The best of WoW.com: June 2009
Raids were still rolling through Ulduar and experimenting with hard modes, and we were waiting for patch 3.2 to hit the PTR, but the most interesting thing about this month was definitely the increased notice we started taking of account security.
Patch 3.2: Argent Coliseum 5-man and raid story/encounters: Sacco ventures deep into the wilds of the PTR, and an insane amount of work on his part produced a comprehensive guide to what happened in the Coliseum, the accompanying lore, and the boss abilities you needed to plan for.
New Tauren cat forms and new Night Elf cat forms revealed: Allison cries harder. I wasn't initially warm to the new Tauren cat form, but it grew on me as soon as I saw it in motion on the PTR.
WoW, Casually: What is casual?: The $64,000 question -- what does it even mean to be a casual player these days? Robin weighs in.
Beware of Blood Elves selling mounts: Robin's shadow war with scammers escalates after a friend of hers gets hacked.
An interview with a scammer: In an odd twist of fate, Robin got to interview the scammer in question, and some rather fascinating information comes to light. Great interview, but to some of us, the lengths to which people will go to wriggle out of any responsibility for having caused harm to others is downright scary. Let the gamer beware.
The truth about authenticators: I finally decided to get an authenticator after the articles on recent scams and reading this, and I hope others did too.
Patch 3.2 PTR: Season 7 arena sets are the new hotness: Season 7 looms. Zach likes what he sees.
Wowhead founder receives ingame homage: Skosiris gets an ingame nod with a mega-library and an NPC. Knowing players everywhere /bow reverently as they pass.
Ten things WoW players should know from E3: Elizabeth Harper and Mike Schramm hit E3 and return with news of the...well, not outside world, exactly, but news from the wider gaming industry that places WoW in a better context.
1.Local: The epic rap battle comment war edition: Players disagree over Blizzard's upcoming badge changes. Rap battle ensues. Site is left terrified and confused.
Officers' Quarters: Unsocial: How do you deal with a guild that seems to be losing its social cohesion?
Bring the player, not the class -- except maybe healers: With role and gear homogenization being the name of the game in Wrath, Michael Gray looks at why healers seem to be bucking the trend.
How to: Five Amber drakes in the Oculus: If you're working on Glory of the Hero, get two of the more difficult Oculus achievements in one fell swoop!
70,000 death knights slaughtered in Great Server Downtime of 2009: This was a really fascinating article by Alex that took a close look at player movement across servers during outages.
WoW Moviewatch: The white drake: A thought-provoking story told completely without dialogue.
Mimiron hard mode nerfed: Though not before Firefighter sent legions of healers to the nuthouse. As I write this in December 2009, hard-mode Mimiron-25 and heroic Anub'arak-25 are still widely considered to be the worst and most terrifying healing fights in the game.
Raid Rx: How to read healing parses (or meters): Very few people use healing meters correctly and know what to look for. I thought this edition of Raid Rx was a fantastic and easily understood guide on exactly what you're seeing in the flood of data coming out of an encounter. It prompted people to look at the multiple factors that influence healers to play the way they do, and how other peoples' behavior impacts what someone else's numbers are going to look like.
WoW Moviewatch: slashdance vs. Ulduar: Everyone has had an Ulduar run like this (without necessarily having the great punchline).
Patch 3.2 PTR: Tauren druid conversation may reveal lore and expansion secrets: We weren't initially sure what to make of the conversation we all saw between new NPCs who popped up in 3.2, but it turns out they were early signs of new race/class combinations to be revealed in Cataclysm.
2009's drawing to a close, and we're wrapping up the most interesting articles we've published all year, one day at a time. Join us every day for the next twelve days with this year's best of WoW.com!
