Turbine, Inc., developer of Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LotRO), recently discussed the various gameplay tweaks they would be visiting upon the Lore-Master (LM) class in the Book 11: Defenders of Eriador update of their MMORPG.

While Turbine acknowledged the various strengths of the Lore-Master class, they wanted to address the complaints of Lore-Master players who believed that it was the LM's limitations that defined the class, and not the LM's abilities.

In order to accomplish that, Turbine tacked on new features to the Lore-Master's arsenal of skills. They tweaked the MMORPG's crowd control capability, added skills that increase the Fellowship's damage against specific types of enemies, and gave the Lore-Master a way to bring back defeated comrades. 

And if those weren't enough, they gave Lord of the Rings Online's Lore-Master a brand new Lynx to play around with as well. While somewhat frailer than the Bear and the Raven, the Lynx more than compensates for its frailty with stealth and positional burst damage bonuses.
 
With added flexibility and a few more crowd control tricks added to his already impressive repertoire of abilities, Lore-Master players will surely be pleased once the Book 11:Defenders of Eriador update for Lord of the Rings Online is released.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), developer and publisher of the MMORPG EverQuest II (EQ2), has announced a slew of gameplay changes with Game Update 39. The changes range from minor modifications to general gameplay and quests, to improvements in tradeskills and spells, to alterations to the housing and guild bank systems. SOE has tinkered with the in-game pets and the broker as well.

To follow are but a few of the numerous gameplay changes that SOE has introduced:

• The Fear Gate in the Feerrott is now open. Dauntless adventurers may now access the Shard of Fear at their own peril.
• Curious players who love unraveling mysteries may opt to investigate the mysterious visitors from Kunark. These strangers have been sighted near the waters of Qeynos and Freeport.
• Players doing "The Tablets of the Blademaster" quest may now examine the spirit vessel without having to stand in the Pillars of Flame zone.
  
• The quest "A Portrait of Destiny" can no longer be shared.
• Carpenters have begun producing "new and sinister furniture items."
  

While it looks like most of SOE's EverQuest 2 modifications are for the better, some (such as the changes made to "A Portrait of Destiny" quest) may annoy long-time players. Regardless of how the MMORPG's players welcome these changes, however, the fact remains that updates like these help keep players on their toes.

Turbine is getting ready to bring the highly popular MMORPG The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar to China with the help of CDC Games. In fact, the latter has just announced that it has begun its closed beta testing for the game.

China is one of the world's largest markets for online games, so it's no wonder that MMORPG developers and publishers would want to get a foothold in that particular market. If you want to know, Blizzard's World of Warcraft is perhaps one of the most widely played Western MMORPG titles there.

Jeff Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, underscored Turbine's commitment to having a presence in the Chinese online gaming market, saying that the company is "[looking] forward to leveraging CDC Games' proven distribution channels and deployment infrastructure to expand into China".

Blizzard Entertainment, as we previously reported, is planning to wreck havoc in the mobile arena. With a news like that, one's thoughts can't help but wonder if World of Warcraft (WoW) will ever appear on a handheld device. It sounds impossible at first but YouTube user viaarena123 has shown that it is actually very plausible.

The videos below show how the user was able to install WoW on OQO Model 2. The device was first shown during this year's Consumer Electronics Show back in January. Model 2 is actually a six-inch PC with a five-inch screen that runs either Windows XP or Vista.

Some of its technical features include 1.2 GHz or a 1.5 GHz processor, up to 1GB of RAM, up to a 60 GB hard drive, has Bluetooth 2.0, and tri-mode WiFi (802.11a/b/g).

WoW on OQO Model 2 Part 1

See the other video after the jump!

Given that creating game mods for World of Warcraft can prove to be a complicated task, we're happy to see that the Blizzard devs are willing to lend a helping hand for the occasional inquiry. With that said, we'll be taking a look at a WoW forum member Casull, who's reported a problem regarding frame code creation for an AddOn under development:

I have a class that wraps a frame called Host; Host's new() function creates that frame. It goes like this:

Create frame, set its textures
Give frame dimensions
Set frame's point
call another function:
--->call GetTop() on frame

and that last one is giving me a nil value. Still, if I /dump the GetTop() ingame without having changed anything, it gives me a value. I believed that for GetTop()to return a meaningful value, the frame needs to have height, and it needs to be placed somewhere, yet with both of these requirements fulfilled I'm getting nil values. This leads me to ask - is there some kind of pause between when you call SetPoint(), SetHeight(), SetWidth() and when you can call GetTop()?

Shortly after posting the inquiry, Blizzard spokesman Slouken dropped by to provide for advice: "Make sure that you're setting the frame's point to something that is already resolved. Otherwise it sounds like it should work, and you can post a minimal test case for people to look at."

Not exactly major news, but we imagine this discussion should provide pointers to other players planning to make their very own WoW AddOns. It's the weekend - time to brush up on the tutorials.

 

Most players on Blizzard's World of Warcraft use add-ons because of the added convenience it brings to the game. However, if you've become dependent on them like me (I personally love the DoTimer, LoadIT, and ChatMOD), then you'd better check if it's compatible with the 2.1 patch that's coming out.

Curse Gaming was cool enough to post a compatibility list for the add-ons (you can check this out via our read link below). After checking with the UI forum, we came to the same conclusion that the modifications to the existing add-ons shouldn't be as extensive as the previous patch. However, a lot can happen when it comes to development and implementation of add-ons, so don't be so certain that your current configuration will work once the new patch comes out.

So don't be caught with your pants down and check out the list immediately to see if your add-ons are known to work with the 2.1 patch. You should remember though that just because it's not posted doesn't mean it won't work, it just means that it hasn't been tested under the new patch.

Resident World of Warcraft gamers will be happy to know that jtbalogh let us in on the latest release of the LFGX addon tool. For the guys wondering what this WoW addon does, the author describes it as "A Looking For Group interface with optional notification from channels and server" kind of addon.
Guys who felt that previous versions of this WoW addon were problematic will be happy to know that jtbalogh has fixed many of LFGX's bugs since our most recent post. As for 2.51's changelog:

• New test channel available to practice how to send requests without going public.
• Increase the Lfg channel requests in table from 3 to 6. (thx Pimpace)
• Show red 'X' graphic in minimap button when Lfmx is disabled.
• Flash red 'X' graphic in minimap button when blocking chat.
• Bug fix to keep minimap button flashing and prevent randomly hiding behind textures which can occur after login or reload.

These are just some of the more important details users will want to keep alert for - more information can be found in the file bundle's text files. We also advise readers to read up on the source link for other details they will need before getting started. Enjoy the download.

Download: LFGX v2.51

The rest of this addon's important details can be found in the Full article.

The moment Nintendo Wii's motion-sensing controller became widely available, gamers across all platforms were like, "Let's see what other things this white stick can control." And as very well documented, we've seen that the Wiimote can actually control a lot: from guitars, cars, EverQuest II, and even rival console PlayStation 3 (PS3).

Among the many uses of the Wiimote was for playing in World of Warcraft (WoW). The coder displayed through a video tutorial how one can actually explore Azeroth using the Wiimote and it was rather amusing. This next one goes along that line as well. Chris Heald from online blog Anti Arc was able to modify the said controller and made it compatible with WoW's fishing activity.

Before this works, Heald reminds that you should bound first "Shift+F" to the fishing skill and turn off the AutoLoot function. Once that is done, the controls become relatively easy: Hold button "A" and do a casting motion to make your WoW character cast. Moving the Wiimote up without pressing the "A" button will reel your fish in and autoloot the content.

Likewise, the Nunchuk serves as the mouse. Pressing the "B" button plus moving the Nunchuk will move your camera. It's actually pretty nifty and Heald has a proof-of-concept video for all of you. In case you want to know more about the GlovePIE script, the Read link will take you to Chris Heald's blog.

It's been quite a while since we've given you a healthy serving of World of Warcraft mods. So to pick up where we left off, we're giving you three WoW mods for your Outland and Azeroth travels, but in case you don't know what to do with them, we suggest you read up on our past article. Our WoW mods for today are AtlasLoot Enhanced v2.03.03, HealPoints v2.4.1, and BGSoundAlerts 2.

Let's start with the AtlasLoot Enhanced v2.03.03 from Daviesh. This map enhancement mod is a plugin and it needs a host mod to work. For this one, a host mod in the form of Atlas or Alphamap should do the trick. Here's the patch notes for this release:

v2.03.03

• Magtheridon fix for non-english clients

v2.03.02

• Fixed outland maps included with Atlas 1.8.6

After that map enhancement mod is a class enhancement mod - Eridan's HealPoints v2.4.1. This is a healer benchmark add-on which is similar to TankPoints for tanks. Designed for healers so as it would be easier for them to choose the most optimal gear. It would display all your needed basic stats and a few advanced benchmarks - PowerPoints and EndurancePoints.

Then we move on to BGSoundAlerts 2 by Klishu. This battleground mod will add vocal (spoken) sounds to important events in the Arathi Basin, Warsong Gulch, Alterac Valley, and Eye of the Storm battlegrounds. Check out our link below to know the events currently supported by this mod.

Download: AtlasLoot Enhanced v2.03.03
Download: HealPoints v2.4.1
Download: BGSoundAlerts 2

New to World of Warcraft? Ever wonder what we do to make our windows look all spiffy during gameplay? Well then, this is the article for you.

Over at Atomic, Logan Booker's written a very insightful and lengthy explanation to WoW modifications. It's got everything, from an overview of what mods are to installing them. He even suggests mods that are considered staples of any veteran's arsenal, as well as some other functional ones that are off the radar for some people.

Now that you've picked up a couple of mods you want to use, he also offers some suggestions for interface layouts, from the usual top-heavy and centered styles, to a very minimalist style that gives you a ton of free space. All in all, reading that will give you no excuse to keep using Blizzard's old style, so why not give mods a try, eh?