style="width: 250px; height: 50px;"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/newsletters/wow/farmwipe.gif"
alt="Now on Farm or That's a Wipe">

Emblems
of Confusion. Heroic dungeons will now reward 2 Emblems of Grief except
on days of the calendar with a new moon, and then they will reward one
fifth of an Emblem of Curiosity. These emblems can be traded in on
Emblems of Aneurysms when meltdowns occur within range of a vendor. In
the Argent Coliseum only Emblems of RepGrind will drop.



Paladin
Seals have been removed and/or replaced with different seals of the
same name. Please see owner's manual for more information, and best of
luck determining your new rotations and talent specs.



Summer break is to raiding what the lunch truck is to a construction
site. A bell rings and then everyone is gone and nothing gets done.

style="font-weight: bold;">Blues Clues
- href="http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17899680776&sid=1">Patch
Notes Edition

"Casting
bars under the target frame, focus frame, and nameplates will
now display as shielded if the cast cannot be interrupted."

Oh goody, I didn't have near enough minutia to keep track of. This is a
great addition, but provides one more set of pixels I have to monitor.



" class="blue"> style="font-style: italic;">Beginning with season 7,
players will no longer have
access to the newest season’s weapons or shoulder armor and
will not
qualify for the Gladiator title/rewards with ratings from the 2v2
bracket alone."

Sure you can still play 2v2, you just have to sit at the kids' table.
When you grow up, you can play 3v3 or 5v5. 



 
 

style="width: 250px; height: 50px;"
src="http://images.tentonhammer.com/newsletters/wow/mishapsmayhem.gif"
alt="Medeor's Mishaps and Mayhem">

Another
week has cruised on by and we're starting to see less talk from
Blizzard and more progress on the Patch. The background downloader is
working overtime, the patch notes are getting more precise, and it's
all leading up to one mother of a patch.



For many the lead up to the patch has been a mixed blessing. There are
some awesome (yes, I went that far) changes in the Call of the Crusade.
There are many modifications that will completely change the way we
level up characters (mounts) and gear them up (Emblems, dungeons,
Coliseum). The forums have lit up extolling the good, bad and ugly. The
theorycrafters are working overtime to illustrate why their point of
view is correct and how they will achieve .00003 more DPS once the
patch goes live. So what's the problem?



What do we do until the patch goes live? I don't believe I've ever seen
the kind of apathy I'm seeing in the game. Raid teams are falling
apart, guilds are blowing up, I haven't seen a queue or "Instance is
Full" message in a very long time. What should we be doing? Why level
up an alt when it will be so much easier after the patch? Why raid when
all of the gear will be easier after the patch? Why do anything?



Luckily friends, that's why I'm here. I'll be playing the part of
Captain Stubing to help steer this  USS Love
Boat WoW through these
turbulent waters.

style="width: 150px; height: 192px;" alt="Captain Stubing"
src="http://cruiseferret.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/captain-stubing.jpg">

Here's what I'm doing; posturing, prospecting and prospering. That's a
lot of "P."



Posturing.
Now is
the perfect time for a switch in main characters. If you enjoy playing
that Warlock, now is the time to prepare him/her/it for becoming your
main character. I obviously play a Paladin as a main. I also love
playing my Shaman. When the patch comes out, I could get my
under-geared Shaman to the same uberness as my Paladin in very
short
order (probably within weeks). Of course I need to make sure I'll have
a raid spot and all of that jazz, but if you've felt painted into a
corner because of your current gear discrepancies among your favorite
characters, you can change it in a hurry after the patch.



Prospecting.
Engineering
is going to suck a lot less after the patch than it does now. I'm
gathering ore, metals, gems and all other essential items to be well
set for new recipes.



Prospering.
 Money
always spends. If you find yourself logging in without any direction,
now is a good time to run some dailies and gather up some cash. Rep
never hurts either so you can kill two birds (so to speak) with one
stone.



Indications are that the patch is imminent, maybe within a week or two.
Will Blizzard get the patch out the door right before Blizzcon or right
after? Here is my bet:

Why waste a whole Blizzcon talking about a patch? Ok, I'm begging.
Please talk about more than this patch at Blizzcon. I know
it's a big
patch, and I know it's cool. But come on, it's a patch. Let's look at
WoW 4.0 and not rehash the mount changes. Ok, done begging.



I'll end with a top ten list this week: Top Ten Things To Do in WoW
Before the Patch

10. Use Seal of the Martyr (it's going away)

9.  Overpay for a mount

8.  Tell everyone you are quitting WoW

7.  Say Hi to everyone when you come back

6.  Play another game and realize that there are no substitutes

5.  Attend a raid that you sign up for, much to everyones'
surprise

4.  Pick your favorite alt and see if it can be your main

3.  Try to get a group for a non-heroic dungeon

2.  Allow someone to not piss you off, see how long it works

1.  Take it easy, everything happens for a reason, Blizzard's
reason.



Stop by our forums and href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=44856">share
your pre-patch thoughts.



Have a great week, and thanks for reading.



-Jay "Medeor" Johnson





href="http://wow.tentonhammer.com/">