Water-Walking
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Shaman glyphs in Beta build 8905
The inimitable Matthew Rossi, our burly Shaman and Warrior expert, had his hands full with the overwhelming number of Warrior glyphs that popped up in the new Wrath Beta build. Since the few Shaman glyphs this build got me a little excited -- more than the yawn-inducing Paladin ones last week, anyway -- I thought I'd cover this one while Matt does the heavy lifting with the Warrior changes.Glyph of Water BreathingYour Water Breathing spell no longer requires a reagent.An excellent glyph. I'm a huge fan of these no-reagent glyphs for obvious reasons. Although Shiny Fish Scales are abundant and cheap, they do take up bag space. What I like about these types of glyphs is that they'll literally pay for themselves over time because there's a direct cost. The best part of this? It now works exactly like the Warlock spell and can be used as an additional buff in PvP without worrying about running out of Shiny Fish Scales (e.g., it still consumes a reagent in Arenas).
Water-skimming robot will probably attack you
Throwing its fins into the proverbial pool with various water-bourne robots such as the Strider, the CMU Water Runner, and whatever this creep is called, is the new STRIDE -- soon to be the aforementioned Strider's enemy number one. The name stands for Surface Tension Robotic Insect Dynamic Explorer, and the minuscule bot works by mimicking the strider insect and skirting along the surface of the water using hydrophobic wire legs coated in Teflon. Researchers discovered that the 1-gram bot could carry a 9.3-gram payload without breaking the surface by utilizing a sculling motion for movement. The robot is 10-15 times slower than the actual insect and 10 times larger, but the engineers hope to lower the bot's size and increase its speed by downsizing its build, along with expanding its capabilities by harnessing technologies such as sensors, wireless communication, and autonomous control.
