Melee combat? Barbaric. Healing? How pedestrian. Let the elements do the talking. Totem Talk: Elemental. Brought to you by Mike Sacco.

Last week I took you through Elemental 101, a crash course in playing your elemental shaman. Now that we've got the basics out of the way and you understand your talents and rotation, it seems as good a time as any to talk about gear.

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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.

• Gray Matter steps back and covers the basics of playing a moonkin.
• I Sheep Things muses on about guild loyalty in PUGs.
• Holyform brings you tips on healing Lord Marrowgar as a discipline priest.
• Cynwise offers up this public service announcement regarding a bug with warlock imps.
• Vedalken presents his amazing LORD MARROWGAR R-R-R-REMIX (seen above).


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If you like tanking (sure, we all do) you may be interest in this update to yesterday's post about tier 10 tanking gear: the dodge on gloves and defense on chests is being removed and the armor is being increased to bring them in line with the off-set tanking pieces due to the popularity of higher armor in Icecrown Citadel, and we now finally have hard numbers. So far, it looks as if the armor increases are pretty significant (882 armor on iLevel 251 gloves, 1064 armor on iLevel 251 set chestplates) and should make up for the dodge or defense lost, especially as armor has increased in popularity due to the Chill of the Throne debuff in ICC. We're told that the armor increase scales with iLevel so the iLevel 264 and 277 versions will also have proportionate armor increases. This is a patch 3.3.2 change so don't panic if your gear doesn't have the armor yet.

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Welcome to Lichborne, WoW.com's weekly death knight column. This week, your host, Daniel Whitcomb, is busy applying for a slot as one of Arthas' pall bearers. Do you think I should wear the Ebon Blade Tabard or the Argent Crusade Tabard for that?

Good News Everyone! With the Deathbringer down, you don't have to wait for some gnome in a frying pan. The Plagueworks are open, and you can go right in. Before we take a look at the Plagueworks boss loot, you might want to go back and read the opening paragraphs of last week's Lower Spire loot guide. It outlines the basic parameters and stat considerations we death knights use in picking out our best loot. Once you've done that, read on for a look at death knight loot from the Plagueworks wing of Icecrown Citadel.

Festergut

10-man

The Cloak of Many Skins probably isn't quite as good as the Sentinel's Winter Cloak for tanking, at least in its non-heroic version, but it is better at pure avoidance for sure, and is a decent option until you have the emblems to spare for the Sentinel's Winter Cloak, or if you just want more straight up avoidance.

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This is a reminder that submissions for the bank alt screenshot contest are due tomorrow, Wednesday January 27th by 11:59 p.m. EST. E-mail your submissions to dawn@wow.com.

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World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

It's all about making time for what you love to do -- so says Jason Babler, a former WoW player who's nurturing a love for sculpting fantasy and gaming characters, with eye-popping results. It took four months of patient, part-time work to create this troll hunter, based on artwork from Upper Deck. Jason's managed to combine a passion for gaming with a lifelong interest in fantasy, carving out a hobby that he describes as his way to get away from the computer and develop the art skills he's always wanted.

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Patch 3.3.2, the next minor content patch, will include the much requested strength-based rings for melee DPS from the Ashen Verdict reputation. This should make warriors, paladins, and death knights quite happy. This afternoon Zarhym has released the stats for the different reputation levels (friendly, exalted, etc...), which we have for you after the break.

The minor content patch will also bring with it an influx of other small changes, as well as arena season 8. You can check out all the changes in the translated version of the patch notes that were discovered last night.

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15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

David French is a busy guy. Take a glance over his bio: A graduate of Harvard Law School and David Lipscomb University, French serves as senior counsel and director of the university litigation project for a large non-profit legal organization. He is also a captain in the United States Army Reserve and recently returned from a year-long deployment to Iraq with the 2d Squadron, 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, where he earned a Bronze Star. The former president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, he also taught at Cornell Law School and served as a partner in a large law firm. He is the author of four books and numerous op-eds. Regularly interviewed by both print and broadcast media, David has a guest on The O'Reilly Factor, ABC World News Tonight, The Fox Report with Shepard Smith, Special Report with Brit Hume, and Your World with Neil Cavuto, among others. He has been profiled in several magazines and appears regularly on dozens of radio programs, including National Public Radio. He is a married father of two.

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Tier-10 Tank Armor Changes
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they’re provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces.

Similar items crafted or purchased with Emblems of Frost will continue to be very good and will compare favorably to all but the Heroic difficulty boss loot, so you shouldn't despair if you recently acquired any of those.

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Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, a quick and dirty guide to raising one's tree from a young sapling to a mighty oak, or other suitably impressive arboreal species.

Whenever other columnists here write really good columns, I sit at my computer and swear a blue streak, for I am a jealous god. Sacco, damn him, turned out a great article on the basics of elemental shamans, and for a while I've been kicking around bits and pieces of 101-esque columns for all four druid specs. This was the last shove I needed to get that done. While I expect our new balance blogger (a.k.a. Murmurs, the person I will be forcing to do all my number-crunching in the future with bribes or, when necessary, threats) will address moonkin, I'll cover bears, cats, and today, trees.

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If you PvP you may have noticed Arena Seaon 8 has not arrived today as expected. The forums certainly have, and Bornakk made sure to explain the reason. Apparently in order to start the arena season, the minor content patch 3.3.2 is necessary and since it isn't ready yet neither is Season 8. A brief side question about how people are finding the new resilience changes devolves but should't distract us from the main message here. Arena Season 8 has been delayed because patch 3.3.2 is not out yet. That's the sum total of what we know at this time. Please, do not panic, as soon as we know more about when the season will start or patch 3.3.2 will drop, we'll share that information with you.

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 will be your host today.

Why do I always wait to do the easiest post of the day until four in the morning? I should do the easy one first, then do the several-thousand-word posts.

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WoW.com's prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak with major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we're letting you, the reader, Ask a Faction Leader!

We recently spoke to High-Shaman Rakjak, leader of the Frenzyheart wolvar tribe, and he shed light on several key issues, including dumb fat-tongues, carnivorous mailboxes, visitor permits, wolvar fertility, and jarred urine. In this installment of Ask a Faction Leader, we'll be sitting with Vol'Jin, leader of the Darkspear trolls.

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I think Still Alive -- JoCo verison wins the "genre bending" award. Still Alive was originally the closing credits song for Portal by Valve Software. The computer system known as GLaDOS promises the Portal player cake throughout the game. It's kind of the carrot to keep the player moving. (This is also the source of The Cake Is Not A Lie.) Still Alive is performed by GLaDOS at the end of the game.

Well, being the geek savant that he is, Jonathan Coulton covered Still Alive. Being the WoW culture savant that he is, Spiff took JoCo's cover and turned it into a World of Warcraft machinima. (There are plenty of references to the original Portal game in the video, though, so this version isn't entirely detached from its roots.)

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Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic -- Byron the Tauren Rogue!

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It's been a busy seven days in MMO news as we gear up for the release of two games next week: Star Trek Online and Global Agenda. In addition, be sure to check out our brand new columns rolling out for specific focus games such as Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XIV and more to come!

	Captain's Log: A non-trekkie guide to Star Trek Online Perhaps you've been hearing a lot of buzz about Star Trek Online lately. Or, perhaps you're reading this article in the year 2018, after the robots have begun their bloody revolt. Either way, you've never been way into Star Trek, but find yourself curious about this new MMO based on the franchise. In that cast, this iteration of Captain's Log is just for you.
	Court documents say Bethesda's MMO already under dev, rumor says it's Elder Scrolls In this most recent round of court scuffles between Interplay and Bethesda over the Fallout MMO rights, it would seem that some details are coming to light about what's going on at Bethesda's MMO "branch", Zenimax Media. According to filings, the word is that there are close to 100 people working on an MMO that costs "tens and tens of millions of dollars" and has been under development since late 2006.
	The sounds of Guild Wars 2: a Q&A with ArenaNet's Audio Director A recent discussion has been going on regarding sound effects and ambient sounds, with everyone generally agreeing that those details are a wonderful addition to a game environment -- the more the better. Guild Wars is a game that already does this well, with details such as a change in the sound of footsteps depending on the surface one is walking on. Fans have the expectation and hope that things will be even better in Guild Wars 2.

	Masthead Studios and Interplay finalize agreement for Fallout MMO We have another step forward in the long-running saga of the Fallout MMO. Late last week, Interplay announced that they had signed "definitive agreements" with Masthead Studios regarding Project: V13, the highly contested post-apocalyptic MMO. We knew this development was a possibility, but things have been delayed by the legal battles with Bethesda.
	The Virtual Whirl: Community guide to Virtual Worlds Welcome to The Virtual Whirl, a new weekly Massively column covering virtual environments generally. The term 'virtual world' is slowly seeing less use, being supplanted by the more general 'virtual environment', but the world term still has a fair bit of life left in it.
	The Mog Log: Community guide to Final Fantasy XI and XIV The great thing about being a fan of Final Fantasy XI is that you're not lacking in any sort of resources online. After such a long lifespan, pages have been created to suit almost any need the community might have. And for a game whose mechanics can be obtuse at times, that's a good thing.
	The Flameseeker Chronicles: Community guide to Guild Wars Guild Wars has been around for a while now, and has the advantage of a strong, knowledgeable fan-based community. There are literally hundreds of fan sites and forums, Twitter pages and Facebook pages all devoted to Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. It's very easy to get overwhelmed, so view this as a guide to where you can find the most comprehensive information for whatever you are looking for, be it gameplay information, news on game development, skill and build help, and much more.
	Fan questions answered in DCUO Q&A video SOE Austin recently put up a call for DC Universe Online fans to ask questions via Facebook for a video Q&A. Well, the team's answers are now live over at the social networking site and we think you'll be pleased with the results.
	Star Trek Online 101: Currency Welcome to the first edition of Star Trek Online 101. Over the next week and a half we'll be taking a look basic skills and information you need to be successful in STO. Each day we'll look at a different subject, and we'll kick it all off by talking about the different types of STO currency.
	Global Agenda early start and preorder bonuses detailed You've gotten all the news and updates, and you've even gotten a handy guide to conquest mode for Global Agenda. If you're ever going to be ready for Hi-Rez Studio's high-action game, it's now. So it's no coincidence that we've gotten news on the game's pre-purchase options, as well as the early start details for all players and the chance to reserve your character name prior to the February 1st launch date. After all, if you've gotten the game via Steam, don't you want to just download and start playing right away? That little grayed-out name is mocking you.
	Star Trek Online character customization in pictures Cryptic Studios, the developer behind Star Trek Online, is well known for their character customization options. I know that I spent more time making characters in City of Heroes than beating up bad guys. Cryptic has brought that same design aesthetic to STO. For those of you not currently in open Beta, I've captured a gallery of shots below spotlighting all the available races in open beta (Federation and Klingon factions.)
	Massively's Guide to the Character Traits of Star Trek Online Star Trek Online offers several levels of character customization beyond the visual aspects, and that first level the player is introduced to is character traits. You select these traits when creating your character, and the choices are numerous. In Massively's guide to the character traits of Star Trek Online, we'll look at the different classes of traits and suggest some builds to get you started.

Well, I think we've found the winner of this month's Most Hideous Gear award. This bank alt of Azmodan on Aerie Peak-EU is truly a symphony in blue, yellow and red. Wait, a symphony? Scratch that. Replace it with "a terrifying conglomeration of a paladin, a mutant ant, and an Insane Clown Posse fan club." Remember, just because the outfit technically matches doesn't mean that you should wear it.

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Last week, there was a thread on the European forums about what really happened during the weekly downtime. Sure, some people said the boring answers of various things having to do with software and hardware. Others were more of the fanciful variety involving the hamsters that run the servers being fed. However, I like the more RP approach to the situation.

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Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With the 5 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime coming our way, it's probably safe to assume we aren't getting Patch 3.3.2 this week. Luckily, that didn't stop Blizzard from releasing the 3.3.2 patch notes over on the Korean WoW site. You'll probably want to give those a look, especially if you're a shaman, warrior, or warlock. On the bright side, the extra week's wait means that means you have at least one more week to master the recently opened Crimson Halls. Be sure to check out our raid boss guide for tips and strats.

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