Ask a Beta Tester: Professions and Primals

Demonocracy asked....
Recently 22 slot bags have become available through a vendor in Shattrath for 1,200 gold each. When I saw this my first reaction was to buy-buy-buy, but I questioned whether this was an effort on Blizzard's part to draw gold out of the economy before Wrath. What are tailors capable of creating in terms of bags in Wrath?
Right now tailors in the beta with 410 skill can craft Frostweave Bags with 20 slots. However, it has pretty basic materials and I'd guess that there will be 22 slots, at least, at higher levels.For more of your beta questions -- and our beta answers -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.
Several people have, in recent memory, written in to ask about weather in Wrath. Up until the recent patch, there was none, snow has popped up in the last patch. Happy winter, folks!
Derringher had some engineering questions... most of which I haven't got good answers to, but here goes nothing....
Are there gas clouds in WotLK for engineers to farm?
At present, no gas clouds in Northrend. This does not, however, mean there won't be anything of the ilk showing up. There's no new extractor to be learned at the engineering trainer, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything either. (Perhaps new gas clouds would use the same extractor or perhaps the new extractor hasn't yet been added to the beta.)
What are the WotLK equivalent of Motes and Primals in WotLK?
In Wrath, you'll have Crystals and Eternals. There's Crystallized Air, Crystallized Earth, Crystallized Fire, Crystallized Shadow, and Crystallized Water. If you collect ten of any of these Crystals, you can turn them into Eternal Air, Eternal Earth, Eternal Fire, Eternal Shadow, or Eternal Water.
turb0dog asked....
Has there been any more mention of Druids getting a "normal" rez without the cool down?
Yep! At level 12 Druids can pick up Revive, a standard, out of combat rez with no cooldown. (Though with a cost of 72% of base mana, it doesn't come cheap!)
Squelchy asked....
This may be boring, but what's farming like? I'm interested in mining, specifically. Stacks of Adamantite Ore sell like gangbusters on my realm's AH. What will be the new Adamantite in Wrath?
There are plenty of ore options in Wrath: Cobalt, Saronite, and Titanium can all be mined (and smelted into their respectively named bars). Hardened Saronite and Titansteel can both be smelted (from Saronite and Titanium, respectively).
I'm interested in obtaining the Seeker title, for which you need to complete the 3000 Quests Achievement.
Now, does that Achievement track how many quests you have completed so far? (e.g. 2544/3000)
The Achievement interface does track the number of quests you've completed. Very handy.
Also, how hard do you think this Achievement will be to obtain? Does the average player complete ~ 3000 quests while leveling to 80 or do I have to go back to every zone and do each and every quest?
I think this one is going to take some work. For example, at level 73, my Paladin has completed 1244 quests. At level 70, my Priest has completed 1285 quests. (The difference? My Priest did more end-game and instancing, and general rep grinding before the beta.) At level 69, my Rogue has completed 962 quests. At level 62, my Warlock has completed 832 quests. On average, I'm guessing you probably won't clear 2000 quests by 80, which will leave you with a hunting for quests. (And I'd hate to be a Death Knight after this quest -- getting to 3000 without doing most of the pre-60 content? Ouch!)
Specialis asked....
For Warriors does 2-handed weapon spec. stack with dual wield spec. when one has Titans Grip?
Our own Matt Rossi chimed in on this one to confirm that 2h Weapon Specialization stacks with Titan's Grip. Using this build, he tested the damage before and after spending talent points, and it increased as one would expect for both weapons.
Mark asked....
I'm still struggling with the mana percentages for spells concept. If all the spells will be a certain percentage of your total - is there any reason to try and pump up your intelligence to get more mana any more? Why not stick with 1200 mana rather than pushing to get 6000.
The mana percentages are percentages of base mana. What that means is that your spells will cost a percentage of the mana you would have if you took off all of your gear and dropped any talents that improved mana or intellect. So the more mana you manage to get, the more spells you'll still be able to cast.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Swingline Sep 10th 2008 11:10AM
Will there still be transmutes with the Eternals like the Primals now? I'm leveling an alt with herb/alch just for the C/D's right now.
WatcherZero Sep 10th 2008 11:16AM
Yes, theirs a full circle of transmutes so any eternal can be turned into any other eventually by going round the circle.
Their is an equivalent of Primal Might as well
Liljon Sep 10th 2008 11:35AM
yes they are there
/console extshadowquality 1-6
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=oUGkY2csVmc
Kirke Sep 10th 2008 11:13AM
22 slot tailor made bag:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=56005
Kirke
Axxam Sep 10th 2008 2:17PM
Level 450? (or is that just when it goes from orange to yellow?) Given the cooldown on the mats, I suspect it will probably cost as much as the 20 slotters do now. Cheaper than Gigantique, yes, but how long until available?
Well, I have 100 slots now, and that should hold me until WOLK anyway
Doghead Sep 10th 2008 11:15AM
Where are the dynamic shadows that were talked about. Are they in the beta and if so how do I go about turning them on?
Rejuvi Sep 10th 2008 11:36AM
/console extShadowQuality
Where 0 is the current Shadow content and 5 is the most dynamic. It does effect your frame rate drastically so test out slowly before jumping straight to 5.
Doghead Sep 10th 2008 11:40AM
Thanks very much, will try tonight.
I'm thinking that a new Graphics Card might be the order of the day if its nice.
Kastirin Sep 10th 2008 5:39PM
0-4 are stable settings, 5 and 6 are unstable testing settings.
Donjio Sep 10th 2008 11:15AM
I'm very stoked about the Druid resurrect ability. It's going to make instancing all the better for us.
Base mana is, actually, how much mana you'd have with zero intellect, not no gear.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Base_mana
Omnom Sep 10th 2008 11:45AM
So what's the point in stating a percentage of base mana if everyone's mana pool for that class is the same amount?
They could at least show both the percentage and actual cost.
:)
Celton Sep 10th 2008 12:03PM
Everyone's base mana pool for a class isn't the same amount. It gets bigger as you level up. The percent of base mana just allows the cost of the spells to scale as you level.
Brad Sep 10th 2008 12:28PM
So does this mean that the gnome boost to intellect (why I rolled a gnome mage) is going to be useless in casting more spells? Also, with a higher base mana, does that mean that what I thought of when rolling him is going to actually be a disadvantage because my spells will cost more?
Jaynitan Sep 10th 2008 12:49PM
The reasons for base mana cost are twofold.
A. - for spells with one rank only the mana will scale with your level
B. - I imagine this is an easier way to code things. . . take a number and add a % base makes it easier to scale up or down. This makes it easier to tune the game via the programming.
Imagine a player at lvl 70 casts polymorph more than Blizz wants they tune the % and all mages have a slight difference. If it was a flat mana cost then if they upped the mana cost lvl 20 wouldn't be able to cast the spell at all.
the other nice thing I found out in this post was what base mana truly was. Each player levels and gets like 10 hp, 200 mana, 10 stam, 4 int etc.
If you somehow never got stats like int and stam you would still have health and mana independant, that is your base mana. A guy linked to wowwiki base mana above.
This means that heavy caster get lower base mana because they stack more int and get more while leveling, a hunter has about 3000 base mana while a mage has 1900.
A druid has 2090 base mana, but my naked lvl 70 druid has over 4000. That is from the inante intellect I get from leveling. A naked mage at 70 probably has about 6000.
So the base mana cost once you add innate int and gear/enchants and gems gets pretty small. My boomkin has over 12k mana unbuffed (except MOW) that means I have 10k mana ABOVE my base cost. A feral druid will likely have around 4000-5000 mana which means they have 3x base mana. So a spell that costs say 70% of base mana like the new druid rez. . . my balance druid can cast it about 14 times in a row, my feral can do 3-4 times, and that doesn;t count mana regen from talents and gear.
Eliseth Sep 10th 2008 1:01PM
Just wanted to note that there are already some spells in TBC that use a % of base mana! Priest dispell comes to mind. So this isn't even a new addition to the game--just an expansion of an existing mechanic.
William Sep 10th 2008 2:22PM
@Jaynitan
That was the best research and addition to the post I've seen in a long time. Thanks for the numbers and spells to help illustrate. :D
Jeff Sep 10th 2008 11:15AM
Regarding the 3000 quest achievement: is there now an option to display quest indicators for trivial (gray) quests, either above NPCs' heads, in the minimap, or both?
magicswordking Sep 10th 2008 11:50AM
Yeah they've added a "Low Level Quests" tracking option to the trackamathingy by the minimap.
Galla Sep 10th 2008 11:57AM
I have heard that they will be making old/low level quests show up on the mini map in the expansion, or possibly even 3.0
tehvoid Sep 10th 2008 12:58PM
According to Wowhead, there's 3848 quests accessible for Horde pre-WolK (4593 post-WotlK atm) and 4025 (4776) for Alliance. That's without fidgeting with classes and professions.
There is plenty to do to accomplish this achievement, 2/3 of the quests is HUGE.