Now, I know last week I said in a comment that I am trying something entirely new this week. However, that plan sort of backfired when I found out my scanner is no longer in the realm of the living, and those Spirit Healers apparently don't speak binary.
I've Wanted to put this comic up since I saw the movie. If you have not seen it, you might not get this unless you watched the movie previews, or have someone explain it.
I don't get to play World of Warcraft very often anymore. Real life comes up and gets in the way all the time, and then you have to sit back and listen to your friends talk about how much fun they've had in the past few weeks you've been away. So you sit, and you wait, and eventually you get time to log on again, run around, and have a jolly old time. Especially when you get to hang out with good people.
I've never had Ventrilo or any other sort of microphone attachment that would broadcast my voice across the Internet. For one point, I'd have to break down and buy a headset of some sort. Knowing me I'd likely break it within a week, so I'd actually need to buy two, but that's alright. The other reason is, I'm not entirely sure I want the ability to hear other absent minded people like me babbling to themselves, forgetting the rest of the world can hear them.
I hope everyone who celebrated this weekend had a save and fun filled holiday.
This comic strip was actually brought about by a comment I saw made by a Blue, which one I can't recall as I read the thread it was made in two weeks ago and bookmarked the wrong one. The comment was more or less along the lines of if you want a good thing, don't rush it, and was made in response to people demanding new BGs.
The comic is a result of my being laid up with some sort of crazy bug all last week, and certain medications making me hallucinate. Fun, really, if it weren't for the fact I kept waking up thinking my scanner was talking to me.
See you next week!
Gallery: Barrens Chat
Barrens Chat is a weekly installment of comic insanity from around Azeroth. Barrens Chat is not edible, and swallowing may cause delirium in small children and the elderly. Barrens Chat is not intended to be used as a flotation device, so please use caution around water. If you are feeling like licking your Draenei friend might be a good idea, I'd suggest against it. Instead, come back next week for another comic.
What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July today than to sit outside with some good beer, some tasty BBQ, and a whole lot of cheaply made fireworks? Brom and Seku on the Llane server were kind enough to send us this picture they took of a firework they found at a store in Pittsburg, Kansas -- apparently the "Behemoth," made by the Consumer Fireworks company in China, not only "emits showers of sparks," it also blows copyright law completely out of the water. Very nice.
One more gigantic pic of the Behemoth and its Warcraft III orc cover art after the jump. If you do use fireworks (or break copyright law) today, do it safely, and have a great holiday!
Today is the 50th post of Totem Talk on this site. I haven't written all of them... I started out as the warrior columnist for WoW Insider (by the way, if you're wondering, yes the warrior column will be tomorrow, sorry for juggling everything) and only took over the shaman column because Robin Torres, our predecessor and the first person to give you a shaman column here, was unable to continue writing it. I snapped up the chance to take over, because the shaman class was the one that effectively saved World of Warcraft for me. (I promise, next week we'll continue our gear guide series, but this week I'm inclined to wax philosophical about shamans.)
It's not a secret that I play a lot of warriors, and tank a lot. For the longest time, my pattern was fairly simple: start a warrior alt to play with friends on a new server, blaze to 60 ahead of them as I am an expert on leveling a warrior, start getting bored waiting for them to catch up and end up going back to my original warrior because I have a reputation as a tank and get recruited to do it. I would tank for a while (in one notorious case, 'a while' was 'from Molten Core to Naxxramas) while waiting for my RL friends to catch up to max level so we could start running instances.
It got old. I enjoyed the tanking, but I hated the waiting. I'm not terribly patient. In one notorious instance I actually rolled another warrior, caught him up to them as they leveled, then leveled him to 60, meaning that I had two max level warriors rotting on Kilrogg. It got ridiculous. During all this time, I finally met folks who were playing horde side, and started a new toon to hang out with them on Malfurion. Yes, it was a warrior.
But a funny thing happened on the way to 60 on him. On a whim, I started an orc shaman. And I hated it.
First of all, a huge thank you to Mike Schramm last week for covering my rear with his hunter comic. And it wasn't so much "kindly accepted" as it was "oh thank goodness, I'm saved" for the record, Mike. Thank you Turpster, also!
Now, back to business (or tomfoolery, I haven't decided which it actually is yet). This week brings us a comic that actually took place in the Barrens. Crossroads to be specific. So once again for those of you who complained commented that the comics should take place in the barrens, your wish has been granted.
More politicians are coming out of the WoW closet. Jeanne Stevens is a WoW player -- with a 70 Orc Hunter, a 58 Troll Shaman, and a 53 Blood Elf Rogue -- and a Republican running for the Connecticut state legislature. And she freely admits it in a new interview with Wandering Goblin, as covered by our sister site, Massively. Her hunter is balanced between marksman and survival, her shaman specs elemental (close to my heart!), and her rogue climbs the assassination talent tree. Will she be able to master the beasts in her political race? (Okay, you go ahead and insert your own shaman or rogue wordplay here.) Maybe she'll hold some in-game speeches or rallies. She could hold forth on top of Orgrimmar's bank, or maybe lead a raid to Stormwind as a metaphor.
Is it surprising that a Republican chooses Horde? I think you could make a case for either faction going with either political party. Personally, I love to see that she's middle-aged and a woman, which defies Blizzard's assumptions about the majority of WoW gamers. She also chooses pirates over ninjas. I'm not sure there's a political comment there, but I'm sure someone will show me the light.
The latest build of patch 2.4 on the PTR bucks the trend of the ever-shrinking orc and draenei shoulder pads by treating us to monstrously large weaponry. Truly, this is a sign that Blizzard loves us and wants us to be happy. There is not a thing in this world that comes to mind when I try to think of something that makes me squeal in delight as much as a gigantic sword swirling through the air, or my enemies slamming into my massive shield and bouncing off uselessly.
In all seriousness, this is probably a bug and some of it actually looks pretty ridiculous. When I first noticed it, I almost wondered if my paladin had actually shrunk because I had long ago adjusted to her Crest of the Sha'tar being amusingly small. It would be nice to have a shield that wasn't tiny like a bean, but an increase in size on everything in the game just doesn't seem intentional.
To give you a better idea of how much of an increase I mean, I've included a side by side comparison after the jump. I apologize for the difference in quality between the shots, I've forgotten how to change the format WoW screens are saved in. Hooray!
Video game fan art is common, but not many people film it. G. Papafigos spent a whopping three hours painting an orc from WoW and then sped it up for YouTube. If you're into the art scene, there's a whole slew of recorded fan art online.
While this is certainly not machinima, I like it because it's different. It's incredible to see what someone can do with a few hours and a tablet. What I find more amazing is that this guy didn't even use layers!
When an enterprising goblin miner, Patchie, accidentally releases an orc that has been frozen for years, they have a lot of catching up to do. Starting at patch 1.05, they take us on a storytelling journey, seen through the eyes of the major characters. Along the way, there are epic battles, potion selling, and a friend using his fortune to open a ... zoo?
As Patchie and the orc arrive at their destination, with golden piggy in hand, the orc has an opportunity to meet his hero, Thrall. After becoming disillusioned and temporarily losing his way, he sets off to be a hero in his own right. However, everything is not as it seems!
The AFK PL@YERS, a Taiwanese machinima team, created The Patchie Chronicles to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of WoW launching in Taiwan. Most viewers will have to pay close attention, as it is narrated in Chinese, but subtitled in English.
In what must surely be the final build of the patch 2.3 PTR, which was pushed last night, few changes seem to have been made. Which makes sense, because they're only going to have a week to test it. As far as the good folks at World of Raids can make out, here's the list of changes in the latest build:
[Mage] Hypothermia changed from 45s back to 30s.
Human and Orc weapon racials changed from 1% crit to 5 expertise.
Expertise is a new weapon stat that reduces your opponents' chance to dodge or parry your attacks; 5 expertise grants 1.25% dodge/parry reduction. Expertise has replaced weapon skill elsewhere in the game (except on ranged weapons, which get +crit/+hit instead), so it makes sense to see it here, as these racials were in the form of weapon skill pre-2.3. And I assume the Hypothermia de-nerf can only be seen as a good thing. I've seen some quite upset mages around, and indeed, 30s already seemed perfectly long enough to me.
Since there were no updated patch notes for this build, it's always possible that there are additional changes that no-body's noticed yet. If so, please feel free to post them in the comments and I'll update the post.
This movie is the sequel to Rocket Boots, with improved stunts and multiple songs (including a Bill Cosby-esque Pokemon gag I always love)! It's kind of funny to watch the orc jump off of various ledges with his rocket boots and wonder where exactly he'll land -- as well as if he'll live through the landing.
When it's my own character, I find falling to be very suspenseful. Whenever I accidentally leap off Aldor spire, for example, my heart skips a beat and I hold my breath. I straighten up in my chair and and instinctively look for a parachute cloak or something something I can use to prevent my death, even though I know in my head that this character doesn't have any slow-fall items or spells. There have been times when, on an engineer alt, I was similarly tempted to jump off huge ledges just to see where I would end up; at the time I told myself that the prospect of having to retrieve my body from who-knows-where was just too painful -- but now I wonder if I just find falling a bit too scary, like one of those dreams where you fall and fall, sure that you're going to die, only to wake up just before you hit the ground.
First Orc males, then Draenei, and now Night Elves? It appears that Night Elf shoulders have shrunk (just a bit-- not nearly as dramatic a change as the Orc shoulders were) over on the PTRs. We talked about this on the WoW Insider show last week: what is up with Blizzard's code that changes like this are happening? What variables are they editing that makes the weird stuff like this happen?
At any rate, there is good news. Hortus says the issue is unintentional, and will be fixed in an upcoming PTR build. So your Night Elf will still be able to wear his broad shoulder pieces with pride.
This is an epic tale of love lost and honor forgotten as two star crossed lovers pine for what they once had while -- I'm just kidding. It's five minutes and forty-five seconds of a L70 Orc blowing unsuspecting Alliance toons into next week with his Rocket Launcher. Over and over and over. To operatic power-metal.
Ketsumei of Bleeding Hollow makes a pretty good point on the forums: we're killing off Horde heroes, and Alliance are getting a pass. Actually, the Horde heroes point isn't quite a valid one-- yes, we've taken down Kael'thas, Rend Blackhand, and eventually Zul'jin, but we've also killed off Emperor Thaurissian, the Architect of Stormwind (many, many times), and Mekgineer Thermaplugg, not to mention that eventually we'll be killing the number one figure in Alliance lore, Arthas himself. Oh, and some lady named Katrana Prestor, usually found sitting on the left hand of the throne in Stormwind, has been killed as well. But it's true that more instances, especially raid instances, are featuring the deaths of Horde races rather than Alliance races. Especially in the endgame, we're fighting Trolls, Orcs and Blood Elves, not Humans and Draenei.
So what's with the imbalance? This Horde-heavy enemies list is actually a very recent thing-- Scarlet Monastery is full of Humans, as are the Deadmines, and BRD is full of Dwarves. But as we've headed to Outland, the Burning Legion seems to have a thing for recruiting Blood Elves and Orcs, and Zul'Aman will bring about the death of many, many Trolls. Far many more Horde cries of death are being heard lately, and that's just racist.
There's only one thing for it-- as players suggest, we should be allowed to kill a corrupted Malfurion Stormrage in the Emerald Dream expansion. No arguing now-- let's say he's gone insane from fighting the Nightmare and he's got to be put down. We need an instance full of Night Elves to kill over and over again. Oh, and while we're at it, let's have Arthas bring Uther back as a Scourge, and kill him, too! And what's the King of Stormwind up to-- isn't time he died, too?
The latest build of 
In what must surely be the final build of the 
Ketsumei of Bleeding Hollow 
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