Elizabeth Harper managed to get onto the latest beta build of Wrath of the Lich King tonight and snap us a few screenshots of the new calendar system. It looks quite nice, and to me appears to be a step up from current in game calendar options.

Blizzard has mentioned that they've been working on one of these for a while, and it's nice to see the results. If you look closely you'll see things like when the Darkmoon Faire is coming, and when the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravagenza is happening. It doesn't show what PvP weekend it is, but I have to believe that's something they'll be working on.

Check out the screenshots below for the new UI. I'm sure you'll be happy!

Update 12:57 a.m.: There is a way to add user events in the calendar. It also appears there is a way to share the calender items among individuals. More information incoming.

When I queue up with friends, I expect to play by their side. Whether we're conquesting new objectives, defending our assets, running a flag, or retaking lost towers, two or three people dedicated to working together stand a better chance than one person alone. When I wear the battleground crown, I make sure that whoever I came in with is in my group. I also answer other people's requests to be placed with their friends. Those groups are likely to be fighting side-by-side.

When someone else is not the leader of the battleground, it can be exceptionally difficult to be transferred among groups. This is not like saving a spot at the lunch table for a friend, but it's about winning the game. I've been playing Paladin lately, but I usually play Shaman. As it stands now, only people in my group can receive the benefit of my Auras and Totems. This may be changing in the future, when some of these buffs will affect the entire raid. For now it just makes sense to honor these requests. If the players have a working synergy, the entire team does benefit from placing them together.

How do you handle grouping in the battlegrounds?

Holy moly, Shamans got a ton of stuff they wanted and then some today at the WoW Dev Panel during WWI '08 today.

• Shaman CC! Hex, previously the domain of NPCs only, was confirmed as a Shaman spell -- it'll have a quick 1.5 second cast, and will turn your enemy into a frog for about 8-10 seconds. The frogged person will still be able to move around, but they won't be able to attack or cast spells. A 1 minute cooldown was mentioned, but that's in opposition to the purpose of the spell, which is supposed to be emergency only, so that may change.
  
• The devs mentioned that Shaman were suffering from "Totem spam," so a few totems will be combined -- Strength of Earth and Grace of Air will become the same totem, and the physical school news was re-confirmed.
• Perhaps the biggest Shaman complaint since launch was answered: Shaman totems will now affect the whole raid, not just the local group. That's a big one.
• Weapon enchants are being revamped for more utility. Rockbiter is out completely, and Earthliving is replacing it -- it will give a +Healing buff. Flametongue will give spell damage, and Frostbrand will "more reliably snare" opponents.

A lot of Shaman concerns were answered today for sure, though perhaps not in the way players might have wanted. Will a 10 second CC be enough? It's great that totems affect the raid now, but will their range be extended to reach all of those people?

All of this information is still up in the air, of course, but it's awesome to finally see some official news on where classes are headed for Wrath of the Lich King. Stay tuned for more Wrath information, as well as any other WoW news we hear coming out of WWI.

Since there is a shortage of tanks, it's probably easiest for tank classes to find a group. That also means it's hardest if you are not a tank to find someone to play that role. The next most difficult is a healer. There's usually plenty of DPS to go around. It can take some time to make a group, but since dungeons provide excellent loot and good experience it's usually worthwhile to stick with it.

Lane is facing a problem I face quite a bit in World of Warcraft, and I bet you have, too: she needs a group but doesn't have one. I don't care how many friends you have or how awesome your guild is, there are just going to be some times in game where you have a quest to do, or you have something that needs to be done, and you don't have four other people to do it with.

So how do you get things done? Me, I usually just sit in LFG while grinding or doing something else, and then just hope I get a group together eventually. But my Hunter has had to run Ramparts for a long time, and no one's jumped up to take me, so I may start offering incentives soon. You'd think the incentive to get some loot and have a good time in a group would be enough, but no -- if you're trying to do a quest that's months old in game and happen to be on your own on a server, you're often times out of luck.

So how do you get a group together when you don't have one? Do you ping the major cities and try to pull an expedition together? Do you just ignore the quest and go without? Or do you have to have a guild or friends on the same server to get certain things done? What do you do when you need a group, but just don't have one?

You've been trying for days to get a group together to run an instance so you can clear out your quest log. Your guild isn't interested in whatever you're up to, and you've wound up in the looking for group channel, where you find three rogues and a hunter who are interested in joining you. Hopefully at this point you wake up from your nightmare... at which point you may be compelled to spend some time considering the ideal group configuration. So what classes would you put in your ideal group? For a 5-man, a 10-man, a 25-man?

I can't really say I'm surprised to the response to the question Calipsa asked. But what I am surprised by is why she asked it: she wanted to know if sending group or even guild invites without whispering first was rude, and players responded overwhelmingly that it was. Why did she think it wasn't? There's almost nothing more confusing than receiving a random group or guild invite, and considering that even spammers are using group invites to spam, it's just not something you want to do.

Now maybe she meant just whether a whisper was necessary or not. If a player is marked LFG, or they're a guildie you know is available for a group, or they've just shouted out "LFG for group quests" in a chat channel, then I'd say they're fair game for a ninja invite. You don't need to actually whisper them and confirm everything you do (well, it's still nice to do, but in those cases, I'd say you don't need to).

But yes, invites out of the blue are a no-no. Rude, maybe, annoying, yes, and usually a waste of time for both parties.

Welcome to Shifting Perspectives! This is a new feature here on WoW Insider, which will bring you various perspectives on shifting forms as a druid, from David Bowers one week, and Dan O'Halloran the next.

I'm here kick off our little druid feature for this week with a simple pair of questions to answer: "Is playing a druid fun?" and "should I play a druid?" I reply to both with a resounding yes, of course. "But why?" you ask. "What has the Druid class got to offer me that other, so-called 'superior classes' haven't got?" The answer is, naturally, everything! Well mostly everything.

You see, more than any other class, druids have such a variety of abilities and can specialize in these abilities to such a degree that there are many very different play styles available to each druid player. The Druid is the ultimate class for the player who wants to tank sometimes, stealth and kill sometimes, heal sometimes, and then sit back and nuke things from a distance for a few months in order to get a change of pace. A druid can alternately be very good at healing, tanking, dealing up-close melee damage, or dealing far-away nuking damage, filling the roles of a priest, warrior, rogue or mage -- all in one class!

While poking around the World of Warcraft LJ, I couldn't help but notice that the spammers are back at it again, and apparently using some of the old tactics that they used to use. Well, tactics that they used to use before they figured out how to script spamming hundreds of people in a split second from a level one character. For those of you who either don't remember them, or who aren't familiar, I thought it might be best to relay the information.

There are a couple of main tactics that they seem to have started employing since the new patch is squelching their ability to get to us. The first one involves random group or raid invites where the spammers invite a massive amount of people and just repeat the same text over and over in party or raid chat. While many people will not fall for this, these blind invites may prove problematic for those people who are using the LFG tool. The best suggestion I saw was to /who anyone who sends you an invitation to make sure that you aren't getting invites from level one characters.

Yesterday's forum debate asked, what is your "best reason for leaving a group?"

I personally think that leaving a group is a highly questionable and situational thing. If the group is a pickup group, then you may be giving yourself a bad name by not sticking it out until the end. Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule, and sometimes the actions of other party members warrant the immediate abandoning of the group.

Some of the reasons for leaving were quite entertaining:

When the hunter says, "I can't find my bow. Do you have it?" It's a good time to leave.
The elemental shaman says, "I'll pull," and proceeds to chain lightning.
When you hear over vent, "the police are here."

While the forum derailed almost immediately, there were still many posters who replied in the original spirit of the forum. Some of the more humorous replies were:

"I had diarrhea."
"My toes are cold."
"Wife Aggro."
"I'm finished here at work. Time to go home!"
Or, from Nathaera, "I was tired and needed to go to bed before I woke up with waffleface."

What's your best reason for leaving a group? Or, what have you ever kicked someone out of a group for?

Here is, as she says, an interesting "moral quandary" from jumpingjessflash. She was making her way through Maraudon (one of my favorite instances) with a few guildies, and the BoE epic Icemail Jerkin dropped. At first, she thought it was an upgrade for her Hunter, so rolled Need and took it she asked for Need, but then eventually won it with Greed (see note below). But on second thought, she didn't like only +5 Agility-- turns out it wasn't the Jerkin for her.

So she's left with a choice: wear it anyway, or auction it and risk suffering the wrath of her guildies.

I've been in (almost*) the same position, but (especially with guildies), if I'm not sure whether I'll use something or not, I'll usually let everyone else in the group know that it's iffy for me-- usually they'll let me take it anyway, to keep as a sidegrade or a piece of a different set. If I want to be really nice, I'll sometimes let them reroll on it if I decide I don't want it, and then send it away to the winner. Another option is to sell it, and then split the gold.

Of course, you could also go the other way and send it to an unguilded alt to sell it anonymously. That way, you get the cash and no one is the wiser. Like I said, usually I don't care, but I'll admit that sometimes I'm a stickler-- if someone happens to roll Need on a BoE that I think is a questionable call, I have in the past asked them to put it on so I can see them wearing it via /inspect (I haven't ever done that to guildies, but in a PUG everything is fair game as far as I'm concerned).

Still, I don't have a problem with selling a piece picked up accidentally, if someone thought it was a good piece and then had second thoughts. If you did that and then put it on the AH, no one would accuse you of being a ninja-- would they?

*Update: As a few people have pointed out (including the livejournal poster), it seems like I did misunderstand her original post. She wasn't ninja-ing at all-- she asked for Need, but eventually won it rolling greed. Her concern was that someone may have passed because she asked for Need, not because she rolled Need and then decided she didn't need it. Because she rolled greed and won it, the piece was hers.

Anyway, I still think the issue of second guessing something that you roll Need on is an interesting one. That's not what the original post was talking about, but it's what I am talking about in this story, and I think it's worth a discussion.

With so much 5-person content in Outland, I've been having a lot of discussion with my guildies as to the "perfect" group makeup. With 9 classes, there are tons of options available to anyone starting a group.

Tanks: Warrior, Bear Druid, or Paladin. Maybe a Warlock if you have an insane warlock in your guild (I'm looking at you, Turinok!)

Healers: Priests, Resto Shammies, Healadins, Druids. I'm personally a big fan of having as much healing as possible in a group. Fewer wipes = shorter runs = happier Paulie.

DPS: Pretty much everybody else.

I'm going to share with you what I think is my favorite 5-person group for the normal Outland instances. This group likely wouldn't work in Heroic instances, and it's been long enough that I've been out of Azeroth that I couldn't attest to the effectivesness of the group in the "old world." I look forward to your comments on it, and your comments about your own groups.

• Tank: Paladin
• Healer: Paladin
• DPS: Mage
• DPS: Enhancement Shaman
• DPS: Elemental Shaman

Strengths: Only 1 true squishy in the group, and 4 potential healers surrounding her. 2 blessings, 8 totems, arcane brilliance for more mana for everyone. As I play an alliance shaman, I still come off as shiny, new, and exotic to my guildies. With spell damage and crit buffs from me (the elementalist), and windfury and Strength of Earth from the enhancement shaman, there are benefits for everyone. With Blessing of Wisdom and Mana totems, mana regen is doing just fine.

Weaknesses: No rogue to pick locks on chests, no Priest for stamina buffs. I'll count on you lot to tell me further weaknesses.

What's your favorite 5-person group? Is your group best for Azeroth, Outland, or even Outland Heroic instances?

The following document was created to help Shaman, specifically Draenei Shaman, as they find themselves as the new class in the Alliance. It's also useful for those who are about to group with a Shaman (or two or three), to understand what role a shammy will play in your group or raid. Finally, it's definitely a good read for anyone who's just picking up the Shaman class, to give you a bit of a jump on your fellow players in knowing your place in groups and raids.

As with most of my shaman info, the credit here definitely goes to Skew, my leveling buddy who is now on his 3rd level 60 Shaman. He swore that if Shaman were ever given to the Alliance, he'd play one, and he has. His knowledge and support and love of the class have been instrumental in encouraging the same in me.

The bulk of the primer is posted after the break, so be sure to read and chime in with your thoughts on the role of a shaman.

We've talked quite a few times here about how to play the game well and how to get into good groups and guilds. But (and this is inspired by personal experience, trust me), sometimes things don't go so well. Sometimes, your warrior leaves halfway through the instance, or it's clear that your priest isn't interested in doing her job when she lets the tank die and says "srry watchn grays anatmy." Sometimes, you just want out. So here's five ways to do just that, ranked in order from "nicest and most helpful" to "harshest and least likely to get you invited back again".

5. Be honest. Sometimes people just have bad days. One way to gracefully exit a group after a wipe is to just make it clear: "one more wipe, and we're going to call the group off." That might be just what the players need to get their acts together. Be honest, share your concerns, answer questions or clarify things if necessary, and then when the hunter pulls aggro off the tank again, thank them for the group and move on.

4. Find a replacement. This one actually runs neck and neck with #5, but it's still a little harsher because you're leaving instead of sticking around and helping. Still, finding a replacement is an easy and fairly pain-free way to get out of a group that just isn't working out. Throw a few tells in LFG until you've nabbed someone, tell the group you're tagging out, and exit stage left.

3. Just disconnect. It happens. People lose their connections. If you're ever stuck in a bad group, pull the plug on your network cord for a few minutes, then log back on and play an alt for a while. For extra believability, combine with #2: jump back on the character after you notice your group is out of the instance and apologize for the freak thunderstorm that just rolled through.

2. Lie. Am I the only one that's done this? Just throw a quick "sry gtg mom's makin dinner" in the party channel (never mind that I'm a long way from living with my mother and that she doesn't make me dinner anymore), and boom you're out of the group without any questions. Do it too many times (or to someone you've spoken normally with before), and people on the server might start getting suspicious, but every once in a while it works like a charm. "Whoops guild is calling me, later" does wonders, as well.

1. Tell them off. Strangely enough, the harshest way to ditch a group looks very much like the nicest way, but with a lot more yelling, maybe a little cursing, and even some angry tells afterwards. If you've had enough and finally decided that yes, this might be the worst PUG you've ever been in, feel free to scream at the warrior to L2P NOOB, and tell the healer that you can't make water because you're a warlock, then "leave group" with gleeful abandon. Ok, it might get you put on some ignore lists, and do it enough and you'll get a reputation on the server, but trust me, after an hour and half wiping in a terrible PUG, a little yelling will make you feel much better.