There’s lots of Warlock jokes (my favorite is the thought that the first Warlock with a 41-point Demonology talent will be the most powerful in the known Azeroth universe), “any pally for 8 seconds,” the expected suggestion of Arthas the Lich King, and even a mention of High Overlord Saurfang (who, with that link, might replace Captain Placeholder as my new favorite NPC). In the end, the debate basically comes down between Sargeras on the bad side (he’s a fallen Titan who’s become the main villain in Warcraft lore) and Elune on the good side– even though her identity in Azeroth as the “God” of the Night Elves isn’t quite clear even inside the Blizzard offices. Sargeras, however, is currently trapped in an “unbeing” state, so the title probably goes to the Titans, a group of beings who oversee the Universe (and eat old gods like C’thun for lunch– the Master’s Glaive in Darkshore is a remnant of the Titans’ power).

Of course, as Drysc points out later in the thread, Chris Metzen is really the most powerful being in the Warcraft universe. Way to ruin the fun, Drysc.From www.wow.com.

We hunters are a misunderstood class in so many ways. Other classes don’t understand how our bond with our pets reaches beyond logic and min-maxing. They don’t understand that though our class is insanely easy to solo and level with, we are one of the most difficult ranged DPS classes to play well in raids. They don’t understand that we’re just, well, cooler than them.

But we’re not here today to discuss the mental failings of other classes. We are here to discuss some of the hunter abilities most commonly misunderstood by hunters themselves. Sometimes the problem is the convoluted WoW tooltips that seem deliberately designed to confuse readers. Sometimes our abilities have interesting mechanics that aren’t reflected in the tooltips at all, and of course sometimes people just plain misread abilities.

Join me after the cut as we take a look at the three abilities most commonly misunderstood by hunters and explain how they really work. Not a week goes by that I don’t get at least one email or comment about every one of these abilities.

Noxious Stings

The confusion with Noxious Stings over in the Survival talent tree lies in the fact that it has two unrelated effects, and many hunters mistakenly believe the two effects are the same. Here’s what the tooltip says:

If Wyvern Sting is dispelled, the dispeller is also afflicted by Wyvern Sting lasting 50% of the duration remaining, and increases all damage done by you on targets afflicted by your Serpent Sting by 3%.

From a raid DPS perspective, we don’t care about Wyvern Sting at all. We’re shooting the boss, and as raid CC goes, Wyvern Sting is a horrible one. The important thing to note is the second effect of this talent, which has nothing to do with Wyvern Sting.

Ignore everything before the “and” in the tooltip. Everything after that conjunction is a separate ability. As long as we have Serpent Sting on our target, all damage we do is increased by 3% (with all three ranks of the talent). You don’t ever need to fire Wyvern Sting to benefit from that effect. You only need Serpent Sting on your target — which we’re keeping up anyway — and all the rest of your damage is boosted by 3%. That’s why every SV hunter has that talent!

Aimed Shot

Without question Aimed Shot is a purely confusing tooltip. It’s the kind of instruction manual you would expect from, say, a race of people that irradiated their entire homeland, forcing them to freeload off a great and overly kind nation. The misunderstanding of Aimed Shot is also one of the most fervently argued. Here’s what the tooltip says:

An aimed shot that increases ranged damage by 408 and reduces healing done to that target by 50%. Lasts 10 sec.

Once again we have an ability with two separate effects. What trips most hunters up — and understandably, I think — is the wording of the damage increase. Many hunters read this to mean that Aimed Shot will increase the damage of all their ranged attacks by 408 for the entire 10 seconds of the debuff. It does not!

The damage increase only refers to the single Aimed Shot damage itself, and nothing else. In other words it’s firing a shot that does normal damage plus 408. The 10 seconds refers only to the healing debuff and nothing else. This is easy enough to test, it just takes a lot of time and ammo. Sit at a target dummy with no one else there and fire 1,000 auto shots (with no proc gear on). Note the average hit and crit damage. Now do the same thing but keep Aimed Shot up the entire time. You’ll see no statistically significant change in your average shot damage.

Aimed Shot is still a great shot for all specs, and an essential one for MM. It’s an instant shot that can be cast on the move, and it’s boosted by many other talents, including Sniper Training, Piercing Shots, and Marked for Death among them. But Aimed Shot is not increasing the damage of your other shots.

Chimera Shot

The MM Chimera Shot is a shot that is both misunderstood, and has a hidden little gem that can boost your dps if you’re aware of it. In other words, there are two bits to this shot that are misunderstood. Here’s what the tooltip says:

You deal 125% weapon damage, refreshing the current Sting on your target and triggering an effect:

Serpent Sting – Instantly deals 40% of the damage done by your Serpent Sting.

I’m leaving out the rest of the tooltip here and focusing on the Serpent Sting portion, which is where all the confusion comes in to play.

The first mistake often made comes from how the Serpent Sting portion of Chimera Shot damage is calculated. The damage is based off the total possible damage of your Serpent Sting over the entire duration of the Serpent Sting. It doesn’t matter how much time has passed on the Serpent Sting DOT, or how much time is left. The damage is always based on the entire possible damage of Serpent Sting.

This is why the Glyph of Serpent Sting is so fantastic for MM hunters. Sure you’ll never have Serpent Sting run out, but by extending the maximum duration, we’re increasing the total damage that Serpent Sting would do, which increases the Serpent Sting portion of our Chimera Shot damage. Similarly the tier 9 set bonus has no impact on Chimera Shot. Chimera Shot calculates based on the damage of Serpent Sting without crits, though of course Chimera Shot itself can crit.

The second element of Chimera Shot can only be discovered through testing — there’s nothing on the tooltip to suggest how it really works. Here we’re looking at exactly how Chimera Shot refreshes Serpent Sting when you get attack power buffs (usually through procs) and percentage damage buffs or debuffs. Strangely, AP and percentage damage buffs work differently.

Chimera Shot recalculates the Serpent Sting damage based on AP every time it’s cast. Thus if you have Serpent Sting up and you get a Ashen Band of Unmatched Vengeance proc for 480 extra AP, the next time you cast Chimera Shot it will recalculate your Serpent Sting damage and it’ll be higher because of the extra AP. When the proc goes away, the next Chimera Shot it will again recalculate your Serpent Sting based on your current AP and your damage will adjust back down.

However, Chimera Shot refreshes any percentage damage modifiers you have. In other words, it remembers what they were when Serpent Sting was first cast and keeps them. This means that if you cast Serpent Sting while in Aspect of the Viper, your Serpent Sting will be at -50% damage. If you then switch to Aspect of the Dragonhawk and cast Chimera Shot, your Serpent Sting will still be at -50% damage. Chimera Shot refreshes and remembers any percentage damage modifier from when Serpent Sting was first cast! Likewise if you start in Dragonhawk and then switch to Viper, Chimera Shot will refresh Serpent Sting without the -50% modifier.

This has some fabulous ramifications that MM hunters can take advantage of to boost their raid DPS.

Any time you get a percentage damage buff, you can re-cast Serpent Sting to take advantage of it (because percentage damage modifiers are only applied when Sperent Sting itself is cast). Thereafter you can keep that buff to your Serpent Sting for the rest of the fight by refreshing it with your Chimera Shot. Every percentage damage modifier should work the same way, and the main ones that you’re likely to see a lot are the rogue’s Tricks of the Trade, your pet’s Culling the Herd, and our tier 10 set bonus.

Now it’s not always worth your while to reapply Serpent Sting. You are wasting a global cooldown to do so, so you want to be sure you’re doing it on a target that’s going to be up for a good long while. In general Culling the Herd alone isn’t worth reapplying your Serpent Sting. However you absolutely want to do it when your tier 10 set bonus procs, and just wait for a time when Culling the Herd is also up. If you’re lucky you can talk a rogue into using Tricks of the Trade on you at the same time. Also, be sure that you’re reapplying your Serpent Sting during the Steady Shot portion of your rotation. No reason to bump your good shots.

Are There Others?

These three abilities are the ones that I see misunderstood most often, and no matter how many times I try to stomp them out, the questions and arguments keep coming back up. In this way they are much like rogues, a class we just can’t seem to exterminate completely.

Are there other abilities that you see commonly misunderstood within the hunter community? Not ones that hunters just don’t know how or when to use properly, but abilities that people think do something other than what they do? What kind of misunderstandings have you seen?

Welcome to Lichborne, where your host is still figuring out the perfect roleplay celebration macro for when he downs the Lich King — when he’s not writing about death knights, of course.

With Icecrown Citadel now properly breached, hopefully even some of the less uber among us are making our way into the breach to say hello to the father of all death knights, the Lich King himself. Of course, as we start upon the final leg of the journey that started so long ago at Light’s Hope Chapel, as we trudge ever closer to our destiny to the fight that will bring our story full circle, that may lead to our damnation or to a brighter new destiny, there’s certainly a question that’s on everyone’s minds: What about the loot?

It’s a good question. Let’s take a look at the loot from the first few bosses up in the citadel. Before we do, though, it’s a good idea to take a quicker refresher course in why we choose what we choose:

A note on deciding stats for DPS

Essentially, Weapon DPS and Strength are the most important stats for all three trees. Armor Penetration is next for Blood and Unholy, since they now do much of their damage physically. It’s a bit less important for Frost because of frost damage, but even then, you shouldn’t ignore it, since you’ll be using Obliterate on bosses. Crit rating isn’t amazing as it is for some classes, since we have fewer abilities that rely directly on critical strike, but it still has a place. Haste is back to the bottom of the barrel for just about everyone now that Unholy has Reaping back.

In general, consider stats to be stacked something like this:

Weapon DPS>Hit rating>Strength>Armor Penetration>Crit>Haste/Expertise for Unholy
Weapon DPS>Hit rating>Strength>Armor Penetration>Expertise>Crit>Haste for Blood
Weapon DPS>Hit rating>Strength>Expertise>Crit>Armor Penetration>Haste for Frost

It should be noted that Hit Rating and Expertise there only count up to the 8% special attack cap for hit and the 26 expertise dodge cap. In addition, while we will be mentioning plenty of good DPS armor, I’d remind Death Knight DPSers that the tier 10 4 piece bonus is going to be nice enough that you’ll probably want to make sure you get that above all, especially if you can get the 25 man version of the armor. Also, while there are heroic versions of nearly every loot drop in this table, we can’t technically get them yet, and most of them are just like their normal counterparts with a few more points of each stat. Whatever I say about the normal versions, just imagine I said them about the heroic versions too, only harder.

Marrowgar

10-Man

Marrowgar’s Scratching Choker is going to be pretty nice for just about any Death Knight tank. It even has a blue gem slot just begging for a stamina gem. If you’re tanking a PUG Marrowgar run for the weekly raid quest, this would probably be a perfect reward for your trouble.

Citadel Enforcer’s Claymore is a nice starter DPS weapon as you begin tier 10 content. It has a gem slot perfect for a good bold gem. Plus it’s a sword. Swords are awesome.

While 10-man Marrowgar drops 2 one-handed weapons, I’d recommend against them for Death Knights. Both are quick weapons, and dual wield Death Knights need slow weapons to properly interact with Threat of Thassarian for high damage strikes, which in turn provide more DPS (and threat, if you’re tanking).

25-Man

Bryntroll, The Bone Arbiter, despite being from the first boss in the instance, is going to give anything else out of Icecrown Citadel a run for it’s money in the DPS department, thanks in part to the lovely proc. In fact, the heroic version of this blade should beat out anything short of Shadowmourne. Some tanks are drooling over this too, as the two gem slots allow for some extra stamina gemming and the proc provides plenty of self-heal and threat. Still, If I was looking for a tank weapon, I’d pass this off to the DPS and hold out for a Cryptmaker or a Ramaldni’s Blade of Culling from deeper in the dungeon.

The Gendarme’s Cuirass includes a hefty amount of critical strike and hit rating, but the big news is 3 sockets, perfect for bold cardinal rubies, or, if you’re really hurting for hit rating, some Rigid King’s Amber. It’s still probably going to be replaced by the proper tier of 10 man, but it’ll hold you over.

The Bracers of Dark Reckoning are arguably about the best all around tanking bracers you’re going to find in game at the moment. Not a stat goes to waste here, and there’s a gem slot for even more stamina.

The Legguards of Lost Hope are perfect tank legs if you’re having trouble hitting your target. Can’t get threat if you can’t hit the target, right? If you don’t need hit rating though, there’s going to better tank legs you can pick up later on, or even just from badges.

Lady Deathwhisper

10-man

The Whispering Fanged Skull isn’t quite a clear upgrade to Death’s Choice/Verdict or any of the later trinkets that drop in ICC, but it’s still a nice 2nd DPS Trinket until you can get those later trinkets, and it is a great way to fill in some critical strike needs, especially if you’re already hit and expertise capped and don’t need trinkets with lots of said stats.

The Deathspeaker Zealot’s Helm is cursed with haste rating, which means it’s probably not gonna get on anyone’s Best in Slot list (unless they patch in yet another complete overhaul of Scourge Strike, I suppose), but it might be an alright stopgap until you can pick up your tier 10 helm.

The Ghoul Commander’s Cuirass is a very nice tanking breastplate with perfect Death Knight stats and 3 gem sockets. It should serve you well, although you’ll probably end up wanting to buy the Cataclysmic Chestguard or your tier 10 once you get the badges.

25-man

The Juggernaut Band is actually very nicely itemized for death knight tanks, and the heroic version especially is going to give close to the best avoidance you can find on a ring these days, plus it has a socket. It’s a smart pick for tanks.

While Tier 10 will probably edged it out overall, The Broken Ram Skull Helm is another good place to pick up some hit rating for your tank gear, and it has a very nice chunk of stamina besides.

The Ahn’kahar Onyx Neckguard is gonna be a pretty pro DPS choice if you need the hit rating, and the blue gem socket is perfect for throwing in a Nightmare Tear for your metagem bonus. If you don’t need the hit rating though, there’s going to be better later in the instance.

With tons of armor penetration and critical strike rating and 2 gem slots in addition to a nice chunk of strength, Blood-Soaked Saronite Stompers are just about perfect for the physical damage focused death knight DPSer. If there’s better, the Lich King will have to be the one to drop them.

The Gunship Battle

10-man

The Bone Drake’s Enameled Boots are another amazing DPS boot choice for death knights, thanks to copious expertise and armor penetration. If you don’t run 25-mans, these are probably going to be your DPS boots of choice. 2 gem slots doesn’t hurt here either.

The Frost Giant’s Cleaver is technically itemized more for rogues and Enhancement shamans, but then again, so are most one-handers, right? This is still a solid choice for dual wielders. It’s slow, which is what counts most, and it does have some useful critical strike rating and armor penetration.

The Abomination’s Bloody Ring is a nice tank ring, especially with the blue gem slot and a nicely large amount of stamina. The hit rating is what makes or breaks it. If you need more hit, take it.

While the Saronite Gargoyle Cloak is cursed with haste rating, it’ll still be a decent stopgap until you have the badges for the Might of the Ocean Serpent. The red gem slot doesn’t hurt there either.

25-man

The Corpse Tongue Coin is actually going to be one of the best pure avoidance trinkets you’ll find in game right now. There’s going to be stamina bearing trinkets that are probably better for general usage later in the instance, but this trinket stands as pretty awesome when you need to do some avoiding.

Boneguard Commander’s Pauldrons are close to about the best you’re going to get for pure effective health tank shoulders in game at the moment. The 2 gem slots nudge them just above Tier 10 tank shoulders if you don’t need the set piece bonuses.

Polar Bear Claw Bracers are arguably about the best you’re going to for DPS bracers in game currently as long as you need the hit rating. And if you still need more hit rating after you equip them, you have a yellow gem slot. It doesn’t hurt that these have a high amount of strength too.

The Skeleton Lord’s Circle is a great ring for getting your expertise capped. It has tons of strength and some critical strike rating too, and a yellow gem slot. It’ll probably make its way onto a lot of end game gear lists.

Deathbringer Saurfang

10-Man

With 2 blue gem slots and plenty of expertise and armor pen, Ramaladni’s Blade of Culling was arguably made for death knight tanks. It’ll work for DPS in a pinch, of course, and the Cryptmaker is probably still the better tanking mace overall if you don’t need the expertise, but this is a very good choice for death knight tanking.

Speaking of expertise for tanking, Deathforged Legplates also drop from the Deathbringer’s cache. If you need expertise, here’s your tanking legs. They’re also very solidly itemized otherwise, and have 3 sockets for even more beefing up. That said, if you don’t need the expertise, you’ll probably want to upgrade to tier 10 or Pillars of Might.

Gargoyle Spit Bracers round off the 10-man tank drops from Saurfang. Thanks to the extra armor, these are going to be highly desirable for a lot of tank sets. They’re certainly worth picking up.

The Blade-Scored Carapace is the DPS drop here, and while it’s not horrible, it does have a bit too much haste to be truly great. You may be better off holding out for your tier 10 chest here.

25-Man

Since armor penetration is pretty decent for all three DPS trees these days, there’s basically no reason not to love Deathbringer’s Will. Get it, use it, love it, especially if you’re Blood or Unholy.

The Bloodvenom Blade is a pretty smart choice for death knight dual wielding. If you’re going the DW route, get a pair of these.

DPS DKs are especially going to want their 4 piece set bonus, so grab those Vanquisher’s Marks of Sanctification as you can. Tanks can probably hold off a bit longer, but that 4 piece tank bonus is still pretty sweet.

Pokwan of Shadow Council writes in that he’s “one young tauren warrior who’s had enough of dwarven scum invading Mulgore to dig carelessly into the Earth Mother.” Most people just confine themselves to doing a couple of those annoying starting level quests. Violence is never the answer, Pokwan! Wait. In Azeroth, it’s actually always the answer. Never mind.

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@wow.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 remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val’kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today.

Today has to have some special significance. If you take the month and the year and add them together and subtract 2000 you get the day. The day. It’s like, the world is going to end or something, and it isn’t even 2012!

Oh well, here are the last questions I’ll ever answer in The Queue, because it’s the end of the world as we know it (which happens to be today’s reading music).

Rhornez asked…

“Why are warriors so awesome?”

Okay, obviously this is a troll comment or otherwise just a question to get people mad about their classes, but I do want to take a minute to address why I feel there are some classes which fit more into the natural archetypes of RPGs than others; and this isn’t to say that a less natural class (such as a death knight) is any more or less useful than a more natural class (such as a mage).

The way I see it there are three primary roles which are mainly filled by three primary classes. In the healer role, we have the priest — the benevolent cleric who casts their holy spells on allies, healing them back to full strength. In the tank / physical DPS role we have the stoic warrior — standing toe-to-toe against the evils of the world. And finally in the caster / magic user role we have the mage — holding back in the group slinging arcane mysticism at enemies.

These archetypes are present in every game, from early D&D up through the latest RPG. There are now, obviously, many iterations and permutations of these classes, but the basic facts of each of them are little different than they were in the original D&D. In WoW, paladins are a cross between priests and warriors, shamans are a cross between all three, and rogues are… well, they’re just like warriors without the tanking abilities. (And don’t argue about rogues tanking stuff, it’s not an intended part of their kit.)

I think this discussion is interesting and helps people overall understand the game and associated game mechanics better (which is why I’m including it in The Queue). If you know what identifies a generally warrior-based class or mob, you can quickly come up with instant strategies to deal with them. This becomes particularly relevant during leveling in a new expansion where snap decisions and analysis on mob strategy can be the different between success and death. Understanding the overall archetypes, and how they can counter each other, will only help improve your game.

Healem asked…

“What happened to the ‘report lag’ feature that was supposed to be coming?”

If you click on the red question mark in your action bars, you’ll see a button to report lag. It’s in the same area you go to get in touch with a GM.

Velzak asked…

“Any word on if Patches of Yesteryear is coming back ever?”

A draft is written, I’m fact checking it, and we’ll post it later this week.

It’s a new year and that means another opportunity to play oracle and figure out what Blizzard’s plans are for 2010. BlizzPlanet has gone ahead and tossed out some of their ideas on what will happen for BlizzCon this year, laying out their predictions and even speculating on the event date. As you might know, there was a bit of confusion stemming from supposed leaked information that pointed to BlizzCon 2010 happening in Las Vegas in July. That didn’t go down so well with Blizzard, and the Las Vegas convention center later retracted its statements.

BlizzPlanet points out, quite logically, that Blizzard probably wasn’t too thrilled with that. Even if they had planned to do it in Las Vegas, that kind of public relations misstep is a deal breaker. Besides, Eldorian from BlizzPlanet applies simple, sound logic to his sleuthing work and explains that examining the Anaheim Convention Center’s Calendar of Events reveals an odd, blank date on the weekend of August 20-21, yet almost all the weekends of the venue are already booked. With Blizzard being the secretive bunch that they are, he figures those blank dates actually correspond with this year’s BlizzCon event. It’s a pretty cool theory. Read the rest of their predictions as well as a few of our own guesses after the jump.

Now that BlizzPlanet has the date figured out (don’t book your hotels just yet, though!), they even go so far as to predict an announcement as early as next month. They say that since last year’s August event was announced in February, it makes as much sense to announce the event early enough for folks to make their plans, too. They say we should also expect what worked for BlizzCon last year to be in effect this year, too, such as the queue system for purchasing tickets, DirectTV and a bundled free gift, and probably better loot bags this time around.

It’s too early to tell at this point, but we can probably speculate on what else might be coming with BlizzCon this year. By that time, Cataclysm should be out because it’s hard for me to imagine Icecrown Citadel keeping players occupied — gated content notwithstanding — until then. That said, Blizzard has mentioned that Patch 3.3 isn’t likely to be the last content patch before the next expansion, so we’ll see what happens. BlizzPlanet thinks the game might be in closed beta by then, but I personally hope Blizzard’s timelines move a little faster than that.

We concur that BlizzCon 2010 seems like the perfect event to announce a new game. Diablo III is in the oven, StarCraft 2 is slated to be out this year, and Cataclysm has already been revealed. There needs to be something really, really big during BlizzCon, and there’s nothing bigger than a brand new game, and signs point to an entirely new property from the guys in Irvine. Announcing the new game — a “next-gen MMO” that Blizzard is known to be working on — would be the biggest thing. It’s kind of hard to imagine a bigger game announcement from any developer this year.

Since it’s way too early to play BlizzCon bingo, why don’t we dwell a bit on that new property (we feel really good about Blizzard revealing more about it this year)? It won’t be fantasy, I think. With Warcraft and Diablo already treading the fantasy waters, we can probably rule out that genre. StarCraft is sci-fi, but there’s still some room to play there. Maybe a grittier, cyber-punk style world that’s a darker take on sci-fi the way Diablo’s fantasy is to Warcraft? We won’t know until August.

Will Jay Mohr reprise his hosting gig? No serious reason to think otherwise. Blizzard seems to love him, and at least he actually talked like he knows something about WoW during the last BlizzCon. Will Ozzy return as the big finale? Not so sure about that one. Blizzard likes to keep upping the ante, so an even bigger act might be in the cards for this year. Although it’s definitely too early to make any assumptions about BlizzCon 2010 (those guys from Irvine are pretty good at throwing a curve ball or two), it’s never too early to whet our appetites for everything Blizzard this year.

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Tales of a Priest discusses tunnevlsion for healers, and how to prevent it with better mod placement.
• World of Matticus’s Lodur brings is more PUG tales, this time detailing the Val’anyr curse.
• Gray Matter asks, was Chill of the Throne enough to keep WoW raiding under control until Cataclysm? Should it have impacted DPS, too?
• Forever a Noob keeps the great rogue advice coming. Deathbringer Saurfang is your next target.
• This is our last link of the day, but it’s the most important. Vigilance, a new warrior blog, honors the memory of a fallen guildmate. Rest well, Revanx. A word to the author, from me personally, is that you guys are not alone. Hang in there.

We’re on the last day of WoW.com’s 12 Days of Winter Veil contests and to keep the swag rolling, we’re giving away a gift certificate that will give you $100 credit for merchandise ordered at Swagdog. We have 2 of those codes to give away and you can enter for a chance to win one of them.

The contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), and everyone who enters must be 18 or older. To enter, leave a comment on this post before 11:59pm ET Sunday, January 3, 2010. Please be sure to use a real email that you check often to enter, so we can contact you should you be the winner. You may enter only once and two winners will be selected randomly. Each winner will get a code for credit at Swagdog.com with a retail value of US$100. Click here to read the official contest rules.

15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com’s look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes — from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you’d like to hear more about.

Sorry, no typos in the headline. It’s not the pie meme that’s the topic of today’s 15 Minutes of Fame. (You’ll have to turn elsewhere for your just desserts.) We really do mean pi — you know, 3.14159 … We’re not quite sure how pi and WoW go together. And frankly, neither are players on US Llane, where the mysterious Pi Guy holds court in Trade. “He’s in Trade chat spamming pi and other fascinating formulas, like how 99.9 = 1,” writes our tipster, “which makes sense after he shows you the steps … which he does. He’s got top-of-the-line gear, which in itself is a nice thing. But on top of that, he’s a math genius. A very mysterious math genius.”

We suppose community fascinations have formed up around more bizarre memes than pi. But a mysterious mathematician lurking in Trade? How could we allow this stone to remain unturned? Without further delay, we offer up for your consideration the curious tale of Gauss, the Pi Guy.

Main character Gauss
Guild Three Score
Server Llane
WoWstyle Started playing WoW the day Llane launched; longtime fan of Warcraft; GM of Three Score, one Llane’s top raiding guilds; enjoys world PvP

15 Minutes of Fame: Ok, Gauss: math. Tell us a little about your background. Where are all these numbers coming from?

Gauss: Mathematics has always been my thing, since I was young. I believe everyone has their thing; math just ended up being mine. Everyone always says it doesn’t fit who I am (whatever that means), but I just think I wouldn’t be the same. I went to school for it, got my degree and now get to show other people my talents. I have been everything from a private tutor to now teaching college and university students all the fun math that everyone loves to hate. “Why are there corners on a circle, again?” is my favorite thing to confuse people with.

How did your Pi battlecry tradition get its start?

When I was grinding my way to High Warlord. (Yes, I was one of those crazy people. How else was a DPS warrior supposed to get gear?) Anyways, I used to yell random things that everyone else would say — you know, all the standard things — when I decided to do something original when someone died or I had been my usual PvP target dummy. I have a tattoo of pi, from a lost bet when I was in university, so I have always been the pi guy. So then I would start yelling pi when I was killing people in BGs — all 255 characters that Blizzard would allow me to post. This started to make me very recognizable and utterly hated by Alliance. They didn’t even know it was pi, in the first place.

When the High Warlord run was over, pi needed to live on. I posted it randomly in guild chat or would throw it about when I killed random Alliance running around … ’til the day I posted it in Trade as a celebration of my Gauss’ Emporium Shard Empire. (During BC, I basically owned the Auction House enchanting mats and had an empire that ran out of Boomstick Imports. Ya, I don’t play on an RP server, but everyone needs a shop.) People went nuts. Some called me a spammer, some cheered, some randomly whispered me asking if it was pi. It became this iconic thing that people would start whispering me (for), asking for it randomly when they saw me, when I logged on or at any random point you can think of. Pi crit Trade, and it wasn’t leaving.

Just pi? Any other math facts?

It has evolved since then, and I created other math macros on request. Fibonacci sequence, primes, e^x, Pythagorean triples, .9999… = 1 proof … among others.

I think, though, pi is what everyone wants. I have been /ignored and reported, but anyone on Llane knows nothing can spark more conversation than pi.

Why do you think players find this so interesting?

I honestly don’t know why it has caught on how it has or how people find it so interesting. It after all is only pi. Maybe people love how it sparks endless conversations or how it can instantly stop whatever is going on at the moment. It really is a mystery to me. Maybe people should be this motivated about seeing pi in school.

(After I post it in Trade), of course then arguments start about math — and if some of the crazy things I put up actually make sense, the point is to make people notice, right? Sure, people think it’s spam, but then I have never put anything up unless people asked for it. Covered in the ToS, in that regard. So now everyone on the server seems to know me, whether they have me on /ignore or not. It still adds a little more and is fun at times. I call the followers “The Gauss Nation” and even started a blog a few months back to make people laugh and of course to explain my exploits.

Never thought it would become the trademark it has, but it definitely was what inspired the Gauss Nation. So no matter if it’s silly or bothersome, it has made Llane special in that regard.

What’s the most unexpected reaction you’ve gotten to your math exploits?

Reactions have been plenty. Been called a spammer, reported, told I ruined the game, been cheered, been idolized and even asked to help with homework. Really anything you could imagine has happened. The biggest unexpected reaction has had to be this following I have developed. Completely insane, but a lot of fun at the same time. Math has magical powers, apparently.

You seem like the type of guy who likes to get involved in his realm community. What else are you involved in on Llane?

I am extremely involved in the realm community. I have tried to help people out in any way I can — I guess you could say kinda like a thank you. I run For The Horde for anyone of any level Friday through Sunday (did this with a level 1 once; was epic). My quest to get every Horde a Black War Bear will go on ’til it is accomplished. Try to run a group at least once a week for people to see all the past content, classic through BC. These are always a blast because you just never know what is going to happen.

I know some people never get to be a part of certain things because they were not around or someone just wasn’t crazy enough to try something. I feel like I can help out in that regard. I will try anything once, and if it was fun, I would gladly do it over and over.

[Thanks, Flappy!]

All I want for Christmas is a Blue has that nifty real-life versus machinima feel when the singer is /inspecting other people in the real world, and I’ll be recreating that in my mind while standing in Christmas Eve lines today. The song’s lyrics will probably be a little tough to remember, but I’m sure I’ll be humming it anyway.

As a special treat, if you really dig this video, you can now check it out in High Quality. Just click the littlle “HQ” on the YouTube page.