Hundreds and hundreds of applications later, we have selected (most of) our newest columnists. It was quite difficult to choose among the top entries and we want to thank all of you who applied. Your enthusiasm for both the game and our site was truly awe-inspiring.

Now, on to the new hires. As you will see below, some things changed during the application review process. There was much debate over the final choices, and we think the new writers we are bringing on are the best of the best.

Legal Columnist: We've decided to add a legal columnist to WoW.com, covering various aspects of the law as it relates to WoW and online gaming. Amy Schley, a third year law student at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, will be joining our staff and provide her insights in the area once a week. Additionally, expect Amy to weigh on hot button legal issues as they come about, like the recent string of arrests made through WoW.

Paladin: When we put out the call for a holy paladin writer, we were approached by our rogue columnist, Chase Christian. He has been raiding as a holy paladin for quite some time and wanted to know if we would consider him for the new column. We asked him to submit an application and compared it to all the others we received for the position. He rocked it. Chase will continue with the rogue weekly column and will be starting The Light And How To Swing It - holy paladin edition next week. Gregg Reece will continue to cover retribution and protection paldin topics on a weekly basis, but will be posting his column on Thursdays instead of the weekend.

Shaman: Turns out asking for an odd spec combination didn't work out for us. We were hoping to find someone who could cover both restoration and enhancement for us, but, while we received applications that attempted one or the other, we weren't hugely impressed with any that attempted both. We were very impressed with one particular enhancement shaman application. We couldn't pass up on Rich Maloy aka Stoneybaby from Big Hit Box and so we decided to hire him to focus purely on enhancement shaman.

Unfortunately, we didn't see any equally stand-out resto apps -- so we're still looking for a resto shaman. We feel that many good candidates probably did not apply due to the requirement of being an expert on the enhancement tree. Now that we are going to have three separate weekly shaman columns, we are now accepting applications for pure resto shaman. You have until Sunday, January 31, 2010 to apply. Details on our LFM page. If you've already applied once, you are welcome to reapply.

More writer selections after the jump!

Druid: You may not know the name Tyler Caraway, but any moonkin who has ever read the official class boards will know his forum handle. Yes, boys and girls, we hired Murmurs! Tyler has been the voice of balance druids on the official forums since vanilla WoW and we are very proud to bring him on to write about our feathery friends. As you may recall, we originally put out the call for a combo resto/balance druid writer. However, we couldn't pass up on Tyler and so Allison Robert, who currently plays a resto/feral dual spec, will continue to cover both topics.

AddOn: Writing about AddOns is tricky business. You need to take something dry and technical and transform it into something accessible and entertaining to read. And no one approached it with more enthusiasm and flair than Mathew McCurley. Once he gets AddOn Spotlight back on track, he'll be tackling Reader UI of the Week and few more of the crazier ideas he had.

Lore: Lore applications are still being discussed. We will have a decision soon (tm).

With the exception of Chase, all the new writers will take 2-3 weeks before they will start writing for the site. Once we get them contracted and set-up in our system, expect to see their work for yourself.

For those of you who applied and have any questions about your application, feel free to email me at dano@wow.com.