Arcane Brilliance: PvPing as a Fire Mage after 3.1

Each week Arcane Brilliance examines the magical majesty of Mages, and usually makes fun of the wimpy whininess of Warlocks. See that? That’s some crazy alliteration right there. Also, I’d like to call attention to the fact that Arcane Brilliance called Warlocks whiny. Oh, snap! Coming from a column about Mages, that has to burn, [...]

The OverAchiever: Glory of the Hero strikes back

HARROW: I know him. And I think he’s a psychotic lowlife.
MAL: And I think calling him that is an insult to the psychotic lowlife community.
– Firefly, “Shindig.”
Another OverAchiever, another Firefly quote. I wonder how much of the series we’ll manage to get through here before we finish off Glory of the Hero, because this is [...]

Shifting Perspectives: An Ulduar class preview, part 3-2

MIMIRON
Mimiron is…kind of complicated to describe. Suffice it to say that it’s a four-phase fight with different abilities to worry about on each phase. Short of writing a 3,000-word tract on Mimiron alone, I’m simply going to refer you here and here, and we’ll proceed under the assumption that you have a basic familiarity with [...]

Shifting Perspectives: An Ulduar class preview, part 3

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, as other people continue their march through Ulduar, I continue to ask myself if it wouldn’t be more cost-effective in the long run just to take my ailing graphics card out behind the woodshed and end its pathetic misery [...]

Arcane Brilliance: Okay, now I like spirit

Each week Arcane Brilliance glances around to make sure there are no Death Knights in the area, then daintily tiptoes out from cover long enough to throw together a column about Mages. Usually, this ends badly for Arcane Brilliance. Out of nowhere, a big purple rope-looking thingy wraps itself around Arcane Brilliance’s neck and drags [...]

The OverAchiever: Master of Arathi Basin

It’s the Arathi Basin Call to Arms holiday once again, and The OverAchiever is here to help guide you through the Master of Arathi Basin Achievement, which is required for the Battlemaster
meta-Achievement. You should be playing quite a bit of Arathi Basin
this weekend considering it’s one of the most fun and balanced
Battlegrounds, so why not [...]

The Light and How to Swing It: Raiding and the Retadin

I mentioned it the last time, but more than ever, it’s a good time to be a Paladin. We’re not perfect yet, and indeed the class needs a little more tweaking, but it’s incredibly playable right now and is a lot of fun. We’ve always had traditional roles of tanking and healing for Paladins, but [...]

Arcane Brilliance: Arcanapalooza

Each week Arcane Brilliance drops at a 100% rate from your computer screen. It can be equipped in any slot, and doesn’t bind to your character in any way, shape or form. It can be disenchanted into whatever you want, and sells to merchants for a million gold. It is of legendary quality. When equipped, [...]

Ready Check: Guide to Naxxramas (Sapphiron)

Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we’re heading to Sapphiron and Kel’Thuzad to visit a few old friends, complete Naxxramas, and wonder to ourselves why everyone on [...]

Spiritual Guidance: Easy pre-Naxx gear for Holy priests

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Eliah is filling in for Matt Low today. This week we’ll take a look at some easy gear to help get you started at 80.
Naxxramas and heroic dungeons are where a lot of the players are spending their time nowadays. [...]

Ready Check: Guide to Naxxramas

Ready Check is a weekly column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, ZA or Sunwell Plateau, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. This week, we unwisely decide to give the column to Allison “Oops, I forgot my frost resist” Robert. Not that you actually need [...]

Spiritual Guidance: 3.0.8 for Priests

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. Today Matticus looks at the upcoming 3.08 patch.
I thought we’d be getting the 3.0.8 patch [...]

The Light and How to Swing It: Shine on! A 2008 review

What a great year 2008 has been for Paladins. While 3.0 overhauled the game in general, the class was retooled throughout the year, particularly Retribution, and became one of the most fun classes to play. In fact, Paladin popularity, while never a problem, rose incredibly. Even as I mourn the decline of Warlocks, I shudder at all the Paladins [...]

Arcane Brilliance: The best and worst of 2008

Each year, Arcane Brilliance cooks up 52 columns about Mages, each one roasted at precisely the right temperature for precisely the right amount of time (usually a couple hours on Saturday morning over a soggy bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, to be honest). As we arrive at the 52nd week of 2008, Arcane Brilliance would [...]

Arcane Brilliance: Patch 3.0.8, or Blizzard’s love letter to Arcane Mages

Each week, Arcane Brilliance gains 5,000 reputation with the Kirin Tor by writing a column about Mages. That’s right, I said 5,000. Are you reading this, Kirin Tor? I’m declaring myself exalted. Give me my dagger already, you selfish jerks.
I may have mentioned this before, but I’m an Arcane Mage.
I wasn’t always. I spent my [...]

A Death Knight’s first dungeon: Dos and don’ts, part one

Since day one of Wrath of the Lich King, people have been rolling Death Knights. While many seem to be getting along just great, many others are in need of guidance.
This will be a two-part article, and will focus on the things that you will need to know when working with others in a dungeon [...]

Varian Wrynn hates the Horde

It really can’t be disputed at this point: Varian Wrynn is not fond of the Horde, at all. There will be no Jaina-style mash notes to Thrall coming from Varian any time soon.
If you saw the brief window of time before the launch of Wrath where Varian and his allies talked about the onslaught of [...]

Arcane Brilliance: A pre-Wrath Mage primer

Each week, Mages from across Azeroth unite under the banner of Arcane Brilliance. We discuss all things Mage-related, from ways to clean Arcane Powder out of your underwear to fun tricks to play on Warlocks involving portals and the whelp room in Blackrock Spire. We talk about the hazards of Blinking and share stories of [...]

Planning for the Hallow’s End title

A lot of folks found the article on planning for the Brewmaster title helpful, so we thought we’d put one together for the upcoming Hallow’s End holiday as well. Getting all of the sub-Achievements for the Hallowed Be Thy Name Achievement will reward the title “The Hallowed,” but frankly I think this one is going [...]

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