Our podcast was back on the air last Saturday, and we were happy to welcome two very talented bloggers to the mix: both Daniel "BigRedKitty" Howell and John "BigBearButt" Patricelli, authors of our BRK and Shifting Perspectives columns, respectively, were aboard to chat with us about whether the endgame is just too easy lately (or whether it's nice that some people who couldn't before are seeing instances and getting loot), the new boss in Karazhan, and how abruptly the zombie event ended. We also hit on Blizzard's almost-mistake with the class forums, and if we really deserved that three-day credit due to lag and queues lately.

We answered emails as well -- BRK gave some great AH tips for when to get rid of your primals and mats before Wrath, and BBB helped a listener out who was wondering if he should play a Druid or a Warlock to 80 first. And I got some good glyph hints and tips out of the guys in terms of what to put in those glyph slots for Hunters and Feral Druids. If you have a comment or question for the show, feel free to send it along to theshow at wowinsider dot com, and you might even hear it on next week's show.

Perhaps most exciting, we worked a lot last week to make sure the quality of the show was better, and I think for the most part it worked -- we didn't have a single disconnect during the chat, and you should find that the tinny voices in the recording are gone as well. It's not perfect yet, and there's more we want to add into the mix, but we're working on it. The iTunes feed is still on the fritz, but the RSS feed below works just fine for me and it should for you, too. Be sure to tune in next week at 3:30pm Eastern -- we do this live every Saturday, and it is a darn good time.

[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.
[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.

"Ghost wolf" is usually a term you associate with shamans, but now it might just become the keyword for the newest, rarest, most difficult to tame, and most visually unique hunter pet in the game. As the Mistress of Pets Mania's Arcania reports, some of the new Dustwallow Marsh content in Patch 2.3 involves some Grimtotem shamans who summon tamable ghost wolves. For most hunters, however, these ghost wolves will be impossible to tame, because a few seconds after they appear, they just die, regardless of how much damage they take. The only way to tame them involves using various items or abilities which can shorten the casting time of your "Tame Beast" spell down to a fraction of its original 20 seconds. Here's a list of what you might find useful, listed in approximate order of how important they are to your success:

• [Mystical Skyfire Diamond] -- This metagem can cut the time it takes to cast Tame Beast in half, and you can't tame this beast without it. You have to repeatedly cast various aspects until its special proc goes off.
• Heroism or Bloodlust -- The same ability with different names for Alliance and Horde shamans; having a friend in your party use this will further reduce your taming time by 30%. If your latency is good, this should make your taming just barely fast enough to succeed.
  
• Mind Control -- Bring a priest friend along too, and he or she willl be able to take control of one of the Grimtotem NPCs to summon the ghost wolf whenever you're ready.
• A handy macro -- To save time in getting your casting going, just type "/target grimtotem spirit guide;" on the first line of a macro, and "/cast tame beast" on the second. Then drag it to your action bar so you can hit it repeatedly just as you ask your priest friend to summon the wolf. [Thanks Grunde!]
• [Drums of Battle] -- It's also very helpful to either be a Leatherworker, or have one in your party who will use this for you just before you start your taming, in order to shave a few more moments off your taming time.
• Be a troll -- Trolls get a Berserking ability, which might just be the final little bit you need in order to cut down the taming time enough to snatch this ghostly wolf pet. A lot of non-trolls have succeeded in taming this pet, too, of course; but if you happen to be a troll, feel free to use this ability to make it a bit easier.
  

After all that, you need a macro or something to immediately target the wolf and start taming the very moment it appears. Then, you can pray for a few seconds and hope everything works. It may be very hard, but it has been done before -- though one person on Mania's site said that her new ghost pet died a second after she tamed it, possibly as a residual effect of its otherwise very limited lifespan. So if you want to try it, be patient, and don't get your hopes too high don't worry -- even if your pet dies, once it's tamed, it's yours. Just revive pet, and proceed. Oh, and get ready for an extremely long leveling grind to get it up from 30 to 70 (though it's soon to get a bit faster). Hunter alts passing through Dustwallow as you level up: Don't even dream about it.

[Update]: I've edited this post to include some of the other helpful information from commenters and other sources that came out after we originally published it. Be sure to check out our other resources on the Ghost Wolf pet, including a video showing the taming in action, a story about how Matthew Rossi helped his wife get one, and proof that the Grimtotem Sririt Guide will remain tamable in the future.