In response to some complaining that we were going to run out of content to play before Cataclsym; Zarhym responded that there was still a lot of content for the average player and: With that being said, we do have some additional PvE and PvP content and changes we plan to implement prior to the release of the big Cataclysm patch and subsequent retail release of that third expansion. We'll be discussing these new features in more detail in the coming weeks. This pretty much dashes any hopes of the expansion being released before midsummer or fall, since they wouldn't be developing any new content otherwise. Zarhym goes on to tell us that ICC will be the last tiered progression raid before Cataclysm. So we probably won't be getting the raids in the Sunwell Plateau, but we may get another Isle of Quel'danas and some more PvP fun as well.

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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.

When you really need to know, turn to the hive mind. Readers had plenty to say last week about their trials and tribulations (and triumphs!) running the older instances of vanilla WoW and Burning Crusade. Thanks to speedy reader comments, we were able to update readers with a resolution to the looting mess that left most groups unable to complete the staff required to summon Ironaya in Uldaman. (Any other issues with tradeable objects inside instances? Let us know about them in the comments.) As the discussion wound through page after page of observations and frustrations and advice, a veritable gold mine of tips for running low-level instances emerged. This week, we'll recap those tips for new players who are making their way through the old instances for the very first time.
Are we there yet? Older instances tend to be long. Very long. Very, very long indeed. In fact, most early WoW instances were designed to fill your entire evening. If you fully explore these places, you'll discover lore-soaked narrative, vicious packs of trash mobs (with respawn!), doors locked by puzzles and keys, bosses galore and twisted, convoluted maps. These dungeons come from an entirely different mindset than today's shotgun instances, which are designed to be run in an hour or less. Even divided in two today by the Dungeon Finder, Blackrock Depths (BRD) stands as monument to the traditional dungeon crawl. Other notoriously lengthy instances include Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, Maraudon, and Upper and Lower Blackrock Spire.

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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 at the paladin loot from the Frostwing Halls as well as the Lich King fight itself. As we come to the heart of the Citadel and the close of the expansion it's been a long journey for us paladins. We've been on top and on bottom and sometimes that was differing from day to day.

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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. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

It's happened again, ladies and gentlemen. I've run out of things to say in the intro portion here. That means it's time for another edition of, "write Alex's intro for him in the comments below along with your regularly scheduled questions for the next edition of The Queue."

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Zach, who's obsessed with PvP, has sworn off playing his high level characters until Razer releases a Mac version of the Razer Naga driver v2.0, which allows key mapping. Because the Razer Naga's awesome and key mapping is badass but gaming on a Mac sucks.

Mages are a slippery bunch. Don't be fooled by those pansy dresses and flimsy wands. Mages are fearsome opponents on the battlefield, possessing wondrous abilities taken from the pages of classic fantasy -- they can hurl gigantic fireballs, pop from one place to the other, turn opponents into critters, and even make their own food and drink (which is why it's important to make friends with one)! Nowadays, they can even disappear and make copies of themselves, making them even trickier and more dastardly.

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Derthelz on the official forums asked a good question -- why is the Alliance prepared to kill Arthas but not to try to retake their lost city of Lordaeron? After all, the upper half of the Eastern Kingdoms is almost completely lost to the Alliance, despite the area being the former home of some of Azeroth's most powerful nations. Why doesn't the Alliance try to take them back?

Crygil says that, actually, they just might:
"Who said that the Alliance wouldn't attempt to reclaim these lands? That is a very dangerous assumption to make, especially if you're of the forsaken persuasion.
The Lich King is a threat to all the inhabitants of Azeroth and, as such, he needs to be put down before territorial disputes can be resolved. Leaving those claims for the future only makes sense; far easier to fight one war at a time. For now, it's better to focus on the task at hand."

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The Lunar Festival runs this year from Sunday, Feburary 14th at 9:00 am server time through Sunday, March 7th at 9:00 am server time. That's right, folks; you've got three weeks to get everything done. The basics of the holiday involve talking to a number of Elders to honor them, receiving Coins of Ancestry in return, and then using the Coins to purchase fun holiday items. The To Honor One's Elders meta-achievement is also a requirement for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. In general, this is not a difficult holiday, but it is time-consuming; you'll need to hunt down a lot of NPCs. Because of the mileage you'll rack up doing this, it'd be a good time to do World Explorer if you haven't already done that, or pick up flight paths that a character doesn't yet have.

We've updated and expanded our 2010 guide to include exact coordinates for every Elder in the game, and I've also arranged them in what I hope to be the most straightforward way to reach them all. Let's get started.

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Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women? Blood Sport investigates the entirety of all-things arena for gladiators and challengers alike. C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in WoW.com's arena column.

Listening Music: 15 Step, by Radiohead. If you liked it, check out the full set -- it's nine tracks, and they don't stick to just In Rainbows! Myxomatosis and Where I End and You Begin (a personal favorite) are included.

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Mangletooth is the entry from RedEyeLobine into Blizzard's Rise to Power contest. According to the author, the video was created pretty late in the game as a "last minute thing." The contest had a three minute time limit. If you put these factors together, then RedEyeLobine was dealing with quite a challenge. Nonetheless, I think he did a great job of pulling together a wonderful video with a pretty funny ending.

Mangletooth himself is an old, classic World of Warcraft NPC. RedEyeLobine's video answers the question of what would happen when this old, captured, frustrated NPC grows tired of a two-expansion long imprisonment. The video has a few nice little gags along the way, and is pretty enjoyable for something RedEye says he whipped up quickly.

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When Blizzard put all characters below level 10 on easy-mode and added the tutorials in patch 3.3, I thought that was because they were expecting a huge influx of new players for the holidays. But I was wrong. CEO Mike Morhaime stated in the quarterly conference call for investors yesterday that only 30% of all Trial Accounts make it past level 10. This would account for the priority of making the beginning of the game new player friendly, over other development we veteran players would like to have seen. He goes on to say that the changes to the leveling game in Cataclysm will be good for retaining new players while giving better replay value for the rest of us.

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Gearhoof of Ghostlands-EU and his friend Kenesu have a harrowing story of survival to tell. While riding around on their motorbike, they were attacked by some arrow-wielding Scourge. "The two brave Tauren were about to just get out of this amazing hog to kick some behind when the abominations arrived," wrote Gearhoof. "They barely escaped a meathook, and naturally they decided to take to the highway. They just barely managed to escape certain death and devouring by the Scourge. Those ghouls aren't very good with bow and arrows, as you can see."

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Welcome to Scattered Shots, written by Frostheim of Warcraft Hunters Union and the Hunting Party Podcast. Each week Frostheim uses logic and science mixed with a few mugs of Dwarven Stout to look deep into the Hunter class.

Beast Mastery is the beloved hunter spec with the strongest and most protective of followers. While a BM hunter was a rare thing to find back in vanilla, BM saw a terrific boost throughout Burning Crusade and the beginning of Wrath of the Lich King. For years BM enjoyed the incredibly rare status of being an excellent spec -- if not the best spec -- for soloing, leveling, pvp, and raiding.

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Recent In-Game Fixes - February 2010 - 02/10
Quote from: Bornakk (Source)Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

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My wife and daughter love their Murky and Kwurky murloc plush dolls that I got for them during last year's BlizzCon. In hindsight, I really should've gotten a Lurky plush for myself. I mean, you gotta admit, those suckers are cute! Blizzard apparently knows it, too, and they're about to release two new plushies soon with the added bonus of including a code for an in-game pet! Those wyvern cub and gryphon hatchling models have been in the game files for a while now, but we've only just found out about where to get them.

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AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience - the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond - your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, we throw together a PUG for Elitist Group.

Last week on AddOn Spotlight, we profiled an addon that works as an alternative to a very popular entry into a very popular category of addon. Elitist Group is part of a category of addon that people either love or hate. There really hasn't been too much wiggle room for opinions on the matter. This week, we look at the Dos and Don'ts of Elitist Group and show the addon's strengths. In addition, I got to talk to the creator, Shadowed, and get his insight on some topics ranging from the prevalence of Gearscore, gear addons in general and some tips and tricks!

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The following realms will be undergoing emergency maintenance today from 5:00 a.m. PST / 8:00 a.m. EST until 11:00 a.m. PST / 2pm EST. Please note that there seems to be some inconsistency in the wording of this post -- the title lists this maintenance as rolling restarts, while the post itself clearly indicates players are going to see some downtime. This maintenance is to resolve a database issue, but a large number of realms appear to be affected. Hopefully this will address some of the lag issues players have been reporting since the extended maintenance on Tuesday -- if there are any issues that extend this emergency maintenance period, we'll update this post.

See below for a full list of realms undergoing maintenance.

• Aegwynn
• Akama
• Aman'Thul
• Arathor
• Azjol-Nerub
• Barthilas
• Blackrock
• Bloodscalp
• Bonechewer
• Boulderfist
• Bronzebeard
• Caelestrasz
• Chromaggus
• Crushridge
• Daggerspine
• Darkspear
• Dath'Remar
• Draenor
• Dragonblight
• Dragonmaw
• Draka
• Drak'thul
• Dreadmaul
• Dunemaul
• Eitrigg
• Eldre'Thalas
• Feathermoon
• Firetree
• Frostmane
• Frostmourne
• Frostwolf
• Garithos
• Gundrak
• Gurubashi
• Hakkar
• Jubei'Thos
• Khaz Modan
• Khaz'goroth
• Kil'jaeden
• Kilrogg
• Korgath
• Kul Tiras
• Malorne
• Mug'thol
• Muradin
• Nagrand
• Nathrezim
• Ner'zhul
• Perenolde
• Proudmoore
• Rexxar
• Runetotem
• Saurfang
• Scarlet Crusade
• Sen'jin
• Shadow Council
• Shadowsong
• Silver Hand
• Silvermoon
• Skywall
• Smolderthorn
• Spirestone
• Stonemaul
• Stormscale
• Suramar
• Terenas
• Thaurissan
• Thorium Brotherhood
• Tichondrius
• Uldum
• Vek'nilash
• Windrunner


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