New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. For links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's, visit WoW.com's WoW Rookie Guide.

Level 80: You're reached the beginning of the end. It's never been easier to take your character to epic levels of gear and adventure. Whether you're five-manning for its own sake or gearing up along the path to raiding, we've got the tips to help you make the most of your level 80 group experience. If you're so new to level 80 (or still working your way there) that you're not sure what to tackle and where to turn first, read Level 80: Now what?. Once you've got a handle on the available options, it's time to tackle the wide world of Wrath's five-man instances.

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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.

• Miss Medicina explains, exhaustively, why the Oculus experiment was a failure.
• Blame Squelchy explains how Heartpierce works and why Mutilate rogues should be all over it.
• Cold Comfort provides you the reader with a great post showing time-to-Emblem ratio in Heroic dungeons.
• WoW in an Hour explores the best class choices when you only have a small amount of time to spare.


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

The above picture continues my obsession with Dr. Who, thanks to Liz. I'm not saying there's a space time disturbance here, or that something bad is about to happen. But it might, because there is a blue telephone box outside of my apartment.

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The Icecrown Citadel raid overview here on WoW.com has been updated with even more information on the bosses contained in the Plagueworks, which has opened this week. You'll find summaries on the new bosses along with links to other resources like loot, videos and detailed strategy for Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide. If you're just setting foot in the instance now, don't worry as there are resources for the first bosses in the Lower Spire.

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Not only are we taking applications for a resto/moonkin druid columnist, a holy paladin columnist, a lore columnist and an addon columinst, but now we'd like to throw the shaman column into the mix. After over two years of throwing down shaman advice like totems at an Onyxia raid, Matt Rossi is moving on to other writing duties on the site (and continuing with the warrior column.) And, as with the other hybrid class columns, we are going to take this opportunity to split the column into two weekly installments to focus on specific talent trees.

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Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we discuss how a few stats interact with various rogue specs.

Have you ever had a problem finding a group as a rogue? My own rogue isn't immune to this issue, and I sometimes find myself without a raid group on a Saturday night. The rogue population has been steadily growing since its sharp decline right after the launch of Wrath, and that means increased competition for the coveted melee DPS raid slots. With the plentiful bounty of Death Knights and Ret Paladins vying for the three different two-hand weapons that drop from just the first 4 bosses of ICC10 and ICC25, it can be tough finding your place.

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The time has come for the new release of NinthBatter's Nobody Like You, Episode 4. This is somewhat a plot episode for Nobody, separating him from his beloved ghoul Louis and his good friend Dot. He's been called to serve in a dubious duty by the Lich King, and it seems like he's got no choice but to obey. While NinthBatter intended for this to be mostly a gag release, I still think the story progression is pretty interesting.

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When the World of Warcraft Anniversary mini-site was unveiled last November, one of its features was a photo-mosaic dubbed the Battlecry which would unlock little art goodies each time a certain milestone was reached. The Battlecry mosaic called for player submissions to submit their pictures with a logo of their favored faction, with a modest goal of 20,000 player-submitted pictures in order to reveal the final artwork created specially for the event.

It's come along rather smoothly, and some really cool player pictures have been submitted, with the seeming abundance of Horde-aligned pictures prompting us to ask where the Alliance pride was. But what really surprises me is how long the whole project is taking. When the site was launched, one of the first questions that actually ran through my head was how long it would take to fill up the whole mosaic. With over ten million active players, you'd think getting to 20,000 would be easy. Out of ten million, that's like a drop in a bucket. But after almost two months of the site being active, we're still only at 32% of the goal. Why?

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If you're a shaman you're familiar with the "grar grar grar grar" sound of Bloodlust or the "ktang!" of Heroism, its Alliance counterpart. For a long time one of the complaints has been that you absolutely had to have a shaman along in order to gain access to this buff. Even when leatherworking drums and inscription scrolls were created for lesser versions of buffs like Blessing of Kings and Prayer of Fortitude, Bloodlust/Heroism were still a unique buff to the shaman class.

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Mike and his friends of the <Borean Kilted Yaksmen> on Thorium Brotherhood ran into a bit of ... difficulty during the Trials of the Grand Crusader. This inspired Mike to write a Choose Your Own Adventure-style narrative: "You come upon a door upon which the terrifying image of a skull is floating. Beneath your feet are piled high the bones of those who passed through the door before you. If you Flee, turn to page 156. If you open the door ... you know what, just don't open the door. Are you not seeing all the bones?"

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JLM Pacific Epoch reported last week that an agreement has been reached regarding NetEase and that punishment will be announced this month. The two government agencies fighting over whether or not NetEase engaged in illegal activities have agreed that by charging fees before full approval, NetEase is guilty of acting against regulations. The disagreement began when the General Administration of Press and Publications halted their review of the game in November 2009, but were opposed by the Ministry of Culture in their decision.

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Good news everyone!

The second wing in Icecrown Citadel is open. Inside the Plagueworks, we'll be taking on the next generation of abominations that Arthas and his lackeys have been working on. Festergut, Rotface and Professor Putricide will be available for your raid.

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Welcome to Know Your Lore, WoW.com's weekly column about the story behind the game we play.

Last week we discussed the formation of the Alliance in response to the Horde invasion of and destruction of the Kingdom of Azeroth via the Black Portal, and the Alliance's eventual triumph over the Horde, expedition to Draenor, and the events of Warcraft III that saw the destruction of Lordaeron and creation of a new order. This week, we talk about the events that caused those events.

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Recent In-Game Fixes - January 2010 - 01/05 (Part 2)
Another wave of hotfix has been deployed on live realms including a very interesting one ... Also, the Oculus has been nerfed once again!
Quote from: Bornakk (Source)1/5/10

• The proc for the item, The Last Word, has been greatly increased to allow for more continuous uptime.
• The NPC Margrave Dhakar in Icecrown will properly respawn if killed while doing the quest, The Flesh Giant Champion.
• Wyvern Sting no longer triggers the extra shot effect from Zod's Repeating Longbow.
• The Oculus had some additional changes made. The Planar Anomlies during the Eregos encounter will have a shorter duration and do reduced damage, some of the drakes above Varos’s platform have been removed, and the drakes controlled by players will move a little faster.
• Players can now send a whisper to a player from another realm that is currently in their party.
• The Invigoration buff from melee attacks using the Heartpierce dagger will now grant twice as much resources as before. It now grants 2 rage, 4 energy, or 120 mana every 2 seconds for 10 seconds.

Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staffMalevolent Girdle is under item budget (Malevolent Girdle)
Yes, it's a bug. We will get it fixed. (Source)

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