It looks like we have some quick play disruption coming our way this Saturday morning, as Blizzard has announced rolling restarts for all realms at 5 AM pacific, or Noon pacific for Oceanic Realms. Judging by Ghostcrawler's words in a recent thread, this is likely meant to jump start the resilience hotfix.

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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. Mike Sacco be your host today.

I am tired, folks. Here is your Queue.

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I've had a number of requests for caster DPS staves lately, so I decided to highlight Cryptmaker, which isn't actually a caster DPS staff at all so I have no idea why I chose this particular intro. Rather than dwell on it, let's move on with our lives.

Name: Cryptmaker
Type: Two-Handed Mace
Damage: 848 - 1273 Damage, 294.6 DPS (938 - 1407 Damage, 325.7 DPS)
Speed: 3.60
Attributes:

• 169 Strength
• 185 Stamina
• One red socket and one blue socket
• Improves hit rating by 95
• Increases your armor penetration rating by 100

Heroic Attributes:

• 185 Strength
• 209 Stamina
• One red socket, one yellow socket, and one blue socket
• Improves hit rating by 99
• Increases your armor penetration rating by 115.

The Cryptmaker is a pretty solid choice for any class able to wield it, but it truly shines in the hands of a feral (cat) druid. The other classes can certainly make use of it (some more than others) but Cryptmaker has worked its way onto some druid Best in Slot lists.Depending on where you've decided to get your needed +hit from, Distant Land is Cryptmaker's biggest competition currently.

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Reader UnstØppable writes in with a question I thought would benefit others: "Does the Bladestorm aggro problem ever get better? What I mean is, I've seen it countless times, the arms warrior enters the dungeon, the tank lets out a sigh (sometimes it's me), we pull the first group and everything goes fine, until he hits that Bladestorm button. That's when somehow he manages to pull aggro from every mob and their mom and makes both the healer's and the tank's lives hell or usually ends up dying within seconds."

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One of the fine points of professions and Auction House trading is what's commonly referred to as your "bank alt." The art of creating a bank alt is founded mostly on personal preference, but there are still some fundamentals that will give your bank alt a little extra oomph.

There are a few reasons to have a bank alt. First, bag and bank space. Since you don't want to "flood the market" with any given particular item (because that drives prices down), you might need to put some items in cold storage until the market stabilizes. While your main character's bankspace might be gargantuan, most people find the additional bag and bank space of a bank alt attractive.

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Recent Icecrown Citadel Hotfixes
Quote from: Daelo (Source)Just wanted to update players on the hotfixes that have been applied recently to Icecrown Citadel...

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Even though Crimson Halls has been open for about half a week, a series of hot fixes have been applied today. Most of the fixes posted by Bornakk are applied to Blood Queen Lana'thel. I have to admit though, the bug where the Kinetic Bomb could trigger Blood Queen Lana'thel during the Blood Prince Council encounter did make me chuckle. I'm glad that's been resolved as well.

• Blood Queen Lana'thel will only be available after the Blood Prince Council is defeated.
• Blood Queen Lana'thel's Essence has a longer duration.
• Kinetic Bombs no longer aggro Blood Queen Lana'thel during the Blood Princes encounter.
• Blood Queen Lanathel should no longer cast Vampiric Bite on pets.


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Now that you've conquered the tragic hero-turned-evil Deathbringer Saurfang, the path is clear for you to go into the Plagueworks. This is where some of the slimy, funky, icky creatures serving Arthas keep their truly hideous and nasty creatures."Slimy" really is the word here, as the whole area just seems . . . moist.

In a small break from normal operating procedure, I want to talk a little about the trash on the way to your first boss. The trash in Icecrown Citadel is fairly awesome, and worth a little bit of description. As soon as you enter the main spire, you're going to find these jets of green smoke shooting from the walls. It's worth noting that you shouldn't stand in them, or you'll die. Rogues can disarm these traps fairly handily.

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We've been getting tips from people for several days that i.wow.com, the version of the site for users surfing from mobile devices, has been continuously redirecting to the regular webpage. That's obviously not something we want it doing, but our editors have been on the case. It looks like the problem was part of a network-wide issue that should be fixed now, so for anyone out there surfing from an iPhone or other mobile device, you should now be experiencing considerably less frustration (until you read one of my articles, but that's Working As Intended).

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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.

The other night, one member of a random PUG The Spousal Unit was in announced exactly which bosses would be downed. He stated that any disagreement would cause something on his body to be put into something on your body -- only he used slightly more graphic words. The run was fine, because, though his method of communication was crude, it did convey a strategy that worked.

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In a fascinating post over at Gamesindustry.biz, Blizzard COO Paul Sams takes great pains to emphasize that Blizzard will ship no game before its time (to rip off an old wine slogan): "We will not pull the rug out from under them and ship it before it's done, so people feel that when they out their heart and soul into a game, they'll be able to deliver the game they envisioned."

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It's been a while since we've looked at the wonderful series, I'm MT. The series has obviously progressed pretty well, and the characters continue to be heartfelt and adorable. The animation style is still fun to watch, and our hero now seems to have levelled up into the twenties.

The opening segment for I am MT - Season2 - EP03 is absolutely fantastic. The call out to the Super Mario games is an inspired choice, since it calls out to the roots of gamers everywhere. I even found the final gag to be pretty amusing, since it still exemplifies the slapstick humor of the main character.

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Matthew Rossi, who brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors every week, apologizes for his remarkably unimaginative screenshot skills. But hey, at least this week he's dancing! Just like you all will when you start trying to kill Putricide. This achievement should grant a title in my opinion.
I want Last Word. Yes, I know everyone hates the proc. I look at it and say "remember Heartpierce" and keep on wanting it. (I've actually considered picking up a Heartpierce for tanking heroics with but they didn't buff the rage gen when they buffed the energy and daggers have crappy coefficients for warriors.) I half expect to see that mace get buffed to add 200 str when it procs. If not, not. I still want the great ugly thing, even if I'll probably pick up a rogue offhand axe to use as a threat weapon.

None of this has much to do with what we're here for today, namely clearing out the Plagueworks, hopefully with as few attempts on Putricide as possible so we can save them for Lana'thel over in Crimson Halls. (No bets on what next week will be about.) I'll probably also mention some loot they drop, but don't expect a comprehensive loot list, this is more about the strategy and tactics of killing some really rather disgusting bosses.

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Here comes Peter Cottontail, hopping down the -- oh, God! Who brought the Great Horned Owl pet to Icecrown? You guys and your stupid non-combat pets have cost us raid members for the last time. First the Black Kingsnake scared off our ophidiophobic off-tank, then someone's Perky Pug mauled our paladin, and now the owl has eaten three of our ranged DPS. No more pets in raids! Seriously! Except for hunters, that is. But still, no crocodiles. (Thanks to Sehat of Skullcrusher for the pic!)

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An interesting thread popped up on the forums a few days ago that I wanted to ask our readers about here at WoW.com -- what roles have you tried in the game, and has experimentation with other roles changed how you play overall?

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Update - Added Crimson Halls Hotfixes.

MMO-Champion is recruiting forum moderators!
I am looking for moderators. A lot of moderators. If you check the forums regularly you probably saw a few change happens and more things are on my lists.

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