The Daily Blues

I'm not sure that serious tanks will ever gem dodge or parry at the expense of Stamina to any great degree. As long as dragons breathe, there will be elements of encounters where health is more useful than avoidance.

However, I think avoidance overall will still be more valuable in Cataclysm than it is on Live today when your healers risk running out of mana. The theoretical tank with a huge health pool and 0% avoidance should feel like a liability instead of the holy grail it is viewed as today.

We're trying to shake [some] tanks out of the mentality that something is garbage unless it improves health or armor. That's not the same as saying that tanks will value dodge and parry and view health and armor as garbage instead.

Yes. Especially that last sentence. :)

I think the issue is that some players are rejecting the notion that mana will ever matter, in which case there is no reason to approach surviving as a tank any different than you do today. There's not much we can do to disabuse anyone of that notion until they see the content.

Couple of reasons. One, every boss (well, with a couple of weird exceptions) does physical damage, but there are plenty of bosses that do only physical damage. Second, we want the dragon breathing to be a scary moment that requires you and the healers to consider using your cooldowns. I realize the strategy of a tank is to try and do whatever you can to make those moments not scary, but as soon as you accomplish that, then the fights become a lot less exciting. Roller coasters that move slowly might feel more safe, but they're not as much fun. We have to nail that sometimes narrow line between letting you prepare for a fight without minimizing the danger (assuming its appropriate for your level of progression, etc.)

The quick answer is no, you shouldn't receive double rewards for completing your first Random Battleground if that Battleground also happens to be under the effects of the Call to Arms bonuses.


Zarhym goes into much further detail in his full post here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=23307931060&sid=1 :)

We're changing the normal time to align with a scheduled maintenance our ISP will be performing on the network our game servers use. The idea being that if we were to have our maintenance at the normal 5am time, the game wouldn't be playable anyway due to the ISP network maintenance, so we're trying overlap them instead of dragging out the entire downtime unnecessarily.

We apologize for the inconvenience, we realize it isn't ideal for all players, and we try to minimize downtime and impact wherever and whenever possible.

The realms listed below will be undergoing a 24 hour extended maintenance to prepare them for the upcoming expansion. They'll be brought down tonight at 12:01 AM PDT, July 20 and will remain down until approximately 12:01 AM PDT, July 21.

All realms not listed below will undergo their Tuesday maintenance on July 20, at 1:00 AM PDT, and be down until approximately 7:00 AM PDT.

Aerie Peak
Altar of Storms
Alterac Mountains
Andorhal
Anetheron
Anvilmar
Archimonde
Area 52
Arygos
Auchindoun
Azuremyst
Black Dragonflight
Blackwing Lair
Blade's Edge
Blood Furnace
Coilfang
Dalaran
Dalvengyr
Dawnbringer
Deathwing
Demon Soul
Dentarg
Doomhammer
Duskwood
Executus
Exodar
Fizzcrank
Galakrond
Ghostlands
Gnomeregan
Grizzly Hills
Haomarush
Icecrown
Jaedenar
Kel'Thuzad
Khadgar
Lethon
Mal'Ganis
Norgannon
Onyxia
Scilla
Sentinels
Shattered Halls
Steamwheedle Cartel
Tanaris
Terokkar
The Scryers
The Underbog
The Venture Co
Thrall
Turalyon
Uldaman
Undermine
Velen
Ysera
Ysondre
Zangarmarsh
Zuluhed

Beloved though it is, there are no current plans to reintroduce the Tabard of the Argent Dawn.

I tried several different places for Mithril Ore specifically on my death knight, but found Tanaris to be the most reliable. Oh, how I miss the days of catching him up on professions. :)