[1.Local]: Preaching warlock hate with a sultry voice

Brief launcher update
The patch is here? THE PATCH?!? Oh, heck -- it's just a lil' old launcher update. Leave it to overeager fan Frankintroll, relentlessly scouring WoW.com and reading between every line for any last scrap of information on why he was having trouble logging in, to piece together a whole new interpretation of this headline and photo.

Frankintroll: Darn, I thought we were getting a new gnomish device.

Gnomish "Brief Launcher"
Binds when equipped
Trinket
+45 Stamina
Requires Engineering (350)
Requires Gnomish Engineer
Item Level 70
Use: Fires a pair of briefs at the enemy doing 460 to 940 damage and stuns them for 3 sec. (2 Min Cooldown)
Sell Price: 9 97

Are you in a parent-friendly raiding guild?
It's fairly common today for guilds to choose to adopt an adults-only policy, giving members a child-free zone in which to blow off steam after a long day. Sounds reasonable enough -- but it's a situation that frequently raises the ire of younger players who feel shut out when they can't get into an 18 years+ guild of their choice.

Mox: Buzz Kill on Coilfang is (tries to be, but the young'uns sneak in from time to time) an 18+ guild for that exact reason. We have been known to pause raids to tuck the little ones in ... pause because Sally hit Joey in the head and we have to deal with it ... pause because the midgets are up and crying ... It doesn't frustrate anyone else in the raid, because we've all (for the most part) been down the same path. We don't throw fits or hold anyone to not being on, on raid nights because "real life" can rear its ugly head whenever it wishes. We make do and have a good time.

The only ones that seem to throw a fit about the interruptions usually end up being ones that lied about their age and end up getting booted anyway ... If we wanted to play with kids, we'd wake up ours. ;-D

Twenty-five tabards
An achievement to earn 25 tabards is all fine and dandy -- but where do you store them all, once you've gotten them?

Gimmlette: And I echo Jaenicoll's request for something in which to store my tabards. I know people will say, "Buy it so you get the recognition and then sell it back." I don't want to buy it back once I've purchased it. Do I wear them all again once I have them? I prefer my guild tabard, but I do, on occasion, trade out that tabard for one of the other in my bank.

I've long wanted a "wardrobe" of sorts where all my tabards and my gear sets would go. Make it take up a bag slot in the bank, but make it be organized like the mount and vanity pet books. I just click through a tab to see, at a glance, what I want. My T2 and interesting classic weapons would go on one tab. My full Beast Lord and BC weapons on another tab. Have an expanding tab for tabards.

I would pay 10g per tab to expand my wardrobe. Then I would have room for those things that are really important like my Red Pointy Hat or the Wicked Witch's Hat or my Cooking Hat or ...

Thundrcrackr: No kidding. They give us all these things to collect (aka, reasons to keep playing their game) but don't give us nearly enough room to store it all. Kinda defeats the purpose.

Basic add-ons
Articles like this WoW Rookie piece on basic add-ons are always a treasure trove of new ideas for add-ons worth trying. With plenty of recommendations on this post, our [1.Local] readers didn't disappoint.

Sedna: Good article! Wish it had been around when I first got into add-ons many moons ago. I run very light, primarily to reduce the load on my computer, and you've covered most of the add-ons I use here (DBM, Omen, Rating Buster, Auctioneer), but there are two others I can't live without:

• EventAlert notifies you of procs (Lock and Load, Overpower, Clearcasting, Omen of Clarity, so on and so forth) with a big fat icon and alarm sound. I've found it to be wonderfully lightweight and effective.

• Bejeweled lets you play Bejeweled in WoW, during flights, downtime in raids, waiting for Higher Learning tomes to spawn ... anything. Be careful; this add-on is like crack wrapped in crack wrapped in bacon.

The Oculus receives a welcome nerf
The new, improved Oculus – less filling, less annoying?

tom99k: It should make Oculus ... easier -- but still, it won't be any less annoying.

Stephen: Yeah. It doesn't need to be easier. It needs to be more fun. Oculus isn't that hard. It already ranks well below ToC, HoL, or AK, but those aren't nearly as annoying.

Jeff: There's not much they can do to make it less annoying without completely changing the mechanics of the instance. They'd rather put that time into working on Icecrown/Cataclysm/etc., so I understand. At this point, they're doing all they can do: make it easier so it's as painless as possible when you're unlucky enough to end up in Oculus on a random PUG.

Dazaras: The annoying part isn't the mobs, it's getting mixed up when flying. It's difficult to get back to your team when you can't tell what ring they are on. I vote for an arrow pointing you towards either your group leader or your current objective. Barring that, I'd say some way to tell what distance people were from you vertically based on their icons on the minimap would be very helpful, say darker for lower and lighter for higher. This minimap thing could conceivably be helpful in other scenarios as well.

Docp: I'm Docp and I enjoy Oculus.

There, I said it. Why do I feel so dirty?

MazokuRanma: Actually, I think he's slightly off. I don't think it's that everyone is bad, it's that they've all become lazy. Oculus required some extra coordination and planning, and everyone just want to charge in and AoE everything in Wrath. I don't think this dungeon would have been at all out of place in BC; the trash packs would have seemed completely normal for those dungeons. You just have to take the time and effort to control the mobs. The only thing I ever hated was the drakes, and they fixed that with scaling. It's very irritating to get all this gear and then have a gimmick fight where it has no impact. I don't think they really needed to scale it more at this point, but I don't really object to that part.

Making the rest of the changes seems like overkill, though. I hope things like standing in the Mage Lord Arcane Explosion still one-shot people; there are certain things you need to be able to do or you should die. When everyone acts in a competent manner and is willing to take a few extra minutes to properly drop the trash (kill them one at a time; if you just AoE, they drop those stupid icicles like crazy and you get overwhelmed) and avoid/don't stand in fire/frost/lightning/things that are bad, then it can be incredibly fun.

New weekly comic: Byron the Tauren Rogue
The [1.Local] crowd gave a warm welcome to artist Kelly Aarons and the first installment of her new weekly comic here at WoW.com. Readers were delighted over the mere idea of a Tauren rogue.

BooMsx: I knew they existed! They've been stealing my veins and herbs for years, and now I have proof of their existence! Time for payback. -_-

t0xic: How many ranks of Stealth does it take to hide all of that a$$?

catharsis80: The glowing nose ring in the dark is great.

halophoenix: Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys, GUYS. You're all missing the point here: NINJA COWS. WE ARE WELL AND TRULY F***D. I for one welcome our stabby cow masters.

Rylka: Nice introduction to your art style, your humor and this storyline. Very neatly wrapped up in a single page. I'll admit I'm a sucker for your WoW, Eh? Taurens. Your art style gives them the grace, presence, expressiveness and attractiveness I feel they have always deserved. So the idea of experiencing another of your stories centered on a Tauren gets me all excited. Thanks for joining the WOW.com team. Looking forward to more or your work.