by Messiah @ tentonhammer

Since the implementation of escalating badges in Heroic instances many players have found that running a huge number of heroics is a great way to get near end game raid quality gear.  This running of chain heroics grants huge quantities of badges that can be used to buy gear only one level removed from the current end game raid drops. For some players this is the best gear they will ever get since they don’t raid, for others it is a great way to gear up an alt so that they can get in on raids, and for others it is just for profit by selling off the gems they can purchase.

No matter your reason for running the instances there are several ways to make the most out of them. The most important thing when running chain heroics for badges is to make use of the random heroic tool.  Even if you have a preformed group you can still queue for a random heroic and therefore get two frost badges for the first heroic you run that day or two bonus triumph badges if it is the second or later heroic that you run that day.  This really adds up since most heroics grant you 3 or 4 triumph badges, so this gives you a little better than 50% extra badges over time.

Before you actually run any heroics though you should make sure you are geared for it.  Rather than provide gearscore recommendations since what is effective varies so much between classes here is a list of the basic stats you need based on class type.
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by Kelly Krehbiel

It’s a known fact that we DPS are a dime a dozen. If we leave an instance (or are kicked), another waiting DPS immediately steps in and the fight goes on. For us, things are a little different. We’re waiting several minutes to run heroics, hoping to close out our dailies before the ‘Enter Dungeon’ button finally arrives.

While it’s true we’re easy to replace, there’s no question we bring value to the fight. If we weren’t around, it would take a significant amount of time for the tanks and healers to get the job done. Thankfully, enrage timers keep us in business we’re handy to have along, so it behooves us to ensure we’re doing our part.

From the way we carry ourselves, to the very mechanics of our class, there’s a few tips we can use to make sure we’re getting the most out of our heroic runs. After the break, we’ll show you how to do just that.

Know Your Manners

Nobody likes a troll.

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by Lisa Poisso

Are we there yet? Older instances tend to be long. Very long. Very, very long indeed. In fact, most early WoW instances were designed to fill your entire evening. If you fully explore these places, you’ll discover lore-soaked narrative, vicious packs of trash mobs (with respawn!), doors locked by puzzles and keys, bosses galore and twisted, convoluted maps. These dungeons come from an entirely different mindset than today’s shotgun instances, which are designed to be run in an hour or less. Even divided in two today by the Dungeon Finder, Blackrock Depths (BRD) stands as monument to the traditional dungeon crawl. Other notoriously lengthy instances include Wailing Caverns, Shadowfang Keep, Maraudon, and Upper and Lower Blackrock Spire.

Our advice: if you don’t enjoy this kind of play, don’t use the random queue feature in the Dungeon Finder. Read wowhead.com and talk to other players to find out which instances are shortest, then queue only for those places. Hours of “torture” is fun for neither you nor the groupmates who have to suffer through your boredom and impatience. Forewarned is forearmed!

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by Daniel Whitcomb

The Blood Princes

10-Man

The big thing the Battle-Maiden’s Legguards have over Scourgelord Legplates is one extra gem slot and haste instead of critical strike rating. However, the 4-piece bonus makes sure the tier 10 edges out anyway. Just stick with tier 10 and let some the tanks grab this for their off set, I’d say.

In other questions, what are the blood princes doing with legs belonging to a Battle Maiden? Have the Val’kyr been making booty calls? Man, girls and their vampires, I swear.

The big problem with the Thrice Fanged Ring is that haste and critical strike rating aren’t the most glamorous stats for us for DPSing anymore. There’s better than this ring to be found even in 10-mans for Death Knights. It’s not horrible, but there’s better. This will do in a pinch if you can’t find better in a ring though, or if all you can find is +hit or +expertise rings when you’re already capped.

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by Matthew Rossi

Want to do the Love is in the Air holiday bosses? Short version: don’t stand in things.

Longer version, you say? Sure, we can do that. First off, while there is a quest chain that leads you to Shadowfang Keep, you do not have to have done any of those quests to engage the evil Crown Chemical Company apothecaries: there’s a helpful NPC, Investigator Fezzen Brasstacks who will give you the quest and items necessary for the fight. Like previous holiday bosses, you’ll be able to engage the apothecaries once per player so yes, you can chain in alts and keep repeating the fight over and over again. (I believe we killed them roughly eight times before people started getting sleepy.)
Depending on gear levels, this fight can be somewhat challenging or a complete cakewalk. For starters, the quest that allows you to start the event and turn Apothecary Hummel hostile also grants you two items that trivialize the fight’s ‘don’t stand in X’ mechanic and reduces the various apothecaries damaging auras. The ‘Perfume Neutralizer is the purple vial that comes in the kit the questgiver hands you: it renders you immune to Apothecary Hummel’s damaging aura and all his chemical attacks, including the purple puddles he throws on the ground.

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by Xerin @ tentonhammer

Love is in the Air this 2010 with a revamped holiday event!
Buffs can be dispelled, but sockets are forever. That was the line from the Valentine’s Day World of Warcraft commercial that aired during the days of WoW: The Burning Crusade. Now the holiday has come back around but this time with a vengeance. No longer do you pick up chocolates from the guards or find out who’s spiked the perfume. A mysterious group of Goblins called the Crown Company has taken over the holiday and the Steemwheedle Cartel is none too pleased.

Love is in the Air runs from February 7th, 2010 to February 20th, 2010.

What’s New

A lot has changed and the holiday has been revamped to remove all of the frustrating bits out of it. No longer do you have to hope you get the right item from a guard or sit AFK for hours at a time while a debuff wears off.

• Guards no longer give out gifts and “Heartbroken” no longer exists.
• Innkeepers have no role at all in the new Love is in the Air holiday.
• You can now do four daily quests for your capital cities in addition to other daily quests once you’ve unlocked them.
• Love Tokens are now used to purchase all of the goods that used to come from Pledges. You can get these from daily quests or by farming any mob for XP to make bracelets.
• Many of the achievements have changed, but they’re rewarded retroactively (so you won’t lose any achievements).

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by Brian Wood

When you’re looking at stepping into the hunter class for the first time there are three key concepts to keep in mind: guns are finely crafted machines of death while bows are primitive contraptions better suited to butterfly-humpin’ hippies; dwarves are solidly-built, better looking, and better able to handle the sweet nectar of life (alcohol) than other races; and finally beast mastery is the ideal entry point into the hunter class.

No spec is as widely useful and easy to learn and master as BM. Today we’re going to walk step-by-step through everything you need to know to get started on your BM hunter. Don’t worry, they’re baby steps. Even the aforementioned butterfly-humpin’ night elves will be able to understand.

What is Beast Mastery?

In many ways BM exemplifies what it means to be a hunter. BM are all about their pets, be it increasing pet damage, pet survivability, and selection of possible pets. A BM hunter’s pet makes up nearly half of his damage output, and a BM hunter without his pet is like a draenei without his spaceship… a sad, sad thing indeed my friends.

Beast Mastery Benefits

• Easy to play.
• Forgiving of errors.
• Larger selection of pets and better ability to bond with your pet. Unlike other specs, your pet is absolutely vital.
• Phenomenal for leveling.
• Can tank instances.
• Can solo lower level instances, including raid instances.

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by Messiah @ tentonhammer

The third wing in Icecrown Citadel is the Crimson Hall which was opened January 19, 2010 for players.  There are only two boss encounters in the Crimson Hall.  The two encounters are against the Blood Prince Council and the Blood Queen Lana’thel. To reach this wing you must only have defeated the Lower Spire to reach the Upper Spire, you do not have to defeat the Plague Wing.

Blood Prince Council

The Blood Prince Council is a fight against the various Blood Princes that you have faced and defeated earlier in the expansion.  The three are: Keleseth from Utgarde Keep, Taldaram from Ahn’kahet, and Valanar from Naxxanar.  Here however you must fight all three at once since they are now resurrected as undead minions of the Lich King.

The encounter uses several mechanics, not the least of which is the use of a ranged tank.  The three bosses all need to be tanked individually, however two can be tanked normally and one needs to be tanked by a ranged tank since he can hit for too much damage to heal in melee. Taldaram and Valanar are tanked normally while Keleseth is tanked at range. A Warlock with a large health pool makes for a solid ranged tank.

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by Zuggy

Halls of Reflection is the third and final in the series of 5-man instances inside Icecrown Citadel. This dungeon is the Lich King’s inner sanctum, and it’s here you’ll finally meet with the Lich King… sort of.  There are three bosses in this 5-man instance.

Falric Boss Strategy Guide

Falric: 377,000 – 633,000 hit points

Falric is the first of the three bosses in Halls of Reflection.  The battle begins with about four or five waves of various ghost mobs, with Falric becoming active after the fourth or fifth one.  The number of ghosts in the mob increases with each wave.  The important thing to remember about the ghosts is that anyone standing near them when they spawn can draw aggro, so it’s best to keep your healer and ranged DPS bunched in a corner or the entrance with the tank nearby.  Paladins will have a field day with all these ghost mobs, so it’s handy to have one along for the instance.  Always target the healers in these pre-fight trash mobs first.

Falric Boss Abilities

Ghostly Adds, summoned pre-fight

• Ghostly Priest: Shadow Word: Pain, Circle of Destruction, Cower in Fear, Dark Mending
• Phantom Mage: Fireball, Frostbolt, Chains of Ice, Flamestrike
• Phantom Hallucination: Summoned by Phantom Mage, uses same abilities, except it explodes when you kill it.
• Shadowy Mercenary (rogue): Deadly Poison, Poisoned Daggers
• Spectral Footman (warrior): Shield Bash, Enrage
• Tortured Rifleman (hunter): Ice Shot, Cursed Arrow, Frost Traps

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