Apologies to Paulo Coelho fans for borrowing his title, but we have two Alchemy-related questions to start us off today, in addition to questions on Blacksmithing, cinematics, and dailies:

Horizons asks...

Do the alchemy specializations in wrath still work the same way as they do now in BC? For example, will I still have a chance of getting 5 wrath potions even when I'm leveling starting at 375 such as Wrath Elixirs or Icy mana potions? And will transmute spec ever be fixed?

Yup, alchemy specializations work the exact same way in Wrath. As a potions master, I've already procced a few, but don't expect to see the Runic Mana or Runic Healing potion recipes until...I want to say it's 410 Alchemy. You'll skill up on the array of new elixirs like Elixir of Mighty Thoughts and Elixir of Mighty Agility until then, but do save mats for the new Alchemy trinkets that become available at (I think) 400, like Mighty Alchemist's Stone. We'll have more information soon on materials you'll start getting in Northrend that you'll want to set aside for crafting.

Like any other form of PvP, you either love dueling or you hate it. Dueling is a great way to learn how to maximize abilities and test combos and macros. There are very few established guidelines for how to appropriate ly duel. Borkovic of Caelestraz asked in the official forums if it is acceptable to heal in a duel. Fliara of Terenas stated that protocols vary depending on server and faction, and suggested that rules should be established beforehand.

The first response, by Mlcho of Kirin Tor who takes an "all's fair in love and Warcraft" approach, was met with considerable agreement throughout the thread:

Use everything in your power to produce a win. Who cares if you use a pot? Who cares if you bandage?
If they whine, it's because they weren't prepared.

Scattered Shots is temporarily subtitled "Scattered Thoughts" this week, as David goes off on a speculative tangent. Perhaps all this expansion leakage is causing a leak in his brain too, but hey, a little bit of intellectual pondering never hurt anyone, right? This column is for hunters, by the way -- but, yeah... you knew that.

After writing last week's article about hunter problems and predictions, I got to thinking about how hunters use mana, and reflecting on the question of whether hunters should be using mana or not. Hunters have many things in common with classes like rogues and warriors, such as doing physical damage, and yet they have much in common with mages and warlocks as well, such as being vulnerable to mana-draining abilities. This issue is vague enough that my observations here can only be considered personal opinions, and they won't be of interest if all you want from this column is a list of the greatest gear and talent builds. But for the speculative among us, there's lots to discuss here.

Insider Trader is your weekly inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

If you're an alchemist, you either love the discovery system – or you despise it and wish to blast it back to the depths of Developers' Hell (that's one of those rock-and-lava zones, right?). Implemented with The Burning Crusade expansion, the discovery system gives alchemists a small (err, very small ... ok, very, very small ... ok, infinitesimally small) chance of discovering a new recipe every time they make a potion, elixir or flask. Players seem split between considering it a creative new mechanic or an annoying contrivance and roadblock, but after several patches and adjustments, the system seems here to stay.

Let's jump right in with your most burning question: Just how small (err, very small ... ok, very, very small ... ok, infinitesimally small) actually are your chances for making a discovery? Pretty darn small. Prior to patch 2.1, the most commonly cited figure floating around was 0.01%. (Discoveries were disabled via hot-fix for a short time just before patch 2.1, reportedly to prevent an exploit in which alchemists who repeatedly tried to create potions with no bag space could make discoveries without actually creating a potion or using potion ingredients.)

In patch 2.1, Blizzard noted that discovery rates were increased "significantly," but nobody seems to have performed (or published) an extensive enough analysis to pinpoint an honest number. One popular guesstimate puts the current discovery rate at 0.1% -- but really, your guess is as good as any. (Cauldron discovery rates are on a different table and run much higher than the general rate. Players report making cauldron discoveries, estimated at about 30%, as frequently as every one to five batches.)

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

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.

I don't think I'd want to be in a room with these very angry druids... On the live realms at present druids cannot use consumables in forms -- the lack of useful things like health potions and healthstones is certainly an annoyance, but after playing a druid for a while you start getting used to the trend of shifting out of feral forms whenever you need to do anything important. However, on the beta realms Blizzard dangled a carrot: for a brief period of time, "certain consumables were flagged as usable in some forms, and that has since been reversed." Drysc claims this was a bug and a mistake -- but even after his comments, countless druids insist that he is uninformed and that the change can't be a bug, pointing at recent changes to the text of Thistle Tea (restores energy) and Rage Potions (restores rage) to include druids under their class restrictions. And while I admire so many druids for believing so whole-heartedly in the power of their dreams, I wonder how much hope there is for a change after it's been confirmed as a bug.

[Thanks, Atrius]

Well, maybe.  In response to a posted complaint about health and mana potions sharing a delay, Eyonix tells us that the mechanics of consumable items are currently being re-evaluated.  According to this explanation, he goal seems to be to categorize items based on their effects and then have cooldowns based on category.  This is an interesting change which would have repercussions on both PvP and PvE content - but we'll have to wait to see how these suggested changes show up in finalized form.