Yes, I did just get this last night, but actually, we’re doing this one based on @ronaldscott’s Twitter recommendation.

Name: Weather-beaten Fishing Hat (Wowhead, Thottbot, Armory)
Type: Rare Cloth Head
Armor: 127
Attributes:

• +40 Stamina, +40 Spirit
• On equip: increased fishing +5. This hat isn’t to be confused with the Lucky Fishing Hat, which also gives this fishing bonus, and is available only through turn-ins at the Stranglethorn Fishing Tournament. +5 bonus isn’t a huge bonus to fishing at all (your main +bonus comes from your fishing pole), but given that it’s an extra +5, it’s worth having.

• And here’s the good part: on use, attach a lure to your equipped fishing pole that increases fishing by +75 for 10 minutes. With a 10 minute cooldown, you effectively have an infinite lure. Unfortunately, the highest bonus from lures is actually 100, so if you need those extra few points somewhere, you’ll still have to shell out for a lure (or, more likely, pick them up from the fishing quest reward). But this hat will come in handy if you’re doing any regular fishing for sure.
• Plus, can you say stylin’? No, really, this shares a model with the “Stylin’” hats, which means it looks pimp.

How to Get It: It’s a rare (like 1%) drop from the Bag of Fishing Treasures, the reward from the daily fishing quests in Shattrath or Dalaran. So basically all you’ve got to do is fish a lot and get lucky. Fortunately, Blizzard just buffed the daily fishing quest — it now sometimes gives a Dalaran cooking award, which is a big help if you’re going for that hat.

And this is a great time to mention something we heard at BlizzCon as well. Blizzard is working on tuning up fishing, and they mentioned Animal Crossing as an influence. They said that likely, you’ll see a fish in the water and decide whether or not you want to go after it, and then you’ll throw your lure in and have to watch as the fish does or doesn’t decide to bite it. Does that sound more fun? Maybe not, but Blizzard has said they specifically want to bring more fun into fishing and all of the other professions soon. Should be interesting to see.

Getting Rid of It: You’ll want to save it, because even though the regular stats may not be that great, odds are you’ll have to wait quite a while until another fishing hat option rolls around again. But just in case they do implement that Animal Crossing thing, and you hate it so much you want to quit fishing and burn all of your gear, you can sell it off for 2g 54s 90c, or disenchant it into a Large Prismatic Shard, with a small chance of a Void Crystal.

All the World’s a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles.

So the Cataclysm expansion has officially been announced at BlizzCon 2009 and while there are many things we knew before (such as the addition of Goblins and Worgen), there are many things we just learned (such as the beginnings of their proper lore), and many things we still don’t know as well — some things even Blizzard still seems undecided about.

But there are some indications of things to come which will surely affect roleplayers. The most obvious change involves the changes the whole world will be going through. Each of our existing characters’ will have their own reaction to the cataclysm, of course, as well as the opportunity to go through the game from 1 to 60 with a new character, and maybe not be quite as bored as you were the last 6 times you did it. Your new tauren paladin’s leveling experience will be very different from your tauren shaman’s, and each one will have different things to talk about once they reach the level cap.

Another obvious addition is that you can start another character with whichever new race you like most. Many players have been wanting to play goblins and worgen for a long time, and appreciate the new parity that the two races bring to the two factions — the Horde now has a diminutive race that is likely the closest the Horde could ever come to “cute,” and the Alliance finally gets a race that is actually monstrous. This opens the doors for people to try out the opposite faction even more than before. We’ve already talked about these two races in a previous article, but now that the expansion’s new races are confirmed with additional lore and information, there’s quite a bit more to say.

Goblins again

We’ve talked about goblins before, and our guesses weren’t too far off. There’s a new group of goblins (which is to say, not from the Steemwheedle Cartel that we’re used to dealing with), which is joining up with the Horde out of desperation rather than profit. Goblins aren’t used to needing other races’ help — ever since they overthrew their troll overlords back in ancient times, they’ve been masters of their own destinies. Now, they’re second fiddles to the orcs and all the other races who’ve been established in the Horde for a long time now.

So in addition to all the cunning archetypes of tradesman, cheat, mad-scientist and everything else we’ve come to expect from goblins, we have another element of dealing with the betrayal, desperation, and loss that forced them to join the Horde in the first place. These are not new issues for Horde races, even if they are relatively new to the goblins themselves — perhaps this was the one aspect goblins needed to become true members of the Horde, which they never had before — a crushing loss that shakes them to the foundations of their identity.

Worgen again

I was wrong when I guessed that the playable worgen would be from their original home dimension, wherever that is. I even guessed they would be from the Emerald Dream, and to my knowledge, a relationship between the worgen and the Dream hasn’t showed up either. There is most certainly some sort of connection to the night elves and druidism, however, and time will tell what the exact nature of that is.

The worgen we play are closer to what we normally call werewolves — people who suffer from a transformative curse — rather than the “actual” worgen from another dimension that first appeared in Kalimdor, although hopefully the starting quests in Gilneas will bring these two elements together in some plausible way.

Still, maybe it’s ultimately cooler for the playable worgen to be like werewolves — that gives us two forms instead of one, and it gives us more to relate to as well. Ask me to roleplay a wolf-like alien species from another dimension, and I won’t really know what to do until I do a lot of reading. (Incidentally many roleplayers with draenei characters had trouble with this as well, often playing them in ways that didn’t fit the lore until accurate knowledge about their characteristics and origins became more widespread.) But if you ask me to roleplay a man afflicted with a curse that turns him into a monster, that’s much closer to home. I can take inspiration for my character anywhere from The Incredible Hulk to Wolverine, to say nothing of Professor Lupin from the Harry Potter series, or even the main character of An American Werewolf in London. The theme of “the beast within” is a profound one for all sorts of stories with a ton of interesting opportunities for roleplayers to explore in the game.

This is especially true for worgen druids, whose “caster” form is still quite beastly whenever your character is in combat. Your character could be a normal human librarian, street-sweeper or whatnot, until danger arrives and he or she suddenly turns into a wolf-man, then a bear, then a cat, then a tree, then a weird wolf-eared, owl-faced, teletubby-shaped creature of moonfire-spamming death! Well obviously you can’t have all those forms in just one talent spec, but still, that’s a lot of different forms! Combine that with a normal human form you can stay in out of combat and you get a lot of possibilities for fun roleplaying.

A worgen hunter has good potential too, since he can use the actual “Beast Within” ability to become a big red worgen whenever he likes, combined with the human-worgen shifting ability, such a hunter could express emotion very graphically.

If worgen could only be shamans, then they would be able to shift between human, werewolf, and ghost wolf forms and create a whole spectrum of wolfyness. Oh well.

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

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about vanilla WoW and the way things used to be. Now that experience gains can be shut off, players can actually move through some of this content the way it was meant to be experienced. Well, it won’t be exactly the way it was, but it’s as close as we’re getting.

Blizzard has also been implementing more elements from the old world. Naxxramas was a vanilla dungeon, and was redone to become the first raid instance of the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, set back on Azeroth no less.

In fact, soon we’ll all be battling Onyxia once again, deep breaths and all!

Professions used to be different too. Of course, most of the changes to the system have been for the better, but there were some elements that could be recycled for the future.

Last week, Insider Trader discussed a new, more progressive direction for professions, including some of the ways that this could be implemented. This week I’ll be shedding new light on one particular vanilla element that has been phased out, exploring ways in which it could be reborn.

The way we were
Professions used to be an integral part of raiding. While we still use professions to produce raid consumables, we no longer use special crafted gear sets for select encounters, there are no special reagents that drop only in raids, and there are no professional gains from defeating raid bosses.

That is, there are not many of those things. Not like the good old days. Remember when there were raid bosses that required a Skinning skill of 315 to skin? That was when the cap was set firmly at 300. Not only did you need a + skinning enchant, but you also had to raid in order to get one of two weapons that would raise your Skinning skill another 10 points.

The Zulian Slicer was a drop from High Priest Thekal in Zul’Gurub, while the Finkle’s Skinner dropped from The Beast in Upper Blackrock Spire. While both could replace a regular skinning knife in your bags, to get the +10 bonus skill, either weapon would need to be equipped. Because Paladins cannot equip daggers, for example, Paladin Skinners required the Zulian Slicer.

That is, if they wanted to be able to skin The Beast or Onyxia. This wasn’t only desirable, but necessary for raid progression. Skinning Onyxia gives the Scale of Onyxia, which was required to craft the Onyxia Scale Cloaks that guilds needed to progress through Blackwing Lair.

The Beast, when skinned, sometimes dropped Pristine Hide of the Beast, which was used in the crafting of some very special epics.

Do you recall the Zandalar Tribe? Raiding rewards were not just loot and content, but special crafting reagents, reputations, in-depth quest lines and paths to loot that were very involved. The Zul’Gurub experience was a broad one, and in turn, expanded the professions experience as well.

Now and then
While Karazhan had limited crafting rewards, and Naxxramas ala Wrath did have an optional frost resistance gear (crafted) component, the biggest role that professions currently play in raiding is in consumables, and even that market is not stable. When Naxx started to get boring before Ulduar came out, few people were even bothering with flasks.

Ulduar, an instance that was appropriately difficult when it opened, and perhaps with the odd nerf, has been nerf-batted so hard that people are skipping flasks and food once again.

These days, Engineers are having some fun in raids, deconstructing mechanical “corpses” and hunting down a pattern or two, but I really think that it could be so much more.

Of course, it’s important not to glorify the past. Some of these mechanisms were painful grinds rather than enriching paths. How could we expand our professions by pairing it with raiding, without forcing players to repeat tasks that quickly become undesirable?

Back to the future
Let’s use the upcoming raid instance, Icecrown Citadel, to do our theorizing, even though the details for this raid have likely already been determined.

We will be headed there alongside the Argent Crusade, having championed our home factions and proven ourselves in the Crusader’s Coliseum, with the death of Arthas on our minds.

This would be the perfect opportunity to introduce bonus crafting recipes and materials, perhaps only to those raiders who also have the Crusader title, which conveniently enough opens up access to a new Quartermaster.

Perhaps, in order to progress, a certain portion of your raid (even if only one member) would need this title. This would allow them to collect materials that would form, in concert with crafted items from other raid members with reagents that drop in the dungeon, some sort of device or quest item that would allow access further into the instance.

This “hump” has been seen before. Right now, in Ulduar, the only way to reach Algalon is to complete Iron Council on hard mode which will start a quest chain that requires you to beat each of the Keepers on hard mode. Each successfully downed Keeper grants an item that eventually combines to grant you access to Algalon.

There is no reason why the hump could not be related to professions. I can see why people might groan at the prospect of having to create a new frost or shadow resistance set for every person in the raid in order to progress, so the “hump” idea might just do the trick.

There is also no reason why there could not be some legendary items in our crafting futures. Extremely rare reagents, or fragments, could drop and, when handed in to the right NPC in the right amount, would grant you a recipe of, well, legendary proportions.

Crafted mounts, something relatively “new” on the scene, could also be tied into raiding. I’d put myself through an awful lot to get a magical carpet that is less pink, and there are several professions that can’t craft mounts yet at all. Beating Arthas himself could open up a quest line to such a recipe, or perhaps the Argent Crusade could grant you one if you gathered enough “resources.”

Last but not least, raiding achievements could grant recipes or profession quests in addition to titles and fancy mounts.

Personally though, I think that I should be able to tailor a mini-Arthas or Yoggy doll to give to my Northrend orphan pet to drag around and hug when he feels lonely. Can I get that seconded?

Ready Check is a twice-a-week column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. T

Welcome back to Ready Check. We took some time last week to take a look at the changes that patch 3.2 brought to raiding in Azeroth, but now we’re back to burning through Ulduar. Today, we’ll take a look at Mimiron, and then start working on the final portions of the instance with General Vezax.

So far, you’ve wrecked the Flame Leviathan. You euthanized Razorscale. You gave a cold shower to Ignis the Furnace Master. You marvelled at Deconstructor. When it came to Kologarn, you damned well shall pass. The Assembly of Iron said court was out of session, and Auriaya and her small legion of adds gave you no pause. You’ve asked Hodir, “Who’s your Daddy?” You’ve entered the mountain, and tackled Thorim.

If you’ve gotten this far into Ulduar, you’re doing pretty good. You’ve had a lot of opportunity to enjoy some fairly fun and interesting fights. You’ll especially remember Flame Leviathan and Deconstructor, of course. Both of these fights are pretty awesome. I remember the first time I saw each of those bosses, and being thrilled with the creative, sort of steam-punk style. Mimiron is more of that same, fun style.

Mimiron is the creator of both those bosses, and is appropriately ensconced in the area called “The Spark of Imagination.” As interesting as Flame Leviathan and Deconstructor were, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Mimiron is a four phase fight. Each phase is almost completely different from the others until the final phase. At that point, everything you fought in the first three phases combines to form V-07-TR-0N, and you fight them all together. (It’s a Voltron reference, son.)

We normally cover the abilities first, and there’s no reason to change that now. We’re going to do the same here. However, to help it make sense, the four phases are:

1. Leviathan MKII — The upgrade to Flame Leviathan (and you have no vehicles this time)
2. Assault Bot — A cannon robot that shoots plasma at you
3. Aerial Command Unit — He flies, and attacks you!
4. All previous three enemies combine for one, big Voltron!

Okay, so all that being said, let’s start breaking down the phases. Also, fair warning now: Mimiron is one of the encounters that healers least enjoy. Saying that the encounter is “healing intsensive” is to put it mildly. Abilities first:

Leviathan MKII

• Napalm Shell – A casted ability that does moderate Fire damage to any target within 5 yards of the impact point. It also places a DoT on anyone it hits which continues to burn for 8 seconds.
• Plasma Blast – A powerful blast that will nearly kill its target, doing significant damage for 6 seconds.
• Proximity Mine – Places a mine that will explode on contact.
• Shock Blast – An ability that does incredibly huge amounts of Nature damage to targets within 15 yards.

VX-001 (Anti-personnel Assault Cannon)

• Heat Wave – Instantly deals moderate Fire damage, with another short terms DoT to targets within 80 yards.
• Rapid Burst – Deals notable damage to all targets in front of VX-001.
• Rocket Strike – A 4-second duration ability that deals instant kill Fire damage at two targeted locations.
• Spinning Up – The VX-001 starts spinning for 4 seconds and P3Wx2 Laser Barrage is cast. The P3Wx2 Laser Barrage deals significant Arcane damage to targets within 80 yards in front of VX-001.

Aerial Command Unit

• Plasma Ball – Thrown at the target who currently has the highest threat, dealing powerful damage.
• Summon Adds – The ACU will summon Bomb Bots, Assault Bots, and Junk Bots. Assault Bots drop the Magnetic Core. Droppping this magnet under the Aerial Command Unit temporarily brings it to the ground and disables it. While disabled, it takes an additional 50% damage from all sources.
• Assault Bots summon a Magnetic Field which roots the target and increases damage taken by 30% for 6 seconds. Can be dispelled.
• Bomb Bots which Explode for very high Fire damage in a 5 yard radius.

V-07-TR-0N

• Proximity Mine – Summons a mine that deals heavy Fire damage when triggered. The proximity mine can be disarmed by Rogues.
• Shock Blast – A 5-second ability that deals deadly Nature damage to targets within 15 yards.
• Hand Pulse – Deals Fire damage in a large radius.
• Rocket Strike – A 4-second cast that deals instant-death level Fire damage at two targeted locations.
• P3Wx2 Laser Barrage – Deals Arcane damage to targets within 80 yards in front of VX-001.

Putting it all together

Mimiron is kind of an odd fight. It is fairly difficult to explain until you see the phases. Then, once you’ve seen them all, it sounds more difficult than it actually is. But it’s still more difficult than you’d think. See? Weird. It’s both difficult and not. It’s a paradox.

The fight still evens out into four different phases. We’ll start at the top and go through each four of the phases.

Phase One

When the fight with Mimiron starts, your ranged spell casters and healers want to immediately spread out around the circle of mines. Don’t touch them. (As a rule, don’t stand in fire, eyebeams, or anything of that ilk — so certainly don’t stand in the mines.) Melee DPS characters go into the usual position, behind the Leviathan tank. Even though he has no hands, you still want to get behind him.

Expect all of your healing to be fervently targeted on the tank. Non-tanks should have health potions (and bandages if you possess the skills to pull First Aid off) on hand, to try and lighten the load on healers. After each Plasma Blast, expect a Shock Blast shortly thereafter. The tank should be ready to pull back at the signs of Plasma Blast, and then immediately pull back in. Try not to move the way Leviathan is facing — keep him in the same direction. After the Napalm Shell, healers might need to help top off the rest of your raid. Again, other than that, you’ll be keeping your heals firmly on the main tank.

Phase Two

After you’ve taken down the Phase One Leviathan, you’ll face down the Anti-personnel Assault Cannon. Do your best to have everyone spread out evenly in a circle around Mimiron’s current incarnation. Obviously, melee is going to need to be right up against the cannon. Other than that, however, do your best to spread out.

Rapid Burst does relatively light damage, but it’s going to do that damage to everyone who is in front of Mimiron. The big news during this phase is Rocket Strike. (If you’ve been watching the official forums, you’ll have seen more than one complaint about Rocket Strike.) When the red circle appears on the ground, get the hell out of the circle. If you don’t, you’re going to die.

When you see Spinning Up activate, get out from in front of the cannon.

There’s no real tanking, per se, during the fight. Just do your best to burn it down as soon as possible.

Phase Three

Try to congregate in about one-third of the room, to help manage your general aggro and location. If you have a Warrior who can Spell Reflect, they can bounce back Plasma Balls to great effect. Otherwise, you’re going to have wide and varied methods for keeping ranged aggro, determined by the nature of your tank.

Have someone kite the Bomb Bots. Your reflexes need to be well-honed for this, of course, but you need to pick it up at range as soon as it spawns. You probably want a macro to do so, but if you’re especially quick at mouse target selection, that’s fine too.

As you kill Assault Bots, pick up the electromagnets. Use them to force the air unit down to the ground, where you can then blow it up.

Phase Four

And I’ll form the head! Okay, sorry, I got a little carried away there. But how could you not? After downing all three previous phases, Mimiron’s minions will all form V-07-TR-0N. Each of the sections are independently targetable, but start out at 50% of their previous health.

Each one has a power from their previous phases, which were spelled out above.

Just like during the Leviathan phase, melee should stand inside the circle of mines, while ranged fighters should stand outside the circle of mines. Position your folks “behind” Mimiron.

Don’t stand in red circles, they’re still an instant kill. And just to add an extra level of difficulty, they happen twice as often as before.

You must kill all three sections of Mimiron within 10 seconds of one another. If you do not do so, they will respawn. For most raids, a respawn means that you need to do it all over again.

Mimiron can be very frustrating, because of the immense amount of timing and practice that it can take. With four different phases, a raid needs to be flexible and responsive. As soon as each phase ends, you’ll need to swap to the next tactic. It’s nearly four different boss fights in one. However, this is the fight whose success I found most rewarding once I got it down.

As a final note. Pressing the red button activates Hard Mode, where everything gets harder. We’ll cover that soon.

We’ll see you over the weekend for General Vezax.

Every weekend, the WoW.com asks you (and ourselves) a simple question: What are you playing? This week, our bloggers’ answers are compiled by Michael Sacco, directed by Michael Sacco, and starring Michael Sacco.

It’s Saturday again! I know this because Friday is the night my guild’s 10-man progression group, uh, progresses. And as of last night, with the defeat of Mimiron on hard mode and Yogg-Saron with one Keeper assisting, we’ve progressed directly onto the backs of Rusted Proto-Drakes. This is the mount that I’ve wanted since I first laid eyes on it, and by gum, now I’ve got it. I’m so happy about it I’m probably going to tell you again in just a moment.

So, yeah, Friday’s over! That means it’s time for WRUP. Just what are our contributors up to? Check out the sampling below, replete with Twitter names where applicable, and mosey on past the jump if you’re all about minutiae like the rest of the internet at large.

• Adam Holisky: (@adamholisky) Loremaster and equipping all my alts with flying skill. Hooray for the mount changes!
• Alex Ziebart: (@aziebart) Gearing up my Paladin alt a bit more through the new 5-man so I can skip stupid Naxxramas and go straight into Ulduar. Also leveling Turpen, getting Triumph badges on my main, and we finally got a post up on the new blog I’ll be contributing to now and then. Busy busy.
• Robin Torres: (@cosmiclaurel) The plan to get to 80 before BlizzCon has evaporated into mist as I have to make a decision: Do I go feral just so that I can look at the pretty kitty? Instead, I am cultivating a pile o’ Alliance alts (I know! Where’s my Horde bias?) to support Itchee the Gnome Warlock (The Spawn’s character). Yeah, I think part of my altitis problem is due to a profession addiction.
• Lisa Poisso: (@eMused) Sneaking in more levels on my new Rogue in “alternate” areas, so I don’t get off track on quest lines with my usual groupmates. Ummm, what were those areas again?

• Eddie Carrington: (@Brigwyn) I’d like to get a few levels under my belt this weekend. Then work on the next segment in the “So you want to be a Hunter” guide.
• Daniel Whitcomb: I will probably run 5-man normal Coliseum over and over and over again, if only for the tank trinket. Also, now that my alts have Cold Weather flying, I may try to level a few of them, or at least get them through the Northrend Children’s Week quests.
• Dan O’Halloran: Grouping with some casual friends to tackle either the new Argent Colisseum content or try for the 10-man VoA boss. Which spec for my Druid? Depends what my group is missing tonight.
• Zach Yonzon: (@battlemasters) – Writing up a guide and Overachiever for Isle of Conquest… which is the absolute best excuse to hit the Battleground. Not that I need an excuse, though. I also need some, uh, inspiration for my webcomic. Maybe hitting the trail over the weekend, too.
• Michael Sacco: (@mikesacco)- I just got One Light and Firefighter, so I’ll be riding around aimlessly on my Rusted Proto-Drake for the next several weeks. Between constitutionals I’ll be working on my novel and getting ready for the big move.
• Allison Robert: Heroics, heroics, heroics!
• Mark Turpin: (@The_T) Back from France, le vin et le fromage = tres bon, mais I haven’t had a chance to play 3.2 yet –I also can’t believe that Blizzard had the audacity to release a major content patch while I was on holiday… So I’ll be making my way through the changes and hopefully stepping into the new 5 Man.
• Matthew Rossi: If I play at all it will most likely be alt grinding in the Trial of the Champion.

What about you crazy kids? What are you up to this weekend, on Azeroth or that other planet?

Not that anyone should be surprised, but the first round of in-game bug fixes for patch 3.2 are out. These fixes were announced tonight, however they might not be completely active until the servers undergo maintenance tomorrow.

There are many, many bugs this patch. Some are more obvious than others, like XT not being doable for most folks. Others are more subtle, like Wintergrasp Commendations being able to be sent to alts, who then were able to take them into Battlegrounds and level like mad.

The full list of fixes announced today after the break. We’ll continue to bring you these in-game fixes as Blizzard announces them over the next week (or longer, if things are really bad).

• The weapon damage and armor of items dropped in the 5-man Coliseum Heroic version have been updated to match their item level.
• Using Braxley’s Backyard Moonshine will no longer trigger the regurgitation animation.
• Wintergrasp Commendation and Commendation of Bravery can no longer be used inside any battlegrounds.
• Kel’Thuzad should no longer cause some players to disconnect during the encounter.
• Reginald Arcfire will no longer grant Horde players access to the Alliance auction house.
• Epic gem recipes are now available from the following vendors in Shattrath:
  • Kirembri Silvermane (Scryer)
  • Nemiha (Aldor)
  • Inessera (Aldor)
• XT-002 Deconstructor will now spawn in fewer adds.
• The Black Knight will now drop a Frozen Orb in heroic difficulty.
• Razorgore can once again be controlled multiple times and defeated appropriately.