Welcome to another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that would like to say to warlocks: Look... even when we're alone, we outnumber you.

We belong to the best class in World of Warcraft. I know this because I have a checklist. Do you want to see it? Too bad, you're going to see it anyway:

• Access to enormous balls of flame: check
• Can solo ICC trash: check
• Can pull off wearing a dress and make it look sexy: check (see pic above)
• Has a wand (though two would be even pimper): check
• Can make a mean slushy: check
• Can create own strudel: check
• Can rock a pointy hat: chizzeck
• Can create more of self: check, check, and check. Oh, and one more check (also see pic above)
• Is not a warlock: check

You see? Mages meet every criteria on the checklist. The fact that I just made the checklist up is unimportant; the important thing to take away from this is that mages are, indisputably, the best class in this game.

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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.

Tomorrow's the Big Day for one of WoW.com's own. Join us in congratulating Michael Gray and his bride Katherine on their marriage. It seems that this couple has been treading on geeky ground from the very start. Now, Michael has given us permission to share excerpts from the ceremony with the gang at [1.Local] here today. We've tucked in the wedding benediction at the end of this week's column ... Best wishes to the happy couple!

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Exactly like clockwork, every week comes to a conclusion and I send a mail around asking what everyone's weekend gaming plans. And slightly less like clockwork, our writers chime in, one at a time, laying out their elaborate plans for the empty space of two full days before them. This week, however, was a bit different...

• Michael Gray (@writegray): I'm getting married to the person who makes my whole world possible, and starting a new home for us to watch the world spin 'round us.
• Chase: I think we all just got 1up'd.


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In the recent Blizzard developer chat there were several questions pertaining to player storage. They spoke about the issue with storing tabards from all of your various factions, the default backpack falling behind other bags, and being able to access the bank slots of your alts without the need to use the mail.

All three of these are long standing issues that have usually been avoided when direct questions came up, usually invoking the safe and often used "we'll see" remark. I would love to be able to replace my backpack with a Glacial Bag and gain six storage slots or clear out the bank space I'm using to store specialty tabards. Let's take a look at their responses after the break.

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It came from the Blog is holding its second Battleground Bonanza today:

• When: Saturday, January 16th, 4:30pm EST (1:30pm PST, 2:30pm Server time)
• Where: The Hall of the Brave (where the Battlemasters are), Orgrimmar, Zangarmarsh U.S.
• Who: Any level 10 or above Horde character.
• How: Ask any It came from the Blog Lurker or Robinator for a guild invite.
• What: Battleground premades

We will be forming groups and hitting as many level/group-size appropriate BGs as we can for an hour or so. If you can't make it to the Hall of the Brave in time for the event, you will miss out on the first screenshot, but will still be able to participate. We will also be doing some BG related quests, so there will be some traveling for certain level ranges.

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The WoW Insider Show returns to the airwaves today at 3:30 PM Eastern time, bringing with it familiar faces Michael Sacco and Matthew Rossi (your host and co-host, respectively), with special guests Tim "Heartbourne" Tusing and Jimmy "DJTyrant" Blocksom of Project Lore bringing their unique perspectives to this week's top stories, both here and around the internet.

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Pokwan of Shadow Council writes in that he's "one young tauren warrior who's had enough of dwarven scum invading Mulgore to dig carelessly into the Earth Mother." Most people just confine themselves to doing a couple of those annoying starting level quests. Violence is never the answer, Pokwan! Wait. In Azeroth, it's actually always the answer. Never mind.

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While it is certainly nothing new, it seems that you can't spit without hitting someone who has, or has had, a compromised account. These WoW account predators are getting more clever by the day, with using everything from keyloggers, sham contests, betas and security checks, to even grabbing an account and immediately attaching an authenticator to it.
Now, any moderately-savvy internet user would just scoff, and say that they take all necessary precautions -- what's there to worry about? Fair enough, but what about those who, well, don't?
Blizzard has said time and time again about safe-guarding your account information, yet people still jump onto those fake Cataclysm betas and fancy new mount prizes. Make something idiot-proof, and they'll build a better idiot, eh?
That being said, what are you doing to protect your prized polygons? Do you have a good anti-virus installed? A malware scanner? If you don't have an authenticator, how come? It's only about the price of a grande Starbucks drink, and will provide a longer-lasting effect of happiness and joy to your life.

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Some actual new information from tonight's developer Twitter chat with Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and J. Allen Brack? I'm as surprised as you are. When asked why the resplendent (and glowy) Crystalsong Forest is oddly barren of anything to do beyond sightsee (and, of course, the rare quest), we received some interesting info about game performance:

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Hunters and warlocks were given something to look forward to during the Blizzard developer chat on twitter this evening. The question was asked: "You mentioned pet scaling being added for patch 3.3 but due to time constraints, was delayed. Will this be in the next patch?" This is something that has been mentioned throughout the course of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and hasn't been implemented yet. The reason? It is a fairly complicated procedure.
We'll try to do what we can. Technically it's just more challenging than you might think. For Cataclysm, we have on our list that 100% of stats scale. If they don't then certain stats just won't be as valuable for pet classes. At the very least, we can do stuff like convert your X into damage for the pet so every stat is valuable. Getting everyone to scale with every stat better is a major goal for the class team for Cataclysm. With hunters, warlocks, and unholy death knights, there are a lot of talents and glyphs that affect the scaling of stats to your pet. If you allow certain stats to scale too well, you suddenly unbalance the class. If the stat scales poorly, then the class falls in the other direction. Every talent and ability that taps into these has to be checked to make sure it doesn't throw things out of whack. Considerations on diminishing returns on certain stats scaling would also need to be checked.

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Coming out of the Twitter developer chat tonight was this question and following answer, given by Ghostcrawler and J. Allen Brack:
Q. With the new skins for druid forms, what is the chance that warlocks might see race/faction specific demon skins or maybe a new one?

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