A Holy Paladin is really fun to play, and a great one-target healer, but nowadays you need to be competitive to be considered for an Icecrown Citadel 10/25 players raid in the sense that you must be properly gemmed and have the right spec.

I used to have a Holy Priest back in the day since 2004, and always got complaints about my healing. Then with Burning Crusade, I was tired of the aggro/death situations in Karazhan, and re-rolled a Holy Paladin. All shiny in plate armor, I felt nigh invulnerable -- always being the last one to die in a wipe.

However, I still heard the occassional complaint about my healing when doing some PUG runs through Heroic dungeons. After so many years playing the game, I learned where I was wrong: Gems and Spec.

Nowadays, Holy Paladins skip the spell power gems, and go straight for Brilliant King's Amber. Replace all your gems with this to add +20 intellect in all your slots. Make sure to place a +10 All Stats gem into your shoulder slot to activate your Insightful Earthsiege Diamond meta gem. Your mana pool will grow, and you will get some extra benefits into other stats.

You can place this Brilliant King's Amber yellow gem into blue, and red sockets. Sure, you will lose the socket bonus, but your gain anyway. You will never get the usual: "You got your gemming all wrong", and you will feel the difference in your next raid run when you have less issues going out of mana.

The way you assign points into your three Talent Trees will guarantee you are mana regen efficient for long fights against Icecrown Citadel bosses, and that you get the best crits possible and the more consecutive crits in a row..

Below is a screenshot of the ideal Holy Spec: 51 (Holy), 5 (Prot), 15 (Ret).



PROTECTION TALENT TREE
In the Protection Tree, a must have for a healer is 5/5 Divinity: Increases all healing done by you and all healing effects by 5%.

You will notice an increase of healing from your Holy Light, Flash of Light, Holy Shock, and probably the effects from the Glyph of Holy Light, which heals nearby players for 10% of the total heal amount of your Holy Light on your target.


RETRIBUTION TALENT TREE
In the Retribution Tree, some people might think it's a waste to spend 15 points in a non-healing tree, but then upon a closer look you will see it does have its payoff, to do so.

Benediction (5/5): Reduces the mana cost of all instant cast spells by 10%.
Improved Blessing of Might (2/2): Increases the attack power bonus of your Blessing of Might by 25%.
Heart of the Crusader (3/3): In addition to the normal effect, your judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 3%.
Conviction (5/5): Increases your chance to get a critical strike with all spells and attacks by 5%.

You get a cornucopia of good-good bonuses not just for your own healing prowess, but to empower your raid members. The healing benefits from the Retribution talent tree comes from Benediction and Conviction. Your goal in that tree really is Conviction. You will notice a large percent of each Holy Light you cast will sky-rocket to over 18,000 healing crits more often than before -- something really needed to keep your tank alive, and of course, more often crits translates into better mana regeneration for the Paladin.

The raid also benefits from Blessing of Might adding a 25% to attack power needed by the tank, fury warriors, rogues, hunters and some shamans. The good thing for a Holy Paladin in this Retribution tree is that your Judgement of Wisdom will cause you to regenerate mana as usual with the benefit that all your raid gets a 3% critical strike bonus through all their attacks (melee/ranged) against the target.

After wiping my spec, and adding this new redistribution of talent points, I went to the Icecrown Citadel 10-players raid dungeon. I had never been able to kill Saurfang because I would run out of mana when he was around 40% health. With this spec, I still had a lot of mana by the time Saurfang, Jr. died. The good part is there was no wipes. No one died through Morrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, nor in the Gunship Battle event. Good luck with homework getting those gems and testing this respec..

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Richard A. Knaak will visit Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas again for his World of Warcraft: Stormrage booksigning tour through central USA. I recommend calling by phone to confirm he's going to be there before attending.

You can purchase World of Warcraft: Stormrage (Hardcover, eBook Kindle, eAudio) at the following online stores in USA and Europe. The eAudioBook is available here.

BOOK SIGNING SCHEDULE

March 27 (Sat) at 1:00 pm
Barnes & Noble Bookstore - Scottsdale Center Phase IV (Map)
261 N. 46th Street
Rogers, AR 72756
479-636-2002

April 16 (Fri) at 7:00 pm
Barnes & Noble Bookstore - Zona Rosa (Map)
8625 Northwest Prairie View Rd Spac
Kansas City, MO 64153
(816) 505-3355

April 17th (Sat) at 1:00 pm
Barnes & Noble Bookstore - Oak Park Mall (Map)
11323 W 95th Street
Overland Park, KS 66214
913-492-8187

WORLD OF WARCRAFT: STORMRAGE A NATIONAL BESTSELLER!

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Knaak: I am pleased to announce that STORMRAGE hit the USA TODAY TOP 150 BESTSELLER LIST! Composed of fiction and nonfiction and combining hardcover, trade, and paperback, this list is a straightforward sales list! STORMRAGE was the 16th bestselling fiction hardcover overall.

But wait! There’s more! STORMRAGE was also on the Wall Street Journal’s spotlight on SF Hardcovers --- at #1!

Ebooks have been hot, too, with the novel on major retailer BOOKSONBOARD's top ten for three weeks, reaching as high as #4!

Thank you to everyone who has picked it up!

STORMRAGE SIGNINGS IN ROGERS, AR AND KC AREA!

I’ll be signing at the following B&Ns and hope to set up other signings in the future at other chains, such as Borders! For now, though, the list is as follows:

March 27 (Sat) --- Rogers, AR 1pm

April 16 (Fri) --- Zona Rosa location, Kansas City, MO 7pm

April 17th (Sat) --- Overland Park, KS 1pm

Please note!! There is an error out on some lists, where Oak Park Mall in Overland Park has been mistaken for a similar named mall in Arizona! I am not going to be in Arizona (that would be one heckuva overnight flight!)!!

LEGENDS OF THE DRAGONREALM II!

I’m pleased to be finally able to announce that a second Dragonrealm omnibus is imminent! Tentatively titled, LEGENDS OF THE DRAGONREALM VOL. II, this trade paperback will be released this October! Consisting of the novels SHADOW STEED, THE SHROUDED REALM, & CHILDREN OF THE DRAKE, the omnibus will feature the returns of Darkhorse and Shade, their origins, the origins of the first Dragon Kings!

It will also feature the first English language, paper publication of the novella 'Skins', written for online subscription and featuring Morgis, the drake from Wolfhelm!

That's it for now! Thanks for reading!

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Nethaera is gathering community feedback for the developers, who are currently discussing possible changes for the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion's Tanking cooldowns. This is a great opportunity for tanks to voice their own ideas and suggestions. Refrain from trolling or complaining, or comparing how this class is overpowered, or how this tank class is nerfed to kingdom come. This open discussion with the developers is a great way to shape the future of Tanking.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We’re currently working on the tanking cooldowns for tanks in Cataclysm. We’re interested in feedback from the community on what makes cooldowns fun and useful. For example, what is the sweet spot in cooldown duration between an ability with such a short cooldown that you must mash it constantly versus an ability with such a long cooldown? Which current abilities are fun? Putting aside any rose-colored glasses, were there cooldowns in Burning Crusade or classic WoW that you miss in Lich King? What, in your minds, should the role be for talents and glyphs. For example, if glyphs shouldn’t reduce cooldowns, what can they do? We’re less interested for purposes of this specific discussion on class balance. Let’s try to keep the “who is overpowered?” discussions out of this thread. We want to focus on fun and useful with an eye towards the future. We intend to use this feedback to help make informed decisions when designing Cataclysm talents and abilities, but this is no guarantee that we will be implementing all suggestions or any particular suggestions from this thread. This is merely one of many tools that we plan to use for making the best possible decisions about continuing development. Thank you for your feedback.

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Update: I was informed the IAMTW had not updated the final nominees at the time this post was made, and haven't yet. The finalists were announced this morning only at their off-site blog located in blogspot. They merged both Fiction categories into one: BEST NOVEL (GENERAL FICTION). Thus, World of Warcraft: Arthas is not among the finalists, sadly. Keith R.A. DeCandido, and Aaron Rosenberg are still in the final nominees. roster.


[Outdated] The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (IAMTW) has nominated World of Warcraft: Arthas by Christie Golden for their Scribe Awards in the Speculative Fiction: Best Novel (Adapted) category. Christie is nominated too under the Speculative Fiction Best Novel (Original) category for STAR WARS, FATE OF THE JEDI: OMEN.

This is quite interesting and rarely seen: four other known StarCraft writers got nominated by the Scribe Awards for some of their non-Blizzard novels: Keith R.A. DeCandido, Kevin J. Anderson (known as Gabriel Mesta), Aaron Rosenberg and William C. Dietz. Congratulations to all these writers, and good luck.

The Scribe Awards acknowledges and celebrates excellence in licensed tie-in writing novels based on TV shows, movies, and games. The Scribe Awards nominees were chosen from books published between January 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2009. The winners will be announced in a ceremony held at the Comic-Con International through July 22-25 in San Diego.

BEST NOVEL (adapted) Nominees

COUNTDOWN by Greg Cox
METAL GEAR SOLID 2 by Raymond Benson
ARTHAS: RISE OF THE LICH KING by Christie Golden

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The World of Warcraft TCG lives on with the North America Realm Championships taking place this upcoming weekend, and new plans for the Wrathgate and Icecrown TCG expansions. An official press release will be available very soon to inform players the future of the WoW TCG now that it's no longer licensed to Upper Deck. So stay tuned for the new exciting plans. Comments and questions are welcome at the official WoW forums thread here.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We wanted to take a minute and provide an update on the current status of this game. We want to reassure players that the TCG will continue, and look forward to releasing the Wrathgate and Icecrown expansions this spring and summer. The new plans are being finalized and there should be a full announcement by this weekend. Realm Championships will still take place in North America this weekend. All prizes will be awarded as announced at the event including iPods and Loot cards. Winners that receive a travel award will receive their information in approximately four to six weeks. Unfortunately, the trophies will not be ready for the event. These events will run according to the current World of Warcraft TCG and Miniatures tournament policies, and the current suspended player list will be enforced. We know it's been a chaotic few weeks, so just hang in there for a few more days. North American Locations - March 20-21, 2010 Ashenvale Forest Borderlands Games 546 High St NE Salem, Oregon Last Chance Qualifier Information http://www.cascadegames.com/events/843 Ashenvale Realm Championship Information http://www.cascadegames.com/events/836 Tanaris Best Western Ontario Airport 209 N Vineyard Avenue Ontario, California 91764-4427 Phone: 909/937-6800 | Fax: 909/937-6815 Tanaris Realm Championship Information http://wowtcg.com/OP/tournaments/article_blank.aspx?aid=7581 Durotar XMaxGames 1931 Skillman St Dallas, TX 75206 Contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Feralas Heroes Cards, Comics, and Games 211 Bullsboro Dr. STE A Newnan, GA 30263 (770) 251-5754 Mulgore Misty Mountain Games and Diversions 4672 Cottage Grove Rd Madison, WI 53716 (608) 441-0312 Mulgore Realm Championship Information http://legionevents.com/world-of-warcraft-tcg/wow-realm-championships# Teldrassil Pandemonium 1858 Middlebelt Rd. Garden City, MI 48135 (734) 427-2451 Azshara Tower of Games 1400 Kempsville RD STE 132 Chesapeake, VA 23320 (757) 819-7913 Azshara Realm Championship Event Information http://www.towerofgames.com/forums/index.php?action=calendar;year=2010;month=3 Winterspring Gaming Etc Tournament Center 555 Lordship BLVD Stratford, CT 06615 (203) 296-9961

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Bashiok and Xordiah invite fans to vote for Blizzard in The Escapist's March Mayhem Developer's Showdown 2010 poll.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We'd appreciate your vote! Popular gaming website The Escapist is running their March Mayhem Developer’s Showdown 2010, in which 64 of the world’s games creators are pitted against each other. Readers will vote for their favorite developers in a series of head-to-heads. To show your support for Blizzard, you can head over and vote – but don’t delay! Each round only lasts 48 hours, and the first started today, March 17, at 9:00 AM PDT. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/532.179651-Poll-Round-1-West-2-Blizzard-vs-15-The-Behemoth

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Blizzard has released two previews of the upcoming Operation Gnomeregan which sets Alliance players in a series of quests to retake the Gnomish capital. Apparently, Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg is still alive. The one we defeated in the dungeon was not him, but a construct posing as him.

Vol'jin and his Darkspear trolls have learned Zalazane had used dark magic to fake his death. Zalazane's severed head, the one adventurers brought to Sen'jin Village, reverted shortly after into its true form ... a colored rock Volunteers shall side with the Darkspears to retake the Echo Isles from its mad ruler.

	Blizzard Quote:
	High Tinker Mekkatorque, betrayed by Mekgineer Thermaplugg and forced to flee the irradiated city of Gnomeregan with the few of his fellow gnomes who managed to survive, is preparing to reclaim his once glorious city. Meanwhile, in distant Durotar, Vol'jin of the Darkspear trolls is determined to exact revenge upon the witch doctor Zalazane for dividing the Darkspears and seizing the land bestowed to them by Thrall: the Echo Isles. Read more about the ongoing struggles of the gnomes and the trolls... and their plans to seek redemption. gnomes= http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan.xml trolls= http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/echoisles.xml

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The OCRegister (Orange County) reports the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts has chosen their nominees for the fourth Annual Art Star Awards.

The World of Warcraft's exposition held last year at the Laguna Beach Museum is among the nominees:

Best New Arts Program nominees:

• Festival of Arts' Postcards from Laguna and Coffee and Conversation with the Artists
  
• Laguna Art Museum's World of Warcraft
  
• Sister City's Fete de la Musique.

The Award winners will be announced on March 31, at 6pm PST at 891 Laguna Canyon Road.

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Just six minutes ago, Laetzin reported all US Realms are back online after the Tuesday's Maintenance. After opening the World of Warcraft folder and launching the BackgroundDownloader.exe, it starts to download more data for the patch 3.3.3.

The patch will like go live in upcoming weeks. You may read the latest patch notes here.

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The 6th Annual Senshi-Con celebrating Japanese animation and video games will be held through March 20-21 in Anchorage, Alaska at the Student Union building (SU) in the UAA Campus.

The voice behind Lady Jaina Proudmoore in The Secrets of Ulduar trailer, Laura Bailey, is a Guest of Honor at the event. Feel free to say hi, take a photo or request a signature.

University of Alaska Anchorage (Map)
707 A Street
Anchorage, AK 99501-3600

Student Union
2921 Spirit Way

(907) 786-1896
alaska.edu

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Creative Labs announced the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset will be on sale in USA in March 22. The pre-orders shipped early, and some players have reported the product arrived last Friday.

Creative Labs revealed their company submitted the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset to -- I assume -- the CWTA (Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association) which is pending approval, and it might be on sale a few days later. Creative Labs expects the USB version of this product to be available to canadians through Best Buy in upcoming days.

"We’re working right now on Canadian Wireless Certification clearance for the wireless headset and we expect this to clear within the next weeks. The wired headset will be shipping into Canada and be available at Best Buy on or close to March 22 with the wireless version following shortly after. We also are working with Amazon.com to be able to ship to Canada as well…so this will be an option in the near future also." -- said a Creative Labs representative.

Creative World of Warcraft Wireless Headset

• USA
  
• Europe

Creative World of Warcraft USB cord Headset

• USA
  
• Europe

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There was a new WoW 3.3.3 patch update in the PTR realms which tweaked the Blood Queen Lana'thel event slightly. It will be more bearable to fight her now that her Pact of Darkfallen damage was nerfed down by half, but casts it twice more often. Hunters, Warlocks and not sure if Death Knights too will be glad to know their pets will benefit from the Hellscream's Warsong and Strength of Wrynn buff. It now benefits paladin and priest's shield spells.

A few glyphs for rogue, death knight and priest classes have been tweaked. The priest T10 set bonus was redesigned. Check them out below.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Dungeons & Raids Blood-Queen Lana'thel: Pact of the Darkfallen now applies damage twice as often, but for half the damage. This change will make the removal of the spell a bit more responsive. Hellscream's Warsong and Strength of Wrynn now provide their bonuses to player pet health and damage, as well as the absorption amounts of Power Word: Shield and Sacred Shield. Death Knights Icy Talons: Fixed a numerical value error for rank 2 of this talent. The personal haste benefit provided by this talent is no longer exclusive with other sources of melee haste. This will allow death knights to always swing 4/8/12/16/20% faster when Frost Fever is applied. Windfury Totem and the party/raid component of Improved Icy Talons still do not stack. Items Glyphs Death Knights: Glyph of Icebound Fortitude - Now always grants at least 40% damage reduction. Priests: Glyph of Scourge Imprisonment: Now reduces the cast time of Shackle Undead by 1 second, up from 0.5 seconds. Rogues Glyph of Deadly Throw: Now increases the slowing effect on Deadly Throw by 20%, up from 10%. Glyph of Expose Armor: Now increases the duration of Expose Armor by 12 seconds, up from 10 seconds. Glyph of Feint: Now reduces the energy cost of Feint by 20, up from 10. Priest Tier-10 4-Piece Healing Set Bonus: Redesigned. This bonus now increases the effectiveness of the caster's Power Word: Shield by 5% and Circle of Healing by 10%.

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Blizzard will attend the PAX East in downtown Boston through March 26-28 to showcase the Starcraft II Demo at the NVIDIA booth. World of Warcraft will be used to demonstrate the NVIDIA 3D Vision technology.

Want a Starcraft II Beta key? NVIDIA will be running a scavenger hunt around PAX to enter in a raffle to win some great prizes, and to get a free T-shirt, which will also double your chance to win! Check in with the NVIDIA booth front desk in the exhibit hall for details on how you can win GeForce GTX 480 GPUs, NVIDIA 3D Vision kits, StarCraft II beta keys, and more!

	Blizzard Quote:
	Members of the Blizzard community team will be at PAX East in Boston, March 26-28, hanging out at the NVIDIA booth, talking about our games, and helping to demo StarCraft II. Also at the booth, NVIDIA will be showing off World of Warcraft using their 3D Vision technology. Stop by for the stage presentation Friday at 6pm for a world's first 3D Theatre presentation on an 80 foot screen. If you're at the show stop by the NVIDIA booth and say hi! http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/ http://www.nvidia.com/object/paxeast.html

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Sometimes Casual Solo players find it hard to get into an Icecrown Citadel dungeon raid of 10/25 players. Some of you might read in trade chat LF DPS ICC 10, or LF Tank ICC 25. Your reaction is to whisper that guy and offer your valuable service. The player will either ask you what Gearscore you have and achievements, or you will get invited and within a few seconds you are kicked out after your Gearscore has been seen.

Gearscore has removed partially the social aspect of the game. If you don't have Gearscore 5000 -- in some strict cases -- you won't get an invite to run Icecrown Citadel. I have been guildless since August when Prelude disbanded with just two kills on Yogg-Saron, and dedicated to run random Heroic dungeons, and helping a close one level up her new character. Now that she's level 80, and can take care of herself, I am slowly finding out the status quo after patch 3.3 went live. Anytime I ask for a Icecrown Citadel invite, the first thing I get asked is what's your Gearscore. I was like -- huh?

Gearscore is an addon that allows you to hover your mouse over a player, and the name tag at the bottom-right of your screen will tell you his Gearscore along with his name, level, guild, and realm. Each item in your character's gear slots has a value, and the sum of all these values becomes a Gearscore. Someone who happens to hit level 80 will be more or less around Gearscore 3000. Someone with Ulduar quality gear will be somewhere around Gearscore 4200. However, with some elitist PUG groups or guild groups, if you are a solo player wanting a chance at Icecrown Citadel 10/25 dungeons you must be at least Gearscore 5000.

How can you achieve that goal, specially those of you who just hit level 80 or are stuck with Ulduar gear? Continue reading for my personal experience and you might find some wisdom in this Guide.

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Rob Pardo was pinned down at the GDC 2010 to ask if Blizzard has plans to license Battle.net to third parties by the Escapist.

Rob Pardo responded it's a theme the team has talked about and basically would be a lot of work and a challenge on their end to maintain. It would also represent a somewhat competitive platform for Blizzard giving the example that if Blizzard was to release a game and a third party game was on sale at the same time, there could be some complications or conflict of interests.

Blizzard is testing the Starcraft II Map Marketplace as a prototype experiment to see how well it is received by gamers, and how successful it becomes or how much support it gets from gamers.

Depending on how well that feature goes, and other factors, there might be an internal consensus on whether they are interested or capable to handle a Battle.net license.

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After installing the most recent Battle.net Mobile Authenticator iPhone/iPod touch update (v1.1.0), all players will be prompted with a one-time warning that states:

Running a “jailbroken” iPhone OS device may compromise the security of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator.

This warning message is being issued by Blizzard Entertainment as a reminder that running the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator on a “jailbroken” iPhone or iPod touch could potentially compromise the security of the Mobile Authenticator application. If your iPhone or iPod touch has not been “jailbroken” or modified to bypass software restrictions, please click “OK” and you will no longer receive the warning.

Please note that this message will appear on all iPhone & iPod touch devices and is not meant to indicate that your Apple device has been modified.

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Rob Pardo directed his lecture titled Making a Standard (and Trying to Stick to it!): Blizzard Design Philosophies at the Game Developers Conferences2010.

He explained the core design concepts of World of Warcraft, and what they have learned along the years from what was successful or a failure. Gamasutra has the scoop on Rob Pardo's lecture here. Gamespot's coverage may be found here.

Some of the rules of design are:

• Gameplay First
  
• Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master: Blizzard designs their games taking the multiplayer component first, and then designs the single player.
  
• Make Everything Overpowered: Make each class feel like the best.
  
• Play, Don't Tell: The designers use voice over and graphic or mechanic tools to tell the story, with less text.
  
• Make it a Bonus: Make players feel rewarded instead of punished.

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BooksOnBoard announced the bestselling eBooks and authors for the second week of March 2010. World of Warcraft: Stormrage moved from the 9th position last week, to # 4 Best Selling eBook.

1. Hourglass – Claudia Gray
2. Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane
3. The Pact – Jodi Picoult
4. World of Warcraft: Stormrage – Richard A. Knaak
5. The Lucifer Gospel – Paul Christopher
6. The Silent Man – Alex Berenson
7. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
8. Hell Gate – Linda Fairstein
9. Shalador’s Lady – Anne Bishop
10. The Help – Kathryn Stockett

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Printwarcraft.com now offers the opportunity to create your own customized World of Warcraft mouse pad featuring the character you play. Much like custom character posters, these custom mousepads use specially designed rendering technology and access to character information, allowing you to select and pose your character while adding a variety of backgrounds, logos, borders, and fonts. Custom character mouse pads start at $19.99, and are available now at Printwarcraft.com

The interface allows you to pull your character data from the WoW Armory website and chose preset poses of your character. You can drag and drop the game logos and Blizzard logo, change text plates, text font and color. You can drag and drop any of the race shields into the foreground.

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The PTR servers deployed the new patch 3.3.3 build 11655 with few minor class balance updates for the Warrior Arms, Hunter and Druid. Players are welcome to hop into the PTR to help test these changes in Arenas and Battlegrounds.

Warrior: Arms

• Bladestorm: Warriors can now be Disarmed while under the effects of this ability.
  
• Thunderclap: This ability now counts as a ranged attack, granting it double damage on critical strikes instead of 150% and ranged miss chance, and still cannot be dodged or parried.

Hunter: Pet Talents

• Heart of the Phoenix: Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes.

Druid

• Glyph of Focus: Now increases the damage done by Starfall by 10%, down from 20%.

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