As posted by Karune

Starcraft 2 Q&A Batch 44
Chat with Devs: Something I noticed during our recent shows at Games Convention in Leipzig and PAX in Seattle is that many new players trying out the game who played Zerg built several creep tumors, thinking they were either defenses or going to morph into defenses. This eventually lead into a conversation with Dustin about why Creep Tumors no longer morph into base defenses. For those who dont know, a Creep Tumor is a building which expands creep around it significantly. Building this building is an excellent way to cover additional ground with creep, allowing for many new strategies, including aggressive Spine Crawler pushes (the mobile Sunken Colony).

Dustin brought up two scenarios to why Creep Tumors no longer morph into other Zerg defenses:

1) You would be able to creep across the map by moving your creep-spawning base defenses.

2) It would be easier to accidentally end up with buildings off of creep because the creep-generator moved away.

Thus, since the development team definitely wanted to give Zerg mobile defenses, they decided to split the roles of the Creep Tumor and the other Zerg defenses. This also allows for the team to make these Creep Tumors burrowed and very cheap in the latest build.

—StarCraft II Q&A Batch 44—

1) Is it possible for replays to contain more in depth player statistics such as average clicks per minute, number of hotkeys used, etc.. ? (starcraft2.com.au)

Replays will have much more info available in them that will include more detailed stat tracking, as well as other useful eSports related features.

2) Terrans currently appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of troop mobility, (as compared to ‘Warp-in’ and ‘Nydus Worm’) are there any plans to bring back the, ‘drop-pod’ or other new transport mechanic? (sclegacy.com)

Actually, the Terrans have many units and mechanics that empower them with more mobility than the original StarCraft. The Reaper and Viking is a good example of new units that extend the Terrans raiding capabilities. Furthermore, Medivac Dropships offer more incentive to build lots of Dropships, which translate to more mobility for their entire army. Salvage is also another mechanic that helps in terms of rebuilding and moving a Terran base to new locations. Lastly, the Terrans are still the only side that can pick up and move their whole entire base, as well as being able to load SCVs in their Command Center now, allowing for quicker fast expanding strategies.

3) With the new high ground mechanic in place, an army can’t fight units that are on higher ground anymore until they get a spotter up the ledge. Both Zerg and Terran have the possibility to spot units on high ground with Overlords and floating buildings right from the start of the game, but the first Protoss unit to fly up there would be the Phase Prism. Could it be that Protoss players have a significant disadvantage on some maps because of this?(GameReplays.org)

In the latest builds of StarCraft II, the Protoss no longer need an Observatory to build Observers. Observers will be able to be built straight from the Robotics Facility, allowing earlier eyes on the battlefield.

We definitely saw that especially on certain maps, Terrans were able to block their choke point early, taking away much of the scouting portion of the game from Protoss, and are trying out this new solution for it. Additionally, we felt that Observers were too a crucial to the Protoss army to have them that far up the tech tree.

4) Will the Unit Portraits in SC2 be pre-rendered high quality video clips like in SC1 ? willygundersen (Battle.net)

The unit portraits will be shown in much higher quality than the actual units on the screen, similar to the original StarCraft and Warcraft III. They will not be video clips, but will be animations rendered in game. There will be several examples of their unit portraits in the next BlizzCast, where we have Dustin and Sammy discussing the process of creating a unit.

5) We all know how important it is that tier 1 units be effective at later tiers, which has prompted different unit abilities like the Zealots Charge. But it seems that the Protoss have a leg up in that they have Charge while the Zerglings have only their traditional speed boost without any AI enhancements. Is anything being planned for the Zergling? (starcraft2forum.org)

Due to the new game engine, Zerglings have much better pathing in StarCraft II, meaning they move much more efficiently. Zerglings are able to both surround enemy units easier and are more easily selectable as well, being able to control more than 12 at a time. Furthermore, Zerglings are also slightly smaller than their original StarCraft counterparts, and able to be morphed into Banelings, which are extremely effective against Zealots. Lastly, Zealots have also had their shield hit points reduced by 10, as compared to the original StarCraft Zealots.

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As Posted by Zarhym Re: World of Warcraft 3.0.2 patch


World of Warcraft 3.0.2 patch
With the release of upcoming content patch players will see a change in the way we allow buffs and debuffs to stack exclusively in a raid. For the most part, what this change means is that many buffs and debuffs that were previously allowed to stack together no longer can, and that many buffs and debuffs that only a single talent specialization could bring can now be brought by multiple different specializations. The philosophy behind this change shows up in many of the changes we have made in Wrath of The Lich King, such as when we made almost all buffs raid-wide. We want players to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance.


Raid composition will still matter to some extent, but without this change, it would have overwhelmed every other aspect of raid planning (as we added new capabilities to each of 30 different talent trees). You no longer need to rigidly control the melee/spellcaster balance of your raid, or make sure every group has all the critical buffing classes, etc. This change has many class balance implications.

IMPORTANT! Before we are done, we will thoroughly test the performance of every class. It should not be assumed that one class’ current performance relative to others in beta is final. Some classes (and specializations) will need to be reduced in power and some increased. Many may feel the change has more impact on class X than class Y. We will address all of those concerns via our internal testing and community feedback.

There are thirty or so different categories into which buffs and debuffs fit. Here you will find a comprehensive list of the changes made broken down by category and which spells/talents are in that category.


    Armor Debuff (Major): Acid Spit (exotic Hunter pet), Expose Armor, Sunder Armor
    Armor Debuff (Minor): Faerie Fire, Sting (Hunter pet), Curse of Recklessness
    Physical Vulnerability Debuff: Blood Frenzy, (2nd Talent Spec TBA)
    Melee Haste Buff: Improved Icy Talons, Windfury Totem
    Melee Critical Strike Chance Buff: Leader of the Pack, Rampage
    Attack Power Buff (Flat Add): Battle Shout, Blessing of Might
    Attack Power Buff (Multiplier): Abomination’s Might, Trueshot Aura, Unleashed Rage
    Ranged Attack Power Buff: Hunter’s Mark (only Hunters benefit, so no need to exclude against other class abilities)
    Bleed Damage Increase Debuff: Mangle, Trauma
    Spell Haste Buff: Wrath of Air Totem
    Spell Critical Strike Chance Buff: Moonkin Aura, Elemental Oath
    Spell Critical Strike Chance Debuff: Improved Scorch, Winter’s Chill
    Increased Spell Damage Taken Debuff: Ebon Plaguebringer, Earth and Moon, Curse of the Elements
    Increased Spell Power Buff: Focus Magic, Improved Divine Spirit, Flametongue Totem, Totem of Wrath, Demonic Pact
    Increased Spell Hit Chance Taken Debuff: Improved Faerie Fire, Misery
    Percentage Haste Increase (All Types): Improved Moonkin Aura, Swift Retribution
    Percentage Damage Increase: Ferocious Inspiration, Sanctified Retribution
    Critical Strike Chance Taken Debuff (All types): Heart of the Crusader, Totem of Wrath
    Melee Attack Speed Slow Debuff: Icy Touch, Infected Wounds, Judgements of the Just, Thunderclap
    Melee Hit Chance Reduction Debuff: Insect Swarm, Scorpid Sting
    Healing Debuff: Wound Poison, Aimed Shot, Mortal Strike, Furious Attacks
    Attack Power Debuff: Demoralizing Roar, Curse of Weakness, Demoralizing Shout
    Stat Multiplier Buff: Blessing of Kings
    Stat Add Buff: Mark of the Wild
    Agility and Strength Buff: Strength of Earth Totem, Horn of Winter
    Stamina Buff: Power Word: Fortitude
    Health Buff: Commanding Shout, Blood Pact
    Intellect Buff: Arcane Intellect, Fel Intelligence
    Spirit Buff: Divine Spirit, Fel Intelligence
    Damage Reduction Percentage Buff: Grace, Blessing of Sanctuary
    Percentage Increase Healing Received Buff: Tree of Life, Improved Devotion Aura
    Armor Increase Percentage Buff: Inspiration, Ancestral Healing
    Cast Speed Slow: Curse of Tongues, Slow, Mind-numbing Poison.


In each category, you can only benefit from the most powerful spell granting that effect. For example, Fel Intelligence grants spirit and intellect, both weaker than Arcane Intellect and Divine Spirit. If a player has Fel Intelligence and receives a stronger Arcane Intellect buff, he will gain the intellect value from Arcane Intellect and the spirit value from Fel Intelligence.

In most cases, fully-talented players will have exactly equal power on the strength of these buffs and debuffs. Fel Intelligence is an example of where one ability is weaker than others. The buffs in the “Increased Spell Power Buff” category are also not all the same potency, as they scale and grow in radically different ways. In virtually every other case, however, the buffs are equal. This means, for example, that fully-talented Battle Shout and Blessing of Might now grant the exact same amount of attack power.

In addition to this change, we also needed to address the “mana battery” roles in a raid. The mana regeneration effect they grant is no longer limited to their own party, and it no longer depends on the amount of damage they deal. Each time they trigger the mana regeneration effect, 10 people in their raid group will receive a buff which causes them to regenerate 0.5% of their maximum mana each second. This buff, Replenishment, will be given preferentially to raid members with the lowest mana, but will re-evaluate which raid members receive it each time it is fired. Replenishment is provided by Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, and Retribution Paladins.

Finally, we have modified Heroism and Bloodlust to affect the entire raid. However, all affected raid members will be unable to cast or benefit from Bloodlust/Heroism for 5 minutes.

Below you will find a list of the changes to abilities which exhibit new behavior regardless of the exclusive categories. The changes usually mean the old behavior was removed and replaced by the new behavior. Numbers listed are for maximally-talented versions. Here is that list of changes:


    Improved Scorch: Increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
    Winter’s Chill: Also increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
    Elemental Oath: Grants 5% spell crital strike to raid members.
    Improved Moonkin Aura: Grants 3% haste of all types.
    Earth and Moon: Increases spell damage taken from all schools by 13% on the target.
    Misery: Causes spells cast at the target to have +3% spell hit.
    Shadow Weaving: Buffs only self.
    Improved Shadow Bolt: Buffs only self.
    Expose Weakness: Buffs only self.
    Shadow Embrace: Buffs only self.
    Blood Pact: Grants health instead of Stamina.
    Fel Intelligence: Has replacement ranks that grant flat values of Intellect and Spirit.
    Frost Aura: Excludes properly against all other resistance buffs.
    Grace: Reduces damage taken by target by 3%.
    Rampage: Increases melee and ranged critical strike chance by 5% for the raid.
    Improved Faerie Fire: No longer benefits melee and ranged hit chance, only spell hit.
    Hunter’s Mark: No longer increases attack power bonus from attacks against the target.
    Improved Hunter’s Mark: No longer grants melee attack power.
    Sting (Hunter pet): Now acts as a minor armor debuff.
    Waylay: Attack speed reduction changed to 20%.
    Icy Touch: Only slows melee attack speed (not ranged or spell).
    Tree of Life: No longer grants healing based on spirit, grants 3% increased healing received to raid.
    Demonic Pact: Now buffs raid instead of debuffing monsters.
    Focus Magic: Now buffs raid instead of debuffing monsters.
    Totem of Wrath: Now grants a flat amount of spell damage, and all enemies in its radius have an increased chance of being struck by criticals.
    Heroism: Cannot be recast while caster has Exhausted debuff, and those with Exhausted debuff cannot be affected by it.
    Bloodlust: Cannot be recast while caster has Sated debuff, and those with Sated debuff cannot be affected by it.
    Vampiric Touch: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on dealing damage.
    Hunting Party: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on specified shots.
    Judgements of the Wise: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on Judging.

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Farcry 2 Immersion Trailer
One of the most badass FPS trailers i’ve ever seen (for the most feature-packed FPS yet).




Release date

Farcry 2 Release Date 12/15/2008 for all platforms (Xbox360, PS3, PC)

Farcry 2 minimum requirements

CPU: Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz, Pentium D 2.66 Ghz, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ or better

RAM: 1 GB

Video card: NVidia 6800 or ATI X1650 or better

Shader Model 3 required

256 Mb of graphic memory

Media reader: DVD-ROM

Hard drive space: ~12 Gig or HD space. (tbd)

Farcry 2 recommended system specs.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Family, AMD 64 X2 5200+, AMD Phenom or better

RAM: 2 GB

Video card: NVidia 8600 GTS or better, ATI X1900 or better

512 Mb of graphic memory

Sound: 5.1 sound card recommended

Supported Video cards:

NVidia 6800, NVidia 7000 series, 8000 series, 9000 series, 200 series. 8800M and 8700M supported for laptops. ATI X1650 – 1950 series , HD2000 series , HD3000 series , HD4000 series .

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