Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: Casual raiding and you
by Alex Ziebart 
Dec 21st 2008 at 6:00PM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.
Hooray weekend! Boo Sunday! Let's jump right into things with Galipan's question...
Is casual raiding a possibility? Ive heard from many people that it isn't, however, I'm trying to get a guild started that does give it a shot.
Hooray weekend! Boo Sunday! Let's jump right into things with Galipan's question...
Is casual raiding a possibility? Ive heard from many people that it isn't, however, I'm trying to get a guild started that does give it a shot.
It really depends on your definition of casual. It's such a loaded word sometimes. Do you mean raiding only a couple of nights a week? Do you mean not worrying about progression? It can mean a lot of different things! I considered myself a casual raider until people I knew started calling me hardcore, so it's funky like that.
If you mean just raiding a couple of nights a week, it absolutely can work. The most important part of it is getting your raid to the point where they can buckle down and get to raiding when the time comes. In my few experiments with running a 'casual' raid, a lot of people would interpret 'casual' as 'I can mess around with my thumb up my butt because we're not hardcorezzzz.' Not everyone would do that, but enough that it caused very serious performance problems, and thus morale problems, and eventually the raids became an unpleasant mess for everyone and nobody wanted to go anymore. When you only have two nights a week to raid, you want people to show up prepared so you don't waste what little time you have.
It's all about mindset. You're casual raiders, but you should probably still read strategies beforehand, you should still research how to gear up and make your DPS decent, you should still pay attention to the raid and make sure you don't have scheduling conflicts. If your raid can do that stuff and show up 2 nights a week ready to rock the house down, you'll do just fine. If you have raiders using the word 'casual' as an excuse as to why they're not performing, you're going to have problems.
It can work. It just takes effort from everyone involved. Not just the raid leaders, but also the raiders.
Delilah asked...
The currency tab is a fabulous addition. Are there any plans to increase the number of items that will go to the currency tab instead of taking up room in the bank. Items such as Halla Battle and Research Tokens, Spirit Shards, and Argent Dawn Insignias? I would love if they also added any soulbound items that could be turn in for Rep.
They're looking to expand the currency tab, but a recent post from Wryxian on the EU forums makes it pretty clear that the devs won't be adding 'legacy' items to that tab. There might be exceptions to that like the Darkmoon Faire tickets that are still relevent in Wrath, but for the most part any additions will be from current content, not past content. Sorry, but you're stuck with your research tokens!
Juso asked a handful of questions...
Has they been any specific lore about the origins of the Troll and Tauren races?
Yes and no. As far as we know, Trolls had no divine ties in their creation. They just evolved, and came to exist over time. Their story could use more fleshing out, but it's kind of established that they're their own thing, no gods or Titans created them. That could change, of course. The Tauren have a creation myth which is most likely just a story, but this is a pulp fantasy setting, so it very well could be true to some extent. Unlike the Trolls' story, the Tauren very much were a divine creation. The Earthmother (who could be the Tauren name for one of the Titans, perhaps) created the world, and with it the Tauren. Wowwiki has some decent information on all of that stuff.
Are the Eredar another seed race of the Titans, just from a different planet? If that's the case, would that mean the Draenor Orcs were Titan seeds as well?
We know absolutely nothing about the Titan involvement on other worlds. Anything would be a guess. The only Eredar and Orc connections to the Titans that we know for sure is that Sargeras or his Legion lieutenants have controlled them at some point. We've no idea if the Titans created all life, or just made some planets all pretty-like.
When-oh-when will we see Spellbreakers as a class? I can't help but say that the idea of an anti-caster, buff/debuff, hybrid class intrigues the bejeebus out of me.
Oh gosh, the last thing we need is another anti-caster class after Death Knights. While I, too, like the idea of a buff/debuff based hybrid/support class, I don't think we'll be seeing Spellbreakers. Personally, I want to see something more like the vrykul Runecasters for the next Hero class. Buff/debuff based, tons of support/utility, and if given some good healing capabilities? Perfect hero class! Eh, maybe not.
Thuixk asked...
Is Santa real?
As real as Elune herself, my friend.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 4)
Thiosion Dec 21st 2008 7:04PM
Every profession is unfinished. Consider yourself lucky: Inscription tapers off at 425.
Bob Dec 23rd 2008 5:20AM
Inscription is perfectly doable to 450. It just doesn't have a benefit or reward. Maybe server first achievement, but that's it.
You can keep leveling with discoveries and making Darkmoon Cards. Expensive to make, but they do the trick.
moonspeaker Dec 21st 2008 6:58PM
is there any use for bg marks anymore or should i just turn them all in for honor/mounts?
blkmasta55555 Dec 21st 2008 6:57PM
I thought the idea was that the titans made everything out of something? Ie. dwarves out of stone, gnomes out of metals, etc.
I thought maybe taurens would be earth and trolls would be plants, something like that.
Eternauta Dec 21st 2008 8:26PM
Not exactly. The Titans are not the divine creators of the entire universe (like the christian god or something like that).
And they created some races, but they didn't create every race. Dragons existed before the Titans came to Azeroth, but when they did, they blessed five dragons to become the Dragon Aspects.
AFAIK, they created Dwarves, Gnomes, Giants, and possibly Humans (though there's also a theory that humans descend from Vrykul).
The Trolls are one of the oldest races of Azeroth (if not THE oldest). They were there before Night Elves, Dwarves and Humans.
Fun Fact: Trolls are also the least played race in-game, but one of the most played in-forums.
Charlie Dec 21st 2008 7:11PM
In response to the casual raiding question.
My guild is #3 alliance side on my server(all but maly down, obs and naxx down 10 and 25 man). We raid 3 nights a week. Tues, Thurs, Sun. It's a simple raid schedule, but we get the job done.
The most important things are:
1) Focus. Focus focus focus. If you have people who don't pay attention, well you've screwed the pooch from the get go. I helped a friend of mine do KT last night. One attempt the 2nd best dps in the raid (next to me of course ;)) died because he didn't move out of the void zone. His response was. "Well i was eating". Because he died we wiped. Focus.
2) Be prepared. Just because your casual doesn't mean that you shouldnt come with food buffs and pots/flasks. As herbalism, I can farm a flask of the frost in about 5 minutes. I ussualy get enough mats for two as I'm doing my SoH dailies. And if i do my cooking daily and fish for a few minutes, i got enough +dmg food for the night.
3) Be on time. This is the #1 killer, and also the hardest. You have to have people ready to go to start the instance at the right time. The worst thing you can do is wait around for an hour to find that one last healer. This just makes people fail at #1.
Good Luck.
Janaa Dec 21st 2008 7:52PM
See, that's against my definition of casual, and it's what the blog writer is alluding to. Some people's definition of casual simply means "Doesn't raid that often", yet when you can clear all current end-game content in a single night, that definition doesn't hold water.
Casual more and more seems to mean players that aren't hardcore in their approach to the game. Due to work commitments, for this xpac I've joined a casual raiding guild. Only one wing of Naxx finished so far, because they keep wiping. In this definition, casual means - not at the same skill/attention level as hardcore players - and I'm finding this definition commonly being the reality, even if not the intention.
Clevins Dec 21st 2008 7:59PM
Agree.
The short answer here is that you can raid on a casual schedule but you can't fail to take your raiding seriously when you are actually doing it.
Lay down ground rules and work as a team to help each other. For example, insist that all gear be enchanted, blues should have green gems at least, epics should have blue gems, no long AFKs, and again FOCUS. No eating or watching TV etc during the raid. If you can't or won't do the simple stuff you don't belong in the raid. Oh and set a schedule so people know what to expect. For example, Mon and Thursday, 8-11 server.
Use PHPRaider or something like it to get signups, have scheduled nights and make sure the people you take want to be there and are the kind who WILL focus. It's not hard, but you do need some organization and focus for it not to be a failure.
Jonny Dale Dec 21st 2008 7:23PM
Necromancers should be the next class.... or liches.
Maddeh Dec 21st 2008 7:27PM
why is there that giganto hippogryph thing at Orebor Harborage?
lenlo Dec 22nd 2008 8:19PM
for the next hero class maybe a battle mage thing thats has some melee and caster spells but i guess thats like the DK. but also they could do some sort of summoner that relys on there pets
Justin Dec 21st 2008 8:37PM
From reading lore on the official site, some argue that trolls evolved from night evles ooor it might have been the other way around.
Eisengel Dec 21st 2008 10:15PM
It is entirely, completely, utterly the other way around. (as much as it can be in a pulp fantasy setting full of retcons :^))
To the best of my knowledge:
The Trolls evolved naturally on Azeroth, they were indigenous beings. When the Titans came and reworked Azeroth, they created the Well of Eternity, a fountain of pure magic. The Trolls near the Well were filled with its magic and changed over time. These magic-infused Trolls became the Highborne Elves. The Elves constantly lived in an environment soaked with magic, and were pretty much addicted to it. The ruling caste of Elves embraced this addiction and delved even deeper into the Well to try to gain access to even more primitive magic and greater power. These were the High Elves. There was a group of Elves however that thought that maybe sinking ever deeper into the Well and their magical addiction was not the best idea. These Elves were the Night Elves, who followed Malfurion Stormrage, a disciple of Cenarius, who worked to free themselves from the addiction of the Well and tried to subsist on natural Nature-based magic instead of the Well's Arcane energies.
The two groups had a irrevocable schism, the Night Elves going off with Malfurion and the High Elves venerating Azshara. After the Well of Eternity was destroyed in the Great Sundering, the High Elves remaining in time renamed themselves the Blood Elves.
Danel Dec 22nd 2008 5:28AM
Ah... just to clarify - I've never heard anywhere that the Well of Eternity was made by the Titans. All lore I've heard is that it was the power of Elune caused it. It's not clear whether it was a tribe of trolls who found and became the Night Elves (not Highborne yet), or just a totally different proto-Elf race that appears absolutely nowhere else in-lore or game.
To clarify the history of the elves:
These Night Elves gradually separated out into the upper-class Highborne, who were the most gifted with arcane magic, and the rest of the elves, who were somewhat less so. Following an invasion by the Burning Legion many of the Highborne were willing to aid these monsters in purging the world. Some Highborne objected to this, and joined up with the rest of the Night Elves. Following the defeat of the Burning Legion, and seeing the destruction that had been wrought upon the world, the Night Elves turned their backs on arcane magic and decided to follow Malfurion into druidism and nature-loving. The surviving Highborne, those who had fought against Azshara, objected - although they agreed that monstrous things had happened, they didn't believe that magic was responsible. "Arcane magic doesn't slaughter millions and nearly destroy the world, crazy elves do!" they cried, and after many arguments decided to set off to found a new civilisation for themselves. They eventually became the High Elves. Blood Elves came much, much later, and are indeed a relatively recent thing.
crsh Dec 21st 2008 8:18PM
Confession time.
I raided up to 4 horsemen in vanilla WoW, and halfway through BT before I dropped out for RL reasons during BC.
I like easy raids.
Sure difficult fights are fun, at least I used to enjoy them, but now I am digging how you can pug 10-man raids for easy loot and emblems. No fuss, just make sure you know who you're pugging with to avoid loot drama, and don't need to over-stress, over-work for a game.
Ok so I guess I'm getting older and see things differently now, but whoever is pretending that "hardcore" raiding (whatever that means) should be the norm needs a reality check. We've been out-numbered, out-witted, out-everything. This is not the game you should be playing if you're still expecting a challenge.
Now if they could just fix tailoring so that it isn't a complete goddamn waste of cloth and time, I'd be a happy camper.
Lastgaurdian Dec 21st 2008 8:33PM
Question:
why is it that our character has not told Yorg Stormheart about his past, why is it he is not reunited with Magni. The bronzebeards need to have a reunion.
Harlequinne Dec 22nd 2008 1:24AM
Well... Finish the questline there.
I know, easy answer but... Yeah, just finish that questline at Frosthold.
Grinton Dec 21st 2008 8:45PM
That looks like a BElf Pally in the picture, but what gear is she wearing?
zweitblom Dec 22nd 2008 3:41AM
Warlock T7, not paladin.
schm0 Dec 21st 2008 8:45PM
OP: "Personally, I want to see something more like the vrykul Runecasters for the next Hero class. Buff/debuff based, tons of support/utility, and if given some good healing capabilities? Perfect hero class! Eh, maybe not."
Insert totem for the word "rune" and you have... a Shaman!