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The Light and How to Swing It: Retribution paladin gear in patch 4.1
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. This week, Justicar Alex Ziebart tackles Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub's loot for retribution paladins. Questions? Comments? Feel free to email the author. Patch 4.1 will be hitting live servers ... well, eventually. We don't really know. It's been on the PTR since later February, and it never feels any closer, does it? Regardless, patch 4.1 is bringing the revamped Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman heroics which have both been (more or less) fully itemized in recent weeks. That's what we'll be looking at today. Do note that this is content that is still on the PTR, so itemization changes could still happen before the patch hits live realms, though it is unlikely. We can all be reasonably sure this list will work just fine come patch day. Do note, however, that what bosses these drops come from isn't concrete quite yet -- but that's fine. They're not raid zones; you don't need to save up your DKP. Plus, knowing that they exist within these two dungeons narrows it down pretty well already. The list is also going to be fairly short. It's only two dungeons, after all.
Mozilla shames developers with list of slow performing Firefox add-ons
We know how Mozilla must feel. It spends every waking hour tweaking and perfecting Firefox to eke out as much performance as possible, only to see it all ruined by lousy add-ons that weigh the browser down like a block of cement. It's apparently now had enough, however, and has gone as far as to publish a list that exposes the worst offenders. As of this writing, the two biggest drags on the browser by far are the FoxLingo translator / dictionary and Firebug developer tool add-on which, according to Mozilla, each make the browser 74 percent slower to start up. That list is just part of a broader crackdown on poor performing add-ons. Mozilla says it's also instituting automated performance testing of the top 100 add-ons in its gallery, and that it will begin reaching out to developers directly to get them to improve performance (and even provide them with some new tools to help out). Hit up the link below to see how some of your favorite add-ons stack up.
The Light and How to Swing It: Essential retribution paladin addons
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. This week, Justicar Alex Ziebart tackles addons for retribution paladins. Questions? Comments? Feel free to email the author. Today's topic was requested by a reader, and I must admit it took more effort that I'd have liked to assemble the piece. I'm one of those players who tries to use as few addons as possible. As an expansion progresses, I continuously shed my mods until I use almost none at all. I use them as teaching aids. If I'm having difficulty performing a particular task, I use an addon to make it easier on myself -- until I'm more comfortable with that task. "Okay, I did it with the addon," I say to myself. "Now I'll turn it off and see if I can do without it." It's not that I don't believe in addons -- they're great! It's just that I have a hard time calling any of them essential. Still, I'll try to outline a few addons that I believe will be beneficial to your performance as a retribution paladin.
PAX East 2011: Massively interviews RIFT's Scott Hartsman
With the launch of RIFT still fresh, members of the Trion team packed their bags and flew to Boston to attend PAX East. Even though they didn't have a booth, their "We're not in Azeroth anymore" banner made their presence known. In addition, Community Manager Cindy "Abigale" Bowens hosted a party in Boston to celebrate the launch with players and fans. Massively had a chance to sit down and talk with Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman about launch day, security, plans for the future, and a whole lot more. Read on for the full interview!
Breakfast Topic: What mods could you not live without?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Some people love their mods, downloading every single new thing that comes across the pages of Curse or any of the other addon sites. Others are very minimalist, using only what they need to function for raiding or PvP. And yet still others try and completely avoid mods altogether. The last group is clearly the minority; the mod community is a huge part of WoW, and mods have become such a common part of the game that some people forget what the default UI looks like. Throughout the game, Blizzard has seemingly had a love/hate relationship with the mod community. Some of the mods it felt were so functional and helpful that it absorbed some of their functionality into the default UI; the raid frames are now similar to Grid, your map lights up with objectives and arrows like Quest Helper. Others Blizzard felt were overpowered and changed the game in order to break them, such as the original, one-button Decursive from vanilla WoW, and recently, AVR. When I was in the recent beta, Blizzard turned off the option for any mods for a while, and the game was a flood of QQ from people who basically claimed they couldn't play with the default UI and without their necessary mods. Personally always running mod-light, I adapted quickly to the mod-free play, and it even led me to dropping a few things from live, such as my damage meter and chat mod. I have found the game functions fairly well without mods, but I do still require my raid warnings, threat meter, and my guild's loot mod. What mods can you not function without? Has Blizzard ever changed the game to make a mod you felt like you needed no longer work? How long did it take you to adapt to playing without the mod again? Or are you one of the few who refuses to use mods at all?
Blaze PS3 Move Gun attachment for perps lacking a second amendment
Know what's awesome? Guns! Especially when they're capped with a glowing pastel ball. This more "realistic" alternative to the $20 Sony PS3 Move gun attachment is from Blaze and will set you back £9.99 (about $16) when it begins shipping at the end of February. Bring it to a Texas bar and we hear you'll get a complimentary Shirley Temple. Yeehaw!
Final Fantasy XI gets an Abyssean trailer
The highly anticipated December version update for Final Fantasy XI looks to be going live on December 6th. That's not quite certain yet, but considering that the newest update to the Heroes of Abyssea site lists that as the activation date, it's reasonable to assume the game's next major patch will be going live then. It also comes with a trailer showing off the new monsters listed under the bestiary, as well as the landscape for players to explore. Orthrus, Alfard, and Khrysokhimaira are the three headlining notorious monsters for the add-on, with the trailer giving some sense of just how large the monsters are in comparison with players. Combined with the extant previews of the completed Empyrean Armor sets and the option to pre-purchase the mini-expansion, Final Fantasy XI players will have plenty to whet their appetites until the forecasted release date in a little less than two weeks' time.
Spiritual Guidance: Shadow priest addons for a post-Cataclysm world
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving Pilgrim's Bounty holiday, the shadow-specced Fox Van Allen has been pondering that which he is thankful for: a broken (but new!) world, a constant supply of minds to flay, and his Joan Rivers-esque good looks. When I heard for sure that patch 4.0.3a would be hitting yesterday, I immediately thought to myself, "What kind of information about the post-Shattering world will shadow priests need to know?" The idea was to create a great big article all about those changes so that everyone would be prepared. But here's the thing -- all the major Cataclysm changes happened to shadow priests in patch 4.0.1. Patch 4.0.3a is almost all about changing the world around us (and also about nerfing warlocks). There are a few spriest-specific changes worth noting, but they're largely passive: Vampiric Embrace has been nerfed, as discussed a few weeks ago. We now only get 6 percent of the damage we deal back as self-healing, down from 12. Ouch. Our mastery has been reworked. Casting Mind Blast (with a Shadow Orb active) now procs a non-stackable, 15-second buff, Empowered Shadow. It increases the damage of shadow DoT spells by 10 percent (base), plus 1.25 percent per point of mastery. You should be experiencing close to 100 percent uptime with that buff. Our talent tree has been reset, mostly due to tinkering in the non-shadow trees. This is my preferred, crowd-control-free talent tree for your last few days at level 80. If you found yourself unsatisfied with the damage you were doing in 4.0.1, these few changes are probably going to leave you wanting. You'll need to find some other way to boost your damage or manage your spec, and there's really only one foolproof way of doing that (aside from practice, of course): addons.
Heroes of Abyssea teaser site opens for Final Fantasy XI
The third and final portion of the Abyssea trilogy is poised to hit Final Fantasy XI along with the other components of the December version update. We've known that the update will bring the conclusion to the tale of Vana'diel's dark mirror, but very little beyond that was known until today. Square-Enix has pushed the teaser site for Heroes of Abyssea live, and it contains more of the mini-expansion's lore as well as tantalizing glimpses of the new areas mirrored in the other world. Although it's hard to be sure, it appears that at least one of the new areas will be in the frozen north, with a further hint being that Rise of the Zilaart and Wings of the Goddess are listed as the requisite expansions. Players can also peek at the completed Empyrean Armor sets, the third iteration of powerful class-based armor. Final Fantasy XI's last update of the year will have a lot to do all around, but Heroes of Abyssea should prove to be an interesting expansion to the popular series of leveling and gearing add-ons.
The Daily Grind: Do you have essential peripherals?
The funny thing about getting used to a new way of playing a game is that sometimes you just can't go back. Case in point: the Razer Naga. It's the sort of mouse that forces dedicated action bar clickers to start using hotkeys, and it's hard to start using one without getting deeply invested in the way that it feels in-play. After all, when you can free up your left hand completely for movement... suffice to say that it earns its moniker as an MMO mouse. Sometimes it's a favorite headset or a particular keyboard with a familiar layout. We all get accustomed to the computer we use for gaming, but is there a specific piece of hardware that feels just plain vital to log on and play your favorite game? Is it something that notably improves your performance, or just a familiar item that's been a constant through your years of playing online? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Party hardly
I think by this point I have a well-established reputation as being a fairly positive guy on the subject of City of Heroes. It wasn't a conscious decision or anything -- it's just that I've been pretty happy with the game's development and content, and I do tend to be a bit of a developer supporter. I don't expect the game to be something other than what it is, and I enjoy what it is. Not to mention the obvious fact that the game has given me a lot of enjoyment over the years. So I usually come down as being part of the sunshine and light crowd. But that's not by design -- it's just how things have shaken down. I hand out praise and criticism as the situation warrants. And this week I'm going to talk about something that most definitely deserves criticism. I'm talking, of course, about the Party Pack, the newest mini-addition to the game and one that's already produced more than a little fan rage. But it's deserved, and even if I can see why Paragon Studios went the route that it did, I find it a little hard to just dismiss it with the usual "if you don't like it, don't buy it" routine.
Anti-Aliased: Modding your way out of a paper bag
If there's been a theme to this week, it's been interfaces and modding. Both EverQuest II and Lord of the Rings Online have had announcements related to their interfaces, be it re-skinning or new Lua functionality being installed. However, it was these two articles that set off the Rube Goldberg device in my head. They reminded me just what I thought about mods. My relationship with mods has always been iffy. While I certainly appreciate what they do for us in our many MMOs, they also irk me to no end. While I understand (and totally support) some mods, there are others that I'd rather offer to Zuul. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate the mods because they're not useful. It's quite the opposite, in fact. Sometimes, I think mods are too useful. When you start skipping social interactions in favor of an e-peen number, that's the point where mods are going over the line.
Turbine expands on LotRO's Lua scripting
Ever since hearing the news that Turbine will allow players to create mods for Lord of the Rings Online using the Lua programming language, the community's been abuzz about what this means for LotRO -- good and bad. Would this allow for the creation of game unbalancing add-ons, or perhaps the rise of a LotRO edition of WoW's controversial GearScore? Or does Turbine have a specific vision in mind for the scope of mods? Yesterday on the LotRO forums, Narrel, Turbine's Games Systems Engineer, posted a clarifying note about why the company chose to implement this and where it plans to go with it. The devs' main priority with Lua scripting was to empower players to tweak and modify the user interface more to their liking, as the default UI cannot be all things for all folks. While it is going to prohibit mods from botting or macros, Turbine will open the field for players to work with the inventory layout, information that the HUD displays, quickslot bars, target info, fellowship info and raid vitals. "We are very excited about this feature," Narrel said, "and look forward to the day when it goes live allowing players to have a much more customizable experience with our graphical interface."
LotRO and Lua: Turbine gives the mod community a thumbs-up
The winds of change are blowing swiftly across the lands of Middle-earth, as we've just gotten word that Turbine is going to allow the use of Lua scripting for Lord of the Rings Online. A Casual Stroll to Mordor reports that Meghan Rodberg announced the change on a recent episode of The StunCast!. On the podcast, Rodberg confirmed the upcoming implementation of Lua scripts: "We historically have not allowed any modding of the UI other than skinning it. Hope I'm not blowing anything here, but there is a Lua scripting project going on. I don't know if we've talked about it that much, but people will be able to do some mods. I'm not sure to what extent they'll be able to do it. It seemed like enough of our players were looking for this that we decided to do it." Lua is a programming language that allows for the creation of add-ons and mods for MMOs, which has seen extensive use in titles like World of Warcraft. It allows for players to design useful (or not-so-useful) UI features, such as auction house enhancements, timing bars and even mini-games. While player response to this announcement is mixed, it hopefully will make many budding modders happy to hear. [Update: Meghan clarifies: "It's not guaranteed for a launch with F2P - it may be in the testing stage for a while!"]
Players hath spoken, Allods hath listened: Revelations of Gipat includes several player suggestions
Some might say that Allods Online is rapidly outgrowing its pair of britches, which is probably why gPotato piled into a car for a shopping trip to the britch store. With the new Revelations of Gipat 1.1 patch, Allods is expanding in ways that should bring happiness, love and warfare to all. We've already heard about the new mounts galloping into the game, but gPotato isn't stopping there: Players will be able to level to 42, enjoy over 200 new quests, challenge three new endgame bosses (including Strina the Fierce, who makes her Massively debut up top there) and romp through the newest zone, Gipat. In addition to all of this, the developers have been hard at work coming up with new features based on player suggestions. While some of these are small, these quality-of-life features should nevertheless make players very happy. These new features include official add-on support, chat bubbles (which can be toggled on and off), a target-of-target system, additional animations, better audio, more hotkey capabilities and being able to invert your mouse. It'll truly be interesting to see how the players react to this patch, and how the modding community will explore their new playground. Revelations of Gipat is scheduled for later this summer.
Totem Talk: Restoration addons, part 3
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast In April we talked about addons and macros that were focused on restoration shaman. We highlighted some staple addons and some useful macros for a variety of situations. In May, I tipped my hat to Power Auras Classic and pointed out the interaction between Totem Radius and AVR/AVRE. Shortly after that second addon post, news arose that AVR was going to be killed in the next major patch to hit servers. While I've never been one to rely solely on mods, it did make totem placement a lot easier and was pretty useful. In the end, though, it empowered players too much and so must be dealt with. Since that news dropped, I have been going through reader email about addons and mods as well as combing through all the various choices available. So today, I would like to bring you part 3 of our restoration addon discussion.
Xbox Live Marketplace in May: Rocket Knight, Dragon Age DLC and more
You know that dusty piggy bank you've had sitting on the shelf forever? Look, forget the kid's college fund -- she's not going to college for, like, years -- and bust that thing open! There's going to be some solid content on Xbox Live Marketplace this month. In the mood for XBLA games? How does Rocket Knight or Zeno Clash tickle your fancy? Oh, so you want some DLC -- Dragon Age: Origins will have more to offer the tireless adventurer later this month. Want to learn the Secret of Monkey Island? During the week of May 17, the secret will be half-off. See what we mean? Head past the break for more XBLM release highlights for the month provided by Microsoft.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Runes of Magic addons
I have no idea why some MMOs don't support addons. I love the ability to alter my gaming experience and change the way my user interface looks. They are great, free programs to change how you interact online whether to reduce annoyance, change how game features work or just to liven up your screen. Why wouldn't you want an MMO to have that ability? I've been hooked on addons since the Runes of Magic community first started making them. I spend countless hours using them to tweak my user interface, on top of having ones that are actually functional. If you didn't know that RoM supports addons or don't know which ones to try, then allow me to breakdown some of the more popular ones for you.
Totem Talk: Restoration addons and macros
Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration will show you how, brought to you by Joe Perez, otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and the For The Lore podcast. We have come a fair distance so far, starting from the basics up through last week, when we talked about haste and its use to a raiding restoration shaman. Today I would like to discuss macros and addons for the restoration-minded shaman. Macros have been in the game for a long time, and over the course of years, they have changed to allow or deny certain functions. The same can be said for the various addons that have existed over the life of the game. There are some addons and macros that can be particularly useful to you as a restoration shaman.
What happened to TourGuide?
There have been many Addon stories that will live through World of Warcraft's history and beyond, as cautionary tales, expressions of visions or the refinement of a segment of the MMO genre that, rapidly, is becoming the norm in most games. Tekkub's TourGuide is going to be, if it is not already, one of those stories. Join me on this adventure where we discuss what all the drama was all about and an interview I did with Tekkub concerning the transpired events. [This article has been updated.]
