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Two Bosses Enter: Temple Guardian Anhuur vs. Daakara
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, the bosses of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title. Another Troll boss bit the dust last week when Hex Lord Malacrass fell to Vanessa VanCleef. This week, the Troll who inherited Zu'Aman in Cataclysm is up to bat: Daakara. Can Daakara pull out a win against Titan construct Anhuur? %Poll-68053% Follow along for the details of this week's matchup, as well as discussion on last week's match.
Two Bosses Enter: Vanessa VanCleef vs. Hex Lord Malacrass
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, the bosses of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title. The bosses of Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub have not been faring very well in this tournament. Godfrey knocked Venoxis out of the tournament two weeks ago, and last week, Setesh eliminated Halazzi. Setesh. Nobody even likes Setesh! Will Hex Lord Malacrass fare better? Considering he's up against dear Vanessa ... he might have a tough time with it. %Poll-67647% Follow along for the details of this week's matchup, as well as discussion on last week's match.
Two Bosses Enter: Announcing Season 2's boss lineup
In Two Bosses Enter, WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches, the bosses of World of Warcraft face off in the squared circle. Your vote determines who wins and claims the season title. Today we are ready to reveal our tournament bracks for Two Bosses Enter's second Cataclysm season! I've sifted through last week's reader requests and built this tournament brackets based on a few factors. Your feedback was absolutely taken into consideration, and most of this season's competitors were chosen by you. However, some competitors were picked by myself and other WoW Insider staffers. Highly elaborate encounters like Jin'do the Godbreaker or bosses with one-shot abilities such as Bloodlord Mandokir, while popular choices, were not included in this season because their mechanics would make the tournament extremely one-sided unless I added special circumstances and stipulations from week to week. In order to include them, Two Bosses Enter would be less let the fans figure out what would happen and more what arbitrary rules does Alex want us to play by this week? If that's something people want, I can make it happen next time around, but I'm fairly sure the majority of readers would like things to stay as they've been all along. There will be no voting this week, but I will be revealing this week's brackets and I will explain what we will be doing differently this season, along with some commentary of what did and did not work last season.
First impressions: 5-man healing in the beta
I specced resto in the beta the other week to try out the new talents and abilities Druids are getting in Wrath, and decided to brave the horrors of LFG and scribble some notes for your sake, dear readers. By the way, the aspect of beta that I will miss most? The 1 copper respec fee. Can we keep this?Please note that this is written from the perspective of a 70 Restoration Druid, so unfortunately I can't comment on whether Priests, Shamans, or Paladins might have had an easier or harder time healing the instances. I have a good but not jaw-dropping resto set, and on the live realms clock in around +1998 to +2100 healing unbuffed. If your gear's better or worse, then just adjust the potential difficulty level as needed. And even if you're not a healer, you still might find something useful here:
BigRedKitty: Hex Lord Malacrass Hunter-guide movie
Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.It's Zul'Aman, baby, and you're playing the roughest, toughest ten-person instance in the game! You're feeling good, looking sharp...and all of the sudden, Bam! Hex Lord Malacrass rears his ugly mug. He's not fun, is he?You wanna do your job as a hunter, right? Right! Well let's see if a BRK Hunter Guide Movie can give you some insight and testicular fortitude for this guy... can we say that? Yes? Oh OK, good. /whew.Hex Lord drops something really pretty Hunter-loot for us Hunters, too! Well, let's rephrase that.Hex Lord drops the single most hideous piece of Hunter-loot known to Dwarf-kind, the Coif of the Jungle Stalker./wretchGreat stats, loads of Win there. But... just don't look at it under bright lights for too long.You are most welcome to download this movie (118.5 MB) by right-clicking here.Another great big Thank You to the WoW Insider editors for allowing us to publish this movie both here and on our little blog at the same time! From his video guides to Karazhan For Hunter Dummies, nobody covers raid Hunters like BRK. Looking for more Hunter goodness? Check out our non-raid Hunter column, Scattered Shots or the WoW Insider Directory of Hunter Guides.
Tank Talk: The better (and lesser) angels of our nature
Tank Talk continues this week with one requisite "Why does my ingame life have to suck so hard?" story in deference to a point made by commenters on our first column. We will then take a look at the most fundamental decision you will encounter as a raiding tank -- and one you are likely to make, and then re-make, on just about every boss encounter in the game. There is a Druid on my server who messages me almost daily asking me to come tank his heroics. What annoys me is not being asked to tank per se, but that he, too, is a feral Druid. His gear isn't as good as mine simply because he hasn't raided past Magtheridon, but he's sitting on at least three of the better pieces of Tier 4, crafted epics, and several of the badge pieces that I'm still using to tank Tier 6. At a matter of fact, with the advent of two different badge vendors and badge drops from 10-man and 25-man bosses, his stats are significantly better than the ones I had tanking most of Tier 5. This guy literally has the gear to do just about anything in the game short of the more advanced content in Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau, and I used to point to him with no small measure of Druidic pride as proof of what a little elbow grease could accomplish.But he still wants me to come tank for him.I started getting irritated with the constant begging at one point and asked him, "How can you possibly have any difficulty getting groups? Everybody in LFG is looking for a tank, and your gear is excellent."At his computer, I'm sure he was shrugging. "You do it faster than I do.""I really don't. Just get some good DPS and you'll be fine."And then the truth came out: "Well, I don't really like tanking. I'd rather DPS." Ah.
Phat Loot Phriday: Battleworn Tuskguard
I'm making another claim, so armorsmiths, get ready to jump in the comments and prove me wrong: This helmet is the highest non-shield armor item in the game. We've covered some nice shields before (and those are pretty much all Armor), but this helm from Zul'Aman has the highest armor value of a non-shield piece of armor that I could find. Update: Yup, commenters have a few pieces with more armor on them (although, yes, PLP only deals with gear on the live realms, so 2.4 gear doesn't count yet). I'll get you next time, readers!Name: Battleworn Tuskguard (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)Type: Epic Plate HeadArmor: 1355Abilities: +60 Stamina Red, Yellow, and Blue sockets, with a socket bonus of +6 Stamina Equip: increases your Dodge rating by 23, shield block rating by 40, and block value of your shield by 51 Word is going around that this is going to change after patch 2.4, however: the shield block rating will be dropped, and the helm will instead raise defense rating directly by 40. That's not confirmed yet, and even if it's been seen on the PTR, there's no guarantee it'll make it to the live realms. But either way, this is a great tanking helm. In some situations, it even rivals T6, but the best part about it is that you don't even need 25 people to get it. (see below) Plus, it does look pretty cool. At first I thought that was a bird of some kind, but instead it's a Troll's face, complete with jutting tusks. If you like the tribal look of the Zul'Aman gear (and I do), you'll like this helm. How to Get It: It drops from Hex Lord Malacrass, the second to last boss in Zul'Aman. He's not a super nice guy (and he's got a mean Soul Drain), but the good news is that even though he's tough, ZA is still only a 10 man instance. So even if you don't have more than 9 friends to raid with, you can still pick up a great helm like this. It won't be easy, but get him down a few times (drop rate is about 15-20%), be a tank (if your MT is good, he may have gotten something better already, so offtanks have a pretty good chance at this too), and the helm is all yours.Getting Rid of It: Disenchants into a Void Crystal, and sells to vendors for 7g 30s 2c. You may want to keep it around for Halloween, though -- that's a troll face that only a troll mama could love.
The 7 best trinkets in the World of Warcraft
You know, if there's one thing I have noticed digging through my bags, it's that I have a whole mess of trinkets. Of all the gear slots, it seems like trinkets are some of the most versatile and swappable. Depending on whether you need a bit more hit rating, a bit more critical strike rating, a bit more mana regeneration, a bit more health, a bit more armor, or you plan to go PvPing for a bit, you can fill up bags upon bags alone with a whole bunch of trinkets, waiting for the right moment to spring them. Then there's the really bad ass trinkets. I'm not talking trinkets that are traditionally defined as "useful," I'm talking about the trinkets that make you into the life of the party. The ones that make other people notice you, make them stand up and say, "Woah, that guy is using some CRAZY trinkets." You know what I mean. Stop trying to get yourself that Ashtongue Talisman, these are the REAL deal.
Everything you wanted to know about Zul'Aman
Patch 2.3 drops tomorrow, and with it, what will surely become the most popular instance in Azeroth. Blizzard has yelled from the rooftops about how much players are playing Karazhan, and Zul'Aman is a brand new 10-man for groups who conquered Karazhan to find their way through.In preparation, WoW Insider has compiled everything everyone knows about the new troll city. From history, to quests, to bosses, to loot, it's all here. We've gotten great information from MMO Champion, World of Raids, WoW Wiki, our own Zul'Aman playthroughs and research, and guides all over the internet. We're all going to be headed to Zul'Aman tomorrow, so here's your chance to know everything you need to know today. It all starts after the jump.%Gallery-5517%
Shifting Perspectives: Drops for Druids in Zul'Aman
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them, brought to you by David Bowers and Dan O'Halloran. Patch 2.3 has hit the PTR and the new itemization has some very interesting items for druids of every spec. The new equipment is coming from three sources: the new 10-man raid zone, Zul'Aman, the Arena Season 3 vendor and the new Badges of Justice rewards. Today I'm going to focus on the Zul'Aman drops. Here's a list by boss:Nalorakk the Bear Avatar(Cat) Bladeangel's Money Belt (Leather Waist) 227 AC, +25agi, +27sta, Blue Socket, +4atk socket bonus, +21 crit, +58 atk, 77 armor negation. A solid upgrade to the Girdle of Treachery from Karazhan, but not quite as good if you can get a Belt of Deep Shadow crafted. Arguably, one of the top 3 or 4 belts in the game. Be ready to /roll against rogues for this belt for your Cat Druid.
