Big News Of The Week

Everyone Is Talking LFG

The surprise of the holiday season has taken the WoW community into a level of play and discussion that we never anticipated. The cross-realm Looking For Group system launched with patch 3.3 only two weeks ago today has generated more interest and chatter than anything Blizzard has added to the game in years.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

My Kingdom For A Tank!

If there is only one thing that the new cross-realm Looking For Group system has taught us, it is this: There are not as many tanks playing WoW as we wish there were. A DPS character who joins LFG is waiting on a healer and a tank. A healer who joins LFG is waiting on a tank to come along. A tank… waits for no one.

Icecrown Citadel Is Slow Mode

If you’ve not yet gotten your raid team in to Icecrown Citadel, it looks like there is no important rush. According to every rumor we can lay hands on, the next wing of ICC will not open until at least Jan. 7. That means a full four weeks of clearing (or trials at clearing) the first wing of the place, with its four epic boss fights, before you even have a chance to continue.

Town Cryer

Anglachel of the Mug’thol server writes: I recently heard the episode where Randy made the claim that he didn’t know anyone who played a Death Knight tank as their main character, and seeing as I do just that, I thought I’d let you all know that such a thing does indeed exist. Death Knights as a whole seem to be rather hated by the other classes, but I find that for the most part tanks are so hard to come by that they’re loved no matter their class. Besides, no one holds AoE aggro quite like an unholy DK tank, and there’s something distinctly badass about standing toe to toe with a boss like Onyxia and beating on her with a giant two handed weapon. What makes a good DK tank and why do people hate Death Knights?

Drop Of The Week

Your User Interface Is Showing

A long-time regular poster in The Instance forums named Cyan made a splash a couple of weeks ago with the revelation that he decided to put a lot of effort into producing what has become one of the best-looking UI setups we’ve ever laid eyes on. He’s calling it Coehl UI, and we can’t just keep it to ourselves and the few people who have stumbled across it in a thread in our forums. This thing looks sharp.

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

The song featured at the end of the episode is called Epic Winter Veil Fail. The file, other WoW related songs and the Super Number One podcast can be found at supernumberone.libsyn.com.

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Big News Of The Week

It’s The Lich King! Run! Run Away!

The “Fall Of The Lich King” patch 3.3 to World Of Warcraft went live this week, bringing nothing resembling a fall of Arthas to the game – yet – but really shook up several aspects of the game, and gave players all over the World (of Warcraft) a lot to do during the holidays and beyond.

Get your new Corehound Authenticator here!

And the new 3.3 Blizzard video here!

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Pure, Tasty, Well-cooked Scuttlebutt

Blizzard launched their Holiday Dessert Contest this week, offering up a collection of Warcraft books to the ten best creators of kitchen confections with Warcraft or Diablo or Starcraft themes.

Much Ado About The New Hunter Ammo
On the last episode of The Instance, we talked about how engineers would be racing to create the hot new toy for this years Christmas…, I mean… for all the raiding hunter girls and boys to load their bows and guns with. The new Icecrown Citadel faction quartermaster is selling engineering plans for the highest DPS ammo in the game, and the cost is the equivalent of 23 of the new emblems of frost. Sound easy? Well guess what? You can only buy one of them.

Town Cryer

Troy B. who plays on Andorhal writes: Since the new patch came out, I’ve been seeing people with “The Patient” title in their name. How do I get that? Do I have to wait in some queue for a long time or something?

John Z. writes: I play an undead shadow priest on Earthen ring named Jovache (pronounced Joe-vash). I’ve been doing quests I missed in Northrend and I’ve come acorss the need to find Orgrim’s hammer for dailies. My problem with that is it’s constantly on the move. Is there an easy way to find it and if not is there a mod that might help me?

Drop Of The Week

Lich King Royale

Just watch this.

And Giveaway!!  That’s right, we’re giving away not one but two of these beautiful statues, courtesy of Blizzard this week.  Listen to find out who wins!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The Instance is giving away two limited edition Chen Stormstout statues to lucky (and talented) listeners this week.  Listen to win!

Big News Of The Week

Patch 3.3 Is On The Way, Are You Ready?

And what does it really mean to be ready for 3.3, anyhow? Ready or not, it’s coming, and probably coming out this next Tuesday, December 8. That is, unless Blizzard needs one more week to get the change to the game ready. We’re betting on December 8.

So we’ve talked a lot about patch 3.3 for the last couple of months, but we’ve not yet speculated on what players can do to make the most of it when it hits. The usual routine for many players just after patch day is buy-what-I-need-now and worry-about-the-cost-later. Players ofter spend thousands of gold needlessly just after a patch, or lose fortunes speculating the wrong way in the game market. We’ve got some general tips for you that might help.

Rumors And Scuttlebutt

Darkmoon Faire Las Vegas

That venerable card-game-centric tournament and meet-up that we know and love so much is coming to Sin City this week, and if you can make it, you don’t want to miss this one. It’s a rare chance for players to test their battle hardened army against the best in the game. Each player will bring their army of three and compete against other players’ armies for prizes and fame. The tournament will be run in flights with the top players moving on to the second day playoff on Sunday. The top 8 finishers will ride out of the event with the elusive Spectral Tiger Loot card, and the winner will walk away with an Apple Macbook Pro!

• The event takes place this weekend, Dec. 4-6 at the Rio.
• In addition to great prizes and loot cards, Top 16 finishers in the championship will go home with a brand new Ruins of Alterac map.
• All participants in the Minis Championship events during the weekend get their very own “Mortimer the Malign” mini-statue.
• Nice prizes in the Gadgetzan challenge.

Town Cryer

Kuam from the Wyrmrest Accord realm writes: Recently I have been playing a Balance druid and I’ve been wondering about haste, the druid has several talents that increase spell haste by X%. if I have no base haste do I gain any thing from this Talent? Logically, no, +1% of 0 is 0, right?

Krista J. writes: Why does everyone automatically assume I’m a guy playing girl toons? … It’s kind of annoying always being a called a dude.

Drop Of The Week

The Pandaren Chen Stormstout Statue

The first pandaren collectible ever! Capturing the elusive (and world-celebrated) Chen Stormstout for the first time in 3D, the Pandaren Brewmaster Deluxe Action Figure is a limited edition, one-of-a-kind Blizzard online store exclusive! This premium-sculpted piece stands at a colossal 8″, features Chen’s signature bamboo Bo staff and Brewmaster’s keg and comes packaged in a 4-color, spot UV collectors window box.
Art Directed by Blizzard Cinematic Creative Director Nick Carpenter. Exquisitely sculpted by Ray Villafane and painstakingly painted by Eddie Wires.

And Giveaway!! That’s right, we’re giving away not one but two of these beautiful statues, courtesy of Blizzard this week.  Listen to win!

Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz and the outstanding Instance Community.

Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.

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The MP3 File
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