[1.Local]: The best of 2009, July-December

Cataclysm, Cataclysm, Cataclysm
July 2009 was one long paroxysm about Cataclysm.

dextros: I was sad to see the Worgen pets vanish; for a time, every hunter in our raid group had one. =D

Sargenus: Ahh. The masks! I remember getting into a fight with a friend who apparently -knew- Goblins and Worgen would NEVER be a playable race and told me to stop dreaming. I guess you can tell, I mock him every day after BlizzCon. :D

Heartfelt connections
One of the most touching pieces that's ever appeared on WoW.com ran this past August, as roleplaying columnist David Bowers mused on the connections that bind us onscreen and off.

Jason: I was actually just thinking about the roleplay column and that one post, when I scrolled down and saw it mentioned in this article. I remember reading it and thinking it was a very well-written, thoughtful, yet very sad post. I hope David has been doing well.

Tainnym: I did read Mr. Bowers article again and it reminded me of my grandmother and her passing two years ago. Wasn't easy to hold the tears; they won.

Before GearScore, there were blues
In these days of GearScore madness, how 'bout them guys who ran Yogg in blues?

Clydtsdk-Rivendare: Ah yes, Yogg in blues. The one event that gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, people wouldn't be dumb about gear levels. /weep

I occasionally type "/2 LF9M Naxx10, must have Tribute to Insanity and Feeds on Tears, and do 20k DPS naked, pst". I've gotten more serious "I'm in" answers than LOLs.

Killchrono: The Yogg in blues story became my pep talk whenever my guild (and some PUG groups) started complaining about not being geared enough for raid content. Raid member: Man we barely have people in this group at 4.5k+ GS for Ulduar 10, we can't do this! Me: If a guild can down Yogg in ilevel 200 blues, then we can do it IN GEAR A WHOLE TIER HIGHER THAN THE INSTANCE!

Fletcher: Back a couple of months ago, when the epic achievement was finally giving up the ghost as an e-peen quantifier and GearScore hadn't yet caught on, the elitists tried to introduce "DPS testing." You'd have to go to Ironforge and DPS the training dummy there in order to get into whatever raid they were planning. I never bothered.

New look, new mood for Jaina
The new, "improved" Jaina: hot or not?

Myf: The old Jaina looked like a nice sweet girl. The new one looks like an angry old hooker.

zappo: Times have changed. I made a note to some guildies the first time I ran through ICC five-mans that although she was mage, she had decided to melee Arthas. So I guess maybe the "angry old hooker" look is more appropriate for a woman who chooses to beat her old boyfriend with a stick while her friends are over.

Are you perky for PUGs?
Now that many players have their Patient titles and their Perky Pugs, have things died down in the Dungeon Finder?

Mihn: Something I have noticed, since most PvE pet and achievement whores have gotten their pugs, the queues have gone up. Leaving me waiting a long time to get into a cross server group, again. Is that all there is to this game to some people, Beanie-Baby-collect-em-all mentality? I'm glad I still have PvP, something worthwhile to do while I wait for the PvEers to stop waving around their latest acquisition in front of the Dal bank. Remember, whoever dies with the most toys wins!

Jen: I think it's less about the pet and more that lots of folks already farmed enough Triumph badges for their full T9, and now they just do one random per day for the Frost badges.

Docp: I should think it's also because it was new, so many people were chain-running dungeons because they could, but (now that) they're used to it, they've filtered back into other activities such as PvP, dailies, etc.

Rotties67: I *hate* that pug pet. With a passion. It has worms, and the worst part, after it ... drags, it sniffs the ground it just drags on. Sorry, had to get that out.

If I tank, my queue is instant; if I am DPS, it takes anywhere from 12-18 mins on avg to get into a random. I tank for my guild and I enjoy it, but I do that in the evenings, during the day, I like a break from tanking. It is interesting though, I thought that with winter break for all the kids, my queue would have dropped for DPS (along with the quality of conversation in the PUGs). Turned out queues are still high, and there really is no conversation.

Fans on WoW Insider Show changes
Last month's announcement that long-time blogger Mike Schramm was leaving WoW.com for new horizons caught many fans off guard.

Sarabande: ... But I will miss Mike Schramm. He was often the voice of reason and while he obviously loved the game and Blizzard, he didn't let it become some kind of blind fanboy adoration. In that way, I think he spoke for many of us. I hope Wow.com continues with that. One of the things I loved about this site right away was that while they talked about the MANY, MANY good things about the game (and really, most of it IS great!!), they were not afraid to say when things weren't perfect. I think that makes this a more credible site. If they say something is great, you know it's because that's how they feel, not because the management is pushing that perspective or because of any pressure from any other source. I still love this site but already miss Mike's voice here.

Not to worry: Fans of the WoW Insider Show are already loving the new version hosted by Michael Sacco and the rest of the WoW.com crew.

Erin: I do miss Mike and Turpster, but I actually liked the content of this show a LOT better than the previous ones. I LOVE that the people hosting it have actually been in raids and know what they're talking about in there. I'm not exactly a hardcore raider, but I have downed the four bosses in ICC 10, and it's nice that the show hosts can actually talk about that. Mike and Turp were great and all, but half the time I felt like they were talking about stuff I couldn't relate to at all.

Desten Johnson: I just got a chance to listen to it, and I thought overall it was a good show. I was a bit skeptical at first due to the changes, but you seemed to have enough content prepared and brought a new livelihood to the show. Even though I liked the old show, it is very nice to see it get a facelift. I like the way short discussions were had about random event, NPCs, etc., yet I felt lore was talked about too much. I would rather see the podcast talk more about the community and what they are doing in general. It is always nice to hear about good or bad PUGs and how real people deal with them. I've been in these myself and can relate. Keep up the good work, boys!

Foxfyr: I am a long-time listener of the show, too. I could tell that these guys felt the pressure at the beginning -- they have big shoes to fill. Once they relaxed and started talking about why they love the game that I do, I relaxed and really enjoyed it, too. Good job, guys. I'll continue listening every week. :)

pesudoneo: Good job, fellas. I liked it and laughed a lot. :) Keep it up!!