Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Datamining - Build 54774
Build 54774 will be deployed to the Beta realms soon.
There are now 40 slots for talent loadouts, up from 10.
Queen Ansurek drops
Sureki Skyrazor and
Ascendant Skyrazor (Mythic)
More Story Mode things have been added
Story Mode
There are hints in the data that a Story Mode is coming to raids. The details aren't clear and this hasn't been announced, so please remember that nothing is final.
An entry has been added to Queen Ansurek's difficulties for 1-5 player difficulty.
This new mode currently uses the same difficulty scaling as Normal, but that could change.
There are only entries for the final boss, so it may be limited to one boss for story progression / quests.
The release of this difficulty could come at a different time as it has its own entry.
A new spell was added that may be related:
Queue for the Queen Ansurek New Icons
The War Within Alpha Development Notes
Blizzard has posted the Development Notes for Build 54774.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the tussle-continues department: Companies working with the US government may be required to start protecting their data and technology from attacks by quantum computers as soon as July. From a report: The National Institute for Standards and Technology, part of the Department of Commerce, will in July stipulate three types of encryption algorithms the agency deems sufficient for protecting data from quantum computers, setting an internationally-recognized standard aimed at helping organizations manage evolving cybersecurity threats. The rollout of the standards will kick off "the transition to the next generation of cryptography," White House deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger told Bloomberg in Cambridge, England on Tuesday. Breaking encryption not only threatens "national security secrets" but also the the way we secure the internet, online payments and bank transactions, she added.
Neuberger was speaking at an event organized by the University of Cambridge and Vanderbilt University, hosting academics, industry professionals and government officials to discuss the threats posed to cybersecurity by quantum computing, which vastly accelerates processing power by performing calculations in parallel rather than sequentially and will make existing encryption systems obsolete.
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Development Notes - May 21, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We have the following changes and updates in today’s new build of The War Within Alpha:
Classes
The number of talent loadouts that can be saved on a per character basis to has been increased to 40 (was 10).
We are removing increased melee range talents across the game, such as Astral Influence and Acrobatic Strikes. Default melee range has increased since these talents were originally created, so they now allow specs to attack from well outside where it appears they should be able to. They make the melee experience inconsistent across classes in a way we’re not happy with, so we’re removing them.
Rogue
Deathstalker (Assassination/Subtlety) Hero Talents are now available for testing.
The harbingers of death, Deathstalkers strike from the shadows to bring a swift end to their targets.
Death Knight
New Talent: Unyielding Will – Anti-Magic Shell’s cooldown is increased by 20 seconds and it now also removes all harmful magic effects when activated. Now a capstone talent available after Rune Mastery and Subduing Grasp.
The class tree has had further adjustments in talent locations and pathing updates.
Osmosis healing received while Anti-Magic Shell is active is increased by 15%. Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Runic Protection armor increased to 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Blood Draw cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
Blood Draw is no longer a capstone and is now available in Death’s Echo old location.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Development Notes - May 21, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
We have the following changes and updates in today’s new build of The War Within Alpha:
Classes
The number of talent loadouts that can be saved on a per character basis to has been increased to 40 (was 10).
We are removing increased melee range talents across the game, such as Astral Influence and Acrobatic Strikes. Default melee range has increased since these talents were originally created, so they now allow specs to attack from well outside where it appears they should be able to. They make the melee experience inconsistent across classes in a way we’re not happy with, so we’re removing them.
Rogue
Deathstalker (Assassination/Subtlety) Hero Talents are now available for testing.
The harbingers of death, Deathstalkers strike from the shadows to bring a swift end to their targets.
Death Knight
New Talent: Unyielding Will – Anti-Magic Shell’s cooldown is increased by 20 seconds and it now also removes all harmful magic effects when activated. Now a capstone talent available after Rune Mastery and Subduing Grasp.
The class tree has had further adjustments in talent locations and pathing updates.
Osmosis healing received while Anti-Magic Shell is active is increased by 15%. Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Runic Protection armor increased to 6% (was 3%). Now a 1-point talent (was 2).
Blood Draw cooldown reduced to 2 minutes (was 3 minutes).
Blood Draw is no longer a capstone and is now available in Death’s Echo old location.
< This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the no-surprises department: Major oil companies have in recent years made splashy climate pledges to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and take on the climate crisis, but a new report suggests those plans do not stand up to scrutiny. From a report: The research and advocacy group Oil Change International examined climate plans from the eight largest US- and European-based international oil and gas producers -- BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies -- and found none were compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels -- a threshold scientists have long warned could have dire consequences if breached.
"There is no evidence that big oil and gas companies are acting seriously to be part of the energy transition," David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International, who co-authored the analysis, said in a statement. The report's authors used 10 criteria and ranked each aspect of each companyâ(TM)s plan on a spectrum from "fully aligned" to "grossly insufficient" and found all eight companies ranked "grossly insufficient" or "insufficient" on nearly all criteria. The US firms Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil each ranked "grossly insufficient" on all 10 criteria. "American fossil-fuel corporations are the worst of the worst," Allie Rosenbluth, US program manager at Oil Change International, said in a statement.
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the pushing-the-limits department: Microsoft is planning to either add subtitles or even dub video produced by major video sites, using AI to translate the audio into foreign languages within Microsoft Edge in real time. From a report: At its Microsoft Build developer conference, Microsoft named several sites that would benefit from the new real-time translation capabilities within Edge, including Reuters, CNBC News, Bloomberg, and Coursera, plus Microsoft's own LinkedIn. Interestingly, Microsoft also named Google's YouTube as a beneficiary of the translation capabilities. Microsoft plans to translate the video from Spanish to English and from English to German, Hindi, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. There are plans to add additional languages and video platforms in the future, Microsoft said.
Posted by from MMO Champion
WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria Addons and Tools
Today we're having a look at a few useful addons and tools for
WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria.
Addon: Narcissus
Narcissus has been updated with a new Gem Manager, which can be opened by clicking on the hourglass widget on the character UI. This feature lets players easily change their meta, cogwheel, tinker, and prismatic gems through simple clicks on the gems.
Note: If the hourglass widget doesn't show up, then enable Paper Doll Widget in Settings > Extensions.
Narcissus Addon: ZamestoTV: Remix - Mists of Pandaria
ZamestoTV has created a plugin for
HandyNotes that adds the locations of
Pandaria Rares and Treasures to the map.
HandyNotes |
Pandaria Rares and Treasures 
Addon: Easy Scrap
Easy Scrap can be used to queue gear for scrapping in WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria, even though the addon hasn't been updated in a while. However, be careful to avoid clicking on "Queue All," as this option will queue all your unequipped Prismatic Gems.
Easy Scrap < This article continues on their website >
Posted by msmash from Slashdot
From the how-about-that department: Microsoft is partnering with tutoring organization Khan Academy to provide a generative AI assistant to all teachers in the U.S. for free. From a report: Khanmigo for Teachers, which helps teachers prepare lessons for class, is free to all educators in the U.S. as of Tuesday. The program can help create lessons, analyze student performance, plan assignments, and provide teachers with opportunities to enhance their own learning.
"Unlike most things in technology and education in the past where this is a 'nice-to-have,' this is a 'must-have' for a lot of teachers," Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, said in a CNBC "Squawk Box" interview last Friday ahead of the deal. Khan Academy has roughly 170 million registered users in over 50 languages around the world, and while its videos are best known, its interactive exercise platform was one which Microsoft-funded artificial intelligence company OpenAI's top executives, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, zeroed in on early when they were looking for a partner to pilot GPT with that offered socially positive use cases.
After years of marketing, delays, betas, and name changes, XDefiant from Ubisoft is finally here and...things aren’t going very well. Players are currently unable to find matches as the game’s servers can’t seem to cope with the large influx of people. 
Are you hungry? Are you really hungry? Do you want 50 chicken nuggets? Well, lucky you, Wendy’s is now selling a bucket that contains 50 fried pieces of chicken across the United States. 
Cosplayer and OnlyFans creator Belle Delphine recently revealed that she earned no money from her 2019 viral “Gamer Girl Bath Water” stunt because PayPal was charging her weird fees and keeping the funds for itself. Almost five years later, Business Insider reports that the internet celebrity’s “biggest L” has finally… 
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Ninja Theory’s latest narrative action-adventure game, arrived on May 21, 2024 for Xbox and PC. While many may be divided over its simple combat and lengthy puzzles, there’s no denying that Hellblade 2 is a visually stunning game, especially on a PC with the horsepower to push the game to… 
The Pokédex has had plenty of different voices across the Pokémon franchise. This digital codex tells you all about the different critters you meet in the Pokémon world, and in the anime, it’s voiced. Original protagonist Ash Ketchum cycled through several variations of the Pokédex throughout his years-long run, and… 
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The first season of X-Men ‘97, the animated series on Disney+, is over. The show was a stunning continuation of the classic ‘90s cartoon that managed to blend nostalgic appeal with sharp storytelling that masterfully applied the mutant metaphor to modern-day issues. There is already a season two on the way, but if you… 
The Switch remake of Nintendo’s classic 2004 role-playing game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is out this week, and according to the reviews, it’s a banger. But that’s not too surprising, given that the GameCube original was always the best Paper Mario game. What is surprising is finding out the remake undoes one… 
Last year saw the release of some really big and highly-rated video games. However, new data shows that PC gaming was the biggest winner in 2023, while console revenue mostly flatlined and mobile game profits dropped. 
