Each day WoW.com will take you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From Ghostcrawler's latest posts to the lowdown on StarCraft II and Diablo III, we'll keep you informed.

Ancilorn? You're doing it right. You win at least ten internets, at least. Maybe even your own BlizzCon t-shirt.

Table of Contents

• Ghostcrawler
• Other
• StarCraft II / Diablo III / Blizzard News

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Filed under: The Daily Blues

Here at WoW.com we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!

Everyone needs a good laugh now and again -- and what better time than Wednesday, the middle of the week when the weekend seems both so near and so very far away. The above image comes, of course, from our plushie photo contest, which has some very lol-worthy entries, but I'm sure you'll also enjoy the following:

• For the Bubbles educates us on the mathematics behind raiding.
• Too Many Annas runs Pallyramas.
• Tree of Life has translations of the binary messages you come across in Gnomeregon.
• Destructive Reach explains why warlocks aren't mages.
• Righteous Defense defines "trickle-down death."
• Blessing of Fish has a few things you might not know about Dalaran.

Filed under: The Daily Quest

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the Rogue class. This week, we discuss hit and expertise (or the lack thereof) on ICC gear.

I want to open this week's column with a quick anecdote from the life of a rogue: My fianceé's low-level shaman was being camped in Felwood by a higher-level warlock. I did my roguish duties and took care of the problem, via a sharp dagger through the rib cage. The warlock escalated the situation by bringing out a retribution paladin, whom I also dispatched. After fighting (read: them dying a lot) for some time, I was watching over the paladin's corpse. I saw him resurrect, mount, and ride off, and pursued him in stealth.

I used Sprint, used Preparation, Sprinted again, and finally used my rocket boots to make up the ground. The paladin had left my sight range, due to Crusader Aura and my slowed movement in stealth, but I did not stop running. Watching me, my ward asked why I would pursue the target after they had clearly escaped my grasp. My instincts as a rogue have been honed after years of playing the class, and I am familiar in the ways of tracking my opponents. I said simply, "The wounded enemy always stops to eat". About 10 seconds later, I found the paladin sitting and eating some biscuits behind a tree (his long guild name gave him away). A few short moments later, and there was one less living soul in Felwood that night. Do you have any stories of "rogue moments" that made you certain you chose the right class at the character creation screen?

I have a lot of characters. While I'm not sporting a geared 80 of every flavor, I do enjoy playing a variety of classes. Now, I don't know how many of you are in a similar situation, but with so many toons to manage, it can be pretty hard to focus on any one's needs at a time. I've always got to weigh the pros and cons of every decision: figuring out who I should buy gear for, who I should be saving my emblems on, and what my upgrade paths looks like. It can be tough work, and needless to say, I spend a good deal of time each week filling out various spreadsheets and trying to map out a plan.

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Filed under: Rogue, (Rogue) Encrypted Text

With the Light as his strength, Gregg Reece of The Light and How to Swing It faces down the demons of the Burning Legion, the undead of the Scourge, and helps with the puppet shows at the Argent Ren Faire up in Icecrown. At least, he usually does. But Gregg's a little pre-occupied this week. Therefore, Matt Low will be stepping in temporarily to handle some retribution goodness!

No one expected me to write this column. And I mean no one. What does a healing priest know about dealing damage? When I was approached to fill in for Gregg this week, the first word that came to my mind was "Seriously?" But that's all in the past now. You poor guys are stuck with me this week!

Anyway, yes, I do happen to have a paladin which I use to smash stuff with. Contrary to popular belief, I don't play a healer 24 hours, 7 days a week. I have to try to relax and de-stress myself after a long raid of hard healing. What better way to do that then swing a Justicebringer around? Now, I've been a healer for a long time so when I made the choice to go straight into retribution, I approached the class (and role) with a certain mentality. You see, there are a few things that annoy me when I was healing on my priest whenever there were ret paladins in the raid. I was determined to not be that ret pally.

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Filed under: Paladin, Raiding, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It

If you're curious as to the fate of the WoW TCG, then check out this official statement by Bornakk. While the future of the TCG has been questionable since since Upper Deck had parted ways with Blizzard, that doesn't mean the TCG is going to end. The upcoming Wrathgate and Icecrown expansions are still on pace for the spring and summer. Realm Championships will still happen this weekend around North America, and all announced prizes will still be awarded (but trophies will not be ready yet).

For the full list of North American locations, check out that same thread.

Filed under: News items, WoW TCG

Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW.com's series of fantasy death matches. It's a brand new season and a brand new format, introducing judges from WoW.com and the WoW community at large -- and of course, your votes. Grab a seat, and let's get ready to rumble!

The Thunderdome's no Bartertown, Krick and Ick are no Master Blaster ... and as many expected, Scourgelord Tyrannus dominated this week's Two Bosses fantasy deathmatch. More than three-quarters of the spectators anointed the Scourgelord with the victor's crown. The judges tied it up for Tyrannus as well, leaving the path clear for what's shaping up to be an intriguing match, Falric vs. Argent Confessor Paletress. (By the way, if you're a fan of the cage match genre, check out last week's match on Suvudu: Jaime Lannister vs. Hermione Granger -- yeah, it's so one-sided it's just mean, but sometimes those are the train wrecks we love to watch go down. George R.R. Martin himself weighs in, too; get back to writing, bud. )

Join us after the break for the judges' decisions, plus your chance to vote in Falric vs. Paletress. For in the words of Dr. Dealgood: "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ... Dyin' time's here."

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Two Bosses Enter

On Wednesdays, Fox Van Allen takes control of Spiritual Guidance and spams all sorts of shadowy goodness. Pros: Fox Van Allen is awesome, shadow specced, and not a gnome. Cons: The shadow side of Spiritual Guidance is a limited duration spell, meaning gnome-sympathizer Dawn Moore will take over again later in the week. She's pretty much "everything that's wrong with wow.com," and she doesn't even have a Shadowfiend. Lame.

I will not reference Twilight in my intro to The Crimson Halls.
I will not reference Twilight in my intro to The Crimson Halls.

SPARKLES TEAM JACOB OMG LOVE STORY ROBERT PATTENSON TURKISH MAN I KISS YOU STUPID BASEBALL SCENE ZAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

...Damnit.

After a week's delay to try and write something that won't make newbie priests' eyes glaze over, we return to our epic series (so epic, it's colored purple) on Icecrown Citadel. We've already raided the ramparts. We've already busted down Putricide's lab.

It's time to go face off against the Blood Princes and Blood Queen. Bring some stakes and holy water, because if you don't, you know they'll only come back to life again. Do you really want to face Prince Keleseth in Cataclysm?

That's right, it's the Shadow Priests' guide to The Crimson Halls. Follow me after the break.

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Filed under: Priest, (Priest) Spiritual Guidance

Nick Yee from the Daedalus Project is now looking for data for a new project he's working on with the Palo Alto Research Center. Now, PARC is a pretty big name in computing, and Nick Yee is justly known for his long running work on the Daedalus Project, so the idea that a group with PARC's resources is studying WoW and other MMO's using someone as knowledgeable as Mr. Yee is very interesting all told. The idea of trying to 'predict who people are just from the way they behave in a virtual world ' and my own personal curiosity for whether nor not they'll run into a certain Mr. Gabriel's GIFT (warning, there is a swearword behind that link) has me decidedly curious.

The full text of the press release will be behind the cut for those interested.

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Filed under: News items

The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how, but do you know the why? Each week Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft.

There are quite a lot of dragonflights all told. So far we've covered the red, black, blue, green, twilight and nether dragonflights. This time, we'll be talking about the Bronze Dragonflight, who are the shepherds and guardians of time itself. Whether it's monitoring anomalies in Andorhal, sending players back to prevent Thrall from running into packs of elites as if he expected motherly hugs and affection rather than fire and pain, or having you plant an hourglass in their dragonshrine and team up with yourself from the future, these guys are all about time. Nozdormu, their leader and father figure, is the Aspect of Time given his powers by Norgannon the Titan and also given certain knowledge of exactly when and where he's going to die to keep him humble. That sounds like a great plan, huh?

And it is indeed their time to be profiled. So suck it up, Anarchronos, we're going in. (I actually still have my Signet Ring of the Bronze Dragonflight and Band of the Eternal Defender in the bank. If nothing else, the Bronze Dragonflight used to be a reliable source for your ring needs.)

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Filed under: Lore, Know your Lore

The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on guild happenings, raid progression rankings, player milestones and more. Have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share? E-mail TheClassifieds@wow.com.

You guys really gobbled up the megadose of uberness in last week's Classifieds. "While most heroics I run are absolutely clinical (little talk, fast runs), there are still enough jerks out there to make me appreciate this acknowledgement of not only those players who make this game fun most of the time, but also those willing to recognize them for doing so," wrote Daco. "A hearty thx to all mentioned here for their uberness." jjtwalton concurred:"I can not believe how awesome this feature is. I don't end up looking at races, guilds, GearScore, progress, enchants or achievements ... Alllll I see is people doing the right thing, the good thing and having fun. It's a testament to humans in general, I guess, but I thought I would chime in with my two cents (pennies in England!) and say bravo and /highfive to the WoW community who are being so awesome."

We'd love to keep it up -- and that's up to you! Send your shout-outs for the coolest players you've grouped with to Random Acts of Uberness at TheClassifieds@wow.com. Please try to keep your tales to 150 words or less. In other Classifieds business, we've got a new spin on recruiting we'd like you all to try out this week, too. But first, back to the current week's Random Acts of Uberness, and one PUGger who earned what should be a new achievement named in his honor, The Glory of the Uber-Hero:

Anonymous PUG leader, Emberstorm battlegroup-A "On this night, the group's tank said, 'We're going after two achievements here; is that ok?'. (I love achievements; this was fine.) During the run, it came to light that two of the team members were helping a third polish off the Glory of the Hero achievement. I mentioned that I needed a few of those sub-achievements as well. 'Show me,' the tank says. ..."

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Filed under: Guilds, The Classifieds