July 2009 was defined by two dominant trends -- waiting for patch 3.2 to hit, and an increasing amount of information starting to flow that would be confirmed one month later at BlizzCon.

Blizzard files trademark for Cataclysm: Gee, we wonder why?

Arcane Brilliance: Five things every mage should do before they ding 80: Archmage Pants guides you through some things that should be on every leveling mage's checklist before the endgame.

Encrypted Text: Fan of Knives mechanics deep-dive: Chase Christian runs across a rogue on his server who's able to kill people in an interesting manner, and goes on the theorycrafting warpath to figure out how he's doing it.

Worgen Garwal hotfixed, now untameable: Worgen pets were, for a brief period, universally agreed to be the coolest thing in the game before being hotfixed into oblivion. Reason given? Something vague concerning why Blizzard doesn't want hunters to have humanoid pets. Yes. Yes, that must be it.

The dying hunter: On the subject of hunters (and more broadly, pure DPS classes), Schramm takes a look at some statistics. The comments section here is gold.

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The World of Warcraft magazine, which hit a bit of a bump when it lost its Editor-in-Chief some time ago, is showing off some preview pages from its maiden issue. The whopping 40-page preview gives a glimpse of the magazine, which is scheduled to arrive at subscribers' doorsteps before the year is out (they're running out of time). The 148-page, advertising-free magazine is only available through subscription and will not be out on store shelves.

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With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown. This week we're taking a look back at 2009 and the ups and downs we've felt as paladins.

Well, it's after Christmas and another year is almost behind us. Two-double-zero-nine was a particularly frustrating year for paladins, because we felt we were either at the top of the pile or the bottom and it changed from day to day. The development team has even been quoted as saying that paladins have been the hardest class in Wrath to balance even when taking death knights into consideration. Let's walk down memory lane and see where we were and where we're going.

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The internet's magiest weekly mage column, Arcane Brilliance would like to wish you and yours a very magetastic holiday season. Unless you and yours are warlocks. In which case Arcane Brilliance hopes the holiday season comes to your Christmas party and punches you in the face.

Every year, as the end of that twelve-month block draws near, Arcane Brilliance likes to take an unbiased look back at the events that captured our collective imagination. Heh. Get it? "I-MAGE-ination?" Holy crap Arcane Brilliance is clever. And indefensibly fond of bad puns.

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Tuesday, we kicked off our Twelve Days of Winter Veil contests at WoW.com Every day until January 2, 2010 we will have new prizes to give away along with new loot codes. Today, we are giving away 1 Goblin Gumbo Kettle code courtesy of WoWTCGLoot.com. As you can see in the movie above, this in-game item summons a kettle of green soup. Any player that clicks on it will get Goblin Gumbo. Eating the gumbo will cause the player to spew in a most spectacular and verdant fashion. Great for in-game weddings.

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The WoW Insider Show returns to the airwaves today at 3:30 PM Eastern time, bringing you a hot, steaming plate of holiday leftovers. Well, if the latest WoW news and views are what you ate for Christmas dinner, anyway. Michael Sacco will be your jolly host, likely getting his halls decked by co-host Matthew "Burly Ives" Rossi, with a possible appearance by venerable editor Adam Ho-Ho-Holisky. We'll be discussing the part of Winter Veil to which everyone really looks forward: the presents, as well as the team's and our favorite articles of 2009 and the wait for more Icecrown bosses. Maybe we'll even talk about Christmas.

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WoW.com continues celebrating Winter Veil with our Twelve Days of Winter Veil contests. Today is day eight of our countdown and we are giving away a set of World of Warcraft novels written by Richard Knaak to one lucky winner courtesy of Pocket Books. The set includes:

• Night of the Dragon
• War of the Ancients Archive (which includes Well of Eternity, Demon Soul, The Sundering)
• Warcraft Archive (which includes Day of the Dragon)


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Marconin of <Skull Then X> on Draka writes, "This shot was taken during one of my guild's raids on ICC-25. As you can see, there's a lot of corpses, and we were getting frazzled by all the wipes we'd endured. One of our hunters randomly started cutting focusing lenses for us and gave them away. This is the result. It reminded me of Ghostbusters (probably everyone else too). We all started quoting the movie and made for a lighthearted reprieve from the raid."

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Earlier this month, an interview was conducted with Jeff Kaplan by Phil Kollar of Game Informer where they talked shop about World of Warcraft. One of the items that piqued my interest was that a new cutscene was being included in patch 3.3. I'm sure we can guess that it has something to do with Icecrown Citadel (and Arthas).

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Stats changes and Masteries in Cataclysm
One of the biggest change introduced with Cataclysm is the simplification of existing stats. I usually get a few mails each week asking me about this, time for a reminder!
Quote from: Wryxian (Source)Items Stats
In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, there are plans to streamline the statistics found on items. We want to remove all unnecessary stats, make all existing stats understandable, and make all "core" stats more appealing. Here are some examples of such plans.

• MP5: This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability.
• Spell Power: Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don't panic, we'll be improving Intellect so that it provides mana and Spell Power.
• Attack Power: We're removing Attack Power from items as well. Instead, we're allowing Agility to provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers. Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.
• Defense: The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to worry about juggling around "the cap." Tanks will receive the necessary anti-crit from talents, like Survival of the Fittest.
• Armor Penetration: This ability is too confusing and "mathy." It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. More on that later!
• Haste: Will also increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus. Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit.
• Block: Block Value is being removed. Blocking will now always mitigate a percentage of damage.
• Stamina: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Also receiving a massive overall are hunters. The hunter’s need to rely upon mana is completely gone, and instead they will use focus. This means hunters will no longer care at all about Intellect, mana regen or Aspect of the Viper. Focus will regenerate continually, similar to how rogues or feral druids regenerate energy. For comparison, rogues regenerate approximately 10 energy per second, whereas hunters will regenerate 6 focus per second. However, Steady Shot can also be used to improve focus regen, and bring the rate at which hunters regenerate focus to 12 per second. The hunter will have a maximum of 100 focus, and shots might cost 30 or 60 focus, with fewer cooldowns on abilities. Another exciting and long-awaited change regards the ammunition system. Ammunition will become an equipable item, and will no longer be consumable. More details on that later!

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