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Five more must craft neutral Hearthstone cards
It turns out that people get oddly passionate about card lists, which is honestly a pretty great sign for Hearthstone. The first list we dropped two weeks ago was met with agreement, and also a lot of 'where is this card?!', despite warnings that there would be more to come. There was also some disagreement with the Wild Pyromancer choice, but I'm hoping that Amaz and his skilled use of the fiery minion at Dreamhack Summer has opened some eyes. It's incredibly powerful with the right complements. This week we'll take a look at another five sub-epic cards no one should be without. The only ranking to the list is mana cost, so we're not saying that one's more important than another. That decision is up to you and what decks you want to play.
Hearthstone: Sen'jin Shieldmasta
The Sen'jin Shieldmasta is a textbook example of a card that's incredibly strong despite being available to everyone. This four mana taunt creature is the bane of more aggressive decks because it boasts five toughness and often requires the sacrifices of multiple minions or spells to get it off the board. It's not just an answer to aggressive decks, however. The favorable distribution of stats makes it viable in almost every deck, save Miracle Rogue. Sen'jin Shieldmasta has very few direct counters. While the Black Knight is designed to deal with it, opponents are essentially trading a six mana card to deal with a four mana card. It works, but it's inefficient. Priests can also drop Shadow Word: Pain to quickly remove it, but it's admittedly rare to see Anduin Wrynn on the ladder, as priests are generally not favored by top players. Druids have access to Starfall and Starfire which each deal five damage to a target, but neither are commonly in use right now. Beyond those cards, there isn't really a whole lot that will destroy a Sen'jin Shieldmasta conveniently. He's a solid play against common decks like Warlock Zoo, Miracle Rogue, Druid Token, Paladin Aggro, and more. More importantly, Sen'jin Shieldmasta boasts arguably the most fun entry sound in the game, shouting "Taz'dingo!" upon being played. If you're looking for a reliable wall that won't cost you a single bit of dust, consider tossing this troll into your deck.
Check out the DC Series 8 and Premium Series 4 action figures
Blizzard sent the WoW Insider offices a batch of the brand new DC Series 8 and Premium Series 4 action figures to play around with. As a guy who is currently typing words on a World of Warcraft blog, you can imagine that I appreciate the occasional action figure. I've been impressed with the detail on the DC series in the past, especially the Garrosh and Lady Vashj figures, and was excited to see these up close. Check out this gallery of shots that I took at an expensive studio space in a trendy area in Brooklyn. DC WoW action figures series 8 includes: Confessor Dhalia Brink Spannercrank vs. Snaggle The Black Knight DC WoW premium series 4 includes: Moonkin: Wildmoon Hallow's End Nemesis: The Headless Horseman %Gallery-150480% Also, since I used to be a huge fan of ToyFare magazine and Twisted ToyFare Theater back in 1999, I went ahead and did my own.
Two Bosses Enter: Vote your favorite back into the fray
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Your votes, along with the decisions of our distinguished judges (representing WoW.com staff and readers), determine who makes it out alive. This week's news from the cage is no news at all: Argent Confessor Paletress flattened The Black Knight by unanimous judges' decision, with resounding approval from the stands. We'll have the decisions after the break -- plus your chance to bring back your favorite defeated champion from earlier in the season. Who would you like to see back on the roster? Eadric the Pure? The Lich King himself (albeit his paltry Halls of Reflection version)? Join us after the break to bring your favorite ICC-5/Trial of the Champion boss back into the Two Bosses Thunderdome.
Two Bosses Enter: ToC champs edge out Devourer, Black Knight wrangles Paletress
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. Your votes, along with the decisions of our distinguished judges (representing WoW.com staff and readers), determine who makes it out alive. It took hard work from all five ToC PvP champs to take down the Devourer of Souls in this week's Thunderdome pit fight -- but take him down they did. Three of our four judges gave the champs the nod, while tournament spectators saw them just squeaking by. Join us after the break for the judges' decisions and final results of ToC PvP champs vs. Devourer of Souls, and then cast your own vote for the next Thunderdome deathmatch: The Black Knight vs. Argent Confessor Paletress. Dr. Dealgood's got the right idea: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.
Two Bosses Enter: Readers push Black Knight through; Garfrost aims for Devourer
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble! The very first match of the ICC-5/ToC-5 season of Two Bosses Enter started off in knots, with Thunderdome spectators surging in to break a split decision in the judges' box. As it turns out, 'twas only a flesh wound for the Black Knight, who smashed competitor Bronjahm with 61.7% of the spectators' approval. Things weren't quite so clear in the judges' box, however, as all four judges found their feet tempted by the undeniable groove of the Godfather of Souls. Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in the next battle of the season: the Devourer of Souls versus Forgemaster Garfrost. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here.
Abilities I usually wish didn't exist in 5-mans
Most tanks are control freaks. As a matter of fact, you should hope that your tank is a control freak, because the ones who shrug off a mob running around loose are the ones you probably don't want tanking your run anyway. With that in mind, there are several player abilities that, while great for soloing or PvP, don't make the transition to a 5-man very well. Either they make life a real nuisance for your group members due to inherent design, or they tend to do so in the hands of a player who doesn't deploy them in a particularly helpful fashion. Not all tanks will have the same degree of irritation with all of the following skills (for example, I play a druid, and because bears don't have a ranged silence, a knockback on a caster mob is much more likely to annoy me than, say, a death knight tank), but I promise you that they've all been mentioned by my tanking colleagues as abilities with a high chance of blowing a pull.
The Queue: Simple things
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Today is a day of, apparently, quick questions and quick answers. Most of the questions asked were fairly straightforward and not particularly involved. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is really up to you, but it is what it is: simple. I planned to embed a cartoon at the top of this video, but the aspect ratio made it gigantic if I used our standard width, so there's a link instead.whalt asked... "Any idea if prior season PvP weapons will ever be available from honor/arena points and not require an arena rating like the old Glad weapons were back in BC?"
Patch 3.2: Trial of the Crusader impressions
Without much fanfare, Patch 3.2's new 5-man instance, the Trial of the Crusader, opened on the PTR tonight. Lead Encounter Designer Scott Mercer, AKA Daelo, noted that the instance is still a work in progress and that there would undoubtedly be bugs in the encounters.I immediately assembled a crack team of terrible players, including uneducated elemental shaman Sneep of <Goon Squad> Horde Mal'ganis US, betraying his faction and playing a draenei; my obligatory hunter girlfriend; my dead-weight editor and prot paladin Alex Ziebart; and probably the worst druid raid leader I've ever had in my current guild, Talid. Making sure our shoes were velcroed properly, we boldly went where champions tread. On Normal difficulty, of course.Upon entering the instance, though, our hearts sank when we realized that there were mountable Argent Warhorses along the walls. "No!", we cried. "Anything but jousting!" But our cries went unheard. That is, until Daelo popped into General chat to let everyone know that mounts were only used in one encounter. Dodged THAT bullet! And so we mounted up on the Warhorses and spoke to the Silver Covenant herald, Arelas Brightstar, to begin our challenge.
New information found in patch 3.2 achievements
The first patch 3.2 PTR client is now available for download, which means it's available for datamining. The ever-resourceful people at wirebrain have done just this to all the achievements found in the client, and have unearthed some interesting new details. We are unable to verify this information right now, but here's what they've found. Read on after the cut for: A new holiday. The names of the bosses in the new raid and 5-man dungeon, and their related achievements. A new Vault of Archavon boss. To be clear, there will be spoilers.
