Ask a Beta Tester: Spectral gryphons, prospecting, and portals

Only six-ish days of Ask a Beta Tester left! Whatever will we do!? Well, we'll go on with our lives probably. I mean, we'll have Wrath of the Lich King. Who cares?
Have you heard anything about ghosts being able to go through mountains in WotLK, so they can reach their destinations faster? My friend told me that is what is going to happen, and I hope that it will go live!
Nope, that's not the case, sorry. However, in some zones (Icecrown, Storm Peaks) you get to ride a ghostly gryphon when you're dead, so you can fly to your corpse. Both of those zones have a huge emphasis on mountainside base camps and tall cliffs and places you can only get by flying, so the gryphon is very nice. No running through mountains though.
Erika asked...
When LK comes out are we going to have to build up the starting areas like we did with the SSO or Can I chill a few days on an alt while I let everybody start their DK and stuff?
No, we don't have to do anything like that in the Northrend starter zones. The quest hubs and all of that are already there. The only thing slightly similar is in Icecrown. Through world phasing, you help the Argent Crusade and Knights of the Ebon Blade take bits and pieces of territory from the Scourge. That's purely single-player (or group) content though, it doesn't require work from the server as a whole.
Sielanas asked...
How easy is it to obtain the new gems? What should we prospect early and are there any mining nodes that have better frequency of getting a freebie?
It's about the same as The Burning Crusade as far as rarity. Blue quality gems will be a little harder to get than green ones, both from mining and prospecting. And like The Burning Crusade, high quality nodes will likely have a better droprate on gems than the lower quality ones. When you're leveling Jewelcrafting you'll probably be prospecting Cobalt a lot early on, but once you've moved past it you won't bother with it much ever again, much like Fel Iron in TBC. Saronite is probably the way to go.
LordV asked......
I'm not sure if this has been asked or answered yet but here goes! Mages can head to Dalaran at level 71. I was wondering if there are any level restrictions on the Teleport and or Portal spells or can mages learn said spells as soon as they arrive?
You get to learn the Teleport spell as soon as you hit Dalaran. The Portal spell, however, you learn at level 74. So the level most of us are finally able to go to Dalaran ourselves for the first time, you're able to start bringing your friends up no matter their level.
Marathan asked...
Some time ago, there was a talk about new player character models for Wrath - and even some bugged pictures. So the question is, are they going live? Are we finally going to get improved graphics on our characters?
There weren't any new models in the beta, but there were 'new' skins. And you don't want them to go live. Trust me. They were horrible. Imagine you have a plastic bag. And you put the end of a vacuum inside of it, and sucked out all of the air. The bag would get all shriveled and pulled in on itself. That's what the 'new' Human Female skins looked like. Deflated and shriveled.
Gnomes and Tauren also suffered from these weird skins. It was as if a gorilla grabbed two handfuls of face, yanked them off, squished the face about between their fingers, and slapped it back on haphazardly.
You did not want these skins. They were abominations unto the Light. People who liked them need to be burned at the stake, because surely they are agents of evil here to sew discord, sorrow, and teh ugliez.
Filed under: Human, Gnomes, Tauren, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Jewelcrafting, Wrath of the Lich King
Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria news





Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Amaxe Nov 7th 2008 5:46PM
So what are the ideal weapon enchants now? I hear Mongoose will not be reduced as Crusader was, what enchants are coming that might surpass mongoose?
Kar On E Nov 7th 2008 6:07PM
Upping my mining in preparation for the expansion, but haven't been able to get a straight answer about the skill needed for Northrend.
Do I need to level my Mining to 375 before mining in Northrend or are the nodes available at 350?
Tim gibson Nov 7th 2008 8:20PM
I don't know if this hass been asked before but, Will there a portal to Dalaran from Shattrath City, and if there is where will it be located?
anangu Nov 7th 2008 11:22PM
nope no portal from shatt to dalaran if im not misstaken. but there will be one the other way round, dalaran - shatt.
Malix Nov 7th 2008 8:48PM
I have a question about the Death Knights and dual-wielding. i noticed that the only thing that helps with dual-wielding is in the Frost tree in the talents. Blizzard stated that tanking Death Knights will use 2-handers and everybody and their mom's knows that the Frost talent tree is best for tanking. So what talent would i go into if i wanted to dual wield at maximum capability? or is Blizzard just going to laugh at all the dual wielding Death Knights?
whack Nov 8th 2008 6:55AM
dont know if this should go here but....
whats behind the massive door on the northside of Stormwind harbor?
frostymage Nov 8th 2008 7:09AM
I have seen the wrath gate quest from the horde side and it looks awesome but the problem is im alliance and the alliance side looks nowhere near as good. The horde get to kill varimathras and retake the undercity all i have seen from the alliance side is enter UC via the sewers then varian wrynn attacks thrall and then just get frozen and teleported back.
Rungholm Nov 8th 2008 7:19AM
I know marks of honor aren't being reset, but will there be new stuff to spend them on?
From what I've seen, the pvp gear only costs honor and arena points, not marks.