WoW Insider

Who's the Tank? is a classic bit of machinima. It's posted on YouTube by broncotv, but I'm not positive if that's the original author. If you know who the author was for sure, please mention it in the comments. They definitely deserve the kudos for this piece.

"Who's the Tank?" is obviously based off the old "Who's on First?" skit. Its fast-paced dialogue is launched from the confusion that happens when you use vague, unspecific terms for class roles. Given the newcomers to the game, I think it's as funny now as it ever has been.

The production values aren't through the roof, but are still more than adequate given that the movie's emphasis is on dialogue. I think it's worthwhile for everyone to see it at least once, since there's a lesson in the movie for all of us. Be specific when you're trying to communicate.

Thanks to Scott for the tip.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

Previously on Moviewatch ...

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Moviewatch

Here's a pro tip for you all this morning.

Don't level a profession right before a server restart.

I finally got around to creating a Death Knight yesterday, and after working through the starting zone I decided to stop off and level my herbalism a bit before heading to outland. I know the market for herbs is strong right now because of Inscriptions (which I'm also leveling), so that seemed like a good idea.

I was working my way through Elwynn Forest gathering up all the flowers I could. After I hit 75 herbalism I went back to train to the Journeyman level and pickup Apprentice Inscription. There was about 5 minutes left before the server restart, so I decided that I would sit there and mill some herbs and make some ink.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Inscription

And you thought your boss was bad. Vloeken, of <Exiles of Azeroth> on Kirin Tor, gets in some quality bootlicking and groveling time as he's knighted by the Lich King in Acheron Hold. Rest easy, Vloeken. In twenty-five levels you'll get to fulfill every downtrodden worker's dream: killing your boss and stealing all his ill-gotten gains from his corpse. (Note to my editors: I do not plan on raiding you anytime soon.)

Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!

Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word "Azeroth" in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing -- use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, "mounted mounts", or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Galleries

It took a long time, but I finally made it to 80. How have you been working on your Warlock in Northrend? Unlike some Warlocks, it took me quite a while to get into that leveling groove. The good news is, it looks like Nymh proved that SL/SL isn't quite dead yet. The Frenchman used a variation of the spec to grind mobs in Grizzly Hills. Of course, he had a pocket healer just to make it work, but at least we know we can level with it. In fact, Nymh said it would have taken him 40 hours with SL/SL instead of 26. That would've been slacking.

The good thing about slow leveling is that we can actually look at blue upgrades for our Warlocks. Taking the time to level means we can actually go out of my way to look for items that I can use all the way to 80 instead of getting to 80 in a head-spinning two days in my Level 70 gear. If you're one of those who still haven't hit 80 yet, here's a short guide to good blue upgrades while leveling up. You'll encounter a lot of blue cloth gear while leveling, so I've compiled gear according to key statistics, particularly Haste and Crit, which will be two of the more interesting features we'll look for in our gear. Today we'll take a look at Haste, one of the best raiding stats for us in the game.

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Filed under: Warlock, Items, Analysis / Opinion, (Warlock) Blood Pact

The Top Lists on the official World of Warcraft website are endlessly interesting and fascinating. The last time we looked at them was well before Wrath launched, so we decided to take a look again now that we've been in Northrend for awhile.

The first list I looked at was, of course, the Most Dangerous Creatures. What's more fun than seeing what's destroying your fellow players? Nothing. Nothing at all. It looks like Loken of Halls of Lightning is topping the charts right now, followed by Sapphiron of Naxxramas. I can see that. Loken can be pretty deadly, especially on Heroic. Most players will probably wipe to him at least once their first time seeing him, assuming they don't know the strategy ahead of time. Sapphiron is just plain painful.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King

Dalaran has been one of the most prominent nations in the Eastern Kingdoms since its founding, though it's actually quite small. A nation only thousands strong at its height has perhaps held more sway over world leaders in its time than any other nation, and has attracted the ire of some of the most powerful entities Azeroth has ever seen.

Dalaran, located in the heart of former Lordaeron territory, has been the center of Arcane knowledge since its creation, and could be considered the Humans' answer to Quel'Thalas, though the nation accepts Elves (and many others) in its ranks as well. Magic is Dalaran's lifeblood, and is even ruled through the strength and wisdom of its magi. Dalaran is a magocracy, a government ruled by a council of mages known as the Kirin Tor, elected by citizens of the nation. Their icon is the Violet Eye, with Violet being the motif used for the nation itself, and the color purple representing the Arcane as a whole in Warcraft (Arcane Missiles, Netherstorm).

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Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore, Wrath of the Lich King

Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.

The Feast of Winterveil is fast approaching. Along with the rest of the holiday fluff, the snowmen that loitered outside the banks in the capital cities are sure to make a return, only this time they will all be dancing with each other in Dalaran in an attempt to achieve A Frosty Shake.

With this craft, you can have your very own snowman friend. Guaranteed not melt under most conditions.

Here is what you will need:

• Sculpey Clay (white, black, red, orange, yellow, blue, brown)
  
• Pins
• Wire Cutters
  
• Ball Point Pen

Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions.

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Filed under: How-tos, World of WarCrafts

You will be unable to learn a new one. In a bug first noticed by new DK's wanting to craft an epic to bring to Northrend with them and later confirmed by other characters, if you go to Winterspring to pick up a weaponsmithing specialization the three NPC's do not give it to you. As a swordsmith myself, I'm not willing to unlearn my profession to test it out, it does seem very strongly corroborated at this point.

While this isn't a major issue to those of us at 80 as there are currently no top end weapons that require one of the three specializations, it not only prevents these leveling characters from making the epic weapons it could prevent a character who currently is an armorsmith from being able to trade specializations. It's certainly not the end of the world for most of us, just don't try and retrain until it's fixed, but it's got to be a bummer for the people who intended to have a fun new toy in Northrend and will instead be staring at a pile of mats they won't have any use for.

Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Bugs, Odds and ends, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King

Blizzard COO Paul Sams sat down with PC Retail magazine for the first time after Wrath's sales numbers have come out to talk about PC game sales in general and Blizzard's huge effect on them. First question, Sams says that no, PC gaming is not dead, and Blizzard isn't saving it. As long as people have PCs, he says, people will play games on them. If PC gaming was dead, Blizzard wouldn't be releasing Starcraft II and Diablo III -- as long as they make great games on PC, people will shell out the money to play them.

While he never does mention anything about their expectations for sales numbers (we know Wrath broke a number of records), he does reiterate what other Blizzard higherups have said: that they'll be making expansions as long as people are interested in playing them. And he says that the biggest challenge for Blizzard in the next few years will be to balance what they're doing -- they've never had more on their plate before, and they've already gotten a harsh lesson with the splitting of Starcraft II into three games. It'll be interesting to see if they can keep up the quality and popularity even while trying to work on three AAA PC titles (not to mention the unannounced MMO) at the same time.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Making money, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King

I have to thank you, other players on my realm. If it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't have reached 450 Skinning already. Yes, the garbage of dead mobs that you leave behind becomes my profit -- when you leave that worg corpse or the dead drakonid behind, I'm all too happy to run over, skin it, and clean up that little mess you've made, while sticking a little gold in my pocket as well. Matthew is right there with me -- he calls it poaching, though we're both referring not to stealing, but to simply skinning the leftover mobs of all those players before us.

Truth be told, I probably poached more than ever down in the mines of Netherwing Ledge -- there were always players killing down there, and what they didn't skin, I did, both for the quest skins and for my own Knothide. But in the expansion, things are even better -- everywhere I go, there are fields of leftover mobs, and even when someone is able to kill a mob before I get there, I hover over them to pick up the skin afterwards.

Matthew has put together a list of all the great places to pick up extra skins -- I'll agree that Coldarra is full of poaching options right now, as is Kamagua on the other side of the continent. Grizzly Hills, also, is not only full of creatures to skin, but lots of leftover corpses as people quest across the zone (though odds are that if you keep up on skinning, you'll be 450 by then anyway). Think of it as a service -- we're the garbagemen of the realms, cleaning up your kills so the next can spawn and the circle of loot can go on.

Filed under: Skinning, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Leveling, Making money, Wrath of the Lich King