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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsThe Queue: Yes, this is what we call it now
by Alex Ziebart 
Nov 15th 2008 at 7:00PM
Yep. Ask a Beta Tester is officially The Queue. It's kind of a joke, you get it? Get it? You know, queue, like you wait in line for an answer? An A to your Q? Q? Queue? Hahah! Get it? Get it!? Hahahah! Ugh. Queue queue.
Anyway, The Queue is now our daily Q&A column, where the WoW Insider staff answers your questions about the game to the best of our ability. Previously limited to Wrath content, we'll now happily answer most anything about the game if we're able. Today is obviously no exception, so we're going to start with a question from Andostre...
Anyway, The Queue is now our daily Q&A column, where the WoW Insider staff answers your questions about the game to the best of our ability. Previously limited to Wrath content, we'll now happily answer most anything about the game if we're able. Today is obviously no exception, so we're going to start with a question from Andostre...
TBC saw a rise in the necessity of Hit Rating. Is Hit as important in Wrath? I ask because Hit isn't nearly as fun as Attack/Spell Power or Crit rating.
Hit is always, and was always, very important. You didn't see much talk about it before The Burning Crusade because gear with stats like that on it was a rarity, especially until deep raid content. The Burning Crusade just made it available. It's still important in Wrath, and unless they change the stat entirely, it will be important in the next expansion.
If you don't find getting hitcapped to be very fun, try to think of it in a different way. Crits do double damage for most classes and specs, right? So a crit is sort of adding another full spell/attack on top of your spell/attack. Hit totally does that. Instead of doing zero damage, you get a full spell on top of your miss! Hooray!
Evi asked...
Do you have any recent word on the new dances we were supposed to get? I heard it was postponed, but I'd like to know if you have any new information. Thanks!
We've got nothin'. It was delayed so they could get it 'right' and we're not sure when we'll see it.
Mouton asked...
Sorry if this got answered back in the day, but how do Heroics work now? I don't see any keys anywhere; is there a quest you do at 80 that grants access to all of them (like Kael's Unfortunate Head did for Magisters)? Or do you just have to hit 80?
Wrath Heroics don't require any attunements at all. Once you hit level 80, flip it over to Heroic and have fun. Raids are mostly the same with some exceptions. The Malygos raid, the Eye of Eternity, requires a drop elsewhere to get in. Beyond that, there are no attunements for anything.
Talmar asked...
I've read a lot about the Death Knight class but I haven't seen yet (or I have and can't remember it) which of the different talent trees is best for what roles. Which is best for tanking? DPS? caster? etc. I know they're all suppose to be viable for everything but each tree should do something better than the others.
So far, which is better for what role is largely opinion, but I can relay those opinions if you'd like.
- For tanking, Unholy seems to be the favorite. Bone Shield is fantastic, and the amount of AOE threat they can generate is better than Blood or Frost.
- For DPS, Blood is one of the most popular specs, though it may be an aesthetic/gameplay choice. Blood is a heavy-hitting, self-sustaining spec. It feels like you're tearing things apart with your weapon rather than diseases and afflictions, and that's something people think of when they think Death Knight. Unholy is also very popular as a DPS spec, though.
- For casters, you want to go to your trainer, unlearn your talent points, log out, delete your Death Knight and roll a Warlock.
How aboout we call it Ask an Alpha Omega? Has a nice ring to it.
While I am exceedingly awesome and amazingly good looking, calling myself the Alpha and the Omega would probably be a bit much, you know?
That's all from us for today, but please keep the questions coming! If you have a question for the WoW Insider team, ask your question in the comments section below and we'll do our best to answer you soon, in a future edition of The Queue!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Talents, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 5)
eblume Nov 15th 2008 11:48PM
Who did the music for WOTLK? And specifically, who played the Bassoon/Oboe? I've noticed this musician in two or three places now (at this very moment, I'm hearing him/her play a particularly somber piece in Dragonblight), and he/she is amazing. At one point in Howling Fjords a piece cut in that was entirely live, no synthesizer, that sounded so amazingly intense and lovingly composed/performed that I just stopped and listened for a while. It was the first time I heard that piece, and it triggered after a momentary entrance to Grizzly Hills, so it may be Grizzly Hills music. On that note (har), can I buy the album seperate from the collector's edition?
Arivia Nov 16th 2008 4:41AM
You can buy it on iTunes.
eblume Nov 16th 2008 2:05PM
Thanks!
antilucid Nov 16th 2008 12:13AM
And here I thought it was being called The Queue for those unable to log in directly and have to wait in line. This article would give them something to do while waiting...
Tash Nov 16th 2008 4:23AM
So now that SK-Gaming/Nihilum has blazed through all the raid content and the number crunchers are sure to be working, has there been any word of what tanks should be looking for stat and mitigation/avoidance wise to begin raiding Naxx 10/25?
Redski Nov 16th 2008 1:17AM
Seconded. Flavor-wise, I really appreciate the feel of it. Mechanics-wise, I really enjoy its ability to seriously hinder enemies and helping your ability to mitigate damage.
Redski Nov 16th 2008 1:19AM
Frost, that is.
RE Tildy: "Oh I also wanted to say that my level 70 DK has been frost all the way, and I like it a lot."
Scunosi Nov 16th 2008 2:44AM
So, as far as I can remember from my lowbie hunter, they can only tame Beasts. So why then the Core Hounds? I mean yeah they're kinda cool, but shouldn't the warlocks be enraged by that sort of thing?
Speaking of, how are they getting these new pets? Do hunters just go around trying to tame everything now or are they announced?
Bromnir Nov 16th 2008 5:50AM
Pardon me if I rant for a moment, but this is something that's been bugging me since Exotic Pets were introduced and this rumor started.
Core hounds are not demons. Core hounds have never been demons. I've heard a lot of whining about letting hunters tame demons, which I agree would be a silly thing, but they AREN'T demons, so it's a moot point. I suspect that this common misconception that they are demons originates from their outlandish appearances and the fact that Void Terror demons (such as the Hound of Culuthas) have similar models to core hounds and use the same animation sets.
However, those demons ARE demons and therefore are not hunter-tameable. (They CAN be enslaved by warlocks. My wife loves doing that; how about making THOSE a permanent pet, Blizz?) Core hounds have always been beasts. One of them is even named "The Beast." I remember joking with my guild years ago - when UBRS seemed like advanced content - that I ought to try to tame The Beast because he was a beast-type mob. I even tried to cast Beast Lore on him once just to be sure I couldn't tame him.
Lore-wise, core hounds are servants of the fire elementals - denizens of the elemental plane, not demonic entities. One could possibly argue they ought to be elementals, in which case the shamans might have a reason to be upset. But there is certainly no lore or mechanic reason they ought to be demons, nor have they ever been - despite the widespread misconceptions and rumors to the contrary, they are and have always been beasts.
As for how hunters find all these new pets, the traditional way is to go around casting Beast Lore on any beast-type mob you're interested in, which will tell you if it is tameable. However, the tireless efforts of other hunters to compile data at sites like the incomparable Petopia (http://petopia.brashendeavors.net/) mean that most hunters just go there to find out what they can tame. In general, Blizz does not announce when mobs are made tameable or untameable unless there are serious bugs with a mob such as was the case with the Death Ravager. (Who could not attack PvP targets or be healed.)
Mastari Nov 16th 2008 3:04AM
The Queue:
What do I do with my old Badges of Justice? Is there a new trade in for them for experience now that Wrath is here, or should I send them on old items?
mastari Nov 16th 2008 3:05AM
Gah, spend*
Nolimit Nov 16th 2008 4:22AM
Is there more story to Forsaken quest line? Will it just end like " Oh it was a mistake, we'll kill the guy" or we get our own factions because that would be just awesome!
Wilshire Nov 16th 2008 4:23AM
Perhaps I missed this in Ask A Beta Tester previously (I took great precautions not to uncover any spoilers pre-Wrath)... but it seems every time I log on with my Death Knight, the starting area has changed significantly (NPCs, mobs, game objects, etc.). I really enjoy the way it appears seamlessly 'instanced', but I wonder if this was the way Blizz meant for it to be. Is this a totally new game mechanic or am I caught in a flawless cycle of events?
Tenchan Nov 16th 2008 5:11AM
http://www.wowwiki.com/Phasing ;)
Arivia Nov 16th 2008 4:40AM
Check the AH. I've thrown up two leather green pieces with 43 def rating each in the past two days.
Arivia Nov 16th 2008 4:42AM
this was meant to be a response to the bear tank & defense question above. >
Arivia Nov 16th 2008 4:51AM
And for the threepeat.
I'm taking my tankadin to 80 first, and I'm wondering what the new def cap number is. 540?
The reason I'm asking is because tanking seems even more razor-thin than ever. Mobs are hitting just as hard if not harder than they did in Kara & in heroics, and while I'm staying afloat on the defense rating treadmill for staying uncrittable, I can feel avoidance slipping away through my fingers. (And don't get me started on the fact that my hp seems to go down with every new piece of gear.)
I'm playing it safe, banking everything that isn't totally obsolete like a good tank, but I just don't know what I should pull out.
Blizzard did a great job taking tanking to the next level with the new instances (especially the end of UK and the total blast that is Azjol-Nerub), but man is it making me panicky. (And I feel really bad for anyone levelling through this content range in greens and blues. Good luck.)
Derain Nov 16th 2008 4:52AM
I like the new name. And here's a question : why don't you make a pool to see how many people like it ?
Tenchan Nov 16th 2008 5:09AM
Let's be honest here... Unholy is not only a highly effective spec for both tanking and DPS, it is also the one that feels the most unique, exciting and new. Especially because of the ghoul, that has quickly become iconic for the class. Frost and Blood are going under for most people because they lack that wow effect, even though they have their own strengths.
In short: Unholy > all.
(At least until the ghoul becomes less of a hassle for non-Unholies.)
Flint Nov 16th 2008 5:33AM
Two questions:
Despite the fact that Outland's quest/random drop equipment often gave you a rather harlequeenish look, I do like a bit of colour in me. Northrend gear on the other hand all meshes together perfectly and to be honest looks great because it does so, but will our gear at any point in the later levels get other colours than the somewhat "gritty" dark brown/dark gray/dark dark or is it just the realistic military look all the way to 80? If possible, can you give a quester's angle on this as I'm sure the high-level raiding/PvP-stuff will be all snazzy and funky looking to compensate for all the wasted hours.
About achievements, and this has been possibly tackled elsewhere anyway but I'm a bit of out of the loop with all this stuff: when it comes to the "do x quests in zone y" achievements, is the amount of quests required the max amount of quests in the zone or is there a bit of leeway in them? Mainly that can they be done even if you don't step a foot in instances (which isn't really a problem in the early zones since they can be soloed but otherwise)?