Just in case the original $5k was too much for you on that Dell Warcraft laptop deal, Dell has apparently dropped the price to a still pretty high $4k, or $3999. That's still more than our questionable pricing out of the laptop and all of the goodies that come with it, but then again, it is a sweet gaming-spec, Warcraft branded laptop -- can you really put a price on a paradise like that?

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A couple of months back, we relayed that Wowhead gained 3D models. Now, they're set to become better. We mentioned in the previous post that player models were in the works, and I'm here to bring you an exclusive preview. Users will be able to see items on any race and gender character model, so if you're trying to figure out how those boots look on a female Tauren, you're in luck (although it's a good bet that they'll look odd). Wowhead sister site Thottbot will be receiving this improvement as well.

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Bornakk, ye ol' blue poster, has announced a good bunch of character moves tonight. These moves will be active from March 28th (tomorrow) at noon PDT, and go until April 4th at noon PDT (next Friday). Get your character moves in fast if you want to take advantage of this, they often are shut off early.

There are two transfer groups available.

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This thread over on the forums starts off a little silly (it's a complaint about Kael'thas being both in Tempest Keep and Magisters' Terrace at the same time), but later on gets into some really interesting commentary and thinking about just how the lore and story in this game works. Obviously, there are no problems with having Kael in two places at once (as Bornakk says with an epic burn, a character can be alive on page 1 and dead on page 10 at the same time), but it's interesting that that's not always what happens in the game. Griftah, for example, was never in two places at once, and neither was Hemet Nesingwary -- both of those characters had progressive lore storylines. But Kael, like Thrall, has a storyline that evolves as a character moves forward in their own storyline, and so Blizzard has placed him in two different places at once, and asked players to move their own characters to see the storyline in order.

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With 2.4 out and Proximo 2 released, I guess now is the time to talk about it.
The original review of Proximo gives you the basic features, those being a list of enemies, party targets, one click binding, and more. Proximo has become one of the most, if not the most, popular arena addon. It addresses the basic need to be able to easily target or check the status of the opposing team that tab targeting and a focus just cannot do.

I know I have seen this question in IRC a lot today, so I will go ahead and address it. Nothing will show your opponents specs in arenas anymore, as Blizzard has disabled inspecting enemy talents in arenas.

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Since patch 2.4, hunters have been having some problems. Aside from the outrage over the fact that our traps are now announced, we seem to be having issues with mana.

On the forums, hunters are not seeing much love from the non-hunter crowd, but I suppose that is to be expected. It is important to note however, that our mana efficiency is an intended attribute of our class. We are useful, not solely, but arguably primarily, because we can provide sustainable, long-term DPS. No, we don't crit like mages. In a boss fight though, we can keep going after mages short out.

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I gave a preview of Omen 2 awhile back before patch 2.4 hit, and we saw just how popular the addon is the other night. It has become almost necessary in the WoW community, and when it isn't working right, it really has an effect.

Everyone that has downloaded Omen 2 has noticed that there are some... issues. The author is aware of most of these, so fixes are on the way, but there's only so many hours in a day. Bugs and issues can crop up in strange places though, so it never hurts to report them. There are some minor things you can do yourself to make sure things work smoothly and be confident the problem isn't on your end, so take a look behind the jump for some tips.

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Blizzard has updated the Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary this afternoon with the Tauren looking Taunka. These are large animals that have adapted to the cold of Northrend. Instead of being in harmony with nature like Taurens are, they are in contention to it.

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Yesterday, we sent out a call for unofficial changes, and you guys responded with plenty. The official patch notes were posted earlier this week, but here are the unofficial patch notes for patch 2.4 we've found so far.

• Raid reset timers are showing the wrong times. (known bug)
  
• Various weapons are showing up as the wrong sizes. (known bug)
  
• A number of AV changes were made, some of them documented, some not.
• We've confirmed that yes, the Chocobo squawk (press spacebar when standing still on the Blood Elf racial mount) is new to the game.
• Sound effect for Power World: Shield has changed in volume (thanks, Matt), as have some other sounds in the game
  
• Netherstorm mobs have had their health tuned down, and frostbolts seem to go faster (thanks, Nick)
• Blizzard has adjusted things so that the walljumping exploit is no longer valid in many places (thanks, Jacob)
• Motes of Water drop rate seems to be nerfed (thanks, Tancred)


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It's been quite some time since we last saw World of Warcraft's bestiary section updated with new monsters from its upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Fortunately, a new creature has recently made its way into the WotLK website, giving players a little more insight on the new content that they will be seeing.

The new monster that was introduced, the taunka, takes the form of a creature similar to the horned tauren race found on Azeroth's more civilized areas. The taunka have adapted to its frigid environment and have developed into a race of dour and seemingly untrusting creatures.

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Probably not. But if you did guess March 25th as the date patch 2.4 was released you might have an email from our own Elizabeth Harper in your inbox in the next few days. So how did you all get to guess March 25th as the magical date?

Some of you might have just pulled the date out of a hat. I can't really blame you if you did, since Blizzard has been notorious for releasing things "when they're ready." WoWWiki even has a page for the often-quoted blue response to people asking when the patch will be released: "soon."

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We hit on this a while back, but now that Magisters' Terrace has finally landed on the live realms, it's time to choose an official abbreviation. Players are apparently all over the place, but the time for debate and discussion is over. Let's come up with the real choice for Magisters' Terrace abbreviation.

When making this decision, lots of things have to be considered. MT is out no matter what, as not only do many things in game use it as an abbreviation (main tank, mistell, Montana -- ok maybe that last one is a stretch), but it also leads us to confusion with the other "MT" instance in the game: Mana Tombs. For that reason, MaT is also out, though MagT has found a lot of foothold with many players, as has MgT. I originally thought MT would work well (since Mana Tombs is actually "Mana-Tombs," and would therefore be abbreviated M-T), but I haven't see that too much so far.

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Or

"Someone's been breaking the first two rules of Mote Club."

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Totem Talk takes another week to talk about PvP on a shaman in the wake of 2.4 going live. Matthew Rossi hasn't had as much of a chance to play with the changes to talents but what he has been able to do, he now presents to you in a post about post patch PvP. Pickled peppers.

Last week we talked PvP. This week I respecced to an elemental and enhancement set of builds with more PvP focused talents (basically the 40/0/21 elemental/resto build and a variant enhancement build) based on feedback from the comments. I filled out the gaps in my elemental set with the new Seer's Ringmail set, which at least made it easier to experiment with the builds. A decent (if not outstanding) elemental, restoration or enhancement PvP set is now within reach of the new 70, after a few Auchindoun or Caverns of Time instance runs to get honored with Lower City and Keepers of Time.

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This week on Scattered Shots, David provides a break in the rushing waves of Patch 2.4 news to wax philosophical about his love of being a hunter. To be perfectly honest, he hasn't had time to even try out the new patch yet, but he's really looking forward to waxing on and off about the patch at some point as well.

They say that being a hunter is WoW on easy mode, but in reality, the "easy mode" style of hunting is only the beginning of what a hunter can do. Sadly many hunters never really arise out of that stage - easy hunting can become like a rut in which one may not even realize that there is another way to do things. A player can rise out of this rut, however, either through an enterprising nature, or through acquaintance with a good hunter role-model. However one rises to it, the opportunity is there for hunters to do all kinds of things amazing things, mostly at the same time.

In fact, you could say that a fundamental mechanic of the hunter class, probably the mechanic I love most in the entire game, is that of controlling multiple characters at once: the hunter and the pet. You have the most control over your hunter character, obviously, and the pet functions as something like a yo-yo which is attached to the hunter. You can point the pet in the direction of an enemy to attack, or you can recall it to wherever you are, but you can't tell it, for instance, to kite an enemy around in circles in the same way you yourself could.

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Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.

Almost every column, I talk about Welfare Epics since they are specifically designed for casuals to get their purplez on and I just assume that you all know what I'm talking about. But Dave recently sent in a question asking what they are and I realized that if I didn't write for WoW Insider, I probably wouldn't know either.

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Raid Rx is designed to encapsulate and cure the shock and horror that is 25-man raid healing. Ok, so it's mostly horror... Anyways, if you're a big fan of X-TREME Whack-A-Mole (or are being forced into it against your will) this is the column for you. I need a T-Shirt that says "I came, I saw, I forgot to stand inside the circle and got locked out of the Kale Fight." /bonk

So some of my diehard fans (hi mom!) might notice that this week I've deviated from my normal Tuesday posting to bring you all the latest healer gossip... err... tips from the newest 25-man raid scene. My goal is to do a compilation of all the major raiding changes reported since the patch went live. After that I'll get into the things I learned the hard way last night on Kalecgos. Join me after the break!

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Well Fed Buff serves up tasty dishes to boost your HP, stats and appetite – with that special WoW twist, of course.

Skinners will recognize Shadowmoon Valley's Oronok Torn-heart as that cool guy by all the boars who'll buy your greys, sell you water, repair your gear and even give you a hefty heal when your hit points run low. Questers will recognize Oronok as "the tuber guy." Today's Well Fed Buff combines both convenience and tubers in a dish that's easy, tasty and provides a hefty +vitamin buff.

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Reader Sebastian wrote in to us with an interesting question: what good is patch 2.4 if you don't have the Burning Crusade expansion yet? He has a lower level character that hasn't hit 70 yet (he's on level 46), and wants to know exactly what 2.4 is doing for him. From what we can tell, not much.

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Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it is preparing to launch World of Warcraft in Latin America. This localization of the game will be based the current European-Spanish version but will have new in-game speech.

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(This video contains some heavy language, but only to keep in stride with the show that it is parodying, Trailer Park Boys. You've been warned.)

Trailer Park Boys fame has reached critical mass. Not only is the homegrown, low-budget mockumentary-style taking over the globe in real life, now wowstudios (Joe Ashe) has parodied it in World of Warcraft.

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One of the little things that snuck by in the 2.4 patch notes is the ability to inspect players across factions. Horde can look at Alliance folk's gear, and Alliance can look at Horde people's gear. They can only do this when no one is flagged for PvP, however.

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In their quest for world domination, Blizzard has announced plans to develop a Spanish version of World of Warcraft for Latin America. The new version will have the same stellar twenty-four hour customer service currently available to WoW players.

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With Blizzard's World of Warcraft patch 2.4 out just recently, there's now a general clamor for the guilds to test there mettle over at the new Sunwell Plateau raid instance. So, who exactly got first dibs on the raid's new roster of bosses?

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Drysc is keeping a post up-to-date of all the latest hotfixes that are happening. Patch 2.4 went live without too much trouble this last Tuesday, yet there is a slow but steady stream of issues popping up in the game. Each morning for the next few day's we'll let you know about all the hotfixes that have come out the previous day.

Yesterday's hotfixes include:

• Increased Felbound Initiate respawn rate. These are the guys you need in the "Blood for Blood" quest.
• You can no longer accept the quests given by Magistrix Seyla up in Hellfire Penisula without first compleating "The Missing Magistrix."
• Thanks to rolling restarts last night, you will now see your server name correctly displayed in battlegrounds.


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Alterac Valley has long been a battlefield for contention, not just between Drek'Thar and Vanndar Stormpike. There have always been complaints that the battleground has favored one side or another. Blizzard has modified the battleground several times to balance it out, and thus far they have been unsuccessful.

The following changes were made to Alterac Valley:

• Captain Balinda Stonehearth Stonehearth can no longer be interrupted, silenced, or have her spells slowed. In addition, her water elemental cannot be banished, and does increased damage.
• Vanndar Stormpike and Captain Balinda Stonehearth have had their health totals reduced to match the health totals of Drek'Thar and Captain Galvangar.
• Warmasters/marshals in Alterac Valley now increase each other's maximum health and damage by 25%. This is a stacking effect.
• Horde players will now start the battle closer to Drek'Thar and Frostwolf Keep.
• There is now a Join as Party option.

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For those of you who do not frequent the forums, you might not know that since patch 2.4, there has been a Tauren outcry.

It seems that cows everywhere are logging in to find that their weapons are roughly 50% smaller than they were previously. Should you take your weapon out to get a better look at it, you'll get to watch it grow back to pre-patch size.

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Boy, oh boy! Do we have great information right here, right now. Chances are, you guys must be enjoying Patch 2.4 in World of Warcraft. Well, even if Blizzard has released the 2.4 Patch Notes, there are some that they don't really add to the official list.

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Bornakk posted on the forums about rolling restarts for all realms to affect an issue that was preventing the proper display of realm names in the Battlegrounds. Instead of realm names, players from other servers would have their names displayed with cryptic tags such as US1B-BG, which -- aside from being unintelligible -- prevented identification of premade groups. The issue had reportedly been present in the PTR builds but seems not to have been addressed completely when Patch 2.4 went live.

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We've got plenty of blue posts to cover today, but you can probably expect more "unofficial" news for tomorrow.

Sunwell Plateau world first kills
We had plenty of them on the PTRs but hey, they're still world first kills (and bosses were slightly modified since their last appearance on PTRs) ! The first 3 bosses of the Sunwell Plateau have been killed, the following guilds got the world firsts :

• V A N Q U I S H (US-Cho'gall) was the first guild to kill Kalecgos.
  
• Blood Legion (US-Illidan) was the first guild to kill Brutallus.
  
• Curse / SK-Gaming was the first guild to kill Felmyst. (And before you ask, yes, Curse guild left meet Your makers to join SK-Gaming, you can read a full interview about this change on SK-Gaming.)
  
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World of Warcraft players based in Canada made quite a buzz in the WoW Forums about their requirements for the upcoming 2008 Arena Tournament. If you gave the official competition rules a once over, you'd have noticed the part about Canadians and essays.

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Several subscribers of Blizzard's World of Warcraft recently expressed their concern on the WoW Forums over a blue post which merely stated that Technical Support is not be available 24/7. Misunderstanding came to a close, however, since another blue poster explained the company has IT departments that work around the clock.

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Since the Magisters' Terrace was introduced, many players in Blizzard's World of Warcraft have noticed one sad fact: nothing in the loot table of bosses give warrior tanks the incentive to go through the five-man instance. Currently, the best item a tank would go for is the trinket drop, which really isn't much. Unfortunately, according to blue poster Bornakk, there are no plans to implement changes as of now.

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Over at the forums, curious World of Warcraft gamers inquired about how long it's going to take to access the new badge vendor. Blizzard poster Drysc wasted no time providing a quick response.

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Blizzard's World of Warcraft has undergone a few changes recently, including the implementation of the new combat log and window system. Of course, most new MMO features come with some bugs that normally occur whenever a new feature is rolled out like WoW's new combat log, for instance. Aside from the spam bug, the combat log also seems to suffer with some filtering problems.

The new combat log's filtering issue is basically not being able to screen out crafting done by other players, even if the log is currently set to "Self." One very temporary fix for the bug is by disabling then re-enabling the "Self" option, which gets rid of the existing crafting messages...until new ones start to pile up.

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