With Hunter pet information recently added to the armory, Data Miner Zardoz has wasted no time getting his hands on the raw Hunter pet data and breaking it down. The data is only for level 80 Hunters, and only 10,000 of those at that, but it still gives a very interesting snapshot of what’s going with the Hunter’s best friends. It might not be too big a surprise that Cats are far and away the most popular pet at a count of around 9500, nearly doubling again the amount of Wolves, who come in just under 5000, which are in turn used in numbers over twice as much as the next popular choice, Gorillas, who are just above 2800 in number. Now mind you, this information does take into account pets that are in the stables as well, and there’s certainly the possibility that a lot of them have just stayed in the stables for a long time. Still, it’s sort of crazy to see a handful of pets blow away all comers. If Cats and Wolves seem to insurmountably blow them all away, is it is a sign of overpoweredness, or just a sign that no matter what new skins and pet families you implement, people will always return to their old favorites? Or does it just mean that a bunch of old Hunters used Cats and Wolves back when they

Blizzard’s class Q&A is back again, this time with a class that’s near to my heart: Druid. I play my Druid more than my Priest these days (who says there’s a healer shortage?), and I’ve grown pretty enamored with the class. But you didn’t come hear to hear me talk about me. What did Ghostcrawler have to say on behalf of the dev team? Every class Q&A so far has started with a section on the class’s past and present. In original WoW, end-game Druids were basically healing-only. BC: Bears were pretty good; cats and (b)oomkin were probably still underpowered. This was the era of the hybrid tax. Wrath: all four specs are viable. Of course, PvP is a bit different, with Resto’s dominance in the BC era. After the break we’ll take a look a closer look at a few areas, and present to you the complete Q&A. The predictable follow-up question, “what makes druids special,” receives a predictable answer: forms. Shapeshift forms are possibly even too dominant – druids don’t usually use forms that aren’t “their” form (for their spec). Druids also have four roles (the only class to do so), and have some unique utility spells and travel

Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products. I love it when a content patch includes some professions love. As the details keep surfacing, patch 3.2 is looking better than ever. In fact, with the upcoming patch, Engineers will finally be able to drop their Gnomish and/or Goblin specialties (“for a fee”)! This has been one of those issues, like ugly and buggy cat forms, that has dragged on and on. The materials for Jeeves have also been updated (get the schematic!). If you’re wondering just what you should be saving, hop on through the break for that and other patch 3.2 news! Alchemy The reagents for Transmute: Eye of Zul were listed as 3 Eternal Life, which seemed incredibly cheap. The reagents are now set to be 3 Forest Emerald, which not only seems fair, but also helps to support the market for blue-quality gems. In fact, the market for these gems may not crash as one might predict, and that is partly due to the epic gem transmutes. The other, most recent change to Alchemy is that Flask of Petrification, used to save your butt should aggro find it, will be much, much cheaper. It will no longer require Black Lotus or Mountain Silversage, using only 7 Stonescale

Viradu of Ragnaros was simply trying to start a hunter alt when he stumbled across evidence of a horrifying crime. Five different orcs, each of a different class, were lying dead on the ground of Durotar. The corpses had been arranged in identical positions and dumped in a straight line. The Pween Scene Investigators were called, and after intensive testing on the bodies, they determined that the orcs had been dead for two to four hours and tasted delicious with hot sauce. Authorities have not identified a suspect, but believe that the murderer may suffer from a serious mental condition known as “altaholism.” Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to

Another week has come and gone again, leaving us stranded in yet another weekend (and a holiday weekend for many of us, at that). How are we ever going to kill the time until Monday? By spending some time in Azeroth! So what’s everyone playing this weekend? The WoW.com team will get the conversation started, so to see what we’re up to — and tell us what you’re up to! — in game this weekend, read on! Adam Holisky (@adamholisky): Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a land side. No escape from reality. (Which means I’m playing my Mage/Druid Horde dualbox toons). Alex Ziebart (@aziebart): It finally seems like I’ll get some time to dig into leveling Turpen again, so that’s what I’ll be doing in between raids, 4th of July celebrations, and working. Amanda Miller: Going after Yogg once again. I might try to fit in a farming session or two. Daniel Whitcomb (@Danielwhitcomb): I’ve been bitten by the bug to level my Blood Elf Paladin for some reason, so I’m working on him. He also only needs to kill Ahune for Flame Keeper, so I’ll see if I can grab that for him as well. Oh yeah, I can also mention that I am gonna start my weight loss regimen

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. Let’s talk about assigned group healing. Group healing is one of those assignments that’s often necessary but also easily forgotten. Many raid leaders whether they’re leading pickup groups or guild raids often forget to establish specific group healing assignments. I include myself in the category of forgetful leaders. Group healing back then Naxx really spoiled us. It was extremely easy to just tell healers to raid heal and brute force heal our way through the various encounters. Sure we’d have dedicated tank healers but I know I never designated specific group healers. Why? Because there was never a need to. Raid healing was very simple. Coordination wasn’t even needed at all. Target players, hit healing spells and call it a day. It was quite easy to “faceroll” your way to victory as a healer. Healers did not have to be assigned to heal group 1 or group 2 or so on because a smart heal would just happen to land on a player who desperately needed it (Chain Heal or