Producer Hiromichi Tanaka tells Japanese news site about game, keeps mum on specifics; says PSP Final Fantasy XI is possible–but unlikely.

I know — most of you will hear the word “chatlinks” and think of horrible times in Trade channel where people are spamming the names of abilities and items in different ways, from nonsense to offensive. But chatlinking is a skill that isn’t talked about much, and there definitely are place where it’s useful (telling guild members about an item that might help them, or linking an enchant to show what mats it needs). So, encouraged by this thread over on Epic Advice, let’s run through a few of the ways you can put links to items in the chat channel.

• First and foremost, we’ve always been able to link the names of items by shift-clicking them — just open up a chat line by hitting enter, and then shift-click anything in your inventory, and a clickable link will appear in chat. This works in almost everything but “Say,” and even then, the name will show up, it just won’t be clickable.
• As you may have seen in the link above, patch 2.4 made spells and abilities linkable as well. You can also go into your professions screens, and shift-click either the item (if you want to create a clickable link for the created item) or the recipe that makes it (if you want to show someone what mats are needed for a certain craftable item). And quests are shift-clickable, too.
wow gold
• Outside of the items and abilities you have access to, there are also a number of addons that will serve up links for what you’re looking for. Atlasloot is probably the most popular (and it’s actually a standalone database of items with the extra bonus of being able to link them all), but there are addons like Linkerator as well that are specifically designed to hook you up with links of all the items you see.
• Outside of even the game, Wowhead implemented a linking service a while ago that lets you click a button in your browser that then gives you some code to paste into your WoW chat panel. That way, you can link items without ever seeing them in any game or database.
• And if you want to get really crazy, you can jump into the API, and create your own itemStrings, which are small clippings of code that will return item information from the WoW client. If you look at the Wowhead copy and paste code, you can see these at work — they’ll require some coding knowledge on your part (and some extra research to figure out how it all fits together), but if you know how to create an itemString, the item ID of the item you’re looking for, and how to output that out to the chat channel, you can make links of any item you want.

That last one is pretty advanced — with the default system and the addons linked above, you’ll probably be able to cover all of your item linking needs anyway. A game like WoW is all about getting gear — examining what you’ve got, finding out where more is, and getting better wherever you can. A solid knowledge of how to link and share item information will help you do just that.

Ready Check is a column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses.

One of the most difficult tasks any raid leader is going to face will be one of communication. Communication is a complex, ugly issue. It can be one of your strongest assets, but it can equally be your biggest downfall. This is because communication operates on two levels.

First, there’s the obvious data-based communication. Things like “The next boss is named Anub’arak” are data-based. It’s fact, unassailable, and fairly meaningful. Almost everyone’s going to agree with quantifiable information. You’re not going to round the corner of the instance, and find something that’s not Anub’arak.

Second, however, is “shadow” communication. This is a level of communication that can be a great deal more complicated. In the absence of quantifiable information, the recipient will “read into” your words a whole series of meanings and concepts that you may not have intended. For example, “This next boss is Anub’arak, so you should get ready” can be interpreted as “Get ready because we’re going right now” or “get ready by reading up on the boss strategies.” Now, that’s a fairly hyperbolized example, but it’s a true one none-the-less. We’ve all had experience with “I didn’t mean it like that” in our lives.

One of the oldest business cliches is that “Workers don’t leave companies, they leave supervisors.” While a raid leader isn’t a supervisor in the same way as a business manager, some of the viable tips from the corporate world can still apply to raiding life. Let’s take a look after the jump at some simple tips to enhance communication.

In the context of this post, I’m not necessarily talking about “on the spot” communication, but the overall level of trust and engagement between your raid leader and your raiders. This kind of meaningful communication will enhance your raid’s trust and cohesion, and should hopefully prove for a longer, more successful raid team.

1. Pay attention to what your raiders tell you.

Sure, it seems like a simple thing to understand when a team member says, “I hate waiting around to find out if we have enough people to raid.” That’s a fairly simple statement at the surface.

But if your raiders are saying that more than a few times in a row, then you could be facing a more serious problem. Not only is their statement true, but the repetition of that kind of complaint implies “I hate waiting around and I’m not going to do it much longer.”

Be honest when you listen to your raiders. It’s easy to alt+tab and surf the web when they’re talking to you, but resist that urge. Be present and real in the conversation, and actually try and engage in what the raider is telling you.

2. Make time for each person in your group.

It can be one hell of a task trying to talk to every active raider in your raid group. Some simple napkin-math says that if you talk to 24 raiders for 10 minutes a week, you’re looking at a 4 hour commitment in raw communication. But, if you consider the standpoint that your raiders are also spending their valuable time and effort on the raid (maybe just as much as you), then 10 minutes a week doesn’t seem unreasonable.

While you’ll probably have to find a middle ground, taking time to communicate one-on-one with each of your raid members is going to be key to their longevity with your raiding effort. It stresses to them that you value their opinion and time, while allowing you the opportunity to satisfy the first tip: paying attention to what they say.

3. Ask engaging, maybe painful questions.

Few raid leaders want to ask “Where are my biggest failures in the raid as a leader, in your opinion?” It’s a pretty harsh pill to swallow if a raid member opens up and tells you where they think your weaknesses are. But, still, you’re getting two things out of doing so.

Again, just like we said in #2, this communicates to the raider that you value their opinion and knowledge. They’re trusting you with their time and energy, so it seems fair to ask them whether they’re seeing a return on that investment. It also channels purposeful, meaningful feedback to you without having ugliness crop up in the middle of a raid.

The other thing you’ll get is another perspective. It’s not only possible, but downright probable, that your raid’s going to have perceptions and opinions different from your own. And while the raid decisions are usually up to the raid leader, having another approach to each problem will provide you more tools and better data to find your solutions.

4. When you make decisions, communicate in a predictable way.

Nothing frustrates team members more than finding out about decisions from an unexpected source. If you usually communicate decisions on an internet forum, it’s bad form to announce the information on Ventrilo one night and leave it at that. You need to be consistent every time, to reinforce what channels of communication you’re going to use.

If you announce raid lineups at the same time every week, your raid members will know that is the day to check the forums. This also provides you the opportunity to include other information at the same time, insuring your raiders will actually encounter it.

5. Be consistent about your message, goals, and values.

If you’ve been saying for two weeks that you’re going to use DKP for a loot system, but spend hours chatting about how a loot reel would be pretty cool, you are guaranteed to confuse some of your raid members.

Sure, it seems somewhat restrictive to think that you have to monitor what you’re saying even during “off times.” But you don’t stop being the raid leader just because you’re not actively raiding. Your raid members will continue to look to you for information and guidance. Be aware that your communication will always be received, if your raiders are capable of seeing it.

6. Avoid surprises

This is somewhat on the tertiary side of communications, since expectations and surprises can be considered a leadership issue as much as a communication issue. Still, the idea that you should avoid “surprising” your raid members is a huge part of the “shadow” communication I was talking about before.

Not only are surprises bad for morale (and thus an instant failure to meet any existing expectation), they create a situation by which raiders have to figure out why the surprise happened.

Have you spontaneously changed loot rules? In the absence of contrary information, your raiders will wonder if maybe someone complained loudly enough that you capitulated. Or, they might wonder if there’s a statistical reason you changed your loot system, maybe to benefit yourself.

Have you suddenly changed which instance you’re going to do? Your raiders will speculate that maybe someone wasn’t pulling their own weight. They’ll wonder if you lack the faith to go further in content. Or, even worse, they might think you’re “bored” with them, and might panic that you’ll leave for greener pastures.

Avoiding surprises means you never have to mitigate the stories people make up for themselves.

Summary

Communication is pretty significant to any group. As you build your raid group and try to extend its longevity, keeping these communication tips should help you get a better, strong place. Good hunting out there.

A new PTR for patch 3.3 has just been pushed through on the testing servers. Most of the classes have seen some tweaks and changes. At first glance, the biggest winners (not whiners) appear to be mages and shadow priests. Some other big changes include the druid spell Rebirth dropping from a 20 minutes cool down to a 10 minute cool down.

Oh and raid leaders, it seems anyone in the party can use raid marks now. Joy!

Also, new Achievements have surfaced for Icecrown dungeons. Find out what other adjustments were made after the jump.

Update: New glyph changes and a new Feat of Strength has been added.

Update 2: Tier 10 relics have been added to the bottom.

Companion Pets

• Mr. Chilly is no longer named Oswald and got his old name back.

Death Knight

Unholy

• Scourge Strike has been revamped – An unholy strike that deals 50% of weapon damage as Physical damage plus 400 (Shows as 40000 in the tooltip but I’ll assume it’s a typo). In addition, for each of your diseases on your target, you deal an additional 25% of the Physical damage done as Shadow damage.
• Unholy Blight now deals 10% of the damage done by Death Coil over 10 sec. (Down from 20%)

Druid

Restoration

• Gift of the Earthmother now increases your total spell haste by 2/4/6/8/10%
• Rebirth: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 20 minutes down to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Rapid Rejuvenation – Your haste now reduces the time between the periodic healing ticks of your Rejuvenation spell.

Hunter

Pet

• Culling the Herd – When your pet’s Claw, Bite, or Smack ability deals a critical strike, you and your pet deal 1/2% increased damage for 10 sec.
• Call Stabled Pet: Cooldown reduced from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.

Mage

Fire

• Improved Scorch now increases spell critical strike chance against the target by 5% but no longer stacks. (Up from 1%, Stacks up to 5)

Ice

• Frozen Core now also causes your Ice Lance criticals to reduce the cast time of your next Frostbolt or Frostfire Bolt by 0.4/0.7/1 sec.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Improved Scorch is now named Glyph of Scorch and Increases the damage of your Scorch spell by 20%.
• Glyph of Eternal Water – Your Summon Water Elemental now lasts indefinitely, but your Water Elemental can no longer cast Freeze.

Paladin

Protection

• Divine Guardian now also reduces the damage your party and raid members take by 20% when Divine Sacrifice is active.
• Divine Sacrifice – 30% of all damage taken by party members within 30 yards is redirected to the paladin (up to a maximum of 40% of the Paladin’s health times the number of party members). Redirected damage is reduced by 50% before injuring the Paladin. Lasts 10 sec.

Priest

Discipline

• Power Word: Shield – This spell can now be cast on non-raid/party friendly targets.

Shadow

• Shadowform now let the periodic damage of your Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch spells benefit from haste.
• Vampiric Embrace: This ability is now provides a 30-minute buff that cannot be dispelled, instead of a target debuff.
• Improved Devouring Plague: This spell now deals 10/20/30% of its total periodic effect instantly, up from 5/10/15%.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Mind Flay now Increases the damage done by your Mind Flay spell by 10% when your target is afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain.
• Glyph of Shadow Word: Pain changed to – The periodic damage ticks of your Shadow Word: Pain spell restore 1% of your base mana.
• Glyph of Shadow now increase your spell power by 30% of your spirit for 10 sec. (Up from 10%)

Shaman

• Reincarnation: The cooldown on this spell has been lowered from 60 minutes down to 50 minutes (Improved Reincarnation will continue to lower the cooldown by 10/20 minutes).

Warlock

• Create Soulstone: The cooldown on this spell and duration of its buff have been lowered from 30 minutes down to 15 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Decimation: Redesigned. When Shadowbolt, Incinerate or Soul Fire hit a target that is at or below 35% health, the cast time of Soul Fire is reduced by 20/40% for 8 seconds. Soul Fires cast under the effect of Decimation cost no shards.
• Molten Core: Redesigned. Shadow spells and damage-over-time effects have a 12% chance to increase the damage done by Incinerate by 5/10/15% and Soul Fire by 4/7/10% for 12 seconds. In addition, Molten Core now has a new spell effect.

Affliction

• Improved Felhunter now gives your Felhunter 8% (up from 4%) of its maximum mana each time it hits with Shadow Bite and the cooldown on that ability is reduced by 2 sec.

Destruction

• Conflagrate now deals damage equal to 60% of your Immolate or Shadowflame and causes 20% additional damage over 6 sec.

Glyphs

• Glyph of Life Tap now also procs from Dark Pact.

Warrior

Glyphs

• Glyph of Victory Rush now affects any target. (Old – Only targets above 70% health)

Achievements

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Throne

• Storming the Citadel – Defeat the first four bosses in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• The Frostwing Halls – Defeat the bosses of The Frostwing Halls in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• The Plagueworks – Defeat the bosses of The Plagueworks in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• The Crimson Hall – Defeat teh bosses of The Crimson Hall in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• The Frozen Throne – Defeat the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• Fall of the Lich King – Defeat every boss in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• It’s a Trap! – Survive the Ice Jets in Icecrown Citadel in 10-player mode.
• Unboned – Defeat Lord Marrowgar without anyone taking damage from Bone Cyclone in 10-player mode.
• Thirty One – Defeat X of Lady Deathwhisper’s adds with her bombs and then defeat Lady Deathwhisper in 10-player mode.
• I’m on a Boat – Claim victory in the Gunship Battle in which every raid member visits the enemy gunship only once in 10-player mode.
• I’ve Gone and Made a Mess – Defeat the Deathbringer with fewer than X raid members suffering from Garrote in 10-player mode.
• Dances with Oozes – Defeat Rotface without exploding any oozes in 10-player mode.
• Once Bitten, Twice Shy – Defeat the Blood Queen while having been a vampire in 10-player mode.

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls

• Icecrown: The Forge of Souls – Defeat the bosses in Icecrown: The Forge of Souls
• Icecrown: The Pit of Saron – Defeat the bosses in Icecrown: The Pit of Saron
• Icecrown: The Halls of Reflection – Defeat the bosses in Icecrown: The Halls of Reflection

Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Halls (Heroic)

• I Feel Good – Defeat Bronjahm in The Forge of Souls on Heroic Difficulty without letting him cast his big spell.
• Three Faced – Defeat the Devourer of Souls in The Forge of Souls on Heroic Difficulty after having interrupted his big nuke.
• Don’t Let it Go to Eleven – Defeat Forgemaster Garfrost in The Pit of Saron on Heroic Difficulty before he gets 11 stacks.
• Don’t Look Up – Clear the hallway before Scourgelord Tyrannus in The Forge of Souls on Heroic Difficulty without anyone taking icicle damage.
• We’re Not Retreating; We’re Advancing in a Different Direction – Escape from the Lich King in under two hours and eleven seconds.

User Interface

• Non spell-based tracking now persists through logout.
• Any party member may mark raid targets.
• Users will be warned when their talents are reset due to a new patch.
• “/Settitle” command has been added.
• Instant quest text is on by default.
• “Tentative” status added for calendar responses.
• Players below level 10 may not join raids.
• Ignore list expanded to 50 to match the friends list.
• Unit frames added for special encounters.
• Interface element added next to the mini-map to show what dungeon you are in (ex: 10- and 25-player Heroic dungeons marked with a skull).
• Experience earned for a quest will display in the Quest Rewards section.
• Confirmation box added when buying stable slots.
• Macro Changes

Symbol “@” added as a synonym for “target=”;. For example, “/cast [@focus] Flash Heal”.

New macro conditionals: “vehicleui” (if the player has a vehicle UI) and “unithasvehicleui” (if the target of the macro has a vehicle UI).

Character and Creature Nameplates

• The range at which players can see nameplates has been significantly expanded.
• You can no longer see nameplates through objects which block line of sight.

As long as you are able to peer through the doorway of a room, you will see nameplates of characters and creatures in that room.

Pillars and bridges in Arenas will not hide friendly or enemy nameplates.

• Totem nameplates can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.
• Instead of nameplates for large groups of players or creatures trying to sort themselves, they will now overlap. This functionality can be toggled off under “PRODUCTION” settings via “Interface Options” on the test realms.

Addon Author Changes

• “registerForClicks” added to xml buttons.
• “MouseIsOver” has been converted to a “C” function for increased efficiency (e.g. /dump PlayerFrame:IsMouseOver() ).
• When an addon file is loaded, the addon name and an addon table are passed to the file through ‘…’. The same addon table is passed to every file loaded by a particular TOC file (example at the top of a Lua file: “local addonName, addonTable = …;”.
• “motionScriptsWhileDisabled” attribute added to buttons. This allows “OnEnter”; and “OnLeave”; to fire while the button is disabled.
• “GetFileHeight()” and “GetFileWidth()” added to Texture objects. 0 is returned if no texture file is associated with the texture.
• You can now query for a list of completed quests with “QueryQuestsCompleted()” then wait for the “QUEST_QUERY_COMPLETE” event, and call “GetQuestsCompleted(<luatable>)”.

Feat of Strength

• It’s Over Nine Thousand!: Earn more than 9000 achievement points.

Tier 10 relic additions

Death Knight

• DPS – Your Obliterate, Scourge Strike, and Death Strike abilities grant 73 Strength for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Tank – Your Rune Strike ability grants 44 dodge rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

Druid

• Balance – The periodic damage from your Insect Swarm and Moonfire spells grants 44 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Feral – The periodic damage from your Lacerate and Rake abilities grats 44 Agility for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
• Restoration – The periodic healing from your Rejuvenation spell grants 32 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 8 times.

Paladin

• Holy – Your Holy Shock spell grants 85 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Protection – Your Shield of Righteousness ability grants 73 dodge rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Retribution – Your Crusader Strike ability grants 44 Strength for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.

Shaman

• Elemental – Your Earth Shock, Flame Shock, and Frost Shock spells grant 73 critical strike rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Enhancement – Your Stormstrike ability grant 146 attack power rating for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.
• Restoration – Your Riptide spell grants 85 spell power for 15 sec. Stacks up to 3 times.

In the future we will share some feelings and experiences in this weblog, And share some of the details of the game, As well as some game equipment items and gold purchased by the guidance, Welcome to exchange your experience here.

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