<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd"><channel><title>WoW Insider</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com</link><description>WoW Insider</description><image><url>http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif</url><title>WoW Insider</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com</link></image><language>en-us</language><copyright>Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.</copyright><generator>Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/</generator><itunes:author>WoW Insider Show</itunes:author><itunes:image href="http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/20081111-cfhuyc88yn5751m2sk7qifcpee.jpg" /><itunes:summary>Every week, the WoW Insider Show brings you news and views from the World of Warcraft and the site that covers it all, WoW Insider.  We introduce a panel of rotating guests, including bloggers from WoW Insider and other WoW blogs, and many popular personalities from around the WoW community.  From the live listener chat and polls during the show, to the emails direct from listeners (reach us at theshow@wow.com), right on to the "meat" of the show -- in-depth discussion of the most popular news and posts on WoW Insider -- the WoW Insider Show is a terrific source of news and entertainment about what's going on with Blizzard and their World of Warcraft.  Listen live every Saturday at 3:30 pm Eastern on our Ustream page (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wow-insider-show) or subscribe to the feed and let us know what you think by reviewing the show right here in iTunes.</itunes:summary><itunes:category text="Games &amp; Hobbies"><itunes:category text="Video Games" /></itunes:category><item><title>Mists of Pandaria Beta: Spirit gear is coming back in fashion</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/mists-of-pandaria-beta-spirit-gear-is-coming-back-in-fashion/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/mists-of-pandaria-beta-spirit-gear-is-coming-back-in-fashion/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/mists-of-pandaria-beta-spirit-gear-is-coming-back-in-fashion/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/03/rollinggear.jpg" /></div>
It's been known for a while that spirit gear isn't on the list for the most part right now for players leveling in <em>Mists</em>. DPS cloth abounds, and the idea the designers have is that you can just reforge the DPS gear into healer gear easily enough (or at least reforge it so that it's passable as healer gear).<br />
<br />
In part, this concept comes from the new rewards system, where you don't see all the gear rewards the quest giver offers but rather only the ones that are specific to you. As a solution to this, Blizzard provides green gear vendors that distribute off-spec gear.<br />
<br />
However, Ghostcrawler announced today that Blizzard's going to offer more spirit gear again via quest rewards. This is in part due to the constructive (read: non-trolling) feedback it's received on the issue.<br />
<br />
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			After reading more of this feedback and looking at the zones, we're concerned that there aren't enough quest rewards with Spirit on them. We are leaning towards offering more, as choices, so that players who feel like their Spirit is low can choose to have more.<br />
			<br />
			<div align="right" style="font-size: 12px;">
				<i><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/" style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">source</a></i></div>
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<br />
So rejoice, healers! Getting geared up will be a bit easier for you now.<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/mists-of-pandaria-beta-spirit-gear-is-coming-back-in-fashion/">Mists of Pandaria Beta: Spirit gear is coming back in fashion</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Tue, 15 May 2012 17:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/mists-of-pandaria-beta-spirit-gear-is-coming-back-in-fashion/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20238515/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/mists-of-pandaria-beta-spirit-gear-is-coming-back-in-fashion/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>breaking</category><category>ghostcrawler</category><category>healers</category><category>healing</category><category>healing-gear</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-healing-gear</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-spirit-gear</category><category>not-diablo</category><category>spirit</category><dc:creator>Adam Holisky</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 17:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Last Week in WoW: El Diablo edition</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/realm-status/" rel="tag">Realm Status</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a></p><center>
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Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! As you probably know, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/diablo-3/"><em>Diablo III</em></a>'s release date is today. With over 1 million Annual Pass subscribers set to receive free digital copies of the game, chances you or a guildmate is going to playing this game. As someone who's been a huge fan of the <em>Diablo </em>series for over a decade, I can vouch for the series. If you need something else to keep your attention while we wait for <em>Mists of Pandaria </em>to go live, you could easily do worse, that's for sure.<br />
<br />
If you're interested in checking out <em>Diablo III</em>, I'd suggest you look at the following articles we've published to get you up to speed.<br />
<ul>
	<li>
		Here are <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/12/blue-posts-you-need-to-read-before-the-release-of-diablo-3/">six blue posts</a> that you must read.</li>
	<li>
		We offer some tips on fixing common <em>Diablo III</em> <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/common-diablo-3-installation-problems-and-how-to-fix-them/">installation issues</a>.</li>
	<li>
		We have a quick guide to the basics of <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/learn-the-basics-of-diablo-3-gameplay/"><em>Diablo</em> gameplay</a>.</li>
	<li>
		Rossi gets you up to speed on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/know-your-lore-a-look-at-the-lore-of-diablo/">the lore</a> of the <em>Diablo</em> franchise.</li>
	<li>
		My basic <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/28/a-wow-players-introduction-to-diablo-3-or-why-you-should-play/">introduction to <em>Diablo</em></a> is a few months old, but it's a good read.</li>
	<li>
		Alex explains why we're <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/letter-from-the-editor-diablo-3-launch-coverage/">covering <em>Diablo III</em></a> on a <em>WoW</em> site.</li>
</ul>
If you're not into <em>Diablo</em>, don't worry. We still have plenty of the <em>WoW </em>coverage you expect. With new beta patches coming all the time, there's a lot of it, too. <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4926864127">Downtime today</a> is just a series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, so that's at least enough time to read a quick article or two.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Last Week in WoW: El Diablo edition</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/">Last Week in WoW: El Diablo edition</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Tue, 15 May 2012 09:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20238019/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/15/last-week-in-wow-el-diablo-edition/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>downtime</category><category>last-week-in-wow</category><category>maintenance</category><category>realm-downtime</category><category>realm-maintenance</category><category>roundup</category><category>roundups</category><category>scheduled-downtime</category><category>scheduled-maintenance</category><category>server-downtime</category><category>server-maintenance</category><category>server-status</category><category>tuesday</category><category>tuesday-downtime</category><category>tuesday-maintenance</category><category>tuesday-morning</category><category>tuesday-morning-post</category><dc:creator>Daniel Whitcomb</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 09:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Blizzard fixing GAME Australia's mess, giving Diablo 3 to those who preordered</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/diablo-3/" rel="tag">Diablo 3</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="298" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/ah-blizzardd3logo-5-14-12.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
GAME Australia (a large video game retailer) is <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/game-australia-enters-voluntary-administration/">entering voluntary administration</a>, which is the same as going into bankruptcy in the United States. Included in this fact is that <a href="http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/5/13/3018593/game-australia-goes-into-administration">GAME will not be giving <em>Diablo III</em> to all those who preordered it</a>. To add salt to the wound, GAME will <em>also</em> not be offering refunds for <em>Diablo III</em> preorders -- or rather, it will, but only after practically every other person under the sun is paid back, and only then if people specifically file as an unsecured creditor, of sorts.<br />
<br />
Essentially, if you live in Australia and you bought <em>Diablo III </em>from GAME, you're screwed. But wait -- <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5007290816">Blizzard to the rescue</a>.<br />
<br />
In what has to be one of the classiest moves I've seen from a gaming company, Blizzard is offering a solution for those who have gotten the short end of the stick. Those who preordered from GAME can buy the <em>Diablo III </em>digital edition tonight, submit their GAME Australia receipt to Blizzard, and get refunded <em>from Blizzard</em> whatever money they paid for their preorder.<br />
<br />
It's rare that anyone gets to report news of a company going out of its way to do something like this, let alone a multinational as huge as Blizzard. Huge kudos to Blizzard. Check out the full post announcing this, along with key dates, after the break.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Blizzard fixing GAME Australia's mess, giving Diablo 3 to those who preordered</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/">Blizzard fixing GAME Australia's mess, giving Diablo 3 to those who preordered</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Mon, 14 May 2012 23:25:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20238076/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/14/blizzard-fixing-game-australias-mess-giving-diablo-3-to-those/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>australia</category><category>breaking</category><category>diablo</category><category>diablo-3</category><category>diablo-iii</category><category>game-australia</category><category>game-australia-diablo-3-refund</category><category>lylirra</category><dc:creator>Adam Holisky</dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 23:25:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Mists of Pandaria Beta: Certain PvP maps may be blacklistable</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/certain-pvp-maps-may-be-blacklistable-in-mists-of-pandaria/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/certain-pvp-maps-may-be-blacklistable-in-mists-of-pandaria/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/certain-pvp-maps-may-be-blacklistable-in-mists-of-pandaria/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/pvp/" rel="tag">PvP</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="350" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/ringofvalorx.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
In the latest <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> beta patch, Wowhead has <a href="http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=203423/mists-of-pandaria-build-15689-spell-changes-items-maps-and-more">uncovered</a> some quite interesting new client strings that might herald a change in the way you choose which Arena or Battleground to fight in.
<ul>
	<li>
		ERR_PVP_BLACKLIST_CAP = "You have already blacklisted the maximum number of maps."</li>
	<li>
		ERR_PVP_MAP_NOT_FOUND = "Blacklisted map not set."</li>
</ul>
To me, this seems like an excellent idea for Arena players. There's always lots of controversy about the random damage and LoS components found on some maps (hello, Ring of Valor); this would let you avoid that entirely. Of course, that means you can no longer use it as an excuse, either -- so you may not want to reach for the blacklist too quickly. While I don't do much in Arenas, I certainly wouldn't mind a way to ensure not getting WSG three times in a row.<br />
<br />
One concern, though, is if Blizzard allows too much blacklisting, that could make matchmaking much more difficult. A smooth matchmaking process has been one of the highlights of <em>WoW </em>compared to other online games, so any algorithm tweaks have to be made carefully.<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/certain-pvp-maps-may-be-blacklistable-in-mists-of-pandaria/">Mists of Pandaria Beta: Certain PvP maps may be blacklistable</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Sun, 13 May 2012 13:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href=http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=203423/mists-of-pandaria-build-15689-spell-changes-items-maps-and-more>Read</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/certain-pvp-maps-may-be-blacklistable-in-mists-of-pandaria/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20237032/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/certain-pvp-maps-may-be-blacklistable-in-mists-of-pandaria/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>arena</category><category>arenas</category><category>battleground</category><category>battlegrounds</category><category>news</category><category>pvp</category><category>ring-of-valor</category><dc:creator>Chase Hasbrouck</dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 13:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>WoW Insider's Weekly Recap, now featuring TradeChat's Panser</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/wow-insiders-weekly-recap-now-featuring-tradechats-panser/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/wow-insiders-weekly-recap-now-featuring-tradechats-panser/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/wow-insiders-weekly-recap-now-featuring-tradechats-panser/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/" rel="tag">Analysis / Opinion</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a></p><center>
	<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MrAE2u8DlK0?rel=0" width="580"></iframe></center>
Welcome to the all-new, all-exciting weekly news recap featuring <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/tradechat">Panser</a> of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TradeChat">TradeChat</a>! In our weekly recap, we'll be tackling the hottest news and whatever other kickin' rad items have come our way throughout the last week. This week's topics include:<br />
<ul>
	<li>
		<a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/2012-arena-pass-ranked-ladder-phase-1-has-begun/">Ladder Phase 1 for the 2012 Arena Pass</a></li>
	<li>
		<a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/07/all-you-need-to-know-about-account-wide-mounts-so-far/">Account-wide mounts</a></li>
	<li>
		<a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/avengers-assemble-transmogrify-your-own-superhero-team/">Awesome Avengers transmogrification</a></li>
	<li>
		<a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/05/breakfast-topic-what-game-mechanic-will-wow-borrow-next/"><em>WoW</em>'s next borrowed game mechanic</a></li>
</ul>
If you enjoyed the new show, make sure to subscribe to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TradeChat">TradeChat</a>, leave a comment, and come back next week for the next episode!
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/wow-insiders-weekly-recap-now-featuring-tradechats-panser/">WoW Insider's Weekly Recap, now featuring TradeChat's Panser</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 11 May 2012 20:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/wow-insiders-weekly-recap-now-featuring-tradechats-panser/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20236780/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/wow-insiders-weekly-recap-now-featuring-tradechats-panser/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>account-wide-mounts</category><category>arena</category><category>arena-pass</category><category>avengers-transmogrification</category><category>panser</category><category>tradechat</category><category>weekly-news-update</category><category>weekly-recap</category><category>world-of-warcraft-news</category><category>wow+insider+tradechat</category><category>wow+insider+weekly+recap</category><category>wow-news</category><category>wow-weekly-recap</category><category>wowinsidertradechat</category><category>wowinsiderweeklyrecap</category><dc:creator>Alex Ziebart</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 20:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Blizzard and Valve settle DOTA dispute, Blizzard DOTA officially Blizzard All-Stars</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/blizzard-all-stars/" rel="tag">Blizzard All-Stars</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="250" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/blizzard-all-stars.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
Blizzard and Valve have been going <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/13/blizzard-opposes-valves-dota-trademark-application/">back and forth</a> about ownership of the <em>DOTA </em>title for awhile now. It's a complicated issue that's been summed up very well by <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2012/02/10/blizzard-taking-valve-to-court-over-dota-trademark/">Joystiq's JC Fletcher</a>: "Which giant company has the rights to the fan-created, community-promoted word 'Dota?'"<br />
<br />
As of today, it turns out Valve has those rights. The two giant companies have amicably settled the issue amongst themselves. Valve will release its <em>DOTA</em> title as <em>Dota 2</em>, and Blizzard will release its as <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/10/27/why-you-might-like-blizzard-dota/"><em>Blizzard All-Stars</em></a>. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of <em>All-Stars</em>, anyway. It gives the name some real flavor and, as stated by Blizzard VP Rob Pardo, "ultimately better reflects the design of our game."<br />
<br />
Of course, regardless of the decisions made here, the fan community will inevitably continue calling this genre of games DOTA or some variation thereof. If you care to read the full press release regarding this agreement, hop behind the cut below.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Blizzard and Valve settle DOTA dispute, Blizzard DOTA officially Blizzard All-Stars</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/">Blizzard and Valve settle DOTA dispute, Blizzard DOTA officially Blizzard All-Stars</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 11 May 2012 18:03:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href=http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-argument-blizzard-dota-is-now-bl>Read</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20236750/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-dispute-blizzard-dota-officially/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>blizzard</category><category>blizzard-all-stars</category><category>blizzard-dota</category><category>breaking</category><category>dota</category><category>dota-2</category><category>valve</category><dc:creator>Alex Ziebart</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 18:03:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Mists of Pandaria Beta: New loot frames roll into view</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/mists-of-pandaria-beta-new-loot-frames-roll-into-view/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/mists-of-pandaria-beta-new-loot-frames-roll-into-view/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/mists-of-pandaria-beta-new-loot-frames-roll-into-view/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="320" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/loot-roll-frame.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
New loot frames! No more having to stare at your chat frames and scroll up and down to see which player won what item. Loot rolls are now condensed into a loot roll frame that appears in your screen. It lists the results of all the items that went up for grabs in the instance and who won them.<br />
<br />
If you look at the screenshot above, you can see the roll numbers next to each player and what roll types were used. The player who won the item is listed at the top. You can expand or collapse the menu to see the list of players who rolled and what roll type they used, such as need or greed.<br />
<br />
The only downside to this new feature is that I couldn't find a way to move the frame around. But hey, I'll take these new loot roll frames any day. What about you?<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/mists-of-pandaria-beta-new-loot-frames-roll-into-view/">Mists of Pandaria Beta: New loot frames roll into view</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/mists-of-pandaria-beta-new-loot-frames-roll-into-view/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20235251/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/mists-of-pandaria-beta-new-loot-frames-roll-into-view/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>beta</category><category>dungeon</category><category>instance</category><category>interface</category><category>loot</category><category>loot-frame</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>raid</category><category>ui</category><dc:creator>Matt Low</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 19:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Cross-realm zones coming to Mists of Pandaria</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="224" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/azboats.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
Recently, one of the criticisms most often heard about the <em>World of Warcraft</em> experience relates to server population or faction imbalances -- you can't always find enough players in your level range to have a fulfilling gameplay experience. It seems as if <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> is going to be fixing that issue in a big way: Blizzard has just announced cross-realm zones.<br />
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	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(51, 73, 138); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<img align="absMiddle" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2010/02/blizzimg4.jpg" style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 3px;" />Cross-Realm Zones Coming to Beta</div>
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			In the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta, we're introducing a new technology that will enable players to meet up and group with other players in under populated areas of the world such as low level zones or areas that other players may have outleveled or moved on from. This technology will allow players to form a group with other players from within a select pool of realms in order to quest just like they normally would while still allowing the social structures of their home realms to remain intact.<br />
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				<i><a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5393667/Cross-Realm_Zones_Coming_to_Beta-5_10_2012" style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">source</a></i></div>
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<p>
	<br />
	For the full FAQ, head over to Battle.net, or check behind the break below.</p>
<p>
	<strong>UPDATE: </strong>Blizzard has answered additional questions in the FAQ.</p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Cross-realm zones coming to Mists of Pandaria</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/">Cross-realm zones coming to Mists of Pandaria</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Thu, 10 May 2012 16:49:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href=http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5393667/Cross-Realm_Zones_Coming_to_Beta-5_10_2012>Read</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20235873/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/cross-realm-zones-coming-to-mists-of-pandaria/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>breaking</category><category>cross-realm-questing</category><category>cross-realm-zones</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><dc:creator>Alex Ziebart</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 16:49:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Ghostcrawler talks warriors on the Mists of Pandaria beta forums</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/warrior/" rel="tag">Warrior</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/" rel="tag">Analysis / Opinion</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="290" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/armsoutsidepandaria.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
Ghostcrawler has <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747#17">contributed</a> a great deal to an already large list of consolidated warrior issues on the <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> beta forums, <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747#18">and then</a> <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747?page=5#92">just</a> <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747?page=5#93">kept</a> <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747?page=18#347">on posting</a>. It's actually a lot to consider -- so much so that I'm fairly certain I can get two big posts out of it. This post will be the one that tries to break down what it all means.<br />
<br />
Some of what he's posting is of more concern to beta testers than the general population (for instance, how the devs prefer their feedback), but we can still take some interesting points from the <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747#17">two</a> <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4856945747#18">posts</a> where GC lays everything out for us. If you'll forgive me for a lot of paraphrasing and selecting:<br />
<ul>
	<li>
		Tanking for warriors (the oft-discussed active mitigation system) is designed around the concept of turning rage into survival. Shield Block and Shield Barrier are designed that keeping them up reliably will improve your survival, but in cutting-edge content, you'll want to use them in a smart way (that is, save them for big damage situations) rather than just hitting them as soon as you have the rage. Tanking for new tanks will be designed so that missing a Shield Block now and again won't wreck you.</li>
	<li>
		Rage is the limiting mechanic for the class, not cooldowns, at least so far as the design vision of the class is concerned.</li>
	<li>
		Arms and fury have a big rage generation attack and a big rage spending attack, but that's where the similarities between them are intended to end. Arms should feel more predictable but have slower rage generation due to its use of a single, slow weapon, while fury abilities proc less reliably, but the spec has more rage to spend because it uses two weapons, to fit the distinction between arms as a disciplined blade expert and fury as a screaming madman.</li>
	<li>
		The intention for Battle Stance is to be the default battle stance (as the name would suggest), while Berserker Stance will be attractive for PvP or fights with high incoming damage. Blizzard's still working on Berserker Stance's design, but that's the goal.</li>
</ul>
There's more to discuss, so let's get to discussing it.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Ghostcrawler talks warriors on the Mists of Pandaria beta forums</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/">Ghostcrawler talks warriors on the Mists of Pandaria beta forums</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Thu, 10 May 2012 12:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20234067/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/10/ghostcrawler-talks-warriors-on-the-mists-of-pandaria-beta-forums/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>Ghostcrawler</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-beta</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-talents</category><category>Warrior</category><category>Warrior-Talents</category><category>Warriors</category><dc:creator>Matthew Rossi</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 12:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>World of Warcraft subscriber numbers remain at 10.2 million</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-remain-at-10-2-million/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-remain-at-10-2-million/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-remain-at-10-2-million/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/blizzard/" rel="tag">Blizzard</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2010/03/activision-blizzardlogo.jpg" /></div>
Blizzard announced today in the investors call that the <em>World of Warcraft</em> population remains stable at 10.2 million subscribers. This is after the <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers/">announced dip to 10.2 million in February 2012</a>.<br />
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		<img align="absMiddle" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2010/02/blizzimg4.jpg" style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 3px;" />Activision-Blizzard</div>
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			Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft(R) Remains #1 Subscription-Based MMORPG with Approximately 10.2 Million Subscribers as of 3/31/12<br />
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			<div align="right" style="font-size: 12px;">
				<i><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/activision-blizzard-announces-better-than-expected-first-quarter-2012-financial-results-150831155.html" style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">source</a></i></div>
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In other <em>WoW </em>news from the call, Blizzard has renewed its license with NetEase for China distribution: "<em>On March 20, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment announced that they renewed their license with NetEase for the distribution of World of Warcraft in mainland China. The new license will continue for an additional three years following the expiration of the current license agreement.</em>"<br />
<br />
There is no indication of specific North American / European numbers, nor is there any specific indication of when <em>Mists </em>will release.<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-remain-at-10-2-million/">World of Warcraft subscriber numbers remain at 10.2 million</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Wed, 09 May 2012 17:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-remain-at-10-2-million/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20235034/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/09/world-of-warcraft-subscriber-numbers-remain-at-10-2-million/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>activision-blizzard</category><category>breaking</category><category>subscription-numbers</category><category>wow-subscription-numbers</category><dc:creator>Adam Holisky</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 17:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Annual Pass beta invitations have all been distributed</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/annual-pass-beta-invitations-have-all-been-distributed/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/annual-pass-beta-invitations-have-all-been-distributed/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/annual-pass-beta-invitations-have-all-been-distributed/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/03/bridge-580.jpg" style="width: 580px; height: 314px;" /></div>
It would be an understatement to say that the Annual Pass beta invitation process did not go as expected for anybody involved, Blizzard included. Who knew <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/09/1-million-people-signed-up-for-the-wow-annual-pass/">well over one million</a> <em>World of Warcraft</em> players would sign up for the program, all of them <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/23/does-the-annual-pass-guarantee-instant-beta-access/">anxiously awaiting</a> an invitation to the <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> beta?<br />
<br />
Thankfully, according to community manager Kaivax, the final round of beta invitations has been sent as of today.<br />
<br />
<br />
<center>
	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(51, 73, 138); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<img align="absMiddle" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2010/02/blizzimg4.jpg" style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 3px;" />Final Annual Pass Beta Invitations Sent</div>
	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(153, 204, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(32, 32, 32); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<div style="padding: 5px;">
			The World of Warcraft Annual Pass promotion ended May 1, and we recently sent out the remaining Mists of Pandaria beta invitations. Check your games list in <a href="https://us.battle.net/account/management/">Battle.net Account Management</a> for the Mists of Pandaria beta. You can download and install it from there.<br />
			<br />
			Again, thank you for your enthusiasm and feedback. To provide feedback for the Mists of Pandaria beta, we invite you to please post in the <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/4675759/">Beta Feedback forum</a>.<br />
			<br />
			<div align="right" style="font-size: 12px;">
				<i><a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4876967929#1" style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">source</a></i></div>
		</div>
	</div>
</center>
<br />
If you're an Annual Pass subscriber and you <em>haven't</em> received your beta invitation yet, don't panic! Betas do have a tendency to take their sweet time appearing in your games list.<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/annual-pass-beta-invitations-have-all-been-distributed/">Annual Pass beta invitations have all been distributed</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Tue, 08 May 2012 20:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/annual-pass-beta-invitations-have-all-been-distributed/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20233894/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/annual-pass-beta-invitations-have-all-been-distributed/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>annual-pass</category><category>breaking</category><category>kaivax</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-beta</category><dc:creator>Alex Ziebart</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 20:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Level 90 druid talents take a level in badass; shapeshifting breaks roots again</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/druid/" rel="tag">Druid</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/analysis-opinion/" rel="tag">Analysis / Opinion</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/shifting-perspectives/" rel="tag">(Druid) Shifting Perspectives</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="340" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/wi-ringtossdarkmoonfaire.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
<em>Every week, WoW Insider brings you </em><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/shifting-perspectives/"><em>Shifting Perspectives</em></a><em> for </em><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/feral-dps-druid-shifting-perspectives"><em>cat</em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/feral-tanking-druid-shifting-perspectives"><em>bear</em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/restoration-druid-shifting-perspectives"><em>restoration</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/balance-druid-shifting-perspectives"><em>balance</em></a><em> druids. This Tuesday was supposed to be an "off" week for the column, but screw that.</em><br />
<br />
You know what? I think I finally nailed why the druid experience on the <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> beta has felt so bizarre at times. We've seen the re-emergence of stuff we used to take for granted (<a href="http://mop.wowhead.com/spell=96429">shifting out of roots</a> and <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/shifting-perspectives-the-return-of-permatree-and-other-badass/">the return of permatree</a> among them), and you know what it all reminds me of? Someone once described the boot camp experience as one in which "all of your God-given rights are stripped, only to be doled back later, one by one, as privileges." Yep. That's what this is like.<br />
<br />
Anyway, <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4661687953?page=22#428">Ghostcrawler hit the forums last night</a> to give us some news on a revamped set of level 90 druid talents that have completely altered the ratio of win to suck in the bracket.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Level 90 druid talents take a level in badass; shapeshifting breaks roots again</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/">Level 90 druid talents take a level in badass; shapeshifting breaks roots again</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Tue, 08 May 2012 13:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20233322/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/level-90-druid-talents-take-a-level-in-badass-shapeshifting-bre/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>disentanglement</category><category>dream-of-cenarius</category><category>druid-guide</category><category>druid-info</category><category>druid-talents</category><category>featured</category><category>feral-tanking-druid-shifting-perspectives</category><category>ghostcrawler</category><category>guide-to-druids</category><category>heart-of-the-wild</category><category>incarnation</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-beta</category><category>Mists-of-pandaria-druid</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-druid-glyphs</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-druid-talents</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-talent-changes</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-talents</category><category>natures-vigil</category><category>restoration-druid-shifting-perspectives</category><category>tranquility</category><category>tree-of-life</category><category>wow-druid</category><category>wow-druid-info</category><category>wow-druids</category><dc:creator>Allison Robert</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 13:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Ghostcrawler on account-wide achievements</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/03/580ghostcrawlerswordcrab.jpg" /></div>
Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has just released <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5367158/Bringing_Achievements_to_the_Account_Level-5_8_2012">a new post on account-wide achievements</a>. He makes a strong point that Blizzard's overall design goal is that it doesn't want us playing one character over another only because of achievement concerns. This is quite good news for raiders with multiple alts and others who need to use achievements as a sort of progress check on their moving-out-of-the-fire skill and game knowledge.<br />
<br />
Some key notes from Ghostcrawler's blog post:
<ul>
	<li>
		While you only earn achievement points once, you will still see the achievement pop-up notification if you earn it again on a second character.</li>
	<li>
		Most achievement criteria are not account-wide. That is, if you explore Thousand Needles, you'll need to explore it all on one character to get the associated exploration achievement.</li>
	<li>
		Meta achievements like <a href="http://www.wowhead.com/achievement=2145/what-a-long-strange-trip-its-been">What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been</a> are account-wide, meaning you can finish Flame Warden on one character and Noble Gardener on another.</li>
	<li>
		Faction-specific pets, mounts, and titles will not work across faction -- that is, no Alliance mounts for Horde characters.</li>
	<li>
		The goal is to share rewards across the entire account that are granted from achievements.</li>
</ul>
In particular regard to that last point, Ghostcrawler says: "I'm not going to promise this yet, because a lot of magic has to happen for that to work, but it's our intent." So that looks to be very much work in progress still, but it's great to know where Blizzard is headed.<br />
<br />
Ghostcrawler's full post after the break.<p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/" rel="bookmark">Continue reading <em>Ghostcrawler on account-wide achievements</em></a></p><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/">Ghostcrawler on account-wide achievements</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Tue, 08 May 2012 12:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href=http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5367158/Bringing_Achievements_to_the_Account_Level-5_8_2012>Read</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20233789/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/08/ghostcrawler-on-account-wide-achievements/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>account-level-achievements</category><category>account-wide-achievements</category><category>achievements</category><category>breaking</category><category>ghostcrawler</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mop</category><dc:creator>Adam Holisky</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 12:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Thrall may not be the next warchief after all</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/thrall-may-not-be-the-next-warchief-after-all/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/thrall-may-not-be-the-next-warchief-after-all/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/thrall-may-not-be-the-next-warchief-after-all/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="294" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/warchief.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
Zarhym has thrown a spanner in our preconceptions with <a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4850775205?page=4#64">the following post</a> to the forums, reproduced in its entirety here.<br />
<br />
<center>
	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(51, 73, 138); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<img align="absMiddle" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2010/02/blizzimg4.jpg" style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 3px;" /> Zarhym - Anduin goes Neutral - Really?</div>
	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(153, 204, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(32, 32, 32); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<div style="padding: 5px;">
			<div style="padding-left: 20px; color: white; font-size: 11px;">
				Posted by Levinthar<br />
				<br />
				Erm...He's going back to being warchief of the horde. Which apparently isn't supposed to bother all the alliance that have been working with him for the last few years.</div>
			<br />
			I know what was said during the press tour, but don't be so sure yet that you know who the next warchief will be. The information provided during the press tour was... not entirely accurate.<br />
			<br />
			<div align="right" style="font-size: 12px;">
				<i><a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/4850775205?page=4#64" style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">source</a></i></div>
		</div>
	</div>
</center>
<br />
This is very interesting because it creates an entirely new future direction for the Horde. We saw tensions rise between the various factions in <em>Cataclysm</em>, and with <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-siege-of-orgrimmar/">Garrosh's ultimate fate</a> not terribly rosy, this leaves us with a potential power vacuum <em>and</em> several individuals who might seek to fill it. Will Sylvanas make a power play? Will Baine, who is seen stretching his muscles in <em>Mists</em> sending missions to Pandaria, repeat his father's course and challenge Garrosh for the throne? Will Vol'jin seek to rule? Will everyone show wisdom and beg <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/25/know-your-lore-rexxar-champion-of-the-horde/">Rexxa</a>r to become warchief?<br />
<br />
Time will tell. But for now, get your best crazy speculating hat on.<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/thrall-may-not-be-the-next-warchief-after-all/">Thrall may not be the next warchief after all</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 04 May 2012 20:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/thrall-may-not-be-the-next-warchief-after-all/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20231539/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/thrall-may-not-be-the-next-warchief-after-all/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>Anduin-Wrynn</category><category>Baine</category><category>Garrosh</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-beta</category><category>Rexxar-for-Warchief</category><category>Sylvanas</category><category>Thrall</category><category>Voljin</category><category>Warchief</category><category>Zarhym</category><dc:creator>Matthew Rossi</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 04 May 2012 20:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Mists of Pandaria beta: Aysa Cloudsinger and Master Shang Xi speak</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/mists-of-pandaria-beta-aysa-cloudsinger-and-master-shang-xi-spe/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/mists-of-pandaria-beta-aysa-cloudsinger-and-master-shang-xi-spe/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/mists-of-pandaria-beta-aysa-cloudsinger-and-master-shang-xi-spe/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><br />
<center>
	<object height="315" width="580"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bdQZgrtzz7U?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bdQZgrtzz7U?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580"></embed></object></center>
Tipster Sylier emailed us a clip we had to share. If you're wondering what <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">pandaren</a> sound like, here we go. I think these may be very specific character voices for Master Shang Xi and Aysa Cloudsinger, rather than generic pandaren, but you still get a sense of how the voices will be accented and words pronounced. I like Aysa quite a bit, and Master Shang Xi sounds exactly how I suspected he might.<br />
<br />
I'm glad they didn't go with a heavily accented and somewhat cartoonish voice for the pandaren, especially these highly representative figures we're all going to meet when we level on the Wandering Isle.<br />
<br />
<em>[Thanks, Sylier!]</em><br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/mists-of-pandaria-beta-aysa-cloudsinger-and-master-shang-xi-spe/">Mists of Pandaria beta: Aysa Cloudsinger and Master Shang Xi speak</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 04 May 2012 13:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/mists-of-pandaria-beta-aysa-cloudsinger-and-master-shang-xi-spe/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20230707/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/04/mists-of-pandaria-beta-aysa-cloudsinger-and-master-shang-xi-spe/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>Aysa-Cloudsinger</category><category>Master-Shang-Xi</category><category>mists</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mists-of-pandaria-beta</category><category>voices</category><dc:creator>Matthew Rossi</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 04 May 2012 13:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Datamining hints at Mists of Pandaria Collector's edition mount</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/03/datamining-hints-at-mists-of-pandaria-collectors-edition-mount/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/03/datamining-hints-at-mists-of-pandaria-collectors-edition-mount/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/03/datamining-hints-at-mists-of-pandaria-collectors-edition-mount/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/mists-of-pandaria/" rel="tag">Mists of Pandaria</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="233" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/580outlandrocket.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
A new round of datamining has uncovered an <a href="http://www.wowdb.com/items/85870-ph-mop-ce-mount">interesting string and spell</a> in the new code pushed with recent updates to the beta -- specifically, a reference to a placeholder for a <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> <a href="http://www.wowdb.com/items/85870-ph-mop-ce-mount">collector's edition mount</a>. Here's the string/spell change, <a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2761-Mists-of-Pandaria-Beta-Build-15662">courtesy of MMO-Champion</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
	<div>
		<em>[PH] MoP CE Mount - [PH] Summons and dismisses a ???. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location.</em></div>
</blockquote>
Traditionally, collector's editions of<em> World of Warcraft</em> expansions included a pet, usually a whelp that resembles a key figure or theme of the expansion. The original collector's edition of <em>WoW</em> included three pets, the Zergling, the panda cub, and the mini Diablo. No collector's edition has ever shipped with a mount before.<br />
<br />
Here's the kicker: There is also a string and spell in the new build for a <a href="http://www.wowdb.com/items/85871-ph-mop-ce-pet">collector's edition pet</a> as well, which means more stuff packed in to this next release's premium package.<br />
<br />
Does upping the ante on cool in-game stuff, from pets to mounts, put the collector's edition of <em>Mists of Pandaria</em> closer to your shelf? As a consummate purchaser of Blizzard collector's editions, I will be shelling out the cash notwithstanding. However, it would be nice to see a bevy of new rewards in the collector's editions other than just the whelps. They will, however, be excellent editions to my Pet Battle Army. What do you think the collector's edition mount could be?<br />
<hr />
<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/11/ah-mop-75x75-11-4-11.jpg" style="margin: 4px; border-width: 1px; border-style: solid; float: left; width: 75px; height: 75px;" /><em>It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in </em>Mists of Pandaria<em>, </em>World of Warcraft's<em> 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.</em><em> Look for expansion basics in our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/mists-of-pandaria-march-2012-faq/">Mists FAQ</a>, or dig into our <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/19/wow-insiders-mists-of-pandaria-coverage/">spring press event coverage</a> for more details!</em><br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/03/datamining-hints-at-mists-of-pandaria-collectors-edition-mount/">Datamining hints at Mists of Pandaria Collector's edition mount</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Thu, 03 May 2012 12:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href=http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2761-Mists-of-Pandaria-Beta-Build-15662>Read</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/03/datamining-hints-at-mists-of-pandaria-collectors-edition-mount/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20229922/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/03/datamining-hints-at-mists-of-pandaria-collectors-edition-mount/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>collectors</category><category>collectors-edition-mount</category><category>edition</category><category>mists</category><category>mists-of-pandaria</category><category>mount</category><category>mounts</category><category>pandaria</category><category>speculation</category><dc:creator>Mathew McCurley</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 03 May 2012 12:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Massively has your TERA launch-day roundup on lock</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/massively-has-your-tera-launch-day-roundup-on-lock/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/massively-has-your-tera-launch-day-roundup-on-lock/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/massively-has-your-tera-launch-day-roundup-on-lock/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="326" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/teracharacterselect.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
Interested in <em>TERA</em>, one of the biggest MMO launches coming in 2012? Our sister site Massively has prepared an extensive <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/tera-launch-day-roundup/">launch-day roundup</a> for all things <em>TERA </em>that shows you everything from unboxings and videos to controversies and impressions. The North American launch is happening today, and you won't want to miss out.<br />
<br />
Check out the <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/tera-launch-day-roundup/">TERA launch-day guide</a> over on <a href="http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/tera-launch-day-roundup/">Massively</a>.
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/massively-has-your-tera-launch-day-roundup-on-lock/">Massively has your TERA launch-day roundup on lock</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Tue, 01 May 2012 16:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href=http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/tera-launch-day-roundup/>Read</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/massively-has-your-tera-launch-day-roundup-on-lock/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20227951/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/05/01/massively-has-your-tera-launch-day-roundup-on-lock/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>launch-day</category><category>massively</category><category>massively-tera</category><category>tera</category><category>tera-launch-day</category><dc:creator>Mathew McCurley</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 01 May 2012 16:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Zerg Rush attacks your Google search</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/zerg-rush-attacks-your-google-search/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/zerg-rush-attacks-your-google-search/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/zerg-rush-attacks-your-google-search/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="350" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/04/mg-580-zerg-rush.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
While it's not strictly <em>World of Warcraft</em>-related, we're obviously big fans of <a href="wow.joystiq.com/tag/blizzard/">Blizzard</a> around here. So it's pretty cool when search giant <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/google/">Google</a> includes an Easter egg that's a direct shout-out to the company. Go to Google and search for Zerg Rush.<br />
<br />
When you follow those simple instructions, your screen is swarmed with Os that will slowly eat up the text on your screen. Click on the Os to do battle! The better you click on the Os, the higher score you will achieve. While this probably won't quite get you over any <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/starcraft/"><em>StarCraft</em></a> jones you're feeling, this little screen game is a welcome distraction in the middle of a rough work day. How well are you scoring so far?
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/zerg-rush-attacks-your-google-search/">Zerg Rush attacks your Google search</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/zerg-rush-attacks-your-google-search/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20226227/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/zerg-rush-attacks-your-google-search/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>google</category><category>starcraft</category><category>zerg</category><category>zerg-rush</category><dc:creator>Michael Gray</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Dragon Soul: Power of the Aspects buff rises to 20% next week</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects-buff-to-20-next-week/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects-buff-to-20-next-week/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects-buff-to-20-next-week/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/raiding/" rel="tag">Raiding</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2011/12/wi-deathwingvsthrall.jpg" /></div>
During maintenance next week, the Dragon Soul buff/nerf will climb to 20%. This <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/18/dragon-soul-normal-and-heroic-nerf-begins-jan-31st/">shouldn't be too much of a surprise</a> for anyone, since we've known all along it'll continue to increase. And personally, I'm looking forward to it. My guild has some new DPSers running with us, and this will be just the boost we need to get heroic Ultraxion down.<br />
<br />
Remember that if you want to run without the buff, you can always turn it off by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of the raid.<br />
<br />
Blizzard's full announcement is as follows:<br />
<br />
<center>
	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(51, 73, 138); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<img align="absMiddle" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2010/02/blizzimg4.jpg" style="border: 0px none; padding: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 3px;" />Blizzard</div>
	<div style="width: 98%; text-align: left; position: relative; padding: 3px; color: rgb(153, 204, 255); background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(32, 32, 32); border: 1px solid rgb(51, 51, 51);">
		<div style="padding: 5px;">
			At the completion of scheduled server maintenance during the week of April 30, the "Power of the Aspects" spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 20%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.<br />
			<br />
			Don't need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.<br />
			<br />
			We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.<br />
			<br />
			<div align="right" style="font-size: 12px;">
				<i><a href="http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/5245475" style="color: rgb(153, 204, 255);">source</a></i></div>
		</div>
	</div>
</center>
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects-buff-to-20-next-week/">Dragon Soul: Power of the Aspects buff rises to 20% next week</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects-buff-to-20-next-week/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20225971/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects-buff-to-20-next-week/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>dragon-soul</category><category>dragon-soul-buff</category><category>dragon-soul-nerf</category><category>dragon-soul-power-of-the-aspects</category><category>power-of-the-aspects</category><dc:creator>Adam Holisky</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:00:00 EST</pubDate></item><item><title>Blizzard MVPs create Cross-Realm Rated Battlegrounds site</title><link>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/blizzard-mvps-create-cross-realm-rated-battlegrounds-site/</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/blizzard-mvps-create-cross-realm-rated-battlegrounds-site/</guid><comments>http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/blizzard-mvps-create-cross-realm-rated-battlegrounds-site/#comments</comments><description><![CDATA[<p>Filed under: <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/news-items/" rel="tag">News items</a>, <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/category/pvp/" rel="tag">PvP</a></p><div style="text-align: center;">
	<img alt="Image" height="231" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2012/04/lfglist.jpg" style="margin: 4px;" width="580" /></div>
First, we had a cross-realm raid group site. Now, Blizzard forum MVPs <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/09/behind-the-scenes-with-a-blizzard-forums-mvp-green/">Eldacar</a> and Cyaga have created <a href="http://battlemasters.org/?page_id=226">The LFG List</a>, a cross-realm group finder for players to get involved in Rated Battlegrounds. Part of the group's Battlemasters site, The LFG List is currently active in the United States only; other versions will be rolled out after the U.S. version has been running smoothly for a while.<br />
<br />
How do you get onto the list? Well, that's simple!<br />
<br />
If you are ready for a Battleground or two within the next hour, head over to the <a href="http://battlemasters.org/?page_id=226">start page</a> and choose your faction. That will take you to a page with an IRC window and an entry screen below it. Type in your realm and your character's name in the entry screen to retrieve your basic details from the Armory. You can add in notes and doublecheck that your main spec and off spec are correct.<br />
<br />
Note the IRC Name section -- this is where you fill in the name that you're using in the live IRC chat above. This way, you can give yourself an IRC name of your choosing and seek out Rated Battleground buddies with any character. Other IRC users will see your name in the list and can contact you directly -- and you're off! Your entry stays up for an hour, so if you're looking for groups further in advance, you can head over to the <a href="http://battlemasters.org/?forum=lfglfm-battlegrounds">Battlemasters Forums</a> and make a post.<br />
<br />
As an aside, the Horde chat seems currently rather more popular than the Alliance chat, hence the split channels. As a mainly Alliance player myself, I'm not OK with this! So I'm putting the call out to my fellow humans, dwarves, draenei, worgen, gnomes and night elves: People of the Alliance! Get on over to <a href="http://battlemasters.org/?page_id=226">The LFG List</a> and get involved!<br />
<hr /><p style="padding:5px;background:#ffffcc;border:1px solid #ffff99;clear:both;"><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com"><img src="http://wow.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif" alt="WoW Insider" style="float:left;padding:0 5px 5px 0;" /></a><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/blizzard-mvps-create-cross-realm-rated-battlegrounds-site/">Blizzard MVPs create Cross-Realm Rated Battlegrounds site</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com">WoW Insider</a> on Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST.  Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br style="clear:both;"></p><p style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"> </p><p><a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/blizzard-mvps-create-cross-realm-rated-battlegrounds-site/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/forward/20213056/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/04/27/blizzard-mvps-create-cross-realm-rated-battlegrounds-site/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a></p>]]></description><category>arena-strats</category><category>battleground-groups</category><category>battlegrounds</category><category>Cross-Realm-Battlegrounds</category><category>CrossRealm</category><category>CrossRealmBattlegrounds</category><category>featured</category><category>how-to-play-battlegrounds</category><category>how-to-pvp</category><category>pvp-guide</category><category>rated-battleground</category><category>Rated-Battlegrounds</category><category>rated-bgs</category><category>rbg</category><category>rbg-finder</category><category>rbg-groups</category><category>RbgGroups</category><category>realID</category><category>realid-battleground</category><dc:creator>Olivia Grace</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST</pubDate></item></channel></rss>
