Here's another cool tool from our buddy Boubouille over at MMO Champion-- he's put together a little viewing room of all the hottest armor in the World of Warcraft.

There's nothing really new here-- we've seen all of this armor before, and it's all currently available in the game. But in case you wanted to check out how hot that Cyclone set is (and it is hot) or see where the pieces drop, or check the prices and stats of that PvP gear you're hoping for, this is a great little tool to do it with.

And Bou's still planning on updating it some more-- as he says, it's a little strange to see a Human wearing the Shaman and Hunter sets, so he's eventually planning on putting in support for all the races. But if you wanted to get a good upclose look at the armor set you've been drooling over, here it is.

If you've been to a few raids, there's no question that you've heard some interesting theories about loot distribution. The drops are determined by the precise time (to the second!) that the first player zones into the instance. Or perhaps the drops are determined by the class of the group leader. Or maybe by the first letter of the group leader's name. Does the current phase of the moon have something to do with it? Perhaps it's a little of all these things!

Trust me, I've heard every theory that's tried to make sense of what Blizzard constantly assures us are completely random loot drops. However, EU forum-goer Rooted came across a post by Blizzard employee Issuntril which stated:

There are many other variables which effect which items are going to drop. I'm afraid this is information not intended for the community however, and is not something I can comment further on.

Other variables, you say? So... loot isn't random? The conspiracy theorists were right all along?!

We've looked at a couple of the Tier 2 look-a-like sets in the past (the Green Wrath and Purple Judgement sets for those keeping score at home) and I felt it was time to continue. Maybe it's just me, but I really like when my armor set LOOKS complete. My shammy is currently striding about Shattrath in his Tidefury set, and I've had quite a few nice comments on the character's overall look.

So, if you're as strangely obsessed with completing a look as I am, I hope you'll find these articles on non-set sets appealing. If you prefer gear with the best stats over looks, you may not be getting that here.

This time around, I'm looking at a Shaman healing set, which happens to mimic the look of the Ten Storms tier 2 set. The graphics really don't do it justice, as you'll actually get little bolts of lightning playing around the shoulders and head when you put this gear on. As everything in the set has a slightly nautical naming convention, and the colors give off a deep-sea kinda vibe, I am now dubbing this set "Typhoon". Feel free to spread that around, folks.

An interesting forum topic has popped up on the World of Warcraft general forum today. It reflects on the amount of time we spend trying to gain one or two specific pieces of loot, only to have the gods of random drop-rates look unfavorably down upon us.

It is a vicious cycle of farming that has eaten away at hours upon hours of our lives, but we still do it. We still go after that one elusive item that taunts us from the virtual nether. "I have a 25% drop rate, but you can run this place a hundred times and never see me! Mwahahaha!..."

Players are recalling their 50+ runs for class chest from Upper Blackrock Spire, or their class helm from Scholomance. Mindtap Talisman seems to be a recurring theme, as well as the Tidal Charm. My worst experience was on my 67th run through UBRS for my Lightforge Shoulders from The Beast. They finally dropped, everyone congratulated me, and then the fury warrior rolled need. Ah well, water under the bridge as they say, especially since in my first Botanica run, I received the Spaulders of the Righteous.

We've talked about your goals for the expansion before, but what are you goals for before the expansion? I'd imagine that with the changes, lots of people have their sights set on getting some (or lots) of the PVP gear before Burning Crusade gets installed (and it all becomes outdated-- HA!). Personally, I'm still aiming to get my Rogue to 60-- currently, he's stuck at 49 because I really love that 40-49 PVP bracket, but I think he'll make it the last ten levels before January. And my guild is about to start BWL, so I wouldn't mind seeing us down Nef with all that new PVP gear before the Dark Portal opens up.

So what are you racing to finish? Theantipoet has some pretty good goals over on LJ, including soloing the Princess in Mara, and 8/8 Tier 2 (I'd like to get 8/8 of a set on my Shammy, but considering my luck, I'm not holding my breath). Let's hear what you're aiming to complete before you put the BC disk in.

No, I didn't come up with the clever Domino's Pizza analogy, but in the latest Weekly WoW over at Video Game Generation, they claim that the possibility of a pick-up group successfully completing a 45-minute Strat run is about as guaranteed as that old pizza gimmick that went the way of the dodo.

The focus this time is on the Dungeon 2 armor sets, the problems with them, and basically the lack of fitting items for the casual endgamer. I'm probably more on the casual side of the player fence myself (at least compared to some), and as I'm just entering the endgame again with my latest character, I have to say I have been a bit frustrated at the sheer amount of grinding & raiding that I will have to endure to procure the gear that I've been eying. Then again, I don't expect Blizzard to just hand it to me, either...

In any case, there are a lot of good points raised in the article, so check it out...