Following the numerous third-party World of Warcraft apps already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Blizzard recently took the plunge with the release of an official World of Warcraft app that lets users access the Armory database from practically anywhere.

As you are probably now aware by now, both the US and the EU servers are live and ready. To help you along your way, there's a pretty good WoWLK-ready talent calculator out. Remember, your build's gotta change with the introduction of Glyphs and an additional 10 levels. May as well start planning it out as early as now. The link's in the full article.

For the guys in Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMORPG trying to organize their motley crew into an organized fighting force, we've got an announcement that might help. SpiffyJr has just announced that phpRaider has now gone public, and is available for download for guys who are members of the phpRaider site.

In case you're wondering, phpRaider is an online raid management and organization utility tool. It's been built specifically to run in the WoW MMORPG, and is actually a successor to phpRaid. Here's a sample of the tool's features:

• Support for any number of classes, races, and class/race combinations.
• Support for any MMORPG game.
• Support for any number of attributes assigned to character profiles such as resistances, damage abilities, talents, and more!
• Raids are arranged in an easy to view calendar format showing only pertinent information. When clicked, a detailed list of class signups and raid information become available.
• Post announcements for your members to see.
• Create any number of characters for each user profile.
• Extensive permission settings allow you to customize who has access to what features of phpRaider.
• Ability to signup for multiple raids and create recurring raids.
  

On a last note,  guys will have to register over at the phpRaider site to be able to download the file - that would be the read link below. Also make sure to view the application requirements before installation.

At the Sony Gamers' Day this year, ShackNews' Chris Remo was able to try out Sony Online Entertainment's new Station Launcher. So what can we expect from the Steam-like program?

For those unfamiliar about the Station Launcher, it was announced last year and would be most comparable to Valve's Steam service plus more. The software client is slated to be released this summer and will bring a lot of new things to the table of this sort of service.

First off, players will be able to manage their video games in a neat little package including game purchases (expansions, TCGs), updates, and even billing. The service will allow players to install SOE and run games without CDs, they just need to register the CD-keys.

There are also a number of launching options where players can choose to launch games to a certain character in a specific server so they won't have to go through the choose server and character pages. Players can also set games to automatically launch as soon as Windows boots. There's even an option that allows players to skip the End User Agreement unless there's something modified on the document. It will also have a monitoring feature for CPU usage and download status for patches, as well as game specific news panes for updates on a particular title.

Station Launcher will be sporting cross game chat so all players across the SOE MMO universe can stay connected with each other even when they're playing different games. The feature will not be limited to that, though, as it also "retroactively locates the current location of friends met in the past and shows a breakdown of their SOE gaming histories as well as pinpointing where they were first encountered online." Basically, it locates a friend from you met previously in another game.

Nathan Pearce, creative director at SOE had this to say: "What I expect when this goes live is a massive online reunion in all these games." Interestingly, SOE plans to have the service cross over even to games distributed by other publishers. They currently contract services like billing and customer service to other MMO games like Final Fantasy XI.

Even other chat services like AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Xfire, and Yahoo! Messenger will be integrated to the software client. Windows Live Messenger is also planned to be included in that list. The chat compatibility does not end there. SOE will have "shared game-related functions" between Xfire and the Station Launcher and hopes to have the same thing with Yahoo!.

The Station Launcher will also be mod friendly since the program is based on an open Jabber standard. SOE also plans to exploring giving out kits so that people can make their own skins. The possibility of the software client being available for the PlayStation 3 is also being explored though there wasn't any confirmation from Pearce.

We'll wait for further info about Station Launcher which is currently in internal beta. Reportedly, the software client is going to go on public beta test this spring and will go live in late summer. The current application being used, Launchpad will be subsequently phased out.

Paladins are basically a hybrid class that mixes melee and casting abilities. Mostly paladins are known to have a raid role of healer, having strong buffs and healing abilities.

The Holy talent build is littered with buffs (mainly for casters) and healing skills. Here's a calculator for all the healing values you need to know kindly created by Nex from the IGN Vault. It has fields for your healing gear, mana per five, and mana pool plus crit chance not including Holy Talents. Cast times are also included, so you can calculate how many times you can heal in a fray.

Actual mana cost is also included as paladins have abilities to regain mana and gear that helps mana regen. Average heals, healing per mana, healing per second, and healing to OOM are also included. Oh, and by the way, the calculations are done for level 70.

Download: [Paladin Healing Calculator]

Are you one of the Ryzom Ring guys who had minor problems with your favorite MMO? Have you tried editing a scenario with a character from the Ruins of Silan and then just found out that you couldn't go into Ring editor to edit your characters? Well we may have found the cure to your problem. The main site has just announced that they've finally fixed this annoying glitch, and that all your characters can now edit scenarios.

Given just what Ryzom Ring offers to the players with regards to options and environment controls, expect capabilities of this undertaking to have the occasional bug or glitch. At the very least, they fixed that problem fast. Get back in the game, and enjoy some good ol' Ryzom action!

Have you ever wondered why you can't send your buddies in game messages and items while playing Dungeons and Dragons Online? If so, sit tight... Those days are almost over.

In the upcoming Twilight Forge module, enchanted delivery devices will be available throughout Stormreach's city wards to allow citizens, for a small fee, to transport items quickly over short distances. So now you'll be able to Send Text Messages, Send Items, Send Currency, Receive Mail, and more.

Or, if you prefer, here's the info in D&D speak: the services of the House Orien Couriers will provide a complete system for communication and commerce with other residents of Stormreach. Sweet.

LagMeter is a new software application that measures online PC game performance. Now, gamers can see exactly how much lag they are experiencing, as well as showing the where the lag is occurring – the gaming PC, the network, or the gaming server. With this release, game developers, and hardware manufacturers have a tool that enables them to measure lag and understand where the problems reside. The LagMeter technology was developed by Bigfoot Networks, a research and development company, focused on developing products that help reduce the effects of Lag in online game play.

“Hardcore gamers know that Lag can be caused by many different forces, and that Lag has no formal definition – it’s a term that gamers use to describe something bad that happens in an online game that is out of their control” said Harlan Beverly, CEO of Bigfoot Networks. “With LagMeter, gamers can quantify and narrow down the cause Lag in their favorite games.”

Bigfoot Networks invented LagMeter while studying the causes of Lag in online games. The company decided to release the tool to the public after reading all the forum posts at EndLagNow.org and across the Internet from gamers who want to know why they are Lagging. Gamers want to know if it is their system at fault, or if it is the Internet or the gaming server that is causing the problems.

“The toughest challenge is to quantify Lag in a meaningful metric that makes sense,” said Mr. Beverly. “LagMeter solves this by introducing a new metric, Lags per Minute (LPM), which is essentially the number of measurable Lag events in a minutes worth of game-play.”

In addition to displaying Lags per Minute, LagMeter also measures and displays more standard metrics that gamers are familiar with such as Frames-per-Second (FPS) and Ping. Also included in the software is an advanced configuration tab that allows the user to tailor exactly what is being measured based on which game they are playing or which network port or device is running the game.

Download: [LagMeter Beta]