Druid tanking is up in the air for Wrath

In the recent explosion of news about Wrath of the Lich King, Ten Ton Hammer had an interview with Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton world of warcraft, where they asked some solid questions on why exactly we needed another tanking class.

To quote the Ten Ton Hammer interview with Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton;

Chilton: We're kind of designing the Paladin tank to be the best AE tank, and we're designing the Warrior to be the best sheer mitigation tank, and we're designing the Death Knight to be the anti-spellcaster tank.

From that statement, at least buy wow gold, you can see that the subject of a feral druid's place in the end-game main tanking plan doesn't even get a mention. You might think that, as far as the designers are concerned, a feral druids' future tanking viability is merely an afterthought.

But that doesn't mean that in the new expansion, all of the new Talents will only be buffing up the Balance and Resto trees.

Oh, no. Not hardly.

No, I have seen what is currently active for the new Talent trees up to level 80, and I can assure you, we may not be in the forefront of the developers' minds when it comes to 'cutting edge' tanking cheap wow gold, but we have NOT been forgotten.

Follow along after the break to find out more!

15 Minutes of Fame: Character art inspires Cenarion Circle raider

15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft gold players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about at 15minutesoffame (at) wowinsider (dot) com.

For all the WoW players who sink into Azeroth to escape the travails of the world outside are others who seem set ablaze by the ideas, energy and connections sparked during their gaming. Among the inspired: Aislinana of Cenarion Circre, whose casual interest in assembling a sweet character portrait of a guildmate has morphed into a growing passion, with a growing fan base clamoring for their own portraits.

15 Minutes of Fame: Tell us how you got started doing character portraits – because you're not actually a professional artist or long-time hobbyist, are you?Aislinana: Well, we were hanging around in Black Temple after a raid finished up, so I snapped a screen cap of my friend's priest wow gold, Kallindril, and said I'd spruce it up in Photoshop. Little did I know that it was going to turn into an obsession for me. I mean, I've always loved taking screenshots. I take them all the time to capture something awesome looking, much like I do with my own digital camera. So I've had an eye for this stuff. I just started to retouch/edit and then eventually started painting in effects in Photoshop.

Deep Breath Syndrome and related ailments

Since time began, chants of "Onyxia Deep Breaths more" have been heard throughout the land announcing the arrival of new WoW patches. Sure, bugs have come and gone, but Onyxia's Deep Breath has never Deep Breathed more. Really. Deep Breath is fine. I promise.

Burning Crusade has spread this phenomenon to other bosses, too. In Karazhan alone, the Prince, the Maiden of Virtue, and Nielas Aran seemingly cast whatever it is they cast more frequently. Infernals, Holy Fire, Flame Wreath world of warcraft gold, the whole shebang. In general, this crops up for encounters that have an element of randomness. Malchezar's infernals can drop wherever they'd like. Safe spots are only safe until the randomness of the encounter decides to be random. In the case of Deep Breath, it simply occurs for your raid more often because you didn't take the proper steps to prevent it.

I actually think it's sort of fun to see so many people complain about these things with every patch because it's a good sign of the encounters actually working as intended buy wow gold. I just wonder how many encounters this has applied to over the years. Onyxia is most famous for it, but how far does Deep Breath Syndrome reach?

Around Azeroth: A light in dark places

Finlome of Firetree appears to be trying a new method of killing Onyxia. Instead of bringing a raid of forty people, he's decided it would be best to bring himself and a torch. This may sound crazy, but hear me out -- Onyxia's Lair has over fifty dragons in a cave with no apparent ventilation world of warcraft gold. That thing's got to be FILLED with methane by now. Torch + methane gas + fire resist gear = free Tier 2 helm. It's brilliant! No, wait, it's the dumbest plan I've ever come up with. But it's still less painful than running that instance twenty weeks in a row waiting for Bloodfang.

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it buy wow gold. And please, if you've got a suggestion for a new ending joke, write it in the comments, or else I'll subject you to samples of Around Azeroth Nigerian scam e-mails!

Keys to a successful alt?

I am a terrible leveler. I started playing back in January 2007, and in all that time have managed to produce a single 70. Admittedly, I think she's a very good 70 and she stays busy wow gold, but you would think that nearly 1 1/2 years would be a sufficient period of time to level another class to the endgame. Guess not.

Lately I've been trying to fix this and have gone back to leveling a few alts. While talking to a friend last night about his propensity for leveling alts at the approximate speed of an SR-71, it occurred to me that I have two warriors cheap wow gold, only one of whom has leveled quickly. The other just can't seem to fill up the XP bar. Obviously there's no class difference to cite as a possible reason, so I started thinking about what affects the leveling speed of an alt, and why I've got so many unsuccessful ones littering the character selection screen:

Ready Check: Teron Gorefiend

Teron Gorefiend is usually the fourth boss players face in Black Temple and is really the first one to prove difficult in any way. While guilds new to the attunement-free Black Temple might have breezed their way through High Warlord Naj'entus, Supremus and the Shade of Akama world of warcraft, we're seeing many run into a standstill when they face Teron. Even those clearing Black Temple for the first time last year had some difficulty on the fight, so this Ready Check aims to look more closely at the fight and help out raiders who might be stuck on it even today.

You first encounter Teron Gorefiend in Shadowmoon Valley, during the popular 'Spectrecles' questline. We won't spoil the quests for those who might not have done them, but suffice it to say Teron is now un-alive and well in Black Temple cheap wow gold. To get to him from the Shade of Akama, wait for the Ashtongue mobs to turn neutral ('Hail Akama!' yells ring out), return to the courtyard where you fought trash prior to Akama and go right. A repair, reagent and rep vendor is unlocked at the back of the courtyard, if you detour, otherwise continue through to a flight of stairs and some Shadowmoon Champions plus friends.

Gorefiend's trash isn't too tricky and can be done with two tanks and CC wow, although be careful of patrols and adds. When you're done with these mobs you'll find yourselves standing in a room with Teron alone on a platform at the other end. Ready for some fun? Let's take a look at what he does.

Wrath will have mounts with passengers

Some more information on Wrath has bubbled to the surface. This is like Christmas every day for me! I'm very excited wow gold. New bits in today's installment of Facts of the Lich King:

* Some Wrath mounts will be able to take passengers (!), and ground passenger mounts will work in the old world as well! This sounds awesome -- although it might be boring to be the one who's not driving, it could also let you take a break. And being able to cart around lower-level characters in the old world will really speed up those instance runs.
* Trainers and AH will stay in the old world world of warcraft. Not surprising, but incredibly irritating. At best, it's a minor inconvenience and burns your Hearthstone timer. At worst, you're stuck in Stormwind for an hour when you could be doing much more interesting things, all because you wanted to respec or buy some mats. Not to mention the leveling-up process -- going back to the old world every level to train was obnoxious in BC, and it'll almost certainly be obnoxious in Wrath.

Around Azeroth: Shine a light

Hey, it's Banshih of on Steamwheedle Cartel again! Not satisfied with robbing banks in our Grand Theft Azeroth competition, she's upped the ante with a more daring heist -- the heart of Hakkar the Soulflayer himself. Sure world of warcraft, Hakkar isn't exactly in his prime anymore, but he always appreciates having visitors talk to him, kill all his friends and rip out his internal organs. It's lonely in the jungle these days, with those damn kids and their Zul'Aman and their ... jukebox music ....

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder cheap wow gold? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing. And please wow gold, no more sunsets, and don't shoot anyone in the city of Durham today.

Overview of the Dragonblight

I've examined the Dragonblight before when Blizzard first gave us the preview of the zone, but some other news about the region has come into the spotlight in the last few days. I'm sure you've noticed, the Wrath news is everywhere, especially here on WoW Insider. Below I have a little breakdown of what we know so far.

* The Dragonblight is both the beginning and the end of the dragon life cycle. The Titans granted the Dragonflights their powers here cheap wow gold, and this is also where dragons go to die.
* This zone contains a shrine for each of the Flights which surround Wyrmrest Temple. These shrines are under siege by the Scourge.
* Alexstrasza herself is lending a hand in recruiting for the war effort in the Dragonblight.
* The Scourge has been twisting the remains of fallen dragons into Frost Wyrms and potentially other monstrosities wow gold.
* The Scarlet Crusade returns in this zone, renamed the Scarlet Onslaught.

WoW Insider Weekly

Looking for something to read. Look no further -- here's the best of our weekly features from the last seven days wow gold, presented in a handy roundup format. If you missed it the first time, don't make the same mistake twice.

Guildwatch: The aftermath
The messiest part of guild drama comes after it happens. And when the bank has been ninja-d the last gquit has been typed in, and the last wipe happens -- that's when Guildwatch appears.
Shifting Perspectives: Druids just wanna have funCaw!

Some Druids in the Penny Arcade alliance pull off a little fight-or-flight terror, The Birds-style. He Said, She Said: HypermasculinityAmanda and David wonder why your mage is so incredibly buff. Build Shop: Shaman 18/43/0Pound for pound cheap wow gold, one of the best melee DPS dealers in the game -- the Enhancement Shaman enters the Build Shop.
More great weekly features after the break, including an in-depth look at Cooking, and a must-read post for every Hunter.

WotLK: The rain is coming

While we've gotten tid bits of information here and there from Blizzard posts over the past few months, the news has been relatively dry with regards to any official announcements about Wrath of the Lich King wow gold. We know that it's in alpha testing, and we've had a bit of fun with some screenshots. But that's about it.

Nethaera tells us that the development is coming along really well, which we've all heard before. However in her typical witty fashion she also gives us this gem of a line, in response to people calling WotLK vapor-ware:

"The great thing about vapor is that at some point it condenses and becomes rain. The rain then falls and nourishes that which it falls on cheap wow gold. It takes time for it to happen, but it does happen. Signs point to clouds forming in the sky, but you never can tell when they will let loose the rain..."

Take that for what you will, but I read it pretty squarely as "Some major WotLK news is on its way." And that is news in and of itself.