World of Warcraft creator Blizzard looks set to get $6m (£3.36m) from the makers of a software ‘bot’.

The cash is part of a deal brokered by Blizzard and MDY Industries - the maker of the WoWGlider software ‘bot.

Blizzard embarked on the case against MDY claiming that the World of Warcraft Glider software produced by the company infringed its copyright.

The Glider software lets Warcraft players automate many of the repetitive steps the game involves.

Cash call

In July US District Court Judge David Campbell ruled that the MMOGlider, as the software is now known, broke the terms of the license that players agree to when they play World of Warcraft (WoW).

The Glider software is the creation of MDY founder Michael Donnelly who is thought to have sold more than 100,000 copies of the $25 (£14) program.

It proved popular with many WoW players as it helped them automate the many repetitive tasks, such as killing monsters and scavenging loot, required to turn low level characters into more powerful ones.

Although sizeable the damages award could have been bigger, say experts, if MDY had not won some of its arguments about damages in court.

It was also helped by an admission in court that it would be reasonable to pay some form of damages.

The award could be delayed if Blizzard appeals against the judgement which threw out its claim to double or triple the cash settlement.

The case is due to go to court again in January 2009 when the remaining issues in the legal conflict look likely to be settled.

At issue will be whether MDY broke the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act and whether Mr Donnelly will have to pay the damages from his own pocket.

Investigations into the death of full-time National Serviceman Joe Foo Wei Rong found that he had been given medical leave the day before he died but he did not inform officials about it.

The Defence Ministry said in a statement released on Thursday that a medical certificate dated September 28, 2008 was found in Private Foo’s personal bunk cupboard after his death. The medical centre had no documentation of his medical certificate.

Soldiers are required to submit certifications of their medical conditions at the centre.

Private Foo had seen a doctor at the Singapore General Hospital on Sunday. He was supposed to rest from September 28 to 29 for “sprains and strains of the knee and leg”, and to be given light duties for the subsequent four days.

The former Singapore Polytechnic student died on Tuesday while doing chin-ups at Lim Chu Kang camp.

It is the first time a full-time serviceman died while doing basic routine exercise.

China has vowed to halt dairy exports until it can eliminate the threat from tainted milk that has sickened thousands in China and led to product recalls worldwide, a Japanese official said Thursday.

The promise was made during a briefing by China for foreign diplomats from several countries in Beijing on Tuesday, the government official revealed to AFP.

“The point made there was that the Chinese government has handled the matter promptly and firmly and has taken measures to halt exports of dairy products, which will not be resumed until their safety is fully confirmed,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official’s account of the briefing could not be immediately confirmed by AFP as Chinese government offices and many embassies were closed for a week-long holiday.

China is struggling to limit the damage to its export reputation caused by the widespread distribution of milk products contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

Such products have killed at least four children and sickened 53,000 in mainland China, the government has said previously.

Children have fallen ill with kidney stones after consuming Chinese dairy products in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

China’s commerce minister Chen Deming became the latest top official to promise tighter government controls as a result of the scandal but he acknowledged lax business ethics remained a problem.

“The government will improve quality inspection on dairy products,” Chen was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.

“But more importantly, the dairy enterprises must win consumers’ faith through honesty.”

The melamine was added to milk before being sold to dairy manufacturers in a bid to falsely boost protein readings, Chinese authorities have said.

Countries around the world have announced steps to ban, recall or otherwise limit consumption of products containing Chinese milk.

Belgium became the latest to find melamine in imported products, detecting high levels of it in White Rabbit sweets, the country’s Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety said Tuesday.

The sweets, which are popular in China, have been taken off store shelves, the agency said, as they have in some other countries already.

The European Union recently banned all imports of Chinese milk-related products for children on top of a long-standing embargo on Chinese dairy products like milk and yoghurt.

First appearing in baby milk formula, melamine has now been found in a range of products containing Chinese milk in what is arguably the worst in a litany of product safety scandals involving Chinese-made goods in recent years.

The nation’s top product safety watchdog said on Wednesday melamine had been found in 31 milk powder products made by 20 different companies.

The China Daily reported, however, that the public health threat may have peaked in China.

It said the number of babies brought into hospital for check-ups in the northern city of Shijianzhuang had dropped from a high of 43,000 a day to about 5,000.

Shijiazhuang, in northern Hebei province, is the headquarters of Sanlu Group, whose toxic baby formula was at the origin of the crisis and is one of the cities hit hardest by the scandal.

If there’s one thing that’s sure to get video gamers talking, it’s a rumor that there could be a new Wii, Xbox, or PlayStation console on the horizon.

Well, the hot topic of discussion du jour is that there could be a new Wii by 2011, according to a post on the blog What They Play.

That site “has heard from multiple sources in the game development and publishing community that Nintendo is currently showing early presentations of its next home console hardware. Apparently set to hit the market ‘by 2011,’ the device is said to be the true ‘next generation’ Nintendo console, and far more than a simple refresh of the current (Wii) hardware.”

The post continued, asserting that this rumored new device could have high-definition capabilities, as well as a “greater emphasis on digitally distributed and backwardly compatible content.”

For its part, Nintendo said it does not comment on rumors.

It could be mere coincidence (because odds are that even if the rumors are true, Nintendo wouldn’t want to confirm them for quite some time), but on Thursday, the company is hosting its annual media day here in San Francisco. And I’d been told that it would “have news” it would be releasing at the event. Until now, I’d assumed the news would be something only minimally consequential, but of course, announcing a new Wii development project would make a few headlines, I would think.

More likely, the news that Nintendo will put out Thursday will be about a new multimedia DS handheld device, such as the one the video game blog Joystiq says could be unveiled at a separate press event in Japan Wednesday night.

Still, if the new Wii rumors are true, it will be a long time before Nintendo would be ready to unveil any details–think maybe the Game Development Conference in March, 2009, or E3 next July. Or possibly not even then.

One big question is why Nintendo would be rushing to put out a new console when the Wii is selling at unbelievable levels, far outselling Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. In August, according to industry analysts The NPD Group, the Wii sold 453,000 units, while the Xbox moved 195,000 and the PS3 just 185,000.

Of course, as has been made abundantly clear over the last year or so, many people don’t consider the Wii to be a direct competitor to the Xbox and the PS3. Rather, some see the Wii as complementary to the other two consoles, despite the fact that before any of them hit the market, all three were touted as “next generation” devices.

But the Xbox and the PS3 are both HD consoles that provide very high-quality graphics capabilities. By contrast, the Wii’s graphics are not nearly as powerful; instead, the console’s success is based mainly on its innovative motion-sensitive controllers.

Some gamers, however, would most likely love to see a console from Nintendo that can offer high-quality graphics and HD capabilities, which is why any new Wii, such as the one talked about in these rumors, centers on that functionality.

It would be fair to ask why a Nintendo console would need HD capabilities, and the answer there could easily be that just because any new device had them doesn’t mean all new games for it would have to take advantage of them. Some could, however, and I’m sure gamers would like the variety of choices that such a development would offer.

Price-wise, however, it’s hard to see how a new Wii device would make sense. One way the Wii has arrived at its dominant position–one few expected before the three consoles hit the market in 2005 and 2006–is by having the lowest price.

Now, however, the lowest-end Xbox costs less than the Wii. Last month, Microsoft said it was lowering the price of the Xbox Arcade to $199, becoming the first next-gen console to break the $200 price barrier that many industry observers feel is the magic price point that opens up a market to mass consumers. The Wii still costs $249.

But in my opinion, that $50 price difference would not be enough to discourage Wii buyers–holiday 2008 sales will tell the story, I suppose–and I expect that in the near term, Nintendo will continue to see its sales be an order of magnitude higher than the Xbox or the PS3.

And over the next couple of years, the Wii’s price could drop further, joining the Xbox below the $200 threshold and ensuring continued strong sales.

So why would Nintendo want to put out a new console that would almost surely cost more?

That’s the question I think is hard to answer. The company would almost certainly have to subsidize the price to keep it low, and as long as there wasn’t yet a new Xbox or PlayStation–some think Microsoft may have a new device in the works, while almost no one foresees a PlayStation 4 any time soon–a new HD Wii would mean that Nintendo would have to lose money in the short term to build market share with a new device, even as the Wii would likely still be selling well.

All in all, it’s hard to know how to take rumors like these. There are certainly some reasons to think Nintendo would want to go this direction, and there are other reasons why it wouldn’t.

Eventually, of course, Nintendo will have to release a new console–and the traditional five-year console cycle would have the company coming out with a new one in 2011. But why mess with the kind of success the Wii is having?

NEW YORK: Investment tycoon Warren Buffett agreed on Wednesday to invest three billion dollars in US conglomerate General Electric, expressing confidence in the company’s long-term outlook.

The move came as GE said it was selling at least 12 billion dollars in new shares in addition to the investment from Buffett, who will obtain preferred stock through his Berkshire Hathaway holding company.

Buffett, who is ranked the world’s second richest individual by Forbes magazine with an estimated worth of 50 billion dollars, will have an option to purchase an additional three billion dollars of the common shares.

“GE is the symbol of American business to the world. I have been a friend and admirer of GE and its leaders for decades,” Buffett said in a statement.

“They have strong global brands and businesses with which I am quite familiar. I am confident that GE will continue to be successful in the years to come.”

GE chief executive Jeff Immelt said the investment “enhances our flexibility and allows us to execute on our liquidity plan even faster” and also “gives us the opportunity to play offence in this market should conditions allow.”

“The economic environment remains volatile,” Immelt said. “However, the company’s performance remains on track with the earnings guidance we provided last week for 2008.”

Last month, GE, a bellwether for the US economy, slashed its earnings guidance and warned of difficult times ahead due to the global credit crunch.

In July, GE announced a new “simplified” organisational structure around four core segments as it set the stage for a spin-off of its consumer and appliance businesses.

GE’s divisions include Technology Infrastructure, which includes health care, aviation and transportation; and GE Energy Infrastructure, making generators, wind turbines and other equipment for the energy sector.

GE Capital, another of the new segments, includes financial services including commercial finance and GE Money consumer finance.

GE also controls NBC Universal, the media-entertainment powerhouse that includes NBC television and Universal Pictures.

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans from all walks of life attended Mr JB Jeyaretnam’s wake on Wednesday. And online, several hundred people penned their thoughts on the veteran politician.

Many paid their last respects to a man described as “determined” and “dedicated”. There were also several people from the legal fraternity at the wake, including Ms Indranee Rajah, MP of Tanjong Pagar GRC and the Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

She said: “He was a prominent opposition figure who made fiery speeches and obviously was a man of conviction. In the 60s, 70s period, he was always a larger-than-life figure.”

Members of Singapore’s opposition parties were also present, including Potong Pasir MP Chiam See Tong.

“Mr Jeyaretnam taught the opposition that it must change its strategy to unite and contest the PAP with a bigger force, instead of taking on the mighty PAP single-handedly.

“He is truly an opposition member; his life was devoted to the opposition. He had great ideals but his ideals may be a bit ahead of the times,” said Mr Chiam.

A facebook group has also been set up in memory of Mr Jeyaretnam. So far, some 700 people, including Singaporeans living overseas, have signed up. Most on the website said they admire Mr Jeyaretnam’s fighting spirit and tenacity.

SINGAPORE: The government has assured Singaporeans that all food products here are safe for consumption, but it plans to set up a forensic unit to study possible sources of food contamination in the future.

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told reporters this after visiting a public health lab on Wednesday.

Channel NewsAsia understands that the forensic unit, under the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), will likely be operational in one month. This comes on the back of the melamine scare, originating from China.

No one in Singapore has fallen ill from eating melamine-tainted products. But in China, four children have died and over 50,000 infants are sick from drinking melamine-laced infant formula.

Laboratory staff in Singapore have been working tirelessly since mid-September, testing about 100 samples every day. Mr Mah said Singapore has a very tight food security and safety system, but there is no guarantee that such a contamination will not happen again.

He said: “What we need to do is to strengthen our vigilance system. Meaning, not just depend on what we read but also perhaps our intelligence on the ground, with our overseas partners, and to strengthen our information gathering so that the chances of such things happening can be reduced. In other words, we keep our eyes and ears on the ground more.”

Mr Mah added that it is impossible to test every single food product that comes into Singapore as this would require many more laboratories and manpower, which could eventually drive up food prices.

Presently, Singapore already conducts tests on more food samples compared to other countries.

Mr Mah said AVA has also spoken to 160 importers and manufacturers to withdraw their advertisements in the newspapers stating that their products do not contain milk ingredients from China and are safe for consumption as that has not been fully verified, and such advertisements confuse Singaporeans.

To date, Singapore has identified ten products which contain melamine that is used to make plastics. But the minister called on Singaporeans not to over-react.

“Being vigilant does not mean we go into a panic, so let’s just stay calm. In a few months’ time, hopefully we’ll be able to complete the testing and sampling of all the various products and with discussion with our overseas partners, and also with the Chinese food authorities, we should be able to manage the situation,” said Mr Mah.

So far, the authorities have tested 600 out of 1,000 products. Aside from milk and dairy items from China, they are also testing products from other countries like the US and even Singapore-made ones to give the public greater assurance that the food products sold here are safe for consumption.

The Beta realms (and PTRs) have been updated with a new build (9014). As usual stay tuned for all new changes.

Updates

17:40 CET -  Blue Post: Patch 3.0.2 Release Date/End of Arena Season 4 on October 14.
08:00 CET - Alexstrasza the Life-Binder (humanoid form) has now her own unique model.

05:20 CET - Warrior - Berserker Rage will now be usable in all stances. (Source)
04:25 CET - Varimathras (Sylvanas’s right hand) received a facelift.

04:15 CET - Glyph vendors have been added to Dalaran (for testing purposes).

03:20 CET - Glyph changes added.
02:20 CET -  Blue Post: Honor will not be reseted at the release of Wrath of the Lich King.
02:10 CET -  Wowhead talent calculator has been updated with the latest build (9014).

Blue Post - Honor will not be reseted at the release of WotLK

Quote from: Bornakk (Source)

We had hoped that the introduction of some new Honor rewards in the upcoming patch would give players a great opportunity to spend any of their remaining Honor. However, many players would still be surprised by an Honor and token reset as it isn’t something we’ve done in the past. As such, we’ve decided to not reset Honor or tokens upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King. Players who save their Honor will be able to spend it on level 80 rewards, although those rewards will be significantly more expensive than their level 70 counterparts.

Glyph Changes

Death Knight
Glyph of Rune Strike - Increases the critical strike chance of your Rune Strike by 10% but increases cost by 5 runic power (old version was 50 runic power).

Druid
Glyph of Regrowth - Increases the healing of your Regrowth spell by 20% (old version was 50%) if your Regrowth effect is still active on the target.
Glyph of Aquatic Form - Increases your swim speed by 50% (old version was 20%) while in Aquatic Form.

Hunter
Glyph of Aimed Shot - Reduces the mana cost of your Aimed Shot ability by 20%. (old version: Decreases the cast time of Aimed Shot by 0.5 sec.)

Paladin
Glyph of Exorcism - Your Exorcism also interrupts spellcasting for 2 sec.
Glyph of Flash of Light - Your Flash of Light heals for 50% less initially, but also heals for 140.0% of its inital effect over 15 sec.
Glyph of the Warhorse - Removed
Glyph of the Wise - Reduces the mana cost of your Seal of Wisdom spell by 50%.

Priest
Glyph of Fading - Reduces the mana cost of your Fade spell by 30%. (old version was 50%)
Glyph of Spirit of Redemption - All heals cast while Spirit of Redemption is active have a 20% chance to increase the remaining duration of Spirit of Redemption by 5 sec (old version: by 20 sec).

Rogue
Glyph of Garrote - Reduces the duration of your Garrote ability by 3 sec and increases the total damage it deals by 20%. (old version: Increases periodic damage dealt by Garrote by 45%, but decreases the duration by 3 sec.)
Glyph of Preparation - Your Preparation ability also instantly resets the cooldown of Blade Flurry, Dismantle, and Kick. (old version: Decreases the cooldown of Preparation by 2 min)

Warrior
Glyph of Resonating Power - Reduces the rage cost of your Thunder Clap ability by 5. (old version: Increases the maximum targets affected by your Thunder Clap ability by 4.)

Class Changes

Quote from: wotlkwiki (source)

Death Knight (9014: Skills | Talents)
Blood

• Blood Tap - Tooltip Fix : Duration changed to 20 seconds. (Old 47802d.)
• Bladed Armor - Now increases attack power by 1/2/3/4/5 for every 180 armor value. (Old 1/2/3/4/5 strength for every 400 armor)
• Abomination’s Might - Range of attack power increase now 45 yds (Old 20 yds)

Frost

• Obliterate Damage lowered. (Now Rank 3 - 100% weapon damage plus 238.5, and an additional 119.25 bonus damage per disease) (Old Rank 3 - 100% weapon damage plus 252, 126 bonus damage per disease.)
• Tundra Stalker - Now gives a passive bonus increase to your Icy Touch. (20/40/60/80/100%)
• Guile of Gorefiend - No longer gives bonus to Rune Strike critical damage.
• Howling Blast - Damage increased on all ranks. (Now Rank 5 - 259 to 281) (Old Rank 5 - 192 to 208)
• Runic Focus - Description changed to : “Unlike most casters, a Death Knight’s spells cause double damage on critical hits.”

Unholy

• Death and Decay - Damage Increased (Now Rank 4 - 62 Damage) (Old Rank 4 - 52 Damage)
• Blood-Caked Blade - Damage increased to 25% of weapon damage. (Old 20% of weapon damage.)
• Blood Plague - Chance to remove a Heal over Time effect reduced to 25% (Old 50%)
• Reaping - Pestilence removed, Blood Strike added.

Druid (9014: Skills | Talents)
Balance

• Starfall - Now has a 30 yard range. Instant cast.
• Nature’s Splendor - Now increases the duration of your Insect Swarm by 2.0 sec (down from 3.0)
• Typhoon - Rank 4 now does 1010 Nature damage (formerly bugged at 1 damage).

Feral

• Rake - DoT damage increased for all ranks. (check the new dmg here)
  
• Swipe - No longer has a target limit. Now: (Rank 1) Swipe nearby enemies, inflicting 9 damage. Damage increased by attack power.
• Mangle (Cat) - Now does 200% normal damage (up from 160%). Additional damage increased for all ranks.
• Protector of the Pack - Now reduced damage per party member by 1/2/3% instead of a flat 3% for all ranks.

Hunter (9014: Skills | Talents)
Beast Mastery

• Aspect of the Viper reworded - Now: The hunter takes on the aspect of the viper, causing ranged attacks to regenerate mana but reducing your total damage done by 50%. Mana gained is based on the speed of your ranged weapon. Only one Aspect can be active at a time.
• Aspect of the Wild - Rank 4 now increases Nature resistance by 130 (up from 70).
• Kindred Spirits - Description now includes “This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects.”

Marksmanship

• Aimed Shot - Mana cost reduced from 16% to 12% of base mana. Now instant cast. Cooldown increased from 6 seconds to 10 seconds. Ranged damage increase reduced for all ranks.
• Concussive Shot - Now has a 12 sec cooldown.
• Kill Shot - Now deals 200% weapon damage (down from 205%). Base damage reduced by approx 50% on all ranks.
• Multi-Shot - Mana cost increased for 12% to 13% of base mana.
• Focused Aim - No longer effects Aimed Shot. Now also increases your chance to hit by 1/2/3%.
• Marked for Death - Now increases your damage done by your shots and the damage done by your pet’s special abilities by 1/2/3/4/5% (down from 2/4/6/8/10%) on marked targets.
• Scatter Shot - Moved from Tier 5 to Tier 3.

Survival

• Freezing Arrow - The trap placed by the arrow now breaks on any damage (instead of having a chance to break).
• Freezing Trap - Trap now breaks on any damage once again, instead of having a chance to break. (”Any damage caused will break the ice.”)
• Lock and Load - Now has a 2/4/6% proc chance on periodic damage (down from 5/10/15%).
• Point of No Escape - Changes from 3 to 2 points. Now also effects Freezing Arrow. Critical strike chance increase on affected targets is now 3/6% instead of 2/4/6%.
• Readiness - Moved from Tier 9 to Tier 5.
• Surefooted - Moved from Tier 4 to Tier 2. No longer increases hit chance.
• Trap Mastery - Moved from Tier 3 to Tier 9. Now effects Freezing Trap in the same way as Frost Trap (duration increase, instead of root effect on dispell).

Pet Abilities

• T.N.T. - Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 4
• Avoidance (NEW TALENT) - Reduces the damage your pet takes from area of effect attacks by an additional 25/50%.

Mage (9014: Skills | Talents)
Arcane

• Sound Effect Spell - Polymorph Penguin and Polymorph Sheep added
• Missile Barrage - Now affects Arcane Barrage. Now has a 3/6/9/12/20% chance to reduce the channeled duration of the next Arcane Missiles spell by 2.5 secs and missiles will fire every .5 secs.

Fire

• Empowered Fireball - Renamed Empowered Fire. Now affects Frostfire Bolt.
• Living Bomb - Now has no knockup.

Frost

• Deep Freeze - Now does no damage.
• Frost Warding - Moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2
• Frostbite - Moved from Tier 2 to Tier 1

Paladin (9014: Skills | Talents)
Holy

• Divine Plea - Now you gain 25% of your total mana over 15 sec (up from 10 sec), but the amount healed by your spells is reduced by 100% (up from 50%).
• Infusion of Light - Now your Holy Shock critical hits reduce the cast time of your next Holy Light spell by -0.50/-1 secs (down from -1.25/-2.5 sec).
• Judgements of the Pure - Now lasts 60 sec (up from 30 sec).

Retribution

• Judgements of the Wise - Now immediately grants you 33% of your base mana (instead of 20% of your maximum mana).

Priest (9014: Skills | Talents)
Discipline

• Silent Resolve - Ranks 4 and 5 removed.
• Twin Disciplines - Now increases “damage and healing” instead of “spellpower”.

Holy

• Guardian Spirit - This sacrifice terminates the effect but heals the target of 50% of their maximum health. Up from 10%.
• Holy Nova - Mana cost reduced to 25% of base mana from 33% of base mana for higher ranks. Lower ranks also had a mana cost reduction.

Shadow

• Devouring Plague - Amount of damage that heals you now specified, 15% of damage caused by the Devouring Plague heals the caster.
• Twisted Faith - Now works if your target is afflicted by your Shadow Word: Pain instead of Mind Flay.

Rogue (8982: Skills | Talents)
Assassination

• Focused Attacks - Your melee critical strikes have a 33/66/100% chance to give you 2 energy.
  

Combat

• Gouge - Damage now scales with attack power.
• Aggression - Moved from Tier 5 to Tier 4. Now increases the damage of your Sinister Strike, Backstab, and Eviscerate abilities by 3/6/9/12/15% (up from 2/4/6/8/10%).
• Blade Twisting - Now also increases the damage dealt by Sinister Strike and Backstab by 5/10%.
• Vitality - Now regens 8/16/25% energy (up from 3/7/10%).

Shaman (9014: Skills | Talents
Elemental

• Fire Nova Totem - Mana cost now 33% of base mana. (Old 26%)
• Fire Nova Totem - New ranks added. (Level 75 rank 8 - 755 to 843 damage) (Level 80 Rank 9 - 893 to 997 damage)

Enhancement

• Flurry - Attack speed increase lowered by 5% (Now 5/10/15/20/25) (Old 10/15/20/25/30).
• Stormstrike - 20% damage increase now only effects Nature spells.
• Maelstrom Weapon - Chance for buff to apply lowered, now can proc on any melee weapon hit (noncrit or crit) (New 3/6/9/12/15) (Old 20/40/60/80/100)
• Spirit Wolves - Spirit Hunt - Duration removed.

Restoration

• Improved Water Shield - Now works on Riptide Critical Hits.
• Ancestral Awakening - Now works on Riptide Critical Hits.

Totems

• Frost Resistance Totem - Duration fixed to be 5 minutes.
• Totem of Wrath - Duration fixed to be 5 minutes.
• Fire Resistance Totem - Duration fixed to be 5 minutes.

Warlock (9014: Skills | Talents)
Affliction

• Everlasting Affliction - Now Drain Life and Haunt will reset Corruption instead of Drain Life and Shadow Bolt.
• Drain Soul - Drains the soul of the target, causing 426 Shadow damage over 15 sec. If the target is at or below 25% health, Drain Soul causes four times the normal damage. If the target dies while being drained, and yields experience or honor, the caster gains a Soul Shard. Soul Shards are required for other spells.
• Curse of Doom - If the target yields experience or honor when it dies from this damage, a Doomguard will be summoned. Cannot be cast on players.
• Haunt - Now heals for 100% of damage done. Down from 200%.

Demonology

• Enslave Demon - Lasts up to 60 sec. Down from 300 sec.
• Demonic Pact - Does not work on Enslaved demons.

Destruction

• Chaos Bolt - Now does fire damage instead of chaos damage.
• Conflagrate - Now works with Shadowflame as well as Immolate.

Warrior (9014: Skills | Talents)
Arms

• Sword Specialization - This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Fury

• Armored of the Teeth - Increases your attack power by 1/2/3 for every 180 armor value you have. (old version: Increases your Strength by 1/2/3 for every 400 armor value you have).
  

Protection

• Shield Bash - Damage increased. (Rank Blah - X damage.)
• Thunder Clap - Maximum targets removed.
• Revenge - Damage increased (Now Rank 9 - [1454.0 + AP * 0.207] to [1776.0 + AP * 0.207]) (Old Rank 9 - [652.0 + AP * 0.093] to [796.0 + AP * 0.093])
• Sword and Board - Now effects Revenge.
• Shield Slam - Damage increased (Now Rank 8 - 990 to 1040 damage) (Old Rank 8 - 756 to 794 Damage)
  

Perhaps you’re like me and starting to wonder if the RIM BlackBerry Bold is just a mythical creature like Bigfoot–spotted in the wild a number of times but yet to be captured, or in the Bold’s case, released. The smartphone was announced way back in May for AT&T, but we have yet to hear about an actual availability date. Oh, and trust us, we’ve asked RIM numerous times for just a teeny tiny hint and have been met by the same answers: “this fall” or “very soon.”

We do think the launch is close, but if you’re looking for something a little more concrete, here’s something to nibble on in the meantime. On Monday, the Boy Genius Report posted screen shots of what looks to be Best Buy’s computer system, showing an in-stock date of October 26 for the Bold. BGR goes on to say that the smartphone will have a price of “around $600″ (come again?) and will be released a week or two ahead of AT&T.

Again, this is all speculation so take it for what it’s worth. Personally, I’m tired of waiting and have already moved on and set my sights on the RIM BlackBerry Storm. Anyone else?

We got something else coming later today.

Upcoming Warrior Changes

Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)

NOTE: These changes were in the works before the recent round of dps discussions. I hope to have some Arms and Fury changes to report soon.

Armored to the Teeth — Changed to AP, but amount reduced to 1 per 360 armor (to compensate for the loss of Blessings of Kings etc.). We implemented this talent for dps warriors and didn’t want it to feel like the ultimate Shield Block Value talent. It’s still good for Protection, just not as good. Death Knights will get the same treatment.

EDIT: I meant 2 AP : 360 per talent point. My point was that we understand 1 Str > 2 AP for warriors.

Thunder Clap — Increase in threat generation. No target limit. Swipe gets the same treatment. With these changes, all 4 tank classes should be able to generate very respectable AE threat. Consecration is still a little higher in threat to account for Thunder Clap’s debuff.

Revenge — Added to Sword and Board as a chance to proc Shield Slam. Increased its damage significantly. We want Revenge to be the button you push first.

Shield Slam — Increased its flat damage to compensate for the Devastate nerf a few weeks ago. The Revenge change will help dps too, though only when you’re tanking. We didn’t want to increase the scaling portion of Shield Slam for fear that warrior threat becomes too high at ultimate gear levels, but we might still change it if they fall behind. We’re not saying (for now) that Prot must do dps with a shield instead of dual-wielding Devastates, but this should make it more viable.

We’re doing some more mitigation and survivability tests now. Our suspicion is that warriors are fine in this department and paladins might fall behind in the area of Shield Block Value at very high gear levels. But we’ll see.

Blue Posts

Drak’Tharon Keep Heroic
Trollgore has been hotfixed. He should no longer Consume, land a melee swing, and perform the Crush ability for 20k+ damage all within 1 second of each other anymore. (src)

Death Knight
Death and Decay’s threat increased
We did several threat per second tests and decided to increase Death and Decay’s threat in order to make DK’s more effective AE tanks. You still aren’t going to be able to spam it, but an initial D&D should get enough threat against the targets that you’ll have time to Pestilence, Blood Boil or whatever else before losing targets. (src)

Druid
Swipe’s target limit removed
We are going to remove the target limit on Swipe. (src)

Priest
Shadow tree still being worked on
Because we’re not done. (src)

Prayer of Mending threat
We’ve really buffed threat generation for tanks. Even when broken classes were doing 4500 dps in raids, they weren’t pulling off the tanks. We’re trying to back off threat management as a major component of grouping (though we’re not removing it). Raid fights should be more about keeping people alive, knowing the fight, and coordinating with your group. As part of this philosophy, we are trying to make more consistent spells with odd threat rules, and PoM fell into that category.

When threat numbers are very low, then things like PoM going off or even a Renew tick can cause threat problems. We think this is a little sucky and are trying to come up with elegant ways to fix it. While the start of a fight can present this problem, I actually think it’s worse once a fight is well undeway and there are adds and spawns of some kind that go right to the healer.

Another reason we changed the way spells like PoM healed was so the healing credit would actually go to the Priest in mods that track such things. (src)

Ghostcrawler on Lightwell
I actually think Lightwell is borderline OP at the moment.
The inherent design of this spell suffers from a fundamental problem that we’ve been working forever to solve. That is, with the possible exception of the tank, the raid generally assumes that healing is the sole responsibility of the healers and that if they take any time to heal themselves, they will “lose” the damage meters.
Lightwell has always been useful. It’s just most classes won’t take the time to use it. To be fair, when they tried in the past, they weren’t impressed with the results, or the charges went away as soon as they got close or whatever. It’s a pretty sweet heal now, so if people would just get over the (deserved) lolwell reputation of the past, they’d find it’s well worth the clicky.
Fortunately, Naxx, Chamber of the Aspects and Malygos do have several moments when you need to move, pause or otherwise hit a point in the fight when you can’t dps. That’s when Lightwell shines. (src)

Prayer of Divine Spirit is not giving the spell damage buff
We’ll look into it. (src)

Rogue
Fan of Knives energy cost and cooldown
We picked that cost pretty much because it competes with Sinister Strike. If FoK is 40 or 30, we worry you would hit it every single time it’s up. Now that depends a little on your weapons and poisons, etc. But that was the concern.
We want to use it in groups where you need to AE, to try to get a little bit around the rogue’s inherent weakness at switching targets or having targets die with a few combo points up. It’s not supposed to be a go-to ability. In fact, if you look at a lot of the new spells and abilities we added for a lot of classes, very few of them are core, rotational abilities and most of them are situational. Bacon of Light and Wild Growth help those healers heal when they aren’t in an optimal situation.

We can talk about the cooldown some more. Some AEs are targeted and some aren’t. I’m not sure there is a reason it has to be targeted. We’ll look into that too. (src)

Rogues in Raids
We tend to test single target dps because that is what most fights are, especially the boss fights that people care the most about.
But we definitely keep the AE capabilities of classes in mind as we adjust numbers.
We realize that a huge challenge of this new system is making sure that a raid doesn’t just take 12 of one class. That’s not what we want to see, and we’ll just keep changing numbers to avoid that. (src)

CoS not removing Chains of Ice/Mark of Blood
It seems like Cloak should remove Chains, maybe Mark of Blood, but probably not Death Grip. I’ll look into it some more. (src)

Developer Q/A (src)
Given what we feel is a lack of group utility of the rogue class, what do you see as the value of the rogue in a group/raid setting now that their DPS is available from any other class? And will you be giving rogues more utility to balance this?
Bottom line is we want to see rogues in raids. We think you’re going to be there, but if we’ve miscalculated we’ll just keep working on it. This is a pretty big change to our raiding structure, and as nice it would be to declare it 100% done, realistically we are going to be tweaking it for a long time when we see what happens in the “real world.” In terms of the big raid buffs, the ones we consider rogues bringing are Expose Armor, Wound Poison and Mind Numbing Poison. There are plenty of others more along the lines of Kick and Sap that are harder to quantify.

With that in mind can you tell us any plans that you have to better close this PvE to PvP gap that we’re seeing with certain trees? How do you plan to make all three trees viable across the board?
Yes, this is definitely a priority. It is a lot harder with classes in which all specs are still focused mostly on dps. We understand that some specs are just going to be better for 5-mans, for PvP or for raiding. We’re trying to equalize as much as possible, but we’re also trying to be realistic about our chances.

How do you plan to deal with talents which ware still considered all too needed by rogues, particularly in the case of Relentless Strikes? Is there any possibility of making Relentless Strikes a core class ability we can all train?
Mandatory talents are tricky. There are certainly plenty of them in every tree. Every warrior spec without Cruelty is pretty experimental, as is every druid spec without Omen of Clarity. Part of the problem is we keep offering new character levels along with new talents, so each expansion ends up constraining you more and more to one tree. The real red flag, for me at least, is when a spec has so many truly mandatory talents (which is a funny thing to say, since it’s still a little subjective) that they don’t have any optional talents. Instead of a cookie-cutter build being something like 20 plus your choice, they become you must get these 24 talents. If that makes sense.

I will point out again as I have done so in the past. At the end of the day there will ALWAYS be a best spec. It is IMPOSSIBLE to create anything but carbon copies of abilities in each of the 3 trees and not have SOME variance. If you want the highest DPS there will ALWAYS be a max DPS…even if by 1 or 2% one spec will ALWAYS be better.
I think it is very likely there will be a theoretical max dps build. However:
1) It will probably vary from boss to boss.
2) It might depend a lot on the skill of the player.
3) Because there are so many variables (by design) it may be really hard to “solve the equation” for which actually is the highest dps build.
4) For 90% of players (maybe more) that kind of damage difference is in the noise. Very few players can do 2500 dps one night and then 2525 dps another night (a 1% difference). Usually the delta is much larger than that because of random elements including things as non-gamey as Internet lag, how tired you are and just bad luck. If taking the most optimal build can’t gaurantee you dps higher than the random element in the equation, it may very well not be worth taking. Now if the dps gain is significant by taking the best build, then I agree with you.

If a Blizzard developer is saying Expose freaking Armor is one of the more important factors when considering rogues in PvE raid situations, I might just have lost all hope for our class.
Unless you have high level alts in other classes, this new thought process may sound foreign to you. In BC, you might sit down to build a raid by saying that you need X shamans for WF and Bloodlust, 3-4 paladins for all their blessings, a Disc priest for Spirit, 2 Shadow priests for mana, a warlock for Curse of Shadows, etc.

In LK, you can get all the “needed” buffs in a relatively small number of players. After that you take who you want. If rogues were clearly the best dps in most situations, you would fill up your raid with maybe 5-6 rogues. But now what you really want to do is fill up your raid with the best *players*. That may be rogues for some guilds, but it may be mages, Ret pallies or death knights for others. Any group that leaves really good rogues out in order to bring a bunch of redundant buffs does so at its peril. Much more of the emphasis will be on gear and skill now, and less on the magic buff that earns you a raid slot.

The only time I can see this being a problem is if A) you aren’t a very good player (sorry) and you were just brought along before because there was nobody else to do Kings or WF, or B) you like to pug a lot and pugs can’t evaluate your skill, so they take you for your class instead.

Shaman
GC on Enhancement & Future tweaks
We view Enhancement as a melee class that should be wearing melee gear. However, one of the interesting things about the shaman is throwing out some spells with that melee too.
Our view of things is that some smart theorycrafters started wondering if using two fast caster weapons with two flametongue enchants would end up being the right way to go. The way the discussion sort of ended up was “maybe, but it might be close” but a lot of the community took that as a mandate. Or maybe they were just shocked by the supposition because it felt wrong for a melee class.
We agree it feels wrong, so we’re doing some tweaks to make it even less likely to be the most optimal set up. If you are saving up badges or arena points or whatever for your enhancement shammy, I would definitely NOT go out and get two fast caster weapons. (src)

Warrior
Thunderclap’s target limit removed
Done. (src)

The original post about Upcoming Honor Items and Honor Reset has been updated.

Quote from: Eyonix (Source)

As many of you know we will be featuring a new Battleground, a dedicated world PvP zone and all new PvP items in Wrath of the Lich King. In order to make the transition from The Burning Crusade to Wrath of the Lich King flow as smoothly as possible, all accrued honor points will be reset at the launch of the expansion. We do this to ensure select players do not have an unfair advantage at level 80 from stockpiling honor to instantly purchase the newest Wrath of the Lich King PvP rewards. For those with unspent honor points prior to the release of the expansion, we will be offering a few upgrades and special rewards in next content patch solely for purchase via the honor system.

Update:
All of the gems that can be purchased with honor will have the Bind on Pickup and Unique-Equipped tags removed so multiples of them can be equipped and they can be traded (or auctioned). The new items that will be available are:
Cloaks - The Gladiator’s Resolution, Cloak of Certain Reprieve,