Camouflage
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Scattered Shots: It ain't over till it's over
Scattered Shots occasionally wanders around collecting arrows and bullets when they totally miss the target.The key to understanding hunters in the beta is to look at the big picture. This is something affecting all classes currently, but I'm going to discuss it in relation to hunters in particular. Beta testing buffs and nerfs ultimately come down to a matter of perspective -- do you see your class changes happening in isolation, for now and forever as long as you and your pet shall live? Or are your particular class changes happening as part of an ever-evolving system involving you, me and everyone else over time?As you've probably heard, hunters got some nerfs in the latest beta update, and some people are understandably upset about them. I'm not worried about it though -- and now I'll tell you why.
Scattered Shots: How do you make sense of all the beta hunter changes?
Is the tauren above about to cut off his own head -- or lunge forward to attack? Perhaps he's just feeling confused about upcoming changes to hunters? Would you, too, like to know just what's going to happen to your class? Well, you can rest easy now, because Scattered Shots has all the answers to your most urgent questions.The short answer is: You don't; at the moment there is no making sense of all the Wrath hunter changes. We find ourselves at the mid-point of Blizzard's mysterious scheme for hunters, right in-between significant changes already in-progress and vague changes which they've promised or the future. We remain uncertain about which ones are going to make it live, which will be changed again, and which will be removed or added later on. Any analysis we do right now (and indeed much of the analysis we've already done) may or may not be completely out of date in a matter of days or weeks, and if your head hurts from all the ups and downs of turbulent beta-zone theorycrafting, rest assured that Scattered Shots feels your pain.The long answer is: Even though the jigsaw puzzle isn't complete, it's still a pretty neat picture to look at. Today isn't the day for point-for-point talent analyses plus spreadsheets of sting/shot-damage coefficients -- what a headache that would be. No, today is an opportunity to stand back and look at how all this is beginning to fit together, to see how the path our class is trekking through the wilderness of beta-testing ambiguity solves some of our long-standing problems, gives us more of what makes hunters great, and leaves us with several crucial questions mysteriously unanswered.What follows, ladies and gentauren, are the X-files of hunter beta mysteries, a fuzzy look through the crystal ball into the future of our class, the thrilling buildup to the surprising twist that comes just before the epic climax of the Hunter Saga season finale and leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat, biting on the tip of your fingernails, and gasping for air in the thrall of cliffhanger suspense.
Scattered Shots: New and improved abilities
Scattered Shots: noun. 1. (Scatter Shot, singular) An ability used by Marksmanship hunters, especially to annoy other players in PvP. 2. (Scattered Shots, plural) A column at WoW Insider about anything even loosely related to hunters, except for high-level raiding and completely improper, sometimes libelous personal commentary.Hunters are getting quite a few changes in Wrath of the Lich King, but so far haven't covered them all. Today I'd like to go through the newest abilities and discuss them in greater detail.New Baseline Hunter Abilities:Nope, no Camouflage. We talked about this before, but it looks like the devs read our article, "Do hunters need Camouflage?" and decided the answer was no. So, instead we have a couple other new abilities to look forward to:Kill Shot: This is the new level 80 hunter ability, and it provides us with a bit of utility that help us to stand out and perform better in various situations:
Scattered Shots: Do Hunters need Camouflage?
Hunt much? Got a pet? Scattered Shots is the feature you turn to when you've gotta have your weekly fix of hunter information, and you've just gotta have it every Thursday afternoon without fail. Those who mine the very depths of the Wrath of the Lich King alpha client have discovered a possible new hunter ability called Camouflage, which, if it goes live, could add an entirely new dimension to the hunter class. Its current form is kind of like a combination Vanish and Cloak of Shadows, in that, once every 5 minutes, it saves you from all debuffs currently destroying you in one way or another, and it puts you in "improved invisibility" (not actual stealth like a rogue has). There's no mention of any time limit, except that it will break when you deal damage.There are a number of implications this ability could have for hunters if it actually ends up on our action bars. For one, it would be quite different from a mage's Invisibility spell, which usually only allows them to see other invisible targets and only lasts for a short time. If Camouflage were to break upon dealing damage then we'd have to be able to see our targets, right? Likely we'd be able to move around and stalk them too. Also, it would not break when you start to cast a shot (such as Aimed Shot), or even if that shot were to miss -- only if it hits its mark. It could be the perfect companion to good damage openers on unsuspecting targets.If this goes live, Hunters are going to become snipers on top of everything else we are, which is super cool.
Iomega kicks out eGo Camo Drive: completely invisible to animals, data thieves
Not sure if we missed the memo, but apparently May 7th is the unofficial day of camouflaged technology. Shortly after Mobiado revealed a rugged Camo handset for the well-to-do hunters of the world, along comes Iomega with a jungle-ready portable HDD. The $149.95 eGo Camo Drive is entirely USB powered and packs a respectable 250GB of internal storage space, a black Iomega Power Grip band, a woodland camouflage pattern and DropGuard technology to prevent disastrous consequences should you drop your drive from less than 60 inches. We always knew those gamesmen never sat in a tree stand all day without a little entertainment to keep 'em sane.
Camouflage 1.20
If you're like me, then you like to take screenshots and send them to people -- maybe it's to help them through an issue with their computer, or just to document something -- either way, icons on your desktop can get in the way. There are a couple things you could do to get rid of the icons: use command + shift + 4 + space bar to only take a picture of the current window, or you could move all of your icons to a folder.This is where Camouflage comes in. It allows you to hide your desktop icons with a single click. Just click it's menu bar icon and ... BOOM ... the icons fade off your desktop. Click the menu bar icon again to have them fade back in. You can also assign a hot key and use a custom wallpaper when it is activated. Sometimes it's the simple things that amaze me. Best of all, Camouflage is absolutely free (donations are accepted). You can download Camouflage from the developer's website.
Nyko hides the DS in plain sight
Nyko knows that playing the DS these days is a matter of survival. If you're hanging out in the jungle, as happens on occasion, then this accessory kit may save your DS's life. Are you willing to take your chances?Furthermore, if you're charging your DS in the car, and there's a jungle inside your car, the included charger may be the difference between a stealthy escape and capture. By enemies, inside the jungle, inside your car.All joking (briefly) aside, the Ultimate Kit Lite somehow looks pretty stylish in camo, and it holds 8 games. It might be a good choice for people looking for a new case and a car charger!
Students develop chameleon suit
When we were in school it seemed like we were too busy goofing around with electronics and wasting our lives in IRC to contribute anything worthwhile to the scientific community. So you can imagine how sheepish we feel reporting about a couple of junior college students who've developed an active camouflage suit that employes electrochromism to change colors and "that can blend into any surrounding". Details are sparse (maybe they used the chameleon tech to blend them into the rest of the article), so we'll keep our peepers extra-sharp for crazy wall-walking superheroes from The Tick.[Via Crave]
New "imaging machines" distinguish between grass and camouflage
While we've got robots that can sniff out faux wine, and cyclops cameras that distinguish between humans and blow-up dolls (saywha?), Dr. Andy Harvey's latest invention could actually prove useful in battle and on the operating table. Although he hasn't tied the latest rounds of DIY artillery to this technology, the camcorder-styled machine can reportedly "distinguish the world's best camouflage from real foliage," not to mention its ability to "spot buried landmines" and "hidden enemies." Developed in Edinburgh, the imaging machine could be toted by soldiers to tip them off to unusual patterns in the grass (like carefully painted iRobots) before they come too close, as it can supposedly "identify 30 times more colors than the human eye." Interestingly, it is possible that the technology could eventually be used to "detect forms of cancer that are currently hard to pick up." While £800,000 ($1.56 million) have already been invested by the Department for Trade and Industry and QinetiQ, we don't imagine this project slowing down anytime soon, and it looks to be just one more reason we ought to simply let robots do all the fighting, anyway.
Sony Ericsson rolls pink camo Z530i
Huh? There's a phone in this picture? We kid, we kid -- pink camouflage is about as effective as a styrofoam paperweight, but then again, we don't think that's really the idea here (of course, with the forgettable VGA cam, this is a phone we wouldn't mind seeing disappear). Sony Ericsson has hooked up with Boost Mobile's Australian division to offer the Z530i in the user's choice of pink or black camo with matching Skullcandy headphones for that music collection you've got stored on the handset's Memory Stick Micro M2 slot. Look for it Down Under on Boost for $179 -- but seeing how it's a GSM piece, there's no chance of seeing this one migrate to Boost customers here in the States.[Via textually.org]
PSP sales boost attempt #347: stealth attack
Sony has made numerous attempts on Nintendo's portable handheld crown with their PSP, but nothing really seems to stick, since DS sales numbers are just as astronomical as ever. Now Sony has taken to camouflaging their PSPs in an attempt to catch consumers unawares, thereby tricking them into purchasing the portable console. (Or perhaps they're trying to break into the notoriously tough hunting, camping, and peeping tom demographics).That's the theory anyways, because we're not really sure why somebody would pick one of these camo units up otherwise. Especially with Sony busting out a whole bunch of fruity PSPs and a silver edition alongside the camo version -- and of course there's always that incredibly pink version to consider. As far as price and availability, we're not quite sure Sony even plans to bring these things to market, but if they do we're banking on a Japan exclusive for a while before they come to the States, so hopefully we'll have ample warning. Be sure to peep the fruity and silver editions after the break.[Via PSP Fanboy]
