[1. Local]: What do Thrall, iPhones, and a Cowbell have in common?

Thrall missing from Orgrimmar

That dirty Orc Thrall went missing from Orgrimmar this week. He ended up coming back, spontaneously respawning across all the servers. But while he was gone there was rampant speculation as to where he went. Reader Roflpanda suggested that "He went to congratulate Obama on his victory of the presidency." Right on. Crazyfool retorts back that Thrall actually "...moved to [the] Undermine to escape the new socialist Azerothian order."

Anderone hinted that there might be something going on between Thrall and Jania Proudmoor again: "Has anyone checked with Jania? He's probably snuck over to Theramore for a few hours..." Scionic chimes in: "Boom chickie lok tar."

Patch 3.0.3

Patch 3.0.3 dropped on Tuesday, and lots of folks rang in on what they thought of the changes. Reader Balius commented on why he thinks Druids got a talent point refund. His explanation is pretty good and makes a lot of sense: "Druids are getting talents reimbursed because some of the less-than-top tier talents now have less points available in them. 'Earth and Moon and Moonfury (Balance) reduced from 5 ranks each to 3 ranks each.' Since everything above that relies on having the proper amount of points in the tree, some builds simply aren't possible without those points. Refunding all talents is the best solution."

In response to a complaint about the removal of the Paladin (and Warlock) quest chain requirement to get their class specific epic mount, Aellas reminds us all: "From what I understand you can still do it, you just have the choice not to do it." Aellas understands correctly.

Ask WoW Insider: Wrath and the pre-60s

In Ask WoW Insider this week the question of "What does Wrath offer to players below level 80?" and "What can those below level 70 do to speed up leveling?" Lots of great commenters offered friendly advice. Peagle suggest that joining a large guild would be of help: "Regarding levelling - joining a large guild would probably help you, as people are always leveling up alts you can group with. Beyond that, yes I suppose questing is the obvious answer, but the real truth is investing more time in the game. As to purchasing Wrath, there's no reason that immediately comes to mind as to why not wait till 65ish to purchase, then again why wait?"

Thiosion echoes something that I've felt for a long time about hitting level 40: "On Leveling: I've found that if you can make it to 40, you can make it to 70. I don't know what it is, especially since mounts are now at 30, but at 40 this huge weight seems to fall of my shoulders and it's much easier to level. Also: You know that feeling when you're about to hit a landmark level, level 30 or 40, and switch zones? Multiply that feeling by like... eighty kagillion when thinking about moving to Outland. It's, literally, a whole new world. That should help motivate you."

Scourge End

The scourge invasion came to a close this week. If you're like me you've had a lot of fun running around as a zombie, eating brains and what not. Reader Zep sums up what a lot of folks thought: "I feel like it's been a bit lackluster since the plague stopped. The necropolises were just, tbh, too easy to ignore...way out in zones that people don't really visit anymore. I hope the Finale is awesome!"

The New WoW Insider

Did you notice our new site? We've undergone a major redesign. This is only the beginning too, and the future will bring even more growth. Some readers chimed in with what they thought, and passed along bug reports. We were looking at those all the time, and many, if not all, have been fixed.

Connor comments on the i.wow.com domain, which is a quick and easy version of the site for iPhones: "Bring back i.wow.com!!-- Quick load times on my iPhone were a godsend and though this site looks great on a computer, it takes way too long to load on my phone. *Please* reinstate the minimalist i.wow.com!" Don't worry – it's back and working!

Splice42 didn't like the redesign: "I have to say, I hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE web sites which make use of about 30% of my screen space for the main content gutter. I have a widescreen 24" monitor. Why do I feel like I'm reading a newspaper with tiny columns? A full 35% of my screen is unused, and the majority of the used space is by toolbars to the left and right. No thanks. At least give us an option to use the old theme. It wasn't perfect, but this one is worse."

And finally MikeM doesn't get into his cloths any different than we do, except when he puts his pants on he makes golden records: "Love the new look, but it needs more Cowbell."