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This week Haf and Stomp discuss more of the changes and data mining coming from the Cataclysm Closed Beta, including the spectacular changes being made to the Guild Social UI, in addition to highlighting the more entertaining moments of their raiding week.

All of this, and much more is available for download, on our RSS feed, iTunes, and Zune. And, make sure to follow @Rawrcast on Twitter and Facebook for ALL of our LIVE Blizzcon coverage!

Links to topics discussed this week:

• AFK: What I Do Outside of WoW – article by Stompalina
• Blizzcon Virtual Tickets On Sale
• Cataclysm: Armor Specialization Buffs
• Cataclysm: Voice Over Role Play Files
• Cataclysm: Interface Strings Elude to Archeology, Raid Summon and Resurrection Limitations
• Cataclysm: New Guild UI
• World of Warcraft Magazine editor’s new podcast: Editors of Azeroth

EXCLUSIVE THIS WEEK

• Eulixe takes us on the speculation surrounding Uther the Lightbringer’s fate on the Cataclysm Beta and addresses last week’s question regarding an NPC found at Uther’s tomb. Make sure to check the Lore & Legends section of our new discussion forums for more on this, and other topics!
• Tweet #RAWRLORE to enter and win a Hardback Copy of Arthas: Rise of the Lich King between NOW and August 1st!
• Here’s a short video that I recorded in the Cataclysm Beta this week. Enjoy!

COMING UP NEXT WEEK

• Join us next week, August 1st, as Stomp steps out and Haf welcome’s their good friend, guildie, and bound-staghelm forum applicant harasser extraordinare, Greatjohn, as a special co-host for the day!

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Music Provided by: Rayzing Sons – Crunk Bounce

This post originally appeared on Lore Hound.

Massively multiplayer games have a lot of opportunity for self-expression. You can customize your character’s race, their role in group play, and what you do with them day-to-day. There is massive potential for sociology and social psychology if you can somehow aggregate this kind of data. Second Life has been the poster-child for academic studies, but it really just doesn’t have the user base of World of Warcraft. Blizzard doesn’t release any of these type of statistics, but there are some services and people who are attempting to gather and analyze this type of data.

Warcraft Realms is one of the premier sites for contributing and retrieving population data and statistics. Players install an addon, then upload their data to the site to be integrated into the database. It’s unclear how accurate the data is, but it seems to be in-line with my experiences, such as the Alliance-Horde ratio on my server, class ratios, etc.

Gay-nerds.com recently posted a quick analysis of global statistics versus the statistics of Taint, the largest guild of The Spreading Taint family of guilds. Taint is a social LGBT-friendly (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) guild with open invitations; all LGBT-friendly people are welcome to join. Taint alone has 5,000 characters, and 2,493 were recorded on Warcraft Realms at the time of their study. This is a very large data set, making it excellent for analysis; Taint is largely accepted as the second largest World of Warcraft guild. Additionally, most of the members of Taint are LGBT, a significant difference from the overall player population. What differences did they find? Click-through for more.
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Catch phrases and anecdotes abound on the subject of Gear vs. Skill. You’ve probably all heard about the 10 man that was able to down the Lich King in all ilevel 200 gear or about the warrior in all blues that topped the DPS charts in Ulduar. However, my experience with the vast majority of players in WOW is that they often look to gear as the only way to improve their personal DPS.

In my experience, the biggest gains that I’ve made in my personal DPS have come from improving my skills as a player. Rather than waiting for the one thing in game that I have limited control of (random loot drops), I try to focus on the one thing in game that I have complete control of; my class. There are always a thousand little things that you can change to eek out a little more DPS from your character. What often goes unsaid is that these thousand little tweaks can lead to a MONSTER increase in your DPS.

Here are a few pointers that have helped me to increase my DPS in the past.

1. Stack your buffs. If you think a Bloodlust or a Heroism is incoming, hold off on firing your trinket and drinking a pot. Layering these three temporary buffs on top of each other can lead to a nice uptick in your personal DPS.

2. Always cast. There are very few times during a boss fight when you should not be damaging him (if you have to ask what these times are, then you should focus on the basics of raid encounters, aggro generation, and boss mechanics instead of reading this post). Cast as much as possible in the limited amount of time you have a save your instant casts for when you need to move (which segues us nicely into our third point).

3. Move as little as possible. Obviously, this is subject to the fights’ mechanics but less moving=more casting=more damage. If you don’t have to move, then DON’T MOVE.

4. Research the fight. You can’t DPS if you aren’t alive. Understand, anticipate and manipulate a fights’ mechanics to achieve your highest potential DPS.

5. Know your class. This may be the most important one on the list. Know your rotations and Oh Shit buttons cold. Use macros, obscure spells that are buried in your spell book, essentially anything that is particular to your class that can be of use to you or to the raid.

6. Treat every encounter as a potential kill. If you find yourself alt–tabbed and AFK for Ready Checks, there is a good chance you’ll be missing cool downs on your rotations and dying to easily avoidable fight mechanics. FOCUS!

Obviously this list is geared to my particular class and some things may not hold true for your class. If that’s the case, let me know! Tell me all of the tips and tricks (general and class specific) that you’ve picked up raiding so we can all benefit!

This week we touch upon some of the week’s interesting news, a new Blizzard Developer Twitter Chat, and further discuss 10 and 25-man Loot Drop Rates and accessibility in Cataclysm. We also discuss the fun times that Blizzard is preparing for new players to keep us engaged beyond level 10!

All of this and much more is available via iTunes, RSS feed, direct download, or you can stream it from our website!

Links to topics discussed this week:

• Morhaime on the New Player Experience
• Cataclysm: Guild Perks Details
• Cataclysm: Talent UI Frame Updated in Latest Beta Build
• Cataclysm: All UI Changes Detailed on MMO-Champion.com
• Cataclysm: Engineers Get the Love with Enchants, Gems and BIP Items
• Blizzard Developer Twitter Chat
• Cataclysm: Elitist Jerks Forums Regarding 25-man and 10-man Drop Rates

EXCLUSIVE

• This week a question was posed for Eulixe at during the show 1:19:14. Check next week’s Lands of Lore for the answer! In the meantime, enjoy an older episode of LoL.
• Leave a comment or send an e-mail with your Rawrcast Blizzcon T-shirt Idea! Thanks again to BILL for his, the first, submission!

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Music Provided by: Sound and Fury – School’s Out

Many of you may have noticed my absence a few times over the last few months. It appears that I have found an outside hobby, outside of WoW. My friend Crystal is what is known by the crowd as a “Vanner”. She was conceived in a van, raised by vanners, grew up riding the roads of the US in a van, and so on…. I grew up in the suburbs. My parents had a van, but not for the same reasons that most people it now appears. And, honestly, we flew… we didn’t drive. So I have few memories of driving across the landscapes of the US.

“If Bikers are the Modern day Cowboys, then I guess Vanners would be the Modern day Gypsies. Actually Vanners and Bikers do about the same stuff, but nobody ever died of carpet rash (vs. road) falling down in their van.”

Big Steve

Here are a few snapshots I took at the last few events. If you get all the way to the end you will see my fascination with the Flint Hills. While driving to Kansas City, MO, we drove through the Flint Hills and it is honestly one of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. And, I never would have seen the last expanse of tallgrass prairie in the nation if it weren’t for going AFK to experience the vannin subculture.

[cincopa 10671494]

If you happen to be one of these renegade left overs from the 70′s and 80′s, check vannin.com for vannins happening every weekend across the US. And, if you happen to be in Texas, visit Texas Van Federation. My friend Crystal is the Webmistriss, and I am doing everything I can to support TVF and bring some exposure to this growing group of wonderful people!

How do you spend your time AFK? Are you taking a summer vacation from WoW?

There you are thinking, “Man, I hope Plec doesn’t start running his mouth about his Paladin” and then BAM, you get another post about my Paladin. It’s a little move I like to call the Ulduar Uppercut (that read like a joke my dad would make if he played WoW…moving on).

Much like any soon to be level 80, I have begun to map out all of the instances and raids I’m going to run in order to get my character ready for ICC. One thought kept popping up after each piece of gear I crafted or purchased off of the AH; was gearing this toon going to be enough to prepare me for ICC? The short answer I came to find, was no.

You see, I look at raiding like I look at mathematics; both are systems that build on lessons that you’ve learned earlier in that same subject. Think about it, many raid encounters are actually described by referring to older raid encounters. How many times have you heard your raid leader say, “This fight is like Onxyia meets…”. Read more…

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Music Provided by: Legends on Heroin – Blunt and a Beer

This post originally appeared on Lore Hound. Please send all your hatemail in their direction.

Everyone is talking about the new RealID changes. The latest “offense” by Blizzard is the new requirement that the official forums for their products will require you to use RealID publicly, thereby displaying your real full name. While this has undeniable implications, all the tin-foil hat players and bloggers should really take a chill pill.

There are a few important caveats that you need to realize:

1. This only applies to new forum posts and only to the forums. Blizzard is not giving out your name, or any personal information, against your will. If you want to make a forum post in the official forums, you will have to use your real name; so if you don’t want to reveal your name in an online setting, don’t use the official forums.
2. You can disable RealID. You will lose some functionality, like the new ability to add RealID friends or post in the forums, but you can still play the game the same way you’ve played it for years.
3. If you are unsatisfied with the game, you can quit. Blizzard is not giving out any of your information against your will regardless, but if you have doubts, walk away and quit complaining. It’s a game, not an oppressive government.

Lets talk about the motivation for this change a bit and the implications of revealing your name online.
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