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A few folks over at the Twisted Nether Wiki have done a great thing and compiled a nice full list of all of those little online WoW utilities that we talk about every once in a while. From character improvement tools like Be Imba! to resources like Kaliban’s Loot Lists and even humor sites like WoWBash, if it’s online, WoW-related, and worth visiting more than once, it’s on this list.

And of course it’s a wiki, so even if it’s not on that list, you can add it. But it is cool to have all of those resources in one place — we mention them, obviously, when there are updates to share, but if you don’t bookmark them when you hear about them, they might have fallen off your radar. There are so many great and well-designed tools out there for players to use that something like this, tracking them all, is great to have.

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Hunters, patch 3.2 also means a new spirit beast for you to obsessively tame. Once again Mania’s Arcania proves itself to be the go-to site for information about new pets. Since I know I’m going to be spending a lot of time wandering around looking for this new pet model, here’s the skinny: there will be a new spirit beast in patch 3.2, it’s name is Skoll and unlike the current spirit beasts Loque’nahak and Gondria, this one uses a saberworg model (the new Northrend worg model introduced in Wrath of the Lich King). It’s still a spirit beast with prowl and spirit strike.

All we know so far is that it is apparently a non-hostile tameable mob when you first encounter it and that you’ll need to comb the Storm Peaks Snowdrift Plains for a chance to tame it. All I can say is good luck, you obsessive pet collectors, and even better luck to those of us who know one. I predict a lot of time spent taming things in the snow.

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Quite a show on our podcast last weekend — while, despite lots of pre-show tweaking, I still wasn’t able to get audio set up correctly, we were still able to get all our guests on. Both Lesley Smith and Chase Christian joined us to talk about all of the patch 3.2 changes we’ve heard about on the coming PTR, including Chase’s thoughts on Rogues getting Axes, what the Coliseum will be like and the changes to Emblems in raids and Heroic instances. We also talked for just a bit about the Midsummer Fire Festival, which is on the realms right now. Turpster will be doing it, as he’s still in the chase for the holiday achievements, but the rest of us are pretty meh.

And we talked about our plans for BlizzCon (live streaming ahoy!), and even gave away some loot codes. The contest from during the show is over and done with (so please don’t bother emailing us about Yogg Saron any more), but just so you weekly listeners aren’t out in the cold, we’ll do this: two random commenters on this post before Wednesday the 24th at midnight will win a loot card code each. That’s right: comment on this post (using a real email) before Wednesday at midnight and you’ll have a chance to win a Footsteps of Illidan loot card of your own, thanks to our friends at WoWTCGLoot.com.

Enjoy the show, and we’ll see you next week.

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Like me and my guild, you may have found yourself wiping on Yogg-Saron phase 1 lately because there are people who just can’t seem not to stand in clouds. We’ve been basically begging for a Failbot for this particular phase because, let’s face it, when we have no way of finding out who’s clipping or standing in clouds, it’s impossible to berate them for it over Vent. And the general yell of “STOP STANDING IN CLOUDS” is grating for everyone who’s not doing it.

Thankfully, Blizzard has heard our pleas. In the patch notes for Patch 3.2, a small note under the Ulduar section informed us that the clouds will be “more vocal” to players who stand in them.

Then again, by the time Patch 3.2 comes out, we might not even be running Ulduar as much, and people will have learned not to step in clouds … well, probably not the latter. But still. Thanks for this, Blizz. It’ll help separate the wheat from the chaff. And guildies from the raid group.

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Many people, myself included, are excited about the iPhone OS 3.0 update, which is released tomorrow for all iPhone and iPod Touch owners, though Touch users have to pay for it. If you use the Blizzard Mobile Authenticator app, though (and there’s little reason not to; it is free, and extra security never hurts), you should take one precaution first.

Every so often, even the best-planned upgrades go awry. In case your iPhone 3.0 upgrade breaks and you have to restore the iPhone, you should make sure to write down the serial number of your Mobile Authenticator ahead of time (or take a screenshot of it and transfer it to your computer).

The serial number is found on the Setup screen of the Authenticator, and Blizzard will need this number from you if you need to detach the Authenticator from your account (because your iPhone needed to be restored the Authenticator got a new serial number).

For the majority of users, the upgrade process will probably go seamlessly and you won’t need this. However, if you do, you’ll be happy you have it.

[thanks, Tobbi]

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Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

I’m not much of a Jazz person, so when I set out to counter the John Coltrane that Adam used in The Queue yesterday, I was a little worried. Fortunately, while digging through my music collection to find something useful, I remembered that I had a trump card up my sleeves. Old Betty Boop cartoons, some of the most disturbing things you will ever see in your life. All of the best ones come packed with some incredibly old school Jazz. Now, some candy for your eyes and ears: Cab Calloway’s Minnie the Moocher in a Betty Boop cartoon.

Docp asked…

“What happened to the Hunter column, Scattered Shots?”

I’m glad you asked! It just made its glorious comeback yesterday, with a brand new writer that some of you may recognize. Go give the latest Scattered Shots a read.

Binge asked…

“I’m going to let my account lapse for the summer (maybe longer). Will my armory profile and ability to comment on the official WoW forums end when my subscription expires?”

As mentioned in the comments by kalatash, you’ll immediately lose access to the forums when your account lapses. Your Armory profile won’t disappear immediately, but it will eventually become hidden if they haven’t changed anything in the last few months. When you resubscribe, both of those things will come back.

0756 asked…

“Do you think that Blizzard will take the soulbinding aspect off of either Vyrkul Bones or the Fate Runes they are exchanged for in a future patch?”

I don’t see why they would. The Fate Runes are just a little bonus you get while questing in Icecrown, to make questing in Icecrown easier and more interesting. I’m pretty sure they don’t want them sold and traded or anything like that.

AyaJulia asked…

“Around Azeroth has a disclaimer at the end of each article: “Please, no more battleground scoreboards, gold seller ads, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.” When are you going to put one in THIS column that says “Please, no more questions about pandaren”? You obviously need one.”

You’re right.

Please, people. No more questions about Pandaren. Just look around the site, you’ll find your answer.

Komorado asked…

“How many hits does the wow.com website receive everyday?”

Enough that I’ve come to learn that Alexa is pretty inaccurate when compared to internal figures. I don’t think that I’m allowed to give those numbers, though. It’s higher than what Alexa says, that’s all that I’ll say.

Hyacinthe asked…

“Why are there so many poo-related quests in WoW?”

Because everybody poops, Hyacinthe. It’s only natural.

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I know, it’s another Retribution post, but since we got hit with the nerf bat again (ever so slightly) I decided to devote one last column to the spec before I rotate back to Protection. Besides, my past month or so has been spent raiding Ulduar as Retribution (with the first few forays as Holy) so I think that’s what I’ll talk about for now. Rather than talk about specific boss strategies, we’ll talk about the little things we can wow golddo to perform at our best in Ulduar.

Flame Leviathan
First up is Flame Leviathan. Obviously, none of the usual strategies will apply here but one key point players should remember is that the vehicles scale with gear. This means having to prepare an outfit set optimized for the encounter. One thing to note about vehicle scaling is that it doesn’t look at stats, just iLevel. Optimizing a gear set for this means putting the highest iLevel item you have in every slot. For “pure” classes, this is usually their normal set-up, but for Paladins who keep several sets of gear, an iLevel-optimized outfit can be composed of healing items, a few tank items, some DPS items, and even PvP gear. Players can use AddOns such as RatingBuster to determine an item’s iLevel and outfit managers such as Outfitter or Blizzard’s new in-game equipment manager to quickly swap gear.

Vehicle strategies are everywhere, but Retribution Paladins who would prefer to do something familiar should hop on a Salvaged Siege Engine, which plays the most like melee. The difference is that this isn’t a DPS role, and steam pressure should be kept in reserve for Electroshock to interrupt Flame Vents and Steam Rush to create some distance when Flame Leviathan targets the player. It’s still more about learning the fight and vehicle roles and less about any particular class.

Ignis the Furnace Master
This is a very good fight for Retribution Paladins, despite the need to move the boss around. This is because Ignis’ most devastating attacks are easily avoidable by melee — Scorch won’t be a problem as long as players manage to keep behind the boss and Flame Jets won’t interrupt anything as everything is instant cast. Even the geyser knockback (or up) won’t make a difference because players staying close enough can keep hitting the boss.

The best thing a Retribution Paladin can do in this fight is actually during a non-DPS phase, when she’s picked up an placed into the Slag Pot. Players specced for Divine Sacrifice should use it following a Divine Shield when placed in Ignis’ belly, as well as ease burden on the healers by calling out immunity and even healing themselves. It’s also a good time to remind players that they can (and probably should) use Fire Resistance Aura during this fight because all the talented benefit are granted through any aura.

Razorscale
This fight requires a lot of switches, which is actually better in practice than it is on paper for Retribution DPS. Retribution can pump a lot of burst DPS in the opening seconds of a switch, and players should always hit Crusader Strike first. Vengeance will likely be at full stacks, and Exorcism should be used while jockeying to get into melee range. Similarly, since Exorcism is low on the spell priority list, it’s easy to reserve it for Wing Buffets which knock players out of melee range. Needless to say, step out of the fire — staying out of the large circle on the ground should minimize this problem.

XT-002 Deconstructor
DPS on this fight is largely a matter of luck. If players get a Light or Gravity Bomb more than a few times, DPS will drop significantly. AddOns such as DeadlyBossMods allow players to check their range with a /range command, which should help remove the guesswork from knowing if the player’s debuff will hurt anyone. Default range is at 10 yards and should be set to 15 to ensure that nobody else gets affected. Knowing exactly when to stop running away will also ensure players get back into DPS range much quicker.

As a melee class, Retribution Paladins are ideally assigned on the boss exclusively to optimize DPS to the heart when it pops out. Needless to say, always reserve Avenging Wrath for the exposed heart. Depending on the relative strength of your raid it may or may not be advisable to pop wings from the get go. Some raids get to the 25% threshold in under two minutes, in which case the players’ DPS will be lower overall. If you bring Potions of Speed to raids, the last heart phase with Bloodlust is about the best time to use for optimal DPS.

The Assembly of Iron
This fight changes quite a bit depending on which boss your raid decides to do first, but whomever the raid chooses, the encounter is generally not very conducive to melee. The easiest fight and most common fight will be taking down the giant Steelbreaker first. Because Molgeim places Runes of Power underneath the bosses, the tank will move Steelbreaker around quite often. Ideally, the boss gets pulled out of the rune just far enough to remove the buff from the boss but still allowing melee to attack while on the rune but this won’t always be the case. The most important advice to keep in mind here is to not pay attention to the DPS meters. DPS in this fight is artificially inflated by Runes of Power, so don’t worry about it. Stay alive.

Players should be mindful of Art of War procs, easing healer burden by popping a Flash of Light between cooldowns. Keep up Sacred Shield because the damage from High Voltage (among other, non-persistent sources) is a nuisance. There really are no other tips for this fight other than paying close attention and know when to run away. Pursuit of Justice is awesome here because there’s just a lot of running (away) involved.

Kologarn
This is a good fight for Retribution because it doesn’t involve a lot of running around, and because Focused Eyebeams have a minimum range. Melee simply have to focus on Kologarn himself, with ranged DPS classes usually assigned to the arms. Retribution DPS is quite excellent on this fight because when positioned properly, Divine Storm and Consecration will hit all three targets. The arms are also close enough to switch to without having to move much or at all. Relish this opportunity and enjoy the fight as it’s one of the few bosses in Ulduar where a Retribution Paladin can shine.

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BlizzCon 2009 tickets went on sale for the last time on Saturday at 10am PST, and were reported as sold out less than 30 minutes later. As expected, there were lots of disappointed Blizzard fans, but compared to the way things worked last year, this year’s system was much more fair and much less frustrating. Unfortunately, you had to be quick — while the sellout time was actually around 10:24, tickets really sold out in a matter of seconds, because if you clicked the buy button even 30 seconds to a minute after it went live, you were too far back in the queue to buy tickets at all. But even though it was a very small window of chance, it was at least a fair chance — Blizzard’s meter for tickets left on Saturday started at around 50%, which indicates that they split the two days of sales right down the middle. As long as you showed up and clicked at the right time, you had as much chance as anyone else. At least we got a great game out of it.

If you have tickets, enjoy the show (and don’t forget: our meetup will be on Thursday night!). But if you don’t, what now? The DirecTV stream will be available both via their service and on the Internet. And even if you don’t jump in on that deal, we’ll of course have plenty of up-to-date coverage, as will lots of folks in the community. And if you want to go a little black market, tickets will probably be available online in a few different places. We’ve already heard that Blizzard is starting to crack down on eBay, but certainly there are other places tickets will appear for sale. And as time goes on, we’re sure people who were planning to go won’t be able to make it, contests will be held in various places, and a few more tickets will free up.

So all hope may not be lost. But unless you want to call in a favor or pay a premium, BlizzCon tickets are sold. We say: the fourth weekend in August can’t come soon enough.

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Who’s Watching Me in World of Warcraft is a short but absolutely wonderful video by Keenamor. It’s a parody of a very popular commercial floating around out there, so it probably needs no explanation to get set up. Keenamor was inspired by a similar video based in the Halo universe. He did all the voice acting himself, and claims the video was created spontaneously when the inspiration struck him.

Like I said, it’s short. Keenamor probably could have done fancier graphics, but I’m not sure that’s necessary. If you know the source material, then you’ll instantly recognize the joke. You don’t really need anymore explanation or fine-tuned images to get the punchilne.

Ultimately, it was funny, and I would LOL again. Click here to see it for yourself.

If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.

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