Cartographer 3, Interview, Daily Blue, Contest

Addonwatch - Cartographer 3

A well-known mod maker Ckknight, the author of popular addons such as Cartographer, Pitbull, FuBar (+plugins), just released a brand new version of the addon Cartographer; called Cartographer 3.

This is a map addon for World of Warcraft that replaces the map and offers shiny features.
The idea is for it to work very much like Google Maps, only in-game.

This mod is still in early beta, but it has great potential and the author is actively developing it.

Tom "Kalgan" Chilton talks Arena with Gotfrag

Yesterday, Gotfrag published an interview with Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, Lead Game Designer for Blizzard, where they talk about Arena. However the interview is pretty empty for info addicts like us.

Snippets:

• We are continuing to explore spectator options for viewing Arena game.
• We're looking to add new Arenas for Wrath of the Lich King that may be a bit different from the current Arena environments, but we're not ready to go into specifics just yet.

Rogue Arena Teams

Another helpful post by Slorkuz, and this time it's about rogue.

Quote from: Slorkuz (Source)
I believe that rogues in 2v2 have a variety of viable combinations. Before entering into a debate on what partner you should chose though, I want to note that in my opinion, coordination and synergy between yourself and your partner is more, if not the most, important to gaining a winning result.

When you start playing with a new partner, I firmly believe that there is an "adaptation" process where you must first learn to combine your different play styles into one cohesive strategy. Allow me to use an example with Rogues; One Rogue might be a very "aggressive" player and charge out in hopes to get the jump on a target before they get "set up" or perhaps catch an enemy stealther off guard and get the opener. Another Rogue might have a more defensive play style and prefer to wait it out a little bit and perhaps capitalize on your opposing team getting impatient by catching an enemy player in the wrong location at the wrong time.

While both of these forms of "rogue play styles" can and does work very effectively if executed correctly, they carry a requirement of significantly different expectations to their team mates' approach and play style.

This kind of adaptation and team synergy carries over to every team composition, albeit arguably some more than others. Coordinating crowd controls, offensive bursts and positioning in the arena are the keys to functioning successfully as a team.

Personally, when doing arenas, I prefer to discuss with my partner possible matchups and what kind of "game plan" we should execute prior to entering. Then, later, if we encounter a setup or set of plays that left us with a loss, we often sit back and think/talk about what went wrong and what we can do to counter what just happened to us.

That being said;

For 2v2s as a Rogue I believe some of the most common setups are as follows:

Rogue/Restoration Druid
Combining the mobility and control of a Rogue with the survivability and utility of of a restoration Druid, this composition can be very effective while executed correctly. Between Cyclone, Sap, Blind, Roots and feral abilities on the druid's account such as feral charge and bash, a well coordinated set of plays can present your opponents with a tough choice; trinket a Blind in order to heal while risking getting charged/bashed, or eat the blind and hope their partner can stay alive by own merits for the duration of the CC.

Rogue/Discipline Priest
What discipline priests lack in terms of mobility, they make up for in terms of utility and synergy with a Rogue partner. Fears, mana burns, instant heals/shields and both offensive and defensive dispels couple very well with a Rogue's control abilities. A well executed priest fear on an opposing healer while their partner is low health (fear gets trinketed) followed by a Blind by the rogue and subsequently an optional Vanish->Sap can leave the lowhealth target without heals for a healthy duration allowing an opportunity to finish him off.

Rogue/Warlock
This team relies on the tactic "kill before being killed". Between the utilities and CC's of both classes and improved stealth detection from the warlocks felhunter, this combination allows the rogue to very often get the opener on a stealthed target. Add a warlock's survivability to the mix while executing some well timed CC combinations (fear->blind->vanish/sap), this formation is considered one of the most potent "double dps" 2v2 teams.

Rogue/Mage
Similiar to a Rogue/Warlock setup in the sense that this is a 2dps team requiring a quick kill, both classes have an arsenal of CC and survival abilities if they get jumped. The spike damage of a Mage "Shatter Combo" and a Rogue stunlock with damage, this composition can be particularly lethal if the crit numbers are high.

Rogue/Rogue
Also a popular 2dps formation currently, this team composition relies mostly on one thing; Getting the opener on your opponents and controling the fight. If either of the two rogues gets jumped/cc'ed off the bat, it can be hard to recover and pull of a win. Coordinating stuns and CC's is also an important part of this team's strengths. An example is having one Rogue unload a 5pt Kidney in anticipation that the target will trinket while the second rogue holds back ready to re-apply (albeit diminished duration) second stun. Coordinating interupts is also key to this combination.

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I am sure that there are other setups that can be effective, but I will leave the elaboration on those up to other players. Again, I would like to reiterate my opinion that the most important points to being successful in the arenas is communication, team synergy and executing a plan together.

I hope my opinions and suggestions have been helpful

Daily Blue

Don't expect an additionnal profession slot in WotLK (src)   
We have no current plans to add another main profession slot to characters in Wrath of the Lich King.

PVP, Raid, Non-Raid Progression in WotLK (src)
We are making the raid dungeons have the 10 and 25 person sizes so that it is not nearly as limited as before though as a lot more people can get involved in 10 person raids. We don't plan to remove the concept of raiding from the game though as that sounds like what you are looking for. There will be 5 person dungeons with their heroic versions available as in the past and they should be a lot of fun if that is the content that fits your play best.

Worldwide Invitational and BlizzCon (src)
"Worldwide Invitational" relates to the tournaments being held for StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft. An invitational is the style of choosing the participants, where they don't necessarily compete in preliminary rounds, but are hand picked to compete solely at the event.

While some contests for wwi may be restricted to EU residents only, our own BlizzCon is planned to have a similar set of contests from previous BlizzCon years and likely similar rules and restrictions. Keep an eye on the BlizzCon site for contest announcements and rules/restrictions as they become available.

Contest - Win a 22" 3D Monitor

Curse.com has teamed up with iZ3D, makers of the world's first 3D monitor designed specifically for gamers, to give one away in the New Dimension of Gaming Sweepstakes.

From now until June 23rd, 2008, they'll be taking entries into the contest, and once the contest closes, the winner will be selected from all eligible entrants. The winner of this sweepstakes will receive a brand-new 22" iZ3D monitor, as well as the 3D glasses needed to see the games really jump out at you.

Signing up is easy, simply head over to the New Dimension of Gaming Sweepstakes page and get started.


New Fan Art Wallpaper - Kil'jaeden

Blizzard added a new fan wallpaper to their World of Warcraft fan wallpapers section. This wallpaper features the dreaded demon lord, Kil’jaeden, facing Illidan, Lady Vashj and Kael’thas.

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