Join us every weekday evening as Today in WoW runs down all the WoW news that you could possibly want. From comments from Blizzard’s blues to the latest datamining info — we’ve got you covered.

Zarhym’s judge-ness been taken up to the Dredd degree.

Don’t forget to check out The Daily Quest and our Weekly Podcast Roundup to find out what else is going on in the WoW community. And if you have a news tip, feel free to drop us a line and let us know.

• Blue posts
• WoW news from other sites
• News and features from WoW Insider
• Links from around the web

Continue reading Blue Posts: Account-wide achievements to work with non-MoP achievements, “Ask A CDev” soon

Filed under: Today in WoW

Blue Posts: Account-wide achievements to work with non-MoP achievements, “Ask A CDev” soon originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A fresh round of hotfixes landed tonight, including a pair that will relieve the pain of many achievement hunters and event celebrants this week. The following fixes are included in this round:

• Players are now able to receive Lovely Charms while on the quest “Test Your Strength”, when the player’s inventory has both the Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide and Lovely Charm Collector’s Kit.
• Players now have the chance to receive both the Lovely Charm and Grisly Trophy from a single kill.

Hit the break for the full list of tonight’s hotfixes, including an Ultraxion trash nerf.

Continue reading Patch 4.3 hotfixes for Feb. 7, 2012

Filed under: Hotfixes

Patch 4.3 hotfixes for Feb. 7, 2012 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last night, Bashiok had the grand duty of announcing that the newest addition to the official World of Warcraft forums team was not a community manager but rather Blizzard story development employee Nyorloth. The decision to bring on a lore-specific representative onto the forums shows a marked change in community communication for Blizzard. Instead of having CDev Q&A sessions and sporadic lore discussion, Nyorloth will be on hand to focus the story discussion, answer questions, pose topics, and more.

Nyorloth has even gleefully accepted the role of resident scapegoat, so be sure to be nice, kids. Creative development has rarely had a presence on the forums, and I can’t wait to see the discussions Nyorloth gets to participate in.

Bashiok’s original introduction of Nyorloth is so good that you need to hit the jump to read it, as well as Nyorloth’s own interpretation of his new job and function. Let’s all give Nyorloth a big WoW Insider welcome.

Continue reading New Blizzard forum personality to focus on lore and story

Filed under: Lore

New Blizzard forum personality to focus on lore and story originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW Insider

No matter how much we may love playing with our guilds and friends, sometimes we just want to take some time off and play in single-player mode. However, with the pervasiveness of the RealID system, is it truly feasible to go off the grid to do this? Syl over at Raging Monkeys attempts to tackle this very problem, arguing enthusiastically that we should be allowed this option, that it would not only be convenient but also would benefit those relationships we have built both in-game and out.

Personally, I’m a bit torn on the issue. On the one hand, I can identify with this situation, as I have been there many times before. My own friends would always want to level alts together, but our goals for those characters never quite lined up. I’d find myself creating secret alts on another faction, sometimes on another server — not only to experience more of the story and lore than I had before, but to just be alone. Of course, this was all before the RealID system was implemented, because after its debut, I was not able to start a new draenei paladin or blood elf rogue without being flooded with questions and, admittedly, a little guilt.

On the other hand, there is a very simple solution to all of this: Put your foot down. If someone asks why you’re on Area 52 rolling a worgen warlock (or why you’re even rolling a warlock in the first place, yuck), I think we all can agree that the best solution would be to honestly and delicately state that you need some time off, away from all of your in-game obligations — including those inquiring minds. But is confronting your pursuers really that easy? For some, this type of thing comes naturally, and I for one am extremely envious of these people. For others, confrontation of this sort is not something we want to deal with, and the option to hide from RealID becomes a safe, albeit passive-aggressive, option.

What do you think? Is this a feature that Blizzard should be working on, or should these players find other means of enjoying the game in solitary peace?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard

Should there be a hide option for RealID? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, there is a cow level.

In November 2010, before Cataclysm hit, I wrote a series of articles on why (or why not) to play a particular druidic race for theorycrafting, lore, and roleplay purposes. These articles turned out to be a really big hit with readers, and you can find them here:

• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a night elf druid
• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a tauren druid
• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a worgen druid
• Shifting Perspectives: Why (or why not) to play a troll druid

This week, we’re going to revisit the tauren, who are in a truly unique position among the druids. They don’t represent the class’ old guard (exclusively night elves), but neither are they truly among the new.

Continue reading Tauren druids at the end of Cataclysm

Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Tauren druids at the end of Cataclysm originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW Insider

My only real criticism of this music video is that the blur and glow effect felt a little overdone. Don’t get me wrong — the whole thing was lovely. But there’s only so much blur and glow a man can take before his head starts hurting.

Even with that critique in place, though, I still enjoyed Break the Trees and fervently hope to see more like it in the future.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

WoW Moviewatch: Break the Trees originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil “Euripides” Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the Auction House. Feed Fox’s ego by emailing him, tweeting him at @foxvanallen, or sacrificing your first-born to him. And be sure to catch the return of Basil and Fox’s podcast, Call to Auction!

There’s no question that time is a very powerful influencer of prices. Most typically, time affects prices via inflation, the natural and inevitable tendency of things today to cost more than things cost yesterday. But that’s far from the only way that time affects prices. A Love Is In the Air holiday pet is likely going to be less expensive to buy now than if you wait nine months from now. The cost of i397 BoE gear is going to continue to decay right up to the launch of the next expansion.

It’s not a phenomenon unique to the game, of course. Those Super Bowl cakes are going to be a lot cheaper at the supermarket today than they were on Saturday. And if you can wait until January to shop for your winter clothes, you’re going to get a far better deal than if you do it in October. A lot of prices are cyclical.

But how do those cycles work in the game? If you’re a buyer of mats, when should you head to the Auction House to grab what you need? If you’re a seller of ore, should just skip listing it certain days to maximize your profits? Let’s see what the data say.

Continue reading What days should you buy or sell on the Auction House?

Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped

What days should you buy or sell on the Auction House? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Best answer:

Answer by Stoltzman
My first suggestion is this page https://signup.worldofwarcraft.com/trial/10dayfreetrial.htm

This is a link to their 10 day free account, and it may bypass troubles.

If it requires an authentication key, i believe there should either be on the envolope that contains the 4 installation CD’s, OR from the WoW box that your friend has. Good luck. Alphiro, 60 Rogue on the Warsong Server

Give your answer to this question below!

Each week, WoW Insider and Mathew McCurley bring you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which spotlights the latest user interface addons. Have a screenshot of your own UI that you’d like to submit? Send your screenshots along with info on what mods you’re using to readerui@wowinsider.com, and follow Mathew on Twitter.

The raiding game comes upon us faster than ever these days, as the leveling portion of the game shrinks just as much as it expands with each subsequent expansion. While raiding should be a focus for design teams, because you need constant current end game content, the path to raiding is still a long and arduous one. And when the mighty finally ascend the stairs of destiny and plant their flag at the top of the world, then you realize your interface just isn’t going to cut it anymore.

“But it’s been fine like this for 85 levels!” you exclaim. Yes, yes, I agree. It’s a weird phenomenon in video gaming, where as you progress through a journey learning skills, gaining allies, and collecting equipment, the fundamentals of your play experience radically shift. It’s less of a problem these days with the Dungeon Journal, random Raid Finder and Dungeon Finder tools, and a general understanding of what raiding is among the video gaming populace.

Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: Get personal with Absinth’s redesign for raiding

Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week

Reader UI of the Week: Get personal with Absinth’s redesign for raiding originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WoW Insider

Sometimes you’d like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It’s not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around — past, present and future.

	Star Wars: The Old Republic has 1.7 million active subscribers EA has reported sales of more than 2 million units of The Old Republic, with about 1.7 million subscribers. The publisher reported much better sales than expected for the December quarter, largely thanks to the runaway sales of the new MMO title.
	EverQuest goes free-to-play When EverQuest II made the transition to free-to-play across all servers, many gamers wondered whether its sibling EverQuest would follow. Last week, the speculation has become reality. EverQuest will officially go free-to-play in March, which also is the month that the game first launched back in 1999.
	Dutch Supreme Court declares RuneScape theft a real-world crime Is stealing a virtual good deserving of a real-world criminal sentence? According to a recent ruling by the Dutch Supreme Court, the answer is “yes.” The court recently upheld a ruling of a criminal case in which teens attacked another youth and forced him at knifepoint to relinquish his possessions in RuneScape, including an in-game amulet and knife.
	Want to be Massively’s next Guild Wars columnist? Are you a passionate Guild Wars fan? Do you know everything there is to know about the game? Are you more excited about Guild Wars 2 than Mists of Pandaria? Can you meet deadlines and follow instructions? Then head over to Massively!
	Massively’s week in review Don’t let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively’s best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer in their own weekly roundup.

Filed under: MMO Roundup

MMO Roundup: SWTOR nets 1.7 million subscribers originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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