Bryan

For a helm, he should just buy Felsteel Helm off the AH - better for tanking than the one he has or the D3 helm. And I wouldn't waste the money on the Green Fortress bracers, because they are comparable to a fairly common drop off Attumen, the first boss in Kara.

What this guy really needs to do is read Eanin's Failsafe Uncrushability guide on Maintankadin. BTW totally agree with the 0/49/12 talent build you suggest - that's the standard, and for someone who is just gearing up, they should not consider anything less efficient imho. =D

X3F and all its bloggers rock, especially if I win! XD

This kind of stuff is what makes WoW an MMO - it isn't griefing, it's a living world. Very cool, imho, although obviously it's been done before.

The only profession that I've levelled to a decent extent is enchanting - my main is a 300 enchanting Pally. It is a pain to level, because you have to blow around 200g on the way there. That said, as a Pally I fortunately didn't need mount money, and some guildies would send me items that wouldn't sell on the AH to DE. I did go in debt in order to buy all the formulas from the trainer in Uldaman, though.

I blew through mats and never made a dime until I hit 265, which is when you can do Fiery. From that point on, with a little patience, you can definitely level to 300 just by selling things. As far as getting TO 265, I've seen a few people in the Trade channel trying to sell the low level enchantments, but I doubt there are many takers. I've seen a few smart people sell the particular enchantment they need to skill up for well below the mats' cost (usually, this is an intermediate enchantment, like a +5, not something like a +7 that will readily sell for a profit).

Anyway, I love being an enchanter. The bottom line is that you need to be sure you're willing to "waste" a couple hundred gold grinding your skill before you see any kind of return. Make sure you don't do a single enchantment until you're no longer getting skillups for DEs, because those are "free" points. And find a good skillup guide that will show you an efficient way to do things.

Blackhand has queues into the 300-400s every weeknight, and it's terrible. Blizzard needs to get their act together and figure it out - there are overpopulated servers, and there are underpopulated servers (grats if yours is "just right") - mix the two together and let's take care of this problem.

BC is about to hit and it doesn't look like most servers are going to get any help beforehand. Get ready for queues that are even worse.

Mr. Sliwinski:

Please do not refer to this guy as "conservative" or "right-leaning". To do so is to erect a sort of straw man, and to participate in the misuse of terminology. Confucious is alleged to have said that using the proper titles for things is the matter of primary importance to a society, and while I don't quite agree, words and terms do have meanings that are not arbitrary. This person is a racist and probably clinically mentally ill. For you to call them "conservative" or "right-leaning" is irresponsible, just as it would be irresponsible to refer to Fidel Castro as a "liberal".

Perhaps you were just repeating the terms used by Computer Games, but copying bad journalism is still bad journalism.

Thanks for your consideration to these thoughts.

BILLY THE KID! Billy the Kid will make you famous, not Doc Holliday...

Yes, I think you are out of the mainstream by not thinking that Sony is being uncool to its customers by fighting homebrew - although probably only enthusiasts who read a lot of internet sites feel this way. Still, you write for an enthusiast site. So, yes. I own a lot of Sony products, and most if not all of them give me the feeling that Sony is not interested in making me happy; they are interested in what they think are their own concerns, not realizing that they would be best served by making their customers happy. It kind of amazes me, actually. Their attitudes are clearly on display right now with the lead up to the PS3, and the spirit of "arrogance" that Joystiq has written about recently.

For the love of GOD, the most needed backwards compatibility titles are MERCENARIES and BURNOUT 3! ;)

This entire conversation (as well as the initial post) is a waste of time, because that is in no way a badunkadunk. That is merely athletic.