Big News Of The Week
Cataclysm Decisions Are Being Made
That’s not exactly a big secret. Of course Blizzard is working feverishly on the nuts and bolts of the forthcoming third expansion to World Of Warcraft, and regularly making decisions that will affect your entire experience, post-Cataclysm. Nonetheless, our old buddy Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street hit the forums this week to talk a little bit about what’s going on behind their usually closed doors. Specifically, he felt like talking about talents trees.
Rumors And Scuttlebutt
Battlecry Mosaic Unlocks A Piece Of Music
For the first time since Blizzard started their Battlecry Mosaic project as part of their epic 5th Anniversary celebration, a checkpoint in the progress of revealing the mosaic has unlocked music! It’s an original piece called Invincible, and it is really good. Also, who was Invincible?
Dude, You’re Getting A Buff
Blizzard CM Zarhym dropped the buff bomb on us this week, with the announcement that the next minor patch is going to bring some substantial changes to your tier 10 set pieces. It’s a big post that starts like this: “We recognize that many plate tanks are making their gear choices based on the amount of armor they’re provided, as this is currently the most preferred stat. In order to make the tier-10 plate tanking sets more desirable, we will be adjusting the stats on the gloves and chest pieces in order to inflate the amount of armor they provide in the next minor patch. This will apply to all item levels of the tier-10 death knight, warrior, and paladin tanking gloves and chest pieces. Similar items crafted or purchased with Emblems of Frost will continue to be very good and will compare favorably to all but the Heroic difficulty boss loot, so you shouldn’t despair if you recently acquired any of those.”
Still No Season 8
At least, that’s what Bornakk said this week, like this:
Information in the next minor content patch is needed to start it and the patch is not out yet.
But We Have All The Armor Sets
That’s right, Blizzard unveiled your Arena Season 8 armor set models this week. And they look… dark.
Town Cryer
William M. writes: I was wondering what you gues thought the best way to break the news to a friend that the guild he raids with is not for you. My good friend recently pulled me into his hardcore raiding guild and the pressure inside the guild is getting to me. Raiders are called names in vent, people are mocked if not specced right and it just feels stressful in general. I would like to leave the guild for a more relaxed enviornment but I dont know how to tell my friend that the people he plays with are jerks.
Drop Of The Week
Filling Those Sockets Is Easy
Yes, we’ve talked about it before, but not enough. It’s the answer to the question “how do I figure out which gem I should buy to put in these empty sockets?” The more you play WoW, the more you obtain gear that comes with holes, and WoW-Gem.com is the place to go. It’s called the WoW Gem Finder, and some players are wary of browsing to it because it sounds like a shady site. Trust us, it is simple, and elegant, and powerful. At WoW-gem.com, you just check off boxes indicating your needs, such as “I’m looking for a yellow gem that has +spell power on it” and BOOP! Your options are listed. And sortable.
Contest!
James Whitehead is back with his second edition of World Of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Addons, and it’s got a really cool cover. The cover art on this huge tome was created by our very own Scott Johnson! We’ve got one of these to give away, Scott is going to sign it before shipping it to our winner. Listen to win!
Additional show content provided by Darrell the Tipgiver, Steve “Buxley” Pietrowicz, James “Acuzod” Jefferies and the outstanding Instance Community.
Special thanks to DogHouse Systems, FigurePrints!, TypeFrag and SquareSpace for sponsoring this episode.
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in reference to the complication of phasing at the ICC summoning stone, there is another easy enough work around which my icc group has been using. if you are out of phase you can still go up a level to the other stone that is used for the 3 5 man dungeons, where everyone can use the stone regardless of phasing.
Supprised you guys didn’t know this but this is how they are replacing the pure stat talents. Pretty much the more points you have invested into a tree the more stats you get that benefit that tree.
Example picture: http://static.wowhead.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/150831.jpg -originally from mmo-champion
Contest Entrance:
I’m a computer science major in college now so programming is and will forever be a part of my life. My idea is to make a mod in game that is basically a soundtrack of the game. Want to listen to durotar music? Press this button! Want to listen to AQ 40 boss music that you would never hear otherwise? Maybe even make your own playlists, and have some default ones. For example a MC soundtrack, an eastern kingdoms soundtrack etc. Try this button! I tried to win this contest the first time you had it a year and a half ago and I hope I get it this time.
Thanks!
Your friendly neighborhood boomkin,
Emrimion
The add-on that I wish to create would add a display to your screen indicating the direction to your target. Optionally it could indicate direction to your focus.
This would simplify getting back to what you are suppose to be hitting after running away from, getting out of, getting feared by or whatever takes your target out of the center of your screen.
If i was to create an add-on i would create a tool bar of social interactions. A toolbar would have such actions as ignore, invite, trade with target and the what not. Also players could add their favorite macro such as “The alliance told me your mother was a murloc” to get my horde companions all riled up before a wintergrasp
love the show keep it up!
I would like to create an addon that is a Cartographer replacement, as cartographer has been discontinued.
As a computer engineer student in college, I would use this book to both enhance my education (thus becoming a better engineer and programmer) and to create an addon… or three… that would:
1. collapse the spells in your spellbook so that all of the ranks of any particular spell would be under one category. To access them, just click the icon to see all of the seperate ranks!
2. Create an in-game macro making guide. Perhaps just a “click here to create a macro that’ll do this” or “click here then here then here to create this particular line of code.” There is a lot I may be able to do with this idea.
3. Make it so that you can have more than one focus target. For instance, the healers can have one focus for each tank. Each DPS can focus any number of enemy targets, such as the prince council fight in ICC. A tank can focus any number of enemies, or healers, to keep track of aggro. The uses go on.
I’ve been looking to get into making addons, this would be perfect. The text books from back in my web development classes really helped me. There is just something about getting that info from a book that can’t compare to all that those digital web-thingamajigs( fancy that though, a web developer liking print over web based content =P)
Anyways, The addon I would love to see made or make my self is a lore encyclopedia of sorts. Much like the built in function in Warhammer Online(what little of it I saw before deleting the trial), this would provide background information on just about anything you want to look up(i.e. NPC, important item, or event). You could search from within the addon’s window or by right clicking on your target and selecting from the drop down. Maybe even showing on tooltips whether or not there is an entry about that item/npc. I would be my lore nerd like my self’s dream
Hey guys – I thought I would give my 2 cents on a mod I would love to see in game. I’m very big into character customization, and especially at this point in Wrath, I’ve been very unhappy with the fact that my paladin looks like every other warrior/DK/paladin. I’d love to see some kind of armor skin mod, that would ideally allow you to change your armor skins to any other armor piece that your character has acquired in the past. Obviously it wouldn’t be fair to be able to change your armor to full T10 if you’ve never set foot in ICC, but I personally would probably run with the paladin T2 skin (regardless of what tier I actually had). Another feature of the mod I would like to see is the ability to use the various shadings that Blizzard does include in the game files (and that we all see in previews on MMO Champ), or at the very least, add dyes to the game and let the player color their armor themselves. I actually played Lord of the Rings Online for about 4 months, and they had this feature, which was very nice (and incidentally is a fantastic game).
In short, I want more customization – I want my character to look more unique, and I’m pretty sure that the majority of players would like the ability to be more unique as well.
I play a Draenei Ret Pally, Novlyne, on the Ysera server. Thanks!
Add on Competition,
Hey guys i would love to make an addon for my friend because he gets very annoyed when he gets killed pvp. So i would like to make an addon that everytime you get killed in pvp a calming soothing sound plays to relax you lol, Just a thought. Keep up the great work love the show
Ciaran from Ireland
Add on competition
Hey guys, if I was to create an addon it would be a simple interface that would display the most significant upgrade you can purchase with your current emblems. You would be able to tell the addon what race/class/spec and whether its for PvE or PvP.
Love the show,
Zariann from Stormscale
(Jake Slack)
Hopefully this doesn’t get lost, in all the addon stuff. You ended this show with a wow spoof song – ‘Time for an expansion’ I couldn’t locate it online to download and
tormentshare with people. Any suggestions?I’ve been listening to the Instance for 3 or 4 weeks now (7 or 8 total episodes have been consumed by my thirsty brain) and I’d just like to say that this weeks show was great. Very entertaining and informative.
you said in the podcast when talking about invincible that he was new lore. I fu have ready the book Arthas: rise of the Lich King it has arthas’s whole story and includes the birth and tragic death of his beloved horse. I strongly suggest this book to all WoW players.
Hi guys,
Love the show. Also, as a professional programmer I would absolutely love to get into writing WoW addons.
One addon idea I’m keen on is to help people get the Loremaster achievement plus other quest-related achievements.
In the latest WoW patch a function was added to allow addons to retrieve the quest IDs that a toon has completed. I would aim to make a database of quest IDs and locations and thus use this information to help players work out where to go to find quests they haven’t completed, and particularly where to go to find large quantities of uncompleted quests in one go.
I realise there are addons that presently aim to help in this regard already but they are not straightforward, they do not have helpful UIs, and they have a lot of blanks. I am certain it can be done better and I’d love to take it on with your assistance
All the best.
Actually, if I had the time. I’d really love to rewrite the old Venantes add-on for hunters. While you can get most of the functionality from other add-ons, the unified interface, display real-estate efficiency, and aethetics were something I missed when development was halted on it.
Hey Scott and Randy,
Here is my thoughts for an addon: a Scavenger Hunt addon. It would allow you to setup a list of grey/white items that players would have to collect for scavenger hunts. It would allow the “hunt-master” to setup the list based on location of drops, character level, or custom. The addon would be required by all participating and would create a custom chat frame which lists the items and tracks which of them you already have in inventory. Once someone has the full set in inventory, it will announce it via chat to all participants. It could also be modified using range-finding into a formalized hide-and-seek. (I’m thinking if you are running the addon, it stops you from using /who – thus making you work with clues/luck to find folks) I think this would be a great way for guilds to run fun contests. It should be all doable via hidden chat channels and some framing…
BTW – I’ve been post computer science degree for a few years and I think this would be the perfect project to get me back into programming!
thanks for reading my email, and I am glad my paragraphs worked out well so you did read the most important part
as for the mounts, well, imagine yourself whistling.
I mean you can’t actually carry a dragon in your bag
I would like a mod that pulls all your preferences for your other mods and exports them and saves them as an external file. You could then on a clean install easilly re-acquire your old preferences for mod settings and UI locations/setup. It would in game setup all the preferences and settings as the last save and even output a list of the mods missing on the clean install.
fin, you realize you can just copy the wtf folder right? Now if you where to have that addon transfer settings from one toon to another on a dif server, that would be useful.
Addon Contest:
The name of the mod would be “Storyline”. It would take the exploits of your character and chronicle them. I would just like something where I can go back and read about what my character was doing from the start.
The addon might just list the quests and achievements I did on a certain date and at what level. Or if someone went nuts with the mod many of the actions you do (quests, achievements, dungeons, pvp) could have an RP text output that would be exported in story format. It would have to be generic and not recount what your character did in the dungeon or quest, but a text that everyone would get for doing that dungeon or quest. It would go out with your level, date stamp, and maybe rare/epic items you got.
I would love to read about what main character was doing so long ago and to save that file to read years from now.
If I wrote this too confusingly, just think of a simple text output that listed quests, achievements, dungeons, and PVPs done with a real world date and character level stamp.
Hi i want to win the addon contest
the addon is called Ileeroy
it is a addon that generates the famous LEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEENKIIINS battlecry and is heard by other players in your group by some audio stuff
Addon Contest:
The addon I would like to make is to help the guilds that are over 500 members. I would create a new addon/window that displayed the members of the guild. It would give the option to sort on Officers, Class, Race, Profession and Level. I have all the logic laid out for how to do this outside of wow but never worked the LUA before so the book would help.
Mod Contest – NewbGoggles
I’d love a mod that allowed me to control what I see on my screen. By this I mean something similar to the display helmets/capes options but for everyone else in the game.
The benefit would be huge in cities like Dalaran or Stormwind where graphics lag can get out of control.
I’d still like to see these things for people on my friends list, in my group, or guild members, and possibly people I’m whispering to, but as far as I’m concerned the rest of the players are more trouble (graphically) than they are worth and could just be shown as their racial defaults, or perhaps have everyone in Dalaran look like mages. .
The big help would be to stop displaying pets and particle effects.
It would probably need to auto-off when in PVP.
Mod Contest – One Click Milling
I’m a scribe. I mill an awful lot of herbs. My mod idea? Something that would allow me to click once to mill all 1,020 pieces of Tiger Lily in my bad.
My addon idea
As I’m learning how to tank in 5 mans on my druid and leveling a prot warrior in instances I’ve thought about an addon that would help manage aggro. It would be a grid style interface in that all the mobs that are currently engaged would come up in a list like grid. It would make targeting them easier as every mob is gathered together in one spot making target switching easier. It would also display all your debuffs you can put on each mob so you know which mobs currently have mangle or shout or sunders or whatever else. Also it would display in a easy graphic style your aggro in relation to everyone elses on each mob and flash red or something when you lose aggro so you can quickly target and taunt.
Just listened to your podcast for the first time and am already a fan. I would like to see a mod that checks what players in your guild or friends list are never on at the same time to give a clue about wether that one guy who is always a dick to you is actually one of your guildies trying to mask his contempt by interacting with players he knows with an alt. I’d call it “Ferret”
Hey guys, I want the book. Although I am different. I want it to be legit and to make THE BEST addon out there for people like me. I’m a casual raider and I’m always angry having to look up EVERY fight on the glorious interweb. So I’m gonna make an addon and call it Dungeon Master. With this addon, you will be able to look up all boss encounters. This will allow no one the reason to not know the fights and wipe the raid.
My idea for an addon. Corruption for locks takes the crit value when it was cast, and maintains that value until it either falls off, or is recast. Refreshing it using shadowbolt or unstable affliction makes it continue to tick with the same crit value it was originally cast with (aka rolling crits)
The addon idea is to track the crit value you had when you cast corruption, and compare that with your current crit value. If ever you current crit value exceeds the rolling corruption crit value, a message pops up telling you to recast crit with the higher crit value.
I would love to see an addon that adds a line to the tooltip on abilities that lists the threat caused. It would help prioritize abilities when tanking. Considering I play a tank, I would love to see this!
I hope I am posting in the right spot for the mod/UI.
I have several of alts (the majority in the 70s or 80), and have been playing the game for the past four and half years, but the funny thing is that I have never really participated in PvP. Recently I have become an heirloom collector and have stocked up a nice little rogue with all the goodies. I admit, I am a noob in oh so many ways when it comes to PvP, and often I guard the flag while sitting back and watching the zerging and turtles occurring around me. However, there comes a time when the guardian must actually fulfill their duty. This is what I have come to realize: when you are mashing buttons with one hand, and directing yourself (via mouse) with another, you often don’t have time to type ‘BS Help!’ (though I have caught myself yelling that at my computer with an entirely different meaning).
For the past two weeks (yes, I level slow-even with the extra xp bonus- I take time to SMELL the roses!), I have been wishing that there was a UI out there that had two small boxes similar to the Decursive boxes. These two boxes could be a Defenders Rally Cry, and help so much. If one box could have an [I] for incoming — and automatically fill in the flag I am guarding (or just say flag room-or location such a Quarry), and the other box have [U] (or an [R] for rally ) and be able to shout ‘— Under Attack Help!’ (ex. BS Under Attack HELP!) it would be very useful. Also since it would be those two small boxes, they would not interrupt peripheral vision for those folk who like the less cluttered UI. This would mean I would be able to simply hit the correct box and get ready, or know that while I am sacrificing myself for the flag that the cry has been shouted to the other defenders and help is coming and the I have done the maximum amount of damage to the enemy.
I can see this type of addon being useful for most, if not ALL of the Battlegrounds, especially for us defenders. I have looked for similar addons, and have not been able to spot any (there was one, but it is no longer being updated-and it had much more information and clutter in it then I wanted).
I hope that someone will be able to create this addon, or something similar to it. It may not be here to help me now as I slug my way through the 50s, but it would be nice to see it when I am in my 70s (yes, I level SLOWLY) – or on my goblin!
For those of you wondering, yes, battleground leveling is extremely fun, and you get to meet some great people (you learn to ignore the screamers and profanity users oddly enough)!
Contest Entry: I would really like to see a mod where a tank (like me
) can see where the threat of multiple mobs is. I love programming, and a mod like this I feel would add a lot to the game (and be lots of fun to make as well!).
Thanks, love the show!
I would LOVE to find out if there is sound functionality accessible to Add-ons. I play a Resto Shaman and heal others in my group pretty well, but when it comes to healing myself, I too often don’t notice my health bar until it’s too late. My very simple add-on would be to create something to make a sound when my health gets below 50%, and can be tied to other functions in the game. I’m as aural as I am visual, and sound cues would be fantastic!
>>>You wrote:James Whitehead is back with his second edition of World Of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Addons, and it’s got a really cool cover. The cover art on this huge tome was created by our very own Scott Johnson! We’ve got one of these to give away, Scott is going to sign it before shipping it to our winner. Listen to win!
Hey guys, I’ve had my eye on the various editions of that book for 2 years and have not had the money to spend on it. It seems I’m constantly having ideas of useful mods, only to have them flitter away from my mind with no practical knowledge of how to code them. This time my current idea is with the new changes to the map and questing window that Blizzard implemented. Some things I’d like to be able to do are: make the reduced size map window movable, add the appropriate level of the quests in your log to the quest (many mods have done this, but they are constantly breaking and not being maintained) and change the numbered bubbles on the quest list from just being “1,2,3,4,5….” to, again, the appropriate level to do the quest, which seems quite a bit more useful. I’m sure more things will pop into my head, but those are what currently occupy the space between my ears. I have studied several programming languages, just not LUA, so the book wouldn’t be wasted on me. Thanks guys!
Addon Contest:
I’m from Europe but I hope that doesn’t matter. I would like to create an Addon that helped LFD users to remember a Ninja-looter or simply a player with bad attitude so that next time you stumble upon him/her you can simply leave the group rather then have your gear being snatched by someone who is going to vendor it.
Best Add on would be Auto Pilot which would allow you to plot points and fly to them.
Addon Contest:
Average DPS. Since people are always saying ‘PST GEARSCORE’ to get an invite to a raid, this addon would replace it. It averages your DPS for each type of instance (Heroics, 10-man raids, 25-man raids) and for each raid specifically. It only saves the boss fights so that AoE rash doesn’t skew results. It will save the stats for different bosses, but not for actual individual fights. You can report the stats for a specific raid or boss, much like recount does.
This would make it so that people won’t judge you on how good your gear is, but on how much DPS you can pump out.
Wished for Addon:
With so many buffs, debuffs, totems, etc. (b/d/t/etc.) either not stacking or overriding each other I would love to see an addon that would “inspect” the party or raid and display a list of what b/d/t/etc. each party or raid member brings to the group. It would only need to track which b/d/t/etc. affect party or raid members and not b/d/t/etc. that only effect the individual that triggered them. For b/d/t/etc. that are not generally considered but of a character’s normal role rotation it would be nice to have an option to assign those b/d/t/etc. to a character, something long the lines of Pally Power assignments. It would also be nice to have some type of an in combat audit feature that indicating any b/d/t/etc. that are available to the group but missing during the encounter. I can see where knowing what you have to work with, by way of b/d/t/etc., can be a huge benefit to adapting strategies to encounters based on party or raid composition. Ever the optimist I can even see it reducing the number of wipes and increasing the chances of success while group learn and master encounters.
I would also like to know more about the parody song at the end of this episode. I love the original song, and whoever did that parody did a great job.
I have an idea for an add-on which would be most useful for me. I use “Crap Away!” now to automatically sell trash to a vendor when opening the exchange window. However, I would love an add-on which would either destroy gray-name items immediately upon looting them or offer a way to single click (using an alt key or something) to quickly destroy them without having to drag/release them onto some blank part of your screen.
Seems simple to me; but I’m not a programmer, so I don’t know how simple such an add-on may or may not be.
My Contest Entry:
I would like to see a mod that combines the features of lightheaded with the wow armory, allowing quick access to armor upgrade info. I’m not sure how the mechanics of it would work, but it would be nice to mouse over my armor IN GAME and get the option to find upgrades like on the wow armory page. The page or info listed for upgrades could have links to wowhead item info and comments, etc.