Ask a Beta Tester: More mounts, raid gear, and emotes

Are the flying passenger mounts? Ground mounts are lovely and all, but once everyone takes to the skies will they become useless to everyone with cold weather flying?
I haven't seen any flying passenger mounts yet. Whether the passenger ground mounts are 'useless' or not with Cold Weather Flying is really up to the individual. You can still use it in the old world, you can still use the Mammoth's vendors. There are also places like Lake Wintergrasp where flying is turned off permanently so you don't 'cheat' and skip over all of the fighting to get from Point A to Point B. You and a bunch of your friends charging people down in a huge Mammoth is sweet.
If you don't care about any of that stuff though, yeah it could be seen as useless. It's an optional purchase, though. You don't need to spend the money if you don't want to do so.
G asked...
if the "vehicle itself takes falling damage," what does that mean exactly? Will it eventually break and be unusable? Can it be vendor repaired like armor and weapons?
It just 'dies' and despawns, kicking you all out. And then you resummon it and hop back on. No repairing, no vendoring, no band-aids. It just dies and you summon a new one. No big mess. It just has its own HP bar independent of yours. I guess you could see resummoning it as resurrecting it, if it doesn't make any sense otherwise. Though maybe that makes it more confusing, heh!
Snoogles asked...
How do gear and weapon enchants stack up? Mainly, are there leatherworking, blacksmith, and enchanter...erm...chants, that stack on one item?
No. You can only have one permanent 'enchantment' per item. So your Leatherworking fur lining will not stack with an Enchanting enchantment. You choose one or the other. If a Tailor embroiders their cloak, they can't have an Enchanter's enchantment there in addition to that. One or the other.
Sweet Sweet SoulShards asked...
Can you tell us more about the new Slash Commands and Emotes in Wrath? Is /cower the only new emote with an animation?
There are actually a lot of new emotes, too many to just make a checklist here. However, WotlkWiki.info has them all listed. As far as animations, only /cower has a new animation as far as I can see. Some of them, like /mercy, share animations with older emotes. /mercy and /beg have identical animations, for example.
Zuldim asked...
With 25 man and 10 man raiding, the gear is "one tier" above in 25 man. So, for example, 25 man naxx gear is equal to 10 man whatever comes after naxx gear?
Yes.
Sanzer asked...
So wait,...we get a pet UI and a mount UI, but no tabard UI, and yet there is a achievement for getting 25 tabards (which I am strangely drawn to do)? Am I confused, will there be a UI for tabards, or are they just going to clog my bank?
They're going to clog your bank until you earn the achievement. If you want to, you can get rid of some of them afterwards because there is a vendor in Dalaran that will resell most tabards to you for cheap, when you want to toss on an old one. I wouldn't go throwing away things like the TCG Tabards or the limited edition Argent Dawn tabards and the like, you won't be able to get those back. If you want to throw out your Outland tabards, though, I think it's safe. You can get them again pretty easily
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Wrath of the Lich King, Expansions






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Sorano Sep 28th 2008 5:23PM
What I'd like to know his exactly how much protection warrior dps as changed. All the talents seem too good to be true.
Friday_Knight Sep 28th 2008 8:55PM
I have a fury warrior on live. I've been trying out specs on beta for a while. Prot warrior DPS to put it mildly is awesome. I'm honestly thinking of going prot once 3.0 goes live.
Arms is fairly decent but Bladestorm is kinda tricky and you pretty much just end up stance dancing all day or sitting in battle stance waiting for procs so you spam overpower.
Fury isn't quite so gimped since the last Titan's Grip change. TG is a feasible choice for DPS though I'm still not thrilled at having my special attacks knocked down to the same miss chance as my white hits. Hit rating is going to be a much more important stat for fury warriors at level 80. On the plus side however swinging a pair of 2 handers is EFFING SWEET.
Prot DPS is in most cases either almost as good or as good as Arms or Fury. Pull some mobs, thunderclap, shockwave, shield slam and devastate your way to glory. Damage shield ensures you're always doing damage to what you're fighting. The new shield block is amazing. Forget what you've heard. 10 seconds out of every 40 seconds you have 100% block and DOUBLE block rating. A prot "DPS set" could easily just be a monster block rating set. With only the block rating from my SSO shield I'm getting 2k shield slam crits. With no Impale.
There's a little controversy over the best DPS spec right now cuz it might be a crazy hybrid build. You grab up to impale in Arms, Bloodthirst in Fury (no TG) and up to Incite in Prot. I haven't tested this out yet but it could be a really crazy crit build.
Ironside Sep 28th 2008 5:25PM
If somebody shoots a fireball at your group while you're riding the mammoth who takes the dmg?
You?
Your Group?
The Mammoth?
Chamual Sep 28th 2008 5:31PM
I would guess it was whoever they had targeted when they fired the fireball, as afaik, the mount and the riders are all individually targetable.
Tumleren Sep 28th 2008 5:44PM
Since you can target individuals on the mount, only one person will take damage.
Example:
You and your mate are running along on your mount, when i see you. I target the passanger behind you and throw a fireball at him. Only he takes damage. You continue on like nothing ever happened.
Jane Gray Sep 28th 2008 6:06PM
so does this mean that people cant be stunned off the mount?
Or do they fall off when they die?
Could I hypothetically carry my level 12 alt all over outlands in corpse form?
Azri Sep 28th 2008 6:52PM
Jane: You fall off when you die. Just like if you are on a single-player mount and you die, you fall off and your mount despawns.
So far, you cannot be stunned off multi-player mounts. They are similar to siege vehicles in this regard. No clue if this will change or not.
Nick S Sep 28th 2008 8:02PM
So is the purpose of the multi-person mount to serve as an un-CCable "tank" for PvP, by which you can assault a position without being slowed?
lenlo Sep 28th 2008 10:22PM
so for the mounts does this mean that you can have say to mages in the side parts of te mammoth and let them attack while your driving or do they fall out when they start casting the spell?
Friday_Knight Sep 28th 2008 9:09PM
Unless you stun the driver... or kill him...
Vallennak Sep 28th 2008 5:26PM
What order are the raids meant to be done in? Do you need to gear up in 10-man Ulduar before 25-man Ulduar or will 25-man Naxx gear do it? Do you need 25-man Naxx gear for 10-man Ulduar? I'm so confused.
sephirah Sep 28th 2008 5:41PM
It doesn't seem that the gear from 25 is much better than 10.
I.e.
Lock Naxx 10: http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/8962/set_nax10_warlock.jpg
Lock Naxx 25: http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/8962/set_nax25_warlock.jpg
Azri Sep 28th 2008 6:56PM
The 25-Man versions of dungeons are very similar to gear in the 10-man, just a slight bit more powerful.
The progression of these dungeons is actually tier-based and not numbers-based.
As in, you are meant to go naxx 10 to obsidian sanctuary 10 to eye of eternity 10 to ulduar 10 to whatever is beyond that. 25-man progression is similar.
Many guilds will likely do both 10 and 25-man versions depending on what numbers are available in a given night. 25 players who have been doing the 10-man version of ulduar in separate groups SHOULD be able to get themselves together and do the 25-man version. The upgrades would be less than doing a different dungeon altogether, but they would be upgrades nonetheless and would help the group advance to the next 10/25-man set of dungeons.
Acceptable Risk Sep 28th 2008 7:04PM
So am I right in assuming that you can mix and match 10-man and 25-man gear to make set bonuses?
Azri Sep 28th 2008 7:08PM
Risk: I do not believe that to be the case, since they are separate sets, with separate names, bought with separate tokens. I can't give 100% confirmation on that tho.
Jeremy Sep 28th 2008 8:47PM
Actually they have already stated that the set bonuses from 10 and 25 man raids to indeed stack.. like how season gear shared set bonuses.
Harmun Sep 28th 2008 9:28PM
I don't see any reason to do 25 mans then. If your guild has done all the 10 mans within their reach, I suppose there might be a reason to step into a 25 man version, but aside from that, a higher 10 man will always be a better way to spend your time than a lower 25 man.
25 mans are more than two and a half times harder to complete than 10 mans- logistics and execution becomes a bigger challenge than the boss. If the reward is not proportionally greater than 10 mans, there's no reason to do them.
It's too bad... I liked 25 man content, but I don't like it enough to justify the extra effort with not much extra reward.
Aaronomus Sep 29th 2008 2:58PM
Harmun, many people will continue to do 25-mans because they enjoy 25-mans. If you intend to stop running large raids because you'd rather run 10-mans, then go ahead and run 10-mans, I don't see a problem here. People often complain about there not being a "reason" to do things in WoW. What ever happened to doing something because it's fun? If it's fun, do it. If it's not, don't.
Any change that adds more choices is a good change. I for one will continue primarily with large scale raids and I am confident that there are enough like me to remain doing so as long as WoW is around. If 10-mans (or pvp/soloing/alts) are your thing, more power to you.
Fantsslave Sep 28th 2008 5:29PM
with the new tabard set up will Blizzard bring back the Argent Dawn tabard for the effect, also will it work on Battleground tabards?
Kadamon Sep 28th 2008 5:53PM
If so, I hope they do it for Outlands Tabards too...tabards before exalted would be pretty awesome.