Segment 51: Old Friends Revisited

Let’s look at the pre-Cata add-ons covered in the Emporium once more, quickly, and see what’s still useful. Any dates referenced here will be 2011 unless otherwise stated.

From the top:
Omen3 – Outdated. I’ve personally moved to Skada.
Carbonite – Updated January 25th.
Decursive – Updated March 4th.
Grid – Use Healbot.
Mage Fever – Updated February 14th. Use Curse to get the latest version.
Lorack’s DK Optimizer – Out of date. Use SpellFlash with the DK module.
DeclineDuel – Out of date but still working.
AchievementSnap – Out of date.
DingRecorder – Out of date.
AuctionLite – Updated January 22d.
Advanced Trade Skill Window – Updated February 9th.
Free Refills – Updated March 7th.
InfiniteIgnore – Updated February 21st.
RankWatch – Outdated and obsolete.
EasySerum – Updated for patch 4.0.1 and should still work.
GoGoMount – updated March 9th, and GoGoPet updated for 4.0.1 in October 2010.
Add-on updaters are updated whenever you run them.
Outfitter – Updated January 8th.
_NPCscan – updated January 23rd.
Parrot – updated February 16th.
WetSpot – Obsolete.
SkillScore – obsolete. Use PlayerScore/GearScore instead.
RaidBuffStatus – Updated March 15th.
ArkInventory – updated February 26th
AutoEmote – still works even though it is long out of date.
AutoProfit is out of date, use AutoProfitX2, updated March 4th, instead.
LightHeaded was updated March 9th.
Leveling Guides – possibly no longer needed with Carbonite and Lightheaded. It’s up to you.
HealBot – updated March 6th. I’ve received email that there may be an issue with the slash command for HB, but I have not had time to investigate.
XtoLevel – updated January 25th.
AutoAspect – out of date. Consider SmartBuff as a replacement.
OmniCC – updated in December 2010 for WoW 4.0.3a
ControlFreak – updated January 4th 2009, but amazingly it still works.
Panda – updated March 5th.
Xloot – updated in December 2010 for Wow 4.0.3a
Talented – updated January 7th.

And at that point we started hitting add-ons by class.

Quick tip: Every add-on you have active uses some memory, so for best performance, only enable add-ons you intend to use.

Music for this segment is from Archive.org and is entitled “Nostalgia of Freedom” by Nicolas Panderis

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Segment 50: Add-ons for Shaman

I have been informed that, during the per-class segments, I somehow contrived to miss the shaman. Let’s correct that right now.

The shaman is a hybrid support class, providing DPS via spellcasting or melee, or healing. In addition, the shaman can place totems to provide additional benefits to the party or deal additional damage to enemies.

To help your shaman in his chosen role, I’ve put together a list of some well-regarded add-ons. All of these are available from Curse.com – see the segment notes for direct links.

First, we have SpellFlash: ReSham, a module for the SpellFlash add-on. SpellFlash: ReSham will provide visual cues for appropriate spells or abilities duing combat and out of combat. You can easily disable certain talent trees, and also disable it when out of combat.

TribalEnhancement is a lightweight add-on supporting all shaman specs. It provides totem, buff, debuff, and shield tracking using a “least intrusive” philosopy.

Tyler is a Nub is a simple add-on to remind you to reapply your weapon buffs. It also works for rogue poisons and warlock buffs.

SmartRes2 provides intelligent and co-ordinated party and raid wipe recovery. You’ll want every class who can rez to run this add-on, and then hope you never need it.

Lastly, we have Shaman Friend. This add-on is specifically designed for the shaman and provides lots of useful functions for all shaman specs. There are too many to go over here; take a look at the add-on page, as linked in the segment notes.

Music for this segment is from Jamendo.com and is entitled “Deranged” by Fox.

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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.

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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.

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As I write this, it has now been almost a week since patch 4.0.1 went live. Anyone who has been through a major World of Warcraft patch before knows that this means instability, numerous server restarts and mini-patches, and broken add-ons for several days. For add-ons, it can be even longer, depending on how complex the changes are, and if the add-on developers are still maintaining their products. In this segment, I’m going to interrupt the series devoted to class-specific add-ons and talk about how to handle the current situation.

First, be patient. The World of Warcraft is a huge software undertaking, exceeding even your operating system in complexity. It is, after all, not merely an entire virtual world, but two such worlds, Azeroth and Outland. The mere size of the installation on your hard drive should tell you that much; my Windows 7 Ultimate install folder is less than 20 gigabytes, while my WoW 4.0.1 install takes up close to 28 gigs. Granted, I probably have more screenshots and add-ons than any normal person, but that’s still a huge amount of storage space.

Secondly, be prepared to abandon some add-ons, perhaps even your favorites. Some add-on authors are not going to keep up development. That’s just how life is. You may be able to find replacements, or you may learn to play without them.

Lastly, be very careful when choosing replacements for your add-ons. Sometimes what seems to be the perfect answer turns out to be a nasty surpise just waiting to happen. For example, while I was waiting for the update to AutoProfit, I found and installed LootMagic, which automatically deletes the “least valuable grey item” in your inventory when your bags are full, and you grab more loot. I uninstalled it when it deleted my Chilled Meat.

If you visit the WoWphiles.com Web site and find the Add-On Emporium Summarized, there’s a link at the top to WoWwiki, showing add-on statuses. Not everything is there, but it’s a huge help.

Finally, let me tell you what has been updated that I consider essential: Carbonite and Deadly Boss Mods, two add-ons I feel crippled without. For those who are still awaiting LUI4, you’ll be pleased to know that Xperl seems to be working.

Next week, we’ll move on to Druid add-ons. Suggestions – and update status – are welcome!

Music for this segment is from Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Starting Over,” by D. DiFonzo

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Healbot is now the essential tool for raid healers. It allows up to 60 keyboard-mouse combinations to simplify casting; these combinations can include usable items, such as scrolls, potions, trickets, etc., and existing macros. Healbot can also track aggro, buffs, and debuffs, and perform many other functions, including synchronizing incoming heals with other raid or party healers. Healbot can also be used out of combat with the “SmartCast” option, to rez, decurse, buff, heal, or perform a user-defined action. Even more functions are listed on Healbot’s Web page.

Healbot integrates with both Fubar and Titanpanel; optional plugins for both are included.

You can get Healbot Continued through Wowmatrix, from Wowinterface, or from Curse. The author’s page with forums, news, and tutorials can be found at http://look4me.endoftheinternet.org/healbot/

Music for this episode is provided by FreePlayMusic.com and is entitled “Universe” by Paul Andrews.

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Get a FREE copy of the Stormrage Audio Book and a free trial of Audible courtesy of WoWphiles. Sign up now.

Where the heck have we been?
We give you guys a quick update as to what we’ve been doing during our break.

Cataclysm Beta Experience
We talk about some of the things we’ve experienced so far playing in the beta.

Weekly Blues
We look at blue posts and talk about some of what Blizzard is saying regarding upcoming changes to the game.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week to bring us the addon: Leveling Guides

The Community Speaks
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week and read reviews

LoreDucation with Evinrue
Evinrue comes on the show to discuss some issues the Horde and Alliance are dealing with leading to Cataclysm.

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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.

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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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This week we’ll look at a very lightweight add-on that adds speed and accuracy to your questing.

LightHeaded is a very simple add-on that displays quest information and comments from Wowhead in-game, eliminating the need to Alt-Tab when you get stuck on a quest. Data is only loaded when you first request it, so you can be sure you’re not using more memory than you need to.

Lightheaded supports TomTom, MapNotes, and Cartographer2 and Cartographer3; by clicking coordinates shown in LightHeaded, you can automatically add a waypoint to your map.

Lightheaded has a few slash-command options as well, which are detailed on the add-on’s WoWinterface page.

As of 28 March 2010, LightHeaded included comments for more than 8200 quests.

All in all, this is a very useful add-on that is essential for finishing quests quickly.

You can get LighHeaded from WoWinterface.

Music for this segment is from FreeplayMusic.com and is entitled “Between the Bookshelves,” by Michael Genato.

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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.

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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.

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That will buff right out.

RaidBuffStatus is an add-on to check, show and report on the complete buff status (including flasks etc) of a party or raid. It shows the information on a dashboard much like XRS. It can report via whispers and to raid chat. In addition it provides a talent spec window which also shows any special abilities such as improved spirit.

However it is quite unlike XRS, Bigbrother and most other buff checking add-ons. It was the first released add-on to intelligently, in an automagic way, know what buffs to check for. For example only if there is a Mage will it check for intellect buff and it does not check the buffs of those not in the same zone. As much as possible is automatic.

add-ons like XRS require lots of initial configuration. RBS works with no configuration out of the box. However RBS now features a Buff Wizard to help new user non-raid leaders to configure only the buffs they need to be displayed.

RBS can do the buffing for you such as your self and party buffs with a quick alt-click.

RBS supports add-ons like Titan using LibDataBroker.

RBS even has a twitter account, so you can keep up with news about the add-on. There are a number of videos available demonstrating the use of RBS, and it is actively maintained.

You can get RaidBuffStatus from WoWinterface or from Curse.

Music for this week’s segment is from FreeplayMusic.com and entitled “Warriors and Knights” by Scott P. Schreer

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SkillScore is a lightweight addon that will let you quickly check a player’s experience in specific raids.

SkillScore is a much more useful indicator of a player’s experience than GearScore, because it doesn’t depend on the luck of the Need or Greed roll. SkillScore will tell you how many times the player has completed ICC 10 and ICC 25, for example.

Similar to GearScore in the abbreviated mouseover display, SkillScore will give you a much more detailed tooltip by pressing . SkillScore caps the score for each raid at 1000.

You can download SkillScore from WoWinterface.

Music for this segment is provided by Freeplaymusic.com and is entitled “Virtuoso” by Akihiro Yamamoto.

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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

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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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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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Grid is an essential tool for healers. Anyone who has been in a raid knows that, many times, there is way too much going on during a fight to look at the standard raid array to see who needs healing, who has a HoT on them, who needs a new HoT, and so on. Grid gives you exactly what the name says – a grid of party or raid members, showing their health status. The grid is clickable and allows you as the healer to quickly target the player who needs your attention right now. As with Decursive, Grid can make the second or two difference between a successful fight, and a wipe. One point I would make is that you will almost certainly want to change the default font size for text within the squares of the Grid; it’s easy, and it will make it much easier to read what’s actually printed.

Enhancements:

GridStatusLifebloom shows the Lifebloom counter, colored by the number of stacks on your target.

GridStatusHots shows your other HoT counters, colored by time remaining.

GridIndicatorCornerText allows you to add counters to the corners of your Grid squares.

Keeva has done a very nice tutorial on getting the most out of Grid, including a couple of enhancements. Follow the link below.

Music for this segment was furnished by ArtistDirect.com and is titled “15 to 20″ by The Phenomenal Handclap Band.

Download Grid from Curse or Wowinterface

Enhancements are linked from the tutorial by Keeva.

Download the MP3

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Those of you listening to the audio segment will probably notice my voice is rough and more nasal than usual; sorry, I’m just starting to get over a sinus infection. Here’s the text for those who wonder what I actually said.

Decursive is a mod which makes affliction removal easy, effective and fun for all the classes having this ability.

It’s easy to use. Decursive configures itself automatically for your character class. It works straight out of the box; no configuration is required, although advanced options are readily available. Decursive is suitable for both casual and hardcore players.

Using the advanced options, you control what you want to dispel, and who gets priority. You can filter out afflictions you don’t want to cure or that are useless to remove by class, such as afflictions affecting mana on non-mana classes. Some are preconfigured.

You choose what you want to dispel – magic, curses, poison, diseases, and charms. This allows you to share the cleansing work with other players effectively.

You can prioritize or exclude members. This lets you keep players, classes, or raid groups in a specific order so that you can polymorph, cyclone, or hex a mind-controlled tank, or decurse a cursed healer quickly.

Decursive supports magic charm effect removal for Shamans, Priests,
Hunters, and Warlocks. Your cleansing spell cooldown is displayed to maximize your dispel speed.

An automatic blacklist will prevent you from losing time on players that cannot be dispelled because, for example, they are out of line-of-sight.

There are many more features which are covered in depth at the Decursive home page. Suffice it to say this is a must-have add-on for raiders and instance runners who need to cleanse harmful effects from their teammates.

You can download Decursive from its own home page at 2072 productions, or from Curse.com (how appropriate is that?).

Intro and outro for this segment provided by FXhome.com, created by Sharp. Background music is by Mark Mosher, entitled They Walk Among Us, to promote his new album, Reboot.

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Murlocs are real!
Handfish species of fish that look like murlocs.

Remote Auction House details
Thanks to a comment from Hiruu, we got to the bottom of what the charges are for in regards to remote services.

Healing in Cataclysm
We look at how healing is changing in Cataclysm.

Icesnake’s Addon Emporium
Icesnake is back this week with the addon RaidBuffStatus

Evinrue’s NPC of the Week
Evinrue is back with her segment to tell us about Keristrasza

Listener Email & Comments
We mention some of the things that you, our great listeners, had to say this week.

Staying interested until Cataclysm
We talk about some things we are doing to stay interested and keep the game fresh until Cataclysm comes out.

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What is a threatmeter and why do you need one? I’m glad you asked! The threatmeter (“TM” from now on) displays the threat generated by your party members and allows you to adjust your playstyle to stay where you need to be compared to other party members (if everyone in the party is running a compatible TM; this is crucial). If you have ever seen a warlock pull aggro off the tank during a boss fight (almost always followed by a raid wipe), you understand why you need to know where you stand on the mobs’ threat tables.

Omen3 displays the top threat levels in a small window which you can move around the screen, and lets you choose some parameters to customize the display a bit; I’ll leave the details for you to discover, and simply say that the “right-out-of-the-box” experience will make everyone’s life in a party or raid a lot simpler. If you’re the tank, you know you want to be at the top of the threat list; if you’re a ranged DPS type, you know you want to be down around number three. Omen3 lets you see at a glance if you need to step up or back down on threat. It’s fairly lightweight, and can be set to hide itself when you’re not in a party.

Omen3 is available from Curse and WoWinterface.

Download the MP3

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To give you an idea of my qualifications, I have been playing RPGs since 1976 (Dungeons & Dragons first edition!), and MMORPGs since Everquest (the first one). I’ve played through EQ, Asheron’s Call, Diablo II, and now World of Warcraft (remember when “raid” meant “level 58+ in Zul’Gurub?” I do). I’ve been a testing engineer and low-level (e.g., code assembled by hand into machine language) software developer, with published programs “out there” since Compute! was a magazine. I raid at least twice a week now, and run a smallish Guild.

So… Anyone want to see this feature? Or shall I forget it and go back to taunting Yogg-Saron?

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