I decided to take a page from Saresa’s Hermia’s playbook and ask Twitter to do all the work for me. Little did I know Twitter wanted to find out about things other than WoW, so now it’s time to pretend to be an authority on things. Wheee!

TheMightyGresh: do you really want to huuuurt me? Do you really want to make me cryyyy?

Yes. Warlocks are some of my favorite PvP targets, mostly because I still remember how warlocks work. Other classes might have tricks up their sleeves, but I know your arsenal pretty well. Plus affliction warlocks are a pretty good challenge, since unlike many casters - who I can lock out with my eight billion interrupts - affliction has a ton of instant casts, so I have to settle for a general silence and a beating with a sack of quarters.

Oh, and Fear? So underpowered. Hello, diminishing returns; hello, Every Man for Himself.

Trizophenie: Cloud or Squall? And why?

Neither. I haven’t actually liked a Square-Enix hero since the days of FF6. Cloud’s a doofus who’s too wrapped up in himself to see the bigger picture of “hey dummy save the world,” while Squall is a whiny emo boy– wait a sec, I’m seeing a trend here. To contrast, I did kind of like Tidus, I just wish his dialogue writer hadn’t made a concerted effort to make him sound like an idiot. Then again, Tidus kind of was an idiot, wasn’t he? “Durrrr what do you mean Zanarkand’s destroyed? Why is Auron sparkling? Durrrrrrrr.”

Sabiba: here’s a question for you: Why does blizzard hate hunters in PVP?

I’m going to assume this is an arena question, because hunters seem to be doing fine in Battlegrounds. Here’s your answer: they hate everyone, at different times, in arenas. Reason being, as they stated in an interview a while ago, arenas were basically shoved clumsily into the game and it’s been hell for balance ever since. Frankly, I’d be just as happy if Cataclysm brought with it the removal of arenas.

Llanion: What toppings go on a correct pizza?

Anything except anchovies. The last pizza I had was the Socrates’ Revenge from Dewey’s Pizza: olive oil, minced garlic, Mozzarella-Fontina blend, spinach, black olives, green olives, Feta cheese, red Onions, tomatoes. Fantastic!

Krizzlybear: I have excellent rhythm, but I can’t get the crossfader to work properly. Any suggestions? Oh right, WoW questions only…

Heck if I know, man, you’re a full two difficulties above me. It would help if the crossfader locked a little more solidly into the ‘center’ position; as it is I tend to swing too far back when I hit a crossfade spike (I spike left, then accidentally go all the way right instead of back to center). I found that rather than trying to use it the way the tutorial shows, I positioned it between two of my fingers with my hand laying flat on the turntable controller - I tend to get better control that way.

Sleepyrabite: As I have nothing to ask about for WoW… What’s your current favourite offline game?

Funny you should ask - I just recently moved the rather clumsy “Hey Phil Whatcha Playin’” feature to a site I recently found that is designed for exactly this kind of thing - here’s my Backloggery! I’m currently dividing my attention between Half-Minute Hero, the Persona PSP remake, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, and (as you may have surmised from my answer to Krizz) DJ Hero. When my girlfriend is in town, we also play some co-op Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires. I also admit curiosity about Dragon Age: Origins; however, I may be the only gamer alive who didn’t really like Torchlight.

Ladygypsy: how is mana pronounced? MAN-a or MAHHHN-a? (srsly, I can’t pronounce squat in WoW.)

Well, I know how I pronounce it, but I wasn’t sure it’s correct, so I asked an authority. Apparently “mah-nah” - your second pronunciation - not “man-uh” is the correct pronunciation. It’s apparently a Maori word! I’ve learned something new today.

Lightning Round! Nibuca asks 12 million questions!

• If you were trapped on a “Lost” isle.. and had access to only one game/console/pc which would you choose? WoW. Surely no one expected that, but look at it this way: I can try and get my guildies to send a helicopter to get me off this stupid island!

• If a boss falls in the game.. and the last of the raid members dies at the same time.. is it a wipe? Nope. Sure, you have to get back up and repair and heal, but you still get phat lewtz, making it not-a-wipe.

• What pie is best for T-day? Pumpkin.

• Should all pie be topped with whipped cream? No - apple pies, or other warm fruit pies, deserve ice cream. Any pie with a meringue doesn’t need whipped cream - it brought its own topping to the table.

• Is ice cream optional? For most pies, yes. I really only prefer it with fruit pies. It’ll do for whipped cream in a pinch. Again, though, not really necessary for meringue pies at all.

• Boxers briefs or commando.. which do you think @brigwyn chooses… {evil grin} I refuse to consider Brigwyn’s undies or lack thereof; the fact that he showed up in my dreams on tour with Daft Punk was bad enough (at least he was fully clothed).

• Harvest festival overview.. Grinding reputation with the “running circles in Dalaran” faction… RP for the uninitiated… That’s not a question, but lucky for you, I’m nice. I know as much about the Harvest Festival as you, I’m not sure what the second one is, and I’m not on an RP server anymore and never RP’d when I was on one. NEXT!

• How is the “Mr T hand grenade” better/worse than the zombie infestation from last year?

  • Better, for people who didn’t enjoy the zombie infestation: you can click off the Mohawked buff instead of hoping for a healer to pass by, or waiting to zombify then exploding.

  • Worse, for people who did enjoy the zombie infestation: sorry, you don’t get to fight your own faction and infect them with zombiedom.

  • Better, for everyone all around: the Mohawked buff isn’t going to stop you from going about your business.

  • Worse, period: it doesn’t really lead up to anything. Unless… Mr. T is the final boss of Cataclysm?! So now we know where Deathwing’s been hiding all these long years: the A-Team van.

There, I think I won! Now if only there was a prize.

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A big thanks to all of you for showing up to this wonderful show of support for Julie, and for any other survivor or sufferer of breast cancer!

Just a bit further to go… to be exact,

• 56 Pristine Black Diamonds

• 114 to 234 Large Brilliant Shards

• 60 Librams of (Protection or Rapidity or Focus)

• 1,230 Heavy Junkboxes

• 1,284 Rogues/Mages/Swords/Demons Decks, or 92 of any other Darkmoon Decks, or some combination thereof

• 172 turn-ins of Free Knot!, not counting turn-ins of The Gordok Ogre Suit

But hey - at least, I don’t have to go back to Durnholde Keep anymore!

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself. Hinenuitepo at Death Goddess has a DPS version of that healer and tank set of surveys that’s been going around, and I’m a sheep who needs blog fodder. Baaaaa.

Anybody else find it a little weird that some of the tier 10 armor kind of looks like you took a random Scourge into a back alley and beat the crap out of them for their gear? Blizzard is definitely getting pretty wild with some of the armor designs, and they’re hit-or-miss - there’s a lot of people who love one or two classes, but hate another (and rarely does anyone love their own). Here’s my thoughts (starting with the classes I consider my “mains” at the moment):

Scourgelord’s Battlegear/Plate (Death Knight): Before the preview I was finished, I was pretty unimpressed with this set. It had the same old “put a few spikes here, put a glowing skull there, voila, Death Knight tier gear.” However, the helmet kind of ties it all together. I love the appearance of this faceplate, and feel it’s a natural revolution from the T8 helm (we’re ignoring T9 here, since its design was wildly divergent - and I loved the fact that, on Alliance side at least, it looked like a darker paladin set).

Frost Witch’s Garb/Regalia/Battlegear (Shaman): Phantom shoveltusks! As Jezriyah pointed out, they’re clearly wearing an entire shoveltusk head on their head, and those are definitely phantom shoveltusks sticking out of the side. Also, it doesn’t appear to be quite done yet - the icicles on the horns are untextured, mostly. Was it worth the wait? In my opinion, yes. This really makes me want to push to get my shaman up to 80 so I can start working on this awesome set. (No offense to Nobundo, of course, but my elemental shaman is not a ninja. He is a pew pew lightning master.) Oh - and those phantom shoveltusks better pop out of the shoulders occasionally; rogues and warlocks can’t have all the fun.

Shadowblade’s Battlegear (Rogue): Ah, the rogue T10. I would say it’s divisive except that it’s pretty much all the rogues on one side, and me on the other. No, it’s not the most attractive set of armor in the world (frankly, I still like the face-on-your-head of the rogue T8. However, this does have an obvious awesome side to it: the Shadowblade’s Battlegear is very obviously a geist outfit. Compare it to our old friend The Leaper:

Sewn together bag-of-rags look? Check. One-eyed helmet? Check. Noose around the neck? Check. Strappy gloves? Check. Rogues, it’s time to start bounding around like it was going out of style, pushing gargoyles off of ledges with wild abandon.

Now, on to the others…

Lasherweave Garb/Regalia/Battlegear (Druid): Okay, so, I really don’t recall ever seeing any lashers that looked like a combination of a moose, a piece of wood, and the segmented eyeball of a bee. Frankly, the face scares the crap out of me. I guess the only comfort is that I’m rarely if ever going to see it.

Ahn’kahar Blood Hunter’s Battlegear (Hunter): What? Just to refresh everyone’s memories, this is what the Ahn’kahar look like. Spiders. Big ugly spiders. The hunter armor? Again with the wood. In fact, they kind of look like wooden moose (mooses? meese?).

Bloodmage’s Regalia (Mage): Well, the teeth kind of make me giggle, but I have to admit I like the look of this set. It has a very generic look to it, though. I don’t know if I could tell the mage T7-10 apart, to be honest with you. It’s also more obvious Scourge fashion: the mage gear is definitely an upgraded (fancier and less faded) version of the outfits worn by the San’layn.

Lightsworn Garb/Regalia/Battlegear (Paladin): Hey look, the paladins are cribbing from the Death Knights for ideas. And the shamans & warriors from a few tiers back. And - wuh oh, a plate skirt. Let the QQ begin… again.

Crimson Acolyte’s Raiment/Regalia (Priest): Not sure what Crimson Acolyte they’re talking about. Pretty generic, though. These (at least, the versions other than the white ones) kind of remind me of collarless Scourge necromancer duds. If only priests had gotten the dead-cow-skull helmet that seems to be a feature among the Scourge. Speaking of dead cow skulls…

Dark Coven’s Regalia (Warlock): Also nice! But unfortunately I don’t think anything will top the pseudo-Putress look of T8, at least in my mind. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this look on a Cult of the Damned member somewhere, but it escapes me at the moment.

And last but not least, Ymirjar Lord’s Battlegear/Plate (Warrior): A pretty awesome-looking tribute to all those ymirjar who’re now dead in our wake. Probably the closest anyone will get to looking like the king. I anticipate several screenshots of warriors in their T10 sitting on his throne just because they can.

And no, ladies, I haven’t forgotten about you. The T10 on females: death knight, rogue, druid, hunter, mage, paladin, priest, warlock, and warrior. As for the shaman T10… well, we only have a picture of it on a male human, so we don’t even have pictures of it on races that can actually be shamans yet, much less women. (An orc would totally rock the hell out of a shoveltusk helmet, and you know it.)

Byaghro calls it the elusive drop. Bre called it the unicorn. I’ve even talked about my unicorns, which is now sadly outdated (though hey, some 70 loot from ZA would probably still be an upgrade for my 71 warlock…). No, my unicorns are multiplying - rapidly - and I’m pretty sure they’re getting harder and harder to catch. Luckily, these days, at least a few of my unicorns just require a little elbow grease to get, so it’s nose-to-grindstone time for me…

• Baron Rivendare’s Deathcharger. As you can see from my armory statistics, I’ve killed Baron Rivendare 42 times. This means I’ve just passed the point where I had a 33% chance of seeing the reins drop at least once. Thus far, I’ve failed that chance. But hey! Only 24 more kills until I’ve had a 50% chance of seeing it at least once! My dedication to this was so great that my DK was the Argent Champion long before there was ever a hint of a tournament.

• Swift Zulian Tiger. This one has only recently joined the unicorn list thanks to my discovery that with careful tabbing and the occasional Mind Freeze (on what appears to be, on my screen, an invisible castbar…), I can in fact solo High Priest Thekal. Still, it’s on the list.

• Swift Razzashi Raptor. Luckily, I’m in Zul’gurub quite a lot anyway, trying to get the raptor boss to cough up the goods. He’s an easier fight than usual when you’re solo, if only because he tends to fear you out of his whirlwinds 90% of the time. Not that he’s that hard anyway. Silly Bloodlord. This one means even more to me now that I’m primarily playing Alliance.

• Bindings of the Windseeker. I’ve only recently discovered that with a minimum of trouble and trash-killing, I can work my way to Garr in 20 or 30 minutes. Unfortunately he has yet to drop the bindings. I have yet to be able to kill Baron Geddon solo, though, to try for the other half. When he’s hellfiring, I take too much damage to Death Strike my way out of; when he’s not hellfiring, he’s shooting me into the air. It’s very annoying.

Oh, and if you believe Rawr, Thunderfury is #12 of the list of off-hand weapons available to me. Don’t think I won’t show up to an instance with it.

• Insane in the Membrane. This is the king of all unicorns. I initially thought about listing everything separately but let’s face it, that’d just be post-padding fodder. I honestly feel like I’m making some serious progress towards this goal nowadays. Last night I hit Honored with Shen’dralar (only 60 librams to go!), a week ago I hit Honored with Darkmoon Faire (only 1,200 mini-Darkmoon Decks to go!), Ratchet is nearly out of the Hated range and into merely Hostile (only a crapton of Knot Thimblejack rescues to go!), and my baby rogue only needs 42 or so more levels before she can start pick-pocketing the appropriate humanoids for me to get Junkboxes to get exalted with Ravenholdt (only 1,200-something junkboxes to go!). Progress! (Of course, I keep getting distracted by my pesky shaman, who insists on pew pew’ing his way across Outland and AV.)

So there’s my unicorns - what’re yours?

It’s no big secret that racial traits and skills are getting a revamp in Cataclysm. We’ve already seen some examples of new talents in recent times, such as the inclusion of Every Man For Himself in the human racials (which I am finding pretty useful, thanks for asking), but for the most part racial skills tend to be rather… well, underwhelming. 5% more damage on Beasts? +1% chance to crit with throwing weapons? 2% frost resistance? Sure, some of them are pretty useful - there’s no denying the usefulness of Blood Fury for DPS or Diplomacy for rep grinds - but for the most part they’re underpowered.

Especially underpowered when you compare them to, say, the proposed list of racial skills for worgen and goblins. Granted, they’re clearly up for change - at this point, what isn’t? - but the sheer usefulness (and number!) of skills for worgen and goblins makes it pretty obvious the other races are going to get a serious rebalancing act. Heck, the goblins are kind of OP at this point… or at least, they have a crapton of utility skills. Check it:

Worgen:

• Darkflight - instant, 3 minute cooldown - Activate your true form, increasing movement speed by 70% for 6 seconds.

• Viciousness - passive - Increase damage dealt by 1%.

• Aberration - passive - 15% reduced duration on Curses and Diseases used against you.

• Flayer - passive - Skinning skill +15, skinning speed increase, no knife required.

• Two Forms - instant, 1.5 sec cooldown - Transform into your currently inactive form (human to worgen and back again).

Goblins:

• Rocket Jump - instant, 2 minute cooldown (shared with Rocket Barrage) - Activate your rocket belt to jump up to 20 yards.

• Rocket Barrage - instant, 2 minute cooldown (shared with Rocket Jump) - Fire your belt rockets at an enemy within 30 yards.

• Time is Money - passive - 1% increase to attack and casting speed.

• Best Deals Anywhere - passive - Always get the best possible discounts, regardless of reputation.

• Pack Hobgoblin - instant, 30 minute cooldown - Calls in your personal servant, allowing you bank access every 30 minutes.

• Better Living Through Chemistry - Alchemy skill +15, your potions give more health/mana.

So keeping in mind that these are the new baselines for racial traits, what would you like to see for your race? Let’s hear some wild ideas in the comments.

For what it’s worth, I originally had a video of Lil’ K.T. zapping Big K.T.’s cat into a block of ice then cackling about it. But guess what scrub left that on his home computer and forgot to edit it and put it on Youtube to make it into a post today? Yep, that’d be me.

So instead, I’ll just quote Palehoof from a post on the forums (via MMO-Champion’s Bluetracker):

Wow has been “ruined” according to people unhappy with one or two aspects of the game since its inception. Since it began, it’s been ruined by rooftop camping, the removal of rooftop camping, the lack of honor, the implementation of honor, the lack of dishonor, the implementation of dishonor, the removal of dishonor, the removal of wall walking, rank rewards, decaying rank, the removal of rank decay, the removal of PVP titles, Ahn’Qiraj, Scourge Invasion, Zul’Gurub, the cost of mounts, the lack of information about TBC, all information released about TBC, playable Blood Elves, playable Draenei, Horde Paladins, Alliance Shamans, flying mounts, the timing of the release of TBC, the cost of flight, Jewelcrafting, the LFG channel, holding people accountable to the Terms of Use, meeting stones, arenas, the number of arena teams one player can have, arena-based gear rewards, the lack of battlegrounds, the addition of battlegrounds, everything about battlegrounds, Illidan being killable, Daily quests, instance-based reputations, the Darkmoon Faire, /pizza, playable wisps, Tinfoil Hat, the Armory, Warden, the lack of information about Wrath, all information about Wrath, a failure to revamp old world areas, the inability to transfer from PVE to PVP servers, hero classes, siege engines, cold weather flying, Wintergrasp being a PVP zone, death knights, the inability to start a new character of any class at 55 or higher, the lack of a dance studio, character recustomization, the inability to change race or faction, the cost of mammoths and motorcycles, the fall damage negation of mammoths and motorcycles, the removal of fall damage negation from mammoths and motorcycles, the ability to transfer from PVE to PVP servers, dual specs, Achievements, holiday events, Mountain Dew Game Fuel, streaming Blizzcon ‘09 on pay per view, the revamping of Onyxia’s Lair, Worgen for the Alliance, Goblins for the Horde, revamped old world areas, the ability to change faction, the ability to change race, new race/class combinations, purchasable vanity pets, as well as weekly maintenance and patches 1.1 through the current one inclusive.

In that time, while WoW was being ruined by all of the above, WoW has quintupled its subscriber base. So don’ t be disappointed if Blizzard doesn’t leap to change whatever you say is killing the game.

That pretty much sums up most of my thoughts on the “ZOMG UR RUININ THE GAEM” mindset. My only other reactions to the whole minipets-for-money fiasco can be summed up as follows.

1. This is basically the same as paying money for a loot card, only it cuts out the middleman, so it’s kind of got a weird feeling to it - but deep down, I know it’s really not that different. It’s just who I’m buying it from.

2. I sincerely believe Blizzard knows the line between selling vanity items like minipets and mounts, and selling actual content like impactful loot.

3. I love Lil’ K.T. to death, and his ability to frostbolt critters to death is fantastic. The Pandaren monk, however, never fails to make me jump like a shot when he starts abruptly making his kung-fu noises in an otherwise-quiet zone.

Keep the comments civil, because I know a lot of people have very strong opinions on this, or I’ll shut them right the heck off.

(pic of Lil’ K.T. courtesy of MMO-Champion, because I forgot to take a screenshot, too. Sighhhhh.)