I know, I know, most of you hate Arenas. I've been writing for WoW Insider -- ahem, I mean WoW.com -- long enough to know that you guys probably aren't the most avid of PvP players. But the fun thing about it is that at least I'm not preaching to the choir, right? Anyway, I have to admit that I've gotten pretty tired of Arenas myself. Aside from two to three weeks worth of games in Season 5, I skipped the season altogether, unhappy with the balance then and the constantly changing rating and matchmaking system.

That wasn't even the heart of it, really. In the past seasons where I'd had the most success, I played with particular classes and specs that were viable in that season's environment. More importantly, I teamed up with players who were focused on PvP and were expectedly competent at it. The downside was that our success as a team was proportional to my loathing of the players on my team, particularly our team leader who was prone to excessive nerd rage and finger pointing. It sometimes happens that the best PvP players aren't necessarily your friends, and working together towards high ratings is sometimes a marriage of convenience. At a certain point when the stakes were extremely high, where wins would net us measly gains and losses would tank us badly enough for us to lose titles, Arenas became more stressful than fun.

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Each week Arcane Brilliance brings you a column about Mages. This column used to be housed on Wowinsider, but now it's featured on some newfangled site called WoW.com. The url is a full seven letters shorter. It's crazy. where did those seven letters go? I don't know, but I blame Warlocks.

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Oldmaveric of Azgalor posed the question on the General Discussion Forum: are Big guilds on their way out due to easy WoW? He suggested that easier content on 10 man raids and regular content nerfs has led to the breakdown of some of the top guilds and caused players to quit the game.

Savvage of Spinebreaker quickly responded that big guilds have their place, but "People can now play in closer more tightly-knit groups..." For many players, raiding offers sufficient challenge while being more enjoyable than it once was. The raiding experience is not only more accessible, but also more fun. Smaller guilds can afford to be more selective of the online personalities of their membership, while still being able to to make progress.
That being said, there are still many people who are not willing to put time and effort into raiding. They seem to want to have epics handed to them, without going through the proper progression. I've seen many come into raids completely unprepared. They don't study the fights, but instead believe that they can "tank and spank" their way through anything. This simply isn't the case with most raid bosses. Raids still require adequate preparation. Just because you can get in the door does not mean you're ready to roll.

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

This weekend is Memorial Day here in the U.S. As we practice our own brand of war in our favorite MMO, let’s all take a quick moment to remember that this holiday is about much more than BBQs and days out of the office. Here’s to all those brave souls who made the ultimate sacrifice in serving our nation. We now return to your regularly scheduled WoWenomic virtual finance highlights…

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Good news to all you Dual Wield Death Knight Diehards: Ghostcrawler recently popped up on the forums with a simple answer to your woes: "Next Major Patch."

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Wrathgate in-game event.

So Callouse of Vashj posted a theory on the General Forums that is so elegant that I'm sort of ashamed I didn't think of it myself. At the Wrathgate, we know that Arthas absorbed the soul of Saurfang the Younger into his sword. Evidence also points to the idea that he stole Bolvar Fordragon's body. This has lead to rampant speculation that we will eventually fight one or both as thralls of the Lich King.

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There's a chance we may all be in the gravest peril -- and that's the excuse I'm going to give for nearly no one on the team playing World of Warcraft this weekend. So what's the peril today? Mr. Rossi explains it better than I:

• Matthew Rossi: I'm hunting down an ancient Egyptian Vizier named Hamenthotep. Seems he's trying to find some sort of ancient scrolls called the "Ziebart Codex" that will allow him to harness the power of some sort of ancient primal diety named "Izzu Tahuti" or some such. I don't actually read Demotic. Anyway, in order to find the codex he apparently made use of an old Lemurian ritual site in the Andes and sent forth Peruvian Mummies to possess all the descendants of the original writer of the Codex, Ziebart Dulkarnizen (The Two Horned Ziebart) an ancient and terrible black wizard. So far I haven't had any luck finding any of the descendants. They're masters of subtlety and stealth, it seems, all connected to an order of Cathars who disappeared during Innocent III's attempt to suppress the Albigensian Heresy. I'm not sure if they're Ophists or not, but until I find one of the last living Ziebarts, all of earth is in grave danger from Hamenthotep and his strange, black garbed ally with the hunting horn. I may also run Ulduar.
• Mike Schramm: Wait -- isn't Alex named Ziebart? He could be the key to the Codex! Oh no wait I think he's Zibert. Never mind.
• Alex Ziebart: Send help. Peruvian husk not very dexterous. Hard to play.


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She's gone from suck to blow! Morgwatt of <Two Silvers for Charon> on Bronzebeard recently experienced one of the natural hazards of the Eastern Plaguelands -- a giant maggot attack. "While meditating upon a recent adventure in EPL, I was reminded as to why it is a good idea to do these things in the safety of an inn," he wrote. I'll also noted that Morgwatt's 2v2 team name is "The Lee Atwaters", which is one of the most awesome names I've seen in a long while.

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It's been a couple of days since our big makeover and things seem to have gone down quite well. We've had loads of comments (indeed Alex Z is currently recovering from being Tech Support Guy after fielding bug reports for a day straight) and the new-look has gone down quite well. Of course, this isn't the first time we've had a new look but this time it's not just a cosmetic revamp. I like to think of WoW.com as WoW Insider meets Facebook with a little of Livejournal thrown in for good measure, we're not just a site, we're a community. Cliched, okay, you got me there.

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Our team recently answered a few questions from fellow WoW blogger Slash Nerf. They posed some interesting questions to the team and we discussed and responded during our last content meeting. Full content of the Q&A session is posted over on their site.

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