There's a storm brewing over in the UI & Macros forum, and it's about the terms of use for popular add-on site Curse. If you use mods at all, you're almost certainly aware of the site; I go there all the time. They're probably the biggest mod site right now. So it comes as something of a surprise to me that such a pillar of the scene would have what seems to be a pretty abusive set of terms service.

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A few days ago it was reported on the PTR that those dastardly evildoers of dastardly deeds (aka: Warlocks) managed to enslave Brutallus. These vile locks then took their newly enslaved demon out to play. And playing for a creature of pure darkness means letting them wreak havoc onto the unsuspecting citizens of the Isle of Quel'Danas. I would have expected a hotfix to this almost immediately, and some form of public announcement that the bug has been fixed. However as of Saturday at 7 p.m. EST, there has been no such luck. Instead, Blizzard decided to hotfix the Brutallus encounter inside Sunwell Plateau, the new 25 man raid.

The hotfixes Blizzard has given the encounter are:

• An overall health decrease from 11 million to 10 million.
• Meteor Slash damage increased from 10,000 to 20,000, with the duration doubled. Meteor Slash will now hit you 100% of the time, no exceptions.
  


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Many of us that have played the game every day over the years have developed some habits of sort. One of the habits that I've found myself doing night after night is logging off in the same spot. For me, this spot is at the staff vendor in the Aldor section of Shattrath. I find myself logging off here almost every night since I hearth back to Shat when I'm done raiding, and then go and repair immediately (less I get yelled at for not being fully repaired).

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The latest build of patch 2.4 on the PTR bucks the trend of the ever-shrinking orc and draenei shoulder pads by treating us to monstrously large weaponry. Truly, this is a sign that Blizzard loves us and wants us to be happy. There is not a thing in this world that comes to mind when I try to think of something that makes me squeal in delight as much as a gigantic sword swirling through the air, or my enemies slamming into my massive shield and bouncing off uselessly.

In all seriousness, this is probably a bug and some of it actually looks pretty ridiculous. When I first noticed it, I almost wondered if my paladin had actually shrunk because I had long ago adjusted to her Crest of the Sha'tar being amusingly small. It would be nice to have a shield that wasn't tiny like a bean, but an increase in size on everything in the game just doesn't seem intentional.

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When you put five, ten, twenty-five, or forty people together you're bound to come across people who annoy, amaze, and amuse you. Peri on Terokkar posted a list of raid archetypes who may seem familiar to you. Some highlights of her post include:

• The GM's Significant Other- Okay, so he was going to have to quit but he tricked his SO into playing. She loves it. She's terrible. You'll effectively 24 man every boss. Count on 4 constructs in the raid, every attempt. She plays a Belf.
• The Backbone- Plays a tank. Doesn't have much to say. Made an error once in SSC, or so you heard. Will disconnect when Gorefiend is at 30% and keep aggro while offline for the rest of the fight. Has never said anything negative to the healers. Ever. GL with your progression without one of these. Hates the prima donnas.
• The Prima Donna- Requires special attention from management. Constantly whining. Plays some vital role. Might be a main tank, mage tank, or lock tank. The officers really hate this guy and as soon as they can find another tank with 24,000 buffed HP, he's out.

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I would like my tier 5 for arena points now please.

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World of Warcraft gamer Artemis expressed some disappointment in the WoW forums, saying that the battlegroup queues were taking too long. Artemis went on to say that the urge to play casually in battlegroups just "vanished with the queue length."

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One of the biggest complaints World of Warcraft players have always been voicing out in the game are the atrocious queue times they have to wait before a proper 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 match can be set up during the PvP Arena sessions.

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Our hearts may return to their regularly scheduled descent into blackness, Azeroth is leaving Valentine's Day behind today. At least, that's what the calendar says.

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While there's definitely been quite a few changes around Shattrath in 2.4, one thing that stayed the same was good old Griftah. It looked like he might be back to stay, the saga of his betrayal and exile over with his triumphant return to Shattrath, complete with a legitimate piece of merchandise to sell. Which was, in a way, a bit disappointing. After so many patches, seeing what Griftah got up to next was almost a tradition.

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Many of our readers will be happy to know that several people are reporting that the character transfer to the PTR is up and running. Our thanks to WoW Insider reader Jason for pointing this out to us.

You can get on the PTR and learn to love patch 2.4 by heading over to the Account Management page on the main World of Warcraft site. When there, click on the "Test Realm Character Copy" button, and then on "Copy a Character". After you've asked Blizzard to copy your character over, come back and check about every hour to see if they've done it yet. Even though the wait time says four days, in my experience it has been substantially less.

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Believe it or not, World of Warcraft is the most popular massively multiplayer online roleplaying game in the world! Our super blogger Mike Schramm shared a this report over our sister site, Massively. It probably comes as no surprise that WoW is topping the chart. There are more active accounts on WoW than all of the competition combined.

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Last week the Firelord of Molten Core, Ragnaros entered the Arena to face down the Archlich of the Plagueland, Kel'Thuzad. Did Ragnaros' Magma Blast burn the competition into a crisp or did the lethal combination of Shadow Fissure and frost attacks send the Elemental Lord to Blackrock Mountain in defeat?

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I could try to explain this movie, but I'm not sure if that's possible. The first time I viewed the latest video in the How to Paladin series, my jaw was on the floor the entire time. If you have some kind of insight into what goes on in Shepiwot's head, please let me know.

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If you heart a Blizzard NPC, would you take the time to express your feelings and take a screenshot of the event as well? Kraver would. In fact, that's exactly what the World of Warcraft did very recently, as you can see from the picture above entitled "I Heart Tyrande."

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Dear PUG Members,

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An anonymous reader sent in this nicely framed shot of The Park in Stormwind. Tucked away in the corner of the Alliance city, the Park servers as the home to a contingent of Night Elves complete with trainers and a Moonwell. Stop by for a pleasant picnic or a hide-a-way from the unending turmoil that engulfs Azeroth.

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The calls go out through trade chat, "Premade AB, must have 250 resil." "Warlock looking for 5v5, have 400 resil, pst." It takes some doing but with Season 1 (soon to be Season 2) Arena gear available as PvP honor rewards, this is not outrageous. Changes on the public test realm that allow the purchase of Gladiator gear with Badges of Justice would make it still easier to acquire gear that is loaded with resilience.

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MMO-Champion has just posted a whole batch of loot that's just been unlocked on the test server. It seems no-one's found a vendor for it yet, but especially with some it still sporting "Sunwell Badge Loot" names, speculation right now would suggest it's part of the new tier 5 Badge of Justice gear we were promised by Drysc a bit back. Right now, one of the new daily quest givers at the Sun's Reach Armory named Smith Hauthaa implies that if you can help her get supplies, she will be able to sell you powerful weapons and armor. It looks like we'll need to do her daily quest "Making Ready" enough times to unlock the ability to buy the gear.

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Hawkstriders are cool, mostly because they serve as the World of Warcraft equivalent to the chocobo. Of course, it'd be even cooler if the hawkstrider came in additional color schemes, right? Well, once 2.4 goes live, Blizzard will let you go after another extra-special hawkstrider mount: the Swift White Hawkstrider.

According to MMO-Champion, this epic mount comes off of the Heroic form of Kael'thas over at the Magister's Terrace instance.

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We've got some news for the World of Warcraft PTR fanatics out there who want their daily fix of pit boss killing. According to Daelo, Lead Encounter Designer for WoW, Brutallus has gotten more powerful at the cost of some hitpoints.

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Brutallus PTR Hotfix
Brutallus is now much, much harder.
Quote from: Daelo (Source) We're currently hotfixing some additional changes for Brutallus on the PTR. Feedback on the the encounters in the Sunwell has been excellent so far, and we appreciate the assistance provided by players in testing and tuning these encounters.

- Brutallus' health was decreased from around 11 million to 10 million.
- Meteor Slash damage has also been increased from 10000 to 20000, the effect duration has been doubled, and you shall no longer dodge, parry, block the ability. Brutallus can also no longer miss with his Meteor Slash.

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The changes just keep on coming, and at the oddest times too. The following was just unlocked on the patch 2.4 PTR: Arena gear is now obtainable in exchange for PvE tokens. According to World of Raids, Tier 4 tokens will get you season 1 gear, T5/6 will get you season 2, and the new Sunwell T6 tokens will get you Vindicator gear. You can also, apparently, exchange Badges of Justice for "all PvP gear," as pictured.

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