I was tempted to put in the lyrics from the Cyclone song by Baby Bash. But you will have to settle from this image from StruC on IRC. Note the range.

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As Adam pointed out earlier this afternoon, the changes for patch 2.4 are starting to be less and less dramatic, which may indicate that the patch is nearing completion. Here's another such indication: parts of the patch (251 MB for me) are now being sent out to the background downloader. This means that some of the patch data is finalized, and we can get those parts of the patch now instead of having to get everything on patch day.

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Blizzard is at it again and so are we! We'll be live blogging the stress test event part deux tonight, on the scene with both Alliance and Horde characters. Be sure to give a /wave to any "Insider" you see walking around. We'll be trying to stay where the action is – be it in arena's attempting to best our own 8-1 record, or watching the GMs hand out more 'phat lewts'.

Right now the server is up and running, quite smoothly actually. Keep an eye out here and we'll keep you updated with the latest!

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Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues.

Last time, when I discussed raiding on your rogue, I talked about the differences between the 3 talent trees as they relate to raiding, and the Hit cap. A couple of people made comments that basically say there is no magic number for Hit rating that you need to be at, and this is true. I'm not advocating stacking hit at the expense of all your other stats. There should be a balance, and you don't want to gimp yourself in other areas just to stack Hit rating.

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Mania has an interesting post about all the different pets available to Hunters on the Arena tournament realm (which, by the way, our own Arena team is making an appearance in this evening, along with some folks from some "Blizzard" company -- they're probably posers). The strange thing is not that Blizzard is offering pets to Hunters, but that they're only offering some pet families. So if you want to duck into the tournament with a tallstrider or a gorilla or turtle at your side, you just don't have the option.

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As you may have heard, there is a serious issue awaiting us in the next expansion. Blizzard has kept us in the dark for a while, but after careful consideration, we at WoW Insider believe it's time to throw our considerable weight (we are, after all, one of the top 50 most influential blogs in the world, with all of the benefits and perks contained therein) behind what the players have asked for, time and time and time again.

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Just in case you were wondering (or if your friend used the mediocre Shadowrun FPS as proof that all games from now on will require Vista), no, we're almost sure that there's no way Wrath of the Lich King will require Windows Vista to run. In fact, even though Neth is only kind of certain in the thread, we'll make it 100%: you won't need Vista to run the next expansion.

Not only is Vista not exactly setting even high-end gamers' hearts afire, but Blizzard is traditionally about as lenient as it gets on system requirements. They did up the ante a little bit when Burning Crusade was released, and we do know that Wrath will require a little more of your computer with those shiny ice shaders (not too much more -- they may ask for more RAM or a faster than the current 800mhz processor). But as much as Microsoft would love what may again be the best selling expansion in the world to require Vista, it's just not going to happen -- Blizzard has too many subscribers here to lock a good number of them with an operating system that's not going over so well.

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var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/The_life_and_death_of_Stefen_Colbear'; He's a man of myth, legend, and internet memes -- a Paladin crusader for Truthiness, justice, and the Alliance way. His name is Stefen Colbear, and he's putting the Horde on notice. That's how it would have been anyway, but sadly, this hero never came to be. Upper Deck hired artist Todd Lockwood to produce the above image for a special WoW TCG card inspired by The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert -- a known video-gaming and role-playing enthusiast. Lockwood's finished product depicts a microphone-sword wielding Human Paladin named Stefen Colbear, who exudes the very essence of Truthiness.

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I for one always enjoy looking at the new artwork Blizzard posts. Professionally done, and always a twist to it. Today there's a new piece of TCG artwork on the European site. Featuring a "hot warlock [who] is hot" (as WoW Insider's Mike Schramm put it), she's got a nasty arrow sticking out of her.

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Druids on the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm have been complaining about a bug which makes their characters go bald (as shown in the screenshot on the right) when they put on the Season 3 Helm. Blizzard QA Hortus addressed this issues on the official World of Warcraft Forums.

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Every Wednesday, Chris Jahosky brings you another page of Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn, a WoW webcomic you'll find only on WoW Insider!

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Don't look now, but here's the latest set of changes included in the current Public Test Realm build of Blizzard's World of Warcraft. The only thing we can say about it is that the developers have been doing more than their fair share trying to balance out everything for players to enjoy the game even more.

This batch of updates focuses heavily on the prices for many of the new item patterns sold by the Shattered Sun Offensive. There were also some new adjustments made to the skill requirements for items from the Sunwell Plateau.

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Every Tuesday (and sometimes Wednesday, when dealing with broken computers), Chris Jahosky contributes Build Shop, which takes a look into one of the many talent specs available to players.

I'm sure some of you noticed that Build Shop went on an unscheduled vacation -- this was unfortunately due to the death of my old computer. My new computer is all set up and ready to go (and plays WoW better than ever), and so I'm now officially back on the scene. There was a lot of talk in the comments from last time about the RiP (Rogue in Plate) build, so this week I'm taking a look at it for those who are interested.

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What? Stress Test, Part Deux
Who? Blizzard CMs, GMs, Devs, and the WoW Insider Arena Team
Where? Tournament Test Server
When? 5:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m, PST

Got all that? Good. Drysc announced last night Blizzard will be holding another round of stress testing on the tournament test realm. Why? Because they want more attention. I for one, am going to give it to them. In fact, WoW Insider will again have a crew on the server covering all the action. We'll all be hopping around on toons named like "Insideradam", "Insideralex", and "Insiderzach". So be sure to drop by and say hello again!

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A new PTR build hit the test realms today, and just in time for the second stress test that'll be getting underway later tonight. A few of the big highlights:

• The Druid Cyclone spell has had the range reduced to 20 yards, from 30 yards.
• The newly purchasable epic gem crafting patterns have had their prices dramatically increased. For example, the epic gem patterns used to cost 1.5g each to buy, now they're 50g each. This will make them harder for casual players to acquire.
• A few BoP crafted items have had a profession requirement of 350 placed on them.
  


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Alerinne starts an interesting conversation over on the forums about bringing WoW back into "Medieval Fantasy" -- swords and sorcery instead of alien Draenei and spaceships. Normally, the conversation about MMO genre runs along the lines of too much fantasy, but many players, it seems, would rather be running around with axes and fireballs rather than lasers and robots, especially in a world that is so akin to traditional fantasy (Orcs, Elves, and so on).

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Thorvall from the Stormforge guild on the Blackhand realm created this piece. Set to on unlisted hard rockin' song, it combines in-game raid footage, Blizzard cinematics and psychedelic guitar work. I'm not sure what the intent of the video is, but for me, it's a nice look at raid encounters I'll never see.

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When you're waiting for a player to fill that last slot in your raiding party, what do you do? Why, you make a mandala in the the World of Warcraft Caverns of Time, of course! That's exactly what player Corvia and friends did while killing time in Blizzard's MMORPG.

If you're familiar with Hindu or Buddhist motifs, or if you've studied the psychoanalysis of Carl Jung, you probably know what a mandala is. For those of you who may unfamiliar with the term, a mandala is a kind of mystic circle separated into sections

Basically, Corvia and friends assumed strategic positions amongst the swirls in the Caverns of Time while they adjusted the game's camera angle. This resulted in the cool mandala effect shown in the picture above.

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We're letting you know about an bit of speculation that's surfaced in light the "death" animation for the World of Warcraft's Sunwell Plateau final boss, Kil'jaeden.

Kil'jaeden, in case your lore's a little rusty, is the de facto leader of the Burning Legion in the absence of their supreme commander, Sargeras. This corrupted Eredar is powerful enough a boss, it seems, that he'll be fighting you as only a half-summoned entity.

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WoW Insider recently reported that Megatf, the highest ranked Arena Hunter and hunter community personality, was banned from the forums. Initially thought to be a permanent ban from playing World of Warcraft, Drysc explained that Megatf had violated the Forum Code of Conduct and was temporarily banned from the forums, with no impact on his ability to access WoW. The violation was also not because Megatf has posted keyloggers or gold selling sites, as earlier reported, only that the ban was erroneously categorized elsewhere. An unfortunate side effect of the ban was the subsequent deletion of all threads created by Megatf, some of which also happened to be stickied guides that the hunter community held in high regard. Drysc also explained that the deletion was part of the suspension and could not be undone, so those useful hunter guides were gone forever unless they were archived.

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Player Sphingx sent us this shot of the carnage her Paladin wreaked on the local crocodile population (and one cat.) Somehow after the dust settled, the corpses had arranged themselves into a neat pattern. Nice trophy shot!

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With all the bugs and changes that have been noted by the people in Blizzard for MMORPG World of Warcraft, Sttheresa from the Spinebreaker realm wondered why did they have to wait for patches just so they can act on it.

She pointed out that tweaking the game could be done during the weekly maintenance instead of waiting for one patch after the other. In her opinion, taking care of the minute errors would be easier as opposed to being flooded with problems all at once.

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It appears that another possible improvement has been spotted for World of Warcraft's upcoming patch 2.4 update. According to Boubouille of the MMO-Champion site, two new teleportation portals were added, allowing players to travel to Theramore and Stonard.

It's unclear whether this will be part of an event, or if they'll be permanent additions to the mage's menagerie of spells. Here's a screenshot of the new portals:

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In this thread over on the WoW forums, poster Davinchi of the Chogall server asks where you'll log out for the last time.

Now for me, I don't really like the question as-is. it's sort of a bit too final, you know? I expect I have quite a few years of Warcraft playing left in me. That said, the concept is sort of fun to think about in that I have to admit I sort of have ideas where my characters might retire. I've never seen my characters as completely dependent on me. Maybe I'm just too much a Roleplayer, but I can't really make a character without seeing their personality and disposition, and what they'll end up liking and disliking, and how they react to the various quests and grinds I send them on. So I have a pretty good idea, I think, of where they might end up should I ever stop playing them to move on to other characters.

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It seems that people spend a certain portion of their lives waiting. Whether it's waiting in line by the supermarket counter, or waiting to enter a realm in Blizzard's World of Warcraft, no one really likes the experience. And yet, the latter is precisely what has happened to WoW player Booyah, who rolled his characters to the Cairne realm to play on a less crowded server.

And that's not all. Booyah also has a beef with the WoW Daily Quests. Apparently, spawn campers have been depriving Booyah of the rewards of the Skettis Prisoner quest by using a macro to trigger the quest as soon as the spawning takes place.

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Ever wanted to show your prowess against a member of the World of Warcraft staff? Well, it seems players might be getting the chance to do so soon enough.

In an effort to make even the most potentially disruptive of testing phases fun, Blizzard has announced that members of the Blizzard team will be on hand to challenge players on the Tournament Test Realms.

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Arklore, as he's known on Blizzard's World of Warcraft, had a father who's serious about wanting to communicate with his son. There's just one problem: Arklore is too busy playing WoW, and his father isn't a gamer.

Left with seemingly little choice, Arklore's dad reportedly asked the gamer's younger brother to help him create a character on WoW so that he could send a message to his son.

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For many a gamer, it's the sort of thing we hope won't be happening soon. According to Gezelle over at the World of Warcraft forums, there's a possibility that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion will require players to upgrade their system OS to Windows Vista.

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A new build has been deployed on PTRs, some item prices have been changed and the range of Cyclone has been reduced.

Classes changes
Quote from Blizzard staff Druid

• The range of Cyclone has been reduced to 20 yards. (was 30 yards before)

Item changes
The prices of all patterns sold by the Shattered Sun Offensive has been increased.

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Almost everyone who's played the good old World of Warcraft game has probably heard of the Uldaman instance. The end of the Uldaman questline leads players to the Tanaris Desert, to the front doors of Uldum.

However, the quest line ends there, as Uldum hasn't actually been built by the developers yet. That being said, we have an update that brings some hope for the fate of Uldum, even if the future of the Uldum instance still remains up in the air.

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As a reminder, we're letting you guys know that Blizzard has been monitoring reported issues for some of World of Warcraft's realms. In connection with this, the devs had announced scheduled maintenance for earlier today (March 12), from  5:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. PDT, for the following realms (Quoting Drysc): 

• Aerie Peak
• Altar of Storms
• Alterac Mountains
• Anvilmar
• Arygos
• Blackwing Lair
• Deathwing
• Demon Soul
• Doomhammer
• Gnomeregan
• Icecrown
• Jaedenar
• Kel'Thuzad
• Lethon
• Onyxia
• Sentinels
• Tanaris
• The Venture Co
• Uldaman
• Undermine
  


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New PTR Build: Cyclone range reduced

A new build (21 mb) has been deployed on the PTRs/TTR, but this patch did not contain many changes which could mean we are getting closer to a release on live servers.

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There will be drama, and when there is, Guildwatch is there to ridicule and call out all parties involved. Because WoW is serious business! I've abandoned my main tank! I've abandoned my boy! I am the Third Revelation!

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Drysc reports that a number of realms are under investigation for performance issues and will be undergoing a scheduled maintenance at 5:00 AM PDT on Wednesday, March 12 with a foreseeable downtime of 1 hour. As Drysc edits the thread, realms are added (or removed) regularly. From a quick perusal of the realms, it seems as though it is the Nightfall Battlegroup that is affected. Blizzard currently lists the affected realms as follows:

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