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World of Warcraft: «Wolfheart» novel description now available


A preview description for the next book set in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm universe, Wolfheart, has appeared courtesy of BlizzPlanet. The novel, penned by Stormrage and War of the Ancients trilogy author Richard A. Knaak, follows the exploits of Varian Wyrnn, Genn Greymane, night elf leaders Malfurian Stormrage and Tyrande Whisperwind, and surprise guest Maiev Shadowsong. From the description, it appears the novel will focus on the tensions between Stormwind and Gilneas due to their tenuous new alliance, the Highborne’s reintegration into night elven society, and the continued fight in Ashenvale against the surmounting Horde odds.

Christie Golden’s [hide]Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects[/hide], is currently on the shelves, chronicling Thrall’s journey post-Cataclysm with the Earthen Ring and his counterpart Aggra, as well as the dragons and their quest to stay alive and allied during Deathwing’s brutal return. With Wolfheart, it seems we’re getting an Alliance leader’s story opposed to that of Thrall, who was once the Horde’s warchief.

World of Warcraft: Wolfheart is going to be available on Sept. 13, 2011. Hit the jump for the full description.[hide]Continue reading World of Warcraft: «Wolfheart» novel description now available[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Lore[/hide], [hide]Cataclysm[/hide][hide]World of Warcraft: «Wolfheart» novel description now available[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide] | Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Ready Check: WoW Insider’s guide to Beth’tilac


[hide]Ready Check[/hide] helps you prepare yourself and your raid for the bosses that simply require killing. Check back with Ready Check each week for the latest pointers on killing adds, not standing in fire, and hoping for loot that won’t drop.

Thus far in our adventures, we have tackled the Firelord’s finest hunter Shannox and toppled another member of the «royal» family, [hide]Lord Rhyolith[/hide]. This week, we zip clear across to the other side of the map in order to fling ourselves against the mother of all Lava Spiders. As the matriarch or the Cinderweb Brood, Beth’tilac has created and cares for a massive web network that spans a large portion of the west sector of the Firelands. Here, she and her children capture and feed off of other fire elementals.

Seemingly, this is a bad thing, but despite being lavavores, the Cinderweb Brood seems to have at least a partial relationship with Ragnaros, often joining his forces in the field of battle. Perhaps the newly christened fire druids have something to do with this? Regardless, she’s got loot, and we’re here to take it from her! Let’s get started.[hide]Continue reading Ready Check: WoW Insider’s guide to Beth’tilac[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Raiding[/hide], [hide]Ready Check (Raiding)[/hide][hide]Ready Check: WoW Insider’s guide to Beth’tilac[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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WoW Moviewatch: Battle of the Blues

[hide]Myndflame[/hide] has created a fun, unique idea for getting official Blizzard posts out to the community. In Myndflame’s new series, the «[hide]insane voice actor[/hide]» reads blue posts out loud. It’s a pretty great idea, in my opinion, since it brings a level of entertainment to what can sometimes be rather dry information.

The idea has really caught on, and even the community managers have gotten in on the fun. The result is that Myndflame took the recent [hide]Battle of the Blues[/hide] and turned the banter into its own video.

This performance blew me away. It was hilarious. I’ve not laughed so hard at forum interaction since the last ret paladin nerf. The video isn’t long; take the time to check it out and enjoy the fun. For the record, that is exactly the way I’ve always imagined Neth and Zarhym speaking.

Make sure to keep checking out [hide]Myndflame[/hide] for future installments. It’s definitely worth your time.

Interested in the wide world of [hide]machinima[/hide]? We have new movies every weekday here on [hide]WoW Moviewatch[/hide]! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at [hide]moviewatch@wowinsider.com[/hide].

Filed under: [hide]WoW Moviewatch[/hide][hide]WoW Moviewatch: Battle of the Blues[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide] | Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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The Queue: Super-Soldier-sized edition

Welcome back to [hide]The Queue[/hide], the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today.

Looks like Captain America is getting good reviews, so I am beyond pumped to see it. Finally, an outlet for my all-consuming man crush on Chris Evans. In honor of his bulking up for the role, I have bulked up The Queue today. Enjoy!

KrazyKorean728 asked:

As we’re getting towards the time when we can complete all the Molten Front achievements, my question is about the achievement «Ready for Raiding II.»

We access the Lieutenants of Flame by recruting both the Wardens, Druids & the Ancients. We get to fight against the Lieutenant as the last quest named «Strike at the Heart.» Does the Lieutenant change based upon which groups quests you do (i.e. if I do the Wardens, is there one set of Lieutenants that will spawn with them versus which ones spawn with the Druids)?

There’s a random lieutenant each day, and which one spawns is entirely unrelated to the dailies you choose to complete.[hide]Continue reading The Queue: Super-Soldier-sized edition[/hide]Filed under: [hide]The Queue[/hide][hide]The Queue: Super-Soldier-sized edition[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Blizzard debuts new products at San Diego Comic-Con


Blizzard’s Chris Metzen graced the floors of the San Diego [hide]Comic-Con[/hide] today to talk Blizzard licensing partners and show off some awesome new merchandise coming this year featuring Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo wares. Diablo merchandies looks to include knee-high Diablo socks, a Diablo face belt, new shirts, and two hoodies modeled after Diablo’s demon hunter class and the angel Tyrael.

StarCraft’s line is expanding with new shirts, a first look at the MegaBloks Viking, a leather wallet, and StarCraft: Ghost: Spectres, which has been confirmed by Metzen to be a novelization of StarCraft: Ghost, the game that was and then never was.

Warcraft’s wares continue along a familiar path with a slew of new T-shirts as well as what appears to be a beverage called the Forsaken Elixir of Undead … I really have no idea, since it’s most likely a joke slide. Metzen also previewed the covers for the forthcoming original graphic novels Horde and Alliance, coming out later this year.

[Thanks, [hide]Kotaku[/hide], for the tip and images.]
Filed under: [hide]Blizzard[/hide][hide]Blizzard debuts new products at San Diego Comic-Con[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide] | Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Blizzard’s APIs and You: Cool information and tools coming down the pipe


Recently, Blizzard [hide]disabled the WoWArmory Facebook application[/hide], signaling that the time of the modern WoW Armory is over and we will soon live in an age when [hide]new Blizzard APIs[/hide] will transform our out-of-game experience. And change it, they will. These forthcoming APIs will change the way you interact with WoW outside of the game in ways you cannot even think up yet. How do I know this? That’s the power of information facilitation, and some inventive hypotheticals will show you what [hide]Blizzard’s APIs[/hide] will do for you in the near future.

Over the past few months, Blizzard has been preparing to roll out a new set of APIs that will take internal information from the Armory, the [hide]new community site[/hide], and more, parse it into easily manageable data streams, and make those streams available to application developers. With these new streams of information, savvy developers can craft web applications, smartphone apps, social media plugins, and anything else under the sun to provide you with new and dynamic WoW experiences on the internet. I know that sounds horribly clich, but hear me out — this stuff is pretty cool, and the back end could bring about a new standard for information availability and MMOs.

I’m not a developer. In fact, a lot of us in the community are not developers. Writing this story felt like an exercise in obscurity because, frankly, all this back end information isn’t in my wheelhouse. As I dug deeper and began to realize the potential of the systems being set up, I fell in love with the idea that Blizzard is opening up easy access to so much information. I thought it would be a good idea to illustrate for those of us who have no idea what APIs are capable of, to break through the programmer/developer talk and discuss what these APIs mean for us, at the end of the day.[hide]Continue reading Blizzard’s APIs and You: Cool information and tools coming down the pipe[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide][hide]Blizzard’s APIs and You: Cool information and tools coming down the pipe[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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WoW Rookie: How to look up your character online


New around here? [hide]WoW Rookie[/hide] has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the [hide]WoW Rookie Guide[/hide]. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it’s about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones.

If you’re anything like me, you like to take a moment here and there to check out your character online without actually logging into the game. Maybe you’re on a break at work, just doing background research into gear, or otherwise just goofing off on a computer. Essentially, you’d like to look at your character without getting in the middle of the game.

The Armory was a common way to share information about your character with other people. All of your official forum posts link automatically to your Armory profile, and it’s easy to post to a link to your Armory on unofficial forums and emails. Over its existence, the Armory has continued to become more powerful. It can help you find potential upgrades, find out where gear dropped, and more. Along the way, of course, the Armory also became more complicated.

While Blizzard is transitioning away from the classic Armory, most of the functionality still exists just fine on the [hide]Battle.net WoW[/hide] site. Here’s a walk-through of some basic things you can use the Battle.net Armory to do.[hide]Continue reading WoW Rookie: How to look up your character online[/hide]Filed under: [hide]WoW Rookie[/hide][hide]WoW Rookie: How to look up your character online[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Addon Spotlight: Automate your life with some automatic addons


Each week, WoW Insider’s [hide]Mathew McCurley[/hide] brings you a fresh look at [hide]reader-submitted UIs[/hide] as well as [hide]Addon Spotlight[/hide], which 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.

Face it — we’re lazy. Lazy, lazy, lazy. We’ve been living in a world of awesome addons, quality of life improvements, and a streamlined interface for so long that we might have forgotten how awful things really are in the outside world of user interfaces. While you read this edition of Addon Spotlight, remember how bad things were back in the day, with lack of options and the rigid UI schemes. After you’re done with that, come back here for addons that will do a bunch of stuff for you, no questions asked.

This week’s Addon Spotlight is all about addons with Auto in the title (or at least in concept), because I love addons that take care of menial tasks for me. Auto-addons also have some cool functionality that exists outside of the menial task range, but we’ll get to that. Some of the auto stuff is pretty cool and might even do something (automatically, of course) that you never thought you needed before.[hide]Continue reading Addon Spotlight: Automate your life with some automatic addons[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Add-Ons[/hide], [hide]AddOn Spotlight[/hide][hide]Addon Spotlight: Automate your life with some automatic addons[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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The OverAchiever: The silver coins of the Dalaran fountain


Every Thursday, [hide]The OverAchiever[/hide] shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we’re still after that last coin from the Eventide fountain.

Welcome back, folks. We return this week to the next installment of our miniseries on the Dalaran fountain’s magic coins. Getting all of the coins will grant you [hide]A Penny For Your Thoughts[/hide], [hide]Silver in the City[/hide], and [hide]There’s Gold in That There Fountain[/hide], with the completion of all three granting [hide]The Coin Master[/hide] and one more notch toward [hide]Accomplished Angler[/hide].

It’s really in the set of silver coins that you get a sense for just how dangerous this fountain can actually be. Most of the people who tossed coins into it never saw their wishes come true. Of those who did, most probably wished they never had. Why is this fountain’s existence even tolerated by Dalaran’s municipal services? Is it considered an historical artifact or something?

If you’re looking for our first installment concerning basic information on the achievements and full descriptions of the copper coins, you’ll find that here:

[hide]The OverAchiever: Dalaran’s magic fountain[/hide]
[hide]Continue reading The OverAchiever: The silver coins of the Dalaran fountain[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Analysis / Opinion[/hide], [hide]Lore[/hide], [hide]Achievements[/hide], [hide]The Overachiever[/hide][hide]The OverAchiever: The silver coins of the Dalaran fountain[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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Scattered Shots: Hunter community resources


Every Thursday, WoW Insider brings you [hide]Scattered Shots[/hide] for [hide]beast mastery[/hide], [hide]marksmanship[/hide] and [hide]survival[/hide] hunters. Frostheim of [hide]Warcraft Hunters Union[/hide] uses logic and science (mixed with a few mugs of dwarven stout) to look deep into the hunter class. Mail your hunter questions to [hide]Frostheim[/hide].

Hunters are more than an amazing class; hunters are an amazing community. The hunter community is hands down the best class community in WoW. We have more intelligent and generous players willing to dedicate their free time to helping each other out than most classes have intelligent and generous players.

One of the great things about the hunter community isn’t just the quantity of hunter sites and resources out there, but the phenomenal quality of those resources.

Today, I’d like to highlight as many of those phenomenal hunter sites as possible. If you’re a regular reader of Scattered Shots but don’t get out across the rest of the hunter community much, you seriously have to check some of these sites out. And if you’re a die-hard hunter who can’t get enough hunter news, I bet I’ve even got some sites here that you haven’t heard of yet. Join me after the cut for the gateway into the best community in the game.[hide]Continue reading Scattered Shots: Hunter community resources[/hide]Filed under: [hide]Hunter[/hide], [hide](Hunter) Scattered Shots[/hide][hide]Scattered Shots: Hunter community resources[/hide] originally appeared on [hide]WoW Insider[/hide] on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our [hide]terms for use of feeds[/hide].[hide]Permalink[/hide] | [hide]Email this[/hide] | [hide]Comments[/hide]

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