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***SUPER-DUPER SPOILER ALERT***
Along with all of the announced 3.1 changes this week, the much unexpected Argent Tournament was added to the PTR yesterday! Personally, I knew nothing about this new area, but I was raring to go check out and do some exploring.

Additionally, in this little video I demonstrate the Dual Spec and Gear Manager interface. It isn’t very fancy, but both are very overdue!

3.1 Preview – Part 1 from Stompalina aka. Denise on Vimeo.

For full information regarding The Argent Tournament, the gear available, the new pets (yeah!), or anything else shown in the video, visit MMO-Champion.com!

Part II will consist of me trying to figure out how the Tournament works… And, possibly some badly played PVP duals.

Happy PTR-ing!

Ahh… The PTR is live and there is so much excitement in the air about the impending 3.1 patch that you can cut it with a Betrayer of Humanity!

In the midst of all of the hubbub our guild has asked that we put most of our live raiding on hold to take a closer look at the PTR. Nearly our entire raiding population, along with many from outside of our guild, have copied our characters over and plan to tackle the 3.1 content head-on.

While this is extremely exciting, it is also bound to cause many headaches in the coming weeks. Here are a few of the pros and cons of being an active raiding guild on the PTR:

PROS

• Getting to see new content will spice things up from the curing farm of same ‘ol, same ‘ol bullshit.
• The pressure of new content usually weeds out the weaklings.
• Teamwork is crucial and typically builds comradely between raiders.
• PTR testing is crucial to the game we all know and love. See what happened in 3.08 when there were so few people testing? Bug-o-licious!
• You get a TON of exposure to some very involved players who could one day be potential recruits for your guild. Forging new relationships with players cross-server opens doors far beyond your guild.
• Being able to test out new specs, talents, spells, glyphs, etc. will aid your LIVE experience. You can also share your learnings with players with similar specs throughout your guild.

CONS

• Being the first to see the new content means that there are few to none encounter guides. Gotta figure it out for ourselves!
• Raiders might ends up burned out on beating theirs heads against the wall of progression by the time the patch actually goes live.
• Typically, none of the add-ons we so heavily rely on are functional… at first.
• The excitement of loot is short-lived when you realize that it will only be yours until the testing is complete.

In the end, our current LIVE content is on farm and is typically cleared in under two nights. So, what else is there to do besides tough it out with the rest of the guild on the PTR? For us, the PROS far outweigh the CONS this time around. A year ago we weren’t in this stalemate of content. But, for now I would rather see something new than to see off-spec loot whores taking more crap for their third set of gear.

We are set to start the PTR headaches this weekend. We are hoping to get a lot of experience in Ulduar under our belt fairly quickly considering the guilds that we have partnered with on the PTR. We plan to share our learnings on the podcast, and hash out ideas on the blog. So, if you have any PTR raiding guild type of questions, please feel free to ask away!

or pose a 3.1 question to our PTR raid group at

There seems to be an epidemic rolling through the interwebz. A sudden influx of slightly random screenshots are popping up across blogs throughout the world. The rapidly spreading hindrance is known as 6th of 6th…

As it was described to me by thee that has tagged me, Naissa:

“The way it’s supposed to work is that you post your sixth screenshot in your sixth screenshot folder to your blog…

After that you’re supposed to tag 5 other people to continue the “chain”…“

My first thought was, “How cliche! If everyone in the blogosphere is doing this, why would I want to contribute to the clutter?” Additionally, the OCD contributes to the habit of cleaning and deleting my screenshot folder more often than is probably normal.

My second thought was, “How many of these things have I deleted in various e-mails forwarded by my completed skeptical AARP mother?”… more than I can count.

Nonetheless, I dived into my screen shot folder, counted 1-6, and found a shot that I am very proud of. Thus, it is somewhat worth sharing with the world.

This shot was taken as we prepared for Sartharion in Obsidian Sanctum on the evening that we finally completed the 3-drake encounter. It is especially important because you can see almost all of my fellow raid members that evening, as typical shots include a large portion of my trunk-ass.

So, as the chain progresses, I shall tag the following recipients:

• My lovely friends, Wych, Wemb and Tempest of Bind on Equip
  
• The cute little gnome I just can’t wait to munch on, Larisa of The Pink Pigtail Inn
• The recently fire-dodging Aussie, Saresa of Destructive Reach
• Twitter friend and GM extraordinaire, Kreeoni of Kree’s Blog
  
• My podcast mentors, and friends, Leala and Beau Turkey of Spouse Aggro

There you go! Keep up the chain, or frogs will rain from the sky, servers will crash, yadda-yadda, on and on. You know how that goes.

Happy Blogging!

It didn’t take much convincing, just a few Shiner Bocks to polish the fun-loving mood, to work up a WoW-related conversation. Luckily my brother is a wonderfully funny (and single) guy who is open to trying just about anything once. So, we recorded the encounter as a sort-of social experiment. Enjoy!

We have a great Rawrcast planned for this week. Our hunter-buddy, Jeb, will be stopping by to go over the ins and outs of the planned 3.1 changes, and shoot the shit about other hunter beefs floating around the interwebz. We will also run through the planned warlock and mage changes as well as talk about the amazing Ulduar preview released by Blizzard this week.

Join us LIVE at 4 PM, CST this week on Ustream
with your questions or e-mail them to us at

Get the Podcast post-broadcast on iTunes or via RSS feed. And, make sure to follow us on twitter in preparation for our exciting contest set to debut next week!

If you have been listening to our podcast, and/or reading our blog you may have figured out that I have very little patience. Little patience for jerks, reading the lengthy quest text, and little patience in real life dealings with telephone prompts and the forsaken telemarketers. It is a fair assumption to say that my natural red hair and short temper has a lot to do with it.

Equally amazing is the fact that my lack of patience has often lead me to do some pretty asinine things in-game. I have previously written about my first toon experiences and my inability to read spell tool tips, quest text, and utilize the now-obvious tools that the game gave me… But there is another recent occurrence that I now deem somewhat noteworthy.

Welcome to Dalaran
When we first reached level 74 and were able to take the quest portal up to Dalaran, it was a magical day. What a wonderful new town full of vendors, mobile NPCs, shimmering portals to far off lands, Haf and I were amazed! Something that I have had great experience with in the past is reselling vendor items from these high-level, hard-to-reach towns. I proceeded to start poking my head in the various little shops that line the streets of Dalaran, making note of the gear availability, and searching for vendor buys that might make some money in the Auction House.

That’s when I came across this scene, a lovely unassuming shop right next to the Violet Citadel. Inside I was greeted by two lovely vendors. One of which, in time, became my reliable reagent vendor. The other is an evil woman known as Endora Moorehead. The two women are sisters, but they could not be more unalike in the nature of the items they peddle to patrons.

Black Magic or Black Market?
I excitedly bounded up to Endora’s counter and found items of black magic. OoO!

“Well, looky here! There’s a Mage book for Polymorph: Black Cat! That’s bound to resell because I have never seen it before. How exciting!”

Upon clicking the magical brown “Purchase” bag, I was immediately taken by the overwhelming feeling of:

“Oh crap, did I just spend 2,500G? There was no idiot-proof DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BUY THIS EXPENSIVE PIECE OF CRAP prompt!”

My gut started to turn and my face turned beet red, and Endora’s black cat pet (appropriately named Badluck) sat there on the counter taunting me! I had bought the item without thinking to look at the cost, or researching whether or not it was actually selling in the Auction House. And, after leveling to 74 and spending loads of gold on preparing for craftables I was already broke, so 2500G may as well have been 10,000G at that point.

I tried desperately to resell the item for weeks. It seems that there aren’t many level 60-73 Mages with an extra 2,500G laying around to spend on a needless vanity item. Go figure!

Realizing that I wasn’t going to make a profit from the purchase I attempted to cut my losses and sell it at a small loss, with no luck. I finally had enough (due again to my lack of patience), and gave the item to Haf for him to deal with. He sold the item at a DEEP loss after a few more weeks of peddling in trade chat.

Mark this mistake up to my lack of patience, and lack of auctioneer scanning post-Wrath. The lesson I have learned is three-fold:

• Scan the Auction House with Auctioneer more often, especially when scrounging around for potential resell items.
• GMs aren’t able to give refunds for your mistakes.
• Slow the fuck down and pay attention do what you are doing, dummy.

After a week filled with Love in the Air and 3.1 news abounding, Haf and Stomp take some time to sit down with Matt from World of Matticus, and talk through the upcoming Priest, Druid and Death Knight class changes.

We also discuss a blogging related e-mail sent to us by Amanda from The Grind, and discuss the fine line between reading and writing about World of Warcraft related topics and actually playing the game we all love so much.

Listen to Episode 6 on iTunes, RSS feed, download, or stream it from our main page.

Thanks again for all of the wonderful comments left on iTunes!

Next week’s podcast will cover upcoming Hunter and Mage changes so send us your questions!

Music provided by: All That Remains – Chiron

Through discussions we have all agreed that the impending Dual Spec change to the game will mean something different to everyone. Someone that might raid spec and a PVP spec will benefit, someone that may mainly DPS and back-up raid heal as needed will benefit, and even someone that may main tank and solo DPS will benefit. It is clear that it everyone will benefit from the change, no matter what roll or class they play. And, how they use the secondary spec will depend upon the rolls they play within their guild. And, it will save everyone countless amounts of gold!

But, what about the narrow minded folks like myself that have been playing only one aspect of our characters? I have leveled resto, DPS-solo resto, raid heal resto, I even dream about resto… How can I best put the new secondary spec to use?

Defined Main Spec
I first had to get my head around the fact that having a second spec at my disposal doesn’t entitle me, or anyone else for that fact, to gear as if that second spec is equal to my main. After talking at length with our guild leadership about possible gear challenges, it is still quite clear that in a solid raiding gear for my MAIN RAID SPEC it is still priority. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to have a clearly defined RADING SPEC. I went into the discussion bright and bushy-tailed thinking that Dual Spec would open the door to an entire new set of gear that I would otherwise be passing on. Quite the contrary. The Dual Spec change will not change the fact that the secondary spec is still OFF-SPEC.

Dual Spec isn’t intended to give players multiple rolls to play, it is intended to help fill gaps where various specs might be needed. Just that simple. Maintaining your raid roll as you play it is still important. Granted, being able to switch specs will help in raid composition more than we can probably imagine at this point.

Weigh Your Options
Current content now on farm, I have now seen more than my fair share of sharded epics. Granted, most of the best-in-slot items are still needed by a majority of guilds since the game hates us and never drops the best items when we want it to. But, for the most part, well-progressed guilds are meandering through raids with easy and picking up the items they are looking for. This farm is a great opportunity to pick-up OFF-SPEC gear. Take the mediocre, not quite what everyone wants gear and make use of it.

In my case, I have decided to work on my feral tanking set. Going from one extreme to another seems to make sense. Typically parties are either looking for a tank or a healer. Being able to flip-flop would be helpful. Although, being the hardcore resto that I am, shifting into the bear state of mind is going to be challenging. I am going to be treating the change almost like I am playing another toon for awhile.

RAWR IMMA BEAR
Knowing that I don’t ever do anything half-ass, I will probably be switching specs quite often and start tanking level 70-75-ish instances for a bit. Another good place for anyone to hone new spec skills is in battlegrounds. You don’t have to worry much about people complaining that you did something wrong, you leave the party after 10 or so minutes and typically never see them again. Or, if you are grouped for battlegrounds it is a good opportunity to talk with people you know about what you are trying and bounce around ideas without the pressure of being in a raid. Racking up honor and tokens is a bonus in the case.

So, look for Stompalina to start running flags in Warsong Gulch and screaming like a little Nancy-girl as she scampers across the fields of battle in post-patch WoW. I know it will probably take some getting used to, but I know that with time, playing feral will help to put a little more RAWR in my play. I won’t be tanking Sarth anytime soon, but through giving it a shot, and leaning on our other more experienced bear tanks in the guild for guidance, I will certainly one day be a back-up-bear-butt that our guild can count on.

No matter what roll or class you currently play, I encourage everyone to take this change as an opportunity to gain comfort in another roll. By doing so you will not only experience another aspect of your character, but also aid your raiding guild by strengthening the pool of experience that your leaders have at their disposal.

How will you benefit from Dual Spec? Share your thoughts on the subject!