Project Lore

Like most rogues, I use Tricks of the Trade (referred to as ToT, TotT, or Tricks) a lot. Its a rogue ability that has gained a newfound popularity with the great 2 piece tier 10 bonus from Shadowblade Armor. Tricks of the Trade is cast on a friendly player in your party or raid who is within 20 yards. After it is cast, the rogue gains the Tricks of the Trade buff, lasting for 30 seconds. Once the rogue attacks something, the buff is removed, and a buff is applied to your target that lasts for 6 seconds (10 seconds glyphed). This buff causes all threat caused by the rogue to be applied to the player with the buff, and all of the targeted player's damage is increased by 15%. Once the buff is applied to the target, the cooldown of 30 seconds begins on Tricks of the Trade. In short, Tricks is a rogue ability that lasts 10 seconds, has a 30 second cooldown, and transfers all of the rogue's threat to someone else and makes that person deal 15% more damage. It can be cast on anyone within 20 yards initially, but after casting the rogue can move and attack something farther away and the effect still works. Its usually used to pick up adds or help with aggro. Pretty straightforward. The kicker is the tier 10 bonus that everyone has been picking up. Normally Tricks costs the rogue 15 energy, so rogues usually only used Tricks when the tank needed threat or the rogue's threat was too high, such as during an initial pull. With the tier 10 bonus, the ability grants the rogue 15 energy instead of costing energy. This means that Tricks actually increases the rogue's own DPS, making it very valuable. As such, using Tricks of the Trade whenever it is available because an important part of a rogue's DPS rotation. There are a couple of issues that most rogues will run into. The first is how to select a target to use Tricks on when in combat. Most rogues will focus their target, by selecting them and typing /focus. Then, they use a macro along these lines: /cast [target=focus] Tricks of the Trade The issue is that there are usually multiple tanks. The one you picked before the fight might be out of range, dead, or not supposed to be getting threat on your current target. For example, if you are Tricksing to a tank with a lot of threat-per-second (TPS) ability and a tank with less TPS needs to get aggro, you could be screwing things up by Tricksing at a bad time. What's a rogue to do? Rogues in this situation usually make a series of macros that look like: /focus tank1 /focus tank2 Then we hit these until something works if it isn't crucial who has aggro, you know you are Tricksing an okay target, or you think your raid is oblivious to why the offtank is pulling aggro. This approach still leaves a lot to be desired. Sometimes, the tank is doing fine on aggro, and you would rather use it on a DPS target. Other times there are unique encounters and situations, like Blood Queen Lana'thel, where ToT has a unique use. An addon to manage Tricks of the Trade could easily because a rogue staple. A simple version would have users give an ordered list of targets that are viable to ToT to, and when you use Tricks it attempts to use it on each target on the list until it is successful. Again, sometimes your target is out of range or dead, so its important to be able to have multiple targets on the fly. A more sophisticated version could synchronize ToT timing between rogues using it on each other. On fights where DPS checks are tight, like on Festergut, a Tricks of the Trade addon could be set up with two rogues where it could tell if they were glyphed for the extra time and give an alert to each rogue when the other one Tricks on them so they could Tricks back. It could designate a "leading rogue" and a "responding rogue" to simplify the process. Additionally, in case threat got out of hand, one of the rogues could press a button to have both of the rogues Tricks onto the tank during the next cooldown to help stabilize threat, or have the other rogue wait a few seconds to resynchronize the ToT rotation. An even more sophisticated version could tie into threat and DPS tools like Skada, Recount, and Omen as well as range tools such as those in DBM to deliver automatic and on the fly target choosing based on user-configurable rules. For example, it could detect the tanks from gear and HP, or from something like CT_Raid, and when a rogue uses tricks, it would go to any tanks in range, given that there were targets that were within 20% aggro of the tank. If the tanks are out of range or dead, there can be an option to tricks onto the lowest threat DPS in range below a certain threshold. If the tanks are well ahead on threat, there can be an option to Tricks onto the highest DPS below a certain aggro level. These can be customized and reordered, perhaps with a scripting language, such as in Outfitter. There are special circumstances that could be taken advantage of in some encounters, like on Lana'thel. Lana'thel turns players into vampires, causing them to do double damage, heal themselves, and generate no threat. The fight is very tight on DPS, and since there are players generating no threat, it makes sense to Tricks to a vampire in range doing the highest DPS. An extra 15% damage for 10 seconds every 30 seconds is an extra 3% DPS, and saving cooldowns and stacking it with things like potions of speed, the vampire buff, and bloodlust make Tricks a valuable DPS tool. An addon with the ability to automatically ToT onto vampires when possible would be a great tool. If this addon gets made, let me know right away so it can be featured right here on the Project Lore blog.

A Tribute to Addons is a column featuring new, cool, or useful addons. Send a tweet to @Heartbourne or @Projectlore with your suggestions, or leave a comment. Now that patch 3.3 is live, we finally get that feature we've all been waiting for: the ability to see which quests we have completed. You will need to use an addon that can actually interface with this new API call. Today, we look at two of these: EveryQuest and QuestHelper. Prior to patch 3.3, EveryQuest kept track of what quests you have completed and provided lists and filters to find quests based on different criteria. The drawback was that unless you had been using it since you completed your first quest, its data on your completed quests would only include the ones you completed after its first installation. As of patch 3.3, this is no longer the case. Its got a simple and easy to use feature to import your completed quests from the server. Simply go to your interface settings after installing the addon: EveryQuest now knows all about what quests you have completed. There are a couple things to keep in mind here. Some quests aren't actually "remembered" by the game, especially "breadcrumb" quests. For example, look at the quests that EveryQuests claims I haven't completed in Hellfire Peninsula: I have completed Falcon Watch, but it was a rather inconsequential quest. It simply led me to the town, and the server doesn't count it for the Loremaster achievement or apparently for anything. The quest led me to others, which I completed, and for players who did not complete "Falcon Watch" but completed the subsequent quests would be unable to go back and do "Falcon Watch". As such, the policy for these quests seems to be to simply not recorded them as completed. Everyquest is simple to navigate and great for finding things like what quests you should get before heading into a dungeon. Its become part of my questing repertoire. Most players are familiar with QuestHelper. Its a popular addon that shows quest objectives on the world map and calculates an efficient route to completing several quests at once. One feature that has blossomed in patch 3.3 is the ability to see questgivers on the map. With the integration of what quests you have completed, it has reached a whole new level of utility. Type /qh incomplete to populate your incomplete quests and show the questgivers on your map. The drawback here is the lack of data of prerequisites. There are a lot of quests that are no longer available, like the Ahn'Qiraj war effort, and long, outdated quest chains that most players are uninterested in. With more advanced filtering and data, addons like these could evolve into a whole new level of gameplay assistance. Imagine a QuestHelper that knew if a quest that you turned in led to a new quest, and recommended you turned it in before going into a cave so you could complete multiple quests at the same time. Are you using this new feature to pursue Loremaster?

[caption id="attachment_8982" align="alignright" width="251" caption="The Beginning Of The End"][/caption] Patch day is always a day spent killing time.  We'll chew the fat on Ventrilo, play other games or twiddle our thumbs as we watch out download or install complete, wait for guildies to do the same, or do the return from the dead server resurrection spell.  Basically, a ton of crap can, and usually does, go wrong.  That's why whenever a major patch comes out I write the day off as a complete loss.  Instead of expecting to play, I spend my free time getting in the mindset of the +1 increment to the patch version. I am lucky enough to have a crew of solid players to run the new 5-man dungeon (or the threesome of 5-mans if you look at it that way) with.  But like the 101st Airborne, we've had our sticks spread in the wind.  No more than two people of the large group of friends (each with at least two geared level 80s) are in the same guild.  Before I can begin hunting the Lich King, I must remedy my guild situation by hooking up with one of my many friends.  I can't believe I'll be joining my fourth guild since Wrath of the Lich King launched. Something far more fun to do during the downtime is to learn exactly who this Lich King fellow is.  What did he do to deserve our absolute hatred?  What foul acts did he commit that could join the Horde and Alliance together to fight a common enemy (again)?  If you're scratching your head at the difference between the Lich King, Arthas and Ner'zhul, then you have a lot of reading to do.  Here are some helpful links.

• Arthas Menethil - A quick synopsis from yours truly on Arthas.  It was one of my early articles for PL, coming before Wrath launched, so we have learned a lot more about Arthas since then.
• Arthas Menethil - WoWWiki's article will complete the discussion for you.
• Arthas' & The Lich King's Enemies - A synopsis of who has beef with the frosty one.  This article leads perfectly to...
• How Do You Want Arthas To Die? - Should he die?  Then who gets to kill him?  Is Arthas capable of redemption?  Or will his soul be banished forever?
• Arthas: Rise of the Lich King - I'll stop short of reading the novel again, but if you haven't read it already, now is the perfect time to dive into the best Warcraft-branded book.
• Ner'zhul - The original Lich King, betrayer of the Burning Legion and tempter of Arthas.  This orc started it all (and is no longer with us in body or spirit).

A new major content patch doesn't just mean downtime though.  It also means time spent on add-ons.  It doesn't matter if you employee an automatic updating technique or prefer the old method of self-updating, your add-ons are going to break with Patch 3.3.  I'll be scavenging the web for working alternatives or updates to my list of favorite add-ons throughout the day. Now, I may write off today's playtime due to server instability and patching issues, but the Auction House will (likely) be a hotbed of activity.  I'll spend a large portion of my time there, unloading all of the materials that I've been hording, and seeing if Heartbourne is correct in his crafting material estimations. That's actually turned out to be a lot of stuff for one day...I may need two.  What's first on your list?

World of Warcraft still looks good, but let's face it, it's running on a pretty archaic engine. Even with enhancements like dynamic shadows in 3.0, revamped character models sprinkled throughout several patches, and improved water visuals coming in Cataclysm, there's still a lot of things that the game can't natively do. And if Blizzard doesn't see fit to tweak the game so that it pulls off some of the latest graphical tricks, then you're out of luck.

Except if you're antsy for some high-dynamic range lighting in your Warcraft. What is HDR you ask? Well, it's easiest to think of it this way: in theory, it makes the the brights brighter and the darks darker, while preserving the details of both. Most games use simplistic lighting models that don't take into account how someone would naturally see things. While HDR can be applied to make the overall world look more realistic, one specific application you might be familiar with is to simulate the way in which the human eye adjusts going from a place of intense light to intense darkness, and vice-versa (think entering or leaving a tunnel).

An enterprising player by the name of Chronalis has taken some a freeware DLL, tweaked the values, and made it compatible with World of Warcraft, so that you can implement the feature just as easily as installing any other mod. Simply download the ZIP and unpack the files into your root game directory (the one with WoW.exe in it). The filter can then be turned on and off at will by pressing Shift-F12, and it's lightweight enough to not tax most systems.

In my rudimentary experience, it can make some area of the game look really nice, and others look like an absolute nightmare. Forget about flying anywhere in Northrend where there's a lot of snow and white terrain, unless you enjoy having your eyes bleed! I've included a few screens in this post, but it's probably worth checking out Chronalis' Youtube video to figure out whether or not this is something you want to use.

[caption id="attachment_8948" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Grizzly Hills without HDR."][/caption]

The mod is something I might turn on every once in awhile to fancy up screenshots, but I don't think it's something I can actually play the game with. The main problem stems from the basic fact that it's third party, and seems to use a bit of post-processing to achieve the effect. Since it's not built-in to the engine, it can also affect the user interface which is a major pain.

But hey, I'm all for more graphical effects in the game, as long as Blizzard can maintain the optimization. Even the Warcraft III engine can buckle under the strain of a few dozen characters running around on the screen at once.

A new round of changes to go with the next week of testing! Perhaps the most important of the bunch are those relating to the way Rogue poisons work. We brought a potential problem to your attention last week, which involved an add-on allowing Rogues to weapon-swap (and thus poison-swap) on the fly. This was supposed to increase DPS because whenever Deadly Poison was maxed out at five stacks, the mod would switch a different piece of gear with Instant Poison on it to maximize its proc rate. When DP needed to be reapplied, it would automatically switch your weapons again. Naturally, Blizzard didn't intend for Rogues to work this way and figured that the normally clunky mechanic, (which the add-on made easier, and thus, more popular) would set a bad precedent if it was allowed to continue unchecked. So they changed Deadly Poison to proc the poison on your other hand whenever it is at five stacks itself. In addition, Deadly Poison now also procs more often. I'm not sure how long this mechanics will stick around since it seems to be a quick fix for the add-on problem, so enjoy the DPS boost while you can Rogues! Massage your brain-things with the rest of the latest changes below:

Paladins

• Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion or Sated from a target if the recipient is out of combat when the effect ends. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Priests

• Shadowform: This talent also now causes Devouring Plague and Vampiric Touch to benefit from haste. Both the period length and the duration of these spells will be reduced by haste. In addition, the mana cost has been reduced from 32% to 13% of base mana.

Rogues

• Deadly Poison: In addition to its existing effects, when a rogue applies Deadly Poison to a target which has already reached the maximum number of applications, this will also trigger the poison which the rogue is using on his or her other weapon.

Assassination

• Improved Poisons: Bonus chance to trigger Deadly Poison from this talent increased. (4/8/12/16/20% per rank, up from 2/4/6/8/10%)

Shamans Elemental Combat

• Elemental Mastery: This talent now increases spell haste by 15% instead of critical strike chance while active.

Warlocks Affliction

• Improved Drain Soul: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.

Destruction

• Destructive Reach: This talent now reduces threat by 10%/20%, up from 5%/10%.

User Interface

• Dungeon System renamed Dungeon Finder

Graphics

• A new feature has been added to the D3D graphics engine to improve texture management (particularly for Windows XP users). If you are experiencing random crashes related to file read errors or out of memory, this new backend may help. To enable the new backend, add the following line to your Config.WTF file: SET gxApi "d3d9ex". For more information please visit our Test Realm forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=11572&sid=1

Items

• Shaman Tier-9 4-Piece Set Bonus (Elemental): This set bonus now does an additional 10% of Lava Burst’s initial damage over time instead of increasing the size of the Lava Burst.

Bug Fixes

• Misc. bug fixes added. Check here for the complete list.

As you may have read in the latest patch notes, Blizzard has gone ahead and given players the option to integrate the Quest Log and World Map into one big, conglomerated objective-tracking monstrosity! People will wail and people will moan that they're, once again, making the game too easy, but then those same people will turn around and log-in to their characters with add-ons like Quest Helper long-since loaded up. And that's pretty much what this is, minus some of the more esoteric functionality. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you. Personally, I couldn't stand using Quest Helper, and one reason was that damned "GPS arrow" that wouldn't permanently go away no matter how many times I told it to. Likewise, I never really cared for the associated "quickest route" feature because it would nag me every time I went somewhere it didn't want me to go. I'm game for something a little more coherent, a little more simplified. Blizzard's stab at this sort of functionality places your tracked quests into a numbered list. When moused-over (or clicked), the map lights up with the area in which their objectives can be found. Easy and clean! At this point in the game, I'm pretty excited to have something like this. It'll no doubt come in handy when I'm leveling an alt or simply can't remember where precisely a quest mob is located even though I've done it a dozen times in the past. But moving forward? I think I'm going to leave it off, as something like this can quickly ruin the journey of exploration and discovery associated with brand new content. I don't want the solutions to all of the new quests (in old zones and new) handed to me the second I boot up Cataclysm for the first time. That said, on with the video, which will show you the finer details of the new map/quest interface:

So what did you think? As it didn't track all of the quests I gave it, I'll venture to guess that this system isn't entirely finished yet, but it's sure a lot more functional than when we say it in its infancy (the first build of 3.3 on the PTR over a month ago). As I've already said, I like it for what it is, but undoubtedly some people are going to continue using their more robust add-ons, just as they have with the inclusion of the Equipment Manager and Voice Chat (oh god, the in-game voice chat). On which end of the spectrum do you exist, readers?

ZOMG, No Deadly Boss MOBS!? Gkick! Major combat operations in /World of Warcraft have ended.  By dedicating a healthy bit of time before bed, and using my own advice, I was able overcome the horrible lag I was experiencing in all of my World of Warcraft endeavors.  No more 30% drops in framerates, lost DPS or accidental dives off cliffs to large for a gnome to survive.  WoW has returned to normal. Onyxia will rue the day she returned to these lands! There are a few things that I learned during my hour-plus battle.  Most important is that I am absolutely terrible at keeping my add-ons up to date.  The majority of them haven't been updated since the Wrath launch patch (v3.0), or at best v3.1.  I refuse to use the various auto-updating services because of my fear of hackers, unsavory add-on authors and the notion that such a program will clutter my computer.  These ridiculous reasons mean that the blame falls squarely on my shoulders for being lazy.  At least suggestions four and five, after already narrowing things down from 1-3 earlier this week, fixed the problem. In addition to my disorganized /AddOns folder - it in no way reflects the cleanliness of my slop pit house - I came to the realization that I have far too many add-ons.  During my campaign to capture the latest versions of my tools, I cut my add-on list from 49 memory suckers to a slim 26 user interface enhancements.  It wasn't even difficult, no hard decisions made.  Simply, do I use this or not? Here's my list:

• Auctioneer: This add-on is the key to my financial success in World of Warcraft, arguably responsible for the Mo' Money, Mo' Problems column, among many other one-shot posts.  It scans and records data from the Auction House, and automates putting items up for sale at competitive prices.  I roll with the suite, which includes numerous supporting add-ons like BeanCounter, Enchantrix, Informant, and Stubby.  Norganna's add-ons have proven to be so helpful to me that I have even made donations.  Yes, plural.
• AutoBar: An easily customizable and maintainable bar that is populated with all your hot items and abilities, like hearthstones, mounts, potions, food, food with buffs, etc, by default.  I set it up to be a third default action bar, just one with collapsible buttons.  It's proven to be a clutch addition.  Contains class specific bars as well.
• BankItems:  Enables player to look at their bank, their alts' banks, and even the guild banks from anywhere.  Good enough?
• CT_Basic: The CT_Mod team was the first team to create an ubiquitous collection of add-ons.  Some of their tools were so common that they've been enshrined in the Add-On Hall of Fame (Blizzard implementing an add-on's capabilities in the default UI).  CT_Basic is still an incredibly useful package thanks to the CT_MailMod, allowing players to loot their mailbox via a 'Select All' button.  There is a perfect synergy between it and Auctioneer.  I nuke CT_PartyBuffs though.  I used to use CT_RaidAssist when I was a raid leader, but no more.
• CT_ExpenseHistory: A good expansion to the basic CTMod package for the gold nuts like myself.  Tracks your expenses - repairs, reagents, even mail postage - to see where all that gold went.  It's pointless, but I love numbers and finances.
• Fishing Buddy: I used to be huge on fishing, and that's when I fell in love with this mod.  It previously automated almost everything about fishing, but Blizzard disabled some of that functionality.  I continue to use it mainly out of nostalgia, but also for the tracking (numbers!), and easy casting.
• Gatherer: This bad boy records where you've looted gatherable items (mining, herb and even treasure nodes) and displays them on your minimap.  The best part is the ability to share the data with friends, party members and even your guild!  I always kill Gatherer_HUD.  It's a resource hog that offers nothing but fancy visual effects over the normal add-on.
• QuestHelper: What can I say? I like saving time, and it's even more useful after you've already run through the zones on your first toon.  QuestHelper is another mod that has entered the Add-On Hall of Fame due to its ease of use and immense quest database.  There are many imitators, but I've found QH to be the best.
• Recount: Allows me to see my mad deeps, overall damage or how many times I die.  Recount tracks healing and useless stuff like that too.  It doesn't matter how much healing they do, it's never enough and always their fault when someone dies. :p
• RoguePowerBars: You may have noticed that I don't use Deadly Boss Mods (eh GM?). I may have died a few times because of that decision, but I find it to be too informative for my taste.  I mention DBM in this RPB snippet because they effectively do the same thing, scream information at you.  My justification for RPB is that the standard UI is laid out poorly for rogues (and many other classes).  We have so many buffs and debuffs on short timers that need to be kept active for maximum DPS that they really should be in your face.  RPB accomplishes that goal superbly.  I rarely ever lose my spell rotations since I began using it.  That obviously increases my DPS.

Once Solidsagart becomes a raid healer - sometime in November I assume - I'll have to add a few more add-ons to the mix for healing.  I still haven't decided between Grid or Clique, but other then new raid frames I can't really see Solidsagart needing anything special.  Raid frame changes are her version of RoguePowerBars.  I'll likely grab Omen though, something Vanish makes rather pointless.  Anyone have additional selections for either toon? I just realized that only two of my add-ons have anything to do with combat.  Everything else is time saving or money making.  Maybe I need to get my priorities straight so I can nail 15k DPS on a regular basis. The whole downside to nuking all of my add-ons was that I lost all of my macros.  I don't know exactly how that happened, they are supposed to be server side, but it did.  My next task is recreating all of them.  Oh, how I don't look forward to finding the correct icons for everything or remember which abilities had which other abilities bound to them...

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Via a WordPress tech blog. Ever since Onyxia realized she could regrow her head I've had issues with World of Warcraft.  I have no idea if it's patch 3.2.2 specifically, but that is when the problem became obvious.  Patch 3.2.2a, which was supposed to fix bugs created with 3.2.2, did nothing for me.  My more-than-capable computer continues to hit awful spikes that cause the framerate to drop from 60FPS to something below 40 FPS, seemingly at random.  It's not awful, but the switch in smoothness is jarring and not pleasing.  Especially when you are used to the game running perfectly. I haven't been able to fully resolve my issue yet, due to lack of effort more than anything else.  But that'll change tonight.  After spending the better part of this morning looking up similar issues, collecting data on solutions and using plain old common sense, I've come up with a run down of things to do if your WoW installation begins acting up. There are a few details to keep in mind.  First off, they are in order from least to most time consuming, which generally means least to most difficult.  There's a good deal of information compiled here, and likely more to show up in the comments, but we offer no guarantee and take no responsibility for any of the tactics you employ.  As a last resort, you can always do a full reinstall of the game - the most time consuming process by far.  If that doesn't work, then you are likely looking at a hardware problem, not good. Before we even get into the list, a couple general IT rules of thumb.  Have you restarted yet?  No, go do it, it may save you a ton of time.  Have you added anything new to the system - software, hardware, add-ons?  Yes, then that's where you should begin.

1. Grab new drivers/updates - It doesn't matter if you are a Nvidia, ATi or Intel user, if any game starts acting funny, new drivers may help.  If you play something other than WoW then you likely have semi-new drivers.  Be on the lookout for other system updates, Windows Update, as well.
2. Play with the graphics sliders - I know you want the game to play as it did before, but give this a whirl anyways.  It's not a fix, so much as a way to gain a list of symptoms to diagnose the main problem.  If changing the sliders does nothing, then the hardware in the machine is probably okay.  Big sigh of relief.  If it does help, then there could be cooling issues, the graphics card or CPU could be hurting, perhaps your anti-virus scanner decided to kick in or you've got some spyware eating up your precious clock cycles.
3. Try a different game - Same thought process as above.  If comparable or more taxing game X still plays fine, then the problem is definitely software.
4. Add-ons - Add-ons are great, until they bring your game to a frame-dropping halt.  The LUA-based strings of code are one of the main software bugs to crop up in WoW.  Since the buggers aren't allowed to auto update, you could be using ancient code that's causing problems (a likely scenario after a patch), add-ons can be poorly coded or you may have so many add-ons that they are fighting for resources, or causing massive conflict battles.  The simple diagnosis is to disable all add-ons in the loading screen.  If you see an improvement you'll have to systemically enable and disable one add-on at a time to see which is the culprit.  Seek it out, destroy it, and update it with the newest version.  And it could be more than one.
5. Delete WTF/Cache folders - Patching and the general User Interface are another software bug that leeches off of WoW.  The WTF folder is where all your add-on and patching information resides.  Like the topic above, it can cause numerous issues.  Rename the folder (to backup the data) and allow WoW to create a virgin copy for you.  The Cache folder is the new WDB folder, and performs the same important function as cache for your web browser.  It needs to be cleaned out now and then as well.
6. Do a repair - Blizzard now includes its own repair utility in the World of Warcraft directory for Windows users.  The tool will scan through all the game files for corruption and selectively download any and all files that have been touched by Fel energies.  It's quite time consuming, but far faster than the alternative.
7. Reinstall - Grab the disks or begin a download.  This last ditch effort should be attempted only if everything else has failed you, and you have tons of evidence pointing towards a software problem.  I'd be safe and completely uninstall and delete the WoW folder before beginning a new install.

Due to the infinite combination of PC parts, and the complex software we are dealing with, a solution for me may not be the solution for you.  Don't get discouraged after trying a few things and failing to see a return to your previous FPS level.  Feel free to drop a comment with your symptoms, or better yet, suggestions to add to the list and helpful tips to those having problems. I'll just head these comments off before they come; getting a Mac is not a solution. There's also many other things you can check on your computer, but that is outside the scope of this article.  I hope that your machine runs World of Warcraft like new after all of these tasks, but if it doesn't you should begin to worry about your PC's overall health.  Defragging and disk space, RAM tests, CPU test, GPU test, heating issues, these are all things that can be performed to ferret out the faulty piece in your complex computer system.  Unfortunately, they are technical, complex, often time consuming and possibly expensive.  The exacts reason why you hope the numbered list can solve your issue.

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. What a long, long weekend, folks. I decided to take a little breather from WoW, myself, spending a little "quality" time with NCSoft's Aion, instead. I also gorged myself on snacks, caught up on True Blood Season 2, and felt sorry for myself because I couldn't attend PAX this year (but at least I didn't catch the swine flu!). What were you guys and gals up to? As for Blue Stew, I sincerely apologize about the lack of updates, but there was simply nothing to talk about. Labor Day, as it turns out, has nothing to do with going to work, so I imagine that a lot of Blizzard employees were off hanging with their families and friends instead of answering questions on the forums. Today seems no different, with a marked decrease in overall Blue activity. But I think we can find at least a couple of things to talk about from the WoW Europe community. The Availability Of AddOns? Vanera is either an extremely bored CM or he's not very good at veiling his questions. It didn't take more than three replies for someone to call him out on the poll he posted earlier in the day. Ceriulun posed the following:

"Would the question be: 'Would you like an official AddOn browser feature in the new Battle.net?' my answer would be 'Yes.'"

It was the first thing that came to my mind, as well. Blizzard's been sticking their paws in all sorts of honey jars lately, and though it's not quite the same thing, I can't help but think about the company's reactions to Warcraft-theme iPhone apps. Specifically, the way in which they systematically shut them down before releasing their own, comprehensive Mobile Armory software. Will an AddOn Browser join Cross-Game Chat as one of the new Battle.net features in WoW? Now, Blizzard has a pretty open policy towards AddOns. Occasionally, they've even seen fit to incorporate the functionality of popular ones into the basic UI (see: the failure of in-game voice chat and the recently-added Equipment Manager), so I don't think they're about to outlaw anything like that. Rather, a poll like this seems to target modding community sites like WoWUI or Curse Gaming. Some of the sites have even started releasing independent AddOn update clients, which may be verging on the edge of what's kosher with Blizzard and what's not (and they sound an awful lot like those iPhone apps in terms of out-of-game functionality). But, if you use these clients, I wouldn't start fretting just yet. Perhaps, like Ceriulun proposes, Blizz just wants to incorporate their own AddOn browser into the game. If they follow a model similar to what they plan to use for the StarCraft 2 community, that means that you can download and install add-ons from the in-game interface, they can be ranked for popularity and monitored for safety, and the ones that rise to the top could even begin to earn revenue for their creators. It certainly seems to fit with Battle.net's modus operandi of having everything you need in one place. As convenient as something like this might be, what do you think about Blizzard exercising that much control over AddOns? Open Letter To Blizzard: Thank You Illea's made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside with the following post:

I know I'm just one man in a sea of millions, and I may not be able to express myself fully, but I felt this need to share my love of the game. Hopefully it might serve as a reminder to some. =) I want to thank the people who work at Blizzard Entertainment and all the people who have made World of Warcraft what it is. Because it is truly an amazing game. I can't think of any higher praise than saying that, after several years, I still get excited thinking about it. Once I stop bringing my problems to the game and really *feel*. Listening to the soundtrack. The sheer magic. Makes me want to create a piece of art. But since I can't do that right now, I write! Anyway, I think many people have forgotten that. Most of all, playing it remains *fun*, beyond any doubt. You really nailed the basic elements that make the experience fun, and I'm very grateful that you paid attention to that process. Most of all, I trust you. I believe in your ability to make the choices that serve the game and its players best. To continue improving this game. Even in the face of criticism, I believe you have made and will make the right choices, and I respect your ability to make the unpopular ones. At the same time you manage to be down-to-earth with your players, you can really sense the life and love behind the game, websites, events, posters... Somehow you all seem like buddies. I know that there are many others who feel like me. Who think this is a game that keeps on giving. Heck, just the other day I decided to really take a walk in the Temple of the Moon, noticing myriad things I never noticed before - the music and imagining the space, and it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to really rediscovering content both new and old. It's a great feeling, giving yourself to the experience. Of course there will be problems and challenges as the game goes on, but if I were to trust a group of people to deal with it intelligently, it would be you guys. I know the future of the game rests safe in your hands. Thanks for being an inspiration.

D'awwwwwww... it's good to see some nice words used on the forums once in awhile. Next time you want to bitch or cry about something in the game that you think is unfair, just stop and remember why you still continue to play the game. Somewhere along the line, you had fun, and hopefully you still do. If there is one company that cares about its fans more than any other, it's got to be Blizzard. They just happen to have one of the most continually popular titles on the market right now, and it's nigh impossible to make all 11.5+ million players happy at once. Couldn't you give 'em a break? Today really is a bit of a bum day for news, but as usual, comments are appreciated. I'm especially interested to know what you think about a potential in-game AddOn browser!

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You might have heard the term item level "iLvl" and not really known what it meant. It's sort of an extension of the tier system (or vice versa), and it's easy enough to understand at face value: a higher iLevel means more overall stats and superior item. Item levels are not something that you can see in the game with the default interface. You'll need an addon like iLevel Buddy. Most database websites have it as well, you can see it on WoWHead under "Quick Facts". These Conqueror's Darkruned Legguards have an iLevel of 226. The iLvl of an item has some complicated formulas that were reverse engineered by players. Basically, the iLvl of an item, its rarity, and the slot it goes in, like shoulders, waist, and chest, give the item a pool of points to take from. Chest and helms get more points than say bracers and belts. With these points, stats are allocated. Each stat has a certain percentage of these "points" that it costs. For stats like Agility and Intellect, the trade-off is one to one, that is, it costs the same amount of "points" from the iLvl to get +1 Agility as it does +1 Intellect. Gear of the same iLevel then differs based on its armor class and the stats on it. Lets check out how many of these "points" each of the stats take up (via elitistjerks).

Stat	Modifier
Strength	1
Agility	1
Stamina	2/3
Intellect	1
Spirit	1
Ratings	1
Attack Power	1/2
Spell Power	6/7
Mana per 5	5/2
Block Value	13/40

So if you had two items of the same iLvl, some stats might be +40 Intellect, +10 Intellect and +30 Spirit, +10 Intellect and +45 Stamina, or +10 Intellect and +35 Spell Power. A Priest might desire the +10 Intellect and +30 Spirit gear, but a Mage might prefer a +40 Intellect or +10 Intellect and +35 Spell Power. This is called itemization, that is, Blizzard pulling stats that players should want for their class on gear. For example, lets compare 3 iLevel 200 leather belts: Dragonfriend Bracers, Bindings of the Tunneler, and Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands. If you add up all of the points (after multiplied by the modifiers in the table) on the Dragonfriend Bracers, you see that you will result in 163 (49/1 Agility+ 38*(2/3)=26 Stamina +38/1 crit rating + 100*(1/2)=50 attack power). All epic iLevel 200 bracers will result in that sum. For example, the Advanced Tooled-Leather Bands also give us 163 (+36/1 agility +43 *(2/3)=28 stamina + 49 Haste Rating + 100*(1/2)=50 Attack Power). However, because Bindings of the Tunneler are not epic, they should have lower stats, even though they are iLevel 200. Doing the calculation shows us that (+31 Agility +67*(2/3)=45 Stamina + 25 Expertise Rating + 84*(1/2)=42 Attack Power) is 143. These calculations would give us the same numbers, 163 and 143, if we chose epic and uncommon cloth iLevel 200 bracers. We know something is Rogue gear when it's leather and has Agility and Critical Strike Rating on it, and something is Mage gear when it's cloth and has Intellect and Spell Power on it. However, the stats should sum up the same between them. That was just for bracers. There are all sorts of equations that can tell you exactly how many of these points each slot will have at each iLevel, but it's complicated and boring. Set Bonuses and special procs are (usually) a freebie. This is why tier pieces are usually so heavily valued; they come with awesome set bonuses without sacrificing stats. Sockets are usually 16 points. When deciding which piece of gear is better, iLevel is a good guide, but not the end all. PvP items have Resilience on them, which is all but useless in PvE. Some stats may be less valuable to you than others; for example, few classes would value Stamina over AP/SP. Look at the stats carefully before deciding before you give up 10 Agility for 70 Stamina in what you think is a fantastic upgrade because you went from iLevel 200 to 213.

10-man	ilvl	25-man
Naxx	200
KT, EoE	213	Naxx
Ulduar	219
Ulduar hard	226	Ulduar, KT/EoE
CC	232	Ulduar weapons
	239	Ulduar hard
CC hard	245	CC
	258	CC hard

The last thing you need to know is where to get what iLevel gear. Usually, the harder the raid, the higher the iLevel of the drops. Wow.com made this handy little table. Usually, you will want your gear to be within about 20 points of a raid before even considering it. Some gear can be crafted at high iLevels, but it requires Orbs, like Frozen Orbs or Runed Orbs which drop in the same areas as your desired iLevel gear does. You can buy them at top price at the auction house. Questions or comments?

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