I'd like to take a break from the hunter leveling goodness we've had the last few weeks in Scattered Shots to take a look at where hunters stand as a class in Arena PvP, and where we might be going in the future. Blizzard developer Kalgan's measurement of how the different classes are faring in the Arena got me thinking quite a bit about the state of hunters -- currently functioning at the lowest place with 50% or less representation in the three Arena types at high rating brackets, followed by mages and shamans, in the 2vs2 Arena especially.

What in the world is causing such a huge discrepancy between hunters and other classes when it comes to high-rating arena representation? When I play in Arenas and Battlegrounds, I don't feel like my class is somehow deficient or underpowered. My team's Arena rating is average -- we're not the best, but not the worst either. When I get beaten, I usually feel like the other team actually played better (or outgeared us, at least), so it's rather hard to see what's so messed up about hunters.

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In World of Warcraft if you want to find a group, roll a tank. Tanks are hard to find and good tanks are worth their weight in gold, even Tauren tanks. Goosesausage of Cenarius posted some suggestions he believes might resolve the current lack of meat shields. He suggests that non-protection specialized Warriors would be capable of tanking if the Sunder Armor buff was tweaked a bit.

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Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, 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?
It seems I spend about as much time convincing the leads that I'll start blogging more any day now, really. Seriously, when I topic comes to mind I write about it. I like tossing out ideas for discussion. I've also recently resurrected Ask WoW Insider from the grave.

What's your main right now?
A level 70 Night Elf Hunter. I had no idea they were as ezmode as they are -- I just missed the creature handler from Star Wars Galaxies.

For the Horde or Glory to the Alliance?
Alliance, obviously. My story is the usual one where I had a friend on the server so I rolled there. Naturally, she didn't make it out of her starter month. Once I got over the feeling of abandonment with the help of a wonderful shrink in the Mage's Tower I was fine. I actually had two characters around the same level: the hunter and an Undead priest. When I decided to level up I flipped a coin and the priest lost. I'm still working on him as an alt, though.

Favorite thing to do in Azeroth?
While it's an old saying, I like helping out my guildies. I'm in probably the best guild I've been in, in any game (and that's dating back to 1999). As fun as getting loot is for myself, I love seeing friends get it more.

What's the best instance in the game?
Karazhan. I like the different bosses and the fact that everyone that goes gets something, even if it's badges. My second favorite is Shadow Lab, since my first try through there was six hours of epic fail. After that it's been a breeze.

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According to Drysc, there's a Blizzard-external network problem in the central United States that is currently affecting several WoW realms. Symptoms include high latency, packet loss, disconnection, or inability to connect; side effects may include broken keyboards and bruised fists, or in severe cases, deciding to stop playing WoW for the evening.

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The Tournament Test Realm (TTR) has been running alongside the World of Warcraft's Public Test Realm (PTR) for a little less than a week and well, we have seen a good number of improvements since it was first released. Today's happy Arena update involves a worldwide event (read: a REAL worldwide in-game event).

Blizzard poster Tyren made an announcement on the WoW Forums regarding an upcoming event:

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Actual data from Blizzard....this is rare.

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Kalgan chimed in on a thread in which the original poster insisted that Warlocks, despite dodging the bullet on life tap, still have a nerf bat incoming somewhere. He rebuffed the poster with a nice little tidbit that may intrigue Warlocks. He also ensures us that, no, he does not hate certain classes.

He says that they'd like to give Warlocks some type of escape or defense mechanism so that they don't have to balance warlocks around the idea that they'd be "tanking" melee classes in PvP. By melee classes, I assume he means Warriors, who can shake off a Warlock's main defense, Fear, with very little trouble in multiple ways.

He even brings up a spell that Warlocks may be getting in the expansion.

He describes it as "a spell that places a circle of demonic power on the ground. The warlock would be able to teleport to this location from within a relatively short range (ie: 40 yards), and would also be able to summon demons more quickly if they're standing within the circle."

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Blizzard Poster Tyren has announced that this coming Sunday, 12pm to 3pm, Blizzard will be holding a Worldwide Arena Battle on the Tournament Test Realm in order to focus testing on the server. Members of the community and development teams will be queuing up to fight, so if you've always wanted to show Kalgan or Tigole what for in the Arena, this looks like your chance. You can expect a battle between the various CMs as well, so we'll have to watch to see who gets stickied and who gets banned.

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Feeling bummed that the Sunwell Raid instance on the Public Test Realms was shut down again due to bugs? Here's some good news for you. Blizzard Lead Encounter Designer Daelo has announced that the Sunwell Raid  has once again reopened for testing on all the World of Warcraft PTRs.

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A new daily quest in the World of Warcraft Sunwell Isle (Quel'danas) has been revealed. The quest gives a daily reward called The Bloodberry Elixir which grants all stats a nice 15-point boost for two hours.

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Totem Talk is your one stop shop for talking about Shamans. If you shop for that. If, like most people, you just click on a web link, then we're that, too. All we can say is that Matthew Rossi, player of two shamans, is incredibly bent in the head and has weird notions about this 'internet' thing he hears people talk about while he's chowing down on some tasty gruel from his cave in the heart of the taiga.

Recently some of the folks behind the scenes here at WoW Insider have been piqued to start their own shamans. This led to a discussion about how best to level as a shaman (enhancement! enhancement oh sweet lord roll enhancement! It's the best thing ever!) which of course I and others answered with our usual cool detachment. (Enhancement!) This then led to a discussion of the old saw among shaman players that while grinding you shouldn't drop totems.

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This video contains audio commentary, turn your sound up!

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Novice players starting out in some of the more congested realms of Blizzard's World of Warcraft might have some trouble looking for the proper NPCs to help outfit their first adventures. To help alleviate this issue, Blizzard Poster Drysc has announced on the WoW forums that the devs will be adding several new vendor NPCs to evenly spread out the population.

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Two new improvements to announce on this, your favorite site about World of Warcraft. First of all, iPhone and iPod touch users will likely be happy to see that this site, along with all the others in the Joystiq network, are now equipped with Webclip icons (these are epic icons with a +15 to stamina, which any iPhone user will appreciate). Just make a Webclip with the browser on your iPhone or iPod touch, and our shiny icon will automatically appear on your home screen.

Also, we are extremely proud to announce that we have some shiny new galleries here on the site -- our design team has implemented an awesome (and slick black) interface for browsing all of the pics we've ever posted so far, so if you've never browsed our patch 2.4, BlizzCon costumes, Around Azeroth or Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn galleries, now's the time to do so.

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It is often said that the Gnomes are the least spiritual of the races of Azeroth. The wonders of their world are mechanical in nature, technical in design, and largely owed entirely to their own hands. Gnomes have little chance to become healers of any stripe, and some say this is due in part to their willing isolation from the world of the spiritual and the touch of the divine.

But there exists in many other races the desire to connect to the source of all creation. To reach out and touch the infinite. To some Engineers, a function of their artifice is to access the forces which power all of creation, and, once there, to perhaps make just a few minor adjustments, maybe tighten up a gear or two. The cataclysmic danger of any Engineer able to do any such thing does not, as a rule, occur to such Engineers. Those who might naysay such grand designs as heresy, madness, or more commonly A Really Bad Idea For Too Many Reasons to List are not generally included in conversations on the topic. Engineers, perhaps Gnomish Engineers in particular, are not easily dissuaded from a task they have set themselves. In light of this, they do not often invite others who might try. It seems a waste of energy all around.

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So you're standing in Tempest Keep, preparing for your third take on Kael'thas for the night. Suddenly, you hear a loud crash in the next room, where your husband is putting your daughter to bed. Do you tell your team "GTG" and hearth, or do you run out of the room instantly and leave your character where it is? What if it's your dog and not your child? What if it's a phone call?

There's a debate on this very subject going on in the Raids and Dungeons forum. Belak of Crimson Fury asks the simple question of whether there's any way to kick a raid member who suddenly took an extended AFK for an emergency so they can get a 25th player in the instance. The forumgoers tell him that sadly, there's nothing he can do about it. Several raiders noted that they don't believe in such things as an emergency AFK without warning, noting that it takes less time to Alt-F4 than it does to get out of your headphones for Vent.

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Every Thursday, Well Fed Buff will be serving up the tastiest dishes to boost your HP and stats, just in time for your weekend gaming.

Are you a great adventurer who has been feeling lackluster about your predictable endeavors? Do you find yourself thinking, "my tongue is bored" or "I could have sworn I already killed Moroes multiple times". Have you been feeling the need for adrenaline?

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Starryknight, GM of the iHorde guild on Executus, has written a comprehensive guide to configuring Healbot Continued. The developer of Healbot Continued actually pointed me in her direction, so you can bet this is a decent write-up.

It also prevents me from having to re-invent the wheel, so kudos to Starryknight! Instead, I thought I would share some highlights of the guide, and my own tips and tricks to using Healbot Continued.

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If your first time discovering Grim Batol was anything like mine, it ended in horrible, bloody, unexpected death. That experience sums up Grim Batol rather well. The fortress has stood roughly 250 years, give or take a couple decades, and has changed hands more than once during that time.

Before we get to Grim Batol itself, we need to take a look at a little piece of Dwarven history: The War of the Three Hammers. You see, the Dwarves of Azeroth, just a few hundred years ago, all carried one banner. They were the Dwarves of Ironforge, plain and simple. Their society was a large one, and their wise and powerful king Modimus Anvilmar was highly revered. Amongst the Dwarven society, though, there were three clans that stood above the rest. The Bronzebeard Clan, the Dark Iron Clan, and the Wildhammer Clan.

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I don't normally check out videos with no thumbnail preview or mid to high quality streams. However, World of Warcrack seemed to be garnering high ratings and comments. What I discovered was a really humorous take on WoW addiction. This video is a must see in my book!

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Fancy helping World of Warcraft's dev teams even as you crush the opposition in your favorite PvP grounds? Blizzard representative Hortus dropped by the WoW Public Test Realm Forums earlier to announce that they have recently added some changes to the Alterac Valley Battlegrounds for game patch 2.4.

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Vaneras over at the European forums has announced that some planned changes to the starting spawn locations on the Tournament Test Realm are in the works to address congestion issues. At the moment, the current spawn areas and vendors are located in each race's starting area, which is heavily populated upon character creation and log-in. The high density of players population cause heavy lag and much difficulty purchasing items from vendors. To address the situation, Vaneras reports that Blizzard is working on randomizing spawn locations (e.g. creating a Tauren won't necessarily start you off at Bloodhoof Village) as well as adding new places for item vendors. The current list of vendor locations is as follows (subject to change):

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A few days ago we featured a shot of Stormwind from under the world that gave the Alliance city the illusion that it was floating. Not to be out done, Player Pularah of the Daggerspine realm submitted this shot of a floating Silvermoon City he snapped while falling through the world. What's next? Over the Undercity?

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I love my wife. I don't think I can say it enough. I was able to convince her to play World of Warcraft with me when the game first came out and luckily for me, she got hooked. We've been playing partners ever since, from her getting lost in the Orc and Troll starting area to exploring Sunstrider Isle together for the first time. Sometimes, she humors me by playing a few Battlegrounds with me or even helps me complete my Arena games when my teammates -- who have more or less quit the game -- fail to log on for the week. Sure, I have to twist her arm to do it, but she enjoys ribbing me after matches: "I thought you were good? How come I beat your DPS and got all the Killing Blows?" Sometimes, I help her farm or watch her back while she fishes up another Mr. Pinchy. Even when we're not together -- like when she immerses herself at the Auction House while I PvP -- we chat in-game and IRL. I can't be thankful enough for actually being married to my favorite playing partner since others just aren't as lucky. Some of our bloggers, like Lisa Poisso, plays with her entire family! Just how cool is it to play with your better half and two kids? Amanda Dean has spent the last week showing her mom around Azeroth.

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Apparently, Blizzard isn't quite done tending to the twins over at World of Warcraft's Public Test Realms.

Blue-poster Daelo dropped by the WoW Forums earlier to announce that they will once again be shutting down the realm's Sunwell Raid instance, on account of some additional issues that were found with Lady Sacrolash and Grand Warlock Alythess.

As a recap, the devs had previously shut down the instance to repair a bug that was making the encounter far more difficult than they had previously expected. No details were given regarding when they expect the instance to be back online.

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If you're one of the many denizens of World of Warcraft's Tournament Test Realm, then Blizzard Community Manager Hortus' latest announcement will make you guys smile.

In the game's forums, Hortus said that they have successfully introduced vendors to some of the new staring areas on the Tournament Test Realm.

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PTR notes update

The PTR patch notes on official sites (US and EU) have been updated, we learn that cleave type attack will no longer break CC spells. Nothing about alchemy stones changes and the new mats requirements for Sunwell Plateau designs, so make sure to check yesterday's news to know about undocumented changes.

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Welcome back to another installment of Patch Note Watch, the show where we go through the PTR patch notes in meticulous detail and show you everything that's changed since the last version! Much of this has been covered already here on WoW Insider, including rollbacks on Life Tap and Flametongue, some multi-target effects no longer breaking CC, and a nice new recipe for jewelcrafters. But I am a completist. I must post every detail, so let's begin. As usual, any change that we haven't covered on the site that looks interesting will be bolded.

• Blizzard Entertainment would like to dedicate the patch in memory of Gary Gygax. His work on D&D was an inspiration to us in many ways and helped spark our passion for creating games of our own. As avid D&D players and fellow game developers, we were all saddened by the news of his passing; we feel we've lost a true adventuring companion. Thanks for everything and farewell, Gary. You will be missed.


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