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ICYMI: Halloween Spooktacular 2; The CGI reckoning
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Disney figured out a way to make digitally generated faces in a fraction of the time it used to take with a head-worn camera rig. Designers in the Netherlands created a stilt-like elevator that relies on human power to get a person to climb up, though they say it requires very little effort to do it.
Trooper info explodes from Star Wars: The Old Republic
Yesterday, Gamespot delivered us a surprise Christmas present of the Trooper classes trailer. So it comes as no surprise that the official Star Wars: The Old Republic website launched a whole slew of information this morning about that Republic class. First, we have the Weequay, Tanno Vik, who impressed his military instructors by always planting explosives where they would do the most damage. The Republic army considered him for the Special Forces division, but his attitude and disregard for authority always held him back. Vik will eventually run into you and become a part of your crew if you pick the Republic Trooper class. We have already learned that the Sith Inquisitor can be played as a Zabrak, but the team at SWTOR has now officially announced that this species will be available for the Trooper class as well -- even though we played one at PAX already. This determined and confident species fits right with the other hard-nosed characters of Havoc Squad. Lastly, we can take a look at the Rendili Hyperworks BT-7 Thunderclap. This is the Republic's elite rapid assault ship. The shape reminds this reporter of his T-16 back home, except much, much bigger and more guns. To get the full scoop on this assault class, check out the article on the official website and don't miss the updated Trooper class page. For the Republic!
Lichborne: Haste and spell hit issues in patch 4.0.1 and beyond
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. Patch 4.0.3 and the Cataclysm expansion are approaching quickly, and frankly, we're in pretty good shape right now. Yes, there are issues you can point at in almost every tree that could be just a little better, but honestly, most of them are pretty minor. We're really solidly set up for leveling (if you don't mind leveling in a tank spec), dungeon running, and even the first tier of raiding, and for now we can feel pretty secure about ourselves (or at least about our class). That said, there are almost always improvements to be made, and I do want to take a little bit of time to talk about the issue of the unholy tree's complicated love-hate relationship with haste. Now, you're still going to be stacking and gemming strength as much as possible when you gear up. Strength is still king, don't get me wrong, and you'll always want to get your melee hit capped out. But after that, haste pretty much rules for the roost for unholy. It vaults past critical strike rating and leaves mastery somewhere two or three miles down the road, it's so good. This isn't too much of a problem at first glance. It's arguably a little boring stacking one secondary stat over others, but that's more or less a reality of gearing up a DPS. It's very rare that two secondary stats share equal billing. We did have a problem with reaching the GCD cap early on in the beta, but the addition of a GCD reduction element to Unholy Presence fixed that pretty handily. That said, there's still two big problems, one of which primarily affects unholy, the other of which affects all three trees.
Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Updated patch notes
It's that time again, ladies and gentlemen! The Patch 3.3.3 PTR has been given a brand new build, and with it comes a few changes to the patch notes. There aren't many changes, but the few that are there are rather significant to the classes they impact. The changes are as follows: Hunters Heart of the Phoenix: Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes. Warriors Thunderclap: This ability now counts as a ranged attack, granting it double damage on critical strikes instead of 150% and ranged miss chance, and still cannot be dodged or parried. Bladestorm: Warriors can now be Disarmed while under the effects of this ability. Glyphs Glyph of Focus: Now increases the damage done by Starfall by 10%, down from 20%. We've updated our full patch 3.3.3 patch notes listing to include these additions. If you've missed any previous updates, make sure to check them out! Patch 3.3.3 brings about small but noteworthy changes to the World of Warcraft. From a faster CoT, to putting those old Frozen Orbs to better use, to changes to the auction house -- there's several things all WoW players need to know. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3.3 will keep you up to date!
Spiritual Guidance: Shadows of Wrath
This Sunday, Spiritual Guidance, a haven for Holy Priests, has been bludgeoned with a large rock and shoved aside for the Shadows. Your host this week is Alex Ziebart, who is neither Matt Low nor the the grand poobah of World of Matticus. No worries, though. Matt will be back next week. Probably. Assuming he wakes up.We haven't had a lot of Shadow love lately, so I figure it's about time we check out our new spells in Wrath of the Lich King. With the level cap currently 77 in the Wrath beta, it's a little hard to gauge just how effective the new Shadow spells really are. You can't see Dispersion in a raid setting or a competitive arena setting, and Mind Sear just doesn't seem balanced for the level you receive it.I'll start off with Dispersion. Before I was able to use the spell myself, I was really doubtful of its usefulness. This is because for a PvE scenario, it largely just seemed like Evocation for Priests since it Silences you. I've heard time and time again that high-end Mages don't use Evocation at all because it's wasted DPS time when you can just chain potions (which can't be done in Wrath now), or all of the environmental damage break it anyway. Yeah, I can definitely understand that. Sunwell is brutal.
