Posts with tag macintosh

It's no secret that Macs, and especially Mac notebooks, run pretty hot while playing WoW. However, in the wake of patch 5.0.4, a lot of Mac users are reporting dangerously high temperatures, and worried players have flooded the Mac Technical Support forum.

A player named Growltiger believes he/she has found what's causing the problem, and has even devised a fix that's seemed to work really well for the people who've tried it. Blizzard's acknowledged this and is working on patching the issue as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I thought that, in addition to including Growltiger's solution here, it might be a good idea to run an article on how to fix and prevent heat problems with Macs. We write for a pretty computer-savvy audience here at WoW Insider, and odds are good you'll find some people in the comment section who really know their stuff. I won't claim to be one of them, but I hope some of the things that have worked for me will also work for you.

Even if you're a novice computer user, you should find a few tips here. However, if you're one of the players looking to implement Growltiger's fix, fair warning: It's not for the faint of heart.

According to a new Battle.net support page, there will be a new Blizzard Authenticator app for your mobile phone which will generate a code just like the physical authenticator does. The authenticator app will act just like the physical authenticators currently available. The page is sparse on exactly what phones and mobile devices will be supported, but it does mention that it works with the iPod Touch and iPhone.

According to the webpage, you only need a WiFi connection once to activate the authenticator application, and after that you're all set.

This comes right after the transition of the EU World of Warcraft account management to the new Battle.net account management. The US transition is reportedly done, although there has been no official world from Blizzard yet (however all their webpages have already changed over).

The app is not available for download yet via Blizzard or from the Apple store. But we'll let you know the second it goes up!

You can read the full FAQ after the break, or check out the Blizzard Support article.

New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.

Playing WoW is no fun at all if your system doesn't cut the mustard. If you've just started playing on hardware of questionable power, you may believe you're clicking along just fine -- only to watch your frame rate come to a grinding halt the first time you're faced with a raid or Battleground full of players moving, casting and otherwise wreaking havoc (to both the game environment and your system).

Lots of players start out playing WoW on hand-me-down computer systems. In fact, the spouse who starts playing on an old hunk o' junk, only to become hooked and then upgrade to a hotter rig than that of the established player, has become something of a gaming cliché. The thing to remember here is that a system that will run WoW will not provide the same enjoyment as a system that runs it well.

A minor but important point: do not run the uninstaller to remove the Public Test Realm (PTR) client, just delete the PTR folder. Most people can find the PTR client inside the "WoWTest" folder, which resides in the "World of Warcraft" folder. More specifically, you should be able to locate the WoW Test folder in "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft" or "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\". If you have MacOS X the "WoWTest" folder is stored in "Macintosh HD::Applications::World of Warcraft".

Other people can find the PTR client inside of the folder "C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft Public Test" in Windows Vista and "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft Public Test" in WindowsXP. MacOS X users can find the files in "MacintoshHD::Applications::World of Warcraft Public Test".

This important bit of information came from blue poster Maaven on the official forums today. With Patch 3.0.2 being released tomorrow, the PTR client is useless and came be safely removed. But be sure that you remove it the way Maaven suggests.

WoW Insider will have a lot of 3.0.2 coverage tomorrow. We'll also be keeping the light on tonight and will get you the patch notes as soon as they appear.

Fridays are a time for early happy hour quiet contemplation and reflection upon the past, and in that spirit we're taking a look back at some of the best posts from over the lifespan of Ask WoW Insider. Now that we're all older and wiser -- who *did* end up being the top PvP classes at 70?

• Best duo for PvP or grinding
  "What team of classes make the best duo for PVP or for grinding?"
• Top PvP classes at level 70
  Just after Burning Crusade came out, we speculated on which classes would dominate in PvP. Were we right? Would you change the answer you gave then?
• Best ways to make money in Burning Crusade
  "What are some good ways of making money for levels 60-70 in Burning Crusade? Are there people making money from jewelcrafting yet, should I pick that up? What about good mobs to grind or drops that sell well to vendors or on the AH?"
• Best way to get instance invites
  "What are your tips and tricks for convincing a group you've got the goods despite not having seen the inside of the dungeon?"
• Why are you overpowered?
  "Dig deep, self-examine and admit it: what makes your class overpowered?"
• How's WoW performance on a Mac?
  "I play Wow on a PC, and am looking towards a new computer purchase. One thing that influences my purchase is how well WoW will run on my new computer. I'm leaning towards a Mac, but how well does WoW run on a Mac?"
• Best way to power level alts
  "What's your strategy for the quickest power leveling? How do you maximize your time with your alts?"
• How would you design your own battleground?
  "What if you could design your own battleground? What would you do different or better than what is currently in the game?"
• When is it fair to upgrade an epic?
  "All DKP ideas aside, when is it fair to upgrade an epic over an epic?"
• Best healing class
  "Which class would you roll for a purely healing role? Which would you roll for a powerfully healing hybrid who might want to take on other roles from time to time? Relatedly, which healing class is the worst?"
• Best DPS class
  "Which classes can dish out the most DPS and which ones make the least amount of DPS?"
• Favorite WoW podcasts
  "There are a ton of WoW-themed podcasts out there now -- which would you recommend? What are your favorites?"
• Great ding stories
  "Any fun or interesting stories to tell about hitting the level cap? Or more generally, any memorable or unusual dings at any level?"

We see that look in your eye, and we know it means you want to send us questions. Ask WoW Insider needs 'em -- send them to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com!

I saw this screen shot last night on the WoW LJ community, and I have to admit, it took me by surprise. This is the first time I've ever actually seen the World of Warcraft launcher/load screen come out and point-blank warn people about the presence of Trojans on their machines. As there are a lot of variants of this particular Trojan out in the wild, that specific name doesn't surprise me.

Considering the fact that two Blue accounts were recently compromised, it looks like it's a good time to once again make sure your systems are patched, your virus scanners are up to date, and that you've got some good lines of defense against these Trojans. (Personally, I'm a huge fan of FireFox and some of the browser extensions that have come out for it.) Or, as some of my friends have told me, I could just get a Mac, and not have to worry so much about these kinds of things either. I keep telling them I'll happily switch when they buy me one.

Today's Ask WoW Insider brings us a corollary question to our WoW performance on Vista inquiry from a couple of months ago; Rotmeyer writes:

I play Wow on a PC, and am looking towards a new computer purchase. One thing that influences my purchase is how well WoW will run on my new computer. I'm leaning towards a Mac, but how well does WoW run on a Mac? What's the minimum Mac requirements for smooth framerate and gameplay? Could I play WoW on a Mac Mini? Thanks.

Without getting derailed into Yet Another Platform War, can anyone give Rotmeyer some advice or share your experiences running the WoW client on a Mac? Be as specific about the model and specs of your machine(s) as possible.

Don't forget: Ask WoW Insider needs your questions! What do you want to ask your peers? Put your thinking caps on and send your philosophical conundrums to us at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.

I'm not really sure whether to call this a review or not, but Macologist has posted an extremely in-depth overview of WoW entitled The Journey to 60 and Beyond. It's a look back at the game from a level 60 player designed as a sort of primer for the new or prospective player (so yeah, I guess it is kind of a review, if a belated one). It covers just about everything, from installation, to selecting a server & creating a character, to information about guilds, instances, quests, mounts, the endgame, and everything in between.

Not a ton of new info here for anyone who's been playing WoW for a while, but it's a very well-written look at the game for anyone who might be interested in learning more about the game, doing research, or looking to start playing themselves. Also, the article is from a Mac site, so all the tech-talk is Mac-centric, and there may be some tidbits of info that Mac users will find useful. You can read the full article here.

For all you Mac-based WoW players out there who have feared that the release of Apple's new Boot Camp software (allowing Mac users to run both Win XP & OS-X) might singal the end of native gaming development for the Mac, Blizzard has announced that the Mac version of WoW will indeed continue to recieve native support, so anyone worried about having to eventually switch to a Boot-Camped Windows version can rest easy.

Apple claims the Windows version of WoW should be playable with Boot Camp, but as the Boot Camp software is still in beta, they will not offer support for running in this environment.  A story in today's Macworld has more on the issue.

I still wanna know: how the heck do you play on a Mac without a second mouse button?