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!

About the Bloggers: Alex Ziebart

Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves wow gold, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.
What do you do for WoW Insider?

I'm primarily a weekend blogger for WoW Insider, but I also stick my nose in during the week when I can. I am also a columnist for Hybrid Theory and wow I take turns with Elizabeth Wachowski writing Know Your Lore.
For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?

Glory to the Alliance! While orcs bug me for some reason I can't decipher, I don't really have anything against the Horde. I started playing Alliance because that's where my friends rolled and we started a pretty awesome guild there, so I stuck around and came to love it. If those people had rolled Horde instead buy wow gold, I might be playing there. Both factions have their own feel, and they're both very cool.

Forum post of the day: Epic Battleground Loot

I've heard some amazing stories about what people have done (or not done) in favor of World of Warcraft. I have to say Lils of EU: Windhammer's story takes the cake. The tale, told by her boyfriend Artimis, describes how she went into labor while playing Warsong Gulch and continued to play until the battle was complete. 12 hours later the couple became proud parents of Hayden. We've heard about weddings, proposals, deaths, and divorces, but a WoW birth is pretty darned epic.

The forum thread had many supporters and detractors for this behavior cheap wow gold. I have to agree with Mankirk of Daggerspine "Putting WSG before child birth is pro..." While many believe that the first stop should be the hospital, in this case the new mom was advised to stay calm at home as labor progressed. Nightkestrel of Vashj staunchly defended the couple's labor management decision. Childbirth is an intensely personal thing, and this story has a very happy ending.

Congrats Lils and Artimis wow gold, and welcome to the world Hayden! Be sure to check out WoW Rookie every Monday.

Sunday Morning Funnies: I'll tickle your soul

This week, we have things that suck, users and abusers, opportunists, resourcefulness, and even some creepy happiness. You know that when drawings get emotional, entertaining things happen. If you get bored world of warcraft gold, you can even read the handful of poor reviews last week's lot was given!

1. The NPC rebellion still holds, and Dark Legacy Comics's characters must fend for themselves.
2. Some people just don't like video games. Extra Life.
3. Shakes and Fidget walk into a dangerous situation and Fidget tries some magery. You know him and magery.
4. NoObz shows you how to subtly convert your friends to the Warcraft ways.
5. Supermegatopia shows us daily quests from the other side of the fence.
6. There are two great comics from Ding! this week. Have you ever wondered about some of those people who queue battlegrounds and then immediately leave world of warcraft? Are they all queue hoppers? Other people have been showing around their orphans. Some, have been using their orphans.
7. Teh Gladiators are meeting up with some old foes, and Trevor seems unusually happy. You could almost say creepily so.
8. Disgraph has given us part 2, part 3, and part 3.5 of the Orphan Saga! I'd watch the orphan, because he rocks. Also, it seems there may have been some errors last week when trying to read part one, which I sincerely recommend you do, as I laughed pretty hard.
9. You should check out the latest LFG. As a side note, which is not necessarily showcased perfectly in this week's comic as much as some others wow, I've been reading this book. Sometimes I read, you see. At the recommendation of several friends, I picked up a Terry Pratchett book, The Colour of Magic. Now, to continue my ramble, I have always enjoyed LFG's warlock the most, as I'm sure others might agree. To my delight, there is a warlock of sorts in this book that seriously reminds me of this character. Not in any way, shape or form am I suggesting they are related, but if you like one, you should like the other. /ends tangent.

Kennedy hospitalized after seizure; not a stroke

BOSTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the lone surviving son in a famed political family, suffered a seizure at his Cape Cod home on Saturday morning but was recovering well enough by afternoon to watch a Red Sox game from his hospital room.
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The 76-year-old Kennedy did not suffer a stroke wow gold, as was first feared, and doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital said he is not in any immediate danger.

"He's resting comfortably, and watching the Red Sox game with his family," said Dr. Larry Ronan, his primary care physician. "Over the next couple of days, Senator Kennedy will undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure, and a course of treatment will be determined at that time."

On Saturday morning, Kennedy felt ill at his home and went to Cape Cod Hospital. After a discussion with his doctors in Boston, the senator was flown by helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was soon joined by his wife Victoria, three of his children and his niece, Caroline Kennedy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he spoke to Kennedy's wife in the afternoon and was told "his condition is not life-threatening, but serious."

"But the one thing I can say, if there ever was a fighter, anyone who stood for what we as Americans, we as Democrats, stand for, it's Ted Kennedy," Reid said addressing the Nevada Democratic Convention in Reno.

In October, Kennedy had surgery to repair a nearly complete blockage in a major neck artery. The discovery was made during a routine examination of a decades-old back injury.

The hourlong procedure on his left carotid artery — a main supplier of blood to the face and brain — was performed at Massachusetts General. This type of operation is performed on more than 180,000 people a year to prevent a stroke.

The doctor who operated on Kennedy said at the time that surgery is reserved for those with more than 70 percent blockage, and Kennedy had "a very high-grade blockage."

Distinguishing between a seizure and a transient ischemic attack, TIA, often called a mini-stroke, can sometimes be difficult.

Seizures are little electrical storms in the brain. They tend to be brief; an occasional one can happen to anyone even without a prior history of seizures cheap wow gold, especially if there has been some prior brain trauma.

A stroke is either ischemic — a clog in a blood vessel — or hemorrhagic, bleeding in the brain. Hemorrhagic ones are very rare. Kennedy had the carotid artery surgery to try to prevent the ischemic type. A stroke kills brain tissue; how much depends on how big it is and how long it lasts. Some people show no lasting effects; others can be partly paralyzed on one side or somewhere in-between.

"Sen. Kennedy was at high risk because he had surgery for an artery in his neck," said Dr. Wendy Wright, The Emory Clinic, Assistant Professor, Departments of Neurology and Nuerosurgery,

But she said there are a lot of things that can cause seizures, such as an infection or medication.

"Certain medications are known to cause seizures. A stroke can cause a seizure, a brain tumor or a head injury, or something in the brain itself," Wright said. "Common symptoms that we know about are falling on the ground, shaking and having confusion."

Kennedy, the second-longest serving member of the Senate and a dominant figure in national Democratic Party politics, was elected in 1962, filling out the term won by his brother, John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a World War II airplane crash. President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and his brother Robert was assassinated in 1968.

Kennedy is active for his age world of warcraft gold, maintaining an aggressive schedule on Capitol Hill and across Massachusetts.

He has been vocal in both his opposition to the Iraq war and support for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, who is trying to become the first senator elected to the White House since John F. Kennedy.

Kennedy made several campaign appearances for the Illinois senator in February, and most recently another in April.

Always concerned about maintaining his health, Kennedy regularly consults with a battery of Massachusetts General doctors.

Still, he maintains homes in both Boston and Washington and attends not only official events, but numerous others recognizing his family's political history.

Just last week, he and Caroline Kennedy awarded the annual "Profiles in Courage" award commemorating President Kennedy. And Friday, he attended a ribbon cutting at the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

He was preparing to host the annual Best Buddies Challenge event on Saturday afternoon, a fundraiser for the Best Buddies organization founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver that helps people with intellectual disabilities. The event attracted celebrities, including New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and Olympian Carl Lewis.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, Kennedy's niece, said they appreciated all the messages of care they had received for the senator.

"It's always a comfort to the family to know that Sen. Kennedy is in the prayers of millions," their statement said.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who went to the hospital, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Obama said were offering their prayers for his quick recovery.

Obama, beginning a tour of hospitals in Eugene, Ore., told reporters that he had been in touch with the senator's family. He said, "We are going to be rooting for him. I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out."

A man walking by Massachusetts General was startled by the news when he asked about the reason for the large media presence. "Ted? Is he all right? Jeez, I'm taken aback. I just saw him on television yesterday buy wow gold," said Jerry Leonard, 76.

"He's a Kennedy. His name is synonymous with this area," the retired bartender said. "I'm a Bostonian, too, and he's done a lot for us around here and for the senior citizens in particular."

Big Download talks to Blizzard about eSports and PvE/PvP

Our newest sister site Big Download is just a week old, and yet they're already playing with the big boys -- Steven Wong has posted an interview with Blizzard's Lead Designer Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, as well as Paul Della Bitta and Joong Kim of Blizzard's eSports division about what it's going to take to tune the Arena game just right. As he did before world of warcraft gold, Kalgan confirmed that the Arena Tournament Realm is acting as a laboratory for changes and updates to classes.

Della Bitta confirms, also, that Blizzard is still interested in letting players watch the matches, either via television or some other way (we heard that way back when from WSVG's President -- when they were still around, anyway). And Joong Kim lays out a simple timeline for the Arena tourney: Blizzard expects the online portion to be finished mid-July, and the Global Finals will start later in the year wow gold, around October (which is when another big Blizzard event is taking place... coincidence?).

Wong doesn't get Kalgan to list a favorite class (obviously -- think of the torment that would cause on the forums), but he does confirm yet again that Blizzard isn't giving up on keeping both the PvP and PvE games the same. They want players using buy wow gold the same abilities as much as possible in both types of gameplay, and apparently they're committed to juggling both of those flaming torches for as long as they can.

The science of snagging a tag

WoWWiki defines the tag as damaging a mob, thereby reserving the monster or NPC for you and your party so that only you may loot or gain XP from it. It also turns the status bar of the mob gray to other players to indicate that it has been tagged by another player. Rufushonkeriv asks an interesting question over at LiveJournal world of warcraft, however, about kill stealing and how it can happen in World of Warcraft. The tagging mechanism, which isn't present in more than a few MMOs, is supposed to prevent kill stealing in the game.

However, the poster asks how a mob he has tagged is sometimes tagged away from him and explains how, when attempting the same thing, he only ends up killing a grayed-out mob faster. It is quite possible that the poster uses a DoT spell to get a mob's aggro buy wow gold, only to lose it to another player who deals damage with an instant cast spell. Lag can also sometimes explain how a player might think she damaged a mob first, only to have it turn gray when another player hits it.

Technically, the first player to damage a mob tags it -- it isn't the player who has aggro or the player who first cast a non-damaging spell on the mob (such as Mana Tap or Hunter's Mark). There is some confusion as to the amount of damage needed to secure the tag. For example, if a player damages a mob for 1 point and a second later another player hits it for 1,000... who tags the mob? In theory wow gold, it should be the player who hit the mob for 1, because she damaged the mob first. The mechanic is pretty straightforward but in some cases players are confuddled through a mix of lag, lack of understanding about the tagging rules, and just plain old bad luck. As a rule of thumb, when tagging, hit it fast and hit it hard!

All the World's a Stage: Descriptions done right

All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening. Except for this week world of warcraft gold, when it is more like the early afternoon.

Your usual AtWaS columnist, David Bowers, has found himself a tad busy this weekend. Due to this, I'll be nosing in on his territory for a day. Don't worry ladies and gentlemen, I'll take good care of you. Just yesterday we discussed a little about RP descriptions. That is, the physical descriptions you can give your character via addons such as FlagRSP2 or MyRoleplay. David seemed to think this was a pretty good topic cheap wow gold, so we're going to go a little more in depth into the right and wrong way of writing these.

Right and wrong in this case is naturally up to the individual, but in general there are some pretty solid guidelines you should keep in mind. The first and most obvious is that you should always proofread your writing. In general, roleplayers gravitate towards people with at least some grasp of the English language wow gold. A sloppily written description is the first thing someone will see, and it's going to set off alarms in the heads of other people.

Macro Anatomy: Fishing fun

Sean is diving, sunning himself and trying to drink all the cervezas in Cozumel this week, so don't feel bad if he doesn't respond to emails and comments. He'll be back in action next week, fresh and ready to get the Macro train rollin' again!

For this week's Macro Anatomy, I thought I'd share a fun little fishing macro I found in the forums. Tomza wrote a great macro for those of us wanting to react quickly to enemy players while fishing in world of warcraft. I've altered it a bit, as I prefer to use the SHIFT modifier rather than the ALT, but other than that it's pretty much verbatim.

This macro, when clicked will equip your fishing pole if it is not already equipped. If a fishing pole is equipped, it will cast your line. (Two clicks of this macro will equip a pole and cast.) Each subsequent click will cast your line wow gold. If you hold down the modifier key (in this case the SHIFT key), you will equip your weapon.

Keep reading for the macro, it's a fun one!

Major League Gaming hosts WoW competition

Major League Gaming, which is apparently the parent company of WoW Insider favorite MMO-Champion, have announced that there will be a new PC gaming circuit, featuring our favorite MMO. The circuit will have events in San Diego, from June 13th–15th; Orlando, July 11th–13th; and Dallas, October 3–5. Each event will have $22,500 in prizes -- it's no Blizzard Arena Tournament, but that's still a lot of money.

The circuit will be played on HP Blackbird 002 computers, so I guess you won't have to worry about frame rates (that thing has 1 GB of VRAM). The competition will be 3v3, just like Blizzard's tourney. Only 32 teams will be allowed to register, and you need to have an account set up on MLG's site first; registration opens May 15 wow gold. They say "more details on rules and the official format will be released on May 15th" -- maybe Blizzard will let them use a special tournament server? At any rate, it looks like Blizzard may have been more successful at turning WoW into an esport than we thought.

Gamers on the Street: Reading up on WoW

Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft.

When you can't log in to World of Warcraft, do you get your fix from game sites instead? Gamers on the Street visited with two chatty young players from Zul'jin this morning about their WoW reading and research habits. Deathrowcame (70 Undead Warlock) and Docevil (70 Undead Rogue) were both on alts when we met up, but both popped over to Orgrimmar on their 70s to finish our conversation and take a group shot wow gold, as well as to share a few tidbits about life on Zul'Jin.

Be sure to drop by the comments at the end of the article and share your own favorite sites and sources.

Gamers on the Street: Hi guys, thanks for sharing. We're curious about people who like to read and research their characters and game info a lot. Are you both the studious type?
Deathrowcame: Yeah, I am. I got a 70 'lock that I bought, so I have to research it – no, I'm joking,. LOL
Docevil: I read up on what cheap wow gold abilities I can get and what the easiest specialization is to use to level.
Deathrowcame: I surf wowhead and thottbot daily to research gear for my level and class and what quest my class should do.

Second gate open in US

When the North American realms came back online after maintenance today, the second Sunwell Plateau gate was open. This means that all you high-end raiding guilds now have a chance to tackle M'uru, SWP boss number five, while I cry softly to myself and work on melting Malchezaar's face off. The first SWP gate was opened after patch 2.4 had been live for two weeks, and the second, today, was three weeks after that wow gold. This makes the likelihood seem pretty decent that the fourth third gate, allowing access to Kil'jaeden himself, will open four weeks from today, but we'll have to wait and see.

Nobody killed M'uru when 2.4 was on the PTR, so we don't really know what he might drop, although four trinkets named "...Naaru Sliver" seem fairly likely cheap wow gold, as they are SWP drops and M'uru is a Naaru. See World of Raids for stats on the trinkets and some information on the M'uru fight. The European realms will presumably get the second gate open tomorrow, after their maintenance.

Choosing a class for raiding with low FPS

NSDragon wants to know over on Livejournal: what's the best class to raid with on a low-end system (as in, one that gets only about 3-10 FPS during raid boss fights)? First of all, there's no reason you should be raiding with a system like that anyway -- even a cheap PC will run World of Warcraft better than that wow gold, and even if you can't afford a new computer, odds are that you can at least add some RAM in there and speed things up a bit. But let's assume that you're a great person and you've given all your money to charity, so there is no way that you can afford to buy anything faster.

In that case, as most of the commenters on the thread say, ranged DPS is probably your best bet. You won't be able to pour out as much aggro as someone who isn't lagging, but at least you'll be able to use your 3 frames per second to do some damage, and you're sure you won't draw aggro and wipe the raid. As for which ranged DPS class, though, I'm not sure -- Hunters have autofire, so you can be sure that you'll be pushing out DPS constantly cheap wow gold. Mages aren't too hard to raid with (most Mages will actually tell you that they just press one button over and over again). Warlocks might be easier with their DoTs, but even that relies on timing in a way that Hunter DPS really doesn't. I'd say Hunter.

Some people are saying Healers, which I originally thought was a bad idea, but if you combine their recommendation of just looking at the floor (to speed up the FPS) and watching the healing meters, you might have something there cheap wow gold. Wouldn't be very fun (whack-a-mole FTW), but you'd be helpful to the raid in situations where you wouldn't have to move around much. So healer might be a viable choice for a low-end computer user as well.

Addon Spotlight: Buffet

Welcome to the Sunday edition of Addon Spotlight. Today I am going to spotlight one of my new favorite addons. Many of you may shake your head in silent ridicule of my constant love for Tekkub's addons wow gold, but you need to check out Buffet!

Buffet, in Tekkub's words, is a simple water and food managing addon. It combines two of my favorite addon characteristics; saving actionbar space and making use of the macro system.

So, basically, what you get with this addon are two automatically generated macros that will manage your food and drink items cheap wow gold. The addon will create the two macros, which are placed in your General Macros tab, you just place them on your actionbar. Suddenly you will have two great little automated buttons. In combat, they switch to consumables you can use in combat, like Super Healing Potions, Super Mana Potions and Master Healthstones. Out of combat, the macros (to include the icon and tooltip) switches to the best food / drink combination available.

Check in after this for the best description available; Tekkub's.

The epic raid AFK

There are few things more frustrating in the game than a person going AFK in the middle of a fight. Sometimes there are good reasons, and sometimes the reasons are...less than adequate. But no matter what wow gold, we all have an epic AFK story that makes us laugh and cry all at the same time.

The ultimate AFK (so far) in my WoW career happened while we were on Illidan last week. Uly, a good Mage in our guild, was standing with the ranged group dpsing Illidan during phase 1. He was a little high on threat cheap wow gold, so he switched to his wand. Nothing wrong there.

So he's standing there, wanding away as I'm moving Illidan across the terrace to avoid the fire. It looks like he's doing his job. He get the parasites.

"Uly," the raid leader calls out.

A second goes by buy wow gold.

"Uly, move," calls the class lead.

Another moment.

"Oh $!@# he's AFK."

WoW Insider Show on the air tomorrow

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Insider Business, PvP, Arena, WoW Insider Show
Our weekly podcast returns to the Internets tomorrow afternoon -- Turpster and I will be on, along with John "BigBearButt" Petricelli, and Zach Yonzon, assuming he can reach us from his location in the Philippines. Since Zach's on, we'll get back into the PvP discussion that we planned a few weeks ago (including whether or not WSG is working the way it's supposed to now, and what's up with those new Arena changes), plus we'll chat about 2.4.2 of course, Rossi's reasons for not PuGing, and all the other most popular stories in the last week of Warcraft.

We'll check our email inbox as well -- if you'd like to send us a note (or a joke), you can do so at theshow@wowinsider.com. And we'll be on IRC as usual: in the #wowradio channel at irc.mmoirc.com (or you can just chat directly from WoW Radio's webpage).

Should be a good one. See you there: tomorrow afternoon at 3:30pm EST over on WoW Radio, it's the WoW gold Insider Show live on your PC.