Shadow priests enter arms race

Cold war hots up as face melters get mortal strike.

DALARAN. In two apparently unrelated incidents, weapons inspectors were expelled from the sovereign states of shadow priests and frost mages yesterday as both factions declared their intent to test mortal strike debuffs in open combat.

Both groups defended their actions by saying the technology would be used primarily as a deterrent to open agression.

The international association of arms warriors scoffed at these claims and responded immediately with a statement condemning the developments as irresponsible. They warned of "a new age of escalating hostilities" as Azeroth's class-based organisations strove to reproduce their own similar effects and countermeasures.

The coalition of combat medics, representing healers of all classes and factions, refused to comment publicly, but one inside source admitted the mood was "very sombre indeed".

If shadow priests and frost mages have manage to secure mortal strikes, most seasoned pvp observers fear it will only be a matter of time before more classes follow suit.

"To tell you the truth, this is what keeps me awake at night," one veteran Horde gladiator told this reporter. "It was bad enough when only arms warriors had it. Do you think those frost mages will be able to keep it a secret? No shit, it'll be in the hands of rogues before the season's out. Then all hell will break loose. It's the beginning of the end."

Wetting my pants

That was a rather lame allusion to rumours of the next expansion, not a confession of incontinence (I'm not ready to admit to that yet). It's a rather wonderful possibility that we will soon be heading to the Maelstrom to kill some naga, set the murlocs free, and face Azshara herself. We might finally get to visit the land of the goblins, and how cool would it be to get water mounts? Your very own dredger or muck crawler. Actually, if I was any more excited, I might really wee.

Shadow priest Q&A

I've just noticed the shadow priest Q&A on mmo champion. It's not the official priest Q&A that we're all awaiting so eagerly, but there will inevitably be some overlaps. I'm not entirely delighted by everything I've read, but it's a start. What do you think?

On first impression, I think many of these questions are rather poorly worded. With a few exceptions, Purplecadet has spotted a problem, decided on the cause and designed a solution before even asking the question - which is invariably, 'will you implement my solution?' It's a rather arrogant way to approach one of the game's designers, not to mention a poor way to try and understand what's going on in their heads.

So while some of Ghostcrawler's answers alarm me, I'm going to remain calm and hope that the official Q&A retains a more open-minded approach to our class.

They're doing WHAT?

A steam-powered auctioneer has been added to the Dalaran Like Clockwork engineering shop, allowing access to one's faction auction house. The steam-powered auctioneer was programmed with a superiority chip, and will only interact with grand master engineers.

Forget that rogues can eat me in one faceroll, or that paladins can solo ANYTHING. This is the only thing worth fighting for in the whole of WoW. I want a dalaran auctioneer too, dammit!

*Doilies sold separately

Online game-playing grandparents are notoriously difficult to buy for. Thankfully, we can all now breathe a sigh of relief as Blizzard comes to the rescue with a new series of WoW pet figureines. You read that correctly.

Meet Speedy, yours for only €27.95. Also available are Stinker and Rocket Bot. The set of three is a snip at €68.85. What do you think, is this Blizzard's attempt to crack the QVC market?