We saw Origano’s first machinima offering back in February, when he debuted with The Achiever – Rapid Defense. The video was interesting, but plagued with some soundtrack issues. However, it looks like he took that criticism to heart and is now back with the second installment, The Achiever – The Duelist. The premise is the same. The main character (self-titled as Origano) is competing in a gameshow called the Achiever. This time, however, the Tauren protagonist has to win a duel. He starts out demanding equal opponents, and proceeds to have trouble with the arrangement. I don’t want to give the story away, but it’s a pretty nice progression of events. I think Origano is really showing promise with his story arrangements, though it could probably move at a little faster pace. Origano’s got some really good gags in here. The whole

Raid Rx has returned from retirement! Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new WoW blog for all things UI, macro, and addon related. This week, we examine the relationship between tank and healer. More importantly, we look at the raid saving cooldowns that can mean the difference between a boss kill and a wipe. I read a post last week on the Orly Factor. It was about communicating with healers. Now if you visit the blog, the first thing you’ll discover is that it’s a Warrior tanking blog! But Matt! Why on earth are you reading a tanking blog? Have you forsaken us? No, I have not. I’ve always been first and foremost a healer. However, this does not mean I do not pay attention to tanks. The relationship between tank and

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products. In the World of Warcraft, there are three types of craftspeople: those that gather, those that enhance, and those that create gear. They are not mutually exclusive. For example, Scribes can create off-hand weaponry in addition to glyphs and wow goldJewelcrafters can prospect gems from raw materials. Gathering professions are known to be money-makers, and in addition, when asked, many players will also list the enhancement professions as well: Inscription, although it is currently suffering from a lack of demand created by the introduction of dual-specs with patch 3.1. Jewelcrafting is on the list, not because of its ability to create gear such as rings, but mainly because of the Prospecting and gems, cut or raw. Enchanting is often stated, not only because of the

We’ve had clean and easy rolling restarts on Tuesday mornings more often lately, but this week we won’t be so lucky.. The servers will be going down for maintenance at 5:00 AM PDT and are estimated to be back online at 11:00am PDT. Will servers be back up on time this week? Maybe, maybe not! We can certainly hope so. As usual, if anything unexpected unfolds throughout the maintenance period tomorrow, we’ll be here to let you know what we know, which might not be much more than you know but you never know, you know?

Spellpower maces and wands and bows are cute and all. But sometimes you just want a big sword. Name: Armageddon (Wowhead, Thottbot, WoWDigger) Type: Epic Two-hand Sword Damage/Speed: 554-831 / 3.40 (203.7 DPS) Attributes: First, just look at that thing. This is clearly a sword that, when swung in an arcward manner, brings all sorts of death and destruction. +101 Strength, and +108 Stamina, which is (definitely not the first weapon ever, but) the first weapon I’ve seen that has two triple-digit buffs. Gallery: Phat Loot Phriday Improves crit strike rating by 58, and haste rating by 100 This weapon is for anyone who wants to do melee damage (and even for you Death Knights with your crazy two-hand tanking) and can wield a giant two-hander. Warriors especially. And speaking of Warriors, the sword isn’t unique at all. So yes, if you have specced

I had a really bad Battlegrounds run today. About three hours of various Battlegrounds without winning a single one. There are days like this, when I think to myself that the Alliance have it so much better. I mean, it’s a miracle on our Battlegroup when the Horde wins Alterac Valley. On the other hand, I know that in some Battlegroups, the Horde probably lord it over. I have to admit there are days when we go on long winning streaks (except in Alterac…). That said, there’s always that speck of envy. Well, in the case of myself and the Alliance, it’s less envy than it is consternation. For the longest time, my wife envied the Alliance for the Sprite Darter Hatchling, but that’s going to get straightened out soon enough. We also used to whine how the Alliance got the Winterspring Frostsabers, while the Horde never quite got the