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Vista sidebar widget available for WoW players
If you're a Vista user, that odd sidebar has suddenly become relevant to your WoW lifestyle. Available for free from the Wndows Live site, WoW Explorer has a host of neat little plugins. The simplest of these features include the ability to put your realm on the Explorer skin -- you'll instantly be able to see if your realm is up or down, or what its population is like right now. You can also select your Explorer's theme, size, and toggle its docking behavior.The Explorer's neatest feature, however, is the search functionality. The plugin lives on your Vista sidebar, which gives you instant search from your desktop. You can choose which popular site is the Explorer's default (such as your intrepid WoW Insider or maybe Wowhead), and the results instantly return in a flyout window. I ran several different searches, such as looking for Dual Specs or some different fat loot, and found the widget to be incredibly fast and responsive.You can't beat the price at "free." Since I'm one of the masses who had previously stared at the sidebar wondering if the dang thing would have any use, it's nice to see something WoW-related live over my local weather widget.
Inscriptions hidden in patch 2.4
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/First_WoW_Wrath_of_the_Lich_king_Inscription_spell_found'; Blizzard has included the first look at inscriptions via hidden entries in the patch 2.4 data files. Inscription will be a new profession that will be released with Wrath of the Lich King. We are treated to an early glimpse at the Demonic Runes inscription that will increase fire damage done by the Mage Fireball spell by 50 additional points. The data is courtesy of WoW Head. There are two important things to realize from this newly discovered information. First, it shows that Blizzard is hard at work on Wrath of the Lich King, and is already starting to include content in the patch files. We saw this same behavior in patch 2.0 with Jewelcrafting recipes. %Gallery-5525%
WoWDigger adds wishlists, quest and faction tracking
Since we last profiled the database site, WoWDigger.com, it has evolved into more than just a WoWHead clone. I found new functions that were helpful in planning my online activities.Using their downloadable client, you can create an Armory-like page of your character on the site. Then you can create a Wishlist duplicate template of your equipped gear and swap in pieces that you want to acquire to see exactly how it affects your stats, resists, damage ratios, mp5, crit chance, defense, etc. Great for planning on how to get that last bit of resilience to hit the cap or balancing your +heal and +spell damage.Another function I like is the personalized quest page. You now have an offline list of all the quests in your quest log. Plan your next step to complete the quest and read up on any strats you'll need to know beforehand. Also, the site tracks all your reputation gains so you'll know how close you are to the next rep level for every faction in the game.If you're like me and enjoy extensive planning and researching offline, I recommend checking out the latest improvements to WoWDigger. With CTProfiles down for now, its a great alternative. If anyone knows of other sites that provide similar services, feel free to list them in the comments.
Analysing the $1mil acquistion of WoW database site
Last week, World of Warcraft database site Wowhead sold for reportedly a whopping US$1 million to Affinity Media. Our sister site WoW Insider takes a look back on the deal and its implications to the community.First comes the fear of goldfarming influence. When the news first broke, there was talk of Affinity's relation to goldfarming company IGE. All ties have purportedly been cut by Affinity, clinching the deal for Wowhead. To be sure, no goldfarming or power-leveling ads have been shown on the database site. Affinity CEO Mark Jaffei claimed in a Q&A that the original leaker of the acquisition talked up goldfarming has financial interest in a competitive site.More importantly comes the fear of non-competition, as the three biggest WoW databases -- Wowhead, Thottbot and Allakhazam -- are now all owned by the same company. The battle for traffic hits had pushed the sites to improve the quality of their databases, and there is worry that Affinity will not require competition the three sites. Only time will tell if those fears prove valid. Check out WoW Insider for a thorough analysis of the news.
