Last week, the It came from the Blog family of guilds celebrated our second annual Lunar Lunacy. We gathered in Orgrimmar at the Lunar Festival area near the flight path. The minimum level to participate was 10, so that we could organize a raid in order to make good use of guild perks.

With participants from level 12 to 85, we got the following achievements:

• Elders of the Alliance Members of The Insiders (our sister max-level guild) summoned us with Have Group, Will Travel to the enemy cities and used Mass Resurrection as needed.
• Elders of the Horde Mage ports took us where we needed to go for this achievement.
• Elune’s Blessing We defeated Omen and basked in the afterglow.

Some players also got the Frenzied Firecracker and Rocket’s Red Glare achievements while we were organizing the raid.

Then those of us with all of the sub-Cataclysm Azerothian flight paths completed the Elders of Eastern Kingdoms achievement by following the Overachiever’s Guide to the Lunar Festival, only abandoning one non-flying person along the way. (Sorry, Pricecut!)

Continue reading It came from the Blog: Lunar Lunacy 2012 snapshots

Filed under: Events, It Came from the Blog

It came from the Blog: Lunar Lunacy 2012 snapshots originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Saturday, the It came from the Blog family of guilds will be holding the second annual Lunar Lunacy event. We will be attempting a few Lunar Festival achievements and respecting our elders. Hopefully, they weren’t paying attention to those of us who got the Scrooge achievement during the Feast of Winter Veil.

• When: Saturday, Jan, 28 at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. server time)
• Where: Meet at the Lunar Festival area near the flightpath in Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H).
• Who: Any Horde player level 10 or higher (for raid forming)
• How: Ask Roblinator or anyone in It came from the Blog for a guild invite if you are not already in our family of guilds.
• What: The plan is to get Elders of the Alliance, Elune’s Blessing and a few other achievements.

The highest character you have will probably have the most fun, as otherwise you may be abandoned with the other lowbies if we honor some flightpath elders. Death knights don’t take too long to be event-ready — just make sure you are done getting food thrown at you by the time the event begins.

Hope to see you there!

Filed under: Events, It Came from the Blog, Achievements

It came from the Blog: Join us for the second annual Lunar Lunacy originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At the end of last month, It came from the Blog held its Caroling Carnage event in order to get the feat of strength achievement A-Caroling We Will Go. This involved putting on our Gaudy Winter Veil Sweaters and using them to carol in each Alliance city.

We met under the tree in Orgrimmar, and the world server crashed. There were only around 40 of us, but maybe the normal population of the Horde capital city couldn’t handle so many under the already busy tree. So after we reconnected and dusted ourselves off, we zipped out to the front of Orgrimmar.

Our plan was to get to the area formerly known as Auberdine in order to get to Darnassus. A few of us were under level 20, so that meant hoofing it. We traveled to Razor Hill, sloshed through the mire to the Northern Barrens and then gathered at the Mor’shan Rampart. Then we stayed on the road, making our way to the Zoram Strand and then on the beach up to the wasted coast across from Teldrassil.

The gallery of our travels, as well as the continuation of our story, are after the break.

Continue reading It came from the Blog: Caroling Carnage event snapshots

Filed under: Events, It Came from the Blog

It came from the Blog: Caroling Carnage event snapshots originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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.

We’re going to start the new year off with a simple setup from Emandiputs from the Stormscale realm. Emandiputs is a self-described long-time WoW Insider fan — and since this is the first Reader UI of the Week of 2012 and my 100th Reader UI of the Week column, I figured I would give the floor to a veteran of the site. So thank you in advance for the submission and the screenshots, Emandiputs.

And thank you all for coming along with me on this journey. I didn’t really know how long I would be writing for WoW Insider when I joined on. One hundred Reader UI of the Week columns as well as a host of other content later has really hit me today as a substantial thing. Thank you all for reading and letting me get to do this awesome thing. I appreciate it more than you could ever know.

Let’s get down to business, then. What we’ve got here is Emandiput’s crack at another user interface after a new computer purchase and a trip back to the world of Azeroth. I cannot tell you how much I recommend trying to come up with a whole new UI on a new system. You’ll feel fresh and clean and have that happy feeling when everything fits the way you want it to. An old UI from an old computer can sometimes leave behind a weird taste in your mouth. Something just isn’t right, you know? It happens for me, at least.

Continue reading Reader UI of the Week: Ring in the new year with something basic

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

Reader UI of the Week: Ring in the new year with something basic originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

His new Unreleased Dragon Soul Cinematic is no different. Wowcrendor revisits the final cinematic in Dragon Soul, in which the dragon aspects chat about their new mortal lives. We even get an arrow-to-the-knee rebuttal, killing a joke that very badly need killing. I can’t help but feel this is a more realistic conversation between the dragons than the one we actually got. After all, who wants to spontaneously be made mortal? Bring on the Age of Pandas!

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

WoW Moviewatch: Unreleased Dragon Soul Cinematic originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

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.

Hey everyone, great news! The Darkmoon Faire is back in town! From now until Saturday, January 7, you can play some games, eat some carnival food, and … oh yeah, make a ton of money off it.

Usually, when new content is released, it’s only the level 85 characters who can make money hand over fist. But the coolest thing about the Darkmoon Faire is that you don’t need to be a level 85 character to participate in it, or even profit off it. A level 20 character can have just as much fun at, get just as much benefit from, and even make as much money as a level 85. It just takes the right amount of knowledge.

And, oh yeah, it also takes a Darkmoon Adventurer’s Guide. You’re carrying one of those on you at all times, right? Right? Well, according to Wowhead, most of you sub-level 85 players aren’t. And that’s a gigantic missed opportunity for a lot of money — thousands upon thousands of gold. The kind of money that’s just unheard of at lower levels.

Continue reading Profiting off the Darkmoon Faire

Filed under: Economy, Gold Capped

Profiting off the Darkmoon Faire originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

The Darkmoon Faire is in full swing again, from now until Jan. 7. The event has run into some issues this month, but it’s still a grand ol’ time overall. Many of you are still working on your Darkmoon Faire achievements, however, and others still have yet to step onto the new Darkmoon Island at all.

So what can you do at the Faire? What games are there to play? What achievements can you earn? All of those questions and more are answered in our Guide to the new Darkmoon Faire. Don’t miss it.

Filed under: Events

Don’t forget WoW Insider’s guide to the Darkmoon Faire originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider’s series of fantasy death matches, bosses, leaders, and powerful figures of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title.

The votes have been tallied and Brann Bronzebeard, greatest explorer in the history of Azeroth, takes the championship title in the first exhibition season of Two Bosses Enter. With a clear win and holding almost 700 more votes than his opponent, Brann decisively took this match on the road to victory. Not only was Brann a popular contestant on this season of Two Bosses Enter, but commenters were drawn to his haphazard approach to danger and his affinity for unleashing horrors onto Azeroth that will one day need to be slain for loot.

There were some wonderful responses to the final matchup last week in the comments. While I’m not going to be talking about all of them, since many are too long to appropriately format here, I have to highlight all of the spectacular effort in the comments coming up with the fan-made scenarios of these fun matchups. Thank you guys for making Two Bosses Enter fun each and every week.

Now, it’s time for the event you’ve all been waiting for. Brann Bronzebeard takes a decisive victory against his brother, Muradin — but how does the young dwarf out-drink his older and more resilient brother?

Continue reading Two Bosses Enter: Brann Bronzebeard wins the exhibition season

Filed under: Two Bosses Enter

Two Bosses Enter: Brann Bronzebeard wins the exhibition season originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. Dawn Moore covers the healing side of things for discipline and holy priests. She also writes for LearnToRaid.com and produces the Circle of Healing Podcast.

This is it — the last priest healing boss guide of the expansion! (After this, it’s pandas or bust, baby!) Are you excited? You should be, because the last boss fight of Cataclysm is a loot piñata that’s actually easier than the second to last fight a lot of fun! Hopefully, you all remember the drill from last week … You want to familiarize yourself with the mechanics of this fight before progressing further into this guide. LearnToRaid.com has a nice video guide for Madness of Deathwing, and Icy Veins has an excellent written guide.

Priests of either spec should know that cooldown management is the key to succeeding in this encounter as a priest. The encounter as a whole is not particularly difficult, but using your regen cooldowns at the right time will pave the way for you to hold onto just enough mana from start to finish. I recommend using your first Shadowfiend after the Mutated Corruption dies on the first platform, and your first Hymn of Hope just after jumping over to the second platform. Your second Shadowfiend should be used as soon as it becomes available, which will allow you to pair your third Shadowfiend and second Hymn of Hope together (just like we used to always do it in Wrath — cast Shadowfiend, then immediately follow it up with Hymn of Hope). From there, use everything on cooldown, and you should be sitting pretty for mana the whole fight.

Continue reading Spiritual Guidance: Priest healing the Madness of Deathwing and heroic Dragon Soul

Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

Spiritual Guidance: Priest healing the Madness of Deathwing and heroic Dragon Soul originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

We get very attached to our online pseudonyms. But how unique are they, and what if you come across someone with the same name and a bad reputation?

Dear Drama Mamas,

I regularly comment on a certain WoW-based blogging-slash-news site under a given username that I’ve been attached to for many years. The site is read by a lot of people, and I’ve told quite a few stories there regarding events on my home realm, and today I had the unfortunate pleasure of overhearing mention of someone with a name near-exactly the same as mine whilst on an alt. But not in a good way. The doppleganger name was being addressed with disdain and malice (hate, even). I did a bit of digging on the armory and discovered that the character in question wasn’t some fresh low-level character–it was 85, moderately geared, and even shared classes with my main that I had indeed, come to mention on occasion. What makes this slightly more interesting is that none of my characters share the name I use on the site–the name is unique to that location only.

Continue reading Drama Mamas: The case of the disreputable doppelganger

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Drama Mamas

Drama Mamas: The case of the disreputable doppelganger originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

One of my favorite touches in this piece is the original video being simultaneously played in the corner. While this music video definitely feels like a learning experience for Cartmans, the end result is a surreal, real-life-in-WoW that blends music history with gaming innovation. It’s a trippy walk down memory lane with The Beatles, and the video just fundamentally works for me.

I have to admit that I’m not the biggest Beatles fan to ever walk the planet, but this video really won my heart. Cartmans painstakingly recreated so much of the original that you can feel his care and affection for the material. That speaks volumes in the end result.

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

WoW Moviewatch: Something originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

I can’t explain why, but last night on Twitter I went on an Animorphs nostalgia trip and took most of my followers down Reminiscence Lane with me. Eventually the discussion devolved into a debate over which animorph was the best. I think we need to settle this in the most relevant place possible: a World of Warcraft blog.

Personally, I’m going with Rachel. If you choose anybody but Rachel, you’re wrong and should feel bad about yourself.

View Poll

Necromann asked:

What level in first aid do I need to do the DMF monthly? Also, is it weird to 0 linen cloth on the AH?

Continue reading The Queue: Being a nothlit is cheating

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue

The Queue: Being a nothlit is cheating originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like the Eye of Sauron has found a new home in the rear vent of Orgrim’s Hammer. Or perhaps this airship, which is perpetually in motion and never seems to stop to refuel, can only be powered with the actual planet Jupiter. Either way, submitter Galdon of Elysion of Burning Steppes (EU-H) is about to get the remaining flesh seared off of his undead bones.

Filed under: Around Azeroth

Around Azeroth: According to cannon originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

It looks like the Eye of Sauron has found a new home in the rear vent of Orgrim’s Hammer. Or perhaps this airship, which is perpetually in motion and never seems to stop to refuel, can only be powered with the actual planet Jupiter. Either way, submitter Galdon of Elysion of Burning Steppes (EU-H) is about to get the remaining flesh seared off of his undead bones.

Filed under: Around Azeroth

Around Azeroth: According to cannon originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers’ Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader’s Handbook, available now from No Starch Press.

While WoW continues to bleed subs, guild leaders and officers everywhere are having a tough time recruiting quality players. In this environment, guilds sometimes find themselves in a permanent state of open recruitment. This week, however, we’re looking at the opposite problem: a guild that is permanently closed to new players. A concerned officer wants to know what he can do to change this mentality.

Hello Scott,

I hope you had a great holiday season. I am an officer in a small guild of around sixty people… Of the sixty members many are alts or inactive with only a handful of active people (around ten). I came to the guild looking for an escape from the sheer number of people I had to deal with in my last two guilds that had 400+ members.

For a while everything worked just fine, but in the last few weeks some members have began making requests for recruitment. With the small amount of active players being on at odd hours some new members feel a bit alone and put off and end up leaving. We have a strong desire to make a 10 man raid team but don’t have enough geared/leveled/interested people. We are just short of the perfect storm needed to raid with our current members so recruitment seems to be the only answer. The issue is that while I may be all for it, the other active players have issues with recruitment.

Continue reading Officers’ Quarters: When your guild won’t recruit

Filed under: Officers’ Quarters (Guild Leadership)

Officers’ Quarters: When your guild won’t recruit originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

The gifts have been unwrapped. The cheese logs have been consumed, the Greench’s plans foiled, the eyes shot out. The Winter Veil holiday is drawing to a close today — you have only a few short hours to get everything you wanted to accomplish done. (If you don’t want to miss anything, you should probably check out The Overachiever’s Guide to Winter Veil 2011.)

That said, those of us here at WoW Insider want to know: Were you able to achieve all your in-game goals for the Winter Veil holiday? Did you get all the achievements you hoped for? Was Greatfather Winter kind to you? Did you make a fortune selling Small Eggs? Or did you just say “bah, humbug” to the entire holiday?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

Breakfast Topic: Did you accomplish your Winter Veil goals? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Every Sunday, Chase Christian invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. Feel free to email me with any questions you want answered, like why paladins are so awesome.

As I looked forward to this year last December, I wasn’t sure holy paladins were going to survive 2011 in one piece. We were just learning to adapt to the three-heal model and figuring out how to manage our holy power properly, and I had serious doubts about our AoE healing and mastery bonus. Luckily, I was wrong, and we have thrived in Cataclysm. We started by focusing on our specialty, powerful tank healing, and then expanded to take over the raid healing role as the year progressed.

While holy power and the new healing model were the big topics of early 2011, AoE healing has clearly been the topic that defined this era in holy paladin history. Holy Radiance’s first beta version, Healing Hands, was loudly trumpeted when the Cataclysm NDA was lifted. Light of Dawn’s struggle to find a place in our arsenal has caused more lines of paladin patch notes than any other ability. Learning to AoE heal has been our biggest challenge this year but also our greatest success.

Continue reading The Light and How to Swing It: Remembering our first year of holy power

Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It

The Light and How to Swing It: Remembering our first year of holy power originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. Welcome to our feral cat edition, brought to you by Chase Hasbrouck, aka Alaron of The Fluid Druid blog. Let the face clawing begin!

Just like last year, this December brings both new beginnings and endings. A new raid, with new toys, but the end of an expansion, with likely no significant changes to mechanics until the release of Mists of Pandaria. As we sit around the fire with mugs of cider, enjoying (or loathing) our new sweaters, let’s take a moment to look back at the events of 2011. Those of you who have already set them on fire, feel free to follow along from outside. (Bad cat! Bad cat!)

Patch 4.0 blues

Let’s face it: Life was not so hot in early Cataclysm for us ferals. It’s long enough ago that it’s hard to remember, but our AoE damage was just pathetic. Swipe hit so weakly that our best AoE strategies revolved around multiDoTing, which was quite difficult and even then wasn’t very powerful. Heroic Maloriak really brought this out; feral was consistently the lowest DPS spec, a good 10% below the next spec and almost 50% below our fellow balance druids. While most of the balance issues are typically ironed out quickly, this one persisted for quite a while.Thankfully, our single-target damage was passable, but only just.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: 2011 for feral druids

Filed under: Druid, (Druid) Shifting Perspectives

Shifting Perspectives: 2011 for feral druids originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

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

Torment of the Week has updated! Check out Nothing Normal and Mega Justice. Otherwise, you shall not meet the shocktopus and be very sad.

Because we didn’t run a list Christmas morning, this week’s list is extra-long and full. As always, if you know of a new comic or one that has updated that has been dormant awhile, let me know in the comments section. Enjoy!

• LFG #523 and #524 and #525 and #526
• Complex Actions Cheetah Gryphons (sketch) and The Guys Are Slugs, But the Girls Are Cute! and Merry Christmas and a Brightly Stitched New Year
• Teh Gladiators Auction the Big Orange Thing (keep clicking next!)
• The Black Dragons Chronicles Hertenclaus part 2 and Christmas Filler #3 and #4 and #5 and Hertenclaus part 3 and Christmas Filler #6 and #7 and Hertenclaus part 4 and Celebration Announcement
• The Warcraft Hero in When Ogres Attack and Mortal Man
• Arena-Inside Transformation

Continue reading Sunday Morning Funnies: The shocktopus

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

Sunday Morning Funnies: The shocktopus originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft

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

A big thank-you to all of our readers and friends for your love and support in 2011. Happy new year, and may 2012 bring you great joy and Asian-themed epics!

Jack Spicer asked:

When you send emails to users, like for example to say that they’ve won a 12 days of Christmas prize, what address would the email come from? I want to make sure that I’m not blocking your email communications.

The winners of our Winter Veil giveaways will most likely be contacted either from alexziebart at gmail dot com or alex at wowinsider dot com.

Continue reading The Queue: Happy New Year

Filed under: The Queue

The Queue: Happy New Year originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Master World of Warcraft