Welcome to the latest World of Warcraft newsletter from Ten Ton Hammer. The Overpull, where we gather most of the things we should and a few we probably shouldn't.

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In this section we'll look at the hits and misses taking place in the
game. This week is full of hits:

Thankfully our
Australian WoWers can continue to Farm as href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/63059">Blizzard
clarifies their legal
standing. 

Another Farm status
can be placed on Blizzard's
continued free realm transfers to help lighten the load. I'm hearing
less squawking about queue times, so either the delays are dropping or
people are just tired of screaming.

My casual raiding
guild
and merry band of jackholes was
full of Teh Suck against Grobbulus.  Definitely a wipe times 6
or
so. If repairs are less than 100g then it's just a flesh wound.

Paladin farm status on Exorcism if patch 3.1.0 goes through as planned.
This is good since the Paladin was so under-powered. Warlocks continue
to cry in their beers.

Speaking of Paladin farm status, Patch 3.0.9 should go live during
maintenance this week and Paladin seals may last 30 minutes while not
being dispellable. Warlocks head to the liquor store as Curse of
Tongues gets a nerf.

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When was the last time you went to Mauradon or Uldaman? You know why?
Because they are some of the most painful instances in the game.
Remember trying to get a group together "just to the Enchanting
trainer, please?!?!"  Only to get there and get lost. What a
pain
in the backside.

Much more painful
though was the original PvP ranking
mechanic. When Battlegrounds (BGs) first launched the rank of a player
was based strictly on honor gained. Honor gain was much more nebulous
and we had to wait a week to find out how we did. The Alterac Valley
AFK/AFCaver followed shortly thereafter. It was physically impossible
to rank up without spending tens if not hundreds of hours in the BGs.
And the best part was losing rank if your total Honor deteriorated. I'm
sure many marriages, jobs and houses were lost due to the old honor
system.

Even better was
getting a Dishonorable Kill and watching
the hard core Honor farmers jump out the window. You know who you are.

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The information for
upcoming patches 3.0.9 and 3.1.0
keeps rolling in so fast it makes my talent calculator hurt. Of course
Paladin changes are near and dear to my heart so I'm keenly interested
in how those are shaping up. Exorcism on all enemies and Blessing of
Kings being trainable are all good news as far as I'm concerned. My
only hope is for all other classes to get nerfed "To the ground, baby."
Seriously, Paladins deserve all the love they can get due to years of
being the eunuchs of damage.

Dual specs and
swimming mounts are sure to be big hits
when they finally arrive on the live servers, but I'm still not sure it
will make life easier. Swimming faster will definitely be better but
optimizing my characters for dual spec is going to require some serious
theory crafting. I see myself making a real art out of picking the
least crappy gear for my off-spec. Oh the joy of purple and green
mixing and matching.

The biggest
question on most minds is whether or not
Blizzard can make up for past patching transgressions. Will the next
mid-version patch and subsequent content patch be running smooth on the
day of delivery or dead on arrival like 3.0.8? Let's hope that valuable
lessons were learned and that enough cuss words were issued in board
rooms to prevent future patches from re-living that nightmare.

Speaking of re-living, if the new content and continent of Northrend
has you thinking about leveling up another character, make sure you
check out our latest and greatest href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/">class
guides. A lot
has changed since you leveled up that Gnome Mage in 2005, so make sure
you've got up-to-date information. Remember when Mages had to make
stacks of water and food individually for a whole raid and then spend
20 minutes getting their mana back? Ah the good old days.

Have a great week, and look for more patching excitement and miscues
galore!

Thanks for reading,
Medeor