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Encrypted Text: Preparation vs. Shadowstep
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. The new Mists of Pandaria talent calculators are designed to promote tough choices. None of the new rogue talents are awful, and all of them will see play at some point. Deadly Throw and Shuriken Toss could be useful to attack distant targets. Paralytic Poison and Nerve Strike could allow us to reduce our target's outgoing damage significantly. The battle between Versatility and Anticipation will likely be decided on a fight-by-fight basis. The truth is that all of these choices pale in comparison to the ultimate decision in the new rogue talent tree: Preparation or Shadowstep. Burst of Speed is certainly interesting, but it doesn't have the history of Prep or ShS. Subtlety's two signature spells are facing off in a battle of utility abilities. Putting both of these abilities on the same talent tier is sadistic, but we have to cope with the reality of this decision.
Totem Talk: Resto shaman looking good at level 90
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and cohost of the For the Lore podcast), shows you how. The big news this week is that the level cap on the Mists of Pandaria beta has been raised to 90. You can go and explore Dread Wastes and Vale of Eternal Blossoms, but there isn't any raid content or Pet Battles, and some of the scenarios and Battlegrounds are not yet available. At the time of writing this, the premade template characters were not available yet for level 90, so you'll have to climb the level ladders the old-fashioned way right now. I'm sure you're thinking that it took long enough, but to be honest, this is a bit sooner than I anticipated. While we've seen the talents, we haven't have the chance to work with them quite yet. Now, we finally get to dive in and play with them, experimenting for what will be our best choices in any given situation. It's like unwrapping a brand new toy for the first time, and I'm pretty excited.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Level 90 flying and where to get it
Level 90 has been unlocked on the Mists of Pandaria beta servers, which means that beta testers can now reap the rewards of being max level -- specifically, flying! Flying is a trained ability obtained in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, one of the last zones you'll visit on your leveling journey. The Vale of Eternal Blossoms houses two large shrines, mini-cities of sorts. There's one for Alliance and one for Horde. Each city flanks the impressively gorgeous Mogu'shan Palace and includes a host of vendors, stable masters, and trainers of every variety. This is where you'll want to head when you're ready to take to Pandaria's skies. Horde players are taking up residence in the Shrine of Two Moons, while Alliance players are just across the valley in the Shrine of Seven Stars. Each shrine houses a Skydancer who will teach level 90 players the art of flying in Pandaria for 2,500 gold. Considering that flying in early The Burning Crusade set you back a whopping 5,000 gold, this is pretty cheap in comparison. Remember, though, as with all beta content, the price is not set in stone until Mists of Pandaria is released. Having spent most of five levels happily exploring Pandaria, I can't wait to finally see it from the skies. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
The Light and How to Swing It: Readying your ret paladin for Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions! It's hard to believe it's already May 2012. It seems like just last week that I was standing in line at BlizzCon with my guildmates, trying to make small talk and failing completely at it. Most of our interactions involved people watching and commenting on the information put forth at the various panels like those annoying people in the movie theater who feel the need to rate every preview on whether or not it will completely suck (see above). Anyway, with any luck Mists will be released by the end of summer (I'm betting on an August launch, myself), so what better time than now to get your paladin ready so that you hit the ground running when the servers come back online? The time will come during the next expansion when your hard-earned purples will be replaced by mismatched greens, but more work put into getting the best purples available to you now will keep that dreaded day far in the future. Also, how hard you hit is dictated by the strength of your gear, and the amount of time it will take you to kill a mob is dependent on how much damage you can dish out.
2012 Arena Pass registration now open
Last night, Blizzard annouced that registration has opened for the 2012 Arena Pass! Players registering will have access to arena geared level 85 characters, as well as a host of epic gear to choose from as they battle their way to the top. Gold is no object on the Arena Pass realm. You can have whatever you want, including training, respecs and gear. The top 1,000 players will earn an exclusive Vanquisher title for their live realm character, and all players will receive access to an exclusive level 90 Arena Pass realm after they upgrade their account to Mists of Pandaria. What's more, players who participate in 50 or more rated Arena Pass games on one character and with the same team by the end of the six weeks will be eligible to receive the Armored Murloc pet for their live characters. You can create up to three level 85 characters, all of which will be started at level 85 with a "hefty sum" of gold, parachuted in to a starting zone. Once you have your level 85, you'll need to get on board with a 3v3 team, which, as on live realms, can have up to six players on their roster. The first two weeks are for practice, to allow players to meet, form teams, and get some matches in that won't count toward their eventual ranking, although teams will gain rating as normal. After the first two weeks, all ratings will be reset to zero, and for the next two weeks, there will be a -150 rating penalty for team roster changes. Teams will build ranking from the third week until the end of the six-week period. In the final two weeks, rosters will be locked down and no changes will be permitted. If you want to change team rosters around in the final two weeks, you'll need to start a new team. Good luck!
Encrypted Text: Shuriken Toss breaks all the rules
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. Raise your hand if you remember fighting against Shazzrah. I'm not talking about our recent bout with Shannox or even our old fights against Mother Shahraz. Shazzrah goes way back, to WoW's very first raid instance, Molten Core. Due to the frequent AoE explosions that Shazzrah unleashed, rogues couldn't engage him without being slaughtered immediately. While the rest of the raid fought the boss, I joined the other rogues in my group crushing Blindweed and making some food next to the Cooking Fire. As a melee class, our biggest weakness for years has been that we can only deal damage to nearby targets. It's limited our ability to swap targets effectively, our ability to avoid point-blank AoE attacks, and our ability to attack any target that's not on the ground. Rogues, along with other melee classes, have actually been benched because of these limitations. These shackles and restrictions have bound our class since its inception. Shuriken Toss has the chance to change all that. The new level 90 rogue talent slated for Mists of Pandaria might redefine what it means to play a rogue.
