OPie - Ring Add On

Just found this, and it is godly:

Features

OPie ships with several pre-configured (or self-configuring) action rings for you to use – but what is a ring, anyway?

Ring Indication

When you press a hotkey bound to a specific ring, OPie shows the ring selection indicator. By moving your mouse to the desired action's sector and then releasing the ring hotkey, you select the action to execute.

The indicator consists of several components, most of which can be turned off to clean up the display once you're used to the layout of the rings you use. You may customize the indicator display using a number of options.

* The ring (and pointer in the mouse direction) are always shown. Both change color in response to the currently selected action.
* The ring glows softly if the selection action can be used. If the action becomes usable while selected, the glow pulses to indicate this.
* Selected action name and icon may optionally be displayed, providing extra selection feedback in addition to the ring's color.
* The default game pointer may be hidden, and the world display dimmed slightly while interacting with the ring.
* Rings may appear in the center of your screen, or at current mouse position.

Guild Meet up, Diablo 3

Well yesterday I spent all day meeting up with people from my guild, Mostly Harmless, and it was a good laugh to say the least. It consisted of:

Drunken Danes
Ginger Swes
A Raid Manager who had 8-9 Magners within 4 hours
A GM who got fucking shitfaced
Hunter telling us how his girlfriend raided Karazhan and used 1 fucking button to get 900 DPS.
A crazy Dutch woman with a T shirt of her character and some kick-ass hair
Some old block from a different guild who was the only hard metaller there
Annnnd loads of bad puns about 'Agro', 'Taunting' and 'AOE tanking the drunks'

We had sat in a pub drinking (I didn't HA!) and then we moved to a park, where we assault many people with a frisbee. We then lost it in the lake, and tried to command a duck to get it for us, which failed. Luckily we had a PRO FRISBEE PLAYER who commanded a paddleboat to get us the frisbee. He then showed us his frisbee skills by throwing it straight into a blokes head. Nice one Sphinx.

We then proceeded to go to another pub. We sat there, had some more drinks, some of the blokes talked about "work" as our GM put it (the bastard doesn't even work anyways). That place was boring though, so in the end we fucked off and got a train to our Japanese restaurant.

Theres one think I hate, it's fucking chopsticks. I couldn't use the bluddy things all night, and ended up getting a spoon cause I couldn't be arsed trying anymore. Then we dispersed and I got a train home. Which was pakced with smelly drunks.

Good times.

In other news, Diablo 3!

PARIS, France – June 28, 2008 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today revealed Diablo® III, the newest entry in its critically acclaimed action role-playing-game franchise. The announcement was made during the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment® Worldwide Invitational at the Porte de Versailles Convention Centre in Paris, France. A cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay demonstration with commentary from the development team introduced the game to the thousands of players in attendance.

“We’ve wanted to expand on the epic story and gameplay elements of the Diablo universe for some time now,” stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We know that players have also been long awaiting a return to the series, so we’re very excited to be sharing this announcement with Blizzard gamers here in Paris and around the world today.”

Diablo III will pick up the story twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone, which once shielded the inhabitants of the world of Sanctuary from the forces of both Heaven and Hell, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram. Playing as a hero from one of five distinct character classes, players will acquire powerful items, spells, and abilities as they explore new and familiar areas of Sanctuary and battle hordes of demons to safeguard the world from the horrors that have arisen. The first two characters classes -- the barbarian and the witch doctor -- were shown as part of the announcement at the event today in Paris.

Diablo III will feature a custom 3D-graphics engine to render lush indoor and outdoor areas of Sanctuary with a high level of detail and vivid special effects. The game’s physics-enhanced environments will be interactive and destructible, offering traps and obstacles that create added danger for players and monsters alike. These elements, along with a new quest system and random scripted events, will be integrated into the game’s random-level generator, giving Diablo III the ultimate combination of dynamic gameplay and replayability. Cooperative and competitive play will be available online through an upgraded version of Blizzard Entertainment’s renowned online gaming service, Battle.net®.

Blizzard Secret being Revealed?

If any of the Blizzard fans/gamers have been paying attention, you'll have noticed each day that their website changed to a different splash page, each one revealing tiny hints.

Alot of debate is doing on over what it could be, but it could be:

-WOTLK
-Diablo 3
-Brand new MMO
-Starcraft
-Warcraft4

This shows the hints surrounding it. I personally believe it to be a hint at all the things that will be included, INCLUDING Diablo 3.

Let's hope it appears!

WoW replaced Warcraft 3

In its previous two seasons , the Intel Extreme Masters (from the Electronic Sports League) focused on two main eSports disciplines --- Counter-Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3. Now, however, that's changing. They've announced that World of Warcraft will take over the spot from Warcraft 3, based in part on the success of previous WoW tournaments. While ESL doesn't explicitly say it's an Arena tournament, I think we can safely assume that to be the case.

This is just part of the ongoing eSport effort, and I think we'll hear about a lot more tournaments in the coming months. I don't know if Blizzard meant to bump its own game from some rosters, but I suppose there's only so much room at each tournament. There's also $750,000 (US) in prize money for the victors. They've not announced how much will specifically go to World of Warcraft, but it'll definitely make it worth winning.

Gear Changes in WOTLK Plus Other News

We're already seeing some significant changes to the way gear works in Wrath of the Lich King. However, in a thread on the official forums about the ever-increasing character level cap, Bornakk steps in to set at least a few minds at ease regarding the way gear will scale. He says the developers don't plan on overhauling gear in Wrath quite the same way they had when TBC came out. So, while the items will be more powerful, we shouldn't see the same disparity between WotLK items and pre-WotLK items that we did for BC gear and pre-BC gear. It won't be like you'll pick up a green from a level 71 quest that replaces your S4 gear.

But there's a bunch of stat changes in WotLK that've already been revealed. Does this mean the spellpower changes will go back through all of the BC gear, or is it just that the item level is going to remain a steady scale? Or will unified spellpower only be available in Northrend? Eh, we're only in Alpha right now. Just the notion that Blizzard is aware and considering this issue is enough for now, and I guess we can wait and see how the drops will look.

Read it here.

Meat Gear Solid 4 has been released a few days back, and news is already pouring in about it being a masterpiece.

Well no shit sherlock, look who made it. Hideo, again. One of the best creators of games and not to mention he can create one helluva story. But it still hasn't changed the PS3 sales, according to this.

Also, a new Zero Punctuation!

Latest WoW Patch

Patch Notes
Quote from Blizzard staff
General

* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.
* Haris Pilton has launched a new line of bags and jewelry. Check her out in the World’s End Tavern!
* Mounts at 30?! Yes, it’s true: Apprentice Riding and mounts are now available at level 30. Training costs 35 gold.
* Blood Elf flightmasters outside of Silvermoon City and Tranquillien have traded in their bats for glorious fire-breathing dragonhawks.
* Alcohol cooldowns have been rolled into Drinks: All 10-second cooldowns have been removed and replaced with the 1-second Drink cooldown.
* Numerous flying non-combat pets have had their flight height modified to no longer skim along the ground: captured firefly, dragonhawk hatchlings, moths, owls, parrots, phoenix hatchling, spirit of summer, sprite darter, and tiny sporebat.
* Nether Ray Fry (a non-combat pet) is now available from the Skyguard Quartermaster. This requires an Exalted reputation with Sha’tari Skyguard.
* Equipping an item will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress.
* Placing an item in your bank will now cancel any spell cast currently in progress if the spell was cast by that item.
* You can no longer move backwards to stop racing rams.
* When a stun wears off, the creature that was stunned will prefer the last target with the highest threat, versus the current target.


Druid

* Barkskin: The cost of this spell is now reduced by Tree of Life Form.


Hunter

* Growl: Pets will no longer generate additional threat from this ability based on attack power buffs cast on them. Attack power buffs on their master will still indirectly increase the threat generated by the pet’s Growl.
* Pet Aggro: Pets will no longer generate threat immediately from being summoned.
* Scare Beast: This spell will now be limited correctly to one target.


Paladin

* Greater Blessing of Light Rank 1: This spell will no longer overwrite Greater Blessing of Light Rank 2.
* Summon Warhorse is now available at level 30.


Priest

* Mind Vision: This effect will now be cancelled immediately on targets who use an Invisibility Potion or Gnomish Cloaking Device.
* Spiritual Healing: Ranks 2-5 of this talent will no longer prevent refreshing Prayer of Mending.


Rogue

* Cheat Death: This talent has been rebalanced significantly. Killing blows are no longer 100% absorbed. If the Rogue is below 10% health, the killing blow is still completely absorbed; if the Rogue is over 10% health, enough damage will be absorbed to reduce the Rogue’s health down to 10%. For the following 3 seconds, damage is not always reduced by 90%; it is now reduced by a maximum of 90%, depending on how much resilience the Rogue has. The damage reduction will be four times the damage reduction resilience causes against critical strikes.


Shaman

* Earth Elemental: This pet will now leash back to its totem when pulled beyond 50 yards away.
* Lightning Overload: This talent will no longer do excessive damage when used with Lightning Bolt Ranks 2-10.


Warlock

* Curse of Shadows: This spell has been removed.
* Curse of Elements: This spell now applies to Arcane and Shadow damage, as well as Frost and Fire.
* Demonic Sacrifice: This ability will now interact correctly with the Spirit Guide resurrection system in battlegrounds. A sacrificed pet will not be resummoned on death, and will not prevent keeping a record of the most recently created pet.
* Health Funnel: This ability will now cancel channeling when the target pet is Banished.
* Ritual of Summoning: The mana cost of this spell will now be properly deducted when cast.
* Summon Felsteed is now available at level 30.


Warrior

* Revenge: Ranks 1-5 of this ability now have damage ranges instead of fixed damage values (like ranks 6-8.)


PvP

* The Warsong Gulch flag can no longer be picked up at the same time as a flag is capped.


Professions
Alchemy

* Philosopher’s Stone now requires 200 Alchemy.

Cooking

* Juicy Bear Burgers now correctly increase healing as well as spell damage.

Jewelcrafting

* Activated beneficial effects from jewelcrafting trinkets can no longer be dispelled.

Mining

* Green quality gems can be found in mining nodes again. The drop rate of blue gems from mining nodes remains unchanged.

Tailoring

* Removed the cooldown from regular Mooncloth.
* Herb bags can now hold Un’goro Soil and Evergreen Pouches.
* Mycah of Sporeggar has discovered how to create 28 slot herb bags.
* New Tailoring patterns are available from Haughty Modiste in Steamwheedle Port, Tanaris: Haliscan Jacket and Haliscan Pantaloons.


Quests

* Bhag’thera now spawns at a normal quest spawn rate.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, phased characters will not be able to see non-phased character AoE effects and vice-versa.
* For the quests, Intercepting the Mana Cells and Maintaining the Sunwell Portal, pets gaining/losing phase status will now properly break off combat from unphased/phased opponents.


Dungeons and Raids

* Players can now be summoned to raid instances from heroic dungeons.

Magister’s Terrace

* The Stun component to the Sunblade Mage Guard Glaive Throw has been removed and the Bounce range reduced.
* Vexallus and Kael’thas are now tauntable in Heroic mode.
* Vexallus’ damage caused by Pure Energy has been decreased.
* Kael’thas’ Arcane Sphere has had its visual size increased. His Arcane Sphere attack has had its range decreased and the damage/second of Phase two on Normal mode has been decreased. (Heroic mode remains unchanged.)
* Sunblade Warlocks have had their damage reduced slightly.
* Fel Crystals in the Selin Fireheart encounter have had their health reduced slightly.
* Warlord Salaris and Kagani Nightstrike have had their damage output reduced slightly.

Sunwell Plateau

* Creatures in the area around Grand Warlock Alythess and Lady Sacrolash will no longer spawn while the twins are in combat.
* Nether Protection will now correctly trigger from Kil’jaeden’s Shield Orb Shadow Bolts.
* Vanish now correctly wipes threat on Kil’jaeden.


Items

* Bow of the Verdant Keeper’s Aim: This item’s triggered effect no longer breaks the effect of Scatter Shot.
* Brutal Gladiator’s Pummeler has had its Stamina value increased to the appropriate value.
* Clockwork Robot Bots fight amongst themselves again...without attacking people in the arena. Well... they’ll blow up other Bots in the arena, but you know what we mean.
* The Eredar Twins will now award the same items regardless of which order they are killed in.
* Invisibility Potions: These potions now are on the same cooldown as other combat consumable potions (such as mana potions.)
* Pendant of the Violet Eye: This item will again work correctly with Holy Light and Flash of Light.
* Shattered Sun Pendant of Acumen: The triggered effect from this Item can now occur on periodic damage ticks.
* Thori’dal, the Star’s Fury is now Unique as intended.
* Vengeful Gladiator’s Baton of Light: This item now appears in the correct position on the vendor list.


User Interface

* The help interface has been simplified dramatically. Players will no longer be required to select a category when opening a GM ticket. In addition, players can use the “Talk to a GM” button to fill out a ticket that requires a GM response or the “Report Issue” button to fill out a ticket that does not require a GM response.
* Target buff/debuff timers that appear when you cast a spell are now more visible.
* Time Management features have been implemented! These features include an alarm clock, stopwatch, and viewing your computer’s local time.
* The new stopwatch feature can be accessed via the /stopwatch, /sw, or /timer slash commands. Inputting a time into the slash command will make the stopwatch count down. For example, /stopwatch 1:0:0 will make the stopwatch count down from an hour, /stopwatch 1:30 will make it count down from 1 minute, 30 seconds, and /stopwatch 30 will make it count down from 30 seconds.
* Added the following macro commands: /targetenemyplayer, /targetfriendplayer.
* Added key bindings for tab targeting players.
* Ctrl-Tab and other target nearest friend functions will no longer target you.
* Targeting using /target will prefer live targets over dead ones.
* You can no longer click the minimap to cast ground targeted spells.
* Invisible players with Hunter’s Mark can see the hunter that put the mark on them.
* Vendor items now show their Duration in Inventory.
* For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum.


World Environment

* Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs may now drop Thick Yeti Fur.
* Skinning any Winterspring Ice Thistle yetis may now result in Thick Yeti Fur.
* Increased the drop rate of Pristine Yeti Horns from Winterspring Ice Thistle Matriarchs and Patriarchs.
* Goblin Weather Machine- Prototype 01-B weather changes will no longer force the affected character to stand.
* Collector’s Edition Pet Redemption NPCs/items/quests have been relocated/modified to/for towns with mailboxes (Goldshire, Razor Hill, etc.).
* Young Sporebats and Greater Sporebats in Zangarmarsh now drop Sporebat Eyes for the quest Gathering the Reagents.
* Blacksmithing Supplies vendor and repairer, Blazzle, in Area 52 is now next to the forge and anvil outside the inn.
* Banker Meeda, in Area 52 is now in the...well...the bank, along with a guild vault and guards. The other three Area 52 bankers are still located in the auction-house-turned-bank.
* Wastewander Bandits and Rogues should be more plentiful in the northern parts of Tanaris.


Bug Fixes

* The mage spell, Counterspell now shows in the combat log.
* Gan’arg Analyzers will no longer occasionally become friendly to players.
* Talented abilities that cost a percentage of base mana will no longer display an incorrect mana cost when inspected by a player of a different class or level.
* Guild leaders should now be able to properly promote a new guild leader regardless of their range.
* Druids: Mangle will no longer incorrectly indicate a 100-yard range on the tooltip.
* Hunters: Using an instant ability after Steady Shot will no longer lock out auto shot.
* Hunter Snake Trap will no longer break players out of stealth if the snakes pass near the stealthed character.
* Hunters: Concussive shot will now properly have a chance to proc Bow of Searing Arrows.
* Rogues: The talent Heightened Senses, Rank 1 and Rank 2 will now affect attacks from wands.
* Using Jewelcrafting figurines will no longer cause scrolling combat text to appear twice.
* Fixed an issue in which shadows were not appearing properly for users with GF4 video chipsets in Open GL mode.
* Corrected an issue in which users with Creative X-FI sound cards would sometimes here a slight popping noise when running.
* Players will now correctly receive a Battleground Mark message for the marks that are received at the end of a battle.
* Corrected an issue where the initial trigger or activation sounds for Immolation Trap and Explosive Trap could not be heard by some players.
* Smelt Hardened Khorium will now properly require a forge instead of an anvil and hammer.
* Corrected a typo in the tooltip for the Druid spell Rip (Rank 4).
* Looting a Nightmare Vine will now properly no longer apply poison when the node is looted.
* The Figurine- Seaspray Albatross ability will now properly restore the correct amount of mana.
* First Aid bandages can no longer be applied to a player with the Recently Bandaged debuff. An error message of, "Could not activate more than one bandage" will be displayed.
* Corrected the tooltips to read properly for the flight paths from The Stormspire, Toshley’s Station, Blade’s Edge, and Area 52.
* Greater Elementals summoned by a shaman will now properly have a combat log entry.
* Players will no longer become stuck on the Nimboya’s Laden Pike when driving it into the ground.
* The quest, "Going Going, Guano!" will now have a more consistent level requirement for the dungeon.
* The quest, "Into The Scarlet Monastery" is now available to players of the appropriate level for the instance.
* Blueleaf Tubers can now be properly looted.
* The quest turn-ins for the Ahn’Qiraj war effort now give the appropriate amount of credit for each successful quest turn-in.
* Cloak of Shadows will now properly remove Shrink.
* Nightbane will no longer become unresponsive and unkillable during his air phase.
* Several items sold by the Consortium reputation vendor Paulsta’ats are now bind on pick-up: Formula: Enchant Weapon- Major Striking, Design: Delicate Blood Garnet, Design: Shifting Shadow Draenite, Design: Lustrous Azure Moonstone, Design:Thick Golden Draenite.
* It is no longer possible to delete a character that is an arena team captain without first promoting another player to captain.
* Taunts will now properly stick when a target is stunned while being taunted.

Prepping for 80.

I have four level 70 characters that I've decided to level to 80, my two horde 70's (undead priest and undead warlock), my human paladin and my gnome mage. (I may or may not level my human warrior, and if I get my BE rogue to 70 by then, he'll be in the running to go the distance as well.) As a result, I'm playing catch up with them... making sure their professions are maxed, trying to make sure they have if not great gear than the best gear possible (I know it will be replaced, but doing those initial quests in the new zones is always easier with better gear), supplies of netherweave for when the new first aid comes out, that kind of thing. I was caught unaware the last time we had an expansion as far as what was needed to make things easier, I don't intend to be so caught again.

Because I tank for the guilds I'm a part of, I feel obliged to get my tanks to 80 as fast as I can, which depending on how the game changes between now and the release of the expansion will probably mean respeccing to a DPS mode to make things easier. (I'd prefer to sit back and see the content, but I feel like I'm obliged to be ready for raiding as soon as I can be.) I don't expect to roll in as much gold doing dailies once we're in expansion territory, so I'm trying to ensure I have enough gold stockpiled to respec at will to tank or heal instance runs and still go back to DPS mode for grinding quests.

Essentially, I'm busy making plans to manage getting four 70's to 80 as fast as possible. I know the first one I start will be at a disadvantage, as the others will all get rested XP, but I'm expecting to rotate between them to take the most advantage of rested I can. So, I ask you: what other suggestions do you have for me? What should I do to maximize my leveling productivity? Do you recommend instances over questing? Should I instead focus on one character at a time or rotate them? How did you make the jump to 70 and how are you planning to get to 80, fast or leisurely?