I heard a little while ago that SteelSeries, makers of fine gaming mice and mouse peripherals, were planning on making a Blizzard approved World of Warcraft gaming mouse. Well, the SteelSeries WoW MMO Gaming Mouse is here and available for pre-order, and can be yours at some indetermined release date for the price of $99.99.

That’s not terribly much to pay for a gaming mouse if you’re used to paying a premium for gaming peripherals, and especially not terribly much more than other gaming mice if you’re used to SteelSeries’ pricing model and if you’ve paid for Blizzard-branded gear before (remember the Dell World of Warcraft branded laptop?).

The mouse itself touts the ability to create up to 160 character macros that can be toggled using only the mouse, a total of 15 programmable buttons on the mouse, and glowing lights that shine out from angular slots on the front of the mouse like the thing’s shielding your vision from something radioactive. The lighting itself can be customized for brightness and intensity, the colors can be tweaked – hell, SteelSeries claims you can customize just the lighting in 16 million ways, with 3 illumination levels. You can even turn on effects that make the lights pulse slowly while the mouse is plugged in and on.

Engadget took the SteelSeries WoW Mouse for a spin and thought it was pretty good all things told. The programmable buttons and macro capabilities are Windows-only, so Mac users playing WoW are a little out in the cold this time around, but SteelSeries claims they’re working on a solution for the Mac users.

The problem however popped up when I read an interesting post over at the venerable WoW Insider today that explained that the programmable macros and scripting functionality for the mouse are very clearly against Blizzard’s EULA and TOS for World of Warcraft.

This is a pretty serious problem, and reminds me (as it does the poster at WoW Insider) of the trouble that turned up with the Logitech G15 gaming keyboard when it was released; owners of G15 keyboards found themselves getting their accounts locked and banned just for using the scripting and macro functionality that came with their device.

The difference here is that the SteelSeries WoW Mouse is actually Blizzard supported and World of Warcraft branded – that implies that Blizzard is being contradictory with regard to its stand on macros and scripts; although it’s likely a case of development talking with one hand and marketing talking with another. The marketing folks who agreed to the partnership with SteelSeries probably didn’t even bother to consider whether the functionality of the device would be a problem for operations and development, and that unfortunately leaves the poor folks in ops and customer service with nothing to do but repeat the rules and tow the company line.

In any event, if you plan to pick up the SteelSeries WoW Mouse, take heed of the negative reviews that WoW Insider received as well as the positive endorsement from Engadget – I can’t speak to the DPI of the mouse itself because none of its literature (and the Engadget review unfortunately) all leave that information off of their descriptions, but if I were looking for a sharp looking new mouse, this one would be pretty tempting, even at just under a hundred bucks. If you do pick it up though, keep an eye on those macros until SteelSeries and Blizzard get things sorted out.

See, this is the reason WoWhead has surpassed others like Thottbot and Alla in usefulness to me. I still do most of my searches over at WoWwiki, but when I need item information or quest information, it’s WoWhead all the way.

Now the fine folks at WoWhead have released something I’ve been dying for for a long time now, an easy way to compare two items that isn’t somewhat busted like Blizzard’s own “Find an Upgrade” feature on the Armory is. WoWhead’s Item Comparison Tool allows you to distinctly compare two items, multiple items, or even item sets against one another to see which is superior in the areas that matter to you.

See above? That’s where I’m comparing the Season 2 hunter PVP set against the Tier 4 hunter PvE set to see the differences. The tool couldn’t be easier to use – simply click to add an item and type in the name of the item or the item set to add it to the tool and get instant results. Never again will you have to go wondering if a specific item is an upgrade or not…unless that is, unless you’re in-game and have to make a snap decision once it’s dropped. Roll on it and decide later, I say! It’d be cool though if a tool like this came in the form of an add-on (are you listening, add-on developers?)!

Thanks much to one of my favorite WoW bloggers, Big Red Kitty for breaking the story!

Ever had one of those runs where everything goes your way? No one can break your aggro, the parties repair bill is under one gold AND you get the drop of a lifetime? If not, keep your Plate Fists crossed and someday your time will come.

Here it is………
Deadly Wedge Axe

I enjoy my triple-head system, as you might have noticed from the screen shots, but not everyone has US$299 to drop on a black box, plus the cost of the extra screens. However, many people have a video card that can do dual-head. Mostly, for games, this sucks pretty badly. In FPSs dual-head puts the crosshairs on the join. In 3rd person perspective stuff like WoW it splits your character in half.

I have previously posted about a compromise between one/three screen(s) and two screens. This was done before I started raiding and discovered the amount of data on-screen that’s part of the UI rather than the 3D world. So, I’ve put together a little guide on how you can use a dual-head system to, basically, move your CT_RaidAssist and chat windows out of the way.
(more…)

I’ve had my TH2G for a little over three weeks now. I’ve been using it heavily, and Matrox have released a couple of updates, so it’s time for a follow up.

First up, I commented that the quality of the image was such that 3D gaming was fine, but serious work was not. I had two problems, squiggly vertical lines and the horizontal width of the picture was not enough to go across the whole screen, causing vertical bands of fuzzy text on LCD monitors. The former was address with software that was bundled with the TH2G (remember, I didn’t install any at first). The latter was address more recently with a patch you can request. The picture is now work-friendly.

Using WoW, however, with the default layout on a triple-head system is a little neck-unfriendly. This can be fixed using MoveAnything — I’ve dragged all the important combat-related data to the center screen. You can see the new layout in the image I’m about to post in my next entry.

My warrior alt has sort of been a side-project that I’ve come to love the more she levels, and with any toon of mine, it seems there’s always a set of gear I absolutely must have.

The Chain of the Scarlet Crusade set is finally mine, complete with Herod’s Shoulder, Aegis of the Scarlet Commander, and a nifty piece I wasn’t aware of, the Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade, apparently just reintroduced in 1.11 (it drops off of the crazy trainee zerg that comes after you kill Herod).

I’ve been working on this set since my very early 30s, and finally at level 39 it’s all done (just in time for plate, sigh). I’ll probably keep this one in the bank for special occasions (much like I’ve kept the Defias set for sentimental reasons on my 60 hunter), or maybe just because it’s a reminder that I never have to go to Scarlet Monestary again.

Well, we’ll see about that.

Mucho thanks to guildies Cynix and Fors for your help with the ever-elusive leggings, you uber SM-terrorizing fiends, you.

I’ve had my TripleHead2Go adapter for a couple of days now, so it’s about time I wrote a first impressions review…
(more…)

Last weekend I achieved something that few people are actually foolish enough to attempt, I finally acquired the Bloodsail Admiral’s Hat!

For those that aren’t in the know, this hat requires you to get a Friendly status with the Bloodsail Pirates just off Booty Bay, unfortunately the downside of this means that you need to be Hated with Booty Bay and indeed all Goblin Towns. This was achieved by killing no less than 1,010 Booty Bay Bruisers.

This hat must be awesome I hear you thinking to yourself. Sadly not, crappy cloth helm with +25 Stam, it does however give you the ability to summon the Blood Parrot, and hence the only reason why I spent several weeks killing guards.

Following the acquisition of this masterpiece Pirate Hat, I took the wonderful oppurtunity to pimp it out to all in Ironforge for an hour, before ganking some Horde with some fellow Guildies and taking charge of a zeppelin (with myself at the helm of course).

Surely, in the game nothing else exists which is more of a waste of time …

So last night I was running Glaukos through Scarlet Monastery with some other friends and guildmates. One was a hunter, a level below me, who was attracting aggro like nothing else (and whooping some butt in the process too…). He had Stalvan’s Reaper, and some other one-hander that I can’t remember (also blue). I asked him where he got the Reaper, and he said at the AH for about 10g. Not a bad deal, I thought, and so this morning I went and spent my hard-earned gold bidding on it. Luckily, there was one for around 10g (others were going for 15-20g). I won it, used it tonight in SM, and topped it off with Sword of Serenity after completing In the Name of the Light. Now I felt like I could do some damage! When my hunter friend came on later, we were chatting about my new gear. He showed me a gun he had just bought, with twice the DPS of mine. I asked “Where do you get all the money for the AH? You must be making bank with your professions!”

“No, I buy gold. Then I buy things at AH and re-sell for profit.”

Oh. My heart sank a little. I spent +10g, busted my ass off in SM night after night, and you bought gold online? *sigh* But hey, at least I have some decent stuff now…

I’m not particularly good at introductions, so I’ll make this as brief and forgettable as possible. Hi, I’m Halley. I’ve been playing since January of last year, and I’m still as addicted as I was when I first started. My current main is a level 53 Night Elf Shadow Priest (he’s such a pretty boy). Even though I’m a girl, I primarily play male characters because they have better dances.

Phew, anyway. I figured that I’d bring something exciting with my first entry on here, and after finding the loot table for Naxxramas, I thought I’d share it with you all.

Here ya go!

Some of the things that piqued my interest were the pieces of Atiesh, Medivh’s staff, and the new legendary caster weapon (finally!) Not sure if these are confirmed or not, but apparently, depending on which class your caster is, the stats will vary. Also worth noting is the Corrupted Ashbringer. Obviously, to get the Legendary Ashbringer, you’ll have to go through some ridiculous quest, but the epic one’s stats are already pretty damn awesome. Improved chances to hit and crit, plus a built in Crusader enchant? Not bad, even if it is at the cost of 25 stamina.