Some essentials:

• WowLua – An addon that allows you to write and run Lua in game.
• Warcraft Addon Studio – A Visual Studio (VB) like application to let you quickly build frames and export them to XML.

Celistine
The first mod I wrote was called Celistine, and was written to monitor my wife in game It allowed her to whisper me for auto-invites to a group, monitors her range and informs me if she is far, and spams her with whispers if my health gets lower than 25%.

Deeps
After that, I decided to modify an example I found in the book I am reading (World of Warcraft Programming) and create a simple frame that displays DPS and other facts as I am in combat. I decided to call it Deeps See below for the screenshots, code, and feel free to try it out yourself.

-- Set up some local variables to track time and damage
local start_time = 0
local end_time = 0
local total_time = 0
local total_damage = 0
local average_dps = 0
local in_combat = false

function CombatTracker_OnLoad(frame)
	frame:RegisterEvent("COMBAT_LOG_EVENT_UNFILTERED")
	frame:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED")
	frame:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED")
	frame:RegisterForClicks("RightButtonUp")
	frame:RegisterForDrag("LeftButton")
end

function CombatTracker_OnEvent(frame, event, ...)

	if event == "PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED" then
		-- This event is called when the player exits combat
		end_time = GetTime()
		total_time = end_time - start_time
		average_dps = total_damage / total_time
		CombatTracker_UpdateText()
		CombatTracker_ReportDPS()
		in_combat = false
	elseif event == "PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED" then
		-- This event is called when we enter combat
		-- Reset the damage total and start the timer
		CombatTrackerFrameText:SetText("In Combat!")
		total_damage = 0
		start_time = GetTime()
		in_combat = true
	elseif event == "COMBAT_LOG_EVENT_UNFILTERED" and in_combat then
		local timestamp,log_event,source_guid,source_name,source_flags, dest_guid, dest_name, dest_flags, spell_id, spell_name, spell_school, amount = ...

		if string.match(log_event, "_DAMAGE") then
			if source_name == UnitName("player") or source_name == UnitName("pet") then
				--ChatFrame1:AddMessage(source_name .. " is doing teh hurt!")
				if amount ~= nil then
					total_damage = total_damage + amount
					end_time = GetTime()
					total_time = end_time - start_time
					average_dps = total_damage / total_time
					CombatTracker_UpdateText()
				end
			end
		end
	end
end

function CombatTracker_UpdateText()
	local status = string.format("%ds | %d dmg | %.2f dps", total_time, total_damage, average_dps)
	CombatTrackerFrameText:SetText(status)
end

function CombatTracker_ReportDPS()
	local msgformat = "Dished out %d damage in %d seconds (%.2f dps)."
	local msg = string.format(msgformat, total_damage, total_time, average_dps)
	if GetNumPartyMembers() > 0 then
		SendChatMessage(msg, "PARTY")
	else
		ChatFrame1:AddMessage(msg)
	end
end

Wine and Ubuntu have really come a long way. These days it is very easy to get World of Warcraft to smoothly run in Linux. I felt the need to write this guide for two reasons: one as a mark of my triumphant achievement, and two as a helpful guide for those looking to do the same. This walk through assumes the following.

• You do not have wine currently installed. If you do and it is not the wine1.2 package then World of Warcraft probably won’t run very well, if at all.
• You currently have the restricted drivers installed for your video card
• Your system is up to date.
• You are running Ubuntu 9.10
• The WoW current patch is not too far past 3.3.3
• You have basic knowledge of Linux and understand how to use a terminal

Warning: This configuration worked great for my hardware. Other hardware configurations may need additional tweaking.

1. Before you start you must verify that your graphics card had DRI enabled.

glxinfo | grep rendering

If it returns “Yes” then you are all set. If it returns no I am not sure if you should continue with this guide.

2. Install Wine via apt

sudo apt-get install wine1.2

3. Download the Visual C++ Patch From Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyId=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displayLang=en.

wine /home/username/Downloads/vcredist_x86.exe

Follow the prompts to install it and it will close when it has finished. This patch is needed to successfully download patches at a certain point for WoW to run.

4. Install World of Warcraft. There are several means available to do this. You can install from the CDs/DVDs you bought or if you are like me you will need to download the entire installation from Blizzard. I had to download the downloader at https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/download_wow.html. For other methods of installation see the sources at the end of this article.

wine /home/username/Downloads/InstallWoW.exe

Choose Wrath of The Lich King when it prompts and keep going through the wizards. The downloader will eventually begin and you will have several hours (depending on your connection) to wait while it finishes.

5. Once the installation is complete, you will most likely want to edit the configuration to start WoW in OpenGL mode.

vim /home/username/.wine/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/WTF/Config.wtf

Press the i key on your keyboard to go into insert mode. Add the following line to the bottom of the file.

SET gxAPI “OpenGL”

Press escape, type :wq, and press enter to save and exit the file.

6. Wine currently has permission issues with the World of Warcraft folder. If you ever notice WoW not starting after the launcher loads it is probably because the permissions somehow got screwed up on the folder. I have chosen to completely bypass the loader and I have also written a launcher script to make sure that WoW loads every time. Execute the following commands to start WoW for the first time.

chmod 755 /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/
wine "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe"

After some patience World of Warcraft will successfully load up. Get your initial video / audio configuration out of the way before the next step.

7. The endless loop: Login and it will force you to download a patch. You will have to complete this step approximately 5 or 6 times until all the patches have downloaded.

8. After all the of the patches have downloaded you should be good to go! Install all mods to /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/. Keep in mind that by default in Gnome that your keyboard is configured to automatically repeat keys when held down by default. This will make your mounts and characters running seem strange. You can disable this temporarily by going to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard and unchecking “Key presses repeat…”

I hope this quick guide has helped you get World of Warcraft installed and running beautifully in Ubuntu. If you have additional issues with your installation and need help please see the following sources for additional assistance.

Sources

• WoW Wiki: World of Warcraft functionality on Wine
• WineHQ: World of Warcraft 3.3.X
• Ubuntu Wiki: WorldofWarcraft

This is probably one of the most captivating World of Warcraft non-official events I have ever heard of. I ask that you all please show your support! I plan on making a new character on their server and attending.

From Big Bear Butt (BBB)’s Blog:

On October 28th of 2009, Julie, a member of the World of Warcraft guild Sidhe Devils on Kael’thas (US), revealed to us that she had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Her first treatment is scheduled to begin on November 9th.

To show our support and love for Julie while she takes on this new challenge, her friends in Sidhe Devils are organizing an event within the game of World of Warcraft that we’re calling the Raid for the Cure.

What it is

On Kael’thas (US), a united cross-faction walk across Azeroth will be held on Saturday, November 14th, starting at 2:00 PM Central Time (Kael’thas-US server time).

Members of both Alliance and Horde factions are invited to attend. Pink Mageweave Shirts will be handed out for all walkers, and all levels of characters will be welcome. If you’d like, bring your own shirt, or even make it a formal affair with your Festive Pink Dress!

The walk across Azeroth will not be a race of individuals, it will be a group march to show Julie our love and support.

We do want to help spread the word, and encourage donations in a cheerful way to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity, an organization that promotes information and awareness on early detection and treatment of breast cancer, and that supports funding for treatment and research towards a cure.

For more details please read the full blog post.

Leethacks got the Twilight drake! Won it with a 97

We found an alliance who was leveling an alt in the same place we were. We killed his alt and he had his main parked at the same location. We’d kill his alt and then id stealth and the wife would run away and I’d watch his main frantically search for us like 5 minutes, give up, and then switch back. What happens when he switched back to his alt? You guessed it: came out of stealth and owned his alt again. We did this back and forth for quite some time. Little did he know, I had my main on his way at this same time (thanks to multi accounts). As you can see in the pic above, there is his mains dead body, right next to his alts! EPIC

Having fun on my level 60 sub rogue. Check out this combat text:

Gorgos has slain Smurpfy!
Gorgos’s Ambush hits Smurpfy for 27 Physical. (2664 Overkill) (Critical)
Smurpfy died.
Smurpfy’s Thorns reflects 3 Arcane damage to Gorgos.

My lock finally got a couple of nice pieces of loot. She also got her Doom guard after putting it off for ever.

• Damnation
• Valorous Plagueheart Shoulderpads

Over this past weekend we leveled up another set of 80s. This time it was a destro lock / resto druid combo. This is the first time I have had a DPS role in a very long time. As usual, I am having the same bad luck on drops and rolls, so it will be another one of those grinds. Avalin is a fire specced destruction lock. You can spit all of those statistics about afflication having higher sustained DPS all you want. I dont care. I like destro

It finally happened once again! Our shaman/mage combo hit 80 and it is our second official set of level 80 characters. My new baby is a Dranei Resto shaman named Kymera! The picture says it all. Time for another heroic grind!

1. The game didnt JUST come out. All the quest areas are not flooded with hundreds of people trying to quest
2. We now have a DPS class that can quickly AOE burn mobs.
3. We are more comfortable and familiar with Northrend zones.
4. The Alliance quest content is just more fun – plain and simple.

We have just finished the Coldarra chains and have readied our Nexus quests for tomorrow. We are hoping to be leve 80 next Friday. I’ll try to update everyone when we hit 80

The Gameplan:

• Howling Fjord (68-71)
• Borean Tundra (72-73)
• Dragonblight (74-75)
• Grizzly Hills (76)
• Sholazar (77)
• Storm Peaks (77-78.5)
• Icecrown (78.5-80)