Like any other form of PvP, you either love dueling or you hate it. Dueling is a great way to learn how to maximize abilities and test combos and macros. There are very few established guidelines for how to appropriate ly duel. Borkovic of Caelestraz asked in the official forums if it is acceptable to heal in a duel. Fliara of Terenas stated that protocols vary depending on server and faction, and suggested that rules should be established beforehand.

The first response, by Mlcho of Kirin Tor who takes an "all's fair in love and Warcraft" approach, was met with considerable agreement throughout the thread:

Use everything in your power to produce a win. Who cares if you use a pot? Who cares if you bandage?
If they whine, it's because they weren't prepared.

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.

For the past several weeks, Insider Trader has been examining the recipes that craftsmen can acquire from factions by earning reputation with them.

So far, we've covered:

• Designs for jewelcrafters, part one.
• Plans for blacksmiths.
• Recipes for alchemists.
• Patterns for leatherworkers.
• Patterns for tailors.

Last week, we covered several factions that offer jewelcrafting recipes, but because of the sheer number available, are continuing with the last five factions this week.

The first five factions listed here can be viewed by checking out last week's edition of Insider Trader, while the last five factions, in bold text, will be covered today.

• Violet Eye, honored. (Karazhan)
• Thrallmar or Honor Hold, revered.
• Lower City, revered.
• Aldor or Scryers, revered.
• Sha'tar, revered.
• Keepers of Time, revered.
• Scale of the Sands, revered. (Mount Hyjal)
• Cenarion Expedition, exalted.
• Consortium, exalted.
• Shattered Sun Offensive, exalted.

In Wrath of the Lich King, all spells are being reworked so that their cost, rather than being a static mana value, is a percentage of your base mana pool (this is largely to prevent downranking). For instance, in the current, live game, Levitate costs 100 mana. In the Wrath beta, Levitate costs 3% of base mana But what is base mana?

It's the amount of mana you have before talents, buffs, and stats (like intellect and +mana) are factored in, and before base intellect from your race is taken into account. In other words, it's the amount of mana you would have if you were naked, unbuffed, and un-talented, and had no Intellect. Thus, it is a static value for each character of a given class/level combination. Getting more Int from gear will not raise the cost of spells, because it does not raise your base mana pool (it raises total mana pool). [Thanks for the correction, Breck and Improbable.]

So to the person who wrote in asking "what's the point of getting more Int if it will just make spell costs go up," I hope that answers your question: more Int does not affect your base mana pool. Ultimately we should see little difference from this base-mana-pool spell cost change, aside from the death of downranking.

About a month ago, we posted in anticipation of a pet name generator that Petaholics Anonymous was working on (especially of interest to me, since I've been playing my Hunter like crazy lately), and now the Pet-o-licious Namerator is now up and running. Right now, I've got a raptor that I've named Jumpy, but I very well could have named it "Bahir" or "Claws," both good names out of the Namerator. As was decided back on the poll, PA has apparently put the names into Silly and Serious categories, so you choose your pet's family and whether you want a silly or serious name, and you can choose from the ones that pop out (and if you don't like any of them, you can click Generate again and you'll get more).

If you've got a great pet name that's not in there, you can submit some more, as well, and apparently Bats are the most needed category (though I really love "Guano" as a silly Bat name, and "Vlad" as serious -- why would you need anything else?). Definitely some fun ideas in there for Hunters to choose from. Unfortunately, we'll probably still see Hunters going around with their pet "Cat" following them (so boring!), but maybe this will help.

Every week, Daniel Whitcomb brings you analysis, opinions, and advice on the world of the Death Knight in Lichborne.

The Death Knight, as is expected, is still very much a class in flux. This sometimes makes it difficult to pontificate too much about certain aspects of the Death Knight class, because they may be completely different in the next Beta build.

That said, a lot of aspects of the Death Knight class are solidifying nicely at this point. Itemization, or at least the way Death Knights use stats, is pretty solid, and worth discussing so that you have an idea of what gear upgrades to look for you as you exit the Ebon Hold and head out into the wider world.

Can you believe it's been almost a year since we started our podcast? Since it began, we've welcomed a few guests, joked around plenty, and done a lot (a lot) of what we do best: talking about all the top news from the last week in Warcraft. This week, we're hitting episode number 50, and since it's our quinquagenary, we're going all out: we'll have a review of some of our favorite moments from previous shows, we'll have a few giveaways just for listeners of the live show, and we may even break out the champagne.

Oh, and we'll still do all the things we normally do on the podcast -- Adam Holisky with join Turpster and I, and we'll do a live version of our popular Ask a Beta Tester feature (so bring your questions to the IRC channel at irc.mmoirc.com in #wowradio). And we've got to talk about the first player to wield three legendaries at the same time, right? We'll also see what people think of the new hairstyles, and we'll answer your emails (send them to theshow@wowinsider.com).

It's gonna be a blowout for sure. Tune in tomorrow afternoon on WoW Radio at 3:30pm Eastern for the fiftieth episode of the WoW Insider Show.

Time for a little WoW blog roundup, cowpokes! Whoopie-ti-yi-yo!

Making gold with second account | Full Time WoW Addict
With Blizzard's new refer-a-friend incentive, you might be thinking about opening a second account to get those XP benefits. Even better, Examino at Full Time WoW Addict shows you how to earn your raiding gold with some light multiboxing. No Wrath spoilers!

Spellpower and You: Gearing in WotLK | Banana Shoulders
Siha at Banana Shoulders (best blog name ever!) compares theories to practice in Wrath's current Paladin spellpower changes.

Achievements and why they suck | Yet Another Warlock Nerf
Some people think the achievements system coming in Wrath is awesome sauce. Horns at Yet Another Warlock Nerf vigorously disagrees.

Three more blog dogies after the break...

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, continues to offer up some tips for new feral Druids that aspire to Karazhan greatness... or who at least want to have some idea of what they can expect.

Last week, we talked about preparing for Karazhan as a feral Druid.

Okay, enough of the preparation. It's time for some fun!

The first question often asked is, what will your main role in the raid be?

The typical answer; it varies, depending on your group.

Okay, enough of the safe answers, I'm going to actually make my own recommendations and give you my own opinions for playing a feral Druid in Karazhan.

As I haven't raided in content more difficult than Gruul and Magtheridon, I invite the more experienced Druids in the community to offer your own suggestions on this part in the comments. But as I am still weekly leading friends into Karazhan as a feral Druid (and a Shadow Priest), these are the things I have learned along the way.

So, what roles can you, the feral Druid, expect to play?

Over the course of one Karazhan run, you could expect to main tank, off-tank, melee DPS, AoE DPS and heal. Yes, all in the same run. Seriously.

So wipe that "I got a tank set, lols I is ready" thought out of your mind.

Continue on after the break!

Not to be outdone by yesterday's Characters app for the iPhone, Michael Gaines has posted his own WoW app to the iTunes App Store, this one tracking server status easily and quickly in iPhone format. WarcraftStat is as simple as they come -- you get a list of all the servers, their PvP/PvE designation, their population label, and the little arrows found on the usual realm status page showing whether you're good to go for ganking noobs in Westfall, or the realm is still down.

Unfortunately, all of the realms are a little much -- I'd kind of rather choose a couple of pertinent realms to me and only see those on the page. And notification of when a realm goes up or down might be nice, too, not to mention that the app is currently US realms only. But as an app that tells you whether realms are up or down, WarcraftStat does its job. It's on the App Store right now, and available for a free download.

[ Thanks, Brad! ]

Every Wednesday, Encrypted Text explores issues affecting Rogues and those who group with them. This week Jason Harper, the new Rogue feature blogger, discusses battleground PvP, useful macros and techniques that strive to keep you alive longer.

My last Encrypted Text post generated a lot of terrific feedback, and when you smoosh it all up and blend it I think you'll find that saying Rogues are a controversial class is a bit of an understatement. No more especially so than on the PvP side of things. In a future column I'll dig deeper into specific PvE instances, both raid and heroic, as well as give you some commentary on the new skills that come with the Wrath expansion. In the column this week we're talking about PvP and how to get the most out of it with your Rogue. I hope to make this a semi-regular topic, updating as we go, focusing on one or two PvP related items each time.

If you could distill the feelings of the majority of non-Rogues out there, at least the most vocal ones, you'd come up with a collective "over-powered" when it comes to PvP. Designed to counter most (but not all) casting classes, especially those *not* geared or spec'd to prevent spell push-back, our goal is to get our target into melee range and keep them there. Keeping this in mind, my first bit of PvP advice for you is avoid fair fights at all costs.

Our latest podcast is now up for your listening enjoyment, but beware: there's an aural bomb hidden inside it -- as we suggested last week, if you listen to the show, you just may hear not only Turpster's famous singing voice, but mine and John Patricelli's as well. Please note: WoW Insider can not be held responsible for any trauma caused by hearing our "Just Can't Wait for Lich King" song. It is scary.

• We also chatted about achievements and why I can't wait for them. And I forgot to mention: the best thing about achievements? Blizzard is giving us another ding graphic for them, this time white! I love that graphic!
• We talked about the Authenticator, and how it's not quite as secure as everything thought.
• We all agreed that the mounts and small pets getting out of our bags was a great change.
• Turpster told us about his experience playing the Wrath beta so far and what he thinks of Death Knights and the new zones.
• And we answered a lot of emails: we talked about /played time and why it shouldn't be completely embarrassing, and why raiding isn't quite yet done before the next expansion.

Oh, and we did give away a beta key, direct from Turpster's goodie bag at WWI. We've selected a winner in our contest already, so if you didn't enter, time is up (that's why we said to listen to the show last week!), and if you did enter, check your email.

And finally, Turpster has not yet posted the mp3 of our song (though I'm not sure why you'd want to listen to it any more than you have to), but dotOrion on the WoW Radio forums has cut it directly out of the podcast recording, so if you really want an MP3 of the tune (for blackmail purposes or anything else you need it for), there you go.

Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week John Patricelli, the Big Bear Butt Blogger, tries to roll a bunch of feral druid advice together to help new druids get up to speed in Karazhan.

"Hi, I'm Windshadow, and I'm a Feral Druid."

This is a statement of pride, not of shame.

I am absolutely, now and forever, a feral Druid, unable to be restrained or 'tamed'... although I'm aware some folks suffer from a case of wishful thinking.

In the past, I've released a bunch of articles about gearing up for Karazhan.

Breaking them up by spec like I did, I'm afraid some folks might get the wrong idea about how we play our class.

The assumption may be that only one of those sets is important to you... if you are a feral Druid, you only need a bear tanking set, for example. Even some of those that play Druids may start to think, we have only one fixed role in a run.

That's not the impression I wanted to give.

Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. With summer half way through and some guilds in various states of disarray, Matticus will help you figure out what to look for when recruiting a Holy Priest!

Stop me if you've heard this one. A guild you know of has stopped raiding due to the summer season. Players are losing interest or are leaving the game or the guild entirely to go pursue other activities. It just so happens one of the characters lost is a really good Holy Priest! The replacements picked up just didn't perform up to the standard of the old Priest! Even though the new Priest has more healing, more regen, and better gear, they're still struggling on their healing jobs! What gives? Don't worry! This week, I plan on helping you dispel (get it?) a few myths, provide some raiding benchmarks and provide a few places to go to get your raid back and running in full gear again.

I think everyone who's run an instance and a raid has been in this situation -- you wait all night for a Karazhan run, it fills, so you decide to go run a heroic or some other five man, and then a few minutes in, you get a whisper: "Someone left, and we need a healer! Are you still in?"

Sigh. An embarrassment of riches. So now what do you do: ditch your newfound 5man group for the raid you originally wanted, or stick with the group you signed on with, passing up the original raid? Neither way is very smooth -- either you disappoint the folks you're with, and look like an elitist raider, or you tell the raiders that you're already in a group and run the risk that they won't ask you again. So awkward -- it's like choosing a social circle in high school all over again.

Usually, the best course of action I've found is to cover yourself before you leave either group -- jump into LFG or ping the guild for a replacement before you leave anybody behind. Short of finding someone to fill in for your fill in, the next best option is probably to explain yourself well and promise help next time -- hopefully the group you're with will understand that raiding is fun and/or the raiders will understand that you couldn't wait and keep you on the list for next time. Any other ideas for getting out of an instance pinch like this?