Raids were still rolling through Ulduar and experimenting with hard modes, and we were waiting for patch 3.2 to hit the PTR, but the most interesting thing about this month was definitely the increased notice we started taking of account security.

Patch 3.2: Argent Coliseum 5-man and raid story/encounters: Sacco ventures deep into the wilds of the PTR, and an insane amount of work on his part produced a comprehensive guide to what happened in the Coliseum, the accompanying lore, and the boss abilities you needed to plan for.

New Tauren cat forms and new Night Elf cat forms revealed: Allison cries harder. I wasn't initially warm to the new Tauren cat form, but it grew on me as soon as I saw it in motion on the PTR.

WoW, Casually: What is casual?: The $64,000 question -- what does it even mean to be a casual player these days? Robin weighs in.


Beware of Blood Elves selling mounts: Robin's shadow war with scammers escalates after a friend of hers gets hacked.

An interview with a scammer: In an odd twist of fate, Robin got to interview the scammer in question, and some rather fascinating information comes to light. Great interview, but to some of us, the lengths to which people will go to wriggle out of any responsibility for having caused harm to others is downright scary. Let the gamer beware.

The truth about authenticators: I finally decided to get an authenticator after the articles on recent scams and reading this, and I hope others did too.

Patch 3.2 PTR: Season 7 arena sets are the new hotness: Season 7 looms. Zach likes what he sees.

Wowhead founder receives ingame homage: Skosiris gets an ingame nod with a mega-library and an NPC. Knowing players everywhere /bow reverently as they pass.

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This week on KYL we get away from old god blood and crazy warlocks and instead look at Winter Veil. It's just as snow covered as Icecrown, but far less sinister. Sometimes that's a good thing. It can't all be death and destruction, you know. Sometimes it's running around doing fun stuff.

Now, I know you crazy lore addicts. Well, I mean, I know what you're like. I don't know you all personally. That would be difficult. Not impossible, I guess. We could have a get together! We could get together and sing songs and have festivities, except of course that I'm a shaggy, unpleasant person and... the more I think about this, the more I realize I'm the Greench of this particular Feast of Winter Veil. There are two really interesting aspects to the Feast of Winter Veil in terms of lore: one is that both the dwarves and the tauren, two races with different but strong connections to the earth and elements celebrate it. The other is that in Azeroth the holiday celebrations have been almost totally co-opted by the goblins who run the Smokywood Pastures organization. So we have a holiday that crosses faction and racial lines and goes back into the dim past, resurrected by a pack of schemers for mercantile profit.

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Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com.

Last week's discussion on how (and how not) to offer advice to underperforming Dungeon Finder groupmates garnered hundreds of comments and reader e-mails. Whether you choose to kick underperformers or to press on, it's how you handle the situation that makes the group (and you) worth being around. We aren't alone in feeling that softening the barrage of criticism that seems to be going around is the real matter at hand.

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors is WoW.com's column about aromatic essential oils for use in baths and to spruce up the house. Unfortunately I don't know anything about those so I'm going to have to talk about playing a warrior in World of Warcraft instead. My hands are tied, I'm afraid.

Wow, that was a year, huh? From the dizzying highs of fury spec in Naxxramas to the somewhat less dizzying highs of Ulduar, arms' constant evolution and protection spec's astonishing makeover as the expansion launched, 2009 was a year that saw warriors sway from top DPS and solid tanks as if in some kind of gale force wind. Armor Penetration went from a stat we'd take if we had to and is now one of our top DPS stats, Block got a makeover that led to changes in how abilities like Shield Block and Shield Slam calculate, and in general we saw the effects of stat inflation on gear really have an effect on us and how we stack up to other classes as tanks and DPS. If you were a tanking warrior in Naxx on January 1st. 2009, for example, you may have had upwards of 35k health. (To be honest, it's hard for me to remember, it may have gotten up to 38k if you stacked stamina.) Now, a geared TotGC tank walking into ICC can pretty easily hit 54 to 55k health fully raid buffed.

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Like yesterday's video, we actually first covered Northrend Wonderland a year ago. Created by Firebolt Productions, Northrend Wonderland is a musical take on the ongoing Icecrown drama. I think it's especially meaningful, since we're all storming the Icecrown Citadel. (I'm pretty sure Arthas has had a few extra visitors today, with everyone off work.)

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The druids of Moonglade have always been close .... too close. After a couple glasses of eggnog and under the influence of mistletoe, these two bashful shapeshifters shifted into being something more than just friends. The next day, they pretended that it never happened, but when a few horrendously ugly furry purple babies show up nine months from now, there's going to be a lot of unanswered questions in the Cenarion Circle. (Thanks to Jack for the screenshot!)

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The last of the three contests today is quite a bundle of goodies. BlizzCon 2009 goodies to be exact. We are giving away two BlizzCon 2009 goodie bags, including all original contents. Winners will recieve, among other things, a code for Grunty The Murloc Marine in-game pet, the Noobz Raynor action figure and an official BlizCon 2009 authenticator. You can view the full contents of the goody bag in the gallery below.

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Every Christmas I make it a point to log in and catch a few friends and wish them well; some of my guildies and online friends I've made over the past several years are now folks I talk with every day and laugh about all our goings on. I find that Christmas is a good time to take a moment and wish those you've come to know happiness and well wishes.

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WoW.com's Twelve Days of Winter Veil contests keeps on rolling. If you didn't win a Path of Cenarius code on Tuesday, dry those Christmas tears. Today we are giving away 5 more Path of Cenarius codes courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com. Yes, you, too can have flowers follow in your wake. What self-respecting death knight would not want that for Christmas?

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Today being Christmas, WoW.com will be celebrating with three (count them three!) Twelve Days of Winter Veil contests. For the first one, we are giving away a World of Warcraft in-game pet to two lucky winners. Yes, you can have your own Lil K.T. or Panderan Monk to follow you on your travels in Azeroth.

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Merry Christmas!
This year's present is the pellet gun you will have to use for BB King / BB King. Merry Christmas to all of you!

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Ah! There it is... the holy grail of Christmas gifts! The Red Ryder 200 shot ranged model air rifle... What I want for Christmas is a Red Ryder BB Gun.
In a nod to the holiday classic A Christmas Story, this year's WoW in-game Christmas gift is your very own Red Rider Air Rifle. You get it from the Winter Veil Gift underneath the Winter Veil Tree.

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