Sean is diving, sunning himself and trying to drink all the cervezas in Cozumel this week, so don't feel bad if he doesn't respond to emails and comments. He'll be back in action next week, fresh and ready to join the Addon Army's battle for the perfect User Interface!

Today I'm going to feature an addon that I've been using for a long time, but often overlook because it's so simple. It's certainly one of those "fire and forget" addons that you can install and will start functioning right away. I originally downloaded this one on a whim, without suspecting its potential. OmniCC will add a text cooldown counter to item and spell icons. Simple, right? That's all it does really, nothing fancy, barely any memory use and the ability to have a very easy visual cue to manage your cooldowns. I find this especially helpful when I'm trying to manage cooldowns on my paladin, but having two level 70 paladins might make me biased.

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The new hero class from Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft has been shrouded in mystery over the past few months. Speculations and several clarifications have been thrown back and forth between the developers and the players on how the Death Knight will play out its role once it goes live.

A special feature on Ten Ton Hammer focused on the different abilities and perks the upcoming class will be getting. It basically compiles all the information released by Tom Chilton during a series of press releases on the upcoming content for Wrath of the Lich King.

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Quite a number of players have expressed concern regarding the Death Knight class which will be implemented when Wrath of the Lich King goes live on Blizzard's World of Warcraft servers. Gamers have been complaining that the Death Knight will have a counter ability for anything other classes can throw at it.

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First, go read Alex's post, because he makes some good points about recruiting for 25 man raids in Wrath of the Lich King. We now know that in the expansion, all raids will come with a 10 man and 25 man setting, effectively a 'normal' and 'heroic' mode for raiding. While I personally believe this to be awesome, I can understand the idea that this will adversely affect (not effect, I'm reminded) recruitment for 25 mans if people can see the exact same content by just running a 10 man. Sure, the gear won't be as good, but if the starter 10 man gear allows you to run the next stage 10 man, and so on until you finally reach a 10 man version of Arthas, guilds that run 25 man raid content might have a harder time recruiting people to run what is essentially the 'same' content with 24 other folks instead of 9 other folks.

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No husky loot this week -- with a name like "the Great Apocalypse," this sword is nothing but badass.

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For tomorrow's WoW Insider Show (which you can hear live at 3:30pm EST on WoW Radio), we're doing something a little special for Mother's Day: we've got mothers! Amanda Dean is actually bringing her mother on the show, and Mrs. Dean is a WoW player herself, so we'll chat with her about what it's like to come to games via World of Warcraft. Robin Torres will also be joining us, and she's got little ones of her own, so she'll tell us what it's like to be a WoW player while also running your own little "guild" in real life. And Turpster will return after his absence last week -- all we can say about him is that he's a bad mother... shut yo' mouth.

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With the barrage of Wrath of the Lich King news we've received recently, one little tidbit stuck out in the bad way. Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about quite a bit of it, this one thing in particular just struck me as odd.

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This may not qualify as big news on a day when we learned more about Wrath of the Lich King than we have since Blizzcon, but in case you're in need of a new t-shirt or two, Jinx is having a sale on four WoW-themed designs. Each design, in men's, is available for $5, and they are:

• Horde crest
• Alliance crest
• WoW
• Burning Crusade


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Like many other sites, Curse.com got a chance to visit Blizzard and take home some information on everything Wrath. They have an interview with lead designers Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan and Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, and a general writeup. A lot of it has already been covered in our previous reports, but here's what looked new to me:

• Karazhan showed Blizzard that 10-man raids could work, and were good for more casual players; on the other hand, more hardcore raiding guilds were upset about having to break into 10-man groups. Thus Wrath's split 10-man/25-man raid system.
• Naxx is going to have to be tuned way down, since it's now an entry-level raid instead of a top-level raid.
• Class balance as we know it is going to change drastically with the new talents for every class (at least in their current, secret, developmental state).
• WoW was always planned out with item inflation in mind, so don't worry about it too much.
• There will be a Northrend kick-off event.
• Kaplan would rather we did dailies for gold instead of farming primals, since it's less repetitive; on that note, he wants to make more of a varied experience, like the cooking daily or the daily dungeon with randomization built in.


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[1.Local] serves up a smattering of reader comments from the past week, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Readers seemed to be on helpful mode this week at WoW Insider, with lots of mechanics and theory questions addressed in post comments. The Very Serious Business of Guild Business was definitely top of mind, as readers shared insights on raid scheduling, application procedures and fine-tuning the performance of lovable but noobish guildmates. Readers also talked about wearing their WoW on their sleeves, the whole e-sports concept and the continued fill-in-the-blanks-until-WotLK trend of retro raiding.

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors takes a look at gear and the fury warrior this week. Matthew Rossi has been playing with fury on his tauren this week, when not forgetting to re-equip his shield on Kael'thas while playing his human. Sure, the Phaseshift Bulwark is nice, but if you leave the instance it goes away, which I really should have paid attention to. On the up side, it's hilarious to go down in two seconds to a trash mob because you forgot which button is your shield macro. Well, hilarious now. With distance. At the time it was less hilarious and more smashing my face into the keyboard.

Before we get rolling, you should take a look at this thread from the Elitist Jerks forums that gathers up a lot of information on warrior DPS specs and what to look for when gearing. One of the things to keep in mind is that it's not as straightforward as just piling on the stats that help you do damage... much like tanking, where you first stack defense until you reach the target (in the case of tanking you want 490 defense) when assembling fury gear you prioritize hit until you reach 9% chance to hit, and then start stacking crit, attack power and armor penetration.

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(This video contain some language, so view with caution.)

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Daniel Howell contributes BigRedKitty, a column with strategies, tips and tricks for and about the Hunter class, sprinkled with a healthy dose of completely improper, sometimes libelous, personal commentary.

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First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your submissions to Grand Theft Azeroth. There were a lot of wonderful pictures, and I had trouble choosing the top five to put up for a vote here. We extended the contest a day because ... well, because I forgot what day the contest was supposed to end. Nevertheless, voting will take place Fri-Sun and a winner will be announced Monday. Now let's get to the five nominees, each with their own special category:

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Encouraged by the record results of the Q4 and fiscal year 2008 reports, Activision is already planning its next set of projects for the year. The company recently announced these in a recent analyst conference call.

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Here's one more tidbit of WoTLK information for you, courtesy of Gamespy. They sat down for an interview with co-lead design J. Allen Brack. Most of the information is stuff we've heard in the past or have already posted on in this morning's massive flurry, but it's always nice to get a peek into the brain of the folks who bring us this amazing game.

Among some of the things discussed by J. Allen Brack and Gamespy:

• Flying Mounts are gone until level 77, at which point you will either complete a quest or a visit a trainer to be able to use them again. You will still not be able to use the mounts in the old world, so even though Naxxramas is on Azeroth, your flying mount will not be able to cross back over the sea to visit the old stomping grounds. The Old World was designed using too many graphical shortcuts in places people were not meant to access to allow flying mounts.
• They have recieved massive positive feedback so far about the return to Azeroth and the old traditional fantasy as opposed to the sci-fi feel of the Burning Crusade. In that same vein, they are bringing back many familiar sights and storylines from Old Azeroth. Sholozar Basin will be Un'goro 2.0, complete with crystals and pylons. No word on whether it will also contain more Land of the Lost and Nintendo references. It will also contain some of the flavors of Stranglethorn and the old Netherstorm biodomes, says J. Allen.
• In a similar vein, we can expect to see more of the ever-popular Scarlet Crusade, this time in the form of the Scarlet Onslaught. The Worgen are back in homage to the Sons of Arugal and Shadowfang Keep.
• While the city of Dalaran will be headed up to WoTLK, don't expect to see nothing but a hole in the ground where it used to be in Alterac. J. Allen reveals that they do have plans for the spot, and the concept drawings they have for it look very cool.
• The Dragonblight, J. Allen Brack said, is probably his favorite new piece of content for the expansion. It is where the Dragons were born, where they recieved sentience from the Titans, and where they come to die, and where the Lich King has been twisting Dragon corpses to serve him as Frost Wyrms, so there's a lot of great lore and history there. It will include a raid instance called the Chamber of the Aspects, and while no bosses have been designed for it yet, it will probably have bosses representing each of the Dragonflights.

It sounds like the developers are nearly as excited about WoTLK as we are, which is usually a good sign of things to come. We hope you've enjoyed all this awesome new information we've found for you tonight. There may be more to come, so stay tuned as we scour all the latest news.

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This week, several websites have been invited to Blizzard HQ to have an insight of the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King, we will keep this news updated with every new piece of info released by these sites.

Interviews & Articles

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In addition to all the other info dropping today (apparently Blizzard held an event this last week at their HQ to show off some new Wrath information), GameSpy got to chat with Jeff Kaplan, WoW's Lead Designer, about Death Knights and what they're going to be for in the next expansion.

• Apparently Kaplan says Blizzard has designed "zero" raid bosses for the next expansion yet, so he isn't sure where they'll fit among Pallies, Druids, and Warriors as tanks.
• DKs will have a disease-based DoT, as well as the creature and ghoul summons we've posted about previously
• As we heard before, Death Knights will serve as a "Fury Warrior" type of tank -- damage based rather than protection based.
• Blizzard hasn't determined exactly whether there will be faction differences in the epic class quests, but they won't be too different for races or factions, just because the stories, he says, should be the same
• Finally, Kaplan clarifies again that Death Knights will be available to all races, and that Arthas himself became not Undead, but Scourge


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Via Gamespy and Worldofwar.net, we finally have a good idea of what rolling a Death Knight will be like. A lot of the rumors seem to have panned out, but others have not. All I know is that at this point, I am full speed ahead to make a Death Knight my new main come WoTLK. There's a lot of meaty info to dig into, so let's get to it after the break.

Creation and initial play:

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WorldofWar.net also got an invitation to the Blizzard event this past week (our invitation must have been lost in the mail, maybe?), and they've got six full pages of text about what they saw. Six pages hard to read though, so we've got all the salient points right here:

• Both Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton presented, with Kaplan showing off the Death Knight class and Chilton showing off the work they've done on Northrend.
• The Forsaken-designed starting town Vengeance Landing was shown off -- this was the same area we got to play back at Blizzcon, as well as Utgarde Keep
  
• They also got to see Valliance Keep (the other Alliance starting area), and Warsong Hold, a huge gothic iron structure run by Garosh Hellscream that Kaplan apparently called the "new look " of the Horde
• Horde players will be taking a Zepplin up to Northrend
• The Nexus, in the Coldarra part of the Borean Tundra, is the first instance on the western side of Northrend from Utgarde Keep, and it's a three wing instance with a raid dungeon where players will meet Malygos.
• The Badge of Justice system will continue in Northrend, but there will be new tokens to act as Badges and be returned for loot.


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There's more news coming in for Wrath of the Lich King regarding how dungeons and raids will work. First the 5-mans:

• All 5-man dungeons will have a Heroic mode
• Heroic dungeons will have a separate loot table than non-Heroics
• A new token system will be used, similar to the Badge of Justice one used now
• The 5-man instances are designed to not take more than an hour


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Gamespy has five new amazing videos everyone should check out. They include several sneak peaks of things we haven't seen before. They are the most detailed and rich in-game videos of WotLK to date. The videos cover the areas of Dragonblight, Zul'Drak, Sholazar Basin, Borean Tundra, and the Howling Fjord.

There are several first looks at the new cities, zones, and architecture of Wrath of the Lich King that we haven't seen from Blizzcon. This also includes several mobs that have not been seen before. Zul'Drak is reminiscent of Zul'Gurub, and looks quite new and refreshing. Sholazar Basin is a cross between Stranglethorn Vale and Ungoro Crater, heavily influenced by Troll architecture.

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Gamespy has lifted their press embargo, and there's lots of new Wrath of the Lich King info up. They apparently did a long hands-on with the expansion, and lots of new zone and gameplay info has come out.

• The area is apparently much bigger than Outland
• There is an aerial gondola, a huge sea battle, and apparently an archeological expedition where you'll be able to fly planes
• All five Dragonflights appear in Dragonblight, a huge graveyard for dragons
• There's "a sister area to Un'goro," which means tropical rainforests. There are also lots of different areas within larger zones.
• Worgen and the sons of Arugal are back, and the Scarlet Crusade is now called the Scarlet Onslaught. And one quest is based on a mission from Warcraft III.
• Death Knight can turn dead teammates into ghouls -- "plenty of fun in the Arenas"
  
• There are "vehicle" quests, where players drive a vehicle (planes, trucks, or even dragons) around to accomplish tasks


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This post will be updated multiple times, stay tuned

Wrath of the Lich King Preview
At the beginning of the week, multiple websites have been invited to the Blizzard HQ for a presentation of WotLK, we'll probably see tons of screenshots and some useful information released today.

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It may have been a while since an episode of the Blizzard BlizzCast was released, but players of World of Warcraft can count on another installment. According to blue poster Nethaera over at the WoW Forums, the informative and entertaining podcast won't stop after two iterations.

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Many thanks to Tisen for tipping off the late night WoW Insider crew that Gamespy will be releasing new Wrath of the Lich King info in about an hour from now – at 12:01 a.m. PST. We'll get it reported to you as soon as we see it. Stay tuned for updates. Their entire announcement reads:

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Social networking around MMOs just hit the big time. Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster way back when, created a site called Rupture a while back that purported to be a social networking site based around World of Warcraft. Since then, the site seemingly hasn't done anything all that interesting -- they've added a few games and a few new features, but they haven't yet made it out of beta, and it wasn't apparent that anyone was real interested in Rupture.

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