A friend of mine recently got hit by a pretty devious phishing scam targeting wealthy (in-game) players looking to make legitimate purchases. My friend, we'll call him Cobra, was in a major city when an offer in the Trade Channel caught his eye. A player, we'll call him Bubbles, was offering a Spectral Tiger Mount for 5000 gold. Since this mount is only available as a code on a rare loot card, Cobra contacted Bubbles to inquire. Purchasing codes for in-game items with in-game cash is perfectly legitimate, according to Blizzard, so Cobra did not worry about going against the TOS with this transaction.

Bubbles, a level 78 Blood Elf Mage, seemed legitimate. For one thing, he was not a throwaway low level character. Also, he didn't want to take the cash then, but just see it in a trade window to make sure Cobra was in possession of it. So Cobra gave Bubbles his email address only and waited for the email that included the code and a link to where to input the information.

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There are a few accomplishments in this game that truly amaze me anymore. Leveling characters is routine now, and having an army of high level alts at your disposal isn't something super uncommon anymore. However I have been amazed by this:

Cautious, a Warrior, leveled to 80 without dying.

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

I'm not much of a Jazz person, so when I set out to counter the John Coltrane that Adam used in The Queue yesterday, I was a little worried. Fortunately, while digging through my music collection to find something useful, I remembered that I had a trump card up my sleeves. Old Betty Boop cartoons, some of the most disturbing things you will ever see in your life. All of the best ones come packed with some incredibly old school Jazz. Now, some candy for your eyes and ears: Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher in a Betty Boop cartoon.

Docp asked...

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Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

This week's Two Bosses Enter is less boss-versus-boss than it is boss-versus-event: The Nexus' Anomalus versus the Tribunal of Ages encounter in the Halls of Stone. The Tribunal of Ages event tasks adventurers with protecting Dwarven explorer Brann Bronzebeard from waves of mobs as part of the Halls of Stone quest -- a boss-level encounter in terms of difficulty and loot, if not in actual boss-versus-boss combat. It'll be Anomalus' Chaotic Rifts and Crazed Mana-Wraiths against the Tribunal of Ages' Kaddrak, Abedneum and Marnak plus the cadre of Dark Rune Protectors, Dark Rune Stormcallers and the Iron Golem Custodian.

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This week has been a heady one for me: I got my four piece Conqueror's Siegebreaker Battlegear on patch day, which was pretty sweet, and then in our second night of raiding this week we finally killed the big brain slug squid monster himself. Combine that with patch 3.1.3 dropping (which meant we had fun times like an announced server shutdown just as we were about to pull Thorim, leading to the fastest Thorim kill I've ever been on) and all in all, it's been quite a week. Heck, I even got to go prot and get some prot goodies like pants and a belt.

It was a small patch all in all, so I wasn't expecting huge improvement and I didn't see it. I saw a marginal DPS increase as fury (2 to 300 DPS unbuffed, not too much more fully buffed) and I made sure to compare notes with the arms warrior in our raids, and his DPS was very close to my own. We're still below the other hybrids, but not by as great a margin, so that's nice at least. As for the PvP change to Juggernaut, well, it's painful. Before respeccing prot for my secondary spec for good this week I went out on a Wintergrasp jaunt, and I'll probably never do that again.At least with Heroic Fury I can make a choice about how long I will allow someone to kite me to death. To be fair the Juggernaut change isn't really all that bad, but over the years I've played warriors I've moved from prefering arms as my DPS/PvP spec to being a fury warrior so I'm easier to discourage from arms than I used to be.

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

• Etherjammer has an old but quite humorous look at BlizzCon etiquette. My favorite line: "Use spells such as Slow Fall and Levitate to go from one level of BlizzCon to another at your own risk, as players report that these spells have been unreliable at best in past BlizzCons." Why? Because some idiot jumped off the escalator half way up last year, and it caused quite a ruckus. Pardo was near the esclator talking with some folks, and he just looked and shook his head in a /facepalm manner.
• Activision-Blizzard is suing Double Fine over Brutal Legend.
• Guild halls and player housing. Love 'em or hate 'em, lots of people want them. The Hunter's Union has an interesting take on them.
• Casual Raid Leader has a great post about encouraging more oraganic and communicative raiding.
• Stoneybaby of Big Hit Box has a good review of how he got back into PvP, which would be useful for those of you looking to do the same.


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Yes, Druids, it's that time again! After eking out their reveal of the Tauren and Night Elf bear forms and the Tauren cat over the past fortnight, it's finally time to see what your Night Elf Druid cat form is going to look like come patch 3.2. We told you earlier how Zahrym let everyone know they would be announcing the final revamped druid form today, but it seems Allison is nowhere to be found so you get to hear my impressions instead. However the rest of the team really don't seem to like the new look at all.

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Updated Druid Forms - Night Elf Cat
Quote from: BlizzardNow for the final installment of our preview of the new art for druid cat and bear forms, we’re taking a look at the new textures for night elf druid cat form. Here’s a comparative peek at the current look of cat form along with the five new textures, which can be selected by switching hair color in the barber shop.
Night Elf Cat Form *NEW*
Tauren Cat Form
Night Elf Bear Form
Taurens Bear Form

World of Warcraft isn't actually at this year's E3 -- Activision Blizzard has a great big booth with lots of cool games in it, but none of them are Blizzard's. We guess they're saving everything for the big event at BlizzCon. But we still found someone cool to meet on the floor -- The Guild's Michele Boyd (you can see her here in the last Season 2 episode) was working on the show floor for THQ, and was kind enough to stop by and talk to me before she went off to actually, you know, see some videogames (we heard there's some here, but we've been too busy writing about all the cool stuff we're seeing on Joystiq and Massively).

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Warlocks had best beware! Blood Pact preys on people who wander too deeply into the dark depths of the internet! Author Nick Whelan apologizes for being a tad late this week -- sometimes final projects just don't go smoothly, ya know?

It's no secret that I haven't exactly been in a PvE mood lately. I don't know what it is, but every year around this time I just...lose all motivation to progress. I've come to accept it as the natural cycle of my WoW-life, but lately I've been thinking I want to get back into it. I'm not ravenously trolling Dalaran looking for a raid, but I've been doing some heroic pugs to dust the rust off of my shadowbolting finger.

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When I saw slashdance vs. Ulduar for the first time, I wasn't sure whether I should laugh or cry. This is slashdance's version of a raid-patch trailer, something to help get its members riled up and ready to go raid. Of course, it's obviously more of a parody about those kinds of similar movies. But this piece is much more tailored to the "rest of us." You know, those of us who struggle a bit more with the content.

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Algalon-25 kill by Method - Loot Table Update
Method killed Algalon-25 a few minutes ago and discovered 2 new items Solar Bindings (Leather - Phys.DPS) and Sabatons of Lifeless Night (Plate - Melee.DPS).

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Have you ever caught yourself wondering, "Hmm... where I should go for my next upgrade?" Or how about "I wonder what pet I should get for raiding?" Another favorite of mine is "What spec should I use for raiding?" (This is always a trap. Even if you give a solid spec, someone will always find a something wrong with it.) For these types of questions, I feel it's always better to follow the maxim "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

What's my point? Well, it seems that many Hunters don't know that there is a wealth of information out there. I would bet that there is probably a resource that can help answer all of your questions. You just need to know where to look.

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Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.

This was a close one: Krik'thir the Gatewatcher of Azjol-Nerub wrapped up a victory over Ingvar the Plunderer and Annhylde the Caller (Utgarde Keep) by fewer than 50 reader votes. Two Bosses Enter reader Rexton narrated the winner's path to victory. "It's close, but I give this one to Krik'thir," he wrote. "I'm doubting Krik'thir would just wait in the back and let his minions do all the work. Yeah, he'd be the prime target. Total, that's 10 enemies that Ingvar has to go through, and on top of that is the unmentioned ability Bugs. I'm not saying Ingvar will go down easily; I mean, he has Smash on his side, for one thing. As long as he keeps that and Cleave up, I can see his taking a at least four down before he dies.

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As we all know, bacon is the candy of meats, making everything a little better. Unfortunately, there's only one type of bacon in WoW -- the quest reward Hellfire Bacon. So our characters can only eat twenty pieces of bacon, ever, in their entire life. Luckily, Imika of <Enigma> on Windrunner has come up with a fine solution to this problem. When Horde members approach this feast, the ring of bombs around it will explode, searing both the ham and the intruder into light, crispy perfecton. Then a local rogue cuts thin slices of meat from their bellies and leaves it to hang, and voila! Not only do you have bacon, but you've got a decent supply of Fjord Fried Orc and Sentient Beef Liver for the next time you crave something unusual.

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World First Conqueror of Ulduar
Vicarious (US-Area 52) was the first guild to complete the Conqueror of Ulduar, even if the immortal achievements arent as hard as the ones in Naxxramas it still takes a lot of time to learn the encounters and keeping everyone alive in 25-Man is never easy. Congratulations to them.


Recent In-Game Fixes - 06/02
Not really sure why I missed this one yesterday, I'll just blame it on Ensidia killing stuff.
Quote from: Crygil (Source)06/02/09

• Runic Power costs will no longer be lowered by abilities intended to lower mana costs.
• The Leviathan MK II’s Self Repair will no longer be canceled when VX-001 casts Spinning Up.

Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffWeekly Wintergrasp quests reset
They reset at the same time as instances like Ulduar and Naxxramas during the weekly maintenance. (Source)

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Most recently, I was at a large family event, maybe 30 people. I was noticing how hard it was to get the entire group to do anything - waiting for people to get ready, deciding what to do, etc. I immediately thought of 25-man raiding, with its horrendous logistics. By comparison, a group of 10 people, in raids or real life, is much more manageable.

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