Man, what a crazy news day this has been, and the day’s not even over yet. Blizzard just rolled out a new PTR build, so we took a quick trip to the Patch 3.2 PTR and discovered a whole new mechanic that Blizzard hasn’t mentioned yet. It’s yet another change to how raiding works, and it’s pretty cool. We killed Venoxis in Zul’Gurub and, upon being saved to the instance, noticed that we now had the option to extend our raid lockout — that is, to make it last twice as long or until the next week’s lockout would end. This means that, if your casual guild is a scrappy bunch working on Ulduar, but you can only get to Mimiron each week before the lockout expires, you can extend your current lockout into the following week to get more practice on the bosses you don’t get to see as often. Now — ostensibly — once you’ve done what you need to do with your lockout, you can actually remove the raid lockout extension and use your current week’s lockout too. We haven’t gotten to try it yet, but it looks like the

Normally, this wouldn’t rate too high for us — lots of people have ideas about how to use World of Warcraft, and many of them never actually come about. But then again, this is in the Wall Street Journal of all places, so we’ll give it a look. If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably heard about what’s going on in Iran right now — there was an election, the “official” results given were judged as rigged by many involved, and the government seems to be cracking down on both news media and citizen journalism, as well as protesting citizens, to very sad results. How does World of Warcraft fit in to all of this? Andrew Lavallee of the WSJ’s Digits blog points to this report by Craig Labovitz, which talks about how Internet traffic has been filtered out of the country around the election. At the very end of his analysis, Labovitz points out that channels for videogames, including both Xbox Live and World of Warcraft, have shown very little government manipulation. That suggests that if the government in Iran does continue to shut

Blizzard has just released a set of major upcoming changes to the Paladin class, due to come about with Patch 3.2. There are some major changes that are wow goldgoing to not sit too well with folks, while making others quite happy. But with that said, it should be noted that all these changes might not make it through. A few of the key intended changes include: Removal of Seal of the Martyr / Seal of Blood Crusader Strike cooldown lowered from 6 seconds to 4 seconds Beacon of Light buffed significantly Illumination nerfed significantly Ardent Defender is getting an automatic Last Stand For additional information on the upcoming patch, check out WoW.com’s Guide to Patch 3.2. The complete announcement after the break. This post is being edited live. Please bear with us. The announcement from Eyonix reads: We have several big changes coming up for the paladin class in patch 3.2. The paladin class Q&A is still in progress, so rather than making you wait, we wanted to give you a preview of what we’re trying to do with all three paladin talent trees. We thought some

We’ve talked about the limits and benefits of totems before, but Shamans have pretty much agreed that, especially since totems are starting to see some shared usage with other classes’ spells, they could really use a revamp in terms of base mechanics. The main issue is simply mobility — totems are designed to be dropped and immobile, and that on its own starts them at a disadvantage wow goldwhen compared to buffs that are placed directly on players. There have been lots of ideas passed around about how to get out from under that limit — a “relay” totem that could spread buffs around, a mobile totem attached to the Shaman him/herself, or just a kind of totem pet that could be directed by the Shaman as needed. But Ghostcrawler just plain says no. In response to many issues with the totem mechanic, he chooses to focus on mobility, saying the fact that Shaman totems have limited range and must be placed in certain places is intrinsic to the way the class functions. He admits that totem mechanics are being examined (the main issue the OP has is totem

Vaneras has just released the details for the Isle of Conquest, the new battleground that will be appearing in Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade. You can read the complete details over on the official forums or check ‘em out after the break. There are some key things that everyone should be aware of: IoC will be a 40-man battleground. Yes, you wow goldread that right. This is the first 40-man content released since Naxx 1.0. That is going to make some old school players very, very happy. I know I’m already giddy with excitement. There will be significant use of siege and vehicle combat. This includes going on The Airship Hanger and using parachutes to drop teams onto the enemy keep from above. You will need to kill a general held up in the enemy keep, much like Alterac Valley. Reinforcements will be used. Capture resources to boost your strength. This looks like an amazing new battleground, and one that I’m sure many of us cannot wait to try out on the PTR. There has been a ton of new information about Patch 3.2 released in the last few days, so it looks like PTR

New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW’s newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic. You’ve always wanted to be the eye of the storm: a World of Warcraft tank. You’re working your way up toward level 80, quest by quest wow goldand zone by zone. Maybe you’ve consulted a leveling guide and done some research around the internet, and you’re sporting a shiny, efficient leveling spec. Or maybe you’re taking things more casually, experimenting with different specs and abilities on your own and devoting most of your energy to soaking up the sights and the lore, meeting new friends and settling into your first guild. Either way, you’re beginning to feel the first tendrils of apprehension curling around your ankles. You haven’t been able to get many instance groups to knock the shine off that new armor. Heck, maybe you’re not even tanking-specced yet at all. What’s going to happen when you hit 80? Everyone’s going to expect you to know the pointy end of the

Sometimes you’d like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know wow goldabout all MMOs, including WoW! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. Blizzard believes fans make their games successful With E3 2009 officially underway, it’s a great time for devs and CEOs to chat about their games and Blizzard’s very own Mike Morhaime has been talking about the company’s position in the MMO market with Develop. He believes that Blizzard is uniquely positioned within the industry and that it’s all about the players. World of Warcraft in China to go offline for weeks in operator handover In addition to government regulations preventing Wrath of the Lich King from releasing for the Mainland, we’ve reported that The9 has lost the rights to operate World of Warcraft in China to competitor NetEase. Now we learn that the transition of operations from The9 to NetEase will mean World of Warcraft goes dark in China for a matter of weeks. E3