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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium #52: Deadly Boss Mods

Icesnake — Thu, 05 May 2011 12:48:11 +0000

Segment 52: Deadly Boss Mods

So now you’re raiding, or at least running instances. It doesn’t matter if you’re raiding old “vanilla WoW” dungeons or Baradin Hold, or anywhere in between; you want to do the best you can, whether you are the tank, a healer, or DPS. That means you need situational awareness, because while a mage doing the safety dance in Naxxramas may be low on the DPS charts, a dead mage is zero DPS.

The NPCs have an advantage over you. They may not be as smart as you (let’s hope not!), but they are inside the computer; there’s no lag between events and their knowledge of those events. Deadly Boss Mods (“DBM”) will help you overcome that advantage.

Right now I have a total of 36 DBM modules installed, including the core module and a totally superfluous “victory sound” module. There are modules for world events, PvP, every existing raid instance, and general modules for Outlands, Burning Crusade, Wrath, and Cataclysm. Other features (cribbed from the DBM Web site) include:

* Boss mods for all raid bosses.
* Colored raid warnings (players will be colored according to their class) with icons – so you will know what’s going on without even reading the message.
* Auto-respond during boss fights. DBM will inform anyone who whispers you during a boss fight that you are busy. These messages contain the name and health of the boss as well as the raid’s status.
* Boss Health-frame: you can enable a simple frame that shows a health bar for all active bosses. This is enabled by default for multi-mob bosses like Four Horsemen.
* Bars can be enlarged with special “notice me!” effects when they are about to expire.
* Crash recovery: you had a disconnect or crash during a boss fight? No problem for DBM! It will request the timer and combat status information from other DBM users in your raid group and you get your timers back.
* Synchronization system for accurate timers.
* No dependencies, no embedded libraries (except for the optional LibDataBroker plugin that embeds LibDataBroker). This means you can use DBM without any other add-ons.
* Modular design – all boss mods are plugins and can be exchanged, removed or updated separately.
* Load on demand – all boss mods are separate AddOns and they will be loaded when they are needed, so they don’t use memory or CPU until you enter the corresponding instance.
* Efficient code: DBM uses less than 250 kb memory and the CPU usage is also very low.
* Special effects like the screen flash effect, huge warning messages and sounds will draw your attention to critical events.
* Bars can change their color over time and flash before they expire.
* Highly customizable: you can change the bar color, size, icon position etc.
* Support for SharedMedia, so you can use any texture for your bars.
* An option to create custom timers, so-called “Pizza Timers” for your pizza or whatever you prefer to eat while raiding. You can also send those timers to your raid group.
* Powerful object-oriented API – you can use it to write your own boss mods!

There are screenshots and a download link, as well as dedicated forums at DeadlyBossMods.com

And you can update DBM with any of the three popular updaters.

Do yourself and your party members a favor; get and use Deadly Boss Mods.

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Pushing It” by Eric Darken

Download the MP3: Deadly Boss Mods

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Account Security Warning

Icesnake — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:53:33 +0000

This morning, as is my usual habit, I tried to log into WoW from the computer in our library at home. Instead of the normal “Authentication Successful” message, a larger splash screen popped up, telling me that my account had been locked due to a detected “change in play pattern.” Now, my pattern is highly predictable. I normally play on the computer in my home library mornings and evenings, on my office work computer at lunchtime, and on my home office computer weekends, with rare forays on my laptop. That’s it; four computers, three of which never go anywhere. What could have changed?

Well, here’s the thing: on Tuesday evening, I was having problems staying connected. I didn’t think anything of it; rolling restarts on the servers frequently indicate server-side patches, and those frequently mean new bugs. Wednesday, one of my co-workers mentioned he had the same problem, but the third member of our lunch crowd said he hadn’t noticed anything.

What if those connection problems were caused by some account thief attempting to log into my (and my co-worker’s) account? Failing, of course, as he doesn’t have our authenticators, but still trying? Attempted logins from an unusual location (like, for example, China) qualify as a “change in play pattern.”

So this morning, I carefully typed the URL shown in the “account locked” popup (in Google Chrome, because Internet Explorer is about as secure as a tissue-paper bank vault), went through the rigamarole to change my password (this time using a more-secure randomized string), and logged in to play. The whole thing wasted about half of my normal early-morning play time (and prevented me from testing a particular add-on for the Emporium), but none of my Horde toons have been robbed. I should have checked the Alliance, too, I guess. I’ll do that later today.

Bottom line: If you don’t have an Authenticator, for your own sake, get one! I am certain that’s the only thing that kept my account from being stolen. And after you get it, if it’s the keyfob style, photocopy the serial number on the back and store that copy someplace safe, away from the computer and the Authenticator.

Use a “secure” password, one that you never use for anything else, at least eight characters long, mixed letters and numbers. Make it random if you can do that and still remember it. Write it down (yes, I know you’re always told “don’t write it down”) and put the slip of paper in your wallet. If you lose your wallet, your WoW password is a very minor problem, trust me.

And if you aren’t using Gmail for your main email address, open an account there now (it’s still free), and change your Battle.net information to point there. Gmail is very, very good at detecting “phishing” spam. I get around six spams every day that pretend to be from Blizzard. They never are. Gmail properly identifies them as phishing every time, with a large red banner across the top of the email. Granted, it also flagged the legitimate email from Blizzard this morning as “spam,” but it did NOT call it phishing. If anyone is interested, I can tell you how to identify the real source of an email; it’s pretty easy.

Be paranoid; this is the Internet, and they really are out to get you.

Oh, and have you ever been curious where those “we heard you like to sell your Wow Account, Dawg” emails that pretend to be from Blizzard would take you if you followed the link? If you’re using OpenDNS, this is what you’d get (and even if you are, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I am a computer professional; I have years of experience to help me stay safe.):

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What in the WoW is Going On?

badmodem — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:59:30 +0000

Those of you who listen to the podcast know all about my deep concern for the state of the game, but today my concern has reached a whole new level. Lately, I’ve been seeing great and dedicated players and friends quit the game left and right (5 of my good friends have quit the game and from what I’ve been hearing it seems like more are following), an overload of negative comments on the blogosphere and twitterverse, and communities in game dying a slow and painful death. Needless to say I am concerned deeply for the health of my beloved WoW.

Not to be overly academic, but WoW and Blizzard have essentially formed a relationship with each and every one of their consumers. We have developed norms with the way we interact with each other and when those norms get violated it is always very difficult to navigate a recovery process. I have often said in private to Jason and others that I now feel like Blizzard/WoW and I are navigating a rough stage in our relationship. It’s like when your partner/spouse tell you that they don’t love you anymore but because you so deeply love them you want to try to work it out… I feel like Blizzard/WoW is the partner/spouse who doesn’t love me as a player and a consumer anymore. Yet, my devotion to the game remains even despite its best efforts to get rid of me.

So here is my two cents on what is wrong in WoW, and what Blizzard should do to fix it.

Raiding
I know a lot of you probably cringe when I say that I believe the first tier of Cataclysm raiding is far too difficult for the majority of the player base. I’ll agree that Naxx and Obsidium Sanctum in Wrath were quite easy especially considering that I was able to complete both within 2 ½ months of Wrath’s launch (and I had to level my DK from level 55 in that time). I was also a young and new raider at that time, I knew very little about past raiding ventures and wasn’t experienced in the ways of classic and BC raiding, but I tried my best and did my research and though it wasn’t too terribly difficult it was still time consuming and fun… and I could learn. After all isn’t learning what the first tier of content for an expansion should be all about. So after having done my fair share of heroic modes in ICC, ToC, and Ulduar, and having 2+ years of raiding and raid leading experience under my belt jumping into Cataclysm raiding should have felt like ok… new fights… but lets do this. Instead it feels like everything I learned about raiding has been shattered and crapped on and Blizzard ratcheted the games difficulty up so much that even a now highly skilled player like myself (topping charts even when I pug in with hardcore guilds and players) feels like a complete and utter scrub and I’m left throwing my hands up in the air like did the last 2 years mean nothing?

Finally, this notion of being “spoiled” by a video game is utterly ridiculous in my book. Games are supposed to be fun, and completable by people with some challenge mixed in. Wrath was a challenge for many players but with enough work and effort even if it took them longer they got to do the content, not hard modes, but normal modes. Hard modes are for the hardcore, normal modes are for everyone who has the time and effort to put in. Blizzard should strive to give the hard core players better and more unique loot so they can feel that hard modes really do prove that they’re leet and they have something unique to show for it (not some recolored same model from an easy boss), but still make the loot for normal modes look appropriately cool (just not as cool as hard mode stuff). That’s the way I think it should run.

Dynamic Content
For all intensive purposes Azeroth is about as static of a world as you can get in an MMO. I’ve been a vehement defender of Blizzard on a lot of fronts, but this upsets me now more than ever that I see a number of lesser funded and developed MMO’s having dynamic content.

Take for instance the rifts and invasions in Rift… open world PVE content that actually gives you something for completing them (Rifts version of Justice Points). They encourage players to cooperate and are challenging but do not end up causing players to have to inspect each other’s gear/spec or anything like that before tackling them. Sure it might be slower than raiding or dungeoning… but it’s fun. No stress I get to join a public group of random people and go pwn some monsters and get stuff. The best part is… hardly anyone is judgmental or mean in those groups. Everyone has this attitude of “Yeah! Let’s do this!” You die… so what… run back and keep fighting the good fight. Why doesn’t Blizzard have something like this? In Wrath it could have been scourge invasions of towns and quest hubs or out in the world. In Cataclysm, it could easily work as Twilight Cult invasions… Imagine cultists overrunning Crossroads or Goldshire randomly, or your out running your dailies in Twilight Highlands and uh oh Dragonmaw Port is under attack by a swarm of cultists and twilight drakes so you and everyone else in the zone go rush to fight it off. Click a “Join Public Group” button and go in and save the day. I’m telling you… it could work and in Azeroth it would be awesome.

Community
I’m not sure if this is because of the content or just the maturity of the game but the player base of WoW is unbelievably judgmental and terribly inconsiderate and rude. In Wrath I used to see people pugging raids and dungeons all the time because it was fun even if you didn’t complete the dungeon. Now on a Friday night I log in and barely see anyone talking in Trade Chat… not even the obligatory “Baby” or “Murloc” memes. It’s like a ghost town…. no one wants to talk… no one is pugging. It feels for lack of a better word… empty or hollow.

Not to mention when you do finally get to the stage of getting into a pug or some other groups activity. You are under constant pressure to perform (spec, rotation, gear, ability) and at the first sign of trouble you’re kicked or not invited. Though I realize this is an ever-present and necessary trend in any group wanting to get stuff done, ratcheting up the game’s difficulty has increased the amount of scrutiny given to players and even friends that you have raided with for 2 years… who are good players! Is that what Blizzard wants to do to their community? Punishing people who enjoy playing together by making it so that they can barely get down 2 bosses a week? Making it so that you have to berate your friends about gameplay mechanics when I know that they know what to do? I urge Blizzard not to sacrifice the most important aspect of their game, the community, for the sake of appeasing the few people who enjoy excluding others from the fun, the others whose sense of accomplishment is directly related to the failure of others.

I recall Chris Metzen, in his “Geek Is” statements at Blizzcon 2010 talking about Dungeons and Dragons… and saying “Geek is sitting around a table with your best friends… armed with only graph paper and funny dice… and imagining far flung worlds of your own.” He even said that that was his favorite slide. For me “Geek Is” spending an evening raiding with my best friends enjoying jokes and downing bosses with minimal stress… still requiring skill and a few wipes… but minimal stress. Why does it now feel like Blizzard doesn’t want me to do this anymore?

Are there any people out there who aren’t experiencing these woes? Is it confined to my server? Is it just a random series of events that has plagued me as of late? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but I ask for help and your opinions. Please keep in mind these are my experiences and opinions and they may be very different from your own. I encourage respectful and intelligent disagreements, but don’t want to see any ignorant comments about “how I suck” or “qq” etc.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium #49: AutoBar

Icesnake — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:22:26 +0000

Segment 49: AutoBar

AutoBar is a multi-bar add-on that automatically adds potions, water, food, quest items, and other usable things into buttons for quick access.

By default, it creates three new bars: Basic, with such things as your hearthstone, mounts, bandages, potions, trade skills, quest items and trinkets; a Class bar, with primarily non-combat spells and abilities; and Extras, with companion pets, fishing items, and miscellaneous other items on it.

You can move the bars around, change size and alignment, skin them, assign categories to various bars, add new bars, bind keys, and many other things, either using the AutoBar GUI or using the command line in the chatbar.

Since Autobar doesn’t use up any of the built-in action bar slots, it allows you to reserve those for combat abilities, hopefully making you more effective in groups and solo.

You can get AutoBar from WoWinterface.com or from Curse and support is provided at MuffinManGames.com

This segment was inspired by Psycaeda of Destromath.

Music for this segment is from Archive.org and is entitled “Dreamworld” by Brainstorm.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium #48: Pawn

Icesnake — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:30:32 +0000

Segment 48: Pawn

You’re running 5-mans, trying to gear up so you can level even faster, or run heroics, or raid. You see other people clicking “need” on gear that you think you might want, but you’re not sure if it’s really an “up” for you, and you don’t want to be “that guy.” What do you do? Pawn.

Pawn is an add-on that uses values from Wowhead to quickly compare loot items (or quest reward items) with gear you have equipped, and lets you know if it’s really an “up.” In the case of quest rewards, it will also indicate which item to take to vendor, in the case where none of the items will improve your current outfit.

Pawn can be installed and used immediately without any configuration; or if you’re the hard-core theory-crafting guy who spends days building spreadsheets, reading Elitist Jerks, and who runs Rawr and Atlas Loot, you can customize it for your fine-tuned needs.

Pawn is built to detect your class and optimize gear scores for you; again, you can customize it heavily, but for most players it will be more than adequate as soon as you install it. You can also share your own customizations (called “scales”), and import customizations shared by other players. There’s even a Web site dedicated to sharing them, linked in the segment notes. And you can set up multiple scales (quite useful for the dual-specced player) and have multiple scores displayed on gear items.

Comparing drops or linked items to your current equipped gear is easy: Just right-click the item’s icon. If you would like to compare items in AtlasLoot, you can set up hotkeys for that purpose (the square brackets are the default, but if you have already bound them to other purposes, you’ll need to choose others).

There’s a pretty comprehensive ReadMe file included with Pawn; it includes almost everything I’ve mentioned here, and more.

One final note, not in the audio segment: the Pawn suggestions for gemming and reforging are also incredibly handy.

You can download Pawn from Curse or install it using Wowmatrix. Other Web sites and add-ons mentioned in this segment are linked in the segment notes at Wowphiles.com.

Music for this segment is from Jamendo.com and is entitled “Pay Attention” by Dead Pawn Company.

If you have a favorite add-on, or you’re looking for an add-on for a specific purpose, please drop me a line via email to AddOns@wowphiles.com or hit me up on Twitter.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-On Emporium #46: PlayerScore

Icesnake — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:01:09 +0000

Segment 46: PlayerScore

The single biggest complaint heard in World of Warcraft is about pick-up groups, usually called “pugs.” Why? Because players join pugs without the proper gear or experience to make a successful run. In the past, group leaders (now called “dungeon guides”) had two add-ons to help them determine the level of readiness a player might bring to his pug, GearScore and SkillScore. Individual players could use them to determine their own state of readiness, and decide how to improve it. Both of those became outdated with Cataclysm.

Now, TenTonHammer has released an add-on that combines the best features of GearScore and SkillScore, called PlayerScore.

I chose to download the add-on only, but there is an option to download the add-on with an updater. Since I already have three updaters, I didn’t see the need; plus, I will be forever paranoid about EXE files in add-ons that don’t come from Blizzard. However, the updater also allows you to download new PlayerScore data from TenTonHammer, and to upload ratings you’ve given to other players, much like the Wowhead Looter. So again, it’s up to you. TenTonHammer makes it easy to choose.

Confusingly, the folder name for PlayerScore is GearScore. If you already have GearScore (or SkillScore) installed, you should remove it (or them) before installing PlayerScore.

Once installed, you may find, as I did, that PlayerScore is disabled. Enable it for the toons you want to use it on.

After you log in on one of those toons, you’ll find a new icon in the center of your screen, a warhammer. Drag it to where you want it. Then click on a toon you’d like to inspect (you can click yourself, which is a good idea for your first look), and either type “/gs” or right-click the hammer icon and choose from the menu.

You will be presented with a largish frame containing quite an array of data, including the old GearScore information and a lot of new data. Dungeon Guides will want to look at the toon’s capability in 5 man, 10 man, and 25 man dungeons.

Rather than go into any more depth here, I recommend you check out the PlayerScore site at TenTonHammer. Look yourself up and see how you’re rated. Decide for yourself if this is an add-on you need. I know I want it.

Music for this segment is from Ska4U.com and is entitled “Explosive” by The Planet Smashers.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-On Emporium #45: Custom Sounds

Icesnake — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:54:31 +0000

Segment 45: Custom sounds

Some players play with all of the World of Warcraft sounds turned off; others turn on everything; and some prefer to replace or augment the in-game sounds with custom sound files. This week we’ll look beyond music players, at a couple of add-ons that help you with customizing the sounds in WoW. This segment was inspired by John Trahan. Thanks for your suggestion, John!

Since all of these add-ons use normal MP3 files for their custom sounds, you could easily substitute replacements of your own choice – just put them in the appropriate folder in your add-ons directory tree (look in the folder where the add-on you’re customizing is found) and rename them to replace the ones that came with your add-on. A good source of sound effects MP3s is SoundFXnow.com

GodLike! is an add-on that plays a sound when your spell, heal or melee attack crits. NOTE: Some of the default sounds are definitely not safe for work or around small children. It comes with some Bart Simpson clips that could be used instead, however, and if you’re reading this, you can grab my personal replacement English choices at the bottom of this post.

ComeHere is for Death Knights, and plays Scorpion’s “Come Here” or “Get Over Here” sounds when you use Death Grip.

Chocobo will play one of four random chocobo theme songs when you mount on a hawkstrider of any type. You can also change it to play the song on any mount if you want.

CritSound plays a custom sound each time you crit. Customizing the sounds without replacing the files requires you to edit the LUA file; if you’ve never looked inside a LUA, this is a relatively safe place to get your feet wet. Personally, I’d simply replace the MP3 file.

CoolLevelUp replaces the level up system message by a complete Level Up animation with music and sound displaying what stats you have gained and the new skills you can now learn from your class trainer. It gives you more information than the vanilla WoW level-up message, as well as being more entertaining

Music for this segment is from Ska4U.com and is entitled “You Done Me Wrong” by the Upsessions.

Download the MP3

Replacement English Sounds

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Icesnake’s Add-On Emporium #44: Music Players

Icesnake — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:39:28 +0000

Segment 44: Music Players

This week we’ll look at a few music players that run from within World of Warcraft. If you’ve ever died while tabbed out to change your music, or missed an important message on Ventrilo or TeamSpeak because the music was too loud and you couldn’t change the volume on WinAmp, you may find one (or more) of these to be a godsend. However, for those that require playlist makers, let me warn you NOT to use Curse’s installer; download the ZIP file and install manually, because Curse Client strips out EXE files – which includes the necessary playlist makers.

Music players that run within WoW require you to put your custom music into folders within the WoW directory tree (there’s a way around that, but having tried it, I recommend that you *don’t* try it). And it seems that no two music player authors agree on where you should put your music, so I recommend you settle on which one you want for playing MP3s and stick to that.

Van32′s CombatMusic plays custom MP3 files to (1) replace the in-game Fanfare music; (2) replace the in-game “you died” sound; (3) play your music when you enter combat and (4) play other MP3 files when you enter a boss fight. In my experience, you should probably pick 30-second “ringtone” MP3 files for the Battles list, or you will find yourself wanting to prolong combat. This is not a wise move when you’re solo, and won’t make you popular in groups. It doesn’t require a playlist generator, but the files you want to use must be placed in specific folders and renamed; and you’ll need to tell the player how many Battle songs and Boss songs you have. See the tutorial page for details.

EpicMusicPlayer really is Epic. It plays all of the in-game music as well as your own custom playlist, and includes two playlist generators, one in Visual Basic and the other as an EXE file (which, again, will be stripped out by the Curse client). The visuals are truly epic, as well. This is one worth having just to look at when you’re waiting in a queue. You don’t have to rename your files; if you don’t want to use your own MP3s, you won’t need a playlist at all. Install Guide

MusicPlayer (Sat, Oct 23 2010) is a fairly simple straight-up MP3 player. Unfortunately, it can’t be used without a playlist at all. Visually, it’s unattractive, but it’s simple and it works.

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Flash Pipe” by Thomas Schneider.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium #42: Warriors

Icesnake — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:41:37 +0000

Segment 42: Add-ons for Warriors

Warriors fall into that World of Warcraft category that can either tank or DPS; with that in mind, we’ll look at a few add-ons that lend themselves to these roles.

First up is TidyThreat, which is a plug-in for TidyPlates. TidyPlates modifies the nameplates you see over the heads of mobs, and TidyThreat makes it instantly clear, using color bars, which mobs are loose, which have aggro on you, and which don’t. It’s easy to switch the color scheme for Tank or DPS, and you can turn on a “detail” window which will tell you who has threat, and how much. If you only want to use one add-on for tanking,, it should be TidyPlates with TidyThreat. The default display is thermometer-like, and it’s incredibly simple; as stated by the author, “If you’re DPSing: Don’t go into the RED! If you’re tanking: Stay in the RED!”

SpellFlash: Warrior is a plug-in for SpellFlash which will flash above your ability buttons, to suggest your next move.

TankadinTps is a threat analyzer for several classes; this is especially useful for the theory-crafting players.

Nutty War Announce is a useful add-on with an unfortunate name; it will display chat text announcements of the warrior’s use of various abilities.

Please see the segment notes for links to the add-ons.

Music for this segment is the Dragon Warrior theme from Realm of Darkness.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-On Emporium #41: Rogues

Icesnake — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:22:23 +0000

Segment 41: Add-ons for Rogues

This week we’ll talk about some add-ons for the most versatile of melee DPS classes, the Rogue. In addition to simple DPS, Rogues are often called upon to provide crowd control, scout, open locks, and find traps.

Quick Rogue Info is a customizable set of information frames for rogues. Included are buff and debuff bars, combo points, poison stacks, threat, DPS, player health, target health, energy, and much more! Also, an icon suggests the next ability to cast based on simple rotation rules for all rogue specs. If you have Recount installed, QRI will also display DPS.

Sapper Enhanced is a somewhat less-comprehensive add-on for Rogues with a few different features. If you want something that’s lighter than QRI, give this one a try.

Poison Warner is unique to the Rogue class. It prints a warning in chat and plays a sound to warn you if you are missing a poison or if you have joined an arena or BG with a weapon unequipped.

Finally, we have SpellFlash: Rogue, a module for BigRedBrent’s Spellflash addon. Currently meant for the Mutilation Rogue, it will (as the name implies) flash the action button for the suggested next ability in your rotation.

Music for this segment is from High-Tech.com and is entitled “The Pink Panther” by Henry Mancini, performed by The Ventures.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium #40: Priests

Icesnake — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:09:10 +0000

Segment 40: Add-ons for Priests

I’m going to focus primarily on healing priests here, because you guys are the ones that stand back and make sure the rest of us can work. And, of course, sometimes you have to pick us up, dust us off, and send us back into the fight. That’s what Moms, Dads, coaches, and Priests do.

So, without further slobbering…

Healbot Continued is *the* quintessential add-on for healers. If you’re still using Grid, I strongly recommend you give Healbot a try. If you don’t use any other add-ons as a priest, you should use Healbot. There are intensive, in-depth tutorials and commentary for Healbot in multiple languages at healbot.info and even videos. As always, you should check the segment notes for direct links.

SmartRes2 helps you and your fellow healers to coordinate recovery from wipes, when someone gets in over their heads. I did NOT say DPS pulled aggro. Although maybe they did. Ask the tank.

PetTimeToLive lets you Shadow Priests know how much longer your Shadowfiend will be around to distract the mobs. Do you have time to escape, or should you just try to take down as much as you can before you die? PTTL will help you decide.

POM Assist tracks Prayer of Mending casts specifically. If that’s all you think you need to know, POM Assist will take care of that for you.

Music for this segment is from Audiostreet.com and is entitled “Zadok the Priest” by Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by the WPHS Chorus.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-On Emporium #38: Mages

Icesnake — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:44:59 +0000

Segment 38: Add-ons for Mages

This week we’re going to take a look at a few of the add-ons meant for mages, the glass cannons of the World of Warcraft. As always, be sure to get the latest version if you’re going to try these out; out-of-date add-ons may not work at all, or worse, they may do something completely different to what you want. Check out the links in the segment notes for add-on details and dates.

First up, we have ControlFreak. This add-on is meant for crowd control, and it does a very good job keeping you, the mage, focused on this aspect of your job.

Next is Decursive. Decursive is designed to help you cast Remove Curse on the proper target at the proper time.

Mage Fever is a proc and buff notifier for mages. If you have difficulty figuring out when to cast any of the spells that depend on another spell’s proc for maximum effect, Mage Fever will aid you to get the best effect from your rotation.

OmniCC is a simple, lightweight timer that puts impossible-to-miss countdown timers on your spells which are on cooldown.

SmartBuff helps you make sure your buffs are kept up, allows you to manage them for solo or groups, and even reminds you to scarf down that buff food.

Finally, WittyMage is a fun addon (which may annoy those around your toon, so make sure they’re cool with it if you plan to be around them often).

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and entitled “Magic Evening” by Dean Barrett and Judy Whittaker.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-On Emporium #37: Hunters

Icesnake — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:52:58 +0000

Segment 37: Add-ons for Hunters

This week we’re going to look at add-ons meant for Hunters and their pets. There are many of them available, and I’m not planning an hour-long segment, so this will just skim the cream off the top, covering one or two of the various types available. For the full list, take a look at Curse; there’s a direct link in the segment notes.

Now, let’s give your pet some love first. If you want to know about how many more boars you’ll have to kill before your pet levels, you’ll want XToLevel. It works for you, too, but I find I am usually wondering more about my spider (named Robinson) than I am about myself. Another useful item for newer hunters is Pet Ability List. It’s exaclty what the name says, but instead of having to Alt-Tab out to a Web site, this list is available in the game. And to avoid finding yourself and your pet suddenly kicked from a raid or other group because your pet pulled aggro off the tank, you’ll want BadPet, to help you remember to turn off Growl (and other taunts).

Now, for yourself, you will probably enjoy HunterHelper, which helps you keep track of Aspects in addition to a handful of pet-related functions. Hunter Got Focus attempts to maximize your DPS by helping you keep Focus, Serpent Sting, and your other abilities working to best effect. Semi Stance & Pet Bar will unlock your Aspect bar and Pet bar so you can put them where you want them; if you’ve been playing a hunter for over a year this may be a very welcome option. StableSnapshot will let you see what pets you have stabled (in case you can’t recall what’s in those 20 slots). TranqShotMonitor will notify you when your Tranquilizing Shot dispells a buff and it will also say which buff has been dispelled.

There are plenty of hunter add-ons; if you visit the Curse page, be sure you sort them by the last update when choosing new ones, so you don’t end up with something that’s already obsolete.

Music for this segemnt is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Big Game Hunter” by Dave Greendale.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium #36: Druid Add-ons

Icesnake — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:48:37 +0000

Segment 36: Add-ons for Druids

This week we’ll take a look at add-ons meant specifically for that most versatile of classes, the druids. You really need to look at the blog to get the full benefit of this segment; everything I talk about here is linked in the blog. Be sure, before you try out any add-on, that it has been updated to at least WoW version 4.0.1

Any discussion of druid add-ons must start with the Blizzard official forums, where we find the Druid UI Guide. The Guide includes generic raiding add-ons as well as druid-specific mods.

Also we have the venerable Allakhazam’s recommended druid addons. You will again find general raiding and party add-ons here.

Next up, Feral by Night for feral druids only.

Face Mauler Zwei is in progress, a spell and ability recommendation add-on for feral cat druids while soloing.

BadKitty is a debuff tracker.

DotTracker tracks damage over time spells and reminds you to renew them.

Destruction for Dummies suggests the next spell to cast.

Finally Opthimus Druid UI is a complete widescreen UI package for resto and feral druids.

Remember to try out your add-ons on the target dummies before going into a group situation! As with every class, druid add-ons are subject to errors that could be embarrassing when you’re facing a boss.

Next week, we will look at Hunter add-ons. See you then!

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Nature” by Tillman Sillescu.

Download the MP3

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This Guild Master Likes the 4.0.1 Guild Controls

Jason — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 16:21:54 +0000

Like most other Guild Masters in World of Warcraft, I have been frustrated by the lack of features we had been given to control our guilds. This is something I had lamented previously on the WoWphiles Podcast because the previous system didn’t offer much needed features like reorganizing guild ranks.

Patch 4.0.1 has brought us increased functionality for Guild Masters, which Blizzard no doubt realized would be necessary due to the increased importance being placed on guilds in Cataclysm. As we move forward to a world where guilds gain experience, reputation and rewards, it only makes sense to make updates to the interface for managing your guild.

Do I think that the system can be improved further? Yes, I do. Looking at how Blizzard has made the interface for Glyphs and the Spellbook (just to site two examples) much more well designed in both usability and visual style, there is room for the guild management interface to become what those are. But seeing as how guild management finally got addressed for the first time I’ll take this as a small step in the right direction.

One tip for those of you just getting into the game after downloading the Deathwing-sized patch: the guild tab is no longer under the social tab or Keybinding letter ‘O’. You now find it on your micro menu or Keybinding letter ‘J’.

Here are some screenshots of the new Guild Management interface.

First we have Bank Control:

This is the interface for moving guild ranks up and down to reorganize them. A simple but effective interface.

Dealing with having a player in your guild have their account hacked, and subsequently your bank robbed, this next feature for Account Authenticator is a favorite of mine.

The features to allow rank organization and account authenticator were much needed. I’m very happy that Blizzard has made my life as a Guild Master a little bit easier going forward. I’m hopeful that guild control features will continue to get upgrades moving forward and that they won’t take six years each to implement.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #15: GoGoMount and GoGoPet

Icesnake — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:51:01 +0000

GoGoMount and GoGoPet

Edited for Patch 4.0.1

If you have have made any effort at all to learn about the World of Warcraft achievement system, you are probably aware that there is an achievement for obtaining fifty mounts. There’s another for one hundred mounts. There are also achievements for fifteen pets and for fifty pets. Breanni has even created a guide to the vanity pet achievements over at WarcraftPets.com

But how do you manage all those mounts and pets? What’s the point of having dozens of them if you can’t show them off? Don’t worry! There are two add-ons which are designed to make it a real pleasure to have lots of mounts and pets.

GoGoMount allows you to bind a hotkey, or create a macro, that will randomly choose an appropriate mount and “get it out of your bag” for you. If you are in a no-fly zone, GoGoMount will put you on a ground mount. If you are in a flyable zone, you will mount up on a flying mount. And if you are in the water and have a fast water mount, such as the Sea Turtle, GoGoMount will bring her out for you. A second click dismounts you.

GoGoPet randomizes your vanity pets for you in the same way, choosing a different pet with each click.

While technically out-of-date, both add-ons continue to work and behave well in WoW 3.3.3 [Both have been updated for 4.0.1 now]

4.0.1 note: the macro below will give you the same function as GoGoPet.

You can get GoGoMount through the WowMatrix updater, Curse, or Wowinterface.

GoGoPet seems to be exclusive to Curse.

Music for this segment is from Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Highway Patrol,” by Scott P. Schreer and Eric Roos.

Bumpers are from Frogpants Studios, by Scott Johnson.

BONUS NOTE:
Here’s a macro that will select a mount if you are in a mountable area, or a vanity pet if you are not:

MACRO 53 "GoGoMount" Spell_Magic_PolymorphChicken

/run CallCompanion("CRITTER", random(GetNumCompanions("CRITTER")))
/click GoGoButton

END

The only parts you need are the lines beginning with a slash – the rest are snipped right out of my macro cache file.

Download the MP3

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Cataclysm (aka “Kittyclasm”) Beta installation

Icesnake — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 02:18:28 +0000

Note remaining download size. Gee, I hope that’s wrong!

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

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5 Reasons Wrath of the Lich King Was Special

Jason — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:00:28 +0000

Since we are approaching the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and the 2-year Anniversary of the release of Wrath of the Lich King, I’ve taken a few minutes to think about the things that made Wrath special.

Some of these reasons may be more personal for me and less so for you, so feel free to add your opinions and thoughts on the topic in the comments section.
——
1. Accessibility of end game content
The Wrath of the Lich King expansion marked the first time I was able to see all of the content an expansion had to offer. Going back to Classic WoW and Burning Crusade, I never saw the end game raiding content and I’m still fairly disappointed that I missed out on those experiences.

Granted, part of the reason that I didn’t raid was due to not being in the right guilds and not knowing the right people. But, a large part of why Wrath was more accessible, is due to Blizzard making a point to ensure that raiding was no longer exclusive for the top 5% of players.

Being able to experience the end-game content also gives you a sense of closure as one chapter of the story comes to an end and a new chapter opens in the next expansion. Taking raid sizes from 40 players down to as low as 10, they gave those who enjoy being in small guilds an opportunity to see content that previously only larger raiding guilds saw.

2. The Lich King was Everywhere
For this expansion to be called Wrath of the Lich King, it was only fitting that we started feeling his wrath right away in Northrend. The quest The Slumbering King in Howling Fjord introduced us right away to The Lich King as we tried to stop the ritual to awaken King Ymiron.

From there he continues to show himself throughout the expansion and making his presence continuously known. Once you finally reach Icecrown you experience a wonderful quest where you discover the Frozen Heart of Arthas and play as Arthas Menethil in his fight against Illidan Stormrage.

3. Wrathgate Quest and Cinematic
I have done the Wrathgate quest chain 6 times as member of the Horde and it gives me chills every time that cinematic plays.

Dragonblight is one of my favorite areas to quest in all of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I felt immersed in a lot of the story and it culminated at the Wrathgate in front of Icecrown Citadel. No word can describe it as well as one: Epic.

4. Phasing
With the introduction of phasing in Wrath of the Lich King, questing became an incredibly dynamic experience. Questing in Classic WoW seemed disjointed at times and more like you were running errands rather than having an impact on the world through the actions of your questing. Questing in Burning Crusade was more cohesive and overall a better experience, but still did not give us the dynamic interaction with the world that phasing in Wrath gave us.

Seeing the environment and the world around change as a result of an action from a quest you were a part of turned questing into a more rich and dynamic experience.

5. The Achievement System
Whether you are an achievement junkie or not, the achievement system brought a whole new aspect to World of Warcraft. Achievements become a fun way to encourage players to experience things in the game that they might have otherwise passed on. By added titles and rewards such as flying mounts for certain achievements, it made the achievement system gave us a reason to take on more difficult challenges.

Just think about the Glory of the Hero achievements and the Red Proto-Drake. Without the achievement system and the reward of a drake, players never would have challenged themselves to do some of the crazy things those heroic achievements called for. But do you know what? Killing all those zombies and getting the Zombiefest achievement was a lot of fun.
——
So there you have it. My five reasons that Wrath of the Lich King was a special expansion. Comment below and give me your thoughts and memories of Wrath, and here’s to looking forward to Catalcysm.

Thanks to Relevart for suggesting this as a Shared Topic at Blog Azeroth

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A WoW Webcomic

Icesnake — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:00:44 +0000

This is a little outside my usual territory, but I love this comic so much, I just wanted to share.
Click the picture to go to World of Warcraft, eh?

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Coming Home

Icesnake — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:09:14 +0000

At long last, Icesnake the Gnome Mage has transferred to Lightbringer. I will be available to portal members of The Gathering hither and thither in the World of Warcraft (and ladies, you can ride in my sidecar any time!). Just ask for me in Guild chat; if I am on an alt, I will let you know and toonhop as soon as possible.

ADDENDUM: Apparently there is already an “Icesnake” impersonator on Lightbringer. As a result, I am now TheIcesnake.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #26: Leveling Guides

Icesnake — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:10:22 +0000

Segment 26: Leveling Guides

This week we’re going to look at leveling guides; specificly, Zygor’s Leveling Guide, and an alternative.

Let me start off by saying that I emphatically do NOT recommend Zygor’s Leveling Guide, and I’m not going to give you a link to the official Zygor site. If you still want it after listening to this segment, you can find it easily enough.

Zygor’s Leveling Guide is an in-game guide; that means it’s an add-on. It also is sold, not supported by voluntary donations. That means it’s in blatant violation of Blizzard’s terms of service for add-on developers.

I quote:

1) Add-ons must be free of charge.
All add-ons must be distributed free of charge. Developers may not create “premium” versions of add-ons with additional for-pay features, charge money to download an add-on, charge for services related to the add-on, or otherwise require some form of monetary compensation to download or access an add-on.

“Zygor” wants $80 (currently discounted to $60) for this add-on package. Frankly, that’s just too much even if it didn’t violate the TOS.

Zygor’s guide is technically beautiful; it has cute little animations to show that it’s doing something, it gives you waypoint arrows, and it does help you find the necessary quests for leveling. That said, however, it takes up as much add-on memory as the free alternatives which I will outline here, and tends to get in the way when you really don’t need it.

Enough said about that; here’s how you can get all the same functions without spending any money (although I do encourage you to donate to the add-on authors who accept donations):

1. Download and install Carbonite from the Carbonite add-on home page.
2. Download and install Lightheaded (see my previous review, Segment 25, for details) from WoWinterface or other sources.
3. Open your favorite Web browser (which I sincerely hope is not Internet Explorer) and go to Jame’s Leveling Guides.

Another option is to go to WoW-pro.com and get the WoW-pro leveling add-on.
You will still need Lightheaded and TomTom also.

In order for any leveling guide to be effective, you really need to start using it as soon as you create a new toon; but the Jame’s guides make it somewhat easier to start in the middle (after making a few levels) than Zygor does (another plus for freeware/donationware add-ons).

In conclusion: You can spend money to violate Blizzard’s terms of service, or you can go with free/donation-supported add-ons to do the same thing. It’s up to you. I know which I choose.

Music for this segment is from Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Yarn of the Buccaneer,” by Pierre Langer and Scott P. Schreer.

Download the MP3

General leveling tips:

Obtain bags as soon as you can. There are many quests that have you gathering items, and you need someplace to carry those items.
…Members of The Gathering can get bags out of the Guild Vault, or whisper Valkillmoar or Leftbank. The rest of you are on your own.
If you aren’t using a guide, pick up as many quests as possible when you get to a new zone
… and complete as many as possible before running back to turn them in.
Avoid dungeon quests unless you have a regular group with whom you’re leveling together.
Avoid Sven in Duskwood unless you like traveling a lot and getting very little reward for the effort.
Make a “bank toon” who will stand around in a capital city and handle auctions and banking for you. The mail system works well and your bank toon can make boatloads of gold from gathering profession items.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #24: AutoEmote and AutoProfit

Icesnake — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:40:48 +0000

Segment 24: AutoEmote and AutoProfit

NOTE: AutoProfitX2 is now your best bet for automated vendor trash sales after 4.0.1.

This week we’re going to look at two small add-ons; one just for fun, and one to help you get the junk out of your bags and put some jingles in your pocket. Both of these are considered outdated, but they continue to work and so I continue to use them. Remember to check the “Load out of date add-ons” box in the add-ons window before entering the world.

AutoEmote is a just-for-fun add-on which will automatically issue emotes back to the people who emote to you. It has a built-in cooldown period so it won’t issue an automated response before the cooldown period is over. The cooldown is triggered whenever you type in a /emote or upon an automated response emote. This lets you interact with others via emotes and not have the auto responses interrupting until the cooldown period is over.
It also offers a delayed response function. The delay makes automated responses wait for a few seconds before firing off. This gives the impression that you are typing out the response, instead of an automated one.
When someone emotes to you an emote that isn’t on your auto-response list a default response back is given, which you can set to be whatever you like.

AutoEmote offers a UI interface for users who would like to edit their settings like: the cooldown period, response delay time or emotes; and even add new emotes to their response list.

AutoEmote has not been updated since 2007, but still works and is available from Orgrimmar.org

AutoProfit will sell all your grey items (and any white items you’ve added to the “junk” list) with one click when you visit a vendor. It also has an option to delete all (use with caution), or to delete lowest, which deletes the lowest valued item in your inventory. You can modify the options by entering /autoprofit options in the chat window. Again, this is considered an outdated add-on, but it’s working for me and I really wouldn’t care to do without it!

AutoProfit is available through WoWmatrix, and from GameGuidesOnline.

Music for this segment is from FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Mixed Emotions” by Todd Haberman, John Loeffler, and Scott P. Schreer.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #23: ArkInventory

Icesnake — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:32:49 +0000

Segment 23: ArkInventory

This week I would like to tell you about a mod that will help you keep your bags organized, and also let you check all your various storage spaces on the realm when you are pretty sure you have an item, but can’t remember where you put it.

ArkInventory (or “AI”) as it comes “out of the box” allows you to have one large virtual bag instead of the vanilla WoW default of a bunch of smaller bags. Without any custom configuration on your part, it also allows you to see everything in your alt’s bags, your bank, your alt’s banks, and even the Guild vault. However, in order for this part to work, you will need to log in to each alt once after installing AI and open your bags and bank. At least one toon will need to look in the Guild vault also. AI takes a “snapshot” when you open a bag or bank, so the Guild vault snapshot may not be up-to-date if you haven’t checked the actual vault lately; this is still better than having to travel to a capital city or beg a guildy to look for crispy spider meat, however.

AI also allows for customization of categories, and the creation of rules to further customize your bag display. For complete information, I recommend you download and extract the Local Help Files from the AI home page on Google.

In addition to the direct download from Google, you can get Arkinventory through WoWmatrix, from WoWinterface`, or from Curse.

Music for this segment is from FreeplayMusic.com and is entitled “White Mule Breakdown” by Kelly Weeks.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #20: WetSpot

Icesnake — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:12:17 +0000

Segment 20: WetSpot

Are you leveling or planning on leveling a new toon? Are you trying to plan ahead and get enough gold to get your riding skill and mount at level 20? Did you take two gathering skills so you can do that? Good plan! Did you take Herbalism and Mining? Not so good, since you can’t detect Herbs and Minerals at the same time!

There’s a solution for you (can I say “There’s an add-on for that?”) – as well as for hunter and druid tracking, and fish and treasure tracking. Unfortunately there is still no free beer tracking, so go AFK and get one out of the fridge when you need to. The add-on is “WetSpot.”

According to the author, spatton, if you are a herbalist and miner, while riding through a zone you can change between tracking for herbs and then tracking for minerals every 5 seconds. Or if you are a hunter in a battleground, you can switch between tracking humanoids, beasts, and hidden every 3 seconds.

You can choose whatever tracking methods you wish to look for – unknown spells will not be available to you. That means non-hunters won’t see the hunter stuff, and non-dwarves won’t be able to see the beer treasure method. If you have not learned the spell yet, the option will be disabled. WetSpot also detects when you are in a city, and will disable itself accordingly. When you exit the city, it will turn itself back on.

The options frame allows you to turn the on-screen bar on or off, and control the tracking methods used and the speed of rotation.

You can get WetSpot through WoWmatrix, or from Curse.

Music for this segment is provided by Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Candyflip” by Felix Miklik

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #19: Parrot

Icesnake — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:04:51 +0000

Parrot

Some time before Patch 2.0.3, way back in the beginning of 2007, Blizzard incorporated the basic concepts of the add-on Scrolling Combat Text into “vanilla WoW.” Newer players probably have no idea that there was a time when you needed the SCT add-on to see combat hits scrolling up from the center of the screen.

While the now-built-in floating combat text is a big improvement, it could be even better. That’s where Parrot comes in.

Parrot allows you to adjust the start and end points of your scrolling combat text, make it scroll in an arc to the left or right, and add text triggered by specific events (such as the Warlock ability “Nightfall”).

This may not seem like a big deal, but try Parrot for a week and you’ll wonder how you ever played without it. The author’s notes list these features:

Can change fonts
Multiple scroll animations to choose from
Choose what events you want to see and where
Customize how you want to see your info
Show spell or ability names and icons
Create as many scroll areas as you want
Suppress events you don’t want to see
Create custom triggers

You can get Parrot through WoWmatrix, from WoWinterface, or from Curse.

Music for this segment is provided by Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Pirate’s Hook,” by Tillman Sillescu.

(Link for the MP3 to be added here)

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #18: _NPCScan

Icesnake — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:11:01 +0000

_NPCScan

Have you spent hours flying aimlessly around Storm Peaks, trying to find the Time-Lost Protodrake? Wasted days in Sholozar Basin, looking for Loque’nahak? This week’s add-on detects rare mobs for you, alerting you when you get within detection range.

Before installing _NPCScan, you’ll want to clear your game cache. The add-on’s Web page explains how in detail, but the short version is “delete your cache folder.”

When a rare mob is found, _NPScan wil alert you with audio, flashing the screen, and providing an animated targeting button. There’s a “test” button in the add-on’s main interface so you can see what it looks and sounds like before it detects any of the rares.

There are several customization options, also, allowing you to add your own alert sounds, and add or remove NPCs from the detection list. Other options are available, which I won’t go into here; you can find them in the add-on’s menu.

All in all, if you want the rare achievements, or if you are a hunter hoping to tame a rare mob, you want this add-on.

_NPCScan can be installed though WoWmatrix, or downloaded from its own site on Google, or from WoWinterface or Curse.

Music for this segment is provided by Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Wild Discovery,” by Simon Brewer.

Download the MP3

Bonus material:
While looking up pictures of NPCScan for this post I stumbled across NPCScan Overlay. _NPCScan.Overlay is an addition to _NPCScan that adds map overlays for rare mob patrols. When you search for a rare in _NPCScan, _NPCScan.Overlay will show where it patrols until you find it. It works similarly to keithgabryelski’s Rare Spawn Overlay, but supports the minimap and has a much smaller download size, along with a few new features.

You can get _NPCScan.Overlay through WoWmatrix or from WoWinterface or Curse. Be sure to keep both add-ons up to date! The easiest way to do that is to use WoWmatrix.

Happy hunting!

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #17: Outfitter

Icesnake — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:51:59 +0000

Outfitter

Let me start by saying “Thank you!” to Tonkah for the tip regarding the “freeze on training” bug. Disabling the Wowhead Looter add-on fixed it for me. However, it didn’t work for a friend who runs Fubar; possibly that’s difference that matters.

This week we’re going to talk about an add-on that may seem redundant; in patch 3.1.2, Blizzard introduced the equipment manager. The equipment manager “can… be used to just swap weapons or trinkets or put on that tuxedo to strut around town. It will not automatically switch your gear when you change your talent spec, but it will allow for an easy gear change between them,” according to Ghostcrawler on the official forums.

If you have a serious memory limitation, you can get by with the equipment manager. However, if you want more functionality, and finer control over your outfits, I recommend Outfitter.

Outfitter provides some automation, as well; for example, it will automatically switch between gear sets when you mount or dismount, and can be set up to change your “Tracking” skill with different outfits, such as Track Minerals when riding, or Track Fish when you have your fishing gear equipped.

Basic setup of Outfitter is very easy, although the advanced functions may not be immediately obvious. It’s reliable, stable, and well worth the small memory footprint it requires.

You can get Outfitter through Wowmatrix, or from WoWinterface or Curse.

Music for this segment is from Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Rambling River” by Steve Glotzer.

Download the MP3

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #16: Keeping Up With Everybody

Icesnake — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:43:45 +0000

Keeping Up With Everybody

By this time you probably have a slew of add-ons helping you level up, keep your bags organized, make a killing at the Auction House, and make a fast getaway when your latest AH victim realizes that wool cloth really isn’t worth 35 gold a stack. You’d probably like an easy way to keep all those add-ons up-to-date, wouldn’t you? I knew you would.

Other than manually checking every add-on at the site where you originally got it, there are several effective methods of checking for, and even installing, the latest versions of your add-ons. There was a time when you could do it with just one simple package, but we aren’t going to dredge up old feuds this week.

First, if you get your add-ons through WoWmatrix, Curse, and WoWinterface – the three places I always recommend – life is going to be a lot simpler for you. Why simpler? Because they each have semi-automated updaters.

Curse.com provides the Curse Client. Of the three, it’s my least favorite, because of two things: It requires you to have a curse.com account (and as a computer professional, I am always suspicious about what information might be collected in this way), and secondly, you can only update one add-on at a time if you don’t pay for a premium Curse account. However, the client is functional, although slow and riddled with ads (which you won’t see if you use an ad blocker like Hostsman or the MVPS.org hosts file, thank goodness).

WoWinterface provides (or possibly just works with; I’m a little unclear on who actually owns it) the MMOUI Minion. Since the Minion is written in Java, it will work on Windows, OS X, or Linux; but it is also slightly slower than a native application would be. However, it’s still faster than the Curse client, and it will let you update all available add-ons with a single click. The Minion is still in beta as of this posting, but it seems stable and reliable.

Lastly, WoWmatrix. The WoWmatrix updater is available for Windows, OS X, and Linux, and it’s pretty fast, and again allows for a single-click update of all add-ons. It’s also got a couple of ads, but again, like the Curse client, they will be blocked if you use Hostsman or the MVPS.org hosts file. They’re not as annoying or intrusive as the Curse client ads, though. You will find that there are a number of add-ons that WoWmatrix can’t update, due mainly to a dispute with the Curse site. Overall, however, I like WoWmatrix best of the three.

All three updaters have the ability to mark an add-on as “ignored” and thereafter will not try to look for updates for that add-on.

And now, how to run them? Well, I run all three. First, WoWmatrix; then MMOUI Minion; and lastly the Curse Client. I run them in this order so that, if WoWmatrix or the Minion has updated an add-on, I can mark it as “ignored” in the Curse Client, and save myself the trouble of updating individual add-ons one at a time whenever possible. For the same reason, if WoWmatrix gets an update, that add-on will get marked “ignore” in the Minion; there’s no point in updating it twice, and the Minion can be a little finicky about versions. Because updating in this way is so much faster than the old methods, I check for updates every day before playing WoW.

One huge warning: NEVER EVER let a third-party program run WoW for you. If you do, that program may stay resident, and that’s how keyloggers work. You don’t want your WoW account stolen, so feel free to trust everyone, but ALWAYS cut the cards (if I may throw a poker metaphor out there).

And now I have to go update my ninety add-ons. Boy, this is a lot easier than it was back when I had a hundred thirty-seven add-ons, and no updater package!

Music for this segment is from Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Sporting Update” by Phil Garrod, Reed Hays, and Scott P. Schreer.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #14: EasySerum

Icesnake — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:13:49 +0000

EasySerum

EasySerum is an add-on to help you do the daily quest Troll Patrol: The Alchemist’s Apprentice in Zul’Drak which gives Argent Crusade reputation and is one-quarter of the lead-in quest. It is a great quest for leveling as well, because there’s no risk of dying. EasySerum has been tested by yours truly and works perfectly under patch 3.3.3

Although Carbonite does have a built-in helper for this quest, EasySerum does it better. Where Carbonite gives you a waypoint arrow and tells you which shelf and item to look for, EasySerum tells you exactly which case to go to, numbering them 1 through 4 in a clockwise direction, looking down on the room. Shelves are numbered top-to-bottom. EasySerum avoids the top shelf (“shelf 1″) because it’s hard for Gnomes, Dwarves and Elves to reach, and also “prefers” the right-hand store room, because it’s closer to the Alchemist’s cauldron.

One caution: When you’re getting an item off the shelf, make sure it’s actually in your inventory before you move!

You can get EasySerum from WowInterface or Curse.

Music for this week’s segment is from Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Majestic Brilliance” by Steve Kornicki.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #13: RankWatch

Icesnake — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:08:12 +0000

Segment 13: RankWatch

Are you dual-specced? Have you recently leveled? Do you raid? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you may find RankWatch to be a useful add-on.

RankWatch will monitor the spells cast by you and other members of your party or raid and warn you (or them) if you or they are using a downranked spell. It will also tell you what new spells you can train each time you gain a level.

Except for reducing threat, there’s no longer any advantage to using downranked spells, so you will most likely want to get the highest rank you can on your action bars. While Blizzard “fixed” the action bars long ago, so that the highest rank of a spell appears on your hot bars automatically, this does not work reliably for dual-specced toons; if you aren’t getting the DPS or HPS you expect, you may be using downranked spells without knowing it. RankWatch will let you know.

You can get RankWatch throgh Wowmatrix, from WowInterface, or from Curse.

Music for this week’s segment is provided by Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Leather and Steel” by Tillman Sillescu.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #12: InfiniteIgnore

Icesnake — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:52:44 +0000

(Script lost; I will transcribe as soon as possible. Meanwhile, here’s the author’s comments:).

Infinite Ignore
Tired of watching all the spam in trade chats, but your ignore list is full? This is for you then. Infinite Ignore is exactly that, an ignore list that has no limit.

Features
+ No cap on the number of people ignored.
+ Hooks directly into ignore/unignore commands
+ Ability to import your existing list from WoW
+ Ignore list carries across all toons on the realm
+ If you are sick of the little voices in your head, you can ignore yourself too =D

Slash Commands (/inig)
import – imports your ignore list from Blizz
reset – clears your ignore list
list – lists the names of people you are currently ignoring

To Do
TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!…. I mean, take over the ignore screen (social frame)
- or -
Create a GUI from the ground up. Haven’t decided how I’m gonna go about doing this yet.

You can get InfiniteIgnore from WoWinterface, or from Curse.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #11: FreeRefills

Icesnake — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:38:55 +0000

Segment #11: Free Refills
Last week on WoWphiles, Jason mentioned Anea’s blog post entitled “I am not your heal bitch” in which Anea justly complained about players not preparing for random dungeon crawls by stocking up on food beforehand.

There’s no excuse for it. Seriously. Even if you can’t cook, you can buy food items from vendors in every city, town, and 1-shack settlement all over Azeroth, Outland, and Northrend, and you don’t even have to think about restocking; get the FreeRefills add-on and spend fifteen seconds setting it up.

FreeRefills does not, as the name imply, make your goods free of cost, but it does make stocking up free of the need to think about it. Here’s how, in easy step-by-step form:
Open the vendor window where you will buy whatever it is you need.
Open the chatline and type “/fr addstack” and then shift-click on the item you want to keep stocked, followed by the quantity of stacks you want to always have on-hand.
Hit “enter.”
Done! FreeRefills will now, every time you open a vendor window, check to see how much of your items you have, and if it is below your desired quantity, buy enough to refill your supplies. If, however, the vendor sells in stacks of 5 and you have, say, 57 and want to keep 60 on hand, FreeRefills won’t buy any, thus avoiding the problem of bags full of consumables in excess of the number you really want.
If, in the future, you no longer need the item in question, you can just use the same “/fr addstack [item]” with a quantity of zero.

FreeRefills will also restock out of your bank. This can be turned off, although I can’t see why I would ever do that. One terrific way to make use of this feature is to keep potions that you use a lot of stacked high and deep in your bank, but only carry the one or two stacks you expect to use in an instance. Then when Auction House prices are low for your potions/scrolls/flasks/beverage-of-choice you can stock up and refill the bank.

FreeRefills will work with anything sold by vendors; candles, food, drink, Arcane Powder – anything at all. And it’s excellent for keeping your lower-than-raiding-level toons stocked up so you don’t find yourself low on health, out of food, out of water, out of bandages, and having to run through a gauntlet of Fel Orcs to get to the nearest friendly town without at least filling up your health (and mana, if you use mana).

So, in summary, FreeRefills can help you stay alive, help your healer keep you alive, and make other players think you’re more courteous than you really are, because you always show up with food, drink, and reagents.

You can get FreeRefills from Curse.
Music for this week’s segment is from FreeplayMusic.com and is entitled “Just Enough” by Stephen A. Love and Scott P. Schreer.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #10: Advanced Trade Skill Window

Icesnake — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:24:25 +0000

Segment Number 10: Advanced Trade Skill Window

Guest voice by Victoria Tietjens

Advanced Trade Skill Window (which I herinafter refer to as “ATSW”) is a complete replacement for Blizzards tradeskill window with more overview and special functions.

This replacement, which works for all tradeskills, including enchanting, provides you with:

- a better overview
ATSW is bigger than the standard window, resulting in a much better overview over the thousands of items you can produce. Additionally, it lets you sort your recipes either by groups (as in the standard window), alphabetically or by difficulty. Alternatively, ATSW even lets you create your own groups and sort the recipes the way you like!
ATSW also has a filter function: enter something into the filter line and ATSW hides all recipes that don’t contain the text you entered. But this filter function can do more: it’s a powerful search function that can filter for minimum/maximum level requirements, producable item counts, item rarity (color) and reagents necessary. If, for example, you wanted to search for recipes for items made from iron, at least level 20 but no higher than 40, and green or better, you could enter a simple formula (explained in the radme.txt file) and have just those recipes displayed.

- more comfort
ATSW has a production queue: you can queue several different items and have them all produced automatically by just clicking one button. If you’ve ever had to wait for a number of parts to be made before you could make the item you really wanted, you’re going to love this.

ATSW is able to consider items you have to produce in order to use them as reagents in the production of other items. So: if you need item A to produce item B, you don’t have to manually produce first item A, then item B. ATSW does that for you: you just tell it to produce item B and it automatically queues the production of item A and – afterwards – item B. If you are missing some reagents to produce both items you get a message telling you exactly which reagents you need.

ATSW helps you when telling your friends what reagents you need for a specific item: just click on a recipe with your shift-key pressed and the chat line opened and the reagent info will be added to the chat line.

ATSW shows you what reagents you need to process the whole production queue. It even tells you how many of each reagent you have in your bank, on alternative characters on the same server (in this case, it can even tell you on which characters) and which reagents are buyable from merchants. In case of buyable reagents ATSW can automatically buy all missing and available items from a merchant when you are speaking to him.

Most of ATSW’s functions are available from buttons in the Gui and are self-explanatory. There are also some commands you can enter from the chat line:

You can enable (or disable) a specific trade skill; for example, if you don’t have a toon that knows blacksmithing, you’d probably want to disable blacksmithing in ATSW.

The “reagents” command will display a reagent window that displays all reagents needed for all saved queues on all characters. It also allows you to fetch all necessary reagents from your bank. This window can also be set to appear automatically whenever you are at your bank in the ATSW options. Imagine not having to take notes about what to buy for your engineer when you’e on your bank alt!

And you can delete all your saved queues. This might come in handy if you have, for example, saved a queue with a character you deleted.

You can download ATSW from WoWinterface.com or Curse.com, or get it with WoWmatrix.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium Segment #9: AuctionLite

Icesnake — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 19:15:15 +0000

Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment #9: AuctionLite

This week we’re going to look at an add-on that will help you dominate the economy on your Realm. AuctionLite is the add-on for the day traders of World of Warcraft. While not as comprehensive as the bettter-known Auctioneer, AuctionLite has a lot of functions that make working the Auction House a lot less of a chore.

AuctionLite adds some new tabs to your Auction House interface. Instead of being limited to searching for all gems, or blue gems, for example, if you know the name or part of the name of an item you want to buy, you can use AuctionLite to search on that name or partial name, and it will list all matching auctions, complete with prices per item and per auction. If you’re buying, then you can bid on one, several, or all of the auctions, or buy them out. AuctionLite will also track historical prices so you can see at a glance, after a little history has been built up, if you’re overpaying or getting a bargain.

If you are selling, you just drag the item to be sold into AuctionLite’s “sell” interface, and it will search for all current auctions for that item. You can choose how many stacks, and how many items per stack, you wish to sell. AuctionLite will automatically undercut current auctions, or, if there are no current auctions, and no history, triple the vendor price. You can adjust prices to suit yourself before placing the auction.

AuctionLite will also add tooltips to items, with vendor and auction prices, and disenchant values. You can also instantly view your own auctions on the Auctions tab.

AuctionLite even has a “favorites” feature to help you find items you want to buy faster.

AuctionLite is also multilingual; as of this post, it is available in English, French, German, Korean, Chinese, and Russian.

You can get AuctionLite through WoWmatrix, or from WoWinterface or Curse.

Music for this segment was provided by FreeplayMusic and is entitled “Sly Jackal,” by Hal Goldstein.

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Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium Segment #8: AchievementSnap and DingRecorder

Icesnake — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:51:22 +0000

Welcome to Icesnake’s Add-on Emporium, Segment Number 8.

Guest voice by Rakeleer Frostfyre

Continuing in our not-necessarily-for-raiding vein, this week I’ll tell you about not one, but two add-ons: AchievementSnap and DingRecorder.

I’m sure that everyone has heard the old “screenshot or it didn’t happen” taunt. Some people won’t go look up the facts on the Armory, but you can post a screenshot on Flicker and they’re perfectly happy to accept that as proof. AchievementSnap makes sure that you will have a screenshot of every achievement you earn after installing it, and, thanks to the way WoW creates filenames for screenshots, you’ll have a nice timestamp for the achievement as well.

DingRecorder does exactly the same thing when you level; it automatically takes a screenshot, so you will not only have proof (as if being level 80 isn’t enough to prove you were level 15 at some point, or 55 for DKs), you’ll have a timestamp to prove *when* you leveled.

There’s not much to the configuration of these mods; for AchievementSnap, you can toggle it on or off, and set minimum and maximum levels between which it will be active, although why you would ever want it turned off is beyond me. DingRecorder allows you to show or hide the User Interface, show your /played information (or not) and send a message to Guild chat that you’ve leveled.

AchievementSnap is available from WoWInterface.

DingRecorder is available from WoWinterface, Curse, and through WoWmatrix.The Curse version seems most up-to-date.

Music for this segment is provided by Freeplay Music and is entitled “Witches Approaching” by Patrick Smith.

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Vanity Pet Analysis: Lil’ K.T.

Psynister — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:41:54 +0000

After buying both of the new vanity pets for my wife that I mentioned yesterday, we took a look at them both to decide what we thought about them. Initially I was almost certain that K.T. was the one for me as I’ve always been a fan of liches and necromantics and such, and pandas aren’t really my thing.

So pulled out the panda first expecting him to the weaker of the two. As it turned out, he was actually pretty cool. Every minute or so he pulls out some wicked Kung Fu moves to show you and he makes cool little martial arts noises and such. We were actually surprisingly pleased with him and that just made us even more ready to see what good old K.T. had to show us.

I knew from reading the description when I bought them that K.T. would occasionally attack critters, so we took a character into Stormwind and stood there amidst the squirrels waiting for him to show us what he’s got. We waited, and waited, and…waited…and then logged out. The little sucker decided to use his freezing skills on us or something because he didn’t do a blasted thing! We were both rather disappointed in the little lich, but we liked the panda enough that we just stuck with him instead.

When I mentioned on twitter today that we had not been impressed with him other people chimed in saying that KT had worked just fine for them and that they had a blast killing critters with him. I was pretty stumped at that point, wondering if perhaps ours had been bugged or something. So when lunch time rolled around I went ahead and logged into my wife’s account since she was out of town with her mom for the day. I rolled a new human toon and ran to Goldshire to pick up the pets from the mailbox, knowing that there were chickens, cows, dear, fawn, and rabbits in abundance in the area. You can find chickens right there near the mailbox, so that was my first target. I

I pulled out K.T. and stood there waiting. I waited for a couple of minutes, knowing that the Pandaren Monk would have done something in that time period and got disgruntled. I moved on to another location assuming that perhaps he just didn’t like killing things in towns. I found a cow and rabbit together and parked myself there while I tabbed out to check Twitter for any other replies. I found that some people had triggered him in cities, so I was stumped again. Then I heard a nice, wicked laugh so I tabbed back over to WoW just in time to see a rabbit get frozen and about half a second later the ice busted and the rabbit was dead, prompting another wicked laugh from Lil’ K.T.

From there I went to other animals trying to get it to trigger and hoping to get screen shots of it as well. The animations were happening pretty fast and I was in the middle of rotating camera angles and suck to try to get good shots as the critters moved around, so the shots I did manage to get weren’t all that great. But, I did manage to snag a few for you. Before I had to go back to work I managed to get two chickens, a rabbit, and a cow all killed with Lil’ KT. The cow was the best seeing the massive ice block show up around it before it died. But, I didn’t catch the screen shot on that one before he was dead.

Here is the letter that you get when you pull K.T. out of the mailbox:

Here’s a a shot of the first little chicken that met his frosty death, just as KT froze him:

And here’s one of the dead corpse after the freeze effect ended:

You don’t see any debuff or anything show up on the critter, you just see it get hit with a frost spell, frozen solid, and then falling over dead when the freeze effect breaks. But the casting animation and the wicked sounds from K.T. make it a fun experience.

All in all, the time between his freezes was somewhat disappointing as I had to wait several minutes even between multiple critters that were right next to one another. But, the info on the pet does mention that it is random, so maybe the numbers were just against me today or something. If he is capable of doing it more often or while you’re running near a critter or something then he might be cooler than he seemed. In the long run I was still pleased with the little guy, but somewhat disappointed as well. I wish he’d be a little more aggressive in his critter killing.

Posted in World of Warcraft Tagged: BoA, Microtransaction, Purchase, Vanity Pets

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Thanks to our iTunes Subscribers

Jason Z — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:02:07 +0000

I just wanted to say thank you once again to everyone who is a subscriber to the WoWphiles podcast. You guys have really helped us to feel like we are doing very good work and you have helped get us bumped up to
New & Notable in the Video Games Category on iTunes.

That is awesome! Thank You!

So you guys keep listening and telling your friends about us and we’ll do our best to bring you a show you enjoy every single week.

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I Parried The Query

Honors Code — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:59:00 +0000

I received an interesting email wondering about how parry works.

When you think about avoiding a Bosses attack your basic options are dodge and parry. Both Dodge and Parry allow you to complete avoid taking damage from that attack, so what’s the difference.

Dodge is fairly straight forward, you dodge, take no damage and that’s the end of the story.

Parry is similar. You parry and take no damage, but then your next attack gets sped up. Every weapon has what is called a Swing Timer. This is a measure how fast the weapon can be swung. With few exceptions, tanking weapons come in at 1.7 to 1.5 speed. That means that every 1.5 seconds or so (give or take a little raid buffed haste), you are swinging at the Boss. When you parry, that next attack comes even faster. So instead of swinging every 1.5 seconds, your next attack takes only 1 second. It’s a nice benefit, but not without cost.

Parry and Dodge both work on a ratings to percentage system with diminishing returns. At level 80 it takes 45.25 parry or dodge rating to get 1% chance to parry or dodge respectively. Parry used to take more rating but the Developers changed that in Patch 3.2. Parry is still subject to more harsh treatment by diminishing returns. Basically as you get more parry, it takes more and more parry rating to actually get that additional 1% chance.

Parry versus Dodge decisions can come into play in many areas like whether to choose one piece of gear with dodge over other piece with parry.

So how do you decide? Lucky for us, Theck,Bringer of Numbers and Pounding Headaches, over at Maintankadin has crunched the numbers and given us a rule of thumb to go by.

Make yourself a macro and paste this text into it

/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage(“If ratio above 1.88 start getting Parry. Currently at: “..string.format(“%.2f”, (GetDodgeChance()-10)/(GetParryChance()-10)))

If your ratio is over 1.88 you need more parry, if it’s not, keep stacking dodge.

Parry and Dodge are also considerations for gems and enchants. They just aren’t considered very long, at least by me.

I can’t see a situation where I could gem or enchant parry or dodge. Full disclosure, I do enchant parry on my gloves, but I’m getting Armsman more for the threat. The parry is simply a nice bonus. My gems are generally going to be Agility/Stam and Stamina. I might throw in a Def/Stam if I like the socket bonus. Just know that I only like socket bonuses that are 9 or more stamina.

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Motivations Assessment

Psynister — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:15:46 +0000

This morning I found a link from GravityDK on Twitter to an article at pwnwear.com discussing a survey about what motivates you to play the game. I took it myself and was somewhat surprised by some of the results, so I decided I would share it with you as well.

The survey is written by Nick Yee, and consists of 39 questions with results based on sample data taken from 3200 other MMO players. You can take the survey yourself by following this link.

I found the results interesting when I took it, though after sitting there for a moment to think about it most of these numbers come pretty well in line with how I really think of myself. I did not think I was quite so set on mechanics as I am, so that was the thing that threw me off at first. Sitting down and thinking about it though, I guess I really am a sucker for mechanics. Who would have guessed that a programmer would care about mechanics?

Another thing that stuck out to me is how low my Socializing rank is, given that I alway seek out social guilds. Perhaps I like the atmosphere but don’t get involved? Hmm, that one is interesting. I guess it probably goes back to how often I solo game content rather than grouping up for it, but I’m not really sure.

Achievement Component

Mechanics: Gamers who score high on Mechanics derive satisfaction from analyzing and understanding the underlying numerical mechanics of the system. For example, they may be interested in calculating the precise damage difference between dual-wielding one-handed swords vs. using a two-handed sword, or figuring out the resolution order of dodges, misses, and evasions. Their goal in understanding the underlying system is typically to facilitate templating or optimizing a character that excels in a particular domain. Your percentile rank is 89% on this subcomponent.

Socializing Component

Chat: Gamers who score high on this subcomponent enjoy meeting and getting to know other gamers. They like to chit-chat and gossip with other players as well as helping out others in general – whether these be less-experienced players or existing friends. Gamers who score high on this subcomponent are typically drawn to casual, friendly guilds. Your percentile rank is 42% on this subcomponent.

Immersion Component

Escapism: Gamers who score high on Escapism use the environment as a place to relax or relieve their stress from the real world. These players may use the game as a way to avoid thinking about their RL problems or in general as a way to escape RL. Your percentile rank is 75% on this subcomponent.

Overall Assessment

The graph above is a visualization of your 3 main motivation components. Your Achievement percentile rank is 75%. Your Socializing percentile rank is 12%. And your Immersion percentile rank is 17%.

Assessments of Others
Here are some of the results of people I know on Twitter who also took the survey, to show you how widely some of us can differ and yet still get along just great.

wowcynwise	Boize_	Arcania	Nochecazador

Fynralyl	Etni

Posted in World of Warcraft Tagged: Analysis, Motivation

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Warcraft Machinima – The WoWphiles Podcast

Jason Z — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:05:37 +0000

This World of Warcraft machinima was my first attempt at creating a wow machinima. I hope you enjoy it and be sure to check out the podcast.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYGA7nidEGU

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Weekly Maintenance 9/29/09

Jason Z — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:07:18 +0000

FYI: World of Warcraft weekly maintenance will be this Tuesday 09/29/09 from 5:00 am – 11:00 am PDT.

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Easily find Warcraft videos at Playercraft

Jason Z — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:33:49 +0000

Looking for World of Warcraft related videos and machinima? Playercraft brings you World of Warcraft videos from both YouTube and Vimeo.

For those of us who play World of Warcraft it is often fun to watch the often humorous videos that other fans of the game are creating. With the millions of videos on YouTube it can sometimes be difficult to narrow down your search enough to find quality World of Warcraft related videos and machinima.

Search no more!

The folks over at Playercraft have a site that brings all the World of Warcraft videos to you in one place. They have categories that you can browse such as Boss kills, comedy, commercials, music videos, movies and also some of the famous World of Warcraft videos.

The site has a clean, easy to navigate interface and is a great resource for easily finding World of Warcraft videos online. The only problem I see is that lack of content. The concept and site design are well done, but it seems like the creators of the website added some videos and then stopped adding new content.

I encourage everyone to check out Playercraft for World of Warcraft videos and encourage the site’s creators to continue building on the content of the site and grow this nice resource.

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Unnaturally Cold

Honors Code — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:47:00 +0000

A little bit of news before I get into last night’s raid. I’ve got a major post coming out on Monday. You don’t want to miss it!

Now, last night was a strange night for Team Ellevis. We had killed every boss available in Coliseum on Tuesday, so we headed back to Ulduar on Thursday.

We knocked out Flame Leviathan and headed over to XT. We’ve been doing XT Hard Mode for months now, but we still have a couple of people who need loot off him. For some reason, it just wasn’t clicking last night on XT.

XT is one of those fights that tough on a tank because we really aren’t in a critical role. I know that probably sounds weird, but basically I stand there and work on my Threat rotations. Oh, we have to be alert to using our cooldowns if we get low, but whether or not we are going to kill the boss is much more dependant on the other raiders handling the Light Bombs, Gravity Bombs and Sparks. It’s a fight that’s all about execution, and for whatever reason, we were just off our game last night.

After several unsuccessful attempts, we decided to just kill him normally. I’m sure the guys wanting Hard Mode loots were disappointed, but it was time to move on.

I think the guys may be getting a little tired of Ulduar. As we pulled trash our Mage would constantly try to pull extra groups and see if we could handle it. He might have been a touch bored.

We did Open Arms on Kologarn (kill him without killing his arms). I had to really watch my AoE as both Consecration and Hammer of the Righteous would hit the arms and we didn’t want one of them dying from collateral damage. Even with just Holy Shield, Shield of the Righteous and Judgment, I was able to hold threat.

For Auriaya, we did the Nine Lives achievement. I just had to kite the boss to a new spot when the Feral Defender dropped his void zone. We actually had to slow down on DPS so we wouldn’t kill Auriaya before we killed the Feral Defender nine times.

Next up was Hodir. After our struggles on XT, I didn’t hold out much hope for Hard Mode. I asked Ellevis if we could give it a try. He said we would give it a couple of attempts. The first attempt went really well. I nearly got myself got in an Ice Block during Flash Freeze, but I made it just in time. I believe that Pursuit of Justice made the difference.

We had one person get caught in a Flash Freeze with Hodir at about 45%. We ended up wiping it, but we had new found confidence we could pull it off.

Marksman Hunters are so good for this fight, and we had two of them in our raid. With their Rapid Fire –> Readiness –> Rapid Fire, they poured a ton of damage out early on. The next pull we downed it.

We rezzed the dead and I waited for loot. I already had LOL!!! typed in and ready to send to the raid, awaiting for the announcement that we had gotten a 6th Staff of Enduring Winter on our 6th kill of Hodir Hard. But there it was, Shiver!

I told Ellevis I would be interested in it. It’s very similar to the Titanguard. I lose 1 Str, 8 Defense, 6 Hit and pick up a socket, plus 5 Expertise Skill (not rating, skill) from my Dwarf Racial. I threw a Solid Mystic Zircon in there as soon as the raid was over. Now I just need to get the mats together to get Blood Draining put on it. I’ll get a screenshot once it’s all enchanted up.

It was only after the kill that I was reminded that Hodir is one of 4 bosses we need for Champion of Ulduar. . To get Champion of Uludar you have to do each boss with none one dying and it being a one shot. Once you do that once for a Boss, you have credit for it. We have credit for all the bosses in Uludar expect 4. We need Hodir, Mimiron, Iron Council and Yogg. If we do Hodir again, I’m going to tell Ellevis we can forgo Hard Mode and try to get Hodir down for Champion of Ulduar.

Boreal Guard (the Shield that can drop from Hodir Hard) is the last bit of loot I need from Ulduar. It’s every bit as good as the Bulwark of the Royal Guard (Heroic) from Anub’barak in Heroic Trial of the Crusader 10 man. Next week we should be able to down Anub’arak in Normal 10 man and open up Heroic. I firmly believe we’ll be able to clear Heroic 10 man at some point. It seems selfish to keep the whole raid from a shot at Champion of Ulduar just so I can get a shot at Boreal Guard, so I’ll set my sites on Bulwark of the Royal Guard (Heroic) now.

We can still try to get Mimiron, Iron Council and Yogg this week if we go back to Ulduar on Monday. We’ve come close on Mimiron a couple of times, and I’m sure if we do Runemaster last, we can get Iron Council. If we forgo Hard Mode, I think we can probably get Hodir, too. Yogg, well that’s going to be a tough one.

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Patch 3.2 coming tomorrow 8/4?

Jason Z — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 01:19:04 +0000

Ever since we had rolling restarts instead of regular maintenance last week I’ve had a feeling the patch would be coming this week.

Why have I thought that? The first hint is that I’ve noticed around the time of the last few patches we have had a rolling restart Tuesday, almost like a gift from Blizzard, right before the patch drops.

That week is generally followed by an extended maintenance Tuesday, which we are having this week.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, August 4th, which means all realms will be undergoing scheduled maintenance.

Most realms will be down for maintenance for 8 hours:

3:00 am – 11:00 am PDT (10:00 – 18:00 UTC / GMT)

Some realms will be down for 12 hours:

12:00 am – 12 pm PDT (7:00 – 19:00 UTC / GMT).

Read the full Blue Post

Here are some of my other thoughts:

When the patch drops there will inevitably be some problems that pop up that will linger for a few days. This generally happens with major content patches and I’m sure Blizzard is planning for it. That being said, if the patch comes out on the 11th, they will be dealing with patch issues the week right before BlizzCon. Does Blizzard want to deal with patch issues right before BlizzCon? I don’t think they do. Therefore, I think if they are going to have patch 3.2 go live before BlizzCon, it will be tomorrow.

If the patch doesn’t go live tomorrow I think they will wait a full week after BlizzCon so that everyone can recover and get back to work. In that case I think the patch would go live September 1.

I still feel strongly however, that the patch will go live before BlizzCon because Blizzard will be planning to make other new major announcements and it seems that it would make sense to have this patch behind them so that at BlizzCon they can focus on looking forward.

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I Could Say That This Cache Is Rare

Honors Code — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:31:00 +0000

I’ve copied over to the PTR, but we we’ve been raiding so I haven’t actually gotten over there yet. I really want to because I’d like to play with Ardent Defender and the new Seal of Vengeance a bit. I know that Ardent Defender will not make it live so I want a shot at playing with it.

We’ve started working our way through the Hard modes in Ulduar. I love how we can ramp up the difficulty and find something that works for our raid group. We can choose the level up risk versus reward.

We’ve knocked out FL+4 (although I wasn’t there, I’m sure we’ll do it again). We’ve taken care of XT-Hard, Crazy Cat Lady (don’t kill the Kittens on Auryia) and Steelbreaker Last.

So last night we start learning Hodir Hard. Hodir Hard is not terribly different from normal from a Tank perspective since the requirement is just a fast kill. You basically do the same things you do when fighting normally, but you really have to ramp up your threat production to the maximum level. Healers can really burn through their mana because it’s going to over quick one way or another.

The challenge is more for your DPS. They have a buff to manage, and they have to be extra careful not to get caught in an Iceblock. You’ll lose too much DPS time getting them out.

Going against the grain of the popular WoW mindset, we actually switched from the Death Knight Tank we had been using on Normal mode, to a Paladin Tank for Hard Mode. I wonder, when Blue says that most guilds are having their Death Knights tank every hard mode, are they only looking at 25 man guilds?

I realize I’m in a guild that just does 10 mans, so I don’t have the experience of what 25 man Ulduar is like, but in my guild, we feel equally confident whether it’s our Death Knight, Paladin or Druid at the helm for Tanking a boss. Didn’t see Warriors in that list? Well, that’s because we only have one Warrior in our raid group, and he’s sporadic in his attendance, and he’s always been DPS. It has nothing to do with the Warrior class. In fact, we have two of our core team leveling up Warriors because they are such a good class for PVE and PVP.

I used 3 pieces of Frost Resist gear, the chest, belt, and boots. Together with my Frost Resist Aura, that put me at 417 Frost Resist, but low on Defense. I had to switch in my Repelling Charge to maintain the Crit Cap (aka Defense Minimum).

With all the Expertise on Ulduar gear, I’ve dumped the Seal of Vengeance glyph. I now have Salvation, Divine Plea and Judgement.

The other change I made was that I put my Darkmoon Card: Greatness in place of my Monarch Crab. Threat is an issue in this fight. The NCP shaman gives a buff called Storm Cloud that the DPS players can pass around that sends their DPS and threat through the roof. If I’m reading my World of Logs report right, my Shaman’s average Lightning Bolt crit was 28k. Lava Burst was hitting in that range as well. My Mage was critting Frostfire Bolts for nearly 30k.

The Buff is essentially the only way you are going to be able to do enough DPS to get him down before the timer is up. My Shaman, Shadow Priest and Mage were all doing over 10k TPS. I was doing about 6 or 7k. The Buff means they are going to pull threat. There was basically nothing I could do about it. The Mage had Mirror Images and Invis which helped. We used Hand of Salvation, Misdirect, and Tricks of the Trade. I still couldn’t hold them off.

So we decided to have our 3 amigos (SPriest, EShaman, and Mage) DPS at absolute max range. Then when they pulled, I would have to taunt to keep Hodir. I never had a taunt resist, so I got Hodir back every time. But between this fight and Thorim, I’m almost convinced to go back to the Righteous Defense Glyph. For Paladin, our Righteous Defense Glyph basically makes it impossible to have a taunt resist.

The only problem with them DPSing from far away was that they had to run pretty far to get onto the snowdrifts for Flash Freeze. At one point in the fight, my Shaman was sitting at 117% threat. Hodir dropped by snowdrifts right next to him, which meant my Shaman had to run into melee range to avoid getting frozen. As Hodir was winding up Flash Freeze, I was looking at Omen, Hodir’s Target and his cast bar. As soon as he was done casting, he changed his target to my Shaman. I slammed my Righteous Defense button and taunted Hodir just in time. Phew!

It took 5 attempts, but we eventually got it! There were two huge upgrades for me that dropped from Hodir Hard, a Mace and a Shield, but neither dropped. We got spell power staff. At least our Priest was happy.

Flush with our success, we decided to try Thorim Hard. I’m usually in the tunnel, but we were really cutting it close. A couple of times, we’d reach Thorim a second or two too late. So we decided to switch me into the Arena and put my Death Knight friend on the tunnel. They usually got through with 10 to 20 seconds to spare.

Meanwhile I was struggling in the Arena. I usually started out well, but towards the end, you get a huge spawn of 3 elites plus non elites. I wouldn’t get it under control until either my Mage or Rogue had been killed. We couldn’t do Hard Mode with one less DPS.

We got maybe 2 or 3 good attempts at the Phase 2 Hard Mode, but we would lose DPS, or a Tank or a Healer and the raid would buckle and wipe. There is a tremendous amount of Raid damage going in Phase 2 with Blizzards and Chain Lightnings, plus your Tank is getting rocked. Like Gruul, Thorim gets stronger as the fight wears on and hits harder and harder. I ate a 31k melee without having Unbalancing Strike on me. Splat!

We eventually opted to do him Normal.

We also wanted to try Freya Hard. Like Sartharian, this involved leaving her Elders up. We had previously successfully done One Elder and we decided to try two. Each Elder gives her a new ability. The easiest one is Sunbeam. We had defeated that before. Our choice was between Ground Tremor or Iron Roots. Iron Roots requires a DPS switch to kill the Roots quickly. Ground Tremor requires you to stop casting or you’ll get 6 second school lock out. We opted for the Iron Roots and killed the Ground Stomp Elder. But we chose poorly. Iron Roots was definitely the one we should have taken out. DPS is switching around so often in that fight between Adds, and Trees that adding another priority was just a bit much.

We ended up having to kill her normal.

We were running out of time, but tried for 4 Minute Ignis. We had done Hodir, we could do Ignis.

4:02, no achievement.

We were frustrated, but we did get another Hard Mode down and got another step on the chain for Algalon. Our previous attempts at Hodir had not been good. Our fastest kill was around 5 minutes. Way off the 3 minute limit for Hard Mode. I was really proud of the way our team came together and mastered the Hard Mode.

Monday we are going for Mimiron Hard, General Hard, and Yogg minus 1 Keeper.

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Tuesday Maintenance Rolling Restarts 6/23/09

Jason Z — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:13:02 +0000

Good news for everyone who dreads the downtime ever Tuesday: There will be rolling restarts this week. Woot! Woot!

With some of the problems that came about with the Midsummer Fire Festival quests I expected regular extended maintenance this week, so I am really excited to see that we are only having rolling restarts.

Below is the full blue post:

For our regularly scheduled maintenance we will be performing rolling restarts on all realms not listed below. The US realms will begin rolling restarts on Tuesday, June 23, at 5:00AM PDT and all Oceanic realms at 10:00AM PDT. Each realm will be down for approximately 15 minutes and the entire process will last about 2 hours.

The realms listed below will be undergoing a brief maintenance beginning on Tuesday, June 23, at 5:00AM PDT and they should be playable by approximately 8:00AM PDT.

Area 52
Arena Tournament 1
Arena Tournament 2
Auchindoun
Azuremyst
Blade’s Edge
Blood Furnace
Coilfang
Dawnbringer
Exodar
Fizzcrank
Galakrond
Ghostlands
Grizzly Hills
Shattered Halls
Terokkar
The Scryers
The Underbog
Velen
Znagarmarsh

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Shared Topic: Situational Awareness, or Driving The Tank

Honors Code — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:55:00 +0000

This week Blog Azeroth’s Shared Topic is “Situational Awareness in Raids”.

Lissanna writes “I thought it would be neat to see how all the classes (even tanks and DPS) handle the multi-tasking that is required during raids. Do tanks and DPS sometimes have tunnel vision and forget to watch for the AOE effects or whatever they need to move out of? How do other healers deal with avoiding the tunnel vision problem?”

You have to do a ton of multi-tasking as a Tank.

As I’m tanking a Boss, my tasks are:

§ Make sure the boss if properly position (don’t get the melee dps cleaved, dragon breathed, etc)
§ Keep track of the Threat meter
§ Watch my own health and mana reserves
§ Make sure I have the proper buffs up (Holy Shield, Divine Plea, Sacred Shield, Righteous Fury, Seal, Blessing are all on timers)
§ Watch for special moves the boss does (Plasma Blast, Frozen Blows, etc)
§ Watch the Deadly Boss Mod timers/warnings
§ Keep track of my next panic button (have I used my Pot? Healthstone? Trinkets? Divine Protection? Lay on Hands?)
§ Communicate with my healers (I’ve got move, use a cooldown)
§ Keep track of bad places to stand (like red/green/blue circles, fires, etc)
§ Maintain a good threat rotation

So how do I handle it all?

It’s very similar to driving a car.

There are a myriad of things you are watching (your own speed, the other cars, what lane you are in, gas needle, etc), yet most of us don’t feel overwhelmed. On the contrary, we are so comfortable driving that we add even more to our multi-tasking. We listen to music, talk on our cell phones, shave/put on makeup, or grab a quick bite to eat.

It’s because driving comes pretty naturally. We simply scan around without a whole lot of conscious thought.

You ever been driving somewhere and realize you were driving like you were going home, or to work, but you had intended on going somewhere else. You were simply driving out of habit. That’s what my threat rotation is like. I can almost feel when certain abilities are ready to use, and which spell in the rotation I need to hit next. 4-2-1-3-5 (Judgement, Shield of Righteousness, Holy Shield, Hammer of the Righteous, Consecrate).

It’s so ingrained I have to set up my alts with similar keybinds (first priority attack is 4, then 2, etc.) because that’s the key I’m going to push almost reflexively.

How many times do you actively check your speedometer while you drive? Probably dozens of times without even thinking about it. You simply see the general area the needle is in, and you watch the other cars around you. It’s the same with watching Omen. I glance over and can tell just by the color and length of the bars what the situation is. It takes factions of seconds.

With all this happening almost without thinking about it, you can concentrate on singing along with the radio/Ipod, or chatting on your cell phone.

In Wow, you can communicate on vent, or pay special attention to the Bosses buff bar or your own debuff bar. You can watch timers on Boss abilities.

Just like you are always looking for the other drivers to do something crazy like suddenly stop or cut you off, you can keep a steady eye for loose adds or red circles.

I can glance at my screen and know immediately what’s going on, just like you glance around in traffic and know what’s going on. Most things just look right and in place. It’s when something out of the ordinary happens like brake lights on the Interstate or the Boss suddenly targeting a Mage that gets your attention.

Of course, I’m not immune to tunnel vision, driving or tanking. I’ll get really into a song, and have to slam the breaks to avoid a wreck, or miss my exit. Likewise, I’ll get focused on Omen, and miss moving out for Flash Freeze. It happens.

Some people use accessories like a GPS to help them navigate around. In WoW, I use Addons to help remind of the buffs/debuffs I need to maintain: Tankadin2 for Righteous Fury alerts and PallyPower for Blessings/Aura.

Knowing the fights in advance can really help you get to the level of comfort. Just like having driven somewhere before makes it easier to navigate there again. Watch videos, read strats/blogs, and talk with other tanks who have tanked that content.

Try to keep your eyes moving. Use your mouse to pan your camera around (without moving or turning your toon). You can do this with a single click on the left mouse button.

Situational Awareness is just part of being a good tank, and it’s one of those things that differentiate tanks. It’s a skill of the man (or woman) behind the keyboard. Like most skills in Tanking, practice is the best way to get better.

Next time you are tanking and feel you have the situation under control, give yourself something else to do, push yourself a little bit. Only by pushing the limit of what you think you can do, can you discover you could do more than you thought. Try to single tank a fight you normally double tank, or take Adds instead of the Boss. Check the Damage Taken after a fight and see how much the Adds did to your DPS, aim to reduce that next time.

Improving your situational awareness will make you a ‘go to’ Tank, regardless of the color of your Raid Bar.

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How Much DPS Do You Do?

Honors Code — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:36:00 +0000

I received a tell from a Rogue buddy of mine from my T6 days in Dominion. He was helping his guild (not Dominion anymore) put together a weekend Naxx25. I had previously mentioned to him I’d love to go on one of my alts if they needed people.

I thought about the Warrior briefly but decided against it. He has only had a couple of pieces crafted so far. The Titansteel Mace, and Titansteel DPS helm for his DPS set, and the Titansteel ShieldWall, Titansteel Tank Helm, Daunting Legguards and Daunting Legplates for his Tank set. Mostly we was still in quested blues and greens. The group would really have had to carry him.

The other issue against the Warrior was the raid was stacked with melee dps and plate. Just one of ther Warrior but 2 or 3 Death Knights and 4 or 5 Paladins. We were actually a little light on Ranged DPS.

So I brought the Hunter out of mothballs. Granted, he’s not all that well geared either, but he does have mostly ilevel 200 gear.

The run was mostly a guild run with about 8 or so PuGs like me. It took two nights, but we cleared the place top to bottom.

Overall I was pretty happy with my performance. I was usually running in the top 10 for DPS. Not great, but also not bad for an alt.

The run was eye opening from me from the sense that I came to an understanding that you really can’t answer the ‘what kind of dps do you do?’ question. Do I use the number for the whole run? Just for Bosses, and if so which Boss? My DPS fluctuated from Boss to Boss. So I decided to use Patchwerk as my DPS number. Patchwerk is a stand there and shoot him until dead kind of fight and it doesn’t have any mechanic that’s a real danger to Watch, my Mulgore Prairie Wolf. I pulled 2.5k on Patchwerk. I have to say I was pretty happy with that number. It feels like it took far longer for me to hit 2k with Honorshammer.

Even better, I know I can hit higher numbers with better play.

I’m not watching my two DoTs (Black Arrow and Serpent Sting) very well. Sometimes I would hit Serpent Sting well before it was going to expire, and other times I would let it fall off. Black Arrow is a bit easier, I just fire it every time it’s off cooldown.

I’m really bad at watching for Load and Load procs. I need something to come up on my screen and yell at me “Hey dummy, Lock and Load proc’ed, you might want to use it!”

I’ve also got to get better at managing my Pet. He died on Heigan, Sapphrion and Kel’Thuzad. Each fight I rezzed him and kept him at my side, but KT was kind enough to kill him again.
I managed to pick up a non Tier chest and my Tier Legs for him. You were limited to two epics for the night, unless no one wanted it, then it didn’t count. There was only one other Hunter in the raid. Then you could get another single epic from KT/Sapph. I was hoping the gun would drop, but I had no such luck.

It’s funny but even though my Hunter is an alt in mostly blue BoEs and crafted stuff, there isn’t much he needs from Heroics. The biggest need out of heroics would actually be rep for Head Enchant. Most of his upgrades come from Raids, which makes it difficult to gear him up further unless I raid with him which will pretty much only happen in PuGs, even if they are mostly guild runs like this weekend. I did tell my friend to invite me if they go next weekend.

It was fun to see the fights from a new perspective. You don’t have to worry about the whole ‘will I get to play my role (tank) on this fight’. You DPS and DPS hard every fight. Well, except for Gluth where I was a kiter. I did okay, Gluth died, but I know I could do that job better with some practice.

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Get Realm Status Updates on Twitter

Jason Z — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:39:54 +0000

I used to get my realm status updates by either leaving the official status page open all day, or if I was lucky one of my guild mates would post an update on Twitter when they first noticed that the realms were up. Now we can combine the best of both worlds and get realm updates directly through Twitter.

Twitter user @jwest23 has taken it upon himself to create Twitter feeds that alert you when realms are up or down. You can follow Twitter feeds from @wowrsusall or @wowrseuall to get updates on either all the US or EU realms. He is also currently adding individual realms to Twitter. I can follow my ream, Earthen Ring, @wowrsuser to stay current on its status. This is something that is very handy for people who want to get in game as soon as Tuesday maintenance is over.

There is also a Twitter feed from @wowrealms which was created by @isaacforce which gives realm updates. It’s not quite as detailed or updated quite as frequently as the others.

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