Warband Nexus

- Gear tab: character selector and dropdown sizing; scrollbar-inclusive text budget; name/realm visibility; header card height.
- About / Info dialog: contributor lines (class colors vs Blizzard gold); `INFO_CREDITS_LORE_SUBTITLE` replaces redundant “Special Thanks” under Credits.

Improvements
- Characters tab: new "Default Order" sort (logged-in character first, then level high→low, then name A–Z). Core defaults set `characterSort.key` to `"default"` for new profiles. Sort dropdown maps unknown or invalid saved keys to the first menu option (per tab). Logged-in character stays at the top of Favorites, tracked, and Untracked for all sort modes including manual; manual custom-order seed includes every character in the section with the online character first; `characterOrder` gains an `untracked` list; reorder keeps the online character pinned to the top.
- Settings window: uses WindowManager (POPUP priority, shared ESC handler with the main window) instead of a fixed FULLSCREEN_DIALOG strata/frame level. `RefreshSettingsKeyboard` re-enables keyboard when showing an existing frame after Hide/Show. Font-related rebuilds unregister the settings frame from WindowManager before closing it.
- WindowManager: after combat, when restoring visible frames, call `EnableKeyboard(true)` in addition to `SetPropagateKeyboardInput(true)` so ESC/focus behavior is reliable.
- Try Counter: instance difficulty prefers a snapshot taken on instance entry (`PLAYER_ENTERING_WORLD`) keyed by instance ID, then live `GetInstanceInfo`, before ENCOUNTER_END and dungeon/raid APIs — fixes Mythic runs misread as Normal (e.g. Operation: Mechagon, HK-8). `ResolveLiveInstanceDifficultyID` handles M+ and APIs when `GetInstanceInfo` difficulty is 0; `ResolveEffectiveEncounterDifficultyID` centralizes effective difficulty for gating.
- Try Counter: `FilterDropsByDifficulty` (and shared collectible-collected checks) used consistently for loot processing, delayed ENCOUNTER_END handling, and CHAT_MSG_LOOT. CHAT path uses the same `encounter_<journalEncounterID>` dedup key as the loot window.
- Try Counter: when a boss loot pass yields zero trackable drops (difficulty gate or all collected), still record the encounter dedup key so delayed ENC/CHAT cannot increment the same kill again.
- Try Counter: merged open-world loot uses an item-ID-based corpse multiplier so mixed NPC templates that share the same mount drop (e.g. Nazmir Bloodfeaster) count every corpse, not only the first matched NPC id.
- Try Counter: LOOT_READY may fire twice while the window is open — second READY no longer clears an active loot session; debug trace lines for LOOT_READY/LOOT_CLOSED are deduped within a short window to reduce chat spam.
- Try Counter: [WN-Drops] one chat line per tracked drop: `Collectible Detected :` + boss — item link — difficulty segment — try count / collected. Gated difficulty is `(label)` in green, red, or amber; unrestricted drops use a gray em dash (`—`) as the third segment.
- In-game What's New: `CHANGELOG_V257` (enUS hotfix blurb + 2.5.7 body) and NotificationManager fallback updated for 2.5.7b.

Bug fixes
- Try Counter: attempt counter could increase even after a "skipped difficulty" message (loot path vs delayed ENC / CHAT duplicate attribution).
- Try Counter: `OnTryCounterChatMsgLoot` fishing path no longer calls a nil global — `CurrentUnitsHaveMobLootContext` is forward-declared and assigned like other late-defined locals (fixes “attempt to call global 'CurrentUnitsHaveMobLootContext'”).