Just a quick word of congrats tonight to our friends the moderators of the WoW Ladies Livejournal group -- their community has been spotlighted over on the Livejournal front page. Definitely some well-deserved recognition for one of the best sub-communities in World of Warcraft.

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Difficulty Adjustments to Ulduar
Quote from: Daelo (Source)We're currently in the process of making further difficulty adjustments via hotfix to the following encounters:

• Ignis the Furnace Master
• Razorscale
• XT-002 Deconstructor
• The Assembly of Iron
• Kologarn
• Auriaya

The difficulty of these encounters is being lowered in multiple ways. Some of the adjustments are live already, others will be live soon. Note that some of the spell tooltips for the encounter will not reflect the hotfixes being deployed until the next patch. As the hotfixes are deployed, the Service Status board will be updated. You can check the current hotfix thread here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=16474158165&sid=1

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Lots of news so far today (for it being the downtime after a patch).  Don't forget to check out the Upcoming Changes and Additions news too.

Difficulty Adjustments to Ulduar

I was going to write something up to counter Jenny Lees's Ready Check article where she asks if Ulduar is too easy, because I felt it was about the appropriate step up in difficulty from Naxxramas, but after these changes she may be spot-on!

Quote from: Daelo (Source)

We're currently in the process of making further difficulty adjustments via hotfix to the following encounters:

Ignis the Furnace Master
Razorscale
XT-002 Deconstructor
The Assembly of Iron
Kologarn
Auriaya

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Now I don't get papercraft myself although I have come across it periodically. Basically it is the art of folding paper, turning 2D images into 3D models. Now this is not new and we've covered it before (check out our papercraft gallery below while you're here) but Blizzard Europe have taken some time out to interview papercrafter and designer Pascal as well as featuring some of his awesome creations.

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As embarrassed as I am to admit it, the truth is that Retribution has a pretty low skill cap. This is an old accusation, but one that has quite a bit of weight in it. Although it used to be primarily an auto-attack class in PvE, things changed with the introduction of Divine Storm and now Exorcism in Patch 3.1. Still, many Retribution Paladins can faceroll their way to good DPS because, well, the class design is really easy to play. There are buttons that you press to do damage, you wait until cooldowns are up... rinse, repeat.

Because you can pick up all talents that contribute to DPS even before you hit Level 80, it becomes a matter of gear scaling after that. In most cases, similarly geared Retribution Paladins in a raid will put out nearly identical numbers with few exceptions. Unlike other DPS classes where the spread can be wide owing to particular talent choices, differences in rotation, gear, and play style, Retribution Paladins have the relatively simple task of resolving priority when an ability comes off cooldown. There are no combo points, no freeze effect bonuses, no procs to wait for.

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This week information about the final boss of Ulduar has slowly been revealed, thanks to the guild Wraith on EU-Ysondre. We never got to meet Algalon the Observer on the PTRs so this encounter is one of the most mysterious, both in terms of tactics and of lore.

From what I've seen it's also one of the most gorgeous, but then again, I like stars and floating planets. Algalon himself is an entity composed of stars, a spectral being who is not uncompassionate to the heroes who have come to kill him. He just has a job to do. A job which could see our world being put in serious - even cataclysmic jepoardy.

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15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

Last week, we met Lileya of Lightbringer-EU, who has a rare, lifelong condition that causes her joints dislocate at the drop of a pin. Stacking up a Lifebloom roll can literally dislocate a finger or her wrist. "I get up in the morning, and the first thing we do is check to make sure that all my joints are in place -- which they rarely are," she recounts. "I need help sitting up, and the first thing my husband says when I put my feet on the ground is 'Slowly, let's not dislocate those ankles standing up.' Each day is different but the same."

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Paladin blogger Ferarro thinks that the new legendary mace from Ulduar is a Paladin weapon and she explains why in a detailed post over at her nook. While Val'anyr, Hammer of the Ancient Kings is a mace that all healing classes can use, the "discovery" of the weapon's proc -- something that's been speculated on for a while -- puts the weapon squarely in the hands of a Paladin. Even Allison found it something of a bummer (she plays a Druid) when she found out about the proc, and even talked about how to assign it when your guild gets those fragments to drop.

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Upcoming Changes and Additions - Future Patch

These will be coming in a future "minor" patch; they aren't part of 3.1.1a which went live today.

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)

Updated Argent Tournament Mounts

In an upcoming minor patch, faction mounts offered by vendors on the Argent Tournament grounds will have their visual appearances improved. You will find that the mounts being offered will better match the colors of the faction you chose to represent. Mounts already purchased at the Argent Tournament will automatically be replaced with the updated mounts when this patch goes live.

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Another week, another Blood Pact! Bringing you all the wacky Warlockery that nine out of ten healers recommend for a healthy diet. And it's not because Nick paid them off or anything.

Hello again, my reprehensible cabal of spell casters I call a readership! How's it hangin?

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What's that you say? Download to slow? Your internet hates torrent traffic? Well don't fear!

I'm Al Harington, president and CEO of Al Harington's wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tubeman emporium and warehouse. Thanks to a shipping error, I am now currently overstocked on wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tubeman patch 3.1.1a downloads and I'm passing the saving onto you!!!

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In other "upcoming minor patch" news, the in-game Equipment Manager is coming, as they have been promising. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's basically Blizzard's answer to Outfitter et al., and was originally meant to be included in patch 3.1. Some bugs kept it from coming out on time, but apparently we can expect to to soon (or rather, "Soon™") be able to switch gear sets without mods.

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There are two great articles over at the Lowered Expectations blog about him meeting Ghostcrawler during an event at his university. The posts are quite an interesting read and I highly recommend everyone heads over and checks them out.

There's some interesting tidbits that came out of his time with the Ghost:

• Sindragosa will be playing a part in Patch 3.3
• We shouldn't expect a hero class in every expansion
• Ghostcrawler was split down the middle on the Death Knight starting at level 55
• Blizzard is interested in buffing up the old world levels to make them more interesting. He listed off (the top of his head): Darkshore, Stonetalon Mountains, and The Barrens.
• Ghostcrawler is responsible for the many varieties of fish in the game. This makes sense.
• Expect an expansion every 18 to 24 months


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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.

There's a good selection of places for you to visit today for more interesting articles. Show me a Mookin raiding in Ensidia who's haste capped on himself and on his priest alt that is doing better than a survival hunter in Ulduar and not Naxxramas, please.

• Fel Fire thinks the problem with Ulduar is Naxxramas.
• Troll Huntress over at WoW Ladies has a nice Patch 3.1 Survival Hunter Raiding Primer.
• Kree take a good and intelligent look at how to be like an Ensidia player.
• BobTurkey continues to take a great look at Priest Haste Rating.
• Teeth and Claws has some good loot information for Druids in patch 3.1.
• Gray Matter talks about the Moonkin Haste Cap.


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Those of us around in the EverQuest days will recognize the "crack"ification of a game's name that can be addicting beyond a healthy level. Not to imply that any amount of crack is healthy. Remember, Turpster says "Don't do drugs!"

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…And is your guild interested in an additional 5,000 gold every week?

Our friend Gevlon, of Greedy Goblin fame, has recently reached the in-game gold cap. With this goal satisfied, he asks, “What’s left for me to do?” It’s a valid question in that the fulfillment one gets from making gold in WoW can only go so far… there are only so many mammoths, motorcycles and other PVE gold-sinks out there. So, what does a Goblin do in this situation? He’d like to join a raiding guild. And not just join, mind you- He’d like to fund a raiding guild and join as a member with a few specific conditions on his membership.

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Upcoming Changes and Additions
These features are NOT part of the patch 3.1.1a deployed today. You will have to wait a few more days/weeks before you can see them on live servers.
Quote from: Nethaera (Source)Updated Argent Tournament Mounts
In an upcoming minor patch, faction mounts offered by vendors on the Argent Tournament grounds will have their visual appearances improved. You will find that the mounts being offered will better match the colors of the faction you chose to represent. Mounts already purchased at the Argent Tournament will automatically be replaced with the updated mounts when this patch goes live.

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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.

Today we'll look at the pressing questions of Arthas' relationship with you, Blizzard's love affair with the Druidic traditions, and Quartermaster dis/sim-ilarities.

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Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all MMOs, including WoW! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world.

	Free Realms launches today According to a post on the Free Realms forums from Jason "Pex" Ryan, Community Manager, the servers will be going down this morning at approximately 8:00 AM Pacific, and will remain offline all day today while they push their final patches and run internal tests. They note that they will also be deleting all beta Free Realms characters as well.
	Guild Wars hits the 6 million milestone Just in time for their fourth anniversary celebrations, ArenaNet have announced that Guild Wars has sold over six million copies. Coincidence? We think not but it's still a remarkable milestone for this popular MMO. Remember that market leader World of Warcraft has 11.5 million players worldwide and is subscription based. Guild Wars meanwhile, is free-to-play (plus box costs) and only a few months younger than WoW.
	LotRO two-year anniversary: Book 8 details announced As our LotRO 2nd anniversary coverage continues, we're pleased to bring you some of the latest news from a recent conference call we had with Turbine. This call involved Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of LotRO, Harry Teasley, Art Director for LotRO and Adam Mersky, Director of Communications for Turbine to provide us with a rundown of the last two years with the game and what the future holds.
	Champions Online dated for release on July 14th During an event in the UK today, Cryptic's Bill Roper revealed that Champions Online will officially launch on July 14th 2009 in both the United State and Europe. The launch date, while a tiny bit further than expected, is probably for the better since Jumgpate Evolution is releasing in the middle of June anyhow. If both of these games hit in the same month, we'd probably lose our minds.

	I can kill dragons, but I can't dress myself So, I recently got the chance to run a panel at Tekkoshocon, the local semi-large anime convention in the area of Pittsburgh. This wasn't the first panel I've run at a convention, but it was the first panel where I got to speak on the topic of MMOs. The topic was free anime MMOs -- games people could pick up for little to no payment and actually play a quality game, rather than being tricked into another endless, rewardless grindfest.
	City of Heroes spill the beans on their 5th birthday celebrations Whilst being vague about exactly what's going on, the devs have an in-game event planned beginning 11am EDT on April 28th. Apparently 'all CHAOS is going to break loose' until 12am on the 29th. There's the promise of merits, badges and lovely XP. Also at 8pm EDT, there will be a special address from Lead Developer Positron; apparently he has some info to share. What could that be I wonder? The broadcast will also appear shortly after on the game's official website.
	Spellborn launches in the US; subscriptions free for 2 weeks Acclaim has officially launched The Chronicles of Spellborn in North America, and to mark the occasion, premium subscriptions are totally free for people registering before the 7th of May (and for existing accounts). The issue of needing "Acclaim Coins" to purchase subscriptions has been fixed in time for the launch, and when the free subscriptions run out, players will be able to keep them going using their credit cards directly.
	Massively speaks with Black Prophecy development director Simon Bachmann Massively is watching the influx of sci-fi MMOs very closely and we're happy to point out that gamers will soon have a number of options for space-based gameplay. While gamers will be flying and dogfighting in Jumpgate Evolution this summer, there's another dark horse in the running for your play time: Black Prophecy, a sci-fi MMO in development at Reakktor Media.
	Guild Wars celebrates their fourth year in style This Tuesday, April 28th, Guild Wars will be turning 4 years old. In true ArenaNet fashion, the game has kicked off an epic event that will last until Noon on April 29th. There is much of the usual festivities we've come to expect from Guild Wars, such as sugary treats, fireworks, Rollerbeetle Racing, the Dragon Arena and much more. Those characters turning four will receive their special four-year birthday mini pets on April 28th, but as an added bonus, those characters celebrating their 1-, 2- or 3-year birthdays will also receive a mini pets from their corresponding year.
	A Calendar of Celebration Life returns to normal in Lord of the Rings Online, after a brief and somewhat surreal few weeks of picking flowers and chasing chickens through a large, sudden and inexplicable hedge maze, all of which was presumably meant to celebrate Easter, after a fashion. Only of course, it being Middle-earth, you can't really get away with actually calling it "Easter", so instead it is the "Spring Festival", a curious mirrored event which parallels, but never quite touches, a popular celebration and holiday in our own lives.
	NCSoft adds its titles to Steam If you're one of those gamers who prefers the digital minimalist approach as opposed to having game boxes everywhere then you're in luck. MMO-giant NCSoft have announced they will be offering their titles -- including City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage -- via Steam. They're also planning to offer their latest, most anticipated and shiny MMO, Aion as well when the game launches later this autumn.

While photographing her friends in their Noblegarden finery, Jaxin of Echo Isles noticed that Chezmoi and Tooty had apparently undergone a little facial reconstruction surgery. The black-haired gnome was rockin' a white, expressionless face, while the red-headed lady had stolen the tattoos and profuse head/eyebrow/ear hair of her night elf sisters. This is more subtle version of the facial reskinning bug than we've seen before. These two just look like people you'd run into at two in the morning smoking cigarettes (or, for the black-haired gnome with the dilated pupils, some wacky tobaccy) outside a goth club, rather than hideous nightmares from beyond time.

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Last night I was flying down to Un'Goro to do the Hard Boiled Noblegarden achievement. Long flights get me thinking, at least they did until I installed the Bejeweled addon. World of Warcraft has changed so much since I started playing and 3.1 has brought some of the most interesting changes: dual specs, the hearthstone timer nerf.

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We've had a week of Patch 3.1.1, and all seems... well, more or less well. There's been hotfixes nearly every day, and scattered reports that talents are still being wonky for some people, but the major bugs seem to be squelched. Maybe. We have an extended maintenance again this week which will herald patch 3.1.1a. This means you have plenty of time to read WoW Insider. Here's the usual roundup of the past week's hot news.

Hot News and Features

• Oh yeah, here's the hottest news: A new 5-man coming in a future patch is confirmed.
• We also had the exclusive first announcement of the Peggle Addon for WoW.
• Noblegarden is finally in full swing. We have an achievement guide and a FAQ, as well as Egg hunting suggestions.
• Is WoW coming to iPhone? Here's some footage that suggests it may be closer than you think.
  
• The War between the Horde and the Alliance is heating up, and we're taking a look at the lore behind it and where it may lead in the future. Is Varian Wrynn Right or Wrong?
• So what is the Sunwell effect, and what does it have to do with 25 and 10 man loot?
  


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Minor Bug Fix Patch 3.1.1a
Quote from: Aratil (Source)In the next few days we’ll be releasing a minor bug fix patch to version 3.1.1. This sort of patch is very small in size, and we use them to fix specific issues that can’t be hot-fixed. Most patches require a lengthy testing procedure before release, but because this change is focused solely on a client tooltip, its testing process can be accelerated to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

In 3.1.1, the paladin ability Exorcism cannot damage other players, but the player game client does not display this change properly. Patch 3.1.1a will fix the tooltip to display the appropriate text; it also displays an error message when a player tries to use it against other players.

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