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Reader UI of the Week: Narayá’s UI

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:20:21 +0000

Each week WoW.com brings you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you’re using, to readerui@wow.com.

This week on Reader UI of the Week, you, my adoring fanbase, get to indulge my minimalist side for one more week before I get to some quirky user interfaces. Narayá of Proudmoore sent in this fantastic mage user interface that blew my mind, so I thought I would share. Sweet Baby Titans, is that ONE action bar? Let’s find out.

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Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week

Reader UI of the Week: Narayá’s UI originally appeared on WoW.com on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mastery System Preview

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:23:20 +0000

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Blizzard has released a rather detailed look into a new feature coming in Cataclysm that we first heard about at BlizzCon 2009 — the mastery system. The system will “allow players to become better at what makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique.” Mastery bonuses are passive and are tied to each talent tree for every class. The more talent points you put in the tree, the more your mastery for that tree will increase. Each talent tree will have three mastery bonuses:

Bonus 1: Increase to damage, healing, or survivability
Bonus 2: Increase to a stat that’s relevant to the given talent tree
Bonus 3: A completely unique effect to the given talent tree

The mastery statistic on gear you’ll get from 80 to 85 will increase the effect of bonus #3. Mechanically, the point of the mastery system is to remove talents like “6% more damage” and regulate those effects into the entire tree.

The entire announcement from Blizzard after the break. This includes some examples of the mastery bonuses for a few talent trees.

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Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Mastery System Preview originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blood Pact: Be a raider not a robot

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:34:14 +0000

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Each week Dominic Hobbs brings you Blood Pact. “Alert! You are marked for extermination! Calculating force parameters… Alternative measure commencing…” ~ Void Reaver

Having been a raid leader for a long time now, I’m very keen for everyone in my raids to be aware of the strategy we plan to execute. I get pretty frustrated when people deviate from it. I’m also interested in the theory and maths involved in maximizing gear choices and spell selections. When changes to warlock spell mechanics come along I always try and calculate the impact this would have on my gameplay — and then do some research to find out what I missed or miscalculated. I believe that entering a boss fight with these things prepared is the foundation of good raiding.

You can’t live on foundations though, you need a house. Being able to execute a perfect, DPS-maximizing spell rotation on a target dummy doesn’t fully prepare you for dealing with a more chaotic situation. Knowing the strategy for a fight can still leave you floundering when something forces a change to your expectations. Today I want to have a look at how to prepare for the unscripted, how to be a raider and not just a robot.

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Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, (Warlock) Blood Pact

Blood Pact: Be a raider not a robot originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Light and How to Swing It: The truth about Lightsworn Garb

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:12:01 +0000

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Every Sunday, Chase Christian of The Light and How to Swing It invites you to discuss the finer side of the paladin class: the holy specialization. This week, we examine the holy paladin Tier 10 set and its bonuses.

As my guild and I have been conquering Icecrown Citadel, I find myself with a glut of Emblems of Frost. While my rogue is diligently saving up for some of the sweet rewards, my holy paladin can’t even find a use for the new libram. While I did stop for a minute to consider picking up some off spec gear, I also couldn’t bring myself to part with these hard-earned Emblems for a non-holy piece. What are we to do with all of the excess?

I decided to investigate our Tier 10 4-piece bonus, considering that I was already halfway there with my two current pieces. However, I was also skeptical about how valuable the 4-piece bonus could be, considering that cast time reductions and haste interact in interesting ways. Well, there’s that, and the fact that our tier set was itemized by someone who clearly enjoyed watching us squirm. With a complete lack of a haste/MP5 piece and two crit/MP5 pieces, our 4-piece bonus had better be really amazing to convince me to drop my off set pieces. Read on to find out what I decided.

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Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It

The Light and How to Swing It: The truth about Lightsworn Garb originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All the World’s a Stage: Name your sin

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:15:22 +0000

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Last week, we talked about ways to add flaws to your roleplay character. These flaws have the benefit of providing realistic depth and humanity to characters which might otherwise feel too “perfect” for believability. (Well, as believable as a magic-wielding orc would be.) The idea is that the depth and development creates a more full, well-rounded personality. Believability isn’t the only benefit. Perhaps even more importantly, the depth provides you additional rules and guidance for deciding how your character might act in a given situation.

DeathPaladin brought up the interesting Deadly Sin system from White Wolf’s World of Darkness tabletop roleplaying game. Now, the World of Darkness games obviously have a lot of mechanical systems involved with the sins (and Virtues as well, actually), but that’s part of their whole gothic-fantastic nature. (The games used to be called gothic-punk, but White Wolf later ditched that description.) These games are probably best known for their vampires, but White Wolf’s systems span all kinds of different monsters. This Sin idea is replicated across many of them.

While there’s many different examples of methods for fleshing out your character, I actually really like the Deadly Sin game. Applying an archetypical behavior and flaw to your character gives you a “roleplay button” to spam whenever you feel like you’re torn on your character’s proper reactions.

Let’s take a look behind the jump and see how we could use the Seven Deadly Sins in the context of our World of Warcraft. (For the record, the Seven Sins we’re going with are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride.)

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Filed under: All the World’s a Stage (Roleplaying)

All the World’s a Stage: Name your sin originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stormrage novel hits the best-seller lists

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:35:13 +0000

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Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak has made USA Today’s Top 150 Best Selling Books list, coming in at #126 of the best selling books based on sales through February 28, 2010. Apparently the ebook community is embracing the new story as well: Stormrage hit #8 on the best seller list for ebooks from BooksOnBoard.

The latest offering in the World of Warcraft line of novels, Stormrage continues the story of events that the green dragonflight have been dealing with since World of Warcraft’s launch: Nightmares have invaded the Emerald Dream, Malfurion Stormrage is nowhere to be seen, the Dragons of Nightmare are busting out of portals, and it looks like the whole of the Emerald Dream is in danger of permanent corruption. With Stormrage, we finally get to see what’s been brewing for five years now — no wonder it’s popular!

You can pick up a copy of Stormrage at the Blizzard Store for yourself. Check out our full review of the novel, and our refresher course on the history of Malfurion Stormrage.

Filed under: News items

Stormrage novel hits the best-seller lists originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Arcane Brilliance: An argument for raiding as a frost mage

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:20:43 +0000

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Welcome to another edition of Arcane Brilliance, the weekly mage column that would like to assert the following:

Fact: Mages are the sparkliest class in the game.

Fact: Sparkles are awesome.

Fact: Warlocks have poor personal hygiene and generally smell funny.

None of these assertions can be disputed.

Hey, mages! Let’s have an argument.

Well… maybe not so much an argument per se, because no matter how you slice it, an equally geared frost mage is going to do less overall DPS than a fire or arcane mage… but we’ll definitely be having a discussion.

Here’s a general format for how this discussion will take place:

I will present my reasons why raiding as a frost mage is viable.
You will then tell me why I am wrong.

You may be asking yourself: Christian, what has provoked this sudden defense of frost magery? You play an arcane mage! Also, where are your pants?

To your first question, I would say, “yes, you’re right. But in preparation for writing my forthcoming Frost 101 column, I have been toying with a secondary frost spec, and finding it a great deal of fun.” To your second question, about the whereabouts of my trousers, I would say stop watching my webcam. Really, you knew what you were getting into when you clicked that link.

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Filed under: Mage, Analysis / Opinion, (Mage) Arcane Brilliance

Arcane Brilliance: An argument for raiding as a frost mage originally appeared on WoW.com on Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Quest: We love flowcharts

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 08:15:25 +0000

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Not sure what flowcharts have to do with World of Warcraft? Well, in truth, very little… unless they’re World of Warcraft flowcharts, of course. I Like Bubbles‘ Flowchart Friday inspired me to hunt around for more WoW-related flowcharts — to the conclusion that there aren’t anywhere near enough of the helpful things. So I did what I always do in such situations: I asked the WoW.com team to contribute their flowcharts to the effort. I’ll leave you, however, to judge the results.

We’ll start off with I Like Bubbles regular flowcharting efforts. Here’s how to upgrade your holydin’s gear, leveling as a herbalist, and a Venn diagram (which is not technically a flowchart, but close enough) that explains PUGs.
Then there’s the classic simplified cat DPS flowchart.
A dizzying mutilate rogue flowchart.
Basil offers an explanation of how to make money on the auction house using inscription.
Joe explains the rules of VoA drops with another Venn diagram.
Brian explains hunter vs. rogue mechanics.
Michael explains how to raid, how to figure out night elves, and w hen you should RP in support tickets.

Okay, I admit, we may be having too much fun here.

Filed under: The Daily Quest

The Daily Quest: We love flowcharts originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting rogues

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:19:51 +0000

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Uh-oh. Rogues. Those sneaky little bastards could be anywhere. Out of all the classes in the game, there is perhaps no class no more feared for their PvP prowess than rogues. Rogues gain a fearsome reputation by virtue of the nature of the class alone — they can Stealth. Because of rogues, everyone has to literally watch their backs. No place is safe because a rogue can be lying in lurking in some dark corner waiting to strike at the proper time. Through years of leveling in a PvP server, there is no sound in the game more unsettling than the low humming whoosh of a nearby stealthed rogue. In fact, rogue (and by extension, feral druid) stealth is the single biggest reason why I don’t PvP with music on.

And for rogues, it’s all about timing. In the Battlegrounds, it isn’t uncommon to find rogues preying on the weak, those low on life, the defenseless players eating or drinking. They can’t help it. It’s in their nature. The class encourages foul play through Stealth and a wonderful repertoire of attacks from behind. Rogues are at their best when catching their opponents off guard and are extremely capable of doing so. After the jump, we’ll take a closer look at the basic things to expect when fighting a rogue regardless of their spec.

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Filed under: Rogue, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, The Art of War(craft) (PvP)

The Art of War(craft): Introductory guide to fighting rogues originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Quest: We were all newbies once

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:13:05 +0000

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Here at WoW.com we’re on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow!

We may be pros at the game now, but once upon a time, we were just getting started, too. Let us not look down on our newbie friends — for we were once the same. Instead, today’s daily quest strives to offer advice for the new players among us.