The 3.1 Patch is Live (Finally)

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Apr 142009
 

Weool Ok… the servers aren’t up yet (as I write this) but the patch is finally here. Rumor has it that this is the biggest patch Bliz has ever provided.

Naturally there will be a few bugs coming along with the patch, and no, they’re not the ones you’ll kill to earn XP. As an aside, it’s be kinda interesting to be able to code a hack that fixes a game bug and get Bliz to pay you for it.

Anyway, the full patch notes are in the usual place so check them out. Here are my remarks on miscellaneous points:

General Notes

Mounts can now swim.

Trainers, having decided that their trainees can’t read, have done away with the course requirements for books and will now teach those skills directly.

Dual Talents – Now you can have two builds to switch between. For example, one for raiding and one for PvP. The only downside is that it costs 1,000 gold to get the ability.

Glyphs – A bunch of new glyphs are being introduced and a bunch of old glyphs have been changed. You no longer need to be near a lexicon of power to install glyphs.

And the most important, game-changing, change of all: New music can be heard at the Argent Tournament grounds and in Ulduar.

Class Notes

All classes get a couple of pages of changes, except Warriors and Warlocks, who get a few lines each. Guess that means that Warriors and Rogues are nearly perfect. Looks like there are more than a few buffs in the list of changes. A few nerfs, too.  I’m looking forward to Rogues now being in demand for raids. Oh, Ok, I’m awake now… what was I saying?

Enough changes have been made to talents and spells that everyone (except Rogues and Warriors?) will get a free respec and should visit the trainer the get new spells.

Armor Penetration has been buffed. All classes now get 25% more effect from it. The main visible change of this will be to drop PvP survivability in the BGs (at level 80) from 1 second to 0.9 seconds.

The Fear mongers on the house have had a bit of a nerf. The fear (and related abilities) break sooner now.

DKs, Pallies, and Droods, the classes most in need of a buff, now receive 30% more haste from Haste Rating.

Profession Notes

Alchemy – Several Flask changes, introduction of Northrend Mixtures, and secret Alchemist loot caches (from the Bosses) in Uldar.

Blacksmithing – New recipes from Uldar and an upgrade to some recipes in the 1-300 range to make them useful.

Cooking – I’ll pass these on to my wife and she’ll update our cookbooks (Tauren Chef and Wrath of the Kitchen King) appropriately.

Enchanting and Engineering: have some updates and tweaks.

Fishing – You can now catch a mount! It’s pretty rare, though. Also, you can now fish anywhere.

Gathering skills – For some time low-level twinks have been able to get to 450 mining and skinning (for the crit and stam buffs.) No longer, there’s now a level requirement for those skills.

Inscription – More recipes and quite a number of Glyph changes.

Uldar bosses – will, rarely, be dropping recipes for several professions.

Misc Notes

There’s a bunch of interface tweaks

Lots of little item changes, but if you use Glyphs (you are, aren’t you?) you will want to check it out. There have been some significant changes.

Lots of little bug fixes.

So all in all there’s a lot there. Something for everyone and all that.

And in the News Department

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Jan 072009
 

Just a roundup of a few posts I found interersting.

Blizzard to eliminate the Warlock class. On BRK:
We Are So Not Totally Making These Up

The test server has some changes to the materials requirements for certain WotLK enchants and Zuggy has posted the list: Patch 3.0.8 Enchanting Changes. Remember that it’s on the test server, so it might not make it to live as written.

Game balance concerns: WoWriot jots down his thoughts on each class and how they stack up in PvP, especially in the arena, but also mentions a few PvE concerns. Talents, abilities, and how they need to be changed. Join in and add to the 250 comments.
“State of the Game” Class Balance Report

Spoon has some Blue remarks on character transfers:
Blue News for Jan. 7th: Population Balance, Transfers, and Theorycrafting

Twinking is the fine art of making your character far more effective than he should be at his level. AzerothNow has a cool interview with a Master (level 19) twinker, here: 19 Rogue Twink Speaks. Also, on the same site, is the Ultimate Guide to Level 19 Rogue Twinking.

Keeping Your WoW Account Secure

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Jun 272008
 

Found on MMORPG.com – Blizzard has announced the [tag-tec]Blizzard Authenticator[/tag-tec], a small device that adds an extra layer of security when playing World of Warcraft.

This is a hardware widget, for only $6.95 and available soon thru the Bliz online store, that provides an extra layer of security for people concerned about their accounts. Here’s the rest: Blizzard Authenticator

In addition to account scams that this is designed to prevent there are a few other scams, in-game and out, that are of concern to players.

You’ve probably heard the stories of users who’ve been scammed out of their gold, items, or even their accounts. In a flash, all of the time and effort they’ve put into building the perfect account has been stripped out from under them by a clever scammer. Don’t let this happen to you!

Get the book here and scam-proof your WoW game!

 Posted by at 11:10 am  Tagged with:

Blizzard and the Bot

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May 202008
 

One of the tools available to the [tag-tec]World of Warcraft[/tag-tec] player is a software bot, name of Glider. Basically this bot plays your character for you, killing stuff, leveling up, collecting loot to sell. Naturally enough, Blizzard doesn’t much care for programs that do this, considering them to be a violation of their TOS (Terms of Service.)

Now Bliz is taking a new, highly questionable, tactic in a lawsuit against the Glider maker…

In 2006, Blizzard and Vivendi showed up at an MDY employee’s home and threatened legal action against the company, claiming Glider violates the Terms of Service of World of Warcraft as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. MDY then sued to establish its right to sell its software, causing Blizzard to file its own suit to stop MDY from selling the program. The issue is whether or not Glider is breaking any laws, and Blizzard is hoping that by stretching the boundaries of what constitutes copyright infringement, it can get MDY shut down. If Blizzard succeeds, it could set a very dangerous precedent….

Read the rest here

More on Blizzard and the Glider lawsuit here:

By the way, Blizzard won.

World of Warcraft Glider Litigation Update: Final Briefing On … – Late last month, World of Warcraft creator Blizzard asked the US District Court for the District of Arizona for a permanent injunction which would functionally shut down MMO Glider, a “bot” program that lets people play World of …

Blizzard > Glider: 1-0, The Retardation of Copyright Law – Blizzard has won the lawsuit vs. the creator of the Glider botting software. Check out the news and debate over at Slashdot. I would sit and discuss this a bit more but I am quite tired and have to be up early. …

Blizzard vs Glider – Quite a while ago, Blizzard sued MDY LLC (Glider) for EULA violation because it copied bits of World of Warcraft into RAM, did wonderful things to them, and somehow subverted Warden. End result: it played the game for you; AKA Botting. …

Blizzard 2, Glider 0 at Ten Ton Hammer – In the continuing drama that is the Blizzard v. MDY suit, (MDY being the makers of Glider – the post popular WoW bot software) a major judgment has come down in Blizzard’s favor. The two important parts of the judgment are these: …

 Posted by at 3:56 am