I linked to it here, The Craft of War: Blind, but that link died. The new link is, where else?, to YouiTube.

Check it out, here.

Hey Bliz! A few buffs please. I want my Rogue to be able to do that.

Unless WoWhead is down.

The script tries to connect to WoWhead and If the WoWhead servers are having problems then your site will be slower to load. Apparently WoWhead has been having the occasional issue these days, as it gets ready for Cataclysm. It’s very slow as I write this post.

So the commenter, one Mentor, mentioned an improved WTT and posted instructions on his site, here: Install WOWHead Tooltips

It’s a little more complicated than the standard WTT install and you will have to create a MySQL database in your control panel. Once you have that, you run an install program, install a plugin, add some code to your header file, and you’re good to go. It completely replaces enhances the standard tooltip usage.

The problem is that I can’t really see the point to this device. Originally I thought it would replace the WTT, but then I removed the old WTT scripts and… I just get a link. Now, it’s quite likely that I’m a boob and can’t do code to save my life, but I don’t see any tooltips on his site, either. Not with FireFox or Explorer.

I’m putting the old WoWhead javascript back, but I’ll try it in the footer and see if that helps the pages to load better.

The tooltips wiki has complete documentation if you want to check it out:

• Documentation pages
• Features – including a list of all the platforms (not just wordpress) that you can install this thing on.

Here are some links copied straight from the examples on the Wiki pages, using the code in the example. They pop the tooltip since I replaced the WTT.

• item: [Rigormortis]
• a heroic item: [Rigormortis]
• item: [Titansteel Shanker]
• blue item:[Armor of the Fang]
• green item: [Battle Seeker Chestguard]
• Achievement: [Call In The Cavalry]
• It’s supposed to call the WoWarmory, but I can’t get it to work with this character: Character data not available.

Here are some links made the old way (HTML links:)

• Rigormortis
• Heroic Rigormortis
• Titansteel shanker
• Call in the Cavalry
• Character (no tooltip here.)

hmmm… Ok, the javascript is back in and the examples are a nice purple and they do the tooltips, but the old style links aren’t colored.

After all that:

Ok, I get it, i think. (Yes, I’m slow. Shut up. ) You get the tooltips with the original WoWhead javascript and you get the pretty colors and a few options with the new Tooltips thing. The old WTT will still do the tooltip, but without the pretty colors. I like colors.

You no longer don’t have to browse WoWhead for the item URL if you already know the name of the item, achievement, or whatever. Just plug it into the new syntax and the link happens. See the documentation pages for the syntax, copy the examples, play around with them a bit, and you’ll achieve enlightenment.

You have to have both codes for all the goodies and you have to use the new syntax to get the colors and added features, it won’t happen with the HTML links. Installing the new thing will do nothing to any old WoWhead links you may have. They are all safe.

It’s installed, and it seems to work now, so I’ll keep it.

Then, when you’re bored with catching giant fish the local Naga might come on board, say “Hi!” and escort you down for a scenic tour through their underwater city. Make sure you have a Naga approved Visa or getting back might be difficult.

To get to Vashj’ire and Nagaville, the first time, you’ll need to take the boat. Hordies head out the main gate of Orgrimmar, take a left, and go all the way to the beach. (If you’re facing Org, hang a right.)

You’ll find a dock. Hop on board and head on out to the greatest fishing grounds you’ve never seen.

Then, if for some silly reason, you should hearth back to Org, say… to get trained, then how do you get back to the fishing grounds (at least, for the Beta?)

Rozlyn is here to help. She’s standing in the doorway to the Org Mayor’s office and will teleport you back to Vashj’ir. Make sure you stock up on fresh bait and tackle, first. That’s Roz in the doorway. (click to embiggen.)

Another way to go is by air. There is a flightmaster in Vashj’ire that will send you to Undercity, so grab that one and you’re good.

The Orc is your flightmaster to the big city, the “guy” in the water is your local flightmaster.The Location is “Sandy Beach.”

Sandy Beach is here… at the marker, south of Kelp Forest. The first FP you grab should connect to it automatically.

Now go catch a big one!

The Goblin area is pretty nicely done and pretty funny. I won’t give any spoilers here other than to say the Goblins are fond of explosives. Lots of explosives. And they’re pretty creative about what they blow up.

Think of a whole race of mad scientists…

I’m sure we’ll see a few Goblin-Gnome rivalries playing out.

Only the berserkers had this model, all the others were fine. Also, there was no animation with this one. It was amusing to see this static image block moving around.

By the way, these are the guys in Eversong Woods, South East of Farstrider Retreat.

Orgrimmar Airport (click to embiggen:)

Looking back towards Orgrimmar from just south of the Durotar to Barrens bridge.

Land of the trolls. They seem to be having some issues with the new Orgrimmar (and Horde) management, under the newly crowned Hellscream.

More coming, along with some build notes.

Apparently the Cataclysm NDA was lifted around the end of June.

You can create new characters, transfer existing ones, or create one from a list of pre-made 80s, with full gear. In the manage games section of your battle.net account you will see a PTR Character Copy link. As of this writing the transfer is pretty much immediate, but your mileage may differ.

We won’t be showing much in the way of spoilers, but we will have screenies and some info. Since it’s so early in the beta process I think we can count on everything changing. Also, since so many people in any beta I’ve ever been in asks if there will be a character wipe when it goes live, I’m assuming that there will be a character wipe. Actually, I’m 100% certain, even though I haven’t looked for a confirming statement.

I predict the the first level 85 characters will appear within 48 hours of Cataclysm going live. After all, who needs sleep?

The character creator is largely unchanged except for some animations and the new races and classes. The Human starting area has a few changes, the Blood Elf areas has none that I saw, but that was a very short look. I haven’t seen the others yet.

Hunters now start with pets, but I’m sure that all of you knew that already.

The Goblin area is cool (haven’t looked a the Worgen area, yet.). Clearly the Devs had fun with this one and a ton of work has been done. I think the RP crowd will like it. There are lots of funny bits, the total disregard for Goblin life, by Goblins, is evident. I thought the Hot Rod was pretty slick, too. I didn’t seen any issues with the Goblin area and so filed no reports. Of course, I expect this area has been pretty well pounded on by this point.

Sexy little guy, isn’t he? Getting read for a party, the smell of money in the background. Those are his party tools in the toolbar.(click to embiggen the pic.  Oh yeah, he’s a Warrior.)

After two more guildmates got hacked last week, I decided to check and change my account security. I’ve used an authenticator since shortly after they were released, which I think is 90% of the protection that can be applied.

The other 10% is a combination of obvious email addresses, spyware, and repeated passwords for different purposes.

Here’s the rest: Account Change to Avoid Hacks

My son’s account has been hacked twice, recently. The first wasn’t so bad. They leveled his DK to 80 and he was able to get his stuff back from Blizzard. He stopped the second before any damage was done.

So we now use the authenticators and I think I may change some account data.

Amazon.com has the authenticator for $50 (!) but if you want to save a few coppers you can get yours from Blizzard for $6.50 (no, that’s not a typo.) Click here’s for the Bliz store.

It’s easy to use. You’ll connect it to your battle.net account (directions are included with the device) and then, every time you log in, you’ll be prompted for the 6 digit code the the authenticator generates. Enter that and in you go.

I read a comment that says the new Ruby Sanctum is too easy.

Ok, does that mean that the raid only wiped twice before completing it? Not at all?

So what makes a raid interesting and what would make it more interesting for the largest group possible?

You have the pro raiders, with the top gear, and the highly practiced skills who will have one view and then you have the casual raiders who probably have a very different point of view.

Is an instance interesting just because it’s hard? Or there’s an interesting set of loot?

So how to improve it, for the largest group of players?

Should raids require completing A, B, and C before entering D? Should one be able to skip A, B, and C if the group just want’s to do D? Should certain raids only be accessible to elite players? How does one prove that one belongs to the elite group?

What makes the raid/fight(s) interesting, in your view? What makes a raid worth doing several times? Such that you might say, “cool,” rather than, “Oh D***, not THAT old thing again…”

Comments? Or should I make up (steal from elsewhere) a few comments and post those?