UI Improvements And You
Blizzard typically has never been too proud to recognize when someone else has an idea better than what they’ve come up with. Over the nearly-two years that WoW has been live, they’ve occasionally adopted some features of the more popular UI Addons into the actual game interface-Scrolling Combat Text and CT Raid Assist to name the two most prominent.
It appears they’ve kept that up. In “Interface Options” you now can check a box labeled “Auto Self Cast,” which will make any helpful spells you cast without having a friendly player or NPC targeted automatically target yourself. Quite handy. There’s also a Blizzard-made enemy cast bar, which when checked lets you see what an enemy is casting right beneath their portrait. Pretty nifty.
By far the coolest (and I’d imagine most helpful) addition is a brand-spanking-new way of finding groups and parties. From a button down on your main menu, you can access it-and it’s pretty damn cool. There are two tabs, one for Looking For Group and one for Looking For More. You can select from a drop-down menu if you’re seeking a group for a Dungeon, Raid, Quest (any quests in your log), Zone, or Battleground. From there, you get a second drop-down menu for the specific area you’re interested in. Any parties in the LFM tab will then be able to see you. I’ve not had much time to play around with it, but it certainly looks sleek and is miles ahead of the old meeting stones.
Speaking of Battlegrounds-I found the Battlemasters in Silvermoon but noticed that there was no longer a Horde Warbringer to turn in Marks of Honor. However, when I stopped by the Alterac Valley camp, I noticed that in addition to selling items for various (Horde Symbol, representing honor gained) they would sell items-such as the Frostwolf Howler-for a certain number of Marks of Honor. Interesting. 
Later on, I’d run into a Dwarf Warrior and kill him for 7 Honor (though to be fair, I didn’t do much damage to him under the effects of Resurrection Sickness and with a Hunter helping me, so that’s probably closer to the low end of Honor gain)… just to put things into perspective.
But enough of that. Outland, baby! The Dark Portal awaits us…
Published: Oct 12, 2006 09:54 pm