Raven Hill Raiders

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: The potential return of Insect Swarm for balance druids
Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives
Shifting Perspectives: The potential return of Insect Swarm for balance druids originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

It's good to be Horde. All over the world of Azeroth, the Horde is conquering new territory, claiming new land and expanding far, far beyond the few holdings it had in vanilla World of Warcraft. Back then, the Horde merely eked out an existence, defending small outposts where it could. Sylvanas and her Forsaken stayed by and large in Tirisfal Glades, with a tiny outpost in Silverpine and a slightly larger one in Hillsbrad Foothills. The tauren stayed largely confined to Mulgore, with a few settlements to the south and southeast. The trolls took refuge in Orgrimmar, with no real land to call their own save one tiny village on the coast and another small outpost in Stranglethorn Vale.

Now, the Horde is branching out in a major way. Sylvanas has dominated the forests of Silverpine and the rolling farmlands of Hillsbrad and is working her way east through the Western Plaguelands. The trolls have taken back the Echo Isles, and the orcs of Orgimmar are claiming new land to the north and the east, moving in a tidal wave of barbaric conquering. The Horde is flush with the glorious victories in Northrend, eagerly seeking more territory. In Cataclysm, it's very, very good to be Horde.

Or so popular opinion states.
Continue reading Know Your Lore: State of the Horde, 2012
Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore
Know Your Lore: State of the Horde, 2012 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Throughout the Mists of Pandaria beta, players have been commending Blizzard on just how much emotion you can see in pandaren emotes and animations. These guys actually get into what's going on, as opposed to most of the current player races, which lack much facial rigging at all.

That emotion extends to the male pandaren voice emotes, which were added to the game files in the latest Mists beta patch. MMO-Champion's video, embedded above, displays all of these emotes quite well. Who knew pandaren were so good at begging for mercy?
It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Filed under: Mists of Pandaria
Mists of Pandaria: Male pandaren voice emotes revealed originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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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.

Damn, dude, twins? My wizard knows how to party.

HobMeadows asked:

What would be the fastest, most efficient way for a solo guildmaster to level their guild from 1 to 2? Does anyone have experience with this and if so, what was your process?

I'm almost at 2 full bars (out of 5), and inviting a bunch of people to my guild is not a fair option because I'll be moving off of my server literally within moments of hitting level 2. I've heard battlegrounds are a fast, efficient method, but can anyone make some suggestions?

Provided you're level-capped, quests and dailies are your best bet to make it there as fast as possible. High-level BGs give good rep, but questing is more efficient. Cap out your daily quest turn-ins every day, and you should be at level 2 before you know it.
Continue reading The Queue: Magic man
Filed under: The Queue
The Queue: Magic man originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Diablo 3 - Usefulness of Gems, Legendary Gear Balancing, Blue Posts, and Interview and Review for "The Order"

Death Knight PvP Set Preview
The new video preview should be fairly representative of the set you will see in the final version of the game!


Shaman PvP Set Preview
The new video preview should be fairly representative of the set you will see in the final version of the game!


Rogue PvP Set Preview
The new video preview should be fairly representative of the set you will see in the final version of the game!


PvP Sets Recap
Now is a good time to take a look at all of the PvP sets we have seen so far. Several of the sets have updated screenshots and some have more colors added, so be sure to take a look!

Class Male Female Video
Death Knight Male Human Female Human Video
Monk Male Human Female Human Video
Priest Female Pandaren Female Human Video
Rogue Male Human Female Human Video
Shaman Male Human Female Human Video
Warlock Male Human Female Human Video

Beta Build 15699 New Maps
Several new maps were added in the latest beta build.


Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Druid (Forums)
Balance Druid Concerns
If we add Insect Swarm back, it would not be just to have another dot to manage, but to give players some way to interact with solar or lunar power more. There are other ways to do that too, so it may not ultimately be Insect Swarm. The rotation is close to where we want it, but it needs just a little more to play with.

At the 5000 foot view, the point of the Eclipse mechanic to begin with was to cast X spells for a time, then switch to Y spells with the Druid having some control over when or why that occurred. We don't think killing critters to get the bar moving or gaming it so that you stayed at one side of the bar forever really delivered on the vision for Eclipse. However, those tactics did give players some control -- a way to game things so that more clever players could extract a bit more performance out of the mechanic.

We are concerned that we are too far to the other extreme now, where the game UI tells you whether to use your solar buttons or lunar buttons and you really aren't making any strategic decisions. We want to introduce some relatively simple, elegant mechanic to give you more control over how much lunar or solar power you have. Maybe that's Insect Swarm. Maybe it's something else. Try it out over the next few builds, keeping in mind that it may take a bit before we have something we are satisfied with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Paladin (Forums)
Judgements of the Pure Removed
In our most recent tests and instance runs, Holy paladin longevity was much longer than other healers, even without Judgements of the Pure. We need to get Holy to the same level as the other healers. It may be at that point that all healer mana income is too low or that damage in dungeons is too high and well have to adjust accordingly. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Inquisition Glyph
This glyph isn't supposed to be a no-brainer for DPS. Hopefully none of the glyphs are.

At the risk of sounding more patronizing than I intend, a common mistake I see some players make is to look at maximum possible theoretical DPS and assume that is the DPS they can achieve. We have the numbers we think every class can achieve under ideal situations (meaning no movement or distractions, etc.). The best players in the world can deliver on these numbers while executing very complex boss fights. That's a little mind boggling for us, but it's true. Very few players are capable of such feats however.

For the rest of us, our hope is that it works out like this:

1) Expert player who foregoes the Glyph of Inquisition, executes Inquisition uptime perfectly, and delivers 99% of max possible DPS.

2) Intermediate player who sometimes struggles with maintaining Inquisition, takes the glyph, and delivers 75% of max possible DPS.

3) Player who thinks he is more expert than he is, skips the Glyph of Inquisition because that's what all the cool kids do, finds as a result that he struggles with Inquisition uptime, and delivers 60% of Mac possible DPS.

Don't take my percentage numbers too seriously, but you get the idea. Many classes have similar glyphs. My advice is to measure your DPS (in an actual encounter or PvP) and see whether you benefit or not. The rotations that...

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

This week, we've got comics about the upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria, as well as a couple of comics about Blizzard's latest release, Diablo III, that weren't to be missed from your usual favorites.

Know of a WoW-related comic that recently updated after a hiatus that isn't on this list or a new one that has never been featured? Let me know in the comments section!

• Looking for Group #565 and #566
• Guilded Age Chapter 16 Page 19, 20, 21, 22
• From Draenor With Love The Lord of Terror
• Away From Reality Resting the Wyrm and Implausible Denial

Continue reading Sunday Morning Funnies: Premature
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Comics, Sunday Morning Funnies
Sunday Morning Funnies: Premature originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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OK, I'll admit this looks like it's about to become a gruesome reminder for Azerothian parents to always secure the door to your hovel when leaving for a day's adventuring. But in fact, this vicious tiger is simply a Pandarian social worker, here to remove an innocent baby tauren from its hookah- and hooch-contaminated home and reassign it to some loving adoptive NPCs who actually spend some time at home. (Thanks to Tillamooke of The Kalimdor Inquisition on Maelstrom [US-H] for the screenshot!)
Gallery: Around Azeroth 3

Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm.
Filed under: Around Azeroth
Around Azeroth Beta Edition: Bovine protective services originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I wasn't sold on the Bilgewater Goblins initially. When they and the worgen were announced in the run-up to Cataclysm, I had to wonder if there was any compelling reason to play what felt like a green gnome over a badass werewolf. (Yes, I was young and foolish in those days.) That changed quickly when I hit the beta and found them to be a hopelessly endearing race despite (or perhaps because of) their fairly amoral approach to life. I loved the little details in their towns, from the empty Chinese take-out boxes scattered around their inns to the little dinghies that fly underpants in place of flags.

Credit where credit's due -- most of this is the work of the Blizzard props team. These folks are also the reasons that Gilneas is so magnificently creepy, with its creaky windows, flapping sheets, and papers drifting across lonely towns. What little details do you particularly enjoy about the race you play as a main?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Breakfast Topic: What are the telling details you love in the game? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 20 May 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For hunters in vanilla WoW, it was the pinnacle of weapons -- a bow with incredibly powerful stats. But Rhok'delar wasn't without its issues, mainly concerning the ability to change the bow into a staff but not being able to use both staff and bow at the same time. This was eventually changed so that hunters could have both Rhok'delar and its counterpart, Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers, after completing the Rhok'delar quest chain. And if that weren't enough, hunters also could obtain the Ancient Sinew Wrapped Lamia, an at the time unheard of 24-slot bag perfect for carrying around all the ammo a hunter could ask for.

Though all three of these items were only of epic quality, like Benediction, Rhok'delar represented a legendary test of skills for the player who tried to obtain it. Although Benediction only had one event for priests to frantically heal through, Rhok'delar contained four of these trials, all of which had to be completed without even a pet to assist. It was a brutal test of shooting, traps and hunter cunning, but those who completed the chain were richly rewarded.

And it all began with one unassuming petrified leaf, found in the fiery depths of Molten Core.
Continue reading Weapons of Lore: Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers
Filed under: Lore
Weapons of Lore: Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 19 May 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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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.

The past week I have been doing two things in terms of my video game time. I have been tanking heroic Dragon Soul, and I have been playing a barbarian in Diablo III. And frankly, they bleed together, because although World of Warcraft's story draws directly from the Warcraft RTS and setting, WoW had Diablo in its DNA. Don't believe me? Roll a paladin in Diablo II, then go take a look at what paladin talent trees looked like when vanilla WoW launched.

So for the past week, as I contemplate the Mists of Pandaria revamp to talents and specializations, the huge rage redesign, and how the class is going to work, I keep casting covetous eyes onto the barbarian I keep rocking faces on. Now, Diablo III and World of Warcraft are different games with different design philosophies. WoW tries a lot harder for balance between competing classes because it has more classes. D3 has five classes, and no two of those classes does what it does the same way. The witch doctor and the wizard and demon hunter all fight from range, the barbarian and monk both fight in melee, but how they do these things is thoroughly different, and D3 doesn't have the tank/DPS/healer trinity to consider. You chug potions, you spec for survival, and you blow stuff up.

Still, there are things I really want to see Mists steal from Diablo III. Like, say, its version of Revenge. That thing is sweet.
Continue reading The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The fury of Diablo 3
Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, (Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors, Mists of Pandaria
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The fury of Diablo 3 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 19 May 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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