The opening in game announcement tells us that there will be rolling restarts tomorrow beginning at 5:00 a.m. PDT / 8:00 a.m. EDT. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and all the restarts should be done by 7:00 a.m. PDT / 10:00 a.m. EDT.

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We posted that fan-made Draenei Barbie last week, and a few commenters sent us a note about this figure, custom made by Abotu over on Emerald Dream. The Barbie was just something funny that a few fans did while bored, but this Troll Rogue is the real thing -- custom leather armor fitted onto what used to be a Tomb Raider figure, heavily modified with Sculpey, wood (for the daggers) and even boot laces (for the braids). It's really, really impressive, not only in the way it looks, but in what it took to make: the whole thing took about two months' worth of work (Abotu guesses it might cost over $1000 to make selling these worth it), and many parts of it are completely fabricated. The head is sculpted from scratch, and the hands and feet are from an X-men Nightcrawler figure, but even those have been shaped to look completely different from what they used to be.

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Our friends over at QuickArmory, which is a site with a whole slew of extras for parsing and checking out Armory information, have sent along a list of updates to what they've done lately. The site itself is still pretty barebones (it focuses on getting information together fast rather than flashy graphics or layouts), but they've added new details to what you can see on a character view. In addition to the usual achievements, you can mouse over the title of each instance, and it will tell you how many times the character has killed each boss that's tracked in the game.

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The time for Blood Pact has come again! This week, we delve into the dread citadel itself, the very stronghold of mighty Kel'Thuzad's power: Naxxramas! Following meekly behind the rest of the group, documenting his experiences for your entertainment, is Nick Whelan.

With Ulduar getting closer every day, I thought this would be a perfectly inappropriate time to write up some helpful hints for all the Warlocks out there who are clad primarily in pre-raiding gear, and would like to start moving forward with their progression. This post is aimed toward helping Warlocks who haven't done much raiding in the past, and would like to try it out now that Blizz has made it so much more accessible. Furthermore, since it's unlikely that such a person has a spot waiting for them in a group which full clears weekly, I also assume in this post that the rest of the people in the raid are similarly geared. By using these tips, new raiders will be doing their part to ensure that their group gets a full clear as soon as possible.

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We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Foofy's Cupcake Factory has posted the fourth installment of their Moonkin Raiding basics video series. This installment covers the pros and cons of Solar Eclipse Moonkin spell rotation.
• The AddOn creator Tekkub has written idHitThat, a new mod that will show you in-game what your attack and defense values are against an opponent three levels higher than you. (via Swiftmend)
• Warcraft Econ has a lesson in money making concerning Leatherworking Leg Armor Kits.
• Twenty-five man raiding gets all the love, but Spinksville enjoys non-Heroic raids just as much and lists 11 Reasons to run 10-Mans.
• The Tanking Tips blog thinks it's time to go back to basics and whips up a Tanking Stats 101 guide.


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There has been a long thread about WoW and the philosophical changes and approaches over the past four years, and in particular to some of the larger design decisions made recently (dual specs). In it Ghostcrawler makes an offhand remark about WoW's subscriber numbers:

"Wrath of the Lich King is still selling very well and our subscribers are increasing."

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The Loot Council is another new regular column highlighting interesting and informative posts from around the WoW finance blogosphere.

So, here’s a quick joke for you:

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Good times as always on the podcast last Saturday -- we welcomed blogger Nick Whelan on, of his own Curse of Senility and the newest writer on our own Blood Pact column, all about Warlocks. Turpster and Michael "Belfaire" Sacco also joined us, and we answered your emails (including some follow-up on just how loyal you should be to your guild, even when they're not really progressing), as well as talked about the most popular WoW insider posts for the past week: why 25-man gear should be better than 10-man gear, new news out of patch 3.1 (which, if you listen to Turpster, is right around the corner), and all of the April Fools jokes that went around last Wednesday.

You can download the show at any of the links below, or pick it up by subscribing in iTunes (and it's been a while since we asked you to leave some reviews over there, so if you haven't ever done that and really enjoy the show, please do tell people what you think). Also, don't forget that we're in the middle of a bit Twitter-drive: we're aiming for over 9000 followers on Twitter, and if we can pull that off, we'll be doing a video version of the weekly podcast, so you'll get to see our ugly mugs as we talk (and you could probably even convince us to dress up for it -- you haven't lived until you've seen The T in a tuxedo). And I don't want to put any pressure on you, but we're nearing our 100th show, and how cool would it be if we hit our goal by then and did the special show on the anniversary? Just sayin'.

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Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.

<Insert witty opening remarks here.>

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Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

I'm sure plenty of officers out there can sympathize with the dilemma in this e-mail. The officer who wrote it has recently been promoted (yay!), but now her friends come to her for special favors, intervention with other officers, and insider information (uh oh). She wonders if she can be a good officer without pushing her friends away. (Go easy on this e-mail in the comments. English isn't her first language.)

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Today David returns to All the World's a Stage, still taking a break from his series of roleplaying lore guides for World of Warcraft. Instead, he shares a few thoughts especially for people who may roleplay all the time without realizing it.

There are lots of people playing World of Warcraft out there, and if you gave a survey to each one of them, asking, "are you a roleplayer?" most of them would probably say "no." But if you actually listened to them, or engaged with them in conversation about it, you might learn a lot of things that surveys usually miss. Many people who say they are not roleplayers actually have an imagination of their character's backstory, personality, or even just individual style. They may not know how to act out the character, and they may not have friends they feel they can act out with, yet at the same time, they do have a sense of their character as their own little creative exploration.

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Warning: This song has a few very mild sexual references but definitely some scantily clad character models.

We've not covered Sharm much before, who goes by the user name taintedlore over on YouTube. She's a UK artist, and has been racking up an impressive body of work. She does mostly parody videos, and seems to be expanding on the machinima quality in her songs. Her early work was mostly about the music, but the video aspects have been getting much stronger as she goes along.

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We hope you got those 200 games, because the Arena Tournament is ending this phase of the tournament by 9pm PDT tonight. This means that only the Top 1,000 teams will qualify for the next round, and the rest of the entrants can take the season off. The Top 1,000 teams will move on to Phase 4, or the invitational ladder, for a shot at winning up to $75,000 in a prize pool worth over $200,000. In order to qualify, players must have played a minimum of 200 games with the same character on the same team.

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I'll let our submitter tell the story of his motorized misadventure in his own words (slightly edited for prettier formatting):
"G.O.S.H. means Gnomish Original Safety Handbrake. But Neknuba from <Legends of Azeroth> on Anachronos-EU (alt of Jubinibu) found inside that acronym something more. Got Often Scorched Hairs? No? You know, Gnome Occassionally Sabotages Himself. Why? Well, Glitch Oddly Stays Hidden on Gear Outta Second Hand and that means Giddiness Obviously Sometimes Happens. Gosh! Get Out'n Survive Heights!!!!"
Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see them 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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So here you are, Death Knight. Maybe you've just stepped through the Portal on your way to the Throne of King Wrynn or Thrall, or maybe you've just uncovered the truth behind Loken as you dinged 80, but either way, you're looking at the profession section of your skills tab, and you can't help but notice that it looks pretty sparse.

Of course, as a Death Knight, you're starting from zero with no shortcuts. You'll have to grind everything up from scratch, so you'll want to make sure it's worth it. Of course, you could go for the old standby: Skinning combined with Herbalism or Mining. That's not a bad idea these days, really. You get some buffs, and you can sell off the raw materials to pay for your motorcycle fund. Still, the production tradeskills have their own good bonuses. So today, we're going to look at those bonuses and see which ones just might be worth making the tradeskill grind on your Death Knight.

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Patch 3.1 Companion Pets
A few pets will be added with the upcoming patch, most of them are from the Argent Tournament and a few were added for holiday events. The good news about the Argent Tournament pets is that all the pets you can buy for 40 x Champion's Seal (Sen'jin Fetish, Elwynn Lamb, etc ...) are NOT bind on pick up, which means that you will be able to sell them at the AH and get the pets from the other faction at the neutral AH as well.

Keep in mind that this is from the TEST realms and it could be changed before the live release.

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There is a lot of speculation that patch 3.1 will drop tomorrow. I'm not really buying into that speculation yet, but the background downloader was active over the weekend delivering up another part of the patch files. That is a strong indication that the patch is nearing, and at the least means guilds should start ramping up their preparation to push into Ulduar.

For many hard core raiding guilds this means making sure the right members will be on and fully buffed and ready for lots of raiding as soon as Ulduar opens up. Equally important is making sure that reserves and alternates are available so progression raids don't grind to a halt.

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Noblegarden 2009

Noblegarden has received some changes over last year and is going to run for one week, beginning on April 26th. The basic mechanics of the egg hunt still exist, though things have been spiced up slightly and you'll be able to purchase items (or find them in the eggs) with [Noblegarden Chocolates] that you get from hunting eggs. Note that while the items can be purchased, you can find most of them in the eggs too, though your mileage may vary on the luck factor.

Additionally, various effects can occur while you're gathering eggs, such as being turned into a Noblegarden Bunny, and spawning a few bunnies that run off in random directions.

Brightly Colored Eggs can be found scattered about the following sub-zone towns, in addition to Terokkar Forest, outside the gates of Shattrath City.

Alliance Horde

Azure Watch (Azuremyst Isle)	Bloodhoof Village (Mulgore)
Dolanaar (Teldrassil)	Brill (Tirisfal Glades)
Goldshire (Elwynn Forest)	Falconwing Square (Eversong Woods)
Kharanos (Dun Morogh)	Razorhill (Durotar)

Rewards

These items are purchased from Noblegarden Vendor () and Noblegarden Merchant (). The currency used is [Noblegarden Chocolate].  Many of them can also be found inside of [Brightly Colored Eggs].

Item Type Cost

Noblegarden Egg	Consumable	5
Blossoming Branch	Consumable	10
White Tuxedo Shirt	Shirt	25
Black Tuxedo Pants	Legs	25
Spring Flowers	One-Hand	50
Spring Robes	Chest	50
Elegant Dress	Chest	50
Spring Circlet	Head	50
Spring Rabbit's Foot	Companion Pet	100
Tome of Polymorph: Rabbit	Book	100

Quests

Quest Questgiver Rewards

A Tisket, a Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket	Noblegarden Vendor	Egg Basket 7 40 (@80)
A Tisket, a Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket	Noblegarden Merchant	Egg Basket 7 40 (@80)
Spring Collectors	Commoner NPCs	1 23 (@80)
Spring Gatherers	Commoner NPCs	1 23 (@80)
The Great Egg Hunt (Daily)	Spring Collector	Blossoming Branch 7 40 (@80)
The Great Egg Hunt (Daily)	Spring Gatherer	Blossoming Branch 7 40 (@80)

Achievements

The achievement Noble Gardener ( / ) is part of the meta-achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been ( / ) which rewards the Violet Proto-Drake mount.

Achievement Details Rewards

Noble Gardener Complete the Noblegarden achievements listed below.	10 Title Reward: "the Noble"
Noble Gardener Complete the Noblegarden achievements listed below.	10 Title Reward: "the Noble"
Blushing Bride Kiss someone wearing an Elegant Dress while wearing a White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants.	10
Chocolate Lover Eat 25 Noblegarden Chocolates during the Noblegarden celebration.	10
Chocoholic Eat 100 Noblegarden Chocolates during the Noblegarden celebration.	10
Desert Rose Use Spring Robes to plant a flower in each of the deserts listed below. The Badlands Silithus Thousand Needles Desolace Tanaris	10
Dressed for the Occasion Discover an Elegant Dress by opening Brightly Colored Eggs during the Noblegarden celebration.	10
Hard Boiled Lay an egg in Un'Goro Crater's Golakka Hot Springs as a rabbit during the Noblegarden celebration.	10
I Found One! Find a Brightly Colored Egg.	10
Noble Garden Hide a Brightly Colored Egg in Stormwind City.	10
Noble Garden Hide a Brightly Colored Egg in Silvermoon City.	10
Shake Your Bunny-Maker Use Spring Flowers to place rabbit ears upon females of at least 18th level. Blood Elf Dwarf Human Orc Troll Draenei Gnome Night Elf Tauren Undead	10
Spring Fling Find your pet Spring Rabbit another one to love in each of the towns listed below. Azure Watch Goldshire Dolanaar Kharanos	10
Spring Fling Find your pet Spring Rabbit another one to love in each of the towns listed below. Bloodhoof Village Falconwing Square Brill Razorhill	10
Sunday's Finest Discover the White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants by opening Brightly Colored Eggs during the Noblegarden celebration.	10

Reminder - Arena Tournament Phase 3 Ending

As a reminder, phase 3 of the Arena Tournament ends this Monday, April 6th, at 9PM PDT (about 19 hours from the posting of this news). If you're working toward the Murkimus the Gladiator reward, you'll need to compete in at least 200 matches by the end of this phase. Also, for the top 1000 teams at the end of this phase, all characters on your account level 71 or higher will receive the "Vanquisher" title.

The next phase will be the invitational ladder starting on Tuesday, March 14th, after realm maintenance is over. This phase pits the top 1000 teams from the qualifying phase (phase 3) against each other, for one week, and only the top 8 teams out of this ladder will advance to the regional finals. From there, the wording used is sketchy, so it's impossible to determine how many teams will represent each region at the global finals -- likely to be held at BlizzCon this August.

Blue Posts

Does Blizzard plan to make Legendaries the new Epics? (Source)

No.

In-game talent configurator... sort of (Source)

It hasn't been widely publicized, but in 3.1 there is a UI option to not spend all of your talent points until you hit a "Confirm" button. Because you aren't actually spending the points, it is also really fast to add ranks or remove them.

We default the tool off since having to confirm every single point you spend while leveling is kind of a drag. It's quite useful at level 80 though.

A game's story being accessible is the death knell of gaming (Source)

On the contrary, gaming is doing better than ever in part because smart developers tried to grow their audience beyond the traditional gamer. Ten years ago you'd say "gamer" like you'd say "model airplane builder." It was a niche hobby. Now you don't say "gamer" in the same way you don't say "movie-goer" or "iPod-listener" because it has become something a lot of mainstream people do.

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