This probably isn't something Google or Bing should worry about, but there's a new search engine in town. Mrgl-Mrgl, a new search engine dedicated to the World of Warcraft, recently launched and is now in beta. The site, named after the NPC in a murloc suit in Borean Tundra, collates search results based on relevance to WoW. There are five search category tabs: Web, Image, Video, Forums, and Items. Users can type any keyword, not necessarily related to World of Warcraft (apparently subject to abuse, as shown in the most popular keywords), and the search engine delivers results scoured from popular WoW-related sites.

[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]

Elnia continues posting some interesting (and complicated) insight into the World of Warcraft over at the Pink Pigtail Inn. This time, it's about what she calls "rent seeking," which isn't about trying to find the money to pay for your apartment so much as it's about individuals petitioning authorities (the government, or in this case Blizzard) for their own income. The post dabbles with some complicated market theory, but in the end, the conclusion is this: while players have definitely petitioned Blizzard for changes to their own class, they have generally stayed away from asking for more money, or changes to the rules that would grant it to them. In general, players are fine with Blizzard staying hands-off of the various in-game economies running in Azeroth.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Our good friends over at the Orange Country Register have jumped in on the fifth anniversary interview extravanganza, and they've posted information from a short chat with none other than Samwise Didier, Blizzard's primary artist. They asked Samwise for a crazy memory from the last five years, and he came up with a time when he was rolling through a Pollo Loco drive-through, and the guy behind the window called him out by name and said he "liked your show." Which show? Didier is of course the lead singer of TAFKAL80ETC, a.k.a. The Artists Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, Blizzard's in-house rock band. Pretty awesome that a video game artist is now literally a rock star thanks to this game.

[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]

Rumors have been swirling around the Internet this weekend, reporting that the WoW Trading Card Game was ending this year after the release of the upcoming Scourgewar expansion set due to mishandling of marketing by the Upper Deck team. The rumor apparently started at Rawrcast, where it was attributed to a "reliable source".

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Icecrown Citadel Loot Compilation - November 15


[html]   $(function(){      // Tabs      $('#tabs').tabs();            //hover states on the static widgets      $('#dialog_link, ul#icons li').hover(         function() { $(this).addClass('ui-state-hover'); },          function() { $(this).removeClass('ui-state-hover'); }      );         });em { font-style: normal; font-size:14px }.ui-tabs li {list-style-type: none !important;}.ach {font-weight: bold;}.sortable {margin: auto;}   

• 10-Man
   
• 10-Man Heroic
   
• 25-Man
   
• 25-Man Heroic
 

[View Remaining 1 Lists]

We've been talking a lot about Patch 3.3's new Dungeon Finder feature lately, and for good reason -- it's leaps and bounds better than the LFG tool we've been dealing with for the past several years. One of the features that's caught everyone's attention is the great reward that level 80 players get for completing random WotLK Heroic dungeons. Well, if you're a lower-level player using the tool to run random dungeons at your level, it turns out you get something too.

The Satchel of Helpful Goods is a level-scaling bag o' rewards, which EU Community Manager Wryxian says will contain one piece each from two sets of loot rewards. Quoth the crocolisk:

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

This week, we have a quiz and a new comic to enjoy, along with updates from many of your favorites.

• Battlemasters: Into Icecrown.
• Dark Legacy Comics: C-A-T spells CAT!
• NoObz: Fifth Commandment. This one feels unfinished to me.
• Check out the latest from Teh Gladiators.
• NPC: Azerothian Feline Treatment Watch. Also, In the Can and CAPS Faux Pas. I love how randomly angry Lisa looks in the two middle panels. She's passionate about CAPS locks.
• Sparkly Doom: Casual Player is Casual.
• World of Warcraft, eh?: Evasive Maneuvers.
• Daily Quests: Life's Little Pleasures.
• LFG #303 and #304.
• Dungeons and Draenei: What is your world... of Warcraft?
• Beyond the Tree: Downbrook.
• Fail Druid fails again.
• Complex Actions: GM Bailout.
• Test your knowledge with a buffed-Quiz!


[View Remaining 1 Lists]

Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

Last week was a milestone event for fans of Christian Belt, as he appeared for the first time ever on the WoW Insider Show. As of last weekend, however, fans who hadn't been able to catch the show live were still impatiently awaiting their chance to hear Archmage Pants in action.

[Expand 7 Paragraphs]

Arrrrghhhh. Okay, folks. Let's rebuff and give this another shot. And this time if I see anything -- anything -- in the general area of Onyxia before I say go, I will unleash a storm of hell upon you. That goes double for you, Curious George McWarlock. I hope you have the money to pay for everyone's repair bills after that little stunt with the Eye of Kilrogg. Who knew that Onyxia was so paranoid about being watched by the Legion? (Thanks to Nazgűl of <TheHiWay> on Runetotem for the screenshot.)
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@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]

We ran our livestream of the Halls of Reflection on the PTR yesterday, and other than one little hitch (I figured I'd save us all the trouble of raiding the Lich King and just jump in and take him down myself, with disastrous consequences), it went pretty well. Turns out you need to run through the main quest to unlock the last two Frozen Halls instances, so we ended up doing all three: Forge of Souls and Pit of Saron on normal, and then the Halls of Reflection on both normal and Heroic. On the way, you can see all of the bosses, dropped loot, the various lore and questlines that weave throughout the new 5-man, and the final epic confrontation.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Yesterday's Breakfast Topic was revealing. Revealing in that I revealed that I watch Project Runway. You guys said some stuff, too, I think? I'll have to go back and look.

Ah, yep. Okay. You guys hate the Goku haircut as much as I do. It's probably the worst one in the game. But hey, we're not here today to decry current hairstyles. Our trip to the stylist today is all about what we'd like to see added instead of removed.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

During my time in the upcoming patch 3.3 raid instance Icecrown the other day, I managed to notice something peculiar at the top of the screen. I didn't recall seeing this before anywhere else.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

I was originally not planning on heading into the patch 3.3 Icecrown testing that was scheduled for Friday on the PTR. Luckily, earlier in the week, I found out my afternoon classes were canceled. Sweet, right? Show time! So on Friday, we fought Queen Lana'thel and she completely mopped the floor with us and used us to clean her chamber.

The doors were promptly open today and we didn't have to wait that long. Toward the beginning, the server was plagued with downtime. I guess development team was busy toggling switches and such somewhere.

In any case, if you didn't know, the boss being tested was Blood-Queen Lana'thel. You'll engage her in the winged portion of Icecrown Citadel. During the time leading up to testing, I was reading through some of her abilities and watched a video of this boss in action. From everything I've read and seen, I had a feeling that this would be a high pressure and somewhat technical encounter. When I say high pressure, I mean super high situational awareness is needed. When I say technical, I mean there's stuff that players have to do outside their normal routine in order to survive.

We didn't have to worry about any of the trash on the way up. Most if it wasn't active except for a pair of Val'kyr twins who were patrolling the area. They were evaded with ease. Again, I can't help but emphasize how large this place is. The run back after the wipe to the Blood-Queen is going to epically suck. It's almost as bad as the run back to Illidari Council in Black Temple.

After the pre-wipe peptalk and briefing was delivered, we charged in behind our warrior who would open up first. Immediately, the raid was taking damage from Shroud of Sorrow. 3000 damage every 3 seconds to the raid? After healing for the WoW.com crew that same day in the Halls of Reflection live stream, I figured it would be a piece of cake. But when you add in everything else, it becomes a stretch.

Again, this is a healing intensive fight. That's an understatement though. Because in addition to the Shroud, there's more abilities to be careful of.

The Hugs-for-All mechanic

Periodically throughout the fight, players will receive a debuff called Pact of the Darkfallen. It deals 5000 or so damage to you and players around you every 2 seconds. The only way to remove is when affected players are within 5 yards of each other. In other words, if you have this debuff, run to each other. 10 man will see 2 players getting it whereas 25 man will see 3 players.

It's really easy to spot this. A red beam will form between all the players who have it. Just follow the beams to the other person.

I managed to get this twice. I reacted by strafing (I was facing forward and the beam was coming out my right, and I didn't want to waste time keyboard turning) and dumping Prayer of Mending, Shields, Renews, Circle of Healing, and a Surge of Lighted Flash Heal on myself and I still barely lived. For some reason, I would happen to be paired up with someone who was way on the other side of the room.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]