Всяко разное =)
Китайский фан-сайт по World of Warcraft WoWnei опубликовал скриншоты создания персонажа-гоблина, которые станут доступны только после выхода дополнения Cataclysm. Выглядят новые персонажи просто отлично – они одновременно умудряются быть и смешными, и брутальными. Скриншоты «утянуты» из закрытой альфа-версии игры.
Patchwerk (25) Solo Kill by a Rogue
Jider from Impervious (US-Stormreaver) had a lot of time and a lot of (very) smart ideas to kill Patchwerk (25) alone. It took him quite some time but it's definitely a smart use of game mechanics, see the description below.
The fight takes places in two positions, one in the tunnel past Grobbulus, the other on the floor along Patchwerk's patrol path. The setup begins by Shadowstepping to Grobbulus on the platform he tosses his slimes from. I then go into the poison tunnel that leads to Gluth to drop an Unconscious Dig Rat at a key location inside the tunnel where there is a hole that leads back to Patchwerk's room. This position and the floor position are important as they are beyond the leash points for Grobbulus and they allow me to Shadowstep up and drop down whenever I need to. Once the Unconscious Dig Rat is in the right position I jump down and buff and get ready to pull Patchwerk. I execute the pull by pre-potting and launching a Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket. The use of a ranged attack to pull is important as it will require him to path all the way to that point to reset/full heal after a Vanish or Shadowmeld.
After that, the fight basically becomes a repetition involving a few key ideas. Firstly, I never engage Patchwerk without Evasion. Anytime I am attacking and Evasion is about to wear off, I either Shadowstep up to the tunnel or drop down to the floor. This forces him to spend a great deal of time pathing which enables me to wait for the Evasion cooldown and to heal myself. Another key point is using Vanish and Shadowmeld appropriately. On the initial aggro of Patchwerk, his trash is also put into combat which requires me to Vanish it off but I also use it during the fight to reset his enrage timer which eliminates the need to deal with the increased damage and slime bolts. To do this, I wait for Preparation to come back up, and then I wait until Patchwerk reaches the poison tunnel position. I jump off and immediately Shadowmeld which gets me out of combat and gives me time to eat and/or rebuff as needed. My potion timer also resets. Since I am no longer in combat Patchwerk is in evade mode and begins his pathing back from the tunnel through Grobbulus' room. This is where the pull positioning comes in to play as I am already waiting to intercept him well before his final reset point which would heal him to full. When I engage him his trash aggros again which forces me to Vanish. I watch carefully and if that Vanish fails to reset the trash I burn Preparation and Vanish again. This cycle is repeated until the boss is dead which resulted in a fight lasting 4 hours 45 minutes on my kill.
Buffs: Drums of Forgotten Kings, Drums of the Wild, Runescroll of Fortitude, Scroll of Agility VIII, Flask of Endless Rage, Blackened Dragonfin. Jewel-crafting and Engineering professions. Gear used can be viewed here. Both weapons are enchanted with mongoose and Instant poison main-hand and Deadly poison off-hand. The reason behind using Purified Shard of the Flame was to counter the significant nature damage from the tunnel (ticks added up to ~2 million damage) and provide extra healing. Other methods of healing included eating, bandages, and Dense Stone Statues. The talent spec used was 0/18/53 and glyphs were Hemo/evasion/ghostly strike. Besides Shadowstep, many of the talents chosen are very useful for this encounter by providing extra survivability (Enveloping Shadows, Cheat Death), increased damage (Dirty Deeds, Setup), or both (Sinister Calling, Lightning Reflexes, Endurance).
Song #1 Velvetine Safe [Wherever You Are] (Rank 1 Remix)
Song #2 Delerium Truly (Signum Club Mix)
-Jider
www.impervious-guild.com
Blue posts
Jay Mohr at BlizzCon 2010
Comedian and actor Jay Mohr will be returning to BlizzCon this year to serve as master of ceremonies for the live costume contest and other contests on the first night of the show. Jay is the star of the popular television show Gary Unmarried, and is known for his roles in movies like Jerry Maguire and for creating, producing, and hosting the successful TV series Last Comic Standing. We'll have more info to share about the Friday-night contests and other events at BlizzCon in the months leading up to the show, so keep your eye on BlizzCon.com for more details. (Source)
Blizzcon on the east coast?
We're always open to the idea of hosting BlizzCon elsewhere. Consider though that every BlizzCon and Worldwide Invitational in the past took place in cities where we have local Blizzard offices.
The primary issue with hosting BlizzCon on the east coast is one of logistics. A large number of people helping to set up and run BlizzCon are actually Blizzard employees. Set up and rehearsals begin days before the start of the event. Sending at least 75% of our Irvine staff to the east coast for at least a week could easily cause major logistical issues with maintaining daily operations, in addition to the substantial extra costs. (Source)
Multi-Boxing
There's no support for multi-boxing on our end. We tolerate it. For now. (Source)
Американский комик, пародист и актер разговорного жанра Джей Мор (Jay 
Mohr) примет участие в конвенции BlizzCon 2010, об этом сообщает американский официальный сайт MMORPG World Of Warcraft. Джей будет вести live-конкурс костюмов, а также другие конкурсы в течение первого дня шоу.
Ранее актер был ведущим реалити-шоу «Последний комик» (Last Comic Standing), снимался в сериале «Неженатый Гарри» и рекламе, а также был ведущим фестивалей BlizzCon в 2007 – 2009 годах. Джей озвучивал такие игры как Saints Row 2, Scarface, Leisure Suit Larry, а также одну из серий Симпсонов.
Более подробная информация о конкурсах и мероприятиях BlizzCon 2010 будет опубликована на сайте конвенции BlizzCon.com позднее.
Blizzard Entertainment прекратила доставку товаров из интернет-магазина Blizzard Store в Россию, об этом сообщил сотрудник по работе с игровым сообществом на официальных форумах MMORPG World Of Warcraft:
«В связи с рядом затруднений с доставкой товаров в Россию мы вынуждены временно прекратить доставку обычных (не электронных) товаров из интернет-магазина Blizzard на территорию Российской Федерации. Мы надеемся, что перевозки вскоре возобновятся и плюшевые мурлоки снова отправятся в Россию как ни в чем не бывало – а с ними и прочее эпическое добро. Пока же напомним, что электронные версии игр и внутриигровые питомцы по-прежнему находятся в вашем полном распоряжении».
Update – Huh, yeah, you had a message pointing to http://www.agoragames.com/ while the site was down. They're the very awesome and comprehensive techs in charge of MMO-Champion, the site was perfectly safe. The site database was also safe and none of your passwords are compromised here, it's really just a few JS files changed, and worst case scenario you are very unlucky and got a spyware that won't affect your WoW account.
I'm just very serious when it comes to security and had no plan to hide the problem. (Even if I'm probably overreacting)
Oh god, MMO-Champion got hacked
Yay! It finally happened! MMO-Champion got hacked! But don't worry too much, the title is mostly here to scare you and make sure you will read the rest. The site got indirectly affected by a very nasty virus called Gumblar, the site is cached in various ways and it means that most users are potentially safe but I strongly suggest that you read the entire post.
Gumblar, AKA Troj/JSRedir-R, is a botnet driven virus which attacks both websites and normal computers. Sounds scary, and to anyone who owns their own website it is, but to anyone else it's mostly harmless.
How does it work?
The virus is split into two parts. There's a javascript version, which infects websites, and the actual virus itself which infects computers. Whenever a browser executes the javascript on a website, it runs a Java applet and (through a Java exploit or two) installs the virus onto your computer. The virus, once warm and snug on a computer, looks for any FTP details you may have stored (In dreamweaver, filezilla, pretty much any FTP application) and makes a copy of them.
For every FTP it manages to get, it attempts to make a connection and then infects the website with the javascript. It does this by opening .js/.html/.php files and attaching a unique version of itself to a position inside the file, usually at the end. This new code is unique per website, not per file, so removing it isn't as daunting as it sounds.
In addition to spreading itself to every website it can get its claws on, the virus also reprises its role as a traditional Trojan and attempts to install other spyware onto your computer, including redirecting popular websites (such as Google) to its own unsafe alternative.
How do I know if I have it? How do I get rid of it?
Most modern anti-viruses should pick up the Gumblar virus. Personally I'd suggest downloading and installing Malwarebytes and doing a complete system scan. Make absolute sure your anti-virus is up to date before scanning, and make sure it's on a full/intensive scan, take no risks with a quick sweep.
For webmasters, there's a lovely tool called Unmask Parasites for checking if your website is safe or not. However, if you suspect you may have been infected but this tool returns nothing, you may be best suited to manually look through the files. Open up a few random .js files, and look at the end for a line or two of code that you don't recognise. Open up some .html files for a <script> tag that shouldn't be there. If you find it, take your website down immediately and start removing it. If you have backups, make sure they're clean and restore them. Otherwise, you can manually fix the files. Automated tools do not work so well for this as it's unique code for every website.
As always, it is recommended you change any private details (such as passwords) after you have confirmed you are safe. While World of Warcraft/Battlenet accounts are not affected by this virus, it is still strongly advised you change your password for it regardless.
My epics are safe?
Gumblar is a botnet driven virus, which means the infection process is entirely automated by other infected machines, no human intervention. As it was not designed to look for World of Warcraft details, it is not particularly interested in looking for them. This doesn't mean you can slack and use this as an excuse to never change your password though. It's always a good time to change your password!
Technical details
For more details about Gumblar, see this Wikipedia article or this Unmask Parasites article. For a technical summary of Gumblar, there's a nice article on iss.net about it.
AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5
Were making this change for two reasons. The invasive nature of a mod altering and/or interacting with the game world (virtually or directly) is not intended and not something we will allow. World of Warcraft UI addons are never intended to interact with the game world itself. This is mirrored in our stance and restriction of model and texture alterations. The second reason is that it removes too much player reaction and decision-making while facing dungeon and raid encounters. While some other mods also work to this end, we find that AVR and the act of visualizing strategy within the game world simply goes beyond what were willing to allow.
The change were making in attempts to break the functionality is light in its touch and approach. When blocking any functionality we run the risk of affecting other mods, but weve targeted the changes as carefully as possible. If we find that the AVR mod (or any mod attempting to replicate its functions) are usable after 3.3.5 we will take further, more drastic steps.
If you do not remember what AVR is, here is a small reminder.
Totem of Wrath ChangesCataclysm Screenshot of the Day – Vashj'ir
A new screenshot of Vashj'ir has been added to the Screenshot of the Day Gallery.
Concept Art
Two very early concept art (= Before Warcraft 3) of the Taurens and Night Elves have been released on the official site.
Fan Art
6 new Fan Arts have been added to the Fan Art Gallery.
Ruby Sanctum PTR – Halion Kill Video
EF BIE EI (EU – Dalvengyr) released a video of their kill of Halion on the PTRs. Don't forget that US PTR testing is tonight!
Blue posts
Larger health pools / AOE Damage in boss fights
The first part is definitely a goal. The second part has been taken out of context a bit. I was saying that I was sure we would still have *some* fights with raid-wide AoE damage because that mechanic is one way to make healing feel different from encounter to encounter. But it is not a design to have persistent damage auras as part of every encounter. It's also not a design goal to have crowd control part of every encounter, but overall we expect you'll be doing more CC (and therefore less group tanking) than in Wrath. (Source)
Is Remote AH an ingame advantage?
First off, no correlation can be made here between the idea of releasing a Remote Auction House feature and that of releasing epic equipment for sale. The ground is still quite firm on that slope.
Second, a player who has more time in a week to play the game than you has an advantage over you by this same standard. Someone that has an hour or more a day to use the Auction House than you do has an advantage, and they're not even charged extra for it. The Remote Auction House provides no in-game functionality that isn't already available to every single player as often as they can or want to use it. The only difference now is that, for an additional monthly fee, players can use the Auction House in a remote fashion without having to log into the game client.
I'm not sure how many time Blizzard has to say they won't sell gear before people will believe them.
It's a legitimate concern. I'd share it if I weren't confident about our commitment to our players and our ultimate goal of creating epic games with incredible support and bonus features. Some players fear this happening so much though, that they almost wait for it to happen. With nearly any announcement we make about additional features or flavor items which have a cost associated, this is then seen as a sign of the slippery slope, no matter how large the leap to an adequate assertion may be.
Our core philosophy has not changed and we feel we're being very reasonable about the products and premium services we're offering. They allow us to maintain a strong company, afford and maintain state-of-the-art tools and hardware, keep some of the most talented staff in the gaming industry around, and continue making great games. 
(Source)
«Бумажный» журнал MMORPG World Of Warcraft открыл свои официальные форумы на wowhead.com – именно здесь отныне нужно задавать вопросы по поводу дат выхода, подписке, рекламе и др. Один из редакторов журнала – Энди Сэлисбари (Andy Salisbury) – в своем вступительном сообщении разъяснил, что редакция не является сотрудниками Blizzard, а также то, что они не будут печать ничего, что находится под NDA.
«Мы очень рады появлению наших новых форумов! – сообщил Энди. – Они дадут нам отличную возможность открытой коммуникации с сообществом World of Warcraft, которое выскажет свое мнение о нашем журнале. Кроме этого, именно здесь мы будем искать авторов для наших следующих статей (для серии «Back to Basics», посвященной полям боев, например), которые впоследствии появятся в журнале. Если у вас есть какие-либо вопросы – пожалуйста, задавайте!»
Редакторы активно отвечают на поступающие от пользователей вопросы. Так, было сообщено о том, что выпуск цифровой версии журнала в данный момент не планируется; журнал высылается в любое место земного шара на четырех европейских языках; в будущем редакция будет также продавать предыдущие архивные номера. Более подробную информацию о журнале можно найти на официальном сайте worldofwarcraftthemagazine.com.
5 Blood Queen Lana'thel kills (Icecrown 10 player).
7 Blood Prince Council kills (Icecrown 10 player).