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Filed under: PvP

We've talked a lot recently about what's right with WoW. Whether it's the metacommunity, making with the stabby, lore, friends, etc., World of Warcraft keeps us coming back for more. But at the same time, 1.3 million people have left the game since February of this year. WoW still has the most active accounts over all other MMOs at 8.3 million, but people are leaving. Why do you think that is?

Many people complain about the dailies. There are so many and if you are a completionist, your daily to-do list is overwhelming. Others complain about the people. The perceived preponderance of funsuckers in Azeroth can make you not want to log back in, particularly after an unpleasant experience.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

While the song is most famous for its presence in Lost Boys, Legs turned it into the soundtrack for Black Angel in 2008. For all that it's full of gothic imagery and moody images, I still love the vision of 3 blood elf angels floating in mid-air. Call me a sucker, but it's still one of my favorite tiny bits of machinima. All that being said, this video is 5 years old. It's just amazing how time flies.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

With all the excitement of patch 5.3, you may have missed this interesting little update from Hearthstone: a preview for one of the game board options, Secrets of Stranglethorn Vale. Not only is the artwork beautiful and appropriately atmospheric, but the description hints at a certain interactivity for the player.

If your opponent is taking a long time deciding their move for the turn, an interactive player board offers something for you to do while you're waiting. The Stranglethorn Vale preview also implies that there are going to be multiple different interactive player boards, all based on various zones and cities in WoW. Now I find myself rather curious to see what other areas Blizzard chooses to include as player board options. I'd love to have Desolace, Ashenvale, and the Plaguelands, personally. What kind of boards would you like to spice up your Hearthstone battles?

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Filed under: News items, Hearthstone Insider

Frankly, as a solidly Alliance player right now, I find patch 5.3 satisfying. I get why some players don't, but frankly I don't mind spending some time exploring the Horde from an Alliance perspective, without having to faction switch or roll a new character. In fact, I hope it's something they hold onto for future content - I'd love to see a storyline where a group of Horde had to infiltrate Ironforge and work alongside some Dark Irons, or even a story that pit blood elf agents against their forsaken allies by using the worgen as catspaws. My point is, getting to directly interact with Vol'jin was pretty fun, getting to bring the war to the Horde itself while setting up the Darkspear to do the heavy lifting made sense to me, and in general I enjoyed all of the scenarios and quests I've done this patch.

But just because I like something it doesn't follow that you all feel the same way. This patch's story is unfolding in interesting new ways - there's no reputation faction to unlock via daily quests, there are scenarios but no dungeons, and quests that don't repeat. It's quite possible to see much, if not all, of the storyline in one day. It's definitely a departure from what we've seen in previous Mists of Pandaria patches.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Mists of Pandaria

While many tout using the mouse for speedy gameplay, you can't overlook the power of the keyboard. While moving and turning is most quickly done with a mouse, it's a slow way to activate spells or open menus, so if you want to speed up your game, it's a good idea to learn WoW's default keyboard shortcuts as well as how to make your own key bindings and macros. We'll cover the basics and help you get started.

WoW's keyboard shortcuts
You may be surprised to see how much you can control with your keyboard. The first step to keyboard mastery is by opening up WoW's key binding interface. Just hit your escape key to open up the game menu and then select Key Bindings. Now, we aren't going to mention every key binding in WoW here, because as you scroll through this menu you'll see there are a lot of them.

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Filed under: WoW Rookie

As we've mentioned before, one of the biggest changes to patch 5.3 is the ability to get off-spec loot in LFR. It has the potential to be a real game changer for players who occupy a critical non-DPS role. This means if you queue up for LFR as a tank, you'll be able to get DPS gear instead of tanking gear. And for tanks this is especially important, as they always seem to lag behind in DPS gear (while this might not help for a heroic tank having to go DPS, for everyone else it's a boon).

Last night Ghostcrawler tweeted the following:

Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget 5.3 loot spec. It was a common request. Right click on your name plate to change.

- Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) May 23, 2013

Honestly, Ghostcrawler's tweet raises an eyebrow. Why did he do this? Without reading too much into what he's saying, I think it's obvious that to some extent it's because he feels not enough people are aware of it or are using it as they should be (otherwise why say something). I'm wondering if Blizzard has preliminary stats already about the number of people using off-spec loot and it's not where they want it.

One of the reasons for that is it's tucked away in the menu options, somewhere that is relatively hidden from the visual crawl (where you move your view around the window/UI and look for options). Even as a veteran WoW player I occasionally forget that something is in the player menu, and I know there's been a few times when I'm suddenly surprised something's there.

I hope that players are using this to their full advantage; run LFR as a tank and get DPS gear is a pretty sweet deal. What's your use of the function so far, or are you waiting until the weekend to start your LFR runs? For more of the really important things about 5.3 you might have missed, check out or post listing 'em.

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Filed under: News items

Every week, join us as we present you with The WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW Insider to emails from our readers and what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth.

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Filed under: Podcasts, WoW Insider Show

It's been about a decade now since the crash of the Exodar, and the ageless ways of the draenei are beginning to weave themselves into the fabric Azeroth. Yet of all Azeroth's peoples and despite what must be an ancient history, the draenei remain shrouded in a certain amount of mystery. Into that breach steps the draenei guild Kharanei of Wyrmrest Accord (US), working to preserve existing draenei heritage while pushing the culture forward into Azerothian society.

"We're establishing guild canon lore and culture all the time, everything from weddings to holidays to folk tales and language," says Nelua, Kharanei's GM. "We actually invented a week-long holiday to coincide with the Indian Diwali, the Festival of Light (much like Blizzard bases its holidays on existing ones). It commemorates the flight from Argus and the triumph of good over evil while paying respects to those who died fighting the good fight. A large, open-attendance celebration was held in Telaar, and it was very successful -- a very proud moment for the guild."

Kharanei brings more than merely entertaining ideas to the table. A lore-driven council with other Alliance guilds and a storyteller-guided roleplaying framework keep its day-to-day progress feeling fresh and alive, pulling the draenei into an ever-closer relationship with the world they now inhabit.

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Filed under: Interviews, 15 Minutes of Fame

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky (@adamholisky) will be your host today.

Today's Queue is dedicated to the magic missile.

It was the first spell that I learned when I was playing the original Baldur's Gate way back when. That spell killed those damn level one wolves roaming around the field right after the old grandfather dude died. I just had to remember not to run into them without being ready.

Daniel asked:

Do your coworkers know that you play WoW? Do they get it?

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Filed under: The Queue