Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.



Is it just us, or does it seem a little warm in here? The news was popping here at WoW.com at the tail end of the week, and the reactions in [1.Local] were explosive. In what turned out to be a freaky Friday indeed, WoW.com posted not one but three articles peering behind the scenes at account security concerns. Those of you who like to know how the movie ends before you even take your seat can cut right to the final scene -- but for those who prefer to savor the whole, winding saga over a bucketful of popcorn (with plenty of butter and salt), let's take it from the top.

Continue reading [1.Local]: Plenty of butter and salt

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Features, [1.Local], Account Security

[1.Local]: Plenty of butter and salt originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest buzz out of Hollywood is that the fourth installment of the Spider-Man movie franchise has hit a snag. Director Sam Raimi is apparently in the midst of some major creative differences with Sony Pictures executives over the script and the villain lineup. A little bit of drama in Hollywood is nothing new, of course, but in this case its become bad enough to delay the movie, with the May 6th, 2011 release date now in serious doubt.

Continue reading Spider-Man 4 delayed, possibly impacting Warcraft movie

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

Spider-Man 4 delayed, possibly impacting Warcraft movie originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It could be considered a small, fine point, but I've always been a stickler about naming my characters. I've been known to sit around for days, repeatedly rerolling and renaming the same character until something clicks just right. I just can't bring myself to play a character if the name doesn't line up. For better or for worse, we only have a few basic customizable options for our character, so the name tag provides the first hints about our character to other players.



If the first impression about your character is delivered by the name you've chosen, it becomes the most customizable aspect of your character. If you use one of the many mods that let you use a surname, then you'll even have two names to choose from. But, for the purposes of this article, let's just stick to the single word that everyone sees.



Take a look behind the jump, and let's discuss some tips for naming your character.

Continue reading All the World's a Stage: A rose by any name

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, (Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage

All the World's a Stage: A rose by any name originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Sunday, Spiritual Guidance offers Holy and Discipline priests advice on how to wield the holy light and groove to the disco night. Your hostess Dawn Moore will provide the music.



For my introductory article I dreamed of writing a stunning opener that would be attention grabbing and witty. After an hour of contemplating bad diamond clichés such as Earthsiege Diamonds are forever, or Lucifron and the Skyflare Diamonds (which really makes no sense), I decided I'm just going to come out and say it straight: I hate the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond.



Despite my loathing, according to Armory Data Mining, the Insightful Earthsiege Diamond is the most popular meta gem selected by level 80 priests, both holy and discipline. So, I am going to shed some light on this mysterious meta gem by explaining its pluses and minuses, as well as discuss some alternative options should you choose to switch.

Continue reading Spiritual Guidance: Making an Insightful meta choice

Filed under: Priest, Items, Tips, Jewelcrafting, Raiding, Guides, Talents, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance, Wrath of the Lich King

Spiritual Guidance: Making an Insightful meta choice originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Easily one of the most creative and distinctive fights in Icecrown Citadel, the Gunship Battle is something many raiders have been looking forward to since BlizzCon 2009. As a little bonus, this fight is also the source of a certain cloak that's white and longer than your average cloak.



Here's the basic story. As you've just managed to lay waste to Lady Deathwhisper, you ride the elevator up to where you'll see the Horde and Alliance doing battle. The fight happens almost identically the same whether you're Horde or Alliance. The only difference is which faction leader you're attacking and which faction leader you're following.



You pick fights with small parties of the enemy faction as you fight your way to get to your gunship. This is the same ship that's been circling Icecrown for all of Wrath, so you'll probably recognize Orgrim's Hammer and Skybreaker. You'll want to be sure to grab a jetpack as soon as you get onboard, and spend a little time shooting around and getting used to the rocket jump. Even if you're not going to be part of the raiding party attacking the enemy ship, the jetpacks are too much fun to completely ignore. Also, as has been mentioned before, these jetpacks gave rise to the infamous Rocket Bear.



Once the encounter starts in earnest, you'll quickly find yourself fighting the enemy in ship-to-ship combat. Let's take a look behind the jump and talk about how this is going to work.

Continue reading Ready Check: Gunship Battle

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, (Raiding) Ready Check

Ready Check: Gunship Battle originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome to another Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that firmly believes the frozen throne simply isn't frozen enough. Frankly, we don't think the Lich King was trying hard enough. And so we applaud the efforts of the enterprising young mage pictured above. Way to show Arthas how it's done! Also, we will miss you.



So 3.3 has been live for several weeks now, and a great many of us have farmed up more Emblems of Frost and Triumph than we know what to do with. We, as a nation of mages, have bought ourselves a whole set of really nice new gear, possibly far nicer than anything we've ever had before. And what do we like to do when we get something really nice? Why, make it even nicer, right?



We get the nice video game system, we want a nice controller, and a selection of top-shelf titles to play on it. We get the HDTV, we want the shiny Blu-Ray player so we can watch Firefly in glorious high definition. We get the new car, we want to get a nice alarm system for it so that nobody can steal it. Unless you're that dork from my high school who bought the high-tech alarm system for his mom's 1976 Volkswagen Rabbit. Oh how we mocked him. Maybe someday you can get a good car to go with that sweet alarm system, we'd say, and laugh as he would hang his head in shame. Somewhere, he probably has all of our names on a list of people to kill, which he stares at while he puts on lipstick, Steve Buscemi-style.



But for most of us, this shiny new gear stirs within us the primal urge to trick it out even more. Which of course means that business is booming for Enchanters and Jewelcrafters. We discussed gemming last week, and this week, we're moving on to the fine art of enchanting your mage's already quite magical wardrobe.

Continue reading Arcane Brilliance: Enchanting your mage

Filed under: Mage, Enchanting, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Features, Guides, Classes, Enchants, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Arcane Brilliance: Enchanting your mage originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As I promised you last week, today's list is quite robust. The list even features a new comic for us all to enjoy, and the return to weekly updates from a couple of your favorite artists. Get reading!

• Battlemasters: Let's Get It On!


• NPC: Boot Camp. NPC: Ommm. NPC: Sleeeepy.


• Torment of the Week: Perfectionists.


• Guilded Age: Page 3 of Chapter 3.


• Cru the Dwarf: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. I love Cru's dialogue with himself.


• Teh Gladiators: Fight... to the Death!


• Daily Quests: Ok, Now Play Dead. If you're a fan of Emergency Kindergarten, then be sure to read the text beneath the comic.


• LFG: #319 and #320.


• Beyond the Tree: Settling dust.


• Dark Legacy Comics: Keydar Can't Ski. I know that a lot of you were wondering why there was no DLC posted last week, and I am posting it here in case you didn't catch the link in the comment section. We do wish you well!


• Check out the new wallpaper from Complex Actions.


• NoObz: Season Break.


• Equinox is back with a new Northrend series! Here are the first two: Equinox and a Mess O' Mounts and Equinox and His Moral Dilemma. Each one is a little mini-series, so click through them.


• Fail Druid fails some more.


• The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf: Disgraph's Rockin' New Year's Eve. Congrats on graduating, and looking forward to watching the story arc play out!


• Give a warm welcome back to WoW eh! with The Cold Shoulder. Glad to hear you're feeling somewhat better Kelly!


• GU Comics: Built In Maturity.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Features, Humor, Comics, Sunday Morning Funnies

Sunday Morning Funnies: Dirty looks originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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