176 – The Instance: The Talented Mr. Ghostcrawler

Cataclysm Decisions Are Being Made
That’s not exactly a big secret. Of course Blizzard is working feverishly on the nuts and bolts of the forthcoming third expansion to World Of Warcraft, and regularly making decisions that will affect your entire experience, post-Cataclysm. Nonetheless, our old buddy Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street hit the forums this week to talk a little bit about what’s going on behind their usually closed doors. Specifically, he felt like talking about talents trees.

Battlecry Mosaic Unlocks A Piece Of Music
For the first time since Blizzard started their Battlecry Mosaic project as part of their epic 5th Anniversary celebration, a checkpoint in the progress of revealing the mosaic has unlocked music! It’s an original piece called Invincible, and it is really good. Also, who was Invincible?

Dude, You’re Getting A Buff
Blizzard CM Zarhym dropped the buff bomb on us this week, with the announcement that the next minor patch is going to bring some substantial changes to your tier 10 set pieces. It’s a big post that starts like this: “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.”

Still No Season 8
At least, that’s what Bornakk said this week, like this: Information in the next minor content patch is needed to start it and the patch is not out yet.

But We Have All The Armor Sets
That’s right, Blizzard unveiled your Arena Season 8 armor set models this week. And they look… dark.

Town Cryer
William M. writes: I was wondering what you gues thought the best way to break the news to a friend that the guild he raids with is not for you. My good friend recently pulled me into his hardcore raiding guild and the pressure inside the guild is getting to me. Raiders are called names in vent, people are mocked if not specced right and it just feels stressful in general. I would like to leave the guild for a more relaxed enviornment but I dont know how to tell my friend that the people he plays with are jerks.

Filling Those Sockets Is Easy
Yes, we’ve talked about it before, but not enough. It’s the answer to the question “how do I figure out which gem I should buy to put in these empty sockets?” The more you play WoW, the more you obtain gear that comes with holes, and WoW-Gem.com is the place to go. It’s called the WoW Gem Finder, and some players are wary of browsing to it because it sounds like a shady site. Trust us, it is simple, and elegant, and powerful. At WoW-gem.com, you just check off boxes indicating your needs, such as “I’m looking for a yellow gem that has +spell power on it” and BOOP! Your options are listed. And sortable.