I'm a rather avid raider, putting in a solid 20 hours a week on my Warrior. One of the major things about the time spent raiding is that it can be very precious. There is only so much time that 24 other people, plus appropriate class substitutions, can be available each week. It's critical that the time spent raiding is used well.

Unfortunately, using raiding time well is about as much of a challenge as is downing Illidan. In preparation for this article, I've spent the past three weeks keeping track of the down time in raids. We raid Sunday through Thursday nights, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. We experience a downtime of about 51 minutes for each raid, which is about 20% of the time. Down time is defined as the time that my character is standing still, not attacking, not moving, and not being MDed to.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not really sure.

Tip #1: Chain pulling

Personally, I do my best at the main tank to chain pull and push the trash through as fast as possible. This works out 99% of the time, however the 1% of the time it doesn't work out can grind the raid to a halt. Case and point: The trash to Supremus isn't too bad, and is a lot of packs where the MT, OT, and Pally tank each have some mobs to tank. There are also some ranged dragons that the Warlocks tank. These pulls can go very fast, and are very predictable. Pulling slowly we can do this in about 40 minutes, while chain pulling each group, we can push through in 15.

Tip #2: Fully self buffed, all the time

It doesn't take much to buff yourself. Every class has some buff they can apply to themselves, be it food buffs, spell buffs, or shouts. The key here is that you can find a minute or two to always buff at least yourself, if not others. Although, it might not always be possible to buff others as you're going along - and that's okay with most raid leaders for trash pulls.

I'd like to take a break from the hunter leveling goodness we've had the last few weeks in Scattered Shots to take a look at where hunters stand as a class in Arena PvP, and where we might be going in the future. Blizzard developer Kalgan's measurement of how the different classes are faring in the Arena got me thinking quite a bit about the state of hunters -- currently functioning at the lowest place with 50% or less representation in the three Arena types at high rating brackets, followed by mages and shamans, in the 2vs2 Arena especially.

What in the world is causing such a huge discrepancy between hunters and other classes when it comes to high-rating arena representation? When I play in Arenas and Battlegrounds, I don't feel like my class is somehow deficient or underpowered. My team's Arena rating is average -- we're not the best, but not the worst either. When I get beaten, I usually feel like the other team actually played better (or outgeared us, at least), so it's rather hard to see what's so messed up about hunters.

The most obvious issue I can think might be the issue is that of Line of Sight. Hunters obviously have a rough time shooting at things behind sort of obstacle. In battlegrounds there are more wide open spaces, so it seems less of an issue there, but in Arenas it can get fairly annoying. Classes like warlocks and shadowpriests can just put a damage-over-time spell on you, and then hide behind a pillar, while druids can move freely around obstacles to give them plenty of time to heal themselves between your attacks. Warriors and other melee classes can hide for a bit, then get in so close that you can't use your best ranged abilities on them for a few seconds until you can somehow get away.

Recently we created guides to help WoW Rookies understand how instances work and their role in them. Author Palintheist over on Livejournal has done the same with a funny, informative guide to running instances for players new to World of Warcraft. Some highlights:

"Mob: No need to ask the Godfather for forgiveness - a mob is a word for monster. Also known as creep."

"Healer: Who's keeping the tank from floor-hugging? Your powerful, puissant, never-to-be-offended healer. Seriously. Several classes can play this role and they all find it pretty much a thankless task, as people are very quick to blame healers when people die [but you won't, because you know better!]."

"Pat: Don't look around for someone androgynous - someone is warning you that a patrolling mob is coming closer and will probably [if it hasn't already] attack you. "

"Buff: Keep your clothes on. Really. "

"Inc: If there's no time to type "pat" or "adds", sometimes you'll see "inc", for "incoming". [Why is inc faster than pat? No idea.]"

Go take a look, it's not just written with its tongue in its cheek, it's actually pretty informative for new players to the game. Save time the next newbie run and just send them the URL.

Yeah yeah, the full patch notes are a good read, but why read those when we can pull the good stuff out? Here's what we thought was big in patch 2.4:

• Sunwell is inc! Also, the island where the Shattered Sun Offensive is fighting is called the Isle of Quel'Danas.
• There's a Keeper of Time to take players in Shattrath to the Caverns of Time
• Spell haste changes are in, as well as item casting changes (items that cast spells will do so at player's level now), and more intellect will now regenerate more mana per Spirit
• Find Treasure doesn't deactivate on death anymore, but there's nothing about Find Herbs, Find Minerals, or any of the other tracking spells
• Fear Ward usable in Shadowform (meh, say shadow priests)
• A whole host of spells that weren't penalized at lower ranks are now penalized
• Earth Shield nerfed-- mana cost lowered and charges dropped from 10 to 6, and Shamans get a default UI totem timer
• Ritual of Summoning can bring players into instances now
• Warrior Endless Rage is fixed, and now you can't change into a stance that you're currently in
• Honor instantly calculated, since there are no diminishing returns
• Warmasters and marshals in AV now share each other's health, and Horde starting point has been moved south
• WSG changes: when both flags are held for 10 mins, flag carriers take more damage, increases over time. Also, flag carriers can be tracked after holding flag for 45 seconds.
• Enchanting: Void Crystal to Large Prismatic, and Defense +15 to chest
• Rocket Boots nerf is in there-- players carrying flag in WSG will drop it when boots are activated
• 25man bosses drop more cash and an extra set token
• No attunments for Hyjal and Black Temple any more (players who've completed Attunement will get "Hand of Ad'al" title)
• Vashj and Kael can be fought without finishing all other bosses in the instance
• Undead and Mechanical can bleed, elementals not always immune to poison and disease effects (though nature-based elementals will be immune to nature poisons and effects)
• Level 70 superior quality PvP items from rep vendors
• Weightstones and sharpening stones now work while shapeshifted
• Lots of UI changes, including new options screen

Whew! Even as a summary, that's a lot of notes. Players aren't exactly excited about the patch on the forums, but odds are there's something pretty big that affects you in there.

Every Thursday, Well Fed Buff will be serving up the tastiest dishes to boost your HP and stats, just in time for your weekend gaming.

Hello hungry readers! Welcome to this week's installment of Well Fed Buff. When the weather gets cold nothing hits the spot like Dragonbreath Chili. This recipe can be acquired from vendors in Dustwallow Marsh or Desolace and requires 200 skill in Cooking to create. For ten minutes after eating, the consumer occasionally belches a cone of flame. The effects of the real version are much longer lasting, but just as deadly.

Patience is the key to the perfect pot of Dragonbreath Chili. Well Sriracha is actually the key, but patience comes in handy. Be prepared to wait at least three hours for this recipe to come to fruition, and keep in mind that it is even better the next day. These instructions makes enough chili to feed a horde of Horde (or Alliance). and are guaranteed to warm you from the outside in... and then some.

Resto4Now's Draezele and Mendax.org's WyldKard go back and forth on how to fix shamans. WyldKard focuses especially on totem mobility. It's a subject near and dear to my heart as someone with both a resto and enhancement shaman kicking around. How much fixing do we need, really?

I personally don't think we need as much love as Draezele suggests (I definitely think we need some, but her suggestions on revamping talents seem more than I'd think we needed, you may disagree of course), but I'm all sorts of in support of some sort of totem mobility or duration fix. Frankly, WyldKard's idea that we be able to pull up and reposition our totems appeals greatly to me. Failing that, I'd like a duration fix of some sort so I don't have to drop them every two minutes during a boss fight that can last up to ten. It's not just annoying, it can actually kill people I'm supposed to be healing if I'm locked out with global cooldowns trying to reapply my buffs to the party via totems. The whole reason to bring a shaman to raids is to get those buffs, it shouldn't be this fundamentally a hassle.

Take a look and see what you think.

Seeing as food has been on our minds this week at WoW Insider (with both the new Well Fed Buff column and Maureen's World of WarCrafts), I figured we'd give the foodies in the audience something to pine for this week. Expect more big pointy sharp things only available from late game raids next week.

Name: Delicious Chocolate Cake
Type: Food
Damage/Speed: N/A
Abilities:

• "If you spend at least 5 seconds eating, you will become Very Happy for 1 hour." What does Very Happy mean? Nothing, except that you get a buff that lasts for one hour.
• Does the buff do anything? Nope, nothing percievable. Does it at least kick off a negative debuff? Nope. Does it replace one of your current buffs? Nope. Is there any reason to eat this cake at all, besides that it gives you a useless Happy buff? Of course! It's cake!
• If you are the kind of person who leaves comments on a Phat Loot post complaining that a useless piece of food is not Phat Loot, go eat some of this cake. Hopefully it will make you Very Happy, and then we'll all be that way.

How to Get It: This recipe is actually new in 2.3-- it's a reward hidden in the food given to you by the cooking daily quests in Shattrath. When you finish the daily quest, you get Crates of Meat and Barrels of Fish, and this recipe, which is BoP, will be randomly hidden in one of those from time to time.

And despite coming from a high level daily quest, the cake is actually only level 1, so it's pretty easy to make: you need your Simple Flour (8), 4 Ice Cold Milk, some Mild Spices (4), 8 Small Eggs, a whole Flask of Port (yowza! you can get those from most of the bartenders in the major cities), and 3 Mageroyal. Which means that there is apparently no chocolate in this cake at all, and that means that, even though I shudder to say it (as much as I like Portal, I think the meme died about a week ago), the cake is indeed a lie.

But it is tasty. And who doesn't want a Very Happy buff?

Getting Rid of It: A vendor will give you 1s 25c for it, but a better option would be to just go around passing them out, or give them away to guildies as birthday presents for the next year. I've heard rumors that people don't know what they are, and that they've been selling on the AH for hundreds of gold, but if you were unlucky enough to sell out for one of these, just remember that there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake.

Yesterday, a player posted on the official WoW forum asking about the current state of the Doomguard and Infernal Warlock pets. It's a hassle to learn how to summon these demons, requiring the completion of multiple quests for each, and summoning them requires reagents, including the death of one of your party members (for the Doomguard at least). With all these requirements, one would think the pets would be worthwhile, but their cost and unpredictability (they have to be continually enslaved, which is on diminishing returns and may break at any time) make them worse than the normal Warlock pets.

Eyonix answers the original poster, saying that the devs are concerned about these pets and will buff them sometime in the future. That "future" may be the next expansion, but this is a better answer than the class has received on the subject in a long time. To the best of my knowledge, previous answers were something along the line of "These spells may have situational uses and will not be changed from that role". Now there is once again hope that these cool and iconic (watch the original WoW cinematic, if you don't recall) Warlock pets will become more than simple novelties.

Earlier today, Salthem posted updated patch notes on the European WoW site and Teza has reposted them at World of Raids with all the changes highlighted. From my quick scan of the list, it appears that resto druids are getting nerfed, mages' Mana Emeralds as well as rogues' Hemorrhage ability are receiving some rather neutral changes, and rogues' Shadowstep is getting buffed.

From my understanding, tree druids are currently able to maintain a high level of healing per second through careful upkeep of Lifebloom on their targets. This is due to the fact that a druid can pop all his trinkets to maximize his +healing and then cast the spell. As long as he keeps refreshing the HoT before it "blooms", it will maintain that maximized level of +healing, thus making for a very efficient and powerful spell. As I understand the new patch notes, this will no longer be possible since the incoming Lifeblooms will overwrite the +healing value of the previous ones. I don't play a tree druid, but I'm sure some of my guild mates will be ranting over this in tonight's raid.

Hello, saga of Shamans in patch 2.3! We haven't had a post about you in, oh...a day or so. Time for an update, don't you think? And this one ought to be pleasant to most of you readers. But first, a recap.

1. Blizz promised buffs for Elemental DPS in 2.3.
2. It turned out to be a nerf on the PTR (for anyone over +200 damage).
   
3. Shamans got very upset.
4. ???
5. Blizz realized they'd made a mistake, and buffed Elemental DPS!

Yes, it's true. Eyonix has recently made a post in the Shaman forum promising an imminent hotfix to the PTR, to the tune of a 5-6% increase to the damage coefficients of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. According to the whelp, this works out as follows:

• <1100 +damage: slight buff to DPS (as compared to 2.2)
• 1100-1200: no change
• >1220: slight nerf

Well, it hardly seems to be the buffs that were promised back in the day, but hey, it beats a nerf! How about it, Shaman players? Are you pleased now, and ready to go back to your regular totem-dropping lives?

Here's some more good news today for mages. On top of Hypothermia going back from 45s to 30s, Kalgan has stopped by the mage forums to promise some additional buffs in person. These probably won't make it into 2.3, but he says they'll go in "in the near future." My guess is that translates to 2.3.X or 2.4. It looks like Blizz is basically in a "buff" swing recently, which fits in with their general design philosophy -- start underpowered, and then build the classes up as necessary. Buffs make far fewer people angry than nerfs do.

What are these buffs, you ask? Trainable Ice Block, and "to-be-finalized improvements to mana issues in longer fights" (source). We've been seeing more and more skills moved to trainable as the game has matured, from Evocate to Holy Fire to Improved Sap. Ice Block mades good sense to add to that list. Kalgan's reasoning is that IB is something they want to be able to design PvE encounters around all mages having, and that it helps open up the range of viable specs for PvP. As far as the "mana issues" improvements, it's hard to comment too much on that without any details, but efficiency is good. Any speculation on what they're going to do there?

Oh, and in a later post, Kalgan lets slip that mana gems are also slated to be buffed. Let that be a sort of after-dinner mint of buffage.

Earlier today, the up-close-and-personal Enhancement shammies got some boosts, and Elemental improvements were promised for patch 2.3 as well. And here they are! Eyonix delivers:

• Being a level 70 elemental shaman myself, I'm particularly excited as currently I feel the class is in good shape, but in need of a few minor tweaks. I'd say the one I'm most pleased with (especially after seeing the results of change on an internal build) concerns lightning overload. When 2.3 launches it will have a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to occur, though the additional spell will cause half damage, still ending up being a noticeable increase to overall dps
• Also, the additional spell will cause no threat whatsoever.
• [Regarding] the mana spring totem. Previously it restored 12 mana every two seconds at maximum rank, for your entire party. As of patch 2.3 it will restore your groups mana by 20 every 2 seconds.
  This equates to 50mana/5 for each member of your party without the talent points in restorative totems.
• The second change impacts water shield. This spell will no longer cost any mana to cast (which also means the five-[second] rule will not be affected) and the mana granted per globe has been substantially increased. Additionally, the spells duration has been shortened to one minute and at the end of its duration it now grants mana for any remaining globes.
• Elemental Focus will now reduce the mana cost of the next two damage spells by 40%. Now before theorycrafting begins, this is actually a buff except in cases where your chance to land a critical strike with spells was extremely high.
• Frostshock will no longer be subject to diminishing returns which I'm sure players will find useful, especially in pvp.
• Lastly, we are making a change that will cause a reduction in dps, however, the elemental shamans overall dps will still be improving with the change that we're making to lightning overload. We're reducing the casting time of Lightning Bolt to 2.5 seconds (from 3 seconds), and chain lightning to 2.0 (from 2.5 seconds), causing benefit from spell damage to be reduced appropriately. The mana cost for these two spells are being lowered as well.
  The lightning mastery talent's cast time will now be reduced by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 seconds. So, casting time for the spells ends up being the same as before. (All of the above from this Eyonix post)
• We're increasing the additional mana granted by water shield for both the Tidefury Raiment and the Totem of the Thunderhead. (Eyonix)

Now that is what I call a lot of changes. Well, my LB-loving friends, are you happy with this stuff? Not all of these changes are Elemental-specific, of course; the mana spring totem change, for instance, helps everyone, Shaman or not. How do you think these changes will interact to help or hurt Elemental shamans?

In other Shaman news, Eyonix has said basically "no cc 4 u", at least until Wrath:

• If we give shaman a cc abillity it won't be until Wrath of the Lich King.

Dolarhyde of the Boulderfist server posed a simple, but interesting question on the official forums today: what one buff would you give your class?

The reason I almost always choose druids in the multitude of MMORPGs I play has less to do with RP and more to do with versatility. I love hybrid classes, especially the more offensive ones that can still heal (hello shammie alt!) So when it comes to what's missing from my class, it's hard for me to put my finger on it. Hybrids tend to do so well, but to give them another major ability could water down other classes.

Many fellow druids believe this class is missing some serious crowd control ability, though we have it in limited forms through Cyclone, Entangling Roots, Force of Nature (aka treant pets), Hibernate (beast and dragonkin only) and off tanking in bear form. I'm not sure we need a Priest level AE fear or a Rogue sap. Other players have called for more aggro tools for druids, especially Balance druids. But the class is built to survive a beating and isn't as squishy as those with better aggro management abilities.

I'm stumped on what buff I would give druids, but I'm interested to see what our readers would give their own class. Let's hear it.

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Now that the furor over patch 2.1 changes to elixirs has died down, most raiders have settled into a routine with their favorite fix of consumables. A few reluctant players are still debating whether pots, flasks and elixirs should be expected for raiding at all, but most have come to accept consumables as part of the raiding experience. Flasking up and "chugging" pots every two minutes is widely accepted as common practice when learning new encounters: healers chug mana pots, tanks chug for armor, DPS casters chug destruction pots, melees chug haste ... Once content is on farm status, most raiders ease off the throttle and drop pot-chugging and routine flasking.

Raid consumables lists used to resemble literary epics. The sheer variety of possibilities and combinations was overwhelming. Players felt whiplashed by the increasing speed of the treadmill and accelerating investments of farming and gold, as growing awareness of these performance-enhancers drove expectations higher at all levels of raiding. Patch 2.1 changed all that, standardizing the types and timers for elixirs and limiting the number of performance-enhancers that could be used at any given time. This simplified the possibilities for frazzled raiders who were lugging bags stuffed with a virtual cornucopia of consumables.

Still, for new raiders, figuring out what to bring and what to use can be a daunting task. A huge proportion of these boosters are player-made items from various professions. Insider Trader is here to help you comb through the possibilities, bringing you an outline of the basic principles of raiding consumables plus links to an exhaustive list of performance-boosters. Read on for the most dope performance-dopers for raiders.