Tier 16 Armor Set videos: Paladin, Druid, Rogue, Death Knight [Updated]

Adriacraft are back with more tier set videos. This time we've got the tier 16 armor sets for Paladins and Druids, with Rogues to follow later. What do you think of the sets? Here at WoW Insider we're unsure, both these tiers look rather similar, and there seems to be a recurring theme of basic-colored armor with some unusual, even bizarre, frill detail.

As previously, the tiers' different colors will come from different difficulties. You can also remind yourself of the previous datamined tier sets for the Warrior, Priest and Hunter. Hit the break for the other two sets! And do check out Adriacraft on YouTube for all the latest patch videos!

Tags: breaking, druid, paladin, patch-5.4, rogue, tier-16

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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Young Welsh player achieves Stood in the Fire every night

Ten-year-old Connor of Wrexham, Wales, has adored World of Warcraft ever since he began watching his mother Emma play during The Burning Crusade. Today, Connor plays a worgen frost mage and has even raided the first three bosses of the Terrace of Endless Spring with his mom's guild. "We have always encouraged him because it helps with his literacy skills," she says.

So when it came time to find out Connor what he wanted on his bedroom wall when the family moved to a new home, the young fan was adamant: Deathwing, and plenty of it. Thanks to the talents of family friend and local artist Rachel West (more of her other art at faceART), that's exactly what Connor got.

"He loves his pet battles and enjoys looking at older raid content," Emma reports. "All the people in the guild are lovely with him and have helped various times so he can see content of the game." Still, his family seems content to let him get Stood in the Fire every night when he goes to bed ... That's one boy you can truly describe with a "well done, young man, well done." Tags: Deathwing-art, featured, wall-mural, wow-art, wow-artwork, wow-crafts, wow-fan, wow-fan-art, wow-fan-made, wow-fan-made-art, wow-fan-made-artwork, wow-fans, WoW-wall-mural

Filed under: Arts and Crafts

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Know Your Lore: The Contradictions of the Mogu

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

If Lei Shen was born, how was he born?

Even among the mighty mogu of ancient Pandaria, Lei Shen was known as a military prodigy. The son of a warlord, Lei Shen aimed not simply to conquer weaker races, as his forebears had done, but to build a true empire.

We're told that Lei Shen was born the son of a warlord during the Age of a Hundred Kings when the mogu, bereft of leadership following the silence of Master Ra (Ra-Den in the mogu language) and their being left to their own devices. If this is so... if Lei Shen was someone's son, how was he born? The mogu of today have no females save two, the Twin Consorts, but Monara's anguished spirit indicates that they once did. Considering that Lei Shen discovered the Engine of Nalak'sha and the Forge of the Endless, perhaps the Thunder King simply decided to stop letting his people reproduce via the Curse of Flesh. It's often argued that the mogu reverse engineered the Curse, but it's possible that they also decided to return to using the technology of the creation forges for their reproduction and as such, no longer needed to allow women of their race to exist.

The Twin Consorts themselves are clearly constructs, so either Lei Shen had them specially made for his own vanity (and in fact decided to be the only mogu who would have wives) or there is a pattern for female mogu inside the Forge of the Endless. Since the other Titan created races (vrykul, earthen, gnomes) have genders, and the Watchers have them as well, the lack of gender among the mogu of this era is notable. The existence of Monara and the legends surrounding Sparkmancer Vu indicate that at one time mogu women were a part of their society. This makes their near total removal from the mogu a sign of just how thoroughly Lei Shen remade his people, a terrifying prospect.

To Lei Shen, his people exist to serve his will. And for no other reason.

What's fascinating is, Lei Shen isn't immortal as such - he apparently died of old age, although there are contradictory stories that say he died in a great battle. However, we do know that there were several emperors after Lei Shen ruled, yet it seems safe to say that all of the hallmarks of the mogu, from the Serpent's Spine sealing the mantid away from the rest of Pandaria to the creation of the saurok date back to Lei Shen's rule. His successors, whatever their relationship to him, were not as successful partially because they could not think as he did, and partially because they did not hold the raw power that Lei Shen found in the Mogu'shan Vaults. Dojan Firecrown, who succeeded Lei Shen, made a few changes - he moved the seat of mogu power to the Mogu'shan Palace in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, a structure built in ancient times when the mogu still served Master Ra and the Titans. But for the most part his reign was spent fighting the saurok that had been created within the Throne of Thunder.

We don't know how many emperors there were - before them, the Age of a Hundred Kings stretches for an equally unknown time, and after the death of Emperor Lao-Fe during the Pandaren revolt, there were kings again among the mogu because no one claimed the imperial title - but we do know that from the time of Lei Shen's death until the death of the last emperor Lao-Fe that the empire rocked beneath their feet. The saurok rebellion was followed by an organized revolt of all the subjugated people of the continent, and it smashed for many thousands of years the imperial ambitions of the mogu.

The issue then becomes this - where did the mogu go?

When we arrive on Pandaria, the mogu are found exploring ancient ruins in the Jade Forest. Similar mogu expeditions are found in the Krasarang forests (the ruins of Dojanni, named for Emperor Dojan II, who died fighting the saurok insurrection), and throughout Kun-Lai. These appearances of the mogu are stated to be unusual by the pandaren people - Kang Bramblestaff in particular describes the mogu as 'thugs' and scoffs at the idea that they can work magic at all despite the fact that they are using arcane portals to explore the Dojanni ruins for ancient relics of their people. Kang's statement that only when they ruled their old empire could they work any kind of magic makes me wonder what happened to them all once they lost that empire. And furthermore, without any currently living women, and no access to the Mogu'shan Vaults, why are there any mogu at all or at least, why were there whole clans of mogu for Xin the Weaponmaster to be ruling over?

It's clear that there is so method by which those mogu that are still flesh (that is, suffering from the Curse of Flesh) can keep themselves hidden and propagate their people. It's also clear that at some point, the Mogu'shan Vaults were accessed by the mogu and the Forge of the Endless activated, and many of the current mogu are constructs. It's possible that the mogu have been hiding in plain sight - that they have used the subterranean tunnels connecting all these ancient Titan complexes to move unobserved throughout Pandaria. It would also explain how they manage to continue to exist at all without women, since they'd have to be creating new mogu with the Forge of the Endless and then somehow using their knowledge of the Curse of Flesh (remember, they've been repeatedly said to have 'reverse sngineered' it) to effectively curse the constructs into new mogu. As bizarre as the theory is, it's basically the best idea we currently have as for how the society Lei Shen created, with its utter lack of women, could possibly keep existing much less survive for over twelve thousand years following the Pandaren Rebellion while keeping hidden.

This still leaves many mysteries - if Kang Bramblestaff is to be belived, the mogu haven't used magic in over twelve thousand years? Why, and why do their magical abilities seem to have returned with the lifting of the mists? Mogu are some of the proudest creatures in the world - is their dormancy related to the mists, created by the Sha of Pride? We know the Korune were tapping Sha energies to create wonders like the Divine Bell, and that mogu armies were often infused with Sha power by the Bell - why did the mogu seal the bell away? What role, if any, did the Sha play in the fall of the Mogu Empire? If Lei Shen could be raised from the dead, why did he even allow himself to die at all, and did he die, or return to stone? Did the majority of the mogu people spend the past millennia as unmoving, unfeeling stone? Did the clans survive to the present day not by conversion, but by hibernation, and if so what was Xin's plan for the clans who assembled in the Mogu'shan Palace?

Next week, the hidden secrets of the mogu temples. While you don't need to have played the previous Warcraft games to enjoy World of Warcraft, a little history goes a long way toward making the game a lot more fun. Dig into even more of the lore and history behind the World of Warcraft in WoW Insider's Guide to Warcraft Lore. Tags: featured, guide, guide-to-lore, Lei-Shen, lore, lore-guide, mogu, Mogu-women, Monara, role-play, role-playing-guide, rp-guide, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore, wow-role-playing, wow-role-playing-guide, wow-rp, wow-rp-guide, wow-rping

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore, Mists of Pandaria

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Patch 5.4 PTR: Mounts, cloaks and glyphs

Wowhead's dataminers have unearthed a whole lot of new items with the latest build to hit the PTR servers, as Perculia posted earlier. First up, there's the Legendary capes, with their procs in place, seven in total, with different stats for different classes and specializations. You can also see the 3D models of the Legendary capes over on Wowhead, and I have to say, as someone who usually leaves their cloak turned off, these are very pretty indeed.

There are also new mounts, the Vicious Skeletal Warhorse, as shown in the header image, and the Vicious Warsaber. These may well be new mounts to purchase with honor points, conquest points, or may require a certain rating, or similar, but however you get them we absolutely agree with Perculia when she says they sound PvP-centric.

What's more, Corrupted Garrosh now has a glowy new look, a vast improvement on his old one, and appears to be less bulked out with all the sha influence.

Instead, he appears to be surrounded with a faint purple glow, whilst looking far more like his former self, but it is possible that we might see the very purple hulked Garrosh make a return, this could be an interim look for him while he's in the process of being corrupted.

There are also several new glyphs, but these are all marked with NYI, meaning Not Yet Implemented, so these could count for nothing at all. Some of them do look pretty great, though, even if several are cosmetic effects like surrounding you in feathers if you have Slow Fall active, or reducing the size of a Water Elemental. Do check out the full post at Wowhead!Tags: breaking, new-mounts, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-mounts, patch-5.4-ptr

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

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Around Azeroth: Dragons don't need swords

"Gimmlette from Spectacular Death (A-Llane) was preparing for the guild's next raid," writes Gimmlette herself. "Part of that preparation is to make sure one's weapons are ready to go. So she stopped in to see Marda Weller in Stormwind. 'See these talons on my feet?' Gimlette said. 'They aren't sharp enough. Don't mind that they're currently digging into your floor.' Marda wasn't impressed by the talons or the dragon standing in front of her. 'You'll have to go to a jewelcrafter,' she replied. 'I think you need a grinder to sharpen those. Oh, and I'll be sending your guild a bill for replacing my floor planks.'"
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss

Filed under: Around Azeroth

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Breakfast Topic: Whatever happened to healing assignments?

A few nights ago, I was casually playing my mistweaver monk when I saw a pick-up group forming for Mogushan Vaults. He wasn't really that well geared, but I figured "why not?" and jumped in. Since this was my first time joining a raid on this character, I tried to be prepared; I ate my spirit food, drank a flask, and asked the raid leader for healing assignments. His response? Well, parts of it are unprintable, but the gist is that "assignments are lame" and "nobody uses them anymore."

I admit, I'm not the best at paying attention to what my healers are doing, other than thanking them when they repeatedly cover for my slow reaction times, or lighting our tree druid on fire. (Ulla, if you're reading this, it was the warlock. Really!) Thinking back, though, the last time I remember healing assignments really being a "thing" was Chimaeron, and nothing since then.

Understandably, heroic raiders still have assignments as they have to keep people from dying every second, but what about the rest of us? It seems like assignments have died out: do you think this is a bad thing or a good thing? Tags: featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, healing-assignments, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMike

The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMike object,embed{display:none}(function(){var a=window,h,g=[],c=function(){if(h){return}h=1;for(var e=-1,d=g.length;++e Skip to Content

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Every week, join us as we present you with The WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW Insider to emails from our readers and what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth.

Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wowinsider.com! And don't forget to join us for the live show again next Monday at 8:00 p.m. PDT!

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Permalink0 Comments.fyre-notifier-container{display:none}.fyre{width:94%!important}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider>span.fyre-comment-reply-wrapper{top:18px}.fyre .fyre-comment-divider>a,.fyre .fyre-comment-divider>a:hover{top:20px}Breaking news FeedPatch 5.4 PTR: Mounts, cloaks and glyphsTier 16 Armor Set videos: Paladin, Druid, Rogue, Death Knight [Updated]Patch 5.4 PTR Datamine: 100% XP Buff via MicrotransactionPatch 5.4 PTR: More spoileriffic sound filesThe mount you'll engi-need in Patch 5.4Featured stories FeedBreakfast Topic: Do unlikely race/role combos disturb you?The WoW Insider Show Episode 301: Alex and the AnneMikeRP Inside the Kirin Tor: 'There are specialists for everything, I suppose'Young Welsh player achieves Stood in the Fire every nightKnow Your Lore: The Contradictions of the MoguWoW Insider Show 

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Breakfast Topic: Do unlikely race/role combos disturb you?

Gnome warrior tanks disturb me. In fact, I'd go so far as to say I just can't hang with a gnome in this role. Especially in PvP content, their size relative to other PC races sends any semblance of reality out the window. In raids, their small size makes them annoyingly more difficult to spot. But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this role/race combo to me is how much less confidence-inspiring these tiny tidbits of tanking are to me than, say, an orc warrior. I'll follow my orc warrior anywhere, even the proverbial cliff, because I trust him to fight off the baddies once we've rezzed at the bottom. But a gnome? Sorry, guys and gals. You're like Chicklets chewing gum. It's just not working for me.

I have a friend who doesn't like to see human males in magic-using roles. He has a pretty classic view of spellcasters as refined in both intellect and physique, and he just doesn't enjoy seeing WoW's rather beefy-looking male models flinging spells in the field.

Whether your reasons are aesthetic or practical, have you found any particular race/class combinations to feel a bit dodgy? Is there a race/roll combination in game that just doesn't work for you? Tags: character-creation, featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, race, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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RP Inside the Kirin Tor: 'There are specialists for everything, I suppose'

Dalaran remains one of the shining jewels of Azeroth. Many players make their homes in this glittering city in the sky. Horde and Alliance players alike have traditionally enjoyed the hospitality of the historically neutral Kirin Tor, who were content to cloister themselves to focus on matters of magic and learning.

But Jaina Proudmoore's politics have pulled the Kirin Tor into alignment with the Alliance. The peaceful face of Dalaran is no more. The Kirin Tor have ejected the Sunreavers from its ranks and the city itself, throwing them into the Violet Hold or killing them outright (though some managed to escaped to Silvermoon).

Roleplaying behind this volatile facade is one of WoW's most unique concept guilds, Moon Guard's Magus Senate of Dalaran. Comprised almost entirely of mages and other magic users, the guild turns magic to reflect upon arcane politics and the fireworks of world battle.

Main character Baelheit, human arcane mage
Guild Magus Senate of Dalaran
Realm Moon Guard (US-RP)

WoW Insider: What an incredible membership roster -- mage after mage, a Mirror Image! Does The Magus Senate accept non-mage characters? What are the limitations of its membership?

Baelheit: What classes we'd allow was always up for some debate, especially when creating the guild. Ultimately, we decided that while mages were obviously our top priority, we decided to let an applicant's roleplay ability determine if they were right for the guild. We've had warlocks, a few priests and even some paladins who roleplayed as guards.

Out of those non-mage members, I'd say about 25% are alts and 75% are genuine characters. The majority of our non-mages are warlocks, and they are all in character and participating. Those who are alts of other characters are always in our OOC rank.

How does the group's focus affect the kind of storylines you become involved in?

We have a lot of background to draw from when roleplaying as the Kirin Tor. We've been able to expand upon pre-existing lore and fashion our own events. Many of our non-PvP-related events are D&D-based. Other events we get invited to or server-wide affairs often involve us for our expertise in magic or the more obscure elements of roleplay. There are specialists for everything, I suppose. How much of WoW's PvE and PvP content does the guild pursue as a group?

PvP and PvE is a bit of a hard element for us in the Magus Senate to face when it comes to our balance of classes. It's almost 10 mages to every non-mage. Guild heroics are easy enough to manage, perhaps with some members placing their other range of characters -- melee, healers and the like -- as alts in the guild to aid us.

What have you found to be the primary limitation of bringing nothing but magic users to the table?

Well, I can tell you it isn't getting a portal. Mages are a powerful class, mind you, but we can be slightly lacking in the defensive department. So our only deficiencies are a matter of gameplay mechanics. In terms of roleplaying, there's really nothing to lose. I think it adds consistency that we keep our main focus on the mages that compose the Kirin Tor, and I'd hate to see that lost. Does the group's roleplay focus have an effect on how you approach game content? For example, are there certain PvE storylines or content you avoid because it's contrary to with the mission of the guild?

It can, at times. A popular thing to do is to in-character traverse a dangerous area such as a scenario or the Isle of Thunder and be able to add real description to how we would personally handle anything Azeroth could throw at us.

One must always be careful on a roleplaying server, however. The world doesn't change because we say it does, and we are always careful never to enact something that would contradict lore or another roleplayers ability to do so.

Any thoughts on the new politics of the Kirin Tor? Has the anti-Silvermoon sentiment affected relations with other guilds you roleplay with frequently?

That's an interesting question you posed there. In Patch 5.1 and 5.2, we and the server as a whole enjoyed a large compilation of roleplaying events that had us waging war around Dalaran with the Dominion of the Sun guilds on Moon Guard as well as the Sunguard. Both are blood-elf-themed roleplay guilds.

There is a small bit of a difference between member's opinions in the Magus Senate, between being glad the elves are gone or wishing they had not been expelled. Personally, Baelheit believes expelling the Sunreavers was a critical mistake. They were citizens of Dalaran and therefore under his protection, and he feels like he failed them, as well as Jaina Proudmoore cutting out one-third of her own forces. Tell us about any particular Kirin Tor-flavored traditions you follow as a guild.

Our longest-standing tradition are our weekly senate sessions. It's a chance for us to act like the sort of senate that we roleplay as. We gather in The Violet Citadel and let speakers address the floor, debate courses of action, hear proposals. It captures the essence of The Kirin Tor that most of us joined to experience, feeling like a real citizen of Dalaran and knowing that every voice can be heard.

What activities might be included in a typical week for the guild?

Our schedule is pretty crammed -- no less than four or five events per week, usually: roleplaying, RP PvP, or maybe guild achievement runs. We have some smaller, one-night events or large, storyline-driven events that will usually occur weekly or on the same days to provide consistency. These events are recorded for posterity on the guild website. What's the coolest thing you never get tired of in game related to being a mage?

Would you believe it's the roleplaying gear? Your character's appearance is half the roleplay, after all, and we've all gone to great lengths to craft Violet RP sets for ourselves.

Also, Ancient Portal: Dalaran. Never trust a smiling mage after a raid.

Ouch, heh. And what about the most tired old thing related to mages that you're sick of newbies or others saying or doing in game?

Probably restocking the guild bank! We get a lot of newbies around here and all of them seem to think we're all colorblind! We have a dress code around here, so we've got to make sure we've got Violet Robes and tabards aplenty for everyone.

Read about the other devoted class- and race-exclusive concept guilds profiled on 15 Minutes of Fame. "I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn) ... a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular ... and a 70-year-old grandma who tops her raid's DPS charts as its legendary-wielding GM. Send your nominations to lisa@wowinsider.com. Tags: all-mage, baelheit, dalaran, facebookfeed, featured, guilds, mages, magus-senate-of-dalaran, roleplay, world-of-warcraft-interviews, wow-community, wow-interviews, wow-people

Filed under: Interviews, 15 Minutes of Fame

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Patch 5.4 PTR Datamine: 100% XP Buff via Microtransaction

Datamining should always, always be taken with a pinch of salt. But, when Perculia of Wowhead dropped WoW Insider a line with one particular object from the latest PTR build, we had to let you all know about it.

Enduring Elixir of Wisdom is an elixir that increases experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests by 100%. Wow, that's quite the buff, right? But not really stop the presses news? Wait until you hear the rest. It's currently listed as coming from the "5.4 In-Game Store". Yes, that's right, at the moment all signs point to this being purchased via a microtransaction.

Now, we didn't even know about the in-game store. Maybe they mean the battle.net shop, maybe they don't, but this is a controversial step by Blizzard if the datamining turns out to be accurate. Of course, leveling isn't exactly an onerous task, but nonetheless, exchanging what might be real money for faster leveling would add considerable convenience.

Do remember that this is datamining. It might not be accurate, it might be a placeholder, it might come to nothing at all.

Tags: breaking, in-game-store, microtransaction, xp-buff

Filed under: Blizzard

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Patch 5.4 PTR: More spoileriffic sound files

Adriacraft is at it again. The very second a new build goes up, Stevan is on the audio like an inappropriate simile, just to get it here for you as soon as possible. As ever, there are spoilers after the break, so if you don't want spoilers, then I heartily suggest you don't click the break, don't read the comments, and don't watch the video. Instead, contemplate my shaman as she rests her weary head in one of Azeroth's many field hospitals.
This set of sound files includes Wrathion audio, but also audio from several of the new raid bosses. As ever this is datamined information, so do take it all with a pinch of salt, but there are definitely interesting snippets in there!
Do check back for more, and check out Adriacraft's YouTube channel for all the latest patch video! Tags: breaking, patch-5.4, patch-5.4-datamining, patch-5.4-ptr, patch-5.4-sound

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

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Breakfast Topic: Your favorite alt(s)

Sure, we all have our main character on whom we lavish both time and attention. We take the utmost care to gear them up: reforging, enchanting, gemming, and transmogrifing every piece of equipment to perfection. We read forums and class blogs and make sure we're up to date on the latest gameplay techniques and boss strategies to make the most of our beloved main when we're playing.

But sometimes? Sometimes you just want a break from all of that. Sometimes you want to play an alt, running through uncharted territory with an unfamiliar class. This, of course, is the draw of the alt. And for some of us, one isn't even enough. So tell us, readers: what's your favorite alt getaway? A specific character, faction, or class? Or is it just anything different, for a change of pace? Tags: alt, altaholic, alts, featured, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-alt, wow-alts, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Breakfast Topics

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Around Azeroth: Fishing up trouble

This is the Azerothian equivalent of shooting a buffalo in the original The Oregon Trail. You get a thousand pounds of meat, but you're only able to carry two hundred back to your wagon. Submitter Matteø of The Blades Revolution on Darkmoon Faire (EU-A) was doing some fishing on a tiny raft when he landed this enormous octopus. Thank goodness there's no collision detection in this game, or else the size differential between his raft and his catch would send that flimsy vessel to the bottom of the sea.
Want to see your own screenshot here? Send it to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com. We strongly prefer full-sized pictures with no UI or names showing. Include "Azeroth" in the subject line to ensure your submission dodges email spam filters; if you'd like to be credited, also include your name, guild and realm. Tags: around azeroth, around-azeroth, AroundAzeroth, featured, screen-shots, screenshots, world-of-warcraft-pictures, world-of-warcraft-screenshots, wow-screen-shots, wow-screenshot, wow-screenshots, wow-ss

Filed under: Around Azeroth

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Totem Talk: All about Healing Tide Totem

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and content creation at InternetDragons.TV), shows you how.

This week, we're going to talk a whole lot about Healing Tide Totem. Why are we going to spend that time discussing this resto shaman healing talent? Well, because like with everything else lately, there is a hot debate springing up about it. This has to do, of course, with the upcoming patch 5.4 that is currently being tested on the PTR. Again the information we have on this is subject to change, but we can still talk about it until things go live.

Since the start of the expansion, there has been a love hate relationship with HTT. The debate started day one with if this talent was mandatory for restoration shaman and how much of our healing truly relied on it. After just a little bit into the expansion's first tier of raid content, the debate intensified and has been going on ever since.

A rising star, or a falling shaman?

The beginning of the expansion is always a time to see what our new goodies will bring us and what type of impact they will have. From the get go HTT was a curiosity. The talent seemed strong and was often times compared to a druids Tranquility of a priest Divine Hymn, and it gained the ability to utilize our mastery Deep Healing. It gained about 48% of our spellpower, and while that was great, it still didn't compare to other raid cooldowns that would get 85% or higher of the caster's spellpower. The downfall was that basically as other healers got gear, and as players learned not to stand in bad, the cooldown would slowly dwindle in power. The problem was, well, it hasn't quite worked out like that. A considerable amount of our healing throughput has wound up tied to HTT, especially at the beginning.

Personally I know the very first time I used HTT, the other healers pretty much had a cow when they saw how much healing it did by itself during Feng the Accursed. That's been pretty much the curse of this cooldown from the start. It does so much of our healing by itself simply because there are so many fights where everyone is broken down into much smaller groups or simply can't stack on top of each other and take advantage of Spirit Link Totem or Healing Rain like we did throughout Cataclysm. That's been one of the largest complaints among the respectful punch of our healing brethren, that so much of our healing is on this cooldown. There are fights, like Tortos, where HTT is counting for almost 35% of the healing we do simply because of how spread out everyone is. This wound up making the talent pretty much mandatory for that tier choice compared to the other two.

This of course presents an issue on two fronts. First, if the healing cooldown doesn't scale quite as well as other cooldowns, it will eventually fall out of favor and become much less useful. Second, with so much of our healing on certain fights deriving from that, what does that have to say about our healing longevity as a class when compared to other healers?

Will this change?

This is a difficult question to answer some times, but overall, it's not a great place to be where a cooldown like that becomes something you rely on so much for certain fights. We can already see that there are things in the works to make this not the case, or at least attempt to. The new Glyph of Chaining is an attempt to make our beloved Chain Heal more viable in fights were we are going to be spread out, which from all appearances will be happening again in the coming tier of raiding. The new Glyph of Riptide is going down the same road by lessening the initial blow of the instant healing effect. The idea will be that we can start to rely on them a little bit more on those fights where people are spread out.

The second part of this equation is a redesign of the other talents from that tier of choices. Conductivity has been updated so that casting Healing Wave, Greater Healing Wave, Healing Surge and Chain Heal will increase the duration of Healing Rain by 1 second. Conductivity has been one of those talents that has pretty much been written off since the start of the expansion, and this is an attempt to make it more viable as an option when compared to HTT. Will this change be enough to knock HTT out of the spot as a mandatory talent? I'm not entirely convinced. While increasing the duration of HR is nice, it is going to depend on how much stacking we're going to be able to do in the next tier of raiding, and the jury is still out on that. Personally, I don't think anything is going to knock HTT out of it's place in our toolkit anytime soon, which is good and bad.

What about buffing HTT?

This is another one of those topics that has been debated. Half of the shaman healing community would love to see HTT buffed so that we can continue to use it competitively in the tiers of content to come. The other half think that doing so will do nothing but hurt us in the long run by making us so much more dependent on the cooldown for our healing throughput. In patch 5.3's release, a lot of other raid healer cooldowns got buffed yet our HTT did not get any increase. In a Twitter exchange, everyone's favorite crustacean Gregg "Ghostcrawler" Street stated that buffing HTT would only make it more mandatory for resto and that SLT was our raid cooldown. Later that same day however, patch 5.4 ptr notes showed that Healing Tide Totem was getting buffed to heal for 50% more. As it stands on the ptr, HTT will also gain 72% of our spellpower on use. That's a significant bump and puts it much more in line with other raid healing cooldowns.

In the end, I still have a love-hate relationship with the cooldown. I love it because I have a big soft spot for totems in general and I'll always argue for more and cooler totems for us to use. I hate it because I hate feeling like everything we do is tied up in a single cooldown cast every 3 minutes. It points out that we have some severe deficiencies when it comes to fights where we can't keep our raid grouped up. We tend to have to work very hard to keep up.While I love excelling at group healing fights, and I'm not opposed to rolling up my sleeves and putting in some hard work, I hate feeling pigeon holed. My hope is that shaman healing will get another close looking over in the very near future. I still love being a shaman healer, I think we're still a great healing class, but I feel like we have the potential to be so much better. Totem Talk: Restoration lends you advice on healing groups, DK tanks and heroics and mana concerns in today's endgame -- or take a break and look back at the rise of the resto shaman. Happy healing, and may your mana be plentiful! Tags: ancestral guidance, AncestralGuidance, conductivity, earthliving weapon, EarthlivingWeapon, featured, guide-to-shamans, healing tide totem, HealingTideTotem, patch 5.4, Patch5.4, resto, Resto-Shaman, restoration, restoration-shaman, restoration-shaman-column, restoration-shaman-totem-talk, shaman-guide, shaman-healing, shaman-info, shaman-restoration-column, shaman-talents, wow-shaman, wow-shaman-info

Filed under: Shaman, (Shaman) Totem Talk

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Chronological novel, short story and comic guide updates

If you've wanted to get caught up on the Warcraft print material, but didn't know where to start, we have a guide for you -- and it's been caught up to date. WoW Insider's Chronological Guide covers all novels, comics, manga and short stories, but presents them not in publication order, but in the order they appear in the Warcraft timeline -- which means you can start from the beginning of Azeroth's history and read your way through the years.

For reference purposes, the print material has been grouped with the game and expansion in which it takes place, making it even easier to get caught up. All works that take place over multiple points in the timeline have been listed with multiple entries and notated with mention of where they appear. At the moment, we're all caught up through Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde and the latest WoW short story, The Blank Scroll. Whether you're wondering when that book you just read actually took place, or you're just wanting to get a start on Azeroth's lore, the chronological guide will help you out.

Tags: chronological-guide, faction-short-stories, featured, guide, guide-to-lore, leader-short-story, lore, lore-guide, short-stories, warcraft-comics, warcraft-lore, warcraft-manga, warcraft-novels, warcraft-timeline, world-of-warcraft-lore, wow-guide, wow-lore

Filed under: Blizzard, Lore, Comics

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WoW Moviewatch: Nobody's Quest Episode 6

Well, this is it. The final episode of Nobody's Quest. It's been a thrill to see this weekly series, and I'm a little sad to see it end. Ninth Batter is being very responsible by saying he wants to do more, but can't promise it due to other responsibilities. This sort of thing does take an immense amount of time, so I understand. But I can hope.

This was a good wrap-up. I was surprised how satisfied I felt with the ending. I tend to shy away from love stories. It's not that I think they're bad, it's just that they can go awry pretty quickly. But with a healthy dose of humor and some fun little puns, Ninth kept the whole plot on their rails. Like I said, this was fun stuff. I hope we see more. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com. Tags: featured, guide-to-machinima, machinima, movies, ninth-batter, ninthbatter, nobodys-quest, ow-machinima, world-of-warcraft-movies, world-of-warcraft-videos, wow-created-movies, wow-fan-movies, wow-guide, wow-machinima-guide, wow-movie-guide, wow-movies, wow-video-guide, wow-videos

Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

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Rookie Guide updated with the latest how-tos for the newbie in your life

Whether you're a new player yourself or you have friends who are just starting to get in the game, our Rookie Guide is the place to find all of WoW Insider's new player coverage in one easy-to-bookmark place. New additions to the guide include a section on gear, items, and professions as well as a section on new player class guides, to help the WoW newbie in your life find the right class to play.

Looking for something we haven't covered in the guide yet? Drop us a note and we'll look into covering it for a future WoW Rookie! Just because you're a newbie doesn't mean you can't bring your A-game to World of Warcraft! Visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to everything you need to get started as a new player, from the seven things every newbie ought to know to how to get started as a healer or as a tank. Tags: featured, guide, how-to-play-wow, new-to-world-of-warcraft, noob-guide, rookie-guide, world-of-warcraft-guide, world-of-warcraft-help, world-of-warcraft-noobs, world-of-warcraft-rookies, wow-guide, wow-help, wow-noob-guide, wow-noobs, wow-to-play-world-of-warcraft

Filed under: WoW Rookie

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