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Sunday Morning Funnies: Filial sorrow

by Amanda Miller on Oct 14th 2012 (53 minutes ago)

Sunday Morning Funnies is your weekly list of WoW-related web comics.

Gangnam style (no, really). Tulips! A bunny eared staff! Gardening; sowing the seeds of carrots, flowers, friendship. And, well, pandas. I'm not sure we'll ever not have pandas again.

Oh. And the usual (murder, bra tops, a raucous game of "drag-the-kitty-corpse-through-the-snow") - all that stuff that is probably safe for work and small children.

Plus: A few comics that we'd fallen behind on have been added below. Drop a tip into the comments section if you know of any new ones, any one-shot WoW-related comics from a generally non-WoW-related series, or any that have started updating again that aren't listed here!

GU Comics Friendship, The Quickness, Deflated, Mistakes Made, A Different Sad, I Choose You and OCGB
Teh Gladiators #382 and #383
Trigonometry Comics Life, Death and Mathematics Page 10

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Comics, Sunday Morning Funnies

Around Azeroth: This land is my land, but it's not your land

by Elizabeth Wachowski on Oct 14th 2012 (2 hours ago)

The biggest threat to the world's population of giant pandas is the loss of their habitat, since they're massively territorial and can only live in places with an abundant supply of bamboo. (The second biggest threat is their inability to figure out the whole reproduction thing in captivity. Come on, guys, we even made you pornography! It's not that difficult!) So it's not surprising that pandaren warrior Xarinoth of Punished on Draenor (EU-H) will defend her habitat to the death, even though all the bamboo is gone and it's now a flat, desolate, Nebraska-like wasteland. And yes, Nebraskans, I am attacking your state. Stop being such a pain in the butt to drive across and stop beating Wisconsin in football, and I'll reconsider my stance.

Gallery: Around Azeroth 3

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Filed under: Around Azeroth

Breakfast Topic: Are you feeling overwhelmed?

by Olivia Grace on Oct 14th 2012 (4 hours ago)

Upon the announcement of patch 5.1's launch on the PTR, my first reaction was "Oh! How exciting, that was fast!" I then started looking through the 5.1 patch notes and items, as you do, and noticed the PvP Season 13 armor in the list. All of a sudden, I started feeling rather overwhelmed. Having taken a week's holiday shortly after the launch of Mists, and having had to send away my gaming laptop for repairs, I'm a bit behind on the gearing. I haven't done any dailies, but then I don't plan to unless I really feel it can't be avoided, and I'm building up my honor and conquest sets.

And I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed. I have my 90s, I'm gearing them, but it seems like there's so much work that needs to be done before I can experience the content that I play the game for: the PvP and PvE content you do with your friends, i.e. arenas, rated battlegrounds, and raids. I've seen others complain of the same issue on the official forums, saying that particularly the sheer amount of work required to do the dailies is a very steep slope. I'm specifically avoiding those, and I'm still feeling like there's too much to get done in order to gear up! I think it has to do with the very low rate of point gains, and the fact that I seem to be consistently unlucky with drops.

But how about you? Are you feeling overwhelmed or excited? Am I having a little freak-out over nothing? Are there too many artificial hurdles to jump before multiplayer content becomes available?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Tanking in Mists of Pandaria

by Matthew Rossi on Oct 13th 2012 (16 hours ago)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

I tank a lot. I moved back into tanking around March or so of this year, because a tank was needed, and I know how to tank. I've stayed a tank in Mists of Pandaria so far because the last thing anyone needs is another melee DPS, because I generally like tanking, and because the new tanking system has actually given me something to learn. What have I learned tanking so far? Well, lots of things, actually. Here's a few highlights.

People will always want to be told what stat to stack. Saying "You should try and balance your mastery, dodge and parry, while keeping hit and expertise reasonable" is possibly the least popular thing you can tell people outside of telling them who to vote for.
Shield Barrier is a lot easier to use than Shield Block, and especially in five man dungeons where you may not have a lot of rage to throw around on a pull. In a raid, you can usually time your rage acquisition to use Shield Block followed by Shield Barrier to smooth out incoming damage, but in a five man you're often tabbing around, gathering up adds, and in general using Revenge as your main rage acquisition move so you'll end up hitting Barrier for a cheap and easy damage absorb over Block. When I find myself with enough rage to hit Block, I do, but even then I usually follow it with a Barrier as soon as possible.
I like the Glyph of Unending Rage a lot more than I expected to. Sure, it's a major glyph, but that extra 20 rage can actually come in handy. I like having the ability to bank rage in situations like Feng the Accursed and using it to blunt big damage spikes with a full rage bar Shield Block/Barrier combo.
One of the biggest changes to tanking has nothing to do with the tank classes at all. The change to healer mana pools fixing them so that healers can't stack up a bigger mana pool means that we have to be more reactive than ever to incoming damage. The active mitigation system cannot be ignored: the more difficult the encounter the more you need to be on the ball with your Block and Barrier use and paying attention to cooldowns and mini-cooldowns like Demoralizing Shout and Demoralizing Banner.

So let's talk about tanking in Mists of Pandaria.

Filed under: Warrior, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Mists of Pandaria

Darkmoon Faire updates in store for patch 5.1

by Anne Stickney on Oct 13th 2012 (18 hours ago)

Those patiently waiting for additional updates to the Darkmoon Faire will only have to wait until patch 5.1 for more to do and items to collect! Wowhead dug up the latest details on the Darkmoon Faire, including several new pets as well as a new attraction. The Darkmoon Carousel can be ridden with tickets, and it has an added bonus for leveling players -- you'll receive a buff simply titled WHEE! that increases experience and reputation gain by 10% for an hour.

The Darkmoon Faire also gets its own Master Pet Trainer for players to defeat. Jeremy Feasel will be available on the island with a monkey, a tonk, and a Darkmoon Eye for players to defeat. What's that Darkmoon Eye all about? Apparently it's a new pet that's available from Darkmoon Pet Supplies -- something that may be obtained from beating Jeremy Feasel.

If you haven't been doing any Darkmoon Faire dailies recently, now would be a good time to start, as there's a new pet available for tickets. The Darkmoon Hatchling is an adorable mini version of the Swift Forest Strider already available at the Faire. It'll set you back 90 tickets, but it's completely adorable -- and who doesn't like a pet that matches a favorite mount? Visit Wowhead for more details on the new items and sites from the Darkmoon Faire.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

Pandaren roleplay from 85-90

by Anne Stickney on Oct 13th 2012 (20 hours ago)

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

Levels 1-85 with a pandaren character are an exercise in learning just who your pandaren is, and what makes him tick. It's also an opportunity for some sweeping character development, the type we really haven't had much of before. A new pandaren from the Wandering Isle is essentially a wide-eyed, fresh-faced ingenue in the world of Azeroth, tentatively taking those first careful steps towards exploration, excitement, and opportunity.

But Azeroth is like a bus swinging abruptly in front of your character. The impact of the world and what it means to your pandaren is entirely up to you, as is the strength of that impact. Your pandaren could be unaffected, ever the optimist in the face of despair -- or they could be transformed by the experience into someone far darker, far more sullen, far more worldly than that wide-eyed person that left the Wandering Isle.

Once you've hit level 85, the world changes dramatically all over again.

Filed under: All the World's a Stage (Roleplaying)

Arcane Brilliance: Tips for leveling your mage from 85 to 90

by Christian Belt on Oct 13th 2012 (22 hours ago)

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we take a break from pet battling to actually level our mages. Seriously. Put down that Armadillo Pup for a second and let's get to level 90. I'm talking to myself as much as you. I want you to know that.

I imagine I'm not the only slow-poke out there who's taking their sweet time getting to level 90. My playtime since the expansion hit has been almost non-existent until recently, and in fact I only just dinged max level this week. Still, even though time-constraints kept me from playing as much as I wanted to, it still felt like I was getting to 90 slower than I should have been. What can I say? I like to read the quest text, watch the cutscenes, listen to all the dialogue, explore the countryside. Oh, and I may have indulged in the occasional pet battle. We all have our vices. Though in this case, I'd hazard to say we all have the same vice.

But I did eventually get there, late or not. And for those of you who are still enjoying the journey rather than the destination, I've compiled a few of the thoughts and observations I had along the way into this week's column. For those of you for whom this advice comes too late, I'll start hitting the post-90 content next week. Pinkie swear.

Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance, Mists of Pandaria

The Queue: Settle down, Beavis

by Michael Sacco on Oct 13th 2012 (1 day ago)

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

Finally got around to beating the Sha of Anger for the first time tonight, as the sixth tank in the raid, serving I know not what purpose, but hey! Pair of boots and some gooey gold!

2eyedchuck1 asked:

Caster gear with neither hit nor spirit = fair game for both DPS and healers, right?

Sounds about right. I assume you mean a piece with, for example, crit and mastery on it. Obviously some specs will benefit from non-spirit non-hit pieces more than others, but yes. You're in the clear on that one.

Filed under: The Queue

Around Azeroth: The new school

by Elizabeth Wachowski on Oct 13th 2012 (1 day ago)

The dungeon may have changed, but Scholomance's horrible school logo remains the same. Nothing says evil like green, purple and gold! Just ask anyone with a hangover in New Orleans the day after Mardi Gras. Submitter Kaelstra of Reckoning on Wyrmrest Accord (US-H) snapped this picture of the new model for Darkmaster Gandling in action. According to Wowpedia, Gandling teaches a course called "Advanced Studies." How very non-specific. Is that along the same lines as "Principles of Intermediate"?

Gallery: Around Azeroth 3

Filed under: Around Azeroth

Breakfast Topic: What do you like about farming?

by Lisa Poisso on Oct 13th 2012 (1 day ago)

Farming was literally the farthest thing from my mind when I wondered in a recent Breakfast Topic where you've been choosing to set your hearthstone, but boy did all the replies of "Halfhill! Halfhill!" set me straight. My daughter, a confirmed Glitch-aholic, hasn't been active in World of Warcraft for quite some time -- even playing a panda can't tear her away from milking butterflies -- but I know that one glimpse at the temptations of the Tillers, and we'll be renegotiating the list of games she has time to play.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree; I'm a fan of farming, too. What I find so striking, though, is the number of WoW players who are discovering the attractions of this sort of gameplay for the first time via the Tillers. I suppose it's still early enough that many players are simply grinding through the content to grow veggies for cooking or harvest other materials for your professions. And obviously, the minipet and mount fanatics among us are all slaving away for a Terrible Turnip or a Riding Goat. But I suspect there are plenty of players out there like me who are tickled by the whole farming concept. We're one step closer to having our own little WoW homesteads!

Is there something you especially enjoy about farming? Or are you only buckling down in order to grab certain rewards?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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