Pucechan.co.uk

2.3 Patch Details… Already!

No sooner had patch 2.2 gone out the door than the Blizzard CMs started spouting off about what was coming in 2.3 (despite 2.2.2 currently being on the PTR, for testing the new Oktoberfest… I mean Brewfest event).

2.3 will have a quicker testing cycle as the delays in bringing 2.2 off the test servers allowed Blizzard to do more internal testing on 2.3. Tigole has mentioned that Zul’Aman (so presumably 2.3 as a whole) could potentially be on the test server as soon as the first week in October.

2.3 has a WHOLE bunch of new stuff, it’s as if Blizzard is apologising for the lack of “content” in the 2.2 content patch. All this new stuff gives me plenty to post about but there are a few things that excite me right of the bat.

Zul’Aman, a new 10–man instance, is coming. I know I haven’t played any of the existing high-level instances, seeing as my highest character is currently 47 (but I’m getting there) but more new content is good. Especially content aimed at the “casual” raider. Zul’Aman’s position in progression between Karazhan and Gruul’s Lair is good, it gives guilds time to build more experience before the jump in difficulty to Gruul’s.

Blizzard’s changes to experience gain and the levelling process is also coming in 2.3, upping XP gain between levels 20–60 whilst reducing the required XP per level is a change I imagine most people are looking forward to, especially those who are rolling alts.

The other thing I’m interested in is cooking daily quests, these are the first of the profession daily quests that Blizzard are introducing. It’ll be interesting to see what the rewards are. I like the idea of daily quests a lot and having something else to do with your professions is always a good thing to do.

Addon Corner: SpamSentry

It’s Friday, that can only mean ONE thing, Addon Corner!

This week I’m showing off SpamSentry, a way to block those pesky Gold Sellers (Chinese or not!).

SpamSentry sits in your FuBar or on your mini-map and captures any spam messages, giving you the option to view the captured message and report the spammer.

It really is that simple, it doesn’t need any configuring (although it has some settings if you want to fine-tune or fiddle with it) and you can mass-report all the spammers from your current session in 2 clicks.

SpamSentry might not be flashy or help you DPS but it alleviates spam and lets you focus on what the chat channels are SUPPOSED to be filled with!

Patch 2.2 Live Tomorrow?

After being on the PTR (Public Test Realm) for over 2 months now it finally looks like patch 2.2 is going to go live during tomorrow’s maintenance.

For all the Hordies out there the most anticipated change is probably the fix to Orc shoulder armour size, returning back to normal (huge) after Blizzard shrunk them to ridiculous levels by "mistake".

For the rest of us the biggest thing (not sure whether Voice Chat counts as CONTENT) in the latest content patch is the inclusion of built-in in-game voice chat. While people used to gaming in guilds will probably be used to using stuff like Ventrilo and TeamSpeak to coordinate their raiding groups, the in-game chat offers a chance for people to use voice that otherwise couldn’t.

Using voice chat using Ventrilo or TeamSpeak for a lot of people isn’t an option, especially for "casual" gamers due to significant barriers to entry. For "casual" gamers or people without much computing experience, having to download an application, then configure it to join a server and then configure the settings, just to be able to talk with other guild members is quite daunting, not to mention potential issues if/when things go wrong. And it’s here I think the in-game system will do some good.

Having an in-game voice chat system is beneficial to the majority of players that WOULD use voice if they could but feel it is all a bit too fiddly (or potentially even unaware such a thing exists). The in-game system of course has it’s pros and cons…

• Pros:
  • Available to EVERYONE
  • Much easier to setup, no external stuff required
  • Usable in One-to-One, Group, Raid and custom chat channel situations
    (although curiously not Guild Chat… at least at first)
  • In-game notifications and ignore/mute functionality
• Cons:
• Not as good voice quality as, for example, Teamspeak
• If you get connection issues in-game, you can’t tell anyone about them, with Vent or TS you can because it’s a seperate application

The biggest advantage that the in-game chat has over Vent/TS is that you can chat with/to anyone without having them require other software or have to find out your server information to connect to chat. This single feature could perhaps make PUGs (Pick Up Groups) a more enjoyable experience.

Of course, the groups you end up in could still consist of 5-10 12 year olds telling Chuck Norris jokes in pre-pubescent high-pitched voices while playing Numa Numa over the microphone, but at least you can mute them and then it’d be like the old days… where ignorance is bliss.

Seriously though, voice chat for all is a good thing, anything that can help people actually coordinate instead of having that mage run in and try melee-ing a group solo has to be a positive thing for all involved.

Character Progress and Me

After Rothlar hit level 47, I decided to create a mage. The main reason for this was that I am levelling Rothlar up alongside Bocakey’s main character, Brigga, and I wanted a character I could level when we weren’t playing with our mains.

So Ryliana was born, and I immediately enjoyed playing her, dealing damage made a nice change from the priest I was used to. A couple of weeks on and I’m still playing with her. Bocakey also ended up trying a mage character, Dars, and my plan at the moment is to get Ryliana to level 47-ish then continue playing Rothlar until 58-60.

As I’ve been levelling solely using quests with Rothlar I intended to level Ryliana solely with grinding but I’ve hit a dead spot where grinding seems to be taking MUCH longer than every level up to now seemed to. I’m planning on doing quests with Ryliana to get her up to level 40 and then resume grinding once armed with both Ice Barrier and my mount.

Addon Corner: LocationFu

So, you’ve just completed a whole bunch of quests in Duskwood but you have no idea where else you can go to pick up quests or level.

LocationFu, which is a FuBar addon gives a quick and efficient way of seeing which zones and instances are suitable for you at any given time.

From top to bottom LocationFu shows:

• Zone: The zone you are currently stood in.
• Status: Whether the zone is Friendly, Contested or Hostile.
• Coordinates: Your current co-ordinates.
• Continent: Whether you are in the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor or in the Outland.

It then lists any instances that are in your current zone along with the recommended level range (which is colour-coded to show how hard it is for you based on your level).

Next up are the recommended zones and instances, any zone/instance that is suitable for your level is shown, with the level range colour-coded.

This quick overview is really useful but LocationFu has one other cool trick up it’s sleeves. It’s all well and good it telling you that Swamp of Sorrows is a suitable area to be questing and grinding but how the heck do you get there from where you are!

LocationFu has that covered, simply click on the zone you want to get to and it expands and shows you the walking route from where you are to your wanted destination.

What more could you ask for? It’s a simple addon but as is usually the case, the simple things are usually the most useful.

Download it from WoWAce here, you do need to have the excellent FuBar as well but then you REALLY should be using FuBar anyway…

Or you can use WoWAce’s excellent WoWAceUpdater application to keep it and all other Ace2 addons up to date.

Addon Corner: Fence

This weeks Addon Corner features a fairly basic addon, but one you’ll wonder how you coped without it.

Fence is a modular Ace2 addon which provides added functionality for the Auction House. These are some of it’s features:

Auto Fill – Remembers the prices of items you put up for auction, not only that but will work out the price for varying quantities. The Auto Fill function also remembers what length auction you chose last.

Clicks – The Clicks module simplifies the splitting and auctioning of items. For example Shift and Right-click splits a stack in half, Alt and Left-click will automatically place the item up for auction using either the standard auction house price or a value you’ve used in the past.

Name Sort – Allows you to sort in alphabetical order.

Fence has a few other little features too, like the ability to see how much an individual item is worth in a stack and a quick search ability.

The Name Sort and Auto Fill options are essential features that the default interface is lacking. That alone makes Fence worth a look.

Will Hyboria destroy Azeroth?

Even before Blizzard announced Wrath of the Lich King there has been talk of how Age of Conan and Warhammer Online will steal large chunks of World of Warcraft’s membership. I personally don’t feel this will happen. Mostly for the following reasons.

Blizzard has a pretty good record for releasing new content in a regular fashion. Even if you think that patch 2.2 has a distinct lack of content, what with it consisting mostly of Voice Chat, patch 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5 definitely aren’t devoid of content, bringing with them Zul’Aman, the Sunwell Plateau and more content before WotLK ships…

More »

Addon Corner: Bartender3

This week on Addon Corner I’m going to talk about Bartender3.

Bartender3 is an Ace2 addon that replaces the default action bars. It allows you to layout and configure up to 10 visible bars with upto 12 buttons each. This is much more versatile than the default bars, with a maximum total of 4 visible bars.

The regular interfaces 4 bars might well be enough buttons but using Bartender has other advantages.

This is the default World of Warcraft interface with all 4 bars enabled

You can position the bars where you want them, you can even have 1 bar span more than one “row”. So you could have the regular 12 buttons in a 4×3 rectangle while still only using 1 bar.

This is using Bartender with my current button layout (with other mods disabled)

The ability to position your skills wherever you want them makes you more efficient. For example on my mage I have defensive spells in one area, frost-based spells in another, with my teleports in another.

As well as this versatility using Bartender gives the game a “cleaner” look. minimising the space the interface takes up giving you more room on-screen for the game world. Bartender also plugs into the FuBar addon and makes use of cyCircled skins if you use those too.

There are other action bar addons out there including the popular Bongos2 (which I’ll no doubt talk about in a future Addon Corner) but Bartender stands out to me because of it’s ease of use and the fact it uses Ace2 to increase addon efficiency.

Both level 46 and level 21!

Just a quickie to note that I reached my goal of getting Rothlar up to level 46 by the weekend. I’ve also taken my new Draenei mage character, Ryliana, up to level 21 in less than 20 hours played.

Quick Update

I’ve changed the theme to one of the winners of the 2007 Sandbox Designs Competition, the elegant “Shades of Grey” by Leslie Franke.

All of the entries are better than the attempt I was cooking up and this design fits the newspapery feel I was after.

I’ve also updated Boriswatch after weeks of inactivity due to him using Feign Death…. damn hunters…