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

This week provided us with the opportunity to learn a few new tricks from the WoW finance community. The best of these lessons we report to you now.

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HARROW: I know him. And I think he's a psychotic lowlife.
MAL: And I think calling him that is an insult to the psychotic lowlife community.
-- Firefly, "Shindig."

Another OverAchiever, another Firefly quote. I wonder how much of the series we'll manage to get through here before we finish off Glory of the Hero, because this is one looooooong meta. Having gotten through Azjol Nerub and Culling of Stratholme two weeks ago with a few breaks for holiday achievements along the way, it's time to hit Drak'Tharon. Next week we'll be tackling Gun'Drak (which, as Amanda observed this morning, contains one of the more frustrating achievements). Live trolls, dead trolls, undead trolls, we got your trolls right here, pal.

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Each week Arcane Brilliance examines the magical majesty of Mages, and usually makes fun of the wimpy whininess of Warlocks. See that? That's some crazy alliteration right there. Also, I'd like to call attention to the fact that Arcane Brilliance called Warlocks whiny. Oh, snap! Coming from a column about Mages, that has to burn, right? And no complaining in the comments section, Warlocks. Arcane Brilliance pokes good-natured fun at you every week. Don't act surprised.

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An unidentified reader wrote to WoW Insider explaning that while he is in a raiding guild, his life schedule does not allow him to raid. He feels he's being left behind as groups ask for higher DPS.

What practical advice is there for progressing in the game while being a player with RL obligations?

First off, I'd like to tell you that you're not an outlier, there are many of players in similar situations. Nearly all WoW players have real life obligations including work, school, and families. The two most important things to work on are balance and realistic expectations.

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Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we're LF24M Yogg-Saron hard mode PST.

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Hi everyone, after a short hiatus for guild building and soul searching I'm back to writing on the WoW Insider team. Despite growth in my guild I still find myself picking up folks for heroics and some raids. I've had some good experiences and some terrible ones.

Abberforth of Shadow Council offered up a "Basic Assumption and Discernment System. this handy, though tongue-in-cheek guide to selecting members for a PUG. He uses simple assumptions in a players initial presentation of self to determine if a player is a good candidate for invitation. These guidlines warn players to be cautious of Elves, Death Knights, and folks with untypable or unintelligible names.

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A reader by the name of Laura wrote in last night to tell us about a pretty funny bug. I ran off to check it off myself, and it's true. It seems that Horgoru the Collector, a Giant in the Bouldercrag Refuge, has been working on his Lich King impression. It's either that,or something far more sinister is going on.

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Today on the show, it's an all-star cast of WoW Insider folks: we'll welcome Alex Ziebart and Adam Holisky both on the show to talk about the latest news from the World of Warcraft. And as usual, Turpster will join us with his own brand of silliness (don't miss our newest feature, Turpster's Tips, in which he tells you something that may or may not help you play the game better). And what is the latest news, you ask? Why, it's our interview with Tom Chilton (featuring mentions of dance moves, new Druid forms, and player housing), that legendary mace and who it's for, whether the Bloodlust love should have some spreading around, and Alex's general disappointment with the game world lately. The show starts up at May 9, 2009 3:30 PM EDT var date_span = document.getElementById("date"); var date = new Date(date_span.innerHTML); var monthname=new Array("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug", "Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"); var weekday=new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday", "Friday","Saturday"); var year = date.getFullYear(); var day_of_month = date.getDate(); var month = monthname[date.getMonth()]; var day = weekday[date.getDay()]; var hour = date.getHours(); if (hour > 11) { if (hour > 12) {hour -= 12} am_pm = "PM"; } else { am_pm = "AM"; } var minute = date.getMinutes(); if (minute < 10) { minute = "0"+minute; } date_string = day + ", " + month + " " + day_of_month; date_string += " at " + hour + ":" + minute + " " + am_pm; offset = -date.getTimezoneOffset()/60; if (offset >= 0) { offset = "+"+offset; } date_string += " in your time zone (GMT"+offset+")"; date_span.innerHTML = (date_string); over on our Ustream page.

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There is a slight, very slight, chance that the WoW Insider crew is made up of a bunch of geeks. And while we're supposed to stay focused on the World of Warcraft, sometimes our geekiness draws us out of our virtual shell and into movie theaters or comic stores or other, more frightening non-virtual environments. That said, I think this week's responses speak for themselves.

• Adam Holisky: OMFGSTARTREK.
• Alex Ziebart: Waiting patiently for the winners of the fan art contest to check their e-mail and get back to me so I can announce the winners. Hint hint. Was I supposed to say Star Trek?
• Allison Robert: /afk Star Trek.
• Amanda Dean: Despite my Klingon tattoo, I will probably not be going to see Star Trek this weekend. We're a little bit behind the curve, but my plan is to achieve Sarth 1D on 25 man and 2D on 10. We still don't have Maly down, but we'll probably see that dragon dead on 10 man this weekend as well. For Pony!
• Chase Christian: Ensign Chase, reporting for duty!
• Dan O'Halloran: There will be Star Trek. Or there will be divorce.
• Daniel Whitcomb: I am definitely watching Star Trek. Also, getting on track with Argent Tournament dailies again now that the Holiday rush is over.
• Elizabeth Harper: I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking about spending the weekend watching Star Trek over and over.
• Matt Low: Star Trek.
• Matthew Rossi: I'm probably just going to decouple the secondary matter infuser and use it to reverse the polarity on something, myself. Captain, the polarity is reversed but now I have to get to the ODM bypass in the Jeffries Tube. Instability is continuing in the antimatter containment field, so we may have to go to our backup plan and kill Yogg-Saron this weekend instead.
• Michael Gray: My fiancee are going to a local waterfallish kind of place to go rock climbing and celebrate a Shetland Rogue's birthday. If we get some WoW time, the Arena beckons. [And, being unable to leave Trek jokes well enough alone...] Bolvar to the Alliance: I have been, and ever shall be, your friend. Live long and prosper.
• Michael Sacco: Yogg-Saron and my four-piece Elemental bonus.
• Nick Whelan: Watching Star Trek over and over.
• Robin Torres: Star Trek and Mother's Day feasts.
• Zach Yonzon: Boldly going where no man -- no one -- has gone before. Alright, that's not true, but I'm finally getting Battlemaster after abstaining from Alterac Valley for months because losing 9 out of every 10 makes one physically ill. And just like everyone else, I've got my phaser set to stun. All aboard the NCC-1701!


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PTR Patch 3.1.2 - Left Menu
I added a Patch 3.1.2 category to the menu on the left of the site. This is a minor patch and there isn't enough content to build huge pages but I guess a small recap of posts is always useful.

• Patch Notes
• Spell Changes
• Build 9868
• Battle-Bots
• Argent Tournament Mounts

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Every evening there's a guy on my server who spams looking for group for an "experienced" group to do the Less-rabi and Make it Count Heroic Dungeon achievements. This has been going on for weeks now. I kind of feel bad for the guy. Some of the dungeon achievements are harder than others, but these have clearly been a pain for him. He really wants the Glory of the Hero achievement, and I hate the Occulus enough that I really can't bring myself to help him.

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