'Delar, Lens of the Mind IRL.
2. Russel Brower
   I love the music from World of Warcraft and older Blizzard tracks. There is something so enchanting about them. This interview was done on the TV cast. I have a lot of respect for Russel Brower and to hear his insight into the music and the creation of atmosphere was brilliant. If you guys haven't turned your music on in WoW lately, I suggest you do. Also, the Cataclysm trailer (with amazing music) was released last week and it can be viewed on YouTube here.
3. Demon Hunter announced
   The Demon Hunter, the final class announced for Diablo 3 was the big reveal for BlizzCon. Coupled with a cosplay Demon Hunter, hands on experience with the class and the release of 1000 beta keys for BlizzCon attendees, the release for this game feels more imminent.
4. Paragon get killed by Deathwing
   The live raid was just a showpiece of fun really. Deathwing made an surprise appearance to end the show for Paragon, and his presence was surely an awe inspiring sight. Want Cataclysm, marketting virus taking hold.
5. Art and design panels
   Breath taking. Great to see a behind the scenes look into the design process and art. Really felt a sense of cohesion in the teams. No particular art and design panels were greater than others, I was interested and amazed by Diablo, SC2 and WoW.
   
   

Since the servers are down, I thought I might take the chance to show off my new mount on my priest, The Horseman's Reins. I got it yesterday on the first HH run on my priest.

This year, similar to Corin Direbrew and Ahune, the daily instance can be found in the Dungeon Finder and successfully killing the Headless Horseman will earn you a prize bag. Getting this mount will earn you a Feat of Strength achievement.



I was sad not to get it on my warlock that already has the Hallowed Be Thy Name achievement, which is still a WiP on my priest. For all those after the achievements, Wowhead has a Hallow's End guide.

4.0.1 has implemented some changes to World of Warcraft before we will experience Azeroth in the aftermath of the Cataclysm. The patch has been out for nearly a week now and there are certainly some noticeble and welcome changes to the game. Or depending who you ask, some unwelcome changes. A lot of feedback from friends and foes has been varied, mostly surrounding class specifics. However, it does make me a little irked that people are crying they hate the game because their addons haven't been updated yet [ATOR], like DBM. Hmm, how to raid without DBM? Use brain? No way!

Part 1 of my 4.0.1 experience is about the simple things in life. I have created a rating system which I will use for each review section.

Tears of joy: This change/update/addition is almost too beautiful for words. Brilliant!
Awesome-o-powah: This change/update/addition has been ingenious. Well done!
Fairy claps: This change/update/addition is okay. Nice.
Uhh... : This change/update addition was a bit of a waste of time and it sucks, just a bit. Meh!
Nausiated: This change/update/addition is so bad, I want to vomit. Terrible!

Guilds
Rating: Awesome-o-powah
Guild wise, there is a new tab. The patch hasn't implemented all the intended changes as these are Cataclysm exclusives. However what we did get was the profession browsing. In the drop down menu of your guild roster tab, you can find this by selecting to sort by Professions. You can still toggle online/offline to see who is on to actually craft the item you need. Guilds will probably get a Tears of Joy rating in Cataclysm.

Professions
Rating: Uhh...
I am really confused by the new professions interface, both in the Spellbook tab and the profession interface itself. There are lots and lots of menu options and filters for something I think didn't really need that much changing. Its overcomplicated things for something so simple. I don't need to know what will skill me up because its at the top of the list and now there are two fly out menus where there used to be one. Pointless, with a very blunt and emphasised P.

Social/Trade Chat
Rating: Awesome-o-powah
Blizzard, you have made Trade Chat a much better place with your inbuilt spam filter. Need I say more? Well yes... 1 point deducted for not reinstigating the LFM channel. I know there are probably custom channels out there, but you aren't able to speak to everyone you need to. Hardly anyone uses the raid browser (how many raid invites do you get from that thing?) and Trade is not called LF3M Healers!!

Recustomisation and Item Enhancement
Rating (mean): Fairy claps
A lot of gold has been hauled out over the past week for glyphs and since I have an inscriber toon, glyphs have been a good business to be in of late. But soon as everyone gets all their glyphs, I feel a sense of emptiness a head of me. Prime, major an minor glyph triads available at various levels I have found to be very useful. Also, the accompanying glyph library is very handy, easy to use and access.
Gem changes for me have been somewhat annoying. Everyones gems were updated to their new colours and stats (for example SP is now Intellect and red). However, my gems have been updated with some completely useless stats like Spirit and I think getting uncut gems in the place of ones already in the slots would have been a better move. I spent 1500 gold regemming and I feel sorry for casual players with little gold or those with 7 80s.
Reforging is wonderful! I have been able to get rid of some useless stats and turn it back into haste and mastery points. Mastery is an extra rating that you get for speccing into a full tree. Each point in mastery gets you bonuses, such as an extra percentage in a damage. I would like to see mastery rating have better scaling on some stats such as hit since a lot of WoTLK gear has had some very unbalanced hit stats across sets and raid drops. However, this stat is Cataclysm focused and as long as they dont repeat the fluxuation of hit on gear in the expansion, it should be fine.

Levelling, Questing and Dying
Rating: Fairy claps (very loud ones)
Kudos right there for just including a "Return to Graveyard" button when you are a ghost. Just for those moments when you realise how far away your damn body is, and you'd just rather fork out for the repair. Call me lazy, everyone has done it. Gaining levells and new spells works really well in 4.0.1.  Everytime you level now, you get a notification of whats available and when you go to the trainer, you get a sneak peak at the icon and upcommig costs are easy to see. Really simple changes here, nicely done.

Also regarding addons, addons that I use that have been updated or still work in 4.0.1 (handy if your at your download limit post patch):
PowerAuras: Updated! Don't try and load with the 3.3 version, go and get the new one.
Omen: Old version is still working.
Skada: Updated and working! Old Recount is not working correctly,
Dominos: Old version is working.
BigWigs: I haven't tried ths out yet, but you can manage without it.
On the grapevine, I have also heard there have been issues with Auctioneer and Grid. Go to wow.curse.com for addons and check the version lists for work in progress versions of addons (some are working in 4.0.1).

Patch 4.0.1 is now live on World of Warcraft. Exciting changes to the game are in place and a complete list of the patch notes can be found here.

Just to cover off some of the interesting changes in the patch:

Flexible Raid Lockout
Now we can complete raids with a combination of group sizes in a raid lock out period: 10 man one evening, 25 the next. I think this is going to be of great benefit in the lead up to Cataclysm where raid attendance is lax, so people can feel like they are working towards something.

Reforging and Mastery
Something feels so close yet so far about this one. Mastery is not a stat on gear yet, but it can be reforged. Depending on your spec requirements, reforging for Mastery might be the way to go, but some class specs aren't going to see it truely viable until the release of Cataclysm and end-game due to their stat priorities.

Talent Trees
How does a tree shrink? Hybrid specs are out due to great Mastery perks from speccing into single trees. Your left over points can then be put into other talent trees to make up the rest. I believe these changes are great because it really defines roles for each spec, where in the past some classes have had no real definative line. Its putting a greater responsbility on players to fulfil there roles to the uttmost of their potential.

However, I do err here to say that I feel uneasy about changes to some healing specs and have noted a lot of criticism from players in my guild and server this area. People have often levelled or dedicated themselves to healing and feel that the tree changes won't give them as much enjoyment due a leer towards some DPS.

Spell Alerts

"Spell Alerts have been added to notify players when procs on select spells and abilities occur. A visual notification will display around the character and the activated ability will be highlighted on the action bar."

I don't see how this is particularly useful, unless for particular slow computers without addons or particularly slow people.

Raid Frames
Type H for Heals has covered this with commentary quite nicely on their website and the post can be found here. I don't necessarily think that class colours give me information I don't need. I feel colour cements roles, players and needs into my head when playing any role.

I hope that everyone enjoys patch 4.0.1. Also, the changes to the guilds is going to be exciting for me, as I am a very guild focused player. I'll give it some time and repost on the 4.0.1 experience in the next week regarding raiding, warlocks and levelling (currently levelling a Hunter).

In the lead up to Cataclysm, I feel a sense of leaving some good and bad behind, especially ICC! You have been in those raids which just fail and those which just make you want to weep tears of joy. I've seen it and I lament for the good times.

This list is compiled of both mechanics that exist in Heroic and Normal mode, some which may need more attention in Heroic mode. Also, some items may be contrasts of each other. This list is compiled with the best and worst of my raids in mind, not necessarily the only way to get things done. And I am sure there are some bads that everyone can empathise with here. Not every encounter is here and I think I have a few more fails for BQL, as this is my favourite encounter. Don't screw it up for me or I will make a toon of the opposing faction, hunt you and camp you.

The List of Win

• Healers paying attention to bone spikes that spawn in coldflames.
• Turning your camera around and spotting more Bone Spikes, because that nasty tab button is not the be all and end all of targetting.
• Standing inside the trench zone of the room to be in range for Bone Spikes during Bone Storm.
• Casters on Fanatics, melee on Adherants and assigned tanks holding aggro in all phases.
• Destroying the other Gunship.
• Slowing the beasts assigned to your quarter before they eat faces off. Please, keep your face!
• Warlocks who make portals for assembly points for Gas Spores, and people who actually follow it.
• Range and heals standing around the inner circle in ground phase to prevent uneccessary damage from beams.
• Target of target on = defiles landing in happy, safe zones. We shall sing and be merry.
• Mages that can blink behind Shamblings.

The List of Fail

• Grouping up in the middle during Bone Storm, usually also in a patch of fire. I sense a bad wipe on the horizon...
• Standing in coldflame after it travelled for how long towards you? Move.
• Getting chased by a spirit and running it into a bunch of people. Eat the damage.
• Get your Gunship destroyed.
• Melee AOEing the blood beasts.
• Getting hit by Malliable Goo. If you wanted to stack that much anti-haste I'm sure there is a gem for that...
• People who cannot count. 1 spore at that location does not need a second.
• Tunnel vision melee who do the same thing, but in the middle!
• Failing to implement the 'retard' check.
• Thinking that spreading means stacking in BQL air phase.
• Making some poor soul run across the other side of the room because you have DPS tunnel vision and/or are too lazy to move for BQL beams.
• Giving the bite to the person most likely to DC (there is always one) or with the worst DPS.
• Being the runt of the raid who runs in late before ice tombs drop. Being tombed in ice is scary enough, don't make us temporary iceblocks have a heart attack when you almost/do get caught up in it.
• Defile, defile everywhere.
• Trigger happy dispells.
• Not quarantining yourself so you AOE your friends or appropriately placing yourself for germ warfare on the bad guys. See.. LK-plague-quarantining reference... Oh never mind!

Collectors edition World of Warcraft: Cataclysm... Oh how I dream of you, every night and day, even when I am not asleep. I want to touch your embellished packaging, gently slide my nail under the tab to pop you open to reveal your treasures... Oh no, this post is turning into something of a literary pornography! Time to get my serious, yet excited face on.

I am very excited about the release of Cataclysm. I couldn't even bring myself to play Beta: no spoilers! Well at least big ones anyway. I want to load the game and feel like I'm stepping into something new, not something that was beautiful yet broken. I am very excited about the release of the contents of the Collector's edition, which I have dutifuly pre-ordered many months ago. I missed out by 10 copies last time for WoTLK Collector's edition... Oh how I wept digital tears of sadness. I hate you Blizzard, but I love you Blizzard! We can put this behind us and move foward into a world where Xan gets a much desired copy of Collector's edition. It shall be mine! Muahaha! My favourite items from the treasure chest this time include:

Coffee table art book: I don't even have a coffee table. I will buy a coffee table just for this book to have pride of place. However, in respect for the book, no coffee will be allowed on this table.
Ingame pet: Pet fanatic! Mini Deathwing shall be making many raid appearances and accompany my questing across new Azeroth.
Behind the scenes DVD: Hell yeah, giving some serious credit to those who work behind the scenes on such an immense game. Well accompanied by popcorn.

Aside from all the goodies the actual box has, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has a lot of changes to the series. Captain Obvious demands to speak first about the landscape changes. Thank you Captain Obvious. The panel has spoken about lot of changes regarding the environment which have also altered questing and the involvement players feel in the story telling of WoW. This is a really good move by the development team, as it is hard at times to feel like you are role playing and contributing to the advancement of the story. Games like the Witcher have set a standardard of 'emotional involvement' in RPG storytelling, and this kind of connection is what will bring new players and keep old players interested.

Something I am most excited about is the Guild Advancement system. At first glance I thought it would disadvantage a lot of guild types such as levelling and PVP guilds. Not like I particularly care, I love end-game PVE. But then, doing some reading there are a lot of 'perks' that have benefits. Take Fast Track, that is great for those come and go levelling guilds. We might even see a stable place for these nursery guilds in Cataclysm. Honorable Mention is going to be a stable in PVP guilds, and their prevelance may also increase due to these perks.

One reaction to these guild achievements that just popped into my head... The benefit of them may even be something as trivial as meeting new people. Instead of dumping all your alts into one guild, you are likely to chose guilds that have the perks you need for your character, whether its your new alt or your PVP dedicated toon. Heck, there may even be guilds devoted to dying just to use Mass Resurrection for lulz.

On the other hand, it might turn into another GearScore ego scenario.

And I wait...

An update on my next post/mini guide which is under development: How to WIN and FAIL at Heroic ICC.

So you decided to start a warlock? Great choice, but then again I'm biased. There is a big school of thought that I have encountered that has been around since about the Vanilla Ages (think the enlightenment period, the reneissance, the opposite to Dark Ages, as this is when the world was enlightened by World of Warcraft) that warlocks level as Demonology. Xan'o'meter says WRONG.

Affliction is the way to the dark side my friends... Wait warlocks don't really have friends since we are too busy stealing your HPs and manas. That aside, chosing to level as affliction whether you are solo or in party, is the best choice you can make. I have levelled as all three specs across my journey.

Don't even think about Destruction unless you want to spend your levelling time eating and drinking, or dying. However if you are considering Destruction end game, respec when you get 68 to familiarise yourself with rotations, gear and gem requirements. Don't look at me like that, you just don't do it.

Demonology has its perks. As one of the easiest classes to level, Demonology gets you super buffed demons to aide you on your travels, some survivability and extra spellpower (to mitigate the fact your spells aren't that buffed mind you). Heck, who could say no to a free tank? I did. With the damage you are gonna pull, especially with BOA gear these days, you are just gonna rip agro off that voidwalker like starving raid to a mage. Reason for speccing levelling Demo, obliterated. Well you do get Sacrafice, but why not go level a hunter instead?

Consider this: an endless stream of health and mana to help you chain pull your way to 80 with some kickass DoTs. Sound tempting? It should. Affliction can provide you with these tempting morsels of DPS and healing to chow down on. Here are the best picks out of the Affliction tree that I found useful:

• Siphon Life
• Everlasting Affliction
• Haunt
• Death's Embrace
• Pandemic

Some Links
http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Warlock-Leveling-Spec
http://www.warlocklevelingspec.org/
http://wowlevelingbuilds.com/index.php?p=warlock

I hope that I can convince you guys, Affliction is most fun and plausible! Anyways, signing off back to the realm of Assignment Land.

Well I have been raiding with my 10 man guild for about a month now and I am still getting on with everyone. Even the new recruits seem to fit in really well. It has been a very long time since I have played with such a cohesive bunch of people (Burning Crusade end game) and it really does put a smile on my face.

However, the shit really has hit the fan. Raid attendance is dropping, rage quitters and gquitters and commitment to "raid readyness" is lax. It has caused threats of server transfers, fail pugs and spiteful AFKs, and LK is not dying. Someone g-quitted because DBM put a triangle on his head, grow up, you are what, 30?

So far the progression has been really solid, getting anywhere between 9-11 bosses clear in a raid night. I didn't join this guild to clear LK everytime, I joined to play with good people and the principles behind the guild formation are what is causing it to fall apart: the serious casual guild. Heck, I could have joined a HM 25 guild with my achievements and gear (gear schmear, I've already got some BiS), but the attitude that comes with those guild set ups is not my style.

I've run both a 25 and 10 man serious casual guild before, and as a really alturistic pug pointed out to us last night, we need to make a choice between hardcore and casual: what we have doesn't work. In my heart, its something that I really want to work out with these guys, and its such a shame to see the set up fail time and time again. Perfect worlds don't even exist in virtual ones.

I think there needs to be more incentive to show up on time, like EPGP or a Karma system. Loot council and raid rolls aren't offering people anything different to a pug run. We need reliable healers. And I think when it comes down to it, there aren't enough people out there (at least on our server) with the same attitudes to playing as the 6 solid attendees have.

Its a shame, and I hope it can be sorted. If people transfer servers, I hope its together. If not, something great has been lost and even as just a member, I feel like I can't let it happen yet.

/sarcasm.

This morning I was up a little early so I decided to get my daily heroic out of the way on my alt disc priest. My goodness, the hide of some of the people you come across in WoW. You know that point where you just want to strangulate someone because they are so thick and egotistical? Yes, one of those types of runs. I've been MT and OT healing in some easier raids without any problems, surprising group leaders who just take me on my word that I can heal it. People have been pretty good like that. That's my job, I do it well.

Its Gundrak, I'm not that geared still (heroic gear, crafted and vendor item) and disc. My AOE heals suck and there are certain things called cooldowns to deal with. So my group decided to shortcut to 2nd boss and pull the boss and the total of about 8 trash mobs. We are familiar with the fight mechanic of both the trash and the boss, mojo puddles! So what does Mr. DPS Warrior decide to do? He decides to tank some mobs in a bunch of mojo puddles and not move. So the tank is up and all my healing is secure, so I'm onto our DPS who is dropping HP like no tomorrow. I throw everything at this warrior: a bubble, greater heal, penance, renew, flash heal, pain suppression, mass dispel the thunderclap, prayer of mending... He still doesn't move. The party's dps is split and some AOE so the boss is taking longer, making more mojo puddles and the trash is making more mojo puddles. He still does not move. The idiot then dies, cries bad priest and stars to attack me, and then some.

As a fight mechanic, mojo puddles are meant to be avoided: "Avoid the purple puddle pools caused by adds for they deal huge damage to players standing in them." (http://www.wowhead.com/npc=29307). According to this expert warrior, nobody in the history of WoTLK has ever avoided standing in mojo puddles. I am amazed at this remarkable historical fact. It must also follow that in the entire history of WoTLK, we all had remarkable gear, envied by all.

I am a badly geared disc priest trying to get better, not a hero and definately not an excuse to purposely take damage. I am certainly not a bad priest. Its a game where you die if you screw up, and dying once doesn't entitle you to an unjustified rant. I guess though, when your mouth is located at the other end, it does. I think this guy needs to learn the mechanics of heroic dungeons before he raids, understands that he was the only person to die with the majority of healing taken, and grow up. Is that so hard to ask? This morning it was.

Everyone else survived because they moved from the mojo puddles, fancy that.

Sometimes some things are pretty obvious, and sometimes when they are, some people still manage to screw up. Here is my top 10 of How Not to Fail in World of Wowcraft in and out of game. I'll try not to be a hypocrit after this post!

1. Learn the fights. (Figure 3.1)

If you have 5 minutes to wipe, then you have 5 minutes to read about a boss fight and not wipe. Wowhead.com is a fantastic database that outlines what happens during encounters. Tankspot.com is a gold standard when it comes to prescribing what to do. They post fantastic videos for 10 and 25 man encounters. You can also find some of the top guilds in the world posting videos on Youtube that can give you some alternative stratergies and a different perspective of the fight, for example from the perspective of a resto druid instead of rogue.

2. Know what gear you want before it drops (Figure 3.2)

This comes with knowing the fights as you are then likely to know what goodies drop from the baddies. This prevents long decisions of "hmm is that item an upgrade for me?" and "oh shit I don't want that, who else wanted it?". Its just annoying, it wastes time and it makes you look dumb. Yes, dumb.

If you have addons like AtlasLoot you can compare in game. Alternatively, wowhead.com have an item comparrison function. Also, don't forget that the WoW Armory also suggest upgrades for your item slots!

3. Don't stand in fire. This also goes for black holes, slime, frost, gas... (Figure 3.3)

In a guild I was in, we had a lesson. "If you were walking down the street and saw a fire, would you stand in it? ... Don't stand in the big purple fuck off circle". WoW is a game, a game is fantasy. Therefore fire and anything else that might hurt you can be ANY colour, ANY presentation and ANY size. Look on the ground, if you are in it, get out of it. It all comes down to raid awareness:

•     What is the boss doing? The boss is making fire everywhere.
•     What am I doing/ what should I be doing that I am not? I am standing in it. I will move.
•     What is the boss going to/possibly could do next? The boss will make more fire.
•     What do I have to do next? I will look out for fire.

4. Know your class. Includes strengths, weaknesses and raid benefits.
As I cannot know everything, nor can most people. Everyone makes mistakes with their rotations, glyphs and whatnots at some stage. Do your research, test your dps/hps and know what spells are efficient and effective.

5. If your not sure, ask!
It looks a lot more stupid to pretend to know and fail, than to be honest that you don't know and ask for help. Whether you are unclear on how to maximise the dps of your spec or fight mechanics, ask a guildie or on a forum. Beware of trolls.

6. Working night and day: 9-5 and overtime.
For goodness sake, max your professions. Professions often give you beneficial items or stats for raiding. For example, enchanters can enchant their rings for a total of +46 spellpower (+23 sp each ring). A lot of top end guilds require that mains cannot have a gathering profession. Check out what is needed of you. If you qq about it later, the rules were stated. On the other hand I see a lot of benefit for guilds from characters who have a gathering profession, gathering items for the guild to use.

NB: Also, for jewelcrafters in guilds, work out what cuts are lacking across your total jewel cuts. There is nothing worse than every single jewelcrafter in the guild having exactly the same generic cuts, when all you want is an orange hit gem. Cataclysm will feature a library of professions for your guild members which is going to prove to be a handy feature. Guild life: share the love and help out!

7. Don't be a spanner. (Figure 3.4)

The game is already filled with enough children that exist in the headspace of some adults. Don't be a tool. Be polite. Say please. Say thank you. Be a good sport. We can practice this one together:
"Hi Mr Mage. Can we please have a table?" *mage makes table* "Thanks buddy!"

8. Keybind warrior. (Figure 3.5)
Keybinds and macros make the finger labour of WoW a lot easier. Some important things to note is that you don't need your WSAD keys to move (mouse control) if you are looking for some extra buttons and you can buy keyboards that have extra macro buttons on the side too. Simple /target macros are very handy for encounters with extra baddies. Check out some resources like WoWWiki that already have lists of class specific macros.

Everyone's comfort with the keyboard is different. For example, I use 3 as my opening spell and work my way through 1 and 2 with my extra binds for fillers and procs. I think this comes back to playing a lot of Counter Strike, so use what ever suits you! Old habits are hard to break especially when playing alts, so I try and bind similar spells such as a fear to the same button for all my characters. Means less accidental spell casts!


9. Share your voice with the world.
Get a working microphone! Calling the ads on a voice chat program like Ventrilo is much better than hurried, illegible text spam. Well at least thats what I thought it was. Getting a microphone doesn't mean you have to talk non stop if you are shy, but its really useful to call something quickly while maintaining your role and raid awareness.

10. Add it on!
I have friends that use a lot of addons. In reality, you only need a few to really help where it counts. Some addons that are really useful include:

• Omen: A threat meter
• Deadly Boss Mod and BigWigs: These addons generate alerts for what is going on in an encounter. These are really helpful if you find it hard to remember what happens in each phase or if this is the first time you are about to do a boss.
• Forte and Power Auras: These two addons are spell/buff/debuff timer addons and show in a customisable way what has been applied to your character.

Check out http://wow.curse.com for a brilliant range of addons and addon packs to help with raiding. Also, check out class specific addons that will help you with roles like raid healing. Test them out and see what addons help you the most.

Another great idea, and I put this bluntly, is to ask yourself "what do I suck at?". There is bound to be an addon out there to help you. The human brain is only capable of handling so much information at a time, so make its job easier with an addon. I used to believe that addons had ruined the game, but I really have learnt to love them. Personally, I suck at noticing my spell procs and I can sometimes miss them all together as I am so focused on "not screwing up" as I have said in my previous post. So, a spell timer addon like Power Auras helps me be the best dpser I can be.

Like a wish sent out into the WoW universe, my wish returned to me semi-granted. I found a new 10 man raiding guild doing 10/12 ICC first clear. I want to finish my 25 achieve, maybe in a lucky pug. With the rate I am going, maybe I just might get that wish too! So here I go, trialling for this new guild, into the nether that is ICC with a group of strangers...

So far, I am getting on with a few people in the guild. We have a similar sense of humor, read the same kinds of books and share the same kinds of love for older content like BC and the joys of Scholomance. Totally different from the guild that I just left, people actually like to have fun. Fun in a game? No way! Its also structured the way I see a guild should be run with a casual focus with a aspirational edge. I shouldn't let my ego run me down: I tend to hate following or like to be the backseat driver if I don't have my way. I need a mantra like "you're a total noob to these people, sit down, stfu and do what you have to!!!!!!". On that note, does anyone ever tell themselves stuff when they are raiding? I'm usually thinking "Don't screw up" and that seems to work pretty well. Haven't wiped a raid so far so I will keep using that one.

But is raiding with the people behind these avatars as fun as guild chat? I'll report back on that one!

Did you see the removalist trucks? They were made of pixels. I have just moved my blog over to mmofansites because, well its more appropriate! I will repost some of my introduction entry from my previous blog for the new readers so you guys know a little more about me:

A little bit about me and my WoW journey...
I used to be a Tier 6 raider and then.. I quit! For a good reason, which happened to be IRL. I guess I was a hardcore raider because real life was pretty shit for me. Boo hoo. Life got better! So I came back and started all over again and my old toon lies locked away never to be played again. Honestly I have regretted it a after all my achievement strifes and awesome mounts it had, but that was the past....

I love World of Warcraft and I currently play Horde on Thaurissan, once the backalley of the realms. Possibly, it still is. As much as I love the Horde, I can't tickle your fancy and scream undying love for it as I've played endgame Alliance and Horde. I started playing WoW in 2007. My highest credentials as far as raiding go include 11/12 ICC 25 and 9/12 ICC HM, and back in the BC days I was raiding Hyjal 5/5 and BT 9/9.

I have recently left my guild and I am all on my own little lonesome. So I thought in the meantime while I decide what to do with myself, I might apply for a new guild. I am looking for something casual, 2-3 raid nights a week. I could get into some of the better guilds on the server, but I do have a life to look after. I went looking on the realm forums to see who was recruiting.

Casual Guild ICC 25 12/12, 11/12 HM: Raiding 4 nights a week 7-12pm ST... 90% Raid attendance.
That's not a casual guild.
ICC 25 11/12 ICC: Must be a Kingslayer.
We need a carrier for heroic modes.
Casual Guild for ICC recruiting for Cataclysm
But I want to play now! ICC is not catacylsm content.

My next point of call is dictionary.com to review the definition of the word casual.

"without definite or serious intention; careless or offhand; passing: a casual remark."

"irregular; occasional: a casual visitor"

Now lets examine the meaning of casual in relation to these guild advertisements. 90% raid attendance is greater than 3 raids per week and less than 4 raids per week. In terms of ICC, this would indicate killing approximately 11/12 bosses across 4 days. Showing up to 4 raid days indicates you are a fulltime player, one who is not irregular or occasional. This advertisement does not make sense. In terms of serious attention, guild number two are very focused on Kingslayer, but obviously lack the capabilities to kill the Lich King, so instead they require a serious player who can achieve their dreams for them. Guild number three certainly fits the bill of being not so serious and a bit random, but I don't want to wait a few months to play with them. In the end I decided its better off to just pug until my destiny is a little more certain.

Before I log, I will just review a couple of things I aim to achieve through my blog and what you guys can expect in the future.

Mini Guides
Small guides about classes that I personally play, from my perspective, experience and research. I don't claim to know everything about WoW so things that I learn, I tell you. Something interesting about WoW is also that a lot of things aren't gospel, there are many strats to fights, some throw away talents, preferences and ways to go about things. Then again, some things are.
Comparing Strats
Since I pug and also have guild experience, I get the opportunity to see a some different strats for bosses. I will compare the effectiveness of these strats as to help others. First compare coming up is heroic Lady Deathwhisper.
More Blogging
Ups, downs and the randomness that is WoW.