Archive for February, 2010

This week, we’re going a little off the beaten path to take a look at two of the most basic, almost mandatory items in all of PvP. (Yes, yes, unless you’re human, we know. We’ll ignore Every Man for Himself in this discussion, including its inherent wrongness that the ability doesn’t change to Every Woman for Herself based on character gender.) The trinkets I’m talking about are the Medallion of the Horde and the Medallion of the Alliance. These items are identical except for their icon and names; they are appropriately based on the faction of your character.

I mostly offer the Medallions as this week’s Phat Loot Phriday because it’s amazing how many players miss when a new version of the PvP trinket is released. With Season 8 now on us, it’s important to be packing as much resilience as possible. And since these new versions of the Medallion provide the most resilience per-slot, they’re a clearly superior choice for anyone who doesn’t mind the time to farm the honor.

You can buy this trinket with honor, which means that you’ll probably want to get yourself to the closest Wintergrasp or battleground, and get to honor farming. Try not to be that More >

Ready Check is a column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Icecrown Citadel, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. As much as I’d like to think I’m an extremely dedicated and reliable guild member and as much as I live and breathe tanking in the end-game content, even I am forced to admit that I sometimes do that thing raid leaders dread most. I flake out. It’s not like I’m lounging around my man cave, sipping an incredibly powerful beverage, and just spontaneously decide “I’m not going to raid tonight. Screw those 24 (or 9) other people.” It’s always a real life thing for me: I run late at work, I’m getting married, my cat’s on fire. (I’ve missed three raids because my cats have caught themselves on fire. Once is funny, twice is a concern, but I don’t think anyone believed me the third time.)

But no matter how real and valid my reason for missing a raid, the fact still remains that I’m letting down a group of people. (Or, I’m letting down a group of friends if that’s the flavor guild you’re running.) More >

The Drama Mamas are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players — and just as we don’t want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. How to handle that sticky situation? Ask the Drama Mamas at DramaMamas@wow.com.

It’s time to leave now. You know it. We know it. Your guildmates probably know it, too. But you just can’t bring yourself to open that door. Leaving a guild is so uncomfortable, so guilt-inducing, so potentially dramatastic, so … awkward. Is it any wonder that the best way to leave (disguised as “whether” to leave) a guild is one of the most popular questions to hit the Drama Mamas mailbox every week?

Dear Drama Mamas: I have recently decided that it may be time for me to make a change from one guild to another; however, because I am an officer in my current guild, I feel rather guilty in doing so at this time. The raid times have become enough of an issue that they became a noticeable problem in real life, and I recently informed my guild More >