The best of WoW Insider: March 2012

Ellyndia: Whenever I need to do something that might be scary or a little intimidating, I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and say to myself: "Time's up, let's do this." I have gotten a job using this method.
jazz.panther: My success with that method is only about 33.33% ... repeating of course.

Mass Effect 3 was released on the 6th, which was just enough time for people to finish it and be really pissed off in time for the Mists of Pandaria beta, which hit on the 21st. Not surprisingly, beta coverage absolutely dominated everything else we did in this month. Rather than overload readers with an endless parade of it, I've tried to centralize our MoP coverage in our omnibus guide. News

Have Group, Will Travel replaced by faster flight paths, flask "Chug-a-Lug" perk removed 9 months later, you can still hear the screams.

WoW Insider's Mists of Pandaria coverage This was our central guide to which we kept adding articles throughout the year, like cool class stuff, the siege of Orgrimmar, upcoming quests and zones, and an FAQ. You'll find a lot of our March articles here.

10 death knights kill heroic Ragnaros "Meanwhile, 10 warlocks announced today that they were able to take down a bunny in Elwynn Forest. Grats all around!"

100,000 beta invites on their way to Annual Pass subscribers So many people signed up for the Annual Pass that Blizzard had to stagger the invites, and the wait often made players impatient. Remember, people: Not every invite will be legitimate!

Warlock's green fire is not coming at release in MoP, no timetable Rumors about green fire had gotten everybody (well, warlocks) excited, but they turned to be premature. Mat McCurley was not amused.

Opinions and Editorials

Is it time to kill daily quests? Man plans, Blizzard laughs. Possibly the most ironic editorial of the year.

Officers' Quarters: 6 qualities of a successful raiding guild I think fewer people would be inclined to stomp off and form their own guilds if they read this and realized how much work goes into a guild with "easy" boss kills.

Does the Annual Pass guarantee instant beta access? Mat takes time off from making green fire demands to walk indignant players through the language in the Annual Pass contract and how Blizzard had advertised it. On a side note, can anyone out there imagine the nightmare of getting onto the beta if a million people were suddenly given access all at once?

3 things that need to change about WoW's auction house Basil and Fox were both in agreement that the user interface needed an overhaul, but Basil singled out two measures that would have a much broader effect on the economy itself. The comments section is excellent.

Debunking the "WoW is better for online dating than dating sites" story We'd seen a story floating around that more successful match-ups resulted from WoW than places like eHarmony. Adam was skeptical, started digging into it, and wasn't too impressed by the results. Don't believe everything you read.

The OverAchiever: 3 things that should be achievements but aren't How best to summarize this article? The Lashtail Hatchling owns. There you go.

Arts and Entertainment

Around Azeroth: Own goal on the dwarf team! The header to this page and still one of the funnier pictures ever to emerge from the game.

WoW Moviewatch: Deathwing's Days Are Over Brunhila's love letter to her guild and a fine performance in its own right. (Also, incidentally, a Florence and the Machine cover.)

WoW Moviewatch: ZA Not gonna lie, I just enjoyed listening to Sharm stretch her pipes here.

Whimsical and sweet Warcraft art by Meebles Meebles is responsible for the beautiful moonkin header above. Click over for the full gallery!

Beta testing 101: How to stream your beta sessions Matticus' guide to using Xsplit helped a lot of people with the technical demands of streaming.

Around Azeroth: My Faire bovine A gorgeous shot of the revamped Darkmoon Faire and its fireworks.

Classes, Raiding, and PvP

Shifting Perspectives: Soloing Naxxramas for feral druids in the 4.3 era and its follow-up, Feral soloing in Ulduar and other dragons Chase's guides wound up becoming some of the most popular class columns of the year. Turns out a lot of people are interested in exacting revenge on Wrath of the Lich King-era raid bosses.

The Light and How to Swing It: Being the main tank Who knew that the French brigade de cuisine system of kitchen management had so much to teach us about tanking?

Lichborne: Why I play a death knight Sometimes it's good to take a break from all the numbers and fighting about balance to ask why you're really playing a class. Dan's take on the death knights as the "lawful evil" of the WoW universe makes me wonder if anyone's ever done a D&D orientation guide for the classes.

Blood Pact: Soul sticks and soul carrots Megan's second post as the Defense Against the Dark Arts warlock columnist was prompted by discussions in early March about the class' seemingly-unfixable population malaise in Cataclysm. As she noted in backroom discussion, Cynwise's The decline and fall of warlocks in Cataclysm was published a week afterwards. 9 months later, this is still an issue.

Encrypted Text: The lazy combat build Chase started an experimental guide series on building a rogue piece-by-piece.

Odds and Ends

Drama Mamas: The results edition Every year, the Mamas try to follow-up with previous letter writers to see how things panned out. Most of the time, troubles pass and things get resolved. Most of the time.

How I made 3,000 gold by level 30 Welcome to transmogrification, where image is everything and the stats don't matter! More seriously, transmog has had a pretty noticeable impact on the low-level greens market, and many items that were all but worthless in November 2011 were selling for 1K+ by March.

The OverAchiever: Got 100,000 gold handy? In related financial news, how the game tries to bankrupt you in return for 10 more agonizing points.

5 stupid-awesome uses for a Potion of Illusion Confession time: I still farm these, and as far as I'm concerned, the entirety of Cataclysm can be justified on the basis that it gave us these badass little potions. Anne walks you through how to get the most from them.

Know Your Lore, TFH Edition: The naaru are a menace that must be destroyed Anne's speculation on the naaru, and assertion that the pacification of the universe implies a terrifying amount of control over it, really stuck with me. It's within shouting distance of something that Zac of Travels through Azeroth and Outland once observed, which is that a race of saints is actually really scary when you think about it.

The most wicked creatures in WoW Sheep the Diamond had a brilliant series on which races popped up most frequently as instance and raid bosses, and the results aren't what I expected.

Know Your Lore: The hour of the king Rossi likes Varian. Varian likes things that are not orcs.

WoW meets Nintendo: Make your group stand out with transmogrification Dawn's transmog kick wasn't over, and she returned in March with a guide to costuming your character as Link, Samus, or Mario.

Wherefore art thou, Steamy Romance Novel? Red Cow Rises' guide to one of WoW's slyest jokes still cracks me up almost a year later.

If you enjoyed this article, you might get a kick out of our Best of 2009, Best of 2010, and Best of 2011 series.

2012's drawing to a close, and we're wrapping up the most interesting articles we've published all year, one day at a time. Join us every day for the next twelve days with this year's best of WoW Insider!Tags: 2012-wow-insider-best-stories, 2012-year-in-review, best-of-wow-insider, year-in-review

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Insider Business, Humor

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