There's no denying that patch 2.4 has been one hot topic today. Not just here on WoW Insider, either. I'd say it's safe to assume Google is a pretty good indicator of what's what on the internet, and Google Trends reveals all.

Patch 2.4 and many other WoW-related things dominated March 25th as the most popular Google searches. As of 8 PM CST, out of the top ten searches, only two were unrelated to the World of Warcraft. As you can see above, the Omen Threat Meter ranked number one. Not particularly surprising, since it is one of the most used WoW addons around. If WoW is going to dominate the charts, it should be no shock Omen took the lead, especially on a patch day.

As the night goes on, things are tapering off a little bit, but the numbers were still very impressive for most of the day. A screencap of what Omen's search traffic throughout the day looked like is just behind the cut, and you can see pretty clearly when people discovered the patch was coming.

There's a storm brewing over in the UI & Macros forum, and it's about the terms of use for popular add-on site Curse. If you use mods at all, you're almost certainly aware of the site; I go there all the time. They're probably the biggest mod site right now. So it comes as something of a surprise to me that such a pillar of the scene would have what seems to be a pretty abusive set of terms service.

According to the analysis conducted in this forum thread, Curse's ToU "specifically removes any and all copyright that we as authors have on our addons." Yikes!

There are other bad parts of the ToU language too, including that Curse can change the ToU at any time without notifying authors. Of course, the site is within its rights to impose any ToU it wants on the users, but it's not nice to take control of creations out of authors' hands. I am not a lawyer, so it's altogether possible that I'm interpreting some of this incorrectly. The forum thread, however, claims that lawyers looked at Curse's terms and agreed that the interpretation is correct.

Until these provisions are changed -- and Curse promises that they will be -- I recommend mod authors use other sites like WoWInterface or wowui.incgamers.com. In writing this article I read the terms of use for those sites -- or rather, tried to. IncGamers doesn't even have their ToU up! But they've been a pretty well-behaved site in the past (they used to be worldofwar.net), so I trust them. WoWInterface's terms of service didn't seem to have anything like what Curse has, and a source at the site assured me that "we never touch an author's zip file without their knowledge and consent, ever." WI has a good history of respecting the community and the authors. Curse folks, are we all reading this wrong? Is there something in this issue that's being missed?

Update: As several of Curse's employees have helpfully pointed out to me, the new ToU are much better. However, I still have reservations about them.

Lots of us have encountered those wide-eyed and eager WoW players who walk up to anyone with epic gear and say, "WoW! Where'd you get that? That's uber-cool lol!" We may even be that sort of player from time to time, if we see a piece of gear we think looks really wonderful or seems particularly useful.

WhoDrop answers that question for you before you even ask. Whenever you inspect another player (I'm using Examiner for that in the screenshot above), WhoDrop will insert a line at the bottom of the tooltip for each item you examine, telling you where exactly that item can be found. It'll tell you which boss drops it, whether it's crafted or not, or even how many Honor or Arena points it'll cost you to buy. Another addon which has a similar function is called Mendeleev, but I found that it overloaded me with too much information, so I went with WhoDrop instead. (Incidentally, the other two tooltip-info addons prominent in this screenshot are RatingBuster, with the stats, and Auctioneer, with the price information.)

Additionally, if you're approaching a certain boss fight, grinding a certain reputation, or PvPing for certain rewards, WhoDrop also features an expandable list of the items you can get from these various sources. It was also recently updated to include the Arena Season 3 gear, so you can now drool over that any time you wish. If you want a prettier interface just for looking at boss drops and such, you might consider AtlasLoot, which has most the same information and is easier to browse through (but it has no tooltip info -- you'll still need WhoDrop for that). AtlasLoot is a plugin for Atlas maps, which can help if you ever get lost in instances.

You can get WhoDrop at IncGamers, but I prefer to get mine direct from wowace.com, and keep it up-to-date with the WoW Ace Updater for the Mac.

You know how it is. One of your favorite addons breaks down completely after a patch, so you go looking for the updated version, but then you realize you don't remember where you downloaded it. You check your favorite mods website, only to find that they only have the out-dated version. You end up having to check several different websites in order to find the update, and you wish there were a better way.

KitKatsFTW over in Europe has developed a simple solution: a site called "WoW Mod Search," which uses Google's custom engine to search through the four main WoW mod sites: WoW UI, WoW Interface, Curse, and WoWAce. The site is simple, unobtrusive, and aside from some google text ads, there's absolutely nothing to get in your way.

I use Inquisitor on Safari to quickly use shortcuts of any search engine without actually visiting the website itself first. If any of you out there are also using Inquisitor, or any similar search plugin, you should be able to just copy and paste this search url into your plugin preferences as a shortcut for quick access to WoW Mod Search later. (The "%@" in that link represents the space that will be replaced with your searched keywords when you use the plugin.)

It's patch day, and considering the changes that are being implemented, it's practically Christmas morning. Except, many of you are stuck at work and no one can open their presents. Here are a few tips to help pass the time.

1. Read up on Zul'Aman, from the lore to the loot.
2. Make a plan to update your addons. My first stop will be Curse's Patch Portal, which will list the addons that have updates. You may also want to consider automating the process if you find it too time-consuming or stressful. Try downloading the Curse Client and/or WoWAceUpdater.
   
3. Check out Eric's guide to updating addons, viable even when your usual methods are not working, often due to the fact that everyone is also updating. Also see Elizabeth's guide.
   
4. Head over to Massively and peruse some of the WoW-related content.
   
5. Browse through past editions of AddOn Spotlight, the Creamy GUI Center, and Reader UI of the Week, or poke around websites like WoWAce and Curse to maybe inspire you to try something new.
   
6. Play around with Wowhead's updated talent calculator and get your new build all planned out.

How will you be spending today's server downtime? Will you be making lists, researching, and daydreaming, or will you be playing it cool?

Curse has a great interview up with Antiarc, creator of that Omen threat addon that you raiders like so much. He talks about how he got started in WoW addons (with this crazy awesome Zelda UI), dealing with WoW 2.0, and the big differences between KTM and Omen.

It's a good read-- Antiarc seems like a smart guy who not only knows the ins and outs of the UI system, but knows how to bring them to our screens elegantly and simply. He's also really positive, which is great-- even though Blizzard said at BlizzCon that they're thinking about building a threatmeter into the UI, Antiarc doesn't see it as a "threat" (pun intended)-- instead, he's excited that Blizzard is acknowledging how useful threatmeters are, and that hopefully Blizzard will include API hooks into anything they release.

Very good read, whether you're just an Omen user, or someone actively developing addons for WoW.

Curse has announced that they're throwing their hat in the professional gaming arena with Meet Your Makers, a group that both sponsors and supports PvE and PvP teams. The PvP part of the team, called MYM.PvP, is the "Log" arena team (and they're part of the tourney at BlizzCon later this week), while the "MYM.PvE" group will consist of the Curse guild and their ingame progression.

Now, the PvP side of it is hardly new-- we've already seen quite a few teams get picked up by sponsors, and since Blizzard implemented the arena system, we've seen a few teams, most notably Team Pandemic, rise to the top. But the PvE side is very interesting. Curse says that they're going to get a "significant boost to our PR and Administrative capabilities" from the partnership. On first thought, it doesn't seem very profitable to support guilds making progress in-game-- unlike tournaments, there's no monetary prize awarded for being the first guild to down Illidan.

But in point of fact, there is a lot of mindshare out there to be grabbed by being the first guild to drop a boss-- players are interested in the kills, and therefore sites like ours are definitely interested in reporting them. Seeing a PvE boss kill "sponsored" by an eSports company like Meet Your Makers might not be that far off.

[ via MMO Champion ]

tehkittyboy over on the WoW LJ passes along this WoW Purity Test. I'm not usually one for taking these online tests, but considering it had to do with WoW, I went ahead and filled it out. Just like all of these quizzes (in the great tradition of Cosmo quizzes), it's silly, but you end up with a number that you can feel good (or bad?) about. In my case: 35%. Which sounds low, but then again, maybe it's a good thing that I don't have 60 days /played on one character.

And if you're after something a little more serious, Curse points us to this slightly more academic gamer psychology test on GuildCafe. It's based on the Bartle Test, a famous test about 10 years old meant to categorize online game players into four different groups: Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers. The test was originally created for players of MUDs (if you remember those), but it's now been updated for MMORPG players. According to this test, I am an SAEK, which means I'm more interested in socializing and achieving than finding new places ingame and killing other players. Is that why my WoW Purity score is so low? Who knows.

Our friend Totalbiscuit of WoW Radio sends word to remind us that today at 2 pm EST (in just about an hour and a half from now), he'll be hosting a roundtable with members of Nihilum, Death and Taxes, Forte and Method-- in other words, pretty much every endgame guild that matters. I guess he could probably go for Curse as well, but "Four Horsemen" just sounds better.

On the menu is supposed to be "all aspects of the endgame," so it'll be interesting to see what gets talked about. Expect to hear about what they thought of the Black Temple and the attunements being lifted from the Eye and SSC, and TB would probably be remiss if he didn't ask what they think is coming next (even though no one but Blizzard has anything but speculation about that right now, probably until Blizzcon). But nevertheless, WoW Radio always does a good interview, and this should be a good listen for sure.

Just in time for the WSVG's kickoff of the Louisville event this weekend, Curse has a video interview up with THE HUKHUKHUKHUKHUKS of Flow Gaming, the US Regional 5v5 Champions. The interview itself isn't really that gripping unless you really follow this arena tournament stuff (I like that they do fit in at least one sports interview cliche: "I feel really good about our win today"). There one complaint about the way WSVG handles gear-- apparently, they give everyone standard gear to make sure things are balanced, but HUK's Shaman says that he gets resilience gear rather than the stamina and crit that he usually uses.

Unfortunately Curse doesn't ask about the disqualifications that happened recently (when players were found to be using each other's accounts, against the ToU), but they do ask about another problem I have with WSVG, and that is commentating the matches for spectators. As the players say, "they don't even have a good system to really view the matches as they're happening." So there's a nice goal for some would-be entertainment mogul: figure out a way to make watching players play videogames both understandable and interesting.

Meanwhile, the WSVG is in Louisville, and their sparse schedule says they've got WoW on the menu for all four days. If you can't make it down there, Curse will have streaming video all weekend (if you can get it to work-- I couldn't) right here.

Now, I've played a little Xbox with my WoW guildies, but when it comes to cross-game guilds, that's as far as my experience goes. I used to play in a guild in Dark Age of Camelot, but I can't remember their name, much less know if they ever brought their game over into World of Warcraft.

But Guildcafe has an interview up with Lords of the Dead, and these guys define cross-game guilding. They've been around for 12 years, playing all the way back from Ultima Online up to WoW (and now they're making plans, apparently, for WAR.

So how do you keep a guild together for 12 years? In the interview, they extol the virtues of "rules, policies and requirements," which makes sense-- you either follow the rules, or you're out of the guild before you can cause drama. In addition, LotD is able to build a strong guild leadership for every game they play-- a good leader will help any guild survive, and great leadership across games is how LotD did it. An interesting read for guild leaders and members alike-- have you been able to follow or lead a guild into or out of WoW?

[ via Curse ]

After a perfectly executed 30-minute wipe fest, Curse has downed Azgalor - the fourth boss of Hyjal. This means that there is only one more boss in their way: Archimonde himself. Unfortunately, since everyone died, the corpse despawned, which resulted in no loot. Hopefully a GM will be on later to rectify their issue. Congratulations to Curse! Good luck with Archimonde!

The world first kills continue. First, Nihilum brought their PTR skillz out to the live servers, and rocked four bosses in one night. Then, they dropped three more just for fun. And now, other guilds are getting in on the action.

Curse reports that Forte from EU Kazzak took out Anetheron in Mount Hyjal on Saturday evening, winning them the world first on that one. Then, on Sunday, Nilhilum (on EU Magtheridon) and Curse (on EU Vek-nilash) both headed into Hyjal, and downed Anetheron and Kaz'rogal-- and this time, Curse picked up the world first on Kaz.

MMO Champion has more, including deets on all the kills (and the fact that Curse also picked up Supremus and High Warlord Naj'entus in the Black Temple-- with only 22 players in the raid!), and screenshots for every kill. So grats to Curse, Forte and especially Nihilum on all their achievements this weekend.

What does all this mean for us casual players? While usually a world first kill means not much more than a tip of the hat, so many kills like this in one weekend might be a sign that Blizzard is getting serious about making the endgame more friendly to casual players. If these hardcore guilds can burn through this content so quickly, it's probably not long before we see more casual guilds moving up the ladder behind them, right?

At last, we see a teaser of the final encounter of Mount Hyjal! Curse from Vek'Nilash has gone up against Archimonde to give us a preview of this epic, world-changing battle. They bring attention to a few of his abilities, and particularly how incredibly difficult he is. I can't wait to see what kinds of items he has in store for us!

[Thanks, WarcraftMovies.com]

There's been a low-level murmur for weeks in the Raids and Dungeons forum about the amount of trash in Serpentshrine Cavern. Words like "nightmare", "soul-destroying", and "worse than Twin Emps-C'thun trash" were bandied about. The problem wasn't just the amount of trash, but the respawn time -- with 45-minute respawns, guilds were literally watching trash respawn behind them as they cleared. And as more guilds check into early Tempest Keep, they're finding the same situation.

This week, the wave finally crested, with members of Death and Taxes, Curse, and other top guilds arguing that the trash situation has become unbearable. Selected comments from the threads follow:

• Guass of Ret, Mal'Ganis: "I personally enjoy when trash respawns in the middle of a boss fight because it isn't linked to anything. It's things like this which make me feel like I wasn't meant to be raiding this zone yet ... nor was anyone else."
• Marolla of Crimson, Greymane: "Since typically one dungeon is being started while another is released, I can only assume that the crew that did MC, AQ40 and SSC is a bunch of sadists and needs to be burned at the stake. Please let the crew that did BWL and Naxx be in charge of all hiring decisions from this point forward."
• Mek, raid leader of Curse, Vek'linash-EU: "Trash should be killed once in a night of tries on a boss. Fine, it respawns on a soft reset or a 6 hour timer, but not this garbage we have now. If you do not fix this you are eventually going to kill off high-end raiding because we just do not want to do this anymore."
• Cherrie of Death and Taxes, Korgath: "I personally love hours upon hours of trash. I especially enjoy having to kill it multiple times because the respawn is so quick. I enjoy it ALMOST as much as fighting untuned bosses. THE SARCASM, IT'S OVERWHELMING!"
• Plastique of Death and Taxes, Korgath: "As much as I know you need us to play-test all of these new instances, we might not volunteer for it anymore since it's threatening our sanity ... please don't release Black Temple. It's too soon." (Italics added for emphasis.)
• And finally, Clockwork of the reformed Overrated, Korgath, wins the thread and the entire internet with: "Wow, what a bunch of whiners. Stop crying and just clear the trash, OK?"

I haven't seen much of 25-man raiding in TBC beyond what a rogue, a mage, and a quick portal to Shattrath can show you, but the trash situation sounds like it's really wearing on the top guilds. When a member of Death and Taxes asks Blizzard NOT to release new content, something is not right. It also looks like there's near-universal hatred of the trash clears, inasmuch as every guild that's posted in these threads has decried them.

Have you seen the trash in SSC and Tempest Keep? Does it sound excessive to you, or is multiple trash clears the price you pay for being on the cutting edge?