If you want to live through any boss fight as a tank, the one thing that you need above all else is health. Stamina, which gives ten health for every one point of stamina, is by far the most important stat that a tank needs in order to do their job well. No matter if you have reached the armor and defense cap, or if you're producing more threat than your DPS can keep up with, you won't live for a lick if you don't have enough health.

Defining minimum health is an important concept in end game raiding and groups. For most instances, a minimum of 10,000 to 11,000 unbuffed is needed. This will at least let you take a few blows from a boss before dying, hopefully enough blows that the healer will be able to get off a few heals on you. For more entry level raiding environments, it's necessary to have unbuffed health between 11,000 and 12,000. If you've got 11,500 hit points going into Kara, you'll probably be able to reach 13,000 health fully raid buffed. This will let you survive a good portion of Kara, which means you can get more gear, which begets more health in the long run.

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I was thrilled when Blizzard announce that the Burning Crusade would usher in flying mounts. Then we found out that we would only be able to use flying mounts in Outland, since Blizzard had not rendered some areas of the game. Lalia of Icecrown suggested that flying mounts should be allowed in the old world, just with a lowered ceiling.

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Alex recently talked about the lack of bag space for the hybrid class. This is quite true for them, as they have a hard time with the near infinite amount of bag space that is demanded of them. However looking at the non-hybrid classes, in particular a warrior, it can be seen that they too have their own issue of sorts. For an end game tank, it becomes less of an issue of actual bag space, and more of an issue of the limitless combinations of gear.

Most tanks swear by outfitter – a tool that allows you to quickly change around pre-saved outfits. For instance, say I'm going to be tanking the nature phase of Hydross. Before even setting foot in SSC, I would have spent an hour or so making sure I had all the necessary gear, stats, and configurations that Hydross requires. A good part of this time would be spent getting all those gearing changes into an easy to use outfitter profile – so I would just have to click one button to wear the gear.

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I have a confession: I've been mostly using the basic, vanilla UI for as long as I have been playing WoW. I do use mods, I'm not crazy, but the basic unit frames and action bars have served me pretty well.

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The results of the primary elections are in. In an unsurprising landslide victory, Thrall was confirmed as leader of the Horde faction by capturing 69.7% of the vote. The bitter race on Alliance side led to a down-to-the-wire victory for Dwarven King Magni Bronzebeard who pulled in 24.9% of the vote. A distraught High Priestess Tyrande Whisperwind, who received 24.5% was denied a recount in the Wetlands. It is time for the final election for Supreme Leader of Azeroth.

Here are your candidates for the Supreme Leader of all of Azeroth:

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PvP lovers had better get their favorite battle gear ready because Blizzard has invited players from across the globe to participate in the latest World of Warcraft Arena Tournament on the Tournament Test Realm.

Blizzard Poster Bornakk made this announcement on the WoW forums stating that players, regardless of which region they come from, can join the fun today from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. PST by logging into the TTR. What's more, members of both the Community and Development teams will also be joining the fray.

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One of my favorite WoW podcasts(besides our very own, of course) is Casually Hardcore from WoW Radio. They're a very fun bunch and they cover the topic of age fairly often in their fan mail.

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Warriors of all shapes and sizes have one thing in common, their need for a good shield. They are the life blood of any tanking strategy. They give us health, protection, and threat. For a protection warrior, the shield is often time the most important part of their inventory. This is both a blessing and curse. While a good shield can't help a bad tank become good, a bad shield can easily make a good tank bad.

There are a few key stats in a shield to look at. First, the armor – one of the most important stats for a tank. It lets us take less damage from each hit, which means our health lasts longer and our raid survives more. Block Value is another important stat, and helps determine how much damage a shield will outright mitigate when an attack is blocked. Finally, stamina and defense are also always present on a shield, and are again, a key stat for a warrior.

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There are few trailers that leave me anxious to see the final result. However, Kilh is a genius. From the beginning to the end, this trailer is just full of brilliance. If you can believe it, this was his first work using Adobe After Effects! You can read about his movie progress on his blog.

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My original intent for this week's Hybrid Theory was to take a close look at the Badge Gear for Hybrids in patch 2.4, but that turned into a monstrous project that left my head spinning. I remained vigilant, until I saw the specific class columns were working on this themselves, starting with Shifting Perspectives. Upon hearing that, I jumped for joy and it was as if the Heavens opened up and thousands of beautiful angels embraced me against their supple forms.

So instead of filling your browser with loot links and badge prices, I'm going to talk about the future of itemization, from patch 2.4 and onward.

"We do plan to have more specs share some loot. I know it's great when the Retribution-Paladin piece drops, but that's a piece that isn't good for 26 other classes/specs, so hopefully we can make it so the item will apply to more classes/specs so even the randomness of loot won't be so much of a big deal."

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it looks like players have responded well to Blizzard's call for more World of Warcraft fan art - so much so that Blizzard has decided to feature three of them all in one go. The three new pieces of WoW fan art are entitled "Darkshore", "Lady Vashj" and "Prince of Blood" - all by Jian Guo.

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Impolite as he may be to uninvited guests, Moroes can still throw a hell of a party. Unaware that the beer was goblin-strength, Alderkin of Thorium Brotherhood indulged a bit too much one night and had to be carried out of the room ... in a coffin! Ha ha ha!

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

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There has been a lot of talk about keyboards and mice as of late, leading many of you to look at your play style under a different light. There has also been a bit of buzz over at Macro Anatomy about binding keys to different actions and macros. Well, my friends, it's spring, love is in the air and these two fascinating subjects have found romance.

The developer of Its G15 Binder addon tipped us off to the updated version of this simple, but useful mod. It has one very simple requirement, you should probably be using Logitech's G15 Keyboard to get the most use out of this addon. I should also mention that the developer made special mention of our own Adam Holisky as a potential fan of this addon, so consider the hat tipped in your direction, Adam.
The description is pretty concise, so I'll quote the developer in describing it:

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Yeah, It's called the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, but the more we learn about this Blizzard-hosted gathering, the more it starts looking a bit more like Blizzcon '08. Sure, there's all the tournaments you'd expect, but there's a lot more too. We've already talked about the goody bag, but there's one thing that jumps right off the events page for anyone who's starved for WoTLK news: live discussion panels with Blizzard developers! Says the site, "developers will be discussing such topics as gameplay, lore and art and giving the audience a chance to pose questions and give comments."

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It would seem that a certain player in Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been seeing red lately - even while asleep. It's not surprising, considering that the player had seen it fit to lay down for a snooze in the Scarlet Monastery. And on a torture rack, of all things.

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WotLK Bestiary Update: Iron Dwarf

The official WotLK bestiary page has been updated with a new creature: Iron Dwarf.

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WotLK Bestiary - The Iron Dwarf
The Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary has been updated with a new creature: the Iron Dwarf.
Quote from: Blizzard (Source) The Explorers' League has scoured the far corners of the world, seeking to uncover the truth behind the origins of the dwarves. Now it seems they may be one step closer to unlocking the secrets of the past.

The latest clues come from ancient dig sites within the Howling Fjord, where the iron dwarves were first encountered. Etched with runes of power - and with lightning pulsing beneath their thick, metallic skin - they may represent the missing link between the dwarves and the legendary titans of myth. Unfortunately the malevolent iron dwarves have openly defied the Explorers' League and seem intent on destroying any and all artifacts connecting them to the shadowed recesses of history.


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It seems like there's going to be a truce this coming Sunday between the Alliance and Horde factions of World of Warcraft. In case you've forgotten, this weekend is the celebration of the Noblegarden feast.

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If you're planning to attend the upcoming Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational 2008, you might have come across a certain error message while trying to purchase tickets. Blizzard poster Thundgot made a sticky thread on the World of Warcraft Europe Forums (the Worldwide Invitational threads) to explain why some people keep getting the error message "Limit of 3 Payment Attempts Reached."

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